2002.02.05 Meeting Notes

News

• LinuxWorld Expo came and went (in NYC).
• Linux Standard Base is complete, including specifications, test suite, and sample implementation.
• Red Hat's Bob Young says "Linux won't rule the desktop"
• Linux kits for PlayStation 2 will be available in the use for $200 in May! (includes 40GB hard disk, network adapter, software discs, and USB keyboard and mouse)
• Loki Entertainment Software closes its doors. Their open source code to be maintained by SEUL (Simple End-User Linux).
• Developers irritated at Torvalds' slowness in integrating Kernel patches.
• 3 years ago this month, the term "Open Source" was first coined by Christine Peterson, Eric Raymond and friends.
• "Free Software Magazine" is now being published.
• The "divx ;-)" video codec has been made open source.
• Ximian changes Mono (their .NET libraries) license from GPL to X11 license.
• The BBC is testing out Ogg Vorbis audio streams.
• "New Scientist" publishes an article (on 'OpenCola') under copyleft!
• PerlMongers to start "The Perl Review" magazine (in PDF format).
• Sun announces Cobalt Qube 3 server appliance - running Linux, of course. (About 3 years after the first Qube was announced.)
• Sun ends development of Solaris for Intels.
• IBM and SuSE partnering to tune SuSE's "SLES" OS for IBM's eServer line.
• IBM announces first Linux-only mainframes. (Z-series without their z/OS)
• Microsoft supposedly stops all new coding to focus on fixing bugs.
• WinInformant claims Windows is more secure than Linux.
• HP announces it will be offering and supporting Mandrake.
• Amazon's first-ever net profit (no pun intended): made $5mil (About 1c/ share)
• Steve Wozniac came out of "semi retirement" to start "Wheels of Zeus" (WoZ), to work on wireless handhelds.
• Mandrake 8.2 beta is out. New features include encrypted filesystem support, and a file sharing setup wizard.
• Caldera has Open Sourced parts of UNIX(tm) - good news for, eg, BSD.

Project Reports

• Demo - February's demo is to be scheduled.

• Installfests - Our next Installfest will be February 17th.

• LERT - On Saturday, a group of LUGOD members went to Benecia and installed SuSE on 2 systems, and partitioned the 3rd for the fellow to install Linux himself. In return, he purchased pizza for the volunteers, and donated some cash to LUGOD.

• Library - Nicole Carlson donated Advanced Unix Programming

Other Business

• Financial Report - $30.27 in voluntary dues were collected.

• 4-H Presentation - No details yet.

• LUGOD Merchandise - You can now buy Linux- and LUGOD-related items from our CafePress.com shop (click the "Buy Stuff" link below the sidebar on our website). Items include shirts and t-shirts, mugs, a mousepad, and more!

Presentation

• Rich Morin of Prime Time Freeware talked about DOSSIER (Documenting Open Source Software for Industry, Education, and Research) and the Meta Project.

  Details on DOSSIER and the Meta Project can be read on Daemonnews.org:

  • Part 1 (Jan. 2002)
  • Part 2 (Feb. 2002)

Attendance

• Henry House
• Melissa Hardenrbook
• Bill Kendrick
• Nicole Carlson
• Joel Baumert
• Ed Capriola
• Carol Capriola
• Ryan
• Rich Morin
• Bryan
• Lee Welter
• Jim
• David
• Mark
• Jeff DeFay
• Dave Nelson
• Richard Harkey
• Marc Hasbrouck
• Seth Nagao
• Carl Yates
• Stephen Helms
• Brian Lavender

Photos:

Quote of the Meeting:

• "Even when a lot of money was falling out of trees [towards Linux companies], none of it was falling in this direction [good documentation]." - Rich Morin.