Phoronix reports that Wine 1.2 has been officially released:


For those new to this site, Wine is a software package that lets you run Windows applications on a Linux/Unix/OS X system. It is not a way to run the Windows OS itself -- instead, it provides all of the functions that the Windows OS provides to applications programs. This is my preferred way to run Windows software under Linux, at least for those applications that work correctly under Wine.

I am so far behind the curve -- I'm still running Wine 1.0.

I finally got around to reading this item that Charles sent me two weeks ago. (Belated thanks!) After years of hearing, "oh, it's so hard to do X in Linux, you need to be a guru!" it's nice to learn that Linux now surpasses Windows in ease-of-use, at least if you need to install an HP Deskjet H740 Bluetooth printer:


I hasten to add, Your Mileage May Vary. Some printers are supported on Linux, and some still are not...whereas every new printer must be supported on Windows or it won't sell. (If you have an older printer you may be in for a rude awakening when you upgrade Windows.) This is one reason I now buy only HP printers; they are committed to supporting Linux. Other printer manufacturers are doing likewise; but you should always check at the OpenPrinting database before buying a new printer.

It got pushed to the very end of April, but Ubuntu Linux 10.04, "Lucid Lynx," has now been released. (For those who aren't familiar with the numbering system, 10.04 means 2010/04, i.e., April 2010. New Ubuntus are released every April and October.) 10.04 is an LTS "Long Term Support" release, which means they promise to provide updates for a full three years.

Our local Linux Users Group started refurbishing computers four years ago with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, and with every passing year we are happier with our decision to standardize on Ubuntu. It's easy to install, easy to use, and very well supported. I know of only two disadvantages: first, it doesn't run on my ten-year-old low-RAM computers. (Recommended minimum: 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM.) Second, it doesn't support all media formats "out of the box" -- e.g., you have to install additional software to play DVDs. (They do make that installation easy, but you have to know you need it.)

Our friends the Millers report that the main download site is very busy, but the alternate site, http://releases.ubuntu.com/10.04/, is moving rather well. The also inform us that a companion book, Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04, has been simultaneously released for free download, or you can buy a paper copy for $10.

One of those cryptic-insider-guru questions that pops up during a Linux installation is, what filesystem should you install?

The "filesystem" controls how data is stored on your hard disk. With Windows, you don't get a choice -- when you install Windows, you install the official filesystem for that version. (In ancient times, you would get the FAT or FAT32 disk formats; current Windows versions use NTFS.) With Linux, you do get a choice....and choices can be confusing.

Which is why I was happy to stumble across this article: "Choosing The Best Linux Filesystem For Your PC". It's a short and clear explanation of all the Linux filesystems currently in use.

I recommend you read that article in full, but if you're not so inclined, I'll distill their advice to two lines for new users: For solid-state drives, use EXT2. For normal hard drives, use EXT3.

Oh, and if you need to share a USB memory stick with a Windows PC, use FAT. (Most USB sticks are preformatted with this, so you don't need to decide.)

Update: A friend writes to add:


Another writes:

As I am currently laid flat with some debilitating virus, I'm going to simply quote verbatim a recent blog post from the esteemed Charles Curley, about this useful site.


Now I must go get some rest. Thanks, Charles!

Thanks to our friends the Millers for sending along this link: "50 Places Linux is Running That You Might Not Expect".

I've known about IBM and Google for a long time, but Virgin America? Conoco Philips? The New York Stock Exchange? The U.S. Department of Defense? The U.S. Postal Service? The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China?

Whether it's to save money, to gain reliability, or to ensure security, lots of big players have made the choice to use Linux. If you're thinking about switching, you'll be in good company.

I always say, one good link deserves another. Claire Wolfe, who writes for Backwoods Home magazine, has just written that Linux's time has come at last:


I agree with her recommendations. I've heard nothing but good things about Mint; it's basically Ubuntu with all the proprietary media stuff added in (so you can watch DVDs and such). I've mentioned before that Ubuntu and Mepis were finalists in our local group's pick-a-Linux-for-newbies shakeout. I think Puppy is one of the two best lightweight Linuxes. And Knoppix, Fedora, and Mandriva are all well regarded.

If you're thinking of trying Linux, do yourself a favor and read the whole article.

Reading back through the Lightweight Linux blog, I found a post from two months ago entitled "50 Linux Discussion Forums." Many of the 50 are devoted to specific Linux (and Unix) distributions -- excellent sources of help for whatever distro you're using.

I'll just send you over there for the list of links. (Hmmm, maybe I need a new link category in the database here.)

This is a tale of a very specialized application. I mention it not because I think anyone else reading this site will need this application, but rather, as an example of how to find specialized software for your non-Microsoft computer, and as an illustration of the wealth of software available in open source.

Among my activities, I am an electronics hobbyist. I've even designed my own computer from the logic gates up. (Not anything competitive with a modern PC, just an intellectual exercise.) Over the years, I have used an assortment of EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software including OrCad, PC-Pro, and EZ-Board. And I've encountered two problems. First, the commercial software becomes unsupported, requiring me to pay for an upgrade to the newest version (which sometimes, in turn, requires a newer computer or operating system). Second, should I want to share my designs with other hobbyists, I can't really ask them to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for the software I've chosen to use to draw schematics and lay out printed circuit boards.

So last week I began researching new EDA software for my PC, specifically looking for open-source, cross-platform software. Since a major goal is to share designs with others, I can't require that those others install Linux to use the software, so I want software that Windows users can use. I'd prefer cross-platform software that can run directly on Linux, but as a last resort would use Windows software if it ran well under Linux using Wine.

A few hours' work with Google turned up the following candidates:

KiCad. This is an integrated schematic/PCB (Printed Circuit Board) package that is available for both Windows and Linux. It started as a one-man project but now seems to have several developers, and an active user community.

gEDA. The gEDA project has been around for quite a while, and offers a complete suite of circuit design tools for Linux. The layout program, PCB, seems to be a distinct project. At present there is no Windows offering.

Open Circuit Design. This project offers a schematic program (xcircuit) and its own PCB program (pcb). (As nearly as I can tell, this is a "fork" of the PCB program used by gEDA.) There is a Windows port of xcircuit, but not for pcb (whose latest revision seems to have been in 2006).

Electric. This also is a mature package, and is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. It appears that this is intended as an integrated-circuit design system, and that printed-circuit-board (PCB) design is something of an afterthought. It's a free download, but I don't know if it's open-source. (Update: it is open-source, under the GPL. Thanks to our friends the Millers for this info.)

KiCad, gEDA, Electric, and xcircuit are all available from the Debian repository; another sign that these are reasonably mature packages. Technically, KiCad and gEDA seem to be the best match to my wants. And while gEDA may be more capable, KiCad is capable enough, and is truly cross-platform. And for my purposes, that's the deciding factor.


P.S. I should mention that I found, for Windows, two "free" (no-cost) schematic CAD packages for Windows, and one PCB layout package. But with so many Linux options to choose from, I didn't bother testing to see how well the Windows programs ran under Wine.

The time finally came to upgrade my wife's computer. She's been running Xandros 4 Linux -- based on Debian 3.1 "Sarge," two releases out of date -- and it's been working just fine. But she now has a new HP printer, not supported by Xandros 4. And her old version of Firefox is starting to be rejected by some websites. Both Debian 3.1 and Xandros 4 are no longer supported -- they still have functioning repositories, but no new or updated programs are being added to those repositories.

Now, in the open source world it would be possible for me to get the source code for every program she needs, and compile it from scratch. But then I'll invariably discover that those programs depend on up-to-date versions of other programs. And those depend on still others being upgraded. It becomes quite a large project to rebuild everything from scratch! In terms of effort, it's much easier to upgrade to a newer Linux distribution.

For the first cut, I settled on three candidates.

Debian 5 "Lenny." This is what I'm using on my desktop, and our full-size laptop. Its advantages are that it's stable (new releases are infrequent), old releases are well supported, it has a huge software repository, it would make both our desktop PCs identical, and I'm familiar with it. Its chief disadvantage is that of all the distros I've tried, it's the most difficult to configure -- not a job for a new user.

Fedora 12. I considered this because we just put Fedora 11 on my wife's Aspire One netbook. Advantages: it's well supported, it seems easy to configure, and it would make her netbook and desktop very similar in appearance and operation. Disadvantages: it uses KDE 4 (a bit resource-hungry for her old 1.6 GHz Athlon, and disconcertingly different from the KDE 3 she knows), I'd have to learn to maintain two totally different systems (e.g. RPM vs. DEB package tools), and older versions seem to be aggressively retired.

Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala." I put Ubuntu back on the list since I found out that older repositories are still available. Advantages: really easy to use and install, and very well supported. Disadvantages: the KDE version (Kubuntu) is less widely used, it uses KDE 4, it demands a lot of resources, the repository is smaller, older versions are aggressively retired, and I've been disconcerted by some of the problems reported with 9.10 (which seems to have been rushed to release).

Before making the final decision, I asked my wife if she would have a problem using different environments on her desktop and her netbook. This was after she'd used Fedora 11 on her netbook for a week or so. She replied that she had no difficulty switching back and forth. So one big argument for Fedora 12 went away.

Ultimately, I realized that my arguments against Debian centered around the fact that it is more difficult to install and configure. Once set up, it's as easy to use as any other distro I've tried. This increased "up front" work is compensated by the fact that all of our computers, save two, will be using the same distro, so my ongoing maintenance tasks will be easier.

Debian it is.