Interex Closes Its Doors
matt.cheek writes "I was just informed that Interex, the HP User's Group, has shutdown. Here's the notice on the organization's web site: 'Dear members: It is with great sadness, that after 31 years, we have found it financially necessary to close the doors at Interex. Unfortunately our publications, newsletters, services and conference (HPWorld 2005) will be terminated immediately. We are grateful to the 100,000 members and volunteers of Interex for their contributions, advocacy and support. We dearly wish that we could have continued supporting your needs but it was unavoidable.'"
Many of us rely on Open Source and/or
Amateur Radio communities for hints,
tips & useful workarounds, at least
sometimes over the life of our many
high-tech system projects.
This might be like the phasing out of
the horse & bugy (except for Amish &
others in developing worlds), ie, now
that we have cars (at least while our
fossil fuels last...).
Of course, there are some folks who -
quite rightly - relish some elements of
the past (eg, Clydesdale horses here)
enough to keep representative alive,
either by restoring older machine or
breeding, riding & showing a few horses.
Just as worthy as enjoying a sail on
tall ships.
But business has to consider costs &
RoI... not the warm glow that might
come from doing a job well for clients
or members.
With a bit of luck, slices of Interex's
support libraries or whatever they have
will fall into the hand of respective
communities of folks who care about the
systems needing support.
Maybe any users group meeting will take
place at greener, potentially lower cost
venues out, a bit away from cities.
It might do some good...