I’m going to take you through a tour of the games I have tried running and give you an idea of the stuff that is out there. Please bear in mind I am running this all  on my Acer 5720Z, which I have some issues with some games, but that has no bearing on the OS per se. It’s more the graphic drivers that are available for the Intel 965 Graphics built into it at this time. There are newer drivers that are out, however I had experienced some issues with the unstable kernel they were running under so I had wound up reinstalling everything back to before making that switch. Anyway read on for the tour of gaming on Linux…

As you know I am running Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and by default it comes with some simple games like Solitaire, Mahjong, A tetris clone and a few others. Basic games and nothing really special. I looked around for some other games to load up and some were hits others really didn’t run well.

There are steps to take if you want to really get a good experience gaming under linux. Briefly they are:

1. Make sure you have the current graphic drivers.
   
   Unfortunately for me I am running an Intel 965 On-Board graphics card and the current driver is a little on the sluggish side. The newer version is around the corner but the test version of the new driver runs on an unstable Kernel. So I really have to wait.
2. Disable Compiz.
   
   In order  to really take advantage of your graphics card, it’s best to disable all the extra appearance tweaks that Compiz puts out. Typically it will make the games run better.
3. Make sure you have all the requirements to play.
   
   This is not just going along with the current drivers thing, it’s best to make sure the game runs under your graphic card to begin with. Also the memory and CPU requirements to play. I would look at the recommended and not the minimum to ensure great play. This is not just a Linux thing but on all platforms.

Looking around for games for Linux I found that there is a repository out there for games from PlayDeb.net (a fork of GetDeb.Net) that has a ton of games for linux. I loaded the mirror because the main site was having issues. It was going down or giving REAL slow downloads so the mirror actually worked great.

To replace the GetDeb / PlayDeb repositories with a mirror, open the sources.list file:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Then search for the lines which include both “getdeb” and “apps” an replace them with one of the following GetDeb mirror:

deb http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/getdeb/ubuntu lucid-getdeb apps
deb-src http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/getdeb/ubuntu lucid-getdeb apps

For the PlayDeb repository, replace any line which includes “getdeb” and “games” with this mirror:

deb http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/getdeb/ubuntu lucid-getdeb games
deb-src http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/getdeb/ubuntu lucid-getdeb games

So with PlayDeb’s repo loaded I added a few games from their list. 0 A.D. from Wolfire Games sounded good, however it’s in Beta and didn’t run well on my machine so I killed it.

I read about Savage 2 being a combination of RTS and FPS style gaming which peaked my interest. Again issues with the Intel graphics. BAH! It looks awesome and yes they have a Linux native client. However you have to go to their site and download the 812MB installer. It does have the uninstaller script in there which is handy if it doesn’t work right.

BOS Wars reminds me of Command & Conquer and the other RTS games I played in the past. This runs perfect on my machine.

Assault Cube is a FPS style game like Unreal Tournament or Quake based on CUBE. It’s a great game and runs on older and newer machines perfectly. Definitely recommend it!

Wormuz is a Linux-ised game of Worms. If you don’t remember that game from years ago, you were living under a rock. Mass destruction in a cartoon 2-D style enviroment. Tons of weapons and the attacks are line up, power up, shoot. It’s a great turn based game and can be played over the internet as well.

Pingus is a great Lemmings clone. I am going to play it more later, but I have played it before in the earlier days of Ubuntu. When I was just poking around testing it out but still under Windows for the most part.

Now I can’t say enough about the Humble Indie Bundle. World of Goo, Penumbra: Overture, Aquaria, Gish, and Lugaru make up the bundle.

The World of Goo is a physics puzzle game where you place little balls of goo to form structures to complete a task. VERY addictive.

The game is built around the idea of creating large structures using balls of goo. The game is divided into five chapters, each containing several levels. Each level has its own graphic and musical theme, giving it unique atmosphere, similar in style to Tim Burton’s film designs. There is also a bonus meta-game called World of Goo Corporation, where the objective is to build the highest tower using goo balls which the player collected through the course of the game. Players from all over the world can compete, as the height of the tower and number of goo balls used are being constantly uploaded to the 2D Boy server.

The main objective of the game is to get a requisite number of goo balls to a pipe representing the exit. In order to do so, the player must use the goo balls to construct bridges, towers, and other structures to overcome gravity and various terrain difficulties such as chasms, hills, spikes, or cliffs. There are several types of goo balls in the game, each of which has unique properties. The player must exploit combinations of these goo balls in order to complete each level. Extra goos recovered in the pipe are pumped through to the World of Goo Corporation, a sandbox area where the objective is to compete with other players worldwide by building the tallest tower possible.[15] Players can also try to achieve the “Obsessive Completion Distinction Flag” for each level by completing the level under more stringent criteria, such as collecting a larger number of Goo balls, finishing under a set amount of time or using as few moves as possible.

Levels and chapters in the game are interspersed with cut scenes. The WiiWare version includes multiplayer with up to four people on the same Wii. This facility is also available, albeit unsupported, in the Linux port.

World of Goo is split up into five chapters, each containing a number of levels. The chapters are set over the course of one year in the World of Goo. Each chapter takes place over one season, beginning in the start of summer, and ending at the end of spring the next year.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Of_Goo

Penumbra: Overture looks really good, I haven’t really gotten into it yet, but according to Wikipedia:

Set in the year 2000, Penumbra: Overture follows the story of Philip, a thirty-year-old physicist whose mother recently died. After receiving a mysterious letter from his supposedly dead father, Philip follows a series of clues that lead to him to a mysterious location in uninhabited northern Greenland. The harsh cold forces him to take shelter in an abandoned mine. Unfortunately, the mine’s entrance collapses as he enters it, and he is forced to move deeper inside. Within the mine, Philip discovers diary extracts written by a scientist of some sort, who was alone and gradually resorted to eating cave-dwelling spiders as an alternative food source as his supplies diminished.

The unknown person also describes discovering a psychoactive toxin in the spiders and deduced that, after eight months of consuming them in the mine, it was beginning to have an effect on him, physically. Philip also begins receiving radio messages from Tom “Red” Redwood, a man driven insane by cabin fever. Red promises that if he is found, he will give Philip answers. The game follows Philip as he descends deeper into the mines in search of Red while unravelling the secrets of the mine’s previous and current inhabitants.

Following clues and solving various puzzles, Philip eventually comes to an area deep within the mine where Red is waiting for him. Red waits inside an incinerator where he begs Philip to kill him. With no other option, Philip activates the incinerator and amongst Red’s remains, he finds items he needs to progress into a new area of the mine which is identified as “The Shelter”. Once inside, Philip notices what appears to be a human watching him. Philip approaches the figure, but the lighting is suddenly extinguished and Philip is knocked out and dragged away.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penumbra_overture)

Visually Aquaria is stunning. This is another game I have not gotten the chance to delve into but played a little bit. According to Wikipedia:

Aquaria is an action-adventure game, heavily focused on exploration and puzzle-solving, with non-linear gameplay. The player controls Naija, a lone underwater dweller; although similar to a human woman, Naija also has several fish-like qualities, such as the ability to breathe underwater and propel herself quickly with webbed feet. The game was designed to be primarily controlled solely through the mouse, though it can also be controlled with a keyboard or Xbox 360 controller. The player directs Naija through an underwater world composed of several distinct regions, ranging from caves to underwater ruins to sunlit oases. These areas are filled with plant and animal life, which Naija can interact with directly or indirectly. These lifeforms can be hostile, friendly, or may pay no notice to her. Hostile plants and animals can hurt Naija, reducing her health meter, by touching her or firing projectiles at her.

In general, Naija cannot interact directly with objects in the world. Instead, the majority of actions are accomplished through singing short tunes. The player does this by selecting a series of notes displayed in a circle of eight choices in the correct order. Each note corresponds with a different color. Singing notes affects plants and objects of the same color as the note, while singing the tunes, once learned through the plot, can lift objects, create a shield around Naija, or change Naija into different “forms” which have different appearances and abilities. The specific tones that are played when the player selects a note change in different regions, matching the background music.

During the course of the game, the player learns songs that allow them to transform Naija into different forms. Each of the forms provides her with unique abilities critical to overcoming the various challenges and obstacles seen in the game. The songs played to change forms are incorporated into the background music of the regions they are acquired in. The default form, or “normal form”, is the only one in which Naija can sing, and is the only one where her appearance is modifiable by the player by having Naija wear costumes found throughout the game.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaria_(video_game)

Gish is pretty interesting. It doesn’t really have an installer you just extract and load it into a folder then run. Wikipedia states:

In Gish, the player maneuvers the eponymous character, a 12-pound ball of tar. Gish is gelatinous and may become sticky, slippery, heavy and expanded at will, among other capabilities. Gish’s lady friend Brea (who is human) is captured by a mysterious figure and taken underground to the sewers of Dross. This game has 2 endings, depending on the player’s performance in the last level.

Besides movement, Gish has four abilities: becoming sticky, slick, and heavy, and jumping/expanding. When sticky, he can climb up walls, stick to ceilings, and plant himself firmly to a solid object. Becoming slick makes Gish slippery and frictionless, letting him slide down pipes and squeeze out of being crushed. Using heavy turns Gish’s body into a rigid weight, allowing him to fall faster, squash enemies, smash breakable platforms, sink in water, and resist being crushed. To jump, Gish must first compress his body, then expand to launch himself into the air.

The abilities can be combined for use in certain situations; for instance, while sticky and slick, he can climb walls without grabbing loose objects, and while slick and heavy, he can slide downhill at high speed.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_(video_game)

Lugaru: The Rabbit’s Foot (pronounced Loo-GAH-roo) is a great adventure game. Again I got the game and tested to see if it worked but didn’t get too much into it. It looks fantastic. Wikipedia states:

Hand-to-hand combat comprises most of Lugaru’s gameplay, although the game rewards stealthy approaches. The fighting system is based largely around close combat, and in many cases incorporates knives, swords, and bo staves. The player can also perform disarms, reversals, and counter-reversals.

With no HUD, the player must rely on visual cues to determine Turner’s health; most notably the character’s posture and the darkness and blurred vision.

The combat control is original as well, since there are only three context-sensitive action buttons, which puts emphasis on fast-paced action rather than complicated button combos: one attack button, a jump button, and a more general crouch-reverse button.

The game can be played in campaign mode, which includes mission specific objectives and storyline, as well as a “challenge” mode, which involves the player progressing through a series of fourteen maps with the goal of clearing them of all hostile creatures. There is also an interactive tutorial.

Weapons are essential to fighting in this game and each have particular advantages and disadvantages. The knife can be thrown and a character can carry two of them, but it is the weakest weapon of the three. The sword is very powerful and fast, but it is hard to find and incredibly easy to disarm. The staff is the strongest of the three, and can easily kill an enemy when it is down. However, the staff can break and can easily be reversed.

Lugaru also has a number of mods made by the many fans of the game. You can choose to download the “Lugaru Downloader” which gives you a list of all the Fan-made mods so far. Lugaru Downloader also extracts and backs up the files and installs the mod automatically, rather than forcing users to back up files themselves and risk errors and glitches. The Wolfire forums for a link and information, and the website with the download link and info.

Advanced modding, namely modifying skeletons to work custom animated characters into the game, 3D Model customization, animation editing and map editing have been made possible by reverse-engineering the file formats and writing Python plugins for Blender. An overview of all modification resources, done modifications and how-to documentation can be found in this thread on the Wolfire forums.

After the games success as part of the Humble Indie Bundle, on May 11, 2010 Wolfire released the source code of Ryan C. Gordon’s code branch of Lugaru under the GNU General Public License. This source code has allowed the game to be ported to additional platforms such as AmigaOS 4

Hand-to-hand combat comprises most of Lugaru’s gameplay, although the game rewards stealthy approaches. The fighting system is based largely around close combat, and in many cases incorporates knives, swords, and bo staves. The player can also perform disarms, reversals, and counter-reversals.
With no HUD, the player must rely on visual cues to determine Turner’s health; most notably the character’s posture and the darkness and blurred vision.

The combat control is original as well, since there are only three context-sensitive action buttons, which puts emphasis on fast-paced action rather than complicated button combos: one attack button, a jump button, and a more general crouch-reverse button.

The game can be played in campaign mode, which includes mission specific objectives and storyline, as well as a “challenge” mode, which involves the player progressing through a series of fourteen maps with the goal of clearing them of all hostile creatures. There is also an interactive tutorial.

Weapons are essential to fighting in this game and each have particular advantages and disadvantages. The knife can be thrown and a character can carry two of them, but it is the weakest weapon of the three. The sword is very powerful and fast, but it is hard to find and incredibly easy to disarm. The staff is the strongest of the three, and can easily kill an enemy when it is down. However, the staff can break and can easily be reversed.

Lugaru also has a number of mods made by the many fans of the game. You can choose to download the “Lugaru Downloader” which gives you a list of all the Fan-made mods so far. Lugaru Downloader also extracts and backs up the files and installs the mod automatically, rather than forcing users to back up files themselves and risk errors and glitches. The Wolfire forums for a link and information, and the website with the download link and info.

Advanced modding, namely modifying skeletons to work custom animated characters into the game, 3D Model customization, animation editing and map editing have been made possible by reverse-engineering the file formats and writing Python plugins for Blender. An overview of all modification resources, done modifications and how-to documentation can be found in this thread on the Wolfire forums.

After the games success as part of the Humble Indie Bundle, on May 11, 2010 Wolfire released the source code of Ryan C. Gordon’s code branch of Lugaru under the GNU General Public License. This source code has allowed the game to be ported to additional platforms such as AmigaOS 4

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugaru

The las game of the Bundle is called Samarost which is a puzzle game based all in Flash. Very nicely done however the puzzles are a little tough for me to do so aside from that. Visually decent and well worth checking out.

There are a ton of games for Linux so don’t be steered wrong.  Now you can play some Windows based games using Wine, however some of the free MMORPG games use Gameguard which the only way to get these to run is through a dual boot it seems. No success stories using Wine or a virtual machine in playing these games.

So get out there and play! There are tons more, but this article would be longer than ever to go into all the games. Mind you some of the games are the cheesy 2D 8-bit style that are out there, but for old farts like me it brings back memories of the Nintendo and Sega dominance in gaming.

Before I end this, I would like to add that you can also look into Emulators for NES. SNES, Gamecube, and Playstation games too if you want to try the older games from the console systems.

And popular games like WOW and Guildwars are playable using wine. Check out PlayOnLinux which will help set up Wine for you to play these and a ton more of the Windows based games.

Aside from the free service you can extend your storage through a subscription model with the following choices:

• 10GB – $25/year
• 50GB – $95/year
• 100GB – $160/year
• 500GB – $630/year
• 1TB – $1000/year

This is a decent pricing model because if you break it down monthly it’s a lot cheaper than Dropbox or Ubuntu One. This makes this service a big contender in the cloud market. Of course with the paid services you get 3 extra services over the free version. You get automatic backup of folders you choose to store, a "Time Travel" service which allows you to go back to previous folder revisons, and a file versioning service that tracks revisions of independent files (i.e. Documents). Have reserves about security and reliability? Here’s a clip from their website that is under "How It Works"

Technology Wuala is based on a novel technology that we have researched and developed for the most part at ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. A number of important aspects distinguish Wuala from other services. Privacy and Security Wuala protects your privacy: In stark contrast to most other online storage services, all your files get encrypted on your computer, so that no one – including the employees at Wuala and LaCie – can access your private files. Your password never leaves your computer. Wuala employs the 128 bit AES, 2048 bit RSA and SHA-256 algorithms for encryption, signatures and integrity checks. If you’re interested in how Wuala manages encryption, have a look at our publication on Cryptree. Reliability When you store a file, it is first encrypted on your computer and then chunked up and encoded into redundant fragments using erasure codes (Reed-Solomon codes). These encrypted, redundant fragments are then stored in our European data centers and in the Wuala cloud. We make sure that your data is always safe. A complete backup of your encrypted files is always kept on our servers, so that it can always be accessed and restored. The Wuala cloud serves as an optimization that allows us to operate a large-scale infrastructure at low cost and to provide you with better performance. Also, it allows organizations to get access to reliable online storage by providing their own resources to the Wuala cloud. Get More Storage You start with 1 GB provided by us. If you want more, you can either buy more storage, or trade some space on your hard disk for additional online storage. The idea behind trading is not to give you more storage in total, but to change the quality of your storage: Wuala is able to transform local storage into online storage that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time, even when your computer is offline. Please note that trading is an option, not an obligation. If you need extra space but don’t want to trade, you can always buy additional storage instead. Desktop Client and Web Start Wuala comes as a convenient application for Windows, Mac, and Linux that can also be started directly from within the browser, elegantly bridging web and desktop. This has the advantage of drag and drop support, the ability to upload files in the background and to work offline. Wuala integrates with your system as a network drive so you can open and edit your files in your favorite application. Also, links to files and folders can be sent to friends, who can click directly on the link and access the files in the browser. Open Source We love open source technology and Wuala is based on a number of open source projects. We did open source Wuala Webstart and Wuala Persistent Map. This is defintely worth checking out. And it adds to my personal regiment of places I can back up. Although large files I personally like to store on a local back up mainly because of bandwidth reasons with my ISP (stupid 1Mbit connection). Check it out at http://www.wuala.com.

MovableType apparently is the only method that will work with WordPress based blogs. Even though I swore I saw it say to choose Blogger 2.0 type in a tutorial but whatever.

Drivel is nice and it’s more native, but lacks the features that Blogilo has for posting media (aka images) and formatting is more of a process than the 1 click you can do with Blogilo.

The only gripe I have with Blogilo is that when I post images and want to format them for alignment it strips the old HTML options (i.e. align=”left hspace=”10″) when I post so I wind up re-editing server side to fix it. Not a big deal really.

One thing I saw in Drivel that is nifty is the Poll Generator built in. However, that is for LiveJournal blogs only. So totally useless for me. This makes my decision to use Blogilo more of a reality.

What desktop based blog editor do you use? Let me know in the comments!

Ubuntu has a vast array of authoring tools. You can do a search for “DVD” (sans quotes) in the Software Center and you will see a bunch of DVD related tools. 2ManDVD was one I tried first because it was recommended back on Karmic. However I never really was able to get it to work right then and it still wouldn’t work right now. For some reason I could never get it to pick up the movies or figure out how to produce a playlist of multiple videos to have a “Play All” option. When I thought I had it, the software produced a zero byte ISO and just wouldn’t produce the DVD at all.

So I furthered my search for a decent editor. I tried QDVD Author, DeVeDe, Brasero (the default in Ubuntu even would not work), and tovid with the todisc ui. None of these worked right or was to convoluted to get to work right.

I had also read a recommendation for DVDStyler so decided to try that out. This was definitely the right choice! I had to make a series of DVDs for my girlfriend’s cousin’s kids so I loaded 4 episodes of the show I was making the DVDs for. The software put them in, set up a Play all option and a separate menu for individual episodes in a pinch!

I added a fan art image I grabbed off of The TV Database and made some modifications for the text and added a label to the individual episodes so you knew what they were. Then I began the burning process. BOOM! It created a preview in Xine which looked perfectly fine (hey that rhymed!) so I exited out of the preview and it started the encoding process then the burning process.

I really recommend DVDStyler for authoring DVDs it’s quick and simple and really works under Lucid.

I don’t know if the reason the others didn’t work is because I installed them through the software center instead of the command line apt-get method or not. But DVDStyler is perfect for quick and dirty DVD authoring. I will play with it more for sure. I have a lot of DVD’s to make before we head on down to Georgia to give them the DVDs. Let’s hope I can get it all done before then!

I am trying out Blogilo to post this article right now. It’s a little like Microsoft Live Writer from what the description boasts. When I loaded it I noticed that it’s a KDE based application and you have to set up KDE Wallet. No big deal, but a little annoying I guess.

I would have used BloGTK orginally however in recent times it seems some of the packages that are required to run it are no longer available under Lucid. the gtkhtml2 package I believe is what is was screaming about. Something that gPodder also uses for show notes but it seems to work fine without it.

One thing that is nifty about this application is that it can pull your style sheet from the server so when you preview it within the application it gives you an idea of what it will look like on the site. Really nifty.

I think I may use this to post things. Testing it out more. I even have added an image to see if it will upload it and post properly.

Note: This post went up fine. Just the time zone difference caused it to be late so I editted the time. And it seems the image was not formatted right. Probably something I missed. I may be using the application more in the future!

Taken from The Linux Blog:

I guess I’m one of the lucky ones that gets to use Linux at work. The kicker is, I need Windows to do part of my work so I have two machines. After a recent power outage, I needed to boot both machines this morning. So, I thought I’d document what I did before Windows booted.

1. Turned both machines on
2. Cleaned 3 coffee mugs and came back
3. Talked to my boss about the power outage
4. Logged into my Linux machine
5. Started all the software I thought I might need for the day (Pidgin, Thunderbird, Firefox, Eclipse, Tilda and screen)
6. Checked my e-mail
7. Approved some comments on this blog
8. Wrote this blog post.

On that note, my Windows machine is about booted and I can load up the Word documents that were inconveniently sent to me in .docx format. What a Monday Morning.

Now my recollection of the first PC I had back in the late 80′s was a little more lengthy in wait time. Here’s what I did while waiting for the old DOS prompt:

1. Turned on machine and watied for POST beep and BIOS to show on screen.
2. Went upstairs and made a sandwich
3. Ate the sandwich
4. Went outside for a smoke.
5. Went for a walk to the store that was 1/2 mile away.
6. Came back home and walked downstairs.
7. Looked for 5 1/4″ disc that contained a game I wanted to play that I didn’t have on the hard drive.
8. Read the DOS manual and looked up ASCII codes to make some ASCII art later.

Machine finally at DOS prompt. I played a game of LODE Runner off the floppy and then began working on some ASCII art then would log onto a local BBS at a whopping 2400 bps baud rate!

Ahhh, the days of SLOW boot ups. And now we are screaming about 30 second boot ups and for microwave ovens to hurry up and cook our lunches (which most take 3 minutes to do). What a world!

My opening theme for the show lasts about a minute and a half. For the video I felt I needed to make it shorter just to get the point across that it was for my show. So I edited the audio under Audacity and kept it down to about 30 secs.

The artists I played in the video I needed to get the videos off YouTube.  There are many ways to do this, but one utility that is just awesome is DamnVid. This multiplatform application allows you to download and encode videos into many different formats. So I used the YouTube URL for the videos of the artists I highlighted in the video.

For the actual video I played around with PiTiVi and Openshot. PiTiVi lacks transitions and effects at the moment, which the community has been screaming for them to put in. Openshot is great, but there was some things I feel it’s still missing.

I checked out KDEnlive under Nixie Pixel’s review and recommendation and I have to say, this is a VERY powerful little video editor. A lot of effects, transistions, and easy to boot! I started making titles within the software, but I wound up tweaking them more using Inkscape. Nothing spectacular, just quick and dirty creation because I need to learn to use InkScape more to be honest.  But aside from that I think the final product is pretty damn good for a beginner.

So let me know what you all think! Here’s The Video: 

The list of derivatives has been expanding more and more and I am sure I missed some. Please comment if you have any more info on others.

Mint

Link: http://www.linuxmint.com/

Linux Mint’s purpose is to produce an elegant, up to date and comfortable GNU/Linux desktop distribution.

Linux Mint is one of the surprise packages of the past year. Originally launched as a variant of Ubuntu with integrated media codecs, it has now developed into one of the most user-friendly distributions on the market – complete with a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, a web-based package installation interface, and a number of different editions. Perhaps most importantly, this is one project where the developers and users are in constant interaction, resulting in dramatic, user-driven improvements with every new release. DistroWatch has spoken to the founder and lead developer of Linux Mint, Clement Lefebvre, about the history of the distribution.

Kubuntu

Link: http://www.kubuntu.org/

Kubuntu is the KDE version of Ubuntu. This version comes packed with the KDE window manager instead of Gnome.

Kubuntu is a free, user-friendly operating system based on the K Desktop Environment and on the award winning Ubuntu operating system. With a biannual release cycle and at least 18 months of free security updates for each release, it is the secure, stable computing environment you’ve been waiting for. Take the tour or hear what our users have to say.

So basically if you like Ubuntu and prefer the KDE window manager you might want to install this instead of Ubuntu. It will save you the time of downloading and installing KDE and switching window managers.

Edubuntu

Link: http://edubuntu.org/

Edubuntu’s objective is to create an integrated and usable experience for educational users by enhancing Ubuntu with educational applications, tools, content, and themes.

“Ubuntu” is an ancient African word, meaning “humanity to others”. Edubuntu seeks to bring the freedoms and spirit of Ubuntu to children, parents, students, teachers, and schools.

Xubuntu

Link: http://www.xubuntu.org/

Xubuntu is a community developed, Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need – a web browser, document and spreadsheet editing software, instant messaging and much more.

If you like Ubuntu but prefer the XFCE window manager download Xubuntu and check it out.

Gobuntu

Link: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/gobuntu

Gobuntu is a GNU/Linux operating system, derived from Ubuntu, that endeavors to adhere to the Free Software Foundation’s four freedoms and intends to provide a base for other free software platforms to build upon with minimal modification required. It does this by only including open-source non-restricted software. This means there will be no firmware, drivers, applications, or content included in Gobuntu that does not include the full source or whose license does not provide the right to use, study, modify, and redistribute the body of work.

Gobuntu shares the same system requirements as Ubuntu. At present, this means Gobuntu is available for 32-bit and 64-Bit PC architectures and the install requires at least 4 GB of disk space.

Ubuntu Studio

Link: http://ubuntustudio.org/

Ubuntu Studio. A multimedia creation flavor of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional.

We provide a suite of the best open-source applications available for multimedia creation. Completely free to use, modify and redistribute. Your only limitation is your imagination.

Mythbuntu

Link: http://www.mythbuntu.org/

Mythbuntu is an community supported add-on for Ubuntu focused upon setting up a standalone MythTV based PVR system. It can be used to prepare a standalone system or for integration with an existing MythTV network. Unlike similar projects, Mythbuntu keeps close ties with Ubuntu and all development is given back to Ubuntu. This architecture allows simple conversions from a standard desktop to a Mythbuntu machine and vice versa. The development cycle of Mythbuntu closely follows that of Ubuntu, releasing every six months with Ubuntu releases.

Ubuntu Server Edition

Link: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu/serveredition

The Ubuntu Server Edition – built on the solid foundation of Debian which is known for its robust server installations – has a strong heritage for reliable performance and predictable evolution.

The Ubuntu Server Edition is changing the server market for businesses by delivering the best of free software on a stable, fully supported and secure platform. In the two years since initial launch Ubuntu can now be found in hundreds of organisations across the world delivering key services reliably, predictably and economically. Ubuntu Server Edition is an energy efficient, low memory and disk footprint operating system that helps build server functions that respect our environment with no compromise on agility and versatility.

Ubuntu servers are available on Amazon EC2

Eeebuntu

Link: http://www.eeebuntu.org/

With over 45,000 downloads to date, Eeebuntu Standard contains everything you need to get working and playing on your EeePC from the beginning. It includes a full suite of internet applications, including Firefox for browsing, Pidgin for IM chat, and Thunderbird for mail. For work, a full suite of OpenOffice applications; Database, Presentation, Spreadsheet and Word – all Microsoft Office compatible; and a selection of multimedia applications: VLC for watching movies and Banshee for listening to music. You even have support for your iPod with gtkpod!

Ubuntu Mini Remix

Link: http://ubuntu-mini-remix.crealabs.it/

You want to build your own Ubuntu based livecd, having the complete control over the installed software but you don’t know where to start? Ubuntu Mini Remix is here to help you!

Ubuntu Mini Remix is a fully working Ubuntu livecd containing only the minimal set of software to make the system work. Ubuntu Mini Remix ISO image is only 133MB.

After downloading Ubuntu Mini Remix you can use Ubuntu Customization Kit, Reconstructor or any other tool to remaster the ISO and add the software/configurations you want, building your own Ubuntu based livecd.

Crunchbang Linux

Link: http://crunchbanglinux.org/

CrunchBang Linux is an Ubuntu based distribution featuring the lightweight Openbox window manager and GTK+ applications. The distribution is developed from a minimal Ubuntu install and has been designed to offer a good balance of speed and functionality.

OzOs

Link: http://cafelinux.org/OzOs/

OzOs is an elegant stable environment of beauty, specifically “The Reality Different”. OzOS is built on Xubuntu or to be more exact a Debian base and utilizes the sexy Enlightenment 17 Desktop. This is a special version of e17 that is brought to you by the most discriminating e17 user: Rui Pais; with his precious time and Enlightenment knowledge, he has created a Distro that is OzOS. Rui’s easy “e17 SVN Deb” was the founding blueprint for the OzOS Live CD(With Installer) RC.

Ubuntu Satanic Edition

Link: http://ubuntusatanic.org/download.php

In reaction to the Ubuntu Christian version we have:
Ubuntu SE is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. It brings together the best free software and free metal music on one CD.

You can also upgrade your existing Ubuntu installation with a comprehensive set of themes to make your desktop dark and malevolent. Don’t worry; you can easily change your system back if you intend to recant.

OpenGEU

Link: http://opengeu.intilinux.com/Home.html

OpenGEU completes the missing parts of the E17 Desktop Shell and WM with a certain number of tools and applications from the Gnome Desktop.

In OpenGEU you can find a classic Ubuntu set of applications mixed with those provided and created from and for E17. Since this would not be enough for an easy integration of Gnome and E17, OpenGEU introduces a number of new E17 modules, applications and configurations specifically designed by the OpenGEU Team for you to enjoy a new and easier desktop experience! You’ll discover a finally usable and productive Enlightenment 0.17 Desktop, even if you are a beginner!

Nubuntu

Link: http://www.nubuntu.org/

The main goal of nUbuntu is to create a distribution which is derived from the Ubuntu distribution, and add packages related to security testing and remove unneeded packages. nUbuntu is the result of an idea two people had to create a new distribution for the learning experience back in early 2006, when Ubuntu was in its still early stages. nUbuntu started many years ago as a project with the intent for its developers to learn about distribution development and quickly evolved into a full scale project after recieving a large community response. Currently today, we have many developers and a large contributing communinty. Anyone interested in helping may do so by contributing ideas and packages directly to the nUbuntu developers.

gOS

Link: http://www.thinkgos.com/gos/index.html

Since our debut in 2007, gOS has been praised for being the most beautiful and easiest to use Linux operating system on the market. Now with our third and best version of gOS, we have carried on our effort to create a Linux for the rest of us.

Ubuntu Jeos

Link: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/serveredition/jeos

Ubuntu Server Edition JeOS (pronounced “Juice”) is an efficient variant of our server operating system, configured specifically for virtual appliances. Currently available as a CD-Rom ISO for download, JeOS is a specialised installation of Ubuntu Server Edition with a tuned kernel that only contains the base elements needed to run within a virtualized environment.

Users deploying virtual appliances built on top of JeOS will benefit from:

better perfomances on the same hardware compared to a full non-optimised OS
smaller footprint of the virtual appliance on their valuable disk space
fewer updates and therefore less maintenance than a full server installation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_JeOS

Ubuntu Mobile

Link: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile

Ubuntu MID Edition targets an exciting new class of computers called Mobile Internet Devices. Ubuntu MID, based on the world’s most popular Linux distribution, and MID hardware from OEMs and ODMs, is redefining what can be done in mobile computing.

Ubuntu MID Edition, a fully open source project, gives the full Internet, with no compromise. Custom options may include licensed codecs and popular third-party applications.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix

Link: http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr

Ubuntu Netbook Remix is optimised to run on a new category of affordable Internet-centric devices called netbooks. It includes a new consumer-friendly interface that allows users to quickly and easily get on-line and use their favourite applications. This interface is optimised for a retail sales environment.

Canonical has collaborated with Intel and is working with a number of OEM’s to deliver Ubuntu on netbooks in retail. In keeping with the philosophy of our best work being available to everyone, the core remix product is available to all through the Canonical repositories. This version is free to download and modify by any user.

Kiwi Linux

Link: http://kiwilinux.org/kiwi/en/

Kiwi Linux is slightly a modified Ubuntu Desktop/Install CD for the i386 architecture, that is in sync with Ubuntu’s release cycles and uses its package archives. Hence it is easy to switch to and from Ubuntu and all the security and bugfix updates from Ubuntu are getting into Kiwi Linux automatically.

The latest release, Kiwi Linux 9.04 is based on Ubuntu 9.04. Differences from it include :

• All languages but en,hu,ro removed
• GUI for pppoeconf and support for Speedtouch 330 USB ADSL modem firmware (Romtelecom Clicknet)
• A graphical tool for restoring GRUB boot menus lost after installing other OSes.
• Evolution removed, no mail client at all on the CD
• Flash, audio and video codecs for restricted formats, support for encrypted DVDs
• Compiz extra settings GUI
• p7zip, unrar for better interop with Windows users’ archive files

Qimo

Link: http://www.qimo4kids.com

Qimo was designed to be a standalone home computer for kids, rather than a networked classroom computer. The interface for Qimo is designed to be easy enough for a 3 year old to use, without having to navigate menus or manage multiple open windows. Also, Qimo will also run from a LiveCD, and doesn’t require an existing Ubuntu installation the way Edubuntu does.

Version 2.0 was released on May 26, 2010

Sources:

• NixTutor
• Quimo FAQ

I reinstalled all the applications and within a few hours I had everything back to “normal” However, there has been some bugs that have been bothering me as of late. Mainly with Gwibber. It seems facebook accounts are not able to be added any more to the application. As well as a few other things I noticed.

I wish there was a native app that handled more social networks. Although Gwibber has some great features, I have been finding apps handling all different options. I have been adding more social networks into my profile of networks but it seems not one app handles them all. And it would be great to have them all in one bundle. The networks I am on now are:

• MySpace
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Identica
• Tumblr
• Flickr
• FriendFeed
• Plurk
• LinkedIn

I have my IM’s all in Empathy at the moment, but in order for me to post to certain networks it’s like I have to go through Ping.FM or some other service to post to them all. That’s not too much of an issue, it’s more or less getting the updates of the people and groups I follow on these service to show in one place.

I have tiredly searched for solutions for this. I just hope that someday soon someone will come up with something.

Aside from that things are pretty stable. I just need to play more with some things to get back into the swing of things.  I need to bone up on GIMP, Inkscape and Audacity some more so that I can begin working on graphics again and also post a new episode of VooDooRadio.

I am looking into getting a Vidcast put up using Openshot but in order for me to do it I need to get the HD with the VooDooRadio logo on it and work on title sequences.

Seeing this is a new era for me, I am considering on changing the theme music for the show, however I have been using the current music for over 2 years now and it’s been branded into peoples ears. Maybe some minor changes on the intro.. I dunno I just want to get something shorter than the 1.5 minute intro.

Alright I think I bitched enough. If anyone has any solutions to a native client or AIR app that handles all the aforementioned social networks, please comment here or contact me through twitter, AIM, Identica. All are named voodoostevie.

Google said it was dumping Microsoft Windows on all its computers in the company, and switching to Apple and Linux, simply because Windows was not secure; the switch came specifically because Chinese hackers broke into Google machines, and only special employees with particular needs will be allowed to use Windows; otherwise they are stuck with Apple or Linux operating systems.

This bold move on Google’s part poses a lot of questions in tech circles. The biggest is are we ready to move to alternate Operating systems yet? Read on to see my view on all of this.

Google deciding on removing the Windows OS from all their machines (albeit a smart move in terms of security breaches), however it poses the question as to what is the big reason for doing it aside from the hack? Some really think that it’s mainly because the release of Chrome OS that Google has been working on is slated to be released later this year. Did Google do this to get all their employees involved in a mass test phase? Apparently it’s Linux and Apple only machines running in the Google HQ at this time, but what is this telling the public?

To me it seems more like they are announcing that they are tired of Windows being the first and foremost in the domination of operating systems in computing today. And a lot of people are feeling the same way lately. However the biggest thing that is stopping people from switching is fear of change and yes switching to Linux is a huge change for most of the folks using computers. There are many distributions out there and each one has it’s pros and cons but all in all desktop Linux is not quite there yet in terms of user-friendliness. Mainly because of the Windows domination in hardware compatibility and software programming for gaming and a few other reasons floating around.

Linux is becoming more and more of a possibility of being a dominate force in desktop machines, but there is still some work to do. Mostly it’s gaming that is slowing things down, but gaming has always been a thorn in the side for Linux users. Yes there are some games out there, but remember 15 years ago Mac was in the same boat. It’s only a matter of time for gaming to come to Linux desktops. There are some games I have been playing fine on the Linux side. Most are part of the Humble Indie Bundle which helped raise $392,953 for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play Charity. Linux users seem to have made the highest average donation for the games proving that users under Linux really want to see commercial gaming to start going towards Linux as well.

Let’s hope this shows as a step in the right direction for both Google and the open source community.

As I write this I consider more and more of wiping the hard drive in my machine to rid the dual booting and just use Windows on one machine. And see how many times I go to that machine. So far I have only booted into windows twice in the past month and that was to install Steam and Portal which I played for 2 hours and went back into Linux right after.

My reliance on Windows is dwindling… Should I jump ship? Only time will tell.

I had issues accessing the svideo out port on my Acer 5720Z under previous versions of Ubuntu but under Lucid it works fine. I tested using VLC and Totem and they both worked without a hitch. But I want more. I want a media center application to provide a more simplified UI for the videos I have on my machine.

I have played with XBMC without the laptop connected to the TV and it ran great. It was pretty much what I wanted. TV shows show all the information on the series and individual episodes. Movies show all the breif synopsis of the film along with images for the DVD covers and fan art in the background. Really slick.

I connected it to the TV and tried fullscreen mode. FAIL! Not the program’s fault. It’s the fact that I am using the TV as a Monitor extension instead of a duplicate. But so I can work on the machine for doing my internet stuff (tweets, mail, etc.) I just maximized the XBMC screen so it would show on the other monitor not bothering my main screen. Well, it worked for the most part. However playing videos it seems that it is quirky.

Audio and video are out of sync by almost a full second. People are talking before you see it. It’s kind of annoying. But this is the odd part. It happens sporadically. Sometimes it does this other times it’s fine. GAH! It’s really annoying.

So now I am looking into some other alternatives for the software aspect.

One main factor in a Media Center system is the ability to control using a remote. I did some research on using a standard IR remote with my laptop (seeing it had the IR port in the front I figured, hey, why not). Well, this is where things got REALLY confusing, configuring LIRC and on top of it, finding the codes to use on the remote itself. So I stumbled across an article that recommened using this USB – RF Remote. I got it and it works wonderfully as a wireless mouse and keyboard in the palm of my hand!

So now basically I play the videos on the TV using Totem or VLC and use my remote to pause and play. Hopefully I can figure out the issue with the syncing (which seems to be another issue of video drivers for Intel based graphics under Linux) or find another application, but for now XBMC will stay. I can use it on the long trip coming up soon to Georgia at least.

Note: This article was typed using w.bloggar for Windows (because I’m at work)

Time for another Geek Fight. Tonight’s competitors are the heavy hitters of the music players for Linux. Who will come out on top? Read on for my review of these awesome apps!

Rhythmbox

Rhythmbox is one of the default music players that comes intstalled with Ubuntu and many other flavors of Linux using the Gnome desktop GUI.

It’s an integrated music management application, originally inspired by Apple’s iTunes. It is free software, designed to work well under the GNOME Desktop, and based on the powerful GStreamer media framework.

Among the many features of Rhythmbox, you will find:

• Easy to use music browser
• Searching and sorting
• Comprehensive audio format support through GStreamer
• Internet Radio support including last.fm streams
• Playlists
• Display audio visualizations
• Transfer music to and from iPod, MTP, and USB Mass Storage music players
• Display album art and song lyrics downloaded from the internet
• Play, rip, and burn audio CDs
• Automatically download audio podcasts
• Browse, preview, and download albums from Magnatune and Jamendo
• Ubuntu users also will see that the UbuntuOne Music Store is integrated into the application as well.

Now, I like how it does all this, however one thing I find lacking on this is how it does not really handle file management. Sure, when you rip a CD it will put the files into the Music folder under whatever you set it up to do (i.e. Music/Artists/Album/Track number – Title.mp3 or what ever you want it to file under) but when you import from another folder it doesn’t copy them into the Music folder at all. Or at least from what I have been seeing. It just imports them into the Library but doesn’t give an option of consolidation. Which would be a great feature. Please email me if you have a solution for this inside of Rhythmbox. I know I could manually do it but it’s time consuming with a lot of files.

Banshee

Banshee doesn’t come standard with Ubuntu, but you can get it through MANY means. I installed it using Ubuntu-Tweak so I have the PPA already installed and updates are made whenever I update my system.

Now Banshee has pretty much a lot of the same features as Rhythmbox, but there are a lot more things about it that set it apart from Rhythmbox. First and foremost is video capability along with the fact that it does consolidate files for you. There are many built in plug-ins that you can activate and it runs pretty smoothly.

I have a huge library of music and really haven’t imported it all mainly because I store my library on an external hard drive and import only bits of it because I cannot fit it on my regular hard drive. Anyone willing to get me a 1TB or 500GB drive will be greatly appreciated.

All in all I have played around with both players and found something each has and doesn’t have. Banshee, I don’t see a CD Import function so I use Rhythmbox or I could even use another CD Ripping software, but that is one feature that I hope Banshee comes out with or I can find somehow, but just haven’t yet.

But all in all with the 2 I have to say the winner of this round is…

BANSHEE

• 1 shot Bailey’s Irish Cream
• 1 shot Port Wine

It’s basically the same as a Cement Mixer, but using a different name it throws them off. But seriously a good drink to really confuse the bartender is to order the maritini inspired by the Linux distribution known as Ubuntu. I present to you, the Ubutini! You can get the recipe by expanding the image on the right or get it at the Ubuntu Wiki.

If you are too lazy to click on the image or link, here’s the recipe for this drink. I so want to try it, sounds delicious. So grab your martini glasses and mix this:

• 1 oz. Vodka
• 2.5 oz. Tonic Water
• 0.5 oz. Grape Soda
• Splash of Crown Royal

Recommended:

• Grape Soda Ice Cubes
• Frozen Grapes
• Tang Crystals (for rim of glass)

Continue on for the basic stats on the 2 services:

Basic Feature Run Down

Each service has it’s bonus. Here’s similar basic features and the rundown of them all:

As you see a lot is pretty much the same. Drop Box does offer a larger storage on the paid side, but here’s some pros and cons that set the two apart:

Drop Box:

Pros:

• Multiplatform – you can install the updater on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Great if you run multiple OS’s
• Undo Feature – If you didn’t want to delete a file or folder you can retrieve it. The 30 Day undo means that you can go back up to 30 days of deleted files or folders. The unlimited basically goes back to when you started the service.
• Share with others by sending invites by email – want to share those pictures of your kid with other members of your family? Send them an invite to use the service and they will be able to access the folder you put them in.
• Mobility options are free all the time. See site for details.

Cons:

I have only found one so far:

• Cannot store contacts or bookmarks unless you export them to a file and import them into your software. This can be a pain in the neck because Firefox doesn’t overwrite bookmarks, it adds them as duplicates and you will have to manage them more after import. BAH!

Ubuntu One

Pros:

• Share any folder within your home folder
• Sync contacts and bookmarks (with firefox plug-in unfortunately cannot find for windows).
• Automatically stores music purchased from the UbuntuOne Music store (accessible through Rhythmbox).

Cons:

• Software is for Ubuntu Only on any OS but to get files or upload files onto the cloud you have to use a web browser.
• Integration – This can be a pro or a con really. It’s nice that it’s native to the system but if it is something that is not needed or wanted uninstalling it seems a little obtrusive. (Need I bring up internet explorer integration issues on Windows machines?)
• Mobility device syncing is free for 30 days then you have to go into the pay options to use it.
• Initial connection for machine is a little chunky and sometimes does not work properly at first.

All in all both services offer some great features. Both sync your files with machines, although Drop Box seems to be the winner with the cross platform option. Personally, I use both. Ubuntu One has become more of a backup platform for files I NEED when I am reinstalling Ubuntu that I don’t feel like running to a website to re-download. And Drop Box is something I use when I want to have files accessible both at home and work. Which is what cloud services are all about.

True I can go onto Ubuntu One’s website and log in to download my files, but with Drop Box’s Windows and Linux installers I have them there already on both machines.

So to end this first of hopefully many Geek Fights the winner is:

DROP BOX

]]> http://www.voodoostevie.net/2010/05/geek-fight-1-drop-box-vs-ubuntu-one/feed/ 0 http://www.voodoostevie.net/2010/05/ubuntu-on-big-bang-theory/ http://www.voodoostevie.net/2010/05/ubuntu-on-big-bang-theory/#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 14:01:16 +0000 VooDooStevie http://www.voodoostevie.net/?p=281 I watch Big Bang Theory religously. It’s a great show. Funny as hell. And really hits the nail on the head with true geekery. Seems Sheldon loves the same OS I use on my laptop as well.

I can really see why Sheldon loves it. It’s slick, it’s stable, and lately has been doing what I want on a computer.

The only complaint about Ubuntu (not just 10.04 but previous versions as well) is that I cannot get games like Guild Wars, or Portal or any game that is either Windows based or intense graphics to run smooth on the Linux partition. Boxee also runs real jagged. I don’t know if this is a driver issue with the Intel based card that’s in my Acer 5720Z or what. Oh well, hopefully it will get worked out soon.

They really have come a long way. A lot of great new features since Karmic and even more since the initial release of Warty Warthog in 2004 when I first looked at Ubuntu as a Linux distro.

The biggest change in the latest release is the Mesaging Menu this little envelope on the top panel gives you access to Chat (Empathy),  Social Networking (Gwibber),  and Email (Evolution). After setting it all up you get notifications of new messages from that one icon.

I also added a few other notifications to the Me Menu thanks to some info found on OMGUbuntu.

Adding Lifera to the Messaging  Menu

This was posted by d00d on OMGUbuntu on 5/8/10

Download

The patch is due to go upstream but for the time being you can install Liferea from the following .debs, available from Maia’s PPA.

First install this .deb: liferea-data_1.7.4-2~llfsyncfix1+sikon6_all.deb

Now choose the appropriate .deb for your system:

• liferea_1.7.4-2~llfsyncfix1+sikon6_amd64.deb
• liferea_1.7.4-2~llfsyncfix1+sikon6_i386.deb

Add Gmail Notifications to the Messaging Menu

This was posted by d00d from OMGUbuntu on 5/2/10. I went with the first option and it works fantastically.

Gmail Notifier #1

GM-Notify is the first one and the only major difference between this and the next is that it doesn’t list your unread e-mails in the messaging applet, instead it simply displays the number of unread items in your inbox.

To install it open a terminal and enter the following lines carefully: -

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gm-notify-maintainers/ppa
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gm-notify

To set up your GMail account with GMail Notifier head to System > Preferences > GMail Notifier Configuration. From here you can also specify alert sounds, labels and on-launch preferences.

Gmail Notifier #2

The second – and again pretty much identical – version does all of the above but with the addition of listing the unread items waiting in your inbox (see picture).

Download

http://repo.ahadiel.org/apt/lucid/gmail-notifier_1.7_all.deb

Of course with this release, I did have to do the usual, install the restricted extras, add AWN, Skype, VLC, gPodder (along with the extras for it), Audacity, the Compiz management packages, Ubuntu Tweak (which adds a bunch of other things), and programs I actually would like to use on the desktop.

All in all it is stable and runs fine. I’m going to play with WINE some more to see if I can get the Windows programs I run will work right.

The longest thing I did under this release was download podcasts, but that has nothing to do with the system. My internet connection is slow unfortunately. Strange I get a fast connection at my parents house with the same provider, but again I think it’s location location location.

Another nice feature is the Me Menu which allows you to set your accounts up, change your online status (post to the social networks quickly without opening up Gwibber fully, and change online, offline, invisible, away, etc. on chat). This also links to the About Me (ala System -> Preference -> About Me) information where you can add an avatar and all your information as a user.

The look and feel of Lucid is nice and smooth. The only gripe I have and a lot of users have is the positioning of the Close, Minimize, and Maximize buttons have switched from right to left. It is something you need to get used to, but with Ubuntu Tweak and MANY different methods you can change that back to the right if you want. I find myself maximizing when I want to minimize a lot!

This release is so stable I installed it on my parent’s older machine and it runs pretty well. Does what they want for now. Unfortunately they only have 512MB of RAM which makes it a little boggy.

I am happy with this new release and already hearing exciting things coming up in 10.10 (aka Maverick Meerkat)!

I installed PlayOnLinux to play Runes of Magic on my machine and after a LONG time downloading the game it would constantly update the game and never play. I felt I was stuck in Groundhog Day with this.

So I grabbed my Windows CD and booted off it. Deleted all my partitions and created new partitions – The larger partition for Windows and the smaller for Linux (around 50GB for Linux is enough for me).  I formatted the larger partition and installed Windows.  Booted up fine and I did all my installs of old software I used on there and things I needed to use.  And of course a couple of games (Runes of Magic was not installed.. Yet.)

Back to square one with the Ubuntu install, however. Every thing works under the dual boot. GRUB comes up for the choice of Ubuntu or Windows.  Now to figure out if I can get BURG to work right. *sigh*

KDE is visually stunning, but for me there is a few things I cannot use with it. Like UbuntuTweak.

I have been working with the GNOME interface more and I have my desktop the way I like it. I even have my girlfriend using my laptop from time to time and she’s not as scared of Linux as she used to be.

That’s really all I have to report at this time…

Now that Karmic has been released. I have played with normal Ubuntu and ran into a slight issue with some of the software I ran just stopped working because of other things I tried to install that must have broken the dependencies for some odd reason. My fault, not the software.

KDE always impressed me with it’s visuals and I think the plasma theme system is a lot “prettier” than GNOME’s default look. Albeit GNOME is meant to be simplistic in it’s appearance it would help to have some easier way to work with the panels and transparency (unless I am just using older themes that don’t work right with it or the author of the theme was not adding anything to allow transparency to the look).

My reason for giving KDE and Kubuntu a second chance? It got to the point I needed to start from square one anyway, because I could not figure where I went wrong with the installation of software I wanted to check out. I bet it was something with Python that really screwed it up.

I ran the installation for Kubuntu, did the updates, added the necessary things to play MP3′s and movies (which Kubuntu prompts you for but does not install all of the kubuntu-restricted-extras so I did that in Konsole) and installed things I needed right away, like gPodder and all the dependencies it needed for the other functions within it to work right, and ssh. I installed the firefox that shows an installer in the Internet section of the applications, and added Chromium as my secondary browser of choice.

While I was at work I ssh’d into my machine (did not set up remote access through VNC under KDE as of yet) and installed some other things I felt I needed to have on my machine to work right.

• The Gimp – So I can do some graphic work
• Inkscape – The perfect choice for Illustration work and some Web design as well.
• Daisy (trying this out)
• Audacity

I also did some more updates and will be adding more later today. But so far I have not attempted to Rip a CD to MP3. The reason for MP3 is because I listen to my music on an iPod Nano that I can’t use OGG on. And the rest of my music collection is in MP3 anyway. So that will be my first test, getting the elusive MP3 encode to work with the CD Rip.

Also Amarok I saw that I am able to subscribe to podcasts, but I am trying to figure how the heck do I sync them to my iPod properly. gPodder syncs REALLY good and the backup service is something I really like because I have reinstalled from scratch a few times and didn’t have to load each show individually by hand, just logged into the feed backup and voila! The entire list of 50 or so shows I subscribe to are loaded then the latest one is marked for downloads (which I have to manually go through and stop ones I already listed to).

So a few things this weekend I am going to figure out. Podcast in Amarok, CD Ripping… And yes, of course I will be trying to get a new episode of VooDooRadio recorded and available for you to listen.

I have made a small list of alternative programs that you can use under Linux and their Windows counterparts. For a more expanded list, check out these two sites:

• The Linux Alternative Project
• Open Source As Alternative

Read on for my list of things I either am using or have used at one time.

I have played around with previous versions going back as far as Warty the Warthog (version 4.10) and none of them really compare to the look and feel to Jaunty Jackalope (version 9.04) and Karmic Koala.

The first thing you will notice is that they have added a graphical splash screen to the OS load screen using xsplash. Of course being the type of guy who likes customizing his GUI I found information on how to modify it thanks to the Ubuntu Forums.. Well google first, but you get the picture.

I really like seeing this over the old text style loading and then blank screen.

Of course the load time has drop considerably. It takes 15 seconds to boot up from a cold boot. A lot better than the slow boot of the other OS’s I have ran on my computers.

They have ditched Pidgin for Empathy. Personally I don’t care for Empathy so I am continuing to use Pidgin.

The Software Center replaces the old Add/Remove programs option and it is a lot simpler. But for a better control of packages I still use the synaptic manager from time to time.

All in all Karmic Koala kicks ass and you will see a ton of other reviews agreeing with that statement.

I personally recommend downloading it and checking out the Live CD at least. Even if you are not ready to make the jump into Linux, you can play around with it and see how easy it is.

I will be compiling a list of alternative software VERY soon.

The reason for adding these entries is because I am trying to consolidate my websites a little. And the subdomains albeit a great idea for making some little blogs, I have decided that this will be my primary blog for all of the things I want to talk about.

So enjoy! And subscribe to the feed if you want to be updated of new posts.

Microsoft tried to torpedo the success of the Japan Linux Symposium by launching their Windows 7 product that same day. They even had setup a big promotion booth across the street from the conference center.

During a break, we decided to make some fun of Microsoft and dragged Linus over there. When we arrived there, Linus was sold immediately on the product as you can see in the picture. At least that’s what the sales guy thought. He obviously had no idea who he was dealing with. But in the end Linus surprisingly did not buy a copy. Wise man!

From Engadget

From the new graphical load to the other extra stuff that is added from the previous release. This is going to be the best release ever!

Here’s a little review on my thoughts on this upcoming release.

Now I recently had made a mistake with trying to convert my HD from the ext3 format to the new ext4. So I had to redo everything and the only CD I had was the Jaunty release.

Karmic formats to the ext4 on a clean install, however with people using Jaunty, I hope they come up with a user friendly utility to migrate to ext4 because by default Jaunty installs under ext3. In order to install jaunty on the ext4 format you need to use the Advanced partition option on the install. I know it’s a little tedious to do it but it is well worth it.

But I digress.

Karmic by default installs Empathy instead of the familiar Pidgin that we have been used to in previous releases. Personally I loved pidgin and some folks may find Empathy a little less powerful and odd to configure their personal settings for instant messaging. I deal with a lot of people on other OS’s and with file transfer it doesn’t always work well. So if you want Pidgin back, you can install it through the repositories.

Speaking of installing software, you can install things using the new Ubuntu Software center. This breaks down free software by category and installs what you need. However I am finding some things are not in the Software Center that are in the Synaptic installer app. So I am using both not just for some little packages, but some of the software that doesn’t get installed though the Software center (Super Maryo Chronicles install missed the music package for example. That should be a dependency in my opinion).

As I mentioned the boot up process is now more graphical because it’s using XSplash for the boot up screen. Very nice, but I can’t wait to find out how to customize that. Muwahaha.

As far as some other features coming soon, check out this article on OMGUbuntu.

• The Indexer
• Make Tech Easier
• HowToForge

This is a list of what I have installed on my machine as of now…

I have broken them down by Category. Bear in mind some you need to use their repository to get properly. See my notes or the proper websites for these apps.

Audio/Video

• gPodder
• Audacity
• dvd::rip
• ManDVD 2
• VLC
• Songbird
• LiVES
• WinFF

System Related

• Ubuntu-Tweak
• Compiz Manager
• Screenlets
• Avant Window Navigator (AWN)
• ububtu-restricted-extras

Productivity / Grpahics

• Fontmatrix
• Inkscape
• FontForge
• Gourmet Recipe Manager
• Gimp

Internet

• Adobe Air
• Skype
• gFTP
• Kompozer – http://www.kompozer.net/
• XChat
• SSH Server

Games

• Secret Maryo Chronicles
• Spring RTS
• Warsow
• Super Tux Cart
• Second Life