Please visit the official saclug page.
http://www.saclug.org

Linux Users Group of Sacramento (sacLUG)
Logo by Bill Kendrick

What's Hot!

Meeting Information

Regular meetings set for the second wednesday of the month at Calweb, 7-9pm. Map and Directions available.
Upcoming Events. Check the Installfests Section for Installfest dates:

 
Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - Read the May meeting notes here.
 
Wednesday, June 14, 2000 - Robert R. Ferber from OpenSales will speak on OpenMerchant
Location: Calweb
7 - 9pm

Robert R. Ferber is the Chief Technical Advisor and Co-Founder of OpenSales, Inc. Before co-founding OpenSales, Ferber was founding Vice President
of Technology at eToys where he was responsible for assembling and directing the company's core technology team. His work at eToys also included his notable design and implementation of the portal's integrated architecture. Prior to joining eToys, Ferber worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories and advanced technology projects in Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
 
OpenMerchant is written in Perl and designed to provide extensive e-commerce capabilities. The source code to OpenMerchant itself is freely available under the terms of the GPL at the special developer's portal, www.opensales.org.
 
Wednesday, July 12, 2000 - Chuck Polisher will speak on his home built Linux cluster
Location: Calweb
7 - 9pm

Chuck Polisher has constructed his own Linux cluster from inexpensive hardware, and mounted it all on a central vertical standing ABS pipe. Chuck used inexpensive 75 MHz CPU's and Motherboards to built a cluster of six CPU's. He also picked up a number of hard drives for about five to ten dollars. If anything this should be intriuging to see how to use old hardware. I am not sure what Chuck uses the cluster for, and I haven't even seen it in person, but it sounds innovative.

Site Map

sacLUG server

Mike Machado has donated the use of his server to host sacLUG and helps maintain the server. Frequently Mike will go the extra mile to keep services on sacLUG working. He also developed the Job Listings Manager for sacLUG. Mike works at Innercite as a system administrator. Innercite offers adsl so if you are thinking of getting adsl at your office and home, I would definitely take a look at Innercite's adsl offerings.
-brian

Short Blurbs

The Lug-Nuts mailing list archive is on line. Michael Long originally hammered out an archive of the list using Hypermail. Another program to do this with would be MHonArc.

I just put up the cheetos page. It's a partial list crediting some of those who have helped out.

-brian

Become a Member

Get the Membership Form in PDF or Postscript formats.

sacLUG is a special interest group of the Sacramento PC Users Group. They provide us with liability insurance, non profit status, a monthly publication which we can submit reports to, along with the status of being part of a recoginized organization. I would like to encourage everyone to sign up and become a member. You will help support the group that supports our SIG. Dues are $35 per year. If you would like a membership application, please email me and I will mail you one. You don't have to be a member of SACPCUG to come to the meetings, but by being one, you will help support the continued progress of LUGS. If you are not a member of Sacramento PC Users Group, there is an online form you can print out and mail in at http://www.sacpcug.org/memform.html

Links from previous presenters

Papers

Mailing List implemented.

LUGS (Sacramento) now has a mailing list titled lug-nuts@saclug.org. Join and find out the latest with sacLUG.org. To subscribe send a message to majordomo@saclug.org with a blank subject line and in the body place:

To: Majordomo@saclug.org
Subject: <blank>

subscribe lug-nuts

Once you are subscribed to the list, post your messages as following

To: lug-nuts@saclug.org
Subject: <subject>

Message body.

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Main Linux Distributions

Where to Buy Linux

Linux Documentation

Linux Resources

Basic Linux Info

Some evangalists would rather Linux be referred to as GNU/Linux rather than just Linux, as the media often portrays it. Linux evolved from two different sources. You probably have heard about one of them, Linus Torvalds. Linus started writing a kernel with several basic operating system procedures in 1991. He released his code on the internet as invited others to contribute. His work has evolved into now what is called the kernel. You can actually download the Linux kernel from ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel and follow the directory to whichever version interests you. The kernel moves along within two different branches: stable and unstable. The stable kernel sources are the ones that have been developed and tested and are considered stable. The more recent versions have the most features, but there may be certain instabilities. The kernel source for the most recent stable kernel is about 14 megabytes. Some people have claimed it is becoming rather bloated. Perhaps the kernel source has grown to this size, but once you compile it, the resulting binary can be as small as 384 Kbytes. This will fit on a floppy along with quite a bit of other stuff. In fact some people have developed entire systems such as the Linux Router project and the Firewall Floppy that fit on a single floppy disk! Take that, Cisco!

Of course there is the second source, that without, Linux wouldn't have even earned a speck of ink on your business section. It is our unsung hero, GNU (http://www.gnu.org). GNU was started in 1984 by Richard Stallman. At that time Richard Stallman worked at MIT in the AI Lab. Certain politics played out at the time, and Stallman found himself twisted in the middle of a tangle of proprietary software that did not lend itsself well to research. Stallman resigned the lab and vowed to one day develop a complete operating system that one could freely give to his friends. Often his concept of Free Software is construed with it being free, and that is where you have to research Stallmans licensing agreements and then you will understand what GNU software is all about. GNU software answers the question many people ask regarding Linux, "Is there software available for Linux?" The answer is, there is a whole shitload. If you look at Debian GNU/Linux, you will find over 2,700 software packages available. Software is available for even the most imagineable tasks.Certain credit is due to BSD too, the Berkeley Software Distribution.

With the Linux kernel, GNU software, BSD software, we have a complete operating system that we can create solutions, work, and produce with. And when we make something useful, we can sell it to our friends, who in turn can add more useful features to it. If it's GNU software we sell our friends, we have to give them the source, and allow the buyer the right to modify the code. The reason I used the example of selling our software is that GNU is about freedom, not necessarily about software being free. Of course in the Linux community, we often give it to our friends who in turn add more features to our software. This is what makes Linux one of the fastest growing / feature filled operating systems that it is today.

You are invited to the Linux Users Group Sacramento (sacLUG) meeting. Linux is a UNIX type operating system. Among the heavyweights, Linux has been adopted by Wells Fargo Bank, NASA, Cisco, PG&E, and the United States Post Office for production applications. The source to GNU/Linux is open, so it allows for complete customization. Come to the meeting to learn more, or share your current knowledge.

Map to regular meeting

Map of meeting location
Map by mapblast



Where:

Calweb Internet Services
1111 Howe Avenue, Suite 355
Sacramento, CA 95825
 

Directions:

In Sacramento there is Business 80 and Interstate 80. Business 80 passes through downtown. Interstate 80 bypasses it. Make sure you take Business 80.

From Davis 80:
Take Business 80 east. Exit at Arden (East). Right on Howe. Cross street is Hurley
 
From 99 North:
99 north turns into Business 80 East. Arden East. Right on Howe. Cross street is Hurely
 
From 5 North:
5 North intersects Business 80 East. Take that. Arden East. Right on Howe. Cross street is Hurley.
 
From 5 South:
5 South intersects Business 80 East. Take that. Arden east. Right on Howe. Cross srteet is Hurley.
 
From Reno 80:
Take Business 80 toward downtown Sac. Arden East. Right on Howe. Cross Street is Hurley.

Other Linux Groups

Volunteers needed.

Now that more people come to the meetings, we need volunteers. You can make LUGS more like the way you want it by becoming a volunteer. We could use volunteers in the following areas:

VA Linux Systems sponsors Installfests

VA Linux Systems has sponsored regular installfests. We will host a regular installfest on the second sunday of the month at the Coloma Community Center

Coloma Community Center
4623 T Street
Sacramento, CA 95819-4743

Scheduled dates for upcoming Installfests are as follows:

Installfests begin at 12 noon and end at 5pm.

Installfest Guidelines

Installfests are BYOS. That means Bring Your Own Stuff. That includes your monitor, power strip, a couple floppies, your keyboard, mouse, power cord, etc. Bring your own distribution too. You can buy a fully functional Linux Distribution from Cheapbytes. I have seen some good buys at Best Buy too. If you order early friday morning, you should have it in your mail box the next day. I have often seen people bring in machines with internal modems with the question of how to configure it. First, if it's a winmodem, it won't work. Second, if it's Plug and Play, it's difficult to configure. My advice, buy an external modem (few adhere to this advice), otherwise, bring the Plug and Play HOWTO along with you, because you may have to read up. In fact, bring the HOWTO for whatever you attempt to do. Everyone at the installfest is a volunteer, so treat it that way, and you will get the best help. In fact you might just find it useful to come and hang out and see what is going on. In addition, here is something to avoid. Don't daisy chain power strips or hubs. You could find yourself shut down at the most critical point. Last thing, sacLUG maintains NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY KIND OF DATA LOSS.

Rick Moen also has a guide for installing Linux which he suggests that attendees of the CABAL installfests he and a group of cohorts organize together. Check it out at: http://linuxmafia.com/bale/linuxprep.html

-brian

Point of Contact:

Brian Lavender
PO Box 19184
Sacramento, CA 95819-0184

Email: brian@brie.com
Wk: (916) 557-6623
Hm: (916) 628-0726