For the October meeting Reudiger Berlich came from SuSE UK Ltd to give a public lecture on the use of Linux for both commercial and home users, it's effect on the industry, and the increasing acceptance of GNU/Linux in major corporations such as IBM.  Not surprisingly, he pointed out, Linux is becoming more acceptable on the desktop with figures showing that it is now used more often than Macintosh for producing office documents and graphics for web sites and edvertising.

Ruediger's talk started with a demonstration of the SuSE's latest release, SuSE Linux 7.0 Professional. A couple of games, and Windows ME running in VmWare were shown on the demonstration machine, and a short period in which Reudiger answered any questions about SuSE 7.0, or Linux in general.  This was very good.  It allowed most of us to understand the latest software.

Following this, a second machine brought especially for the purpose had it's hard disk repartitioned, and SuSE 7.0 installed on it to demonstrate how easy it was. The hardware detection was also demonstrated very effectively, with the 3D accelerator card, and even the USB mouse, detected and configured automatically by YaST2, SuSE' installation and configuration software.  Installation was smooth and without a hitch.  Very much the sort of thing that SuSE Linux users are used to.

While that machine was left to copy the packages from the six installation CD's, Reudiger proceeded to give a very interesting, and very thorough, lecture about where Linux is headed, and how SuSE hope to be a part of the development of free software.  He did actually show us some sales figures which were very remarkable.  We saw an exponential curve which went off the top of the screen.  These figures aren't just for SuSE Linux but represent sales for most Linux disributions.  The lecture finished with an employment offer for anyone interested! See here for more details.

Once the lecture was finished, a more conventional meeting was held, where anyone with technical difficulties could hopefully have their questions answered by other people there. A couple of people brought their laptops, which were looked at and commented on by all.  Much useful work was done in a sort period of time.

The meeting was further brightened by the beer and food provided by SuSE Ltd and happily consumed by the 20 or so people who attended the meeting. All in all, a very good meeting, and very much like the meetings we would like in the future  :)    And why not ? :)
 

The next meeting on the 24th October is of course the Richard M. Stallman lecture. See you there!
 

Craig Andrews