[Gllug] Advertising the next GLLUG meeting in Universities andColleges

[Simon Morris]

On Tue, 2006-10-31 at 11:53 +0000, Martin A. Brooks wrote:

Hello Martin,

> *pedant mode on*
> 
That statement assumes you can turn it off occasionally :-)

> "Windows or Mac OS X"  ->  "Windows, Mac OS X and other commercial
> operating systems"

Good point. I was trying to lure people to the meeting using
generalisations (which covers your second point) and fluffy language and
not necessarily using completely accurate technical language.

Anyway - there is nothing wrong with Commercial operating systems... Red
Hat Enterprise Linux is a commercial product but it is still Free (in
the sense of Freedom). The problem is proprietary operating systems.

> "Linux is a computer Operating System"  - No, it isn't.

Again - "Linux is a computer Operating System" is factually incorrect,
but more likely to inform and educate potential visitors to the meeting
than the standard GNU/FSF description of what a "Linux" is and what it
smells like.

I am an advocate of the term GNU/Linux but I'm also aware that it is
going to turn off people who dedicate exactly 2 seconds to reading the
flyer.

> "Linux is Free" -> "Linux is free"

I thought the concept deserved a capital F. OK, I'll change it :-)

> "If you are a student"  -  We're only interested in students?

Nope, not at all.. I am going to do a flyer for workplace noticeboards,
but it really requires people to distribute them for us. (Does anyone do
this?).

This event is being targeted towards educational environments though.
Again, if anyone on list is currently studying at London Unis please let
me know.

> "http://gllug.org.uk"  -> "http://gllug.org.uk/"

I'll change that also.
> 
All criticisms welcome, but I think we need to be sensible when
communicating with people outside of the LUG. It is a fair sized jump
from Windows/Mac to Linux anyway and that jump gets wider if the people
on the other side of the divide aren't speaking your language.

Once someone is in the LUG I'm all for abducting them, tieing them to a
chair and alternate between making them watch RevolutionOS and listening
to RMS singing the Free Software Song until they get it right.. but
let's get them in first.

Thanks

~sm
> 
-- 
Simon Morris
Jabber: sm at jabber.fsfe.org
Blog: http://beerandspeech.org
Free Software Foundation Europe: http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/sm

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