• Welcome to Computer Association of SIUE - Forums.
 

Southern Illinois Linux Users Group

Started by my_handle, 2007-08-31T12:00:17-05:00 (Friday)

Previous topic - Next topic

my_handle

Recently I've found out about a local linux users group.  I haven't met anyone from this group nor have I attended a meeting before but it looks interesting.  Their next meeting is this coming Weds Sept 5 from 7-9 in fairview heights.  I will probably go check it out if anyone else is interested let me know.  More info can be found at their site
http://www.silug.org/


William Grim

I always forgot to go to those meetings, except for one time.  Based on my observations, it's just a bunch of people talking about their hardware configs and not really getting down and dirty with Linux.  That's fine if that's your thing; I have no problem with it.

However, watch out for the guy that hosts.  He runs that computer store, and he's kind of a wanker.  When I went, he was inviting all of us to a weekend Hackathon to work on some perl code and things.  I thought these were open source projects and inquired about them.  Turns out that they were POS software systems that he needed to have running on his systems.  He didn't even know how to install them and hadn't read any of the manuals.

Basically, he wanted free bitch work for business related purposes.  I turned him down due to the fact that I only work for hire on business projects and the fact that none of the code was going to be contributed back to the community.

Also, the host is kind of a moron.  We had a debate about MySQL vs. Postgresql, and it was completely clear that he had no idea about what he was talking.  He claimed that Postgresql and Oracle stemmed from the same code base for crying out loud!  Surely you would think he was jesting; yet, he was not.

So, go to the meeting if you want; I've got nothing against the meeting in general (other than it being off-topic).  In fact, I would've gone again if I didn't have to move to NYC, but just make sure you watch out for him.  Don't let him con you into anything, and if he wants help, make sure he pays properly for it.
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley

Kit

I was going to say "Great find!" but then I read Grim's post.

Sounds like a big "Yikes!". I have Ubuntu linux on both my boxes and maybe some other CAOS members do as well. I could foresee a linux meeting or something.

(Dr. Blythe might even come!)
SIUe Computer Science Graduate

William Grim

Well, I didn't mean to scare everyone away.  I just thought I should forewarn you about that guy so some naive SIUE hacker doesn't do for-profit work under the masquerade of "open source".  Other than that, it's probably a good venue to just hang out and talk; just don't count too much on there being much Linux talk.
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley

my_handle

Thanks for the "wanker" heads up mike.  I'll probably still go just to see what its like and maybe meet some local geeks. I have room in my car if anyone else still wants to attend.