Friday, January 18, 2008

Life without Windows

OK GNU/Linux: 101...NOTE: if you are ready know this part. skip....


What is Gnu?
GNU is a Unix-like operating system that comes with source code that can be copied, modified, and redistributed. The GNU project was started in 1983 by Richard Stallman and others, who formed the Free Software Foundation. Stallman believes that users should be free to do whatever they want with software they acquire, including making copies for friends and modifying the source code and repackaging it with a distribution charge.

What is Linux?
Linux's kernel (the central part of the GNU operating system) was developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland. To complete the operating system, Torvalds and other team members made use of system components developed by members of the Free Software Foundation for the GNU

If you plan to go to Linux this year write down a list of tasks you normally do with Windows XP and decided to see how many of them you can do on Linux.

Here is the list most will have...

Here is the list most will have...

  1. Browse the Web/Email people
  2. Play music and video files
  3. Burn Cds/DVDs
  4. Write school paper
  5. Get new software and install it
  6. Chat on yahoo/MSN/AIM/
  7. Print my documents
  8. Rip CDs
  • The first is the easiest Freespire-GNU/Linux comes with L browser & L mail which provides includes active protection from online scams to keep you safer and pop-up ad blocking. It also has a multi-account email program with SPAM filtering, an address book, and calendar. Freespire is compatible with Windows media, Flash, Real, Quicktime and Java.
  • Next, to play music Freespire-GNU/Linux comes with a nice player. Lsongs is an all-in-one music manager built-in to Freespire. It provides everything you need to easily manage and enjoy your music collection. You can rip your favorite music, organize it, play it, sync it to portable players, and burn it to your own music mix CDs.
  • Need to make a flyer? Freespire comes with OpenOffice.org 2.2, a great personal productivity suite that works much like Microsoft Office. It has its own word processor, spreadsheet, database and presentation programs.
  • K3b is a cool CD/DVD burning app. Its great for tasks like creating an Audio CD from a set of audio files or copying a CD/DVD, as well as more advanced tasks such as burning eMovix CD/DVDs. It can also perform direct disc-to-disc copies.
  • You can stay in touch with with all your friends using IM with Pidgin. Pidgin supports AOL, AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, and other messaging networks.

Now we have to print. Freespire instantly recognizes USB and Firewire devices. Most Epson and HP printers are supported without requiring installing any drivers or other software. Just plug in the device and go.

Watching movie DVDs will prove to be trickier

You need four libraries Three of them can be found in the Freespire repositories so the only thing you have to do is to paste in a console:
sudo apt-get install libdvdnav4 libdvdplay0 libdvdread3

go to CNR.com
type in kaffeine player in search
hit install button

next
type gdebi in search
hit install button

last
google libdvdcss2-dev_1.2.8-1_i386.deb

double click libdvdssd deb package
install it then restart system

NOW kaffeine player will play any DVD movie

posted by ThatBlackGuy @ 1:45 PM 0 comments

Thursday, January 17, 2008

New CNR.com is a work in progress

By Andrew Min on January 16, 2008 (7:00:00 PM)

Last year, Linspire announced that it was opening its software distribution service, CNR (short for Click 'n' Run), to users of the Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu distributions. A month ago, it announced a beta version of CNR that includes support for Ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10 (the two most recent versions), with versions for the other systems on the way. Alas, after trying it on my Ubuntu system, I think it needs work.

On my system, which is basically a stock Ubuntu install, installing the CNR Client (available through a Linspire repository or through a provided .deb package) also installed 13 additional dependency pacakges. The procedure also added users to the cnr group (apparently, only users in the cnr group can use CNR), so I restarted my computer just in case.

more here...

posted by ThatBlackGuy @ 2:42 PM 0 comments

$199 Linux PC Now Available at Sears.com 

Value-priced - after $100 mail-in rebate - Linux PC features an Intel
 Celeron 1.6GHz Intel Celeron processor, 1GB memory, 80GB hard drive,
      Freespire 2.0, free CNR software delivery service and more

 SAN DIEGO, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Linspire, Inc., developer of the
commercial Linspire and Freespire community desktop Linux operating
systems, and developer of CNR.com, a one-click digital software delivery
service for desktop Linux users, along with Mirus Innovations, a leading
North America PC manufacturer that brings innovative digital lifestyle
products to consumer and small business customers with a focus on
high-value and low-cost, today announced the immediate availability of a
$199 Linux PC, after $100 mail-in rebate, through Sears.com

more here...

posted by ThatBlackGuy @ 2:27 PM 0 comments