Fedora 18 Blues

Usually, by this time of the year, I have installed the Winter version of Fedora.  Since it is not official released, I'm totally bummed.  I would have the geeks equivilant of cabin fever if there was not other stuff to do while I wait.

This season, it would be Fedora 18 donned "Spherical Cow".  But hey!  I did download the beta version to try on Virtual Box.  And, so far, I like the installer.  And that's about it.  Can't really test it because Fedora, as well as other Linux distributions, really enjoys having it's hands on a really real box and not just a virtual one.

So, for the end user, I'm really waiting for the real thing.  In the mean time, I found something new.  A group of smart computer people got together and made an end-user friendly Fedora spin called Kororra Linux

Kororra is supposed to be a cleaned up, more user friend version of Fedora.  It comes in version 16 and 17 and soon 18 for whenever Fedora 18 is officially released.  It installs just the same as its parent distro, but is supposed to be more stable and easy to use.  It's nearest conceptual contemporary would be Linux Mint.  Haven't had a chance to put it through my hoops, maybe because I just like the real thing.

Another thing I've been doing while waiting for F18 is to try Mint 14 Mate.  Can't even get it to install on VB.  Not sure what's up, it just won't install.  Probably would rather have a real machine which I'm not willing to give up yet or go out and purchase.

I also messed around with Centos for the purpose of exploring Apache for a web server.  That was fun and I learned a lot.  Now I'm looking for a real server to get that one running.

Which leads me to Craigs List.  There's a really nice server listed locally and I just might go out and get it.  It is the right size, the right speed and the right age for a home web/file/game/email server.  Just need a few hundred bucks to get it.

Oh, what else have I been doing?  Pretty much just killing time 'til Fedora 18 comes out.  Rumor has it that the old fuddyduddies at MS have Red Hat tied up in knots over the new hardware requirements for computers planning on coming preloaded with W8.  What a bummer.  Isn't there anyone in the U.S. who can make a computer that MS would have to bow down to??  Or better yet, is there anyone who can make hardware that would block MS?  I mean really.!!  MS requires HW manufacturers to bow to them.  Why can't someone simply make harware that would only run everything but MS? 

All this coming from a simple end-user.  Can't solve the world's problems in this blog.  Maybe next time.  Oh, just to slap MS around this Christmas why not by some stuff from System 76 . They load Linux on their machines.  How good is that?  Huh?  How good is that?

OwnCloud

So, instead of doing my Fall Fedora Upgrade this Thanksgiving weekend, I messed around with getting an instance of Owncloud working on Centos 6.3 on Virtual Box.  I spent a lot of hours on it an am not yet satisfied.

Owncloud is a very cool idea which has been around for a few years.  With the advent of Cloud Computing out in the corporate world, it is nice to see something become available for the End User people.  So what does it do?

Owncloud is a cool alternative to the ever popular DropBox.  What you do is install it on a computer dedicate has a home file/web server.  It installs fairly easy for an advance end user.  And for those of use who are not so advanced, there are tons of people who don't mind helping out.  All you have to do is Google or Bing or whatever.

My OC is a test version just to see if I could do it and what it would look like.  First, I installed the latest Centos.  I then added the necessary files.  Finally, I installed and configured OC.  There are instructions all over the web for this as, I suppose, folks just like the security of having all their precious files and pics on their own server open to only those who the specifically invite.

So, this weekend, I learned that Centos is an awesome choice for a web server, Owncloud is a promising replacement for DropBox, and finally I learned how to make my Web Server available to the outside world by configuring ports and Virtual Box accordingly. 

You might just be asking me where's the tutorial.  You're not going to get much from me except for this list:

#1 Choose your computer for your web server
#2 Configure your hardware (i.e. multiple Ethernet ports, more ram etc)
#3 Choose your operating system (Centos 6.3 is nice...hint, hint)
#4 Install your OS
#5 Configure your OS
#6 Install OpenCloud
#7 Configure (config files and hardware firewalls etc.)
#8 Have fun.

One thing you might also do is create a "home page" for your web server that links to your OC for those whom you invite.  Then the OC could be a secure site...I still have to figure some of this out.  Oh, by being secure, that means by invitation only. Don't publish your OC on Facebook or any other place unless you want your system to be cracked within the first day of operation.

Just for fun, you might just try testing it on Virtual Box before you give it more room.  One other cool thing about it, you can do your VB test and the migrate it to a larger system almost like what the aliens did to with brains in the movie Skyline.

Follow the hyperlinks to get started:
Owncloud
OC Forum
Centos
VirtualBox

Thanks Giving (End User Style)

30 Days of Thanks Giving is a little trendy right now and I'm just a little behind.  Never prided myself in "keeping up with the Jones", but nevertheless, I'll give it my best shot.  I am thankful for a lot of stuff.  Since this blog tends to favor more towards Linux, I'll start there.

#1 I am thankful for the people behind Linux
#2 I am thankful for developers who work, in their spare time ( a lot of them) to create and keep current all the cool apps made available for Linux users.
#3 I am thankful for Open Source developers who continue to provide apps that are cross platform so Linux users like me can have freedom to chose.
#4 I'm thankful to be able to us my Fedora Linux to watch church streaming live from Sun Valley Community Church
#5 I'm thankful to start my Mondays with checking my Mine Craft Server and add a few more gigs of ram for the guys who play during the day time.
#6 I'm thankful that I voted yesterday and that I can multi-task on my Fedora Linux while streaming news updates on multiple tabs in Firefox.
#7 Let's see...getting a little behind here...I'm thankful for Virtual Box..
#8 Today I'm thankful for Netbeans....
#9 I'm also thankful for OpenShot Video Editor...
#10 You know a few years ago I was so poor I couldn't afford fun things for my kids.  All the other kids were getting video games.  So I'm thankful for America's Army...even though it is not technically OS, it is or was free.
#11   I'm thankful for Blender.
#12 I'm thankful for Libreoffice...used to be OpenOffice until Oracle...whatever....
#13 I'm thankful for OpenCloud which would be way cool once I figure it out.  Looking forward to creating a home file server that all my home network can access.
#14 Speaking of networks, I am thankful for the developers of the product called dd-wrt .  This has been awesome in making my home network more secure, more flexible, and more powerful.
#15 As an End User, I am really thankful for all the KDE Community is doing to provide one of the best GUI experiences one could ever install on a PC.
#16 I am thankful today is Friday and I have the weekend to recuperate.  End users love rest and relaxation
#17 I am thankful for Saturday where I can browse tutorials on YouTube while running a slightly tweaked Minecraft Server for my son and his friends.
#18 Today, I am thankful for my 3 kids because without them I would not have had an interest in building and maintaining my home network as well as using Open Source stuff and Linux.
#19 As an End User, I enjoy Hulu and watching T.V. episodes for free on my computer.
#20 This end user is also thankful for New Egg providing me with Eye Candy and a personal wish list enabling me to create the next great computer for myself.
#21  I have to say that I am thankful for Thanksgiving being here tomorrow and for a 4 day weekend with two paid holiday days.  Time for family and doing stuff around the house.
#22 Well, today is Thanksgiving and I am thankful for God's provisions throughout the past year as well as the year up and coming.  I am thankful for my wife and kids and the roof over my head and a good job and this hot cup of coffee.



All done.  Move over turkeys, Santa Claus is coming! (11/23/2012)

What can I do with Linux?

Really?  Yes.  People do ask that question.  First of all, with Linux, I save money and lots of it.  Now that that is out of the way, I can now choose which developer to send money to so my favorite applications get the most attention.  But, really, what do I do with Fedora 17?  I will see if I can make a list for you so you can compare it to the other leading OS's.

I can go on the Internet, watch Flash video, watch DVDs, play CDs, draw, design, model, edit photos, create and edit video, burn music and video, see e-mail, run a web server, run an e-mail server, run a home cloud network, share between Linux and Windows machines,


If I were a programmer I could develop C++, Python, and Java, using a choice of editors.  But I am a programer, but if I were, I would be right at home with Linux.

You know what else, if I were a church media tech, I would use OpenLP for overhead presentations. 

I am what I call a pretty good "end user".  I appreciate all the Fedora developers do to get the product out here.  It is packaged with a lot of cool stuff.  Now one of the things that get left out of Linux is games.  But really not.  Fedora has arcade style games.  Keep watching the distros because Java gaming is getting more popular.  And, games can be designed for Linux because Linux can run Java, Python C++ and probably more than this end user has knowledge of.

But really, I am middle aged and not a real gamer.  I do play Mine Craft once in a while, but I'm more into social networking and watching old movies on my computer.  And for that, my Fedora does an awesome job.  I could draw stuff with a pen tablet using several different, but similar, editing programs like Gimp.  But, I'm not that artistic, but if I was, I would still use Fedora as with Gimp, I could save my art in just about any commercial format used today.

And guess what.  It only gets better because this Thanksgiving, Fedora 18 comes out.  Can't wait...but I will...but if I didn't want to I could install the Alpha and Beta versions.  You could to or you could just try a Live CD.

So what can I do with Linux?  For me, anything I want to do.  Linux is for everyone, just don't forget to thank a developer.

Safer Internet Surfing

So, you have your Linux up and running and now you can surf the Internet without risking a thing.  Right? Linux is bullet proof, right? Well, pretty much, however, whatever we do on the Internet is recorded somewhere.  Our digital lives are stored on some big server out there in the digital world.  Those digital lives could be recalled when needed and at the time when we least expect.  How many of us would fail?


Let's not get into all the details of all that stuff.  Let's, instead, get into securing our Internet.  The first thing I recommend for the home user is to get a hardware firewall.  Many brands are out there.  I have a Linksys router with an Open-Source firmware to manage my home firewall needs.  There are many other brands.  When properly set up, these can prevent digital intrusions to our private home data.

Next, get your browsing under control.  I like Firefox for a browser.  The reason I like it is because I can modify it to make my browsing more private.  The add-ons I use to help with that is Ghostery and Add-Block-Plus (ABP).  Ghostery blocks counters and trackers thus controlling cookies and pop-ups.  ABP controls adds and pop-ups.

This is great on popular social networks like Twitter and Facebook.  Ever get tired of seeing those stupid adds on the right side of Facebook.  Get Add-Block-Plus and Ghostery and do away with those stupid adds.

It is also great on Google image searches.  Ever do a search for something innocent and end up with an extra tab or window open with something you did not click on?  And worse yet, has that ever happened when your wife or kids pop up behind you out of nowhere?  Embarrassing and hard to explain right? Out of sight, out of mind they say and Add-Block-Plus eliminates the pop-ups and protects us and our families from seeing something we never intended to see when we set out on an image search. 

While I'm on that subject, did you know your Google Search has a "Safe Mode" and can be set at "Strict" or "Moderate" and that you can report bad images?  Well, now you know.  This menu is located at the upper right hand corner of your screen.  Nowadays, using "Strict" mode is the best plan, but not immune from the occasional infiltrator.  Report offensive images.

Finally, when we click on an image or do a search for something bad, someone out there is counting our searches and clicks.  These accountings are tallied into a market analysis for such searches.  Please do not be one of those among many who surf for garbage as these surfings declare a need  and the need gets answered with more garbage.  It's called supply and demand.  Garbage dealers make their money this way.  They find out what people want by sticking random images in the middle of innocent ones.  And they have experts who get their pages on the first few pages of an innocent search.

Bottom line, be careful.  FireFox has the tools to secure your Internet experience.  So, let's step outside of the Garbage market base, and pave a way for a new and clean market.  Search for specific things and select only what you search for.  Internet was originally designed to be a tool and was never intended to be a private entertainment vise.  I'm full of clichés and the one I'm going to add here is "Change starts at home".  And in the case of the Garbage Internet Market, change does start at home.  Happy and safe searching.

Oh, I should also say that FireFox, ABP and Ghostery are all free, however, I'm sure their creators could use the money and support. 

Upgrade to Fedora 17

For those of you who were wondering, I did do my upgrade to Fedora 17 a few days before Father's Day weekend.  I used Pre-Upgrade and everything worked great except for the Kernel. 

I had to manually upgrade the Kernel from F16 to F17.  What I did was remove the Kernel manually and then manual install it.  First I did "#yum list *kernel*".  And then I looked through the list and found the appropriate ones to remove by using "#yum remove *".  A more dangerous way of doing it is "#yum remove kernel*" using that notorious wild-card.  Then, while you have the terminal up do "yum install kernel*" with the wild-card.  As soon as it is done type "#reboot".

So, as my story goes, I rebooted to the F17 Kernel and all was good.  I also got to purchase 8 gigs of ram and a nice monitor from LG.  With the added memory, was able to really make us of Oracle's Virtual Box with a MS Windows XP VM.  What is really cool about the new RAM ....oh and did I mention I got a much nicer video card...anyhow, the new RAM and graphics allowed me to allocate 128 megs of video and 2 gigs of RAM to the VM.  Now, I can watch Netflix via the MS XP VM with zero lag time. 

I know, MS is not Open-Source, but I purchase that XP years ago under my old business and just had it laying around collecting dust.  So, why not use it?

So, what did I add this season?  Fedora 17, 8 gigs of Kingston RAM, a 2 gig Nvidia style graphics card, and nice LG monitor.  Looking forward to Fedora 18 and refusing to drink the Kool-Aid of Windows 8.

Linux Desktop Rant

http://www.techcentral.co.za/linux-on-the-desktop-what-went-wrong/30713/

I know, it's bad form to lead the blog with a hot-link to another web site.  But you have to know that I'm a little frustrated at part-time Linux users and their constant bashing of how the Linux Desktop is dead or how the Linux Desktop is substandard because it can't be set up on certain machines.  Oh, and I'm just a little tired of throwing Ubuntu or Mint up as the only viable Linux OS's that can be used as a desktop and when they fail to set them up on their "experimental" machines, all Linux fails.

Here's the deal.  I have been running Linux on my machine for over 2 years now.  Since I closed my business, I had no need to pay for an OS and I completely switched to my favorite, Fedora.  I am not a gamer, so Fedora works just fine for me.    I was a W7 Beta tester.  And I did enjoy it.  But when the Beta came to an end and was time to buy the full version, I chose not to.  I chose to switch over to Fedora 100%.  I don't even dual boot.  I have no need to.  I do everything I need to do from my Fedora box.

Things have to be understood when switching to Linux.  The first thing that should be done is read the installation manual of the OS.  Every Linux distribution has one.  Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora (my favorite), Centos, Scientific, Arch, and the list goes on.  Every one of them has some sort of an installation manual.  Most of them have user forums.  The manual and the forums are a must for new and advanced users because, unlike MS and Apple, Linux does not have a 24 hour customer service hotline.  The forums take the place of that.  And I think Linux is better in that regard because the forums put us in touch with regular people, just like us, who want Linux to succeed.

So, if for some reason a printer doesn't work, check the manual and the forum.  If, for some reason, Flash doesn't work, by all means, check the manual and the forum.  Oh, if your dual monitors don't work, hey, somebody's been there and done that.  If you can't get KMail or Evolution to work properly, gee whiz, ask the forum.  Someone knows.  Hey, even Google helps with stuff like that, however, it's always nice to check the forums first.

Most Linux distributions have another thing that leading market OS's do not have.  Their developers are available to chat with on what they call IRC or Internet Relay Chat.  Fedora has this as well as KDE, Gnome, and most other mainline distributions and Linux developers.  Try that with mainstream MS or Apple.  Only with Linux can an average person communicate with a big time developer.  Again, try that with MS or Apple.  Have fun with that.  Oh, and the Linux "big time developers" are regular people who have day jobs just like you and me.

Another thing I'm sick of is saying Linux only holds 1%-2% of the Desktop market share.  Well, that figure is really stupid and misleading.  Every Linux user knows that, too.  Why?  Because Linux is free and because it is free, it is not marketed the same way MS and Apple OS's are.  Let me say this again.  Because Linux Distributions (With the exception of Red Hat) are free, they skirt around the market.  I would have to guess-ta-mate that Linux Desktops amount to more than 2% of all Desktops in the world.  We will never know because, really, no one person who matters is really counting.  They are just enjoying the freedoms that come with associating with the Open Source OS community.  Oh, I should also mention that corporations that use Linux Servers also use Linux Workstations which are the best option for interfacing with the Linux Servers.  So, since Workstations are essentially Desktops (or Laptops), I think the percentage goes up quite a bit.  It would be interesting to ask Amazon how many Linux Workstations they have, wouldn't it?

So, when a Linux distribution talks about "marketing", it is really talking about OS evangelising or apologetics.  Distributions depend on regular users volunteering to promote and distribute among their peers and communities.  They use their own money to "get the word out", burn ISO disks, pay for promotion material, and hold Distribution Parties and Developer Parties.  Promotion moneys come from private individuals and corporations and is limited.  But by no means is Linux marketed the same way MS or Apple is.  The only reason Linux is even in the news today is because of volunteers who share the Open Source dream.  And the only reason Linux is even on desktops is because one man shared his dream with regular people like you and me.

So thanks, Linus, for sharing.

Upgrade to F16

I'm giving it another shot. I'm using "preupgrade" to switch from 15 to 16. It is upgrading right now and is over half way through. Last time I tried this kde was having issues. Hope it works this time.