Nice Glossy Look

Here is my desktop now.
I am using Beryl as I have said before and I have installed some new themes and am using a new icon theme. I like the nice new glossy black look of the panels.

I have also install KDE so I can run the KDE desktop or KDE applications if I want to.

I am also using a program called Gimmie which now deals with my menus. It is a fairly new product and is a little buggy but I would rather run something cutting edge thats a little buggy than something that extremely stable but not very new.

I will be spending some more time getting monthonlinux.no-ip.org running but at the moment other commitments with school and my personal life (yes I do have a life outside computers) have to take priority at the moment.

Changes Complete

I now have a dual boot system (as before) but this time Ubuntu is installed on a 60Gb partition of my main hard drive and Vista Ultimate is on the other partion. (90GB)

I also have another drive which has all my music an associated stuff on it (20 Gb formatted with fat 32) which i can access from both Windows and Ubuntu.

Beryl is being a bit funny at the moment. I have 6 desktops setup but when go to flip though them with ctrl + alt + left it only shows a cube which isn't like before. I'm not sure if its some kind of update that screwed things up a bit.

I have made major progress with my command line skill. I now install pretty much every thing from the command line.
Eg.

sudo apt-get install beryl

sudo apt-get install emerald

sudo apt-get install monodevelop

Its pretty sweet the command line (or at least apt-get)

Making some serious changes.

I have finally bitten the bullet and decided to copy all my important files accross to a backup share on another machine in my house and then to install Vista Ultimate on a 80GB partition and then Ubuntu on the remaining 70GB with a 20GB data drive formated with FAT 32 so i can easily port files between the two systems (or more to the point get files from Linux to Vista). This is a significant change from my previous 20GB installation of Ubuntu but I think it will be well worth the work. I have had no problems that I haven't been able to fix on Ubuntu, its far less resource intensive with more eye candy then Vista and its free so why not let it have a large chunk of my hard drive. So why have I given Vista so much if I am finding Ubuntu so good? It all comes down to the fact that I have to fit bloatware on the Vista partition. Things that take up so much room. I got my previous installation of Ubuntu working on less then 7GB fully install and setup with all the applications I need. Vista just doesn't come anywhere near that. It takes about 15 - 18 GB to get setup with everything I need on Vista which is a pain.

The next question I have to ask myself before I go and install Ubuntu is what flavor do I want? I have tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu and I think I like Ubuntu more. It just seems that I can get things work more easily and the graphics settings and appearance that I like just seem to work better with Gnome.

Also I don't know if anyone else has noticed this but there seems to be a cult nature about KDE. Every second application that is designed for KDE starts with "K". I don't really like that. I know that probably sounds lame but thats just the way I feel.

Why doesn't this work?

If you can't read it it says sudo apt-get install windows-vista-ulitmate -y.


No... I'm not that much of a noob that I really expect it to work.

Converting Ubuntu to Kubuntu or the other way round

I haven't posted in a while which can be attributed to a load of things including various conventions / chemistry competitions / spider bite. I have been fiddling around with KDE a bit and here is some stuff I put together on how to convert different flavors of Ubuntu.

There are two main situations where someone might have one flavor of Ubuntu and want to get another.

Situation 1 - Have Ubuntu install and you want Kubuntu

1. Open terminal and type "sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop" (with out the inverted commas.

2. After that has finished which might take a while depending on your internet connection exit console and log out or press "ctrl + alt + backspace".

3. From there goto the options down the bottom right of the screen - goto sessions and select "KDE" and then login.

4. Goto the K menu and goto "system tools" and then Konsole. Type in sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop.

5. After that has finished you can restart and you will have Kubuntu.



Situation 2 - Have Kubuntu install and you want Ubuntu

1. Open terminal and type "sudo apt-get ubuntu-desktop" (with out the inverted commas.

2. After that has finished which might take a while depending on your internet connection exit console and log out or press "ctrl + alt + backspace".

3. From there goto the options down the bottom right of the screen - goto sessions and select "gnome" and then login.

4. Goto the applications menu and goto accessories and then Terminal. Type in sudo apt-get remove kubuntu-desktop.

5. After that has finished you can restart and you will have Ubuntu.

What about xubuntu? - Probably works in a similar way I just haven't tried it.

Can I have Kubuntu and Ubuntu? - yes. Applications for both will work in both too its just some applications are designed to work better with a certain desktop. (Eg. I find Beryl works best with Gnome - which s the desktop supplied with Ubuntu)

Month On Linux

As I am working my way through my first month on Linux it has become increasingly apparent to me that Linux has a huge amount of potential but is unfortunately not as widespread as Windows. This is unfortunate but I believe something can be done about it. One of the main things that keep people away from Linux is much the same as one of the things that keep many away from Macs.

General computability with anything and everything.

Most things are designed for Windows computers. You go out and buy a web cam and it says "designed for Windows XP / Vista" and it often says things like "works with MSN and Yahoo". The same thing goes from printers and other devices such as mics. The simple fact of the matter most of the time these devices work just the same in Linux. Admittedly some distrobutions aren't designed to "just work" as much as other distributions but I have found Ubuntu has worked with everything that I have thrown at it and it's been relatively easy to get working.

The next major problem lies in the ease of use. Windows has to be one of the most idiot friendly operating systems on the planet. It allows any old fool to do basically anything, including wreck the system if they happen to be that way inclined. Linux on the other hand has been traditionally harder to work for newbies than Windows. Ubuntu has bridged this gap somewhat. Its easy and free to work with Ubuntu.
There are many equivalent programs out there that will allow you to just get one with your work with out having to worry about your xorg.conf file or some other subsystem configuration file. Most of these applications are bundled into Ubuntu on install and if its no you can just go to the "add remove software" section and add any software that you need and it will download and install it from the internet.

I want to set up a site, and I will be working on doing so for the next little while that can get people who are new to the field of Linux set up with the distribution that they need and can try Linux out for a month. I have a box to my left which I will be using to host this site. I will be using Fedora 7 to host it as that would probably be my best choice for a server. I will post my experience in getting it to work as I go and I hope that it can help people out.

Vision

I didn't post anything yesterday as I was bussy seting up a wireless network at my house and getting all the computers (Windows Vista, Ubuntu, Windows XP) all working happily on the network. There are two XP machines on the network but only one of them is wireless (its my mum's laptop). I secured the network with WEP (was going to use WPA but I decided to go with 128 bit WEP encryption as it was easier to make "just work" but I am thinking of possibly using WPA PSK.) I noticed however that I could restrict access to a few MAC addresses making very hard to just get into the network it you happened to be outside in a large van kitted out with all the equipment to break into my network. (Yes I know I am paranoid).

While working on it I happened to notice that I could set up port forwarding and and I had a working XP Professional box so I decided to try my hand at getting IIS working. I got it working and started editing the source from gedit in Ubuntu. (I had the source on a share so I could access it over the network).

I have a DNS service with no-ip.com for free. I got a site working (just as a bit of a test bed) at monthonlinux.no-ip.org. Don't expect it to work all the time, or at all for that matter as I am trying out ASP.NET which I know seems a bit of a contradiction that I running "Month On Linux" on a Windows box with a Microsoft technology but as I said its a bit of a test bed just to get my hand into site administration.


My Software design teacher made me aware of a distro of Linux which is called "LAMP". If I could get that working on one of my boxes I might consider running an evangelical site for Linux.

The aim of the site (and organisation) would be to get individuals and organisations to try out Linux for a month and provide support for the organisations and individuals making the switch. If I were to set this up I would make my primary recomended distribution Ubuntu just because of its ease of use for people who havn't otherise been working in the field of Linux.