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<body>I miss my huge, cue ball size trackball. Alas, it was a serial mouse. One of my cats would continue to try to steal the ball after he knocked it off my desk once and it rolled away. <br><br>I once dug through the archives and found my first post. What a noob! Now I'm "the old guy". Wouldn't be where I am were it not for ALE. Would be a lot smaller if I would drink less ale 🤣<br><br>Linux is so much more than it used to be. I'm very glad Maddog gave that alpha to Linus! Stood in a line to get that first AMD Opteron cpu and mobo and had a working, mostly 64-bit install about 6 hours later. To bad that box got hit by lightning 5 weeks later. <br><br>Good times. <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On February 2, 2021 12:48:59 PM EST, "Jon "maddog" Hall via Ale" <ale@ale.org> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">The Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts were a group of mostly university students who loved (GNU). There are still web pages existent at ale.org that tell much of the history.<br><br></span>The group founded in December of 1994, and in those days the first thing you did was form a mailing list, so I would assume that this list or something deeply connected to it started at that time.
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<br>The Atlanta Linux Showcase started in 1996. If I remember correctly it was held on the Georgia Tech Campus the first year, at the Apparel Mart downtown in 1998, The Cobb Galleria in 1999 and 2000.
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<br>In 2001 the original organizers had all graduated and were busy with jobs, buying houses, etc. and the USENIX organization took it over.
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<br>USENIX made four gigantic mistakes:
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<br>o they renamed it to the Annual Linux Showcase
<br>o they moved it to Oakland, California in November, 2001
<br>o they tried to take a free (as in beer) event and charge 350 dollars for it
<br>o they allowed Osama Bin-Laden to crash airplanes into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001
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<br>When USENIX had not sold a single reservation within three weeks of the event, I convinced them to make it free and about 300-400 people showed up, but USENIX never produced another Linux only show.
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<br>The ale.org web site is still there, with just a few 404s. If you want to see what the original events were like there are even some pictures.
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<br>It is nice that the mailing list is still active. The Linux group that I started in 1994 and ran for ten years also has a mailing list, but it is much less active than yours.
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<br>Congratulations to Tod for thinking about retiring....I still have too much fun and I will retire with my mouse still clutched in my cold, dead hands.
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<br>Peace and love,
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<br>maddog
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On 02/02/2021 10:50 AM Paul Manno via Ale <ale@ale.org> wrote:
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There are probably still some of us lurking here who were around when the list was first
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created and who helped create those Atlanta Linux Showcase shows. In either case, I am
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not going to even try to think about when I started using either Linux or UNIX... LoL
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On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 9:59 AM Larry Johnson via Ale <
<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org">ale@ale.org</a>> wrote:
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My memory isn't great as I'm about to turn 70, but I first installed
<br>Linux in early 1995, and seem to remember signing up for the list not
<br>long thereafter.
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<br>Which means I might have been a lurker for around 25 years.
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<br>On 2/2/21 8:47 AM, Robert Reese via Ale wrote:
<br>> Hi Tod,
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<br>> Monday, February 1, 2021, 12:19:30 PM, you wrote:
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<br>>> Am I misremembering? Because I think I got on this list when I was in grad school which would have been in the mid-late 90s. The reason I'm asking is that I am thinking of retiring. I was a really old grad student and now I'm retiring early. Even so. Is it possible I've been on this list my entire professional career?
<br>> I'd say it's entirely possible. I joined in the late 90's also.
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<br>> Cheers,
<br>> Robert Reese~
<br>>
<br>>
<br>>> _______________________________________________
<br>>> Ale mailing list
<br>>>
<a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ale@ale.org</a>
<br>>>
<a href="https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a>
<br>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
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<a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a>
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<br>>
<br>>
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<br>> Cheers,
<br>> Robert~
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<br>> _______________________________________________
<br>> Ale mailing list
<br>>
<a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ale@ale.org</a>
<br>>
<a href="https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a>
<br>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
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<a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a>
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<br>Ale mailing list
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<a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ale@ale.org</a>
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<a href="https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a>
<br>See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
<br>
<a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a>
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</div> _______________________________________________
<br>Ale mailing list
<br>Ale@ale.org
<br>https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
<br>See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
<br>http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
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</blockquote></div><br>-- <br>Computers amplify human error<br>Super computers are really cool</body></html>