cleaverb s computer life

Vector Linux 6.0 KDE Classic final grade = A+++

And that’s it . The problems with VL 6 KDE C seem to be in the programs, and not with Linux. Like Amarok, updating and then telling me that my playlists can no longer be played, because it can’t read them ? Amarok is a great music player. But, geez. I still use it.

One of my final tweaks was to add shortcuts to my desktop for the image and text editors that i prefer. When 3 programs have similar names that all start with a K , its hard to remember what i like.

A final word on Linux; make user accounts, do not use your root account all the time. And now, the ‘oddball’ , why i still use Windows :

Video editing, and using dual monitors. Haven’t tried duals in Linux yet.

Editing files on my C drive. Windows will give you a checksum error on

bootup IF you change anything , modify a file , etc, from Linux.

Therefore, I simply use a ‘common’ folder on the data partition.

But don’t put that ‘common’ folder on your Windows C: .

Games,games,games. Now, all the Java games and flash games I like

can be played in Linux…but my Windows games require Direct X .

I’m too ‘n00b’ to work with WINE, and haven’t tried DOS Box either.

One of these days, we will experiment. As for security,I have never trusted Windows. Not even Win98, when my IE (5) was hijacked. And i became a Netscape user. Alas, I miss being able to ‘customize’ the colors, but at least Firefox lets you install themes. I don’t install FF themes in Linux, yet.

Vector Linux 6.0 KDE Classic is A++++ part 4 ‘setup’

Wow. We are now on our 14th day using VL 6 as our primary OS .
Let me tell you about our installation, and our preferences.
We already had our hard disk partitioned for Linux, since we were running
VL 5.8 on our PC. Basically, we just formatted the partition and installed
Vector Linux with the same file system ~ reiser. Not sure how to spell that.

After the install, we did a Gslapt update, and we used the ‘mark all upgrades’  option.
Which, the creators of VL strongly suggest you do not . It worked alright in 5.8 ,
and its going fine in 6.0 so far.

Next, we open the konqueror explorer, and add a few ‘new files’ to ur /home/ folder.
I like to have a ‘Download’ folder, for programs and stuff we don’t use all the time.
Then, I will create a new folder named ‘Music’ and another named ‘Photos’ .

Next up, we download and install the latest Seamonkey web browser, for
editing webpages and as our ‘alternative’ browser. One thing we DO NOT DO,
is install the flash plug in for SeaMonkey. That way, we have a browser that will not
load the often annoying flash ads that will slow your PC to a halt (in firefox).

We downloaded the latest Java (6.20) , but the pre-installed Java 6.18 works fine
 for all our needs, so we plunked the 6.20 into our downloads file, if we ever need it.

I downloaded Firefox 2.0 from mozilla.org , because I like the interface much better.
It loads faster than 3.6, too. No flash plugin for FF2, either. Then, check for updates.
It will automatically update to a version 2.18 or something. Import favorites.

And don’t forget to update Firefox 3.6 also, it will autopmatic update under ‘Tools’.

After the first day, I started looking for another html editor; I edit my pages in text,
and the WYSIWYG in SeaMonkey annoys me. But its great for non-latin character text.
I downloaded BlueFish , and yes! It works much nicer for me. Except you can’t
easily ‘preview’ your work until after you save it.  anyway…

A system change; I go into control center, and set all styles options to Plastik.
It’s easy to remember , and you only change about 3 settings. Next, I set the login
background to KDE classic , it’s a blue map of the world with a stripe and some text.
Next, i set my user desktop background to the same kde classic background.

Ah, I use delicio.us , so i installed the program in firefox.   

I set the boot manager to mount my data partition, CD, and floppy on startup.
Yet, the floppy and CD give me a ‘HAL must be installed’ popup. This was not a
 problem in 5.8 . So for now, I am using hotplug (can’t remember the name) ,
and neither floppy nor CD . I have ‘got by’ like this for 14 days, so not a problem.

There were some other minor tweaks - I use a wired connection instead of wireless.
And i don’t use the ‘scheduler’ so i deleted the systray icon.

There is also a Klipper icon, which I use often. But the default was set to
‘take a new screenshot every 1 second’ . Man, i had 182 screenshots before I
got it to stop! It was too busy takig pictures to ‘Apply’ my new preferences, I guess.
I set it for ‘every 50’ seconds, that gives me enough time to do my save and exit.

And that is it…bascially the Vector Linux 6.0 KDE Classic works super .
The problems i have are with Firefox 3.6 . that’s why i installed FF2 .

Our next post will deal with the Firefox issues, as soon as i upload some images.

Vector Linux 6.0 KDE Classic is A++++ part 3

Okay, so cleaverb is trying out Linux on his computer. What is the big deal ?

I will try to avoid too much history, and go to the reasons why I am going to Linux. In my opinion, Windows was at its best in Win98 . Now, I loved the thumbnail option for viewing files on your computer, that came with Win Me. and carried into XP. The official Win98 page at   http://support.microsoft.com/ph/1139 shows support ended. You can still find an ‘unofficial Win 98SE service pack 2’ at: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Unofficial-Windows-SE-Service-Pack.shtml .

Let’s talk about XP: The first annoying boot of the black screen wit the logo, and the ‘progress bar’ at the bottom. What did you think ? I thought, pathetic. Some lame attempt to look moody - like the clouds on the win95 and 98 boot up screens. And then the waiting begins; the black screen for 20-30 seconds, maybe a ‘welcome’ screen for a few seconds, and finally a desktop. But the computer is still too busy to launch a program. 

From the first startup, like 1,000s of other computer users, I didn’t like XP. Then imagine that your legitimately purchased software will not let you “activate Windows” . Something is screwy. Right ?  and the revolt is on„ as 1,000s of people ‘pirate’ wnidows XP. Well, maybe they had legitimate products that could not activate. I went back to Win98, and never tried telephoning Microsoft. But the ‘lie’ of validation’ perpetuated itself , in my opinion.

Another annoying sign of the times; go to a CD store, and buy an album. Take a look at all the warnings and crap. Go home, and look at your CD collection. Find something from the 1980s, or 1990s. Music, and the album cover were ‘art’ . Not cluttered up with fbi warnings and junk. In fact, i’m not sure if ‘we’ actually own any CD made with these new warnings on them. They seem to be the property of a record company, who was so gracious as to allow us to borrow it after paying $12-$15 for that priveledge.

Whoa, i did it again. Long, rambling post a coming. sorry.

I am looking at Vector Linux website. I can’t seem to find any “Terms and Conditions” pages. I didn’t agree to anything when i installed the software, either. Now maybe it is there, and I just cannot find it . http://vectorlinux.com/ 

Okay, that’s enough. Next post, I will try to give more opinions on my likes and dislikes of Vector Linux 6.0 KDE Classic …

Vector Linux 6.0 KDE Classic is A++++ part 2

I would like to start with a link to a video on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FSpvFPglhw

It features a ‘walk-through’ of the Vector Linux 6.0 KDE Classic menus and interface. It was just uploaded a few days ago, and it is very clear.  If this is your first look at Linux , please realize that not all Linux operating systems (or distros) look this ‘classic’ . This is distro features the KDE 3.5 , where as KDE is now up to version 4. This also demonstrates the speed at which VL 6 runs on a typical computer…fast! And they have a saying at VL, “At the speed of light” computing. Seriously , I want to make a video of booting up Windows XP on my computer, and then run Firefox. Reboot, and then boot VL 6.0  . And load the same version of Firefox there. That’s for another time.

Like they say, Vector Linux is based on Slackware, which is really fast. this is very different from Ubuntu. I’m not going to pick on Ubuntu. It’s the only other distro I tried. My Ubuntu install lasted about 30 minutes. It was too modern a style for me.

Think about my last post: It takes 10 minutes to install VL 6.0 KDE Classic. And when the install is done, Firefox, Flashplayer, Java , and everything you need is installed . Maybe I am lucky. Yet think about Windows: At least an hour to install Windows, Drivers for your devices, and then you do the updates, install YOUR software, reboot a few times, add more updates… it goes on and on. It can take 1-4 hours if you need to load your documents and settings. In TEN MINUTES =VL6.0 KDE Classic is up and running. The VL user is surfing the ‘net’ while you are still typing in your license number !!!!  Yeah, I know: Jumping off the Windows cliff is hard to do.

The improvements over VL 5.8 SOHO :

In 5.8 , I had to adjust the screen refresh rate every time i booted. Yes, i could have edited the configuration files…yet even after checking every box for every user to ‘save settings and load on kde startup’ , it never did re-load them.

A simple fix, and I knew that it was. In 6.0 those check boxes work properly.

In 5.8 , my second partition was not mounted on boot. I ran the procedure, and the first time it worked. But never again.

I would list the updated software, but that is obvious after 2 years .

Things VL 6.0 KDE Classic that could be better:

I’m going to ‘nit-pick’ here, because a lack of web browser choices is too similar to Windows and IE . Honestly, “Hey this distro fits on a CD-R . ” Shush. I downloaded and installed FF 2 and SeaMonkey .

Firefox 3 is a bit unstable. I crashed it watching a YouTube video on my laptop. That was in the ‘experimental stage’ of testing 6.0 .Then, I found that a flash picture gallery on a news website would display parts of my desktop in place of the photos. I really wondered if it had been hacked.

And that is all , so far. I want to be honest, and try to remember all the ‘little things’ I tend to overlook.  Like HAL ate my floppy drive. But that is a user problem, and the user needs to fix it. Not a VL fault.

VL 6.0 Positives: Like the guy in the video says, VL 6.0 boots up in about 20 seconds. It shuts down in about 10-12 seconds. Think about it .

I have different settings for different users. It remembers them all.

There is now a way to adjust your computers dual display. If you have two monitors. Granted, it could be fixed in the configuration files. Now its graphical.

They kept the ‘classic’ desktop backgrounds, splash screens and themes.

They added fonts. My gawd, I have Arial and Verdana in Vector Linux. Amen. There is a lot more fonts than just the sans serif stuff in 5.8 . Beautiful.

I could rave on, and we will in our next post. Watch the video, think about trying it.

Vector Linux 6.0 KDE Classic is A++++

I have been dual-booting windows and Vector Linux 5.8 for over two years now.

I never really got into the ‘nuts and bolts’ of Linux. It just plain worked on my computer. This probably sounds silly, but my main reason for using Windows has always been , to play games. Games that require Direct X or a Windows environment.

Since www.pogo.com came out with Risk on their website in late March, things have changed. I like it. It has replaced my favorite CD game with an online version.There are over 1,00 people playing Risk on pogo almost all the time; night and day. Of course, the ability to play the game requires an internet connection.

The other day I started updating my VL 5.8 , and I realized one flaw; You cannot go beyond Flashplayer 9 on VL 5.8 . A serious flaw ? No. There are only a few websites that I ever went to that ‘required’ flashplayer10 . MySpace and Hulu .

I was looking around for other Linux distros that incorporate KDE into their desktop environment, and i found MintLinux. Then when i went to download a version I discovered that it was over 1 gigabyte to download. Not having a spare DVDR on hand, i chickened out. I resumed a search for other KDE distros.

Then I found it; Vector Linux had made a version of VL 6.0 with KDE ! I was thrilled, and went about installing it on my laptop, over the VL 6.0 install from last month. The regular VL 6.0 uses xf** something other than KDE, and I didn’t like it.

What is KDE ? KDE is a powerful graphical desktop environment for Unix workstations . It’s not so modern looking, which is great if you liked Windows 98 or the other programs of that era. Yet that is just the style, underneath they are just as powerful as every other application on the market these days.

I tell you what, i read in the Vector Linux forum about this new version before I installed it. I was already impressed before the 699MB .iso had downloaded . It fits onto a CD-R !

The installation was over in 10 minutes. I was booting up a new operating system by that time…try that in ANY Windows. not even 3.1 could compete with a 10 minute installation time. All my hardware was setup with out a problem.

I had to tweak a few things, mostly the ‘look and feel’ .

The Firefox 3.5 was out-of-date, but easy to update. Had to setup a mount for my personal data partition. Flashplayer 10 comes installed. java version 6 is installed. I mean, these guys thought about it and put together an excellent product. It makes me wonder - when will people quit paying hundreds of dollars for a bloated MS product, and search for alternatives ?

Vector Linux runs awesome on my computer. I will get into the improvements of VL 6.0 over VL 5.8 in the next post.  The news release for VL 6.0 KDE Classic is at:

http://vectorlinux.com/news/vector-linux-6.0-kde-classic

Linux is good.

 I have been a Windows user since my first computer The IBM ps2 that i bought for $125 , came with ms-dos 5 and
 Windows 3.1 .Despite the fact that al i could do with the machine was play Solitaire, i was hooked on Windows.
Briefly, my next computer ran 3.1 also. Then we moved up to Win95 , and it was so fine we bought Win 98SE
before we had a computer that could run it. Thirty-two megabytes af RAM was, wow, a lot of RAM.
 Of course at the time i was building computers and re-conditioning systems for other people. so i became
very familiar with Win98 . I had no interest in WinMe, or 2000 . Just about any equipment maker you can think of
 had Win98 drivers for download on their website..those were the days.

 My first experience with XP was on a new PC at work. My main concern was teaching my self the basic functions.
and locating the utilities. Nah. I stayed with win98 at home. I knew the interface pretty well.
Then, i bought XP and it would not install. It kept telling me that my code number ‘no good’ .
I could not ‘activate Windows’ . Strike One.  a few years passed, and then came the inevitable discontinuation of
support for win98 . Due to my concerns for ‘security’ , i gave XP another chance.
 My home computer had everything necessary to run XP. I just didn’t like it. Like 1,000s of other people,
 I thought Win XP sucked. The things that kept me interested were the upgrades -
like Direct X and IE that you could not get with 98 . So before XP service pack 3 came out, I was pretty well on my way
 to ‘suffering through’  XP on a daily basis.

At the time, i learned to dual boot Win XP and Win Me . Just an experiment, but i still liked the interface of the older windows better.
Partition formats, and file systems didn’t mean anything to me. XP was more like an ‘arms race’ - keeping up with everyone else.
 With the end of support for Win Me, I started looking at Linux. after all, i started with ms-dos, so i was not afraid of a command prompt.
At the time, I had several old IBM laptops, so I looked for a Linux distro that would work on a Pentium .
The first choice was DSL Linux (damn small linux) . That was a piece of cake to install. Then the reality; it wasn’t
a graphical user interface .

And so, my second choice for Linux was Vector Linux . I first downloaded it in January 2008.
It only required a P II to run a GUI . That was great.
Then , I discovered that the minimal style and ‘no nonsense’ approach was exactly what I was looking for.
I do not need some ‘fancy’ looking desktop, or office software, or anything else that Windows offers.
About the only reason i stayed with Windows was for playing Risk on my computer..seriously.

I also downloaded and tried Ubuntu, but i didn’t like it. It took me about 15 minutes to decide.
Never gave it any chance. Then i tried Vector Linux 5.9 . I didn’t like that either. Vector Linux 6.0 , nope.
the nice thing about Vector Linux 6 is that everything is up-to-date.
But after 5.8 , they dropped everything I liked about Vector Linux. They tried to jazz it up with too much
focus on looks. I opened the filemanager, and i could not even find the hard drive in VL 6. Time to format.

So, i re-installed VL 5.8 , this time without the Office software.
 My needs are so simple, that all i really need are : a paint program, a word pad program, firefox,
a html editor, a music player, a video player. and a simple interface . I’ll be fine.
Goodbye Windows. Maybe.

The one problem i have is flash player; because there are no more updates to VL 5.8 i can only go to
Flash version 9 . Aftert that requires a few ‘system files’ that VL 5.8 does not have.
Yet the ‘one and only’ website that requires Flash player 10 is MySpace. There are others -
such as Hulu.com and other video websites - but nothing that i visit regularly.

I have updated browsers, Java, and all the system updates. I even fought through a few design flaws,
with help from the VL forums.  I have learned how to tweak the looks and it only takes a few clicks.
The sound is comparable or better than Windows. I’m not saying the sound is better, but it does sound better.
The graphics are good, except watching video on YouTube. It’s very bad.

The annoying little things, such as the lack of fonts in web browsers i can live with.
Mounting the floppy drive before I can use it doesn’t bother me.
And one weird problem - i can’t listen to CDs from the CD drive . I haven’t figured that one out, yet.
But I don’t listen to CDs on my computer, regularly. It’s just something I will blow a weekend on,
trying to figure out why .

While using Linux, I realize that there is nothing on Windows that Linux cannot do.
Now that Risk is playable online, i don’t even have that excuse.
Now, i am  watching for the ‘next big thing’ : a newer version of Linux.
It could be MintLinux,www.linuxmint.com/ who claim that they will be releasing a new version this month (May 2010).
 I haven’t tried the ‘new’ ubuntu, either.

So, i am about to turn the corner, leaving Windows Updates, Security Threats, and Anti-Virus behind.
I got the hint. Somebody ‘out there’ either doesn’t like Windows, or they try to exploit their software.
 The only way to rid yourself of the problems, is to rid yourself of MS products.

I should be safe. No one is going to spend their life hajacking VL 5.8 . Are they ?
It’s a 3 year old Linux Distro that maybe less than 10,000 people still use ?
Far less than that. Probably less than 100 by now. But it was popular for a  few months in 2007.
So who knows how many people use it on occasions.   

It’s cost effective, too. I do not have to pay hundreds of dollars just for a shiny new paint program.
Or a new word pad - the old ones work fine. And the Linux versions are fine. Maybe better, because people still
 work to improve them. Not just make them prettier.


An old review of Vector Linux 5.8 at - http://en.revilinux.org/2007/08/vector-linux-58-soho-or-kde-at-light.html

Classic Media Player

Have you ever had a video that wouldn’t play in your regular video program ? Classic Media Player can play just about anything; from normal audio and video files, including Real formats, Quickview movies, and windows video files. And more. The appearance is the ‘classic’ style of the early Windows Media Player 4, yet it’s very lightweight and not a burden on your system resources.  

I use it all the time, for video files and DVDs on my computer.
You can download the 2Mb file from - Classic Media Player 6.4 Download.com , but don’t let the size fool you. The program is free, and doesn’t nag you with updates or searching for titles online. I rate this software as extremely valuable to my computing needs.

SeaMonkey - edit web pages in your browser - sweet.

I have been  exploring the possibilty of going completely to a Linux OS.

One of the first things that caught my attention in Vector Linux 6.0 was all the pre-installed software. My needs are pretty basic - web browser , musicplayer,

video player, a text pad, photo editor, photo viewer, also including Java and Flash in my web browsing. While looking through the menu, SeaMonkey was the only html editor. But what is really nice is the ability to type in cyrillic text, which is something my normal software doesn’t do. SeaMonkey is another fine browser from Mozilla.

The first thing you’ll notice that is different, is when you open multiple tabs.

The “x” to close the tab is on the right side of the tab bar. The same x for each tab. It only closes the tab you have open, but it can be ‘strange’ your first time through.

This is one short post, just to say “SeaMonkey is just as good as any other browser. Just not as popular, and doesn’t get the attention it deserves. The ability to edit html right in your browser hasn’t caught on in mainstream , but i love it.

Visit  http://www.seamonkey-project.org/ for more information.