On 22-Feb-2014 14:19:40 mick wrote:
> Ted
>
> I have been reading my copy of (the first issue of) "Linux Voice".
> Page 17 of that magazine has an article about the founding of
> Sheffield LUG by Richard Ibbotson.
>
> That article says:
>
> "I remember back in the 1990s helping Manchester LUG to come into
> existence. Dr Owen Le Blanc, David Clarke, Dr Dave Gilbert, Professor
> Ted Harding and some other notables used to get together on Saturday
> afternoons to create the first LUG meeeting in the UK."
>
> ISTR that you had a manchester.ac.uk email address before you used your
> own domain. So I assume said notable is you.
>
> Care to tell us about it?
>
> Best
> Mick
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Mick Morgan
>  gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B  72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312
>  http://baldric.net
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Mick,
Good memory! Happy to tell about it, though the story could get long!

My personal pathway is interesting. While working in the Statistical
Laboratory (sub-Dept of the Pure Maths Dept) at Cambridge, prior to
moving to Manchester in 1989-1990, I had taken on the admin of a UNIX
system which the Dept wanted to install, following the lead of the
Applied Maths Dept who already had one -- and in particular especially
used it to prepare lecture notes, etc., which Pure Maths were envious
of (all done using troff). This was installed in Pure Maths in 1984,
and I initially learned how to administer it from the Applied Maths
Computer Officer who (Robert Harding) was coincidentally my namesake.

The version of troff was an enhancement of AT&T's Documenter's Workbench
by the firm SoftQuad, which they called sqtroff (and which our irreverent
secretaries rapidly christened "squitroff").

Tha machine it was installed on had 1MB RAM and a 20MB hard drive, with
a serial board on the back which had 24 ports on it, from which cables
ran to people's offices around the Dept. Each office had a CRT teletype
to communicate with the nachine.

With up to 6 or 7 logged on simultaneously, you would hardly notice that
anyone else was there. With 8 or 9 logged on, you noticed it starting to
limp; and above 10 or so it pretty well ground to a halt. But not bad for
1 MB RAM plus 20MB hard drive!

Getting to grips with looking after it taught me a lot about UNIX as
a multi-user muilti-tasking system, and to appreciate its clean overall
design (pipes and stuff ... ). Also, the printer was an Apple laser
printer which worked with PostScript, which was also valuable education.

In the late 1980s, as well as the central UNIX system, we were also
supplied with DOS desktop machines in our offices. Such a machine
also had 1MB RAM and a 20MB hard drive -- and you can imagine the
comparison between the performance of that compared with our UNIX
machine!

I moved to Manchester University (UMIST) in 1989-1990 and stayed
there till 2001. Being much involved with statistical consultancy
there, as well as other academic work, I needed to produce many
technical documents so needed my beloved troff. At about 1990,
GNU troff was developed (by James Clark) and was available for
DOS as well as UNIX. So that kept me going. By that time I had
a DOS desktop with 4MB RAM and a 40MB hard drive, so was well
aware that I should be able to comfortably run a UNIX system on it!
(Compare the specs of that Cambridge UNIX machine).

But commercially available UNIX systems were very expensive: over
£1,000 (in 1990 money) just for the basic OS, plus extra for any
applications. So I gritted my teeth and plodded along with DOS.

Then -- Miracle! The Manchester Computing Centre issued a regular
newsletter, and Issue 35, April 1992 (which I have preserved)
carried an announcement by Owen Leblanc (UNIX admin at MCC, and
file-system developer):

  Free PC Unixes available
  There are now two free Unix operating systems available for PCs:
  Linux and 386BSD.

The description of Linux led me to see it as preferable to 386BSD
(in particular being able to co-exist with DOS via dual-boot),
so next day I was round there with a couple of boxes of floppies,
onto which Owen helped me to copy Linux (kernel version 0.96)
in a local version called MCC Linux, and gave me complete and
detailed instructions about installing it alongside DOS.

So I took these back home, partitioned my 40MB hard drive to
allow 20MB for Linux, and installed it. Then I booted up and,
Lo and Behold, the magic "# " root prompt in the command line!
I then installed myself as a user, and never looked back!

At that time there were few people (outside MCC) interested in
UNIX/Linux, though some Depts were major UNIX users. The main
interest in Linux was a small core of people: Owen Leblanc,
David (Nobby) Clark, Ian Pallfreeman, John Heaton, and a few
others (to whom I quickly made myself known).

After some months, Ian Pallfreeman contacted me about setting up
a mailing list for people using Linux. After discussion with
Ian and Owen, I urged that the purpose of this list should be
to help people to get things done using Linux (because most who
had their interest tickled by Linux would want to be able to
transfer their work to Linux -- which would be a must if we were
going to persuade people to switch from DOS etc.), and the list
was duly established as "Linux-Users@mcc.ac.uk"; it was much less
oriented towards matters to do with the operating system itself.

But then, shortly afterwards, as local interest in Linux grew, Nobby
Clarke (bringing in Owen Leblanc, John Heaton and Ian Pallfreeman)
took the initiative of setting up a "Linux Club" where people could
get together and share all things Linux, chat and natter, and help
each other.

This duly emerged as the Manchester Linux Users Group (ManLUG),
and is reputedly the oldest LUG in the UK; so we've been going
since 1993. Owen, John and Ian, being entirley within the University
(which Nobby was not quite) organised the availability of a
University meeting-room where we would get together on Saturday
afternoons.

We also set up a mailing-list: man-lug@mcc.ac.uk; and I have been
the list-owner for linux-users and man-lug ever since (so just over
20 years, now).

While the linux-users list was about getting things done using Linux,
the prime purpose of man-lug was to do with the LUG itself; though
it wasn't long before "using Linux" also became a major theme on
the man-lug list!

There was much activity, and many pioneering discussions, on
both lists; and this has continued over the years.

I don't recall that Richard Ibbotson (despite what he says)
had much, if anything, to do with the setting up of ManLUG
or Linux-Users; he did later set up the Sheffield LUG (sheflug),
and was at some later ManLUG meetings; but I don't recall him
being around at the time (1992-93) when we were starting it all up.

As a closing whimsy: Richard wisely called the Sheffield tgroup
ShefLUG -- and not SLUG! However, the Glasgow Linuc Users Group
have no qualms about being GLUG! (As one might expect ... ).

Best wishes to all (or sláinte, as they might say in Glasgow),
Ted.

-------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@wlandres.net>
Date: 22-Feb-2014  Time: 21:23:49
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