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<title>First Canadian National Linux InstallFest LG #34</title>
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<H1><font color="maroon">First Canadian National Linux InstallFest</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:dstaff@echelon.ca">Dean Staff</a></H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<A HREF="./photos1.html">Photo Album</A>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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Saturday, September 26, 1998 was a big day for the Linux
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community in Canada--that day the First Canadian National
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Linux InstallFest was held.
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<p>
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The InstallFest was organized on a national level by CLUE
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(Canadian Linux Users' Exchange) to provide interested people with
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experienced help installing Linux on their
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computers. CLUE is an organization that supports the development of
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local Linux Users Groups, and co-ordinates events, corporate
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sponsorships and publicity at a national level. CLUE hopes that
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by enhancing association and communication amongst its
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developers, users, suppliers and the general public, it can
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increase the use and appreciation of Linux within Canada.
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<p>
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<h3>Highlights</h3>
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<p>
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A dozen different events were held across Canada, from
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Halifax to Victoria, all taking place on the same day by Linux
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User Groups.
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<p>
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The <i>Montreal</i> event, at its peak, had as many as 100 people
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in the room at once and by all accounts, had 200 to 250 people stop by.
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They did 40 installs, only 20 of which were from
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preregistrations. They even had the crew of the local TV show
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Branch stop by for an interview, due to air in November. Also
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worthy of mentioning, they had guru Jacques Gelinas, the author of the
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LinuxConf software, answering questions.
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<p>
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Two InstallFests were held in the <i>Toronto</i> area: one at
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Seneca College and the other at the University of Toronto
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Bookstore. The Seneca College event had a late start due to a
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power outage, but more than made up for it as the unofficial
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count of installs is about 100. They even rolled out their
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Beowulf class Linux cluster for the masses to look at and see how
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a few ``small'' Linux boxes can be turned into a Supercomputer.
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<p>
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The <i>Manitoba</i> UNIX Users Group, (MUUG) held their
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InstallFest at the University of Manitoba, as two-day event beginning on
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Friday. As this was their first InstallFest, they deliberately kept
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it small and aimed mostly at the faculty and students of the U of
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M. About 140 people attended, with more than half purchasing a Linux CD, as well as 19
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successful installs. Attendance was greater than expected, probably due to
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the national news coverage the event received.
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At least one person came in who said he had discovered the InstallFest by
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seeing a segment about it on CTV News-1, a National News network.
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<p>
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The MUUG web site made mention of one more interesting story from
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the event. One attendee brought in a system which became known as ``Franken-puter''! It was apparently two separate
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cases tossed together with all sorts of spare parts the owner was
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able to scrounge up, and connected with a piece of coax Ethernet cable.
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He spent as much time swapping parts and
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reconfiguring on the fly as he did installing Linux. He
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apparently showed up at the start of the event on Friday and
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didn't finish until mid-afternoon on Saturday. Even after all
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that, he still hung around afterwards to help others with their
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installs.
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<p>
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The <i>Ottawa</i> InstallFest was hosted by the Ottawa Carleton
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Linux Users Group (OCLUG). While almost all the other events were
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held in a more academic setting of local colleges and
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universities, OCLUG had their event sponsored by NovoClub, a
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local retail store. NovoClub is located in a shopping mall and
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managed to get an empty store front for OCLUG to use. They also
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arranged for display kiosks to be set-up in the mall by several
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companies. There were training companies, a local ISP and most
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notable, Corel Computer displaying their NetWinder, and of course,
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NovoClub was offering specials on their very large selection of
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Linux products. The whole event was more like a mini trade show
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than a typical InstallFest.
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<p>
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The unofficial count at the installation store front was that
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250 people came through the door. This count included those
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that came to have Linux installed on their machines, members of
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the press and ``just curious'' folk who
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stopped to ask questions, while wandering around in the mall.
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<p>
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OCLUG chose not to have people preregister, they decided to just
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let people come and register the day of the event. It was
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supposed to start at 10 AM and go to 5 PM. However, people were lined up at 9 AM when the mall opened, and they
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soon ended up with a backlog of machines waiting for Linux installation. By
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3 PM they were two hours behind and had to start turning people
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away. By the time it was over, they had installed Linux on 50
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to 60 machines and still had 10 they could not finish.
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<p>
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Not all events were as big as the ones listed above. The <i>New
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Brunswick</i> Linux Users Group had only ten people attend, with four
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successful installs. They were a bit upset at the low turn
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out. However, it was also Homecoming week at Mount Alison University
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in town, and a football game was in full swing at the same
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time as the InstallFest. They are in the process of designing a
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tutorial for their new users and anyone else who is interested.
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The <i>Fredericton</i> InstallFest was a little larger with thirty
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attendees and ten installations.
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<p>
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<h3>Overview</h3>
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<p>
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The general consensus is that as a public relations event, the
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InstallFest was an overwhelming success. It got a lot of people
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asking questions about Linux, some of whom took the plunge and
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installed Linux for the first time. However, it was not completely
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successful as a technical event. By no means is this a reflection on
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either those who organized the individual events or the
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volunteers who helped with the installations--they all did a
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stellar job--just no one was prepared for the magnitude of the
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response.
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<p>
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Most LUGs asked people to register prior to the event. This
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allowed them to get as many volunteers as they thought they would
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need. Some groups, like the Vancouver Linux Users Group were
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swamped with preregistration and had to halt registration
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prior to the event because they could not accommodate everyone.
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Even with preregistration, the day of the event was hectic.
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The report from Seneca College in Toronto was that their event
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lasted until 9 PM, and they were still unable to complete all the
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installs. Other events had similar reports, and despite the best
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laid plans, the response overwhelmed the number of installers.
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<p>
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Some installs were unsuccessful, either due to time constraints or hardware
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compatibility issues that were not easily overcome. That said, the ratio of
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unsuccessful to successful installs was minimal. In most cases, it
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was one or two to fifty. I've seen more failures on MS Windows
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installations than that.
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<p>
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<h3>Where Do We Go From Here?</h3>
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<p>
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One of the interesting side-effects of the OCLUG InstallFest was
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that preliminary discussions were started between Zenith Learning
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Technologies and Corel Computer to set up a corporate Linux
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training program. Also, Oliver Bendzsa of Corel Computer
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reportedly said that he was as busy at the InstallFest as he was
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at Canada Comdex, a 3-day trade show that drew some 50,000 people
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in Toronto.
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<p>
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Dave Neill, a founding member of OCLUG, said that while grassroots events like the InstallFest are a great way to promote
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Linux, it is now time to start approaching local computer
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resellers and show them there is a demand for systems with
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Linux pre-installed. I work for Inly Systems, the largest
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independent computer reseller in the Ottawa area, and while we
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are now expanding the variety of Linux products we carry, we
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still do not offer Linux pre-installed on our machines. However, with
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at least three technicians who have experience with Linux and/or
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UNIX installations, we could do this if people began
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asking for it. However, we are an exception; most resellers don't have
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technicians with Linux experience.
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<p>
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One of the issues that must be answered is how and where companies can
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have their technicians trained. This is where training companies like Zenith
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Learning Technologies come in. The fact that Zenith was at the
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OCLUG InstallFest shows that they realize the potential for Linux
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training. With such companies as Corel, Oracle, Intel and
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Netscape investing time and money in Linux, it won't be long
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before other training companies jump on the bandwagon.
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<p>
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<h3>Today Canada, Tomorrow the World!</h3>
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<p>
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Plans are already in the works for a Global Linux
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InstallFest next year. If you would like to know more or would
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like to get your LUG involved, please check out the CLUE web site
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at http://www.linux.ca/ and contact Matthew Rice. An event of this
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magnitude will need lots of help organizing, so don't be
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shy--watch out Bill, the Penguin is on the move!
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<p>
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For more information on the individual InstallFest events, please
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visit the CLUE web site for a list of links to all the
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participating user groups.
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Dean Staff <BR>
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Published in Issue 33 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, November 1998</H5></center>
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