I’m looking forward to going to this event. I’ve recently switched a couple of machines over to Fedora and been happy with the results so far.

It’ll be interesting to see how one of these events works for someone fresh to the Fedora community. I’m hoping to learn a bit of how the people and project fit together. I’ve started hanging out in a couple of the IRC channels to get a feel for the discussions leading up to the event.

If you have any advice for a newbie to the event, please post a comment!

As part of the process I look at the schedules for the various groups that I am a part of and those that I run. In particular I want to talk about the Columbia Area Linux Users Group(CALUG) and Open Source Maryland group (OSMD) that I help to run.

One of the things that I do in both groups is to line up speakers each month. This is generally done by emailing various people that I am aware of in the area that I imagine would be interested in giving talks to the groups. Also I read my email or talk to a person when someone approaches me and says ‘I want to talk about [TOPIC] for the group sometime’.

OSMD is a group that came out of of the Ubuntu Maryland team. The group is geared towards the end users of Free and Open Source software. Our typical meeting topics cover an application or a concept around FOSS. While many of our members use Ubuntu Linux and our presentations are given on a Linux distribution(even when the application being discussed is multiplatform), we welcome interest and demos of FOSS on all platforms including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The CALUG group is a more technically oriented group with a focus on the Linux kernel and applications that run on the various distributions. There is also a strong interest in IT security as a whole. While the choices of FOSS tools are preferred as a whole by the group, presentations are not limited to FOSS products.

What I would like you to do is resolve to give a talk to your local User Group. I can talk from experience here from various points of view.

As the speaker organizer for two groups, I can say I am looking for presenters of two different types. One type of presenter I want is  someone who is known in the field of interest for the topic being discussed. This has a dual benefit for our group in that we get a noted speaker and we bring in new people to the meetings for that topic from the speakers followers. For instance in early 2011 I thought a talk on Ham Radio for Linux would be of interest to the CALUG group. So I looked around and found that David A. Lane (KG4GIY) was relatively local to our group. I dropped him an email requesting him to give us a talk and I received a prompt response that he was willing and able to do so! I scheduled him in and my April meeting was covered. We had several new people attend who discovered us via his announcements of the talk.

Another type of presenter I am looking for are the amateurs that come to me. These are the people who have knowledge they want to share. They are the ones who want to start on the lecture circuit but need some groups to put on their list of experiences. My group gets the benefit of a talk on an interesting topic and the speaker gets the experience talking to a group. We all win!

The last (but by no means least) type of speaker I like to get are from our own groups. These are the attendees who have knowledge on a topic that will be of interest to the group and wants to share the knowledge. Being a member of the group its nice to discover what what your peers know and what knowledge they can add to your own. Topics for the talks can be based on what you know or a gateway to discussion on something that you would like to learn more about. Present on something that you are learning about and want to implement, but need more info that the group can provide to fill in the blanks of what you’re missing.

From the perspective of a person thinking about giving a talk to the group, remember that if you’ve never given a talk to a public group or are nervous about it, your local user group is a great way to break the ice. The groups are friendly and easy going. No one jumps up and points a finger to laugh at you for trying when you’re a new or nervous speaker. The group helps you along and gives advice for the next time you talk if you want that type of feedback. We’re not your co-workers or boss so we can’t make a note of it in that way. (And these groups are good practice if you have to present at work)  I’ve compared giving a talk at a LUG to speakers who talk at their Toastmasters group, but without the evaluation at the end (unless you want one).

Now, go find your local user group and offer to give a talk, the group will enjoy learning what you have to share and the coordinator will appreciate not having to find a topic for that month!

Titled “Exploring the possibilities of the best tablet value on the market, the Nook Color”.

The talk will be an introduction to the publicly available information about enhancing the Nook Color from Barnes and Noble and making it into what many refer to as ‘the best tablet value on the market. At its price point this is the most powerful Android tablet on the market. As it is sold there are features which many say are missing, however, following a few simple steps you can add those features to your Nook Color to make it a full featured Android tablet. While this will void the warranty, it will provide you with a useful tool and expand the possibilities of what you can do with the hardware you purchased.

Our feature presentation this week will be given by Ron Swift. He will be giving an introductory talk on OS virtualization and some of its uses with VirtualBox.

Following the presentation we will be having our typical open discussion period where you can ask about and discuss the topic of the evening or any other FOSS matter that you would like to bring up.

Additionally I’ve been asked to do an OpenPGP keysigning at this meeting. We’ll do it in an informal manner for those interested in having their public key signed. If you are inclined to join in the signing event please bring a copy of your key fingerprint to share and ID.

Greetings Everyone!

We will be welcoming David A. Lane, KG4GIY. He will be speaking on the topic of HAM radio and Linux applications, or lack thereof.

So be sure to join us at the Columbia, MD offices of Tenable Network Security from 6:30-9pm. Enter at the back patio door near the blue tables. The Nessus eye logo is on the side of the building keeping an eye out for you! The address is:

7063 Columbia Gateway Drive Suite 100
Columbia, MD 20832

We’ll be enjoying pizza and soda provided by Praxis Engineering from 6:30-7 while getting to know each other. David will start his talk about 7pm.

About the David and his talk:

I plan to do a brief overview of what Amateur Radio is, how Linux and Amateur Radio have a history of interaction and then posing the question ”Why are there not more Linux-based programs and tools for Amateur Radio” With plenty of time for questions and answers and such.

David A. Lane

Company: top secret
Location: Manassas, Virginia

Born in Toronto, Canada, David started with SlackWare back in the early 1990s, picked up the OReilly distribution of what was the first Red Hat commercial release and the rest is history. Since then, he has integrated Linux into NetWare, Windows and Unix environments and vice versa, working from single monster machines to purpose built systems from clustered web services to DNS to basic file and print.

If David has a specialty, it is making “other” operating systems work and integrate with Linux, including Oracle (since version  and Windows. He is a networker more than a programmer and has read more readmes and integrated more oddball code than he could begin to recount.

David shares his thoughts on the world of Open Source, especially the challenges of the heterogeneous environment on the Linux Journal web site.

David is also a licensed Amateur Radio Operator and the Emergency Coordinator for Prince William County (VA) Amateur Radio Emergency Service (PWCARES).



It’s that time of the month again, time to announce our speaker for the April 13th Columbia Area Linux User Group meeting.

We will be welcoming David A. Lane, KG4GIY. He will be speaking on the topic of HAM radio and Linux applications, or lack thereof.

So be sure to join us at the Columbia, MD offices of Tenable Network Security from 6:30-9pm. Enter at the back patio door near the blue tables. The Nessus eye logo is on the side of the building keeping an eye out for you! The address is:

7063 Columbia Gateway Drive Suite 100
Columbia, MD 20832

We’ll be enjoying pizza and soda provided by Praxis Engineering from 6:30-7 while getting to know each other. David will start his talk about 7pm.

About the David and his talk:

I plan to do a brief overview of what Amateur Radio is, how Linux and Amateur Radio have a history of interaction and then posing the question ”Why are there not more Linux-based programs and tools for Amateur Radio” With plenty of time for questions and answers and such.

David A. Lane

Company: top secret
Location: Manassas, Virginia

Born in Toronto, Canada, David started with SlackWare back in the early 1990s, picked up the OReilly distribution of what was the first Red Hat commercial release and the rest is history. Since then, he has integrated Linux into NetWare, Windows and Unix environments and vice versa, working from single monster machines to purpose built systems from clustered web services to DNS to basic file and print.

If David has a specialty, it is making “other” operating systems work and integrate with Linux, including Oracle (since version and Windows. He is a networker more than a programmer and has read more readmes and integrated more oddball code than he could begin to recount.

David shares his thoughts on the world of Open Source, especially the challenges of the heterogeneous environment on the Linux Journal web site.

David is also a licensed Amateur Radio Operator and the Emergency Coordinator for Prince William County (VA) Amateur Radio Emergency Service (PWCARES).

This is a decision that has been coming for a while. Part of it is just the amount of time I’ve had with the role of leader. I believe I’ve taken the group as far as I can. I don’t feel that I’ve blocked any thoughts or ideas in my time, but I want to make the change as visible as possible and allow the group to take things in a different direction with new blood at the helm.

The other, larger part of the decision is that I don’t believe that I’m the right person to lead the Ubuntu Maryland team in the change (from my perception at any rate) of Ubuntu as a Canonical driven and managed  project rather than a community managed project with guidance from Canonical.

When I began this group I believed in the Ubuntu project was a community driven distribution that was supported by Canonical and guided in some ways to their commercial needs. After all, they were a company that were going to specialize in support for the Free Linux distribution. They were going to develop software and services around the distribution, some closed and some open source. In order for them to do so they needed some say in the technical direction of the software that was being included and some configuration nudges here and there. For the money they are putting up to support it its a fair and easy trade off for the project.

I was happy with Canonical’s position and guidance until the announcement of UbuntuOne. Here was software in two pieces, one open source and one closed source. The client on the desktop is open and free for anyone to use, modify, etc. However the piece that makes it all useful, the server, is closed. When I read articles and heard podcasts on the matter I kept hearing ‘the client is open source’ and when challenged about the server being closed ‘well that’s Canonical’s right to do’ which I agree with. The fact that it is closed was disappointing but my bigger gripe was the use of the Ubuntu name in the product. The Ubuntu brand, to me, meant that the software was as open as possible. Here our guiding hand took the name the community had built around openness and applied it to a closed product. The claim (true enough) was they were doing what they are allowed to legally with the trademark. But what about the ethical aspect of the decision in this situation?

Then we have some design changes made in the last LTS release, including the controversial ’buttongate’. In the Ubuntu LTS release we wind up with a desktop whose design looks and feels much like a MacOS desktop down to the buttons being moved to the left rather than the right. This desktop was a design change made, from my understanding, inside of Canonical and thrust upon the Ubuntu community. A standout disturbing memory of this time period was the interview with the Canonical Design Team Lead Ivanka Majic on the Ubuntu-UK March 17 podcast. At least one of her staff used Photoshop for their work rather than push for retraining. A little odd but okay, that’s what he’s comfortable with using. The big bombshell was that, when asked, she didn’t think the interface was very Mac like, “I don’t…I really don’t” [the part in question is from 58:05 to 1:01:16] (she admitted to owning a Mac and Windows machine, so she’s used it before). After being pressed by Popey she said there was some back peddling, I think, and she ultimately admitted to ‘I’m happy to be compared to Mac. They do design well’.

Another issue, around the same time, was an announced switch from Google to Yahoo as the default search provider. Okay, by going with Yahoo the search referral fees would be better for Canonical. Not a problem, except that even for those upgrading their default search provider would be changed. Really? Changing a preference like that due to referral fees? That’s making changes to a decision that users have made for their workflow. There may be some that don’t care, but at least ask first before making a key change to a users experience. Its two clicks to get back but a rude invasion.

Next up, assigning of copyright to Canonical is a bad idea. Why not just GPL the code contributions? What this means, from my seat, is that a project like Unity can at any time become a closed product from Canonical. As Unity is the default desktop going forward, contributions and work will be focused on this desktop. A year from now(for example) Canonical can close source Unity, offer an API for developers and effectively prevent others from using Ubuntu as a base for other distributions. What of the work the volunteers have done for the desktop experience? Should it be closed, Canonical can prevent a fork by claiming copyright to their significant portions of the code.

Now we’re at the Banshee amazonmp3 plugin issue, my tipping point. Canonical has done what they are legally allowed to do which is modify a plugin that is under an open license. However the modification affects the donations that the Banshee project makes to GNOME. The Banshee project decided to create this plugin to purchase MP3s from Amazon and use a referral link that would send 100% of affiliate fees to GNOME. They ship what would be their donations directly to where they want the funds to go to. Canonical made a ‘poorly worded’ offer to the Banshee group saying we will ship the plugin and take a 75% cut of the proceeds and 25% goes where you want it or we don’t ship the plugin. Banshee responded that they would choose not to ship the plugin. Canonical responds ‘We’re doing it anyway but for the PR spin we’ll also contribute 25% of UbuntuOne music sales via Banshee to GNOME’. The community was never told of this decision to modify the plugin until it was announced.

So I went to the IRC Community Council meeting on 3/1. If you search the logs starting at 21:19 you’ll see the topic change to the Banshee plugin discussion. I’ll leave it to you to read through it and think about what quotes are important in context and which are not. My take away from that meeting was that Canonical is of the opinion that any app that uses affiliate fees to generate donations is a fair target for them to intercept. From all the comments made from the Canonical side of the table (official statements from Mark, Canonical employees and unofficial statements made by Canonical employees) it would seem that the upcoming donation framework in the Software Center will be subject to percentages taken by Canonical, which I see as a fair thing to do overall. Where my mind goes is will the percentages between Canonical and Banshee set the precedent for the divisions of donations made via the Software Center?

Another puzzlement I have after that meeting is wondering if I’m part of the peanut gallery or not as I am not sure who in the Ubuntu world exactly falls into that category.

There was one other item that happened and I attempted to get it resolved privately in email. I am not going into the details here as it was never a public issue. There were some email communications between myself, Community Council members and Canonical employees and the situation was never resolved to my satisfaction. Between the action that led to the initial email to the final email which promised more communication that never happened I was a bit upset.

With all that to take into consideration, I am stepping down as the leader of the Ubuntu Maryland team. My last official day as leader and contact will be April 30th unless we transition things before then. Our group is an informal one and as such we don’t have a chain of command. I’m currently leader by right of no one else claiming the title. Now we need someone to step up and claim it. As I mentioned in my email to the team earlier this week the fairest way I can come up with is to ask for volunteers who wish to take over leadership of the team to drop me an email. I’m setting a March 31st deadline for those who wish to step up to let me know of your desire. On that day I’ll take the list of volunteers and we’ll get together in person, on IRC or some other manner and hash things out from there.

I’m not planning to disappear or go away. I still see myself using Kubuntu (my preference for some time) going forward. I’ll still recommend Ubuntu or Kubuntu as preferred distributions for new users. My involvement in other groups such as the Columbia Area Linux Users Group and OpenSource Maryland will go on unchanged.

(As normal, the above is my opinion and thoughts and not that of any group I am a member of)

Rather than continuing to have it billed as the Ubuntu Maryland Team Meeting we’re going under a new name and group, Opensource Maryland. The Ubuntu Maryland Loco Team will still play a part in the meetings. Ubuntu is the distro that brought us together and we still believe that it is the right Linux distro to recommend to the majority of new Linux users.

The idea is to have a group that promotes Free and Open Source software in general, no matter the platform. The aim is to become a place where those who have questions can come to receive answers to why they should be using Free software where it is appropriate. We have people in the group that use Free and Opensource software at home to small business settings. This will be a time and place to discuss topics that affect our choices to use Free software.

The beginnings of the website is located at http://www.opensource-md.org/ and we will build upon what is there currently.

The first meeting for the group will be February 17th at the Howard County Central Library from 7-9pm.

More information will be forthcoming as it happens.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to respond here or email me directly.