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.

I give up; my search for the perfect Linux rescue distro is over

When I discovered Linux two years ago, I started looking for what I called "The Perfect Rescue Distro", a somewhat mythical distribution that fitted into a CD, could mount Windows partitions, play all sorts of video/audio formats, include a productivity suite, decent image-manipulating tools, and burn backups...all in Live mode. Hence, over these two years, I have tested lots of distributions and some of them came really close to the ideal. I felt as if the Holy Grail was between an arm's reach.

However, something happened and I must abandon my quest. I never found what I was looking for; all distros I tested lacked either one feature or another. So, yes, I give up; I declare that my search for the perfect Linux Rescue Distro is officially over.

What made me abandon what once was my fundamental motivation to use Linux?

To begin with, 2011 was a real convulsive year in the Linux world. No, I will not talk about Ubuntu and its Unity UI; the distro that attracted me to Linux was Mandriva 2009, not Canonical's child.

Mandriva stumbled and, before I knew, I was not only using Mandriva, but also Pardus, Mepis, Mageia, and PCLinuxOS. I never distro hopped: all those beautiful OSs share my hard drives and I became pampered by the simplicity of Mepis, the consistency of Pardus, the familiarity of Mageia, and the responsiveness of PCLinuxOS. All Linux OSs interconnect, so I do not need to reboot to get my files from a different partition.

Along my process of adaptation, the role of the different communities was central. Everyday I go online, I visit the forums of those distros and I have learned about computers and technology as I had never in my life. For example, thanks to the help (and jokes) of PCLinuxOS users, the laptop that once sported a Windows 7 OS now boots three different Linux systems...and Microsoft's products were wiped out from the HD without any regret.

You see, it is this empowerment that made me abandon my quest for the perfect Rescue Distro. As I became a user of multiple Linux OSs, I discovered that my once primordial drive to use Linux was meaningless: there is not anything to rescue any longer! My computers work as they have never done it: now they are quick, efficient, and aesthetically-pleasing. I have no reason to use Windows and, consequently, I do not need to worry about how to rescue it.

With Linux, using a computer and retrieving files cannot be easier...even for a non-technical user like me. My search was over and I had not even realized it.

Test driving Firefox 9

Following a rapid release schedule that has upset several people, Firefox 9 was made available yesterday. Although it has been said that Google Chrome has taken the #2 browser market share position, I will continue using the Mozilla browser because, to be honest, none of the arguments against Firefox has been heavy enough for me to drop it. In addition, I like Mozilla's open Web philosophy and the useful extensions that can be incorporated to "the little browser that could".

Hence, I downloaded Firefox 9 and unzipped the tar file. Since the created directory is called "firefox", I changed its name to "firefox9" to be able to run the previous version if the new browser failed the test. Then, after opening Konsole and typing SU and my root password, I used this command to move the folder:
cp -r /home/my directory/Downloads/firefox9 /usr/lib/

I then added the menu entry and started Firefox 9. It first checked compatibility with my add-ons (WOT, NoScript, Zotero, Webmail notifier, Ad Block Plus, Download Helper) and loaded without much trouble. The add-ons are working flawlessly, too.

Is Firefox 9 faster? Well, Google+ lasted 2.67 seconds to load with Firefox 7.01. It took me 1.12 seconds to load this page with Firefox 9. The time difference is not a big concern for me, but it seems vital for some other people.

Aside from that, my untrained eye only caught two other differences: outline for missing icons and the page reload button.
Firefox 7.01: Blank page icon





Firefox 9: Outline of missing icon


As for the page reload button, it is inside the address bar in FF9.


I consider my test drive a success. I'll keep the new version to see how it performs. I have tried all critical pages (including the financial institution with which I do online banking) and I haven't had any major problem so far, only some funny display issues here at Blogger. I can live with it, though.

Pardus Wallpaper paradise

One of this days I visited a Wallmart store and went to the computer section. There, they were displaying a Windows 7 netbook. You know, according to the EULA of that "convenient" OS, you cannot change the wallpaper. Well, in an attempt to sell, the OEM probably installed something to go around that limitation and the computer sported a beautiful wallpaper... with penguins on it. I loved the paradox.

Some people--those at Microsoft, for example-- might say that wallpapers are not necessary. However, those customized images are important. People like to see something meaningful when they work with their computers. One wants one's work station to be appealing. When sitting in front of homogenized machines, people get unmotivated for work. That's the reason why employees always like to have pictures of their family in their work place.

Anyways, the oxymoron at Wallmart made me remember that there is a nice place to get Pardus wallpapers. If someone is interested, this is the link.
These are some samples (you can find different sizes at the page):

Merry Xmas with Tux and a PCLinuxOS TV

It's vacation time already and I've been away from the blogosphere. I remember that, before 2009 (when was still a Windows user), I longed for this free time to come. No, not because I was included in Bill Gates' gift list, but because I really needed this free time to format my hard drive and get rid of all the malware pestering the OS...

As a Linux user, the X-mas virus cleaning ritual stopped for good, so I have been sharing with my wife and my one year old daughter instead. It's Christmas, so we bought some presents and engaged into some home improvements. My daughter has already learned how to walk and has turned into a charming little menace: she grabs all objects in her path, either to keep her balance or to examine them, so we had to move the old TV to a safe place and bought a 19' LED screen, which my wife asked me to mount on a wall, away from Eimi's inquiring eyes and dangerous little hands.

This thingy has a VGA port. Taking advantage of it, I connected my laptop to the flat screen to surprise my wife with something she had never seen: Linux on a TV!
She is also a Linux user and really liked to see the penguin OS there. Of course, I know that the operating system of those TVs is probably Linux anyway but, even so, it was refreshing to see the KWIN effects. My wife was, of course, delighted with the possibilities of her new TV.