PalmyLUG

When: 7pm - 9pm Wednesday 13th August 2008 (Doors open from 6:45pm)

Venue: PN Christian Fellowship (Front Lounge) 174 Church St, PN (opposite The Wharehouse) MAP 

 $2 charge to cover venue costs and coffee

 

Agenda:

 

Chairman's Welcome

7pm

 

Beginner Workshop: Ripping DVDs with VLC

Speaker: Brynn Neilson

7:05pm - 7:35pm

 

General Business

7:35pm - 7:45pm

  - Arranging topics and speakers for upcoming meetings (Brynn - Club President)

 

Coffee Break

7:45pm - 8pm

An informal computer helpdesk will run during the break to answer your computer questions.

 

Advanced Workshop 1: Using Xen to virtualize Windows

Speaker: John Eyres

8pm - 8:14pm

This is a followup session from July's meeting  

 

Advanced Workshop 2: Creating a custom distro with Revisor

Speaker:

John Flower

8:15pm - 8:45pm

Do you spend time after installing a standard distro downloading extra packages, removing packages, altering services, setting up networking? Come find out how this GUI tool can help you make custom install disks and live media.

 

Chairman wraps up the meeting 

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Welcome to the Palmerston North Users Group (PalmyLUG) website. We're a non-profit group of Linux enthuisiasts from the Manawatu in New Zealand interested in sharing knowledge and promoting open source technologies. If you're from our region and interested in joining our group feel free to create a login and you will be notified of our next meeting. Also check our Meeting Minutes to find out what we're up to. Website statistics are available.

Need a book or a distro CD? Check out the library section chances are that you'll find something in the library section and if we don't have what you want there, we can get if for you for the price of a review. Contact myself (dbenton) via PM or e-mail if you're interested.


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Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a computer operating system. It is one of the most prominent examples of open source development and free software; unlike proprietary operating systems such as Windows or Mac OS, all of its underlying source code is available to the public for anyone to freely use, modify, and redistribute.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

Oh yes, Don has taken charge of the mailing list - so it works,
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We want people to have more choice about how they use their computers. Many people don't realise they have a choice - they continue to use large and expensive software packages provided by a company owning an effective monopoly. Using Microsoft Word, Excel, etc is not a sign of technical ability / smart working or "e-knowledge". For most people, this is lack of knowledge.

Linux is based on free source. The underlying programs are freely accessible for viewing. Modifications and improvements are made in systematic ways over the internet. Many of the thousands and thousands who contribute to linux and open source packages internationally are paid to do so by corporate giants like IBM, Oracle and RedHat. These companies can charge for professional support services.

You can download the same software for free now, and get support by looking to a "support community" such as PalmyLUG, on this site.

To get started now, check out our "Get Started Now" Article ;)

Actually, you are running some open source software right now. This site, like most on the net, is built on open source tools. The internet itself is built on open technology (tcp/ip, and w3.org rfcs) and relies absolutely on open source software. Linux has become a rallying point for open source in general.


Linus Torvalds, creator of original Gnu/linux kernel,
see http://www.wlug.org.nz/LinusTorvalds

Q: What makes you believe Linux will continue to gain momentum?
A: I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things. I compare it to science vs. witchcraft. In science, the whole system builds on people looking at other people's results and building on top of them. In witchcraft, somebody had a small secret and guarded it -- but never allowed others to really understand it and build on it.

Traditional software is like witchcraft. In history, witchcraft just died out. The same will happen in software. When problems get serious enough, you can't have one person or one company guarding their secrets. You have to have everybody share in knowledge. (interview with Linus Torvalds)


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You use it on your computer instead of Microsoft Windows

You can play all your favourite games, etc.
and work with microsoft files. There are ways to do just about anything - it just requires a little knowledge!

and it's a lot of fun...



On my trusty celeron laptop: Firefox, OpenOffice and Qemu (running xp inside linux)