Suggestions: Next Meeting

I think that if the majority of people who attend in person want to cater 
mostly to intermediates and experts, then that fact should be made clear 
to everyone "before" they attend thier first ACLUG meeting. As I see it, 
there are two main areas to cover when using a computing environment. They 
are the "operating system" and the "applications" that run on that OS. If 
we choose to concentrate on the applications only, we assume everyone 
knows how to use the underlying OS. Also, if this is the case, we should 
change the name of the group from "Linux Users Group" to "Open Source 
Users Group". This would eliminate confusion and also welcome users of 
other OS's so that they too can help participate in our discutions.

"Open Source" applications run on MANY platforms. Their use is not limited 
to Linux users. If we assume that a group member should know how to use 
their OS, why limit membership to only Linux users? What about FreeBSD and 
Solaris people who use Apache also (not to mention MS Windows users who 
use it).

Well, if this is the way the group chooses to go, then what about people 
who want to learn the GNU/Linux operating system itself? We as a group can 
choose to help them ourselves "or" instuct them on how to do it "for 
themselves" on thier own time.
It seems to me that the latter would be the choice choosen by this group.

So... why don't we be honest to all the new wanna-be Linux users out there 
and let them know what this group is "really" about. There is no reason at 
all to try and hide ACLUG'S true identity from the web page and from the 
public. I would like to eliminate misconceptions about what ACLUG is about.

"Open Source" software is what we are all truly in love with. Me included.

James Galimi


On 2002.02.10 00:08 Michael Moore wrote:
> 
> I have heard several people expression their concerns about the ACLUG
> falling into a state of newbieism; in that, the meetings and
> presentations have been catered to newbies and intermediates and that
> the experts get bored and find no real reason to attend the meetings (no
> benefit to them).