[Talk] Is AUUG too pro open source?

[David McDonald]

Greg,

Perhaps it's not so much a question of whether users of proprietary unices
receive less than adequate attention so much as the perception that they do.

Nonetheless, we run an open source conference and often espouse open source,
but what do we do to promote proprietary unices? AUUG no longer stands for
Australian Unix User Group, so we don't do it there ...

I understand and acknowledge that it would be wrong of us to name one
vendor's proprietary unix to the exclusion of another, but should the same
principle not also apply to all unices? (I personally feel that Linux is
often mentioned when we should say unix, even to the detriment of other free
alternatives such as the *bsd's).

Consequently, I feel I have to say I tend to agree somewhat with the unnamed
member. I don't think that it is in our best interests to disenfranchise
either users or vendors of proprietary unices.

Ultimately, Microsoft is Microsoft's worst enemy. They will continue to
disenfranchise many for the foreseeable future. I believe that we look more
professional (and will be listened to more openly) when we argue the strong
points of unix (in light of the weak points of Microsoft and other non-unix
systems) without mentioning specific alternatives such as Windows

:^)

Dave McDonald

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey [mailto:Greg.Lehey at auug.org.au] 
Sent: Monday, 19 January 2004 12:11 pm
To: talk at auug.org.au
Subject: [Talk] Is AUUG too pro open source?

I've just had a complaint from a member who thinks that AUUG is giving users
of proprietary UNIX a raw deal.  He thinks that we're placing too much
emphasis on open source, and that we're bashing Microsoft.

It's true that I personally don't have a very high opinion of Microsoft, and
we have made no secret of the fact that the Linux community is a large part
of our membership, so we need to cooperate with the other Linux groups.  I
mentioned this in my report at the last annual conference.  I've also tried
to make it clear that AUUG remains a UNIX group, for all reasonable
definitions of UNIX.  I'd be interested if this member (who doesn't want to
be named) is an isolated case, or do other members who use proprietary UNIX
feel that we're giving them less than adequate attention?

Greg
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