[Lincs] multitude of sins

[MD]

On 9/18/05, Dave Rice <dave at ricey.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> iain Baker wrote:
> 
> <SNIP> 

> Sin 1) Laptops
> > i have sent a message before but like i said - i dont think mail man
> > likes me so... does anyone know a good manufacturer of laptops? i am
> > looking to get a decent spec, somewhat future proof laptop at a not 
> > <dubious_spelling>extorshionate</dubious_spelling> prices, and rather
> > unsurprisingly want it to be linux compatible...
> >
> 
> I've found advent to be quite good, but my best experience is with a 
> fujitsu Amilo machine...v nice ;)


I have debian testing/unstable (I think its sid/etch) installed on my 
Gericom Ego 1780XL+ that I bought from Aldi a year ago, just before it went 
down in price by £200. I'm quite happy with it, with the one exception that 
the AC97 sound chip will only let me play from one sound source at a time. 
IMHO, you shouldn't have too much trouble with most laptops, provided 
they're not so cutting edge that nobody has got round to writing drivers for 
it. 

I'd be more worried about being able to get a spare battery for it (I speak 
from experience) as most batteries start to become unreliable after a year 
or two. 

(On a side note, if anyone could help me with that sound problem, it would 
be much appreciated. :) )

> Sin 2) LLUG Distro
> > Does anybody remember a pipe dream about a Lug specific Live Distro 
> > for use as promotional gizzits and for Real Life meetings (more on
> > them later)??
> 

<SNIP> 

>
> > i know it may not be quite as 'live' but i'd love to see that passion
> > brought back into the lug, and the distro may be a nice place to
> > start? give us something to focus on?
> > what do you say? 
> >
> 
> I've been looking at ways of doing a distro, and it is definately
> possible, but i/we need input from everyone to get the details of what
> we want in it, what to base it on (debian,redhat etc) and how it should 
> look....i'm willing to out my time and clock cycles into the idea of
> LincsLinux!


I vote debian. :) I think basically what we need content wise is software 
that demonstrates the free OSS alternatives to what you'd find on your 
average M$ desktop, the most obvious choices would be firefox and 
openoffice. I'd also recommend MPlayer, VLC, Xine, K3b... maybe we should 
make some sort of centralised list.

It also needs a pretty GUI. Text consoles tend to scare away potential linux 
converts. Sad but true. 

> sin 3) Real Life Meetings
> > we need one!
> > anyone disagree?
> > i would love to organise a meeting full of demo's and tutorials, 
> > because that would be fun and interesting... but i think we may have a
> > darker need for them. unless we can get IRC meetings at a time
> > everyone can be online (which seems unlikely from before) i think we 
> > should meet up to discuss the future, to discuss what we want to do,
> > create and achieve... and maybe to have a friendly drink and chat...
> >
> > just my oppinion and if people disagree then please feel free to let 
> > me know... but if thats what others want i will see what i can do to
> > get one near Lincoln City Centre (a central point, the best i can
> > think of for a fair location)
> >
> 
> agreed, Lincoln is prob the best place, we do live in lincolnshire 
> afterall ;) lol


Indeed, provided there are no steep hills to climb. 

> sin 4) Future
> > either mailman REALLY dislikes me or the conversation thread has faded 
> > away... what do people think we should do about the splitting in
> > half/keeping unified issue? 
> > does anyone have a 'LUG Dream' of what they see us achieving for
> > ourselves, for lincolnshire, and/or for linux?
> >
> > where are we going?
> >
> 
> I don't like the idea of a split, IMHO. we need to get together and talk 
> about this really


I don't know about this issue. The thing is, its a big county, and none of 
us really want to travel long distances for meetings, and I reckon this may 
be a contributing factor as to why our online activities have lapsed as 
well. 

Of course, dividing into two groups needn't mean the they become separate 
entities. If we could find two venues with broadband connections, we could 
videoconference them together. :D

> we had a passion when we built the site (sorry to revert to it but it
> > was our hayday) because we had a goal, we had something to aim at, and
> > we could see a way to achieve it... do we need to create more goals, 
> > targets, and missions to keep a passion? are there differant areas we
> > can have these objectives to allow everyone a fair crack at the whip?
> >
> 
> er...yes


You're quite right, we need some goals. Projects like the LincsLinux Live 
distro would be a good idea, but these are all things that need 
collaboration. We need to meet IRL, and regularly if we want to get things 
done. Theres only so much that can be achieved over IRC.

> this is everyones LUG, lets get some love back into it! lets get a Lug 
> > we are proud of, lets get me a new laptop
> > :-)


Yes! Laptops all round!

-- 
Thanks,
-Matt Dancer <barodato at gmail dot com>
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