The Linux Advocate
by Scott Dowdle Linux Advocate LOGIN: Hmmm, while it hasn't exactly been a slow news week... there just wasn't much news that interested me. :) It seems the big controversy this week was over the fact that the term "Open Source" was not actually trademarked as was previously thought. A trademark had been applied for by the Open Source Initiative organization but it turns out that the term is too generic to be trademarkable. Hmmm, if "Windows" can be trademarked, I don't know why "Open Source" can't. In any event, it really wasn't much of a controversy so far as I'm concerned so I'm not providing any links to the vast array of stories I found on the subject. The Open Source homepage may be found at: http://www.opensource.org In a not so related, but kinda related story... it turns
out that Microsoft has invited Eric S. Raymond (Mr. Open
Source) to speak at Microsoft headquarters or some such.
Rather than provide a link to the various stories I found
that announce the invitation, I think I'll wait until Mr.
Raymond has actually spoken before the Redmondites, after I
found out what he said, after I find out what they felt
about it, and so forth... before I treat it as a real news Item #1: Linux and Microsoft, together at last - Remember
all of the Mindcraft noise from several weeks ago? Well,
they are at it again. A Salon magazine article details some
of the pre-battle moments. We'll know more specifics next
week but be sure and check out the following URL: http://www.salonmagazine.com/tech/feature/1999/06/16/linux_shootout/index.html
How to Successfully Sell Linux Look Before You Leap Into Linux Adoption http://www.internetwk.com/columns/logic061499.htm
I think I've read about a dozen stories on the SETIatHOME project. I never really checked it out until the other day. I don't know why. I mean, Jodi Foster is nice enough and all, and besides she is a babe... and CONTACT was a great movie... but wouldn't installing a program on my machine that contacts a SETI server, downloads recorded space noise and analyses it, and then ships the results back to SETI be a pain in the butt to set up? The answer I found was NO. In fact, it is painlessly easy to setup and use. What's SETI? Ok, so maybe I'll get lucky and find a handful of people who haven't heard about SETI yet... and I can be the one to tell you about it... that would be cool. SETI stands for Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. SETI is an organization funded from various sources that has as a goal, to find life out there in space. Ok, so I didn't do a great job of explaining it all, so go rent a copy of CONTACT already would you?!? Sheesh. Anyway, you can find out all about SETIatHOME by visiting their web site located at the following URL: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu So, I'm thinking to myself... hey, self... you need to put more screenshots in the column... and it would be nice to have an original SPOTLIGHT or two more often. Hey, look... tons of front end programs for SETIatHOME.. do it, do it. While the SETIatHOME program for Windows is a beautiful, graphics delight, the Linux version is bland and all text. Of course the Linux version gets done in about 1/4 of the time as the Windows version (for various reasons) but who cares... fancy graphics on the end user's screen are important, right? Ok, so I found some frontend programs for the Linux version of SETIatHOME. I've personally been using X-SETI but screenshots and links for all of the frontends I've been able to find are below. Please note that I have not tried out all of the programs personally; I borrowed some pics from the homepages listed.
So as you can see, there are tons of cool looking
frontends for SETIatHOME for Linux. Speaking of cool,
another thing that's cool is that the source code to all of
the above packages available/included so not only are the
applications useful, they can help you learn how to program
too. Open Source, what a concept, eh? - - - 8< cut here >8 - - - Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 13:17:23 -0600 I was carousing through this weeks latest column and was quite gitty on the Corel plans for the distribution and mostly the planned releases of the Corel graphics suites. In my study of the Gimp this past week I have found many things in common with the CorelPhoto and CorelDraw programs. They (GIMP) will need to hustle faster to compete with Corel in this market. I am an avid Corel user in the windows environment and use it mostly with all my raster graphic needs. I also use Paint Shop Pro for many other uses with the raster images that Corel is much slower at such as ripping to printer or rotating. On the other hand Corel can crop faster than Paint Shop Pro. Getting a little off subject now but I am looking forward to the Corel releases. I will probably only use them with Red Hat as separate packages first off, and maybe later look at their distribution and it's bundle. I want to thank you Scott for cranking this column out
every week despite all you hard times with the family life.
Keep up the good news! - - - 8< cut here >8 - - - Thanks for writing Warren. Speaking of GIMP, while at my local Barnes and Nobles store I found a book on GIMP. Since I've mentioned B&N, I might as well give some Amazon.com references to two books on the GIMP. I'm sure either of them would be great to enhance your GIMP usage: Artists' Guide to the GIMP http://www.thegimp.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1578310113/qid=929686474/sr=1-2/002-3805878-7091019 Teach Yourself Gimp in 24 Hours I actually bought Teach Yourself Gimp in 24 Hours but
haven't had a chance to read it yet. B&N had two copies
in stock. In fact, they had a book on KDE, an book on QT
Programming and a full 4-foot section on Linux... and that's
why I don't mind mentioning them here. Oh, for the record,
I'm not receiving any sort of kickback for the
mentions here. Maybe someday, huh? As always, thanks for reading and feel free to email me
with any comments or questions. I've actually received quite
a bit of email over the past year but I'd sure like to get
more. No, I post everything piece of email I get to the
column but you might get lucky. Perhaps I'll buy a big batch
of cheap Linux CDs and offer them up as prizes. Anyone
want to sponsor that? Scott Dowdle
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