As we are in lockdown all of our meetings will be online until further notice. I hope you are all keeping safe and well and will be able to join us online. We shall still meet on the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m.
See email for tonight's meeting.
Peter
1. Apologies for Absence
2. Minutes of the last meeting
3. Matters arising
4. Chairman's Report
5. Treasurer's Report
6. Election of Officers and Committee
7. AOB.
This is the first time we have ever had to hold our AGM online but it should mean that more of the members are able to attend instead of just the faithful four! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For this meeting we used Jitsi (jitsi.org) which is an open source video sharing application that is secure and is being actively developed. It does allow recording but it was not available for this meeting. Looking at the Project area on jitsi.org shows all sorts of facilities.
Gareth took us through the changes introduced in the latest version of Ubuntu named Focal Fossa, A Fossa is a cat like mammal native to Madagascar.
(Ed. One can be seen at Africa Alive at Kessingland.)
Ubuntu 20.04 is being released on 23rd April 2020 and is an LTS version and will be supported until 2025. Gareth was using the Beta version released on April 2nd There are quite a few changes in this release with many updates too.This includes the Linux kernel 5.4 release. It gives faster boot times with the login password field centred. You don't need to reboot to login. Much of the feel has been refined with a new dark grey colour for desktop folders and there is now a dark mode setting and also a fractional scaling option. The default wallpaper now shows an outline of the Fossa.
The Amazon web launcher has now been completely removed from all install images and there is no Amazon app pre-installed any more.
The Ubuntu software store is shipped as a Snap app for this release but is still based on GNOME 3.36. Also known as Cinnamon which can now be used in any Linux distro. Wayland is still used on X although the desktop looks the same the underlying software is quite different from the original Ubuntu desktop. It looks very smart now.
In 18.04 there were Snap versions of Calculator, Characters and Logs tools but in 20.04 these are replaced by apt versions. There are major improvements to the GNOME shell performance with more fluid animations and better memory and CPU handling.
There are still some driver issues. Steve wanted to know whether you could get remote access as that used to be possible with X. As they are using the Chrome browser Gareth thought with Chromebook you could get remote access.
That were still various flavours of Ubuntu like Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate and Ubuntu Budgie.
You can write the Ubuntu image (4GB) to a memory stick or DVD using Etcher.
Thanks to another stirling effort by Gareth.
Following this part of the meeting we had a long discussion about Covid-19 and its effects on life.
As an aside I said I had difficulties with wired network connections and bemoaned the lack of wireless connectivity from the RiscPC and Paul mentioned a wireless bridge operating via the ethernet port. He later emailed me details of the Vonets High Performance WiFi Repeater/Bridge for device and I have since bought one via Amazon for £15.89 and after a few teething troubles have managed to get it working.
We'll soon need to plan the next year's meetings at a Committee Meeting so if anyone would like to introduce a topic we would be delighted to accommodate them.
| ICENI Future programme 2019/2020 | ||||
| 2020 | ||||
| May 20th | AGM + Cloud Computing | All | ||
| June 17th | Anti-Virus and Context Filters | All | ||
| July 15th | NAS Evening | All | ||
| August 19th | Summer Social Evening (if this is permitted | All | ||
| September 16th | Raspberry Pi and Home Automation | All | ||
| October 21st | Windows and Windows on ARM | All | ||
| November 18th | Slide and Video Evening | All | ||
| December 16th | Gadgets and Party Evening | All | ||
| 2021 | ||||
| January 20th | Winter Social Evening: Suggestions welcome. | All | ||
| February 17th | Family Tree software | All | ||
| March 17th | XML and Json | All | ||
| April 21st | A Retro Evening | All | ||
| May 19th | AGM - and extras | All |
MEETINGS WILL NOW BE HELD ONLINE BUT STILL ON THE THIRD WEDNESDAY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. FURTHER DETAILS TO FOLLOW.
Our meetings are held at the Bourne Vale Social Club, Halifax Road,
Ipswich IP2 8RE ,
for a map and other details please see the website. http://icenicomputerclub.org.uk
Membership fee currently £15, visitors free.
"ICENI does not have any Insurance cover for computers or other equipment so please be advised that you bring machines to the club at your own risk."
However many household insurance policies will include cover away from home often with no increase in premium. (Ed.)
Our website URL is
http://icenicomputerclub.org.uk
Email to: iceni@woolridge.org.uk
I am open to suggestions on what people would like to have included in the website. If anyone would like a copy of our old newsletters on CD this could be arranged.