[plug] #introducing and Installfests

[Sen ectus]

My involvement is dependent on whats going on in life...  so over the many
years I've basically just become a lurker.

I'd like for PLUG to get a little more lively while not being demanding...
something like the https://allthingslinux.org/ project (before it got
cancelled and trolled and hacked into oblivion).
A discord like chat/forum would be nice.
But again, while I use Linux daily at work and home, I'm mostly just using
it these days. I dont often get time to play or contribute.

On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 at 12:16, Harry McNally via plug <plug at plug.org.au>
wrote:

> Late last year, Onno and I discussed ways to find out what subscribers
> might be seeking from membership of PLUG or subscribing to the PLUG mailing
> list. Onno had helped another NFP group by hosting a meeting that, after
> four hours of ideas, arrived at a direction that suited the whole group. We
> wondered if a special event like that might increase IRL participation at
> events and encourage paid membership to support those events.
>
> To add to that Onno posted about his own experience with Linux and, while
> he got a few people figuring out when they started participating in PLUG,
> there wasn't a lot of feedback to match Onno's thoughtful consideration of
> how Linux has been part of his professional and technical life.
>
> It takes time to articulate and, I wondered, what am I going to say other
> than that I use it every day (pretty much exclusively other than when I use
> Win10 as a software wrapper around Altium Designer) ? So, apologies Onno,
> this post is a long time coming.
>
> With the next Installfest less that a week away, I thought I'd explain why
> I asked the committee if I could run a series of Installfests this year.
> The journey begins in the last millennium.
>
> I'd been using Linux for a few years by 1999 although I think the first
> system in the house was a firewall installed for us by Harry Protoolis
> around 1994.
>
> In the late 90's the Coalition Federal government needed support from a
> Tasmanian senator for <some unrelated bill> and he predicated his vote on
> the introduction of a net censorship bill. Wikipedia is light on the
> machinations but EFA has some archive material:
>
> https://efa.org.au/media-releases-archive/
>
> There was a lot of campaigning by the EFA and the first (of not very many)
> political rally I attended was the Anti-Censorship Protest in Perth May 28,
> 1999.
>
> See: https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/perth/index.html
>
> My reason for taking part was a technical one; that the methods they were
> proposing would not work and it was easy to take that position because
> CSIRO were an authoritative source that were informing parliament in the
> same way.
>
> The political reaction was savage. For anyone that remembers, the tactic
> taken was that anyone who opposed the Online Services Bill was a bomb
> maker, drug dealer, or child molester.
>
> I wondered, outside of the astonishment and outrage, if more people were
> better informed about what the Internet offered, then the debate might be
> more rational.
>
> That started what turned out to be 7 years of participation in Computer
> Angels in various roles and I am forever grateful for the participation of
> so many other technical supporters and non-technical volunteers for what
> was a free training and awareness organisation that supported that with a
> free re-furbished Linux computer.
>
> But while there was a lot of support from all sides with time and
> knowledge, the thing we constantly struggled with was financial; a premises
> needed rent and disposal costs for "working glass monitors" that were found
> to have weeds growing through them meant we were constantly looking for
> operating funds.
>
> That really wore us out and stopped us in 2007. Associations law required
> that we had to wind up in the black and boxes and boxes of IEC power cables
> became a skip full which went away for chipping to copper scrap. The copper
> price was at a peak and we got $2400 (I think) for the scrap which cleared
> our debts and, as required to wind up, we passed the remainder to "a
> like-minded association" which naturally was PLUG.
>
> I've also learned that a past Benjamin (we have a few) donated all fees
> from one of his consulting contracts on to PLUG so these intermittent cash
> injections have helped PLUG continue to host events; albeit frugally.
>
> Skip to late 2025 and this year and with Online Services (Age
> Restrictions) Bill and AI and I wondered if Installfests could encourage a
> new group of users to install Linux or become proficient with independent
> content using Hugo or a Mastodon server.
>
> James has demonstrated the minimal cost required to host PLUG on Digital
> Lane and my own interest is still RaspberryPi hosting on a home network.
> Could PLUG share Ansible scripts or configured RPi images to download to
> offer alternatives to social media algorithms ?
>
> So far public attendance at the Installfests has been mute but I have
> extended the promotion this time to see if we can reach people to simply
> install on a retired machine and give it a try. I see it as a Computer
> Angels flashmob; all the fun but at much lower cost.
>
> So the event this Saturday is on the usual page.
> https://plug.org.au/installfest
>
> Committee has added backup/restore as a theme and I have extended the RPi
> theme if anyone wants to bring ideas for home hosting servers or all other
> things Pi. If you let the list know if you are coming for an hour and what
> time then it is an opportunity to get like-minded project ideas at certain
> times.
>
> If we get more public attendees then more hands will be helpful. If we
> don't, then we can hear your ideas and projects that you can bring. It
> would be great to see you and them.
>
> All the best
> Harry
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.org.au
> PLUG Membership: http://www.plug.org.au/membership
>


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