I like the premise of the proposed new SIG, and it is something I
have been suggesting (quietly - or I might get volunteered) since I got
involved.
Linux provides a business advantage which does not require knowledge
of its innards. I need to produce complex scientific programs (map
data reduction, gravity wave detection, etc). The most popular
operating system outright discourages anyone who wishes to write code
that must be fast and memory efficient. It insists the user go through
a GUI with Visual-this and Visual-that. And then there are the
licensing complications.
There must be a few in the group who want to share tips on how to
use the applications available on Linux: how to make Qcad scale only
the x-axis of a circle, how to get updated database information into
OpenOffice documents, how to present equation sets to maxima for the
most efficient solution, etc.
Admittedly, as the topics move to applications, they get directly
relevant to a much smaller set of users. The innovation needed for the
new group's premise is how to make an application-specific talk of
interest to a wider group than just those using that application. I
have no answer to that challenge.
Moving yet another abstraction step from the Linux innards, what
does one do with the applications themselves. What are the best fonts
to use on a web page? How can one make an OpenOffice sales
presentations most effective? What shot angles characterize the most
successful U-tube videos?
I deal with a lot of non-computer professionals who would be happier
using Linux than their present OS and software selection - if Linux was
setup and maintained for them. The evolving challenge for Linux
advocates, it would seem, is how to bring them into the fold. They are
not as big a group as the "general public", but they are influential.
The new SIG proposal offers both innovation and experimentation
opportunities for this group's movers and shakers. Is there a concept
for a general non-power-user application-oriented SIG that can attract
a wide enough audience to persist?
Time to get back to explaining to NASA why the stronger
temperature-entropy tensor coefficient makes thermal diffusivity, not
elastic-wave propagation velocity, the critical factor in laser removal
of sub-micron particles from the mirrors of the James Webb Space
Telescope. (Just another example of an OO application with wide general
appeal.)
Jim Kuzdrall
_______________________________________________
gnhlug-discuss mailing list
gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org
http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
