[LUGSB] Can we vote on this?

[Vinay Pai]

Hi,

Here are a few arguments for and against:

Linux is very much a buzz word today, and someone who hasn't even heard of
linux is unlikely to be interested in ANY software other than that they're
used to. This is especially true on the university campus where most of
the common software is site-licensed and is thus "free" as far as the
average user is concerned.

There is also a danger that "free software" will be confused with
shareware (yuck) or ad-supported software (bigger yuck).

A local LUG is something many Linux fans would look for... whouldn't want
to throw them off by calling it something else, would we?

OTOH, if advocacy is considered an important goal, the emphasizing the
free software part makes a lot of sense... using software like Mozilla or
openoffice on Windows makes for a smooth transition... installing a new
piece of software is a far less drastic change than installing a new OS...
even as a dual-boot.

Just my $0.02 worth.

-Vinay

My resolution for the new year is 1600x1200


On Sun, 6 Apr 2003, Michael Graffam wrote:

>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I know this is somewhere out of left field, but I'd like to suggest that
> we come up with a new name for the group.
>
> At many of our meetings, we have concerned ourselves with attracting new
> membership to the LUG. I believe a name change can help with this, which
> I'll explain later.
>
> I've heard it said that SB uses FreeBSD in the computer science building.
> Are students developing on FreeBSD? Do they know that they can freely
> copy this software and have the same thing on their home PC, dual-booted
> with Windows?
>
> As a LUG, much of what we've talked about, for example KDE and GNOME, or
> Emacs apply equally well to FreeBSD as they do to Linux. In fact, I doubt
> anyone has done much talking about using the Linux system call API
> directly. Even programmers don't use Linux very often :)
>
> And non-programmers never touch Linux! They use GNOME, Emacs, bash and
> other GNU software. There is no reason for us to restrict ourselves to
> Linux, because for most potential users it is irrelevent, we're talking
> about user-land software, not kernel-related stuff.
>
> We're not a Linux user's group, we're a GNU/Linux user's group and while
> we're at it, we may as well call ourselves a Free Software User's Group,
> or something, because we should invite any people interested in BSD into
> the group too. Especially since it is used it on campus.
>
> Calling ourselves a Free Software Group would encompass a lot broader
> range of options and users. And there is a marketing benefit for
> attracting new users: some people would stop by just to see what free (as
> in price) software they might get, like a pirated version of MS Office.
>
> This is good, because we tell them what we REALLY mean by "Free Software"
> and explain "free as in freedom." And then we offer a copy of OpenOffice
> for Windows.
>
> Later on, maybe we can get them to use OpenOffice on Linux or FreeBSD.
>
> Instead of Windows users looking at "Linux User's Group" flyers and not
> having a clue what they mean, they can look at a "Come get all the free
> software you can copy; bring your own blanks" flyers and I'll bet people
> show up.
>
> By placing the emphasis of the group on Free Software, and not just Linux,
> I think we can broaden the appeal and gain more GNU/Linux users in the
> process.
>
> What do you all think?
>
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