Welcome to the

Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts

Promoting Linux and Open Source Software Freedom in Atlanta Since 1994
Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts (ALE) is a diverse group of friendly people who enjoy the freedoms and benefits of GNU Linux Computing and Free Software technologies. From novice to network administrator, from PDA to data center, we strive to empower every computer user with freely distributable software and to improve every computing environment with superior Open Source Operating System solutions.

Founded in December 1994, ALE has hosted hundreds of regular monthly meetings with talk topics ranging from "The Linux Advantage in Education" to "How to Write Device Drivers". In addition, we regularly host Linux installation events and educational forums to help others eradicate their windows diseases by introducing them to the secure, user empowering freedom of GNU Linux and Free Software.

The ALE group is loosely structured with a few dedicated volunteers filling any needed administrative and resource support roles. There is no charter and no board. There are no membership fees or other superfluous formalities. Anyone is welcome to join the group by simply showing up at any ALE meeting or event, or by subscribing to our mailing list. Our interests are purely in sharing information about Linux, Open Source and Free Software empowerment with the greater Atlanta community and beyond.

In addition to supporting members through web and email services, ALE holds regular monthly meetings. The "Central" meeting is usually hosted at Emory University on the 3rd Thursday of each month (see directions on sidebar). We also host meetings and events in other areas of the greater Atlanta region as affordable venues and volunteer support allow.

ALE CENTRAL MTG. for Thurs., October 15th, 2009

Filed at 1:50 pm under ALE Central and Announcements by Ruscetta


The highlight presentation at the ALE Central Meeting
for Thursday, Oct. 15th, 2009 at 7:30pm will be:

“Application Development with QT 3.3″
featuring “KSDB” as presented by the wildly illusive
but always engaging Charles Shapiro

Synopsis:
– Join our guide, Charles Shapiro, as he leads us through the evolutionary
process of coding an exciting new open source application, replete with bold
side-excursions through the wilds of QT 3.3 and C++. Wear your ties [as
a headband] and watch as Charles becomes either the Hero (It Works!)
or the Goat (It Crashes!) with a live demo of his new QT intensive database
form designer on his KDE laptop. In an audacious climax he will then do
what Bill “Greedy Guy” Gates could never do: SHOW YOU THE CODE!
The epilogue will be a tearful, impassioned plea for help and support from
you, the beneficent bug hunting audience. Come learn and participate
as History is Made!

bio:
– Charles Shapiro is a fan of fencing, gadgetry, juggling, gizmos,
beer brewing, obscure weaponry, radio control (in all it’s connotations),
and most anything else the that lesser world might consider “geek”.
Consistent to these avocations he has been a professional programmer
for over 12 years, specializing in C and Unix with a couple years of
C++, Perl and a plethora of Python in the mix. He can type faster than
most people can talk, is a Linux Lunacy Cruise alumnae, a liberty
minded friend of the EFF, an officially sanctioned Richard Stallman
impersonator for the FSF, and a seriously committed GNU Linux
zealot since 1996.

=============
We will be meeting at Emory Law School in our
usual Gambrel Hall, room 1C venue.
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found
[here]

ALE CENTRAL MTG. on Thurs., Sept. 17th

ATLANTA LINUX FEST on Sat. Sept. 19th

Filed at 4:13 pm under ALE Central and Announcements by Ruscetta


A big reminder that Software Freedom Day is Saturday,
Sept. 19th and ALE is encouraging all Atlanta freedom fans
to celebrate by attending the second annual
ATLANTA LINUX FEST

Saturday, September 19th, 8:30am to 5:30pm
Click on the ALF link banner in the right column to see the full details.

===

And as a warm up to all the info and activities at the ALF,
we have a great presentation scheduled for the ALE Central
Meeting on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 7:30pm that
should be of interest to all Linux users:

“All Your Device Are Belong to UDEV!”
with Ryan Matty of Prefetch Technologies

Synopsis:
Whether a disk drive, a USB slot or an ethernet port, Linux manages
most of the various data transport components of your system as DEVICES.
The mechanics and capabilities of Linux device management underwent
a pretty significant overhaul with the release of the 2.6 kernel in 2004,
where DevFS was removed in favor of the UDev device management
framework. This presentation will give an overview of UDev, and will
show how it can be used to handle all of your Linux device management
needs!

Bio:
– Ryan Matteson (aka matty) is a long time Linux user, and has been a
member of ALE for close to 8 years. In addition to hacking code, Ryan
thoroughly enjoys evaluating new technology and sharing his findings
with the world through his blog at prefetch.net.

=============
We will be meeting at our usual Emory Law School venue,
Gambrel Hall, rm 1C. Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found at
[http://ale.org/?page_id=2].

ALE CENTRAL MTG. for Thurs., Aug. 20th, 2009

Filed at 12:42 am under ALE Central and Announcements and Uncategorized by Ruscetta


The feature presentation at the ALE Central Meeting
at 7:30pm on Thursday, Aug. 20th, 2009 will be:

“Open SUSE: The State of the Disavowed Distro”
with Chuck Payne, Atlanta regional OpenSUSE Ambassador
==

Synopsis:
– Despite extensive concerns and criticisms from the Free Software
community regarding SUSE’s partnership deals with Novel and the
dangerous precedents of their concessions to the extortionist FUD
campaigns of MicroSoft, the OpenSUSE project has continued to be
an important contributing developer in the global GNU Linux and
Open Source arenas. SUSE’s recently appointed volunteer ambassador
for our region, Chuck Payne, will bring us up to date on the features
and strengths of current OpenSUSE 11.1 offering and talk about
enhancements scheduled for the pending 11.2 release.

Bio:
– Chuck “PUP” Payne has been working with computers since
his parents gave him an Atari 130XE for his 16th birthday
[ed - (: presumably misunderstanding his actual requests for
a Commodore Amiga :) ]. He has since worked with personal
computer platforms ranging from Atari and Apple to Mac and
PC, and has explored various operating environments including
Linux, BeOS, Solaris, FreeBSD and others. He has been
working with GNU Linux since 1998, when he bought a book on
Slackware ‘96. After Slackware he tried out Red Hat, then
moved to openSUSE with their 1998 5.3 release and he has
stayed with the SUSE choice since.

Computers also became central to Chuck’s career, and he has
worked as a System Administrator since 1998. He is currently
employed by Travel Channel Media as a Unix Systems Admin,
where day to day tasks include managing TCM’s DNS, 70+ Red
Hat Linux Servers, 20 Solaris Servers, and a handful of Mac
XServers. He also helps out with web development in the areas
of Apache and JBOSS administration.

In April 2009 Chuck’s application to be a regional volunteer
ambassador for OpenSUSE was accepted, facilitating his goals
of helping people discover the benefits of Free Software,
GNU/Linux and the OpenSUSE distributions. In his free time he
bolsters his geek cred by writing bash scripts or php code,
hacking hardware in his home gadget lab, and watching any
and all Zombie flicks that cross his path.

Related Links:
OpenSUSE.org

=============
We will be meeting at Emory Law School in our
usual Gambrel Hall, room 1C venue.
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found
via the side bar link.

FreeIT Athens Build Party Road Trip

Filed at 11:59 am under Announcements and News by Ruscetta

An “Open” Invitation to join us for the first
FreeIT Athens
Build Party Road Trip

on Saturday, July 18th, 10:30 am to 7:30 pm

… as a community event sponsored by …
Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts & the
Ubuntu Georgia LoCO

– Our plan is to travel as a carpool caravan to the FreeIT
facilities in Athens, Georgia and spend the afternoon building,
repairing, assembling and installing Linux computer systems
that will be donated to regional educational institutions,
non profit groups and community members in need.

– To facilitate delivery of donated equipment and car
pooling, the Road Trip caravan to FreeIT Athens will
congregate at the Fry’s parking lot (S.W. corner) near
I-85 and Pleasant Hill road, adjacent to the Gwinnett
Place Mall. Volunteers should arrive between 10:00am
and 10:30am as we hope to depart by 10:45am and
arrive at FreeIT in Athens by about Noon. Plans are
to work at FreeIT until about 6:00pm, then drive out
to arrive back at Frys by 7:30pm.

– NOTE: Additional equipment donations will be
accepted in the Frys parking lot (S.W. corner) from
10:00am until departure time. Please see the FreeIT
donations page for specifics.

– Volunteers can bring their own lunch or participate in
a group lunch order; collections will be taken and food
ordered upon arrival at FreeIT Athens. Donations of frosty
beverages for the afternoon will also be most welcome.
Dinner and post-road-trip frivolities at an establishment
in the vicinity of Gwinnett Mall may ensue as participating
volunteers are motivated.

– All volunteers and participants are, of course, welcome
to make their own travel arrangements to FreeIT Athens
as they see fit, though we request that you still RSVP to
help us better coordinate the event effort.

RSVP and QUESTIONS and IDEAS and CONCERNS
and PUBLICITY ASSISTANCE welcome!
Please contact:
Aaron Ruscetta,
ALE Events Coordinator (etc)
arxaaron@gmail.com
cell: 404.315.0406 [ 11am to 11pm any day ]

Free IT Athens is Located at
594 Oconee St
Athens, GA 30605
(706) 621-6157

=======================
We thank you for your Attention and
we welcome your Participation!
=======================

ALE CENTRAL MTG. for Thurs., July 16th, 2009

Filed at 9:58 pm under ALE Central and Announcements by Ruscetta

===
SPECIAL NOTE:

The July 16, 2009 ALE Central meeting will be
immediately preceded by a Tailgate Swap Meet
from 6:00pm to 7:15pm in the Law School parking
lot. Please see full details on this and the Saturday,
July 18th, Build Party Road Trip to FreeIT
in Athens in the separate posting below.
===

The feature presentation for the ALE Central Meeting at
7:30pm on Thursday, July 16th, will be:

“GroupWise: Commercial Enterprise Email
and Collaboration on Linux”

as presented by James (not the singer) Taylor

Synopsis:
– GroupWise is one of the best kept secrets in the Linux email
and collaboration space. It is the third most widely used
commercial collaboration software in the world, and has
been scaled to support is organizations numbering from two,
to hundreds of thousands of users. Though Groupwise is not
a Free Software offering, it does run best when run on
Linux. This presentation will provide an overview of the
GroupWise system and capabilities with an emphasis on
demonstration with Q&A.

Bio:
– James Taylor has been absorbed by technology for over
thirty years, including sints with Xerox, Wang Laboratories
and Inacom Information Systems. He is currently President
and Principal Consultant with the East Cobb Group, an
IT Consulting and solutions provider. James has imposed
an openSUSE Linux reign of terror over his family for the
last ten years, and they love it… or else. ;-)

Related Links:
Novell Groupwise Site

=============
We will be meeting at Emory Law School in our
usual Gambrel Hall, room 1C venue.
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found
via the side bar link.

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