Do LUGs still matter? (NewsForge) [LWN.net]

I can't help but think

Posted Dec 26, 2005 17:09 UTC (Mon) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link]

even from the blurb, having not read the article, that this situation is almost identical to the death of BBS communities in the wake of the Internet: I used to go to a BBS breakfast damned near every weekend, back in the 90-93 heyday of the BBS.

Good luck finding one now.

The ease with which the Internet makes it possible to talk to everyone in the world means we forget to talk to the people we can easily meet IRL.

And the vast number of community sites I see don't seem to do much about that... except Frappr Local, which is slowly precessing in that direction.

Well, ok, MySpace has some geography stuff, but I don't hang out there much.

But there is *good* in minority-ness, which minorities often seem to forget. Affinity is a good thing.

Do LUGs still matter? (NewsForge)

Posted Dec 27, 2005 3:00 UTC (Tue) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link]

Yeah, remember when you could get information about Linux on a given piece of hardware by searching for "itemname linux"? Now, every tech web page out there mentions linux somewhere on the page (well, it seems like it!) making such searches impossible.

Do LUGs still matter? (NewsForge)

Posted Dec 27, 2005 9:08 UTC (Tue) by niner (subscriber, #26151) [Link]

I do normally search only "itemname", preferably exactly what lspci and the like tell me. Normally there's some Linux information within the first few results.

LUGs never mattered, as far as I am concerned

Posted Dec 27, 2005 14:34 UTC (Tue) by dh (subscriber, #153) [Link]

Hi,

back somewhen in 1994/1995 I visited the local LUG for some months. But
those guys were just too strange. I remember a dialog like this: Me:
"Linux is great, I hope everyone will use it somewhen in the future."
LUG-guy: "I do not want everybody to use Linux. People are just too stupid
for this and I don't want to care. Linux must not become simple enough for
the average computer user to use it."

This was the attitude of quite a number of those people there, and in my
opinion this is - beside all install parties etc. - not a good base for
spreading information about a technology.

Not long after this dispute I stopped visiting the meetings. I never felt
I missed anything...

Best regards,
Dirk

LUGs never mattered, as far as I am concerned

Posted Dec 27, 2005 16:43 UTC (Tue) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link]

LUGs are/were tame compared to AUGs, but I miss them both.

LUGs never mattered, as far as I am concerned

Posted Dec 27, 2005 18:10 UTC (Tue) by warthawg (guest, #3055) [Link]

Wow, I don't blame you. Luckily, that attitude never prevailed at our LUG. In the beginning, everyone was pretty much a newbie and helping other newbies was the purpose of the group.

Do LUGs still matter? (NewsForge)

Posted Dec 28, 2005 20:55 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (subscriber, #15263) [Link]

Too busy to update what seems like a completely abandoned homepage?

http://www.alslug.dk

Last news item: 25/11-2003
Postlister (news archives): dead
Last lecture: 22/12-2004

Sorry mate, it doesn't exactly restore faith in the survival of LUGs.

LUG member profile

Posted Jan 4, 2006 3:26 UTC (Wed) by roelofs (subscriber, #2599) [Link]

In the early years, a typical LUG brought together early adopters from every walk of life who had a missionary zeal for Linux. Today, most members are IT professionals.

I haven't seen an actual membership breakdown for my local LUG, but I have to say that this comment resonates strongly with me. At least for much of 2003 and 2004, it seemed like 90% of the monthly topics were sysadmin-related; I was bored to tears. Occasionally there was a desktop-related talk, but they were few and far between, and my suggestions along those lines got pooh-poohed.

This has changed a bit with the newer leadership, but I think the overall demographics are probably still slanted toward IT folks.

Greg

LUG member profile

Posted Jan 6, 2006 3:47 UTC (Fri) by N0NB (subscriber, #3407) [Link]

In a lot of ways Linux Journal has gone this way as well. If you're a sysadmin or web developer in a large organization, much of LJ's content the past few years has been invaluable. For the home hobbyist, there has almost been too little information to make continuing the subscription worthwhile. I was about to let my subscription slide when LJ announced that a change at the editor's desk was coming. Nick Petreley has assumed the editor's duties so I hope he is able to make LJ as appealing to me as it was from 1996 to 2000 or so.

I lived for a few years in a larger town that has a LUG. I attended one meeting held on a college campus which seemed risky as I expected a parking ticket with the campus cops on duty and watching everyone. The meeting was fairly well attended and the presentation was good. I never went back because I found the location inconvenient and I missed most of Monday Night Football. :-P

Today I live nowhere close to a LUG. Those nearest are based on colleges campuses and I would feel very out of place being a simple hobbyist/home Linux user. So, I participate on the 'Net with like minded people and the local hobbyists I know.

The LUG where I used to live used to have installfests which in the late nineties were a great way to get assistance with some pesky hardware. KNOPPIX has probably all but killed the installfest. With KNOPPIX I am able to demonstrate a Free Software system with little intrusion of the interested party's computer plus they don't have to bring it to a meeting with the hassle that entails. From that point the software sells itself and aside from some help when asked, most interested people can work a lot of things out on their own.

LUGs uquestionably played a critical role in the adoption of Linux in its early days. The capabilities of modern Linux systems have almost removed the primary role of the LUG--solving technical issues. People want answers now, so Google to the rescue rather than wait until next month's meeting. Perhaps Google can be blamed for the downturn of LUGs as much as the advancement of Free Software itself.

LUG member profile

Posted Jan 6, 2006 16:33 UTC (Fri) by roelofs (subscriber, #2599) [Link]

I noticed that too, but it's too late for me: I just received my last issue. My sense is that Linux Magazine has done somewhat better, but I never got around to subscribing to that, and now LWN does too good a job of keeping me up to date on all things Linux. (Besides, as I get older, I find I have much less free time available, and the combination of local newspaper, Science News, and Scientific American pretty much fills up my available "reading time"... ;-) )

Greg