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Re: [LUG] today's meets and some observations etc.



On Tuesday 28 September 2004 15:38, john wrote:
On Tuesday 28 September 2004 1:01, Jon Lawrence wrote:
I must say that I'm a bit confused on where you're going with this John.

just trying to draw attention to a few facts, all based on the assumption
that Linux users in general and DCLUG in particular hope to aspire to be
anything more than a niche player.

There are plenty linux groups that don't aspire to any more than this, and
that is fine, but I do, and I'm just trying to discover (based upon a
statistically insignificant sample of one meet) whether local linux mini
cons have moved on to aspire to this or not, because if they haven't then
I'm wasting my time and your here.


Would I like to see more linux systems as desktops - yes with out doubt.
Would I like to see more *users* using linux system  - yes
Do I have linux users ring through work - yes
How do those users compare to windows users (for example) - they tend to have 
at least a little 'clue'. It drives me made having to explain what ping, 
traceroute etc are to *users*, and how many are aware that there's such a 
thing as 'Email Headers'.

<rant>
One thing I aspire to isn't necessarily Linux related at all - just simply 
trying to generate somekind of 'clue' in any *user* I happen to come across. 
I don't go out looking for them, but lots of people 'ask what do you do 
then ?'. If that means that I bore the s*** out of people at parties by only 
talking about computers (at least while I'm sober enough to talk) then so be 
it. Eventually I hope to get slightly less idiots ringing me up during the 
day then I'll be a happy chappy - it'll let me concentrate on making more 
money which allows me to spend more time with the family which in turn means 
I can go to more parties and meet more people etc etc etc.

I run a car (well 2 but...) if it goes wrong I take it to the garage - I don't 
need to know how it works - I simply don't care. Some people are like that 
with computers and that's fine, the difference being if my car doesn't work I 
never ring the garage up and expect them to fix it for free over the phone.
Many of the problems I end up dealing with a idiots who ring me up and say 
they simply can't get their email and they can't do business without it - 
half the time it's because their interconnection has failed. Part of what I 
consider to be *clue* is simple business sense (obviously not applicable to 
home users) - if you rely on the internet (be it web or email or vpn or 
whatever) then use a dialup to access it then you've got no right being in 
business, you must use redundant connections - there's nothing wrong with 
dialup/isdn as a backup but as a primary it won't do.
The internet isn't a mature comms medium, and if you need a connection to it 
that works 99% of the time then you're going to have to pay for it.
</rant>

Jon

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