[plug] Feedback so far

[Harry McNally]

Hello

Thanks everyone that offered feedback so far.

The committee may add to my observations when it meets. For now:

Greg O said:

> I'd love to say I will come to the March event, because my 10yo NUC is overpowered for what it does, and when it eventually dies I would like to know what I can practically achieve with a Pi. I also want to run HA, beyond the Docker container I started a year ago and promptly neglected.

My interest is similarly low powered servers and the Pi has a high profile. If people have heard of Pi, it makes sense to make it an entry point for small projects. PLUG (through Nick's efforts) has access to support from Raspberry Pi Ltd for these events.   

Chris Mc said:

> I have a Pi running in our place in Perth as a NAS. [..] I modified a Pi case STL file in Blender and 3d printed a little enclosure that houses everything - the powered USB hub, two drives, and the Pi itself. I set up Wireguard (..) and now I can connect to the Pi from anywhere in the world ..

This would be a great project to show off on the Raspberry Jam evening if you are able to bring it.

Brad C said:

> We have 4 that are permanent and a couple that get used wirelessly for things like programming PICs or as wireless serial ports for configuring stuff. [.. interesting applications follow ..]

These are all interesting applications although I can see it would be hard to bring physical hardware for the backup systems! It would be great to have you at the Raspberry Jam evening to talk about those applications or any that are pocket-able that you can bring along.

> Mythic Beasts has been doing Pi co-lo for a few years now. I've been meaning to play with one of those.

My own perspective is taking back the hardware rather than waggling the credit card at a cloud provider. The comparison I'd make is that a ham radio enthusiast isn't going to have the same fun by hiring a sat phone. I'm happy to be warned of obstacles for self hosting and ways around them. Still, part of the session could also demonstrate setting up a Pi at Mythic Beasts.

Rob P said:

> I have not found plug to be particularly useful - the esoteric stuff discussed on this list is way above my head. What I would be interested in is information about how to use linux as a productivity tool.

Thanks Rob. I had someone say years ago that they don't post to the plug list because they were intimidated by the technical discussions. And yet then there was always people asking questions about this or that user application issue they hadn't found a way to solve. Today I see many solutions to issues on-line that can be contradictory or simply wrong. The PLUG list traffic has declined and it could be that it is only technical posts that remain. Jacek (committee) has also noted that he is getting people at Riff / SpaceCubed asking about Linux when they see him using it. This could assist us to re-invigorate the list with fresh questions and solutions.

I can already see two opportunities for sessions from your list.

There are graphical tools rather that using sudo apt but I'd argue they still require some work to figure out what packages you need to select for XYZ App. An evening looking at the available package management tools and security upgrades would be one for the committee to discuss and plan.

Also, graphical file managers; configuring them, documentation, and how to request improvements to shortcomings. We have access to Ubuntu developers in Perth who could offer guidance on how to contact developer lists to request change. I think the committee need to ask (that is, survey) which file managers are of most interest and provide an evening that compares and contrasts features.

BillK said:

> Timely - I just unplugged my last Pi (a 3B) a couple of days ago as being too underpowered.

To be honest, I haven't discussed the PLUG on Pi in any detail with Nick yet but the PLUG on Pi may run services on multiple Pi (or cluster ?). For now the AWS instance is only serving web and mailing list and membership management. If Nick shares my view then I think the idea is to see how much can be achieved using small hardware.

PLUG used to offer shell services before the co-lo server failed so there are opportunities to see how far the Pi (one or more) can take that.

I heard second-hand that scribe (hello) had talked on Masterdon about the PLUG Installfests. This got me thinking that the social media exclusion laws may be handing an opportunity to introduce circa-2025 Trents to open source tools and hardware. I'd like to explore if we can arrange sessions for 10 to 16 year olds (and anyone) to set up their own Masterdon on Pi. There are plenty of on-line resources describing how but a face to face would be a great way to assist anyone starting out with a Pi.

Feedback welcome.

All the best
Harry
Chair, Perth Linux User Group