For many of you the command line may be intimidating, especially if you’re more accustomed to the Windows standard GUI. I want to tell you the command line can be a VERY powerful tool if you just learn a few basic things. Please don’t consider the command line a crutch or “Linux is hard because you have to type commands”. You can do everything via a GUI that you can do via the command line, it is simply easier or quicker to do it the latter way.

Below are a few basic command for those of you new to the command line:

ls - list contents of a directory
sudo - "super-user do" (grants administrator rights)
cd - change directory
aptitude - APT package management system (update, install, remove, search)
clear - clear screen
chmod - change file access permissions
chown - change file and group ownership
cp - copy
mv - move
rm - remove
cat - concatenate files (dump to screen)
nano - basic text editor
vi - advanced text editor
fdisk - partition table manipulator
df - disk free (remaining / used disk space)
users - users currently logged in
useradd - add a user
usermod - modify existing user
uname - show system data (try uname -a)
mount - mount a file system, cd or removable drive
umount - un-mount a file system, cd or removable drive
top - show current running processes
touch - create new, empty, file
reboot - reboot your system
shutdown - shutdown your system
passwd - change user password
ping - ping a network device or location (ping google.com)
more - show output one screen at a time
exit - logout of the terminal
eject - eject a cdrom or removable device

Okay, here’s something that’s been going through my mind lately and I think it needs to be brought to the forefront, I think we need to discuss standardisation. Yes, that dreaded word.

While this seems like a bit of a non-subject, or even a mundane one, I still feel it should be discussed. First off, there are over thirty five different package distribution systems available out there. Thirty five! Just like the excess of Linux distributions, that’s just too many. I’m not saying we should suddenly end choice in the Linux world. I’m all for choice. But I’m also a realist. You can’t expect Linux to succeed in the world if there isn’t standardisation at least in this area.

It seems every Linux distro has its own way of configuring network access. For example:

Fedora: /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth0
Archlinux: /etc/rc.conf
Ubuntu: /etc/network/interfaces

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I won’t even go into all the nuttiness that exists out there. Sure, there’s some standardisation across all the distributions, but it’s so little as to be difficult to spot. That shouldn’t be the case, ever. Because of that, each distribution, or distribution group has to have their own custom built version of a given application for their own version of Linux.

I feel sorry for the application developers who want to supply binary packages, and need to build sometimes dosens of packages for all the different distros and their various incompatible versions. Of course in real life they seldom do - so the poor user is faced with having to try and compile the application from source if a binary package does not exist for their distro.

Even the package systems are too diversified. As I said before, choice is good, but not on the core system, and packages are part of the core system. Sure, choice is important and choice is good. I very strongly support choice. But I’m a realist and reality says that sometimes choice can also be your own worst enemy. You can standardise the core of Linux, yet still leave users with all the choice they could ever want. And if we don’t start standardising at least the important things, Microsoft is going to beat us over the head. One of their biggest clubs against us is that we’ve got such a wide range of diversity, while they have a standardised one stop shop.

Really, seriously. Think about it. Who needs fifteen different ways to do network configuration? Or how about hardware detection? Why do we need some 100 different systems for hardware detection? Everyone should get together, pool their resources, and come up with one, two, maybe even three really, really good hardware detection systems and then have everyone use them. Or how about the directory file tree? I absolutely hate it when each distribution has its own unique way to do the directory structure for system and user files. Everyone pick one thing that works, and run with it. Don’t create a thousand unique ways to do things.

People shouldn’t be forced to do something ten different ways across ten different distributions. If you think it drives some of us nuts, imagine what it does in the corporate world. If Linux is ever going to become properly mainstream, some of our choice has to be surrendered. Why do you think Microsoft succeeded so well in the market?

All conspiracy theories aside, they provided end users with a consolidated, single platform which was universal and provided a one stop shop for corporations where other previous operating systems didn’t, preferring to each stick to their own unique and proprietary OS’s, formats, file systems, and more. People loved how Microsoft was consistent and compatible no matter where you went and which version you had. (Yes, they actually believed in cross program and cross OS compatibility at one time) But it wasn’t the home user that ended up making Microsoft so big. Microsoft targeted the corporate workplace. Apple went after the home and school market. You can see who won that war.

So if Linux ever wants to truly become mainstream, some level of standardisation needs to occur. Incompatibilities between distributions, the multiplicity in the ways applications need to be compiled to work on each distribution, and the variance of features across different versions is going to do more harm than good for us in the long term. I’m not saying we need to throw out all we’ve worked so hard for. But sometimes we have to give up a little to gain a lot. Isn’t sacrificing a little choice in the underlying system to gain the victory in the world market better than keeping the tangled mess we have now and ultimately loosing the war?

If we don’t standardise at least the core of every Linux distro, we’re going to find ourselves in a rather nasty place in the near future. Now before you pick up your guns and start shooting (figuratively I hope) at me or each other, let’s stop for a moment. All pride and egos aside, our enemy is not each other. Our enemy is a Redmond, Washington company who would like nothing more than to see choice wiped out of existence. If for no other reason, isn’t that enough to make you want to lay down the sword with your fellow Linux geek and try working together towards Linux standardisation? Or do you actually enjoy the idea of eventually having no choice in what you do on your computer? Think about it. If we don’t start working together and standardising things, that’s all we’ll have. One big bloated monster of an OS, a monopoly hellbent on telling you what you can and can’t do, and more headaches than all the aspirin in the world can cure. So let’s get moving.

Someday in the distant future, children will be hugging their Microsoft Robot Friend, browsing the Weboverse on Internet Explorer 29, and going to a rock concert held by Steve Ballmer’s head, and they’ll have never known the nasty Microsoft we grew up with. Starting today, Microsoft has dropped a bit of a bombshell on the computing community by jumping on the “open” bandwagon and altering the way they do business with third-party developers. According to a wordy press release issued by the company, Redmond will begin embracing an open attitude by publishing documentation for all of its “high-volume product” APIs free of charge, will detail patents it holds and applications that cover its protocols (to avoid nasty, Linux-like mixups, we assume), and will provide a “covenant not to sue open source developers for development or non-commercial distribution of implementations of these protocols.” Sound like big news? They’ve got a lot more to say on the matter — click here and learn all about cuddly new Microsoft.

(I never thought I’d put a post in to both the categories, “Free Software” and “Microsoft”.)

There’s one thing for certain: Now is an exciting time to be a KDE user. The much anticipated launch of KDE 4 is slated for January 11th, 2008. This is a major revamp of the look and feel of the KDE desktop, with the inclusion of a built-in compositor (think eye candy) and something called “plasmoids” (little functional widgets embedded into your desktop).

It’s a lot of new “bling” aimed at improving the desktop experience. Will it? More importantly, will it for you? What would make you choose KDE over GNOME (or vice versa)? This week we take a brief look at KDE in both its 3.5.x and 4 incarnations, and outline a few rules of thumb on choosing your desktop environment.

Let’s take a quick look at KDE’s history and underpinnings. KDE was launched in 1996 and is based on the Qt (pronounced “cute”) toolkit. (A toolkit is a set of libraries of the things that make up a graphical user interface — things like windows, buttons and their functions.) But all was not right with the world. Qt, at that time, didn’t use a completely free software license. This caused some concern about the legality of linking to Qt libraries, and the Debian distribution even went so far as to remove KDE from their repositories for a time.

Currently, Qt uses a dual license. The toolkit is available under the GPL (GNU General Public License) and the QPL (Q Public License), and linking to the Qt libraries is no longer an issue.KDE looks a bit more Windows-like than GNOME, but has some quirks that puzzle new users. The K Menu, both in KDE 3.5.x and 4, is similar to the Windows “Start” menu. KDE is usually arranged with a bottom panel, featuring the K Menu button, and a few frequently accessed applications (such as your home folder and Konqueror, KDE’s native web browser). The panel often has a system tray and a list of open windows and desktop workspaces.

In KDE 4, the K Menu (among other things) got a radical makeover. The menu is divided into two parts, a lower panel consisting of several buttons: Favorites, Applications, My Computer, Recently Used and Leave (a really inelegant way of saying “shutdown menu”). The upper panel features animated menus depending on what is selected on the lower panel. Here you can see the Applications icon highlighted, with the Office applications loaded. It takes some getting used to (and is still a release candidate at the time of this post), but it is appealing to those who enjoy putting their own mark on the aesthetics and function of their desktop.

KDE is known for being highly customizable, both in terms of how the desktop looks and behaves, and how it ultimately handles the hardware on the system. The good news for you as a new Linux user is the amount of control you’ll have over the desktop. You’ll be able to configure things to look and act exactly as you want. The bad news? The amount of control you have can be puzzling to the point of frustration.

For example, setting up a printer in KDE opens a printer configuration window. Adding a new printer opens a wizard that walks you through the process. You’ll find there are a lot of extra configuration options outside the wizard. It’s safe to say many of them you won’t need to worry about. It can be disconcerting to have that many options initially, but those who need their system fine-tuned will appreciate it.
KDE Print Menu Dialog
What about the native Qt applications in KDE? Can GTK+ applications be used with KDE? Yes, but like Qt applications in GNOME, most like to keep this to a minimum. In general, we’ve found it causes less conflict and slow-down on the system to install GTK+ applications in KDE than it does to install Qt applications in GNOME.

Konqueror is the native KDE web browser. Firefox and other Mozilla based browsers, should you prefer them, work quite well in KDE. Dolphin was recently rolled out to replace Konqueror as KDE’s file manager. With split-view folder browsing (and dragging and dropping across panes), you won’t miss Windows Explorer at all.

KDE has a personal information manager suite, Kontact, consisting of KMail (an email client), a calendar, journal, note taker and the feed reader Akregator.

Digikam supports a variety of digital cameras, and is roughly equivalent to GNOME’s gtkam. Through the use of kipi-plugins, you can easily use Digikam to archive photos to CD or DVD or upload to Flickr. Krita is the KDE photo-editing program. (We admit to using GIMP in place of Krita for most editing applications.)

KOffice is KDE’s office suite, consisting of a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and database application. There is also a Visio equivalent, and a vector graphic drawing application. OpenOffice, should you prefer it, integrates nicely with KDE. The desktop has two text editors, KWrite and Kate. We prefer Kate for most text editing tasks.

Multimedia files are handled with Kaffeine (video) and Amarok (audio). KDE also features the handy K3b burning application, which burns audio, video and data disks, as well as disk images.

Our advice to new Linux users who have little interest in looking “under the hood” of their computers, or who use their computer for straight web browsing, word processing and photo editing would be to try GNOME first. Former Windows (and Mac) “power users” will most likely want to start with KDE. We’d also encourage those who have computing requirements that are a little out of the ordinary to try KDE first, due to the level of customization it allows through the GUI. Before you make your decision, think about the programs that are associated with each desktop environment, and what you’d want to add on after the fact. If you find one toolkit’s programs fit your work habits better than the other’s, install the desktop with the most appealing applications.

GNOME or KDE? It might be GNOME this year, KDE the next, and Xfce after that. The beauty of Linux is that you’re not tied to one desktop environment, or even to one distribution. You’re free to have the system that works best for you.

Tired of Windows? The next generation of laptops may let you jump from one operating system to another to play movies, surf the Web or read e-mail. Phoenix Technologies Ltd., a leading maker of the software that controls Windows computers most basic workings, announced this week that it will offer a feature it calls HyperSpace to laptop manufacturers.

Woody Hobbs, the Milpitas, Calif.-based company’s chief executive, said the first application of the technology probably will show up next summer in the shape of laptops that can play DVDs outside Windows.

User will be able to boot in a few seconds straight into the DVD player, skipping the longer Windows startup, or switch to the DVD player from Windows. If Windows is running at the same time, it can be put in sleep mode, prolonging battery life.

Laptops with a media player separate from Windows already exist, but the players don’t run parallel to Windows (you have to boot into the player, then shut it down and boot into Windows to switch tasks).

Laptops with HyperSpace would likely have a separate button that instantly switches away from Windows.

In a second phase, Hobbs sees things like Web browsers, e-mail programs and Web conferencing software like Skype being built into HyperSpace. Computer management functions like antivirus scanning could also be performed outside Windows, improving security, Hobbs said.

The technology would move PCs closer to being appliances - always on and available - and give computer manufacturers a chance to differentiate themselves in what is in many respects a commodity business, by pre-loading different applications.

The HyperSpace environment would be based on Linux, giving the freely distributed operating system what could be its biggest break yet in the struggle to gain traction against Windows on PCs.