2002.08.19 Meeting Notes

News

• NYC planning to ban cellphones at public performances.
• Amazon.com announced saving millions of dollars by switching to Linux.
• KDE 3.0 released
• IBM drops Linux 'Via Voice' support
• Toho, owners of the "Godzilla" franchise, are suing 'Davezilla,' a comedy website. It's speculated that Mozilla web browser will be next.
• Netscape announces pop-up ad disabling will no longer be available.
• The ironically-named "Initiative for Software choice" campaign against Open Source (backed by CompTIA, funded by Microsoft) is attacking efforts to get Open Source used in government.
• Palm incorrectly stated the m130 model supports 16bit color (65,536), when in fact it only supports 12bits (4096) of color.
• Lawsuit against a Sprint is challenging Utah's spam laws (requiring e-mail spam to have "ADV:" in the subject line).
• A hacking group calling themselves "el8" are waging war against so-called 'White hat' hackers.
• Dell no longer allowed to sell systems without operating systems (thanks to Microsoft - BTW, they still claim they aren't a monopoly!)

  Dell turned around and is now offering them with copies of "FreeDOS", not-preinstalled. Go Dell!

• Open Source advocates are unfurling a legislative proposal to prohibit Calif. from buying from any company that doesn't make its code available... Supporters include RedHat, IBM, MandrakeSoft, Linux International. Detractors include Microsoft, CompTIA, the aforementioned "Init. for Software Choice," and, oddly enough, Tim O'Reilly.
• Verizon announces $6 million savings by switching its programmers from Unix and Windows workstations to Linux (using OpenOffice)
• Air New Zealand switches to Linux - expects 30% savings in total IT costs.
• Fax.com fined $5.4 million for junk faxing.
• Westport Rivers vineyard had failing NT-based servers. Despite having a support contract, Microsoft offered no solution other than to purchase new PCs and buy new copies of NT. MS also wanted 29% of the cost of all of their desktop server software, in order to receive upgrades. They've switched to RedHat.
• Bruce Perens to leave HP, to become more politcally active.
• Linux Kernel has successfully booted on Microsoft's "Xbox" game system. The anonymous donor of $200,000 has actually paid out to the porters!

Project Reports

• Demo - The last demo was August 10th. The turnout was alright, with a lot of LUGOD members showing up to help out and hang out.

• Installfests - Our last installfest (August 18th) had to be cancelled because the person with the key to the room was unavailable! All installees were contacted in advance, and their RSVPs will be honored at the next Installfest, on September 15th.

• LERT - No LERT news.

• Library - No news.

Other Business

• California 4-H Presentation - Bill Kendrick and Nicole Carlson did a presentation on Linux and Open Source to kids at the California 4-H Leadership convention at UC Davis on August 10th. About 15 kids attended, and enjoyed it! (Presentations are online at LUGOD's website, as well.)

• Picn*x - 150-200 people showed up to Picn*x-11, the 11th anniversary Linux picnic and barbecue in Sunnyvale on Saturday, August 17th. Jon 'maddog' Hall, Don Marti (of Linux Journal), Linus Torvalds (and family), and the mayor of Sunnyvale were among the famous people who attended!

• Financial Report - $134.55 were spent to pay for food and the room at Sudwerk.

Presentation

• Jon 'maddog' Hall, of Linux International, and has been employed at the likes of VA Linux, Digital, Compaq, and Bell Labs.

  Presentation notes coming soon!

Attendance

• Pete Salzman
• Melissa Hardenbrook
• Bill Kendrick
• Stephen Helms
• Foo Lim
• Marc Hasbrouck
• Cheuk
• Henry House
• Jennifer Hawk
• Mike Simons
• Doug Barbieri
• Joe Arruda
• Joel Baumert
• Jon 'maddog' Hall
• Alex House
• Coco House
• Nicole Carlson
• Jeff Newmiller
• Cordell Newmiller
• Brian Lavender
• Daphne Pareas
• Alexandra Thorn
• Philip Southam
• Ray Dias
• John Zarrella
• Sigrid Roehling
• Thomas Pedersa
• Dmitriy Ivanov
• Andrew Smith
• Jacob LeBeau
• Adam
• ... and about 25 others!

Photos:

• Photos of this meeting.

Quotes from the meeting:

• "It takes a lot of balls to put out their product and call it an operating system." - Jon 'maddog' Hall, on Microsoft

• "10 bucks on Barney." - Maddog on Wil Wheaton vs. Barney

• "We're not Microsoft bashers, necessarily - they just make the easiest target." - Maddog

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