Looking for October presenters for PLUGdev

[James Dugger]

I am new to the group and to linux and thought I would give a newbie's
opinion here.  I am not concerned right now about kernel issues (directly) I
am trying to resolve basic fundamental issues.  Things like file and
directory permissions, configuring your system for network connection (i.e.
network addressing, setting up your domain, hostnames, nameserver resoltuon)

While I know that any one of these can get very very complex, even just the
first few steps have been pretty huge.  But I want to learn.  There is only
so much you can learn in a linux forum depending almost entirely on the
disposition of would-be experts and how they can communicate.

My perspective is that even though I have worked in a highly technical field
as a power user in Windows it is obvious pretty quickly when making
decisions to configure even the smallest of home network systems that I have
relied heavily on Microsoft to help me configure things.

Consider that most homes in the US have more than 1 computer and many have
more than 2.  While just about anyone can download Ubuntu or (other distro)
follow instructions and have a system up and running in 1/2 hour the minute
they have to network 2 or more computers life just got way more
complicated.  In today's world were every home may have some sort of
network, the amount of things I have had to learn and do to network my home
systems would make Linux a deal breaker for many people.

The frustration is that there is no place to go to get a general overview of
what needs to be configured, and how to do it.  I know there is no one
answer, but there are best practices and they are going to differ depending
on the need.

I have been "mapping net work drives" in Windows for 15 years and never new
until 3 months ago what SMB/CIFS was or Samba, or NFS,  Having to understand
Samba alone just to get Linux/Unix to talk to Windows or MAC can cause many
to run screaming back to $MS with there wallets open.

Maybe there needs to be a PLUG beginners group or a CONFIGFEST if this is
too braud to tackle in presentations.  But after the last 3 months of trial
and error configuration problems in my network at home I would eagerly sit
through a 4 hour hands on well prepared discussion on file server
configurations with SMB/CIFS and understanding how to get smb.conf and fstab
and file permissions to work together.

Sorry of the length.  $MS is an addiction I am trying to beat everyday.

James
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