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

[Greg Black]

On 2006-09-14, David Newall wrote:

> 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.  

The Linux community certainly doesn't (and won't) include me.
If AUUG dies -- which is by no means certain yet -- I won't be
looking towards Linux groups for sustenance.  (This is not the
right time or place to set out my objections to Linux or to its
adherents, so I won't elaborate on that.)

> AUUG shares a common spirit with UNIX, which is importantly 
> characterised by openness and sharing, and that spirit has moved on.

I disagree.  The spirit is not exclusively attached to AUUG and
Unix, but it has not moved on -- perhaps it has spread a little
further.

> The Linux community exhibits exactly the same qualities that 
> AUUG did in its heyday

Not from my observations.  (Again, this is not the place to list
my concerns with the Linux community.)

> They now run a better conference

I've been to many more AUUG conferences than Linux ones, but I
have not seen anything to make me favour a Linux event over an
AUUG one.

> In short, we have become the Linux community.  Now it merely 
> remains to tidy up some loose ends.  AUUG is one of them.  RIP.

Early today, I was wondering if it was perhaps time to wind up
AUUG as was suggested in the message that started this thread.
Reading the above makes me sure that I want AUUG to continue and
that I want to be a part of that.

One minor final note: the message I'm replying to was written in
a way that makes responding difficult.  It seems to me that, if
we intend to discuss this matter, we could all at least make a
small effort to compose our messages in a meaningful manner so
that others can in fact add their thoughts in the way that we
old Unix hands know and love.  That would involve separating
distinct ideas into their own paragraphs, for example.

Greg