[Nottingham] Views and thoughts from a ‘newbie’

[David Wolfson]

On Friday 11 November 2005 02:40, Java Lynx wrote:
> Views and thoughts from a ‘newbie’
I was literaly about to hit send on a similar post when this dropped into the 
inbox, so please forgive mixing quotes from threads....

> > Myself, I'm still musing on a few thoughts for what NLUG /is/ and what
> > is wanted.
>
> We are a Local List for Local People, obviously. For those who attend
> meetings, the attractions are obvious. For those (like me) who only use
> the list, I think the attraction should be a small group where the geeks
> are happy to help the newbies.
I've been a sporadic poster on the list for about 2 years, and even made it to 
a couple of meetings. Having moved from the area recently I've stayed lurking 
because the list has been of such interest/value during that time. Although 
I've never been very involved, I thought I'd share a few thoughts in case 
they are of any interest to NLUG doubters...

I got thrown in at the deep end at work when we realised that linux was the 
only way we were going to get the multi-user environment we needed. From 
never having seen an X-session to 'sysadmin' in a week was a steep learning 
curve! I now run linux as standard, and have even had to compile my own 
kernel to get this laptop working. I've had help, software and education from 
several areas of the open source community, and have always been impressed by 
just that - the community.

Without advice from this list (including with netique!), I'd still be flogging 
away with what commercial software and a restricted OS allowed. Now I use a 
computer. 

What is NLUG? Well for _me _ its been been a friendly, sociable place to get 
the help and guidance I needed to start using linux from (very) experienced 
users happy to help. 

In response to some of Pat's thoughts:
> I hate feeling or being made to feel stupid.  
Don't we all?

>Michael Leuty wrote:
> Computer geeks in general have a bit of a reputation for not suffering 
> (what they consider to be) fools gladly.
Which is both true and fair. But one of the problems when first poking a toe 
into opensource stuff is knowning what you don't know, and know how/where to 
find it out (did that sound a bit like the world's favourite Texan?). I've 
found NLUG to be tolerent of this, and some of the most valuable advice has 
been guidance on where to find stuff out.

> Thanks for the help so far and keep up the good work.
Nicely summed up. Linux use grows bigger and srtonger through welcoming 
'newbies' into the fold - this list does that, and should continue to do so.

Dave