If you couldn't make the meeting Monday night, you missed some neat demonstrations and some freebies that were given away.
First, Bill Leblanc generously made 8 copies of Knoppix Linux (http://www.knoppix.org), which is a bootable, live filesystem version of Linux that runs completely off of your CDROM drive. It doesn't touch your hard drive at all! Bill's CDs are very well done with a nicely labeled jewel case. We gave away 7 copies and I kept the last one for the BRLUG CD Library. If you asked for one of the CDs, please be considerate and bring a blank CD or two to me or Bill at the next meeting. Thanks, Bill! Next, we took one of the Knoppix CDs and gave an impromptu demonstration of it. It booted up just fine, but the only problem we had was that the mouse didn't work. Tim Fournet and Russ Williams came to the rescue and got another mouse working in short order. Tim was also kind enough to explain some of the finer points about Linux and demonstrated the Open Office application suite. Thanks, Tim! Then, Dustin Puryear of the Baton Rouge Linux Users Group gave a demonstration of Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com), which is a port of the various UNIX tools and programs to Microsoft Windows. Dustin showed that it is possible to even run X Window (http://www.x.org) and BlackBox (http://blackboxwm.sf.net) on the Micro$oft OS! Thanks, Dustin! We then ended the meeting, but then Dustin dug around in his bag of tricks and gave away a number of Caldera Linux CDs, and then we had a drawing for 3 Caldera ball caps! Sorry to those who left early, come to the next meeting for more give aways. Finally, those remaining had a short project meeting to discuss recycling old PCs with Linux. Sue Smith was kind enough to give valuable and needed advice for the project. We determined that we need to define a "pipeline" connecting the raw material (used PCs) to the Computer Repair SIG (refurbish the PCs) then to the Linux SIG (install the software) and then deliver them to the end users. In this way, we reduce the amount of PCs that are in storage and keep the process moving smoothly. We also determined that we will have 3 classes of PCs: 1. Internet appliances, which simply connect to the Internet via dial-up or network cards, and have a simple web browser with an email client. 2. Workstations, which is a more powerful machine with more hard drive space, suitable for running office applications, programming tools, multimedia editors, etc. 3. Internet servers, which are low-end machines with little graphics capabilities, but suitable for firewalls, Internet gateways, mail servers, web servers, etc. After thinking about this on the way home, I thought of another class of machine: the Penguin Box, suitable for kids with many games and learning tools such as Logo (http://www.atlantic.net/~caggiano/logo/index.html), Python, computer programming tutorials and docs, graphics editors and sound apps. This would be a great way to help kids get an early start in learning about computers in a fun way. Thanks, Sue, for the help and encouragement! And thanks to everyone who came to the meeting! The next meeting will be on September 16 at 6pm in the Clicker's office. See you then! John Hebert __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? HotJobs - Search Thousands of New Jobs http://www.hotjobs.com
