04. Desktop

Ubuntu is about to release a new version of their operating system, code-named Intrepid Ibex. It's due this coming Thursday, October 30.

I've got a list of niggling things that have been bothering me about the current Hardy Heron release.

The Linux Link Tech Show (TLLTS) has a great segment dissecting the criticisms/wild flames put forth on a series of shows on the TWIT network. Wanted to add a couple comments missing from their discussion.

First of all, the Mac Break Weekly show apparently spends some time bashing the open source community, calling out Drupal, and how difficult it is to solve "simple" problems like uploading images for blog posts.

I started writing a response to a discussion in the latest "Linux Link Tech Show" episode, but ended up with something far too long, so I've split it up into 4 posts. The next post is about the TLLTS vs TWIT debate, and introduces this set of post.

What's extraordinary about the open source community is that this level of support happens all the time, every day, without charge, in hundreds, thousands of projects out there. People that can get to the bottom of a problem and fix it at the source, not just provide a workaround, are directly reachable and motivated to see their software work as well as possible. They're not hidden away from the public behind a large corporation, unreachable with layers of clueless support script readers stuffed between you and them.

Some handy tips for users of OpenOffice.org, looking to get away from the mouse...

Ten fantastic keyboard shortcuts in OpenOffice.org

1. You want to make sure nobody will be able to read your documents in 10 years
2. You want to help your buddy who works for Microsoft have enough income to buy a private island in the Carribean, because maybe he would invite you to come for a weekend
3. You feel sorry for the PC on the Mac commercials
4. Your buddy is buying it for you from the Microsoft company store, so you're actually saving hundreds of dollars!
   

Over the weekend, I upgraded my trusty Thinkpad to the new Beta release of Ubuntu, Gutsy Gibbon. Thought I would post my notes so far.

It's a T43, and I got it around a year ago. The first thing I installed was the beta version of Edgy Eft, and then about a month before Feisty Fawn came out, I upgraded.

This time around, the upgrade wasn't as clean. First off, my root partition was too full, so I had to do some shuffling to make enough room for the upgrade. Once I did that, it took several hours to download all the packages and start installing.

Several others have listed the applications they use on a daily basis. I've been using Linux for my desktop environment for several years, and thought I would share what I use constantly.

• Operating System: Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, 7.10
• Desktop Environment: Gnome (though I tend to prefer KDE overall, Ubuntu does a better job with Gnome, especially integrating laptop features like power management, and Gnome has gotten good enough to use as the primary desktop.
  

We've needed this sort of thing for a while:
Openoffice.org Label Templates for Ooo Writer free

Looks like IBM is going aggressively up against the Outlook/Exchange juggernaut. Several months ago, they made Domino, their mail server, free for any business who buys the licenses for the mail client, Notes. Now they're making Notes available for Linux. The Notes/Domino combination is more than just an email system--it's a complete database system, including calendaring, team rooms, private intranet features, addressing, and much more.