Techzillax

Linux Mint 11 Katya review

2011-06-08T13:29:00.000+10:00

Linux Mint is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions and for good reasons.

Mint takes the already excellent and easy to use Ubuntu and adds its own unique customisations and tweaks on top, like the best menu available for Linux and its own beautiful theme and icons.

Now the new version of Linux Mint version 11 is released.

Mint 11 is based on Ubuntu 11.04.

Instead of the new Unity interface Mint 11 uses a GNOME 2 desktop with the same layout as Mint 10.

Mint 11 includes the latest and greatest free software including Firefox 4 and Libreoffice, the new fork of Openoffice which is managed by the community-run Document Foundation instead of Oracle.

Mint 11 has a new software manager with improved screenshots and shows the size of a software before you download it.

Getting Mint

Mint comes in a CD version and a DVD version, each with a version for 32-bit and 64-bit computers.

The DVD version included more software but you can get the same software on the CD version after installing it.

I chose to download the CD version of Mint for 32-bit computers.

After downloading I burned the ISO image onto a CD.

Installation

The Mint CD is a combined live/installation CD. When you boot from it it loads the Mint live desktop which allows you to see if Mint works well with your hardware before installing it on your hard disk.

Installing Linux Mint 11 is very easy even for someone who has never used Linux before. If you know how to install Windows then installing Mint should be easy for you.

If you already have an operating system installed on your computer the Mint installer will offer to install Mint alongside your existing operating system and setup dualboot so you can choose which operating system to run when your computer starts.

On the live desktop is an icon called "Install Linux Mint" which will start the installer.

The first thing the installer does is ask which language you want to use with Mint.

To make sure the installation is successful the installer asks you to check some things before installing.

The first and second things are necessary but it is not necessary to be connected to the internet and the installation will work fine without an internet connection.

It will ask you where you live.

The last thing it will ask you to do is type in the details for your user account as well as if you want the system to login to your account automatically and if you want to encrypt your home folder.

After you enter in the details for your user account the installer will continue the rest of the installation while showing a slideshow showing information about Mint and its features.

When the installation is complete the installer will ask if you want to continue using the live desktop or restart to your new installed version of Mint.

If you choose to restart it will ask you to remove the Mint CD and restart your computer automatically.

When it restarts it will show the boot loader which will automatically start Mint after a few seconds.

If you installed Mint alongside an existing operating system you can choose if you want to start your new Mint system or the previously installed system.

If you only have Mint installed on your computer the boot loader will not show and Mint will automatically start up.

When it gets to the login screen type in your username and password to login.

After logging in your new Mint 11 desktop will load.

The first time your Mint desktop loads it will have a welcome window with links to information and help resources for Mint as well as options to add non-free multimedia codecs and install all the extra software available in the DVD version of Mint.

If you don't want to see this window again untick "Show this dialog at startup".

The first thing you should do is install all the latest updates available for Mint.

Click on the blue and white shield icon in the bottom right of the desktop to launch the Mint update manager.

The Mint update manager shows how many updates there are as well as the total size of the updates.

Click on Install Updates to install all of the updates.

The CD version of Mint does not come with all the non-free audio and video codecs because of size limitation.

Fortunately installing these codecs is very easy.

On the Mint welcome window click on Add Multimedia Codecs.

Click Install to install the codecs.

Now you can play video files in non-free format

The feature that most sets Mint apart from other Linux distributions is its unique menu called the Mint Menu.

The Mint Menu is a custom menu developed for Linux Mint and in my opinion it is better than any other menu available for Linux.

The Mint Menu has many useful features eg. finding an application by typing its name.

New to the Mint Menu in Mint 11 is the feature to choose which icons to display in the System part of the menu.

This helps to save space eg. If you never use lock your screen you can choose to not show the Lock Screen icon.

Linux Mint 11 inherits the newly introduced "overlay scrollbars". If you would like to use traditional scrollbars instead, you can deactivate them by removing the "overlay-scrollbar" and "liboverlay-scrollbar-0.1-0" packages and by restarting your computer.

The Desktop Settings tool has a new option which lets you choose to disable showing fortune cookies in the terminal.

This is good for work environment where the fortune cookie messages can seem inappropriate.

Mint 11 has a improved Software Manager with a new beautiful splash screen and new features like showing how big an application is before you download it.

The Software Manager sorts available applications into different categories.
The Featured category shows the most highly rated applications/

The following is an example of installing an application, in this case VLC media player.

You can see the details of the application (eg. version, size, dependencies).

Like Ubuntu Mint comes with no open ports by default so a firewall is needed.

But if you do open ports to use with an application you should install a firewall.

Mint comes with a firewall called Gufw pre-installed but it is not enabled by default.

Click Enabled under Actual Status to enable the firewall. Now the firewall will block all unwanted network traffic.

To add a rule for an application click Add under Rules. In this case I will add a rule for the Transmission bit-torrent client.

In the Add Rule window choose the settings for the rule and then click Add.

Now the rule has been added.

A slightly annoying thing about Linux Mint is its custom Google search for Firefox.

This is used for generating money to help develop Mint but it lacks some of the features of normal Google search.

In Mint 11 the custom Google search has been improved and show links to other websites.

Fusion-icon: Easily and quickly enable and disable desktop effects from your system tray

2011-02-04T10:17:00.001+11:00

Compiz is a window manager for Linux that gives Linux desktops amazing 3d visual effects that surpass those of Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Ubuntu and Mint come with Compiz pre-installed and it is automatically enabled on computers with supporting 3d graphics cards.

Unfortunately on computers that are not powerful enough Compiz interferes with 3d applications and games, so the solution would be to disable Compiz before running a 3d app or game.

Unfortunately the way to disable Compiz is time-wasting and tedious as you have to go to Preferences>Appearance click on the Visual Effects tab and click none.

Fortunately there is a way to make disabling and reenabling Compiz easier and quicker, a small system tray applet called Fusion icon.

Search for fusion-icon in your package manager and then install it.

After you have installed Fusion icon it will appear in your menu.

Click on the Fusion icon icon to launch Fusion icon and it will appear in your system tray.

Right-clicking on Fusion icon shows a menu with various options.

We are only concerned with Select Window Manager (which allows you to switch between Compiz and Metacity (the normal 2d window manager)).

To make Fusion icon automatically start when your desktop starts you have to add it in Startup Applications.

Nautilus Elementary - file browsing simplified

2011-01-24T09:35:00.006+11:00

Nautilus Elementary is an unofficial version of Nautilus, the GNOME file browser, that is more streamlined and has more features than the official Nautilus.

Some features include a slider for easily changing the size of file icons as well as a new tab button that allows easier tabbed file browsing.

Nautilus Elementary was originally written for Ubuntu but can work on any GNOME-based Linux distribution.

Unfortunately Nautilus Elementary is not in the official Ubuntu repositories so we need to add an extra repository that contains Nautilus Elementary.

In the terminal enter the following commands line by line:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

nautilus -q

After doing the above commands the repository for Nautilus Elementary will be added and

Nautilus Elementary will be installed.

 
Open up the file browser and you will notice that its appearance has changed slightly and

it has some additional new features.

One useful new feature is a new tab button that can be added to the toolbar. This allows you

to use tabbed file browsing without needing to open the file menu or press Ctrl+t.

To add the New Tab button to the toolbar first go to Edit>Customize Toolbar.

In Customize Toolbar it shows the buttons that are on the toolbar and the buttons which are not.

To add the New Tab button to the toolbar click on the New Tab button in available items and

then click on the right-pointing arrow to move it to displayed items.

Now the New Tab button is is in displayed items and is on the toolbar.

You can change the position of the New Tab button on the toolbar by dragging it up or down

in displayed items.

Here's a picture of tabbed file browsing in action:

Alltray - Minimize any application to the system tray

2011-01-24T08:52:00.001+11:00

Alltray is a small but useful app that can minimize any other running application to the system tray as an icon, even if that application itself doesn't have an option to minimize to the system tray.

Alltray can work on both GNOME and KDE, and is available in most Linux distros' repos.

Install Alltray on Ubuntu

Below is an example of using Alltray to minimize Firefox to the system tray.

Here is Firefox running.

Click on Alltray in the panel and then click on the window of the application you want to minimise to the system tray (in this case Firefox).

After clicking on the Firefox window Firefox will minimise to the system tray as an icon.

By right-clicking on the Firefox icon in the system tray we get 3 options: Show/Hide which shows or hides the window of the minimised application, Undock which unminimises Firefox from the system tray, and Exit which closes Firefox.

Overall Alltray is a small but useful app. It can help you save space in your taskbar and save you time.

Guide to DVD on Linux

2011-01-22T12:37:00.000+11:00

This guide will show you how to access, view, manipulate and create DVDs on Linux.

Playing DVD videos

Linux can play all unencrypted DVDs out of the box.

Unfortunately because of licensing and patent restrictions most Linux distributions do not pre-install the software required to play encrypted DVDs.

To play encrypted DVDs on Linux you need to have a package called libdvdcss2 installed.

From Wikipedia:

libdvdcss (or libdvdcss2 in some repositories) is a free software library for accessing and unscrambling DVDs encrypted with the Content Scramble System (CSS).

Once you have libdvdcss2 installed you can play encrypted DVD videos with any Linux video player. My favourite player for playing DVDs is VLC.

Install VLC media player on Ubuntu

Backing up DVDs to your computer.

Here are 2 ways to backup DVDs on Linux.

Option 1: Copying the entire DVD as an .iso file to your disk.

Advantages: Everything will be copied including menus

Disadvantages: The file will be huge and the created .iso file cannot be played directly by most video players.

You can create an .iso file from a DVD with Brasero by choosing copy DVD and then choosing to write the copy to an image file (.iso file).

You can play a DVD video .iso directly with VLC media player.

Option 2: Ripping the DVD to a video file.

Advantages: The created video file will be smaller than the DVD, and it can be played directly by any video player.

Disadvantages: Some things eg. DVD menus will not be copied.

Some DVD rippers for Linux include dvd::rip and Acidrip.

Install Acidrip on Ubuntu

Creating DVD videos

There are many applications and methods of creating DVD videos on Linux.

Two of the easiest applications for creating DVD videos are ManDVD and Devede,

Both of these can convert any video file into a format suitable for DVD as well as allow you to create menus for your DVD.

Install ManDVD

Install Devede

Linux Mint 10: a easy to use and newbie friendly distro

2011-01-21T10:21:00.000+11:00

I have been using Linux Mint for the past year and it has become my favourite Linux distribution.

Unlike what its critics say it is not simply just a remaster of Ubuntu. It has its own unique features like its great menu which is much better than the default GNOME menubar.

Also there is even a version of Linux Mint based on Debian.

True I could add these features to a normal Ubuntu installation by adding Mint's repositories but I prefer to have these features out of the box.

Linux Mint comes in various editions with different desktop environments.

A good thing is that the Mint editions are all called Mint and not named after they desktop environment they use as is the case with Ubuntu (which is good since Kint and Lint sound ugly).

As is the case with Ubuntu the main Mint edition uses GNOME.

There are other editions using different desktop environments like Linux Mint KDE and Linux Mint LXDE

Linux Mint is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.

This article will cover Linux Mint GNOME.

The latest version of Linux Mint is version 10 codenamed "Julia", which you can download from here: http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

You can also download a user guide for Linux Mint from the same page.

Installation

After booting from the CD the live desktop will boot

Click on the Install Linux Mint icon on the desktop to start the installer.

It will ask which language you want to use, select English.

It will recommend you ensure the 3 things before continuing. While the first 2 are necessary the installation will work fine without Internet connectivity.

It will ask about the partition setup to use. In this case we will erase and use the entire disk.

It will tell you the partitioning setup it will use.

It will ask you the country and city you live in.

It will ask for your keyboard layout. If you are unsure what your keyboard layout is select USA.

It will ask you to type your name and a hostname for your computer, as well as a username and password for your user account.

It will ask if you want to login to your user account automatically or require a password to login, as well as if you want to encrypt your home folder.

I chose require password and not encrypt home folder.

After you click forward while it continues the rest of the installation it will show a series of splashes showing what Linux Mint is as well as some of its features.

After some time the installation will finish and it will ask if you want to continue using the live desktop or restart and boot the newly installed Linux Mint.

Post-installation

When you restart the newly installed Linux Mint will load. Select your user and type your password to logon to your desktop.

When your desktop first loads a welcome window will load which links to Linux Mint resource websites. You can untick "Show this dialog at startup" to stop this window from appearing again.

Click on the Mint menu. It shows all the locations on the system and all the installed applications as well as configuration and software installation tools.

Before we get onto the internet we should enable the firewall. Linux Mint comes with a preinstalled firewall configuration tool called Gufw. By default the firewall is disabled so we have to enable it.

Type gufw in the Mint menu search bar and it will show gufw. Click on the gufw icon to launch gufw.

It will ask you to enter your password. Enter it and Gufw will load.

As you can see the firewall is disabled. We have to enable it. Under Actual status click enabled. Now the firewall is on.

If you want to let an application through the firewall gufw can help you do that.

In this example I will allow the Transmission bit torrent client access through the firewall.

Choose Transmission from the list of applications to allow in and then click add.

As you can see now the ports for Transmission are opened and can receive data from anywhere.

Now that our firewall is on we can safely use the internet.

Mint comes with most audio and video codecs as well as Flash out of the box.

Here is Firefox playing a movie trailer on Youtube.

Here is the default movie player playing a video on my disk.

Overall I think Linux Mint 10 is one of the best Linux distributions available today.

It has ease of use, speed, beauty and performance.

I give Mint 10 a 10/10.

Review: Kubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

2009-11-23T17:03:00.000+11:00

Last week I installed KDE on my new Ubuntu 9.10 installation by installing the package
kubuntu-desktop in Synaptic package manager.

Soon I also changed my login manager to KDM.

After one week using Kubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala I have to say that this is one of the best KDE
Linux distributions I've ever tried.

Nearly everything works perfectly and I've had very few crashes.

Here is a screenshot of my current desktop setup:

I've done a few changes to the default Kubuntu setup:

I've changed my theme to Glassified

I've changed my widget style to Bespin

I've changed my icon theme to NuoveX2

I've removed the task manager widget and added the widget Stasks which shows only
icons in the panel instead of icons and the names of the programs.

I've also enabled KDE's desktop effects.

This setup is very beautiful and very productive.

My experience with Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Kola

2009-10-31T14:08:00.000+11:00

This week I decided to try out the Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala RC.
I downloaded the ISO and burnt it to CD.

I backed up my important files in case I decided to install the RC.

I booted my computer from the Ubuntu 9.10 CD.

When it booted, I noticed it had a new bootsplash which was visually very
different from Ubuntu 9.04's bootsplash.

In the bootsplash first a black screen with a large white Ubuntu logo appeared,
then another screen appeared.

The new bootsplash kind of looks like Apple Mac OS X's bootsplash.

After the bootsplash the livecd brought the desktop.

Everything looked okay except the background. It was black.
Desktop effects were working (switching virtual desktops made the switching virtual desktops effect appear.

I right-clicked the desktop and clicked 'change desktop background'.

I selected another background but the desktop background still remained black.

I went to System>Preferences>Appearance and turned off desktop effects.

After turning off desktop effects the background became normal.

I tried setting up my wireless internet connection and it worked.

I thought that maybe the problem of the background becoming black when
desktop effects are switched on would go away if I installed Ubuntu 9.10 RC
to my hard disk.

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 RC to my hard disk, and rebooted my computer.

After my computer booted and I logged in, the desktop appeared.

But the background was black.

So I disabled desktop effects and the background became normal.

I set up my wireless internet connection.

Then I tested Firefox and it was working properly.

I opened Synaptic package manager and installed the following packages:

VLC media player
ffmpeg
gstreamer plugins bad
gstreamer plugins ugly
Flash player and plugin

I opened a video on my hard disk with VLC and it played properly.

Then I watched a Youtube video with Firefox and it played properly.

After that, I installed KDE by installing the kubuntu-desktop package.

I logged out of GNOME and into KDE,

When KDE loaded, I turned on KDE's desktop effects using KDE's System settings tool.

When I turned on desktop effects, KDE's background became black.

When I turned off desktop effects, KDE's background became normal.

I thought that maybe if I install all the updates for my system, the desktop effects
black background problem would go away.

So I installed all the updates and rebooted.

But after rebooting the problem was still there on both GNOME and KDE.

Conclusion:

Besides the problem of the background becoming black if desktop effects are turned on, everything else seemed to be working fine.

Screenshot of my Ubuntu 9.10 desktop

Vim

2009-10-02T09:02:00.000+10:00

Today I am going to write about the text editor Vim.

Vim, and Emacs, are considered to be the best advanced text editors available for Linux and UNIX.

Vim is a cross-platform (Versions of it are available for Linux, Mac and Windows), feature-rich, and highly configurable text editor.

Although the main Vim software is command-line based, there is a graphical version of Vim, called Gvim, which is available for Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Vim's usage is different from other text editors.

Although Vim's usage may seem confusing at first, after learning it a user can be much more productive with Vim than with any other text editor.

Vim is usually available in most default Linux distributions.

Vim is also pre-installed on Mac OS X.

A Windows version of VIm can be downloaded for free.

Vim has three modes, normal, insert, and visual.

Normal mode is used for performing operations on text, and insert mode is used for writing text.

There are many online Vim tutorials.

One good free ebook to tech yourself Vim is A Byte of Vim.

Free games available for Linux

2009-09-17T11:03:00.000+10:00

Although there are less commercial games available for Linux than Windows and Mac, there are some good games that run on Linux.

Native

These are some native Linux games that I have tried.
These are available for all Linux distributions.

1. The Battle for Wesnoth

The Battle for Wesnoth is an open source turn-based strategy fantasy game.

2. Extreme Tux Racer

Extreme Tux Racer is a racing game starring Tux, the Linux Mascot.

3. Alien Arena

Alien Arena is a shooting game based on the Quake 2 source code.

Browser-based games.

These are some browser-based games that can run on Linux.

1. RuneScape (requires Java to be installed)

Runescape is a fantasy free online multiplayer game.

A review on Linux

2009-09-02T07:00:00.000+10:00

Linux is a computer operating system.

Technically, Linux is an operating system kernel, the core or engine of an operating system that handles the bottom-level things like file systems, input out devices, task scheduling etc.

The Linux kernel can be combined with software from other sources (for example command line interfaces, graphical user interfaces, web servers, web browsers, office suites etc.) to form a complete operating system.

Most commonly, the Linux kernel is combined with software from the GNU Project, an organisation which creates free software.

This operating system is commonly called Linux, due to the Linux kernel being one of the most important parts of it, but some call it GNU/Linux, because the GNU software part of the operating system is also an important part of the operating system.

Although the GNU part of the operating system is important and some may prefer to call the
operating system GNU/Linux, for simplicity this article will call the complete operating system
Linux.

Linux is open-source software, meaning that its source code, the recipe for the software, is available for free for anyone to view, use, modify, redistribute and sell.

By itself, an operating system kernel is not much use.

So organisations, companies, and other groups combine the Linux kernel with software from other sources (most importantly from the GNU project) to form a complete operating system.

Organisations, companies etc. which do this are called Linux distributors, and the complete operating systems which they create are called Linux distributions.

There are many Linux distributors.
Some examples of Linux distributors are the company Novell and the non-profit organisation Debian.

There are many Linux distributions.

Each Linux distribution is targeted for a specific use, for example desktop and server.

Some Linux distributors add their own unique software to their Linux distributions, like graphical software installers or graphical configuration tools.

The most popular Linux distributions are Ubuntu, SuSE, Debian, Mandriva and Fedora.

Advantages of Linux:

1. It is open-source software, meaning it's source code is freely available for anyone to view, use modify, redistribute or sell for free.
Most Linux distributions are free.

2. It has very good support:
Most Linux distributions have good free support, in the form of web forums and irc channels.

Commercial Linux distributors like Novell provide professional paid support for their Linux
distributions.

Also there are many websites with free Linux tips, tutorials and guides.

3. Linux is multi-user.

Unlike Windows which had multi-user cabability introduced later, Linux was designed from its beginning to be multi-user and multi-tasking.

On Linux, each user has its own private folder called a home directory.

Files in a user's home directory cannot be viewed by any other user (with the exception of the root (administrator) user) without that user's permission.
Also, Linux multi-tasks much better than Windows, and can process more than one task at the same time.

4. Linux has excellent security.

Linux has excellent security.
Linux's security is much better than Windows' security.

On Linux, every file has a set of permissions.
File permissions are rules which state which user, or group of users, can view, read, read-write, and execute that file.

Also, on Linux there is an administrator account called the root user.

Only the root user can view and modify all of the files in the file system.
Normal users can only view and modify the files in their individual home directory.
The root user is only used for administrating aand configuring the system.

There are very few viruses and malware for Linux.
If a virus or malware does get onto a Linux system, it has a very low chance of doing any damage, because of Linux's permissions system.

5. Linux has a large amount of software
Linux has a large amount of software available for it, most of which is free.

The software is usually equivalent to similar software available for Windows and Mac.

Examples are web browsers (Firefox and Opera), Email programs (Thunderbird, Evolution, Kmail), Text editors (Kate, Kwrite, emas and vim), programming languages (nearly every programming language), programming and web design software (Bluefish, Kompozer and Quanta Plus), Web server software( Apache, MySQL, PHP), and video players (Mplayer and VLC media player.)

Although Linux is still behind Windows in gaming, there are some good games available for Linux (Battle for Wesnoth, SuperTux, Chromium, Frozen Bubble, SuperTux Cart and Open Arena).

Also, some Windows software can be run on Linux natively without the need for Windows, using a free Windows compatibility layer called Wine.
The software Wine supports includes Microsoft Office 2003, Photoshop CS2, and some games including Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars Jedi academy.

6. Linux user interface

Unlike Windows which has a single user interface which has few customizability options, on Linux there is no single user interface.

Linux has at the basic level a command-line user interface, but there are many graphical user interfaces available for Linux.

These range from simple (Xfce) to complete graphical user interfaces which are equivalent to and in some aspects are superior to the graphical user interfaces of Windows and Mac OS X.

The two most popular desktop environments are KDE and GNOME.

KDE and GNOME have several features including ones not available in Windows or Mac OS X, and they are polished and easy to use while being extremely powerful.

If you have a supported graphics card, GNOME and KDE can use 3d transparency and fading features which are superior to those available on Windows and Mac OS X.

KDE desktop environment

GNOME desktop environment

7. Interoperability with other operating systems.

Linux is highly interoperable with other operating systems.
A Linux computer can exist beside computers running other operating systems on the same network.

Also, Linux supports most of the document and other standards used on Windows and Mac.

8. Linux is Internet-ready

Linux is Internet-ready and is highly compatible with the Internet.
Linux was designed from its creation to support networking.
Most web servers run Linux.

Linux has two of the best web browsers available, Mozilla Firefox and Opera.
Firefox and Opera on Linux support most web browser plugins, including Flash and Java.

Most web related software, including Apache, MySQL and PHP, have Linux versions.

Below is a screenshot of the Youtube video sharing website displayed in Firefox on the Ubuntu 9.04 Linux distribution

9. Linux is multimedia ready

Linux has several good video players, including the excellent VLC media player.
VLC media player is a very good media player software that can play nearly every audio and video format, as well as CDs, VCDs and DVDs (including encrypted DVDs).

Also, Linux has some good graphics programs, including GIMP, a free image manipulation program with nearly all the features of Adobe Photoshop, and Blender, a free 3d graphics program.

Also, Linux has some good photo management tools, including DigiKam, a photo viewing and management tool similar to Apple's iPhoto.

Things you can't do in Linux

Although Linux has many features and has many advantages over other Operating Systems, there are some things you can't do in Linux.

1. Games

There are few commercial games available for Linux.

There are some solutions to this problem:

Some Windows games can be run without the need for Windows on Linux, through a free Windows compatibility layer software called Wine, or indirectly on Linux by running them on Windows in a virtual machine inside Linux.

Also, another solution is to dual-boot Linux with Windows, so you could use Windows for gaming and still use Linux when you want to.

2. Hardware support

Although Linux supports a huge amount of hardware devices, there are some hardware devices that Linux does not support yet.

This is usually because the manufacturer of that hardware does not create a Linux driver for that hardware device, or does not release the specifications of that hardware device, preventing Linux developers from creating their own driver for that hardware device.

Examples of hardware devices that Linux does not support yet are
some USB modems, some printers, and some graphics cards.

Trying out Linux

If you want to try out Linux but dont want to install it, then you can try a Linux LiveCD, which is a Linux distribution which runs directly from a CD without the need for installing it.

Examples of Linux LiveCDs are Ubuntu, SuSE and Mandriva.

Choosing a Linux distribution

There are many Linux distributions, so I have listed below a few Linux distributions which are good for beginners.

Ubuntu

Website: http://www.ubuntu.com/

Ubuntu is a community-developed Linux distribution founded by South African enterpreneur Mark Shuttleworth and funded by his company Canonical Ltd.

Ubuntu is based on another Linux distribution called Debian, but is different form it in a number of ways including being easier to use.

Ubuntu is designed for both desktop and server use, and comes in a desktop version and a server version.

The desktop version is designed to be easy to use for people new to Linux.

The CD for the Ubuntu desktop version is both a LiveCD and an installation CD.

Ubuntu has one of the largest number of available software of all Linux distributions.

Ubuntu has a very easy to use software installer program, and installing software on Ubuntu is easy.

Ubuntu also has support for a large number of hardware.

If a computer has a capable graphics card, Ubuntu starts 3d animation effects out of the box.

Ubuntu is also designed to be easy to install and use for people new to Linux.

Ubuntu has a service called Shipit which allows you to order Ubuntu CDs for free (including free postage).

OpenSuSE

Website: http://www.opensuse.org/en/

OpenSuSE is a free Linux distribution created, developed and funded by a company called Novell.

OpenSuSE has a number of unique features, including a central system configuration utility called YAST.

YAST (which means Yet Another System Tool) is a system configuration utility similar to Windows' Control Panel and Mac OS X's system preferences utility.

YAST allows easy installation, management and uninstallation of software.
YAST also allows configuration of hardware.

OpenSuSE comes in a DVD version containing both GNOME and KDE, which is the main version, and two LiveCDs, one using GNOME and the other using KDE.

Getting Linux

Linux usually is in the form of a CD or DVD.

Below I tell how to get an Ubuntu CD.
Ubuntu's CD is a Live CD and installation CD hybrid.
The Live CD desktop has a utility to allow installing Ubuntu to the hard drive, if you want to install it.

You can get a free Ubuntu CD through Ubuntu's Shipit service, which is on the Ubuntu website, or you can download an Ubuntu disc image and burn it to a CD to create an Ubuntu CD.

Well, thats the end of my article on Linux, I hope you liked it.

A review of Mandriva Linux 2009.1 Spring "One"

2009-05-02T11:23:00.000+10:00

This is a review of Mandriva's new Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring "One" distribution.

It's been some months since I last used Mandriva, which was Mandriva Linux 2009 One.

Mandriva recently released a new version of Mandriva, mandriva 2009. 1 Spring.

Mandriva comes in three main product lines: a free Live CD/Installation CD hybrid called One, a free installation DVD containing only free software called Free, and a commercial Installation DVD containing proprietary web browser plugins and proprietary drivers and some additional software called Powerpack.

Yesterday, I downloaded the Mandriva Linux 2009 One Live/Installation CD ISO and burned it to a CD.

I then booted off the CD.

It booted to the desktop successfully.

The default desktop is very beautiful and easy to use.

I used Mandriva's Mandriva Control Centre system administration tool to configure my internet connection successfully.

Unfortunately, the 3d graphic effects window manager did not work out of the box.

I went to the Mandriva Control Centre and went to Hardware>Enable 3d desktop effects.

When I clicked Enable 3d desktop effects Mandriva Control Centre said it needed mesa-demos and asked whether to download and install it.

I chose not to download and install it and wanted to do this after installing Mandriva.

This is very unfortunate.

On Ubuntu 8.10 and also on Mandriva's last version Compiz Fusion worked out of the box.

I clicked the installer icon on the desktop.

Mandriva installed successfully.

After mandriva was installed my computer rebooted.

There was a graphical GRUB menu, with two options: mandriva 2009.1 Spring and Mandriva 2009.1 Spring safe mode.

I pressed enter on Mandriva 2009.1 Spring and a graphical bootsplash appeared and then a survey appeared asking me if I want to take a survey of Mandriva.

I cancelled the survey and then a beautiful-looking KDM appeared.

I typed in my username and password, and then a beautiful KDE 4.2 desktop appeared.

To set up my software repositories I used EasyUrpmi.

EasyUrpmi is a website which automatically sets up Mandriva software repositories.

I chose to add the official repositories and the plf repositories.

PLF is an unofficial Mandriva software repository that contains software that cannot be included in the official Mandriva repositories due to legal reasons.

After setting up the software repositories I launched Mandriva Control Center and used it's Software Management componenet to install the PLF version of VLC media player.

I tested playing my videos and audio with VLC media player and they worked.

I installed DigiKam, a Photo management application, Kdenlive, a video editor, and Jokosher, an audio editor.

I also installed Elisa, a media center application similar to Front Row for Mac OS X, which supports playing audio and video and displaying pictures from your hard drive and from internet services like Youtube and Flickr.

The next thing I had to do was mount my extra Linux Ext3 partition which I use for storing my videos, audio and photo.

I found a website which showed how to mount the partition and make the partition be mounted automatically on boot.

After that my Mandriva Linux system had everything I needed.

Mandriva 2009 Spring released

2009-05-01T11:18:00.000+10:00

Mandriva 2009 Spring, the new version of Mandriva Linux, has been released.

Mandriva is one of my favourite Linux distributions.

Mandriva is one of the most easy to use and complete Linux distributions.

One of Mandriva's best features is the Mandriva Control Center.

It is a central system administration, configuration and management tool.

It makes administering Mandriva very easy.

You can get Mandriva 2009 Spring from www.mandriva.com

My views on the Linux distros I've tried

2009-04-16T10:07:00.000+10:00

I've tried 3 Linux distros: Ubuntu, Mandriva and OpenSUSE.

Below I'll give my views on these Linux distros:

Ubuntu

Ubunntu was the first Linux distribution I used.
I started using Ubuntu with version6.06 Dapper Drake, and then used Edgy Eft and Feisty Fawn.
One of the good things aboout Ubuntu is that its parent company Canonical Ltd. ships free Ubuntu CDs to anywhere in the world for free (including free postage) so people in areas where Internet connection is slow can get Ubuntu.

Ubuntu has three official versions each with a different desktop environment, Ubuntu (GNOME desktop environment), Kubuntu (KDE desktop enironment) and Xubuntu (Xfce desktop environent).

I think the same distribution with different desktop environment should not have different names, and there should only be one Ubuntu, as this is simpler.

Ubuntu has very good hardware support.

Compiz Fusion works out of the box on most computers with capable graphics card I've tried.

Mandriva

Mandriva is the second distribution I tried after Ubuntu.

I tried the Mandriva One LiveCD.

Mandriva has a number of unique features.

The most important one is probably its all-in-one system administration utility called the Mandriva Control Center.

The Mandriva control Center includes components for controlling, configuring and administrating nearly everything in a Mandriva Linux installation including software installation, firewall, samba, apache etc.

Another feature is its customized KDE.

This is much more beautiful and easy to use than normal KDE.

Another features is its unique and beautiful artwork.

Everything from the bootsplash to the desktop is very beautiful and professional looking and is consistent with each other.

Another feature is its excellent hardware detection.

Compiz Fusion works out-of-the box on my computer.

Mandriva also has some problems (at least on my computer).

It is less stable than Ubuntu and slows down or crashes more often than Ubuntu.

OpenSUSE

OpenSUSE is the third Linux distribution I've tried and is probably the best one I've tried.

Review:OpenSUSE 11.1

2009-03-29T23:46:00.000+11:00

OpenSUSE is the free to use version of the SUSE Linux distribution.

SUSE is a popular German Linux distribution and is one of the oldest Linux distributions.

SUSE was originally based on Slackware Linux, but it soon became its own distribution with unique features like the all-in-one system configuration utility YAST and the use of the Red Hat Package manager format as its standards method of installing software packages.

OpenSUSE 11.1 was released last December.

It contains all the latest and greatest open-source software like Firefox 3.0.4, OpenOffice.org, VLC media player 0.9.6, and it also contains the latest versions of the two most popular Linux desktop environments, KDE 4.1.3 and GNOME 2.2.

KDE 4.1.2 can now also be upgraded to the recently released KDE 4.2.

OpenSUSE has a number of unique features.
Among them is its easy-to-use and powerful all-in-one system administration tool, YAST.

Another unique feature is its excellent custom-built versions of KDE and GNOME which are built to be more beautiful and user-friendly than stock KDE and GNOME.

OpenSUSE 11.1 has a number of improvements over OpenSUSE 11.

For example the Zypper package manager is faster than in OpenSUSE 11.

Installation

I went to the official OpenSUSE website http://www.opensuse.org.

I prefer to use bittorrent than download files with my web browser.

For bittorrent there were three options, a KDE4 LiveCD, a GNOME LiveCD, and a DVD with all desktop environments.

Since I prefer KDE over GNOME I downloaded the KDE4 LiveCD via bittorrent.

I I burned the ISO to a CD and then booted off the CD.

When the CD booted to the desktop I tried to use my wireless internet but it wouldn't work.

So with my laptop I went to the OpenSUSE forums and asked how to get my wireless internet working.

A person on the forum told me how to download the necessary RPMs and get my wireless internet working.

After getting internet working

After getting my internet working I tested Firefox and it was working.

I then went to this website and downloaded the KDE version of the one-click installer for installing multimedia codecs.

Afterwards I had to install the Packman software repository to have access to additional packages not included in the official OpenSUSE software repositories.

I launched, YAST, then I went to Software Repositories>Add>Community repositories and chose Packman, and then the Packman repository was added.

After exiting the Software Repositories module of YAST I wanted to install my favourite media player VLC media player so I launched the Software Management module of YAST.

I searched for VLC and installed the Packman version of YAST.

I tested playing video with VLC and it worked.

Welcome to Techzillax

2009-03-29T17:38:00.000+11:00

Hi and welcome to techzillax.

This is a blog about computer related stuff, example Linux, Windows and Mac.