[sf-lug] Introduction....

[Shane Tzen]

On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 1:47 AM, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:

> Also, there is a widely felt perception that Linux and open source are
>  just not new and exciting any more.  Instead, they're infrastructure.
> There is a perception that LUGs are a solution to a problem from a
> bygone decade, and no longer needed.


I moved up here from LA a couple of years back, and I can say that LUGs
were also seriously suffering there.  I think the biggest problem with LUGs
_is_ actually the success of Linux and how much better things are now.

In the good ol' days of Linux, it was almost nearly impossible to install
(people used to recommend setting aside a good couple of days if not
longer).  And even if you manage to get it installed, there were all sort
of bugs/issues that you had to resolve on your own or ask someone (making
installfests much more practical).  Nowadays, most distros are (IMO) easier
to install by far than Windows.

I have no doubt that some of the issues are that we're all much older and
have more obligations/priorities, but I think the landscape is just totally
different now.  Linux is popular enough where most of the simple (and even
perplexing) issues are easily solvable by googling (documentation is so
much better - not to say that there aren't still terrible documentation for
certain things).  And any genuinely hard issues aren't going to be answered
by a LUG (particularly if it's going to be time consuming).  And even if
someone posts a question of that sort to a LUG, they're generally told to
find the specific list for whatever thing they're asking about.

So while I still have a personal fondness of LUGs, even I don't generally
find them particularly useful.  I will say that there are still people that
I know from the old LUG days, and I wouldn't hesitate asking or helping
them in a way that I would generally avoid on a LUG list (but there's an
effect where if you get to know people, particular if you've shared food or
drink with them over a long time, the interpersonal relationship is the
bond, and not because we're "free software" advocates).
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