I think the important question here is: Does JaxLUG cater to hobbyist or professionals?
I'd say both, and let the active participants drive this behavior. As the = ratio of active participants change, so will the culture and slant of the g= roup. Back when I was president of JaxLUG, I did try to push the group in a direc= tion that serviced the professional community and community at large a bit = more than it had in the past. Linux was struggling to be adopted in larger= Enterprises, and I was trying to get the larger Enterprises more involved.= I also wanted these Enterprises to give back to JaxLUG in the form of dep= recated machines but this fell short. However, from my perspective, there is very little need to push Linux to th= e Enterprise anymore. It's already won the battle. Most everyone loves it= , and it's a de-facto standard within my company anyhow. Solaris has a deg= ree of uncertainty around it now that SUN has been acquired by Oracle. Personally, I prefer the hobbyist/hacker culture. I love the folks involve= d. Guys like Art Wildman, the long absent Scott Carter and Kevin Castle. = I'm glad to see guys like Gene and Rob still active. I must admit, I miss t= he deep insight and passion of the much controversial Brian Smith (aka the = BS). I get my fill of the suits by day, so when I make it to a meeting nowdays i= t's to hang out with the hackers and I am long overdue. I actually prefer the LUSH meeting to the LUG. Mix beer and passion and th= ings get even more interesting. - Pat -----Original Message----- From: William L. Thomson Jr. [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 5:06 PM To: Jax-LUG Subject: Hobbyist or professional When it comes to computers, the lines between hobbyists and professionals is really blurry. To a point I lean more toward hobbyists than professionals, with the following three examples as my argument there. Though likely can produce more than 3. Was Steve Wozniak a hobbyist or professional when he was building computers in Steve Jobs's garage? Sure he was working for HP, but was building computers a profession or hobby for him? What was the result of that? Apple Lets take a more modern example, which is covered in a recent movie, that I have yet to see. Was Mark Zuckerberg a hobbyist or professional? What was the result of those efforts? Facebook How about another example more specific to this list and users group. Was Linus Torvalds a professional or hobbyist? Keep in mind it was supposed to be called Freak. What was the result of Linus efforts? Linux What ever happened with the professional interest behind IBM's OS/2? That was never developed by nor targeted for sale to hobbyists, just professionals. It has come up a few times before if the JaxLUG caters to hobbyist or professionals. Which in that process hobbyists tend to get discounted and discarded as unimportant. When if anything professionals should be discounted more. Quite many things with computers, and surely with Linux started out more as a hobby than profession, later turning into a profession. Thus if this was a chicken/egg scenario, the hobbyist clearly must come before the professionals. >From my own experience, I feel I might have been more creative and thinking out of the box. When I was less of a professional. The more you look to what you do as having to provide a return on investment, getting paid for your efforts. Your creativity can go out the door a little bit. After all your not doing it out of passion, but out of the need or want for money. Not to mention with regard to the JaxLUG, hobbyists likely have more to contribute and benefit than professionals. After all professionals want that to relate to their work, pocket book, etc more than a hobbyists. Not to underestimate or discount the importance or value of professionals. I am just tired of hobbyists being seen as a negative thing. There are likely considerably more hobbyists than professionals end of the day. Thus its a bigger market, with greater potential. Finally its not like this area is known for its technology or creativity. I think we should look more at what made that happen in others areas. It wasn't the contributions and things coming from the professional world so much as others. Lets keep that in mind, and not be on a professional high horse :) Anyway just some food for thought, and discussion. P.S. Can't believe a movie was made on Facebook, where is the one on Apple or Google or other companies that have effected many more lives on a daily basis? Clearly pop culture wins again :( Really good movie to see, the "Pirates of Silicon Valley". Or the old documentary by Walter Cronkite called "Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance" Or "OS Revolution" which was played at a JaxLUG meeting back in 2003 I believe. Likely many others, and if others have suggestions welcome to mention them. I highly recommend the first two, and might seem a bit dated. Bit the history remains and doesn't change. -- William L. Thomson Jr. Obsidian-Studios, Inc. http://www.obsidian-studios.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml Unsubscribe [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml Unsubscribe [email protected]
