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Need your help

By Richard A. Johnson on Published: August 13, 2007 at 2:05 pm

I am currently updating the Kubuntu topic based help documentation and have a few questions I am hoping some of you can help me with. If you could, just leave a comment to this post. What I am looking for is the best guides you can think of for the following items:

  • NVidia GeForce graphics cards with 3D support
  • ATI Radeon graphics cards with 3D support
  • Getting Java to work with AMD64 systems (both Konqueror and Firefox if possible)
  • Getting Flash to work with AMD64 systems (both Konqueror and Firefox if possible)
  • Top wireless card drivers
  • Compiz Fusion

I would love if these guides:

  • were for Kubuntu Feisty or Gutsy
  • were the easiest and best routes for succeeding
  • were licensed with CC-by-SA

The reason I ask for such a request is that I am currently time strapped and I know some of you have done the above more than I have and probably have way more experience in doing so. Another thing, these items will make it into the Kubuntu documentation, so if you are interested in writing anyone of those sections listed above for Kubuntu Gutsy, you would be my hero. You can write them in plain text, OpenOffice.org, KOffice, LaTeX, or whatever you feel like. If you can write them up in DocBook/XML, well then you rock hardcore. If you decide to do some writing, here are just a couple of guidelines to make incorporating them much easier:

  • try to use GUI instructions for everything. I know at times it may be easier for a user to use the CLI, but we are writing these instructions for the newest of users.
  • if you include a screenshot, try to use 1024×768 display resolution with the default Kubuntu Gutsy theme would rock hardcore. PNG files preferred, no GIFs. If you don’t include a screenshot, no huge problem, as I should be able to follow the instructions and take the screenshots myself.

Thank you ahead of time for any help that you can offer. If there is a great guide that works for everybody, or damn close to everybody, then a link will work great.

If you are interested in Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Edubuntu, or Xubuntu documentation, please do not hesitate to contact the Ubuntu Documentation list at ubuntu-doc AT lists.ubuntu.com. I know Edubuntu can use a lot of help, so if you are experienced in writing technical documentation, can read and write English decently (that is better than I can), know DocBook/XML, and know the distribution fairly well, then you can be a great help. Writing documentation is fairly easy actually, and is a great way to start contributing to free software projects. If you feel that you might have some time to review the current documentation, please email the list and let us know. There are many great people on the list who can direct you to where you can go to help out. Thanks again everyone!

Posted in Development | Tagged , , | 9 Comments
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Ubuntu'nification

By Richard A. Johnson on Published: August 8, 2007 at 5:06 pm

I didn’t want to partake really in this discussion that has been going on, because I remember it occurring a couple of times in the past couple of years with no end result.

My stance, I don’t think it is necessary to unify the names under the Ubuntu Desktop. It seems a large motive that I have seen so far is to answer the question of “What is Kubuntu?” or “What is Xubuntu?”. The examples I have been seeing are similar to this:

User 1:What is Kubuntu?
User 2:It is Ubuntu with KDE.

or if you are me:
ME:Kubuntu is a Linux distribution that utilizes the K Desktop Environment and has a strong base on the number one distribution Ubuntu, of which is created from the greatest Linux distribution ever. Then I go on to explain KDE a little bit.

Now, lets go ahead and unify the name as the Ubuntu Desktop with KDE.

User 1:What is Ubuntu with KDE?
or
User 1:What is Ubuntu and what is KDE?

whoa whoa! We are still getting a question (or questions) that has to be answered the same.

Now, get rid of the questions in whole. Today people use this wonderful tool called the Internet and tend to research before the buy. In our world, they research before they download and install. I don’t know about the rest of the world honestly, but what I do know is marketing in the United States. And the people living here can pretty much all agree that branding is what drives our market. Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Microsoft, IBM, Ford, Motorola and the list goes one. All names everyone pretty much in the world are familiar with. Now imagine Coca Cola unifying their product line as just Coca Cola. No more A&W Root Beer, now you have Coca Cola with Root Beer flavoring. Kind of ridiculous in a way. Now for all of you Jaguar fans, what if Ford decides they want to rename them to the Ford Jaguar X whatever. People who are die-hard Jaguar fans for one aren’t going to go for it. But then again that brings in the old Chevy is better than Ford and so on.

So even if we unify the name, the questions that were asked in the examples, are still going to be asked. By unifying the names as the Ubuntu Desktop with (insert DE here), you are one assuming that the Ubuntu brand is known by everyone, which unfortunately at this time, it isn’t. Even if you start out by saying “Try Ubuntu with Xfce” now you of being be posed with 2 questions, instead of just 1. Now the multi-CD release that would be needed to carry out what openSUSE and Fedora does isn’t all that logical either, seeing that the Ubuntu project is currently comprised of 4 different projects. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Edubuntu, all which have somewhat created their own branding in the past couple of years. Asking the smaller projects to unify is almost like stripping them of what they have created in a way. So because of this I understand Freddy’s stance in a way. Og and Tristan also have powerful stances for the unification as well.

We have Live CDs for a reason, and that is so users can get a taste of what each distribution has to offer. With all of the reviews out there about the good and bad of each distribution, and assuming that new users do their homework and study each before installing, there really shouldn’t be that “What is Ubuntu?” or “What is KDE?”. Are these questions asked first of all? I have only been asked one time. That was the first Ubuntu Chicago meeting. We gathered out front of Buffalo Wild Wings for a group photo and asked someone on the street to take the picture. Afterwords we offered the guy who took our picture an Ubuntu CD. And the first words out of his mouth weren’t “What is Ubuntu?” but rather “Cool! I will listen to this on the way home!” HEHE, I still get a chuckle out of it, but after explaining it wasn’t a music CD, he then asked what it was. So far, from all of the LoCo team news I have read and even the Canonical and Ubuntu news, all of it seems to be Linux and Free Software related. I haven’t seen news of a Canonical booth at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) or even an Ubuntu LoCo team booth at such an event. It would be this type of event, that reaches a far larger crowd at this time than any Linux or Free Software even attracts, in which you might be posed with those questions in the first place.

Wow, I have rambled on a bit and I apologize. Feel free to argue these in the comments on this blog. Who knows, you might just get me to change. But at this time I would have to say no to such a proposal, but I am staying open to the option in the future. Thanks!

Posted in Linux | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments
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And the winner is…

By Richard A. Johnson on Published: August 8, 2007 at 2:43 pm

UBUNTU!

Only two Linux distributions participated in our Battle of the Distros competition. The two competitors were Red Hat Linux and Ubuntu Linux. Representatives from both distributions had an opportunity to give a fifteen minute presentation on why their distribution is best. While both distributions had its advantages, the audience chose Ubuntu Linux as the overall best distribution.

Earlier this year the University of Illinois at Chicago’s ACM group put on a very nice “Open Source in the Business” conference. The conference, called Flourish, went off without a hitch and had plenty of people show up. Last I heard roughly 200 people showed up, which isn’t bad at all, considering they held it on Easter weekend, yes the one Easter weekend where all religions who celebrate it had it at the same time. Not to bad.

Ubuntu vs. Red Hat. It was a great opportunity to show off Ubuntu as well as Red Hat (Fedora) as two amazing operating systems. Tom “spot” Callaway from Red Hat give his part about Red Hat and did an amazing job. He showed off some coolness with Fedora that made me actually like the way Gnome looked. What started out as a competition really turned into a pretty cool little talk between the two distros. Ubuntu Chicago gave their talk, after a five minute episode of “Ubuntu doesn’t like this LCD.” Tom fired up Fedora and right away it was up an rocking on the LCD. OUCH! So, to prove our point, we simply asked, “Who here is using Ubuntu or one of its projects?” Pretty much everyone raised their hand. And out of all of them people who raised their hand, I can comfortably say Xubuntu was the majority. Xfce and Xubuntu are pretty big here in Chicago among the developers it seems. Our other point was a funny really. We googled “Ubuntu sucks” and “Red Hat Sucks”, and Google showed that Red Hat had roughly 400,000 more hits for the search topic :) Thanks to Tom of course and to the Ubuntu Chicago guys who kicked arse. Truthfully, Tom was outnumbered, but I feel that overall his presentation(s) were excellent, and Tom if you just happen to read this, Ubuntu Chicago would love to call it a tie and share the award with you. Even though we offer the battle as a tie, don’t think we won’t rub it in every chance we get when you are around :)

Also, who took pictures of Tom and I in a deep, loving, embrace? It was a show of Linux force :) If you have those pictures, because I seen the flash bulbs (so 1970s) going off, send them my way or link me to them please. You can view pictures as well as the talks via Google Video by visiting the Flourish Media page.

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

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