On my Desktop

I promised a little while ago to a "What's on my Desktop" thing. My number one favorite piece of software is Kontact. It is very comparable to MS Outlook. It handles all my e-mail, my calendar, my to-do-list, has a time tracker, an RSS reader built in, a news reader, a Journal, a cool notebook for brainstorming and outlining, pop-up notes (views all notes from desktop) and anti-spam add ons. This program comes with the KDE Office Suite and is just that...Sweet.

Another program I like is called Blogilo which I am using right now. It allows me to write my blogs off-line and post them when I get a connection. I can post pictures and even see a preview of my blog before I upload it.

For web browsers, I currently have the choice of 3 i.e. Firefox which I use all the time, Google Chrome which takes a little time to set up, and Konqueror which I use once in a great while. There are several others to choose from. These are just the three I use.

Fedora is full of Graphic Software. If you get the KDE desktop, one thing you get is Digikam. This allows you to download pictures and video from most any camera on the market today. There are also "plug-ins" that allow you to post your pictures straight up to your favorite social networking site. These are called KIPI plug-ins.

For video I usually run a program called Dragon Player. Actually there are many to choose from as far as video play-back. The key is have all the needed codecs installed which allows seamless entertainment. For on-line video, I have flash player as well as some add-ons that allow other formats to be viewed via web-browser interface.

The bottom line is that if you need your computer to be able to do something, there is a Linux developer out there in the world who is already meeting that need. Many of those programs have been ported to Fedora and if for some reason you can't find it for Fedora, there's plenty of help to coach you through doing it yourself. Fedora people are generally very friendly and eager to help overcome most any obstacle.

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Fedora Talk

I installed Fedora 15 on my son's computer which is a Hewlett Packard G60 series laptop. It installed without a hitch. Wi-Fi installed automatically. It is a really nice system. Openoffice.org is now replaced with Libreoffice which is pretty much the same thing, but has more promise of being maintained for several years to come. I did have to set Samba up so it could talk to the rest of the house. I installed Chrome, but had to tell Chrome where to find the Adobe Flash plug-ins. No problem as the Fedora Forum people are a really great help.

Ease of installation was just that--easy. Just stick the disk in, reboot to the disk, and answer some simple questions and it installs super fast. Any other stuff need can be found on the Fedora Forum. And it is Blue. I like the color blue. Another thing that is nice about it is the system installs RPM files from the internet by the push of a button. Just like I said, easy.

I installed KDE because that is what I am used to using. Rumor has it Gnome 3 is full of bugs. Those will soon be worked out. Fedora is still a bleeding edge Linux Distribution. The Fedora Team does a great job getting new ideas out. And it is the Fedora Community that gives the welcomed feedback. After Fedora people play with the new stuff, other distribution incorporate it. Distributions like Debian.

Oh yes. Back to Debian. Debian 6 is using software that Fedora 10 was using a few years ago. So if you want the fun stuff, get Fedora. Fedora installs easier, downloads are more dependable, updating is really easy, upgrading is pretty much automatic and really fast.

And the bottom line is, I like blue.

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