Introduction:
FreeBSD is an advanced BSD UNIX operating system, developed and maintained by a large team of individuals. Currently gaining in popularity despite the mindshare dominance of GNU/Linux, FreeBSD (and its cousins NetBSD and OpenBSD) has gained a reputation for stability, performance, and cleanliness of code. FreeBSD runs on the i386 and Alpha processor families, with PowerPC in the works. It is developed by a large team of individuals, though its development model differs significantly from that of Linux.
Description of Talk:
FreeBSD!
I will briefly discuss the history of BSD Unix (hopefully not making too many errors), where FreeBSD fits in, how it differs from Linux (though I have a limited knowledge of modern Linux) and its traditional and emerging application domains. I will dispell some myths and explain how I came to be a FreeBSD zealot. I will demonstrate FreeBSD running on my Sony Vaio with fully functioning APM, USB, and PCCARD. I will demonstrate the famous ports collection, and Linux emulation. Time permitting, I can talk a bit about firewalls and NAT, and perhaps show off the CVS repository.
Speaker Biography:
I'm the Director of Technology at NetMonger Communications/IN-TEL-TEC, a multi-headed company in the Internet service and software development industries. On the ISP side, I manage about a dozen FreeBSD-based machines which run everything from e-mail and web sites to generating and printing bills, monitoring the machine room temperature, and even opening the cash drawer. At IN-TEL-TEC, I'm the lead programmer on the next generation of our law enforcement intelligence management software. My first exposure to the Internet was in 1993 during a summer program at Cornell. In 1995, I did the technical set up of an Internet service provider with sixteen 14.4 modems, a 56k line to the Internet, and a single Slackware Linux machine which ran the modems, mail, web, usenet, and all the shell accounts (SLIP and PPP were uncommon at the time, though the Linux box did those too). I've been in the Internet business ever since, and in '97 a college friend and I teamed up to start an ISP on Long Island. I may be spotted drinking (cola) with NY.pm (http://ny.pm.org/), freeing daemons with BUNY (http://www.bsdunix.net/), and terrorizing innoccent bystanders with Lisp, Kibology, and Cheese with LXNY (http://www.lxny.org/). My pathetic personal web site is at http://www.masto.com/.
Company Biography:
NetMonger Communications and IN-TEL-TEC started life as two separate companies which moved in to the same building at about the same time. Now we're one company where everyone has two jobs. NetMonger is an Internet Service Provider I co-founded in 1997 with the mission of providing high-quality Internet service to the Long Island and New York metro area. From the start, were we committed to open source, especially FreeBSD, and it paid off as we were able to extensively customize our systems to meet our needs. IN-TEL-TEC is a software development company specializing in intelligence management. Its major product, IN-TEL-ALL, was originally developed in Microsoft FoxPro for DOS. Due to a growing dissatisfaction with the performance and stability of proprietary operating systems and development tools, it is currently being rewritten from scratch as a browser-based application, using a foundation of open-source software including Apache, Perl, PostgreSQL, and of course FreeBSD.
Complimentary Refreshments and Food will be served.
Please join us for this meeting, you won't want to miss it!
unilist