Reviving my blog, using OpenSUSE, and trying out the latest iteration of KDE...

Well, the title says it all. After rummaging through some old stuff, I came across my little blog and decided to revive the damn thing. As I'm sorting out my personal life, it's nice to have this blog as distraction and a way to keep my writing skills sharp. (If I make any mistakes, please correct me. And will someone teach me to use a damn semi-colon!)

So, after short introductions, let's get down to business! Like I stated before, I'm using OpenSUSE (11.2 to be exact). It's not my primary distro as I switch between it and Ubuntu 9.10 (netbook) religiously. I definitely like it. It is a mature and modern distribution. I'm not going to compare distros, but I like how powerful it feels. OpenSUSE gives me an overwhelming amount of options without ever feeling, well, overwhelming. I remember using a previous version of OpenSUSE and Yast, the administrative tool, it was slightly complicated. This has been largely taken care of with the introduction of Yast2. The second version is more organized and easier to use. I installed SUSE on a laptop with fairly industry-standard hardware it works 100%. Sound, wireless, sleep, fans, all work out of the box. It's fantastic! To be honest, if I were to recommend a distro for a newcomer to try out, it would definitely be OpenSUSE. It is very apparent that the OpenSUSE devs take great pride in their software.

So, on to my favorite part. This is the thing I'm currently digging the most. While many were burned with early part of the KDE 4.x series, KDE is now the tough kid making his comeback tour on the block! KDE SC 4.3 was an amazing release. Simply put. Why? 3 reasons - past, present, and future:

1. It shut the naysayers up. Every since KDE 4.0 came out, I have always seen the potential in the series. The KDE devs had big plans for their desktop environment and you have to start somewhere. It was disheartening for me to hear and read people bad-mouthing an open source project. What good does that do? KDE SC 4.3 is a solid release. It is stable, beautiful, and thoughtful. Although, it is slightly gimped (features missing), it showed the world what KDE devs had in mind for their baby.
2. It currently serves as the platform for the modern Linux desktop. I like Gnome. I like the simplicity, yet powerful environment it gives its user. But, its look and lack of features are starting to look tired and old. It's 2010. Shouldn't we start getting with the times?
   
3. Gives way for an exciting future. Qt 4.6.x with features like Kinetic? Oxygen? Phonon? Nepomuk? Plasma-desktop? Yes, I'll have all of that please. KDE devs have already proven that they can provide a stable desktop for their users, but now, they're proving they improve the quality of the Linux desktop. KDE SC 4.3 provides all the basic features any user would expect from a desktop environment and KDE SC 4.4 simply pours on the gravy. 4.4 not only has more features, but the devs are starting to work on the organics and beauty of the desktop. One can only imagine what they have up their sleeves for KDE SC 4.5...

Okay, I'm starting to sound like a fanboy here, I know. But, I'm really impressed with KDE. I love using 4.4 RC2 on my laptop and I'm eagerly awaiting its full release. In the subsequent weeks, I plan on writing a series of articles with tips easing new users into KDE. Also, look for an post in a couple days about the current state of SC 4.4. It's going to be a pretty cool year.

So how is Hardy?

So...

It's been a couple of days since I've done my fresh install of Ubuntu's latest release. And...I really like it. I'm pretty sure I won't go back to Feisty (even though it was 100% functional). There are only a couple of annoyances I have with Hardy, but I still have full confidence that the devs will iron out my issues in due time. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied.

Upon moving from Feisty to Hardy, I basically kept the same look. I'm still using GNOME (albeit, the much improved 2.22) and I kept my custom icon pack and used the same GTK2 theme (Polycarbonate-DarkOne). After a couple hours after I finished the fresh install, I decided I want a little change. I found out that my custom icon set I've been using isn't compatible with the latest GNOME. I found this little icon set called ClearlooksOSX. The user that put it together basically did what I did with my icon set. He merged together a collection of themes (it's primarly an OSX icon set). I did the same thing with mine, which I called "Blended." I decided to merge his collection with mine and fix some of the mistakes found in ClearlooksOSX. Voila! I have a complete icon set once again! I also found this fantastic looking GTK2 theme that I'm slowly working on. It's called Apotheosis. It's a great little theme that's still in its infancy. I've modified some aspects of it to better suit my needs. Here's a couple shots everything in action:

Here's my desktop clean.

Here's a shot with Banshee opened.

Here's a shot of Avant Window Navigator (AWN) and the main menu opened.

Ok, I'll admit...It's a bit OSX inspired. Hell, even my wallpaper is one of those included by default in Tiger. But hey! I like it. Peace.

Hardy gives a "hard on"

Here is my current Hardy desktop

Okay...cut me some slack. With a name like Hardy Heron, it's hard not to use "hard on" somewhere. ;)

So, as of April 24, 2008, the latest and greatest version of Ubuntu Linux has been released! I have been stuck on Feisty (Ubuntu 7.04) for quite some time (I had major issues with Gutsy 7.10) and I was eagerly (ok, impatiently) waiting for next release. So, how does Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 measure up? Here's my end-user review:

1. Installation

Easy. That's all I can really say. One of the greatest things about Ubuntu (and many other distros) is that it's really easy to install. Just head on over to download page and pick yourself up a free ISO. I recommend using a BitTorrent client to download as the servers are quite bogged down (HTTP downloading isn't fun during this time).

Note: Alternatively, if you already have Gutsy or the Heron Release Candidate installed, you can open up your update manager and an option should be available for you to update.

As soon as I popped the CD in and restarted, I was greeted with an easy to understand prompt. I made my way to the desktop, which was fully functional, and started to explore. I really like how you can test all of your hardware and play with the software before committing.

Note: It's usually a good idea to test everything while using the LiveCD. That way you can know what hardware works and what doesn't before you install. I tested my wireless, printers, usb devices, etc. Basically, anything I used on a regular basis.

You can also check these sites to see if others have experience (good or bad) with your particular hardware. It can give some insight into whether or not Ubuntu is worth installing, or how much trouble it'll be to correct some potential issues (and fixes for the issues): Ubuntu Hardware Compatibility List and the Ubuntu Wiki HardwareSupport

All I had to do was click the "install" icon on the desktop and that was it. I followed the prompts, which were presented in layman's terms, and the installation took no more than 25 minutes. Sweet.

2. Boot up

I have a weird hiccup while Ubuntu is initially loading, but nothing that really slows down the overall boot-up process. From a cold start to the desktop, it takes about 1-2 minutes. It's quick enough for me. I didn't see an cryptic messages like I did with Gutsy and the overall process seemed rather smooth. One of my long-time gripes towards Ubuntu was that its boot up process isn't very professional. Compare it to, say OpenSUSE's, and it would be put to shame. It's not like it takes away from the experience, but it would be nice to have a little "wow" factor there for new users. Apparently, Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10) is to receive a major visual update, which should include a fancier loading sequence.

3. Desktop

Hmm...not bad, but not good. In this superficial day and age, the initial desktop seems to be missing something to me. On the plus side, the layout is clean, organized and efficient. I didn't have any trouble finding applications or understanding what was on, say, the panel. But, users that are coming from Windows Vista or Mac OS X Leopard (hell, even Windows XP maybe) probably won't be impressed (I realize I'm speaking in generalities). I know I wasn't. But, in Ubuntu's defense (and all other distros using whatever desktop environment), the desktop is highly configurable. Don't like the panel? Change it. The icons not your style? Change them. You see where I'm going with this. The user isn't stuck with one particular style. Hell, you can even switch up desktop environments if you want. This is where Linux distros (not just Ubuntu) climb above other OSes. The customization factor. With a little hard work, you can have yourself a personal desktop that reflects what you want to see. Ultimately, regardless of whether you decided to change anything or not, the desktop is still geared towards the user. It doesn't confuse the user and everything that an average Joe computer user will need is easy to access and use.

4. Software

Note: There are loads more software available in the repos. If you need something, chances are there's a program available. I'm only referring to software that is installed upon a fresh install.

I played around with some of the programs installed on Hardy...

Firefox 3.0 Beta 5: I love it. My favorite browser. It's commonly comes installed with Linux distros. I thought it was interesting that Hardy shipped with a "Beta" quality version of Firefox, but it seems stable enough for daily use. I didn't have any problems with it and my favorite extensions work with it (Adblock Plus and NoScript). The interface now matches your (gtk2) themes, which brings uniformity and the memory problems seem to be better now. It has improved menus, better webpage history handling, and a lot of nifty new features and/or eye candy. I especially like the improved download manager. One thing though, sometimes Firefox seems to freeze for a second or so, but it didn't happen often enough to be problematic.

Brasero: Ah! This CD/DVD burning program is sweeeeet. Seriously. It's so easy to use, yet powerful enough to do what you want. You can burn images, create ISOs, make audio and/or date DVDs and CDs. This program has everything an average user would need. Plus, a no frills interface that is non-intrusive. There's even a little status icon in the notification tray area that tells the progress. Good stuff.

World Clock Applet: This is pretty neat. It contains a calendar, which links to Evolution so you can jot down your activities. It also contains a world map that can tell you the weather forecast and time of a user-set location. It's informative and cool.

5. Issues

Obviously, since there's no such thing as perfection, Hardy is not without its issues. Like sky diving without a parachute, there are things about Hardy that aren't pleasant.

Nautilus: Maybe it's just me, but what the hell happened here? I love the new progress bars for copying and moving files and/or folders, but why is it so damn slow sometimes? For example, I have a folder that contains about 200 wallpapers (PNG's and JPG's). Every time I open this folder, Nautilus becomes unresponsive and slow. By slow, I mean slow. I'm always afraid to open folders that contain a large amount of files now. Since Nautilus is such an integral part of GNOME, it becomes somewhat tedious (feel free to correct me if I was wrong about the Nautilus, GNOME connection).

PulseAudio: I'm not exactly aware of why Ubuntu devs decided to move to PulseAudio, and while it sounds great, there are things that annoy me about it. With ALSA, I could have Firefox open (playing a song from youtube) and have Totem playing a song. While I understand that the audio would clash, I could at least do it. With PulseAudio, it denies me the right to have multiple audio programs going at once. For example, If I'm listening to something on IMEEM with Firefox and the song is stopped, I can't open up another music player and start listening to songs without closing Firefox first...This becomes annoying...fast. Other than that, a small annoyance...The logout sound doesn't play. The login and the ready sound play, but not the logout one. Strange. Besides that poor choice in design (or maybe a flaw with my sound card?) and that minor annoyance, PulseAudio is good. I just don't know why it's better than ALSA (could someone explain?).

Flash: Yeah, I know. Doesn't have anything to do with Ubuntu, Linux or OpenSource for that matter. It still bugs me that Adobe hasn't released a version that doesn't crash Firefox.

Bottom Line

I'm satisfied with Hardy. It's another virus-free, stable, easy-to-use OS in the Ubuntu line-up (damn, I used a lot of hyphens in that sentence!). Is 2008 going to be year that linux takes over the desktop (maybe with Intrepid Ibex *evil laugh*)? No. Is Ubuntu, along with other popular distros, helping along the process though? Certainly. With every new release, Ubuntu becomes even more promising. Ever since I started using Ubuntu (back in May of 2007), I never thought of it as a "Windows killer" or "a better OS." I chose not to compare OSes. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. I just rather have a rapidly developing, virus free, customizable, free ($), and stable OS. With a great community to boot. I was tired of having to re-install Windows XP. Let's put it this way, if you have the hardware squared away (no compatibility issues or fixes available) and you're not completely dependent on software available only for Windows (or Mac), then you're good to go. The average user should be able to listen to music, surf the web, create documents, use email, etc. All of that with relative ease!

Nothing ever seems permanent with Ubuntu (Linux). If something is broken, chances are there's a fix for it. If I need an alternative program to something Windows has, chances are some kind person has made it (TuxGuitar comes to mind. I was looking for a GuitarPro 5 replacement). Hell, if I really want to run Windows applications, I can use WINE. I love how I don't feel like I have my hands tied behind my back with my OS. Ubuntu really is something amazing. It can be a hobby, it can be a community of people enjoying/working on something, or it can just be a tool to help you look at email. Whatever you want! Ubuntu's flexibility and ability to transcend being just an OS truly astounds me.

Well, I think I've blabbed on for long enough. This is just one end-user's opinion in world filled with opinions.

P.S. I liked to say thank you to all the individuals who took the time and effort to create this awesome OS. Keep up the freaking amazing work and let it be known that your efforts have not been wasted.

P.S.S. If there's anything factually incorrect in my post(s), feel free to correct me. I like learning something new everyday :)

Trying to get back in the groove...

I've been trying to ease myself into my blog. For a while there, it seemed as if I had abandoned my blog. All the previous posts were just tests before I decided to make my blog more "visible" to the outside world. I really hope to share some great linux programs (and the steps taken to get them running) with everyone. I'm still stuck on Feisty (patiently waiting for Hardy!) and I've learned a lot about compiling (mostly due to the lack of packages available for Feisty).

Expect to see some informative (I hope!) posts coming soon.

Stacks Update...

Well, SilentStorm has worked wonders again! This time he did a complete re-work of the preferences dialog and it makes a lot more sense now. The applet is approaching finalization. It seems pretty stable and the new options that he included are wonderful.

As you can see, I've modified it slightly making it look a little bit different. This has not been released yet, but I'm sure it will be soon. Someone needs to give SilentStorm access to Launchpad...

Stacks Curve...

SilentStorm, of the AWN forums, has been busily working on a stacks "curved dialog." I want to contribute to his project, but I think I might be out of my league programming wise. Have a look-see at what we've got so far. I've added a simple outlined rectangle to better indicate what file is being hovered over.

So far it's looking pretty sweet. He's currently re-writing the applet due to an overlapping problem that was caused by larger icon sizes. Can't wait!!

Great little stack drawers!

I'm a huge fan of AWN, so naturally I like messing, coding and playing with all the applets. I found these great little icons that work well with the composite icon. I plan on making a new thread on the AWN forums so people can come and grab them.