[wellylug] Fwd: WellyLUG Future

Sat Apr 28 00:34:59 UTC 2018

I couldn'tve said it better myself, Jamie.

I'm a long time WellyLUG Lurker (originally from Auckland, though I am 
back in Wellington again as of a couple of years ago) and I also 
administer the NZLUG Group, and founded the Auckland LUG (still have 
admin there too).

I've been having similar philosophical thoughts about the future of 
NZLUG - as a New Zealand wide discussion group it has become very, very 
quiet of late - I think Linux has moved from the fringe, and much closer 
to the mainstream... online forums and more effective online search 
tools have made a lot of the 'technical support' aspects of Mailing 
lists onto other things, email falling out of favour in some respects...

It's hard work to be the 'core' of a group like this, organise events 
with speakers, venues, and generally be accountable for making sure it 
happens... these groups are only as successful as their volunteers make 
them and Hugh deserves a lot of kudos for his hard work over the last 
several years.

I too am glad to see the Wossat group taking up the mantle and would 
love to see the ongoing collaboration and interaction between related 
interest groups continue. In particular, though Linux is now far more 
mainstream than it used to be, we need to ensure that people remain 
aware of its capabilities, remain interested in its use... that Linux 
and Open Source remain in people's consciousness and continue to be 
considered as viable options, components of a larger world which needs 
to remember the need for open standards and universal interoperability. 
We still need people to be interested in, passionate about, Linux, in 
order to continue to develop professional skills in it!

Thanks again to all of those who've made WellyLUG what it has been over 
the years.

In a practical sense, will the mailing list remain?

Cheers all,
Mark.

On 27/04/18 23:52, Jamie Baddeley wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'd just like to say hello to Wellylug people at this juncture.
>
> I was involved in the Lug in the early mid/2000's. I think Jethro was 
> like 14 or 15 but he was doing website stuff and demonstrating early 
> young cleverness with Linux.
>
> I helped along Wellylug with Brent at NIWA (you still there Brent?) 
> and a few others at some Linux InstallFests (remember them?) at some 
> outfit in Lower Hutt I can't recall. We even had the Evening Post do a 
> story on this thing called Leenucks. Helped run some wellylug meetings 
> for a bit. Helped make the website and helped craft the Mailing AUP. 
> Keeping the lug humming etc. Buggered about with the Wellylug Logo 
> using Gimp (something version 0.1 or something) whilst living in Newtown.
>
> I think the philosophical characteristics of Linux and the Opensource 
> movements have won. I think the tech we backed and pimped has become 
> accepted and part of the industry and it's moved from small player 
> looking for recognition to one that is accepted. There's still a long 
> way to go but we are at the end of the beginning. I think the 
> principles of openness and sharing still need to be defended. There's 
> still heaps of work to do. Stallman is still mad, but Stallman still 
> has a point.
>
> I've learnt so much from all of the Linux/Opensource community over 
> the years and that support has helped me have confidence in my 
> perspectives over the years. Thank you all for that. I really 
> appreciate it.
>
> These days as Jethro says, I'm a little older, got some kids and have 
> some different priorities in life. Have a few other things on the go. 
> I'm still a Linux/Unix head.
>
> But I'll always remember the times at Wellylug where I felt like I was 
> with my own tribe and what I believed was right was no longer unusual. 
> That made me happy.
>
> Pleased to hear there's a next stage brewing at WOSSAT. Maybe I'll 
> bump into some old friends there and make some new ones.
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
> jamie
>
>
>
> On 27 April 2018 at 23:04, Bruce Hoult <bruce at hoult.org 
> <mailto:bruce at hoult.org>> wrote:
>
>     On Fri, Apr 27, 2018 at 4:26 PM, Michael Coleman
>     <michaelcoleman500 at gmail.com <mailto:michaelcoleman500 at gmail.com>>
>     wrote:
>
>         Hard to know why the enthusiasm isn't manifest like it used to
>         be, possibly?
>
>         * linux users are too much of a minority
>
>
>     That's certainly not true. According to Google, there are over 2
>     BILLION monthly active users carrying Linux-based devices in their
>     pockets.
>
>         * hard to get talks that aren't kind of "distro" specific.
>
>
>     Maybe.
>
>         * maybe linux has matured to the point that people no longer
>         need help with hardware and installing? :)
>
>
>     Definitely. Most people don't know or care that the device in
>     their pocket is running Linux -- and so are the vast majority of
>     the servers it talks to.
>
>
>     I came to wellylug meetings regularly thirteen years ago when I
>     had a gf who was super keen getting weird hardware (mostly
>     laptops) working with Linux, writing KDE documentation etc. WIFI,
>     audio, and ethernet were particular bugbears at the time. Audio
>     and ethernet seem to be solved problems now :-) :-)
>
>     Me, I just use Linux every day, on everything from ARM-based
>     watches and phones (Tizen is Linux too) and the Raspberry Pi range
>     and Odroids, to my quad core 1.5 GHz RISC-V "HiFive Unleashed"
>     board, to my i7 NUC or i9 tower at home, to servers at SiFive
>     (since last month .. previously at Samsung Research Institute
>     Moscow from April 2015 until last month), to a 24/7 t2.nano and
>     occasional m5.{12,24}xlarge or c5.{9,18}xlarge at AWS when I'm
>     building a lot of stuff.
>
>
>
>     -- 
>     Wellington Linux Users Group Mailing List:
>     wellylug at lists.wellylug.org.nz <mailto:wellylug at lists.wellylug.org.nz>
>     To Leave: http://lists.wellylug.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/wellylug
>     <http://lists.wellylug.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/wellylug>
>
>
>
>
>

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