This is not a review of Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” or a tutorial on installing it on the latest (4th Generation) Macbook Pro with Penryn Processor. This post is all about my plans on putting the soon to be released Ubuntu or Xubuntu 8.04 on my newly acquired laptop.

I got my very first Mac yesterday and I love it, hardware wise. I’ll just give the complete specs and details before long because I’m planning to write a review about it. Software wise, OS X Leopard is just too bloated for me. Forgive me Apple fans; I’m just used to the blazing speed of Xubuntu running on my 2 year old main computer, and I intend my new Macbook Pro to replace my ageing primary machine.

I have listed here some key Macbook Pro components that I hope will work on Hardy.

# Video
# Screen Colors
# Sound/Audio & Microphone
# Wireless
# Temperatures & Fan Speed
# Power Consumption
# Keyboard
# Function Keys
# Touchpad (Multi-touch)
# WebCam
# Access OS X, & Network Shares
# Allow Writing to HFS+ (OS X) Partitions
# Apple Remote Control

For now, I’ll wait for the distribution release of Ubuntu 8.04 scheduled to be unleashed at the end of April. And, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

UPDATE:
I made a review of Hardy Heron on Macbook Pro (Penryn) HERE.

“At 25 MB, it has to be the smallest desktop distro ever created”. These were the words of Ladislav Bodnar in the most recent issue of Distrowatch Weekly when he announced this fresh and minuscule distribution as a new addition to the waiting list. Its name is SliTaz, and I was so intrigued about it that I tried it out.

The smallest distribution that I’ve used so far is Geexbox at 8MB. But, it can’t be considered as a complete “desktop” distro since it only specializes in playing multimedia files.

So what about SliTaz? As described in Distrowatch, SliTaz GNU/Linux is a mini distribution and live CD designed to run speedily on hardware with 128 MB of RAM. SliTaz uses BusyBox, a recent Linux kernel and GNU software. It boots with Syslinux and provides more than 200 Linux commands, the lighttpd web server, SQLite database, rescue tools, IRC client, SSH client and server powered by Dropbear, X window system, JWM (Joe's Window Manager), gFTP, Geany IDE, Mozilla Firefox, AlsaPlayer, GParted, a sound file editor and more. The SliTaz ISO image fits on a less than 30 MB media and takes just 80 MB of hard disk space.

I didn’t hesitate to get SliTaz because I wanted to compare it to the slightly larger and most popular micro distro DSL. By the way, you can get SliTaz GNU/Linux 1.0 from its download page HERE.

So, here is what I found out about this ridiculously “petit” distro:

SliTaz can be loaded as a LiveCD which I did, or through a bootable USB media. Once I fired up the LiveCD, the traditional boot options menu screen first appeared. The instructions are still in French so I didn’t care to dig further and just went on by pressing ENTER. Next was the local configuration or the language options, followed by kmap setup, soundcard selection, X configuration, and Login screen. The default user name is: HACKER and the root password is: root.



In no time, I was inside SliTaz’s desktop which utilizes JWM (Joe's Window Manager). The desktop is pretty simple and uncluttered, and also incredibly responsive. JWM is still fairly limited in functionality, like you can’t instantly edit the panels or add shortcut icons on the desktop. The good thing is that it’s extremely fast and lightweight, and I know that’s what SliTaz is aiming for. To my surprise, there was this “Desktop Effects” option which added shadow and fade effects to windows and menus if enabled. That was a cool feature I think, but not really useful.



When testing a distro, the software application that I always open first is a web browser. In SliTaz, I found out that I was already connected to the internet when I ran Firefox without having to configure anything. The audio is also properly configured and my screen resolution was correctly set.

At 25MB, SliTaz includes some amazing list of free/open-source software applications out-of-the-box. To name some, there’s ePDFView (PDF Viewer), ISO Master, Burnbox (DVD/CD ISO Burner), Leafpad (Text Editor), GPicView (Image Viewer), mtPaint (Image Editor), Asunder (CD Ripper), Alsaplayer (Audio Player), mhWaveEdit (Audio Editor), Geany (IDE), and a few games.



Additional packages can be downloaded and installed using the text-based Tazpkg manager. Tazpkg will also let you list, remove, extract, pack, search, repack, upgrade, or get information about available or installed packages. Using the Tazpkg Shell, I encountered difficulty when I tried to download and install Python or just about any other packages that were available from the repo. I just can’t find a way to make it work. Then I opened xterm and tried to install Python there. It worked (as shown on the screenshots below).



Another important feature that I would like to point out is the option to install SliTaz on the hard disk. “SliTaz Installer” can be accessed inside “System Tools”. One problem with the installer is that the language used is still in French. Anyway, I think the installer is still pretty much under development so the language issue is not really a big deal for me.


After having extensively used SliTaz GNU/Linux 1.0, I can honestly say that it is a highly capable distro with a bright future ahead. It is ideal for rescuing a broken system, and even for full desktop usage especially when employed on older computer machines since it is fast and ultra-lightweight. I just hope that those minor bugs that I’ve encountered will be fixed by the next release version. Despite those slight troubles, I’m keeping my SliTaz GNU/Linux LiveCD just in case. DSL should watch out, because this new distro on the block is surely here to stay.

Another exciting month has almost passed. So far, I tried and tested two equally fantastic and capable Linux distributions. Wolvix 1.1.0 and Pardus 2007.3 are well-crafted distros that truly deserve some attention. Some might ask which one is better between the two. There’s only one way to find out. Let’s put Wolvix and Pardus on stage and start a distrowar.

Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for our two distro warriors. On the right corner, weighing in at 483MB, please welcome the Norwegian Wolf, Wolvix. On the left corner weighing in at exactly 686MB, please welcome the Pride of Turkey, Pardus.

Now sit back, relax, and read on. It’s Wolvix vs. Pardus, wolf vs. leopard, dog vs. cat. Let’s get it on! :)

Decoding:
Wolvix edged out Pardus by just a small margin in “Installation Time (the time it takes to finish the installation)”. Meanwhile, Pardus is the clear winner in “Start-up Time (measured from Grub menu to the main desktop)” because it completely booted for around 52 seconds, whereas Wolvix took more than 3 minutes to finish booting. Because Wolvix uses the lighter XFCE desktop manager, it tends to be a little bit quicker and more responsive than Pardus which uses KDE.

Aesthetics:
Default Theme- Winner, Wolvix!
Extras- Winner, Pardus!
Artwork- Winner, Pardus!

Decoding:
I made Wolvix the winner for “Default Theme” because I love its simple and elegant look. Pardus won “Extras and “Artwork” for its added desktop eyecandy, like the transparent effects and the enhanced Kickoff style menu, and also for its great looking icon sets.

Features:
Pre-installed Applications- Winner, Pardus!
Available Packages from Repo- Draw!
Ease of Use- Winner, Pardus!

Decoding:
For “Pre-installed Applications”, Pardus won due to the fact that it is bigger in terms of size than Wolvix, which means it contains a larger number of pre-installed software. Quality wise, they both include great software packages out-of-the-box. Also, they equally have plenty of “Available Packages from Repo” that is why I called it a draw. For “Ease of Use”, Pardus is my choice because of its straightforward graphical installation and package management, and for its uncomplicated Control Center.

Stability:
Hardware Detection- Draw!
Software Management- Winner, Pardus!
Error Handling- Winner, Pardus!

Decoding:
Since Pardus and Wolvix had no problems in properly detecting and configuring my hardware, it’s a draw for “Hardware Detection”. Pardus won “Software Management” because of its highly capable and Synaptic-like package manager called PiSi. I gave “Error Handling” to Pardus for the reason that I encountered fewer issues with it than with Wolvix.

Final Score:
Pardus = 7
Wolvix = 3
*Winner, Pardus!

Conclusion:
Pardus won by quite a large margin mainly because in my own opinion it is more polished and complete than Wolvix. However, I can’t fully assume that Wolvix is the ultimately loser in this battle since my judgment was solely based on the results of my tests and on my hardware alone. To be really fair, I need other people’s opinion. So, to those who have also tried these two distros, feel free to give us your thoughts.

Anyway, our distrowar is all for fun and should not be taken seriously. If you want to take this gravely, it’s your choice. Just don’t blame me if you’ll encounter heart problems (hehe).

I’m no graphics professional, but like probably most of you, I do need to edit photos from time to time. I used Adobe Photoshop before since it is the most widely used image manipulating software. But when I started using Linux, things changed.

Since GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is included by default in most Linux distros, I had no other choice but to try it. I then became more and more comfortable using it that I completely forgot about Photoshop. I know that I can still install Photoshop in Linux through software virtualization, but no thanks.

Here are my reasons why I made the switch and why I think GIMP is better than Photoshop:

2. GIMP has a way lighter footprint than Photoshop. You don’t need plenty of disk space to install GIMP. The size of Gimp’s installer is less than 20MB; Photoshop could be around 600MB.

3. GIMP is wicked fast. The minimum recommended RAM requirement to run GIMP is only 128MB. The latest version of Photoshop will probably need 512MB at minimum.

4. GIMP has the right amount of essential features that I need. I think Photoshop is way too bloated and some of its included features are unnecessary.

5. GIMP can read and write most Photoshop native PSD format files, but Photoshop does not support GIMP's native XCF file format.

6. GIMP has a more powerful automation than Photoshop.

7. GIMP's open development model means that it is much more readily available on more operating systems, plugin development is not limited by developers and as such has no need to compete with Photoshop; by comparison, access to Adobe Photoshop's SDK requires authorization.

8. GIMP is available at no cost compared to Photoshop’s hefty price tag.


How about you? Do you also feel that GIMP is better than Adobe Photoshop?

A computer program used to collect, visualize, and publish genealogical data is called a Genealogy (the study and tracing of families) software.

At a minimum, genealogy software collects the date and place of an individual's birth, marriage, and death, and stores the relationships of individuals to their parents, spouses, and children. Additionally, most genealogy programs handle source citations, additional events in an individual's life, free-form notes, and photographs and other multimedia. Genealogy software programs can produce a variety of graphical charts and text reports. Some desktop applications generate HTML pages for web publishing, and there are stand-alone web applications as well.

There are few known Genealogy Software with free/open-source license. Here are some of them:

GRAMPS
GRAMPS, an acronym of Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System, is the leading free genealogy software. It is a part of the GNOME project. Originally it was only available for Unix-like operating systems, but since version 2.2.0 it has also been available for Windows.

GRAMPS allows you to easily build and keep track of your family tree while providing all the common capabilities of other genealogical programs, and the ability to input facts or information directly into GRAMPS. It is possible to rearrange and manipulate any data event in the entire data base (in any order or sequence) so as to assist the user in doing research, analysis and correlation, thus for example identifying possible links between individuals and so filling relationship gaps.


GeneWeb
GeneWeb is a genealogy software tool with a Web interface, which may be used either off-line or in a Web environment, and was initially conceived by Daniel de Rauglaudre. It uses very efficient techniques of relationship and consanguinity computing, developed in collaboration with Didier Rémy, research director at INRIA.


GenealogyJ
GenealogyJ is a viewer and editor for genealogic data, suitable for hobbyist, family historian and genealogy researcher. GenealogyJ supports the Gedcom standard. Many reports like family tree, table, timeline and geography are available.


LifeLines
LifeLines is a free genealogy software tool to assist family history research.

Lifelines was originally written by Tom Wetmore circa 1991-1994. Its primary strengths are its powerful scripting language and the ability to easily import and export information in the GEDCOM format.

At present, LifeLines uses a text-based interface. A couple of experimental GUI interfaces are in development, but currently lack the stability and core functionality to make them suitable for release.


PhpGedView
PhpGedView is a free PHP-based web application for working with genealogy data on the internet, founded and headed by John Finlay.

The application is installed on a webserver along with a GEDCOM file. An external genealogy program can be used to create, edit and upload the GEDCOM, and it can also be edited directly in phpGedView by multiple users registered via the web interface. Through version 3 it worked in both MySQL and a non-database index mode. From version 4 on, it works only with a database.

On June 26, 2006, the phpGedView site announced that phpGedView was the most active project at Sourceforge.

Tux is the world famous and endearing symbol of Linux. I don’t know any other software mascot that is so loved and venerated other than Tux. There are plenty of reasons for this phenomenon, but I won’t try to enumerate it here. Perhaps seeing my collection of "30 Coolest and Funniest Tux Icons" can somehow help explain why Tux is so adored. But first, some brief Tux facts:

The concept of the Linux mascot being a penguin came from Linus Torvalds. Tux was created by Larry Ewing in 1996 after an initial suggestion made by Alan Cox and further refined by Linus Torvalds on the Linux kernel mailing list. Linus took his inspiration from a photograph he found on an FTP site, showing a penguin figurine looking strangely like the Creature Comforts characters made by Nick Park. The first person to call the penguin "Tux" was James Hughes, who said that it stood for "(T)orvalds (U)ni(X)". However, many people observe that Tux is also an abbreviation of tuxedo, the outfit which springs to mind when they see a penguin.

Now where did I get all these cool and funny Tux icons? You can get it all at CrystalXP.net. There are currently more than a thousand high-quality Tux icons available there. Note that this is not a paid advertisement. I'm promoting that site for free for sharing to us these great Tux icons :)