Internetling

Title says it all.

The Release Candidate (read: almost finished) version of everybody’s favorite Ubuntu-based Linux distro is up for grabs! Most improvements are highlighted on the Linux Mint blog where you will also find download instructions.

Some new features that I particularly like:

• The Mint menu highlights newly installed apps and has GTK themes support
• The Update Manager displays the download size, it has a revamped UI and should also be faster
• The Welcome screen will immediately give you the opportunity to install missing codecs that aren’t shipped with the distribution due to international licensing issues.

Here’s a link to the torrent (32-bit)

So, what do you think? Will any of you Ubuntu users be switching to Mint 10? Will any of you Mint users be switching to the upcoming Debian-based edition?

Listening to a review of the new Ubuntu release I could not help but notice the amount of hype Shuttleworth’s little distribution can generate. Can you feel it? The buzz is orders of magnitude greater than with any new major distro release.  I’ve criticized Ubuntu in the past, but there is no denying that Ubuntu is a milestone in desktop Linux and has done a great deal of good by making Linux adoption easier for the masses.

I decided to once again examine the Distrowatch distribution rankings. While these are just a very rough estimates based on site analytics, they give us a relatively good picture of the current state in GNU/Linux land. In this article I would like to highlight a few distributions that have, to put it bluntly, left me completely confused as to where the projects are heading.

My grudge with Fedora Linux has a lot to do with the fact that I constantly need to keep reminding myself the project does not have the same mission statement as most major distributions. A lot of innovative (or frustrating) components, such as the Network Manager and PulseAudio have been introduced to the Linux ecosystem by the Fedora Project. Being on the bleeding edge and the testbed for Red Hat, the Fedora developer community definitely tries hard to produce a stable version of the Fedora Desktop.
I tested every single release since Fedora 9 on three different computers. RPM is a lot better now, but still light-years away from APT. The OS crashes frequently. Fedora 12 constantly reminded me of updates that I already applied several times. The developer community tends to waste time on irrelevant philosophical software choices (Gnote anyone?). Fedora has become the distribution for only the most persistent users that don’t mind using what is in essence a product in perpetual beta. Competitors on the other hand use Fedora as a source of new software packages, integrating them into a better base, solidifying their dominance over the original makers. Being a testbed means your goal is to provide a stable product in the end. Well, at least that is what they claim Fedora to be. I remain unconvinced. If your product is too unstable, it needs more testing. If you believe you have tested the distribution thoroughly and many people still experience massive problems, it means something is wrong with the software base. There is no such thing as a stable testbed.

Mandriva Linux, actually its parent company, just recovered from some major financial problems. I do not know what the future holds for the once leading desktop distribution – it is always nice to see some cool stuff coming from the French developer community, though I cannot help but chuckle when podcast hosts or bloggers struggle to find a reason to actually use Mandriva (simply not being Ubuntu is not a valid reason), except for a good KDE experience, though I’m not so sure if Kubuntu lags far behind. Mandriva needs something like they had with Metisse, something that screams This is Mandriva and this is why we are unique. Despite the corporate problems 2009 was a great year for Mandriva, it is much more stable than it used to be. Unfortunately the WOW factor fades away after a few days of usage and one starts thinking why they didn’t simply stick with Ubuntu/Debian, since some specific features, e.g. urpmi and the USB installation tools leave a lot to be desired. Mandriva’s APT-powered counterpart PCLinuxOS has returned to a more frequent release schedule recently, which gives me hope (if they stick to their guns) because I view it as an overall better OS – together they might have a shot at world domination.

(Open)SUSE‘s German roots are still noticeable. The big, honkin’ distro comes loaded with different desktops. Although YaST had me swearing at the computer screen many times for hours, it is surprisingly stable. The goals of thsi project are “to make openSUSE the easiest Linux for anyone to obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world’s most usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users”.
A lot of the OpenSUSE architecture causes fragmentation in the Linux world, which makes command-line skills (i.e. using zypper, another take on RPM) harder to transfer. Another important improvement would be to slim-down the distribution a bit. This goal was partially realized with the OpenSUSE Build Service, but the process should be made easier for new users. NimbleX‘s customization UI seems like a good example.

The Linux distributions mentioned above are not going anywhere. They sometimes seem to be going nowhere. While Ubuntu, despite its flaws, is creating the widest desktop audience Linux has ever seen, the runners-up struggle to capture the flag for second place. If nothing revolutionary is introduced to the base or the desktop environment of the four mentioned distributions that Ubuntu or Mint cannot take and redistribute in a nicer package, they might go the way of OpenSolaris.

update: Mandriva is going to be forked, which means the community version might go in a completely different direction!

Related articles

• Mandriva Rises From The Ashes As Mageia (lockergnome.com)
• Welcome Mageia! (nowwhatthe.blogspot.com)

With Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat just around the corner, users are getting excited about the redesigned Ubuntu Software Center. Since its introduction in Karmic Koala, the Software Center aimed to provide a central user interface for all the possible ways to obtain new software in Linux. Another important aspect of the Center was the possibility to sell software via the Center, an idea that was probably based off mobile application stores such as the Android Market or the infamous Apple App Store, hence the initial name “Ubuntu Software Store” (which was fortunately trashed).

There is no denying that the Software Center gave us the much needed unified software installation experience we were craving for. Before, you had to choose between the lacking Add/Uninstall Software UI, the unnecessarily complicated Synaptic or the good old command line: Ubuntu’s Software Center made it much easier to navigate the jungle of software available for download, in a nicely designed interface.

Hearing about the first paid application to arrive in the 10.10 Software Center portfolio, the Fluendo DVD Player, I immediately had my first doubts about the viability of a “Store” in a desktop OS. Exactly what software, except the highly specific professional application suites (the most dominant of which doesn’t even have a Linux version), will be compelling enough to the average user for him/her to purchase it?

Popular open source software is of very high quality, often, e.g. in the case of media player software, surpassing its closed competitors. If the publishers in the Store decided to sell open source software, they would rarely sell anything that wouldn’t be viewed as a donation to support the project. It is a vicious cycle, since Linux users rarely appreciate a closed development model –  open sourcing an application on the other hand would effectively eliminate their sales by enabling people to download the source code and simply repackage and redistribute the program. Someone would do it.

A big part of our day-to-day computing, even on Windows and Mac OS X, is done using free and open source software. I love supporting independent projects like the Humble Indie Bundle or making the occasional donation to Wikipedia or VLC. But support ultimately does not make you a customer. It doesn’t oblige you to pay and successful donation appeals reach the desired amount only provided they get decent exposure on the Intertubes, which is done by word of mouth, demanding an extremely high product quality. That is why open source advocates (i. e. most Linux users, at least to my knowledge) are the most difficult “customers” in the world, because they (we) are used to getting the best possible product for the price of $0 or pay-what-you-want.

So, will the Ubuntu Software “Store” earn some money? I guess only time will tell. There is already a music store in Rhythmbox that was featured in ars technica a while ago but failed to make waves, although a software market makes for a completely different beast. The success of this “Store” will also depend on the applications available for purchase. It would be interesting to see the developers implement a Donation button for the open source side of the “Store” portfolio and compare the numbers.
All critique aside, I’ll still be saving my Paypal money till the end of October

Any thoughts? Share them in the Comments!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ubuntu Software Center Continues To Make Great Improvements (techie-buzz.com)
• Ubuntu ‘Maverick Meerkat’ erects own App Store (go.theregister.com)
• Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat Review + Screenshots Tour (maketecheasier.com)

Ndiswrapper

Usage instructions here.

Efforts to open source wireless card drivers are finally paying off, especially with Broadcom’s recent announcement. But until the software reaches ready-to-deploy status, we will often stumble upon a broken wireless connection on a new install. Well, ndiswrapper attempts to solve this issue by letting you use non-native .INF device drivers, written for Windows. Many times this method provides a more stable WiFi connection even with an already working card, so I recommend you try it out in both cases. All in all, a great tool to keep in mind, especially since it is often already included in a newly installed distribution.

A tip: installing ndisgtk (or Kndiswrapper) makes it even easier.

StartUp Manager

None of my Linux machines lack this useful GUI for GRUB. Ever since Ubuntu switched to GRUB 2 I gave up on trying to remember all the subtle differences in naming schemes, the new menu.lst replacement and the commands in order to master my bootloader. I always need to make really small modifications anyway, and this is thing that StartUp Manager does really well.

Htop

Instructions here.

The “top” process viewer is a very useful command-line tool, but htop takes the top base and makes it more accessible and more human. I especially like the faster start time and color scheme. You can read a comparison of the two on this page.

Terminator

What is better than a console window? Two console windows. What is better than two? Terminator. In Linux, you will often find yourself having multiple console windows on onedesktop, simply because in time you slowly realize it is much faster to work from a terminal. Terminator does one thing, and does it well: provides a tabbed, multi-console windowed environment for you to go crazy in.

wget

In short, wget is an integrated command-line download utility. The good stuff is hidden underneath the hood: because wget is a command-line utility, you can use it in scripts; it cannot crash, it can download multiple links and it supports shortened links. You can for instance save DL links as a text file and call it using wget to download them in order of appearance. This tool can be very powerful in the right hands – don’t take my word for it – try it out yourself, it is incredibly fun, mostly because of the intuitive way the tool works. Here are just a few things you can do with wget. The only feature this application lacks is Windows support. Oh, wait.

Other useful tools that were featured in previous articles:

Gnome Do is a powerful application launcher with quite a few tricks up its sleeve.

fsniper is a cool app that monitors a certain directory for changes.