Mark Although not quite in the market yet for an upgrade I will be in the next six months or so. The AMD specs quoted are the sort of level that I will be looking for, so more for less money would suit me fine :)
As I have recently made a successful full time switch from Windows to Ubuntu (currently dapper) on my home desktops I would be looking to stay with Ubuntu on any future upgrade. Therefore the main factors will be price (obviously) but more importantly support. As most warranties these days are return to base then geography would play a key part in my decision process. The more local the better as the perception would seem to be that support issues could then be addressed more promptly than if I have to package a box up, courier it to the supplier, explain the problem on the telephone etc etc then have it couriered back and so on. Where as if I buy locally I stand a better chance of discussing any issue's face to face. I'm not convinced that using the LUG as a support mechanism would work per say, as I feel that there is too much a scope for abuse when warranties expire, trade disputes arise etc. Plus, you would be putting a large portion of your business into what is in effect a public arena which is something I would never consider doing. That having been said I can see no problem at all with businesses who are part of a LUG, and who actively promote Linux as an alternative, to promote their wares within the LUG. After all, it's an obvious route in to an interested market. Perhaps it is this area that could be used to raise funding for the projects that you speak of(which I personally would whole heartedly support). One way would be to charge a small fee for advertising such services on the web site by way of banner ads etc. That's very easy to do now that we will shortly have the Joomla based site up and running BUT would require a seed change in the way that PLUG in particular is currently run and managed. You would need to deal with bank accounts, accounting rules and audit processes as well as a more formal committee structure to administer it all, along with the problems that such organisations/committee's usually suffer at some time or another. Turning a LUG from a happy band of interested individuals into a semi-commercial, revenue generating group would require a great deal of fore thought, discussion and expert advice in my opinion. Are there any members of this group who are able to step up to the plate and take on this kind of responsibility? Just my two penneth, although food for thought indeed! Stu _______________________________________________ Peterboro mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro
