OpenOffice Gets An Update

For all the OpenOffice fans out there, an update has been announced ready for download. Version 3.2 is ready and has improvements in startup time and MS Office 2007 compatibility. If you find yourself importing and exporting to this format often then you will appreciate the improvements. Look here for a full list of the updates and download here. Check your specific distribution for an update if you think it will help and benefit you.

Ubuntu Case Studies

I hear all the time from freinds and others that Linux just isn't making any strides in the desktop market. Well this link to Ubuntu Case Studies will definitely open some eyes as to whom in the corporate world is installing and using Ubuntu and why. From servers to desktops the stories are here and I found them quite interesting. How does the number 220,000 clients sound? In Andalusia Spain, Isotrol and Canonical's Premium Service Engineers were contracted to do just that, implement 220,000 clients for Andalusia's school systems. The list goes on for the spreading use of Ubuntu based systems. Ubuntu isn't the only distribution with case studies to be found either. Search any Linux distribution and you are sure to get results just as I did with Ubuntu. This is the top result from a Google search using these terms: case studies Linux. The open source movement is going in the right direction but we as end users can do our part by letting the various system admins we work for or who control our desktop, that we would like a choice and that choice is FOSS. Free and Open Source Software is the choice we as end users have the right to make and to use.

Download PDF Of Ubuntu User

Last spring the magazine Ubuntu User went on sale in national bookstores. Thye are now offering the first issue as a pdf file for free here. If you are a fan of Ubuntu or want to learn a bit more about it before taking the plunge, I suggest you visit this site and download your copy today. Ubuntu is currently my distro of choice and I am enjoying Karmic Koala. I have found it to be a very stable release for my equipment. This has been the first release that has fully supported my aging ATI Mobililty Radeon 320M. This hasn't always been the easiest graphics to get running properly but in this version I get some of the desktop effects more common to installations with more modern chipsets. The top cover story on this issue is "Jump to Jaunty" and I'm sure there will be much more useful and fun reading inside. It is time to read my copy now.

Installing yWriter5 In Ubuntu Karmic Koala

I happened upon the yWriter5 program and wanted to give it a try. But the Spacejock's instructions didn't work for me. I do admit to not following them completely as I'll explain. I followed the instructions given to unzip the files. Then I checked to see what version of Mono I had installed. Since I already had Mono 2.4, I skipped the step for installing Mono from source. This setup produced an error upon trying to launch the yWriter5. I used Google to find an answer and sure enough someone had solved this issue in the forums. The steps given in the forum were to uninstall and re-install Mono and add an install of the Visual Basic 2005 Runtime libraries. Once again I didn't quite follow the instructions given and went ahead and installed the Visual Basic 2005 Runtime libraries using Synaptic. I could now open and use yWriter5. This most likely worked because I already had the latest version of Mono installed. Evidently the Visual Basic 2005 Runtime library is not a dependency for all Mono related applications otherwise it would already have been installed. I hope this will help others to install and run yWriter5 easily.

For those interested in books that help you to write, on page 28 of this book the author plugs yWriter.

Non-Geeky Girl Converts To Linux

I just ran across this post from the Linux Forums and I had to post a link here. Absolutely some of the best advice I have ever read on how to convert a Windows user to Linux easily. Read her short story in the Linux Forums and I'm sure you will enjoy it too. I realize this was posted in July 2009 but I just found it and it really does show how far the Linux desktop is moving into new demographics.

JBuds J2 Premium Hi-Fi Earbuds From JVC

Hey this is an incredible price on some pretty good earbuds. Get them here at Amazon for $60 off or a bit more depending on the shipping method chosen.

Listen to your tunes or podcasts in Hi-Fi noise canceling style on your Linux machine or portable device (even works in Windows).   :)

Using The Command Line To Solve Problems

I ran across this neat set of commands that when run as root will show the output of /var/log/messages in real time. This could be very helpful for an issue that pops up only under certain conditions. Yes the same errors will be in the logs, but now you don't have to dig it out. Here is the command and it must be run as root:

tail -f /var/log/messages &

Try this in a terminal window and leave it open while you do what ever and come back to it to see what is in there. I certainly don't ever claim to know the command line well but I'm not afraid to learn. I want to thank BillWho in the Craigslist Linux forum for sharing this command.