[NBLUG/talk] Linux Mint's "popularity, " package management, and features + NBLUG 7/12 meeting recap

[Rick Moen]

I wrote:

> I'm right now informing the illustrious Kara Pritchard's site
> https://www.linuxusersgroups.org/ that their copy of the HOTWO (1.6.2
> from 1998) is _way_ out of date, and where to get the revisions TLDP is
> ignoring.

And a follow-up on that, Brad:  

1.  The more you poke around www.linuxusersgroups.org, the more it looks
like a ghost town.  First thing:  That link to "LUG Howtos" goes to 
linuxdoc.org.  The Linux Documentation Project actually _ceased_ using
that domain some time around the year 2000, moving its entire operation
to http://tldp.org/ .  Why?  Not sure, probably some squabble.  I'm not
sure who know owns the old domain -- but that explains
www.linuxusersgroups.org points to a 1998 revision of the Linux User
Group HOWTO.

2.  As you look around www.linuxusersgroups.org more, you see no sign
that anything there is newer than June 13, 2001.

3.  I wrote to the husband and wife couple who run the site, Kara and
Steven Pritchard, at the addresses shown on
https://www.linuxusersgroups.org/about.html .  My mail was delivered,
but I got no reply.  Just attempting to make sure my mail reached a
human and not just land in a mailbox, I poked around more and found that
on https://www.linuxusersgroups.org/about.html the point of contact for
"LUG Resources" is resources at linuxusersgroups.org.  So, I forwarded my
mail to Kara and Steve to _there_, and it bounced with a non-delivery
notification saying essentially no such address.

So, basically the site has been in freefall for over 20 years, which is
why it's crufty.  Also:

4.  Checking the update notes in the last section of my HOWTO, I see
that I'd already once removed that site from the roster of LUG lists in
section 3, on grounds of a long period of site unavailability.  So, 
well, later it came back, but it's so unmaintained as to be of limited
use -- and in many ways misleading.


> 
> > There doesn't seem to be any functioning national/international LUG
> > and I went through a lot of dead links trying to even find a list of
> > local groups. I did find https://www.linuxusersgroups.org/ but it is
> > pretty out of date and NBLUG doesn't seem to be listed there.
> 
> http://linuxmafia.com/lug/User-Group-HOWTO-3.html is now a fairly
> accurate and current list of LUG lists.  As the saying from Hitchhiker's
> Guide to the Galaxy goes, "Share and enjoy!"
> 
> The Curlie (formerly dmoz.org) Linux User Groups category _does_ list
> NBLUG, by the way.  The North American part of that category is
> maintained by yr. humble servant.
> 
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