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LinuxMall.com: Don’t Sprinkle Salt on SCLUG: Founder Tells All

[ Thanks to LinuxNews.com for this link.
]

“Erik Hovland is the founder and reigning president of the
University of Southern California’s Linux User Group (SCLUG)
.
Like many emerging Linux luminaries, he turned-on to Linux when he
became haplessly dysphoric while working as a Windows
administrator. Having recently received his master’s degree in
computer engineering with a focus on robotics, Hovland currently is
finishing up his presidential reign and is working as a programmer
at JPL in Pasadena, Calif.”

LinuxNews.com: How and when did your LUG get
started.

Hovland: One day this guy came to talk to my
teammate in a project we were doing for the OS class at USC. He
wanted to start a LUG. My teammate had never even used Linux before
but he was a mucky muck in the CS [Computer Science] honor society,
so he was very visible. But he had heard me mention it (like a
broken record probably) and turned over the original guy to me. The
original guy got all excited with me and got me going and then
poof, I was president and he was gone. In the process of building
up some other people glomed on and the rest is history.”

LinuxNews.com: How are Linux and your LUG
received on campus?

Hovland: Well, the students and faculty love
Linux and have openly embraced it. … But the computer support arm
of USC, ISD frowns on Linux heavily. They have reason to hate
anything with the word hacker associated to it, USC was once the
playground of Kevin Mitnick and the SAs all still remember.”

Complete
Story

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