Is the LUG a thing of the past? 162
tinahdee writes "Linux User Groups dying out? LUG leaders report that attendance is down — but mailing list traffic is still good. Do we still need LUGs, given the ease of installation and ubiquitousness of online information about Linux? Lots of people say, yes, we still need LUGs (and some disagree)."
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. (Score:2, Funny)
Leaders and topics (Score:1, Insightful)
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There still is a place for a LUG to do things like Install Fests, and other advocacy oriented jobs.
ttyl
Farrell
local forms yes, (Score:5, Interesting)
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You don't get out much, do you? Now, I've never been part of a LUG, but I can tell you that meeting people face-to-face is oftentimes a lot more productive than exchanging e-mails or even in IRC or IM. Plus, it's about the networking. I've met many people in my life who have became good friends, and some have given me excellent job leads, through other groups I've been involved with (other t
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Re:local forms yes, (Score:4, Insightful)
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We don't need to meet up in shopping malls to trade 1.44M discs.
That may be true, but the advantage of a LUG is that your attention is focussed on that one topic - Linux, Open Source, Freedom to Tinker, News things happening, Meeting Real people... the last point being a very important factor.
People make presentations about their offerings, and offer Services for a fee; we get to talk about local and topical issues.. like the impact of Vista on the local IT and user companies; tips and tricks used by Sysadmins etc. etc. Emails, mailing lists etc. are a very poor substi
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That may be true, but the advantage of a LUG is that your attention is focussed on that one topic - Linux, Open Source, Freedom to Tinker, News things happening, Meeting Real people... the last point being a very important factor.
Real people? Do you mean that people I talk with on the Net are all.. Bots? Droids?
Seriously, stop the "real people vs Teh Internet" FUD. The internet is made of the very real people talking on it. What we communicate doesn't change a lot if we communicate it using voice or us
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I'm sure they'd still attract plenty of lonely geeks from Mom's Basement at an open meeting though...
Enterprise Linux Users Groups expanding... (Score:2)
There's been a movement lately to create ELUGs - Enterprise Linux User Groups. I know the one I'm involved with in my city just had a long discussion about creating an enterprise group. The problem is one of need. Users need very different things then those of us involved in day-to-day management of an enterprise Linux base.
I know I for one enjoyed being in the different LUGs I was in, but I gave more then I got for
LUG Catch-22? (Score:2)
Second life for LUGs? (Score:2)
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If all you want to do is meet new peeps and hang out, hit the pub, sports club, etc, e.g. places people go to to relax, and just strike up a conversation. Either the guy, gal, thing, will blow you off, or chat ya up.
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LUG's are needed for the noobies you HAVE to hold their hands and you have to eject the guys from the group that say "OMG!! you want ot use Debian?? are you stupid RTFM!!!" Those members have zero use in a LUG. a LUG needs the linux experts that are happy to explain for the 68th time how to find your photos or music files.
Installfests where you can let a newbie leave with a fully ready
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Exactly.
LUGs don't fill the same role they used to. I remember, back in the day, the only way I could get my hands on install disks was from the local LUG. Someone there worked someplace with a fat (for the time) pipe and was able to download the software off the 'net. I'd give him a box of blank disks, a
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No (Score:5, Funny)
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LUGs not just for information (Score:5, Insightful)
It also never hurts to brush up on inter-personal skills at the same time.
Re:LUGs not just for information (Score:4, Funny)
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Only on
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LUGs are useful still (Score:2)
What a horrible mess. I was on #linuxhelp on freenode.net and those guys just ignored this noob who waited and asked twice about this in several minutes, he had all kinds of details on what was going wrong. I told him to use the "system-config-display" command and voila, problem solved. Everyone else sent him on a wild goose chase.
I've not seen that kind of incompetence or snobbery in a local LUG.
Instead of LUGS we need... (Score:5, Funny)
...consultants. Time for Ubuntu to move into the enterprise.
Yes, indeed! (Score:3, Insightful)
And people still need to meet each other for brinstorming, experience exchanges and, of course, a good cup of your favourite beverage!
Try doing this on a mailing list!
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Brainstorming: Pose a problem and everyone can (after thinking a bit) post a possible attack on the problem. Unlike in-person brainstorming sessions, not everyone has to be there at the same time and everyone can have time to think a bit before screaming answers.
Experience exchanges: As with brainstorming, there's time to think and answer, and no req
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Try to find instantaneously what someone said last Wednesday at the LUG while chewing that pizza, instead.
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Just unleash your imagination!
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The user group as a community service organization (Score:3, Informative)
Meeting face-to-face is also how conduct our even
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I left when I got married. (Score:4, Funny)
College Intern (Score:3, Insightful)
Once you get a gf, your tech progress stops, and you will be at that level for the rest of your life. Just make sure it is high enough to earn a living. Yeah, I could have been an uber-geek, but I traded it all away for some sex. *wink*
Life kills geekness. (Score:2)
The gf/wife/family makes you less likely to work on your own projects but doesn't really impact your learning. You just no longer have any spare time or money to work on your own stuff with. Be
Yes. (Score:5, Interesting)
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I live in a small town (10,000) with very rural surroundings, the group I go to consists of about 10 people that show up at any given meeting. It's a small group, but of a high quality, we usually pass around ideas for projects, things we're doing at work etc. For me, it's kinda like having a computer club after getting out of school, I think windows users are missing out.
LUG is a bit of a misnomer (Score:2)
Ah, gee whiz, it figures I'd go start a LUG [dlslug.org] just as they're going out of style.
The quality on the remaining LUGs are top notch, so I guess this is a natural phenomenon that occurs after every hype.
Seriously though, what we have is called a LUG but it's a group of computing enthusiasts and professionals who happen to use open source technologies. Every once in a while we have a linux-specific presentation, but we also
We need LUGs (Score:3, Insightful)
LUG is not only about solving or troubleshooting other user's Linux problems, but also about knowing and meeting with people who share the same mindset(mostly). Email is good but effectively in person conversation prevails over emails.
Definitely its not the end of LUGs, but we need more awareness among people and students alike about LUGs. The FOSS
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Now though, I can afford to buy normal hardware, and the stuff I have is all standardized enough that I'm not looking for help guessing the right X config settings for my particular vid card.
Attendance at LUGs being down may actually be indicative of less hand-holding being needed for
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First it was no AIM, then no SSH, then no FTP, then no POP3, then lots of websites blocked including blogs, Linux helpsites, etc. The only thing that prevents them from mandating that everyone has to run Windows is our LUG. They have enough people who go out of their way to work with their managers to make sure
The Linux kernel isn't everything (Score:1, Offtopic)
It's now "foss.in" in India, and numerous JUGs (JBoss User Groups), PHP Programmers Group and even Ruby on Rails Groups have sprung up recently in cities like Pune.
Besides, it is questionable whether even Linus is interested in the ideals which made the Linux kernel successful - and I for one, welcome the declining use of this trademarked name in Free Softwa
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Just yesterday I formed Manchester Free Software [fsuk.org] for the people of Manchester, UK.
Linux kernel really isn't it all, but sadly, certainly individuals in the local 'LUG', are unwilling to discuss issues of software freedom, so a new group seemed useful.
It depends on what you get from LUG meetings (Score:5, Interesting)
If you go there to pick up chicks... uh no.
Some people, I have seen, take their LUGs very seriously... they attend them as if they were attending church! For those people, it's a traditionally religious experience... in the most literal sense possible. (inside joke)
I find most of these LUGs to be rather annoying. The ones that are little more than an excuse to get out of the house on a Saturday are pretty good though... burgers 'n beer are always good and a LUG is as good a reason as any.
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Which is, most of the time, pathetic. Seriously, this is not flamebait, but most (not all) people who need a LUG to attend to parties and interact with real people are the kind of people I really want to avoid. They're mostly egocentric and cocky, and most think they're uncomprehended geniuses, while they're just dumb people with a technical / scientific set of interests.
So it's not a good place even for technical conversations. Sometimes taking th
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Do we still need automobile associations? (Score:1)
"Are automobile associations dying out? Leaders report that attendance is down but mailing list and show traffic is still good. Do we still need automobile associations, given the ease of driving and ubiquitousness of online information about automobiles? Lots of people say, yes, we still need automobile associations (and some disagree)."
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That sounds like a joke, but it's not really. At first I thought you meant insurance or something, but now I realize that's not the case. I can only assume you mean it's like a fanclub for... automobiles.
I've driven a car for half my life and never heard of such a thing. I mean, there's the people that have classic cars and travel to different 'shows' to show them off, but I've always heard them called clubs, not associations, and I've
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At first I thought you meant insurance or something, but now I realize that's not the case. I can only assume you mean it's like a fanclub for... automobiles.
They probably started out that way (when driving was still more a hobby than anything else). But nowadays they are indeed more like an insurance (free tow service in case your car breaks down, free trip back to your home-country if your car breaks down while abroad). They also offer lots of non-insurance services to their members, such as:
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Everyone I know basically considers the AAA as cheap road insurance. (Flat tire, out of gas, etc.) They don't give 2 flips about all the rest of that stuff.
Well, that's pretty much how the British associations (the AA- no, not *that* AA- and the RAC) are viewed as well. And to be fair, the GP had already conceded that they were really just glorified insurance/breakdown-services these days as well.
The AA and RAC *do* still run their own breakdown services for the most part though- it's more than just "insurance" in that sense. Not sure about their other rivals in the UK.
This is the year of Desktop Linux right? (Score:2, Funny)
LUG... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:LUG... (Score:4, Funny)
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LUGs, Before the Advent of Wiki and Cheap Server (Score:4, Informative)
Hell no, but needs broader focus (Score:2)
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You're not fooling anyone, you weeny nerd pir8.
How about UG's in general? (Score:1)
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As there is so much information on the net about desktops, the UG has sort of faded. However, for large scale systems, the details are not so common, and you really have to meet up with the people who know to get the answers you need.
LUG's are definitely still important! (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the things that our LUG has been doing forever is inviting our members to do presentations on things their working on or give talks in areas of their interest/expertise. These presentations have run the gambit from WiFi Security to modeling objects with PovRay to FUSE. We've have distribution comparisions (with proponents for each distribution explaining the pros/cons).
What's cool about a LUG is that your likely to have people who are experts in extremely diverse areas who are all Linux nerds getting together and hanging out.
It's not everyday you get to see a hardware engineer, an English teacher, a chiropractor and a pharamcologist comparing notes on what's the best window manager!
Lugs are good (Score:5, Informative)
LUG as social group (Score:2)
The real question is are UGs a thing of the past? (Score:1)
Being a Mac kind of a guy, I was very active in the local Mac UG here in East Texas TAMU. The death of UGs can be directly traced to the advent of the internet, especially broadband. Two of the main attractions of UGs were BBS, which the internet just flat out killed, and file swapping, which the internet also killed, especially broadband.
PS
They can be helpful, but... (Score:2)
I speak from bitter experience. When I first encountered our local LUG, they were willing and able to help me get Mandrake loaded on an old laptop machine... and one of them was willing to let me -- some nobody that they'd just met that night -- take home a PCMCIA-connected portable CD-ROM drive, because once things were finally set up, it was closing time at the library.
Unfortunately, my schedule was such that I
BaltoLUG vs BaltoMSDN my observations (Score:2)
The BaltoLUG community has been great for helping me figure out newbie questions regarding Linux, but more often than not the topics were not applicable to my job or even hobby interest. It almost seemed as if there was too much diversity in interests; and overall very little emphasi
No, they aren't... (Score:1)
The history of our local linux user group (Score:1)
Beers! (Score:1)
Ubiquitousness? (Score:2)
Link doesn't work! (Score:2)
Apparently that didn't stop all the above people
from posting...
LUGs (Score:3, Interesting)
The interesting thing is that I see a lot more Linux usage in corporate environments than ever before. There are lots of requests for administration and setup from SMBs, and in my 9-to-5 corporate IT employer, there are Linux servers running production loads.
Running Linux is no big deal anymore, so has lost some of its attraction. But I noticed the Mac groups have had a resurgence.. Maybe it's in cycles.. I was in a Mac user group a long time ago (about the time of the Centris and Quadra machines), and they faded for a while, but came back. With the Dell offerings, more corporate deployments, "good enough" improvements of Linux in corporate loads, etc.., I think the groups will grow again. The demographics will be different, but people will come.
Plus the Internet has made the community a lot larger. Before it was hard to find like-minded folks.
i think they should (Score:1)
LUGs in Ohio (Score:1)
huh? (Score:1)
The reasons to keep it around are gone. (Score:2, Insightful)
The internet came along, and for a brief time, the MUGs represented themselves online. It
Starting a LUG (Score:1)
As always, just my $0.02 worth.
We need more types of LUG's (Score:1)
UCLALUG alive and well (Score:2)
We hold talks about topics such as writing Firefox extensions and building simple web applications. We also get plenty of people stopping by with Linux questions, from hardware issues to ``what
Less Advertising, More Helping (Score:2)
My Favorite Lug (Score:2)
My favorite lug is the KWLug at kwlug.org
This lug was created several years ago, and has a large number of very bright people in it. The topics are always well researched, and members are encouraged to do presentations themselves. Some people never present, others present often, but it's always interesting. We've even had some minor celebrities giving talks there.
In addition we've started a fund where people can (voluntarily) contribute to free software, as
LUGs: as Bad as Mensa (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean this was at a world class research university (caltech) and when I had trouble getting X to compile I would ask the guy down the hall who would then execute some totally crazy command line using four pipes awk and sed which magically fixed the problem. But instead of being the experts the people at the LUG where the linux equivalents of old school Mac users, trading little tips without any real knowledge. I liked the idea of a LUG but only if it has presentations of the sort of shit on kerneltrap and it's the best users not the worst who attend.
Basically I got the sense that LUGs ware a lot like groups like MENSA (supposedly for smart people). Namely that the best people (most knowledgeable, most savy, smartest) weren't going to come because they were all in universities, or working at tech corporations that provided them with more than enough technological/intellectual stimulation. In the beginning it might have been different but once linux adoption was wide enough in academia and the business world it seems inevitable that LUGs would sink to the lowest common denominator.
Maybe the proximity of caltech really biased my experience and LUGs in other areas are different but somehow I think the internet has worked as a great leveler giving the experts even in the most rural places better options and leaving for LUGs people who can't decipher the man pages
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I too never really saw the whole purpose of either group... I mean, we have this whole "Internet" thing for a reason, right?
Shameless LUG Plug... (Score:2)
I've found that one of the best LUGs I've ever participated in is not geographically isolated, but rather it's an online LUG called USALUG [usalug.org]. Despite its name, there are members from all over the globe but most notably the U.S. and the U.K.
The senior members are very knowledgeable, it has sections for all major Linux distributions, and the moderators and admins take great care in protecting newbies and offering help instead of harsh "RTFM" type "help". The community is quite closely woven with many member
New LUG for the old LUG (Score:2)
I just found out about a crazy LUG community that probably overlaps with the old LUG community: Lego User Groups-
http://www.lugnet.com/ [lugnet.com]
Or for the Lego train enthusiasts, they have separate Lego Train Club Organizations:
http://www.iltco.org/ [iltco.org]
LUGs still have plenty to offer (Score:2)
But there are other reasons for user groups:
- Learning. Different people learn in different ways. Some people learn well from watching and listening.
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What market are you talking about? Linux has significantly more than 10% in quite a few of them.
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