dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (12/11/83)
Are there other people out there who think the value of live UNIX
conferences has gone down somewhat with the advent of the net?
Oh, it's nice to meet old friends and get together with net
correspondents, and all that, but I tend to feel the net serves
all my UNIX information needs quite well.
I remember the Toronto summer UNIX conference in 1979, before there
was a net. I learned a tremendous amount that I hadn't known. But
nowadays I can peruse net.bugs.*, net.unix-wizards, net.lang.c and
net.micro at pick up every week information which is comparable to what
you get at a conference.
I'm not suggesting the conference shouldn't go on, or anything like
that. I think it serves a valuable function, especially for people
who are deeply into and concerned about the latest developments. But
for someone like me, who just needs to keep generally abreast of
where the state-of-the-art is and what's available, it's no longer
that important.
Comments?
Dave Sherman
Toronto
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{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!davefair@dual.UUCP (Erik E. Fair) (12/15/83)
For me, the conferences are serving two purposes:
1) Learn about what's going on else where.
2) Get away from the office & meet some of the people
out there face to face.
At the Toronto conference, I learned quite a bit. There were two
presentations given in the implementation sessions on real time data
aquisition with UNIX which I had heard zilch about before, in spite of
the fact that I have been reading netnews regularly for two years
(nearly since the inception of the net). In essence, there are still
things going on out there in the real world that the net knows nothing
about which come out in the conferences.
As for #2, don't most of you like to do that too?
going to Washington by hook or by crook,
Erik E. Fair {ucbvax,amd70,zehntel,unisoft,onyx,its}!dual!fair
Dual Systems Corporation, Berkeley, California