Linux: Episode 4

I ust admit that most of this episode actually took place in the garden. It was 23 degrees Celsius and the sun was shining. Sorry, but I just had to do something in the garden.

Nevertheless I tried some of the fine advice from you - the readers. Alexander Colorado suggested sudo dpkg -i folder/to/openoffice3.0/* but that didn't work. Result: -bash: ooobasis3.0-base_3.0.0-3_i386.deb: No such file or directory. And what do I know about that ? Nothing.

An Anonymous Danish reader suggested me to add a few lines to /etc/apt/sources.list from https://launchpad.net/~openoffice-pkgs/+archive
but that didn't work either.

Is it really that difficult to add new software ?

Never mind. I'll figure it out somehow - some day!

Thanks for all the comments. I really feel that I'm not alone.

My Linux: Episode 3

Am I tired ?

Guess.

I have spent all day trying to get my old e-mail store (inbox, folders, accounts, mail rules etc.) moved from my old Windows XP machine to Ubuntu Linux.

• I think I'we got all the extensions installed now
• I created the POP3 account manually
• I managed to move the inbox and all local folders. The file structure is not exactly the same, so I spent about two hours figuring that out
• I think I'll create new mail rules over the next couple of weeks

I also wanted to upgrade OpenOffice.org 2.4 to 3.0 (developer snapshot). I didn't succeed that one :-( I still can't figure out how to install packages manually. I think that root thing in a terminal window is rather tricky. Is it surposed to be that difficult ?

Oh, and I also got my Pidgin configured with some of my chat accounts.

Think I'll turn in now. It's been a long day. For Tux and me ;-)

My life with Linux: Episode 2

• The wireless internet connection is very slow. I had some problems that the encryption code for my network was lost during restart. Somehow it seems to work now.
• Sound card works fine now. I just needed to turn it up. -I can even hear radio over the radio (despite the slow connection)
  
• My documents is transfered using an USB-stick with no problems
• Firefox bookmarks transfered using the backup/restore function in Firefox - nice
  
• Homebanking works now after I installed a JRE-plugin for Firefox (wonder why this wasn't done by default?)
• I tried to transfer my complete mail store from the XP-machine by copying the Firefox folder to /etc/firfox. It didn't work. I'll need to find another way.

My new life with Linux.Episode 1

Intallation went fine. It took no more than about 20 minutes to install the CD on my new (old) laptop.

Wireless internet connection is up running
Danish keyboard is working fine
Sound card is not working (yet)

Right now running update manager (107 updates).

Finally I got the guts: Linux

I have been thinking about this for a long time. As an open source evangalist I should try to use something else than MS XP. Today I decided to try.

I'm what you could call an advanced PC user today. I fele happy about Windows XP and I feel comfortable with it. My son has a laptop running Vista and I have made a decission: I will never allow Vista to install on my computer. It's just to much.... to much.

I got a new (old) laptop and I decided to find out if I can make it work with Linux.

I downloaded the ISO from www.ubuntu.org and it's installing right now. I'm very exited to learn how everything will do in the next few hours.

Will I get access to the Internet ?
Will I get all the drivers right ?
What about all the applications I need ?
Will I be able to exchange files with my friends ?

Stay tuned. I'll tell you all about my experiences.

Generate Lorem Ipsum dummy text in OpenOffice.org

Some time ago I made a new version of my Lorem Ipsum Generator extension for OpenOffice.org. You can find it here: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/Lorem_ipsum_generator.

It's actually not rocket science. The extension calls a website that returns a piece of dummy text and puts it in you document. Lorem Ipsum text is a nice thing, if you are making a template or a document but doesn't yet have the actual text content. You will then use the dummy text to fill out your template or document to see how it looks.
News in this version:

• Paragraphs are actual paragraphs and nit just a linebreak
• The dialog is ajusted and looks nicer
• Localized English and Danish. Please contact me if you would like to translate it int

Here is a few screenshots:







The extension was even refered to by SoftPedia Here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Other-Office-Tools/Lorem-ipsum-generator.shtml

If you try to keep up with average, you will never get ahead

Bob Sutor spoke on LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco yesterday.You can find the presentation on Bobs blog here: http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=2446 .

One of the issues Bob spoke about, was the problem that open source development has been trying to 'keep up' with Microsoft for about a decade. 'The open source community cannot continue to copy a ten year old operating system' he said.

Of cause this is true and many people has joined the discussion and most agree with Bob on this issue (See discussion below this article: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.version2.dk%2Fartikel%2F8082&hl=da&ie=UTF8&sl=da&tl=en ). As long as we try to keep up with someone else, we will never get ahead.

But I also must add that this is not the whole truth. If it was that easy it would be a matter of months before we could beat Microsoft and kick Windows out.

Why ?

People in open source communities are not average people. Most people in these communities are working in IT related positions and so we have technical skills and we are willing to do experiments. How dangerous can it be ? We are able to fix any problems our selves.

Because Mr. and Mrs. Average don't like changes.

One of the most difficult issues when a company changes to OpenOffice.org is the people and feelings. When average people see a new computersystem they will feel unsecure and threatened.

Therefore we need to get ahead without scaring the users.

How can we do that ?

We must admit that Micrososft did something well. They must have done. Microsoft created a computersystem that Mr. and Mrs Average actually learned how to use. We must identify what is good about Windows and MS Office.

Linux also has many advantages. On specific details Microsoft is actually years behind. Just think about perfomance, security and so on and so forth.

My issue is: Nothing is black and white. Nor is this discussion. We must find a balance between the known and the future. And we must do better than Microsoft. We have one very big advantage: The communities are the customers. Microsoft obviously has some problems knowing what their customers are asking for. Just think about the fact that Microsoft for several years claimed that customers didn't ask for ODF-support and how Microsoft has to push and push to get Vista over the counter.