[Klug-general] Faversham Linux Users Group - workshops

[Karl Buckland]

I was halfway through writing a similar email to Dan when his message
popped into my inbox. I'm surprised that people who support Linux are
so upset about someone planning to introduce people to it, cover the
basics in a structured manner and simply cover their own costs. If
someone wants to pay (very little!) for that, then what is the
problem?

This would have been extremely useful to me when I was starting out
with Linux, because frankly having to learn things, even if Google is
your friend, is a difficult and time consuming process. Anything to
condense that process is good in my opinion. It also probably means
that these beginners are more likely to stick with Linux than get
stuck and not know how to proceed.

Frankly, even if the charge was higher and some profit was being made,
I still fail to see the problem. People have to make a living and open
source should still support that; You can get it for free if you want
to invest the time, or you can pay a premium and get some help.

In my opinion, the attitude Jake has received with regards to this
topic actually supports the need for these kinds of workshops. A lot
of experienced Linux users are particularly unfriendly when it comes
to doing things in a simple, beginner-friendly way.

Jake, I may be able to come along to one of the sessions and lend a
hand. It'll be interesting to see how you do things and if I can give
anyone some guidance when they're starting out then that would be
great. Obviously if you can keep us updated with how many people you
have attending (beginners, that is) that would be great.

Karl

On 17 February 2010 15:21, Dan Attwood <danattwood at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>> By charging them for support? Why not just organise a car pool to the
>> usual meets?
>>
> You're missing the point
> What Jake is working on is a short introduction course to linux. Regular
> sessions to cover the basic needs of a user either switch from windows to
> linux or with very little computer experience to begin with. These are not
> aimed at uber geeks or power users of either linux or windows. Think ECDL
> but with a Linux slant.
> The usual klug meets probably aren't the right place for this. Talks on xen,
> hackable laptops and ebook formats are way over the head of users who just
> what to check their email and play a movie.  IMHO mailing lists and IRC are
> also pretty useless for this kind of user (I think their are several lurkers
> on this list who will agree with me). It's a different target audience and
> one that is growing thanks to the exposure of distros like ubuntu and mint,
> and due to the popularity of netbooks.
> If further down the line klug gets some more members as a result of this
> then even better and certainly klug will try to support and help out were
> possible.
> Jake is charging to cover the room hire as finding suitable free places to
> meet is incredibly hard. Anyone who has actually tried to find a room for
> klug will agree with this.
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>