The battle between Linux and Windows over the netbook market share has been the hot topic this week. So does Windows really have 96% share? Or is it less than that?

Linux & Windows

Ah yes. The wonderful world of online news. We get bombarded by all these information but at the end of the day what is the relevance of all these things to new users? That 96% thing of Microsoft might persuade new Linux users to go back to Windows, it might tell them “Hey, you! Go back and join the bandwagon.” But it’s probably not all true. For one thing, I too might look like one of the people who became part of the 96% who have bought Windows-powered netbooks.

In any case, as Linux users those figures will be there whether we make a switch back to Windows or something. And I have to agree that there are some things that users have to overcome to be protective. So whatever that operating system is, it might happen anyway. But developers and advocates of Linux have a long list to overcome. So do we. That’s why we need to keep trying anyway.

The GIMP is usually installed as the graphics editing tool in Linux distributions. You might be looking for ways to use it and you might have tried it already and thought it felt really weird. It’s because it’s different from the default graphics app in Windows which is Paint. It has more features than Paint.

• gimp-tutorials.com - A website which compiles various tutorials (shown in a frame within the page) which could help you create borders around your images or create a header image for your blog.
• Gimpology - The site is like Gimp-tutorials but it doesn’t show the tutorial on the page itself but it gives the link to the original site. You could submit your tutorials and you just need to sign up in order for you to do that. Two tutorials I skimmed and found interesting are: on GIMP hotkeys and how to add radiance to photos of people.
• Gimp Talk - The forum has a section for tutorials. Check it out.
• Gimp User Group - Another forum with tutorials. There are even thumbnails on the index so that you know what kind of effects you could add to images.
• gimp-tutorials.net - If you’re more interested in brushes and filters, you might want to check this out. Another lovely thing about this site is the downloads section if you want more scripts and gradients.

Other essential references:

• Gimp tutorials on tigert.com
• Grokking the GIMP
• Touring the GIMP

Itching to try out the tutorials? Run GIMP and have fun!

Wondering what free and open source apps to use? PCQuest gives a useful list, categorizing the applications you might need for your day to day computing or running your business. If you’ve enjoyed using Linux and the various applications that you got via your package manager, you might be interested in a whole lot more.

To help you get started, check out this list: The Complete Guide to Open Source and Free Software.

I’ve been looking for tools to help me think about my work. Apart from a text file with the outline of ideas that I have, I want to check out mindmapping tools as well. I saw a package named Vym and tried it out. Even if it’s just been a day, I wasn’t happy with it. I’d stick with Freemind. Why? Here are the reasons why:

• The menu of Freemind seems more intuitive than that of Vym. What are xlinks? It’s not easy for a first time user. In Freemind you create branches/nodes easily and you could easily remove them too. I got confused with the terms in Vym.
• The Vym note editor gets me confused about what I should do. I want to create a mindmap. I couldn’t easily find out how to use the note editor though it is potentially very useful for stuff like adding very long descriptive text about various items I need to discuss.
• They could both export their files to OpenOffice.org though. So that’s one thing that Vym has going for it. It could make your mindmap into a presentation without you having to fiddle around with the outline itself.

Maybe I got a little too impatient with Vym. But reading about it makes me think that Vym is a useful app but maybe it’s not for me.

Have you tried using Vym? What’s your verdict?

The key: hibernate.

For those with laptops, you probably see the option to hibernate a lot. The question is: Do you use it?

I didn’t use hibernate before because it was problematic on the laptop I had before. But now, the laptop I have and the Linux distro I am using seem to be compatible and so I put my laptop in hibernate mode when I go home from the office, etc. It already saves me boot-up time as it is (especially since there’s an fsck done every 30 times that the drive is mounted and unmounted). Thanks to Rom of HackItLinux, I read an article that shows how hibernate gives a faster boot-up time.

This requires some kernel tweaks which I am personally not very comfortable with. I’d have to ask a more experienced Linux user to help me out. I will blog about it when I am done. Hopefully I will get it right or else.

If you’ve been wondering if there’s a lite version of Inkscape, there’s a possibility that there might be one in the future. Bryce Harrington blogged about keeping the toolbars simple and changing some settings. He also noticed that the dialog boxes appear bigger so it will probably look smaller when they implement it in Inklite.

A snippet from his blog entry on Inklite:

The main challenge was the aux toolbar - I think we’ll need JonCruz’s toolbar rework (which missed 0.46 but will definitely be in for 0.47); I just hacked it down. Deciding what to keep in the left toolbox was a tough choice, but I think I kept the most useful tools; the paint bucket would be the next on the chopping block, but I understand kids love it, so it just made it.

You’ll note I turned off the scrollbars, ruler, and color palette - this was trivial to do via the menus, and could be turned back on as desired.

Sounds like it’s going to be a dream come true for those who love using ultraportables with low resolution screens, and also for those who are newbies who might have found Inkscape bit intimidating.

Trying to come up with a good user interface is not an easy task. But I need to. And what could I use on Linux so I could make suggestions for the improvement of a web app’s user interface?

Some of you might be dependent on things like Photoshop or Illustrator — maybe even Powerpoint — to convey your message. As for me, I personally prefer it lo-fi: pencil and paper! But there are times that it simply isn’t enough so I am looking for other means to do that.

In terms of creating wireframes, Denim would work, I think. You could just indicate the main sections on the page, where the links are, and even create a site map for your reference. But there’s one drawback: you can’t always show all the interactions you want, especially for those funky inline AJAX or Javascript magic.

I find the GIMP a bit difficult to use when it comes to graphical mock-ups. Maybe the combination of the wireframes from Denim and CSS editing via the Firefox web developer toolbar might do the trick so that your teammates could easily visualize the colors of the page.

I am still looking for other options. But right now, these are the ones that seem feasible to use for me.

I previously wrote about when you’re probably going to compile a Linux kernel. I admit that I am not an expert on this topic but I’d like to point out some things that would eventually prove to be useful or at least give you an idea as to how you could do this.

HowToForge.com has a bunch of how to compile a Linux kernel for several distros:

• How to compile a kernel the Fedora way
• How to compile a kernel the Ubuntu way
• How to compile a kernel the CentOS way
• How to compile a kernel the Debian way
• How to compile a kernel the SuSE way

Digital Hermit has a rather long guide but it covers compiling both 2.4 and 2.6 Linux kernels. So whether your Linux distro is using whichever kernel, this guide might be quite useful for you.

Another important thing to note is that configuring the kernel could seem to be a daunting task. But here’s an article from Linux Headquarters with some screenshots that would give you an idea what it looks like to configure a kernel.

I’d try to look for other resources which I’d post another time. But for now, I hope that these links will help you in configuring and compiling a new kernel. I hope you find them readable and easy to follow!

Here’s proof that governments could get a clue! It’s official UK schools told to avoid Vista. The news article says that a government agency is opposed to upgrading to Vista because of the costs of technology involved. Aside from that, they recommend looking at open format files instead of the proprietary formats associated with Office 2007. Linux advocates, it’s time to get your feet moving and share your Linux skills and knowledge in UK!

As for great how-to’s: Making your own home file server is probably something that you thought about before but weren’t sure how in the world you’re going to actually do it. Worry no more because How to Forge has a good guide to get you started. It has screenshots too so you really could see how it goes.

Elisa offers all of the basic features one would expect from a media center application, including support for video and audio playback as well as image slide shows. Elisa allows users to browse and load content from local drives, but also provides support for remote content—like videos from YouTube, audio from local network DAAP shares or Shoutcast streams, and images from Flickr.

A better user interface is something good to hear about. However the app is still not perfect and you can hit some snags while navigating through the menus. But it’s worth a try! You could read more about Elisa here.

PinoyTux has a guide on installing YUM on RHEL4. She got the idea from a blog entry about installing yum in RHEL3.

In any case, for those newbies who are wondering if there’s a way to install yum, I hope that this link helps! After all, you might want to use yum rather than up2date anyway.

I think that new Linux users who are encountering Red Hat related problems could learn some stuff from PinoyTux. It would prove to be one nice resource of tips too!