[kwlug-announce] Meeting Monday, 7pm: pfSense, Plan 9 (Feb 2023)

[Paul Nijjar]

Important: This week we had a somewhat involuntary platform upgrade to
our BigBlueButton instance. For now our meeting link will be the same
as usual: https://webconference.kwlug.org/room/kwlug . However, if
something goes wrong with the new server then these plans may change.
If they do, we will post updated meeting instructions on
https://kwlug.org/node/1305 . (And if anybody is interested and
available to stress-test the server before Monday, you can visit the
meeting link at 7pm today (Saturday), and we can see whether it is
working for more than two people at once.)

With that out of the way, the theme for this month's meeting is:
networking, or perhaps non-Linux free OSes. We have two fairly
interesting presentations lined up for this month. The mysterious Bob
B (who has given us some pretty fine presentations in the past,
including the pass password manager and OpenVAS) will discuss the
popular FreeBSD-based firewall distribution pfSense. pfSense includes
many powerful capabilities found in enterprise commercial firewalls,
but it is open source and packaged with a friendly web interface. Bob
will tell us some of the ways he uses pfSense and some of the things
it can do.

Our other presentation is by first-time presenter Nathan G. He will
tell us a few things about Plan 9, the infamous operating system
developed by Bell Labs in the 1980s (and relicenced as open source in
2021). Nathan will tell us about how and why the OS was developed,
what it has inspired, and some things about what it can do. Although
he will not dive deep into the technical details, he will show us some
of the things that make Plan 9 different from other operating systems
you know and love. Nathan describes Plan 9 as "distributed computing
done right," and in his presentation we may well get a sense of why.

In addition to the meeting on Monday, some KWLUG members are
continuing the new tradition of in-person dinner meetings. To avoid
loud trivia nights, the plan is to have dinner at McCabe's Irish Pub
and Grill on Wednesday Feb 15. (Don't worry: it's the day AFTER
Valentine's day.) To RSVP, please send an email to dinner at kwlug.org .
You can find more information at https://kwlug.org/node/1316 . 

That's it for me, I guess. You already know the address for Monday's
meeting: https://webconference.kwlug.org/room/kwlug . The room will
open at around 6:45pm or so, if all goes well. Please join us!

- Paul
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