Mel The Geek and More…

All Linux distributions are not created equal. Some are superior in quality while others are so full of crap. I hate to sound grumpy like Béranger, but I have tried plenty of distros my entire life and have experienced using those that made my blood boil. I’m naturally a patient man, however, I have to be honest and share to you (based on my own experience) some of the things that can make me think of a distro as a piece of rubbish.

For me, a Linux distro is crappy when:

1. Installation takes hours to completely finish despite using a high-end machine.

2. It fails to install even after using every given boot parameter.

3. The installer fails to configure the boot loader properly.

4. The size of the system installer is more than 1GB but its included or out-of-the-box applications are mostly not what I wanted.

5. Its package manager can mess up the installed applications after a software update.

6. It sacrifices performance for beauty.

7. It tries to look like Mac OS X or Windows Vista.

8. It has a lightweight window manager but it’s slower than a walking turtle.

9. Its project website and help forums treat you like s#!%.

10. It fails to give you necessary updates and security fixes.

11. Its latest distribution version is way buggier than the previous version.

12. Its stability is equal to that of Windows 2000 Me.

13. Have you used a crappy Linux distro? Feel free to add your annoyances here.

I hate those crappy distros, but I still love Linux

Probably everyone who reads DesktopLinux.com — and certainly yours truly — encounters the same question over and over again: “What’s the best Linux desktop distribution?” Now, while some people will swear up and down that Slackware or Fedora or even Puppy, for that matter, is the best Linux desktop, I think the answer is more complicated. In fact, I don’t think there is a single answer.

I think the best Linux desktop is the one that’s best for a particular person based on their needs and level of Linux expertise. So, the next time someone asks you that question, I suggest you reply with a couple of questions of your own.

For example, you could ask, “Do you want to replace Windows? For home? For work? Are you interested in Linux because you want to get some new life out of an old system? Do you just want to mess around with Linux?” And so on…

Then, once you know where they’re coming from, you can give the best possible answer.

For what it’s worth, here’s what I’d tell someone today based on some of the more common answers I get to my questions.

• I want a home Windows replacement.

  For these folks, I have an additional question: “Do you want just the software basics, or do you want to shop around for other open-source software?”

  If they just want the basics, I recommend Xandros Inc.’s eponymous Xandros 3 Desktop. The Xandros line has been meant from the start to persuade Windows users to give Linux a try.

  In my experience, Xandros is the closest to Windows XP you’re going to get with a Linux system. Now, for some of you, I know that’s the last thing you want, but for someone who knows Windows well, it may be exactly what they want and need.

  On the other hand, Xandros doesn’t have a lot of ready-to-use software outside of the basic package. If your friend really wants to try out a lot of Linux software but couldn’t tell apt-get from an RPM, then Linspire Inc.’s Linspire Five-0 is the Linux for you.

  I know it’s fashionable in some Linux purist circles to make fun of Linspire, but it’s well past time to get over that nonsense. Linspire is a good, solid Debian-based Linux, and like Xandros, it goes out of its way to be new-user friendly.

  Linspire also far out-does Xandros with its easy-to-use CNR (click and run) new software installation system. With CNR, even your grandma can install Linux programs.

  If your friend wants more than just something that looks like XP, but looks like a particular Windows set up, they should also check out the combination of Versora’s Progression Desktop and Win4Lin’s Win4Lin Pro.

  Progression Desktop migrates Windows and Windows programs’ settings and data from Windows to many Linuxes, including Xandros and Linspire. For example, you can use it to transfer Outlook on Windows messages to Thunderbird on Linux. Win4Lin enables you to run Windows 2000 or XP as a virtual machine in Linux. The companies have bundled these together to make a single package.

  While I haven’t had a chance to really review this combo, I have tried it out with Xandros and an XP set up, and it does seem to deliver the goods. Look for a real review of the pairing soon, here at DesktopLinux.com.

• I want Linux, but I also want my Windows games.

  This is a tricky one. I have yet to meet a great solution for this. You can use Win4Lin, but I’ve run into trouble from time to time with it and games that require Internet connectivity.

  TransGaming Technologies Inc.’s Cedega 5.0 claims to run Windows games “out of the box.” Well, no.

  By using WineX technology, you can run many Windows games — such as World of Warcraft — but installing each new game can be a cranky process. Still, with some patience and the right combination of software and hardware, it can work.

  My best advice here is for you, or someone else who knows Linux well, to actually do the initial Cedega and game installations for your Windows buddy. With a two-week free trial of Cedega, you’ll soon know if their favorite games are going to work.

• I want a replacement for my Windows work desktop.

  You can, of course, use Xandros’ Xandros Business Desktop, but, as much as I like Xandros, it is a small company, and most businesses prefer dealing with a large, well-established vendor.

  For these situations, I recommend either Novell Inc.’s OpenSUSE 10 or one of Red Hat Inc.’s offerings — Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS, or Red Hat Desktop.

  You may notice that OpenSUSE is Novell’s community distribution. That’s right, but support is widely available for the entire SUSE line, and it is very solid. It’s my own business desktop of choice.

  The Red Hat pair are also good. Still, Red Hat CEO Matt Szulik has never been very bullish on the Linux desktop. For Red Hat, the server, and not the desktop, is where the real action is.

  Novell does offer a business desktop, the Novell Linux Desktop 9, but it’s really a thin-client rather than a full-featured desktop. If the question of the day were: “What’s a good thin-client desktop,” then I’d recommend it.

• I want to make a living from Linux.

  If you want to learn about Linux, and then get a job working with it, Red Hat’s community distribution, Fedora is the desktop, not to mention server, for you.

  Red Hat Linux is, without question, the single most important business Linux. As fond as I am of some of the other distributions, if I had to make a living working on Linux tomorrow, I’d be working toward my RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer) certification as soon as possible.

• I want to run Linux on an older machine.

  There are many great lightweight distributions, but I keep coming back to MEPIS’s MEPISLite. Weighing in at about 640 MB, MEPISLite will run on systems that were slow when Windows 98 was new.

  By using KOffice, instead of OpenOffice.org, and using the optional 2.4.29 kernel, I’ve managed to get MEPISLite working quite nicely on a bargain-basement system with an 800MHz Via processor, 128MB of RAM, and a 20 GB hard drive.

  You can certainly run Linux on even less-powerful systems with distributions like Damn Small Linux, Zenwalk (aka Minislack), or Puppy, but for the best combination of low system demands and features, MEPISLite, and its big brother SimplyMEPIS, is hard to beat.

• I want a great distribution with GNOME interface.

  Ubuntu, to me, is the best available GNOME desktop system. While I’m not crazy about it as a server, it works well as a desktop.

  I’m hardly the only one who likes it as a desktop. It’s a leading choice in many surveys and, most pragmatically of all, it’s almost always the most downloaded distribution from DistroWatch.

  Why? Well, there are lots of reasons. Foremost, among them is that it’s built upon the strong Debian distribution and its many available software packages. Unlike mainstream Debian, however, Ubuntu quickly adopts newer enhancements. This makes Ubuntu more of a cutting-edge distribution than many of the other Debians.

  It also, in my experience, does an excellent job of making the most of the GNOME interface. While nothing equals the smooth integration of looks and functionality of Mac OS X’s Aqua interface, Ubuntu and GNOME come mighty darn close.

  As for KDE, I find many distributions do well by it. My particular KDE favorites are OpenSUSE and Xandros.

• I want to use Linux in Spanish.

  In the United States, we still tend to think everyone speaks English. Since I’m married to a wonderful Cuban woman, the ever lovely Clara, I know better. Spanish is quickly becoming America’s second language.

  For those users who are more comfortable with Spanish than English, I think the clear winner is Mandriva’s Mandriva Linux 2006. Spanish-language support has long been in the distribution, and now that Mandriva has partnered up with HP to deliver pre-installed Linux on Latin American HP desktop and laptops (now if only they would do it the States!) it should only consolidate the France-based Linux distributor’s lead.

  My own Spanish is, in a word, awful. I’m told those by friends that BlogDrake is a useful site for Spanish-speaking Mandriva Linux users.

• I just want to mess around with Linux.

  The distribution to recommend here depends on just how much your pal already knows about Linux or Unix. Xandros is fine for someone who’s brand new to Linux; Ubuntu is a fine “play with” distribution for users with a bit more experience; and OpenSUSE is what I recommend for Linux power users.

Still can’t decide? It’s time to turn your attention to an online Linux Distribution Chooser quiz created by Daniel Eikeland, a project leader at Norwegian open-source consultancy Zegenie Studios. It’s a handy little test, and I’ve found it surprisingly good.

Heck, when I took it, it picked out OpenSUSE for me, so it must have something on the ball.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

There is no perfect Linux for everyone, but somewhere out there, once you know what you’re looking for, there’s a perfect Linux for you.

Happy hunting!

Manage Your Synchronization And Backup Easily With Conduit For Linux

Let’s face it, with a large bunch of files/folders/playlists/documents etc all over the places in different computers, USB drives, various Web servers, it can really be a tedious task to get everything synchronized and put them all in places. Conduit makes it simple for you to do so.

Conduit is a synchronization application for GNOME. It allows you to synchronize your files, photos, emails, contacts, notes, calendar data and any other type of personal information and synchronize that data with another computer, an online service, or even another electronic device. There is no command line required. You are good to go as long as you know how to drag and drop. Follow along as we show you how to install and configure Conduit in your Ubuntu machine.

Installing Conduit

The latest version (as of this post) of conduit is 0.3.14 while the version found in Ubuntu repo is 0.3.6. To get the latest version working in your Ubuntu, you can do either of the following:

• Download the deb file from getdeb.net

Download the latest version of the Conduit deb file to your desktop. Double click to launch the Gdeb installer.

• add the following repo to your sources.list (alternative method).

In your terminal, type:

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following lines to the end of the file

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/conduit/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/conduit/ubuntu hardy main

Save and close.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install conduit

Running Conduit

Open Conduit (Applications->Accessories-> Conduit Synchronizer)

You will see the screen below:

The left pane shows a list of data providers that you can use for synchronization while the right pane shows a blank canvas where you can use to create synchronization rules.

Not every entry in the left pane allows two-way sync. You will have to familiarize with the three different kind of options that are represented by the blue arrow.

– This data provider can only act as a synchronization source. You can’t write file into it.

– This data provider can only act as a synchronization destination. You can’t pull data from it.

– This data provider can perform a two way sync.

Once you are done, let create our first rules:

In this example, we will illustrate how to synchronize your photos from the Picture folder with Facebook, Picasa and Flickr.

On the left pane under the Files and Folders entry, drag the Folder item to the right canvas.

Double click on the folder to display the folder configuration option. Select the Picture folder and click OK.

Next, we drag Facebook, Picasa and Flickr to the canvas

Similarly, double click on each entry to enter your login credential

Once you are done, right click on the canvas and select “Synchronize this group“. Synchronization will start. The whole process will depend on the number of files, the file size and the speed of your Internet connection.

The above steps can be repeated for any form of synchronization that are available in the left pane. You are free to mix and match and choose the way that best matches your usage pattern. There are plenty of things that you can do with Conduit. You can sync your Youtube videos to a local folder or to box.net, backup your Tomboy notes, sync your Google contact with Evolution etc. It is really up to your imagination how you want to utilize it.

Although Conduit is still under heavy development, it has already show great potential as the next killer app. Let’s hear your comments, what extra features do you hope to see in the future version?

) Analyze your disk usage

The first thing that you need to do is to find out which files are consuming the large bulk of the storage space in your hard disk. Go to Applications->Accessories->Disk Usage Analyzer and click on the Scan Filesystem at the top to get it to analyze your disk usage pattern. You will be able to see instantly which files/folders are taking up the bulk.

Once you have determined the files that are taking up large storage space, you can do the following:

• decide if you have any use of the files. If not, send them to the trash.
• If you have no immediate use of the file, but will need to reference to it in the future, either backup to a CD/DVD or to an external hard disk. If the file is too big, you may want to compress and split it to several small files for easier storage.

2) Clear duplicate files and broken symlinks

Over the time, you could have dozen copy of the same file lying in different corners of your system. The best place is to hunt them down and eliminate them before they take control of the hard disk.

FSlint is a utility to find and clean various forms of lint on a filesystem, especially duplicate files and broken symlinks.

Install fslint, or via the terminal:

sudo apt-get install fslint

Go to Applications-> System Tools-> FSlint. Add the file path that you want to search. On the left, click on the Duplicate tab and click Find at the bottom.

Other than finding duplicate files, FSlint can also find broken symlinks, empty directories, bad IDs and even redundant temp files, all of which you can delete and recover back your precious disk space.

3) Clean up your package installation

If you have installed and uninstalled a lot of applications, chances are your system is infected with a lot of dependencies files that you have absolutely no use for. Here are some useful commands to get rid of any partial package and remove any unused dependencies:

Cleaning up of partial package:

sudo apt-get autoclean

Cleaning up of the apt cache:

sudo apt-get clean

Cleaning up of any unused dependencies:

sudo apt-get autoremove

A good practice to avoid any left behind is to use the autoremove command whenever you want to uninstall an application.

sudo apt-get autoremove application-name

4) Get rid of old residual config package

When you upgrade a software to a later version, the package of its previous version will still be left behind in the system. You will be able to free up some space by eliminating the old residual config package

Open up your Synaptic Package Manager (System-> Administration-> Synaptic Package Manager). On the left, click on the Status button. You will see a few options appear on the top left pane. If there is a Not Installed (residual config) option, click on it. This will reveal all the residual config package in the system.

Check the box beside the package and select “Mark for complete removal”. Click Apply.

5) Remove orphaned package

Other than the dependencies files, packages can also become orphaned when you uninstall an application. To get rid of orphan files, we can make use of gtkorphan, a graphical frontend for deborphan.

Install gtkorphan or via the terminal:

sudo apt-get install gtkorphan

Go to System-> Administration-> Removed Orphaned package

It will analyze the system and show all the orphaned package in the main window. Check those packages that you have no use for and uninstall them.

6) Keep track of what you have installed

Debfoster creates a dependency files to enable you to keep track of what you have installed. When you uninstall an application, it will check for any leave behind dependencies files or orphaned packages and ask you if you want to remove it.

Install debfoster, or via the terminal,

sudo apt-get install debfoster

Creating the initial keeper file:

sudo debfoster -q

Force the system to conform to the keeper file

sudo debfoster -f

If you have some packages that you never want to uninstall and do not want debfoster to handle those packages, you can edit the keeper file and remove those packages from the list.

gksu gedit /var/lib/debfoster/keepers

To see is there is any orphaned package or dependencies files that need to be removed:

sudo debfoster

7) remove locale files

Unless you have a need to switch to various locales all the time, you can uninstall the unused locales and free up some amount of the storage space in your system.

Install localepurge, or via the terminal:

sudo apt-get install localepurge

Once the installation is done, it will remove all locale files from your system that you have no need for.