Linux Users of Victoria: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Linux User Group based in Victoria, Australia}}

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'''Linux Users of Victoria''' ("LUV") is a [[Linux User Group]] ("LUG") based in the state of [[Victoria, Australia]].

It was incorporated in 1993 as a [[not for profit]] group, making it one of the largest and oldest Linux User Groups in [[Australia]]. It now has close to fifteen hundred members. It used to have regional SIGs but they are currently inactive.

Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of the month via [[Jitsi]] or BBB.

==Organization==

One of the largest and oldest Linux User Groups in [[Australia]], it was incorporated in 1993 as a [[not for profit]] group. It now has over fifteen hundred members, including a chapter in the regional town of [[Ballarat]].

The Committeecommittee is democratically elected each year in advance of the Annual General Meeting using free election software called [MemberDB.<ref>{{cite web | title=MemberDB - A Membership Database | url=http://www.flamingspork.com/projects/memberdb/ MemberDB].}}</ref> The positions are President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, as well as four ordinary committee members - the current committee members are listed on the website.

==Events==

Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of the month at [[Trinity College (University of Melbourne)|Trinity College]] campus of the [[University of Melbourne]] in Parkville. LUV's main meeting venue is sponsored by [[Red Hat]] and its servers are hosted by the [http://www.vpac.org/ Victorian Partnership in Advanced Computing].

On November 29, 2003, according to [[The Sydney Morning Herald|Sydney Morning Herald]], LUV is one of the two Linux user groups based in Melbourne, and they held an installfest—a group meeting where new users are given assistance how to install Linux on their PC.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2003-11-04|title=Linux user group to hold installfest|url=https://www.smh.com.au/technology/linux-user-group-to-hold-installfest-20031104-gdhpwg.html|access-date=2021-06-04|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|language=en}}</ref>

The Committee is democratically elected each year in advance of the Annual General Meeting using free election software called [http://www.flamingspork.com/projects/memberdb/ MemberDB]. The positions are President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, as well as four ordinary committee members - the current committee members are listed on the website.

In 2008, the then-president of LUV, Andrew Chalmers, co-signed a letter to [[Julia Gillard]], MP Deputy [[Prime Minister of Australia]] and [[Minister for Education (Australia)|Minister for Education]], requesting that the government advocates the use of free and open source software in schools, so that the $1000 of government funding aimed at buying a computer for each secondary school student will be spent more effectively.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Open source community pushes Canberra on school computer fund|url=https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/251554/open_source_community_pushes_canberra_school_computer_fund/|access-date=2021-06-04|website=ARN}}</ref> In 2008, LUV also participated in the [[Software Freedom Day|software freedom day]] and held local events; one of the local event organizers, Donna Benjamin, commented the event is a "Think Global, Act Local" celebration.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Australia gears up for Software Freedom Day 2008|url=https://www.itnews.com.au/news/australia-gears-up-for-software-freedom-day-2008-122159|access-date=2021-06-04|website=iTnews}}</ref>

LUV hosts a number of active mailing lists, special interest groups, and an IRC channel on the Freenode network and LUV members regularly participate in community events such as [[linux.conf.au]] and [[Software Freedom Day]].

In April 2021, [[Russell Coker]], a participant at LUV's mailing list, commented that the [[Bureau of Meteorology]] blocking text based [[web browsers]], such as [[Lynx (web browser)|lynx]] and [[w3m]], unnecessarily made it difficult for about half the people using braille readers to access the site. These text browsers would allow them to use text to speech engines to retrieve the site content, such as climate information and weather forecasts.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Varghese|first=Sam|title=iTWire - Sight-impaired people hit as BoM blocks some textmode browsers|url=https://itwire.com/climate/sight-impaired-people-hit-as-bom-blocks-some-textmode-browsers.html|access-date=2021-06-04|website=itwire.com|language=en-gb}}</ref>

== See also ==

*[[LUGs in Australia]]

LUV have been called "Australia's best known and most active open source community".<ref>{{Cite web|last=F2innovation|date=2005-11-10|title=Il Fisco francese passa ad OpenOffice|url=https://www.punto-informatico.it/il-fisco-francese-passa-ad-openoffice/|access-date=2021-06-04|website=Punto Informatico}}</ref>

== External links ==

*[http://www.luv.asn.au/ Linux Users of Victoria website]

<ref>{{Cite web|title=7 Sep 1999, Page 49 - The Age at Newspapers.com|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/122919549/|access-date=2021-06-04|website=Newspapers.com|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=14 Dec 1999, Page 75 - The Age at Newspapers.com|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/123567995/|access-date=2021-06-04|website=Newspapers.com|language=en}}</ref>

{{Linux}}

==References==

{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

*{{official|https://linuxvictoria.org/}}

[[Category:Linux Useruser Groupsgroups]]

[[Category:Non-profit organisations based in Australia]]