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Reminder! Meeting Tomorrow Thursday, Oct 10th, 2019: Topic: CAD on linux!

by Tim Keller

Hey Everybody, We've got a meeting tomorrow!!! Date & Time: Oct 10th, 2019 at 7PM Location: WPI Rec Center Room Rom 412 (Class of '61 conference room) Topic: Round table on CAD software for linux. This month we're going to talk about the plethora of FOSS and otherwise options for doing Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) on linux. Logan Brown has offered to speak about OpenSCAD Frank Sweetser will be talking about TinkerCAD I will be talking about FreeCAD We'll also gloss over LeoCAD and a few other cad products as well. This is a round table, so if you have a piece of cad software on linux you love feel free to speak up! Refreshments and Snacks will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for dinner. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Oct. 10, 2019

WLUG Meeting: Oct 10th 2019 Topic: CAD on linux!

by Tim Keller

Hey Everybody, We've got a meeting next week! Date & Time: Oct 10th, 2019 at 7PM Location: WPI Rec Center Room Rom 412 (Class of '61 conference room) Topic: Round table on CAD software for linux. This month we're going to talk about the plethora of FOSS and otherwise options for doing Computer Aided Drafting on linux. Logan Brown has offered to speak about OpenSCAD Frank Sweetser will be talking about TinkerCAD I will be talking about FreeCAD We'll also gloss over LeoCAD and a few other cad products as well. This is a round table, so if you have a piece of cad software on linux you love feel free to speak up! Refreshments and Snacks will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for dinner. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Oct. 4, 2019

Linux in the wild

by Richard Klein

Seen on Nextdoor (lost cat): https://nextdoor.com/post/125096592?init_source=copy_link_share -- Rich

Sept. 26, 2019

Re: Thanks for a great meeting last night!

by Keith Wright

John Stoffel via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > It was a really fun meeting, bummer we didn't have > the CAD discussion, but happy about the storage discussion. After I got into a gun fight with the police it was difficult to pay attention. They kept talking about tera-bytes, but I am still a bit future-shocked from when my ex-new-boss told me that the programs I would be paid to write had to work with a giga-byte of important data...and when I actually bought a mega-byte for my own home. Real programmers code for 64K. > Subject: [WLUG] Becoming a brick-and-mortar Linux vendor > From: Joshua Stone via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > > I've been wondering about with Linux as a desktop > platform if one were to run a business around selling > machines that're built with it in mind. I had a similar idea about 20 years ago. I rented a store-front in south-east Worcester and did it for a few years. I didn't make much money, but I didn't lose much either. The remaining fragments of that business exist as a web page: http://www.free-comp-shop.com/ I used to have a book about starting a business in Massachusetts, maybe I can find it. It's probably far out of date. You need to know the laws about collecting sales tax and reporting and remitting to the state. -- Keith Wright, Programmer in Chief, Free Computer Shop

Sept. 26, 2019

Re: Becoming a brick-and-mortar Linux vendor

by Mike Peckar

Here's my take Following on the FOSS model, you may want to set up a shop offering free services at an incubator like technocopia.org. This may then become a stepping stone to more commercial opportunities. Hope this helps. Mike On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 11:42 PM Joshua Stone via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > Hey everyone, > > I'm sure we all know how successful Linux is across different markets > today, but I've been wondering about with Linux as a desktop platform > if one were to run a business around selling machines that're built > with it in mind. > > The market for online retailers selling devices shipping Linux already > seems diverse enough, but I don't know of any successful brick-and- > mortar stores selling these devices. I think there could be some > advantages to this, including: > > - Spreading awareness about Linux and the FOSS community > - Providing on-site troubleshooting and consultation > - Demonstrating different form factors such as Raspberry Pi, Steam OS > machines, workstation etc > - Providing a physical location for workshops, LUGs, and other meetups > - Having a one-stop shop for hardware that's already known to work on > Linux such as USB DACs, wifi adapters, etc > - Generally act as a community center for computer enthusiasts > - Partnering with pre-existing online vendors so customers can test > their hardware in-store > > Jumping into a business such as this does sound risky though, seeing as > the Linux crowd is generally very hands-on about computers they > purchase and are willing to fix problems on their own. There are also > many hurdles that the ecosystem has to catch up on in order to be > competitive with applications found only on Windows and/or macOS. That > being said, I think I'm still curious to see how much interest there > would be in selling a platform around desktop Linux in a brick-and- > mortar store with an experience similar to Microsoft and Apple stores. > It would certainly help for attracting new users with a more integrated > approach that we've come to expect from other platforms, and I think > we're in a pretty good position these days for seeing growth. > > I'd also like to say that I have no experience in marketing, so I > wouldn't know where to start with doing anything like market research > or studies, so I'm eager to hear any suggestions for how to gauge the > potential for a business idea such as this. > > More than happy to hear what everyone else thinks! > > Sincerely, > > -Josh > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Sept. 25, 2019

Becoming a brick-and-mortar Linux vendor

by Joshua Stone

Hey everyone, I'm sure we all know how successful Linux is across different markets today, but I've been wondering about with Linux as a desktop platform if one were to run a business around selling machines that're built with it in mind. The market for online retailers selling devices shipping Linux already seems diverse enough, but I don't know of any successful brick-and- mortar stores selling these devices. I think there could be some advantages to this, including: - Spreading awareness about Linux and the FOSS community - Providing on-site troubleshooting and consultation - Demonstrating different form factors such as Raspberry Pi, Steam OS machines, workstation etc - Providing a physical location for workshops, LUGs, and other meetups - Having a one-stop shop for hardware that's already known to work on Linux such as USB DACs, wifi adapters, etc - Generally act as a community center for computer enthusiasts - Partnering with pre-existing online vendors so customers can test their hardware in-store Jumping into a business such as this does sound risky though, seeing as the Linux crowd is generally very hands-on about computers they purchase and are willing to fix problems on their own. There are also many hurdles that the ecosystem has to catch up on in order to be competitive with applications found only on Windows and/or macOS. That being said, I think I'm still curious to see how much interest there would be in selling a platform around desktop Linux in a brick-and- mortar store with an experience similar to Microsoft and Apple stores. It would certainly help for attracting new users with a more integrated approach that we've come to expect from other platforms, and I think we're in a pretty good position these days for seeing growth. I'd also like to say that I have no experience in marketing, so I wouldn't know where to start with doing anything like market research or studies, so I'm eager to hear any suggestions for how to gauge the potential for a business idea such as this. More than happy to hear what everyone else thinks! Sincerely, -Josh

Sept. 25, 2019

Re: Thanks for a great meeting last night!

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "Richard" == Richard Klein via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: Richard> Shoot! I didn't have the meeting on my calendar! I'll add the next one now. It was a really fun meeting, bummer we didn't have the CAD discussion, but happy about the storage discussion.

Sept. 14, 2019

Re: Thanks for a great meeting last night!

by Richard Klein

Shoot! I didn't have the meeting on my calendar! I'll add the next one now. -- Rich On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 1:09 PM Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > As usual at WLUG, we went off on a tangent and it was amazing.. What > started out as a side conversation about storage technologies turned into > 1.5 hour conversation about LVM / ZFS on Linux / Ceph / GlusterFS / > Synology / FreeNAS / NetAPP and the general philosophies around managing > scalable storage at home and in the enterprise! > > This conversation continued at the Boynton and was great fun! > > Next meeting is the 10th of October! > > Later, > Tim. > > -- > I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their > constituents as "consumers". > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Sept. 13, 2019

Thanks for a great meeting last night!

by Tim Keller

As usual at WLUG, we went off on a tangent and it was amazing.. What started out as a side conversation about storage technologies turned into 1.5 hour conversation about LVM / ZFS on Linux / Ceph / GlusterFS / Synology / FreeNAS / NetAPP and the general philosophies around managing scalable storage at home and in the enterprise! This conversation continued at the Boynton and was great fun! Next meeting is the 10th of October! Later, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Sept. 13, 2019

September WLUG Meeting Announcement!

by Tim Keller

Hey Everybody, We've got a meeting next week! Date: September 12, 2019 Time: 7pm Location: WPI Campus Center Mid-Century Room (rm 331) aka. the usual haunt Topic: Tinkercad codeblocks and more! I know that a few of us have tinkered with and enjoy using OpenSCAD. However, for many users the learning curve is REALLY steep and this steep learning curve has kept many users away from programmatic shape generation for 3d modeling. Basically writing code to generate a shape. At our last meeting Frank Sweetser showed off something really cool, which is that Tinkercad has now integrated a "scratch" like language into Tinkercad. At this meeting someone will be giving a demo of this. I think we would be remiss if we didn't talk about exFAT and Microsoft's decision to open the patents on it. It *sounds* like we may have exFAT becoming a first class citizen on linux. Is this Microsoft playing some long game of embrace, extend, extinguish or are we moving towards some wild convergence point? In that is the interesting conversation where we think linux will be in another ten years and for that matter Microsoft. As usual, snacks and refreshments will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for dinner and fall deeper down the rabbit hole! Later, Tim. WLUG President -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Sept. 5, 2019