A couple beryl videos

Here are some linux users running beryl.








Beryl comes pre-installed on the MEPIS distribution. I'm currently using it on my new hp laptop and loving it.

Me loves the eye-candy!

Three good reasons to switch from windows to linux

In the relatively brief time since that beautiful day that I finally switched, several differences between being a windows user and a linux user have really jumped out at me.

1. Peace of mind. You don't have to worry about going to this or that website for fear of malicious code (programs that want to screw you), because that code is written for windows. It simply will not run on linux. This is a hard one for me to explain to my friends sometimes. Most people think that linux has some sort of blocker or something, but it doesn't. These malicious programs simply don't run properly (or at all) on any operating system that ISN'T windows. The only programs that run on a linux os are written FOR linux, so any virus that could potentially hurt your computer would have to be written FOR linux. Writing/creating a linux virus simply makes no sense when linux users are such a small and more educated (and therefore better protected) percentage of computer users. Why write something to break into 6% of computers on the web when you could write something to break into 80%?
2. Ease of use. Linux looks and responds almost exactly the same way as windows. Distributions like ubuntu, MEPIS and linux mint all have utilities to manage the use of all of your SD cards, USB drives, CD's and DVD's. One of the other nice things that I never anticipated is the cleanliness and straightforwardness of open source applications (programs like gimp, amarok, etc.) because features are only added if they are useful and work properly. These program developers care more about having a functional application than trying to sell you something, and I can feel that as I use these applications. But everything I've said so far about this pales in comparison to the Package Manager. This program is a nice graphic-user-interface (GUI) that allows you to search repositories filled with debian packages. These packages contain everything you need to install a particular application on your computer. Say, for instance, you need an application to write music notation. It's as simple as opening the package manager, doing a search for "music notation", perusing the list of available applications, checking the box next to the one you want to install and clicking "Apply." Oh, and it's all free: any application to do any task you can imagine.
3. Community and Support. Since I switched, I've really felt a part of a community that cares about one another. Many problems have been solved by a kind, more knowledgeable soul responding to a question I posted on one of the various linux user forums- usually within a few hours. I've even been able to help others that are dealing with a problem I've encountered, and it's been very satisfying. And it's all free. Free community support. I'd rather be a member of a supportive community than pay to suckle the teat of some huge corporation that cares about money above all else.

So there it is. You're thinking about switching now, aren't you... admit it.

Here goes!

So the first thing I needed to do was move all my files (music, documents, etc.) to my external usb hard drive because I would need to reformat that drive in order to install linux. As I did this, I found that several of the folders with music files in them would not copy or even open. Luckily, I had most of that music saved somewhere else, but it did show me that the drive was in need of some work anyway, so this linux install was looking like a better idea already.

One thing I'll mention right now that I didn't know when I started is that windows and linux use different filesystems. Chances are any newer windows drive is formatted NTFS, but linux uses ext3. As of right now, linux (without some help from some software) only mounts NTFS drives as read-only, which means that you can open the files on the drive, but no changes can be made to any of the files and no new files can be saved to the drive. Linux Mint (available at linuxmint.com) is one version that comes with a utility for mounting NTFS drives read-write right out of the box if this is especially important for you. As far as I can tell (although I'm not totally sure about this) windows doesn't recognize the linux filesystem at all.

I had installed ubuntu on a different computer and couldn't figure out how to install some drivers necessary for viewing web pages (java, flash, embedded windows video.) This was totally unacceptable to me and fed my fear of switching, as everything I saw on the web about it was command line stuff with lots of sudo's and such. I envisioned hours of searching the web for the appropriate commands and endless frustration when it still didn't work.

Then my computer programmer friend sent me a link to the Linux Mint website. Mint is an altered version of ubuntu that includes all of these drivers, as well as the NTFS and FAT drive mounting utility I mentioned above and even some common wireless drivers. We installed it on the machine we on which had previously put the ubuntu, and it worked great right out of the box, so I decided to use it for the family computer at home.

Just a moment to assure you that I'm not a Linux Mint salesman. Lately, ubuntu has released their new feisty fawn version that has made installing plugins, drivers, and codecs easier, and I'm a big fan. I'm also a very big fan of the xubuntu version which uses the xfce desktop instead of gnome. I recently installed the alternate version of xubuntu on a machine with only 128mb of ram that I friend gave to me and was watching streaming video on the web in less than 45 minutes! You couldn't even wipe your ass running windows with 128mb ram!

I'd speak about installing the linux mint on the family machine, but there's really not much to say. It was pretty easy; since I was just going to erase the whole drive, I could use the guided partitioning using the entire disk (the partitioning seems to me to be the hardest part of the install.) Everything went smoothly and in about twenty minutes, I had a brand new linux mint os. I plugged in my ethernet cable, opened firefox and checked my email.

It was a beautiful day.

I've really done it now...

Well, here goes.

This is the running story of my switch from the Windows operating system to the linux operating system (from now on, I will just say OS.)
I'll start with a little background info.

I'm a first year computer science student at Southern Oregon University. I'm married to an extremely non-technical woman and have a brilliant baby girl. Until very recently, my experience with linux was limited to having some fedora cds that a friend gave me. He even made a partition on my hard drive in which to install a second linux OS, but I was consumed with fear.

A second os? Wouldn't that mess up the Windows os? How does this work? How do I tell it which one to boot? If my Windows programs won't work, what programs will I use? And finally (and most importantly) what does it look like?

I knew I could probably find out all of the technical things I needed on the web, but there was one more consideration...my non-technical wife. If she couldn't check her email or get to her lyric sheets, there would be hell to pay.

So right about now you may be asking yourself, "Why would someone with a perfectly good Windows XP system want to go through the trouble of figuring all of this out?" Well, there are two reasons:
1. I have a deep hatred of everything corporate, and what could be more corporate than Microsoft?
2. I've had trouble with viruses, spyware, etc. It got to the point where I was running a ridiculous number of anti-this-and-that programs, all of which seemed to do nothing, and I had heard that linux was impervious to such attacks.

Finally, after going back to school and meeting a friend that's a computer programmer here in town, I decided I should do it... I should switch the family computer to linux. (Well, all of those reasons combined with the fact that my Windows os had slowed to the point that I couldn't even successfully burn a cd.)

I had no idea what I was getting myself into.