<div dir="ltr">My involvement is dependent on whats going on in life... so over the many years I've basically just become a lurker.<br><br>I'd like for PLUG to get a little more lively while not being demanding... something like the <a href="https://allthingslinux.org/">https://allthingslinux.org/</a> project (before it got cancelled and trolled and hacked into oblivion).<br>A discord like chat/forum would be nice. <br>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.</div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 at 12:16, Harry McNally via plug <<a href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au">plug@plug.org.au</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>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.
<br>
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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:</p>
<p><a href="https://efa.org.au/media-releases-archive/" target="_blank">https://efa.org.au/media-releases-archive/</a> <br>
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>See: <a href="https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/perth/index.html" target="_blank">https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/perth/index.html</a></p>
<p>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 <span>authoritative</span> source that were
informing parliament in the same way.</p>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
<p>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 ? <br>
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>So the event this Saturday is on the usual page.
<a href="https://plug.org.au/installfest" target="_blank">https://plug.org.au/installfest</a><br>
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>All the best<br>
Harry</p>
<p><br>
</p>
</div>
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