The North Bay Linux® Users' Group is a computer users group serving the
San Francisco North Bay and surrounding areas. We are dedicated to
Linux,
Open Source and other related
topics. We strive to promote Linux,
Free Software, open standards and to
generally have a good time by hosting social events that educate, allow
members to share ideas and knowledge and to build friendships.
We hold regular meetings on the second Tuesday of each month with a
selected topic presented by a guest speaker. We also hold other meetings
and events on a regular or semi-regular basis. Meetings and membership are
free and open to the public. Please sign up for the announce email list to receive notifications of upcoming events. Or the talk list to get help with Linux.
Selecting the right Linux file system for your needs is a difficult and treacherous business. Every file system claims to be the best-performing and most robust -- how is a non-expert to cut through the hype? Next comes tuning your file system, requiring knowledge even more arcane.
In this talk, Val will describe the strengths and weaknesses of various file systems, discuss which workloads work best with which file system, and learn some basic concepts of file system design which help to evaluate tradeoffs. We will cover ext2, ext3, reiserfs, XFS, NFS, and others. This talk is your one-stop shop for picking the right file system for your needs, and tuning it for maximum effect.
As a Linux geek who always like to experiment with the latest Linux distributions and tinker around with local servers, my closet looked a lot like a used computer store. Old discarded desktops were perfect platforms to try out Linux. Now that power has gotten more expensive, I've replaced a lot of local machines with virtual ones, and with the introduction of VMware Server, I have all but replaced my physical test platforms for virtual ones.
In this talk NBLUG president Kyle Rankin will introduce how to install and configure the free VMware Server software and demonstrate some of its features including how to create new virtual machines, how to manage a group of VMs with the VMware console, and how to backup virtual machines.
* Role Call: Present: Kyle (president), Matt (v.pres), Dave (scribe), and Aaron (dir @ large). Not quite a quorum, so no voting...
* Installfest came up, but didn't really discuss as Greg was not there; Kyle will talk to him re: whether he will still coordinate.
* Possibility of a post-installfest LAN party & perhaps Game installs was discussed...
* We talked about how WE NEED SPEAKERS! Kyle will step up and do PXE/VMWare talk
* Role Call: Present: Kyle (president), Kat(director), Eric(scribe), Dave, Aaron. Dustin(treasurer) and Trevor arrived slightly late. With Dustin's appearance enough board members were present for a quorum.
* videos discussed. Kyle's still working on this. Using google video (upload.video.google.com) as a possible way to distribute videos instead of loaning out discs was discussed.
* nonprofit status discussed. Resolved: removed from agenda Can be reintroduced later if somebody on the board wants to.
* election process discussed. Who's running for each position discussed a little. Mentioned that currently all positions are uncontested.
We will be holding elections for the board at the next general meeting. The nomination period starts now and ends April 9th. The list of current nominations will be posted here.
In order to nominate yourself or somebody else, send an email to talk@nblug.org with "NOMINATE" in the subject line. Nominations do not require a second, but must be accepted by the nominee.
Positions and nominations:
* President:
** Kyle Rankin (accepted)
* Vice-President:
** Matt Hubert (accepted)
* Treasurer:
** Kat Ogaz (accepted)
* Scribe (secretary):
** Dave Sisley (accepted)
** Eric Eisenhart (not yet accepted)
* Directors at Large (2 positions):
** Aaron Grattafiori (accepted)
** Paul Peterson (accepted)
** Stephen Cilley (declined)
** Dave Sisley (retracted in order to run for scribe)
Linux on the desktop gets more and more buzz as time goes on. In this presentation, a panel composed of NBLUG members will describe and demonstrate some of the major desktop environments/window managers available for Linux including Gnome, KDE, Fluxbox, and others.
These days most modern computers support PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) booting--booting from the network. Booting from the network allows you to do all sorts of interesting things including setting up thin clients, automate kickstart environments and more. In this talk Kyle Rankin will discuss how to set up a PXE boot server and will cover thin clients, kickstarting computers completely over the network, PXE booting rescue discs, and how to throw it all in a menu system that lets you choose what to boot.
Sometimes it seems like as a community we take ourselves too seriously. We
run serious applications and our most important economic demographic is
large corporations with men in very expensive suits. Maybe the reason there
aren't many Linux based home computers is that we're all not playing enough
games.
Stephen Cilley and Paul Peterson present gaming in GNU/Linux. They will
discussing several modern (and not so modern) games and bitch about ahem
... discuss the difficulty involved in their use. They will present the
modern alternatives in video cards, processors, and do their best to avoid
the holy war while discussing distribution and windows managers. They will
demonstrate the use and futility of win32 API implementations in Linux along
with native free games and native non-free games.
