[wplug] [wplug-announce] The Open Pitt, Issue 12

[Vance Kochenderfer]

PDF version: <http://www.wplug.org/top/wplug-top012.pdf>

                              THE OPEN PITT
      What's cooking in Linux and Open Source in Western Pennsylvania

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Issue 12                         May 2005                     www.wplug.org
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In this issue:
  Book Review: Linux Desktop Garage
  April Roundup
  Who is Linux's Spokesperson?

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                               Coming Events

May 21:  Installfest.  10am to 5pm, 1507 Newell-Simon Hall, CMU
May 28:  General User Meeting, Topic: Version Control with Subversion.
         10am to 2pm, 1507 Newell-Simon Hall, CMU
Jun. 4:  General User Meeting, Topic: MythTV.  10am to 2pm, 1507 Newell-
         Simon Hall, CMU
Jun. 11: Tutorial, Topic: Regular Expressions.  10am to 2pm, 1507 Newell-
         Simon Hall, CMU
Jul. 9:  General User Meeting.  10am to 2pm, 1507 Newell-Simon Hall, CMU
Jul. 16: Installfest.  10am to 5pm, 1507 Newell-Simon Hall, CMU

                    The public is welcome at all events
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Book Review: Linux Desktop Garage
by Bobbie Lynn Eicher

  Author: Susan Matteson
  Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
  ISBN: 0131494198
  $29.99, 384 pages, 2005

The goal of Prentice Hall's new Garage Series of books is to provide
readers with a practical and entertaining guide to technical topics that
are often intimidating to an ordinary reader.  As one of the latest
releases offered under this banner, the _Linux Desktop Garage_ does this
much well.  It's not recommended, however, for users who are looking for a
guide to more advanced topics and aren't content with just the basic user
software available in the open source world.

This is a book that goes out of its way to be as friendly and inviting to
its readers as possible.  The first chapter is, appropriately enough, "What
Are You Getting Into?" which is probably the question that many people who
want to try out Linux are asking themselves.  It then moves on to give a
general explanation of what Linux is and how to go about installing it.  A
particular point where the author deserves praise is that she put the extra
effort in to provide explanations that can be used by both Windows users
and those who have experience with Macs.

Most valuable with this book is its structure.  Once Linux has been
introduced, each chapter that follows is devoted to a type of task that
users might want such as word processing, messaging, and games.  For
someone who's already used to computers but doesn't know anything about
Linux equivalents for their usual software, that makes _Linux Desktop
Garage_ an excellent tool to get straight to the information they need
without getting bogged down in anything else.  An especially helpful point
is that the end of each chapter includes a table summarizing the software
mentioned and gives it a quick review.  Even more helpful for some will be
the table at the end of the book listing common Windows programs and the
suggested Linux equivalents.

If you want to go beyond the level of a quick reference to GUI software on
Linux, however, this book becomes much less valuable.  The author, Susan
Matteson, may consider herself to be an avid Linux user, but professionally
she's a web developer and writer and that bias shows in a way that many in
the Linux community won't appreciate.  Experienced users are likely to be
startled, to say the least, by statements like the following from the
preface: "There are command-line programs to do those things, but why be so
limited?"  The more zealous followers of Richard Stallman are likely to be
irritated by her quick dismissal of the claim that the entire operating
system shouldn't be called Linux, though perhaps they'll at least give her
some credit for mentioning that it's really just the name of the kernel. 
So long as you're looking for practical help with GUI programs and not
advice from someone who groks the larger open source community, you'll be
fine.

The main drawback to _Linux Desktop Garage_ is that it's only likely to
stay useful for a year or two.  The author unfortunately opted not to
provide version numbers for most of the software she references, so as time
goes on and features change, it'll be difficult for a new user to judge
whether her reviews and advice are still valid for the versions of the
software they'll actually encounter.

The included CD is also of little value.  Though the book itself focuses
primarily on the Fedora and Mandrake distributions, the CD contains a copy
of the Gnoppix live CD distribution.  While including a live CD isn't
necessarily a bad idea, it's strange that they'd include one that's still
in beta in a book that's meant for new users.  The rest of the CD
contents--a set of the links included in the book--might save a bit of
typing but doesn't really do much to help.

_Linux Desktop Garage_ will be a useful reference for its target audience,
though as time passes users may have a hard time figuring out which parts
they can still trust due to the lack of version numbers.  For users who
want something other than a quick reference to the software they can use on
Linux in place of the Windows software they've used in the past, there are
better resources available.

Bobbie Lynn Eicher is a student at the University of Pittsburgh.

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April Roundup

Apr. 9 General User Meeting: Warren Dukes spoke about the challenges
involved with managing a small open source project.  Using his Music Player
Daemon <http://www.musicpd.org/> project as an example, he covered all
phases from inception through release and maintenance.  Topics included
choosing a license, managing the code repository, generating documentation,
and publicizing the project.  He also covered ways of fostering a community
of users and developers.  Warren's slides are available for download at
<http://www.wplug.org/meetings/one-meeting?wp_meeting_id=3177>.

Apr. 30 Special Presentation: In conjunction with PghSAGE
<http://www.pghsage.org/>, WPLUG hosted a lively presentation by Daniel V.
Klein titled "Flying Linux." Starting out with a discussion of digital
fly-by-wire systems in aircraft, he went into other types of systems, both
electronic and physical, and why they fail--either through accident or
malicious intent.  He continued by demonstrating the complexity of Linux
and other modern operating systems and revealing many of the hidden
assumptions we make about security.

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Who is Linux's Spokesperson?
by Beth Lynn Eicher

For better or worse, Americans associate a product's success with the
popularity of a company's spokesperson.  Billionaire Bill Gates is the
public face of Microsoft.  What would Apple be without the undeniable Steve
Jobs?

The loss of a good spokesperson only goes to prove how valuable their
influence was in the first place.  For example, Dell was left scrambling
when Steve, the "Dude, you're getting a Dell" Guy, was arrested.  Even
Wendy's Restaurants introduced an "unofficial" spokesperson to step in for
the late Dave Thomas.

Since Linux is a worldwide movement and not a corporation, promoting it is
not just a matter of throwing a few million dollars at the marketing
department.  Linux needs a spokesperson and thankfully we have many.

But if you had to select just one name to answer the question "who is the
spokesperson for Linux?" who would be your choice?  Let's take a look at
this, shall we?

Of course it's Linus, right?  Unfortunately his speaking engagements are
very rare.  From all accounts Linus Torvalds is a very private and reserved
person.

What about Bruce Perens?  He used to be very involved with Debian Linux,
but these days seems to concentrate more on the broader issues surrounding
Open Source.

So is it Eric Raymond?  He doesn't focus on Linux, either.  His Web page
<http://www.catb.org/~esr/> contains opinions on programming, Open Source,
privacy, and numerous other political ideas.  Linux is mentioned very
little.

OK, then is it Richard Stallman?  Nope, his GNU project is still hard at
work on The Hurd, intended to be an alternative to the Linux kernel.

What about Alan Cox?  Unfortunately, he refuses to travel to the United
States in protest of Dmitry Sklyarov's 2001 arrest under the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act.  The chances of breaking this boycott are slim,
so we won't get to see Alan in person.  Although he rarely grants
interviews, he recently spoke to LugRadio
<http://www.lugradio.org/episodes/24>.

Who is it, then?  My nomination for the position is Jon "maddog" Hall,
President of Linux International <http://marketing.li.org/>.  He's out
there promoting Linux worldwide without distribution loyalty.  When he's on
the road at various conferences he makes a point to be friendly to the
local Linux User Group.  When at home in New Hampshire, he's active in his
local LUG.  If that isn't enough, he's representing Linux in the computing
community at large as a board member of USENIX.

Indeed, Linux needs many spokespersons in order for it to succeed.  Anyone
can do it and you can start small.  Recommend Firefox to a co-worker.  Boot
Knoppix on your brother's computer and show your niece how to play Frozen
Bubble.  Offer to help out at your local LUG.  Sing the praises of running
an operating system that is virtually free of spyware.  Before you know it,
you will be an advocate, too.

Beth Lynn Eicher is a Linux/Unix System Administrator for Carnegie Mellon
University.  She views her Open Source advocacy as a thanks to the
community that has served her so well.

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The Open Pitt is published by the Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group
<http://www.wplug.org/top/>

Editors: Elwin Green, Vance Kochenderfer

Copyright 2005 Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group.  Any article in
this newsletter may be reprinted elsewhere in any medium, provided it is
not changed and attribution is given to the author and WPLUG.
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