Kia ora Chris,
Christopher Sawtell wrote:
Yes, I too found the talks interesting. It motivates me to do a 'son et
lumiere' type of show for folks to see some of the less common creations
which have been made on top of the X-11 Windowing System. ( I'm a kde user,
and am not really able to show off gnome applications - that's not a cue for
a G versus K flamefest. It's merely a statement of fact. )
Here's a list of possibles:-
Getting ink on paper:-
Point out the 2 main methods of print preparation.
Typewriter Simulation method:-
OpenOffice - _*very*_ brief because it's so well known.
KOffice - Not as well known, but very nicely integrated, especially
Kword - A simple little WP, but pretty effective at what it does.
Combined Drawing and Typesetting.
Scribus - The killer application! If there is an app. which is going to put
Linux on the desktop, this is the one which is going to do it! The advert in
the Press for the last InstallFest was created using it.
The 'write a script to control the printer' method.
TeX
SGML
I can introduce these and very happily defer to other speakers.
e.g. I know Michael Jason Smith is far more qualified to speak on TeX, and
LaTeX than I ever will be.
The combination of interactive input and the TeX or SGML methods results in:-
Lyx - For me this is the ultimate app. for typesetting.
Demonstrations of Blender [1] and Povray [2] are two applications which could
show off Linux very nicely. Would our covert Povray expert be able to talk
about it?
I'd also be happy to show off the Squeak [3] Smalltalk e-toys [4] project.
I could go on here ad infinitum. Requests and suggestions very welcome.
Might we look forward to a combined presentation from 'Sawtell the Elder
& Sawtell the Younger', to launch CLUG talks in St Albans? If so, you
might best think about a booking now. If you can place it either side of
30 November, that'd be ideal, because the wind-up presentations for
Sydenham are prepared for that date. How about making it our Xmas bash
too? (pun optional ;) The earlier in December the less frantic &
unavailable people become, in my experience. BYO seems fairest on all
resources.
Now, how do we find more newbies?
imho, it's not so much "How do we find more newbies?", but more "How do we
make it easy for newbies to find us?"
Agreed there. Our public profile (chiefly via website) is deplorably remiss.
I think we have to make ourselves more widely known to the mainstream media. I
heard that fellow who does "Digital-Life" back on National Radio the other
day. [5] Before he got ill, I seem to remember somewhat vaguely that they
asked us to keep in touch. Perhaps we should do that.
Mainly it seems that 'Free & Open Source Software advocacy' is a task
that this list was never created or designed to meet. So it becomes a
political wrangle whenever the subject surfaces. The question is what if
anything the people gathered around this list want to make to perform
the local advocacy task (separate from the technical support, notices &
social functions performed so admirably by this list).
(and do we want to?)
Possibly. Done properly, it means _a lot_ of work.
Some of us are very keen for that, and in no way phased by it.
[1] http://www.blender3d.org/
[2] http://www.povray.org/
[3] http://www.squeak.org/
[4] http://www.squeakland.org/
[5] http://www.radionz.co.nz/digitallife/
Regards, Rik
