[clug] Growing Pains

Robert Edwards bob at cs.anu.edu.au
Tue Sep 15 20:26:39 MDT 2009


My other thought for the day:

CLUG, like Linux, has been experiencing growing pains more-or-less
from the beginning. When I first started going to CLUG meetings, a
"Linux User" was someone with quite some technical skill (both in
hardware and in software). People there were only too keen to help
me with the myriad technical questions I had and sort out all the
little idiosyncracies my set up was experiencing. Most of the Linux
enquirers/newbies were quite used to proprietry Unices, such as Solaris
and Ultrix etc. so didn't need too much convincing as to the advantages
of the Unix/POSIX model that Linux was based on.

As Linux has become more mainstream and the proprietry Unices have
largely gone away (with the possible exception of MacOSX/BSD), we
often see people coming to CLUG who are expecting Linux to give them
a similar experience to the Windoze experience they are used to. And
they can tend to have much less technical ability or interest. These
sorts of new Linux users are, to some extent, "harder work" for the
sorts of people who helped me get going way back in the day. And so
we don't see so many of the "old school" at the "User Group" meetings
anymore. This is sad, for me, but not unexpected.

So we are left with this sort of "are we a technical group, or a group
for users" question. Do we aim to keep the interests of the technical
folk or to get new users involved? The patterns of who attends the
main meetings based on the topics to be discussed are very revealing
on this point. I hope we can satisfy both, although I "may be dreaming".

Notionally, I am keen to welcome anyone new to the CLUG main meetings,
but I find that often I get myself fixated on some particular project
that I am working on and may, at times, come across as somewhat too
pre-occupied to help out a person who has made the (significant)
cultural leap to come along to the meeting.

If you are a "newbie" thinking of coming to the next (or future)
CLUG main meeting and you are feeling a little "lost", please seek
me out and I'll undertake to try and help you settle in in the same
way that others helped me so many years ago.

Cheers,

Bob Edwards.




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