[SLUG] Last night's meeting and Software Freedom Day

[john at johnallsopp.co.uk]

Hi ppl

Last night's meeting at the Valley Bar went well. Personally, I have
to say I prefer the Cricketers because it's light and airy, but
someone said they much prefer this venue. I was going to instigate a
vote but it appears the venue went down well, so that's that. Future
meetings will be at the Valley Bar unless anyone wants to shout about
it.

We debated "Was Debian Sarge worth waiting for?". That format went, I
thought, really very well indeed. Although there were only five people
at the meeting (me, Steve, Dave, Bob and Dawn (new, but a friend from
me, Steve and Dave's course at the uni)), we had a proposer and
seconder for each side and really seemed to get to the root of things.
I'll want to use that format again.

Anyway, we decided, on my casting vote, that it was worth waiting for,
not particularly for the desktop, but for the back-end. Those
applications need a stable, tested, secure platform and aren't
particularly bothered about being completely up to the minute. Debian
also seems to be the protector of all things free and open source,
without it the distinction between free and open source software and
commercial software would be much more blurred. The open source
movement needs Debian, so we welcome Sarge into the world :-)

Things were a little less positive on Software Freedom Day. To get up
and running on the day, I personally was looking at lots of, well,
work, essentially. I really wanted some sort of banner .. we'll need
one eventually for future stands .. saying Scarborough Linux User
Group and I had plans to buy material, print out the letters, cut them
out, and paint the letters using fabric dye. It would work, and
wouldn't be as bad as it sounds. There was the test-Linux box where
people could ask us what they need to do what they want with Linux. It
was going to be my pasting table which I was going to strengthen with
extra legs. I was going to write a couple more handouts, and there are
the books I've bought. That was just my contribution, Bob was also
writing handouts and posters.

Problem is, Mike (the protagonist) wasn't at the meeting (it's been a
busy week for the college, induction) and doesn't seem to join in the
discussions here, so we've no idea of the arrangements for the day.
These ideas need to be followed up rather than just dropped in.
Anyway, between the four established members at the meeting, one
couldn't make the day, and I wanted to leave by 12. With a laptop on
the stand (oh, the only laptop we could muster between us was one from
Dawn, which didn't seem right since she was new in, and anyway, it
wasn't her laptop), we needed two people on the stand all day. It's
also forecast rain. Basically, we fell over on staffing levels. So
between the people at the meeting, which is pretty much all we can go
on, we decided to cancel Saturday's stall.

Bob, however, is going to ask the Library whether we can have a
display there. That sounds like a great idea.

We do still like the idea of twinning with Catux, so we're just
waiting for them to agree to the idea.

That's all for now.

J