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The Open Pitt What's cooking in and Open Source in Western Pennsylvania Issue 2 July 2004 www.wplug.org

Switching to Open Source on the , Part 1 by Carl Benedict Whether you are just thinking about suite has an e-mail and newsgroups graphics formats, and also reads making the switch to Linux or are client, IRC client, HTML editor, and Adobe Photoshop project (PSD) files. already a long-time user, it's not al- address book. Other choices are Kon- Other options include Sodipodi and ways easy to switch completely to queror, Galeon, Firefox, and Opera. Moonlight|3d. open source. This article will cover Office Suite: OpenOffice.org is a CD Burning: X-CD-Roast is a some of the challenges of taking the suite of applications comparable to graphical front-end to the cdrecord plunge into the Windows-free world. Microsoft Office. It includes word package. Also good choices are K3b In this month's part, we'll look at some processing, , presentation, and GNOME Toaster. common software applications so that and drawing software. It can read and Most of these applications are you have an idea of what's out there. write many common Microsoft file already included with the major Linux We'll assume you've researched the formats. Other good picks are KOf- distributions. available Linux distributions and se- fice, AbiWord, and . lected one for this undertaking. Music Player: XMMS—The X Mul- Other Choices tiMedia System is a music player Of course, the list above is not com- Begin at the Beginning modeled after WinAmp. It plays prehensive. What if you need an ap- First things first. What applications many popular music file formats and plication for a specific task I haven't will you need? What environment can be extended to handle others covered? First and foremost, check will you be operating in? The first or- through plug-ins. Another choice is SourceForge. It is home to a large der of business will be to identify the . number of open source projects. applications and tools that you use on Movie Player: Mplayer works with Freshmeat is also a great place to a day-to-day basis. To help lead you most video formats. Related applica- search. The URLs are: through this step, we'll use my trans- tions are Xine and Realplayer. ition process as an example. E-mail Client: Evolution is an e- mail client, contact manager, and task Application Overview scheduler all in one. The interface is Stay Tuned... During my transition to a Linux much like Microsoft Outlook. Altern- Next month, I'll cover concerns about desktop, I had a fairly typical set of atives include Mozilla Mail, KMail, interoperability with other systems requirements. Let's take a look at Thunderbird, and . and how to obtain support. what I chose to handle common tasks. Instant Messaging: Gaim supports Carl Benedict is the owner/operator of Pitts- the most popular IM networks, includ- burgh Techs in Cranberry Township We'll also list alternatives for each. . Web Browser: Mozilla has become ing AOL IM, ICQ, Yahoo!, and MSN. a well-used browser in the open- Other choices are Kopete and naim. source world. It supports common Graphic Editor: Often described as Coming Events plug-ins like Java and Flash and has the first “killer app” for Linux, the Jul. 10: Installfest. 10AM to 5PM, built-in pop-up blocking. The full GIMP supports a wide array of raster 1507 Newell-Simon Hall, CMU June Roundup Jul. 17: General User Meeting, Jun. 5 General User Meeting: Bryan philosophy of a lightweight, simpli- Topic: Cheesy Backups with Mills and David Watson of Cobind fied desktop system. rsync. 10AM to 2PM, 1507 demonstrated their web-based tools Newell-Simon Hall, CMU for building customized Linux distri- Jun. 12 New User Tutorial: Beth Aug. 8: 3rd Annual WPLUG butions. They also previewed their Lynn Eicher presented an introduc- Open Source Picnic. 1PM to new Cobind Desktop 0.2 and graphic- tion to the basics of using Linux, from 6PM, Snyder Park, Whitehall al front-end for the YUM package choosing a distribution to installation Aug. 14: General User Meeting. manager. Their distribution was re- to essential commands. Her slides are 10AM to 2PM, 1507 Newell- leased on June 23 and highlights their available online. Cobind Desktop - Simon Hall, CMU Tutorial - The public is welcome at all events Page 2 The Open Pitt July 2004

From the Editors: Why Linux is Unstoppable The Open Pitt is published by The past few years have seen more wrote a strategy memo to John Scul- the Western Pennsylvania Linux and more Linux use. It is already a ley and Jean-Louis Gassée of Apple, Users Group top choice on the server. Embedded trying to convince them to license the device makers are increasingly turning Macintosh to other companies: away from proprietary alternatives. Any deficiencies in the IBM archi- Editors: Elwin Green And the first large-scale desktop de- tecture are quickly eliminated… Vance Kochenderfer ployments are hitting the news. The closed architecture prevents What is Linux? But there is other news as well. similar independent investment in Linux is a kernel, the core of a computer oper- the Macintosh. The IBM architec- ating system, created by Linus Torvalds. It is The SCO Group has brought several ture, when compared to the Macin- typically packaged as a distribution, which in- lawsuits around the country and is try- tosh, probably has more than 100 cludes the extra programs necessary to make a ing to collect fees from Linux users. times the engineering resources ap- computer functional and useful. Since 1991, it Microsoft is assembling a huge patent plied to it when investment of com- has grown from a one-man project which ran on one computer to one with thousands of con- portfolio that some think will be used patible manufacturers is included. tributors running on everything from personal as a weapon against Open Source. The ratio becomes even greater organizers to million-dollar supercomputers. If there is a strategy to destroy when the manufacturers of expan- L n x, i s doom d t a l T e ba i sion cards are included. What are Open Source and ? i u t i e o f i . h s Open Source and Free Software provide you, reason is that Open Source software —from Apple by Jim Carlton A e c os o t ke t i dv c , the user, with the opportunity to see the source puts control into the hands of users. ppl h e not t a h s a i e code of the programs you use. You are free to Back in days of yore, computers and the IBM PC took the lion's share use it, share it with others, and even make were giant expensive beasts guarded of the market. Heavy-duty tasks once changes to it if you wish. While the Free Soft- reserved for mainframes and mini- ware and Open Source communities differ in by a priesthood of programmers and their philosophical approach, in practical terms operators. Mainframes generally computers are now done by clusters of they share nearly identical goals. Learn more worked only with hardware sold by PCs. The open architecture won. at the same manufacturer. What Gates did not admit then or and . now is that the same lesson can apply The changed all This newsletter was produced using Open that. Users now had direct contact to software. Linux and other Open Source and Free Software. with machines. The IBM PC's stand- Source software benefits from the Copyright 2004 Western Pennsylvania Linux ard interfaces meant that you could contributions of people all over the world, assembling resources that Users Group. Any article in this newsletter mix and match hardware, adapting it may be reprinted elsewhere in any medium, to your exact needs. New manufac- dwarf even Microsoft's. (In an ironic provided it is not changed and attribution is turers sprang up like weeds. The twist, Apple's Mac OS X has open- given to the author and WPLUG. source BSD at its core.) motherboard itself was cloned by Quick Tip Compaq and others. A true revolution Best of all, Open Source licensing man hier had begun; the hardware market now guarantees that each user is forever Running on most responded to the users' desires, not the free to adapt the software to his or her UNIX-like systems will display the dictates of the big manufacturers. own needs. That freedom will carry filesystem hierarchy and where Microsoft's Bill Gates realized just Open Source through any obstacles, you can expect to find various how important this was. In 1985, he be they technical, legal, or political. types of files. Novell, IBM Sponsor Workshops by Beth Lynn Eicher Save the Date Riverhead Training in downtown Pitt- system administration fundamentals, August 8, 1 to 6pm sburgh hosted four introductory Linux and a preview of Novell's Nterprise WPLUG will hold its third annual workshops sponsored by Novell and management tools. Novell and River- Open Source Picnic at Snyder Park IBM. The first of these was attended head promise that this is only the be- in Whitehall Borough (in the South by over 100 people from Pittsburgh, ginning of their investment in Linux Hills). Western Pennsylvania, Boston, and here in Pittsburgh. Look for more ad- The reason why we call it “Open Cleveland. Each attendee received a vanced Linux classes and certification Source” because everyone who at- 202-page Linux training book and offerings this summer. tends is to contribute by bringing Novell SUSE Linux Standard Server 8 Riverhead Training currently food, helping out, or organizing CD-ROM. provides courses in Novell Nterprise activities. It will be as good as the Topics covered included SUSE Linux Services and CompTIA Linux+ community makes it! Linux installation and desktop basics, preparation. Check the mailing list for updates Novell on Linux - or to suggest activities. Plan to Linux at IBM - bring the whole family! Riverhead Training -