[Vox-Outreach] Re: Vox-outreach digest, Vol 1 #112 - 10 msgs

[Bill Kendrick]

On Tue, May 13, 2003 at 03:01:36PM -0700, Paul Miller wrote:
> 1. Our surveys show that 63% of OpenOffice.org installations are on the 
> Windows platform
<snip>
> The gradual transition to an open source product could
> eventually lead to adopting an open source platform.

This is why I really like GNUWin II. ;^)  Along with OOo, it has
great stuff like MySQL, The Gimp, some open source games,
scientific stuff... the whole gamut!


<snip>
> 3. I thought I am one of you in spirit although it is too expensive for me
> to participate in person very often because of the 75 mile distance 
> so I am pretty
> much just a name on your roster. Sorry I can't participate more.

Personally, I think you're doing a great job. :^)  And I'm always happy
to see you at events.  (Paul helped out at PC Expo and Writers Conference
both, if I recall correctly.)


> 4. I made commitments to the OpenOffice.org marketing project.  I certainly
> don't expect others to drop commitments to LUGOD or to compete for 
> resources.

Are the OOo folks alright with something like GNUWin II?


<snip>
> It turns out that I should be getting 300 CDs from
> Sun delivered to GTC West loading dock as a result of  mail traffic
> with OOo participants and this list.

That's awesome.  As far as I'm concerned, I think it would be awesome if
we could have a constant supply of Knoppix, GNUWin II and OpenOffice.org
discs to hand out at all of our events, and at all of our meetings.

If Sun feels like dumping more discs this way, tell them "by all means, do it!"
I'm obviously not too troubled by lugging junk back and forth to meetings.

Having a table full of 'free stuff' makes our meetings a little more "fun",
or "worth it" or something.  And I feel it's welcoming; less "sterile"
than most other large UG meetings I've been to.


<snip>
> In this case: Norman Davison, 
> AlternativeSoftware.org project.
> 
> Thanks for the stress relief Norman!

Indeed!  I'll need to make a note to put him down in people to thank for
helping us put GTC together!


<snip>
> I love Knoppix.  However, it is not currently targeted at IT departments.

No, it's not.  I'm very interested in looking at Morphix, which is
a Knoppix-style disc (probably based on Knoppix) which is apparently
highly configurable.  (As in, you can pick-n-choose what goes on it.)

Knoppix is awesome, but from watching people play with it at WEF, it's
a little overwhelming, what with the tons of iconless, poorly-named
"X-this" and "X-that" applications buried in its countless submenus. :^(


<snip>
> In hindsight buying one CD and burning from that may have been a better
> choice than to bother the list with my last minute plea.  Sorry for the
> panic attack.

Hehe... Don't worry.  This has all been pretty hectic and last-minute for us
all.  Especially since it practically butted up against Whole Earth Festival.

(I totally forgot that Marc Hall was meeting us for lunch today, and that
Lee Welter wanted to go to the Convention Center to help out.  Hopefully
I didn't forget anyone else today!)


<snip>
> The Mac OS X distribution is still beta.  The Mac version uses X11 and works
> identical to the other platforms at this stage.  There is no Mac OS 9 
> version and none is planned.

That's sad.  As much as MacOSX rocks, and OS9 is 'dead' to Jobs,
it's hard to just pretend those 100s of 1000s of computers out there don't
exist.  I realize any hardcore Mac addict with money will have upgraded to OSX
by now, but there are schools and orgs out there probably still sitting on
pretty old hardware that can't run OSX.



<snip>
> StarOffice uses OpenOffice.org as the basis for their product.  The Sun
> vendor did not offer to share the StarOffice disks with us but we can point
> people to govstor.com at booth 1632 for free StarOffice 6 CDs as long as his
> 250 CDs last.

(Making a note; thanks)


<snip>
> See you Thursday at GTC West.

Thanks!  Wish us luck for tomorrow!!!

-bill!
root@lugod.org
http://www.lugod.org/
Linux Users' Group of Davis