Posts tagged as:

linux

Linux and the Fight for Freedom

by Mahesh Kukreja on November 1, 2011

This is a guest post! If you want to write for us, check out the Guest Post section.

Linux users are the freedom fighters of computing. They love their independence, and they’re not going to give that up for anything. Like their counterparts, though, they also need a little structure. Enter the different desktop environments available for the Ubuntu OS. Some of them have all the freedom you could ask for, but others adhere to a little more of an authoritarian view.

Linux T-Shirt

[Photo via Flickr]

Unity

Unity works with the GNOME system to produce an almost Mac-like interface. The desktop has a feature like Mac’s Spaces that holds different versions of desktop configurations that can be customized for work, home life or whatever the user wants. It comes standard with four, but more can be added or taken away.

Unity was developed with netbooks in mind, which means it still features a clean-looking interface to support two different types of machines. You can install unity on anything from a $200 netbook to a dedicated server and still experience smooth results with the same interface. There are, however, a slight lack of customization options. The dock, for example, that sits on the left side of the screen can’t be moved. You can add to it or take away from it, but it’s not going anywhere. Comparing it to Windows 7’s dock that can be put on any side of the screen is enough to make any good open source patriot cry. It’s small details like this that make it a functional, decent GUI, but one that won’t have you experimenting much.

Gnome 3

Gnome 3 was designed for touch screen interfaces. It would work great on a smartphone, tablet or even a PDA. On a computer, it will run well with a mouse, and you won’t experience any issues per se with the design. It does mean that icons are unnecessarily large and cumbersome. You also can’t save anything on the actual desktop, which is a disconcerting prospect for many.

Gnome 3

[Image via Flickr]

Most of what you’ll do from the desktop can be accessed from the Activities tab on the upper left corner of the screen. While it’s convenient to have them all in one place, it would be slightly more convenient if you could access them a little more readily. Gnome 3 is still one of the most widely used Linux desktop systems, though, because of its functionality and ease.

Xfce

Unlike the previous environments, Xfce was originally designed for laptops and PCs. A suite of applications have been designed for it by third party users for seamless use of a calendar, music player and even a text editor, though it’s much closer to Notepad in functionality than Word.

Interestingly, Xfce uses Fill, a program that will let you extend a window far enough to touch another one but not overlap it by using the mouse. It’s similar to Windows 7’s Aero Snap feature, except there are no constraints on proportions. Xfce is a little more customizable than other environments, and though many have complained that it’s not new-user friendly, many have faithfully followed it for just that reason.

Other posts by

Incoming search terms:

  • ubuntu freedom
  • linux fight windows

Related Posts
Related Websites

{ 0 comments }

SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Released

by Mahesh Kukreja on March 24, 2009

Novell unveiled SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 on Tuesday, with features and capabilities that reflect the company’s controversial multiyear agreement with Microsoft.

In 2006, Microsoft and Novell agreed to work on improving compatibility between their products, and pledged not to pursue patent claims against each other’s customers. The move has been widely decried by open-source software advocates.

But the relationship has borne significant fruit, according to Novell. The vendor said SUSE 11 will work “seamlessly” with Windows regarding areas like systems management, virtualization, document formats and even multimedia.

A new feature called Mono Extension provides support for Mono, allowing companies to run .NET applications on Linux systems without having to recompile the programs. The extension will also enable IBM System z mainframe users to run .NET applications.

SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 runs on a wide range of hardware and has also been optimized for “near-native” performance on a range of hypervisors, including VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V and Xen.

While Novell has included many new capabilities, there aren’t necessarily many surprises, said Redmonk analyst Stephen O’Grady. “This is what you can expect from enterprise-class platforms, be they Linux or Windows, at this point. If you’re a general-purpose OS, you need to be able to multitask.”

Mono does provide Novell with a differentiator from other Linux distributions, O’Grady said.

“Novell can do that because of the deal they have with Microsoft,” he added. “Until it’s viewed as patent-safe on all Linux platforms, not just Novell, it’s going to be a tough sell.”

Meanwhile, Novell is also hoping to rev up the application market around its OS, with SUSE Linux Enterprise JeOS (just enough operating system), which ISVs can use along with a set of tools called Suse Studio, to package their products as virtual appliances.

Novell has a “supportability algorithm” for vetting appliances; those that pass muster will receive technical support from Novell.

“You can really start to think of this as mass customization of Linux,” said Novell spokesman Justin Steinman, vice president of solution and product marketing.

Suse Studio is now in alpha. A public beta is scheduled to begin soon, according to Steinman.

Other posts by


Related Posts
Related Websites

{ 0 comments }

Red Hat Fedora 10 is Out

by Mahesh Kukreja on November 27, 2008

For all open source Lovers,

Red Hat Fedora 10 Linux is out with major improvements!

The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora Project on Tuesday released Fedora 10, the latest version of the free Linux-based operating system, with a wide range of improvements in areas such as virtualization management, networking, boot time and security.

The release also bundles in OpenOffice 3.0, the most recent edition of the open-source productivity suite.

The new virtualization features include the ability to manage virtual hosts and storage remotely, which should appeal to network administrators with fragmented teams. “These features combine to make administration of remote hosts much easier, even in cases where direct physical access is limited or non-existent,” the Fedora Team said in a recent blog post on Red Hat’s Web site.

Users can now also share their Internet connection with others, and Fedora 10 can also start up faster, thanks to a new graphical boot system dubbed Plymouth.

Security improvements include the addition of SecTool, an auditing and detection kit.

Red Hat has also enhanced PackageKit, a software installation and updating system that debuted in Fedora 9.

“In Fedora 10, PackageKit now detects when the user opens an audio or video media file, and offers to search for codecs used to play that file,” the Fedora Team said in a blog post. “With the user’s authorization, it searches all the software repositories configured on the Fedora 10 system, installs what is needed, and the media begins to play.” Down the road, this capability will be extended to areas like fonts and applications.

In addition, Fedora 10 has a revamped audio system that uses less power; support for “a vast array” of Webcams; improved printing capabilities; and “support for more hardware than any other operating system.”

Other posts by


Related Posts
Related Websites

{ 0 comments }