Unix Sig
 By Christopher J. Fearnley
 
@SH = SIG in Transition
 
For the second month in a row the SIG has had no leader. If there are
any gurus out there we need your participation!! Until the gurus come
we have a small, rag-tag contigent of beginner and intermediate UNIX
users who will - well, TRY to help ourselves!!
 
@SH = Installing Linux
 
Three weeks ago I installed Linux, the free 32-bit POSIX and system V
compatible UNIX for 386 and 486 systems. It has been fun in spite of
the fact that I had no prior UNIX or system administration experience!
Linus Torvalds began developing Linux in the spring of 1991. By the
end of the year a small army of hackers was organized ... the result
is a full-featured non-propriatary UNIX available at little or
no cost. The lastest version of the kernel is 0.99 patchlevel 13 and
except for the few networking bugs remaining, Linux is very stable and
robust. There are five newsgroups devoted to Linux (comp.os.linux.*)
and two east coast ftp sites: tsx-11.mit.edu (in /pub/linux) and
sunsite.unc.edu (in /pub/Linux - careful it's case-sensitive). But
before you decide to get it - read the FAQs and HOWTO manuals (VERY
IMPORTANT!). Linux allows you to access your DOS files and even run DOS 
applications such as Word Perfect (though it's still far from perfect).
There is even a Windows emulator under development.
 
@SH = December's Meeting
 
The first thing to do next month is to elect a new SIG leader (where
are you gurus hiding) - any volunteers? We should also find out
everyone's interests. Steve Longo says we may be able to get speakers
- but what topics are you interested in? I will prepare a
presentation for the meeting: "UNIX Regular Expressions: Powerful
Tools for Searching and Editing Files." I don't know much about them now,
but I've got a month to prepare! Looking forward to seeing you in
Matheson 408 from 10 a.m. to Noon. Do Enjoy!