A Long Rest!

Writing by admin on Monday, 10 of September , 2007 at 6:35 pm

Comments (2)

Category: Shift+Backspace

Shift+Backspace Update

Writing by admin on Friday, 10 of August , 2007 at 9:02 am

Ninja’s NinjaMy apologies for the lack up updates recently, August has been insanely busy with exams and a side-project I have been working on. Additionally, I will be on vacation for the next week to ten days, but in the meantime check out DistroWatch and tuxmachines.org for your Linux needs.

Would you like to see the side-project I have been working on? Head on over to Ninja’s Ninja, a collection of the best, and most funny, places on the interwebs! I started this small project with a friend just a few days ago and it looks like it is mostly done now.

Hope everyone has a great last few weeks of the summer!

Cole

Comments (2)

Category: Shift+Backspace

SimplyMEPIS 7.0 Prebeta - A First Look

Writing by admin on Friday, 3 of August , 2007 at 11:05 am

With so many beta releases coming in the near future, I have decided to install them to provide my readers screenshots. These articles will not contain much useful information regarding the release, but will give a brief overview of how the system looks. Yesterday, the first release pre-release version of MEPISSimplyMEPIS 7.0 was announced. This is a prebeta release (alpha to many users) meaning that this is still in major testing and should not be used for production machines requiring stability.

This release marks the end of a great Ubuntu-based distribution, but the beginning of a spectacular distribution based on Debian - and yes, I do know that Ubuntu is based on Debian. Below is a section of the MEPIS press release, courtesy of MEPIS. Please read the rest of the press release for more information.

MEPIS has discontinued using Ubuntu binary packages in favor of a combination of MEPIS packaged binaries based on Debian and Ubuntu source code which is combined with a Debian Stable OS core and extra packages from Debian package pools.

Warren Woodford of MEPIS explains the change “By using the latest Debian and Ubuntu source code for building user applications, we can provide the best latest versions of the applications users want the most. And by building on top of a Debian Stable core, we can provide a release that has the the stability and long life that users want.”

Warren continues “Most Linux users are tired of having to reinstall every 6 months in order to have up-to-date applications. We expect that with this approach MEPIS can offer a superior user experience that will be incrementally upgradeable for 2 years without reinstallation of the OS.”

The prebeta includes a 2.6.22 kernel, Debian Etch core, KDE 3.5.7, Firefox 2.0.0.5, Thunderbird 2.0.0.4, and OpenOffice 2.2.1. This is an early release with many rough edges. In particular the splashy boot splash does not run reliably, some extra kernel drivers are not yet compiled for the new kernel, some gui components are not themed for MEPIS, and the prebeta has had very limited testing.

I have been playing with the system for the past few hours and have not had one hiccup when it comes to web-browsing, document creation, FTP, or mild system admin. While I have noticed very few differences, I look forward to seeing how this great system looks for the official 7.0 release expected later this year.

Feel free to check out my SimplyMEPIS 6.5 review or for those readers that just wantto see some screenshots for this prebeta release follow the link! (Read more…)

Comments (6)

Category: Linux

Vector Linux 5.8 SOHO - A Review

Writing by admin on Friday, 27 of July , 2007 at 2:56 pm

Vector LinuxLets keep this review ball rolling! After a few incoming links from the Vector Linux website I decided to give their latest offering, Vector Linux 5.8 SOHO, a look. I was quite excited when I noticed that Vector is based out of Canada, my home country. Based on the Slackware 11.0 code-base, Vector tried to deliver a more complete, out-of-the-box system. Now, lets head over to DistroWatch for the summary (clearly written by a huge fan) of the Vector distribution.

“Vector Linux is a small, fast, Intel based Linux operating system for PC style computers. The creators of Vector Linux had a single credo: keep it simple, keep it small and let the end user decide what their operating system is going to be. What has evolved from this concept is perhaps the best little Linux operating system available anywhere. For the casual computer user you have a lightening fast desktop with graphical programs to handle your daily activities from web surfing, sending and receiving email, chatting on ICQ or IRC to running an ftp server. The power user will be pleased because all the tools are there to compile their own programs, use the system as a server or perhaps the gateway for their home or office computer network. Administrators will be equally as pleased because the small size and memory requirements of the operating system can be deployed on older machines maybe long forgotten.”

Wow, so is this really the holy grail of Linux distributions? Let me just say, not quite (but please read the rest of the review for details). Vector has been consistently in the top 20 distributions, according to the unofficial DistroWatch rankings. The system was installed on my desktop computer, therefore forcing me to use it continuously for about a week.

Follow the link for the rest of the review! (Read more…)

Comments (498)

Category: Linux, Review

Pownce Invites!

Writing by admin on Thursday, 26 of July , 2007 at 9:31 am

I have 3 Pownce invites left. The first 3 people to email me will each get one. If you do not know what this is, head over to the Pownce website!

Cole

Leave a comment

Category: Shift+Backspace

Linux Mint Releases

Writing by admin on Tuesday, 24 of July , 2007 at 10:35 pm

Minty Fresh!After all of my ‘distro-hopping’ I always find myself coming back to install Linux Mint on my main machine. Based on Ubuntu, Linux Mint offers a greatly enhanced GNOME interface as well as a more complete, out-of-the-box, experience. No need to install codecs, Java, Beryl, and more - it is all just ‘there’. One of the main problems experienced by the Mint crowd is that KDE and XFCE editions have not yet been released for version 3.0. Well, no longer! The official KDE release should be out next week and the XFCE in the near future (beta versions are currently available). With Mint climbing the DistroWatch rankings, this is great news for a fantastic distribution.

For more on Linux Mint, please check out my review of version 3.0 - Cassandra!

Now it is time for me to install Sabayon 3.4 - released earlier today! This, I believe, is my first Gentoo-based operating system so I hope to give it a good ride before posting my review!

Time for some formatting,

Cole

Leave a comment

Category: Linux

FileZilla - A Short Review

Writing by admin on Sunday, 22 of July , 2007 at 2:45 pm

Often I get questions regarding the software that I use on a daily basis. While I use Firefox, the GIMP, Amarok and VLC daily, I also use a fantastic FTP client, FileZilla, many times a day. In the past I have used clients such as CuteFTP and WS_FTP, but these require payment of $30+, so my trials would always expire forcing me to change. FileZillaThen, a couple of years ago, I came across FileZilla, one of the most highly downloaded applications from SourceForge.net. Not only is FileZilla open-source (under the GPL), but it is also available on all major systems - Linux, Mac, and Windows.

The current stable release, 2.2.32, was released in April of this year, while the current unstable, 3 Beta 11, was just released a few days ago. Currently, I am running a previous beta release and have noticed no issues - so if interested, I recommend downloading the most recent beta rather than the stable. As far as installation is concerned, most Linux distributions will have FileZilla in their repositories, making it a simple apt-get install filezilla away on many Debian-based distros and available in the package managers for others. Those using Macs, the .tar files are available on the FileZilla page at SourceForge.net and for Windows users, the .exe installer is also available on the FileZilla page.

Follow the link for the rest of the article. (Read more…)

Comments (4)

Category: Open-source, My Computer, Cross-platform, Free software, Review

Elive 1.0 - A Review

Writing by admin on Thursday, 19 of July , 2007 at 9:42 pm

EliveThe first full version of Elive, 1.0, was released at the beginning of July this year to a fair amount of acclaim. It has been touted as one of the most visually appealing distributions, but how does it stake up against the out-of-the-box review style of Shift+Backspace? I have been quite busy with work over the last week and have kept Elive installed on my desktop computer, making it my primary operating system. That being said, I found myself often booting into a live CD version of Linux Mint 3.0 as I generally did not like Elive 1.0. Of course, I do want to give Elive a fair review, so lets do the regular and head over to DistroWatch for the brief description of Elive.

“Elive, or Enlightenment live CD, is a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution and live CD featuring the Enlightenment window manager. Besides being pre-configured and ready for daily desktop use, it also includes “Elpanel” - a control centre for easy system and desktop administration.”

This relatively new distribution has climbed the DistroWatch rankings quite quickly and is already at number 23. Elive is the first distribution I have ever installed that uses the Enlightenment desktop environment, so please take this into account throughout this review (most of what I say may apply to the environment over the actual distribution).

Follow the link for the rest of the review!

(Read more…)

Comments (68)

Category: Linux, Review

Pardus 2007.2 - A Review

Writing by admin on Thursday, 12 of July , 2007 at 11:27 pm

PardusThe latest installment of Pardus, version 2007.2, was officially released on, July 12, 2007. Pardus is a relatively new distribution based on GNU/Linux. Worried this review has been rushed due to the recency of the release? Do not worry, I had been using the release candidate for a while now and installed the official release before authoring this review. The distribution comes from Turkey, but is available in a vast number of languages. Lets head over to DistroWatch for the short, but sweet, overview of the distribution.

“Pardus is a GNU/Linux distribution funded and developed by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey. Pardus has a range of unique features, such as Mudur, a start-up framework of Pardus to speed up the boot process, and PiSi, an efficient package management system with a user-friendly graphical interface.”

While some readers may argue that looking at the DistroWatch rankings is useless, I feel that it offers a general idea of the popularity of many distributions. Pardus is currently ranked 46th overall, making it the lowest ranked distribution I have reviewed, but that being said, I have received a dozen or so emails asking for an overall look at this latest edition. I have installed Pardus 2007.2 on my desktop (AMD 3700+, ATI X800XL) for the purpose of this review. Please note that this review is quite short, therefore I invite any Pardus users to write about their experience in the comments below.

Please follow the link for the rest of the review! (Read more…)

Comments (71)

Category: Linux, Review

Help Me!

Writing by admin on Monday, 9 of July , 2007 at 8:24 pm

As I have mentioned many times previously, I am working on a complete redesign of Shift+Backspace. Now I am having a huge problem - what content management system (CMS) should I use? Recently, I have received many requests from Shift+Backspace regulars regarding the creation of a community where members can participate in content creation and discussions. The CMS options I am currently weighing are Joomla! and Drupal. Both seem to be capable of what I want to use them for, but also offer very different specialties. I have read plenty of articles and forums discussions for both Joomla! and Drupal, as well as many noting the differences and where to use each. Unfortunately, many of these resources offer opposite opinions, making me feel that I really cannot go wrong with either. My understandings of each are as follows:

Joomla!

  • easy to install get set upJoomla!
  • requires fair amount of space
  • easier to maintain without intense coding knowledge
  • more themes
  • more extensions
  • difficult modification of themes
  • difficult to implement permalinks (big issue here)
  • massive community

Drupal

  • mildly difficult to set upDrupal
  • requires little space
  • knowledge of CSS and HTML requrired for maintenance
  • difficult/long path to design completion
  • few themes
  • requires much customization
  • permalinks available by default
  • can deliver more professional sites

Now, these understandings may not be completely accurate and are nowhere near complete so please add comments below with further details regarding each. Currently, I seem to be leaning towards Drupal, but I still have no idea which will best suit my needs while being easy to implement.

One more dilemma, both Joomla! and Drupal are in late beta stages presently. This means that new versions 1.5 and 6.1, respectively, will be released shortly. Should I wait for the new versions to be released (hopefully by August), should I install the current beta versions, or should I install the current stable versions, 1.0 and 5.1?

I would appreciate any comments regarding either of these content management systems.

Cole

Comments (7)

Category: Shift+Backspace, CMS