[PLUG] [Event Report] Fedora Workshop, SITRC, Nashik, Maharashtra, India, February 2-3, 2013

[Shakthi Kannan]

Hi,

A Fedora workshop was organized at Sandip Institute of Technology and
Research Center (SITRC) [1], Nashik [2], Maharashtra, India between
February 2-3, 2013.

Day I

I began the day's proceedings with the "i-want-2-do-project.
tell-me-wat-2-do-fedora" [3] presentation in the seminar hall at
SITRC. The participants were introduced to mailing list, communication
and effective project guidelines when working with free/open source
software. This was followed by an introduction on window managers, and
demo of the Fedora desktop, GNOME, Fluxbox, and console environments.

After lunch, I gave an introduction on system architecture, and
installation concepts. Basics of compilation and cross-compilation
topics were discussed. An introduction on git was given using the
"di-git-ally managing love letters" [4] presentation. After a short
tea break, we moved to the labs for a hands-on session on GCC. This is
a presentation [5] based on the book by Brian Gough, "An introduction
to GCC" [6]. Practical lab exercises were given to teach students
compilation and linking methods using GCC. I also briefed them on the
use of Makefiles. C Language standards, platform-specific and
optimization options with GCC were illustrated.

Day II

Lab exercises from the GCC presentation were practised on the second
day, along with the creation and use of static and shared libraries.
The different warning options supported by GCC were elaborated. A
common list of error messages that newbies face were also discussed.
After the lab session, I introduced them to cloud computing and
OpenStack [7], giving them an overview of the various components,
interfaces, and specifications. I also gave them a demo of the
OpenStack Essex release running on Fedora 17 (x86_64) with the Horizon
web interface.

The college was affiliated to University of Pune, and had deployed
GNU/Linux labs for their coursework. Now they are autonomous, and want
to explore and expand their activities. They have a local user group
called SnashLUG [8]. The college is 15 km away from the city of
Nashik, which is around 200 km from Pune. The bus journey from Pune to
Nashik takes six hours, and you can book tickets online through
Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) [9]. There is
frequent bus service between Pune and Nashik.

Thanks to Rahul Mahale for working with me for the past three months
in planning and organizing this workshop. Thanks also to the
Management, and Faculty of SITRC for the wonderful hospitality, and
their support for the workshop.

Few photos taken during the workshop are available in my /gallery [10].

Regards,

SK

[1] Sandip Institute of Technology and Research Center (SITRC),
Nashik. http://sitrc.sandipfoundation.org/

[2] Nashik. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashik

[3] Contributing to Fedora.
http://shakthimaan.com/downloads.html#i-want-2-do-project-tell-me-wat-2-do

[4] Introduction to Git.
http://shakthimaan.com/downloads.html#di-git-ally-managing-love-letters

[5] GCC presentation. http://shakthimaan.com/downloads.html#introduction-to-gcc

[6] Brian Gough. An Introduction to GCC.
http://www.network-theory.co.uk/gcc/intro/

[7] OpenStack Lab Guide.
http://fedorapeople.org/~russellb/openstack-lab-rhsummit-2012/index.html

[8] SnashLUG. http://snashlug.wordpress.com/

[9] MSRTC. http://www.msrtc.gov.in/

[10] Photos. http://www.shakthimaan.com/Mambo/gallery/album86

-- 
Shakthi Kannan
http://www.shakthimaan.com