Issue #2 - June 2007 full circle THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU COMMUNITY LINSPIRE & MICROSOFT LINSPIRE SIGNS FOR PATENT PROTECTION NEXT WHO'S REVIEW : HOW TO : INSTALL : SYSTEM76 LAPTOP UBUNTU ON A MAC MINI STEP-BY-STEP INSTALL FROM GETTING THE BOX BASIC INSTALL OF VPN OF KUBUNTU 7.04 : TO BOOTING UBUNTU UBUNTU FOR GRANDMA! FEISTY FAWN fullcircle magazine is not affiliated with or endorsed by Canonical Ltd. full circle News p.03 Your monthly update of what's going on in the world of Linux and Open Source Software Flavour of the Month - Kubuntu p.06 This month Robert Clipsham shows us a step-by-step STEP-BY-STEP INSTALL installation of Kubuntu Linux 7.04 P.06 How-To Ubuntu on the Mac Mini p.09 Ubuntu for Grandma p.12 Virtual Private Networking p.16 Scribus - Part 2 p.17 Review - System76 Laptop p.20 P.17 P.16 Thinking of buying a laptop? System76 supplies quality laptops pre-installed with Ubuntu! Interview - GRAMPS p.24 P12 P.20 My Story - 6 Months with Ubuntu p.29 Fighting to live with Linux after years of Windows use. Ubuntu Youth p.31 Letters p.33 Q&A p.35 My Desktop & My PC p.36 P.09 P.24 Show us your mean-machine! The Top 5 p.37 Andrew Min presents his Top5 Widgets How to Contribute p.39 Want to help fill future issues? Here are the details All text and images contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-By-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the following conditions: You must attribute the work to the original author in some way (at least a name, email or url) and to this magazine by name (full circle) and the url www.fullcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). And If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, similar or a compatible license. 2 EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL You may notice a few changes in the design this month (he says with a healthy dose of sarcasm). We received quite a bit of feedback, both good and bad, on the design of issue one. With this issue we hope to address those problems. We also wish to apologise for the grammatical errors which slipped through last month. No one person is to blame, mistakes happen and we'll keep an eye out for them this issue. Other than some small niggles, issue #1 was a roaring success. Our server managed to hold up to 'the Digg effect' and served in excess of 15,000 downloads within the first 24hours of release time. What delights do we have for you this issue? Well, we have tutorials on Virtual Private Networking (VPN), installing Ubuntu on a Mac, how one man converted his 80 year-old Grandmother into an Ubuntu user (!) and an excellent review of a System76 Darter laptop. And, of course, so much more! Remember: if you want to have your say about the magazine come and visit us in our monthly, all welcome, meeting. See the last page of this issue for dates and times. All the best, Ronnie Editor Thanks to : linuxgeekery for the website and .org name, mykalReborn, ukubuntu and mrmonday for the full circle logo. UbuntuForums.org for letting us spam their forum while organising all this. The Ubuntu Marketing Team for helping us promote and distribute this magazine. And above all; the Ubuntu community - as a whole - for being one big, helpful happy, family. This magazine was created using : 3 NNEEWWSS Ubuntu Not Signing Microsoft Taiwan Firm to Launch Open Patent Deal Source Mobile Phone Ubuntu founder Mark The NEO1973, from First Shuttleworth, has made it clear International Computer (FIC), is that Ubuntu isn't interested in planned as the first of a series of forming a deal with Microsoft along phones based around the the lines of those recently reached OpenMoko platform. by Linspire, Xandros and Novell. William Lai, of OpenMoko's "We have declined to discuss any community development agreement with Microsoft under department, said that the 2.5G the threat of unspecified patent touch-screen phone will be infringements," Shuttleworth said available online from OpenMoko in a blog post on Saturday. priced at US$350. The phone is expected to be ready in His remarks follow speculation in September. the press that, following Linspire's agreement with Microsoft last OpenMoko was set up by FIC to week, Linspire partner Ubuntu develop the open source platform might follow suit. for the phone. FIC is making hardware specifications available However, as with recent Microsoft to software developers and is agreements with Novell and working closely with them. Xandros, another aspect of the deal has been raising hackles in The phone communicates on the open source community - the GSM (Global System for Mobile purchase by Linspire of protection communications) networks and from patent lawsuits. sends data using GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), offering Microsoft says Linux infringes a data rates of around 60 kbps to number of its patents, and that 80 kbps. Linux companies should sign up to patent licensing deals. Expected features include a 266 Shuttleworth said Microsoft's MHz Samsung CPU, 64 MB of intellectual property arguments are Flash memory, 128 MB of DRAM, not valid, and that in any case an Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS (global agreement offering protection from positioning system), 3-D graphics them would be no real barrier to acceleration and motion sensing litigation. accelerometers. http://www.techworld.com http://www.linuxinsider.com 4 NNEEWWSS RedHat Next To Sign Patent Deal? Venezuelan Government to sell "We'd love to do the same deal with Linux-based Computers Red Hat," said Tom Robertson, general manager of corporate The Venezuelan government has interoperability and standards at officially launched the Bolivarian Microsoft. "We're always open to Computer initiative, a project that talking with them." aims to mass produce low-cost Linux-based laptop and desktop That sentiment has not so far been computers for use in government echoed by Red Hat's. The company programs and eventual sale to the has said it's not interested in a deal. public. The computers, which are all Red Hat spokeswoman Leigh Day being manufactured in Venezuela in said that is still the case. the state of Falcon, were developed by Venezuela's Ministry of Light, "We continue to believe that open Industry, and Commerce in source and the innovation it collaboration with the Hong Kong- represents should not be subject to an based Inspur Group. unsubstantiated tax that lacks transparency," she said. Pricing ranges from $405 to $1,400 for various models depending on the Still, some wonder - as Microsoft lines hardware configuration. "The price up the other Linux ducks in a neat of other similar brands is $930, and little row - if Red Hat might be next, the price of our computer is $690, and rumours suggest a pact might be almost 40 percent less," says imminent. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, describing one particular model. http://www.computerworlduk.com "But, in addition, it has an added value, given that it comes with open- source software and a three year Ubuntu Home Server Edition guarantee, while other brands only offer one year." A new home server distribution of Ubuntu is in development. Named Venezuela isn't the first country in Ubuntu Home Server, it is competing South America to push adoption of against Windows Home Server Linux and open source software. which is currently in beta. Ubuntu The Linux operating system is Home Server is still in planning and widely used in Brazil, where an development stages and as yet there enthusiastic government technology is no release date planned. minister once expressed a desire to create a "continent of open source." Developers are needed so if you think you can help please visit http://arstechnica.com www.ubuntuhomeserver.org to get more details. 5 FFLLAAVVOOUURR OOFF TTHHEE MMOONNTTHH Written by Robert Clipsham Last month we showed you how simple it was to install Ubuntu, and this month we will do the same with Kubuntu. Kubuntu is the same operating system as Ubuntu, but with some obvious differences. The first thing you will notice, looking at choose the "Check Disk" option, then the screen shots, is the lack of brown in choose "Start or Install Kubuntu." Once Kubuntus default desktop. This is the blue bar (below) has finished rocking, because Kubuntu uses a different user you will be shown a splash screen telling interface. The user interface is how you you what is loading. interact with your computer; this could be using a terminal or konsole, typing in commands which your computer will respond to; or it could be a graphical interface, like you see in Kubuntu/Ubuntu. Kubuntu (above left) and Ubuntu (above right) The user interfaces here are the K desktop environment – KDE – and the GNU Object Model Environment – GNOME. You should try both, to see which you prefer. If you can't deicide, don't worry, both can reside happily side You will then arrive at the Kubuntu by side on the same computer. desktop (below right), and you will have a full operating system with several open Installing source applications to work with, including: Once you have done all of the basic Full Office suite things mentioned in last months 'Flavour Instant Messaging of the Month', you can begin installing Web browser Kubuntu.