Re: linux user groups?
On Tue, Aug 26, 2025 at 06:24:56PM -0400, Karen Lewellen wrote:
Hi all,
Was going to mark this as off topic. then I realized it may be where
many of you engage with Debian.
Having a discussion on the board of the lug in my area.
someone feels lugs are largely failing.
Do you find this to be true?
If not, why not?
Thanks,
Karen
Twenty-five years ago, getting a copy of GNU/Linux and getting Linux
installed was not simple. The installation was via Compac Disc (CD).
In Houston, Texas, there was a L.U.G. at Rice University and a
L.U.G. at the University of Houston.
In those days, several Linux systems had been published. I remember
Debian, Red Hat, and SuSE. It was not immediately obvious which would
stand the test of time. After a bit of inspection, I chose Debian; I
have not had the slightest reason to regret my choice. I began with
the Potato release of Debian.
The Rice L.U.G. held an "installfest" at the beginning of each
semester, which lasted all day on a Saturday. On three or four
occasions, I hauled a desktop computer (tower, keyboard, CRT monitor)
out to Rice (and once to UofH) to an installfest. Wagons or carts
were provided to allow a system to be moved in one trip between
parking lot and classroom.
Aside from installation, the installfest provided the opportunity for
face-to-face encounter with experienced users of Linux, to discover
techniques. I remember my joy when a fellow Debian user demonstrated
how simple it is to (1) compose in Emacs, (2) compile with LaTeX, and
(3) display the typeset layout with xdvi -- all in a few seconds with
just a few keystrokes.
Nowadays, the combination of the Internet, the Debian mail list, and
Debian netinstall images have supplanted (and improved upon) the
L.U.G. and installfests.
RLH
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