Re: linux user groups?
On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 04:54:12AM -0500, Nate Bargmann wrote:
Over the years I've helped other radio amateurs make the switch as they
were so inclined. LUGs, are like local amateur radio clubs--on life
support. The Internet has allowed us to find others with a niche
interest that the local general interest club didn't have anyone else
with the interest. Then the niche people stop attending and soon no
one is showing up.
I'm one of the organizers for a surviving LUG for Palmerston North, New
Zealand, a provincial city of just under 100,000 people. We still meet
once a month and have two talks from members each time, with a casual
social event in December.
PLUG: <https://www.plug.org.nz/>
We have about 15 to 20 people attending each month. New people do turn
up pretty often, usually to see a particular topic in which they're
interested, but they don't often stick around, so keeping people coming
back as the die-hard old-timers get older has definitely become a bit of
an existential problem.
The way we've hung on over the years---aside from the sheer stubbornness
of the organizing committee---has been to broaden our scope. We do
still talk about operating systems a lot, but the scope of the group has
been explicitly broadened to discussions on any sort of free or
open-source software, despite our name. We always seem to be able to
rustle up enough people to speak, and as other posters have suggested,
people are really just happy to show up and speak with others of similar
interests.
We also aren't strict on talk formats. I still like doing the usual
LibreOffice Impress slide deck, but lately we've had another guy do live
installs of niche operating systems with the projector attached, while
the group heckles him and demands he click on things. He did a Haiku
install most recently.
There's a non-trivial overlap with the local amateur radio club, too,
which seems to be somewhat better organized.
Offering free biscuits and coffee helps, too.
So yes, some of us are still out there, and having too much fun with it
to give up just yet!
--
Tom Ryder <https://sanctum.geek.nz/>
Maybe we can bring back the light.
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