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March
by MJ Ray 04 Mar '02

04 Mar '02

Hi all, Isn't it time we arranged and confirmed the March meeting? Rob, you offered to hold a meeting at Elmswell. Is that possible for March? What date would you like? Thanks, -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] Linux Install Day 2002
by Alexis 04 Mar '02

04 Mar '02

<cut like coleslaw> On Sun, 3 Mar 2002, MJ Ray wrote: > > 1. Some of the benefits of free software (e.g. customisiing it) > > only accrue to those who have the skill to work on it, or have > > the resources to hire someone who does have the necessary skill. > > There's another part to this benefit: the freedom to study it and gain that > skill required to modify it. Like a recipe book, free software allows you > to try things out and modify the recipes. I suspect a lot of us have gained > from this freedom in the past. Another benefit is that other people can work on the software on your behalf. If you really want it, you can pay them to do it, without risking lock-in. So developers are forced to produce good quality code or lose the contract. > > 2. Other benefits (cheap copies and free redistribution) are more > > valuable to the honest. What can we offer someone who says > > "That's all very well but I can get a copy of Win2KPro from my mate". > > The answer, of course, is a clear conscience. > > For companies, it's rather easier. No-one company can afford to act > illegally. No-one wants a visit from the "Business Software Alliance" with > a hefty fine for copyright licence breaches. There are two alternatives: > you spend a lot of money on licence purchase and licence enforcement (the > hidden cost of proprietary software); or you embrace Free Software. Yes, > there are some conversion costs today, but then it's cheaper forever. > Really, it's a no-brainer. > > > the list of applications to demo is definitely a way to go. > > Yes, this is how to win the home users and the individuals who have the > freedom to choose what they use. They are the people who we need to target > with an event, I think. We should still have literature for the other > viewpoints (eg business, public bodies) available, but let's pick an > audience and target it. I know the standard market for Linux promotion by LUGs is home users, because we're home users and everyone, at heart, thinks other people should be how they are. However, doesn't it seem a little funny that when the case for business is a 'no-brainer', and home market (MS' traditional stronghold) is a long hard slog, we should try for the home market? A really solid case can be built, based on hard cash (licenses, downtime, $1/sec support, forced upgrade, indelible faults etc), for why every business that uses computers should use Linux. I would say that the number #1, maybe only, substantial reason companies won't switch is training. Well, there's fear of the unknown, but just say 'IBM does Linux. Who got fired for buying IBM?'. So what I'd really like to see is a business-targeted campaign, giving realistic TCO (total cost of ownership) comparisons for Linux v. MS, and promoting some of the brave companies selling support and training for Linux. While LUG support can be great, and a lot of companies would be overjoyed to get free support, many of them would probably also like at least the option of formal support. Categorisation is a risky business, but I'd say the OS market largely divides into gamers, the clueless, employees, employers and developers. Significant work has to happen before Linux has a hope of reaching gamers, and truly clueless home users (the ones who can't figure out which is the 'Refresh' button on a browser, and move windows by resizing) ought to use Mac OS X not normal Linux. Similarly, people with a PC at home only because they need it for work won't switch unless their employer does ('Please add your name to the attached Word file' ring any bells?). Finally, while developers are ripe for conversion with many potential benefits, they're either converted already, converting by themselves, or fall into another category (notably workers). The critical point are the employers, who will convert if we show them the money. Every converted employer leads a host of employees into the light. Let's see business demos and business promotion. Really, it's a no-brainer. Alexis -- When you die, you lose a very important part of your life. -- Brooke Shields For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. - H L Mencken "The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where is the man who has forgotten words?" - Chuang-Tzu

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Re: [Alug] March
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 04 Mar '02

04 Mar '02

MJRay said: >Isn't it time we arranged and confirmed the March meeting? Rob, you offered >to hold a meeting at Elmswell. Is that possible for March? What date would >you like? If the May meeting is to be an awareness day and therefore more suitable for UEA or somewhere, why not have the Syleham meeting this month and the May thing at UEA? Is that possible, John? How about March 17/24/31 Syleham April 21/28 Elmswell May Linuxday UEA ? Jenny.

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 04 Mar '02

04 Mar '02

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.openprojects.net in the #alug channel, you can take a look at www.openprojects.net to get more info on the openprojects network. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server uk.openprojects.net" or "/server eu.openprojects.net" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Re: [Alug] Linux Install Day 2002
by MJ Ray 03 Mar '02

03 Mar '02

Steve: > I have just tried reading a couple of documents to brush up on this and > found to my surprise that the "Open Source Software Definition" > [http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.html] reads as a slighly > edited version of the "Debian Free Software Guidelines" > [http://www.uk.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines]. Yes, Bruce Perens, of Debian fame, helped to set up the Open Source Initiative. The DFSG are descended from the FSF definition of free software. If you take the OSI definition, "Open Source" *should* be exactly the same as "Free Software". Terms don't always get used exactly as we define them, though. While "Free Software" speaks of software and freedom from restriction, "Open Source" is purely being able to see the source code. I think Free Software is more easily explained to the layman and harder to "hijack". > I'd always regarded open source as a wider field with Free Software being > the purer core, but where is the line to be drawn. Yes, that's pretty much how it breaks down these days. "Open source" covers all sorts of proprietary software from people like Sun. Even MS supports have claimed that its offering to let certain people see certain bits of the source to Windows makes it "open source"! > 1. Some of the benefits of free software (e.g. customisiing it) > only accrue to those who have the skill to work on it, or have > the resources to hire someone who does have the necessary skill. There's another part to this benefit: the freedom to study it and gain that skill required to modify it. Like a recipe book, free software allows you to try things out and modify the recipes. I suspect a lot of us have gained from this freedom in the past. > 2. Other benefits (cheap copies and free redistribution) are more > valuable to the honest. What can we offer someone who says > "That's all very well but I can get a copy of Win2KPro from my mate". > The answer, of course, is a clear concience. For companies, it's rather easier. No-one company can afford to act illegally. No-one wants a visit from the "Business Software Alliance" with a hefty fine for copyright licence breaches. There are two alternatives: you spend a lot of money on licence purchase and licence enforcement (the hidden cost of proprietary software); or you embrace Free Software. Yes, there are some conversion costs today, but then it's cheaper forever. Really, it's a no-brainer. Another benefit you haven't mentioned is the inability of anyone else to take your data away from you. How many times have proprietary software changed formats incompatibly, leaving you with no conversion tool and no way to get the old version of the program? Even worse, have you ever had a company go bust and then your computer dies? Even if you had backups, if you need an "activation key" when you install it on the new machine, you're stuck again. > Of course, the clincher is if people can see that there are high quality > applications to do the kind of things they want to do with their PCs, so > the list of applications to demo is definitely a way to go. Yes, this is how to win the home users and the individuals who have the freedom to choose what they use. They are the people who we need to target with an event, I think. We should still have literature for the other viewpoints (eg business, public bodies) available, but let's pick an audience and target it. -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] Linux Install Day 2002
by MJ Ray 02 Mar '02

02 Mar '02

Paul: > A few suggestions for "Useful Apps" > Spreadsheet - Kspread Gnumeric, siag. > Wordprocessor - Kword (when it doesn't crash), LyX. AbiWord, pw and I guess OpenOffice. > Graphics packages - Gimp, ImageMagic, gphoto. Sketch, Impress (possibly) > Games - Just to pander to the M$ wimps. bzflag network game anyone? :) Communications are a very strong point not to be forgotten: GNUmail, LuserNET, Mozilla, etc. Probably the small armada of server tools should be demo'd, even if we focus on desktop affairs. Anyway, we should all add reviews to the web site, shouldn't we? I've been very bad about that, too. A quick appeal, though -- please put your name on pages, especially if you're going to talk about things like "the author has never...". ;-) -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] Linux Install Day 2002
by MJ Ray 02 Mar '02

02 Mar '02

Adam: > It may be even better to call it "Linux day" to just raise profile and > awareness of GNU/Linux (although we should also perhaps be thinking of > other Free and alternative OS), just I don't like the idea of doing > installs on other peoples machines who don't know *anything* about linux OK, here's what else has been going on that I know about so far: 1. AFFS have been talking about a "GNU-Day" anyway, so I've approached them about merging the two. 2. Several people have suggested leaving it until the summer to give more time for proper promotion and being able to ride on the back of the Brum Expo. 3. I've been saying "let's promote Free Software rather than Open Source" ;) > Anyway in short lets do it, UEA would be great although should we perhaps > as a group maybe have 2 seperate meetings on that day? One in Norfolk and > one in Suffolk? I presume CamLug will be doing this also as they have had > an install day before in the basement of CB2... This is probably a good idea. Would a venue in south-/mid-Suffolk be possible? My geography has suddenly gone AWOL, so I don't know if we're using one there at present. -- MJR

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Linux Install Day 2002
by MJ Ray 02 Mar '02

02 Mar '02

Does ALUG want to go for this? Can we do a new venue this year, or should we try UEA again? Where does May fall in the academic year? (Pretty good, IIRC) ------- Forwarded Message Message-ID: <3C7FB085.1070404(a)soton.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 01 Mar 2002 16:47:01 +0000 From: John S Robinson <J.S.Robinson(a)soton.ac.uk> Subject: [lugmaster] UK Linux Install Day 2002 After the success of last year's UK Linux Install Day, Dorset Linux User Group (http://dorset.lug.org.uk) have decided to hold another regional event in 2002. As there seems to be no similar national effort so far this year, we would like to invite other LUGs to coordinate their Install Days with ours, to form a UK Linux Install Day 2002 on Sunday May 19th. National coordination will allow us to raise the the profile of Install Day events and to promote Linux and Open Source software to Businesses and the public. We aim to achieve national press coverage and sponsorship (approaches have been made to O'Reilly and Mandrake). To register your Install Day event, please mail me details (Venue, time, URL for details etc.) to marketing(a)linuxinstallday.org. Details of events will be shown on the website: http://www.linuxinstallday.org This is our chance to build on last year's success and show the public one of Free Software's most valuable facets - it's great sense of community. I'll also be contacting LUG lists directly, in case (as has happened in the past) LUGMasters aren't actually subscribed to this list! If you have any thoughts or questions, please don't hesitate to mail me at the address above, or the one in my sig below. Regards, John Robinson. - -- - ------------------------------ John S. Robinson, BSc (Hons) School of Biological Sciences University of Southampton, UK +44 (0)2380 594399 J.S.Robinson(a)soton.ac.uk - ------------------------------ ------- End of Forwarded Message

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Announce digest, Vol 1 #13 - 1 msg
by announce-request＠lists.alug.org.uk 01 Mar '02

01 Mar '02

Send Announce mailing list submissions to announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to announce-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk You can reach the person managing the list at announce-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Announce digest..." *** Please send replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk, not announce... *** oMMMoMo Mo MMMMMMMoMo " "o"o"o"o oMMMoMoM oMMMMMM"MMM" " " " " " "o"o "oMMMoMMM " oMo"M"oo MM" " MoMoMMMMMMM oM " " "oMMM " " MoMMMMMoMoMoooo Mo MMM MoMoMMMMMoMMMMM o" MoM " MoMM "MMo"oMoMMMoM"" MM " MMMMo MMMMMoMMMMMM" oM " MoMMM MMMoMMMo"MM Mo" "MMoMo ooMMMMMMMoMo" oMo oMoMMM " "oMoMMMoMoMo MoM oMoMMM MMMMMMMMMoMMM "oM oMoMMM "M"M"MMoMMMo" " o "oo " MMMM" MMMMMoMoM o" " "oM " " " "o MMMoMMMo"o M " oM " " MMMMMMMoMo o" "oMoMoooMo" " o " " MMoMMMoMoMo " "o"o MM"""""""oM oM " "MMo oMMMMMoMMMoMo " """ """ " o"MMMMoMMMoMMMo"MMo"o" o o o oo MMMMMMoMMMoMMMoMoMo MMMMM MMMo oMMM MMMo MMoMMM oMoMMMoMMMoMMMoMMMo"o oMMMMM MMMo oMMM "MMo MMM "MM MMMMMMMoMMMMMMMoMMMM" " " MMo"MMo MMMo oMM" MMMo oMM" """ " MoMMMoMMMoMMMo" " " MMMoMMMo MMMo oMM" MMMo oMM"oMoMo " "MMoMMMoMMM " " MMMMMMMo MMMo oMM" MMMo oMM" "MM oMMMoMoMoMMMoMMMoMo" " oMM" "oMM" "MMMMM" "MMMMM" MMMoMM" ooMMMMMMMoMMMMMMMoMMMoMo "M" " " " " " """ """ "oM """oMM" " " "MMoMMMoMMMoMM" " " " " " " " alug-announce : The Newsletter of the Anglian Linux User Group Today's Topics: 1. (no subject) (MJ Ray) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: MJ Ray <markj(a)cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> To: announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 21:12:53 +0000 Subject: [Alug Announce] (no subject) Message-ID: <BAE4A3FE57E5D411BCD200A0C9D4C31AFBDD06@DS1> From: Matthijs van Leeuwen <m.vanleeuwen(a)compusys.co.uk> Subject: [uklugs] Linux job with Leading European Beowulf Cluster supplier Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 18:29:00 -0000 Dear Linux User Group Members, Please find below the job description for an exciting linux job with one of the leading suppliers of Linux Beowulf Clusters in Europe. Best regards, Matthijs - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - --------- Company: Compusys Plc Starting date: ASAP Job title: Junior HPC engineer Salary: 16K+ Benefits: Normal Company Benefits Location: Based from Aylesbury Job description: Compusys HPC is one of the leading suppliers and specialist integrators of Beowulf Clusters in Europe. The High Performance Computing (HPC) division currently has a position available for an enthusiastic new member of our technical support and development team. This junior position involves installing, configuring and testing of our Beowulf Clusters. In addition, you will provide training and technical support to our customers. Your training in HPC will be provided for by Compusys. There will be ample opportunity to develop your skills and to take initiative. You will have the opportunity to work with the latest hardware technologies such as Intel's new McKinley platform and high speed network interconnects. Required skills: - - Linux: our cluster operating system and software environment is based on Linux and your tasks involve a lot of Linux troubleshooting. You should be very familiar with the GNU/Linux Operating System. The ability to program in Perl and knowledge about clustering in general would be seen as advantageous, but not necessary. - - PC hardware: you will be working with a range of PC hardware technologies and you should at least know the basics of TCP/IP, CPU/memory technologies and IDE/SCSI hard disks. - - Customer facing skills: You will spend quite some time at customer sites and one of your tasks will include providing administrator and user training. You will also be communicating with customers on the phone and through email. For further enquiries or to apply, please contact by email: Dr Alex Ninaber Email: alex(a)compusys.co.uk or Dr Matthijs van Leeuwen Email: m.vanleeuwen(a)compusys.co.uk Compusys Plc, 58 Edison Road Rabans Lane Industrial Estate Aylesbury, Bucks HP19 8UT, UK Fax: +44 (0)1296 424165 Web: <http://www.compusys.co.uk> ------- End of Forwarded Message --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce End of Announce Digest

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A request for the Association For Free Software
by MJ Ray 01 Mar '02

01 Mar '02

Hi all, I'm involved with setting up the UK's Association For Free Software and we're having some difficulties locating the following items: * A tame lawyer who at least knows what GNU/Linux is and would be willing to do occasional work for reduced rate (or free!) in exchange for an honorary title. * A Free Software accountancy package suitable for use in the UK. * A moon on a stick. As you can see, we need at least two of these, so any assistance you can give us would be appreciated a great deal. If you don't know, please ask your LUGs. You can find some more about us at http://www.affs.org.uk/ but it is early days yet. You will doubtless hear when we are set up enough to start a recruitment drive... ;-) Thanks, -- MJR Anglian LUG http://www.alug.org.uk/ No ePatents http://petition.eurolinux.org/ FSF Europe http://www.fsfeurope.org/

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