stuck in Ubuntu but look over there!

I've said before, once you settle on one distro, that's all you need. The big big problem is that there is always something new in another distro. For instance, I was looking at Mandrvia's latest, Mandrvia One 2009, it is spanking cool. With the Gnome desktop, you can't tell it from other distros (because Linux is Linux is Linux), but there are features that set Mandrvia apart. Mandrvia has Metisse which turns virtual desktops on its side. I had it installed for a short time over Fedora which is also cool. But, I've been so spoiled by the Debian base that Ubuntu rings true for me. So, following that light I installed Kubuntu 8.10 along side of Ubuntu 8.04. Now Ubuntu 8.04 is facing hot competition from Kubuntu 8.10. The KDE desktop version 4.1 has changed, even impressing me. It's a little Mac-ish in some ways but not totaling mimicing. It's a little more comfortable to play with than ver.3.8. Setting up Kubuntu 8.10 was easy and didn't take all day. But to warn you newbie folk, there is no manual, so check the web sites for install instructions and forums for advice.
*ubuntu 8.10 is called "Intrepid Ibex", has some fixes and some new tweaks. The next interation will be "Jaunty Jackalope", a mythical creature with the reputation and personna of Bigfoot. Google jackalope, you'll see what I mean.

Linuxville continues to be an interesting computing place off the beaten path. I hope many folks come visit, explore aand stay.

mean while, back at the ranch.....

Curious thing, I installed Kubuntu 8.04 with KDE 3.5.9 and enjoyed the liberty of a free range chicken, but since installing the KDE 4.0 desktop along side, I can't access my whole hard drive, only the booted partitions. Then the KDE 8.04 remixed version came with some nifty Plasma widgets, what I have now has very few. I went on the internet, www.kde-look.org, and folks are obsessed with meters and gauges, very scarce are ones that do things with user files. It would be nice if folks produced some really useful widgets instead of remakes of what others have done already. So, I think I have gone as far as I am going to go with Kubuntu 8.04 and put it on the back burner status. My warning to all is don't be a distro hopper like me, although the live-cd makes it easy, once you settle on a distro, updates usually keep up the newness. It is so tempting to jump on the new feature bandwagon and try out things before they are nailed down solid.

Taking a step back, I installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my main box. What got me was the time it took to update afterwards. Folks have really put out the bug fixes, tweaks and enhancements. It is so so so hard to say which I like best, KDE or Gnome desktop, it's the reason I used Xfce for a while. It was tough for some time because desktop effects were complicated add-ons. Now they are integrated into Gnome, you just have to activate them and woooo, wobbly windows!! Gnome is simpler in many ways and probably more approachable to new users, but I've learned that it's all in the way it's explained. I am willing to bet that people who switched from MS pc's to Macs because they were told Macs are better and easy would find Ubuntu with Gnome even easier and no slouch in quality. What's more it's free!!!!! I can't get over people wanting to stiff Bill and pay Steve. Anyway, I have Ubuntu 7.10 because our local computer user's group is having some Linux learning classes using it and I am going to pick up tips and tricks and share experiences. There has been a steady demise of Linux groups in northeast Ohio. The old guard, mostly server folk and coders are thinning out, the new users, mostly curious mouse manglers, don't seem to care about getting together. Need to consider new kinds of bait to attract new users, forums are cool to a point but, to have face to face with local enthusiast is a real community experience.

There is only one Linux!!!

When I say there is only one Linux you can imagine the groans and gasps of disagreement coming from every direction. In the software universe it is true there is only one Linux. This one Linux consist of volumes of source code that is compiled and configured to run on different platforms, then lumped together to form the various distributions. Don't blame me for the habit of naming every Linux formulation. But in a way it is like conquering a mountain and putting a flag on it. But you have to thank so many folk who have managed to do this feat, so you don't have to do it yourself. And it still doesn't take away your freedom and right to do this if you want to. The thing to realize is that a distro is the beginning, if you want to change it, you can.

I admit I am a distro hopper and I am trying to find the sweetspot in Linux. You all heard me say there is no one distribution that does it all or has it all. So I am looking for the broadest approach. So far the Debian distro's are winning in my book with special kudos to Ubuntu. Ubuntu's repositories seem to have the widest assortment of applications pre-compiled for easy installation. Besides having a full repository, you want not to have to install Flash and Java apps into Firefox or what ever browser you are using. This is becoming better even as we speak, Linux developers are no longer waiting for Adobe to do the job for Linux. It is a shame for proprietary standards to be in common use and controlled by the ignorance, arrogance and whim of the closed source owners. As long as this is the case there will never be open computing.

Back to my distro hopping, I have done things I swore I wouldn't do. But I see some things have changed, so I took the liberty. Even though I don't have an official "old machine", I have used Xfce desktop, quite snappy and somewhat good looks. I have to admit KDE though large in comparison to Xfce is still nimble enough for me not to complain about speed. And because I am so changeable, I like KDE's ability to change with me. I have tried KDE 3.5 and while still not liking the complexity, found a descent arrangement. Then as I reported that I after being a Xubuntu fanboy for a while switched to Mepis. I really like Mepis but Mepis doesn't have the easy install of applications that I was looking for. Again, the extensive repository of pre-compiled programs is a big draw. Why compile yourself when you can point and click?? So, I revisited the Ubuntu forest and installed Kubuntu 8.04 over my Xubuntu 7.10. I was so pleasantly surprised, the install went very well, no problems like in my previous encounter with 8.04 (Xubuntu and Ubuntu).
The first thing to notice is that the latest KDE has been cleaned of clutter and confusion, even given a little polish. This KDE version 4 is kind of likable. It has elements I have liked in other OS's and Linux desktops. They didn't try to include everything so you might have to add some stuff, but it is a solid base, change or no. KDE is like Macs in some ways and like MS in some ways but these are ways that users are accustomed to seeing and as always if you need to change it, you can. The difference between Mepis and Kubuntu, not much but the pre-compiled software repositories of Ubuntu gives it an edge. Ubuntu, being a more international distro does have the media codec issue to contend with, but additions are easy to get at.

So if you are exploring Linux or are a distro hopper like me, consider these things:
1) There is only one Linux over all, but distro's have been made to narrow down your choice.
2) A full repository of pre-compiled easy to install software is what you want.
3) Make your /home directory a separate partition. If you are a change fanatic like myself you won't have to do constant backups. You can use the same /home partition with any Linux install.
4) A little Linux goes a long way. Upgrade fever is replaced with continual improvement.

Things get very interesting in Linux country

I been looking at Puppy Linux. And have come to the conclusion that it is a great tool/toy. As a tool it can be a rescue disc to give you access to all your drives including MS Windows partitions. It has utilities and can be reconstructed, reformulated with the software you want and made into a designer liveCD. If you wanted just some portable office apps, you can do that also. And as a toy you can play with Linux to your hearts content to see what Linux is all about. I myself have loaded and unloaded the various window managers and am having fun trying out different Linux stuff. Some are even using Puppy Linux as their main distro. When I think about what I mainly use my computer for, I don't need a lot. Just internet access, my email, office and picture tools and I am happy. Puppy can do that with ease. It is like a sweet little foreign sports car. Small, snappy and it gets me there with a rush of excitement........... What about that big pimped out SUV of a Linux I also use? Kubuntu has its' limitations of course and its designers have tried to put into it all best choices to satisfy a large swath of users. Like I said before trying to make a flexible product fit a large and picky a group as users are is no small feat. With all its bigness, Kubuntu is very manageable. I can do all my computing with confidence and without pirating software I can't afford to buy. If you can get past the illusion of needing MS products, I highly recommend open source software. A lot of business types have little choice, but home users can actually have a different and cheaper choice. Some would compare MS stuff and Linux stuff only to complain about subjective things, looks, quality, polish, etc. But in reality they don't want to change from what they are used to. I have felt no discomfort in switching to Linux. It is growing and changing, getting better with each new version. I have been using Linux for a several years. It is sooooooo much easier to use Linux today than it was even a few years ago. Many people say they want Linux to be like the MS Windows they know and love, but what is the point in that? Besides, the Linux folk tried to do just that very thing and Microsoft jumped all over them with their legal army. The point is that there is more than the MS way to operate a computer. Programmers the world over have known this from the beginning, now you know it also. I know that I can not convince everyone and that being "free" does not change a lot of minds. But if you venture to try Linux out and have a good experience with Linux, you will be changed. Now, is Linux that different from MS Windows? From a users perspective, no. Windows, mouse clicks, it is all the same. You might not recognize the arrangement of some things but then you are not tied to the MS way of doing things either. So give Linux a try, if you are so inclined. I hope you have a good experience.

Another day another Linux

Linux is all about choice, so I thought. Actually it is more about variety of the same thing. There are at least 300+ Linux versions out there today. Do you have to choose out of that mess? Linuxes are distinguished by the type of packaging system they use. There are only three that I know of, .rpm (red hat package manager), .deb (Debian), and .tar.gz or .tgz (tape archive something or other). Linux seems to have started with these 3 file types and then branched out by language types and then special purpose Linuxes. So, there is Red Hat with .rpm, Debian with .deb and then Slackware with .tar.gz. There are versions that branched off these main ones and became popular distros in their own right. Remember I said before that Linux is a kit of sorts. A kernel plus utilities and applications that make up a distribution. So you can have a tiny Linux like Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux or a big Linux like Red Hat, Mandriva, Ubuntu. It all depends what you put with the kernel. Once again the live CD distros are the easiest to experiment with. You just pop in the CD and reboot your computer. Some live CDs will allow you to save your system settings and personal files on a MS Windows folder. Some are so small they will fit on a jump drive. I used to be into model cars as a kid. Putting together a car kit was the most fun. Imagine putting together a working Linux distribution. It is quite a hobby. Some people really like doing this kind of thing. The reason I chose Kubuntu Linux was because it is being maintained by a group rather than one or two persons. The bug fixing and updates are available faster and the fan base tends to be larger. It doesn't mean Linuxes maintained by one or two persons are low quality, but they are often tight on time and budget to get things done.
Do I have my picks? Yes, of course. Kubuntu is my present favorite and main distro. Right now I favor the Debian distros, I've had good luck with them and I am beginning to understand how Debian things work. I also like SimplyMepis. Also Debian based, it is very much like Kubuntu with KDE desktop but still has a different flavor. I am beginning to think that after you settle on a Linux version, you will discover a Linux is a Linux is a Linux. A kernel, a number of utilities, some tools, and some applications. It's all in how it is packaged together. If you were to include all of the various functions, languages and formats in one .iso file you would need a few DVDs to hold it all. You would never not ever use or need that much Linux to meet your particular computing needs. So, it is very good that some industrious persons have packaged together different combinations of Linux stuff to meet different requirements. And as is and has been the Linux culture, the various versions or "distros" of Linux are available for download on the internet. So, go ahead and ask the big question, what would programmers do if they did not work for a company (like Microsoft)? Linux is the answer, they would do Linux. Linux is the result of lots and lots of programmers who really wanted to see a free operating system work.

Here we go again, more Linux madness.

I'm between jobs so I got a little time on my hands. While I am waiting for the Fedora 7 DVD 64-bit to magically appear on my door step, I downloaded another distro. Mandriva 2007 Spring KDE 64-bit iso. and guess what? It all fits on one CD. I couldn't wait to load it, install it and though I didn't like the colors, it was very good. Until, after I did the first system software upgrade. I rebooted the computer and got a black screen with a working cursor on it. I couldn't input commands or anything. Being still by lack of geekness, a newbie, I really have no clue what went haywire. I am a bit disappointed because Mandriva like Fedora 7 is a bit cutting edge in terms of new stuff that will eventually show up in all Linuxes. Mandriva has virtual machine services installed, so I hear. I was going to check that out. Mandriva also has this desktop paging system called Metisse. It is 3d or pseudo 3d as some say, it blows away Vista's Aero. It supposedly doesn't even need the special video drivers for nvida and ati cards. Metisse is not in the Ununbu program repositories. No one has compiled it for .deb yet, as far as I know. It has all kinds of snazzy features for the desktop. I was going to check all this out when, my screen went dark. I don't know if I have the heart to dig deeper into this problem, I am not the first to have it by internet accounts. Meanwhile, in another partition of the same machine my Kubuntu is working just fine.

Living the Linux life in Arno's world

I have to say that I never thought of myself as being a fanboy of anything, but recently I downloaded a copy of PCLinuxOS. It is a live CD Linux distro and when I popped it in I immediately started comparing it to my experience with Ubuntu Linux. I was negative and skeptical and nit-picky. I could not believe I was having this reaction. Have I really been a Ubuntu fanboy all this time? Imagine what MS Windows users go through looking at Linux. This brings to mind a couple of thoughts on Linux. When looking at the Linux world, the MS Windows user sees the confusion of choices. How does one make a good Linux choice? I look at what other people are downloading (Distrowatch) and the many reviews on each of the top versions. Is the most popular version the best place to start? I think it is safe to assume that, at least until one is more knowledgeable. Then if it doesn't come as a live CD then it is a little more riskier to install. I'd stick with the live CD's.
I think more and more the live CD is popular because you can try it before you commit it to your hard drive. If Linux could do as AOL did, Linux disc would be all over the place (not going to happen).
So, having downloaded PCLinuxOS, what did I find? I find that it doesn't take a well moneyed backer to put together a well thought out Linux distribution. Well, being Debian based and using KDE desktop makes it very close to how Kubuntu looks and feels, BUT. PCLinuxOS seems faster, snappier. The config tools are a little better and compressing the software archive and putting it on the CD is a great idea. It has some Windows XP looks for you transition types and can be changed to look very different. PCLinuxOS has one flavor, not one for 32-bit and another for 64-bit CPU's. This means you don't have to get special 64-bit drivers and codecs or use "wrappers" to get 32-bit plugins to work in 64-bit programs. I'm not clear on the legal/illegal inclusion of propietary code in free software. All I know is PCLinuxOS worked on my hardware pretty good. The rest of the review will come from living with the day to day use and perhaps I will even put it on a spare hard drive on my main box. This Ubuntu fanboy has to say that I have seen something that appears a little nicer than Ubuntu (what am I saying!!). There are still some lingering questions concerning updates, security support and the like. These things are of interest especially if you are a business user, but I am a single user so I can let those questions slide for now. I could recommend PCLinuxOS with the same fervor as Kubuntu. They are very close but PCLinuxOS seems better, this I will explore further.

Taste and Choice on the desktop

With all the kinds of people out there it is very, very hard to satisfy all the different taste people have. We users are very choosy when it comes to the look and feel of our desktop or not. Some are just comfortable with what is offered and others must tweak and adjust until out desktop is just right. The problem has always been for software writers, just how much tweaking can you allow users to do before it becomes a headache to manage? You know, you don't want your upgrade package to wipe out the after market add-ons if you can help it. This I experienced when I tried to install the FlyakiteOSX desktop in MS Windows XP. The program produced a DLL relocation error because it was incompatible with some security patches. So in the quest to tweak the look and feel there are some pot holes to navigate around.

Well, what is hot and what is not? These days it seems that the Mac desktop is the one to emulate. The Mac desktop in my humble opinion is simply the most functional thing I've seen so far. The Mac desktop is clean and not littered with shortcut icons and desktop folders. Of course the clutter option is always present, but I myself like the clean look. Here are some screen shots of my desktops.
This shot is my Kubuntu Linux Desktop. I made the row of icons on the bottom smaller than the ones on the Mac screen so they don't get in the way. The icon dock program is called KoolDock and it works in the KDE desktop environment, nicely.
Now, this is a shot of my MS Windows XP desktop. It has a skin applied that has a decided Mac look. The icon dock on the bottom is called RKLauncher. Again I put all those many desktop shortcuts into a desktop folder so I can get at them when I need them. The launcher cleans up the desktop rather nice. The icons on the side still are double-click to use but the ones on the bottom are single click. MS should give you a choice to single click, my fingers don't always get double-click on the first try.

So, is Mac emulation flattery or envy? You have to decide for your self. Desktop arrangements are just tools to get at the files and programs on your machine. Look and feel is a very personal thing if you discover you can do something about it. The question you are all dying to ask is, what do I think of the new MS Vista look and feel? I think it is more of the same Microsoft you know and love. But fear not, there are already tweakers at work extending the look and feel of Vista into personal statements of otherworldliness. Why? Because they can. Do I have a favorite desktop? At this point, I still favor the Kubuntu Linux desktop mainly because of the crisp response to my mouse clicks. I like the way windows pop in and out, not fading in and out of existence in slow motion but, crisp and snappy. I like another feature Kubuntu has, the desktop background can be set to change every so often, your choice, so that you don't see the same constant view. Now if some enterprising tweaker can get movies to run as the background image, full screen, that would be interesting.

Are there more desktop ideas to be exploited in the future? Why yes. I have seen on the web several desktop arrangements in the works. Apple is improving on the icon docking system for sure making it even more functional. Linux has had desktop docking applications for a long time now in different window managers but a serious overhauling would be needed if that idea would be explored again and integrated into the popular Gnome and KDE desktops. It is all very much like cars, same function, different look and feel (and price).

MS vs Linux steps up a notch

Well, I got tired of bitching about how my Windows XP desktop was cluttered and unresponsive. So I put most of the desktop shortcut icons in a desktop folder, that way I could get at them when I needed them. They weren't being used regularly anyway. Then I installed something called RKLauncher (RKDock). This handy item places a few most accessed icons on the desktop for fast easy access. It looks just like the icon tool bar on the Mac. When you hover over the icon with your mouse, the icon magnifies.
I tried out a few other freebies but they were buggy because of all the security fixes to XP. The best one was called FlyakiteOSX. It looked very, very nice compared to what I could do to the standard XP desktop. It had a DLL relocation problem that I couldn't fix. I really liked the Mac look but would have settled just for the better functionality. All in all I like my XP desktop again. I think it is amazing that some inventive programmers have figured out how to change the look and feel of MS Windows by adding on some software.

My next major shakeup was what to do with the Linux desktop. I have been a Gnome desktop fan since I first installed Red Hat years ago. I didn't like KDE because it was complicated in its look and feel. The little dragon symbol I also thought was hoke. KDE users bragged about the ability to reconfigure the look and feel of the desktop. All I saw was menu after nested menu, especially in the control panel. Gnome was simple to set up, my grandmother could use it. I guess even Linus T. himself had something to say about the simplicity of Gnome. But he was questioning the attitude of its programmers. They were, according to him, underestimating the mental capacity of the users of their desktop. I thought simple was nice so I didn't have a problem. A funny thing happened to KDE, it was improved for the better. So I backed up my personal files and bookmarks, my address book. I installed Kubuntu (with KDE) over Ubuntu (with Gnome). I like what I see of KDE, the convoluted double nested menus are gone. It has a nicer look and feel. It is still tweakable. I am not head over heels satisfied yet, there are some differences to get used to. I want to say out loud that KDE is not like MS Windows and people who say that are smoking something. I thought Gnome was more like MS Windows but thats my opinion. So, I am tweaking my KDE desktop to get the best out of it. I miss the Synaptic Application Manager that was in Gnome, but the Apt-get interface works quite well. KDE seem to have a better variety of programs written for it that integrate well into it. I installed a little program called KoolDock. It again is like the Mac icon toolbar that sits at the bottom of the screen. It is very handy and works with KDE. Change is good and it all seems to get better.