Why Linux is better

I found a website that is excellent for the beginner Linux user, or for those who are curious.

The reason this website is excellent is because it takes a slow, easy big push button approach to it.

Iron clad, long time Linux geeks like me seem to scare people away from Linux with tons of jargon, and a "flame war" (a rift in the Linux community over versions of distribution and desktop environment) that has been in existence for far too long.

This website gently helps people to see why so many people are happy to be Linux users instead of Windows or Mac Os.

Here is a link to the website: Why Linux is better

I also like the "One day with Linux (a screenshot tour)!" Because it let's people see how polished, and fully functional the operating system is. (In  this case, it's Ubuntu.)

If you are trying to help someone see why Linux is a viable, excellent choice for operating system, I suggest you tell them about it, or send them the link.

I think with an approach to Linux like this one, we can start to help people to relax their fears and hopefully get them to consider Linux for their next operating system choice.

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The history of Denny's Home World

I was being nostalgic about my first website, also named Denny's Home World.

Pretty cheesy looking header image, aye?

That was back in the days of GeoCities, when GeoCities was actually used on a regular basis.

I really did not know what direction I wanted to go with DHW.

For the longest time it was completely useless.

It had little more than information on how to contact me on the net.

I then decided I would put it to use, even if it was entirely for myself.

My old Denny's Home World, still standing because my old ISP has decided not to clean house, is available here: http://www.dwave.net/~denny/

It's a good representation of what I was trying to do.

I think I was too lazy to write my own articles back then, so I tried to shove it as full of self replicating content as I could.

Denny's Home World had it's start in 1995, when I was working for Software Etc, and had nothing to do during the slow hours. So I used the company computer to monk around on the internet, which was still very new to me.

The closest I had gotten to the internet was our local bbs, WoW, or "Wausau online of Wisconsin".

In 2005, I started really digging into Linux. I had goofed around with it since the late 90's, but I really found a passion for it in 2005-2006.

At the time, Denny's Home World was sitting stagnant, doing next to nothing.

I had people coming every month, but as a friend told me, it was for the free email offered by everyone.net, and that somehow I had become the portal to gain access to the email addresses used for unsavory internet usage.

How that happened, I do not know. I am assuming it's because I advertised my site a bit, and since it did almost nothing except house links to real content providers, it was a shady dark corner in the back of the net, and easy enough to use.

In 2008, I was starting to really get into blogging, simply because the websites looked decent, you could modify the site to look how you wanted, and the price was right. (Hard to beat free.)

I also wanted to share my passion of Linux, and especially Ubuntu, to the world.

So the blog representation of Denny's Home World came into being in early 2009.

As for the name of my little website, That came about back in 1995 because my coworkers and friends thought of me as not being from this planet.

I was a geek through and through, loving computers, star trek, and wishing I was spock...

My friends of the time where not at all interested or knowledgeable in computers.
I was certified and certifiable, and talked their ears off about everything that came to mind, techwise.

Even though I don't get millions of users, I finally am putting Denny's Home World to good use. I have helped people with tech issues, and have actually seen my url, http://dennygoot.blogspot.com/ in forums and other internet media. Seeing "Denny's Home World" on a forum makes me smile a bit.

DHW will most likely never get tons of hits, but it has a positive affect on the IT world and people in general, and that's all I ever wanted out of it in the first place.

So I end this little article with a happy heart. Thank you for stopping by DHW, and I hope you will visit in the future.

Please feel free to email me with questions or comments! dennygoot@gmail.com.
-Dennis Andrew Gutowski Jr.

P.S., if your interested, here's the way back machine data for Denny's Home World, from the time it was housed at dwave.net..

http://wayback.archive.org/web/19960601000000*/http://www.dwave.net/~denny/

I also managed to dig up old t-shirt's and mugs and stuff I had developed for my website.
http://www.cafepress.com/dd/3580291?pid=4740463

So now you too can have a cheesy alien t-shirt, LOL!

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VBA 32 Rescue, a usb key/cd virus tool for Windows

I love it when Linux technology is used in unique ways. 

This is one of my favorite ways, taking Linux, and a handful of apps, and repairing Windows.

I do this all the time. Usually I use it for checking internet connections, or saving otherwise irretrievable data, such as pictures, music, videos and other documents.

VBA 32 is my favorite version of anti-virus on USB stick because it is light on both ISO size and on processor power. Using a totally non graphical, text based menu system means that VBA 32 will run on the older machines as well as the newest in tech.

Here is a screen shot. Not pretty, but very very useful!

Here is what they have to say about themselves:

"The line of products produced by VirusBlokAda is based on the antivirus engine developed by our specialists. Vba32 Personal is recommended for home users. It's a reliable and, it is crucial, quick tool to detect and neutralize computer viruses, mail worms, trojan programs and other malware (backdoors, adware, spyware, etc) in real time and on-demand at computers running Windows.

The following advanced technology is used in our antivirus program to provide reliable and effective protection of your computer against malicious programs:

Heuristic analyzer allows our products to detect unknown malicious programs and the dynamic code translation processor emulator effectively handles complex-polymorphous viruses, packers and cryptors.

MalwareScope™ , the technology of malware detection, considerably improves the efficiency of the Vba32 products.

Automatic Internet update of program modules and antivirus bases using the "delta-patch" technology which diminishes Internet traffic and update time.

Integrity control and automatic restore of damaged modules improve reliability of the Vba32 products."

*These excerpts where taken from http://www.anti-virus.by/en/index.shtml

The other reason i like VBA so much is that they develop their software for multiple languages, making it much easier for everyone to use.

If your purpose is to clean an infected Windows machine of all viruses and other mal ware types, this is an excellent solution.

The version I like to use is VBA 32 Rescue, which is free.

You can get it here: http://www.anti-virus.by/en/vba32rescue.shtml

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CrunchBang Linux, its the #!

"CrunchBang is a Debian GNU/Linux based distribution offering a great blend of speed, style and substance. Using the nimble Openbox window manager, it is highly customisable and provides a modern, full-featured GNU/Linux system without sacrificing performance."   -http://crunchbanglinux.org/

I decided to give CrunchBang a try because Ubuntu was a tad bit slow on my netbook.

I have to admit, while I am a ardent Ubuntu fan, I found myself liking the much improved speeds I recieved using CrunchBang.

I am not a fan of Openbox anymore though, so I installed good old XFCE.

To my delight, CrunchBang didn't loose any speed using XFCE instead.

I always like to add some pics, so here are some screenshots from http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/about

After reading the boards, CrunchBang seems to have 3 groups of users. The old hardware group, the minimalistic operating group, and the "it's easier debian" group.

I feel I fit into all 3 groups.

If CrunchBang would fill the needs of my customer base, I would be very tempted to switch.

If you feel like giving it a try via usb key or cdrom, remember the default language setting for the keyboard is german. To switch it to the US in the live session, find the keyboard options program running on the top left section of the screen.

To end this article, I would like to let the CrunchBang people speak for themselves.
This is an excerpt from the about page at http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/about

"Features:

Speed

CrunchBang Linux uses the Openbox window manager. Openbox is lightweight and speedy, and as a result, CrunchBang Linux is fast. Also, while CrunchBang Linux is not primarily designed for old systems, it has been reported to operate very well where system resources are limited. Once installed, CrunchBang Linux should boot-up and operate faster than a regular Debian GNOME/KDE installation.

Compatibility with Debian

With the exception of a few packages, CrunchBang Linux is built entirely from packages available from the Debian repositories. CrunchBang Linux uses the same APT package management tools and update manager. If you are already familiar with Debian or Ubuntu, you should have no trouble working with CrunchBang Linux.

Ease of use

CrunchBang Linux comes with the ability to play most popular media formats, including but not limited to MP3, DVD playback & Adobe Flash. CrunchBang Linux also comes with many popular applications installed by default, including but not limited to Iceweasel browser , VLC media player and Transmission BitTorrent Client.

Highly configurable

 CrunchBang Linux is infinitely hackable, this is mainly due to the standards compliant light-weight extensible window manager that is Openbox. CrunchBang Linux also comes installed with Conky, the customisable lightweight system monitor, and Thunar, a very popular and highly configurable file manager."

If you would like to give CrunchBang a try, here is the link: http://crunchbanglinux.org/

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gPodder, a free podcast aggregator

gPodder is a free podcast aggregator for Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Maemo and MeeGo.

I use it to get my 3 favorite podcasts, the Watchtower Study and Public issues, and the Awake! issues.

I enjoy listening to the audio versions. You can then get your studying done (to a degree) anywhere, via your mp3 player, radio, car radio, etc...

Here is what the author had to say about his product:

"gPodder manages your podcasts

gPodder downloads and manages free audio and video content ("podcasts") for you. Listen directly on your computer or on your mobile devices.

Available for Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X and mobile devices like the Nokia N810, N900 and N9.

Versions available:

Desktop    
CLI    
Maemo 4    
Maemo 5    
MeeGo 1.2

Highlights:

    Supports RSS, Atom, YouTube, Soundcloud, Vimeo and XSPF feeds
    Discover new content at our Podcast directory
    Synchronize between devices with full gpodder.net integration
    Easily customizable - support for user-defined hooks and plugins
    Open Source and Free Software (GPL v3 or later)"

*This information is from the website http://gpodder.org/

The podcasts I listen to can be found at http://www.jw.org/

To get to the podcasts section of JW.org, you click on the link "Subscribe to Podcast"

Here is a picture of that link:

I circled the link with red.

Once in the podcasts section, you first choose which language and publication you want the podcast for, i.e. the Awake in English looks like this:

Once you have chosen the language and publication you want, then you need to copy the link to the podcast you want. Their are only two choices, mp3 and aac. I would suggest mp3.

The link will look something like this:
http://www.jw.org/index.xjp?option=sFFZRQVNZNT&rln=E&rmn=g&rfm=mp3

Then open gPodder, click "Subscriptions" on the top left of the program, and then click  "Add podcast via URL". gPodder should already have the link you copied in the box there, so just click add.

Repeat this for any other publications or languages you want to receive.

gPodder will now download the newest versions of the publication(s) you have chosen for you everytime you start up gPodder and click "check for updates" (bottom left of gPodder).

*Special notice for slow internet users (dial up, very slow broadband)

I have to mention though, that people on dial up will most likely not be able to use this function. MP3 files are large, and it would take an hour or more to download just one of the 100 plus mp3 files that are required to listen to all three. Just the Watchtower Study edition would most likely take days of downloading time.

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Watchtower Library 2011 under Ubuntu 12.04

*** Updated July 10th, 2012 ***

I had a reader ask me why I haven't written this article.

In all honesty I have yet to come face to face with any bug for Ubuntu 12.04 using the regular Wine package, which currently is Wine 1.4.

I have successfully installed the Watchtower Library 2011 on 4 machines now in the area. (I have several Ubuntu customers who are brothers.)

So this article is simply to inform you of my willingness to help in any situation that may arise from installing the Watchtower Library, and...

I thought since I was writing this article I would also remind you of how I added the Watchtower Library to the left side bar of Unity, Ubuntu's flagship desktop environment. (The default desktop).

To add the icon to the sidebar, you first run the Watchtower Library, then while it is running, you right click the icon on the bar and choose "keep in launcher".

Now when you close the Watchtower Library, you will still have your icon on the launcher.

If you deleted your desktop icon, you can still get to the Watchtower Library by clicking on the Ubuntu menu button on the top left, then click in the type box, and type Watchtower Library.

It will then show you the Watchtower Library icon. (May need to reboot before this works if you just installed the Watchtower Library.)

I hope this has been of some help to you, and please email me if you are having any problems! dennygoot@gmail.com

Your brother,
Dennis Andrew Gutowski Jr,
Weston Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses
Weston Wisconsin

*** Update from July 10th 2012:

I had a brother ask me how to get the icon back on Unity if you accidentally remove it from the Unity taskbar.

Here is my solution:


There is a way to put it back on. First of all, if you click the unity launcher icon near the top left (it will have a ubuntu symbol on it), and then type watchtower, do you see the watchtower library symbol? if you do, then just grab it and drag it onto the launcher bar where you want it.

As a side note to this issue, I wanted to add that while the icon I described works here, it will not launch the application using the same icon like other Ubuntu native applications.

Instead it will launch the Watchtower Library with a half filled wine glass icon. Why it does this I don't totally know, all I can tell you is that the wine glass icon is Wine's icon, which we use to run the Watchtower Library.

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Opera, an excellent web browser

Years ago I was looking for the next best thing in browsers.

Internet Explorer sucked in my opinion, in many ways it still lives up to that classification.

Netscape was on it's way out...

So I installed several browsers at the time.

Opera, Firefox, and Kameleon.

I liked Opera back then, but it was buggy, and at the time, nothing held a candle to Firefox.

Well that was some time ago. No one ever even hears of Netscape as a browser choice anymore.

I don't like Firefox anymore. I think Firefox is getting too bloated and huge.

I miss the simplicity of old Firefox.

After installing CrunchBang, I noticed one of the options was Opera.

I had been using Google Chrome, which is better in my opinion than Firefox.

After installing Opera 11.62 for Linux, my favorite browser quickly changed.

Opera is nothing at all like old Opera, but in the best of ways.

Here is a screenshot of the new Opera:

Rock solid performance, speed, and a sleek design that offers a plethora of tools at your disposal without cluttering up the user interface, this is what I have wanted in a browser for a long time.

I also found the email client to be smooth as silk, which is amazing since it's a built in browser email client, and those have been iffy at best.

The only thing I tweaked was setting the junk mail so it wouldn't show up in the unread mail list, which was pretty effortless.

Here is what the Opera team has to say about their excellent product:

"Lightning fast

Make your web browsing faster. Loading pages and running web applications is really snappy. You can even speed up browsing on slow connections, with Opera Turbo.

Safe and secure

Reduce your exposure to threats. Your safety is ensured by industry leading security, Fraud and Malware Protection and a clear display of your security level.

Smart features

Use great features that make browsing faster and easier. Opera has more features built in than other browsers. You can also add even more with extensions."

(This quoted material is from the webpage http://www.opera.com/browser/)

If your interested in downloading Opera for yourself, you can get it here:
http://www.opera.com/download/

P.S. Several weeks after running Opera, and loving it, I did find a flaw.

Opera refuses to let me post and image to Blogger.

Blogger is very trustworthy, and it should be my decision as to whether I can post there or not.

This is proper etiquette in the software world, the user should always have the last say in something like this.

This is a problem for me, and may mean my no longer using Opera.

Here is the error I recieve:
"Information from this secure page will be submitted to a page that is not secure on www.blogger.com.

Submitting sensitive information is strongly discouraged."

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