Linux World / Network World 2006

[Herb Richter]

On Wed, 19 Oct 2005, Lennart Sorensen wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 07:28:04PM -0400, Colin McGregor wrote:
> > Spoke to Herb Richter earlier today and he is game to
> > do the April NewTLUG meeting at the show (there are
> > some details that I need to check on but it looks like
> > that may well come together). The main GTALUG meeting
> > will likely be a different story...
> >
> > Any event, Herb Richter was noting that he has wanted
> > a "Which Linux Distribution Do You Choose When/Why?"
> > type meeting for some time, and he was suggesting that
> > might be a great topic for a meeting at the show. Here
> > we could have several people speaking about why they
> > like a particular distribution and why.
>
> To me that sounds like exactly the kind of topic you wouldn't want.  It
> always turns into a huge distribution war when that topic comes up,
> unless you don't allow any questions/opinions to be stated by the
> audience.

Yes we would have to ensure that the meeting doesn't get derailed - but we
have to do that anyway.

The fact that, in the past, the topic has become a distro war is exactly
why I'd like to see / hear a civilized constructive discussion.  I've been
setting up a new workstation for myself and *thought* I knew what distro
and flavour I wanted based on what I thought I knew of the choices.  Well
I'm still shopping...

I'm thinking that a rational unemotional check-your-egos-at-the-door
presentation would benefit *many* users, old and new.  To see the
strengths and new razzle-dazzle is fun.  To see someone point out the
weaknesses can save all of us a lot of time.

Annnd, this could be a good chance to put a positive spin on what may be a
big negative in the public's eye - the confusing number of Linux choices.
We could show choice, control, selection, specialization, customization
and flexibility to be what serious users want and what makes systems more
secure - what we have - along with, nowadays, simple and easy right out of
the box.

-- 

        Herb Richter  <hgr-FjoMob2a1F7QT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>
        Toronto, Ontario
        http://PartsAndService.com
        http://PartsAndService.ca


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