Topic (was: Firefox & text/css)

Benjamin Scott bscott at ntisys.com
Tue Dec 21 21:37:00 EST 2004


On Fri, 17 Dec 2004, at 8:16pm, greg at freephile.com wrote:
>> (is this really off topic?)
>
> However, purist seek to keep the conversation more on the side of Linux
> the kernel, the OS, and hardware capable of running the OS.

  Well, given that GNHLUG has no formal existence, and this list has no
formal charter, one would be hard-pressed to say that anything is "on" or
"off" topic.  You have to have a topic before you can be on it.

  Myself, I like to say that "GNHLUG exists to serve the intersection of
interests in Linux and New Hampshire", but I'm hardly an authority (just a
loud-mouth).  That would include not just Linux, but Linux-related things as
well.

  As far as this list goes, pretty much anything goes, as far as I can tell.  

  Several people, myself among them, have requested that we all keep the
generalized political propaganda and debate off the list.  There are already
a multitude of forums (fora?) for such discussion where such things are much
more appropriate.

  More thought in this vein:

  You could take "Linux" as the kernel proper.  That's the original name,
after all.  In that light, Linux is pretty dull.  All it will get you is an
error message ("no init found").  I'll go back to Windows, thank you.

  Now, you could take "Linux" to mean the first page of a huge book of
tools.  Apache, Emacs, GCC, GNOME, KDE, Perl, PHP, Python, X11, and
everything else.  Well, that's a heck of a good read there.  I'll keep that
book on my bookshelf, for ready reference.

  Or, you take "Linux" as the standard-bearer of Free/Open Source Software.  
Software that's owned by the community that uses it, rather then a single
person or organization.  Software that gives you the freedom to what you
want with your computer.  Now *that's* down-right revolutionary.

  I think we should be able to talk about any of that here.

  :-)

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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