On Mon, 6 Mar 2006, Munir Nassar wrote:

> Florin Iucha writes:
>
>> Linux is a bazaar, not a catedral,
>
> it would seem that not very many of you have been to a bazaar and do not 
> know how things work there,
>
> there is no signup form
> there is no directory
> there is nobody there to direct you
> you show up and you browse until you find what you are looking for, chances
> are you do not find what you are looking for but end up finding 10 other
> things that you were not looking for.
> if you are lucky/smart you go with/find somebody who knows the way of the
> land and holds your hand.

I would just say that it doesn't have to be like that.  We can have more 
organization.  If our intention is to promote Linux by helping people to 
install it on their computers, maybe we should help them a little bit more 
by adding some structure.  It would be a great help to have just one 
person to keep track of what software and expertise are available and to 
greet people as they arrive to help them find what they need.  The 
internet may be a bazaar but we do have Google and similar sites to help 
us to make efficient use of it all.


> I also believe that there should have been more notice, we (at realtime) 
> do have a firewire drive that has a small subset of what is available on 
> gladiator but it is not always kept up to date and it takes a while to 
> sync it up. Next time I will try and have that available.
>
> Also several people have asked me why Real-Time is not as active in 
> TCLUG activities as it used to be. There are reasons for this, email Bob 
> offlist if you have questions concerning that.

I just wrote a grant with a line for Real-Time in it.  If the grant is 
funded, it will provide $2,000/year for 7 years for consulting, a total of 
$14,000.  If that grant fails, I'll write another one.  I only chose 
Real-Time because of its connection to TCLUG.  So I'm suggesting that 
Real-Time involvement with TCLUG can be beneficial to Real-Time 
indirectly.  It's like advertising.  I suppose Real-Time is aware of this 
and already takes it into account in making decisions.

Mike