An update from Linux-land
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music - Amarok(KDE) or Xmms pdf - kPDF, okular (both KDE) image editing - gimp I guess, for vector images inkscape IDE - eclipse, anjuta, kdevelop(KDE), monodevelop As for installations, I recomend synaptic for gui or apt-get for console.
Simon Stevens wrote:
It's worth noting that this is an Ubuntu specific feature, not all Linux distributions are going to have this fantastic level of out of the box, pre-compiled, ready to go, software support.
Actually I think most distros have their repositories, I personally find debian pretty good in that area, in fact I would recommend debian over ubuntu, but that's just me. :)
____________________________ I didn't know what to put in here.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Adis H. wrote:
Actually I think most distros have their repositories, I personally find debian pretty good in that area, in fact I would recommend debian over ubuntu, but that's just me. [Smile]
Oh, cool. It's just the first time I've seen anything this well utilised. I think Windows could really benefit from something like this. It would obviously need an approval program from MS, you couldn't just have any old joe sticking stuff in it. Yeah, isn't Ubuntu based on debian. I choose Ubuntu as probably the best option for a relative Linux newbie, but may try others once I get to grips with the basics.
Simon
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Last week I decided to try out Ubuntu as my primary desktop OS at home. My initial experiences and observations are here[^]. Now, part 2. Following the firewall advice from the earlier discussion, I decided to install Firestarter. First thing I did was went to their website and looked for a download link. Surprisingly, there isn't one. It simply says "Firestarter is available in the Ubuntu universe repository.". So following their directions, I hit the "start" menu, and go to "add/remove programs". Sure enough, in the list is Firestarter. I'm slightly puzzled, I think surely this will just be installing from my Ubuntu CD which was released several months ago, so where do I get an up to date version? Well, I tick the box to select it and proceed with the install. Quick confirmation prompt and Woosh, Firestarter latest version is downloaded and installed in about 15 seconds, no confusing questions about where to put the files, no config. It just works. Brilliant. I love this universe repository thing. There's stacks of software there, it all just installs dead easy, it all auto updates to the latest versions. On windows, every app you want, requires finding the website, downloading, installing (and every installer is different and asks lots of confusing questions), etc. The Ubuntu repositories cuts through all the complications and just makes it all easily available. After a bit of reading about this it becomes clear there are several different repositories offering software at different levels running from "Main" which is officially supported Ubuntu software, through non-open source software ("Restricted"), community maintained software ("Universe"), and non-free software ("Multiverse"). You can configure which of these repositories are made available to you through a nice little GUI app found in the administrative tools menu. Obviously, there's nothing stopping you from going to the vendors site and following the traditional Linux route of downloading and building the app from sources. This is a definite plus point for Ubuntu, finding and installing new software is simple and easy in comparison to windows. It's worth noting that this is an Ubuntu specific feature, not all Linux distributions are going to have this fantastic level of out of the box, pre-compiled, ready to go, software support. Anyway, after the little distra
Av isn't really necessary in linux but if you want one there are a few around. AVG[^] do it (not free but cheap). I've never used it on my Linux machines so not a recommendation - just information!
Dave
BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn)
Expect everything to be hard and then enjoy the things that come easy. (code-frog) -
Thanks for the suggestions.
Adis H. wrote:
Actually I think most distros have their repositories, I personally find debian pretty good in that area, in fact I would recommend debian over ubuntu, but that's just me. [Smile]
Oh, cool. It's just the first time I've seen anything this well utilised. I think Windows could really benefit from something like this. It would obviously need an approval program from MS, you couldn't just have any old joe sticking stuff in it. Yeah, isn't Ubuntu based on debian. I choose Ubuntu as probably the best option for a relative Linux newbie, but may try others once I get to grips with the basics.
Simon
Well there were a few projects that tried to bring the concept to windows but none really took off. Even google had one, but it only had some 3-4 applications in the repositories. The most prominent one is win-get[^] I think. They all try to work like apt-get[^] which is the main installation tool for most debian based distributions like ubuntu. The gui installation tools are just a front end for it. Red Hat and SUSE distributions and their derivatives use RPM.
____________________________ I didn't know what to put in here.
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Thanks for the tips. I used to like Winamp, so I'll defiantly give that a try.
blackjack2150 wrote:
BTW, did you install the Compiz stuff? (3D Cube, wobbly windows, etc)
Well, I noticed the wobbly windows when I set the graphics settings to max, but I never saw any of the 3d cube stuff. I've seen videos though. It's looks cool, but I tend to turn things like that off after 5 minutes.
Simon
If Compiz is installed and the 3d cube effect is enabled, it works when you click & hold the middle mouse button (or scroll wheel). Also, If the focus is on the desktop, scrolling the wheel will rotate the cube by 90 degrees. Other nice features in Compiz are transparent windows, live preview in task bar (even of video), cool task switchers (like the ring one) and many, many more.
Simon Stevens wrote:
It's looks cool, but I tend to turn things like that off after 5 minutes.
Yeah, I keep it installed just to show off. :-D
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Well there were a few projects that tried to bring the concept to windows but none really took off. Even google had one, but it only had some 3-4 applications in the repositories. The most prominent one is win-get[^] I think. They all try to work like apt-get[^] which is the main installation tool for most debian based distributions like ubuntu. The gui installation tools are just a front end for it. Red Hat and SUSE distributions and their derivatives use RPM.
____________________________ I didn't know what to put in here.
It would have to be run and managed by Microsoft to take off I think. If MS supported it, and made it the standard for all their apps, then made it a requirement for the "designed for windows" logo program it could work. There would have to be 2 routes to get into it: 1 for commercial/paid for apps, the app would be fully validated by MS, the software company could pay a fee for validation and inclusion in the repository as a commercial app. Users would be able to pay for the app through the repository software, and have it auto download, install and update. The second route would be for free/open source apps. It would still require some level of MS approval to prevent virus writers and so on, but would be free to get into. These apps could appear below the commercial ones to provide extra intensive to the commercial apps to take the paid for route into the repository. The justification for MS: Improved control over the software general users install. They could highlight their products as recommended. If all categories were well covered it would reduce the number of general users downloading and installing dodgy spyware/virus ridden software.
Simon
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Av isn't really necessary in linux but if you want one there are a few around. AVG[^] do it (not free but cheap). I've never used it on my Linux machines so not a recommendation - just information!
Dave
BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn)
Expect everything to be hard and then enjoy the things that come easy. (code-frog)DaveyM69 wrote:
AVG[^] do it (not free but cheap)
That would just be the ultimate irony. Switch to a free OS and starting paying for software I previously got for free. :laugh: :laugh: So many people have said it's not necessary I'll probably just follow that advice now.
Simon
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If Compiz is installed and the 3d cube effect is enabled, it works when you click & hold the middle mouse button (or scroll wheel). Also, If the focus is on the desktop, scrolling the wheel will rotate the cube by 90 degrees. Other nice features in Compiz are transparent windows, live preview in task bar (even of video), cool task switchers (like the ring one) and many, many more.
Simon Stevens wrote:
It's looks cool, but I tend to turn things like that off after 5 minutes.
Yeah, I keep it installed just to show off. :-D
blackjack2150 wrote:
If Compiz is installed and the 3d cube effect is enabled, it works when you click & hold the middle mouse button (or scroll wheel). Also, If the focus is on the desktop, scrolling the wheel will rotate the cube by 90 degrees.
Ahh, it's probably just a case of not knowing about it. I'll try it out tonight.
Simon
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Last week I decided to try out Ubuntu as my primary desktop OS at home. My initial experiences and observations are here[^]. Now, part 2. Following the firewall advice from the earlier discussion, I decided to install Firestarter. First thing I did was went to their website and looked for a download link. Surprisingly, there isn't one. It simply says "Firestarter is available in the Ubuntu universe repository.". So following their directions, I hit the "start" menu, and go to "add/remove programs". Sure enough, in the list is Firestarter. I'm slightly puzzled, I think surely this will just be installing from my Ubuntu CD which was released several months ago, so where do I get an up to date version? Well, I tick the box to select it and proceed with the install. Quick confirmation prompt and Woosh, Firestarter latest version is downloaded and installed in about 15 seconds, no confusing questions about where to put the files, no config. It just works. Brilliant. I love this universe repository thing. There's stacks of software there, it all just installs dead easy, it all auto updates to the latest versions. On windows, every app you want, requires finding the website, downloading, installing (and every installer is different and asks lots of confusing questions), etc. The Ubuntu repositories cuts through all the complications and just makes it all easily available. After a bit of reading about this it becomes clear there are several different repositories offering software at different levels running from "Main" which is officially supported Ubuntu software, through non-open source software ("Restricted"), community maintained software ("Universe"), and non-free software ("Multiverse"). You can configure which of these repositories are made available to you through a nice little GUI app found in the administrative tools menu. Obviously, there's nothing stopping you from going to the vendors site and following the traditional Linux route of downloading and building the app from sources. This is a definite plus point for Ubuntu, finding and installing new software is simple and easy in comparison to windows. It's worth noting that this is an Ubuntu specific feature, not all Linux distributions are going to have this fantastic level of out of the box, pre-compiled, ready to go, software support. Anyway, after the little distra
I am using the following (for my Feroda8) Virus checker - clamav or klamav Playing music - MP3/WMA/CDs - mplayer Playing videos - MPG/AVI/DivX etc - Xine Playing DVDs - Xine Image editing - Gimp Programming - Languages/IDEs/Frameworks (Maybe MONO, or I might try Python) - Monodevelop, Kdevelop, Anjuta PDF viewing - Xpdf
*jaans
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Last week I decided to try out Ubuntu as my primary desktop OS at home. My initial experiences and observations are here[^]. Now, part 2. Following the firewall advice from the earlier discussion, I decided to install Firestarter. First thing I did was went to their website and looked for a download link. Surprisingly, there isn't one. It simply says "Firestarter is available in the Ubuntu universe repository.". So following their directions, I hit the "start" menu, and go to "add/remove programs". Sure enough, in the list is Firestarter. I'm slightly puzzled, I think surely this will just be installing from my Ubuntu CD which was released several months ago, so where do I get an up to date version? Well, I tick the box to select it and proceed with the install. Quick confirmation prompt and Woosh, Firestarter latest version is downloaded and installed in about 15 seconds, no confusing questions about where to put the files, no config. It just works. Brilliant. I love this universe repository thing. There's stacks of software there, it all just installs dead easy, it all auto updates to the latest versions. On windows, every app you want, requires finding the website, downloading, installing (and every installer is different and asks lots of confusing questions), etc. The Ubuntu repositories cuts through all the complications and just makes it all easily available. After a bit of reading about this it becomes clear there are several different repositories offering software at different levels running from "Main" which is officially supported Ubuntu software, through non-open source software ("Restricted"), community maintained software ("Universe"), and non-free software ("Multiverse"). You can configure which of these repositories are made available to you through a nice little GUI app found in the administrative tools menu. Obviously, there's nothing stopping you from going to the vendors site and following the traditional Linux route of downloading and building the app from sources. This is a definite plus point for Ubuntu, finding and installing new software is simple and easy in comparison to windows. It's worth noting that this is an Ubuntu specific feature, not all Linux distributions are going to have this fantastic level of out of the box, pre-compiled, ready to go, software support. Anyway, after the little distra
CD/DVD - K3B Playing videos - Mplayer or VLC Playing DVDs - as above + dvdread and dvdcss PDF viewing - search in Synaptic for PDF, there are a couple of viewers VMware - err.. VirtualBox but USB support is tricky Elaine :rose:
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
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DaveyM69 wrote:
AVG[^] do it (not free but cheap)
That would just be the ultimate irony. Switch to a free OS and starting paying for software I previously got for free. :laugh: :laugh: So many people have said it's not necessary I'll probably just follow that advice now.
Simon
Simon Stevens wrote:
So many people have said it's not necessary I'll probably just follow that advice now.
It is not necessary if you do 2 things: 1) DO NOT RUN applications as root unless absolutely necessary 2) AVOID installing anything if it is not from your distribution or not a trusted web site
John
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Last week I decided to try out Ubuntu as my primary desktop OS at home. My initial experiences and observations are here[^]. Now, part 2. Following the firewall advice from the earlier discussion, I decided to install Firestarter. First thing I did was went to their website and looked for a download link. Surprisingly, there isn't one. It simply says "Firestarter is available in the Ubuntu universe repository.". So following their directions, I hit the "start" menu, and go to "add/remove programs". Sure enough, in the list is Firestarter. I'm slightly puzzled, I think surely this will just be installing from my Ubuntu CD which was released several months ago, so where do I get an up to date version? Well, I tick the box to select it and proceed with the install. Quick confirmation prompt and Woosh, Firestarter latest version is downloaded and installed in about 15 seconds, no confusing questions about where to put the files, no config. It just works. Brilliant. I love this universe repository thing. There's stacks of software there, it all just installs dead easy, it all auto updates to the latest versions. On windows, every app you want, requires finding the website, downloading, installing (and every installer is different and asks lots of confusing questions), etc. The Ubuntu repositories cuts through all the complications and just makes it all easily available. After a bit of reading about this it becomes clear there are several different repositories offering software at different levels running from "Main" which is officially supported Ubuntu software, through non-open source software ("Restricted"), community maintained software ("Universe"), and non-free software ("Multiverse"). You can configure which of these repositories are made available to you through a nice little GUI app found in the administrative tools menu. Obviously, there's nothing stopping you from going to the vendors site and following the traditional Linux route of downloading and building the app from sources. This is a definite plus point for Ubuntu, finding and installing new software is simple and easy in comparison to windows. It's worth noting that this is an Ubuntu specific feature, not all Linux distributions are going to have this fantastic level of out of the box, pre-compiled, ready to go, software support. Anyway, after the little distra
Simon Stevens wrote:
Programming - Languages/IDEs/Frameworks
Take a look at KDevelop and all its integrated tools.
John
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Simon Stevens wrote:
So many people have said it's not necessary I'll probably just follow that advice now.
It is not necessary if you do 2 things: 1) DO NOT RUN applications as root unless absolutely necessary 2) AVOID installing anything if it is not from your distribution or not a trusted web site
John
John M. Drescher wrote:
It is not necessary if you do 2 things: 1) DO NOT RUN applications as root unless absolutely necessary 2) AVOID installing anything if it is not from your distribution or not a trusted web site
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- This won't help prevent viruses, only stop them doing bad things once I've got them surely? Interestingly, I follow these practises under windows (run as normal user, and only download trusted software). And a few others, like using the NoScripts[^] plug-in. I don't have a virus checker on windows and whenever I mention it everyone slams me for being stupid. :laugh:
Simon
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John M. Drescher wrote:
It is not necessary if you do 2 things: 1) DO NOT RUN applications as root unless absolutely necessary 2) AVOID installing anything if it is not from your distribution or not a trusted web site
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- This won't help prevent viruses, only stop them doing bad things once I've got them surely? Interestingly, I follow these practises under windows (run as normal user, and only download trusted software). And a few others, like using the NoScripts[^] plug-in. I don't have a virus checker on windows and whenever I mention it everyone slams me for being stupid. :laugh:
Simon
Simon Stevens wrote:
This won't help prevent viruses, only stop them doing bad things once I've got them surely?
Depending on your distribution this will prevent them from installing themselves as daemons (what windows calls services) and also from changing important system files so most likely a potential virus will not be active after a reboot.
John
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Simon Stevens wrote:
This won't help prevent viruses, only stop them doing bad things once I've got them surely?
Depending on your distribution this will prevent them from installing themselves as daemons (what windows calls services) and also from changing important system files so most likely a potential virus will not be active after a reboot.
John
John M. Drescher wrote:
so most likely a potential virus will not be active after a reboot.
Ahh, good point.
Simon
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John M. Drescher wrote:
so most likely a potential virus will not be active after a reboot.
Ahh, good point.
Simon
With that said it could however execute inside a users home folder (if you properly run things as a normal user) and have itself launched by the users .bashrc or other startup files but the damage would be limited to that user only as long as permissions were properly set (should be default under most distributions). I guess a lot of this is also true in the windows world if only the administrator has admin privileges...
John
modified on Thursday, August 7, 2008 11:52 AM
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John M. Drescher wrote:
It is not necessary if you do 2 things: 1) DO NOT RUN applications as root unless absolutely necessary 2) AVOID installing anything if it is not from your distribution or not a trusted web site
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- This won't help prevent viruses, only stop them doing bad things once I've got them surely? Interestingly, I follow these practises under windows (run as normal user, and only download trusted software). And a few others, like using the NoScripts[^] plug-in. I don't have a virus checker on windows and whenever I mention it everyone slams me for being stupid. :laugh:
Simon
Simon Stevens wrote:
Interestingly, I follow these practises under windows (run as normal user, and only download trusted software).
That is a very good practice to follow. If everyone did that viruses would not be the problem they are today and I would not have spent the last two weekends repairing two of my friends machines who both had current antivirus software installed.
John
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Simon Stevens wrote:
Already do on windows, so that would be my obvious first choice too.
I don't want to bitch about open source software and so I wouldn't comment on GIMP. On Windows, my choice is Paint .NET.
Please leave us our small pleasures, they are small, but they are ours! - Mycroft Holmes ^ .·´¯`·->Rajesh<-·´¯`·. [Microsoft MVP - Visual C++]
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Simon Stevens wrote:
Interestingly, I follow these practises under windows (run as normal user, and only download trusted software).
That is a very good practice to follow. If everyone did that viruses would not be the problem they are today and I would not have spent the last two weekends repairing two of my friends machines who both had current antivirus software installed.
John
teh catch being that running as a non administrator and using consumer software really sucks in XP and prior because of the amount of crapware that does without administrator privileges. VISTA UAC FTW!!!!!
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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teh catch being that running as a non administrator and using consumer software really sucks in XP and prior because of the amount of crapware that does without administrator privileges. VISTA UAC FTW!!!!!
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
dan neely wrote:
VISTA UAC
Only if that was not extremely annoying to the user. One example that I will always get a kick out of. A few months ago I tried to install putty from a network drive (on our work network) to C:\Program Files on a Vista laptop. Since putty does not have an installer the installation is copy the executable to a proper place and create a shortcut... So I selected the file and right clicked on copy, and I got past the "do you really want to see program files" dialog and I then clicked paste. This caused a pretty vista dialog asking me if I really wanted to do this because copying an executable from a network drive could be dangerous. I said yes and a second later I got the same dialog but this time it was not so pretty and looked like an XP style. I said yes again. And a second or so later I get a box saying that I can not do that! :omg: I really would have preferred to see that 2 dialogs ago instead of giving me hope. Anyways I copyied the file to the desktop then to program files and all was well. For an average joe windows user I could see them turning off UAC after this annoyance though..
John
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Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
I don't want to bitch about open source software and so I wouldn't comment on GIMP. On Windows, my choice is Paint .NET.
:wtf: Hey Rajesh, you forgot the joke icon.
That is no joke. May be you had a bad experience with GIMP, in which case I'm glad it worked for you. But my experience was horrible. And as I said, as it is open source, I wouldn't want to complain anything about it.
Please leave us our small pleasures, they are small, but they are ours! - Mycroft Holmes ^ .·´¯`·->Rajesh<-·´¯`·. [Microsoft MVP - Visual C++]