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4 L i n u x E v e r y w h e r e ,Ta k e n L i t e r a l l yP H I L H U G H E S

6 B u i l d i n g M o m e n t u m t o w a r da D e s k t o p L i n u x R e a l i t yK E V I N S H O C K E Y

8 L e t t e r s

1 5 T h e $ 6 4 Q u e s t i o nK E V I N S H O C K E Y

1 9 Q & A w i t h M a n g o Pa r f a i tM A N G O PA R FA I T

HOME PLATE

2 5 H y d r o g e n — T h e H o m eM u s i c i a n ’s F r e e D r u mM a c h i n e , Pa r t IJ O H N K N I G H T

SUITED UP

3 0 O p e n O f f i c e. o rg I m p re s s 2 . 0 :the Confusing Duckl ingBecomes a User-Fr iendly SwanS O LV E I G L . H A U G L A N D

TUX EXPLAINS

3 8 K D E I n s t a n t M e s s a g i n gJ E S H A L L

4 1 O p e n O f f i c e . o r g B a s eK E V I N S H O C K E Y

DIVERSIONS

5 5 N e v e r b a l lJ O H N K N I G H T

ISSUE 10

FEBRUARY 2006

REVIEWS

48 G a d g e t G u y : Yo u r M u s i c , w i t h o u t W i r e sS E A N C A R R U T H E R S

51 C a p s u l e R e v i e w s• M o z i l l a F i r e f o x 1 . 5• O p e n O f f i c e. o r g M a t h 2 . 0X AV I E R S P R I E T

2 5 Hydrogen

3 8 KDE Instant Messaging

4 8

5 1

3www.tuxmagazine.com

5 3

NEXT MONTH• Hydrogen and TUX rock your world• Personalizing your KDE and

GNOME desktops• TUX suits up and delivers the mail

with OpenOffice.org• Reviews: Nokia 770, Linspire Mini

and the new Pepper Pad

In an article in Brazil Magazine (http://www.brazzilmag.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4170&Itemid=49),there is a description of what I would call Brazil’sdomination plan for Linux. I am thinking this maybe the model the world needs.

The plan is to get hundreds of thousands of low-cost Linux systems into the hands of averagecitizens. Besides a complete Linux system for nomore than $440, there are low-interest loans avail-able and special low rates for Internet connectivity.

This is a government-sponsored program. It’snot a give-away, and it makes good economicsense. The government end is really just to assurethe systems will meet some minimum requirementsand be financeable.

WHY IS IT GOOD ECONOMIC SENSE?First, access to computers is just a good thing. It increases literacy and also decreases costs of

supplying information. That is, you can provideaccess to anything—including government services—at a lower cost and more quickly with Web accessrather than with phone calls and paper mail. Thisis a big plus.

Outside the US, there is another benefit to this program; the program is Linux-based. Ifsomeone buys a commercial operating system,you are basically guaranteed that the commercialoperating system we’re talking about is made in the US. That increases costs to the consumer,and it also puts money into the US economy, or at least into the pockets of the US company.

If, on the other hand, you are in Brazil orNicaragua or wherever, buying commercial USsoftware just exports your national currency to the US. Looking at this from the perspective of someone who lives in Nicaragua, I am surethat Bill Gates doesn’t need any more money

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

LLiinnuuxx EEvveerryywwhheerree,,TTaakkeenn LLiitteerraallllyyLinux adoption is a no-brainer for countries not as rich as the United States.

PHIL HUGHES


PUBLISHERPhil Hughes, [email protected]

EDITORIALEDITOR IN CHIEF Kevin Shockey, [email protected] EDITOR Jill Franklin, [email protected] DIRECTOR Garrick Antikajian, [email protected]

For Editorial inquiries, please write to [email protected]

VP OF SALES AND MARKETINGCarlie Fairchild, [email protected]

MARKETINGDIRECTOR OF MARKETING Rebecca Cassity,[email protected] MARKET ANALYST James Gray,[email protected]

SALESADVERTISING COORDINATOR Lana Newlander,206-782-7733 ext. 2, [email protected]

For immediate information about advertising in this digital edition of TUX or for information about banner and text advertising on the TUX Web site, please visithttp://www.tuxmagazine.com/xstatic/advertising

CIRCULATIONCIRCULATION MANAGER Khris Goldberg,[email protected]

For immediate information about subscribing, renewing, or changing your method of delivery or delivery address for TUX, please visithttp://www.tuxmagazine.com/xstatic/subscribe.

SSC MEDIA CORP.http://www.ssc.com

A privately held company, SSC Media Corp. is the leadingLinux and Open Source authority, publishing referencematerials in these fields since 1983. Properties includeLinuxGazette.com, DocSearls.com, TUXMagazine.com,LinuxJournal.com, and the monthly international printmagazine Linux Journal.

Additional information can be found at www.ssc.com.All product and company names featured in this publication may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

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from Nicaraguans. Thus, even Bill Gatesshould be promoting Linux here if hehas the best interest of Nicaraguans at heart.

So, what’s the downside? Well, fromthe point of view of nationalism, therereally isn’t any. That is, you get fullyfunctional computers, and you get to keep your software dollars. As thiseffort grows, the effect snowballs. That is, as the Linux market sharegrows, more vendors become interestedin Linux. It gets easier to buy a scannerthat works with your system, and eveneasier to get your Internet connectionset up.

See where I am going? This is thatold Linux World Domination angle thatLinus mentioned so many years ago.The difference is that when I firstthought of it, I lived in the US. Thus, Ifigured any world domination attemptwould have to start there. I totallymissed the fact that it was easier and

more economically sound to start it elsewhere.

Okay, back to the numbers. They are projecting 500,000 Linux (and KDE-based) desktops in the first four to six months of the program. That, in itself, is a significant jump in thenumber of Linux desktops. How significant is hard to say, because you can’t simply count licenses (orcomputers sold) to get the number. If we go with the Linux Counter’s(http://counter.li.org) guess of 29 million systems total, we are talkingclose to 2%. That includes servers, of which there are many.

More important, this could mean aclose to 2% increase in systems world-wide with just one country jumping onthe bandwagon. If this were the UnitedStates or one of the bigger Europeancountries, I would be less surprised. But, this is South America.

If we shift our attention to Asia,

China is the other “Linux country” that is coming of age. China has devel-oped its own CPU for running Linux(Dragon) and its own version of Linux(Red Flag Linux). A recent press release(http://www.redflag-linux.com/jujiao/enews_view.php?id=1000000036)shows that there is cooperation betweenLinux vendors in China, Korea andJapan. If you could get the number of potential users among these threecountries, you will see a huge upsidefor Linux.

As the majority of TUX readers are in the US, let’s take this back there. Are you going to get left behind? Well,this is where you have a choice. You are reading TUX, so you have at leasttaken the first step. Although it may be a bit harder for you to get on theLinux World Domination bandwagonthan for someone in Brazil or China, it is not that hard should you choose to be involved. Linux is happening all around the world. Linux is the future. I encourage you to participate in that future.�

Phil Hughes is Group Publisher for SSC Media Corp.

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THE PLAN IS TO GET HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LOW-COSTLINUX SYSTEMS INTO THE HANDS OF AVERAGE CITIZENS.

http://counter.li.org

http://www.redflag-linux.com/jujiao/

http://www.redflag-linux.com/jujiao/enews_view.php?id=1000000036


Late last year, the Open SourceDevelopment Lab (OSDL) announced a new project, Portland, that will bepotentially helpful in creating a massmarket for Linux on the desktop. Forthose of you not familiar with OSDL, it is a nonprofit organization dedicatedto accelerating the growth and adop-tion of Linux in the enterprise. It pro-vides state-of-the-art computing andtest facilities in the United States andJapan. These facilities are available todevelopers around the world. OSDLalso happens to employ Linus Torvalds,the creator of Linux.

The Portland Project is an initiative ofthe OSDL Desktop Linux Working Group(DTL). The DTL is working toward makingthe Linux desktop in the enterprise areality by identifying and removing barri-ers that independent software vendors

(ISVs) face in developing on Linux, speci-fying the capabilities required of theLinux desktop and working with theOpen Source community to addressthese tasks.

The Portland Project is the result of aDecember 2005 meeting of the DTLarchitects. This meeting came right afterthe release of the results of a survey con-ducted by OSDL during November 2005.With more than 3,300 responses, thesurvey provided some fresh insight andresolute confirmation of the topinhibitors preventing Linux desktop adop-tion. At the top of the list was improvedapplication support on Linux. Specifically,this was the reason the DTL formed thePortland Project—to develop a commonset of core technical requirements forLinux and open-source software on thedesktop. The complete results of the sur-

vey are available at http://www.osdl.org/dtl/DTL_Survey_Report_Nov2005.pdf onthe OSDL Web site.

As we have discussed and debatedhere in TUX, there are large groups ofaficionados for both the KDE andGNOME desktops. If there is a divisionseen between fans of these desktops,there is an equal and perhaps moreinhibiting division between applicationdevelopers. The simple problem is that anISV must choose between KDE andGNOME. The libraries necessary to writeapplications with KDE and Qt are com-pletely incompatible with GNOME andGtk. Project Portland will attempt tobridge the divide between these twosoftware development platforms.

If the DTL can achieve their goal,many other inhibitors disappear and aclear path to widespread adoption

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FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

BBuuiillddiinngg MMoommeennttuumm ttoowwaarrddaa DDeesskkttoopp LLiinnuuxx RReeaalliittyyThere is growing support to resolve the main inhibitors that prevent wide-spread adoption of Linux as a desktop.The Open Source Development Lab is working hard to eliminate key problems for independent software vendors.

KEVIN SHOCKEY


http://www.osdl.org/

http://www.osdl.org/dtl/DTL_Survey_Report_Nov2005.pdf


appears. If ISVs can write applicationsthat easily run on both KDE and GNOME,more applications will become availablefor Linux. If there are more applicationsavailable with better support, it will elimi-nate the reluctance of original equipmentmanufacturers, such as Dell, to build, shipand support a PC running Linux and a fullsuite of open-source office productivitysoftware. If it becomes easy to purchaseand receive support for these PCs, thegates to widespread adoption will bethrown open.

Portland, named I assume for the cityOSDL calls home, will address other majorissues, including:

� Collaboration within the Linux desktopcommunity on specifications.

� Providing ISVs and developer resources.

� Coordinating focus on drivers.

� Strengthening the ties between thedesktop and kernel developmentcommunities.

Driver support was another topinhibitor identified in the DTL survey.Specifically, some respondents agreed onthe need to simplify the process of

installing and managing peripheraldevices, including USB. This is also a criti-cal issue for manufacturers of peripherals.Currently, only a few provide Linux driversfor their equipment. Unfortunately, theyfrequently don’t offer assistance for thecommunity to create the drivers. I’ll passon one suggestion that makes a lot ofsense. When we decide to purchase newperipherals for our Linux machines, weshould favor manufacturers that shipLinux drivers. This will help drive the mar-ket as a whole toward increased supportfor desktop Linux.

In conclusion, I wish the DTL muchsuccess in achieving their goal. I know I intend on joining the OSDL and volun-teering to work with them to achievethis critical task. I additionally want toacknowledge and recognize the effortsof everyone associated with OSDL. Ibelieve that they are focused on criticalwork and deserve our support. If you,your company or your school is usingLinux, joining the OSDL provides valuablesupport for the OSDL to continue workon their mission. For more information,please visit http://www.osdl.org/about_osdl/getinvolved_osdl.html/document_viewto learn how to get involved. In addi-tion, as has been mentioned here atTUX before, we often forget that much

of the software we love and rely uponis available for little or no money.However, this doesn’t mean the proj-ects and organizations that produceand support that software do not needour support. If you are looking for anice tax-deductible donation, hey Aprilisn’t that far off, consider a donationto one of the many fine projects pro-ducing the software we use every day.Two other organizations providinggreat support to free and open-sourcesoftware are the Free SoftwareFoundation and the Open Source Initiative.Please visit https://www.fsf.org/donate orhttp://opensource.org/donating.php,respectively, to help support either of theseorganizations and their important work.

With every new collaboration, work-ing group and project, we are gettingcloser to the point of widespread desk-top Linux adoption. In the meantime,there is no time like the present to makeyour contribution. When it finally doeshappen, how exciting will it be to claimthat you were there and helped make it happen? I can’t think of any betterNew Year’s resolution than committingourselves to help build momentum fordesktop Linux.�

Kevin Shockey is Editor in Chief of TUX.

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http://www.osdl.org/about_osdl/

https://www.fsf.org/donate

http://opensource.org/donating.php

http://www.osdl.org/about_osdl/getinvolved_osdl.html/document_view


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Doing Things with LinuxI’ve really enjoyed learning about Linuxfrom TUX. TUX is great! I’m a semi-cluelessnewbie. Well, maybe not so clueless—Ihave been building my own computerssince 1984, started at the commandprompt in something other than MS-DOS,the oldest file on my hard disk probablydates from before you were born and soon. Also, I have burned and run a coupleof LiveCD versions (Puppy was neat!) andsort of poked around (not the kind of“poke” we did back in the Tandy RS days).So, I am still pretty clueless when it comesto Linux, but have some understandingof basic stuff.

However, I want to do things. The things Iwant to do are:

1. Create a Linux-based server to providea local (parallel port or USB) printer(HPLaserjet 4) to a LAN with differentOSes (Linux, Windows and Mac).

2. Have a server provide encrypted storage for backups from LAN withdifferent OSes (Linux, Windows andMac boxes).

3. Have the server also manage traffic toand from the Internet, inspect packetsand handle routing on LAN with different

OSes (Linux, Windows and Mac).

4. Have a LiveCD with the capability tosearch and quarantine malicious filesfor all types of OSes (including Winand Mac).

I researched item 4, and it doesn’t lookpossible today, because Windows filesys-tem are still a hurdle, and there is noantivirus/antispyware that combines all OSsignatures in a single dat.

Item 3 would be of great value, especiallyif the client machine process has to iden-tify itself and be on a whitelist already atthe server in order to send anythingthrough the server and out onto theInternet. It could even be strengthenedwith keys entered manually by an adminat setup.

Item 2 would be even neater if therewere a common interface multiple OSbackup/encrypt program.

Item 1 means that a Linux-based printermanagement program has to acceptwhat the various OSes can offer andmake it happen—while maintainingsufficient communication with theclient machine so that it is satisfiedthat “printing” happens.

Is there any really good advice as to howsomeone might go about learning what ispossible? Who are the experts and whereare they? Will they respond to queries ofthis type, or should I “buy the book”?

PS: I may have asked a question thatinspires a new product. Any rights inuringto me are hereby released to the generalpublic—have at it guys!—and if it can killan IP patent, even better (with a one-clickhere and a one-click there, oldMacDonald had a farm...).--TV

You may want to try Linux Journal forhelp doing some of these things.—Ed.

TUX Appreciation from SerbiaI am writing you from Serbia where Linuxis the OS that builds its way to users andslowly becomes the major OS on mosthome PCs. I am not a new Linux user, butI love to read your magazine for fun—yougive great descriptions and news from theGNU world in a very interesting way.What can I say? You are great.

Now, here are some things you could doto get even better. Why don’t you writesome articles about using Blender,PovModeler or some video editing soft-

LETTERS


ware? I believe that I am not the only onewho uses these types of programs onLinux. It would be interesting to showthat you can do these operations onLinux, as on Windows, because migratingprograms from Win2Lin is major problemfor most users who start using Linux.

I often get questions like: “Do I havesomething like SoundForge in Linux?”or “Do I have Photoshop in Linux?”People don’t know about most programsthat do the same thing even better,although they are dual-boot users. Itwould be good for them to know aboutsome things like that.--Ivica

Thanks for the kind words, and thanksfor the article suggestions. I agree. Ibet there are many people potentiallyinterested in those topics. Now comesthe hard part, finding someone towrite them up for us.—Ed.

TUX AppreciationI had started reading your on-line magazine since the first issue, and Iwould like to say THANK YOU for thegreat magazine.--A Linux User

A Print Version of TUX?I have been playing with Mandrake sinceversion 9. I’ve kept current, re-installingeach newer version as it became available. Ieven considered joining the Mandrake Club.

As of this date, I am still playing. The rea-son is that there just doesn’t seem to beany source devoted entirely to real newbiesor beginners. I have a box entirely devotedto Mandriva, but my daily excursions havebeen with another box devoted toWindows 2000.

What little I know about computers andoperating systems has been gleaned fromthe Net itself and most important, a mag-azine known as PC Novice, which hasbecome PC Computing. I continue to sub-scribe after all these years.

The reason I am relating this is that Iwould love to give TUX a try as a hardcopy. Your offer of an on-line subscriptionis most generous, but I (and a multitudelike me who live in rural areas) havedeplorable phone service. My best con-nection has a download rate of 2.9 kbs.Yes, that’s right, two point nine.

Downloading anything takes forever. Mostof my updates and downloads take place atnight. I merely start the download and thengo to bed. If I am lucky, the phone connec-

tion won’t disconnect during the night andmy file will be available in the morning.

This is a roundabout way of saying that ifyou come out with a hard edition of TUX,I will gladly subscribe.--Owen Berio

SAMBA Basics Already CoveredHaving read TUX since issue 1, there’s onething that I’ve continued to fight with,and I wondered about the possibility ofan article explaining the basics of Samba.I’d have thought that Samba is the sort ofthing that new users might want to try.Plus, although there seems to be anabsolute deluge of info out there, somuch of it is given in a confusing andover-complicated way.

I would like an explanation on doing a basicnetwork of, say, one Linux system, oneWindows system and one printer. Surelythat’s the sort of setup you might expect tofind in an average new user’s home.

I know that I’d certainly benefit from suchan article, and I suspect that a number ofother readers would as well. Keep up thegood work.--John Davis

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Samba has already been covered in theAugust 2005 issue: “Dancing withWindows”.—Ed.

Praise for TUX and John KnightI would like to thank you for this wonderful magazine. I have been aGNU/Linux user for the past four years.I started using it at the age of 15. Iespecially love John Knight’s “TheWorld beyond KDE and GNOME” series[see the September, November andDecember 2005 issues for John Knight’sarticles on lightweight desktops]. I hope you review AfterStep. I am stillnot shifted over to Linux fully, because I can’t get my internal modem working.It’s a PCTEL HSP56 modem. I useUbuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger).Thank you for this wonderful magazine.--Vignesh

A Big Thank You for TUXI just wanted to write a note of encour-agement to the staff and supporters ofTUX magazine.

After recently receiving a threatening let-ter from SBT, our organization has beenseriously looking into open software. Weare migrating to OpenOffice.org and are

encouraging our employees to considerFirefox and Thunderbird—but we had nointention of moving away from Windows.Windows is so easy, and Linux is foradvanced computer users, right?

I was at the airport the other day, and Isaw a magazine about Linux. I picked itup and flipped through—it may as wellhave been written in Chinese. See?Linux is for serious computer headsonly. Then I ran across an ad for TUXmagazine: “The first and only magazinefor the new Linux user”. I looked youup the very next day and began readingfrom issue 1.

I got so excited. Linux was beginningto look absolutely doable. Not only is itmore cost effective, but it is also morepowerful and not so difficult to useafter all—if you have the right maga-zine to help you through the transition.I took your magazine and my enthusi-asm to our system administrator.

Today, I’m installing Linux for the first time. Ifall goes well (and I expect it to), our organi-zation may begin the move away fromMicrosoft some time in the near future.

A big thank you to our friends at SBT and

TUX magazine for showing us that wehave so many options.--Jeanne-Marie

Be sure to let us know how your installationwent, and I’m glad we could help.—Ed.

RE: Letters—A Love Affairwith Linspire and Breakupwith OpenOffice.orgAnother helpful hint to speed upOpenOffice.org startup, along with theQuickstarter, is as follows [see December2005 Letters]:

Start Writer and select Tools→Options. Fromthe first branch of options (OpenOffice.org)select Memory. Set the Graphics Cache Usefor OpenOffice.org to 32MB (default is9MB). Select OK. Closer Writer. Close theQuickstarter. Restart Writer, and you shouldnotice a quicker startup.

And now for an unrelated request for anarticle, could you please run somethingon podcatching tools? Under Windows, Ihave used ipodder lemon and FireAnt,much preferring FireAnt, but it is unfortu-nately not available for Linux.--David

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In Defense of Mango ParfaitHmmmm...does she need defending? Imust admit, reading some of her com-ments is a bit like watching thoseshows that people go on to tell hugeaudiences about the secrets their hus-bands/wives don’t know about—likenot being able to tear your eyes awayfrom a train crash, I just can’t not readit. Then, when I think, “I’d never writeto her”, I wonder if I would, just to seewhat she’d say to me.

I sometimes find her comments con-fronting (a polite way of saying somewhatrude), but others are very funny. My onlyconclusion is that if you want to read acool, clear, unemotive technical explana-tion, she’s not your girl.

If you want a clear, technical explanationwith chili and a very idiosyncratic presen-tation, then okay. Like Tigger without hisbounce (for those in the know), he’s justnot Tigger.

My only hope is that people, both newand not so new to Linux, will not be putoff, but rather will enjoy how shewrites—see it as adding some seriouscolour to their reading and gain lots ofuseful information in the bargain.

Overall, I’d say, “Keep it up, Mango.”I look forward to being confronted andentertained each month.--Patrick Elliott-Brennan

Possible Problem with Klikand FirefoxOkay, I’m biased. I once wrote to JesHall before she was famous, and I avidly read her articles. Unfortunately, I experienced a problem that I thinkothers should be aware of (though it isnot necessarily the case that everyonewill have the same problem).

I downloaded Firefox 1.5 using Klik [seeJes Hall’s article “Klik and Run” in theDecember 2005 issue]. Other apps haveworked well, but Firefox borked my desk-top install, and I had to uninstall and re-install it to get it back to working order.I’ve posted to Klik, and another posterhas asked for people to comment ifthey’ve have similar problems with thisparticular application.

In short, if it gives an error regarding“chrome”, do not select okay!

Please see http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22350.

That said, gcompris (for my children)works brilliantly.--Patrick Elliott-Brennan

Kudos for EvinceI skimmed over your review of Evince[see the November 2005 issue],referred to as Document Viewer inBreezy, and I was shocked to discoverthat although it doesn’t render yourfine magazine as well as Adobe’sReader, it does remember where I leftoff! I was so shocked to discover thisthat I had to double-check to makesure Adobe’s didn’t. This is just tooawesome! Big kudos to Martin and theguys for such a nice program.--Alan

Praise and ThanksI’ve just finished reading your newestTUX PDF. Great magazine. Very pol-ished and professional. Thank you forthe kind words about KDE throughoutthe magazine. With the recent 3.5release and all of the associated effort,I’m sure the developers enjoyed all ofthe coverage.--Wade Olson

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http://www.knoppix.net/

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22350


Re: A Brief Affair with Xandros,a Reader RespondsIn the December 2005 issue of TUX, areader asks for an alternative toTurboTax on Linux. I have been usingTaxACT for the past four years. I con-verted to Linux more than a year ago(before tax time last year), and I usedTaxACT last year even though I was onLinux. They have a Web version of theirservice that will allow you either to fileon-line or file a paper return (you evencan save a PDF version of your returnfor your records). I think the best thingabout TaxACT on-line is that you canstart your filing at home, add to it fromwork and even finish and file from adifferent location/computer.--Jason Dion

Re: A Brief Affair with Xandros,TurboTax on LinuxI’ve been reading your magazine sincethe first issue, and I think it is only get-ting better. TUX and Linux Format arethe only Linux magazines I have contin-ued to read on a regular basis. In theDecember 2005 issue, I notice you havea letter from a gentleman who saysthat he will happily divorce Microsoft ifhe can figure out a way to do his taxeson a Linux computer, and says that he

uses TurboTax for all of his taxes.Because you did not answer that objec-tion, I feel I should. Great news for all!If you visit http://www.turbotax.com,you will find that you can use TurboTaxon-line without downloading anything,regardless of the OS you use. I haveused it for the last three years and findit to work wonderfully. The only thingyou will miss out on is the ability toimport your tax information directlyfrom Quicken; however, if you useGnuCash you can export its files as .qiffiles. That might allow you to importthe information into TurboTax, but Ihave never tried it, so I can’t vouch forit working. Keep up the great work!--Bryan E. Parks

An Issue with Sony PSPCompatibilityFirst of all, let me say that I have been read-ing your magazine for about six monthsnow, and it’s great. It’s at least as good asLinux Format although not as in-depth.

I just wondered if you would considerdoing an article on problems using gadgetswith Linux, such as the Sony PSP. I amusing Debian Sarge, and although I canaccess files on the PSP memory stick via thePSP USB cable and write to it, the PSP does

not seem to recognise them as beingpresent. This is not the first time I have hadthis problem using Linux, and it is frustrat-ing as I long to rid myself of Windows onall my PCs. It’s these unexplained incompat-ibilities that often put new users off, andmaybe some publicity would stop themfrom happening in the future.--Reginald Norris

Do We Need a TUX Index?I have been reading TUX since the firstissue, and as a newcomer to Linux, I findit very interesting and informative.

However, I now have nine issues, andhopefully there are many more to come.Therein lies the problem. I am finding itincreasingly difficult to locate/look up arti-cles. I anticipate that this will become amajor headache as time goes by and thenumber of issues continues to increase.

Would it be possible to make availablean overall index that would encompassall issues already published? If thiscould be updated each month andmade available alongside the monthlyissue, I feel it would be a great help forback-referencing for us all.--N.McG.

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http://www.turbotax.com


I know someone that would reallyappreciate a fully indexed database ofTUX issues. Me! Please drop me a lineif you also think this would be useful [email protected].—Ed.

The Bane and Blessing of LinuxIn response to Bill Rowland’s questionin the December 2005 issue (“A BriefAffair with Xandros”): Bill asked howthe Linux community does taxes with-out something like TurboTax. You cando your federal and state taxes on-lineand efile at http://www.taxact.com.

I just started subscribing to your maga-zine and really enjoy it. I just want tocomment on the Linux distro wars. As afairly newbie, I think the multiplicity ofdistros is both the bane and the blessingof Linux.

On the one hand, almost everybodyshould be able to find a distro thatsuits their needs. I am currently usingKanotix because that was the only oneI could find at the time that would findall of the hardware I had in mymachine. So, if there had been onlyone flavor of Linux available, it wouldhave required me to customize andrecompile the kernel and do all

the tweaking necessary to support my hardware.

On the other hand, it makes it harderfor folks who are not gurus to collabo-rate. I might be somewhat familiar withwhere Kanotix (Debian) expects thingsto be, but I would have a hard timehelping a friend who is using somethingelse, like Red Hat. I’m just grateful forresources like you that can help me getup to speed.--Dave

Reading TUX Magazine on MyNokia 6680 SmartphoneLet me congratulate you for your finemagazine. I have learned a lot from it—thank you!

I travel a lot for my work, without a lap-top, so I would like to make use of myNokia 6680 Smartphone’s ability to dis-play PDF files to read your fine magazineon the road.

The problem is the Nokia is capable ofloading files up to 1MB in size, and it’slimited memory capacity prevents itfrom loading the whole file to memory.

I would like to be able to convert thefiles, somehow, so they will load a pageat a time and be optimized for 177x208pixel display. Can you help me?--Amichai Rotman

Love the TUX magazine!I have extremely sore wrists at present,and one diagnosis is that it is due to lotsof keyboard work. It has therefore beensuggested that I use some speech recog-nition software to help me. And, ofcourse, everyone starts making sugges-tions that are Windows-based.

But I use Linux; I want to use Linux; I loveusing Linux; I am more productive usingLinux. Well, at least I was more produc-tive. But if I am forced to adoptWindows-based voice-recognition soft-ware...well, I’d rather not go there! Couldyou please do me a great service, andreview some Linux speech recognitionsoftware?--P.

With a little research I have confirmedthat most speech recognition informationon the Web is a little outdated. This def-initely is an area that deserves attention.

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http://www.taxact.com



I believe that most of us could benefitfrom learning more about accessibilitytools for Linux. In fact, the unavailability ofaccessibility tools within OpenOffice.orghelped the opponents to object to theOpenDocument implementation withinthe State of Massachusetts.—Ed.

Mandrivia for Mobile WirelessEaseI’ve been an avid reader of your maga-zine since the second issue and alwayshave been impressed with the friendli-ness of your magazine to new users. Iwas very surprised to see your articleon ndiswrappers and wireless network-ing in the August 2005 issue of TUX. I read in fascination as you took usthrough each step of the process. Butfor laptop users, there is a much easierway. May I suggest Madrivia 2006 free edition?

Mandrivia claims to be the only Linuxdistro for laptops, and I have found itto be completely true. I’ve tried FedoraCore, SUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, Xandros,Linspire and a few others, but onlyMandrivia found all my hardware, con-figured it correctly and—here’s thegood part—ran ndiswrapper as part ofthe installation. I was blown away with

the ease of installing my BroadcomBCN94306 wireless card in Mandrivia. Isimply chose to use a Windows driverand browsed to where my .ini file wason my hard drive. Mandrivia took careof the rest and ran me through theconnection wizard.

I’ve been trying to find “my” Linux dis-tro for nearly a year now. I’ve finallyfound it with Mandrivia. It is easy toinstall, easy to set up, and it found allmy hardware with very little effort fromme. All I needed to know was the nameof my device and I was up and running.

I cannot recommend Mandrivia enoughfor laptop users who are having wirelessconnection problems. I can finally use myHP laptop the way it was meant to be—free and wireless.--J. Hudson

Vector Linux AppreciationIf people have an old machine and donot have the money to get a new one,they may want to give a try to a lightdistro. You also may like to review VectorLinux (http://www.vectorlinux.com). I installed it on my PC, and with lessthan 1GB, I now am able to hear all my

music and watch my DVDs and useOpenOffice.org. So, I encourage yougood people at TUX magazine to do a review.--Minor Morales A

Nokia 770Now that the Nokia 770, an almost main-stream Linux product, has been launched,perhaps you could do a short (or longer)review on it. It certainly seems to havehuge potential to open up completelynew markets. It has changed my Webbrowsing habits considerably. It is certain-ly not without its flaws, which is exactlywhy it would make an interesting topicfor you to cover. See where it’s good andwhere it’s lacking. What works as adver-tised and what doesn’t.--Urho Konttori

I’m pretty excited about the Nokia 770too, so look forward to a review in theMarch 2006 issue.—Ed.�

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Please send Letters to the Editor to [email protected]

http://www.vectorlinux.com



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We received a lot of great responses toNicholas Petreley’s question to readers in his“What Will You Pay For?” column in theDecember 2005 issue of TUX. I decided thatthe responses deserved recognition, so we areincluding as many of them as possible. Oftenthe explanations behind the responses werelengthy and off-topic, so we’ve trimmed theresponses down to the key points.

As you might expect, the responses repre-sent a good cross section of opinions and prod-ucts. Some of the responses were popular andpreviously addressed in the Letters section ofTUX. In summary, it was very common that peo-ple would pay for:

� Linux distributions.

� Linux-specific games.

� Utilities that help Linux run applications orgames built for Microsoft Windows, suchas CrossOver Office, VMware and Cedega.

� Special-purpose applications, such as com-

puter-aided design, genealogy, opticalcharacter recognition or tax completion.

A few responses indicated that theywould pay for office productivity software,such as EIOffice or TextMaker, but in general,most are content to use existing “free” officeproductivity software.

Although many responders indicated thatthey would not buy software, they have orwould consider donating to projects. As Ihave urged in my From the Editor column inthis issue, I hope more people using free andopen-source software will donate to proj-ects. My gut tells me that far more peoplesay they will donate than actually do. Iknow, because I’m embarrassed to confess, Idonate less frequently than I should. On theother hand, sometimes we overvalue mone-tary donations and undervalue donations oftime, support and effort. I’m also guilty ofthis. Since discovering free and open-sourcesoftware, I’ve donated a lot of time writing,speaking and promoting free and open-source software. For me, the question I haveto answer is “Have I donated enough toensure that the projects or companies thatcreate the software I use, and the ecosystemthat sustains them, survive and able to con-tinue to do what they do?”

Without further delay, I would like to sharesome of the answers to the questions: “Wouldyou actually pay for superior Linux softwareeven if an equivalent ’good enough’ programwas available for free? If so, what would youput on your list of software products that youare willing to buy?”

TThhee $$6644 QQuueessttiioonnIn the December 2005 issue, TUX asked readersto respond to important questions on the Linuxdesktop. This special section compiles theresponses and ponders the potential cost andvalue of Linux software.

KEVIN SHOCKEY

Would I pay? Man, that is a tough question.Being so accustomed to getting everything Ineed for free, plus being so stable, I just don’tknow. If the software is far superior, runs onLinux and costs $$$, I would definitely consid-er it over using a Windows platform/applica-tion. What is my final answer you ask? YES, Iwould.—Matt

I personally keep my windoze partitionintact on the off chance that I want to runKOTOR 2 or Guild Wars, but I spend about99% of my time in Debian (I know, it’sweird to run Debian as a desktop, but Ilove the power).

I would pay money for native versionsof games for Linux. I would perhaps paymore for Linux-only versions of games—$20 for a port and $45 for an exclusivewould be about right.—Aaron Duty

I too wanted my Linux OS for free. When Isaw a couple of months ago that Linspirewas giving away copies of its Five-O desk-top, I signed up and got a copy, and plannedon reconfiguring it to use apt-get (instead ofthe pay-for service Click & Run). Instead, Iwas so impressed with the ease of use ofLinspire that I did something I never thoughtI’d do: I paid for Linux. Yes, I have actuallycoughed up $35 over the past two monthsand gotten the CNR Gold subscriptionplan.—Kris


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Yes, to paying for a distro. I routinely buy each release of SUSE and would continueto do so (either SUSE or some other distro) provided the price point is in the$50–$100 range and the media includes a paper manual.

Yes, to paying for quality Linux applications. I am more than willing to pay for aLinux application provided it meets my specific needs, isn’t already available freeelsewhere and is of comparable quality to commercial software for the Win platform.Some examples would be a TurboTax for Linux, a CAD program able to handle auto-cad files and a 100% feature-compatible Excel.—Scott Leighton

Up until this point, I hadn’t paid forany software that I had, and most of itwas pirated. My life was changed whenI started using Red Hat Linux 6.2. Ifound Linux to be an amazing operat-ing system and have since moved myserver(s) and workstation(s) to Linux,and have removed all traces ofWindows. All my software is now eitherGNU GPL, open source or free (in cost).One thing has changed, however; I nowdonate to any project that I use andfind worthwhile. I am actually “paying”out a lot more money than I wasbefore, but because I want to, notbecause I’m forced!

In short, I would pay for non-freesoftware, but it would clearly have tobe a fair bit better. I would probablysooner donate $100 to a project suchas QEmu (a GPL PC emulator) than buyVMware. I am not against peoplecharging, but I guess I’m more inclinedto encourage truly free (as in speech)software.—Todd

I have already paid for SUSE 6.0, 7.1 and9.1. I purchased 9.1 after downloading9.0. I loved SUSE 9. Every piece of hard-ware I had at the time worked perfectly,and I was so impressed that I went outand bought the PRO version of 9.1. Thisunfortunately was a mistake. They nolonger supported my Intel 815 video chipfor installs, and suddenly I have thisblocky problem while in KDE (parts ofthe window are not fully drawn, and itlooks horrid), which interestingly enoughdoesn’t show up under GNOME.

I would pay for shared libraries thatprovide non-Linux functionality, such asa legal version of libdvdcss, a similarlibrary to access iTunes and a bundle ofcodec libraries so I can view WMA andQuicktime files. I don’t want full-blownprograms. There are enough applicationsfor Linux, and we don’t need the bloat-ware crap that others add. I just wantthe low-level interfaces to work withTotem/MPlayer/XMMS/Rhythmbox.—Alan

Your question is one of those“wrong” questions. As soon as software/information has a price,its value is greatly diminished.No, I have not misunderstood theterms. You see, if it is free, I can hand it on freely. I can contribute toit, knowing my small contributionwill be free to all others. I know that all small contributions of otherswill result in vast benefits to me.As soon as so much as a peppercornis charged for information its valueis greatly diminished.

So what will I pay for? I won’t.Not a single cent—as a matter ofprinciple. However, I have a growingrealization of the value of this freeinformation. It is of great value to me and great value in creating the sort of society I wish to live in.If I go to the shopping mall andspend money, I’m pushing a largishlever that says “More ShoppingMalls”. And lo and behold, anotherdirty great shopping mall blights the landscape.

So now I’m going around lookingfor a levers that say things like“More Libraries. More Free Software.More Free Ezines. More CreativeCommons Content”. And I want topush on these levers.—John Carter


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I would flat out be willing to pay for Cedega for Linux. I’m sure I could get Wine todo what Cedega does, but that will involve work defeating the whole purpose of thefun. I’m just a student with a low-end laptop, so it wouldn’t matter till I get a job. Myonly issue is getting game developers to care. A few games isn’t nearly enough. Asidefrom id and Epic Games, I can’t think of any major developers that put out games forLinux. And will having a software package like Cedega discourage developers fromdeveloping Linux-native engines, if they see that Linux people are getting it to workin another way? I’m currently a content Ubuntu user, but honestly native Linux gamesupport is practically non-existent. What can we do turn this around?—Christopher

I’ve seen letters from people who arelooking for alternatives to Quicken.Quicken was the only program Ineeded from the MS world. At first I(bought) and used VMware just so Icould use Quicken. It worked well,but I cringed every time I had tobring up XP just to run one program.Then I discovered CrossOver Officev5.0. Now I can have my Quicken anddump the MS virus for good. Wellworth the $39.95.—Steven Ahlstrom

I operate a rudimentary home-officenetwork. Being self employed, any timeI spend on sysadmin-type activitiestakes me away from paying work. I willpay $500 for a Linux system in which Ido not have to configure a single pieceof hardware and which will remain cur-rent for two to three years. At the rate Ibill my time, if I spend more than acouple of hours installing and configur-ing a system, it starts looking realexpensive.—Andy Carter

I will surely buy CrossOver Office or VMware. And that’s just for running an electronic simulation program for which I can not find a replacement. So, I have to go tomy university to run it.

But here in Argentina, there’s one big factor that would preventme from doing it: one dollar is threeof our Pesos, which roughly meansthat my pocket well feel a $60 USorder as an $180 US one. And theeffort to get 1 dollar is equal to getting 1 Peso (let’s say we are even in that).

You may think this is a wonderfulscenario for promoting FOS, but ithappens to be quite the contrary.The situation has caused only onething, pirating. And that’s a more difficult thing to eradicate. A copy of Linux has the same value (if not more) than a copy of any proprietary software. “Why switch to Linux if I can get all the software I want for almost nothing” is one of the most common phrases you will hear when attempting to show FOS’svirtues.—Lisandro

First off, being a student, I can hardly afford to buy software, and as such, open/limit-ed-version distros suit me best (I use openSUSE 10). As soon as I start earning adecent salary, however, I will most definitely hit the donate buttons of several of theprograms that I use day to day to show my support. But, unless there’s proof beyonddoubt that the software I’m buying will give me 101% of all the features advertised,with minimal tweaking on my part, I will not buy it and rather I’ll stick to the “goodenough” versions.—George


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In conclusion, depending upon your culture, your politics, your econ-omy or your beliefs, the concept of paying for something that is“free” can be one of the most confusing and divisive issues associat-ed with free and open-source software. For some, this isn’t even anissue, and the logic behind their positions is extremely clear—tothem. It is challenging not to monetize things when most of us livein societies that are driven by money. For me, the root of this confu-sion appears to be due to our tendency to attribute a cost and placea value on everything. This situation is complicated further when we

over-dramatize the “success” of the software industry as we knowit. As one of the replies stated, maybe these are the wrong ques-tions to be asking in the first place. What is most important to meis that we do whatever it takes for us to continue to have choiceswhen it comes to the software we run on our computers. If thatsolution entails buying, let me get my credit card and start shop-ping. If the solution requires donating, I’ll continue to give mymoney, time and creativity to ensure we still have a choice.�


I would pay for Tax Software that runsnatively on Linux!—Howard

TextMaker word processor (http://www.softmaker.de)—$49 regular price. It beats thepants off OpenOffice.org in speed and produces acceptable output in M$ Word format.

Mandriva Linux 2006, seven-CD set from Linux Central (http://www.linuxcentral.com)—about $20 including shipping. Includes the NVIDIA video drivers I need, which (I think)aren’t included in the Mandriva download edition.—David McClamrock

Using the recommendation of my nephew, who took sympathy on me, I purchased SUSE ProVersion 8.2. I later purchased the standard version of 9.0 and 9.2. After using those for awhile, and staying confused most of the time because of lack of support and money spentwith little return, I turned to Fedora (at that time FC3). I learned a lot through groups, andwhat I perceive is greater consistency in operations. I am now using FC4.

Although the majority of my software is downloaded, I have purchased Win4Lin, and I didbuy Xandros 3.0. I’m still with FC4. I try to purchase software when possible, because Ibelieve the developers should be rewarded.

As I said, I do believe software should be purchased, and I appreciate the free concept toallow me to use and try and make decisions. This is superior to the Shareware of Windowsand what I term advertiseware of Windows.—Harry DeLong

I’d pay for Ubuntu (or maybe Kubuntu) withsupport. For some reason, I like them bet-ter than others I’ve tried. I guess I’m odd,because I seem to relate to GNOME betterthan KDE—I’ve found it easier to config-ure. I’d pay for support because I’m in needof some installing-and-getting-it-running-right help. I’m shy about asking, once more,for help in the forums, even though I findhints in the archives quite often.

I’d pay for a good CAD system,something like CADKEY, that is, if myconsulting required it.

I’d pay for Ancestor Quest genealogysoftware. I find GRAMPS sourcing awk-ward. If LDS would port PAF 5 to Linux,they’d have a big-time winner.—Dave

I would pay for good games for Linux. My only reason for keeping Windows around isfor games such as Diablo2, Doom3, Microsoft Flight Sim (I also run Xplane, which doesexist for Linux) and the Rollercoaster Tycoon series.

I currently run Xplane and America’s Army only on Windows, as that is set up forgames. I plan on building another system next year as a dedicated Linux box (currently, Idual-boot) and at that point I will seriously consider purchasing a license for Xplane forLinux and well as running the Linux version of America’s Army.—John Bucsek

If there were a really good optical character recognition (OCR) program forLinux in the $100 price range, I wouldprobably buy it.—David McClamrock

http://www.softmaker.de

http://www.linuxcentral.com


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Hello, it is me again. I hope you had great holidays. I hadgreat holidays. I got almost everything I wanted forChristmas. I am still waiting for someone to buy me one ofthe Virgin islands. My friend Bunny says she does not want aVirgin island unless it has armadillos. Do the Virgin islandshave armadillos on them? I do not know. I hear they havelittle bugs I do not know how to spell. They are called some-thing like no-see-ums because you do not see them but theybite you. If this is true, maybe I should ask for a Pacificisland instead of a Virgin island. I do not know if I want toown an island with invisible bugs that bite.

I make many New Year’s resolutions for 2006. My firstresolution is to be more humble. I am going to be so humbleeveryone will be very impressed by how humble I am. Peoplewill walk by and say, “Look at Mango. She is such a genius, sobeautiful and yet this has not made her head big. She is themost humble, beautiful genius I know.” Bunny says I should beproud of myself if I can live up to this resolution. Why doesshe say “if”? Of course I can do this resolution. I am good ateverything I do. You wait and see. I will be the best humbleperson who ever lived.

I enjoyed your questions. Keep sending me more goodquestions like these.

Q I have tried several Linux distros, but I think I havefound my home with Ubuntu.

There is just one thing I am disappointed with when usingUbuntu. I am not able to get permission to write to my floppymedia, which has root permission. I can get permission for/dev, but not for /fd0. I have posted on three different forums,and the only replies I received were people that were havingthe same problems as myself. I am wondering what all thesecrecy of writing to a floppy in Ubuntu is about? Can writingto a floppy media in Ubuntu be done?—Sarah

A Hi Sarah. I like your name. One of my best friends isnamed Sarah. She tried to steal my boyfriend Otaku from

me, but she couldn’t make him like her more than me. I forgiveher. She’s still one of my best friends.

I cannot write to the floppy in Ubuntu Breezy Badger either ifI use GNOME Nautilus. I cannot even make Nautilus mount thefloppy drive. Here is something crazy. Nautilus says that the flop-py device /dev/fd0 belongs to the root user and root group. Thisis not true. If you know how to look at the owner of the device/dev/fd0, you will see that it belongs to the root user and agroup called floppy. GNOME people tell me the GNOME philos-ophy is to make a desktop that “just works”. Maybe they needto change the motto to “it just barely works”, because it doesnot work with the floppy drive in Ubuntu 5.10.

At first I look for the problem. Then I give up. I ask Otaku

Replace the tubes in your floppy-based computers, fix up Mepis and repair your (cough) innocent Usenet downloads.MANGO PARFAIT

Q&A with Mango Parfait


what he thinks. He says if you are still using a floppy drive, thenmaybe you need to replace one of the vacuum tubes in yourcomputer. I do not understand this answer, so I go back andlook for another answer.

Like I say before, the /dev/fd0 device belongs to thegroup called floppy. Ubuntu automatically sets users tobelong to the floppy group. This means you should havepermission to write to the floppy. If the device belongs tothe floppy group and the user belongs to the floppy group,you should be able to mount the floppy and write to thefloppy. I do not understand why this does not work, but Iguess that it has something to do with the logical volumemanager.

So I find a way around the problem. I will tell you the answerin a minute. First let me tell you some interesting things I findwhen I search for the problem. When I install KDE on UbuntuBreezy Badger, KDE can mount the floppy. But it will not showyou the files in Konqueror. Konqueror just spins the loading iconand never shows you the files. But I check and the floppy ismounted.

So I try Kubuntu Breezy Badger. Kubuntu Breezy Badger doesnot have any problems mounting or reading the floppy withKDE! I do not understand this. I thought Kubuntu Breezy Badgerwas the same as Ubuntu Breezy Badger with KDE. So why doesthe floppy work in KDE on Kubuntu but not in KDE on Ubuntu?I do not know. Now here is something even more crazy. If youfollow the directions on the KDE Web site to upgrade KubuntuBreezy Badger to use KDE 3.5, you get the same problem youget with Ubuntu and KDE 3.4. You can mount the floppy, butKonqueror will not show you the files.

Are you confused? So am I.So here is how you can get around the problem. The answer

is the same whether you use KDE or GNOME. Press Alt-F2. Thislets you type in a command. Type the command:

mount /media/floppy0

This should mount your floppy. Now, use Nautilus orKonqueror to go to the folder /media/floppy0. If you have fileson the floppy drive, you should see them in the Nautilus orKonqueror window. You can drag and drop files to write files tothe floppy if the floppy is not write-protected.

Make sure to press Alt-F2 again and type this after you aredone:

umount /media/floppy0

You should not lose any data you write to the floppy if youdo this.

This should work for you. If it does not work, check the file/etc/fstab. I think you are using GNOME, because you are usingUbuntu. Open a terminal window and type this command:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Enter your password if it asks for one. Make sure you havethis line somewhere in the file:

/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

Make sure you have the directory /media/floppy0 on your sys-tem too. You can make this directory yourself if it is not there.Stay in your terminal window and type this command:

sudo mkdir /media/floppy0

You should not have to edit your /etc/fstab file, and youshould not have to make the directory /media/floppy0. But I giveyou this information just in case.

Here is my last advice. Keep your Ubuntu system up to date.Sooner or later someone who works on Ubuntu should fix thisproblem and you will not have to work around it anymore.

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Q Dear Mango, 1) When logging in (init 5) under Simply Mepis (kernel:2.6.7/2.4.2x) I get an X server with 1024x768 pixels and a resolution

of 100x100 dpi. On opening a second X session (console Alt-F2, GUI Alt-F8)I get an X server with 1024x768 pixels and a resolution of 75x75 dpi. Thislooks much nicer on my Laptop TFT screen. Why is this happening (the dif-ference in resolution), and how can I set the desired resolution myself?

2) Simply Mepis uses KMail or Mozilla Mail and Mozilla as browser. Idownloaded and installed Thunderbird and Firefox (also jre). Although onething I can’t avoid is when I open a URL in Thunderbird, I automatically getthe Mozilla browser to open, and of course I would like to have Firefoxopen instead. How do I go about that?

3) I am very pleased with Linux. My scanner, USB keys, digital camera(USB mass storage), USB-multicard reader, external DVD-burner as well asmy wireless network (Linksys WPA54G + WPC54G with Broadcom chipset)are all performing without any problem. What pleases me most of all isthat I nearly can drop MS Windows, if it were not for my USB-ConceptronicMovieBox, which is an external 40GB HDD with incorporated multicardreader. This is, until now, the only device that I can’t seem to get workingunder Linux, though it is also a USB-mass storage device, which shouldappear somewhere as a /dev/sd. If you could help me with this, MSWindows is history forever.

Many thanks in advance, and keep up the good work.—Anonymous

A I do not do good work. I do perfect work. Even when I am wrong, Iam wrong perfectly. That does not happen often. I think I was per-

fectly wrong maybe once in June of 1999, but maybe I am wrong aboutthat. But if I am wrong about that, I am perfectly right that I was perfect-ly wrong about that date.

1) I do not know why you get a different dpi setting when you open a sec-ond X session. I do know how to change the default dpi setting. That shouldfix your problem. Click on the K menu and select Mepis Config (OS Center) tostart the Mepis OS Control Center. Select Mouse and Display in the list on yourleft. You should see what you see in Figure 1.

Select one of the settings, Larger, Medium or Smaller. These settingschange the dpi parameter that the KDE login manager uses when it starts

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Figure 2. The KDE Component Chooser

Figure 1. Mepis OS Control Center


the X server. If you are geeky, maybe you would like to knowthat the file it changes is /etc/kde3/kdm/Xstartup.

If it is set on Medium now, try setting it to Smaller. Click Apply.Now you must log out and log in again. I think you will like thatsetting best. If you do not, then try the other settings. I thinkmaybe Mepis looks at the display resolution before it changes thedpi settings. This is how it works for me. Larger sets dpi to 120.Medium sets dpi to 100. Smaller sets dpi to 75.

2) Maybe you use a different version of Mepis than me.When I click on a URL in mail, it opens Konqueror not Mozilla.My Mepis does not even install Mozilla. I must install it myself.You cannot install Thunderbird from Mepis. You have to get itfrom a Debian repository. I think maybe you installed manythings differently than me. I have Mozilla, Thunderbird andFirefox. When I click on a URL in Thunderbird it opens Firefox.

I think I can answer your questions, even if your Mepis is differ-ent from my Mepis.

Here is how to make Thunderbird open Firefox. You mustopen a terminal and log in as the root user. Edit the file/etc/mozilla-thunderbird/global-config.js. Be sure that you havethese two lines in this file:

pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http","mozilla-firefox");

pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https","mozilla-firefox");

If your Mepis starts Firefox with the command firefoxinstead of mozilla-firefox, then you want to change theselines to say firefox instead of mozilla-firefox.

If you have these two lines below, instead of the ones above,that is the reason Thunderbird is opening Mozilla. Your Mepisprobably defines the x-www-browser as Mozilla. You can

change this setting in the /etc/alternatives directory, but I like myway better (the one above):

pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http","x-www-browser");

pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https","x-www-browser");

Here is how to make KMail open a URL with your favorite Webbrowser. Click on the K menu and select Control Center to open theKDE Control Center. Then click on KDE Components→ComponentChooser. What you see looks like Figure 2. Click on Web Browser,and then type the full path to your favorite Web browser. I use aspecial version of Firefox, so mine says /usr/bin/firefox. You probablywill have to enter /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox instead. Click Apply, andthen close the Control Center. When you click on a URL in KMail, itshould open the URL with Firefox or whatever browser you picked.

3) I do not know what this is, the USB-ConceptronicMovieBox. If you want me to tell you how to make it work, tellthe company to send me one, and I will make it work withLinux. Then I will tell you how to do it.

Q I was wondering, how do you find the MIME types forother file types? I was thinking about adding a right-click

to use par2repair for a par2 file, but I am stuck on figuring outthe right MIME type.—Nicholas Maliwacki

A What are par2 files? Are they not attachment parts of big-ger files you download from Usenet? Are you downloading

porn movies from the Usenet? Maybe I should not help you dothis. Otaku wants to know why I am laughing. I do not worry.You will not find any porn movies of me on the Usenet. I amsmarter than Paris Hilton or Pamela Anderson. And prettier too.

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I will think that whatever youare doing is innocent. But I willtell your wife to give you asmack anyway.

You do not really need tomake a right-click action if youwant to define a new par2 filetype. Here is how to do that.On some systems, you will clickthe K menu then Settings→KDE Components→FileAssociations. On other sys-tems, you will open the KDEControl Panel and choose KDE

Components and then File Associations from the list on theleft. You will see a window like the one shown in Figure 3.

Click the Add button. Select the group multipart, and typepar2 in the edit field (see Figure 4). Click Ok.

Now you will see a window like the one in Figure 5, except itwill be empty. You need to fill in the information like I did. Itshould be easy for you to figure out how to do this.

Now when you click on a file that has the extension .par2 itwill automatically run par2repair.�

I am a sweet, humble, delicate and very cute genius who is at your service toanswer your Linux questions. Send your questions to [email protected] am deeply sorry that I do not have time to respond to anyone directly by e-mail, but I will select as many questions as I can and answer them here.

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Figure 3. KDE File Associations

Figure 4. Creating the par2 Type

Figure 5. Filled in par2 Definition



http://www.itworldexpo.ca

For the home musician, the new kid on the blockis Hydrogen, an open-source drum machine thatcaters to the genuine drummer. Escaping the con-fines of ordinary sequencer-designed software likeFruity Loops, Hydrogen is advanced yet moreintuitive for creating standalone drum passages.Available for Linux, Windows and Mac, and com-bined with programs like Audacity, Hydrogenshould be the latest piece in the newly developingarsenal of home musicians.

INSTALLATIONInstallation is a breeze. Simply download the bina-ry package at http://www.hydrogen-music.org/?p=download, and click on it. Installation starts andfinishes in a few short seconds, with the only otherstep being a prompt for you to press Enter. A newicon is made on the desktop, and if it’s not there,simply look under <your-home>/hydrogen-<version#>/bin/, and click on the file hydrogen-<version #>.

LOOKING AROUNDWhen Hydrogen first starts, you probably will see fourthings on screen: the main toolbar at the bottom, theSong Editor, the Pattern Editor and the Mixer.

THE MAIN TOOLBARStarting on the left of the main toolbar is a count-er showing how long your pattern has been play-ing. Second on the toolbar are the playback con-

HHyyddrrooggeenn——TThheeHHoommee MMuussiicciiaann’’ssFFrreeee DDrruummMMaacchhiinnee,, PPaarrtt III don’t want to work, I just want to bang on mydrum all day. In this first installment of two parts,John Knight covers installation, basic usage, exploringgeneral functions and making a basic song.

JOHN KNIGHT


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Figure 1. Default Screen

http://www.hydrogen-music.org/?p=download


trols, with play/pause and stop, all doing the obvi-ous. However, the fast-forward and rewind but-tons jump forward and backward one bar/pattern.The last button turns looping on and off.

Next on the toolbar is the mode switch, whichchanges between Pattern and Song. Pattern modeplays only the current pattern you’re working on,whereas song mode plays through an entiresequence of patterns later defined in the Song Editor.Next in line is the BPM setting; click up or down todecide how many beats per minute the song shouldhave. The bottom button is for toggling ametronome, which plays a click on each major beat.

The last section is more advanced and won’tbe much use to beginners. The bar marked CPUshows how much strain is being put on the CPU,the Midi-in button allows you to see midi events(too advanced for this article) and Jack Trans.allows Hydrogen to be used by an external pro-gram, provided a library called JACK is installed.

PATTERN EDITORAt the top of the Pattern Editor are options forconfiguring the pattern’s behavior. First on the leftis the pattern’s number, starting at 0. It is assignedto the current pattern for use later on in the SongEditor. Next is the pattern’s name, and then sizeand resolution. Size determines how many beatslong the pattern will be, and curiously, it’s dividedinto half beats. For normal 4/4 time, choose 8; for3/4 time, choose 6 and so on.

Resolution is the best part about Hydrogen; itallows you to divide each beat into more or less notesat one time. Normally, it will be set to 8 (indicatingeighth notes in drumming terminology), which is thestandard division for a basic rock bar. If, perhaps, youwant to put in an Audioslave-style drum-fill at theend of a bar (tah-kah-tah-kah!), this will require agreater resolution of 16, or sixteenth notes.

For rapid-buzzing military-style snare drumming,or blisteringly fast heavy-metal-style double-kickdrumming, choose thirty-second notes (32). Lookingfurther down the resolution list, you will see thesenumbers again, but with a T. This indicates triplettiming, which is a more advanced timing divisioncommonly found in music like jazz and waltz.

Last on the bar is a section with three buttons.The first toggles the ability to hear notes as youadd them. The center button grabs notes if you’replaying on the fly via the keyboard, or a midi-key-board (see next issue’s article for more informa-tion). The last button, labeled Q, automaticallyplaces newly added keyboard notes in line withthe grid, which keeps things perfectly in time.

If you right-click on the instrument names on theleft, a menu comes up with a choice of Mute, Lock,Solo, Clear Notes, Fill Notes and Randomize velocity.Mute obviously mutes an instrument, and Solo runsit by itself. Lock holds the current instrument’s lineof notes and keeps it there, allowing you to importanother drum kit without touching that instrumentor its notes. Clear Notes and Fill Notes lets youeither fill or clear the line in one swoop, which cansave a lot of clicking. Randomize velocity gives asmall variance between how hard each note is “hit”on this line, providing a more dynamic feel.

SONG EDITORThe Song Editor is where composition reallycomes into play. The list on the left contains all ofthe patterns you make in the Pattern Editor, thefield of squares on the right is a group of checkboxes that determine the sequence in which eachpattern will be played.

As for the buttons at the top, the Clear buttonempties out the boxes on the right, letting youstart again. The plus sign creates a new pattern,and the following up and down arrows let you

shift patterns up or down on the list if you areuncomfortable with where they sit. The next twobuttons are Select Mode and Draw Mode. The firstallows you to click and drag boxes around the fieldto move them into different places. If you click anddrag a box, you can select several at once (holdingright-click also does the same thing). The DrawMode (default) simply lets you click on eachsquare, which is where sequencing begins.

Right-clicking on the list of patterns allows youto Edit, Copy, Delete, Fill/Clear or view theProperties (which only renames the pattern fornow). Choosing Edit brings up the Pattern Editor.Copy lets you take the pattern you’ve just madeand add something like a drum-fill, while keepingthe original pattern separate and intact. Deletewipes the pattern off the list, and I haven’t seen anundo anywhere, so be careful! Fill/Clear allows youeither to fill or clear a number of boxes in one go,starting from one number and ending on another,which can be handy for monotonous jobs whereyou may otherwise need to click many boxes.

MIXERWith the mixer, you can control not only the overallsound, but individual instruments as well. The firstthing you’ll notice are the vertical sliders; these letyou control the peak volume of each instrument.The Master control on the right controls the globalvolume, and above each instrument are controls forplaying each instrument solo, muting it, playing apreview sound or shifting its balance left or right. Tothe right of the Master control are the Humanizecontrols. Drum machines have a bland feeling tothem, due to all the timing being perfect;Hydrogen’s Humanizing option adds a little swingwith some random accents or slight imperfectionsto make the sound more interesting.

Above the Master control is the option to mute

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all sound, and below that you can disable/enable thepeak cut-off range for the volume. The FX buttonallows you to add further effects on the sound if youdownload extra (LADSPA) sound plugins (see nextissue’s article). If you double-click on the name of aninstrument, an extra Instrument editor appears,which lets you change the acoustics of each instru-ment and add extra sound layers too. Above eachinstrument’s slider are four knobs, which are used inconjunction with the previously mentioned plugins.

MAKING MUSICNow that you have all that introductory informa-tion, it’s time to have some fun and put it to use.First, we’ll create a basic rock beat, and revisitsome of the previous information in the meantime.

1. Open the Pattern Editor, and if it looks blank,scroll to the bottom. Make sure the size andresolution are both set to 8, and look for theline called Closed HH.

2. Click on the vertical lines for 1, 2, 3 and 4, andthe halfway lines after. (If you’re running in alower resolution, you may have to use the scroll-bar on the bottom to move right along the page,otherwise some of 4’s beats may be off-screen).In drumming, this is counted as 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +,or one and two and three and four and..., witheach + being a minor note after each major note.Click on the play button in the main toolbar, andyou’ll hear a steady pattern from the hi-hats.

3. On the Kick line, click on beats 1 and 3. Thebeat will become more interesting.

4. On the Snare Rock line, click beats 2 and 4.

You now have a basic rock beat, but after a

few runs, it’s boring, isn’t it? First, we’ll spice upthe beat a touch, and then we’ll get Hydrogen toadd a large crash note on the first bar, plus anAudioslave-style drum-fill on the fourth, using acombination of the Pattern Editor, the Song Editorand changing the resolution.

First, we’ll dress up the beat. For a very popularbeat, simply add another kick note on the + noteafter 3. Play it back, and you can see what a dif-ference a note or two can make. Now let’s turn itinto a full passage:

1. Bring up the Song Editor, and right-click on Pattern1, click on Properties and rename it to Main Beat.

2. Right-click on Main Beat, choose Copy, and inthe new prompt window, call it Crash Bar.

3. Repeat these steps and make another calledDrum-Fill.

4. Move Crash Bar above Main Beat and Drum-Fill

below, using the move up/down buttons in thetop of the window to make these patterns easierto access (Figure 2).

What we have just done is copy the originalpattern, so that we can alter it for Crash Bar andDrum-Fill. Now to make the new bars:

1. Double-click on Crash Bar to bring up thePattern Editor.

2. Once in the editing screen, click the Crash noteon beat number 1.

3. Change to the Drum-Fill pattern (either click uptwice on the Pattern number or double-clickDrum-Fill in the Song Editor).

4. Remove the hi-hat notes from the two beats 4 +.

5. Change the resolution from 8 to 16 (whichallows a quick succession of notes).

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Figure 2. Note the shifted pattern lines.


6. On the Snare Rock line, turn on beat 4and the next three notes (these fournotes are usually referred to as 4e+a, orfoureeyander).

Now that we have the music out of the way, it’s time to bring the threepatterns together:

1. Change back to the Song Editor, andmake sure you scroll all the way up.

2. Check box 1 next to Crash Bar, 2 and 3next to Main Beat, and 4 on the linefor Drum-Fill (Figure 6).

This will have created a basic rockstructured drum passage. To hear the wholeresult, change the play mode from Patternto Song on the main toolbar, and clickPlay. If you want to save this as a file any-one can play, simply choose File→Exportsong, and follow the prompts, where it willbe saved in .wav format.

TAKING THINGS FURTHERMusically, there’s a lot more places youcan take your drum patterns, and there’sno reason why you can’t compose anentire musical piece, using many differentpatterns and putting them all in place viathe Song Editor. Try playing around withhow many bars make a passage, differenttempos, time signatures, snare or kickplacements—the possibilities are endlessand are up to your imagination. Nextmonth, we will look at advanced usage,tips and tricks, audio effects, making yourown kit and more.�

John Knight is a 21-year-old, rock-climbing,Japan-loving megaloma-niac, trying to take overthe world from his bed-room via his keyboard.He spends most of histime tinkering with

MPlayer and headbanging to his MP3s.

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Figures 3, 4 and 5. The Different Note Placements for Each Pattern

Figure 6. The Pattern Order for the New Song


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OpenOffice.org is the free, open-source office suite that runs onWindows, Linux, Mac, Solaris and a host of other OSes like FreeBSD andOS/2. It’s Microsoft Office-compatible, and it includes programs for textediting, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, creating or connecting todatabases, and forms and reports. It’s got native PDF creation so youdon’t need Distiller or another program to make a document fromOpenOffice.org that everyone can read.

It’s a pretty dandy program.I think the only thing you can do with Microsoft Office that you can’t do

with OpenOffice.org is create huge, bloated, easily corrupted text files.(Sorry—was that out loud?)

The much-anticipated OpenOffice.org 2.0 came out in October 2005.One of the most significant improvements, along with the addition ofthe database module, was the revamping of Impress, the presentationprogram. This article explains how really, really good the new version is,and also covers how to use updated features like the slide transitions,custom animation and the Slide Sorter view. I also include a short walk-through on how to create a presentation from scratch, for anyone who’snew to the program with this version.

THE CHANGES IN IMPRESS 2.0To grok the improvements and jump into this quickly, let’s take a look at theold Impress, circa version 1.1.2 (Figure 1).

The navigation between slides was buried in tiny tabs at the bottom;access to different views, such as handouts view, was buried in evensmaller icons on the right. Choosing a master page required knowing

OOppeennOOffffiiccee..oorrgg IImmpprreessss 22..00:: tthhee CCoonnffuussiinngg DDuucckklliinngg BBeeccoommeess aa UUsseerr--FFrriieennddllyy SSwwaannAlthough it won’t help improve the quality of your presentation slides (at least not yet), the newimproved version of OpenOffice.org Impress makes it simple to create advanced presentations.

SOLVEIG HAUGLAND


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Figure 1. OpenOffice.org Impress Version 1.1.2.


that it was called a slide design (not to be confused with slide layout),as well as performing one of the complex navigations to get to the slidedesign selection window.

Now, take a look at Impress 2.0 (Figure 2).Everything is sitting there, staring us in the face. There’s easy access to

each slide in the left-hand pane with really big thumbnails of the slides,easy access to configuration options like slide layouts and effects in theright-hand pane with clearly labeled titles, and across the top, there’s

easy access to different views of the presentation.Some programmers might have merely tried to rework the old design.

But, this new version looks like a total rewrite, and it came out beautifully.It’s easy to figure out, easy to use, and I haven’t found more than a fewbugs or design elements to complain about.

This is going to make teaching my Impress classes so much easier—andof course, it will make learning Impress so much easier, not only because it’sa nice design, but because it’s similar to the PowerPoint design. So,PowerPoint users can download OpenOffice.org in the morning and bebored expert users by lunch.

There are a few issues I’m not wild about—printing handouts, alwaysa bugaboo in the old version, is better but still in no way clear. (Use theHandouts tab at the top of the work area and set the number of slidesper page, then choose File→Print, click Options and choose to printhandouts.) The “move along a line” feature, which is cool and very useful, seems to be gone, and the “infinite cycle” effect for custom animations is unreliable.

Aside from that, I’m extremely happy.For the curious, see the following links for some information on the new

software from the OpenOffice.org site:

� http://marketing.openoffice.org/20/index.html

� http://marketing.openoffice.org/20/featureguide.html

� http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html

� http://www.openoffice.org/product/more.html

Enough about my opinion, let’s take a look at what you’re interested in—how to make a presentation. Next, we’ll discuss how to use some of themost useful features like the slide sorter, layouts, master pages, slide transi-tions and custom animation.

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Figure 2. New Improved OpenOffice.org Version 2.0.

http://marketing.openoffice.org/20/index.html

http://marketing.openoffice.org/20/featureguide.html

http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html

http://www.openoffice.org/product/more.html


CREATING A NEW PRESENTATION IN IMPRESS 2.0After glowing about what a great idea it was for the Impress team to start from scratchwith the design, I’m forced to back-pedal a little and show something that’s still exactly thesame. The first window, in fact. Choose File→New→Presentation, and you’ll see the sameold window with the same old options (Figure 3).

However, they did cut down on the number of not-that-useful windows in the wizard, sonow there are only three. I like to select whatever I want, Blank or Template; and then simplyclick Create in that first Wizard window, skipping the rest of the wizard (Figure 4). From hereon out, it’s a whole different program.

From this point, it’s very simple, because allthe elements you need are right there in theinterface or are logically located. Just click onthe thumbnail slide in the left-hand pane thatyou want to work with, and it comes up in themiddle. Type your content, then go to the nextslide and repeat.

Run the presentation the same way asbefore, by choosing Slide Show→Slide Show orpressing F5.

CREATING SLIDESTo insert a new slide, click on the slide abovewhere you want your new slide, and chooseInsert→Slide (Figure 5). Or, you can right-clickunder the slide and choose New Slide.

To delete a slide, select its thumbnail andpress your Delete key. Be forewarned, however,Impress will delete the slide immediately, with-out giving you an “Are You Sure?” warning.

REARRANGING SLIDESIf you suddenly realize that your Why WeCan’t Hit the Deadline slide belongs afterthe Reasons We Need Raises slide, you canchange the order easily. In the left-handpane where you’ve been working, simply

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Figure 3. Impress’ New Presentation Wizard

Figure 4. Blank Newly Created PresentationFigure 5. Insert Slide Context Menufrom within the Slide Pane


drag the thumbnail of the slide you want tomove to where you want it to be.

If you’ve got bigger changes or want to lookat the whole presentation at once, use the SlideSorter view. Click the Slide Sorter tab at the top,and you’ll see this view (Figure 6).

Drag slides around to your heart’s content. Inaddition, your options in this window include set-ting the slide layout and hiding or showing aslide. You can use the toolbar at the top of thework area, or right-click on one or more slides, toget more options (Figure 7).

Click the Normal tab at the top of the work area to get back to normal view.

APPLYING LAYOUTSAll slides don’t have the same elements—some slides have a place for a title,a place for bullet points, a place for a graphic and so on. If you have a titlepage, you probably want a place for the title but not for the bullets. Ifyou’ve got a slide chock full of text information, you’re going to need thebullets and not much else. How do you control which elements are in yourslides? Simply choose from one of the many slide layouts in the right-handpane of your presentation (Figure 8).

(If you use a template, you don’t need to worry about this as much,

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Figure 6. Slide Sorter View Figure 8. Layout View within the Task Pane

Figure 7. Context Menuwithin Slide Sorter View


but if you’re making a presentationor template from scratch, this isdefinitely important.)

If I’ve added a new slide to a pres-entation, the program gives me thelayout of the previous slide. If that isnot the layout I want, I simply findthe layout I want and click thedesign. For example, if a slide has aplain title-and-bullets layout, I clickthe Layouts title on the right-handside, and click on a layout that hasthe tooltip Title, Text (Figure 9). Thatlayout is applied to my slide, and Inow can type in the text I want forthe title, and I have a place to putbullet points.

APPLYING AND CREATING MASTERPAGESIt’s important to apply the right lay-out, so you have the right places toenter information in your slide.However, now you want to controlhow this information looks. Youcould painfully format each slide oneat a time, but it’s easier to use themaster pages, create the formattingonce, and apply it again and again towhatever slides need it.

In the right-hand pane, click onthe Master Pages title to see theavailable master pages (Figure 10).

Select a slide, and then select themaster page you want for the select-ed slide. Right-click on the masterpage, and you’ll have the option toapply it to the selected slide or to all

slides (Figure 11).To make your own master page,

simply format the page, and thenapply it as you would any other masterpage. Choose View→Master→SlideMaster, and do the page formattingyou want. Choose Format→Page tochange the background color, chooseInsert→Picture to add a backgroundgraphic, or add graphical shapes like abar on the left side or a line under thetitle. Of course, format the text andapply the bullets you want. Then,choose View→Normal, and you’ll seethe new master page in the right-handpane under the Master Pages title. Youcan leave it as is so that it’s appliedonly to one slide, or you can right-clickthe current format now shown in the

Used in This Presentation View andchoose to apply the new master pageto all slides (Figure 12).

DOING SLIDE TRANSITIONSAlthough not strictly necessary, youcan add drama or some loud noisesto wake up your audience with slidetransitions (Figure 13).

The slide transitions, along withmost of the other configurationeffects, are in the right-hand taskpane. Simply click on the Slide

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Figure 9. Example Tooltip for Title,Text Layout

Figure 10. Master Pages Viewwithin Task Pane

Figure 11. Apply Master Page Context Menu

Figure 12. Apply to All Slides Option

Figure 13. Actual Slide Transition inProgress


Transitions title, and you’ll see youroptions (Figure 14).

Select the slide you want, selectan effect and a preview of the effectwill run.

There are hordes of options to setas well (Figure 15). In the lower part of

the Slide Transitions pane area, you canspecify speed, sounds, when the effectruns and to which slides the transitionapplies. Unmark the Automatic Previewif you’re using sounds or if you don’twant to see the preview every time youmake a change.

DOING CUSTOM ANIMATIONLet’s say you have a slide talkingabout a balloon release. You’ve got apicture of a balloon or three, but itwould be nice to have the balloondo something. You can do this withcustom animation.

Click the Custom Animation titlein the right-hand pane, and clickAdd (Figure 16).

You’ll see a window full of pos-sible effects. Click the Add customanimation button, select the tran-sition you want, the speed and anyother options, and then click OK

(Figure 17). The preview will run; if it doesn’t, you can click Play.When you like what you see, click on another slide and insert a new slide.

Custom animation has far moreoptions than the slide transitionswe saw earlier. If you have threeballoons to apply effects to, forinstance, you can set them up torun with different effects, sequen-tially, at different speeds. You caneven have the first balloon’s effectrun when you click on an entirelydifferent object, and have each balloon in succession run its effectthree times, then fade to a different

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...IT WILL MAKE LEARNINGIMPRESS SO MUCH EASIER,

NOT ONLY BECAUSE IT’S A NICE DESIGN, BUT

BECAUSE IT’S SIMILAR TO THE POWERPOINT

DESIGN. SO, POWERPOINTUSERS CAN DOWNLOAD

OPENOFFICE.ORG IN THEMORNING AND BE BORED

EXPERT USERS BY LUNCH.

Figure 15. All Slide Transition Optionswithin the Slide Translation View

Figure 16. Custom Animation View inTask Pane.

Figure 17. Select Custom AnimationOptions

Figure 14. Slide Transition Options


color, or simply disappear. Thereare a lot of options and they’renot just cool looking. If you’re trying to demonstrate processes,from a fire drill to a Gantt chart toa UML sequence diagram, you canreally serve your audience wellwith some clear, vivid information

in your presentations.Add all of the effects you want,

then specify the basic order for howyour effects should run in the lowerpart of the custom animation view(Figure 18).

To get to a host of more effectoptions, click the browse icon nextto properties; it’s kind of easy tomiss (Figure 19). The additionaleffect options include things likecontrolling what happens after theeffect runs, and also provides timingoptions, like how many times to runthe effect.

WHAT NOW?If you haven’t upgraded toOpenOffice.org 2.0 yet, by allmeans, do it now (2.0.1 is the latestversion). If you’ve tried to convertreluctant managers, IT folks orPowerPoint users with the 1.x ver-sion, try again with 2.0. Impress 2.0is easy for new users or PowerPointfans, it looks great and it opensMicrosoft Files beautifully.�

Solveig Haugland is an instructor, authorand course developer near Boulder,Colorado. She got started with StarOfficeand OpenOffice.org while working in SunEducational Services, and wrote her firstbook there, The StarOffice 5.2 Companion.She is now an independent instructor andauthor, teaching everywhere fromWinnipeg in December to Houston inAugust. When not teaching, blogging, writ-ing or haranguing passersby about howcool OpenOffice.org is, Solveig can befound swing dancing at the Mercury, skiingat Copper and playing poker at Larry’s.

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Figure 19. Browse Icon for MoreEffect Options

RESOURCES

Get tips about OpenOffice.org or StarOffice at Solveig’s blog:http://openoffice.blogs.com.

Learn how to get OpenOffice.orgor StarOffice training for yourorganization at Solveig’s Web site:http://www.getopenoffice.org.

Find Solveig’s OpenOffice.organd StarOffice books onAmazon.com and from otherfine booksellers.

Figure 18. Change the Order ofCustom Animation Effects

IF YOU HAVEN’TUPGRADED TOOPENOFFICE.ORG 2.0YET, BY ALL MEANS, DO IT NOW (2.0.1 IS THE LATEST VERSION).

http://openoffice.blogs.com

http://www.getopenoffice.org

http://www.Amazon.com


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Kopete is the KDE instant-messaging client. It supports a wide range ofprotocols and ships with a great deal of plugins to extend its functionality.Integration with KDE is one of its strongest points, with support for linkingcontacts to KAddressBook entries to integrate IM functionality with Kontact.With the coming of KDE 3.5, it even supports Webcams on MSN and Yahoo.

Most aspects of Kopete’s appearance and behaviour can be customised.This flexibility can sometimes make Kopete’s configuration dialogs seem alittle overwhelming. This article takes a look at how to demystify some ofKopete’s configuration options as well as how to get set up with somecommon accounts.

SETTING UP ACCOUNTSKopete supports most popular IM protocols, including MSN Messenger,Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, Jabber and AIM. It also has basic support for IRC.

The first time you launch Kopete, it takes you straight to the SelectMessaging Service dialog where you can create an account. To reach this dia-log again, select Configure... from the Settings menu, and in the dialog thatappears, make sure you have Accounts selected in the icon bar to the left.Then click the New... button.

Let’s take a look at adding an MSN Messenger and a Jabber account.Setting up the other protocols is a similar process.

MSN MESSENGERIn our on-line worlds, most of us have buddy networks that span the globeand probably include all popular services and operating systems. So it isinevitable that ultimately we will have to communicate with loved ones who

KKDDEE IInnssttaanntt MMeessssaaggiinnggFor KDE enthusiasts, Kopete is a general-purpose instant-messenger client compatible with all major services. This article offers a quick introduction to Kopete’s flexibility.

JES HALL


TUX EXPLAINS

Figure 1. The Add Account Wizard


are using Microsoft Windows. To set up Kopete toconnect to the MSN Messenger network, you’llneed a Microsoft Passport. If you already haveone, skip straight to the next section.

In the Select Messaging Service dialog, high-light MSN Messenger and click Next. If you don’thave a Microsoft Passport already, Kopete can helpyou create one. Click the Register New Accountbutton, and your default browser will launch totake you to the Microsoft Passport page.

You can use any valid e-mail address to sign upfor a Microsoft Passport. If you don’t already havean e-mail address, you can optionally sign up for aHotmail account from this page. For this example,I’m going to use my Gmail account.

Click continue on the Microsoft Passportpage to start the registration wizard. Fill in all ofthe details, and click submit. The next step asksyou to read and agree to the Passport NetworkTerms of Service and the Passport NetworkPrivacy Statement.

If you used something other than a Hotmailaccount to sign up, you’ll need to confirm your e-mail address. After completing the sign upprocess, you should have an e-mail waiting foryou in the account you used to sign up with.After following the instructions there, your e-mailaddress is verified for use as a Microsoft Passport.

SIGNING IN WITH YOUR MICROSOFT PASSPORTEnter your MSN Passport ID and password intothe appropriate forms on the wizard, and clickNext. Click Finish on the next screen, and Kopetewill connect to the MSN Messenger service.

JABBERJabber is an open, secure alternative IM protocol.Jabber works a little differently from MSN or AIMor other proprietary protocols. Most of those serv-ices have a single centralised set of servers thatyou connect to, controlled by the owners of theprotocol. There are hundreds of open Jabberservers to choose from, or you could even runyour own. People on different servers are able tocontact each other.

Creating a Jabber account is usually done with-in your Jabber client. In the Accounts configura-tion dialog, select New... and choose Jabber from

the list of messaging services. In the AccountInformation dialog, click Register New Account. Inthe dialog that appears, you can browse a list ofpublic servers by clicking Choose. I already know aserver I’d like to try, kdetalk.net, a KDE Jabberserver for users and developers.

Fill in the name of the Jabber server you’veselected and the Jabber ID you would like to haveas well as a password. Jabber IDs usually take theform of username@server, much like an e-mailaddress. Here, I’m choosing [email protected] that user name is already taken, the server willprompt me to try another one.

You can optionally turn on Use protocolencryption to encrypt your traffic to the server.Click Register and then Close. Back at theAccount Information dialog, optionally tick thebox to have Kopete remember your password andclick Next. Click Finish, and Kopete connects tothe new account.

ADDING BUDDIESTo add buddies or contacts, you’ll usually need toknow their e-mail addresses or user names for theservice to which you want to add them. To add abuddy, either click the second button on Kopete’stoolbar (usually depicting a star) or select AddContact from the File menu.

If the person you want to add has an entryin your KDE address book, tick the box Use theKDE address book for this contact to enablelinking the address book entry to your Kopetecontact. Select the address book entry for this contact (this step is skipped if you leave

TUX EXPLAINS


Figure 2. Registering a Jabber ID


the box unticked), and click Next. Enter thename you want your contact to have on yourcontact list—this can be whatever you like. Ifyou want to create a group in which to putyour contact, you can do so here with theCreate New Group button.

Click Next, and select the account to whichyou’d like to add the buddy. Here, I’m adding aJabber contact. Enter your contact’s ID on the nextscreen and click Next, and then click Finish to seeyour contact added to your list.

SENDING MESSAGESTo send a message to a contact, simply click onhis or her name in your contact list. Kopete obeysthe global KDE settings for single- or double-click.By default, messages received show up as a smallbubble above the Kopete icon in your system tray.If you prefer behaviour more like Gaim, you candisable the bubble and the message queue inAppearance→Events.

CUSTOMISING THE MESSAGE WINDOWMost aspects of Kopete’s message windows canbe customised. The toolbars can be customised orremoved, and the formatting of messages can bemodified with stylesheets, fonts and differentemoticon sets.

Kopete includes several chat window styles, and more can be downloaded fromhttp://www.kde-look.org, under the KopeteStyles section. To install a Kopete style you havedownloaded to disk, select Configure... fromthe Settings menu. Select Appearance from the

icon bar to the left and then go to the ChatWindow tab. This is where you manage yourchat window styles.

Click Import underneath the preview win-dow, and then in the dialog that appears,select the XSL file (or the tarball containing it) that you downloaded. If the style is valid,Kopete imports it and then displays the style in the preview window. Click OK to apply thenew style.

If Kopete displays an error message, it usuallymeans the style isn’t valid. Unfortunately, thishappens sometimes with user-contributed styles,

so simply try another one. If you sort the stylesby rating on http://www.kde-look.org, generallythe highest-rated ones are well-formed XSLT.

Emoticon themes also can be downloadedfrom http://www.kde-look.org and installed inmuch the same way. Once you’ve downloadedan emoticon theme, you then can install itusing the Install theme file... button underneaththe emotion preview under Appearance on theEmoticons tab.

“That’s all pretty nice”, I hear you say. “ButGaim does tabs!”

Kopete also has this functionality, but it’snot enabled by default. You can enable themin Behaviour→Chat, by modifying the ChatWindow Grouping Policy. It’s extremely flexible,allowing you to define whether you want mes-sages from all contacts to open in tabs in thesame window, as Gaim does, or whether youwant to tab contacts together based on whichgroup they are in or what account they areadded to.

Kopete has a wide range of configurationoptions not covered here. For more information,try the Kopete handbook or talk to the developerson irc.freenode.net in #kopete.�

Jes Hall is a UNIX systems consultantand KDE developer from NewZealand. She’s passionate abouthelping open-source software bringlife-changing information and toolsto those who would otherwise nothave them.

TUX EXPLAINS


Figure 3. Kopete’s Messaging Window

http://www.kde-look.org




TUX EXPLAINS


Back in the early nineties, I fell in love with a new personal computerdatabase product, Access. After spending many years working withDbase and Paradox, working with Microsoft Access was a real joy. It provided superb integration with Microsoft Office and thus providednew-found functionality and reach for small and home offices. With theOpenOffice.org 2.0 Base module, it is now possible to create and usesmall database applications easily with Linux. By simply learning how to use the wizards available in Base, it is possible to create a simpleapplication with forms and reports.

As Microsoft Access matured, it became a favorite for independent soft-ware vendors and helped launch many young companies into business. Fromwhat I have seen, OpenOffice.org Base may be ready for that same future.Combined with OpenOffice.org basic and a little bit more development fromthe community, Base could become an even more valuable addition to theOpenOffice.org suite.

In this tutorial, I present a simple and fast way to create a single tableapplication using the wizards available within OpenOffice.org Base. In addi-tion to the wizards, Base delivers full editing capabilities for Tables, Views,Queries, Forms and Reports. These editors provide complete control over thepowerful features available in Base; however, they are beyond the scope ofthis tutorial.

For those TUX readers who might have a new exercise program as part oftheir New Year’s resolution, this tutorial will help you create an easy-to-useexercise log to keep track of your progress. Through this tutorial, I explainhow to create a new database, a new table and a data-entry form to trackyour exercise routine.

ESSENTIAL ASSUMPTIONSTo complete this tutorial, you need to have version 2.0 or higher of theOpenOffice.org multilingual office suite installed. The Base component is oneof the new features of version 2.0, and it allows for the seamless integrationof database access within OpenOffice.org 2.0. Base permits access to a widerange of native database formats or enables creation of databases usingBase’s internal HSQL database engine.

Those familiar with the operation of databases can skip this brief intro-duction to database functionality and proceed to the first step of creating anew database. To simplify, a database is like a collection of one or morespreadsheets, which are composed of rows and columns. Each row shouldbe uniquely identifiable, which enables searching for specific records. Eachrecord typically consists of the unique identifier and one or more columns,and each column has a unique name and may contain a wide variety ofdata. It is possible to relate multiple spreadsheets (tables in database termi-nology) by associating records from one table to a column of another table.This feature of databases gives them the power and flexibility to capturecomplex data relationships and makes the data easy to combine and manip-ulate. For this reason, databases are an essential component of any applica-tion, which explains their popularity in software development.

CREATING A NEW DATABASEFrom any OpenOffice.org component, select File→New→Database, andOpenOffice.org presents the OOo Database Wizard. The Database Wizardguides the database creation process. The process consists of two mainsteps: select a database and then save and proceed. In the first step of theprocess, you decide whether you want to create a new database, open an

OOppeennOOffffiiccee..oorrgg BBaasseeLooking for a simple, yet powerful, tool to help organize your work or life? The new OpenOffice.org component Base may be just what you need to gain control over your photograph, DVD or CD collections.

KEVIN SHOCKEY


existing database or connect to an existing database (Figure 1).For this tutorial, we use the Create New Database option, but it is useful

to know that OpenOffice.org Base also can serve as a data-entry and report-ing tool for other popular databases natively. These databases include MySQLand Oracle using JDBC, and OOo Base also can connect to popular e-mailclient databases from Mozilla Thunderbird or Evolution. With the latter con-nectivity capabilities, it is simple to complete a mail merge using a contactdatabase. With the additional query functionality, Base provides accuratecontrol over address selections.

To begin the database creation process, leave the Create a new databaseoption selected, and click the Next button. The Database Wizard displays thesecond step in the process, which requires deciding two things. First, decidewhether you want to register the database within OpenOffice.org and sec-ond what you want to do after creating the database. Registering the data-base informs OpenOffice.org, among other things, of where to locate the

data and how it is organized. Registering the database also makes the dataavailable to all of the OpenOffice.org components. If you don’t registerthe database at this time, you always can register it later using theTool→Options→OpenOffice.org Base→Databases→New option. From thisdialog, you can administer all databases within OpenOffice.org. To access adatabase from within another OpenOffice.org component, use View→DataSources. To proceed with our tutorial, I recommend leaving on the defaultoption of registering the database.

The second decision you need to make is fairly self explanatory. I recommend selecting both options—to open the database for editing andcreate tables using the Table Wizard (Figure 2). Click on the Finish button to continue. The Database Wizard then prompts you for a filename and location. Enter the desired name, select a location and click the Save button.OpenOffice.org saves the database file, opens the new database and startsthe Table Wizard.

TUX EXPLAINS


Figure 1. OpenOffice.org Base Database Wizard, Select Database Figure 2. Step Two in the OpenOffice.org Database Wizard


CREATE A NEW TABLEThe Table Wizard consists of four steps: selecting fields from sample tables,setting the types and formats for the selected fields, setting the primary keyfor the table and creating the table. The first step in the wizard provides awide variety of sample tables for choosing the desired fields of your newtable. First, choose whether you want to select fields from categories oftables useful for business or for personal purposes. When you choose a cate-gory, the list of available tables changes accordingly. There are 22 differentsample tables to choose from within the business category, including Orders,Projects and Transactions. Within the personal category, there are 15 sampletables, with options such as Exercise Log, CD Collection and Recipes.

After you select a category and a sample table, the Table Wizard displaysa list of available fields. You can use the > or >> buttons to select individualfields or all fields. Use the < or << buttons to remove individual fields or allfields, respectively. You also can mix fields from multiple sample tables to create a table that meets your exact needs, and you can reorder the selectedfields using the up and down arrows.

Continuing with our exercise log database, select the personal

category, select the ExerciseLog table from the list box, select all fieldsusing the >> button and then individually remove the CaloriesBurnedand DistanceTraveled fields. I also rearranged the order of the fields—placing the LogId first, the PersonId second and moving the Notes fieldto last. Due to the flexibility of databases, the order of columns is merelycosmetic, because you always can reorder the fields with views andqueries, or from within the form designer or the report designer. Whencomplete, your dialog should resemble Figure 3. Click on the Next buttonto advance to the second step of the process.

In step two of the Table Wizard, you determine the names, types andlengths for the fields selected in the first step. In addition, you also need todetermine whether the fields will use the AutoValue feature and whetherdata entry is required for the fields. Each of the fields already will have thedefaults inherited from the original sample table. All fields are set by defaultnot to use the AutoValue feature and not to require data entry. From thisdialog, you also can delete fields from the field list using the minus buttonand add new fields using the plus button. The up and down arrows let youmove between the different fields. This step is illustrated in Figure 4.

TUX EXPLAINS


Figure 3. Step One in the Table Wizard Figure 4. Set Type and Formats Step in Table Wizard


In our exercise log database, I recommend keeping all of the defaulttypes and formats. To ease the table creation process, change the LogIdfield to use the AutoValue feature. This helps us create a unique identifi-cation value for each new record we insert into the table. As you will seein the next step, this simplifies selecting a primary key. With the LogIdfield selected in the Selected Fields list, choose Yes from the AutoValuelist box. This automatically changes the options. Because AutoValueensures that the field will be auto-incremented, it will always have avalue. So instead of the Entry required field information option, the wiz-ard automatically changes the option to Auto-increment statement witha value of IDENTITY. It is important that you do not alter this value, or itwill cause an error in the create table step. Click the Next button toadvance to the next step.

In step three, the Table Wizard guides you in creating a primary keyfor your new table. A primary key is the index a database uses to accessrecords directly within a table. It is a shortcut that helps the databasefind specific records within a table. Although the Table Wizard makes itappear that creating a primary key is optional, it will cause an error if

you attempt to save the table without creating one. Because we madethe LogId field use auto-increment, selecting the primary key for ourtable is simple. Select the Use an existing field as a primary key, andselect the LogId field from the list. Keep the AutoValue option selected.When complete, your dialog should resemble Figure 5. Click the Nextbutton to proceed to the final step of the wizard.

The final step of the Table Wizard requires selecting a name for yourtable and deciding what you want to do next. In the first part of the dia-log, the text box should contain the name of the sample table if one wasused. After choosing a name for your table, you have provided all of theinformation necessary to create your table. The final option determineswhat you want to do next. You can open the table in grid or spreadsheetform and immediately begin to enter data, you can open the table editorand fine-tune the design of your table or you can invoke the Form Wizardusing the table you will create.

Because we based our table on the ExerciseLog table, that should belisted as the name for our table (Figure 6). Type in a new name or amore descriptive one if desired. We intend to create a data-entry form

TUX EXPLAINS


Figure 5. Set Primary Key Figure 6. Create Table and Finish Table Wizard


for our table, so select the Create a form based on this table option andclick the Next button. OpenOffice.org should save the table and launchthe Form Wizard.

CREATE A NEW FORMThe OpenOffice.org Form Wizard seems complicated, but it is fairly sim-ple. Although it contains eight steps, only five steps are necessary formost forms. Excluding the creation of forms that include forms (sub-forms), the steps to create a form using the Form Wizard are selectingthe fields, arranging the controls, setting the data-entry mode, applyingstyles to the form and setting the name.

The first step here is nearly identical to first step of the Table Wizard. Thebig difference is the source for the fields must be either from tables orqueries that exist in the current database. Otherwise, the same buttons areavailable to select or remove fields from the form. All of the fields chosenmust be available within one table or query. As we launched the FormWizard from within the Table Wizard, the ExerciseLog table is chosen by

default. Select all of the fields using the >> button, and then remove theLogId. Because it is incremented automatically, it is not required for the form.Click the Next button. The Form Wizard presents the next step in theprocess. As subforms are beyond the scope of this article, simply leave theAdd subform check box blank. Click the Next button, and the Form Wizardjumps to the arrange controls step.

With the fields selected, the next step requires arranging the fields on theform. The Form Wizard uses only simple text controls. There are fouroptions, and the order in which they appear, from left to right, is Columnar -Labels Left, Columnar - Labels on Top, As Data Sheet and In Blocks - LabelsAbove. If your selection is Columnar - Labels Left, you also can choose thelabel placement. Although the labels remain on the left of the data, you can

TUX EXPLAINS


Figure 7. Arrange Controls Step in the Form Wizard Figure 8. Apply Styles Dialog


choose whether you want thelabels aligned flush left to theedge of the form or rightagainst the data itself.

With our exercise databaseapplication, I chose theColumnar - Labels Left withthe labels aligned left. Click onthe first option in theArrangement of the main formsection. Align left should beselected by default (Figure 7).Click the Next button to setthe data-entry mode.

Building multiple forms tohandle only data entry andonly data modification isbeyond the scope of this arti-cle. For our purposes, wewant the simplicity ofadding, modifying and delet-ing records from within ourexercise log form. Select Theform is to display all data option, and leave all of the sub-options blank, allowing us to add, modify or delete data.Click the Next button to select a style for your form.

The form dialog contains two options. First, choose acolor style. In the Apply styles list box for our exercise logform, I selected the Bright Blue option. You also need toselect a style for the field border. The mutually exclusiveoptions are No border, 3D look and Flat. If not already select-ed, click the 3D look. You may have noticed that as youselect options, the form changes in the background to reflectyour choices. Figure 8 illustrates this effect. Click the Nextbutton to complete the final dialog and create the form.

Finally, enter the name of your form in the Name of the form

text box and choose what you want to do. Click on the Work withthe form option and click on the Next button. If the form creationprocess is successful, your form should resemble Figure 9.

The form that results from the Form Wizard, as illustratedin Figure 9, is actually displayed using OpenOffice.org Writer.In a following article, I’ll cover the importance of this feature,which also shows up in the reports functionality as well. Bycombining these features, OpenOffice.org brings new-foundsimplicity to common home and small-office tasks. Oneexample is the new Mail Merge Wizard that combines Basewith Writer to provide powerful new functionality. I’ll con-clude my discussion of this application and also explain howto use the new Mail Merge Wizard in the March issue.�

TUX EXPLAINS


Figure 9. Completed Exercise Log Form



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One of the sad ironies of this new world ofwireless multimedia sharing is that althoughmany gadgets out there use an integratedLinux OS to get music from point A to pointB, very few of them actually allow Linuxusers to indulge in music-sharing fun. Enterthe Sonos Digital Music System.

The Sonos system is called a system for acouple of reasons. First of all, it’s split up intocomponents rather than being an all-in-onesolution. The basic setup consists of a wire-less base station, known as the ZonePlayer,and a portable handheld remote control,known as the Controller.

Second, it’s designed to be a multiroomsolution. You can place up to 32 ZonePlayersand Controllers around your house or work-place and stream different tracks to each ofthe different zones.

THE ZONEPLAYER ($499 US EACH)The ZonePlayer is the heart of the system. It’sdesigned to connect to your home network,stream music from shared folders on your localhome network and communicate wirelessly withother ZonePlayers in your house.

The first ZonePlayer you hook up in your homemust connect to your home network using anEthernet connection; additional ZonePlayers thenwill connect wirelessly through the first ZonePlayerusing a proprietary wireless networking systemcalled Sonosnet, in order to minimize interference

from other wireless equipment in your home. Ifyou want to place the first ZonePlayer in a roomthat doesn’t already have an Ethernet connection,your choices will be fairly limited, but you can getaround the issue with a pair of powerline net-working adapters.

Whereas most wireless music systems aredesigned to be connected to an audio systemthat’s already in a room—whether it’s a television,home theatre system or just a boombox—the

ZonePlayer is designed to be used without suchexternal audio/video equipment. The bad news isyou’ll need a set of speakers for each ZonePlayeryou set up. The good news is that you can use aset of standard speakers you already have, so longas they connect via bare wire at the ends. (If youdon’t have speakers, you can buy matched setsfrom Sonos too.)

Although each ZonePlayer can stream a differ-ent song at the same time, you also can link more


REVIEWS P.48 Sonos Digital Music System | P.51 Mozilla Firefox 1.5 | P.53 OpenOffice.org Math 2.0

GGaaddggeett GGuuyy:: YYoouurr MMuussiicc,, wwiitthhoouutt WWiirreessSEAN CARRUTHERS

Sonos ZonePlayer


than one of them together to act as a single enti-ty. In other words, you can link up the player inyour living room with the one in your diningroom, or link the one in your workshop with theone in the garage. You even can link all of themtogether in party mode so that your music playsthroughout the house. Or, of course, you can playdifferent tracks in each of your defined zones.

Adding additional ZonePlayers is a fairly easyprocess. You go to the System Settings option onthe Controller, choose Add a Zone Player, andthen press the buttons on the front of the newZonePlayer. Then you select a name for thenew ZonePlayer, and you’re done. Simple.

THE CONTROLLER ($399 US)To make the ZonePlayers work, you’ll need at leastone Controller module. The Controller is exactlywhat you’d think—a mobile remote control unitthat allows you to control what music is playing inwhat zone. You can use a Controller in eachroom, or you can control your whole network ofZonePlayers from a single Controller unit.

If you’ve ever used an iPod, you’ll find theinterface on the Controller to be amazingly sim-ple—like the iPod, it has a circular wheel forscrolling, with a button in the center for selectingyour choice. There are also player controls(play/pause, back and forward), volume controls, amute button and menu buttons for selecting yourzones and accepting commands.

The key to the Controller module is a largecolor screen in the middle of the front panel. Thescreen makes it easy to sort through your musiclibrary, choose between multiple zones in yourhouse and set up the system. You can even dis-play album artwork on the screen, if you have itsaved in your music library.

The controller has a built-in rechargeable bat-tery, and it comes with an AC power adapter. Ifyou want to invest a bit more, you can get a wall-mountable charging cradle for $50 US, which also

will help ensure that the Controller doesn’t getmisplaced between uses.

THE SYSTEMThe ability of the Sonos system to play music inmultiple zones around the house is alreadyimpressive enough, but the thing that impressedme the most was the way that the system findsand retrieves music.

With most wireless music players, you’re typi-cally limited to streaming your music from a single

REVIEWS


WHEREAS MOST WIRELESS MUSIC SYSTEMS ARE DESIGNED TO BE CONNECTED TO AN AUDIO SYSTEM THAT’S ALREADY IN A ROOM—WHETHER IT’S A TELEVISION, HOME THEATRE SYSTEM OR JUST A BOOMBOX—

THE ZONEPLAYER IS DESIGNED TO BE USED WITHOUT SUCH EXTERNAL AUDIO/VIDEO EQUIPMENT.

Sonos Controller


computer, and most of the time it has to be aWindows machine. The Sonos system, on theother hand, can retrieve music from up to 16 dif-ferent sources on the same network, and it does-n’t matter whether those shared folders are on aWindows machine, a Mac, a Linux box or even aNetwork Attached Storage drive. The only require-ment is that the folders have to be shared, andthey have to be on the same network that thefirst ZonePlayer is connected to.

The one downside for Linux users is that abit of manual setup may be required. Althoughthe Sonos system ships with client and setupsoftware for Windows and Mac, the Linuxinstallation is a bit trickier. That said, I was ableto set it up myself in about an hour, and I’mpretty much still a newbie when it comes tounderstanding what’s going on behind thehood on a Linux machine. In other words, ifyou’re willing to spend a bit of time on it, youcan do it too, even if you’re still a newbie.

MANUAL CONFIGURATION FOR LINUXIf you go to the Sonos Web site(http://www.sonos.com), you can search the FAQdocuments under the Support section for the term“Linux”, and one of the documents that will popup shows you how to configure a Red Hat systemmanually. Other distributions will vary and aren’tofficially supported by Sonos, but you can use thefind files option from your version of Linux tolocate the files you’ll need to edit.

The first thing you’ll need to do is log in as asystem administrator and change the permissionon your music folder so that it’s readable by allusers, even on other computers. (From the com-mand line, this would be a chmod 0755 command

on the folder itself.) If your music is scatteredthroughout your Linux machine, you may want toconsider consolidating it in one place to make thisprocess easier.

After doing this, you need to ensure that theSamba file-sharing protocol is turned on, andthat it launches every time your system bootsup. Samba is what the Sonos system uses toretrieve data from computers or network drives,and luckily it’s a part of recent Linux distribu-tions. You’ll also need to add a network sharefor your music folder in the Samba configurationfile. The exact text you’ll need to add is listed inthe support document at the Sonos site, so youdon’t even have to worry about figuring out thesyntax. In fact, the hardest part, if you’re a Linuxnewbie, will probably be figuring out how tosave the changes to your config file once you’veadded the extra text! (As is standard practicewhen you’re playing around with system files,make a backup first, and if you’re new to theeditors found on a Linux machine, play aroundwith a few fake files first to make sure youknow how everything works, before you gomessing around with crucial files.)

If your distribution of Linux comes with abuilt-in firewall, you’ll also want to figure out away either to turn the firewall off altogether or topunch a hole through the firewall specifically toallow Samba file sharing. Turning off the firewallisn’t generally considered stellar security practice,but it may be an option if you’re using a dedicatedbox that’s already behind another hardware fire-wall. If you’d prefer simply to punch a holethrough the firewall, you may be able to findsupport documents telling you how to enableSamba for your distribution simply by Googling

“Samba firewall [your distribution name here]”.One example can be found here, for the SUSEdesktop: http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/11952.html.

THE VERDICTThe ability to pull from Samba shares alone maybe worth the investment for music fans wholove Linux—or is that Linux fans who lovemusic?—because with minimal hardware invest-ment, you can build a Linux box specifically forsharing your music and then tuck it away in acloset somewhere so that your music is alwaysavailable, even when your main workstation ispowered down.

Yes, the Sonos system is expensive. Yes, a bitof manual configuration probably will be requiredif you’re using Linux. Yes, it probably will be a bitconfusing for the Linux beginner.

But, if you have a bit of mad money to spend,it’s well worth the investment. The ability tostream to and from multiple locations (at leastwhen using a small number of ZonePlayers—Icouldn’t wrangle up 32 of them, alas) seems towork exactly as advertised.�

Sean Carruthers is a freelance technol-ogy journalist from Toronto. He spentsix years at Canada Computer Paper,first as Products Editor at TheComputer and later at HUB DigitalLiving magazine. As a freelancer, hehas written for the Globe and Mail,

http://globetechnology.com, HUB Digital Living, ComputerDealer News, Homefront and CE-Biz. Although a relativenewbie with Linux (SUSE, thank you very much), he hasextensive experience with tech gadgets of all sorts and isenjoying figuring out which ones are compatible with Linux.

REVIEWS


http://www.sonos.com

http://globetechnology.com

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/11952.html


Recently, the Mozilla foundation releasedFirefox 1.5, a major update to our favouriteWeb browser that benefits from a large num-ber of bug fixes, enhancements and interest-ing new features.

The first new feature introduced in this newversion is an automated update system thatlooks for the latest release or revision to thebrowser, and if one is available, it automaticallydownloads it, installs it and migrates yourbrowser settings to the new version.

This feature does make a little moresense on the Windows platform than onmost Linux distributions, because the pack-age manager on your Linux distro will auto-matically download the latest version andinstall it for you the next time you run it.Windows cannot and likely will never beable to update and support third-partypackages (Google Pack appears to be prettygood at doing this for a hand-picked selec-tion of packages, though).

The real benefit of this feature is that whena new security vulnerability is discovered thattargets Firefox, once a patch for that vulnerabili-ty is released, a vast majority of Firefox deploy-ments will be updated so quickly that exploitsfor this vulnerability will become obsolete.

Another, more obvious, benefit of theautomated update system is that when a newmajor version of the browser is released, usersimmediately can benefit from all the cool newfeatures, bug fixes and enhancements of thatlatest release.

Another very neat addition to Firefox 1.5 is

the Clear Private Data tool that basically offersyou a way to specify which possible privatedata you would like to be able to deletethrough the tool, and then have it clear onlythose elements when you run its shortcut.

If you frequently clear the same elements onyour browser, this allows you to automate thisprocess completely. The components available foryou to select are cookies, browsing history, savedform information, cache, saved passwords,download history and authenticated sessions.

On the enhancements side of things, I havenoticed some serious performance improvementsin terms of rendering time for very large pages, tothe point where it makes many other browsersseem very slow to surf with in comparison.

Another enhancement you easily will spot isthe face lift that was applied to the Preferencesdialog, which features a completely new layoutand makes things a little easier to configure.

If you are just now discovering Firefox, anoth-er major feature that Firefox 1.0 was already pro-viding, and that you will also find in 1.5, is a verypowerful extension system that allows you todownload and install extensions for the browser.

The Flashblock extension, for example, isone I find very useful, because it disables allFlash animation on any Web page not on itswhitelist and replaces it with a graphic of thesame dimensions so the layout of the site doesnot get broken by the removal of the Flashanimation. If you want to see the animation,simply click on it, and if you want to add it toyour whitelist so Flash animations from thatsite always show up, simply right-click on itand add it to the whitelist.

This is extremely useful because of theridiculous amount of virtual memory Firefox

REVIEWS


Mozilla Firefox 1.5

Figure 1. The New Automated Update System

Figure 2. Clear Private Data


consumes when you are browsing pages with Flashanimations, so although I don’t mind the performancehit if I am looking at the animation, this is not a sacri-fice I’m willing to make if the animation is advertisingthat I am not even going to look at.

Another cool extension you should try out is FireFTP.When enabled, this extension allows you to turn Firefoxinto a complete FTP client. The interface is easy to use,and the application is surprisingly responsive and reliable.

— X a v i e r S p r i e t

REVIEWS


Figure 3. New Privacy Tab in the Preferences Dialog

Figure 4. Kill annoying flash banners with Flashblock. Figure 5. FireFTP

Mozilla Firefox 1.5

• License: Netscape Public License(NPL), Mozilla Public License (MPL),GNU General Public License (GPL)and LGPL

• Web site: http://www.mozilla.com• Price: Free

http://www.mozilla.com


The computer keyboard is the bestcompromise between usability, relia-bility and productivity for people toprovide input to a computer, and it isespecially well suited for enteringtext and numbers, but you may havenoticed that some characters aresimply missing.

The written constructs used inmathematics do not exist on our key-boards, which makes it particularly dif-ficult to represent any formula or equa-tion you want in your documents. Thisconstraint can be especially frustratingif you are currently studying statistics,calculus or physics, for example.

Fortunately, an application suchas OpenOffice.org Math offers youways not only to create and man-age representations for formulas orequations using any common con-struct and symbol, but it also allowsyou to use these formulas in anyOpenOffice.org document.

If you are studying science or areworking frequently with statistics, forexample, Math 2.0 allows you toport your formulas into your classnotes, archives or even presentationsand Web pages.

Math 2.0 allows you to createformulas in three different ways:

� By clicking on buttons represent-

ing symbols in the selection box.

� By right-clicking in the text inputarea (bottom) and selecting theconstruct you are looking for fromthe context menu.

� By entering special marked-uprepresentation of the constructs.

The “tagged” representation ofany formula is visible from the mainwindow, so whatever input methodyou feel like using, every time youwork with a formula, you will learn alittle more about the tags and easilywill be able to use them to createformulas later on—it’s a lot fasterthan clicking on all the buttons for acomplete formula.

Another important thing to note isthat hovering your mouse cursor overany of the buttons in the selection boxfor about a second reveals a tooltipexplaining what that symbol is. Youare not expected to know exactly whateach button is simply by looking at it.

Let’s look more closely at an exam-ple we’ve all been exposed to in someshape or other. We will use OOo Mathto create the formula to calculate themean average of a set. We will createthat example using the selection tool-box and then look at the text represen-

tation of it. Then, we’llembed this formula in anOOo Writer document.

To create this formula,follow this short set ofinstructions:

� Click the Attributes but-ton on the top part ofthe selection toolbox.

� Click the line above but-ton (second line of thebottom part of the box).

� In the textbox, youshould see the string<?> highlighted. Replaceit with the letter x.

� Still in the textbox,enter a space, theequal sign, followedby another space.

� Click the Operators button (last inthe first row of the top section ofthe toolbar).

� Select the Sum entry, and noticethat the <?> in the text area ishighlighted, leave it selected.

� Click the Unary/Binary Operatorsbutton (first on the left in the topsection of the toolbox).

� Select the division (Fraction) entry

from the bottom of the toolbox.Notice that Math added over <?>to the formula. The first <?> stillshould be highlighted.

� Click the Formats button (last inthe second row of the top sectionof the toolbox).

� Select the Subscript Right entry.Notice that it replaced the <?>with <?>_{<?>}. Now let’s replaceall the place holders with variablesand finish the formula.

REVIEWS


OpenOffice.org Math 2.0

Figure 1. Calculate the mean average of a set.


� Replace the first <?> in the textarea with the letter x, and replace{<?>} with the letter i.

� Replace the last placeholder with n.

This method of creating formulasis straightforward but a little convo-luted. It would work out just fine ifwe rarely had to translate formulasin documents, but it is inefficient ifyou need to create new formulas fre-quently. Fortunately, you may havenoticed that the text area updatesevery time you make a selection,so you can see what the mark-uplanguage looks like.

In the context of our example,the generated mark-up representa-tion of our formula looks like this:

bar x = sum x_i over nThe mark-up is actually pretty

simple for this formula, and it is alsorather straightforward. You also canfine-tune the formula by implement-ing brackets, exactly as you would intraditional mathematics.

The documentation for OOoMath 2.0 also covers some of themark-up constructs, but I foundexperimentation to be the quickestway to learn them in this case.

Now that we’ve created a formu-la, we need to save it so we canstore our entire library of formulas foruse in all kinds of documents. Simplyclick on the File menu, and select theSave As entry to save your file.

Let’s provide some context forour new formulas. First, open OOoWriter 2.0 and start a new document.Once you have Writer loaded, thereare two ways to insert formulas intoyour document. The first one involvesloading a formula you have previouslysaved in your library, and the secondinvolves creating the formula rightfrom the context of your document.

Click on the Insert menu entry, thenthe Object menu entry, and select theFormula entry at the bottom of the list.A new instance of OOo Math will startwithin Writer and allow you to create anew formula. If you intend to createthis formula from within Writer, youcan do so at this point, but you willlose the ability to save your formula, soif you intend to re-use this formulalater, I would recommend creating it inOOo Math and saving it first.

While still in the new formula, ifyou would like to load an existing for-mula, click on the Tools menu, andselect the Import Formula entry. Thenselect the file associated with the for-mula you had previously created withMath. Your formula now is insertedautomatically in your document.

In Figure 2, we have added a littlebit of context to illustrate how for-mulas are aligned. Although when aformula is selected inside Writer, theformatting toolbar changes to allowyou to change the alignment, theborder style and colour, and even thebackground image of the formula. If

you would like to customize the for-mula object further, you can right-click on it and click the Object entryin the context menu. You won’t beable to change the font colour fromthere, but you will have access to alot of additional options. If you wantto edit the formula, you can right-click on it, and then click on the Editentry in the context menu.

Now that we have created aworking document featuring a cou-ple of formatted formulas, we canuse OpenOffice.org’s Export function(from the File menu) to export ourdocument to a PDF format or print it.

This should cover the needs ofstudents who want to store their lec-ture notes as documents as well asprofessionals who need to includeformulas in their documentation.

— X a v i e r S p r i e t

REVIEWS


OpenOffice.Org Math 2.0

• License: Sun Industry StandardsSource License (SISSL), GNUGeneral Public License (GPL) andLGPL

• Web site: http://www.openoffice.org• Price: Free

Figure 2. Formulas Embedded in the Writer Document

http://www.openoffice.org


On the free gaming scene for the last couple ofyears, Neverball is a popular 3-D puzzle/arcadegame in the style of Marble Madness and The Labyrinth. The basic idea of the game is to move the ball in the center of the screenaround a maze, collect a certain number ofitems and make it to an exit within a certaintime limit. The hard part is that you tilt theworld instead of moving the ball, and the con-trols are more sensitive than Lucille Ball in amaternity ward!

The controls are quite simple. The (hyper-sensitive) mouse moves the world around, and the left and right mouse buttons rotatethe camera. F1, F2 and F3 also changebetween chasing camera angles, with Chase,Lazy and Manual. Graphically, Neverball is quitepretty, especially for a free game. There areconstant translucent effects, including see-through platforms, and many of the anima-tions, even the ball itself are see-through! Thecolor is always cartoony, which helps keep afun atmosphere, and the sky is simple, sereneand often changing.

Of course, these effects don’t come easily,and you will want somewhere around aGeForce 2 onward for a proper experience. Theamount of smoothness/clunkiness also directly

affects game play, as it tends to govern howsmooth/clunky the controls are (an addedincentive to buy a proper graphics card). Don’t

let that put you off though, as the game cer-tainly holds its rewards.

This is one of those games that’s annoyingly

NNeevveerrbbaallllNail-biting world-tilting action with Neverball.

JOHN KNIGHT


DIVERSIONS

Guiding Neverball into a Halfpipe


abundant in tense moments and can be down-right frustrating, but the worst thing is it’sincredibly addictive! You’ll find yourself almost

making it constantly, and the urge to have onemore go is always too strong and will keep youplaying. I found myself laughing like an idiot

every time I passed a level I’d been working ata dozen times, and I’m sure you will too. Andfor the pièce de résistance, you can save areplay of the level you just finished and showyour mates!

With a large variety of novelty, and an environment that always stays fresh and origi-nal with lots to toy with, Neverball is sure toimpress. If you’re the kind of person that reallygets off on nail-biting play, this is certainly the game for you, and with a Windows versionalso available, you can give it to some un-enlightened windoze friends as well.�

John Knight is a 21-year-old, rock-climbing, Japan-loving megalomani-ac, trying to take over the worldfrom his bedroom via his keyboard.He spends most of his time tinkeringwith MPlayer and headbanging to hisMP3s.

DIVERSIONS


In the Clouds with Neverball

GAME INFO.

Neverball Site: http://www.icculus.org/neverball

Command: neverball

There’s a chance it already comes with your distro, so have a gander in your Games menu or try the command before you download the game.

http://www.icculus.org/neverball


tux - issue 10 - february 2006 · p2p 4 linux everywhere, taken literally phil hughes 6 building...

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