About Me

I am a Network Coordinator at Weber State University, where I work with Cisco network equipment. As part of my job, I work with many open source network management applications including:

• NeDi - Network Discovery

• NFsen - Netflow visualization

• PacketFence - Network Access Control (NAC) application

• pfSense - Advanced firewall appliance

• Cacti - Network performance monitoring

• GroundWorks OS (Nagios) - Network Availability Monitoring

• Ntop - Real-time Network Performance

• Flow-tools - Netflow collector

• Snort - Intrusion Detection System (IDS)

• Base - Web-based reporting of Snort alerts

My interest in Ubuntu

I have been with Ubuntu since the beginning (2004). At that time, I was thinking about running UserLinux as my Linux desktop. Lucky for me, I began hearing about a secret Debian-based distribution (http://no-name-yet.com) that was being created by the "Warty Warthogs".

After downloading and installing the Ubuntu 4.10 Preview Release, I fell in love with Ubuntu at first sight! I was infatuated with how Ubuntu took the best parts of Debian (huge apt repositories, commitment to open source software, great community) and improved on all the things that Debian lacked (regular releases, simple install). It was a dream come true!

I truly believe that the world will be a better place when people of all backgrounds have access to high-quality free software. There is a principle that the more resources that are applied to open source software, the better it becomes for everyone (not just paying customers). That is why I promote the use and adoption of open source software every chance I get.

Open source software is not always better quality than proprietary software, but I do believe it is always ethically superior.

Contact

• Name: Tristan Rhodes

• Launchpad: TristanRhodes

• Blog: The Open Source Advocate - I often write about Ubuntu, so make sure you take a look!

• Email: tristan {at} witenko {dot} com
• Jabber: tristan.rhodes {at} gmail {dot} com

• My Public Key: 744BF6F9

• IRC:
  • Nick: tristanbob
  • Channel: #ubuntu-utah
  • Server: irc.freenode.net

Contributions to the Ubuntu Community

Regular activities

• Maintain a regular Bittorrent seed of the latest Ubuntu ISO images
• Download and test alpha releases (flights, knots, herds, etc) on a virtual machine
• Enjoy following all Ubuntu related news on a daily basis

  • Ubuntu Planet

  • Ubuntu Fridge

  • Ubuntu Weekly News

  • Launchpad specifications

  • Changes to the Ubuntu Wiki

UtahTeam Member

We help provide local support and education about Ubuntu for the state of Utah. For information about our team please see:

• UtahTeam wiki

• UtahTeam Launchpad Page

• Ubuntu-Utah.org Website

• I have been known to take pictures at these meetings

Friends and Family

• Mailed out Ubuntu disks with my Christmas cards (2004) - Thanks Canonical for ShipIt!

  • A friend used his Christmas CD to install Ubuntu after his Windows crashed due to viruses
• Installed Ubuntu 6.06 LTS on my brother's PC (now upgraded to 6.10)
  • His Windows installation was also unusable due to viruses
• Running Ubuntu Server on several network management servers at work
  • My co-workers have since become very interested in Ubuntu
• Installed Ubuntu 6.10 for my father
  • He doesn't want to have to upgrade to Vista, so he is learning Ubuntu
• Distributed hundreds of Ubuntu CDs to friends, family, co-workers, and college students

  • Keep them coming, Ubuntu!

Blogging about Ubuntu

• Participating in the open source community: Giving back

• Ubuntu reads your mind!

• Ubuntu (Canonical) as a business

• Ubuntu leader speaks on Oracle/Redhat and Novell/Microsoft

• Comparing a hypothetical donation of $25 million dollars

• Ubuntu to become even easier to use!

• Debian and Ubuntu: Mutual Symbiosis

• Why I support the use of non-free software in Linux

• Why do we believe in open source software?

• Fedora beats Ubuntu: Dual-monitor configuration

• Why can't we watch the news in Linux?

• The easy way to resize hard drive partitions

• Ubuntu beats Fedora: Long-term support

Wiki Contributions

• LoopList - A list of the best open-source applications that run on Windows (allows users to convert to Ubuntu)

• MountingNovellNetworkDrives - How to access your network drives on Novell servers

• NediHowTo - NeDi is an excellent open source network discovery application

• CactiHowTo - Cacti is an excellent open source network monitoring application

• MailScanner - MailScanner is a great tool for filtering SPAM, viruses, and phishing attacks found in email

• ClipArt - "Where can I get more clipart?" is the first thing my sister-in-law asked after I installed Ubuntu on her PC.

• OpenSSL - I created the section on "Redirecting HTTP traffic to HTTPS")

• CommandLine - I created the section on "Enabling Repositories with a (non-interactive) Script"

Presentations

• 2004 - December 4th - 10:00 AM - Presented Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog) to the Ogden Area Linux User Group (OALUG). Many members have since converted to Ubuntu.

• 2006 - November 11th - 6:00 PM - Presented on Ubuntu Online Resources for the Ubuntu-Utah Team.

• 2006 - November 18th - 10:00 AM - Presented on Gaming on Ubuntu to the Ogden Area Linux User Group (OALUG).

Future Plans

Packaging

I am interested in creating Ubuntu packages for the network management applications I use. While I do not yet have the knowledge on how to do this, I hope to learn under the guidance of mentors.

• Packages I want to create and get in Universe:

  • NeDi - Network Discovery Suite

  • NFsen - Netflow visualization tool

  • PacketFence - Network Access Control (NAC) application

As an intermediate step to creating packages, I have written install scripts to install these applications on Ubuntu:

• My install script for Nedi (Network Discovery Suite)

• My Nediva virtual appliance that runs Nedi on Ubuntu

Ubuntu Member

(Status : Submitting Application) I advocate open source software and Ubuntu Linux in the state of Utah. I would love to see open source more widely used in homes, schools, businesses and government offices.

This content used to be found here: Tristanbob

Testimonials

• Joey Stanford - Through my work with the ColoradoTeam, I am very acquainted with Tristan and his work. Not only has he contributed to his LoCo Team, and Ubuntu in general, but he's also contributed to the ColoradoTeam via IRC. +1 for membership.

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