Think! Open Source

Full Circle Issue 18 is out

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:01:00 +0000

Full Circle Magazine is a monthly which represents Ubuntu and its variants. Its main aim is to provide tutorials, software reviews and open source world's news etc. It is being published from last 18 months and now, obviously, the issue 18 is out. The title can be seen below with some highlights of this issues.
This month:

* Command and Conquer - Package Management.
* How-To : Program in C - Part 2, Secure Network Drive
Using GIMP - Part 7 and Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.
* My Story - Ubuntu And Me
* Review - Urban Terror
* My Opinion - How Many Distros Is Too Many?
* MOTU Interview - Stephan Hermann
* Top 5 - Mind Mapping Applications

Grab Issue 18!

Nexenta Sloaris + GNU/Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:51:00 +0000

Nexenta is another OS. You'll say, ohh, again an Operating System. Well this is something little different. It is a blend of to popular and opensource OS to get the usability and power of both. Rather it can also be said that it is Debian/Ubuntu with a little variation at CLI. I mean the Kernel is from Open Solaris the Sun Microsystems' sponsored Unix OS, which is opensource as well, and the applications and packages from popular Linux distributions i.e. Debian or Ubuntu. Now the thing which comes out is called Nexenta.
It has packaging system based on APT, Advanced packaging Tool. So the repositories from Debian and Ubuntu can easily be used with it. The documentation part is pretty much complete with usual topics a Linux user can require to use a new OS. Just download its cd images from the download page, burn and install them. Well it is not for new commers it is for the people who always ready to take risks.

TeeWorlds

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:12:00 +0000

TeeWorlds is a cool game for Linux, Windows and Mac. Obviously it is open source and freely available. The only screenshot tells that it is a jumping game. The download page has binaries and sources for Windows, Linux and Mac. Its about page is pretty full with developers and contributors which indicates that it is an active project. So give it a try and enjoy life with open source.

Ruby on Rails Gets Internationalization Support

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:38:00 +0000

Ruby on Rails is a popular web development framework which is based on famous language Ruby. Indeed the creation of this framework granted a new life to the Ruby language on the web. The Ruby on Rails 2.2 has be released on 21, November and the team has announced a new feature called internationalization. The simple meaning of this feature is to make Ruby on Rails caable to display languages other than English. The Ruby on Rails creator, David Heinemeier Hansson wrote in his blog post that now Ruby on Rails has a very simple framework to deal with UTF8 and lcalizeable texts etc.

FreeBSD Official Forums

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:39:00 +0000

FreeBSD is a popular open source OS like linux. It has many variants. The thing which distinguishes it from linux is the license under which it comes. You can use FreeBSD to create your own closed source commercial project, software or OS. While GPL v. 2, the lisence under which linux kernel is distributed requires that you should open source all the modifications and original code as it was open source before.
FreeBSD has launched its official community forums, it would be a good thing for FreeBSD community now, to build and to cooperate with each other will be much easier and productive.

Flash Player 10 64 Bit

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Adobe has released it flash player's next 64 bit version for an alpha stage on linux. Ok this statement looks just fine with out any amazement but the fact is this, Adobe released this pre alpha version only for linux. Astonished? Adobe is very much sympathetic on linux users since MS Silver Light and Java FX, the competators to Adobe Flash entered the scene. I can still remember the time when Adobe refused to relsease a flash player version 9 for linux while it was available for windows and other platforms.
Anyhows time doesn't remain equal, there are ups and downs and perhaps this is a down of Adobe and up of opensource world, they are benefitted although all this is due to competation with other corporate and technology giants.

Mandriva XFCE One 2009.0

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:56:00 +0000

Mandriva has released the XFCE version of its OS. XFCE is a popular linux desktop environment which targets old pcs with less capacity and power in terms of Ram, Processor and Space on Hard drive. Most linux distros try to release their remixes with Gnome, KDE and XFCE. But the latter one is not to much highlighted. Ubuntu has a similiar version called Xubuntu but these XFCE powered distros are less frequently used as compared to normal distros composed of Gnome or KDE.

Skype API Plugin for Piding/libpurple/Adium

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:16:00 +0000

It is a plugin intended to replace the skype user interface. You can play with your skype contacts from within your Piding, Audium etc. Every thing which can be done with Skype is also possible with this plugin. It is a free software and you are free to modify its source code. More interesting is that it is available for Windows as well as Linux. If you want to install it, there is a tutorial available at Ubuntu Geek.

Skype 2.0 for Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:11:00 +0000

Skype for Linux looks like Windows 98 compared with XP. It lacks lots of features of windows version. But we can hope for betterment in future. So looking at positive side, we have Skype for Linux and it is available officially for many distributions. You can get packages for your distor from here.
Keep in mind these relatively less focussed details of hardware and software.

Hardware requirements
1 Ghz processor or faster
256 MB RAM.
20 MB free disk space on your hard drive.
Microphone and speakers or headset.
Internet connection (broadband is best, GPRS is not supported for voice calls, and results may vary on a satellite connection). .
Video card driver with Xv support.

Software requirements
Qt 4.2.1+
D-Bus 1.0.0
libasound2 1.0.12

Technical details
Version 2.0.0.72

UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter117

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:08:00 +0000

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter has been released. Highlights are as follows.

New Theme for help.ubuntu.com
Dell Mini 9 update testing
Ubuntu Community Interview: Nathan Grubb
Jaunty Alpha 1 freeze ahead
Ubuntu Stats
Tamil Team Release Party
Ubuntu Peru gives Ubuntu presentation
Launchpad plugin for Eclipse
Launchpod: Episode #12
Launchpad offline November 19th
2 new Launchpad interviews
In the Press & Blogosphere
Ubuntu Tweak 0.4.2 released
Ubuntuero gets inked: Ubuntu Style
LoCo Council Meeting: November 10th
Edubuntu Meeting Minutes
Server Team Meeting Minutes
Upcoming Meetings & Events
Updates & Security

Whole issue can be read on official site.

Learn Linux with Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:38:00 +0000

Hocket and Bankwell is a comic book which is intended to teach linux i.e. the popular linux distro Ubuntu in a fun way. Its first issue is about 30 pages long and introduces to the basics of Ubuntu very well. So give it a try.

Banshee 1.4 is OUT

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:28:00 +0000

Banshee is my favorite music player on Ubuntu. It is written in C# and Mono and its interface is in GTK. I personally think it as the only competitor of Amarok, the popular music player of KDE. Banshee has progressed rapidly from a buggy piece of code to a full and matured music player. And now the banshee team has announced the release of version 1.4.
There are lots of new features added in this version. Some interesting are the support of new devices including google's G1, a version for Mac OS X and enhancements in interface of now playing and menues.
The downloads area of official website offers packages for various popular distros. Mine, i.e. Ubuntu is also there in the form of PPA repository where 1.4 is now available. Check if yours is also there.

Sun To Cut Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:24:00 +0000

Sun Microsystems is going to cut its 18% jobs to reduce the effects of global recession. Many departments are merged and they are reduced upto three main areas. Alongwith reduction of jobs Sun will also try to rely on Open Source strategy to survive and gain good income.

Ultimate Edition 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:42:00 +0000

Ultimate Edition 2.0 is "Yet Another Ubuntu Variant" with usual and casual changes of theme, splash screen, icons, gdm login screen etc. There is a claim of new kernel, latest updates and some fixes which made a user's sound card working possible on Ultimate Edition which was not working in original Ubuntu 8.10. It is available for 32 and 64 bit platforms. The version 2 is built on daily build of Ubuntu Interpid 8.10. Along with usual changes of look and feel (which most Ubuntu variants do and thus differentiate them from parent distro) there are some game packages preinstalled in gamers edition. The list is below:

Supertux
Actioncube
Assaultcube
Warsow
Wesnoth
Glest
Scorched3d
Dreamchess
Sauerbraten
Gridwars
Vgacardgames
Alien arena 2007
Brikx
Nexuiz
Vertris
Openarena
Pokerth
Snowballz
Chromium
Gnome-hearts
Open arena
Scorched3d
Urban terror

Some screen shots are available on sofficial site looking cool. You can do it yourself. Changing the distro to change the look only is an expensive idea. Just you need to know is the theme names and simply install them, you'll have a home made Ultimate Edition. ;)

Ubuntu for ARM

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:48:00 +0000

Canonical has announced the port of Ubuntu to the ARMv7 architecture. New Linux kernel capabilities will enable Ubuntu to be compiled wholly on this platform. Ubuntu is already offering Ubuntu for notebooks and embedded devices. It is also a clever move to establish market to ARM-based devices like Nokia's N810 Internet tablet. ARM is actively supporting the ARM linux development efforts.

Debian Releases Installer RC

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:41:00 +0000

Debian has announced the RC of its installer for Lenny. The improvements include better support for live cd installations. Along with it the support for embedded media ARM etc is also improved. Installer images for Xen guest (i386), installer images for Netwinder (again), support from loading firmware from removable media during installation, upgrade for packages in early pkgse, support for i386/AMD64 for installing and loading firmware from MMC/SD cards and new translations have been added to it.
Some minor issues, as they are always there with a beta class software.

tangoGPS

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:31:00 +0000

tangoGPS is a fast, lightweight and easy to use application for use with or without GPS. It runs on Linux platform like eeePC and Openmoko phone. It is licensed under GPL version 2. A very interactive interface and ability to download GPS maps for offline use make a very handy application.
Its current version is 0.9.3 and packages for popular distributions are available at official site.

OPLC to be sold by Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:12:00 +0000

OPLC i.e. One Laptop Per Child has announced that they are going to sell their XO mini laptop computers on Amazon.com. It will be started from Monday. The program originally designed to sell these laptops was OPLC, in which the bulk orders from different govts of third world countries were to provide these laptops. But the poor interaction policy of OPLC couldn't get enough orders. This program is slightly changed and Amazon.com will offer $400 per laptop and 1 piece will be offered to a poor child from this cost.
XO runs on XP, although a Fedora based Linux desktop is also there. Its screen is 7.5 inch having 900 pixels, a digitel camera, a WiFi card, Flash storage. It is almost like Asus eeePC. A new version may be provided in 2010 which will have faster processor and more flash storage.

Open Clip Art

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:28:00 +0000

Clip Art for OOo was always a problem for me. Doesn't look it will be now. A great extension Clker is available which you can install on your OOo and provide you a bundle of free clipart in svg and png.
Some other good sources of Open Clipart are OpenClipart, WpClipart, and OOo sample templates and clipart.

Problem Using Hotmail from Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:24:00 +0000

I was getting some problems while signing in from Ubuntu 8.10 and Firefox 3 on Hotmail as it every time displayed a message to upgrade the browser to IE, Firefox or Safari. I ignored that message and then it worked with old interface. Some news about this problem are also on internet, looks MS dropped support for Firefox on Linux, or perhaps hotmail is so advanced now that it is unable to run on "older" linux system.
Computer World Says
Linux Watch

Puppy 4.1

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:39:00 +0000

Puppy 4.1 is a tiny distro. People say that puppy is for low power pcs having lesser Ram, Processing Power and space. But this 93 mb distro is great. It has all the features you can think in a Linux system. And more the proprietary constraints didn't blocked MP3 and Flash here. There is a built-int Flash, MP3 support along with Gparted the partitioning software, HTML editor, Samba sharing, backup software and Wireless support.
Puppy's live cd boot doesn't seem that it is being run through a cd. Excellent support for mounting the harddrives, accessing internet and working with varous files is a great thing in this minimalistic distro. So give it a try.

Adroid Unleashed

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:02:00 +0000

Android Unleashed is a brand new website for Google's opensource effort in Mobile OS, Android which is now in marked in the form of G1 mobile phone. This website/blog presents tutorials, howtos and tips for your new G1 mobile phone, Androin the OS and the application development for Android plateform. So don't miss it if you are a user of G1 and want to make some fun with it as well.

Kexi "Microsoft Access for Linux"

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:56:00 +0000

Kexi is a popular open source database creating software which is almost equal to MS Access. Although OpenOffice has a component in this regard as well but it is less used and less feature rich. According to the official website Kexi has the features of:

Full visual designers for tables, queries and forms. Queries can be also designed in dedicated SQL view.
Running queries, support for parametrized queries.
Data entry and sorting.
Support for "Object" data allowing to store images of many types.
Designing and displaying relational data using combo boxes (lookup columns).
Simple printounts for table and query data with robust print preview.
Advanced CSV data import and export from files. Copying to clipboard and pasting from clipboard is also available, thus the data can be easily transferred to applications like spreadsheets or word processors.
User Mode, allowing to switch off all commands related to editing project's design (since 1.1.2)
"Find" window for searching thought table and form's contents with rich set of options (since 1.1.3)
Support for simple database templates (since 1.1.3)

It supports various database engines including MySQL, SQLLite, PostgreSQL etc. And it is obvious that this piece of code is available cross platform, for Mac, Linux and Windows.

X-Fi Driver is now OpenSource

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:54:00 +0000

In June 2006, Creative Labs was reported developing linux support of X-Fi driver and it was released in the second quarter of 2007. They admitted of neglecting linux drivers due to vista's and therefore the planned support for ALSA and OpenAL 1.1 could not be added. In Last months of 2007 at last Creative labs released a binary only linux driver which was 64-bit supported only.
Long list of developments but the interesting news is that they have opensourced the (about) 13000 lines code of their driver.

Solar Powered Linux Computer Networks for Villages

noreply@blogger.com (Shakir) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:43:00 +0000

GNUveau is developing linux based terminal servers for villages where there is a shortage of electricity. They are solar powered and run popular linux distribution Ubuntu.

Gnuveau proudly announces SolarNetOne, a solar powered multi-user Linux Terminal Server network, with integrated long range wireless access point, analog telephone adapter, proximity based security system, and many other features. Please click the image below for more information on the green computing solution SolarNetOne.