Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 23:43:42 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Erich Zigler" <erichz@superhero.org>, <freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: BSD User Group Tips Message-ID: <000901c0f566$845e0f40$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20010613120321.A92103@superhero.org>
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I'll throw out a few comments on this you may or may not agree with. For starters, you will get advice to use the tips that Linux User Groups have used to form a group. Maybe this will work for you but I'll reserve judgement untill I see it working. The nitty-gritty is that there's a significant paradigm difference between how the Linux community transfers knowledge and how the BSD community transfers knowledge. I say "transfers knowledge" because this really is the root reason why you form a user group to start with - so that newbies can get a helping hand. I'll illustrate the difference with these 180 degree opposite exaggerations: With the Linux OS, the entire point of the experience is dealing with Linux USERS. Linux is a sharing thing, it's not a solitary thing. Most Linux users view the Linux OS as a means to interconnect with other PEOPLE that share their views, the software itself is of secondary importance. With the BSD OS, the entire point of the experience is dealing with the BSD SOFTWARE. BSD is a solitary thing, it's not a sharing thing. Most BSD users view the BSD OS as a means to interconnect with different SOFTWARE that works the way they like, the people themselves are of secondary importance. Liken the Linux community as a gaggle of hens and BSD as a group of roosters. Or, a sexist explanation is BSD is a bunch of he-men saying "leave me alone I'll do it myself" and Linux is a bunch of women saying "Oh this doesen't work, Mary can you help me?" Now, of course the reality is a bit fuzzier, but this is closer to the truth than a lot of folks would want to admit. There's numerous examples, compare the number of Linux books and periodicals to the number of BSD books and periodicals, the number of people that FTP instead of purchase both OS's, and even the increased interest in changing the world (ie: activism) in Linux vs BSD. This comes out in user groups I think. There seems to be a lot fewer of them under BSD and the ones that exist seem not to have these giant meetings with hundreds and hundreds of people attending along with vendors and all the song and dance. People say "that's just numbers" but this is baloney - in the large cities there's plenty of BSD people so that if the BSD user groups were critical backbones they could draw big numbers too. With the BSD user group that I'm in, it's a lot more easy going, we don't have dues or any of that or even a web page. Meetings consist of low-key affairs in some convenient pub or in someone's backyard around the barbecue, and attendance is probably 20-30% if that. I think this suits the participants just fine and I don't think that any of them would care much for a highly structured group with dues and membership and a web page and regular meetings and all that rackafratz. The local mailing list (which I host) is more the regular meeting place then a physical meeting location. My caution is if you want to start a BSD user group, don't knock yourself out with the structure and planning of the group unless you get a flood of members that all want that. I think with the Linux user groups, most of the Linux users want the structure and someone telling them what to do. I've even seen this with people working on servers at the co-locate that is at the ISP that I work at, invariably the folks running BSD when they have a problem they research it themselves then when they figure out what's wrong they fix it and we never hear from them. The Linux people on the other hand come running and wanting us to tell them whats wrong with the least little thing, and I can't tell you how many times I've asked people with Red Hat servers "Have you looked on Red Hat's website and seen if this is mentioned" and gotten blank stares, then I spend 5 minutes digging up the fix off the Linux sites and they think I'm some kind of god. And I don't even run it on any of our servers!!!! Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com >-----Original Message----- >From: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG >[mailto:owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Erich Zigler >Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 10:03 AM >To: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG >Subject: BSD User Group Tips > > >Hello, > I'm currently contemplating starting a BSD User's Group in my local area >seeing how there is not one already. > > I was wondering what advice anyone had to offer in getting one off the >ground. What problems did you run into, how did you handle certain things. >Do you wish you did something differently? > > I would appreciate any advice anyone is able to give. > >-- >Erich Zigler > >Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistant one. -- >Albert Einstein > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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