Too Cool for Internet Explorer
Hibiscus Coast GNU/Linux Users Group

Today:

HBCLUG exists to support and promote the use of free software and GNU/Linux on the Hibiscus Coast.

Ubuntu 9.04 Released

Jaunty Jackalope Logo
Jaunty Jackalope became Ubuntu 9.04 yesterday! (Though 8.04 remains supported as the Long Term release.)

HBCLUG will have a review as soon as I get my ay into gee.

Installfest

... This is to be May 16 - (indoors) at the Orewa Public Library (confirmed). Starts at 10am. Bring your computer and everything you'd normally run with it. HBCLUG will help install Jaunty to it - or any distro you bring with you.

You don't want to install - hell, come anyway. Have a look. Try out the demo computers. This is also a good time to bring old computers to donate to HBCLUGs Pheonix Program - we install gnu/linux (so it works good again) then give them away to the computerless.

The official artwork is awesome! Go grab some.

I usually offer my own wallpapers for new releases - which will happen: just not overnight. It's just that gimping antlers onto a rabbit is not as easy as it sounds.

Patience grasshopper...

Open Source Computing

Next Course starting Semester 2, 2009

Read the course homepage for updates. >

Open Source Computing

Offers a crash course in Free Software using gnuLinux. Featuring revised course materials.

[rant]

Windows is not "popular"

- it is "common" (like the cold.)

Ten Reasons Ditch Windows and Upgrade to Linux

To mess up a Linux box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just have to work on it.

-- Scott Granneman, an author, entrepreneur and adjunct professor at Washington University in St. Louis

> 1. Freedom and Flexability
... GNU/Linux is licenced in such a way as to guarantee you your right to do what you want with your computor. You own it, after all. The software is written to empower you, as a computer user, to take charge of your machine. The ultimate goal is that you should enjoy the experience.

2. Functionality
... GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu, SLED, fedora, include, out of the box, more applications and IT solutions than anywhere else. Then there are many thousands of packaged additions and drop-in replacements in case the bundled set is not exactly to your taste. By comparison, each MS Windows release does less, out of the box, than the previous one but needs more and more expensive hardware to do it.

3. Reliability
... MS solutions need monthly (sometimes daily) updates just to be less insecure. You need a daily scandisk and defrag to avoid crashes. By comparison, GNU/Linux is written by the people who must ultimately support it, with the fussiest computer user in the world, the geek, as a major user-group. They don't get paid for tech support, so they are strongly motivated to write their programs to be reliable, first, and then add fancy features and interfaces. GNU/Linux solutions are renowned industry-wide for high reliability.

4. Productivity
... GNU/Linux gets out of your way so you can get on with your work and enjoy your computer. Major distributions include, out of the box, productivity and entertainment software that would cost thousands from MS. If you don't like the bundled apps, there's thousands more where they came from. Need something that has been overlooked, it's three mouse-clicks away.

5. Interoperability
... MS Windows was designed to be a single user computer isolated fram all others. Even Vista suffers as a result. GNU/Linux was designed from the start to be network aware. It is based in and informed by the same processes and technology that made the internet. The project itself involves very large scale interoperability - involving millions of active contributors globally. No other project can claim this, ever.

> 6. Aquisition Cost
... zero + your time. $50-$250 if you pay someone for the upgrade. Actual cost depends on your needs. There is no cost hump for aquisition to get over. It is even possible to order computers with GNU/Linux (Dell, hp, Lenovo) pre-installed.

7. Ownership Cost
... zero + your time. Want professional support? It's there, in a variety of flavours. Because of GNU/Linux' famous reliability, tech support callouts are much rarer.

8. Security
... since GNU/Linux has always been net aware, it has always been designed to be secure. You have to try hard to run malicious software - even harder for someone to trick you into doing it.

9. Vendor Lock-in
... dosn't exist in GNU/Linux. With MS products, you do not own the right to read your own work - MS do. If you use MS solutions end-to-end you are stuck it an MS world - if they decide to change a major component, you are stuck w>ith buying the upgrade. In GNU/Linux, if a vendor starts giving you greif, you can move to another one - taking all your file formats and software with you.

10. MS Dosn't want you to.
MS is a billion dollar multinational with a 90+% stranglehold on the domestic computer market. But they are frightened of GNU/Linux (and copyleft in general). Presumably they know their stuff... what is it that they know, that you don't?

[/rant]