The DistRogue

The Year Of The Linux Desktop

2008-08-27T22:48:00.000+02:00

What is this mythical "Year of the Linux Desktop"? Simply put, every time a feature appears in the Linux world, whatever year it makes the greatest progress (in other words, the year Ubuntu merges it into their repositories) is called the "Year of the Linux Desktop". 2006 saw the widespread adoption of Compiz, so it was the year of the Linux desktop. In 2007, Compiz-Fusion was created, along with bulletproof X, so that was the year of the Linux desktop. And now, in 2008, Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" is supposedly getting a font makeover in the alpha versions, so 2008 will be the year of the Linux desktop.
Stupid idea, right? So what was/will be the real year of the Linux desktop?
They all have been, and they'll continue to be. Every year brings some improvement that the entire community flips out over (watch the Digg counts soar!), but they're all small stepping-stones accross the lake of building the perfect Linux desktop system. How long has Microsoft been improving Windows and turning it into what it is today? The road to Vista (not to mention whatever's next) started in 1985 with the release of Windows 1.0. Look at how much it's changed since then. Linux is a similar case. Hardware and software compatibility problems continue to plague it, and they'll improve slightly each year, along with the release of some killer app like Compiz. Crazed swarms of fanboys will continue to eat it up year after year after year after year after year, but the truth remains: Linux is, has been, and will be for a while a work in progress, and will continue to be for several years. Every year can hold the meaningless title of "Year of the Linux Desktop", yet something even better- in the eyes of the countless fanboys that make up the Linux world- will always be waiting next year.

Intrepid Ibex

2008-04-19T09:37:00.004+02:00

I don't think I need to explain the title. It's been officially announced here, and it's on the Ubuntu Wiki.
So what's an ibex?

An ibex, commonly called by its French name: bouquetin also called Steinbock in German, is a type of wild mountain goat with large recurved horns that are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa, and East Africa. The name ibex comes from Latin, borrowed from Iberian or Aquitanian, akin to Old Spanish bezerro "bull", modern Spanish becerro "yearling". Ranging in height from 27 to 43 inches and weighing 200 to 270 pounds (90 to 120 kg), the ibex can live 20 years.

20 years, but don't expect 8.10 to be an LTS release...

During the 8.10 cycle we will be venturing into interesting new territory

The release after an LTS release (or 3 releases before one) is usually an unstable one (4.10, 6.10, 8.10, and probably 10.10), as the developers find new technology to incorporate and wait for it to mature over the next 2 releases. Expect 8.10 to have KDE 4, among other interesting stuff, maybe even Avant. But it's not going to be stable- remember all the horror stories of people who couldn't upgrade to Edgy? Don't let it drive you away from Linux, though, if you're really interested in testing Intrepid, just keep an eye on Slashdot and be ready for the worst. Let's hope the Ubuntu devs learned a lesson from Edgy (and they probably have).

So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish!

2008-04-09T18:46:00.004+02:00

After over a year and a half, several articles featured on Tuxmachines, and over 100000 hits, I may have to shut down the Distrogue. There are several reasons. First off, as you may have guessed from my hiatus, I've stopped reviewing distros. There's something wrong with my partitioning layout that's preventing GParted from seeing any partitions at all. Seeing as Fedora, Ubuntu, and Gentoo all use GParted for disk partitioning, and they're far from the only ones, this is preventing me from installing most distros. In addition, I'm running out of blank CDs and I can't find any that will boot from my computer's disk drive. My 1G USB key also refuses to boot. This leaves me stranded on PCLinuxOS (which runs into a kernel panic every time I try to boot it, no matter what my GRUB setup is) and MEPIS. Great. But there's a chance of fixing my partitioning problem (maybe having to back everything up and clear all the partitions) and finding some working media. Until then...
From MEPIS 7.0,
The Distrogue.

I now have a less limited supply of blank CDs.
I may buy an 8GB USB key in the near future.
Thanks to testdisk, the partitioning problem is gone and I can (and have) installed other distributions.
A visual redesign is coming soon, but you'll need Firefox 3 (Safari and Epiphany work too) in order for it not to look ugly because it uses a fair amount of CSS3-only features.

Thanks for your patience.
From Ubuntu 8.04,
The Distrogue.

Why I Really Hate Linux: Substitute Applications

2008-04-04T18:15:00.007+02:00

On Windows, most people manage their music libraries via iTunes, the nice, user-friendly music manager that everyone knows about. But here on Linux, we're expected to use some program called Amarok that nobody's heard of. And it sucks. I mean, here are the features:

Feature	iTunes	Amarok
Tag Database	No	Yes
Lyrics Lookup	No	Yes
Artist Info Lookup	No	Yes
MP3 Player Management	iPod Only	Yes
Album Artwork Management	Yes	Yes
Collection	No	Yes
Last.fm Radio	No	Yes
Music Store	Yes	Magnatune Only
Plug-in Support	Mac Only (via Applescript)	Yes

Kidding aside (I know I'm 3 days late), Amarok seriously does have all these features. In addition, I'm running 4 scripts (911tabs, Tag Clouds, BPM Calc, and amaKode), and it still takes up less RAM than iTunes did on Windows. Plus, it has support for dynamic and static playlists like iTunes, along with a tagging system. Everything in it is very tightly integrated, as well. With version 2 (to go with KDE 4), they're going cross-platform, releasing an official Windows port.
Someone said that Amarok's iPod management is better than iTunes's. Not true. Whenever you add a song to an iPod Shuffle in Amarok, for instance, it's appended to the end of the playlist. Even if you drop it into a certain place, it will always be on the end. Maybe I'm just bitter about this because I use a Shuffle, but it's annoying enough to make me use GTKPod instead. On the other hand, Amarok can be used to submit plays from your iPod directly to Last.fm, which iTunes can't.
The context browser on the left-hand side is also undeniably cool. It has tabs for an online lyrics search, song/artist/album information via MusicBrainz, and Wikipedia-based song/artist/album lookup. Through MusicBrainz, it can even guess the ID3 tags for songs you don't know.

A word on the music store: Amarok has built-in support for the Magnatune Music Store, which sells DRM-free MP3, FLAC, or OGG files, which you can re-download later if you delete them. You can pay $5 or more per album, depending on what you feel like giving them- $5 if you're a cheapskate, $10 or more if you feel generous. Of course, there's a catch- they have a *tiny* catalog. Still, there's something for everyone- I found a great album by a metal band called Utopia Banished and paid $10 for it after hearing the full-length previews.

Of course, if you want more, there's always Amazon.com's music store, which has its own Linux client and also sells DRM-free files.
Thanks to features like tags (which can be assigned to songs), collection browsing, auto-tagging, and an automatic track-scoring system, Amarok is ideal for people with huge music collections. Windows users, when Amarok 2 comes out, try it. You probably won't ditch iTunes, but you might end up not using it for anything other than buying music, if even that.
From SimplyMEPIS 7.0,
The Distrogue.

Gaming on Linux: OpenArena 0.7.1

2008-03-07T00:13:00.004+01:00

What is OpenArena?
A while ago, Id Software released the source code for the Quake 3 engine. They did not, however, release all the maps and models under a free license, so at the time, you still had to buy the game to play it. No more! Thanks to the OpenArena project, there's a cross-platform Quake client with free models and maps.

Installation
Download OpenArena here, extract all the files, and you're set. Sort of. The OpenArena website only hosts version 0.7.0, a buggier version. A patch for version 0.7.1 is available here, which fixes the constant crashing on Fan- a real nuisance.

Gameplay
OpenArena is like any other FPS. You run around shooting bots and collecting ammo. The scroll wheel cycles through weapons, and holding down the middle mouse button gives you an optical zoom on any weapon. Simple enough.
You can play online or against bots in solo play. The game comes with 20 arenas, each with their own selection of bots. About these bots: They range from the mysterious-looking Tony (complete with a fedora) to the rocket-happy and somewhat emo Kyonshi to the always-angry Merman to a guy that's obsessed with penguins. Some of them aren't even human- there's also a gargoyle and a dinosaur. Be warned, though: Some of them (Angelyss and Arachna) are NSFW. To remove them, just move baseoa/pak2-players-mature.pk3 somewhere else, or delete it altogether (of course, whether you would want to is another question altogether...).
Weaponry-wise, there's nothing special. In addition to the default machine gun (which runs out of ammo quickly), there's a railgun (fires slowly, does tons of damage, good for sniping), a plasma rifle (small splash area, fires quickly, good for melee), a rocket launcher (obvious enough), a grenade launcher, a lightning gun (which does what it sounds like it does), and a shotgun. If you run out of ammo, the melee-only Gauntlet is there as a backup. The shotgun has an interesting (and out-of-place) laser sight on the front, but it doesn't seem to change anything.
Game modes are also nothing groundbreaking. OpenArena comes with deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and tournament modes, all of which can be played online against other players. OA's online community is surprisingly n00b-free, but that's not saying everyone there is comp1337 pwnh4x4g3. You can usually find several people on for various game modes. Overall, it seems like a great place.

Performance
The important thing for me is how fast OpenArena runs. It runs incredibly smoothly even with Firefox (over 20 tabs open) and amaroK running. Water has little to no effect on performance, but doesn't have effects like ripples. The Quake 3 engine is pretty fast.

Bugs
I barely noticed any bugs during gameplay. The Fan map crashes consistently on version 0.7.0, but this has been fixed in 0.7.1.

Bottom line
OpenArena is a good game for people who can't, for whatever reason, afford a top-of-the-line gaming system and happen to run Linux. It's free, open-source (think of the modding possibilities...), and easy to learn. It doesn't have anything new to offer, but is definitely worth a look. If your computer can handle it, you might want to check out Nexuiz, another interesting free Quake-inspired game with elements from Unreal Tournament.

Original style restored.

2008-02-01T16:59:00.000+01:00

The Blogger style I was using before my image-hosting account got canceled from all the traffic has been restored, but with some minor changes. The background wallpaper has been radically redesigned (it's only 1680x1) to reduce bandwidth (it's only 3.0 KB now, as opposed to the 228 KB monstrosity before it) and the original header has been removed, freeing up another 100.3 KB per hit. Sorry for the inconvenience, but the changes shouldn't be impossible to live with.
From MEPIS 7.0 and planning his next review,
The Distrogue.

Arch: Pros Only, But Not Bad

2008-01-26T13:45:00.000+01:00

Introduction
Arch Linux is one of the few distributions to be optimized for an i686 processor- in other words, it's really fast without having to compile anything. It uses a custom package manager called Pacman (which, surprisingly enough, doesn't seem to spark any legal controversy), which works similarly to Apt in that it has dependency tracking and relies on repositories. Arch's philosophy is to start with a base system and install all the graphical components manually via Pacman. This means you need a working Intertube connection and a fair amount of time on your hands. A caution before you install Arch: Arch is NOT meant for newbies. If you're afraid to get your hands dirty with a little low-level tweakage, you might want to consider trying something else.

Installation
-Phase One: install base system from CD
The base install went pretty well. User setup is done manually, and as a result, there were only a few steps I had to go through. Partitioning was a breeze- I only needed to set up the mount points and format the / partition. Although the base system is tiny, there's still detailed package selection (optional). All in all, the base install took about 10 minutes from boot to boot.
-Phase Two: Setting up the base system
Setting up a wired connection was annoying, but it didn't take that long. After searching around for a bit, I ran "dhcpcd eth0" and the connection worked. It took me about half an hour of looking through the Pacmanual to find something that was right under my nose: to update the database (which I needed to do before installing anything), run "pacman -Sy". Pacman has an annoying number of options, but they're divided into 6 main commands, each with their own options, so it's not a complete mess.
-Phase Three: Installing the desktop
After typing "pacman -S xorg kde" and waiting 30-odd minutes (most of which was spent downloading- the installation itself was extremely fast), I had a working desktop environment. It took a few more "pacman -S"es to make it usable, but thanks to hwd ("pacman -S hwd"), Intel GMA drivers ("pacman -S xf86-video-intel 915resolution"), and a little tweakage, my desktop ran quickly and at full resolution. Obviously, this isn't a "Just Works (tm)" distro, but it's not supposed to be.

Artwork
It's Plastik/CrystalSVG with some (bland) Arch wallpaper. Nothing special...

Installed Software
The CD itself comes with barely any software. A full install like the one I used, on the other hand, is pretty good. The kde metapackage doesn't come with amaroK, and Firefox isn't included, but they're both a "pacman -S" away. (The kde package, however, did have MP3 playback.) Installing the xfce4 metapackage yielded a decidedly complete XFCE desktop. Flash, unsurprisingly, wasn't in any of the metapackages I used.

Hardware Support
My wireless card, strange as it might seem, was supported out of the box. But without any nice, easy programs to get it working (short of iwconfig, which worked, but dhcpcd still didn't like it), that didn't really matter. I did, however, get my native screen resolution working with a minimum of tweaking. On the minus side, there's still that nasty little screen bug...

Performance/Gaming
As would be expected, Arch ran very fast. Tremulous ran amazingly smoothly, even with a full KDEMod desktop, as did Sauerbraten, even with water refractions and dynamic lighting/shadows.

KDEMod
Archers get to use KDEMod, a modified version of KDE built specifically for Arch. It isn't really that much different from vanilla KDE, except that it has better artwork (Domino windeco/theme engine) and a slightly better Qt3. The biggest improvement seems to be Domino, which can be installed on other distros anyways. It isn't really anything insanely special.

Pros:
-Fast
-Very customizable
-Fast, capable package manager
Cons:
-Very hard to install
-Hardware support is minimal
Friendliness: 2/5- At least you don't have to compile anything.
Performance: 4.5/5- It's i686 optimized. If you want anything faster, you'll have to use a source-based distro.
Features: 3/5- A basic desktop is easy to install.
Packaging: 3.5/5- Good package manager, but no GUI.
Artwork: 1/2.5- Nothing special.
Community: 2/2.5- The Arch community seems friendly and helpful, the wiki even has an in-depth beginner's guide for newbies.

Overall: 3.2/5- A solid distribution, but not recommended for newbies.
From Arch (versionless),
The Distrogue.

Updates about SYS-Linux

2008-01-26T10:26:00.000+01:00

I've learned a little more about SYS-Linux through the forums. Apparently, while it's still harder to upgrade than Windows, it *does* have a package-management system. And it uses the worst kind possible (at least IMO): Slackware's .TGZ packaging system. In a post, the lead developer says to download the packages yourself (as far as I can tell- I'm not a native Portugese speaker) and doesn't even provide a working link. I'm sorry, but I don't think "http:///" has any .TGZ packages. Anyways, downloading packages yourself, installing them via command line, and not even using dependency tracking? And this guy says his distro is for newbies? If you really like Slackware's packaging system, get Wolvix or Zenwalk, both of which have GUIs that download and install packages automatically, and have dependency tracking.
Then there's the package list. Bleeding-edge, fortunately enough, since you'll probably have to go for a while without upgrading it. In fact, it uses kernel 2.6.24-rc6-git2 (yes, a nightly build, which is probably as unstable and buggy as you can get- and this is the KERNEL!), Firefox 3.0-b2, Opera 3.25 (an ancient version released in 1998- cutting-edge indeed!), and db "1.85,2.4,3.3,4.2,4.4". Whatever than means. :S I honestly don't think a newbie likes it if their kernel crashes every 5 minutes, so they might want to pick a more stable version. Good news, though: kernel 2.6.24 just went stable!
And check it out: This distro satisfies everyone with its enormous package selection! Take a look at AV production, for instance:

* Audio-/Video-Studio/Produção: audacity 1.3.4 ; avidemux 2.4 , cinelerra 20071124 , dvdrip 0.98.8 , ffmpeg 20071102 , dvdshrink 2.6.1.10 , dvd+rw+tools 7.0 , k3b 1.0.4 , freevo 1.7.5 , acidrip 0.14, gstreamer 0.10.14 , kino 1.1.1 , kvideoencoder 0.0.8 , kstreamripper 0.3.4 , lxdvdrip 1.7 , mplayer 20071021 , muse 0.9.2 , rosegarden 1.6.1 , soundkonverter 0.3.6 , transcode 20071004 , sox 14.0 , streamripper 1.62.3 , winki 0.4.5

Errrm... Cool, but... I see 5 video editors (counting FFMpeg), 3 DVD rippers, 4 audio editors (counting Rosegarden), and a bunch of other redundant programs, but not much else. And under multimedia? There are 10 different media players. Looks like someone ~~forgot~~ didn't have time to fine-tune his app selection, did he?
And, of course, the all-emulating Wine.

* Emulador, p/usar programas de outros sistemas (McIntosh, Unix, Atari, Commodore, Windows): wine 0.9.51

Wait, Wine can emulate Mac/Atari/COMMODORE systems TOO? Wow, I never knew that! I always thought that "Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix," like the site says. Really, if you don't know what something does, don't put it in there.
Now for the challenge: I will make a CD image based on Xubuntu that is marginally complete (and it's not complete unless it has Compiz, we all know that much) and can still fit on a CD. It's not only possible, but easy thanks to Reconstructor, a tool for remastering Ubuntu images. It will have improved artwork, a more complete app selection, and Compiz, but most importantly, it will fit onto a CD roughly a quarter as large as the SYS-Linux image. I'm doing this just to show that it's possible to have a complete system that doesn't take up /!\ 11GB /!\ when installed. SYS-Linux is based on Slackware, but a key tenant of Slackware got lost somewhere in the remastering: "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"
From Arch (versionless),
The Distrogue.

Images down

2008-01-24T15:14:00.000+01:00

My secondary site at distrogue.awardspace.com has been suspended because of all the traffic. Since that site hosts all of my images, my blog looked like an utter mess after the images went down. I'm switching to a predefined Blogger template for now, but that's only a band-aid fix while I look for a more capable host. Sorry again for the inconvenience.
From Arch (versionless),
The Distrogue.

Zenwalk 5.0: Slackware Made Somewhat Easier

2008-01-24T15:03:00.000+01:00

Introduction
I tried Zenwalk back at v3.0 and liked it. It was a fast, sleek, minimalist OS based on Slackware, but supposedly only aimed at more technically advanced users. With the release of v5.0, I decided to try it again and see how far it's come in the past year or so.
For those who aren't familiar with Zenwalk, here's a brief explanation: Zenwalk is a one-CD installation of Slackware which has a philosophy of only including one program for each task. It was originally called MiniSlack in the pre-1.0 days when it shipped with WindowMaker as the desktop. Now, it's based on XFCE, supposedly has much better hardware detection, and is a more complete desktop overall. It's still based loosely on Slackware, using Slackware's packaging system and using LILO instead of GRUB as the boot loader, but it's a more complete OS out of the box, despite being smaller.

Installation
Of all the distributions to use a live/install hybrid CD, Zenwalk isn't one of them. The live CD is usually released a month or so after the main release, and so I found myself jumping straight to the install. It wasn't like I didn't know what to expect: I'd asked around on #zenwalk about a few things, in addition to doing some research on DistroWatch. Zenwalk ships with some of the latest software (GIMP, Iceweasel, X.Org, Pidgin, and XFCE are all in their latest versions at the time of writing) and includes iwl3945 drivers.
The install is text-based, but thanks to some nice framebufferwork, it seems graphical. You'll notice it's text-based once you try to use your mouse, but it's not that bad. It guides you through the usual steps, leaving user setup for after the reboot. The first phase only took 10 minutes from a CD- not bad.

Artwork
Zenwalk has meh-ish artwork. The window border is pretty much the exact same as the Tyrex style for XFWM. Thanks to XFWM's built-in compositing, you can have windows turn transparent when dragged or resized, all without Compiz- but you have to turn it on yourself.
Controls are handled by Clearlooks. Except it's not Clearlooks- it's "Zen". Whatever. It looks like Clearlooks to me. In fact, it *is* Clearlooks rebranded so it shows up as "Zen" in the XFCE settings. But a rose by any other name...
As a (relatively) old-time Zenwalker, I switched to the legacy themes because I still think they look cooler.

Installed Software
Zenwalk has a meticulously-trimmed software selection, but that doesn't mean it's incomplete. No way. Wolvix 1.1 "Hunter Edition", for example, is far from incomplete, and it only takes up 480MB on the CD. Zenwalk uses a simple philosophy: "You only need one program for each task." That means there's only one web browser (IceWeasel), only one image editor (GIMP), only one IM-ing client (Pidgin)... But there are a lot of categories. Zenwalk comes with an FTP client (gFTP), CD burner (Brasero), CD ripper (Asunder, which I'd never even heard of before)... On the codec side, MP3 playback is flawless (assuming your sound works), but Flash needs to be installed manually since it isn't open-source (and won't be until Gnash is stable). Suffice it to say that Zenwalk is a complete desktop and a half.

Hardware Support
Hardware support in Zenwalk is good considering its KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) philosophy. I only had to do a little tinkering in xorg.conf to make X recognize my screen resolution and stop it from annoyingly switching it off. My wireless card was detected, but I had to mess around with iwconfig (only one command) and wicd (a GUI for wireless connections, like NetworkManager) to get it set up. Sound worked without a hitch.

Performance/Gaming
Imagine my surprise when I noticed how slow Zenwalk was. Slackware-based distros typically run very fast (Wolvix is the fastest distro I've used, for instance), and Zenwalk ran with little-to-no bloat over time, but I credit that to the lightweight desktop environment. GLXGears ran at a dismal pace (950FPS), and Tremulous only cranked out an average number of FPS. It was okay for online gaming, but something is definitely wrong with this picture.

Packaging
Slackware uses an ancient, much-outdated packaging system that doesn't have any form of dependency tracking, which is another reason to use Zenwalk. It has a useful GUI called Netpkg that downloads and installs packages automatically. Dependency tracking still needs a little work (Exaile took 3 separate tries to install), but it works pretty well most of the time. In addition, the package repository is much larger than I remember it. Ah, the good old days when GNOME installed in only 6 packages and there were only about 100 or so packages available...

Pros:
-Small, lightweight, but complete system
-Good hardware support
Cons:
-Still needs some minor tweaking after setup
-No dependency tracking in Netpkg
Friendliness: 3.5/5- Some things need a lot of tweaking, some work out of the box.
Performance: 3.5/5- I'm seriously disappointed.
Features: 4.5/5- A great package selection for such a small distro.
Packaging: 4/5- The dependency tracking needs improvement, but it's definitely an improvement over Slackware.
Artwork: 1.5/2.5- Meh. It works, but it's not very original.
Community: 2.5/2.5- Zenwalk is mostly compatible with Slackware, which has an enormous, knowledgeable support base.

Overall: 3.9/5- A well-rounded distribution, but newbies beware!
From Zenwalk 5.0,
The DistRogue.

Appologies, unbanning, and restoration

2008-01-24T14:56:00.000+01:00

I will be restoring my review of Zenwalk 5.0, with some minor changes. After doing some research as to what happened with MP3 playback, Flash, and compositing, I found that some of the errors in my review were caused by settings I'd made under other OSes. I admit that Zenwalk does not include Flash (but my ~/.mozilla/plugins folder does), that compositing is not turned on by default (but somewhere in ~/.config, it is), and that the MP3 playback bit was in error. Being the packrat I am, I kept backup copies of everything I removed from my site, and Zenwalk and Slackware have been unbanned from being reviewed again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Why Zenwalkers Give Dolphins A Bad Name

2008-01-23T20:41:00.000+01:00

Dolphins are among the most intelligent of all animals. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Zenwalk Linux chose one as its mascot. After all, Zenwalk came from Slackware, one of the oldest, most pro-oriented distributions of all. (In fact, Slackware is the oldest surviving distribution, having existed since 1993, back when the Linux kernel was still in beta testing.) Slackware is also known for its devoted, experienced following, so closely-knit that it's almost become a religion. And some religions have witch hunts- Slackwarism being no exception.
How do I know this? Well, a couple of days ago, I decided to review Zenwalk, one of Slackware's closest forks. I gathered some info on #zenwalk and DistroWatch, just to know what I was getting into. It sounded so good that I even grudgingly installed LILO as the default boot loader (Slackware uses LILO by default, and installing GRUB is a long, painful process). The fact is that I desperately wanted to like Zenwalk.
After spending some time using nothing else, I came to my conclusion and gave Zenwalk a 3.7/5. Not horrible, but certainly with some room for improvement. I never lied once about my experience, giving an honest account of what I found. But obviously, 3.7 wasn't high enough to pay tribute to the awesomeness that is Slackware! Burn the witch! The angry readers swarmed in, calling for me to recant and repent. The also asked me to admit that I was lying, that Netpkg's divinely-made dependency-tracking system worked 100% of the time without fail, and that the sun revolves around the Earth. I stood by what I said, as I do now.
To answer some questions, for the fifth time:
-Compositing: I really mean it when I say that I found drop shadows under my windows after the installation. I went into the XFCE settings and found that compositing was on. I turned them off, and noticed a minimal change in performance, so I decided to turn them back on.
-MP3 playback: I double-checked my notes, and I have to give you guys this one. It turns out that when I tried listening to music, another app was running that was locking the sound.
-Dependency tracking: I still say that I had to install 3 separate packages (manually) in order to get Exaile working (but it was worth it, as usual). Everything was in a full Netpkg GUI, including the original Exaile install.
-Flash: I said that Last.FM and YouTube worked out of the box, and they did. I was pretty puzzled as well, but it really happened.
I'm not the only one. A while ago, Beranger was ~~burned~~ banned from the Zenwalk forums for ~~heresy~~ alleging that the ~~church~~ Zenwalk devs weren't abiding by the ~~Bible~~ GPL. Truth hurts...
Because of this fanboyism and bias, I am banning Zenwalk and Slackware from my site/blog. In addition, I've removed Zenwalk from my site's list of distros. In short, Zenwalk is dead to me. If this is how the community acts, then I don't want any part in an 3-1337-157 community of "more-haxor-than-thou"-ness and witch-hunts.
I sincerely hope that the Arch community is less annoying than this.
From MEPIS 7.0,
The Distrogue.

SYS-Linux, aka why you should leave distro-making to the pros

2008-01-22T15:44:00.000+01:00

In the DistroWatch Weekly comments for this issue, I came across a distribution called "SYS-Linux", which is currently in pre-alpha state. It was an attempt to create an easy-to-use, complete distribution which assumed the user didn't know anything about computing. Its main claim to fame is apparently that it can be installed without a wizard- the user doesn't have to answer any questions. Wow! So the user doesn't have to set up the disks so that they don't lose any data, doesn't have to set up a user account for themselves so that the system isn't completely screwed if it's hacked, and doesn't even have to set up the boot loader (whatever it may happen to be)? Wow... A newbie's dream come true!
Wait, who is this guy? What does he know about Linux? Apparently he knows enough to make a SLAX remaster, but doesn't know how to get the ISO size any smaller than /!\ 2.7GB /!\. Which is how big it is.
Anyways, here are the main issues I see:
-Desktop. He never says what desktop is used. From the Softpedia page, it looks like KDE.
-Partitioning. No partitioning controls means you have no clue how badly the installer will fsck your disk up. That means you risk losing all your data by installing this distribution! Bleh. No thanks, I'll pass. And that's why I didn't bother trying it. That and the /!\ 2.7GB /!\ DVD image.
-Accounts. Since there's no account setup, I assume everything's done via root, which is a whole other story. If you get hacked, that means the hacker will have /!\ TOTAL CONTROL /!\ over your system. And that, my friends, is why we usually set up separate accounts for the regular users. Plus, what if you slip up with a command in the terminal? The results can be dire.
Wait a second, what's the root password? I'm guessing it's either tucked away somewhere on the 'Net, so that you have to look for it for an hour before you can even log in (and not from another OS, obviously, because if there was one, it got wiped off your HD during the partitioning...), or it doesn't exist. In that case, someone could just SSH into your system and instantly have root access. Wow, Linux is really secure, isn't it?
-Elitism. I despise elitism of any kind, especially aesthetic elitism. I quote from this guy's DWW comments:

Just today when I opened this new home page, I saw the new SuSE installer in ugly green color. Impressionant program, with plento options ..... I felt me very glad that users of my distro don't need it !!!

Color choices are subjective. A lot of people like that color scheme, and I bet they outnumber the people that like a grayscale pic of two guys boxing on their desktop, which is what SYS-Linux ships with (according to the Softpedia screenshot). How accurate, though, that that comment on openSUSE's installer was below the belt.
-Packaging. Wow. Packaging on SYS-Linux is a disaster. It says it's built with "a good working mixture of .tgz , .rpm packages and own compiled progs". Whatever that means. It probably means it either has no packaging tools at all or a mix of them. And if that means what I think it does, some package aren't removable. Too bad, since the CDDVD installs to /!\ 11GB /!\. With no package selection. Wow, they make Sabayon look good.
So, how do you upgrade it?

For the most new releases in the future, it's not necessary to download the whole new install DVD. Instead, you can download SYS_Linux-.tgz , install it with #installpkg ... .tgz, go into its main folder, copy thereto the file SYS_Linux.ext3.lzma , and then execute ./mkbootcd . This produces an updated install DVD .iso .

That's right, you do some crap with the image, re-burn it, and re-install it (losing all your data in the process). [sarcasm type="extreme"]That's really user-friendly, isn't it? I think someone with no computing skills could grasp that pretty easily.[/sarcasm]
-"Completeness". He says it's a complete distribution. Way to go. In fact, it seems REALLY "complete". As in it has about 10 programs for each purpose. I mean, GIMP, Krita, AND KIconEdit? 11 different image viewers (not counting the previously-mentioned 3)? It's true- just look at this screenshot. (Caution: May result in your eyes burning. The previous link is not Goatse.)
Okay, what did I say about Zenwalk 5.0 just a day ago? I said that it was a marginally complete desktop even though it was less than a 500MB download. It does this by including only one program for each purpose and by not including stuff that people won't need. Really, how many people use Hydrogen? I personally love it, but I'm a musician. Most people don't need a drum machine on their computer.
My theory on why it's so big? It's impossible to install anything.
-Homepage. I crawled the Web looking for reasons to redeem this distro, info that might change my mind, and guess what I found?
It doesn't have a homepage.
Hmm... Those in glass houses... The domain http://copaya.yi.org/ seems to be somewhat associated with it, but it doesn't even have a homepage.
-The name. Does anyone think that naming a distro "SYS-Linux" will not turn off newbies? As if that's not enough, check it out: the name's taken. Syslinux is a commonly-used boot system used to set up Live USBs, among other things.
I like the idea of a zero-work-to-install distro as much as anyone, but what do you think that work's for? To make you look 1337? Give me a break. Until someone competent decides to spearhead a campaign to get an easy-install OS out there, it remains a dream. Or a nightmare, for anyone who installed it.
[/berangerism]
Still from Zenwalk 5.0,
The Distrogue.

Ulteo Watch: It's alive!

2008-01-14T17:42:00.000+01:00

Ulteo is now working! You can now connect to an online, Kubuntu-based desktop from any machine with Java, and so far it's free. Keep in mind that it's still in beta testing, and it's extremely newbie-oriented- it doesn't have a terminal at the moment, but you can still make desktop shortcuts to run commands.

PCLinuxOS 2008: And we have another winner!

2008-01-13T11:16:00.000+01:00

Introduction
I waxed poetic about PCLinuxOS 2007 a few months ago when I compared it to Mint (and even earlier about version 0.93a). After 8 months, Texstar and the "Ripper Gang" are in the process of releasing another version (about time...). The new version, PCLinuxOS 2008, will ship with KDE 4, but at the time of writing, the final isn't out yet. They recently released a so-called "MiniMe" version of the final product with KDE 3.5, and it's better than ever- to the point that I would actually use it.

Installation
As usual, PCLinuxOS uses a Live/Install hybrid CD, with the famous DrakLive wizard for installation. This time, though, they've tweaked it a bit. During the live install, you only have to set up partitions and the boot loader. Users, along with the root password, are handled on the first boot. Time zone configuration is eliminated altogether, and further configuration is done via the PCLinuxOS Control Center. That's far from a bad thing- the PCC got my wireless card working in under a minute, as PCLOS includes iwl3945 drivers.

Artwork
Unfortunately, the artwork seems to have taken a step backward in this release. The last release was completely redesigned by the PCLinuxOS Beautification Project, and the results were great. This time, they've just ripped off Vista. The window borders are LiNSTA Squared, and the wallpaper looks as if it was taken directly from Vista. Even worse, the default fonts are insanely ugly, another step back from the last release. On the plus side, the icons look crisper and sleeker than the GNOME icon set used last time around.

Also a plus, Compiz Fusion was insanely easy to set up by installing a few packages (and not needing to mess around with the repositories), which helped considerably. The version in the repository is very recent, as is most of the software.

Installed Software
There's a reason why they call it MiniMe. In marked contrast to the software set included with the full version, the software on MiniMe is incredibly watered-down, not even including Firefox or any form of media playback (or even GIMP). It does, however, make a good base system with good hardware support, and can easily be upgraded to a full system with Synaptic.

Hardware Support
Hardware support improved with this release. This time, the included 915resolution worked, meaning that my 1280x800 screen resolution was detected. Also on the subject of graphics, the annoying screen bug that last release had has mysteriously vanished! I can now close my laptop up without the screen shutting down permanently.
On the wireless front, Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 drivers (now open-source!) are still included out of the box, and for the most part, they worked fine. I had a point when they stopped working, but that was fixed by switching the mode to AUTO in the PCC, which handles wireless configuration in addition to nearly everything else.

Performance/Gaming
One of the reason why I like PCLinuxOS is that it's insanely fast. Version 2007 runs faster than anything else I've tried (except Slackware- and source-based distros), and with version 2008, this only decreased slightly. GLXGears scores were in the 1200s, and rose to 1300+ by installing kernel 2.6.23 and XFCE. Tremulous ran smoothly enough for me not to complain about it for hours.

Extras
The PCLinuxOS Control Center is similar to openSUSE's YaST, except it's less obtrusive and equally functional (except as far as package management, which Synaptic handles). It forms an extensive, capable front-end to most commonly-used system tools to make administration easy. There's also the KDE Control Center, both of which come with panel buttons out of the box.

Pros:
-Still fast
-Drastically improved hardware support
-KDE 4 coming with the full release
-PCC is still an indispensable tool for adminning
Cons:
-MiniMe Edition has a tiny software selection
-Unoriginal, somewhat ugly theme
Friendliness: 4/5- It's PCLinuxOS. What do you expect?
Performance: 4/5- Fast enough and then some.
Features: 2/5, 4.5/5- The first is for the MiniMe, the second (presumed) for the full. The full version of PCLinuxOS usually includes lots of software.
Packaging: 5/5- You can't get much better than this.
Artwork: 1/2.5- Could everyone PLEASE stop ripping off Vista?
review EVERYTHING critically and comprehensively!
Community: 2.5/2.5- The PCLinuxOS community is strong and enthusiastic, not to mention VERY newbie-friendly.
MiniMe version:

Full version (assuming they don't change the artwork):

Overall: 3.7/5, 4.2/5- I can't wait for the full version.
From PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniMe edition (with XFCE),
The DistRogue.

KDE 4: It'll be even better soon

2008-01-12T13:23:00.000+01:00

Introduction
KDE 4.0.0 was released on Friday. For the KDE team, it represents a huge leap forward in many areas, one of them being that they didn't add a K onto the name of every new app. For once. But elsewhere, KDE 4 brings huge enhancements both on and under the surface. The panel (aka the Kicker) has been replaced by a combination desktop/panel/widget layer called Plasma. Dolphin now handles file management, leaving Konqueror as the Web browser. The entire theme was redesigned from the top down through the Oxygen project. There are a lot of important changes that will shape KDE for years.

Installation
But before you get to the good part, you have to install KDE 4. And it's a beast to install. The instructions are here, and they're not pretty. You can just copy/paste them into a Konsole, but it takes about 2 hours (on my machine, a Core Duo/1.73GHz with 512MB RAM). Plus, it involves Kompiling countless lines of code, which will eat up roughly 3 gigs of disk space, so make sure to delete some CD images first.
Then, there's the problem of getting it to work. Head here for that. I tried and failed to set up a KDM session, and so I had to try the Xephyr method. A hint: To change the resolution of the nested X session, use this Kommand:
xrandr -display :1 -s [insert resolution here]
I had to settle for a 1024x768 resolution, so the sKreenshots aren't going to be as big as you're used to.
On the plus side, various distros will begin shipping with KDE 4 VERY soon. Ark Linux is supposed to be one of the first, followed by Mandriva 2008.1, Kubuntu 8.04, Fedora 9, and openSUSE 11.0, among others. Debian already has KDE 4 packages in Unstable, and KDE 4 will probably ship with 4.1 "Lenny", due out later this year.

Artwork
The most striKinK thing about KDE 4 is the artwork. The Oxygen team spent countless hours developing an entirely scalable icon set for KDE 4, and it looks sweet. The theme also has a control set and a completely original window border. The Oxygen theme shows that LinuKs developers are capable of coming up with something original rather than taking the low road and 'innovating' stuff from other OSes a la Microsoft.

The desktop is something else entirely with this release. It has a widget layer that can be used to add little KloKs and stuff above the wallpaper and (if you MUST have them) icons.

The widgets can also be scaled and moved around the desktop, and have a nice semi-transparent border with drop shadows.

The Plasma panel has the Kickoff menu introduced to the world with openSUSE 10.2, and not much has changed.

And by the way, the desktop can be zoomed in and out.

Installed Software
In KDE 4, Dolphin replaces Konqueror as the file manager (Konqueror is still the default Web browser). Great, but what's Dolphin?

Dolphin is KDE's version of Thunar. It's a light-weight file manager designed for file management and nothing but file management. Konqueror doubled as the Web browser, and as a result, it had to load all sorts of libraries and extensions that a file manager shouldn't have to load. By trimming all that off, Dolphin is a lighter and faster file manager. It also looks a lot like Thunar...
Of course, the KDE team hasn't given up on Konqueror. Free of its file-management components, it loads faster than ever, along with other improvements (note the bottom part of the menu):

KDE 4 also has all the old KDE apps you know and love, along with some new ones, like this cute (and extremely useful) Run Program dialog.

KDE 4 also makes a huge leap forwards in sound. It uses a new audio framework, Decibel, to replace the aging aRts. Decibel is similar to PulseAudio, the new sound server used in Fedora 8, but even more advanced. It can route different types of sounds to different audio servers (including external ones- it has built-in JACK support). Sound worked out of the box- something I was NOT expecting.

Pros:
-All sorts of cool new stuff
-Faster file manager
-Awesome new theme
-Sound works much better
-Plasma widgets are useful and customizable
-Kickoff menu- need I say more?
Cons:
-Long install process
Friendliness: 5/5- Even easier than before.
Performance: 4/5- Qt 4 supposedly boasts a 20-30% speed increase over Qt 3, but I couldn't test it.
Features: 5/5- The main reason to switch.
~~Packaging~~ Installation: 2/5- Expect it to rise to a 4 as more packages become available.
Artwork: 2.5/2.5- Oxygen paid off big-time.
Community: 1/2.5- As more people are available to help you, expect it to increase to 2.5.
Now:

In a couple months or so:

Overall: 3.9/5, will eventually become a 4.6/5- Finally, Linux has a top-tier desktop environment.
From MEPIS 7.0 with KDE 4,
The Distrogue.

Okay, that didn't work (at first)

2008-01-10T22:14:00.000+01:00

I'm disappointed by the results of that reskin (EDIT: not the current one). So I'll try something different. Be warned that until I say it's over, the looks of this site might vary wildly from day to day, or even hour to hour.
UPDATE: A-HA! It turns out the PHP script I use to buffer my blog images wasn't handling transparency the right way. Now that that's fixed, look forwards to some nice eye-candy on here.
UPDATE: Phase 1 is complete! On to touching stuff up in the CSS code.
FINAL UPDATE: Save some minor changes (the post headers and counter, for example), the update is complete. Please enjoy. The theme is based on Oxygen, the default style in the newly-released KDE 4 (!!!).
From MEPIS 7.0,
The Distrogue.

New Years' resolution, effective immediately

2008-01-06T18:01:00.000+01:00

For 2008, I resolve to reskin my blog AND main site to look similar and (in the case of my blog) less ugly. Behold, the news you've all been waiting for (not), and it's going to start now. I haven't decided on a color scheme yet, but it's going to look much more sleek and sophisticated (hopefully) than it does now. I'm just warning everyone so they don't complain about the page looking ugly while I give it a virtual nip-and-tuck.
From MEPIS 7.0,
Dr. 9021Rogue.

Copyrights, corporations and commercials

2008-01-06T17:03:00.000+01:00

If you use Firefox, you might have stumbled across a few sites that deliberately block you for using Firefox. Welcome to the corporate-controlled Internet, my friend. Apparently, you forgot to RTFM, and the M is here: www.whyfirefoxisblocked.com. WhyFirefoxIsBlocked.com is a site that tries- pathetically- to explain why some sites practice this despicable (and legally questionable, one hopes) form of discrimination. The overall answer is simple, if a bit illogical: Firefox includes ad-blocking software, and Mozilla sponsors Ad-Block Plus (which I STRONGLY recommend getting!).
So this is The Man's way of sticking it back to us. Consequently, you're stuck using Internet Explorer (or, if you use Linux, Konqueror or Epiphany, which aren't nearly as bad as IE), leaving you open to not only ads, but viruses and hackers, because, from the site, "millions of hard working people are being robbed of their time and effort by this type of software"! Oh noes! You're actually harming the people who write ads by using a better browser! And we can't have that, can we?
It goes on to call these semi-humans who develop ads "honest, hard-working website owners and developers". Propaganda at its best- you can't get much better than this. They call ad-blocking "resource theft" over and over- as if the ads aren't stealing our resources (bandwidth- pages with no ads load much faster than pages with an average number of ads). The fact remains that, no matter how many "honest, hard-working" speechwriters helped make this elegant piece of slander, it's still nothing more than FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Denial), designed to keep you from making your own choices about what sites you want to visit, and how you want to visit them.
So, what do we do?
I suggest just using FireFox as usual, with one difference. The User Agent Switcher makes your browser looks like IE or any other browser to a server, effectively screwing over any form of browser-bouncer. But another good idea is to shove their own words back down their throats: if a site forces you to not use Firefox, then just don't go there. Boycott them. See how they like it. WhyFirefoxIsBlocked says that blocking Firefox doesn't cause much financial loss, but with more users switching every day, that's not going to be true anymore in a while. Eventually, they'll have no choice but to unblock us. Or maybe not- we are talking about big, stubborn corporations here.
From MEPIS 7.0,
The DistRogue.

Sanity prevails on DistroWatch

2007-12-21T22:58:00.000+01:00

Remember how PCLinuxOS was on top of the DistroWatch charts for months and it caused an uproar about how Ladislav might be biased? Well, Ubuntu finally regained its place at the top. This is what happens when you don't show any signs of life (test releases) for over half a year... I'm glad to see sanity prevail, and I'm still waiting for PCLOS 2008- which will have KDE 4 (that's apparently what they're waiting for).
From MEPIS 7.0-rc2,
The DistRogue.

Digg: The Red(mond) Army Strikes Again! OH NOES!

2007-12-19T22:05:00.000+01:00

Momsshizzle might seem like a normal Digg user. (Yeah, right...) Except that he has no friends (according to Digg, that is, and probably in real life). Except for his deceptive avatar of Firefox munching away on the IE6 logo. Except that it looks like his only purpose is to post something along the lines of "Linsux linsux linsux. Linsux. LIIIIINSUUUUX!!!!!11111oneoneone" on any Linux-related article he finds. You see, momsshizzle is part of Microsoft's growing botnet of poor souls on Digg who post crap in any Linux-related articles they find.
I'm guessing Microsoft pays him to do it, and it's obvious why: there's no other reason.
Really, if he was a Windows fanboy, you'd think he'd have an intelligent argument ready (or maybe not...). Maybe he was trying to start a meme. If that's the case, congratulations, momssshizzle, you just killed your own meme. Nice job! But really, what could make a human being give up all their dignity by making posts that skull-crushingly lame and pointless other than money?
These people need to learn that there are better ways of making money than sucking up to Microsoft and talking crap about an OS they've obviously never used before. How's this for an idea: Actually try "Linsux" out (GASP!!!), blog about it, and make some money off the ad revenue. Oh, Microsoft's paying you not to use it so that you never learn anything about it that might (shudder at the thought) change your opinion? OK, your loss.
And momsshizzle, if you're reading this, and you post a comment, if you use the word "Linsux", it will be deleted on sight. It was kind-of-sort-of funny the first 42 times you said it, but move on. Your little meme failed.
To the rest of the botnet, quoting Linus himself: "Put up or shut up."
From MEPIS 7.0(still!)-rc2,
The DistRogue.

It's all so clear now...

2007-12-17T18:18:00.000+01:00

Now I think I know what the deal is with Ulteo. It's going to be a completely online OS that can be run over a fast internet connection on a remote computer. They don't have the entire system in place, but right now, you can sign up for a free account, and (supposedly) test it. It won't seem to let me try it out, but apparently, they managed to get OpenOffice working.
Ulteo will run via a Java virtual machine on your system, communicating with the main system over the Internet. This means that your settings and files will be available anywhere, and can easily be shared. Think Google Docs, but with an entire OS.
Wow.
Take that, Fedora!
What about that 1.0-alpha CD they released a year ago (based on Kubuntu)? That was just the base system. AFAIK, they've ironed out the bugs and they're moving the system online. Now, some of the features (the UGD, for instance, which does the maintenance) are starting to make sense. Ulteo supposedly repairs itself and upgrades automatically, which would be essential to keep the system running smoothly without having to hire an admin for each person's online system... Imagine what a nightmare that would be!
Lead developer and Mandriva founder (remember how they kicked him out?) Gael Duval has been pointing out uses for Ulteo on his blog. Here are some of the implications:
-Collaboration. If something's online, it'll obviously be easier for more people to collaborate on it. Letting multiple people log into your account (as guests, obviously) could let you all work together on a project, similar to a wiki.
-Portability. This one's obvious. Ulteo can be accessed anywhere, be it an internet cafe, a hotel room, or even on a plane. But more importantly, you don't need a computer of your own to use it. Borrow a friend's computer or work from school. Hey, that's not a bad idea!
-Impact on the host machine. What effect does a live CD have on the machine that runs it? Nothing. Unless the host system doesn't have a web browser or Java, you don't need to change anything to run Ulteo- not even the BIOS, which most computers need changed to run live CDs and USBs.
-Anonimity. Ulteo uses proxy servers. Enough said. wink wink nudge nudge say no MORE!
-Friendliness. It's no secret that the main reason why people don't use Linux is because they're scared (Microsoft's incessant FUD may have something to do with this) that they'll have to do everything from the command prompt. Ulteo looks (SUSPICIOUSLY!) like Windows, which might help them overcome their fear, and does almost all of the maintenance (and there's less to do than on Windows) automatically.
The future looks good...
From SimplyMEPIS 7.0-rc2,
The DistRogue.

MEPIS 7.0-rc2: See Fedora

2007-12-07T20:02:00.000+01:00

Introduction
I tried MEPIS 6.0 and 6.5 a while back because it seemed like a good distribution. The best of Ubuntu, Debian, and Knoppix all rolled into one with some extra goodies a la Mint- who wouldn't want it? It turned out to be a decent distribution, but a solid one at best.
All this is (hopefully- it's the last RC, but it's still just an RC) going to change with version 7.0.
Here's a brief list of the stuff bundled with MEPIS 7.0:
-a full KDE desktop
-MP3 playback
-a bunch of in-house system-configuration utilities
-PulseAudio (via the repositories)
-Synaptic on crack (noticeably faster than the one Ubuntu has)
Put all of this on a Debian base and you can tell it's going to be good.
Installation
After trying out Sidux 7.04 (trust me, it's nothing to get excited about, and when they say "Lite edition", they mean "SLAX, but twice as big and based on Debian"), I had installed it onto my USB key, which set up the MBR the way I needed it. Since Sidux and MEPIS (not to mention Knoppix and Kanotix) use the same live system (and bootloader- GRUB instead of syslinux/isolinux), I copied the files off of the MEPIS ISO onto the key and ran it as a live USB.
The install hasn't changed at all. You still have to go through an 8-page wizard which covers the usual areas (plus a scary license at the beginning, but it's no big deal), but the install itself whizzed by from the USB. (Fun fact: Sidux- LITE- took 38 minutes to install from a CD, and I have a screenshot to prove it.)
Artwork
MEPIS has nice, calm artwork, and the included Nuvola icon theme (most KDE distros [ab]use the default Crystal SVG) is fun and cute.

But I don't really like that sort of thing.

(And yes, I know I have too many desktop icons.)
Most people do, though, and I don't blame them. Neither do a lot of people in charge of distro artwork. I see light blue color schemes everywhere, although colors seem to be gradually darkening (see PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu Gutsy, and KDE 4's default wallpaper, all of which are darker than their predecessors).
Installed Software
MEPIS comes with a huge selection of pre-installed software. Okay, maybe "good" isn't the right word so much as "smart". It runs a KDE desktop, but has the GIMP for image editing (smart choice). It also has something most distros neglect because of Linux's inherited security- firewall and AV programs.
Under multimedia, the selection is sparse but good. RealPlayer (!) and amaroK are both included (along with MP3 codecs for amaroK), along with K3B for CD burning. amaroK also covers iPod management. Add in MPlayer and Kino (for DV editing, an area often neglected by other distros), and all your multimedia needs are covered.
Office apps are basic- OpenOffice, KMail, Kontact, a PDF viewer, and organizational software- but it's still a complete office suite. Remember you're getting this all for free.
Internet options look basic at first. MEPIS comes with the standard KDE browser suite (Firefox and Konqueror), along with KTorrent and Kopete (IMing) but wait- what's this? Java? Skype? GuardDog Firewall? All included. You can guess that MEPIS's main goal isn't to play by the GPL...
MEPIS might be KDE-based, but it has its share of GTK apps where necessary. Image editing is covered by the GIMP (which, IMO, still beats Krita), and Synaptic, rather than the misnamed Adept, does package management. gFTP is bundled as an FTP client. And... wait, GAMES? This thing has games? Other than the normal KDE game suite, MEPIS comes with Tux Racer to keep you ~~from doing what you're supposed to be doing~~ occupied. It's not the Orange Box, but it'll have to do. Besides, most general-purpose distros don't ship with any games other than the defaults.
Hardware Support
MEPIS has historically good hardware support, but now, it's even better. I was pleased to learn about the MEPIS Network Assistant, which I used to get my wireless card running with no additional software (but with some support from the MEPISLovers forums- thanks, guys!). My screen resolution was detected flawlessly.
Performance/Gaming
Tremulous wouldn't connect to other servers because of the firewall, so I had to disable it for gaming.
Extras
The MEPIS Assistants cover a wide range of tasks, from setting up a network connection to repairing a broken MBR (with one click). There are four total, for users, networking, system tasks, and X. Of course, there are also the usual KDE adminning apps, like KInfoCenter and KControl.
Pros:
-Extensive software selection on one CD
-Custom control center
-AV and firewall included
-Plays restricted A/V formats
-Good hardware support
-Fast
Cons:
-Firewall blocks most online gaming by default
-Artwork isn't anything to brag to Fedora 8 users about
Friendliness: 4.5/5- Wireless was annoying. Everything else was fine.
Performance: 4.5/5- Entirely too fast to be based on Ubuntu.
Features: 4.5/5- A complete desktop and a half. RMS would not approve.
Packaging: 5/5- Synaptic, but faster than I'm used to.
Artwork: 2/2.5- Meh. Not outstanding, but the icons are cute, and it's calming overall.
Community: 2/2.5- [relatively] Helpful and quick. Plus, they're used to dealing with newbies.

Overall: 4.4/5- DistroWatch and other sites definitely don't give MEPIS its share of time in the spotlight.
From MEPIS 7.0-rc2,
The Distrogue.

Content and stealing it (re: fsckin)

2007-12-05T22:18:00.000+01:00

I'm a constant reader of fsckin.com. I think it's a great blog, with sharp opinions, relevant, current news, and great reviews. So, apparently, do some other people. After Wayne painstakingly reviewed seven different Linux and BSD-based firewall distros, the review surfaced on two other sites (at dralnux.com and linuxcult.blogspot.com- which makes me sad to be on Blogger with them...). You'd think there would be some kind of credit to Wayne for a review that big...
They didn't even give him a link.
Let's get something straight: I don't endorse this kind of blatant plagiarism. If you didn't write it, you didn't write it. I use Distrogue's "Blog It" feature once in a while, but nothing like this. For the most part, all content on my site is written by me (except for the templates and such that Google puts on there), from the text itself to the pictures and PHP image generators I use.
These "bloggers" are not only making themselves look bad, but they're making open source itself look bad. People are going to look at this and think that writing something about open source means that anyone can just steal it as their own and put it on their site, saying "Look what I wrote!" This is not going to encourage people to write about open source.DistRogue
These idiots also teach an important lesson: If you use your post right, you can bring these plagiarists down. The review included a picture of the test PC. Now, since neither person bothered re-hosting it under ImageShack or Blogger, it says that the review was stolen, and shows instructions on how to report them for content theft under the DMCA. Signing your posts can also help (and working the signature into the rest of the article), since a person would have to go through it and edit it before posting. But that would be like a DRM for blogging, and we don't want that.There are subtle DRMs in here... And yes, I meant "Digg's 'Blog It' feature".
EDIT: Not so subtle anymore... Damn reskin. :-(
From Xubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.

Project Brave GNU World: Bringing Linux to school

2007-12-03T15:39:00.000+01:00

I'm now officially sick of having to use Windows XP on a daily basis at school. The bugs and slowness are irritating me to the point of insanity, and any time I want to use a program of my own (Firefox, Gimp, NVu, etc), I have to install a portable version on the network drive and run it from there- and that's a really slow drive. Obviously, the entire school isn't going to switch to Ubuntu because of one kid, but thanks to live CD/USB technology, they don't have to. I'm planning to get a live USB ready, running SLAX 6, that can run on the desktop computers in the library, and make it work by Christmas break.
I picked SLAX for a number of reasons. For starters, it's tiny- the maximum size for the standard edition (a full KDE desktop) is 200MB, leaving me roughly 800 megs to store stuff on. It's also amazingly fast (and version 6 comes with CFS), and our computers are middle-of-the-road- 3GHZ Pentium 4s with 1GB of RAM. (There's also 60GB of hard disk space nobody will ever use, since everything's stored on network drives.) Finally, it's easy to customize, and supports persistent changes out of the box.
Some of the computers are wired to the LAN, some use a wireless connection. I've noticed that the wired computers are faster than the wireless ones, since everything's on the network (including the portable apps I have). This might be because they use 802.11b instead of g or n, but I haven't got a good look at the specs for them.
Here's the deal:
Hardware:
-CPU: Intel Pentium 4 clocked at 3 GHz
-RAM: 1GB
-Hard disk (for temp storage only!): 60GB, usually 55GB free on C:\ partition
-Screen resolution: 1280x1024 (but it's set to 1024x768 by default for reasons I don't get... Ah well, it'll be whatever I say it is on SLAX :-)
-Networking:
--Wired: Intel PRO/100 network card (supported natively under Linux :-)
--Wireless: Unknown (but I'm guessing it's ipw2100- or 2200-based, just an educated guess, and both are supported natively. This is the main problem...)
Software:
-Windows XP Professional Edition
The biggest problems are going to be wireless networking and getting the go-ahead from the IT department, but I've heard they like open source. Always good to hear. :-) (Besides, I think I saw a Debian screensaver in the network room...)
From Windows XP (but hopefully not for long!),
The Distrogue.

Startup times

2007-12-03T09:21:00.000+01:00

Something weird just happened. I'm at school, and a lot of the laptops we use run Vista. So, I took the opportunity to clock how long it takes Vista to start up versus Linux. Here are some of the results:
PCLinuxOS 2007 (on my home laptop, a middle-of-the-road machine): 40 seconds
Mandriva 2008: 40 seconds
Xubuntu 7.10: 45 seconds
openSUSE 10.3 (clean install, OSS/KDE): about 45 seconds
Fedora 8: about 50 seconds (a huge improvement over the last few versions :-)
Windows Vista: 3 minutes 45 seconds
...What?
That's what I got after 3 consecutive reboots. Sad, isn't it? These are modern laptops, not ancient Pentium IIIs, and they run AMD Sempron 3500+s with 896MB RAM.
Sorry you have to read this, I just had to get that out.
From Windows Fista (Rubber Glove edition),
The Distrogue.

End-of-2007 State of the Union

2007-12-01T21:31:00.000+01:00

2007. What a year. Ubuntu cranked out two more solid releases, sub-$500 laptops flooded the market and undermined Microsoft's influence, and 3D desktop effects continued to improve. The DistroWatch charts were invaded by Texans, and several new distros appeared on the scene, while existing ones (Mint, Sabayon) joined the ranks of the Top 10. And what a Top 10 it is...
Gentoo: What a nasty year for Gentoo! First, Daniel Robbins comes back to join the amd64 development squad, only to leave in disgust a week later. The development process over there is devolving into anarchy, and it's not helping their release schedule: The first release arrived three months late, and the second (and last for the year) is already even later. Expect Gentoo users to flock to Paldo and Sabayon- which will help Paldo make it into the Top 10.
Mandriva: Another year, another two solid releases, and another Corporate Desktop. Mandriva continues to tweak their software selection, improve 3D effects, and make their distribution even faster. But it's showing signs of age- both releases were two weeks late, and little else changed except artwork, eye-candy, and the usual upgrades. Mandriva seems built to last, but it will be overrun if development keeps up at this pace.
Slackware: Slackware is still Slackware- sort of. Another release this year, but this time, they actually upgraded some key packages. Linux is at 2.6.21.5 (a step up from 2.4.33.3), X made it to version 7, and Apache is from the 2.2 series. Slackware, like Debian, is used as a base for countless other distros (Zenwalk, Vector, Wolvix, etc), which means they'll all finally include some decent software.
Debian: They actually had a release this year! :-) Etch turned out to be a solid, fast, customizable release, and a solid base for distros like Pendrive Linux and Dreamlinux. Ubuntu is still clobbering them, but they still have a huge following, and rightfully so. Sid remains the most up-to-date Linux distribution.
Sabayon: Now that they have Daniel Robbins on their side, they might start replacing Gentoo... Oh, wait, they did that already. Never mind. Sabayon is still a distribution of its own, with its own (overstuffed) software selection and exceptional hardware support... Or, at least, it was until they introduced the "Core Install" in version 3.4, which installs a minimal base that can be built upon, Arch-style, using Portage or Equo, Sabayon's new binary package manager which one-ups Gentoo in yet another way. Ouch.
Fedora: Version 7 was a letdown. Version 8 was outstanding. Version 9 is going to be awesome, now that they're back on track with a stable system (even with all the bleeding-edge software) and have an extensive feature list planned for it (including KDE 4). Bring on RHEL 6!
Mint: Touted on Digg as "the new Ubuntu", this Ubuntu fork is faster, more complete out of the box, and (arguable) has better artwork. All this in addition to the mintTools including file sharing (mintUpload), a customizable control center (mintConfig), an update manager (mintUpdate), and more, all open-source. It's still a toss-up as to which distro has cuter code names, though.
openSUSE: 10.3 turns out to be the simple, straightforward release the last few versions were supposed to be, albeit 10 months after 10.2. It also turns out not to be for hobbyists (go with Fedora in that case). They're still adding features, though, and the brand-new one-CD live/install hybrid option is worth all the effort they put into it.
Ubuntu: Ubuntu continues to be Ubuntu- minus the number-one spot on DistroWatch, and plus three new derivatives (Ubuntu Studio, Gobuntu, and Fluxbuntu). Also added are revolutionary new X-fixing tools (graphical, no less), a codec wizard that blows Fedora's new Codeina out of the water, hardware driver management, and- finally- Compiz Fusion effects. W00t!
PCLinuxOS: Somehow, they manage to steal the number-one spot on DistroWatch's charts with only one release throughout the entire year (and the next one'll have to wait until long after KDE 4 is out later this month). According to DW's Ladislav, the results are not rigged, and so one has to wonder where all those hits are coming from... Anyways, PCLinuxOS 2007 brings a face-lift, huge speed improvements (it's now one of the fastest distros that's not source-based or based on Slackware), Beryl (which is out of date), and enough codecs and programs (Frostwire, anyone?) to keep you off Apt for weeks.
From Ubuntu 7.10,
The Distrogue.

Just noticed something Google Docs has...

2007-11-21T13:42:00.000+01:00

Under the "File" menu in Google Docs, Googles online office suite, there's an option that says "Export as OpenOffice...". I knew Google supported open source, but wow... Never noticed that before.
Just a random post... Glad to see Google not being evil.

Took me long enough

2007-11-19T17:39:00.000+01:00

I just got by first taste of virtualization, thanks to QEMU, Damn Small Linux, and a VM management GUI in Fedora. Check it out:

No VMWare, no VirtualBox, no more than 192MB RAM for the guest... All using open-source software. And thanks to the VM manager's wizard, it was incredibly easy. I only needed the ISO image to do it.
From Fedora 8 (or is it Damn Small 4.1-rc1? My laptop's having an identity crisis!),
The DistRogue.

Fedora 8: What did they DO?!

2007-11-18T12:38:00.000+01:00

I tried out Fedora 8 Test 3. It was atrocious. :-) It was slow, bloated, laggy, ugly, and had bad hardware detection. But something huge happened between the test and the final release, because Fedora 8 absolutely rocks. I honestly thought it was going to bomb, just like version 7, but it received glowing praise from across the Linux blogosphere, and so allow me to add in my own.
Installation
Fedora has an unusually long install. It took about 20 minutes from an ISO image (booted off a USB key) with just under 1100 packages selected. It goes through a reasonable number of screens, although some screens could easily be integrated into one (language selection, timezone, root password).
After the installation (which allows for package selection), you have to go through 7 more steps to get everything configured. Annoying, and can be (for the most part) eliminated. Can't the firewall and SELinux set themselves up with the default settings?
Artwork
Even in Test 3, Fedora looks pretty. Every release has new artwork, but this time, thanks to the Infinity project, Fedora receives a complete overhaul. There's not just a new theme, but a new theme engine, called Nodoka, which supposedly runs lighter than most existing engines. I personally think it looks a little bland, but it's polished. There's also a new Metacity theme to go with it.

The wallpaper is what changes the most often between releases, but in Fedora 8, it changes every hour, instead of every release. The new slideshow wallpaper cycles through 4 different phases, depending on the time of day.

And, of course, the obligatory Compiz screenshot:

Installed Software
Fedora comes with a pretty standard selection of free software (no patent-encumbered or non-GNU software). That means that it lacks, among other things, MP3 support and NVidia/ATI drivers (which don't affect me). (It's worth noting, however, that Fedora is home to the Noveau project to reverse-engineer NVidia drivers and make them open-source.) It is, however, better than Paldo's disastrous GNOME-only selection, including GNOME and KDE, Firefox, GIMP, Totem, Eclipse IDE (new in this release), Linux 2.6.23.1 with CFS, and just about anything they can fit onto a 3.3GB DVD image. Which is a lot.
For Web connectivity, there's Firefox (WWW), Evolution (e-mail), Pidgin/GAIM (IM/IRC), Jigsaw and Transmission (Jigdo and BitTorrent, respectively), and an ancient-looking VNC viewer. Pretty complete to me! There's OpenOffice (unsurprisingly), GIMP (the somewhat-outdated 2.4.0-rc3- isn't Fedora supposed to be cutting-edge?), gThumb, and F-Spot for office tasks. Games are nothing special- just the default GNOME selection- but there's a custom "Gaming Spin" for gamers, which is a live DVD with lots of games on it.
Multimedia apps are sparse. There's the new PulseAudio sound server, replacing ALSA, but other than that, there's Totem (video playback), Rhythmbox (music management), and SoundJuicer (CD ripping), and that's pretty much it. Not only is it sparse, but why opt for Rhythmbox over the much-superior Exaile, like almost everyone else? Sheeple. And I thought Fedora devs liked Python-based apps. These apps are pretty much useless, too, unless all of your music is in Ogg format. But despair not- help is just around the corner thanks to the new Codec Buddy! Oh, wait... That's just a front-end to Fluendo. Want MPEG support? Get it for the low price of 16€! Same for Window Media. MP3 support is free, but...
Enter Livna. Go to the site, download and install the "Fedora 8 Repository RPM", and you get instant access to all the stuff Fedora's missing. Like MP3 support. Just install "gstreamer-plugins-bad" and "gstreamer-plugins-ugly" in Pirut (the GUI package manager with dependency tracking :-) and you're good to go.
Hardware Support
My biggest gripe about F7 and F8T3 by far was that my wireless card wasn't showing up. And, by default, it didn't in this release. All 3 releases used the open-source iwlwifi drivers. In F7, they weren't mature enough to work, and in F8T3... Well, I'm not sure what happened. But in F8, the drivers worked out of the box. The only problem was that I had to go to System > Administration > Services and turn on NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher, and it worked. Like it should without having to do that. :-(
Also, there were some screen issues. Closing the lid of my laptop didn't cause a crash, like it does on some distros (PCLinuxOS, Debian), but after exiting games, odd stuff happened. OpenArena didn't seem to have any problems, but exiting Tremulous made my mouse clicks not go through, and Sauerbraten caused a complete crash. In both cases, using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to restart X fixed the problem, and playing on Compiz or XFCE averted it, so it's probably a problem in Metacity.
Performance
Fedora is usually slow and laggy, but this release was faster. GLXGears rose 50% over Test 3, even beating Ubuntu for once. Tremulous worked fine, as did OpenArena, and Sauerbraten ran at the normal FPS range (if not a bit higher). CFS seems to help big-time here.
Pros:
-Sweet artwork
-Completely FOSS
-Enormous software selection
-Decent performance for once
Cons:
-Assorted quirks in hardware detection
-Somewhat long install
Friendliness: 4/5- Fedora is famous for being easy to use. The lack of MP3 playback is annoying, but otherwise, it's not too hard to use.
Performance: 3.5/5- Faster than I'm used to for Fedora. Solid.
Features: 4.5/5- Enormous feature list as usual.
intuition of included software: is it just a basic desktop, or is it more advanced?
Packaging: 4.5/5- RPM is slow, but has a fast pre-configuring phase. The dependency-tracking system, yum, and GUI, pirut, are both useful.
Artwork: 2.5/2.5- Beautiful and polished as usual- and groundbreaking.
Community: 2.5/2.5- As usual, Fedora has an enormous online community.

Overall: 4.3/5- A solid release from Fedora, for once. :-)
UPDATE: Tuxmachines now has a poll on whether you liked Fedora 8. The results? 53% Yes, 13% No.
From Fedora 8,
The DistRogue.

Paldo GNU/Linux 1.2: Yet Another Generic Distro

2007-11-17T12:25:00.000+01:00

If you've never heard of Paldo, you need to check DistroWatch more. This completely new hybrid distribution (source *and* binary backage management) has started to get some major attention, and one site even went so far as to call it "this year's Sabayon".
Paldo is a completely independent distribution, compiled using Linux From Scratch and with its own package management system, upkg, to manage programs. It works similarly to Gentoo's Portage, with one exception- it can also install binary packages. This makes installation much faster, but if you're after customizability (like Gentoo), then you might want to try compiling. Note that if you try to compile everything from source, you might want to have another working system, along with a few DVDs to watch while you wait.
Paldo's CD image weighs in at 650MB for x86 and 674MB for x86_64, surprisingly tiny. It has boot-time language selection and boots into a fully-functional live CD. I didn't try using it with Syslinux on my USB key.
Installation
Paldo's installer is completely new in version 1.12. Before that, it didn't even have an installer. But now, it does, and it works very well. The wizard looks similar to Ubuntu's Ubiquity installer, only going through a few steps before doing the install (language/time zone, partitioning, system setup, user setup, etc). After those screens, the install finished in a scant 10 minutes, complete with a cute progress bar. An important caveat, though: The bootloader setup does NOT detect other OSes!

Artwork
Paldo doesn't ship with any custom artwork, opting for the default GNOME artwork. Not that this is a bad thing; it gives off an air of purity, as it should- Paldo is a completely independent distribution, and the packages haven't been modified at all. The default icon theme, though, is a tad ugly, and doesn't have any bragging rights over more polished icon sets (especially Ubuntu's "Human" theme).

Installed Software
Paldo's default package selection looks meticulously selected. It has GNOME as the default desktop, along with all the goodies (GIMP, OpenOffice, etc), but with some extra non-free plugins. My screen resolution and wireless card were detected immediately, and MP3 playback worked flawlessly. My main problem was that the developers opted for Epiphany over the far-superior Firefox as a Web browser. On the plus, Epiphany's homepage is set to Google, a smart move.
Upkg does not have a GUI front-end. You'll need to find the package names online via the repository search and install them over the command line. I hope there will be something like Synaptic in the near future, it shouldn't be too hard to write.
Paldo includes a bizarre number of development tools. I know it's supposed to be source-based, but Gentoo doesn't have most of the tools Paldo does. Among the programs were Anjuta, Glade, MonoDevelop, a hex editor, and a diff viewer. Hmm... With MonoDevelop and Glade, maybe the developers want you to code a front-end for upkg!
For media, there's the lightweight Brasero CD burning tool (which absolutely rocks), Totem for movie playback, the ugly, bloated Rhythmbox for music management (Exaile gets my vote), and Sound Juicer for CD ripping. Putting Exaile in should solve the problems here. I'm starting to see a pattern, though: A lot of these apps are GNOME projects (like Rhythmbox and Epiphany). The Paldo devs need to learn that when it comes to GNOME projects, it would be a wise idea to not blindly stick to them, but to look for replacements that can do the job better.
As far as how current it is, there's Linux 2.6.23.1, the stable until the flurry of updates on Friday, and GIMP 2.4.0, along with the latest GNOME at the time of writing. The latest Firefox is available in the repository (although it should have been on the CD), as is Compiz 0.6.2 (latest, again).
Hardware Support
Like I said, my native 1280x800 screen resolution was detected flawlessly, as was my wireless card (an ipw3945). However, I had two major issues when I tried playing Tremulous. The biggest one was with my mouse. I use both a touchpad and a wireless, optical 3-button mouse (from Logitech). The touchpad worked flawlessly, but the mouse never left the bottom-right-hand corner of my screen in-game- but worked fine on the desktop. Huh...
The second was performance. Tremulous on Paldo plays like Ubuntu, minus swap, and after a week of intense uptime. Nasty. The FPS rates were about 30% lower. GLXGears confirmed this. But this isn't really a hardware issue so much as a software issue- but still, with CFS and heavy optimizaton, where is all this lag coming from?
Packaging
Upkg is seriously the best package manager I've seen so far. The pre-configuration steps took about 5 seconds, and packages installed quickly from binaries. The source-building process was astoundingly fast. I installed openal and audiofile (a dependency) in order to play OpenArena, and here were the results:
time upkg-build openal
...
real 0m16.236s
user 0m5.779s
sys 0m0.987s
16 seconds to build two packages. It makes one wonder- is it really compiling them, or just installing them? According to the appropriate wiki page, the upkg-build command I used does, in fact, compile. Wow. That was just amazing.
Pros:
-Upkg shows promise
-Customizable and flexible
-A clean, basic system
Cons:
-Slow and bloated
-No front-end to upkg
-Software selection needs tweakage
Friendliness: 4/5- The lack of a GUI frontend to upkg drags it down a bit.
Performance: 2/5- Seriously, it's almost as bad as Fedora. Not what you'd expect from an x86-optimized distro with CFS.
Features: 3.5/5- Meh, it's a complete desktop, but not much else. And besides, Firefox? Hello?
Packaging: 4/5- Upkg is a great piece of software; it would be even better if someone coded a GUI for it like Portato.
Artwork: 1.5/2.5- Kind of ugly... The developers should at least browse www.gnome-look.org for a bit.
Hardware detection: 2/2.5- Mouse issues, but otherwise, fine. NOTE: This score was originally for "Community", but since Paldo's new, there isn't one, so N/A.

Overall: 3.4/5- Could be a solid distribution with some more programs and a frontend to upkg.
My sights are aimed at Fedora 8 and PC-BSD 1.4.1. PC-BSD is what I'm looking forward to the most, having tried it before back at version 1.11 and not really hated it that much.
From Paldo 1.12,
The DistRogue.

Ulteo: What happened?

2007-11-12T08:34:00.000+01:00

Back on December 6, 2006, the Linux world was eagerly awaiting the first pre-release of Ulteo, a Kubuntu-based OS that would supposedly revolutionize how we computed. It came out, there were a few reviews, and the world kept spinning again. So here we are, almost a year later, and what's happened since then?
DistroWatch hasn't updated their page on Ulteo since June. It still has the package list from Ubuntu's now-outdated 6.06 LTS release (which will soon be replaced by the next version, also LTS). Ulteo's News page is effectively useless as well, pretty much having only announced calls for developers since the release. And there haven't been any major changes to the Wikipedia page since April. So what's going on? Will Ulteo ever see the light of day?
Enter the blog.
Gael Duval's blog says that they're still working on Ulteo's online desktop, an idea that's been in motion even before Fedora's online desktop (which just made its debut with version 8). If you want to check it out yourself, try this link. From the blog, it looks like it will have a lot of the features that Fedora's desktop does- easy use of programs over the Internet, easy online collaboration (a la Wiki), a fast proxy connection... And apparently the list is still growing.
Duval said that there would be 3 important technologies in Ulteo 1.0 (codename "Sirius"). One would be an online desktop, and another would be automatic maintenance and updating. And there's still one left, and it's going to be good:

developer with good knowledge in virtualization optimization (kernel level)

(from the "Wanted! (Alive)" section under "Devel")
Something to do with virtualization? Scary. Especially from a visionary like Duval- remember, this is the guy who founded Mandriva.
From Xubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.

dd: The Great Destroyer and Creator

2007-11-11T12:47:00.000+01:00

Buried deep in the Linux man pages is a command called dd. You know how short commands like cat, ps, grep, rm or mv are really powerful? dd owns all of them. It copies data between block files- image files or device files. It's simple enough- to use it, just run

dd if=[input] of=[output]

But there are a lot of things you can put in [input] and [output], and some of the could be dangerous. Here are some of the things you can do with it:
-Write a disk image onto a CD, DVD, or USB key:

dd if=[file] of=/dev/sdb1 (as an example)

-Make a compressed backup of a USB key:

dd if=/dev/sdb1 | bzip2 > backup.img.bz2

-Erase your entire hard drive:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

-Securely erase your hard drive:

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

-Make an ext3 filesystem and mount it at /media/fs:

mkdir /media/fs
dd if=/dev/zero of=fs.ext3 bs=512k count=
mke3fs fs.ext3
mount fs.ext3 /media/fs

-Add a gigabyte-size swap file without rebooting or making any new partitions:

dd if=/dev/zero of=swap bs=1M count=1024
mkdwap swap
swapon swap

Don't try any of these at home unless you're sure what you're doing. dd is a very powerful and useful command, but don't use it unless you need to.
As for reviews: I'm trying to get Sabayon3.4 Mini to run off of my USB key, but if I can't, on to Fedora 8.
From gOS 1.0,
The DistRogue.
UPDATE: I used angle brackets <> for the examples, but I had to change them to square brackets because [input] (with <> instead of []) is a valid HTML tag. 0.o... Learn from me.

Skype 2.0 Beta for Linux with VIDEO

2007-11-08T19:28:00.001+01:00

After much delay, Skype 2.0 for Linux has hit beta stage- finally. And it has video support! w00t! A 64-bit version is supposedly a long way off, but video support is another obstacle Skype on Linux has had to overcome for too long.

read more | digg story

gOS package repos for Ubuntu Gutsy

2007-11-07T19:30:00.000+01:00

Odds are you've heard of gOS somewhere or another. What if you want to test it, but don't want to download it? What if you just want to install it over Ubuntu? You can. Just add these lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://packages.googlepc.com/gos/ painful main
deb-src http://packages.googlepc.com/gos/ painful main

Then, run

sudo apt-get update

and to install a full gOS desktop, use

sudo apt-get install greenos-desktop

and you'll be able to run gOS's Enlightenment-based desktop or Ubuntu's default GNOME via the GDM login.
From Ubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.

GIMP roadmap and how you can help

2007-11-07T16:02:00.000+01:00

If you're reading my blog, you've probably heard of The GIMP, a free substitute for Photoshop. With the latest release, 2.4, out the door, the developers are planning ahead to version 2.6. You can track the progress by signing up for a mailing list here, but be warned: The volume of mail you get is enormous (at least 25 messages a day), so set up a filter. Anyways, a roadmap is being pieced together, and here's what they have so far:

GEGL and Cairo integration. One of the biggest gripes from GIMP users is the lack of CMYK support. Once the GIMP starts using GEGL, all that'll change. Yes, CMYK support will be in version 2.6! And Cairo will add all sorts of eye-candy, like transparent cropping and scaling guides... It'll be cool. Read more about GEGL on Wikipedia.
UI redesign. "Floating inspectors"will be better-behaved, and be partially transparent (thanks to Cairo). Also, there will only be one menu bar, and according to the wiki, there will be an optional Photoshop-like single-window mode, another often-asked-for request. The suggestions are many and helpful, and you can add your own- just follow the instructions at the GIMP UI Brainstorm Blog.

The Cairo and GEGL changes are less apparent, but one has to start somewhere... They have some major implications for future releases.
Anyways, you can make your own suggestions. Add your own UI suggestions at the Brainstorm, and participate on the mailing lists. You'll be able to track the progress on the release as it happens instead of waiting for the releases.
From Windows XP (school computer 0.o),
...Do I need to say it?
PS: Expect a lot more updates. Anything that has to do with Linux or open-source that crosses my mind will be on here.

How to pimp out your Ubuntu desktop

2007-10-27T13:28:00.000+02:00

Yeah, another of *those* tutorials. If you use Ubuntu 7.10, and you want those wobbly windows and Avant, read on and get a shiny, bling-filled desktop with convenient controls to turn everything on and off.
The first step is to edit your sources. As of version 7.10, Ubuntu's repositories come with Compiz Fusion, so just add the avant repo. First, launch a terminal and use this command:

gksudo 'gedit /etc/apt/sources.list'

Then, add this line to the end:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 feisty avant-window-navigator

Close GEdit and run these commands:

wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/8434D43A.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
rm 8434D43A.gpg
sudo apt-get update

Next, you'll need to install some packages. You can do this in one of two ways. You could open a terminal and run this command:

sudo apt-get install compiz emerald avant-window-navigator-bzr subversion

Or, if you're afraid of the command line, launch Synaptic and install compiz, emerald, subversion, and avant-window-navigator-bzr. Finally, run another command:

svn ls https://svn.generation.no/emerald-themes

When it asks, accept the certificate permanently.
Now, you have Compiz and Avant on your system. Next, go to System > Preferences > Emerald Theme Manager. Under the "Repositories" tab, click "Fetch GPL'd Themes". This gives you a ton of themes for the window border. Choose the one that looks the coolest under the "Themes" tab, and remember that you can come back here later.
Now, on to the controls. Make two files on your desktop called "bling-on.sh" and "bling-off.sh". They should have the following contents:
bling-on.sh:
#!/bin/sh
compiz --replace
avant-window-navigator

bling-off.sh:
#!/bin/sh
killall avant-window-navigator
metacity --replace

Double-click bling-on.sh. Nothing happens. To fix that, launch a terminal and use these commands to make the files executable.

cd ~/Desktop
chmod 755 ./bling-*.sh

Now try it.
Next, it's time to add some programs to Avant. Go to Applications and find a program you want to put in Avant's launcher. Instead of launching it, though, drag it to Avant and drop it there. Do this for all the programs you want on there.
Use the bling-on.sh file to turn on Compiz, then Avant. Compiz has to be running, or Avant will look all ugly. bling-off.sh turns them off and runs Metacity (GNOME's default window manager) in Compiz's place. Running either of them will keep all your windows intact.
The last step should be pretty easy: Annoy the hell out of anyone who uses Windows Vista. ;-)

From Ubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.

Myah OS 3.0: Remember them? No?

2007-10-25T18:32:00.000+02:00

I mentioned Myah OS briefly a few months ago in a tutorial on making live CDs. I mentioned that it was basically a faster version of SLAX, and not much else, and made a good base for a live CD. As of today, the development cycle of the 3.0 series started. They upgraded a lot of packages, added a better software selection, and plan on adding an installer.
Obviously, a live CD isn't the best choice for gaming, but once installed onto a hard disk, that changes. Myah OS is i686-optimized, making it even faster. Add in a lightweight desktop, and you're looking at some seriously high FPS rates. (And the lead developer says that kernel 2.6.23- with CFS- will be available for download after the installation.)
But gaming isn't Myah OS's only purpose. It could make an ancient (but not too ancient- Pentium II or later) machine run like new. If installing Ubuntu onto an old machine makes it usable again (like so many proponents of Linux claim it does), then imagine what Myah could do to that Pentium II 400 box sitting in your attic.
From Xubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.

Xubuntu 7.10: Solid as usual

2007-10-22T07:37:00.000+02:00

In Linux-land this week, it was pretty much Ubuntu Gutsy, Ubuntu Gutsy, and Ubuntu 7.10. (And KDE 4 Beta 3.) Nothing else was on Digg, and little else on Tuxmachines, on October 18. As usual, the GNOME side of Ubuntu got all the new features (and the hype that comes with them), but the new additions, Gobuntu and Fluxbuntu, didn't seem to receive as much attention. As is tradition, neither did Xubuntu.
But Xubuntu is still a solid system for people with older hardware. It still runs lightweight, GTK-based software and can still (supposedly) run off as little as 64MB of RAM. It still includes most of Ubuntu's features (except Compiz Fusion, which is a big downside), with XFCE as its (capable but underrated) default desktop. It still doesn't run amazingly fast, but it still balances speed and friendliness. The biggest change in this release might seem superficial, but it's a very welcome improvement- a new theme based on the Murrine engine. Add in the usual updates, and you get another solid release.
But one thing troubled me as I booted off the live USB. GLXGears only reported 260FPS, and the lowest score I'd seen so far was 800 (for Fedora 8 Test 3). Hmm. The past Ubuntu releases had hovered around 1000. Everything else seemed to run snappily (except games, which had the same bizarre problem)... After looking around a bit, I found the problem. Gutsy is missing a package vital to 3D acceleration, and to fix the problem, just run the command;

sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri

and that should fix it. GLXGears jumped to 900FPS.
Nothing has changed in the install since last release, so I won't go over it. Well, actually, one thing did: The install froze at 86% when downloading language packs. Just like on Kubuntu. Beta. Wow, since someone already filed a bug on Launchpad, I thought it would be fixed for the final release, but nooo... Not good. Like last time, taking the system offline during the install fixed the problem.
From a blank install, I had a working desktop that could do all the things an average user would want to do: work with spreadsheets and documents, browse the Web, play music... The boxed application set is minimalist as usual, but still functional. It uses Totem for all audio playback (may I suggest adding Exaile?), AbiWord for word processing, and Transmission for BitTorrent downloads, along with the usual app set. MP3 codecs aren't boxed, but just like with last release, can be installed with a few clicks when needed. (It even has a wizard! :-) And since it came with ipw3945 drivers, I didn't need to worry about wireless.
The thing that really struck me about this release was the artwork. Xubuntu uses the new Murrina-StormCloud theme, along with an XFWM theme from XFCE 4.5-svn. The resulting system looks sleek and runs fast. And the wallpaper is an immense change from past releases, using a new steel-gray color scheme to replace the previous blue. Awesome. Of course, with my custom settings, I didn't get to experience the wallpaper after the install, but the live desktop looked sweet. (In the screenshots, all of the eyecandy can be added with XFWM's built-in compositing, a special font for XFWM titles, and WBar 1.3. No Compiz, Avant, or anything special.)

But Xubuntu's goal isn't to just sit around and look pretty. Even without CFS, scores in Sauerbraten and GLXGears were solid, but it isn't a gamer's OS. (Especially if that "gamer" forgot to order a laptop with decent 3D acceleration... x.X) The lightweight desktop remained responsive with Firefox, GIMP, and a handful of other GTK apps open, but slowed down when I added Azureus into the mix (Java programs are slooow...). This is why I use Deluge for BitTorrent downloads...
Xubuntu Gutsy marks another solid release from the Xubuntu team. It's not supposed to be a full Ubuntu release, but a more watered-down version for older machines, which explains why it's missing a few things (coughcoughcoughCompizcoughcoughcough). If you don't like the default package selection, just add more programs in Synaptic. The new artwork, along with the changes common to all versions (new kernel, GIMP moved to 2.4-rc series), make the upgrade worth it.
Pros:
-New artwork
-Package upgrades
-GIMP 2.4 (worth it alone)
Cons:
-No new ground broken
-Still not fast enough
-Installation issues
Friendliness: 4.5/5- Almost on par with the main Ubuntu.
Performance: 3.5/5- It's supposed to be fast, but it could be a lot faster...
Features: 3.5/5- A basic desktop, but a complete one.
Packaging: 5/5- Top of its class again.
Artwork: 2.5/2.5- Nowhere to go from here, the artwork is superb.
Community: 2.5/2.5- The Ubuntu community remains helpful, enormous, and diverse.

Overall: 4.3/5
I'm still trying to decide where to go next. My biggest candidates are Arch and Puppy, but Arch's installer keeps crashing. I had this problem back when I tried 0.72... And Puppy is... well... Puppy Linux. Since I have a new computer, I can't find any uses for it other than gaming, and it doesn't come with libSDL. Too bad, it would make an awesome gaming platform...
From Xubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.
PS: A word on that chart. I've made another PHP image generator to make little charts comparing the strengths and weaknesses of various distros. The numbers on the left side represent ease of use, while the right side focuses more on practicality. Here are some more:
Mandriva 2008:

openSUSE 10.3:

Wolvix 1.1.0 "Hunter" Edition:

PCLinux OS 2007:

Exaile: The most underrated media player for Linux

2007-10-21T18:43:00.000+02:00

After actually trying out Songbird, I have a lot more respect for it, and amaroK has always been an excellent audio player, but my favorite media-management program for Linux is still Exaile.
If you've never heard of Exaile, give it a try. It's a lightweight, Python-based media player for GNOME and XFCE. It's supposed to be the amaroK of GTK-based desktops, and it's designed to be lightweight and fast.
One of Exaile's biggest advantages is that it can be extended via plugins, Firefox-style. Just go to Edit > Plugins, check the plugins you want installed, and click "Install/Upgrade". These plugins include an iPod manager, an Avant plugin, and Shoutcast/Streamripper integration.
Other than that, it's pretty much like amaroK. It has the same vertical-tabs-along-the-side interface, and it supports music collections (both on the hard disk and on external devices and MP3 players). It also can work with multiple playlists at once, something amaroK can't do. Yet.
Again, if you use GNOME or XFCE, but like amaroK, check out Exaile. It's starting to catch on in lightweight distributions like Wolvix, and it's full of features.
From Xubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.

eLive 1.0: Turning a laptop into a l33t machine

2007-10-21T13:10:00.000+02:00

I reviewed eLive 1.0 a while back, saying that it made a great desktop. When I played some Tremulous as part of my review of Xubuntu 7.10 (still coming up), I was disguested by how low my FPS rates were- they dipped below 6FPS on a medium-sized map (Nexus 6). So, I installed eLive with E16 as the desktop and tried it again. This time, the numbers were more like 20-30FPS- playable even with a lot of players in the same room.
Now for the shocker- I was using an Intel graphics chip, which is notoriously useless when it comes to gaming. Usually, I tweak xorg.conf to give it 128MB of VRAM from the system memory, but I didn't do it this time. And Tremulous ran playably anyways.
Sweet. I guess eLive is my gaming system from now on.
From eLive 1.0,
The DistRogue.

Nightmare over!

2007-10-19T21:21:00.000+02:00

Mad props to mantra for this. Taking out the RTC battery for a few minutes did the trick, and I'm now writing this from my own laptop, now happily running Xubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon". And rest assured that a review is coming right up. I already love the sleek artwork. Hint to XFCE/GNOME users: Use Murrine-based themes for good-looking GTK2 artwork that supposedly runs 30% faster than the Clearlooks engine.
From Xubuntu 7.10,
the DistRogue.

Just great...

2007-10-18T20:24:00.000+02:00

This is a first. This time, I can't even get to the BIOS screen, or even boot into a live USB. All I get is a message that says "Time-of-day clock stopped."
Here's the situation:
I'm working with 3 volumes. SDA is my laptop's 80GB internal HD, partitioned as follows: two 10GB ReiserFS partitions for Ubuntu 7.10 (just out today, w00t!) and Mandriva 2008, one 10GB ext3 partition for Linux Mint 3.1, and a 40GB shared /home partition. SDB is a 512MB USB key running SLAX 6.0-rc6 and NimbleX sub-100. Finally, SDC is a 1GB USB key with Puppy Linux 3.01.
I downloaded the DVD image to Fedora 8 test 3 and used the bootloader (images/diskboot.img) to load it from SDB1. The install (over Ubuntu) went successfully, except that I accidentally installed GRUB onto SDB. DoH! Three (successful) reboots later, I set up the bootloader to boot my other two OSes. Neither of the options worked. Great... At least Fedora still worked (sans Web connecton).
I rebooted into Puppy (on SDC) to fix the problem. I did some browsing, and at some point, it locked up and I had to reboot.
At which point my laptop turned magically into a shiny, $600 brick.
Great.
From Windows XP,
A very annoyed DistRogue.
(PS: The laptop I'm on has a faulty 'A' key, so I may have missed some 'A's.)

Online Desktop: Holy ^&*@!!!

2007-10-16T18:10:00.000+02:00

Imagine life without a hard disk. (Or USB- sorry!) Or better yet, imagine life with a hard disk only being used for temporary storage and really big files (ISOs, music collections...). You use the Web for everything- word processing, image editing/storage, etc- and can access your data from pretty much anywhere via the Intertubes. Life is good, huh?
There are lots of people that do that. Must rock to be them... And soon, there are going to be more.
Meet the Online Desktop. It's a project sponsored by Fedora and Red Hat (and, to an extent, Google) to move settings and documents onto the Web, and have them available with a few clicks. It's possible. Here are some demos of it in action (surprise! it's already been implemented in Fedora 8 Test 3).
This is the next step forwards in how we work with our computers. What goes on the Web can instantly be shared with anyone, not to mention used with all sorts of services. Open source will be at the cutting edge of the revolution (for once), and odds are that when Microsoft jumps in the game, they'll pump up their prices for similar services, driving more people to Linux. And integrating everything with the 'Net could start a "Web 3.0"- one where everything is online and integrated tightly with online services.
From Ubuntu 7.10rc,
A very bewildered DistRogue.

Ubustu repo merge: You don't care now, but...

2007-10-14T17:02:00.000+02:00

One of the less-touted changes for Ubuntu 7.10 is the merge of the Ubuntu Studio repositories into the main ones (hosted by Canonical). This means you'll be able to install entire categories of multimedia software (audio, video, graphics) with a single command (or via Synaptic, as usual). You don't care, right?
Okay, let me put it another way.
A while back, I stacked up Ubuntu Studio versus dyne:bolic, a rival multimedia distribution. My biggest complaint was that dyne:bolic could run on as little as 64MB of RAM and a Pentium (i586) with satisfactory results, while Ubustu couldn't come close because it used GNOME. Well, say hello to Fluxbuntu, the latest addition to Ubuntu's growing armada of forks. It uses Fluxbox as its desktop environment, and in addition, according to Wikipedia:

As well as using the Fluxbox window manager, Fluxbuntu has removed many packages and daemons from Ubuntu which makes it even more lightweight.

This remedies one of the reasons why Ubuntu is so slow: it runs a lot of unnecessary software in the background, making it bloated. The opposite is the reason other distros, such as dyne:bolic, leave it in the dust at the benchmarks.
What does this have to do with the repository merge? It means that Ubustu can now run on pretty much any base system. If you like KDE more than Ubustu's default GNOME, you can install Ubustu packages over Kubuntu (but please read my previous post first... 0.o) But more to the point, you can now run a complete Ubustu studio over a lighter-weight base by installing Fluxbuntu and adding the Ubustu packages manually. And it's not that hard. Just use these commands:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-audio
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-video
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-graphics

Or just install those packages via Synaptic.
From Ubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.

Kubuntu: Nothing much has changed in 2 years

2007-10-07T12:40:00.000+02:00

If you're reading this on Kubuntu, then I honestly feel sorry for you. It's not that I hate KDE (in fact, I love it, even v3.5), it's just how badly misused it is in Kubuntu.
My first experience with Kubuntu dates back almost 2 years, when I tried out the Kubuntu version of Breezy Badger. Now, I've decided to give it another try and see how far it's come in the past 2 years. I downloaded and installed the 7.10 Beta image, keeping in mind that the development branch is less stable than the main one.
The installer crashed at 86%. I'm not the only one with this problem, and after asking around on the #ubuntu+1 IRC channel, I learned that taking the live system offline during the install solves the problem. Okay, not Kubuntu's fault. It's not the install that annoyed me so much as what came after it...
I booted into a system running KDE, KDE apps, and nothing but KDE as far as the eye can see. This is exactly the problem that a lot of people have with Foresight, the zealous KDE- (or, in Foresight's case, GNOME-) centricism is absolutely crippling. I couldn't find Firefox or Synaptic on there, both of which are included in rival KDE-based distro PCLinuxOS.
The artwork has improved drastically since Feisty, but it's still not top-notch. The wallpaper is the biggest step up, using a more blueish color instead of the purple of previous releases. The controls now use a Polyester style, complete with animations. The window decorations, however, are the same old (non-transparent) Crystal windeco as always, and the buttons are still woefully in need of an update.
Performance? What performance? GLXGears reported in the 800s out of the box. That would be because the Strigi Desktop Search is turned on by default- not a smart move. Turning it off raised the number to 900, still not quite acceptable.
If you absolutely need a KDE-based desktop, my answer is still PCLinuxOS.
Pros:
-KDE-based :)
Cons:
-Slow
-Package selection needs refining
-Artwork still needs improvement
Friendliness: 4/5- It's still an Ubuntu variant...
Performance: 2/5- Not impressive.
Features: 3/5- A narrow selection of programs at best. The Kubuntu packagers seem to have their own agenda.
Packaging: 3.5/5- Adept? Why not Synaptic?
Artwork: 2/2.5- Still needs work, but a step in the right direction.
Community: 2.5/2.5- Again, Kubuntu is based on Ubuntu.
Overall: 3.4/5- Kubuntu needs some major work done before it can be considered equal to Ubuntu.

Theme reshuffle

2007-10-07T08:34:00.000+02:00

Just thought I'd let you know that my blog is now under construction. It shouldn't affect your ability to browse my posts, and it shouldn't last very long. I'm working on upgrading the look to one of Blogger's new line of templates, and, keeping your eyes in mind, I'll try not to make it very different from this one.

And the winner is...

2007-10-04T18:32:00.000+02:00

I might as well just stop blogging right now, because it might be over. I've found the perfect distro for me, and it was right under my nose the whole time. I'm writing this from Mandriva 2008, and so far, I don't see any reason to look beyond it (at least, for me to look beyond it) for a main distro.
Really, nothing much has changed since the 2007.1 release. The MCC is still one of the best Linux control centers around (for almost anything), balancing a keep-it-easy-for-the-user philosophy with flexibility and a policy of not requiring the whole base system to be contorted in all sorts of ways (unlike openSUSE's YaST). The winning combination of i586 optimization and parallel booting ensures lightning-fast performance, a trait Mandriva passes on to its evil son, PCLinuxOS, and without the bloat of some other optimized distros (coughcoughcoughSabayoncoughcoughcough), it makes a solid gaming distro.
But there were still some minor improvements this release. As is now tradition, Mandriva moved a step away from their corporate past by abolishing the "Mandriva Club", their VIP service for paying users. Version 2008 also comes with fresh applications and artwork, including, as always, a bleeding-edge GIMP version (2.4-rc2 this time). Compiz Fusion is now included by default, continuing the tradition of excellent 3D effects. Under the hood, Mandriva is now running Linux kernel 2.6.22.6 with CFQ I/O scheduling (not to be confused with CFS). There's a full list of changes for anyone interested.

Installation and... bells?

The installation and post-install configuration took about half an hour. I installed Mandriva right off my hard disk, but did a full KDE install from the enormous Free image, which didn't include iwlwifi drivers. I downloaded and installed them, and thanks to MCC, I had the system up and running in minutes.

I ran into a pleasant quirk: My system bell/beep never sounded. Turning it off had me tearing my hair out on openSUSE, and it was mildly annoying on Mint, but Mandriva shipped with it turned off. It's the little things that make Mandriva such a red-carpet distro.

Performance aka pwnage

GLXGears reported about 1150FPS, which was surprisingly low, but still better than most distros I've tested. I couldn't try out Tremulous because my ISP was apparently having a bad day, and it only works for online play.

OMGWTFBBQMETISSE?! aka 3D Effects

As usual, Mandriva ships with cutting-edge 3D effects. Last release introduced Beryl and Metisse. This time out, Mandriva ships with Compiz Fusion replacing both Beryl and Compiz. The drak3D wizard remain easy to use, with only 3 options: No acceleration, Compiz Fusion, or Metisse.

Other areas/Overview

Mandriva included both a traditional KDE menu and a shiny, usable (tabs switch when moused over- w00t) Kickoff menu, a la openSUSE and with a custom configuration and artwork.
Speaking of artwork, Mandriva shipped with a noticeable amount of polish on everything. The KDE panel has the now-ubiquitous "glossy" feel to it, and the new wallpaper, usplash, and login splash artwork gave it a distinct feel of continuity. The Kickoff menu had the same artwork as the default KDE menu, giving it a much more professional feel. Finally, although Mandriva is mainly a French-developed distro, the English translations were flawless, unlike *some* foreign distros I could mention...
Installing the task-kde4 package in RPMDrake gives you a complete KDE 4 desktop.
I don't know why I overlooked Mandriva as a distribution before. It's cutting-edge, friendly, fast, and respectful to hardcore Linux geeks. In other words, it's just like PCLinuxOS. :P Really, the only difference between Mandriva and PCLinuxOS is that Mandriva is more bleeding-edge and PCLOS is a tad faster. If you want a simple, often-updated, and cutting-edge desktop, Mandriva is worth a look as much as it was back in 1998.
Pros:
-Friendly without disrupting the traditional Linux setup
-Relatively fast
-Cutting-edge 3D effects
-MCC is as useful as it gets
Cons:
-Ubuntu is still better-supported
Friendliness: 5/5- As I remarked earlier, red-carpet service.
Performance: 4/5- By cutting down on bloat and optimizing for an i586 architecture, Mandriva is as much a gaming system as a workstation.
Features: 5/5- Bleeding-edge features, and a complete desktop out of the box.
Packaging: 4/5- RPMDrake is second only to Synaptic, which PCLinuxOS uses.
Artwork: 2/2.5- The artwork uses interchangeable color schemes, and is polished as usual.
Community: 2/2.5- Combine the Mandriva and PCLOS communities together and you get a hell of a lot of (relatively) happy tech-support for free.
Overall: 4.4/5- Mandriva's rise from their corporate ashes has been overshadowed by Ubuntu, but they're still very much alive.

Review: openSUSE 10.3

2007-09-30T12:24:00.000+02:00

After some assorted mishaps with some preview releases of openSUSE 10.3, it's finally stable enough for production use. And while I'm pleased with the result, I can't get rid of the feeling that the openSUSE team can do better.

OpenSUSE 10.3 brings some welcome changes. There's now a one-CD installation option, which is the biggest plus. I noted that a while back, and had trouble with configuring my wireless card because the drivers were on the non-OSS CD, while the rest of the system was on the main disk. 0.o That flaw has been fixed with the inclusion of the completely free/OSS iwlwifi drivers, making it the first distribution to use them correctly. (Fedora 7 shipped with an earlier, unstable, and terminally broken version of them.) The iwlwifi drivers go with a general theme of better hardware detection.
The install went quickly. For a change, I copied the ISO image onto my hard disk and booted into that, rather than burning a CD, and that sped up the installation a bit. The instructions are here. I still had problems with the display configuration (namely my mice), a bug that still needs to be fixed, but a little hacking in xorg.conf fixed it.
Wireless still has some problems. I entered my WEP key and watched as the network manager applet (note to openSUSE devs: nice job with that, YaST2 is a PITA for wireless configuration) tried over and over to connect to my network, failing every time. I rebooted, and that seemed to solve the problem.

YaST2 is still a top-tier package manager, even if it sucks for everything else. The search options are second to none, and the installs go rather quickly.

Performance is a perennial issue with openSUSE. It runs an unnecessarily large number of services, and that slows it down. The problem is that a lot of them are either vital, useful (SUSE firewall), or badly labeled (in which case it would be a good idea to leave them alone). GLXGears ran at about 1060FPS in KDE, and switching to FVWM didn't have much effect on that. Hmm. And i586-optimized distros are supposed to be fast...
openSUSE gave me my first look at KDE 4. for the most part, it was just a boring black background with a panel, a non-functional menu, and some desktop widgets. But it's a start. You can zoom into and out of the desktop, and the widgets show promise. Besides, this is only the second beta. It's an empty shell of a desktop right now, but it's a start.

I probably won't be using openSUSE as my main desktop. It's a good all-around distro, but it's designed to be a general-purpose distro. There's no one thing it's really good for, and the problems with performance and bugs are really putting me off.
Pros:
-Much better hardware detection
-i586-optimized, so it *should* be fast
-Friendly as ever
Cons:
-YaST2 means an annoyingly rigid system
-Bloated
-No real positives for some people
Friendliness: 4.5/5- Still some bugs that need to be worked out, but it's still good.
Performance: 3/5- SLOW. This was a huge letdown for me.
Features: 4.5/5- KDE 4, Kickoff, network manager, YaST2...
Packaging: 5/5- As a package manager, YaST2 is still at the top of its class because of its search options.
Artwork: 2/2.5- I personally prefer the blue theme from 10.2, but the new green theme is still pretty good.
Community: 2.5/2.5- An IRC channel, a wiki, forums... Good enough for ya?
Overall: 4.3/5- A vast improvement over the last release, but there has to be something better.
I'm still looking for that "something better". I'll start with Debian.

Review: SabayonLinux 3.4e

2007-08-27T14:46:00.000+02:00

It's been a while, hasn't it? School really has a way of slowing things down. But now I'm back on track.
Personal problems aside, it's well-known that Gentoo is one of the hardest distributions to install. So well-known, in fact, that there have been a lot of attempts to cut down on the install time by either automating the process or using binary packages. Sabayon Linux is one of the more important results to come out of efforts like these. Based in Italy, and named after a local dessert, you can tell it's going to be good almost immediately- guess who won the World Cup last year?
The basic idea behind Sabayon back when it was still young and was called RR4 (read: late 2005) was to take a Gentoo system, compile it for an i686 architecture, and install it as a series of binaries instead of compiling the whole thing from scratch. But later, Sabayon began taking turns in different directions, eventually moving from XFCE to KDE as the default desktop and even including demo versions of Quake 4 and Cold War, along with other proprietary software that Gentoo would never dream of adding. The system was synced into Gentoo's Unstable repository, and the project took on a bleeding-edge philosophy. By version 3.4e, Sabayon had grown into a monster of engineering, and on the surface, seems like nothing more than a jumble of useless software.
But that's not all.
Sabayon is an entire distribution, not just a remastering of a parent distro. For once thing, Gentoo is notoriously hard to base a distribution off of, but Fabio Erluciani and company managed to get away with it by using a custom system of catalysts and overlays for Portage. It also has its own artwork, including one of the best color schemes I've seen. It has some "glue" for holding the diverse range of software together, such as a custom autodetection program for NVIDIA and ATI graphics cards to select (closed-source) drivers. Finally, in the works (and available as of version 3.4e) is an alternate package-management system called Entropy, featuring the Equo package manager, which works the way apt-get would, installing packages the way the main system is- using binaries instead of compiling everything.
I got a copy of the 4.3-gig x86-32 DVD. It booted into a nice wizard for setting up 3D effects, complete with some music- a nice touch that can be disabled at boot time. After that, it went into a full KDE desktop with shortcuts to an obscene selection of games. Danger from the Deep? Torcs? FlightGear? God only knows how they got in there in the first place, but Nexuiz makes a good substitute to Quake, and Sauerbraten is still a great game.
The install, with everything checked except KDE and 2D arcade games (package selection is new in 3.4, and a welcome improvement), took an hour and a half and took up 9GB of space. Wow. And they say Gentoo is slow... On the plus side, the miniEdition, a CD-sized version of Sabayon 3.3, installed in about 20 minutes, owing to its smaller (but still complete) software selection. For people who still like to build their own desktop, try the Core Install option in the install wizard. It installs a minimal text-mode system, from which you can emerge [insert desktop here] just the way you'd want it (except for the artwork- but that's not a bad thing).
Performance was disappointing. Sabayon is supposed to be fast, but it took almost 2 minutes to boot on the first try, and only improved to 80 seconds on subsequent boots. Even with the "geeky" minimal Fluxbox environment, I could only get 1100 FPS in GLXGears, and Sauerbraten was nothing special- 20FPS. (Note: The map I use to test FPS is metl4, and I measure FPS by crouching behind the yellow armor with a grenade launcher. It's not great, but it's standardized. If you *really* want to give [insert distro here] a workout, try skycastle. It's an awesome map, but it's insanely laggy.) Tremulous was too laggy to play- but it felt cool to be able to tack "@Sabayon" onto my screenname. :)
Entropy is still under construction, making it completely useless at the moment. Binmerge (an older package manager) is still there, but it doesn't work. Equo works perfectly, but so far, nothing can be installed. I had to stick with good ol' Emerge for package management. Sabayon includes a GUI to Portage called Portato, and a KDE version called Kuroo. I tested Portato, and it worked perfectly- just take my advice and don't do a world update until you have a LOT of free time. Update Portage immediately- version 2.1.3.3 has a nasty bug that slows it down.
3D desktop effects are pretty standard by now, but Sabayon, being the bleeding-edge project is, includes Compiz Fusion and Metisse instead of the standard Compiz Vanilla and Beryl. It also comes with the SabayonLinux Acceleration Manager (aka SLAM), an open-source wizard for setting up acceleration through the two desktops.
Overall, Sabayon is a good desktop for beginners who want to live on the bleeding edge. It's a great way to ease newbies into Linux and show them what makes a distro work without the multiple-day installs of Gentoo.
Pros:
-Fast-ish installs (sort of)
-Considerably easy to use
-Customizable system via Core Install (for advanced users)
Cons:
-Non-Core-Install systems are slow
Friendliness: 4.5/5- In marked contrast to Gentoo.
Performance: between 2.5 and 4.5/5- It really depends on how the system is installed. MiniEdition installs are pretty fast.
Features: 5/5- Every conceivable program for Linux is on that DVD.
Packaging: 4.5/5- Portage + GUI = l33t.
Artwork: 2/2.5- Still needs work, but the general red-on-black color scheme is awesome.
Community: 1.5/2.5- The forums are comfortably large, and the Freenode IRC channel is always welcoming.
Overall: 4-4.4/5- Keep an eye on it as it matures.
From Debian 4.0r1 (wink wink nudge nudge),
The DistRogue.

Jumping ship: PCLinuxOS 2007 vs. Mint 3.0 "Cassandra"

2007-08-25T12:51:00.000+02:00

I'm sure I've said it several times before, somewhere: Ubuntu isn't the universal answer. It also has its fair share of things that could definitely be improved if it wants to be a serious competitor to Windows. Basically, it isn't perfect.
Of course, Windows and OS X aren't perfect either (or BSD or Haiku or whatever), but there are distributions that would be better suited to a complete Linux newbie than Ubuntu. Arguably two of the best are PCLinuxOS and Mint. I reviewed PCLinuxOS a while back, but it has matured incredibly in only a single release. Among other things, its rank on DistroWatch soared from just barely being in the Top 10 to clinching the #1 spot- and not letting go. Mint isn't so well-known. It's a fork of Ubuntu with a few added programs (such as a custom control center), new artwork, and a redesigned app selection.
Background:
PCLinuxOS is a fork from Mandriva, giving it a solid, easy-to-use base. Although Mandriva is fast out of the box, PCLinuxOS is even faster. It includes some non-free software, such as MP3 codecs, that other distributions lack. It also advertises a "PCLinuxOS Control Center"- although some quick inspection shows that it's nothing more than a rebranded version of the Mandriva Control Center. Finally, PCLinuxOS includes fresh artwork (which makes it look like Windows XP) and uses Debian's Synaptic package manager- slightly redone to accommodate Mandriva's RPM packaging system.
Mint was created from Ubuntu with the original goal of adding non-free software for a more complete out-of-the-box experience. However, as Ubuntu began adding more support for said add-ons, Mint began adding some extras of its own. It includes its own, completely original (and customizable) control center, along with wizards for setting up WiFi, disk partitioning, and desktop settings. It also has its own Kickoff-styled menu called mintMenu, which is useful, stylish, and compact. Of course, it also has its own artwork, along with GNOME, KDE, and Xfce editions, each with its own "Light" edition (with only free software). Finally, in keeping with Ubuntu's tradition of unique names, the developers give each version a female name, with the first letter matching up to the major release number- version 3.0 is named "Cassandra", for instance.
Live system/install:
I installed both systems (using Mint's GNOME edition) from my trusty 1-gig USB key. PCLinuxOS booted into infinitely cooler artwork, but Mint detected my native screen resolution out of the box, thanks to onboard 915resolution hacks. The installs were both unusually fast- only a couple of minutes- thanks to the miracle of USB 2.0.
Performance:
Mint booted (from the GRUB menu to the login screen) in an astounding 35 seconds. PCLinuxOS followed with a respectable 43 seconds. I edited both systems to set aside 128MB of physical RAM for graphics acceleration and ran GLXGears from a fresh restart. Mint managed to crank out around 1120 FPS, did well in Tremulous, and reported 34 FPS in my Sauerbraten benchmark- about twice as much as Ubuntu. PCLinuxOS, on the other hand, raised that number to 44FPS, and scored in the 1400s in GLXGears.
Useful stuff:
PCLinuxOS's control center is somewhat like the Windows Control Panel: it contains an endless number of options that you can click on to launch wizards to do various things. A lot of these wizards are incomplete, and you have to dive into configuration files in order to do less coarse tweaking. Nontheless, the PCLinuxOS/Mandriva Control Center is an extremely useful and extensive tool for system administration (basic user preferences can be adjusted with the KDE Control Center, also included).

Mint has its own control center, but its main strength lies in its software selection. Among other things, it includes Java, Envy for installing closed-source NVidia and ATI drivers, amaroK for improved music management, and MPlayer for media playback. I was disappointed not to see Wine anywhere... :'( As with PCLinuxOS, it has its own control center, mintConfig. Although most of the programs in mintConfig are redundant with the also-included GNOME control center, the ones that aren't are good. mintDesktop is a simple, handy tool for setting up your desktop, and mintDisk can be helpful when working with a lot of partitions or removable media. It also has a tool for configuring X11 (relatively) safely, a feature planned for Ubuntu 7.10. mintConfig is also customizable, making it a good replacement for the GNOME control center- but not much else.

Overall, the choice between Mint and PCLinuxOS depends on your desktop preference. If you don't like KDE because it's slow, give PCLinuxOS a shot because of how blindingly fast it is. If you like Ubuntu's ease of use, Mint is worth a look. I'd go with Mint, but only because of a quirk in PCLinuxOS that makes my screen shut off (permanently) if I close it.
Mint:
Pros:
-Based on Ubuntu
-Runs fast
-Complete out-of-the-box experience
Cons:
-Control center is immature
Friendliness: 4.5/5- The control center helps slightly.
Performance: 4/5- Not gaming-quality, but fast enough.
Features: 5/5- Boxed app selection is great.
Packaging: 4.5/5- Synaptic can't be improved upon very much, although DPKG is pretty slow...
Artwork: 2/2.5- Soothing and professional-looking.
Community: 2.5/2.5- Almost 100% Ubuntu-compatible means lots of support.
Overall: 4.5/5- A great up-and-coming distribution, only expect it to improve as the control center matures.

PCLinuxOS:
Pros:
-Runs obscenely fast
-Useful, if unoriginal control center
Cons:
-May need some extra programs installed
-Inspiron E1505N users beware!
Friendliness: 5/5- The PCLOSCC is the killer touch here.
Performance: 4.5/5- Beyond PCLinuxOS, you get into Arch Slack Too speeds.
Features: 4/5- Could use a little work here...
Packaging: 5/5- See above- but RPM is faster than DPKG.
Artwork: 2.5/2.5- The 2007 release is famous for its artwork.
Community: 2/2.5- The community is new, but growing.
Overall: 4.6/5- If you're a newbie that needs a really fast system that helps you with everything you need, then look into PCLinuxOS.
I'm waiting for my Sabayon 3.4e DVD to get here. Then, it's time for another long-overdue review.
From Mint 3.0,
The DistRogue.

***UPDATE:***
It is possible to make PCLinuxOS recognize your native screen resolution. In PCC, go to the Hardware tab, then click "Change Screen Resolution" to install 915resolution. Then, go to "Change Monitor" and select the appropriate resolution. Finally, change the resolution under "Configure Graphical Server". I'm still working on the fix for the screen suddenly shutting off.

How to turn your USB key into a bootable PCLinuxOS system

2007-08-13T18:09:00.001+02:00

If you're a hardcore Linux geek, you'll want to take Tux with you wherever you go. Even if you're a normal user, you probably wouldn't mind having a penguin in your pocket. These are 100%-tested instructions on installing PCLinuxOS 2007 or later (2007, at the time of writing, is the latest version) to a gigabyte-or-larger USB key.
1. Download the PCLinuxOS CD image and open it in an archive manager.
2. Mount your USB key. It has to have one partition on it with more than 700MB of free space left, but any type of filesystem works. I used FAT32 for my key. Also, make absolutely sure that the partition is bootable (you can use a partition manager like fdisk or GParted for this). That means that its boot flag should be on.
3. Extract the contents of the CD image to your USB key. Don't make a folder on your USB key and extract them into the folder; otherwise, it won't boot.
4. Run these commands from the terminal:

cd
sudo grub-install --no-floppy --root-directory=. /dev/sdX

!CAUTION! Be careful with that command; if you do it wrong (for instance, use /dev/sda on a newer system), you might screw up your MBR, in which case, you'd better have a live CD ready. If you did it wrong, just run "grub-install /dev/sda" from a live CD. You do have one, right?
5. Make a file under the boot/grub folder in your USB key called menu.lst, with this in it:

title PCLinuxOS 2007
root (hd0,0)
kernel /isolinux/vmlinuz bootfrom=/dev/sda1 root=/dev/rd/3 acpi=on vga=788 keyb=us splash=silent fstab=rw,noauto
initrd /isolinux/initrd.gz
boot

6. Reboot and enable USB-HDD or USB-ZIP booting in your computer's BIOS if it isn't already enabled.
7. Enjoy.
I used PCLinuxOS for this, but it probably works with other distros, with some minor tweaking in menu.lst. The original tutorial can be found here, written for Damn Small Linux.
From PCLinuxOS 2007,
The DistRogue.

Life on the bleeding edge: Linux Kernel 2.6.23-rc2

2007-08-12T14:06:00.000+02:00

By now, everyone's heard that the next release of the Linux kernel, 2.6.23, will feature the CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler), which will, in theory, make everything run faster. Phoronix already did some research into how fast the CFS will be, but to really appreciate it, you have to try the kernel for yourself.
If you're using Ubuntu or Debian (or any other Debian-based distro with apt), you can install previews of the kernel without having to compile anything. For starters, add this line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:
deb http://kernel-archive.buildserver.net/debian-kernel/ trunk main
Then, use the following commands to install a copy of the Linux 2.6.23-rc2 kernel, optimized for a 686 processor:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.23-rc2-686
Then, reboot and try it out yourself.
I did this, using my Ubuntu 7.10-testing partition. I took 12 FPS reports from GLXGears and averaged them, excluding the highest and lowest numbers.
Here are the results (again, with the highest and lowest numbers removed):

Kernel 2.6.22, with generic optimizations (equivalent to 686-optimized) and SMP:

5201 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1040.198 FPS
5229 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1045.667 FPS
5236 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1047.181 FPS
5196 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1039.119 FPS
5235 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1046.802 FPS
5069 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1013.631 FPS
5122 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1024.397 FPS
5231 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1046.159 FPS
5201 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1039.999 FPS
5237 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1047.369 FPS

***Average is 1039.0522***

Kernel 2.6.23-rc2, with 686 optimizations and SMP:

6185 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1236.758 FPS
6213 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1242.434 FPS
6227 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1245.223 FPS
6248 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1249.584 FPS
6306 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1261.119 FPS
6204 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1240.687 FPS
6238 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1247.495 FPS
6304 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1260.742 FPS
6334 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1266.636 FPS
6267 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1253.311 FPS

***Average is 1250.3989***

That's roughly a 20% increase.
I then ran Sauerbraten with -a0 and -f0 options on each kernel, after a fresh restart. In the exact same scene, kernel 2.6.23-rc2 gave roughly 25% more FPS.
Overall, I was impressed with the results of adding the Completely Fair Scheduler. It will certainly help gaming on Linux, an area that desperately needs some enormous attention, and it's still being improved- this is only the second release candidate. The only bad thing about the CFS that I can see is that it won't be included with Ubuntu until the release after Gutsy, which is staying with 2.6.22.
From Ubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.

Life on the bleeding edge: Ubuntu 7.10 Tribe 4

2007-08-10T09:39:00.000+02:00

Ubuntu's next release is planned for mid-October, as usual, with the codename "Gutsy Gibbon". In case you have no idea what a gibbon is (get used to it- Ubuntu 11.04 might be named "Naughty Nightjar"), Wikipedia can help. Gutsy is going to be another cutting-edge release, with AppArmor installed and parts of KDE 4 in Kubuntu- not to mention a full Compiz Fusion desktop by default. A rumor suggests Firefox 3 will be included. Don't worry, though, KDE 4 will be optional, GNOME will be at the stable version 2.20, and the planned kernel version is already stable- they're using 2.6.22.
Just for the sake of it, I tried out one of the "Tribe" CDs for Xubuntu. (Ubuntu devs give their alpha releases wacky names like "Tribe" all the time.) The install CD crashed before the kernel was done loading, so I made a separate Xubuntu 7.04 install and upgraded it to- cue music- the bleeding edge.
The software selection was noticeably up-to-date. It included Firefox 2, Gimp 2.3.18, Rhythmbox 0.11.1, and all the other good stuff. The desktop looked exactly the same as it did in 7.04, which means that they haven't made it to artwork yet.
That is, until I turned on Compiz.
Compiz still isn't included in Xubuntu, so I had to install "ubuntu-desktop" to get it. Gutsy comes with the GNOME Control Center, and a new tab in the Appearance window can be used to configure (to an extent) Compiz.

Power users will want more control than that (wobbly windows and the cube aren't even enabled!), so launch Synaptic and install "compizconfig-settings-manager". This gives you the CompizConfig control center that comes with normal compiz-fusion installs. It even shows up in the GNOME Control Center! :D If you turn on the cube, it's really just a flat sheet, so go to General Options > Desktop Size, and bump up the horizontal desktop size.

Note that I didn't say "bump up the desktop size to 4."

As usual, the Ubuntu devs also focus on the little things that make Ubuntu the great distribution it is. For instance, one of my pet peeves with 7.04 was that you needed the root password to access other HD partitions. In 7.10, that restriction was lifted- any user can read from or write to any partition out of the box. On the topic of the Appearance window (formerly gnome-theme-manager), in the "Customize" window, previews of each window border, control set, and icon set are now offered, and cursors and colors (for some themes) can also be configured- although this is probably because of the GNOME developers.
So far, Ubuntu 7.10 isn't very bleeding-edge. The software certainly seems stable enough, and some welcome improvements have been added. If you really want to live on the cutting edge, I suggest installing Trevino's repositories for Feisty, which includes all sorts of untested goodies like Audacity 1.3, Gimp 2.3, KDE 4, and Compiz Fusion.
Pros:
-Stable enough yet?
-GNOME 2.20 adds welcome improvements
-Compiz Fusion included by default
Cons:
-Compiz controls are limited out of the box
-Xubuntu doesn't include Compiz
Friendliness: 5/5- It only got better with GNOME 2.20.
Performance: 3.5/5- No major changes- yet..
Features: 4/5- Finally, it's starting to look like a complete desktop.
Packaging: 4.5/5- Synaptic as usual.
Artwork: 1.5/2.5- No major changes.
Community: 2.5/2.5- Still some support, but most people won't be using Tribes.
Overall: 4.2/5- If this is the pre-release, bring on the final!
My next review won't be a distribution, but rather, a dip into Trevino's repos for one of the most anticipated free software releases of the year.
From Ubuntu 7.10,
The DistRogue.

Report from the bleeding edge: openSUSE 10.3 Alpha 7

2007-08-04T17:22:00.000+02:00

The latest development snapshot on openSUSE 10.3 is supposed to be a great release. KDE 4 components (games and PIM, among others) starting to get integrated, a new single-CD install architecture, new packaging options... It's going to kick Ubuntu's behind! Right?
Riiight...
Always the skeptic, I decided to try it. I downloaded the images (KDE desktop and non-OSS addons) and burned not the advertised one, but two, disks (and if you want GNOME *and* KDE desktops, it'll be 3). I then started the install.
The first attempt was a disaster. Restructuring the packages for one CD had seriously screwed stuff up. I tried it a second time with only the KDE CD, and at least got past the install.
Then, I hit trouble in X. 0.o... A few well-placed # signs later, I was on my way to KDE. Alpha 7 brings with it a new color scheme, a nice industrial green that would look a lot better with the traditional blue. ;) Oh well...

I'm learning to appreciate the Kickoff menu, and the idea of being able to access most of my programs with just one click. For non-SUSE-ers, here's the idea: The menu opens when it's moused over, rather than only when it's clicked on. There are different tabs for commonly used programs, all other programs, administration, and other tasks. These tabs can be switched by mousing over them, rather than clicking them. It's also pretty amazing how they managed to keep with this philosophy while giving it a Windows-ish feel for incoming users. The amazing thing is that even though the standard KDE menu we know and love is in a different tab than the one that comes up, programs still can be launched with one click less than it would take on Kubuntu.
Still, the Kickoff I used had some problems. Sometimes, it refused to launch when I moused over it, other times, the tabs wouldn't switch without being clicked. Geeko the openSUSE gecko still changes colors, though, and looks cute as ever.
Wireless didn't work without the second disk, so I "upgraded" the system to do nothing more than install ipw-firmware- a feature that openSUSE has that most other distributions still lack. It now shows up under YaST2, but not ifconfig, and I'm fixing that as I type.
So, let's see what the developers still need to fix:
-X mouse configuration (Synaptics touchpads, to be specific)
-Package breakage and "RPM hell"
-Kickoff menu
Not much to do in 2 months, is there? These are basic problems that you get from living on the bleeding edge. I bet Ubuntu's "Tribe" CDs for version 7.10 are pretty unstable, too. In fact, this is only the third alpha to use the single-CD architecture- which caused some major breakage.
When openSUSE 10.3 comes out in early October, it'll be a force to be reckoned with. Until then, keep an eye on the development.

Who's with me?

2007-08-02T20:33:00.000+02:00

With improvements on the way in terms of NVidia and (hopefully) ATI driver support for Linux, gaming will improve drastically on Linux. But there's one little problem: Intel's Linux drivers still suck, and haven't been recognized as a problem yet.
Windows gets good Intel drivers, with support for everything that an Intel GMA supports (which isn't much). Someone ran a benchmark in Sauerbraten, using the metl3 map, and the results were astonishing: While Windows ran a solid 40FPS, Linux was stuck at 14. Intel's drivers did, in fact, receive a major upgrade (with version 2 released, which will soon be integrated into X 7.3), but they only gave me a few extra FPS in Tremulous, so it's obviously not enough.
We need someone to work on these drivers! They're open-source as is, so improving them should be easy. This affects a lot of Linux users- most people that use a laptop. And Intel needs to learn that giving us crippleware to make people switch back doesn't cut it.

Review: Pardus Linux 2007.2

2007-07-26T17:55:00.000+02:00

I'm having some issues with Wolvix's HD installer crashing when it hits 86%, so I might not be able to review it. I'll try a USB install- assuming I can get my corrupted 512MB key formatted. If it's hardware-level, I'm fscked. If it's block-level, it's fscked. (You have no appreciation for geek humor...) For now, it's on to Pardus.
Wait... Par-what?
-Pardus is a rising distribution.
-Pardus is made in Turkey.
-Pardus has superb hardware detection. Right off the Live CD, it detected my native 1280x800 screen resolution and wireless networking card, a feat that only ELive 1.0 has matched.
-Pardus uses KDE.
Should give you a good idea of what to expect.
Pardus comes in two varieties, "Calisan" and "Kurulan" images. The "Calisan" image is a live CD, while the "Kurulan" disk installs almost 3 gigabytes of software. (I did a "df" after the install.) The "Calisan" disk worked flawlessly, with the exception that I wasn't close enough to get any Wifi signals. It even, as I said, detected my native screen resolution. W00t.
Once I was done with that, I moved on to the Kurulan disk. I read somewhere that a Pardus install takes up about 3.4 gigabytes of disk space, yet fits onto a single CD. The install itself recommended 4 gigs, but in reality, it only needed 3 for me. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that my /home folder was on a separate partition.
The install was simple enough, easier than Ubuntu's, but it had 3 major flaws. Despite it taking up 3 gigabytes of disk space, there wasn't a package selection option. Second, it's impossible to install from a "Calisan" disk, which means that you'll need two disks in all. Finally, the install took a whopping 35 minutes- which could have been reduced by package selection.
With 3 gigabytes of disk space to use, the install was more than complete. I didn't see Blender on the menu anywhere, but it included some of the more common add-ons, such as MPlayer, OpenOffice, SuperKaramba, Java, Flash, and a ton of games.
But there's more. Pardus comes with some programs of its own. PiSi is the default package manager, with features such as searching, automatic updates, and dependency tracking. Mudur is the init system replacement, and because of it, the system boots noticeably faster. Configuration is handled by Kaptan, a first-run configuration system, and Tasma, a somewhat-expanded control center that looks suspiciously like KDE's control center. It also came with a custom icon theme. It also comes with a proprietary installer and firewall. Package numbers were limited, but I found everything I wanted except for XFCE. That was annoying.
Performance was another matter. KDE runs slowly, and without XFCE at my disposal, Tremulous was only slightly faster than on Ubuntu, and was left in the dust by Elive. GLXGears said otherwise, but since when was it reliable? Still, Pardus with KDE is faster than Ubuntu with GNOME, and that's saying something.
Pardus is a distribution worth watching. It's friendly, relatively fast, and complete. There are some issues, like the limited repository size, but that's just because it's in its nascent stages.
Pros:
-Easy to install and use
-Install includes a ton of programs
-Faster than most distributions, including you-know-whobuntu
Cons:
-Installer and packaging need work
Friendliness: 4/5- The team clearly put some effort into usability.
Performance: 4/5- KDE slows it down, but just a bit.
Features: 5/5- Uber-complete single-CD install.
Packaging: 3.5/5- Interesting proprietary installer. It would work well with a bigger repository.
Artwork: 2.5/2.5- Custom icons look good, and Kaptan allows you to get the desktop set up exactly the way you want it.
Community: 1.5/2.5- It's a Turkish distribution, and the English community isn't all that big. Yet.
Overall: 4.1/5- A distribution worth watching.
From Pardus 2007.2,
The DistRogue.

Review: ELive 1.0

2007-07-19T01:44:00.000+02:00

I've always found the Enlightenment desktop fascinating. Maybe it has something to do with all the shiny. It's a great balance of eye-candy and performance, and with a little tweaking, can be turned into an awesome desktop system. That's what ELive is. It's a live CD (installable) based on Debian 4.0 and using the Enlightenment desktop- both E16 and E17.
The boot process went smoothly (despite being interrupted occasionally by some dialog boxes), and the install icon was easy to find. The fact that it was animated helped a fair amount. Hardware detection was incredible; my native 1280x800 screen resolution and dual-core processor were detected out of the box, and my Intel PRO/Wireless card only needed a package to be installed.
The desktop theme was also great. Since I'd already tasted E17's default "Bling" theme (the one with all the shiny), I went for a faster E16 desktop and tried the new "Night" theme, which was too subdued for me. IceWeasel (a completely FOSS fork of Firefox, aka "The browser, renamed") included the iFox theme, giving it a nice OSX look. Engage wasn't turned on by default in E17, but it was a nice touch.
ELive also included a ton of programs. It came with Blender for 3D modelling, Kino and Cinelerra for DV editing, The Gimp for image editing, and both Thunar and Midnight Commander for file management. Its default app selection was far better than Ubuntu's.
Speaking of Ubuntu, performance was incredible. ELive ran GLXGears at about 50% faster than Ubuntu, and Tremulous ran at a solid 75FPS floor in the test area (I use the spot just outside the tower on ATCS). Ubuntu can dip below 60.
Despite all the great things about Enlightenment, some parts of it felt cheaply made. The screen where themes and such are selected was built using the text-mode NCurses interface, rather than a more pleasant-looking graphical screen. The Fedora people understand this- most of their graphical config utilities were made with PyGTK, even the X configuration screen and interactive boot splash, which use Framebuffer instead of X! And for some twisted reason, the developers didn't think it would be a good idea to put a "Log Out" button in plain sight. Clicking on the desktop brought up ANOTHER menu (in addition to the right-click) which did the trick.
I also ran into issues with sound. To test the sound, I loaded a song into MPlayer, hit "Play", and threw off my headphones just before the guitars came in. Yeah, sound works fine in ELive, but the default volume is turned all the way up. Just a caution. Learn from me, and don't use a song by Marilyn Manson to test speaker volume.
But don't let the little things bother you. ELive, as of version 1.0, is a solid, fast distribution for desktop use.
Friendliness: 4/5- I found ELive pretty easy to use. There's a reason they call it "Luxury Linux". But work on the little things for v1.1, aight?
Performance: 4.5/5- Clobbered Ubuntu. Enlightenment is a fast desktop, and Debian is a fast distribution.
Features: 4.5/5- Included a lot of programs that went beyond the standard feature set.
Packaging: 4.5/5- Don't worry, it uses Synaptic, just like Debian.
Artwork: 2/2.5- If you don't like one theme, try the other.
Community: 1.5/2.5- A bit skimpy on documentation, but the forums are still there...
Overall: 4.2/5- Give it a try. The downloads page asks you for a donation, and the non-donation download link is broken, but there are plenty of torrents.
Up next: Wolvix. But that might not be for a while. I'm moving to Spain for a year, and I might have to post the review through the WiFi access at the airports I'll be at.
From ELive 1.0,
The DistRogue.

A quick tour of the Linux filesystem for Windows users

2007-07-14T17:58:00.001+02:00

I had the question asked again. You know the one: "Where's my C:\ drive?". So, to prevent it from happening again, I'm writing a guide to the Linux filesystem for Windows users.
Basics:
The Linux filesystem is organized a bit differently than Windows's filesystem, but it still has the basics, such as folders and removable devices. Finding them is the issue. The root of the Linux filesystem (the equivalent of Windows's C:\) is /- just a forward slash. Instead of a backslash, a forward slash is also used to show directories- for instance, a Linux path could be "/usr/bin/X".
That should clear some things up. But obviously, that's not enough for most people. So, here are some summaries of what the top-level folders are, and what's in them:
/bin and /sbin
What's in it: Binary files (read: programs) that are part of the core system. /bin is for main programs, /sbin is for maintenance apps.
What it's equivalent to: C:\WINDOWS; C:\WINNT
Example of something in there: /bin/bash, /sbin/init
/boot
What's in it: Files vital to the system's boot process; stuff like the kernel and boot loader
What it's equivalent to: Nothing
Example of something found in there: /boot/vmlinuz, the Linux kernel.
/etc
What's in it: Configuration files
What it's equivalent to: C:\WINDOWS
Example of something found in there: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
/home
What's in it: User files
What it's equivalent to: C:\Documents and Settings
Example of something found in there: /home/{user name here}/Desktop, the folder that stores the files you see on your desktop
/lib
What's in it: Libraries. Note that Linux libraries do the same thing as Windows .dll files, but they have a .o or .so extension.
What it's equivalent to: C:\WINDOWS
Example of something found in there: /lib/libSegFault.so, a library that you don't want to see all that often...
/media or /mnt
What's in it: Mount points. Folders under /media or (on older distros) /mnt are where other media devices (and partitions) can be accessed.
What it's equivalent to: D:\, E:\, F:\, etc.
Example of something found in there: /media/hda2, which would be the second hard-disk partition.
/opt
What's in it: Not much. Some large programs can be installed there, for instance, Flash Player, Google Desktop and VirtualBox.
What it's equivalent to: Nothing
Example of something found in there: /opt/azureus
/proc
What's in it: Processes. /proc is used by the kernel to access processes. So don't be messing around in this folder! It also holds vital status info.
What it's equivalent to: Nothing
Example of something found in there: /proc/cpuinfo
Further reading on /proc on Linux can be found here.
/root
What's in it: The Superuser's home folder. On Linux, root is so important he gets his own root directory!
What it's equivalent to: C:\Documents and Settings\administrator. Lap of luxury, huh?
Example of something found in there: /root/stayoutofmyfreakingbusiness
/tmp
What's in it: Temporary files
What it's equivalent to: C:\temp, C:\WINDOWS\temp
Example of something found in there: /tmp/audacity1.2
/usr
What's in it: Files for non-core programs. Basically a duplicate of /, with its own /usr/bin, /usr/lib, and more.
What it's equivalent to: C:\Program Files- sort of
Example of something found in there: /usr/bin/nexuiz
/var
What's in it: Variable files that change frequently, including logs. /var/log is the equivalent of the "Event Viewer" in Windows, and the best part? It's completely searchable.
What it's equivalent to: Nothing
Example of something found in there: /var/www/html. Didn't know you had a Web site, did ya?
I hope this helps you Windows users ~~stumble~~find your collective way around Linux's filesystem. Reviews for ELive 1.0 and Wolvix 1.1.0-rc2 still coming right up!
From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue.

Review: DreamLinux 2.2 Multimedia GL Edition

2007-07-12T23:26:00.000+02:00

Ever have one of those dreams where everything seems to be going unnaturally well, and then all of the sudden, you wake up and you're late for work? Sure you have. DreamLinux, at least in my experience, was sort of like that, minus the work part (metaphorically, of course). It's a great distribution, with some great features, but it feels cheaply made.
First off, the obligatory background info. DreamLinux is a Brazilian distribution aimed at multimedia enthusiasts and former Mac OS users. Why OS X users? That's what it looks like. It sports a custom theme and Engage, a launcher from the Enlightenment project that looks and feels almost exactly like OS X's Dock.
DreamLinux is supposed to be an installed system, but it can easily be used as a live CD. It includes MkDistro, a tools for remastering the CD on-the-fly, a la SLAX. It can best be thought of as a cross between Knoppix (the behind-the-scenes underpinnings), dyne:bolic (multimedia app set), and SLAX (remasterability). Although a GNOME desktop would seem like the best choice for an OS X look-alike, DreamLinux uses XFCE, a lighter-weight choice with a smaller memory footprint.
However, if you don't like remastering your CD every day, DreamLinux does come with an install option. And what an option it is! DreamLinux is the first distro I've seen to use a one-screen installer rather than a wizard. Sections of the screen ask for a root password, user setup, partition layout, and GRUB preparation, and at the bottom is an "Install" button.
After the install, I tried out some of the programs. Included were Blender, a 3D modelling program, IceWeasel, a completely open-source version of Firefox included with Debian Etch, The GIMP, the ever-capable image-tweaker, Audacity, a powerful audio editor, Kino, a FOSS digital video editor (GASP!), and GTKPod, an iPod managing app. Blender, Gimp, and Audacity worked perfectly (and in Audacity, sound is normally a huge issue). GTKPod failed to recognize my 2nd-generation iPod Shuffle, but at least it's there.
There were, as I remarked earlier, some issues. My native 1280x800 screen resolution wasn't detected (but hey, not every distro comes with 915resolution installed), and reconfiguring the X server didn't help. My Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 card wasn't detected either. Installing firmware-ipw3945 didn't solve this problem. I understood the instructions to turn on Beryl, but they didn't work. (Maybe it was just my graphics chip...) And the forums were of limited use. The language gap between the Portugese-speaking Brazilians and English users was pretty huge.
I can't recommend DreamLinux to the average user, but only because the average user couldn't care less about multimedia production. DreamLinux is a great distro, with a rock-solid Debian base and a great app selection.
Behold, my new rating system! Artwork and Community are now worth half a point each in the final score.
Friendliness: 3.5/5- Wizards are everywhere. Except the installer, of course.
Performance: 4.5/5- Debian is fast. XFCE is fast. DreamLinux is REALLY fast.
Features: 4.5/5- If you're into multimedia editing, make yourself at home.
Packaging: 4.5/5- Synaptic. What more is there to say?
Artwork: 2.5/2.5- I've always liked OS X's artwork.
Community: 1/2.5- Yeah. It's that bad.
Overall: 4.1/5- If you need a fast, solid, good-looking system, try DreamLinux.
Next reviews: Elive 1.0 "Gem" and Wolvix 1.1.0-rc2 "Hunter" edition. You might recall Wolvix... Well, they're up to the second release candidate towards v1.1. I'll go over how far they've come eventually.
From DreamLinux 2.2,
The DistRogue.

Remember them?

2007-07-09T20:16:00.000+02:00

The site Show Us the Code, that challenged Microsoft to show us the code that they based their patent violations on, was shut down by the webmaster's employer. Bullying prevailed, and freedom of speech was destroyed by the very corporate format that the site railed against.
Someone needs to pick up the torch. Someone who is independent from corporations. Someone without a job. Someone who can crusade for Linux no matter what. Someone who is never afraid to speak their mind. Someone who can lead. If you want to free Linux from Microsoft's FUD campaign, be my guest. Be our guest. By all means, shout Microsoft down.
From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue.

Review queue

2007-07-08T16:51:00.000+02:00

My next few reviews will be for Dreamlinux 2.2 MMGL and ELive 1.0. Dreamlinux is an OSX-like distro based on Knoppix and geared towards multimedia. It also has an ingenious 1-panel installer. You might recall a review I did for ELive 0.5.3 a while back. Now, they've reached v1.0- and it's installable! So I'll give it another look.
openSUSE 10.3 comes out on October 4. Given the improvements in 10.2, a new one-CD install architecture, and good experience with the current development release (alpha 5, which is nowhere near stable enough, but a good start), I'll definitely do a review of it.
From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue

The Internet died 3 days ago.

2007-07-01T18:04:00.000+02:00

Net neutrality is dead.
Without Net Neutrality, ISPs could control how much bandwidth is allotted to each site. This could be used to censor dissidence or extort webmasters. Obviously, only major ISPs like Verizon would do this, but how many of you are signed to an indie ISP? Without freedom of bandwidth, we can kiss freedom of speech and freedom of the press buh-bye.
Save the Internet
[inspirational rant]
To all 12-year-old AOLers, to all teens with no social life save MySpace and World of Warcraft, to all bloggers who write about their bland, ordinary life that nobody cares about: In the words of some famous Greek philosopher or another (Aristotle? Plato? Socrates? Help me out!): "I disagree with what you have to say; at the same time, I will defend to the death your right to say it." The Internet's rich culture thrives on people like you. Without net neutrality, the flow of new content is cut off, leaving a stale wasteland of the past. The Internet is self-deprecating; without anything new to replace the layers of old, mildewed crap, it will destroy itself. Everyone has a stake in this; think, for a moment, what would happen if the Internet dissolved in a pool of monotony. What if all those webcomics you treasure were annihilated? What if User Friendly disappeared? If Penny Arcade disappeared? If PvP disappeared? If Sluggy Freelance disappeared? What would you do without all those social networking sites? What if Myspace disappeared? What if Facebook disappeared? What if Blogger disappeared? If Xanga disappeared? Where would your Internet radio come from without Last.fm or Pandora or Shoutcast... Those sites aren't backed by millionaires; they run on donations! Wikipedia provides a place for the pooling of the complete knowledge of all mankind (in theory), not for the pooling of a few "experts" hired by some corporate juggernaut. What would happen to freedom of speech and press if every news site was run by Microsoft or Apple or, God forbid, the government? (ZDNet readers, move along, nothing new to see here...)
We are the people. We are the Internet. We are who we want to be, not what Verizon or Comcast wants us to be! For freedom! For Net Neutrality! For the world!
[/inspirational rant]

Full-length review: Ubuntu, Xubuntu and Ubuntu Studio 7.04, and dyne:bolic 2.4.2

2007-06-15T18:13:00.000+02:00

Well, the promised uber-review is finally here. With the release of Ubuntu 7.04 (aka "Feisty Fawn"), a new fork of Ubuntu, named "Ubuntu Studio", was released, to go along with Kubuntu ("LinuKs for KHumans", released with 5.04), Edubuntu ("Linux for Young Humans", 5.10), and Xubuntu ("Linux for Gamers and Humans with Old Hardware", 6.06 LTS). It focuses on content creation, containing numerous tools for audio, video, and picture manipulation and creation. Of course, there are numerous other unofficial forks, not to mention ideas (both serious and non-serious). There's an Ubuntu fork for everyone!
Armed with a working wireless connection, I decided to put Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu Studio through their paces, and compare Ubuntu Studio (aka "Ubustu") with dyne:bolic, a rival content-creation OS.

== Ubuntu and Xubuntu ==

For starters, I repartitioned the disk setup that came with my new laptop and installed Xubuntu over it. Since Ubuntu was installed already, that might seem like a dumb move. Well, I needed to repartition the disk so that the computer had a 40GB shared /home partition (need somewhere to store my music collection...) and various other partitions for other OSes. A 2-gig swap partition seemed like a good idea at the time, but proved invaluable while gaming. (Nexuiz needs at least 512MB of RAM to itself, nothing a simple "sudo swapon /dev/sda5" can't fix.)
Also, I had a taste of the new installer. Other than completely redesigning the partitioner, the major change is the new "Settings Migration Wizard", which swipes settings and documents (!) from other OSes (like Windows) and changes them so that they'll work on your newly-installed system. Oddly enough, my Ubuntu partition didn't show up on the wizard, even though it did on other test systems...
I then installed Automatix and used it to get some codecs, media players, and other things. Automatix is frowned upon by the Ubuntu officials, but it's an easy way to get a working system in minutes. I also added some games- from penguin classics like TuxKart and PPRacer to full-blown shooters like Tremulous and Nexuiz. All with a few apt-gets and a lot of patience- the local ISP was having issues (is a ping of 1500 to Google normal for a DSL user?)
Performance (as always) was a huge problem. Compiz and Beryl (as of Feisty, Compiz is installed by default) ran flawlessly (okay, nearly flawlessly...), but because of crappy on-chip 3D acceleration (and bad drivers from Intel), I scored less than 25FPS in ThinkTanks, a record low, and Nexuiz was barely playable with all the effects turned off. (With the defaults, it was pretty choppy...) Sauerbraten refused to run, and I'm not the only one having this issue- it looks like something's up with Intel chips. BZFlag was just barely playable online with a ton of effects disabled and 800x600 resolution, but in solo, it worked great with the defaults. At least SuperTux Mi1.9 worked, and Tremulous cranked out 60+FPS... (And the problem isn't my hardware. BZFlag worked fine with Sabayon.)
Ubuntu did have some other perks. A new disk-usage analyzer not only looks cooler, but makes it easier to find files and folders that take up disk space. A restricted-drivers manager allows unsupported drivers to be turned on and off. A simpler networking manager allowed for 2-click wireless connectivity from a blank desktop. A codec installer takes care of a longtime complaint of Ubuntu users- easy access to commonly needed multimedia codecs. And Compiz was integrated, with easy-to-use controls.
Ubuntu has been, is, and, judging by the plans for the next release ("Gutsy Gibbon"), will be a great distribution for a while. I once recommended Mandriva to a friend who was drooling (okay, not exactly drooling) over Compiz, but with Feisty, that's not even an excuse anymore (and it's about time!). Compiz was considered for Edgy and almost dropped for Feisty. According to rumors, Gusty will include Beryl, and maybe even Metisse.
Friendliness: 5/5- Other distros, such as Linspire and PCLinuxOS, are still friendly, but Ubuntu 7.04 set an even higher standard. The new changes are worth it.
Performance: 3/5- Xubuntu is much better in this regard. Ubuntu is a somewhat bloated OS, running various Apt-related processes in the background, alongside GNOME. Using XFCE helps.
Features: 4/5- Still not a complete feature set, but the new additions help you get there. So does Automatix.
Packaging: 4.5/5- There's nowhere to go from here except to use openSUSE's YaST2 packager, and only because of its superior filtering options.
Overall: 4.13/5- PCLinuxOS might be the top-dog distro for now, but Ubuntu is still the first choice for any newbie.

But wait! Don't hit that "Back" button yet!

== Ubuntu Studio vs. dyne:bolic ==

To get Ubuntu Studio working, I typed in "sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-audio ubuntustudio-video" from the command line and waited for the download. Ubuntu Studio, being an official variant of Ubuntu, includes metapackages that can be installed from Synaptic or apt-get. These packages install all the necessary programs for a working Ubustu desktop.
dyne:bolic, on the other hand, is a separate distribution altogether. Put together by Jaromil the Rasta Coder, the inventor of the forkbomb (a code that shuts down a computer: :(){ :|:& }:; ), dyne:bolic fits on a CD-RW and packs 650MB of audio, video, text and image-manipulation/creation programs- all licensed under the GNU GPL. (Translation: The CD is 100% open-source.) It also happens to be optimized for a Pentium or later CPU, and claims the ability to run on as little as 64MB of RAM, thanks to an XFCE desktop. The killer: It's a Live CD, but can be installed nondestructively.
Ubuntu Studio, not to be outdone that easily, has two main edges. The biggest one is the sheer range of available programs. The image is 100MB too large to fit on a CD (if that's how you choose to install it), but it has many more programs than dyne:bolic. I counted 67 programs under my "Multimedia" menu after the install (of course, I also installed some programs of my own, such as XFMedia). There's also a handy launcher to give you an instant, customized recording studio.
The other important part of Ubustu is the kernel. Ubuntu Studio's kernel is of the low-latency flavor- It gives 95% of the CPU power to the currently running program. This is perfect for audio, where robbed CPU power disturbs audio playback, and gaming, where it can cause lag- and in fast-paced games like Quake, a little lag can mean an easy frag.
As far as performance, though, dyne:bolic beat Ubustu by a considerable margin. i586 optimization, combined with a lightweight desktop and little-to-no background bloat, was much more powerful than just tacking on a low-latency kernel.
Also, Ubustu's enormous app selection worked against it. The distributed copy of Audacity was compiled without JACK support, and the JACK drivers for amSynth and Hydrogen didn't work. As a result, some programs needed JACK to be running to work, while the major ones needed it to be disabled. Having QJackCtl handy only helped slightly. Dyne:bolic's selection of programs was more polished and interoperable.
Artwork on both distributions was great. Ubustu included a custom black-and-blue theme that looked sleek and polished. Dyne:bolic included calm, subtly-themed wallpaper that may well have been made using the CD itself. A clean, subtle XFCE theme and an out-of-the-way panel provided a serene, uncluttered workspace.
Both of these distributions are worth a try if you're considering a distro for content creation. Ubuntu Studio will give multimedia enthusiasts all the tools they need, while dyne:bolic is an indispensable tool for people stuck on old computers.

Ubuntu Studio 7.04:
Friendliness: 5/5- See notes for Ubuntu 7.04.
Performance: 2.5/5- In multimedia creation, low performance can have a serious effect on sound quality, even with a low-latency kernel.
Features: 5/5- It's a complete studio.
Packaging: 4.5/5- See Ubuntu 7.04.
Overall: 4.25/5.

dyne:bolic 2.4.2:
Friendliness: 4/5- Takes the pain out of having to use a Live CD.
Performance: 4.5/5- A lightweight, fast CD.
Features: 3.5/5- Not exactly a paltry feature set, but clearly not ultra-complete.
Packaging: 4/5- You can download modules from the site, and they're relatively easy to use- except that they require a hard disk or USB drive. (But where else would you store your files?)
Overall: 4/5.

What's next? SAM Linux 2007. Vector didn't make it past the install. (But Canada still has User Friendly and Billy Talent, eh?)
From Xubuntu Linux 7.04,
The DistRogue.

Hardware review: Dell Inspiron E1505N with Ubuntu Feisty

2007-06-10T17:27:00.000+02:00

By now, you should certainly know that Dell's offering computers with Ubuntu installed. After just getting one, here are some points about the entry-level Inspiron E1505N laptop:
-Hardware detection: With an Intel PRO/Wireless card included, wireless Internet access was out-of-the-box. It also came with an Intel GMA950 for graphics acceleration, which also works out of the box. W00t.
-CPUs: The 1505N comes with an Intel Centrino Duo (which is dual-core) as well, even with an entry-level config. It's detected out of the box- Ubuntu Feisty's kernel comes with i686 and SMP optimizations. Double w00t.
-Graphics acceleration: On the other hand, the GMA950 is pretty slow for gaming. GLXGears reported 740FPS, and ThinkTanks ran at a piddling 24FPS- just barely playable.
-Screen res: The default screen resolution (nothing extra) is 1280x800. Sweet. However, Ubuntu thinks it's 1024x768, which can be fixed by using the command "sudo apt-get install 915resolution". Easy fix.
-CD booting: After "fixing" the BIOS (just hit F2 during the boot) to boot from the CD drive first, the laptop recognized my PCLinuxOS and Xubuntu CDs with no issues. I didn't try DVDs yet.
-Other problems: My biggest pet peeve is that the screen kept switching itself off- and there's no way to turn it back on short of rebooting. It was fixed with the XFCE screensaver prefs; however, the same problem (only worse- it shut off whenever I closed the lid) happened on PCLinuxOS. I don't have a fix for that at the time. So beware.
Other than that, the new Inspiron E1505N is worth a look if you want a cheap, usable Linux system.
From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue.

It's here.

2007-06-10T02:56:00.000+02:00

The laptop got here today. I've already repartitioned the hard-disk setup. 40GB for /home should be enough...
Next up: A review of Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu Studio 7.04. PCLinuxOS follows that, and after that, it's time for a little-known Slackware derivative from Canada: Vector Linux. (It's Canadian, and they seem to do everything more sensibly than us Yanks, so you know it'll be good...) So far, it looks suspiciously like Zenwalk. They're both XFCE-using Slackware derivatives aimed at novices, they both come from French-speaking countries, they both have separate Live/Install CDs...
Still need to install Ubustu over Ubuntu and Xubuntu and add an SMP kernel, though...
From Xubuntu Feisty,
The DistRogue.

Time to upgrade GNU/Studios.

2007-05-30T03:01:00.000+02:00

No doubt you've seen the hype about Dell's new Ubuntu PCs. I recently ordered one (with nothing out of the ordinary added), and here's what you can get on a laptop for $600:
-Dual-core Pentium CPU @ 1.73GHz
-512MB RAM @ 533MHz
-Intel GMA950 graphics accelerator
-Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG wireless NIC (which works well with Linux)
-80GB HD @ 5400RPM
Check it out yourself. I'll be posting a review to see how well Xubuntu runs on it when I get it, as well as that Ubuntu Studio Edition vs. dyne:bolic deathmatch you've all been waiting for (in my dreams)... Not to mention a review of SAM Linux 2007- about time! Expect a month delay (0.o) but I'm serious this time.

How to get the most out of your Intel graphics chip

2007-05-27T02:14:00.000+02:00

It's well known that Intel's i8xx/i9xx/GMA9xx graphics chips, which are used in several types of laptops, don't bring their own on-chip RAM, preferring to pillage it from the system's memory. But how much, exactly, is set aside for graphics acceleration in a default X server?
The answer: 4 megabytes.
For most users, 4 megabytes of VRAM is fine, but gamers will clearly want more than that! X lets you tweak the amount of RAM it uses, down to the nearest kilobyte. (And who's going to give their graphics chip exactly 1023 bytes, anyways?) Here's how to do it:
-Fire up your text editor of choice in root mode, and edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. (Be sure to make a backup!)
-Find the line that starts "VideoRAM".
-If there's a # before it, remove it. A # comments the line out.
-Change the number that follows it (which should be 4096) to the right value. Raising it to 40960 (10x the original) added about 8FPS in SuperTux on my i815. Gamers with RAM to spare will want it higher, at least 64-128MB, more if you have more RAM.
-To get a good idea of how high you can set it, type "free" into a prompt. It will tell you how much RAM and swap (virtual RAM) you have free. To raise those numbers, see my article on small distributions- there are tips you can use without switching distributions at all.
-Save the file and restart X. If it doesn't launch, restore the backup you made... You did make a backup, right?
Happy hacking!
From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue.

Five reasons to love Sabayon

2007-05-26T16:40:00.000+02:00

You've probably heard the constant hype about Sabayon Linux, maybe that it's a perfect distro, or maybe even rumors that it's going to knock PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu off the top spots on DistroWatch. (Surprise! PCLinuxOS has the #1 spot, after the release of version 2007.) Odds are, though, you don't really know what the fuss is about. Here are the main reasons why people love Sabayon:
-Speed. Sabayon is a derivative of Gentoo Linux, which compiles itself from source. This gives it immense speed, and tunes it perfectly to your system. The difference? Gentoo installs itself over a period of days; Sabayon takes a matter of minutes.
-Packaging. Gentoo uses the Portage packaging system, which compiles everything from source. While Sabayon uses Portage too, an alternate packager called Entropy is under development that uses compiled binaries to install packages much faster than Portage.
-Up-to-date-ness. Another trait of Sabayon is that it tends to be more bleeding-edge than other distros. A lot of the software is straight out of the nightly builds, and not very well-tested. This means, however, that Sabayon is full of features that have yet to debut to the rest of the Linux world.
-Hardware detection. Seriously. Sabayon has world-class hardware detection. One reviewer claimed that it has a 90% chance of detecting everything on your computer out of the box.
-3D effects. Sabayon was one of the first distros to include on-board Beryl effects, if not the first (Mandriva uses Compiz, with Beryl installable later). But in addition, it has closed-source NVidia/ATI drivers, along with proprietary (and open-source) detection scripts and acceleration controls.
There you have it. A really fast, bleeding edge distro with great hardware detection and 3D controls. Sabayon Linux is worth a look if you're undecided on what to pick. It comes in full and "Mini" editions- the former is DVD-sized, while the latter fits on a CD-R.
From PCLinuxOS,
The DistRogue.

Linux Lite: Small distros for old machines

2007-05-20T01:47:00.000+02:00

One of the reasons why one would get Linux is to make use of old hardware. Windows Vista, with all the DRMs built in, is bloated beyond belief, especially with the shiny "Aero" effects. Pretty but useless, like Paris Hilton... Anyways, people who do this had better check the system requirements before they pick a distribution. Ubuntu is the obvious choice for most people, but when that person is stuck on a 400MHz Pentium II laptop with 128MB of RAM, it might not be such a good idea. So, here are some small distributions that get the job done on old systems, too. They might also be good for gamers who want to eke every possible bit of performance out of their machine.
-Ubuntu Lite and Fluxbuntu: Variants on Ubuntu that use IceWM and Fluxbox, respectively, as their desktops. Although these are lighter than their GNOME counterpart, you can still do better- they come with bloated services that slow the system down.
-Damn Small Linux: "50 megabytes of penguin power", a business-card-sized CD that runs Fluxbox and a collection of tiny apps. With a 2.4-series kernel, hardware compatibility will be limited, but it works fine for gaming.
-Zenwalk: Slackware is incredibly efficient, but hard to install. Zenwalk is a friendlier distribution based on Slackware, but using XFCE, which also runs faster (but isn't too hard to use).
-Absolute Linux: Absolute is a lightweight desktop (it boasts an idle RAM usage of only 26MB with certain services disabled), but the CD comes with an enormous number of programs. It uses IceWM, and is based on Slackware.
-DeLi (Desktop Lite): A small, independent distribution. The CD image is only about 130MB, and it is designed to run on really old machines- it can run on 8MB of RAM. Also uses IceWM.
-PCLinuxOS and SAM Linux: Although they're not as small as the previously-mentioned distros, these forks of Mandriva run superbly on relatively old machines (my test system, in case I need to remind anyone, is an 800MHz Celeron with in i810 graphics chipset and 320MB of RAM). PCLinuxOS uses KDE, and runs faster than Ubuntu. SAM uses XFCE, and has a great, OSX-like launcher. PCLinuxOS is currently the top distribution according to DistroWatch (surprise!).

When looking for a fast system, there are three things to keep in mind:

The desktop. Most lightweight distributions use either XFCE (gaming systems) or IceWM (legacy systems). IceWM is *tiny*, but XFCE is a complete environment, with its own apps and libraries.
Bloatedness. Distros like Ubuntu or openSUSE (and especially Fedora) have a lot of services running in the background, and they slow the whole thing down. Distros that follow a strict KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) strategy (Slackware and the like) don't have all this bloat slowing them down.
Optimizations. Distros like PCLinuxOS are optimized for an i586 (Pentium) or later CPU. This means they won't run on a 486 or later, but they'll run extra-fast everywhere else. Arch is i686-optimized (Pentium II), the highest level, and follows KISS (which has nothing to do with Gene Simmons). Gentoo and other source-based distros let you choose how you want it optimized, but are notoriously hard to install.

Finally, as a general consideration for making your system even lighter (and snappier), make sure you're not loading any more libraries than you need to. Here's an example:
A normal system:
-GIMP (uses GTK)
-Firefox (uses libFirefox)
-amaroK (uses Qt, KHTML)
-Nautilus (uses GTK, libGNOME)
-arK (uses Qt)
-Tomboy (uses GTK)
...You get the idea. The apps on this system either load too many libraries or rely on their own. A good system uses a couple libraries a lot.
Optimized system:
-GIMP (uses GTK)
-Epiphany (uses GTK, GTKHTML)
-Exaile (uses GTK)
-Thunar (uses GTK, Exo)
-XArchiver (uses GTK, Exo)
-Orage (uses GTK, Exo)
Three libraries are shared between 6 programs, which would otherwise be packing their own libraries.
From SAM Linux 2007,
The DistRogue.

This system is going down for maintenance NOW!

2007-05-10T14:49:00.000+02:00

Have you ever had a really long English assignment that will take you a whole month to do? Sure you have. So, now you know what my situation is like. My next post will probably be from Spain, where I'll keep reviewing distributions and cranking out how-tos, but for now, root says "shutdown -t now".

dyne:bolic vs. Ubuntu Studio

2007-05-08T22:09:00.000+02:00

Ubuntu Studio has published a list of programs that it will include. dyne:bolic has the major ones, such as Blender or Audacity, but Ubuntu SE has a number of programs that it lacks, and that could make a major difference. But maybe it's just the fact that dyne:bolic still hasn't published a complete package list of their own... And besides, dyne:bolic is more than complete for most users.
By the way, speaking of stuff that comes with both distributions, check out ZynAddSubFX.

How to make a Live CD

2007-05-07T01:26:00.000+02:00

Linux is a completely open-source family of operating systems (Linux itself isn't really an OS, but rather, a kernel), and so anyone can make their own distribution (in theory) and join in the action. But why do that? There are already hundreds of existing distributions, and odds are, one of them is right for whatever niche you have. This isn't a tutorial for making your own distro- that requires time, money, and m4d-1337 technical 5k!11z. This is how to make a Live CD for an application of your choice.

==Why have a Live CD?==

Portability. A program would normally have to be installed several times in order for it to be able to be used wherever you go, so why not put it on a CD?
Speed. Newsflash: If you dedicate an entire OS to just running one program, it'll run faster, and be more reliable.
It looks cool on a resumé. Wouldn't you like to say to a would-be employer, "I made my own Linux CD"?

Take a pick. The last one's especially important. It will get you unquestioned authority in computing.

==Choosing a base system==

There are a few options for a base system. Here are the best choices:

SLAX: The original remasterable Live CD. It runs a Slackware-based operating system with KDE. Only 200MB to start out.
Wolvix: An extremely feature-rich OS that uses XFCE and a ton of programs. I recommend the 1.1.0-beta series. The "Cub" edition is about 240MB, yet is a complete OS.
Myah: The version 2.0 series is pretty much the same as SLAX; however, the tech demos of the yet-unreleased Version 3 are i686-optimized (they run faster) and use XFCE. About 500MB.

Download the CD image (a .iso file) and extract it to a temporary folder in your home directory called "image".

==Adding the program==

SLAX 6-RC, Myah 3-TD1, and Wolvix 1.1.0 beta all use version 6 of the Linux-Live scripts. SLAX 5.1, Myah 2.2, and Wolvix 1.0.5, the stable versions, use version 5. This wouldn't be a big issue, except that the module format changed between those versions. It's probably a better idea to choose the newer versions of these distributions, because the new format makes smaller modules.
Make another folder called "program". Extract the file tree of the program to the folder. Inside, it should resemble a traditional Linux file system, with bin, etc, usr, or other folders (most of the time, it's just usr) in it.
Open up a terminal and type this:

cd image/name/tools

where name is either slax (for SLAX), wolvix (for Wolvix), or linuxcd (for Myah). Type the following commands:

chmod 755 *
mkdir ../modules
./dir2lzm ~/program ../modules/program.lzm

The first command makes all the tools for building LZM images (linux-live 6 modules) executable, so you can use them. The second makes a modules folder- this stores modules that are used at boot time. The third takes the program you made and turns it into an LZM file.

==Rebuild and burn==

You now have a file structure that you need to burn onto a CD. To do this, you need to make an ISO file.

cd ..
chmod 755 *.sh
./make_iso.sh

It will then prompt you for a name for the image. Hitting ENTER is usually fine.
In your home directory, there will be a CD image, ready to burn. Do so, but don't waste a CD-R on it, just use a CD-RW. It should fit, easily.

==Cut and try==

A Live CD usually doesn't come out right on the first try. Experiment with the image a bit. Here are some useful commands:

-lzm2dir: extracts an lzm file to a directory.
-chroot: allows you to run commands from inside another system. You can chroot to an extracted LZM file, for instance, and add or remove programs within the module itself.
-removepkg: This program comes with Myah OS, and allows you to cut down on the bloat that comes with it. ;)
-mo2dir: If you happen to have some old modules lying around, this convert them to LZM format.

==Examples==

The SuperTux Live CD is based on SLAX. The ThinkTanks Server Disk is based on Wolvix.

From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue.

Coming soon...

2007-05-05T23:10:00.000+02:00

In addition to a review of Xubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn", I will eventually (as in very soon) be doing a content-creation shootout between two distributions designed for creative uses, dyne:bolic and Ubuntu Studio Edition. These two distros have the same goal: to provide tools to let a person's creativity loose on the world. These include audio-editing tools like Audacity and Ardour, graphics tools like The GIMP, and even video editors like Kino, all available for free. But there are some key differences:
-Desktop choice. Ubuntu SE uses, as far as I can tell, the default GNOME that Ubuntu uses. dyne:bolic uses XFCE, an uncommon, but favorable, choice.
-Performance. Multimedia editing of any kind demands a half-decent system. I've learned this the hard way. Ubuntu recommends 256MB of RAM for operation (for GNOME), while dyne:bolic claims that it can run on as little as 64MB. (This is even more impressive because Xubuntu recommends 128MB of RAM, and, like dyne:bolic, it uses XFCE.) In addition, Ubuntu can run a 386, whereas dyne:bolic needs a Pentium or K5-class CPU or later, but this is actually an advantage for it. Ya see, nobody really uses a 386 for multimedia production anymore, and Ubuntu would probably run obscenely slowly on a 386 anyways. However, optimizing a system for a Pentium (i586) allows it to run faster. The last i586-optimized distribution I tried, SAM Linux, was roughly 150% faster than Ubuntu.
-GNU-ness. Ubuntu isn't a completely open-source distribution. (That would be gNuiSance.) dyne:bolic is. It's also a Live CD, whereas Ubuntu Studio doesn't have a live version (and a text install, like Breezy).
-dyne:bolic has a cooler name. This is always a big criterion. Not to mention Jaromil "The Rasta Coder", the inventor of dyne.org and the forkbomb... :(){ :|:& };:
From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue.

Did Microsoft just patent sudo?

2007-05-04T19:34:00.000+02:00

It's all over Digg. The original story:
Ubuntu Linux Tips & Tricks: Did Microsoft just patent sudo?
Microsoft keeps making claims about their IP (speaking of which: Steve Ballmer's time is up for showing us the code), but now, it's our turn to complain about their violations- or show them that we're not all sue-happy like them.

FULL review: Mandriva One 2007.1 "Spring Edition": GNOME

2007-05-03T23:09:00.000+02:00

I might be using Mandriva as my main system. Yeah, Spring Edition is that good. Sure, it has Compiz and Metisse built in (with Beryl installable via Drak3D), but it's in those little details that Mandriva truly rocks.
Let's start with the Live CD. In less than 3 minutes, I was in a full GNOME/Metisse desktop with integrated, closed-source 3D acceleration. Not bad. The install was relatively painless, only requiring a few steps. It also gave me my first taste of Metisse. It's everything I've said and more. Really. Windows can be flipped in all sorts of weird ways, and it can do a lot of crazy (lens distortion) and- God forbid- useful (windows fold back when you drag the mouse through a window below them) stuff. Here's a list to get you started. Unfortunately, Metisse's effects didn't show up in my screenshots, but there are some videos of it in action here.

The post-install configuration was easy. I set up a root password, a user, and some other minor stuff. I went to the Control Center and turned off Metisse. The control center, it turns out, also houses the biggest improvement over 2007.0: packaging. RPMDrake is supposedly much faster, and has integrated add/remove functionality, but that's in their words. In my words, they've added easy-to-access package sources, so EasyURPMI isn't even necessary anymore! In fact, if you launch RPMDrake from the MCC, it will ask you if you want the sources installed automatically. This is a big step forward for Mandriva.

Another step forward is also in the graphics. Spring Edition has closed-source NVidia drivers built in, and this time, they actually work. Last time, I ran ThinkTanks (remember TT?) at an agonizing 15-or-so FPS, in a tiny window. This time, I could just install it and run it, no driver installation required. It ran very smoothly, and I had a few quick Scrum games.
Here's Mandriva's new report card:
Friendliness: 5/5- You can't get much easier to use than Mandriva. It's a distro that holds your hand every step of the way.
Performance: 4.5/5- Mandriva, believe it or not, is i586-optimized. It won't run on a 486 or older, but it definitely has a performance edge over other distros.
Features: 4/5- Even the one-CD edition has a fair selection of programs. The "Free" edition ships on multiple CDs.
Packaging: 4.5/5-This used to be Mandriva' weakness, but it's improved nicely recently.
Overall: 4.5/5- Mandriva is a solid distribution. Consider it ready for home use as of 2007.1.
I bet you'll never guess what's next. ;)
From Mandriva 2007.1,
The DistRogue.

This is HUGE.

2007-05-01T00:45:00.000+02:00

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0.
There, I've said it. Now, I can explain it.
Apparently, someone found out the code to play HD-DVD-encoded (a euphemism for "DRMed") content on Linux. I just posted it. I found this out from Digg, but the story is down for reasons I'll get into, so here's the main source.
I was checking the Digg Linux pages when I found the story. I refreshed the page every so often, and found that it was getting about 80 diggs per minute! :O It seemed like a hoax, a plug, or both, until the thread mysteriously disappeared off the face of Digg. Now, the movie industry is threatening another blog, Spooky Action at a Distance, for revealing the number. This could be big.
From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue.

Review: openSUSE 10.2

2007-04-30T02:08:00.000+02:00

I'll admit, right now, that my experience with openSUSE 10.2 was much better than the horror story that was SUSE 10.1. Maybe they really did make the changes that 10.1 needed to become viable. Maybe it was just that I installed KDE instead of GNOME. In any event, I was seriously considering using it as a main system, but it strikes me as more of an enterprise system than a home OS.
The CD I used to install openSUSE wouldn't boot. A minor setback, but I got it working anyways, with the help of the network install CD. After a few hours, I had a working KDE desktop. And a slightly creepy one...
The color-changing lizard was cute. The eyes that followed my mouse cursor were kind of freaky... And yes, the so-called "Kickoff" menu does take some getting used to. What happened to the KDE menu we know and love (or hate)?
YaST, or Yet Another Setup Tool, is used for everything. And I mean everything...

Everything from package management to AppArmor control to X11 configuration... YaST covers it all. You can use YaST to lock down your computer to almost any attack or just to install some games.
Speaking of games, YaST claims my install comes with kernel headers, which are required to install NVidia 3D acceleration drivers, but those were the first problems it ran into. Performance was poor, as you can see:

GLXGears isn't really a benchmarking tool, but I can easily get over 350FPS on my laptop, through Knoppix. (Aren't Live CDs supposed to be slow?) And because of the lack of 3D drivers, I couldn't test-drive the famed Xgl/Compiz effects, either. :(
openSUSE is, in my opinion, a decent desktop. It has plenty of features, most of which are aimed at the corporate/server market, as opposed to SoHo users like you and me. It would make a nice enterprise desktop (enterprise-class features for free), and a rock-solid server, but as far as features the average desktop user would like, Ubuntu is still a better choice.
Friendliness: 4/5- Windows users won't turn up their noses at YaST, and welcome the idea of a centralized control panel.
Performance: 3/5- Maybe it was KDE, but openSUSE is a slow, somewhat bloated distro compared to others.
Features: 4.5/5- Feature sout the wazoo. Doesn't get a 5 because they aren't as practical.
Packaging: 4/5- YaST is a great package manager. No, really. I see some major potential in it.
Overall: 3.75/5- The shiny polish makes it clear that this is an enterprise OS.
Thanks for waiting. Now, it's on to the good stuff... ;)
From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue

Open source in school

2007-04-20T15:10:00.000+02:00

Steering away from the subject of my upcoming reviews (all three of which are, in fact, on the way), let's talk about something closer to home for some people- or to school. At my high school, every computer is the same: Windows XP, Internet Explorer (with the occasional Firefox install), Microsoft Office... Our servers are no different, and it was hacked twice last year alone. If anyone here uses a Mac at home, I honestly feel sorry for them. But why feel sorry for myself?
Everyone's "My Documents" folder is typically a mash-up of PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, maybe the odd Publisher file... Each person gets 500MB, which, obviously, the average student isn't going to use. See where I'm going with this? Since I don't have admin rights on most computers, I just install Firefox/The Gimp/Abiword/Inkscape to my My Documents folder and make some shortcuts. It's not that hard: Most installers have a box that asks you where the program should be installed. Just browse to My Documents and install it there! (If it doesn't have that field, try a custom install.) With a little customization and shortcut-making, I can run Firefox wherever I am. The Gimp and Inkscape add some flair to my PowerPoints, and now, I use Abiword instead of Microsoft Word to do word processing. School doesn't have to drag...

The image is downloaded, the MD5s are matched...

2007-04-20T01:42:00.000+02:00

One review for Xubuntu 7.04 coming right up- as soon as I get the review for openSUSE out. As for Mandriva, well... I've been having boot problems, but I'll try to get some Metisse screenshots ASAP. Brace for some major reviewage.
And if you haven't heard the news by now, where have you been? While you were gone, Ubuntu Feisty came out right on schedule, with no delays!
From Xubuntu 7.04,
The DistRogue.

2 reviews queued, maybe 3...

2007-04-18T12:58:00.000+02:00

In case you haven't heard the news, Mandriva 2007.1 Spring Edition came out today! :) Featuring... do I need to go over the list again? Metisse inside every version, a faster URPMI, updated packages, new artwork (everywhere)... And as if that's not enough, in spite of the recent delays, Ubuntu still says that version 7.04 will be out tomorrow. Exciting times ahead...

I see a lizard in my future

2007-04-17T23:04:00.000+02:00

The review for openSUSE is still coming, but with a startling new development. A classic issue with my laptop has been getting my Atheros-based Belkin F5D7010 wireless card to work. I've found that after kernel 2.6.17, Linux's built-in madwifi driver fails to work, so I use 2.6.15 all the time. There was a solution on the openSUSE wiki, and it was something I hadn't tried before.
When I installed the driver and rebooted, lights came on under the card that I didn't even know existed. Scary. Even cooler, internet connectivity worked with a 2.6.17 kernel! This is awesome, as it will allow me to review a ton more distributions than I have been. Who knows, I might even install openSUSE on my laptop. I've heard it's a good mobile distro.
From Ubuntu 6.10, with kernel 2.6.17,
The DistRogue.
(PS: Ubuntu Feisty might not have an RC out yet, but they're still planning to ship it on schedule. Can you believe these guys?)

Guess where I'm writing this from?

2007-04-16T22:53:00.000+02:00

A review is imminent. For what? I'll give you a hint: It should not take me 3 hours to install this distro, but it did anyways. And it's not Gentoo.
How about this: The KDE version has a menu bar with a green lizard on it, and when you mouse over it, its eyes follow the cursor, sort of like XEyes.
Yes, I finally managed to install openSUSE 10.2! The "network install" image turned out to be the answer, since my main install disk wouldn't boot. It works, with difficulty, and if you use Windows, you're in for a treat. Screenshots are coming, as soon as I can get some snapz of Geeko the openSUSE Lizard's mad-1337 color-changing ~~abilities~~ (skillz, mahn, skillzzz). I'll say this much: YaST is entirely too overused. It does everything from installation to hardware detection to software installation to X11 (a 7.2 pre-release, to be exact, and not all that stable) configuration... Scary. But the window decorations are cool.
From openSUSE 10.2,
The DistRogue.

A newbie's guide to Windows Vista

2007-04-13T19:24:00.000+02:00

I apologize in advance for any eye or brain injuries you might receive from reading this parody.

Are you ready to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of Microsoft "All your crash are belong to us" Windows? Well, here's everything you need to know:
-New artwork! We have a ~~ripped-off~~ completely new icon theme with Vista, and we've even changed the look of the little bar at the bottom! It looks shinier now, and that's all that matters!
-New effects! Look at all the shiny stuff! Vista has a new Alt-Tab switcher ~~which nobody uses~~, a new Aero(tm) theme ~~ripped off from KDE's "Crystal" windeco~~, and Windows Flip 3D ~~which the Mac has had for years as Exposé~~!!! We know these don't matter to anyone with half a brain, but it's all shiny and we use a lot of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!1111 So go out and buy the Ultimate Edition for all the shiny stuff ~~that you could get for free, but better, on Linux~~!
-Easier to use! Okay, so it's not really easier to use, but we're the marketing department! Believe us... It's easier than evar!!!!!!!11111oneoneone
-More secure! Remember all those people yakking about DRMs? Well, they lied! We have DRMs in Vista, but they're not to cripple your rights! They're there so you can enjoy a nice, ~~buggy~~ secure "Wow!" experience and not be bothered by bad men who exploit flaws we were too lazy to patch!!! Aren't we smaaart? Smarter than those Linux egocentrics who think their OS is better than anyone else's just because it just works better than ours?
All you need to have your "Wow!" start now is a Beowulf cluster of Core 2 Duo-based computers overclocked to 4GHz ~~which is impossible since Vista has no clustering support~~, and a minimum of 8GB of RAM per system. That's low! The best Linux has to offer is 26GB idle! ~~Oh, wait, that's 26MB, not GB, and an LFS-based desktop could probably go even lower...~~ If you're still using that Core Solo 1.66GHz you bought last year, it's out of date, go get a new computer! Don't you feel sorry for those little Linux kids zipping by on their 800MHz Celeron laptops ~~which you can, contrary to belief, actually use as a workstation~~? You want power! Don't try to deny it, you want those shiny new Aero effects! ~~Compiz actually runs (relatively well, too) on said laptops...~~
Now, be a good little brainwashed Microsoftie and go out there and buy Vista... Because if you don't, we'll have it on every computer you buy by the end of 2007! Make your "Wow" start now. Wow! ~~As in, "Wow, it took them five years to make this???"~~
From Windows Vista!!!
omgwtfbbq teh 1337-|)!57|206|_|3!

This is why Microsoft's tactics disgust me.

2007-04-13T17:47:00.001+02:00

Bill Gates: "Maybe we can define the APIs so that they work weel with NT and not the others even if they are open. Or maybe we could patent something related to this." [PDF Warning]

read more | digg story

5 new things in Ubuntu Feisty, and why they matter

2007-04-13T17:04:00.000+02:00

As you may have heard, Ubuntu 7.04, aka "Feisty Fawn", won't be out on schedule. The release candidate, originally scheduled for Thursday, has been delayed due to bugs with PATA handling. In the meantime, users can upgrade from version 6.10 "Edgy Eft" by using "sudo update-manager -c". It will be buggy, but it will also have an obscene amount of new features.
1. A better installer: The Ubuntu Feisty installer uses the partitioning controls from Fedora's "Anaconda" installer. They're still under development, but they are quite easy to use, replacing the old GParted interface. As if that's not enouh, there's a new "migration wizard" that lets you import settings from Windows, such as FireFox bookmarks. Scary.
2. Compiz and controls: Yes, Ubuntu Feisty will have Compiz for 3D desktop effects! It will also have a simple, button-and-two-checkboxes interface for turning effects on and off, similar to Fedora Core 6's "Desktop Effects" dialog. There are just two options (cube and wobbly windows), but hey, it's a start.
3. Beagle, Tomboy and F-Spot: Three new Mono-based apps, Beagle, Tomboy and F-Spot, have been added to the GNOME desktop. Beagle is an indexing search engine (indexing slows down your computer a bit, and can be turned off), and runs rather fast with an index. People who won't use it that often will want to turn indexing off. Tomboy is a note-taking program, accompanied by a new sticky notes program for the desktop. F-Spot is a photo-management program, comparable to Google's Picasa. These enhancements are welcome changes that will help considerably.
4. Firmware installation: In Feisty, there will be a dialog box that can install NVidia and ATI drivers, wireless card firmware (Broadcom, anyone?), and other hardware drivers automatically. Yes, built-in. Anyone who was put off by Alberto Milone's Envy script will love this...
5. Codec installation: Complementing the firmware installer will be a new approach to another common problem with Linux: codec installation. Ubuntu does not come with built-in MP3 codecs, but this little box will allow you to install them easily. It looks like scripts such as Automatix and Envy will be unnecessary by the next version, codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon"...
Ubuntu has been at the head of the pack ever since it was started, but in some ways, it's also lagged behind other distributions. With Feisty, which will include better hardware support, it will be, unquestionably, the distribution of choice for people that want a system that "Just Works". Even Windows users will be blown away.
On a related note, here's a rough changelog of what was going on in Redmond in the more than five years it took to create Vista:
-Added some shiny eye-candy. That'll get people's attention!
-Added some DRMs. We don't care what consumers want to do with their OS, we'll make them do what we want them to.
-Plan to stop selling Windows XP to computer manufacturers by the end of 2007. The "wow" will start now...
Really. By the end of 2007, all new PCs will come with Vista installed. All we need to do is inform as many people as possible about how DRMed Vista is (one computer per install! How pathetic is that?!), and a tide of people will either get a Mac or switch to Linux. You can help. Just tell all your friends about Vista's problems, and to head to ubuntu.com for a permanent bugfix.
From Ubuntu 7.04-Apt,
The DistRogue

Something large, pink, and oinking flew past my window.

2007-04-08T18:25:00.000+02:00

It had a large red spiral on it. This can mean only one thing...
After over 4 months of delays and constant development, and nearly 2 years since the last release, Debian 4.0 "Etch" has been released to the world! An exciting day for fans of one of the oldest surviving distributions, one of whom I actually know. Here are some of the changes:
-Almost everything updated, including GNOME to 2.14, XFCE to 4.4, KDE to 3.5, GIMP to 2.2.13, Firefox to IceWeasel 2.0.0.3, Linux to 2.6.18...
-Now 11 architectures are supported.
-Better themes... Mmm...
-Update manager! A feature Ubuntu has had since Hoary (2005, April), finally added to Debian.
For more details, head here. Salutations to users of *one of* the coolest OSes ever!
From Xubuntu 6.10,
The DistRogue

Why I love- and hate- Mandriva

2007-04-06T23:38:00.000+02:00

Remember Mandriva? I did a review on it a while back, saying that it was best suited for newbies with well-paid administrators. Well, here's what I overlooked:
-EasyURPMI: I said that URPMI/RPMDrake, Mandriva's package manager, was a pain in the patookie to use, and that it was only good for removing packages because it didn't have any sources. Enter EasyURPMI, an easy was to get RPMDrake up, running, and, most importantly, installing programs. Now that I've tried RPMDrake, which, among other things, has dependency tracking, it rocks!
-Metisse: Okay, I didn't exactly overlook Metisse so much as fail to wait for it, but it's still cool. Mandriva claims that Metisse isn't a 3D desktop, but in some ways, it's more 3D than Beryl or Compiz. It is now officially my favorite 3D desktop, and I haven't even used it.
-XFCE support: Yep, the next version, due out within a week, will have an XFCE version. With Metisse!
-MCC Partitioning: The Mandriva Control Center's built-in partitioning might not seem like much, but it just saved me. After getting the desktop computer back from the techs, I was unable to install Linux because of a partitioning screw-up. I used MCC to format the errant partition, and now, it should work. MCC succeeded where Xubuntu's GParted and Knoppix's QtParted failed.
-New release cycle: Yes, I said the next version will be out in a week. There are some minor bugs that still need to be squashed, according to a developer blog, but if all goes well, the next version of Mandriva, version 2007.1 "Spring Edition", should be out in, say, 5 or so days (just a random educated guess). It was supposed to be out 2 days ago. Mandriva's returning to their roots!
Then again, there were some issues with the CD that were thrown into sharp relief recently:
-AIGLX and NVidia: For some reason, Drak3D doesn't allow AIGLX effects with NVidia graphics cards (or at least mine). Huh... Xgl is good enough for me, anyways.
-My life flashed before my eyes when I tried installing it. Why? I chose the "Use Existing Partitions" option, and it jumped to file copying- without asking me what partitions I wanted to use. Scary stuff. I thought I'd wiped the Windows partition my parents use! But no. Here's why:

It didn't format any partitions.
Of course, it could have copied the files directly without any formatting...
No. Mandriva can't even read NTFS drives, much less write to them. (A flaw I hope to see fixed in the next release...)
In any event, I had the infamous, loathed Windows flag on-screen in a minute.

I owe Mandriva a re-scoring. The DistRogue's apology in numbers:
Friendliness: 5/5- Mandriva, like I said before, is practically as user-friendly as Windows, and I'm staying by my words there, at least.
Performance: 4/5- Compiled for a Pentium and uses parallel booting. The NVidia drivers are slow, but the Discovery and PowerPack editions have faster ones.
Features: 4.5/5- Lots of stuff on the One edition. Even more stuff on the multi-CD editions. Seriously, who else has Cedega? Or LinDVD, which I've never even heard of?
Packaging: 3.5/5- EasyURPMI is an unecessary step that they need to eliminate at some point. But RPMDrake is easy to use and flexible.
Overall: 4.25/5- A solid distribution that will get even more solid in a matter of days. Expect Features to get a bump up to 5, and Performance to rise with the addition of XFCE.
From Mandriva 2007.0 One,
The DistRogue.

Don't think of it as an end...

2007-04-05T15:27:00.000+02:00

I might abandon the DistRogue entirely. The reason: I recently applied for a more profitable position at Linux Forums. I'll continue to write articles, but look to the Forums for them. If I'm rejected... well, the DistRogue lives on.
From Windows XP (school computer :( ),
The DistRogue

Meet the pack...

2007-03-23T23:51:00.000+01:00

Today, I was introduced to Wolvix, a SLAX-based live CD that uses XFCE instead of KDE. I've already downloaded the CD, added some custom SLAX modules (gotta have SuperTux and SuperTuxKart on there...), remastered the .ISO file, burned a CD, and made an untested QEMU image, so I can run it in Windows. Yes, in Windows. Now, the way I use computers might be changed completely. Most people think of a computer system as hardware and some software and data installed on a hard drive. With Wolvix, all the software resides on a CD, which is much more portable than a hard drive, and the data, along with the QEMU image, can be stored on a USB key. This "hybrid system" is highly portable, which might become a virtue when I take the next year off in Spain, without a half-decent system of my own, but with a lot of web cafes and maybe complimentary Internet access at the place I'll be staying. Wolvix, when used with QEMU, can run on Windows without any prerequisites, and the live CD doesn't even need Windows- or a hard drive, for that matter. One major problem: I'm using the pre-1.1.0 series of Wolvix, in which the provided NVidia driver (gefore.mo) doesn't work. I've tried it with several variations, but it still fails to work. :( Read more here. [EDIT: As you can see from the link, they're working on it. The beta versions of Wolvix 1.1.0 will, apparently, have working NVidia drivers.] As soon as that bug gets ironed out, I might use Wolvix as my primary system. Who knows where the possibilities end?

This is where a rescue CD would come in handy...

2007-03-23T01:03:00.000+01:00

I just lost ~$100 worth of music. Not to mention a crapload of other files. How did this happen? Well, the desktop system I use for gaming kept crashing during the Windows boot sequence, so my folks decided to send it in for repairs. It came back a day later (that would be today...) minus everything. I guess he took a certain adage to heart: "The quickest route to a computer's heart is through a strong electromagnet." All the files were gone. The HD had been reformatted, and Windows XP reinstalled over it. I could describe it more emotionally, but it would have to be censored. Heavily.
Now, what did the n00b-masquerading-as-a-pro do wrong? He forgot to back everything up before reformatting it. Sure, he couldn't access the files from the Windows boot, but there was a perfectly good Mandriva partition available... I take it he thought himself above that. Not so, the damned luser! I'm getting the LART out now. There's no idiot stupid enough not to be smartened up a bit with a Cat-5-o'-Nine-Tails. Anyways, Mandriva, the developers being to dumb to include it without Gael Duval, lacks support for reading NTFS drives. But guess what?
Knoppix can. So can a crapload of other live-CD distros.
So really, this guy had no excuse. Live CDs like Knoppix are free, and are more than adequate for backing up files. Pop a Xubuntu disk into the drive, plug in the media, and copy away. There's a reason why they call these "rescue disks"...
Moral of this story: Linux users are more competent than people who haven't heard of it. If you're in the computer-repair business: learn from this poor old jerk's example, and GET A COPY OF KNOPPIX! Dammit, what are you waiting for?!
EDIT: Sorry for the strong language. Well, the files are all intact, but almost everything had to be reinstalled.

Microsoft: All talk and no code?

2007-02-25T14:40:00.000+01:00

OK, OK, I was wrong. The "Microvell" deal (Microsoft partnering up with Novell) wasn't a lapse in Microsoft's decision-making capabilities, caused by a sudden realization that Linux is catching up to Windows (historic lapses including a certain cake...). Rather, as almost any Linux fan that reads Slashdot knows by now, it was a clever ploy to launch up to 283 lawsuits against Linux for intellectual-property infringement. Microsoft claims that some of Linux's code infringes on their intellectual property, and their partnership with Novell (Windows Vista and SLED 10 are still competing fiercely) only cemented this claim. So, we know what they want: to prove that we're wrong, and that we infringe on some code that Microsoft has locked away in the Vault of Redmond, and kernel developers have no access to whatsoever, and make a few quick bucks off of it in court. Oh, and to "dismantle Linux". Typical shady Redmond tactics. For that reason, we want as much as they do to see the offending code removed. Apparently, they want to see it as well- they even threatened court action against it! ;) But, we can't remove it if we don't know what the code is that we have to remove. So, Steve Ballmer, in four words:
Show us the code.
Showusthecode.com is an independent website where concerned Linux users can petition to have the code Microsoft apparently wants removed shown, so we can actually remove it. I beg (as they do) Mark Shuttleworth (Ubuntu), Kevin Carmony (Linspire/Freespire), Daniel Robbins (Gentoo), Richard Stallman (GNU Project), Linus Torvalds (kernel)... hell, anyone important who might have come across this page (or that page) to add your name. Because we can destroy Microsoft, or at least discredit them, no matter which direction they take. They can show us the code that they base so much on, or they can look foolish by refusing a challenge from the open-source community. Once the gauntlet has been thrown down, it's a win for us.
EDIT: Never mind. They'll never show us the code. They always take the route out that makes them look foolish. Just look at Steve Ballmer's "Developers" chant.
From Ubuntu 6.10,
The DistRogue.

For you pickier users

2007-02-17T01:30:00.000+01:00

Sooo... Did you take my advice and try PCLinuxOS? No? Clearly not. That's okay, I might have found something better. Sure, PCLinuxOS is one of the fastest KDE-based distributions, but if you don't like KDE, think, for a second, about how fast stuff woud run with XFCE installed on it. That is what SAM Linux is. PCLinuxOS comes with tools for re-mastering a new Live CD, like SLAX. I haven't tried it yet, but I know this much:
-SAM Linux comes with 3D effects, just like the 0.94-test versions of PCLinuxOS.
-It uses an XFCE desktop, but as far as XFCE desktops, SAM's is a cut above most others.
-PCLinuxOS with XFCE 4.2 installed runs SuperTux about 7 FPS faster than usual.
Might SAM become the new Xubuntu? Might I happen to install it myself and give it a try? Stay tuned for another chilling episode of...
(from PCLinuxOS 0.93a/XFCE)
-The DistRogue!

Indecisive? Try my new LDC.

2007-02-14T23:36:00.000+01:00

As a Valentines' Day gift to all of you, I finally got around to doing something I've been meaning to do for a looong time: coding my own Linux Distribution Chooser. Based on an idea I got from Zegenie Studios, and a long time in the making, it takes about a minute to do, and works on cookies- you don't have to go through the whole thing again to correct a mistake. It scores distros on an 8-point scale, and has an adjustable threshold that defaults to 6 out of 8. Currently, I have 24 distributions listed.

Compiz on Ubuntu

2007-02-12T23:03:00.000+01:00

First Fedora, now Ubuntu... Really. Sure, I've run Beryl on Ubuntu before, but never on my laptop- it keeps crashing X. But I fond this link when I was browsing the #ubuntu-xgl channel on irc.freenode.net. Within minutes, the cube was back on my laptop- which, again, has horrible specs (i810, 800MHz Celeron, 320MB RAM). Of course, being able to turn it back off would help...
What this tutorial leaves out is that you have to turn on AIGLX on your system for it to work. You do this by editing xorg.conf:
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Then, add the following line in the "Device" section for your graphics card:
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
Finally, add this code at the end, assuming it's not there:
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
Then, follow the instructions and type "compiz-tray-icon".

Rant: s/Kubuntu/PCLinuxOS

2007-02-02T02:02:00.000+01:00

I'm a die-hard Ubuntuer, let's face it. So, it should come as a shock that I've decided against using- or recommending- Kubuntu Linux, in favor of PCLinuxOS. Sure, all bets are off after April 19 (release date of [K,X]Ubuntu "Feisty"), but for now, PCLinuxOS 0.93a is an undeniably able substitute for Kubuntu 6.10.
One of PCLinuxOS's main advantages is speed. Kubuntu's been known to boot fast (even faster than Xubuntu) through a new init system called Upstart (which Xubuntu lacks, but can have installed through "sudo apt-get install upstart"), but PCLinuxOS is still a bit faster (a matter of seconds). It does this by "splitting" some packages, and not booting some less-vital parts of itself- a trick Debian uses.
PCLinuxOS also one-ups Kubuntu as far as user-friendliness- something vital these days. It comes with a built-in control center, in addition to KDE's control center and config dialogs. As of the 2007 pre-releases, it also includes 3D drivers and AIGLX/Beryl effects. Ubuntu can easily have Beryl installed, but as of Edgy Eft, Beryl is not included ~~(it will as of Feisty)~~. (Update: the dev team, lazy as usual, put it off until the release after that. For the most part, these are the same guys who released Ubuntu 6.06 a month and a half behind schedule.)
Finally, PCLinuxOS just plain looks cooler. Windows Vista came out 3 days ago; PCLinuxOS has had a default theme similar to it for longer. Transparent taskbar? Sure. Clear window borders? Yep. Tolerable wallpaper? Mm-hmm. Some of the other included themes are pretty cool, too. (Windows MCE fans? Check out SUSE2. Looks nothing like SUSE, but who cares?)
So, basically, PCLinuxOS owns Kubuntu, and will for a long time. But there are workarounds: The Vista theme can probably be downloaded from KDE-Look.org, and Beryl can be installed. As for the boot speed, look here.
From Debian "Sid" (oops... I've said too much),
The DistRogue.

Update: Compiz on Fedora Core 6

2007-01-24T16:13:00.000+01:00

In my review for FC6, I said that I had trouble getting Compiz/Beryl/AIGLX/whatever working. Well, I have a solution, but it involves futzing around in xorg.conf. At the terminal, as root, type:
nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Add these lines to the end of the file and save (Ctrl+O, ENTER, Ctrl+X):

Section "Extensions"
Option "Compositing" "Enable"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Then, go to System > Preferences > Desktop Effects, and click the button. Voila! The really bizarre thing is that I got them running on my laptop- which I didn't even think HAD any 3D acceleration.
The cube-rotation runs incredibly smooth, with no performance hit- on an i810 graphics chipset. According to Fedora's wiki, however, you need to change the line in xorg.conf that starts "DefaultDepth" from 24 to 16 for an i810 chipset (older laptops, for instance). But it can be done.
On a related note, Fedora uses an incredible number of Python scripts. Some are graphical (such as the splash screen, and the Anaconda installer), and some are just background applets (like the annoying update daemon that you have to close to use pirut). This is cool because you can have them running even without a desktop- but you need to start X first. (On the plus side, starting X sooner doesn't affect the startup time.)

Review: Xubuntu 6.10 "Edgy Eft"

2006-12-29T16:37:00.001+01:00

Slashdot has gone after Ubuntu Linux several times (like in this article) for its many flaws. However, true fans of Ubuntu know that, like any open-source project, its true strength lies in the community. For every problem Ubuntu has, there's a script to work around it. No built-in NVidia drivers? Envy. Need more apps? Automatix. With the release of Ubuntu 6.10, aka "Edgy Eft", the focus wasn't on adding new features so much as basic enhancements, such as making it run faster. Since there're already way too many reviews for Ubuntu, I decided to see what was new in my favorite variant on it, Xubuntu, which runs XFCE as the desktop environment, instead of Ubuntu's GNOME.

==Install and upgrade==

I didn't happen to have a working Xubuntu 6.10 CD handy, so I had to use my 6.06 disk. The install was easy, and after the reboot, I upgraded to Edgy. Launching the Upgrade Manager and clicking the big, tempting button labeled "Upgrade" can, has, and WILL break your system! The workaround goes like this:

Launch a Terminal window.
Type in "sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list" and press ENTER.
Enter your password and press ENTER again.
Change all instances of "dapper" to "edgy".
Press Ctrl+O, ENTER, and CTRL+X.
Type in "sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" and press ENTER.
Wait for the upgrade- this might take a while.
Type "sudo apt-get clean" and press ENTER.
Reboot.

If you're scared about an upgrade breaking your system, try that.

==Apps and looks==

I personally thought that the version of Xubuntu's default Clearlooks theme, which the last version used, was a bit... flat. Well, the updated version of Xubuntu's default theme was a welcome improvement:
There's also new boot-splash artwork, and a more sophisticated-looking GDM screen. All of which is a welcome improvement.
Xubuntu comes with a surprising number of cool apps. There's the GIMP, the famous open-source Photoshop replacement:
XFCE's media player, Xfmedia, wasn't too bad...

...but the PDF "playback" was a bit weird.

Xubuntu's a minimalist system by default, but it's enough.

==Customizing Xubuntu==

Ubuntu and Kubuntu have an improved init system called Upstart, but why should they get all the fun? Why shouldn't Xubuntu have boot speeds so fast that one reviewer wondered whether the Live CD had even shut down completely, after his first boot?
Answer: It can.
The code is "sudo apt-get install upstart". If you're feeling paranoid, back up /sbin/init, but I didn't have any problems. I noticed a speed boost in the startup, but it's not always as dramatic as that guy said. On my system, an AMD Athlon XP at 1.4GHz (with 1GB RAM), the startup time dropped to 35 seconds.
If you're having problems getting your NVidia graphics card to work, head over to Alberto Milone's site, the home of the Envy NVidia installer. Technically, it works with any distro, but it's intended for Ubuntu or Debian, since it uses their apt-get system for installing the driver's dependencies. To use it to install the NVidia driver:

Download the file.
Install it with dpkg or GDebi.
Enter runlevel 1 by pressing Ctrl+Alt+2. Then, log back in.
Run the script with "sudo envy".
Press 1, then ENTER.
The script will install the driver's dependencies, download the driver, and launch it, and while this is happening, you might want to get a cup of coffee or go to a rock concert.
Follow the instructions in the driver's install wizard. Most of them, you can just press ENTER.
It'll start X again after it's done. If all goes well, you should see the NVidia splash screen before XFCE starts.
Game to your heart's content. I recommend SuperTux Mi1.9.

Mostly, this consists of doing absolutely nothing. Fuuun.
If you want a ton of kewl stuff, such as Swiftfox or Democracy, without having to do a ton of work, Automatix is worth a look. To install... well, anything:

Add the GPG keys: "echo "deb http://www.getautomatix.com/apt edgy main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list; wget http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/key.gpg.asc; gpg --import key.gpg.asc; gpg --export --armor 521A9C7C | sudo apt-key add -". Copy and paste that huge block of code, and hit ENTER.
Install Automatix: "sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install automatix2".
Launch Automatix; it should be under Main Menu > System.
Check all the apps you want installed. Then, click "Start", and pray that your iPod's playlist lasts long enough to keep you occupied while Automatix is doing what it does best.
Have fun.

==Installing Beryl==

Beryl is a set of 3D desktop effects that make bizarre things happen on-screen. For instance, a Beryl desktop might have windows that wobble when they're moved. Or a cursor that makes ripples when it moves, like a duck on a pond. Or transparent windows that float on each other. Or... well, let your imagination run wild for a bit. Point is, it's awesome. There's a tutorial on Beryl's wiki that lets you install it yourself, on any desktop (including XFCE)- but it's only for apt-based distros like Ubuntu, and you need a graphics card with an appropriate driver installed. Read it here. There's also an instruction manual here- READ IT.
This screenshot is only a taste of what Beryl can do. If you've ever seen a cube on someone's screen with their desktop on it, that's another example- probably one of Beryl's more famous effects.

==My opinion==

Xubuntu Edgy is a major improvement over the last version. It's fast, cool-looking, and easily expandable. If you have an Internet connection, give the companion apps a shot.
Pros:

Fast
Looks cool
Expandable with community apps

Cons:

Nothing major; some minor bugs

Friendliness: 4.5/5- With these tutorials, it's easy to get basic tasks done.
Performance: 4.5/5- XFCE + Swiftfox + NVidia drivers + Upstart = Mad l33t.
Features: 5/5- Standard set included, myriad of stuff easily installable.
Packaging: 5/5- Apt-get and Synaptic. What could be easier?
Overall: 4.75/5- Xubuntu is an awesome OS. Ubuntu is probably even better.
And a PS: Back to sources.list, and change "edgy" to "feisty" to join the "herd".
From Xubuntu 6.10,
The DistRogue.

First look: Xubuntu 6.10 "Edgy Eft"

2006-12-20T22:37:00.000+01:00

I've used Xubuntu Edgy in the past, and it remains my distro of choice. Why? Simple:

It's fast. XFCE is, simply put, one of the fastest desktop environments in existence.
It looks cool. I don't know about you, but I prefer Xubuntu's blue color scheme to Ubuntu's orange one- it's there, but it's quiet.
It's small. One of the computers I use for testing only has 4GB of free space on its Linux partition.
It's easy to use. Okay, so ease of use is subjective. Relative to some distros (AHEMM, Deb Slack Too), it's a piece of cake- it's one of the easier ones.
It's underrated. I root for the underdogs- that's why I like SymphonyOS. And speaking of root...
It's easy to do stuff as root on it. You're in the sudoers file by default (/etc/sudoers says who can use the sudo command), and the root password is your OWN password. How easy is that? Bonus: no root = harder to hack.

Now, for the changes in Edgy:
For starters, an eft is a newt. Ubuntu names their releases after animals (with an adjective in front), hence names like "Dapper Drake (duck)", "Breezy Badger", and, coming up next, "Feisty Fawn". Edgy's name proves the point that it's more cutting-edge than previous versions, with an improved init system (faster startup, which now kicks Ulteo's behind to Mars and back), better support for Compiz (Feisty promises even better support), and support for the Xen virtualization software (run other OSes inside Edgy). It also has better artwork, in the form of new wallpaper, a cooler USplash screen, an updated GDM login screen, and the new version of Clearlooks, which Fedora uses. And while Xubuntu doesn't come with a 3D driver, there's a workaround, and it involves clicking here.
From Xubuntu Edgy,
The DistRogue.

Brief update: PCLinuxOS

2006-12-18T21:26:00.000+01:00

I forgot to mention PCLOS's 3D features: this doesn't mean Compiz, but just the NVidia driver. To install an NVidia driver on PCLinuxOS, just go to Synaptic and install the "nvidia-xorg" package. It's as easy as that. It'll restart X, and then you're done, if it gives you the NVidia splash screen. And it works- GLXGears reported [s]1012[/s] over 3000 FPS- the highest score ever on my PC. I haven't seen any distro that's as easy to make 3D-capable as that (other than Mandriva, which PCLOS is based on). One problem: Games ran in an annoyingly low screen res, at an unnaturally low frame rate- just like on Mandriva. Hmm...
From PCLinuxOS 0.93a,
The DistRogue.