[LUGSB] Can we vote on this?

[John R. Hover]

I think this really boils down to two issues. What should LUGSB be 
*called*? And what should it *be*?

The way I see it we have three potential audiences. The first is 
hardcore computer folk, e.g. Linux, *BSD, other open source users or at 
least Windows programmers.  The second are fairly knowledgeable, 
experienced computer end-users, i.e. folk who could tell you what an 
"operating system" is. The third are purely utilitarian Windows users, 
i.e. your average student.

As for what the group should *be*, I am in total and complete agreement 
with Michael. I think both for meeting presentations and outreach events 
we should try to offer subjects that will appeal to all three audiences: 
presentations on generic unix topics, running Apache on whatever, 
setting up Linux and *BSD routers, evangelizing about the benefits of 
Free Software for education and government, running OpenOffice on 
Windows, and even getting X Windows up on OS X, for that matter. Towards 
that end maybe the website should have some kind of mission statement 
that is specifically inclusive and mentions some of these things.

As for what we should be *called*, it seems that the purpose of a name 
is to provide potential members with some kind of context. The great 
unwashed have at least *heard* of Linux these days. Business majors are 
reading articles about it in Forbes. This group will be unlikely to have 
even heard of "Free Software", though. "Linux" at least has some name 
recognition. I agree that to attract this crowd, though, we will need to 
offer Windows-based open source talks and demos.

The second crowd is a natural source of members, and they will have 
definitely heard of Linux and know what it is. However, they may still 
not really know what Free Software is, though they may have vaguely 
heard of it.

On the other hand the clueful, e.g. *BSD users will know exactly what 
Linux and LUGS are and will know that they are likely to have plenty to 
learn and contribute at a LUG meeting. We should definitely make sure 
that we make them feel welcome and valued, and make sure we offer them 
equal time/consideration.

So short answer: I think we should keep the name, but make more efforts 
to *be* a "Linux/*BSD/UNIX/Open Source/Free Software on *all* platforms" 
group.

Cheers,

--john


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?