Linux Evangelist: Spread the Word

Surviving Mac, Windows, Linux on daily basis

2010-10-15T07:42:00.000+04:00

I am a Linux, Mac & Windows user and I use them on daily basis. I use Linux for all my personal works, Windows at my Office and Mac on the move [since I bought it at high premium].

The below are the operating systems & hardware I use:

Main Desktop/Personal Server

Operating System: openSUSE 11.3 64-Bit GNU/Linux Distribution

Brief Hardware Specification: HP, Intel Core i7 with 16GiB RAM, 2.53Ghz

Secondary Desktop/Work Desktop

Operating System: Ubuntu 10.10 64-Bit GNU/Linux Distribution

Brief Hardware Specification: HP, Intel Core2Duo Quad 2.9Ghz with 8GiB RAM

Office Desktop

Operating System: Windows XP Professional/Windows 7 Business 32-Bit

Brief Hardware Specification: DELL Optiplex P4 with 3GiB RAM

Laptop

Operating System: Mac OS X Version 10.6.4

Brief Hardware Specification: MacBook Pro, 2.53 Intel Core2Duo, 4GiB RAM

It’s not a secret that all three platforms are drastically [except the point and click] different from each other. With the platform, we change the way we work, our thinking changes. We need to adapt to different way of doing things especially if you are a bit higher than a noob. But since we humans are not that friendly with constant changes, there has to be some similarity maintained to stay sane between the constant switches.

Maintaining similarity is not possible on certain aspects such as hardware specific, navigation, desktop UI, desktop administration. But those eventually gets out of our attention as we start using the system since the time we spend away from the primary applications becomes very restrictive unless you are a hacker. The place where you can maintain similarity in order to stay sane are the applications.

Even with the applications, there are certain applications such as Microsoft Visual Studio .NET which I use at work is hard to avoid since it’s entirely tied to Windows [now, don’t start the Mono topic, I swear I will kill you]. Likewise, you might miss the Terminal if you heavily rely on CLI [again, don’t start with Windows Powershell]. But apart from those specific piece of applications, most of the advanced & beginner level users can stay sane by using same or similar applications.

After working on both Windows & Linux for year and lately for about 6 months on Mac, the below are the applications I found useful to keep my switch between the platforms seamless.

Purpose	Linux	Mac	Windows
E-Mail	Thunderbird
Browsing	Firefox
Messaging	Pidgin	Adium	Pidgin
C++ Development	QT Creator, Eclipse	QT Creator
UML	Visual Paradigm
FTP	Filezilla
Image Editing	GIMP	GIMP/Seashore	GIMP
Remote Administration	TeamViewer, openSSH	TeamViewer
Music	Audacious	Songbird
Text Editor	Gedit	Gedit, Text Edit	Notepad
Bit Torrent	Transmission		None
Virtual Machine	Virtual Box
Video Player	VLC
Productivity	Open Office
Python	Eclipse with Python Kit
Video Editing	Handbrake		None
File Download	Wget		None
DVD/CD Burning	Brasero, K3B	Burn	None

As you can see, though some applications differ on platforms, generally they all are used in all three platforms. Also you’ll find most of the applications to be Open Source. The key here is to stick to the task rather than the Tool. When the focus shifts from the task to Tool, switching becomes problem.

Happy Platform independence!

TeamViewer for GNU/Linux Released

2010-04-27T16:45:00.000+04:00

Finally after a very long wait for a easy-to-use Remote Desktop application over the HTTP and cross-platform, GNU/Linux users can now have reasons to feel ecstatic.

One of the popular & commercially free [though closed] Remote Desktop application; TeamViewer that's available in both Mac & Windows has finally released for GNU/Linux desktops.

Currently it's available in .rpm [Fedora, Suse], .deb [Debian, Ubuntu] and a generic one. It's available for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.

Though it's termed as Beta which implies that there might be occasional issues, I don't think it's going to stop anyone from using it.

Long live TeamViewer.
Downloads are available at this location. Download, use and enjoy.

Uninstalling Qt Creator, Qt SDK in Ubuntu GNU/Linux.

2010-01-04T20:26:00.000+04:00

This applies only for the QT Creator & SDK installed through the .bin files. Haven't checked for other installation methods.

It's pretty easy, same as un-installing any other application installed through Binary files. The files are installed in /opt system folder. Fire up the terminal [ain't gonna be hard, just relax] and type the below.

cd /opt

Now you should be inside the /opt folder. Type ls to list the folders & files. You can see the folders of installed Qt Creator and SDK. Once you know the folders, now type the below command:

sudo ./<qt-path>/bin/uninstall

Note: You don't have to type the full path; sudo ./opt/<qt-path>/bin/uninstall if you are already in the /opt folder [not wrong if you did] .

Substitute the folder name for and type the full command. Now the wizard appears to continue with the process of un-installing the Qt product you've chosen to un-install. Follow the same process for other versions of Qt Creator & SDK.

Hope this guide was helpful.

KDE Components: Folder View

2008-07-21T22:33:00.000+04:00

Currently, the most talked about and criticized development project is the 4^th major version released by the KDE team – KDE4. It is an ambitious open-source project which focuses on providing a new and unique desktop experience combined with fun.

Though KDE4 omits features of its previous versions; it is much more powerful and has more potential than critics have expressed. After their challenging comments, I felt compelled to scrutinize some aspects of the same. On that note, as part of my blog; I've listed my findings on FolderView component.

· Inability to see long file names (since most songs, videos, C++/C/Python files in my hdd have long names).

· Easy navigation (through key board) to the desired files in the FolderView Widget when number of files goes beyond a single snapshot view.

· Inability to control the opacity of the Widget.

· Expand/Collapse feature to keep the Widget minimized on the Desktop to save space and view them when wanted.

· Having different types of view options (Detailed, List, Icon) would be nicer.

· A built in search to find the files within the Widget when the number of files goes way beyond the view.

· Option to adjust opacity on certain part of the container (I can make it look solid on the Title bar and transparent for the rest so that I don't have to strain my eyes to look the folder name on the title bar through the wallpaper).

Conclusion
Overall; I like the FolderView widget and the idea of Icon-less desktop through sets of plasmoids. Kudos to the KDE development team for the component - a must have widget in the default collection.

This project is evolving and the future looks promising. But as most visions go, this too will take its own course and its evolution will happen eventually. Now that the basic desktop is ready, the developers will be focusing on each part of the DE and iron out the issues in the forth coming releases. My suggestion is to keep patience and support the team for its astonishing and monumental effort.

Please watch the below event web cast to know the vision and the road map of KDE project from its lead developer.

KDE 4.0 Release Event Video - Aaron Seigo
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6642148224800885420

Fixing NTFS Mount Error in GNU/Linux

2008-07-07T19:44:00.000+04:00

One of the common problem you might encounter while using a external hard drive (or partition) formatted with NTFS (since you multi boot or you want to use the external device with windows and gnu/linux) is that - it fails to mount occasionally giving the below error.

$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0)
Failed to mount '/dev/disk/by-uuid/FE5C75355C74E9B3': Operation not supported
Mount is denied because NTFS is marked to be in use

The reason is because you might have probably unplugged the device directly from windows instead of going through 'Safely Remove Hardware' option and hence the NTFS log is not marked unused.

There is a tool to fix it.

sudo ntfsfix /dev/drive_name

If you receive "ntfsfix: command not found" error message, then probably the ntfs utilities are not installed in your distribution (I have figured out that the utility to manipulate nfts is installed in openSUSE by default, but not in Ubuntu 8.04). In that case, you'll need to issue the following before ntfsfix command.

sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs

Which will install the ntfs tools. Once you've installed it, you can issue ntfsfix command. If you are not sure about the drive name, please use the below command to find the drive name.

sudo fdisk -l

If you are using 80Gig external USB Storage, then you will find the below in your command output:

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3347a943

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 9729 78148161 7 HPFS/NTFS

which is of course your NTFS USB drive. now you can issue the command as below.

sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb1

Have a good day.

Online Repository [Ubuntu] in DVDs

2008-02-01T11:01:00.000+04:00

Whenever I think about installing Ubuntu (or any distribution for that matter) for friends who doesn't have high speed internet connection (yeah, there are people who exists these days without high band width internet connection), one thing always holds me back resulting on either picking up their system to my home for performing the complete installation or abandoning installing GNU/Linux in their systems.

It's about the additional repositories that I require in order to complete the installation (complete in the sense - Restricted drivers, restricted codecs, etc). I was hunting for repository download options for a long before I end up these articles:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=352460

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3060394&postcount=49

However, though having 2Mbps internet connection which is capable of downloading at the rate of 250KB/ps, I still end up with Server Time Out due to the size of repository (the main repository is close to 10GiB in size). While this annoyed me to greater extend, I came across the following tool which was said to give answer to my problem.

http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net/

While this utility works better than the repository download, the problem with this utility is that it's not meant to take the entire repository to the local hard drive. Until yesterday I was left with frustrations and then I came across the below FTP link to ubuntu repositories. It's an FTP with the entire repository downloaded, split and made as separate ISO dvds (5 in total). Though I am not sure about the availability of repository collection for other distributions (RedHat, Novell, openSUSE, etc), use the below link in order to start downloading the ISO DVds of Ubuntu online repository.

ftp://tuma.ui.edu/pub/ubuntu-repository/gutsy/

I will let you know about the reliability of these DVDs (correctness) in days since I am going to a friends' place and then possibly to another friends' office for Ubuntu installation for which I have planned to use the repository dvds.

Leave comment if something didn't work during installations. Though I haven't checked it yet, I believe that vlc is not there in that pack. You may have to download .deb files of vlc and related libdvdcss* files along with the repo backups. Let me know your experience with the DVDs. Also, you can contribute the collection by providing .deb files which are not in their list.

Note: I have learned that the FTP I have specified above is part of Ubuntu community project in Indonesia (I thought it's Thailand btw), thanks tempeman for letting me know about it.

Fixing no GUI display in Visual Paradigm 3.1 on GNU/Linux with Composite Enabled

2008-01-12T00:00:00.000+04:00

Visual Paradigm gives a blank screen (though the UI components works even the dialog is plain gray with no controls displayed) running in Gutsy (GNU/Linux in general) while Composite is turned on (Compiz-Fusion/XGL). It’s been discovered the reason for this is that the version of java jre shipped with VP-UML has this issue but if you replace it with the jre packaged with java 6 everything works fine.

Do the following to solve this issue.

Open the terminal and move to /opt/VP_Suite3.1
Issue sudo mv jre /opt/VP_Suite3.1/tmp

Once this is completed, issue the following command.

sudo cp –r /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre /opt/VP_Suite3.1

After taking a while it should be copied to the Visual Paradigm suite folder. Now close the terminal and fire the Visual Paradigm software, your Visual Paradigm should be running without any problem.

Note: The –r in cp command is to copy the folders’ contents recursively. If any of those paths didn’t work find out the path of them in your system and issue commands according to that.

Adios Amigos.

References
Click here for forum help regarding this issue

Open Source vs Proprietary: A Battle of different Kind

2007-12-30T12:02:00.000+04:00

As an open source (especially GNU/Linux) lover, I read lots of articles daily (Linux Today, FSDaily and Unix/Linux section in DIGG are my most favorites and I spent about 2 hours approximately on reading articles and blogs) about GNU/Linux, Open Source and battle for survival of the fittest that’s happening in the IT world.

I’ve come across thousands of articles about how marvelous the Open Source is and then many articles preaching Open Source and then some articles lashing out Proprietary Software and then some testimonials of a normal person on how moving to Open Source apps saved his life and his family and then corporate that has benefited by moving to Open Source.

Among the category of articles I’ve read as stated above, the most fascinating articles are the ones that talks about Open Source versus Proprietary battles and Patents. Going through thousands of articles on daily basis, being an analyst developer, something strike my mind. Among the wars that are happening in Software world that makes it to the headlines, there is another type of Open Source vs Proprietary war going on without anyone taking any notice of it. It’s the war of programming languages.

Officially there are 338 languages exists until today (check Wikipedia or look for the link to Wikipedia at the bottom of this article). Most of those languages exist in experimental basis within laboratory and many other are restricted to special purpose and some are on verge of becoming extinct while the rest are commercial where most developers across the globe try to be an expert.

My interest is to find the programming languages that lead the most wanted list and their license category which determines whether Open Source is going to be the leader or the Proprietary. Further googling, I found the following links which predicts the languages that are the most active and a must-have thing in the job seekers’ list.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2016415,00.asp

The below is the link to an article which lists the Top 10 programming languages of the future based on the votes from Red Canary website.

http://foundread.com/2007/09/07/top-10-programming-languages-of-the-future-you-voted/

The below link accepts votes (still open) on which are the languages which will rule the world by 2013.

http://www.redcanary.ca/view/top-10-programming

Now, going across those articles (and taking part in the survey from Red Canary), I found sort of interesting pattern that emerge which tells the silent or unseen war that is going on in the Software Development world.

If you see most of the languages listed for Survey, at least 6-7 of those languages are open source and the closed source languages are very minimal (and most belongs to Microsoft except C/C++/C++0x).

Though I have a special interest in C/C++ family (I don’t include C#, Java, etc as C/C++ family) and greater interest in C++0x – the language of the future (it’s personal), the survey result shows the anonymous king of programming languages which leads by miles: Python (Check out the survey result from http://www.redcanary.ca/view/top-10-programming after taking part in survey) which is Open Source.

I have personally created a list based on the survey results obtained from Red Canary and by altering the list given by http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2016415,00.asp , which has 10 Programming Languages of future and being (and will be) used vastly. I have excluded AJAX and JavaScript and included language D and Visual Basic .NET from the list provided by eweek based on the survey results from Red Canary.

Further, the whole list is divided into three categories: Open Source, Proprietary and Neutral (does not require any license). There are few more things I have to mention about the licenses before I continue which I have given as notes at the end of article, right above the References section. Please read those notes before proceeding further.

The below are my list of programming languages categorized according to the license requirements.

Open Source:
PHP - An open-source, interpretive, server-side, cross-platform, HTML scripting language, especially well-suited for Web development as it can be embedded into HTML pages.

Perl - Perl is an open-source, cross-platform, server-side interpretive programming language used extensively to process text through CGI programs.

Ruby and Ruby on Rails - Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented, open-source programming language; Ruby on Rails is an open-source Web application framework written in Ruby that closely follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture.

Java - An object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s.

Python - An interpreted, dynamically object-oriented, open-source programming language that utilizes automatic memory management.

D - The D programming language, also known simply as D, is an object-oriented, imperative, multiparadigm system programming language by Walter Bright of Digital Mars.

Proprietary:
C#.NET - A general-purpose, compiled, object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft as part of its .NET initiative, it evolved from C and C++.

Visual Basic .Net - An object-oriented language implemented on Microsoft's .Net framework.

Neutral:
C - A standardized, general-purpose programming language, it's one of the most pervasive languages and the basis for several others (such as C++).

C++ - is a general-purpose, statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, usually compiled language supporting procedural programming, data abstraction, object-oriented programming, and generic programming.

It’s clearly evident from the above list that the Open Source and Neutral Licensed programming languages are the ones which rules the Software Development at the moment and will rule the Software Development in the future. But saying so, I am eagerly waiting for C++0x which will start make tides in Software Development world in next 4 years time.

While I am sure that C++ will be the best programming language to exist even by 2025, I put all my money behind on Open Sourced programming languages to lead the race by 2025.

Though Microsoft and other proprietary language developers (Unfortunately I can’t be specific about anyone else except Microsoft here) will put a hard fight to promote their programming languages and win more developers in years to come, I believe those will be one last effort against Open Sourced programming languages before their ultimate defeat and nothing else.

On that note, the emerging developers who are exclusively tied with Microsoft technologies at the moment it’s time to have one or two Open Source programming languages in their Resumes.

Thank You.

Notes:

I have also included Java under Open Source category since most of the Java Technology is already available under GPL license.
Though language D is officially not an entirely Open Source, check the below link which states that most of the part are Open Sourced and the rest are being open sourced (http://www.digitalmars.com/d/faq.html#q5 )

References:
Alphabetical List of Programming Languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabetical_list_of_programming_languages

Comparision of Programming Languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_programming_languages

D (programming language)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D_%28programming_language%29
http://www.digitalmars.com/d/faq.html

C++0x
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B0x

Java (programming language)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(programming_language)
http://www.sun.com/2006-1113/feature/index.jsp

Top 10 programming languages of the future
http://www.redcanary.ca/view/top-10-programming

Top 10 programming languages of the future - you voted
http://foundread.com/2007/09/07/top-10-programming-languages-of-the-future-you-voted/

Dual Boot in DELL XPS M1330 with Windows Vista, Ubuntu and Dell MediaDirect 3.3

2007-10-20T18:26:00.000+04:00

If you are in the category trying ambitiously to setup your newly bought DELL XPS M1330 laptop for dual boot with GNU/Linux and ended up screwing up everything and finally Dell MediaDirect stopped working and don't know what to do, probably you've come to the right place, but you have to be ready for one fresh installation.

I bought my DELL XPS M1330 last Monday (15-October-2007) evening with the configuration – Intel Dual Core 2 2.2 GHz, 2GB RAM, 128MB nVidia GeForce Go 8400 GS, 13.3 Ultrasharp WXGA Display with TrueLife Monitory, 160G 5400RPM SATA HDD, Slot-Load DVD+/-RW Drive and some more bla bla components.

I need Vista for my office works which is on .NET Framework 3.5 (WPF, WCF) and GNU/Linux for my personal project in python and QT. Well, due to my carelessness, going ahead with Guided Partition (which behaved in a weird way, never had problem with that for past 2 years) the whole hard drive got allocated to Ubuntu. Not until I completed the installation and restarted, it occurred to me that I don't have Vista and MediaDirect anymore.

Banking on my years of experience with installing operating systems, I decided to re-install Vista and MediaDirect. My hatred towards the manuals made things worst by discarding the warning given in Dell MediaDirect CD. I installed Vista, blew up Ubuntu and MediaDirect, but got close to make it work right. The problem with MediaDirect is that, you cannot install direct from Vista Operating System or the CD itself during the boot. You have to first allocate the space (2G) for MediaDirect by booting with MediaDirect CD and then install the Operating System (Vista for example) and then complete the installation (MediaDirect installation) from the installed Operating System (Vista).

Another annoying thing is that, without setting up MediaDirect, hitting on the MediaDirect button next to power button will end up messing everything (the operating systems) and you'll have to once again re-install everything. But then, I decided to go for clean Install because its 3rd day since I bought this laptop and I am desperate to finish the installations and get to work.

Okay, stories aside, here is what you have to do to make things work. First boot GNU/Linux using Ubuntu Live CD (7.10), format the whole hard drive using GNOME Partition Editor (you can use any other software without booting with Ubuntu Live CD). The reason for me doing this is that during my trail and error basis installation, I messed up my HDD completely and was not detected in Vista Installation or MediaDirect, so I had to use Ubuntu Live CD (what a relief since I thought the HDD is repair).

Now that the partitions are erased and the entire hard drive is available for the installation, you are ready to go ahead with installation. Reboot the system replacing the drive with DELL MediaDirect 3.3. I have to give a note here. If you tried installing Windows XP prior to this, probably you might have disabled AHCI which is a wrong idea for MediaDirect 3.3 (as I have discovered during one of those frustrating moment where I came close to make it work).

Make sure that AHCI is enabled for SATA (to Enable/Disable, press F2 during reboot and enter the BIOS setup, go to On Board Devices section, choose SATA Operation and you will have two choices; Off and Enable) to avoid Blue Screen of Death while trying use MediaDirect by pressing the button and you'll never be able to boot into any of the Operating Systems after that.

Now, while rebooting, press F12 and select DVD-RW as boot device. Boot using MediaDirect, select option 2 when you are presented with 3 options: 1. Use entire hard drive (C:\), 2. Custom allocation and Q. Quit (the menu text varies, but this is what it says).

Enter 60 (calculated in GB) when you are asked to enter the amount of space to be allocated for your Operating System Installation (feel free to allocate the required space according to your need. Since I do most of my work in GNU/Linux and Vista is merely for Visual Studio 2008/SQL Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5, I allotted the minimal space - 60G for Vista). Once you are done, the partitioning starts with MediaDirect allotting extra 2G for MediaDirect operating system. Rest of the space is left unallocated.

When re-starting, remove the MediaDirect CD, replace with the Vista DVD and start Vista Installation in the allotted space for the Operating System (by MediaDirect; the 60G partition for example, the rest of the space apart from 2G for MediaDirect is left unallocated for Ubuntu). Once Vista installation is complete, remove the Operating System DVD, place the Drivers DVD and install the drivers.

Once drivers installation is complete, it's time to install DELL MediaDirect 3.3 (make sure the version is right for your laptop, it’s a blue color disk). Remove the driver DVD, place the MediaDirect disk and wait for the auto run (well, you can run the program directly too). Follow the instruction and complete the installation. Once the installation is complete, eject the disk and select 'MediaDirect' from the Start menu (All Programs) to complete the setup. Shutdown the laptop and now press the Dell MediaDirect button and you'll be able to launch MediaDirect without any problem. To make sure the Vista is intact, exit MediaDirect and login into Vista (reboot).

Now it's time to install Ubuntu. For the first time the guided installation didn't work for me (the first time it replaced the entire Vista). I had to choose manual partition instead. Manual partition is not as scary as it sounds if you know about partitioning and if you are familiar with GNU/Linux. If you are not sure, I suggest you Google some tutorial regarding GNU/Linux mount partitions before start manual partitioning. The good thing about Live CD is that, you can do those reading while installing the operating system.

Boot Ubuntu using the Live CD; and once Ubuntu is ready and running from the Live CD, double click the ‘Install’ on the Desktop. Follow the instructions and just in case, if you decide to go for manual partition for the same reason as mine (bad experience with guided partition), allocate 3G (or 4G) for swap and the rest of the free partition (which we let without allocating during our initial partitioning using MediaDirect) for root (/) with ext3 as filesystem (or your favorite).

Now complete Ubuntu installation following the instructions and at the end it will ask you to reboot removing the Live CD. You can be relaxed since we've completed the dual boot setup. Now it's all routine works (installing applications, video card drivers, etc...).

Don’t bother about whether you'll be able to launch MediaDirect after installing Ubuntu, MediaDirect appears to have no connection with whatever you do with MBR and it launches directly once you press the MediaDirect button on the laptop.

So, now we have completed the Dual Boot with MediaDirect working. Enjoy.

Note: I have read about installing Grub in special partition (taking special care of installing Grub in / alone) in order to make MediaDirect, Windows and Linux work. As for my experience goes (after 5 attempts to install MediaDirect, Windows and Linux), you don't have to do anything special about Grub. Just follow the order which I have mentioned above. It works.

openSUSE 10.3 Released - Download Links

2007-10-05T11:47:00.000+04:00

Finally the day has come. The final release for one of my favorite GNU/Linux distribution has come. openSUSE 10.3 was finally released yesterday October 4, 2007 as promised and are available at the following locations for download.

DVD ISO Image Location
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.3/iso/dvd/

Torrent Location
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.3/iso/torrent/

CD ISO Images Location
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.3/iso/cd/

I suggest download using Torrent. My initial attempt to download DVD ISO from the location mentioned failed (it finished the download within 2 seconds with file size 0 in all the 5 times I tried using various download managers), however it might be just for me or temporary.

Official Announcement:
http://news.opensuse.org/?p=400

openSUSE 10.3 Improvements: A Sneak Peak
http://news.opensuse.org/?p=341

Survey to Improve Yast
http://news.opensuse.org/?p=405

Submitting Bug Reports
http://en.opensuse.org/Submitting_Bug_Reports

Participation
http://en.opensuse.org/How_to_Participate

Enjoy... Spread the word of openSUSE 10.3's arrival (another one of my favorite distribution Ubuntu 7.10 arrives in another 2 weeks... can't wait to get my hand on the final release).

Desktop Linux - A Passionate Analysis - Part II [Usability]

2007-09-13T11:59:00.000+04:00

As you may recall, in the previous part (Part I) of this 13 part analytical series about GNU/Linux, I gave a little introduction about GNU/Linux in the Past and a general quick view of the transformation that GNU/Linux has made in Desktop area. And then, I came up with 12 points that makes a great Desktop. In this second part of my series, I will take up the first of those 12 points and discuss in detail about the definition of Usability along with the difference in Usability that GNU/Linux brings for an end user.

In case you want to have a look at the introduction, which is the first (previous) part of this series, please scroll down or click the below link.

Desktop Linux - A Passionate Analysis - Part I [Introduction]

Point 1: Usability

The definition that I found in the Web for Usability is: Quality of a system that makes it easy to learn, easy to use and encourages the user to regard the system as a positive help in getting the job done.

To make it more clear, the user should be able to explore and learn the features and use them without having to go through hundreds of manual pages. The design should be focused on home users who wants their work done without much fuss or worry about the operating system. It should provide necessary tools and utilities to carry on with daily tasks and basic administration.
As I understood, there are three things I consider that contributes to the Usability of a Desktop.

1. Easy to Learn
2. Design
3. Tools and Application Support

Easy to Learn.

There have been numerous articles published over the Internet about easiness of GNU/Linux that even Grannie can learn and use it within matter of hours. Does this mean that GNU/Linux is well ahead of other operating systems in being easy to learn & adapt? I believe that to a certain extent, GNU/Linux or more specifically GNOME way of categorizing things in GNU/Linux makes it easier to learn than KDE. But how do you define 'Ease to Learn'?

If a user (irrespective of whether he/she is old citizen, kid, less IT knowledgeable person) find it easy to navigate and complete the task in a system without much reliance on help manuals and tuition, we can safely say that it's easy to learn. While it is easy to judge Windows or OS X since they have single desktop manager, it not the case with GNU/Linux operating system since it differs from desktop to desktop and distribution to distribution since different distributions fork these desktop managers to their taste (For example, novell forks KDE and GNOME for their present KickStart applet). When i came into GNU/Linux world from Windows world, I did find it little weird about the menu arrangements (I got introduced to RedHat 9 during that time) and desktop style, but I did learn very fast without literally any help.

Though most of the today's modern desktops are easy to learn, the desktop itself should give safety measures against accidental mistakes for the operating system during the learning process like deleting a system file. In this regard, operating systems like GNU/Linux, Macintosh OS X and BSD variations are well ahead of their rival Microsoft Windows. Giving such an assurance makes the user feel safer from getting paranoid about not deleting any system files unnecessarily during their learning process. I have encountered one of my friends' relative, a skilled labor who happen to delete some program installation folder and suffered for a while before I fixed it for him. Under windows (even in Windows Vista though it's not as easy as the earlier versions), a user can delete most of the files at will which is not possible under the *nix family unless it's made to be deliberate.

Another factor which plays a reasonably important role in helping the beginner's learning process is the Naming of the applications. The first thing I felt so uncomfortable with GNU/Linux when I came from Windows world is the naming of the applications (though it has changed considerably a lot). For example, KDevelop, QT, gFtp, Kopte, K3B, GParted, QTParted, GIMP and so on. Though I am so used to these names at the moment, it did made me a little thoughtful at the beginning. Most of such names came into existence either because of the non-commercial developer who started developing his own free application and the names are meant to be funky and little commercial; or it's part of one particular desktop (For example, most of the utility applications that comes with KDE desktop manager starts with the letter K in capital alphabet - KDevelop, Kopte and so on). Though it may not be as bad as it sounds, a little careful naming that appeals to users of all the platforms and a little more clarity could do no harm.

Design

Design plays an important role in success of an Operating system (or more rightfully; Desktop Manager in terms of GNU/Linux world). The success of a desktop design is defined by the ease of navigation, simple customization options, defaults (configurations, applications and Look & Feel), possibility of advanced tweaking and then finally menus. The taste of design changes with different age groups & Gender of people and it's hard to say that a particular type of desktop design is the most successful than the others. Most of the proprietary operating systems comes with single desktop manager with static design (which are carried from their past versions with slight changes, mostly with visual presentations), simple customization and limited tweaking. The menu grouping are standard right from their first versions.

*nix desktop managers (GNOME, KDE, Xfce, E17) scores high on flexibility, customization and tweaking while grouping of menu items, easy navigation differs from desktop manager to desktop manager and distribution to distribution. Since most of the Desktop GUI design groundworks are done years back, the presentation is where the current desktop managers differs. It will take ages from the current types of GUI (menu bar, task bar, controls) to evolve into something revolutionary and complete opposite to what we have now. In the presentation point of view, unlike the other proprietary operating systems, *nix operating systems, each distributions uses the desktop managers in a customized way reflecting the philosophy of that particular distribution. Ubuntu's Gnome & KDE version focus on their philosophy of making things as simple as they appear while openSuSE's KDE & Gnome revolves around their concept of providing a hard-core development & personal desktop experience.

Ease of Navigation
Navigation in a desktop OS has to be straight-to-point since sometimes you might have to re-discover the same items more than once which is not a pleasant feeling. I can remember my struggle with openSUSE's KDE to navigate OBEX File transfer precisely (without the help of desktop search) while I often end up check under the wrong menu before backtracking to the correct menu location. Ubuntu (or GNOME, more precisely) had realized the importance of easy navigation and have made effort to make sense of the abundant availability of tools, with still much more improvements is required. While Windows has debateably mastered the art of easy navigation until the release of Vista, Mac did it in it's own style. While it's debatable who is leading in providing ease of navigation through their desktop managers, GNU/Linux has still a long way to go before relaxing under the shade. Vista has lost it's track and fact that it's not the product which made it popular, but the ease of navigation and low requirement of resources is what made it popular.

Simple Customization Options
Almost all desktop managers provides simple customization options (at least they appear to be giving) in their own way. But no one has dared to give the amount of customization that GNU/Linux has given to it's followers (starting from the kernel up to the Desktops and Applications). While it can be said that too much customization & tweaking choices to a customer can lead into utter chaos, it has worked the other way around in case of GNU/Linux. The users of GNU/Linux often gets baffled by the Simple Customization Options that let's them to customize to their taste in simple way through configuration dialogs. For example, if I choose to have Windows XP Style start menu under Ubuntu, I just have to delete the existing panels, add a new panel on the bottom of the screen and add the kickstart item to the panel. To make it look more like a certain operating system, I can use images instead of colors or themes for my panels to give a emboss feel. While customization is possible to an extend under Windows or Mac OS X, they however do not provide these abundance of simple customization options that my GNU/Linux box offers.

Defaults
Not all the users are likely to spent time tweaking their desktop manager to get the look & feel they want and install applications that he/she require to start using the system. Tweaking is a gradual process for the new user and core process for pro user. Keeping all these points in mind, the operating system should provide default configurations, applications for the user to start using the operating system, once installed. Though most of the operating systems comes with it's own bundle of default applications (windows comes with abundant of Shareware, Trails and Tribulations for it's part), not all operating systems has the right mix these default applications and configurations.

For example, under Microsoft family of operating systems you should explicitly install a office application in order to have a word processor while most of the GNU/Linux operating systems or free operating systems comes with OpenOffice.org as default. Apart from OpenOffice, GNU/Linux flavors comes with default choices of GIMP, DVD Authoring, Sound Editing, Evolution, Firefox, Gaim, gFtp and more applications so that the user can start working right away. OS X has some useful applications as default choice as well. Apart from the default applications, most of the operating systems comes with good default configurations, look & feel without the need of tweaking.

Advanced Tweaking

As I wrote under my previous point, not all the users like tweaking to explore more hidden or complex possibilities on their Desktop Manager and Operating System. But there exist certain group of users who love to tweak their Desktop Manager and Operating System and get more mileage out of it. Not all love the default services that are launched during the system start-ups nor the default look-an-feel of an operating system but there exists certain amount of people who love to take control of their Operating Systems. While Windows and OS X gives extremely limited tweaking options to make system faster or change the UI to a certain extend, GNU/Linux distributions leads by miles.

The beauty and core of GNU/Linux operating systems is the freedom that it gives to the advanced users to control almost anything in the kernel or the Desktop Managers. If a user finds that there are too many services being run that slows down the run-time of the operating system, he can stop those service being run (Windows and OS X does provide this feature but very limited) or the user feels initializing certain features/services during boot is not necessary, he can tweak the boot-up and change the sequence of the service to load either on demand or after the Desktop Manager gets loaded (this option is unique to GNU/Linux and open systems).

However, this does not stop with the core of the Operating System, but this trend continues with the Desktop Manager as well. If the user does not like one particular file explorer, he can use his own customized file explorer. If he does not like the default behavior of X-Windows system, he can edit the configuration files directly and get what he wants. Likewise if a particular device does not work, he can make it work with good knowledge of devices and expertise. The user can even choose the choice of shell to interact with the various part of operating systems and in fact, he/she can choose to use more than one type of shell within a single Operating System and Session. Such choices are unique to GNU/Linux and open operating systems.

Menus

Though it might not appear as an important factor in evaluating usability, menu does play a vital role in deciding the usability of an operating system. Menus plays an important role in an application (menu bars, context menus) and operating system (system menus) and desktop manager (kickstart menus and contextual menus). A lot has been discussed about the right approach to access the options an application provides. While most of the proprietary operating systems are settled with their own way of providing menus after all these years of existence, GNU/Linux still experiments with different options. Gnome uses the default system menu bar to access various applications/options/tools and menu bars that are exclusively for applications while KDE provides one Kickstart applet and application menus that comes with the application.

Though I have no problems with Gnome way of menu interaction, I feel at least 15% of the desktop is being wasted in order to accommodate two menus and then tool bar rather than allotting more to the user workspace. Rather I feel Mac-style of menu bar appears to be more productive by merging the current application's menu with the system menu on the top and allotting the rest of the space for user as workspace. Though the tool bar appears to be beneficial, I believe the quick access tools should be kept to single row instead of spreading to multiple rows and thus providing the rest of the space for the user's workspace.

Likewise, grouping of menus in a menu-based Desktop Manager like Gnome/KDE/Windows is very important otherwise finding a particular application makes the user end up feeling dizzy. While Windows (Including Vista) appears to be lost (too many grouping and too many items without being under any group), GNU/Linux (or rather Gnome, KDE, Xfce) appears to be having a firm hold by separating the applications into Accessories, Development, Games, Graphics, Internet, Office, Sound & Video, System Tools and so on. Gnome goes further by having three main groupings on the top menu bar; Applications, Places and System and then further grouping if necessary under each main groups of main menus. While there are many winners (GNU/Linux and OS X), Windows definitely appears lost in this and thus gives a chaotic experience to the end user (unless the user had lived in Windows world hopelessly for years so that it has become part of horrible windows experience).

Tools and Application Support

As much as the GUI, Design and Navigation is important to the operating system to make it more usable, it also should provide proper tools for administrative purpose and better application support. While Windows Operating systems scores heavily thanks to the most of the existing proprietary application development companies who will release softwares only on windows, OS X and GNU/Linux lags far behind the world of Windows in terms of vast application support. In GUI Tools area, while Windows and OS X are heavily GUI dependent for all it's tasks including administrative tasks, GNU/Linux is relatively new here. Though over the years GNU/Linux has improved vastly on providing GUI tools to manage the system, it still lags behind Windows and OS X.

One prime example where insufficient GUI tools to make novice user feel comfortable is the Configuration Files (xorg.conf and so on). Any non-geeky user who hates configuring applications, would be scared to death at the mention of terminal and the commands that has to be typed to get a task done. Such requirements might push the new user to revert back to their old operating system (OS X or Windows). Having online help for using such commands helps but then since most of the users will not have a clue just in case the command they typed with the help of tutorials/forums and blogs doesn't give line-to-line output as mentioned in the source. All is not lost with GNU/Linux since the most positive point in GNU/Linux configuration files compared to Windows and OS X (probably OS X can be exempted to an extent) is that configurations are maintained in Flat files rather than any other crippled way like Windows Registry. But I would prefer having nice GUI tools with ease navigation for my simple usage.

Conclusion

GNU/Linux, like OS X; (considering it's base is UNIX) is more complex (and yet simple and straight forward than Windows) than Windows but relatively new to Desktop area shedding the geeky image that's been around it for years. While it's true that GNU/Linux distributions come with stacks of applications upon the kernel that makes the operating system’s usability a lot easier or even better than other operating systems at times, it has still a long way to go in overall usability compared to Windows and OS X. Though the lack of commercial applications is not entirely the fault of the operating system itself, some of the usability factor does turns out new desktop users (though the claim that GNU/Linux is harder to use and has worst usability has been dismissed by GNU/Linux community, the novice users seems to be still reluctant over considering GNU/Linux by either listening to the Myth of GNU/Linux or the users who tried it first time were turned away with such command line editing and configurations) could be decisive in gaining more common users and it should be dealt.

Though GNU/Linux does have bright future in Desktops, whether it plays a dominant role depends on number of minor and major usability factors that is being addressed on each release. Distributions such as Ubuntu, openSUSE have helped GNU/Linux evolve from Geeky Operating System to General Purpose Operating System which fits all types of users by listening to the requests of general users and addressing them. Moreover the community based development model has suited well for GNU/Linux to overcome the lack of commercial advertisements, requirement for more native language support (GNU/Linux is one of the operating system which supports vast amount of native languages of different regions), lack of help & support (since the OS comes with limited documentation to help a user, most of the help are provided through the discussion forums, blogs by users who have overcome a similar situation, etc). From here, GNU/Linux should move forward in great speed addressing the minor requirements by utilizing the online communities, voluntaries, dedicated developers and commercial organization in order to play a dominating role in Desktops.

Closure

In my next part of this series, I will be discussing about Administration & Maintenance offered by the Operating Systems on the Desktops for general users, the need for such requirement and the position of GNU/Linux in satisfying the users and providing competition for other operating systems and finally, the improvements that have to be done to make it better.

Till then, Rhonald

References/more to read

Usability

http://www.linux-usability.de/download/linux_usability_report_en.pdf (87 page down-loadable document)

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,83708,00.html

http://www.relevantive.de/Linux_e.html

Look & Feel

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4356551088.html

http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=264228&promo=300111 (Requires account)

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2098180,00.asp

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2085464,00.asp

http://www.forbes.com/2000/03/14/feat.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eazel

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/08/22/hertzfeld_spills_all_about_eazel/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6309425.stm#3

Desktop Comparisons

http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,129284/printable.html

Uncluttered Desktops

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1999889,00.asp

Desktop Linux - A Passionate Analysis - Part I

2007-07-31T16:44:00.000+04:00

Introduction

Having read numerous articles about the current Desktop War that is going on; as GNU/Linux enthusiasts, developers and administrators writing mega bytes of articles, blogs and reports on amazing capabilities and caliber of GNU/Linux in Desktop and justify their theories and predictions on it's future, I decided to write my own Blog about what I like in Desktops and my reasons to believe that GNU/Linux satisfies those reasons fairly well though improvements are always there.

Note that most of my blog is entirely based on my experiences and the numerous articles I have read (I have tried to give references to most of them, but I couldn't since most of the articles are saved in my hard drive as ODF format copied from sites) and I have avoided the technical aspects (such as describing how one particular task is carried out in GNU/Linux vs Windows) at the most.

This article is for one who needs a very layman way of explaining such as "iPod is a digital and sophisticated Walkman with facility to store songs in it" rather than "iPod is a brand of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple. It can also transfer photos, videos, games, and calendars to the models that support them." and so on. Now let's get into the blog.

Past: Quick Preview

Years back, when GNU/Linux started becoming a mainstream, the main goal was to provide a robust operating system with tight security right out of the box and thus roaming much of its early years with a geek look and feel to it; however, over the years, realizing it’s not an easy task to capture the OS market unless the home user starts recognizing it, GNU/Linux developers and contributors started investing their time, thought and money in making GNU/Linux a full-featured general user desktop.

The biggest hurdle to bring this Geeky Operating System to the normal user was the Geek coating that came along with GNU/Linux, not to mention the lack of “driver” support from the hardware manufacturers and GNU/Linux hardliners (though their arguments are ethically valid to a large extent) who oppose proprietary drivers.

Modern GNU/Linux Desktops

The past two years saw major change in the way GNU/Linux distributions evolved. It became flashier, challenging the other operating systems with technologies implemented in the best possible ways and far, richer hardware support out of the box and thus making a mockery of the proprietary operating systems like Windows and Macintosh (Their 'it just works' happens because it's custom made hardware, just try installing OS X into any other hardware and you'll understand what I am talking about).

Now it has reached a point where each and every distribution brings out major change on in how the Operating System looks within a short span of time between each release. The leading desktop environments, KDE & GNOME brings rapid changes to give better Desktop experience to the normal users. Though there are other desktop environments that exists (Xfce, E17 to name a few), these two are the real leaders in evolving and giving best Desktop experiences. Despite severe criticism from the Linux founder, GNOME leads mightily along with KDE (The number one position among KDE and GNOME cannot be decided since every distribution comes with these two desktops and there is no survey on which desktop manager is being used by an individual).

The raising success of GNU/Linux is credited on being extraordinarily scalable and the ability to run on everything from handheld to supercomputers. Features in the Linux 2.6.x kernel have been particularly aimed at making the kernel easier to port to embedded Linux systems, as well as large multi-processor and enterprise-quality servers.

I have classified my analysis under 11 categories as below.

Usability
Administration & Maintenance
Choice
OS Response
Security
Hardware Detection
Customizability
Trustworthiness
Affordability
Bug Fixes & Patches
Backward Compatibility

I will take you through each points in a more elaborate way avoiding the technical aspects at most in my forth-coming blogs in this series which consists 13 parts. Sit back, relax and enjoy my blog. Please give me your criticism and comments. Anything healthy is accepted. See you all in next blog.

GNU/Linux Partitioning: A Myth

2007-07-25T16:35:00.000+04:00

It’s annoying to read so much about partitioning under GNU/Linux being hard. Though I have installed various distributions (and still installing) for about 50 times in a year (without exaggeration) for myself, my friends and known people; this claim about “Partitioning under GNU/Linux is hard” is really baseless since I’ve never faced such complication till now even though I am not an extremely advanced user.

One possibility that I could think of is that a traditional windows user trying to install GNU/Linux as dual-boot might get confused when he/she sees hda, hdb, hdc instead of C:/, D:/, E:/ and so on. One thing to for an Windows user to understand here is that the way drives/devices are represented in GNU/Linux are different from that of Windows. In GNU/Linux all devices are treated as special files.

Thus, under GNU/Linux, if you have multiple partitions in single hard drive, the first partition representation of your typical first hard drive will be hda1 and continued by hda2, hda3 and so on. The second hard drive will be represented as hdb[partition number].

Most people get confused reading the Hard Drive representations under GNU/Linux partitioning when they install GNU/Linux for the first time (I did it myself the first time, but since I was a UNIX user, i knew a little about these representations). Other than this single issue which has to be understood before starting installations, I believe partitioning under GNU/Linux is as easy as compared to windows if you understand the meaning of root, swap and home spaces. In fact, you have more options and easy installation in GNU/Linux than Windows.

Most of us install GNU/Linux in a Pre-Installed Windows PC (or in a PC where Windows is already installed by someone other than OEM) which is pretty much straight forward. But have you ever tried installing Windows XP (or any other version of Windows for that matter) for dual boot in already installed GNU/Linux distribution without the help of any 3rd party tools (Like GParted, etc)?

GNU/Linux installation in a pre-installed Windows PC, lets me resize the windows partition (automatically or manually) and even copy the user-accounts before start installing without loosing a single data in Windows partition.

After the installation, the Boot Loader gives me choice of either booting into GNU/Linux or Windows with GNU/Linux (your distribution) as a default choice, waiting for 10 seconds or so, depending on your GRUB configuration. But installing Windows after GNU/Linux is a nightmare.

To prove my point, as an aspiring geek still at the beginner level, I held an experiment on my laptop which I have provided as screen shots. I have skipped the installation of GNU/Linux part to make it straight to the point. The screen shots shown here are taken right after the first boot on GNU/Linux right after the installation.

The installation was done under ‘Vmware Player’ with 25GB HDD space and 1GB RAM in a 160GB + 3GB RAM Laptop (HP DV5292 Dual Core) which solely runs Ubuntu (It was openSuSE until Ubuntu 7 arrived and n waiting for openSuSE 10.3).

The below is the login screen where you have to provide your user name and password. You can also avoid this screen by making your general user as auto login user.

Once the user name and password you'll get this screen which initializes services and peripherals before getting into the desktop.

The below is a plain, simple desktop at first boot.

Restart the GNU/Linux system (Note that the CD is already present – in faint icon).

Press 'Escape' to get into Boot Menu.

Select CD-ROM from the listed Boot devices.

Select CD-ROM Drive from the listed Boot Device Options.
Windows XP gets detected and asks to press any keep to boot form the CD to continue with Setup or Repair.

A much familiar set of screens comes copying various files.

The options are given either to start new installation of repair an installation or quit setup without doing anything. Press Enter key to start Windows XP installation.

Oops!!!

Well, seems to me that there is no chance of going ahead with windows installation at this point.

This has nothing to do with presenting driver software for Windows because when I install Windows first (another article about dual-installation in layman’s term), it installs without a hitch.

I guess no one complaints about GNU/Linux partitioning or GNU/Linux installation anymore. I intend to cover more of this during upcoming days (exclusively about dual-booting, partitioning, resolving the above faced situation, etc), till then. Yella, Bye.

Ubuntu 7: No window borders on Desktop Effects

2007-06-04T21:56:00.000+04:00

Ubuntu 7 is great, but with it's own truck load of bugs. One common bug (I am not sure whether it's bug, but it happens to lot of people out there) is that you loose your window borders once you enable desktop effects or your system just won't start in X the next time you re-start your System.

I have faced the above mentioned both problems on two different occasions and this is what I have done to overcome it. I have made it into two scenarios for i) No window border but having X-Windows and ii) No X-Windows at all.

Scenario # 1
If you are stuck in text mode after enabling desktop effects with the following error messages in nVIDIA card machine,
Error: API mismatch: the NVIDIA kernel module has the version 1.0-7184, butthis client has the version 1.0-9631. Please make sure that the kernelmodule and all NVIDIA driver components have the same version.
The reason-----------When the script /sbin/lrm-manager (executed by upstart during boot on /etc/rcS.d/S07linux-restricted-modules-common) loads kernel modules, it loads all so nvidia, nvidia_legacy, nvidia_new will be loaded, respectively. So after loading nvidia, loading nvidia_legacy and nvidia_new has no effect. Essentially, loading them all is not appropriate.
try the following:
edit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common
sudo vi /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

move to the section where it says

DISABLED_MODULES=""

add add the below between the quotes. To append text in vi editor keep the cursor in the first double quote, press Escape and then hit 'a' which will enable you to append text in the position next to cursor .

Now type nvidia nvidia_legacy between the quotes.

(it should appear like this: DISABLED_MODULES="nvidia nvidia_legacy" )

Press Escape, hit : and type w to save the changes. To quit the editor, hit Escape, : and then type q.

Now type startx, it should do the magic.

Scenario # 2
You have the GUI, but there is no window title bar, borders and the terminal appears blank. Try the following:

1. Try changing DefaultDepth to 24 in the ' Screen ' section.
2. Delete, if existing, these entries in ' Section "Module" ' :
Load "dri"Load "GLCore"
3. Add this entry in ' Section "Module" ' :
Load "glx"
4. Change in Section "Device" the ' Driver "nv" ' entry to :
Driver "nvidia"
5. Add this entry in ' Section "Screen" ' :
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
6. Add this section at the end of the file:
Section "Extensions"

Option "Composite" "Enable"

EndSection

This should do the magic probably. Don't forget to install Nvidia/ATI graphic card drivers before you try these.

Adios.

Ubuntu 7: No window borders on Desktop Effects

2007-05-03T12:01:00.000+04:00

Hi all,

Finally I have made up my mind to move to Ubuntu (Gnome mainly) from openSuSE 10.2 (as a test run for couple of days before deciding on anything). While my installation experience was a breeze, I did have lots of problems which I have not faced in openSuSE 10.2. I will be discussing it later in my next blog, but before that, I guess lots of people are facing some serious problem while trying to enable the Desktop Effects + Beryl in Ununtu 7 Feisty Fawn.

After installing nVidia drivers as I do with openSuSE, I tried enabling the Desktop effects from the menu only to encounter an annoying problem that I lost my window title bars, borders and menus.

After long research on xorg.conf, I figured out the problem. It’s just that, for a strange reason, Fiesty Fawn defaults the screen depth to 16bit. You just have to manually edit the xorg.conf file and change the default screen depth to 24-bit in order to overcome this problem.

Follow the below mentioned steps to make life easier.

Disable Desktop Effects
In terminal type sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Change the Default Depth from 16 to 24 (most cases this is the reason).
Press Ctrl+O and hit enter when it shows the file name to save it.
Press Ctrl+X to quit the editor.
Now enable the Desktop Effects and your problem should be solved.

Have blessed day.

Setting Static IP for openSUSE 10.2 Desktop

2007-04-23T00:35:00.000+04:00

Definition

The Internet Protocol (IP) is a data-oriented protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork.

IP is a network layer protocol in the internet protocol suite and is encapsulated in a data link layer protocol (e.g., Ethernet). As a lower layer protocol, IP provides the service of communicable unique global addressing amongst computers.

Explanation
An IP address, as you must have come across at any point of your time looks something like this: 192.168.255.7 or 10.168.0.4, etc.

An IP address has two parts: the identifier of a particular network on the Internet and an identifier of the particular device (which can be a server or a workstation) within that network. On the Internet itself - that is, between the router that move packets from one point to another along the route - only the network part of the address is looked at.

IP addresses can be either Static where the IP addresses are defined or Dynamic where the IP addresses are set as required.

Home computers, by default, are set to get their private IP address dynamically, supplied by their router. However, if there's any interruption in the computer's network connection to the router (reboot, for instance), a completely new IP address may be assigned.

Static vs Dynamic Addresses
The requirement of Static vs Dynamic depends on the operation you handle. If your operations are based on just Internet browsing, send & receive e-mail, download or upload files, chat services and so on, the dynamic address set on connecting to Internet is more than sufficient.

If your operations are running web severs, e-mail servers, ftp servers, specialized application that requires external access, incoming video conferences and so on, you may require static IP address. For example using BitTorrent clients require static IP (it works with dynamic IP addresses, but better with static IP address). However there is no thumb rule that you should not use static IP address unless you run complicated applications. For instance, I always prefer setting static IP address for my machine whether I use specialized (most cases I do) applications or not.

Picking up right IP address

The size of the host part depends on the size of the network. To accommodate different needs, several classes of networks, defining different places to split IP addresses, have been defined. Below table shows the start and end IP addresses for different classes.

Class	Left most bits	start address	Finish Address
A	0xxx	0.0.0.0	127.255.255.255
B	10xx	128.0.0.0	191.255.255.255
C	110x	192.0.0.0	223.255.255.255
D	1110	224.0.0.0	239.255.255.255
E	1111	240.0.0.0	255.255.255.255

For example, assume the Gateway IP of yours is 255.255.255.254, then the IP address would be 192.168.255.x.

To know more about IP addresses, refer the following articles/blogs
About IP addresses
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question549.htm
http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci212381,00.html

About picking up right IP address for your home network
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/workingwithipaddresses/f/privateipaddr.htm

Deciding the required IP addresses
Let's say your router address is 192.168.25x.x (substitute the number you have in the location of x).

To find the IP addresses that are perfect for your Laptop/PC, it's better to choose the same IP address that has been set by DHCP while switch on and connected to the Internet.

To get the IP addresses set by DHCP, issue /sbin/ifconfig command in the terminal. You should find something like this listed in the listing.

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:02:E3:CC:3A
inet addr:192.168.254.xx Bcast:192.168.254.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::213:2ff:fee3:cc3a/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:47593 errors:241 dropped:11126 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:17648 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:120176043 (114.6 Mb) TX bytes:12805811 (12.2 Mb)
Interrupt:185 Base address:0xe000 Memory:8a000000-8a000fff

From the list, the one follows inet addr: is your IP address and the subnet mask would be 255.255.255.0 noted by Mask.

To get the Gateway address, issue 'netstat -rn' in the terminal. You should be getting something similar to the following listing:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface
172.16.197.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 vmnet1
192.168.254.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
172.16.157.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 vmnet8
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
0 192.168.254.x 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1

Note that the second column contains your gateway address. Write down the IP address, Subnet Mask and Gateway on piece of paper or Kate before we proceed to the next step on how to set the IP addresses that you have noted just now.

My example is based on openSuSE 10.2 with KDE desktop environment. Though the interface differs, the basic principle applies across every distribution.

Setting the decided IP addresses
Select Yast under Kickstart-> Applications - > System. The following dialog comes asking for the root password.

Supply the root password and click OK. Now the following dialog should appear.

The default selected item will be Software. Selecting 'Network Devices' should bring something like the one shown in the below picture.

Select Network Card from the list that appears in the right hand side of the selection.

A wizard appears on selecting 'Network Card' from the list. In the wizard first page, select 'User controlled with NetworkManager' option and click on the next button.

This dialog gives you list of the network devices you have. Now select the Ethernet card from the list and click 'Edit' button.

If you have not set any static IP, the default option should be 'Automatic Address Setup (via DHCP). Now select 'Static Address Setup' option to make the fields editable in the dialog. Once the option is set to 'Static Address Setup', you can see the fields editable. Enter 192.168.254.x (substitute your desired number instead of x).

Enter the subnet mask in the next editable text field under 'Subnet Mask' caption. Once the IP address and Subnet mask are set, click on the 'Routing' command button to open the dialog to set the default gateway address.

Enter the address of the Default Gateway that you have noted just sometime before. Click OK and get back to the previous dialog. Click next and finish the operation.

Now, your computer is set to use Static IP.
Have nice day.

References:

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol#IP_addressing_and_routing
Compnetworking: http://compnetworking.about.com/od/workingwithipaddresses/f/privateipaddr.htm
Linux: http://linux.about.com/od/ipm_howto/a/hwtipm18.htm

The Savior and The Community

2007-03-28T16:39:00.000+04:00

For long, most of the world was ruled by darkness and insecurity. The self proclaimed Saviors rose and perished without making any impact on this world. Many longed for a savior who is yet to be born and save this world from its darkness. The savior as it was desired, will not be born out of big corporate to plunder more from the people who cannot afford, but out of a common man, who was one of them, who understands the pain of the people who expect. And so, the Savior was born and identified by people across nations beyond the differences.

It's the common man who needs him than the financial powerhouses who could afford to spend billions

This savior put a seed for the communities realizing that it's the common man who needs him than the financial powerhouses who could afford to spend billions. This community grew steady and slow, establishing itself firmly driving away the power of darkness and insecurity out of the lives of the ones who touched it and yet some are not convinced that this is the savior.

There are various reasons behind the motivation of this high profile community. For some; it gives them a chance to get what they were lacking for years. For another; it gives them an ideal platform to showcase their intellectual prowess. For some other; it gives them healing for their wounded and broken hearts after years of helpless wandering in humiliations and insults. For some; it gives assurance. For the rest; it gives a fancy feeling to get into it and being treated special.

This millennium thrives on communities. The whole scattered Internet users of previous millennium are getting together as communities. They get closer with someone who lives miles apart, never met, through community. The online community reflects where the people are heading to and what will be the whole of this millennium. The community shares the joy, sorrow, ideas, philosophies and the things that happen to them on their daily life. Among these social communities, friendly communities, religious communities and service communities, there exists another community which is unique and with another noble cause.

This community grew up in a hard way, facing lots of hurdles, temptations, threats and yet, grew in spirits with every newly added soul

This community grew up in a hard way, facing lots of hurdles, temptations, threats and yet, grew in spirits with every newly added soul, giving hopes for millions. The people of this community have a great deal of passion which cannot be crushed by any of the monolith giants. The strength of this community is 'togetherness'. They have same goal though different ways of executing it. This community gives you the freedom which was not found before. But not all loves to be free. Some, despite numerous proofs, stay doubted and unfaithful. Some tried to fork the spirit of the community by their ugly works or ignorance, only to strengthen the bond this community share.

The mistakes are forgiven and corrected instead of condemnation and demolition because the community is all about love and share

The power of this community lies in sharing what they have and by making a collaborative contribution they get close to their goal. This community relies on testimonies of individuals that touch the hearts of the wanted and those in despair without any hopes. It gives you total freedom which you have never experienced before. This community does not condemn or accuse anyone, instead, it values everyone. The mistakes are forgiven and corrected instead of condemnation and demolition because the community is all about love and share. The love of this community cannot be mistaken because of its transparency and openness.

Because of this I am proud to be a part of this community and this community is known as GNU/Linux Community. Each GNU/Linux distribution is built around a certain community. Overall, the communities of different distributions work towards a single goal. To provide a best operating systems for the common man as well as the corporate men. I firmly believe, it will not be so long for people to identify that the savior they are looking for is not yet to come, but is here already: GNU/Linux.

Unlearn before Learn

2007-03-24T15:04:00.001+04:00

I often hear people saying that Linux is hard to work on, which make me wonder what they mean by that. For me; a menu, whether being on Top or bottom or on side doesn’t make any sense as long as I am able to communicate to the system in best way and get things done. Also, I see my partitions as drive letters of names does not make any sense since all that I care about is: how safer my files gets saved and how fast can I access those files.

But there are people who are more sentiment about where the menus should appear in their computer and so on. That’s not because it’s the best method in the world, rather it’s just because they got adapted to one way of thinking over the years using a particular operating system. They have learnt to do things in certain way and only in certain way and thus we believe that it is the only way to do things.

I remember my first experience with Macintosh operating system 4 years back when my previous employer bought one G4 for the graphics designer of the newly started sport magazine. I found it weird without any right clicks (at least with the mouse I had) and dragging and dropping the files into the applications. I was using Windows XP as my operating system then. I am so used to do things in Windows way.

I use to think that just because there is no mouse right-click, Macintosh is not a good operating system. But then after spending some time learning, debugging, troubleshooting the system, I got involved in a process of unlearning what I had learnt and re-learn thing in Mac way. Once my learning curve was over, it became really easy to use and I didn’t feel the necessity of having a right click.

Well, my exposure to Mac till date is very brief and short, but I did understand the basic principle of adaptation loud and clear: Unlearn and Re-learn.

When people at times go through my Laptop (openSuSE 10.2 installed with Beryl Window Manager), they enquire about drives (C drive, D drive, etc like in windows) and when they learn that there is no such C drive, D drive under Linux, they feel it’s some sort of beginner level, fancy operating system not serious enough to consider it for their use.

The best approach to get used to Linux for Windows user is: Unlearn your windows ways of thinking and using and re-learn the Linux way of doing. Once you have done that, all your complaints will become irrelevant. One of the major whining I often hear is that Linux does not have Installers like in Windows. Well, I completely disagree to that and in fact, Linux automated installers are much more advanced than windows.

It’s just that Linux Installers does not do it Microsoft way, rather in Linux way. Also in another instance one of my friend asked about disk de-fragmentation tools under Linux. It took some time for me to explain him about the idea behind disk de-fragmentation and why Linux does not require such one.

So, as Linux community I guess we have to put lots of effort for the people to unlearn things first and then re-learn in Linux way.

Let’s do it.
Have nice day. God bless you

Zones

2007-03-24T11:50:00.000+04:00

Well, we all fall under some category because Human Beings always live life in certain pattern. It’s hard for most people to break the pattern they have been following for years in the past. It always requires a huge deal of sweat and work for them to get out of a pattern and into some other pattern.

We can also call those patterns or category as Zones. The below are the generalized zones:

Zone 1: Risk taking
The people in this zone take do or die approach. They just hate being someone to follow others. These people when succeed, end up being fame and leading example. For them, it’s all about “I was there first” than “I too was there” or “I don’t want to be there unless everyone is there”.

These people make a huge deal of innovative contributions to the World by inventing something at some point of their life. God knows when we will invent telephones if Alexander Graham Bell didn’t choose to be in Zone 1.

Zone 2: Early Adapters
Then there is a small crowd who are early adapters of inventions. These people don’t invent anything, but are willing to use the inventions at their early stages in their life and provides their feedbacks based upon the usage. These people are essential for an invention to reach bigger audience.

The early Linux adapters who used it, tested it, provided constant feedback to the kernel developers, desktop manager developers falls into this zone. They were not inventors, but gave

Zone 3: Safety Adapters
This third group has large population of people. Most of the Linux users at this point fall into this zone. These people watch the happenings around them, when they find something shaping nice and when they feel confident about certain things, they start using it.

These people do not get actively involved in shaping up the products, but they use it for their daily needs, but they do contribute to the invention by sharing their troubles, looking for solutions and thus helping the invention moving from Geek environment to a balanced environment (shedding Geek feeling attached to it for years).

Zone 4: Followers
The people who fall under this 4th group are in bulk. Their sole principle in life is ‘never risk life coz you don’t get to live again in case things goes wrong’. They will never consider alternatives unless the alternatives itself becomes main stream. This is the audience the Linux community aiming to reach. If Linux reaches this audience, then the task is complete. This is where Microsoft is placed right now over the years.

Zone 5: Deaf, dumb and mute
This is an almost extinct group where exists certain people who by accident tried out something, satisfied with it and stop exploring and persist staying with it. Certain windows users come to my mind who still use Windows 98, Office 97, etc… Fortunately people under this zone is very less, almost close to be extinct, but importantly they do exists.

As you can see, it’s not that you can never get out of one zone and join another, it’s just that this is what we normally are; someone in any of these zones. We don’t live life completely out of nowhere. So it’s all about shaping a product best enough for people of various zone thing about using that product because they feel its in their zone. It takes time, but tell me which product clicks just out of factory? Time is always required for anything.

Let’s present people with best Linux and let them decide whether it has reached their zone for them to use it.

Have nice day.

Daily Life with Linux

2007-03-21T12:54:00.000+04:00

Well, I am going to tell why Linux is perfect Desktop solution through my daily usage. First, let me explain my daily routine when it comes to personal need.
Daily Needs

I need to get connected with my chat buddies around the world who will be in either Yahoo or MSN.

I need to write my daily blogs, prepare my HLD for the projects I am working on, some UML diagrams during that process.

I need to edit some photographs and do some color alterations to make it brighter and better.

I need to download videos through Torrent network.

I need to listen to music while I am working.

I watch downloaded videos.

I need to work on HTML, Perl and SQL for my persona project.

I need to burn the downloaded contents in DVDs to keep it outside my hard drive to view later.

And finally,

I need to manage my e-mails and surf the internet.

Applications that I Use

Well, now let me see the applications I use for these under Linux.

To get connected with my chat buddies who use Yahoo and or MSN, I use Kopte which comes with my Novell forked KDE (and of course its nothing to do with Novell, it comes with KDE in fact).

To write my daily blogs I use OpenOffice’s Write application and use odf format to save files.

For UML I use AgroUML.

To edit photo graphs and images, I have two best choices in Krita and GIMP, but I use GIMP for its rich choices.

To download and share documentaries and other videos I use Azureus: Java BitTorrent Client which I installed through Yast.

To listen to music, what else best choice can I ask for other than Amarok? I maintain 120 GB of my music collection with Amarok and it’s incredible.

To watch Movies and downloads Videos, I have plenty of applications under Linux. I have Xine, Kaffeine, Totem, RealPlayer, VLC Media Player to name a few. I currently use Kaffeine and VLC Media Player alternatively.

For HTML, Perl work, I use BlueFish editor and for SQL, I use MySQL and Apache as my personal web server. MySQL GUI Administration, Query Manager can be downloaded from the MySQL WebSite as RPM and installed to be used with the MySQL Services.

To burn DVD/CD’s I use a wonderful application called K3B. I can’t ask for more, I was using Nero for long time when I was in Windows, but now I love K3B and my Linux for past 5 months since I’ve moved to Linux completely.

To manage e-mails, I have vast choices, but I preferred Evolution from Novel since I guess I feel comfortable with it more than other clients (I’ve used Thunderbird before).

To browse Internet, I use Mozilla Firefox which is the best browser I’ve seen till date (including in Windows platform).

Well, now tell me, except for the PC Games (I am not a serious gamer anyway, but I do appreciate gaming companies consider Linux seriously for their future releases), tell me what do I lack?

Oh yeah… I’ve forgotten to mention Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam software’s… Ouch!!! I forgot for an instance that I am using Linux (Not that it’s 100% robust, but it allows me to work without worrying about viruses by nature, but then it’s my choice whether I want to spend money deliberately and keep my old windows habits); and yeah, I don’t do the annoying de-fragmentation under Linux since Linux file systems are far more advanced and brilliant than windows counterpart.

As of now, I don’t do much Video editing, but I’ve already read about plenty of options under Linux, I will be trying out few in coming days.

Seriously: pick up your favourite distribution (my favourite: openSuSE 10.2 with KDE) , move to Linux (any leading community based Linux will do, for instance apart from openSUSE, there is Ubuntu the leading desktop linux and then Fedora from RedHat community), and live trouble-free life with your computer.

Have a great day.

Linux Education

2007-03-20T10:48:00.000+04:00

I often get baffled by people’s curiosity, suspicion and definitely the myth that Linux is harder than Windows in everything (In installation, usage and manageability). There exists certain amount of people who have heard about Linux, but never believed that Linux had advanced into better GUI than Windows long back. Long once they had tried Linux and were driven away from it with bad taste in their mouth because of its lifeless GUI and complex installations.

I have to swear at least 10 times to convince them that Linux has become a lot easier to use these days, in fact, managing a Linux box is of less worry and a lot easier than managing Windows. People never got convinced until I show my Laptop with Compiz and Beryl effects along with the wonderful default GUI my Linux box offers.

The second area where I catch people by surprises is the Antivirus section. I feel pity with people spend money on all that anti-virus software’s starting from Norton till Kaspersky to protect their PC and still live insecure while Linux offers maximum protection right out of box. Also, I get baffled by people saying that with right way of configuration, Windows is more secured than Linux. Here I am talking about protection right out of box without doing anything to it. Apart from that, Linux distributions have their own firewalls which I am sure much better than what their windows counterparts offer and then Application guard.

I dare any windows users to disable the anti-virus, firewall in their Windows box and put it connected to Internet for 48 hours and prove their windows is much better than my Linux box which is online for past 10 days non-stop without any firewall (I had to switch it off because of my need) or anti-virus. I am not saying Linux is completely out of virus attack, but definitely not as prone as Windows.

More importantly, people just don’t get that it’s not because of the popularity, but because of the architecture fault that Windows is much vulnerable than Linux. Also I get tickled by people’s validation that Vista is much secured because of few dialogs that pops up before you try installing anything. Frankly, I get annoyed with those dialogs getting popped up at least 10 times during my installation of same program. Linux (or a Mac in fact) does intelligent stuff in this regard which I am damn sure windows can never do that.

Next, I am amazed by one stop shop facility that Linux community offers regarding application installations. I just have to re-direct my Yast to the repositories maintained by the Vendor or 3^rd party and select the apps I need to get installed, the rest of the things will be done without me have to do anything about it. Adding to the existing application management, I have one personal request to RedHat that not to make RHX just for RedHat distributions or at least someone put effort to set up a online market place for Linux products (for all popular distributions) which can be downloaded and installed through package managers, for commercial (if commercial, unlike windows products, reasonable price appreciated) or not-paid.

Regarding painful installers in Linux: Don’t ***ing tell me Windows does not have too many installers. That’s because you never looked around to see the windows installers. Definitely Windows applications comes with all dependencies to avoid looking for the dependencies somewhere else, but I like the Linux way because it educates me to really know I am doing. I am sure 80% of the Windows users have no idea about libraries. You may argue that it’s none of your business, but then I have simple answer: Let god save you from yourself. Though complicated if you are new, I feel Linux way of installing applications are way better than windows because it don’t let anyone install apps by accident. You know for sure that you need that before installing in Linux.

Finally, against the complaint against too many distributions under linux; which version of Vista are you planning to buy buddy? At least I don’t get crippled versions of the same product under different names (Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, etc etc). We have only one product and we offer it just like that and the choices we have are real choices (openSuSE, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Linspire, etc) which are not crippled versions of same products, but full products in different ways by different vendors.

I hope I have educated you a little today.

Have great day. God Bless You.

Get Your Acts Straight

2007-03-19T16:59:00.000+04:00

In all those articles I have read about Linux and it’s latest improvements, developments; one frustrating thing I come across over and over is, their desperate steps to defeat Windows. Hello people out there, let’s focus on creating a best Desktop or most powerful Server rather than getting into these war, trying to wipe out Windows or Microsoft products.

I believe that if you want to defeat your rival, the only way to do so is, become successful despite the stiff competition and rivalry. The more you focus on the rival, the more you get into these comparisons and the more you try to overcome the differences, the more you become imitative. Well, I guess we don’t want an operating system which imitates Windows or Microsoft products; rather, we need a good operating system which performs amazingly and give what we want.

I personally feel that, beyond a level, having glossy and shiny Desktops/User Interfaces (for example Aero effects of Vista) is pure trash since the ultimate goal of having a good and secured personal computer gets lost. I prefer an effective, secure operating system which runs on most of the hardware, occupying minimal resources and is fast.

What am I going to do with my Aero effects in long run? Come on, in first place, why do I need to invest 128MB Video Ram for an operating system? I rather invest those for my Games, which is most required or for some 3D rendering applications.

I suggest to get your acts together to give a best operating system rather than fancy operating system. However, I don’t mind my operating system being a bit stylish (if it takes minimal resource), something like SUSE Linux Desktop 10.1 with KDE Interface and Compiz effects, but I guess beryl effects such as special effects on minimizing windows, etc are too much distractive.

Thus, the time spent for fancy user interface can be spent on something more productive and making the operating system more simple (getting rid of geeky feeling out of it, I mean, definitely it has come long way out of the geeky look, but still it has to improve in certain areas) and more powerful.

All the best for those efforts,

Adios.