[huskerlug] Re: Budget Cuts again
- From: Eric Penne <epenne@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: huskerlug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 13:23:07 -0800 (PST)
Nowhere did I say anything about us supporting anything. Perlman has
to make decisions to cut funds. Increasing support and licensing costs
don't help him to cut funds. We need to "suggest" alternatives to him.
Not everybody in a position of importance knows what is happening in
the computing world. They rely on other people to keep them informed
about things. We can give him that initial information. Maybe he will
ask us for a proposal of some sort. Maybe he'll ask the people that
the university pays to know about this stuff for a proposal. Maybe he
won't do a damn thing. If we don't give this to him then what are we
really doing? Sporadic meetings and an email list don't make for a
fully functional LUG.
I know about time constraints and pressure. Just a few years ago I was
taking a full load of classes in EE and working 20 hours/week. At one
time I was doing both of those and the president of the student IEEE
group. Don't flame me for pushing you. If you feel overloaded then
you need to delegate responsibility. If there is nobody else to take
responsibility then you need to find somebody who will. I pushed people
to get them doing something that mattered. I helped get more than one
passive person actively contributing to the group. I just want to raise
awareness of what we are here for.
From the Website:
"The purpose of HLUG is to provide support for Linux and it's
applications, connect Linux users in the area, and expose others to
alternative computing solutions they may not be aware of."
In this instance, screw the ongoing support, we're not paid to do this.
We are connecting linux users in the area, yeah! I think ASUN blew us
off. In reality I've never liked ASUN. Too much power, too much
apathy, not enough brains, flat out overrated. But this is our chance
to expose an alternative computing solution to Perlman. He's looking
for any way to reduce the budget that will result in minimal staff and
programs lost. He doesn't want to cut the budget, he has to. This
requires budget cuts everywhere. If we can suggest an alternative that
may cut $10,000 from the budget over the next 2 years then he wants to
see it. That 10G could save a grad student or help keep tuition and
fees down.
*takes a deep breath*
Thanks
Eric Penne
epenne@xxxxxxxx
--- Alex Strasheim <alex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > And the next few years till 2005? What I'm concerned about is
> support...
> > and I'm fairly sure HLUG is not in a position to provide it. Call
> me a
> > pessimist, but that's what I see from this end.
>
> I'm a returning student, just back on campus, and I don't know much
> about
> how the university provides computing resources and support, so this
> may be
> totally unrealistic, but...
>
> You can check out laptops in the union and (I think) the library.
> The
> laptops connect to the campus's wireless network -- it's a great
> service.
> But there are problems with it -- problems, for the most part, that
> come
> from limitations in windows.
>
> What if we could set up a single machine -- it woulnd't have to be
> big,
> because I doubt many people would use this at first -- and produced a
> cd
> image that would allow people to boot linux on those laptops, and log
> in to
> their own desktop. Something that would let students save bookmarks
> and
> files, and use a decent mail client instead of a web based client.
> It could
> use open office, and provide access to both KDE and Gnome apps.
>
> The idea is to try to provide a better service instead of trying to
> win
> politically by convincing people in a back office to make a change.
> If we
> can't come up with something useful, then support or resources aren't
> a big
> problem -- no one will use it, as we're not taking windows away from
> anyone.
> And if people do like it, then the university would have an incentive
> to
> pick up the project and run with it -- both to provide better service
> for
> the users, and to open up the possibility of climbing out from under
> the
> license fees down the road.
>
> A first attempt at the service would probably be kind of crummy, but
> that
> would be ok -- we wouldn't exaggerate what we're trying to do. But I
> think
> a pretty slick desktop could be created in a relatively short period
> of
> time, built on top of, say, debian, which has a nice package
> management
> system.
>
> Maybe if we run a pilot program in a year or two we'd have our ducks
> lined
> up well enough to be able to offer a real alternative.
>
> It seems to me, though -- I'm sitting in the union now, using my own
> laptop -- that the school has done a pretty good job of rolling out
> computing services. There's an enormous difference from the way
> things were
> 8 years ago, when I was last here, and they do a great job of
> providing
> computing resources to students who don't have their own laptops.
>
> Windows is just a part of that -- they're also supporting OS X, and
> I'm sure
> they have put a lot of thought into the way they admin individual
> machines,
> how they run the infrastructure and networks, and how they provide
> support.
> Changing major pieces of the puzzle, like windows and office, would
> probably
> be extremely unpleasant for the people who are sitting on top of the
> system.
>
> It seems to me that the kind of advocacy most likely to succeed is an
> advocacy that's based on people building cool stuff and donating it
> to the
> school. A web application that will allow kids to download syllabii
> (if one
> doesn't exist -- my profs don't use it if it does), or a desktop
> system like
> the one I described at the top of this, or whatever.
>
> Even this seems problematic to me -- if I were on the university's
> side of
> the table, I'd have concerns about how well things were documented,
> what
> happens if the volunteers stop supporting them, and so forth. It
> seems to
> me that we have to figure out how to do our thing in a way that the
> university can live with; telling them to change the way that
> they're doing
> things is probably a losing proposition.
>
>
>
>
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>
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