Linux and Dell April 4, 2007
Posted by metalsam in Linux, Technology.add a comment
So Dell anounced a week or two ago that it will offer its customers the option to have their computer arrive with linux preinstalled.
What does this mean for the customers?
More choice. which is always good. They will be able to try linux without the hassle of installing another operating system, and without having to setup a dual boot. Although this is ‘easy’ for the technologically aware, most people would brick it at the thought of doing this. This should also take the hassle out of configuring a new linux install. From personal experience, even ubuntu never works ‘out of the box’, although it does come pretty close. Things like sound never worked properly – I always struggled to record my guitar into my ubuntu desktop. Hopefully Dell wil lsort out all those little things 
What does this mean for linux?
A greater following if anything. Theyre certainly not going to lose followers from Dell offering linux alongside Windows. Hopefully this will also mean a faster development cycle for whatever distro is chosen, as bugs get reported quicker due to more people using it. As always, a gain for one distro is a gain for all distros, as everything in the linux community is shared.
Whats does this mean for M$?
Unlike what many Linux geeks think, this will not be the deathblow to windows. There will always be windows until games manufacturers start releasing games natively for linux (and OSX 
). Until that point there will always be windows.
The BBC’s announcement of Dell offering linux:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6506027.stm
Had a look at the Dell website and their not yet offering Linux on any of their machines. I say any, I looked at one (Home, Desktop) and assumed they havent yet 
Linux and printers October 15, 2006
Posted by metalsam in Linux.1 comment so far
I have a HP PSC 1410 3 in 1 inkjet printer for uni. After opening it up and having a read of the instructions, it said that it came with drivers for windows and mac. This got me worried that my printer might not work (Is it really that hard to compile a linux driver ?).
Anyways, I followed the instruction on setting up and aligning it, then plugged it in. Then, usinghte add printer under System > Administration > Printer, found the HP PSC 1400 setting, applied, and it worked! From reading the user manual, this is alot less than M$ and mac users had to do!
Goes to show that linux is reaching the stage where its becoming easier and easier to use, more so than M$ and is becoming a viable alternative.
Ipods and parties September 20, 2006
Posted by metalsam in General, Linux.add a comment
Quick update!
One by one, all my firends (plural ! ) are disappearing off to university. Some have already left, but the majority go this weekend. So, weve all got together for a few last meets, one of which was last night at the local pub in Ickenham, the Tich. Was good to see everyone again.
NB: do NOT buy spitifre from this pub. Theres something funny about it at the Tich.
Tonight im meeting with a slightly different group of homies at pizza express for…well…I guess pizza. Might go round someones and watch a film or something afterwards.
Spent today reading part of the Feynman lectures. Just finished chapter 7 about planetry motion and the tides etc. And I made my Ipod shuffle work in Ubuntu
At terminal: sudo apt-get install gtkpod
gtkpod
If you drag and drop files using the file manager explorer thingy, it wont work.
Time for some shredding
No need to dual boot August 22, 2006
Posted by metalsam in General, Linux.2 comments
Rather than dual booting, try Vmware. It creates a virtual computer on your computer, ie, lets you run windows in linux, or linux in windows! The performance isnt quite good enough for gaming, but for most apps it should work fine. You have to register, but the links Ive given here are for the free server product.
Download and registration:
http://www.vmware.com/products/server/
http://register.vmware.com/content/registration.html
The first link lets you download Vmware server for free, for windows, linux and maybe mac.
The second you have to register at to get a serial number. Downloading an XP disc atm, but it installed fine. If you on ubuntu, check out this howto
It tells you how to solve a few dependency problems and the guy who made it answers any questions you give him
Hopefully Ill now be able to use my guitar tab software in linux
Technorati: vmware ubnutu linux windows virtualization
Suse 10.1 June 29, 2006
Posted by metalsam in Linux.2 comments
I decided to try this out a few days ago, as its one of the major distros for linux. From as soon as it loaded I could tell this was different from all the other distros. It just looked perfect. + the installation process was very easy.
Even the boot screen has pretty graphics !
The Desktop was intuitive and looked wonderful. Only reason I dont use it is that I dont have enough graphics for it!
Id say Suse for high end computers and Fedora Core for those without the processing ability but wanting a high end OS.
As for whats under the hood, Suse seemed to have all the major apps, and Im sure you can install whatever you want using YaST (I never got round to using this. The comp I was using Suse on was shite and lagged). Ive hear YaST has problems when is it used in the graphical explorer – but there is aw ay around it for those who can be arsed.
Ubuntu June 21, 2006
Posted by metalsam in Linux.5 comments
After switching from ubuntu to FC4, I decided to give ubuntu another try. Afterall, several releases later it should be much better right ?
First thing I noticed when I installed it was that it looked far nicer than it used to. Even if it is gnome =p
This time there is only one CD. I downloaded, burnt the iso, whopped it in and restarted. Its a live CD, and when you click a shortcut, you can install ! I thought this was quite neat =)
However, when isntalling, I found the partitioning software, Gpartition, awful to use :s More used to fdisk / cfdisk. I ended up putting ubuntu into a 1Gb partition and having a blank 39 Gb partition on my 40Gb HD.
It has a very nice GUI, which is great for first time Linux users. After getting into terminal, I was quite disapointed. GCC isnt a default isntall package and the root user has been blocked. After a bit of hunting around and posting on the ubuntu forum, I found a way to get su mode running, and how to isntall gcc. And how to use the package manager – which isnt obvious for first time users.d have though ubuntu, being aimed at first time users, would have a readme on the desktop explaining how to add new packages etc.
One thing with the packages is that not all the repositories are enabled. I didnt get this – why not just enable the lot rather than make people go through a menu and tick some boxes? I think FC4 is more user friendly in this aspect.
My biggest complaint was the su. Ubuntu 'protects' users from making mistakes and deleting the wrong files by disabling root login, and isntead you have to use 'sudo' on everyline you want su access for. I thought this was quite unecesary.
Firstly, you can still get into su using sudo -s, rendering sudo useless. Also, on the ubuntu website, it says it has done this so users are prompted for thier password, making them think about what they are about to do. su also asks for your password when you try to get into it, and your not going to know about it if your a first time user anyway! Im sure theres some advanced features I dont know about yet that make it worthwhile, but im not gonna bother finding out.
I think ubuntu is nice for first time users of linux, but if they ever want to do more than use openoffice and firefox theyre going to want some mroe advanced features. I think FC4 offers all ubuntu has + more.
Trying out Suse 10.1 next week, before I decide what distro im gonna dual boot with XP. At the moment im not going to be using ubuntu…I think Fedora Core is just as good for first time users at the moment. Well, apart from the extra discs if your using CDs
Technorati: linux ubuntu fedoracore FC4
EDIT: I cant putty into ubuntu either 
Gnome vs KDE June 17, 2006
Posted by metalsam in Linux.1 comment so far
Ive been using FC4 with Gnome for a while now. As I was using it on an older computer I thought it was a bit slow, and it never appealed to me asethically. So this morning I switched to KDE, which runs a lot smoother, and looks far better than Gnome did.
Everything runs a bit smoother too =)
Also, www.kde-look.org has some cool themes.
Wget May 21, 2006
Posted by metalsam in Linux.9 comments
This is one of my favourite linux tools. It is used within terminal.
You use it to download files from the internet, its a terminal based download manager. Means you dont have to waste processor power on keeping firefox running, and is also more stable than firefox (firefox has crashed on my linux :0 ). To use it, type:
wget http://myfilethatireallywanttodownload
except, replace the http://blahdeblah with the location of your file.
wget saves the file to the directory you are already in. Nice and easy to use !
As with all terminal commands, use:
man wget
to learn more about it.
I am using this on Fedora Core 4, so Im not sure if it will work with other distributions or not.
Technorati: linux wget fc4 fedoracore4
c programming April 9, 2006
Posted by metalsam in Linux, c / c++.5 comments
So I started to learn c. C is evil, very very evil. But im still earning it anyway, figured I should try and make some maths programs to feed my university homework into =)
With some help from Gerald I made a program that multiplied two numbers together, and then using that, and some stuff off the net, I made one that asks you for two numbers, and then multiplies them together =)
This is it:
/* Sams 1337 number timesing program */
/* Take asks user fpr two numbers and multiplies them together */
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
/* Asks user for a number */
printf("\n enter an integre number….\n");
/* Defines variables – the two inputs and the output */
float number1;
float number2;
int answer;
/* Prompts user to input a number */
scanf("%f", &number1);
/* Asks user for a second number */
printf("\n and another one….\n");
/* Prompts user for as econd number */
scanf("%f", &number2);
/* Tells user what is happening to the numbers */
printf("\n the two are multiplied together….\n");
/* Multiplies the two numbers together */
answer = number1 * number2;
/* Prints the answer */
printf("%4d\n", answer);
/* Tells system everything is ok */
return 0;
}
Notes:
- /* */ contains comments for someone going through the code. Isnt actually used when compiled.
- after every argument ( i think this is the correct term, ie every variable, sum, etc ) you must have a ;
- # include <stdio> is the libbrary that tells the computer how to interpret scanf printf
- { } contains the function.
- This will only work for linux ( think :S)
- I still have a lot to learn !
Technorati: c
560 update March 26, 2006
Posted by metalsam in Linux.3 comments
Im making some progress withinstalling slackware 10.1 onto my thinkpad 560,
- Partitioned the hard drive using cfdisk, now I have root and Linux swap =)
- Discovered that fstab and mtab do not contain the pcmcia cards. This means I somehow have to add the pcmcia card to this (these?) files in order to install from the CD drive. Screw insalling from 50 different floppies.
Problems atm:
- Working out how to edit fstab (just though about it, can probbly use vi)
- Working out what tp put in fstab
At this rate should be done in a couple of months =)
