Dear Frederick and friends,
Since I am a beginner in Linux and live on the other side of
the globe, my opportunities to contribute are very limited and I am
grateful to see Frederick open a topic where I might help out.
My feelings about Linux are actually shifting rapidly at this point,
and feelings are irrelevant to Linux but important to LUGS.
My comments are in 3 parts:
1) My 18 month learning curve in a nutshell
2) Comment on NLUGS
3) My shifting perspective on sharing Linux

1) My 18 month learning curve ( newbie struggles)
In 1979 I wrote my first BASIC program, ( which I saw marketed
6 years later!), but decided not to pursue computer science.
It was, (very sadly), the road not taken.
18 months ago I acquired my very first computer. It ran SuSE 9.0
and was sold to me by a friend who was hot on Linux previously but
found no market for it and let it slide. So the install was
buggy and I was too green to know this. I thought I was dumb!
I would have bought Windows at this point but my money was spent.
Basically I was suckered into using Linux and suffered for it, ( the
expected support was really not there at all)!
But in the past 6 weeks I did the following "neat things".
a)correctly set up Apache server
b)mounted a CD rom as drive for Apache server
c)modified a C++ program and built a working binary,
( OK, I only changed the smiley faces in Twinkle sipphone to
Tux penguins, but it was neat exercise.)
d) set up a MySQL database and enabled the mime-type transformations
e) built a simple gui in Perl Tk, just an exercise
At any rate, I did everything on my own via the web and the public
library.
The Nashville Public Library has many good up-to-date Linux books if
you reserve them and wait 6 weeks. Except Hitesh Gupta tried to help
me last year with compiling dvtitler, but I never succeeded and
finally found a newly released rpm. Thanks, H.G.!At any rate, I am
still sampling aspects of Linux, so I can decide how to invest study
time wisely.

2) A new customer of mine encouraged me to join the NLUG and we
discussed that. Quite honestly, his description of the membership
there was more intimidating than encouraging. Members include
the DNA research people, programmers and Vanderbilt University's
sys admins. Undoubtedly very nice and helpful, but my experience is
that people like this are simply from another world and cannot
hide their exasperation at the extreme ignorance of persons like
myself. People like this make me feel so stupid that I am sorry I
asked a question. And I know I am not stupid because I earned a BA
from the State University of New York by studying on my own and taking
exams with resulting high marks. So I disagree strongly with Frederick
about separation of LUGS into newbie groups and experienced groups.
It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing. I think that experienced
people should direct energy at development or truly well-written
documentaion for the web. NEWBIES CAN WORK TOGETHER TO FIGURE THINGS
OUT, WHICH IS A FUN GROUP ACTIVITY, AND LEARNING IS QUICKEST WHEN
IT IS FUN. I would not feel at ease at NLUG because I would only
be distracting the geniuses from learning from each other, and
contributing nothing.

3) For the period of time between getting my first working system
and 2 months ago, I was excited about sharing Linux because it offers
superior quality and appeared revolutionary in regards to copyright,
etc.. My basic breakthrough recently is not my trivial "neat
accomplishments", (they are trivial),
but the fact that now I can set a particular goal and accomplish it
without undue difficulty and without wastimg other persons' time.
Unfortunately, I have lost my interest in promoting home use of Linux
because I feel that I can do more for social justice by advancing
myself technically to get a good job, which I have not got now, and
simply donating money to social justice groups, etc. as opposed to
my earlier pipedream of salvaging old computers and setting up a free
cybercafe in the ghetto 10 blocks away. I believe that no Linux distro
is at a point where you can help someone install and then abandon
them.Certrainly not SuSE,Debian or RedHat. Trust me,( Being the newbie
expert!)
THEY WILL HATE YOU!!!!! You will have to invest dozens of hours of
IN-PERSON SUPPORT for every innocent new home user if you want them
to say good things about Linux instead of bad. I am very reluctant
to encourage friends to use Linux at this point. So now I am only
thinking about studying for business applications and sys admin,
maybe RHCT after spending 18 months mostly on SuSE.

I am sorry that was so long and self-centered, but I post very seldom
and I think that the issue of sharing Linux is extremely important.
So if you have read this far I thank you, and also I am grateful
for the help from Hitesh and being allowed to stay on this group
although I do not live in Chandigarh. I can not explain why I prefer
an Indian LUG to a local one, but that is the case and I hope you
don't mind.

Peace,
Jonathan Davidson
Nashville, Tennessee "Music City"
USA