Mission Statement

Objective

The UCLALUG's purpose is to facilitate learning, creativity, and the advancement of computer science.

The UCLALUG accomplishes this goal by promoting the use of the Linux operating system at UCLA and encouraging its use among students, faculty, staff, and University departments. The UCLALUG promotes Linux use by providing a support network for Linux users and by building a library of Linux-related materials, as well as various versions of Linux on multiple platforms.

These publicly available resources are stored and used in the UCLALUG lounge, which also serves as a meeting room and classroom.

Activities

In promoting the use of Linux, UCLALUG also encourages programming under this operating system in the form of student-coordinated projects. UCLALUG student projects benefit the UCLA community and the Linux community, with emphasis on the intersection of the two. All software produced under the auspices of UCLALUG is distributed under an Open Source approved license.

The UCLALUG facilitates certain activities that benefit the UCLA and/or Linux community. These events include

• Holding an Installfest each academic quarter.
  
  These installfests average between 35 to 45 installs. They directly benefit students and faculty involved with the CS35L (Linux Software Lab) and CS111 (Operating Systems) series of classes. They also provide the UCLALUG with our greatest in-person exposure to the community and give the organization an excellent opportunity to recruit new members.


• Offering classes to the community on a wide range of topics that benefit many groups.
  
  Some of the topics presented include:
  • UNIX Basics (as discussed in CS 111)
  • Mail Filtering with MUTT/Procmail
  • Java (as discussed in CS 131, CS 118, PIC 20A, PIC 20B)
  • OpenGL (as discussed in CS 174)
  • Security in Linux
  • CD Burning
  • GTK+/GNOME programming
  • Python programming
  These sessions are typically instructed by UCLALUG members.
• Hosting technical talks from several individuals including
  • Joseph Arruda (VA Linux Systems)
  • Manish Singh (Lead Developer on the GNU Image Manipulation Program)
  • Several of the developers from Loki Games.


• Participating in local Linux community events.
  
  Such events include talks on Open Source software by anthropologist Eric Raymond (a popular Open Source Advocate), a 'LUGFest' event in the Simi Valley (hosted by Nortel Networks), and an upcoming event hosted by Linux Mandrake.

In addition to events, the UCLALUG provides several resources to UCLA students. These resources include

• The operation of several mailing lists, the most popular of which is used as a community support forum.


• The operation of several servers with the explicit goals of providing shell access to students and unlimited web and e-mail space. The maintenance of these machines has given the students who run them valuable System Administration experience. Student Administrators regularly deal with real issues such as network security, account administration, network policy, and hardware maintenance/troubleshooting.


• The operation of several software development machines, and development resources (such as whiteboards, programming/design books, etc). Several free software projects have been developed by UCLALUG members, ranging from CPU Emulation software (Phaethon's Hack For CUSP;), interactive 3-D games (Hover Carnage, Weapons Factory Arena), Printing Software (GNU Lpr), and a multitude of small utilities, shell and perl scripts.


• A lab and accompanying computing resources that students use for
  • Hands-on learning of UNIX systems, including system administration of such services as FTP, SMTP, HTTP, DNS, NFS, SSH, POP3, Relational Databases (MySQL), DHCP, CVS, basic account management, and security auditing.
  
  
  • Study sessions, including tutoring sessions, study group sessions, and most importantly, overflow space for when other HSSEAS computer labs are full (students in CS130, CS174, and CS152A/B have especially found the extra resources useful)

UCLALUG adds significant value to the UCLA community. The hands-on experiences, training, and practice that are availible to UCLALUG members--especially when coupled with the top-tier theoretical training in Computer Science available from HSSEAS--provide an academic setting which is unmatched in most university environments.