[Sussex] Good meet

[Geoffrey J Teale]

Evening all,

Just wanted to say, excellent meet.  We haven't had so many people
there since the earliest days of the LUG. It's really fun to have so
many people there and to meet some new users so keen to learn.

I have to make yet another apology for my absence for the majority of
the last n months (where n is some integer greater than 12).  I really
hope I can get back into the swing of the meets over the next few
months.

I think it pays testament to the great work the guys have been doing
at the British Computer Fairs.  It's really come a long way since we
first met up in early 2002.

Well done to tonight's presenters as well.  The subjects seemed
to stimulate thought and debate (without dissolving into too much
Gentoo/Debian bashing) which is probably as much as anyone can expect
to achieve in the time available to us.

A quick message to the new faces - please do continue to come.  If
you've got a problem with your box that you're having trouble
describing on the list why not bring it along.  Also, don't be afraid
to speak up and talk about the things you've achieved the LUG isn't
about the guru's driving everything.  

One last thing for the new faces.  All the discussion about distros
sometimes doesn't make it clear that the vast bulk of the OS we call
Linux is common to all distros.  Please take the time to look at the
following web sites and try to understand their relationship to the
software you are using:

The Linux Kernel project:
http://www.kernel.org


The GNU project:
http://www.gnu.org


The free software foundation:
http://www.fsf.org


The Free Desktop project:
http://www.freedesktop.org


Each of these groups is distro agnostic and actively working to
improve the software we're all using.  Each of these groups needs
support in terms of time, skills and in some cases money.

In particular I would like to point out that beyond simply providing
software the Free Software Foundation is the body that defines and
guards the GPL and actively promotes free software globally and
lobbies on all manner of issues effecting free software today.

-- 
Geoff Teale
Cmed Technology    || Free Software Foundation
gteale at cmedltd.com || tealeg at member.fsf.org