[plug] Professional Linux Organisation

[Colin Muller]

On Wed, May 22, 2002 at 05:54:30PM +0800, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> One of the working titles Leon and Brian and I were tossing around
> off-list was Western Australian Linux Industry Association (WALIA). 

Good name, but I'd suggest giving some thought to whether this will
function better as a "Linux" organisation or as a more widely-focused
open systems (open-source, libre software, interoperable standards)
professionals' organisation. For reasons, look at Jacqueline's recent
post about the requirements document she'd received. They were not
looking to buy an operating system, and I think you'll find very few
people are. How many people buy Windows? Very few: they buy a
computer, and it has Windows on it. And they don't buy the computer
because it has Windows on it, but because they want to do something
with it. The same applies at almost every level of IT purchasing.

All of us who use Linux to provide professional services also use a
lot of open-source software which is not exclusive to Linux in the
course of providing those services (ask Richard Stallman :-)). Why not
form an association which reflects that reality? I believe the broader
outlook inherent in doing so would result in a proportionatley broader
impact.

Colin