Can one of the meetups be geared towards Linux beginners? Can the experts tell us about pit falls that we should look out for? Etc.

a brief intro into the different flavors of unix. the differences, shortcomings, of each.
which is ideal for running a server and which is the most secure and which has the best technical support documentation online. also what favorite sites for learning linux. prepare handouts with easy step by step guides that anybody can follow and memorize. then next meeting we can go into shell scripting. etc. administrating users on a server (unix).

Thursday, April 29th, Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid Lynx will be released, the first long term support Ubuntu release in 2 years.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidReleaseSchedule
We could get together, have a slide show of new features, maybe get a local developer to speak, do some installs. Oh, and bagels!

Proposal: Seek out those with scarce financial resources and share the benefits that come from various linux distributions. Those targeted include but not limited to non-profit organizations, charter/private schools, and college students with dated computers.

This allows noobs and experienced users alike to take part in the process. Less experienced users could begin the initial install with experienced users finalizing any necessary configurations needed.

To keep it simple (since it would be voluntary and time may be an issue) it can begin with a small non-profit or school. The main goal is to help provide dependable software for basic office productivity and web browsing needs. We would have to stay away from going overboard with adding too much to the project since the goal would be to "set it and forget it" so as to avoid being tied down to one group or organization and maximize those who we encounter.

JL

Talk about security. Show people ways of securing their Linux boxes?

A certification class for those interested in getting RedHat certification or LPIC....

How about we help people who don't know about Linux actually come with their laptops and we help them install Linux? I bet they would have a lot of questions while they are installing. It could be one advanced person with one beginner, or one advanced person helping two people... We could show them partitioning, repositories, installing through the command line, etc.
We could also show them what they need to install to replace their Windows desktop!