On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 12:09 AM, Arc Riley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At the BBQ on Sunday the topic of starting an Ubuntu SIG under GNHLUG was > discussed, Jon said the next step would be posting this here.
I'm not sure how I feel about this. Well, I guess I feel conflicted. Anything that helps Linux/FOSS is good in my book. Community is what we're here for. Historically, GNHLUG has avoided endorsing any particular vendor (i.e., distribution), trying to remain technologically neutral. I do think it's important that GNHLUG be remain neutral and fair. The Red Hat employees among us have generally really bent over backwards to make sure their involvement in the LUG is distribution-agnostic. People already using a given distribution might benefit from distro-specific help, especially for installs. On the other hand, a lot of stuff is not distro-specific, and we'd be cutting out others not using the distro. That's bad for both sides. If, say, an Ubuntu user has a problem that can be solved with a Perl script, they'd loose out on Kevin Clark's expertise (I don't think he's an Ubuntu user). Balkanization is also a concern of mine (I'm not sure others share this concern); I worry that we'll end up with 40 different groups of 3 people each. Community is not helped by divisions. I can't help think of the "Unix wars" of the 80s and 90s. Infighting nearly killed Unix back then. FOSS mitigates that to a large extent -- the software isn't locked up by the vendors. But I would still hate to see Linux go down that road. Thoughts? -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-org mailing list gnhlug-org@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-org/
