Re: Re: [tlug] TLUG Funding (was: Feisty stuff, etc.

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

> Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 11:14:04 +0900
> From: Brett Robson <b-robson@example.com>
>
> Josh Glover wrote:
> >
> > I think that charging a fee at meetings would keep some people away,
> > and the general idea is that we want more geeks, not less.
>
> Some bunny girls would be good too.

Actually, I would favor the bunny girls over the additional geeks, but
I think it would be even better to attract more regular people, and
especially regular Japanese people. Nor am I especially worried about
missing the company of the people who are that scared of a donation
can, even if they're free to ignore it.

There's a lot of confusion about "free" here. Free meetings and free
beer and free Linux installations and free love and free lunch and
free this and free that. My own interest is in free choice, the kind
of thing Microsoft hates. Microsoft's idea of freedom is we should be
free to do what Microsoft wants us to do, based on whatever little
bits of information Microsoft is freely willing to share with us, and
we should pay Microsoft lots of cash for the privilege. That's *NOT*
my idea of freedom. I think the important sense of "free" is about
making free choices based on complete information.

If TLUG is a trivial joke, then I regard that as a reason for me to
ignore it. I'm not saying Linux should try to become a business like
Microsoft. Becoming your enemy is not victory. However, I do think
there are some basic business principles that might be applicable
here, and I'm not fond of depending on charity.

It actually seems pretty pointless to argue about it. However, I
obviously think TLUG could be doing more to support the spread of
Linux in opposition to the cancer of Microsoft. Actual financial
planning might support options like quarterly installation festivals
with free beer and bunny girls. Maybe we could create some kind of
24-hour help service using Skype? Whatever. If it brings a lot of new
people into the Linux community, I might be willing to vote for it.