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Meet up with Montana Linux people on IRC. We currently gather at the #ubuntu-montana room on the freenode network. Stop in and say "hello" or even ask/answer some questions. Don't have to be a Ubuntu user either. Or use the web-based chat client.

BillingsLUG
The BillingsLUG hasn't had a meeting in a while but they are hoping to start back up real soon. Really.

BozemanLUG
The BozemanLUG meets on the FIRST Thursday of the month at 7PM

MSU-Bozeman
EPS Building, Rm 259
Bozeman, MT
Used to be the LAST Thursday, but we changed it.

HelenaLUG
The HelenaLUG is currently on hiatus.

MissoulaLUG
The MissoulaLUG is currently on hiatus but a few individuals are working in the background to change that ASAP.

If you want to help get the BillingsLUG, HelenaLUG, or the MissoulaLUG started again, be sure to visit us in IRC.

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Opinion: Desktop spin laws that need to go away

Submitted by Scott Dowdle on Tue, 2014-04-01 09:55. distros | opinion

Various distro spin makers have made two unwritten laws that I very much disagree with:

A) A distro spin of desktop blah should have only programs built with the same widget library that desktop blah uses

B) A distro spin should only ship / pre-install one program for each application category

I mention this because I'm a big KDE fan but KDE-only distro spins do not include my preferred browser (Firefox) nor my preferred office suite (LibreOffice, not that I use an office suite much) because they aren't QT-native applications. While LibreOffice does a better job of integrating with KDE than Firefox does, both drag with them quite a bit of GTK baggage... which is considered "bloat" by many spin makers.

Ok, so a spin doesn't have to fit on a CD anymore because everyone has a DVD reader, right? So why not take advantage of that and not be afraid to ship a 1.4 or a 2 GB live image?

Korora is a really nice Fedora remix and they have a KDE spin... and they break rule A by including Firefox and LibreOffice but they aren't fond of breaking rule B. And they aren't afraid of having a larger image size either.

I guess I'll have to remain happy by continuing to create my own remix with most desktops included as well as many, and often redundant, desktop applications that use a variety of widget sets.

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