[kwlug-disc] "What Linux Distro Should I Use?"

[Paul Nijjar]

On Tue, May 04, 2010 at 07:49:17AM -0400, Richard Weait wrote:

> > Recently I heard Richard give this talk in five minutes. It was pretty
> > excellent. That leads me to believe that this might be a good final
> > talk for the June meeting, if Richard or somebody was willing to risk
> > his or her life by giving it.
> 
> Er.  Thanks?  I wasn't too "ranty"?  I'll reprise this talk for June
> if nobody objects.  I'll add some slides for visual interest and keep
> it to five minutes.  The regulars can use that time for a bio-break.

Nobody objects. I will add this to the June agenda. It will be
awesome. 

The talk as given would be fine. If you want a bit more context you
could give a 10 000km overview as to what makes distros different (not
so much "CentOS uses rpm and Debian uses apt" as "different distros
package software differently". There are a number of other ways
distros differentiate themselves either. 

The other thing that I have come out of this long thread is that we
can be better about being inviting. There is space at SJK that could
be used for breakout groups. But I think Richard's idea is better: the
MC could ask two questions: 

0. Who here is new to Linux? Hands up!
1. Who here has been using linux for at least a year? Hands up!
2. People in group 0: identify somebody in group 1 and be their
friend. Trade e-mails or Twitter handles or something. 

(And before you say "I've been using Linux for a year, but I'm no
expert!": join the club. What? Did you think Linux was free? There's
always a catch, and for us the catch is mentoring others the way we
were -- or would have liked to be -- mentored.)

Richard has been good at identifying the newbies and making them feel
welcome when he MCs meetings. The rest of us need to be better at
this, or alternatively we should make Richard MC for life. 

The suggestions that Raul, unsolicited and others make have come up
several times. If there is interest in doing pre-meeting stuff again I
can arrange to open the space earlier than 6:30pm. (We can also stay
later than 9pm as long as we are not ridiculous.) 

If there is interest in doing some out-of-meeting Linux trainings (at
The Working Centre or elsewhere) then contact me offlist. I will get
together interested parties and they can make magic happen. I get the
sense that there is quite a bit of interest in this, but I also get
the sense that there is not yet enough momentum to make it happen.

Finally: Does anybody have cute (clothed) baby pictures that could be
GIMPed for the cause of free software? Something where the baby is
looking wide-eyed at the camera like this:
http://www.qwantz.com/adventures/index.php?comic=9

- Paul

-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org