Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend

Impressions are inevitably subjective and operating systems suffer from the same kind of subject impressions you or I do. If you're ugly or you don't seem to have the same "nifty stuff" that others have, you're perceived to be less capable even if you are really more sophisticated than the competition. Linux is the perfect example of that. It's a better operating system than Windows and on par with what's under the covers of Mac OS X but it hasn't been impressing anyone with how cool it looks any time recently.

That appears poised to change though. There were two different projects to give the Linux desktop a makeover but they have now merged to form Compiz Fusion. It is quite far along and should be showing up as a standard feature on Linux desktops (e.g. Ubuntu) in the near future. Here's a video over on YouTube demonstrating the capabilities of the software which includes multiple virtual desktops, better window switching, and lots and lots of eye candy:

Posted by John Munsch at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I recently downloaded Ubuntu 6.06 and tried it out on my laptop (an HP zt3000). It comes as a "Live CD" which means that you can insert it into a PC that only has Windows installed and when you reboot the machine it can load and run Ubuntu Linux directly off the CD to let you try it without installing anything. But you can also use the same CD to do an installation of the OS onto a machine as well.

I had thought that the laptop would be kind of a worst case scenario. I've heard of past versions of Linux having trouble with the unusual hardware that sometimes appears on laptops. I figured if it could handle that it could probably handle most standard hardware people are likely to see day-to-day. Graphics, audio, the touchpad, even the wireless networking hardware built into the laptop were all detected and worked perfectly. I typed in the WEP key for my network (using a simple to find dialog for setting up networking) so the laptop could get onto the network and it all worked perfectly and fast. It also had no problems browsing the file server I use (a Buffalo Teraserver) or any of the Windows machines on my network either.

You can install tons of software once you've installed the OS itself. Debian has always made that really easy (easier than software installation on Windows in fact) and Ubuntu is based on Debian. But the live CD has to include a set of software for people who just want to try it out and for those people Ubuntu includes some simple games, the latest version of Open Office, Firefox, a good email program, The Gimp (a photo manipulation application), and quite a bit more software to let you see quickly whether this is the ticket for you.

Update: Just since I tried this out last weekend it seems that a new version of Ubuntu has been released (6.10) with, they claim, many "exciting new features".

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Bill Gates can fiddle while the next version of Windows (Windows Hasta La Vista) is pushed back to the end of 2006. In the meantime Linux software will see many new releases.

For example, here's
A Prerelease Tour of GNOME 2.12. It gives a view of the next release of the GNOME interface which will be released in September. I'm sure it will be in various major Linux distributions like Fedora Core and Ubuntu shortly thereafter.

Posted by John Munsch at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After leaving Linux users for years with only Acrobat Reader 5.0 and finding that the open source substitutes were actually becoming more popular than it's old, broken, half-assed port, Adobe has decided to get with the program. Adobe now has a beta program you can sign up for to get an early copy of their Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0. This really needs to be a big improvement over 5.0 on Linux for them to succeed.

Windows Media Player is probably never going to see a port, but Quicktime, that needs to come next.

Posted by John Munsch at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like this new online Red Hat Magazine. The premiere issue starts off with an overview of what's new in Fedora Core 3 (FC3) and there are other articles about SELinux (an extensive security system that is embedded in FC3) and how Red Hat Packages fit in with software installation on a FC3 system. It's a house organ but that doesn't automatically make it bad. Check out the articles if FC3 is of interest for you.

It certainly is of interest to me. I used my newly made FC3 DVD to install to my Linux partition over the weekend. I'm looking forward to starting work on a new version of my Fedora Core Getting Started Guide as it has been the first or second most popular page on my website ever since I wrote it. A lot of people seem to think that my graphics heavy, simple instruction format for moving from Windows to a user friendly Linux system works well for them so the new version will definitely be more of the same. My goal is only to make it bigger, easier to navigate and offer much more help.

Posted by John Munsch at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm a big fan of GNOME rather than KDE for a Linux interface. This article discusses the changes and improvements in the next version: What's new in GNOME 2.8?

Now, interestingly enough, that's due about the same time as the next test release of Fedora Core 3. Which means that it will probably be included in the final version. I was really pretty disappointed with Fedora Core 2. I had a hard time getting a lot of things working that had worked well for me with FC1 and in fact I regretted updating after I did it. Now I'm hoping that with less new stuff in the next release that it will be more stable. It doesn't look like this GNOME release is a major overhaul, there's no major new kernel release in this version, maybe it'll be the release that has me once again loudly signing the the praises of how wonderful Linux can be.

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Others are seeing the same error as I did. Here's one on the mailing list for people testing new versions of Fedora Core: [FC2T3] Monitor resolution

Interestingly enough the author of this message also has a NVidia GeForce 5200 as a video card (though a different monitor than my old Nokia 447L). One person suggests a fix by making a change to a file. I'm not going to do it right now, I think I'll wait until the next release and see if it is already fixed without my having to do that. I do need to get it posted into the Fedora Core bug database either way.

Posted by John Munsch at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sadly, although I've been trying consistently since Thursday evening, I've been unable to get Fedora Core 2 to work properly on my system and surprisingly the problems seem to all be related to X (that's the portion of Linux that handles the screen display). I just recently installed a new card based on the GeForce 5200, as a replacement for the better GeForce 4 Ti 4200 which had its fan die.

Although Fedora Core 1 seems to happy install with the new card and come up in a 1024x768 configuration with that card and my ancient Nokia 447L monitor, FC 2 seems to get in a death spiral where it first asks me whether I want to start up 1024x768, then it makes me restart the machine. It then asks again what resolution I want but only offers up to 800x600, and then repeats one more time before coming up in 640x480. Frankly, even if FC 2 is working perfectly I don't want to run it if it's only going to run in 640x480.

This evening I'm going to do one last install using as default a configuration as possible and take lots of notes so I can post a bug. I'd really like to see this problem fixed so I can switch to the new version and update my getting started guide (the original focus of upgrading before the final FC 2 release).

Posted by John Munsch at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The new release of Fedora Core Linux is available. It's gone from three discs to four in the new release, which features the latest Linux kernel (2.6) and the interrim release of Gnome (2.5, which should be 2.6 by the time Fedora Core is released).

I'm downloading it now but I'm half afraid to install it, I've got my Fedora Core 1 so that almost everything works perfectly for me (there are a couple of .WMV files which won't play but that's about it). I know the new release needs beta testers though and I really really need to upgrade my getting started guide so it will be ready when the new release is ready so I guess I'll install it anyway.

Posted by John Munsch at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If, as I hope, Fedora Core 2 includes Gnome 2.6 in addition to the Linux kernel 2.6 then we get a lot of really nice improvements to the desktop environment. This look at the changes, Diving into GNOME 2.5 - A Preview of GNOME 2.6, is much better than anything else I've seen. It shows screenshots and both explains and catalogs many of the changes you can expect to see in the desktop environment most Fedora users use.

Posted by John Munsch at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While "preview" might be a better word than "review" this look at Fedora Core 2 is the first one I've seen: LXer: Review of Fedora Core 2 test 1

Here's yet another: Fedora Core 2-test1: A Good Start Down a Long Road

One of the things that Fedora Core 2 will get us that version 1 didn't is a move from the 2.4 Linux kernel to 2.6. 2.6 has both speed and memory improvements and that's cool. But what really has me jazzed is that the schedule for Gnome (the default interface that Fedora uses) shows that 2.6 of that will be released at the end of March so it might make it into the Fedora Core 2. The double improvement of a new kernel and Gnome improvements will make for a really nice OS upgrade.

Posted by John Munsch at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

FedoraNEWS.ORG is yet another excellent Fedora Core resource. It offers tips, news, and how-to information.

Posted by John Munsch at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Fedora Core Project has released a schedule for betas and release of the next version of Fedora Core. It starts in late January and runs through early April. Given how pleased I've been with Fedora Core 1 I'm obviously looking forward to it.

For those of you interested in installing Fedora Core Linux, I'd like to point to not only my own getting started guide but also The Unofficial #fedora FAQ. It is an excellent resource and I plan to add a link to it within the getting started guide soon.

Posted by John Munsch at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've got a start on the new version of my Fedora Core Getting Started document. Eventually I hope to have this be a more comprehensive thing which covers all the basic applications and how to do some simple stuff in detail as well as making the case why installing a modern Linux distribution like Fedora is actually the easiest thing to do for most people because it includes useful productivity software already setup and program installation of needed software is actually getting easier than under Windows.

In the new version there is also a link to my discourse on keyboard handling under Linux, Why Johnny Can't Hit Volume Up. I'm very much looking forward to some feedback on this document so I can know if there are in fact easier ways for end users to setup their keyboards than the one on which I've settled.

Posted by John Munsch at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've finished a rough first version of a getting started guide for using Fedora Core Linux as your main operating system. It goes through some tools you might not be familiar with, helps with installing some really wonderful software you may need, and talks about some configuration you might need to do.

My wife had some wonderful comments on making it better after she read an early draft (including pointing out that it was completely out of any sensible order) and anything good about this version can probably be traced to her. Anything bad about it should probably be dumped at my doorstep. If you've got anything to add to the document, any comments or anything else then please email me at the address at the top of every page on my website.

Posted by John Munsch at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I haven't made a big deal about it yet but after my hard drive problem I decided to remake the new hard drive in a new image. Yes, a full three years ahead of when I said I would switch from Windows to Linux (i.e. October 25th, 2006) I went ahead and installed Red Hat 9.0 on my home machine giving it the lion's share of the new drive and making it the one that boots by default. In fact, since I did it a few weeks ago, I've only had Windows running on that machine for a couple of hours.

So, while I can talk at length now about what should be but isn't installed on RH 9.0 to be useful to end users, I'd rather talk about something I think is kind of nifty. gDesklets is an attempt to bring something like the Mac OS X utility Konfabulator to the Gnome Desktop. Konfabulator has well over 300 different little gadgets which a Mac user can place on his or her desktop to display the currently playing album, give you a volume control knob, display news/weather, or let you play a game during spare moments. As is often the case with Mac stuff, they almost uniformly are attractive and I think having something similar for Gnome on Linux will be really cool.

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These are the first step-by-step instructions I've seen for putting together a MythTV box: PVR Hardware Database

Hopefully soon I'll find the time to pop this old WinTV Go board into a box and try this out so I can see what the state of the "open source Tivo" is. Tivo is definitely advancing very slowly especially as compared to this software (which had the ability to view photos and listen to music long before Tivo added them as features you have to pay to get).

Personally, I'm very much against the proliferation of Linux distributions out there, but MythTV seems like a perfect instance where a specialized distro is appropriate. Most installations of this are going to be dedicated boxes used only for watching TV, playing games, listening to music, etc. Why not just have a disc you can stick in to build a MythTV box automatically when it detects a complete set of hardware?

Posted by John Munsch at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In their self-proclaimed World's First Review of Red Hat 8.0-Psyche, OSNews.com has taken a good and interesting look at the revamped desktop that RedHat has taken so much heat for lately. It sounds really good and I'm looking forward to trying it out myself just to see what the installation and user experience is like.

Posted by John Munsch at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RedHat, supplier of one of the most popular Linux distributions has stirred up some controversy recently because they have been working to unify the appearance and some of the behavior of the two main Linux desktops; KDE and GNOME. In this article someone from RedHat explains why they are unifying the two desktops in appearance and other ways.

All I can say is bravo. This is long overdue. Take this mans words and carve them into stone because you can learn a lot from what he says here. But I'd go even further and say that his statements about not trying to brand the desktop like a race car with 100 endorsement logos should carry over to RedHat itself. RedHat isn't the star of the show here, Linux is. It is the operating system that is being run and just like Mac OS X or Windows, it is the underlying brand that needs to be promoted. However, I don't think Mr. Taylor's vision extends far enough to not realize that "branding" the desktop everywhere with RedHat's logos is no different from KDE or GNOME doing the same.

Posted by John Munsch at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you believe some pundits, Linux on the desktop is dead, or at least it shouldn't buy any long playing records. But I'll tell you a secret... Those are the same "smart" people who were telling you a year and a half ago that the Mozilla project was dead and that the browser wars were all over. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

That's not to say that Linux winning on the desktop is going to be easy. It won't be. It's going to be the same struggle that winning over server rooms has been and that's far from over yet. But here's another secret. It's as inevitable and inexorable as the march of time. Microsoft faces an army of people who want to produce something better and cooler than what they can do and they don't exactly have a history of being "innovative".

Here are three recent articles on improving Linux or improving specific aspects of it. You may find them interesting:

• Top 10 Things Wrong With Linux, Today
• Bringing KDE Closer to Joe User's Desktop
• Linux: Twelve Steps to Desktop Dominance

Posted by John Munsch at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)