Winamp in Linux

Winamp + KDE = Qmmp

These are times of Cloud music storage and players, when one can choose to store music on the cloud and listen to it anywhere from any device, or stream it from one of the available sites out there. Having said so, I guess there are still people like me, who also like to keep a local music collection and play it using more of a good old installed player. In fact, we Linux users are fortunate, because there is a plethora of audio players available in Linux these days. From the feature-full likes of Banshee and Amarok, to others that are maybe less powerful, but in turn lighter and faster, there is something for everyone.

Back when I used Windows as my only OS, I was a big Winamp fan, so I have always enjoyed using it in Linux. Nostalgia is a part of it, but also the fact that there are few others that work as fast. I usually go back and forth between the powerful media players and Winamp clones, but at the end of the day, I usually realize that I just need something that plays the music I like to listen to.

As far as Winamp clones go in Linux, there are a few alternatives, Audacious probably being the most popular one. However, Audacious is GTK based and I have experienced issues in the past when trying to make it work under KDE. QMMP is a much better option for KDE users, for it is QT based.

Like others Winamp clones, Qmmp supports skins (unfortunately only the old .wsz ones, not .wal ones), which allow users to choose between a lot of beautiful options, as shown in these screenshot.

All the usual classic Winamp features are also there, such as EQ, playlists, etc.

(Details as shared by Mr. V Narayanan)

Scientific Linux - Detailed Review

Scientific Linux - It blinded me with science! 

The credits for the catchy title go to legendary Thomas Dolby, but the real thanks go to the team of scientists, engineers and geeks at CERN, who developed this distribution.  If you're into science, you will, sooner or later, run into Linux. Any serious mathematical, computational work is done on Linux. From amazing 3D movies to simulating the Big Bang over to crunching sparse matrices in a cloud and folding proteins at home, it all comes down to using Linux. As a single host, Linux is merely a machine, but it starts to shine in its hundreds and thousands. 

Scientific Linux is a distribution based on RedHat, designed to work out of the box and make the job of assistants and PhDs that much easier. As such, it comes with a few extras that you do not normally see in stock RedHat, without losing the heavy anchor of adamant stability that RedHat brings.

Get Scientific Linux 

The distro comes in several flavors, much like the parent distribution. You can go for the full-fledged DVD or download live CDs, running either KDE or Gnome desktop. The website is SSL-secured and is uses a rather simple wiki-style design. But you'll manage all right. The current edition is at version 5.4, just like RHEL, named Boron. 

Speaking of names ... 

Considering the fact several previous versions were already knighted the same way, it's a bit of a disappointment. There are so many cool physical terms, using Boron twice is somewhat bleak. Then again, Scientific Linux only had four names over the lifetime of no less than 22 releases. Creativity, anyone?

Using Scientific Linux 

The boot menu is spartan, old style, with a rather classic interpretation of an atom for the logo, most likely Boron. After you make the choice, a very standard RHEL boot splash follows, taking you into a very standard RHEL desktop. 

Wireless & Bluetooth 

Having tested the raw RedHat functionality in my CentOS 5.3 review, I did find some problems with Wireless connectivity. Not so in Scientific Linux. Either because of the changes in 5.4, custom additions in the distro - or both, Wireless worked perfectly out of the box. I selected one of my WPA2-encrypted routers and was on my way.

Look & feel 

While the desktop feels slightly archaic, it's very easy to make it look great in just a few short minutes. You already have a very decent theme and great fonts, you only need a small change of wallpaper to get things right.

Personally, I found the classic atom impression rather boring. For one thing, the hottest physical thing in the world now is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), so why not make it the focus of the distro? Or you can use the default RHEL5 desktop, and none's the wiser:

Multimedia 

I was not expecting anything, which made the full plethora of codecs a genuine, pleasant surprise. Flash, MP3 and DVD playback were all there, out of the box, smooth as silk. Great job...

Compiz 

Believe it or not, geeks seem to like eye candy! Scientific Linux comes with the drivers built in, waiting for you to start playing. Even on T42, everything worked out of the box, no glitches or slowdowns. The basic subset of effects is rather small, but it's still good and impressive enough.

Samba sharing 

No problems either. Worked as expected. What more, my external USB drivers, formatted both in FAT32 and NTFS connected without any problems. I did have some issues in CentOS, but not here.

Applications 

I must say I was surprised not to find any one of the free numerical computation programs included, FreeMat, Octave or Scilab. Could be the licensing issues, the packaging or just ole plain support, but there are not available, even in the extra repos. 

Not a big deal, when you really think about it, because most engineers use Matlab for their work, but if you're in a mood for some free dabbling in matrices and fancy graphs, you will have to grab the scientific programs yourself. Oh, in my Science sites articles I promised you we would talk about a science-oriented distro, so here we are. 

Still, the existing bundle of programs is quite decent. The full DVD gives you more, but you can easily replenish missing bits using the package manager. The default set includes Firefox, Thunderbird and a few interesting nerdy tools like Emacs, nedit, GhostView, and others.

But you also have X-CD-Roast CD/DVD burning software, some OpenOffice programs, Totem, a range of network tools, and other useful applications. 

Package management 

Scientific Linux uses a remixed, upgraded version of the YUM package manager, paired with the Yum Extender GUI, which does a very decent job. There was an issue with the proxy, but more about that later.

You can add extra repositories very easy, just a click of the mouse.

And then look for the cool programs you need. The package manager is simple, clean and easy to use. For example, here's the list of programs available in the Engineering and Scientific category. Most people would not want or need them, but geeks doing their Masters might.

That said, I would appreciate more geek tools. For example, some sort of LaTeX frontend, like LyX, since writing theses in an office suite is an abomination. More math tools, more graphs and plotting apps. Eclipse is available, which is good. 

Stability 

Scientific Linux is rock solid. There were no crashes or any other bugs. Laptop modes worked great. Suspend worked even in the live session, taking mere seconds to sleep and resume. Very nice. Oh, you can install the system from the live CD, unlike stock RedHat, did I mention that? 

Usability 

As you've seen so far, Scientific Linux is a very friendly distro. It offers Wireless and Bluetooth out of the box, comes with multimedia codecs, Samba sharing works, Compiz works, it's really great. Where are the problems, then? Well, there were a few, rather minor ones, I would like to say.

Conclusion 

I was tremendously pleased with Scientific Linux. First, it's a RedHat distro, which means you get the classic Linux usage model, excellent stability and many years of support. Second, it has everything you need - multimedia, desktop effects, Samba sharing, anything. A serious question I have is, who needs Fedora? 

Fedora is the new, modern experimental testbed for the RedHat family, and it has the cool and exciting technologies you want. But so does Scientific Linux, minus the stability problems of the ever-beta Fedora. 

Scientific Linux does itself a great injustice by using its name. It frightens away normal people, who think this is some geeky distro, when in fact, it's just a super-polished RedHat, with all the extras you may want. 

If I had to think of a RedHat-based distro for home use, it would be the academic geek distro called Scientific Linux. It bridges between spartan RedHat and futuristic Fedora by taking the best of both worlds and dropping away the problems. Really neat. 

If you like you distros to be super-stable, robust, fast and supported for a long time, derived from the leading giant of the Linux world, and equipped with the trove of great programs and utilities, Scientific Linux is the one you want. 

Honestly, if you ever think of recommending Scientific Linux to anyone by pointing to this article, perhaps, make sure you direct them to the Conclusion first. Let them not think for a moment that this is a geek gadget. Scientific Linux is a perfect desktop distro. Drop the nerdy wallpaper and you have a cutting-edge home system with everything you could ask for. Well, I guess, that would be all.

 

(The above is in depth review by Mr. Dina A Das, a friend of Mr. V Narayanan who is in BSD Legal Department.)

Hope you all would enjoyed this review

Get Rich Slowly - Personal Finance That Makes Cents

Get Rich Slowly - Personal Finance That Makes Cents:
This site is one big thing that has been helping me save some pennies for sometime! I really wanna let you all know about this!
It does a really good job helping a large community!!
'via Blog this'

Mac feel in Dreamlinux

DREAM COME TRUE

Dream Linux is a Brazilian computer operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux. It can boot as a live CD, from USB flash drive, or can be installed on a hard drive. The distribution's GUI aims to have a centered animated toolbar. The Current version is 5. The home page of the Linux is http://www.dreamlinux.info. This was started in 2007 with a version called 2.2 MM GL and in 2008 the version no. 3 was released. In 2009 they came up with Version 3.5 and this is their 4th Version.

My Opinion

Best Multimedia Support. The distro promises a lot. First, Dreamlinux 5 claims 100% multimedia support out of the box, something that any living being using computers will appreciate. Every one appreciates this for that and it stands No. 1 in handling Media from 2008.

Really a wonderful and beautiful Desktop Environment. Dream Linux comes with a very sexy Xfce desktop, adorned with the Avant desktop manager, offering Mac OS-X like looks with minimal hardware requirements. I have seen Mac OS environment in gOS Linux and Pin Guy OS. However Dream Linux aims to take the bar, one notch higher. I am amazed by the GUI of it and want to have it installed in my PC as I am bit lazy to back-up my data and change Fedora, I am not attempting it. You may see the Linux on this video at You Tube the link for the same is given below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS0nb4kXbCM

On Packages - Acrobat Reader is installed on default – this is the first Linux to have it on installation. This uses Softmaker a derivative of Open Office instead of Libreoffice. Generally Many do not like Softmaker as it looks pretty old similar to MS Office 1997. The other lists of applications are same like Mint. Pin-Guy is superb in this regard as it has all one needs. Except for Virtual Box & Chrome – I have not done anything on it.

Conclusions drawn on Expert's Opinions:

It is fast, smooth and beautiful after installation. XFCE is used as the default Desktop Environment, it is light, and the OSX-like theme is stimulating and is superbly dressed-up.

The multimedia support is phenomenal and should win over every single Windows user in a blink.

Dream Linux starts off modestly, drops low and then vaults high, emerging as a winner. This is not a bad way of leaving a solid, lasting impression, provided you can take the risk. Most users will not have the stamina to endure the horrors of the installation and wait for the post-installation paradise. This is the complete opposite of Sabayon, which begins with the absolute perfect live CD session and then somewhat disappoints with the package management.

Dream Linux has the potential of being a superb distro. It just requires some polishing. Fonts, Network Configuration, etc., are difficult. Hence an average user would lose his patience with this Linux.

(as told by Mr V Narayanan)

A brief history of Linux

Since 1969, the computing world is being revolutionized by the advent of various operating systems. UNIX (Uniplexed Information and Computing System) was found by AT&T Employees at Bell lab and kick-started the OS revolution.

Then Xerox invented a PC and an ideal Desktop OS but was shy to market it. On a friendly visit to Xerox, Mr. Jobs of Apple saw the project and wondered as to the GUI. He set the Mac Project on. It was a big hit in 1985 and revolutionized the Computer world.

Since Mac is a closed project in the sense is not available for all hardware, IBM tried to find an OS-2 to compete with OS-X of Mac and failed miserably in 1987.

Hence MS was called to develop a OS for all systems having OS-X features to the extent possible by all Computer Manufacturers. The reason is two :

a) MS have been working with Apple for 10 years at that time and

b) Excel & DOS designed by MS was incredible.

Thus windows was born and it was a Very Big Hit and Windows 1987 to 1995 became the standard for all OS Development.

People wanted to give OS Free, this is an idea borrowed from Hackers and Wazinok of Apple. Therefore two separate Open Source Project was born from Unix – BSD and Linux.

BSD stands for “Berkeley Software Distribution”. It is the name of distributions of source code from the University of California, Berkeley, which were originally extensions to AT&T's Research UNIX operating system. The BSD is being academic focused and is always used by closed group of persons, it is not known and I too despite a fact used it for a month, find it difficult to trace it back and use it.

Linus Torwalds of Finland invented the Linux Kernel and the platform on which all Linux Distros works. The word Linux stands for Linu's Unix. However again the Bell Lab guys put a case and the Linux no more represents Unix.

Then in 1991-4 Red Hat made a Binary Based Linux called Red-hat Enterprise Linux. They used Restricted Binary Package Manager – the concept found by themselves and as every one used the same concept and is made available free, they changed it to Red-Hat Package Management Concept to make it a proprietary one.

The Red-hat was forced to give some thing free to public as they are using GNU & Linux which are essentially open source. Hence they created two Projects – CENT-OS and Mandrakes Red-hat. Later on Mandrakes was spun off and it went to join a debian based linux company called Connectivia. The space was given to Fedora.

Debian came for academic purpose and then went on for Home and Office use.

From Red-hat and BSD some engineers moved and started a Gentoo Linux which have no per-compilers. Finally recently Arch Linux and few arch-based distributions have also come. (As told by Mr. Narayanan)

Linux OS reviews - an insight

I AM ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU

List of Open Source OS Tried by me

S. No.	Linux OS	Pros	Cons
1	Ubuntu V. 10.04. 10.10, 11.04 & 11.10 Debian	Ease of Use, Great Screen Resolution and have more windows compatibility Least in Size – CD & USB Supported The default applications are sufficient for home & office use.	Not Stable. Initial Speed is lost over a period of time
2	Mandriva V 10.2 Debian	Windows 7 Like Desktop Environment, Ease of use The default applications are sufficient for office use. Plug-ins needed for home use	Not windows compatible like Ubuntu. Updating & Upgrading is a problem 1.6 GB – downloading the OS itself is a problem
3	Fedora 15 & 16 Red Hat	Gnome – Look & Feel is great KDE – Windows 7 Like Look Easy to use	Not Windows compatible. Except for the programs in repositories, installing from other sources is cumbersome. Default Applications are not sufficient like Ubuntu or Mandriva
4	BOSS V. 4 Debian	Windows Like Look Mandriva Like Operating Environment	4.5 GB Size – Downloading is a big problem. Not compatible for all laptops
5	YLMF Debian	Windows XP Environment Easy to use	Unstable Not compatible for all laptops
6	MEPIS Debian	Same like Mandriva – but the graphics are not good	Same as Mandriva
7	CENTOS Red Hat	Simple, Safe, Secure & Stable OS.	Default Applications are not sufficient Not windows compatible
8	Open Suse Suse	Gnome Environment Look & Feel is highly professional Default Applications are sufficient for home and office use	All drivers are not supported. Not sure of windows compatibility 4.5 GB – Downloading is a problem
9	Sabayon Gentoo	Soothing Desktop Environment The default applications are sufficient for office use.	Not windows compatible. Updating & Upgrading is a problem Further installation of apps is a great problem. 1.6 GB – downloading the OS itself is a problem
10	Linux Mint V 11 & 12 Debian	Perfect Windows Replacement.	Have the same issues as Ubuntu in terms of stability
11	Backtrack V5	Speed, Secure and Stable OS Has the best Wine Has 12 sets of audit tools - one can learn CISA & CEH practically	Not for newbie
12	Fubuntu Fedora + Ubuntu Mix	Easy to use Google Focused and hence easy on-line usage. Has VLC and hence plays MP3 and MP4, DVD, etc.,	Not having off-line productivity
13	g-OS Debian	Google Apps focused. Easy to use and is better than Fubuntu theoretically	I could not install and use
14	Chromium OS Gentoo	Highly resourceful OS, theoretically most superior	I could not install and use

My Personal Ranking:

Rank	OS	Remarks
1	Linux Mint	Easy to use, Speedy and best Linux Distribution with all needed applications and plug-ins. Perfect Windows Replacement
2	Fedora	Secure and Stable OS. Easy to use and has the best Hardware Support. However windows applications will not run on it and if one tries he would go mad. Fit for those who are disciplined and want to go out of Windows completely
3	Fubuntu	Easy to install and use. Best for those who want Google based OS
4	Ubuntu	Best for those who want support and windows compatibility
5	Back Track	Best of IT Professionals and System Auditors. Difficult to use for a newbie. Yet I consider this to be best in terms of speed and stability. Of course the security is the best
6	Open Suse	Best of Networking and allied functions. Stable and Secure OS but 100% not friendly with windows applications
7	Sabayon	Best OS with perfect set of default applications for home and office use. However the number of applications is not like Linux Mint. Theoretically a strong and better OS but my test did not produced the results
8	BOSS	For those who want to be Truly Indian, otherwise same as Ubuntu

Click here to see the OS Sheet ratings
 (as told by Mr. V Narayanan)