Mental roadmap of Ubuntu and LoCos

What is going on here?

Ubuntu is an operating system based on the Linux kernel. You likely already know that because you are here. Ubuntu is connected to a corporation called Canonical. From my perspective, also a newish linux user and very new to the Ubuntu community, they provide support in several forms. I consider them the big brother of ubuntu in the non-negative sense. They help it move forward.

Beyond Ubuntu, you are here, at a LoCo. This is a "Local Community" or what used to be called a users group that might have met at the local geek's house or internet cafe. It allows interaction on a local level whether it is for meetings in real life, gatherings online for chat, or simply to interact via your LoCo web pages. It is your opportunity to get involved.

The LoCo web pages are the tricky part.

• There's ubuntuforums.com. From there you can access all forums including your own LoCo's if they have them set up. This is just a general forum account and as far as I know this is not necessary for a LoCo membership but comes in very handy. As a whole it is far more active than any of the parts combined.

• There's membership in your LoCo itself. My personal team, the Tennessee LoCo is located at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TennesseeTeam your mileage may vary. This is also where your LoCo's wiki is located. In order to create an account to access editing privileges and joining your LoCo you will need a login from yet another web site.

• Launchpad. Well I don't know much about this. It was required for a wiki account but I can't find my logout button on the wiki so I can't figure out how to log back in to tell you. I've been told that launchpad is "all good" and they are some entity with the aim to help with bug tracking, project management, and that kind of thing. I really can't help much more than that with this aspect of it. I do know that even though I chose JohnCub for my username they insist my name is not that but something else. I don't know why and can't help with this issue.

There are also mailing lists. These are the email equivilant of the forums, as you might be familiar with the concept. https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-tn is the url for the Tennessee LoCo. I forget what login it requires, sorry.

IRC stuff is not tricky if you've used it or don't care what name you use. If you are new to irc you can just connect with your default irc client (XChat in ubuntu) and tell it you want to join the freenode server. Once connected you can join the channel (chat room) #ubuntu-us-tn or whatever your LoCo is. This can be done with the command /join #ubuntu-us-tn. If you wish to have your same name (nick, in irc terms) all the time you'll need to register with NickServ. That is outside the scope of this document, so just message NickServ and ask for help. /msg NickServ help

So this is my take on what the LoCo consists of. Modify it, call it your own, do what you will to it, I don't care. Hopefully you will find it useful in creating your own mental "roadmap" as to who is who and what is what. Sorry I couldn't provide more details but I hope it helps in your journey.