Linux Plays well with Others

Two of my friends transfered out NIU this semester, both of them are running various forms of GNU/Linux on their personal computers. One of them is not so technically inclined and he asked me to help him trouble shoot why his Ubuntu system could not get an internet connection. After doing a bit of searching online I found that NIU had some special settings for connecting to their wired network via Cisco NAC.

What Cisco NAC does is monitor what systems are on the network and what they are running. The reason NIU provides for using Cisco NAC is that:

"In the past, due to the impact of viruses and worms on the NIU network:

• The resources at the ResTech Helpdesk were stretched to the limit by the sheer volume of infected computers that needed disinfecting
• Viruses destroyed information on student computers and compromised other computers on the NIU network
• Hundreds of residents’ computers have been so severely infected that they have been removed from the network for days or even weeks"

Just a friendly reminder of one of the many reason I began using a Linux based operating system. Anywho - after I got past the big and scary I got to the section for getting your computer on the network. This is about the time I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. The four checks Cisco NAC performs are the following:

• Microsoft Critical Updates
• AntiVirus Software Installed
• AntiVirus Definitions
• Enable Windows firewall and Automatic Updates

After I read the first line my brain started going through what kind of hacks I could rig up to get the network to think he was running Windows. We tried a few different things, I even talked to my other more tech savvy friend that was at NIU and he was unsure as well. Alas it was as Saturday night and he wouldn't be able to get help from the tech desk till Monday morning. After about half an hour of trying we ended up calling it a night.

Now I would like to share a lesson with you that I have been taught a few times by this point in my life.

When reading directions always read all the directions before starting.

In case you didn't follow the link I provided earlier the very next line after all that mumbo-jumbo about Windows is:

Linux must authenticate by logging in via a web page.

Thats it. Just a web login. No anti-virus, no update monitoring, no mandatory firewall, no big-brother type behavior of any sort. To quote my friend "I guess they believe that linux machines behave well enough that they don't need big brother".

That there is even a mention of Linux on a page such as this reminds me of the fact that regardless of what people think the OS market shares are - there are obviously enough Linux users out there to provide support to them.

What about you? Ever found support for your operating system from somewhere you weren't expecting to find it?

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux is Blossoming

Not even three months ago Bodhi Linux was nothing more than a thought in my mind. Today Bodhi is a thriving young project. If you have visited our team page lately or seen our news posts then you know our small team has been steadily growing.

We are happy to welcome four new members to our team.

• Mark Strawser (ottermaton) is taking charge of Bodhi documentation and our get software page.
  
• Agustin Verdegal (Agust) is the one responsible for all of the wonderful Enlightenment themes for Bodhi.
• Chris Bolton (chris-kun) is going to head building an Arch Linux based live CD in Bodhi fashion

I am also especially pleased to welcome Christopher Michael (devilhorns) to our team. Christopher has been working with the Enlightenment development team for nearly ten years. He is working hand in hand with the Bodhi team and community to get any issues that occur with the desktop corrected ASAP. He will also be coding some new things that will allow Bodhi to provide a better desktop experience for everyone.

Our beta release on the 8th has been received well by most and we could not be happier with the response. Even though we are still not list on Distro Watch we have averaged over 250 downloads a day for the last twelve days between source forge and torrents.

Always looking forward to the future, our release candidate (0.1.5) is scheduled to release at the end of this month on the 30th. This release will include a number of usability improvements and package updates. Most notably the 0.1.5 release will bring two new profiles to the table, one the includes Ecomorph enabled by default and another tailored to tablet computers and netbook books:


Enlightenment's customizable on screen keyboard is one of the best Linux has to offer:


Watch Unity, Enlightenment is ready for the tablet computers :)

~Jeff Hoogland

Eight Great Enlightenment Modules

Awhile back I did a posting about useful/interesting Gnome Panel Applets. Of the late I've been featuring the Enlightenment desktop more and more so I figured it was only fitting that I do a post highlighting some of my favorite Enlightenment Modules.

Forecasts -

The forecasts module allows you to display the weather forecast of the current day and the following two days in Widget form either on your desktop or on a shelf. It has options to display in English or Metric and is configurable how often it checks for updates.

Tiling -

People I've encountered in the past that use tiling Window Managers are often akin to cultists, they are many time fanatical in their belief that tiling is a superior type of manager - after having used one myself I am inclined to agree with them. For those who are not familiar tiling means that none of the Windows on your screen overlap, when you launch a new applications, the other ones on your screen readjust to account for the new one that has been opened.

This may seem like something simple, but you would be surprised at how much time you save not having to mess around with adjusting Windows to the proper size on your screen. The tiling module also supports only applying tiling to certain virtual desktops, so your entire Enlightenment desktop doesn't have to tile if you don't want it to.

Ecomorph -

Many that use Linux are familiar with Compiz desktop effects. Even though Enlightenment has some basic built in effects, those with more powerful systems might desire a little bit more flare for their desktop. Ecomorph is a port of Compiz for the Enlightenment desktop. The effects it brings include open/close/minimize animations as well as desktop cube and expo.


Itask-NG -

Itask-NG provides an "OSX" like dock similar to docky and cario. The main advantage to itask-ng is the fact that it does not require desktop compositing to be enabled for it to provide fluid animations. It supports both application launchers and acting as a taskbar for running applications.


Flame -

Set your E desktop on fire with this goofy little module! 100% configurable RGB values for the colors of the flame.




CPU & Mem -

The CPU and Mem modules are simple gadgets that give you a real time display of your system resources. (As you can see I have more than a few applications open)


Rain/Snow -

Rain or snow - Enlightenment development progresses! This module won't exactly increase productivity, but will give your desktop a bit of flare. You can configure the module to increase or decrease the intensity of the rain or snow.


Know of any other E-Modules that are useful (or fun) that I missed talking about here? If so drop a comment below.

~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux Hits Beta

Two months after our first release, the Bodhi Linux team and I are proud to announce our first ever beta release. This release features a number of package updates including the Firefox 4.0 beta 8 and the latest Enlightenment SVN build as of 01/08/2011. For a full change log see here.

The most important change in this release is how the default theme for Bodhi is now handled. After listening to the complaints of people more than a few times, I realized I needed to do with Bodhi's theme what we had done for applications - let the user make their own choice. As of 0.1.4 Bodhi now comes with two different themes, one light and one dark, and four different custom Enlightenment configurations to choose from.

When you boot your system for the first time (or the live CD) you are presented with a series of choices starting with language:

In an effort to keep the disc size small Bodhi only ships with the English language. If there is a demand the team and I will publish discs in other languages as well.

Next you select your theme color and Enlightenment layout:

Each of the four layouts lists a short description of what configuration provides and is offered in both light and dark flavors. Scroll down the end of this article for images of what these layouts look like.

Next you select what you want your menus to show for applications. 99.9% of people will want to select System Default, selecting Settings will cause your application menu to show applications that normally appear under Settings->All->System (and not any other applications).

Next, you are asked if you would like xterm to be listed in your applications. If you are a terminal junkie like myself, you won't mind having two.

Finally you are asked what applications you would like to be shown on your quick launcher bar. If you are booting the LiveCD with plans on installing, just tick off the Install launcher for quick access to it.


For those who are wondering, the following are screen shots of what the four different layouts (and two new Enlightenment themes) look like.

Bare Dark


Desktop Light


Laptop Dark


Fancy Light

For those looking to download this beta you can get a direct download from source forge here or via high speed torrent download here. Have any comments, questions, or suggestions please feel free to drop a message below or drop by our forums.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Bodhi Linux Get Software Page Goes Live

What good is an operating system if the end user is unable to use it? Not very useful really. A large of part of being able to use your operating system is having the right application for whatever task you are trying to accomplish. I have had a number of users ask me since I released Bodhi Linux if I plan to make the operating system more "user friendly" for those who do not know their way around Synaptic and/or apt-get.

I was a little bit torn as to what exactly I wanted to do. I like Bodhi being minimalistic, so including everything and the kitchen sink in an attempt to increase user friendliness was not an option. I also kicked around the idea of simply including the Ubuntu Software Center, but I don't care for the way it sorts the software (or lack of sorting). Most users I think get lost in all the software it lists, some of which doesn't exactly exemplify the best FOSS has to offer. I wanted something that was easy to sort through and at the same time would be familiar to most users.

Many people are comfortable navigating the web, so I feel a web interface for installing applications would be something most people would find easy to navigate. The "Get Software" link on the Bodhi Linux home page has been a place holder for the last month and a half now. This evening the Bodhi Team and I launched our Joomla! powered, online software center:


Our software page will allow users to either choose by application function or search for what they are looking for (based on application name or functionality). Once a user has found the application they are looking, they can begin installing the program with a single click or download a pre-packaged installer (handy for taking to systems without an internet connection).

The website uses apturl for the one click install (modeled after how GetDeb works) and the download-able installers are a combination of shell script and a package archive. The Joomla! template is still a little bit rough, but it is functional and that is the most important part. There are currently only a handful of applications listed, but more will be added in the coming weeks until we have the perfect Linux application listed for every task you can think of. See here for a full list of applications we currently plan to list.

Have any questions, want to suggest an application I should add to the page, or if you have any trouble installing things, feel free to drop a comment here or make a post on the Bodhi Forums.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland

Ten Linux Distros that use Enlightenment

In case you haven't noticed I've had a bit of an obsession with the Enlightenment desktop of the late. Even though this desktop is fantastic there are currently not very many distributions that utilize it. Today I would like to take the time to mention those that offer a version with my favorite desktop.

PCLinuxOS:


The biggest name distribution to (currently) offer an "official" Enlightenment variation is PCLinuxOS. PCLOS is an RPM based distribution that uses apt-get for it's package manager. As this is an official PCLinuxOS variation it is fully compatible with and uses the standard PCLinuxOS repositories. PCLinuxOS E17 currently has the beta 3 EFL packages in its repositories and stays regularly up to date.

Sabayon:


Sabayon is a derivative of Gentoo that is fully backwards compatible. They recently released an "experimental" spin that utilizes the Enlightenment desktop. This spin is based on the latest version of Sabayon. You can find more information on it here.

Bodhi Linux:


Bodhi Linux is an Ubuntu derivative that uses 10.04 as a base, but back ports newer software from Maverick and even Natty repositories. It receives regular Enlightenment updates and currently features the EFL beta 3 libraries. It is fully backwards compatible with Ubuntu 10.04 packages.

Macpup:


Macpup is a distro based on Puppy Linux. Macpup's latest release is based on "Lucid Puppy" a version of Puppy that is compatible with binaries made for Ubuntu 10.04. Macpup ships with ELF beta 1 version of the Enlightenment files compiled from SVN revision 52995. Something worth noting is that Macpup feels a bit incomplete as certain Enlightenment features do not work (such as shutting down). Finally I'd like to note that if you want to update Enlightenment under Macpup you will need to compile and install the updates yourself from source.

Unite17:


Unite17 is the first derivative built on top of Unity Linux, which in turn is a derivative of Mandriva. Unite17 is a Hungarian Enlightenment distribution that has a large default application set. Unite17 was formly known as PCe17OS.

Elive:


Elive is based on Debian stable (5.0), over time it has become what I believe to be kind of the defacto standard of Enlightenment distributions. While it does work well and is more than elegant all of it's packages are fairly old. Even it's Enlightenment packages are dated at this point, it's last release was over nine months ago.

Pentoo:


Pentoo gets it's name from it's Gentoo base and it's function for network penetration testing. It utilizes Enlightenment more so for it's speed than for it's elegance. It is backwards compatible with Gentoo, but it's last release is over a year old at this point.

MoonOS:


MoonOS is an Ubuntu derivative whose last release used 9.04 as a base. It is important to note that MoonOS no longer receives updates as 9.04's life span has run out. Still, it is nice looking and if you are willing to compile your own Enlightenment updates it can work just fine as an OS (after upgrading Ubuntu versions). This 9.04 version is the last copy of MoonOS to use the Enlightenment desktop, an announcement was posted that future versions will be using the Gnome desktop.

YellowDog:


Yellow Dog is an Enlightenment distro that works on PowerPC and Cell processor architectures. It is designed for home use (on the PS3/PPCs Macs) and server use/cluster computing. It is built on top of the community version of Redhat Linux known as CentOS and is maintained by the company Fixstars.

OpenGEU:


OpenGEU is another Ubuntu derivative (there are always lots of those) whose most recent version is built on 8.10. It has been a long while since we saw any new releases from the OpenGEU team, but they promise us a Debian based release at some point in the future.

I think I covered most all the Enlightenment based Linux distributions - really shows how few there are that I can list them all like this in one post! If I missed anything please drop a comment below to let me know.

~Jeff Hoogland

More Enlightenment FAQ

While the Enlightenment desktop is fantastic, there is no doubting that in all it's grace and glory it is a bit different from other desktop environments. While I know there are some people (such as myself) that like to just muck their way through things on their own, I also know that others like a bit of a guide to follow along with. A couple of months ago I made a post detailing the answers to some common questions those new to the Enlightenment desktop have. Today I would like to address a few more such questions and give a few tips I have picked up over the years.

Your Desktop is a Menu:
Because most Enlightenment distributions have a "main menu" button on one of their shelves, I think many miss (or forget) the fact that the entire desktop acts as a menu. Left clicking on any open space on the Enlightenment desktop brings up the main menu:


Right clicking on open space on the desktop brings you directly to your "favorites" menu:


Run Everything (without Do!):
One application you often see recommended for Linux desktops is Gnome Do, a quick launcher that allows you to quickly find and launch applications that are installed on your Linux desktop. There is no need to install Gnome Do under Enlightenment so long as you have the Everything Applications module loaded. You can launch Run Everything from either the main menu or by hot key (alt+escape or super+space). Once it is launched simply start typing the name of the application you are looking for and then press enter once it is highlighted.


You can also navigate the listed applications with the arrow keys. The launcher also remembers which applications you use - so after a day you can find your applications even more quickly!


Key Bindings:
There are a lot of useful (non-standard) key binding setup under Enlightenment by default. It is worth searching through them to see what is there. One of these I would like to mention is that alt+fX will change to your desktop X (Through 12 of course).


Enlightenment Crashes:
Something I sometimes forget is that the Enlightenment desktop is still in an alpha state, because of this it does have hiccups now and then. If you have been using the Enlightenment desktop for some time then you may have seen this message before:


Once you get past how intimidating this message looks - take a deep breath - and press F1. Your screen will flicker for a moment and then everything should return to normal. Enlightenment is the only desktop that can crash and still save the state of all the applications you have open. It is important to note what you where doing when the crash happened and then report it to your distro creator (or right to the Enlightenment folks if you are compiling from SVN).

If you think of any other Enlightenment questions I haven't covered thus far - please feel free to drop a comment below asking.

~Jeff Hoogland