popcorn and penguins

Free OS Zoo: Try a new OS without leaving the comfort of your current one!

2006-01-28T12:58:00.000-05:00

The Free Operating System Zoo is a website offering an multi-platform emulator that can run disk images of many different Operating Systems including many flavors of Linux, plus *BSDs, Darwin and ReactOS.

read more | digg story

GNU as Communism?!?!

2006-01-28T10:50:00.000-05:00

okay, not to be slanted here, but some silly-ass blogger has created a blog for the sole purpose of bashing GNU/FOSS Software, claiming it will only lead us into some sort of global communist regime...someone care to tell this guy he has his tinfoil hat on too tight?

read more | digg story

frivolous and cute...

2006-01-24T00:58:00.000-05:00

i was bored, i took a silly quiz on BBSpot...

which OS are you??

RIAA/MPAA want to turn back the clock...

2006-01-21T18:17:00.000-05:00

Ars Technica has released an article regarding something the EFF has dug up on the DRM front. Apparently the **AA's are looking to freeze the consumer electronics industry where it stands by replacing "Fair Use" with a policy called "customary historic use"...Double Plus Ungood if you ask me...

read more | digg story

Shiny New DDR Pad for $10?!?!?!

2006-01-18T20:17:00.000-05:00

okay, i'm not a huge Dance Dance Revolution player or anything...but even I can say that this is a hell of a deal...brought to you Kraft...yes. THAT Kraft...as in Purveyors of Processed Cheese Products.

read more | digg story

2005: The Year of Desktop Linux

2006-01-02T11:28:00.000-05:00

Something big finally happened to the Linux community this past year. Linux finally broke through to the desktop market. With Distros like Ubuntu, SuSE and Mandriva (and an honourable mention to Fedora, MEPIS, and Debian, respectively) leading the way into the hearts of new Linux users from every country and every walk of life. From your average desktop user just fed up with Microsoft and Apple's Duopoly, to Government offices and big businesses looking for a stable, secure solution for their servers and workstations.

And on the software front...many developers have started cross-platforming their software and adopting GPL licences, two recent examples that i've personally seen are the development teams for the MMORPG "Second Life" and the Video Sharing application "Veoh!", though while both companies have yet to actually release the linux ports of their software...they have made the community aware that they either plan to, or in Veoh's case there is already a pre-alpha release, but only for use by those under the employ of the Veoh developers. These two companies are not the only ones, though...many more are realizing the potential Linux has, and not just in the realms of software development and server applications.

If this is what 2005 brought us, then 2006 looks to be an exciting year for Linux...in fact for all FOSS Software.

Spit & Polished Sweetness: Initial Thoughts on KDE 3.5

2005-12-17T18:00:00.000-05:00

So, Today I decided to go and upgrade from KDE 3.4.1 to the shiny new 3.5. I logged out, started GNOME, started YaST, searched for KDE, and let YaST do the voodoo it does so well. after about an hour, YaST finished and I restarted XServer. I logged into KDE, and was immediately impressed by the improvements, subtle though they may be.

The first thing i noticed was the taskbar...it was nice and smooth, no telling where one panel started and the other ended. The Window Decorations were nicely smoothed out too. as for new features, well. YaKuaKe, the popular Quake-like Terminal program, now comes standard! so does Kat, KDE's answer to GNOME's indexing tool. Also, lots of nice little multiple desktop features and tweaks...other than that, I haven't explored enough of the new version to say any more...so I'll just keep posting as I find more neat little features, I suppose. I'll say this though, YaKuaKe is a godsend!! and it looks shiny too!!

Linus Torvalds luvz him some KDE!

2005-12-14T00:30:00.000-05:00

The granddaddy of all things penguin has spoken, people...and he HATES GNOME!!!

WHISKY TANGO FOXTROT?!

Linus Torvalds, the god-king of the geek-chic underground...has thoroughly PWNED the GNOME community on their own turf, the GNOME-usability message boards!!. In Torvalds opinion, "This 'users are idiots, and are confused by functionality' mentality of Gnome is a disease".

Read The OSNews.com story here

Personally, I Like KDE, and GNOME, equally...in fact, I also use XFCE, WindowMaker and BlackBox on a fairly regular basis...That is one of the things I love the most about Linux, the variety of User Interfaces. Truth Be Told, my only criteria for dropping a Windowmanager or Desktop Environment are Ease of Configuration and Eye Candy. It goes without saying for me, then, that FVWM and CDE are, in my opinion, THE WORST WINDOW MANAGERS EVER!

a primer for all things penguin.

2005-11-20T18:28:00.000-05:00

so i was surfing the old RSS feeds today, and ended up @ NewsForge. Where they have a link to a wonderful article on TechRepublic about the 10 things any newbie should now about linux. It's quite well written and even helped clear things up for ME a little.

The article can be found @:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-5960961.html#

P.S. Check back here later, I'm working on a post regarding my two favourite distros: SuSE and Ubuntu, and how they stack up against each other...

please stand by.

2005-11-13T22:53:00.000-05:00

pardon the delay in any kind of useful posts, i'm in the midst of testing a few live distros for my next review.

SuSE takes another beating from Novell

2005-11-06T17:34:00.000-05:00

Okay, so yesterday I told you all about Novell's decision to drop SuSE Linux. As a SuSE user myself, that was more than a little annoying to hear.

So, if this weren't enough, Novell is once again slapping SuSE around like some poor, unwanted child by DROPPING SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT OF KDE!!!!

This is totally asinine in my opinion. I mean, just ask ANY other SuSE user what Desktop Environment they use the most, and 80% of them will say KDE.

Not to shit on GNOME or anything, I like GNOME too, and XFCE, and even Blackbox for that matter. But KDE is what helps attract people to Linux. It was a match made in heaven: SuSE, with it's super user-friendly features like YaST and SuSEwatcher, and KDE, the prettiest, smartest desktop around!!

the only bright light here, once again, is OpenSuSE. Who will continue to offer SuSE Linux as a free distro and will continue to support KDE as well.

I love open source.

Live Distro Review: Slax 5.0.6

2005-11-06T05:18:00.000-05:00

Slax is a Live distro based on what many consider to be the OG linux distribution, Slackware.

Slackware was designed back in a time when user-friendliness wasn't really taken into consideration. Back then, Linux was still just for servers. Fast forward a over a decade and a half, and Slackware is still (inexplicably) going strong, and is as (inexplicably) user-unfriendly as ever!!

So why the hell would ANYONE in their right mind EVER build a Live Distro based on Slackware??

Honestly, I still don't know.

But what I do know is this...outside of the usual security and stability you'd expect from Slackware, Slax is everything Slackware ISN'T!!!

I have never before seen a live distro that is THIS easy to use! i just downloaded it, burned it, and booted it. AND EVERYTHING WORKED!!!

Okay, fine, so most live distros can do that...but will most live distros let you install new software and run it automatically, without needing ANY dependancies??? Will most live distros let you install whatever drivers you need automatically? and finally, will most live distros let you SAVE all your user information and software you've installed to a secure server on their website?

The answer here is of course a resounding NO!!!

But Slax will.

Thanks to its revolutionary psuedo-packages called "modules", which can be downloaded straight off the Slax site, and installed by simply double-clicking on it. Also, being a slackware-based distro, Slax also supports the native slackware package system, TGZ. In fact you can convert the two formats back and forth via shell commands. What's more, you can actually SAVE everything you've done to Slax's ultra-secure servers!!! There is also a shell-script on the disc that will let you create your own ISO, with all the modules you've downloaded. And if all that weren't enough, If you like Slax enough, a hard drive installation is only a couple of mouse-clicks away!!

Slax is by far the best live distro I have EVER used.

You can check out Slax @ slax.linux-live.org

Enjoy!!

An introduction to Live Distributions

2005-11-06T01:19:00.000-05:00

Okay, so as a relative newbie to the world of Linux (i've been using it for just over a year now), and someone who is never content with a single way of doing things, I am frequently inclined to try new distros. Thank for Live Distros!!!

For those who don't know, a live distro is one that can run straight off a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive. This means that you can try Linux without needing to repartition or format any hard drives...no muss, no fuss, just download and burn the ISO for the Live version and boot from the disk (or flash drive), and voila, INSTANT LINUX!!

"But, what about all my hardware?" you ask. Simple. Since Linux is (for the most part) hardware independant, it will run on ANY computer. As well, most Live Distros are tailor-made to detect any and all hardware running on the system, even the ACPI (power management) settings on a laptop's motherboard can usually be detected down to a science.

So far, the only problem I have ever had with ANY live distribution is Wireless Network support. This is where even some hard drive based distros fall flat on their asses. But, even then, with a tiny bit of tweaking, you can usually get your wi-fi up and running pretty quick.

So, with a technology that's as n00b-proof as this, what's stopping you from heading on over to DistroWatch and checking out Linux via a Live Distro? Don't know which one to pick? Well in my next post, I'll be reviewing one of my absolute FAVOURITE Live Distros, Slax.

TTFN!
Ryan ^_^

Novell cuts SuSE Loose...heh, that rhymed.

2005-11-06T00:54:00.000-05:00

Word 'round all the tech blogs today is that Novell, after all its financial woes, will be saying goodbye to most of the staff that was working on it's Linux Distro, SuSE Linux. Effectively cutting all ties that the company has with the SuSE project.

Thankfully, only a few short months ago, SuSE finally hit the Open Source scene with the OpenSuSE project, so if all goes right, it will continue to be developed through all the lovely bedroom coders involved with OpenSuSE.

What exactly this means for SuSE users (like me), is still anyone's guess. However, I've heard a few bloggers saying that Novell will keep SuSE, but it will go in the same direction as Red Hat. That of course meaning it will become a commercial distro, with a side project like Fedora Core. This Sounds perfectly plausible to me, and I don't mind, so long as their repositories remain open for updates and downloads, I'll be a happy camper.

This may even be a good thing, as the current SuSE release is devoid of proprietary software like Flash plugins and an MP3 codec!! if OpenSuSE takes a greater foothold, that could change (thank god...'cos I needs me Noatun, XMMS is nice and all, but how about updating the dialog boxes a little).

mount /dev/blog

2005-11-06T00:02:00.000-05:00

welcome one and all to my linux blog.

with this blog i hope to keep you all informed of all things penguiny!!

i'll feature reviews of software, Live Distros, and all my little linux-related misadventures.

one proviso. while you read this blog, keep in mind that at the time of this post, i'm still a relative newbie to linux, so any technical advice i give should be taken with a sizeable grain of salt, so don't take it out on me if you break your compy. Bearing that in mind, if you read anything on this blog and think it's a load of crap, feel free to tell me so