I picked up an Acer netbook a couple weeks back. Out of the box it came with windows 7 installed. I personally don’t want anything to do with windows, but I still made sure to set up a clone of the hard drive as it came from factory just in case using clonezilla so I could return it to factory spec if I have to. As a piece of hardware I find it to be a solid system to work with. though I know some don’t see the utility of an ultra-portable that doesn’t have an optical drive. I personally don’t see anything like this as anything other then a work system that you take. After all, if you don’t constantly need an optical drive, then why should you carry the bulk for it?
I installed Gentoo linux onto this system, and after a day of compiling the base system I got into a command line and proceeded to get the system operational with the KDE 4.4.3 Desktop Enviroment. I need to go back at some point and try to actually slim down what’s actually on here software wise. I do like the 4.4 netbook setting in the desktop appearence settings for KDE.
I got the chance to install and toy around with KDE 4.4.0 and some of the new program additions. Right now everything seems to function rather well, no real changes in performance from 4.3.0. It’s the new way of selecting plasma apps for the desktop, desktop activities, and desktop layouts that take the cake this time around.
In previous 4.x releases you got a scroll menu of applets for your desktop and panels when you wanted to add widgets. Now you get a filmstrip at the bottom of the screen that you can select your widgets from. it makes looking for things a little easier.
Desktop acivitys are also a good thing. This plays into the netbook desktop layout which allows you to organize your self and your display as well as you can. It also starts out as a netbook layout setup to make your life easier if you have a netook your installing on. I suggest you give it a try and see what you think.
I’ve been thinking of all the possibility of using the miccroblogging services like Twitter. Frankly right now I don’t do a LOT of tweating, and i don’t have much I would WANT to tweat about at times. It seems to me at least that the idea is just short snippets of things that don’t really matter surrounding a lot of other things. Not idea if it’s really worth the time to do any of it. It might be good to have twitter when say you at an event and your reporting back to the audience in short spurts to let them know how things are. Personally I prefer the ability to have my entire article here and then edit it. I’m not 100% sure it’s a good thing FOR ME. I’ll work on it some, but who knows.
I have a few new articles that will be going up soon as I write them. A few things to consider and the like.
Started playing around with KOffice 2 today. Honestly I don’t really mind it. A lot of the features that I had issues with from before have been fixed. The program is bringing up OpenOffice.org generated odt files up properly now without an extra blank page at the beginning. The program did crash when I hit undo, which is a bug I hope will be fixed.
As a program I do like how it looks. It still needs to be able to export to HTML properly for me to be really happy, considering I need HTML for Darkscribes.
Code,
Linux |
Posted by LD
October 29th, 2008
Was discussing QTScript calls planned for and already in Amarok 2 in the freenode channel tonight. Seems a good portion of the functionality I’d need for my media device script would need to be added into Amarok as it stands. Which means I’m back to C++ for the entire process, and to build what needs to be included into Amarok 2. Little bit more work than I was thinking when I first thought to try this.
Read the rest of this entry »
Linux |
Posted by LD
October 28th, 2008
Seems that Mark Shuttleworth is stirring the pot again. According to this blog from Computer World Shuttleworth has declared that the idea you make money from the Linux Desktop is in error. The shrink wrapping of free programs and sending them is not the way to make money, but the way to get people on. You make your money, according to him, by the value added services you provide. Things like support and other resources. But the desktop itself not at all.
He’s also quoted as saying Microsoft has made the leap with their offerings in the Cloud Computing area.
I figured I’d share this with you all.
Linux |
Posted by LD
October 26th, 2008
With the newer updates to KDE and Amarok the dev teams have set the entire thing up to make some things easier. Plasma scripts and apps are developed in any scripting language one can ask for. You can even write your apps in C++ and make due rather well. I’m trying to decide if I want to try to learn C++ and go from there. I’m not entirely certain.
One thing I want is a script in Amarok that would transcode and prep videos for transfer to iPod and other media devices. However I’m still trying to get my mind around it all. Little help would be nice.
The biggest issue I see is the fact that it’s all javascript. I’m not certain how easy Java script is supposed to be as I’ve not been one to code often. I’m trying to figure it out, but it’s not easy.
Any suggestions or options please drop me a line and let me know.
Linux |
Posted by LD
October 16th, 2008
Started using Amarok 2 recently. go to say, that while there are some major improvments it does need some major work before the final release comes out. A lot of the things I was disliking in beta 1 have been fixed. Amarok 2 does pull in your old playlists now and the Album Art manager doesn’t seem to be constantly downloading the best guess from the web. These are important to me as I have image files in every album folder with said art.
The thing that I noticed right now is the lack of ability to transfer playlists to media devices. I couldn’t take advantage of this either way until the transcoding plugin is fixed or added due to all my music being in flac. iPod doesn’t use flac so it has to be transcoded down into mp3.
Aside from crashes wich are expected from Beta software it seems like it’s on the right path to improve and already wonderful media program. Grated, it’s not as clean or crisp as the 1.4.x series but that’s been developed for a long time and 2 is a complete rebuild into the KDE4 realm.
Hello,
Today KDE 4 was released, version 4.0.2 to be exact. it’s a lovely piece of programing from what I’ve been able to see so far and hope i will continue to be so. Many of the various apps that make KDE the major DE it is are still being developed to include a stand alone web browser based not on khTml but on WebKit, and other major revamps of programs. However the major shifting of all the newer stuff is still worth the updating even to the developmental branch of KDE 4. If you want to wait, then 4.1 will be the KDE you want.
Due to the two months of being unemployed I’ve been less then interested in my writing. I’m hoping that now that I’m employed again I’ll be able to get more into things like that again. I want to continue on with Imperium and try to get more stuff working on that. eventually I’ll have a nice full on novel with a PDF download and maybe self publish the damned thing. Anyone interested in assisting me fiscally on that to take some worries off my brow and allow me to focus on my wiritng is more then welcome.
I have found a new job finnaly, I’m working in a security company. It’s not Dell computer stuff, but it’s something I’m used to, working with appropriate authorities to make things safer for people even if it’s through people who are subs and not everyone. Wish I had some more money and made a bit more, but for now this is good enough.
Shift work for the win folks.
Is Linux Right for You?
Is Linux Right for you?
Why that answer is usually going to be yes.
By: LD
Why should I switch to Linux?
This is a question I hear a lot of the time from people who run Windows are are quite happy with it. And for a lot of people, Windows in all it’s incarnations is usually good enough. But do you really want good enough? Do you really want to keep paying $300 every time you upgrade your computer, or the classic Microsoft toll for any system you buy with Windows installed?
If you have an older computer that works okay but can’t handle anything more then Windows 95, Linux can improve the speed and use of that system. If all you are doing is email and web browsing, you really don’t need the major features of Windows. Even music is doable easily in Linux.
What are the benefits?
The benefits of running a Linux system are numerous. For instance, you don’t have to worry about your resources being eaten alive by all sorts of under the hood Windows applications. Not to mention the more efficient and customizable usage of your hard drive.
Also, you have the whole of the free open source software available on the Internet. If there is a Windows program you like, there is a Linux program that will do the job.
You want to play games that are Windows only? Simply install WineX on your linux system. It is specifically tailored to run games from Windows. So you can enjoy fragging your friends and enemies no sweat.
Not all open source software is free though. Some of it you do have to pay for. It’s not all free beer, but it is free speech in that you will be able to look at the source code if you are o inclined to do so. Every version of the Linux kernel is available for download if you want to look at it. This is especially helpful for developers who need that info so they can create applications to run on Linux.
What about my stuff?
Well, if you’ve been a good computer user you have backups. If not, don’t worry. Linux is able to read data from any Fat16, Fat32, and in some cases NTFS partition so you can grab all your stuff without a problem.
Still, there are things you have to give up if you run Linux. Many of your external toys may not work anymore. But not to worry, most of them may have a Linux work around done by someone else who had the same problem. You can always google search and find a site that will help you with this problem.
There are tons of reasons why Linux may be your best choice. But here’s the big one itself. If you don’t want to pay for a distribution, you don’t really have to. Most every Linux Distro is available on the Internet. Just be sure you have a high speed net connection or know someone who does. 600MB is a lot to download.
If you want to try Linux, but don’t want to go all the way just yet, download a distro called Knoppix. This distro boots and loads everything you need for a working Linux system from the CD, without you ever having to touch the hard drive or fiddle with partitions.
In my next article, I’ll go over the various Linux distros and point out the ones that are best for newbies or those wanting to try Linux as their primary OS.
Later.
Tags: Commentary, FOSS, Linux
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