"are we there yet?"

Have you ever seen that movie with the rapper "Icecube" called "Are we there yet!?!" It's got a Swedish handyman the likes of "Mr. Hanny" on "Green Acres". Being a Linuxville guide is like that. Just about everything in town, I can do, learn to do, or direct you to who can do, given enough notice. Hey, I've got the scars to prove it! Linuxville is a pretty diverse place, I live among the Ubuntu and am rather fond of XFCE as my desktop of choice (Xubuntu).

You want to know so much more than I can tell you, you want me to explain every reason and nuance and condense the whole of Linux into a few sound bytes...........impossible. Here is what I did. I read about Linux on various sites to get a handle (never quite clear!). Then I went to http://www.ubuntu.com and downloaded the appropriate .iso file, burned the CD. And just so I could have the official CD, I ordered the free CD too. AOL had free CD's also, if you remember, only when you ran them, you got stuff you didn't expect installed on your computer. Now with Linux (any flavor), you only get the software you asked for. Put the CD into your machine but instead of trying to run a file from MS Windows, restart or reboot your system, so that your computer boots from the CD instead of your hard drive with MS Windows on it. And then you will be asked to run it without installation or to install it. Linux will run off the CD, not install anything on your machine and when you shut it down will quit without a trace. While it is running, you can see what it comes with, how it works, what it looks like and if all your hardware responds. This answers all those questions you were going to pelt me with. Close your mouth before you ask, how they can offer this for free........ please. The catch, it's not a Mac, not MS, it's Linux!!

The live-CD of Ubuntu is wonderful, no time limit, no secret codes, no disabled features, what you see is what you get. The live-CD is the basic system, once you install it, you have access to change it, add to it, tweak it. And like I said, if you are not sure about installing, you now have a Linux live-CD you can play with anytime your curiosity gets stirred. If you want you could never install it yet use it and save files to your jump drive!! Now that's awesome!!

Aside from all the neat web sites you can google, there is one magazine you can download in .pdf format that is superb, Full Circle Magazine. The link is, http://www.fullcirclemagazine.org/ and of course, it is about Ubuntu. In the latest issue there is another interesting link for you social types, http://myubuntu.ning.com. This is on top of all the forums and news pages. If you got an inkling of the artist gene, check out http://www.linuxgraphicsusers.com. You will not be turned away. If you are a document maker Open Office is the name and for tips check out http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/.

I felt much separation anxiety until I visited http://www.webi.org/ and http://www.schoolforge.net/ and said these run on Linux or MS. Then after a bout of "what about" I visited http://www.linuxalt.com/ and http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_to_Windows_software, to realize there is a chance I may not even need MS at all. The clincher was when I could output documents in MS file formats if I had to and I could read them and convert them, all without a single MS boot-up. My one MS machine probably gets turned on once every other week, if that.

I am completely happy in Linuxville except for the GUI unrest between the KDE and Gnome crews. XFCE uses the same libraries, tools as Gnome yet has managed to avoid headlines. If lower resource use is a must, XFCE is the way to go, but there are desktops that are even leaner if you need them. XFCE provides a good mix of functionality and lightness. My realization goes like this, an older machine is fine but the cost of adding memory to them has not gone down. If you have 512 MB Linux will not give any hesitation on the desktop. Less memory might require you seek lightness. I just ordered another 512 MB for my newer machine. That will give me 1 gig (1024 MB) of memory and a better performing machine. I could install KDE or Gnome, which do work in 512 MB, but I won't, XFCE works just fine. Yeah, I'm there!!!

view from my front porch

Well, here is a shot from my front porch. I have Krita, which is a sweet graphics editor, the faithful calculator called gcalctool and XMMS media player all open on my Xfce desktop. The icon bar below disappears automatically so as to not be in the way and a right click anywhere on the desktop gives a application menu so I don't have to go to the bar at the top of the display to get at it. As far as I can tell, nothing is buried, I can get at everything easily. But you ask, why the fuss over the desktop GUI? The desktop GUI is the face of the operating system. It's what you see and use. Linux has different faces because differences are in the world. Some faces are a little more pleasant to look at, some have more expression, some do disguises really well and some are quite stoic. What I want is a combo of all these things, so I picked XFCE. Each desktop almost makes Linux a different operating system. Yes you can have at the same applications but because the basic libraries are different, different solutions are provided to do the same things. For instance, KDE has the Konqueror web browser which is also a file manager and other things. Gnome has its own and Xfce has its own too. And if you don't like them or you are familiar with another, you can install that one because it is all Linux, the supporting libraries will be loaded also. Forget the notion of the best, it is what is best to and for you. So, you can find within the Linux community folks who are kindred spirits as yourself and some very different. Another way to say it is that Linux is organic and not mechanical. Yeah, some people think that to homogenize or boil down everything to a least common denominator is progress. Sameness and efficiency of a single product makes for easy marketing and administration, but you have to fit yourself to it. Because Linux is designed from many points of view a custom fit is there for you. A car is sold on two things, the looks and its engineering. Linux has curb appeal and a fine engineering reputation. A front porch in Linuxville is not a bad place to be. I'm gonna "google up a soda an pizza" while enjoying the view.

Narrowing down the choice in Linux

You know I really wish there was a directory that listed all the available Linux software in one place and reviews so that it would be a little easier to explore what's out there. You could find it in Synaptic (the package installer) after you install it but not so much before you install Linux. Anyway I switched from Kubuntu Linux to Xubuntu Linux last week. Kubuntu has the KDE desktop which is a large complete desktop environment. I doesn't lack for much in the way of installed software and is configurable for a variety of looks. I liked it but thought that it perhaps was too much, too big, like MS Windows. The Gnome desktop environment which comes with Ubuntu is also complete and has a large footprint like KDE. It is a little less configurable than KDE. Xubuntu has the Xfce desktop. It, in comparison to KDE and Gnome is leaner and is less of a resource hog. It is faster, snappier and even less configurable than Gnome. It probably could stand some theme work, but it is OK. I like Xfce because it is a solid design whose elements don't get in the way (less integration). I was a little disappointed with Xubuntu because it was skimpy with the installed applications. They could have taken a page from the Wolvix playbook, small but adequate. I did take the liberty to add the applications I like. Xubuntu is like Ubuntu only it is like driving with a standard shift. It is lacking fully automatic CD mounting and unmounting for one. And another thing is that if you have to edit a file as root you can't just right click it and choose edit as root. You have to use the command line to evoke the editor in root mode. Once you get the work flow down I think it is pretty efficient. Xubuntu does give you a sense of stability. People in software circles talk of polish, look and feel, other subjective things. Xfce is OK for someone who is not overly critical with comparative looks and more into overall resource use. So, for the record, KDE and Gnome both have some amenities that make computing easier. In Xfce you learn to do things a little different, not much. One thing is for certain, Xfce is still growing and developing. It is very impressive that you can do so much with less.

Another thing I did was switch email clients. I am using Thunderbird. I have used Kmail/Kontact, Evolution and a couple of other email programs. Thunderbird does the same things and also lets you insert pictures into the body of the email. That is very handy because pictures as attachments are often not sent in a format that can be read by the reciever. Thunderbird has a number of plug-ins and add-ons to round it out. Pretty good stuff.

Here's some screenshots of my Puppy Linux desktop.
This is one of the default desktops, uses a window manager called Joe's Window Manager or JWM for short. Kind of Win95ish. You have icons plus the popup menus.

This is the default XFCE desktop, very sort of Mac like. Quite, clean, the popup menus are such that desktop icons are redundant.

This is where I am at today. XFCE desktop is very clean. I am looking into dressing it up with themes and such. I upgraded Puppy Linux from 2.17.1 to 3.00 which just came out yesterday. While not as flashy as some desktops, Xfce is easy to deal with and has a solid feel. Puppy is amazingly functional for its small size. Version 3.00 is supposed to be Slackware compatible. Slackware is the granddaddy of Linuxes. The really neat thing about Puppy is that you can use it as a universal rescue disk. You can have access to all your drives and media. Other Linuxes are a little restrictive on that aspect. While some distros go out of their way to be MS Windows like, or overly user friendly (we call it dummimg down), Puppy Linux has a good mix so that you are not robbed of learning something about Linux. It seems the computer industry will never shake the idea of dumb terminals hooked up to some really big computer. Some companies would like nothing better than to rent you a terminal and computer time. Like so many people today use subscription TV. Linux is about owning your equipment and the software you put on it while giving you access to the world. And with the Puppy Linux disc or jump drive, you can take it with you.