Past Meetings

To be announced

Intro to VirtualBox

James Reno will be presenting an overview of VirtualBox and how to get started with this cool virtualization technology.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in the large conference room in the front just to the right of the main foyer.

Installing Arch Linux

Brad Nelson will be leading us through an Arch install, and going over some of the highlights of using this Linux distro.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the front just off to the right of the foyer.

Intro to VirtualBox

James Reno will be presenting an overview of VirtualBox and how to get started with this cool virtualization technology.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in the large conference room in the front just to the right of the main foyer.

Utah Open Source

Victor Villa will be going over the Utah Open Source organization, the space and resources available in the UVU Business Resource Center, and some of the upcoming events and programs to be aware of.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in the conference room in the front, just to the right of the main foyer..

Arch Installation

Brad will be walking us through a typical Arch Linux installation. Come learn how to get started with this distribution.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in the large conference room to the right of the main foyer. The external door to the back of that room will be open.

Nix & NixOS Overview

Brad will be talking about Nix & NixOS. Nix is a tool that takes a unique approach to package management and system configuration with declarative builds and deployments. Learn how to make reproducible, declarative and reliable systems.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the front of the main floor (to the right of the main lobby).

Understanding Grub

James will talk through how to use and configure the Grand Unified Bootloader (GRUB), and some of the cool configuration options available for various situations.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the front of the main floor, to the right of the main foyer.

"Persistent" Cheap Servers on Amazon EC2

When using Amazon EC2, you can save up to 90% off the cost of regular, On-Demand EC2 Instances by using Spot Instances. This is great for stateless servers, but what if you run something that needs to maintain data beyond the instance's often limited lifespan? What other options do you have?

In this presentation, James will walk through his experience running a mail server using EC2 Spot Instances, the challenges faced, solutions, and plenty of SASS (Seriously Awesome Server Scripting).

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The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room just to the right of the foyer, or in BR-117, in the back of the main floor (follow the hallway to the left of the main foyer).

ZFS Love Fest!

Brad Nelson will be going over ZFS, it's cool features, and why you will fall in love with it (or at least why you should try it out).

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meets monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us!

Just go in the door to the large conference room in the front (to the right of the main doors and main foyer).

Fish Shell

Bradley Nelson will be talking about the Fish Shell: installation, configuration, and usage. Come learn about this alternate shell and take it for a spin (or a swim).

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the front, just to the right of the main foyer.

Kubernetes Intro

James will give an intro to containers, kubernetes, and some useful tools for managing your workloads.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room just off the foyer of the main floor.

To be announced

To be announced

To be announced

To be announced

Linux Desktop Apps

We will be having an open discussion about desktop Linux applications, games, and utilities. What software do you use on a daily/frequent basis that you can't live without? What software do you find fun or interesting?

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the front just to the right of the foyer on the main floor.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Open Source Music Production

Joshua Clayton will be giving an overview of a few of the available open-source music production tools, such as Lilypond and Rosegarden.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the back of the main floor (BR-117).

Open Source Music Production

Joshua Clayton will be going over some of the available open-source music production tools, such as Lilypond and Rosegarden.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the back of the main floor (BR-117).

Home Assistant

This month Brad Nelson will be talking about Home Assistant, which is an open-source home automation tool.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the back of the main floor (BR-117).

Open Mic Night

We're planning on meeting together tonight to discuss a variety of topics. Bring your questions and your interesting projects from the last little while to discuss!

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

The topic for this month has not yet been decided. If you would like to suggest a topic or would like to present one, please contact us!

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the back of the main floor (BR-117).

Open Mic Night

We're planning on meeting together tonight to discuss a variety of topics. Bring your questions and your interesting projects from the last little while to discuss!

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We'll be in a conference room in the back of the main floor (BR-117).

Pizza will be provided, courtesy of Alpine Mindset.

Back In Person!

This month we will be celebrating being back in person with an open social hour. There is no specific topic presented - just come and enjoy being back together. Feel free to bring your questions and topic ideas to discuss, too.

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're in a conference room in the back of the main floor (BR-117).

Command-Line Tools

We're going to cover some of the most common and useful command-line tools that help as you work on and manage your Linux system. We will cover tools like pushd, less, nano, hexdump, dd, find, grep, sed, and others. We will not dive too deep into any given tool, but provide a good overview of what they do and a few of their cooler features.

This will be an ONLINE meeting tonight. Link: https://alpinemindset.com/cloud/index.php/call/tghc62tn

Happy Holidays! (No Meeting)

Traditionally we do not meet in December due to the many holiday and family plans. We will pick up again in January. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

How Email Really Works

James will give an overview of the technologies and practices that help protect email against spam and authenticate email delivery, along with their limitations. Specifically, we will cover SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. If you've wondered how all this fits together to help keep spam at bay, come join us!

If time permits, we may also cover how these play a role when using Amazon Simple Email Service (SES).

We have not been able to confirm the meeting room yet, so this will be an online event.

Video call link:
https://meet.google.com/avd-ofmd-uxh

File ACLs

Aaron Toponce will be presenting on File Access Control Lists (ACLs).

This will be an ONLINE meeting.

Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/avd-ofmd-uxh

Argo Rollouts for progressive deployments

James will present on Argo Rollouts, which is a Progressive Delivery Controller for Kubernetes.

Argo Rollouts is a Kubernetes controller and set of CRDs which provide advanced deployment capabilities such as blue-green, canary, canary analysis, experimentation, and progressive delivery features to Kubernetes.

Argo Rollouts (optionally) integrates with ingress controllers and service meshes, leveraging their traffic shaping abilities to gradually shift traffic to the new version during an update. Additionally, Rollouts can query and interpret metrics from various providers to verify key KPIs and drive automated promotion or rollback during an update.

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/avd-ofmd-uxh

Intro to Kubernetes

James will be giving an introduction to Kubernetes, some of the background, terminology, architecture, and ways of getting started using this technology.

This will be an online event.
https://meet.google.com/avd-ofmd-uxh

SSH+MFA logins for your Linux hosts

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is useful to help further secure logins against unauthorized use. In addition to the usual username/password, a second one-time authentication code is also required to gain access to the secured account.
You may have seen MFA logins for your corporate email accounts, Google accounts, and AWS accounts, but did you know it's super easy to add it to your own Linux logins?
Join James as he walks through setting up MFA with SSH to access a cloud server.

** This is an online event. **

UNIX File Permissions

Aaron Toponce will be covering UNIX file permissions, including:
* The standard "rwx" permissions
* The 7 file types
* Default directory and file permissions with umask
* Special permissions
* User private groups
* File ACLs

This meeting will be online:
https://meet.google.com/avd-ofmd-uxh

Automounting Remote Home Directories with SSHFS

Looking for a way to access a remote filesystem seamlessly and securely?
SSHFS is a user-space filesystem built on top of SFTP (which is built on SSH), and it works practically anywhere you can use SSH. Rather than being limited to direct file transfers, you can mount a remote directory onto the local filesystem and access files as you normally do - edit files in place, execute builds, even grep log files.
Autofs is a mechanism to automatically mount a filesystem on demand (whenever it is accessed), rather than having to manually mount it or requiring it to be mounted at boot time. This is great for remote filesystems that may experience periodic connectivity disruptions.
Combining the two, James will show how he setup his kids computers to automount their home directories from a shared server whenever they login.

This meeting will be online.

To be announced

Landing Your Ideal Tech Job

This month, James will share some strategies and tips for finding and getting your ideal tech job.

There is a lot of uncertainty in a lot of industries right now. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the economy, schools, employment, and everyone's daily lives.

Thankfully, many in the tech world have seen a stronger demand for their expertise, making it a perfect opportunity for those with the right skills, experience, and/or determination to find - and get - their ideal tech position.

In this talk, we'll dive into what hiring managers are looking for in their candidates, and how to move to the top of their list.

This will be an online meeting: https://meet.google.com/ijj-fwsc-yfu

[Cancelled]

This month's meeting has been cancelled. We'll see you in October!

The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

An Introduction to Go

James Simister will present on a brief introduction to the Go language.

I recently needed to come up to speed (rapidly) on the Go language for work, and found in the process a new favorite language. There are some really cool features and lots of great libraries available, making it a competitive language for many different purposes.

From Go's website:

The Go programming language is an open source project to make programmers more productive.

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

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This meeting will be online.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89007734341?pwd=OXQvZnpBdmJwbXZWd2cvYWgrOXNkdz09
Meeting ID:[masked]
Passcode: 5jYb9C

A Whirlwind Introduction to Alien Technologies

Alpheus Madsen will present about "alien technologies" he has found interesting over the years, ranging from keyboards to computer languages to unusual forms of nuclear power.

In this presentation, Alpheus Madsen will be briefly covering various alternatives to popular things, starting with keyboard layouts, and including operating systems, computer languages, nuclear power, and even math textbooks (if time permits), among other things. He will also provide a brief explanation for why he finds these things fascinating.

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The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

!!Online Event!!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89007734341?pwd=OXQvZnpBdmJwbXZWd2cvYWgrOXNkdz09

Meeting ID:[masked]
Passcode: 5jYb9C

Setup your own home Google App replacement with NextCloud

Meet via NextCloud: https://cloud.sysadminathome.com/call/rtwjxfc9

In 2009 Bitcoin was released to the world as, what the developer hoped would be, a premier digital currency. In the following 11 years the true digital "currency" that has been adopted by the masses isn't Bitcoin, it's your privacy. Knowing what people like, who they communicate with, their views, and their opinions is what the masses use as payment for a bulk of online resources. Lucky for us, we can do something about this without losing access to these kind of valuable services!

In this month's meeting we'll be talking about the Google App replacement app Nextcloud. Nextcloud provides file syncing & sharing, docs, calendar, contacts, email, chatting, and so much more all running from your own server. We'll talk about what it is, what it can do, and how you can easily stand up your own server so you can begin to de-Google your life.

This months presentation will to be hosted virtually using Nextcloud Talk video conference app. If all of us overload the server or are hitting a max user count, we'll then switch to Zoom. Both the Nextcloud and Zoom links will be provided on the day of the meeting via Telegram and the mailing list.

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The Provo Linux Users Group (https://plug.org) meet monthly to discuss Linux, Linux-related topics, and technologies of interest to Linux users. If you enjoy Linux, or would like to learn more, join us.

This meeting will be held virtually this month.

Meet via NextCloud: https://cloud.sysadminathome.com/call/rtwjxfc9

**If there are issues, we may meet via Zoom; link will be provided if needed**

A Whirlwind Introduction to Alien Technologies

Alpheus Madsen will present about "alien technologies" he has found interesting over the years, ranging from keyboards to computer languages to unusual forms of nuclear power.

In this presentation, Alpheus Madsen will be briefly covering various alternatives to popular things, starting with keyboard layouts, and including operating systems, computer languages, nuclear power, and even math textbooks (if time permits), among other things. He will also provide a brief explanation for why he finds these things fascinating.

We will be meeting virtually/online this month in place of a physical meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82736501423?pwd=dGtENzU0UHZtVVpCVVJmM2g2VEpBZz09

Meeting ID:[masked]
Password: plug

Cancelled this month

Following the governor's recommendations on public gatherings and to help curb the potential threat of infection, we will not hold an in-person meeting this month for PLUG.

Thanks for your understanding. Stay safe!

Cancelled this month

Following the governor's recommendations on public gatherings and to help curb the potential threat of infection, we will not hold an in-person meeting this month for PLUG. It may be possible to hold online meetups in the near term if needed.

Thanks for your understanding. Stay safe!

Open Discussion: Desktop Linux

Tonight we'll have an open discussion on the topic of Desktop Linux (using Linux as your primary desktop/laptop experience).

Suggested topics:
Distro of choice for best user experience.
Desktop Environment (Gnome, KDE, XFCE, etc.)
Mandatory software (Office suites, editors, tools)
Hardware tips (what to look for, what to avoid)
Recommendations (who should/shouldn't consider this move)
Experiences (the good & bad)

Those who have attempted and/or succeeded at this, please share your experience and recommendations.

Just go in the front doors, and follow the signs. We're usually in a conference room in the back of the main floor (BR-117), but may be relegated to the loft tonight (2nd floor).

Pizza provided by Alpine Mindset (https://www.AlpineMindset.com).

Let's Encrypt!

AJ O'Neal will be giving us an overview of the latest in Let's Encrypt, a self-service, free SSL Certificate Authority.

***UPDATE***
We have a room scheduling conflict tonight. We may need to meet upstairs initially, but we have the big front room from 7:30. I will be working with the SBDC to get our time slot back on their calendar.

Pizza will be provided courtesy of Alpine Mindset Mentoring.
https://alpinemindset.com/

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year (No Meeting)

This month's meeting is cancelled. Happy holidays! We will be back in January.