Month: February 2011

Fedora is one of the most popular distributions of Linux. It may gain some users with Ubuntu’s future plans to drop Gnome as the default desktop for Unity. But Fedora is not as user-friendly as Ubuntu.

Fedoraplus, also known as autoten, is a simple program to make life easier and quicker for installing those much-needed extra’s in Fedora, and will always be compatible with the latest two releases of fedora.

Most Ubuntu users like music and videos and Flash. Fedoraplus is the simplest way to obtain all the necessary codecs and some extras.

I also should mention that you should add RPM Fusion to your software sources list. RPM Fusion provides software that the Fedora Project doesn’t want to ship. That software is provided as precompiled RPMs so you can use the RPM Fusion repositories with tools like yum and PackageKit. RPM Fusion’s goal is to simplify end-user experience by grouping as much add-on software as possible in a single location.

Get Fedoraplus
http://www.dnmouse.org/autoten/

Get RPM Fusion
http://rpmfusion.org/

Official Fedora Sites
http://fedoraproject.org/
http://fedoraforum.org/
http://fedorasolved.org/

For More Help
http://www.fedorafaq.org/
http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Fedora_Linux_Essentials
http://www.squidoo.com/fedoratips
http://freshrpms.net/
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f14.html
http://rpm.pbone.net/
http://crackednoodle.com/2010/11/fedora-14-tips-and-tricks/
http://digitizor.com/2010/11/03/fedora-14-cheatsheet/

There seems to a growing tide of discontent towards Canonical, the company backing the Ubuntu distribution. More and more it appears that commercial interests are behind its direction. And even these seem to be questionable.

I have not been shy in stating my disapproval towards the direction Ubuntu is currently going. I think that many people are jumping ship and heading to Linux Mint. The fact of the matter is that the end of Ubuntu may be drawing near. I did say may. I am not ready to declare it dead, but I think it is awfully close to dangerous chasm that could signal its end.

Canonical is not community driven, it is driving the community. And at some point the members of community will get wise to this and leave. I did. I used to be a part of the Ubuntu US New Mexico LoCo Team and signed their Code of Conduct. But I left for a number of reasons. I even unsigned the Code of Conduct. Ubuntu has lost one supporter.

And I am not the only one who has noticed the trend. Ubuntu may be in trouble. It is too early to tell. But I think it is time to separate the Ubuntu community project from the commercial interests of Canonical. It may be the only way to save the Ubuntu ship from sinking in the sea of dissatisfaction.  

Read the Latest
Has Ubuntu Linux Lost Its Luster?
Ubuntu: Where Did the Love Go
The latest Ubuntu Unity: Good or bad?

Ubuntu has been my distribution of choice for the last few years. I have been part of the community and even did tutorials on how to use it. But my frustration with Canonical, the company that sponsors Ubuntu, has grown with each new release.

Recent Bad Choices
Canonical has had a history of ignoring its user base. Take the replacement of Pidgin with Empathy. I did not like Empathy. Then they decided to move the maximize – minimize – close controls from the right side of the window panel to the left. Now in the next release 11.04, code-named Natty Narwhall, they are dumping Rhythmbox for Banshee.

Dumping the Gnome Desktop
All these changes I could tolerate and fix. But the dumping of Gnome as the default desktop for the Unity desktop environment in the next release is unacceptable. I gave their Unity Desktop a try, and I hated it. I could have gone to Kubuntu which runs the KDE desktop, but I like Gnome. I even seriously thought of saying goodbye to Ubuntu. I even tried Fedora 14, Linux Mint 10, and Debian 6.0. Each of which gave me different problems, the worst being Debian. I actually managed to crash my Debian system by trying to install driver’s for my video card.

My final solution was to go back to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Their long-term support (LTS) releases are supported for three years on the desktop. That means that that version is good till April of 2013. By this time either another distro will become good enough to switch to or Ubuntu will have developed to the point where an Ubuntu alternative is available.

Restore Gnome with a Few Clicks
I recently read in Linux Format that Unity is a shell that runs on top of Gnome 3.0. And according to Marco Fioretti the full-blown traditional Gnome interface “will still be available and you’ll be able to restore it with a few clicks.”[Linux Format, 64] But the point is that Gnome will no longer be the default desktop. And since most people just download and use the default desktop, that is what people will get. That is why I can only recommend the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS for most desktop users.

It appears that Ubuntu will continue to lose desktop users as they focus on touch compatibility. They should have kept Unity on the netbook edition and not moved it to the main distribution. This is a mistake that will cost them more than one long time follower. They have also done a poor job at communicating the changes, which has made more than one user upset. It appears that they are too focused on touch, netbooks, and mobile devices and are leaving the desktop user behind.

Ok, so I have all my files on a back up external hard drive. I got a new hard drive for my computer and I want to transfer all my files to my new system. But after transferring them it tells me I don’t have permission to access them. What do you do?

Unfortunately the only way to change file permissions in mass is through the terminal.There is no GUI (Graphical User Interface) that will work.

To change group ownership for all files in a directory type the following in the terminal, replacing “jay” with your user ID. It is case-sensitive. Please be careful, you are using sudo which is powerful. This is valid as of February 2011.

sudo chown :jay -R /home/jay/Documents/
sudo chown :jay -R /home/jay/Music/
sudo chown :jay -R /home/jay/Pictures/
sudo chown :jay -R /home/jay/Videos/
sudo chown :jay -R /home/jay/Downloads/

To change group ownership for all files in an external USB device.

sudo chown :jay -R /media/USBdrive/

To change file ownership for all files in a directory type the following in the terminal, replacing “jay” with your user ID. Notice the only difference is the absence of “:”

sudo chown jay -R /home/jay/Documents/
sudo chown jay -R /home/jay/Music/
sudo chown jay -R /home/jay/Pictures/
sudo chown jay -R /home/jay/Videos/
sudo chown jay -R /home/jay/Downloads/

To change file ownership for all files in an external USB device.

sudo chown jay -R /media/USBdrive/

The “sudo” gives you root access, the “chown” changes ownership. The “-R” means to apply to all files in the directory, and the rest is the location of the directory to be modified. You can’t apply it to “/home/jay/” because there are some files that need to be protected.

I just finished installing Debian 6.0 (code named Squeeze). The graphical install failed, so I tried the text install which worked.
However, I had problems with Evolution. The “send/recieve” was greyed out, as well as the “File->Work Online”.
My problem was fixed by editing the below
/etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=false

To be:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=true

But to change the file you need to be root. In the terminal type:

su –
sudo nautilus

Then you can use Nautilus to browse to the file and open it in gedit.

I am beginning to have my frustrations with Linux Mint. For example, in order to install a program in W.I.N.E. I can’t just click and install it. I have to open the W.I.N.E. unstaller and install it that way. Also if I click on a Bittorrent link it doesn’t open Transmission. Rather I have to download the file and then open it.  Now I went to burn a CD and Braseo doesn’t do anything. For design Linux Mint gets an A+, but in functionality I would give it a D. I am seriously considering Kubuntu right now.

Update
Ok, so I tried Kubuntu for a day and hated it. I just does like the KDE desktop. Then I tried Fedora for a day, but the file permissions of my backup files were changed so I could not access them. Grrrr was the theme of my week. I reloaded Ubuntu until my Debian 6 Gnome DVD comes later this week. I am so disappointed with Canonicals’ choice to switch from Gnome to the Unity desktop enviroment.

I recently got an email asking me, “I’ve heard many techies online say that you don’t need a firewall or antivirus software on Linux, but I thought I would ask a pro about this. Is it necessary or even useful to have these security features enabled; and if so, could you give me some advice on which apps.”

You most definitely need a firewall. I have heard of Linux systems being taken over by Linux hackers finding an open port. You don’t need an antivirus for the Linux system, unless you are moving files over to a Windows system and don’t want to infect it. ClamAV is the program to do this. I also suggest including ClamTk, it is a GUI front-end for ClamAV.

In Ubuntu I used Firestarter as the GUI to set up the firewall. I think it is the easiest. Just download it using the package manager. “Firestarter is a complete firewall tool for Linux machines. It features an easy to use firewall wizard to quickly create a firewall. Using the program you can then open and close ports
with a few clicks, or stealth your machine giving access only to a select few. The real-time hit monitor shows attackers probing your machine.” [Description from Synaptic Package Manager]

Linux Mint comes with the Ufw fire wall and I found it already had a GUI called Gufw. Please note that the firewall is not enabled by default, you have to enable it. Just go into menu > Administration > Configure Firewall. Just check the enable box. That’s it. The default setting of ufw, and therefore of Gufw, is to deny all incoming connections to the system, while allow all outgoing connections. So incoming should say “deny”, outgoing should say “allow”. You don’t need to add any rules unless you are doing something fancy. If that is the case there is already a published tutorial on how to configure Gufw on Ubuntu 9.10. It should be the same for Linux Mint.