linux Archives - Page 15 of 28 - Yet Another Linux Blog

Follow-Up: BBC Caves on iPlayer – Linux Support Added

Looks like the BBC buckled under backlash from bloggers (say that 20 times fast). They’ll be offering their iPlayer in Mac and Linux flavors 🙂

I talked about what a crock they had begun to simmer with a Windows only version a few weeks ago. Glad to see that they have understood that the benefits outweigh the caveats many times over.

It’s much like standards compliant web pages…you only limit yourself by making your page non-compliant…because it won’t display in all browsers. You lose business if you have an ecommerce site…you lost hits if you have a blog. The BBC now understands that by limiting the ability of those to use its player, it shut the door to those users. It also knows that a network of bloggers is a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Whether Linux and Mac users be a small number or a large number, the BBC has set precedent here that I hope they follow in the future. Keep Open BBC!

Print Readable Man Pages

Ever wonder how you can get a man page in into a format you can read and print? There’s many methods of doing it (copy and paste is one) but one the easiest I’ve found is:

man command | col -x -b  > command.txt

Where command is the Linux command man page you want to print/view. From there, open up command.txt in your favorite gui text editor (gedit, kate) and you have a readable format that could be printed quite easily for reference.

Botnets: Storm, Rbot, and Bobax – How to Beat Them

If your Windows based computer is running slow, having random popups, and doing all sorts of weird things…chances are you’re a member of a botnet. Hackers are using your computer to email, spam, and infect other computers and users around the globe. You’re being used by these people to make money on the misfortune and deception of others. There is hope though…you can be rid of this. You can win against them.

Install Linux on your computer today and all that will disappear. Linux doesn’t have botnets. Linux doesn’t have viruses (only a few known and you have to actually type a command to start the virus running). Linux has no spyware. If you’re just getting your start, I recommend PCLinuxOS, SimplyMEPIS, and Ubuntu.

If you don’t want to install Linux, you can buy a computer with it preinstalled from various vendors here at the Pre-installed linux vendor database.

Once you are set free from having to worry about being infected by some virus, you’ll be able to concentrate on getting things done. No worries, no hassle. Join the thousands of us who are already there. Compute on your terms, not ones dictated to you by a product full of security holes or a virus author. Take back your computing!

Linux, the BBC and Your Rights

Imagine a world where you were told how to think, feel, and act. You were told what to buy…told what not to buy. Having trouble imagining these things? Maybe I can help. Check out a short story I wrote on the subject of Digital Rights Management (DRM).

We’re not as far off as you may imagine.

Websites we visit tell us what browsers we must use to visit. Software tells us what operating system we must use to install it. CD’s tell us that we cannot use music that we’ve bought and own. Televisions will soon tell us that we must have cable as over the air broadcasting of free television ceases in 2012. Your Miranda rights no longer exist according to the Patriot Act; they only have to label you a terrorist and you can be held without charge indefinitely.

It’s a wide scope of things to swallow that ranges from technology to social, political and economic portions of our world. How does one combat these issues? How do we make a difference? While I cannot speak for things of which I don’t know (mainly, political and socio-economic things) I can speak of some technology issues that we can adress.

A recent issue that has cropped up is with the BBC. The BBC is a publically funded broadcast corporation in the United Kingdom. That means the general public in the UK may elect to pay a fee resulting that they have access equally across the board to view content. Content here will mean any content whether online or broadcasted. The BBC takes money equally from all people regardless of race, creed, color, AND regardless of what operating system they run. As such, all people should have an equal opportunity to view said content.

Recently, they announced they would be creating an online video player that supports all operating systems, only to backpedal and state that Linux would not be supported. Now they’re also including DRM in much of their web based content. No problem? Actually, yes, there is a huge problem.

Continue reading “Linux, the BBC and Your Rights”

Coming Full Circle on PCLinuxOS Magazine

I see articles like OSWeekly’s “The Future of Publishing with Linux Magazines” and I chuckle a bit.

Mainly because PCLinuxOS Magazine will have its 12 monthly issue published next month. That’s right, we’ve been here a year. Now, I can’t take credit for this fantastic Linux resource because I only sponsor it and help make executive decisions regarding hosting and other things like that…it’s in the hands of great editors and contributors and is continually growing. The staff is well over 10 people strong and gaining.

You’d think that OSWeekly would take this magazine into consideration when writing this article…but they instead opt mentioning and considering the fate of Full Circle Magazine in the Ubuntu community. Now don’t get me wrong, Full Circle is a great magazine and we’re glad they’re also producing a quality magazine for their community…It just perturbs me a bit that the hard working editors, contributors, and proofreaders and layout/website designers that put together PCLinuxOS Magazine don’t get any mention or credit when it comes to online magazines.

So, I’d like to take some time congratulating PCLinuxOS Magazine…with a circulation of over 15 thousand for the PDF alone and nearing 10 thousand unique hits on the HTML Magazine that they simultaneously publish each month for low bandwidth users. Congratulations PCLinuxOS Magazine! For making a magazine not only interesting to PCLinuxOS users but to Linux users as a whole!

PCLinuxOS & What Sets it Apart: Part I

I originally intended this post to be a review of 2007 Final for PCLinuxOS. However, after finishing it up, I realized that posting a review wouldn’t have the desired effect of truly showing off PCLinuxOS to everyone. It would just be a “business as usual” type of post. So, I decided to do a analysis on what I feel sets PCLinuxOS apart from many Linux distributions.

I often see people steer new Linux users to other distros such as OpenSuse, Ubuntu, and SimplyMEPIS…even Sabayon in a few instances. This is fine…they’re good, solid distros. However, out of those distros, I’d recommend only one…OpenSuse. Why? Because of YAST. A New user needs to feel comfortable with system configuration tasks. Not everyone is ready to drop to the shell when coming in from that other operating system. Not every 65 year old grandmother is ready to crack a Konsole and vi their way to .conf bliss. Ubuntu’s control panel is continually getting better but YAST still leads the pack in putting new users or even seasoned ones at ease with system configuration.

I regularly used SimplyMEPIS from 2003 until 2005 and continue to recommend it for new users despite it not having a YAST Like tool. It now has inherited many things from Ubuntu so it has a greatly improved way of doing things. The added tools also make common tasks easier like emptying out logs, installing graphics drivers, and setting up your monitor/resolution. It’s getting there quickly.

That brings me to OpenSuse. YAST is a fantastic and powerful tool. Still, when I use OpenSuse, I often find that I’m not up to date with applications and I find the repositories move much slower than I’d like. I have to rely on third party repos which isn’t a bad thing but often gets me into trouble with dependencies. So I was on a search for a cutting edge distro that was solid, up to date with the latest packages, and had a YAST-like utility for it. Of course, Mandriva (Mandrake at the time) was a good fit but I found PCLinuxOS even better.

So, today I’ll talk about what I feel sets PCLinuxOS apart from other freely available distros.

Continue reading “PCLinuxOS & What Sets it Apart: Part I”