Jay On Linux

I complained in my previous post about the number lock problem in Linux Mint Debian Edition. Here is the fix.

This method enable numlock during login and after login, so you have the numlock always on in your Linux Mint and LMDE.

1) FIRST, install numlockx, open terminal and type: sudo apt-get install numlockx

2) SECOND, go to menu and type startup programs and open it.

3) Click on +add

4) On “Name” put: NUMLOCK ON

5) On “Command” put: /usr/bin/numlockx on

6) Click on “+add” and “close” .

7) Then open a terminal and type : gksudo gedit /etc/mdm/Init/Default

8) After typing your password, a file will be opened in Gedit. Add these lines at the beginning of the file:

if [ -x /usr/bin/numlockx ]; then
exec /usr/bin/numlockx on
fi

9) Then save the file and close your terminal session.

10) Restart your computer and next time you turn on it you have Numlock On always.

I have been test driving Linux Mint Debian Edition for over a month. It is now my desktop of choice. Before I switched I tried Linux Mint 15 Olivia, it was a complete nightmare. I would randomly get a scream with lines across it like a bad TV reception screen. It would have to be hard rebooted. My best guess is that my processor is not compatible with PAE.

After using Linux Mint Debian Edition for over a month, I can now recommend it to those having PAE issues. PAE stands for Physical Address Extension. To use PAE, motherboard and operating system support is required.

Linux Mint Debian Edition is a work in process, but it meets my needs very well. There are a few annoyances, like the number lock doesn’t stay on when you reboot. It still lacks some fancy features, but it has been a solid system for me. I now recommend people on older systems to give  Linux Mint Debian Edition a try. I would give it 4 stars out of five.

Links
http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

If you are like me, you will have a fairly large music collection. Here are some tools that will help you manage your music. I am assuming that you are using Linux Mint or at least a distro that has LAME already installed. If not, you will need to install it before you can play mp3 files.

Banshee
You first need a good music player. I personally like the default player in Linux Mint. I have used other players, but I prefer Banshee. But there are a number of other players that are just as good.

EasyTag
Whether you burn your mp3 files from a CD or down load them, you will discover that they are not always labeled correctly or fully. EasyTag is by far the best Linux program for correcting and adding ID3 tags. ID3 tags are metadata containers that allow information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself. My only complaint is that there is no save button on the top. The easiest solution is pressing control S. This will save the highlighted files.

Sound Juicer or RipOff
To extract a CD to a mp3 format I suggest using Sound Juicer or RipOff. In RipOff the CDDB Lookup auto fills the ID3 tags for you. You can then modify it to suite your needs. A nice tool to save you some work. Just remember to set your preferences to export as mp3, the default is ogg.

SoundConverter
As you are working with your music files, you will sometimes get files that are not in the mp3 format. SoundConverter is the program you want to convert one file format into another. This is also helpful if you want to convert an mp3 to a wav. A wav file is the format you want to use if you are burning a CD for playing on regular CD players. Some CD players now play mp3, but most don’t.

Brasero
Of course if you are going to burn a CD you need a CD burner. My favorite is Brasero. But there are a number of other good ones out there.

So I played with the XFCE desktop and found it limited. I decided to install Linux Mint 14 a several months ago and love it. It is now my new desktop of choice.

One of the changes this time was that I stay with the default applications, Firefox and Thunderbird. I was very disappointed in Evolution in Linux Mint 14. It did not import my past emails and did not function right. Not sure why.

I am hoping that Linux Mint continues to rock.

Ever since Ubuntu has gone the way of the Unity Desktop and GNOME has gone to version 3, I have been a homeless Linux wanderer. I tried Linux Mint, but my graphics card couldn’t handle the Cinnamon desktop. So I used the MATE version. It was workable but it had little bugs. I then tried openSUSE KDE version. It worked on my system but was slow. Furthermore I don’t like the KDE applications, probably because I am used to the GNOME ones.

So I finally decided to give Fedora a try. I knew I didn’t like GNOME 3, so I went with the XFCE version. I am now on day three of my use of Fedora 17 and I like it. It is a little harder to install flash and lame, but not too hard. I just went over to the Fusion website and installed them. I will keep you up to date.

Just a quick update. I am still using Fedora with very little problems. I do want to mention that I customize it a bit. I use Google Chrome as my default browser and I remove Firefox completely. I also use Evolution for my email. I also customize my desktop to make it fit my needs. It is more like Windows, but I like it this way. Rather than explain all the customizations I had added a screen shot below:

Ubuntu continues its downward spin as it continues to disregard and even offend its users. The latest is the integration of Amazon search queries by default in the Unity Dash. Disregarding objections from users, Ubuntu is not backing down. Like it or not the overlord Mark Shuttleworth has spoken.

Bad as what may be, his response to the community was worse. Mark Shuttleworth words were, “Don’t trust us? Erm, we have root. You do trust us with your data already. You trust us not to screw up on your machine with every update. You trust Debian, and you trust a large swathe of the open source community. And most importantly, you trust us to address it when, being human, we err.”

Well actually, I beginning to not trust you Mark Shuttleworth. You continue to ignore the community. You continue to drive Ubuntu were you want it. Sorry Mark, but you are killing Ubuntu. I left and many more are going to leave. And you know what, it’s a shame. Ubuntu 10.04 was my favorite operating system. Now I am searching for something close.

LINKS
http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-center/ubuntu-has-bigger-problem-its-amazon-blunder-203467
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1182

Starting with Ubuntu 12.10 there will be no more LiveCD. The reason is simple, there are increasing the size of the disc image from 700MB to 800MB. CDs can only hold a maximum of 700MB. This means that Ubuntu 12.10 and following will only be available on a DVD. This will again leave those with older computers in the dust, for a number of them can only burn CDs. I am sure many of the Ubuntu flavors will stay on CD, such as Lubuntu and Xubuntu.

The best program I have found for a text-to-speach program is Gespeaker. From the Ubuntu Software Center install gespeaker-mbrola-en. This package will install both Gespeaker and mbrola with English language voices.

Once the package has installed, open up Gespeaker. In Ubuntu 10.04 it will be found under Applications, Sound & Video. Once it is opened you should change the Language setting to: english-mb-en1. It is the best sounding, at least to my ears. The Pitch should be 50, Volume 100, speed 160, and Delay 0. You can adjust these yourself.

To play a text either copy and paste in the window, or you can click Open and select a text file (.txt). Then just press Play. The program allows you to save the audio in a wav file. It also allows you to save the text you typed into the window. There is even a plugin to use it with Empathy or Pidgin. It is a great little program.

Links
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/TextToSpeech
http://code.google.com/p/gespeaker/

As of September, 2012 I am no longer using Mint because of some issues. I could not get Evolution to open links in Chrome. I could not get MSFONTS to work in Mint. This is just two of a number of small “paper cuts.” I finally went back to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. It is good till April 2913. Then I may be forced to choose.

It should be no surprise to readers of my blog of my great dislike of the Unity desktop. I still believe the best Linux desktop was Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. I was using Mint for a while, but went back to Lucid.

Now there is news that there will be a new spin, a GNOME version of Ubuntu called GNOMEbuntu. At least this spin will not include the Unity desktop. That is a plus. Gnomebuntu aims to provide as much of a “vanilla” GNOME experience as possible whilst also keeping various elements from Ubuntu. It will be worth keeping an eye on it.

UPDATE
The Ubuntu GNOME Remix is currently in Beta with a stable release expected at the same time as Ubuntu 12.10. It seems that the naming may be an issue, there are rumors that the GNOME project doesn’t want them to use GNOME as part of the name. That means that GNOMEbuntu would not be accepted. Right now its just being called UbuntuGNOME.

LINKS
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/gnome-flavoured-ubuntu-spin-coming-october-18th
http://gnomebuntu.org/