Re: [tlug] Trying to clarify the idea of a "Bye-bye Windows"

["Shannon Jacobs" <shannon.jacobs@example.com>]

From: Matt Gushee <matt@example.com>
> Shannon Jacobs wrote:
<snip about the virtues of kernel compilation>

I'm not saying that technical tasks are intrinsically evil or morally 
twisted. They are simply tasks--but people have finite resources to devote 
to tasks. The more 'overhead' tasks, the less real work I can get done.

> Traditionally, LUGs have not been about promoting Linux to the public:
> they're more about sharing technical knowledge among people who know
> they want to use Linux. As an irregular, online-only participant, I
> can't say what TLUG should do, but perhaps it is time for a shift in
> focus.

Hmm... That's an interesting point. It was noted at the meeting that there 
were an unusually large number of attendees, and in my own case it was my 
first TLUG meeting in some years.

> From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>
>    Shannon> Perhaps the meeting could have a segment for some mundane
>    Shannon> desktop task?
>
> No problem; just scare up a presenter.  Expect it to take a fair
> amount of time and arm-twisting, though, unless you want to do the
> first one yourself.

Well, I'm kind of uncomfortable about speaking in front of groups, and I 
don't really have anything to say... However, I wouldn't have minded if 
someone wanted to use the machine I brought along to demonstrate the 
solution to a problem or two. I think most of these things are basically 
trivial installation questions that could be addressed in a few minutes--but 
which are still daunting enough for newbies, even with some technical 
background. However, I was actually just hoping to bounce a few things off 
of someone after the meeting. I hate to put it in terms of disappointment, 
but I didn't feel like the meeting advanced my own goal of moving farther 
away from Windows.

At work I normally have two machines running, one on Linux, and one on 
Windows. My idea was to move various tasks over to the Linux machine, but so 
far I have not been able to do much beyond what was preconfigured on the 
machine... I haven't even been able to print a PDF document from the Linux 
side since the office uses a kind of network printer (5587?) with a driver 
that isn't available for Linux. Another example was that I made a number of 
attempts to access Java from Firefox, and eventually concluded it was more 
trouble that it was worth.