OpenSource
gregladen | August 7, 2008 Linux has powerful graphics tools For the average user or the professional image manipulator, there is a range of OpenSource software that will run on Linux as well as (in some cases) other platforms such as Windows. As discussed earlier, there are two basic kinds of image: Bit mapped and vector. Here we are looking at some of the bit mapped software.
There are many options in the OpenSource world, but in the end you are most likely to choose as your main graphics application Krita if you use KDE, or The Gimp if you use any other desktop (in particular Gnome). Both are slick and…
gregladen | August 6, 2008Graphics software for Linux is superior to most other software for several reasons. Since the Linux system is inherently more efficient than other systems, memory-hungry graphics operations will always run faster, better, and more reliably on a Linux box than on, say, a Windows box, all else being equal. Day to day graphic needs can be met with a wider range of software on Linux than on other systems. Most of the available applications are OpenSource, so not only are they free and easier to install, but no puppies were mutilated during the production of the software.
The purpose of this…
gregladen | July 25, 2008Some current news in the Linuxosphere, and some things going on on my very own desktop, have me wondering about the nature of the Linux Desktop. Here are a few questions to ponder.
Are Gnome and Ubuntu ruining the Linux Desktop? And if they are, what do we do about it?
Is Linux currently at a fundamental disadvantage that people are often not considering, having to do with how computers are set up?
Is it possible that the Linux Desktop is going to surpass the Mac in use? And why or why not?
Let's start with the first question.
Why am I asking if Gnome and Ubuntu are ruining the Linux…
gregladen | July 9, 2008I had promised a little more info on Scientific Linux. This is a form of Linux with a name that changes faster than my shirt when I realize I've got it on inside out. Form the Fermi LInux site:
Fermi Linux is the generic name for linux distributions that are created and used at Fermi National Accelerator Lab. These releases have gone through different names: Fermi Linux, Fermi Linux LTS, LTS, Scientific Linux Fermi, SLF. At the time of this writting, the only officially supported Fermi Linux is Scientific Linux Fermi.
But the inside story is both less and more interesting than you might…
gregladen | July 8, 2008As I recently reported, there is an order of magnitude difference between the market share of Linux "out there" in the world, and the market share of LInux on Scienceblogs.com and on this very blog. Subsequently, I was trolled by my very own brother "... so, when is Luniux going to reach 1% market share?...." and this item has come out on ZDNet (which we all know is essentially funded by Microsoft, right?): Linux - Still chasing that elusive 1% market share.
Suddenly, it dawned on me that something is wrong with this picture.
Maybe.
Is it necessary to assume that the readers of Sb are…
gregladen | July 6, 2008Sourceforge.net has announced their 2008 Community Chocie Awards Finalists.
You get to vote (if you are a member). The final projects for Best Project category are:
Drupal
Firebird
FreeMind
KeePass Password Save
OpenOffice.org
PortableApps.com: Portable Software/USB
Sphinx
XAMPP
XBMC media center
XOOPS Dynamic Web CMS
There are several other categories, such as Most Likely to be Accused of Patent Violation....
...That group includes a zip clone, Moodle (most likely to be accused because of it's position of strength against a very very nasty, vicious, mean --- sorry Kara --- competitor!)…
gregladen | July 3, 2008In OpenOffice, the OpenSource office suite that beats the pants off of Microsoft Office in so many ways it is not funny, has long been able to save documents as pdf files. "So what?" you say, "I've always been able to do that with thisorthat add in."
Don't interrupt me. OpenOffice has always done this seamlessly and flawlessly out of the box as a simple menu item under 'file.' .. file --> save as pdf.
Now there is an extension (like an add in) that will allow PDF editing in the works. Its inbeta stage now as Sun and only works on certaindeveloper buidls fo OpenOffice, so nobody can…
gregladen | July 1, 2008Among the top five hundred super computing sites, the vast majority are running Linux. For the desktop environment, there are many opportunities for Linux. For audio, have a look at 42 of the Best Free Linux Audio Software. More broadly, consider these Seven Reasons to Move to Linux. The world of Linux distros is dynamic and stable. The most recent Surprise Desktop Linux Move: Xandros Buys Linspire. It should be no surprise that Linux experiences 'prolific' growth, says Linux Foundation's Zemlin.
Meanwhile, Microsoft tactics push India toward Linux.
gregladen | June 16, 2008Wine is the software that runs in Linux which, in turn runs Windows programs. I have experimented and I could not believe how incredibly well it worked. At the time, I was able to achieve greater stability and performance, and an easier install, for Microsoft Office and Endnote on my Linux computer than on a comparable Windows computer. The down side in that case was that I had to run an older version of Office than currently (at that time) available. Also, the increase in reliability and performance was almost certainly in the system itself. The Linux computer simply worked (as they…
gregladen | June 12, 2008 Joomla! is a Content Management System that is so widely used and cool that you can buy Joomla logo gear, like this shirt. Could that mean that it is a good CMS? And why would you want one?
Before I started Gregladen.com, I went through all of the content management sites that I had available to me in order to consider possibilities for running my blog. I ended up using Wordpress, which is a kind of CMS that specialized in blogs, for a number of reasons. But I did use a couple of different content management systems for private or small scale projects. At the moment, I'm looking again…
gregladen | May 21, 2008This is not a funny Linux video. This is an actual educational video. And it's long. Only for serious Linux scholars ...
Produced by the Computer History Museum.
Hat Tip: Linux Journal
More on Linux
gregladen | May 13, 2008There are many versions of Linux. At the deepest level, there are a few fundamentally different Linuxes, and each of these may appear in one or more, sometimes many, different "distributions." So, most Linux distributions are based on either Debian, RedHat/Fedora, Gentoo, and a couple/few others. Off hand, I'm not sure how many different core systems one has to add together to reach 50%, or 80%, or whatever you like.
Ubuntu is based on Debian. Debian is part of the GNU project, and is in some ways the philosophically purest, or main distribution. Many, many people will hate that I said…
gregladen | May 5, 2008Linux is not for everyone.
Linux is an operating system that is idea for people who need their computers for important tasks, require reliability, and who do not need the hand holding and eye candy that some of the other operating systems seem to focus on. In short, Linux is for people who are smarter and more serious than average.....
Offended? You must be a Mac or Windows user!
Whether or not what I say above is true is not important. I did want to show you something, though. The following are two lists provided in a recent post called "How to Mke People Love Linux." This is just a…
gregladen | April 24, 2008Linux is more than grandma-ready. Linux is by far the preferred operating system for most grandmas.
The other day graduates of my UMN degree program presentations of their work. One of the students had borrowed a laptop from the UMN unit she worked for to give an on screen presentation. She had borrowed a Windows XP computer the week before for the practice session, and everything went fine. But this time, with the same computer, same software, same presentation, etc. she could not get it working.
At the last second, I whipped out my laptop, booted it up, we threw her presentation on…
gregladen | April 20, 2008... I'm talking about the "office suite" known as Microsoft Works. I'm not suggesting that Microsoft works.
Increasingly, more an more people don't know what Microsoft Works is because it has fallen into increasing obscurity. It is a kind of office suite that has a word processor, spread sheet, and maybe some other stuff. It is very inexpensive compared to, say MS Office.
In years gone by I've taught a number of classes designed for High School Teachers. I discovered that a lot of teachers used MS Works. I discovered this the hard way when I started receiving assignments and other…
gregladen | April 10, 2008Shuttleworth is the man behind Ubuntu. He has written an essay on his blog (Here be Dragons) on playing nice with windows.
Windows is a very important platform, and our justifiable pride in Linux and the GNU stack shouldn't blind us to the importance of delivering software that is widely useful. I believe in bringing free software to people in a way that is exciting and empowering to them, and one of the key ways to do that is to show them amazing free software running on their familiar platform, whether that's Windows or the MacOS.
Read the rest here.
gregladen | April 8, 2008A must read for those in the midsts of a decision about their operating system.
All your choices have their technical merits but, you really shouldn't select an operating system based solely on it technical merits. You should instead select one that best suits your usage case. To that end I have done my best to summarize the pros and cons of each operating system from the point of view of the average end user.
Here
gregladen | March 18, 2008Gnome 2.22 was just released (a few days ago). This is not the big-bang major overhaul type of release we have just seen with KDE, but it is worth nothing.
Information on Gnome can be found here.
A few highlights:
GNOME 2.22 introduces a new application, Cheese. Cheese lets you take photos and make videos using your computer's webcam. You can apply a range of different effects like mauve, noir/blanc, shagadelic, and warp. You can share these photos and videos with your friends, load them into F-Spot, or set them as your account photo.
Cool.
GNOME 2.22 introduces GVFS: a new network-…
gregladen | March 17, 2008If you are interested in astronomy, you know that there are a lot of Planetarium applications that you can install on your computer in order to find your way around the night sky. Kstars is a well known standby for KDE (but of course it will run under Gnome as well). Search for "stars" in your package manager and you'll see quite a few other pieces of software as well.
But when you get to "Stellarium" ... stop and install that one.
Stellarium pretty much has all the stars. Well, not all of them. It has 120,000 stars (I understand there are billions and billions of them...). It has the…