As you can see from the counter in the left sidebar, Mozilla Firefox web browser has just passed the mark of incredible 200 000 000 downloads. So many downloads in less then two years, and downloads from non-official sites aren’t even included in this huge number. People simply love Firefox because of its speed, security, flexibility, themes, extensions and other modern features. If you are still using some old and insecure browser like Internet Explorer, you shouldn’t wait any second longer and finally upgrade to a browser you can trust. Take back the web and download Firefox.

Tags: mozilla, firefox, web, browsers, browser, web browser, web browsers

Mandriva has long been my favourite Linux distribution for installation on computers of people who are new to Linux. One important reason for this is that it has the most complete translation into Slovenian language. With the recent releases of other distributions, especially Kubuntu 6.06 and SUSE Linux 10.1, Mandriva got a very serious and up to date competition. In order to not fall behind Mandriva team is working hard on their next release, Mandriva Linux 2007. They have just released the first beta, which is codenamed Thor. There are four different kind of CDs available: with KDE or GNOME desktop and each of them is available for i586 and x86_64 (AMD64) computers. There is also a completely new option: a DVD which has both desktops and is available for both processor architectures at the same time. Versions of some software: Linux Kernel 2.6.17, KDE 3.5.3 and GNOME 2.16 beta 1. Some more information about the release is available on Cooker Wiki. To download Mandriva Linux 2007 Beta 1 see this list of mirrors.

Tags: mandriva, linux distribution, linux distributions, beta, open source, free software, linux

I couple of days ago my friend Boris told me about a handy little application YaKuake. It’s a terminal emulator for KDE very similar to Konsole. What makes it different is that it is normally hidden from the view, even while running. It doesn’t even clutter the taskbar. When you need the console you simply press F12 key (configurable) and YaKuake console drops down from the top of the screen, much like the console in games like Quake. In addition to other Konsole settings you can set the size and position of YaKuake window and the animation speed of showing and hidding it. YaKuake hides when you press the access key for the second time or when it loses focus. It sure would be great to have something like this by default in KDE 4. To see how YaKuake looks check out this screenshot. If you would like to try it out, go and download YaKuake.

Tags: console, consoles, terminal, terminals, open source, free software, linux, kde

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you have probably noticed that I have changed the graphical theme for it. The blog is powered by the flexible WordPress publishing system and there are many themes that users have designed for it. While upgrading to WordPress 2.0.4 I have decided it would be about time to switch from the default theme to something else. The theme I’m currently using is called WP-Andreas09. It was designed by Andreas Viklund and ported to WordPress by Ainslie Johnson.

Off course I didn’t leave the theme untouched and did some tweaking to it. I’ve enlarged the font size to make it easier to read and got rid of boxes around entries under Categories and Archives sections in the left sidebar. In my opinion links to RSS feeds are quite important, so I moved the Subscribe section from the bottom of the left sidebar to the top of the right sidebar. What I also like about this theme is that separate pages are listed in the toolbar at the top. Another nice addition are links to the last five articles published, that you can find in the right sidebar. These could be useful to people who come to the specific article after using a search engine. With this theme comments are also enabled for each page.

All in all I think the new theme is an improvement over the default one. It looks nicer and it functions better. I hope you like it as much as I do. If you find any error because of the switch, I would be more then glad to hear about it.

Tags: blog, blogs, blogging, wordpress, theme, themes

This is the question I’ve been pondering for the last couple of hours after my sister’s computer broke down and we decided to buy some upgrades. I’ve concentrated on the comparison of AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ and Intel Core 2 Duo E6300. In almost every test I’ve seen Intel is faster. In some tests the gap between them is quite wide. So, if I would be buying a new computer instead of upgrading and if the budget was not so limited, Intel Core 2 Duo would be a clear choice. But unfortunately, I still have some components, like the AGP graphics card, which wouldn’t fit into motherboards for the Core 2 Duo processor. While the new motherboards for AMD with AM2 socket also don’t seem to support AGP, Athlon 64 X2 is also available for Socket 939 and a lot of the motherboards with S939 do support AGP graphic cards and DDR1 memory. In addition to my compatibility requirements the Core 2 Duo E6300 is quite a bit more expensive then Athlon 64 X2 4200+ here in Slovenia and there are also problems with availability of Core 2 Duo CPUs. Motherboards for Intel are also more expensive. So in my case I had to choose AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+. I’ve already ordered it from mimovrste.com and it will cost me 183 €.

Tags: hardware, cpu, cpus, processor, processors, amd, intel, core 2 duo, athlon 64 x2

Hentzenwerke is a family-run publishing company which provides great books about Linux operating system, OpenOffice.org office suite and Visual FoxPro. Currently Whil Hentzen is writing a book about a live Linux distribution, called Knoppix. The book, Knoppix Explained, is going to be published sometime in October 2006. I’m very honoured to be selected as one of the reviewers of the manuscript. It is the first time I’m doing a job like this. Maybe it is a bit similar to beta testing software, and I have a lot of experience with this. With the help of my sister I’ll try to provide as much feedback as possible and help make the book a pleasant read. The first two chapters have just arrived, so I’d better get reading.

Tags: book, books, linux, knoppix, distribution, distributions, open source, free software

When my sister tried to turn on her computer, named Tsiolkovsky, the day before yesterday, it beeped like crazy, indicating that there is something wrong with the graphics card. Later it turned out that the graphics card was perfectly OK. It was the motherboard, the Abit KT7A. After about five and a half years of service some of the capacitors on it blew up and started leaking. We could try to find out some used replacement motherboard, but we decided that this would be just the right excuse to buy some new components to upgrade my computer called Enterprise and move the existing components from Enterprise to Tsiokovsky. Since the old SDR memory modules would only collect dust, I donated them to my cousin Matej. After the upgrade from 256 MiB of memory to 768 his SUSE Linux feels a lot faster.

Now I have to decide which processor to buy. Intel Core 2 Duo just came out and it looks like they have finally managed to create an architecture that outperforms AMD Athlon 64 (quite a bit actually) and doesn’t suck as much electrical power as the Pentium 4 does. AMD is also reacting to all this by reducing prices of their processors. I only have to wait until Intel Core 2 Duo comes to Slovenia and prices for AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core CPUs drop. Maybe it will be worth to buy Intel again. My last CPU from them was the 450 MHz Pentium II.

Tags: hardware, motherboard, cpu, processor, amd, intel

Yesterday was a special day here in Bohinjska Bistrica, and in many other cities across Slovenia. We were celebrating the 100th anniversary of opening of the Bohinj rail-road line and of the Bohinj tunnel. This was one of the last majestic projects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and connected the city of Trst (Trieste) with Central Europe. Altogether, 42 tunnels, 3 avalanche galleries and more than 60 bridges were built on 145km-long line linking Jesenice with Trst. Besides Bohinj tunnel, which is 6327 meters long, another engineering marvel is the viaduct in Solkan, which has the largest stone arch among the railway bridges in the world (its span measures 85 m). To learn more about Bohinj line visit the page of The Bohinj-Gorica line society.

The celebration took place at the railway station. We arrived there quite a bit too early. People were still coming and amateur actors and musicians were preparing for the event. While we were waiting for the steam train to arrive there was also a small accident, that could turn out much worse. There were some flags on the roof of the station and because of the wind they fell down. Luckily, no one was beneath that part of the roof. By the time the train arrived a lot of people gathered. Our mayor, Evgenija Kegl Korošec, gave a short speech about the importance of the rail-road for Bohinj and how we should use it more in tourism. I couldn’t agree more. This is one of the most beautiful railway lines and our country could put a lot more effort into modernisation and promotion of it. After the speech amateur actors, dressed in the old fashion and representing important people from the time when the railway was opened, performed some dialogues. You could hear what people like Žiga Zoiss, Valentin Vodnik, Giacomo Ceconi and others could have said at the moment like this. We could also see a funny sketch depicting how some citizens of Bohinjska Bistrica reacted, when they first saw a steam train. Soon the train continued on its tour and we returned home. My sister took some photos of the celebration. You can check them out at Flickr in 100 years of Bohinj railway line photo set.

For this occasion a lot has been done in Bohinjska Bistrica. They renewed the rail-road station and the bridge that is on the path to it. For the first time we also have cross-road signs marking the streets in our town.

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Tags: railway, rail-road, railroad, anniversary, slovenia, bohinj, engineering, anniversaries, celebrations

When I was looking for a Slovenian public Jabber/XMPP server the other day, I was quite surprised about what I found out. Slovenian TV station POP TV has frequently been running this add about their social web site called Frendi in flirt (in English: friends and flirt). The site offers a place to put up your personal profile, write a blog and share photos. Soon users will also be able to upload their own videos. And the biggest surprise for me was that this popular site also offers their users the possibility to chat and they use the open instant messaging (IM) protocol called Jabber for it. For this they have also set up their own Jabber server, available at jabber.24ur.com. So when a user registers with Frendi in flirt, they automatically get a new Jabber account. The site also offers a Jabber client for easy download, which is basically a customised GAIM client. There are almost 10000 users registered at this moment. I also registered and tried to connect with the Jabber server using my favourite IM client - Psi (also translated into Slovenian). Needless to say, all went just fine. You simply have to love open standards. And it is nice to see that web developers for Frendi in flirt chose an open standard instead of reinventing their own or using some closed and proprietary protocol. They should be commended for this.

Tags: jabber, xmpp, im, instant messaging, gaim, psi, slovenia, standards

Soon after I woke up today I’ve heard a door knock. Who could that be. No one at home is expecting a visit. It turned out that it was a delivery man from FedEx. What is this all about? I haven’t ordered anything recently. It looks like that I got a package. And if it is free, why not. When I opened the package another box was inside. On the box it was written: SUSE Linux 10.1. Then I remembered that a couple of months ago SUSE was asking all the beta testers of the alpha and beta versions for their mailing addresses. And this free retail box of SUSE Linux 10.1 is a thank you present for all of us who helped make this Linux distribution as great as it is. Here is what is in the box that otherwise costs only around €50/$60: 6 CDs, one DVD (both for 32 and 64-bit AMD64 compatible computers) and a 246-page Start-up Guide.

I’ll probably give this box as a birthday or holiday present to someone I know (or don’t know yet). And if you would like to get the same present from SUSE, now is you chance. They have just released version 10.2 Alpha 2 for testing. Download it, find bugs, report them and when openSUSE 10.2 final gets released a delivery man may also be knocking on your door.

Tags: suse, opensuse, linux, operating systems, novell, open source, free software, distributions

Although I think speed and usability are more important than eye-candy, it is still important to a lot of people. I’ve observed that it is especially important to younger people. A friend of my cousin (still in primary school) has installed OpenSUSE (as his first Linux ever) not so long ago. One of his main reasons to install Linux were that he liked it how very nice the icons in KDE were and how you can choose from so many screen savers and themes/decorations. Soon after he installed OpenSUSE he found out about XGL and Compiz and managed to set it up. He was so impressed with the graphical effects that he quickly showed his desktop to other friends. And soon enough my cousin also asked me if I could set it up for him and others were also starting to ask if I could burn them an OpenSUSE DVD and install it on their computers too. So eye-candy is important and can help a lot to spur more interest about Linux.

To get all these nice graphical effects on Linux today you need separate software. All the components to make it happen are slowly getting integrated directly into desktops like KDE or GNOME. And when talking about KDE, they have already started to integrate some needed parts into the code for KDE 4. But unfortunately they don’t have enough of free developers to work on this. So they are looking for developers with enough knowledge about graphics programming, OpenGL and XRender. If you have all these skills and would like to help this great open source desktop, then be sure to read this blog entry by Lubos Lunak and step in touch with KDE developers. The kids will sure thank you a lot. As will many others.

Tags: kde, linux, xgl, compiz, open source, free software, graphics, opengl

After an investigation back in 2004 European Commission concluded that Microsoft are braking the law and abusing their monopoly in operating system market to illegally obstruct competition. The European Commission instructed them to stop with illegal activity and fined them with €497 million.

Over two years have passed and Microsoft still weren’t able (read: don’t want) to comply with one obligation that was part of the ruling from 2004. They still don’t provide accurate and complete documentation for application programming interfaces (APIs) for third party software developers. Because of this third party applications are not able to integrate as fully into Windows and they can not achieve the same levels of interoperability. Because of ongoing non-compliance European Commission today imposed another fine of €280.5 million. And if Microsoft continue to fail to comply they will have to pay €3 million every day, starting with 31 July 2006.

Although fines seam to be quite high, I still think they are much to low, considering how astronomically wealthy Microsoft is and considering that the damage other companies and users suffered because of the abuse of the monopoly is a lot higher. Anyway, this is the step in the right direction and it is nice to see that at least European Commission is doing something to ensure fair competition and this is can only be good for consumer rights. Now they only have to prevent software patents.

Tags: windows, microsoft, operating systems, monopoly, european union, europe, european commission, consumer rights

On this day the support for the old Windows 9x product line ends with termination of the support for Windows 98 and Windows ME. What this means is that if new security or other issues are discovered you will not get patches to fix it and your computer will be even more vulnerable then it is now. If you are still using one of these older versions of Windows, now is a good time to upgrade the operating system and maybe even the computer itself.

But before you rush into the store and spend a lot of money on possible upgrades, be sure to check an alternative that can save you all this money. Take some time and check out the free (as in costless and as in freedom) operating called Linux. You can download many distributions (different “flavours”) like Mandriva, Kubuntu/Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, openSUSE and many others for free. Some of them can even run directly from CD or DVD (these are called “Live” distributions) so you don’t have to install it on your hard disk. This means you can try them without any worries about accidentally overwriting or deleting your existing files. And yes, a complete office suite comes with all these distributions.

Well this is my advice to you and I think it can’ hurt to try something new. Now it is up to you to do it, see it and decide for yourself.

Tags: windows, linux, operating systems, support, open source, free software, distributions

While updating my local copy of source code from KDE SVN repository and reading the latest issue of KDE Commit Digest (I’ve translated the interface into Slovenian language) I noticed that Harish Kukreja has imported Physiks into the repository. The original name for this Google Summer of Code project was KPhysics (you can read a bit more about it in my previous post), but since many new KDE applications have dropped the K prefix KPhysics was renamed to Physiks. Now I have its code on my hard drive and I will keep my eye on the development so that after the SoC is over I can start to help as quickly as possible and help make Physiks a great tool for physics teachers who will use it to show virtual physical experiments to students.

Tags: physics, kphysics, physiks, education, open source, free software, linux, kde, google summer of code, soc

After quite some time I’ve visited digg.com today and the first thing I could see was that they have redesigned the site. I immediately checked it out in Konqueror web browser and I’m happy to see that the site now works in it. The most interesting story on digg.com was about something called GLS³ (or GLScube). This is short for GNU/Linux Semantic Storage System. It brings a new way of finding data on your computer. In addition to sorting it by location you can now also tag data and quickly find it by content, description, relation or some other meta-data. There are videos of it on the site which show some of the features in action. The system is open source (released under the GPL license) and I can’t wait to see it integrated into desktop environments like KDE and GNOME.

Tags: linux, filesystem, open source, free software, digg.com, konqueror