Beginners Track

Troubleshooting is a skill that some people find natural and others have to work at it. Either way it's something everyone gets better at with practice.

In this talk, Rankin will break down network troubleshooting on a Linux system into a common set of tests and steps that you can apply to a majority of networking problems. Included will be basics of DNS troubleshooting, Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3 troubleshooting, and an example problem solving session.

One of the big areas wherein Linux and Unix beat out the competition is automation, and bash scripting is foundational to achieving this goal. We'll start with very simple scripts, and then begin to add features like globbing and command substituation, loops and logic. Time permitting, we'll also cover I/O redirection and features for making your scripts recyclable. Lastly, we'll take a peek into how to create a System V service management script from scratch. In this session we'll get an exciting look into the powerful features available in the shell most distributions use by default.

Topics:

Scripting Basics
Expansion
Loops
Conditionals
I/O Redirection
System V scripts

This presentation is a gentle introduction to the free-to-use Python programming language, for beginners from the perspective of a beginner. The talk provides a quick and intuitive tutorial on how to create a simple interactive game using Python. This tutorial will go over the interpreter, basic syntax and semantics in a script, the standard library, and choosing a text editor. Additionally, there will be an overview of Python's efficiency as a dynamic language as well as its many useful applications. The increasingly popular Python can be used for anything from banal tasks to large applications in domains, such as web application development, database access, games, education, and more. The remaining time will be dedicated to a discussion of how to best find suitable learning materials, documentation, and guides (online, books, classes) for new programming languages.

Creating brochures to promote your business, user group, and events can be an agonizing adventure in self-doubt. With a few simple graphic design rules, and a few open source tools you can easily make a variety of promotional materials and handouts.

In this session you'll learn how to find and use:
* Creative Commons licensed images.
* OpenOffice.org templates for tri-fold and bi-fold brochures.
* Open source fonts (yes, they exist!).
* Advanced open source applications for sophisticated layouts and custom paper sizes.

Whether you're a graphic designer exploring open source, or an open source expert looking for a little help in making appealing print materials, this session is going to have the information you need to create engaging print materials the open source way.

Recently celebrating its tenth anniversary, The Apache Software Foundation has evolved into one of the largest open-source foundations - overseeing over 70 independent projects: including Tomcat, OFBiz, SpamAssassin, Subversion, and Hadoop.

In this session, we will review the history and structure of the foundation, and, more importantly, discuss the "societal norms" that help to characterize these projects through "The Apache Way." We will also discuss the growing pains we have encountered as we grew the foundation from a single project into its current state as well as Apache's licensing philosophies, and the business models that are commonly seen with Apache projects.

This presentation will give a general overview of KDE, the community and the products that this community has created. There will be a brief history of KDE, and then live demonstrations of the KDE 4 Desktop and Applications including:
A. The Plasma Workspace
B. The K Menu
C. The Dolphin File Manager
D. Konqueror, the web browser
E. Other KDE applications such as K3B, Digikam, Amarok, Koffice, etc.
This will be a great opportunity for those that are new to KDE, or even Linux in general to get a taste of what software freedom is all about.

Shawn will discuss some of the nuances of the Linux community. He will touch on things like "how to ask for help", and "how to go from geek to guru."

Along with some standard "how to fit in", Shawn will attempt to discuss some common traps new users run into, and how to deal with them or avoid them altogether.

Are you are new to Linux, transitioning from Windows, or just thinking about upgrading to Linux? This session will provide you with practical advice for moving to Linux and its applications. The goal is to help make the Linux experience easy for you.

* What's in it for me to switch to Linux?

* Is Linux right for me?

* Prepare for the move to Linux by using cross-platform, Open Source applications while you are still using Windows.

* Learn how to move your mail, browser favorites (bookmarks) and documents, painlessly from Windows to Linux.

* How to find Linux alternatives for your favorite applications.

* Assure yourself that your hardware (computer, printer, router, etc.) will work with Linux.

* You are not on your own! Tapping-in to the support network for your new operating system and its applications.

Thanks to new database projects like CouchDB, TokyoCabinet, Solr and others, there are more non-relational database options available than ever for developers. Yet good information on how to choose what kind of database you need is still scarce. We'll cure that in this talk.

When do you want to use a SQL-relational database? When do you want to use a non-relational database? What are the types of non-relational databases available today? What kinds of things is each well-suited for?

Database geek Josh Berkus will explain how to evaluate the database tasks you need to accomplish, and put you on the road to choosing the database product ... or more likely, products ... which are right for you.