Re: Moving forward

On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 20:22:33 -0800, barsalou <barjunk@attglobal.net> wrote:

>
> I'd like to suggest that we do two things:
>
> First, despite the fact that stereotypes may cause headaches, we need
> to have what seems to be three levels of "expertise".
>
> 1. User Level - This would include folks just coming to Open Source
> and Linux. Possibly folks interested in using OpenOffice, Gimp,
> Evolution, etc on Windows (and maybe the PC User group already does
> that?)
>
> 2. Intermediate Level - This probably includes a majority of the
> AKLUG force, sans some newer members. These folks may have in-depth
> knowledge of a particular package (Apache, Webmin, etc). Additionally,
> they would have specific knowledge of a particular distribution like
> Fedora, Ubuntu, etc.
>
> 3. Advanced Level - This would include those folks who know how to
> compile programs from source. Can reconfigure and rebuild a kernel and
> have coded some of their own software (not necessarily C code, could be
> Perl, Ruby, etc.)
>
>
> Second, it seems reasonable to chart a course for those that are new to
> our group. Growth is a motivator for some, although I suspect we will
> see folks who 'just want the answer'. We'll have to decide if AKLUG
> wants to be the sort of organization that just gives fish to people,
> instead of teaching them how to fish on their own. I lean towards the
> latter.
>
> Of course, all of this is up for discussion and I hope that anyone who
> is not in agreement with my ideas can provide an alternative that could
> be further discussed. Anything else is just noise.
>

Mike,

All of the above makes a lot of good sense to me. (semi-newbie user level)
Even though there are people out there interested in the intermediate and
advanced levels, I think there is much more potential in the user level
where building a solid AKLUG is concerned. I talk linux up every chance I
get and I find a lot of people that want to make the transition from MS to
somewhere else but don't know much about that somewhere else. Most of
these people are windows users and don't want to start a new chapter in
their life that includes learning command line computing. Most of the
millions of windows users would like to get out of that money trap and get
involved in something new that's just as easy to operate as windows, not
something that requires months and years of new training. If people only
knew how simple it is to run the GUI in linux, they would come running.
The majority of the public run a browser, email and word processor. Listen
to a little music and do a lot of photo editing. I can say without a
doubt, linux has more good free programming to offer in those areas than
any other operating system.

When I first started using Linux I hired a guy to teach me how to use the
gui and I didn't understand the signifigance of passwording user and root
levels. I made it very clear to this gentleman that I did not want to
learn command line at this time, I just wanted to get the system working
like windows so I could function without spending a lot of money on
software every time I turned around. Unfortunately, after several weeks of
trying to get him to show me how to operate the gui I had to stop the
classes because he was unable to show me anything about the gui. I wanted
to learn how to install programs via yast and he would show me how to do
it via the command line yast. It went on and on like this till we went our
separate ways. I finally taught myself how to use the linux gui by reading
books, magazines and joining mailing lists, etc. There is very little gui
support out there but it can be found.

I would really like to attend the AKLUG meetings and not be there just to
get something fixed and when it was done not know what in the world
happened to make it work. I remember one time when I screwed up one of my
systems, I brought it to the lug meeting and someone, I can't remember
who, went through this lengthy file system repair and got the system
running again. I remember a conversation afterwards when he said,"don't
worry about learning command line only as everything we did here tonight
can also be done in the gui. It's just a matter of learning what and where
it is." With that, I was able to concentrate on the gui and an now very
comfortable with linux and use it for everything I do. I mostly have used
Suse and most recently I'm testing Kubuntu on one of my machines.

Thanks for all you do,

-- 
Lee Ross
Anchorage, Alaska
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