Hi folks, pardon my bandwidth.. As a relative newbie, I have come to a partially-informed conclusion on the significance of GNU viz "Linux". Thanks to the thread contributors for helping this along, and not changing it. What follows are some main points to be made for the forming of a GNU/Linux User Group in Waiata/Canterbury.
1. Why have people not heard of GNU? GNU belongs in the "babies' milk", not as some debateable add-on for the untrained to despise as an inconvenience, says "Linux" history. If it's good enough for Linus (as seen on 'Revolution OS'), then it's good enough for me. 2. Just as we need GNU to understand our history, so too do we need GNU to chart our way forward. I believe we have a number of problems promoting F/LOSS currently, that can be resolved around this question. To explain, let me identify the newbie-to-*nixprogrammer course that is central to our purpose - it is this that the name GNU/Linux is most needed to describe. We start people out on Mandrake or SuSE (currently under debate), and this used to be RedHat. The rationale for the transitions needs to be made clear, as part of people's training, and for its future clarification. From Mdk/Suse the capable new users will progress to Gentoo. Why? Because that is where the CLUG core is, for good reasons - both the quality of the software & the quality of the operators who use it. My argument for a GNU/Linux User Group is precisely to bolster the efforts of this Gentoo core. For the past year they have borne most of the organising work of CLUG as a sub-group, & they urgently need help if "Linux" is to progress locally. Beyond Gentoo comes Debian, which much be mastered before any of these trainees become useful near a server. So Debian is the light guiding us out of the "distro-war" mire. Jim has extracted for us where Debian state their GNU/Linux position, and that's good enough for me too. Is this Mdk/Suse-Gentoo-Debian trail real? - *Yes*. Is it the end of the trail? - *No*. Beyond Debian lies BSD, MacOS, and our best guarantees of keeping "Linux" OSS *free* against the pressure of the RedHat- Novell- Xandros.. -M$ commercial dynamic. This is important, it is why we have "Linux", and it is best targetted, imho, by acknowledging the GNU/Linux flag. GNU/Linux offers the best roadmap to developing both the programmers and the software essential to a *free* future. 3. "What's in it for me?" You have to decide this for yourself. Personally, I learnt of "Linux" around 1996 at Polytech, finished my formal studies and devised a business plan that would lead me past tertiary debt, M$ servicing, & into Open Source professionally. Surprisingly, it has worked for two years, but I am on a low income, with no job security. To succeed, like you, I need to help "grow the market" for "Linux". This begins, I believe, by telling the truth about GNU/Linux - as a home appliance alternative OS at worst, or, in the best case, as a career course - and *making that real*. Let us dump our "Linux" prejudices post-haste, and acknowledge GNU/Linux as the most market-ready & variegated FLOSS necessary to ensuring the future of 'free computing' If one other person can see the sense of working to form the GNU/Linux User Group of Waitaha / Canterbury (GLUGOWC - name up for debate), then I'll be continuing development under that title. Hopefully more would wish to. Best case scenario - the whole of CLUG would take on the benefits of a little more focus & organisation - it's up to you folks. Kia ora taatou Rik -- InfoHelp Services http://infohelp.co.nz/linux.html i686 krnl 2.6.4-52-default SuSE-Linux-9.1 KDE/Konqueror-3.2.1 KMail-1.6.2 Mozilla-1.6 OpenOffice-1.1.1
