Category: GNU/Linux

One of the things that I love about Ubuntu is it offers a wide choice of packages. Ranging from basic administration utilities (apt-get, yum,adduser, atop,cpuid) to Networking (apache2, 6tunnel, bind, xchat) and Games (nethack, ppracer, crack-attack).

The official software repository of the latest release of Ubuntu (Edgy Eft) has at least 20,231 packages, the number doesn’t include 3rd party repositories that offer restricted open source software such as lame, faad and libdvdcss.

Previously, I’ve use SUSE as my main distro. SUSE is slightly better than my first distro of choice, Mandrake/Mandriva (which was plague with rpm dependencies and stale packages), but it has certain limitation at that time mainly because it is still considered a comercial distribution and keeping up to date with the latest version of SUSE was a pain.

I’m not saying that SuSE is a lousy GNU/Linux distro, but it just doesn’t fit me well enough, and I found that SuSE lacks some packages that Mandrake/Mandriva offers.

I use SuSE until a friend recommend me to use Ubuntu as it is based on Debian GNU/Linux. Upon trying out Ubuntu, I found that it is an easy GNU/Linux distribution to use for me, an average desktop users.

apt-get does wonders in installing softwares from the internet and performing software and security updates. Moreover, Ubuntu has a predictable release cycle that I could really depend on.

I know some people would argue that shorter release cycle might degrade distro quality but I’m one of those people that like to keep up to date with the latest software release and technology (I’m pretty sure i’m not alone in this).

To summarise it, some of the things I love about Ubuntu is because it has a wide range of software choices, a predictable release cycle and a relatively up to date software releases. What about you? What is your favorite GNU/Linux distro?

[tags]ubuntu,debian,linux,suse,open source, distro[/tags]

A quick tip on how to shutdown your GNU Linux computer automatically,

Suppose you need your Linux pc to shutdown automatically at certain time, you can use this command line :

shutdown -hP 23:55

which instructs your box to power down at exactly 11:55 pm. The ‘h’ parameter instructs the program to halt the computer (init runlevel 6) and ‘P’ instructs it to power off the pc.

Note: You can also add an optional message and 20 seconds shutdown delay,

shutdown -hP 23:55 -t 20 Going to power down, let's call it a day

the delay is useful for you to finish off whatever you’re doing before the pc powers down.

Why do I use this command ?
Recently the doctor diagnose me with low blood pressure and advised me to sleep early and to eat more stuff that contains iron. So by using this command I can limit my online pc time, and let me sleep early.

I’ll show you how to shutdown your computer using countdown timer.

Here’s an example how you can shutdown your pc in one hour with 30 second delay between final warning and the actual shutdown.

shutdown -hP -t 30 60 Please save your work, the lab is going to be closed soon

you can use this command to reboot your computer too,

shutdown -r

Note that you need to have root access in order to use this command. That’s all for now, enjoy the holiday

[tags]shutdown,bash,linux,command line, gnu/linux, debian[/tags]

Linux Mint project has made its latest release, 2.1 ‘Bea’ available right before Christmas.

Linux Mint is a distribution based on the latest release of Ubuntu Linux with extra non-free component such as multimedia codecs (for playing real,quicktime, mp3, windows media videos and flash plugins).

The latest release includes OpenOffice 2.1 and new artwork, replacing the one taken from Ubuntu Edgy Eft.

Additionally, Linux Mint also includes mintWifi, which help users connect to wireless network for the first time without having to rely on initial internet connection (to download drivers/howto/cabextract/etc).

Who Should use Linux Mint?

Linux Mint is ideal for those who want to use an easy Linux desktop operating system that can play proprietary multimedia files out from the box (aac,mp3,real media, 3gp, quicktime) without much hassle.

The current release Linux Mint is derived from Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft and is compatible with Edgy Eft repositories.

[tags]ubuntu,edgy eft,linux,debian,mint,open source[/tags]

Winefish is a GTK+ LaTeX editor intended for experienced users. Unlike Lyx, Winefish emphasis on preparing documents using purely LaTeX input without bloated features offered by competing applications. Winefish is also useful to those who are just started to learn LaTeX command.

In keeping with LaTeX theme of wanting users to concentrate on writing the actual document instead of their looks, Winefish has no preview or WYSIWYG feature.

LaTeX is handy for preparing professionally written documents, it features autocompletion support, autotext, syntax highlighting, custom search and replace pattern support, shortcuts and function reference browser for LaTeX packages. Additionally LaTeX also feature spell checker and template support for quick template generators.

All these features make Winefish is preferable for newbies and experience users in preparing professionally looking documents using LaTeX.

Where can I get Winefish
Winefish is available from Ubuntu, Fedora Core and OpenSUSE repositories or it can be downloaded from its project website : http://winefish.berlios.de/

[tags]latex,tex,winefish,lyx,linux,ubuntu[/tags]