[Lincs] Thanks for your coming!

[Ben Francis]

lincs at mailman.lug.org.uk wrote:

>
> 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).

Don't think that was necessary this time round.

>
> 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. 

Great idea, let's try and keep this up.

> I am submitting the following as a personal opinion of the events that 
> have happened, especially where the subjects are almost metaphysical 
> in nature.

What?

> 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.

I enjoyed this talk a lot and learnt a great deal. If you missed it, try 
and get hold of the "Free Software East Anglia" leaflet distributed at 
the event which has an article written by MJ Ray on this subject. (and 
yes, I wrote something in there too).

MJ Ray: will there be an online copy available?

>
> 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 bit of a catch 22. Certainly in schools and small businesses 
decision makers tend to go for the more popular applications, either 
because it's the easy option or simply because it's what people are used to.

> 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.

All I'll say here is that this is a Linux *user* group and the talk was 
aimed at individual users themselves rather than decision makers who 
dictate what software others use. The broader issue of getting Free 
Software *everywhere* requires a much broader solution. Currently Free 
Software's strengths are not on the desktop but on the server which is 
of little interest to home users etc. From the desktop end things have a 
long way to go, but for now, every little helps. 
http://muttcats.com/starfish.htm

There's no reason why as a group we couldn't discuss addressing the 
issue of Free Software everywhere. Perhaps a possible talk topic for a 
meeting in the future?

>
> 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).

Informative talk. Thanks for the Knoppix disc Marc!

>
> 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..

Most of this talk went right over my head, but I still found it very 
interesting. I'm dying to give LFS a go, the CD is sittng next to me and 
is on my list of things to do!

> 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.

I completely agree with all of that. One medium is better than two and 
my vote goes to the mailing list.

>
There was one more talk after this one. Jan talked about "Integrating 
Linux into a Windows and Mac Network 
<http://www.psychology4u.de/cn/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=100>"  
It was explained how Samba and Netatalk can help Linux talk to Windows 
and Mac boxen to share resources between operating systems. I found this 
talk fascinating, very interesting from the "Free Software everywhere" 
point of view mentioned earlier. Perhaps this could form a basis for 
discussion on migration on a wider scale than my talk relating to 
individual desktop users. Where I talked about introducing Free Software 
applications to a propriatory operating system, this talk related to 
introducing a free operating system to an otherwise propriatory or cross 
platform network. It seems Free Software creeps in from all directions!

J: http://lincs.lug.org.uk/files/Linux_Samba_Netatalk.pdf if you're 
interested.



It was great to meet people in Real Life (TM) after talking to them in 
cyberspace and Laura and I both enjoyed the meeting a lot. Let's all 
chip in for the plans for future meetings and make this group a success!


tola ^/.

-- 
Ben "tola" Francis            http://hippygeek.co.uk
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