The January 18th PLUG meeting will feature Sun Microsystems' Annoucement (http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/java/index.jsp) that they are releasing thier java implementation under a free software license.

The topic of the December 14 PLUG (moved from the 21st) will be "Designing a new PLUG website with Plone". PLUG co-founders Syd Weidman and Jason Loughead; with interactive help from the audience will put together a new website for the user group, using Plone.

Python has been around almost as long as the GNU Project, so it qualifies as one of the grand-daddies of Free Software projects. Python is:

...an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language. It incorporates modules, exceptions, dynamic typing, very high level dynamic data types, and classes. Python combines remarkable power with very clear syntax.

With ease, power, elegance, convenience and portability, Python sure has a lot to recommend it as a programming language. With thousands (perhaps millions, but there are no licenses to count) of individual programmers and organizations using Python now, it is becoming a tool of ever-increasing importance in the toolkits of systems administrators and software developers everywhere. Having been impressed by Python creations such as Zope -- a web-application framework -- and by Plone, its companion content management front-end, I have become increasingly immersed in Python code, and I must say, I've been enjoying the swim. That's why I was especially happy to discover that Winnipeg now has a Python Users Group!

Today I attended the small but enthusiastic innaugural meeting during which we talked about future topics of interest. The group is both informal and informative, showing a surprising breadth of talent and expertise given the numbers that gathered today. To find out more about the group as it springs into action, and to help determine what direction it takes, you can join the mailing list, courtesy of python.org:

http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/winnipeg

Advocacy has always been a major part of the PLUG and will continue to be in the future. However advocacy is not the only way we can contribute to the open source movement.

I do tech support work for a major international transportation company. It gives its software to companies that use its services.

They have had over 40 different products in the past to provide this functionality, which they are migrating to just a handful.

Like most big companies, they use the windows platform for their software, and they do not have enough resources to make their software as good as it could be. Many users complain that their software is not as that produced by "oops". Which is a shame!

API's are available for linux, from their website, which would give the functionality of integrating through the web.

This company has some software which needs to be connected in realtime to ship a parcel, and some other which is able to produce the label information from within its own program, producing the proper Astra barcodes, etc. They even have a shipping application directly on their website. There are problems with the various approaches, one of which is lack of speed when it comes to internet-connected functions.

Linux to the rescue?

Hello, nice site. :) My name is Jeffrey Bakker. I\'m a fellow Winnipegger, Linux user, and Open Source programmer. I just wanted to announce my new membership, and the existence of my GPL software, Web C Plus Plus (Webcpp for short). If you happen to be a programmer or web developer, you may find my software useful.

I am a Java developer and I just wanted to share a few important links, regarding Enterprise Java development on Linux.