[PLUG] Coordination and Planning

[Preston Crawford]

On Wed, 24 Apr 2002, Dylan Reinhardt wrote:

> But we're here and maybe it's time for us to find the way our skills can
> best benefit the larger project we're all a part of.  I'm not likely to
> offer anyone here the very best perl algorithm or sendmail advice, but I
> can write a hell of a press release and plan a mean PR campaign.  Maybe
> working with the LDP is the best and most appropriate way for me to contribute,
> but somehow I doubt it.
> 
> Just thinkin' out loud...

I'm glad you said this. I really get discouraged when someone gets in the 
mindset of the Linux community needing direct most of its energy to 
exactly duplicating the functionality of Windows software. We're never 
going to catch up at that rate. People are never EVER going to be 
convinced of the value of Open Source if it's constantly a pure technology 
race with Microsoft. What's needed is on-the-ground support, training, and 
assistance to make what exists now accessible. Let those with the 
technical skills handle the programming and let others (even those of us 
with technical skills who'd like to help people directly) actually 
interact with people and show them the benefits of Open Source. 

Remember, Microsoft got to the point they are in part because of word of 
mouth, popularity. So PR, human interaction are probably as much if not 
more necessary than making sure Gnumeric is as easy to use as Excel.

Preston