Dean Weiten, a PLUG member, business owner and volunteer sysadmin for his former school, tells the story of how one problem eventually grew into two open source solutions. Dean also made an appeal for our support in setting up SAMBA for the remaining Windows portion of the network. At last night's PLUG meeting, we resolved to provide assistance wherever we could. Congratulations Dean!

The Prairie Linux User Group monthly meeting was held last night at the group's new studiolab at 46 - 221 McDermot Avenue. Our guests included 13 year old GNU/Linux programming prodigy Felix Jodoin speaking about developing linux from scratch, and Robin Faye of the Green Party speaking about her party's endorsement of Open Source Software. Among others on hand were filmmaker and video artist Ed Ackerman, PLUG founder Jason Loughead, and videographer Adam Zachar.

The PLUG Meeting will have two guest speakers:

Felix Jodoin is a talented c programmer who is writing his own Linux interface for gnome called elf as well as his own Linux distro.

Robin Faye is running for the Green Party in Winnipeg Centre, she will be talking about her party's position on OSS.

June 17 7pm at 221 McDermot Avenue across from Ragpickers in studio 46

PLUG is having our first monthly meeting in our new headquarters! The date is Thursday June 17, 2004 at 7 pm at 221 McDermot Avenue, Studio 46. The topic is TBA but some exciting ideas are being passed around. Also of note is we are hosting along with other groups, OpenCity FreedomFest. A convergence of progressive politics, indy arts and open source software to be held at multiple venues around downtown Winnipeg. The dates are August 20-22, 2004.

Prairie Linux User Group has come into approximiately 30 computers for free from the University of Winnipeg. They are however missing cpu's(pentium I and 486 sx and dx's primarily) and ram (72 and 168 pin). We are asking for anyone who knows of a free or cheap supply of them to post to the mailing list.
What we intend to do is stop the erosion of Open Source in University and Academia by obtaining one powerful machine (possibly an IBM donation) to serve as a terminal server for these low end machines. We may be able to enlist the help of C.T. Leung for technical help with performance issues, configuration etc since he has successfully setup LTSP at Sisler High School. Any advice, ideas, help would be greatly appreciated ( info@plug.ca )
Jason Loughead
jason@plug.ca

Back in 1983 Apple Computer had a video produced at a budget of $900,000 to air during the SuperBowl. It was called 1984 and done in an Orwellian style which received high praise socially and cinematically. The "evil empire" then was IBM with it's near ubiquitous PC hardware and Microsoft barely a blip on the map.

The mighty IBM is ordered to open up it's hardware specs as part of a judgement by the courts (by a more effective US Department of Justice than now) laying the groundwork for a revolution of cheap pc's and a new monolith known as Microsoft.

Fast forward to 2004 and Microsoft dominates the way 95% of the desktop computers work, interact and communicate. Linux is making huge strides and dwarfs the fervour that Apple enthusiasts have for thier semi-proprietary operating system. Because of this propaganda campaigns and lies are churned out with a double speak that would make Orwell himself cringe. A new Super Bowl comes along with Big Blue sponsoring an ad for the little guy (pun intended).

Enter Linux and an excellent edit of the original Apple ad with more political punch and attitude, this modification embodies the elements of democracy, innovation and savvy that open source is famous for. Click here (.avi)
Life really does imitate art, yet is much more dramatic and unbelievable at times.

Has anyone noticed how the technical job market in Winnipeg is as cold and bitter as our winters? I would have thought post secondary education would be a worthy investment however all the $12000 I spent got me was a piece of paper and a job doing tech support for a US cable company. Dispite graduating with an A average 2 years have passed and still no programming position. Its getting to the point where I am considering either standing on Portage and Main with a sign saying programmer for hire or going back to school to spend another outrageous sum of money on yet another piece of paper. In conclusion if you catch yourself ever considering moving to Winnipeg have yourself committed as you are clearly not of sound mind.

Check out this xmms skin, it's modelled after our beloved website. There may be a few tiny things that need tweaking but overall it's quite polished.

Kimberly Shelt from PLUG in Australia (Perth Linux User Group)
is proposing a sister city idea between our group and thiers.

"Do you think your LUG might be interested in trying to set up some kind of
joint arrangement with ours ?.. nothing too formal.. something along the lines
of the various "Sister city" endeavours that go on ?
I am not sure what we can all do together..but it is probably worth raising
with the rest of the members..Some thoughts..