Category: GNU/Linux

Ubuntu

Sunday, while watching the Super Bowl, I was playing around with Jack’s computer, and noticed how much faster it seemed than my computer. Since Fedora Core 3 was installed on both machines, and they came from the same store front with the same specs, this seemed very odd. Could it possibly be because I had installed everything, including the kitchen sink, on my machine?

Trying to delete stuff seemed impossibly tedious, and since I was thinking about doing a complete re-install, why not try a new distribution? I had read lots of good things about Ubuntu and had downloaded the install CD some time ago, so I decided to give it a try.

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Support

Yesterday, I installed Fedora Core 3 on the machine we use as a file server. The previous week, I installed Fedora Core 3 on Jack’s machine, so we are all using the same release now. Since Jack was running SUSE 9.0 before that, I hope this will cut down on the number of questions from Jack that I will have to research before I can answer them. I am a lot more familiar with where RedHat/Fedora Core puts files and how it expects you to do things than I was ever able to become with SUSE.

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Fedora Core 3

This afternoon, Fedora Core 3 will be officially released. I have been running the final release candidate for over a week now, and am quite pleased with it.

I can now drop my digital camera in its cradle, and push the button, and a menu will pop up asking whether I want to download my photos, opening gThumb to view and manipulate the photos. (This is a features of the Gnome desktop.) Also new to Fedora Core is the presense of Firefox 1.0 and Thunderbird .8 as part of default distribution. After a few days of using FC3, I read the Release Notes.

Yesterday, as an impulse item, Jack picked up a 128M Micro Advantage memory stick at OfficeMax. I just plugged it into a cable, and an icon popped up on my desktop allowing me to browse the empty device. Then I dragged a few folders to it and everything just worked as desired.

It is very odd to think that a small device that weighs almost nothing can hold six times as much data as the hard drive on our first Intel machine, an XT clone.

OpenOffice.org and labels

Garry Knight’s Linux Stuff has a useful looking tutorial for creating flat file databases using OpenOffice.org, along with some other Linux stuff. Evidently, you can create and populate dBase format files from OpenOffice.org.

I spent yesterday coaxing OpenOffice.org to produce labels on our aging laser printer (ActionLaser 1500, a LaserJet III clone), but used a spreadsheet as a data source. Making the labels was not particularly intuitive, but the documentation included with OpenOffice.org worked. I printed the labels one page at a time because our printer’s feed mechanism is almost worn out, and tends to jam when presented with anything other than plain text weight paper. I plan to retire the printer when the current toner cartridge empties or the printer jams so badly I can’t free it, but it just keeps going and going. Those old laser printers were tough little beasties, unlike the current crop of inkjet printers that look like they would blow away in a mild breeze.

There seems to be a bug (or at least a distinct lack of flexibility) in using OpenOffice.org to make more than one page of labels. I managed to do, but the label synchronization process slowed to a crawl. It wasn’t a big issue, because of our printer limitations, but would be annoying if you had a more functional printer.

The Browser, Reloaded

I have been rebuilding my desktop after a clean install of Linux using Fedora Core 3 Release Candidate 5, which gives me my twice a year opportunity to revisit what software I use on a regular basis. This time, I am trying to see if I can forego using Privoxy. Privoxy is a proxy for web browsing, which means it puts itself between your browser and the Internet. Proxies can be used for several purposes: Privoxy screens out advertisements (including popup boxes) before the content is passed to the browser. Privoxy works extremely well, and is not all that difficult to set up, but of course setting up any proxy is beyond the comfort level of 98% of Internet users. (Privoxy is not just for Linux users: there are versions for Windows and other operating systems as well.)

However, since Firefox 1.0 is now included as a standard with RC5, I decided to see if I forego using Privoxy since Firefox has a lot of options to block annoying ads and popups. In other words, could I train Firefox quickly enough before the ads drive me crazy. (I am always appalled when I use other people’s browsers, and I am assaulted from all side by things flashing and rotating on the edges of the screen. Do I have less innate tolerance for such things, or is it simply that I have not learned to screen them out?)

So far, I am cautiously hopeful that I won’t have to install Privoxy. A few Right-Clicks to block ads got rid of the most annoying ads. I chose the option to eliminate popups, so those are gone as well. (Firefox allows you to make exceptions for sites that use popups to present content.)

In a weak moment, I downloaded and installed the Macromedia Flash plugin. (This takes an extra step or two in Linux, since the security features make it a little harder to install software.) Now I am wondering why I bothered. Is Flash used for anything but annoying ads?

Fedora Core 3 Test 3

I’ve spent the last day or so upgrading my system to Fedora Core Test 3. My system came up without a problem, including network connectivity, so I was able to use a browser and email immediately. Unfortunately, yum, which is the utility that allows updates, had some problems, and it took me a while to get it working. And then, it took an even longer while to download all the updates to get me a current test system.

However, my upgraded system seems to be working fine now. I haven’t done much checking yet, because it is pointless to do so until your system is current with the patches generated since snapshot for the install CD’s were created. I will have to fix my palm to sync with my desktop again, but this seems to happen every time I do a major upgrade.