devnet, Author at Yet Another Linux Blog

Is Usability Really Simplicity?

What usability reasons do you have for using Gnome vs. KDE? I’m looking for usability issues here and not specific bugs that cause you to drop one on its head. Bugs can be fixed. I’m talking about hard features that lack from one environment to the other. What makes you use it in Ubuntu versus KDE? Remember, not bugs…features!

I prefer using KDE or Openbox as my main desktop when using Linux. I’ve used Gnome quite a bit too when working for rPath last year (Foresight is THE Gnome distro). Still, I prefer KDE…I really like the direction that 4.x is going also. Sure, they’re not there yet, but I trust they will be because I haven’t been let down in the past 🙂 I have a little faith (Plus I’ve run snapshots of 4.2).

The thing that boggles my mind is that everyone says Gnome is better for a Windows convert taking his/her Linux steps for the first time. I have to disagree based on the experience I’ve had with conversions of new users from Windows. I think KDE gives the best experience for a new Windows user…it’s familiar or at least feels familiar…things are in similar places to Windows.

I’d say that 80-90% of the users I convert across to using Linux prefer KDE to Gnome. I always wonder why people think Gnome is so new user friendly. Since I’ve always wondered, perhaps some Gnome users can tell me, what usability reasons do you have for using Gnome vs. KDE? I’ve often heard that Gnome has integration and simplicity as the main reason…but could I not argue the same for KDE? I’m looking for usability issues here and not specific bugs that cause you to drop one on its head. Bugs can be fixed. I’m talking about hard features that lack from one environment to the other. What makes you use it in Ubuntu versus KDE? Remember, not bugs…features! Please let me know which desktop you prefer below and don’t forget to let me know the reason in the comments section below.

[poll id=”1″]

Find Files & Directories Not Visible to Others for Webserver

I wanted a quick way to be able to find out what files weren’t visible to others (and therefore, not visible to website visitors). Messing with arguments and the file command, you can do the following:

find -type f ! -perm -444

This locates all files not visible to ‘others’ in the current directory. You can apply this to directories as well:

find -type d ! -perm -111

Hope this helps people like it helped me. 🙂

Call to the Linux Community

Demasiado Personal writes

“There’s a game studio made by only two people, that released an excellent game for Windows, called World of Goo. I recently saw that the piracy on this game is over 95%, and it’s only a 20 dollars game.”

The blog brings up another valid point

“Now, the fun begins. Some of you will ask, what does this have to do with Linux anyway? Easy to answer. Lately this programmers are working in a Linux native port, and that gives us an amazing opportunity. Imagine for a moment what would happen if Linux users bought more original copies than Windows users. I can answer what could happen. Those innovative programmers will make next game for Linux, and not Windows.”

So if you can afford 20 Dollars for an Award Winning game that will provide hours of entertainment, let your MONEY do the talking for you 🙂 Afterall, these guys won awards with a fantastic game and are taking the time to port it to Linux…I think of it as a donation…and if Linux sells more than Windows, it may show validity for Linux as a platform! The Linux version is currently in Beta, but your 20 dollars will get you access to the Beta AND the release when it is made ready.

World of Goo Trailer 2 Director’s Cut
Uploaded by 2dboy

Read & Display Single Line of a File

Sometimes when I’m troubleshooting a PHP error and a function is called in the debugger that gives me a line number of a file to look at, I want to know what that line says without opening up the file. Using the command line, you can accomplish this in the following way:

head -n 96 filename.php | tail -n 1

This allows you to quickly display the 96th line of filename.php. Hope this helps someone like it has me.

CodeWeavers Offers Free CrossOver – 1 Day Only

3 months ago, CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White issued a “Lame Duck” challenge for the President. If any of those goals were met, he’d offer CrossOver free for one day. Fast forward 3 months and at least one of his six lame duck goals were met. Thus, CrossOver is available today only for FREE.

To get in on the action, head over to the CodeWeavers CrossOver Lame Duck Page.

Customizing PCLinuxOS 2008 Minime

So, HowtoForge has a perfect desktop for PCLinuxOS 2007…how about something similar for 2008 MiniMe? I won’t go into near as much detail as they do there but I’ll go over how I get my desktop up and rolling after a fresh install of PCLinuxOS Minime 2008.

Putting it Together — Build Your Own PCLOS

MiniMe is the lesser known offspring of PCLinuxOS 2007 that ships with a 2.6.22.15 kernel and is a minimalistic installation of the KDE desktop 3.5.9. Texstar provides this distribution for those wanting to remaster their installations…it’s a base for other remastered projects like PCLinuxOS Gnome. Remastering and the Make LiveCD wizard enable users to customize their distribution and make a bootable backup CD with all their customizations OR release their own customized distribution. You can also use the Make LiveUSB wizard to create your very own thumbdrive PCLinuxOS.

I found it strange that no one had written anything about MimiMe-to on getting PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniMe up and running as a desktop replacement so I decided to give it a go. The aim of this article isn’t to copy Howtoforge’s great series on perfect installations…but to show how I get PCLinuxOS 2008 Minime up to a perfect installation for me. This means all web video, audio, fonts, and tools I need are installed. So let’s get at it.

What Do We Need?

First and foremost, do a complete upgrade of your fresh installed system. Open Synaptic >> Reload >> Mark all Upgrades >> Apply. It’s going to take a while to get all the updates you’ll need. Do NOT enable the testing repository until after you install your graphics driver at the end of this article…just perform a straight update from main.

Now let’s start installing stuff that is needed on a daily basis. I’m more of a lightweight type of guy so I don’t need robust office applications so my tastes may not line up with yours. Please substitute applications where you see fit…the repositories most likely have them.

To give a brief, high level overview of my daily use applications:

firefox3
Opera
K3B
konversation
pidgin
skype_static
koffice
gimp
Amarok
claws-mail
kdeaddons-kate
kdeaddons-ark
kdegraphics-ksnapshot (for taking screenshots)

Those are the high level applications I use on a daily basis to get things done. Whenever you are prompted to mark other packages for install, go ahead and and choose “mark”. Click apply and let the your daily use applications install.

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