[aclug-L] Meeting notes June 4, 1998

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to Clint Brubakken <cabrubak@xxxxxxxxxxx> for writing these.
Please send any comments to him.

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Subject: ACLUG Newsletter for June 6 meeting
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Table of Contents
        Introduction 
        Linux Expo News
                Plans for future Kernels
                Extreme Linux
                Atlanta Linux Expo
        Virtual Network Client presentation
        Topics from Q&A and discussions
                X programming
                        Arena
                        Motif
                        TK
                        GTK
                Xemacs as a development environment
                Linux BASIC interpreters
                Virtual Terminals
                Encryption Restrictions
                Linux Databases
                diald
        Updates on items form past meetings
                KDE
                StarOffice
        Disclaimer


Hi, I'm Clint Brubakken. As John Goerzen is busy I offered to take
notes at the ACLUG meeting and mail them to the list. This should also
be automatically archived on the web page
http://happy.cs.twsu.edu/aclug/ and posted to the news groups
comp.os.linux .announce.

The big news was that John went to the Linux Expo at Duke University,
Durham, NC:

        He relayed some information he found out about the 2.2
kernel. Some of the major changes planned are an optimized directory
structure and improved caching. This should make the file system
faster (which would be especially great for servers). Also it wil l be
able to handle symmetric multiprocessing.
        
        Kernel 2.3 and 2.4 are being planned to use a journal file
system. It keeps track of thing done or about to day. If the system
crashes, when the system reboots, depending on the state, it will
either complete the task, or undo all changes made by the tas k and
cancel it. An all or Nothing approach. This will prevent most
corrupted files and directories.
        
        To get the newest kernel ftp://ftp.kernel.org.

        Also talked about Extreme Linux (because they gave him a free
tshirt) which "will allow you to set up a computer cluster using
parallel processing (multiple machines acting as one computer). NASA
among others is using this tool.

        For more information check out http://www.redhat.com/extreme/

        More information is available on the Linux Expo
website. http://www.linuxexpo.com

        For those that missed the Linux Expo, there will be a Atlanta
Linux Expo Friday October 23 and Saturday October 24, 1998 (for ACM
members worrying about a conflict with the UIUC conference ... don't
that starts October 2

        You can check out their website for more information
http://www.ale.org
        I emailed them yesterday for registration information not on
the website:

                Registration is currently slated to begin on July 1.
Admission to the show floor will be free.  The things that will cost
will be getting into the conference talks, and yes, there is a special
price for student on VNC Virtual Network Computing).

        We also head a presentation over VNC. VNC is a way of viewing
your desktop on another computer regardless or OS or architecture
(currently VNC is available for Solaris 2.5, Linux 2.0 for x86, DEC
Alpha OSF1 3.2, and Win32 (Intel)) through a standard TCP stack. VNC
is a "thin client", the difference between a thin client and a regular
X-server is that very little if any information is stored in the
client. With VNC you can type in a window, and if the system crashes
you can start were you left off, with t he mouse cursor even still
being in the same position. And best of all VNC is free under the GPL.

        VNC homepage is http://www.orl.co.uk/vnc

That was the end of the formal presentation. From Q & A discussion :

        There was question about programming for X we discussed 4
different X tool kits

                Arena- oldest came with X, "ugly"

                Motif- older non-free less frequently used
                        Motif for Linux is available from Redhat for
$149 at http://www.redhat.com

                TK - The most common, uses the TCL language, free.
                        For more information check out
http://www.tclconsortium.org/
        
                GTK - Newest. Includes features TK does not: including
built in tear off toolbars and toolbar tips. free.
                        GTK is available from http://www.gtk.org

        A question on development environments bought up the Xemacs
editor/development environment. Xemacs can use other tools (such as
make and gcc that come standard with a Linux distribution) and be a
rather good development tool. It also includes e-mail, a l imited web
browser, and all sorts of other various features.
                Xemacs is available free from http://www.xemacs.org

        There are at least two BASIC interpreters for Linux vwbasic,
ybasic (which closely imitates Commodore basic for geeks like me that
started out on a Commie). They should be available with most Linux
distributions.

        Virtual terminals, the ability to go to another terminal by
hitting ctrl-alt-[f1-f6]. Your X-session is ctrl-alt-f7.

        We had a gripe session over the governments control over
encryption. A decent starting point for information on the encryption
debate is http://www.privacy.org
        
        We had a discussion of Linux file permissions.

                A good guide to that is available at
http://mac-bui.concordia.ca/Computing_Services/DocPub/INotes/unix/perm.html
        
        A question of databases was raised. John prefers postgres, and
I've used msql, both decent free for personal use databases. Both use
SQL, the Standard Query Language that most relational databases use.
        msql can be obtained from http://www.hughes.com.au
        postgres can obtained from http://www.postgresql.org/index.shtml
        a great SQL tutorial is at http://w3.one.net/~jhoffman/sqltut.htm

        diald is a program that will automatically start your ppp
connection when it detects you trying to access the internet. Should
come with most distributions.

An update on subjects from previous meetings:

        KDE the graphical desktop environment exhibited the previous
meeting is available from http://www.kde.org

        StarOffice Personal edition is available on CD for $18.95 at
the Linux mall http://www.linuxmall.com. We are working on a way for
ACLUG members to be able to receive 10% off at the Linux Mall. Stay
tuned for details.

Our next meeting will be at 7:30 June 18 at WSU in Jabara Hall. Topic
to be announced. Email any suggestions to aclug@xxxxxxxxxxxx.

I'll do this for the next meeting too, so I guess I'm the unofficial
Secretary. So any comments, problems, suggestions, anything I missed,
or thing I didn't miss, but should have on this newsletter please
e-mail me at cabrubak@xxxxxxx.

Any other ACLUG questions mail to aclug@xxxxxxxxxxxx. 

Any Linux questions mail to aclug-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx.


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