Debian talk/presentation at BALUG(!) / Debian event(s) ...

[Michael Paoli]

Excellent.  Thanks.

If you want, you could also - even just temporarily -
subscribe yourself to the BALUG "talk" list and
ask there and/or see what responses show up there (it is
publicly archived
http://lists.balug.org/listinfo.cgi/balug-talk-balug.org
)

Grabbing a few ideas off the top of my head, these are a few
potential areas (in no particular
order) that jump to mind that may be rather to quite interesting
for BALUG folks:

Debian's:
    social contract
    constitution
        voting (if only some governments had such cleanly
            defined and highly functional voting systems)
    structure
    history
    what does it take to become a Debian Developer?
    what's non-free and contrib in Debian?
    what percentage of installed base of LINUX systems
        are Debian or based derived from Debian?
    how many derivative distributions and/or how does percentage
        derived from Debian compare to percentage derived from
        other "major" distributions
    what's
        stable
        testing
        unstable
        sarge
        etch
        sid
        where do all these names come from
    does debian have a release schedule?
    how many Debian developers are there?
    Does Debian give out free:
        CDs
        DVDs
        T-shirts
        hats
        mugs
        ...
        why/why not?
    what's Debian's annual budget?
    how does one donate $$ to help Debian?
    how does one donate time/skills to help Debian
    Debian's rock solid technical excellence - how come all that
        commercial LINUX stuff they make me use at work is so
        darn much buggier than Debian?
    Future of Debian (both general and specific goals/targets)
    In what ways is Debian unique
        by it's nature (e.g. has done, will always do, will never do)
        unique technical accomplishments (Debian only or Debian first)
Projects (Debian or not) you have been or are working on
    (e.g. the LaTEX to PNG item caught my eye in a quick scan)

I continue to be impressed by how darn well Debian is put together, what
a high quality distribution it is, and what an impressive distribution
it is by its Social Contract, quite large number of developers, and that
this is done with negligible official budget for the size of the
organization.  How Debian organizes itself (structurally, policies,
self-governance, etc.) is also very impressive.

Quoting Don Armstrong:

> On Sat, 05 Aug 2006, Michael Paoli wrote:
> > Don Armstrong - looks like you're on for being guest speaker 
> > 2006-08-15 at BALUG!
> > Please confirm and acknowledge when you see this - much thanks.
> 
> Sure; no problem.
>  
> > I can probably come up with a sample list of possible topics/areas
> > relating to Debian that would be likely be interesting to BALUG
> > folks - I'll e-mail those to you soon (probably within the next 12
> > hours or less).
> 
> What about those of you reading this exchange? Is there anything in
> particular you'd like to hear me talk about?
> 
> 
> Don Armstrong
> 
> -- 
> Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you. If you don't
> bet, you can't win.
>  -- Robert Heinlein _Time Enough For Love_ p240
> 
> http://www.donarmstrong.com              http://rzlab.ucr.edu
> --
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