Quad Cities Linux Users Group Meeting Minutes 8/13/14 6:30 PM Icons Martini - Rock Island IL

9 Gentlemen were in attendance this evening - their identities are concealed to protect the innocent…

No open jobs were discussed during this particular meeting, however that doesn't mean there aren't opportunities. Even more important - we are looking for new members of the QC Lug. We are hoping to grow in number, increase our outreach, and improve the quality of our Linux skills. Collaboration is how you make 1+1 = 75; or something like that. Together, we can do great things.

We got off to a bit of a late start - turns out Ryan and Brian are fairly forgetful when it comes to the projector - someone really ought to issue the lashings accordingly.

In other news, we (I) have decided to hold elections for a Standards Chair - they will make sure people are doing what they're supposed to be doing - in a fun and light hearted, but kick you in the arse, kind of way.

The early segments of this meeting involved discussions of philanthropic outreach using Linux, the importance of proof-reading your work (typos make things not work - at all), and the benefits of cycling over driving - especially with regards to consumption of libations.

Gentoo is defined by google as a tall penguin with a white triangular patch above the eye, breeding on subantarctic islands. For those less familiar with the wildlife of the sub-antarctic and more familiar with Linux, Gentoo.org describes this as a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme configurability, performance and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience.

Aaron (our official fearless leader and QCLUG president) gave a presentation on Gentoo Stage 3 - he used the very impressive Libre Office Impress presentation software. There is a bit of discussion regarding System D with regards to advanced administrative tasks - it is thought to be the most stable option to get things of that nature done. There is informal question and answer throughout the session - it takes an academic approach with the presentation software and live demonstrations paired with meaningful discussion on how to avoid common pitfalls, time saving efforts, and general guidance (from both the presenter and the audience).

There are rumors that there is a large Gentoo footprint in the Navy - we could not reliably confirm this during our meet (likely due to varying clearance levels and agencies operating covertly). Perhaps you haven't seen how powerful our Navy is - and it is (or could be) powered by Gentoo - this open source Linux thing is pretty powerful too.

There is a side discussion regrading pulse audio in comparison to SystemD - long story short, System D is thought to be in the running to stick around for a while, likely across Linux distros. It is frequently used on the enterprise level. Wikipedia describes this as a system management daemon designed for Linux and programmed exclusively for the Linux API. For systems using it, it is the first process which is excuted in user space during the Linux startup process. Therefore, SystemD serves s the root of the user space's process treem. The name systemd adheres to the unix convention of making daemons easier to distinguish by having the letter “d” s the last one in their actual file names. SystemD is also the name of a software bulde, which icludes systemd daemon, lgind and a couple other low-level components of an operating system. This was developed to replace the init system inherited from Unix System V and Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) operating systems. It manages other daemons.

There is brief discussion on LVM as well. Wikipedia describes it as follows: LVM (Logical Volume Manager) allows administrators to create meta devices that provide an abstraction layer between a file system and the physical storage that is used underneath. The meta devices (on which file systems are placed) are logical volumes, which use storage from storage pools called volume groups. A volume group is provisioned with one or more physical volumes which are the true devices on which the data is stored.

Physical volumes can be partitions, whole SATA hard drives grouped as JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks), RAID systems, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, eSATA etc.

Gentoo is like building your own house - it is a boot-strapped OS without customization. Then you get to make it what you want - because who wants something they don't want…? Tweak (not to be confused with 'twerk') to your heart's content.

Jim expressed his brief experience with a contained nuclear blast within the confines of his physical embodiment - there was some genuine concern, but he assured us he was within acceptable ranges at present.

Fun Facts: LinuxCon North America is scheduled for August 20 - 22; that is one week from today.

The Free Introduction to Linux on EdX is now available for your enjoyment or for official certification (for a donation to the Foundation).

Craving more?? Of course you are - you might consider subscribing to a regular newsletter, a Linux magazine (there are more than you might think), or reaching out to the members of this group. We range in experience level from “day-in-day-out professional” to “hm… I wonder what this is about”.

Our next (board) meeting will be Wednesday, August 20th at 5:30 PM at Icons in Rock Island, IL. The meeting after that will be September 10th at the Bettendorf Library at 6:30 PM. Jim will be presenting briefuly at the September 10th meeting.