[brlug-newbies] Linux Lab Update

[Dustin Puryear]

Awesome! Hey, Ed, can you take some pictures next time? I'd love to post
them to the brlug.net site. :)

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EdsLinuxBox wrote:
> 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
> 
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