[Linux-aus] Should Linux Australia change its name?

[Josh Stewart]

On 23/04/2012, at 6:27 PM, David Newall wrote:

> On 23/04/12 14:47, Luke John wrote:
>> [T]he present activities and role of the Linux Australia organisation 
>> are being impeded by retaining a name that no longer accurately 
>> reflects its membership.
> 
> With respect, I disagree: Linux is not the forefather of open source 
> (possibly Sendmail is), it is the poster-boy.  I doubt anybody with a 
> keen interest in, let us say, WordPress, would be confused by a 
> WordPress event being sponsored or run by LA.  Similarly, I dare say I 
> am not alone in that I would think less of a Linux aficionado objecting 
> to a WordPress event being run by LA.

To give what is purely anecdotal personal experience from having just ran LCA2012, I can say that exclusively using linux in the title of an organisation or event that is actually covering a much wider span of topics definitely causes problems. 

I lost count of the number of individuals and organisations I had to set clear on around linux.conf.au purely because of the name (To the point where they don't check the talk topics because of their assumptions about it being purely linux related), and these were people I would've certainly thought would have understood the difference. It's easy to forget that there is an incredibly large body of passionate FOSS users out there who have no interest in linux itself and I am now 100% sure that there is a subset of these people who are being put off by the organisation being called Linux Australia.

(Yes I know we're talking about Linux Australia and not linux.conf.au, but I'd be surprised if the problem is not shared)


- Josh Stewart

-----------------------------------------------------
Conference director
linux.conf.au 2012 - Ballarat 16- 20 Jan
http://lcaunderthestars.org.au


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