It's funny how the worm turns. I've been loitering around SLUG for quite a
while now (not as long as some but still a while) and the group has gone
through a number of changes in both "personnel" and how it operates etc..
and tho I'm unable to get to the meetings I imagine this would be reflected
there too.
But one of the more interesting changes which could possibly be taken as a
good thing for Linux is the questions that are being asked on the list, or
more specifically about what distros etc.
Im not out to start any flame wars etc.. and I've used a large number of
distros myself (about the only mainstream one I haven't tried is Suse) but
when I first lobbed on the list talk was almost exclusively RedHat,
particularly from the "newbies" as was the general view of the linux
community back then. RedHat was for "learners" and Slackware/Debian/<insert
other more obscure distro> was for those who were a bit more au fait with
things. I noticed during the interim period we had something of a surge in
the number of SuSe users which seems to be fairly stable and briefly there
was also a big run on TurboLinux (which strangely seems to have abated. I
thought TL was supposed to be pretty good??) but the largest change seems to
have come about recently (and who knows in a few months it might abate too
but somehow I doubt it.).
I'm not sure if it's come about due to a large number of the "core" (read
executive etc..) of the club being Debianites or whether 2.2 was a quantum
leap and apt-get has just bowled everyone over or if it's just a reflection
on the level of sophistication and "expertise" amongst the Linux community
that now a large number of people of using (and seemingly every second
person is changing to) a distro that has long been considered the domain of
the more "hard-core" linux user. Maybe changes and things like apt-get have
moved Debian away from that position?? Maybe slackware is the home of the
true Linux masochist :-) Please don't get me wrong a lot of what I'm saying
is generalisation I realise Debian doesn't exclude newbies anymore than
RedHat or the other RPM based distros. But to a newbie perception is
everything. Linux might seem hard and complex enough as it is and when you
start you want to start off so you make things as easy for yourself as
possible. I know I started off on Slackware and used that for a while and
when RedHat 5.0 came out I thought it was almost a miracle :-) but things
have progressed a fair way since then.
Comments? Rants? Flames??
This leads me to my suggestion. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when we have a
ConfigFest since in some way it was mine (and Ken's I think) idea to take
the InstallFest Idea further. So I'm at it again More Fests for everyone.
:-) It may be time to bring about DistroFest. It can be as specific or
general as you like and as large all small as you like. Maybe one for
Debian/Corel etc.. then another for the RPM based distros. Hopefully not
rehashing the install and config fests. It would be a chance for people to
find out all the "hidden" well hidden to newbies anyway little gems in each
distro and I know there are plenty. Things like how to find an RPM or how to
find a specific file and while RPM it's in. What the hell format is and
apt-get sources.list line in?? these are just a couple off the top of my
head some there is info on the web etc.. but other's there isn't. and I
knowat config fests and install fest and the like that the organisers dont
like to get too distro specific. I'd love to say I'd organise it but I'll be
doing well enough to find the time to attend it (a month ago I thought
things would change but it wasnt to be) and it may not come about esp. with
linux.conf.au on the horizon but I think it's something that's needed. YMMV.
Dan.
--
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