Category: Open Source OS

  • Spending some time with KDE

    Spending some time with KDE

    I used to love KDE and thought it was so much better than GNOME. Especially after discovering Superkaramba, I was sure nothing could beat KDE in terms of cool factor. Later I started using more GTK applications so I gravitated towards GNOME, fluxbox, and XFCE. Also, I ended up not really using the SuperKaramba widgets…

  • ReactOS Correction

    I kept referring to ReactOS as version 2.9 and 3.0 in my review, but it’s actually 0.2.9 and 0.3.0.

  • ReactOS Revisited Part 2 (ReactOS 3.0)

    Ok, so with 3.0 there are still some major reliability issues. I blue screened a bunch of times just trying to get to this blog and it was quite slow. However, it did seem to work a bit better than 2.9. I will be testing installing some Windows programs to see just how far they…

  • ReactOS Revisited Part 1

    I decided to revisit ReactOS to see what had changed from 2.x that I reviewd before to the 2.9 release candidate. So I fired up VMWare and ran it. I was a bit dissapointed in the performance. I know it was VMWared and only had 128 MB, but Ubuntu was running beautifully VMWared with only…

  • Presenting…..xmessage!

    As I was reading the latest Linux Format Magazine, they had a great tip for a low tech way to remind yourself of different time-sensitive events. The best part is that it works under any window manager! (ie it doesn’t matter if you’re in Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Fluxbox, or any other) The trick is to…

  • Use Minix….create a free OS?

    As we all know, Linus Torvalds created Linux out of his frustration with the lack of features in Minix, a teaching OS meant to duplicate a POSIX-compliant Unix system. Well, as a great followup to Saturday’s Post, why not check out Minux yourself? A new group has begun developing Minix3, in the hopes of getting…

  • Late Happy 15th Birthday Linux!

    I’m a day late, but happy birthday Linux! Here’s the email that started it all! From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: What would you like to see most in minix? Summary: small poll for my new operating system Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI> Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT Organization: University of Helsinki Hello everybody out…

  • A fun quick customization

    tired of a terminal session that looks like user@computer> pretty boring right? So just a little command called PS1=”message” can liven things up. The man page intro suggests: PS1=”What’s next, master?”

  • The new server is up!

    This server is now running on a FreeBSD box instead of Fedora Core 1. It’s also 1 GHz instead of 300Mhz. Man, I have gone from being scared to install anything that wasn’t an RPM package a few years ago to where yesterday I compiled a custom kernel for the first time ever!! That is…

  • Setting up the FreeBSD server

    Well, I’ll tell you one thing – FreeBSD does NOT hold your hand like Linux does. This has had both frustrating and enlightening effects. On the one hand, it’s been very annoying to have to deal with all manner of config files I never had to deal with before. Apache and MySQL didn’t just work…

  • FreeBSD is here!

    I now have a FreeBSD 6.1 computer which will eventually take over the job of the server. It could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to get everything set up correctly, but I’ll be sure to make a post when it’s ready.

  • Upgrade?

    Danielle’s job is getting rid of some old computers – all of which are way, way better than my current server. My current server is a P II 333 Hz computer!!! And it only has a 4 GB hard drive, most of which is full! By contrast, the cheapest computer they’re selling at Danielle’s work…

  • Wall

    Wall is a great command if you’re intent on getting notoriety/kicked off the box you’re on. It broadcasts a message to every terminal open for every logged on user. For this reason, it may be turned off on the computer you’re on. This means every xterm, gnome-terminal, etc and every one of the 6 VTs…

  • The Cost of Windows

    Today, The Linux Extremist, posted his attempts to compute what we in the Linux world call “The Microsoft Tax”, this is the extra cost of a computer with Windows as opposed to a computer without an operating system. His numbers are not all that surprising with an extra cost of 323.67 British pounds for Windows,…

  • Computer Geek Humor

    As I was browsing around /usr/share/emacs/21.4/etc/ looking for the emacs manual in order to look for the command to launch the doctor and I found the following. It’ll be funniest if you’re used to Unix man pages. Here it is, the man page for condom. CONDOM(1) EUNUCH Programmer’s Manual CONDOM(1) NAME condom – Protection against…