Members  attending the meeting included:   Richard Foerster,  Alan Shoemaker, Craig Carignan, Don Evinger, Tad Peters,  and  Dave Reisz.  

Craig brought a Mac system to the meeting that he planned to install MKLinux DR#3 on.   Members spent some time looking at the machine and the accompanying documentation and determined that the hard disk could not be partitioned to provide a Linux partition without having to re-install and set up the Mac OS.  In fact the MKLinux recommended set-up is to install a second hard disk that can be used for Linux.  That way the user doesn't have to sacrifice existing Mac programs and files.   The system Craig intends to use doesn't have a lot of important stuff on it, so he has elected the repartitioning option.   We were not able to complete the installation at the meeting, but are hoping that Craig will bring the system back at for the next meeting for further discussion.

Caldera provided us  with a "Technology Preview" copy of the 2.4 Kernel, which has been installed on the demo "e-machine" so that members would be able to experiment with it.   The Technology preview is a boxed distribution that provides: 

Members spent a few minutes experimenting with the preview.   One of the new features noted was Konqueror, an all purpose browser and file manager that replaces Kfm.   Konqueror is more that just an advanced file manager and browser, however.   It is also a "customizable" application and a "universal viewer".   Konqueror {Beta} looks neat, but we experienced a few crashes and other bugs.  By release which is expected later this year, those things should be pretty well ironed out.  One problem in particular appeared when running Java applets.   In experimenting with some of the "samples" provided with the JDK,  we found a few little glitches under Konqueror that did not show up under Netscape.

Another addition in KDE version 2.0 is the new KOffice Suite,  an integrated office suite for KDE, the K Desktop Environment. KOffice currently includes KWord, KSpread, KPresenter, KIllustrator, KImageShop, KFormula, Graphite, KChart and KImage.    

We will have the "Preview" available for additional experimentation at our next meeting, and expect to have an evaluation copy of Omnis Studio running on it.   Omnis is a cross-platform RAD tool-set that is currently available for Windows, MacOS and Linux.   Old-timers may remember it as a Mac 4GL that was marketed as Omnis 3+.  Using Omnis Studio, you can create form-based client applications that access all leading server databases, including Oracle, Sybase, DB2, and Informix, as well as all ODBC-compliant databases, such as MySQL and MS SQL Server.

Tad provided a humorous story about how he was able to get a *personal* power transformer attached to the pole just outside his house by having a little chat with the Edison company.   He says it was just the thing to eliminate the power sags and brownouts that he used to experience. Tad  recommends that everyone "run out and get one" for themselves.

The meeting adjourned at 12:30.  The next meeting will be held on September 9th, at 10:00am