Linux notes from DarkDuck

Steven Ovadia: I wiped Windows and never looked back

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:01:00 +0000

This man usually sits in a different seat of the interview room. Many people in the Linux world recognise him as a person who interviewed a lot of high-profile Linux advocates, prophets and journalists. But let me now put him into the interviewee's seat and introduce the man to you. Please meet: Steven Ovadia.

DarkDuck: Hello Steven, thanks for coming for an interview. Could you please introduce yourself?
Steven Ovadia: I'm Steven Ovadia. I run My Linux Rig (www.mylinuxrig.com). It's a blog about desktop Linux and how people use it. It features an interview series called The Linux Setup where I interview people about their desktop Linux setups.

DD: How did you come to the Linux world? When did it happen?
SO: I've always found both Windows and OS X kind of frustrating and I've always been interested in Linux, so while I was in graduate school, I threw an Ubuntu partition on my ThinkPad and I loved it. I needed Windows for some applications (SAS, Stata, Word, and Excel), but once I graduated, I wiped the Windows partition and went to Linux full-time. That was around five or six years ago, I guess. And I've never looked back.

DD: Why and when have you decided to go blogging about Linux?
SO: I started blogging about Linux so I wouldn't forget the things I was learning. My Linux Rig started out as a public journal about working with Xubuntu. But after a while, I felt I had mined that pretty well, so I went broader and launched My Linux Rig and the Linux Setup.

DD: Is mylinuxrig.com your only blog or online project?
SO: Right now it is. I was a hockey blogger for a long time, but it kind of burned me out, so that's on an indefinite hiatus.

DD: You have conducted lots of interviews with different people in the Linux community. Who is your most valuable guest from your point of view?
SO: This is going to sound like a cop-out, but I find them all interesting. In general, I've really enjoyed the interviews with thoughtful people who not only discuss what they use, but also talk about why they use it. Any time the conversation can get beyond tools and into processes, I think it's a very cool thing. Noah Lorang's interview generated the most traffic for me and it was also a really great interview content-wise, so I think that's a pretty nice confluence of events:

DD: Who are the most influential people in the FOSS world from your interviewees list, from your point of view?
SO: Well here is a list of everyone I've interviewed. Importance is subjective and I truly believe every Linux user is important, since we're such a small community. I think journalists might be impressed by someone like Dan Gillmor or Steven Rosenberg. Mint users probably appreciated Clem Lefebvre. CrunchBang users probably enjoyed Philip Newborough. Everyone has their own Linux associations, so I try and hit a bunch of different points. But I don't think anyone in the community is more important than anyone else.

DD: Do you usually find your "victims" yourself, or they find you?
SO: Some people reach out to me, but for the most part, I reach out to people. It's nice, because I've gotten to interview some famous Linux users. I've also been able to target some of the users who are less well-represented in the public face of Linux. Having said that, though, I love when people reach out to me. It helps me connect to Linux users who maybe don't have a huge public profile, but who are doing very interesting things. Any DarkDuck readers who want to be interviewed can contact me through this form or through Twitter (I'm @steven_ovadia)

DD: Does it include myself?
SO: Definitely! I'll email you.

DD: You ask everyone to share their Linux desktop. What’s your current desktop?
SO: I'm using OpenSUSE 12.1 and GNOME 3. I LOVE both. GNOME 3 is just so effortless to work with. And OpenSUSE is a great distro that doesn't get the love it probably should. I'm waiting on some life things to settle down before I upgrade.

DD: Can you show a screenshot?
SO: Sure!

Steven Ovadia screenshot

This is my favorite part of GNOME – the dash. I love that I can just type and stuff happens. It was tough adjusting to a lack of a desktop folder, but I can honestly say I don't miss it anymore. My Downloads folder has become my desktop. GNOME is stock. Everyone's pretty much looks the same, but it doesn't bother me. I'm not really looking to customize much anymore. That's a young man's game.

DD: What are your favourite Linux distributions, Desktop Environment, applications?
SO: I use fairly standard stuff. Chromium for browsing and tweeting (I like the Silver Bird extension a lot). I use gedit for most of my writing. I can't stand Nautilus so PCMan is my default file manager. I use Clementine for music, gpodder for podcasts, and my backup is via SpiderOak. If I have to word process or do a spreadsheet, I use LibreOffice. And I use the GIMP fairly frequently. I size images a lot for some reason. Parcellite is also very helpful for clipboard management. GNOME seems to have a very short clipboard memory. It used to be very annoying before I installed Parcellite.

DD: Do you read Linux blog from DarkDuck? What do you think about it?
SO: Of course! Everyone knows DarkDuck. I always appreciate your distro reviews.

DD: Heh, this opinion contradicts the one from many commenters, and also general opinion of me from LXer residents. They usually say that it is too high-level, or that Live reviews are pointless.
SO: Every distro runs very differently on different hardware, so I really use distro reviews to get a sense of a distro. But I understand that the review hardware is most likely very different than my own, so I'm not too particular about if a review is based off of a live CD, a virtual machine, or an actual install. I'm really using a review to decide if a distro is worth further investigation. I'm not trusting it to be the final word.

DD: Apart from running online resource, what are your interests in the real life?
SO: I'm an academic librarian, so that takes up a fair amount of mental bandwidth. When I'm not doing that, I enjoy running, playing guitar, reading, and hanging out with my wife (one day I'll convert her to Linux!).

DD: What are your future plans?
SO: I just want to keep The Linux Setup rolling. I'm adjusting the questions a bit, which I think will help to keep things fresh. I periodically think about leaving Tumblr, but the community is just really awesome and tough to leave.

DD: Thanks for coming, Steven! Hope you see you again one day!
SO: Thanks for having me!

Facebook fans: 200

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Sat, 18 May 2013 21:31:00 +0000

It was not long ago when I was happily announced that more than 600 people subscribed to this blog.

Today I have yet another nice announcement: the number of Facebook page fans is now 200.

Thank you to everyone in this list!

Do you want to join this fantastic outfit? Like the Facebook page of Linux notes from DarkDuck too!

Linux Screenshot Beauty Contest from DarkDuck (Part 3)

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:57:00 +0000

I hope you have enjoyed the first and the second parts of the Linux Screenshot Beauty Contest.

Let's see the third part.

Openmamba Milestone2 KDE

WattOS R5

Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon

And now, just to let you feel the difference between the real nice women on all the screenshots above, here is a screenshot from OpenSuSE 12.1 Li-f-e. No doubt, you like the music for this video. But... Do you like the man?

OpenSuSE 12.1 Li-f-e

These are all the contestants. Please comment below: which screenshot, which review and which operating system do you like more?

Linux Screenshot Beauty Contest from DarkDuck (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:55:00 +0000

The first part of Linux Screenshot Beauty Contest gathered different feedback. Somebody liked the idea, somebody did not.
I the meantime, it's now the time to present you the second part of the gallery. I hope you will enjoy...

Xubuntu 12.04 upgrade

What is your favourite screenshot and distribution from this list?

A letter from Linux Evangelist

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:34:00 +0000

Dear Sir/Madam,

Read the GNU philosophy!

Listen to Linus Torvalds speak about why Linux is...., well, just is.

Ask Richard Stallman one simple question, why?!

My friends, and even those not my friends, I put to you the closest one can get to experiencing true freedom.

Not to being totally free, that is a completely different kettle of fish. Linux is a tantalising sample and example of what freedom can deliver.

Do I sound like an evangelist? I hope so! By the way, I'm annoyed that the Linux community kept this so quiet for so long! I'll argue with you later!

The core of the network of the company I work for now houses an i7 16gb RAM Linux Box, running Windows 7 and Server Virtual Machines, MYSQL, ownCloud Virtual Machine, Apache Web Server, openSSH and a sprinkling of command line monitoring tools. It will be free one day. It has it's enemy's close, where it can see them.

My workstation runs Linux, My home PC runs Linux, My TV is driven by Linux, My phone is driven by Linux, 3 of my 4 kids run Linux (they hate me for that by the way, made 'em think) LOL!

Am I obsessed? I hope so! Who could not be obsessed with the prospect of mind opening and sole unshackling freedom?

By the way, I ran, installed, administered, managed, developed for and advocated another system, which shall remain nameless, since '95 ;-) The 08 version was the tipping point. "There has to be something better then this"? There is, GNU/Linux, look it up!

Remember! With Freedom comes great responsibility! Be wise.

Now, where's my Penguin bat? Need to go tap on a few windows, get'em opened up and let the fresh air in ;-)

Regards, Nick

This is a guest post by Nick & Chris, which won a prize in the joint contest of Linux notes from DarkDuck and Zinio.

Linux Screenshot Beauty Contest from DarkDuck (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:49:00 +0000

Everyday Linux User has recently published a gallery of screenshots from his distrohopping life. It gave me idea to do the same, but in a slightly different manner.

If you read my blog for some time, you remember the times when I did my own reviews. Most of them were accompanied by the screenshot or two. Here I republish some screenshots. Maybe it will intrigue you well enough to come back to the review itself and, even more, try the Linux distribution I wrote about.

What do these screenshots have in common? Few things:

All of them are from Linux distributions
All of them feature my blog's page
All of them have a nice female on the YouTube video

That's why I name this Linux Screenshot Beauty Contest. Interested? Let's go!

Debian KDE

Kubuntu 11.10 Live

Kubuntu 11.10 installed

Ubuntu 11.10 Live

Ubuntu 11.10 installed

Ubuntu 11.10 with GNOME3

Kademar

Fedora 16 GNOME3

Fedora 16 KDE

Pardus Corporate

Ububox SalentOS

Xubuntu 11.10 Live

Xubuntu 11.10 installed

Linux Mint 12

Agilia Linux 8.0.0

Austrumi

Of course, that's not all. Did you like the gallery? Which distribution and screenshot do you prefer most?

Wait for a second part of screenshot gallery! Stay tune! Stay subscribed!

Linux saved my life

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:27:00 +0000

Around 2005 I decided to educate myself in computers as an extension of my trade: radio-technician. Cheap imports meant that our trade was just about obsolete. Studying commercial software from one of the two IT giants though did not satisfy my curiosity of wanting to know what happens behind the screen.

A couple of years into my IT studies and I came across Ubuntu 6, tried it and immediately got hooked. I tried many flavours of Linux and at some stage sported over 10 partitions on my laptop but finally settled back to Ubuntu Linux.

I had been divorced a few years earlier, had a lot of time on my own and Linux came as a heaven-sent to take my mind off the blues I still had.

Dark thoughts had been on my mind but Linux saved my life!

Here was a field of important technology that I could immerse myself in. Here I could see the workings of a computer without the restrictions of patents and secrecy. There are many Tux lovers who helped me via forums to overcome bugs and other problems and now I'm able to help others. I feel that by using one of the Linux distros I'm privileged to be a member of a very important brother/sister-hood.

I have only a ten year old laptop. With the demand of today's software, example: firefox takes a third of my RAM, it has become very frustrating. In spite of many challenges I march on and keep on tweaking.

Now I use Ubuntu 12.04 run like Lucid by using gnome-fallback and even using some Lucid packages.

The top gnome-panel acts like a monitor for cpu%, temperature, net-speed, keyboard switch, time, date and more while Cairo-Dock makes the most used programs available at the Mac-like bar at the bottom.

Conky, the life desktop background integrated monitor shows me important activity and usages and even the weather forecast.

A tweaked clock to suit the dark theme and calendar screenlet add a sense of time to the desktop which I otherwise loose and get dates mixed up.

Compiz looks after using a gentle and impressive way to open and shut windows; no sudden pop-ups to stir up my quiet and peaceful existence. Emerald, yes it still exists and gets maintained, allows me to tweak the window frames to my likings and to suit the current theme.

I love Linux and I use the other, commercial OS only occasionally as I can do just about everything on Linux.

This is a guest post by Rolf Sommerhalder, which won a prize in the joint contest of Linux notes from DarkDuck and Zinio.

Another level taken: 600 subscribers

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:32:00 +0000

I have stopped actively writing for this blog in October 2012, half a year ago. Most of materials published here since that day are guest posts, written by other authors. Frequency of updates is lower now than it was before. You can see it from the statistics.

However, the number of subscribers of this blog continues to grow!

I am happy to announce today that the number of people who read this blog on a regular basis is over 600.

I'd like to say THANK YOU to all my readers and supporters! I very much appreciate your attention, your time, your interest.

Of course, I welcome all new readers of this blog, and ask you to subscribe by any method available: twitter, facebook, RSS or e-mail.

OpenSuSE 12.3 – the Cheater

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:31:00 +0000

I don't like OpenSuSE. I've tried it several times, and I always was disappointed.

However, I recently read an article by Dedoimedo, which praised OpenSuSE 12.3 as the best in the 12.x series. I also got a comment on my OpenSuSE 12.2 article, in which the commenter said that the 12.3 version is much better than 12.2. And last but not least, I recently got an order for OpenSuSE 12.3 disk from one of my customers.

That's why I decided to check OpenSuSE 12.3 for myself.

If you hoped to see the full-blown review of this operating system, unfortunately I have to disappoint you. I shall simply send you to Dedoimedo's article linked above.

I will write, for the 45th time probably, about what I consider the rubbish software and update management system OpenSuSE uses.

So, let's start the Live session of OpenSuSE 12.3 KDE, run the Install/Remove Software application, which is located in the Computer section of the main menu.

OpenSuSE 12.3 YaST

Type "Chromium" in the search string and hit Search. In the list that appears, tick the checkbox next to the Chromium line. You have a few more lines that will be autoselected here. They are logical dependencies, as you can notice.

Chromium browser and its direct dependencies

And now click Accept. First of all, you have to accept two more license agreements for software, not mentioned anywhere on the earlier screens: Adobe Flash Plugin and GStreamer Fluendo plugin. Finally, you have a list of additional components Yast (OpenSuSE's software management tool) imposes on you.

None of the items in this list can be deselected. Drop-down list at the top only filters the view, but not the follow-up process.

The text at the very top of the window reads:

In addition to your manual selections, the following packages have been changed to resolve dependencies.

If you scroll through the list, you can find there brilliant dependencies of Chromium browser like MozillaFirefox-translations-common, kdeartwork4-wallpapers-weather, gtk3-branding-openSUSE etc.

Will anyone in the world in a rational state of mind believe that the Chromium browser could actually depend on Firefox translations or OpenSuSE branding?

Dear OpenSuSE developers! Could you please read this carefully: don't take your users as dummies and newbies. Call things by their correct names. If you decide to impose an overall system update, call it an update. If a user wants to install only one application, let him install that one application, then inform him of a necessary update without insisting he perform it at once as a price for requesting something new.

Overall, I really do think that OpenSuSE 12.3 is the best in the OpenSuSE 12.x range. But that's far not the best operating system. And, I should admit, this is not the honest operating system. It's a cheater!

Do you want to try OpenSuSE 12.3 yourself? Then why not order the disk with this operating system from BuyLinuxCDs site?

Linux on the Mini PC

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:27:00 +0000

The recent emergence of the mini PC has opened up new horizons for the Linux user.

The form factor of the Mini PC is a square having approximately the same dimension as the long side of a DVD box and thin in profile. The mini PC is designed to be very power efficient, typically using a 65 Watt power supply. The CPU is a low-voltage power efficient type, there are no fans, and the power supply is often an external DC adaptor like that of a laptop. Because there are no fans, the computer runs silently.

Sapphire EDGE VS8

My mini computer is equipped with an AMD Trinity quad core 1.6GHz processor, and it runs not much slower than a desktop Intel quad core i7 computer, thanks to the efficiency of the built-in AMD Radeon graphics. I measured the CPU temperature when the computer was in an idle state to be 9 degrees C higher than an Intel quad core i7 computer which was running the same operating system.

There are two types of mini PCs on the market: those for Windows and those for Linux. The most suitable OS to use can be determined by studying the specifications. I estimate that the copy of Windows Vista that I had available to install on the computer would have run three times slower than Ubuntu 12.04 which I installed. This is because Vista is slow anyway, and the 32-bit version I had couldn't take advantage of all of the available RAM.

The installation of Ubuntu 12.04 from a USB flash drive was straightforward. Everything worked out of the box, including the proprietary graphics driver which I installed from the Ubuntu Software Center.

Now the only problem left was to get rid of the annoying AMD logo watermark in the lower right hand corner of the screen. I searched the Ubuntu forums for help, and came up with several answers which I tried one after the other, but nothing worked.

I decided to relax and give myself six months to think about it before I tried to make any major changes to my system. This strategy has worked for me in the past, and after all, everything was working. Two days later I found a bash script for getting rid of the watermark, and now everything works for me 100%.

This is a guest post by Karl Jablin, which won a prize in the joint contest of Linux notes from DarkDuck and Zinio.

image: wikimedia, sapphire

Tux moves house... again!

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:35:00 +0000

Does Tux really like to move house?

I've written about this already, when I first changed the HDD in my laptop. I moved the same HDD from an HP Compaq C300 to a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi 1505. The HDD had 4 operating systems installed: Windows XP, Mageia 1 KDE, Linux Mint XFCE and Debian Squeeze. I made a conclusion at that time that WinXP survived the move the best.

The list of operating systems installed on that HDD have changed a bit since then. Linux Mint Xfce has gone, and Xubuntu 12.04 arrived in its place. Mageia 1 got upgraded to Mageia 2. Windows XP and Debian only got security updates, but remained at the same version level.

Unfortunately, the Fujitsu-Siemens laptop did not last long. Less than 1.5 years in my hands, and the backlight on the screen went bust. To be honest, the laptop had been used by somebody else before, so the actual lifespan of the device was significantly more than 1.5 years.

What was inside the Fujitsu-Siemens?

Intel Centrino, dual core 1.73 GHz
1GB RAM
CD/DVD-RW
Intel video card
Intel 3945ABG WiFi card

After the backlight failed, I set myself the task of buying a new laptop. My choice was a Sony VAIO VGN-NR21Z. Of course, it had also been used by someone else, but it was described as "in very good condition".

What does this laptop have?

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1 GHz
3GB RAM
CD/DVD-RW
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT GPU
Intel 4965 AGN WiFi card

Just a few words about the design of devices. I mentioned in my previous article that it took me much more time to put the HDD into the Fujitsu-Siemens laptop than to take the same HDD out of HP Compaq. But only now have I realized that the Fujitsu-Siemens was actually well-designed! If you have ever tried to swap the HDD in Sony VAIO VGN-NR21Z, you would know that you need to unscrew literally 2 dozen screws of different sizes just to get the frame with the HDD out. Plus 4 screws more to take the HDD itself out of the frame! Of course, you need to put all these screws back when you are finished! That's real torture!

Anyway, I went through that exercise, and my new Sony laptop is ready for the test. Are the operating systems ready? Let's see!

First boot...

and good news that I can see the same GRUB menu. It means that the HDD is recognised, and the low-level video modes of GRUB are working fine with the video card and screen panel.

Who will be the guinea pig #1?

Windows XP! It was the leader last time...

But it is not the leader this time. Windows went directly into BSOD and immediate restart. Bin it!

Guinea pig #2 was Debian

Debian Squeeze showed me a normal start. Of course, there were some error lines during the first boot, but nothing serious. I cannot say for sure, but by all the requisites I could check, the Nouveau NVIDIA driver was automatically switched on. The wireless card worked without any issues.

Second boot of Debian OS did not show any error messages. Have I actually changed the laptop? Looks like Debian hasn't even noticed that!

Sony VAIO VGN-NR21Z does not have hardware sound controls. Instead, the key combinations Fn-F3 and Fn-F4 work as Volume down and Volume up. When I pressed these keys, they showed me an on-screen display and worked just fine.

Similar to the sound controls, screen brightness controls (Fn-F5 and Fn-F6) showed the on-screen display, but had no real effect.

Guinea pig #3 was Xubuntu

Xubuntu 12.04 showed me a normal start too. The proprietary NVIDIA driver was listed in the Additional Drivers section of System menu, and installed just fine. Wireless card worked without any issues.

Sound controls (Fn-F3 and Fn-F4) showed on-screen display and work perfectly. Unfortunately, brightness controls (Fn-F5 and Fn-F6) had no effect at all.

And the last guinea pig - my favourite Mageia

Unfortunately for me, first boot into Mageia brought me some problems. This operating system did not have a driver for the WiFi network card Intel 4965 AGN "in stock". I had to temporarily connect the laptop to a wired Internet to download the driver. The process worked fine and did not take much time. I had a wireless connection very soon.

Mageia asked me to install the proprietary NVIDIA driver when I went to the Mageia Control Centre, Configure Graphical Server section. Installation took some time, but proceeded OK.

Sound controls (Fn-F3 and Fn-F4) had no effect at all.

Screen brightness controls (Fn-F5 and Fn-F6) only showed me an on-screen display, but had no real effect.

Conclusion

What are the ratings of the operating systems for the ability to move house? Last time the clear winner was WinXP, followed by Linux Mint Xfce, Debian and Mageia.

The situation is different this time. My rating is:

Debian Squeeze
Xubuntu 12.04
Mageia 2
Windows XP

The difference between Squeeze and 12.04 is marginal. Debian managed to show an OSD for brightness controls, which 12.04 did not. However, neither OS was able to change the screen brightness with these keys.

Similar to the previous time, Mageia gave me the most problems out of all Linux-based operating systems.

And Windows, like it is commonly said, "must die". It died. It won't be resurrected.

What's next?

Even though all Linux operating systems are working fine now, I made my own decision to do a full wipe of HDD and do fresh installations.

First of all, because I want to get rid of Windows XP, which took the biggest partition on my laptop's HDD, mostly acting like a storage. It means re-partitioning of the Hard Disk Drive.

Secondly, I have another project, which can benefit from me having an additional software installed in a separate partition. Unfortunately, this does not mean getting rid of Windows at all. Which project do I mean? I'll keep it secret and will only answer in personal e-mails!

Keep in touch!

The truth about being a full time geek

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:44:00 +0000

When I was at school the term geek was a derogatory word directed at people who spent a lot of time on a ZX Spectrum, was part of a chess club or played a musical instrument in the school orchestra. Unfortunately I was one of those people who fell into all three categories.

Nowadays the term geek is considered cool. Being a geek means you are knowledgeable in a particular subject and that you have spent a lot of time within the specialised field for which you are termed a geek.

What does all this have to do with Linux? Well the true geek, the one that played chess every lunchtime so that they wouldn't have to go outside and play, they still exist and the geekdom weighs down heavily on their shoulders.

You see a lot of people didn't stop using Windows and use Linux just because it was better. That was never the plan. The true geek used Linux when it was a mere shell of an operating system and being a geek doesn't actually mean you are knowledgeable about the whole thing and that you know what you are doing.

The inner geek wants to play and Linux is the ultimate playground. There is so much choice. There are a dozen different desktop environments and hundreds of different distributions each with their own unique slant on the way a computer should be used.

The trouble with being like this however is that no one distribution is every enough. The term distrohopper has been invented for people who continually jump from distribution to distribution and we don't do it because the distribution we are using now has anything wrong with it. We do it because first of all we can and secondly it is the need to know. Is there something in that other distribution that isn't in all the others?

A true geek will have attempted Linux From Scratch and will have repartitioned their hard drive on multiple occasions. The true geek appreciates Ubuntu for what it is but hasn't actually used it in quite some time. The true geek owns a Raspberry PI. Why? It is the ultimate toy. There is a new game to be played. Who can do the most impressive thing with the Raspberry PI?

Of course being a geek doesn't mean you are particularly any more intelligent than other people and your level of ability may be insignificant to other great minds who just seem to be able to build amazing things with the minimum of effort. It doesn't stop you trying though.

Being a geek is both a blessing and a curse. How I got married I will never know? I'm constantly complained at for being on that blasted computer.

Linux is there for everyone. It is so easy to use now that anyone can do it. For the chess club members and Sinclair Spectrum programmers of the past there is still a big enough maze to get lost in. A place to hide away from real life.

This is a guest post by Gary Newell, which won the 1st prize in the joint contest of Linux notes from DarkDuck and Zinio. Gary received a subscription to his favourite magazine and a disk with his favourite distribution Mageia 2 KDE from Buy Linux CDs.

Images by campuspartymexico and NeoGaboX

The Results of Zinio Contest

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:44:00 +0000

This is a time now to tell that the joint contest which Linux notes from DarkDuck ran together with Zinio is now over.

The winners were contacted by e-mail, and they will receive their free subscriptions soon. Also, Gary Newell receives a free CD with distribution of his choice.

Do you want to know who other winners are? Please subscribe to this blog, and you will see the winning articles in the course of 2013.

If you’re disappointed you could not win this time, or learnt about the contest too late, I have good news for you. This is not the last contest from Linux notes from DarkDuck. Don’t miss it – subscribe to updates using any methods available in the side column of this site.

ZINIO contest extended

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:18:00 +0000

Are you aware that Linux notes from DarkDuck runs a contest together with Zinio? I hope you are.

And I am sure you have already submitted your entry. Not yet? I am happy to announce that the contest dates extended! You have 5 more days to submit your articles. Closing date is now the ~~31st of March~~ 5th of April 2013.

Good luck!

Order your own disk with Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu or Lubuntu 13.04 NOW!!!

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:03:00 +0000

With the coming release of next long-term support version of Ubuntu 13.04 just a month away, many of you already looking for downloading of your own ISO image of the system.
But many of you are not so lucky, and will need to wait longer, because you can not or do not want to create their own CDs with operating system images.
Here we are to help!
You can pre-order your own copy of Ubuntu 13.04 (or Xubuntu, or Lubuntu, or Kubuntu) right now. It means that a DVD with your favourite OS will be burnt to you as early as possible, and dispatched on the 25th of April, or soon after. Dispatched to anywhere in the world.
How you can get the DVD? Go to http://buylinuxcds.co.uk site, purchase the Ubuntu DVD from there, and in the PayPal comments state that you want version 13.04. If you want K-, L- or Xubuntu, state it also in the same comment. That's easy.

To help you even further, here is a mini-shop which you can use straight away. It supports PayPal checkout, similar to Buy Linux CDs site. And you even don't need a PayPal account to pay - you can do this with your credit a debit card!

UK (2.00 GBP):

Ubuntu 13.04 pre-order (UK)
Variation

USA (6.50 USD):

Ubuntu 13.04 pre-order (USA)
Variation

Other countries (4.50 GBP):

Ubuntu 13.04 pre-order (Other countries)
Variation

And yet another alternative: you can purchase the same disks via eBay.

From US Soldier to IT Manager... with Linux Mint

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:32:00 +0000

During my earlier years, I was in the US military as an enlisted soldier. Money was extremely tight for my wife and I, but I had a passion for computers.

I couldn't afford a new system, and certainly couldn't afford to pay for Microsoft Windows. So, I purchased a used computer from a yard sale that had no operating system on it.

A friend gave me a Linux Mint (version 6) CD-ROM, and I installed it on the system. Since then, I have tried many different operating systems on many different computers.

I now own a tech services store and am IT manager for two businesses. We use Linux Mint at work, at the store, and promote it with our customers daily.

Although I dabble with many different Linux distributions, nothing comes close to matching Linux Mint.

From freedom came elegance. From elegance came stability, reliability, and usability.

This is a guest post by David Bowlin, which won the 2nd prize in the Linux Mint contest where the main prize was the book Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner’s Guide. David received the second prize: a disk with his favourite distribution Linux Mint Cinnamon from Buy Linux CDs.

Win a Free Magazine Subscription in the Zinio Contest

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:21:00 +0000

The contest is over! The results are announced!

The latest contest, which I organized together with PACKT Publishing, is now over. Results announced and prizes are on their way.

Now I am already happy to announce a new contest!

This time round, Linux notes from DarkDuck runs a contest together with Zinio.

Zinio is a great place to subscribe to your favourite magazines in an electronic format.

Just few facts about Zinio:

Thousands of top magazines from around the world. You can browse and purchase subscriptions or single issues instantly from your computer or mobile device to read wherever and whenever you like
Explore section lets you read – even without a subscription – thousands of articles from your favorite magazines and share them with friends
Use on iPad, iPhone, Android mobile phones and tablets, laptop or desktop
For use on Kindle Fire, follow these steps: http://imgs.zinio.com/faq/fire.html

In particular, Zinio distributes iconic Linux-related magazines like Linux Format, Linux User and Developer and others. Of course, more magazines available too: from PC Magazine to Cosmopolitain, from PC World to Garden Illustrated Magazine.

If you participate in this contest, you have a chance to receive one of ten FREE subscriptions to any one of magazines from Zinio assortment! Yes, that means FREE!!! Plus, one winner will also receive a disk with his favourite Linux distribution from Buy Linux CDs.

This contest is organised together by Zinio, Linux notes from DarkDuck and Buy Linux CDs.

Who can participate?

Everyone with a passion for Linux, and with some writing skills. If you're good enough to compose a short e-mail to your friend, then you're ready for the contest.

What you need to do?

Please write a short story about Linux.

What to write about? The choice is yours. Just a few examples: Why do you use Linux? How did you come to the Linux world? What do you like here? What are you doing to promote Linux? Any of these, or maybe your own themes are good.

The text you're going to write should not be one-liner. Please be a little bit more productive. At least 50 words, if you don't mind.

Where to send your works?

Please e-mail them to zinio.contest@darkduck.com.

When to send?

Any time until the ~~31st of March 2013~~ 5th of April 2013.

What will you get?

Organizers of the contest will select 10 winners, and they will receive:

One free disk with a Linux distribution of winner's choice from Buy Linux CDs.
One of ten subscriptions to a magazine of their choice.

Will my work be published?

By submitting your work, you allow organizers to use your work on their web sites, unless you specifically withdraw your permission in writing.

When will results be announced?

The results will be announced on the ~~2nd~~ 7th of April 2013 or soon after.
The winners will be contacted by e-mail with a request to provide e-mail for subscription registration, and name the magazine they want to subscribe for.

Small print:

One prize per contestant, except for one winner who will receive both a subscription and a disk.
Decisions of contest organizers are binding, and cannot be changed.
Prizes cannot be exchanged for money.
In order to get the prize, you must provide your e-mail and postal address for disk delivery. Your postal address will be kept confidential and never disclosed to 3rd parties. E-mail address will be used by Zinio to register your subscription.
Winners must respond the requests within 5 calendar days. If there is no response, the prize will be withheld.

Linux Mint is better for those who come from the world of Windows

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 01:45:00 +0000

Back in 2010 I was looking for jobs and I´ve always had a hobby interest in computer and found out that some work ads were asking for basic Linux skills.

I had not heard of Linux until then.

So I started asking friends who’s into computing if they knew about Linux and pretty soon I was told that Ubuntu 10.04 LTS was probably the easiest Linux and with GNOME 2.x it was awesome.

I discovered pretty quickly that Ubuntu Linux was very powerful and used almost no resources compared to Windows 7.

My laptop was reborn again and it had turned into a supercomputer!

Soon I discovered a lot more Linux Distros and started reading Linux Format Magazine.

While Ubuntu was great for me, the introduction of Unity and GNOME 3 made me look towards other distros. Linux Mint was actually better in the way that it’s a lot better suited (probably the best) for those who come from the world of Windows.

It has codecs, flash and other things that can be a little troublesome or even a pain in other distros.

Linux Mint Debian is my favourite and while I still try out a lot of other distros from time to time, Linux Mint Debian has come to be my "go to" distro from which I learn about Linux while still having everything I need.

Eventually I will run Windows in a virtualbox instead of dual booting.

When gaming and NVIDIA drivers work fully on Linux, I’m 100% Linux Mint user but now I still need 10% windows.

I tell my family and friends about Linux Mint and tell that if they have a old and tired Windows PC I can turn it into a ultra modern computer with a version of Linux Mint.

I just revived a work friends old laptop with Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon and he said “WOW, it’s great!” When he couldn't get messenger running I wrote him an instruction on how to add the i386 architecture and Skype so that he could continue using the MSN Messenger through Skype and talk to his friends.

I did this for free because I want to keep everything Linux free and spread the joy of Linux Mint system to all.

I also work in a hospital and they have about 80 000 clients and I've been trying to introduce Linux to them and pointing out all the license money they would save from using Linux instead of Windows.

So now I use Linux Mint Debian both Mate and Cinnamon to discover the differences and it's dominating my computer use.

This is a guest post by Gustav Fridell, which won the 1st prize in the Linux Mint contest. Gustav received a prize: the book Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner’s Guide.

Some more off-line publications

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 01:02:00 +0000

It is actually not the first time this happens, but it is always nice to see that my articles are being published in a printed form.

The people from the magazine User and Linux, which is published in Ukraine in Russian, are my old friends. They have published some of my articles previously, and I have even made an interview with their ex-Chief Editor.

December issue of U&L saw 4 articles with my name in them. Here is the list:

Zorin OS - the gateway to Linux for Windows users (page 14). This is an interview with Artyom Zorin.
Eugeni Dodonov about Slackware and his work at Miscrosoft (page 19). This is an interview with Eugeni Dodonov, probably his last in Russian.
Benefits of using Linux (page 30). This is a translation of my own article.
Linux, OSX, Unix and malware (page 87). This is my translation of original article from ERACC.

Feel free to re-read the articles either in Russian in the magazine, or in English on my and ERACC's sites.

Linux Mint Contest Results

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:30:00 +0000

Time flies by very quickly.

It seems that only yesterday I announced a Linux Mint contest on my blog.

Now it is time to tell you who the winners are.

Drums please!!

The winner, who will receive the book Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner's Guide from PACKT Publishing, is Gustav Fridell. He wrote a whole essay about impact Linux Mint made in his life.

The runner up, who will receive a Linux distribution of his choice on a disk from Buy Linux CDs, is Dave Bowlin.

I will contact the winners shortly and ask their preferred delivery addresses.

If you have not won, or learnt about this contest too late, don't despair! You can still purchase the book or disk with Linux Distribution!

UK:	US/worldwide:

And, of course, stay tuned to read the winning articles!

9 Best Tools for LINUX Admin

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:30:00 +0000

System managers are in serious need of the right tools to help manage their systems and environments. There are many different Linux tools that can help administration managers deal with unruly environments. These tools are some of the most highly rated in the business. While the following list of tools may not be the most well known tools, they are by far some of the best Linus tools that can help administrators in a variety of ways. The benefits of these tools are truly limitless.

Webmin

Webmin is an exceptional web based platform that is not just for Linux. It is also for other operating systems. This system is capable of streamlines tasks and is written in Pearl. This is one of the best tools for system managers. It can also configure implementations that are very complex of Apache, Send Mail, and MYSQL.

Tcpdump

This tool analyzes network traffic to help fix problems within the system. This system is capable of completely dump traffic that is IP related to a file or to a screen to be analyzed. It is not the prettiest program, but it gets the job done.

Virtual Network Computing

This tool is known as Tight VNC, Ultra VNC, and Real VNC. This remote access tool is one of the most popular among Linux users and it is easy to see why. In fact, users have been singing the praises of this tool in reviews. It is by far one of the most popular tools used among Linux users. This should be a part of any Linux user’s arsenal.

Gnome Partition Editor

This is a powerful tool to have working for you. Users can erase, edit, and resize the partitions without letting any damage come to the existing data. Just about all file systems are supported by this program. It is truly one of a kind.

Deny Host

This program allows users to monitor logins that are not authorized. It is a Python script that records entries that are denied. System administrators need to have this tool working for them.

Nagios

Nagios is a tool that monitors your network. It monitors protocols, hosts, and services. Alert and resolve problems within the network immediately with this awesome tool. Capacity planning abilities as well as extensions and add ons make this program a must have.

Linux Rescue CD

This tool can be used for just about anything that you can imagine. No system is unmanageable with the use of this extraordinary tool. It leaves nothing to be desired. It is easy to see why this tool is so very popular among system managers. It is easy to use and provides a number of different benefits to users.

Drop box

Many users love Drop box for a variety of reasons. This cross platform tool should be a part of any system administrator’s pile of tools. Users can enjoy all of their files while out and about on the go. You can enjoy all of the benefits this program has to offer by downloading a free version. Drop box is widely used and very well known. No Linux system administrator should be without this program added to their tool box. You would be amazed by how beneficial Drop box is.

Darik’s Boot and Nuke

This tool may be slow to work, but it does work very effectively. This boot disk completely erases hard drives from computers. Systems can easily be disposed of using this exceptional tool. All data that is deleted using this tool is one hundred percent unrecoverable. Check out this tool if you are a system administrator.

Author Bio: The article is written by a very experienced writer Jason Phillips. He is very much tech freak and also written various times on technology related services. Decision Desk application tracking software is the topic of his new article.

Linux Mint Contest

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:10:00 +0000

This contest is now over.

Linux notes from DarkDuck, together with other organizers, recently ran a contest for the lovers of Zorin OS. That contest had a great success. That's why I think this is a good idea to repeat the contest.

PACKT Publishing has recently announced the release of their book Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner's Guide. This is a good reason to run a contest about Linux Mint, and award the winner with a FREE copy of the book.

Of course, you still have an option to buy this book:

UK:	US/worldwide:

However, read on to get a chance to get it for FREE!

This contest is organised together by PACKT Publishing, Linux notes from DarkDuck and Buy Linux CDs.

Who can participate?

Everyone with a passion for Linux, and with some writing skills. If you're good enough to compose a short e-mail to your friend, then you're ready for the contest.

What you need to do?

Please write a short story about Linux Mint, or maybe just Linux in general.

Why do you use Linux? How did you come to the Linux world? What do you like here? What are you doing to promote Linux? Any of these, or maybe your own themes are good.

It would be better, if your post is about Linux Mint, but this is just "nice to have".

The text you're going to write should not be one-liner. Please be little bit more productive. At least 50 words, if you don't mind.

To increase your chances of winning keep visiting this page - Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner’s Guide.

Where to send your works?

Please e-mail them to linuxmint.contest@darkduck.com.

When to send?

Any time until the 27th of February 2013.

What will you get?

Organizers of the contest will select winners, and they will receive:

One free copy of the book Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner's Guide.
One free disk with a Linux distribution of winner's choice from Buy Linux CDs.

Will my work be published?

By submitting your work, you allow organizers to use your work on their web sites, unless you specifically withdraw your permission in writing.

When will results be announced?

The results will be announced on the 3rd of March 2013 or soon after.
The winners will be contacted by e-mail.

Small print:

One prize per contestant.
Decisions of contest organizers are binding, and cannot be changed.
Prizes cannot be exchanged for money.
In order to get your prizes, you must provide your postal address. This will be kept confidential and never disclosed to 3rd parties.
Winners must respond the requests within 14 calendar days. If there is no response, the prize will be withheld.

SLAX 7.0: The Comeback

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:15:00 +0000

It was the operating system I was waiting for a long time, simply because I felt nostalgic about it.

SLAX

SLAX 6 was (practically) the first Linux operating system I tried. It was the subject of the first review I wrote. Unfortunately, Tomas M, the author of SLAX, abandoned the project after version 6 was released. That is why branches of SLAX, like Porteus, sprang up.

After all this time, Tomas M. has returned to the business. The new version of his famous operating system, SLAX 7.0, was released in the middle of December 2012. I downloaded that release soon after, but, unfortunately, it took a significant amount of time before I had a chance to try the OS and to write the review. While I was doing it, SLAX went through several releases, and SLAX 7.0.4 was released not so long ago. It fixed some issues I noticed, but more about that later.

The image size of SLAX 7.0 is notably small. Depending on the language, it weighs between 210 and 220 Mb. Yes, you read it right. The full operating system weighs less than quarter of gigabyte! You can download each language version as an ISO for CD, or as a ZIP file for USB stick. The USB version also includes some other files needed to "burn" the image to the live USB itself.

I downloaded the ZIP file, unpacked it in my Xubuntu installation and clicked on the .sh file.

Creating the USB stick

...Nothing happened. It did not work. I tried different methods to run the .sh file, I tried it in different operating systems: Xubuntu, Mageia and Debian. Nothing worked. Finally, I dropped the idea. Even though there was a .sh script for this, it simply did not work. Finally, I was able to create the Live USB with the .bat installation file in Windows XP.

SLAX 7.0 installer error

By the way, version SLAX 7.0.4 seems to fix this issue.

It was a time for me to start playing with SLAX. Actually, it took me several weeks between the USB stick creation and the test itself. Anyway...

The stick is in the port of my laptop Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 1505. Reboot. Choose to boot from USB. Let's go!

Firing up SLAX

The initial boot screen of SLAX 7.0 has 3 seconds delay, during which you can change the boot parameters, for example boot SLAX without graphical environment, or without persistence, or copy the OS fully into RAM for even speedier results.

I went on with the default options, persistence and graphical environment.

The boot process itself did not take much time. You can expect this from the tiny size of the distribution and from the fact that is run from the USB stick.

After few seconds, I got to the default screen.

User interface

The screen itself in SLAX 7.0 is in the familiar KDE4 style, with a rather wide panel at the bottom. Yes, you will be surprised again: 215 Mb of distribution includes KDE4! That's a trick of the tricks! But not the last you will hear from me here, I assure you.

SLAX 7.0 default desktop

The panel in SLAX 7.0 contains three buttons in the bottom-left corner: Kick-off menu, terminal and Firefox browser.

The right corner of the panel contains clocks, network indicator, screen parameters, volume control, language indicator and some of the other usual suspects, like USB device monitor, battery monitor and Klipper.

The default wallpaper is in a light-green palette with a SLAX's Tuxin the centre. There are no alternative wallpapers in the default distribution.

Links to Software Centre and User Guide are in the top-left corner of the screen. Unfortunately, neither of them works from the very start, because they are not real applications, but rather links to the Internet pages. Obviously, you first need to connect to the Internet to make them workable. That's quite strange, since you might suppose that the User Guide would actually contain instructions for the Internet connection.

There is no virtual desktop switch on the panel by default, but it is not a big deal to add this element to the panel. Of course, standard KDE widgets like CPU and memory monitors are also here.

Network... or the absence of it

A network indicator is in the bottom-right corner of the panel in SLAX 7.0. Unfortunately, I was not able to connect to my home wireless network. The reason was very ordinary: SLAX comes without a driver for my wireless network card Intel 3945ABG. Even though there are quite a few drivers available in the /lib/firmware, the particular driver for this card is not included.

There are a couple of README files in that firmware directory, and one of them says that author decided to include only the smallest drivers in the distribution. How ever explanatory the reason was, it did not help me to connect.

Keyboard layouts

The keyboard layout indicator is also in the bottom-right corner of the panel in SLAX 7.0. This time round, I was luckier than with network. I was able to add Russian to the list of default layouts: English UK and English US. Keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift also worked fine and allowed me to switch layouts. In other words, in a few clicks I was able to configure the keyboard behaviour to my taste. The only small downside was that SLAX lists languages in their 3-character abbreviations (rus, est, fra), not in full names (Russian, Estonian, French).

SLAX 7.0 correctly recognized and configured the touchpad on my laptop. I was able to do double-click on it as usual. However, edge scrolling was not activated by default, and I did not find the configuration utility for touchpad.

Applications

SLAX 7.0 comes with a quite limited set of software. Understandable? Yes. But let's looks what is actually inside.

Firefox 17.0.1 is the default internet browser. It comes with some add-ons, which is quite unusual. If you remember, most distributions only include the basic browser, and leave it up to the user to install plugins. SLAX 7.0 is different.

I cannot say that the presence of plugins made me unhappy. On the contrary, one of those add-ons made me quite happy. This is FXChrome, which makes Firefox to look similar to Chrome, my favourite browser. This is the add-on I recommended in my Chromofox article.

You may think that Firefox is the only browser in SLAX 7.0, because nothing else is listed in the Internet section of the menu. However, type in "kon" in the menu search tool, and you will find Konqueror, the KDE-native browser. It is available in SLAX 7.0 too! I presume Konqueror is propagated too deep into the KDE core to leave it aside.

Other than Firefox and Konqueror, SLAX 7.0 includes KRDC remote desktop viewer, Pidgin internet messenger, KNetAttach network partition management tool and Krfb desktop sharing tool.

SLAX 7.0 includes half a dozen simple games, all of them are KDE-native ones.

There are some simple graphical tools in SLAX 7.0: Gwenview image viewer, Okular PDF viewer, KolourPain, and Ksnapshot.

Multimedia tools in SLAX 7.0 include SMPlayer, JuK and KMix. Not the richest selection, but still enough for a start.

There are not very many System tools in SLAX: system monitor, system settings, Dolphin file manager and InfoCentre. This is the full list of that menu section.

Utilities also include only basic tools: Kate text editor, Ark archiving utility, Calculator, System sweeper and a few more.

In general, SLAX comes with a decent minimum of applications to start your work. However, you will likely need more tools for more comfortable work: Libre or OpenOffice, GIMP, VLC and whatnot.

There is a separate section on SLAX's web site that allows you to download additional modules. Unfortunately, that section was empty when I downloaded my SLAX image in mid-December 2012. Now, in the middle of January 2013, it has started to fill in. For example, you can find Abiword and Gnumeric office applications (a strange choice for a KDE-based distribution!), Lynx and Links browsers, and some more.

Unfortunately, that Modules section does not have proper classification rules. For example, you can find KFloppy floppy disk manager in Multimedia and Network sections. Wicd network manager is in Multimedia section, and so forth.

Multimedia

Do you remember that SLAX 7.0 comes in about 215 Mb of size, which already includes KDE4. That might seem impossible. However, you will be absolutely shocked in a few seconds.

SLAX 7.0 also includes all the necessary codecs for multimedia playback out of the box! SMPlayer was able to play back both MP3 and video files, which I found on my hard disk.

SLAX 7.0 comes with all the necessary codecs

Wow!

General feelings

SLAX 7.0 was very light on resources. Even with some applications started, like Kate, Konsole and Firefox, the memory usage was just above 300 Mb. Many distributions take more just to boot themselves!

Because of that light resource requirements and usage, the system felt very snappy and fast. I have nothing to complain about here.

Although, what is my general feeling about SLAX?

I'd say that SLAX 7.0 is not recommended for beginners. SLAX 6 was not designed for beginners either. The reason is probably the same for both releases: drivers. You cannot receive a guaranteed result for the pocket-sized distribution without drivers for most popular hardware, and an Intel 3945ABG card is one them. It means there is a risk you will be left without a network connection, if you take somebody else's laptop and try to boot it from your own USB stick or CD. That's not the best situation one could imagine.

The second reason for not recommending SLAX for beginners is the lack of software available for this version of the distribution. This issue can be overcome with time, but it does not guarantee that all the necessary applications will be available.

Anyway, I wish Tomas all the best in his re-ignited project! And I will look forward to see new releases!

OpenOffice Writer English Grammar Checkers

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:38:00 +0000

If you wish there was an English grammar checker for OpenOffice Writer, you’re in luck. Two popular extensions let you add an English grammar check to OpenOffice for free.

Does OpenOffice Check Grammar?

Most word processing programs, like Microsoft Word, come with an English grammar checker included. Users of the free full featured office suite, Apache OpenOffice, are often disappointed to find that OpenOffice Writer does not have a built-in English grammar check. However, there are free grammar extensions available for OpenOffice. Two of the most popular extensions are After the Deadline (AtD), and LanguageTool.

After the Deadline

After the Deadline is a free English grammar checker for OpenOffice developed and maintained by Automattic, the same company that developed WordPress.com. Follow the instructions below to install After the Deadline and start automatically checking grammar in your OpenOffice Writer documents for free.

1. Download the Extension File

You can download After the Deadline from OpenOffice.org, or AftertheDeadline.com. You should also make sure you have OpenOffice 3.2.1 or later and Sun Java Runtime Environment 1.6 or higher before installing the extension.

2. Install the Extension

To install the After the Deadline extension, open OpenOffice, click "Tools", and select "Extension Manager" from the drop-down menu. Select the After the Deadline *.oxt extension file, then click "Open". Restart OpenOffice and After the Deadline will be installed.

3. Set Up After the Deadline

Before you use After the Deadline, you will need to specify which grammatical and style issues you would like it to detect. Click "Tools", then select "Extension Manager" from the drop-down menu. Select After the Deadline, then click the "Options" button. Check the boxes for the grammatical and style issues you would like After the Deadline to detect, the click "OK".

4. Start Using After the Deadline

After the Deadline is now set up and ready to use. Begin typing your document in OpenOffice Writer, and grammatical and style issues will be underlined with a blue wavy line. Right-click on an underlined fragment to view a description of the issue and possible solutions. You may select a solution, or click "Ignore Once" to clear the underline. Clicking "Ignore Rule", will disregard similar issues in the same document.

LanguageTool

Language Tool is another grammar checker for OpenOffice Writer which can be used as a standalone application, or embedded in OpenOffice. LanguageTool can even be used online at LanguageTool.org using Java WebStart. You must have Java 6 or later to use WebStart.

Unlike After the Deadline, LanguageTool checks grammar and style in 20 different languages. It is designed to detect errors that typical spelling and grammar checkers would normally miss, like mixing up "there" and "their". It works much like After the Deadline, using a wavy blue underline to highlight grammatical and style issues. Right-click the underlined fragment for an explanation of the error and possible solutions. You may then select a solution or click "Ignore Once". Click "Ignore Rule" to disregard similar errors in the same document.

LanguageTool can be downloaded from OpenOffice.org, or LanguageTool.org. You can install and set up the LanguageTool OpenOffice extension the same way you would install and set up the After the Deadline extension.

Install one of these two popular English grammar checker extensions for Apache OpenOffice and you can quickly and easily check grammatical and style errors in any OpenOffice Writer document for free.

Images are author's own.

Downloadhaus.com brings you the latest free, open source apps with no waiting times or download queues. Get the latest Apache OpenOffice suite that includes Calc, Writer, Impress, Draw and Base.

Mini-interview with ROSA

noreply@blogger.com (DarkDuck) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:02:00 +0000

Some time ago, I wrote an article "How Fresh is the Dew?" That article was about the first release of the Linux distribution named ROSA. In Russian, the word "rosa" means dew, so that was playing with words that time.

I am not sure if the developers of the distribution read my article or not, but the latest release of ROSA, announced on the 19th of December 2012, got the name ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012. You can read the official press release yourself. However, after reading it I decided to ask some clarification questions of Konstantin Kochereshkin, the PR-manager of ROSA Labs.

I think the answers could be interesting for you, that's why I have published them on my blog.

DarkDuck: Is ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012 a new version of ROSA Desktop?

Konstantin Kochereshkin: Yes, this is a new version of ROSA. This version has more rights to claim the ROSA name than all the previous ones taken together.

We only had one product ROSA Desktop 2011 in 2011.

Some reviewers called it Mandriva/ROSA Desktop 2011, because they were almost twins. The same team released them.

We made a decision in 2012 that ROSA should be developed separately from Mandriva, or in parallel, if you prefer to say.

We created our own build system ABF (Automatic Build Farm), moved our Mandriva/ROSA repositories there, and went into a free floating mode.

ROSA Desktop Marathon was the first result. As you might guess, we could not go far from the original Mandriva/Rosa in a few months, and many people noticed Mandriva's issues arising in ROSA.

We worked on the Fresh release much longer and managed to get rid of everything we did not like in Mandriva. Instead, we developed something we thought of as necessary and useful.

DD: Is ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012 a sandbox for new technologies, like Fedora for Red Hat or Sid for Debian?

KK: Yes, this is a playground. After thorough testing throughout our community, we plan to create a commercial product for the corporate market. We have published our product line strategy separately.

DD: Will this version be good for home users, or they should stick to the existing ROSA Desktop?

KK: This is a version for experienced users who know what Linux is and are ready to work on polishing of the product. It is also for a home user, if there is an experienced user nearby.