[wplug] [wplug-announce] The Open Pitt, Issue 21
Vance Kochenderfer
vkochend at nyx.net
Sat Feb 11 19:25:15 EST 2006
PDF version: <http://www.wplug.org/top/wplug-top021.pdf>
THE OPEN PITT
What's cooking in Linux and Open Source in Western Pennsylvania
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Issue 21 February 2006 www.wplug.org
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In this issue:
Book Review: Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible
January Roundup
Links of the Month
From the Editors: What's an Installfest?
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Coming Events
Feb. 11: Linux Basics Tutorial. 10am to 2pm, 3002 Newell-Simon Hall, CMU
Mar. 4: Installfest. 10am to 5pm, Newell-Simon Hall 3rd floor atrium
(Perlis Atrium), CMU
Mar. 11: General User Meeting. 10am to 2pm, 3002 Newell-Simon Hall, CMU
The public is welcome at all events
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Book Review: Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible
by Robert Comella
Authors: Benjamin Mako Hill, David B. Harris, Jaldhar Vyas
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0764576445
$39.99, 672 pages, 2005
Start your engines--with Linux under the hood.
Let's set the stage. I am an MCSE and work mainly with Microsoft systems.
Many times I have had to deal with Linux in network storage devices, web
servers, and routers, and found it foreign and annoying. Despite this,
stories abounded about how Linux is faster and more stable than Windows,
works on older hardware, and most importantly it's free. Microsoft
continues to maintain the line that Linux is not well supported and
difficult to use, and my initial experience showed that to be true.
But as I got further and further into Microsoft's products I found that
their "simplicity" was deceptive and that prices put direct support out of
reach, except in rare cases. That "free" thing kept coming up in my mind.
So one day I Googled Linux and gaped at the 1,370,000,000 listings.
Daunted, but still determined, I started reading and found myself lost
among the distributions and versions and hundreds of different programs.
Debian turned out to be one of the easiest distributions to download, so I
started playing with it and purchased _Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible_ to help
make sense out of it all. The book starts out with a description of the
Debian project, how Open Source software works, what Debian tries to be and
what it does _not_ try to be. It also goes into what distributions are and
how Debian fits into the picture.
Chapter 2 is a great treatment of installation. It explains each question
you will encounter during the install process and recommends an answer.
Following these instructions to the letter will build a simple system that
will show you how Linux works. The chapter is easy to follow, but note
that there is not much advanced discussion. There are a few errors, but
these are minor.
Once the main system is installed, the book takes you on a journey through
many aspects of a Linux system, installing new software as you go. Topics
covered include:
* Basic shell commands and file system management
* Debian's famous package system--the book goes into great detail, and
can be a little confusing until you've gotten some experience
* Users and groups
* Backing up and restoring files
Next up is installing and configuring KDE and GNOME. With the instructions
given you will get these two desktop environments up and running without
much trouble. Once these are set up, however, you are left on your own.
If you really want to customize KDE or GNOME, you will have to find more
details elsewhere.
The second half of the book covers a number of administrative subjects:
Internet applications, networking, security, e-mail, remote access,
printing, databases, file sharing, and web hosting among others. You will
get a good overview of all these, but I had trouble making things work
using the book as my only reference. I could get most of the way there,
but would be stumped by some small issue. More reading is definitely
required to truly master these concepts, but the book is a great starting
place.
Two CDs come with the book. The first is the Debian installation CD, which
is enough to get you online so you can download the rest of the software.
If you can, I'd advise downloading the Debian DVD release and using that to
install instead. The other is a live-CD version of Debian which allows you
to try things out without touching your computer's hard drive.
All in all, I found _Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible_ very helpful and I still
refer to it as I continue to learn more about Linux. However, it will only
be the first in a long line of books, manuals, whitepapers, and FAQ lists
you will have to read to get the most out of your Linux systems.
Robert Comella is an IT manager at a large manufacturer and also owns
Gremlins' Computer Solutions, a small consulting/repair business at
(724) 309-6992.
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January Roundup
Jan. 21 General User Meeting: Aaron Powers of the CMU Human-Computer
Interaction Institute <http://www.peopleandrobots.org/> gave a live
demonstration with Pearl the Nursebot. Pearl is a robot designed to assist
people living in nursing homes or who are disabled with their daily tasks.
He described his research into how humans react to robots based on their
appearance and how robots can adapt their behavior to people's
expectations. The audience also got the chance to communicate with Pearl
and see some of her inner workings.
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Links of the Month
by Michael P. O'Connor
This month, I have a list of links that will help you organize your
favorite weblogs and other sites.
First, we'll look at bookmarks. You can make a list of your favorite sites
at <http://del.icio.us/> and get recommendations from others based on your
list. An extension for the Firefox web browser, available at
<http://dietrich.ganx4.com/foxylicious/>, will synchronize your browser's
bookmarks with your delicious list and organize them based on the tags that
you assigned to them. For those of you who have a Mac and use Safari, a
program from <http://tuxtina.de/software/> will do the same thing.
You can download many news aggregators to help you keep up with multiple
weblogs or news sites. However, if you use more than one computer it can
be hard to keep track of what you've read without some way to coordinate
between them. One choice is Drupal, which is more than just an aggregator,
but it does a good job at that and can be found at <http://drupal.org/>.
It requires you to have web space available, and also to have access to PHP
and SQL on that web space.
The next news aggregator is the Planet Software which you can get at
<http://www.planetplanet.org/>. Planet requires web space also and access
to Python on that web space. Planet was designed from the ground up to be
an aggregator unlike Drupal that was designed more as a content management
system.
For those of you who can't use these options, take a look at
<http://news.google.com/>. If you are signed up with a Google account,
Google News will allow you to customize it to the RSS and Atom feeds you
want. It is by far the easiest of the three aggregators to set up, but on
the downside you cannot customize it as much as Drupal and Planet.
Once again, if you have any links to suggest, send them in to me at
<wplug at mikeoconnor.net>.
Till next month, enjoy these links!
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Trading Spaces
WPLUG has moved two floors up from its long-time meeting space in Newell-
Simon Hall on the Carnegie Mellon University campus. Most general meetings
will now be held in Room 3002, and installfests will take place in the
large open atrium.
The new location is conveniently located near the third floor entrance to
the building. It will also help us avoid some of the construction activity
coming to the CMU campus in the next few years.
Detailed directions and parking information are on the web site at
<http://www.wplug.org/pages/wplugmap/>.
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From the Editors: What's an Installfest?
If you've paid attention to the "Coming Events" section of The Open Pitt,
you've probably noticed that WPLUG events tend to fall into three
categories: General User Meetings (GUMs), tutorials, and installfests.
A GUM is the standard monthly meeting, typically including an hour-long
presentation on a particular topic. Tutorials, as you might expect, also
have a presentation but are usually longer and go more in-depth. Both of
these types of events are probably familiar to most people, but what the
heck is an installfest?
In contrast to GUMs and tutorials, which are mostly talk, an installfest is
a hands-on event. Their main purpose is to help you with any trouble you
may be having running Open Source software on your computer.
The name, of course, comes from helping people install Linux or another
Open Source operating system on their machine. WPLUG maintains a CD
library containing many popular Linux distributions, and a (wired) network
is set up with Internet access to download other distributions or to update
your system once it's installed.
Besides these physical resources, you'll find a number of experienced
people at each installfest to help guide you through installation. We
can't guarantee that there will be an expert available on every possible
distribution, but there is quite a broad range represented at each event.
But an installfest isn't just for installations; bring along any problem
you may be having with Open Source software and chances are excellent
someone can help you through it.
There are a number of items you should be sure to bring with you, starting
of course with your computer. Also needed are any accessories, including
keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, and power cables. It's a good idea to
have a power strip, since electrical outlets are usually at a premium.
We'll have a cart handy to help bring everything into the building, so
don't be concerned about carrying equipment from your car.
WPLUG's next installfest is on March 4--hope to see you there!
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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 2006 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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