Misadventures in Technology

A blog about programming, homebrew, and Linux (with some Magic: the Gathering for flavor).

Talking Point: Should Linux Distros Stick to CDR Size?

linuxbookpro:

welovelinux:

It’s starting to look like the end of an era for Ubuntu users as Canonical mull the creation of an ISO that won’t fit onto a CDR. The question is, does it matter?

Ubuntu should be pushing network installers, if they really want to keep things under 700MB use LXDE (Lubuntu) for the CD version.

Updates after an install makes internet connections necessary anyway. Creating a rolling release installer to keep things up to date would be far move valuable. Besides, if the computer can handle Unity and has an optical drive chances are it’s a DVD/CD player anyway.

Optical Media is dead, move up to a 1GB Flash Drive threshold if necessary.

My off topic opinion on Ubuntu: I hate all the branding based on desktop environment, I think it’s pointless and Canonical is the only one that sees value in splitting projects under different names. As a new user a few years back it confused the hell out of me.

For me a perfect CD installer starts minimal with LXDE, Openbox, or XFCE. GNOME and KDE would be an upgrade option.

I think this really depends on the distro as well as the user. I’ve uninstalled more than probably comes on most CDR-based installation discs, so I personally enjoy the netinstall option (especially since I prefer rolling release distros). The netinstall option seems to be the best for those that are already experienced.

I feel like distros with a similar goal as Ubuntu (i.e. usable for a wide range of users) probably need to have more options (although not so many as to be confusing). I rather like the way Linux Mint handles this (see here). You can get the DVD version with all the fancy things; or you can get just the basic CD version.

Side note: I agree that “Ubuntu” needs to just refer to all the Ubuntus. It really doesn’t make sense to call them different names. Especially since you can install all the different “flavors” from any of them, anyway. Just have more options for install discs or some sort of option on installation. If I install “Kubuntu”, but then install GNOME, neither “Ubuntu” nor “Kubuntu” seems appropriate, anymore. Especially, if we are basing names off of graphical interface, what if I install some other random DE/WM? DWMbuntu?

Kindle’s Ever-Growing Fire

So it’s been a while. I’ve been busy mostly with school. However, not so busy as to not have time to play with some of my newest toys, of course. I recently attended my first FOSS Fair (Free and Open Source Software). I was lucky enough to win the raffle: Amazon’s Kindle Fire. In fact, I’m currently writing this post from it, which really says a lot about the browser. I haven’t used the browsers on many tablets, but this is far better than any other mobile . browser I’ve used. Flash support is pretty solid. It’s a.little weird with Tumbler (e.g. I’m actually in the edit HTML dialog to write this and even then it’s kind of wonky). Most sites work quite well (especially if they have a mobile version; it now occurs to me that Tumbler probably does). It has been wonderful for everything from music to browsing to watching videos to games. As far as actually reading books, I’m still not convinced on any LCD screens (no matter how stunning). I also recently got a Kindle 3 which I will try to post some info on, as well. I will try and get a longer review for both devices once I’ve had more time with them and am at a physical keyboard. So far I’m very very fond of both devices, though.

It´s Linux-tastic: It´s Linux-tastic

linuxtastic:

About 10 years ago I was working at another school (I´m a teacher by day). A colleague´s husband, who worked in IT and was helping us out with our computer network, doing basic troubleshooting with our hopelessly outdated hardware, came into my classroom and spent about 20 minutes connecting my…

I couldn’t put it any better. Of course, my specific situation was different, but it is a wonderful thing reading another’s experience in realizing the wonder behind all that Linux is and does.

Windows and Mac OS have their uses, of course. However, the only reason I feel either of them is even worthwhile a portion of the time is the application support.

: Arch

stanleytan:

Arch Linux is a rolling release distro whose main purpose is to be simple. So simple in fact that you have to install everything from scratch, even the desktop environment. This allows you to be left with a system that has no bloat whatsoever. Everything you need is installed by you and nothing is…

For those that find the main Arch install too tedious (as I do, on occasion), ArchBang has a nice installer and it comes with a basic DE setup. After initial installation, I believe that ArchBang is more or less fundamentally the same as Arch (I haven’t seen anything that leads me to believe otherwise, so far). However, if you do use ArchBang and wish for help on the Arch forums, make sure you don’t mention that you’re using ArchBang. At all.

Thomas Biddle | Personal Blog: Clearing the screen (CLI) on different OS's

thomasbiddle:

During last quarter I got marked off for having

system("cls");

inside some of my code; which clears the screen on a Windows prompt (My partners wanted to write in Dev C++).

If you run it in a Linux environment, which I normally would, it gives a run-time error and states the command “cls” is…

Instead of having an actual function call, you could use macros. This makes the code, imo, a little more legible (from the beginning, it is more clear what the macro is doing vs what a function would be doing; making it a function makes it seem like it has some sort of complicated structure instead of just, essentially, a macro wrapped in a function). To do this, just put this at the top:

#ifdef WIN32
#define CLEAR_SCR system("cls")
#else
#define CLEAR_SCR system("clear")

To use it, just use CLEAR_SCR (not as a function), like so:

CLEAR_SCR;

The preprocessor will replace the string “CLEAR_SCR” with whichever case at every instance, before any compilation is done. So, it’s as if you modified the source code yourself. In fact, the binaries produced should be identical to those produced had you used the respective functions (system(“cls”) or system(“clear”) in the source code itself.

Linux Interview

(side note: I really like the title being an interview because it makes me feel important :D)

Interview

  1. What’s your name? Joe
  2. What do you do for a living? I’m a university student in junior year, majoring in Computer Science. 
  3. How long have you been using Linux? Mainly, since the start of going to university, so a bit over 2 years, now.
  4. Why did you start using Linux? I’ve always loved open source, and Linux was something I really wanted to learn how to use when I was in high school, but never really knew where to begin. My first CS course at university taught some of the basic commands and we did development in Linux, so I decided to dual-boot with Linux (Mandriva, to be specific) in order to work on my programs outside of class and Putty (and because I wanted to learn how to use Linux).
  5. What distros have you used? A few of the major ones and some of the not-so-major ones. The ones that come to mind are (in no particular order): Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Mandriva, Debian, Arch/ArchBang, CrunchBang, Fedora, Puppy Linux, DSL (Damn Small Linux), and Yellow Dog Linux (PowerPC-based distro; for my PS3).
  6. What’s your favorite distro and what made you stick with that one? By far, I’ve not only kept Arch Linux installed for the longest time, but it has been my favorite to use. I love how everything is just so simple (as in the Arch Way sense). It was quite a hurdle to actually learn how to get everything set up, but the documentation is amazing and it was definitely worthwhile. I’ve learned most of what I know now by using Arch. I’ll probably use ArchBang in the future, though, just so I don’t always have to do the somewhat tedious setup.
  7. What do you think is the best distro for new Linux users to use? I usually recommend (and install) Linux Mint mainly because of some of the included tools. I find their upgrade software superior since it rates updated packages on their likelihood to break the system (a great thing since most users will happily accept kernel updates and not understand why everything quit working). Sometimes, I prefer to install Ubuntu for people since Wubi is quite a treat (especially if they change their minds: I don’t spend long on installation and it is dead-simple to uninstall). Other than Wubi, not much interest in Ubuntu, personally.
  8. What’s your favorite Desktop Environment and why? As far as actual DEs, XFCE by far. All the software is quite clean and efficient. Typically, I tend to use WMs; especially tiling window managers. Of those, my favorites are DWM, Awesome, ScrotWM, and a few others. For a while now, I’ve preferred DWM to everything else, though. I do use several of the XFCE tools along with it, though.
  9. Any tips and tricks for new Linux user? If you want to just  use Linux for the occasional tinkering or whathaveyou, feel free to just goof around. However, if you want to actually get anywhere and learn how to become one with your system, install a distro or try to do things either just outside your current capabilities or well beyond them. If you stay inside your comfort zone, you probably won’t learn all that much. If you need, set up an old computer (or a virtual machine), install a distro, and just try to make it do things that it shouldn’t be able to do. You don’t have to use an “advanced distro” like Arch, Gentoo, or Slackware. Ubuntu or Mint is fine. Just make sure you are trying to use (worthwhile) tools that you might otherwise avoid. Take the long route. Go for the hard way. Use the command line instead of a GUI. Read manpages. Understand what flags do what and when would be a useful time to use them. If you don’t understand something, just try it (safely).

  10. Post a screenshot of your Desktop(s)? Gladly :D It’s DWM with my own configuration and Conky piped into the toolbar. Any questions about my setup are welcomed. I’d be more than happy to explain anything. Not just about my setup, either!(larger version here: http://i.imgur.com/KLky5.jpg)

  11. Any personal comments you’d like to add? Especially for those interested in CS (even if you’re just doing some programming as a hobby or just have an interest in open source or Linux; you don’t have to be a CS major or anything like that), Linux can be more than just an operating system. It allows you to do things and customize and learn and take it apart and rebuild it. All from your own home and in your own time. It can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you’re willing to put in the time. That’s really the beauty of it: money and skill really aren’t factors most of the time. If you put in the time and effort, there will be some sort of payoff, I promise. Even if it’s not exactly what you wanted.

Why, Oracle?

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2011-December/001528.html


Of course Oracle states that there are “known vulnerabilities” that will harm everyone! I’m sure that’s the only reason they are pushing an immediate update.

This basically tells me that they are killing Java. The whole point was to be cross-platform (well, Java was actually for mobile platforms, but everyone uses cross-platform capabilities as their excuse for using it). I realize they are not getting rid of it for other platforms, but it makes it harder to get when it’s not in the repositories (did I misunderstand exactly what “partner repository” means? I’m not that familiar with Ubuntu’s way of doing things…).

First I stole their ideas. Then I improved them.

—Sup (email client) FAQ

(Source: sup.rubyforge.org)

Nicole's Corner: A bag, Arch Linux, Windows 7 Professional...

sunshineclouded:

I got my carrying bag and Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional upgrade in today. The upgrade was a bit tricky for me because it yielded a false error; I was about to call a Customer Service when none of the solutions I found worked, until I rebooted and it began upgrading whilst Windows was…

This is essentially what I’ve ended up doing. I keep Arch Linux mostly to itself on my netbook (it runs better than most laptops with Arch). Then, on my full size laptop, I’ve tried dual booting Arch and Windows 7, but weird things happen with the partitions and bootloaders and all sorts of nonsense. So, as you’ve stated, I decided to install Arch(Bang) in a virtual machine for development and it’s working quite well! :D

(Source: lifeofaspirit)

So, yeah, as far as my netbook is concerned, I think I’m going to be sticking with ArchBang for quite some time.

decade-in-the-tardis:

Never has my netbook performed so well, with windows or any other linux distros I’ve tried (including crunchbang). 

If you really want to get it down to bare bones, I would suggest something even lighter than Openbox (yes, it may be a tad bit obsessive… oh well!).

Tiling window managers tend to be extremely small. My personal favorite is dwm from suckless, which comes in at less that 2000 SLOC (yes, single lines of code). It is written in C and the source is the configuration. This way, your window manager is only picking up the predefined hotkeys you specify.

I’ve been running Arch with dwm on my netbook for a while now, and nothing compares. Even my normal sized laptop running Windows 7 can’t keep up.

(Source: dwm.suckless.org)