Also, as an addition, I think they should put in the multimedia codecs and flash and have the LTS releases as paid editions for Ubuntu to help support development, pay for the legal rights to distribute the codecs, and earn a little profit from it. Then, once Ubuntu becomes really stable, I might have faith in it going mainstream again.

I guess I should first talk about my experience with KDE 4.5. From the probably 4-5 hours of me using it I can definitely see that this is going to be a release focused heavily on fixing bugs and stability. I noticed a few changes here and there to features, but I haven't really seen any new SIGNIFICANT features in KDE 4.5 RC. I would also like to say that the problems I had previously w/ Audio in KDE 4.x, where if you use a GTK app in KDE it would try to take control of the audio and not let any KDE apps use the Audio, is actually fixed, and I can now actually have the really annoying result of listening to a Youtube video in Chrome and Amarok at the same time, or just simply be able to hear an IM notice from Pidgin or Emesene while listening to music in Amarok. I did noticed a few bugs here and there, since it is a release Candidate, however, the issues I have previously with it have been fixed, and once its finally released next month I will heavily consider going from GNOME over to KDE!

Soo... if you managed to get anything from that mess of a paragraph, you can probably guess that I am still using GNOME for now. So, earlier Today I decided to try and install KVIRC, and this is where the troubles began. The .deb package was looking for older versions of the KDE packages and not the version that indicated it was the Release Candidate, so I just decided "hell with it" and started to remove the KDE packages anyway since I don't plan on using it until the final release of 4.5 anyway. Well, first I removed the repository, and I had to keep going from Dependency to Dependency until I found the one package that was still using the version from the repository. Needless to say, I finally managed to get it removed, but to remove that package it did ask me of one bizarre thing, that I had to remove fglrx. In the end I was able to reinstall my ATI drivers, but that was a bit weird (I haven't rebooted yet, so I hope nothing screws up). In the end I was actually able to install KVIRC, but that did take up about half an hour of my time trying to fix it and find out which packages I needed to remove/downgrade.

In the past 4 years of me having used Ubuntu (off and on of course), this is the first time where removing a repository and downgrading/removing packages from it has really given me any issues like this. But I guess it happens to most people at one point or another.

Oh, and while typing this I just thought of another thing I might do is ask a question at the end of each post in relation to what the topic was, so for example Today's question is:

So, have you had an issue w/ any repositories like that? And have you been able to fix them, find the root of the problem, or did you just say hell with it and reinstall Ubuntu?

Please leave a comment answering the question, or just what you think of the post in general. Also, if you like what I write, please subscribe to me using your favorite RSS reader. Have a great Weekend and Check back for a New Post Monday!

- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)

The post is brought to you by lekhonee v0.7

Lekhonee (Click for Larger Image)

So, to start off with the Basics, Lekhonee's UI is pretty straight-forward. You have an area to input your blog's message, a right sidebar for selecting categories, area to add your tags, and to include a Title. One thing I would like to mention is formatting is kinda limited to a few options, such as bold, Italics, including a link or Image, however, you do have the ability to include HTML formatting as you like. Overall I have to give the UI a 7/10, although it is very straight-forward and easy to use, you do have limited formatting options in the toolbar.

Now some of the not so obvious features of Lekhonee include being able to browse through and edit older posts (Edit > Old Posts), The Last Post (Edit > Last Post), or you can actually upload files as well (FIle > Edit) which I actually just learned about when writing this post.

Now, there have been a couple differences I've noticed between the KDE and GNOME versions of Lekhonee, one of which is how the Categories are selected on the right sidebar. On the GNOME version, if I want to select more than one Category, I have to press Ctrl (like I would in the file manager), while in the KDE version I can just select more than one w/o having to press Ctrl. Its a tiny annoyance and wouldn't prevent me from using the GNOME version of Lekhonee, however, it was a bit annoying when I when from first testing the KDE version to using the GNOME version. Another difference is probably due to the KDE version is ahead in development compared to the GTK version, but the bottom area in the GNOME version where it has the WordPress Tab it just says "For Future Use", whereas in the KDE version I see a button that says "Add Page". Although the button does nothing when pressed, I just found that interesting (as well as the fact that the KDE version had another tab at the bottom that was faded out that had the text "Future Work").

So overall I would have to say that Lekhonee is a pretty good, straightforward application for Blogging using WordPress, although it could use more options, it definitely does the job I need it to do. I would personally give Lekhonee a 8/10.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to Read Today's Blog Post, Subscribe and Check Back for Friday's Post in a couple days, and tell your friends about my blog as well. Another thing I would absolutely appreciate is Feedback in the comments section, whether you liked the blog post, disliked it, etc.

- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)

The post is brought to you by lekhonee v0.7

So in the past month I've probably used Ubuntu 10.04 95% of the time, and Windows Vista about 5% of the time. So, I'm definitely using Linux hell of a lot more than I have in the past, which is definitely a good thing! Yes, I have gotten used to the buttons being on the left side of the titlebar, and even Ubuntu's new Ambiance Theme (although I changed it to something else eventually anyway).

So, around a week and a half ago I decided to order a new 500GB HDD. I wasn't running dangerously low on space, but I figured I might as well order one just to have the extra space, have one nice really large drive, and for performance too (the 32MB of cache is pretty nice). The drive I ordered was a 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black. Absolutely amazing drive. Boots up into Ubuntu 10.04 much quicker than the 40GB I previous had Ubuntu on. And just to bring it, my previous drive configuration was 1x120GB for Vista, 1x80GB for Storage, and 1x40GB for Ubuntu 10.04. Now its 1x500GB for Ubuntu, 1x120GB for Vista, and 1x80GB for Storage. I'll include the unboxing video of the HDD below. I gave the 40GB SATA to my younger brother to use as an extra drive, which brings up the next topic.

My younger brother having had suffered 2 months on a A8N-SLI board (after trading motherboards with my other younger brother) which wouldn't work with his video card or Processor correctly (it detected his Socket 939 Athlon x2 as a Single Core), he finally got a new motherboard/CPU with 3GB of DDR2 RAM included. He's now finally able to use his 512MB 8600GT again, and his new CPU is an Athlon II x3 CPU at 2.7GHhz. Of course, because that boards only IDE channel would have been taken up by his Optical Drive, we had to order ANOTHER 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black drive. The pure fact that it was on sale AGAIN when we realized he needed another drive was some pretty good luck, otherwise we would have had to go with a 320GB or 250GB drive instead. But basically we set up a dual-boot on his system w/ XP and 7, plus a partition to store games. My youngest brother also got an upgrade out of this, including an upgrade to 2.5GB of RAM, Socket 939 Athlon x2 2.4GHz, and an extra 80GB IDE HDD.

Another thing I would like to mention is I have an extra Pentium D + a Board laying around I am actually considering doing something with. I just need to get a case, HDD, an optical drive for it (and maybe just a little bit more RAM). What I was thinking is I could possibly set that up to do videos on AND I will also probably use that as a machine to setup and do distribution testing and reviews on.

Anyway, I did mention I was getting used to Ubuntu's Ambiance Theme, well, thats when I decided to install the Elementary Theme Package, including The Elementary Modification of GNOME's File Manager Nautilus. I absolutely love this theme, and its actually going to be the Default theme of a Ubuntu-based distribution coming out called "Elementary OS". I think I might do a review on that in the future. That, along w/ Installing the AWN Dock, and using GNOME-DO, I can definitely say this UI is heck of a lot better than Window's UI.

So to continue on with my aimless rambling (is it really aimless?), while I kind of didn't go through with my blog every day in June, I definitely plan on doing more blog posts this month. I have been messing around with some pretty interesting software packages lately, mostly ones I found via Ubuntu's Software manager, that I would probably like to talk about, including an application I'm using to type this blog post in right now. So thats what I might focus my blog posts on in the next week, and I might even include videos. So, I would recommend keeping your eyes glued to this blog.

Anyway, thanks for reading this rambling blog post just updating a few things. Please subscribe to my Blog so you can keep on reading the next series of posts reviewing certain pieces of software, and I would definitely love some Constructive Feedback/Criticism in the comments section.

~ Tyler J. Brown

So, anyway. One of the things that has always kept me from always using Linux, especially when I used to be really really active over at McInTEC, is Ventrilo. I've tried various things from Virtual Machines, using Ventrilo in Wine, to trying under-developed projects such as Spux. Well, in the past month I found this piece of software called Mangler, which is a Ventrilo client for Linux. Their motto is “You should never use our software... ever.” Basically meaning that Mangler is to be used if you have no other option, and that you should opt to use Open Source alternatives for VOIP servers such as Mumble.

The Interface is very easy to use – basic, and the options aren't too hard to get at all. My Microphone works perfectly in it, Audio works, I can set comments, change the volume of people in the application, and more. Thats the very thing that surprised me, it worked. In the past few years this is the first successful Ventrilo client for Linux that I have even used.

Mangler Ventrilo Client

So basically, if you need to use Ventrilo for Linux and have no alternative, I would recommend looking at Mangler. It is a very good application and the best part about it: It works.

So yes, within the last few minutes of the day I managed to get this blog post out. I could have went more in depth about it, but it was a crazy day. Family came into town, first time I've seen em' in a year. Graduation practice was today, and graduation will be tomorrow. So, I will definitely be producing more in-depth posts later on in the month once things get a little back to normal. Otherwise, thanks for reading. Subscribe to see the other 29 posts I will do this month, hopefully, and check back tomorrow for the next post!

- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)

So anyway, to start off with, I kind of avoided using Ubuntu 10.04 for the first few weeks after release. Not because it was a new release or anything, but I wanted to give other distributions a try, and I wasn't really agreeing with some of the things Canonical was doing, and the attitude they had towards their users when the users were showing their discontent on the changes that Ubuntu had made to the titlebar, or the fact Ubuntu was trying to look and act like Mac OS X. Also, I tried the Beta out and I wasn't too big of a fan of it, even though I tried it in a VM. With the factors of the last time I tried 10.04 that it was in beta and that I tried it in a VM, and that I was getting a bit ticked off at PCLinuxOS KDE not wanting to properly install PulseAudio, I felt “Why not give Ubuntu 10.04 a try.”

So the first thing you notice thats new with 10.04 is the new theme that it has, and the change of the titlebar buttons being on the left instead of the right. Since the beta they re-arranged the buttons to make sense on the left side, so that is definitely a good thing. This is all part of Canonical changing Ubuntu's branding from “Linux for Human Beings” to “Light.” Some say it gives Ubuntu too much of a Macish look. I do agree, it does remind me a bit of OS X, but, it also has its own unique factors. What does bother me though, is the fact the designers Canonical chose to design this theme used Mac OS X to design it because they were too used to Photoshop. What bothers me about that is the fact I've seen HUNDREDS of great themes for GNOME on gnome-look without requiring the use of Photoshop. So I just saw that as a pretty pathetic excuse on the designers part. Now, I don't mind the buttons being on the left – and I can get used to them very quickly. However, I will say that back in the Alpha or beta, Canonical executed the change pretty badly pissing off quite a few people. I think if Canonical had decided to re-arrange the buttons to make sense on the left BEFORE releasing the Alpha with it, that there would have been much less of a negative response (however, don't underestimate the thousands of people who complain at the slightest change).

So besides a new look, and maybe some obvious software updates (Such as Firefox is now 3.6, OpenOffice.org is now 3.2, etc). One thing that I noticed in 10.04 that I didn't see in 9.10 is in the Ubuntu Software Center, it will now list software listed in repositories that are not in Ubuntu by default, which is pretty cool. Also, I think this could have been in response to the removal of a few apps in 10.04 such as GIMP, Ubuntu added a “Featured Applications” Section to the Ubuntu Software Center. I have to say, with each release of the Ubuntu Software Center (despite only having two releases so far), its looking really good, and definitely better than the old Add/Remove programs. Don't worry, theres still the good ol' Synaptic Package Manager for those who like to have more control.

Ubuntu Software Center 10.04

One of the major new features in Ubuntu 10.04 is the integration of a Social Networking tool called Gwibber. Gwibber allows you to integrate Facebook and Twitter right onto your desktop, and send status updates through the Social Menu on the top right. You can also manager your social media accounts, your Instant Messaging Accounts (through Empathy), and change your IM Status through that menu as well, and pidgin does support that last feature (although that was available in 9.10 as well). I have given it a try – through the menu and through the actual application, and it is very very nice for an integrated tool.

The Gwibber Window

Another major item that people made a big deal about in Ubuntu 10.04 is the Ubuntu One Music Store. This is a feature that I think is going to help Ubuntu out big time, and allows people to get music very easily from one source, and with prices that can compete with iTunes.

Ubuntu One Music Store

One of the other things I would like to talk about is performance. I have yet to run into an issue with it. Even with the default open source drivers, Compiz will run decently and without an issue. Even the proprietary ATI drivers are running Compiz Fusion just fine. And the reason I switched back to Ubuntu, PulseAudio, is working just fine.

I haven't really run into too many issues with Ubuntu 10.04. The first issue I ran into was the fact Ubuntu chose my 80GB to put GRUB on, and to fix that I basically put my 80GB on the first to boot, so that wasn't that much of a problem in the end. Another couple problems were due to the lack of features in GNOME, such as the lack of the ability to set different wallpapers per monitor, or the lack of ease of use in terms of setting up a panel on the second monitor. Again, beyond that, I haven't had all that many issues.

So overall Ubuntu 10.04 is a very nice distribution. I did have a few issues with it here and there, but nothing too much. Some of the issues I did have with it before even using the final version were more to do with Canonical's decisions, and the attitude towards the users that were showing their discontent towards the changes they made. Overall, I would definitely recommend it to somebody who is looking to start out with Linux – that, along with Mint, PCLinuxOS, or Mandriva. I would definitely say give this a try and tell me your thoughts on it in the comments! Thanks for reading, and if you want to, subscribe clicking on the link at the top right of my blog!

- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)

There are two things I noticed first about PCLOS 2010 when I booted into the LiveCD for the first time. The first thing being that they had customzied KDE4.4 really well. This is very different from my usual KDE experience, which I admit, usually came from Kubuntu, and its pretty obvious that Kubuntu is just a base Ubuntu install w/ stock KDE4 installed. Its been that way since 8.04, and for the past 2 years Kubuntu has felt like the ugly Step child. Not to say theres anything wrong with stock KDE - but, it feels as if Kubuntu doesn't have its own identify anymore, or if KDE is optimized on it. Anyway, off the Kubuntu soap box for the moment, lets get back to PCLinuxOS 2010. Another thing I've noticed is that KDE seems to perform much better on PCLOS 2010 than it does on other distros I've tried so far. PCLinuxOS 2010 actually performs very well in general.

(Edit note: I started this blog post and didn't finish a while back, so I guess this is more of a review of PCLOS after I got done using it).

Being based on Mandriva, PCLinuxOS 2010 also had Mandriva's control panel, which was also a really nice feature.

Beyond that, I did have a few problems. However, most of the problems were related to KDE itself, and could be found across any KDE distribution. Such as GTK and QT apps fighting for the use of the sound card, or the KDE monitor config tool not wanting to properly configure dual monitors, thus resorting to using ATI's Catalyst Control Center to configure them. Simple stuff like that.

I also did notice one oddity. Although PCLinuxOS used Synaptic Package manager, which is quite odd for an RPM distribution to do so, I did notice there was no interface to install individual packages with until I installed Kpackagekit. Figured I would mention that as well.

Overall, PCLinuxOS is a great distro, I would recommend it to anybody who is looking for a Linux distro in which nearly everything works out of the box, and also wants a really nice KDE distribution. Anyway, I would like to thank everybody for reading this post. Sorry for finishing this really late, and it kind of made the rest of the post after (Edit Notice) kind of not all that great as I have already switched to another distribution. It had mostly to do with GTK and QT apps fighting over usage of the sound card, and PulseAudio not wanting to properly install, which is more or less a KDE problem instead of a PCLinuxOS problem. I am currently on Ubuntu 10.04, and I will give my thoughts on that in a later blog post. Anyway, thanks for the patience, and waiting another month for a blog post. I try to make sure the posts aren't too far away, but stuff comes up, I just get distracted, or what not. If you want to, I would recommend subscribing using the RSS link towards the top right, and take the time to read future posts. I should have my thoughts on Ubuntu 10.04 coming within the next few days - if not within the next 24 hours.

- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo).

On a side note, my 160GB drive ended up having issues. =/ but no worries, I should be getting a new one later this week! =D so I can dual boot Windows and Ubuntu again, but all 64-bit this go around.

Also, gonna refer ya to a couple sites to check out and possibly subscribe to:
http://geeknexus.com - A Place where Geeks Get Connected! A Twitter-Like Service specifically for Geeks!
http://ipaidcashformyclunker.com - A blog basically explaining the problems that exist within the Cash for Clunkers program.

Anyway, thanks for reading! =D Please check out those links above, and if you like this blog, subscribe to this one too!

~ Tyler J. Brown

Though, I guess one thing I do have to realize while in the middle of this rant, is the architecture of my CPU is kind of aging, bit time. I have a Pentium D (also note that I have 2GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon HD2600XT 512MB Video card, and an 160GB SATA HDD,) which is basically two P4 cores on one chip, which was fine at some point, but most developers these days, and I'm assuming the same goes for Mozilla, are developing more so for the Core 2, Athlon X2, and Phenom architectures versus the old P4 architecture, despite a good amount of people still being on that architecture (Whether it be the actual P4, Pentium Ds, or a Celeron.)

Anyway, before I go onto that tangent, I will get back onto browsers. Firefox has just not felt like the fast Ferrari it used to be on Linux, or on my system in general.  On Windows Vista/7 I've already switched to Google Chrome, Webkit has got to be the fastest rendering engine I have ever used, and Chrome's V8 Javascript engine is also amazing. The way it manages its processes also allows it to have amazing performance on my system.

So what does that have to do with Linux? Well, on Linux, Chrome is not officially out yet, and the Chromium Builds have just finally started to feel better and more stable, but they're not good/stable enough to be put into daily use, although, the latest Chromium Build on Linux has possibly got to be the fastest browser I have ever seen in terms of loading pages, and, it definitely doesn't feel the sluggishness I feel on Firefox.

So, if Chrome isn't ready, and Firefox is starting to feel very sluggish on Linux on my system, where do I turn? Epiphany doesn't exactly offer what I want, Konqueror doesn't have the same feel in GNOME that it does in KDE, and many of the other browsers designed specifically for Linux are just too basic for me/don't function the way I want it to.

I think just within the past few days I have grown to really love the Opera web browser on Linux. Its fast, its stable, the Opera 10 beta has a new beautiful theme, and new functionality I have grown to love.  Opera just doesn't feel the same sluggishness that I have felt in Firefox recently either. Another thing I love is Opera sync - so if I so happen to find a piece of software I want to try out of look at on Windows (natively, mind you,) but don't feel like rebooting, I just bookmark it in Opera, and then reboot when I feel like it.

A few of the other features I like? Tab locking, prevents you from accidentally closing a tab you absolutely want open (like one you are typing an extensive Google Docs, or e-mail document on,) the tab bar now has built in previews when you resize it (screenshot below,) an amazing download manager, notes, Speed Dial (which in Opera 10 beta is customizable,) and probably many other hidden features I have yet to find.

Now time for the screenshots!

Opera's speed dial is now customizable

Opera's new tab bar feature

Overall, in terms of a browsing experience, and features, I give Opera a 10/10. I feel this browser definitely isn't getting the attention it deserves, or is over-looked way too much. Maybe because its not entirely open source? Or maybe the fact its been around forever (but you think that'd be a sign of strength.) Whatever it may be, it doesn't change the fact the Opera is a great browser, and for the time being, it will become my default browser on Linux, well, unless the final version of Chrome for Linux just completely wows me (and knowing how they did a good job on that on Windows, it is very likely.)

Anyway, thanks for reading my blog, and my blog post. Please subscribe, and check back for more. I promise, this time, I will be more dedicated to blogging. (to subscribe, just click on the orange RSS icon at the top of the page that says "Subscribe to RSS")

Also, if you need great, reliable web hosting, or a VPS, please check out Constant-Hosting.

~ Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)