From dierdorf at io.com  Sun Mar  8 09:28:47 2009
From: dierdorf at io.com (John Dierdorf)
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2009 09:28:47 -0600
Subject: [Linux SIG] March Linux Beginners SIG
Message-ID: <200903081028.47838.dierdorf@io.com>

The March meeting of the LBSIG will be held this Tuesday the 10th at the usual 
time and place:  8109 Greenslope Drive, 6 PM informal and 7 PM formal 
presentation.

I'm going to be demonstrating two new distributions of Linux that will seem 
semi-familiar to people accustomed to Ubuntu:

1.  Debian 5.0 (Lenny), released last month.  As you probably know, Debian is 
the "master copy" from which several distributions, Ubuntu included, are 
derived.  Debian itself has always had a "geeks only" reputation, but the new 
version is quite adequate as a desktop system.

2.  Linux Mint 6 ( Felicia), coming out in about a week.  Mint is a derivative 
of Ubuntu, meaning Debian is its grandparent, and it is designed to be very 
easy to install and use.  (It comes with proprietary multimedia drivers, etc. 
by default.)  The biggie from my point of view is that it installs the 
brand-new KDE 4.2, which IMHO is the FIRST usable version of the 4.x series.  
Come and see what I mean.  It is FAST!  (Kubuntu Jaunty will have 4.2 also, 
but that's not for another seven weeks.) 

I'll have installation disks (Debian is a CD, Mint is a DVD) burned for 
giveaway.

I actually have my laptop triple-booting the parent, child, and grandchild -- 
Debian (Gnome), Ubuntu Hardy (Gnome), and Mint (KDE) -- so we'll be able to 
go back and forth with minimal hassle.

As usual, caffeine and calories will be provided.

-- 
John Dierdorf <dierdorf at io.com>
http://www.io.com/~dierdorf
Austin, TX

From dierdorf at io.com  Mon Mar  9 01:33:54 2009
From: dierdorf at io.com (John Dierdorf)
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 01:33:54 -0600
Subject: [Linux SIG] March Linux Beginners SIG
In-Reply-To: <200903081028.47838.dierdorf@io.com>
References: <200903081028.47838.dierdorf@io.com>
Message-ID: <200903090233.54675.dierdorf@io.com>

On Sunday 08 March 2009 10:28:47 John Dierdorf wrote:
> The March meeting of the LBSIG will be held this Tuesday the 10th at the
> usual time and place:  8109 Greenslope Drive, 6 PM informal and 7 PM formal
> presentation.
>
> I'm going to be demonstrating two new distributions of Linux that will seem 
> semi-familiar to people accustomed to Ubuntu:


I LIED!  I'm going to be demonstrating and/or distributing THREE new 
distributions of Linux that will seem semi-familiar to people accustomed to 
Ubuntu:

1.  Debian 5.0 (Lenny), released last month.  

2.  Linux Mint 6 ( Felicia), coming out in about a week.

3.  KNOPPIX 6.0.  This is the CD version, aka "Microknoppix".  Klaus switched 
to a lightweight window manager (LXDE) to fit things onto a CD.  The DVD 
version (6.1) should be available soon.
 
I'll have installation disks (KNOPPIX and Debian are CD, Mint is DVD) burned 
for giveaway.

BTW, does anyone else feel that time is flying right along when a 700MB 
collection of software is billed as "micro"?  :)

-- 
John Dierdorf <dierdorf at io.com>
http://www.io.com/~dierdorf
Austin, TX

From dierdorf at io.com  Sat Mar 28 21:43:21 2009
From: dierdorf at io.com (John Dierdorf)
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:43:21 -0500
Subject: [Linux SIG] Ubuntu Jaunty Beta
Message-ID: <200903282243.21315.dierdorf@io.com>

The beta for Ubuntu 9.04 was released a couple of days ago.  I am VERY 
impressed with the new Kubuntu and KDE 4.2.1 -- smooth, comfortable, and fast.  
Unlike Intrepid, Jaunty is perfectly comfortable with my new fancy ATI video 
card.  In fact, it only took me 24 hours to decide to make it my default on my 
desktop system, moving over the data files from Hardy, importing all the email 
messages into KMail, and so on.  The Hardy (8.04) partition is still there, so 
anything I forgot takes only a few seconds to retrieve.  I suppose it'll be a 
month or so until I wipe that partition to get ready for Karmic Koala or 
Kinetic Kangaroo or whatever. :)  

(It's not too early for the Ubuntu people to start worrying about 2016, when 
they get to Xenophilic Xebu, Yearning Yak, and Zealous Zebra.)

The next meeting will be April 14th, so we'll just miss the 9.04 Release 
Candidate on the 16th and the actual final code on the 23rd.  

PS - Running with the beta code is interesting because I can run apt-get every 
hour on the hour.  On average there are about five updates per hour right now 
as the developers are rushing to dot the i's and cross the t's before things 
are frozen.

PPS - I have burned copies of the Ubuntu and Kubuntu betas if anybody else 
feels adventurous.  

-- 
John Dierdorf <dierdorf at io.com> Austin, TX
www.io.com/~dierdorf