[Linux-aus] Should Linux Australia cast PyCon adrift?

[Russell Coker]

On Thu, 26 Apr 2012, David Newall <david at davidnewall.com> wrote:
> If the Python community are put out by our unashamed attachment to our 
> Linux roots, might we not be better to cut them loose and use our 
> energies (and finances) to support a more grateful and less embarrassed 
> group?  Might sound harsh, but give it fair thought.

The LA membership is not a Borg collective.  Some people are really attached 
to the way things are, some aren't.

Most LA members do things other than just Linux.  There was a joke that 
circulated ~1994 about what people did with various OSs and for Linux it was 
"compiling kernels", which was something that took an unreasonable amount of 
people's time and effort.  Nowdays the vast majority of Linux users couldn't 
compile a kernel if their life depended on it and even the people who could do 
so generally don't.

The base OS part of Linux and the GNU environment work pretty well nowadays so 
people are moving up the stack.  This means that some people who used to be 
totally into Linux will now be interested in things like Python, this is fine 
and there's no reason why the community structures put in place to support 
free software conferences etc shouldn't adjust to the changes in user 
requirements.

My suggestion is to have a SPI like organisation to manage insurance, money, 
etc and then having Linux Australia as a sub-committee on an equal status to 
PyCon et al.  Linux Australia would keep the same DNS name, use the same 
servers, run the same web sites, and keep promoting Linux.  This means that 
people who are only interested in Linux wouldn't miss out in any way.  In fact 
having people who aren't so focussed on Linux but who have relevant skills 
managing all the administrative tasks that aren't directly related to Linux 
advocacy could be a good thing.

PyCon and all the other FOSS conferences are important.  But there are lots of 
people who aren't interested in such things who would be good at the Linux 
advocacy side.

-- 
My Main Blog         http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog    http://doc.coker.com.au/