Look and Feel in Linux(APPEARANCE)

Please before reading this see all the snaps I have provided so that atleast you have an idea what I meant by decorating desktop and what are the things which I am describing here.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PICS
(http://linuxlooks.blogspot.com/2006/02/linux-desktopsansor.html)

This is the most interesting part I suppose because I have wasted most of my time in decorating my desktop. In linux, everything is so flexible that I can waste whole day in derocoraing my desktop.You can find a lot of my desktop at http://www.kde-look.org.Even i developed some of my own theme using superkaramba. Lets us see how you can make your desktop look great.

I have also provided the download information at last of this topic.

Lets us know what are the things you can edit in any linux distribution:

1) Desktop Background:

2) Themes / Styles of the windows.

3) Window Decorations :
To decorate the windows like to change title bar.

4) Icons set:
There is no comparison of icons sets in linux than in windows.

5) System Sound:
It includes all the media files like notification, booting,clicking, etc sounds.

6) Color scheme :
Color Scmehe for windows.

7) Screensavers

Splash Screen:
This is the screen which get displayed during login into any user.

9) Bootsplash:
It get displayed during booting linux. It is by default in suse,mandrake etc. but in some distros like gentoo you may need to make some change in kernel if it is not included during kernel installation.

10) Service menu:
It is basically the menu this you see after right click on some application. You can add or delete the items in menu.

11) KDM Themes

SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR DESKTOP DECORATION:

I bet you will love to use these things:

12) System Monitor (Displaying Informations on Desktop):
This is done by using Superkaramba. Superkaramba is just like yahoo widget in windows. Superkarama was developed before and it is much more flexible to use than yahoo widget. You can even create your own superkaramba themes.

13) Taskbar V2:
See in attached pic. It is a taskbar on which if you put the mouse show the preview of the image.

14) Kpager:
Pagers are small applications that manage your virtual desktops.

15) Yakuake (Cool terminal Emulator):
You will love to use this.

16) Conky:
Similar to superkaramba but very light and a ot of informations. Need to go thorough manaual if you want to use that.

17) Eterm:
A transparent/borderless terminal.

DOWNLOAD INFORMATIONS:

1) All from 1-11:
==>KDE: http://www.kde-look.org
==>GENOME: http://www.gnome-look.org

2) System Monitor (Karamba)
==> http://www.superkaramba.com

3) Taskbar V2:
==> http://www.uni-weimar.de/~wolff3/

4) Kpager:
==> http://www.uni-weimar.de/~wolff3/

5) Yakuake (Cool terminal Emulator):
==> http://yakuake.uv.ro

6) Conky:
==> http://conky.sourceforge.net

7) Eterm:
==> Search for ODT_script
==> Steps to do (if you dont find it in internet)
==> Save below script as name.sh
====> kstart –alldesktops –keepbelow –skippager –skiptaskbar Eterm –geometry 90×30+365+315 –trans=true –borderless –scrollbar=false –buttonbar=false -f white –cmod 190 -c white &
==> in konsole run $./name.sh

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr

Linux Desktop@sansor

My OS installed Description:
$uname -a
$Linux sk 2.6.12-gentoo-r10 #3 SMP Wed Oct 5 00:50:57 IST 2005 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Operating System: Linux
Distribution : Gentoo
Environment : KDE -version 3.4.1

See the features of LINUX desktop @ sansor

1) Simple Look of Linux:

Features in first Pic:

• Icons (Snowlsh Icons)
• Yakuake (A terminal emulator)
• Taskbar V2
• Transparent and Resizeable Panel

Features in second pic:

• Super- Karamba
• Translucent Eterm (you can make it transparent too)

Click on pic to enlarge.

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr

Networking Configuration for all!!!

Let me explain each term which you might face during configuring Netowork settings:

Network interface cards (NICs) are called eth0, eth1 etc in Linux

IP ADDRESS is a number used to uniquely identify a network interface.

DEFAULT GATEWAY address is the IP address of the device connected to the internet eg. your router, or PC running internet connection sharing (ICS). The address to use is the one allocated to the interface connected to your internal network.

NAMESERVER address is the IP address of your internet service providers (ISP) nameserver.

HOSTNAME is a unique name for your computer.

IMPORTANT:
You will need to be root (administrator) to edit the files here.
To sign on as root – type su in a terminal (console), press enter followed by your root password

The basic commands used in Linux are common to every distro:
ifconfig – Configures and displays the IP parameters of a network interface
route - Used to set static routes and view the routing table
hostname - Necessary for viewing and setting the hostname of the system
netstat - Flexible command for viewing information about network statistics,current connections, listeing ports
arp – Shows and manages the arp table

Every distro has its own configuration tool that operate on variously defined configuration files. Some of them are common: /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/nsswitch.conf, /etc/hosts, /etc/services, /etc/protocols

Some, typically the ones where are defined IP addresses and routes, change. Here are some relevant files for various distro, their syntax may vary according the scripts used to handle them:

Debian
/etc/network/interfaces - Interfaces and network parameters

vRedHat Graphical interface: redhat-config-network
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg/* - Configuration files for each interface. The same file can be found, divided per profile, in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/*
/etc/sysconfig/network - Hostname, default gateway, general configuration
/etc/sysconfig/static-routes - Static routes (if any)

SlackWare Graphical interface: Netconfig
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 - IP and network parameters
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet2 - Network Services configuration

Mandrake Graphical interface: Drakconnect
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg/* – Configuration files for each interface. The same file can be found, divided per profile, in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/*
/etc/sysconfig/network - Hostname, default gateway, general configuration
/etc/sysconfig/static-routes - Static routes (if any)

Gentoo
/etc/conf.d/net – Ip network and interfaces parameters
/etc/conf.d/routes – Static routes
/sbin/ifcofig – To see all the settings.

SUSE Graphical interface: Yest2
/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg/* - Configuration files for each interface.
/etc/sysconfig/network/config – General network configuration.
/etc/sysconfig/network/routes - Configuring IP Routes
Checking the Network Settings:
/etc/HOSTNAME -Contains the hostname of the system, used by various startup scripts.
/etc/hosts -As in most Unixes, in this file you can statically assign IP addresses to host names.
/etc/networks - for IP networks.
/etc/resolv.conf – The resolver by default first checks this file, before querying the DNS servers.

VISIT THIS WEBSITE TO GAIN MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SUSE, FEDORA AND MANDRAKE NETWROKING CONFIGURATION:
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/basicconfig.shtml

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr

Installing Software in Linux

Linux usually complies the code to install a software. But to save time of the user there are also some pre build packages available called binary files (.bin).They are pre compiled and takes lesser time to get installed.
If you want to install from source code then you can find the tarball (zipped) of those softwares. So first we need to unzip that using command “$tar -xvzpf or tar -xvjpf”. We will find a configure file in that directory. Run that configure file and then to complile we need to use “make && make install” command.

RPM (RPM Package Manager)
A RPM package contains a library of files with the description of the location where the files have to be copied. It also contains a general description of the package. An other interesting characteristic of RPM is that he checks for dependencies.

The command rpm (Install RPM package using konsole)

* To install sanjay.rpm, type
rpm -ivh sanjay.rpm
*Remeber it will install the package not upgrade the package.

* To uninstall the package sanjay, type
rpm -e sanjay

* To query information about the package sanjay (already installed), type
rpm -qi sanjay

* To query information about the package file sanjay.rpm, type
rpm -qip sanjay.rpm

* To query the file listing in the package sanjay, if already installed, type
rpm -ql sanjay

* To query the file listing in the package file sanjay.rpm, type
rpm -qlp sanjay.rpm

* To update the package sanjay, type
rpm -U sanjay.rpm

* To identify the package whose the file sanjayfile is belonging, type
rpm -qf sanjayfile

* The one which always works (90%case)
rpm -Uvh sanjay.rpm

Tar.gz Package:

An archiving program designed to store and extract files from an archive file known as a tarfile

* You will basically find two type of tar files tar.gz and tar.gz2

* To unzip tar.gz we can use
tar -xvzpf filename.tar.gz

* To unzip tar.gz2 we can use
tar -jxvf filename.tar.gz2

* After that a directory will be formed in which you will find a file named “configure”. Now you need to compile that file. you can compile it using the command

make

* After compiling (make) you need to install that we can do that using command

make install

* So in short we need to do as following

tar -xvzpf filename.tar
cd filename
./configure
make
make install

* This will work for most of the cases

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr

Viewing and Editing Files in Linux

You can use both GUI based and command line based editior.

Some GUI based popular editors are :
1) Kate : Heavy but ithas a lot of features.I prefer to use this one for any long code.
2) Kwrite :Light (uses less reqources than Kate)
3) Kedit : Very light Editor which is good from small programs only.Less feautred than Kate.

There are varous command line editior.Some of the most popular one are :
1) VIM editior
2) PICO editor
3) Emacs editor

I prefer to use VIM over these editors though all are equally good editors.

Please go through the documentation of each editor if you want to know more:
$man vim
$man pico
$man emacs

Commands for viewing and editing:
cat filename Dump a file to the screen in ascii.
more filename Progressively dump a file to the screen: ENTER = one line down
SPACEBAR page down q=quit
less filename Like more, but you can use Page-Up too. Not on all systems.
vim filename Edit a file using the vi editor. All UNIX systems will have vi in some form.
emacs filename Edit a file using the emacs editor. Not all systems will have emacs.
head filename Show the first few lines of a file.
head -n filename Show the first n lines of a file.
tail filename Show the last few lines of a file.
tail -n filename Show the last n lines of a file.

Something about vim editor:
1) Opening the file ==> vim
2) Writting in file ==> press ” I “
3) Removing whole line ==> ESC then Press ” DD ” (double d)
4) Saving the file ==> ESC then ” :wq “
5) Saving without changing ==> ESC then ” :q! “
6) Closing a file ==> ESC then ” :q “
7) Searching in a file ==> ESC then “/word”

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr

11 Basic Commands in Linux

These are the commands which you have to know in order to be basically functional with a shell (command line):

ls	List directory contents. ls -l long listing with dates and permissions ls -a list all, including hidden files (hidden files start with a period)
cd	Change directory. cd - change to previous directory cd ~ change to home directory cd .. change to parent directory
pwd	Print current (working) directory.
cp	Copy file(s). cp -r somedir somedest Copy recursively (directory and all contents)
mv	Move (or rename) a file (or directory)
rm	Delete (remove) a file. rm -r somedir Delete recursively (directory and all contents) rm -ri somedir Delete recursively, but prompt before each removal rm -rf somedir Delete recursively, never prompt
mkdir	Create directory.
rmdir	Remove (empty) directory.
cat	Print file contents (to console).
less	Scroll through file contents, one page at a time. SPACEBAR to advance a page, B to go back a page, Q to quit, /pattern to search for pattern
exit	Close shell. If this is your login shell, you will log out.

Basic FileSystem in Linux

While switching from windows to linux you will notice a very different kind of filesystem in Linux.

No Partion in Linux
In windows you have various partitions like c:, d:, e: like that and then we save our directories/files in thaose partitions.But in Linux we have only one partition called ROOT (denoted as ‘/’). Linux places everything in that root partition.

Mounting in Linux
You might be thinking that how do we access windows partition from linux when we have only one partition. Ofcourse you can access. You just have to mount the various partitions into root directory (I will explain it soon).
Widows detect various partition during booting but in linux we need to mount all those partition then only it can be accessed. Today almost all the linux detect partition during booting and mount them but if you add some more partition after installation of linux you need to do that manually.

Linux is CASE SENSITIVE:
One very important difference is that linux is “CASE SENSITIVE” but windows don’t. Like if you have to access a directory of name “Movies” in /usr/home then you need to write /usr/home/Movies not /usr/home/movies. It wont work in linux. But windows is not case sensitive so it’s fine with it.

Now come to the file structures:

You can see all the directories in ‘/’ by typing ‘ls’ or ‘ls -p’ or ‘ls -l’
———————————————————————-
sk / $ ls
bin dev home mnt proc sbin sys usr windows
boot etc lib opt root suse tmp var
———————————————————————-
sk / # ls -l
total 23
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3472 Jan 3 20:47 bin
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 Feb 8 07:28 boot
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 30600 Feb 13 22:19 dev
drwxr-xr-x 60 root root 3672 Feb 13 22:19 etc
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 120 Oct 5 19:18 home
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 3840 Jan 3 20:41 lib
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 120 Jul 26 2005 mnt
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 200 Jan 19 15:41 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 95 root root 0 Feb 13 22:18 proc
drwx—— 17 root root 1168 Feb 15 23:29 root
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3864 Jan 3 20:47 sbin
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 560 Feb 8 07:32 suse
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 0 Feb 13 22:18 sys
drwxrwxrwt 33 root root 7360 Feb 15 23:28 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 464 Oct 4 10:12 usr
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 360 Feb 6 07:24 var
drwxrwxrwx 8 root root 192 Oct 4 18:56 windows
————————————————————————–

//Write up source :http://www.freeos.com/articles/3102/ by Mayank Sarup

Lets describe each filesystem:

/sbin/ -
==> Contains all the system binaries that are required to run OS.
==> This includes : Maninatainace hardaware configuration,system programs.
==> There is also a “/usr/sbin/” : Contains other binaries of system admin like network daemon but binaries are not used by system admin for mainatainace,rapair.

/bin/ -
==> Contains all the commands used by both system admin and users.For example: cp, mv, cat, rm etc
==> There is also a /usr/bin/: It contains all user binaries.

/boot/ -
==> Contains the system.map file as well as the Linux kernel.
==> Grub/lilo configuration files is also there.Lilo places the boot sector backups in this directory.

/dev/ -
==> This is a very interesting directory that highlights one important characteristic of the Linux filesystem – everything is a file or a directory. Look through this directory and you should see hda1, hda2 etc,which represent the various partitions on the first master drive of the system. /dev/cdrom and /dev/fd0 represent your CDROM drive and your floppy drive. This may seem strange but it will make sense if you compare the characteristics of files to that of your hardware. Both can be read from and written to. Take /dev/dsp, for instance. This file represents your speaker device. So any data written to this file will be re-directed to your speaker. Try ‘cat /etc/lilo.conf > /dev/dsp’ and you should hear some sound on the speaker. That’s the sound of your lilo.conf file! Similarly, sending data to and reading from /dev/ttyS0 ( COM 1 ) will allow you to communicate with a device attached there – your modem.

/etc/ -
==> This directory contains all the configuration files for your system.
==> Your lilo.conf file lies in this directory as does hosts, resolv.conf and fstab.
==> Under this directory will be X11 sub-directory which contains the
configuration files for X.
==> More importantly, the /etc/rc.d directory contains the system startup scripts. This is a good directory to backup often. It will definitely save you a lot of re-configuration later if you re-install or lose your current installation.

/home/ -
==> Linux is a multi-user environment so each user is also assigned a specific directory which is accessible only to them and the system administrator. These are the user home directories, which can be found under /home/username. This directory also contains the user specific settings for programs like gaim,firefox, etc
==> This is same as we have different users in windows.

/lib/ -
==> This contains all the shared libraries that are required by system programs. Windows equivalent to a shared library would be a DLL file.

/lost+found/ -
==> Linux should always go through a proper shutdown. Sometimes your system might crash or a power failure might take the machine down. Either way, at the next boot, a lengthy filesystem check using fsck will be done. Fsck will go through the system and try to recover any corrupt files that it finds. The result of this recovery operation will be placed in this directory. The files recovered are not likely to be complete or make much sense but there always is a chance that something worthwhile is recovered.

/mnt/ -
==> This is a generic mount point under which you mount your filesystems or devices. Mounting is the process by which you make a filesystem available to the system. After mounting your files will be accessible under the mount-point. This directory usually contains mount points or sub-directories where you mount your floppy and your CD. You can also create additional mount-points here if you want. There is no limitation to creating a mount-point anywhere on your system but convention says that you do not litter your file system with mount-points.

/opt/ -
==> This directory contains all the software and add-on packages that are not part of the default installation. Generally you will find KDE and StarOffice here. Again, this directory is not used very often as it’s mostly a standard in Unix installations.

/proc/ -
==> The /proc directory contains virtual files that are windows into the current state of the running Linux kernel. This allows the user to peer into a vast array of information, effectively providing them with the kernel’s point-of-view within the system. In addition, the user can use the /proc directory to communicate particular configuration changes to the kernel.
==>Viewing Virtual Files :
$cat cat /proc/iomem
$cat /proc/cpuinfo

/root/ -
==> We talked about user home directories earlier and well this one is the home directory of the user root. This is not to be confused with the system root, which is directory at the highest level in the filesystem.

/tmp/ -
==> This directory contains mostly files that are required temporarily. Many programs use this to create lock files and for temporary storage of data. On some systems, this directory is cleared out at boot or at shutdown.

/usr/ -
==> This is one of the most important directories in the system as it contains all the user binaries. X and its supporting libraries can be found here. User programs like telnet, ftp etc are also placed here. /usr/doc contains useful system documentation. /usr/src/linux contains the source code for the Linux kernel.

/var/ -
==> This directory contains spooling data like mail and also the output from the printer daemon. The system logs are also kept here in /var/log/messages. You will also find the database for BIND in /var/named and for NIS in /var/yp.

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr

Learn Linux in Brief

Its really tough to make someone understand about each and evrything in linux. So, I just go in the way, I learnt about linux.

Lets broadly describe the linux system in two parts:
1) Internal System : Consist of kernels,how it works etc. Basically what we dont see.
2) External System : Consist of Filesystem,basic commands,installing,uninstalling etc. Basically,What we see.

First of all we will learn about the external linux system then we will move to internal systems because at this point of time you will find a bit difficult to understand some technical terms which are basically used to explain the internal system. Lets begin with the external (whatever we see/use) system of linux.

External System of Linux:
Lets learn about linux in three levels.Lets call it a BASIC, AVERAGE and ADVANCE level. So if you are newbie you should start with Basic level.

BASIC LEVEL OF EXTERNAL SYSTEM:

1) File Hierarchy in Linux.
2) Using the command line.
3) Viewing and Editing Files.
4) Installing and Uninstalling a software.
5) Basic Softwares List.
6) Playing audio and video files.
7) Setting up internet,LAN,chatting etc.
Look and Feel (Appearance)
9) Users and Permissions.
10)Running Java, C, C++ programs.
11)Changing User login and password.
12)Accessing Windows/UNIX from UNIX/Windows.
13)Process Manager (same as task manager).
14)Basic Problem faced by users.

If you have learnt all these things then CONGRATS!! you are become a user of Linux though you still have a lot of things to learn in linux.Now you might get the feel of linux. The feel of freedom or changing anything you wish. Nou you can change anything you wish.

Now its turn to learn a bit more about linux and became a step forward than others. After this level you can atleast fix some of the problems usually faced by you or your friends.

According to me “The best way to learn is to help others with whatever you have.”

AVERAGE LEVEL of EXTERNAL SYSTEM:

1) PATH Variables
2) Konsole Look and Feel
3) Mounting and Unmouting Devices.
4) Secure Shell (SSH)
5) Setting up FTP servers
6) Running Servers (PHP,Apache,JSP etc)
7) Mapped Network Drive – Windows Shares – NFS.
Grub/Bootloader fixing.
9) Keyboard map
10) Sound Problems
11) Drivers Installation
12) Hard Disk operation.
13) Installing Printer.
14) CD Writing on Linux.
15) Shell Variables and Customization.
16) Getting X to Start on Boot
17) Bash Programming

This is not the end but just a starting towards the linux. It is very tough to know about each and every thing in linux because there is a lot to learn but time is less. If you have reached up to this stage you dont need any newbie guindance but for completeness I am describing all these things to you. As myself are not much familiar with all the things in advance level so its better if you yourself search on internet. I included information about the website which provides information about linux programming etc.

ADVANCE LEVEL:

1) Linux Programming
2) Develop GNU/Linux software.
3) Write codes for drivers.
4) Write more sophisticated programs with features such as multiprocessing, multi-threading, interprocess communication, and interaction with hardware devices.

My next topic after finishinf “Learn Linux in brief” will be “How linux works?”

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr

Understanding SWAP (virtual memory)

Swap space is a portion of a hard disk drive (HDD) that is used for virtual memory.

Virtual memory is the use of space on a HDD to simulate additional main memory. Memory is used to hold portions of the operating system, programs and data that are currently in use or that are frequently used. Physically, main memory (also referred to as primary memory) consists of random access memory (RAM) chips that are combined into modules which, in turn, are inserted into slots on the motherboard (i.e., the main circuit board) on a computer. The times required to access different addresses (i.e., locations) in RAM are extremely short and nearly equal, in contrast to the longer and varying times required for accessing locations on the HDD and other storage devices.

In order to free up space in memory, an operating system with a virtual memory capability transfers data that is not immediately needed from memory to the HDD; when that data is needed again, it is copied back into memory. That is, when all of the RAM is being used (e.g., if there are many programs open simultaneously or if one very large program is in use), a computer with virtual memory enabled will swap data to the HDD and back to memory as needed, thus, in effect, increasing the total system memory.
It is generally recommended that for maximum system efficiency the swap space be twice the size of the main memory. This is true even for systems with large memory capacities, such a a gigabyte or more. Swap space is usually a dedicated partition (i.e., a logically independent section of a HDD) that is created during the installation of the operating system. Such a partition is also referred to as a swap partition. However, swap space can also be a special file.

Although it is generally preferable to use a swap partition rather than a file, sometimes it is not practical to add or expand a partition when the amount of RAM is being increased. In such case, a new swap file can be created with the mkswap command.

****** “ONE SWAP SPACE CAN WORK FOR MANY LINUX DISTRO ON SAME COMPUER” ****************

Linux Downloading Information

SUSE:

• http://en.opensuse.org/Development_Version
• Number of Cd’s : 5 (five)
• Download the x86 architechture iso images for 32 bit processor.
• Download x-86-64 for 64 bit processors.
• All the .rpm files (prebuilt package) are also available there .If you find some problem during installation and some packages are not installed then you can also download the source file (.rpm) and install them manually.

MANDRAKE (Mandriva):

• http://wwwnew.mandriva.com/en/downloads/mirrors
• Number of CD: 3

UBUNTU:

• http://ftp.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/UBUNTU-CDS/5.10/
• Number of CD’s : 1 Install CD
• You will find two kind of CD : Install and Live
• Install CD: Full Installation Using CD.
• Live CD :Installation through Internet.

KUBUNTU:

• http://ftp.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/UBUNTU-CDS/kubuntu/5.10/
• Number of CD’s : 1
• I will suggest to use KUBUNTU over UBUNTU because KUBUNTU runs on KDE but UBUNTU hav GENOME environment.Though both are equally good but It is just the case I prefer to use KDE over genome.

GENTOO:

• http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/where.xml
• Its better if you use live CD for installation because it gets updated very frequently.
• Ultimate Documentation.Read it once

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr

INSTALLATION TIPS FOR LINUX:

Linux comes in various dirtibution (slang : ‘distro’).You can watch the rating of distro at http://distrowatch.com. You can get all information like downloading mirrors,documentation,forums etc from that website.There are about 100 distros informations with all sorts of statistics.

Steps before installation:
1) Download the CD’s (ISO image) of the distros.
2) Burn those ISO image.
3) Go to their documentation website (you can get information about the installation from distros home page).
4) Start the installation.

During Installation you might learn some new terms like SWAP,Partioning,Bootloader,GRUB,LILO etc.I know, you know about these terms but let me explain it for those who are not familiar.

==> KDE and GENOME :
These are just “Free Software graphical desktop environment for Linux”. KDE stands for “K Desktop Environment”. Both are equally featured but still most of the guys prefer to use KDE. So if during installation control center (YAST in Suse) ask for choosing one of these choose KDE (or genome based on your choice).

==> md5 :
In linux, Its a way to check that if CD you have downloded is correct or not. All cd’s are automatically checked during installation using md5. It is the surity that it contains all the files and folders which is neede during installation.
Basically it is hashing technique that creates 128-bit message digest.Name comes from the same “message digest”.

==> SWAP :
Swap space is a portion of a hard disk drive (HDD) that is used for virtual memory. Keep it about 200-250 MB.

==> Mounting:
A file system can be “mounted” on your Linux system interactively or automatically at startup. Then the file system is just as accessible as any other file system on your computer.
e.g “/hda/dev12 is mounted on /windows/C” means that “You can now access /hda/dev12 (part of hardisk) from /windows/C”.

==> Bootloader:
A small program that loads the operating system into the computer’s memory when the system is booted and also starts the operating system.
Basically it gives you choices during startup of computer to which OS to boot.

GRUB/LILO : GRand Unified Bootloader is a multiboot boot loader which is most commonly used to allow dual-booting of two or more operating systems installed on a single computer.Silimar is the LILO only GUI is changed. LILO is more interactive and look beautiful.

==> YAST:
YAST is nothing but CONTROL CENTER in SUSE.

==> root:
Its the “superuser” in linux,which has all sorts of permission.You need to set the root password for root.

It can be accessed by using ’su’ keyword.
$su -
$password: ********
$You are now working as root.

Better follow the instruction on internet on their official website than on anyother website while installing any distro because some information might be escaped on other websites.

WHICH DISTRO TO USE??
As a newbie I would suggest you to use “SUSE” or “Mandrake” because these distros are very easy to use and very much USER FRIENDLY.

I will soon explain what distro has what special properties. Just keep on updating yourself.

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr

Is wine really faster than Windows?

Would you believe that Wine is faster than native Windows XP on the same hardware?
According to the Wine crew’s latest benchmark runs, it’s true.

System Configuration for comparision:
1) Both systems, Windows XP SP 2 and Gentoo,
2) Both system, 3.8GHz Intel 570 Pentium box with an 800MHz FSB (front side bus).
3) A gigabyte of 533MHz DDR2 (double data rate) RAM
4) And a 60GB IDE ATA100 hard drive.
5) Version of WINE on both system: Wine 0.9.5.

Graphic Tests:
1) Wine isn’t just edging out XP, it’s killing it! It won the majority, 67, of the total tests.
2) Its wheel fall off when it tries more complex 3D manipulations, such as pixel shading and point sprites, as measured by the 3DMark2001SE 1024×768x16 test suite.
3) Translated from gamer graphics talk, you’re not going to be running top-of-the-line 3D games on Wine anytime soon.
4) On the popular Quake 3 (game) time demo at a setting of 1024×768x32, Gentoo and Wine clocked in at between 7.0 and 7.8 percent slower than Windows. That’s certainly playable.
5) It did take home first place in such areas as memory access and CPU performance. It also did better than XP at basic file copying.
6) Such as loading the application, Wine lagged far behind XP. Loading a Windows application in Wine took 37.1 percent longer than it did in Windows.

I think, though, that focusing on these numbers, either at a quick glance, which makes you think Linux is the winner, or at a closer level, where XP is for practical purposes clearly the leader, misses the point. With Wine, or its commercial brother, CodeWeavers Inc.’s CrossOver Office 5.0, you can run many of the most popular Windows programs on Linux.

We all know someone who might be willing to try Linux, except that “It doesn’t support Quicken, Word, Dreamweaver, iTunes, whatever.” With Wine or CrossOver, that’s not a problem. You can run these, and many other big-time Windows favorites.

I’m not just talking to hear myself talk here. I’ve not only tested CrossOver fairly thouroughly to find that it works well, I also use it on all of my Linux desktop systems.

While I’d love to lead a Windows-software-free existence, I can’t. Every now and again I have to use a website that just won’t work quite right with anything except Internet Explorer. Or, I run into a complex Word document that simply won’t translate perfectly into OpenOffice.org 2.0. For those times, Wine and CrossOver Office are invaluable.

It’s not really that important that Wine or XP is faster at a given task. What’s important is that Wine lets me run Windows applications on my Linux desktop at a decent speed. From that perspective, Wine’s a winner regardless of benchmark numbers.

Wine: The open-source, program that enables you to run some Windows programs on Linux.
SOURCE OF NEWS: http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6148938546.html

NEXT BLOG TOPIC:
How gates make so much of money?What do you mean by monopoly in market? How did he established monopoly IT world? …

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk

EULA vs GPL (License agreements)

Some features about software covered by the EULA (End User License Agreement) for Microsoft Windows XP:

• copying was prohibited
• could be used only on one computer with a maximum of 2 processors
• cannot be used as a webserver or fileserver
• required registration after 30 days
• could stop working if hardware changes were made
• updates could change the EULA if the company so wished
• could be transferred to another user only once
• the new user must agree to the licence terms (no specification how this could be achieved)
• imposes limitations on reverse engineering
• gives Microsoft rights to collect information about the system and the its use
• gives Microsoft the right to supply this information to other organisations
• gives Microsoft the right to make changes to the computer without having to ask.
• warranty for the first 90 days
• fixes, updates or patches carry no warranty

Some features found in the GNU GPL (General public License)

• freedom to copy, modify and redistribute the software
• precludes one party from preventing another from having these same freedoms
• provides coverage for rights of users to copy, modify and redistribute the software
• no warranty as there is no fee
• can be sold if the user so decides and services for such software can be charged for
• any patents must be licensed for everyone’s use or not licensed at all
• modified software must carry no licence fees
• source code must be provided
• if there is a change in license, the general terms of the existing one will be maintained.

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk

Why in india WINDOWS is so popular than linux?

In india most of the user prefer to use windows over Linux. The only problem is that they get everything for free (ofcourse its not free).They dont have to pay for that.They got each and every software serial key or crack for free. Thats why they never get the feel that how much costly windows is.They are lucky that they born in India not in US or they would have known the importace of license.Most of us never read agreements. Whenever a license prompt flashes they just click (without reading) on "Yes they agree".They really dont have any idea about the EULA (End User License Agreement) for Microsoft Windows XP.So I just wanted to briefly explain what does really EULA means and how much freedom you will get in GNU GPL (General public License). In the next section I put up a comparison between EULA and GPL.This will seriously help those who has planned to move US. Because there you wont be able to use windows or paid softwares for free.They are very strict in case you are using it without buying the license.You will have to buy licenses everytime you do some major changes (hardware change) in your computer.

If you have to know more about EULA and GPL difference please erad my next blog titled as "EULA" vs "GPL"
Click here to read about EULA and GPL.

Once you read this atleast the sympathy you have for Gates will atleast decend a bit.

Linux Softwares corresponding to Windows Softwares!!

Linux Softwares corresponding to Windows Softwares:

Most of the man are afraid of using linux because they think that we might havent any linux software corresponding to softwares available in windows.Just check out this list here you can find most of the basic softwares which you usually use in windows

1) Kaffiene,Mplayer (ultimate sound quality)==>Windows Media Player
2) Amarok,XMMS (ultimate)==> Winamp (I prefer to use AMAROK, I believe there is no substitute of amarok)
3) Real player 10==>Real player
4) vsftpd,pureftpd,pro-ftpd (better)==>FTP servers
5) gftp (GUI),ncftp,lftp (better)==>FTP clients
7) valknut (a bit less featured)==>DC++
Firefox,konqueror (better)==>Internet Explorer
9) Thunderbird,akregator (news reader),Knode,Kmail==>Mail Clients
10) Kghostview,KPDF (fast)==>pdf reader
11) gaim (all in one,very fast)==>yahoo,msn,aol,jabber etc
12) kdict(havent found any in windows)==>online dictionary
13) Superkaramba (ultimate)==>Yahoo desktop Widgets
14) Open office (Comparable)==>Msoffice
15) Kolour Paint(better) ==>MS Paint
16) X-Chat==>A chat room of all type of person.
17) Kedit,Kate,Kwrite (better)==>Editors
18) Kquickshow ==>Image Viewer
19) Default C compiler ==>not in windows
20) Desktop Sharing ==> Windows cant access linux desktop but linux can access windows desktop
21) SSH client (multiuser, access your computer inlan from anywhere)==>Windows dont have it.

List of of the free software are here:

http://sansor.wordpress.com/2006/04/27/list-of-open-source-softwares/ 

Now let us know what linux has but windows don't (as far as i know)
1) Multiuser: Windows is not multiuser,remote desktop is not called multiusing but in linux we have SSH client through which two or more user can access your computer simultaneously.

2) Eye candies: Windows dont have much themes but Linux has plenty of themes which you can change according to your wish but even if you install themese in windows (using Style XP) you are limited.Visit www.kde-look.org

3) You can access windows files from linux but not linux files from windows.

4) You can install windows file in linux using "WINE" but vise versa in not true.

5) Website access by commandline is in linux konsole but not in windows.

6) Dual boot software in linux (VMWARE).You can boot windows from linux but not from windows.

7) Last but not the least, FREEDOM which you will never get in Windwos.

There are ofcourse many more differences but for just software level we have atleast these difference.
Ofcourse there are difference in how we boot,work,install,uninstall, etc in linux.i will tryto write more about
1) Why TO USE LINUX?
2) Why in india WINDOWS is so popular than linux?

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk

Linux for Newbie

Is using LINUX tough?
Most of the people has misconception that using linux is very tough.Is it true?
Believe me,If you will start to use linux you will see that its really very easy to use and at the same time you will learn a lot from linux.
I really have the same fear few years back.Why to use linux??Why dont we just use this simple windows?Its providing me all the facilities,all kinds of softwares, all kind of players, everything i need.But I think I was wrong.Do u think windows give us all sorts of freedom which we need. Ofcourse not.

For the time being let us remove this misconception that Windows is easier to use than linux? Because if you stick to this point you will never feel the LINUX.So lets forget about that concept.

Now see,just answer yourself what you really usually do in windows?
Let me guess, you listen to songs,watch videos,do some kind assignement (in MSoffice),install different softwares,uninstall,use ftp,run servers..what else you can think of?If you are very much smart you write programs,you check out minutes details..but I can bet a windows user hardly do that.Thats all you do right!You can do all these things in linux too and (may be i am biased) sound quality is better in linux than in windows.You just need to install some players (most of linux usually have those software in installation CD these days).

Linux is easier to use:
Everyone thinks that its really tough to work on linux environment than on WINDOWS.Its bullshit!! Dont you think when you have used windows for the first time it was a bit tough to understand everything.Just look at you are you might be using windows since few years thats why you have now commanded windows.Simliar to that If you start to work on linux you wont take few days to get familiar with it. There are hell lot of sites avalaible ,chat room available for disscussing the porblem in linux but but i dont know any popular room in windows.If you have any problem in windows, ask for windows service with payments.One more thing, each and everything in linux is so structured that its really easy to use.Its really own charm to work on command prompt than by using mouse.Try it out sometime.

Secondly,Linux launched a Distribution called “XANDROS” which have all the features that WINDOWS have,even its look is so much like windows.That was meant for those guys who find difficult to switch from windows to linux and for those who thinks that windows has good GUI than linux.Development of XANDROS proves that “we can do anything”.If you also find difficulty in switching, I recommend you to use XANDROS but these days SUSE and MANDRAKE is leading (in terms of users).

Third, If you say windows look better.Please check out this website http://www.kde-look.org. Your all doubt will be clear.

Fourth, Windows look sometimes irritaes me because we cant change the look.The only thing we can change is background pic.As now few softwares are avaliable in market like styleXp which is now use to change the theme.But that is limited only if you wish to change the font color to your own choice we cant do that.But here you canmake your own theme and other can use that.We are recognized for the product we made.You can post your code at http://sourceforge.org ,www.kde-look.org etc.Overall you will love to work on linux than on windows at the same time you will come to know how much easy is now a days to work on linux.

Installation is not a problem in linux:
Some of the guys thinks that its hard to install linux.Its rubbish.may i ask you have you ever installed windows on your comp yourself that you pressume that it hard to install linux.Install suse,mandrake sometime in your computer.I think that is much more easier to install suse these days.You will see a good background while installing suse. If you still feel panic then you can just go through the suse wesbite.They wil guide you how to do that.Its much more smooth than windows.Atleast you dont need to install each and every driver from motherboard CD in linux.All drivers are automatically detected and installted.Even it will install all important software like (open office,editors etc).And if you have to install office in windows you need to find out crack first,mount the CD using daemon too,then start the installation. Here you dont need to do such things. Because there is not propieretry software. In suse we have smart YAST (control center) these days, which make the installation and uninstallation of software easier these days. Just a single click will solve the purpose.

Linux is not slower:
Who says this?? I dont believe it.As smart users access everything using command prompt,it is always faster than GUI. Yeah but if you talk of speed, i do find it a bit slower than windows but I have explanation for that. Just check out how much software in linux is already installed and compare it with windows. Windows dont have important software like msoffice,editiors,servers etc installed in them but for user sake linux install all those software of its own.But there is choice if you dont want to install these softwares in linux during installation then you can uncheck the options.And then compare the speed of linux with windows.It will run much much faster than windows in that case.

Konsole of Linux is much smart then DOS in windows:
Ofcourse this is true. Hope I dont need any explanation for my this statements.

Linux is a community work while windows is individual:
Now tell me do u believe in team work or just individual work??ofcourse your answer is TEAM WORK. See here what is going on? A chunk of people sitting arround and contributing for the code of windows.They just can think of those problem in handling windows which they came accross or by different users of windows.But here in linux we have a big community which includes each and every man of this world who can contribute in writting code.So ofcourse product will be better.

I hope some of you must start to use Linux after reading this article because I have gone through the same phase as you are going.If you are still not clear just watch “ANTITRUST” movie. Its supperb. It has changed my life and I hope yours too.

You can mail me personally at sansor@iitk.ac.in and can visit website which is daily updated by me http://www.geeksclass.tk or www.linux4u.co.nr