3 ms·

Same question for LUGs.

__turbobrew__ 3y ago
LUGs core reason for existence — sharing Linux and systems administration knowledge — is no longer relevant. You can learn mostly everything you need to get to journeyman level experience online and in books. Once you want to achieve master level proficiency you join special interest groups and go to conferences. The LUGs I have been to are mostly social groups running off the inertia of old members which were around back when LUGs were relevant, an inertia which is slowing down with the age of the members. I served on the board for a local LUG and there is still some interest from the community but not like back in the day when they could pull 100s of people in a meeting and IBM or Redhat would buy free pizza for everyone in the early 2000s.
graublau 3y ago
The distinction at between operating systems is in 2023 pretty negligible in practice. Most people work on some kind of UNIX on Windows/Mac/Linux. OS tinkering/distrohopping tends to be an anti-pattern, a waste of time/not task oriented in any way.
whatisprogress 3y ago
Linux has become a standardized tool that is pretty simple to use. Linux used to be cumbersome with a high barrier to enter, now it is common and simple to use. Some of Linux's incredible innovations have been replicated by competitors. There are now lots of classes about Linux. Windows feature have also become more competitive with Linux features. You don't need to dual boot a PC to use Linux. You don't need to freak out about the refresh rate of the monitor, or build a custom knoppix instance for a kiosk machine, with cramfs and unionfs manually compiled into the kernel. (windows didn't have an easy to install kiosk built into the OS) Instead of ext2, or ext3 (vs fat32) you can now use NTFS. The Linux kernel was way more stable compared to XP. Starting with Vista, when the graphics driver crashed, the OS just reloaded the driver instead of BSOD. The supported hardware for windows has also increased dramatically. (ARM processors, embedded, etc.) At the same time that Windows was making inroads, Java, Apple, and Android have made significant inroads in their own ways. Overall, linux has become more user friendly (reducing the learning curve); training has become common, and multiple companies have become more competitive with Linux. This has reduced the demand for less structured training of LUGs.

LUGs core reason for existence — sharing Linux and systems administration knowledge — is no longer relevant. You can learn mostly everything you need to get to journeyman level experience online and in books. Once you want to achieve master level proficiency you join special interest groups and go to conferences. The LUGs I have been to are mostly social groups running off the inertia of old members which were around back when LUGs were relevant, an inertia which is slowing down with the age of the members. I served on the board for a local LUG and there is still some interest from the community but not like back in the day when they could pull 100s of people in a meeting and IBM or Redhat would buy free pizza for everyone in the early 2000s.

graublau 3y ago

The distinction at between operating systems is in 2023 pretty negligible in practice. Most people work on some kind of UNIX on Windows/Mac/Linux. OS tinkering/distrohopping tends to be an anti-pattern, a waste of time/not task oriented in any way.

whatisprogress 3y ago

Linux has become a standardized tool that is pretty simple to use. Linux used to be cumbersome with a high barrier to enter, now it is common and simple to use. Some of Linux's incredible innovations have been replicated by competitors. There are now lots of classes about Linux. Windows feature have also become more competitive with Linux features. You don't need to dual boot a PC to use Linux. You don't need to freak out about the refresh rate of the monitor, or build a custom knoppix instance for a kiosk machine, with cramfs and unionfs manually compiled into the kernel. (windows didn't have an easy to install kiosk built into the OS) Instead of ext2, or ext3 (vs fat32) you can now use NTFS. The Linux kernel was way more stable compared to XP. Starting with Vista, when the graphics driver crashed, the OS just reloaded the driver instead of BSOD. The supported hardware for windows has also increased dramatically. (ARM processors, embedded, etc.) At the same time that Windows was making inroads, Java, Apple, and Android have made significant inroads in their own ways. Overall, linux has become more user friendly (reducing the learning curve); training has become common, and multiple companies have become more competitive with Linux. This has reduced the demand for less structured training of LUGs.