January 7, 2006
Good morning.
Last night’s Las Vegas Linux Users Group meeting at the Outfit was a success! I should probably define success, or at least narrow it down some here for you and me. The Outfit is a tiny office. Nevertheless, we squeezed eight men in the front room. We began by introducing ourselves. I actually know everyone, so I made the intros. This in itself was pretty exciting for me. To tell the truth, I couldn’t wait to hook these guys up. Before we got going on the thrust of the meeting, we exchanged ideas and I have to tell you Linux geeks are a rare bunch, nocturnal and elusive by nature, when exposed to the light, boy howdy! Well let me just say it was really something to behold. Lee was elected to facilitate, which took quite an effort as the guys were completely enthralled with each other’s achievements, rightly so too. We were there mostly to schedule events and activities for the LinuxInstallFest. We got far enough to make fliers and advertise the event. We will begin at ten am Saturday morning January 21st with a brief introduction of the sponsors. We are not sure how many people will attend so we need to keep the schedule of events relaxed. No long talks by the hosts, maybe a discussion by a few of the seasoned Linux users if we have enough attendees present.

Without further ado, we will get into the meat of the LinuxInstallFest, talking to attendees and evaluating their PCs to determine which Linux distribution is suitable and appropriate. There are literally hundreds of distributions of Linux available to download for free. We decided to make Mepis the Linux distro of choice as it has accurate hardware detection making it the plug-&-play champion. Other Linux distros will be on hand, Kevin volunteered to make volume copies of three or four leading Linux candidates for the InstallFest. It will be my duty to revise the LinuxInstallFest waivers. This will be a plain English release of liability for us if an attendee freaks-out after we help him to install Linux over the top of Windows and he remembers later that he forgot to backup some important files. We see this issue often in the PC service business. People need to be aware that Linux is a very different Operating System and more than likely when Linux is installed it will permanently erase files, and we must emphasize the erasure is permanent.

Somehow we must entice folks with free-bees so they come to the LinuxInstallFest at the same time we want them to be prepared for something entirely new and exciting. Lee and I are thinking of doing a little talking the local radio stations. Notice the words “thinking of doing.” We’ll see what the week brings. Talking on the radio makes me a little peevish. If we can get away without it all the better. Let’s see, what else did we decide at the meeting? Oh yeah, the next Las Vegas Linux Users Group meeting will be held at Highlands University, on the Friday night January 20th prior to the LinuxInstallFest. This will give us a better feel for what we will be doing and where it all will take place. Thank you, Curtis Sollahub for hosting both the upcoming LVLUG meeting Friday and the Fest on Saturday at the University.
Sincerely,
Brian Rodgers