Radke Land

Whee! I just now got back from the TCLUG (Twin Cities User Group) meeting (the first they've had in forever). I have participated (mostly lurked) in many mailing lists over the years, but only recently have I come to appreciate the value of surrounding yourself with like-minded people. I met quite a few people, and the biggest impression I've taken home is that they seem to fall within two major taxonomies.

A taxonomy is a system of classification. Among the users I met are people who use GNU/Linux, and people who create GNU/Linux. Any distribution (so far as I can tell) allows a person to install the OS on their computer, and start using things. The user can then get more advanced, and install more things, and do more things (as the installation permits). A very advanced user may even change a config file.

I also saw extraordinary users who were not just users, but creators. A creator sees a program, and notices that it doesn't quite work the way they wish it would. They of course read the manual, and make the necessary configuration file changes. These often are insufficient, so the creator works to understand how the program operates. This is the place where creators 'pull away'. They work to change the workings of the program to make it behave as they would like it to behave.

Note that not all creations make it back to the community. Sometimes, a creator only wants something to work especially for themself. Thay may see little value in their customization for the greater community. This may be one of the greatest 'holes' in the FOSS world. Regardless, the process of taking this action definately separates people into the proposed taxonomy.

So where am I? 70% user and 30% creator. Umm ... of course it makes no sense for me to comment on my own position, especially when a taxonomy is designed to drop people into buckets. Oh well ... further classification is left as an excersise to the user.