Re: [aclug-L] meeting suggestions

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the suggestions!  I've received lots of good ones from you
and others.  Fortunately we've got archives so I can go back to this
thread in the future and see what people are interested in!

Wesley Simon <wsimon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

>       - Have a guest (or regular member) discuss their Linux specialty

Always willing to have guest speakers if any turn up.  Unfortunately,
haven't had any yet.  On the other hand, I haven't really done
extensive searching for people.

>       - Someone from a Linux run ISP

There aren't any of these in Wichita but there are ones in Hutch.  As
far as I know, the largest Linux house in this part of the state
(maybe the whole state?  who knows?) is the Computer Sceince Dept. at
Wichita State.  I've always been willing to talk about why we use
Linux, and in fact, have done so several times but we haven't had a
meeting dedicated to that topic.

>               - Discussion of why they chose Linux over other
>                 alternatives (i.e. NT, Solaris, Digital Unix, BSD,
>                 AIX, etc.).
>               - Discussion of their implementation
>               - The problems avoided by their choice and the problems
>                 that a company like Feist (NT) is experiencing as a result
>                 of their choice of OS.
>               - Perhaps a tour of their facilities.

We've done all these (including a tour) regarding WSU, but we will
probably not be able to do the tour again in the future.  Good idea
nonetheless.  If somebody would like to check around for guest
speakers in the area, please let me know if you find somebody that
could be interesting and we'll discuss if we want them to come and
give a presentation.

One problem we run in to in Wichita is that there is a high
penetration of commercial Unix solutions since the Wichita high-tech
sector is older than that which you might find in other cities,
especially due to the airplane industry and things like Koch, whose
needs for high-end and reliable computing predated the release of
Linux.  Once one Unix OS is being used, conversion can be so costly
that it is often not attempted.

> - A functional example of SAMBA

We've talked about Samba but haven't had enough equipment assembled
together to set up a mini LAN, unfortunately.

>       - Dynamic mounting and unmounting of the CDROM

There are currently some "experimental" methods to do this but no good 
method to date.  One problem is that doing this can be a huge security 
risk (we can go into more detail here on the list if you like).

>       - Restricting access

We talked about this at our networking meeting.

>       During any type of Q&A allow someone from the audience a chance to 
>       answer.  I know that this is not dis-allowed, but it would allow 
>       more people to actually participate rather than sit and listen.

This is always encouraged -- please pipe up if you've got something to 
say :-)

-- 
John Goerzen   Linux, Unix consulting & programming   jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx |
Developer, Debian GNU/Linux (Free powerful OS upgrade)       www.debian.org |
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