Provo Linux Users Group, Utah, USA

Stephen Weeks will be our presenter this month. He will be discussing the Parrot VM. From Stephen...

About Parrot:

Come and learn about this highly versatile VM. See you there!

Everyone may not be aware of the services PLUG offers its membership. PLUG does not charge any dues, it is a 100% volunteer run dis-organization/mind-share collective. We collectively happen to provide the following available to all members.

Mailing Lists

PLUG maintains two lists:

PLUG - This list is 100% unmoderated and can be high traffic. Right now, 443 people are subscribed. Here you can post pretty much any topic that the community doesn't think is distasteful, or spam. It is a singularly unique platform to discuss what matters to you, with an audience of your peers.

PLUG-Announce - This is a moderated list for meeting announcements only.

Web Site

Features include:
Member directory with statistics.
Local company index with statistics.
Local Linux contractors.
Polls, like this one regarding meetings.

LinkedIn Group

There are 139 participants on the PLUG LinkedIn group. We generally do not permit recruiters to join this group (you won't get spam'd). To join, follow here.

IRC

Okay, this isn't really just PLUG. Come talk any how.

Jabber

jabber.plug.org

Meetings

Meeting details are posted to both mailing lists and plug.org. It is easier than ever to stay informed. If you would like to present, please contact Ryan.

Employment Help

Due to the financial crisis more than a few of the members have recently lost jobs, or are at a higher risk of loosing their jobs. Being an active participant in PLUG is a great way to reduce the risk of job seeking. Don't be shy about promoting yourself on the PLUG list. We permit job postings, and we also permit seeker postings. Put yourself on the LinkedIn group, hang out in IRC with us, share your opinions.

Social & Professional Network

After every PLUG meeting we usually have a social networking portion of the meeting. You can shoot pool, grab a snack, relax, and discuss things that matter to you. It is a great opportunity to get exposed to ideas that you may not normally think about. You might find your next job or business opporunity, or a solution to a challenging problem. We don't bite - honestly. Well, harleypig bites - we keep him chained though.

Sponsorship

PLUG has various sponsorship opportunities available. Perhaps your business can sponsor a high-profile presenter, food for a meeting, discounts for PLUG members, or a special service. Nearly the entire membership is actively employed in various professional positions surrounding Linux/FOSS. It is a unique opportunity to gain brand recognition, and "street cred" with the FOSS community.

Volunteer Opportunites

You may not be a kernel hacker, but you can still give back to the FOSS community that has given us so much. PLUG needs help with the web site, server administration, PHP programming, mailing list management, meeting organization/presentation, employment.... the list goes on. If you'd like to give some of your time to further advance the cause of FOSS in our local community, PLUG is the perfect place to start.

There are now more ways than ever to participate. If you have an idea for a service you would like to see provided, please share it!

Stuart Jansen, instructor, author and chief bottle washer at Guru Labs, will be presenting An Introduction to SELinux.

The traditional Unix security model is simple and beautiful. For decades it has been good enough for most people. However, it is starting to show its age. In the highest security settings, a more fine grained control system is needed. In the past, this meant using expensive, complicated, special purpose versions of Unix: trusted systems. (Trusted Solaris, Trusted AIX, Trusted HP-UX)

SELinux, created by the NSA, is the most mature and complete response to the need for Trusted Linux systems. Unfortunately, because of the difficulty creating and maintaining trusted systems, their success has been limited. This is no longer acceptable.

Today, even desktop systems and cell phones need high quality security. Imagine being able to sandbox your Web browser and e-mail client. The traditional Unix model makes this difficult and only partially possible. SELinux, on the other hand, makes fine grained security available to everyone.

When it first appeared, SELinux was hard to learn and mysterious to troubleshoot. As a result, many people fear it. However, SELinux and the tools to manage it have come a long way. It's time to lay fear aside. Stuart will teach what SELinux is, why it is great, basic troubleshooting and maintenance.

Shane Hathaway will be showing off his open source 3D printer. From Shane:

In other news, I believe we have our meeting location with Omniture settled. Omniture values PLUG and its members. They want to continue to host the meetings. New internal sponsors have been located, and some of the rules relaxed to make it more accommodating should things change in the future. I apologize for the gap in meetings due to the shakeup. Also, I'd like to publicly apologize to Stuart Jansen who had agreed to present last month. We hope that we can entice Stuart to present again at a later date.