[aclug-L] Re: Sept meeting

[Tom Hull <thull2@xxxxxxx>]

Mr. wiggins wrote:
> I've only been to a few meetings, and I am still unsure about the soundness 
> of the group.  The meetings I have been to seem to display each member of 
> the group "bragging" about what he or she knows.  As a linux newbie (as we 
> all are), rambling on thousands of terms, distributions, etc is rather 
> intimidating to new members, like myself.

The newbie vs. expert question is a perpetual one, and there's no good
one-size-fits-all answer for it. But IMHO the real problem is that good
presentations take time to prepare, which means we need to plan ahead
much more than has recently been the custom. A year or more ago we had
discussions about a method to do this: to gather up wish lists, and to
gather up expert lists, and try to match them together to make a real
schedule. We did have some lists at one point, but I don't know where
they are now. The other thing that's worked in the past is to invite
non-regulars to give presentations (e.g., Frazier Wall; there was also
one on a hand-held Linux device).

It wouldn't be hard to use the website's wiki for hashing out things
like this.

Another pertinent issue here is presentation tools. There are lots of
problems with Powerpoint-type presentations, but at least they force the
presenter to prepare something ahead of time, and those presentations
can be recycled on the website to benefit those who didn't attend. That
would be straightforward if we had a projector.

> Sorry, that was just an observation from a new member.  I would like to 
> suggest a topic for the next meeting.  Everyone has to know how to work with 
> the linux kernel, and I am constantly struggling wtih configuring my system 
> correctly.  I don't want to have to rely on guessing everything I update my 
> kernel or install, so I would like to see a presentation on the 
> function/workings (in a general form) of the linux kernel.

We've had several presentations on how to configure/compile kernels.
Those tend to get mired in boring details, and I suspect that there
isn't really much need to go into that sort of thing any more -- most
device drivers are now autodetected and modularly loaded, and few
systems really need to worry about trimming space, etc. Developers
need to understand this stuff, but nowadays users don't, and intro-
level discussion more likely than not just tempts you to hurt yourself.

On the other hand, a general presentation on what a kernel is and how it
works can be a pretty big topic, but there is a lot of interesting stuff
there.

-- 
/*
  *  Tom Hull * thull2(cox.net) * http://www.tomhull.com/
  */

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