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April ’06 Meeting Notes

Monday, April 17, 2006 7:47 PM CST

Following people attended the April Meeting:

Douglas Stanley Jr., Wes Wilkerson (AUB), Peyton Mars, Mike Liang, Derek Anderson, Henry McBride (BALU), Jason Chuang, Timothy Waters, and "Col." Keith Corum

Roll was taken, with 9 people in attendance, including visitors from Auburn (Wes Wilkerson) and Birmingham (Henry McBride). Henry is a member of BALU, and came to the meeting to discuss the future of the Alabama Linux Fest.

Derek opened the meeting with a brief description of the topic. Henry McBride introduced himself and his purpose for visiting (ALF).

A brief discussion of operating system trends began, concluding with the benefits of the OSS model vs. proprietary models.

Derek began the presentation on next generation graphics for Linux. He noted the presentation will be made available on line via Malu's website. Some highlights:

• Background of X graphics capabilities, and advances in X
• A description of some of the terminology and technologies involved with graphics rendering, including alpha compositing, anti-aliasing, and X Render.
• Cairo and the libraries was discussed; 2D drawing, vector based graphics, and the GTK based API were discussed.
• A brief history of graphics in computing is given, starting with the postscript language and the impact on computer printing in the 80s.
• Glitz and it's libraries were discussed, and the relationship to Cairo and OpenGL.
• XGL was briefly discussed.
• Brief descriptions of how advanced graphics in other OS's, namely Apple's and Microsoft's, are handled.

This concluded the graphics presentation.

Discussions on the future of ALF were led by Doug and Henry McBride

• Where is the event to be held? Who will have a say in it?
• How will those involved communicate?
• What about a website?

It was decided that a steering committee would be serve the purpose of governance and management of ALF. Volunteers from all Lugs in the state are invited to volunteer. Furthermore, it was determined that a mailing list is the best way to go for initial communication between interested parties, with an IRC channel soon to follow.

After determining that the ALF website was in limbo, Derek volunteered to register the domain. While most communication will take place in a collaborative manner online, quarterly in-person meetings will also take place to better organize the event. Some brief discussion on who to invite took place, with a resolution to further discuss the fine points of ALF management in the new online framework.

Lastly, a request was made for Malu to tape meetings and make them available online. Utilizing Peyton's media expertise, Malu has resolved to do this in the future.