[Nottingham] NLUG: What's in a name?

[Richard Hodgson]

Seems a little anal to me, and makes the name more intimidating than it
already is to those who are only starting out in Linux.

To me, whilst it's important to remember all of the programs that run on top
of the Linux kernel, it's also important to promote Linux the best way that
we can; by making it more accessible and usable to those who may only having
some interest in it. Making more user friendly interfaces and distributions
and increasing cross-platform compatibility to ease transition as well as
other operational and usability considerations are only part of it. If we
start complicating what Linux means as a community by getting anal over
naming conventions for groups, it risks alienating and turning away those
who have an initial interest and want to get involved.

The Linux community was known for its air of elitism and snobbery many years
ago, and a lot of work has gone into improving its image with the likes of
Mandrake/Mandriva a decade ago, moving on to further improvements with
Ubuntu, and the first take on Linux in the mobile community that's gained
real popularity in the form of Android. It would be a disservice to these
efforts to complicate things further.


On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 20:05, Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk> wrote:

> Folks,
>
> At the moment, we've got for our website the title:
>
> "Nottingham Linux Users Group"
>
> and the tagline:
>
> "For all and everyone Linux"
>
>
> For those that know, what we commonly describe and use as "Linux" is
> actually a vital chunk of "GNU" tools and utilities running on top of
> a kernel. The "Linux" is actually 'just' the kernel. All of that is
> protected by various flavours of the GPL 'copyleft' licence. Neither
> part can work without the other for we commonly understand to be
> 'Linux'... Indeed, I think the GPL has been essential for defending
> the very existence of "GNU/Linux".
>
> Trying to be more descriptive, are there any objections/comments for
> using the title:
>
> "Nottingham GNU/Linux Users Group"
>
> and the tagline:
>
> "For all and everyone and anything Free/Libre and Open Sourced"
>
> for the group website?
>
> (Is there a FLOSH for the hardware for FLOSS?! :-) )
>
>
> What say you all?
>
> Cheers,
> Martin
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nottingham mailing list
> Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nottingham
>
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