noel alanguilan

i’ve been asked what linux “looks” like so many times that i thought i’d make a post comprising screen shots of my linux installation. i get the impression that people still think that linux is text-based like dos (disk operating system) but its not, as you can clearly see. its a point and click affair much like windows or os x. you have the icons, the trash bin, panels (as opposed to task bars in windows), the clock (let’s not forget that), shutdown/log out/restart button — all of the usual stuff in a graphical user interface.

of course, this being linux means it also comes with a lot of useful programs for free. my top three are firefox, gimp and bluefish (html editor).

below are the things i use and see on my workstation. it works for me. if you want to see more screenshots you can visit the coding studio. they have tons of screenshots.

[Show as slideshow]

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now, if i piqued your interest and you want to know what other applications you can run on linux someone already gathered the top 50 linux alternatives to popular apps.

microsoft just realeased internet explorer rc1 (release candidate 1) and pc mag has a preview. will they make it cross platform, i wonder.

his toy cars: those cars do drifting too! (taken 2005.11.25)

Portrait of Town Planner: playing with his cars and road set

robin at lola’s garden: he would water the plants almost every hour just to play with the hose. it did keep him cool though.

robin’s latest b-daman. he saved enough to get a battle b-daman but this time he assembled everything himself. (taken 2006.08.21)

well, its not as if no one has at least given a passing thought, considered it as an impossibility and discarded the idea half a second later. (my 10-year old did say, “impossible” after reading the title.) but i ask you to give some more serious thought to this. really think about it for a period longer than two seconds — what if windows 7 is free? now, it doesn’t mean that windows 7 has to be open sourced. microsoft can keep their code proprietary and close to their heart  but they can have anyone and everyone including their cat use se7en for free.

what do you think will happen?

this will definitely prolong the battle for os dominance. it will keep windows on top for a longer period with linux and os x still patiently chipping away. i honestly don’t think the “destroy microsoft” mantra Is going to pan out. and it shouldn’t. linux would need the competition just to keep the developers on their toes. so does windows. so there’s no point to the “battle”. no one will let a single operating system to rule them all. not windows. not even linux. one may eventually come on top of the other but the other will always be around in one form or another. waiting to pounce.

but wait, i just read something about windows se7en being a linux killer. huh?!? i know vista has its problems but when did the penguin become the goliath penguin? and is se7en really that good? from the in-depth review of the first beta of se7en done by ars technica it appears that although it is fast and sleek, and all that, it is also based on vista. which means the hardware requirements are roughly the same as vista. which means that the programs and/or thingamajigs that didn’t run on vista will not run on se7en as they have identical compatibility. which means that if you didn’t like vista’s user interface then you wouldn’t like se7en’s because it is built on vista’s ui. which leads me wonder if se7en is really just a service pack for vista.

so, the major redeeming feature that se7en may possess is if it costs zero. then you may have the linux killer. although the word “suppressor” or “competitor” may be more appropriate as i don’t think that linux can really be “killed”.

se7en being free of charge means it may be easier to distribute than vista — let it loose in the torrents or a make it a free download from microsoft. people may find that deciding to install windows rather than linux is much easier since both systems are free but the majority of users are used to using windows so its to their advantage.

se7en being free of charge will just likely help micrsoft’s office suites stay in the market along with the other software that microsoft sells. its hard enough that there are free alternatives to office available for windows and linux from ibm (with lotus symphony) and sun (with open office). making se7en free of charge makes it a lot easier to sell an all-microsoft package — from operating system to application that run on the os. of course, this would be good news to other developers who make program for the windows platform. access to their programs got a step easier.

essentially, by making windows se7en free of charge, microsoft ensures that it remains viable to users at the same time making it a little difficult for the users to switch to linux (or maybe os x). if it does happen, i’m sure the proccess and the outcome is going to be pretty interesting.

up in the sky: i was having coffee and i saw superman (taken 2006.04.09)

i mentioned in a previous post that a friend of mine asked me why i would use linux when the rest of the world is using windows. well, i came up with the list of reasons in no particular order.

• its free.
• i feel more secure in the sense that its not affected by windows viruses and worms. believe me, i tried. they just can’t survive in a linux environment.
• i just got tired of windows. i’ve been on it since windows 3.x. enough already.
• vista is expensive. i need to buy upgrades to my computer before i can eek out a decently performing vista computer. of course, i’d have to buy vista too.
• i can play my windows game in linux — diablo II. what’s the point of getting windows?
• i can run photoshop (up to cs2 cs3) on ubuntu with wine.  again, what’s the point of getting windows?
• updates to the system is disseminated as soon as its stable. no waiting for updates every thursday (or tuesday or whatever).
• i can get support easily. contrary to popular belief, linux support is available via the community (for free) or from commercial entities — novell, red hat, ibm, hp or canonical. here are five other great support sites. people just have to learn to read.
• i can optimize, tweak, whatever the linux kernel (the main program that runs everything) to my liking. as a matter of fact, i can modify just about anything that’s open sourced in my system.
• i can’t buy os x without buying a mac (or can i?)
• the 15″ macbook pro is too expensive for me (unless ingrid decides to ship one to me for free; asa ka pa).
• linux hangs a lot less than windows xp.
• it has lesser hardware requirements
• it can run on older hardware. i have a linux firewall running on a pentium 2.
• i believe that linux can honestly help in moving me, my work and, hopefully, the country forward by spending less and;
• its free. look here if you don’t believe me.

the first update of the year came it on january 4. the second came three days later. that’s one thing i like about linux, and ubuntu in particular — they release updates to their software when there are updates available (as i write this i’m dowloading updates to openssl; third update for the year). development doesn’t seem to be slowing down and it appears that linux will continue to succeed through 2009.

and then there’s news about windows 7. i’m actually intrigued about this new one from microsoft. its appears to be better than vista. hasn’t anyone noticed that once they found out that se7en was going to be better and a little faster than vista, the publicity on se7ev ballooned — you see news about it almost everywhere. and very little news about vista except for the handful of updates to the software. but se7en has been hogging the spotlight. i also heard about the rumor that se7en beta was leaked to the torrents by microsoft. its a rumor so take that bit of news with a grain of salt. but if i was microsoft i would do the same. maximize distribution and publicity. i think i just saw the beta of the 64-bit version in the torrents uploaded a few hours ago.

still, windows is windows. and its still the most widely used operating on the planet making it the most likely target for viruses, worms and malware. again. i’ll stick to linux at this time. i’m just wondering how much they will sell se7en. if they sell it at 0.0 then it may spell some trouble for linux (but that’s another story altogether).

even so, linux moves forward. i read that the government of vietnam will be adopting opensource software in all state agencies. that’s a huge step and a wise one. i wonder if the philippine government has the guts to follow suit. in my opinion, it is an intelligent decision. i have heard that they were looking into using opensource but that was in 2002 — six long years ago. pagasa already has some (or all) of their forcasting done on a linux cluster and some high schools have received 13,000 computers running on linux.

a friend of mine asked me once, why would i use linux when the rest of the world is using windows? several reasons come to mind (i’ll list them down in another entry) but a couple that sticks to me is that i believe that linux can honestly help in moving me, my work and, hopefully, the country forward. and its free.

i noticed this weather forecast on my desktop right after the calendar turned to 2009. the smoke came from all those firecrackers and fireworks and because its all smokey the skies would definitely look overcast…