December 2001
(26th) Well, a bumper update for December! And why not, it’s been an eventful month. I’ve been learning a load about Linux, GIMP, Quanta and all that - I guess every cloud has a silver lining. I also now have ADSL - a download increase of about 15 times over ISDN (I get 800K/s - 1.2Mb/s on mine). It’s amazing, and of course with the router, I no longer have to slave my Linux box off my 2K one like a second class citizen. Amazing - 2 years ago I tinkered with Linux…November 2000 it got it’s first box to itself, now it’s a full equal to my PC and Mac. I’ve updated Quanta to 2, but I’m still looking for alternatives…a few things kind of bug me about it. Anyway, looking forward to Linux into 2002!
(4th) Well, who would have thought that as BRIGHTBLACK moves to it’s 5th birthday, that update would be done on a Linux box! :-) Actually, I’m amazed that my Powerbook hasn’t had a single problem before, but such is life. Anyway, on to promote the virtues of alternative OSs right? Right! I’m now doing the Brightblack site in ‘Quanta’, a text/HTML editor that came with Mandrake. Now I have to say that I’d only ever glanced at it once before (one of the problems with the profusion of apps that Linux makers put on disks nowadays is that it can take you a while to find something that actually fits to what you want.) Certainly, of all the web creation tools I’ve seen for Linux (non WYSIWYG ones anyway), this is definitely one of the best. I have to say that it’s not quite up to the lofty heights of Barebones’s BBEdit yet, but it’s certainly got enough features to make typing this a real pleasure! Anyhow, more news of that as it happens, but I’m hoping it will transparent to all the readers who check out these pages. Also, another update to this box - as I’ve put a new graphics card into my Windows box, I’ve put my old GeForce card into the Linux box. Now, true, those 32Megs/Geforce 3D whatsits aren’t going to get pushed in what I do on this box, but certainly, the extra colour/resolutions/refresh rates are coming in very handy!
November 2001
It’s been a kind of quiet month if only for the fact that I’ll be in the UK for 2 weeks so I won’t actually be here long enough to actually do anything! However, there should be movement next month - even a hardware change maybe. It’s kind of nice though that I’ve had some time to just be able to use Linux as a normal day-to-day PC. I’ve finally, after a long time actually got my user account and my root account completely separate. As I’d often be playing with new stuff I’d be in as root a mucking about, trying to get things working, but now, I’m just using and not playing so much, as I’m pretty happy with my setup. I have to say (as I’m not sure I do enough) that Linux is a fine desktop OS and not just for backend stuff.
October 2001
Well, a software, and hardware shift this month - downloaded the excellent Mandrake 8.1, and I have to say that this is where Linux should be going if it really wants a chance on the desktop. I easily upgraded 8.0 -> 8.1, and it installs just as easily as a bare install. I also experimented with swapping some hardware too, and it coped really well - just a few years ago, that could be a bit of a pain with Linux, but under this distro, it’s easy. As you can see from the specs page, I made some hardware changes - mainly moving memory from my Windows 2000 box into my Linux box - so it now has 512Mb! In a different direction, I’ve given the Matrox card away, and swapped it for my old trusty ATI Rage, which to be honest is fine for what I do with Linux - don’t think I need that 3D acceleration really for XMMS. I’ve been using my Linux box a lot lately as an MP3 player and for OpenOffice to be honest - it’s a good workhorse for that kind of stuff.
September 2001
Still running Mandrake 8, although they have just released 8.1. This month on my Linux box the story is really all about services. I’m kind of determined to get 2 things running properly - Icecast and the Half-life/Counter Strike server. So far I’ve only had partial success. Icecast is proving a bit funny, and refused to start. On a more positive note, the HL/CS server starts , but I just need to configure it a bit more. I have time for both these though are neither are really useful until I get ADSL sorted out. The Icecast problem seems to be with certain files it claims I don’t have, so it’s just a case of finding which libraries go where. For those not aware, Icecast is an open-source Audio Streaming Server, a bit like Shoutcast, on which it is modelled.
August 2001
Well, This month saw a new distro spending a lot of time on my Linux box - Mandrake 8, and I must admit, I see it staying on there for quite a while. It’s a pretty good - if big - distro. It installed with absolutely no problems under Mandrake’s very simple and impressive installer. The only criticism I have is in it’s rather quirky attitude to changing screen resolution, though it makes pretty much everything else relatively simple. It has to be said though, that this newbie-friendly style hasn’t killed off any hard-core features - they’re all there, and you even get TuxRacer thrown in too :-). All in all, very impressive and a good example of how despite PR and all that, the Euro Linux distros are passing the US distributions with every release. On the hardware front, I’ve replaced the NIC with a 100Mb AOpen card - for an outrageous JPY1,000!! I must say, it works damn well too, especially with my new PCI (the company, not the slot) 100Mb 8 port hub. Just installed OpenOffice 638 too, so a fuller review of that soon.
July 2001
Mixed feelings about Caldera’s latest offerings - 3.1 Workstation refused to install, saying that the hardware was unsupported, and 3.1 Server installed OK (go figure - same codebase), but required an hour of playing to get the soundcard to work OK. Bit disappointing on that front, but to be fair, Server really is an excellent distro - the improvements to WebMin alone make it a worthy upgrade. Recently I’ve also been thinking about trying some other distros, including Mandrake and SUSE, but right now, I’m downloading Slackware 8, so news on that as I get it.
June 2001
Well, Caldera have finally shipped OpenLinux Workstation/Server 3.1. I’m downloading them now so hopefully I should have more to say next month. On the open source front, Mozilla continues to just keep getting better as version 0.9.2 is released, and Open Office continues it’s roll of being on par with MS Office. Not much else I’m afraid, the Linux box hasn’t been powered up too much as I’ve been a bit busy at work.
May 2001
I’ve had a bit of a play with RedHat 7.1, and I must say that I still don’t think it offers more than Caldera, so I hate to say it, but I’m sticking with Caldera - for the time being. And on that subject, just to note that I’ve installed KDE2. Not only is this an update to the window management/GUI KDE(1), this also comes with a few more goodies the KDE group have been working on - Konqueror (browser and file viewer), Koffice (er…office apps) and of course, new variants of games, themes and everything else. There’s too much to go into here (hey - it was a 85Mb download!), but if I get chance, I’ll do a separate page on it. What else? Well, OpenOffice hits 627 - and it keeps getting better. I’ve been using StarOffice since version 4, right through to 5 and now the open source version 6. It easily rivals Office on ease of use (not too difficult) and whilst it doesn’t have all the myriad of features that M$Office does, it has everything most people will ever use - and it’s about a tenth of the size. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a go. Another benefit of course is that it can be file compatible with M$Office 97 / 2000, but also with itself across Linux and Windows (and soon MacOS X).
April 2001
Well, I was hoping to have a quick review of Open Linux ‘Workstation’ 3 Beta for this month, but the Caldera servers look like they’re getting really hammered, so I thought I’d wait till the full version. It also begs the question about whether Caldera have finally settled on their naming conventions which seem to change with each generation. 1.x was OpenLinux; 2.x was eDesktop and eServer; 3.x looks like it’ll be eServer and Workstation. Still, as long as they work, I’m not too fussed about what they call them. RedHat 7.1 is out now as a full release, utilising the 2.4.x kernel and hopefully able to repair some of the damage done by 7.0. News on that as Clive plays with it :-).
March 2001
Still looking to get MySQL installed…no time!! Just enjoying running Linux right now, Messenger, and listening to MP3s on XMMR…specifically, Does Humour Belong in Technology. I’m still waiting for 2.4.1 based Caldera though. I re-read my Linux for Idiots book too, just to refresh the basics. I’m aiming to buy a new Linux guide book soon - so many books - so little time! Right now the MCSE and Japanese is taking up most of my reading time, but I think a new Linux book will be a nice counter-measure. Let me know if you know any.
February 2001
Not much else been going on, but before the end of the month, I’m hoping to have MySQL installed - version 3.23 I think. I’m also kind of waiting on the new distros based on the now current 2.4.1 kernel, but alas, still no sight of them, particularly from my favourite company - Caldera. Anyway, more news on that as it happens. I am also going to try MusicMatch for Linux this month too - see how it compares to XMMS. It is interesting as it combines a ripper, encoder, jukebox and player - all for free. I’ve used the Windows version and I must say it’s not bad, but not up to the likes of iTunes, though it gives Winamp a run for it’s money (except it’s free too…)
January 2001
Well, the new year brings new stuff to play with :-) The new Linux box is still going strong - especially since I added an extra 128Mb! I’ve been playing with GIMP a lot recently, and despite its strange interface, it’s functionally great. The move to ADSL is slowing down, which I would be pushing, but since I’ve been busy lately I wouldn’t be able to roll it out anyway. Nmap still rocks. Also, Yahoo! Messenger works well - not quite as feature packed/bloated :-) as the Windows versions, but pretty solid, and as far as other people are concerned, you may as well be on a Windows box. Useful for me anyway. Finally, I guess that following the official stable release of kernel 2.4, I’m looking forward to new products from Caldera - Maybe OpenLinux/eDesktop v3.0? Look forward to it!
December 2000
As 2k rolls to an end, how fares my Linux setup then? Well, it has to be said that it’s gone from strength to even more strength. It now has it’s own home, and I’m getting to grips more and more with it, ‘under the hood’. This month I upgraded XMMS to 1.2.4, if only to play the ‘Does Humour Belong in Technology?’ shows :-) I also compiled Nmap, a port scanner too - just for my own edification, and it’s certainly a useful for finding your way around systems. As I’ve said before, my goal now is to turn this into a ‘full’ web server when I get ADSL. I’d also like to get KDE 2 running on this thing sometime soon too.
November 2000
Well, A few things of interest happening this month on the Linux front. Not least of all, is the fact that Linux now has a PC all to itself - a Duron 650, iWill mobo, 64MB RAM, an old 3GB HDD, an old 3com NIC, an old ATI card. Note the usage of the word ‘old’ a lot :-). However, even though it doesn’t seem that fast, it runs Caldera eDesktop 2.4 pretty fast, although I think an extra 128MB RAM wont hurt. I’ve also been downloading a few more distros to play with now that I have a full PC to play with them on now - downloaded Caldera Linux Tech Preview, RedHat 7 and eServer 2.3. All seem pretty damn cool, and Kernel 2.4 look set to rock. However, I still lean towards Caldera - just seems a bit easier for me - especially with things like Webmin. I’ve already got this box running a sweet Samba service and using my Windows 2000 box as a proxy server too.
October 2000
Lots of fun stuff happening - I’ll have to improve my Linux knowledge as I move to ADSL in January and host this site from my tatami room. I’ve been playing with OL2.4’s WebAdmin software, to run all the services such as Apache and FTP etc. from a single browser window. Pretty cool. I also downloaded a few things which I’ll install this month including OpenOffice which I’ve been running on my ‘secret’ RedHat box at work and KDE2 which should be interesting. OpenOffice is a spawn of StarOffice, which star bought and released the source code to.
September 2000
Upgrade of CPU and motherboard went without a hitch. Definitely highlights the flexibility of the more recent Linux distributions. Also, using StarOffice 5.1, which has been a free download for a while, but I’ll try to get a review of sorts together soon. Also, try Myth 2 for Linux..I’ve tried the demo..looks good :-)
June 2000
I’m currently running OpenLinux 2.4 Desktop from Caldera. I like this distribution as even though it isn’t as broad as say Red Hat 6.2, it is perhaps a little simpler to install and use - especially for a beginner like me. I must also say though, that when I bought a book a couple of years ago - “An Idiots Guide to Linux” - it came with OpenLinux 1.3 so I’ve kind of stuck with it. The current benefits of 2.4 are a nice, fast install and configuration, and certainly for me is the inclusion of an X server for nVidia Geforce 256, my graphics card. As standard it comes with the KDE desktop system, which is no great problem as even though it’s rival - Gnome - has a lot of support and is indeed a good system, but sometimes can be confusing for a beginner.