Linux Cookbook

How to Install Ubuntu, With More of What You Want

Writing an article about "how to install Linux" is easy, because the basic installation of just about every Linux distribution I've ever seen is easy: choose your language, keyboard, time zone, choose the disk/partition to install it on, choose your software, set a user ID and password, and you're done. Mostly.

The reality is that there can be more twists to get your system useable the way you want it, especially with Ubuntu, which doesn't include non-free software in the distribution.

The good news is that you can get answers to many of your questions about which software to install (and which to uninstall), how to get some of the cool features in Firefox to work, and how to get some of that non-free but very handy for everyday surfing software to work on your Ubuntu desktop from this article: The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon".

If you just look at the first page (of six), you may be disappointed: it's mostly a rehash of screenshots of the install process. But skim it or skip it and you'll get to the good parts, including tips on how to remove software and stop (or start) services, pointers to the good software that doesn't get installed by default but that you probably want, and how to install add-ins to Firefox.

It's all on HowToForge. This article doesn't have anything to say about partitioning, which is a topic that, oddly, doesn't get much treatment in "howto" articles about Linux generally. Here's an article on how to Modify Your Partitions With GParted Without Losing Data, but it doesn't give much guidance on how to make partition decisions.

I'll just have to write an article about partitioning, not just how to do it but why you want to do it. Because I've been looking for close to ten years for that kind of guidance, and have yet to find it.

More Vista Misery

Well, I hate to gloat, but it kind of goes with the territory of not using Microsoft brand software. And there's all that FUD to counteract, as well.

So, do you think that if you avoid Linux you can enjoy out-of-the-box support for all your hardware and non-Microsoft software when you upgrade to Vista? Guess again. According to PC World (via Yahoo! News), Vista Is Still Plagued by Incompatibilities NINE MONTHS AFTER IT'S RELEASED!!!

Sorry for shouting there, but come on--that's one of the reasons Microsoft would have you believe Linux is inferior: if you use Linux, you'll never have full support for all your hardware. Never mind the software, because in the *NIX world, backward compatibility is the default (unlike in WindowsWorld).

And then there's the on-going risks of getting pwned by Microsoft's "activation": WARNING: device driver updates causing Vista to deactivate is the story of what happens when Vista decides you've been naughty (whether you have or not). Check the Slashdot coverage, Driver Update Can Cause Vista Deactivation, with plenty of comment goodness. But that guy wasted weeks trying to figure out why, all of a sudden, his Vista desktop stopped working.

Not a problem with Linux, BTW.

Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux isn't new, and the website may not seem terribly polished, but it's worth more than a look if you've got any older hardware--especially laptops--that can still be used, just not with many of the latest and greatest and most bloated new software.

After spending close to an hour waiting for my older Sony Vaio laptop to boot Ubuntu from the LIveCD, I decided to give Puppy a chance. And it works like a charm--download the small ISO (under 100Mb), burn it, and pop it in, and in just a few minutes I had a usable laptop again.

I'll be posting more as I discover new things about Puppy Linux, in the meantime you can go to the .org site (linked above) or the PuppyLinux.com site for CD purchase and more info

Ubuntu 7.10 Is Almost Here!

Just two more days til Ubuntu Linux 7.10 goes live; I jumped the gun and installed the release candidate last week. Not sure how happy I am--perhaps I installed the wrong add-ins, perhaps it's just too early. But I still like it a lot, and expect to continue using it full time. And I expect that once I get the bugs out of this install, I'll be more than happy.

But in the meantime, here are some Ubuntu-related items:

• Just in case you weren't sure, here's a good summary of 7 reasons why Ubuntu is so successful.
• Kevin Van Zonneveld explains how to Upgrade any version of Ubuntu Desktop just in case you already have Ubuntu installed. Kevin's got more goodies at his Techblog in case you're interested.
• Serdar Yegulalp writes about why Linux doesn't need to look like Windows over at Information Week. I've been saying this for years, as have others, but it's nice to hear another version. We don't want Windows, free. We want Linux.
• Slicehost has a lot of good technical articles about running/administering Ubuntu Linux.

Enjoy!

Printing Adobe PDF Files, Even When They Won't Let You

This is a trick I've used once, a long time ago, and had to rediscover, so I"m writing it up here so I won't have to go through this again, in the future.

When you create PDF files, you can set an attribute to lock it down and prevent anyone from printing it. So, you get a document that's not particularly easy to read on a PC, that you also can't cut/paste/copy text to/from, and that you can't even print out.

I remembered that there is a relatively straightforward solution to the problem, just not how to do it, so I went to Google and within a few minutes got the clues I needed:

pdf2ps
ps2pdf

These are two neat little utilities that are legion in Linux. The first converts PDF files into the PostScript ("ps") format; the second, converts PostScript files into PDF files. The PostScript specification doesn't (apparently) have a switch you can turn on to restrict printing. The solution: covert the restricted PDF file into a PostScript file and then convert it back again.

As they say in the music business, "Viola".

VMware and Linux Howto

Another interesting article from HowtoForge, How To Set Up VMware Tools On Various Linux Distributions. Virtualization is hot these days, and it's nice to see more attention being paid to using the Linux-friendly but still not open VMware.