Not everything is happiness in the world of Linux

Before you start reading this post, let me say upfront that you will not find any complaints about technical flaws of Linux here. I want to write about events related to the human side of distributions, OK?

For people who enjoy tinkering with their computers, or those who like to see their systems perform actions that they never thought were possible, the freedom of Linux provides satisfactions, amazement, and joy. For example, KDE developers have a legitimate reason to celebrate because their efforts were acknowledged with the award of Best Desktop of 2011.

However, not everything is happiness in the world of Linux. Preceding KDE's award, the first trimester of this year was hit by three sad incidents concerning some notorious KDE distros: PCLinuxOS, Pardus, and Mandriva.


PCLinuxOS

Although you can use other DEs with PCLOS, it is eminently a KDE system that you can rely on. I have been using it both in a desktop and a laptop computer since version 2011.6 and I am completely satisfied by its performance.

User satisfaction is not a coincidence. Texstar, the founder of PCLinuxOS, puts a lot of effort in addressing bugs, polishing the distribution and, in short, making a Linux distro that you can count on for every possible task you want a computer to perform. In fact, he has worked so passionately that right now he is on a sick leave: he posted an announcement saying that doctors told him to rest.

This sad news, however, is not stopping PCLinuxOS. Wisely, while Texstar recovers, other prominent members of the community have taken the wheel.

Let us all wish Texstar a speedy recovery and a good ride to Old-Polack, Neal, and the others who are now in charge.


Pardus

It seems that Pardus was also hit during the first months of the year. Apparently, some developers are no longer with the project and Pardus 2011.2 was the last desktop version of the distribution. It is hard to confirm the information because the posts come in languages other than English.

So far, we know that there will be a Pardus workshop (March 23 &24) to decide on a roadmap. I hope everything goes well.


Mandriva

Mandriva's woes have not been new: the distro's year opened with a short post on Jan 17th stating the grim future of the Mandriva S.A. (the company), which was followed by a shorter post 10 days later.

There was a third post on the 30th promising more news to come in mid-February. Unfortunately, it is March 7th already and the company has not disclosed any information about its immediate future.


The common denominator here is that, in the world of Linux, developers and communities become more visible as they are: humans and groups of people who laugh, sweat, suffer, fight, succeed, and fail sometimes. Somehow, I feel honored to use an OS that reminds me of the people behind it instead of being used simply as a market good.

Let us see what news March brings...

TEST: How to know if your computer license should be revoked

In this world of ours, where cyber-crime has taken a rise, people should be given a test to determine if they are capable to use a computer. After all, if licenses are given to operate machinery and vehicles, or to prove that a person has undergone training on a certain area, why is it that individuals who have no idea about how to use a computer without risking a network have indiscriminate access to one?

Or even worse, why do those people who couldn't possibly care less about their own cyber-protection (or that of others) feel they have the right use a high-tech system they regard as some sort of an electric kettle and, in so doing, they compromise the safety of the Internet?

They should at least take a test with some easy questions to determine if it is less risky to have those people juggle with flame-throwers than it is having them turn on a computer. You know, like those tests that are published in magazines and newspapers to find out if you are cool, or if you are a nerd, or if one's habits indicate that one will eventually become a social menace.

Negligent computer users should take the test voluntarily in an attempt to assess their risk factor. The questions should be straight forward and, when in doubt, they should simply choose "yes".

I have collected some functional indicators from experiences with people around me:

Risk Level 1: Each affirmative answer = 1 pt.

1. You click on any link that you get by email as long as you recognize the name of the sender.

2. You plug in your USB drive and erase alerts without reading them because they bother you.

3. You can use your computer only because you wrote the steps to find your programs.

4. As soon as you see your computer acting funny, you call your techie friend to fix it for you.

5. Once the techie friend goes away, you generally blame him/her for all subsequent problems that your computer gives you.

Risk level 2: Each affirmative answer = 2 pts.

1. You keep forgetting to close your Facebook or email session.

2. You get an email reading "My girlfriend got your pictures and sent them to your spouse. You are dead meat. See pictures attached". So, you freak out and open the attachment, which happens to be a zip file where the compromising material is.

3. You strongly believe that there wouldn't exist any viruses online if everyone had the same antivirus and they kept it updated.

4. You open every powerpoint presentation that your relatives, friends, or colleagues send you, regardless of the fact that the powerpoint icon looks funny and the file is called "presentation.exe".

5. You download bundled software from the internet and install it to your Windows computer without even reading the different screens.

Risk level 3: Each affirmative answer = 3 pts.

1. You think that remembering passwords is too much trouble. Anyway, that's the job of the "computer people", not yours.

2. You never update the antivirus in your Windows computer because everyone else does. Anyway, that's also the job of the IT guys, not yours.

3. You strongly believe that your computer is OK as long as the system starts. All computers act funny, so it's not strange that yours also misbehaves from time to time.

4. You cannot run a specific program because a "moron" deleted the icon on the desktop.

5. You argue with people who do not support SOPA and PIPA, whom you call pirates. Then you go home and download a movie using this great Bitcomet thing that your teenage daughter/son installed to the home computer.

RESULTS:

From 1-5 points: You are like a drunk driver roaming cyber-roads. Your license should be suspended until you learn a bit about how not to be a danger for others and yourself online.

From 6-12 points: You might not know, but you became a legend. Yes, you are (in)famous because every computer you touch starts failing "mysteriously". Do the world a favor and stop using computers until you understand the risks. License suspended.

13-20 points: In your case, danger is like giving a four-year old a loaded Steyr TMP to play in the middle of a wedding reception. You HATE computers and it shows. Keep away from computers; they also HATE you. Only cyber-criminals love you. Your license to use computers should be revoked immediately.

21 points or more: I don't even know how to put it. You should seriously consider to lock yourself up in an anti-chip bubble, so that it will become difficult enough for you to interact with a computer in the future.

But you insist and want to use one of those wonderful machines? Then go get Linux ASAP. Only Linux can save us from you.

How to mount ISO images in Linux

Back in my Windows days, I was very happy to work with virtual CD drives thanks to Daemon tools. The ability to play games and watch videos without having to place the actual CD on the drive tray was like magic to me.

Once I migrated to Linux, since the games I used to play were not supported, I forgot about mounting virtual drives.

Today, I learned how to mount ISO files in KDE: it's a real simply process that can be performed with the terminal or with a graphical tool.

Mounting an ISO file with Konsole

The first step is to create a directory which is going to be used to mount the ISO to. This is achieved by opening Konsole and, after typing SU and your root password, you type:

mkdir /media/any_name (any_name will be the directory).

Close the terminal and use Dolphin to find the directory where the ISO file you want to mount is. Let's suppose it is called "your-file.iso". Once in the appropriate directory, go to the menu in Dolphin and click on "tools". Then select "Open terminal". Once again, type SU and your password. Then type:

mount -t iso9660 -o loop your-file.iso /media/any_directory

And there you have it, Linux beginners! Your ISO will be mounted.

So you want to unmount the ISO? Well, in the terminal, as root, type:
umount /media/your-file.iso and then:
rd /media/any_directory (to erase the directory we created).

Notice that the command is umount, not uNmount.


Mounting an ISO file with Acetoneiso

If you think that the terminal is too much of a hassle, then you can use acetoneiso. Find it in your distribution repository and install it. Then, launch it from the menu and the first thing the program will do is ask you to select whether you use KDE, Gnome, or any other environment. After that, you yous have to select the file and click in mount or unmount. This program creates a folder called "virtual-drives", in which it makes numbered directories where your ISOs will be mounted to.

A notorious difference is that they are created in your home folder, not in root.

Scholarly work using Linux

I have not been able to post here lately because I received an invitation to publish a scholarly article and, therefore, I got busy writing. I worked passionately on this project, sometimes getting up early to gather sources before my one-year old daughter would get up. You know, once she gets up, I prefer to play with her ;-).

The writing process went as usual. However, when I finished with the article, I remembered everything I did to complete my thesis back in the days in which I was an avid Windows user. I could not help it: I compared the way in which I worked then (with Windows XP) and how I do it now (with Linux powering my computer).

To be able to finish my thesis, I had to steal sleep hours; I would get up every day at 3AM for a month. My Windows computer helped me with the task: it would turn on by itself, load my thesis document, open my browser, and play a song to wake me up. Remember I am no computer guru. To achieve all that, I had to download several programs (and their corresponding cracks). No wonder my Windows box was always infected and throwing tantrums at me!

In Linux, I do not have to install anything for my computer to do all that: the OS includes all the functionalities I need. From KOrganizer, I get the computer to wake me up with a song and to launch Firefox and LibreOffice with my article without exposing my computer to any malware. I simply used the process for a song but selected "application/script" instead of "sound". Then I wrote libreoffice3.4 for "application" and added the path where the file was in "arguments".

But that's not all: Linux has a great tool for copying citations from PDFs: Okular. Its fabulous feature to select text from virtually any PDF, copy it, and paste it truly facilitates the process of adding citations to one's article. Even in the rare cases when it is not possible to get the selection as text, you can paste it as an image with Okular...simple and quick.

Oh, and the workspaces! They are so convenient; you can work without all the clutter. I kept a thesaurus in one desktop, the browser ready in another, some PDF sources in another, and my main document in another. This way, you just say good bye to the waste of time caused by the repetitive minimizing and maximizing of the wrong application.

Thus, when I hear all those silly claims of Linux not being ready for serious work, I chuckle. Waking up, doing research, formatting my sources, writing, proofreading... from nothing to completion, every step of the writing process was a lot more efficient thanks to Linux. I do not even have to worry about MS Office compatibility: the magazine accepts .odt files!

So, I finished this article pretty quickly. And the best part is that I did not have to sacrifice the time to play with my daughter.

The satisfaction of an online course on Linux

My mother, who successfully migrated from Windows to Pardus GNU/Linux, is always alert trying to find news about FLOSS in our little country. Two weeks ago, she called me with information that seemed like a dream: a reputable University that promotes online learning was offering a course named "Linux OS".

To be honest, although I really wanted to register, I hesitated. After all, online learning is not fully developed here and the platforms are Windows based. Paying only to discover that you are barred out because the software that the institution uses is not Linux inclusive is, obviously, no fun at all. So, before registering, I decided to find as much as possible about the course program and the platform. My inquiries gave positive results; everything seemed suspiciously fine.

Could that be possible? This was the same institution in which, a short year ago, Megatotoro had a hard time with the online platform because of its poor support for Linux. How about if they assume that all the students interested in Linux work from a Windows computer? Was it safe to expect them to fully support Linux just now?

However, I did not want to miss the opportunity: this could very well be my first formal course on Linux. I migrated two years ago without even knowing what Linux was and I have been learning about this family of beautiful OSs in a rather empirical way ever since. Actually, this blog was my attempt to have a record of everything I learned... Yes, the student inside of me was begging me to register.

I did. The course on Linux will be both my first online course and my first Linux formal training.

Today, I submitted homework # 1 and got a bit scared with the proposed evaluating activities. What about the platform? It does support Linux! I accessed it using Firefox 9.01 and it worked like a charm. Megatotoro is my virtual classmate, by the way.

Kind readers of this humble blog, please wish us luck ;-)

The Mandriva waiting continues

According to this laconic post by Jean-Manuel Croset-0, there was not a solution for the Mandriva dilemma. He claims that the financial situation is "better than expected", which allows the company to try to find a new solution and the new deadline is "mid February".

Although some folk traditions assert otherwise, this is an unfortunate leap year for Mandriva, it seems.

The future looks like the Tulgey wood for the company... especially when one reads between lines: the use of "far better than we expected" and "refused by a minority of shareholders" and the fact that the announcement was delayed until today suggests that there is a Jabberwock hidden somewhere.

Fix for dummy audio output

Although it's the 27th already, we have no news about Mandriva S.A. yet.
Since some users might be using Mandriva 2010.2 for a while longer, I want to post a fix for a problem that returns periodically: the lack of audio in Mandriva 2010.2 due to the system's failure to identify the sound output. When that happens, the computer goes silent and the speaker icon in the lower panel reads "dummy output".

To fix it, open MCC and, after typing your root password, look for "system". Once there, click on "manage users" and select your name from the list. Click on "edit" and, on the new window, find the tab "groups". Check "audio" and "accept". That should take care of the problem :-)

Now it's the 27th

Mandriva users must now wait until the 27th to find out what the decision on the future of the company is. That came from a brief announcement on the Mandriva blog. It's been a prolonged suspense: first the resolution was expected on the 16th, then on the 23rd, and now it is scheduled to the 27th.

This is not offering much optimism or hope, but...

Pardus is also shaking, it seems.

Some techno-silliness

For people who claim that "they are not good with computers", the computer world is way too serious. I have to disagree. Some of the funniest people I've ever met, be it in person or virtually, are definitely above average computer users. I mean, they have certain skills, such as installing an OS and retrieving information about their own systems. Even so, they really know how to make someone laugh.

Since this week has been a little stressful in Mandrivaland and Parduskistan, without mentioning SOPAnxiety and UEFIbroma around the corner, I decided to post here two samples of techno-silliness while we wait for the denoument of these happenings.

1. iPad flexibility
Did you read about iPad 2 customers who got scammed and bought a box with a clay model instead of the Apple tablets they wanted? While I think that the undeniable flexibility of such devices debunks all arguments of open-source advocates on the closed nature of Apple products, the best comment on this I read was "I'm sure it runs Adobe!"

2. Social media risks
Some people seem to forget that having your boss as your Facebook friend can be a bit inconvenient. Yes, not only can it be embarrassing, but it can also be dangerous!

So, what do you think? The world of technology is not as stiff as people might think.

Mandriva: The ides of January are come

So, today is January 15. Tomorrow, we will know if Mandriva Linux, a distro that has been around since 1998, is gone. One can but find a resemblance between this date and the prophecy that the soothsayer gave to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's tragedy.

Mandriva was originally named Mandrake and its motto was "a star is born". Well, unfortunately, heavenly bodies also die. Will Mandriva become a shooting star?

I have the feeling that great expectations are being created around a certain Cauldron, by the way.

On disaster reports

2012 started as a rather interesting year. Perhaps influenced by the so-called "Mayan Doomsday" prophecies, people today reported hearing strange rumbling noises coming from the Earth.

Interestingly, the Linux world also has its own disaster predictions--you always listen that Linux is finished on the desktop, that the desktop computer itself is finished, and a myriad more.

One of the predictions that I read is that 2012 will be the definite year of Mandriva's disappearance. Since Mandriva was the distro that made me migrate to Linux, I must admit that I received the news with a grave heart.

However, one must consider that Mandriva (the distro) is not the same as Mandriva S.A. (the company). It is the latter the one that might finally close its doors. The question at stake would be if Mandriva Linux can survive without the company. Will Mandriva Linux sail into oblivion? Will it transform into something else, ROSA Linux, for instance? And if Mandriva actually vanishes, will that imply the demise of the forums, MIB, and so many other Mandriva-related pages, such as the humble www.mandrivachronicles.blogspot.com, prompting me to go back to the always forgiving arms of Redmond? I know, I know, that's exaggerating too much. :-P

Let us see what happens. When facing doomsday prophecies, one must never make hasty decisions. As for me, I have learned to love the responsiveness of PCLinuxOS, the simplicity of Mepis, and the stability of Pardus, so I do not think I will go back to Windows any time soon. Besides, if Mandriva truly disappears, its legacy is already preserved by the magical cauldron of Mageia.