News Archive - October 2005
Ubuntu 5.10
Thursday 27th October 2005
Categories: Reviews, GNU/Linux, FLOSS
Here is the first of a couple of Linux reviews that should be appearing here in the next week or two: Ubuntu 5.10. Hopefully, you'll be seeing SUSE 10.0 join it within a couple of weeks.
Essentially, this release of Ubuntu is the most polished and well rounded yet... the three graphical interfaces to Apt make installing and updating packages a breeze, allowing even the most inexperienced user to maintain Ubuntu without problems. Just be careful what you do with those root privileges!
Office Suites, SUSE, Ubuntu and Internet Security
Thursday 27th October 2005
Category: News
First of all, we have an article about why office suites suck, to put it in the author's words. I agree with a fair bit of what is said in the article - particularly the segregation of graphics programs.
As you might expect, there have been a few reviews on the internet for SUSE and Ubuntu. For SUSE, there has been a review on Mad Penguin and Technetra. With Ubuntu, a review comes from Linux Online.
Finally, we are being warned about internet security. I am still of the belief that, although applying updates and using firewalls in important, as demonstrated by viruses such as Blaster, common sense is still key - too many people open attachments from anybody, and click Yes whenever they are asked to install something from a web site.
Writing An Atom Feed
Sunday 23rd October 2005
Categories: Guides, Internet, Code
Here it is: the guide to writing an Atom feed. I would say that regular readers may have been expecting it, but the regular readers probably only consists of me and the Google indexer. Ah well - enjoy!
This article is looking at Atom 1.0, which is the latest version of Atom. Atom has its strengths and weaknesses over RSS, but ultimately both are well suited to their purposes, and anybody that can write an RSS feed should easily be able to write an equivalent Atom feed.
DCC Alliance, OpenOffice.org and Quake
Friday 21st October 2005
Category: News
Some unhappy news first - namely, a dispute between Debian the DCC Alliance. The dispute is over the DCC Alliance using Debian in their name, as well as the use of the Debian logo. While the DCC Alliance has changed its name accordingly, they still maintain that the use of the logo is permitted. Ian Murdock, founder of Debian, added his words. I think that Debian is losing focus slightly here - I believe the DCC Alliance can only be a good thing for Debian, so they should be working together - I would much rather see a stable Etch rather than a different logo!
In some happier news, the delayed OpenOffice.org 2 has finally been released, including support for the OpenDocument format.
Finally, if you own a copy of Quake 4, you can now install it on Linux. The more games on Linux, the better!
OpenOffice.org, Web Growth, Synaptic and Ubuntu
Sunday 16th October 2005
Category: News
First of all, the release of OpenOffice.org 2 has been delayed slightly - instead, we get OpenOffice.org 2 RC3. Next, the BBC reports on the growth of the internet.
Finally, a couple of pieces of news related to Debian. First of all, an article on Synaptic and the DCC Alliance - I personally think that apt-get, along with Synaptic, are the best tools for package management I have ever used. We also have a review of Ubuntu 5.10.
Fedora Core 4
Saturday 15th October 2005
Categories: Reviews, GNU/Linux, FLOSS
Ultimately, however, Fedora Core 4 is a polished, simple-to-use, and stable distribution. Those that want an operating system that just works should be more than satisfied. Once you get beyond the installation, Fedora is reasonably hard to fault, although perhaps is never truly outstanding.
As I finish writing this review, I'm not very happy, yet simultaneously pleased. Since I started, no less than three new distributions have been released, these being Ubuntu, SUSE and Mandriva (that being the order I will probably try them). That makes me unhappy since it means more work for testing. However, a release of any Linux distribution is normally a good thing, so long as it keeps Linux striding ever forward. Besides, I hear Ubuntu now has Gnome 2.12, and, at this rate, we Debian users probably won't see that in Etch until next year!
SUSE, Mandriva and FAT Patents
Sunday 9th October 2005
Category: News
First of all, we have a couple of new Linux releases. SUSE 10.0 has two different versions: a free version along with a not-so-free version. It is certainly something that I hope to take a look at at some point in the future. We also have Mandriva 2006, which is only for paying club members. Having tried Mandrake/Mandriva before (without being overly impressed), I'm not too keen to try this version.
The other piece of news is the rejection of Microsoft's FAT patent. Clearly this good news, considering FAT's widespread use, including in the Linux kernel. Of course, as an earlier article linked to points out, the patent is most useful as a threat. Either way, it is a good thing rather than a bad thing.
Bananas, Shuttleworth on Ubuntu, Linus On Specs, GIMP and Quake
Wednesday 5th October 2005
Category: News
As you may have noticed, there is a rather curious topic that we come across first: bananas.
Now that I've alienated 99% of my readers, lets move onto some normal news. First of all, we have Mark Shuttleworth on Ubuntu. Whatever your take on Ubuntu, it is probably worth a read.
We also have Linus on specifications. Naturally, his comment "a spec is close to useless" (a slightly shortened version!) caused a great deal of talk among the online community. It has been discussed on several websites, such as here and kerneltrap.org.
Finally, a short bit of news from Newsforge about the next version of GIMP, GIMP 2.4, as well as the good news that Quake IV should be coming to Linux. It is always good to hear that companies are supporting Linux, rather than just Windows.