ubuntu

Why is Linux so cool and fun? Because many of the things people do with their computers are very easy to do in Linux. Like ripping a CD.

Using Kubuntu 7.04, go to the KDE menu and click system settings. Click on the advanced tab. Click on audio encoding and finally the MP3 Encoder. This is where the MP3 settings are located at (quality, bit rate).

Now, put a CD into your CD-ROM drive. You should see an icon that looks like this on your desktop.

gFTP is an open source graphical FTP client. It has a nice user interface and is easy to use. I've had problems with it doing large ftp transfers, so in those cases or cases where I want to transfer server to server, I use kasablanca. The GUI is a bit clunkier and is lacking some features, but it is best for certain situations.

The Gimp, or GNU Image Manipulation Program, is an excellent, free image editing software package for Linux, and Windows. As far as I can tell, it does everything the big name programs do, except allow the creation of shapes. Coming from Fireworks, it was tough to get used to. But you can create vectors and areas, and then fill them. While I am not a professional, I did create this graphic using The Gimp.

One of the reasons the average person complains about Linux is the perceived or rumored difficulty in installing software, or performing updates. It is true that it is somewhat difficult if you have to compile your application or driver, as I do with vmware (the only way to run Windows) and my video card driver, but installing and updating a Kubuntu system is not difficult and automatic most of the time.

In Kubuntu or KDE (I think...at least with Beryl), a window can get positioned so that you can't grab the title bar (the bar up top that has the menus on the left and right). To move it, hold down ALT and click anywhere on the window and drag.

Shading a window will collapse it into the title bar. To do this, double click on the title bar on top. You will be able to fit a ton of windows on a desktop and not have to go to the task bar, or use the ALT + TAB combination to cycle them. Simply double click them to "unshade??" them.

C|Net News.com is reporting today that Dell is now offering Ubuntu Linux as an option for new computers. The article reports that Dell has attempted this before with little success. However, after actually listening to the consumers and realizing that Ubuntu has made great strides towards being a contender for the operating system of choice for the average consumer, Dell is giving it a try once again.

To get real time system information from most Linux systems, use the command top. Open up a command prompt and type top. You'll get a updating readout of processor percentage used, memory percentage used, the amount of memory used by process. There are many ways to sort the list and you can kill processes as well (if you run the command using sudo or root).

Here's a good way to get hardware information on a linux system. The proc directory holds the files which store the hardware and system state information.

The command ls /proc/ gives me the directory listing. Most of these are files that you can look at.

jsteel@jsteel-desktop:~$ ls /proc/
1 4446 4751 5287 5720 5843 6017 driver mounts
106 4447 4755 5295 5721 5848 6019 execdomains mtrr
132 4450 4768 5306 5735 5849 6042 fb net

I have been a user of Linux on and off for several years now. I have tried many different "flavors" on many different configurations and types of computers. A few days ago, I got a hold of the latest distribution of the free Ubuntu distribution. Ubuntu is touted as Linux for human beings and I couldn't agree more.