[AUUG-Talk]: Re: AUUG: Time to pull the plug?

[David Newall]

AUUG is dying; or already has died but not everyone has noticed yet.  It 
was overtaken by the Linux community; which surely includes all of us.  
AUUG shares a common spirit with UNIX, which is importantly 
characterised by openness and sharing, and that spirit has moved on.  It 
still lives, in fact is stronger than ever, but now is called "Open 
Source" and Linux is its poster boy.  To my eyes the Linux community's 
borders don't stop at Linux, and most certainly includes other dialects 
of UNIX.  The Linux community exhibits exactly the same qualities that 
AUUG did in its heyday, and has an order of magnitude more energy 
(people) than does AUUG.  They now run a better conference, in more 
places (AUUG won't get off the eastern seaboard), and with more and 
better minor events, too.  They publish more articles, provide more 
support, have more users and more influence.  More research comes from 
there.  In short, we have become the Linux community.  Now it merely 
remains to tidy up some loose ends.  AUUG is one of them.  RIP.