| Date |
Name and link |
Comments |
| General |
||
| Sep 2006 |
What is Free software | Presented to the BRLSI in September 2006 and January 2007. Explains how it is written, why, and how it can be free of charge. |
| Apr 2010 |
Licenses and legal | Licenses, users' responsibilities, and some history. Slides and notes from the presentation. |
| Apr 2012 |
Introduction to Free Software |
Brief introduction to how it can be free, and mention of the essential free programs for Internet use. |
| Operating systems, file systems and networks |
||
| Jul 2011 |
Operating systems | What is an operating system, and which one is right for you? |
| Nov 2007 |
Partitioning of a disk (odt) | How to divide a disk into partitions before installing a Linux variant. |
| Mar 2011 |
Formatting and partitioning | More on formatting disks, and what partitions are. |
| Jan 2012 |
Partitioning a disk prior to installing Linux |
Yet more on partitioning a disk to provide space for file systems before installing Linux. |
| Mar 2012 |
The boot process, GRUB etc. |
What happens when a machine is
booted, and how do you change it? This paper is an introduction to the
process of getting a machine up and running. |
| Nov 2008 |
Data recovery | If your machine will not boot, you can try these notes to extract your data, even if you cannot fix the problem. |
| Aug 2010 |
Linux - introduction | Introduction to the Linux operating system and its applications - packages, file organisation, etc. |
| Aug 2011 |
Linux and hardware | Linux is sometimes not well support by hardware. What can be done? |
| Nov 2011 |
Linux distributions | A comparison of a few distributions that members have tried. |
| Sep 2009 | Create a bootable CD for your own Ubuntu system | How to create a new master bootable CD from an Ubuntu installation containing the equivalent of your current system. Useful for system recovery. |
| Sep 2010 |
Networking - introduction | Principles of networks and its jargon. How to find things out, what's going on with a router, etc. |
| Apr 2011 |
Firewalls and security | Describes what a firewall is, and when you need one. What passwords are needed, and where, to protect a network and its PCs. |
| Apr 2009 |
Networks and shares (odt) | Sharing data and printers across a network between Windows and Linux. There is also a glossary (odt). |
| Jul 2009 | Encrypting files | Encrypting files and filesystems using Truecrypt. |
| Nov 2009 | Setting up a virtual machine | Using VirtualBox to get more than one system running simultaneously on a single PC. The concepts behind virtualisation, and why you would want it, are described in a separate document. |
| Specific applications |
||
| Feb 2010 |
Windows programs on Linux | Running programs written for Windows on Linux using Wine. |
| Sep 2011 |
Backups | What must be backed up, and what should be backed up, and what sort of backup technique is suitable for the way you use a PC. |
| Apr 2008 |
Extensions in Firefox | Firefox loks the same on Windows as on Linux. The notes can apply to either. |
| Jul 2010 |
Firefox password store and add-ons | More extensions, saving of passwords and security matters. |
| Jun 2008 |
Thunderbird setup (.odt) | How to set up and use the e-mail client Thunderbird. |
| Mar 2010 |
Thunderbird - more | Organising your e-mails, using accounts and identities, and filters. |
| Jun 2009 |
Encrypt and sign messages with Thunderbird | Signing and encrypting messages, managing public and private keys. There is also a detailed script for you to follow to do it. |
| Feb 2008 |
How to use Open Office styles | How to use styles to change the appearance of a leaflet. This applies equally to OpenOffice and LibreOffice. The bare text (.odt) for the leaflet is also provided. |
| Jun 2010 |
Impress presentations | Creating presentations using OpenOffice Impress. Also valid for LibreOffice. |
| Oct 2010 |
Spreadsheets with Calc | Using OpenOffcie Calc to create spreadsheets and charts and graphs. Also valid for LibreOffice. The demonstration used this spreadsheet (.ods). |
| Mar 2008 |
Using macros in OpenOffice Base (.odt) | The example data base (.odb), the associated macros as text (.txt), how to install it (.odt) and a user manual (.odt) are also provided. |
| Sep 2008 |
Sun report builder and OpenOffice Base (.odt). | How to create reports with OpenOffice Base using the Sun report builder. |
| May 2008 |
Labels with OpenOffice | How to print labels using OpenOffice. This would apply equally to LibreOffice. |
| Oct 2008 |
Gimp for photographers (.odt) | GIMP is a good picture editor, very suitable for photographic manipulation. |
| Nov 2010 |
Editing sound files | Using Audacity to manipulate sound files, cutting and pasting, etc. |
| May 2009 |
Optical Character Recognition | Turning pictures of text into editable text using tesseract. |
| Hints, tips and howtos |
||
| Jan 2009 |
Shell scripting | Principles behind the shell language. |
| Nov 2011 |
Reading floppies in Ubuntu | Ubuntu removed support for old floppy drives. These notes show how to put it back. |
| Feb 2011 |
Tips and tricks | Small things people have noticed that might be of use to others. |
| Apr 2012 |
Use of the AltGr key on a UK keyboard | How to type Latin alphabet characters with diacritics on a Linux UK keyboard layout. Another document showing the keyboard layout is here in .odt format, and again as a .pdf . |
| Questions and Answers |
||
| Jan 2010 |
Question & Answer - Linux, partitions |
A few points from the discussion. |
| Feb 2009 |
Question & Answer - Ubuntu | A few points from the discussion. |
| Jun 2011 |
Question & Answer - recent Linux distributions | Ubuntu and Mint were the focus. |
| Oct 2011 |
Question & Answer - Sundry | Thunderbird, Writer, file types and booting. |
| Jan 2011 |
Question & Answer - Sundry |
Minor points and notes for the future. |
| Feb 2012 |
Question & Answer - Sundry | Sundries including very basics on terminal command line. |