PLUG & Linux Support Getting HELP When You Need it Portland Linux/Unix Group Portland, Oregon Finding a Local Linux User Group close to you Linux International Click here to go directly to their LUG list. The Linux Organization Click here to go directly to their LUG list. The Linux Journal Click here to go directly to their LUG list. PLUG: Overview Most areas have Local Linux User Groups which give the local Open Source community a chance to share their experience and their problems and their opportunities. (Most of them also share beer from time to time. It's all part of the Linux experience.) In the Pacific Northwest, we have many such LUGs including several major well known LUGs. One of these is the Portland Linux/Unix Group which is a Local Linux User Group, but has members from around the world, and is very well known for its K12 Education Project, PLUG for Education. (PLUG is local in the sense that it meets in Portland, and is especially interested in expanding Open Source usage in Oregon and Southwest Washington; but anyone is welcome to participate, and people from all over do participate - especially on the PLUG mailing lists.) If you want more information on PLUG, visit http://www.pdxLinux.org At the moment, this site is out of date and has broken links, but a complete rewrite is progressing and may be done by the time you read this. PLUG: Getting Technical Support PLUG meets on a regular basis and has done so since mid 1994. The general meeting is currently held at 7:00 PM on the first Thursday of the month at Portland State University. This meeting has a formal presentation and is not a good place to get technical support. PLUG also meets for beer at The Lucky Labrador after the general meeting. The Lucky Labrador is located at 915 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97214. This is a good place to ask technical questions, find consultants, recruit employees, and so on. PLUG also runs a hands-on clinic which meets at Riverdale School from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM on the third Saturday of the month. Check the PLUG web pages for current details. This is a great place to get free help. It is also a good place to go and help other people learn Linux. You will learn a lot in the process. Free Geek is another organization in Portland to check out if you need Linux help on a budget. They are a totally cool computer recycling organization. Many PLUG members volunteer time to help them. PLUG has other activities as well such as monthly Advanced Topics Meetings, but most of these activities are for advanced users or people with special interests. Check the PLUG web pages for current details. Finally, there are the PLUG mailing lists. This is the major source of technical support for most PLUG members. Check them out on the PLUG web pages. PLUG: Finding Linux Jobs / Recruiting Linux People PLUG is a professional organization. As such, we want to provide professional opportunities for our members. Someday, we hope to have areas in the PLUG web site for: Help Wanted Positions Wanted Consultants Until this happens we handle this activity on our mailing lists which we archive. We only ask that people send Help Wanted announcements to David Mandel or to any other active PLUG member to be forwarded to the list. This protects you as no one can then accuse you of spamming the list. PLUG: Promoting Your Products and Services PLUG is a professional organization. As such, our members want to know about Open Source related products and companies; especially local ones. This includes products and services that work well in an Open Source environment as well as products and services which are strictly Open Source. We are trying to develop more avenues to help companies communicate with PLUG members. We accept and distribute door prizes from companies. We love to have presentations from corporations as long as the presentations are technical in nature and not just a sales presentation. We also give good advertisements to companies who provide services such as web develop, hosting, printing, long term equipment loans, and so on to PLUG. PLUG and The Linux Northwest Conference Logo Designed for Ill Fated Linux NorthWest Conference The Portland Linux/Unix Group tryed to start a Linux conference in the Northwest similar to the Atlanta Linux Showcase. Our conference was originally planned for early April 1999; but this proved to be too close to the first Linux World Conference in San Jose. Thus, we moved Linux Northwest to August 19-21, 1999 only to find other major Linux conferences scheduling on top of us. At that point, we concluded that the Linux conference business had become a "big boys game" that should be left to professional conference promoters. However, some of us are still interested in doing some sort of annual Open Source conference in the Pacific Northwest; most likely a small friendly type conference that wouldn't conflict with the "big boys" interests. I'ld certainly be interested in hearing from others who share this interest.