Summer Project: Linux OS/distro Testing.

Obviously, I enjoy messing around with various Linux operating systems and programs, seeing what they are capable of, and blogging about it.  Well, I have decided to take this to the next level.  Recently, we replaced the hard drive in the family computer, because it was several years old, and appeared to be crashing.  The computer is pretty decent (1.8GHz, 1GB RAM), so we reinstalled Wimpdows, and got it a good video card, and designated it the gaming computer of the family, because we recently got a new computer that ran Vista, and we did not want to run our games on it for obvious reasons.  well, anyway, back on the original topic, we ended up tossing the old 80GB HDD in the garage, and leaving it there.  However, I thought that it might work better as a freshly-formatted EXT3 HDD, instead of a several-year-old NTFS one.  But, since we have had problems in the past with it, it would most likely not be a good HDD to use as my main one.  So, I decided I would use it to test different Linux OSes, so I would not have to use a virtual machine, since that makes it slower (harder to accurately judge it’s speed), and less compatible, and you are not able to test it’s hardware compatibility.  To that end, I formatted it into 4 partitions, 1 swap, and 3 EXT3 OS partitions.  Throughout the rest of the Summer, I will be testing different Linux distros and OSes.  Currently I am testing Famelix, next on the list is Mint, and after that is Debian.

I installed Famelix a couple of days ago. however, I will not give a review until some time next week, as I will be out of town this weekend.

Stay Tuned!

KDE 4.00

A couple of days ago, I impulse-installed KDE4 on my main Ubuntu machine. After hearing a lot of hype about it, I decided to see what it was like, and if it was worth all the attention. I had, a while back, impulse-installed KDE3. I uninstalled it within a few hours. Because of that, I cannot give a fully accurate review of it, which is why you have never seen one. However, from what I saw, in that little amount of time, i was not very impressed, to say the least. the applications bar was very windows-ish, and I just got this general feeling of Windows-ness. It also did not look any better than gnome, and I just did not see the appeal. However, that is NOT the case with KDE4. After using it for a couple days, I am simply amazed! The interface is more intuitive than anything I have ever seen, it’s usability is just incredible, it logs in faster than GNOME, and the graphics are incredible(not special effects). I have not had to use a terminal for anything so far, except for an error I had when I tried to soup up the graphical effects. This is the perfect Windows alternative. The graphics appear to be much better on it than on GNOME, although I do not see how that is possible. I watched a DVD a few minutes ago, and it actually looked better than DVDs normally do under GNOME, even though I was using the same player, Gxine.

As I said at the beginning of the post, the interface is amazingly intuitive. The file manager that comes installed with it, Dolphin, has so many features in it that the default GNOME file browser does not have. It has an optional file tree on the side, it has an optional terminal at the bottom, and the window can be halved, allowing you to browse two separate locations simultaneously, in the same window. The launcher bar, known to you Windows users as the Start Bar, is amazingly designed. You have your Favorites on the front, and then there are the applications, divided by categories, then there is the Computer tab, the equivalent to My Computer in Windows, but it is in the “Start” bar itself. Then there is Recently Used, which (obviously) lists your most recently used applications. Lastly, there is a tab where you can log off, restart, shutdown, etc. Also, another thing that I thought was cool, was the alternating wallpapers.  It comes with a wonderful selection of default wallpapers, one of which you can set as the default desktop wallpaper, or you can set them as a slideshow, along with any other pictures you wish.

However, after all of that, I have decided to switch back to GNOME. If you are looking for an alternative to Windows, I would suggest KDE, because it would most likely be easier to get used to. But, if you are a fluent computer person, who is willing to accept some change, I would suggest GNOME. Gnome may be a little more complicated, but in my case, and in the case of most computer geeks/engineers, complicated is better. KDE is simple, and easy to use, GNOME comes packed with as many advanced features as you could ever want, and has incredible graphical effects that KDE cannot even attempt to match. KDE’s package manager is not nearly as good as GNOME’s. You can only select packages to install one-by one. GNOME’s Synaptic Package Manager is very good at installing large amounts of packages simultaneously. Also, GNOME is very customizable, and that is very important to me. I did not get the impression from KDE that it’s look was meant to be changed very much. However, I did keep Dolphin. I really, really like dolphin as a file manager, and I will recommend it to anyone. Also, I will be keeping Konqueror, since not only is it a web browser, it is a file manager, and an application manager, with all the features of Dolphin, too.

So, in conclusion, I would say that neither KDE or GNOME is better than the other. It depends on your wants, needs, and preferences. If you

want simple, easy to use, and a good alternative to Windows, use KDE. If you want advance functionality, and extreme customization, as well as better graphical effects, I would recommend GNOME.

(edited at 2:57:  Added screenshots and wallpaper feature description)

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron review

Okay, as i mentioned earlier, I installed the new version of Ubuntu Linux, named Hardy Heron. I have been using this on my main desktop for a while, now, so I thought I might give it a review.

Given one sentence to describe it, I would say: “Stay Away.”

Having used Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon for a long time, and having seen reviews and articles about various other versions, I have come to the conclusion that this is the worst Ubuntu version to come out. Basically, just looking at it, there is no visible difference, except a slightly different wallpaper. My first point of contention was the graphics. It was a PAIN to get my Nvidia graphics card installed, I had to manually download and install the driver. In addition, the Screens And Grahpics manager that I had gotten so fond of no longer exists. I have yet to find a GUI that lets you manage your graphics cards and monitors. There is one simple window in which you can change your screen resolution and refresh rate, but that is all. To change my graphics properties, I have to boot into Recovery Mode. However, Recovery mode has been improved. When booting into it, a blue screen comes up with three options: Boot into normal mode, repair graphics, and boot into command line. This is a big bonus, whenever I had to repair the graphics via Recovery Mode in Gutsy, it was a PAIN, with my limited UNIX knowledge. However, as I mentioned earlier, I got Windows and Hardy Heron running simultaneously. However, this might also be possible on Gutsy, I do not know. Also, I have had some compatibility issues. VMware got trashed, and FF3b5 crashes more often. Also, that is another bone of contention. They installed a beta version of a browser in a full public release of the OS. No offense to them, but that is a …dumb… idea.

Other than that, I have not had any major problems, at least that I can think of. If you are a normal home user, looking for a more stable OS than Windows, you would not have a problem. However, for the more hardcore users, I would suggest you stick to Gutsy 7.10

Here is a link to Ubuntu, if you are interested in it, and do not yet use it (if that is possible).

Hardy Heron, HERE I COME!!!!

I was very reluctant about upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, and was running it in a VM, to test it. However, I then ran into this. Needless to say, once I read it, I immediately opened my Upgrade Manager, and told it to upgrade to Hardy. 21 minutes left. More to come, once I get it up and working. Meantime, here is a screenshot from the article above, to whet your appetite:

(credit: Lifehacker)

Here we go…

Okay, I am going to begin a learning experience, that will benefit both me, and you.   I am going to install  Ubuntu’s new version, 8.04 Hardy Heron, in a Virtual Machine.  I will write it as it happens, and we will see if it can live up to it’s amazing hype.

While you’re waiting, here is an interesting article about Hardy Heron, which I enjoyed, and learned a lot from.

Another Reason Linux trumps Windows any day!

I ran across this article on Cnet today:

“Comparisons between two mass Javascript injection attacks suggest they may be related, according to a security company. The latest attack has compromised various sites including one United Nations and several UK government sites with links to malicious servers.

On Tuesday Websense reported seeing distinct similarities between attacks staged earlier this month and over the weekend. Specifically, they cite the use of the same tool to execute the attack being resident on the malicious server. Last summer various groups used the MPACK toolkit to propagate a similar series of Javascript injections.

Javascript injections are browser attacks and require no more effort than appending a script tag to the end of the URL. If a legitimate site is vulnerable to script injection, an attacker can add a script tag to the Web-facing page of the site so that subsequent views will automatically download whatever content is within the script tag. Often the script tag contains calls out to a malicious server.

A user need only stumble upon a compromised site to become infected. In this case, when viewing a compromised site, the injected Javascript loads a file named 1,js. The file is located on a malicious server, which then attempts to execute eight different exploits targeting Microsoft applications.

As of Tuesday, two other files named McAfee.htm and Yahoo,php were no longer active.

A quick review by CNET News.com found that travel and academic sites continue to host the injected Javascript code.”

Yes, the virus was inserted through a vulnerability through the browser/site, and not Windows, but that is not the point I am trying to make here.  The key phrase in this story is ” attempts to execute eight different exploits targeting Microsoft applications.”  As I have mentioned before, one of the biggest reasons that viruses are less common on Linux systems, besides the fact that the OS itself is significantly more secure, is that pretty much all viruses designed these days are for Windows, and, recently for Macs. I use Ubuntu Linux, as you know if you have spent 2 minutes on this blog.  I have never gotten a virus.  Admittedly, I have not used Ubuntu that long, but In the amount of time that I have used Ubuntu, I would, at the rate I caught viruses on Windows, through AVG, have probably 7-10 on here by now.  I feel much safer when browsing the internet, and take a lot more risks.  I know that I can safely go onto any site I want, and not suffer any ill effects, because I am invulnerable to outside attack.  I would like to point out though, just to prove that I am being fair here, that browser-specific viruses can still be caught, while on Linux.  No matter what the Operating System, a virus designed for Firefox will still penetrate Firefox.  However, there are still ways to circumvent this.  Firefox is good, because the majority of the browser-specific viruses are targeted for IE6/7.  Also, Opera is another alternative, although it might be vulnerable to some of the Firefox-specific viruses, since it uses the same plugins as it.

Note: Original Cnet.com post can be found here.

two, please!

Free ubuntu Stickers

Long time no blog.

Hi, people. I am sorry I have not been on here in a while, I have not been feeling good at all. I feel pretty decent right now, but I cannot spend more than 5 minutes on this short update, since I need every spare minute I can get, to get as much work done as possible on my school. Well, my Periodic Paralysis has gotten worse within the past several weeks, either just a temporary surge, or not, I am not sure. Fortunately, I am going to a doctor in Birmingham on Monday, and I have great hopes that they will prescribe something for me that has a longer lasting effect than the pills that I have been taking. Naomi is currently in Memphis, on her way to Vietnam. If you are a relative, you probably read the post on Myfamily.com about the trip, but, if not, allow me to give a short explanation. She is going to Vietnam for about a month with a friend so that she can try and find her uncle, and visit her orphanage (I think). there, that was short, wasn’t it. I am doing well other than my increased symptoms, which do not allow me to get as much math done I as am supposed to. I have actually come to appreciate the need to get my math done in a timely manner, now that I cannot get it done 75% of the time. I have also developed a greater appreciation for math now. hey, it sure beats sitting in a chair all day. Speaking of which, I am out of time, and I need to go do somee math while I still feel good. I will post a screenshot of my Linux on here, to show you how much I have learned about it recently. Dad also bought me an 811 page book on my Linux, called “Ubuntu 7.10 Linux Unleashed.” it is a blast, covering pretty much single possible topic, including tutorials and looks at a whole ton of the preinstalled programs, including Firefox, Open Office, and Thunderbird (my favorite Web Browser, Writing program, and E-mail client). Okay, gotta go. If I feel good this evening, I will try to post some more.