Meeting 1/18/2005

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Hey all,

We had a great meeting last night, very productive. We talked (mostly) about the Berkshire Linux Expo. As you read this, you'll see things labeled (research). That means I need your help!! If you have any free time at all, please look into these topics and email the list what you find. Open Source relies on the community. Here's some Open Source Presentations, and you don't need to know how to program to help! ;) .


As for the Expo, here's what we decided:

The Berkshire Linux Expo will be held the last Saturday in February (2/26) at McCann in the Library. Here's how it'll unfold:

  • Just before we start, I'll give a brief introduction and welcome, and tell a little about who BLUG is and why we're here.
  • From 10 am - noon there will be two presentations given. At 10, "Linux in the Home" will be presented by Perry Burdick, then at 11 "Linux and Business" will be presented by me (Josh Szmajda).
  • We'll break for lunch around noon. Orders can be taken for pizza, etc. We'll wait for those to be filled and people to eat before moving on. Don LeClaire offered to coordinate this.
  • From 1 pm (ish) - 5 (ish) there will be an installfest. This will be a time for people to have Linux installed on their machine, or for them to play with one of the computers we'll have running Knoppix there in the Library. This will also be a time for people to talk to BLUG'ers and ask questions, etc.


We'll have the following CD's available for people to take home:
10 x Knoppix CDs (latest version)
10 x Open Source Software CD's (with OSS for windows - for people to scared to take the plunge ;) )
CD Burners and blanks will be available should demand exceed supply.

We'll have the following CD's available for installation:
at least 2 x Fedora Core 3
any other distributions people feel like bringing along.


Here's a list of programs we wanted to put on the OSS CD: Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, the Gimp, and Gaim. We discussed having two versions of this cd - one that would simply install the software on your computer, and the other that would allow you to run the software off the CD. Bryan Field will be creating an autorun menu for these CDs in order to ease the idiot factor. Thanks Bryan! We also created a page on the wiki to house links to useful open source software that might not make it on the CD (I think we should talk about what's on the CD too.). it's at: http://www.berkshirelug.org/mediawiki/index.php/Open_Source_Software


As far as advertising goes, I'm going to get my wife Jen to help us out by creating a Flyer. Joe will edit his press release he'd created awhile ago as well to fit this situation. We'll each email these documents to the list. Members can then print out copies of either (or both) and spread them around the county. Perry volunteered to print a couple hundred copies of the flyer and bring them to the next meeting.
The following people will be bugging the following media outlets about the Expo:
Perry: Channel 22, North Adams Transcript
Joe: Berkshire Eagle
Josh: NBCTV

      • AFAIK this leaves a few media outlets unbugged. Any takers??


We also discussed the content of the presentations that will be given. Here's my notes:

for "Linux in the Home":
Topics to present:

  • standard internet stuff (email, web, chat)
  • applications & special features: evolution, thunderbird, firefox, the Gimp, open office, abiword(?), xmms (winamp clone), rhythmbox (iTunes clone), mplayer, gnucash, games!
  • peripheral support: palm, pocketpc, printing!, scanning(?), digital cameras, mp3 players
  • networking (briefly)
  • security: no viruses, no spy/ad/malware


For "Linux and Business":
Throughout: "LOWER TCO!"
Two main sections - "Desktop" and "Server"
Topics for Desktop:

  • groupware: evolution, open exchange, eGroupWare, connectors for evo. + tbird -> MS exchange
  • applications like: open office, firefox, gnucash (other accounting software?), inventory / asset managemenet (need to research), point of sale (research), VOIP (pingtel) (research), database (mysql.. any access or FileMaker clones?), CAD/CAM (blender maybe?) (research), diagrams (dia), project planning (planner - msproject clone), backups (amanda?) (research), remote desktop (research), RAS/VPN (research), network file sharing (ala. samba), Open Source Visa Net (!, research)
  • security!

Topics for Server:

  • Linux = Good, here's why:
  • Performance
  • Reliability
  • Security (viruses, spam)
  • Robust, Scalable
  • preinstalled systems w/ short term support
  • support contracts from: redhat, novell (suse), dell, hp? (research)
  • hire a linux guru ;)

Again, any and all help with the presentations is greatly appreciated!! :)

Thanks Again,
-Josh

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