Ubuntu 9.10 - Almost Perfect. I can be a rather harsh critic. It’s been quite some time since I’ve given a really glowing review of any Linux Distro on the Computer Action Show (previously the Linux Action Show). In fact, I’m pretty confident most people on the Fedora team view me as the biggest-jerk-face-ever for my — let’s just say… “not overly glowing” — reviews of recent Fedora releases. And I’ve given folks on the Ubuntu team a fairly hard time over the years as well. Keep that in mind when I state the following: Ubuntu 9.10 is as close to perfection as any version of Linux I have ever seen. A little background: Back in May I wrote an article titled “The Perfect Linux Distro” where I laid out what I would view as, well, the perfect Linux distro.
And, while Ubuntu 9.10 certainly doesn’t implement everything I’d dreamed of in that article, they hit some of the key points. The Good Things in Ubuntu 9.10 The Ubuntu Software Center This is huge. Themes / Icons In the past, let’s be honest, Ubuntu was lacking in this area. Top 10 Ubuntu Downloads - Ubuntu. The Beginner's Guide to Linux, Part 1: Finding the Right Di. We are certain that many of you want to try Linux to see what it is like, but have no idea where to start or how to get into it. This article is the first installment in a four-part guide that will gradually introduce you to the Linux environment and how to adjust to it if you are a new user.
One of the hardest things to do while starting out is finding a distro that is right for you. Many users try several before settling on one of two that they really like. Once they find a distro that feels right, they are often reluctant to switch unless the distro becomes unsuitable for their needs for whatever reason. In most instances, choosing a distro ultimately comes down to several factors: Your skill levelThe purpose of the systemPackage management Your skill level Arguably, the most important factor in choosing a distro is your general level of experience with Linux.
Ubuntu's desktop Distros that emphasize ease of use tend to get in the way of such people and impact their productivity. Marvell SheevaPlug: $99 Linux PC hidden in a wall-wart - SlashGe. Open source hardware club ships Gumstix-based handheld. An open source hacker community has launched an online store to sell home-made gizmos, including a GPS-equipped baseboard (pictured) for the Linux-ready Gumstix Verdex processor module.
GizmoForYou builds custom gadgets according to members suggestions, and sells the open-spec devices online, says the group. ( Click for larger view of 1.0 version of GizmoForYou's Gumstix DaughterBoard, with enclosure ) GizmoForYou acts like an open source version of Santa's workshop, building devices to order, based on wish list requests from registered members. The requests can be as simple as "I wish there was a device for switching power ON/OFF by sending an SMS message," says the group. It then sells the devices to the member, as well as to the other interested buyers online. Volume is based on members voting for devices they think they might buy, so the idea is that the more people who vote for a product, the cheaper the cost.
GPS -- GSM Tracker Gizmo So far, all the gizmos for sale are based on GPS. 13 Plugins to Make Gedit a More Useful Text Editor [Linux] | Mak. Few days back we looked at how to customize Nautilus to get most out of the context menus and write custom menu entries as per your requirement. Today let’s pay some attention to the good old text editor – Gedit. Gedit is the default text editor for most of the Linux distributions using Gnome as the desktop environment.
As it turns out and as we shall see shortly Gedit supports plugins and there are some very useful plugins for Gedit. While Gedit ships with a set of default plugins, you can surely add as many as you like. To install a plugin for Gedit, you must first download it to a local folder and then extract the contents to ‘~/.gnome2/gedit/plugins/’ directory. Also look for a package named “gedit-plugins” in your distribution’s package manager, this package contains some additional plugins for gedit. Once you have installed the plugin you want, you need to enable it via Edit>Preferences and then the Plugins Tab. Align Lets you arrange blocks of text into columns easily and quickly. Google Tech Talks [ ZefHemel.com ] One thing frustrated me when I started programming 20 years ago: it’s very difficult to use any kind of software that you didn’t write, but could write yourself. There’s always something wrong, something you would have done slightly differently.
As it turns out, 20 years later, I still have this problem from time to time. This is the reason why this blog has been quiet the past two weeks, I decided to spend my spare time writing code rather than writing prose. I’m not yet happy enough with the result to share it with the world, but I would like to talk a little bit about some of the principles behind it. As you will have guessed from the title, it’s a code editor. “Hey, don’t you build a code editor for a living?” But let’s take a step back, and start with some observations after 20 years of editing code. Tabs : Whether you use them in an editor or in a browser, if you’re like me, your open tabs quickly become unwieldy and pretty soon you are unable to find the tab you’re looking for.
Hack Attack: Top 10 Ubuntu apps and tweaks - Lifehacker. Windows-to-Linux roadmap: Overview. Update on Single-Board Computers. In the March/April 2001 issue of Embedded Linux Journal (``All about Linux-friendly Single-Board Computers''), I traced the history of the embedded single-board computer (SBC) market from the early 80s to the year 2000. One interesting phenomenon during that period was the emergence and proliferation of the embedded PC architecture, which manifested in several popular form factors, including PC/104, EBX and passive backplane PC/PCI (refer to the March/April 2001 article for details).
A year ago, I identified five factors that were beginning to disrupt the embedded SBC market status quo: Exploding demand for embedded intelligence--the universal demand that even the tiniest and least-expensive devices have at least rudimentary embedded intelligence. Many must also provide user-friendly graphical/touch or sound/speech interfaces.Ubiquitous connectivity--the growing need for everything electronic to be interconnected, whether wired or wireless.