[brlug-newbies] Linux Lab Update

[EdsLinuxBox]

We had a great turn-out Saturday for the Linux Lab work day. I want to thank 
everyone that came and helped. We got a LOT done. Upon arrival Saturday 
Morning, I found that Russ and Pete had already set up the tables in the lab 
and had the monitors setting on them. They had also already moved in the 6 
computers that the club donated to the lab. Upon Joe Zachary's arrival, we 
unloaded all of the machines and other equipment that he has collected over 
the last few years for the lab and started installing everything. Everyone 
worked steady from 8:30 AM or so until about 3:30 PM, with a short “chicken” 
break around 12:30. We found several machines that will need some hardware 
attention and Joe is taking care of most of that.

We still have several “needs” for the lab so everyone please check 
your “junque boxes”. We need:

Power Cords

Memory – PC100 or PC133, the higher capacity the better, and specifically any 
Dell memory.

DVD-ROM drives

IDE Hard Drives – Any size from 5 gig and up

Surge Protectors – Any size or configuration. 

By the end of the day, we had all of the networking cables “ruffed-in”, all 
terminations made, the switch installed and 10 machines fully operational and 
communicating with the Internet. Some machines have Xandros installed and 
some have PCLinuxOS installed. During the week, Joe is planning on stopping 
by the office and installing a second hard drive in each machine, which will 
hold the second operating system. Our plan, at least at this point, is to 
dual boot each machine with both Xandros and PCLinuxOS. We will probably also 
install several other distributions on the instructor machine so that they 
can be previewed and demonstrated. We are considering, in addition to Xandros 
and PCLinuxOS, Kubuntu, SimplyMepis, Sabayon, Klikit, and MintLinux, which 
are all very popular desktop Linux systems.

Everyone that came out seemed to have an enjoyable time. There was a lot of 
friendly banter, but never a cross word or disagreement. I want to again 
thank everyone that came out to help including Bill, Tommy, Larry, Ben, Pete, 
Troy, Phil, David, Joe, Cal, Randy, Don, and I sure hope that I didn't miss 
anyone, but if I did, blame my head and not my heart.

We will reconvene Saturday, September 28th at 9 AM for the second phase. This 
Saturday we will be installing and tweaking the Linux installations, 
assigning names to each work station, setting up and configuring the 
instructor's machine and the server, “finishing out” all of the cabling, 
hopefully installing surge protectors under all of the tables, and generally 
just buttoning up everything. So, if you want to get some hands one 
experience with installing Linux, then this workshop, or workday, is designed 
for you. This is a great opportunity to learn, just ask Tommy Minton and Don 
Hammond. If anyone has any interesting suggestions for names for the lab 
machines, please feel free to offer them up. 

All that are interested are welcome to come in, look around and even play on 
the machines that are up and running, just keep in mind that at this point, 
the Linux lab is very much a work in progress in that there are network 
cables and extension cords run all over the floor. Also, please keep in mind 
that all of the computers presently in the Linux lab are machines that were 
donated to us, in general are Pentium III and IV class machines (remember 
Windows 98?), and only have 128 meg of ram. This means that they are by no 
means speed demons, but are sufficient for our present needs. If you play on 
them, keep in mind that Linux on your personal home machine will be ORDERS OF 
MAGNITUDE faster than on the lab machines. Also keep in mind that we are 
unable to turn on the “WOW” (eyes candy, wobbly windows, spinning cubes, 
exploding menus, liquid desktop, etc.) that Linux offers on these machines 
since they don't have the processor speed, memory or video card capability to 
support these features. We are planning on turning on the “WOW” on the 
instructors machine, and, trust me when I tell you, there is lots and plenty 
of  “WOW” available on Linux for free. I have only recently started playing 
with the eye candy, am finding new things daily, and am continuously 
saying “WOW”, and a few other things too. 

We had several curious Clickers peek in with great interest, while we were 
working. I hope they and many others will drop in for a more extended visit.

Ed Richards