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Aaron Trevena wrote: > On 13/06/06, John Horne <john.horne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> So not really anything particular to OSS then? I'm not convinced good quality code, or documentation, or whatever is a specific characterisation of OSS (or even Free Software) people. The better people in such a movement yes, but I don't think I qualify on that score, and plenty of the software is pretty poor, just people don't use the poor software much unless it is absolutely the only software for the job. > Actually I'd guess that "the right attitude towards OSS" would be > enthusiastic but pragmatic, enthusiasm means reading up on things on > your own time, and pragmatic means sticking purely to doing the > minimum work with OSS and using any proprietary resources that the > university has already invested in whereever possible. Some of the best free software advocates don't touch any proprietary resources, so it isn't pragmatism. Indeed often the criticism is that the free software world will choose to do something right, rather than do it the quick/easy/cheap way. ..SNIP EVIL EMPIRE/EVIL UNIVERSITY RANT... (I hope the right attitude includes a sense of humour). I think there are people who are enthusiastic about IT, and most of them enjoy understanding a little about how it works, is a determining characteristic. I'm not sure there is a distinguishing attitude, although of all the groups I belong to, the DCGLUG is one of the easiest to get organised to do something (even if people don't try often enough). So I'd hazard "enthusiastic about IT and self motivated" if pushed. I don't think these are in any way unique to free software advocates or workers, I suspect a lot of people in IT and engineering have similar attitudes. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html