Criteria for defining suitability of Linux Distributions

22-07-2011

With Gnome 3 and Kernel 3 in the horizon and tablet in the market and Ubuntu making a radical changes to desktop with Unity already arrived, I have decided to award a point scheme for all the distributions active now and write an update for all the Linux distributions I have downloaded so far.

 

That means moment I post an update on a distribution, my old writing here probably become obsolete and would be taken out without any notice.

I would be grateful if you post any errors of omission or commission on those post already here.

That means future posting will be slow to come and try my best avoid any errors.

I will keep the point scheme close to my heart and won't publish them here but on a future date if necessary may do that for completeness sake.

Points are given on quantitative as well as qualitative reasons.

Lowest mark is 10 and the highest mark is 300.

For an example I give 10 marks if it is only in French and 100 marks for multi-language capability.

 

I will give 300 marks if it includes Sinhala and multi-language capability.

Similarly Ubuntu Unity gets 300 for its innovative approach and as a teaser for loyal fans who hate the new approach. I would include the total points for the old version as well as new version.

This analysis is with desktop users in mind and server editions won't get any additional mark but I would state that server is available.

 

I will start with Linux Mint, since it has O.E.M version, codecs version with minimal multimedia support and almost pure without any software infringements and full version with additional software.

It is a complete desktop and laptop friendly and currently is the top most downloaded  at distrowatch.

 

 It has both 32 and 64 bit versions.

I am going to stop stating that PCLinux is the Gold Standard of live CD to eliminate my personnel bias on that distribution but have a Hypothetical Gold Standard defined by criteria below and with a point award of 2500.

 

So anything that approaches 2200 for CD version and above is potential Gold Standard and you are free to try it.

 

Nobody will get 100% assuming that no distribution has reached its peak and would be trying to achieve that gold with constant improvement an bug fixes.

For DVD the point award is 3500 points and anything that tops 3000 is a good value with 90% to 95% of all software.

 

I am a believer that "small is beautiful" and would figure out a way to award points and my guess is Puppy will come on top but there are equally good small utilities like SliTaz, 4MLinux, gParted and  pMagic.

 

You are welcome to critically analyze my future writing with feedback but there is no attempt to compare with Microsoft and Apple Mac and in the next 5 to 10 years Linux will be way ahead of both of these distributions and I am not the one who need any pep commercial talks. 

In this period of course Linux guys and girls have to make 1000 and 1000 of tiny games and blockbuster games to invade the market in style. 

 

They are already there on mobile phones and they have to mature with the hardware specially tablets in mind.

Criteria

A. Use

1. Live CD installable

2. Light Weight

3. Mini to LXDE to Standard

B. Internet  

4. Easy Access to Internet

5. Automatically Configure Internet

6. Browser (ideally Firefox) Capability

7. Other browsers- 5 for each additional browser

8. Email Capability-Thunderbird

9. Google gadgets but not essential

10. Torrent Down Loader

11. Skype or alternative

12. Cloud-Dropbox

13. Cloud Other

C. Productivity

14.Office Package -Abiword

15.Office Package -Other Open office

16.Office Package -PDF Reader

17. Scribus

18. CD burner (ideally K3B-50)

19. CD burner (10 others)

20. LightScribe/LaCie (100)

D.Graphic

21. GIMP

22. Blender

23. Inkscape

24. Digicam

25. Tuxpaint

26. Special Graphics

27. Others

E. Audio

28. Mixer

29. Alsa

30. Others

F. Video

31. Imagination

32. VLC Player

33. Miro Internet TV

34. Cheese

35. TV Card

36. Others

37. Media Players including ability play itunes and divx  

G. Essential Utilities

38. Stable Grub Configuration

39. Partitioning tool is essential(ideally Gparted)

40.Ability to clean up the temporary file at boot up

41. Updates and Package management

H. Archiving

42. Ark

43. File Roller

I. For Children

44. Light Weight Games

45. Children Version (150)

46. Gcompris

 J. Subjective

47. Reliability (most of them are)

48. Speed at start up (most of them are slow except YOPER)

49. Quick installation

50. Portability

51. Type of Desktops (Genome/KDE)

52. Down loader that start from where one has left / stopped earlier

53. On line updates

54. Infrequent Cycles of Change

55. Downloads available for LibreOffice, Open office, Skype (25 for each)

56.Speed at Start Up

K. Linux Fundamentals

57. Separate administrator in addition to normal user

58. Reliable Package Manager

59. Multi-Language in addition to English (5 for each Language-Total-100)

60. Sinhala Language Capability  (200)

61. Terminal  

L. USB Boot Up

62. UnetBootIn

63. USB Creator

64. Live CD creator

M. Emulators

65. DOS

66. Wine

67. Oracle VM

68. Apple Emulation

N. Games

69. Light Weight

70. Advanced Games (25 for Each)

O. Educational

71. Google Map

72. Tux Guitar

73. Tux Maths

P. Special and Development Utilities

74. Gambase

75. Web editor

76. PHP Admin

77. Scientific packages like statistics

Q. Access to Information

78. Home Web Site

79. Essential information including installation password etc

80. The facility for registration and writing reviews

R. Special Attributes

81. Less than 50 MB

82. Less than 200 MB

83. Less then 500 MB

84. Innovative approach GOBO and YOPER

S. Finances and Printing

85. Gnumeric

86. GnuCash

87. Printing

S. Very Special

88. Religion

89. Language

90. Kernel Version

91. Version Number

92. New Desktop Type

93. Innovative Changes

94. 32 bits only

95. Both 32 and 64 bits

96. O.E.M.Version

97. ORCAS - Visually Handicapped

98

99

100

New Ubuntu Desktop Unity

I was never a Ubuntu fan and I took sometime before downloading Ubuntu and before that I read couple of web articles and if I had been Ubuntu fan, I can very well understand the logic, frustration and criticism of the loyal fans.

I have gone from Redhat to Mandrake to Suse to PCLinux and Mepis and know very well the pain I went through when Redhat dished us out to Fedora Community Project.
After Fedora 3, I gave up and that change in my  attitude and experimenting with other distributions even though troublesome was a very good experience.

After all I gave up Microsoft and giving up a distribution was easy because I used to have at least 5 operating system including Win 98 and XP in my computer and switching and testing and falling back to most stable and useful distribution came second nature to me.

In addition it made me to migrate to Live CDs and over the past two years, I have been talking about almost all of them I have downloaded and tested. Writing about their virtues and sore points has become a habit and when I test I have no preconditions attached to the exercise.

No expectations at all.

Testing Ubuntu Unity (which I have in principles supported due to other reasons ) was no different and no strings attached.

I tested it with my old computer (old IBM Netvista) which was disaster by itself and it booted up with graphic images with no fonts.

I came across this problem with several new Linux distributions including PapugLinux, JULinux and Taylor Switch  (KVM switch) and knew immediately to exit and boot it with my IBM Think Center and the subsequent experience was totally different and Unity booted up with a beautiful desktop which looked somewhat liked MeeGo (not that elegant) and getting round was a completely new desktop experience and I could not see any familiar features of Ubuntu.

My first need was the workspaces which I am so used to now without them I will have a heart attack.

With some fiddling I found 4 workspaces and I could open and exchange the programs from 1 to 4 (workspace).

Then I wanted to fill the other 2 workspaces and I could not.

I searched the applications but then I had to leave the workspace and that experience was a very bad one, now that I got used to FullMonty nice desktop arrangement.

Then I hit the web browser and went to distrowatch and looked at the latest downloads of Linux distribution and Ubuntu is now sandwich between Mint and PClinux which has climbed up to 3 from 7.

This was a pleasant surprise for me.
I used PCLinux as the gold standard of Live CDs and an arbitrary reference, coined for testing other Lice CDs.

I can understand the reaction of the Linux users but I have some sympathy for Ubuntu and hope their experiment will succeed.

It ought to since tablets are coming to the market thick and fast and all the looks are Ubuntu is ready with this new innovation.

I have decided to give 300 points (for innovation) of my scale which I am revising now with the latest trends in the super highway.

If not I have no way of promoting Ubuntu as a general purpose Linux distribution.

Switching to LibreOffice was good.

It will be a rough passage for them knowing very well we shift our allegiance when our needs are not satisfied by the latest distribution.

That is what I did with Fedora.

Now after 10 more distribution I have switched back to Fedora since it is one of the few that support Sinhala Unicode.

I hope Ubuntu Unity do the same of supporting Sinhala and then I will be promoting Unity with some new found vigour.

Asus' Convertible Tablet-the tablet-plus-dock combo

Asus' Convertible Tablet is doing a good job of converting an android tablet into a user friendly laptop.

It's price is right and it is cute and serves the writer to be free when fully engaged in writing instead of sending messages with the touch pad system.

This is one reason I am reluctant to buy a Tablet now.
Asus has changes my mind but I still wait for a while till the hard disk is big enough.

The dock on the Transformer extends the battery life of the tablet.

 It has USB ports too and it is coming close to my specifications except allowing me to boot another Linux system (dual booting perhaps Sabayon)

That is why the Eee Pad Transformer have surpassed 400,000 units per month only second to iPad.

Days of iPad are numbered unless thy decide to cut the price an profit margin drastically.

Why I wont buy a Tablet soon?

Why I wont buy a Tablet soon?

The bad publicity and nasty feeling I get when I hear the word "Tabloids" has made me to change to tablet like all the good journalists who write on computers use this word tablet.
I apologise for my little discretion.

Tablets are going to take all us by surprise and when it hits the market and the price is right everybody will join the band wagon.

1.It is a light weight.

2. It is mobile smart phone.

3. It is a little touch screen computer.

4. It is the news reader.

5. It is the web browser.

6. It is in every C.E.O.’s hand

7. Unlike the paper it will read the news while you drive the car.

8. It is the E-reader

9. Business companion, stock dealer and buying machine on E-bay and stock Market

10. Sports can be live like in the TV but unlike TV you can replay the match or game you like.

All these fancy features make the yappies to go for it and the rest will follow. That is what the predictions are.

But I won’t buy one in a hurry.

I need the following conditions satisfied.

1. It should have an alarm or a siren attached to it as in the car doors.

Why?

Like laptops, mobiles and money it is the item everybody wants to steal.

It should have pass word protection.

Why?

If it is stolen the thief (unless he is a hacker) should not be able to use it and the user should be able to track it down.

3. It should have a location mapper or a tag which we put on dogs.

Why ?

4. It should have a long life battery.

5. It should have solar panel.

Why?

In countries like us where electricity price is exorbitant and on Sunny days when we have power cuts, this is the only fun we can have outdoors.

6. It should have satellite (not 3G or 4G version) communication facility.

Why?

In countries like us where the Telecoms never give the band with they promise us and we pay for, this is the only way we can tune into America and A.O.L

7.It should have at least 4 USB ports, if not ports ability to expand it to a switch and attach DVD and USB.

The above points are general purpose and below are my own specifications.

8. Big hard drive with ability to put my own Light Weight Linux Distributions instead of Android only and dual boot it.

9. Ability to boot up with my Pendrive, if the above cannot be allowed due to Company Law.

10. Ten is the most important one. Sturdy titanium case shock proof.

Why?

If Android does not work the way I want to thrash on the floor and see it survives.

If it does, I will appear free on a commercial for Google.

There is another reason. I was one who supported Google from the very beginning when they announced it, many moons ago and remained solid with it due to Linux capabilities and they did not invite me for the party and also did not give me a free version to test.

11. real reason I to not want to go for the tablet is the lack of good and easy keyboard but ASUS has changed this radically by adding a transformer / converter to the tablet.
Read my blog on Eee Pad Transformer.
 

12. All American car manufacturers should install a tablet in the dashboard with appropriate buttons to listen to music, TV and newspaper .

Why?

This way we can prevent lot of rad accidents, even in the the 3rd world and the big Americans can say they were the pioneers of prevention of road accidents.

Apart from that real reasons are anything that attempt to kill Linux or Free Software Foundation, I get activated by default.

This is why I support Unity of Ubuntu.

“Tabloid is going to make print media obsolete in the not so distant future. Ink print might disappear giving way to digital news. Unlike the print paper, it can read you the news while you drive your car. Local Paper edition might come in smart cards. Advertisement supplements in the digital format make one to order with the touch of one’s finger tips”.

BrowesrLinux401

Browser Linux should be better known as Browser Pup and is a Puppy lupu 510 derivative solely for the purpose of web browsing an is much better than Webconverger8.

It boots up quickly connects to the internet with a warning to use proper Puppy if one needs word processing and other features.
It is less than 100 (92 ) MiB and cleverly disguises lot of utilities including gParted and mount all the partition at boot up. it can be installed in a USB stick.
It can be used only for downloads and web browsing but if know how Puppy works lot of other things sometimes dangerous in wrong hands.
One good feature is it has a firewall that can be configured to ones advantage.
If you are web frantic this is for you and I have saved it in my Dropbox for sharing with Linux guys and girls especially Puppy fans.

Dream-12 and its interpretation from Heaven

It is a longtime since I had a good dream and the recovery from very recent dehydration episode made me to have a dream.

It revolved round me but a few of the family members were missing.
I will make it short.
I now dream about flying and going abroad.
Recent industrial action was a blessing in disguise and if it goes on like this I will not go abroad.
Who would not prefer having a long holiday on government account? 
Besides we need not have to take permission from the PM unlike when we go out.

The Dream

Story goes on like this.
We were abroad and my son was missing in the company, which is unusual.

We stayed with the President of that country and having a gala time till the last moment.
Let me say that the country was not America.

I was very careless to say the least and was having a good time with the President: forgot all my proactive precautions and protocols.. 

Usually I get everything ready the day before departure.
This time I did not.

The day of the departure I realized that I had lost my jacket and everything with it. lock, stock and barrel.

No passport, no money and no ticket.

Then when I went to my room I found the entire luggage was empty and only the traveling bag.

I came up to the President and told him the story.

He was very ashamed that I lost everything in his palace and told me that he will find the rouge later and took me to his dark room and took a photo of me from a Polaroid camera for the passport.

While he took the photos and asked me have I got the forms to fill and the money to pay our embassy and politely asked where the hell is your embassy located to which I said I did not know and haven't got the money too.

Then he asked me how quickly they can make a passport to which I said 24 hours.
I told, it is better to get some travel documents instead of a passport in a hurry.

Then he asked me what time the flight is and I said 3.30 pm.

This was lunch time and my wife was making some Sri-Lankan delicacy for the President's delight and she apparently and conveniently forgot the departure time and I thought they were playing a game with me to stay longer in and have the vacation extended since we were on industrial action at home.

Then I told them even if I am unable to catch the flight at least they should hurry up and go to the airport.

I thought without my passport the President would extend his courtesy and give his Private Jet for my travel with some travel documents.

Then she asked me what time is the flight and I told her 3.30 pm and she looked at the watch (time was 3.10 pm) and said how can I get dressed in 20 minutes and my daughter was nodding.

Then I panicked and missed a golden opportunity to fly home on a Private Jet of a President.

When I woke up gladly I was not fallen off the bed and I knew I was fully rehydrated from the recent runny bottoms.

Sat immediately in front of the computer and contacted heaven by email.

Maha Brahma was visibly amused by my story and returned an interpretation in kind and grace.

Interpretation

He said you are lucky that I did not complete the dream.

I told him I was going to get a private Jet to travel home.

Isn't it.

What nonsense nobody travel on a Presidential Jet nowadays.

Why?

In future President's travel by Electric bus or bullock carts and not by jets.

Don't you realize there is no oil on this planet then.

Well then, what happened to me if the dream continued.

Don't you realize, that your baggage was empty and you have lost your passport to stay abroad and you did not have time left for the flight.

All these are bad premonitions aren't they?

Well Yes was I going to "Kick the Bucket".

Exactly.

The empty baggage means you have exhausted your PIN (merits not the number).

Missing the flight mean that your Ayu Kala (the time on earth is finished) is over and the feast is the 7th day Dhana for you.

Then he said you must stop going to funerals and only go for weddings and festivals then you will have good dreams.

I told him the first part of the dream was very exciting and I was on top of the world and about to get into a Private Jet.

But the problem is that the second part of the dream is the realistic part and the beginning is just a dress rehearsal for a melodrama.

I told him the other day I went to a wedding and the next day I got the runs.

Did you eat a lot?

No, I did drop my wife and came back because of the industrial action and it was not proper for me to be seen in a wedding when on strike.

I had something from the supermarket and a Coca Cola and I am still trying to

figure out what went wrong and what initiated the runs.

You must be eating a lot and getting diabetic and Coca Cola is bad for you.

No, No we are on hand to mouth existence and that is why we are on strike.

Can you do us a favour?

Can you make our president to read the news in his dream and give us a reasonable settlement.

I suppose I now have to do that for me to have a good dream to interpret, from you.
May I ask you a favour.
Could I interrupt the dreams in mid stream if you are vulnerable, lest I miss the good dreams?
Or sure

See you soon with a salary increase and no dreams till then, ah?

Linvo-2010.12.6- Update

I must do justice to the developer Ivo Georgiev for the error I have made and stating it is Ububtu based sometime ago.

I must thank the anonymous commentator for raising the issue.

I have made some correction for his perusal too.

In his own statement which is given below he does not depend on any distribution but takes what is good from Linux community (that is a talent only a few has) and improve it for productivity.

 

His goal is to be easy and efficient to use without losing the stability of Linux.

Like a typical Linux guy he gives credit to (all scientist do this, otherwise science and medicine would not have progressed so far) where it belongs without a corporate mindset.

He has developed Linvo Applications too.

I hope like Texstar at PCLinux he does a credible job for us to enjoy.

I must say, I installed Linvo in my daughters computer sometime back since it was the only Linux distribution in which Skype was working then (my daughter wanted Skype).

I had some problems with the Grub then, since that computer also had PCLinux installed (subsequently downloaded Skype for PCLinux). 

As of then, only these two Linux Distributions had workable Skype and now the Skype is under Microsoft fold I need not say any more except Linux should develop its own Voice with Alpine Astaro and many in the field.

Mind you almost all PABX are run by Linux why the Linux Community cannot do a good job is my open question.

Hope Google will lead the masses.

Sorry for the diversion and I am downloading the latest version of Linvo and it is painfully slow due to poor telecoms and I will be with you with an update soon.

Linvo no longer depends upon another distribution, it is mostly developed independently, but it uses packages from Slackware, Arch Linux, additional packages from Gnome SlackBuild, Slacky, SBo, and Live Scripts for the LiveCD.

Development

The project is founded by me, Ivo Georgiev, and the development happens mostly by me.

PapugLinux and Python

 07-06-11

PapugLinux and Python

 

I have to signal some warning.
I have downloaded and tested the Live Cd and unfortunately it has the same problem that I have encountered with Swift Linux and JULinux.
It boots up but the fonts are not available.
I was inquisitive thinking that it is the problem with the switch that have connected to three computers with only one Monitor.
When I checked with USB Mouse and USB Keyboard I encounter the same problem.
I tested the keys on terminal and they worked alright with both through Switch and USB keyboard attached.
Problem is the etc/var/and fonts and I am not in a position to recommend it right now.
 

Gentoo in bit finicky as always.

I have reproduced here the latest release of PapugLinux and its web site content.

Hope they do not mind me doing that since I am directly promoting it to be used by our IT students.

I am no expert in Linux but use it for my daily work for the 10 years without any problem.

Reasons are obvious and our education department has made (without any books or prior research) python language almost compulsory for our students (students poor knowledge in English is a handicap).

One has to know how to work in a terminal and command line prompt to do simple as well as complex things in Linux. That is why I have reproduced the install procedure below including partitioning.

Please do not be lazy like me to use the graphic install for your early work. 

You must buy a secondhand computer with 20 GiB (2 to 4 GiB GIB is enough  for PapugLinux. Even though the image is 258 MB when installing the compressed files are expanded to to about 1.2 GB.

But remember if the RAM is 1 GB, one needs twice as much as SWAP (2 GB) and SWAP partition is essential for Linux.

Other essential thing is boot loader.

First command line is for install shell and the second command line is for boot.sh .

 

It is 10 years ago I did all this with RedHat and with all the RedHat publications in front of me when giving a command line instructions before I migrated to graphic install.

 

I still thank RedHat writers who did a yeoman service to Linux by writing instructions clearly for a newbie to learn. I have all the RedHat books up to FEDORA 6 in my library and if not for those books, I would not have come this far since I was a self learner (even in my profession).

 

Mind you each distribution has its own finicky way of doing things and Gentoo I have no experience since by the time I discovered Gentoo I was well into different tangent in Linux.

Has become a promoter of all Linux versions active and dormant.

If you have problems email it to the developer and learn to work as a team and not solo (old age catching up and I am not as talented as the young blood of today) like me.

Mind you I have the knack of picking up the right talent and most of them I have sent abroad with right connections and Master Gurus (with my medical connections having worked abroad).

PapugLinux is Gentoo based and Gentoo is ideal for learning basics of Linux but one should have a fast internet to install it from bottom up.

Live DVD has no install script in Gentoo.

Gentoo is famous for producing XBMC.

But Sabayon is installable and is a good Gentoo based distribution and its current version is out with many seeders at LinuxTracker.

For students in IT TurnKey lucid is also out and it also has bottom up approach with 100 of utilities including WordpPress.

 

Once you get a hand one should go to TurnKey utilities.

Dear PapugLinux users,

PapugLinux-11.1 is available for download, this is a major release in term of package update.
We choose to focus our additions on development tools for this version. The great Python language comes in 2 versions (2.7 and 3.1) and we also include Subversion and the very popular Git as version control systems. This could make PapugLinux a great bundle to start to learn Python or simply browse the open-source projects all over the world.
The live running-mode uses new tools and another compression format, this results in more content in a smaller size.
The desktop image credit goes to Flavio Takemoto from Brazil, this artist has a great portfolio of artwork.

Kindest regards,

Core

2.6 kernel

ALSA sound driver

X.Org X-Window server

Desktop

Fluxbox window manager

Mozilla Firefox web browser

AbiWord word processor

Gnumeric spreadsheet processor

Bluefish editor

Various CDR/DVDR tool

FR, PL, and US keyboard support

Server

Apache web server

Cups print server

ProFTP ftp server

Ssh server

Boot your computer with Papug Linux, then launch a terminal from the menu (RoxTerm, XTerm) and log as root (password papuglinux).

$ su -

You must create two partitions on your hard disk, if you don't plan to use the whole disk, be sure to backup your data. One partition will be used for the system and must be sized to 1.2GB or more. The other partition will be used for the swap and should be sized more or less the double of your RAM capacity.

The easiest way to do this operation is to use GParted as the file systems will be created in the same time. An alternative way using 'fdisk' and command line tools is possible in text mode.
# gparted

GParted will scan your devices, this can take a long time. Create the system partition using 'ext3' file system, most of users would also make this partition bootable. Then create the swap partition. Please refer to GParted website if you need more informations.

Note the partitions name used, it will be needed for later operations. Most of users should have /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2 or /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2.

After preparing your disk, you can proceed to the installation. This process will mainly copy the content of the Live CD to your hard disk, then perform some needed operations.
In the following code, be careful to correctly set the parameters, the first one is the system partition, the second one is the swap partition.
# cd /root/install
# ./install.sh [system_partition] [swap_partition]
(eg. ./install.sh /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2)

Most of users will have to make PapugLinux bootable on their computer. If you have another system installed on your computer (Linux or Windows) skip this operation, you need to manually set up the boot loader, you can email me for help if needed.

Once again be careful when typing the following code. The first parameter is the system partition, the second parameter is the disk id (mostly the same as the system partition except the last number which represents the partition).
# ./install-boot.sh [system_partition] [disk_id]
(eg. ./install-boot.sh /dev/hda1 /dev/hda)

PapugLinux should now be installed on your computer. Exit the terminal then reboot your computer. Remove the Live CD during the computer startup process.

Tabloid, News Reader, E-reader and the new Education Tool

Tabloid is going to make print media obsolete in the not so distant future. 

1. Ink print might disappear giving way to digital news.

2. Unlike the print paper, it can read you the news while you drive your car.

3. Local Paper edition might come in smart cards.

4. Advertisement supplements in the digital format make one to order with the touch of your finger tips

5. sports can be live like in the TV but unlike TV you can replay the match or game you like.

6. It has audio and video capabilities

7. Even amazon is going to phase out E-Reader and go for Tabloid.

8. All these are due to Linux and Android entering the market. It is a reality and not futuristic.

9. Tabloid is your News Reader, E-Reader, the smart phone, the web browser and the travel companion.

10. This is why I support Unity and very soon Google's Android with Linux operating system will overtake the Apple's iPod, since they are going to market it at affordable prices.

11. Not only that, smart news papers magnets will dish out OEM version of Tabloid at cut price with their subscription attached to the deal.

In the next 10 years we going to see amazing changes in the West. 

I do not see these changes will come true in this part of the world where professors in IT industry has to go behind politicians in begging for his or her salary increase. 

The promise of giving computers to university on loan will be a wasteful exercise and students drawn into debt no sooner they enter higher education.

If you are a smart student one should not go into debt buying a laptop before Tabloids hit the market.

If you do so, you might have to be in debt for two items instead of one.

Sabayon-6.0-Sinhala Linux Update

Sabayon which is Gentoo derivative with XMBC media center as a good product is coming out like PCLinux with all the little little distribution including E!7-Enlightenment. While Gentoo is wasting time producing a huge Live DVD without an install script, Sabayon is doing a yeoman service to the Linux Community.

It is even one better than PCLinux for Sri-Lankans and it has Sinhala capability too. I hope Sinhala translators will help it to get Sinhlaa Unicode (Tamil too) in robust form now that tabloids are hitting the market.

Had I not got used to PCLinux and FullMonty, this is one I will use for sure on a regular basis.

I have only little caution XBMC is graphic intensive and if you have RAM less than 1 GiB the big version is not for you.
XMBC that comes with KDE version did not configure with my old Graphic Card and it has touch creen capability for new LCV monitors and (tabloid ready) laptops which is keeping with new hardware.

The LXDE version is pretty good and it runs well in my old IBM NetVista.

Unlike PCLinux it has both 32 and 64 bit versions and i am still waiting for PCLinux 64 bit version.

Sabyon is keeping it promise to the dream we believe on.

Well done guys and girls at the Sabayon Community.

Go ahead and enjoy Sabayon.

Debian Collection-Sinhala Capability

I am afraid you are not going to hear, I relate, any good dreams for a while and I was under the weather, this time not due to verbal diarrhoea of a political variety but really runny bottoms which virtually dehydrated me and the forced starvation had caused even hypoglyaemia to the extent, I have a slight headache even interfering my prolonged sleep on a Poya Day.

What usually happen is I have a good invigorating dream on Pre-poya day and I go straight to the computer and an email to Maha Brhma who virtually responds instantaneously to my dreams.

You may remember, we had an agreement unless the dream content has some humour, both ways my actual dreaming of it and its interpretation by Maha which makes the earthling practically starving of a good laugh, keep amused away from our boring politicians.

Suffice is to say I had some little fragmented dreams of no significance but a good one is long due.

Probably our cricket team's poor performance and Sanga's muted Revelations of Sri-Lankan Cricket would get no Sri-Lankan into a good mood awake or in dreams.

I have to agree with Sanga that Cricket was not something alienated with power politics or racial overtones whether it is South, North, East, West of in the Central Hills in the past but it seems under the present regime it has become alienated to extent one who is a Buddhist and coming from deep south only will get a chance to play for Sri-Lankan team as a newcomer and  s/he should be in the ruling party as a member of the parliament or avid supporter to get some contracts to fatten his or her foreign exchange illegally.

Corruption is ripe and only difference is unlike Indians our officers are cushioned by political maneuvers.

This is what Sanga could not state (not the 9 O'clock News item) but his resignation at a time when we had not groomed a viable successor, is an indication of his disgust how cricket is manged here in Sri-Lanka.

Well done Sanga, you come from the hill capital was the only one like our  Late Kadhiragarman who value principles of good governance. 
I suppose you should  now concentrate on law rather than cricket. 

Be a chip of the old block.

Time will tell who with the political backing will get the baton but who ever who comes with political baton will be sure to fail, since cricket is the only game where power politics has no place.

England has shown us how it is done with transparency and I won't be surprised if England will lift the Cup next time around if they persevere with combination of youth with talent and senors with grit.

Just for record the criticism of of Trot was unwarranted and he is the one who helped to lift the cup and silenced English armchair critics.

Well done Trot you have more to offer as a Senior Player, if Sanath can play at 41 plus you should be playing at 38 plus if you keep your fitness, technique and solid temperament to win the game for your country right, in the shorter version of the game.

But if you are not up to it don't wait like Peterson but follow the Thescovic example and play for your county till 40 plus and enjoy the gentleman game.

I hope you will be in the team which lift the next world cup and I will be following you very closely if not the others in your team and if you need a push I will certainly give it, far away from your home from the East.

Make sure you beat Indians this time round in summer like what you did in Australia.

Indian money and politicians are ruining the game and only English can save the game from disgrace, IPL included. 

We should never allow Bolliwood to fashion the game!

Please do not follow Chandimal and Mathews methods and they have learned these very, very bad habits from our politicians who have nothing but using fallen soldiers for their grandiose acts posthumously.

I am far off the target from Linux and Debian in particular.

Reason for diversion is nothing but I am waiting for the download of the last two DVDs in 386 version (I have 64 bit version) which is pretty fast due to so many seeders.

Now I have array of CDs/DVDs to promote Sinhala Linux and devoting my time for Debian during our industrial action which has given me ample time to sit in front of the computer.

Debian has produced bug fixes and I have downloaded them too.

I am gland they have followed my advice to break the distributions into Bonobo to Gorilla versions and Light Weight Chimp Versions of 500 MiB is the one that is going to rule the world for next 20 years with "Cloud Computing" on the horizon and Tabloids invading the market with very very cheap hardware.

I think Deann fork should follow Unity experience while maintaining Linux Mint under Debian fold.

Next 10 years should be the Linux Penetration Decade (LPD) of the masses which is only 1% currently. If Linux can make it to 10%, it is going to be a market force and the other 90% should be the "Cloud Servers" which will dominate the next 20 years until another innovation hits the web.

Linux Mint-An Update

Linux mint is trying to forge away from Ubuntu, Kubuntu derivatives and that is a very encouraging change since they are going back to basics.

Go back to Debian base and forge ahead.

Reason being the change of canonicals to Unity.

I am one who is in favour of Mark Shuttleworth's smart move.

Yes it is a smart move by him.

He is doing a Bill Gate to Linux Community.

I wish him success.

Linux missed the opportunity for netbooks and I do not want to see it misses on tabloid too.

Like iPads, tabloid is the future.

We must not let only Apple to dominate the market.

Google's Android has shown the way and Ubunbtu should not miss this opportunity come what it may.

I am highlighting Linux Mint here since it overtook Ubuntu head and a nose recently in downloads at DistroWatch and Ubuntu in the last week or so putting its nose ahead again.

Linux Mint did not miss time in promoting both Ubuntu 10 and Ubuntu 11 base.

Not only that it did not forget the Debian and out came Debian Mint in Last December.

Linux Mint was thinking ahead and getting ready for all the consequences resulting from Unity experience and not forgetting the community they were with.

Like PCLinux Linux Mint gave variety of options and Long Term (LTS) support and rolling editions and also brand new version based on Debian for the newcomers and the newbies.

This is what was lacking with Ubuntu.

They did not have two versions but with too much enthusiasm promoted Unity only.

They can reverse this by supporting their community who were with them when Microsoft was dominating the field.

It is not too late, let the user decides the trends of the future what canonicals and Mint and Debian should do is to be ready for all the eventualities including brickbats were call in our country.

God Luck to everybody in Linux and especially the developers and without you we do not have a customer base,too.

In any case innovation is the future for IT both hardware and software.

Warning to Linux Newbies-Swift Linux and JULinux

When I looked back over the last 18 months it is with some comfort I report to you that only once I had to warn the newbies about a distribution.

That was a derivative of Linspire and came out as freespire under the shadow of a proprietary operating system and with a script attached to its iso that interfered with my iso images download.

Since then, I have been using as moderate firewall but not paranoid about security but unlike Microsoft uses take it as a sore throat but not a sore mind or a disaster at work.

But the perennial problem of download speed of our Telecoms (guys in Sri-Lankan telecoms are the best in the service sector but their political directors who have no idea how to improve the services are the real pests) also I have sorted out by using torrent and keeping my isos accessible as seeders (especially the old version of isos) for global community.

Thank you guys and girls in torrent community and the service providers in which LinuxTracker is leading the pack.

I detected it in three hours and traced the culprit to India who had taken the freespire iso and modified with some bad intent.

Since then I have downloaded more than 200 iso files without a problem but just this week I found two iso files with some serious bugs.

One is TaylorSwift (AntiX derivative) and the other is JULinux (Just Use Linux-an Ubuntu derivative).

Please note that I did not have problem with JULinux (Christian Edition) any problem with JULinux except the image presently at LinuxTracker Version 8 Stable.

I could never boot up Pixie Linux in spite of downloading three different versions which is a derivative of Gentoo Linux. Problem with Gentoo is if one is without (having) a good internet connection one can never install it. Many in the third world has no internet connection and even if they have one the download sped is painfully slow.
It is imperative these poor guys and girls should not be deprived of the use of a good Linux distribution, simply because there is no install script.
It (Pixie) does not have installation script which is a minor matter  for a developer to include in a distribution having worked so many hours fixing minor bugs and making a fully fledged distribution.

I hope Pixie will fix this until then I cannot make any comment stating that it is good distribution in the third world context.

Now that canonicals is discontinuing the free distribution of Ubuntu by post it is time other distributions take note and include a installation script.

I think of giving minus points to all the Live distributions (CD/DVDs) without (would be a good  move all reviewers should consider and follow when writing reviews) a install script in view of the hassle they cause newbies who want to install a particular distribution having tested a Live CD/DVD.

Swift Linux had some problem with its server lately and their download was hopeless to say the least and now the images are transferred to free software foundation download site.

Both of them booted up with only graphic images and without keyboard functionality and keyboard keys were missing and only graphic images were there.

With Swift Linux of course I tried to use a different language but the result was the same.

No alpha numeric letters to type, either due to wrong keyboard configuration or abiword not having fonts installed.
Old distributions have a special directory where fonts and Unicodes are installed and I had to get Sinhala fonts in the correct place to get keys I type had a meaning at the display terminal some 12 years ago.
When I got it it was some exciting adventure and soon Mandrake (not Mandriva) introduced auto-installation of fonts.

Either way it will discourage the newbies downloading or trying a Live CD, until the developers fix the bugs.

Sometime due to haste the developers upload the image (sometime without instructions for name and password to log in) without seriously checking, the functionality.

I think my decision to write at least 100 Linux distributions instead of best 10 to 20 was a useful exercise to me and to all newbies all over the globe.

I am going to wind up downloading and  testing after downloading all Debian and Mint CD/DVDs and would be concentrating on Sinhala and Tamil Linux, for  while.
But if the industrial action continues I will have no option but to continue this exercise to keep me intellectually occupied instead of being bored.

Hope readers pass any messages of this type to my site and then I will download them and test them myself and write a review for a larger Linux Audience.