The New Linux.com

According to Linux Journal, the Linux Foundation has launched a new website called Linux.com. Apparently, the site is to serve as a central clearing house for Linux information. It includes news and blogs related to both the Linux kernel and individual Linux distros. It looks like the RSS feeds were empty when I tried to view them, but I subscribed to the home page’s feed anyway.

I look forward to seeing what happens with this site. It would be nice to have easy access to so much Linux content straight from the horse’s mouth.

Linux Mint

I had a busy last half of last quarter, so I haven’t blogged in a while. Some things about my computer have changed in the interim, though. Probably the most significant is the fact that I have switched to Linux Mint.

Basically, Linux Mint is like Ubuntu with the restricted extras already installed. That means you can watch .mpg videos right out of the box, among other things. Mint’s default desktop also looks somewhat more like the Windows setup than Ubuntu’s does. By default, Mint has one panel at the bottom of the screen, where the Windows taskbar would be. It also has a MintMenu button instead of the standard GNOME menu bar. Basically, MintMenu looks more like a Windows menu, though it gives you access to all your applications from the standard view. All in all, Mint’s default desktop is less of a shock to the longtime Windows user, making it an ideal candidate for a novice’s first Linux distro.

Fortunately, Mint is also an Ubuntu derivative, which means I feel no need to change the title of this blog. :-p

Dell Ubuntu Mix-Up

From Jayson Rowe’s post, I got this news story about a woman who mistakenly ordered a computer with Ubuntu pre-installed from Dell. Apparently, though the blame for the situation lies mostly with Dell customer service, some Linux users took the piece as an attack on Linux. This resulted in some heated e-mails to the station. While Jayson Rowe (and some others) have used this story to go off on a tangent about what awful people Linux users are, I would like to do something more productive. This story demonstrates the most important thing a prospective Linux user should do before switching: know your needs.

You should never swtich to Linux without knowing whether or not your current equipment is compatible. Obviously, I like Ubuntu, but not every hardware vendor supports Linux, and this can be a big problem. This is why you should always run Ubuntu (or any other flavor of Linux) from the live CD before actually installing it on your computer. If your printer, modem, etc., lack Linux-compatible drivers, this is the time to find out.

Even if your Linux version passes this first test, you shouldn’t completely eliminate Windows from your computer until you’re sure you don’t need any Windows programs. Most of the time, OpenOffice’s ability to convert to Word file formats will work fine for the average computer user. However, you can lose some document formatting information in the transition. For most people, this isn’t a problem, but some tasks require precise page design. For example, in my technical writing classes, my work is judged partially on whether page design makes the document’s information more readable or understandable. Thus, I can’t afford formatting mistakes. That’s why I still dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows.

I’ll conclude with one final, indispensible tip: use all the resources you have on hand before calling the local TV ombudsman. Most of the problems the woman in the news story had could have been solved by taking two steps: calling Verizon’s tech support and checking out OpenOffice’s help files. Now, to be fair, this woman was thrown into the Linux community involuntarily, so her confusion is understandable. However, for anyone deliberately considering the switch, the Ubuntu website has a lot of basic information, such as OpenOffice/MS Office compatibility. Despite one woman’s unfortunate experience, Ubuntu can be a joy to use with just a little bit of forethought.

Ubuntu-Art

As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been a big fan of Gnome-Look, a website that features themes, wallpapers, and widgets for the GNOME desktop, Ubuntu’s default graphic interface. However, poking around in the top navigation bar on Gnome-Look has revealed an even better site for my needs: Ubuntu-Art. Basically, Ubuntu-Art is just like Gnome-Look, except tailored for Ubuntu. That means you don’t have to sort through wallpapers with logos for other Linux distributions like Debian or Fedora to get to things you might actually use.

The way I see it, Gnome-Look is great for people who use minor distros without the level of specific third-party support that Ubuntu and other popular distros have. It’s also good for people who run more than one Linux distro on their computers. But for people who only use Ubuntu, Ubuntu-Art is a better, more targeted choice.

That previous post I linked to didn’t get into the value of these kinds of sites for Linux users. According to The Linux Life, changing the desktop theme is much easier in Linux than in Windows. I’m inclined to agree, since I never even figured out how to change the desktop theme in either XP or Vista.* A source of alternate wallpapers is also really handy. The default Ibex wallpaper of 8.10 isn’t bad, but it’s nice to know there are options if brown either isn’t your color or doesn’t go with your favorite theme. The GNOME desktop comes with tons of customization options, and sites like Ubuntu-Art provide the resources to take full advantage of this customizability.

*For the newbies, in Ubuntu you can see the themes available on your computer by clicking Appearance under System –> Preferences. Your current theme’s square will be outlined in a solid-colored square, and its title will be highlighted. To change the theme, simply click on another theme’s square.

New Desktop Theme

I read the Gnome-Look RSS feed religiously to find various extensions and themes for the GNOME desktop. Lately I’ve been experimenting with a new desktop theme once every couple of weeks on average. So it was about time for me to pick another one. I stumbled across one with the unwieldy name Gotchione. I liked the look of the panels, so I downloaded it. I found that the dark panels look good with the wallpaper from the BlackWinter theme:

Gotchione with BlackWinter wallpaper

I also went through the trouble of downloading and installing the hydroxygen icon set used by the theme’s author. This required a lot of messing around with the terminal, especially to substitute the Ubuntu logo for the GNOME desktop logo at the top left of the screen. It took about three attempts for it to actually take. Furthermore, the installation instructions included commands to get rid of files that weren’t installed. It looks like the maintainers of the icon set didn’t bother to update their instructions between versions.

Anyway, here’s how the hydroxygen icons look in Firefox:

Firefox in Gotchione

I’m not sure how I feel about the icons yet, though they don’t seem too offensive. Anyway, this ends today’s exercise in desktop narcissism.