- WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

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

Sr Linux Software Engineer opening

by John Spencer

Connected Systems has a client with a perm/direct hire opening for the following: As a Senior Linux Software Engineer with this group on Cape Cod, you will be working on the embedded software and firmware development and enhancements of a new IoT system platform. Please note our client will consider candidates who can work on-site 1-2 days/week. We're seeking candidates that have the ability to modify kernels and drivers on Linux based systems. A candidate will also ideally have some form of wireless, wifi or Bluetooth product experience. 10+ years of Linux programming with C++/C coding for Firmware development Strong experience with Linux systems, Linux Kernels, Linux Drivers and security programming Experience with Wireless, Wifi, or Bluetooth (BLE) based technology Bonus points for candidates experienced in Yocto Linux or Systems Architecture Please Note : All candidates must be US Citizens or US Greencards. Our client cannot sponsor visas. Salary up to $150K will be considered. Please send your resume and any questions to me directly. Regards, John Spencer Connected Systems Partners Office: (978) 455-5550 x208 Cell: (978) 621-9743 jspencer(a)connectedsp.com www.connectedsp.com GET CONNECTED! All information in this email, unless indicated otherwise in the body of the email, is considered confidential and intended for the view and use of the recipient(s) only.

Sept. 3, 2019

Re: August WLUG meeting reminder!!

by Tim Keller

Keith, If your up for it, I can pick you up at your house. Otherwise, we need to up our streaming game! In any case, I hope you feel better soon. Later, Tim. On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 2:39 PM Keith Wright via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > > > Hey fellow WLUG'ers! > > > > We've got a meeting this Thursday August 15th! > > Keep the faith. I had planned to be there, > but I fell and sprained my ankle. > Getting between the bed, bathroom, and armchair, > is about all the moving I want to do. > > I haven't fogotten you and I hope to see you next month. > > -- Keith > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Aug. 15, 2019

Re: August WLUG meeting reminder!!

by Keith Wright

Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > Hey fellow WLUG'ers! > > We've got a meeting this Thursday August 15th! Keep the faith. I had planned to be there, but I fell and sprained my ankle. Getting between the bed, bathroom, and armchair, is about all the moving I want to do. I haven't fogotten you and I hope to see you next month. -- Keith

Aug. 15, 2019

Re: Comparing distro packages

by Dennis Payne

I know openalchemist is there. I have it installed. I maintain ostrichriders and btbuilder. I alerted the maintainer of shippy to my updated version of that program. What I'm interested in knowing, is when something is included in Fedora but not Debian. This doesn't have to be limited to Fedora and Debian. They just happen to be the ones I'm looking at. If you give a demo of say openalchemist at a user group meeting, it would be nice to be able to say it is available on Fedora and FreeBSD but not Debian. There is a PPA for Ubuntu. I stumbled on this wiki page for Debian which compared it to Fedora 20 but I have no idea how up to date it is: https://wiki.debian.org/Games/FedoraGamesNotInDebian On Tue, 2019-08-13 at 15:23 +0000, Anderson, Charles R via WLUG wrote: > openalchemist has recent builds in Fedora: > > https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=7009 > > shippy, ostrichriders, btbuilder are all there as well. > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org

Aug. 13, 2019

Re: Comparing distro packages

by Anderson, Charles R

On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 08:54:56AM -0400, Dennis Payne via WLUG wrote: > I wanted to know if OpenAlchemist is included in Debian. During my > searching I found distrowatch has the ability to compare packages from > distributions. I pull up Fedora and Debian. > > https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=compare-packages&firstlist=fedor… > > Fedora's list of packages doesn't include OpenAlchemist. Nor does it > include shippy, ostrichriders, and btbuilder. Clearly this isn't a > complete list. Am I doing something wrong on distrowatch? Is there a > different way to do the same thing? openalchemist has recent builds in Fedora: https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=7009 shippy, ostrichriders, btbuilder are all there as well.

Aug. 13, 2019