Announcements

Week #14: Lightning Talks

26 April 2024

Hey everyone, this week is lighting talks! For anyone who doesn’t know, that means this week will be short (~5 minutes) presentations about anything. The only rules are have fun, be yourself, and follow all of the other rules. As usual, we will be meeting in Golisano 1445 this Friday at 4:30 PM.

Week #13: Elections + Web Development

19 April 2024

Hey everyone! This week is elections! Make sure to come to the meeting if you want to vote on who will be on eBoard next semester. It’s also not too late to add your own name to the ballet!

After the election, Freya will be giving a talk on the history of the web and web development. As usual, we will meet this Friday in Golisano 1445 at 4:30 pm. See you all there!

Week #12: Text Encoding

12 April 2024

Hey all! This week, I’ll be presenting a talk about text encodings. As usual, we’ll meet in GOL-1445 at 4:30 pm this Friday.

As a reminder, elections will happen on April 19th (the meeting after next). There is still time to run for election if you want to help run RITlug next year! See the Week 10 announcement for more information. Lightning talks will occur on April 26th - the final meeting of the semester.

See you there!

Week #11: Win32 ABI

05 April 2024

Hey all! This week, we’ll have a presentation from Simon about the Win32 ABI. As usual, we’ll meet this Friday at 4:30 pm in Golisano 1445.

As a reminder, elections will happen on April 19th and lightning talks will take place on April 26th. See the previous announcement for more details.

See you all there!

Week #10: Git Decentralized + Election Information

29 March 2024

Hey everyone, a few things this week! First things first, I will be giving a presentation on how to use git “the linux way” (using email lists, raw text patches, the whole nine yards!) As always, we will meet tomorrow from 4:30p-6:00p in GOL-1445.

Second, we are coming up on week 13, which is historically when we perform e-board elections. As such, with this announcement today, we are opening up signups for running. Positions are held for one full year (a fall AND a spring semester) To run, you must have been a RITlug member for 2 semesters, so as long as you have been coming to meetings since the fall semester and you are going into your second year, you are eligible to run. Also, for treasurer, you must be physically present on Henrietta’s campus during your tenure. You can run for the following positions (people running will be announced after signups close, in approximately two weeks).

• President
• Vice-President
• Secretary
• Treasurer

Contact anyone on e-board to nominate yourself for a position by Friday, 4/12. People running for positions will be announced that night and speeches/elections will occur in the beginning of the following meeting, on 4/19.

Third, we are announcing when the next lightning talks session will be! For the uninitiated, lightning talks are 5-10 minute talks from anyone about anything (school appropriate). Want to talk about esoteric technology? Go ahead! Want to talk about some random thing you know a lot about, even if it isn’t strictly computer related? Let’s hear it! It’s a fun way to both talk about something you care about as well as build public speaking skills. If you are interested in giving a lightning talk, react to this message. It will be very helpful in letting us figure out how to split time between everyone, and it is by no means binding. Lightning talks will occur on 4/26, so there’s plenty of time to come up with ideas!

Thanks, and see everyone tomorrow!

• Ryan

Week #9: ELF files

22 March 2024

Hey all!

This week, we’ll have a presentation from Ross explaining what ELF is and introducing tooling that will make your life easier. As usual, we will be meeting this Friday at 4:30 pm in GOL-1445.

See you there!

Week #8: Mainframes

08 March 2024

Hey all!

This week, Kyri will be giving a presentation on mainframes and z/OS. As usual, we will be meeting this Friday at 4:30 pm and we will be returning to our usual room, GOL-1445.

See you all there!

Week #7: Alumnni Panel

01 March 2024

Hey everyone!

This week, we have a bit of a special meeting. This Friday is the meeting before RIT’s career fair, so just like last year, we are going to have a few RITlug alumni (Jeffrey, Nate, Seth, and Tim) over to answer your questions about career fair, interviewing, Linux in the corporate world, and anything else you might want to ask!

Due to scheduling issues, we will NOT be meeting in our usual room this week. We will be meeting in Golisano 2455 (the same room as last spring) at the usual time of 4:30-6:00 pm. We will be back to our usual room after this week.

See you all there!

Week #6: Plan 9

23 February 2024

Hey everyone!

This week, Ryan will be talking about the Plan 9 operating system. As always, we’ll meet this Friday at 4:30 pm in GOL-1445.

See you there!

Week #5: CPU Design and x86

16 February 2024

Hey all!

This week, I’ll be giving a presentation about CPU design and the x86 instruction set architecture. As always, we’ll meet this Friday at 4:30pm in GOL-1445.

See you there!

Week #4: Linux Graphics Stack

09 February 2024

Hey all!

This week we’ll have a talk from Simon about the Linux kernel graphics stack. As usual, we’ll meet in GOL-1445 at 4:30 - 6:00 pm this Friday.

See you all there!

Week #3: Containerization

02 February 2024

Hey everyone!

This week, Tim will be giving a talk about the internals of containerization on Linux. As usual, we will be meeting this Friday from 4:30pm - 6:00pm in GOL-1445.

See you there!

Week #2: GPG

26 January 2024

Hey all!

This week we’ll have a talk from Ryan about GPG, its history, how it works, and how you can use it yourself. As always, we’ll meet this Friday at 4:30 in GOL-1445.

See you there!

Week #1: Welcome back!

19 January 2024

Hey everyone!

Welcome back to a new semester at RIT! For our first meeting we will give people a chance to introduce themselves and reunite after the winter break. As with last semester, we will meet on Fridays at 4:30 PM in Golisano 1445.

See you all there!

Week #14: End of semester

08 December 2023

Hey everyone!

This week will be the final meeting for this semester, so instead of having a talk we’ll just be hanging out and potentially playing some games. As always, we will meet this Friday at 4:30 in GOL-1445.

See you there!

Week #13: Linux pentesting

01 December 2023

Hey all!

Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving break. This week we’ll have a talk from Kyri about pentesting Linux systems.

Also, the merch has arrived! We’ll be distributing it during this week’s meeting, if you can’t make it to this meeting or the next let us know.

As always, we’ll meet this Friday in GOL-1445 at 4:30 pm. See you there!

Week #12: Lightning Talks!

17 November 2023

Hey everyone!

This Friday is our long-awaited lightning talks meeting! We’ll meet at 4:30pm in GOL-1445 as usual. Feel free to bring your own device to present with, but if you aren’t able to then eBoard will let you use one of our laptops or HDMI converters.

See you there!

Week #11: Homelabbing

10 November 2023

Hey all!

This week we’ll have a talk from Freya about homelabbing. As always, we’ll meet in GOL-1445 at 4:30pm this Friday.

Remember, next week is Lightning Talks! Anyone can come and give a 5-ish minute talk on any topic they’re interested in (even if it’s not directly Linux related, although that’s certainly fine too).

See you there!

Week #10: Emacs

03 November 2023

Hey all!

This week, Rose will be giving a talk on Emacs. As always, we’ll meet this Friday in GOL-1445 at 4:30 pm.

As a reminder, Lightning Talks will take place on November 17th - two weeks from now.

See you there!

Week #9: Internet Routing

27 October 2023

Hey everyone!

This week, Tim will be giving a talk on the OSI model, autonomous systems, and the inner workings of the Internet. As always, we’ll meet in GOL-1445 at 4:30 this Friday.

Also, lightning talks are going to be on November 17th this semester! Anyone can prepare a short presentation (5-10 min) on whatever topic they want, be it Linux-related or otherwise, and present it at the club meeting. Presentations can be serious, but by no means have to.

See you there!

Week #8: Linux Kernel API

20 October 2023

Hey all!

This week, Simon and I will be giving a talk about the Linux kernel API. As always, we’ll meet this Friday in GOL-1445 at 4:30 pm.

See you there!

Week #7: Godot

13 October 2023

Hey all! This week we’ll be having a talk from Julian about Godot and FOSS game development. As always, we’ll meet this Friday in GOL-1445 at 4:30 pm.

If you ordered merch and are paying in cash, it is highly preferred that you get it to us some time before or during this meeting.

See you there!

Week #6: Hacktoberfest

06 October 2023

Hey everyone! This week’s meeting will be a little different. This year’s Hacktoberfest (https://hacktoberfest.com/), an annual event that encourages contribution to open-source software, just began a couple days ago. We’ll start with a quick presentation about how to sign up and we’ll spend the rest of the meeting working on contributing to projects. As always, we’ll meet in GOL-1445 at 4:30.

If you have any free and open source software you’d like to share, whether it be club-related or not, you can contact an eBoard member and we’ll include it in the presentation.

See you all there!

Week #5: Nix and Guix

29 September 2023

Hey all!

This week, Ryan and Tyler will be presenting a talk about declarative Linux distros like Nix and Guix. As always, we’ll meet this Friday in GOL-1445 at 4:30.

See you there!

Week #4: Shell Scripting

22 September 2023

Hey everyone!

This week I’ll be presenting a talk on shell scripting and common command-line programs like awk and sed. As usual, we’ll meet this Friday at 4:30 in GOL-1445.

See you all there!

Week #3: Tails and Operational Security

15 September 2023

Hey everyone!

This week we’ll have a talk about the Tails operating system and operational security. As usual, we’ll meet this Friday at 4:30 in GOL-1445. See you all there!

Week #2: Getting Started

08 September 2023

Hey all!

This week we’ll have a talk about how to get started with Linux, the different components that make up a Linux operating system, and what all those wacky acronyms mean. As always, we’ll be meeting on Friday from 4:30 to 6:00 in GOL-1445.

See everyone there!

Week #1: Introducion

01 September 2023

Hey all! For those starting their first semester, welcome!, and for those returning, welcome back! Our first meeting will be this Friday, September 1st, at 4:30 - 6:00 pm. Our room for this semester has changed to GOL-1445 (with twice as many wall outlets as last year’s!).

Our first meeting will start out with introductions, giving new and returning RITlug members an opportunity to meet each other. We will also introduce what Linux and FOSS are and give members an opportunity to show off their setups.

See you all there!

Week #14: Lightning Talks (and sticker sale)!

28 April 2023

This week we will be having Lightning Talks for the semester! As usual, we will be meeting in GOL-2455 from 4:30-6:00pm. As a reminder, speakers will have approximately 5-10 minutes to give a presentation on anything they choose (that is school appropriate).

Also, this week we will be selling stickers! They are on a first-come, first-serve basis while we have some available. The price is whatever you would like - if you want to just take some stickers, go ahead, but if you have the capability to donate a few dollars to the club, it would be much appreciated. (We need to fulfill our budget request obligations for this past year, a whole 10 dollars!)

Hope to see everyone there!

Week #12: Linux XDP and the networking stack

07 April 2023

Hey RITLuggers! This week I will be giving a talk about XDP and eBPF programs! If you want to learn a bit more about linux’s network stack, especially before a packet ever hits iptables (or even gets malloc’ed in some cases) be sure to show up from 4:30-6p in GOL-2455 this Friday!

Week #11: Intro to PAM

31 March 2023

Hey y’all! A couple of announcements for the next few weeks. Firstly, we will be postponing lightning talks to a future date (actual date TBA soon), since we will be missing quite a few people this Friday. Instead, this Friday Kyri will be giving a talk on PAM, so stop on by to learn more!

Week #10: Introduction to Programming Paradigms

24 March 2023

Hey RITluggers! This week we will have a presentation from Tristan about different paradigms of programming languages, parsing, type systems, and memory management. Join us Friday from 4:30 to 6 in GOL-2455 to hear all about them!

Week #7: Alumni Panel

03 March 2023

Hi RITluggers,

This week, in preparation for the upcoming career fair we will be having a RITlug alumni panel. Stop on by to talk to old friends about their experiences getting jobs, and working both on co-op and full time. This will be on Friday at 4:30-6:00pm in GOL-2455. Additionally, we will be having an online career panel this Saturday at 11am EST for those who can’t make it in person (feel free to come to both!).

Additionally, please fill out this form for what types of things you’d like our panelists to talk about: Panelist form link

Finally, if you’d be interested in buying merch later in the semester, please fill out our merch interest form: Merch form link. This isn’t a commitment, just letting us gauge approximately how many people would like merch, and what kinds of merch have demand.

See you all on Friday, Penguin Supreme

Week #6: Home Assistant

24 February 2023

Hello RITLuggers, lots of stuff to talk about this week! This week I will be giving a talk on Home Assistant, an open source home automation suite! Come on by in room GOL-2455 from 4:30p to 6p to hear all about it!

We’d also like to hear about your experience/opinion on hybrid meetings, please consider filling out this form: https://pad.ryan77627.xyz/form/#/2/form/view/8ek11Nb1exqWLu+-AqW96aTMkeaTZqDN8wkW27sv-0Y/

We are also starting to work on getting merch! Please fill out this interest form if… interested! (Please note this is only to gauge interest, this is NOT a commitment of any kind!!): https://forms.gle/K5BoHzqUeoLN5vAv6

Week #5: Networking Basics (and more!)

17 February 2023

Hey RITLuggers! This week we will be having a presentation from Preston regarding networking, everything from the basics to some pretty exciting and interesting emerging technology! We will be doing this meeting a bit differently this time around, this week we will be doing a hybrid meeting! Have you ever wanted to attend a meeting but couldn’t attend in person? This is a chance to attend virtually! I’ve created a new stage channel #meetings under the Voice Channels. We will be live on Friday starting at 4:30p until the end of the presentation and questions. Please bear with us with any issues if they arise, this will be completely new to us. If it goes well, we may bring more hybrid meetings if interest exists!

Week #4: Embedded and IOT Linux

10 February 2023

Morning Fellow Penguins! This week, we are going to have a very interesting presentation about Linux in IoT Devices. Come learn about how Linux is being used to power your smart toaster. The meeting will be the usual place and time, this Friday at 4:30pm - 6:00pm in GOL-2455! I look forward to seeing you all there!

Week #3: Rust

03 February 2023

Good morning RITLuggers! This week we are going to have a presentation from Tyler M. about the ins and outs of Rust (along with a project he has been working on!) As per usual, the meeting will be this Friday from 4:30p-6p in GOL-2455! Hope to see everyone there!

Week #2: NixOS

27 January 2023

Good morning fellow RITLuggers! Happy second week of classes! This week we will be having a presentation from @eyes about the ins and outs of NixOS: a declarative Linux distro. Feel free to join us this Friday from 4:30p - 6p in GOL-2455 to hear about it. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Week #1: Introductions

20 January 2023

Hello everyone, happy beginning of the semester! As we begin getting back into the swing of things, it is time to start thinking about the first RITLUG meeting as well! The first meeting will be this Friday in GOL-2455 (please note the room change! We no longer have our usual lab, we will now meet in this classroom, located across the hall from our old location) from 4:30-6p. This meeting will be purely introductory, so feel free to stop in and say hi/meet everyone if you haven’t been able to make it to a meeting and would like to. We hope you all have a great semester and are beyond excited to see everyone again!

Week #10: Lightning Talks

28 October 2022

Hi y’all! Welcome to the 10th week of classes. This week we’re hosting a lightning talks meeting. Anyone can show up with a talk (5-10 mins) and present, on any topic you think might be interesting. So come with your best talks ready to go! Please remember to keep it school appropriate. See you all there!

Week #9: Matrix

21 October 2022

Hey y’all, this week Tim will be giving a talk about Matrix (the messaging protocol). See you all this Friday at GOL-2620 4:30pm-6:00pm. Also don’t forget, next week on the 28th we’ll be having lightning talks, so if you’d like to give one make sure to come with your best talks ready to go.

Week #6: Hacktoberfest Kickoff

30 September 2022

Hey RITluggers! Next week we’ll be kicking off Hacktoberfest (https://hacktoberfest.com/) which runs during the month of October. This year RITlug wants to get some club projects going, and Hacktoberfest is a perfect time to get started. If you have a project that you think would be cool to do, or one that you’re already running that you’d like more hands on please feel free to email eboard (or ping us on discord) and let us know. See you all this Friday at the usual place and time (4:30-6pm @ GOL-2620)

Week #5: Arch Install Guide

23 September 2022

Hello Fellow Penguins! This week’s presentation will be a intro to, and install of, Arch Linux! Join me as I guide you through everything you need to know about how to get started with Arch! (I use Arch btw) Meeting is at the usual place and time: GOL-2620, 4:30pm - 6:00pm. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Week #4: Learning Git and Bash

16 September 2022

Hey RITluggers,

This week we will be having a presentation about Bash and Git from Jake and Ryan! Come join us this Friday at our usual time and place (4:30p-6p GOL-2620) to learn the basics (and more advanced things) of both Bash and Git! We hope to see everyone there!

Week #3: Choosing a distro and Basic Commands

09 September 2022

Hey RITluggers,

This week we will be having a presentation from Kyri and Ryan outlining the basics of starting with Linux. This will include topics like how to choose a distro, or basic commands to get you up and running on a new system! As usual, we’ll be meeting from 4:30-6P on Friday (Sept. 9) in GOL-2620 (same location and time as last week). We look forward to seeing you all there!

Week #2: Introduction

02 September 2022

Hey RITluggers,

Welcome back to a brand new semester! We’re going to have our first meeting this Friday, September 2nd in our usual room and time (GOL-2620, at 4:30-6:00pm). This week’s topic will be introducing the club, new eboard, and all our members to any new people who joined, as well as quickly going over some Linux basics for those of you who are brand new to it. See you all there!

Week #15: RITLug Alum Justin Flory Visits

22 April 2022

Hello LUGers! This week we will have noted RITLug alum Justin Flory visiting us to talk about his experiences within the open source world within corporations like UNICEF, along with contributing to the Fedora project. Feel free to join us in room GOL-2620 at 4:30PM to come meet him and ask any questions about his experiences!

Week #6: Docker

18 February 2022

Hi folks,

This week, Enzo will be giving an introduction to Docker - what it is, how to use it, and some examples use cases for containers.

If you’ve never used Docker, or are just looking for new ways to, come stop by!

Week #5: Federated Social Media

11 February 2022

Hello LUGers,

Now that we’ve dug ourselves out of the snow it’s time for LUG again! This week Bit will be talking to us about federated social media platforms (no more Twitter for us). Hope to see you all there!

Week #3: Alternative OSes

28 January 2022

Hello LUGers!

Welcome to Week 3! Today Bit will be doing a talk exploring esoteric or alternative OS structure and some interesting ways of rethinking common computing tropes.

We’re still looking for your talks! You can share anything that you find interesting related to what we do. Just fill in the form at http://present.ritlug.com/ and tell us what you’d like to share.

You can also suggest talks that you’d like to hear more about here: http://suggest.ritlug.com/

Week #2: Automating with Ansible

21 January 2022

Hello LUGers!

Welcome to Week 2! Today we’ll be doing a 101 on Ansible, an awesome automation tool that you can use to deploy anything.

We’re still looking for your talks! You can share anything that you find interesting related to what we do. Just fill in the form at http://present.ritlug.com/ and tell us what you’d like to share.

You can also suggest talks that you’d like to hear more about here: http://suggest.ritlug.com/

See you there!

Week #1: My Server Setup

14 January 2022

Hello LUGers! Welcome to the first meeting of the semester. This week Ben will be showing you how they configure their server.

We need talks! It’s going to get boring if e-board are the only ones giving talks all semester, so please sign up to give a talk if you’re able. http://present.ritlug.com/ Or if you have something you’d like us to talk about please let us know, we are running out of ideas. http://suggest.ritlug.com/

Week #12: roff and co.

12 November 2021

Hey LUGers, This week I’ll be talking about the boomers’ TeX alternative: roff! With roff, and its pals tbl and eqn, you can typeset surprisingly intricate formal documents that compile quickly without having to install any extra software. All you need is a text editor and a pulse. You’ll wonder how you ever did your homework without it.

See you this Friday!

Week #13: Rust

09 November 2021

Hey LUGers, This week I’ll be talking about the Rust Programming Language and it’s becoming so popular! Also, remember there will be no meeting next week, happy Thanksgiving! But there will be a meeting the week after on Dec 3rd.

See you all there!

Week #11: Data Privacy

05 November 2021

Hello LUGers! This week Kyri will be giving a talk on data privacy that she describes as follows:

Data privacy is becoming an increasingly important topic as companies collect more data on their customers and data breaches become more common. While data privacy laws have been around for a long time, they have gotten a lot more attention since the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, was passed in the European Union in 2016. Since then, several states in the US have passed their own privacy laws. What does this mean for companies and consumers? Which states have the best protections? And should the US pass a national privacy law?

Week #10: Lightning Talks

29 October 2021

Hello LUGers, as we announced earlier, we are doing lightning talks this week! We will be doing a series of short 5-10 minute talks on anything Linux, FOSS, or tech related. Or anything else you think would be of interest to the club. You don’t need to prepare slides or anything, just come up and talk! You could show us your Linux setup, show off a CLI cool tool you use, show off a project you’ve worked on, or even give us your spiciest tech hot takes.

An additional announcement, HFOSS is being offered this coming spring semester. More info below.

GCCIS now has an Immersion in Free Culture and Free and Open Source Computing (https://www.rit.edu/study/free-culture-and-free-and-open-source-computing-immersion) and one of the required courses, IGME-582, Humanitarian Free & Open Source Software Development is offered next semester, M, W, F from 12:00-12:50.

The course is also required for the Free and Open Source Software and Free Culture Minor (https://www.rit.edu/study/free-and-open-source-software-and-free-culture-minor).

It’s also a gen ed course, for students who may need one in their worksheet if they have an interest in the subject but not the immersion or minor.

Students can see a copy of last year’s syllabus (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NklzMMRhidi6xXSM-QahRMDDOekRmnC1iwykMtqHC7M/edit?usp=sharing), this year’s course will be similar in structure, the speakers and some of the assignments may vary slightly.

The course is open to students in all majors, the assignments run across the roles of software projects and the assignments to contribute to projects can include, but not be limited to, graphics, communications, interfaces and more, in addition to software development.

Week #8: Asynchronous I/O in Linux

15 October 2021

Hello LUGers! This week Ben will be giving a talk on Asynchronous I/O in Linux and how it’s needed for high performance networking. This talk will go over the basics of systems programming and the kernel interfaces used. The talk will mostly be on the whiteboard so you may want to sit closer to the front this week. Hope to see you all there!

Week #7: Open@RIT Research

08 October 2021

Hello LUGers, this week Olivia Gallucci will be giving a presentation on work she did with Open@RIT that she describes as follows:

The presentation is on research for Open@RIT I did last semester. The goal of my research was to (1) document the history of open source projects and their outcomes, (2) show how faculty and students can build off of past research using the current work in Zotero (3) instruct students and faculty about how to make their projects open source, and how they can get help from Open@RIT.

As a computing security student, I focus on open security, and how students can request help and or funding for projects through Open@RIT.

Hope to see you there!

Week #6: Hacktoberfest mini-hackathon

01 October 2021

Hey y’all, welcome to week 6! This week we’ll be kicking off Hacktoberfest with a quick introduction to FOSS, hacktoberfest, and common PR etiquette. Then we’ll toss the meeting over to everyone to collaborate and explore/work on interesting FOSS projects. See you all there tomorrow!

Week #5: Work Experience

24 September 2021

Hello LUGers! At today’s meeting we’re going to be sharing experiences around getting hired and having a job. Those with relevant work experience are encouraged to share it with the group, and all are welcome to participate in discussion. Additionally, several RITLUG alumni will be coming to today’s meeting to share their experience. I look forward to seeing you all today in the usual place: GOL-2620, 4:30pm!

Week #4: Syncthing

17 September 2021

Hey LUGers! Today I’ll be giving a talk about Syncthing: a tool to synchronize directories across devices. What is it, how does it work, and how can you use it to make life suck less? I look forward to seeing you all today in the usual place: GOL-2620, 4:30pm!

Week #3: Mobile & Wearable Linux

10 September 2021

Hello RITLUGers! Welcome to week three! This week we’ll be doing a talk on mobile & wearable Linux. Come on by to learn more about custom Android ROMs, the /e/ project, various devices by Pine64, and more! See you at our usual time and place: GOL-2620, at 4:30.

Just a reminder, we’ve created some forms for y’all to submit your ideas. If you have a suggestion for a talk you’d like to see, please go to suggest.ritlug.com and tell us about it. If you’d like to do a talk yourself, please go to present.ritlug.com and submit you idea so we can get you slotted in.

See you all on Friday!

Week #2: CLI & SSH Basics

03 September 2021

Hello RITLUGers! It’s now week two and we have our first real talk of the year for you. We will be going over command line and SSH basics. Everything you should need to use the CS servers with ease. We will be meeting in our usual spot: GOL-2620, at our usual time: 4:30.

Additionally, we’ve created some forms for y’all to submit your ideas. If you have a suggestion for a talk you’d like to see, please go to suggest.ritlug.com and tell us about it. If you’d like to do a talk yourself, please go to present.ritlug.com and submit you idea so we can get you slotted in.

I hope to see you all on Friday!

Week #1: Welcome!

27 August 2021

Hello RITLUGers new and old. Welcome to week 1! This Friday we will hold our first meeting of the semester in GOL-2620.

As this is our fist in person meeting in over a year, we’re going to kick things off with a more laid back, “getting to know everyone” style meeting. We want to hear from you, what do you want out of your Linux User Group this year? Presentations? Projects? Bring your ideas if you have them!

Week #14: Final Meeting

20 November 2020

Hey RITluggers,

This week will be our last meeting of the semester. With finals right around the corner, we are taking this week easy: we plan on playing Among Us.

This Fall is my last semester at RIT, and I just wanted to mention how much I will miss RITlug after I graduate. RITlug has been a fantastic community of open-minded individuals looking to use Linux and improve open source at large. However, I’m not gone for good; I’ll still be on the mailing list and lurking in the discord and IRC, so feel free to ping me with any questions and general shenanigans.

Hope to see you all this week,

Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)
Local Linux Llama
Elf On the Shelf
End of Semester Eulogizer

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #13: Linux Defensive Security

13 November 2020

Hey RITluggers,

This week Joshua Niemann will be giving a comprehensive introduction to securing Linux systems, covering permissions, services, access control, SELinux, AppArmor, and much more. Swing by for a great talk on how to keep your Linux systems succint and secure.

Looking forward to seeing you all there,

RITLUG Eboard

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #11: Dynamic Library Interception

30 October 2020

Hey RITluggers,

This week, we are diving into Linux security with the various uses and abuses of dynamic libraries on Linux. Michael will be discussing how dynamic libraries work and how to intercept function calls on Linux for various beneficial, nefarious, and hilarious purposes.

Next week is RIT’s 1st Virtual and 10th Annual Election Day Hackathon. The event will kick-off at 6:00 P.M. with a panel followed by breakout rooms where people will be working on civic projects. This is a great chance to relax, meet new people, and work on some fantastic projects.

Looking forward to seeing you all there,

Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)
Eboard Member
Local Penguin
Happy Pumpkin

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #10: Chill Week

23 October 2020

Hey RITluggers,

Welcome to week 10, we’re in the final stretch! This week we’ll be having a chill session themed around programming in Go. Stop on by to brush up on (or learn) Go, work on some Hacktoberfest projects and have a good time.

For those of you interested, take a look at The election night hackathon, signups are open now.

Additionally, as the semester comes to a close, we’re beginning to look for new potential eboard members. If you’re interested message a member of the current eboard so we know to consider you.

Stay safe, and see you all Friday, Jake Zaia
RITlug Secretary
Certified Rockstar Developer

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #9:

16 October 2020

Hey RITluggers,

Have no idea where to start with the Linux command line? Are you an absolute beginner in need of some advice on where to get started? This week we have a talk on the absolute basics of the Linux command line, from navigating directories to command structures!

I hope you are all doing well this strange semester. It is already week 9?!!

Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)
Eboard Member
Local Penguin
Elf On the Shelf

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #8: Obscure & Esoteric Linux

09 October 2020

Hello Penguins,

I hope everybody is doing well, and you are all enjoying Hacktoberfest. Keeping with the Open Source theme of the month and season, this week’s talk will be about obscure and esoteric Linux distributions. Get ready to learn about some really cool, and maybe weird, distros!

If you are interested in working on the club’s new project, RITlug’s open source Discord bot written in Go, make sure you register when you are able to attend our weekly dev meetings.

See you there,

RITlug Eboard

Week #7: Intro to Git

01 October 2020

Hey RITlug,

Welcome to Hacktober! This month is all about open source and projects. To get in the spirit of Hacktoberfest, this week’s meeting is going to be an introduction to git. Here, we will cover the basics needed to get up and running, as well as providing an interactive demo at the end!

Additionally, RITlug will be creating an open source Discord bot in the spirit of October. The bot will be written in Go, and we will be hosting weekly meetings throughout the month. Please choose an initial meeting time so we can get started as quickly as possible!

See you there,

RITlug Eboard

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #6: Open Source Careers

25 September 2020

Hey RITlug!

This week we’re welcoming a wonderful alumni panel for a meeting about the intersection of Linux, Open Source, and our day jobs. We’ll be hearing from RIT alumni Solomon Rubin, Mark Repka, Nate Levesque, and Josh Bicking about where work and Open Source Software meet. Swing by and check it out.

See you there,

RITLUG Eboard

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #5: LaTeX

18 September 2020

Hey RITlug!

In preparation for the upcoming virtual career fair, this week we’re covering LaTeX! LaTeX is a great tool for building tons of professional documents, including resumes. Come on by to our discord where Jeffery Russell will be giving a talk on the basics of LaTeX and how you can use it to supercharge your resume.

See you there,

RITLUG Eboard

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #4: Personal Infrastructure

11 September 2020

Hey RITlug!

This week we’re covering the intriguing and relevant topic of personal infrastructure. You’ll be getting a lightning talk from different members of Eboard on the networks and systems we rely on, built on Linux and powered by open source software. In-depth descriptions, useful tips, and best practice recommendations on all of your favorite parts are sure to follow. We’re looking forward to it!

See you there,

RITLUG Eboard

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #3: Networking

04 September 2020

Hey RITlug!

For this week’s meeting, we will have a recent RIT graduate, Nathaniel Larrimore, who will be giving a presentation on Linux networking! Nathaniel graduated from RIT this past spring from the Networking and Systems Administration program, and is also a prior RITlug eboard member! He currently works at Arista Networks as a Technical Solutions Engineer.

For this talk, Nathaniel will be giving an overview of his personal infrastructure, general networking basics, as well as giving plenty of Linux networking tips.

See you there!

• Tim Zabel, RITlug VP

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Discord #general channel

Week #11?... 12?: What even is time?

02 April 2020

Howdy RITluggers!

It has been quite the chaotic past few weeks; I hope that this email finds you all in good health and spirit.

As you all probably have assumed, RITlug will no longer have any meetings for the rest of the semester. However, that does not conclude our semester. If you still want to engage in the open-source community at RIT, you can join FOSS hours on Jitsi from 5-6 PM on Thursdays. Additionally, we are always looking for more people to join our open-source projects. Please enter the #projects channel on slack and check out some open issues on our Github.

We are opening the nomination process for our Eboard next year. If you are interested in helping run the club in any way, please fill out this campus group survey. Don’t feel intimidated or hesitant about joining Eboard; we are looking for people that we can mentor and teach– we are not just going to throw you into the metaphorical fire.

I would like to personally invite/encourage everyone to join our discourse on slack and other mediums like weekly FOSS hours on Jitsi. These can be stressful times with social distancing, but I want to remind everyone that you have a family that you can talk to at RITlug.

Stay safe,

Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)
RITlugger
Local memester
Man with too many titles

Week #8: Data Privacy

06 March 2020

Howdy RITluggers!

This week Sergio Zygmunt will be visiting us to give a talk on privacy and security. If you are interested in learning about how companies track and use your information this is a great talk to catch.

We are in the process of booting up a project for Imagine RIT where we are implementing the IP stack over semaphore flags. If that sounds interesting to you, talk to an eboard member during the meeting or drop in the #semaphore channel on slack.

If you are interested in some RITlug swag, please fill out this interest survey.

Hope to see you all this week,

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

Week #7: Fedora Community Lead

28 February 2020

Hey RITlug!

This week is a special meeting. The Fedora Community Action & Impact Coordinator (FCAIC), Marie Nordin, will be coming to give a talk to RITlug this Friday. Marie is an active member of the Fedora Design and Fedora Badges teams. One of her most recent contributions is the Fedora 31 wallpaper in conjunction with Máirín Duffy.

Now as a new member of Red Hat, Marie’s main job as the FCAIC is to help support and grow the Fedora community. Marie will be going over her background, what it’s like to be the FCAIC, what it means to contribute to Fedora without programming, and other insights working in a community management role.

Hope to see you there!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

Week #6: Linux Gaming

21 February 2020

Hey RITluggers!

This week Dev is giving a talk on the exciting developments in Linux gaming.

Since 2013, things have only gotten exponentially better for gaming on Linux. So what does Linux gaming look like now, and what developments are on the horizon? Come to this week’s meeting to become an Ebic LINUX Gaimer!

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

Week #5: Lightning Talks

14 February 2020

Hey RITlug!

This week’s meeting is focused around lightning talks. If there’s a topic you’re passionate about, and want to give a quick 5 minute talk all about it, this is the meeting for you!

Eboard deputies have been finalized. Please welcome Michael Vaughan to the RITlug eboard as a deputy!

We are also now slowly starting the process of preparing for Imagine RIT. If you think of any projects you would like to demo alongside RITlug over the next month, let us know!

Hope to see you all this week!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

Week #4: BrickHack Pregame

07 February 2020

Hey RITlug!

This week’s meeting is a pregame for BrickHack this weekend! We will be doing a quick rundown of our projects, and will be doing preparation for the weekend. If you would like to work on some projects, or want to introduce some of your own, this is the time to do it.

We are also now slowly starting the process of preparing for Imagine RIT! If you think of any projects you would like to demo alongside RITlug over the next month, let us know!

Hope to see you all this week!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

Week #3: Linux Desktop Environments

31 January 2020

Hey RITluggers,

This week Jeffery and Tim will be going over everything you need to know about Linux Window Managers and Desktop Environments. With so many different options out there, what makes each DE special, and where do window managers play a role? Come to this week’s meeting to find out!

We are still looking for one more student to join our eboard as a deputy! This is a low responsibility eboard role aimed at training people and transitioning them into full eboard positions starting next school year. If you are interested, please talk to Jeffery during a meeting or on slack within the next couple weeks. We will announce eboard deputies shortly.

Hope to see you all this week!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

Week #2: Dead Distros

24 January 2020

Hey RITluggers,

This week Henry is giving a talk on dead and esoteric Linux distributions. Get ready to learn about everything that you are missing out on in your “normal” Linux distro.

This semester we are looking for two students to join eboard as deputies. This is a low responsibility eboard role aimed at training people and transitioning them into full eboard positions next semester. If you are interested, please talk to me (Jeffery) during a meeting or on slack within the next two weeks. We will announce eboard deputies on January 31st.

Hope to see you all this week!

• Jeffery Russell (jrtechs)

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

Week #1: Back to RITlug!

17 January 2020

Whether you are new to RITlug, or a returning member, I hope you’re as excited as we are for this semester!

This year we will be starting with an informal meeting this Friday(1-17). We will talk about what is RITlug and go over our master plan for the semester. If you are looking to engage in club projects or listen to me tell the tale about how I broke my Fedora system over break, this is a great meeting.

This semester we are looking for two students to join eboard as deputies. This is a low responsibility eboard role aimed at training people and transitioning them into full eboard positions next semester. If you are interested, please talk to me (Jeffery) during a meeting or on slack within the next two weeks. We will announce eboard deputies on January 31st.

Hope to see you all this week!

• Jeffery Russell (jrtechs)

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

Final Meeting

06 December 2019

Hey RITluggers,

This week Friday will be the last RITlug meeting of the semester which marks the transition into finals week – are you excited! We will be having a few lightning talks, playing games, and doing general Linux shenanigans so be sure to swing on by to de-stress before finals.

We are currently in the process of planning for next semester so, if everyone could give us feedback on this google fourm that would be absolutely amazing.

The T-shirts have arrived! If you ordered a t-shirt, please pick it up at either this week’s meeting or FOSS hours. If neither of those times works with you, message me on slack or email and you can pick it up from me sometime during finals week.

Looking forward to seeing you all at this weeks meeting,

• Jeffery Russell (@JrTechs) Fellow RITlugger, elf on the shelf, and your reindeer to guide the sleigh

Upcoming Events:

• Winter break!!
• FOSS Hours: Thursdays 5:00-7:00pm Magic Center 3190

Open Source in the Federal Government

22 November 2019

Hey RITluggers,

This week we have Solomon Rubin, an RIT alum, and former RITlug President! In this talk, former-Mitre Solomon Rubin offers a brief look into how the federal government tackles these challenges on a daily basis including how it’s evolving: how it contributes to and develops open-source, how it utilizes Innersource within and across individual agencies, and of course, how Gitlab sits at the middle of all of this.

In other news, on November 21st (tonight!), we are doing a get-together at Bar Louie with the larger FOSS community at RIT. We plan to arrive at the restaurant around 5:30 PM, we will be carpooling over from the Magic Center around 5:15. Please fill out this form so we can book a spot at the restaurant and know how many people need a ride.

T-shirts have been ordered! Thanks to everyone who put in an order for a RITlug t-shirt. They are planning to arrive early December. We will go more in detail on how we are going to distribute the T-shirts once their arrival date gets closer. Stay tuned!

If you are interested in helping RITlug present at the Rochester Makerfaire on November 23rd (this Saturday!), please contact me or Jeffery ASAP. This year we will be exhibiting Tiger OS, Tux Racer on a Pi 4, Magic Mirrors, and musical floppy drives. We can provide transportation – and food!

See you all at this week’s meeting!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

Upcoming Events:

• FOSS Family Dinner at Bar Louie: November 21st
• Rochester Maker Faire: November 23rd
• FOSS Hours: Thursdays 5:00-7:00pm Magic Center 3190

Kernel Tracing

15 November 2019

Hey RITluggers,

This week we have Anthony Critelli visiting our club to give a special presentation on kernel tracing. Anthony Critelli is a Linux systems engineer with interests in automation, containerization, tracing, and performance. He started his professional career as a network engineer and eventually made the switch to the Linux systems side of IT. He holds a B.S. and an M.S. from RIT. If you have no clue what kernel tracing is (like me), or you want to learn all the Linux kungfu, this is a can’t-miss meeting.

On November 21st, we are doing a get-together at Bar Louie with the larger FOSS community at RIT. We plan to arrive at the restaurant around 5:30 PM, we will be carpooling over from the Magic Center around 5:15. Please fill out this form so we can book a spot at the restaurant and know how many people need a ride.

T-shirt sales are live! If you are interested in a t-shirt, please follow this link to purchase a t-shirt online. Even if you completed the google t-shirt interest survey, you have to purchase the shirt through this page. We will close the store on Sunday (11-17-19) so we can place the order and have the T-shirts after thanksgiving break.

If you are interested in helping RITlug present at the Rochester Makerfaire on November 23rd, please contact me ASAP– preferable at this week’s meeting or on slack. We are looking for 2-3 people to help us present club projects to the general public at this faire. This year we will be exhibiting Tiger OS, Tux Racer on a Pi 4, Magic Mirrors, and musical floppy drives. We can provide transportation – and food!

Looking forward to seeing you all at this weeks meeting,

• Jeffery Russell (@JrTechs) Fellow RITlugger, best friend, and your reindeer to guide the sleigh

Upcoming Events:

• FOSS Family Dinner at Bar Louie: November 21st
• Rochester Maker Faire: November 23rd
• FOSS Hours: Thursdays 5:00-7:00pm Magic Center 3190

Bash Scripting

08 November 2019

Hey RITlug!

This week’s meeting is all about bash. For those of you who are interested in learning more about bash, and bash scripting, this is the talk for you! We are going to go a little more in-depth in the history, common use-cases, and how to transition your frequently used terminal commands into a bash script. I will also be giving out some honorable mentions to bash alternatives for writing all of your script goodness.

With that out of the way, RITlug is finalizing our T-shirt orders! For those of you who wish to order a RITlug T-shirt and haven’t yet done so, you have until this Monday, November 11th, to fill out this form. The form has been updated to include an image of the T-shirt design, and each shirt costs $20. We will start collecting payment starting Monday, and will be submitting our order by next Friday at the latest.

See you tomorrow!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

Upcoming Events:

• Rochester Maker Faire: November 23rd
• FOSS Hours: Thursdays 5:00-7:00pm MAGIC Center 3190

Gaming on Linux

01 November 2019

Hey RitLuggers,

This friday, our feature presentation we will be about gaming on linux. We will be going in depth into the linux gaming scene, what games you can play on linux, as well as tools and applications you can use to play games on your distro of choice! If you’re interested in gaming, come learn about how you can make your linux box your new gaming rig.

We will be ordering t-shirts within the next few weeks. If you are interested in buying a RITlug t-shirt, fill out this form. The T-shirts will cost $20.

GCCIS is hosting a Halloween costume today (10/31/2019). RITlug will have a table there where we will be advertising our club, so feel free to swing by our table and check out some of the other cool GCCIS clubs. Rumor has it that the winner of this year’s costume competition will be getting a Raspberry Pi, so be sure to come with your best costumes.

I hope to see you all at this week’s meeting!

• Henry Keena (@htk4363)

Upcoming Events:

• Rochester Maker Faire: November 23rd
• FOSS Hours: Thursdays 5:00-7:00pm MAGIC Center 3190

Pi Fest

25 October 2019

Hey Ritluggers,

This week we will be exploring all the wonderful things you can do with Raspberry Pis. We will go over some Pi 101 things and then dive into demoing some of our favorite Raspberry pi projects. If anyone in the club has a Raspberry Pi, feel free to bring it with you to the club this Friday.

Tomorrow (Thursday) there will be a “pizza social” during FOSS hours where there will be a meet-and-greet with other FOSS students, faculty, and alums. Everyone is welcome to come: FOSS hours are held weekly on Thursdays from 5-7 PM in Magic Center 3190. This weekend, FOSS@Magic is hosting The Future Is Open conference which is the first-ever open-source conference at RIT. RITlug will be helping host three events/talks, there will be more free pizza, and there are dozens of guest speakers coming. This event is all day Saturday (10 AM-5 PM) in the MAGIC center – we got the entire building reserved for this event! RSVP to the event using this link.

We will be ordering t-shirts within the next few weeks. If you are interested in buying a RITlug t-shirt, fill out this form. The T-shirts will be $20.

GCCIS is hosting a Halloween costume next week. RITlug will have a table there where we will be advertising our club, so feel free to swing by our table and check out some of the other cool GCCIS clubs. Rumor has it that the winner of this year’s costume competition will be getting a Raspberry Pi, so be sure to come with your best costumes.

I hope to see you all at this week’s meeting!

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

Upcoming Events:

• The Future Is Open: October 26th
• Rochester Maker Faire: November 23rd
• FOSS Hours: Thursdays 5:00-7:00pm MAGIC Center 3190

Hacktoberfest

18 October 2019

Hey Ritluggers,

I hope you enjoyed your October break, and you’re ready to tackle the rest of the semester.

Hacktoberfest is upon us! Participate in some open source projects this month, and get a free shirt! This week we will have a casual project workshop where we will help each other get involved in open source projects. If you have no clue where to get started or are looking for a project to work on, this meeting is a great way to find those projects.

Hope to see you all there!

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

Upcoming Events:

• The Future Is Open: October 26th
• Rochester Maker Faire: November 23rd
• FOSS Hours: Thursdays 5:00-7:00pm Magic Center 3190

Week #7: FOSS History

11 October 2019

Hey Ritluggers,

This week we have a guest speaker giving a talk on the history of FOSS.

D. Joe Anderson (deejoe, deej0e, dzho etc) is currently a homemaker. One of the original members of Interlock Rochester, Rochester’s first hackerspace, Joe has been teaching the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software Development course (aka, HFOSS¹) since Fall 2015. Nearly as old as Unix, Joe began computing in the 8-bit micro era, when that was still a fringe personal pursuit, and just as the tenets of free software were being formulated. Of course, he knew nothing of this at the time. A student of many disciplines, educated in chemistry and math, he was continuing work in applied scientific computing just over the hill from Silicon Valley right around the time “open source” was first repurposed to sell free software to venture capitalists. He and Linus Torvalds drank in some of the same establishments, just never at the same time.

With any luck, his talk will give some hint as to how the histories of computing and so-called “intellectual property” law collided to form the free and open-source software movements.

¹ — IGME-582, add it to your Spring 2020 shopping cart!

Hope to see you all there!

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

Week #6: Intro to Git

04 October 2019

Hey RITlug!

Just in time for Hacktoberfest, this week’s meeting is all about Git. We are going to be starting with an introduction to version control systems, and how to use them for your benefit.

This presentation will also consist of a small workshop, where the prize is gaining access to the GitHub RITlug organization!

Hope to see you all there!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

Week #5: Shells!

25 September 2019

Hey Ritluggers,

This week we are discussing all your favorite shells! Each eboard member is going to give a talk on a different shell. At the end of the meeting, we will have a fun shell customization workshop.

If you guys are not already on our slack, join rit-lug.slack.com using your RIT email address.

Hope to see you all there!

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

Week #4: Guest Speaker: Linux Distributions

20 September 2019

Hey RITlug!

This week’s talk is brought to you by our guest speaker, Neal Gompa. A DevOps Engineer by day, and an open sourcerer by night, Neal is a prominent member of many different communities. These include Fedora, openSUSE, Mageia, and more!

The focus of this presentation will be on Linux distributions: what they are, how they’re built, and why there are so many. If you’ve ever wondered what truly makes a Linux distribution standalone from others, this is the talk for you!

Hope to see you all there!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

Week #3: Packaging

13 September 2019

Hey Ritluggers,

This week we have a fun talk by Jason Carr about how software is bundled for different Linux distributions. Jason will compare the major different package managers and dive into topics like cross-distro package managers. If you know nothing about package managers or, you want to learn how to package software for your favorite Linux distribution, this is a perfect talk for you.

If you guys are not already on our slack, join rit-lug.slack.com using your RIT email address.

Hope to see you all there!

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

Week #2: Everything SSH!

06 September 2019

Hey Ritluggers,

This week we have a very exciting meeting: we are diving deep into SSH. We are going to cover everything from basic SSH commands to some of the more advanced topics. You need no background knowledge of SSH for this meeting, just show up and learn with us.

After a quick presentation, there will be a SSH CTF-esk (capture the flag) challenge.

Hope to see you all there!

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

Week #1: Welcome to RITlug!

30 August 2019

Whether you are new to RITlug, or a returning member, I hope you’re as excited as we are for this semester!

This year we will be starting off with an informal meeting during the first week of classes (this Friday!). Each member of the RITlug eboard will be introducing themselves, and giving a lightning talk on their own journey with Linux.

Hope to see you there!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

What is RITlug?

RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

Week #14: ImagineRIT Demos

26 April 2019

Hey RITlug!

This week’s meeting will be the last meeting for the remainder of this spring semester. On Friday, we will be giving a demo of all the projects we will be displaying the following day at RIT’s annual ImagineRIT festival. If you’d like to see what RITlug is planning to show off, or are interested in what projects RITlug has been working on, stop on by!

Furthermore, thank you everyone who came out to Sticky Lips for our semesterly FOSS Family Dinner!

See you all soon,

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

News

• Debian has a new Project Leader!
• Scientific Linux is being discontinued
• How to sync GNOME Shell Extensions between desktops

Week #13: State of FOSS in Design & Creativity

19 April 2019

Hey RITlug!

This week we’ll be taking a look at open source tools on Linux for design and audio/visual use. We’ll take a look at the development status of tools old and new for photography, audio and video production, photo editing, drawing, and 2D/3D animation. If you’ve ever wondered how FOSS plays a part in the design world, come to this talk to find out!

In other news, elections are in! The results are as follows:

President: Jeffery Russell Vice President: Tim Zabel Secretary: Henry Keena Treasurer: Nathaniel Larrimore Project Coordinator: Christian Martin

Congratulations to everyone!

See you all soon,

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

News

• New release for the KDE app suite!
• Ubuntu 19.04 is live!
• OpenSSH 8.0 released!

Week #12: Customization Galore

12 April 2019

Hey Ritluggers,

Do you want to learn how to pimp your workflow? This week we will be doing a ton of mini demos on how to customize everything from zsh to git. This is a great opportunity to learn some amazing tricks and hacks to make your workflow more stylish and convenient. Be there or be stock bash.

This Friday(4-12) is the last day for eboard nominations. If you feel like helping run RITlug next semester while building your resume, sign up using this link.. Elections will open on Monday.

Our semesterly FOSS Family Dinner is around the corner! This is a great chance to meet alumni and other members of the FOSS community around RIT and Rochester. This semester’s dinner will be taking place on the last Wednesday of the month, April 24th, starting at 6:00pm at Sticky Lips! Please follow this link to RSVP.

Hope to see you all at this week’s meeting.

Jeffery Russell @Jrtechs

News

• Red Hat will be working to bring Fedora to arm64 laptops
• Chinese Developers Are Using GitHub As A Mouthpiece For Protest
• Elementary OS Shifting towards Flatpak
• EU’s new copyright rule, Article 13

Week #11: Building a Website with Jekyll

05 April 2019

Hey RITlug!

This week’s meeting is all about how to make a website with Jekyll. Has “make a personal website/portfolio” been on your to-do list for a while? Come on down to this week’s talk to learn how Jekyll may be the answer you’re looking for!

Jekyll is great at turning markdown and other plain text into appealing websites and blogs. Our Project Coordinator, Christian Martin, will be taking over this week’s talk to give a presentation and workshop on how to quickly bring up a Jekyll site. As this workshop will be interactive, feel free to bring your own laptop and follow along!

Additionally, this is the final call for RITlug jackets! We currently have 10 interested members, and we need 12 to fill our order. Jackets are priced at $60. If you would like a jacket, please fill out the poll in #announcements, or talk to one of our eboard members. Our deadline for accepting interest in jackets is next Wednesday, April 10th so we have enough time to fill our order before the end of the semester.

See you this Friday!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

Further Announcements

Our semesterly FOSS Family Dinner is around the corner! This is a great chance to meet alumni and other members of the FOSS community around RIT and Rochester. This semester’s dinner will be taking place on the last Wednesday of the month, April 24th, starting at 6:00pm at Sticky Lips! Please follow this link to RSVP.

This Friday is our last call for ImagineRIT exhibitors! If you would like to help man RITlug’s table at this year’s festival, please contact either Tim Zabel or Jeffery Russell by the end of this Friday’s meeting!

As a last announcement, RITlug eboard nominations are now taking place! If you would like to run for next year’s eboard, sign up here. Positions that will be especially open for next year are Treasurer and Secretary, as our current eboard members holding these positions are graduating!

News

• Fedora 30 Beta is out!
• EU’s new copyright rule, Article 13
• Google won’t sign off DRM for open-source project
• Former Mozilla CTO detained at US airport

Week #10: All the Programming Languages

29 March 2019

Hey RITluggers!

This week we have a mash-up of a few different programming language presentations. We will be talking about everything from Haskell to R so be sure to swing by.

Nominations for next year’s eboard are now open. We currently need to fill positions for Treasurer and Secretary since Josh and Ian are graduating this year. In addition to those positions, we are looking for more people to join our eboard as officers so we can do more stuff with projects and outreach. If you are interested in running, you can fill out this form to enter the race. Feel free to ask Tim or myself about any questions you may have regarding elections and running.

Imagine RIT is coming up next month and we are looking for people to help us present. If you are interested, talk to an eboard member sometime this week so we can add you as an exhibitor.

Looking forward to seeing you all this week,

–Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

News

• Setting kernel command line arguments with Fedora 30 Fedora’s got a new bootloader spec!
• OpenStreetMap and Deborah Nicholson win 2018 FSF Awards LibrePlanet was this past week! Lots of cool projects and people.

Week #9: Rust

22 March 2019

Hey RITlug!

This week’s talk is all about Mozilla’s Rust programming language. Ben Goldberg will be leading this week’s presentation as to what Rust is, and why you should use it.

– Tim Zabel (@Tjzabel)

Updates

Interested in a RITlug jacket? Let us know in the poll found on the RITlug slack announcements channel. In order to go through with ordering, we will need at least 10 interested members.

News

• KDE Connect was removed from the Google App Store (It’s back!)
• CentOS 8 needs artwork designers!
• Kodi foundation joins the Linux Foundation
• Kernel devs are discussing memory-specific speedups. If you love systems programming, or just watching devs dish it out, here’s a mailing list convo you don’t want to miss.
• Anyone remember KNOPPIX? It hit version 8.5.0. This Debian-based distro helped popularize Live CDs. Still going strong after 18 years!

Week #8: ZFS

07 March 2019

Hey RITluggers!

This week’s talk is all about snapshots, self healing, and more block storage than you can believe! Why yes, it’s ZFS!

Josh (that’s me) will be going over the history and basics of ZFS. We’ll go swimming in a zpool, and take some snapshots to remember it. :) Complete with a demo of some cool ZFS features, of course!

ZFS may use a copy on write (COW) model, but there’ll be no bull at this talk about an udderly fantastic filesystem.

Just bad puns. Obviously.

Check out the good points, and the pain points, in this week’s PowerPoint. Then enjoy a nice, long spring break!

–Josh Bicking (@jibby0)

News

• Linux 5.0 is out. Cuz Linus ran out of fingers and toes again.
• Linux Mint is getting a facelift. In other news, Mint’s current logo is a leaf. Somehow I missed that.
• Approximate Quantum Computing… on a Ras Pi. Sure, why not?
• Linux users install 3 million snap apps every month, according to Canonical. Now if only it would leave my loop devices alone.
• PureOS is now convergent. Purism’s cross-platform OS, PureOS, now runs apps the same on both mobile phones and laptops. No building for different devices. Pretty impressive!

Week #7: Graph Databases

28 February 2019

Hey RITluggers,

This week we will be talking about graph databases and how they will change the way you think about data. If you are interested in big data and the oodles of open source software centered around it, be sure to check out this week’s meeting.

Week #6: Intro to Ansible

22 February 2019

Hey RITlug!

This week’s talk is all about Ansible, an automation tool that can configure systems, deploy software, and much more. If you’ve ever wondered how to orchestrate thousands of Linux servers, this meeting is for you!

This week’s presentation will kick off around 5pm, and is led by Justin Flory (jwflory).

See you then, – Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

Week #4: Intro to Kubernetes

08 February 2019

Hey RITlug!

This week’s meeting is focused on container orchestration using Kubernetes. Ever wondered how to manage a bunch of containers? Or how to autoscale your services? Come to this week’s meeting to find out how!

I will be doing an overview of what Kubernetes is, and why/when you should use it. If any of this sounds interesting to you, come on down to this Friday’s meeting!

Hope to see you there!

– Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

Week #3: Intro to the Cloud

01 February 2019

Hey RITluggers,

I hope that you are all getting through this polar vortex. This week we will be discussing cloud fundamentals with a focus on containers and security.

If you are interested in how we take x and turn it into a service, swing by this week’s meeting.

Stay toasty,

–Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

Week #2: Systemd

25 January 2019

Hello all RITluggers!

Today’s meeting we will hear all about systemd from Garret Arcoraci. You might have seen him in the Golisano hallways, or taken a systems administration, virtualization, or network class with him.

Chances are you rely on systemd if you’re running linux, but how well do you know what’s going on behind the scenes? Garret will be talking about targets, dependencies, timers, and more!

See you at the meeting!

• Ian (@icflournoy)

Week #: 1

17 January 2019

Hello RITlug and welcome to Week 1! This Friday we will hold our first meeting of the semester in GOL-2650.

In true LUG form we will kick things off by trialing Linux distributions on the lab machines (or personal machines, we will have flash drives readily available for booting).

Week #14: Retro Gaming Night

05 December 2018

Hey RITluggers,

It’s Week 14. It’s the last week of classes and the last week of RITlug this semester. We know many of you are prepping for finals and getting ready for the final stretch. We thought that a casual gaming night would be a nice way to end the semester and enter finals week.

Do you have GameCube games or another retro console lying around? Let me know if you have something you want to bring, and EBoard will try to find a way to set it up in the lab. I believe that currently we have some people bringing a GameCube, a Nintendo Switch, and a Retro Pi.

Keep on keepin’ on,

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

Welcome, new & old alike!

29 November 2018

Hi RITlug!

Welcome to Week 13. Join us this week for a guest presentation from Jason Carr on cross-distribution packaging.

Jason will discuss the problems and difficulties with existing package managers on Linux. Two solutions have come about:

1. Bundled application managers
2. Improved package managers

Additionally, Jason will give a comparison of bundled applications: Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage. He will also talk about the cross-distro package managers Nix and Guix.

We hope to see you at this week’s meeting. If you aren’t in our Slack already, don’t forget to come and say hello!

Cheers,

• Justin W. Flory (jwf / jflory7)

Upcoming Events:

• Tue, Nov. 27th: Thanks everyone who came out to the FOSS Family Dinner! (See on Twitter…)
• Fri, Dec. 7th: Final RITlug meeting of semester. Join us for the semesterly game night, combining both retro game consoles and newer consoles on big-screen projectors in Golisano.

Week 12: Hardware Zoo

15 November 2018

Hey RITluggers,

This week we will be demoing some hardware projects at our meeting. Other than that, we will be working on projects. Feel free to swing by and work on homework, check out our hardware projects and get involved in open source projects.

On November 27th, we are doing a dinner fundraiser at IHOP. If you are able to attend, please RSPV with this link.

• Jeffery Russell (@JrTechs) Your fellow RITlugger, best friend and your reindeer to guide the sleigh

Upcoming Events:

• FOSS Family Dinner: November 27th
• Rochester Maker Faire: November 17th
• FOSS Hours: Tuesdays 5:00-7:00pm Magic Center 3190

Open Source Communities

08 November 2018

After the news broke that IBM was purchasing Red Hat r/linux exploded with predictions about the end of Fedora and CentOS. This week Charles Profitt will explain why, based on history, you should Stay Calm and Carry On. Charles Profitt is an active member of the Fedora Project and is an IT administrator at a local school district.

Last year Charles Profitt gave a very interesting talk on open source infrastructure; I am looking forward to his talk this week.

Hope to see you all there,

– Jeffery Russell : @jrtechs

Upcoming Events:

• FOSS Family Dinner: November 27th
• FOSS Hours: Tuesdays 5:00-7:00pm Magic Center 3190

Week 10: RIT Mirrors!

31 October 2018

Hey RITluggers,

This week we have a very exciting presentation for you! Paul Mezzanini from the research computing department is comming to give a talk about the RIT software mirrors.

Hope to see you all there!

– Jeffery Russell : @jrtechs

Upcoming Events:

• FOSS Family Dinner: November 27th
• Election Night Hackathon: November 6th
• FOSS Hours: Tuesdays 5:00-7:00pm Magic Center 3190

Raspberry Pi

25 October 2018

Hey RITluggers,

This week have Taylor - a former RITlug eboard member - giving a talk about Raspberry Pis. Swing by to learn how to make an “augmented” magic mirror with some hardware modifications.

Hope to see you all there!

• Jeffery Russell (@jrtechs)

Upcoming Events:

• Hacktoberfest meetup: Java Wally’s October 27th 1:00-3:00pm
• FOSS Family Dinner: Dovember 27th
• Election Night Hackathon: November 7th (5:30-11:00pm)
• FOSS Hours: Tuesdays 5:00-7:00pm Magic Center 3190

Docker and Containers

18 October 2018

Hey RITluggers,

With week 8 coming to a close it’s time to learn about containing applications!

This week’s presentation will focus on Docker and the general concept of containers. If you’ve ever wondered what benefits containerization provides over virtualization, prepare to be amazed at tomorrow’s meeting.

I hope you’re excited! I know I can’t contain myself.

• Ian (@icflournoy)

P.S. RITlug will be hosting a collaborative coding meetup on Saturday, October 27th in Java Wally’s (first floor of the Library) from 1pm to 3pm. For those of you working towards Hacktoberfest this is a great time to get contributions in!

Howdy RITluggers!

10 October 2018

We hope you enjoyed your October break, and you’re ready to tackle the next chunk of the semester!

We previously discussed getting involved in open source projects, or creating some of your own, and now is the perfect time. Hacktoberfest is upon us! Participate in some open source projects this month, and get a free shirt!

This is a great opportunity to get involved in projects you love, or find projects you’re sure to love! And of course, the club would love any pull requests you wanna throw our way. :)

Come learn a bit about Hacktoberfest, its sponsors, and get started on earning that special edition shirt!

Hope to see you there!

• Josh Bicking (jibby)

Project Collaboration Night

02 October 2018

Hey RITluggers,

I hope you are all enjoying your classes and the wet Rochester weather.

To kick off the start of October/Hacktoberfest, we are having a project collaboration night this Friday. This will be a casual meeting where we will work on projects and hang out. This is a great time to find a project for Hacktoberfest and share your own projects.

Hope to see you all there!

-Jeffery Russell (jrtechs)

Open Hardware & Raspberry Pis

27 September 2018

Hey RITluggers!

Welcome back for another week of Linux & open source! This week’s meeting is brought to you by our guest speaker, Dan Schneiderman.

Dan is the co-chair of Maker Faire Rochester, and the lead organizer for the first New York State Maker Summit. He has also been an active member of the Free and Open Source community within Rochester for many years. Currently, Dan is a K-12 University Center Senior Outreach Specialist within RIT.

This week, he will be talking about open hardware projects, and Raspberry Pis.

Hope to see you there!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

Open Source 101

20 September 2018

Hello RITluggers,

I hope you all are enjoying week 4 as classes start to settle in.

Are you curious about open source? What is it, really? Is it GitHub? Is it Linux? In this session, learn what open source is all about and how you can even get involved. You can get some resume boosters for yourself in the process too – no experience required!

You’ll never believe the two things nobody told you before about contributing to an open source project!

Hope to see you there!

-Jeffery Russell (jrtechs)

RITlug Projects

10 September 2018

Welcome to Week 3! I hope everyone is having a great first couple weeks.

This week’s meeting focuses on RITlug’s projects. Ever wanted to know what RITlug does outside of our weekly meetings, or are you unsure about which open source project to contribute to? This presentation discusses club projects like Teleirc and TigerOS, while also delving into the wider scope of open source, such as the GNOME Project.

Whether you’ve yet to find a project to contribute to, or you’re an open source veteran, come on down to this week’s meeting!

Hope to see you there!

• Tim Zabel (Tjzabel)

Welcome, new & old alike!

01 September 2018

Hello everyone,

This semester RITlug will be meeting Fridays from 4-6pm in the Large DB Lab (GOL-2650) on the second floor of Golisano Hall. Our first meeting will be on September 7th (week 2).

Welcome to all of our new members, including those who came to visit us at the Tiger Activities Gala! We had a good turnout, as well as some additional online signups, and hope to see you coming to our meetings. RITlug is a student-led organization to promote and teach students about Linux & open source. We work on projects and discuss interesting topics in the Linux & open source communities. The best way to communicate is in the Slack #general channel, although for general open source discussion there’s more activity in the #foss channel.

To returning members, we’re trialing using CampusGroups for emails as RIT’s spam filters have been getting increasingly strict. If you’re subscribed to the Google Groups mailing list, you might be getting two copies of this email. This would be a good time to review your email settings if you don’t want this.

–
See you all soon,
Christian Martin (@ctmartin)