Category: GNU/Linux

Stuff about GNU/Linux distro, tips and tricks or information

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Ubuntu, Fedora Core, Opensuse, and Mandriva search trends

Yesterday I was curious about Google Trends service that I tried several search terms just to get the feel of it. This is one of the interesting trends that I like to share with you, it is about the search term of popular GNU Linux distribution based on Distrowatch.com list.

Popular Linux distro trends

While this is not an in depth analysis, we can see the relative search term popularity for the past 3 years base on the graph generated from Google Trends.

From there we can see that people started to search for Ubuntu more than Fedora Core around the end of the first quarter of 2005 (around the time of Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog release).

Similarly, people started to search for Mandriva after MandrakeSoft changed it’s name to Mandriva around April 2005 (second quarter), and the announcement of openSUSE project in August 2005 (3rd quarter).

The ‘surges’ on Fedora Core’s line indicates new releases made around the time (FC 2 – May 2005, FC 3 – Nov 2005, FC 4 – Jun 2005, FC 5 – Mar 2006, FC 6 – Oct 2006) [source].

Conclusion : When you see anomalies like sudden ‘surges’ in the trend, then there must be some even closely associated with it. Watch for surges that repeats itself, then you can establish a pattern and understand what causing the recurring trends.

[tags]search terms, search engine, linux, distro, ubuntu, fedora core, trends, search[/tags]

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Fedora Legacy Project Going to End

Fedora Legacy Project – A community driven project that supports older releases of Fedora Core announced that it has stopped its support for Fedora Core 4 and earlier distros, much earlier than expected.

Currently, Fedora Core is one of the most popular Linux distro besides Ubuntu and OpenSuSE

The Project’s main objective is to provide critical and security bugs fix for end-of-life Fedora Core releases, effectively extending their support for a much longer time.

The Fedora Legacy Project however faces challenges to keep up with the relatively short support time provided by Fedora Core (around 6 to 9 months compared to 18 months from Ubuntu). What Fedora Core users need is longer support for the current release and the older release immediately after it.

It seems Fedora Core Legacy is unlikely to support older releases than Fedora Core 5 anymore, so it is advisable for users of older Fedora Core to upgrade their operating system to the latest release in order to receive critical patch and bugfix to avoid their system being exploited by malicious programs/crackers.

p/s: It is interesting to note that Ubuntu/Canonical is able provide such a relatively long support for their releases compared to average community supported GNU Linux distro.

It is still to be seen whether Ubuntu Dapper LTS is going to be supported up to 3-5 years after its release, but I’m confident that it will be supported.

[ Source ]
[tags]fedora core, fedora, red hat, linux, open source, distro, centos[/tags]

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Update WordPress blog using Drivel in Ubuntu Linux

Today I want to introduce you to a wonderful desktop blog client in GNU Linux, Drivel.

Drivel is one of many desktop blogging clients available under GNU Linux. It started as a LiveJournal desktop blogging client and now has expanded to support other blogging platform as well such as Advogato, Blogger xmlrpc, Movabletype, Drupal,WordPress, and blog that uses ATOM (like the new Blogger).

Using Drivel to update your WordPress blog is easy, all you need to do is to start up your Drivel client, and choose MovableType as your blog platform.

drivel linux mypapit

From there, you put in your WordPress username and password. Put in your WordPress address in your “Server Address” field, and append it with /xmlrpc.php like this “http://your_wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php”.

After that, writing blog entry from Drivel is relatively easy. All you need to do is just type :)

Drivel is an easy blogging client to use and does not require you to know much about HTML to use it, it has a build in function to insert images, link and basic font formatting.

One interesting thing to note is, Drivel (through Movabletype protocol) supports category, this makes it different from other blogging client under Linux which is based on the older Blogger xml-rpc protocol which does not support category. However currently Drivel only support posting to one category per entry.

Why use a Desktop Blogging Client ?
Most people use desktop blogging client because it saves the time to actually log into your blogging client and selecting New Post before they can begin posting new entries.

Desktop blogging client saves you the time on the web interface, and let you concentrates on the writing the entry itself. Updating and Saving post is also faster when you use a desktop blogging client.

As a summary, Drivel is a nice Desktop blogging application to have around, it is small, easy to use and relatively fast. Simply put, Drivel does the job well for a simple blogging client.

[tags]livejournal, blogger, wordpress, drivel, linux, ubuntu, open source[/tags]

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Some of the things I love about Ubuntu (Software Repository)

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]

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I got myself an affordable Linux VPS account with RapidVPS

After doing some surveying and looking around the internet for a decent Linux VPS service provider, I finally settled with RapidVPS.com.

What is VPS ?
Virtual Private Server (VPS) is similar to Dedicated Server, except it runs on the same machine as other Virtual Private Server, this made possible by virtualization technology. Because it is similar to Dedicated Server in its own respect, you’ve full authority on VPS as to install any operating system that you like, root access and your own IP address. Having root access means that you’re free to install any software and administer your server as you see fit.

Why do I need VPS?
I need VPS because I want to have a cost-effective server that can run 24/7 for my software and web services since shared hosting solutions have very limited option for customization and expandibility.

I could use my personal computer for the same purpose, but given various factor (electricity bills, reliability, 24/7 uptime, hardware support, unreliable Streamyx ISP), I would rather use RapidVPS as it is the most cost-effective solution.

Why Do I choose RapidVPS?

  • Affordable price, no setup fees
  • Easy to upgrade
  • Service uptime and reliability
  • Excellent customer support
  • Offers various popular Linux operating system including latest release of Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora Core, Gentoo

However those who want to host IRC-related software (servers, eggdrop, bnc,psybnc, etc) might be dissapointed because RapidVPS has a strict no-IRC policy on its server.

Other than that, I would recommend RapidVPS anytime if you’re seeking to get a decent VPS solution.

[tags]vps, linux, server,dedicated service, rapidvps,ubuntu,debian[/tags]