2002.10.01 Meeting Notes

News

• Linus mentioned that because of huge improvements in the 2.5 series (like the new Virtual Memory management), the next stable Linux Kernel might be numbered "3.0", rather than "2.6".

• Kernel 2.5.40 released. October 20th is the feature-freeze date for 2.5.

• ATI submitted patches for Radeon 9700 video card 2D support to XFree86 source CVS. No word yet on 3D support.

• UC Santa Barbara kicks out Windows2000 and Windows NT because they contain so many vulnerabilities and are so susceptible to viruses, and as such, were the cause of so much of IT's hassles. Oddly, they recommend XP.

• Searching for '"go to hell"' on Google.com no longer leads to Microsoft.

• A Linux client for the RPG game NeverWinter Nights is due this fall.

• AOL installed 56 IBM blade servers running RedHat 7.3. If they work well, AOL will replace all 800 Unix systems with blade servers during the next 5 years.

• RedHat 8.0 released.

• The canonical Oxford dictionary will contain the following new words: Jedi, Klingon, ass-backawards, warp-drive, get-real and badass.

• Apache webserver increased in marketshare by 3% (to 54%) in the past few months. Internet Information Server (IIS) remains unchanged (at 35%).

• Jon 'maddog Hall' now at SGI, to "help SGI to sponsor and encourage a community-based 'Extreme Linux' movement around SGI's 'NUMAFlex' architecture."

• On Sept. 24, Steve Ballmer admitted to an audience of Microsoft "Most Valued Professionals": Linux is a serious competitor; Linux is not about free software, it's about community; Linux is truly lower-priced than WIndows; MS can beat Linux on clustering and community. Microsoft wants to use its MVPs to promote a sense of community among MS users. They are also considering releasing portions of Windows source to MVPs.

Project Reports

• Demo - There's currently no demo scheduled for October.

• Installfests - The next Installfest will be Sunday, October 20th (the day before the next meeting).

• LERT - One recent LERT call. ...

• Library - Pete Salzman noticed some excellent deals at Borders and picked up "Upgrade and Repairing PCs - Linux Edition" ($13, previously $60), "HTML Blackbook" ($6, previously $60), "Open Source Development with CVS" ($6, previously $60).

Other Business

• vox-outreach - A new mailing list has been created, for discussion of LUGOD's various outreach projects (like Linux classes). See the website's "Mailing Lists" page for info. and to sign up.

• Public Kiosk and Newsbeat - Richard Lowenberg from the Davis Community Network (DCN) came to LUGOD to ask if we'd install Linux on a new PC they have to replace the current, Windows- (and Netscape 4.0)-based public access terminal ("kiosk") they have at Newsbeat in downtown Davis. We're considering using Debian and KDE 3.0 (which has a 'kiosk framework') and/or Mozilla. Discussion is taking place on 'vox-outreach'. We'll probably have physical access to the PC some time this week.

• Games and Raffle - The word "Muggle" is well known from the recent 'Harry Potter' books. However, the word had a meaning before that: a marijuana cigarette. For getting that question right first, Richard Burkhart won a copy of Heretic II (which had been donated to the club by John Alden).

  Jennifer Stickel won a No Starch T-shirt and Foo Lim won O'Reilly's MacOS "iPhoto" book during the raffle.

• SuSE 7.2 LiveEval CDs - Marty Harwell donated a stack of SuSE 7.2 LiveEval CDs (they work like DemoLinux or Knoppix, rather than being an installation dics).

• Financial Report - $51.00 in voluntary dues were collected. $5.00 were spent for the room at the library.

Presentation

• Francois Gouget, a Wine developer who works at CodeWeavers, discussed and demonstrated Wine and the CrossOver Office and CrossOver Plugin products.

  Presentation Slides

Photos

• Photos of this meeting

Attendance

• Alan Hollander
• Damany Imara
• Jonathan Stickel
• Jennifer Stickel
• Henry House
• Foo Lim
• Nicole Carlson
• Francois Gouget
• Mike Simons
• Pete Salzman
• Bill Kendrick
• Mark
• C. Newmiller
• Jeff Newmiller
• John Alden
• Dmitry Ivanov
• Ken Herron
• Chris
• Mark
• Steve
• Rod Roark
• Richard Harkey
• Stephen Helms
• Marty Harwell
• Rusty Minden
• Nick
• Alex
• Johnathan
• Travis
• John
• Dick Ely
• Richard Burkhart
• Issac Trotts
• Jason Lin
• Jeff DeFay
• ... and 5 others