[GNUz] GNUz report, 10 February 2005 (file copy)

[Richard Tindall]

For the archive (from CLUG mail 16/02/05):

Hi all,

The first formal meeting of GNU/Linux Users (GLU) took place last 
Thursday evening, at the Sydenham Community Association Hall. A report 
was requested, and so follows:

There were six participants, two apologies, and one repeat phonecall 
that didn't get answered. We began with round-robin introductions, that 
continued as a full and one-off discussion of what people wanted from 
such a group. In the second half we had a look around Gnome running on 
Ubuntu, and at some web resources useful to our theme. Although small, 
the meeting was fully functional for narrowing down its goal to what is 
achieveable, and named itself accordingly; BSD is beyond our core remit.

The meeting series will follow a simple, common format, so far best 
summarised as "GNU/Linux support workshops", with the emphasis on 
practical use. So there'll be no organised talks - from speakers or as a 
group. Instead, we'll be better famliarising ourselves with inner 
GNU/Linux configuration, in an ongoing manner, by gathering around the 
monitor screen. More participants will mean an extra screen (or two..).

As far as is practical, we'll focus on the .deb packages and 
apt-get-based update systems, and Debian GNU/Linux itself. But we have 
no restrictions on what we will work on, being fully user-driven. 
Interest was expressed in a consistent approach to fighting software 
patents, understanding them viz copyright issues, and promoting social 
responsibility in computing choice. There endeth the 'political' content.

Organisation and Q&A will be conducted via the GNUz mailing list: 
http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/gnuz , and intended 
participants are requested to subscribe there for further information. 
Thanks are due to Jim Cheetham for this facility, which keeps a minority 
interest from diverting the main CLUG list. Notice of forthcoming 
workshops will be posted to CLUG a week early, and again on the day.

The next workshop is Wednesday 02 March, and all workshops will be at 
7.30pm in the Sydenham Community Association Hall, 25 Hutcheson Street, 
Christchurch. The full schedule may be viewed here: 
http:/www.infohelp.co.nz/glu.html .

Feel free to join in, promoting GNU/Linux as a regular activity.

Thanks,
Rik

-- 
Richard Tindall
InfoHelp Services