4/19/23 Meeting (Jonathan) - sudo-discuss

19 Apr 2023

We didn't exactly have much of a meeting tonight, but progress was still made.

- We talked about what to do with the recent influx of Chromebooks that came in. Most of
them currently cannot be used because the Fremont School District hasn't de-authorized
them yet, so they're hard locked to those Google Accounts, and can't even be
properly wiped. This may resolve itself soon, as we were told they would be deauthorized
soon.

- Discussions about what OS we want to favor for the laptops we're giving away were
also had. There's a tradeoff to be had between favoring stability/simplicity (e.g.
Debian) or more frequently updated distros (e.g. Arch) which offer a wider variety of
packages.

- I brought in some linux install CDs/DVDs, along with a a CD of rEFInd, as I noticed we
didn't have any install media that just "belonged" to sudoroom, for anybody
to use. I left them on the cart under the TV; please don't take them home, so that the
next person who needs them can use them too.

- I also brought in a keyboard. Ideally I'd like for us to have a couple of
"shop" keyboards that are kept relatively clean and accessible, so that we can
use them whenever. Not sure of the best way to do this right now.

- I proposed an idea to draw new people to sudoroom by offering a "learn linux"
program. I'm thinking we can take some of the older laptops/mac minis/whatevers, and
show interested people how to build linux systems from a minimal install (i.e. week 1:
basic terminal stuff; week 2: adding a display manager/xorg/window manager; etc.) The idea
seemed well received, but I wanted to see who all would be interested in participating,
and if anyone had ideas about how we could let people know about this. I was going to
propose doing it on a couple of wednesdays a month, or Friday if those are open. 

- It looks like two of the newer mac minis were found - these have HDMI ports, so
they're easy enough to hook up to any monitor. Some folks wanted to keep OSX on them.

--Jonathan