Adventures in Writing - Episode 1

Becoming an author can be a daunting and frightening experience for some. Being a writer put you under a lot of pressure. Getting your ideas out of your head and actually written is easier said than done. Sometimes you can have a really great idea, but have no idea how to write it out in a way that would make sense. That's where keeping extensive notes would really come in handy.

The key to writing a great story isn't good gramar, perfect spelling, or even getting the formatting of your pages correct. Its all about the fine detail. Before you can put characters into a new world you'd dreamed up, you have to build the world they'll reside in. To do that you need to write extensive notes. J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert both did this to extremes, but their worlds and their stories were richer as a result. By building the background to your story and the world its set before hand you give yourself a guide to follow. You're readers will quickly notice if you get a certain detail wrong which you've already established in pervious chapters. This applies not just to books to every other medium as well.

For my own writing I'm using MediaWiki running on a old computer running Ubuntu Server. This is the same software that powers Wikipedia. Installing this and getting it working isn't for everyone, but its proven itself to be an invaluable tool. I've built an extensive Wiki for my world my first novel in "The TruthSeeker Chronicles" series will be set. This includes a detail timeline of the world's history, information about the many races involved, information about the countries involved and their histories. I still have more to do, more to add, and that's ok. The more detailed your notes and information the richer your world will be. Having detailed notes will also help you keep facts straights. Remember, your readers will notice discrepancies in the story very quickly (cough cough, the Star Wars prequel trilogy, cough cough).

If you aren't technically inclined, then use a spreadsheet or database. LibreOffice is your friend, and its much cheaper than MS Office. Having all of that information laying around will also give you material for building data books you can publish if your works become popular enough. The point is to make the information as accessible as possible so you can quickly look something up on a certain detail so you don't make mistakes. Like how EA messed up the ending of Mass Effect 3, an excellent example of what can happen if you don't pay attention to every detail when trying to tell a compelling story. Had they been paying attention that wouldn't have happened. As I said, this applies to all mediums regardless of whether its a book, a movie, a TV show, or a videogame. Your fans will know when you make such mistakes, even when they're small or when you try to make something up to cover up your mistakes.

I'm looking at you Masashi Kishimoto (author of Naruto)!

Its not unheard of for authors to spend up to a year or more in preparation work for the writing of a novel. Tolkien spent much of his free time hunkered down in the trenches of World War I writing out the details for the Lord of the Rings books. So, don't worry about how long its taking while working on those intricate details. There is no such thing as having too much detail when it comes to this sort of thing. The more there is the richer your works will be.

Using LibreOffice to Create Perfect Kindle Books

Once upon a time, if you wanted to write a book and get it sold you had to be accepted by a publishing company. Getting accepted wasn't always easy. Often it took years and several tries before they'd take a risk on publishing your work. They were the biggest hurdle new writers have to clear in order to become Published Authors.

That is no longer the case today.

With the advent of Amazon Digital Publishing the big publishing houses, the middlemen, have been completely cut out of the equation. Now anyone with an idea can write a book and put it up for sale. The caveat is, you're not publishing a traditional book but an eBook for the Amazon Kindle. On the up side, the Kindle is the #1 ebook reader on the planet (sorry Apple), and in the hands of millions of loyal Amazon customers around the world. An independent author can potentially reach millions of readers by selling their books on Amazon.com exclusively as a Kindle Edition.

Amazon provides only the most basic tools for creating a Kindle-compatible ebook. In fact, the only tool they give you is a command-line based tool for converting MS Word documents to the Kindle format. You don't necessarily have to do this on your own. You can upload a file in various formats and Amazon will do the conversion for you. But, getting the formatting of the document correct is usually the most difficult part.

If you've ever looked into writing for the Kindle you've probably seen a lot of videos on Youtube warning you to not use OpenOffice/LibreOffice. They demonstrate that these do not properly format the documents, making the ebooks come out looking sloppy and unprofessional. For those who don't know, OpenOffice and LibreOffice are free, open-source productivity suites that give you the same tools found in MS Office. People have tried using them to create books for the Kindle, and they didn't come out right.

Well, they were doing it wrong. Here's why.

You can create really good looking Kindle books using OpenOffice/LibreOffice rather easily. I'm actually pretty surprised that nobody else has figured this out. The key to properly formatting a documents for conversion to a Kindle book is forced paged breaks at the end of chapters and page formatting to indent paragraphs. That's all it really takes. Nothing could be more simple that that. Putting in a page break is really easy. Just put the cursor at the end of the section of the document you want the page break to occur and then selection from the menu Insert and then Manual Break. The manual page breaks prevent previous chapters from bleeding onto the page of the next chapter, or the cover page or forewords from bleeding in on your table of contents.

Setting paragraph indents in LibreOffice are just as easy. Simply highlight the text you want indented. Goto the menu and selection Format, then select Paragraph... and you will get this dialogue box.

Where it says First Line enter the value 0.40 and click OK. You've just indented every paragraph you'd highlighted, and this will show when the document is formatting to the Kindle eBook format.

Doing a Table of Contents is a bit more complicated, and will be the subject if a future blog. Not all books need a table of contents, so if this is the kind of book your writing then I hope this blog has helped.

Diversity Is Not Always A Good Thing, Especially in Linux

This blog post is in response to a thread on the new Sounder list. Sounder used to be an official list hosted by the Ubuntu Community site, but was shut down for political reasons. Many of the members of the group moved to Google Groups in exile. This is the specific thread in Sounder I'm referring to.

One of the greatest strengths of Linux is one of its greatest weaknesses when it comes to attracting the attention of average users.

That is the vast diversity of Linux distros.

If normal, average users are dumbfounded when trying to choose which Windows 7 version is best for them, then they have no clue when it comes to Linux distros. Many will have likely heard of Ubuntu, if they even know about Linux at all. For the average user Windows is the PC, and to them then likely Linux is Ubuntu, same mindset. They don't understand that Ubuntu is just one out of thousands of distros, and when presented with this VAST diversity they're going to get lost very quickly.

Just choosing a distro is one thing, now they have to decide on which desktop. There are dozens of desktops for Linux, some I've probably never used before or heard of. Its too much for them to sort through. I'm close to that side of things in the IT world, so I understand what Linux faces when trying to attract the attention of the average computer user.

The Linux world has to contend with the fact that 99% of the average users out there are Computer Ignorant.

That's not a typo, Computer Illiteracy isn't an issue, most have to use a computer at work so they know how to use a PC running, most likely, Windows XP. Its when you put them in front of a machine running Windows 7 or Linux that they turn into idiots who act like they have a learning disorder. Suddenly, they're all frustrated, can't find things in the places they know to find them in XP, and you have to repeat over and over again how to do something that a five year old can learn just by being told how to do it once. No, I'm not kidding, tell a five year old how to do something on a computer once and suddenly they're an expert at it. The one thing you have to understand is that these people aren't doing this deliberately. Its a part of human nature to be afraid of change. Education is one way to ease that problem, so its no wonder education funding is being gutted from schools here in the US left and right, but that's a rant for another time.

Moving on, when I say the average computer user is Computer Ignorant, its not because they can't learn something new. No, its because they don't WANT to learn anything new. As I said, not on a conscious deliberate level, but subconsciously. They want familiarity, they want things the way they have always been and change scares them. This is the reality starring Linux in the face. There are times where having vast diversity is beneficial, as in culture, but in some cases vast diversity can also be a liability. Android, despite being a Linux distro technically, has seen major success in the mobile market. Mostly because its UI has generally remained consistent throughout most of its existence. That market is also very different from the PC market, so vast changes in UIs are often expected by the consumers and the Computer Ignorance Factor (TM) doesn't apply. Cellular users are accustomed to having vastly different UIs from phone to phone. The cellular market has taught this from the very start, thus this is the education part I was talking about. You following me so far?

Computers are a different species altogether. The average user expects things to be one way, and if they aren't that way then they get confused. Why do you think the For Dummies books are such huge sellers?

Anyway, I'm getting to the part that's related to a thread on the new Sounder list. The fact that most distros are moving towards using one specific DE or Windows Manager instead of offering a variety of choices. Before I elaborate more let me say that this is also a reality that the Linux Community needs to learn, remember change scares people, so the fact that the Average User is becoming a part of the community scares the traditionally Linux Elite. The reason for the Linux elite wanting only pure FOSS (Free Open Source Software) Linux distros without any proprietary anything is because of fear. Fear that their favorite distro will appeal to the average computer user, and that the people behind that distro will want to expand and grow their business much the way Canonical is doing right now and the way Red Hat has also done in the past. Patent threats from Microsoft have never gone anywhere and will never go anywhere. They've made those threats so many times before and have never brought those patents forward, not once. Why do you think Microsoft fought a proxy war against Linux using SCO? They wanted to spread Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt because that was the only weapon they had. SCO was pretty much destroyed in that war, but Microsoft was able to stand silently on the sidelines safe and sound.

Getting to the topic, the move to using one specific UI in Linux is because getting the attention of the average user is also where the money is. This is why Windows has become such a success, and why Apple has grown to be such a powerful company. The buying power of the average user is tremendously powerful. Mark Shuttleworth, head of Canonical, probably understands this too. Not to say that the Linux elite are poor or cheapskates, but lets face it most are of the mindset that anything Linux or open source should always be free, as in beer. Thus the small trend towards FOSS only distros. But, along side those are a much larger, and rapidly growing number of distros which are more and more seeking to appeal to the average user. To reduce the Computer Ignorance Factor many are choosing one specific UI, in this case Gnome. Ubuntu has been trouncing the other distros for a while now in the popularity game, and so many average users who have some familiarity with Linux also know Gnome. This is why the Gnome 3 change is so controversial, again change scares people. On the other hand, the average users are being educated in a way by the mobile side of things. Gnome 3 and Unity have "some" similarities to the UI in Android and iOS. Note, I said SOME. These UIs feel familiar and safe to the average user, so emulating them to some degree will reduce the Computer Ignorance Factor on the PC side. Now do you get it?

This is why Canonical seems to be growing more and more corporate, and more and more distros are seeking to be user friendly and are shifting more towards one UI. There will always be those distros that appeal only to the elite Linux user, but distros like Ubuntu which are becoming more and more appealing to the average user are going to be become more abundant.

The world of Linux is changing, and the elites are panicking. Welcome to reality, have a nice stay.

Can Hollywood Prevent its Own Demise?

One of the fundamental laws of Evolution is if your environment changes, and you cannot or will not adapt, then you will die. This same analogy also goes for the world of business, and especially for the high-stakes entertainment industry. The movie and recording studios have often approached any form of change with violent, knee-jerk reactions. To them the 8 track tape, the cassette tape, the VHS tape, and the laser disc were going to be the end of their industries. Doom and gloom, fire and brimstone, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

Then came the Internet.

Oh the Internet, that greatest of evils, that wild west of the digital age. They hated it too, but the market is changing and they're dragging the entertainment industry into the 21st century kicking and screaming. It began with the Napster trial.

Now most should remember the original Napster. It was a free service that let you search for music and download it, and you could also share music with others who accessed the service. The problems is, technically, that was illegal. The other problem is, the recording industry tried and succeeded in shutting down the service. This didn't solve the problem of Music Piracy. It set off a chain reaction that made it a thousand times worse and now its likely the music industry will never be able to totally stamp it out no matter how hard they try. You see, the recording industry missed perhaps the greatest opportunity to nip music piracy in the bud for good but they were too short sighted to realize it.

At the height of its glory, Napster was the single largest repository for music the world had ever seen. You could find music there that wasn't even being published anymore, and it was all available for free. Up until that time the only way to get music was to buy it from a store on cassettes or CD, and occasionally vinyl records. The Internet was changing how people wanted to get their music. They saw how wonderfully convenient it was to be able to log into a service, type in the name of a song or artist, and then find what they are looking for and download it. They got just the music that they wanted and completely avoided the songs they didn't want. People loved it, they love it a lot. Problem is, it was technically stealing. So, the music industry went after the people behind Napster in court and got them shut down.

This was a mistake, a mistake that is still haunting the music industry to this day.

They missed an opportunity, a big one, that could have changed the music industry forever and could have ended music piracy. Instead of shutting down Napster, the music industry could have made a deal with them. Remember, at its height the service was the biggest library of music in existence. The recording studios could have capitalized on this, but they didn't. They totally failed to see the golden opportunity right in front of them and now its too late to do anything about it. Or is there?

What the music industry should have done was turn Napster in a legitimate business that allowed people to share music online and download songs for a small monthly fee. They would have made more money than they could have dreamed of. Imagine a service that has more music recordings than the Library of Congress, that you could access for $9 or $10 a month, and download all the music you want. That would have made money, lots of money, but its an opportunity that came and went. The music industry screwed up in a major way and now they're paying the price for their lack of vision. They failed to adapt to a market that is changing, they aren't evolving, or to be more precise they are refusing to evolve. You know what happens next, right? Good, your paying attention.

After that began the whole sad sorted affair where the music industry was taking individual people to court for sharing music on the Internet. They used 9/11, one of the greatest tragedies in American history since Pearl Harbor, to try and get legislation passed that made sharing music on the Internet a Terrorist Act. Yes, you read that right. The rubble of the Twin Towers hadn't even stopped soldering yet and the recording industry was lobbying Congress to have that added to what would become the Patriot Act. Luckily, their plans failed.

Today we see insanely huge penalties for sharing music online. I mean $1.2 million for just sharing 24 songs. Its madness! Its ridiculous! And, its going to destroy the music industry if they don't stop, quit panicking, and figure out ways to adapt rather than try to find ways to keep the status quo. Sending out threatening letters, extorting consumers, suing grandmothers & children, and trying to change copyright laws is not going to stop piracy. Its a pipe dream.

The movie industry is in the same boat. You can pretty much find just about any movie you want online if you know where to look. Either its available for download or free streaming in your browser. Just like with sharing music on the Internet its technically stealing. Recently, both industries have started to embrace digital downloads, sort of. The problem is they're treating digital downloads like they're actually CD or DVD purchases. Meaning, they're imposing "imaginary" limits on stock, for things which are infinite. The old business models do not work in the digital age. They can't work, they won't work, and they never will be successful. Its a reality both industries have to face, but they refuse to see reason. Thus, they're suffering and its their own fault. I sound negative, but what can I say they did this to themselves. If you make your own bed, sleep in it.

Both the movie and recording industries are sliding very quickly towards extinction. But, even now, as things seem so bleak, can they really turn things around and save themselves from the cold embrace of the Corporate Grim Reaper?

Maybe, but it will mean they'll have to make a lot of sacrifices.

The first thing they have to do is stop attacking their consumer base. They need to stop treating consumers like their all criminals. Think about this way, imagine you went into McDonalds and bought a Big Mac. When you go to your seat to eat someone from the staff comes with you and stands there watching you. You ask what they are doing and they say they're making sure you don't steal anything.

How would you feel?

Well, guess what folks! That is what the entertainment industry is doing to you right now. Every DVD and Blu-Ray movie you buy has software on it that assumes that you are a Thief. Its called DRM, or Digital Rights Management. Its the same thing as the example I made, they are standing over your shoulder making sure you aren't stealing their stuff. This sinking in yet? It better be because its gets worse.

After the Napter perfect storm, the entertainment industry lobbied Congress to pass a sweeping new law that radically changed the definition of copyright and gave corporations unprecedented powers. This resulted in one of the most horrible, shameful, and most destructive pieces of legislation since the Patriot Act.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The DMCA gives corporations the power to order something removed from the Internet if they believe it violates their copyrights. It makes it illegal to circumvent DRM even if its to copy something for your own personal use, and the list goes on. What was feared would happen is the law would be abused by corporations to stifle Free Speech and prevent fair competition. Both fears have been realized, over and over and over again. The law is pretty much a free pass for corporations to kill off competitors before they even come to market, and to silence those who speak out against them. Its like giving them a "get out jail free" card that never expires. For a time its worked in their favor, but judges these days are starting to get wise to their tactics. Their ability to use the law to break the law is starting to come back to haunt them.

As expected, our economy is suffering. The DMCA isn't the only cause but its a contributing factor. How on Earth can this be turned around? As I said, the entertainment industry is going to have to make sacrifices. The old way of thinking has to go away. The old business models that have worked for decades need to be shelved. Their dependence on the sales of physical media must end. They can still sell CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray disks but they shouldn't depend on them for the majority for of their revenue. That gravy train came and left town and it ain't coming back.

People want digital downloads. The immense success of iTunes is all the proof you need that this is so. Look at how Netflix has pretty much killed Blockbuster Video. Need I say more? The future of the entertainment industry isn't some new media format. Its the Internet. Its unrestricted access to content at prices that are reasonable. I don't mean just some of their content, which expires after a while then they add new stuff that expires after a while and so on and so forth.

No, I mean ALL of their content. Every song, movie and TV show ever made put together in a service or a series of services that deliver that content to consumers in whatever fashion they desire for a price that is affordable and easy on the wallet. Do you have any idea how much money they could make? The possibility totally boggles the mind when I think about it.

This would require a major fundamental change in how the entertainment industry does things. You'll probably say its impossible, and you might be right except for one thing. The status quo cannot continue, eventually something is going to give, and its likely going to mean the end of the entertainment industry as we know it.

It is obvious that they cannot survive doing what they are doing right now. Even the deplorable ACTA trade agreement they're trying to get passed without Congressional oversight isn't going to save them. Its like trying to plug a leak in the side of the Titanic using a cork from a champaign bottle.

This is all the symptom of one fundamental problem...

Greed.

Which stems from another fundamental problem, a much bigger problem...

Spirituality.

If you can change a people's spirituality, you can change the world. This is the source of the problem with not just the entertainment industry, but with everything that plague our lives today. We need to change ourselves, our Spirituality, in order to make this world a better place not just for right now but for our children in the future. It can be done but like any kind of change it won't be easy. But then, nothing worth while is easy to obtain is it?

Nameste.

The Ultimate Linux Beginners Q & A: Part One

The subject of Linux can be very confusing for the average computer user. Its not surprising with all of the misinformation floating about on the Internet. Much of it comes from the fact that most people just don't understand it, thus getting their facts wrong. Then, sometimes its done for malicious purposes to frighten the average computer user from wanting to try Linux. The best way to help the average user to understand Linux is to simply answer their questions as truthfully as possible. That is what this series of articles is about. I've compiled a list of some of the most frequently asked questions the average user posses of Linux. Part One will focus on the basics. Part Two will get into the more advanced stuff answered in plain English so even the greenest computer beginner can understand. More parts will be added if you want to see more. The ultimate goal is to make you, the average computer user, a more informed consumer.

I'm not out to get you to switch to Linux from your current operating system or to make outlandish claims that Linux is better than all the other operating systems out there. Each OS has its pros and cons, its benefits and flaws, and each has something to offer and provides you with the features and functionality that you need. My intention is simply to educate you, and nothing more. I do encourage you to give Linux a try, but that's entirely up to you. So let us begin with the most important question.

What is Linux?

This one confuses people more than anything else. Linux isn't an operating system. It is what is called a Kernel. To understand what a Kernel is think of it like an engine in a car. A car's engine is pretty useless if it doesn't have a transmission, wheels, a chassis that it can be mounted to, a body, and a steering wheel so you can stir the car. In essence its what makes an operating go, and every operating system from Windows, to Mac OS X, to Android, and even iOS 4 on the iPhone has a kernel. All the other parts that come with Linux is called GNU Software (we'll discuss what that is next). Together they make what is called a Linux Distribution and all these pieces combined make an operating system.

The Linux Kernel was created in the early 1990's by a Finnish American university student in software engineering named Linus Torvalds. The name Linux is a mix of Linus's first name and UX which stands for Unix. The Linux Kernel provides a Unix-like system, thus the UX in the name. Unix is a powerful operating system that has been around since the 60's and is still used heavily today in big computer systems at large corporations. Linux shares many of the same properties and capabilities of Unix, such as the ability for more than one user to use the same computer at the same time, and the fact that disk drives do not have drive letters like Windows does. Today, Linus Torvalds through the Linux Mark Institute contributes improvements to the Linux Kernel and monitors its use. He also owns the trademarks of the name "Linux".

What is Free Software, Open Source Software and GNU Software?

While a Linux Distribution may be free for you to obtain and use they aren't really completely free. Someone has paid for it in some way. Much of this software is maintained by people who work for IBM, HP, Oracle, Unisys, TRW, Apple, Xerox, AT&T, and thousands other companies from all over the world. Quite often its their job to maintain these programs and make improvements to them. Other times, some of this software is created by hobbyists in their free time, but the majority of the software that goes into a Linux Distribution is backed by several major international corporation.

The vast majority of this software is Open Source. This means the source code, the actual programming language instructions that were written to create the software, is made available to everyone who wants it. Open Source is not always free, but even if you have to pay for it the source code must always be made available to you.

The license that often governs open source and free software is the GPL or GNU Public License (GNU is pronounced "knew"). There are rules in this license that guarantees the creator or creators gets credit for making the software, it does not restrict them from making money from that software, but it does require that the source code be made available to anyone who wants it. If someone else uses that source code and makes changes, they must share those changes even if they are making money from the modified software. They must also give credit to the original creator or creators of the software. Software that is protected by the GPL license is called GNU Software. Some call it Free Software, but not all free software is under the GPL license. Some software has its own open source license like Firefox which has the Mozilla License and so on and so forth. Its not really that complicated once you figure it out.

What is a Bootloader?

Most every operating system has a bootloader. Its a tiny program that sits in a very small spot at the beginning of your hard drive called the Boot Sector. When you turn your computer on the BIOS does its thing, you hear a beep, and then your operating system starts to load. What gets that operating started is the bootloader. The BIOS in your computer is pretty stupid, it doesn't know how to start your operating system, and frankly doesn't care how its started. All it does is talk to whatever is sitting in the boot sector yelling "hey, I'm ready lets gets started!" and its job is pretty much done. Its the job of the bootloader to know how to get your operating system started, and this means knowing how to get the kernel of the operating system started so it can do its job. How this all works is really complicated and way over your head and in everyday use its not really important that you even know how it all works anyway.

In the beginning most Linux Distributions used a pretty simple bootloader called Lilo, which stood for Linux Loader. Lilo is still around and is used mostly on Android and other Linux based cell phones (ie; the Palm Pre, many Linux phones sold in Japan and Hong Kong, and etc). What Linux Distributions use nowadays is called Grub. Grub does the same job as Lilo but has many more bells and whistles. The average computer user never has to worry about the bootloader unless they're using two or more operating systems on their computer. Say like, you have Windows installed but you also want to use Linux but without getting rid of Windows. You can do this and the bootloader in Windows can be made show a menu when you start the computer so you can select which you want to use. Grub can also show a menu if you have more than one Linux Distribution installed. There are many advantages to doing this, but most average computer users usually will never need to.

What is a LiveCD?

Oh these are neat, really neat, you're going to love these. If you are curious about Linux but have been afraid to try different distributions because you don't want to change anything on your computer then this is the answer to your wishes. Most major Linux distributions make what are called LiveCDs. They are bootable CDs basically, you put them into your CD/DVD-ROM drive, restart your computer, and they boot like a floppy. These CDs, sometimes DVDs too, start up to a fully working Linux desktop with programs you can run and try out without making any changes to your computer at all. If you're ready to commit to using Linux you can then launch the install program right from the desktop of the LiveCD. The Ubuntu Linux distribution also has what is called Wubi. This stands for Windows Ubuntu Installer. It install Ubuntu Linux into Windows like a program. Ubuntu gets installed into a file that acts like a hard drive, and when you restart your computer you can choose to start Windows or start Ubuntu. This doesn't change anything on your hard drive. To remove Ubuntu when its installed this way you just goto Add/Remove Programs and uninstall Ubuntu as if it were an ordinary program. Neat isn't it? This way you can try out Ubuntu on your computer with very little risk to your Windows installation. Ubuntu is the only Linux distribution that offers this feature right now, the rest just have LiveCDs.

You will have to download the CD or DVD image files of the LiveCDs from the websites of the groups that make the distributions, and then burn those images to a disk. So, you'll need blank CD-R and/or DVD-R disks, but most of you should know how to do this if you've ever made an audio CD for yourself. If not send me an email and I'll give you some advice. You can also do a search on Google on how to burn a LiveCD, and many Linux distribution websites will have detailed instructions on how to do it too.

What is a Linux Shell?

You cannot use the kernel by itself. It gives you no direct means to run programs or issue commands in any way. The kernel is just a link between your software and the computer hardware. You can't use just the engine of a car to get anywhere without the rest of the car can you? Heck no, so you need something that sits on top of the kernel that can take commands and run programs. This is a job for the Shell!

The Shell is what makes an operating system an operating system. All of them have one, even the operating systems in cell phones and tablets. You cannot do anything without them. In the Windows world the shell is made by a program called explorer.exe. Its the program that makes the taskbar, the Start Menu, and is responsible for Windows Explorer. There is a text based shell in Windows called cmd.exe. This is very similar to the text based shell of DOS from many years ago called command.com. In the Linux world there are a whole lot of shells to choose from. The most common one you'll see is Bash. This gives you a Command Prompt which lets you enter text commands from the keyboard and run programs. The majority of Linux Distributions use Bash because its very fast, very flexible, and you can write what are called Bash Scripts. Remember the BAT files from DOS? Well Bash Scripts are like those, but they've been working out in the gym and have also been taking steroids. Bash Scripts can be pretty simple or they can almost as complex as programs. You can do a lot with them. On most modern Linux Distributions that are made for the average computer user like Ubuntu, for example, you'll rarely ever have to used the Bash shell. There are many benefits to knowing how it works, though. You can do a whole lot of pretty interesting stuff with it. So don't be afraid of the text prompt in Linux, and don't be afraid of learning how to use it because its one of the most important & powerful tools a Linux user can ever get his or her hands on. Mastering the command prompt in Linux is like having control of the bridge of the USS Enterprise all to yourself and knowing how everything works. Yeah, its gives you that much power.

What are X Windows, Window Managers, and Desktop Environments?

The command prompt is good, and it is very powerful, but its not really that great at running multiple programs at once. So to do that you need a graphical desktop just like in Windows and Mac OS X.

You may have heard of X11, Xfree86 or even X.org. They're all pretty much the same thing but there are fundamental differences between Xfree86 and X.org. They're made by different groups, but they do the same job. That job is to give Linux a graphical user interface similar to what Windows, Mac OS X, and etc. The technical name for X Windows, X11, Xfree86 and X.org is the "Display Manager".

X11 by itself does not give you a way to use programs or anything that lets you use the computer. Its job is to work with the hardware like the video card, mouse, keyboard, and etc. To give you a desktop you can use is the job of a Window Manager. This is software that's responsible for drawing the windows of programs on the screen. They control the placement of stuff like the bar at the top of the windows you use to drag them around the desktop, the buttons for minimizing and closing the programs, and also for showing your wallpaper. They also are used to make menus so you can select what programs you want to run. Some Window Managers do what is called Desktop Composting. This lets them use the power of your 3D video card to make the windows and desktop look fancy. The Aero desktop in Windows 7 is an example of a Compositing Window Manager.

That isn't all that goes into making a desktop in X11. There is also extra software that sits on top of the Window Manager. This is called the Desktop Environment. The two most popular of these is Gnome and KDE, though there are many others and they can share the same programs. Two others known as XFCE and LXDE are lightweight Desktop Environments made for older computers that aren't powerful enough to handle Gnome and KDE. Desktop Environments give you stuff like the file manager so you can browse the files on your computer. Windows Explorer is a good example of a file manager. It also gives you your program icons, folders, toolbars, your screen savers, desktop widgets, a way to change your wallpaper, and etc. They work hand in hand with your Window Manager to give you a usable graphical desktop in X11 so you can get stuff done. The command prompt we talked about earlier. You can get to it from the Terminal in X11, which opens a window that has the command prompt for your shell displayed in it. Click here to see a picture gallery of many different Desktop Environments to get an idea of what they look like.

What is a Package Manager?

Lets turn the clock back ten years to the early days of Linux. Watch your step, don't look out for the dinosaur dung! Installing new programs was not all that easy, nor was it all that easy to update your Linux Distribution either. In fact, it was pretty darned complicated! Fast forward ten years, and that intimidating complexity is all but extinct. In the Windows world there is something called Microsoft Installer, its a part of Windows.. You've probably installed a program that had a .msi extension at the end of the file name. Well that is a Software Package. In the Linux world there are different competing software package formats, but in reality they're all pretty much the same. A Package Manager installs software that is in those packages, but it can do a whole lot more than that.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. Lets imagine you want to install a program for editing video on your Windows 7 computer. Well, you insert the disk, run the installer, you probably have to reboot after the install, and then you run the program. You try to use a certain feature of the program, but you get a warning message that says to use that feature you need Apple Quicktime. Well, nothing told you that you needed Quicktime when you were installing the software. You don't have Apple Quicktime installed. So, you have to open your browser, goto the Apple website, download Quicktime, install it, probably reboot again, and then you're ready to go. In Linux, its completely different. Software Packages will usually contain an index that tells the Package Manager that it needs some extra software for it to work correctly. This extra software is what are called Dependencies, in the Linux world. While its installing your software the Package Manager will go out onto the Internet and download those Dependencies at the same time. So, when its done you don't have to worry about it, and it is rare to ever have to reboot the computer after installing software on Linux unless its an update to the kernel.

Where the Package Manager gets those Dependencies from is called a Repository. Every major Linux Distribution maintains one or more Repositories on the Internet. These are libraries of software sitting on servers that are indexed so Package Managers can find them. If you want to install a new program you can select it in your Package Manager and it will do all the downloading and installation work for you. The Ubuntu Linux distribution has what is called the Ubuntu Software Center in addition to the Package Manager. Its like the iTunes App Store for Linux and its just as easy to use. Most major Linux distributions have something very similar. Repositories are neat because when any piece of software on your computer is updated, the update is put up on the Repository, your Package Manager periodically checks to see if there have been updates, and if it find any it lets you know so you can download them. This is really easy to do. Its sort of like using Windows Update, which is pretty much the same thing. Package Managers and Repositories have taken most of the frustrating complexity out of installing new software and updating software on Linux distributions.

Some confusion comes from the different types of software packages. You have RPMs, which are used by Red Hat Linux distributions. You have DEBs, which are used by Debian Linux distributions. Ubuntu uses .deb software packages, so it is a Debian distribution. Fedora uses .rpm packages, so its a Red Hat distribution. The list goes on and on. These software package formats are pretty much all the same, but just work slightly different from one another. The software they contain is exactly the same. There is no difference between say Firefox in a .deb package and Firefox in a .rpm package, not one difference at all. Its the same exact program. In fact, its possible to use a .rpm software package on a Debian based Linux distribution. You just need software that can read the .rpm package format, and the same thing goes for all of the other major package formats that exist. Its that simple, this is not Rocket Science people!

What is Root?

This trips up a lot of people who are new to Linux. There are two things in Linux that are called Root. The first is the easiest to understand. That is the Root Folder, which is the top most folder in a Linux file system. This is like C:/ on a Windows file system, you can't go any higher than that.

The other Root is different. In the Windows world Root is called the Administrator account. Also, those annoying UAC User Account Control prompts you get in Windows 7, those are an example of Root (sort of). Root has full control of the computer, its a user account that can access everything. Its very powerful, and with great power comes great responsibility. If you don't know what you are doing as Root you can break things easily. But, don't be afraid of Root, because it does have its uses and you will often use it as a Linux user. Its very important.

When you are using a Linux Distribution like Ubuntu your user login is what is called a Limited Account. Mac OS X does the same thing. Windows is different, everyone is Root on Windows, but in Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions what you can access is restricted until you use a password to access Root privileges. You are often prompted to enter the Root password if you are installing updates, installing new software from the package manager, or changing major system settings that effects the entire computer. This gives you temporary Root powers until the job is done. You can also temporarily switch to Root using a command called sudo. This stands for Super User Do, and it lets you act as Root for a short time to do something from the command prompt in the terminal. Sudo will also let you switch between different regular user logins too and isn't just limited to using Root privileges. Its not really often that you'll use sudo from the terminal in Linux, but its there if you ever do need it.

Can I run Windows programs in Linux?

The answer is No, and Yes. Confused, don't be.

Linux is not Windows. It is totally different not just under the hood in its inner working but on the surface as well. Different does not equal BAD. I mean, Mac OS X isn't like Windows either, and its very different from Windows under the hood and on the surface too. Neither Linux nor Mac OS X can run programs meant for Windows, by themselves. Did you catch that? Good, let move on.

There is software available for Linux and Mac OS X that will let you run Windows programs. This software is called WINE, it stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator, and well it is not an emulator. An emulator is a program that mimics the hardware of a computer using software. WINE doesn't do this. The easiest description is it tricks Windows programs into thinking they're running on Windows when they aren't. Its a bit more complicated than that but I think you understand so far. WINE is free software under the GPL license. A company makes a program called CrossOver, which is a version of WINE that they've modified and sell for Linux and Mac OS X. This lets you run Windows programs too, and even makes it a bit easier to adjust the settings of the software so those programs run smoothly.

Using WINE and CrossOver you can run most Windows programs, not everything works, but most stuff does. You can also run most Windows games. Stuff that is known to work just fine with WINE (ha! ha!) is World of Warcraft, the Steam software client for buying games online, nearly all of the Source Engine games from Valve such as Half-Life 2, TeamFortress 2, and etc. To get a full list of the games and programs that will or will not run on WINE go to this webpage. Some Linux distributions come with WINE already installed, but if its not there you can easily get it through your distribution's package manager.

If something doesn't work, don't panic. There is a lot of free software out there for Linux so if your Windows program doesn't work chances are there's a free open source alternative out there that is just as good. That's not always the case, so don't count on it, especially when you're talking about games. Some game makers do have Linux versions of their games. Do you like World of Goo? Well, there is a Linux version. Check the websites of the companies that made your games to see if they do have a Linux version you can download or buy on the Internet. The number of game makers who are supporting Linux is growing. Distributions like Ubuntu, which are easy for beginners to use, is drawing a lot of attention. Its become one of the most popular Linux distributions on the planet, and that's made at lot of mainstream software makers stand up and take notice. The company Canonical from the UK, which is behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is also working with software makers and PC manufactures to improve software and hardware support for Linux.

This ends part one of my two part Linux Q & A for beginners. In part two we'll discuss things like Samba, EXT4, Ndiswrapper, xorg.conf, and more. After that, I may continue the series with a part three and a part four depending on the reaction I get. So, until then don't hesitate to send me an email with any of your questions. I'll try to answer them as best as I can, and don't forget to give those LiveCDs a try too. Until next time.

Nameste.

My Time with Xubuntu 10.10

For the past four or five months I've been using and evaluating a Linux distribution called Peppermint One. Its a lightweight Linux OS built from Ubuntu. The GNOME desktop environment was replaced with LXDE, which is a much lighter weight desktop environment that doesn't skimp on functionality. Peppermint One used OpenBox was its desktop compositor using the Nvidia Geforce drivers, but it only did 2D OpenGL desktop compositing. Windows games running via Wine wouldn't display anything but a black screen. They require full OpenGL 3D compositing to work. Thus, I decided to switch to a distribution I knew offered this feature.

Ubuntu.

However, my past experience with Ubuntu Desktop told me that GNOME was becoming too re

source intensive for my current PC. Its an old AMD Athlon XP 1.2GHz, with 1GB PC2700 RAM, 8x AGP Nvidia Geforce FX 5600 graphics, Sound Blaster Live sound card, 160GB ATA-133 hard drive, and 16 DVD-RW. I built it many years ago and its go through several motherboard changes since then. I didn't want to deal with the hassles of Windows XP, keeping anti-virus software up to date, and most software is moving to the new versions of Windows as XP is slowly being phased out by Windows 7. I didn't need the headaches, so I went with an operating system I actually enjoyed using and that was Ubuntu. Or, to be more accurate the official derivative known as Xubuntu (pronounced zu-buntu).

Xubuntu is not developed by the UK company Canonical but a third party group who are officially recognized by Canonical. Canonical offers support for Xubuntu in their online forums and email mailing lists. The main difference between Ubuntu Desktop and Xubuntu is the default desktop environment. Xubuntu uses XFCE, a very popular lightweight desktop environment which is based on GTK+. GTK+ is a GUI runtime library used by a lot of s

oftware to generate a graphical interface. The GIMP uses GTK+ to create its windows. Because of this XFCE uses very little memory and places very little demand on the processor. At the same time it has the look and feel of GNOME used on Ubuntu Desktop with only a few noticeable differences. The Notification Area, a small envelope shaped icon on the system tray used for email, Twitter, Facebook, and instant messenger notifications is missing. There are only two menus instead of three.

The menus are...

Applications - A menu of the installed software listed in categories; Accessories, Games, Graphics, Multimedia, Network, Office, and System. It is here you will also find the Ubuntu Software Center, an icon for the help system, and a icon for logging out or shutting down the computer.

Places - A listing of folders in your Home directory and all of hard drives and removable drives currently attached to your computer.

The System menu, which is normally separate in Ubuntu Desktop is incorporated into the Applications menu in Xubuntu. Xubuntu also places several configuration screens into a Control Panel like window called the XFCE 4 Settings Manager.

The XFCE 4 Settings Manager replaces the Preferences menu you'd find in Ubuntu Desktop. The Settings menu on the Applications menu replaces the Administration menu from Ubuntu Desktop.

On my old PC Xubuntu runs very fast, and boots very fast. Time from system power-on to login screen is less then 10 seconds, counting the slow as hell BIOS screens. From login screen to usable desktop is 1 to 2 seconds. Everything loads really fast, the menus are snappy, and nothing lags anywhere. There are a few instances where you do see some lag. The Thunar file manager lags a little on huge file transfers. Like when I moved my massive 1.3GB anime wallpaper collection into my Pictures folder in my Home directory from my backup drive. Also, when installing software from the Ubuntu Software Center the windows will lag but the system as a whole will not. These are tiny quirks which aren't deal breakers. This is an old system and its running really well with this operating system.

Xubuntu comes pre-installed with a lot of nice software. Much of it is geared towards low-system-resource usage so instead of OpenOffice.org you get Abiword and Gnumbers for your word processor and spreadsheet. There's nothing stopping you from install OpenOffice.org and it will run on this old system fairly well. AbiWord isn't bad, its a great word processor that has a huge fan following and it indeed uses very little in the way of system resources. It starts fast, the second I click its icon in the menu its on my screen and it loads OpenOffice.org .odt OpenDocument Text files just as fast. For getting out onto the web Xubuntu uses Firefox. Not exactly the most lightweight of browsers, so I installed Chromium. This is the open source web browser that Google Chrome is built from, and it still supports Google Sync so I was able instantly get back all of my bookmarks, extensions, passwords, and even the visual theme I was using before. Instead of Gwibber the Pidgin instant messenger used. It still works with all of the major networks: ie; MSN, Yahoo, Google, AOL, ICQ), but doesn't connect to Facebook and Twitter like Gwibber does. You get Transmission for Torrents, which is by far the best Bittorrent client for Linux hands down. For email Thunderbird is installed instead of Evolution, which is the Ubuntu Desktop default. For burning CDs or DVDs you get Xburn. It not as feature rich as K3B which you find on Ubuntu Desktop but it is lightweight and serves its purpose. There is also Mousepad, the default text editor for XFCE which is basically like Notepad for Windows, and Catfish which is a search tool that offers up features that file searches on Windows and most other operating systems usually don't give you.

Overall, everything runs really fast. I was able to enjoy a Youtube video using Flash. I have not yet tested HTML5 video in the Chromium browser yet. This is something I couldn't do with Ubuntu Desktop, even with the benefit of hardware acceleration. When visiting Gmail in Chromium its not as laggy, and is actually less laggy than when I was using Chrome on Peppermint One. I am also able to play all of my video files on my 1TB USB drive. Xubuntu uses the Parole Media Player, a lightweight media player that uses the GStreamer framework in Linux for handling multimedia (sound, video and sometimes graphics). Its fairly decent at playing most video formats and DVDs, but I installed VLC because it supports far more video formats and is better at playing DVDs. VLC isn't heavy on resources either and its one of the most popular open source media players around. For music you get the Exaile, which I'm familiar with because it was also included with Peppermint One. Its a decent iTunes like music player that runs smoothly and will also play Shoutcast Internet radio streams.

For graphics Xubuntu offers The GIMP, a professional level photo editor with all the bells and whistles you'd find on Adobe Photoshop. There is Ristretto, a tiny lightweight image viewer, and Simple Scan which works if you have a scanner. Ubuntu works with a lot of USB based scanners so you could easily go to the store, buy one, bring it home, and it will most likely work.

I even plugged in my very generic Playstation 2 to USB adapter in and it works. I'm able to use it with native Linux games but it doesn't work with anything I run with Wine. Wine is software that mimics a Windows environment for running Windows programs and games on Linux. I installed Steam, downloaded Final Fantasy XI and was able to get it to run and log into the server. The game runs very choppy but its not really the fault of Linux. FFXI uses very little GPU optimization and so its very CPU intensive. If I had a more powerful processor on this computer it world run better. I can upgrade to a 2GB AMD Athlon XP or Sempron for very little money so I may do that. FFXI didn't run all that well when I was running under Windows XP, so its no real surprise it doesn't perform well under Wine. I'll post an update after I upgrade my CPU. Even getting our color laser printer work was easy. I didn't even have to download drivers.

I've only been using Xubuntu for about a day now. Overall, its been much easier to customize to my own preferences than Peppermint One had been. XFCE even has a built-in feature for changing your wallpaper from a list so I didn't have to go hunting for one myself. The installation and setup were pleasant experiences. The installation was very easy to follow using plain English explanations of what was happening and the OS boots very fast. I'll post an update of my experience with Xubuntu in a few months.

If you want to try Xubuntu yourself you can without making any changes to your computer. Get a copy of the LiveCD, burn a copy for yourself and your friends, and test it out. You can even install it like an application in Windows without needing to change your disk partitions so you can boot Xubuntu without making changes to your hard drive. I think you'll like it. If you have an old computer that's gathering dust in your closet, bring it back to life by using Xubuntu and make it usable again.

Canonical's Perfect 10

There are those who say Ubuntu isn't ready for the mainstream. They have no idea now wrong they are. Canonical's release of Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 on 10/10/10 is a major milestone for the Linux distribution. The media has responded, giving Ubuntu 10.10 glowing reviews and recommendations. Lets see what all the fuss is about and why Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 could be the best Canonical has released to date.

1. Installation

Installing Ubuntu is actually easier than installing Windows. You need only boot the CD and start the install immediately, or you can boot to the LiveCD's desktop and run the install from there. The LiveCD gives y0u a fully working Ubuntu desktop user interface which you can try out before making any changes to your computer. When you choose to install every instruction is presented in plain English in a very polished windowed screen that walks you through the process step by step without any confusing geek jargon. Even the disk partitioning portion of the install is simple to understand. The majority of the install is fully automated after a few basic questions and after you choose your user login ID and password. The average length of time an Ubuntu install takes is about 5 minutes. If you have a network connection Ubuntu can download and install updates during the installation process on the fly automatically. Once the install is done you're asked to remove the CD and your computer will restart on its own.

2. The User Interface

Ubuntu Desktop boots very fast. The average start time is about 10 to 15 seconds depending on your computer. The login screen immediately comes up with shows you the login name you selected and a box to type in your password. Once past this the desktop comes up and this loads very quickly.

Ubuntu Desktop uses the Gnome desktop environment. There are two bars or Panels on the screen at the top and the bottom. The top is where your menu buttons can be found:

Applications which you will find all the apps installed in Ubuntu listed in categories; Accessories, Games, Graphics, Sound & Video, Office, Internet, and etc. You'll also find the Ubuntu Software Center here, we'll cover this later as this deserves its own section.

Places where you will find links to different folders for music, videos, documents, downloads, and buttons for other drives you might have attached to your computer.

System menu where you find the Preferences and Administration menus. This is where you can change your screen resolution, select your screensaver, change your wallpaper, install a printer, install your graphics card drivers (to use Desktop Effects, we'll discuss this later), and more.

The layout and locations of these menus has remained consistent on Ubuntu since its first release. This is part of the philosophy behind how Ubuntu is made. From the ground up the user interface is designed to be very easy to use and to learn. Its made so the average user can learn to use Ubuntu in just a few minutes and when they do upgrade they never have to relearn where everything is.

Next to the menus is an area for shortcut buttons. You usually find buttons for the Firefox web browser, the Evolution email client (a powerful clone of MS Outlook), and a shortcut button to the Ubuntu help page. You can add new shortcut buttons easily from the Applications menu. Just right-click on a app's icon and choose Add to Panel from the pop up menu. Its that easy.

Across the top panel you'll find the the Network Manager, which serves the same purpose as the network icon on the Windows system tray, the volume control, a clock which pops up with a calendar view of the month when you click on it, and there is a System Tray for apps that have system tray icons like Skype, Dropbox, and etc.

Along with the usual stuff you'll see some additional buttons and doodads on the top panel. One looks like a Envelope. This is the Notification Area, and its a very important feature of the user interface. The Notification Area shrinks the complexity of receiving information from multiple programs down into just one pop up menu. From here you can access your email, your instant messenger accounts (AOL, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, Google, etc), and your accounts on Facebook and even Twitter. Everything is in one place and easily accessed with just a click or two. The Notification Area doesn't nag you either like most other system tray icons in Windows does. If you have a new email, a message or whatever the icon turns green and can even set it up to play a sound. No annoying pop ups that just get in the way.

Next to the Notifications Area is a button that lets you set your status for your instant messengers. Then there's the buttons for logging out, restarting, shutting down or hibernating the computer. Again, these features have been kept in the same place so they are easy to find.

The bottom panel is where you'll find the Task Bar. What this does is list the apps and windows that are currently open, and there is the also the Desktop Pager. Ubuntu gives you 4 desktops you can use. This gives you a lo of room on screen for more stuff. You can open Firefox full screen on one desktop, switch to another and open Evolution to get your email, go to the next to start OpenOffice to work on a document and use the last to start the Rythmbox media player to listen to some tunes while you work. Switching between these desktops is easy and fast, and the pager shows small boxes representing the windows you have open so you knew you have something running on that desktop at all times. The final items is the Trash Bin, the Ubuntu equivalent of the Recycle Bin in Windows.

The design philosophy Canonical uses for Ubuntu keeps this desktop design relatively the same with minor changes from time to time, but the overall look and feel is kept consistent so users who upgrade don't have relearn the user interface each time. This is something Microsoft needs to learn when releasing a new version of Windows. The mantra "keep it simple stupid" describes the Ubuntu desktop perfectly.

The biggest change to the Ubuntu desktop is the Multi-Touch support. If you have a tablet PC or a computer with a touch screen you can use your fingers in place of a mouse. The multi-touch in Ubuntu 10.10 had been praised all around by the media for its accuracy and ease of use. Its not quite as refined as the multi-touch you'll find on the iPhone but its every bit as good as what you'll find on Android. In some cases its better.

Ubuntu Desktop uses Compiz for desktop compositing (like Aero in Windows 7 only more awesome). If you have a compatible video card (Nvidia, ATI, Intel, there's a big list) and Ubuntu detected your device you can install the drivers for it in the Additional Drivers screen in the System and Administration menu. Once the drivers are installed you can turn on Desktop Effects in the Appearance window in the System and Preferences menu. When activated your windows will wobble around like pieces of paper when you move them around on the screen, and if you hold the Windows Key on your keyboard and rotate the mouse button you can zoom in and out. Also pressing the Windows Key and pressing N or M will invert the colors on the entire screen or just the current window that is open. This is a neat feature for people with low vision. For those with no vision Ubuntu has the Orca screen reader, which is a text-to-speech application that reads the screen and any text that is there in a computerized voice that actually easy to understand. Ubuntu also supports special Braille displays that some visually impaired individuals use without needing to install any additional software. Of all the Linux distributions available Ubuntu is the most accessible to the Blind and Visually Handicapped.

3. The Ubuntu Software Center

On the Applications menu on the top panel of the Ubuntu desktop you'll find the Ubuntu Software Center. Way back, more than ten years ago, installing apps on Linux was a real chore. You often had to compile programs from source code using long archaic commands in the terminal, and often this could take hours. Today, installing apps in Linux is as easy as installing apps on your iPhone or Android phone.

Several years ago Linux distributions got rid of the complexity of installing new apps by using app repositories and package managers. Repositories are big warehouses of apps that sit in the cloud on the Internet. A package manager talks to these repositories, can search through them, and download apps from them. This has gotten much easier to use over the years. The past few Ubuntu releases have used the Ubuntu Software Center, which makes searching for and install apps very simple. As simple as installing apps on a smartphone.

Immediately after installation Ubuntu already comes with many apps. Like Firefox for browsing the web, OpenOffice for getting work done, F-Spot Photo Manager for keeping your collection of digital photos organized, Rythmbox for playing your music and buying tunes from online music stores, Totem for watching videos and DVDs, Transmission for downloading from Bittorrent, and more. To add more apps just start the Ubuntu Software Center.

When it opens the Ubuntu Software Center shows you a list of software categories; Accessories, Games, Office, Graphics, Sound & Video, Programming, System, and etc. The new software center also has a new Featured Apps section and a section for New Apps. You can go into any of these and browser through a list of programs. As you do you'll see the names of the apps and a brief description of what they do. Click on one and you'll goto a bigger page that gives you more information and even gives you a picture of what the app looks like. To install an app just click the Install button. The process is automatic, depending on what kind of app it is you usually don't need to give your password to install most apps. A Installed Apps section shows a list of everything you've installed and lets you uninstall any app with just a click.

The biggest change to the Ubuntu Software Center is the addition of paid apps. Right now the list of paid apps is limited to the Flouendo Media Codecs Pack and the Flouendo DVD Player for Linux. More commercial apps are on the way though and start showing up in a few months. Canonical is in negotiations with several software makers who write Linux software to add their wares to the Ubuntu Software Center.

Understand, Linux is not Windows. It will not run Windows software, not without additional software called Wine. Wine will run most Windows software. It runs most older games perfectly, and even run Steam and Valve's Source Engine games like Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. You can even run World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, and Modern Warfare 2 on Linux with Wine. Wine can be installed from the Ubuntu Software Center.

4. Ubuntu One and the Ubuntu Music Store

Canonical is working hard to add premium services to Ubuntu Desktop that people actually will want to use. A very popular third party service is Dropbox, its a services that takes files in your Dropbox folder, backs them up to the Cloud, and then synchronizes them with other computers with Dropbox installed on them. The Ubuntu One service is pretty much the same service, only its integrated into Ubuntu Desktop and isn't a third party application you have to install later. You can use 2GB of storage free or pay a small monthly fee for more storage space. Like Dropbox the backup and file syncing service is completely automated. You just log into your account and the software does the rest for you. So if you have more than one computer with Ubuntu Desktop install you can keep your important documents synced easily using Ubuntu One.

The Rythmbox media player that comes installed in Ubuntu has always let you access the Magnatunes online music store, but Canonical has decided to open their own. Unlike Magnatunes, which only offers music from unsigned independent bands, the Ubuntu Music Store offers music from signed bands and artists. The prices for music are comparable to iTunes, the music downloads as DRM free .mp3 files (meaning there's no copy protection which could mess up leaving you without your music library), and you can sync your music to your MP3 player or smartphone right from within Rythmbox. The selection of music in the Ubuntu Music Store isn't as extensive as what you'll find in iTunes but the service only just recently opened. Given time the selection of tunes will get better. There hasn't been any talk about adding movies or TV shows to the list, but that could be an option for the future.

5. Simple Choices

Ubuntu "officially" comes in four different distinct flavors. Deciding which one you need is pretty easy, as the website makes it clear what each version is designed for. There are different "officially" recognized Derivatives of Ubuntu developed by third parties, but the versions actually produced by Canonical are:

Ubuntu Desktop - Currently the most popular Linux distribution on the planet, and its the one we've been talking about here in this article. Whether you have a desktop computer or a laptop this is likely the version you'll be using.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix - A version of Ubuntu with a new user interface called Unity which is designed to better make use of the smaller screens on Netbooks and is built to best use the new Multi-Touch support that Ubuntu 10.10 offers. So, if you have a small Netbook like the ASUS EeePC or Acer AspireOne, or a tablet PC this is the version you want.

Ubuntu Server - A powerful version of Ubuntu designed for big businesses and enterprise customers. Canonical also offers comprehensive paid support for Ubuntu Server that rivals what Red Hat offers their business users. Home users can use this to build their own file servers for storing media files like music and movies and sharing them over their home network.

Ubuntu Cloud Edition - A version of Ubuntu that runs on the Amazon EC2 Cloud Computing Platform or can be run in the Cloud on your company's own network. If you aren't an enterprise customer chances are you won't need to worry with this version.

The beauty is all of the software in the Ubuntu Software Center work the same on all of these different versions. You don't have to worry about something not being compatible.

The "officially" recognized Derivatives of Ubuntu developed by the community outside of Canonical are:

Kubuntu - A release of Ubuntu Desktop that replaces Gnome with KDE. It follows the exact same design philosophy so when you upgrade everything is in the same place and users don't have to learn a new user interface each time.

Xubuntu - A release of Ubuntu Desktop that replaces Gnome with XFCE. XFCE is a very lightweight desktop environment designed for older computers or computers that don't have much memory. Xubuntu can run in as little as 256MB of RAM but does best with just 512MB and can use as little as 2GB of hard drive space to install. It also follows the same Ubuntu design philosophy so the user interface doesn't have to be relearned with each new release.

Mythbuntu - A special release of Ubuntu Desktop that includes MythTV. MythTV is a Media Center graphical user interface designed for televisions. You can build a media center PC suing Mythbuntu and play music, movies and games right 0n your TV or HDTV.

Ubuntu Studio - A specialized release of Ubuntu Desktop that includes software for composing and writing music, drawing graphics and 3D animation, editing video and adding special effects, and creating professional looking DVDs.

Edubuntu - A specialized release of Ubuntu Desktop that features software designed for use by schools. It includes special software that can be used by teachers, school administrators, and educational software for students in grade K through 12.

Like with the "official" releases these third party developed derivatives of Ubuntu are all compatible with the same software. You don't have to worry about something not working right when you install it. This is a part of the consistency which Canonical has worked hard to establish for Ubuntu Desktop.

6. Hardware Support

Ubuntu Desktop has built-in support a lot of hardware without needing to install additional software. Most printers, webcams, and scanners just work the moment you plug them in. Ubuntu also supports a huge list of sound cards, video cards, network cards, and has improved support for Wi-Fi and 3G-4G wireless technology right out of the box. Printer support on Ubuntu is handled by CUPS, the same technology used by Apple's Mac OS X. Some proprietary drives need to be installed separately. These appear in the Additional Drivers window under the System and Administration menu. Installing drivers is as easy as pointing and click. Ubuntu will automatically download and install the drivers for you. No need to open a terminal window and enter long strings of commands.

Its very rare to find something that Ubuntu won't work with. This isn't the fault of Ubuntu or Linux but is usually the fault of the hardware manufacturer for not providing Linux based drivers. In the past hardware support used to be a problem, but today more and more hardware manufacturers are making Linux drivers available. So if you install Ubuntu Desktop today that webcam you bought from Best Buy the will likely work on the first try. Canonical and put in a lot of effort to make sure Ubuntu supports as many different types of hardware as possible. They're in negotiations with many hardware makers and PC makers to get Linux drivers released for all of the most popular devices and computers on the market.

7. Software Support

No operating system is perfect and sometime down the line you may or may not need support. Getting support for Ubuntu though is pretty easy and readily available. The best way to get support is from the Ubuntu community. There are forums and email mailing lists dedicated to providing support for Ubuntu Desktop. On the Internet there are countless wikis and how-t0s surrounding Ubuntu. Finding the answer to your question is often just one Google search away. You can opt in for paid support from Canonical also. They offer this support for the Server and Cloud editions of Ubuntu also.

Canonical releases bug fixes for software rather quickly. Where it takes Microsoft months or even a year to release a bug fix or security patch, for Ubuntu the release of such patches can be counted in days or even hours after the problem is found and reported. There is an extensive system built by Canonical for report and tracking bugs and security problems in Ubuntu and getting those problems fixed immediately after they're found. Applying updates that are released is easy using the Update Manager, which pops up with an icon on the top Gnome panel whenever new updates are available.

The online support community is typically made up of friendly, courteous people who are more than willing to answer any questions you might have. There are a few bad apples, every online community has them, but the Trolls are few and far between. In most cases you can actually send messages to or email the Ubuntu Developers themselves. Lets see Microsoft do that!

8. Overall

No operating system is perfect. Not Mac OS X, not iOS 4, not Android, and certainly not Windows. Of all the hundreds of different Linux distributions out there and their derivatives Ubuntu is one of the most user friendly and easiest learn. Your granny could sit at an Ubuntu PC and learn to use it within in minutes to browser the web, read or email, check up on Facebook, and watch videos of the grandkids on Youtube. A great effort has been taken to make sure that each new release is easy to use and its user interface design of consistent so there's no learning curve. Some aspects of the user interface still need work. That doesn't mean its not ready for the mainstream, could you honestly say that Windows is truly user friendly. If anything is rather unfriendly and each use release has a steep learning curve for the average user who has to learn where everything is because Microsoft changes things so much.

Overall, is Ubuntu Desktop ready for the mainstream? I say yes, and there are millions of happy Ubuntu users who agree with me. Want to see what all the fuss is about, want to experience Ubuntu yourself and see what people have been raving about? Get a copy of Ubuntu and find out for yourself. The best way to experience Ubuntu is to try it.