…Because everyone comes to the LUG!!!
Mid month drinks at the Rugby Tavern was well attended in July. In fact, the social leave-your-computer-at-home evening is proving to be about as popular as the regular monthly meet at the Old Grey Mare.
It always seem to be questioned as to whether we hold our meetings at the best places, and certainly The Rugby Tavern is good because it’s central, and it serves cheap beer. However when there are a few of us, it can get a bit cramped, and the atmosphere in can sometimes be a bit grim. Additionally, there have been reports that not only does it not have Wi-Fi, which as this is our social meet is not necessarily a big deal as neither do many other city centre pubs, but when people have brought out laptops, bar staff have asked them to ‘put it away’ due computers being some kind of breach of their entertainment licence (?). It seems a bit of a contradiction that a computer group should meet at a venue that is computer unfriendly!!!
I’ve put a poll on the forums suggesting either staying at the Rugby, or a few alternatives.
Last night, at the Monthly Meet, we enjoyed a lazy summer evening in the beer garden of the Old Grey Mare. In total there was about 16 or 17 of us chatting about a variety of geeky things such as old Atari machines, plug-in servers, as well what seems to be a recurring topic of ‘if Ubuntu is so great why doesn’t it work on my machine properly?’.
It was good to see Brian, who made the trip from Grimsby to be with us. I’d previously met Brian last year at a couple of ScunDog meets, when we put Mint on his netbook. He reported that Mint is still treating him well, and for him (bridge toll aside), the trip over to Hull is easier than to any of the other LUGs in the area. Also Peter is becoming a bit of a regular at the LUG. He came to a meeting last summer, when we cleaned up his Vista infected laptop, by created a dual boot with Ubuntu. Although these days Peter’s based mainly in Cheshire, he has family links in Hull, and his visits have fortunately coincided with our last two meetings.
Of course all the usual suspects continue to attend the meetings, and it’s that wealth of knowledge, support and camaraderie that makes Hull LUG such an exciting group to be a part of.
Hull LUG has its regular monthly meets for computer-y geeky-ness on the 1st Tuesday of each month at the Old Grey Mare. Mid-month drinks, for socialising and chit-chat is on the 3rd Tuesday of the month
Stay up to date with Hull LUG and Linux chat on the forums.
Get updates and meeting reminders on our FaceBook page.
For the last couple of Ubuntu releases I’ve been running the full desktop edition on my netbook (Acer Aspire 1). These have run fairly well, and I’ve even had Compiz configured to run the cube and other eye-candy such as wobbly windows – although this may in part be due to its slightly upgraded spec (1.5gb ram). However despite swapping Firefox for Google Chrome there were some aspects that were disappointingly slow, this was regardless of the processor-hungry features that I had running. As a result I decided to give the Ubuntu Netbook Edition a try.
I tried what was then Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) about this time last year, during the 9.04 (Intrepid Ibex) release. I was very disappointed with it. I didnt like the look of it, as there were menus going down the left and right hand sides of the screen. I found that this made the distro not as intuitive as I would have liked, and after trying a couple of other lightweight distros, found myself drawn to the Ubuntu Desktop Edition, which I later upgraded to v9.10 (Karmic Koala).
I downloaded the Netbook Edition .iso onto my netbook and created a bootable usb using the usb creator, and having checked everything was OK, installed Ubuntu Netbook Edition on my machine.
UNE boots up nice and quickly, and immediately found my home wifi. It also found my Vodafone mobile i/net 1st time (something that the previous Ubuntu wasn’t always able to do). First impressions are very positive! Firstly Ubuntu’s new purpleness is easy on the eye. After having UNE on my computer for over 2 weeks I’m still using the default scheme. Previously I’ve altered and customised the theme almost straightaway. Secondly, the main menu is now on the left hand side of the screen, which for me makes the user experience a lot easier.
I still use Pidgin for my IM and IRC needs as I’m really a bit too dim, or possibly a bit too lazy to be bothered to work out haw Empathy works. I was a bit disappointed that GIMP is no longer supplied as standard, although it is easily downloaded through either Synaptic or the Ubuntu Software Centre as are the Ubuntu Restricted Extras – which are pretty much essential for easy day to day usage.
The other advantage of upgrading to 10.04 is that this version has long term support (LTS). Which means that Ubuntu will provide security updates for 3 years, as opposed to 18 months for standard releases.
It should go without saying that moving from the Desktop edition to the Netbook Edition I did a clean install. There have been reports of problems for users who have attempted to update to Ubuntu 10.04 using the Update Manager’s update button, so don’t forget to back-up your data, and have a working bootable disc handy just in case things do go wrong.
Canonical recently announced a new look for Ubuntu. This is Tux Radar’s take on the announcement.
Yes, after six years of the Human theme and bouncy-roundy Ubuntu logo, it’s time for a change. Canonical has announced the new artwork planned for Ubuntu 10.04, aka Lucid Lynx, and it’s a major departure. For starters, the word ‘Ubuntu’ now has sharp, clearly defined points in the font, with the familiar three-folks-hugging logo a mere blob in the corner. On the interface side, new GTK themes accompany a curious arrangement of titlebar buttons – not quite Windows, not quite Mac…
TuxRadar’s take: Ubuntu’s Human theme has seen plenty of tweaks over the years, but a fresh new design for 2010 is welcome. We’re rather puzzled by the arrangement of the titlebar buttons though. On the one hand, taking a different approach to Windows and Mac OS X reinforces the fact that Linux is a unique operating system with its own way of doing things. Users shouldn’t assume anything. On the other hand, in Win/Mac the close button is always in the corner – is it a good idea to deviate from this ’standard’?
The Ubuntu Wiki has a lot more information about the new look and the thinking behind it. Do you think that ‘purple is the new brown? Why not put your views below, or on the forum.l LUG has been accused by many as being very ‘Ubuntu-centric’, however as many members are Ubuntu users, this is hardly surprising. The latest big news in the world of Ubuntu is that Canonical have recently announced a new look for Ubuntu. This is
Tux Radar’s take on the announcement.
Ubuntu Logo
Hull LUG has been acused by many people of being very Ubuntu-centric, however as many members are Ubuntu users then this is hardly surprising. With this n mind, the ‘big news’ this week must be Canonical’s announcement of a new look for Ubuntu. This was Tux Radar’s take on the news
Desktop Dark Theme
Yes, after six years of the Human theme and bouncy-roundy Ubuntu logo, it’s time for a change. Canonical has announced the new artwork planned for Ubuntu 10.04, aka Lucid Lynx, and it’s a major departure. For starters, the word ‘Ubuntu’ now has sharp, clearly defined points in the font, with the familiar three-folks-hugging logo a mere blob in the corner. On the interface side, new GTK themes accompany a curious arrangement of titlebar buttons – not quite Windows, not quite Mac…
Desktop Light Theme
TuxRadar’s take: Ubuntu’s Human theme has seen plenty of tweaks over the years, but a fresh new design for 2010 is welcome. We’re rather puzzled by the arrangement of the titlebar buttons though. On the one hand, taking a different approach to Windows and Mac OS X reinforces the fact that Linux is a unique operating system with its own way of doing things. Users shouldn’t assume anything. On the other hand, in Win/Mac the close button is always in the corner – is it a good idea to deviate from this ’standard’?
The Ubuntu Wiki has a lot more information about the new look and the thinking behind it. Do you think that ‘purple is the new brown’? Why not post your views on the forum?
U-Splash Screen
Last Saturday, 28th November saw the release of Linux Mint 8 ‘Helena’. Many will know Mint as being Ubuntu without the Brown, but with useful stuff like Flash. Being based on Ubuntu, Mint’s release cycle is generally about a month behind Ubuntu.
I’ve been looking for a new distro to put on my netbook, I’ve always fancied having a go with Mint, but never got around to trying it, so this seemed an ideal opportunity to give it a spin. Yesterday, I downloaded the ISO onto my desktop, however my Karoo connection was only slightly faster than dial-up yesterday, so I didn’t get chance to do anything other than make a bootable usb drive before bed.
This morning I booted my Acer Aspire One from the usb drive, and started the install process. From power-up, to removing the usb stick and re-booting, the install took about 30 minutes – or in realistic terms, the same amount of time it takes me to get dressed, iron a shirt and get ready for work.
For anyone who has installed Ubuntu, installing Mint is very straightforward. The questions asked during the install are exactly the same ones as asked during the Ubuntu install. If you have never installed Ubuntu, or for that mater any Linux based operating system, the process is very straightforward, the questions you are asked are very clear, and at every point during the install you are told what is going on.
Of course I haven’t had chance to have a proper play with Mint 8 yet, but I’ll be doing that very soon.
As announced on BBC Radio Lincolnshire by our very own Dave Harding on Monday, we’re having a party!
What kind of party you ask? Well, it involves beer, linux, geeks and a koala. Yes, I can see you’re tempted by that koala, and rightly so!
The beer sadly isn’t free, but the geeks are and so is the koala, in the form of Ubuntu 9.10: Karmic Koala. We’re having a release party baby!
Not just any old release party though. This will be the first of its kind in the region and one of the very few Ubuntu release parties being held in the UK outside of London.
Our plans so far for the afternoon include a live install demonstration or two, having several machines running the new Ubuntu available for people to tinker with, plenty of Ubuntu and Linux related chatter and a bunch of geeks on hand to answer any questions people may have. Oh, and did I mention the (unfortunately not free) beer?
If you’d like to join us for an afternoon of fun, get yourself along to The Old Grey Mare, Cottingham Road, Hull on Saturday 31 October 1pm. We expect the event will run to 5pm but I’m sure there’ll be a few (possibly drunken) geeks hanging around for some time afterwards as well.
Please keep an eye on, and point people to the party page on the website for specific details. More information will be added to that page shortly.
Everybody is welcome to come along, whether you’re new to Linux and/or Ubuntu, an experienced user, or are just curious to find out what all this Linux stuff is about.
Many thanks to Dave for his tireless and sterling work for the LUG and for being brave enough to announce the event on live radio (if you missed it there’s a recording on Dave’s own site).
We’d also like to take the opportunity to thank Paul of Peckhams.com for kindly donating a bunch of blank CD’s for the party, which we plan to magically turn into Ubuntu 9.10 install discs to hand out during the event. Many thanks to you Paul!
In the meantime, join in the fun on the forum thread, and we’ll see you all there!
Jono Bacon & The Art of Community
From Jono Bacon’s Blog
Since I released The Art of Community, one thing has become evident: the people who are buying it are awesome. If you have bought it you are awesome. If you have not, you too can be awesome.
This got my mind thinking. We should put a face to the names of these awesome people. Credit where credit is due to those of you who are supporting a Creative Commons licensed book about building collaborative communities.
So, I have a fun little competition meme. It works like this:
- Holding your copy of The Art of Community, have a picture taken of yourself with it. Really go for gold in the picture: extra points are awarded for outfits, hats, exciting locations and comedy faces.
- Upload your photo to Flickr (or other fave photo sharing site) with the tag
artofcommunity and if you use Twitter/identi.ca, use the #artofcommunity hashtag.
I will look over all the photos and pick a winner. The winner of the competition will get a special prize. The deadline for the competition is October 25th.
Should be a little fun. 
Oh dear – I broke my camera a while ago – so here’s to a spot of rule bending…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJa59ddjkPs
We’ve mentioned it a lot on the forums and at meetings, but I don’t think anyones actually explained how to actually find the Chat Room.
There are a number of ways of access our room, the easiest is through the freenode website. Go to http://webchat.freenode.net/ and you will be met with this screen.
Tap in a nickname (your forum username should be fine). In ‘Channels’ enter #hulllug (the ‘#’ is important. And when you click ‘connect’ you will be taken to the room itself.
The right hand column lists the users that are already in the room, the main part of the screen shows the conversation, and you input box is the row at the bottom. People generally have the chat-room running in the background to other things they’re doing, so you’ll notice that I’m going to announce my arrival.
Someone should come along soon, and that’s it – you’re in and chatting on the #hulllug chatroom.
The great thing about the chatroom is that if you need it, you can get immediate help with something that you’re having problems with – or you can just have a chat without the hassle of phoning people up or heaven’s forbid – actually going out and talking to people irl.
Of course there isn’t always people in the room- however people are often around in the evenings. If no-one is around, why not post in the forums? Or if you have a question, Google is always your friend 
There are other ways of accessing the room, and we’ll explain them another time
With September’s meeting being on the day after the Bank holiday, I was expecting a much reduced turnout. Although a lot of our regulars were away, we still had another excellent turnout. When I arrived shortly after 8pm, there were over 20 people there (and a lot of new faces), and during the course of the evening more people arrived.
We had a bit of an install-fest going on at the meeting, amongst our normal netbook fanboi’s (and girls), 2 or 3 people had brought along their laptops which had become infected with a terrible virus called Vista 
. Of course Ben was kept busy for a lot of the night resolving those problems by setting them up for dual-booting with assorted derivatives of Ubuntu.
If you want bring your laptop along to future meetings to install something, it’s a good idea to make sure that you’ve backed up your existing data first (ideally somewhere else), and make sure that your battery is fully charged. Also If there’s a specific distro that you want to try, but don’t have the ISO disc, please let us know, and we will do our best to bring one along.
It was interesting to see that of the ½ dozen or so netbooks that were being shown off around the tables (yes that’s right we were spread out a lot better this month), there was only one that I saw that still had it’s original operating system.
We now have Hull LUG t-shirts, and these are available at the special price of £13. They are white shirts with the LUG logo on the front, and the site url on the back. PM me on the forums if you want one. These are essential wear for geeky events such as LUG Radio Live, which some of us are going to. If you want to join us for a weekend away in Wolverhampton next month, tell us on the forums. Don’t worry about transport, as we should have enough cars going down to accommodate you (for a share of the petrol costs).
When I announced the meeting a couple of weeks ago I did suggest an extra mid-month meeting. Although to date I haven’t heard anything from the absentees, a few people on the night were saying they were keen on a night out during the month. If you’re still up for this, start a thread in the forums, also say whether you fancy another night in the Old Grey Mare, or perhaps we could try something more ‘beer-orientated’ round town?
29th October is the release date for Ubuntu 09.10 ‘Karmic Koala’. To celebrate the event, (and to make sure that propriety OS’ that are released at that time don’t get a disproportionate share of publicity) we are looking at having a release party. Check out the ‘Let’s have a Party’ thread, and please, if you have any ideas, suggestions or can help I any way (no matter how small) please add your two-penny-w’th.
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 6th October. As ever it will be from 8pm in the Old Grey Mare – that’s the pub opposite Hull University’s main campus
Once again it’s that time of the month, and the first Tuesday of next month is 1st September 2009 and we are gathering together a few exciting things to share with you.
Firstly I’ll be modelling the new Hull LUG T-Shirt. We are in a position to take orders for shirts – cost will be from about £15.
Amongst the attendees our very own JonGibbins has promised to come along. Jon, you may have read in the Hull Daily Mail, has recently become the first Hull resident to be connected to a high-speed non-mobile ISP that ISN’T Karoo. Although he’s not in a position to give a full presentation at this meeting, I’m sure he’ll be happy to share his experiences on his new found freedom from Karoo!!!
Of course the interest in Linux and Open Source as a whole is growing, and this is being reflected in the Group’s growing attendance each month. August’s meeting was a great sharing and networking opportunity for all who attended, and the success is wholly down to everyone’s open attitude of sharing, learning and developing knowledge.
I know that this meeting is very close to the Bank Holiday, and many people might still be on holiday. If anyone would like to meet up for a one-off mid month meet as well, please post your most favoured Tuesday in the meeting announcement thread in the forums and we’ll see what we can do.
We had a really good turn-out tonight, I certainly haven’t so many people at a LUG before. I did a quick head-count and I think there was about 20 of us in all, I’m sure I speak for all the committee in thanking you for your growing numbers and support
It was especially good to see Dave & Sean from ScunDoG LUG. They’ve agreed to do the next Computer Fair with us on 15th November. That said Tony and I are likely to be twisting a few arms to get helpers as the event gets closer.
Speaking about the Computer Fair, it looks as though the last one was a success for us, as there were a few new members that came along as a result of it. A copy of Linux Format magazine was also being passed around the tables (yes that’s right – there were so many of us, we were spread over four tables), which had attracted another person. In addition a couple of people mentioned that they had heard our mention on Radio Humberside this morning.
I tried to have a word with everyone, especially the new folks, but it was just impossible. If I missed you out I’m sorry it wasn’t deliberate. If you poke me in the back at the next time I promise not to leave you out!
Is it really is time for us to to find an alternative venue? I noticed that we had a reasonable amount of privacy where we were tonight, in the room of the back the Old Grey Mare. Would it be worth our while if I had a chat to the landlord with a view to their letting us use that for our meetings? After all It meets all of our criteria, and I’m sure they’d turn the TV off for us for the meeting.
I know that people are looking for some more structure to the meetings, and to get a little more from them than what we are offering at the moment. However we need an idea of the sorts of things that you are interested in. If you would like speakers is there anything that you would like to hear about specifically. If you would like workshop sessions, again please let us know what you would like to lean from them. For example would something on command-line be of interest? Does anyone have an interest in open-source web-building? Have you started a project that you would like to tell us about? Perhaps you’ve started a project but would like some feed-back to make it better?
These are all things that as a LUG we can can all help you with, because this is as much your LUG as it is anyone else’s. Please use the forums to post your ideas, and also post any feedback you have from tonights meeting. As a committee we rely on you telling us what you want.
