Moving to Montgomery, AL

unamanic · June 16, 2010, 3:27am

At the end of the month my family and I will be relocating to Montgomery, AL. Googling for “Montgomery linux users group” yielded a page that hasn’t been updated in 2 years and a mailing list that requires moderator approval (that never gets approved). Is anyone aware of an active Linux community in central AL?

TaraIkeda · June 16, 2010, 3:40am

No, but I like your little Adipose icon

unamanic · June 16, 2010, 3:48am

Thanks, for some reason some people think it’s some kind of mutated penguin.

caf4926 · June 16, 2010, 4:45am

It sure looks like itlol!

I had to Google it to find out what it was.

Good luck with the move.
Since we don’t know where you are now, we don’t know if the South will be a new experience - but anyway… enjoy the warmth.

TaraIkeda · June 16, 2010, 5:49am

He’s just lucky I am a sci fi geek.

chief_sealth · June 16, 2010, 6:12am

Local Linux groups can be hard to locate. Where I am, there have been various groups disbanded due to lack of users’ time or interest. This kind of social networking is becoming obsolete. I try to get students interested in the idea where I work, but again, time is a problem. The closest I know of right now is a Python Interest Group, who are almost all Linux users. This is Seattle, though, and you might still have better luck in the South. There is an annual LinuxFest here, and you might look for something similar in your region.

DenverD · June 16, 2010, 6:50am

unamanic wrote:
> Is anyone aware of an active Linux community in central AL?

this group is very active all around the suburbs and the city-center
of Montgomery, and world wide and, they are mostly friendly and
helpful (except for a few old pharts)…

catch’em here http://tinyurl.com/4trnh8

unamanic · June 16, 2010, 1:10pm

You know I don’t think I’ve heard of them before, I’ll have to check them out! :rolleyes:

I tend to distro hop on my own machine, but earlier this recently I standardized my family on on openSUSE. So, I’ll be around even if I don’t happen to be running it at the time (because someone in the house will be).

unamanic · June 16, 2010, 1:18pm

I thought Linux users were genetically predisposed to being Sci-Fi geeks… Maybe not Doctor Who fans, but at least Star Wars or Star Trek.

DenverD · June 16, 2010, 1:38pm

actually, when you get to Montgomery, you might check around the IT
department of the Auburn campus…or the US Air Force base on the
other side of town…between the two, you should be able to scrape
together some folks…maybe…

[AUM and USAF alumnus]

unamanic · June 16, 2010, 3:06pm

I’m in the Air Force(I don’t usually advertise that, since it can cause some political flame wars to brew), and you’d be surprised how few Linux geeks there are, even in the IT career fields. I’ll have to take a look at the university (I need to start taking some classes again anyway).

dragonbite · June 16, 2010, 3:46pm

Don’t just look for Linux groups too.

I am a member of the Danbury Area Computer Society (Danbury, CT), which actually has a nice balance of Windows, Mac AND Linux.

When I started getting involved with them a few years back (~ 2005), Linux was just starting to get more recognized. My first (second?) time attending the Linux SIG I was informed the SIG leader was leaving! Some of the other guys took it over for a bit but before too long I became the SIG leader and we managed to get some intelligent, capable people to counter-act my ignorance

What helped was writing some linux-orientated articles (usually on distribution releases), and a member of the SIG (now the SIG leader) and I did a presentation on Linux to the rest of the club during a general meeting.

So what I am suggesting is to not just look for Linux groups. If there is a computer group, sometimes they are interested in Linux but don’t know who to talk with.

DenverD · June 16, 2010, 4:39pm

unamanic wrote:
> and you’d be surprised how few Linux geeks there are, even in the
> IT career fields.

well, there you go! you have found a full time part time job of
educating those in blue around you…things like items one (DoD), two
(Navy), five (FAA) and many other heavy duty users among the fifty here:

http://www.focus.com/fyi/information-technology/50-places-linux-running-you-might-not-expect/

as for Auburn: they run masters level classes on base (its pretty far
to the AUM campus) and i’d guess undergraduate also…look into
it…it is a good school…and, of course, you can use the VA to make
it very reasonable, economically.