Elive Linux

16-09-2018

 

My Dear Friends
 

Attached is a comment about Elive Linux.
 

Just go to its home page and download by torrent.

It has two Isos one for Live and for Install and another for USB booting.

Making a bootable USB was a bit of a hassle but worth tying (8-GiB stick is necessary) a persistent volume.

 

It has beautiful desktop effects.
 

It is basically meant for installation BUT not for live sessions.

Elive Linux

Elive is a non-commercial, cost-free operating system made for the daily use,    a much faster, friendlier, and feature-rich replacement of your high cost and low effective default system.

Turn your old equipment, up to 15 years old into a high performance machine with an interface that dazzles anyone who sees it. Customized to meet your needs while keeping it lightweight and beautiful using minimal hardware requirements.

In literally less than 2 minutes Elive runs without the need to install it , choose the language and the desired options to get the maximum performance, or just let Elive to select the best options for you.

Because the user experience is our priority, it provides a very intuitive experience where anybody can use it from the first time, using simple interfaces not saturated of options and with tons of automation.

Elive is a very stable and reliable system based in Debian that will work day after day without problems. The customized Enlightenment desktop is ultra-fast and perfectly stable, with no random errors or surprises.

It comes with a full suite of applications, whether for work or for pleasure. It offers everything from a complete Office suite, tools, games and multimedia. You can enjoy watching movies or making your own. Professional video edition, graphic designing, media center, or even recover files from formatted disks. Make 3D animations, edit and manipulate audio and image files in always the best quality.

Oriented for novice and advanced users which can find incredibly useful tools inside, for desktop usage, laptops, schools or enterprises.

Linux powers everything, from smartphones and TVs to Submarines.

Missing point below ISS spaceships are managed with Linux.

• Linux is the favorite operating-system of major tech giants like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay, PayPal, Walmart, and the list goes on and on..
• Linux controls the particle accelerator at CERN
• Most consumer electronics

• More than 80 percent of smartphones (via Android)
• 498 of the 500 fastest supercomputers of the world uses Linux (update: now all 500/500)
• Most global markets, including the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, the London Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange
• More than 75 percent of cloud-enabled enterprises
• 95 percent of the top 1 million domains

• Visual effects of Titanic and Avatar were developed in 3D applications on Linux
• The bullet trains in Japan use Linux to maintain and manage the sophisticated Automatic Train Control system.
• The In-Vehicle-Infotainment technology (IVI) inside Toyota and other automobiles use Linux platform.
• In 2002, Microsoft had accumulated a $ 421 million cost of fighting the spread of Linux,
• As of January 2010, Linux still only has a 1.02% market share within desktops. In 2018 is 1.46%

Tails Linux

Tails Linux

Below is a description of Tails, the Linux distribution that does not leave behind a tail or tell tell story of your browsing history.

It cannot be installed in a PC.

Instead it sits in a USB stick and protect your PC from, CIA, MI5, and KGB.

There is another version called Polipix.

It is similar to Knoppix but Knoppix can tear off any computer to shreds.
 

It creates a persistent partition by default.

It can be installed to the PC.

It is my favorite, though.

Enormous amount of packages (DVD/CD both).

Way about it.

1. Download the DVD iso. Now available in 64 bits.

2. Install it on a USB stick (minimum 8 GiB).

3. When asked, create a persistent partition for data.

4. Use without a password.

5. If you want to make it your portable add on USB stick with your favorite utilities, you have to use password before booting first time.

6. Then make a persistent partition and download additional software.

I added, Gparted, Abiword, K3B. Media Player, Firefox and few more.

LibreOffice, Gimp and Tor Browser are the defaults.

If you want smaller version try FAT PUP (Puppy Linux).

Dynabolic comes seventh with 2290

Dynabolic comes seventh with 2290

Dynabolic 3.0.0 beta is currently available at http://www.linuxtracker.com.org torrent and this was one of the oldest Linux music distributions. 

It was created by Denis Rogo an Italian musician. It was in hibernation (version 2) but lately has created the version 3 for download.

I call him the Bob Marley of computer music.

It is feature packed but cannot be installed as yet.

It scores thumping 2290 points was not a surprise for me.

Top 25 Linux Distributions (Live CD/DVDs)

I have analyzed over 50 Linux distributions both qualitatively and quantitatively and following is a summary according to points scored of the top 10.

Rest are listed according to the points awarded without a comment.

Top Rank

1. Debian scoring 3005 points

Coming to IT industry where there are very few heroes Debian is the clear winner which gyrate and spins at the correct orbit.

It was no surprise.

Score of above 3000 and well above the Gold Standard of 2500 for the standard CD/DVD.

For the heavy weight category it is within the Gold Mark where no other distribution has all the components at disposal with over 30,000 package well-tested and stable. 

It has gParted which is around 100 MiB with partition tool and security features.

It has Blender, Scribus and Inkscape.

Only missing component was O.E.M. component.

Ranking Second with  2620 points is Untimate Linux

2. Ultimate Linux

This is taking whopping 2620 points, simply because it’s a games DVD based on Ubuntu and it has graphic features including Inkscape and Blender. Apart from that it is basically a Ubuntu distribution. Even though it gets a lot of points due to inclusion of many packages it should be used as  a games DVD rather than a general purpose distribution. This warning is due to the changes in Ubuntu Unity and the attendant repository changes that may come as a result of that change.

Rank Number 3

3. UberStudent  with 2610 points

This is one of the very good Ubuntu derivative packed with utilities and only utilities I could not find were gparted and blender. It’s on the fat side with a 2.7 GiB image. This is one of the Linux distributions I could not download due to download problem but with some difficulty I managed to download both the CD and the DVD versions.

There were not enough seeders but I used point to point download.

It’s Ubuntu based and excellent for students in the higher grades and in the University. It has many utilities that student would like to use in literature search albeit web-based.

I have no hesitation in recommending it.

It has almost everything one needs.

Why blender was not included is a bit of a mystery.

4. Knoppix fourth with 2410

Knoppix stands tall and scores 2410 which is well above Ubuntu and Unity on the threshold of becoming a Gold Standard on its own.

It is 4th in the my list of 50 and only three others above.

Debian comes first.

Ultimate Linux comes second.

UberStudent comes third. Packed with utilities except Blender and gParted.

Good old days when it was difficult to find a distribution and DEMO CDs were hard to come by Knoppix started the revolution of Live CDs. I have used it from its 3.1 versions and up and it was available even in Sri-Lanka.

It’s significant features apart from Live CD running on RAM are

1. Good hardware detection

2. Sound configuration and unique start up with sound effects.

3. Ability to compress lot of programs into a CD/DVD.

4. Enormous number of packages

5. Partition tool and many more

6. ORCAs that is fun for visually handicapped user and is as good as Vinux.

It was way ahead until Puppy Linux came into the scene and took another twist by making Live CD under 100 MiB.

Soon I became a convert of Puppy that comes inherently for my love of the canine species. Its weakness was it could not be installed into the hard disk and I found a way to mount it on a FAT partition. I always had a copy mounted on my hard disk when the LXDE came into the scene. Then came the 10th anniversary release which was  big hit by itself both CD and DVD versions. Now it can be installed and administrative right can be restored after installing. There is Knoppix for Kids and Games DVD which was something lacking in 95% of the Linux Distributions.

If you do not use any other Linux distributions this is the one one should always have.

I cannot find anything wrong with this distribution when I format my hard disk once a year towards December, it is the first one that goes into the hard disk as the flag bearer of Linux and other distributions are installed afterward.

5. Poseidon with 2390 points comes fifth

Poseidon Linux

Poseidon Linux not Scientific Linux (actually this name is misleading and does not have any scientific packages in this distribution) takes a big spot in my scale by a wide margin for packaging productive utilities for scientific (including statistics) and business purposes and for schools.

Its score is 2390 which is close to PCLinux but have more packages than PCLinux.

They are inkscape, blender, statistic and plotting packages but it is on the heavyweight category and downloading is slow mainly due to not having a torrent facility.

But it has CD version too and again it is a Debian/Ubuntu derivative.

In spite of its FATTY layer I like it very much and one has almost everything one needs in one shoe.

6. Pinguy/Pin Eee comes sixth with 2385

Pinguy and Ping Eee

For the time being Pinguy and Ping Eee are the best innovative Ubuntu derivative which is in the market and the score is 2385 which is very close to the Gold Standard and well above Unity.

Out of the Ubuntu derivatives this is the most eye catching feature filled derivative to entice Linux newbies as well as savvy guys / girls.

It has Cloud Utilities, Light Scribe and it almost look like apple Mac for one who has never seen a Apple Mac. I have the feeling Ubuntu’s Unity has taken a leaf out of Pinguy and Ping Eee for netbooks and laptops. Its grub file could not figure out my other distributions and that was why it was not in my box up till now.

The new version has now ironed out this minor glitch and I have installed it with 5 other distributions in my laptop which I upgraded to 500 GiB recently.

Interestingly enough this is the one I boot first since I am getting attached to it day by day.

It now does a good job with GRUB and recognize all the other Linux derivatives. It will certainly take the tablets not by surprise but by its own imagination.

7. Dynabolic comes seventh with 2290

Dynabolic 3.0.0 beta is currently available at http://www.linuxtracker.com.org torrent and this was one of the oldest Linux music distributions. It was created by Denis Rogo an Italian musician. It was in hibernation (version 2) but lately has created the version 3 for download.

I call him the Bob Marley of computer music.

It is feature packed but cannot be installed as yet.

It scores thumping 2290 points was not a surprise for me.

8. PCLinux comes 8th with 2255

My favorite distribution gets 2255 points which is well below the 2500 points which I have for my Hypothetical Gold Standard but a future candidate for that award. It has promised to introduce bit 64 from the current version onward. Even though it has no special features it sticks to Linux base with administrative functions and very stable once properly configured. It gets a lot of points for it’s web site and the digital magazine which it maintains. The package management is excellent and lets you install all the packages easily from repository. To be on record this is the only distribution which has a usable Skype (except perhaps Linvo). It also does not bother one with updates unlike Suse. It is a KDE desktop and has two Mini versions, one LXDE and the standard KDE. Once installed there is very little maintenance if firewall is correctly configured and easy with downloads and remove redundant files at boot time and if it is run on 24/7 schedule it does a good cron job too.

No wonder it is my favorite and may be so for others too (once 64 bit version is introduced it will become more popular).

Ubuntu’s departure from traditional base would be another reason. It is bit slow at boot time and K-torrent is good (it may be bit slow because of my heavy daily work and downloads) and if one is using it for light work, one may not find the slow boot up a problem. Even one is a light user of the computer it is a good practice for the distribution to run 24 hours at least once a week for maintenance which it does automatically well past midnight.

My reason for choosing it

It is very stable and stands 8th in the ranks.

9. Puppy comes 9th with 1910

It is Small and Beautiful size ~100MB!

It is Live booting from CD and USB flash drive.

It runs from RAM, making it unusually fast even in old PCs and in netbooks with solid state storage media.

Includes a wide range of applications: word processors, spreadsheets, Internet browsers, games, image editors and many utilities. Puppy is easy to use and little technical knowledge is assumed. Most hardware is automatically detected.

Who is the founder?

Barry Kauler from Australia.

10. Ubuntu Dream Studio comes 10th with 1775

Ubuntu’s Unity-Dream Studio

Is it a dream come true for newbies?

I think so and thumbs up for this distribution which I could download overnight with 2.1 GiB. There were only four seeders but it was pretty fast. Go and download it and increase the number of seeders in proportion to leechers and enjoy the Unity experience.

It is a new experience for old hand of Linux like me who never used Ubuntu on regular basis except for demonstrations.

Regular Ubuntu users will grumble but I will tell you what to do. Go ahead and have both old version and new version in the same box and enjoy the difference.

Sinhala capability was there which I did not test but probably needs some smooth ironing out which is another plus point. It has Libre Office and Blender a new version (Maya replacement).

Please do not call it Apple like but call it this is Unity Linux Desktop.

Sure it is a winner at the time of debt and cash crisis. For good effects find a good compatible graphic card. That may be the only thing one may have to change in one’s computer.

My old computer’s graphic card was not enough to take advantage of Unity.

The few glitches I had with the Unity CD with workplaces has been reasonably taken care of and I could load all the workplaces with a running program and with a mouse click it goes into full screen image.

Play with it and enjoy the experience.

I do not know how far one can configure it to one’s own needs but it is good as it is why configure and make a mess out of it?

It score is 1775.

Rest with Only points scored.

11. Simply Mepis                1755

12. Trisquel                         1660

13. Suse                                1560

14. Swift Linux                    1515

15. Sabayon                        1430

16. Ubuntu-Unity               1405

17. PureOs                           1385

18. Salix                                 1380

19. Kubuntu                          1355

20. Fedora                           1325

21. Berry                               1275

22. Linux Mint                      1260

23. CloudUSB                      1240

24. Apodio                            1165

25. Vinux                                1130 
26. Incognito comes 26th and it for anonymous web browsing and cannot be installed. 
 

I have missed ArtistX which would score almost around 2600 and could be in place of Ultimate Linux (If you do not like games Linux DVD).

It is also Ubuntu derivative and for Audio/Video and artistic work.
Other versions not included was the result of inability to download or incompatibility with my old graphic cards

Using Linux for Productivity

Using Linux for Productivity

Linux has over 66,000 packages.

One never use, a fraction of them in a life time.

There are over 300 active Linux distributions.

My favorite are Debian, Peppermint and Pinguy (I call it PIN Guy) Linux.

I use Abiword for my work instead of LibreOffice, simply to downsize resource use and file size.

Unfortunately Debian does not support Abiword, so I have to rely on Peppermint when I use Abiword.

The other utility that I use exclusively is K3B for disk burning.

I use Gparted for partitioning a disk.

For that I use Gparted Live CD.

But the utility, I really love is MultiSystem Boot CD that comes from France.

There is UnetBootIn in Debian for making a Multiboot USB stick.

I never use Kali Linux for penetration testing at all.

Debian keeps me reported all the activities on daily basis, I do not bother any guy trying to snoop my Linux box, even CIA, MI5 or KIB.

There is lot of talk about Kali Linux in Quora Forums to which I never respond (Kali Linux gives a bad taste like, the secret services to an average Linux user).

I downloaded Kali Linux today and prepared a USB stick (did not want to waste a DVD) using MultiSystem boot.

I booted it and there was not a single utility that I daily use in it except enormous amount of utilities (I have never used in 15 years of Linux use) for snooping.

The best Linux DVD/CD for guy who comes from a country that deprives basic human rights is Tails or Polipix.

Visit this site which gives an introduction to over 200 Linux distributions, except Kali Linux.

My recommendations are;

1. MultiSystem DVD 

2. Gparted Live CD.

3. Debian DVD

4. Pepermint DVD

5. Pinguy Linux DVD

6. The rest are described briefly at this site.

Focus of Attention

 
Focus of Attention

Buddha the teacher of Wisdom,
 
Dhamma, the shining light 

To Enlightenment,

The Sanga, the repository,

Of many instances of Stanzas



Focus

Mindful attention

To the focus of intent

And arrest

The attachment

To the craving and greed

Are the vital ingredients

In an attempt to

Reach the final outpost,

The Nibbana, The Supreme!

Phases of human Conformation and Transformation

Phases of human Conformation and Transformation

For me conformation and rigidity to established conventions is a malady.

For example, if one uses the same Windows Box from birth to death he or she is imprisoned in a system dictated by a foreign agency.

The corporations knows this form of boredom and they keep on changing the front end without altering the back end and functionality.

This was one reason, Linux came into existence and overtook them in all spheres except desktops.

People who has money would upgrade their systems to their needs or migrate to MacOs or any other system of their choice.

Many do not have neither money nor time for change and are stuck with their working but old systems.

Then the Android and tablets come and changed the landscape completely.

Just like that humans either get stuck in one phase or move forwards in phases, very very slowly. 

There are about four phases (could be many more for some) but basically human nature is to get stuck with three phases.

1. Comfort Zone.

Majority of us move in our own sphere of (not necessarily one’s chosen choice) activity and master the techniques available at the time of establishing one’s own identity.

One feels comfortable with the status and that is why I call it the comfort zone.

2. Conflict Zone

I believe majority of them move from the comfort zone to the conflict zone invariably, either due to financial constraints or simply due to boredom.

My impression is this is mainly due to greed and money, nothing but.

That is why there is so much conflict in this zone of existence.

No further explanation is necessary.

3. Calm Zone

This is where one loses his or her own creativity.

The period of stagnation and procrastination.

One becomes a prisoner of his or her own conscience due to lack of progress.

4. Compassion Zone.

This is the rarest in occurrence and even religious dignitaries cannot reach this level of change.

Few examples, in corporate and political sphere would be appropriate in explaining the above scenarios.

The comfort zone is the raw recruit upgrading oneself.

The conflict zone is the executive grade who gets burnt out in no time.

The calm zone is the non-executive director phase.

One who lives on others sweat and blood.

No contribution but a born blood sucker stage.

None of them except few like Bill Gates and Facebook guys reach the forth stage of compassion and remain their for life.

Simply because they were very successful in the sucker stage.

Now take a politician, like in the corporate sector, they go through the first two stages without much a do.

Their aim is to destroy all other possible challengers and come to the clam stage victorious.

The are the best example without creativity.

They are slow to react.

They procrastinate even on trivial things.

They are in simple term pain in the arsxx.

They can never get to to the compassion stage since all their energies, in all their life was used for hate campaign.

There is nothing left in their hearts for others except themselves and their extended families.

Compassion Stage.

Few qualifiers are necessary for this stage of achievement.

1. One should have been completely apolitical from childhood to adulthood.

2. One should be free of dogmatic beliefs, be that be religious, social, political or scientific.

3. One should not be dependent on others for survival.

4. One should have lot of resources including money.

5. One should have inborn compassion built into their makeup.

6. One should be trustworthy.

7. One should have at least few friends.

Come to think about it, only dogs, especially the paraya or stray dogs could qualify for some of these qualities.

Very few humans, if there are any can achieve this stage but it is worth a try in the twilight years at least.

How to Evade Dogmas

How to Evade Dogmas

It is very difficult to evade, Dogmas (my definition is embedded lies), be that it is old or new.

Only way to avoid dogmas (dogmata) is not to have any.

If one has a dogma A against the Dogma B there are multiple ways one gets embedded in the dogma not realizing one is entangled, within.

Read Brahmajala Sutta, there are 62 variants and I believe none is true.

If dogma A is true one has to assimilate points supporting or basic tenets within it.

There is an element of belief that the dogma A is correct.

Belief has no scientific validity until it is approaching 40% of validity (ideally 60%).

There is no belief scientific or otherwise which has 100% validity.

Often beliefs falls below my cut of point 30% often it is less than 5%.

Then one has to identify the arguments falsifying the dogma B.

Suppose dogma B is correct and dogma A is wrong.

This is why I call dogma (lie) gets embedded in another circular lie or dogma.

One can apply this argument to existence of god (one dogma) or existence of alien life on mars (dogma B).

I leave you to do one’s own homework on the above and delve a bit on Buddhist tenets.

Buddhism is based on two basic tenets.

Number one is Kamma.

Number two is Beings in Samsara.

There are many other variants based on these two dogmas.

Neither of the above can be proved beyond doubt.

So they remain as dogmas.

This is true for other religions, too.

That is why I say it is safer to have no dogmas.

Do not ponder on the past.

Do not wonder about the future.

What we have is this moment of existence.

Enjoy it to the best without pondering on embedded dogmas.

What we have is this moment of happiness (Somanassa) so do not get into Domanassa Mood by delving on dogmas.

Reality, Perception and Dimensions beyond our Grasp

Reality, Perception and Dimensions beyond our Grasp

I was a pathologist trying to unravel mysteries beyond our grasp.

At the beginning my professor warned me, for which I am grateful.

He said only 40% is known.

With best of our research capabilities another 20% can be assimilated into our knowledge base, the rest 40% would be unknown.

It will be so; he said.

That put me off and I left the faculty searching for bigger challenges.

Then when I returned after many years under different professor, I explored the above context and found, given the problem, I studied, 32 due to genetics, 28% due to environment, including nutrition and the rest 40% was unknown.

At least I broke the barrier, then established, 50% due to genetics and the rest 50% due to environment.

So nothing more top explore, I delved into computer science.

That was my entry into Linux which I do not pursue with much vigour now, due to entry of Androids as a human interface.

With our limited senses what we can understand is limited in scope.

With new found freedom in the West, many are trying to pursue and unravel the consciousness.

But we are at loggerhead.

I think the consciousness falls into that 40% of unknown domain.

For want of better word, I prefer awareness to consciousness (since there are unexplained words like subconscious, unconscious and near death perception syndrome).

Let me say we are imprisoned in three dimensions.

Mathematically of course there are as many dimensions as 13 dimensions.

How can we enter into the fourth dimension assuming that the aliens who visit us are not in our dimension but within a different domain or dimension?

Supposing these guys remain only in their dimension then they are at a definite advantage and can blindfold us in many ways.

To interact with us, they have to shape change and enter into our (three) dimension at least temporarily and hijack human subject's conception.

This has happened in our history (after Roswell) and this is kept as a mystery from global human conception.

Why?

I do not know?

Is there a secret agenda of guys/girls who are interacting with human subjects?

Or is it an agenda developed by the our secret governments in existence to hoodwink the masses?

What have we discovered from MK Ultra?

Why they have disbanded these inquiries?

I think we are in the dark.

It is not 40% but 60% according to my professors outlook.

The 20% that has been discovered is kept as a secret by the world’s secret dictators of intelligence.

Why?

I do not know.

Conundrum

Conundrum

One year of self induced divorce from political, religious and scientific investigation was a revelation.

For more than 15 years (included books too) I have tried to change the way we think about every aspect of social life.

When I realized that Internet was used by Intelligent agents for eavesdropping not only on opponents (Russia, America, China) but even an innocent citizen (Ceylon used this mentality to induce an ethnic bias), I was very ashamed.

I give priority to privacy.

Me using, Linux was one way of avoiding conflict of interest, with proprietary commodities.

Also to promote copyright law.

I have no political ambitions except helping people who need help (more of education rather than giving a dole).

People who say that they are public servants or political activists (include media, too) have failed to enforce law and order in this country. That started from early seventies and over 50 years now.

According to Victor Ivan less than 5% are convicted all the others are on bail or absconding.

Let me now highlight our fallacies.

1. We procrastinate and postpone action.

The latest victim is MS.

2. The previous government ploy was to use prominent lawyers to protect criminals.

3. NATO ploy, No action but Talk Only Show.

This was our political show.

4. People without brains take up politics as a profession.

Brainy (Brain Drain) fellows leave our shore.

5. They live in other countries, until their retirement and come here to avoid bitter winter but dish out remedies like dishwasher liquids.

6. No recrimination or remorse having done the wrong things repeatedly (J.V.P and L.T.T.E are good examples).

7. No ability for reconciliation.

Hold onto old ideas until they reach 80s and die with them.

8. National papers, especially English publish articles written by oldies little bit edited for the current use.

9. We neglect the youth and their aspiration is to go 
abroad even in the kindergarten.

10. Lack of ability to think in present tense (only past glory or future vendetta).

I think above ten statements summarize our predicament.