Happy 1k Podcast Hacker Public Radio

Congradulations are in order for Hacker Public Radio on reaching their 1000th podcast. Great Job Guys keep up the good work.

PCBSD – Desktop That Shines, and BSD Goodness Under The Hood

PC-BSD 9.0 based on FreeBSD 9.0 is a very well developed desktop release from  iXsystems, Inc. My personal observation over each release of PCBSD is how that it has continued improvement. From the new installer to the AppCafe. Everything just works. The desktop that I chose to use on this install is Gnome 2 being that Gnome3 has not yet been ported. To tell the truth I won’t make a fuss about that, being that it is stable and does what I need it to as an interface. The other options are KDE4, XFCE, and LXDE.

The installer is very straightforward. Former Windows users who are inclined to try new things will find it to be easy to walk through and use for a decent desktop install. You are given two options at install time. One use it as a desktop and the other is to install FreeBSD and set up a server.

Overall like I said this is a well put together system. Lots of good options desktop side and under the hood.

 

A Minty Fresh Take On Gnome 3

A while back I gave Gnome 3 a whirl. I personally have no complaints about how it is put together and don’t mind using extensions because it gives the ‘build it how you want it’ feel. Now Mint 12 has been released. Mint has given Gnome interface a major overhaul and really shows what can be done with Gnome 3 and extensions. I gotta say I am personally quite impressed with it overall. Gnome 3 still stays out of the way, you have the options that come packed into the Gnome-Tweak-Tool, to turn on or off things as you like.

Overall it’s clean, and doesn’t have a heavy feel to it. I did get a comment from a Windows user that it had a certain appeal that would actually make it easier for them to switch from Windows to Linux.

So if you haven’t tried the newest Mint and have been a bit bothered by the initial feel of Gnome 3. I suggest give it a go and see how you like it.

A Short Take on Foresight Linux

I have been playing with Foresight Linux for the past month or so. It’s a pretty decent desktop system. I am quite impressed with conary. Conary within itself is quite interesting after having used apt, yum, and pacman. One the optimizing the system upgrade by using ‘system model’ to install only what is needed and no more. I personally liked how that works in being able to customize the installs and upgrades through this tool.

I really recommend giving this distro a spin and see how you like it.

http://www.foresightlinux.org/

gPodder a great podcatcher.

So ya want to grab some content, Throw it on your device and go on down the road. Well look no further than gPodder for your media needs. Yep instead of hopping through hoops for that thing you want to access and paying the price of being blasted with “Buy This Product”. Get a copy of gPodder and get all the content you want straight from the rss feed or gPodder’s own list of good content that is available.

  Enjoy.

gave Gnome-Shell a whirl

After hearing reviews and looking at beta versions off and on I finally decided to give Gnome-3 a whirl. So far I have been surprised and impressed with it as a desktop. The extensions that have been recently released for it have made it even better and more functional as a desktop for the non-tweaker/non-hacker who just wants to have a working and easy to use desktop. Ultimately as time goes by and code gets further developed it will improve more. So if you haven’t tried it give it a go and see what you think.

Additional on the Gnome-Shell

Now testing Gnome-Shell on a Dell Inspiron Laptop. Personally I believe it looks good for mobile users. Mostly because it keeps the interface out of the way and gives you your screen real-estate back for what you need it for. Oh and for those who are bothered by it just install XFCE and stop complaining that it is such a pain.

Side note:

XFCE is all those things that Gnome was in the early days of it’s existence.

Do I need to use "pirated software"

I heard a strange question being asked to a TV show host during a e-mail in segment on this talk show. The question was this:

“Is it alright to use ‘pirated software’ in my business since licenses are so expensive?”

I almost fell out of my chair. The thought that someone would not know that they could go to a site like distrowatch.com or type in Free Software and see the FSF mentioned at least once on a google search. I guess even though linux and free software abound people still need to be educated in the fact that there is a vast difference between “pirated” and Open Source.

Fact is there are many like this guy who for whatever reason is living with the thought that it’s either purchase a license laden proprietary mess or steal something. Sir, if you happen to stumble across this blog I have some good news for you. No you don’t need “pirated” software there are tons of alternatives to being saddled with accusations of piracy or saddled with heavy license fees. You can run a business in a Free and Open way by adopting hardware that runs on Linux. Oh and by the way it’s not as complicated as it has been reported to be.

Well I hope this helps at least a little to get someone started on the road to recovery from locked down and expensive software.

Addendum:

“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.”

Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it means that the program’s users have the four essential freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

– The Free Software Foundation