Mir, Wayland and the Future of Bodhi Linux

Things have been a little quiet around my blog of the late. At the beginning of last month I started a full time position doing some IT related tasks for a major insurance company where I live in central IL. Between the new job, playing Magic, spending time keeping Bodhi things up to date, and preparing to get married in less than a month - I haven’t had time to post as much as I’d like to on here.

Today I would like to take a moment to discuss a topic that has received much attention on Linux blogs/news sites in recent weeks – Ubuntu’s concept for the Mir display server. I would like to start by pointing out I’ve said the concept of Mir. That is right folks – at this point it is just a concept, nothing more. Not long ago Ubuntu announced they’d be moving to Wayland. We all know exactly how much came from this announcement. Because of this history I’m going to reserve my judgment of Mir until we see it actually created and put into use.

Lots of people have been jumping to even more conclusions as to what exactly Mir means for derivatives of Ubuntu – such as the Bodhi project I manage. Currently Mir means absolutely nothing for Bodhi. We intend to continue following our close relationship with the upstream Enlightenment developers (we are after all an E-centric distro) and at this current point in time the Enlightenment team has zero plans to support Mir (which is fine, because again it is still nothing more than a concept). The E team however has been actively working on porting the EFLs/E desktop to be functional on top of Wayland.

Does this mean Bodhi will move to using Wayland for our display server? No it does not. Does Ubuntu moving to Mir (some year[s] from now) mean Bodhi will be rebased on another Linux distribution (such as Debian)? No it does not. Bodhi uses Enlightenment for it’s desktop because I believe it is the best desktop Linux has to offer. As long as X11 remains the best display server Linux has to offer Bodhi will continue using it. As long as Ubuntu remains the best/most supported core to build a distribution off of Bodhi will remain being derived from it.

That being said, our next major Bodhi release (3.0.0) will not be released until summer of 2014. A lot can happen in terms of software (and technology in general) over the course of 15 months – so nothing is set in stone. When it comes time for our next major release we will be re-evaluating all aspects of our project to ensure we are choosing technologies that are the best for our end users. After all, what good is an operating system if it doesn’t serve it’s end users well.

Speaking of Bodhi releases – keep an eye on our testing forum for Bodhi 2.3.0 pre-release discs within the next twenty-four hours. That update release is scheduled to be out by the end of this month.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Filling out my FAFSA on FOSS

I want to remind every out there of something:

Never doubt that your voice matters.

Over a year ago I wrote a post complaining that you where unable to complete the "free application for federal student aide" from an FOSS operating system without first tricking the government's website into thinking you are running Windows.

It was time for me to renew my application (it is something you update every year in the US) and I had my user agent changer all ready to go, but before I simply admitted defeat again I first tried with my normal browser settings. Lo and behold was I surprised! While I was still warned that I was using an "unsupported" browser - the FAFSA website no longer prevented me from filling out the application from said browser.

This is fantastic to say the least - it is a step in the right direction: towards a open internet where the platform you are accessing it from doesn't matter. I would like to say thanks to everyone out there who read my post last year and took the time to contact the FAFSA folks to let them know how stupid their policy was - because apparently they listened!

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Bloathi Linux

Bodhi Linux is mainly built around two things - the Enlightenment desktop and a minimalistic approach to software. Even with these goals stated we still have users (and review writers) that complain about the lack of pre-installed software Bodhi comes with by default.

 In order to provide a fairly clear view of the importance of the use of a SSL Certificate to support electronic transactions through an e-commerce website.You should understand the concept of the protocols used on the web.

With this in mind one of the Bodhi forum members, Timmy, has put together a remaster of the latest Bodhi ISO image that he has cleverly called

"Bloathi Linux" 

Bloathi is simply the latest Bodhi release with a slew of pre-installed software setup on it. By default it comes with:

Envision
GEdit (Replaces Leafpad)
Jockey-GTK (Maybe better known as "Hardware Drivers")
LXKeyMap (Keyboard Layout Switcher)
LXRandr (Monitor Settings)
XScreensaver
Sun Java 6 (JRE and plugin)
Gnome System Monitor
Gnome System Manager
Qalculate
Inkscape
LibreOffice
Pinta
Simple Scan
Firefox
Pidgin
Thunderbird
Transmission
DeaDBeeF
VLC
Xfburn
Adobe Acrobat Reader
ubuntu-restricted-extras
adobe-flashplugin
bodhi-filesharing
bodhi-printing

You can find the ISO (and md5sum) for the disc hosted on source forge here. If you'd like to make suggestions for Timmy, you can find a forum thread he has posted here.

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Something Gnome3 and Unity could Stand to Learn from Windows 8

I've mentioned a few times now that I don't understand this touch infatuation technology has developed in recent years. What ever the reason, there is no doubting this technology is going to be around for some time. In the Linux world the releases of the Gnome 3 and Unity desktops have been pushing a touch-geared interface not only to touch-screen devices, but also the large screen of your home PC! Mac's OSX followed this line of thinking and it appears Microsoft's Window 8 will be no different:

Windows 8 Default Interface

It is still early, but there appears to be one important detail that Microsoft is getting correct that Gnome 3, Unity, and OSX all seem to have failed at.

They are making it easy to switch to a classic desktop.

If Microsoft's choke hold on the market still is any indication we should all know end users are very resistant to change. Up and redesigning the entire desktop experience because you think it is "for the best" is not about to win you any awards. 

Sure Ubuntu 11.04 has a "classic desktop" login, but this will be removed in the 11.10 release. Sure Gnome 3 has a "fall back" mode, but you have to dig through settings to get to it and calling it "fall back" makes it sound like something is wrong with your computer if you are using it (which is half true as it is intended for use on systems that lack 3D acceleration). Not to mention this fall back mode supports far less options than Gnome 2 had, but then Gnome 2 also had less customization than Gnome 1, smell a pattern anyone?

So please, Gnome 3 and Unity developers (heck even OSX) take a hint from Windows 8 (because you sure as heck haven't taken any hints from Enlightenment) and make a stand desktop configuration option a priority - not an after thought.

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Lots of Support for One Percent!

Market share, market share, market share... Truly a technology argument for the ages.

I was reading an article in Information Week cleverly titled "The OS Mess". The article raises the issue of the technology world becoming flooded with a plethora of different operating systems. I think having a variety of different platforms available is a good thing. Competition stimulates innovation and market growth.

The issue in all of this comes in when you need to obtain support for this variety of operating systems. Having to support more than one platform raises the bar on the level of service needed from IT support staff. Many IT companies appear to be adapting to these changes though. In the same Information Week article they posted a survey of 441 technology professionals from May of this year, asking which platforms they support:

While I don't think it is any surprise that 99% of them offer support for Windows, what I did find interesting is that 35% offer support for an operating system that supposedly has a less than 2% market share. Perhaps Linux users are simply more willing to pay for support? At any rate I found it to be an interesting statistic and I wanted to share.

Why do you think so many offer support for a platform that is supposed to be so under used?

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Six Signs Android really isn't Linux

Many people argue that Android has put Linux into the hands of millions of users. While there is no doubting that Android has been a raging success, I would argue that Google has put Android into the hands of millions of people - not Linux. The following are my reasons for claiming such:

1.) Android's kernel is a Fork

Thats right, Android doesn't run on a mainline Linux kernel any longer. Their source code is maintained in a separate git repository because it was not accepted back into the main line kernel in it's current state and Google has not made any action towards improving the code so it can be accepted.

2.) Where is the brand name?

I did a post late last year titled "Keep the 'Linux' out of it Please", which asked whether using Linux in your brand name is deadly. Google seems to think so. Go do some digging on Android's homepage - I challenge you to find the word Linux on there anywhere. Even after digging through their development documents for some time I was unable to locate the word.

3.) Companies that don't support Linux support Android

Be it a game like Plants vs Zombies that Linux users are forced to run via Wine or a product such as Netflix streaming that does not run on Linux machines at all - there are lots of companies that refuse to support the penguin yet still produce Android applications. At the very extreme there is Adobe who has actually dropped support for Linux while continuing to write software for Android.

4.) All Java Applications

Android has piles of applications that are written for it. Unlike applications that are written for Linux though - they are not easily portable to other distributions. For instance applications written for WebOS are able to be run on the Maemo platform. Android applications however are all java based, meaning you need an emulator like Alien Dalvik to get them to run on other platforms.

5.) Microsoft doesn't make money off of Linux pre-installed Machines

There are plenty of vendors that sell systems pre-installed with Linux (such as BluSphere). Dedicated Linux users opt to purchase such systems (or system with no OS on it) in order to avoid the Microsoft Tax. When purchasing an Android handset there is no such avoidance. Up to 15$ per Android handset sold is going to Microsoft. Sure, this is the result of paten trolling - but I don't see anyone rising up to fight it.

6.) Where is the source code?

Yes there are closed source version of Linux. You know what is fairly unique to Android though? Claiming to be open source and then only releasing your source code to a select few hardware makers for a long while. Is it a solid business plan? Sure. Just don't claim to be free and open though and then pull something like this!

In my opinion at this point Android is just as much Linux based as OSX is BSD based. Now - don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Android is a bad operating system. In fact I'm glad it has taken away market share away from extremely closed operating systems such as iOS and Windows Mobile. I'm just saying lets stop calling it what it is not! Yes Android is Linux based it is not however Linux any longer.

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Seven Months of Bodhi Linux in Pictures

Bodhi Linux is still a fairly young project. We gained a good bit of recognition for providing a usable Enlightenment desktop while many others still do not (if they offer one at all). We started back in just November of last year, but the project has matured a good deal in just this short bit of time. The following are screen shots (and some history) from the nine developmental and two stable releases we have had during the last seven months.

Bodhi 0.1.0 - Alpha 1

There is no doubting the look of our first alpha release was fairly bland (bad? awkward?). White on black on green on purple... What where we thinking?


This first Bodhi release happened on November 17th 2010. It was our latest release for four whole days and saw 539 downloads in that time.

Bodhi 0.1.1 and 0.1.2 - Alphas 2 and 3

Our look didn't change much here. In fact can you spot the only subtle difference between this image and the one above it?


Alpha 2 was our main release for 7 days and during this time it saw 1470 downloads. Alpha 3 had a shorter lifespan of just two days during which time it saw 423 downloads.

Bodhi 0.1.21 - Alpha 3.1

By our third alpha Bodhi had started getting some press. This "hot fix" release was designed to combat the number one issue most people had with our distro - it's look! Our default theme changed to a slightly more consistent looking black on green.


Alpha 3.1 served as our latest release for two weeks and snagged 1590 downloads during this time.

Bodhi 0.1.3 - Alpha 4

During our fourth alpha release Bodhi's look took a drastic 180. We went from a dark green to natural brown and wood tones. The default icon set also jumped from the default Gnome icons to the much over used Faenza icons.


This wooden Bodhi served as our latest release for twenty five days and saw 2,262 downloads in this time.

Bodhi 0.1.4 - Beta 1

Reviewers didn't like our dark green look and they didn't like our wood tone... What are we to do? Give the user a choice obviously! The theme wasn't the only thing we start giving the user a choice about though. Beta 1 was the first time we introduced the profile selection at startup. Each profile was offered with a "light" and "dark" option.


It seems while many people are wary of "alpha" software, "beta" does not scare so many away. Bodhi 0.1.4 received 5,090 downloads during the three weeks it was our main release.

Bodhi 0.1.5 - Release Candidate 1

The most notable change in our first release candidate is that two new profiles where added. One that had Ecomorph (compiz) enabled by default and one that was optimized for tablets/netbooks.


The download stats for the RC1 release where fairly close to the beta. 5,635 downloads in just nineteen days.

Bodhi 0.1.6 - Release Candidate 2

Our release candidate did away with having each profile offered in two different colors. This time around you simply had two screens to click through. The first offered you a choice of profiles and the second a choice of themes. The Luxe theme from the previous two releases stayed around and four other new themes (Beauty, Greyish, Mariad and Sky) appeared on the default disc. The default icon set also changed to the MaXo ReMix.


In twenty two days our first release candidate saw over double the downloads of our first beta. Bodhi 0.1.6 snagged 11,062 downloads while it was our main release.

Bodhi 0.1.7 - Release Candidate 3

Initially 0.1.7 was suppose to be our first "stable" release, but some unforeseen development issues lead to it simply being a second release candidate. The most notable changes here are the introduction of the ELFE launcher in the netbook profiles and the replacement of the Beauty theme with Brownish.


Our second release candidate saw 8,599 downloads in just two weeks time.

Bodhi 1.0.0 - Stable Release

Our stable release didn't bring any drastic changes with it. In fact from an end user stand point the only major change was the "Desktop" profile layout.


This was the big time though. All "developmental" tags where off of the distro and all bets where off. Our first stable release was our main version for two months, during which time it saw 25,136 downloads.

Bodhi 1.1.0 - Update Release 1

In between major releases Bodhi will be releasing "update" releases to keep software on the live CD current. The first of these is our current release and it brought with it some minor changes to the tablet interface and four new default themes (Ambient, Boox, Elegant and Moonlight).


This latest release is still racking up downloads as I type this - but it is well into the tens of thousands!

If you would like to see for yourself just how much our Bodhi releases have improved since past releases you can find an archive of all of our old releases on source forge. If you have ideas for further improvement we are always looking for user feedback and I welcome you to leave a comment below or sign up on our forums.

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Anyone Can use the Linux Operating System

Today’s topic of conversation is something I feel fairly strongly about. It is something I have seen happen countless times, both in person and posted various places around the internet. Some semi-tech head (or Windows system admin) downloads this “Linux” thing and decides they are going to boot it up. They don’t look up their hardware online for compatibility, they just pop the disc in and expect everything to work. Now most modern Linux distributions work with a fairly wide range of hardware - so most of these users will install the operating system successfully and move on to setting everything else up.

What about those that have hardware that doesn’t work or works poorly without closed source/restricted drivers? They get upset, curse the penguin in their disc drive, call it a crappy operating system, swear to never try it again and then proceed to tell all their friends about the negative experience that will obviously happen with any hardware and Linux. Linux lost a potential user.

Next, those users that got the system installed successfully are enjoying themselves and go to play an MP3 file or a flash video. If they selected one of the distributions that comes with restricted/closed source components pre-installed, they will be fine. If they selected a distribution that makes installing such things easy their media is only a few clicks away. Even if they are unlucky and selected a distribution with strong free software values, playing those restricted media files is only a Google search and a few commands away (at most).

What about those that didn’t do any of the above and expected all of their media to “just work”? They get upset, curse the penguin on their hard drive, call it a crappy operating system, swear to never try it again and then proceed to tell all their friends about the negative experience that will obviously happen with any media file and Linux. Linux lost a potential user.

Finally those users that made it through all the hurdles listed above have been using their Linux box for a week - things are going well. Then they find an application online they would like to use that is fully cross platform. They find the download link with the penguin above it and download the file provided. If they are lucky the package they downloaded is the same type as what works with their package manager. If it is, they will install the software and go along their happy way.

What about those that got a “.tar.gz”, “.bin” or “.sh” file download? They get upset, curse the penguin on their hard drive, call it a crappy operating system, swear to never try it again and then proceed to tell all their friends about the negative experience that will obviously happen with installing any program in Linux. Linux lost a potential user.

Yes, all of the above could be avoided if users would simply RTFM. You know what, though? I’ve found most of those manuals users are being directed to are not written for users.

Yes, all of the above could be avoided if users would simply ask for help in a chat room/forum. You know what, though? I’ve been in more than a few chat rooms and seen more than a couple message board posts where new users were treated poorly for a simple question they had. “Can’t you use Google?” is never an acceptable answer folks (and its one I think most all of us are guilty of giving at one point or another).

Ultimately the best solution for getting Linux into the hands of someone new and having it provide a positive experience is the proper setup and configuration of the operating system by someone that knows what they are doing. Ninety percent of Linux distributions that exist can be easily used by just about anyone when properly configured and presented with a couple minutes of explanation to the new user. Just like Windows or OSX anyone can use Linux in 2011, but not everyone can install Linux.

What is your take on this subject? Am I fairly on target here or completely missing my point?



~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Top Five Fedora Derivatives

April in Linux land means most people are going Ubuntu crazy as Canonical's first bi-annual release of the year comes to term. I would like to take a moment to remind everyone to stop and smell the distros. Even in April there is much more to Linux than just Debian's child (and grand-children).

One of the other "big names" in the Linux world is Red Hat's community driven Fedora. Beyond Fedora itself, there are also a small number of derivatives out there based off of this Yum+RPM powered distribution. The following is a round up of some of the better ones.

Fusion Linux - Everything and the Kitchen Sink
Fusion Linux is to Fedora as Ultimate Edition is to Ubuntu. It takes the base desktop and crams it full of applicationy-goodness! It offers a good selection of open source applications by default that just about anyone would be able to sit down in front of the distro and accomplish most all of their computing tasks without having to install any additional applications. Beyond this it also pre-packages flash, java, and all those closed source codecs you need to play any sort of media file. If you are looking for a "beginner" or "quick setup" Fedora derivative, there is no doubting that Fusion is the way to go.


Fuduntu - Elegance and Flash
Even if this distro's name is a bit of a joke, it's goals and usefulness most certainly are not! If Fusion Linux is the Ultimate Edition of the Fedora derivatives, then there is no doubting that Fuduntu is easily comparable to Linux Mint. Fuduntu takes the standard Fedora base and adds minor adjustments that make the whole system feel just a bit more elegant. Beyond the new icon set and nautilus elementary, Fuduntu also distributes Adobe's Flash player and MP3 codecs by default. Fuduntu is largely targeted at laptops and netbooks - meaning it keeps power management in mind as well with the Jupiter Applet.


Xange - Blue Fedora at it's Best
Odds are you may know there are many different desktops to choose from in the land of Linux. Unlike Fusion and Fuduntu, Xange opts to use the KDE desktop instead of Gnome. Xange advertises itself as an "easy to use" Fedora derivative that is designed to be beginner friendly. It has some a-typical default applications such as aMSN and Skype included by default.


CentOS - Enterprise Stability, FOSS Cost
You won't find flashy desktop effects, multimedia codecs, or anything of that sort here by default - Just a rock solid Linux distribution. CentOS really shows Red Hat's dedication to the open source ecosystem. CentOS aims to be 100% binary compatible with RHEL and is just as stable. It is geared towards those that need a rock solid system, but do not need (or cannot afford) enterprise certification and support.


Yellow Dog - Enlightenment for your PS3
Of course I can't get through a Linux distro round up without mentioning my favorite desktop - Enlightenment. Yellow Dog is a Linux distribution designed for the PowerPC and PS3 architectures that features the E17 desktop. It is designed for home, business, and cluster computing users. It is one of the world's only Linux distros optimized for the cell processor.


Have another favorite Fedora derivative I didn't mention here? Drop a comment below letting me know what it is and I will be sure to check it out.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Angry Birds Angry with Linux?

If you have been reading here for awhile then you may know that I am a bit of a gamer still. Even though as time progresses more games are being created natively for Linux, there are still a good deal of games that are written in DirectX so they require a Microsoft operating system (or Wine) to play.

Not everything is written using Direct X however, in fact a good deal of games are being written with OpenGL support. Something that really irks me however is when a company creates a game in OpenGL (See Blizzard and Valve) to run on Mac OSX, but at the same time refuses to support the Linux operating system.

Unless you have been living with your head under a smart-phone-free rock for the last couple of years no doubt you have heard of the smash hit game "Angry Birds".


Angry Birds takes the operating system discrimination I mentioned above to the next level.

Angry Birds works on iOS, Maemo, Android, and Windows - yet they refuse to make a general Linux installer. Now I could see if they only had an Android client why there might be some hold up, but the game runs on Maemo - which is a full Linux OS. Thats right - the game already compiles and runs on an ARM Linux platform. If the pile of FOS applications that have been ported to the N900 are any indication this means that getting the code to run on an x86 or 64bit version of Linux is just a recompile away. Yet still no Linux client for Angry Birds!

I've contact Rovio (the company that makes Angry Birds) asking if they have any plans for a Linux desktop client, but I received a fairly standard response:

"We do intend to develop versions of Angry Birds to all relevant devices out there. News like this are announced at Rovio’s web pages or in a newsletter. In most cases we will not publish any release dates for the updates before they are ready and available. This is to make sure we can finalize the updates without external time pressure and because we do not want to give dates that we cannot always guarantee we will hit."

Their generic response about "devices" makes me wonder if they even read my email.

Do you think we will ever see non-open source developers stop ignoring my platform of choice or is Linux forever doom to obscurity?

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

HOWTO: Chainload Grub2 into Chameleon

I recently started playing with OSx86 again on my laptop that also runs Bodhi Linux. OSx86 uses the Chameleon boot loader to boot into the OSX kernel and handle easily passing on boot arguments at startup. If you are a Linux user like myself, odds are you prefer the Grub boot loader, which supports just about every operating system you can think of.

While I like grub, it does not do a good of a job of passing boot arguments to the OSX kernel. Beyond this some of the EFI strings Chameleon has happen at boot don't work properly with grub. The solution is to have Grub simply chainload into Chameleon instead of booting directly into the OSX kernel (which it does by default).

Doing this is fairly simple, first boot into your Linux operating system that is responsible for grub2, then open your favorite terminal and run the following:

sudo mkdir /boot/chameleon
cd /boot/chameleon
wget http://downloads.bodhilinux.com/jeff91/misc/boot0

Or if you don't trust a file provided by myself, the boot0 file is part of the chameleon boot loader, search for it on your own hard drive and move the file over.

Next, open your grub.cfg, as root, located at /boot/grub/grub.cfg with your favorite text editor and paste in the following chunk of code just below the last menu entry:

menuentry "Mac OS X Boot Loader" {
insmod hfsplus
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ca2159244a8b0fc3
parttool (hd0,1) boot+
chainloader (hd0,5)/boot/chameleon/boot0
}

Note in the above chunk of code you will need to change hdX,Y to match your particular hard drive layout. On my system OSx86 is installed to sda1 (which equates to hd0,1) and Bodhi, which manages Grub2, is installed to sda5 (which equates to hd0,5). Also be sure you make the uuid match that of your OSX drive (you can copy it from the grub2 entry for booting directly into the OSX kernel).

Have any questions feel free to drop a comment below and I will lend a hand.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Elementary OS - Distro Review

It's been awhile since I had the time to install another distribution and really put it through it's paces enough to write a full review of it. After crying wolf about a lack of information on the Elementary OS website, I felt I owed it to their team to give the disc a (free) download and put their OS through it's paces.


Getting Elementary OS:
The Elementary OS website has slowly been fleshing out over the last couple of weeks, but it is still fairly sparse at this point. For those who are not aware Elementary OS is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 10.10 that uses the latest Gnome desktop 2.x desktop.

Their main page now has download links for 32 and 64 flavors of the OS in both direct download and torrent form. There are also options to order a CD or donate some spare change to the project. Along the top you will find discover, which gives you a run down of the default applications, and an FAQ that starts with explaining that the website will be fleshed out more in the coming months. I hope they do this quickly though - because while there is a link to their freenode IRC channel there aren't any user forums setup for posting questions.

Anywho - I downloaded the 32bit ISO of their 0.1 release via the torrent download and was ready to go.

Live Desktop:
I loaded the ISO onto my flash drive using unetbootin and the went to load it up onto my T101MT. The boot time was on par with any other Ubuntu based disc and after a few moments I was greeted with the default desktop.

The live disc detected and functioned with all of my tablet's hardware by default - except for the multi-touch track pad (for two finger scrolling).

I was quickly able to locate the installer icon on the dock along the bottom of the screen and was soon installing the OS (One oversight/typo however is that the installer reads "elementary 0.2 installer").

Just a couple comments on the install process. One small niggle I would like to mention with the installer is that it went online and did an apt update even though I had not told it to do so. The installer also lacks a slide show, not mission critical - but useful and informative for new users. Other than this it was just the standard Ubuntu 10.10 installer - at any rate about 10 minutes and two gigs of disc space later I had Elementary OS installed onto my system.

Applications:
Elementary OS comes with a base application set that should keep most people content. These include:

Accessories
• Calculator
• Character Map
• Manage Print Jobs
• Take Screenshot
• Terminal
• Text Editor (gEdit)
Graphics
• Shotwell Photo Manager
• Simple Scan
Internet
• Empathy Internet Messaging
• Midori
• Postler Mail Client
• Transmission BitTorrent Client
Office
• AbiWord
• Dexter Contact Manager
• Gnumeric Spreadsheet
• Lingo Dictionary
Sound & Video
• Brasero Disc Burner
• Movie Player
• Sound Recorder
Ubuntu Software Center

Elementary's inclusion of Abiword, Gnumeric, and Midori as opposed to Libreoffice and Firefox gives the gnome based OS a snappy feeling that I am more used to when using lighter desktops (not complaining here). Something else worth mentioning with regards to software is that even though Midori 0.3.3 released on the 13th of March, Midori 0.3.2 is included on the Elementary OS live CD. Don't worry though, it will download the newer version during your first system update.

Also worth mentioning is that Dexter, Postler, and Lingo are all applications that are being developed by the Elementary OS team. This means they integrate well with each other. Samba is also present for managing network shares via the Elementary Nautilus file browser.

Some things lacking by default that I think would be good to see added would be something like Gnome Do (makes it so much quicker getting to your applications) and a power manager of some sort like Jupiter.

Elementary OS also makes the choice not to included closed source/restricted codecs by default such as Adobe's flash player and multimedia codecs. Personally I respect this choice and think it is a good one to make.

Look and Feel:
Elementary OS has a simple, but elegant feel to it by default. In addition to the default cloud background there are a number of good images to choose from in the default wall paper selector.

As far as icon set and GTK theme go you will find the opposite of a wide selection. In fact you will find only the much talked about "elementary" version of icons and gtk theme. They both look fairly sleek and my only complaint is that the scroll bar in your applications is very thin and has no up or down arrows. Clearly a design choice, but it makes it difficult to scroll when trying to click+drag on the bar.

System:
As far as the kernel goes you will find this current version of Elementary OS powered by the 2.6.35 kernel from the Ubuntu repository (28-generic flavor). For finding new software Elementary ships with both the Ubuntu Software Center and the Synaptic package manager. For managing your updates you will find the normal Ubuntu update manager. I also mentioned above that Elementary OS has a snappy feeling to it - it is also fairly resource friendly for a Gnome+Ubuntu desktop. By default it uses around 150megs of RAM.

Speaking of software, you will find the Ubuntu repositories, as well as the universe and multiverse repositories enabled by default. All Elementary OS updates come down via their PPA. This is a choice I do not care for, personally I think having an actual debian repository is better suited (and more professional) for serving applications to an OS - but to each their own.

Also - because Elementary OS is based off Ubuntu 10.10 some of the software in it by default is a bit dated. For instance when I went to get Firefox installed I was greet by version 3.6 instead of the new 4.0

The only issue I had hardware wise with Elementary OS is that it did not support two finger scrolling on my netbook's trackpad by default (but then neither does anything Ubunu based). My complaint is that at the same time it did not auto-set itself to use one finger side scrolling as some distros do.

Final Thoughts:
Over all I think Elementary OS is a good start into a Gnome based distribution that could really shine in the coming months with Ubuntu making it's move to the Unity desktop. One thing that could really give the project a more unified feeling would be the removing all the few bits of Ubuntu branding left (update manager, software center, etc). For those that are used to the Gnome desktop, looking for something light (and don't feel like stripping a base Ubuntu/Linux Mint install) Elementary OS is a perfect fit.

Have you used Elementary OS - if so what are your thoughts on the project?

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Internet Explorer 6 is Holding Back the Linux Desktop

The Linux kernel just turned twenty and according to Jim Zemlin (Linux Foundation Executive Director) bashing on Microsoft at this point is like "Kicking a puppy". His logic behind this statement is that Linux has dominated Microsoft in most all areas - including server side and mobile. I agree with this statement (and as should you because there are lots of cold hard numbers to back this information up). One thing I do not agree with Zemlin on however is that

"traditional PC desktop is becoming less important"

If Microsoft is a puppy, then it is one that has eaten all the desert in the house. Sure Linux is getting what it needs at dinner time, but having desert afterwards would really sweeten the deal.

Traditional desktop PCs are no longer our only source of access to the world wide web and other applications, but these other devices are still not coming close to fully replacing the experience of having a decent size screen, with a keyboard and a mouse for navigation.

Now, with Linux having been so successful everywhere else, why is it still failing to over take on the desktop? Well I have a theory and as you may have guessed from the title of the post, I placing the blame here squarely on the shoulders of Internet Explorer 6.
Or well, more directly on those that still use Internet Explorder 6. Did you know according to W3Counter as of last month (March 2011) 3.2% of users online are still using Internet Explorer 6 as their webrowser? Beyond this over 9% of users are still using Internet Explorer 7 and right about 40% of users are estimated to be using Windows XP. Now while you can argue over the exact statistics for days - that is not my goal in sharing them. Regardless of how much (or little) any of the above technologies are being used, the fact that they register a percent at all means they are being used by millions of people still.

Now one could argue that Windows XP and older versions of Internet Explorer might still be used because they are good software. I believe this is not the case though. Over the years there have been countless bugs encountered in theses pieces of software and yet still they persist. Why you ask? Simple:

Resistance to change.

There is no reason, other than fear of change, to be using a browser or operating system in 2011 that was created over a decade ago (unless of course it is on a server that has over a decade's worth of uptime). It amazes me how many times I've setup Firefox or Google Chrome on a friend's computer only to return later to find out they have foobared something because they fell back into using Internet Explorer after I left (most often times simply because they liked the blue E). Once most people are set in their ways it is hard to get them to change - no matter how subtle that change may be.

What do you think - am I on target here or way missing the mark? Why does Linux do so well everywhere else, but continue to fall on it's face when it comes to desktop computers?

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Summary of FOSS Online April 1st 2011 Pranks

For those that have trouble distinguishing between fact and fiction April 1st is a dangerous day for internet surfing - doubly so in the world of FOSS. Mischievous web admins were a-foot in many places around the world wide web for the last twenty-four hours, the following is a round up of some of the better ones I came across.


OMGUbuntu - The popular Ubuntu Linux tutorial/blog website greeted you with an "Error: Fatal X11 Failure! Using fallback terminal mode!" That then allowed the user to navigate back to the main homepage by using a little bit of bash-foo. Check out their online terminal here.

Google - Google is fairly famous for their April 1st stunts and today was no exception - they had two fairly good hoaxes I came across. First Google "Motion" was announced. A revolutionary technology that will let you quickly respond to emails by using gestures in combination with your webcam. Find more information and a video about it here.

Second was a job posting about looking for "autocompleters". Folks that would be responsible for guessing what people are searching for while they type it! (because thats not something a computer can do)

Play on Windows - The Wine Reviews blog posted an announcement about the "Play on Windows" product from the creators of Play on Linux. Citing something we know to be true "applications run much faster using Wine + Windows 98, for instance, than natively under Windows Vista." A sad truth about Microsoft's operating system to say the least.

Lady Gaga, Gaga over Ubuntu - Report by Tech Source that Lady Gaga recently announced she was an Ubuntu fan. The result? A 6% market share increase for Ubuntu Linux (largely in the form of teenagers). If only, if only!

KDE & Gnome - Both of the unix desktop giants are up to no good this year! KDE announced a 100 euro entry fee raffle. The prize? All of the software currently available in the KDE catalog - free of charge!

Gnome played the dirtier trick of the two however. They posted a news listing stating that the release of Gnome 3.0 was again being pushed back, this time to September of 2011. (Don't worry folks, the final tarbels for release are still due in by April 4th)

Microsoft Buys ReactOS - For those that are not familiar, ReactOS is a project working to create an FOSS operating system that has binary compatibility with the Microsoft Windows operating system (they work closely with the folks creating Wine). Blogger Marcel Gagne posted an announcement that Microsoft was buying out the open source project for an unprecedented 12.3 billion dollars because ReactOS was "just getting to close to creating a free and open source version of Windows" I think the frightening thing about this one is that we might actually see a stunt like this pulled by Microsoft should ReactOS continue to progress towards it's goal.

Canterbury Project - Undoubtedly the largest hoax/trick on this April 1st 2011 was the announcement of the Canterbury Project. Post by Arch, OpenSUSE, Gentoo, Grml and Debian the Canterbury project would be the "merging" of four of the largest Linux distributions in history. To quote:

• Simple as Arch - technologically simple and bleeding edge.
  
• Stable as Debian - highly dependable.
  
• Malleable as Gentoo - you get what you really want.
  
• Live as Grml - readily usable.
  
• Openminded as openSUSE - broad and welcoming for everyone.

While I think there are more than a few people out there wishing this one to be true, I can say with a decent amount of certainty this is a joke. What it does show us however is how willing those in the FOSS world can be to work together, even when they are some of the largest projects out there.

Find any other good April 1st day joke on the net I didn't list here? Drop a comment below letting me know.

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Elementary OS Pulling an Elive - Charging for Linux?

So I caught a comment here about Elementary OS being released today so I headed over to their website to see if the disc had been released yet and I was greeted by a count down timer listing twelve hours left till release. Okie-doke count down timers are cool and all - then one of the buttons caught my attention -

"Pre-Order"

Huh - pre-orders are usually needed only by software that requires a cost to download... Upon clicking on the link was I redirected to paypal with the item "elementary: Jupiter" in my order summary. I've read a few things around the internet about Elementary OS and I was keen to give it a try, but after having paid for Elive I don't think I'll ever be using a Linux based OS again that requires me to pony up some green for it.

Now I am not saying distro developers don't deserve contributions from their users (being one myself I know how much donations are appreciated), but a monetary contribution I feel should not be required for installing an FOS operating system. I also think that requiring a payment such as this is going to cause a good deal of people to look else where for the Linux distribution of choice (I mean - its not like Gnome+Ubuntu is hard to find). Do you think - will Elementary OS still take off if they are going down the Elive route and charging for their distribution?

Update: It appears Elementary is going to be free and the cost is for having a physical disc shipped out to you. Still odd though that this information is not posted on their website! Thanks to Jai Ho for the tip i.n the comments

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Bodhi Linux 1.0.0 Stable Release Goes Live

After two more weeks of hacking and user feedback since our final release candidate the Bodhi Team and I are proud to announce the availability of the first ever Bodhi Linux Stable release (1.0.0). This release includes a couple minor bug fixes and a few final touches polish wise. For a full change log see here. The first thing you will notice when starting the newest Bodhi disc is that our plymouth (boot splash) has a sleek new look:



In addition to the standard plymouth being reworked - a text based plymouth is now installed by default so older/virtual systems no longer display the harmless "missing library" message that had looked tacky in the previous versions.

After booting the live CD you will be greeted by the same profile and then theme selections that you where provided with previously. There is one change to the profiles however, the "Desktop" profile is now laid out in a manner that will make those coming from KDE/Linux Mint's Gnome feel at home:


Regarding the default application selection there has been a single change from what is found on the 0.1.7 release. The nautilus elementary file browser has been removed in favor of the latest version of the light weight and feature rich PCManFM file browser.

You will also notice two changes in the main menu. First there is now a Bodhi entry for quickly accessing our Quick Start Guide, Software Page, and Art website:


Second, all your system configuration tools are no longer buried like they where in previous version - they are under applications with the rest of your programs:


Current Bodhi users do not need to reinstall for these changes to take effect. Simply apt-get update && apt-get upgrade as root on your Bodhi system (or use synaptic) and you will pull down an relevant updates. New users can download the ISO via direct download from here.

This is our first ever "stable" release and we want feedback on it now more than ever! If you know of anywhere that does reviews of Linux distributions be sure to let them know about Bodhi - the more people that are using the distro the better it will become.

For those wondering about our version numbering scheme. The first number represents a major release, the center number represents a kernel update, and the third number presents a minor package update release. Bodhi 1.0.0 should be our final release until we have the 2.6.38 kernel ready to go - so expect a Bodhi 1.1.0 disc some time towards the end of May. Our major release cycle is set to go from Ubuntu LTS to LTS, so a Bodhi 2.y.z should not be expected any time before the end of the summer of 2012.

Finally, a big thank you to the entire Bodhi team and our every growing community that made this release possible!

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

No FAFSA for FOSS Users

I'm a student in my last semester of undergraduate school currently. I've written twice now about various pieces of online software that restrict your freedom to use the operating system of your choice to access them. My girlfriend is also a student and as many of you may know - college is expensive. This weekend she went to fill out her FAFSA application online, for those of you unfamiliar "FAFSA" stands for "free application for federal student aide", and was annoyed when she found out she couldn't!

You might share in my shock when I found out that this free application cannot be filled out from a free operating system. When clicking the "start here" button on the FAFSA main page from a Linux based operating system you are kindly redirected to the incompatible browsers page. Just like with blackboard "supported browsers" really means "supported browsers and operating systems". The FAFSA website supports:

• Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8
• Firefox 3.5 and 3.6
  
• Google Chrome 6 and 7
• Opera 10.x

Now even though three of these browsers are cross platform, the only operating systems you are able to use with these browsers are Windows and OSX. The kicker at the end of all this? At the very bottom of the page there is a citing of standards compliance as the reason for certain browsers being redirected:

"For the past few years, every major Web browser released has been built around a set of open standards designated by the World Wide Web Consortium, a non-profit organization charged with overseeing the continuing development of the Web. What this means is that one piece of code now looks the same on every modern browser, whether it be Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, or others. The majority of our users are using these modern browsers, so we can present content which is optimized for them. "

While that is all fine and dandy, last I checked browsers on Linux where not any less standards compliant than those on Windows or OSX. At the end of the day I guess this is just another example of a large organization ignoring the FOSS ecosystem. I wonder how much longer it is going to be that Linux users are going to have to deal with this sort of ignorance.

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Bodhi Linux RC2 & Updates

After three weeks of user input and a few bugs reports the Bodhi team and I are happy to present our second release candidate (version number 0.1.6). This version features package updates such as Firefox beta 11 and a number of small changes that make the system feel a bit more seamless. For a full change log see here.

The colors scheme of many things on the disc now matches our new website colors:

Plymouth

Login Screen

We have also improved the process a user goes through when first starting Bodhi. Instead of having a copy of each profile for every theme, a user now selects from our six profiles:

And then choose from one of seven themes:


That means with six profiles and seven themes a user has forty two different configurations to choose from on their fresh install of Bodhi!

Don't worry if you don't care for any of the default themes on the disc. The Bodhi Art website is now live, it is still being fleshed out fully - but once it is fully completed users will be able to easily find and install a selection of Enlightenment and GTK themes, as well as icon sets and Bodhi wallpapers. Speaking of icon sets, as of the 0.1.6 release the default icon set for Bodhi has been changed to MaXo ReMix:


Our software center recently got a make over as well, it looks cleaner and now features software application sets - so users that are new to Linux can easily have a fully functional Linux desktop with a single click. The software center isn't the only thing that has been growing in the Bodhi community. Our development team is now in the double digits! We are happy to welcome three new team members:

Mark Sumter & Gregory Sandoval will be aiding in disc development.

and

Stephen Houston is the second Enlightenment developer we are welcoming to the team. He is the creator of ephoto and other E-Goodness.

You can find the new disc available for direct download at source forge or via high speed torrent download. Please give the disc a download and let us know what you think by dropping a comment below or by stopping by our forums.

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More

Bodhi Linux Release Candidate

Today the Bodhi team and I are happy to announce our release candidate (0.1.5) is now available to the general public. This disc includes a number of package updates, most notably Firefox beta 10 and EFL 1.0 stable release. For a full change log see here.

Because a picture is worth a thousand words the following is a screen shot overview of some of the changes in the release candidate.

First Boot Screen

The setup wizard has been stream lined in this release. When booting the live disc there are now only two screens to go through:


Should you try the live cd and like it - the installer for Bodhi can now be easily found on your desktop:


To ensure you are no longer bored during the three minutes it takes for Bodhi to install there is now a slide show for you to watch that tells you what Bodhi is all about:


After you restart your system you will find our new login screen:


After logging in you will will go through the same two Enlightenment setup screens as the live CD followed by a third that asks you to choose your quick launch applications:


The release candidate also includes two new profiles. One that is optimized for tablet and netbook computers:


And another that has Ecomorph desktop effects configured by default:


Finally when you open up Firefox you will be greeted by our Bodhi quick start guide. This will hopefully ease the transition for those coming from other desktops to Enlightenment,


You can download the disc via torrent from here or from direct download here. Have any questions, comments or complaints please feel free to drop a comment below or make a post on our forums.

~Jeff Hoogland

Read More