This first meeting served as an interest one for new and returning members. We were happy to see all the familiar faces and to meet new people!
Introduction
Who We Are
We are Stuy Linux. We prioritize user rights and the ideas behind FOSS. But equally as prevalent in our club is the exploration of wacky bizarre software, hardware, and everything in between.
Our co-presidents are Axel Stahl and Matthew Gultom. Axel got started with Linux and CS from the first Stuy Linux intro meeting, and now dedicates most of his free time to all things Linux. Matthew started in middle school with jailbreaking phones, needing Linux to get a particular software, and has been daily driving Linux for six years!
Origins
The club started 3 years ago by Lenny Metlitsky and David Chen. Originally, this started as a cyber security club, but was then rebranded to Linux. Both Lenny and David were deeply involved with the whole CS scene here at Stuy. They've both graduated now, but visit from time to time.
What We Do
Our meetings, held on Fridays, are usually centered on a specific Linux-centric piece of software. Other times, they are on more general topics like shell scripting. We also encourage members to host their own meetings! If anyone is researching a topic and wants to teach us about it, reach out to Axel and Matthew to plan the meeting. For example, Axel hosted a meeting on image processing and related topics a couple years ago. Along with our meetings, we also self-host services like our proxy search engine or this blog. You can find the full list of services on our about page.
Weekly Meetings Agenda
We try to make our meetings very interactive and hands-on. We usually make some sort of computer challenge that is related to the meeting topic. During these meetings, we will be teaching the concepts that members can use to complete the challenge.
Main Points Of Linux
We know some of you might be wondering why we use Linux. Here are our four main reasons.
Freedom -> Control
- You know (or can get to know) everything on your computer, from where it is to how it works.
- If something isn't working quite right, or you just want a certain feature, you can do all the fixing/changing yourself, since you actually know what is happening.
Variety <-> Customization
- For one job, there are tons of different tools that have different benefits. This means it can please different tastes.
- For example, some people like their graphical user interface (GUI) minimal, so they might use a barebones tiling window manager (like dwm). On the other hand, some people like a pretty GUI (but still want that minimalism of a window manager), so they might use a WM like Hyprland to make it pop. Others might want a GUI set up by default, so they might use a desktop environment like GNOME.
Security & Transparency
- If software is community driven, then there can be more frequent and active fixes to vulnerabilities.
- For example, when there was a big
xzvulnerability, the devs quickly fixed it up so people stayed secure. - This also means the community reviews the software. Software code is usually managed with a version control system, such as git. There are web platforms that exist as frontends for git, such as GitHub (which is where this website is managed!) If there is any suspicious code, the community will likely call it out, especially if more people are using it. In addition, users can post their own issues with the software, or open pull requests (suggested modifications to the code for quality-of-life improvements).
Performance + Longevity
- A lot of old computers get thrown out, which cause e-waste to be very prevalant. Linux has a lot of support for these older computers, so you can easily put them to good use.
- For example, Axel had an old ThinkPad laptop that came with Windows on it. It was super slow at first. However, after he put Linux on it, performance got much better and it became very usable.
Distributions ("distros" for short)
Fundamentally speaking, Linux is a kernel, which is the core of the computer OS: it manages what runs and how it runs. However, more is needed to make a system more functional. You need a GUI, a package manager (a utility to manage the installed software on your computer), default configurations (how stuff looks and functions), and default software. Linux distributions are OSs that distribute the kernel, as well as a variety of these software options.
There are many distributions, so here are some of the most popular and widely used ones:
- Ubuntu: huge community, good for beginners, very widely used
- Linux Mint: Windows-like environment, easy to transition from Windows
- Arch: DIY, customizable, a learning opportunity, a meme (I Use Arch BTW)
- Gentoo: source-based, extreme control (very hard, not for beginners)
- ElementaryOS: polished look, macOS-like environment
- NOTE: You have to input "$0" (without quotes) as the custom amount in order to download the OS for free
- Bazzite: immutable (hard to mess up, like your phone's system), optimized for gaming
- Tails: privacy focused, focus on anonymity
- NixOS: reproducible on different machines
Our Cool Tech
Our club has acquired some tech over the years that we use frequently.
- Orange Pi: a cheap Raspberry Pi clone that houses containerized machines for each member
- OLPC Laptops: cool laptops (with an interesting origin) given by the CS department
- Motherboards: old motherboards given to us by the CS department
Logistics
- Join our Discord!
- Message Axel (@axel on Discord) or Matthew (@Windward on Discord) about ideas for hosting your own meeting.