[Liverpool] My mistake

[Andrew Williams]

On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 11:52:15AM +0000, Simon Johnson wrote:
>
> Of course, the goal of a LUG should still continue to promote the political
> philosophy of free software. But in my view, the political philopsohy is the
> weakest reason for using free software. Free software is higher quality,
> runs on more platforms and leads to a more vibrant community of software
> developers.
>

*snip*
 
> We're now at the point where lots of people have used free software on
> Windows. We just need people to take the final step. That's one goal of a
> LUG, to increase awareness.
> 
> The other is to discuss technical topics with like minded individuals.
> Personally, I prefer this side of the modern LUG to the politics.
> 

LUGs are at a real crossroads at the moment. LUGs were born out of the need for 
like minded people to meet, in the early days of Linux users were few and far between, so a central 
meetup was required for people to discuss the topics that affect them. These days, takeup is larger than 
ever and the internet and forums have really limited the group's growth. Many have faded off into the 
background and it started to look like LUGs were no longer needed. I don't think this is right.

The people who would usually attend LUGs are now splitting up into two types of group, the Free Software 
groups (such as Manchester Free Software) and the more general technical collectives (Geekup). As LUGs
are dying the new groups are forming to almost fill up the rift they've left behind. The people who had 
been attending LUGs for years are now trying to form groups to act as replacements to the LUG they knew 
and loved.

It will be interesting to see if LUGs, as we know at the moment, are still around in years to come.

-- 
Andrew Williams
w: http://tensixtyone.com/
e: andy at tensixtyone.com
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