Re: [MLUG] mlug?

[Adam Procter <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Sun, 8 Dec 2002, John Borchardt wrote:

> hey, what the heck is going on with mlug?  the website hasn't been
> updated for like a year, and there isn't even any
> freesoftware.missouri.edu anymore.  does mlug even have a president?
> does he or she do anything?  when was the last
> meeting/presenation/expo/installfest?

I'm the sorta-president.  About a year and a half ago we voted at a
meeting to abolish what semblance of a constitution we had and just
appoint someone dictator to handle everything.  So a better term than
president would be "guy who happens to have root on mlug."  I guess it
turned out to be a so-so idea.  :-)

I'm responsible for scheduling presentations, meetings, and other sorts of
events, as well as maintaining mlug.missouri.edu.  (And maintenance of the
server is something that actually *is* getting done, for the most part.)

It's been about a year since the last presentation, and I'll take the
blame for that.  It seems that every so often an offer to do a
presentation or this, that, or the other thing comes up, and then there's
never really much followup.

I would point out, though, that MLUG is still very useful as an online
entity; the mailing list continues to be very active, and that was MLUG's
most popular service even when we still were meeting on occasion, so I
haven't really been as concerned about RL meetings as I would have been
otherwise.

(To give you an idea of what I mean here, this is really the first
out-and-out *complaint* I've heard about the lack of meetings for a while.
This is not to say that complaining is unreasonable here -- I also miss
the RL meetings -- but merely that most people don't seem to mind the
lack of them *that* much.)

freesoftware isn't MLUG's thing; Ryan Dooley may have something to say
about that, I dunno.

> all this is kinda discouraging, considering the crap acm/msug/msdnaa is
> pushing for free (as in beer) software.  seems like unix is pretty much
> dying around here (e.g., delphi) and it really pains me to see freshman
> sucking up the free copies of winxp and visual studio.  (yeah, the first
> one is always free...)  and it really sucks to see microsoft "buying
> out" the ignorant youth when at the same time linux is really making
> progress in terms of things like desktop usability and enterprise
> scalability.
>
> so what?  is it okay for mlug to ostensibly do nothing while the rest
> of the campus migrates to exchange server, outlook webmail, and winxp?

I never really felt like MLUG was a heavily activist organization when it
came to "Microsoft proliferation".  While it's true that many Linux users
choose Linux out of a certain distaste for Microsoft as a company, I've
always thought it was better to sell it (for lack of a better word) on
its own merits.  The attitude of most MLUG users seems to reflect this;
say something nasty about Microsoft software, and the response you get is
by and large somewhat lukewarm.  "Yeah, it kinda sucks that they
drove Bubbatech out of business, but I hate to admit that MS Frubble 4.1
is really nice!"

The migration to Exchange took place about five years ago, so I'm not sure
what MLUG is supposed to be doing about it now.

I would agree, though, that it's depressing to hear people who probably
don't know any better complain that CECS 203 ought to be taught in VC++,
as I overheard the other day in Japanese class.  :-)  But I think the best
defense against this is simply to *exist* as an alternative.  And as I
said, for those who stumble through the website and manage to figure out
that, despite appearances, the MLUG mailing lists are still active, MLUG
is as useful as it ever was.  (Darrel Sharpe mentioned to me the other
day that over the years he's gotten about 500 emails from people who've
stumbled onto an ancient post he made in the list archives -- and that he
still gets them today.  :-))

> was jay the only president who could call a meeting?

Certainly Jay was a lot better about scheduling meetings than I've been.
I think the reason he quit is because he discovered that it's something of
a thankless job and also a royal pain in the ass when one has a lot of
homework.  :-)

Having said all of that, if anyone wants to volunteer for some
administrative tasks (event coordination, website maintenance, whatever),
I'd be open to that idea.  I don't know of any reason why it can't be a
cooperative effort.  It's just that it feels like it's been a while since
anyone's had the desire to put forth that effort.  :-)

-- 
Adam Procter
EMAIL:PROTECTED
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