Thoughts on Technology

Confused about iPads in Education

2012-02-01T15:30:00.001-06:00

It's been nearly two years since I got my first Asus convertible tablet/netbook, loaded it up with Linux and started kicking it around with my every day to classes. In general I have found it to be an extremely useful tool.

I need to type notes or prepare a presentation? Not a problem - it is a netbook after all and can perform all the same functions as a laptop. I need to take hand written notes? I don't have to keep track of notebook paper that I always inevitably lose. I simply fire up Xournal and can use any stylus (or even a pen with a cap over the tip) to take notes on the computer just as if I was writing on a notebook.

My netbook convertible does what any good piece of technology should - it makes my life easier.

You want to know what doesn't seem to make anyone's life easier during class? Those iPad's I've seen piles of people caring around campus with them this last year. In fact, I've never once seen an iPad used productively to take notes in a classroom. You can't type notes effectively on the dang thing - at least I've yet to find anyone that can match my 90+ WPM using a touch screen keyboard. You also can't take hand written notes effectively due to the poor quality of basically every capacitive stylus in existence.

One useful thing the iPad can do is function as a calculator. Another thing I've heard proposed is replacing text books with ebooks on the iPad. You know what else has all the functions of a calculator and can read ebooks and pdfs? You guessed it - my netbook.

The biggest joke at the end of all of it? Even the "16GB" version of the iPad costs more than the highest end Asus T101MT.

Maybe I'm just not "hip" enough to see the need for them, but it seems to me if we want to revolutionize how our students learn using technology they would be better served if that technology came in the form of something other than an "iPad" or capacitive tablet of any sort. Whats your take on it?

~Jeff Hoogland

Jeff's List of his favorite FOSS Applications

2012-01-30T16:05:00.000-06:00

People like stuff that is free. People like lists of things. Today I am going to put these two things together with the following list of my favourite FOSS (free open source software) applications.

Web Browser: Firefox

Platforms: Linux, Windows and OSX

I know Chrome/Chromium have gained a lot of popularity in the past year, but I still like Firefox most as my primary web browser. My two pmain reasons for this are the fact that it generally renders text "nicer" than most webkit-based browsers and the fact that it integrates with most Linux desktops more fully than Chromium does.

IRC Client: Xchat

Platforms: Linux and Windows

Xchat is a fairly straight forward GTK IRC client. It supports a variety of features, but also is clean enough to simply let me get right into the chat room I want without much configuration.

Instant Messenger: Pidgin

Platform: Linux, Windows and OSX

When it was first created it was known as "gaim", but today many know the popular GTK instant messenger client as "Pidgin". Supporting a number of messenger types including AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN and many others - Pidgin is a very versatile messaging client.

Torrent Client: Transmission

Platforms: Linux and OSX

Transmission is fairly light bit torrent client that has both GTK and QT interfaces. It is stable and fairly feature rich while staying out of the user's way. It supports many commonly used torrent features such as setting download/upload speed limits and prioritising downloads.

FTP Client: Filezilla

Platforms: Linux, Windows and OSX

The swiss army knife of FTP clients Filezilla supports many common transfer protocols including FTP, SFTP, FTPS, and FTPES.

PDF Viewer: ePDFViewer

Platform: Linux

ePDFViewer is a very simple and light weight PDF viewer that utilises the GTK and poppler libraries.

Office Suite: Libre Office

Platforms: Linux, Windows and OSX

Libre Office is a full featured office suite that provides a word processor, spreadsheet editor, presentation creator and much more. It is written in C++/Java and was forked from OpenOffice.org a little over a year ago.

Video Editor: Openshot

Platform: Linux

Easily one of the best open source projects to be started in the last couple of years. Openshot is a non-linear video editor that is written in mostly in python and GTK. The interface is clean and generally makes finding whatever function you are looking for fairly easy.

Video Ripping: Handbrake

Platforms: Linux, Windows and OSX

Ever have a video DVD you purchased and wanted to backup in case you lose or scratch the disc? Handbrake is the perfect tool for this task. It will simultaneously rip and encode a variety of media formats to a variety of other different media formats.

Disc Burning: XFBurn

Platform: Linux

Part of the XFCE software collection XFBurn is a to the point disc burning software based on libburnia. In case you hadn't noticed by now I am a fan of "simple and clean" software and XFBurn is no exception to this rule.

Media Player: VLC

Platforms: Linux, Windows and OSX

VLC is a multi-media player that is written in QT. It's most valuable asset is the fact that all of it's many multi-media codecs are self contained - meaning it can play nearly any media format right after installation without the need for installing system wide codecs packages.

Now, take note that I mention these are my favorite applications - not that they are always the best application for every possible task. Odds are there are others that are just as good (or better) in some situations than the ones I listed. One of the best things about FOSS is the ability to choose what you want to use. So try lots of different software and find which applications work best for you.

~Jeff Hoogland

Introducing E17's Notification Module

2012-01-25T12:07:00.000-06:00

The Enlightenment developers are busily hacking away as always. There are so many SVN commits to the E repository that it is easy to over look new features if you aren't looking for them. A nifty little module recently made its way into the core of Enlightenment though - its called "Notification". Notification is a native E alternative to other notification daemons such as notify osd.

If you have a recent Enlightenment build you will find Notification under the core E modules:

Simply loading the module is enough for it to start working. However as is the case with most of the E17 desktop, the Notification module is fairly configurable:

The notifications themselves are sleek, simple and stay out of your way:

The Notification module should work with all applications that work with other notification daemons such as notify osd.

~Jeff Hoogland

On the Topics of Software, Average Users and User Friendliness

2012-01-24T14:02:00.001-06:00

The term "average user" is something you hear thrown around a lot with regards to software. Pro-Linux, on the desktop, people often make claims on why it Linux ready for this "average user" (shoot even I've done it on occasion). There are also those who feel Linux should be pigeon-holed into a server room and on to mobile devices, they will make the exact opposite claim. They say Linux on the desktop isn't ready for this "average user".

My question to you all is:

Who is this "Average User"?

I've often been told I am not one of these "average users" because I create and distribute software. Who is then? Is my brother the level designer an "average user"? Is my fiancée the accountant an "average user"? Is my mother the tutor an "average user"? What exactly is the criteria to be in the group of people so many seem to be trying so desperately to make software for?

Often hand-in-hand with this idea of an "average user" is the concept of "user friendliness". In fact a drive to make our user interfaces even more "user friendly" is what has caused the radical changes in the Gnome desktop (and of course the creation of Unity).

What is "User Friendly"?

From what I can gather, something is only "user friendly" if an "average user" can sit down in front of it and do exactly what they want with zero direction.

Where on earth did this idea come from?

When you first learned algebra - was it expected to be something you could just "figure out" with no guidance? How about learning a language? Science? History?

Why is the standard different for learning software?

Actually, I take that last question back. There are lots of classes for learning about software. I've seen classes for learning how to use Windows, Photoshop, Microsoft Office... the list goes on! Are these pieces of software considered "user friendly" and ready for the "average user" even though we offer classes to learn how to use them? Yep.

Why is the standard different for Linux then?

Some food of thought. Please give me some input on any/all of my questions by dropping a comment below.

~Jeff Hoogland

Bloathi Linux

2012-01-18T12:24:00.000-06:00

Bodhi Linux is mainly built around two things - the Enlightenment desktop and a minimalistic approach to software. Even with these goals stated we still have users (and review writers) that complain about the lack of pre-installed software Bodhi comes with by default.

With this in mind one of the Bodhi forum members, Timmy, has put together a remaster of the latest Bodhi ISO image that he has cleverly called

"Bloathi Linux"

Bloathi is simply the latest Bodhi release with a slew of pre-installed software setup on it. By default it comes with:

Envision
GEdit (Replaces Leafpad)
Jockey-GTK (Maybe better known as "Hardware Drivers")
LXKeyMap (Keyboard Layout Switcher)
LXRandr (Monitor Settings)
XScreensaver
Sun Java 6 (JRE and plugin)
Gnome System Monitor
Gnome System Manager
Qalculate
Inkscape
LibreOffice
Pinta
Simple Scan
Firefox
Pidgin
Thunderbird
Transmission
DeaDBeeF
VLC
Xfburn
Adobe Acrobat Reader
ubuntu-restricted-extras
adobe-flashplugin
bodhi-filesharing
bodhi-printing

You can find the ISO (and md5sum) for the disc hosted on source forge here. If you'd like to make suggestions for Timmy, you can find a forum thread he has posted here.

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux ARM Beta Release for Genesi Smartbook

2012-01-17T23:36:00.000-06:00

Much to my fiancée's dismay my little Genesi Smartbook has been occupying much of my time of the late. In fact, just six days ago I posted about how to get an early build of a Bodhi ARM file system for the Smartbook.

Today I am happy to announce a more functional release for the Genesi. Audio now works and permissions have been sorted out so the normal user can shutdown the system. Beyond these bug fixes this release (and future releases) are coming in an easier install media. We will now be providing two different .img files for the Smartbook, you can find them for download here.

One of the images is a live image. Use this one if you want to simply run Bodhi from your SD card. The second is an installer image. Simply boot it up, follow the on screen prompts and Bodhi will be installed to the internal SSD of the Smartbook. IMG files allow for simply loading these images onto an SD card with a single command:

sudo dd if=myfile.img of=/path/to/sdcard bs=1M

You can also load the image onto your card via a GUI if you are into that sort of thing. Please note this command may take five minutes or longer to complete. Once you get the system online the user name is "bodhi" with password of "bodhi". Sudo is setup for this user by default.

Next on my ARM todo list is to get our App Center working and putting together a formal tutorial for getting Bodhi running on the HP Touchpad.

Finally, if you run into any issues please let us know in the Genesi section of our forums.

~Jeff Hoogland

People in Closed Source Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones

2012-01-16T13:19:00.000-06:00

I wrote a post late last year when all the news first started being posted (pretty much everywhere) about the Windows 8 "secure boot" support. Well folks, the open source news media is at it again - Microsoft has announced they are doing exactly what we thought they would - they are implementing secure boot on Windows 8 ARM devices. There have been various blogs and even decent open source websites posting foolish notions such as:

Microsoft ready to war with Linux

Did Microsoft Just Kill Ubuntu Tablets?

I say these notions are foolish because they imply that Microsoft is doing something that isn't already being done.

Do these people have any idea how many Linux based ARM devices don't allow dual booting? Do they have any idea how many Linux based ARM devices exist, were even if you can dual boot them they lack hardware functionality in alternative operating systems due to closed source drivers?

Before you tar and feather me for not jumping on the Microsoft bashing bandwagon - please stop and count the number of ARM devices you've tried to install an alternative operating system (such as Debian) on. Personally, the number of different pieces of hardware I've worked with is into the double digits now. Do you know how many devices I've managed to get full functionality out of?

Exactly one.

Thats right, until I'd recently started working with the Genesi Smartbook alternative operating systems were always crippled on the various ARM devices I owned. If you can prove me wrong here - really, please do! I would love to have more ARM devices that I can run Linux on fully.

So maybe, just maybe, the open source news media needs to stop and take a deep breath and realise that the ARM platform as a whole is a giant mess with regards to software freedom. Microsoft isn't doing anything new here - they are simply following in the footsteps of companies everywhere of creating locked down mobile devices. So please, if you are going to continue calling out Microsoft as the ARM anti-christ please be sure to include all those other companies involved with ARM that also hate software freedom.

~Jeff Hoogland

Genesi MX Smartbook Review

2012-01-14T15:18:00.001-06:00

Genesi currently offers two products with the EFIKA mx51 ARM board. They are the SmartTop and the SmartBook. I own one of their SmartBook models and today I would like to do a comprehensive overview of the device.

Size/Weight:
The size of the Smartbook is exactly what netbooks where intended to be when they where first created. It is thin and lightweight while still being a functional tiny laptop. The device weighs just under 1 kilogram and has a form factor of 160x115x20mm.

Hardware:
The Smartbook sports an 800mhz ARM processor, 512MB of RAM and 16gb of internal storage. One of the benefits of being an ARM chip is that the Smartbook is fan-less - making it silent while running. For wireless connectivity the device has b/g/n support for wireless networks, as well as 2.1 + EDR for bluetooth and optional 3g support. In terms of ports the Smartbook has two USB jacks, SD card slot, micro SD card slot and an audio out port. The screen is your typical 1024x600 resolution you get on most 10" netbooks to date.

The keyboard on the Smartbook is easily the best keyboard I have ever used on a 10" netbook. It has a full six rows of keys and takes up over 90% of the width of the device. It is a chicklet design so typing is a smooth and easy process. The track pad in contrast to the keyboard might very well be the worst track pad I've ever used on any netbook or laptop. It is tiny and the left/right click buttons are awkward to press down. Thankfully it has the saving grace of being able to left click by simply tapping on the pad. Holding a left click and moving the mouse is a painful process though.

The hardware in the Smartbook isn't going to break any land speed records, but then again if you need some serious computing power odds are a netbook isn't for you.

Software:
The Smartbook comes with Ubuntu 10.10 as it's default operating system. Honestly the default Gnome 2 desktop is a bit sluggish on the Smartbook hardware. Thankfully the power of the Ubuntu repositories is at your finger tips and you can very easily install LXDE or some other light-weight desktop of your choice. Because the Smartbook is an ARM device, some closed source technologies (such as Adobe Flash) do not support it.

If you are not a fan of Ubuntu, fear not - because the Smartbook is easily one of the most open source friendly ARM devices currently in existence. I just recently published a guide for getting Bodhi running on the device. Beyond this I know other people have had success running Debian, Arch and Gentoo on the Smartbook.

Battery:
One of the most important questions with any netbook - what is the battery life? Due to it's ARM processor the Smartbook sees far better battery life than any other netbook it's weight. On a full charge with average usage the Smartbook sees between 6 and 7 hours of battery. The battery itself is also easily removable/replaceable.

Cost:
One of the most attractive things about the Smartbook is it's price tag. The Smartbook will only set you back 199 USD. Not a bad price at all for this little guy.

Wrapping Up:
I've had my Smartbook for a couple of months now and all in all I am very pleased with it. In fact the only thing that I dislike about it (and was mentioned above) is the trackpad on it. This really isn't a huge deal though as I've taken to carrying around a small USB mouse for when I need to do a good deal of mouse work - which isn't often.

Whether or not the Smartbook is right for you is something only you can decided. If you are looking for something light, portable and a very good battery life - there is no beating the Genesi Smartbook.

~Jeff Hoogland

New Job, Old Operating System

2012-01-13T16:06:00.000-06:00

You really don't know how good something is until you don't have it any longer. This is a statement that is very much the truth. I started a new graduate assistant position this week at Illinois State University. I will be doing a variety of tasks in this position and some of them involve work on the computer.

The operating system on the computer I will be working on? You guessed it - Windows 7.

The last time I used Windows full time XP was still still the latest stable Windows release (cause lets be honest, I don't consider Vista a stable release). Kubuntu 7.04 was the first Linux LiveCD I ever burned and I haven't looked back since. Its amazing all the little things you miss when you don't have them any longer.

I was working in two applications at once, so instinctively I went to move the second application to a different workspace...

Only to realize I couldn't.

I went to find a copy and paste manager, there wasn't one installed. So naturally I sought out the package manager to install one...

Wait, there isn't a package manager?

Comon - even the smart phones most people carry around have a "App Store" which is really just a front end for package management! Sure, I could just search for whatever application I wanted on Google - but installing applications that have access to system data from random internet sources just doesn't seem terribly safe.

The biggest annoyance I ran into (and someone please let me know if I can make Windows 7 do this)? alt+left click to move a window. I didn't realize how often I used that when pushing applications around on my screen. It just feels terribly inefficient to have to move the mouse all the way to the top of an application to relocate it on the screen.

It's really funny the things you don't realize you have gotten used to having. Needless to say the 20 hours a week I will be working on campus for this next year will be a trail in patience with technology for sure.

~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Bodhi Linux on Genesi Smartbook

2012-01-12T15:35:00.002-06:00

I mentioned a short while ago that Genesi had become a Bodhi affiliate. They sent me one of their Smartbooks to get hacking at and today I would like to share my first batch of public files for it. The following is a short HOWTO for getting a Debian Wheezy file system with the Bodhi Enlightenment desktop running on your Genesi Smartbook.

EDIT/Update: Below are the manual install instructions. For a simpler method see here.

First - Preparing the SD Card:

You will need an SD card that is at least 4GB. We need two partitions on this card, the first is a small EXT3 partition (at least 64MB) and then a second EXT4 partition that takes up the remainder of the card. Use your tool of choice to prepare the SD card, personally I prefer "GParted":

Second - Getting the Files:

Two archives contain everything you need to get Bodhi rolling on your Smartbook. Grab the latest rootfs and boot partitions from here.

Third - Extracting the Files:

Place the boot archive in the ext3 partition of your SD card and extract the files there. Place the rootfs archive in the ext4 partition of your SD card and extract the files there.

Thats it - you are all set! Simply place the SD card in your Smartbook and boot it up. In a few moments you should be greeted with an Enlightenment desktop. The default user information is:

Username: bodhi
Password: bodhi

The bodhi account is configured to be able to use "sudo", but a root account is also in existence with a password of "bodhi".

Known Issues:

This is a early release for others wanting to help me test and debug things. It is fairly functional in it's current state, but please be aware of two issues with the first release I am aware of -

Audio is non-functional
Shutdown/Restart/Suspend cannot be done via Enlightenment Menu

If you figure out a fix for either of these please pass it along!

Installing to Internal Memory:

If you like the Bodhi image and want to install it to your internal system memory (typically much faster than an SC card) it is fairly easy to do so. By default the internal drive has two paritions, one located at /dev/sda1 and a second at /dev/sda2. Mount these while booted from the SD card and remove their current contents. Then simply extract the boot archive to /dev/sda1 and the rootfs to /dev/sda2. Finally, you will need to remove the default boot.scr the boot archive provides and rename the boot.scr.sda to simply boot.scr

Trouble Shooting:

If you encounter an issue getting Bodhi setup on your Smartbook please do not leave a comment here about it. Instead open a thread in the Genesi Section of our user forums.

Photos:

Finally here are a couple of slightly terrible photos of Bodhi booted on my Genesi.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Three Great Linux Gaming Services/Applications

2012-01-05T01:51:00.001-06:00

Today I would like to take a moment to talk about three different ways to get access to some great games on your Linux PC. They are DJL, Desura and Gameoltih.

DJL -

DJL is an installable application that manages various games you can install from their repository. Their repository currently contains over 120 games that are all free to download. The user interface is fairly well designed and is easy to navigate:

DJL installs all game files to a single folder that you configure the first time you launch the application. While it is nice having all your game data located in one place, the draw back to this is that the games are not installed with your distribution's package manager.

Something I really like about DJL is that you can sort the games both by the type of game that they are:

And by what license their code is provided under (if at all):

DJL is fully open source and is written in QT and Python 2.5. DJL does not provide access to purchasing closed source games for the Linux platform.

Desura -

Desura is very similar to DJL in many ways. It is also open source and an installable application for managing games:

As you will notice from the screen shot above Desura offers games for purchase - this is it's largest difference from DJL. Two other things worth noting is that Desura also provides community rankings of games and you can register a good deal of your Humble Bundle applications through Desura:

In addition to commercial games, Desura houses a good deal of free (both as in beer and as in freedom) applications. My only complaint is that Desura does not have as nice of a search function as DJL. Yes I can sort games by type or by who made them, but there is no (obvious) way to sort games by cost. Desura doesn't have quite as many games as DJL, but their catalog currently contains just under 100 titles for Linux.

Finally, Desura installs all of your applications into a single directory in the same way DJL does. It does not let you to select which folder everything gets installed into by default though (mine installed to ~/desura). You can however easily move this folder and create proper symlinks if you would like your game data stored elsewhere (like on a storage partition).

Gameolith -

This option is fairly different from the first two I listed. For those of you out there that are into the who "cloud movement" Gameolith will be perfect for you. Instead of having an installable application, Gameolith utilizes a web front end for installing and managing your games:

Unlike the first two options, Gameolith only allows you to obtain and install games for purchase (AKA non-free applications). Once you purchase a game it is automatically added to your profile page:

One real advantage Gameolith has over DJL and Desura is that games you purchase through Gameolith can be installed via your system's package manager so long as you are using a Debian or Fedora based Linux distribution:

As you can see they also provide both 32 and 64bit binaries. If your package manager digests something other than RPMs or DEBs you are not out of luck, Gameolith also provide generic compiled files in tarbel form:

The only major draw back to Gameolith is the size of their current software selection. As of posting this they have only 16 games for purchase.

Closing -

In short all three of these provide different features. Which is best for you depends on what your needs are as a user. As I know information can get spread out over a post like this the following is a quick table summary of which features each of these services have:

Feature:	DJL	Desura	Gameolith
Installable Client	x	x
Commcercial Games		x	x
Free Games	x	x
Web Interface		x	x
Package Manager			x
Needs No Account	x
Large Game Selection	x	x

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux Release Schedule

2011-12-30T14:18:00.002-06:00

With the recent release of Bodhi Linux 1.3.0 I've had a few questions as to what our release cycle is exactly. I'd like to take a short moment today to clarify what exactly on current release schedule looks like. Our version numbering looks something like this:

x.y.z

Where x represents a major release, y represents an update (or point) release and z represents a bug fix release.

We have a two year major release cycle. These releases will be centered around each new Ubuntu long term support (LTS) release. Our goal is to release our new major version in the July following the release of an Ubuntu LTS. Because we have such a long major release cycle, we will be releasing our "update" releases every three months. The goal of update releases is to keep the software on the LiveCD current and continue making small improvements to the default look of the system. Finally our bug fix releases will happen as needed when an issue is discovered with the default configuration.

And because people like time lines, this is what our release cycle for the next couple years looks like:

1.4.0	March 2012
1.5.0	June 2012 – Last Update release to our 10.04 base
2.0.0	July 2012 – First Stable release to our 12.04 base
2.1.0	September 2012 – First Update release to our 12.04 base
2.2.0	December 2012
2.3.0	March 2013
2.4.0	June 2013
2.5.0	September 2013
2.6.0	December 2013
2.7.0	March 2014
2.8.0	June 2014 - Last Update release to our 12.04 base
3.0.0	July 2014 - First Stable release to our 14.04 base

Pretty straight forward and obviously the only deviation from this list would be bug fix releases that may or may not be needed. Have any questions feel free to drop a comment below.

~Jeff Hoogland

Dear Open Source Free Loaders

2011-12-29T16:04:00.000-06:00

This is an open letter to all the open source free loaders out there - you know who you are.

One day you heard about this awesome thing called free software. You didn't know about the difference between free as in freedom and free as in beer - nor did you care. You came here simply because you heard you could get something for nothing.

As soon as you have your something, you are content - for the moment. Then something does not behave as expected, you can't figure something out or a true issue occurs.

You don't ask for help.

You don't report there is an issue.

You don't help fix the problem at hand.

You know what you do. We all know what you do. You proclaim loudly for all to hear that the thing you got for free doesn't work properly. You call it garbage. You call it trash. You walk away from the product, leaving it worse for wear. You won't be missed.

In fact, check your Paypal - there is a full refund sitting in your account. Don't come back.

Today, I implore you - don't be an open source free loader. Free and Open Source Software is software written by a community, for a community. Without give an take on both ends (developers and users) things will never improve. The developers have given you software to use, the least you can do is give valid feedback. Remember - if you aren't part of a solution, then you are part of the problem.

A short rant from a sometimes tired developer,
~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Setup Comp-Scale under Enlightenment

2011-12-27T13:17:00.000-06:00

What is Comp-Scale?

Comp-Scale is an Enlightenment module that uses compositing features to allow you to switch between active windows and your current virtual workspace in a fancy method.

Installing Comp-Scale:

If you are using Bodhi Linux comp-scale is installed by default on your system. If you are using a different base system I advise building the latest comp-scale module from the E SVN.

Loading Comp-Scale:

If you installed the module correctly you can now go to Settings->Modules->Look and load Comp-Scale:

Setting Up Comp-Scale:

There are two different methods of settings up Comp-Scale. First you can simply add click-able gadgets (Settings->Gadgets) to your desktop or shelf:

Or you can setup key bindings:

What does Comp-Scale Look Like?

The first gadget - Scale Windows - gives you a composited view of all the windows on your active work space:

The second gadget - Scale all Windows - displays all open applications running across all your work spaces:

Finally, the third gadget - Scale Pager - triggers an overview of all your virtual work spaces:

Closing:

Short Enlightenment tutorials are something I hope to start doing on a regular basis. The Enlightenment desktop is extremely flexible and there are a great number of things you can do with it. Personally I learned everything I did about the desktop largely by following the IT flow chart and I advise everyone else interested in learning the desktop to do the same. The Bodhi Guide to Enlightenment is also a great resource for learning the E17 desktop.

If there is something you are interested in learning how to do, drop a comment below and hopefully I can address it in a future post

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux 1.3.0 Releases

2011-12-23T05:19:00.000-06:00

All of our Bodhi users have been good little boys and girls this year it seems! So good in fact we are giving you your present a day early. The Bodhi team and I are happy to announce our next update release - Bodhi 1.3.0. While you will not find any earth shattering new features in this release there are many minor improvements.

Most notably you will find the use of the new "itask" module in three of our profiles, it is far more flexible than our old taskbar module. Also worth noting is that our installer slide show has gotten a much needed make over, along with further updates to our on disc documentation and a pretty new installer icon:

Software wise you will find a fresh Enlightenment desktop built from SVN this week and the Midori 0.4.2 web browser. In terms of themes this release features Agust, BlingBlack, PinkBodhi and Sunshine.

You can find our high speed torrent download here or the slower direct download here. As this is just a minor release current Bodhi users can easily update their systems to these packages following the directions here (it is recommend you do a full reboot or at least X restart after these updates).

In other Bodhi related news I have been hacking happily away at Bodhi for ARM. Beyond our Genesi partner hardware I have been working at getting file systems prepared for the Nokia N900 and the HP TouchPad running Bodhi's enlightenment desktop. These file systems will be based on Debian Wheezy (The current squeeze release lacks enough ARM support to be used).

Finally have a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/Great New Year Linux folks. Oh - and don't forget to vote on your favorite Christmas themed desktop this weekend!

Ho, ho, ho - Hoogland over and out!

HOWTO: Get right to X with No Display Manager

2011-12-22T23:17:00.001-06:00

GDM, KDM, LXDM, LightDM - so many display managers so little time! If your not sure what a "Display Manager" does on your Linux system, in short it is the piece of software that starts your graphical user interface and manages your user login. I've been doing more and more work with ARM hardware of the late and most times with embedded devices there is little (or no) need for a display manager to be present. You want to get right to your desktop and just start using the system.

If you have a single user computer odds are you also have no need for a display manager to be cluttering your system. The solution is to simply have your desktop GUI of choice auto-start when the computer turns on. To do this we are going to use a simple, but effective, piece of software cleverly called "NoDM".

Before we begin, you first need to disable or uninstall any current display managers running on the system (look into your display manager documentation on doing this, it varies with each display manager).

Next you need to install NoDM. On a Debian/Apt based system it is as simple as running:

sudo apt-get install nodm

After your package manager works it's magic you need to edit at least two lines in the NoDM configuration file. Typically this file is located at /etc/default/nodm, to edit it open it as super user with your preferred text editor. For example:

sudo leafpad /etc/default/nodm

The default configuration file should look something like this. The two lines we need to edit most are:

NODM_ENABLED=false

and

NODM_USER=root

The first line you simply need to change to read:

NODM_ENABLED=true

The second line you need to make equal to the username you want to be logged in with.

Finally you need to tell your system what type of session to start when X is spawned. For instance I prefer to use the Enlightenment desktop, so in my ~/.xsession file I add the following line:

enlightenment_start

To add this line to your .xsession file via the CLI simply run:

echo enlightenment_start > ~/.xsession

If you are using a desktop other than Enlightenment you will need to figure out what that desktop's start up command is. Have any questions feel free to drop a comment below and I'll do my best to help out.

Cheers,

~Jeff Hoogland

Linux Desktop Environment Round Up

2011-12-21T18:02:00.001-06:00

A year and a half ago I did an entry entitled "Overview and Explanation of Linux Desktop Environments". Anyone that is in the technology field (or knows even a little bit about it) knows that 18 months is a like a life time in the world of tech. Today I would like to re-cap my previous post with a few additions that have been added in recent months and mention a few desktops I missed last time.

I'm going to list a good deal of desktops today, so in order to keep things organized I'm going to group them based on the toolkit they are written in.

GTK Desktops

Gnome Shell -

The flagship desktop for a number of popular Linux distributions (including Red Hat's community driven Fedora). Gnome Shell has taken a good deal of flak in recent months due to the drastic changes this release implemented compared to the previous Gnome 2 version. As of this posting the latest version of Gnome Shell is 3.2 and it looks something like this:

Gnome Shell is written in C (and some Java Script) and utilizes the GTK3 toolkit.

Mate -

This is a fairly recent fork of the code base of the older Gnome 2 desktop. With the idea of "don't fix what isn't broken" the Mate desktop sticks to maintaining the a Gnome 2 desktop experience without making drastic changes. For many Linux users it will be a familiar and welcoming experience:

Since Mate is a fork of the old Gnome 2 code base it utilizes the GTK2 toolkit. Mate is still a very new project and as such no Linux distributions use it as their default desktop currently.

Unity -

The brainchild of Ubuntu's SABDFL, Unity is a desktop also written in the GTK3 toolkit. Similar to Gnome Shell, Unity brought with it drastic change to the Linux desktop experience. Whether that change is for better or worse really depends on who you ask. The Unity desktop is fairly new, but it has gone through heavy development work in the last year due to the large testing base of the Ubuntu community and the other resources Canonical has available to them. At any rate when you first load Unity your desktop will look something like:

Unity is the default desktop for the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

LXDE -

This desktop utilizes the GTK2 toolkit and has a focus on speed. Written to be lightweight LXDE will take only a small toll on your computer's resources. One of the best things about LXDE is that all of it's pieces are fully independent. This means you can use the LXDE file manager (or any other part) under any other desktop without having to install all of LXDE with it. LXDE is a more traditional desktop setup and has a similar default layout to Windows 2000/XP:

LXDE is the default desktop of the Peppermint Linux distribution.

XFCE -

Slightly older and more mature than LXDE, XFCE is also a desktop written in GTK2 that is designed to be lightweight. XFCE latest version as of this posting is 4.8 and it's default layout looks something like:

The primary version of Salix OS features the XFCE desktop.

Cinnamon -

This is a very new desktop. So new in fact that if you click the above link you will see it simply goes to a GITHub page. Cinnamon is a fork of the Gnome Shell code base that is going to be maintained by the Linux Mint developers. It's goal is to utilize advanced features the GTK3 toolkit while still providing a more traditional desktop experience. An early screenshot of this desktop looks something like:

This is only speculation, but since the Linux Mint team is going to be maintaining this desktop one would guess that their distribution will be using it eventually as their default desktop.

QT Desktops

KDE -

This is one of the oldest Linux desktop environments. KDE provides a full and rich user experience. KDE is modular and provides a number of widgets you can add and remove from your desktop. KDE is also fairly flexible in appearance and offers both a traditional looking desktop layout:

And a "netbook" layout that is optimized for small/touch screens:

As of this posting KDE's latest stable release is 4.7. In my opinion Chakra Linux provides one of the best KDE experiences to date.

Trinity -

The Trinity desktop does for KDE's older 3.5 release what the Mate desktop does for Gnome's 2.x series. It's goal is to simply maintain the old desktop, fix bugs and keep it functional. The latest release as of this posting is 3.5.13 and it looks something like this:

At this current point there are not any Linux distributions that use Trinity as their default desktop.

Razor -

Sometimes called "Razor QT" is what I would call the "LXDE" of QT desktop environments. It aims to be modern and functional while still maintaining a light weight status. This is also a fairly new project as far a software goes (currently only at a 0.4 release), but it is functional. Currently it's default desktop looks fairly close to this:

As of yet there are no Linux distributions that use Razor QT as their default desktop.

EFL Desktop

Enlightenment -

E17 or Enlightenment is currently the only desktop environment based on the EFLs (Enlightenment Foundation Libraries). E17 is currently under heavy development (and thus lacking some features), but in it's current state it is fast, flexible and stable. E17 is a modular desktop that is highly customizable. It can have a more traditional desktop layout:

Or one that is more optimized for a touch screen:

Bodhi Linux is a distribution that features Enlightenment as it's default desktop.

Window Managers

Beyond the various desktops, there are a number of Window Managers that can be used either in combination with the above desktops or on their own. I am only going to talk about one of these Window Managers today, but you can find a fairly good list of them here.

Openbox -

The Openbox Window Manager is easily the most popular Window Manager to date. It is favored due largely to how fast it is. It is recommended for use with both the LXDE and Razor QT desktops. Openbox is fairly flexible though and can be used all on it's own. If you are using pure Openbox it can look like a variety of things including:

ArchBang is a Linux distribution that utilizes just the Openbox Window Manager.

Follow Up

Which desktop is right for you will vary based on your needs. The best piece of advice I can give is try a few different ones out before settling on one. Hopefully you learned as much from reading this as I did from writing it. I believe I covered at least a small bit about each of what I believe to be all of the most important/major desktops. If I am missing anything or you would like to add something feel free to do so by adding a comment below.

Cheers,

~Jeff Hoogland

Application Spotlight: Qalculate!

2011-12-19T23:14:00.000-06:00

Today's application is my favorite calculator on a desktop computer (and my N900). It is called Qalculate!:

Qalculate! has all the features you expect from a calculator and has a fairly straight forward layout:

I like Qalculate! because in addition to being fairly simplistic in appearance it is also a powerful tool. Qalculate! supports creating your own functions and by default it comes with a slew of it's own:

As you may note from the menu Qalculate! also comes pre-programmed with a variety of scientific variables and various unit conversions (because the US is silly and still doesn't use the metric system!).

Beyond the functionality of Qalculate! it is also a well written tool because the calculations/tasks it performs are completed separated from the GUI front end. This means Qalculate! comes with more than one front end, currently it has both GTK and QT options (and I hope to see an EFL front end some day). If you have not yet tried Qalculate! out before I highly recommend it. You should be able to easily find and install it from your distribution's repositories (Bodhi users can also find it in the appcenter).

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Force Skype to use Alsa on Linux

2011-12-10T22:04:00.001-06:00

Like it or not Skype is a popular piece of software. In fact it is so popular it is the only piece of voice communication software a number of my friends will use. Because of this I have an account an use it on my Bodhi system every now and then (at least it has a native - if poor - Linux client and I don't have to run it via Wine). In case you didn't know - Bodhi ships with just the Alsa sound server by default (there are a number of reasons for this - none of which I am going to get into here) and luckily Skype installs and works perfectly fine with Alsa - until pulse audio shows up that is.

It seems something I installed recently drug pulse audio in with it as a dependency - this would be fine and dandy except for the fact that my Skype audio (input and output) 100% stopped with the addition of pulse audio to my system. Apparently the authors of Skype (in their infinite wisdom) made it so that if Skype is launched while pulse audio is installed Skype will use pulse (and only pulse) without the option to change back to Alsa. As I mentioned above my Skype audio was non-functional under pulse (for whatever reason) so I sought out a method for forcing Skype to use Alsa without having to remove pulse audio from my system.

The Solution -

To start, you need to close Skype and then kill the pulse audio server. To do this in one swift command open a terminal and run

killall skype && killall pulseaudio

Next you need to tell your pulse audio server not to auto launch itself (which it does by default). To do this we simply need to add one configuration setting to a file. To do this run the command:

nano ~/.pulse/client.conf

In the text file that is opened paste the following line:

autospawn = no

Save and close the file (ctrl+x when using nano), launch Skype and you should be good to go.

Hope this saves someone the 20 minutes I spent crawling around Google to track down this information.

~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Use APT without the Bloat

2011-11-17T11:20:00.001-06:00

Today I would like to share a small tidbit with all the users of APT distros out there. One of the reasons Bodhi Linux is so light weight and snappy is because when I install all the base packages for Bodhi I install them with the minimal amount of extra dependencies.

For whatever reason a good deal of Debian packagers like to tack on a whole slew of "optional" dependencies to the packages they create. By default apt-get installs all of these extra dependencies on your computer. If you are like me and don't want all the extra bloat it is as simple as running apt-get with on extra argument:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends foo

In the above example "foo" is the name of the package you wish to install. Doing this can save a good bit of space on your system. For example:

sudo apt-get install abiword

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends abiword

sudo apt-get install k3b

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends k3b

~Jeff Hoogland

One Year with Bodhi Linux

2011-11-16T10:52:00.001-06:00

Today marks the one year point from our first Bodhi Linux "0.1.0" release. I feel we have come a long way in such a short time and I am happy with everything the team has accomplished thus far. Would you believe that I first started Bodhi simply because I was tired of having to recompile E on each of my half dozen systems every week?

What has been done in the last year? Well we racked up over 150,000 ISO downloads between source forge and our torrent tracker alone (and over two-thirds of these downloads have been since our 1.0.0 release in March). In addition to disc downloads it would appear more people are actually using Bodhi due to the increase of server traffic (on our main mirror) we have experienced over the last year:

Our forums have also become fairly active. We total almost 30,000 posts now from our 1,600 users.

I would also like to take a moment to thank our community for all the contributions people have made. Our document wiki has been gaining more and more valuable content. It has become a truly great resource.

Beyond this I would like to thank everyone that has contributed a monetary donation. When the Bodhi project first started Ken and I paid out of pocket for all the server costs. Since we opened the door for donations in February we have more than covered our server costs each month. The 150$ our main mirror has cost the last couple months may not seem like much, but it is costly for two students to maintain on their own.

Looking to the future I'd just like to clear up a few release dates and plans our team currently has. First off our next update release (1.3.0) will be out towards the end of December. This will again be something current Bodhi users can easily update their systems to obtain - it's main goal is to keep the LiveCD current. We will continue to have these update releases for our 1.x.y versions until the release of Bodhi 2.0.0

Speaking of Bodhi 2.0.0 - this will be our next "major" release, meaning a full reinstall will be recommended for those wanting to move from the 1.x.y version of Bodhi. 2.0.0 will be re-based on the new Ubuntu LTS 12.04 version. With this version we also plan to add a 64bit version of Bodhi that will have workstations and multimedia production systems in mind. Since Ubuntu 12.04 releases in April expect to see Bodhi 2.0.0 sometime after that, most likely May or June.

While I'm on the topic of new architectures I'd like to also say we will be moving forward with our Debian based ARM build. I'm also excited to announce that Genesi has become a Bodhi Affiliate - meaning we plan to support our ARM build on their hardware once we get a bit further along. We also hope to extend our support to the Raspberry Pi devices as well once they are released.

Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy using Bodhi!

~Jeff Hoogland

Application Spotlight: Parcellite

2011-11-15T16:17:00.001-06:00

After getting a few comments on my post about NCDU I've decided I'm going to start doing a few posts a month with the topic of "Application Spotlight". Basically I am going to feature applications I use on my Linux desktop every week that I feel haven't seen enough attention in the FOSS world to date.

Today I would like to talk about a light weight clip board manager called:

Parcellite

A clipboard manager is one of those small things I have that make using my Linux desktop more enjoyable (it is also one of the things I miss the most when sitting down in front of someone else's computer). A clipboard manager essentially just saves the last couple of dozen lines you have saved with ctrl+c:

If you can't think of any situations in which a tool like this is useful I ask you to simply use it for a few days and you will find a few. I like parcellite because in addition to being stable it is also light weight, it's installation leaves a fairly minimal footprint (just a few GTK things).

Parcellite is also fairly configurable:

All in all I believe Parcellite is an excellent piece of software. It is almost always one of the first things I install while setting up a newly installed Linux distro. Give it a try and let me know what you think of it.

~Jeff Hoogland

Playing Magic the Gathering on Linux with Cockatrice

2011-11-14T11:06:00.001-06:00

If you ask almost anyone that knows me in person they will attest to the fact that I am a huge nerd. Today I would like to give a short tutorial on how I've combined two of my most nerdy passions:

Linux & Magic the Gathering

For the uninformed, Linux is my operating system of choice and Magic the Gathering is a trading card game created by Wizards of the Coast. I recently came across an open source application that is being written in C++ and QT4 called Cockatrice that allows you to play Magic the Gathering games over the internet for no charge. I intend to do a full review/overview of all the features Cockatrice offers at some point in the near future, today however I would simply like to go through how the get this excellent piece of software installed and setup on Linux.

Installation:

If you are using Bodhi Linux then you are in luck, Cockatrice is in our official repositories. Grab it from our App Center or by simply install it by running:

sudo apt-get install cockatrice

If you are running something other than Bodhi Linux that is still Debian based I try to keep the .deb packages I create fairly generic. You can try manually downloading and installing my package from here. If you now have Cockatrice installed you can skip down to configuration section below.

If that doesn't work (or if you are using some other distribution) compiling Cockatrice from source isn't a huge deal. The exact package names will vary based on your distribution but you need to first install: Git, GCC, QT4 Developmental, QT4 Mobility and Pulse Audio. Next run the following commands in order:

git clone git://cockatrice.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/cockatrice/cockatrice

cd cockatrice/cockatrice

lrelease cockatrice.pro

qmake && make

cd ../oracle

qmake && make

Depending on the speed of your system the make lines may take a little while, if all goes without errors you will be set to move on.

Configuration:

Next you just need to take care of a few configuration things and you will be ready to start slinging some cards. If you installed Cockatrice from my Debian package you will have two new menu entries under Applications->Games. First you need to run the Cockatrice card downloader (if you built Cockatrice from source run the command ~/cockatrice/oracle/oracle). You will be greeted with a window that looks like:

Click File->Download Sets and then select OK on the window that pops up. Next, check the boxes next to the sets you want to download (really it is best to just check them all) and hit start download:

Wait for this to finish (it will take a while based on how fast your internet is). Once it is done, load Cockatrice (~/cockatrice/cockatrice/cockatrice if you installed from source). You will be greeted by a configuration window that looks like:

You will need to select the path you want to save your decks and downloaded images in. These can be where ever you want (personally I put them right into my dropbox). The third entry needs to point to the card information you just downloaded though. If you installed with my Debian package this file should be located in /opt/cockatrice/oracle/cards.xml:

Once you set these three paths simply hit close and you should be greeted by the main Cockatrice window. Before you can play you will need to make a deck. The deck editor is select-able from the main menu:

Finally once you have a deck saved you can connect to the main cockatrice server and play a few games:

Have any issues feel free to drop a comment below and I'll do my best to help you out. If you see me online feel free to ask for a game - my user name is the very non-creative "JeffHoogland"

Have fun!

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux ARM Repository Online

2011-11-07T12:36:00.000-06:00

Five months ago I did a post announcing that we are working to bring Bodhi to ARM devices. I've been rather quiet about this part of our project since then. We are still finalizing the direction this part of our project is headed in, but for now we have landed on the choice of Debian Wheezy as our core. Our repository is currently online and you can easily install our Enlightenment packages on top of your Debian Wheezy ARM install by following these steps:

Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and add the following line (yes squeeze is correct):

deb http://packages.bodhilinux.com/bodhi/ squeeze stable

Save and close the file and then run:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install bodhi-desktop

Let apt work it's magic and you will soon have our customized Enlightenment desktop installed on your system (there are even some extra E modules in the repo). Our goal is to get our ARM packages as polished and stable as our x86 release on a variety of hardware.

I've recorded a short demo video of these packages running in a Debian chroot on my Nokia N900:

As you can see, still a little rough around the edges - but we will be improving these in the coming months. If you wish to help us test packages be sure to leave us some feedback on our forums.

Finally, we will not be officially supporting ArchOS Gen8 devices as we had hoped. The number of lacking closed source drivers they require make it impossible for us to achieve the level of polish on these devices we would like to see. Note the steps above work for installing Bodhi packages on your ArchOS after installing Debian.

~Jeff Hoogland

NCDU - The Answer to a Question

2011-11-06T18:34:00.000-06:00

The question is:

Where did all my disc space go?

The answer? An ncurses based application called NCDU. NCDU is a simple, light-weight disc-usage analyzer. I like NCDU because of it's few dependencies, in fact installing in on my system took less than 1mb worth of additional space. It is fast, because like all good applications it is written entirely in C.

To install NCDU on a Debian based system simply run:

sudo apt-get install ncdu

Then launch NCDU with:

ncdu /

Depending on how much space is taken up (and how fast your drives are) you will have to wait a moment while it indexes your files. After a few moments you will be greeted with a screen that looks something along the lines of:

Because this is an ncurses based application it does mean you have to use the keyboard to make your way around - not a mouse. The keys are fairly intuitive though and there is a handy dandy help screen should you need it:

Should you find a file/folder you no longer need while browsing with NCDU you can even delete it on the spot (just because doing this if you are in the / directory). Hopefully you will find this application as useful as I did when a stray log file gets far too large :)

~Jeff Hoogland

Team Work in Open Source Projects

2011-11-03T01:20:00.001-05:00

What makes a great open source project? Well, first off you have to have an idea. Then you need to execute said idea.

Just over a year ago I decided I wanted to help bring an easily accessible, Enlightenment desktop to Linux users that wanted it. Shortly after the Bodhi Linux project was started.

What has made our project the small success it is to date? Well first, we had a fairly unique idea. When we started we are one of very few distros that ship a default Enlightenment desktop.

You know what really helped us get to where we are today though? Team work. The old saying of "many hands make light work" holds true even in the process of software creation. While there is no doubting that I am the face man of the Bodhi project, this enlightening initiative has been a team project from the start. We started off as a small three man team:

Myself: Packaging Enlightenment and building the ISO image.
Jason Peel: Graphics and Web design.
Ken LaBuda: Server setup and upkeep

There is more to running a quality project than just servers and a website though. We soon found ourselves needing document writers, translators, code monkeys and IRC/forum moderators. Without even having to ask community members started coming forward to partake in these various tasks. This only reinforced what we already knew: Bodhi is a project worth having. The fact that so many other people were stepping forward to lend a hand is proof of this. To date we have over 30 people working on Bodhi to make it better for everyone.

Even if a single person had the ability to modify software, write documents, creature video tutorials, translate into over a dozen languages and create a website - there really just aren't enough hours in the day. So do your favorite open source project a favor: reach out and find out how you can help!

~Jeff Hoogland

Whats good for the Goose should be good for the Gander

2011-11-01T14:56:00.000-05:00

I think many in the world of FOSS take for granted that a good deal of our x86 compatible hardware works with their operating system of choice. In fact all the fuss about a possible lock out with the coming of Windows 8 attests to this fact. x86 hardware has always been fairly free and it should remain as such right?

Yes it should.

Something that really bothers me though is the fact that ARM hardware is treated in a very different way. What do I mean by this? Well as someone who has worked with over a dozen different pieces of ARM hardware from many different manufactures I can tell you installing an alternative operating system on such a piece of hardware is almost never a pleasant experience.

Before I go on I would like to clarify that by "install" I mean physically run the operating system on the hardware. Not just running it inside a chroot like so many Android users seem content to do on their hardware. In my opinion being told to be content with a chroot setup is just like being told I should be happy simply running Linux inside of Windows via a virtual machine.

Even devices that advertise themselves as open source loving (such as my beloved N900) are a nightmare and a half to install something such as Debian on. Don't be fooled by devices that ship things like Ubuntu Linux by default either. I recently purchased a Trimslice with the hopes of installing Debian on it and it has been an up-hill battle to make it work (one I still haven't won). Once you manage to get the operating system installed even that is only half the process - next you have to hope you can somehow get all your hardware functioning.

Why does all this headache happen? Well, partially it is because of lack of standards in the ARM world. A vast variety of hardware that all have different external components make this task difficult. This difficultly is multiplied two fold when you take into account that most of this hardware has no open specifications.

In the end my question to the open source community is why is this acceptable for ARM hardware? Why do you continue to rejoice about every new Android device that gets released riddled with closed source modules that are next to impossible to make work under actual Linux.

Just as many of you would be upset if you where told that desktop (or laptop) you bought had to keep it's default operating system I am more than a little annoyed that a good deal of the ARM hardware out there comes with this stipulation attached.

~Jeff Hoogland

Shuttleworth Misses the Point Yet Again

2011-10-31T17:47:00.000-05:00

I caught an article on Lxer.com entitled:

"Shuttleworth: Linux Power Users Aren't too Cool for Unity"

There are a number of quotes in the article from the originator of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, Mark Shuttleworth, that clearly attest to the fact he is completely missing what so many people find wrong with Unity. He starts with an completely misplaced "fact" for which he does not provide any backing:

"There is a bit of a myth that power users don't like and aren't interested in usability and ease-of use,"

Who ever said this? I've been using Linux for more than a few years now. I read many a different FOSS news wires and never before have I seen this idea thrown around. Perhaps there was an article or two I missed on this topic... At any rate Shuttleworth is going to continue digging a hole for himself:

"There is going to be a crowd that is just too cool to use something that looks really slick and there is nothing we can do for them,"

I can't speak for everyone, but I can at least speak for myself. I am not "too cool" to use something that looks "slick" (I mean comon, have you seen Enlightenment).

What I'm not about to use though is something that was clearly designed for a touch screen on my computer that has a 15+inch monitor driven by a keyboard and mouse. I'm not about to use something that is resource greedy. And I most certainly not about to use something that makes most all the choices for me about how my desktop should be laid out. I'm the one that is going to be using my computer - so how about I get to choose how the GUI works best for me?

I know everyone is bound to have one of those "open mouth insert foot" moments at one point or another, but Shuttleworth's blatant disregard for why users dislike Unity is just shocking to me.

~Jeff Hoogland

Q&A with Enlightenment Lead Developer "Rasterman"

2011-10-27T11:05:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of the Enlightenment desktop. I recently got into contact with the project's lead developer "Rasterman" and we did a little bit of a question and answer session. If you aren't sure on what all the Enlightenment desktop and the EFLs are exactly please see my post here.

How long have you been working on E for?

I remember when I started writing E. Dinosaurs were roaming the earth and things were much warmer... So that was back in 1996.

You've been the lead developer for Enlightenment for some time, did you work on any other desktop environments/projects prior to it?

Prior to enlightenment I was hacking on fvwm. fvm-xpm was a result of my
hacking and rxvt-xpm too. Beyond this I also wrote some trinkets like xflame (display flames in X in a window or on root even) xripple (create reflection ripples on your desktop background in x). Then I got sucked into the bottomless pit that is Enlightenment and have yet to escape.

What inspired you to create another desktop/window manager?

I had an itch. I scratched it. Frankly I just thought X was too plain and ugly
and needed some spicing up. I knew X could do it and people were just not
using the facilities it had, so I did.

In your opinion what are the EFLs strongest advantages over other libraries such as GTK or QT?

Smaller, leaner and built for a more modern graphics era. They are designed from the ground up as a scene graph. GTK and QT are just beginning to explore that and see the light. EFLs have been there and mature for many years now.

How much of Enlightenment/EFLs do you maintain personally?

Not all of them by any stretch. I mostly stick to ecore, evas, edje, embryo, eet, and elementary. Eina I throw things into now and again, but I don't tend to put a lot of time into that one. Efreet, e_dbus and eeze I mostly leave alone. E17 itself I do a large amount of work on still. Of course many others who work on these too to varying degrees, not just me, so it's a team effort.

How many active developers does Enlightenment currently have working on it?

In terms of fulltime developers spending 8+hours per day cranking out code, we have about 5 on a good day. If you just want to talk about the number of people actively sending in patches, it's about 20. If we had more manpower we could do so much more. Many developers just get distracted off into many other things (real life, their day jobs, other tasks etc.) most of the time.

Are you looking for more help with development?

ALWAYS!

Do you have any tips for aspiring programmers hoping to get started writing applications using the EFLs?

Start with the libraries that make things simplest - start with elementary.
It's the least code to get the most done. Work your way down. Get your head around the idea of a scene graph instead of immediate-mode rendering as well as a mainloop and callback-driven api's and you'll be golden.

I know Samsung funds Enlightenment development, do any other companies sponsor a sizable amount of development?

Right now, other than Profusion, not a sizable mount. There are smaller
companies involved here and there like ordissimo, calaos, free.fr, but I don't even know them all and have probably missed a few in my quick answer here.

Can you give us any hints about how Samsung plans to use the EFLs they are funding?

We are using them as part of a mobile platform that's basically a full Linux OS stack like your regular desktop linux distributions. It is being designed for mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and god knows what else (that's all pretty obvious given that it's the mobile os r&d that is doing the work).

As a developer what is your take on Gnome 3 and Unity?

Unity - I haven't been looking at too closely, but my take is that it's causing
a lot of unhappiness amongst users.

Gnome 3 - seems to have also created a lot of friction. Gnome 3 is now finally becoming tightly coupled like E17. They are in fact moving towards our model of things now, so I would guess it's a vote in favor for us having had the better model to begin with and being ahead of the curve. My general take on any environment that REMOVEs options from the user or makes them exceedingly hard to find or change, is that it does its userbase a disservice to the extreme. If you want to move options to "advanced" dialogs somewhere or something - fine, but removal is just bad.

Anything else you'd like to add/feel is worth mentioning?

In general I think EFL and E get a lot of things really RIGHT. We normally implement many things quietly without fanfare or blogs that you find other DE's and toolkits implementing with lots of publicity about their great new feature. We are a very behind-the-scenes group and are more conservative than most in actual publicity. This is something we really need to break out of somehow and improve. We don't "toot our own horns" enough. I really wish we had 1 or more people just devoted to doing public relations, blogs, announcements, press releases... the works.

I'd just like to say thanks to Raster for taking some time out of his day to field my questions. Hopefully you learned as much as I did.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

There is Free Software and then there is Free Software

2011-10-15T17:27:00.000-05:00

I think one thing that often confused people when they first get involved with free software is the difference between FOSS and freeware (or shareware). When speaking about open source software in my writings I try to always use the term "FOSS" which is an acronym for "free open source software". The source of this sometimes confusion can be sorted with the Latin statement:

Gratis versus Libre

Which roughly translates to:

"for zero price" versuses "with little or no restriction"

Or to simplify it even further to a common analogy first used by Richard Stallman:

"Think free as in free speech, not free beer."

Should Joe Average the end user care if their software is Gratis or Libre? Whether or not a program is truly free doesn't affect the user user right?

Wrong.

Having a truly open software model ensures that the piece of software you love using today you will still be able to love just as much tomorrow. It means you don't have to worry about a good piece of software having it's code base get bought out. It also means that if a developer chooses to abandon a piece of software other developers are free to continue working on said piece of software.

In fact the only reason for keeping your "free" software free as in beer is to prevent your users from having choice. By not having open standards you can easily lock users into not being able to easily change from using your software later on.

Not all free software is created equal. Some authors believe more in liberty than others - so next time you download a piece of software that is "free" be sure to find out which kind of free it is!

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux 1.2.1 and other Updates

2011-10-09T21:06:00.000-05:00

At little over a month ago the Bodhi team and I released our second update release. We were unaware at the time that the version of GCC used to compile the kernel on this release had an issue that caused an issue for some users when compiling and inserting extra kernel modules (such as the nvidia drivers and Virtual Box). This update release today contains a kernel in which this issue has been resolved.

If you already installed Bodhi 1.2.0 (or an earlier release) and your system is working fine (odds are it is, this issue was only affecting some users) there is no reason to install this new release. It is simply a bug fix release so the ISO image has the updated kernel by default.

You can find the new ISO image in high speed torrent download here or via direct download here.

Speaking of the nVidia driver - we know that jockey-gtk did not play nicely with Bodhi because we do not force kernel updates as Ubuntu does. Because of this we developed our own GUI tool that automates the installation of the current nVidia driver. You can find that here.

I would also like to publicly announce that our new browser based "App Center" is ready for use. While it may not look terribly different from the software page we had been using for the past several months, this new "App Center" has been written from scratch and no longer utilizes Doku Wiki. Currently the most notable new features are an RSS feed for new applications added and an "instant" search box.

We plan to add more features to the App Center in the future including user accounts that will integrate with our forums. While having an account on the App Center will be optional, it will eventually allow users to rate/comment on applications and most importantly it will allow them to save "App Sets" so that if they install Bodhi on another computer (or reinstall on the same one) they can easily re-download all their software with a single click.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

The Flashless Future

2011-10-04T17:44:00.000-05:00

Adobe Flash

Those two words have driven fear, annoyance and hate into the hearts of many users and developers for some time now. I am here to say today, in case you had not noticed, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I say with certainty that the days Adobe Flash enjoys as a dominant web development tool are numbered.

Don't believe me? Just take a look at the many popular flash based services that are moving away from the stale technology. Two such examples of this are the music streaming service Pandora (which is now fully HTML5) and the popular video streaming site Youtube (which currently offers a beta HTML5 version). Google+ also display any linked to Youtube videos using the HTML5 technology.

It isn't just websites that are predicting the end of flash though. Microsoft recently announced that it's new version of Internet Explorer for Windows 8 on ARM will not support plugins of any sort. In fact they went so far to state the obvious:

Java script and HTML5 technologies are the way of the future for web design.

While FOSS advocates such as myself have felt this way for some time it was wonderful to hear it come from the king of closed source software.

Finally, the last sign that flash will soon be a thing of the past is Adobe's own "Edge Technology". Edge is designed to help web developers create web content using only Java Script, HTML5 and CSS3. When even the creator of flash realizes their technology is on the way out I hope everyone else does as well.

~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Fix Alps Touch Pad Side Scrolling in Linux 3.0

2011-09-30T16:59:00.000-05:00

So in the copious amounts of spare time I don't really have these days I recently got the 3.0 kernel working on my Sony Vaio system. In the wonderful world that is Linux kernel regressions the side scrolling didn't work on the Vaio Alps touch pad with the newer kernel. Thankfully after a good deal of digging I found my solution on the Linux Answer machine.

To get your side scrolling working again run:

sudo modprobe -r psmouse
sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps

Note you will need to run these commands every time you start your computer (unless you add them to somewhere clever such as your /etc/rc.local file).

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Seven Things to do after Installing Bodhi Linux

2011-09-28T12:32:00.001-05:00

So you've taken the plunge and opted to install Bodhi Linux. Perhaps you read a recent review or one of the screen shots in our gallery caught your eye. Either way you've got a newly installed system and you might be wondering what exactly to do next. The following are seven things that are a good idea to do on a cleanly installed Bodhi system.

1.) Check for Updates
Bodhi Linux has a semi-rolling release model. By this we mean you can easily upgrade from one minor version to the next and we continue to push out package updates in between releases. To update your Bodhi install open LXTerminal from your applications menu and run:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Enter your password, press enter and then let APT work it's magic.

2.) Read the Quick Start

There are a lot of hard working people on the Bodhi team that try to bring you the best documentation possible. At the same time we know there is a lot of information to absorb when first using Bodhi. Because of this we have assembled everything you need to know to get started right off the bat in one handy guide. It is well worth taking a short while to look it over.

3.) Install Some Software

One of the things you will note about Bodhi Linux is that we have a minimal application set that gets installed by default. Fear not though - there are two powerful, graphical tools at your disposal for installing more software on Bodhi.

The first is our Application Center. Navigating to this page in the default Midori browser allows you to easily find and install an application for almost every task you can think of with just a few clicks. If you are not certain what software you might need we have assembled to application "packages" that each contain a group of software for making your computer fully functional. Our "Nikhila Application Set" is fully loaded for most any task you can think of and the "Pratibha Application Set" provides a full range of lighter applications that should run quickly even on older computers.

Feel free to take some time to look at all the other software that is listed on the page as well. Maybe even install a game or two.

Can't find what you are looking for on our software page? Don't worry - you can also find Synaptic package manager in your menu which will let you find and install anything in the Bodhi, GetDeb or Ubuntu repositories.

4.) Install Multi-Media Codecs

If you use VLC for your media needs or you only use open source codecs you can skip this step. However if you wish to use a music player such as Clementine or a video player such as mPlayer then you will need to install system wide codecs to support different types of media. You can install media codecs to support almost every media type that exists here. If you also plan to use your Bodhi machine for DVD playback you will also need to install the DVD library from here.

5.) Customize your Appearance

While Bodhi comes with a fairly good range of themes installed by default there are plenty more to be found! You can find over thirty different themes to choose from here. Find the one that best fits you taste/personality. If you are looking for even more customization you can find twenty different icon themes to easily install on your Bodhi system here.

6.) Get to Know Your Profiles

Not to be confused with your "theme", your selection of profile in the Enlightenment desktop determines how your desktop is laid out. When you first installed Bodhi you where asked what type of layout you wanted to have - this was the profile selection. If you come to discover after installing that you don't like your first profile choice (or simply want to try the others), you can easily change it without a reinstall. You can learn how to change profiles and many other things they can do here.

7.) Join the Community

We are generally a friendly lot. If you have a question you can't find the answer to in our document wiki (or if you just want to say hi). Let us know! You can chat with us on our forums or in #bodhilinux on FreeNode IRC.

Have any general questions feel free to drop a comment below as well.

~Jeff Hoogland

Two Years Blogging

2011-09-28T08:34:00.002-05:00

September is almost done and with it's end brings to a close my 24th month of writing Thoughts on Technology.

When I first started writing it was largely so I could document things I had figured out how to do technology related. As time progressed I wrote a few opinion pieces though and they took off. In fact they are now largely what I write, I do still publish HOWTO articles now and then though.

Would just like to say thanks to everyone that reads and comments on my work here. Honestly sometimes the comments are just as good (or better) than my posts :)

Beyond just Thoughts on Technology I have done guest posts (or have feeds) on a few different new websites now:

Happy computing all.

~Jeff Hoogland

That Whole Windows 8 Secure Boot Ruckus

2011-09-27T18:16:00.000-05:00

It was recently announced that Windows 8 would support a shiny new feature that is known as "secure boot". In case you have been living with your head under a technological rock for the last couple of weeks, this feature would allow hardware vendors would have the option of only allowing operating systems signed with their secure key to boot on the hardware.

This means that Linux, BSD and even older versions of Windows would not be able to boot on the hardware that ships with secure boot enabled.

A good deal of open source operating system users are upset at this announcement - and with good reason. Having a physical hardware lockout to prevent alternative operating systems from being used is very much bad news bears. Now, before I continue I'd just like to say I do not endorse Microsoft in any way, in fact I don't have any of their software installed on any of my (many personal computers). If you don't believe me take a little bit of a closer look around my blog.

That being said - I think everyone that is crying foul on Microsoft about this whole secure boot thing really needs to reexamine what is going on here.

Microsoft is simply adding a feature to their operating system. What do I mean by pointing this out? Simply that if a market lockout does happen at the hardware level it is the hardware makers you need to be outraged at. Just as easily as they can give their hardware key to Microsoft they can also give it to Linux distributions. In fact it will ultimately be up to the hardware maker whether they have secure boot enabled in their hardware at all.

Meaning that if you are really worried about the future of this feature - start contacting hardware vendors and stop attacking Microsoft for adding a feature to their operating system. In reality only time will tell what will happen with the addition of this feature to Windows 8.

I don't see anyone getting outraged at Google because they allow device makers to lock down ARM hardware. In fact ARM hardware is one of the hardest things around to install an alternative operating system to. Where is the outrage over this if we really want to see true software freedom for all devices?

If you are looking for more reading on this subject check out this excellent post.

So until we see how things pad out just chill out and keep using your favorite penguin powered operating system.

~Jeff Hoogland

The State of Linux on ARM

2011-09-22T15:48:00.000-05:00

Linux was designed to be a platform with freedom in mind. This freedom created in the computer industry something all humans should have - the power of choice.

ARM is often touted as one of Linux's largest successes. Thanks to Google's Android platform it is true that a penguin powers at least half of the world's mobile devices today.

Is this a bit of a hollow victory though?

Even with Android being as rampant as it is, if you have been by my blog here before you know I am not a fan of it. Earlier this year I described six reasons why I believe Android is fairly separated from Linux.

It appears I am not alone in my line on thinking here. Richard Stallman, the father of free software, himself appears to also agree (at least somewhat) with me:

"Google has complied with the requirements of the GNU General Public Licence for Linux, but the Apache licence on the rest of Android does not require source release. Google has said it will never publish the source code of Android 3.0 (aside from Linux), even though executables have been released to the public. Android 3.1 source code is also being withheld. Thus, Android 3, apart from Linux, is non-free software, pure and simple."

I said earlier Linux is all about choice though - so there have to be other mobile choices right? Well... There are some. In fact over a year ago I wrote why I was hoping for the Meego platform to take off.

Some thirteen months later it appears that the Meego project is waning in supporters though. While Nokia will be releasing the Meego powered N9 (not to mention the N9 is deb based, so its not fully Meego), they have basically abandoned free software for the long haul. The other partner behind Meego, Intel, appears to be splitting their focus as well.

So where does that leave Linux on ARM? As far as production devices go, it doesn't leave much of anything. Debian, Ubuntu and even Bodhi have ARM builds, but we have yet to see any of these options taken and mass produced successfully as of yet.

Only time will tell where Linux will end up in the world of mobile devices. It is fairly obvious though if you are a true free software supporter - You should not be one of the people hoping for Android to dominate.

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux Service Pack 2 Ready

2011-09-18T21:33:00.001-05:00

Ten days ago the Bodhi Team and I released our second update to Bodhi Linux 1.0.0 Today I am happy to let all of our users that have limited or no-internet access machines know that our service pack 2 is ready for download. For those that do not know our service packs allow for a single download upgrade of your Bodhi system from the previous stable release to the current (those still on Bodhi 1.0.0 will need to install service pack 1 followed by service pack 2).

You can download this latest service pack from here.

Install Images:

Install Video:

Have any questions feel free to drop a comment below.

~Jeff Hoogland

Something Gnome3 and Unity could Stand to Learn from Windows 8

2011-09-17T16:19:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned a few times now that I don't understand this touch infatuation technology has developed in recent years. What ever the reason, there is no doubting this technology is going to be around for some time. In the Linux world the releases of the Gnome 3 and Unity desktops have been pushing a touch-geared interface not only to touch-screen devices, but also the large screen of your home PC! Mac's OSX followed this line of thinking and it appears Microsoft's Window 8 will be no different:

Windows 8 Default Interface

It is still early, but there appears to be one important detail that Microsoft is getting correct that Gnome 3, Unity, and OSX all seem to have failed at.

They are making it easy to switch to a classic desktop.

If Microsoft's choke hold on the market still is any indication we should all know end users are very resistant to change. Up and redesigning the entire desktop experience because you think it is "for the best" is not about to win you any awards.

Sure Ubuntu 11.04 has a "classic desktop" login, but this will be removed in the 11.10 release. Sure Gnome 3 has a "fall back" mode, but you have to dig through settings to get to it and calling it "fall back" makes it sound like something is wrong with your computer if you are using it (which is half true as it is intended for use on systems that lack 3D acceleration). Not to mention this fall back mode supports far less options than Gnome 2 had, but then Gnome 2 also had less customization than Gnome 1, smell a pattern anyone?

So please, Gnome 3 and Unity developers (heck even OSX) take a hint from Windows 8 (because you sure as heck haven't taken any hints from Enlightenment) and make a stand desktop configuration option a priority - not an after thought.

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux Powered Tablet/Netbook Give Away

2011-09-14T20:28:00.000-05:00

Bodhi Linux 1.2.0 has been out of the gate for a full week now and I must say we are truly pleased with the response we have received. There has been a spike of new users present on our forums and our ISO image has seen over 16,000 downloads in this week's worth of time. We have also garnered more than a little bit of notice on Distro Watch, managing to snag the #1 position for the 7 day time span:

Something you may not know is that unlike many Ubuntu derivatives, Bodhi maintains it's own repositories. While these are vital to our operation they are costly. Our operating costs are now over 100 USD per month. My post today is simply to ask that if you are using Bodhi and like what you see please consider sending us a donation.

Well, that is not all this post is about.

If you've stopped by my blog recently then you may know that I recently acquired a Dell Duo while I waited for my Asus tablet to return to a working state. I'd like to offer a little bit of incentive to send us a donation. Starting today for every 5$ you donate to the Bodhi project your name will be entered (EG: 10$ = 2 entries) in a raffle to have a chance to win a less than one month old Dell Inspiron Duo tablet/netbook hybrid pre-configured with Bodhi Linux. The retail value on this unit is 600$.

Tech Specs on the Unit for those interested:

CPU

CPU Type: Intel Atom

CPU Speed: N570(1.66GHz)

Chipset

Chipset: Intel NM10

CPU

CPU L2 Cache: 512KB x 2

Display

Screen Size: 10.1"

LCD Features: Capacitive Multi-touch technology

Resolution: 1366 x 768

Graphics

GPU/VPU: Intel GMA 3150

Video Memory: Shared system memory

Hard Drive

HDD: 320GB

HDD RPM: 7200rpm

Memory

Memory: 2GB

Memory Speed: DDR3 800

Memory Type: 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM

Memory Spec: 2GB x 1

Memory Slot (Total): 1

Memory Slot (Available): 0

Communications

WLAN: 802.11n Wireless LAN

Bluetooth: Bluetooth 3.0

Ports

USB: 2

Audio Ports: 1 x Microphone jack; 1 x Headphone jack

Audio

Audio: 2 X 1W speakers for total of 2W standard

Supplemental Drive

Card Reader: 7 in 1 Card Reader with Audio Station Only

Webcam: 1.3MP

Power

Battery: 4-cell Lithium Ion Battery (29 WHr)

Battery Life: up to 4 hours

Physical spec

Dimensions: 11.22" x 7.66" x 1.03" - 1.13"

Weight: 3.39 lbs.

I will be holding the window for entries open for at least four weeks and we will not select a winner until we have at least 200 entries. Also, please be aware that if you are selected as the winner and shipping costs from Chicago to your home exceed 50$ you will be expected to cover the excess (50$ should be more than enough, but some countries have outrageous import fees). Included with the tablet is the optional speaker dock.

So, if you have been thinking about sending us a donation then now is the right time! Oh, and in case you missed it our donation page can be found here. If you prefer to send a donation via check instead of paypal please contact me directly for my mailing address. When we do select a winner it will be posted on this blog as well.

Finally, in addition to funding the server costs mentioned above for many months, if this donation drive is successful it will also subsidize the cost of a Trim Slice unit to make the development of Bodhi for ARM more practical.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Hybrid Throw Down: Dell Inspiron Duo vs Asus T101MT

2011-09-13T20:44:00.000-05:00

For whatever reason tablets are all the craze this year. The tiny laptops known as "netbooks" that had dominated the couple of years prior are forgotten by many. Those of us that do real work on our computers know the value of having a physical keyboard. At the same time some of us have use for a touch screen, but don't want to carry two physical devices.

Enter the tablet/netbook hybrid. A number of different companies make such devices and I have personally owned ones made by Dell and Asus. Asus actually makes two such devices, you can see them compared here.

Today I would like to compare two 10" netbook/tablet convertables: the Dell Inspiron Duo and the Asus T101MT.

Size and Weight:
The Dell Duo is slightly larger and heavier than the Asus model with dimensions of:

11.22" x 7.66" x 1.03" and weighing 3.39 pounds.

The T101MT comes in at:

10.39" x 7.13" x 1.22" and only 2.86 pounds.

Keyboard:
Both netbooks have chiclet keyboards so typing on both is a pleasant experience. Because the Duo is physically larger though it's keyboard is just a bit bigger. Because of this it has an over all better layout. Even after a full year of usage I still miss hitting the right shift key on the T101MT every now and then because of the keyboard layout.

T101MT Keyboard:

Duo Keyboard:

Screen:

This is the first part we see a large difference between the two devices. The screen on the Asus is a resistive, multi-touch screen with a maximum of 1024x600 resolution. The Dell on the other hand has a capacitive, multi-touch screen which has a slick 1366x768 max resolution. Whether you prefer capacitive to resistive may be the deciding factor on these two devices for you.

Keep this in mind though. I personally use the touch screen largely for taking written notes. A resistive screen is much better suited for this purpose. 40$ and three capacitive stylus's later I have yet to find one that is as accurate/as good as using generic resistive stylus for such a task.

Ports:
External ports is the one area where hands down the T101MT crushes the Duo. The Duo only has three ports: 2 USB and an audio out. The T101MT on the other hand has pretty much what you would expect from a netbook. 3 USB, audio out, microphone in, SD card reader and VGA.

Thats right - they couldn't even squeeze an HDMI mini onto the Duo.

AC Adapter:
This may seem like an odd thing to mention, but the T101MT does have a much better AC adapter. The Duo power brick comes with a short cord by default and does not have a light on the brick letting you know it is on. The T101MT also comes with Velcro ties by default for packing up the adapter neatly.

Over All Design:

Dell and Asus both make pretty solid hardware. I haven't owned the Duo for quite as long yet, but I can say is built at least as solid as the T101MT is. While the Duo is a bit larger, there is no doubting it has a certain "sleek" factor to it with the clamshell design and the screen that flips back instead of spinning around.

Dell Duo

Asus T101MT

Processor:

The current versions of the T101MT ship with the exact same Intel Atom N570 that the Duo has. The N570 is a 1.66ghz dual core with hyper threading. Take note if you are buying a used T101MT that some of the first wave of these units had the older N450 atom chip in them.

RAM:

The Duo has one RAM slot and by default comes with a 2gig stick of DDR3 800mhz. The T101mt comes in two different revisions currently. The higher end T101MT comes with 2gigs DDR3 1066mhz (two 1gig sticks). The lower end T101MT comes with 1gig DDR2 by default (that can be upgraded to two).

Hard Drive:
By default both laptops make the choice of coming with a platter hard drive. The Duo comes with a 320gig 7200rpm drive. The higher end T101MT comes with a 320gig 5400rpm drive and the lower end model comes with a 250gig.

As someone who firmly believes hard drives with moving parts are a piss poor idea in both tablets and netbook I have replaced the drives in both units. In this respect, both units are poorly designed. With the T101MT you need to tear apart almost the entire unit to get to the drive. The Duo requires, not quite as much, but still a good deal of work to get at it's drive. If you are not someone that works on mobile hardware on a regular basis I would not recommend doing this upgrade yourself.

Webcam:

If you care about your webcam quality the Duo might be the right pick for you. The Duo sports a 1.3 mega-pixel camera, while the T101MT has a piddly 0.3 mega-pixel.

Bluetooth:

The Duo has an internal bluetooth module while the T101MT does not.

Battery:

The battery life of the two systems is fairly close. With the stock drive right under three hours of normal use is about average on both units. If you pop a solid state drive into either machine it increase to almost four hours. Also worth noting is that the T101MT has a removable/replaceable battery while the Duo needs to be torn apart to replace the battery.

Operating System:
Both these units come with copies of Windows 7 by default. You are not stuck with this OS though. Linux works equally well on both the Duo and the T101MT.

Cost:
The Dell Duo is right around 600$ (depending on where you purchase it from) and the higher end T101MT is close to this, right around 550$. If you are looking to pay a bit less than this the lower end T101MT comes in 100$ less around 450$.

Final Thoughts:
I'm not going to say here which unit is better. As with many things the answer to this question is "it depends". It depends on what you are looking for, it depends on what you need and it depends on what you are looking to spend. Hopefully my summary here will help you choose which of these two units is right for you though!

~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Scale Your Display under Linux

2011-09-13T16:06:00.001-05:00

Something that has always annoyed me about a good deal of netbooks is the fact that someone decided that 1024x600 was an acceptable maximum resolution. While this isn't always an issue, it becomes extra annoying when you attach an external display to your tiny computer. By default your are typically forced into one of two choices:

1.) You run both screens in 800x600, rendering over 20% of your netbook's internal display useless.

2.) You run the external screen at 1024x768 and the internal screen at 1024x600 and have the bottom 168 pixels show up on the external display, but not on the netbook.

Something many people don't know about is that the display tool xrandr has a really nifty "scale" option you can utilize to make your netbook's screen behave as though it has a higher resolution than it really does. For instance if you have the second case I mention above you simply need to run the command:

xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1024x600 --scale 1.00x1.28 --panning 1024x768

in terminal (note your internal display name may vary, most laptops default to LVDS1 though). After running this you will see your netbook display adjust itself so the height of 768 is smushed into it's normal 600 units. This appear a small bit stretched in this mode, but so long as you don't get too crazy with the scale factor it is hardly noticeable.

~Jeff Hoogland

Always Check the Lowest Common Denominator

2011-09-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

I've been going through some rounds with Asus tech support/customer service the last couple of months. Two RMA's and a brand new unit later, I have resolved the issue. I must admit it is a slightly embarrassing fix. It is a true example of making a mountain out of a mole hill in the technology industry.

I can't believe I missed this fix for so long, I can't believe my older brother who works on computers didn't think of it sooner, but really - I'm pissed off that the Asus repair facility didn't think of this before replacing the motherboard and screen in the netbook.

This morning I had the bright idea to boot up the T101mt again, but this time after I hit the power button I press function+f6 to toggle the brightness setting on the screen up. Sure enough the screen clicked right back on.

I don't think I have ever felt so stupid. It appears the recently added backlight code for Enlightenment was simply turning of the T101MT's internal display by default.

This is just a friendly reminder to everyone else out there that when debugging something - don't just skip over the lowest common denominator. It could save you a world of headache.

~Jeff Hoogland

Enlightening your Dell Duo with Linux

2011-09-08T21:49:00.001-05:00

I recently set out to get a new tablet/netbook combo. After reading many reviews about different models I settled on a Dell Inspiron Duo. One thing you will find most all of the Inspiron reviews have in common is that they mention the touch software layer running on Windows 7 is slow. If I said this surprised me it would be a lie. With this in mind I set out to get the Enlightenment desktop running on this device in a cool way. Below is a video of the Enlightenment desktop via Bodhi Linux 1.2.0 running on my Dell Duo:

If you'd like to create a similar setup on your own Duo simply install Bodhi (or any distro with a current E build) and then follow the instructions I detailed here. Then under your key bindings add detection for the screen changing states. Under Action select Launch->Command in the Action Params put the command:

enlightenment_remote -default-profile-set ProfileName

Note when selecting the profile name it needs to be the exact name that is listed for that profile in your ~/.e/e/config directory. Otherwise Enlightenment will crash in a bad way.

Have any questions or comments feel free to drop a message below.

~Jeff Hoogland

Can Linux Kill Your Hardware - A Warning to Asus T101MT Owners

2011-09-08T08:16:00.001-05:00

This post is as much an open poll of those that know their way around hardware as much as it is a warning to others that own an Asus T101MT.

If you have been by my blog recently you may know that I have been going back and forth with Asus support getting an RMA done on my T101MT. I sent the unit in with a bad screen, it got returned had the same issue happen again, it got RMAed again and had the same issue happen a third time. Assuming something was simply wrong with the unit I had beyond repair, I was sent a 100% new unit.

The first thing I do with any new computer I buy is wipe out the default operating system and install Linux. The T101MT was no exception. I installed the latest variation of Bodhi Linux which is powered by the 3.0.0 kernel and much to my surprise two boots later the brand new T101MT had the exact same screen issue as the previous unit I had.

Now the Bodhi team and I don't do anything crazy with our kernel configurations. In fact, our kernel builds currently come directly upstream from Ubuntu packagers. So if you are using Linux on a T101MT a word of warning - I would not upgrade to the 3.0 kernel any time soon (or a distro that uses it).

Finally, my question to any hardware exerts out there that might be reading this. Is it possible to Linux to cause the internal display of a laptop to stop working (read: It isn't just the GUI or TTYs I can't get up, the system doesn't even post a BIOS screen on it's internal display)? If so, any ideas how or why this could be happening? The unit(s) work 100% fine when attached to an external monitor, so I know the hardware is all working minus the internal screen.

My brain is screaming at me that software should be able to kill hardware like this, but I am running out of debugging options.

EDIT/Update:

I got an external display setup this evening. So I booted it up, logged into the BIOS and cleared the settings back to defaults - poof! My internal display worked again. Well for a few moments anyways.

Every time E starts the internal display in my netbook cuts out if it is the only display attached. In order to get it to come back online again I have to default all my bios settings again. I can tracked the issue back to something E is doing because the internal display does not freak out when using LXDE/OpenBox on the same system. The odd thing is the internal display works fine with E if I have an external screen attached at the same time.

So in short, Enlightenment is doing something that at startup (when only the internal display is active) that disables the internal display at a BIOS level. I've spoken with E developers and the are of the opinion that nothing like this should be possible. I am throughly baffled, will have to run some more tests this weekend...

Any feedback/ideas are welcome and would be appreciated. I'm going to be fiddling around with the units some more in the next week to see if I can figure anything out myself.

Update 2:
This issue is resolved.... Oh me!

Regards,
~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux 1.2.0 Released

2011-09-08T07:19:00.001-05:00

20,000 forum posts and over 100,000 downloads later the Bodhi team and I are proud to announce our second point release - Bodhi 1.2.0 Current Bodhi users can easily update their system to this latest release. This release is largely for keeping packages up to date, so the following are the core system packages that have been updated for this release:

Linux 3.0.0
Enlightenment built from SVN on 09/06/11
Midori 0.4.0

As many current Bodhi users know, we often update software in our repository. Just some of our recent software updates include:

Firefox 6.0
Chromium 13
Opera 11.51
nVidia 280.13

Speaking of repositories, we have been including the awesome GetDeb repo by default in Bodhi since our early releases. These repositories serve many people and often have bandwidth issues. Because of this we are now hosting our own mirror of GetDeb that will be used by default. Those with current Bodhi installs can update their sources.list to use the Bodhi mirror by replacing their current GetDeb line with the following:

deb http://getdeb.bodhilinux.com/getdeb lucid-getdeb apps games

There is more to this release than just packages though. Our document team has been working furiously to improve our docs, both on our wiki and our locally installed pages. Our Quick Start guide gained Dutch as a language this release, bringing out total number of languages to eleven. Our recently published "Bodhi Guide to Enlightenment" is also now stored locally for offline use in the Midori web browser.

In terms of functionality all of our default profiles have undergone minor changes to improve the user experience. The largest of which have gone into the fancy and tablet profiles. The fancy profile now has some penguins on your desktop by default and the tablet profile gained a sleek, touch friendly method of changing between applications.We have also added a new default profile with this release - Tiling. It has the tiling module enabled by default to make organizing the windows on your desktop take far less time.

Finally, one of the things that sets E apart from other desktops are it's choices of wonderful themes. Bodhi 1.2.0 brings with it seven new default themes for the desktop. The default E theme got a fresh new wall paper. Also included are Angelic2, Blue Angel, Migeul, Mystery, Passion and finally Smoke.

Oh, and of course download links! You can grab the high speed torrent download (recommend!) here or can find our direct download hosted by source forge here. Also - don't forget to vote in our desktop of the week contest. Our winning desktop from last week:

Have any questions/input/ideas feel free to drop a comment below as always.

Edit/Update: We are raffling off a Bodhi Linux powered Tablet/Netbook.

~Jeff Hoogland

Asus Tech - You will NOT fool me Twice

2011-08-30T13:48:00.000-05:00

So I wrote a post at the start of this month describing a positive experience with Asus's support involving my netbook that was running Linux. I would like to advise all the other Linux users out there not to make the same mistake I did -

Just because tech support doesn't blame your operating system, doesn't mean they know what they are doing.

To recap what happened, after a little over a year of usage my T101MT up and died. It got a power light, but the screen didn't post any image. The Asus tech claimed that the after market SSD I installed had shorted out the motherboard.

While I thought their diagnosis was odd, I accepted it as I was getting back a working netbook free of charge. Their conclusion was however very wrong. When I got the netbook back I used it for less than three hours (without a hard drive, booted from an SDHC card) when the screen cut out again. This time, I consulted my older brother and he had a brilliant idea (which I can't believe I missed) - lets plug it into an external screen.

And... Poof! It worked.

Thats right, the Asus tech replaced the motherboard without checking to see if the internal display worked properly.

After almost an hour on hold waiting to talk to a manager, I chewed them out a small bit and even got myself free two way shipping. I was promised a different tech would work on the system and was even told me I should send the SSD back so they could reinstall it. It sounded as though the issue was resolved.

Five days later I received an email from the same tech as before informing me that the motherboard was dead again. Well clearly some one at Asus messed up. I called and got a voice of a manager the first time, I left my contact information. 24 hours later I had still heard nothing back, so I called again. This time I got through to someone and they promised to make sure the issue was sorted and would call me back when they had reached a solution.

Two days later I received an automated email telling me the netbook had shipped out again. They never returned my call.

The kicker? They didn't get the computer returned before my classes started like the first manager said they would try to do. In fact, it was returned (finally working) a week after classes started.

In the mean time I have purchased a dell tablet to take my notes on and I plan to sell the Asus once I reinstall a new hard drive in it. I don't think I'll ever be buying an Asus again - it is wrong to tell a customer you are going to return a call and then never do it.

~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Linux on the Dell Inspiron Duo

2011-08-30T09:57:00.003-05:00

I recently invested in a new toy. A Dell Inspiron Duo netbook/tablet convertable:

I was pleased to see that most all of the netbook was functional OOTB with the 3.0 variation of the Linux kernel my latest Bodhi build was running (including multi-touch on the track pad). I plan to write a full review later on, today however I would simply like to share two tricks for getting some important functionality out of your Dell Duo while running Linux.

Making the Screen Work:
Without a working touch screen the Duo is basically just an over priced netbook. To get the screen working you need to simply add one thing to your grub2 command line. On most distributions you can add the needed command to your /etc/default/grub file. Look for the line that starts with

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT

If this line does not exist, add it. Then add the option usbhid.quirks=0x0eef:0x725e:0x40 to it. Your line should now look something like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="usbhid.quirks=0x0eef:0x725e:0x40"

Finally, run

sudo update-grub

On your next reboot your touch screen should now be functional.

Adding Key Bindings for Changing Modes:
On Windows 7 the tablet adds a touch layer UI when you switch the laptop into tablet mode. It does this by detecting when the screen changes positions. To add this functionality to Linux you simply need to run the following commands as root -

setkeycodes e073 148
setkeycodes e074 149

Once you have run these commands changing the position of the screen to all the way down (or bring it up) each triggers a different "key press" your desktop key binding manager should be able to address. On Bodhi (or any E desktop for that matter) you can easily configure these key presses to change profile using the enlightenment_remote command. Also worth noting is you will need to run these commands every time you start up your computer. I just added them to my /etc/rc.local file.

Have any questions feel free to drop a comment below and I'll do my best to help you get it sorted out.

~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Create a Debian Meta Package

2011-08-26T11:22:00.001-05:00

The following is a short tutorial on how to create a Debian meta package. Just as a brief background for those that do not know what a meta package is - a meta package is a Debian package that simply tells the package manager to download a whole bunch of other packages. Meta packages are useful for allowing for the quick installation of an entire group of packages. I use meta packages in the Bodhi repository for our theme pack and software bundles.

Fair warning for this tutorial I am assuming you have at least some basic command line experience.

Lets start by creating a directory that will have the same name as the meta package we are creating. For the purposes of this tutorial our package will be called "bodhi-theme-pack". So run:

mkdir ~/bodhi-theme-pack && cd ~/bodhi-theme-pack

Next, we need to create a "DEBIAN" directory within our package structure. Note it is required for meta packages that DEBIAN be in all capitals.

mkdir DEBIAN && cd DEBIAN

Then we are going to create a control file inside of our DEBIAN directory.

nano control

In the file that opens paste in this for the contents. The fields in this file are fairly self explanatory. Just note that you need a comma in-between each of the different package names you want your meta package to install. Finally, if you would like your meta package to do extra fancy things, you can also create post/pre install/remove scripts and all that jazz in your DEBIAN directory and they will be executed as with any debian package.

Finally, lets create our .deb package:

cd ~/ && dpkg --build bodhi-theme-pack

You will get a message confirming that the creation of your .deb package was successful and you should now have a "bodhi-theme-pack.deb" sitting in your home directory. If you have any questions or issues feel free to drop a comment below and I'll do my best to help you out.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Five Things the Enlightenment Desktop Does Best

2011-08-25T19:05:00.001-05:00

Fair warning, I am a huge fan of the Enlightenment desktop. The following items in this post are things I believe the Enlightenment desktop (and it's developers) are doing better than some of the other open source desktops.

Maintain Old Releases
People are always resistant to change and switching your desktop environment is a major change. When KDE and Gnome both had their last major releases they promptly dropped their previous releases like a bag of bricks. The Enlightenment 17 desktop, while still in development, has been stable and ready for use for a long time now. Even so they have team members that maintain their older E16 release. It is still used (and liked) by many and there are no plans to discontinue it any time soon.

A Focus on Speed and New Features
There is no doubting that all of our modern desktops have been progressing in features and functionality. One spot where Enlightenment excels though is that it has a focus on remaining trim and fast while adding these new features. Don't believe me? KDE 4.x needs around 512megs to be happy, Gnome 3 recommends slightly more at 768 and Ubuntu's Unity desktop requests a full gig!

Someone always pops up and cries out "but our computers are so powerful it doesn't matter" whenever you mention system requirements these days. The fact remains though - it does matter. A desktop that runs fast on a slow system will fly on a quick system. Resources should be there for your applications to use, not for your desktop environment to eat up. Trim as Enlightenment already is, the developers are currently in the process of rewriting all of it's code to utilize XCB to replace XLib - which will make it even faster.

A Flexible Environment
While KDE has a fair bit of configuration options, the developers behind Gnome 3 and Unity have decided that taking control away from the end user is a good thing. I'm sure this denial of user choice is tailored after Apple's OSX - which has about as many configuration options as a Model-T Ford. If you don't let the user customize things they can't possibly break things right?

The Enlightenment desktop doesn't assume it's users are morons and doesn't assume you are using it on a small touch screen device. It gives you the power to do with it as you will. You can leave it at the defaults or configure it to your liking.

Enlightenment for a Desktop

Enlightenment for a Touch Screen

Seamless Restarts
Enlightenment can do a full restart of it's desktop environment without affecting the state of any of the currently running applications. While this may not seem entirely useful, this feature is a blessing when your desktop of choice has an "opps" and crashes. I'm sure if Unity or Gnome 3 had this feature it would have saved many users lots of grief in the last few months.

Run Everything Tool
I'm not going to go into everything the Everything tool can do here - but to list a few features it can act as a system menu, quick launcher, web search, file finder and much more.

What do you think? Are any of my points here valid or are they way off point?

~Jeff Hoogland

Getting Connected to Illinois State University ISUNET from Linux

2011-08-24T19:01:00.005-05:00

This week I started a masters program in mathematics and a job as a graduate assistant at Illinois State University. My laptop is never far from my side, so of course one of the first things I did on campus was connect to the internet.

Or at least attempt to.

There are three main wireless networks at Illinois State University.

isunet - The main network for staff, students and alumni
isunet-guest - A guest network
isunet-setup - A wireless network for "easily configuring your isunet"

I connected to ISUNet-Setup, opened a webrowser and was on my way. It checked my browser for java plugin support (which of course it had) and then I was promptly informed my operating system did not support automatic setup. I was told to contact the Help Desk for the manual configuration instructions.

The page was poorly designed though. It did not provide a link to Help Desk website or provide a phone number. After finding the website via Google on my N900, I noticed they had a search function. I was shocked to find that searching "linux wireless" did not yield any results. In fact even searching simply "linux" did not find anything in any of their pages.

What a shame.

Being the persistent person that I am (and having an hour to kill before class). I marched myself on over to the help desk building and found their main office. The person behind the desk was fairly friendly and actually ended up being fairly useful. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "I need the manual configuration instructions for ISUNet."

Him: "Are you sure? Are you running Windows or Mac?"

Me: "Linux."

I was slightly surprised at this point, normally saying that "L" word to customer support for tech trips them up a whole lot, this guy seemed to know his stuff though.

Him: "Oh, well the setup will vary with your system - but what you are looking for is WPA2 Protected EAP (PEAP) in your security settings. Once there just use your ISU login for the user name and password."

He jotted down what he said on the back of a piece of paper. I nodded, took the notes and was on my way.

Once I turned my laptop back on, I discovered connecting was fairly simple using the Gnome desktop's nm-applet (which is what Bodhi Linux and a number of others also use). You simply click on the network manager icon and select isunet, after clicking this a security window will pop up, automatically detecting the Security type. You will however need to change the Authentication setting to use PEAP (I think mine defaulted to TLS).

Towards the bottom of the main window, there will now be a spot for entering a user name and password (after selecting PEAP). Here, you enter the same thing you use to log onto iCampus. After filling in this information, hit connect and you should be on your way.

Needless to say this setup is not hard if you know what you are doing/what you are looking for. What is disappointing though is that these simple settings are not found anywhere on the ISU tech help website (or anywhere I could find on Google for that matter). I know for a fact I am far from the only Linux user at ISU - I saw someone using an Ubuntu powered tablet in one of my classes already :)

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Easily Share Files between Linux Machines using sFTP

2011-08-13T16:03:00.008-05:00

Sharing files between two different computers on a network is something that I feel is often harder than it should be. Maybe it is just my bad luck or some poor configuration settings on the various networks I connect to, but Samba shares seem to almost never work for me. In the past year I've taken to using sFTP to transfer files back and forth between my various devices. sFTP is nice because it works over the internet and with any Unix devices that support ssh (including the N900)

For the purposes of this tutorial I am going to refer to the machine we are connecting from as "Machine A" and the machine we are connecting to as "Machine B". I am assuming the two machines are both connected to the same local network.

Getting Started -
To get started you will need to install the OpenSSH server package on Machine B. On Debian based systems (including Bodhi, Linux Mint, and Ubuntu) you can install this package by running the following in terminal:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

On Machine A you will need to install a program for accessing Machine B. My program of choice is Filezilla, however you can use any program that supports the sftp protocol. If Machine A is Debian based you can install Filezilla with the command:

sudo apt-get install filezilla

Finding Your IP Address -
Next, you will need the IP address of Machine B so you can connect to it. If you are using the Gnome network manager (nm-applet) you can right click on the applet and select "connection information". The IP address is listed as the first line under IPv4:

You can also find your IP address via the command line on Machine B with the following command:

sudo ifconfig | grep "inet addr"

Connecting the Machines:
Finally, go ahead and load up Filezilla on Machine A. Selecting File - Site Manager. In the window that appears select "New Site" and enter the name of the system you are connecting to.

Then, where it says "Host:" enter the exact IP address we found in the step above. In the box where it says protocol click on the drop down and select "SFTP". Under "Logon Type:" you want it to say "Normal". "User:" is the exact, case sensitive, name you use to log into Machine B with and "Password:" is that user's password.

Finally, just tap the "Connect" button at the bottom of the site manager and you should be good to go. You can then simply drag and drop files between the two systems using the two pane panel Filezilla provides.

Have any questions or if any issues arise feel free to drop a comment below and I'll do my best to help you along.

~Jeff Hoogland

Set Penguins Crawling on your Desktop!

2011-08-02T20:32:00.008-05:00

There are a lot of great Enlightenment modules out there. Today I would like to feature one that is far more fun than it is useful. It is called simply "penguins" and it sets your choice of Penguins (or Lemmings!) crawling all over your desktop and interacting with your windows.

Like everything in the Enlightenment desktop, the module is fairly configurable. You can define the number of penguins you want on your desktop, their size and how transparent they are.

The following is a short demo video I recored of the module in action (P.S. Sorry for the distortion on the first ten seconds, something odd with the video file I uploaded to youtube):

Fun huh? For those interested in trying this on their own Bodhi desktop I have just uploaded this module to our testing branch this evening. It will make it's way into the main repository in a few days hopefully. If you don't want to wait the .deb can be got from here.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Asus Support - Excellent and Linux Friendly

2011-08-01T13:51:00.004-05:00

I've been recommending Asus computers to friends and clients for some time now. After my recent dealing with the Asus support/repair center I will continue to recommend them for the foreseeable future.
It is rare that I keep whatever computer I have for more than a year's worth of time. Because of this I had never, until last month, had to RMA an entire laptop. It just so happened that last month my Asus T101MT (that I have been very happy with) up and died on me. I was using the system when the screen just cut out. I pressed and held the power button, waited a moment and then fired the system back up.

Nothing, nada, not even a bios screen posted.

I had some extra sticks of DDR2 memory laying around so I tried swapping those out before I called in for an RMA. No luck there. So I looked up when I had purchased the netbook only to discover it was one whole month out of the warranty.

Wonderful.

I'd heard stories from fellow Linux users about companies not honoring hardware warranties, unless Windows was reinstalled on the system. It's wrong, but it does happen. I called up the Asus support line and after jumping through a countless number of automated menus I arrived at someone who could help me. After being walked through a few id-10-t checks the person on the phone agreed with me that the unit needed to be sent to a repair center. It's didn't matter that the system was running Linux, it was a clear hardware issue.

I mailed the laptop out and a few days latter I received a call from the Asus repair center. This is where I was further impressed with the Asus quality of service. Not only where they going to honor the warranty even though it was a month expired, but they discovered that the SSD I had installed in the system the week after I bought it had died and shorted out the motherboard with it. They offered to let me mail them the original 160gb hard drive to install into the unit with the replaced motherboard, but I opted to instead simply have them mail me a working hard-drive-less netbook. They also sent me back the bad SSD so I can get it RMAed (last time I will ever buy an ADATA product again).

So in short I was very impressed with Asus quality of service and they will have the continued support of this Linux user. I received the system back last week and it is working great! Much to my joy they even extended the hardware warranty for me an extra 3 months.

~Jeff Hoogland

Why the Tablet Craze?

2011-08-01T13:26:00.002-05:00

I made a post last year titled "The Year of the Tablet Computer". It is now over half way through 2011 and it seems the touch screen craze is far from over. Apple has released the second iteration of their iPad, we are up to our ears in Android tablets from various hardware makers and a Meego tablet or two might still exist before the year is up. I've played with the iPad a bit, I've used more than a few different Android tablets (I even own one for purposes of developing Bodhi for ARM) and I must say I'm confused what all the hype is about.

Beyond my Android tablet I own several other computers including a Sony Vaio Laptop, a Sager Laptop, an Asus Netbook and a Nokia N900. I've had the Android tablet for around a month now and I've found myself reaching for any of the other computers when I need to get something productive done. Even something as basic as light webrowsing just feels easier/more natural on a computer that has a keyboard on it. I know this is partially because of what I am accustomed to, but I find it annoying when I am using a device that already has a ten inch screen (or smaller) to have a keyboard popping up that takes up nearly half of it!

Now, I am not saying tablet computers are all bad. In fact if you are looking to take digital hand written notes they are an excellent tool. Other than this I have yet to come across a practical application a tablet does more effectively than any netbook computer. If you know of one - please enlighten me. Of course there is more to computers than just productivity as many of us know. Games can be a wonderful use for tablet computers. In fact I think half the time I spend using my tablet is when solitaire or some other touch-focused game is at hand.

In closing, I think tablets are great novelty items. If you have an extra few hundred dollars laying around and want a new toy - go ahead and pick one up. Just don't expect it to magically change your life or make it easier like many commercials would have you think. For purposes of getting work done a netbook is much better suited for those looking to own a tiny computer.

~Jeff Hoogland

Why Closed Source Software is More Secure

2011-07-28T12:56:00.000-05:00

One of the things open source advocates often pride themselves on is their software of choice being more secure than the closed source alternatives. I'm beginning to wonder if we shouldn't though. You see I got into a discussion with a Windows system administrator the other day and it got me thinking. I've come to realize there are a number of ways closed source software is more secure than open source alternatives.

It secures a safer code base, ensuring that the software cannot be exploited.

A small team with limited resources can easily find and resolve issues faster than a limitless number of people are able to. With this in mind having a code base that only a small development team has access to is clearly safer than having an open project.

It secures a proprietary market lock for the company making said software.

Having a lock on your given market is important. If market locks didn't exist companies wouldn't be able to charge outrageous prices for their inventions. If software was open it would lead to standardized protocols. Standardized protocols would force market leaders to continue to be innovative and provide the overall best product to maintain their standing.

With closed source software a company needs to simply be the first to provide a decent piece of software for a given task. Once they capture a majority of the market, the software is able to degrade without losing many users.

It secures more money every update release for the company making said software.

It's clear that a company with an open source business model could never succeed. Once you lock your users into using your product you can charge them whatever you want each time you release a new version. This is OK though, big cooperations would never want to hurt their users! I mean it's not like anyone would ever charge thousands of dollars for a new version of their software right?

While it seems there might be some argument for closed source software being more secure, I'm not sure that this Linux advocate is fully convinced as of yet. What is your take on the subject?

~Jeff Hoogland

Lessons Learned: Linux + Sony Vaio F Series

2011-07-26T19:21:00.002-05:00

My old sager laptop is still great for gaming with it's nVidia 265m GTX, but in terms of processing power it is no longer up to snuff in 2011. Earlier this week I finally made the move and picked up something that had an Intel i7 processor in it. I favor laptops for the mobility they offer and I was lucky enough to get a good price on a Sony Vaio VPCF115FM

The system screams with its i7 Q720, 6 gig of DDR3 RAM, nVidia 330m and a 500 gig 7200RPM hard drive.

The first thing I do with any new computer that comes into my possession is boot Linux on it of course. I just so happen to keep Bodhi 1.1.0 on my flash drive and soon enough I was booted into my live environment (the live CD booted faster on the system than Windows 7 could shutdown - no surprise there I guess). The 2.6.39 kernel detected all the hardware and the system booted to it's beautiful 1920x1080 resolution. The install went without a hitch and I was soon enjoying Bodhi on my new build system (which compiles packages much quicker than my old Core 2 Duo).

I bought this particular laptop not only for it's processor, but also because of the dedicated graphics card it has. After installation the next step was naturally to try and install the closed source graphics driver nVidia provides. First I tried installing the 275 driver we provide in the Bodhi repository. It seemed to install A-OK, but upon rebooting I was greeted by simply a black screen.

Not a big deal, I've been around the block a few times when it comes to nVidia and Linux. I promptly uninstalled the 275 driver and then proceeded to try the latest beta driver from the nVidia FTP. Install seems A-OK again, but once more I was greeted by only a black screen. I figured maybe it was a kernel issue. Having just recently added the 3.0 kernel to the Bodhi repo, I tried both drivers again with this different kernel - same results.

Next stop? The Linux Answer Machine of course. Which lead me to a Google Code page for Linux on the Sony F Series laptops. Then I made a critical mistake that cost me a good deal of time - I jumped into trying to fix the problem without reading the entire solution. When you come across information such as the nVidia install directions always remember the comments are valuable.

After a little over an hour of playing around with edids on my Vaio with no luck I started surfing through the comments and found a useful one. It mentioned that this setup was no longer needed with Ubuntu 10.10. After racking my brain for what the difference might be between Ubuntu 10.10 and Bodhi 1.1.0 I realized the largest difference was the kernel version. On a whim I installed the 2.6.35 kernel, installed the nvidia drivers from the Bodhi repo and poof! I was good to go (guess my first hunch about a kernel issue was correct).

Now, what exactly is different between the 35 kernel and the 39 and 3.0 kernels that caused the nVidia driver to no longer work properly on my Vaio is a bit outside my areas of expertise. At any rate though I am happy to have a fully working Sony Vaio with Linux! I am still a bit over joyed at all the processing power it has.

~Jeff Hoogland

Losing work because I use Linux

2011-07-19T12:09:00.006-05:00

I am starting graduate school this fall. New school, new town and this means I am looking for a new job. My girlfriend saw a mention of the website Tutor.com. They offer a web based tutoring service for high school students. I have a fair bit of tutoring experience (and I am a certified high school teacher for mathematics in Illinois) so I figured I was more than qualified for their online tutoring position.

While I was filling out their online application I met all of the requirements except for one:

Their online application was three pages long. Even though I saw the above block on the first page I had a small hope it wasn't a strict requirement because after I checked "no" to having Windows I was able to select that I used "Linux" from a drop down menu. Tutor.com then proceeded to waste another ten minutes of my time while I filled out the next two pages. Immediately after hitting the "submit" button I was informed that my application had failed.

I understand they have certain system requirements, but why they felt it was necessary to waste my time filling out the last two pages after I already marked that I did not use Windows is beyond me. What is also beyond me is why they choose to develop their browser based software for the Windows only Internet Explorer instead of any of the cross platform browsers that exist. Oh and did I mention that they opted to support iOS before they added support for non-Windows desktop operating systems?

I guess I should be used to this by now. I mean it is far from the first time educational software has rejected my operating system of choice. I thought about simply dual booting so I could apply successfully, but then I realized that sticking to my software values is more important than some crummy part time job. If you are a free software supporter I would recommend strongly against using Tutor.com and spreading that same advice to others that you know.

~Jeff Hoogland

Seven Great Enlightenment (DR17) Themes

2011-07-18T14:09:00.011-05:00

If you have been by my blog before then odds are you know I am a large fan of the Enlightenment desktop. While there are a number of reasons DR17 is my desktop of choice, one of them is the wonderful selection of themes that exist for it. In the past I have done round ups of my favorite icon sets and gtk themes. Today I would like to do the same for Enlightenment themes. The following are seven of my favorites:

Sky

If you use the Enlightenment desktop as well what are some of your favorite themes? If you are looking for more themes to choose from check out the Bodhi Linux Art Page and E17-Stuff.org.

~Jeff Hoogland

Lots of Support for One Percent!

2011-07-12T14:41:00.003-05:00

Market share, market share, market share... Truly a technology argument for the ages.

I was reading an article in Information Week cleverly titled "The OS Mess". The article raises the issue of the technology world becoming flooded with a plethora of different operating systems. I think having a variety of different platforms available is a good thing. Competition stimulates innovation and market growth.

The issue in all of this comes in when you need to obtain support for this variety of operating systems. Having to support more than one platform raises the bar on the level of service needed from IT support staff. Many IT companies appear to be adapting to these changes though. In the same Information Week article they posted a survey of 441 technology professionals from May of this year, asking which platforms they support:

While I don't think it is any surprise that 99% of them offer support for Windows, what I did find interesting is that 35% offer support for an operating system that supposedly has a less than 2% market share. Perhaps Linux users are simply more willing to pay for support? At any rate I found it to be an interesting statistic and I wanted to share.

Why do you think so many offer support for a platform that is supposed to be so under used?

~Jeff Hoogland

Six Signs Android really isn't Linux

2011-07-07T14:30:00.003-05:00

Many people argue that Android has put Linux into the hands of millions of users. While there is no doubting that Android has been a raging success, I would argue that Google has put Android into the hands of millions of people - not Linux. The following are my reasons for claiming such:

1.) Android's kernel is a Fork

Thats right, Android doesn't run on a mainline Linux kernel any longer. Their source code is maintained in a separate git repository because it was not accepted back into the main line kernel in it's current state and Google has not made any action towards improving the code so it can be accepted.

2.) Where is the brand name?

I did a post late last year titled "Keep the 'Linux' out of it Please", which asked whether using Linux in your brand name is deadly. Google seems to think so. Go do some digging on Android's homepage - I challenge you to find the word Linux on there anywhere. Even after digging through their development documents for some time I was unable to locate the word.

3.) Companies that don't support Linux support Android

Be it a game like Plants vs Zombies that Linux users are forced to run via Wine or a product such as Netflix streaming that does not run on Linux machines at all - there are lots of companies that refuse to support the penguin yet still produce Android applications. At the very extreme there is Adobe who has actually dropped support for Linux while continuing to write software for Android.

4.) All Java Applications

Android has piles of applications that are written for it. Unlike applications that are written for Linux though - they are not easily portable to other distributions. For instance applications written for WebOS are able to be run on the Maemo platform. Android applications however are all java based, meaning you need an emulator like Alien Dalvik to get them to run on other platforms.

5.) Microsoft doesn't make money off of Linux pre-installed Machines

There are plenty of vendors that sell systems pre-installed with Linux (such as BluSphere). Dedicated Linux users opt to purchase such systems (or system with no OS on it) in order to avoid the Microsoft Tax. When purchasing an Android handset there is no such avoidance. Up to 15$ per Android handset sold is going to Microsoft. Sure, this is the result of paten trolling - but I don't see anyone rising up to fight it.

6.) Where is the source code?

Yes there are closed source version of Linux. You know what is fairly unique to Android though? Claiming to be open source and then only releasing your source code to a select few hardware makers for a long while. Is it a solid business plan? Sure. Just don't claim to be free and open though and then pull something like this!

In my opinion at this point Android is just as much Linux based as OSX is BSD based. Now - don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Android is a bad operating system. In fact I'm glad it has taken away market share away from extremely closed operating systems such as iOS and Windows Mobile. I'm just saying lets stop calling it what it is not! Yes Android is Linux based it is not however Linux any longer.

~Jeff Hoogland

Seven Months of Bodhi Linux in Pictures

2011-07-06T17:08:00.016-05:00

Bodhi Linux is still a fairly young project. We gained a good bit of recognition for providing a usable Enlightenment desktop while many others still do not (if they offer one at all). We started back in just November of last year, but the project has matured a good deal in just this short bit of time. The following are screen shots (and some history) from the nine developmental and two stable releases we have had during the last seven months.

Bodhi 0.1.0 - Alpha 1

There is no doubting the look of our first alpha release was fairly bland (bad? awkward?). White on black on green on purple... What where we thinking?

This first Bodhi release happened on November 17th 2010. It was our latest release for four whole days and saw 539 downloads in that time.

Bodhi 0.1.1 and 0.1.2 - Alphas 2 and 3

Our look didn't change much here. In fact can you spot the only subtle difference between this image and the one above it?

Alpha 2 was our main release for 7 days and during this time it saw 1470 downloads. Alpha 3 had a shorter lifespan of just two days during which time it saw 423 downloads.

Bodhi 0.1.21 - Alpha 3.1

By our third alpha Bodhi had started getting some press. This "hot fix" release was designed to combat the number one issue most people had with our distro - it's look! Our default theme changed to a slightly more consistent looking black on green.

Alpha 3.1 served as our latest release for two weeks and snagged 1590 downloads during this time.

Bodhi 0.1.3 - Alpha 4

During our fourth alpha release Bodhi's look took a drastic 180. We went from a dark green to natural brown and wood tones. The default icon set also jumped from the default Gnome icons to the much over used Faenza icons.

This wooden Bodhi served as our latest release for twenty five days and saw 2,262 downloads in this time.

Bodhi 0.1.4 - Beta 1

Reviewers didn't like our dark green look and they didn't like our wood tone... What are we to do? Give the user a choice obviously! The theme wasn't the only thing we start giving the user a choice about though. Beta 1 was the first time we introduced the profile selection at startup. Each profile was offered with a "light" and "dark" option.

It seems while many people are wary of "alpha" software, "beta" does not scare so many away. Bodhi 0.1.4 received 5,090 downloads during the three weeks it was our main release.

Bodhi 0.1.5 - Release Candidate 1

The most notable change in our first release candidate is that two new profiles where added. One that had Ecomorph (compiz) enabled by default and one that was optimized for tablets/netbooks.

The download stats for the RC1 release where fairly close to the beta. 5,635 downloads in just nineteen days.

Bodhi 0.1.6 - Release Candidate 2

Our release candidate did away with having each profile offered in two different colors. This time around you simply had two screens to click through. The first offered you a choice of profiles and the second a choice of themes. The Luxe theme from the previous two releases stayed around and four other new themes (Beauty, Greyish, Mariad and Sky) appeared on the default disc. The default icon set also changed to the MaXo ReMix.

In twenty two days our first release candidate saw over double the downloads of our first beta. Bodhi 0.1.6 snagged 11,062 downloads while it was our main release.

Bodhi 0.1.7 - Release Candidate 3

Initially 0.1.7 was suppose to be our first "stable" release, but some unforeseen development issues lead to it simply being a second release candidate. The most notable changes here are the introduction of the ELFE launcher in the netbook profiles and the replacement of the Beauty theme with Brownish.

Our second release candidate saw 8,599 downloads in just two weeks time.

Bodhi 1.0.0 - Stable Release

Our stable release didn't bring any drastic changes with it. In fact from an end user stand point the only major change was the "Desktop" profile layout.

This was the big time though. All "developmental" tags where off of the distro and all bets where off. Our first stable release was our main version for two months, during which time it saw 25,136 downloads.

Bodhi 1.1.0 - Update Release 1

In between major releases Bodhi will be releasing "update" releases to keep software on the live CD current. The first of these is our current release and it brought with it some minor changes to the tablet interface and four new default themes (Ambient, Boox, Elegant and Moonlight).

This latest release is still racking up downloads as I type this - but it is well into the tens of thousands!

If you would like to see for yourself just how much our Bodhi releases have improved since past releases you can find an archive of all of our old releases on source forge. If you have ideas for further improvement we are always looking for user feedback and I welcome you to leave a comment below or sign up on our forums.

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux for ArchOS Gen8 Alpha

2011-07-02T14:29:00.004-05:00

If you have used Bodhi before then you may be aware that one of the profiles we offer by default is one that is optimized for touch screen devices.

Over the past couple of months since we added this layout we have had many requests from users to get Bodhi running on embedded touch screen devices. Today I am happy to announce the first availability of an Alpha version of Bodhi Linux for ARM devices. The ARM version of Bodhi is built on top of a Debian base, which provides stability on top of the speed the Enlightenment desktop provides.

The first target device Bodhi Linux plans to "officially" support are the ArchOS Gen8 tablet computers. If you own one of these devices you can find the 1.5gb rootfs as a high speed torrent download here or as a slower direct download (via source forge) here. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words - so a video must be worth much more than that. Here is a short demo video I shot of the Bodhi alpha in action on my ArchOS 70 internet tablet:

For those interested in getting Bodhi running on their own ArchOS Gen 8 devices (please keep in mind this is an alpha image, not ready for production tablets) the install instructions are the same as for putting any other Debian image on your Gen 8 device. I'll post detailed instructions on how I setup my own tablet some time next week.

If you have another piece of ARM hardware you are interested in getting Bodhi Linux running on, first install Debian Squeeze or Wheezy and then add the following line to your sources.list

deb http://packages.bodhilinux.com/bodhi/ squeeze stable

And then install the following package list:

bodhi-desktop

Have any questions or comments feel free to drop a comment below or make a post in the ARM section on our forums.

~Jeff Hoogland

Hacking to make things Usable

2011-06-27T12:30:00.005-05:00

I've noticed a disturbing trend occurring with software. Until recent months it was largely limited to closed source software such as iOS, but today we see it even in the FOSS world.

Users hacking at locked down software just to get the functionality out of it they need.

It amazes me that the faithful masses continue to do work for projects that try to undermine them at every turn. Apple users have been doing this for a long time. They buy iPhones, iPads, iPhails and "jail break" them to get around the locks imposed by the creator. They spend their time creating new an innovative programs, only to have them get rejected and then later stolen by Apple.

Something that troubles me greatly is that we have seen similar things start to happen in the world of open source with the releases of the Gnome 3 and Unity desktops. Maybe I am just used to the flexibility the Enlightenment desktop offers, but I am disturbed by the number of "tutorials" and "extensions" I have seen being written for these new desktops just to accomplish basic tasks.

I caught a post the other day that detailed all the things the Gnome 3 developers have decided their users no longer need. It is fully within the Gnome/Unity developers rights to make such choices. However it baffles me that their users continue to stick around and write "hacks" instead of moving onto another desktop where their valuable work would be appreciated and could eventually be accepted upstream. Are people so afraid of change they would rather continue to have their ideas treated poorly rather than move on to something different?

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux - Swag Store, Affiliates and Memberships

2011-06-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

Last month I did a post detailing Bodhi's desktop of the week contest. If you spent any time poking around the rest of our spiffy new website you will also notice that several other useful pages have appeared.

The first is our "swag store". This is by user request - you can now purchase hats, mouse pads, t-shirts and stickers with the Bodhi Logo on them:
Until June 30th you can get a 10% discount on everything you buy from the store with the coupon code BODHI10%

Next is our affiliates page. Affiliates are companies that have helped the Bodhi Linux project in one way or another. The first of these affiliates is a small graphics company called Hometown Graphics. They are the ones responsible for the awesome swag items I mentioned above. Not only do they project quality products, but those that run the business use 100% Linux in their work.

Our second affiliate is one most in the Linux world should know - Codeweavers. They provide a quality commercial wine product and they support wine development. Bodhi Linux is an official Crossover reseller. You can find both Crossover Standard and Crossover Games in our software store. If you are interested in becoming a Bodhi affiliate contact Jeff at BodhiLinux dot com

Finally, I'd like to mention our membership page.

We have been fortunate enough at the Bodhi project to receive enough donations for the past few months to fully cover our server costs. A membership is a small way we would like to give back to those that donate to us. There are various membership "levels" depending on the amount someone donates that range between 15 and 100 USD. Depending on how much a user donates we will provide you with a small thank you gift. All membership levels also receive a 10% discount at the SWAG store and a 20% discount on the software Bodhi sells.

~Jeff Hoogland

Adobe: Thank you sir. May I have another?

2011-06-15T12:05:00.004-05:00

If you use Linux on the desktop then odds are you know that getting support from big name companies that produce software is typically difficult at best. They tell us we don't have enough market share, they tell us we have too many different configurations, they tell us there is too much fragmentation to create software for us.

Thats fine. Believe whatever lies you want and do as you will - it's your company and your software.

You know what isn't fine though? Giving us the impression you are going to provide support and then slapping us in the face later on. Adobe has done just this - not just once, but twice now!

In September of last year Adobe announced the release of their preview flash player that supported 64 operating systems of all types - even Linux. Since then there has not been a single up to the Linux 64 bit binary. In fact when going to the Adobe download page you are informed that the only version you can still download is the old version from September for 64 bit Linux.

The worst part? Adobe doesn't even have the gall to respond to their users about the lack of updates.

Flash isn't the only thing Adobe plans to screw it's desktop Linux users on though. As of version 2.7 Adobe's Air technology will no longer support desktop Linux. At least the developers at Adobe labs have the spine to tell us the are dropping support for the Linux desktop with Air instead of just leaving us wondering.

All in all just another healthy reminder of why closed source technologies are not ones you should come to rely heavily on. At any rate, hopefully more websites will start adopting the more open HTML5 for steaming content in the coming months - making flash less and less relevant. With respect to Adobe Air - we still have java if we want to run slow, cross-platform code. Guess that will have to do for now!

~Jeff Hoogland

Anyone Can use the Linux Operating System

2011-06-11T23:36:00.002-05:00

Today’s topic of conversation is something I feel fairly strongly about. It is something I have seen happen countless times, both in person and posted various places around the internet. Some semi-tech head (or Windows system admin) downloads this “Linux” thing and decides they are going to boot it up. They don’t look up their hardware online for compatibility, they just pop the disc in and expect everything to work. Now most modern Linux distributions work with a fairly wide range of hardware - so most of these users will install the operating system successfully and move on to setting everything else up.

What about those that have hardware that doesn’t work or works poorly without closed source/restricted drivers? They get upset, curse the penguin in their disc drive, call it a crappy operating system, swear to never try it again and then proceed to tell all their friends about the negative experience that will obviously happen with any hardware and Linux. Linux lost a potential user.

Next, those users that got the system installed successfully are enjoying themselves and go to play an MP3 file or a flash video. If they selected one of the distributions that comes with restricted/closed source components pre-installed, they will be fine. If they selected a distribution that makes installing such things easy their media is only a few clicks away. Even if they are unlucky and selected a distribution with strong free software values, playing those restricted media files is only a Google search and a few commands away (at most).

What about those that didn’t do any of the above and expected all of their media to “just work”? They get upset, curse the penguin on their hard drive, call it a crappy operating system, swear to never try it again and then proceed to tell all their friends about the negative experience that will obviously happen with any media file and Linux. Linux lost a potential user.

Finally those users that made it through all the hurdles listed above have been using their Linux box for a week - things are going well. Then they find an application online they would like to use that is fully cross platform. They find the download link with the penguin above it and download the file provided. If they are lucky the package they downloaded is the same type as what works with their package manager. If it is, they will install the software and go along their happy way.

What about those that got a “.tar.gz”, “.bin” or “.sh” file download? They get upset, curse the penguin on their hard drive, call it a crappy operating system, swear to never try it again and then proceed to tell all their friends about the negative experience that will obviously happen with installing any program in Linux. Linux lost a potential user.

Yes, all of the above could be avoided if users would simply RTFM. You know what, though? I’ve found most of those manuals users are being directed to are not written for users.

Yes, all of the above could be avoided if users would simply ask for help in a chat room/forum. You know what, though? I’ve been in more than a few chat rooms and seen more than a couple message board posts where new users were treated poorly for a simple question they had. “Can’t you use Google?” is never an acceptable answer folks (and its one I think most all of us are guilty of giving at one point or another).

Ultimately the best solution for getting Linux into the hands of someone new and having it provide a positive experience is the proper setup and configuration of the operating system by someone that knows what they are doing. Ninety percent of Linux distributions that exist can be easily used by just about anyone when properly configured and presented with a couple minutes of explanation to the new user. Just like Windows or OSX anyone can use Linux in 2011, but not everyone can install Linux.

What is your take on this subject? Am I fairly on target here or completely missing my point?

~Jeff Hoogland

Enlightenment, DR17 and EFLs

2011-06-10T12:37:00.006-05:00

If you have been by my blog here before then odds are you know I am a large fan of the Enlightenment desktop. If you have have never used Enlightenment before it is:

"not just a window manager for Linux/X11 and others, but also a whole suite of libraries to help you create beautiful user interfaces with much less work than doing it the old fashioned way and fighting with traditional toolkits, not to mention a traditional window manager."

Terminology is something that is important to get correct when working with technology. When reading about the Enlightenment desktop I've found that many people often confuse the difference between Enlightenment, DR17 and EFLs. So - what is the difference between the three?

Enlightenment - This is the original name of the project. Today when it is referenced it should refer to the project as a whole - not just one particular part.

DR17 - Also often called E17. This refers to the next major revision of the Enlightenment desktop/window manager. It is under heavy development (and has been for some time). The current stable revision of the desktop is DR16.

EFLs - Stands for "Enlightenment Foundation Libraries". These are the core of the Enlightenment desktop, but not the desktop itself. In simplest terms the EFLs are to the Enlightenment desktop as GTK is to Gnome and QT is to KDE.

Hopefully I have shed some light onto some Enlightening terminology for everyone :)

~Jeff Hoogland

HOWTO: Easily Take Screenshots in the Enlightenment Desktop

2011-06-08T16:18:00.000-05:00

Something I have had Enlightenment users ask about a few times now is how to take a screen shot. There are GUI tools such as Shutter or CLI tools such as emprint you can install, but you no longer have to! If you are using a current SVN revision of Enlightenment (built within the last week) you now have a super easy way to take and share screen shots of your Enlightenment desktop!

Enlightenment now has a built in "Shot" module that allows you to quickly take and save/upload screen shots. To utilize it first load the module from Settings->Modules:

After loading the module you will get an entry in your main menu for taking screen shots:

After taking a screen shot you are asked what you want to do with it:

You can save it:

Or upload it:

You can also set a key binding to take screen shots in Settings->All->Input->Keys:

Finally - remember that if you get some interesting screen shots you should be submitting them for the Bodhi desktop of the week contest!

~Jeff Hoogland

BluSphere - Sleek Linux Pre-Installed Computers

2011-06-07T15:38:00.000-05:00

I have been frequenting Linux message boards and chat rooms for several years now. During my time spent in these places I would estimate that 95% of the issues I have helped people with (and seen posted) are related to the installation and setup of the operating system. This comes largely from the fact that most of the computers you can buy come with Windows by default. The experienced Linux user knows that they need to research their hardware before forking out their hard earned money for something that might not work too well with their favorite operating system.

Where does that leave those that don't know which hardware they should be looking for or don't feel like spending time searching for Linux-friendly hardware setups?

Well - purchasing a computer with Linux pre-installed on it of course! There are a few different places that sell computers pre-loaded with Linux and today I would like to mention one that is fairly new to the scene - BluSphere.

BluSphere is a community focused, open source company that only sells computers with Linux installed on them. They have a focus on mobility as well so they currently only sell laptop and tablet systems.

Their more powerful "BluBook Pro" sports an i7 processor, an nVidia GTX 560m graphics card and starts with 8gig of RAM. That should be enough to keep most gamers happy (and it reminds me that it is about time I replace my older Sager Notebook). For non-gamers they also sell a "BlueBook" that has a sleek 1" form factor. Finally they also sell a small android tablet called "Physix" which sports a 1ghz processor and 512meg of RAM.

One of the reasons I like BluSphere (and am giving them this small plug) is because they give 5% of the profits on every notebook they sell back to open source projects.

Now even if you don't care for Ubuntu (Or Unity) the best thing about buying a Linux pre-installed system is that you know all the hardware is supported by the kernel. Meaning with a small bit of work you should be able to get your Linux flavor of choice up and running on it (plus BluSphere doesn't use Linux unfriendly hardware like ATI and Broadcom).

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux Service Pack 1 Ready to Go

2011-05-30T15:22:00.006-05:00

As you may know the Bodhi Linux team and I recently released the first update release for our 1.0.0 version. One of the things Bodhi does differently from other distributions is that we make offline application installation easy. With this in mind each of our Bodhi updates will be accompanied a few days later by a "Service Pack". The service pack is a single file that handles seamlessly updating an offline Bodhi Linux computer.

For those looking to download and install the Bodhi Service Pack One, you can obtain the .bod file from here.

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux 1.1.0 Released

2011-05-26T15:55:00.006-05:00

Two months after our 1.0.0 release the Bodhi team and I are proud to announce the availability of Bodhi Linux 1.1.0. This is the first of our quarterly scheduled update releases to keep the software on the Bodhi live CD current. The live CD includes a number of package updates including:

Linux Kernel 2.6.39
Enlightenment SVN Build from 05/23/11
Intel 2.15 Drivers
Midori 0.3.6

The Bodhi repository also saw a number of recent package updates including:

Firefox 4.0.1
Chromium Browser 11
nVidia Driver 270.41

When booting the new live CD you will notice the art has undergone some changes as well. Our boot splash and LXDM window both feature the following background image:

Those that have used Bodhi in the past know that we offer a choice of themes at first login. You will find five new default themes in this release:

In terms of functionality, this update brings changes to two profiles. The first is the Tablet/Netbook profile. The main changes you will notice in this profile is an updated ELFE launcher and the removal of the bottom bar:

A slightly larger change is that the Ecomorph (Compiz) profile has been replaced with a "Compositing" profile. This profile uses E's built in compositing manager to render effects. E's compositing manager works with both hardware and software acceleration. This means it can provide sleek effects even on older hardware. For those that still prefer Ecomorph, you can always set it up yourself.

Current Bodhi users can upgrade to the latest release by running their updates. Those looking to install new systems with 1.1.0 can find the 32bit, 380mb direct download here or our high speed torrent download here. If you have any questions or comments feel free to drop a message below or sign up over at our forums.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Open is a Loose Term in the Mobile Market

2011-05-22T21:18:00.003-05:00

Recent news in the world of Android is that Google is blocking their movie renting service from being used on rooted devices. Thats right - if you are using a rooted Android device that means you must be doing so because you are doing illegal things and intend on stealing films. While I don't agree with this in the slightest, it is fully within Google's rights to block such access.

In fact, when you bought your locked down Android device (that odds are came with plenty of ad-sponsored extra applications installed) you told Google (and the hardware company) that all the crap they are selling you is A-OK. You need to remember that the easiest way to let vendors know you think what they are doing is wrong is by not buying their products (and maybe writing a letter or two). Until this year Nokia was pro-Linux operating systems on mobiles and I showed my support by buying two of their N900 devices. Now that they are turning to Windows Mobile they won't be getting a penny more of my hard earned money.

Honestly, all of the Google/Android fans out there that think Google backs FOSS for anyone other than themselves is just naive. The holding of the Honeycomb (Android 3.0) source code so outside developers cannot get devices on the market at the same time (or even before) Google's slow moving partners is just further proof of this. Remember folks Microsoft also claims to love open source as well, but actions speak far louder than words.

I guess in the end "open" is a loose term when it comes to the mobile market. Yes, Android is more open than a good deal of other mobile operating system alternatives - but it is far from the freedom we see in desktop computing. Our mobiles won't be truly "open" until hardware manufactures stop riddling FOS operating systems with closed source hardware and software components.

~Jeff Hoogland