I am a massive GNU/Linux fan. I switched to GNU/Linux back in 2007 following Microsoft’s Vista fiasco. Never looked back. Today, all my workstations and server run GNU/Linux. Mostly Debian these days, or some derivative thereof.
2007-10-18 saw the release of the latest Ubuntu & Kubuntu Linux, version 7.10, also known as Gutsy. Unfortunately a number of users are having difficulties with the upgrade. Seems that either the “Version Upgrade” button doesn’t show in your package manager… https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/15370 Or if it does show then you cannot go much further. Adept users…
If you want a version of Ubuntu that looks & feels like more like your familiar Windoze XP then try the free upgrade to Kubuntu. Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop. IMHO KDE is loads nicer and much more feature-rich than either Windoze or the Gnome desktop. As well as being highly customisable, KDE makes extensive…
Well they say absolute power corrupts. On the other hand the two companies are quite different. The corporate ethos and the attitude towards creativity are almost complete opposites. For example, I never heard any Google execs reported as using expressions such a “embrace, extend and extinguish“… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish And I think or at least I…
Editor’s note 2018-01-01: Coppermine has been deprecated and we are no longer actively adding to it, nor are we accepting content on it from third-party users. The following text is kept here purely for historical purposes. Whilst most of this is already covered in the “General rules for posting material on GarfNet“, I would like…
You can finally dump Windows! Several people people have written in asking questions along the lines of, "why are you dumping Windows and using Linux instead?" The answer is simply that we now have overwhelming technical, financial and perhaps most importantly, moral reasons for no longer wishing to use Microsoft software – if it can…
PHPRunner is arguably the best PHP scripting tool currently available. Trouble is that at time of writing, there is only a version for M$ Windoze. This explains how I managed to persuade it work under Linux using Codeweavers CrossoverOffice 6.1.0 – a comercial implementation of WINE. First, I downloaded PHPRunner 4.0 “Build 264” – the…
At time of writing, we have got all the following Windoze apps running very adequately on Linux – using either WINE or Codeweavers Crossover (a commercial implementation of WINE). Of course we have replaced many legacy Windoze applications with equivalent (or sometimes better) Linux apps. Other Windoze apps are currently irreplaceable. This is an assessment…
We bought a couple of IBM Lenovo 3000C200 laptop PCs in 2007 May. These are fairly average 1700MHz laptops purchased from a UK supplier called eBuyer for around 300 quid a throw. These came preloaded with the basic version of Windows Vista. To describe Vista’s performance as dismal would be understatement of the year. Problems…
This is a crude but effective way to make one of my favourite Windows applications, Cerious Software’s ThumbsPlus! version 6 or 7 work reasonably well on Linux, by using Codeweavers Crossover. This is something of a bodge and it has come about more by trial and error rather than by rational scientific reasoning – so…
The Linux file system can seem a little strange especially for those coming from an M$ Windoze background. This is my humble attempt at debunking it and perhaps making it a little easier to understand. Several main differences… There are some important differences between the DOS/Windows type file system and the system used by Unix-derived…
These days, seems a lot of folks are ringing or emailing me asking how to get their printer | scanner | trouser-press | etc. working under Linux. Surprisingly, some devices actually are very easy indeed to install under Linux. For example, almost any laser printer that has Postscript will work with the generic Linux Postscript…
Editor’s note: this article was written when GarfNet first changed from a hand-written HTML site to a CMS driven one. Sadly, Joomla failed us in many ways, not least the fact we went through several soul-destroying upgrades that took longer to sort out than if I had coded the site by hand. Today we use…
Yesterday we drove to Lincoln to meet Robert Simpson, the guy behind the the Riddings Drop in Centre internet café. Today we had a day off, time to take some snaps of the beautiful Lincoln Cathedral. Related Images:
“10 pc Cybercafé for 30ukp!!!!” was the triumphant claim of a recent post on the Puppy Linux users forum… http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=326686869&t=12714 Thirty pounds sterling is about fifty US dollars – not a lot of money. Needless to say my colleagues and I were intrigued and perhaps even a tad sceptical. More intriguing was the claim that…
This is a whistle-stop tour of the rapidly changing world of open source software. It is intended to give you an idea of some of the arguments in favour of open source software. Obviously open source has its critics too. However this article does not cover these criticisms. If you are interested in the counter…
Editor’s note: this was written back in 2006, and it is hopelessly out-of-date. Trouble is that today one is spoilt for choice, manufacturers claims are often difficult to understand or substantiate and prices are tumbling so quickly that no sooner than you take your PC home, you see the same model, with more extras, selling…
