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Linux
by Jim Holder, caholder@surfbest.net - February 18, 2002 at 19:24:55:
The meeting started late as the room was not open and it was necessary to wait on Campus Security to arrive. The delay can be blamed on the SIG leader for not knowing the procedure for obtaining help in opening a classroom.The February 3, 2002 meeting was started with a review of the entries in the SIG Linux Library, The information was made available to the participant as a handout along with showing the CD-ROMs distributed by some of the official Linux distribution CR-ROMs (Red Hat 7.2, Debian 2.2, and Mandrake 8.1).
Listings of "Information Sources Websites" and "Distribution Sites" were also made available as handouts and briefly commented on as content and download times. The recommendation was to notify the SIG leader as to which distribution was desired and an attempt to download by Dan Skurkis would be made. If unsuccessful, the requestor would be directed to a major distribution point where the CD-ROMs might be purchased at a greatly reduced price (usually $1.98 per CD-ROM plus shipping)
Copies (a single CR-ROM) of the distribution "Demolinux" were made available to those interested in seeing a demo of Linux on their own processor without endangering their hard disk. Demolinux runs totally from the CD-Rom, but does not install routines to print or use a modem. Staroffice 5.2 can be loaded as an option to provide a Windows like office suite for consideration when moving from Microsoft Windows to Linux as the operating system of choice. Demolinux is truly a demo only distribution.
There is a difference of opinion as to which distribution is "best" for a new user. Red Hat is the backbone for many of the distributions, but versions like SuSE are well developed for use in both home and business environments as a workstation (desktop). At this time four distribution seem to be adequately developed (with respect to the installation scripts) to be considered as a starting point for those desiring to become users of the Linux environment; Red Hat. Mandrake, Debian and SuSE, with a possible fifth being Slackware. However, be warned: The distribution provider makes NO assumption that a user is a beginner.
Updates to the email listing will be available at the next meeting. Planning for a SIG web site is moving slowly, but it is moving. Anyone desiring to spearhead this activity is encouraged to contact the SIG leader, Jim Holder. In addition to my email (caholder@surfbest.net), I can be reached by telephone at (714) 990-3246. There is a voice mail of sorts on that number, and we do check the mail first thing on returning if we have been out.
There is serious consideration being given to splitting the Linux SIG into two groups. One group, Beginning Linux, would address the needs of those using desktop processors for an office environment (home and small business) and the other group, Intermediate Linux, the needs of those more concerned with the more robust Linux capabilities (such as server applications, and the administration issues for multiple user environments).Consideration of start times for each group will be reviewed as to what is feasible (based on classroom availability and scheduling of other SIGs)
Next tine the subjects will be: partitioning hints, a user called root, users & groups, mounting a partition and file types. These are some very basic concepts that a new user of Linux may find confusing and certainly discouraging. The attempt will be made to take the pain and mystery out of these "first things."
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