Spokane Linux User's Group

Shari’s conference room is not open yet for meetings. They said “maybe when we enter Phase 3”. You can join our email list for news and discussions. Also some members are using Discord chat / channels during the regular monthly meeting time.

Tools / Discussions

PinePhone – Open Source Linux Smart Phone–Martins D. Okio wrote good article about the upcoming “Brave Heart” version here:
https://www.fossmint.com/pinephone-an-open-source-smartphone-for-linux/
https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

Zorim OS just released 15.1 — A beginner-friendly distro with the goal of creating a Windows 7 like interface. Also, Linux Mint 19.3 just released–another great distro for first-time Linux users along with Pop OS.

Z-Wave home automation products available at Lowes.
IP Cameras: some users have Wyze Cams, “cheap but good”, 1080p, sd-card recording, real-time streaming protocol.

Try Spoonflower for an on-demand, digital printing company that prints custom fabric, wallpaper, and gift wrap.

SonarQube: an open source platform for continuous inspection of code quality.

AWS CloudFormation provides a common language for you to model and provision AWS and third party application resources in your cloud environment.

Western Governors University (WGU) is a private, nonprofit, regionally accredited, online university based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The university uses an online competency-based learning model as opposed to the traditional, cohort-based class model present at most universities.

Discussion Topics
Ubuntu MAS (Metal-as-a-Service).
Ghost CMS and Jam Stack for creating a secure, static web site.
Gaming on Linux with Lutris.
Silent Defense Project.
recommended show: PBS Frontline “In the Age of A.I.”
Holographic Encryption.
Redhat Enterprise Linux 8, System D.
recommended show: Nova on Self-driving Cars.
sync your data using Nextcloud, Syncthing, and VDIRSYNC for calandars.
AWS, CDK python library for modeling cloud formation–builds cloud formation templates.
Presentation: Pop OS install on HP Spectre x360

Open Source Summit in San Diego, hosted by the Linux Foundation.
Lutris is a gaming client for Linux. It gives you access to all your video games with the exception of the current console generation. You can, in a single interface, run any game from your childhood memories to the current multiplayer games. Integrations with stores like GOG and Steam allow you to import your existing game library and community maintained install scripts give you a completely automated setup.
Jupiter Broadcasting: two new interesting shows to check out: Self-Hosted and Linux Headlines.
Mattermost: High Trust Messaging for the Enterprise–a flexible, open source messaging platform that enables secure team collaboration.
There’s a new local speedtest.net node up to help test our connections: select Cutting Edge Communications, Inc. instead of going to Walla Walla or Seattle.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux: The foundation for your enterprise hybrid cloud. Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® is the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform. It’s an open source operating system (OS). It’s the foundation from which you can scale existing apps—and roll out emerging technologies—across bare-metal, virtual, container, and all types of cloud environments.
ZFS File system may be coming soon to Ubuntu as an optional install feature.
Virtualization with LXC and LXD: LXD (pronounced lex-dee) is the lightervisor, or lightweight container hypervisor. LXC (lex-see) is a program which creates and administers “containers” on a local system. It also provides an API to allow higher level managers, such as LXD, to administer containers. In a sense, one could compare LXC to QEMU, while comparing LXD to libvirt.

hope to see you next month 🙂

Meeting topics:

PDFtk Free is a friendly graphical tool for quickly merging and splitting PDF documents and pages. It is free to use for as long as you like.
https://www.pdflabs.com/

Use ImageMagick® to create, edit, compose, or convert bitmap images. It can read and write images in a variety of formats (over 200) including PNG, JPEG, GIF, HEIC, TIFF, DPX, EXR, WebP, Postscript, PDF, and SVG. Use ImageMagick to resize, flip, mirror, rotate, distort, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.
https://www.imagemagick.org

What is Ghostscript?

Ghostscript is an interpreter for PostScript™ and Portable Document Format (PDF) files. It is available both under the GNU GPL Affero license and for commercial licensing from Artifex. It has been under active development for over 20 years and has been ported to many different systems during this time.
https://www.ghostscript.com/

NethServer is an operating system for Linux enthusiasts, designed for small offices and medium enterprises. Rich: Extremely modular and feature-rich: MailServer and Filter, WebServer, Groupware, Firewall, Web Filter, IPS/IDS, VPN and more. Simple: Powerful web interface that simplifies common administration tasks, very easy/fast installation and a lot of pre-configured modules installable with a “single click”. Solid: Based on CentOS/RHEL, a widespread and popular server distribution, trusted by routine security updates, and rock solid stability. Open: 100% OpenSource, powered by contributors and fueled by community. Transparent with open communication channels and well documented.
https://www.nethserver.org/

Tails is a live operating system that you can start on almost any computer from a USB stick or a DVD.
It aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity, and helps you to:
• use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship;
all connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network;
• leave no trace on the computer you are using unless you ask it explicitly;
• use state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, emails and instant messaging.
https://tails.boum.org

Discussion and mini-presentation: Bitcoin, Blockchain, hashing and credit card security. GPU vs. CPU computing. Windows VM’s: storage on physical drive space vs. creating virtual drive space. Kodi media project. Accounting with GnuCash. Distro mini-presentation: NethServer is an operating system for Linux enthusiasts, designed for small offices and medium enterprises. Extremely modular and feature-rich: MailServer and Filter, WebServer, Groupware, Firewall, Web Filter, IPS/IDS, VPN and more. Powerful web interface that simplifies common administration tasks, very easy/fast installation and a lot of pre-configured modules installable with a “single click”. Based on CentOS/RHEL, a widespread and popular server distribution, trusted by routine security updates, and rock solid stability. 100% OpenSource, powered by contributors and fueled by community. Transparent with open communication channels and well documented.

Hope to see you at the next meeting…..

Some fun topics at Wednesday’s meeting:

Arduino lesson videos by Paul McWhorter on YouTube. An introductory series of 28 videos for those interested in learning more about the Arduino Microcontroller. Also visit his website at  http://www.toptechboy.com/arduino-lessons/

Bitnami Apps: Packaged Applications for Any Platform
https://bitnami.com/
Bitnami has automated the ability to package, deploy and maintain applications, lowering the barrier to adoption for anyone to deploy and maintain a full spectrum of server applications, development stacks and infrastructure applications in virtually any format.

what3words is a really simple way to talk about location. We have divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address. It means anyone can accurately find any location and share it more quickly, easily and with less ambiguity than any other system.
The service can be used via the free mobile app or online map. It can also be built into any other app, platform or website, with just a few lines of code. https://what3words.com/

Linux Action News: Weekly Linux news and analysis by Chris and Joe. The show every week we hope you’ll go to when you want to hear an informed discussion about what’s happening.
http://linuxactionnews.com/

A voice chat app for Spokane Linux User’s Group? We talk about creating a channel on Telegram, Signal, or Discord.

Hope to see you next month….

discussion topics this month:
Raspberry Pi, a series of small single-board computers — https://raspberrypi.org/
Debian 9 “Stretch” released June 17th. A free operating system (OS) for your computer — http://www.debian.org/
pfSense software is a free, open source customized distribution of FreeBSD specifically tailored for use as a firewall and router that is entirely managed via web interface. https://www.pfsense.org/
Intel Optane Memory
LinuxFest Northwest 2017
Ubuntu Podcast — http://ubuntupodcast.org/
MyPaint is a nimble, distraction-free, and easy tool for digital painters. It supports graphics tablets made by Wacom, and many similar devices. Its brush engine is versatile and configurable, and it provides useful, productive tools. http://mypaint.org/
Using Ethernet over power-line devices, such as the Linksys PLWK400, to extend your wireless network to remote locations.
fun projects to test:
FreeNAS 11
FreeNAS is an operating system that can be installed on virtually any hardware platform to share data over a network. FreeNAS is the simplest way to create a centralized and easily accessible place for your data. Use FreeNAS with ZFS to protect, store, backup, all of your data. FreeNAS is used everywhere, for the home, small business, and the enterprise.
http://www.freenas.org/
Nextcloud 12
A safe home for all your data. Access, share and protect your files, calendars, contacts, communication & more at home and in your enterprise. — https://nextcloud.com/

For those interested in astronomy and exoplanets, check out epesode 302 of Triangulation, an interview with Michael Summers, author of Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life Beyond Our Solar System.
https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation

hope to see you next month….

At the March meeting, our members talked about:
Working with steel projects, design and assembly with BricsCAD: offers all the familiar .dwg 2D CAD features, yet it adds time saving tools and 3D Direct Modeling.
With BricsCAD you get more for less.

Find out detailed information about your computer using HardInfo: a hardware analysis, system benchmark and report generator. Key Features: Comprehensive reports on hardware; Generate HTML reports on your system’s hardware; Benchmark and compare your system. Install with: ‘sudo apt install hardinfo’
Once installed, HardInfo can be launched from ‘System Tools > System Profiler and Benchmark’. Alternatively the application can be launched from the command line using the following:
$ hardinfo 

Recommended reading: In the Beginning was the Command Line
by Neal Stephenson
http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html
The essay, from 1999, is a commentary on why the proprietary operating systems business is unlikely to remain profitable in the future because of competition from free software.

Why you should use: The Go Programming Language for your next project.
Go is an open source programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software. https://golang.org/

Website tool: Jekyll. Transform your plain text into static websites and blogs. Simple: No more databases, comment moderation, or pesky updates to install—just your content. Static: Markdown (or Textile), Liquid, HTML & CSS go in. Static sites come out ready for deployment. Blog-aware: Permalinks, categories, pages, posts, and custom layouts are all first-class citizens here. Check it out here:
https://jekyllrb.com/

Hope to see you next Month.