A few days ago, in Nizhny Novgorod, a classic event from the times of "limited Internet" took place - .
This format has been supported for a long time (~2005) by NNLUG (Linux Regional Users Group).
Today it is no longer customary to copy “from screw to screw” and distribute blanks with fresh distributions. The Internet is available to everyone and shines literally from every kettle.
At the same time, the educational component remains relevant. The festival confirmed its importance this time as well.
The organizers invited the speakers to talk about any interesting topic from the field of Linux and free software. As a result, the final list covered serious "administrative" tasks, graphics, gaming sector and audio-music applications.
While speakers were registering topics on , the organizers made announcements, including on . Immediately, a task list was drawn up in GD, open to anyone who would like to join the preparation.
What were the organizers planning?
8 reports, use-demos of fresh Linux distributions, game stands of various sizes and, as it turned out later, a music session in the final.
All this is in the spacious assembly hall of the NRTC with decent acoustics and a tea table in the corner.
Photos will be below!
And Saturday came. A terrible holiday spirit was in the air (C)
Aleksey was the first to find empty tables and set up a game stand.
neon glow strong iron and gamers are right there.
The gaming row was enhanced by RetroPie with joysticks (the setup was assembled and tested by Egor). The problem of launching the SEGA emulator has not been resolved.
There was a unique representative of the now dissolved project - PocketChip. Local hackers persuaded the owner to give it for a week for review.
In the meantime, Sergey and Alexey revived the demo machines, on which the installation of the following Linux distributions was immediately launched:
- Ubuntu 18.04.2
- Lubuntu 19.04
- Solus 4.0 Budgie
- Astra Linux CE (2.12)
- Alt Linux. The version is not new, so we do not specify.
A little to the side is Ubuntu MATE 18.04.2 on RPi 3.
One participant rightly asked:
Why so much different Linux?
The question is correct, I did not find what to answer. I had Debian Lenny running KDE3 on my home machine and it was enough for typical office and multimedia tasks.
It seems that in addition to motley desktops, different distributions can still have their own unique philosophy, approaches, configuration and security nuances. Many of the distributions recommended by the NNLUG community had to be shelved for future study.
A few photo screenshots and superficial impressions of distributions are under the spoiler:
Ubuntu 18.04.2. The poorly taken picture basically reflects my initial impressions of Gnome: a tablet. In principle, it’s not bad if you have a habit of “scattering your eyes” on a bunch of icons.
Lubuntu 19.04. Cute and concise. Perhaps my choice number 1 of the presented candidates.
Solus 4.0 Budgie. Undoubtedly beautiful: translucent windows, grouping by running applications, but a little different.
Astra Linux CE (2.12). 2nd place in the personal rating. Installed the longest because expected (due to the size and announcements on the site) installed a lot of things. During installation, it asked for a complex password and a little later it displayed a list of checkboxes that determine a more formidable level of security. Given the approach to creation, a candidate for more detailed study in the future.
Alt-linux reminded me of distant KDE3. Very simple with specialized software for training. And among it was basic!
Ubuntu MATE 18.04.2.
With a slight delay, the event officially began. Further there will be a subjective point of view on reports. You can read them in full in the post. .
Denis talks about an interesting Meshroom package. In short, based on 50-100 photographs of an object from different angles, the program builds a 3D model with a formed texture. The nuances of tuning and the results obtained were demonstrated.
Vladimir added virtual heaviness by mentioning Proxmox VE: mostly user cases and general impressions. Releases of this debian-based tool are infrequent, but more specific terms are required for its support and updates.
Innokenty spoke about a good game development package for children GCompris. The software is suitable for little people from ~3 years old and contains different types and types of small games. The game form can additionally stimulate the development of children: broadening their horizons, developing logic, approaching children with autism.
The new version of Blender 2.8, according to Denis (his second report), is more stable than some analogues. Functionality adjustment. Interface changes.
Artyom Kashkanov () praises Nextcloud. He says that he has been using it for a long time and very successfully. Not a bad option to have a local "analogue of DropBox".
Artyom Poptsov () mentioned the great Audacity, introducing a philosophical seed by demonstrating the correct sine wave. Good package, good compressor, de facto standard for initial audio processing under Linux (my personal opinion).
More details about audio processing were described and demonstrated in the next report by Ilya. He, as a professional musician and composer, has successfully used Ubuntu Studio in his work. The story covered the basics of the Linux audio system and the more specific Supercollider and Pure Data packages.
In the finale, Fedor deployed the free software paradigm in N dimensions and, without any effort, “sculpted figures out of it”. Historical background, facts, comparisons - the report turned out to be an insidious criticism of FOSS. The strings of supporters of free software were touched and gradually the story turned into a round table of those who "kept the spark" and are really not indifferent to the situation.
In the installation area (occupied a couple of chairs in the last rows) a mini-project "install FreeDOS on PentiumMMX" began to boil. At the same time, the iron machine had only 20GB IDE HDD, no USB. There was no DVD ROM at hand.
Ivan helped me figure out the format of the official FreeDOS image.
Then there was a little fuss with jumpers. The DIN-plug keyboard turned out to be non-working - both Enter keys were not pressed ... The local CADR hackerspace helped out, on the shelves of which it turned out to be exactly the same, working. Time, however, was lost and the "testers" only managed to boot the system installer from the HDD. Quickly figure out how to install the system on the same HDD failed and the project apparently will remain until the next festival.
Сonclusion
The event was attended by about a hundred people. Despite the departure from the regulations and technical overlays, people liked it. A groundwork was made for a series of more specific events in the “master class” and “seminar” formats - it’s too early to talk about the details, let’s see if the initiative continues.
Approximately 10 people participated in the organization, coordinating verbally, via chat.
7 days were allocated for preparation. Zero budget. Promotion - posts on 4 specialized resources. Comments on posts can be divided into two classes: "install fest is not relevant" and "it's cool that such events are still being held."
Acknowledgements
Information support from was very helpful - huge respect to the it52 team!
Thanks to NRTC for the wonderful hall, equipment and support in holding the event, and especially respect to the staff of NRTC!
Thanks to the speakers and everyone who provided their systems, devices, hardware and provided hot tea and cookies!
In preparing the article, text and photo materials of Innokenty and Poptsov Artyom were used.
Source: habr.com