Mockup from www.portefolje.net
A Linux distro is basically someone saying: here’s a collection of packages that works well together, now keep it or change it as you wish.
Oh I get it, if GNU/Linux can’t make the user drool when he sees a Linux desktop, we’ll never get a large userbase. Here’s what I think; let’s not teach people to recognize Linux, but let’s teach people to recognize something that works as Linux.
Lots of people are still complaining about the default Ubuntu theme and while I congratulate the artists that brought us Hardy Heron (really, making brown and orange and beige almost attractive is quite a feat), aside from the background and a few Wm tweaks here & there, there was nothing new, nothing to ‘Wow‘ the users.
There have been lots of posts on other blogs about how an Ubuntu theme or color scheme change would be in order for Intrepid Ibex, but what they forget to mention is that the designers don’t have an easy job, because:
You want Ubuntu to work on computers that don’t support fancy graphics.
Most of the polished and popular stuff does use the fancy graphics support.
But wait, now we’re already talking about Linux’ look. Should Linux have a look? I think not.
AWN and Compiz work on my computer - it’s always a gamble though, because most of the time, on computers older than three years, this stuff cannot work properly. Computers are getting cheaper, so most of us think it’s not a problem. We are forgetting that many people cannot afford a brand new compatible powerhouse. Many will stick with UMPC’s. So the question is, how can we make Ubuntu attractive and functional, while maintaining hardware support?
I tried it and with the current software it’s almost impossible. You have stuff like wbar, for instance the gOS team is struggling with the stuff. I don’t believe it’ll work, especially because AWN is the only good Dock that doubles as a Window navigator & Launchers, but still retains the same smooth look and feel as Mac OSX’ Dock.
You can’t make Linux restrict your choices (except if you buy Linux XP). People know the stuff’s there and everyone’s free to do apps as they want to. If you want to upgrade, you can install what you want - install a KDE app in GNOME. These projects cannot unite, because they are using the freedom to do what they want. There would be no fun in doing something you don’t want to do as a volunteer. Companies can pay the developers to do something unified, but the community is still bigger. And you don0′t boss the community. How would you feel when you wouldn’t be able to switch to KDE just because this distro wants other users to know it’s Linux when they see GNOME?
That was my little rant, how do you feel about Ubuntu’s look? Do you also share my thoughts that it would be almost impossible to restrict Linux to a unified look & feel? Please comment, I’m excited to read what other people think about this.
In the recent years, podcasting has been gaining momentum and today we have a multitude of podcasts for almost every topic, including my favorite (and yours, I hope), GNU/Linux. Instead of listening to the same song over and over, why not educate yourself about the latest in open source technology?
If you like what you’re reading, go on - cause here’s a list of my favorite podcasts, along with a short description. Some of them are recorded by normal Linux users, and others have some hard-core Linux hackers on board - what all these shows have in common though, is that they’re both fun and interesting.
Klaatu, the show-host of TBA, has been a Mac user for a long time. While this may not be a show for most newbie users, Klaatu’s Bad Apples provides a wealth of information about Linux on, and compared to the Macintosh OS X, with some focus on Slackware and Fedora. The new season started just a while ago.
What makes it special: Klaatu does the show alone, but somehow still manages to keep it dynamic and interesting. Also, the podcast features some cool sci-fi music which I enjoy listening to.
Dan Lynch and Fabian Aleksandar Scherschel are two Linux users who produce an interesting and funny Linux show each week. That’s why Linux Outlaws is mostly focused on new distros releases, bashing Microsoft and miscellaneous news, so check it out if you want to hear some cool comments and rants (while laughing until you piss your pants (check the rhyme)).
What makes it special: Just like the Linux Action Show (more on that later in the post), the audio quality is phenomenal (I believe both hosts have some experience in audio production). Dan and Fab’s jokes never get old, the atmosphere is laid-back, and it’s always interesting to hear a podcast made by an international crew.
“HEEEEEEEEY, BRIAN! “
The LAS is a fast-paced, informative and engaging (gosh, I hope I used that adjective right) podcast done by Chris and Brian of Jupiter Broadcasting (fame). The release “cycle” of each season is bi-weekly. The hosts always produce a hi-quality show with lots of interesting topics, news and reviews (the reviews are very well done). It is a podcast for both new users and experienced Linux nerds alike.
What makes it special: Don’t be surprised if you first think the show is recorded after smoking ridiculous amounts of crack. Just a little warning.
The Linux Link Tech Show, or TLLTS
TLLTS is recorded live by a group of experienced Linux users, based in the USA. It is the oldest Linux podcast I know of. Normally, the shows are very long, and the ‘frame’ is pretty lose, but Pat, Dann, Allan and Linc do a very entertaining show each week. The most interesting shows are probably the interviews: the TLLTS crew has interviewed a whole lot of famous (and infamous) people of the open-source world.
What makes it special: The show is, quite surprisingly very engaging, as it has an extremely ‘natural’ feeling to it - the show is recorded live, there are always glitches or dead air, but that’s what makes it fun, really. TLLTS’ Dann keeps a list of other Linux podcasts.
The Distrowatch Weekly is basically an ‘audio-book’ version of the Distrowatch Weekly Newsletter. DW Weekly is always well written, so it’s also pretty good in audio form.
“DistroWatch.com, the popular Linux distribution news and information site, publishes a weekly news and commentary section. Russ Wenner reads Ladislav Bodnar’s content, and adds a little of his own. “
What makes it special: Distrowatch.com’s featured stories are something no-one should miss, especially if you want to hear cool interviews or find out something new about GNU/Linux’ history or architecture. So why not listen to it?
That’s about it. Do you have any GNU/Linux podcasts you’d like to share with us? Please comment!
On a side note, I also do a GNU/Linux podcast (in English) with a friend from Lithuania.
What a week! I’ve been working on my podcast so I’m a bit behind on posting. Here’s an interesting compilation of Linux distribution which resemble Apple’s Mac OS 10. They might not be identical, but you guys who like Apple’s design might appreciate the fact yu can get something like it, with the nice-on-the-inside GNU/Linux kernel, out-of-the-box. For free.
These are only short descriptions, with screen grabs. You will find a lot more info and full screenshots on the official web pages of each distro.
A Brazilian distribution, full of multimedia tools, oriented at people who like to create. The XFCE Desktop with Rocket Dock makes a nice desktop environment with Mac-like traits. The installer is pretty sleek, because you only have one configuration page. Another good point of Dreamlinux is the Debian base, which is a bit lighter than Ubuntu.
gOS’ user base sky-rocketed because of Walmart’s phenomenally well-accepted gPC. Although it doesn’t have the ’smart blue’ look (the developers went for a greenish look), gOS still feels pretty sleek (apart from the boot time). I’m not sure the new gOS Gadgets uses Rocket Dock or AWN, but with LXDE, gOS may become a good choice for net-books. Software-wise, the distro relies heavily on Google Apps.
Enlightenment’s official distro is based on Debian Linux. Even though its mission is showcasing the latest E17 Desktop Environment modules, this OS X-like distro has a lot of regular users (at least according to Distrowatch). You can find some cool Enlightenment DR17 goodies, including the ibar dock.
Puppy Linux is an awesome distro for old computers. A person from the community decided the default desktop isn’t sleek enough and created this genius OS X mod. This modified Puppy gives you speed, simplicity and a tasty Apple, with those cool little Puppy Apps.
More: If you have time and wish to change your own Linux distro’s theme to something more Mac OS X-like, you can maybe take a look at my list of Linux Docks.
I’ve been using Mac OS X alongside Debian since 2007 now, and I think I have a fairly good picture of how things work in both operating systems. In the end, the only feeling I got of Mac OS X is as if I were playing with Linux’ retarded little brother. Here are a few reasons why.
Mac fans, don’t hate me yet, I’ll be doing a reverse post in the next few days so stay tuned and then comment - I’d especially like to hear where I got it wrong!
Software Installation
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the most common installation methods on the Mac - there are two ways. Either you get an archive and you drag and drop the file onto your hard disk. The other way is an .exe-like installation package. I’m sorry Mac guys, but having to do this instead of just clicking the desired software in Synaptic or a simple apt-get is not easier. It’s just illogical. Oh, and try finding the settings, if you want to clean them off the computer after you “easily” uninstalled the app (you drag it into the Trash bin). I swear, this stuff is a bigger mess than the Windows 98 registry.
File Management
Yeah, I had to find an external program to see hidden files. With the Mac, if you erase a file on your thumb drive, it creates a hidden Trash file on it, with the erased files in it… as if grandmother will be able to remember that each partition has its own Trash. Finder is the worst file manager ever. And Cover Flow is useless. Mac OS X is probably the only platform where you have to pay to get decent software for advanced file management. I admit Nautilus isn’t the most descriptive name for a file manager in the history of computing, but who names a file manager ‘Finder’? That’s like naming a web browser “Writer”. It’s confusing!
Themeing and Window Management
I know you could switch the theme in Tiger, but in Leopard you cannot. So maybe it looks great, but don’t you get tired of not having choice? By the way, I hate not being able to maximize my window - some of us don’t need it “maximized just enough to show all content” because we have a shiny, distracting wallpaper. And we all know you can theme the pants off any Linux distro running X. But the funniest thing is probably the fact that Leopard is the first version that has virtual desktops. Welcome to advanced window management! Maybe maximizing is planned for Snow Leopard?
It’s has no themeing capabilities whatsoever compared to Gnome.
Plus, I still haven’t figured out how to open two instances of a program from the Dock. If you have to search Google to find that out…
The terminal/console/text thingy
Whatever you call it, you must admit that by incorporating it into your everyday work and not hiding/crippling it like on Apple’s OS, the terminal increases your productivity. Sometimes it’s just faster to type a simple command than to abuse your left-click finger. The terminal is a powerful productivity tool and if Windows doesn’t hide the command line, Mac OS X shouldn’t hide theirs. If they like to copy Linux so much, why not copy the terminal?
Security
I heard on a podcast that there isa Remote Desktop Application that simply uses root access without your knowledge. What’s up with that? I suppose there is a multitude of other apps that do that too. I mean it’s not necessary to actually make the user aware that there is a root user, but at least make him enter his password. That’s why you ask him for it in the install, right? It also prevents viruses to take over a Unix-like machine.
And why use the computer user’s full name in iChat? Not safe.
In conclusion, it’s true that Mac OS X tries hard to make everything easier for the users, but some quirks are plain illogical - there are a lot of cases where security or system stability is sacrificed in order to hide some technical part of the system. Currently it works, but if they continue going in that direction, It’ll be Apple’s Vista. At grandma’s, it can’t beat a good Linux setup.
I still use Firefox (well, Iceweasel) on Debian, but sometimes I just don’t have the time or the nerves to wait for this add-on-packed conglomerate to load. While there is a noticeable speed improvement with Firefox 3, you still need some time for it to load. So, when I’m in a hurry, I sometimes fire-up an alternative browser.
Notes:
- Opera, Epiphany and Dillo are also available on other operating systems.
- I couldn’t find a nice Oxygen Konqueror icon
1. Konqueror
Konqueror is both file manager and web browser. It uses the same rendering engine (with a few small differences, KHTML vs Webkit) as Apple’s Safari. The new version of Konqueror for KDE 4 still makes it a valuable part of the KDE desktop. The rendering engine is pretty slick - I had no problems with all of the sites I regularly visit. The only thing that bothers me is the tight KDE integration and some quirks, like the usage of KWallet for storing passwords and the fact that it asks you if you want to accept cookies (well, I know it’s a security measure, but Average Joe doesn’ know what cookies are and the new version sometimes forgets you checked you want it to always accept the freaking cookies). Take a look at Konqueror if you want a browser and file manager, with plugin support and great customization options.
2. Opera
Opera has just gotten even better. It is hard to describe what the new Opera browser doesn’t excel at, the Linux version is now very enjoyable to look at and crashes less often. Opera is renowned for its speed and great standards support. The only show-stopper for most people is Opera’s closed source nature.
Håkon Wium Lie, Chief Technology Officer of Opera, says:
At Opera, we believe in open standards, security, speed, performance and features — these are values that we share with the Linux community. The one issue that sets us apart is the source code. We’re very proud of our source code and we’d like to show it to others, but we haven’t found a business model that allows us to do so while still charging for commercial use.
[source: LinuxJournal]
Here are two more posts in which I write about the new Opera 9 and some of its features. We even got some comments from Opera devs there!
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3. Kazehakase
風博士 is a fast little browser which uses components of both GTK + WebKit and Gecko. With the use of GTK+ libraries Kazehakase integrates well with your GTK theme. There is support for RSS, smart bookmarks, importing bookmarks from the most common browsers (FF included) and even mouse gestures. The author promises that future version will enable the users to switch between rendering engines! Awesomesauce!
4. Epiphany
Forking and thus making a descendant of Galeon, the Epiphany project created a browser which also uses the Gecko & GTK combo, although the developer team is thinking of switching to WebKit for future releases. Epiphany sports all of the functionality you would expect from a moder browser: plugins, tabs, cookies. A special feature of Epiphany are categorized bookmarks - unlike most browsers, with Epiphany the same bookmark can be listed under two or more categories (similar to FF’s ‘Places’ feature).
5. Dillo
It’s surprising how often people who list alternatives forget to mention Dillo, the highly secure mini-browser. True, Dillo isn’t a full-fledged browser, but some versions even support tabs and other advanced features (third-party patches). Dillo fires up very quickly and is perfect to quickly check your web-mail or a news site. More importantly, if you own a very old computer with Linux running on it, you absolutely must try Dillo, don’t struggle with text browsers and other Gecko-based browsers which promise speed and simplicity.
Do you know any other cool browsers for Linux? Share it with us in the comments!
