Every once in awhile I’ll post a worthy Linux-related video on the blog. I just watched this one tonight, and the acting was not great, but I laughed so hard when he installed the Linux File Server on the Toilet running on dial-up. LOL!
Category: Linux
Firefox has been my browser of choice for several years, and prior to that, I first came in contact with the technology that runs behind the browser, called the Gecko Renderer in early 1998. The thing that impressed me the most back then was how much FASTER the Gecko engine rendered pages as compared to Internet Explorer on a dial-up connection.
Here’s a short list of reasons why Firefox will help you if you ever decide to try out or switch to Linux (or Mac OSX for that matter).
- Firefox runs on Windows and all popular operating systems.
Whether you prefer Windows, Mac, Linux, whatever, your favorite flavor of O/S, Firefox runs on it. - The interface is the largely the same on Linux and Windows.
The default interface and theme for Firefox is exactly the same no matter what O/S you are using.
For me, the biggest change was where the Preferences item was displayed. Using the Menu Editor plugin for Firefox allows you to move around menu items, or hide them completely. I have found this HUGELY helpful for my own migration to Linux, as Preferences is located in the “Edit” menu at the top of the screen, as opposed to the Windows version of Firefox that actually has the Preferences menu located until “Tools.” Just install the plugin and move it easily. - If you feel comfortable browsing the web, that’s a big step towards being familiar with the computer as a whole.
Many time, when I have a problem or something I want to do in Linux and I don’t know how, I google for it. Using a browser like Firefox that has a standard interface among all operating systems, lets me feel comfortable while I’m searching on a topic that I am unfamiliar with. - Add-ons that you enjoy in Windows are also available for Linux.
One of the biggest reasons I like Firefox is because of the practical unlimited amount of Add-ons written for it.
Do you want the weather in your taskbar? Done. Do you want a music player controller embedded in the browser so you don’t have to alt-tab to skip a song? Done! If you can dream it up, it’s probably already there.
They function exactly the same way in Windows and in Linux, because they’re built on a framework that integrates with Firefox.
Some of my favorites include: StumbleUpon, Adblock Plus, IE Tab (when using Windows), and DownloadStatusbar, Menu Editor and Stop-or-Reload Button - Firefox is accepted as the most popular browser for users on any distribution of Linux.
Firefox is bundled by default on the following distributions: Ubuntu (and it’s derevitives), Fedora, openSUSE, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, SimplyMEPIS, CentOS, etc. Most Linux Distributions also make it easy to get and install Firefox if it is not installed by default.
If you don’t think these reasons are enough, humor me and try it out. I bet you’ll love the tabbed browsing and lack of advertisements when using Adblock Plus, which gets rid of nearly all ads out there. It’s terrific and no more annoying talking ads!
I think I’ve got a for a new PC for the girlfriend! This is actually CHEAPER than building yourself. In the end you save a pretty penny, because the upgrade to 1GB of RAM is free, and you save $100 off the total price of the system (limited time offer).
Check out the specs:
Intel®Pentium® dual-core processor E2140 (1MB L2, 1.60GHz, 800 FSB)
Ubuntu Desktop Edition version 7.04
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo Drive
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8300GS
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor, 24×7 Phone Support
Support Reforestation: Plant a Tree for Me
This is an amazing deal from Dell. And if you’re a really cheap bastard, you can save an additional $6 by not planting a tree.
I’ve gone though my website logs to see just what kind of visitors I’ve had in the last few days. I’ve received well over 2000 page views over the entirety of my blog, with a majority of those being referred from the Linux section in Digg, where I submit most of my articles.
But this part is what is so puzzling – 46% of unique visitors to my website in the past few days are using Windows. It goes something like this:
1. Windows 46.10% 
2. Linux 44.96%
3. Macintosh 7.23%
4. Other 1.71%
“Interesting information,” you’re saying, “but why do I care?” I’ll tell you why. I only write about Linux here.
However, Internet Explorer users alone account for 300% more traffic than any of the other browsers. That’s a aneurysm waiting to happen for Microsoft!
Answer: Get it working. No matter how much time or effort it takes. Then blog about it, and finally have her read your post.
About 2 months ago, before I made the switch to Linux full-time, I installed the Project64 emulator when I was running Windows.
I started up Mario64 with a Saitek USB joypad and the girlfriend came over and asked to play. She absolutely LOVED it. So much in fact, that she has mentioned it about it every few days for the past two weeks or so.
If you know anything about women, this means she REALLY wants to get her game on.
As far as legality goes, I can’t get much more legal than Mario 64 – I’ve got a Nintendo 64 sitting in my closet with a plethora of games including Mario 64, which was included with the game system. Unfortunately the process of backing up a ROM is the legal grey area here. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. You are on your own.
You might be asking yourself this question: If you’ve got an N64, why the heck are you using an emulator?
*fastest review by this author.
I’ve got a P3 500MHz PC w/ 192MB of RAM and a 1GB Transcend Flash IDE module that I’ve been running as a Linux-based IPCop firewall platform for around the last two years. It’s been running IPCop after testing out m0n0wall, SmoothWall, pfSense and IPCop. pfSense impressed me, but wasn’t quite polished enough for me. m0n0wall and SmoothWall had their various problems with the current releases back then, and IPCop won my vote by default.
Two years have passed since then, lets see if there’s anything different this time around.
1. Battlefield 2142: is a first person shooter designed by DICE and is the fourth game in the Battlefield series. Titan mode gameplay is extremely fun and gives plenty of meaning to the mindless shoot em up style game.
BF 2142 is playable only after a somewhat complicated installation and configuration.
2. Counter-Strike: Source This game needs no introduction. It has been kicking ass and taking names since 2004. With so many modifications to CS:S, you will never get bored. I’ve been having a blast playing Zombie Mod which pits both Terrorists and CTs alike against Zombies with knives… get knived, turn into a zombie.
CS:S is playable after moderate configuration.
3. Day of Defeat: Source This is just one of those games that just seems to have tons of players on at any time of day or night. Very popular, extremely playable using Wine.
Not much is needed here to get things working properly.
4. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars iD software is releasing a linux native version of this game. I’ve played the beta for several hours and came away impressed. I’d venture to say the game is a Battlefield-style shooter with plenty of vehicles and being able to play as a Strogg is definitely refreshing for a change.
Although it’s not quite 100% true to form, it would be best to get the linux native client.
5. Garry’s Mod Who? Garry. This game runs very well with a few quirks (intermittent slowdowns), installs right from Steam with no issues. Very playable. Mods even work just fine!
Simplistic installation method:
sudo sed -e ‘s/\sfeisty/ gutsy/g’ -i /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Only 3 commands. Not shabby. Those few commands completely upgraded the system.
Downloaded 670MB of packages (425 after installed?) to upgrade from Fiesty Fawn.
Not many errors yet, but we’ll see after rebooting. Just in case I’ve got a burned copy of ArchLinux.
Done with the reboot. Looks clean! Same issue as before with requiring me to authorize the usage of nVidia binary drivers.
Oops! Ubuntu failed horribly upon reboot to utilize the nVidia driver. Tried to browse the Ubuntu forums via Lynx (terrible experience by itself!) to find a fix. Found a couple but nothing worked. Gave up on Gutsy for now.
Arch Linux here I come!
Categories
Gentoo Up And Running!
That wasn’t so hard… was it?
Just used a networkless installation off the 2007.0 LiveCD and everything is “working”.
If by working you mean hopelessly out of date, indeed.
The difficult part now is to get the complete system upgraded. I found Pothole. It’s a perfect GUI for using Portage. Works great, I just need to figure out how to utilize Gentoo’s so called “most important contribution” to package management before it pisses me off.
The errors, even in Pothole are cryptic. “Before this shiny new nVidia driver will work, so that your system doesn’t perform like a 89 year old grandaddy who forgot his Viagra, you need to fix 7 errors in a conf file in the /etc filesystem. Type in “man emerge” and look for the configuration section.”
What a crock of sh*t! Where exactly do I start looking for these 7 conf files with errors? Where is a log that tells me these specific files have errors?
If it doesn’t work out of the box – that’s like me saying my most important contribution to the world is that I’ve consumed way, way too much Diet Coke in the past 3 years since I switched from Mountain Dew – it’s a useless contribution.
Also I’ve decided that if your LiveCD performs as poorly as an installed system (due to using svga driver instead of nVidia), you gotta get your act together.
I’m done ranting.
Categories
Gentoo Installer: 1, Me: 0
I attempted to install Gentoo last night. It was a complete and utter failure.
Here’s where I went wrong:
Wrong: I used the LiveCD which has several sticky threads in the gentoo user forums website on bugs and such.
Correct: Use the minimal install CD instead.
Wrong: Selecting packages to install from the LiveCD GUI installer options.
Correct:
——- Comment #1 From Jakub Moc 2007-08-22 12:49:33 0000 [reply] ——-
If you want to use GRP install, then don’t select packages that are not
available on the install media. Otherwise use a normal install with updated
portage tree.