While most of the presentation tracks at SCALE are filling nicely, we have a large void in the beginner tutorials. This is our opportunity to present Open Source software to those who are merely interested, and we need to take advantage of this opportunity.

Would you like to talk at SCALE? You don't need to be a Linux guru by any means. If you are comfortable speaking in front of a group, please consider volunteering for a beginner's tutorial. In this way you can contribute something back to OpenSource.

Here are some ideas for beginner's topics. Feel free to come up with others! The topics should take around an hour, or perhaps a bit less to allow for some Q&A:

- Overview of Linux - What's a 'distro', and what does it include? - Comparison of a few of the major distros - All about KDE - All about GNOME - Comparison of MS Office and OpenOffice - Linux equivalents for popular WinPrograms (good opportunity for a handout) - LiveCD's - what are they, and what's out there? - How to maintain a Linux system (yum, apt, yast, urpmi, etc.) - Very basic TCP/IP networking. - How to set up a basic Windows-share (via Samba) - How to use set up and use WebMin - Basic Wireless Networking (TOPIC ALREADY TAKEN)

For those interested, please email your topic idea to kapadia@socallinuxexpo.com.

Thank you!

Gareth J. Greenaway SCALE Community Chair