Tech Exposures

Red Hat Program Certifies Partners to Put Linux on Cloud

Neverland is Your Virtual Linux Playground

Clever Linux folk find way around Microsoft FAT file system patent

Cisco Offers Linux-Enabled Linksys Router

Apple, Linux exempt from Chinese filter

Is Software Installation on Linux ‘Broken’?

Why Ubuntu has become the flag bearer for Linux

Sabayon 4.2 Gnome Linux is the newest release (June 30) from the popular Gentoo-based Linux distro.

Sabayon aims to be a beginner-friendly distribution.   Their motto -”as easy as an abacus, as fast as a segway” offers a lot of promise.    Sabayon is also available in a KDE 4.1 version.

The 1.8 GB file can be downloaded from their website or from approved mirrors, and a fast torrent.  I chose the 64 bit torrent and had completed the download in just over 1 hour.

What’s with the Rock Concert?

We booted the Live DVD and had Sabayon up and running in a couple minutes (the DVD drive did spin endlessly for another few minutes).  The desktop launched, and a rock song started playing.  I can assume the name was “Hall of Fame”, since that refrain was repeated over and over again.  I don’t mind rock music, in fact, I’m a big fan, but I don’t understand why a OS should start with a full song?  I’m assuming this is only for the Live DVD – maybe regular users can comment here with specifics.

The desktop is beautiful.  They employ user-friendly Entropy graphical interface.  You almost forget that you are in Gnome.  Put differently, this is not the Gnome that your father used to drive.

Desktop

Sabayon is one of the most popular Linux distros, in 9th place at  http://distrowatch.com. Their 117,000 Alexa rating shows that they have decent traffic to their website.  You can see why when  you pop open the hood.  The website is gorgeous.

World of Goo Fiasco

I tried to run the Goo demo and evidently my graphics card didn’t support it.  After a minute of wobbly screens, I managed to ctrl-alt-bksp  and get to a prompt to return to the X desktop.   Of course, I had to do some sleuth work to figure out the the username was sabayonuser and the password is the same (small letters).    Meanwhile, the music of the Goo demo, reminiscent of the Spiderman movies, was still playing in the background.  I pulled up a status monitor and saw that the Goo demo was still taking over 50% cpu.  After killing that item, everything went back to normal.

Fabulous XBMC Media Center

The Sabayon folks really hit it on the nail with this one.  The media center, which figures prominently on your desktop, is simply wonderful.  XBMC Media Center gets a full thumbs up and reminds me a bit of the new Windows 7 Media Player.  Essentially, it puts all your media needs in one place.  It organizes and plays videos, music, pictures, and also displays weather for your location, and more.

XBMC Media Center Screen

Package Selection

The installed pacakges are more or less what you’d expect.  Open office, graphics, email, Firefox, etc…  They’ve included Bluefish in the programming section, and I think that’s a great selection.

Desktop Features

I clicked on the lock user button on the bottom toolbar and after a few tries, figured out that the password is the same as the user  (sabayonuser).

Lock Screen

Gnome Do – this nifty tool helps you to select and open your installed apps very quickly.  I’ve noticed that most of the newer distros are including this app.  Strange that Ubuntu omitted it from 9.x.

Mounting a drive was never easier with the helpful drive mount buttons on the bottom of the screen.

Mount Drive

Sabayon Shines on Graphics and Themes

One of the nice diffrentiating factors that Sabayon has Compix Fusion Icon integrated nicely to the desktop, which offers a whole boatload of screen and theme effects.

Compiz Fusion Icon

Snapshot Gallery

Conclusion

With Sabayon 4.2, Gnome gets a big facelift.  The live DVD was easy to load and quick to deliver.  The desktop is aestheticaly pleasing and the elements are all in place.  The menus are filled with the best and most-expected apps.   The XBMC media center is an excellent central-point for viewing and organizing all media elements.  There was a glitch with the Goo demo,  and awkward moments with rock songs playing in the background, but the overall feel and look of Sabayon is of a pleasant OS suitable for being your main desktop distro.

Today’s Top Stories

Firefox 3.5 Cracks 4 Million Downloads Mark

…and it was just released yesterday!

Global Gaming snaps up Pirate Bay

$7 million USD to give away someone else’s stuff.

Cool Search Engines That Are Not Google

Microsoft’s Bing gains ground, Twitter stirs fight?

Microsoft vs. Google

Is there any money in Web 2.0?

Joost Unplugs Web TV Service, Concentrates on Selling Tech

YouTube Readies Redesign Amid Chorus of Complaints

Is Twitter the news outlet for the 21st century?

Mobile in the news

Apple Releases iphone OS 3.1 Beta

Blind Phone Hacker Gets 11-year Sentence

The Fastest Linux Ever?

Puppy Linux is a popular Linux distribution that runs on less than 128MB of Ram.

We reviewed the June 2009 release v.4.2 of Puppy Linux, which comes in a 110 MB file download from their website, or from accepted mirrors.   The iso file is then burnt to CD and runs as a Live CD.  After installing the Live CD into RAM, I experienced my HP Laptop (2GB RAM) run faster than I’ve ever seen with any other OS or Linux Distro.

Bootup is fast and intelligent

The bootup sequence asks a few questions, such as if it has detected your mouse and keyboard correctly. It also gives you a chance to select, and preview, a suitable display for your monitor.  Lastly, you are given the choice of which X Server to load – bare-bones,Xvesa (Standard Graphics), or the recommended default Xorg (Advanced Graphics). The desktop environment is JWM, which is intuitive and well-organized.

Feel the Speed of RAM

Once you have reached the desktop screen, your entire session has been loaded into less than 128MB of RAM on your computer.  Your hard drive and CD ROM drives are not touched (unless you save files to them).  If you haven’t experienced it yet, you must feel the power of a computer running on RAM.  There’s no delays.  No skipped beats.  The nerve center of your computer asks almost human-like, action – response -  Scary!

Desktop Layout

Everything is very nicely placed on your desktop.  A lot of thought must have gone into where to put what elements.  The left top side of the screen has quick link icons, with a gadget that makes it easy to drag additional icons to the desktop.  The right side of the screen is for widgets, and has a gadget to choose and add from dozens of available widgets.

Puppy Linux Initial Desktop

Wireless Network Support

I ran Puppy Linux on my HP Laptop and was able to connect, after several minutes of tinkering, to a secure wireless network.  This was one of the few kinks in the Puppy Distro.  I clicked on the Connect icon on the desktop and had to repeat the steps of scanning for and connecting to a wireless network several times until I got it to work.  The average user may have given up after a couple tries.

Repository

Like every great Linux Distro, Puppy Linux has its own repository PET. When you want to add new packages, you can do so through the package manager, or just GET PET  – what an infectious phrase.  The thin-client targeted default installation comes with hundreds of very useful apps.  The repository gives you access to much of everything else.  Tough decisions on which packages to include (or exclude) in order to keep away from product bloat are discussed on the Puppy Linux website.  For example, Sea Monkey is the default browser, and the Sea Monkey email package comes installed.   The website FAQ explains the difference between Sea Monkey (by Mozilla) and Firefox means a savings of over 40 MB, which is required to get everything in to the target RAM budget.

Great for Network Clients

Puppy Linux is suitable for thin-clients, and can be booted from a network, USB Flash key or hard drive (buy why?).  There’s a nifty setup menu that gives you step by step instructions on how to install Puppy Linux on to your USB Flash drive.

Save configuration to your CD

One of the nice features of Puppy Linux is that you never have to touch a hard drive, and can even keep all your settings and added files to the original live CD.  The program writes the changes since your last session to a file that contains an EXT2 file format onto another session of your Multi-Session CD.

Or you can simply write your files to a USB or Hard Drive, and keep files the “old-fashioned” way.  As strange as it sounds, your Multi-Session CD is still probably the best archival system out of the three choices.

Look and Feel

Here’s a gallery of the menus and pages of the very pleasant looking Puppy Linux.

The desktop is based on GTK2 theme.  We found the desktop and selection of apps very appealing (and fast!).

Conclusion

Linux Puppy has just enough of the right tools at the right place to become a definite powerhouse in companies looking for a thin client OS.  There are still many rough edges to the interfaces and setup menus, which are easy enough for experienced Linux users to handle.  Users who are new to Linux or who have less technical skills may find the configuration questions too complex.

Corporate managers looking for a thin client solution could create a network installation and offer a carbon copy to all users on the network.

Puppy Linux is an innovation.  Make no mistake, this is not just an attempt to shove as much as possible into a small download.  The potential is great here to make a lasting mark for Linux in the corporate market.  Other tools, like Xubuntu, are also treading down this path, and this is a good thing for Linux and for computer users everywhere.

There’s a great Linux distro in the making here, and it’s no mistake that Puppy appears number 8 on distrowatch.com.  Its easy to see how many users who have tried this distro are in Puppy Love.

Spears, DeGeneres Twitpic accounts hacked

Why would anyone want to pretend to be Britney Spears or Elen DeGeneres?  Isn’t that kind of counter-intuitive?

Xbox users in France to get Canal+ films, soccer

Xbox 360 users in France can now watch Canal + TV free thanks to a deal with Microsoft.

The Return of Steve Jobs

Can Apple get along without their CEO?  Remember in the 90s everyone thought Intel was done-in when Andy Grove retired?  Well, maybe everyone was right?

Euro Kindle talks break down with German carriers

Living in Europe?  Don’t throw out your tactile books just yet.

Google mocks Bing and the stuff behind it

Rumor: Zune HD Coming In Early September Priced Between $249-$280

Mobile Devices are the big news today :

PhoneSuit Turns iPhone, iPod Touch into Portable Projector

Sony silent on reports of ‘PlayStation phone’

Sprint launching BlackBerry Tour on July 20th?

This is Sony’s supposed iPhone killer

Linux/Windows:

Microsoft Limits Free Windows 7 Upgrades

Trying to create some demand in a shriking economy

Microsoft to put Windows 7 on USB sticks

File this one in the “Let’s copy Linux” department.  Mandriva 2009 is also offered on a 8GB USB stick

Ultimate Edition 2.2 was released on June 17. It’s the latest salvo from TheeMahn, creator of this popular distro of Linux. Ultimate Edition was originally released in late 2007 to be Ubuntu with a “better user experience and with improved usability.” In the releases since, they have broken from Ubuntu and actually have created their own repository .

Like Ubuntu, Ultimate Edition is Gnome based. TheeMahn also built Ubuntu Gamers Edition, and it shows in Ultimate Edition (UE). Ultimate Edition has software pre-installed and ready for use on a live DVD environment.

Slow to load, Gamer appearance
We reviewed the live DVD x64 version. The file was 1.1 GB and downloaded  quickly from one of their mirror sites.  They do recommend you seed this file as a torrent afterwards to help distribution and to enable UE to continue to be offered  for free.

The DVD loaded to the desltop environment after a couple minutes of considerable churning.
Here’s the default desktop

Ultimate Edition 2.2 Desktop

First impressions are that it’s a gamers distro.  I can’t imagine business users embracing a mouse cursor of a rotating fighter jet (at least that’s what I think it was).

Here’s a gallery of screenshots for all the menus and installed software

There is a healthy helping of installed programs.  There aren’t 2,500 programs as we saw in the “uber” linux version of ArtistX, but there is definitely a good mix, with emphasis on sound and video, and graphics.  UE also comes packaged with some non-licensed video tools,  such as Handbrake.  Although Ubuntu doesn’t offer some of these tools out of the box, and sometimes not in their official repositories, there is such a large Ubuntu user-community, that often you’re only a few clicks away from adding anything that you can’t find at first try.

UE comes with a large assortment of backgrounds and Gnome themes.  That may account for the bloat in the size of the file download, as the installed base of programs is not too different that what is available out of the box for Ubuntu.

Conclusion

Ultimate Edition has done a good job with deskop design, and offers a great number of themes and background to further tailor to your individual needs.  The initial default setup looks childish and is geared more towards a young adult gamer group.  The product set of installed programs was very good, but we didn’t see an amazing jump over what’s available out of the box from its mentor, Ubuntu.   The usability was good, but not a great diffrentiator to give up the comfort of the solid Ubuntu distro with the large installed user base.

For users looking for a “different distro”  than Ubuntu/Kubuntu, we recommend trying out Mandriva,  Dream Linux, ArtistX, and MintLinux (click for reviews).

Microsoft Windows 7 to be cheaper than Vista

But still more expensive than Linux…

Who Exactly Is In Charge Of The App Store? Anyone?

Apple’s iPhone app store featured a soft-pornography app yesterday. Today, that app was removed, which everyone presumed was a move by Apple.  Do they have someone monitoring new apps as they’re included by vendors?  If Apple didn’t before, they will now…

Palm CEO: We Don’t Have to Beat Each Other to Prosper

That’s a sensible approach.  That’s usually, however, the comments of a loser.  You never hear Microsoft or Google saying, “we’ll be content to be number two in that market”.  As Tom Arnold said in the classic scene of the Austin Powers movie, “You show him who’s number two!”…

Google Voice: 5 Reasons to Use It, 5 Reasons to Think Twice

Universal Voicemail.

Facebook Tightens Privacy Controls

A beta version of Facebook’s publisher gives users more control over who can see their content.  The first thing I do when checking out a potential contractor or business relationship is to check their Facebook and Linked In profiles.

Security Essentials Does Its Job With No Frills

Yet another anti-virus package thrown into the forray.   Microsoft had 75,000 beta tester downloads on the first day.  Evidently, the world is still looking for the magic box.  MSE, (Microsoft Security Essentials) will surely be a driving force since Microsoft, more than any other vendor, has the inside track of understanding how viruses affect their products.  I’d like to see time tests once they’re out of beta to compare with Norton (which terminally slows down every Windows installation I’ve ever had).

Mozilla Adds Third Firefox 3.5 RC Version

The browser wars are heating up.  I’ve been testing Opera and Google Chrome (and Chromium in Linux Beta) in my lab and have been very happy with their performance.   More on that later…

Microsoft listens to Market Concerns

A day after announing a 50% pre-release sale on Windows 7,  Microsoft is now offering a free upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 for purchases made until the expected October release.  Information Week Article

Read our Review of Windows 7 Ultimate Here

The world still uses Windows.  Where did Linux go wrong?  Can it be corrected?

Let’s throw out the Linux evangelical hat for the moment.  The fact is, despite the growth in installed Linux OS on servers and some low end desktops,  most of the world still is still using Windows.  Where has the Linux failed so far?  If the Linux argument is so strong then why has the majority of the world stayed with Microsoft Windows?

Reasons why Windows still wins

1. Pain vs. Simplicity. The perceived value of Linux as a general desktop solution isn’t there yet.  The average computer user is still very non-computer literate.  They want to go with what they know.  A computer for most users is a means to an end.  A place to check email, browse the web, maybe work on some spreadsheets, and use whatever software their work installed and trained them to use.  Linux is perceived still as the painful solution.  The OS that requires guys with pocket protectors to stand next to you while you install and make sure everything turns out ok.

2. Linux has too many flavors, too many options. For most desktop users, there’s one Windows choice.  XP begat Vista, which will beget Windows 7.  That’s it.  Meanwhile, there are many dozens of Linux distro choices each with several desktop environment options, and a seemingly never-ending list of possible apps to install.  True, Ubuntu and Suse have done alot to dispel the Linux is a geek’s game only notion.  Top-shelf open source products like Open Office, Firefox, Gimp, and Thunderbird, to name a few, have made open source mainstream.  Still, there’s a lot of work to be done in bringing all the myriad of options to a more standardized package to select.

3. There’s no CTO of Linux. Linux has many chiefs, but no executive chiefs.  There’s no single person, or even body, that’s taking the responsiblity of charting the strategic course of Linux as an OS.  Yes, there are major organizations like KDE that do have standards, and of course many will argue that’s the whole point of Linux, no corporate body to man-handle the direction.  But maybe that’s what Linux needs.  We are all off in so many neat directions, but there’s not a cohesive mainstream.  Even within Ubuntu, the challenger for ‘head distro’, there is Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, etc…  Each of these sub-distros act like separate bodies.  They even have their own websites.

4. Quality vetting of programs on Windows vs. Linux  – I’m not kidding.  Yes, Microsoft is the major abuser of releasing beta code as a finished product.  But so does the Linux crowd.  Let’s face it, there are many programs in Linux that simply don’t work with all the appliances or hardware that you have installed.  Windows, with it’s closed-source  SDK gives developers one framework with which to develop on.  The level of quality from one app on a distro to another can vary greatly.  Whereas on Windows, they all more or less are at the same level of quality.

5. OEM Software - Why does the iPhone kick every other smartphone on the market?  Because they have 50,000 (and counting) software apps developed to work on it.   When you buy a scanner, camera, printer, or any other peripheral, what are the chances that included with the device will be a Linux version of their proprietary software?  When a consumer buys a Nikon Camera, or a Canon Scanner, they want to use Nikon’s or Canon’s software that came with the box.  It’s part of the cognitive dissonance of afirming that the right product was purchased.  You and I know that Linux can most-likely handle everything that these OEM apps do, and sometimes better (Kooka rocks),  still 90% of the computer users out there don’t want to hassle.

What can be done?  In my next instalment, I’ll offer some suggestions.  Please share your thoughts and comments as well.

Linux Graphics Tools

One of the great features of Linux, (truth be told there are too many to mention),  is the vast wealth of graphics programs available, all of course free and open source.  It’s nearly impossible to say that something can’t be done in Linux.   Here, we present some of the more popular graphics programs that are included with many distros.  Any app that you see here and wish to add, simply go to your package manager and search for the name of the program and request for it to be installed.

If you are a graphics professional, or looking to create a media work environment, then you may wish to have a look at the ArtistX Distro (see our review), which includes over 2,500 media applications (that’s two thousand five hundred!).

Review & Screenshots of popular graphics tools

Most of the apps here are managed in the KDE repository, however many of them work in Gnome and other desktop environments, or there is a Gnome equivalent.

Xsane – Scanning  http://www.sane-project.org/

xsane (Scanner Access Now Easy) is a flatbed scanner application.  You can preview and save individual scans as images as a standalone command line program, or combined with GIMP, the popular image program (reviewed below).   We recommend using Xsane with Gimp.  You invoke the scanner from Gimp and manage the entire scanning process and export through Gimp.   There’s a list of scanners supported on the Sane website.  Many (most) of the big names are there.    Here’s one more reason to toss Windows and the clunky proprietary software that came with your scanner.

XDVI – KDVI – GDVI   DVI Viewers

KDVI is the KDE version of  a DVI preview tool. This program displays DVI files which are produced by the TeX typesetting system.   If you have no idea what the TeX typesetting system is (this author didn’t…), then go to the homepage of the TeX users group for a nice introduction.

KFaxView  (using kviewshell)

View your saved faxes here.

kfax

or here…

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)  http://www.gimp.org

Not enough can be written on the greatness of GIMP.   Here’s one of the great Open Source programs of all time.  Gimp is everything a graphics editing tool should be.  It rivals Adobe’s Photoshop in many regards, and surpasses it in speed and ease of use in others.  (By the way, there is a Windows version of Gimp as well – if you are still on Windows, give it a try).

There is a large number of plugins and tools that work well with Gimp and add to its feature set.  There is also a seemlingly unending number of effects that can be applied to your image.   One element that may take time for you to get used to is the way the program opens and how it is managed on your desktop.  The side panels, toolbars, and the image(s) itself each open in independent windows that float on your desktop.  That is a departure from what you’re probably used to from Photoshop and other Windows stanards.   Once you’ve gotten used to this interface, you may find it even better!  (Quick tip – With the image displaying on your desktop, hit the tab bar to make the other floating elements visible).

Kuickshow

Quick access to your images.  Nothing fancy here.

Kpdf

View your PDF files here.

xpdf

or here…

Kghostview

This tool lets you view PDF and  Postscript files

Kolourpaint – Paint Program

A Nice KDE paint program.  The screenshot shows that it’s simple by useful for those quick paint jobs.

Krita – paint and image editing

Krita is similar to GIMP, but not as popular.  I enjoyed using this tool as well, and the interface is quite simple and intuitive.  I like that the panels and image are bound together, like in Photoshop, and unlike GIMP where each element is floating freely on the desktop.  If you are looking for a simple and powerful graphics and image editing tool, Krita is a great choice.

KPovmodeler – Povray modeler

Don’t ask me what this does, I have no idea!

Kooka – scan and OCR http://kooka.kde.org/

Kooka is the nickname for our daughter, and it’s also an easy to use  and very powerful OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and Scanning program.  This standalone tool will enable you to scan an image and convert it to a text file.  I like the interface to this app.

Knapshot

The venerable KDE version of snapshot.  This is a very useful tool, especially to blog writers (hey, that’s me) who like to take snapshots of their desktop all day.   The KDE version is great.  It also remains active even after the snapshot has been saved – the Gnome version annoyingly closes after each use.

KColorchooser

Sure, you can choose colors in Gimp, but why have a big bulky program open if you all you need to find a color?  This tool is a great go-tool utility to have available in your arsenal of desktop goodies.

Kcoloredit

Kcoloredit is a KDE Color Palette Editor. It can be used for editing color palettes (which can also be used in GIMP) and for color choosing – similar to KColorChooser above.

kiconedit

Here’s a nice icon editing tool.  As seen in the screenshot, you can work pixel by pixel on creating and editing program icons.

kruler – screen ruler

Simple and handy ruler tool for measuring pixels on your screen.  This is a nice “pocket app” to have at your disposal.

Ksvg

Ksvg is a KDE plugin to enable viewing SVG (Scalable vector graphics) files on your computer.  In the example above, you can see an SVG file opened in Konquerer.

Kview

Here’s KDE’s simple file viewer.  It should be preinstalled on your Linux distro.

Cheese (as in “smile”, not the curding of milk)

Take photos using your webcam.  I had this guy snapping dozens of photos of the kids with my HP Laptop.  It’s a lot of fun.  You get to see yourself in the preview window before hitting the – Take a photo – button.

Gwenview http://gwenview.sourceforge.net/

Gwenview is a sleeper. This is a great KDE image viewing tool that everyone loves, but noone talks about.  The preview screen is great.

Inkscape http://www.inkscape.org/

Inkscape is a great SVG compliant vector graphics drawing tool.   It’s light and works well.  It seems to have just the right amount of tools to allow you to do your work freely.  Yet, it’s not weighted down with add-ons and bulky plugins.  Who needs Adobe Illustrator?  Here’s another amazing open source tool.  Viva la difference!