Lovable LUGgable: support your Linux user group

By David M Williams
Thursday, 10 January 2008 16:42

Opinion and Analysis

There’s no denying that the widespread growth of Linux was due in part to the raw enthusiasm of advocates meeting together under the broad banner of a “LUG” – a Linux User Group. LUG members were pioneers and cowboys, early adopters and passionate hobbyists. Today, the LUG is different. With the rise of commercial backing, the ease of distro installation, and the omniscience of Google do LUGs still have any role to play in the Linux world?

Early LUGs ran on the whiff of any oily rag; members had evangelistic zeal as they passionately spruiked the virtues of Linux. Yet, it wasn’t purely technical: sure, Linux was a radically free OS with a degree of hacker mystique, but Linux was also a tremendous social phenomenon taking place. Geeks could root for this newcomer which was not only immune to, but shattered through, the business practices which commercial software monopolies used to wither their opponents.

A regular and popular component of LUGs was an install-fest; here anyone could bring along their desktop or laptop and receive unbridled help with getting any Linux distro of choice up-and-running. Back in the day, so to speak, Linux was still regarded as a system for experts and it was par for the course that arcane command-line instructions and tweaking were required for success. There was none of this “even your granny can run Ubuntu” back then. The real live assistance of others who had already trodden this path was an invaluable resource – not only was the value immeasurable, but you would barely have been able to find paid, commercial support if you tried, yet here it was for free.

Another historical segment of the LUG meeting was a spot of Microsoft bashing; this was never the purpose for the group but was generally an enjoyable sport. After all, nobody was a LUG member because they felt Windows was the world’s best OS.

Yet, today, if you have a question regarding some aspect of Linux – hardware compatibility, say – your answer is frequently milliseconds away in the form of a Google search. And while students still take part, it’s not uncommon for the average LUG member to be a professional, paid, systems administrator. Some are of the heterogeneous type, who brushes off their continued use of Windows as being “pragmatic” in their selection of platform for any given task. Some may even be of the proprietary UNIX variety, snootily scoffing at the Linux newcomers who are being excited about things they did “20 years ago.”

What of the major drawcard, the installfest? Well – in this case, there’s never been any operating system easier to install than the modern Linux distro and its rich support for hardware and streamlined graphical loading process. Indeed, the prominence of Live CDs make testing out Linux a no-brainer; just insert a CD, boot your computer and check it out. If you find a hardware glitch or are turned off for any reason just shutdown and remove the CD: you’ve not touched your hard disk one jot.

What do you think? Is there a case for the modern day LUG?

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