REVIEWED: OpenOffice.org Calc, Three Portable Power Solutions “Tell Us About Diary of a Well- Yourselves” Dressed Penguin digiKam How to touch up your photos Inkscape Using the right tool for the job The First and Only Magazine for the New LINUX User ISSUE 6 • SEPTEMBER 2005 PLUS: LIGHTNING STRIKES WITH THUNDERBIRD READERS’ How to add more power to this wonderful e-mail client CHOICE GOOGLE THIS How to add a Google AWARDS bar to Konqueror YOU PICKED THE BEST OF THE BEST. LIGHTWEIGHT SOME PRODUCTS WON IN THEIR CATEGORY BY A WINDOW MANAGERS LANDSLIDE, OTHERS NEARLY TIED FOR FIRST PLACE. GNOME and KDE too slow FIND OUT WHAT TUX READERS THINK ABOUT for you? Try IceWM DISTROS, BROWSERS AND MORE. TUX HAS AUDACITY You can use it to edit sound files METADOT WEB PAGE EDITOR CASE STUDY THIS MONTH’S MANGO PARFAIT: We never Metadot • Associate files to programs in GNOME and KDE we didn’t like • The easy way to initialize a new Linux install • Get beyond Fedora Core’s limited package selection • GNOME inserts bamboo shoots under your fingernails REVIEWS ISSUE 6 54 OpenOffice.org 2.0 SEPTEMBER 2005 Calc XAVIER SPRIET 58 The Gadget Guy: Power to the People CONTENTS • Electrovaya PowerPad • Socket Mobile Power Pack • Voltaic Backpack P2P TUX EXPLAINS SEAN CARRUTHERS 3 Linux Evolution 37 Having the Audacity 58 24 2005 Readers’ Choice Awards PHIL HUGHES to Manipulate Sound JOSHUA BACKFIELD 5 Diary of a Well-Dressed Penguin 39 Introduction to Inkscape NICHOLAS PETRELEY DMITRY KIRSANOV 8 Letters 43 Extending Thunderbird: the Best of All Worlds 16 Q&A with Mango Parfait RANDALL WOOD MANGO PARFAIT 29 digiKam 37 Audacity 45 Google Suggest Toolbar 24 2005 TUX Readers’ Choice for Konqueror Awards WILLIAM KENDRICK AND JAMES GRAY MELISSA HARDENBROOK 59 49 HOME PLATE The World Beyond KDE and GNOME JOHN KNIGHT 29 Digital Exhibitionism, Part I JESSICA HALL SUITED UP NEXT MONTH 39 Inkscape • More on how to use Inkscape 59 33 Open-Source Metadot • Connecting iRiver to Linux Makes the Grade for • Use gThumb for your photos Schools • KDE PIM-PI for PDAs DANIEL GUERMEUR www.tuxmagazine.com 1 roboticstrends Founding Sponsor The Largest Robotics Event in the Premier Sponsor Premier Western Hemisphere Media Sponsor October 6-9, 2005 Gold Sponsors San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA Corporate Sponsors The International Business Development, Educational and Consumer Event for Personal, Service and Mobile Robotics I 50 Robotics Visionaries and Thought Leaders I 50,000 Square Foot Exposition I 5 Comprehensive Professional Development Conferences: Media Sponsors — Business Development and Opportunities Conference — Emerging Robotics Technologies and Applications Conference — Robotics Design, Development and Standards Conference — Robotics Education and Instruction Conference — Consumer Robotics and Entertainment Event New for RoboNexus 2005! I Business-to-Business and Consumer Entertainment Expo Areas I Service Robotics Summit I Service Robotics Pavilion I “Robotics at Home” Demo Stage I Robotics Innovators Awards —the ‘Robi’ Association Sponsors www.robonexus.com P2P PUBLISHER Phil Hughes, [email protected] EDITORIAL FROM THE PUBLISHER EDITOR IN CHIEF Nicholas Petreley EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jill Franklin, [email protected] ART DIRECTOR Garrick Antikajian, [email protected] For Editorial inquiries, please write to Linux Evolution [email protected] TUX needs to get to know you better. VP OF SALES AND MARKETING Carlie Fairchild, [email protected] PHIL HUGHES MARKETING Twelve years ago, when we were starting Linux These 12 years have made tens of millions of DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Rebecca Cassity, Journal [email protected] , we had to answer the same questions as we people both believe in and rely on Linux to do things INTERNATIONAL MARKET ANALYST James Gray, did last year when we were starting TUX. Although for them. In most cases, these are things that need [email protected] this is less than the complete set, it boiled down to: to be reliable. People don’t want to have to reboot their TiVo so that it will do its job—or their Web SALES I ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Lana Newlander, What is needed in the Linux community? server. Thus, the market acceptance is there in terms 206-782-7733 ext. 2, [email protected] of Linux being something that works reliably. For immediate information about advertising in this I What can we do to address that need? Enter penetration into the desktop market. This digital edition of TUX or for information about banner and text advertising on the TUX Web site, please visit has been an uphill battle just like Apple’s Mac OS. http://www.tuxmagazine.com/xstatic/advertising I Is it possible for the effort to support itself? Along the way, other choices such as BeOS have dropped out of the race. Good or bad, Microsoft CIRCULATION Twelve years ago, there was no commercial mar- continues to dominate this market. Why? CIRCULATION MANAGER Khris Goldberg, ket. The closest you got to Linux vendors were small Inertia is the best answer. This inertia works in two [email protected] For immediate information about subscribing, companies selling CDs with Linux on them. What the ways. First, if you have market share, it is easy to be renewing, or changing your method of delivery or delivery address for TUX, please visit magazine needed to do was show people that Linux able to afford to tell people you are the right answer. http://www.tuxmagazine.com/xstatic/subscribe. was real. That is, Linux was something that could do It just costs less per copy to promote yourself. Beyond useful work. By doing that, we could build a market. that, people tend to resist change. Thus, a Ford owner SSC PUBLISHING, LTD. Today, the picture is quite different. Commercial use is more likely to buy another Ford than offer other http://www.ssc.com of Linux has skyrocketed and continues to grow. Linux vendors a fair shake at their potential business. A privately held company, SSC Publishing is the leading serves millions of Web pages, provides file servers, fire- With the three questions I mentioned at the Linux and Open Source authority, publishing reference materials in these fields since 1983. Properties include walls and many other systems in homes, and small and beginning of this article, what we are trying to do is LinuxGazette.com, DocSearls.com, TUXMagazine.com, LinuxJournal.com, and the monthly international print large businesses. Linux, in embedded systems, helps get more people to switch to Linux desktops. Even magazine Linux Journal. people watch TV in a new way through TiVo, provides though more of you are currently using the competi- Additional information can be found at www.ssc.com. All product and company names featured in this more capabilities in cellular phones and has even been tion, we have to help with that inertia. Can we? I publication may be trademarks or registered on board the Space Shuttle. think so. Can we show non-Linux users that it is to trademarks of their respective holders. www.tuxmagazine.com 3 P2P their advantage to become Linux users? In order to address the inertia side, we How many of the last three digital issues have you read or looked through? have to both assure you that Linux will be None an advantage and help you get over the 1 out of 3 work you need to do to make the switch. 2 out of 3 Fine. We are up for that. In fact, the All http://www.tuxmagazine.com Web site tends to show off the advantages of Considering all of the times you’ve looked at it, about how much time in total do you Linux, so that is one piece of the project. spend reading or looking through an average issue? The other you see here. Our monthly Less than 15 minutes magazine is all about the how-to side of 15 - 30 minutes accomplishing things with Linux. 31 - 45 minutes I think we have the first two questions 46 minutes - 1 hour answered. As for the third, we need your More than 1 hour help. We know what it costs to produce TUX. And you know what you are paying How do you typically navigate through (read) your digital issue? for it. We don’t need to use a Linux-based Read it cover to cover calculator program to show there is a Read articles of interest and look through remaining pages deficit. Clearly, there needs to be another Read the Table of Contents and articles of interest entry in the equation—a revenue source. Skim or look through quickly This has been relatively easy with Linux Journal. LJ is focused at a nice technical Which of the following actions have you taken as of result of reading articles or group of people. That makes it easy to sell advertisements in your digital issue? (check all that apply) to advertisers. You folks, on the other Clicked on an ad or hyperlink to go to a company’s Web site hand, are very diverse. We know that from Called or e-mailed a vendor to get more information the info you gave us when you subscribed. Recommended the purchase of product or service Here, I ask that you take a few minutes Purchased a product or service to respond to the following questions. It Incorporated a new technique/medium/product helps us build a profile of our readership. Discussed article/ad with others Thanks in advance for doing this.I Archived the issue for future reference Phil Hughes is Group Publisher for SSC Publishing, Ltd. www.tuxmagazine.com 4 P2P FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF Diary of a Well-Dressed Penguin TUX is growing and getting ever closer to meeting its original goals.