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<p>No over-stepping here Tony, these are really good ideas.</p>
<p>I'd seen the pop-up discount stores in the city (bare concrete
floors) but I didn't realise they could be free.</p>
<p>Wyatt has established PLUG as a community group at Canning
Library which means meetings at zero cost (and very close to the
train station for access). A CBD shopfront is definitely worth
exploring.<br>
</p>
<p>All the best<br>
Harry <br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 18/6/26 21:41, Tony Tone via plug
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:30528778-BABE-40A1-8706-7B5938F7A929@gmail.com">Hello
All
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div dir="ltr">My nephews cousin was able to able to rent (free
) a shop on the corner of hay st mall and William st for over
a year. They cannot get people into the city and shops lay
empty. I understand most of us have other commitments but we
may be able to negotiate a time and space that we could use
one either week nights or weekends depending on how the
schedule works. This would open you to more through traffic
and you just open door policy and let people see how easy
Linux system can be. </div>
<div dir="ltr">Only a thought </div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">I also agree with Harry. </div>
<div dir="ltr">Although the control of the internet is not the
reason I wanted to use Linux and join PLUG I believe it is
more relevant now than ever before. </div>
<div dir="ltr">I see an option, you can offer ways that people
can “escape the matrix” if you will and show them how to set
these systems up. </div>
<div dir="ltr">I understand a lot of people will sacrifice there
free will for convenience but I’m finding more and more people
are opening up to the idea of using operating systems that
don’t give away all the information to a big corporation.
Especially since there are so many better open source apps out
there than the ones currently running on platforms. </div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">I’m know I’m new to the group I hope I haven’t
overstepped. </div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Also because I work month in month off I’m not
really in Perth much. </div>
<div dir="ltr">Trying to line up these meets is challenging. </div>
<div dir="ltr">Hope to see you at one in the future. </div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Tony </div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
<blockquote type="cite">On 17 Jun 2026, at 11:34 am, Harry
McNally via plug <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au"><plug@plug.org.au></a> wrote:<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<p>Thanks Senectus, useful feedback.</p>
<p>I can't get to as many events as I'd like but with so
many resources on-line, perhaps IRL is what PLUG offers.
That has a higher cost to PLUG except PLUG in the Pub but
some people may prefer events that don't have beer and
food cost. I don't know without asking the people here or
doing the meetup Onno proposed.</p>
<p>All the best<br>
Harry <br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 15/6/26 14:20, Sen ectus via
plug wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAEJ996vutZoVjjPnCwcptvvGVbDfx9JwpFDD10LJ-koFhBN3pw@mail.gmail.com">
<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/"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">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"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">plug@plug.org.au</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote">
<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"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
moz-do-not-send="true">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" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
moz-do-not-send="true">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" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
moz-do-not-send="true">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>
_______________________________________________<br>
PLUG discussion list: <a
href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au" target="_blank"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">plug@plug.org.au</a><br>
<a
href="https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug" rel="noreferrer"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug</a><br>
Committee e-mail: <a
href="mailto:committee@plug.org.au" target="_blank"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">committee@plug.org.au</a><br>
PLUG Membership: <a
href="http://www.plug.org.au/membership"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.plug.org.au/membership</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr"><br>
<h1> </h1>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
PLUG discussion list: <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au" moz-do-not-send="true">plug@plug.org.au</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug</a>
Committee e-mail: <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:committee@plug.org.au" moz-do-not-send="true">committee@plug.org.au</a>
PLUG Membership: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.plug.org.au/membership"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.plug.org.au/membership</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<span>_______________________________________________</span><br>
<span>PLUG discussion list: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au">plug@plug.org.au</a></span><br>
<span><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug">https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug</a></span><br>
<span>Committee e-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:committee@plug.org.au">committee@plug.org.au</a></span><br>
<span>PLUG Membership: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.plug.org.au/membership">http://www.plug.org.au/membership</a></span><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
PLUG discussion list: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au">plug@plug.org.au</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug">https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug</a>
Committee e-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:committee@plug.org.au">committee@plug.org.au</a>
PLUG Membership: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.plug.org.au/membership">http://www.plug.org.au/membership</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
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