newbie intro

ME dugan at passwall.com
Tue Aug 14 13:37:39 PDT 2001


On Tue, 14 Aug 2001, Liz Young wrote:
> Just joined the list.  After six and a half years borged by WinNT, I'm 
> trying again to transition to Linux.   Just wondering how tolerant 
> NBLUG is with newbies... I have lots of questions.

Newbies welcome. :-)

We have had Linux installfests that target new people who would like to
have support with installing a new Linux distro on their computer. They
bring their computer to a special meeting (often on announced to be a
saturday) and people with Linux knowledge from Newbies, through to
intermediate and advanced admins all hang out to chew the fat (er cheese?
Tofu? for veg-heads) and help people install Linux on their computers!

Different distros are also supported. I think we have mostly RedHat
people, some Mandrake, a few Debain and SuSE, and probably a few others.
People often find the best support by sheer numbers of people using it
when they use RedHat, and it is easier to install than others. (I use
Debian, but am in the minority.)

Even if you do not need help installing Linux on your own computer, or
don't want to do it yet, you can come to the installfests and gain
knowledge by osmosis or share your knowledge with others.

Regular meetings are not very technical for the most part. People have
shown how they have used Linux, Agenda showed us the VR3
(organizer/handheld linux organizer), Members give talks on firewall rules
(a little technical), show off cool applications (maybe games, the Gimp,
or window managers). One of the more technical talks we had recently was a
presentation on compiling a new Linux kernel and this was good for people
who have never done that, but had played with Linux a little bit on their
own.

> My first intro to Unix was... well, Intro to Unix 1 & 2 with Sean 
> Kirpatrick at the JC ('96).  I opened my Sonic account via telnet from 
> Nermal, I think it was either 6 or 9 bucks a month back then.  And 
> wasn't it Slackware?  Anyway, I haven't done much with Linux since 
> then, but recently picked up copies of SuSE (for my laptop) and 
> Mandrake (dual-booting on one Win2k PC, and testing server stuff on 
> another old clunker). 

Well, you are probably not much of a newbie if you have the above for a
foundation. You can probably help to answer questions for some people. :-)

> My home LAN is connected to the Internet via NT4 running WinroutePro 
> for NAT and firewall.  I have another NT4 (PDC) box running File and 
> Print Services.  I'd like to convert the NAT box to Linux, but have to 
> keep the other box running NT until I finish my MCSE upgrade later this 
> year (blech! I know, I have almost ZERO motivation to do that now).

Yeah, and after you are MCSE, you need to take more classes to keep
it. :-/

Firewall rules and the stateful firewall rules for the new 2.4 series
kernels have received good praise from users - esp when compared to
NT/2000 "rules" in flexibility and security.

> That's enough blathering for now, see y'all tonight!

Don't forget, it has moved location to SSU. Information on the web site:
http://www.nblug.org/

-ME

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