[Tfug] [stein.les at gmail.com: TCS General Meeting]

[TR]

Skip the rant or not.


<rant>
I have resisted replying to this thread as TCS gave me a very bad 
impression.  Wanting to ignore their existence.    Maybe I too high of  
high expectations for TCS as I had once been a member of the Sacramento 
PC Users Group.    SPCUG had over 2400 paying members and produced a 
monthly news letter, make that  magazine, of  80 or more pages.   
Membership was never a requirement to attend any meetings.    There may 
have been some that never joined but most did,  even though it was never 
required.

When I first arrived in Tucson I went to the Linux Sig meetings.  As 
there was never anyone with much Unix/Linux expertise  I would  give 
some demonstration/presentation on a feature of Linux.    When I showed 
up for the forth time, one where I was scheduled to  present.  I was 
informed I would need to pay the TCS dues  or could not come again,   ( 
This was some VP of the club  not Kieth who was running it at the 
time.)  So I said "I guess you do not need my presentation" and left.

At some point I was going to join.  When I saw the value in joining.  
But was asked to join or go before I ever saw that value,   So I have 
not been back since.
</rant>

This  group does not need a presentation on Linux/Unix vs M$ .   The 
presentation they need is "Free as in beer versus free as in speech".  
How theirs and the Micro$oft model is flawed.   This is of course 
tougher then saying look at this whiz-bang  nifty desktop.    But is IS 
what makes the Free *nix'es different then windoze.    This is not  to 
say that using the Sizzle of whiz-bag cannot be used to show off  FREE 
on the Open source alternatives.   And I don't think the TCS is ready 
for CatB .

TR