[Lincs] Thanks for your coming!

[lincs at mailman.lug.org.uk]

ok, I am REALLY fed up of computers, I have lost this email about six 
times, mainly due to lack of power on my laptop. But back to the gist of 
a fantasitc first LLUG meeting.

I need to apologise for one thing, I ran off early, and didnt offer to 
pay my dues - I do not know if this is something that you needed for 
this event (I know that some events we need to hire the room, and at 
ALUG ( I will stop comparing LUGs soon, a pet hate of mine) for events 
at those rooms we all chip in a small amount and it covers it (like 1/2 
squid).

Anywheres, I would like to start a tradition, that is after every event 
we do a proper write up. This lets people who where unable to attend 
find out what happened at the event. I am submitting the following as a 
personal opinion of the events that have happened, especially where the 
subjects are almost metaphysical in nature.

The introduction, splat.

MJ's talk, fantastic introduction to the minefeild of legal and 
political state of the Free / Open / Gnu / other enviroment that exists 
today. In my own opinion, it is the easiest way of understanding the 
current situation by learning its history. MJ also went on to discuss 
the perils and potential unsteady future of Free Software and Open 
Source, even the immediate next six to twelve months.

Ben talk on Migrating of home users gave us simple methods of getting 
Free Software onto Home Systems through the use of Mozilla FireFox | 
Thunderbird. The only point raised here (by the resident trouble maker, 
me) was that the average user was not a home user, but an office / 
school / manfacturing user, and as which they can not control what 
software they use. This is an important distingusihing point as the 
arguments and migration route for these people are different - managers 
are resiliant against Free software for many reasons, including  not 
just ignorance, but worse still, mis-informed. This also sparked a 
discussion over the purpose of  LLUG which I will come back to later.

The next talk, by Marc, was fantastic introduction to using Knoppix as a 
starter linux. The only points here are to download his presentation and 
use that as the documentation to work from, not the Knoppix site or the 
on disk help, as this is up to years old. The second from worse thing 
that I hate about Free Software people is that they tend to be 
fantasticly dedicated programmers who never document on time. Knoppix 
suffers doubly from this - it relies on volunteer translations from the 
default German in to the English. Here we also discussed some unique 
applications including restoration of data, and options to read / write 
to NTFS and setting up of networks and modem dialing through the knoppix 
menu (not normal start menu).

The last talk I was present at was about the use of Linux From Scratch. 
This was actually interesting, or in my opinion. I dont however think 
that it would be suitable for novice users. For someone who is more 
experienced with programming concepts and compilation it does provide an 
excellent way of getting into and understanding Linux, Posix, and the 
internal workings of related systems, including applications and the way 
they interface with each other as well as the kernel and it's modules. I 
would not recommend this for use in a production system where any 
stability is needed..

Going back to my earlier point of the discussion about LLUG, it was 
raised that the point of LLUG might be to promote Free / Open Source 
software. It was asked who is in LLUG, what are their points of view.

The only point I didnt get round to talking about at the meeting was the 
use of the message board over the mailing list. I dont mind either. I 
hate both. That is, I dont mind having to use one or the other one, but 
I hate the idea that there are both, that because members can choose, 
you will end up with people who prefer one to the other, and therfore 
only check one or the other. This will, in my opinon cause a segmented 
society. I prefer the mailing list - it comes to me, in a format that I 
choose (I can configure my mail client, I can download and read at my 
lesure) as opposed to a forum where I have to use a web browser, in your 
format, and I have to be online to follow threads. There is also the 
idea of security with a mailing list - we would be able to re-construct 
a mailing list from subscribers hard disks as opposed to a server which 
would rely on a database backup.

 From my point of view, LLUG shouldnt have a single line of 
description.There are, as I see it, two strands of people, or to be more 
precisie, in people. The Techincal, and the Political: Techincal, If you 
are a "newb" or whatever, you will need more experienced people to help 
you. More experienced people generally want to hang around with people 
of their own peer ability (And or better), so the ability to discuss 
really advanced stuff, in parrell to the really not-so advanced stuff is 
essential. From the Political side of things, again, the newb's and the 
advanced people will be running off talking about the minor differences 
between different licensing.

What I am getting at here is that individuals will want unique things 
from the group - from a social group of people with similar interests, 
to a techincal help and assistance group of all levels, to a political 
sounding board for mass migrations of users, through to the promotion of 
Open Source, or even, Free Software. That you dont nessiciarilly need a 
definite reason for the group, but let it evolve.  The one thing i would 
beg is that we define a start of a regular meeting and dont change it,  
that people make the effort to either turn up online, and or in real 
life, and through that we can jump start the social side of the group. A 
social side, friendly banter etc, means that we are more likely to 
respond to techincal / poltiical requests.

The only thing I would recommend not doing, which is a thing I've 
allready done in this email, is to compare your LUG with every other LUG 
- there are humongeous differences brought on by both the people in the 
LUG which are over-comable by bringing in outsiders (for instance, 
organised talks about topics can be overcome by bringing in people from 
surrounding areas by plying of alcohol, to talk about it) and also by 
the geographic nature of the LUG - a Lincolnshire LUG by default covers 
much more area than a Lincoln LUG or other city based LUG. These affect 
the ability of people to travel, especially if they are to bring kit.

I hope this email sparks some replies and some ideas over the future of 
what is potentially a powerful ability to mold your computing lives.

I will, at some point, whilst being a long term reader of this mailing 
list, but having only posted on one occasion before this email, write an 
introduction of who I am, where I come from (in a politic/techincal 
sense) and why I am so interested in having a powerful and usuful Lug in 
lincolnshire.

So long for now....

J