[clug] Linux Resources

Sat Aug 3 08:59:40 UTC 2019

Steve, (and others)

 Those links are certainly worth reading up on.  I think I have read
some of the info, just I keep forgetting the details.

I am still open for more hints and tips.

My linux experience started with Slackware, when Slackware was
distributed on a large number of floppy disks (24?). Red Hat was with
me on my Linux journey too, but later I discovered Debian.

Recently I dusted off my Slackware version 2.0.1 CDs from 1994 and
tried to set up a VM of it, but the endeavour was taking too much
effort for value, so I have abandoned it for now. I also tried
virtualising some of my old DOS and Windows platforms too. After which
I realised I was wasting time and should stay with current technology,
leaving history for the historians to rewrite.

 Today, as I do from time to time, I have just been "thinking" about
the "Desktop Personal Computer", where it has been, and wondering when
and how it will be phased out and replaced as a concept?

How many more years do you think the "Desktop Personal Computer" will
exist for?  Anyone willing to guess?  Maybe 10, less that 20?

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/augmented-reality-the-past-the-present-and-the-future
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/brain-implant-decodes-dialogue-from-neural-activity
https://scienews.com/medicine/1645-augmented-reality-can-now-be-implanted-in-the-eye.html
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/cloud-platform/desktop-virtualization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0EVSrikRnc 

https://medium.com/microsoftazure/a-beginners-guide-to-cloud-gaming-c3e8a5915440

Personally I hope the locally based, desktop, personal computer lives
on for as long as I feel I need it. And until it is replaced, I will
need a OS for my desktop personal computers. 

Microsoft have indicated they are moving to the Cloud. Windows 8 was
their first step, Windows 10 Virtual Desktop is one more step of many
more yet to come.

So here I am turning to, or, returning to Linux, but this time as for
using on a Desktop. 

Linux has matured, improved and changed. Even sound and video almost
work seamlessly. And now we have systemd, nftables, AppArmor, all new
things for me to learn. 

Sadly during my working career whenever I used linux I only learned
what I needed to get whatever-it-was-at-the-time to work.  Now I
would like to learn more in-depth. 

For me, I have found I learn best from video training/tutorials. That
is a) video tutorials taking me through the process, then b) following
the video to build/implement the lesson.

While google searches have solved 80% of my issues, if not more,
searching the Internet returns old and potentially dangerous
suggestions. Use at your own peril if you are unable to test first. 

 When available, checking with other skilled colleagues is the fastest
and my preferred method for finding solutions to an issue, as this
method saves days of Internet searching and trouble of building test
environments to prove which is the best solution. With ten words
someone can save hours or days of research.

When Internet searching fails, and when not having skilled work
colleagues to turn to, I  then use community chat boards like CLUG.

Books can be excellent or a total loss. I have a book on Linux
programming, it has never helped me. I have used books on Postfix and
MySQL which are just amazingly useful (necessary?). Sadly I don't own
any books that I find useful on a day to day basis.  I had a few on
DOS and C in the past, but have not required them for many, many years
(e.g. 20?). 

Watching Linux conference videos can be useful for introducing new
topics, or extending knowledge, but one can spend a lot of time for
little gain, other than amusement.

Finally -  working with others (if they are friendly), is rewarding
in many ways. My early days of slackware (I believe due to a bug)
taught me to shutdown using "shutdown -f now" it was not until someone
many years later saw me doing this and questioned my practice that I
learned that the "-f" was not necessary. By the way, "shutdown -f
now" still works in Red Hat and Debian 10, try it. I like learning
from how others work.

Despite my efforts to date, I have never learned how to effortlessly
use SELinux, or know if I am doing the right thing when setting
iptables, or how to upgrade OpenStack without an outage, or build a
five physical machine OpenStack hypervisor. I would enjoy working with
anyone who can help me reach these goals, particularly the latter two.
I am now able to find the time to apply to such endeavours. 

My current project is to be satisfied in building and documenting "how
to build a really useful Debian+Xfce personal computer", with the
hopes of later sharing for anyone who a) is interested, b) can follow
my documentation, b) can be satisfied with Debian Linux and Xfce
personal computer (this last part excludes most of my family members,
most novice computer users I have met, and most if not all CLUG
members, lol).

My most challenging personal trait is that I forget things I am not
currently working with. I retain about six months worth of detailed
knowledge, after which I need to relearn. IT has been great for me, as
most knowledge older than six months is not worth having anyway. It
has often been a bit embarrassing at times when others can remember
and I cannot. I wonder how many other IT people can relate to this?
Can you recite the various VGA resolution limits that existed over the
years? Or the various hard disk drive limits?  I had to go searching
the Internet so I could build VMs of my old Windows versions. Writing
my own documentation when setting up systems has been very helpful for
myself (and others), I recommend the practice. While I picked up the
habit from a work colleague, I maintain a "How to" folder where I
store separate files of "How to" do specific tasks. Very useful for
when you leave a company and someone takes over your work. Some
companies manage web sites for team "How to" instructions. 

 George.

DOS 3 (32 MiB / 33.6 MB) 

DOS 4 (128 MiB / 134 MB) 

The Windows 95 and the 29.8 GiB / 32.0 GB
The Windows 98/98SE 64GB
The FAT 32 Limitation (124.55 GiB / 127.53)
The ATA Interface Limit (128 GiB / 137 GB) 

IDE 137GB limit

On Saturday, 03-08-2019 at 15:04 steve jenkin wrote:
> George,
> 
> It’s worth reading about the history of Linux (some is obvious)
and Open Source - especially attacks on it.
> 
> If you wanted to retrace the whole 50 years of Unix / Linux / Open
Source source code history, that’s possible too now with Virtual
Machines and ‘xv6’ - where it all began. TUHS (The Unix Heritage
Society) has many
> 
> For an introduction to the FOSS community, their principles and
capability, I’d suggest reading up on PJ & Groklaw - and how she
saved Open Source from the SCO lawsuit, when even IBM & Redhat
couldn’t.
> 
> This is Just one instance of many - I hope others may contribute
with other examples, such as the EU court decision on licensing the
SMB protocol.
> 
> Timeline of SCO–Linux disputes
> 
> > By mid-2004, five major lawsuits had been filed:
> > 
> > • SCO v. IBM
> > • Red Hat v. SCO
> > • SCO v. Novell
> > • SCO v. DaimlerChrysler
> > • SCO v. AutoZone
> 
> 
> PJ
> 
> 
> GrokLaw
> 
> 
> 
> PJ didn’t rest on her laurels - she created and worked on multiple
other (non-code) community projects:
> 
> Grokline's UNIX Ownership History Project [look at the ‘By Date’
tab]
> 
> 
> This is an open, community-based, collaborative research project, a
living history, designed to carefully trace the ownership history of
UNIX and UNIX-like code with the goal of reducing, or eliminating, the
amount of software subject to superficially plausible but ultimately
invalid copyright, patent and trade secret claims against Linux or
other free and open source software.
> 
> She also collected a list of “Resources” - for exactly people
like you - new to Open Source.
> 
> 
> Where’s the currentResources List? There doesn’t appear to be
one - an Opportunity for someone / some group.
> [Your contribution with your email is a start - it’d be a shame to
lose it or not build upon it.]
> 
> We’ve had endless homilies and criticism on-list on “writing
documentation” etc.
> I’ve not found them helpful or enlightening.
> 
> PJ had a Professional Writer address this topic - with an
acknowledged expert and artisan, not “I did this in my lunchtime”.
> It’s not carping and prescriptive, it attempts to lead technical
people into good writing habits & strategies for ‘Beginners’.
> 
> Writing Technical Documents for Computer Beginners
> 
> 
> > As hundreds of volunteers use this method with computer beginners
trying various software packages,
> > we can build up a usability library that will prove invaluable in
helping
> > to make FOSS appealing and inviting to the average Windows user
and the total computer neophyte. 
> > You know, that 90% of the market whom we want to try Linux. 
> > This will go a long way toward making that dream a reality.
> 
> 
> PJ’s contributions to Open Source and the community have been
profound and long-lasting - we owe her a massive debt.
> She’s understood the nature of challenges and their solutions well
before others have even noticed there was a problem.
> 
> If she’s written things that appear “ dated”, “too simple”
or simplistic, I think it’s worth rereading and attempting to
understand her points and perspective - yes, she _is_ that good.
> 
> regards
> steve
> 
> > On 27 Jul 2019, at 13:18, George at Clug via linux 
	*  wrote:
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > 
> > Just a general question about learning resources.  What Linux
> > learning resources do you find useful?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 1) For Microsoft I found that
> > https://learn.pluralsight.com/resource/tutorial/how-to was useful
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 2) For Linux the best I had seen was https://linuxacademy.com/team
> > 
> > 
> > 3) For quantum computing - well nothing I have found so far helps,
> > lol  (and I am being serious, here, I would like to learn more
about
> > quantum computing)
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 4) There was also
> > https://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/student-center but I
did
> > not find it any more useful that Microsoft's training resources.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 5) LCA and other conference recordings are interesting to keep
across
> > what's happening and various technologies I would not otherwise
know
> > about.
> > 
> >
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press-release/2019/01/the-linux-foundation-announces-2019-events-schedule/
> > 
> > 
> > 6) YouTube has lots of stuff, but it can be challenging finding
talks
> > that are what about you need and to the point.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > George
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > [I wish companies would stop trying to enforce cookies "We use
cookies
> > on our websites to deliver our online services. Details about how
we
> > use cookies and how you may disable them are set out in our
Privacy
> > Statement [1]. By using this website you agree to our use of
cookies.
> > ", just accept that we would use them if we wanted to, otherwise,
> > don't track us, just be happy that some looked at your site]
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Links:
> > ------
> > [1] https://www.redhat.com/en/about/privacy-policy#cookies
> > -- 
> > linux mailing list
> > linux at lists.samba.org
> > https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/linux
> 
> --
> Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 
> 0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
> PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA
> 
> stevej098 at gmail.com
> http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin
> 
>