My Top Used Linux Applications
Nov 06I have this constant fear of losing my memory. Which i believe i already have an issue of. Some of the music i loved a year ago, i can’t even remember the bands names. Though might be due to not listening to that kind of music any more. Besides the point, If i ever lose my memory, i want to come back to PasteLinux and read this post and hopefully trigger some memory back. If not at least I will know what programs I use daily. I know its only two, but its for my purposes and more to introduce to you guys something new.
Galculator
Galculator:
Galculator is a simple GUI calculator. It seems really simple unless you go to ‘view>paper mode’ which is perfect for any math I ever need to use. I don’t like pressing buttons on a gui to get calculations done. Instead Paper Mode allows for you to type an equation and press enter and it does the math for you. example: ‘cos(20)*10^3′ so much easier to type then click buttons. For more information on Galculator.
yauap in action
yauap *
Yauap is a simple terminal based audio player. Its lovely it tells you everything from the file name, track number, artist, album, genre, audio-codec and must more. Probably everything you could ever want to know about an audio file its in this player. Plus its in your terminal, so it uses barely any processing. Its so easy to use and clean. The only audio player i will use for linux.
Pastelinux: Quirky 1.4 review!
Nov 28
Quirky
Puppy linux founder has released version 1.4 of Quirky. Quiky is used to text his experimental simplified module load and interface configuration boot scripts.
Something new in Wary that has not yet been officially released, so is also being debuted in 1.4, is support for developing BaCon BASIC programs.
So how does this OS live up to the minimal name? Stay tuned for the review soon!
Introduction:
As said on the official Quirky page, “Unlike Puppy, Quirky is not intended for “everybody”. ” He also stated, he may or may not be bothered to put in lots of kernal drivers and applications. This is an OS to meet the needs of the creator and test his ideas on.
Boot up was rather fast, only took a few seconds. Not sure how it compares to puppy linux though. One thing i did notice in the boot up was this “Performing a ‘switch_root’ to the layred filesystem”. Which reading the Quirky page it says
Chroot instead of switch_root
This is a very technical thing. The initramfs will stay in existence after bootup and perform a kind of “super root” security function and ensure clean shutdown of all partitions.
Which i am not sure if in the background it did a chroot, cause it is a “very technical thing” but it doesn’t really mess anything up for the user. Just and observation.
Once the system was booted a screen like this appeared. Simple desktop look as expected. It starts up with a walk though sort of thing as your wallpaper. Showing you the simple tasks of how to use the internet, menus and such.
I clicked the menu (dog) and suprisingly there was alot of appliations pre-installed.
Heres a few screenshots of the pre-installed applications:
One thing i did notice as i was surfing this Distro was it has this fluxbox type of menu thing going on. When i right clicked on the wallpaper, it brought up the menu. Which i am a big fan of that feature.
Web-browser:
Seamonkey was the choice of installed browsers. For those who don’t know what that is, its a very light weight firefox based browser. I used it back when i used windows a while back. I liked it, but still prefer Chrome these days.
Theme:
Theme installed was this gray dull look. It was not very attractive to the eye. Just looks too dull, even the icons were all under this gray spell. Luckily the applications installed had their original looks to them.
Game:
Under the title of “fun” comes along a few well known games. I didn’t test all of theme, but the ones i did test seemed to be the generic default games. I am still impressed that in such a small amount of space the creator was able to fit in games in this release. This is a very minimal Os
Overall:
Overall its a simple to the point distro, packed with a lot of needed applications. Its nice to see what it works with my netbook like a charm.
Would i use it as my main distro? No, but It looks like a great one for an old computer.
Score:
10/10!
| Distribution | Quirky |
|---|---|
| Home Page | http://bkhome.org/quirky/ |
| Screenshots | The Coding Studio |
| Download Mirrors | http://www.puppylinux.com/download |
Pastelinux: Salix OS Review!
Oct 31
Salix Os is a distro based on Slackware. Salix Os is an easy way to get into slackware. Salix OS make it more accessible for users to install and configure for user. Salix OS comes in Xfce or LXDE desktop. Meaning we will be using a fast lightweight desktop environment. I went with XFCE for this review.
What’s New In This Release
Salix LXDE edition 13.1 has been released! Based on Slackware 13.1, it features the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment, “an extremely fast-performing and energy-saving desktop environment”, with a clean look and feel. The main applications that complete the LXDE experience are the lightweight and fast PCManFM file manager and the popular Openbox window manager.
As with the standard, XFCE edition, this iso allows installation to be performed in three different modes, core, basic and full. The core mode installation is identical to the one you get from the XFCE edition. Basic will only install a minimal LXDE desktop with only midori and gslapt installed as extra and full will install everything that is included in the iso. That includes the lightweight Midori web browser, that uses the powerful webkit engine and the Claws-mail e-mail client, along with the Transmission torrent client and the Pidgin instant messaging client. Also included are the Abiword wordprocessor, the Gnumeric spreadsheet and the epdfview pdf reader. The Whaawmp! Media Player is used as the main media application and is accompanied by the powerful Exaile music player/manager and the Brasero disc burning application. Viewnior is the default image file viewer and mtpaint can be used for editing them. The full set of the Salix system tools are of course included in this release.
Users are able to use the Gslapt package manager, or the command line equivalent slapt-get, to install extra software in their systems from Slackware and Salix repositories, with complete support for dependency resolution.
Installation:
Booting from a Live CD was easy. I also tested with unetbooten, which worked perfectly as well. So for your on to go OS’s this is one to add to your collection.
There are 3 diffeerent Modes of installation: Full, Basic and Core. Full installs everything included in the ISO. Basic installs only XFCE desktop evnironment. Core allows for a minimum essentials for a console system to boot up. For experienced users.
The Desktop
The Distro comes with an amazing looking boot up screen. Salix OS comes with a great look and feel. Plus since it comes in LXDE and Xfce its great for older/limited hardware computers. It doesn’t relay on Gnome or KDE so it wont take as much system resources.
Software Managemer:
Salix comes with a nice Software Management interface called Gslapt. It provides a decent amount of basic packages but if your used to ubuntus manager, its not as robust.
Media:
Flash is installed out of the box, so youtube wasn’t an issue. Another great feature about Salix is that it comes with the codecs that other OS don’t usually come with. Since they maybe illegal in your country.
Overall:
Its a fine and great OS based on Slacks. I do enjoy the use of Xfce so glad they provided that option. The package manager wasn’t the most impressive but it gets the job done. Personally i rather use Slax over Salix if i was to pick a slacks based OS. But if you want to test it out, i say yes! Take this opportunity!
8/10
| Distribution | Salix OS |
|---|---|
| Home Page | http://www.salixos.org/ |
| Mailing Lists | https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/salix-main |
| User Forums | http://www.salixos.org/forum/ |
| Documentation | http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php?title=Documentation |
| Screenshots | http://picasaweb.google.com/salix.artwork • The Coding Studio |
| Download Mirrors | http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php?title=Download |
~Pastelinux
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Linux videogames: Seasons after Fall
Oct 28[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZu74-iHH90&feature=player_embedded#!]
“Seasons after Fall”, previously known as “Seasons”, is a 2D puzzle / platform game intended to be available on PC / Mac / Linux and consoles’ download services in 2011.
As a wild fox, the player travels across the countryside, through forests and rivers, taking advantage of the changing seasons.
Non-violent, poetic and even a little bit ecological, “Seasons after Fall” appeals to the player’s curiosity, his sense of discovery and reflection.
I must say the graphics are amazingly attractive and well done. It really does have this attractiv poetic theme to it that makes you want to play it to get away from stress and enjoy some relaxing seasons, nature, and hopefully music such as the one presented in the video.
Here are some screenshots of the progress of the development:
For more information, please visit their webiste:
Not enough software for linux? Think again
Oct 26Experts estimate that the number of open source applications available doubles every fourteen months. Sourceforge alone has more than 260,000 projects, and with so many open source apps now available from so many different repositories, it can be hard to keep up.
Today I am going to increase your software knowledge:
Networking:
1. No-ip
No ip is a great way to host a server on your computer while hiding your ip through there site. example 1.0.0.0 is your ip, no-ip hides it with servername.no-op.biz. Plus its usable for just about every OS.
Art:
2. Scheme Maker
Takes photos/graphics and turns them into patterns for knitting or cross-stitching. Do i smell some homemade pie and a sweater with Tux on it from grandma this year?
Programming/Dev:
3. Evolutility
This allows you to create web applications with out any programming base. Very simple to use and gaining alot of popularity
4. Game Editor
Another application that allows you to create something with out a programming base. This tool can help you make the next hit on the iPhone or other OS’s.
Games:
5. 0 A.D.
I am sure by now you heard this one. Its in alpha but seems to be on the lips of alot of linux users. Its a historical rts game were you build civilizations and battle others. Great graphics and works on windox, linux and OSX
Other:
6. timeEdition
This is a great time tracking app with minimal CPU use.
I’ll update this as i go along. Feel free to comment below and I’ll add your comment to this thread!
Language/study:
7. Anki
Anki is a great study tool. It has a flashcard base with sound. Perfect for learning languages, exams poems or music tabs. It contains a database of all types of study. Search for it and chances are theres a study pack. Personally i used it to learn korean it works fairly well. Plus it is free for windows, mac, linux, dbs, iphone, android and a few others.
Thanks,
Pastelinux
Xubuntu 10.10 RC Review
Oct 25
Xubuntu 10.10 RC
Intro
Just like how i test all distros, i ran unetbooten. I do this to test if it has the ability to be stable on a portable device and because i don’t have time to make CD’s, nor do i have a CD drive on my Netbook to do such. So anyways i ran a live usb version of xubuntu 10.10 RC. I figured why not test it out as a RC. Which for those who do not know what RC means, i deals with release canidates. Meaning its for testing to find bugs and other flaws before an actual release. Very similar to beta testing but everyone gets in.
When i finally got to booting it, i noticed that it was fast, clean and light for a general purpose of my computer. Which is great since i run a netbook. The appearance was nice and the user interface was fine. IT was easy to install and use. The difference before ubuntu and xubuntu is that xubuntu uses xfce instead of gnome. Which means it comes with a differennt set of applications plus a different feel and look. Which if your like me, staying away from gnome is a must.
Even thought its not gnome it still uses the same repositories as ubuntu so no need to worry about that.
Looking Deep:
I must say for a candidate form it was pretty nice looking and feeling. The system was running smooth. The panel toolbar was placed on top. Just like other distros it has a menu drop-down that contained applications. Firefox being the installed browser. the software center was also installed.
The colors were okay, the light blue wallpaper was a little weak to me, but the black bar and theme made up for it. luckily theres a dark blue wallpaper that really gives this classy look to it.
Overall:
Overall it was a fine RC. I didn’t actually test it for a long period but from a 20 minute interaction i was pleased. The web browsing was fast and simple vim/gedit editng was easy. The installation was easy and i didn’t run into any issues. It was a product of ubuntu so i wouldn’t expect less. I did like the interface, i am glad it wasn’t gnome, which make xubuntu xubuntu. Pretty solid Distro.
Rating: 9/10
Since 10.10 final is out theres no point in me linking the RC.
xubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso - Download
| Home Page | http://www.xubuntu.org/ |
|---|---|
| Mailing Lists | http://www.xubuntu.org/help |
| User Forums | http://xubuntuforums.org/ |
| Documentation | Xubuntu Desktop Guide |
| Screenshots | The Coding Studio |
| Download Mirrors | http://xubuntu.org/get |
| Bug Tracker | https://bugs.launchpad.net/ |