Welcome to Central PA UNIX Users Group
CPUUG (Central Pennsylvania UNIX Users Group) intends to serve all those in the Central Pennsylvania area interested in UNIX or UNIX-like operating systems. Primarily the group will mainly converse via the web forum, sharing knowledge and experiences. Rather than compete with other local Linux or Mac groups, we would like to welcome them to share their know how on our web forum. In return we encourage all involved with our user group to take part in any Mac and Linux user group meetups.
It is also the hope of CPUUG that professional networking will be one of the advantages of becoming an active member of the community. Although we encourage both hobbyists and professionals to join the group, we hope to provide an arena for those in Central PA to get to know one another not just socially but also professionally.
CPUUG News
Central Pennsylvania Open Source Conference
Posted on : Thursday April 16 2009 | category : technology
The Central Pennsylvania Open Source Conference, a one day, multi-track, low-cost conference about all things open source, is officially putting out the call for participation. Due to scheduling conflicts I was unable to attend last years conference, but this year I am planning to attend. The conference is scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 17, 2009 at the new Harrisburg University campus in Harrisburg, PA.
All of us here at CPUUG are looking forward to learning about the presentations that will be available at CPOSC 2009.
Forum Upgrade
Posted on : Tuesday March 18 2008 | category : news
Recently the developers of the forum software we use here at CPUUG added OpenID support to their latest beta offering. The widespread adoption of OpenID is something I find important and as a result I will be upgrading the CPUUG forums to the latest release, following a backup of course. For those wondering, OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites. There are a lot of major websites already using OpenID, so if you are at all active on the web you may already be using OpenID.
The AIX 6 Open Beta
Posted on : Tuesday May 22 2007 | category : news
For the first time ever, IBM is offering AIX in the form of an open beta. This means that you have the opportunity to download the next version of the AIX operating system for free. In my opinion, AIX is the leader in virtualization and virtualization is just further enhanced with AIX 6. Functional areas included in the open beta are:
- Workload Partitions
A new, software based, virtualization approach that complements the existing IBM System Logical Partitions by reducing the number of operating system images that have to be managed when consolidating workloads. - Role Based Access Control
Provides improved security and manageability by allowing administrators to grant authorization for management of specific AIX resources to users other than root by associating those resources with a role that is then associated with a particular system user. - AIX Security Expert enhancements
The AIX Security Expert has been enhanced to provide an option to store security templates directly in a Lightweight Directory Protocol (LDAP) directory—simplifying implementation of a consistent security across an entire enterprise. - Name Resolver Caching Daemon
The Name Resolver Caching Daemon is a new facility to cache host lookup information locally which can improve the performance of applications that access this type of information multiple times. - probevue dynamic tracing
probevue is a new dynamic tracing tool that can simplify debugging complex system or application code. This tool allows a developer or system administrator to dynamically insert trace breakpoints in existing code without having to recompile the code. - System Director Console for AIX
This new facility provides direct access to the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) in a Web browser. The System Director Console for AIX is included with AIX 6 and does not require any other Web server or other software.
We Have Moved
Posted on : Wednesday March 21 2007 | category : news
Over the past week I have moved CPUUG to a new server, while doing so I decided to take the time to upgrade and patch all the software that powers the CPUUG community. The latest levels of Apache, MySQL and PHP were compiled and extraneous files (old versions of CPUUG) were removed. You may have noticed some minor downtime while the DNS propagated and some issues with the community forum were worked through as well. I am not finished with the upgrades yet though.
Currently I am planning to install an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) Friday night, March 23rd 2007. Along with this maintenance I intend to do some rewiring, so the downtime will probably carry into Saturday morning, March 24th, 2007. Tentatively the CPUUG website may see outages between 8pm on March 23rd, 2007 until 8am on March 24th, 2007.
I moved CPUUG because I wanted the website to be hosted on one of my own servers so that I have full control over the software and services offered. Being that all this is put together as a labor of love, I try to save costs where I can and that will always be a factor. That being said, I also feel the move will be beneficial for performance and for services I would like to offer in the future.
SGI's Unix Variant Nearing End of Life
Posted on : Saturday December 02 2006 | category : news
Silicon Graphics will phase out its Irix operating system and the MIPS chip-based computers the Unix variant runs on at the end of the month, December 29th, 2006. Roughly 18 years ago the computing company introduced the Irix technology. Irix was one of the first Unix variants to feature a graphical user interface for the main desktop environment.
"After nearly two decades of leading the world in innovation and versatility, the MIPS-Irix products will end their general availability on Dec. 29, 2006," SGI said on its Web site. SGI will still sell some systems "through special arrangement only" after that, and support will last through at least December 2013, the company said.SGI has been moving all it's products to Intel Linux machines in recent years, and the Irix line has been relatively quiet. Some members on The Unix Heritage Society mailing list brought up possible Open Sourcing of Irix. Most agreed that we will not be seeing Irix as open source for a long time, if ever. However some thought the idea of opening the Irix desktop seemed like an intriguing possibility.
One Year Anniversary of CPUUG
Posted on : Monday November 13 2006 | category : news
One year ago today CPUUG quietly went live. Just over a year ago while searching for a Unix or Unix-like operating system user group in the Central Pennsylvania area I discovered that none existed. At least none that were concentrating on all the flavors of Unix-like operating systems. I felt that a Unix users group with a quality forum could help local users and professionals of Unix and Unix-like operating systems to network and get to know one another. A year later, I still believe CPUUG is a great idea and the best way to achieve that goal.
The community is still small and relatively quiet, I am still the primary person who posts documentation. There have been some folks who have expressed interest and I have even received a few emails saying what a great idea that CPUUG is. The state of the other user groups in the area has remained unchanged over the past year. Locally, IBM even tried creating an AIX user group. I even attended the first meeting of the group and from that meeting and subsequent emails I remain convinced that someone in IBM's marketing department found this website. During that first meetup myself and others tried to draw interest in a community forum, many at the AIX user group meetup seemed to see the value in networking but IBM seemed more interested in setting up meetings. For those with families and busy jobs, meetings become impossible. I sincerely believe a good forum is the best way to build a network of users.
Over the past year I learned how valuable continuing to network with others in your field can be when I found myself out of work. That experience only solidified what I am am trying to build with the Central Pennsylvania Unix Users Group. CPUUG will be around to celebrate it's second birthday and many, many more.
We are still lacking expertise in many of the Unix categories, including BSD, Sun and HP-UX. I now work in a shop that has HP-UX and Sun, so hopefully in the coming months I can begin to build documentation in these categories and maybe attract some more users to the group. If you find us via search engine or are a member of one of the local Linux or Mac groups, we would love to have you participate.
Happy 1st Birthday CPUUG!
AIX Celebrates 20th Year
Posted on : Wednesday March 15 2006 | category : news
January marked the 20th Birthday of the AIX operating system, a fantastic milestone for IBM's UNIX operating system. With future plans already mapped out until at least 2011, AIX is not going anywhere soon. The operating system that powered not only business computers and web servers, but also the famous Deep Blue as well has entered it's 20's in style. With AIX 5L providing the workhorse virtual operating components for the Power 5 chip and AIX 6 planned in the second half of 2007 for the Power 6 chip, we have a lot more to see from IBM's Cadillac.
AIX was introduced in January, 1986, and was the catalyst for leading IBM into
the world of open systems and standards such as UNIX, TCP/IP and the
Ethernet. AIX brought operating system excellence to
leading edge hardware technology bringing IBM alongside other Unix juggernauts. AIX has expanded from a technical
workstation platform to a true server operating system. IBM has unveiled the POWER microprocessor architecture and combined with
AIX, created the first RISC 6000 systems, or RS/6000 as they were later
called. Happy Birthday AIX!
Old Servers Wanted
Posted on : Saturday January 07 2006 | category : news
Because I lack access to any Sun servers, there is a lack of Solaris posts on the user forums. Though I see quite a bit of hits coming in via Google, so far there is a decided lack of membership also. If any of you folks are Solaris savvy, it would be great if you could post some of your tips and hacks on the forum.
I would love to get some old Sun, RS/6000, HP or other servers, and utilize them for CPUUG use. Ultimately I would like to provide free shell accounts to members. Thus giving folks the ability to learn and use UNIX. If you have any old servers that are not being used and would like to donate them, please contact me via the contact page.
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