The aim of this guide is to help new members get involved with the club. The UCC can be intimidating to new members -- lots of strange looking computers (not all IBM PC derived!) and unusual operating systems (not just Windows!) But stick around and you'll get skills and knowledge that are both useful and fun.
Over the last couple of years a free operating system called Linux has gained quite a lot of attention. The UCC runs Linux, but that is by no means the only operating system you'll be able to work with as a member. There are boxes running quite a few of the non-free Unix operating systems (Solaris, Digital Unix) as well as Mac OS and BeOS.
If you haven't used Unix or similar systems before, then this document should give you a hand. If all you want from the club is to be able to check your email, hopefully that will be made clear. And if you already have experience with Unix (and other operating systems that aren't Windows) you may want to read this for the information about the UCC itself.