Re: [LUG] today's meets and some observations etc.

[Matt Lee <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm not going to bother quoting here, as it would be hard to keep it in 
context.

Firstly, for what its worth, I enjoyed today - I felt we had a decent 
setup to begin with, and got a lot of things done.

I don't have a problem with swearing on list -- I personally feel 
people should be allowed to express themselves, providing they're not 
comments that are directly aimed at others.

My feelings of today were always that it would be people who were 
interested in, or using Debian, getting together and talking about and 
evangelising Debian. Let's just be clear about what Debian is.

	"Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An 
operating system 	is the set of basic programs and utilities that make 
your computer run. Debian 	uses the Linux kernel (the core of an 
operating system), but most of the basic 	OS tools come from the GNU 
project; hence the name GNU/Linux."

Debian makes it's intentions clear with that first paragraph from its 
website. It's not attempting to be "UserLinux" or "Linspire" or 
"Microsoft Windows Replacement" or "Mac OS X that's free" -- it's the 
GNU operating system, and the Linux kernel. Unlike most[1] other 
distros, it makes itself perfectly clear. It doesn't try and confuse 
the issue, by referring to "Linux" only, nor does it try to hide away 
from what GNU is, or where its philosophies lie. It's clearly, a free 
software operating system.

I like Debian. For me, Debian makes me feel warm and fuzzy, because I 
am someone who outside of computing, makes media stuff. My little 
would-be-dotcom-organisation, plods along happily doing what its always 
done, which is to make media for the web, TV and radio. However, at the 
moment, I work as a developer... for me, software freedom is important, 
and Debian offers me that in a way that nothing else does. It's far 
from perfect, and I find myself finding things wrong with it quite 
often, but it's the best we've got, I believe.

Today was about enlightenment for a lot of people, I believe. It wasn't 
about trying to convert people who use Windows or proprietary software 
to use Debian, it was more about showing what Debian is about, and what 
can be achieved with free software. GNU/Linux or GNU/Hurd, it doesn't 
matter, the goal is still the same.

I enjoyed Kai's talk on web applications, I just wish we could have 
convinced more people that free software is the way to go.

I think we should put materials on the site to help people understand 
why GNU/Linux is good for them. We need to preset freedom in a way 
that's clear, and we need to understand that what we need to succeed.

matt

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