Linux Support

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Of course, for the newcomer, the primary role of a LUG is Linux support -- but it is a mistake to suppose that Linux support means only technical support for new Linux users. It should mean much more.

LUGs have the opportunity to support:

  • users
  • consultants
  • businesses, non-profit organisations, and schools
  • the Linux movement

Contents

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Users

New Linux users' most frequent complaint, once they have Linux installed, is the steep learning curve characteristic of all modern Unixes. With that learning curve, however, comes the power and flexibility of a real operating system. A LUG is often the a new user's main resource to flatten the learning curve.

During Linux's first decade, it gained some first-class journalistic resources, which should not be neglected: The main monthly magazines of longest standing are Linux Journal and Linux Gazette (on-line; note new site). More recently, they've been joined by LinuxFocus (on-line), Linux Format, LinuxUser and Developer, Linux Magazine, Linux For You, and LinuxWorld Magazine.

Standout on-line magazines with weekly or better publication cycles include Linux Weekly News, Linux Today, FreshNews, and Newsforge.

All of these resources have eased LUGs' job of spreading essential news and information -- about bug fixes, security problems, patches, new kernels, etc., but new users must still be made aware of them, and taught that the newest kernels are always available from ftp.kernel.org, that the Linux Documentation Project has newer versions of Linux HOWTOs than do CD-based Linux distributions, and so on.

Intermediate and advanced users also benefit from proliferation of timely and useful tips, facts, and secrets. Because of the Linux world's manifold aspects, even advanced users often learn new tricks or techniques simply by participating in a LUG. Sometimes, they learn of software packages they didn't know existed; sometimes, they just remember arcane vi command sequences they've not used since college.

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Consultants

LUGs can help Linux consultants find their customers and vice-versa, by providing a forum where they can come together. Consultants also aid LUGs by providing experienced leadership. New and inexperienced users gain benefit from both LUGs and consultants, since their routine or simple requests for support are handled by LUGs gratis, while their complex needs and problems -- the kind requiring paid services -- can be fielded by consultants found through the LUG.

The line between support requests needing a consultant and those that don't is sometimes indistinct; but, in most cases, the difference is clear. While a LUG doesn't want to gain the reputation for pawning new users off unnecessarily on consultants -- as this is simply rude and very anti-Linux behaviour -- there is no reason for LUGs not to help broker contacts between users needing consulting services and professionals offering them.

Caveat: While "the difference is clear" to intelligent people of goodwill, the Inevitable Ones are also always with us, who act willfully dense about the limits of free support when they have pushed those limits too far. Remember, too, my earlier point about the vast majority of the population valuing everything at acquisition cost (instead of use value), including what they receive for free. This leads some, especially some in the corporate world, to use (and abuse) LUG technical support with wild abandon, while simultaneously complaining bitterly of its inadequate detail, insufficient promptness, supposedly unfair expectations that the user learn and not re-ask minor variations on the same question endlessly, etc. In other words, they treat relations with LUG volunteers the way they would a paid support vendor, but one they treat with zero respect because of its zero acquisition cost.

In the consulting world, there's a saying about applying "invoice therapy" to such behaviour: Because of the value system alluded to above, if your consulting advice is poorly heeded and poorly used, it just might be the case that you need to charge more. By contrast, the technical Linux community has often been characterised as a "gift culture", with a radically different value system: Members gain status through enhanced reputation among peers, which in turn they improve through visible participation: code, documentation, technical assistance to the public, etc.

Clash between the two very different value-based cultures is inevitable and can become a bit ugly. LUG activists should be prepared to intercede before the ingrate newcomer is handed her head on a platter, and politely suggest that her needs would be better served by paid (consultant-based) services. There will always be judgement calls; the borderline is inherently debatable and a likely source of controversy.

Telltale signs that a questioner may need to be transitioned to consulting-based assistance include:

  • An insistence on getting solutions in "recipe" (rote) form, with the apparent aim of not needing to learn technological fundamentals.
  • Asking the same questions (or ones closely related) repeatedly.
  • Insisting on private assistance from helpers active in public (Linux community) forums.
  • Vague problem descriptions, or ones that change with time.
  • Interrupting answers in order to ask additional questions (suggesting lack of attention to the answers).
  • Demands that answers be recast or delivered more quickly (suggesting that the questioner's time and trouble are valuable, but that helpers' are not).
  • Asking unusually complex, time-consuming, and/or multipart questions.

In general, LUG members are especially delighted to help, on a volunteer basis, members who seem likely to participate in the Linux "gift culture" by picking up its body of lore and, in turn, perpetuating it by teaching others in their turn. Certainly, there's nothing wrong with having other priorities and values, but such folk may in some cases be best referred to paid assistance, as a better fit for their needs.

An additional observation that may or may not be useful, at this point: There are things one may be willing to do for free, to assist others in the Linux community, that one will refuse to do for money: Shifting from assisting someone as a volunteer fundamentally changes the relationship. A fellow computerist who suddenly becomes a customer is a very different person; one's responsibilities are quite different, and greater. You're advised to be aware, if not wary, of this distinction.

Please see Joshua Drake's Linux Consultants Guide for an international list of Linux consultants.

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Businesses, non-profit organisations, and schools

LUGs also have the opportunity to support local businesses and organisations. This support has two aspects: First, LUGs can support businesses and organisations wanting to use Linux (and Linux-based applications) as a part of their computing and IT efforts. Second, LUGs can support local businesses and organisations developing software for Linux, cater to Linux users, support or install Linux, etc.

The support LUGs can provide to local businesses wanting to use Linux as a part of their computing operations differs little from the help LUGs give individuals trying Linux at home. For example, compiling the Linux kernel doesn't really differ. Supporting businesses, however, may require supporting proprietary Linux software -- e.g., the Oracle, Sybase, and DB2 databases (or VMware, Win4Lin, and such things). Some LUG expertise in these areas may help businesses make the leap into Linux deployments.

This leads us directly to the second kind of support a LUG can give to local businesses: LUGs can serve as a clearinghouse for information available in few other places. For example:

  • Which local ISP is Linux-friendly?
  • Are there any local hardware vendors building Linux PCs?
  • Does anyone sell Linux CDs locally?

Maintaining and making this kind of information public not only helps the LUG members, but also helps Linux-friendly businesses and encourages them to continue to be Linux-friendly. It may even, in some cases, help further a competitive environment in which other businesses are encouraged to follow suit.

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Free / open-source software development

Finally, LUGs may also support the Linux movement by soliciting and organising charitable giving. Chris Browne has thought about this issue as much as anyone I know, and he contributes the following:

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Chris Browne on free software / open source philanthropy

A further involvement can be to encourage sponsorship of various Linux-related organisations in a financial way. With the multiple millions of Linux users, it would be entirely plausible for grateful users to individually contribute a little. Given millions of users, and the not-unreasonable sum of a hundred dollars of "gratitude" per Linux user ($100 being roughly the sum not spent this year upgrading a Microsoft OS), that could add up to hundreds of millions of dollars towards development of improved Linux tools and applications.

A user group can encourage members to contribute to various "development projects". Having some form of "charitable tax exemption" status can encourage members to contribute directly to the group, getting tax deductions as appropriate, with contributions flowing on to other organisations.

It is appropriate, in any case, to encourage LUG members to direct contributions to organisations with projects and goals they individually wish to support.

This section lists possible candidates. None are explicitly being recommended here, but the list represents useful food for thought. Many are registered as charities in the USA, thus making US contributions tax-deductible.

Here are organisations with activities particularly directed towards development of software working with Linux:

Contributions to these organisations have the direct effect of supporting creation of freely redistributable software usable with Linux. Dollar for dollar, such contributions almost certainly yield greater benefit to the Linux community than any other kind of spending.

There are also organisations less directly associated with Linux, that may nonetheless be worthy of assistance, such as:

Based in San Francisco, EFF is a donor-supported membership organization working to protect our fundamental rights regardless of technology; to educate the press, policy-makers, and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties. Among our various activities, EFF opposes misguided legislation, initiates and defends court cases preserving individuals' rights, launches global public campaigns, introduces leading edge proposals and papers, hosts frequent educational events, engages the press regularly, and publishes a comprehensive archive of digital civil liberties information at one of the most linked-to Web sites in the world.

  • The LaTeX3 Project Fund

The TeX Users Group (TUG) is working on the "next generation" version of the LaTeX publishing system, known as LaTeX3. Linux is one of the platforms on which TeX and LaTeX are best supported.

Donations for the project can be sent to:

TeX Users Group
c/o Robin Laakso, executive director
TeX Users Group
PO Box 2311
Portland, OR 97208-2311

or, for those in Europe,

UK TUG
c/o Dr RWD Nickalls (Chairman, UK-TuG)
Department of Anæsthesia,
Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust,
Hucknall Road,
Nottingham, NG5 1PB, UK

Project Gutenberg's purpose is to make freely available in electronic form the texts of public-domain books. This isn't directly a "Linux thing", but seems fairly worthy, and they actively encourage platform independence, which means their "products" are quite usable with Linux.

The Open Source Education Foundation's purpose to enhance K-12 education through the use of technologies and concepts derived from The Open Source and Free Software movement. In conjunction with Tux4Kids, OSEF created a bootable distribution of GNU/Linux (Knoppix for Kids) based on Klaus Knopper's Knoppix, aimed at kids, parents, teachers, and other school officials. OSEF installs and supports school computer labs, and has developed a "K12 Box" as a compact Plug and Play workstation computer for student computer labs.

"PingoS e.V." is a registered non-profit entity with the goal of promoting the use of Linux in schools. Any German school can use it for free support concerning Linux, and PingoS staff give presentations about Linux in schools. Also, PingoS e.V. is the legal head of SelfLinux, a project aiming to create a comprehensive and free set of German-language documentation about Linux and free / open-source software.

OSAF is Mitch Kapor's non-profit foundation to create and popularise open-source application software of uncompromising quality, starting with its pioneering personal information manager, Chandler.

(Please note that suggested additions to the above list of Linux-relevant charities are most welcome.)

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Linux movement

I have referred throughout this HOWTO to what I call the Linux movement. There really is no better way to describe the international Linux phenomenon: It isn't a bureaucracy, but is organised. It isn't a corporation, but is important to businesses everywhere. The best way for a LUG to support the international Linux movement is to keep the local Linux community robust, vibrant, and growing. Linux is developed internationally, which is easy enough to see by reading the kernel source code's MAINTAINERS file -- but Linux is also used internationally. This ever-expanding user base is key to Linux's continued success, and is where the LUGs are vital.

The Linux movement's strength internationally lies in offering unprecedented computing power and sophistication for its cost and freedom. The keys are value and independence from proprietary control. Every time a new person, group, business, or organisation experiences Linux's inherent value, the Linux movement grows. LUGs help that happen.

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