[svlug] Ubuntu 10.04 Installfest at Noisebridge (San Francisco), Sunday May 30th, 11-5

[Jeff]

I wouldn't be sorry. No offense, but Rick is very good at wording  
things that would get a WTF response from most readers. I've gathered  
that he gets a kick out of it, or is not capable of seeing this.  He  
usually has a good point, but comes across as if he thinks he's  
perfect and correct, when there is no wrong way to eat a Recies.

I personally do not know anything about the lesson to learn withthe  
red hat deal, but I would personally encourage any volunteer PROMOTION  
of OSS, as every little bit helps.  Also, often "Less is More".  I see  
it like an in n out menu... For many new users, a Linux disto alone is  
a big enough menu to read. Id bet that promoting one distro helps to  
avoid a lot of questions and overwhelming of a potential new user. In  
the end, once they know they have Linux they can learn about other  
Linux alternatives. It takes baby steps in all directions for Linux to  
be a success.  We need multi-distro installfests just as much as  
distro-specific installfests.

And yes, the install process is identicle for many distros, but the  
GUI can significantly vari. I'm sure you know this. So if I put myself  
in their shoes, I would want to do more than dump an OS on their hard  
drive, I would also want to answer basic questions and make the new  
Linux user a more confident one, this would require that I am familiar  
with the GUI.  I bring this up because Ive come across Xubuntu a  
little, which is nice, but has a little steeper learning curve,  
compared to KDE and Gnome.  It is probably not going to get out of  
control in this regard, however, again the choices are a bit  
overwhelming at first.

Jeff
-----

On May 27, 2010, at 7:38 PM, Robert Hajime Lanning  
<lanning at lanning.cc> wrote:
> Rick Moen wrote:
>> I think there's nothing preventing volunteers from the Linux  
>> community
>> from properly reflecting the diversity, range, and choice that is our
>> inheritance.
>
> But it is their choice.  They are volunteers. They are not being  
> paid by
> any lobbyist or corp. They are putting it on because of their
> loyalty/fandom/what have you.  It is celebrating a specific event  
> for a
> specific distro.
>
>> Can we be realistic for a moment?  I've seen what Canonical Ltd.
>> provides in the way of infrastructure to its 'teams'.  It's really
>> for all intents and purposes a zero-money deal for everyone but the  
>> very
>> few on the corporate payroll, and that's certainly not Grant, etc.,  
>> who
>> to the contrary are generous and (necessarily) self-reliant  
>> volunteers.
>
> Of course we can be realistic.  I have always been. I never said they
> were getting paid for their loyalties.  We have always been talking
> about the volunteers, right?  It's an organized fan base. Granted,
> Cononical gets a free ride.
>
>> And, y'know, Robert, I don't mind at all that both you and Bill  
>> Ward are
>> among those who will, almost without fail, instinctively and  
>> immediately
>> post the opposite viewpoint to pretty much anything I write here.   
>> It's
>> just one of those droll Internet things.  As I like to say, I have  
>> only
>> to say 'I like herring' on the Internet, and can instantly summon  
>> every
>> herring-hater for a thousand miles by merely doing that.  It's like
>> magic.
>
> I actually don't really know why that is.  Maybe it just seem like  
> some
> of what you put out here, comes off like an attack.  I seem to have an
> automatic response to that tone.  (Yes, sometimes to my detriment.)
>
> Maybe instead of "You are volunteers, you should know better." type of
> post, it should have been "Will there be other distros available?"
>
> If the response is "no," then you could ask, "would you like some  
> other
> selections to be available? I can help..."
>
> I would have had no reaction to that.
>
>> What I actually find annoying is rhetorical cheap tricks like:
>>
>> Robert Hajime Lanning>  You didn't read _who_ was putting on the
>>                        installfest.
>>
>>  (Ah, thank you for the solution.  Solely a vision problem,
>>  then, and we can ignore everything else I said.)
>
> I am sorry.  I honestly thought you missed the point that one of the
> organizations putting on the installfest was specifically an Ubuntu  
> one.
>
> Since you were attacking the fact that they were promoting Ubuntu  
> only.
>
> I have a habit of pointing people back to source material when I  
> believe
> all pertinent information is contained there.
>
>> Bill Ward>  My guess is the people putting it on are enthusiastic  
>> about
>>            Ubuntu - what's wrong with that?
>>
>>  (Boy, he sure told _me_, right?  That'll teach me to post that it's
>>  Bad and Wrong to be enthusiastic about Ubuntu.)
>>
>> This business of ignoring what I said and attempting to sidetrack
>> onto something else is pretty tedious.  It'd be nice to get those
>> two minutes back, really.
>
> I am sorry about all the miss communication...  I read your original
> post as "Why are you promoting Ubuntu?  You should be promoting
> everything else."
>
> The event was thought out to be an Ubuntu Installfest.  Not a put an  
> OS
> on your computer installfest.  We have two of those a month, as you  
> have
> pointed out. (Thanks by the way. I do know a lot of work goes into
> supporting those events.)
>
> -- 
> END OF LINE
>       --MCP
>
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