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Guys,

This meetup, I'll be sharing my experience downloading and installing Fedora Core 8. I've never done this before, and so it's going to be an interesting experience.

My ultimate goal is to get an Open Source desktop running for myself (experimenting) and for my kids.

For myself, I'd like to be knowledgeable about the newest (linux) desktop software out there. See if it competes with OSX, for example. Check out all the latest apps.

For the kids, I was hoping to teach them early using lynx as an alternative to entry point to the Internet, by providing an open source and non-graphical start on the web. Let's face it, every parent's dream is to have their kids diligently studying wikipedia, compiling open source apps, and researching nasa.com on the Internet, right? What really happens is that most kids waste their time on facebook and video games - never breaking through the commercial "barrier" of plug-and-play simplicity. My generation had the benefit of "starting from scratch" on the Internet. They never will (it will be handed to them). Also, since I could customize the desktop, theoretically I could make it more kid-friendly for them. No promises there, but we'll see.

I started downloading at 9AM this morning. My firefox process is running at 400Meg's, but I'm 40% there. Hopefully I'll get it to DVD before it crashes. I'll let you know how it goes at the Meetup. If there are any suggestions (.e.g on how to get me started, let me know).

Beers at a hip Venue (probably Diva) will follow the 1/2 hour presentation.

Charlie

RUBY ON RAILS? Is it for you?

For the September meetup, Matt will be doing a presentation on Ruby on Rails. He'll be setting up a simple web application, showing how test-driven coding can be performed and showing database migrations. He's really enthused about the power you can get from RUBY.

A quick review of their web site shows some pretty strong development and gains in popularity. Is it the next big thing? Find out!

I still need to be convinced about RUBY, but I can vouch that Matt knows his stuff. See you all there!

The presentation will be followed by drinks at Diva (Diva's the hippest place in Davis Square).

Did you know that using a simple CDROM of any flavor of Linux you can make a "ghost" (complete replica including bootable partitions, OS, data) of any machine - including Windows? You can use a simple backup server running SMB to copy the entire disk, and then log into the target machine to create a bootable replica. We got this idea from a magazine article, and are quite excited by it - particularly for backing up Windows machines!

This month, we will be presenting a technique for "ghosting" on any platform. This will be a participatory format, members will be encouraged to join in.

This technique will be very helpful for anyone who wants to upgrade a machine, or is required to keep full backups. Hosting providers and sysadmins will appreciate this. The presentation will also help take the mystery out of "Ghosting", and helps you to understand disks and partitions better. Oh - and no expensive software needed folks!

If there is time: Last month, we performed a kernel upgrade on an older, 7.2 box. We hit a snag with GCC being too old and decided to upgrade RedHat instead. We will also finish up that upgrade, and show you a few techniques along the way.

This is very general purpose, and only hits on RedHat on the perifery. New Linux users should love this.

When you get to 48 Grove St., go to the second floor and down the hall to suite 204.

Beers and apps will be afterward, at a very cool place in Davis Square.

See you then,

Charlie

Hi Everyone,

Just a reminder - we are getting back on track with meetups after an intense summer. Fall seems to be more relaxed for us, because everyone wants to get thier work in by July 1.

Next Thursday's meetup, we will be on a mostly social. I'd like to get together, have a couple of beers at DIVA (http://www.divabistro.com/) to discuss Red Hat's precipitous decline in the stock market over the summer, a new version of Red Hat EL5 that's been tested, and what the hackers have been up to over the summer.

Looking forward to meeting new people.

Charlie