As I recently pointed out, Sun finally changed its license so that distros like Debian can include the Sun JRE. Thanks, Sun! Here's the command you need to run:

apt-get install sun-java5-jre sun-java5-plugin sun-java5-fonts sun-java5-bin

That'll do it, fair readers.

(Check out all of our posts on Sun and Java.)

Dapper Drake, the new version of K/Ubuntu is out, and it rocks. I've been using the beta for awhile, & I'm very very very happy. For an interesting review that's chock full of screenshots & useful info about software to install, check out Ubuntu Dapper Review. In particular, there's nice info about getting the nVidia drivers installed, and even the coolest eye candy in the world, XGL. I'll be posting more in coming days, so keep posted ... & if you haven't tried Dapper yet, go try it!

(Check out all of our posts on K/Ubuntu.)

Windows & Mac OS make it really, really simple to install software because there's really only one way to install: click on Setup.exe or Install.exe in the case of Windows, or a .dmg in the case of Mac OS. Linux is more difficult because there's such a variety of packaging formats. Now here comes the excellent How to install ANYTHING in Ubuntu!, which delivers exactly what it says. This puppy covers the package manager as a concept, the APT GUI Synaptic, using APT via the terminal (my preferred method), and how to install a package manually, no matter if that package is a .deb, .rpm, .tar.gz, .sh, .bin, or even a .exe. And while the title is for Ubuntu, this guide works for pretty much any Debian-based distro. Read & bookmark this one, guys - it's a keeper!

(Check out all of our posts on K/Ubuntu & software installation.)

K/Ubuntu has its own bug-tracking system, Launchpad. Go check out bug #1, available at https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1.

Awesome.

I heart Mark Shuttleworth.

(Check out all of our posts on K/Ubuntu.)

My buddy Ed is a great programmer, & in the last many months he's really gotten deep into Ruby on Rails. Periodically he emails the CWE-LUG list about Ruby, & his info is always good. Here's some of those emails for your edification & enlightenment.

Here's a presentation that Ed did for the Unix Users Group here in St. Louis:

<begin Ed>

Hello. I know its been 1.5 weeks since my tutorial on Ruby at the general SLUUG mtg, but finally the slides are up.

http://www.cwelug.org/~edh/RubyForNubys.sxi

An OOo Impress document. Feel free to convert it to HTML or PDF if you want.

It is released under a Attribute/Non-commercial/Share-Alike Creative Commons licence. That means you can edit it and redistriute it as long as attribution is maintained and it is released under an identical license.

<end Ed>

Then Ed had this to say about developing Ruby on Rails for Mac OS X users (even though I'm pretty sure Ed uses Linux).

<begin Ed>

http://hivelogic.com/articles/2005/12/01/ruby_rails_lighttpd_mysql_tiger

This is a step-by-step tutorial on getting a full-on Rails stack up and running on your Mac. BTW, Macs are very good at doing Rails development.

<end Ed>

Finally, here's Ed on getting Ruby on Rails working on my fave distro, K/Ubuntu.

<begin Ed>

Hi, just got a new HD from the EPC sale and installed Breezy onto it. Bit tricky setting up support for Rails programming. The basic issue is getting compiler tools/libraries. I wrote up my travails in my blog: http://greenprogrammer.blogspot.com.

Other than that, Ubuntu really rocks. My laptop seems over 100% faster. Not sure if the HD is the culprit or Ubuntu is just tuned better. And when I plugged my old HD into a USB drive enclosure, Ubuntu popped up various file browsers for each partition. That is seriously cool, man.

Just FYI.

<end Ed>

(Check out all of our posts on Ruby.)

I used to run Libranet, but let's face it: K/Ubuntu has kicked Libranet's arse for quite some time, & it's not the only distro. There are plenty of other Debian-based distros out there who also kick Libranet's arse as well. It was nice back in the day, but it was slow to release the last version, & then the founder died, & now Tal - the founder's son - has decided to call it quits. Of course, it would be nice if he released the code to the community. That way, not everything's lost. But even so, let's all raise a glass to Libranet. It was nice while it lasted.

(Check out all of our posts on Libranet.)

The Wall Street Journal published an article today by Mark Golden, a reporter who tried to switch from Windows to Linux. He had problems with the switch, which he wrote about in "Out the Window" (it's free, so go check it out). Don't flame the guy, please. Yes, he made some mistakes that a knowledgable Linux user wouldn't make - like trying Fedora Core, for instance (*snicker*) - but he's complimentary of the OS, and he seems to really want to like it. I wrote him the following email, which I hope helps him.

<begin email>

Mark, I enjoyed your article on Linux. I'm a die-hard Linux user myself, and the author of three books on Linux & open source software, but I certainly understand the problems newcomers to the OS will have.

I myself use K/Ubuntu on all my machines; in addition, my wife - who's a lawyer, not a computer person - also uses it, with my help. If you have the time & inclination, you should give it a try as well. It comes in two flavors - Ubuntu, which is based on the GNOME GUI, and Kubuntu, which is based on the KDE GUI. Many of the distros you were using (SUSE, Xandros) were KDE-based, although some were GNOME-based (Fedora). KDE is far slicker, IMHO, as well as more "Windows-like". Because of those reasons, I'd recommend Kubuntu.

http://www.kubuntu.org

The current version of K/Ubuntu is 5.10; sometime this June, the next version, Dapper Drake, AKA 6.06, will be released. I'm running the beta, & it's really good. When it comes out, download it, or go to the web site & request a free CD to be shipped to you, and give it a try.

Thanks for trying Linux, & thanks for being patient. It's developing quickly, and it really does get better every six months!

Scott

</end email>

Go read his article, and if you have some nice, constructive advice, send it to him. If you're just going to flame him & make Linux users look like hotheads & jerks, please don't bother.

Yes, there is such a beast. No, I not talking about ndiswrapper or anything else that uses Windows drivers. I mean that this G card works out of the box with Linux. What is this mythical creature? The Netgear WG511T Super G 108 Mbps Wireless PC Card, which is currently only $49.99 @ Amazon. It's a PCMCIA card that works perfectly with K/Ubuntu 5.10. I should know ... I'm using it right now. This is the one to get, guys ... although if someone knows of another G card that works out of the box, list it below!

(Check out all of our posts on wireless.)

Man, the guys at Ubuntu are innovating all the time! If you're a K/Ubuntu user and you're the slightest bit adventurous, you're probably interested in expanding your software horizons, which means expanding your /etc/apt/sources.list file. You can look all over the Net & try to find repositories to add, or you can people like me that have heavily customized their sources.list files, or ... you can use the K/Ubuntu Sources.list generator. Go down the list, check boxes next to any repositories that look interesting, then click the Submit button. Cut & paste the results in your sources.list files, and bam! You're ready to experiment. This is ultra-cool stuff!

(Check out all of our posts on Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and APT.)

Breezy Badger is the current K/Ubuntu distro, but Dapper Drake will drop on us in April ... and that ain't too far away. Wanna know what's coming up in the next release of the best Linux distro out today? Then check out DapperFlight4, the official list on the official wiki of the official changes coming to the official Dapper Drake release. It's full of all sorts of interesting goodies. If you're a K/Ubuntu user, go check this one out!

(Check out all of our posts on Ubuntu and Kubuntu.)

Yup, it's true and confirmed, according to this blog post. Google has modified Ubuntu for internal use & calls it "Goobuntu". It's not going to be released to the public, so don't get in a lather, but it's pretty cool that Google (a) uses Linux internally on its desktops, and (b) has based it on Ubuntu. Very cool.

(Check out all of our posts on Ubuntu.)

K/Ubuntu is awesome - it's the distro I use - but it doesn't come with every ol' program under the sun. EasyUbuntu is an ... uh, easy way to add oodles of goodies to your K/Ubuntu installation, like Windows multimedia codecs, libs for playing DVDs, RAR support, a better repository list, and official ATI & nVidia drivers. It's all GUI-based, so it's realllll simple to use. Wanna add more to your K/Ubuntu? Check this one out.

(Check out all of our posts on Ubuntu and Kubuntu.)