Author: Jay Forrest

Firefox 4 – My preferred web browser. I used a PPA to get version 4.

Evolution – My email client, as robust and featured as Microsoft Outlook.

Rhythmbox – My music player, much better than iTunes.

Totem Movie Player – My video and audio player, it will play just about anything.

Hulu Desktop – I use this to watch movies online.

gPodder – The best podcatcher available.

Miro – I occasionally use it to watch videos online.

LibreOffice Writer – Simply the best office suite out there and is compatible to Microsoft Word.

Transmission – My BitTorrent client.

Brasero – A great disk burning utility.

Fontmatrix – Use it to manage true type fonts.

Decibel – A small music player.

Cheese – The best webcam utility for Linux.

Empathy – The instant messaging client I currently use.

Skype – The best voice over Internet program.

XChat Gnome – An easy to use chat program.

gedit – A great program I use for my show notes for the Gnostic Podcast.

Audacity – The easiest and best program for recording and editing audio.

MP3 Diags – Corrects VBR errors in mp3 files.

EasyTag – A great program for editing your ID3 tags and for adding album art.

Filezilla – The ftp client of choice.

gPHP Edit – A great program for writing and editing php.

GIMP – The best graphics program in Linux, but hard to learn. Not the most user friendly program.

Xiphos Bible Guide – The best open source Bible program.

W.I.N.E – There are two or three Windows programs I install under wine because there isn’t a satisfactory Linux equivalent. The two musts are Paint Shop Pro for graphics, and the Word for my Bible program. The third is Dreamweaver, which I use for so web  development stuff.

Gweled – I am not a big gamer, in fact I don’t play games but once in a blue moon. But when I do, Gweled is the only one I currently play.

Well that concludes my list. Remember that I am using the Gnome desktop and don’t want to use KDE applications because of their dependencies. I say that because there are a number of KDE applications that rock. Amarok and K3b come to mind instantly.

Ok, so I have been using Linux Mint for about a month. Since that time my problems with the distribution have grown. First, Shotwell (which I use in place of F-Spot) would freeze when I began importing my photos. I have a lot of photos, but it shouldn’t freeze.

Second, Rhythmbox (the default Music player in Linux Mint) did the same thing and froze while importing my music. And yes, I have a lot of music. I install Banshee instead, and that didn’t freeze.But the music would cut out while playing if I opened too many programs. At first I thought the freexinf may have something to do with Rhythmbox, but then I remembered it worked fine in Ubuntu. And now that I have switched back to Ubuntu, it and Shotwell both work fine.

Third, Skype also gave me some problems. The video feed would not work. Again it works in Ubuntu but not in Linux Mint.

Finally, I installed a new hard drive and when I was in the process of transferring all my files from my external backup to the new drive I accidentally stopped the transfer. Every time I tried to resume the transfer, the system would freeze. I even rebooted (an old Windows habit) and it still froze. That’s when I downloaded the iso of Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS edition. I installed it and have had none of the problems I mentioned above.

Now it doesn’t make sense to me why I had the difficulties. I have Linux Mint on my laptop and have not had any issues. I have thought that maybe I got a bad CD or something, because Linux Mint is simply Ubuntu under the hood. I honestly don’t know and am surely not going to blame Linux Mint without others expressing the same difficulty.

By the way, the reason I choose the LTS version of Ubuntu is so that I don’t have to deal with the whole Gnome 3 or Unity desktop till 2013. I hope by then things have been fixed. I don’t like the Gnome shell or the Unity shell. So I will stay with Gnome 2.x as long as I can. I will continue to use Linux Mint on my laptop.

The following instructions tell you how to install Hulu in inux Mint.

First, you need Abode Flash plug-in install. You can find this in the Software Manager

Second, you need to download the Hulu desktop. You can find this at: http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop-linux

Third, once it is downloaded double click the download and it should begin installing.

Fourth, after it is installed it will be in your Menu under “Sound & Video.”

That is all there is to it. I hope you enjoy it.

Here are my top 5 Firefox plugins for 2011:

1. Firefox Sync
2. Download Statusbar
3. Video DownloadHelper
4. Beef Taco (Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out)
5. Theme: MacOSX Theme

Note: On the Theme I customize it to use small icons. Just right click on the title bar and click on customize. The check the box that says “Use Small Icons”. I will probably not use the theme in Firefox 4 because it is already compact.

OpenOffice is developed by Sun Microsystems, which has been bought Oracle. Oracle is not known for its support of open source projects. Because of this many of the OpenOffice people have left Sun and have started the Document Foundation. They have forked OpenOffice and renamed it LibreOffice. Linux Mint currently uses OpenOffice as the default office suite.  And it is my understanding that it will remain the default in Linux Mint 11. Currently it is not avaiable in the repositories. But below is a link to install it using a PPA. 

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/336

As you may know, Ubuntu has been my distribution of choice for several years. However Ubuntu will be switching to the Unity desktop at the end of April. But the problem runs deeper. The Gnome desktop is also changing. Gnome 3.0 is being released soon and it is very different.

I should explain that Unity is a shell that runs on top of the Gnome 3.0 desktop. And Gnome also comes with its own shell, which has some similarities to Unity. The Gnome shell eliminates the maximize and minimize controls, and has redesigned the interface. Now you can choose to use the “classic” desktop at the login screen. But it is not the same old Gnome that many of us have grown to love. It will take several revisions before many of the old features are again available.  So in all fairness to the Ubuntu developers, it is not entirely their fault that they are changing the default desktop to Unity.

So what is a person to do? Gnome 2.0 will eventually be history. You can stay on the LTS version of Ubuntu till April of 2013. Which was a tempting option. You could also switch to the KDE desktop, which has gotten to be much better. But I am not a KDE guy and have never liked the feel of it. For me the best option out there is Linux Mint. Linux Mint will use the Gnome 3.0 desktop, but it will modify it to look and act pretty much how it does now.

I have been running Linux Mint 10 for a little over a month and love the design and feel of it. There were a few frustrations that I have run into, but all in al the positive outweigh the negatives. It is for this reason that Linux Mint is now my distribution of choice on all my machines.

Links
Linux Mint Home Page 
Linux Mint User Guide (PDF)
Download Linux Mint
Linux Mint Forums
Linux Mint Tutorials
Linux Mint Blog
Linux Mint Chat

There are over three hundred Linux distributions that you can choose from. The choices can be overwhelming at best. In this post I want to offer you some guidance to help you choose a distribution that will fit your needs. Use these suggestions are a starting point for your own search. And understand that there is no agreement as to what is the best distribution. We know that Ubuntu is the most popular on the desktop and Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the most popular in enterprise settings. But popularity does not equal best fit.

1. For newbies: Linux Mint or PCLinuxOS
If you are new to Linux, I suggest you use Linux Mint or PCLinux OS. These are the most user friendly distributions.

2. Everyday Linux: Fedora or Ubuntu
If you are looking for a distribution that is going to be around a while and is relatively easy to use, then I suggest Fedora or Ubuntu. Fedora is based by Red Hat and Ubuntu is backed by Canonical. Some would also suggest OpenSUSE, which is based by Novell. I don’t recommend OpenSUSE because I don’t like Novell and their close dealings with Microsoft.

3. Light and fast: Puppy Linux
If you have an older system Puppy Linux is the choice for you. It is an amazing distribution for older machines.

4. Server: CentOS or Debian
CentOS is simply an unbranded and free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Debian is also an excellent choice, being well known for its stability.

5. Music Production: Ubuntu Studio
This is the most popular music and recording solution out there.

6. Multimedia: Mythbuntu
If you are interested in turning your computer into a multimedia station, this is the distro for you. The learning curve is a little high, but worth it.

7. Power User: Gentoo or Slackware
If you really want to learn Linux, then Gentoo or Slackware is the way to go. Slackware just happens to be the oldest Linux distribution still in active development.

8. Netbooks: EasyPeasy or Jolicloud
If you are think of using Linux on a netbook, EasyPeasy or Jolicloud are both good choices.

9. KDE Desktop: OpenSUSE or Kubuntu
For those who like the KDE desktop enviroment OpenSUSE or Kubuntu are probably the best.

So what is the best distribution? It depends on your needs and what you are looking for. Most distributions have a live CD, so you can download the iso and burn it on a CD. Then you can test drive that particular distribution and choose the one that fits your needs.

To Learn More
DistroWatch

Audacity for some reason lacks a main menu (File, Edit, View, Effects, etc.). Using keyboard shortcuts (such as +f) will call the menu up but the actual clickable menubar is completely missing.

Here is a workaround that I found, just run this in a terminal:

export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0
audacity

Audacity then starts, but you have to keep the terminal open. You have to open it this way every time, so it’s not a permanent fix.

Linux Mint is a popular distribution of Linux based on Ubuntu. It was first launched in 2006 by Clement Lefebvre, a French-born IT specialist living and working in Ireland.

Clement Lefebvre wrote on the Linux Mint blog on May 3, 2009, “I don’t want any money or help coming from Israel or people who support the action of their current government.” He prefaced that comment with, “If you do not agree I kindly ask you not to use Linux Mint and not to donate money to it.”

It is unforntunate that he decided to use the distribution for his political agenda. Please notice he did not just state his view, he made using Linux Mint contingent on agreeing with his politics. So using Linux Mint means you agree with his anti-Israili stance. The post has now been deleted.

Now Clement Lefebvre is free to believe whatever he wants to believe, but suggesting that agreeing with his political views is required for using Linux Mint is wrong. He seems to have backed down from that connection, but he still is “against a country and its government,” namely Israel.

Links
The Great Linux Mint Political Train Wreck
Support Israel’s Government? Linux Mint Developer Says Go Away
mint and personal views…

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/