San Gabriel Valley LUG Meeting

When/Where/etc

August 14 7-9pm, 107 Downs at Cal Tech University, in Pasadena http://sgvlug.org/

Meeting Summary/Speaker Bios

Nathan Haines is a computer consultant and instructor who enjoys programming in Python and is a member of the California Ubuntu LoCo team. Neal Bussett is an Electrical Engineer and leader of the California Ubuntu LoCo team. Both are Ubuntu Members and advocates of Free software.

Ubuntu is the said to be the biggest thing in desktop Linux at the moment, but Neal and Nathan are here to cut through the hype and show you how Ubuntu can simplify your life and make your computer more fun and simple to use for everyday tasks. They will discuss various aspects of Ubuntu, from the basics of everyday system maintence, to how to customize your system. They will also cover the differences that make Ubuntu unique from Debian and other distros; and the differences and benefits of the various flavors that make up the Ubuntu family.

Brainstormish topics

We get one hour:

1. General Information
        Target Audience (Linux for Human Beings)
        One-Edition-Fits-All, Fresh and stable software
        Community/CoCo/et al
        Release Schedule
        Development Codenames
        Different Flavors (sysreq, usage, etc)
2. GUI Tools for system maintenence
        Add/Remove for easy packages
        Synaptic for all packages
        Update Manager for security and bugfix updates
        Network Manager for wireless connectivity (wired Just Works)
        Hardware drivers for automatic proprietary driver installation
        "Restricted codecs... doohickey <- this is just a metapackage for Flash, (no longer) Java, and some weird codecs
                ubuntu-restricted-extras <- that's the one
        Automatic Codec installation support in Totem
        Distro-managed Firefox Plugins.
3. Differentiators from other distro (Debian in particular)
        It "Just Works"
        Sane defaults
        Frequent Updates
        Focus on desktop end-user for extra polish
        Useful derivatives that can be used by installing metapackages
                ubuntu-desktop
                kubuntu-desktop
                ubuntu-studio-desktop (* not just this metapackage)
4. Ubuntu as a server
        LTS**
        JeOS?
        Preconfigured Options: (install CD/tasksel)
                LAMP
                DNS
                Mail
                SSH
                Postgres
                Print
                Samba
        http://www.ubuntu.com/files/server/UbuntuserverBrochure804LTS.pdf