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A Linux Users Group for Professionals?
ir0b0t asks: "I'm a lawyer in a solo divorce practice in Missoula, Montana. I have migrated my office to OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird but want to do more Open Source, yet I have issues that come up nearly every day. The problems I encounter are often unique to running a small law practice. Coders sometimes give me blank looks when I describe what I need. Other lawyers tend to automatically use proprietary solutions and show little interest in Open Source alternatives. I want to eventually use only Open Source code in my office. I am willing to do my homework. Are there others like me out there? Is there a Linux Users Group or other online forum for professionals like me who want more Open Source solutions for our work? Thanks."
You should write your own software if your law-firm-specific needs aren't already addressed by OSS. If you can't do that, you should pay someone to develop it for you. Otherwise, you should shut the fuck up and go back to windows you parasitic n00b!
I don't agree with those comments, but that tends to be a common reaction. Nobody ever stops to think that the needs of one person might actually be the needs of many other people, too and that by addressing the needs of that one person they could be addressing the needs of hundreds or thousands or more; expanding the reach of OSS and Linux.
Of course, I don't see how there could still remain any such unfulfilled needs. After all, Linux has been "ready for the desktop" since like 1998 and 2005 is "the year of linux"... Kind of like 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 and 1998.