Mandriva Linux Chronicles

Scholarly work using Linux

2012-02-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

I have not been able to post here lately because I received an invitation to publish a scholarly article and, therefore, I got busy writing. I worked passionately on this project, sometimes getting up early to gather sources before my one-year old daughter would get up. You know, once she gets up, I prefer to play with her ;-).

The writing process went as usual. However, when I finished with the article, I remembered everything I did to complete my thesis back in the days in which I was an avid Windows user. I could not help it: I compared the way in which I worked then (with Windows XP) and how I do it now (with Linux powering my computer).

To be able to finish my thesis, I had to steal sleep hours; I would get up every day at 3AM for a month. My Windows computer helped me with the task: it would turn on by itself, load my thesis document, open my browser, and play a song to wake me up. Remember I am no computer guru. To achieve all that, I had to download several programs (and their corresponding cracks). No wonder my Windows box was always infected and throwing tantrums at me!

In Linux, I do not have to install anything for my computer to do all that: the OS includes all the functionalities I need. From KOrganizer, I get the computer to wake me up with a song and to launch Firefox and LibreOffice with my article without exposing my computer to any malware. I simply used the process for a song but selected "application/script" instead of "sound". Then I wrote libreoffice3.4 for "application" and added the path where the file was in "arguments".

But that's not all: Linux has a great tool for copying citations from PDFs: Okular. Its fabulous feature to select text from virtually any PDF, copy it, and paste it truly facilitates the process of adding citations to one's article. Even in the rare cases when it is not possible to get the selection as text, you can paste it as an image with Okular...simple and quick.

Oh, and the workspaces! They are so convenient; you can work without all the clutter. I kept a thesaurus in one desktop, the browser ready in another, some PDF sources in another, and my main document in another. This way, you just say good bye to the waste of time caused by the repetitive minimizing and maximizing of the wrong application.

Thus, when I hear all those silly claims of Linux not being ready for serious work, I chuckle. Waking up, doing research, formatting my sources, writing, proofreading... from nothing to completion, every step of the writing process was a lot more efficient thanks to Linux. I do not even have to worry about MS Office compatibility: the magazine accepts .odt files!

So, I finished this article pretty quickly. And the best part is that I did not have to sacrifice the time to play with my daughter.

The satisfaction of an online course on Linux

2012-01-30T17:32:00.000-08:00

My mother, who successfully migrated from Windows to Pardus GNU/Linux, is always alert trying to find news about FLOSS in our little country. Two weeks ago, she called me with information that seemed like a dream: a reputable University that promotes online learning was offering a course named "Linux OS".

To be honest, although I really wanted to register, I hesitated. After all, online learning is not fully developed here and the platforms are Windows based. Paying only to discover that you are barred out because the software that the institution uses is not Linux inclusive is, obviously, no fun at all. So, before registering, I decided to find as much as possible about the course program and the platform. My inquiries gave positive results; everything seemed suspiciously fine.

Could that be possible? This was the same institution in which, a short year ago, Megatotoro had a hard time with the online platform because of its poor support for Linux. How about if they assume that all the students interested in Linux work from a Windows computer? Was it safe to expect them to fully support Linux just now?

However, I did not want to miss the opportunity: this could very well be my first formal course on Linux. I migrated two years ago without even knowing what Linux was and I have been learning about this family of beautiful OSs in a rather empirical way ever since. Actually, this blog was my attempt to have a record of everything I learned... Yes, the student inside of me was begging me to register.

I did. The course on Linux will be both my first online course and my first Linux formal training.

Today, I submitted homework # 1 and got a bit scared with the proposed evaluating activities. What about the platform? It does support Linux! I accessed it using Firefox 9.01 and it worked like a charm. Megatotoro is my virtual classmate, by the way.

Kind readers of this humble blog, please wish us luck ;-)

The Mandriva waiting continues

2012-01-30T04:23:00.000-08:00

According to this laconic post by Jean-Manuel Croset-0, there was not a solution for the Mandriva dilemma. He claims that the financial situation is "better than expected", which allows the company to try to find a new solution and the new deadline is "mid February".

Although some folk traditions assert otherwise, this is an unfortunate leap year for Mandriva, it seems.

The future looks like the Tulgey wood for the company... especially when one reads between lines: the use of "far better than we expected" and "refused by a minority of shareholders" and the fact that the announcement was delayed until today suggests that there is a Jabberwock hidden somewhere.

Fix for dummy audio output

2012-01-27T06:17:00.000-08:00

Although it's the 27th already, we have no news about Mandriva S.A. yet.
Since some users might be using Mandriva 2010.2 for a while longer, I want to post a fix for a problem that returns periodically: the lack of audio in Mandriva 2010.2 due to the system's failure to identify the sound output. When that happens, the computer goes silent and the speaker icon in the lower panel reads "dummy output".

To fix it, open MCC and, after typing your root password, look for "system". Once there, click on "manage users" and select your name from the list. Click on "edit" and, on the new window, find the tab "groups". Check "audio" and "accept". That should take care of the problem :-)

Now it's the 27th

2012-01-23T19:18:00.000-08:00

Mandriva users must now wait until the 27th to find out what the decision on the future of the company is. That came from a brief announcement on the Mandriva blog. It's been a prolonged suspense: first the resolution was expected on the 16th, then on the 23rd, and now it is scheduled to the 27th.

This is not offering much optimism or hope, but...

Pardus is also shaking, it seems.

Some techno-silliness

2012-01-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

For people who claim that "they are not good with computers", the computer world is way too serious. I have to disagree. Some of the funniest people I've ever met, be it in person or virtually, are definitely above average computer users. I mean, they have certain skills, such as installing an OS and retrieving information about their own systems. Even so, they really know how to make someone laugh.

Since this week has been a little stressful in Mandrivaland and Parduskistan, without mentioning SOPAnxiety and UEFIbroma around the corner, I decided to post here two samples of techno-silliness while we wait for the denoument of these happenings.

1. iPad flexibility
Did you read about iPad 2 customers who got scammed and bought a box with a clay model instead of the Apple tablets they wanted? While I think that the undeniable flexibility of such devices debunks all arguments of open-source advocates on the closed nature of Apple products, the best comment on this I read was "I'm sure it runs Adobe!"

2. Social media risks
Some people seem to forget that having your boss as your Facebook friend can be a bit inconvenient. Yes, not only can it be embarrassing, but it can also be dangerous!

So, what do you think? The world of technology is not as stiff as people might think.

Mandriva: The ides of January are come

2012-01-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

So, today is January 15. Tomorrow, we will know if Mandriva Linux, a distro that has been around since 1998, is gone. One can but find a resemblance between this date and the prophecy that the soothsayer gave to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's tragedy.

Mandriva was originally named Mandrake and its motto was "a star is born". Well, unfortunately, heavenly bodies also die. Will Mandriva become a shooting star?

I have the feeling that great expectations are being created around a certain Cauldron, by the way.

On disaster reports

2012-01-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

2012 started as a rather interesting year. Perhaps influenced by the so-called "Mayan Doomsday" prophecies, people today reported hearing strange rumbling noises coming from the Earth.

Interestingly, the Linux world also has its own disaster predictions--you always listen that Linux is finished on the desktop, that the desktop computer itself is finished, and a myriad more.

One of the predictions that I read is that 2012 will be the definite year of Mandriva's disappearance. Since Mandriva was the distro that made me migrate to Linux, I must admit that I received the news with a grave heart.

However, one must consider that Mandriva (the distro) is not the same as Mandriva S.A. (the company). It is the latter the one that might finally close its doors. The question at stake would be if Mandriva Linux can survive without the company. Will Mandriva Linux sail into oblivion? Will it transform into something else, ROSA Linux, for instance? And if Mandriva actually vanishes, will that imply the demise of the forums, MIB, and so many other Mandriva-related pages, such as the humble www.mandrivachronicles.blogspot.com, prompting me to go back to the always forgiving arms of Redmond? I know, I know, that's exaggerating too much. :-P

Let us see what happens. When facing doomsday prophecies, one must never make hasty decisions. As for me, I have learned to love the responsiveness of PCLinuxOS, the simplicity of Mepis, and the stability of Pardus, so I do not think I will go back to Windows any time soon. Besides, if Mandriva truly disappears, its legacy is already preserved by the magical cauldron of Mageia.

I give up; my search for the perfect Linux rescue distro is over

2011-12-23T09:26:00.000-08:00

When I discovered Linux two years ago, I started looking for what I called "The Perfect Rescue Distro", a somewhat mythical distribution that fitted into a CD, could mount Windows partitions, play all sorts of video/audio formats, include a productivity suite, decent image-manipulating tools, and burn backups...all in Live mode. Hence, over these two years, I have tested lots of distributions and some of them came really close to the ideal. I felt as if the Holy Grail was between an arm's reach.

However, something happened and I must abandon my quest. I never found what I was looking for; all distros I tested lacked either one feature or another. So, yes, I give up; I declare that my search for the perfect Linux Rescue Distro is officially over.

What made me abandon what once was my fundamental motivation to use Linux?

To begin with, 2011 was a real convulsive year in the Linux world. No, I will not talk about Ubuntu and its Unity UI; the distro that attracted me to Linux was Mandriva 2009, not Canonical's child.

Mandriva stumbled and, before I knew, I was not only using Mandriva, but also Pardus, Mepis, Mageia, and PCLinuxOS. I never distro hopped: all those beautiful OSs share my hard drives and I became pampered by the simplicity of Mepis, the consistency of Pardus, the familiarity of Mageia, and the responsiveness of PCLinuxOS. All Linux OSs interconnect, so I do not need to reboot to get my files from a different partition.

Along my process of adaptation, the role of the different communities was central. Everyday I go online, I visit the forums of those distros and I have learned about computers and technology as I had never in my life. For example, thanks to the help (and jokes) of PCLinuxOS users, the laptop that once sported a Windows 7 OS now boots three different Linux systems...and Microsoft's products were wiped out from the HD without any regret.

You see, it is this empowerment that made me abandon my quest for the perfect Rescue Distro. As I became a user of multiple Linux OSs, I discovered that my once primordial drive to use Linux was meaningless: there is not anything to rescue any longer! My computers work as they have never done it: now they are quick, efficient, and aesthetically-pleasing. I have no reason to use Windows and, consequently, I do not need to worry about how to rescue it.

With Linux, using a computer and retrieving files cannot be easier...even for a non-technical user like me. My search was over and I had not even realized it.

Test driving Firefox 9

2011-12-21T05:20:00.001-08:00

Following a rapid release schedule that has upset several people, Firefox 9 was made available yesterday. Although it has been said that Google Chrome has taken the #2 browser market share position, I will continue using the Mozilla browser because, to be honest, none of the arguments against Firefox has been heavy enough for me to drop it. In addition, I like Mozilla's open Web philosophy and the useful extensions that can be incorporated to "the little browser that could".

Hence, I downloaded Firefox 9 and unzipped the tar file. Since the created directory is called "firefox", I changed its name to "firefox9" to be able to run the previous version if the new browser failed the test. Then, after opening Konsole and typing SU and my root password, I used this command to move the folder:
cp -r /home/my directory/Downloads/firefox9 /usr/lib/

I then added the menu entry and started Firefox 9. It first checked compatibility with my add-ons (WOT, NoScript, Zotero, Webmail notifier, Ad Block Plus, Download Helper) and loaded without much trouble. The add-ons are working flawlessly, too.

Is Firefox 9 faster? Well, Google+ lasted 2.67 seconds to load with Firefox 7.01. It took me 1.12 seconds to load this page with Firefox 9. The time difference is not a big concern for me, but it seems vital for some other people.

Aside from that, my untrained eye only caught two other differences: outline for missing icons and the page reload button.
Firefox 7.01: Blank page icon

Firefox 9: Outline of missing icon

As for the page reload button, it is inside the address bar in FF9.

I consider my test drive a success. I'll keep the new version to see how it performs. I have tried all critical pages (including the financial institution with which I do online banking) and I haven't had any major problem so far, only some funny display issues here at Blogger. I can live with it, though.

Pardus Wallpaper paradise

2011-12-20T05:13:00.000-08:00

One of this days I visited a Wallmart store and went to the computer section. There, they were displaying a Windows 7 netbook. You know, according to the EULA of that "convenient" OS, you cannot change the wallpaper. Well, in an attempt to sell, the OEM probably installed something to go around that limitation and the computer sported a beautiful wallpaper... with penguins on it. I loved the paradox.

Some people--those at Microsoft, for example-- might say that wallpapers are not necessary. However, those customized images are important. People like to see something meaningful when they work with their computers. One wants one's work station to be appealing. When sitting in front of homogenized machines, people get unmotivated for work. That's the reason why employees always like to have pictures of their family in their work place.

Anyways, the oxymoron at Wallmart made me remember that there is a nice place to get Pardus wallpapers. If someone is interested, this is the link.
These are some samples (you can find different sizes at the page):

Merry Xmas with Tux and a PCLinuxOS TV

2011-12-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

It's vacation time already and I've been away from the blogosphere. I remember that, before 2009 (when was still a Windows user), I longed for this free time to come. No, not because I was included in Bill Gates' gift list, but because I really needed this free time to format my hard drive and get rid of all the malware pestering the OS...

As a Linux user, the X-mas virus cleaning ritual stopped for good, so I have been sharing with my wife and my one year old daughter instead. It's Christmas, so we bought some presents and engaged into some home improvements. My daughter has already learned how to walk and has turned into a charming little menace: she grabs all objects in her path, either to keep her balance or to examine them, so we had to move the old TV to a safe place and bought a 19' LED screen, which my wife asked me to mount on a wall, away from Eimi's inquiring eyes and dangerous little hands.

This thingy has a VGA port. Taking advantage of it, I connected my laptop to the flat screen to surprise my wife with something she had never seen: Linux on a TV!
She is also a Linux user and really liked to see the penguin OS there. Of course, I know that the operating system of those TVs is probably Linux anyway but, even so, it was refreshing to see the KWIN effects. My wife was, of course, delighted with the possibilities of her new TV.

Mandriva 2011 PowerPack: A quick image tour

2011-11-16T21:06:00.001-08:00

As I promised, I bought the PowerPack version of Mandriva to test it. I installed it to a virtual machine because my main goal is not to check for performance, but to see what Mandriva 2011 PowerPack offers that you do not get in Mandriva Desktop 2011. Eventually, I'll install it to my testing laptop but, for the time being, a virtual machine will do.

The installation process is basically the same that one finds in previous Powerpack versions. However, this time, the DVD waits a bit before it boots. That gives newbies some time to read the instructions on the screen, which is good.

The installation process also has a main difference: this PowerPack version offers you more customization of the computer instead of simply bloating it up with all kinds of software. So, you get to choose whether or not to install games, multimedia programs, documentation, or if you want to install your own packages. It also gives you desktop options: KDE, Gnome 2.32, or LXDE. Why not Gnome 3? Well, I suppose that since KDE comes with the ROSA SimplyWelcome as default, they chose to avoid some duplicity.

For the summary, if you define a country, you can also choose to install IMEs to type Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc. I chose iBUS. After the selection, the installer downloaded the necessary packages. This is convenient, but it is also offered in the free Mandriva Desktop 2011 version. You create your account and choose your avatar (I chose the cat) and then you are ready to let the system reboot. I liked the fact that the old booting screen is back...Well, sort of: they combined the Mandriva 2010 and 2011 booting screens! After a while, you are finally taken to your Mandriva 2011 PowerPack desktop:

I really liked the wallpaper because of its colors and because it brings memories of previous PowerPack versions.I fired up the SimpleWelcome and noticed two things: At the top of the screen, my cat avatar was replaced by an image of some pebbles, the avatar of the Guest account. No matter if I changed the image using KDE controls or Mandriva Control Center, the pebbles didn't go away. However, if I logged out, I coud see the image of the cat.

The other thing I noticed is that there were lots of programs that were not offered in the free version, although you can get them from the repositories anyway. The main problem that a newbie could face is probably getting to configure drivers correctly, which is one of the additional values that PowerPack offers.

Here are the images of the application categories:

Firefox version is 8.0.
Then, it ocurred to me to delete the Guest account and... voila!, my cat avatar finally appeared at the top.

I think that the PowerPack version is a good option for newbies who are not interested in spending some time learning how to configure video (yes, Flash is working out of the box) and that want games, more software, or additional value (support) out of the box for a fraction of the price they would have paid for Windows. I got the discount, so Mandriva 2011 PowerPack cost me $47.20 instead of $59. Was it worth it? Well, for me, it was a satisfactory purchase.

So was the access to the PCLinuxOS PASS.

To be honest, I cannot regret having used little amounts of money to support Linux projects. After all, Windows cost me a lot more and, if I add up all the money I wasted paying technicians to destroy my data and put Windows back, I can say that I have a good reason not to complain.

My only regret is not being able to make a small contribution to Mageia.

Maybe some day...

Mandriva 2011 PowerPack just arrived!

2011-11-15T20:56:00.001-08:00

Right on time, Mandriva released its 2011 PowerPack version.
With the announcement, they ratify that Mandriva will be now releasing one version per year, not two versions, as they had been doing.

What does Mandriva PowerPack version offer? Well, the distro promises all drivers, the smart desktop technology, the Fluendo DVD player, and three months of free Web support, among other features.

PowerPack is a commecial version; you must pay $59 to download it. Is it worth it? Many Mandriva users always asked the same question before because of the existence of Mandriva One, a version that made installation and use of Mandriva very easy up to version 2010.2. However, it was discontinued.

I am a 2010.1 PowerPack user. Do I want to change to 2011 PowerPack? Honestly, I am not sure about that. One thing I know: I am very curious to see what Mandriva has to offer in this new commercial version, so I'll buy it an post later about it.

The New Laptop Experiment: The first 15 days

2011-11-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

In this post, I talked about my experience with a new HP laptop computer that I bought. I also tried the latest releases of some other Linux distros, such as Pinguy (did not enable Wi-fi), Ubuntu (crashed at logout), and Chakra (also failed at enabling Wi-fi), I finally decided to keep these three:

PCLinuxOS
It is my main OS, so I will use it to work quickly and efficiently. I configured an additional panel that auto-hides to fire up the applications that I use the most.
Interestingly, PCLOS does in this laptop something that Mandriva 2010.2 could not do very well in my desktop: run the Humble Bundle games! I can play Cogs, Crayon Physics, and Machinarium.

Desktop effects are running perfectly. Here are the KWin cube and the desktop grid.

PCLOS came with Pidgin as the IM client. I downloaded Kopete, but it refused to connect to MSN because it lacked a protocol. Pidgin connects without any problem.

The desktop theme is called "Ghost". I like the glow it adds to the dialog boxes and the semi-faded look it gives to the bottom panel.

One very good thing about PCLOS is that I did not have to break my head to get VLC to run. I just downloaded it from the repositories and it played all sorts of videos.

Mageia 1:
It will be my production distro. Since Mageia works exactly as Mandriva 2010.2 PowerPack does, it is convenient to have it in case I stumble upon a problem that I cannot solve. I spent more time configuring desktop icons here. I also added a top auto-hiding panel. Kopete was running but something happened and it now simply refuses to connect to MSN. Consequently, I downloaded Pidgin.

Again, the desktop effects are running perfectly. One challenge was to get VLC with the codecs, but I found a thread in the Mageia forums where someone suggests to activate the "tainted" repositories to get VLC to play more video formats. That took care of the problem.

One funny thing that happened is that Mageia 1 Live CD did not let me work with the Japanese IME iBus(it works flawlessly in Mageia 1 DVD, but that release did not activate the Wi-fi of this computer). Hence, I compromised and now I use SCIM, just like in Mandriva 2010.2.

Mandriva Desktop 2011

I did customize a lot more here. I moved the ROSA panel to the top and selected the auto-hide property. Then I added the Cairo Dock at the bottom.

I was not planning to install this distribution because I was not very happy with the ROSA SimpleWelcome and Launcher. I know that I can change it to a default panel, but still... However, after running the Mandriva Desktop 2011 Live DVD and seeing that it enabled the Wi-fi and the sound (which Mandriva 2010.2 had failed to do), I installed it.

Maybe the feature that made me reconsider my position about the ROSA SimpleWelcome is the time line. I find it rather interesting and convenient. Nepomuk must be enabled for it to work and that implies an additional wait of 15 seconds at boot, but I can live with it.

The Kwin effects are running without any problem.

I know that this customization is way too flashy because of its overdose of eye-candy, but it is good to show people what you can do with Linux without a lot of technical training.

More importantly for me, Mandriva Desktop 2011 also lets me type in Japanese (via iBus).

The last thing I did was to synchronize Firefox, so that all the OS's in the laptop share the configuration of the browser in my desktop.

By the way, I have displayed all the OS's in public already. None of them has let me down :-)

New laptop, new challenge: Which Linux distro is right?

2011-10-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

A colleague who is studying abroad came back to the country and visited the University for a while. After giving me a quiz for his research project, he made me an offer I couldn't refuse: he wanted to get rid of one of the laptops he bought for the research-- an HP Pavilion g4-1135dx, AMD dual core, 3GB RAM, and more than 300GB HD, Windows 7 Home premium and MS Office 2010. The price he gave me was half of what I have to pay for it here and the laptop is practically new. It's not that I need a new mobile computer right now (my penta-boot netbook meets my needs for work perfectly), but I must confess that I have been considering to buy myself a laptop, one that I can use as a test ground. I knew there was no way I could get a better price for that machine here in my country, so I bought it and the questions began.

Windows 7... what to do with you?

I was not sure if I wanted to keep this OS and the MS Office suite. While I do not particularly hold a negative opinion about the former, I hate the latter passionately. In addition, it's not like I need to use Windows for something anyway. In the computers where I do have Windows, this OS works more like a storeroom than anything else.

After considering the options, I decided that I would settle for a dual boot. That was my decision, but Windows, as usual, had other plans: my headaches began when I tried to resize the partitions. Someone had made an extra partition and the table was full thanks to HP and its policy of slicing the hard drive. I selected the partition that I thought was harmless and resized it. Windows refused to boot and asked me for the rescue DVD which, of course, I did not have. It was almost midnight and I had little patience for babysitting a spoiled OS, so I changed my mind and simply wiped out all partitions and reformatted them, exorcising all traces of MS software from the machine in the process. I wanted the laptop to test Linux distros, not Windows, so I will not miss Vista/7 at all.

Let the Linux parade begin!

With a blank HD and no further concern, I aligned my Linux Live CDs and DVDs for a test drive of the hardware. I chose Mandriva 2010.2, Linux Mint 11 (Katya), Mepis 11, Chakra (the latest) and PCLinuxOS 2011.6. I deliberately left Ubuntu, Pardus 11 and Mageia 1 out because I didn't have live media of Pardus and Mageia and I personally don't like Ubuntu.

The test was simple: the distributions that managed to activate the sound system and the wi-fi of the laptop and could deliver an acceptable multimedia experience would go to the next stage (installation). These are the results:

1. Mandriva 2010.2 failed (no sound, no wi-fi)
2. Mepis 11 failed (sound, but no wi-fi)
3. Chakra failed (sound & wi-fi, but video wouldn't play)
4. Linux Mint 11 (passed with honors)
5. PCLinuxOS 2011.6 (passed with honors)

Second stage: installation and effects

1. PCLinuxOS
As I'm rather familiar with its installation process, I installed PCLinuxOS first. I was not very sure because I have some problems with effects on my desktop (nothing that prevents me from sleeping, actually), but PCLinuxOS went out like an energetic Texas longhorn and installed everything without a flinch. I tried the Kwin effects and everything was perfect! Of course, I was lacking the Office suite but the process to get it is simple enough for a Linux non-technical user like me: you fire up Synaptic, search "lomanager", select it for upgrade, close Synaptic and click on the Libre Office installer icon on the desktop. The only drawback, if any at all, is that this is a 32 bit OS... Again, nothing that matters much to me.

2. Linux Mint 11 "Katya"
I installed the 64 bit version of Linux Mint. I have always liked the elegance of this OS and the way it handles the installation process. I noticed something new: Mint said that it had detected PCLinuxOS and prompted me for an action. I selected "install next to it" for a dual boot. However, after the process was complete, PCLinuxOS was unbootable... In Linux-Linux dual boots that happens quite often, but my real problem was that I do not know how to repair it from the grub mechanism in Mint (Megatotoro taught me the ropes for GRUB legacy, but I simply do not know how to repair this thing). The only option was to start over...

Installation again and a surprise contestant

I put PCLinuxOS back, but not Mint. I will eventually, once that I know how to handle the dual boot without messing with the other OS.

When everything was back in place, I considered if I wanted to give Mandriva Desktop 2011 a chance. I mean, I am not crazy about the ROSA rocket bar and SimpleWelcome, but reports are that it is buggy and Mandriva 2010.2 couldn't activate the Wi-fi, so why would this Mandriva version be any different?

What the heck! I inserted the Mandriva Desktop 2011 DVD and....Surprise, I had sound! I checked the Wi-fi and...Surprise again, it picked up my network signal! It had some issues with the effects and I knew it had problems with Flash, but I installed next to PCLinuxOS just for the sake of testing.

Mandriva 2011 had some problems with the graphic card (no log out, some freezes), but the OS detected that it was due to the lack of a proprietary driver and, after installing it, all those problems disappeared. I installed the flash plug-in from the repositories and the distro is working flawlessly... Who would have thought? :-)

Another distro, another surprise

After downloading the Mageia 1 Live CD, I did not expect anything different from Mandriva 2010.2. However, Mageia Live booted without a glitch and sound was also enabled. I checked the Wi-fi and, yes, it was also picking up my signal.

Moral: Never take a Linux distro for granted. As it turns out, I have enough distros where to choose from to power up this new laptop :-)

I think that I'll keep PCLinuxOS as my main OS. I might also put Mageia in there as a production distro. I'll keep Mandriva 2011 to have a triple boot. Then I'll save a partition for testing.

Mandriva 2011 PowerPack is in the oven

2011-10-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

With the advent of Mandriva 2011, Mandriva versions were reduced to only one. Previously, you could select among Free, ONE, and PowerPack. I was introduced to the world of Linux by the ONE version (back in 2009), but I paid for the PowerPack 2009 and 2010.

Surprisingly, I got today an email from Mandriva S.A. in which they wanted me to fill up a survey regarding PowerPack. It said that this paid version will be available in November and included questions about my Linux expertise *hehe*, the GUI I preferred, the main use I gave to Mandriva, and a wish list. Yay! I asked Text-to-speech to be included.

Truth be told, my home desktop is not running Mandriva 2011, but Mandriva 2010.2 PowerPack, Pardus 2011, and PCLinuxOS. I do think I will buy the new PowerPack if they release it.

La conferencia sobre Vigilancia tecnológica y software libre

2011-10-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

Ayer asistí a una conferencia llamada "Vigilancia Tecnológica y Software Libre", que había sido organizada por la Escuela de Bibliotecología de la universidad donde trabajo. Esta actividad se enmarcó dentro de las acciones para iniciar la migración hacia el software libre en la universidad.

El conferencista mostró una noticia publicada en un periódico nacional ayer. El titular era "Instituciones estatales usan cada día más software libre". ¡Yo no me esperaba eso!

El contenido de la charla se volvió más técnico después. Sin embargo, a pesar de que la conferencia iba dirigida a profesionales en tecnologías de la información, como bibliotecólogos y archivistas, el presentador compartió un par de herramientas libres muy interesantes para el beneficio de usuarios que escriben artículos: Sironta and Zotero. La primera es un programa para colaborar en documentos; la segunda es una extensión de Firefox para recuperar la bibliografía de libros en línea. Ambos son herramientas magníficas para investigadores y eruditos.

Me divierte que haya sido mi madre quien me avisara sobre esta conferencia, ya que ella es una usuaria de computadoras no técnica que solía volverme loco con llamadas deseperadas relativas a problemas con su computadora. Hoy, mi madre es una feliz usuaria de Pardus que me trasmite toda la información que obtiene sobre el acontecer del software libre en nuestro país.

The conference on Technological Surveillance and Free Software

2011-10-14T21:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I attended a conference titled "Technological Surveillance and Free Software", which was organized by the School of Information Technologies of the university where I work. This activity was part of the actions to start the migration to FLOSS in the university.

The speaker showed a clip from one newspaper displaying the headline "State institutions using more free software everyday". This piece of news was published yesterday, too. That was something I did not expect!

Then, the content of the talk became more IT jargon. However, although the conference targeted professionals of librarianship and ITs, the speaker shared some interesting tools that many people can benefit from, especially those who work writing articles: Sironta and Zotero. While the former is a program for collaborating on documents, the latter is an extension for Firefox that helps you retrieve the bibliographical entry of online books, a great tool for scholars and researchers.

It's fun that I got the information about the event from my mother, a non-technical computer user who, some years ago, used to drive me nuts with desperate calls concerning crashes and viruses. Today, she is a happy Pardus user and sends me all the information that she gets about free software events in my country.

Different computer users, one common Linux complaint

2011-10-09T05:05:00.000-07:00

There are several types of users in the world of computers. Most of them are simple, non-technical users; they are the kind of people who learned to use a computer without any formal training or they took some application courses (falsely called "computer courses"), so their understanding of a computer is simply too basic. These are naive users who tend to perceive the system as a magic box--sometimes the contemporary equivalent of Pandora's Box and, because of that, their learning is often thwarted by fear or anxiety ("I clicked here and the computer showed me a message box, so I panicked and turned if off").

Some other people belong to the opposite category: the power users. Their computer expertise makes them gurus and, therefore, the systems hold no secrets for them. My impression of these kind of people is that they speak binary code and can diagnose a computer problem rather effectively because they have more than one idea of what might have gone wrong.

There is a third group that frequently overlaps the two categories above. These people have developed skills to use several programs in a level that most computer users cannot, yet they lack the technical knowledge of power users. As a result of their expertise, they become sort of picky with their applications and the way in which their computer behaves. I call them gourmet users. This post here by Gene (ERACC) describes very well the difference between a power user and a gourmet user, whom he calls "niche user".

When the option to switch to Linux is presented, the nay-sayers of each group generally round up their reasons to something like this:

1. Simple users: (Without even trying it) "It's too difficult! It took me a lot of effort to learn to work with the computer and now I have to start it all over again?"

2. Gourmet users: "But if you cannot run ______________ (insert name of their favorite application), this is not good".

3. Power users: "Mmm. The thing is that I prefer to work with _______"(insert name of MS programming tool).

The basic issue underlying those claims is recalcitrance. Yes, those individuals are not willing to lean to work in a different way. Regardless of the arguments, unwillingness to learn is normally the bottom line, which is sad, because very rarely is it that learning something new hurts you.

I guess I fall in the gourmet user category. I decided not to jump into the MS Office 2007 wagon because I could use the previous version quite efficiently. Well, since the version I bought did not include PowerPoint, I had to learn how to use electronic presentation software in StarOffice. Additionally, I didn't like the Ribbon interface...and they killed "Linxs". To modify pictures, I used Satori (never liked Photoshop), not MS Paint. And I didn't use MS Movie Maker to produce videos, but VirtualDub. I required my OS to be able to handle Japanese input. Finally, I also wanted my OS to handle text-to-speech synthesis, to fire all sorts of alarms (music, alerts, actions) and to keep me protected from malware. I managed to learn how to do all that in Windows (with the obvious exception of the latter, which is virtually impossible). To do everything I required, the computer depended on many, many third-party programs to add functionality to the MS OS.

I never shy away from learning. That's the reason why migrating to Linux was not so difficult for me...not to mention that I found a friendlier environment in which all tasks I require from the OS can be performed more easily than in the MS operating system.

Why I failed the Windows 8 Logo Program

2011-10-08T06:27:00.000-07:00

With all this uproar because of the implementation of UEFI as a requirement for the Windows 8 Logo Program, I decided to apply to get it because of the advantages it offers. You know, I tend to boot up rather slowly in the morning: I walk around my house in a state of semi-consciousness until all the proper drivers and modules are loaded. It would be great just to wake up and boot up into my operating system in the blink of an eye.

I discovered that one of the requirements to apply for the Windows 8 Logo Program, before I boot up, is to have secure boot enabled by default. I also must carry several sets of keys, all for the sake of prevention. According to MS, if I do not, some malicious thoughts could hijack the boot process and then I would be cast into a zombie state, controlled by some criminal or terrorist. Thus, I might end writing and sending millions of useless postcards...That's scary, isn't it?

So, the basic idea, protection from criminals, sounds appealing. Yet, I started asking some questions and found some problematic issues hidden below the surface of the venerable claim of security:

1. The keys and what you wear

The keys that they give me allow me to boot up super fast because they restrict the elements that I need to function. For instance, I will save time getting to work because I won't have problems remembering where I left my glasses the night before. What's more, in theory, even if a malicious poltergeist wants to play with my eye-prescription device, the mischievous spirit won't be able to. However, there is a big problem with this approach depending on who provides the keys. Let us suppose that MS allows OEMs (Organism Evaluating Mechanisms) to provide their keys. The control on what I boot up into will be so tight that if I, by any chance, want to wear a pair of glasses that is not certified by the key that they gave me, I will be treated like the poltergeist myself. Yes, I'd be in trouble to change my shirt, too. This will make a uniform world, indeed. I'm surprised that the United States, a country that defends individual rights with a passion, might meekly agree to let everyone use "the same clothes". Everyone into the same school uniform! How about that?

But the most worrisome part comes next...

2. Secure boot and the right to think

The fact that I cannot choose my glasses manifests something important that is underlying this prohibition disguised as "prevention". If this so called "secure boot" will not let me swap glasses or shirts easily (action), my right to consider wearing some glasses other than the certified ones (thought) is taken away from me. That is, I cannot even think about wearing anything else... Not even the widely-used MS XP Professional SP3 Glasses, for example. Paradoxically, I won't even be able to replace my MS 8 glasses (OEM version) by a brand new a pair of boxed MS 8 glasses if the keys are given by an OEM and not MS itself. You see, my individual right to think about choosing what I want simply ceases to exist.

You might think that all this is simply solved by disabling secure boot. You are, of course, absolutely right; I also thought that way. And that's the reason why I failed the Windows 8 Logo Program: you must have secure boot enabled BY DEFAULT to apply, remember?

I guess I value my freedom more than the Logo. In the end, if I'm free, I can take care of my security myself.

----------------------------------------------
On a serious note, next time I need to buy a computer, I'll make sure I'll purchase it from a manufacturer that respects my freedom to choose.

On the University migration to Free Software

2011-10-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

Megatotoro described here how the recently announced University migration to free software made a big splash in national newspapers and even on TV news. The idea is to start by replacing MS Office suites by free software equivalents (Open Office.org/Libre Office) and, eventually, dump Windows and implement Linux.

I visited the online page of one of those newspapers to see the coverage and the comments I read were, for the most part, very encouraging and positive. Of course, the public is congratulating the University for the initiative of saving a LOT OF MONEY (that was used to pay MS licenses) through the use of Free Software and to invest this growing amount on improving the campus and on resources available to students.

Today, I had the opportunity to speak to the Dean of the Faculty where both Megatotoro and I work and somehow the conversation steered to Linux. To my surprise, she said: "So you use Linux? That's where we are heading!". Her position was one of embracing change rather than one of fear or discomfort.

Her words are certainly consistent with some actions that the University took:

1. A Free repository was enabled, so scholars and researchers can upload their works and share them with national and international communities for free

2. Several University dependencies have taken measures to guarantee access to their services from different platforms, Linux included.

3. There is a cluster of servers called ESPEJOS (mirrors) that basically lets people download linux distros and other free software from everywhere.

4. The ICT programs are required to teach courses on Free Software.

When the reporters asked the MS representative that handles government issues in the region how Microsoft was affected by this, her words were more an evasion than an answer. She said that Microsoft is “commited to work on interoperability”, and that “this implies more opportunities for developers and more technological innovation and market competition for enterprises and governments, and users”.

Yes, interoperability, she said. For crying out loud! It's thanks to Microsoft that their own proprietary formats do not work properly with other office suites (sometimes, not even their own!)

The interesting outcome of all this is that many comments from the public are urging the government to imitate this step the University took. Of course, our country is not rich and sending all that money to Microsoft instead of investing it on our students or services makes little sense.

I'm sure Microsoft will try to react to this. I was told that, last time, they had a terrible flop trying to license a specialized software for statistics in Windows...It was embarrassing because, during the demo, it crashed, just like on this memorable video...

Maybe that episode prompted the migration :-)

I'm a 7 user now!

2011-09-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

Only it's not Windows 7, but Firefox 7.

I downloaded it as a .tar.bz2 file and used alien to convert it into an RPM. You do that by typing SU in Konsole, then your root password. You have to use this this command:

alien -r firefox-7.0.tar.bz2

(Obviously you need to have alien installed)

You wait a bit and then the terminal tells you that it's done. You find a firefox-7.0-2.noarch.rpm file and click on it to install it.

That's it.

I noticed that this procedure substituted the Firefox 6 that I downloaded from the MIB repos.

Since I'm still using Mandriva 2010.2, I guess that's the best way to switch to Firefox 7 which, by the way, is performing great in my system. All my favorite add-ons work and it's fast. About the changes, well, to be honest, I see the same browser I was using... I guess they are only visible to technical users.

Happy Birthday, MAGEIA!

2011-09-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

Mageia was celebrating its first anniversary yesterday.

A year! That was fast! Just like my daughter, baby Mageia is "a proud, promising and exciting toddler!"

All I can say is that I am very pleased with the way Mageia performs in my netbook and I hope to see more releases of this wonderful distribution that today feels more Mandriva-like than Mandriva itself.

Happy birthday, magic baby!

@Megatotoro, No, I'm not going to post that crazy Mageia poem :-P

Some Random Thoughts on Windows 8

2011-09-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

I had to go to this meeting yesterday in which University representatives came to deliver a workshop and show an application that was supposedly fundamental for the good functioning of the administrative layer of the different University units. However, when I asked the speakers how I could get the application, something funny happened. The younger speaker, a man who gave me a patronizing look, said that the application was real friendly. Then he tried to impress me with "computer jargon": he said that all I had to do was "install it to the root in C: and...."

And that's where I interrupted him to say that my computer doesn't run Windows, so I asked if the valuable application could run in Linux. He was dumbfounded and proceeded with the stupidest answer you can give a potential user: "Well, we can install an OS where the application can run for you and..."

I had to cut him short saying: "Wait, listen: I don't want to discard my OS and all my perfectly functional applications only because this program was not developed to work on different platforms. The program must be changed, not my OS".

That's one lesson several University authorities are yet to learn: academic and administrative units invest time, effort and budget to develop applications that, later on, are lost when Microsoft arbitrarily determines that certain features are not going to be supported by their newest OS version. I wonder if this "fundamental program" will run next year, when Windows 8 will be released. Maybe the program will trigger the redesigned Blue Screen of Death which I, jokingly, had anticipated here.

At least the University Libraries did not plummet into the same abyss. They improved all their systems to be OS-friendly, so I can do scholarly work using my Linux netbook and MAC users are also covered. Some units are also offering documents for download both as .odt and .doc (not .docx!)

But the administrative layer is the one that, for its most part, has no idea of what "compatibility mode for documents" is (let alone what a file extension is!). Those are the individuals who think of themselves as computer experts because they survived the adaptation to the Ribbon interface of Office 2007. However, in a notorious oxymoron, they claim that Linux/Open Office/Libre Office is too difficult because the UI is different. Yet, they simply bore and grinned when Windows 7 introduced new UI features. When a program that worked in XP ceases to work in 7, they meekly accept that as natural, cry over the dead program, and go on as cyber-zombies controlled by a Puppet Master. In short, they are the Spider Monkeys to whom Bill Gates referred and that made him grossly rich.

I must confess that I second what sinaisix mentioned as the first consequence of using Linux here. I like to have control of my computer. I want to be able to work with whatever system I have available, not one that will leave me hanging because the company that sells it decided to drop support. That happened already in the section where I work: the program that controls all the student registration processes is not supported in Windows 7. It was not my mistake, but I did not conform; my first action as the boss was to have it replaced by one that can be run in multiple OSs. It runs in Linux now. Hence, if Windows 8 decides not to run it, we will have a compelling reason not to spend money on a useless OS, right?

I wonder how the Spider Monkeys will react once they are hit by the new UI of Windows 8. Will they be able to pretend that they never said anything about a "pronounced learning curve"? Most probably, people are going to congratulate Microsoft for the brilliant innovation and say, paradoxically, that "Linux is falling behind" despite the fact that such cell phone-like UI was introduced in Linux before. Oh, and that troll who, after seeing Unity in Ubuntu and the ROSA panel in Mandriva, said that he was going back to Windows because "Microsoft knew their desktop" must be eating his shorts right now.

In any case, I hope this troop of Spider Monkeys starts backing up their info, just in case ;-)

Happy Birthday, Eimi!

2011-09-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break from the world of computers to post something different today. Eimi, my daughter, is celebrating her first birthday!
One year! Wow, time surely flies!

She is learning to talk...I hope she will learn several languages (Spanish, English, Japanese, French and all the Thai her uncle can teach her).

Oh, she loves to slam the keyboard of my computer as we watch videos...
Yes, she will also learn to respect other people and to value her freedom.

Happy birthday, Eimi!

Mandriva 2011 seen from a non-technical user's perspective

2011-08-31T14:51:00.000-07:00

Mandriva 2011 arrived and, in the humble opinion of this non-technical Linux user, "Hydrogen", as the release is called, presents a target/usability paradox.

To explain the paradox, I have to go back in time, a retrospective trip of my dealings with Mandriva. In 2009, I chose Mandriva and installed it to my Asus Eee PC 900 after downloading four distributions at random. All I knew about Linux back then was that there were many versions (I didn't even know what the word "distro" meant!) and that some were more difficult to use than others. Somewhere I read that Mandriva was labeled an "intermediate" distribution.

I first ran Debian and panicked because it had a text mode installer. Then I tried Kubuntu, but it wouldn't activate the wi-fi of the netbook. So I ran the Mandriva One 2009 Live CD and, after trying the desktop and, seeing that I could use the wi-fi, I installed it. The process was a little different from what I had seen in my multiple Windows installs, but I succeeded and Mandriva made me forget about the Redmond OS.

The label "intermediate" was fairly accurate, I'd say. My learning curve was pronounced: I had to turn off the computer manually and I made many mistakes out of ignorance. However, before 2009 ended, Mandriva 2010 "Adelie" was released and Mandriva's usability experience changed dramatically: the computer would turn off as expected, hibernation responded, and even function keys worked. Mandriva 2010.1 and 2010.2 made usability better as they added stability to the distribution. Mandriva became a truly easy-to-use distro for a person who had never used Linux before.

I have been testing the so awaited Mandriva 2011 "Hydrogen" for a couple of days now. From the betas, I learned that developers were making a bold move; they introduced the ROSA panel, which I must confess is not my cup of tea at all. To me, it looks like a gigantic cell phone environment, not like the desktop of a PC. Yet, I understand that they want to somehow "simplify" the user experience.

That's where the paradox lies. You install Mandriva 2011 (a rather simple process) and get to the ROSA SimpleWelcome. It's so convenient that even someone who lacks mouse control can navigate it. However, there are several situations that make a newbie run away in panic:

1. Wi-fi is not enabled by default (the same problem that I had with the new kernel and Mageia).
2. Flash is not installed in your browser, so no Youtube viewing until you learn to walk the Mandriva ropes.
3. No codecs for .MP4 or .flv videos.

Even if Clementine plays .MP3s (which is nice because Amarok refused to do it), those three points represent major contradictions when thinking that Hydrogen is aiming at convincing new users that Mandriva is as "easy" to use as Unity or a cell phone.

Despite all that, in my particular case, there are some considerations that made me keep Mandriva 2011 and stand the ROSA panel:

1. I don't like the SimpleWelcome thing although everyone else to whom I have showed it loved it. However, I must admit that the time line tab is convenient and functional.

2. I like the fact that you get a prompt to start a program without having to navigate the ROSA applications tab.

3. If you add the pager widget, you get the four workspaces back. That's great because, once you have enjoyed this kind of computing, a single "desktop" feels over-restrictive.

4. Effects can be enabled so that the work environment becomes a lot more attractive. (That's a shot of the KWIN desktop cube rotating --with four different wallpapers and the SimpleWelcome menu visible in one of the sides).

5. Oh, yes! iBUS installs easily and runs flawlessly with Libre Office if you need to type Chinese, Japanese, etc. Sweet!　それはよかった！

6. The KDE text-to-speech service Jovie is running at last.

Therefore, although I'm not very sure about the direction that Mandriva took, I cannot say that I am utterly displeased with the release. Hydrogen works for me, but Mandriva has gone back to being a distribution with a difficulty level of "intermediate". I don't think I would have kept it if it had been like this when I downloaded Mandriva in 2009...after all, enabling the wi-fi is not a task that someone who knows nothing about Linux can do easily. I would have probably tested the fourth distro I had and by now I'd be a Linux Mint user.

Mandriva 2011 is here!

2011-08-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

As promised, and right on time, Mandriva 2011 has been released. Its codename is "Hydrogen".

Mandriva now only supports KDE officially. For me, that's OK as I prefer to use KDE, but the other changes make me a little anxious. There is a revised installer, the RPM5 thing and, of course, the ROSA UI that is certainly beautiful but has both supporters and detractors. I guess I'd have to be counted in the latter group, but one never knows.

So, I'm right now donwloading and getting ready for testing. If someone with limited knowledge like me can handle the installation and the test drive, then the Mandriva team achieved their purpose.

The Friendly Black Screen that Talks (Espeak)

2011-08-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today, I had great fun with my little nephew thanks to Espeak, which I had installed from the Mandriva repositories long ago in an attempt to make my computer talk again. In Mandriva 2009, the task was performed by KTTS. However, as Mandriva 2010 kept KTTS despite KDE renamed the text-to-speech service (now it's called Jovie), my computer became voiceless. Or so I thought.

Being a Linux newbie, my knowledge of command line amounts to almost zero. Sometimes I unconsciously assume that if the GUI does not work, the program is broken. How silly of me! KTTS handled everything for me so, when I installed Espeak, I simply found no way to make my computer talk again via GUI.

Today, I launched Konsole and typed: espeak --help

Then, I saw all the commands to make my computer start talking again. If you type espeak, all the sentences that you type would be pronounced by the default voice (English).

However, there is a great assortment of languages to choose from. When I typed espeak -v fr [enter], my computer started speaking every line I wrote in French. If you want Spanish from Latin America, you type espeak -v es-la [enter].

So, my little nephew was delighted listening to a computer talk every absurd sentence he asked me to write. He also tried some, but he doesn't know how to write yet. The good thing is that he promised me to study a lot to learn the alphabet soon because he wants to make the computer talk ;-)

--------
For the reference, the voices are stored in /usr/share/espeak-data/voices. The executable file is espeak and it's found at /usr/bin.

Now I only need to find a way to add a Japanese voice...

About Mothers and Linux

2011-08-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

I read constantly that "Linux is not ready for Mom" but I cannot help ask myself which distribution....or, to be more specific, which mother.

Three days ago, we celebrated Mother's Day in my country. Thus, my brother and I wanted to surprise our mother and my wife (who recently became the mother of a cute baby girl). We wanted to give them a memorable present, something that they could use both for entertainment and, why not, to learn. In an unplanned visit to a computer store, my eyes fixed upon the classic Asus Eee PC 900, the tiny netbook that drew me to the world of Linux with its version of Xandros. Next to it sat the Asus Eee PC 901. Temptation was formidable, so we ended up buying both despite the clerk never quite understood why we rejected his offer of some other netbooks (preloaded with the rip off known as Windows 7 Starter).

For those who might think that those were inappropriate gifts because a mother simply can't use Linux, let me asure them my mother is a happy user of Pardus Linux while my wife, who bought a laptop two years ago, asked me to install Mandriva 2010 not to have to use, or suffer, should I say, Windows Vista.

As soon as my mother saw her present, she became truly happy because she wanted a netbook to be able to check her email and socialize with her virtual friends in Facebook without being stuck in front of her desktop PC. However, she rejected the preloaded OS. Before Ballmer celebrates, let me clarify that she did not ask for Windows. She wanted Pardus 2011 instead of Xandros! By the way, this Asus Eee PC runs it with full effects without a glitch despite its modest 1 GB RAM and 20 GB storage.

On the other hand, when my wife saw her Eee PC 901, she decided to give the extinct Xandros an opportunity, mainly due to its flawless voice command. Yes, a tiny computer like than one can receive voice commands even better than the Eee PC 900 did. Windows 7 Starter, you should be ashamed of yourself!

So, there you go: that's two mothers who are happy with Linux.

Acerca de madres y Linux

2011-08-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

Constantemente leo que "Linux no está listo para mamá" pero no puedo evitar preguntarme cuál distribución...o, para ser más específico, cuál mamá.

Hace tres días celebramos el día de la madre en mi país. Mi hermano y yo queríamos sorprender a nuestra madre y a mi esposa (quien ya es madre de una bebita de 11 meses). Pues bien, queríamos darles un regalo memorable, algo que ellas pudieran utilizar para entretenerse y, por qué no, aprender. En una visita no planeada a una tienda de computadoras, mis ojos se fijaron en la clásica Asus Eee PC 900, la diminuta netbook que me introdujo al mundo de Linux con su versión de Xandros. Junto a ella se encontraba la Asus Eee PC 901. La tentación fue demasiado grande; terminamos adquiriendo las dos ante la mirada extrañada del vendedor, que nunca entendió por qué rechazamos sin miramientos el ofrecimiento de otras netbooks (precargadas con la estafa conocida como "Windows 7 Starter").

Para quienes piensen que los regalos no eran adecuados porque una madre no puede usar Linux, me permito asegurarles que mi madre es una feliz usuaria de Pardus Linux , mientras que mi esposa, cuando adquirió su laptop, lo primero que hizo fue pedirme que le instalara Mandriva 2010 para no tener que usar , o debería más bien decir, sufrir, Windows Vista.

Cuando mi madre vio su regalo, se alegró mucho porque ella realmente quería una netbook para poder revisar su email y dedicarse a socializar con sus amigos virtuales en Facebook sin tener que permanecer en la computadora de escritorio. Eso sí, rechazó de plano el sistema operativo preconfigurado...Pero antes de que Ballmer celebre, ella no pidió Windows. ¡Me pidió que le cambiara Xandros por Pardus 2011! La Asus Eee PC corre Pardus 2011 con todos los efectos sin problema, a pesar de contar con apenas 1 GB de RAM y 20GB de almacenamiento.

Mi esposa, por su parte, al mirar su nueva Eee PC 901, decidió darle una oportunidad al extinto Xandros gracias al impecable funcionamiento del comando de voz. Sí, una computadora diminuta como esa recibe órdenes verbales aún mejor que la Eee PC 900. ¡Windows 7 Starter debería avergonzarse de sí mismo!

Así que aquí lo tienen: dos madres felices con Linux.

Japanese in PCLinuxOS? Of course!

2011-08-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

After having installed PCLinuxOS 2011.6, I must say that I am very pleased with it. Differently from Mandriva 2010.2, I can see videos and listen to MP3 files out of the box and I don't need to fiddle with the system to mount the partitions where my other Linux distributions are. It seems that everything works as expected. Great!

But I still had one concern. Although I'm not a power user, for my work, I require a feature that is not very common: a Japanese input method editor. That's one major area (of the many) where Windows 7 fails miserably; you are expected to pay more to obtain a Japanese-capable system, which is a rip off because regular XP did include a Japanese IME. Oh, well, we are familiar with the "Less-is-more" philosophy underlying Windows...Too bad it doesn't apply to your pocket ;-)

On the other hand, many Linux distros can handle Japanese typing, either via SCIM or iBus, working with either OpenOffice or LibreOffice. For example, while Mandriva 2010.2 can accept Japanese IME (SCIM + Open Office), the newly born Mageia 1 handles Japanese typing via both iBus and SCIM with LibreOffice. I know that Mepis 2011, Fusion 14 and Zenwalk 7 also let you type in Japanese.

The question was, could I activate either iBus or SCIM in PCLinuxOS 2011.6? I mean, I've only been using PCLOS for less than a week. Besides, this distro works with LibreOffice and, because of my repeated failure making this suite and IMEs work in Mandriva, I was not very confident.

Anyway, I first tried with iBus. After downloading all the packages and their dependencies, differently from what happens in Mandriva 2010.2, iBus started. The problem was that, despite I downloaded Anthy, iBus did not detect any typing method. I checked the dependencies and the reason was simple: the iBus-Anthy wrapper is missing in the repositories.

I tried SCIM then. I followed the same steps to activate SCIM in Mandriva and failed again. I then undid my changes and went to the Forums for help. I read an explanation here. Thus, I realized that I was missing some dependencies, so I downloaded those and, after following the relevant indications (because the thread is for a situation other than mine), absolutely nothing happened.

I was back to square 1, but not discouraged. With all the dependencies already installed, I decided to follow the process to activate SCIM+Open Office in Mandriva:

First, I looked for i18n in /etc/sysconfig.
After seeing that the structure is the same, I fired up Konsole. I typed su then my password.
Once as root, I typed CD.. to get to / and then CD /etc/sysconfig
I typed Kwrite, opened i18n with that application and appended the following lines to the end:

GTK_IM_MODULE=scim
QT_IM_MODULE=scim
XIM_PROGRAM=”scim -d”
XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM

After saving, I logged out and then back in. Nothing happened, apparently. But you must remember that different systems work differently, so I pressed CTRL+Space and voilà, er, できた！PCLOSで、私はだいたい日本語を書くことができるよ。方法もあまり難しくない、すばらしい！日本語、PCLOSで？もちろん！

So, that's the way I found to type Japanese in PCLinuxOS with SCIM and LibreOffice. I couldn't be any happier with this system now :-)

UPDATE
After a new install, LibreOffice started behaving differently and would not respond to the above process. To make SCIM work with it, you also have to open Konsole and, as root, type

cd /usr/share/X11/xdm

then type kwrite to fire up the editing program and open a file called Xsession, to which you will append the following lines before the line that starts with exec

export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM
export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim-bridge
export QT_IM_MODULE=xim
export XIM_PROGRAM="scim -d"

and, after a log out/in, that does the trick.

Document Exchange: The World Has Changed, Billy

2011-08-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

In the movie "Dad", there is a scene in which old Jake Tremont, thinking about the past, shares the following words with his grown-up son, John: "The world has changed....you wouldn't believe how the world has changed". John, some time later, repeats exactly the same sentences to his son, Billy, amazed at the generation gap between him, a professional in his forties, and his teenage son.

I was thinking about that movie today when I tried to access one of the administrative web pages of the university where I work. Do you still remember that world in which people thought that there was ONLY ONE operating system? Two at most (Vista and XP)? Do you remember when all documents where exchanged using a proprietary format that, one good day, was arbitrarily changed and this act generated confusion when users couldn't open documents?

Well, when I started using Linux, practically NO ONE knew of the existence of the .odt format. Professors, students, and administrative staff were all mindless zombies who would send documents in proprietary formats assuming that the person receiving the information was going to able to open those letters, memos, essays, you name it. This is no longer the case: in two years, people have realized that they have to think about the receiving end, so they are using .pdf and compatibility mode to exchange their documents.

This might not not seem like a great change, however, as I got to the administrative page looking for some forms, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that they are offering two links: one for the traditional .doc format and another for .odt. In some of the links, the downloads for .odt exceed those of .doc files.

I had heard of the university plans to dump Microsoft Office in favor of open alternatives, but I personally did not have high expectations. Today I saw it: now they are not taking for granted that you use Word and you are satisfied with it.

Microsoft, for its part, needs to change some of its stances concerning open source if it wants to remain a big player in this new world that we see everyday. FUD campaigns are not working; users are gradually opening their eyes to see that they are suffering from the abusive policies of a company that lies to them. Some of them have already seen Linux computers which make their own Windows 7 PCs look like outdated dinosaurs that offer them the same problems found in computers a decade ago.

Steve Ballmer is delusional if he thinks that young people, those mobile phone-thumbing individuals, belong to the recalcitrant, almost extinct user base that yells "Windows or nothing!"

Bill Gates knew that the success of Windows depended on the ignorance of computer users. However, the world has changed, Billy... You wouldn't believe how the world has changed...

PCLinuxOS, the REAL deal!

2011-07-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, I described how I had an unfortunate experience while I attempted an install of PCLinuxOS. Because of lack of time, I had to remove the distro to recover my PC and finish my work, promising to get back at PCLOS later.

Well, time has come: a kind reader of my post, to solve the problem of the multiple boot, recommended me to visit the PCLOS forums and find the wise sage, who goes through forum-land under the name of Old Pollack.

Since I'm not a registered user in the forums, all I could do was read some previous posts, but that was enough to identify the problem and find the solution. It pays doing your homework, doesn't it?

So, now I'm discovering new possibilities with the distro that displays a Longhorn as its logo :-)

Old Pollack, let me thank you for your selfless sharing. I don't know if my words will get to you, but here's one more PCLinuxOS user thanks to your knowledge.

******
Wish me luck; I have many things to learn ... but who is afraid of learning?

Not a Tug o'War, but Convergence

2011-07-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

I tested the Mandriva 2011 RC2 yesterday and what I never thought possible happened: I'm finally warming to the ROSA panel.

The words of an Ubuntu user upon transitioning to Unity still echo in my ears..."First you hate it, but then, you start to like it". Well, I'm sure I cannot claim that I like the ROSA panel, but I started seeing its functionality.

It's the first time that a Linux upgrade gives me this kind of anxiety. I have some questions on the table:

1. Do I want to erase Mandriva 2010.2, which works perfectly for me, in favor of the brand new Mandriva 2011? Can't I stay with 2010.2?
2. If I go for Mandriva 2011... Will I be able to type in Japanese? マンドリバ2010で、私は日本語を書くことができるので、新しいのではできなかったら、大ピンチだ！After all, this is a great advantage that Linux has over the trumpeted Windows 7: I don't have to pay more to get the features that I need for work and that XP did have.

If I switch to Mageia 1 as my main desktop OS, I know that typing in Japanese is not a problem, but maybe the software repositories will be a bit more limited.

I can also switch to PCLinuxOS, but then I will have to train myself in the way of the Synaptic Package Manager...which is fine with me thanks to Mepis, but I'd probably have to use the distro in English because of the problems with the Spanish translation...and I have to see if I can get the Japanese IME to work there, too.

So, this is my "existential" dilemma right now. Pretty prosaic, I know, but that's the worst I can get in the world of Linux... I no longer have to depend on the rip-off industry of anti-virus solutions, or get frustrated because of sluggish PC performance, or believe my computer is clean until someone thanks me for the link in a message that was sent from my email account but that I never wrote...

If I cannot make up my mind, well, ... I'll simply keep the four distros. That's the beauty of Linux; while some people see a Tug o'War among distributions, I can see the Magdeburg hemispheres: what keeps the Linux world united is stronger than divisions.

Yes, I broke my computer with PCLinuxOS

2011-07-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

After last week's post and my testing of PCLinuxOS encouraged by this helpful review by Prashanth, I decided to install that distro to my desktop computer, a system that runs Mandriva 2010.2 PowerPack and Pardus 2011. Since the installer is basically the same one that Mandriva and Mageia use, I assumed I would not have any problem carrying out the installation. Well, I forgot that, when you are a newbie, you must keep your eyes open not to damage your system. I broke mine. And the timing could not possibly have been better: I was time pressed because I wanted to finish an academic article on Pinter's Theater of the Absurd for publication...

Let me put this straight: I'm not blaming PCLOS at all. The installer performed the actions I commanded, nothing less, nothing more. Granted, I might be a non-technical Linux user, but I'm also beyond that childish stage in which users blame Linux when something does not go as planned. I should have paid attention to the small voice telling me that it was not a good idea to use a free HD space BEFORE my Mandriva partition and that it was an even worse choice to install the PCLinuxOS GRUB to the main sector of the partition table, but I stubbornly ignored the still small voice of wisdom.

After rebooting, PCLinuxOS was there but I got error messages when I tried to boot the other two systems. "Do not panic," I said to myself. "You can always restore the Mandriva GRUB using the rescue application in the Mandriva PowerPack DVD. Havent' you done it before?"

Yes, I've done it twice. But this time was different. When I ran the application, it told me that there was not a Mandriva system in the GRUB. Aaaaarggggh, it made perfect sense! The partitions had been renumbered and PCLOS' GRUB wiped out Mandriva's...

How do you get out of that mess? Simple. As Eric Layton, the wise Linux guru, says in his Nocturnal Slacker v.1.0 blog, "sometimes, you just have to revert". I booted the Mandriva installer, deleted the PCLOS partition (this is not defeat, but a strategic retreat) so that the partitions could get their usual numbering and then I ran the reinstall-GRUB utility. Flawless. I recovered my system in less than 3 minutes.

That's why I haven't posted anything in more than a week: I've been working diligently with the absurd world of literary criticism. Yes, with a computer that WORKS thanks to Linux.

Oh, my article is almost done, by the way. This means that I'm almost ready to give PCLinuxOS another go. This time, I'll use my Linux sense, I promise.

UPDATE of this post here :-)

I owe you an apology, PCLinuxOS

2011-07-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, when I first entered this vast world that Linux is, I came to realize that there was a distribution that was mentioned over and over: PCLinuxOS. I became curious and followed some old posts in multiple threads. To be honest, being a total newbie, I felt sort of intimidated by the vocal followers of this distro and my aversion grew stronger when I visited the forum and was greeted by the rules. Boy, did I ever read something harsh!
Even so, I downloaded the Live CD and tested it. I was disappointed because there was not an office suite with it, so I never considered installing it.

However, the more I learned about Linux (without pretending to be an expert), the more the rules in the PCLOS forum made sense. Later, I discovered they had not made them, but were quoted from a source.

I started visiting the Sandbox (that's the PCLOS forum equivalent of Mandriva's community chat or Mageia's Wizard Lair) and I must admit that everytime I visited, I got a very good laugh thanks to their sense of humor.

Oh, yes, I also downloaded the last PCLinuxOS KDE release and installed it for testing. I discovered that its installation is as simple and efficient as Mandriva/Mageia's, but a lot faster. I also noticed that my disappointment because of the lack of an office suite was a misperception: there is a way to download the current Libre Office suite. And multimedia works out of the box, too. In my installation, there were only two points that I disliked: there is no way to change the language from default English to Spanish and the Kwin effects refused to work. With the minimal experience I have accumulated in these two years, I visited the PCLOS forum and quickly got a thread that explained how to change the language to Spanish. I followed the steps and it worked (90% I'd say, because Dolphin still shows some menus in English and applets stayed speaking the language of Shakespeare as well). I did not work with the other problem, but I'm sure they must have a thread to tackle that issue. While I was using it, this last release of PCLOS was reliable and stable. It's a solid distribution; no wonder why it is relatively popular in the DistroWatch charts.

Besides, I have to admit that the image that I had originally formed of this Linux community, the distribution, and its developer has been changing from negative to positive, to the point of considering using PCLinuxOS in one of my systems.

I would definitely recommend this distribution today, provided that the person installing it has an inquisitive mind and is not afraid of reading...S/he must have an acceptable command of English, too :-)

From all of this, my biggest conclusion is that I, because of my lack of experience with Linux, acted unfairly. However, as Ezra Pound said of Walt Whitman, "I am old enough now to make friends". Yes, PCLinuxOS... I owe you an apology.

July 10 and I'm waiting for Pardus 2011.1

2011-07-10T07:19:00.000-07:00

I checked Distrowatch and there was nothing about Pardus yet. But the day is still young. Paraphrasing Shakespeare in Julius Caesar, the ides of July are come, but not gone. Let's see if the soothsayer is right.

Good bye, Eugeni!

2011-07-07T08:31:00.001-07:00

Eugeni Dodonov, the voice of Mandriva, is leaving Mandriva S.A.

Eugeni, as a Mandriva user, I wish you the best and thank you for your hard work.

(Section of the map taken from LinuxMap originally pusblished by Dodoimedo.com)

A nice surprise

2011-06-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

It might have been a year ago or so when I entered this small computer shop near the University where I work. That day, I asked about a webcam and the clerk, all smiles, brought it to me. Then I asked the dreadful question that wiped out his smile in a fraction of a second: "Does this support Linux?"

I recall he stuttered and asked, "Linux... Is that...UBUNTO?" When I explained to him that I did not use Ubuntu, but Mandriva, and that there were compatibility problems because of drivers, he pretended to be a Linux authority and said "Oh, Mandriva!... That OS gives many problems." His absolute ignorance about Linux couldn't be more visible.

Today, I visited the same shop after a particularly hard day of a rather stormy week. I went in looking for an external HD and another clerk brought it to me. I instinctively started turning the box trying to find a Tux signal somewhere and the clerk noticed, so he politely asked me: "Excuse me...What are you looking for?"

Mentally, I sighed and said to myself "here we go again" before I told him: "I want to know if these devices support Linux".

His immediate answer startled me: "Absolutely, sir. I know they work with Gnome and KDE distros." I raised my eyes from the cover of the product, dumbfounded, and his amused smile denoted that he might have noticed my surprise. He even continued, "Do you want to install Linux to the HD, sir? They work very well to boot up a computer".

------------------------------------------
So, how about that? In about a year's time, this small shop went from the utmost ignorance about Linux to very helpful toward clients who run this OS!
The same happened in the place where I normally buy my computers. Last time I went, the technician did not frown when I told him that I wanted a new Ethernet card and that my computer ran Mandriva and Pardus Linux. What's more, he even had a Linux sign over his desk!

Besides, I have noticed something interesting: UBUNTO, er, Ubuntu signs are beginning to show in several places of the country as well.

This indicates to me that Linux, despite gloomy market share statistics, is ACTUALLY becoming more known and used everyday.

Whatever the case, I'm typing this entry while all the info in my HD is being backed up to the new external HD... Yes, the one that works with Gnome and KDE distros and that responds particularly well to boot a computer up if one installs Linux to it... (can you see my grin?)

KDE configuration for Linux newbies

2011-06-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

One of the many good points about Linux is that the user can configure virtually anything to adjust the system to his or her liking. Many users are aware that it is possible to install color schemes, desktop themes, wallpaper images, sounds, and many more resources from the system (hitting the "Get new (theme, color, sound, etc).

However, some newbies might want to pick one sound from this set and another from a different one. Maybe they would like the oxygen theme but would like to keep the la-ora pager to switch workspaces. Perhaps they would like to skin poor Kopete with something to make it more appealing. Or they are simply dying to keep an aquarium in the lower panel to entertain themselves with the fish... who knows?

These are some ideas of where to go to customize KDE. And, by the way, you can do all this without resorting to the terminal (yes, I know it's not as fun as doing it with the charming black screen, but still...)

First, are you acquainted with Kde-look.org? You can download many goodies from there.

A. Kopete skins

This one is easy. I'll use it to illustrate how to work with the "Get new___" button that you get in many of the KDE resources. All you must do is start Kopete, go to settings in the menu, and then select the icon "Chat Window" from the left. Under the "style" tab, you can see the available skins. You can download new ones using the "Get new" button at the bottom. You can browse and select the one you like and, to the right, you will see an "install" button. Click on it and then you can select the downloaded skin from the options in the previous window. I am using the "perfect_pushpin" style as an illustration.

Kopete, regular appearance (in Mepis 11)

Kopete with a new style in Mandriva 2010.2

B. Menu translucency

This one is very simple, too. Just click the tools icon in the lower panel (or Menu->tools->system tools-> configure desktop) and click on "appearance"->desktop effects. Open the tab "all effects" and look for "translucency". Assuming that it is active, click on the little tool icon next to it. A window with several control opens. Find "Menu" and drag the indicator to the left to make the menu more transparent. This works particularly well with dark color schemes, such as "Obsidian coast", "Friendly Dark", or "Night and Blood". As the icons in the menu become clearer, it is not a good idea to set the transparency level too high or use it in combination with a light color scheme.

Menu translucency in Pardus 2011

(This last color scheme is Obsidian Coast)

C. Plasmoids

As you know, you get them from the cashew once you have unlocked all graphic elements. Well, you need to work with the cashew in the lower panel. You get many plasmoids form there. However, what if you want a plasmoid that is not included in your distribution? Well, if you do not want to browse the pool using "get new graphic elements", then you download the plasmoid from here and, once that you have the file in your HDD, you select "install local file"-> plasmoid, and browse to find the file in the appropriate folder. This works if the file is a plasmoid. If it is a .tar file, the installation is more complicated.

Here is the process in Mandriva 2010.2

D. System sounds

First, you need to have a collection of sounds and must make sure that you remember the location of the folder where they are. Again, you can download and uncompress some from Kde-look.org.
In KDE 4.4.3 and (Mandriva 2010.2), you have to go to "System settings" ->notifications. Once there, in the tab "applications", look for "KDE system notifications".
In KDE 4.5.3 (Mepis 11),and 4.6.4 (Mageia 1, Pardus 2011...), you can achieve the change from "System settings" ->application and system notifications.

Changing sounds in Mepis 11

E. Panel and pager
Let's suppose that you installed the T-Remix theme but you don't like its pager, so you want to use the one in the Oxygen theme. Again, in KDE 4.4.3 (Mandriva 2010.2 ), you go to the tools icon in the lower panel (or Menu->tools->system tools-> configure desktop) and select the tab "advanced". Once there, click "Desktop theme details"" and under "theme item" go down to find "pager". Next to it, you can select the theme you want independently of the one you have installed on your system.

In KDE 4.5.3 (Mepis 11) and in 4.6.4 (Mageia 1, Pardus 2011), you find the details as a tab in "Workspace appearance"->Desktop theme. The rest of the process is the same.

Changing the pager in Mageia 1

I hope that you can use this information to make your Linux desktop more to your personal taste. After all, if one has to spend a lot of time on the computer, it's a good idea to keep it as eye-pleasing as one can :)

A no-OS-computer? You must be a pirate!

2011-06-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

After reading this piece about a
Linux keyboard PC , I got excited. I've been looking for a nice computer that is sold without any operating system so that I can install my own. Yes, I'm aware of the existence of System76 (Ubuntu systems) and ZaReason (several Linux offers), but I wanted to try something else. Thus, I checked the vendor's page and, sure enough, there was a "NO OS" option. With a high heart, I selected the components of the system and submitted my request waiting to receive the quote with the price.

A day later, I received it and, with it, there came a surprise. The price was satisfactory ($555), but they had included Windows 7 Professional 32 bits and were charging me for it!

I immediately contacted the sales representative to ask why they were forcing Windows on me if I had explicitly selected a "No-OS system"(I changed the names):

Dear Sales Representative,

I have one question concerning the quote. Why are you including and charging Windows 7 if I explicitly selected the "NO OS" option? Can you sell it without Windows? I am not interested in paying for Microsoft software; I only want the computer.

Regards,

Mechatotoro

This was her answer, which I found rather strange:

Hi Mechatotoro,

We can sell the unit without the OS provided you do have OS licensing. I included the pricing info for the OS so that you can deduct the $176.00 price point if you do not need one included which would make the price $379.00. Attached is the revised quote.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Best Regards,

So, she said that she had done it because, that way, I could deduct from the price the cost of Windows (?!) as long as I had "OS licensing".

This showed to me that, thanks to Microsoft's dirty campaigns, you are seen as a pirate when you request a computer without any OS. Is it so unbelievable that a customer does not want Windows? So, I replied to her:

Hi, Sales Rep,

I am a Linux user and plan to install Linux to the computer. Consequently, your point about licensing (Microsoft license, that is) does not apply in my case. Your offer seems very attractive. Thanks.

The good thing about this exchange is that I could do the math. If the price of the No-OS unit is $379 and Windows 7 costs $176, that means that Microsoft software accounts for almost 50% of the price of the system (46%)! From $555 to $379 for exactly the same computer...That is a considerable difference!

Another interesting point is that OEMs, companies that work with HARDWARE, not SOFTWARE, are actually doing the dirty work for Microsoft. If piracy affects the Redmond software vendor, it should be the one checking for licenses and doing the police work, not OEMs. I wonder how Miscrosoft is going to keep up with the abusive idea of the MS tax. Can they still bully OEMs assuming that No-OS necessarily implies Windows piracy? Can they get away with it in a world in which we see multiple OSs and users are aware of this today?

So, OEMs think that I'm a pirate because I don't want Windows? That's fine with me, really... Just give me the option NOT to buy Windows and we call it a deal!

UPDATE: The sales rep got back at me and said I can buy. It seems that I am on the clear now. Great! :-)

Arguments against Linux and the opinion of a non-technical user

2011-06-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me clarify two points. One, I'm no power computer user: I know nothing about programming; I neither speak Java nor make my living analyzing data that go through routers and I certainly cannot assemble a computer from scratch as if it were a 30-piece jigsaw puzzle. Two, as an educator, I believe that the human mind is capable of learning when the subject is willing to participate in the process of knowledge acquisition. That being said, let me review some of the arguments that I have encountered against Linux, which, in my humble opinion, manifest some subjective reasoning that is used as an over-generalization.

1. Linux is not ready for simple computer users
From my experience and from my observations of the people who run Linux around me, this is FUD. As I said, I am a simple computer user and both my desktop and netbook have been running Linux for two years. In comparison to my 10+ years as a Windows user, I have found Mandriva Linux liberating, more stable, and definitely more reliable than Windows. So has my wife, who had no problem adapting to to the Penguin OS and begged me to remove Vista from her laptop. My brother, who runs Mepis, shares our opinion. And my mother, who was terrified of computers until she discovered Pardus, also agrees. A student of English, who runs Ubuntu and its new Unity-thing, loves his OS. In general, those people that embraced Linux expecting it to be different from Windows migrated successfully. Who says that to run Linux you have to run avant-garde software that requires compiling the kernel?

2. Windows just works and Linux will fail at a critical time.
Just two weeks ago, during a school meeting, I saw a colleague getting embarrassed by Windows 7 in front of everyone. This is so common that people have just stopped paying attention, I think. This time, she was supposed to deliver a presentation and the greatly acclaimed child of Microsoft decided to install several updates before getting to the desktop. It took so long that my poor colleague had to go get another Windows 7 computer. However, to her despair, there was a momentary blackout and the second computer decided to lock itself. In the end, she had to forget about her presentation. In comparison, last time there was a power shortage, Linux came back instantly when the power was restored and remembered everything I had open.

3. Linux is poor for games.
I can't deny than playing a game is a great source of pleasure for many. However, this argument does not make sense in a corporate environment, where computers are supposed to be tools for working, not playing. I don't know of any boss that selects office computers for the staff because of their amazing capability to play World of Warcraft.

Now, if you are talking about your personal machine and you are a heavy gamer, that's a different scenario, but I personally don't have any problem with Linux games. Nor many simple computer users I know. They use their machines mainly to type documents, send email, and browse the web. Did you know that many adults who use computers do not actually care about games? How about your teen child? I bet s/he will rather have a console than having to take turns with you to use the computer.

4. You cannot run Tax software or Netflix in Linux
Oh really? I'm going to dump Linux! Wait... I don't live in the U.S.!
In my country, Netflix or tax software are not problems: we don't use the same tax system and Netflix is not offered, either. This is applicable to many of the other countries where Linux can be and is used. Let's get into a more universal argument, shall we?

5. FLOSS names make it difficult for the user to find applications
This makes me laugh in disbelief. What a pedestrian argument! I guess people who said this can never travel, for they are completely unable to identify objects or places. Yes, if those people go to London, poor them! They have to go up and down stairs all the time because they never find "elevators", only strange doors called "lifts". Let alone going to a country where people speak a language other than English... You can expect things to have different names there.

So, you don't know what GIMP does? Well, do what I did: you open it, use it for a while, and you are good to go. Simple and painless.

The real problem is not about ease of identification, but custom. Did you know that this silly argument about names also applies to Windows? I remember I first typed my documents with an application called MS Works. All of a sudden, it was gone! Did I stop typing letters? No, I simply saw MS Word. When I saw Word in the menu, I thought it was a dictionary. Yet, I opened the program and started using it. So what's the big deal about names? The human brain has a memory. You use a new program for a while and your brain creates an association. The result: you never have the same problem again. That's the first stage of learning. Even children can do it, so why do people think this is a problem?

6. The appearance of Open Office/Libre Office is different
Yes. So what? So is MS Office 2007 different from MS Office 2003. Users had to adapt to the change and they simply bore and grinned. What's more, you occasionally have to undergo the same process every time there's a major update of a program you use in Windows, say, Nero, Audiocatalyst or any other. When I dumped Windows, I discovered Open Office and, to the best of my knowledge, I did not die learning the rules. I've heard people say that those rules or processes are impossible to master. That's flattering because then they are implying that I'm a genius! Am I? Nah, I'd rather go for a different explanation: they are lazy whiners. I wonder if they complained the same upon transitioning from MS Office 2003 to 2007 or to the trumpeted new bar of Windows 7...

Now, if the complaint is about functionality, before they give me the same arguments based on custom, let me say that I generally expect a more expensive product to offer more. MS Office is more expensive, but handles LESS file formats. Paying more for a product that offers less is a rip-off in my view.

Linux has been great for learning about new useful applications and discovering how my computer works. I value learning. It's good to be able to invest my time learning about my machine instead of using it to keep myself updated on how to protect a fragile OS from viruses, malware and all sorts of threats.

Mind in the clouds

2011-06-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

A Cloud withdrew from the Sky
Superior Glory be
But that Cloud and its Auxiliaries
Are forever lost to me

Was Emily Dickinson predicting Cloud Computing and saying no to it? :-P

The debate about the Cloud is beginning to fire up. Some enthusiasts claim that's the future and assert that control over your computer is a futile worry. Why caring about your OS or data if an angel somewhere up in the sky can manage those for you? Why complicating your existence with such bothers of computing? They perceive computer users as people who do not have any idea of what their OS version is, for whom the computer is useful as long as it works when you turn it on. These users have no idea of the format in which the documents they produce are stored. What's more: for them, any office suite will do.

Some of the thoughts above might be accurate. However, there are users who still have something that is very human: preferences. Yes, for the better or worse, they like their desktops to look one way or another; they cling to an office suite (more because of tradition than because of usability) and they do not trust services that charge you to buy a music file from them (especially if the seller keeps the file!). Call them recalcitrant if you may, but they prefer to stick to Yahoo Mail Classic regardless of how much longer it takes for them to attach a document to an email message.

Then we have those who are cautious and say, "But, what if the elastic cloud falls and does not bounce back up?" And which cloud can you access and which one is barred for you? Are all those clouds available for a vast megalopolis of Care Bears to jump upon freely? Will Microsoft's cloud reject Care Bears that do not flash bellies with a design in yellow, red, blue and green, as it's hinted by the behavior of their newly acquired Sky-pe?

I, for one, grow very suspicious of the Cloud. I plan to avoid it as much as I can. Yet, if one considers Web-based email as the lining of the Cloud, then I already failed at avoiding it. And the content of this blog is stored who knows where...probably in a friendly Google Cloud.

Where I work, we are about to export the database keeping the records of 4000+ people to the Cloud... And I welcomed the change because the native system was made to run only in Windows (XP). The Cloud-based one will let me use the database from Linux and Microsoft will not have any excuse to keep pushing the University to rent more stupid licenses.

Weather forecast: CLOUDY!

Still, I'll keep my personal files inside of my HD. Dropbox does not offer me more portability than a flash drive does. Because that's the entire point: once the file is in the Cloud, it's not yours any longer.

If Microsoft made Linux

2011-05-28T22:19:00.001-07:00

Jokingly, I imagined what Linux could be like if Microsoft developed it.

My dear Windows ME, now as Linux ME!

How about Windows Longhorn that never was? VISTAAAA! Yes, this is Linux Vista in all its glory!

And this jewel? Linux Vista/7 Starter edition!

The Cauldron is Bubbling!

2011-05-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, after a good stir provided by the RC, Mageia's Cauldron is bubbling.
It's only three days to the final release and, with it, several questions come for this non-technical user of Mandriva Linux.

Will the Cauldron bubble for a long time, or will magic fade away?
Will this distribution bedazzle a simple computer user who, following a star like one of the Magi, came to the world of Linux to discover a different reality?
In three days, will we see a magical light?

There are some other concerns... too many to list. Despite the nervousness and this horizon of expectations, I know that there are beautiful times ahead!

Mageia 1 RC1, as seen by a two-year Mandriva user

2011-05-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

After installing the Mageia 1 Cauldron Beta 2, updating it to RC1, and using it for a brief period of time, I would like to compare it to Mandriva 2010.2 in terms of performance, ease of use, and general feel. I cannot go beyond that because I have no technical knowledge and, although I am fully aware that the Mageia developers warned everyone about Beta 1 and 2 being test type releases, my modest review provides the perspective of an end user who is relatively new to Linux.

I will not get into installation details because I covered that for the Beta 1 and the process is pretty similar. However, one of the biggest differences between Mageia and Mandriva is that the installation of the Beta 2 of the former lets you choose your IME among SCIM, iBus, and SCIM-bridge and, as far as I tested, both SCIM and iBus work in Mageia, whereas only the first does in Mandriva.

Even though Mandriva picked up my wi-fi without any problem, it did not work in Mageia because the b43 files were missing. I read in the forums that they are planning to correct that problem and I ignore if they did it in the RC1. Anyway, one can get the same situation in Mandriva if one updates the kernel. I described how to solve this unexpected complication in Mageia here.

Mageia handles KWIN's four different desktop wallpapers better: they are easy to set and they stay as you want. The same can be said about the screen capture utility: while the time definition is a little unresponsive in Mandriva, it works almost perfectly in Mageia. I'm saying "almost" because when I specified a 5 second delay, the utility acted as expected and thus I could get these shots of KWIN effects (desktop grid and Cube). However, when I tried to send the snapshots directly to the GIMP, although it fired GIMP, this last program failed to open the files.

Interestingly, once the GIMP is active, it has no problem whatsoever receiving the snapshots sent by the screen capture utility.

I used the GIMP to modify some pictures and create my Mageia wallpapers and the Home and TRASH icons.I modified the trash file, but it is still a little unresponsive to change from empty to full...Oh, well. UPDATE: I fixed it. All one has to do is modify the trash.desktop file in /home/desktop. You open it with KWrite and change these entries:
Icon=user-trash-full
EmptyIcon=user-trash
In the first entry, substitute the red path by the path of the full cauldron. In the second, use the path of the empty cauldron and save the file.

By the way, there is still a Mandriva souvenir in the configuration of the login screen. The logo in the bottom right does not look like the Mageia cauldron one to me :-)

Although Mageia's iBus Japanese IME is easier to use, when used with Libre Office, you must make sure that you change the font to a Japanese one, otherwise you get boxes instead of kana or kanji.

I don't know why, but UMEPLUS made Libre Office crash. It's best to use Droid Sans Japanese in combination with iBus if you want to type Japanese text in Libre Office. I did not have any problem inputting kana or kanji in other applications. iBus works nicely in Firefox 4...

Speaking of Firefox...Some other problems I've seen involve this browser: you have to click twice in the contextual menu to download a picture and, for those who installed the WEBMAIL NOTIFIER add-on, you cannot listen to sound when a new mail comes.

Well, despite those issues, my general impression is that Mageia 1 feels very comfortable and, in general, very usable (for an unfinished OS, that is). I might very well keep it as my main OS if Mandriva 2011 does not convince me that the Rosa panel is a great idea after all.

Happy Birthday, Esquina de un Migrante!

2011-05-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

Megatototoro's blog, La Esquina de un migrante a Linux is celebrating its first anniversary tomorrow.

This blog has brought unforgettable stories, such as "Planning to migrate to Linux? Beware!!!", or curious images, such as the GNU/Linux & BSD Zoo.

I, for one, have profited from the accounts and experiences recorded there. I learned Linux tweaks and about viruses from Megatotoro's blog. And I have had a lot of fun reading his humorous stories, too.

Congratulations and keep up the good work! May this Linux Corner remain among us for a long time!

Zenwalk 7: Shall We DANCE?

2011-05-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

Five days ago, I wrote about my epic fail trying to install Zenwalk 7 to my netbook, a system already running several Linux distros. I described the process as a dance that started calmly and gradually changed into a non-stop frenzy that ended with me messing up the whole system. I was not prepared to face the install but, as I promised, after doing some reading, and supported by the help of readers both in Tuxmachines and Linux Today, I am ready to give it another go. Zenwalk 7, shall we dance?

Upfront, let me clarify that my netbook was a quad-boot (Mandriva 2010.2, Pardus 2011, Mepis 11, Mageia 1 RC1) the second time I attempted to take Zenwalk for a dance again. I know that that quantity might seem excessive given the fact that one can use virtual machines. However, because of the modest configuration of a virtual machine, I consider that they are ideal for testing, but you cannot enjoy the full potential of the Linux distro unless you install it. Why installing so many distros? To maximize writing productivity. Sam Dean might be right about writers and dual monitors, but I have discovered that, when I write, changing not only the workspace, but also the entire OS, gives me a mental relief and the possibility of keeping my projects in "different typewriters".

Of course, that quantity of distros became part of my headache last time. The other part was that was not prepared to carry out a text installation. The good news is that, thanks to the support of readers and their insightful comments, I was better equipped this time.

The Dance

As in the Japanese film "Shall we DANSU?", I was a Sugiyama determined to learn the Zenwalk steps. Like him, my initial performance was deplorable. However, practice makes perfect. Therefore, I was not discouraged and analyzed what I did wrong.

First, the installation problems I was having occurred due to my lack of familiarity with the process. For example, the partitioning tool gives you all the information you need if you go to the appropriate tab. Once you are satisfied with your settings, all you have to do is hit "write" to apply the changes.

Then, the bootloader LILO: I tried first following the suggestion of keeping LILO in the boot sector of the partition, not the MBR. However, it did not work because I couldn't boot it to finish the post-configuration process and the info in lilo.config did no good, either.

I suspected that the problem was caused because of the partition soup that I had. Mageia was located in sda 9, but GRUB showed that it booted from sda8, which was my Zenwalk root partition. So, I tried a more Spartan approach: I deleted all OSs except Mandriva and reorganized the partitions. After that, I reinstalled Pardus, Mepis, and Mageia (I got the RC1, yay!). Now that all the systems were sitting on the correct chairs, the dance with Zenwalk could proceed.

I reinstalled Zenwalk without a glitch (reading and preparing DOES make a difference, right?). This time, however, I changed the location of LILO and put it in the MBR. Of course, that sent my other OSs to the Zen garden again, but I did not mind because I wanted to finish the Zenwalk installation. When Zenwalk was up and running, I grabbed the Mandriva PowerPack DVD and used the utility to restore GRUB. In doing so, I lost Zenwalk, but I mounted its partition and following the process here and opened lilo.config.

My only problem was now to boot Zenwalk. I tried several solutions I found online, but none of them made GRUB stand up and invite Zenwalk to the dancing floor. So, I resorted to Mandriva Control Center. I opened the boot manager and tried to add the entry manually. Again, I was not sure of what I was doing, but I had to give it a try. I added a new Linux entry cutting and pasting info for tag, append, and image from lilo.config. Then, I clicked "advanced" and changed network profile to "default" and copy/pasted the info for initrd.

I rebooted and, when I saw the entry for Zenwalk, I selected it without hope. However, GRUB, full of valor, stood up and walked decisively to the partition where Zenwalk was sitting. Using a trope, I could almost hear in disbelief GRUB say "Shall we DANSU?"

So, now I'm the proud owner of a penta-boot netbook that has Zenwalk 7 as one of its five operating systems.

Dave Spiegel was right when he said that I could have used a distro that does it all for me, but then I wouldn't have learned anything. And Zuru was also right: this was great fun and the sense of accomplishment is irreplaceable!

The mystery of the missing wi-fi in Mageia/Mandriva

2011-05-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

I've been avoiding kernel 2-6.38.4 and 2-6.38.6-1 in Mandriva because last time I found them in an update and installed them, my netbook lost its wi-fi capabilities. Yes, it would not pick any signal or start wireless connections at all. It would tell me that I needed some b43 files from a web site and the installation was beyond my understanding.

Well, I decided that I wanted to install Mageia 1 in my netbook. I will spare you the story of my mistake of installing beta1 and my consequential sadness because iBus would not work. However, when I corrected my mistake and installed beta2, my happiness upon seeing iBus working flawessly quickly faded away because I discovered that the dreadful kernel 2-6.38.4 was what Mageia uses and, therefore, my wi-fi was gone!

In a sudden revelation, I read the error message and saw that it was indicating the path were the missing files were supposed to be and were not: /lib/firmware/b43

I mounted the Pardus partition and looked for that directory. Pardus had both the b43 and the b34legacy directories, so I copied them to my Mageia home folder.

There was one problem left: How to copy the directory in Mageia's root appropriate folder? The answer is easy, with konsole, of course!

After typying su and inputting my password, I used the following command:
cp -r /home/myname/b43 /lib/firmware/

and PRESTO! in less than one second, the 39 files were copied. Then I did the same and copied the b43legacy folder.

After that, I ran Mageia Control Center, Network config, add a new connection. I selected Wireless and wlan_o. When the system asked me for the file, I located the directory /lib/firmware/b43 and selected the ucode5.fw file.

It worked. Now, I'm posting this entry using the wi-fi in Mageia beta2.

I just don't understand why is it that some people are afraid of the command line. It's so powerful and useful.

Once again, BIG THANKS PARDUS!!!

Zenwalk 7, it didn't go well...

2011-05-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I downloaded the Live CD of Zenwalk 7 and I must confess that I liked it a lot. Not only did it have full support for Japanese IME via iBus, but also its Xfce desktop was simple enough for a beginner like me. So, I decided to download the standard CD to install it to my now triple-boot netbook (Mandriva 2010.2, Pardus 2011, Mepis 11). And then my dance in the Zen garden began. Little did I know that the predictable, calm Waltz at the beginning of the installation was to morph into a rabid, passionate dance for survival!

After seeing many installations Cds and DVDs before, I expected nothing out of the ordinary when I booted with the Zenwalk 7 CD. Maybe I was not too concerned about the interaction, but there was something different that I had not determined until the process was well advanced: all installation directions were provided in text. Yes, that's right: no GUI for Zenwalk! I checked the info in Distrowatch.com and it's clearly indicated that the installation process is text mode. So, inadvertently, I was attempting my first text mode installation.

I cannot say that the process is complicated or confusing because the different screens provide clear information of each step. However, when I got to the touchy operation of partitioning, the dance switched from a calm Waltz into a furious tango: I had absolutely no idea of what I was doing. The partitioning tool located all the partitions in my HD and was telling me that it was going to install in one of them and use the Mandriva swap partition for Zenwalk. Regardless of what I tried to do, the system would just proceed, so I buckled up for a bumpy ride.

And then, LILO! I have never used that for booting but suspected that I was not going to be able to boot Zenwalk without it, so I chose simple install (now I was sure the ride was going to be bumpy!).

The process came to a dead end with the creation of the root and user accounts. The text superimposed, so I could barely read what the system wanted me to input. Basically, I got to a screen that demanded a login and a password and everything I typed was incorrect. Therefore, I rebooted the computer without the CD and, SURPRISE! No GRUB, GREET LILO!

Lilo? I must say I saw more of a "Stitch" because the little mischievous booter only showed an entry there: Zenwalk. All the rest of my operating systems were gone... I presume they took a stroll in a Zen garden somewhere :-P

And, of course, the Zenwalk system was inoperative. A great place to be. From here, the dance became something more like those energetic folk dances in tribes, where a Shaman swirls, twists, and jumps with body contortions that resemble an act of desperation.

Luckily, the Mandriva 2011 PowerPack DVD has a rescue application that restores your GRUB. That was enough to take Mandriva, Pardus and Mepis out of their Zen meditation. But there were some side effects. When I booted Mandriva, it did, but painfully slowly. I switched to verbose mode and saw that some partitions were apparently renamed or something, so Mandriva had problems mounting them.

When I finally got in, I rebooted to see if Mandriva would pick up some speed this time and, pretty fast, I got into my very first Kernel Panic!

The solution? Well, I reinstalled the system leaving the /home partition there, and in a matter of 25 minutes, Mandriva was back to normal. Pardus and Mepis are healthy, too.

--------

I cannot blame Zenwalk 7 at all for this mishap. I understand that it was entirely my fault because I was not prepared to carry out this kind of installation. Zenwalk is a well-built, functional Linux system. That its installation is presently beyond my limited knowledge should not be taken as a negative point at all.

I'm sure that some reading will clarify my questions. When I do that, I'll take Zenwalk 7 again for a dance. Hopefully, I will perform better then.

No Linux support? An offer I can refuse

2011-05-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

In this post, Penguin Pete argued that Linux users are too soft and hence they don't get paid attention to. Well, he is partially right: most of us are outraged by the MS EULA stipulating that we must waive some personal freedoms, like the right to buy a computer as separate from Windows. In general, despite we are fed up with the "we don't support Linux" mantra that companies chant to brush us off, we don't do much about it...especially if we are Linux beginners.

However, there are instances in which we can show companies that, if they want to do business with us, they MUST offer us QUALITY SERVICE which, in my opinion, does not include refusal of support.

I had such opportunity two days ago. You see, because of the new grounds established by a Free Trade Agreement, my ISP (a cable TV company that formerly had to operate in conjunction with the government telecommunications agency) is now trying to get users to change their contracts, so that they essentially dump the government agency. I, therefore, received this call from a representative of the cable company. The guy on the phone went on with his speech, a talk full of rhetoric designed to trick gullible customers. The keynote was "we do this in the behalf of our clients. We charge you the same, but you have to pay only one bill: ours!"

Now, as I pay my bills online, paying one or two bills does not represent any benefit to me if it's the same amount anyway. There is a major consideration for switching, nevertheless. This issue is support: The government agency sent a technician to help my mother once. Given the fact that this unsuspecting techie did not chicken away when he saw that my mother uses Pardus GNU/Linux and solved the problem to the best of his abilities, I decided to ask a question to the overly friendly representative on the phone to assess the real service that they were offering me.

"Excuse me. Before I change my contract, I need to know something. Do you support Linux?" (With an inaudible crack, I could hear the script falling apart)
"Er...uh...Yes, of course. Is that an anti-virus?"

Since he had no idea of what I was talking about, I explained to him that I do not use Windows, but a different OS.

"Let me talk to my supervisor, please". I waited ten seconds and he came back with the rhetoric-covered half-truth I was expecting.

"My supervisor indicated to me that, yes, you can keep any operating system that you like."
"Sure, I already know that but, unfortunately, that's not what I asked you. I want to know if you support Linux. That is, when a client calls you because of any problem, you follow a script to troubleshoot. The script is Windows-based and, therefore, no good for me. I need to know whether or not you will help me if I ever have a problem with your service."

Panic's in the air...or in the line. "I'll transfer the call the my supervisor." (Touché!)

Some more waiting and I get the supervisor, another extra-kind employee. I laid the question on him plainly:

"Listen, they are offering me a change of contract. However, I am concerned about the support you can give me. So, do you support Linux?"
"I'm sorry, we don't..." His answer came with utmost desolation.
"I see. Then my contract stays as it is. Good day."

--------------------------------------

And that was it. Boy, it's so good to know they are recording calls for quality, hahaha!

Above all, from this interaction, the cable company must learn a rule of competition:

Concerning support, you must make your Linux clients an offer they can't refuse before expecting them to drop an agency that supports them.

(Special thanks to Penguin Pete for the lesson)

Some of the faces behind the distros

2011-05-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

When I first migrated to Linux, I bought a nice set of stickers and one of them depicted many smiling penguins. As a heading, you could read "The friendly face of Linux". Today, as I saw anticaptalista's encouraging comment in Megatotoro's blog, it suddenly struck me that there is an element that I have been enjoying since the moment of my migration, something subtle, but powerful. You see, as an ex-Windows user, although I could identify Bill Gates' face (and even Ballmer's), I never received any tangible support from Microsoft. Windows was merely a business.

Linux, on the other hand, has represented an unmatched opportunity to learn and grow because of the intense human interaction of its vibrating communities. For example, as soon as I joined Mandriva's community forum, I was received as a human being, not as a number. The same happened when I posted my first question in Mageia's blog: the prompt reply giving me direction was refreshing. And I cannot describe the feeling I experienced yesterday when I opened my email to find a follow-up message from a Mageia developer taking care of the bug I reported.

There are people behind Linux who get in contact with you in a way that I never saw during my decade as a Windows user. And these people listen to you. What's more, sometimes they RELY ON YOU!
As a tribute to them, I tried to track some of the pictures of the people behind those Penguin OSs that made my work with computers a more enjoyable experience. So, here they are. These are some of the faces behind Linux:

Linux Mint's Clement Lefebvre & child (Thanks for your great distro!)
The always active Texstar (Billy Reynolds), from PCLinuxOS (noticed the cool Mandriva cap?)
Eugeni Dodonov, now the face of Mandriva, the distro that made me dump Windows
Anne Nicolas, former Mandriva representative, now Mageia's face.
Ozan Çağlayan, (GO, Pardus!)
Warren Woodford, the famous Mepis Guy. (Kudos to you for Mepis 11)
Sabayon's Fabio Erculiani. (Grazie!)

Mageia Beta 2: Japanese IME is back!

2011-04-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

Today I installed the Beta 2 of Mageia interested in running one simple test: Japanese IME support with Libre Office.

Since I could not solve the issue myself with the approach I used in Mandriva 2010.1 (Open Office), I posted a cry for help in the Mageia forum. I got prompt, friendly, and helpful answers, for which I feel most thankful.

When I was installing the OS, I noticed that Mageia adds options I had never seen in Mandriva:

Do you want multi language support? (Definitely let's make it a YES!) I choose Japanese, Thai, and Korean.

Later on, when choosing the keyboard: Which input method editor do you prefer? None/iBus/Scim/Scim-bridge? (In the forum they recommended iBus, so...) I selected iBus.

And that was it. When I got into my desktop, I could see a nice icon sitting on the lower bar, indicating the presence of iBus. I added Anthy for the Japanese IME and a Thai and Korean IMEs, too.

Then, I fired Libre Office.
Anthy was working but, instead of Japanese characters, I got boxes...
No problem, all I had to do was to go to Libre Office menu, options, and select Umeplus as the font for Japanese text and...

マジイア、やっぱり日本語ができるよ。すごい！

Therefore, for my particular purposes, in the Mageia 1/ Mandriva 2011 challenge, Cauldron (Mageia 1) is definitely on the lead.

I'm considering not to renew your contract, Windows

2011-04-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

For this Easter (or Holy Week, as we call it in my country), I had planned to perform a task that requires some time: reinstalling Windows XP.

I dragged myself very close to starting. However, to be honest, when I saw the installing CD, I anticipated the fun that awaited me and became very lazy. After all, to complete the operation, I have to find the drivers, the programs, make back ups, customize the OS...

I, somehow, envisioned Windows XP as an employee working on a contract basis. Mr. XP's contract is becoming due, so he steps into my office to discuss contract renewal. From the filing cabinet, I take his performance record and analyze it.

Tasks accomplished in the last four months: None. I don't need Windows to browse the Web, to chat, to modify images, to work with videos... In my company, Windows XP is unnecessary to operate the scanner, use Skype, or to download pictures from my wife's camera. Its "excellent" MS Office suite has been replaced by Open Office and Libre Office completely (even to the point for me to wonder why I didn't use Open Office before). To make matters worse for him, I did give XP a significant task twice and it failed both times: to connect me to the internet. Last time, XP didn't even boot the computer!

Skills: According to this post, Windows XP has several skills that make him an essential employee. Let's see...

Installing software in a simple way. Yes, that's true...provided that YOU already have the software. Otherwise, you have to browse the Web for a while and download a good many of trash looking for the program you need. Oh, and then, if you don't want to pay, you have to look some more to get a crack/code/loader with the imminent risk of getting your valuable employee infected by the computer equivalent of Ebola because that simplicity to install is exploited by malware.
Speed. For crying out loud! Hasn't this person EVER used Windows? I suppose that if you never install anything, it will always be fast. But the truth is that point 1 contradicts point 2 and we all know it: the more programs you install, the more you mess up with Windows registry and the OS becomes slow...sometimes PAINFULLY so. And let's not forget that you have to wait until it loads the anti-virus, anti-zombie, anti-spyware, firewall and who knows what else...Yes, this employee doesn't work unless you cover him with a large workplace risk insurance policy.
Excellent program portfolio. The ones that are ACTUALLY INCLUDED with the OS, that is? Give me a break. Now, if you are talking about the programs that you can get, then how excellent they are depends on two variables, identity and custom. The former variable determines whether or not you need Autocad or Photoshop, for instance. Simple users who enjoy retouching pictures don't need Photoshop; I've seen them do their work with MS Paint (poor them!). I wonder what they could do with a program like Paint, but that actually works, like Kolourpaint...Let's not talk about MS Moviemaker...it gets frustrating. On the other hand, the latter variable, custom, acts as a barrier preventing you to use other programs that can help you achieve the same objectives, but following a different process (Photoshop vs The GIMP). Such recalcitrance makes you call your usual tool "excellent" because you already know how to use it, not because it is actually the BEST there is (or that there will be).

I completely agree with the author in one point: Windows XP can be repaired quickly. However, that can be seen as a problem and not as an advantage. Windows XP is a worker that takes too many sick leaves, which, for any company, becomes EXPENSIVE. My two Linux employees (Mandriva and Pardus) have been working diligently since they came last December. No interruption whatsoever, except for a hardware problem last week. In the same period, XP has been on sick leave twice. And I seldom ask him anything!

In addition to his ability to get sick quickly, XP has another flaw: it tends to sleep on the job, especially when we need multitasking. Oh, but he is very good at playing games! In my case, the games I like to play (DOS-based ones) were discontinued thanks to XP. World of Warcraft means nothing to me. I admit that the Tomb Raider saga caught my eye, but...is playing that game a justification for all I have to do to get XP back on his feet?

An employee that I only need because he is good at playing?

Furthermore, there is a powerful antagonist that wants XP out. It's Microsoft, which has decided not to cover XP against certain diseases and marginalized him regarding the new browser they released. This company wants XP's reputation to taint as much as possible so that they can ask me to replace him with the brother of that Vista punk that came looking for a job four years ago. So, do I need an employee that is even betrayed by the firm he represents?

Mr. XP... I'm seriously considering not to renew your contract...

Some screenshots of Mandriva 2011 Beta 2

2011-04-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

Ms. Susan Linton described her impressions on the second beta release of Mandriva 2011 here. There are some additional comments here. Can you guess what the common denominator is? :-P
In my case, I don't like the Rosa launcher, either. I'm also a bit sad because the netdrake seems to be gone, along with the desktop cube effect.
However, I'd like to focus this entry on the new features:

There are new cool account icons:

You can choose yours and then, when you log in, it becomes larger. That looks neat

Later, you get a standard KDE splash screen. By the way, I did not see the screen to choose KDE, GNOME or OTHER during the installation...

And this is why. Welcome to the new... desktop (?!). The trash bin is now located on the lower panel and there is a HOME icon there which gives you preview of your files. The lock/shut down buttons are gone from the lower panel. Besides noticing that the window with the ads is gone (yes, the one that opens the first time you boot Mandriva), I also saw that the icon of the launcher looked funny (not Mandriva's style):

You click on it and you get this screen, which made me wonder what Mandriva developers were doing:

So, I clicked on applications and got this:

With that, the truth slapped me: they are trying to emulate a smartphone UI (Ubuntu's Unity madness!). Well, it's a bet for the future of Linux, but I want a desktop, not that UI...

I tried to get the Kwin desktop cube back and got an error message instead :-(

I must admit that the tree structure in Dolphin is a lot clearer now:

But don't panic! There's hope for us, all users who don't want to a re-creation of a smartphone interface as the main UI of a PC. It's possible to get the standard KDE launcher without a lot of trouble. You can even get a Mandriva icon and the pager. Ah, and there's the Oxygen theme, too...If I only got the cube back! (Maybe one can enable Compiz effects later if Kwin is out of the question)

I can get used to the new lower panel (especially because it's completely flexible, so you can adapt it to suit your needs or preferences). I decided to make it look more like the Mandriva that attracted me to Linux:

I cannot but think that, although I am in no way a power user, I cannot do my work without multiple desktops and the convenient cube animation any longer. I believe Linux innovated computing with that concept and Microsoft will probably try to copy it for Windows 8. So, why hiding them to mimic a cellphone?

Netdrake is still operational, but the system network is fired up by the KDE network tool.
Oh, there's one last observation. I couldn't run my Japanese IME test because Mandriva Control Center wouldn't let me add new programs. That had to do with the repos and the move to RPM5, I presume?

Testing Japanese IME in Mageia 1 Beta1 (with Libre Office!)

2011-04-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

UPDATE:
After filing a bug report, the Mageia team fixed the problem in Mageia 1 Beta 2 Cauldron. Now Anthy works perfectly fine with SCIM. You also get the option of using iBus for Japanese IME, which is a lot simpler. Read about it here.

So, here I am, typing this entry from Mageia 1 Beta1.
Since I haven't encountered any problems so far, I decided to live dangerously and pushed my luck: how about testing the Japanese IME with SCIM? That works flawlessly in Mandriva with Open Office, but I haven't managed to make it work in Libre Office in this OS.

Given the fact that Mageia ships with Libre Office, I thought it would be a nice experiment to see if I can follow in Mageia the same process to activate Japanese input in Mandriva and type both in kana and kanji.

For those of you who might be interested, I described the procedure to follow in Mandriva 2010 here. However, Mandriva 2010.1 created some problems (that I could circumvent and described here).

So, I downloaded all the packages that are available in the Mageia repositories (I noticed that there was no SCIM-ANTHY, so I predicted problems).

Then, after using the SU command and inputting my password, I tried to add the required lines in the i18n file by using gedit, but the program wouldn't run:

[root@localhost sysconfig]# gedit
**
GLib-GIO:ERROR:gdbusconnection.c:2279:initable_init: assertion failed: (connection->initialization_error == NULL)
Abortado
[root@localhost sysconfig]#

Thus, I tried Kwrite, which has never worked for me in Mandriva for this particular purpose and I got another bash problem:

[root@localhost sysconfig]# kwrite
kwrite(4738): Session bus not found
To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash)
export $(dbus-launch)

KCrash: Application 'kwrite' crashing...
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/drkonqi from kdeinit
sock_file=/root/.kde4/socket-localhost/kdeinit4__0
Warning: connect() failed: : No existe el fichero o el directorio
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/drkonqi directly
drkonqi(4739): Session bus not found
To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash)
export $(dbus-launch)

[root@localhost sysconfig]#

Discouraged, I was about to give up, but decided to read the information that the terminal was giving me... and I saw that it was giving me the solution!

To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash)
export $(dbus-launch)

So I typed
export $(dbus-launch) kwrite

and this was what I got:

[root@localhost sysconfig]#

I typed krwite and this is what happened:

Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
kbuildsycoca4 running...
kbuildsycoca4(4901)/kdecore (services) KServicePrivate::init: The desktop entry file "/usr/share/applications/kde4/trash.desktop" has Type= "Link" instead of "Application" or "Service"

kbuildsycoca4(4901) KBuildServiceFactory::createEntry: Invalid Service : "/usr/share/applications/kde4/trash.desktop"

After which, kwrite launched and I could append the lines to the i18n file.

Then I proceeded and removed the Libre Office kde integration package and, after restarting the session...

やった！マジェイアはにほんごをかくことができますよ！

The problem:

Anthy is not working, so I'm using Canna...which is fine, but I cannot get Canna to change kana into kanji (this feature works in Mandriva/Open Office).

Oh, well, but I achieved something, didn't I?

When formatting a flash drive doesn't erase a virus

2011-04-14T17:18:00.000-07:00

USB viruses are very common and one of the solutions that Windows users resort to when facing one of those bothersome thingies is formatting.
Yes, the complete destruction of data on the device should be enough to get rid of any virus, right? After all, nothing can survive a nuclear bomb...except cockroaches, scorpions, and who knows what else.

Yesterday, a proud user of Windows 7 came to my office with an infected USB drive and, since he knew that Linux is more efficient to deal with those infections than Windows is, he used Mandriva to erase the virus and all the folders it created. However, when he tried to copy his files back into the drive, he got several error messages.

I took his pen drive and checked: some files were still masked and Mandriva would not let me erase them, so I opened Mandriva Control Center and formatted the drive as a FAT32 Windows partition. Yet, files still refused to be copied into this rebellious device, that was apparently clean, or should have been, as it had undergone a formatting operation.

THE VIRUS SURVIVED A FORMATTING OPERATION!

I suspected that the virus might have been hiding somewhere else. After all, there are computer viruses that allocate themselves in the boot sector, so you only waste your time formatting the HD to eliminate them.

I opened Mandriva Control Center again and reformatted the pen drive, but this time I did as a Linux EXT3 partition. When I finished,I could see a nice folder named "lost+found", which I tried to delete manually. I had no luck; the folder was locked.

THE TERMINAL: THE TRUE POWER OF LINUX!

I opened the terminal, typed SU, entered my root password and executed the command

rd --ignore-fail-on-non-empty lost+found

With that powerful spell, the folder was gone!

RESTORING THE WINDOWS PARTITION

After that, I reformatted the drive again as a Windows FAT32 partition and we got no problems copying information to it.

It's good to have the Linux terminal to handle viruses that resist GUI removal...

Mageia Beta1 in pictures

2011-04-13T19:53:00.000-07:00

After getting my desktop back, I picked up Megatotoro's challenge and installed Mageia Beta 1 to give it a short test drive. Instead of writing extensively about it, I will show you some screen captures.

1. Installation:

Conclusion:
It's very Mandriva-like. Should I say PowerPackish? Well, since Mandriva might lose many of its distinct tools and looks, it's good to have a distro that might be more Mandrivish than Mandriva itself.

2. Mageia's own flavor:

My comments:
Although the artwork needs some improvement, the installation read-ons are very nice. Actually, not many distros thank people for their interest (and the "We will welcome you" is more than a motto, as I reported earlier). Thanks to those messages of appreciation, the HUMAN SIDE OF MAGEIA, I am starting to fall for this distro.

3. Points of convergence: Mageia Control Center and the DRAKES!

(The message says that RPMDrake must be updated)

4. Testing installed software: Frozen bubble

Installation of software with Mageia CC works!

5. Firefox 4:

A visit to three of my favorite sites:

Firefox 4 is FAST!!

6. Productivity Suite: Libre Office

Final Question: Is Mageia Beta 1 a Go or a No-Go?

I would venture to say that not only is Mageia promising as a distro, but that it will also fulfill the dream of keeping the Mandrake/Mandriva legacy alive. I, for one, will save a partition for Mageia.

The inevitable...My return to Windows

2011-04-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today I received a disappointing surprise when I turned on my desktop computer, which is a triple boot (Mandriva 2010.2 PwP, Pardus 2011, Windows XP SP3). It came as a cold shower after a day that started with gratifying experiences that skyrocketed...until I got home and tried to use the PC. But bear with me and let me describe how the day went, so that you grasp my tragedy in full form.

My day started with a class discussion on malware, lies, and false pretenses thanks to two texts that we read. It's a reading comprehension class and my students reacted with an awakened interest that you normally do not expect for a class that begins at 7 AM. After reading a poorly supported piece spreading misconceptions, we read Carla Schroder's post on FUD, which cracked a paradigm that many of us once failed to see. The session went great and was followed by a challenging task. Yes, two colleagues asked me to install Mandriva to their netbooks, a Toshiba and an Acer powered by that little gem of an OS that has prompted many to give Linux a try: Windows 7 Starter. I could have failed there had not been for the timely help I received from Megatotoro, who saved the day with his tactics to make Starter share the HDD.

The rest of the day was pretty normal until I went back home and turned my computer on with a fervent wish to post a festive entry. As usual, Mandriva started the computer, but there was something unexpected: the network applet, instead of showing a green check mark, displayed a red "X". Without caring too much, I clicked on the applet to launch Netdrake and fire off the connection manually. However, the X stood there, defying my clicks and laughing sardonically before my baffled eyes. "Mandriva is not working," I thought, after having checked the wires and realizing that everything was properly attached. "Well, there's always Pardus," I consoled myself, and rebooted the PC using the Turkish distro. But Pardus also told me that the connection was unavailable and a spiral of uneasiness ascended through my stomach. My two Linux distros had deserted me: only Windows was left, that long-forgotten OS that had rested unused for more than four months already. Windows was my last hope to connect to the Internet. I could not prevent it; I was shivering as I clicked the red button in Pardus and selected "Boot Windows".

Last time I tried to use Windows, there was a blackout, so I, logically, got a black screen asking me if I wanted to boot Windows normally, or with the last configuration that had worked, etc. I selected "normal" and saw with hope the XP logo...but the computer rebooted unexpectedly and threw me again to the same black screen. "OK, let's go 'last good config' this time," I mumbled and chose. And XP, for its part, chose to do something wonderful: it got me into a cute loop and refused to start. Isn't that wonderful? I have been using my PC all this time without even knowing that Windows XP had fried! Thus, my return to Windows was colored by the inevitable reminder of its many weaknesses.

Five years ago, this loop would have thrown me into a state of anxiety that easily justified my spending the whole night up reinstalling the darn OS. Right now, I just don't care. No anxiety build-up. The plain truth is that my computer works; Windows doesn't.

By the way, I realized that the problem with the net was because the hardware is malfunctioning. See, I'm posting this entry from the wireless connection. Tomorrow, I will get the hardware piece replaced :-)

Mageia's The Wizards Lair, a forum for convergence

2011-04-02T19:31:00.000-07:00

Today I registered in the Mageia forums. I was a little self-conscious because of my limited technical knowledge and because I'm an active Mandriva user. To be honest, I was expecting a degree of rejection due to distro fanboyism.

However, my fears were unjustified: the forum welcomes everyone and I, in fact saw many of the familiar names in the Mandriva forums!

I really hope Magiea brings the two Linux communities together.

Installing Linux to a Gateway NV53 laptop, a trial for five distros

2011-03-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Today, one of my sisters-in-law came to visit and brought her laptop because she wanted me to install Linux to it. She is fed up with the never-ending (and increasingly costly) rituals of updating anti-viruses that seem to be always one step behind in the eternal fight against e-threats. Her laptop is a Gateway NV53, 4GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium and, despite all the praises that Windows fanboys sing for this OS, she was dissatisfied with its reality: you are always vulnerable to viruses, malware, and a wide array of threats.

Coincidentially, Megatotoro was around and his expertise with dual booting this selfish Windows Vista-with-make-up was truly helpful.

Now, I had dual-booted a Windows Vista7 desktop before with some minor problems. I used Mandriva 2010.2 for that operation, so we tested my favorite Linux distro and...we hit a major problem this time: no sound! Mandriva would not produce any sound out of the built-in speakers, so we decided not to install it.

Then, we tried the next candidate, Pardus GNU/Linux. Again, there was not any sound coming from the Gateway laptop.

Next came Ubuntu Lucid Lynx and, although Canonical's flagship product enabled the sound, MP3s were not natively supported.

The following candidate was Simply Mepis 8.5. As Warren Woodford states, Simply Mepis just works. I might add that, in this particular case, it worked flawlessly, too. It picked up the wi-fi, enabled sounds, etc., much to Megatotoro's satisfaction (his grin couldn't possible be more evident: rarely is it that his distro of choice fails). It's just too bad that people do not know this nice distro. The downside was that the effects in this release are not very polished. Megatotoro, as many Mepis followers, is waiting for the release of Mepis 11. To be honest, I am also waiting (I even reserved a blank partition of my netbook's HDD for it). Megatotoro has installed the beta 3 of Mepis 11 and he is happy with it, but, ethically, he did not want to install a beta to a computer that is not his own.

Therefore, we decided to test one more candidate: Linux Mint Julia. We ran the Live CD and the elegant Irish distro not only enabled the sound, but it also previewed MP3s and dazzled the owner of the laptop with the Compiz effects.

We asked her which of the two finalists she wanted to keep as her first Linux distro and, after considering the options, she asked us to install Mint.

Not to run any risk (as none of us has ever used Mint to partition a Windows Vista7 computer), we used Mandriva 2010.2 to resize the Windows partition and create the new one for Mint. Then we ran the Julia Live DVD and, in 25 minutes, the computer had a Linux OS. This is what her new OS looks like:
(The wallpaper was downloaded from www. art.gnome.org and modified with GIMP)

As soon as we started explaining to the owner how Linux works, she realized that many of the things she has heard about computers are myths and she questioned what the point of spending more money in new Windows OSs is. After all, she reasons, they all have exactly the same vulnerabilities than previous releases do. Ballmer probably won't like to hear this, but she discovered that she can have MORE than what Windows offers for free.

So, even though she did not choose Mepis and Mandriva did not work for her, both Megatotoro and I feel happy. Linux is all about freedom and now my sister in-law has the opportunity to see what a computer can truly do.

Some statistics for the record
Windows 7:
Boot time: 58 s. Shut down time: 20 s.
Linux Mint:
Boot time: 48 s. Shut down time: 4 s. (Yes, that's right. Like a bullet!)
Hibernation: perfectly functional.
Compiz effects enabled.
WebCam enabled with Cheese
Wi-fi working
Function keys responding
Card and flash drive reader working
No issues with the GRUB seeing Windows 7

UPDATE:
The owner found a problem. The laptop refused to shut down. I've heard this before: Ubuntu computers that don't shut down...Well, Mint is an Ubuntu-based distro. Is that the reason? I've never had this problem in Mandriva, Mepis, or Pardus.

Sorry, we don't sell flash drives anymore

2011-03-17T07:23:00.001-07:00

A rather curious phenomenon has been occurring near campus lately: vendors are refusing to distribute USB flash drives, those handy devices for storing data. The first time I got a "NO, we don't have USB sticks" as an answer, I thought that the vendor had simply ran out of stock. However, time passed by and flash drives were not available. Not even one. What was going on?

This responded to the wrong "my-hardware-is-defective" assumption that is so common in a Windows monoculture. I have seen flash drives "fail" countless times. The most common problems are:

Missing folders
Missing files
Impossibility to record data
Failure to erase some folders
Inexplicable virus alerts (with the subsequent affirmation "I scanned it with my anti-virus!")

I saw a young woman return her memory stick to a vendor that offered a warranty. She described some of the problems mentioned above. Of course, as Windows users never blame their OS, they have to blame this strange behavior on something and the poor hardware is the one that gets all the kicks. So they complain to vendors.

The vendor, inadvertently, falls into the trap. So, s/he either returns the money or replaces a USB drive that is perfect with a new one. This becomes a truly lousy business that, given the quantity of repetitions, was enough to show red numbers. Hence, the vendor decided not to sell that kind of hardware anymore.

With Linux, I have been able to show many USB flash drive owners that the memory stick is perfect and that the problems listed above are the consequence of virus infections. These infections happen thanks to the weak security of Windows and the ignorance of the user. To get rid of the problem, all you have to do is remove the pesky hidden files...which you achieve with two clicks in Linux. In Windows, well, you need to disable system restore, go to the registry, apply patches, reboot (can't do anything without rebooting, you know?)... You might also need a great deal of good luck and all the charms you can get.

I have a question. What will vendors do once that viruses become more common in, say, memory cards? Of course those will not be perceived as OS problems, either. Are those storage devices going to be banned as well? No wonder why Microsoft could come up with the stupid idea of banning infected computers from the Web...

Emergency at the University: A PC problem or an OS that is defective?

2011-03-12T07:02:00.000-08:00

On Jan 20th, 2011, I posted an entry on my office network and, jokingly, put up a picture in which viruses were pawning the Windows computers. Well, that picture became prophetic: while the Windows 7 machine gradually collapsed, the XP one became a zombie that got the entire University Internet service in trouble for a whole week. However, my Mandriva box emerged pristine, completely unscathed. This is the account of what happened.

The main computer in the section is an XP system, which was later linked to the new Windows 7 computer that was bought. The computer I use was also an XP one. However, I installed Mandriva Linux to make it a dual boot and now I seldom boot it in Windows. After less than a year, the Windows 7 station started to show some strange symptoms: It would not start, the screen would flicker, or the machine would freeze. We asked the department technician to come to examine it and, as Carla Schroder said it back in April 2010 (read article here), the technician deemed the whole thing a hardware problem (he blamed it on the hard drive) and substituted the HD. I told him I had my reserves, but people in the office pretty much ignored me.

Last week, the Internet service of the University was in terrible shape. I wanted to go talk to the IT Manager of the Faculty, but it was not necessary because he stormed yesterday into my department. He was a rabid pitbull after something to bite and barked that a machine in my section was sending viruses non-stop and collapsed the University Internet service. His boss, therefore, gave him a furious call with an ultimatum: "Either you find the infected computer, or you pull the switch off for the entire Faculty". He went to my machine first, but I told him that I only run Linux on it, upon which he responded: "Linux? Then it's not yours!" and jumped to the other machines and found the IP of the culprit...it was the XP system. The result? The machine was unhooked from the network and will remain in quarantine.

But what happened to the Windows 7 box? I asked the technician in my section if he had actually checked the integrity of the hard drive to support his claim. I knew the answer already; he only supposed it had been a hardware failure, but never checked the disk! Carla Schroder was absolutely right: people assume that computer problems are necessarily hardware, not OS problems!

I asked him to put the disk back. He reformatted it and Windows 7 is behaving OK so far. I wonder if Windows does not check the integrity of the disk BEFORE install... Anyway, I installed Mandriva (no indication of disk problems whatsoever, by the way) and now that system is also a dual boot.

Maybe it's time for people to stop blaming computer problems on hardware and to begin seeing reality. In my office, there are three stations for three individuals who are not computer experts. The two Windows machines broke; the Linux one is still up to the job and has not failed, not even once, since its Penguin OS was installed.

As a simple computer user, what can I learn? Well, the lesson that I see is that if you want to have Windows as the OS of your computer, you must accept that its security is flawed by design, which eventually will cause problems for an user that is not an expert. You must then invest a lot of time to learn how to protect your system, how to correctly operate the antivirus, firewall, anti-malware, etc. You also have to refrain from downloading shiny animations and programs to enhance your desktop, as they can compromise your system. On the other hand, if you do not want to be bothered by common security problems, then you should use Linux. Thus, you will discover that many so-called PC problems are but Windows problems.

Names, responses, and FLOSS

2011-03-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
(T.S. Eliot, "The Naming of Cats")

Funny as it may, this very same dilemma of naming is attached to the computer world. It generates multiple reactions, which range from amusement to irate responses sprinkled with prejudice, especially when addressing the interaction with FLOSS communities.

Let me exemplify. In numerous occasions, I have read the argument that one hindrance to the advance of Open Source is the name given to applications. The reasoning is that "geeky Open Source developers" give their applications "geeky names" that make it harder for the end user to be able to work with them, something that is said NEVER HAPPENS under the Windows environment. That names are always clear in Windows is slanted information: "Excel" and "PowerPoint" give very precise clues of what the user can do with them, don't they? Writer and Calc are more accurate than Word and Excel in that sense. But let us overlook that stone and approach the idea playfully. Once I read: "If I read 'Photoshop', I know it has to do with pictures. But what is GIMP for?" I laugh at this pedestrian position that rests upon laziness and ignorance. After all, the name "Photoshop" can be just as misleading if you have never seen the application (Photoshop is an application to buy pictures online, Photo-shop, right?). On the other hand, if the user looks up the meaning of the GIMP acronym, "GNU Image Manipulation Program" seems more accurate than Photoshop is to describe what the application does. Now, that aside, the argument is flawed in itself because it overlooks human linguistic capacities. You use a mop to mop, a brush to brush, but a broom to sweep and no one complains! What's in the word "mop" that tells you what it is for, other than a symbolic association cemented in our brains by constant reinforcement? Do I need to know what GIMP means to be able to operate it? What do we do when the technologies are not given a name at all? Remember TWAIN (Technology without an interesting name)?

Now, if developers have the right to call their application anything they like because, in the end, the user will learn by exposure and association, what's the big deal if developers name applications using references to literature (Scrooge) or culture (Banshee)? Or if they use words foreign for an English speaker(LibreOffice)? English speakers should remember that, thanks to the Norman Conquest, English adopted lots of French words, so let us be more realistic. A name does not make a technology better or worse, just as a name does not reflect on the nature of the person bearing it.

One interesting feature about names is that they do speak of hegemonic power struggles. In a sense, names manifest dominance, division, and impositions. Have you heard of the tug o' war name between Canonical and Gnome? The former was calling something "appindicator", whereas the latter went for "state message". It's not that they didn't agree on what to call it. Actually, the problem was that the two parties pushed for their own name of choice and that's different. If I call the bird "hawk" and you call it "falcon", there's not any problem provided that the convention has it that the animal can be referred to by the two tags. Yet, if I want you to call something the way I do, then we have a problem. Certainly, it is more one of power than it is of naming.

One great source of fun developers have in the Linux world is the assignment of names to versions. So, Mandriva 2010 became "Adelie" and 2010.1 went by the name of "Farman". Other distributions resort to a set of conventions that makes it interesting for developers to find a name. Linux Mint has, for example, a rule of giving the version the name of a woman using a sequential letter of the alphabet, but the name has to end with an "a". Since I remember, that gave us Felicia, Gloria, Helena, Isadora, and the now popularly acclaimed Julia. Ubuntu has a different formula for their code names: "letter X adjective + letter X animal". Consequently, from the moment I joined the Linux world, I have seen Karmic Koala, Lucid Lynx, Maverick Meerkat, Natty Narwhal and they just announced the successor, Oneiric Ocelot.

Of course, those codes give room for people to start playing with the patterns. Thus, they come up with very creative names of their own to bash the distro, as in this (troll?) comment posted in www.tuxmachines.org.

Naming is always a difficult enterprise and there will always be complaints. Eliot's cats, however, do not have such problem: They have a secret name of their own. Maybe applications are the same and they crash, under-perform or fail to launch because they are also lost in the contemplation of their "ineffable, effable, effanineffable/
Deep and inscrutable singular name".

How to add personalized icons to Kopete

2011-02-28T05:50:00.000-08:00

My first experience with an IM (chat) session in Linux was through Kopete, the KDE IM client, but I stopped using it because I found it rather stiff and its interface was "too complicated". By the last statement, I should have said "too different from MSN Live Messenger" instead.

Anyway, I have been using Kopete for some time now because I was attracted back to it by its many functionalities and I have to admit that it is a remarkable IM client. It has lots of features, like handling multiple accounts, multiple IM services, and multiple identities. It's great that you can have Kopete manage your accounts in MSN, Yahoo, and Gmail because, thanks to KDE integration, you receive an immediate notification when a new mail hits any of your mail accounts.

However, the icon set that comes with it is rather limited, so for those who enjoy sending emoticons every other line or for whom "an image speaks a thousand words", Kopete might seem lacking.

If you are one of the people for whom emoticons are vital, you can always install more icon sets to use with Kopete. The process is very simple. First, do not look for a way to do it from the program (the "Windows way" of doing things!). There are just too many places to explore and one gets lost easily.

This is how you can retrieve emoticon sets and add your own (the Linux newbie way, that is):

Step 1. Look for KDE configuration options (Configure Desktop) in the lower panel. Click on the tools icon.
Step 2. A Windows opens. Click on the "Appearance" icon.
Step 3. Find the emoticon section. You will see it a the bottom of the new window that opens.
Step 4. Click emoticons (You are almost done!). This is pretty much what you see.
KDE 4 corresponds to the KDE built-in emoticon set. I installed the Kadu penguins, the onigiri and the qip sets.

To add new sets, just go to the options below, where it says "get new icon theme". You will be taken to the available sets. Click and add to your heart's content!

To add your personalized icons, put all the images or animated gifs in the same folder and make sure you don't move it later. Then, from step 4, select a theme other than KDE 4 (you cannot modify that one!) and go right, where it says "add".
A small windows opens:
The blank square corresponds to the emoticon you are about to add. Click on the blank square and find the folder where your emoticon is. Select it. It will replace the blank square. The dialog line next to it is for the trigger code. Type there the word or initials that will fire up the emoticon in an IM/Chat session, like this:
Then click "accept" and then "apply" and you are ready to go. I'm using Mandriva 2010.2, KDE, but the same tutorial should be applicable to any KDE-based distro with some minor changes.

2010 FLOSS Workshop Aftershock: An Unexpected Invitation

2011-02-26T07:29:00.000-08:00

In a former post, I talked about how Open Source was becoming more visible in the university where I work. That post was followed by another one narrating our speech in a congress and the post about our workshop (described by Megatotoro here).

Well, I thought that had been all our contribution to raise awareness on the existence of multiple choices when dealing with computers. However, yesterday I got an email that startled me. It was a request from a project coordinator asking Megatotoro and I to participate as the main speakers in another workshop. The idea was to cover the following topics:

1. How to install Ubuntu/Mandriva (I'd like to add Mepis, Pardus and Mint, haha)
2. How to work with open word processors, spreadsheets, electronic presentations
3. How to save documents in compatibility mode (This one is funny. People still fail to see that incompatibility issues spring from Microsoft, not from open documents)
4. How to dual boot Linux/Windows.

This hands-on workshop is again addressed to professors. They chose us, it turns out, because both Megatotoro and I are not technical users, which proves that ANYONE can use Linux.

What does this say to me? Well, the more people discover that Windows is neither the only nor necessarily the best OS available, the closer we are to the end of the Windows era. Yes, when people see that they have choices, they begin to do what Microsoft has never wanted them to do: choose!

Plurality is always beneficial. It fosters innovation, cooperation (and competition, why not?) and guarantees freedom. Upon those conditions, a wonderful phenomenon takes place: it's called PROGRESS.

But don't panic, Windows fanboys: if more people start using Linux, maybe that is going to benefit Windows users in the long run, too. Who knows? Perhaps Microsoft will be forced to release an OS that can rival Linux security without all the bloatware, antivirus paranoia, etc. that actually makes users switch to Linux! That would be progress!

This is MAGEIA!

2011-02-15T20:01:00.000-08:00

Well, OK, I am not a developer. My knowledge is not technical, so this Mageia Alpha 1 was not targeted to me. But who would blame me for trying it out?

This is what the installing sequence of Mageia looks like:

After the language selection (this alpha does include SPANISH!), the license, and the partitioning, all of them very PowerPackish, you see this:
Then, you type your root password and create your user account:
After which you create the GRUB and read a summary. Then you install updates, again, very Mandriva-style:
That's the installation: a real piece of cake. When complete, you read this message:

So, you boot the system up and you get to see this, the Mageia GRUB:

and the splash screen:

That's as far as I got.

As you can see, the alpha looks promising and, to be an early release, you can appreciate all the effort that has been put into the making of this new distro.

CONGRATULATIONS, MAGEIA TEAM! AWESOME WORK!!
¡FELICITACIONES, EQUIPO MAGEIA! ¡¡IMPRESIONANTE TRABAJO!!
マジアチーム、おめでとう! よくできた!!

Mageia .iso released!

2011-02-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

The clock has just stricken midnight, so it's February 15, 2011. With the sound of the clock, magic is released...wait, let me rephrase it: MAGEIA is released!

Yes, the so-awaited .iso is finally here. It's the first alpha of Mageia, named "Cantine".

Right on time, and just as anticipated by Megatotoro...
こわいい！未来が見られますか？

Well, it seems that I have to download it and give it a test drive, too.
(Yes, I'm not crazy about the logo, either)

Happy Valentine's from Mandriva!

2011-02-14T21:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, the Mandriva Team kept their promise and released the Alpha 1 of Mandriva 2011...right on time, coming like a Valentine's gift for those who love this distro.

As the release announcement stresses, it comes with two browsers (presumably three, if we include Konqueror), Wine, and some other characteristics.

There is no mentioning of the Office Suite, so I'm curious to see if this release brings Libre Office or Open Office.

I'm also curious about the artwork.

For me, it's good that Mandriva is still alive because I have a feeling of fondness for the distro that showed me that a world "without Windows or Gates" is truly possible.

So, Happy Valentine's, Mandriva users!

Ubuntu Fan? How about a writing contest?

2011-02-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

I stumbled on this and found it sort of interesting: Cult of Ubuntu is offering a Dell netbook (with Ubuntu preinstalled, of course) as a prize for the winner of their writing contest. Read about it here.

Free time experiments: GhostBSD, Zorin OS4, Mandriva 2011 TP

2011-02-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

Motivated by the post on BSD that yunani deniz, my Italian friend and "un appassionato di sistemi linux" wrote, I decided to try BSD. My main problem with OSs of the BSD family is, yes, you guessed it, text installation. Luckily, I stumbled upon GhostBSD, a BSD OS that comes in a Live CD and Live DVD (I tried them both and they do pretty much the same). GhostBSD has a Gnome desktop environment
and, thanks to that, it looks like another Linux distribution to the untrained eye. However, there were several points that I did not like:
1. Partitions were not mounted.
2. Some of the software is fairly old. Firefox, for instance, would take me to a page urging me to update the browser.
3. The office suite is Abiword, Gnumeric, and a dictionary.

Unfortunately, although GhostBSD was nice enough for a simple user, it cannot be used as a rescue tool. I loved the wallpaper, by the way.

yunani deniz also commented on Zorin OS4 here and very kindly invited me to try it. About that Linux distro, Megatotoro told me that he wanted to try it, but he refrained when he saw it was an Ubuntu spinoff and that there were too many of those. I somehow shared the same impression, but I downloaded the Zorin OS 4 Live DVD and gave it a try.

I must admit that this is truly a nice work. It boots fast and the Compiz effects are well balanced, which makes the distro very attractive for those who enjoy eye candy. It also has a chameleon feature to change its appearance to several versions of Windows and even Mac OS X. When I switched to Windows 7, it crashed. That's what I call a GREAT IMITATION, just like in this comic strip! :-P

I have to say that I loved Zorin OS 4 and I agree, it's a wonderful distro. My concern is that it is an Ubuntu derivative. Please do not misinterpret me; I'm not an Ubuntu hater. I'm only thinking about what srlinuxx commented: with the new moves that Ubuntu is making, its derivatives might have a hard time (Read the comment on Tuxmachines). It would be sad to lose a project like Zorin.

Finally, I tried the new alpha 1 of the distro that made me drop Windows back in 2009: Mandriva. I downloaded the DVD of Mandriva 2011 TP and there is an adjective to summarize my experience: BUGGY!

Yes, it is as buggy as you can expect an alpha to be. But let me describe first the work-in-progress issues that I encountered. After the boot up sequence, I could not find Spanish in the language selection. In fact, I used USA as geographic location because there was not a single Spanish-speaking country on the list...Not even Spain!! How about that?

The next problem was that the system would not start the network manager. That was mentioned in the release information, so, with resignation, I decided to proceed without being able to browse the Web.

Then, I was prompted to create a user account. That was funny because it was a Live DVD, but I created it and Woah! To log in, there were three choices: Guest, Live, and the account I created (!?). Anyway, I used my account and got to the familiar Mandriva desktop. (Well, as you can see, there is no icon for HOME...I guess the home was built in Spain! ;-P)

I instinctively opened Firefox and behold! it worked! After browsing the Internet for a while, I got an error message telling me that network manager "could not load because there was another program running" and asked me if I wanted to stop that program. I decided to ignore the message and, when I minimized Firefox. the screen started acting up. Well, I hope these are temporary bugs and problems. For the most part, playing with GhostBSD, Zorin OS4 and Mandriva 2011 TP was a lot of fun.

I am also waiting for my Mageia .iso.

No le instalen Linux a su madre

2011-02-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

Me gustaría ofrecer un consejo honesto a aquellos que se preocupan por sus progenitores y las destrezas informáticas de ellos. Hagan lo que hagan, no le instalen Linux a sus padres. Sí, ya sé que a veces sus constantes llamadas de auxilio relacionadas con problemas de seguridad, fallas del sistema e infección por virus pueden tentarlos a instalar una distribución Linux en las máquinas de sus padres...¡Pero sean fuertes y no cedan!

Por supuesto, muchos lectores pueden estar esperando (si no demandando) una explicación que justifique lo que dije. Bien, permítanme que les ahorre todo el razonamiento aburrido y, en su lugar, les presentaré una ilustración en la forma de una anécdota que espero sea suficiente.

Mi madre, quien está ya en sus cincuenta y nunca había utilizado un computador hasta hace tres años, tomó un curso sobre Windows y MS Office. Debido a esto, y con confianza en sus recién adquiridas destrezas, se compró una linda computadora. No obstante, a pesar del tiempo y esfuerzo invertido en los cursos, avanzaba muy poco gracias a las conocidas pantallas de error que Windows le muestra a todos aquellos que confían en Microsoft, sin mencionar las comunes infecciones por virus que enloquecían a la máquina. No es necesario decir que los episodios normalmente concluían con su justificada frustración ("¡No vimos nada de esto en el curso!") y nuestra visita a su casa para solucionar el problema...una y otra vez.

Entonces mi hermano llegó al término de su paciencia y le instaló Pardus Linux (Anthropoides Virgo, me parece) en el año 2010. La reacción fue inmediata: luego de una minúscula resistencia, las llamadas relativas a problemas con la computadora disminuyeron hasta casi cero. Una de sus últimas llamadas fue para contarme que se sentía orgullosa porque había podido quemar un disco de MP3 usando K3b. Realmente me sentí feliz por ella porque solía experimentar terribles problemas para hacer lo mismo con Nero.

Pero aquí viene lo más sorprendente: dado que los virus ya no eran una preocupación, el enero pasado, mi madre consiguió una conexión ASDL para acceder a Internet. Todo marchaba viento en popa hasta hace dos semanas. Recibimos una llamada suya: algo le había ocurrido al módem y no se podía conectar. Como era un problema del proveedor del servicio de Internet, la compañía envió un técnico a resolver la situación y...¡el tipo jamás había visto Pardus Linux! Este hombre se encontraba impactado porque una mujer de la edad de mi madre estaba usando Linux, un sistema operativo supuestamente complicadísimo.

Mi madre me contó que el técnico se tomó tiempo adicional para configurar el módem, pero tuvo éxito y se fue orgulloso de haberlo logrado...(¿No era Linux imposible de usar?)

Cuando le di un vistazo a la máquina, el técnico había hecho desastres con Plasma y había borrado algunas aplicaciones del panel inferior. Además, tiró los iconos del escritorio a la papelera y cambió el tamaño de la pantalla. En resumen, "no dejó títere con cabeza", como dice el Quijote.

Regresar la computadora a su estado original tomó 15 minutos y mi madre afirmó que era "porque Linux is fácil". Bueno, tiene razón. De hecho, Pardus 2011 es aún más amigable. También lo es SimplyMepis. Y Mandriva 2010.2 es fácil también de acuerdo con este artículo (en inglés).

Por lo tanto, no le instalen Linux a su madre o a su padre. Puede ser que ellos terminen adorándolo, aprendiendo lo que nunca pudieron o, en el peor de los casos, avergonzando a algún técnico desapercibido acostumbrado solamente a Windows.

Don't give Linux to your mother

2011-02-05T18:38:00.000-08:00

I'd like to give an honest piece of advice to those who are concerned about their parents and their computer skills. Whatever you do, don't give Linux to your parents. Yes, I know that sometimes their constant calls for help regarding security breeches,crashes, and virus infections might make you feel tempted to install one Linux distribution on their computer...but be strong and don't give in!

Of course, many readers might be expecting (if not demanding!) an explanation for my position. Well, let me spare you all the boring reasoning; instead of that, I am going to give you an illustration in the form of an anecdote which I believe will suffice.

My fifty-something mother, who had never used a computer until three years ago, took a course on Windows and MS Office and, as she grew confident with her new skills, she bought herself a nice computer. However, despite all the time and money invested on her courses, she could not advance in her computer usage because she would constantly get the familiar error screens that Windows gives to those who trust Microsoft, not to mention the common virus infections that made the machine act funny. It goes without saying that the episodes would normally end with her justified frustration ("I did not cover any of this in the course!") and our visit to her house to fix the problem...time and again.

Then my brother got truly fed up and installed Pardus Linux (Anthropoides Virgo, I think) onto her hard disk in 2010. The reaction was instantaneous: after a minor resistance on her part, the calls concerning computer problems dropped to almost zero. One of her last calls was to tell me that she was proud because she had been able to burn an MP3 CD using K3b. I felt really happy for her because she had terrible problems trying to do the same in Nero.

But here comes the most remarkable thing: since viruses were no longer a problem, she got an ASDL connection to the Internet last January 10. Everything went off quite nicely until two weeks ago. We got a phone call: something had happened to the modem and she could not log in. It turned out that it was an ISP problem, so they sent a technician to solve the situation and...the guy had never seen Pardus Linux! He was extremely surprised because a woman her age was using Linux, an OS that is supposed to be horribly hard to use.

My mother told me that the technician spent some extra time trying to configure the modem, but he succeeded and went away proud because he could...(wasn't Linux impossible to use?)

When I saw the computer, the guy had messed up with Plasma and deleted some applications from the lower panel, too; he also threw the desktop icons to the garbage bin and resized the screen size. To sum up, "no puppet kept its head", as written in the Quixote.

Returning the computer to its normal state was a matter of 15 minutes and my mother said "It's because Linux is easy". Well, she is right. In fact, Pardus 2011 is even more user-friendly. So is SimplyMepis. And Mandriva 2010.2 is easy too, according to this article.

Therefore, do not give Linux to your mother or father. They might end up loving it, learning what they never could and, worst of all, putting an unsuspecting technician accustomed to Windows to shame.

How to install Libre Office in Mandriva 2010.2

2011-01-30T06:53:00.000-08:00

Mandriva (the distribution) comes with Open Office and, apparently, the company behind it has not voiced its support toward Libre Office, as many other Linux companies already have (including the Mageia project) (Read here the list). Of course, the similar circumstances that triggered the existence of both Libre Office and Mageia might be a little embarrassing for Mandriva (the company) to admit right now.

That is, nevertheless, of little significance for the end user and, if that end user happens to be a Linux beginner, those internal tensions within the Linux world are pretty much incomprehensible.

Let us assume that you are a newbie running Mandriva 2010.2. (like me, I guess). You know that Linux distributions have differences; for example, while Debian uses packages named .deb, Mandriva requires packages known as .rpm.

You also know that Linux distros have a different release schedule. Therefore, you have to wait until mid 2011 to get a new version of the distribution and to find out if Libre Office will replace Open Office. But you want Libre Office to run in your Mandriva 2010.2 system right now, so you go to the download section of Libre Office and are greeted by many different links. As you know how to read (something you learned as a child and have been practicing ever since), the many links do not scare you away: you discover that you need to locate first your language and the appropriate packaging (for Mandriva, you definitely need RPM.

So, you download the file... now what?

Installation of Libre Office in Mandriva 2010.2

You need: The installation file, your root password, and self confidence.

Once you have the file, you right-click on it and select "extract here, auto detect subfolder". Then you get inside the newly created folder and go inside a sub folder called RPMS.

WARNING: the following step is not for the faint of heart as it requires use of the TERMINAL!!

Yes, the above is sarcasm. I've read too much about how complicated and inconvenient it is to use the terminal...well, not in this case. I could do it and, believe me, I have no training in programming.

Once inside the folder RPMS, go to the window menu and click on "tools". Select "open terminal" to deal with the friendly black screen.
1. Type su
The terminal returns: password:
2. Type your root password (you have it, don't you?)
The terminal returns: [root@localhost RPMS]#
3. Type urpmi *.rpm and relax while the computer does its own thing. Once it's over, you will see the same prompt ([root@localhost RPMS]#)
4. Now, close the terminal (Boy, that didn't hurt, did it?)

Double click to open the folder called desktop-integration.
Once inside this folder, go to the window menu and click on "tools". Select "open terminal" to deal with the charming black screen. YES, AGAIN! But you are not afraid, are you?
1. Type su
The terminal returns: password:
2. Type your root password
The terminal returns: [root@localhost RPMS]#
3. Type urpmi *.rpm and see what the computer does this time. It might give you a warning about some dependency-requirements not met. Before you freak out, READ. It's about SUSE and Red Hat. You are using Mandriva, so just say yes to continue and relax while the computer does its own thing. When it's over, you will see the same prompt ([root@localhost RPMS]#)
4. Now, close the terminal (Boy, that was enlightening, wasn't it?)

After this, your OFFICE menu in Mandriva will display icons for Libre Office.
No, having both Libre Office and Open Office does not imply that the two office suites fight like cats and dogs within your computer, in case you are wondering.

My only complaint about Libre Office so far is that I haven't been able to use SCIM (the input method editor) to enter text in Japanese. That's a big concern for me. I hope to find a solution soon. In the meantime, I'll keep Open Office for that purpose... or Abiword.

My Netbook running Pardus 2011

2011-01-24T18:51:00.000-08:00

So I installed Pardus 2011 as a third booting option in my netbook. I'm running Mandriva, Mepis, and now Pardus (Yes, no windows in my netbook) and I must say that it is working perfectly. I haven't had any plasma crash and everything looks nice. I even used the new Firefox to find pictures (Pardus picks up the wi-fi without any problem) and the GIMP to modify them. The result was this simple wallpaper ;-)

There are certain points that one has to notice:
1. Mepis can access the Pardus home partition, but Mandriva can't.
2. Pardus and Mandriva handle KDE effects better than Mepis does.
3. The Mandriva control center is still the most centralized and user-friendly tool for handling everything in the system.
4. Mandriva has access to Pardus through Samba
5. Mepis helped me make room for Pardus because Mandriva would not resize the home partition.
Well, I'm happy with the three operating systems. They have very interesting features and their stability is certainly notorious.

Here's the KWIN desktop grid effect in Pardus

I've also discovered that having three Linux systems is helping me organize my writing production.

PARDUS 2011 is here!

2011-01-21T04:40:00.000-08:00

It's 7AM, Costa Rica time (Yes, this blog is written from Costa Rica, Central America, not Japan or Spain, hahaha). Pardus has already crossed the Caribbean sea.

For those of you were waiting for Pardus 2011, the waiting is finally over!

However, you must have realized that the link provided both in Distrowatch.com and the front Pardus page does not work for downloading the .isos. Well, in the Pardus project page I got "pick a download" but nothing was displayed.

You have to go here:
http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/download/
http://www.pardus.org.tr/indir/

I could get the images there and I'm presently downloading them... whoopie!

UPDATE:
I installed it and it's running perfectly. That's all I can say because the installation was as simple as I had previously posted here.

Son las 7AM, hora de Costa Rica (Sí, escribo este blog desde Costa Rica, América Central, no desde Japón o España, jajaja). Ya Pardus atravesó el océano Atlántico.

¡Para aquellos que estaban esperando a Pardus 2011, la espera finalmente acabó!

Sin embargo, ustedes se deben haber dado cuenta que el link en Distrowatch.com y en la página principal de Pardus no funciona para descargar las .isos. Bueno, en la página del proyecto Pardus se leía "Elija una descarga", pero no se veía nada para escoger.

Usted debe ir a:
http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/download/
http://www.pardus.org.tr/indir/

Desde ahí, pude acceder a las imágenes y estoy en este momento descargándolas. ¡Yupi!

ACTUALIZACIÓN:
Lo instalé y funciona a la perfección. Es todo lo que puedo decir ya que la instalación fue tan simple como lo dije aquí.

Network made easy with Mandriva

2011-01-20T18:56:00.000-08:00

At my office, I decided to install Mandriva because I got tired of waiting for XP to load and the antivirus ritual made me waste a lot of valuable time.

However, I had a problem: the three computers in the office were part of a network and I could not share resources with my co-workers because I did not know how to see their computers.

I remember I tried to install a home network in XP once. Following the assistant, I had to copy some files in some removable media and install them on the other computers, etc. but I never got the process working. This failure made me a little shy. After all, if one cannot set up a home network in XP, doing it in Linux is impossible, right? Wrong! I discovered yesterday that I do not have to do anything beyond the ordinary for a simple computer user; it is only a matter of knowing where to go and having the login information. Yes, Mandriva saw the other computers all the time and I did not know!

All I had to do was to open MCC, go to Shared Resources, access Windows Shared Resources, and then hit Search servers. All the available servers in the faculty were displayed. Then I merely opened Dolphin, went to Network, and then to Samba Shares to locate the appropriate computers in my network.

Once there, I entered the login and password of the Windows users and... PRESTO!
I was able to share files with the Windows computers.
If I had known before this was so easy to do in Linux...

The funny thing is that the "powerful" Windows 7 computer is constantly having connectivity problems and, occasionally, fails to see the XP computer. My station (the computer running Mandriva 2010.2, of course) has access to both Windows computers and their resources, but their malware does not have access to my system ;-)

Pardus 2011 RC, impresiones de un usuario común

2011-01-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

A Linux comúnmente se le atribuye la mala fama de ser un sistema operativo para gurús de la informática y, en el mundo de Linux, muchas personas creen que la única distribución fácil de usar que existe ostenta nombres de fauna africana. Sin embargo, existe una distribución Linux muy agradable que, a pesar de ser relativamente desconocida (al provenir de Turquía), puede ahorrar a los usuarios más de un dolor de cabeza: Pardus 2011.

Este interesante sistema operativo aún no se ha lanzado en su versión final, pero está disponible para ser probado como un RC (candidato de lanzamiento, en inglés) en dos DVDs. Hasankeyf (su nombre de código) da al usuario la posibilidad de elegir un DVD vivo para probar el sistema y un DVD de instalación.

DVD instalador de Pardus 2011 RC

Tras arrancar el DVD, se puede ver un felino en la pantalla: es la pantalla de inicio de Pardus. A continuación, el usuario tiene la oportunidad de seleccionar el idioma. Yo seleccioné "español" y la traducción es bastante agradable. El siguiente paso es leer y aceptar las licencias de código abierto.

Después de esto, hay un paso opcional que no he visto en ninguna otra distribución: Pardus revisa la integridad de los paquetes de software para asegurarse de que no se producirán errores de instalación. Eso es muy agradable para los principiantes, en mi opinión ...¡Para un novato que trata de instalar un sistema operativo en su equipo, nada es tan aterrador como un mensaje de error debido al software dañado!

A continuación, Pardus selecciona la mejor disposición del teclado y el usuario puede probar las teclas. El siguiente paso es seleccionar la zona horaria.

Hasta este punto, el proceso no puede ser más sencillo. Sin embargo, lo que viene es una operación delicada: crear la partición. Pardus da al usuario las tres opciones habituales (uso de todo el disco, utilizar el espacio libre, la partición personalizada), pero son un poco confusas y no hay imágenes como en otras distribuciones para captar la idea. Aun así, uno puede aventurarse. Yo seleccioné la tercera y fui intuyendo cómo salir del proceso sin mayor problema.

Pardus procede entonces a preguntarle si usted desea instalar un entorno KDE estándar o si prefiere personalizarlo. Elegí la opción por defecto (KDE estándar). Pardus, a continuación, muestra un resumen y siempre se puede volver atrás si es necesario. Si usted decide continuar, el sistema instala el grub y los paquetes de software. Mientras tanto, uno puede leer algunas diapositivas informativas sobre Pardus y el software de código abierto durante unos 15 minutos. Los de los delfines eran bastante interesante!

El sistema le indica que la instalación se ha realizado correctamente y le pide que reinicie su computadora. Al hacerlo, su nuevo sistema operativo está ahí. Sencillo, limpio y listo para ayudarle a crear su cuenta de usuario. Uno escribe su nombre y contraseña y, como una divertida nota al margen, antes de que pueda seguir adelante, el sistema, muy educadamente, le dice que "antes de que podamos seguir adelante, tenemos una pregunta: Te acuerdas de tu contraseña, ¿no ?". Me parece que eso es mucho más agradable que simplemente espetarle al usuario "¡No olvide su contraseña!".

Antes de poder utilizar la computadora, uno conoce al Kaptan, un asistente de configuración eficaz que le guiará en el proceso de personalización del escritorio. Así, usted puede elegir el tema de KDE, el conjunto de iconos (yo elegí el juego oficial de Pardus), si desea o no que el escritorio se comporte como KDE 4 o KDE 3, la cantidad de escritorios virtuales, el menú (Lancelot, Kick Off, o un menú simple están disponibles) y su Avatar de usuario.

Luego, usted puede interactuar con Smolts, un resumen del sistema que le enviarḉa su información a alguien por ahí en el ciberespacio. Una vez más, si usted está preocupado por su privacidad, este paso es opcional.

A diferencia del DVD Vivo de Pardus, uno puede conocer a Pisi, el gatito lindo que es el administrador de software de este hermoso sistema operativo y, por lo tanto, muchos paquetes de software están disponibles para usted a través de las patitas de este mini-felino.

He probado el rendimiento de esta distro de Linux y, para ser una versión candidata, me pareció impresionantemente estable y eficiente. Por tanto, estoy esperando con avidez para descargar la versión final.

Sólo un pequeño consejo para principiantes que usen Mandriva Linux (como yo): si uno tiene un arranque dual (Mandriva-Windows), al instalar Pardus, se pierde el acceso a Mandriva porque el grub de Pardus no le permitirá ver a Mandriva. Del mismo modo, después de restaurar el grub de Mandriva, no se puede ver a Pardus. Estoy seguro de que debe haber una forma para crear un arranque triple, pero ahora mismo eso se encuentra más allá de mi limitado conocimiento.

Para terminar, me gustaría recordar unas palabras que leí en las diapositivas de Pardus que, en mi opinión, resumen mi experiencia: "La experiencia con Pardus es un desfile de esplendor y poder de software libre y abierto". Nada puede decirlo mejor.

Pardus 2011 RC, impressions from a common user

2011-01-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

Linux is commonly de-famed as an operating system for computer gurus and, in the Linux world, many people believe that the only user-friendly distribution that exists is named after African fauna. However, there is a very nice Linux distribution that, despite being relatively unknown (as it comes from Turkey), can spare users many a headache: Pardus 2011.

This interesting OS is yet to be released in its final version, but it is available for testing as a release candidate in two DVDs. Hasankeyf (its code name) gives the user the possibility of choosing a Live DVD for testing the system and a DVD installer.

Pardus 2011 RC Installer DVD

The DVD boots and you see a feline on the screen: it is the Pardus splash screen. Then, the user is given the opportunity to select the language. I selected Spanish and the translation is pretty neat. The following step is to read and accept the open source licenses.

After this, there is an optional step that I have not seen in any other distribution: Pardus checks the integrity of the software packages to make sure that you will not get installation errors. That is pretty nice for beginners, in my opinion... For a computer newbie attempting to install an OS, nothing is as scary as getting an error message due to corrupted software!

Next, Pardus selects the best keyboard layout and the user can test the keys. The following step is to select the time zone.

Up to this point, the process is as easy as it can be. Nevertheless, what is coming is a touchy operation: partitioning. Pardus give the user the three usual choices (use entire disk, use free space, custom partitioning), but they are a bit confusing and there are not visuals as in other distributions to grasp the idea. Even so, one can manage. I selected custom partitioning and guessed my way out of the stage.

Pardus then proceeds to ask you if you want to keep a standard KDE configuration or if you want to customize it. I chose the default option (standard KDE). Pardus then shows you a summary and you can always go back if need be. If you decide to continue, the system installs the grub and software packages. In the mean time, you can read some informative slides about Pardus and open source software for about 15 minutes. The ones on Dolphin were rather interesting!

The system tells you that the installation was successful and asks you to re-boot. You do so and...surprise! Your new OS is there. Simple, clean, and ready to help you create your user account. You input your name and password and, as a funny side note, before you can go on, the system, very politely, tells you "before we can go on, we have a question: you do remember your password, don't you?". I found that a lot nicer than simply spitting "don't forget your password!"

Before you can use the computer, you get to meet the Kaptan, an effective configuration assistant that guides you through the process of customizing your desktop. So, you choose the KDE theme, icon set (I picked the Pardus official set), whether or not you want a KDE 4 or KDE3 desktop, the quantity of virtual desktops, your menu (Lancelot, simple and KickOut are available) and your user avatar.

Right there, you get to interact with Smolt, a system summary that reports your information to someone out there in cyberspace. Again, this step is optional, if you are concerned about your privacy.

Differently from the Pardus Live DVD, you also meet PiSi, the cute kitten that happens to be the software manager of this beautiful OS and, thus, many software packages are available for you through the little paws of this mini-feline.

I tested the performance of this Linux distro and, to be a release candidate, I found it stable and impressively efficient. Consequently, I'm avidly waiting to download the final version.

Only one word of advise for Mandriva Linux beginners (like myself): if you have a dual boot (Mandriva-Windows) and you install Pardus, you lose your access to Mandriva because the Pardus grub won't let you see Mandriva. Likewise, after I restored the Mandriva grub, I couln't find Pardus. I'm sure there must be a way to triple boot, but that is right now beyond my limited knowledge.*THIS IS SOLVED (Thanks to Megatotoro). All you have to do is copy the entry for PARDUS (which you find on the GRUB file of PARDUS at /boot/grub/grub.conf) into the GRUB file of Mandriva (/boot/grub/menu.lst), or the other way around.

To finish, I'd like to recall some words I read in the Pardus slides that, in my opinion, summarize my experience with this release candidate that works better than some final versions I have tried: "La experiencia con Pardus es un desfile de esplendor y poder de software libre y abierto". It cannot be more accurate than that.

KMail adventure

2010-12-30T14:16:00.000-08:00

After I moved to Linux, I favored Thunderbird as my email client because I found it easy to configure. Of course, I knew that KDE includes a client called KMail, but its appearance was not attractive enough for me. However, I decided to give it a try now that I have some spare time...those brief moments in which my four-month old daughter is asleep and I can go play with the computer.

The question was if I could configure KMail on my own and get it to work properly. Given the fact that I am not an expert, the issue is significant because if I can handle it, that means that KMail is user friendly.

On my desktop computer, the inbox started working pretty fast and I could retrieve the emails stored in my pop3 account. However, the outbox was a little more complicated to configure. I had to try several times to get my SMTP working.

Interestingly, in my netbook, the problem was the other way around: sending was a one-step process, but I got stuck getting the KMail account to read my inbox. I could do it after three error messages of wrong configuration.

I am glad the program is now up and working, and I must admit that it is very functional despite its plain appearance.

Gimp in Mandriva, a glitch than can help you rescue files

2010-12-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

As I have said before, Mandriva is a nice Linux distribution for working if you blow up your Windows system. However, unless you install it, Mandriva ONE cannot be used as a rescue distro because it does not mount other partitions in Live mode, so you cannot access and retrieve your stored data. That was at least what I thought until yesterday.

I was testing Mandriva ONE 2010.2 and, sure enough, my other partitions could not be accessed in Dolphin (it reported the same error message when trying to mount them). I believe this is done to prevent damage to the primary OS in the computer, be it Linux or Windows.

The interesting part is that I decided to launch Gimp, the GNU image manipulation software, to see how fast it would open. It opened pretty fast, so I went to the menu to look for any image to load it... and, as I was doing it, I was saying to myself that the attempt was a futile one since I had no images in Live mode. Nevertheless, I saw my other partitions in the open menu and playfully hit the icon where my home partition is sitting on my hard disk. I got a pop up message informing that the operation I wanted to perform required root privileges and asked for my root password.

A root password!
A bit amused and expecting an error message, I typed "root" and voilà ! It mounted my home partition. In disbelief, I looked for a picture there and opened it, quickly modified it, and saved it to my home partition in a different folder.

I tried to open the folder in my home partition with Dolphin and it worked: I found the new image file.

I repeated the process with Gimp to see if it would mount my Windows partition as well. It did, so I took an image from Windows, modified it, and put it into a different folder. Using Dolphin once again, I noticed that my Windows partition was also mounted. I looked for the new folder I had created and located the file there.

I thought that it might be a glitch in Mandriva 2010.2, so I repeated the process using a Mandriva ONE Spring (2010.1) CD. When Gimp asked me for my root password, instead of typing "root", I hit "cancel" and it went ahead and mounted my home partition anyway. The same happened with my Windows partition, which shows that inputting a password is not actually necessary. Other programs, such as Gwenview, could also open files in other partitions after the process.

Now, the practical application of this is that you can retrieve all sorts of files (not just images) once your other partitions are mounted. In other words, you can use Mandriva as a rescue distro provided that you have any usb flash drive in which you can copy your retrieved files.

It is just too bad that Mandriva ONE does not come with K3b, the CD/DVD burning software. It could have made Mandriva a very good candidate for my perfect rescue distro quest.

Gdeskcal in Mandriva

2010-12-24T04:50:00.000-08:00

Gdeskcal is a little desktop calendar (in Windows, like the one in Webshots) that lets the user specify events.

This program can be downloaded from Mandriva official repositories, but, after the installation, it won't run if you use the version ONE of Mandriva (it does in PowerPack).

To solve the situation, use Mandriva Control Center to install
gnome-python-gtksourceview and the program will run perfectly.

To launch the application when you start your session, you must go to the hidden folder home/.kde/Autostart. Once there, right click to create a basic link to the gdeskcal file on /usr/lib/gdeskcal.

To change skins, download the corresponding .tar files, unpack them and copy the entire folders into the folder "skins", located as a hidden folder in home (.gdeskcal). Use the View menu in Dolphin and check the box "show hidden files" to see it.

UPDATE:
I just discovered that this little program connects to korganizer, so your appointments are also logged there if you want fancier alarms. Great!

A Quick Glance at Mandriva 2010.2

2010-12-19T10:51:00.000-08:00

YES, MANDRIVA 2010.2 IS HERE!

As I was updating my Mandriva Spring PowerPack, I noticed that it asked me whether or not I wanted to get version 2010.2 packages. I was a bit surprised because Mandriva promised to release that version (I ignore its code name) on the 22nd.

I decided to upgrade and discovered that the time for launching certain applications improved significantly (Gimp, for instance). The grub changed a bit, too. A new entry (alt-Windows) was added. When I booted, I saw that the grub says "Microsoft Windows" and not only "Windows". I also got Chromium for the collection of browsers that are included (Konqueror, Firefox, Opera).

Of course, there were some drawbacks. If you plan to install some applications, go ahead and do it BEFORE you upgrade because they can be left out. For example, I wanted to install Audacious but, after the upgrade, the dependencies were not selectable. The game Supertuxkart was another loss. The graphics are all messed up.

However, if you install Audacious, add the PLF repositories BEFORE YOU UPGRADE, or install any other software (from those programs I like, that is), there is no problem... except for Supertuxkart. I guess I'll have to entertain myself with Frozen Bubble instead.

Aside from that, my untrained eyes haven't seen anything else so far. Yet, I'm happy with the new responsiveness of the KDE environment, which was rather sluggish with Spring.

UPDATE: My netbook, which runs Mandriva ONE, reports in the control center that it is now Mandriva 2010.2. That's great because that is going to give the chance to evaluate its performance.

Intellectual work, speeches, and Linux

2010-12-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

After a week of buzzing academic work in the University, the II Congress of Modern Languages is over. It was a successful reunion of international participants and speakers who, with their intellectual stimulation, made that activity a memorable one.

Megatotoro and I had to prepare a speech and a workshop. The former was on gender issues and criticism. The latter aimed at teaching colleagues how to use GNU/Linux & FOSS to solve common problems involving technology... nothing fancy, as both of us are plain users, not computer gurus.

The Speech

As I commented previously, Megatotoro and I gave a speech on masculinity in the Japanese film Shall We DANSU?. Since the presentation was made using mainly open source software (which includes programs we had never used before), I consider that it is relevant to post my after thoughts about that particular activity. Apparently, the audience liked the speech and I know that part of its success was due to the fact that we could rely on software that not only acted as expected but also displayed the information beautifully. Basically, the speech consisted of a Prezi presentation running on Wine (waiting to be summoned, on desktop # 2) complemented by some clips taken from the movie via Avidemux, which were opened as a playlist in Kaffeine (hidden, sitting on desktop #4). We used my netbook (running Mandriva 2010 Spring) and we started with nothing on desktop # 1. As we moved to desktop #2 for the presentation, the change of the cube got the attention of the audience, that was probably expecting a traditional PowerPoint slide show. Prezi might not be as fancy as Open Office.org transitions, but its novelty did catch the participants' eyes... and then we switched from desktop # 2 to #4 to display the clips. This was easily done thanks to KDE Kwin's cube.

The result: many positive comments after the speech was over. One of them was particularly meaningful for us, as it came from an intellectual giant who was a former professor of ours, a woman whose incisive criticism made us question lots of gender/literary/social paradigms as we coursed undergraduate and graduate school.

I wish I could say that our argumentation was effective...but I know that much of the success of this talk comes from the technological delivery. I feel happy because I can trust my OS. Linux has never betrayed me in public.

The Workshop on Technology

All I can say is that it was heartwarming to see the reception that this workshop had. We made 25 Mandriva CDs, 25 SimplyMepis CDs and some bootable flashdrives. Yes, we were prepared to work with 25 people, expected no more than 10, and ended up working with 28 participants, who were very happy because we gave them the CDs and the flashdrives as a present.
Someone told me that several people were sad because they could not register for the workshop. This activity was also successful.

I'd love to get into the details, ... except that Magatotoro already did it.

Some experiences editing video in Linux

2010-12-13T18:11:00.000-08:00

For a conference in an International Congress, my brother and I planned a talk on gender (masculinities) in the Japanese 1996 film Shall We DANSU?. Since we want to illustrate the arguments with video clips, we decided to rip the video from an original DVD with Spanish subtitles for the audience and, then, to cut the most meaningful clips.

I had undertaken the process successfully in Windows before using programs like Virtual Dub but, because of the metrics of my system (not to blame XP solely for eating up the memory), the encoding of the video took a long time.

Anyway, my first problem was the ripping of the DVD video because I had never done that before. I stumbled because K3B would refuse to read the DVD. I learned that it was because it was locked, so I downloaded the repository to unlock it and then K3B read it. The ripping took like an hour. However, I could not paste the desired subtitles (I don't know how to do it), so I had to use a .srt file downloaded from the Web.

Here, I had to face the question of what video editor to resort to for pasting the subtitles and clipping. I decided to use Avidemux because I found it similar to Virtual Dub. To my surprise, Avidemux read the subtitles and created the segments in a matter of minutes without any hassle.

One advantage of Avidemux over Virtual Dub is that the filter for adding subtitles is included in the program. I remember I had to activate it the latter software following a process that a beginner could not guess: I could do it because I got the instructions from a tutorial.

Avidemux, on the other hand, has a pretty intuitive interface. Even when I had never used the program before, the process of loading the video, inserting the filter, and clipping the video was very clear even without any previous training. Of course, I understand that using other software in Windows for producing video has a positive impact on my learning curve, but it's also good to edit videos using an OS that actually helps you in the process. In the end, the computer I used was the same, the results were the same, but the time to achieve the objective was significantly shorter under Linux than it was in Windows.

The presentation of these clips and the talk will be on Wednesday 15. We will use my Mandriva netbook for this activity, so I'll report on how the computer performed then.

And I thought I was daring!

2010-11-28T17:56:00.000-08:00

Those who saw the 1989 movie entitled "Dead Poets Society" might remember Mr. Keating's romantic words concerning "living life to the fullest". As the English teacher, he would use the powerful poetry of Walt Whitman and Robert Frost, among others, to urge his students to break out from the shell and be daring.

Yesterday, I posted an entry on how I decided to use Linux and Open Office in my yearly report presentation for the University Professor Assembly, and I really thought I was being daring then.

However, I realized that there are others who are far more daring than I was or could have been. How about risking your chances of finishing your studies in a graduate program to prove that open source software and Linux can be used in a demanding professional context? Read about this experience here.

That is being daring!

It's not the same hearing a thunder and seeing lightning!

2010-11-27T07:35:00.000-08:00

Last week, the Dean called for a Faculty meeting in which the only topic was, to the dismay of those who claim Linux is dead, Free Software!

With this meeting, it's the second time in two months that professors hear about the existence of something that is not Windows and the University's ongoing plan to migrate to open source.

I wanted to post about that, but I was preparing my yearly report for the Professor Assembly and, therefore, had no time... but it occurred to me that I would use the chance to contribute by showing all professors how a computer running on Linux works. So, although they had a Vista 7 Starter laptop ready for the reports, I asked permission to use my modest netbook running Mandriva.

All my colleagues displayed their reports using the Vista 7 laptop and one professor suffered the embarrassment of MS PowerPoint 2007 not responding as she expected. I cannot say that was an "atypical behavior": all of us have seen something like that happen time and again. I felt bad for her due to the fact that she told me that she slept till late because she invested a lot of time to create a beautiful PowerPoint presentation for the occasion.

When my turn came, I had my netbook ready and woke it up from hibernation (Yes! It DOES work in Mandriva 2010.1), unplugged the VGA cable from the laptop and plugged it to my netbook. As a good OS should behave, Mandriva picked up the signal and let me configure the display in a matter of five seconds. The picking up of the signal made me a little anxious because, prior to the meeting, they had to change the projector because 7 Starter did not let them change the display size of the screen (How about that!) and I had everything ready with the previous device.

However, my Linux OS did not let me down and all the people laughed when they saw my Cosmic Cat wallpaper on my desktop # 1.

Of course, they gasped when I turned to desktop #2 and my presentation, made using Open Office, was there, ready. The beautiful OpenGL transitions made the ones in PowerPoint look like sorry excuses, especially after I said "This is the free software that the Dean is trying to promote", moved to different desktops to display other information, and returned to the presentation via Kwin Cube.

After my presentation, which went without any problem (wasn't Open Office "unprofessional" according to the MS video?), the professor who was embarrassed by MS Office 2007 borrowed my netbook to play with it for a while and loved the behavior of Linux.

Yes, seeing is believing. Now, my colleagues have seen a computer running open source software in the most demanding of contexts... and it neither got stuck, nor was difficult to operate. Oh, and it didn't blow up, either. Can you guess what software was proven to be unreliable?

For many of them, the thunder might not be as impressive as lightning. Now they have seen the truth: Linux can run flawlessly on a netbook and they were impressed. Many people are becoming aware that they can work in a more beautiful way by using Linux than by settling down with an OS that gives them the same problems year after year.

Mandriva 2010.2 announced!

2010-11-16T05:40:00.001-08:00

These cold winds have brought some good news for Mandriva users: Mandriva will release version 2010.2 of the distribution as a Christmas present.

They claim this release will polish 2010.1 Spring (Farman) and will fix certain issues. Additionally, the company announced the schedule for the development of Mandriva 2011 (to be released during the end of May, 2011) and changed the two-release cycle to only one per year.

As Mandriva is my favorite Linux distribution, I can hardly wait to test Mandriva 2010.2. Of course, I'm also supporting the Mageia project and will settle for the one I find the most useful.