Archive for the 'Going Opensource' Category

Portable Operating Systems

Published on November 27, 2007 in Going Opensource, Linux OS related and Portable Computing. 0 Comments

Wouldn’t it be nice…

I travel a fair bit. Right now I am in Germany. I take a laptop with me when I can. Yet relatively often I find myself not able to easily access the Internet from my laptop. Sometimes I am staying at houses without Internet access. Sometimes I find myself visiting houses or places where these is Internet access yet I don’t have my laptop with me, such as visiting a friend. Internet is on hand, but my email checking system (a highly customised Thunderbird) and my web browsing system (a highly customised Firefox) are not on hand. Wouldn’t it be nice to carry all this around in my pocket?

These days it is possible to do just that — carry an entire operating system and a vast array of personalised applications in your pocket. This is in the form of a USB memory stick or a pocket hard drive. With some of these systems you can even boot up the OS and run all its applications from within an existing operating system on the host machine (virtualisation). Just plug in the USB device and start it up as a virtual machine. Here are the portable operating systems (all Linux based) I managed to find which looked worthy of my (and perhaps your) attention:

  • DSL (Dame Small Linux). This one can boot from within the Host Operating system. A big plus I think.
  • PenDriveLinux. This site provides a lot of info on running a wide range of Linux OSs from portable media, including how to run Linux within the host OS. They provide many great tutorials on how to get the most out of your portable OS experience. One example is how to run Ubuntu (v7.10) from a USB flash drive.
  • FaunOS. Needs close to 1GB of space (so somewhat on the big side). Does not support virtualisation (booting within the host OS). Can set up a boot CD to boot it on machines that don’t support booting from USB (most computers more than a few years old).
  • PuppyLinux. Appears to be about 60MB in size. "Overall, Puppy Linux is a superb, light-weight, fast and versatile Linux distribution with a great selection of applications, graphical system administration utilities and all sorts of unique features not readily available elsewhere. A great choice not only for older computers, but also for those who dislike the bloat of most modern distributions." - Distrowatch.com
    This is essentially a LiveCD distribution of Linux. It can, however, run from a USB drive. Does not appear to support virtualisation.
  • Moka5 (LivePCs). "Moka5 LivePCs contain everything needed to run a virtual computer — an operating system and a set of applications. You can use LivePCs on your desktop, or you can take them with you on a portable USB drive." This is a different concept from the others listed above. Once Moka5 is installed, you can then run a wide range of available LivePCs (or create your own) which can be run from a hard disk or portable USB drive. For now Moka5 is free, but it might not stay that way.
  • QUMU and QUMU Manager. Requires a little more technical knowledge, but the net result is the one gets a virtual machine of Linux running from a USB drive/key.

If you know of any others (particularly ones that natively support booting within the host OS) please let me know.

Windows Live Messenger Alternatives

Published on November 27, 2007 in Internet Topics and Opensource Apps. 0 Comments

Today whilst updating Windows Live Messenger, I also opted to install the latest version of what used to be called Windows Messenger. Since my last complete reinstall of my computer I had not got around to installed Messenger. When I install WLM tonight I instantly realised it was time to find an alternative. Why?

A few reasons where immediately apparent.

  1. WLM is very large. Installed it takes up at least 32MB of disk space. It’s process (msnmsgr.exe) which I started right after installation 56.7 MB of RAM on my system when it is just sitting there open as I write this. This is when it is an open window. When minimised it accounts for about 7 - 8 MB (although the figure is rising as I write this, and I am not even using the Messenger client as it is minimised). By the time I wrote that sentence it has risen to 8.64 MB and is still rising.
  2. WLM has advertising in it. Not nice. Why should I be subjected to advertising whilst using a messaging client? I shouldn’t. End of story.

I am sure there are many other reasons to remove this application from my computer, but as I am already removing it without using it beyond its initial startup and login, I won’t have a chance to figure out what they are. But the two reasons cited above are enough. (The messenger process is now at 10.3 MB whilst minimised and not being actively used, and still rising).

Here are some good alternatives I found.

  1. Pidgin. This used to be called Gaim. A nice looking messenger client. Supports many different messaging networks including Microsoft Messenger, AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo!, Zephyr.
    I can’t say I have even heard of nearly all of these, but there you have it. Lots of options.
    If you run Mac OSX then Adium is the equivalent app for Mac.
  2. Trillian. Also looks nice. Has free and Pro version. If you don’t need lots of video related features then the free version seems to do most things one might expect.
  3. Miranda. This one I have not actually checked out, but here is what their website has to say about it: "Miranda IM is the smaller, faster, easier instant messenger with support for multiple protocols. Designed from the ground-up to be resource efficient while still providing a rich feature set, Miranda includes support for AIM, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu and more. Additionally, with the choice of hundreds of plug-
  4. ins, icons, sounds and other content…"

So far I most like the look of Pidgin so that’s what’ll be replacing Windows Live Messenger on this computer for now.

Windows Live Messenger is now dead, as far as this computer is concerned. Let’s hope Microsoft doesn’t go an stick advertising into Live Writer (my preferred choice for desktop blog writing applications on which I am writing this). I’d hate to have to kill that as well, because I’ve seen most of the alternatives and none of them are as good in my opinion.

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Opensource Groupware Applications

Published on May 19, 2007 in Opensource Apps and Web Applications. 0 Comments

The following is a list of Open Source / Free online groupware applications. There are many of them out there and this list represents the more appealing ones I have come across. At some time I might update this list with more information on each groupware solution. For now, however, this list is to simply serve as a starting point for finding the right open source online groupware application for you and your organization.

If you have any suggestions of other good systems not on this list please leave a comment and let me know.

  • Hipergate — http://www.hipergate.org/
    hipergate is an open source web based application suite.
    It’s mission is to cover a full range of technical requirements in any organization. All applications are addresses from Internet Explorer, without needing any other additional software in the client computer.
    This suite is multi-company capable, and can be used in a single company, a corporate group or working as an ASP solution capable of serving an unlimited quantity of single customers.

  • PHProjekt — http://www.phprojekt.com/index.php?&newlang=eng

    PHProjekt is a modular application for the coordination of group activities and to share informations and document via the web. Components of PHProjekt: Group calendar, project management, time card system, file management, contact manager, mail client and many other modules. PHProjekt supports many protocols like ldap, xml/soap and webdav and is available for 38 languages and 9 databases.

    • eGroupware — http://www.egroupware.org/
      I am not entirely sure if this one is able to be installed a run in a purely web based environment, but it otherwise looks very good.
    • Group-Office Groupware — http://sourceforge.net/projects/group-office/
    • Centraview — http://www.centraview.com
      Provides more than just Groupware functionality.

      CentraView is a leading Open Source Centralized Business Management (CBM) solution that delivers an ideal combination of Contact Management, Salesforce Automation (SFA), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionality and much more, all through a standard web browser. CentraView is much more than just CRM or SFA. We offer a comprehensive business management suite that reduces the need to purchase many different software applications that don’t talk to one another. Ultimately we provide you with that all important “Centralized View” of all your customer information.

Site Backup Tools

Published on March 22, 2007 in Blogging, Internet Topics, MySQL, Opensource Apps, Web Applications and Web Design. 0 Comments

It’s important to backup content and databases we have online. Whether you run a blog (such as Wordpress) or other applications on a website, there are often many individual files to download if doing a backup manually via FTP. This can be slow and tedious if a quick backup is what you want (and why wouldn’t you?). phpMySQL has build in backup functions if you need them, although the following tools provide an easy one-stop solution.

Check out the following great tools for backing up your site content and MySQL databases.

  • phpMyBackup Pro is a very easy to use, free, web-based MySQL backup application, licensed under the GNU GPL.
    You can create scheduled backups, manage and restore them, download or email them and a lot more!

    Major features:
    - backup of one or several databases with or without data, table structure, …
    - three types of compression (no compression, gzip or zip)
    - scheduled backups (by a small PHP script which must be included in an existing PHP script)
    - interface for management of the backups (viewing, restoring, downloading, deleting)
    - backup directly onto FTP server and sending of backups by email
    - platform independent - only webserver and PHP needed to run e.g. on MS Windows, Linux or Mac
    - shell mode (to use manually or by cron script)
    - backup of whole file directories (on a FTP server).
    - backup databases from different accounts on several MySQL servers
    - one installation can be used for all MySQL users of one MySQL server (used by webhosters)
    - highest security through two alternative login methods (HTTP or HTML authentication)
    - easy to use interface and very easy to install
    - several language packages available

  • PHP WebSite Backup
  • PHP MySQL Backup

Exporting Subscriber list on Mailman

Published on February 28, 2007 in Opensource Apps, Tips & Tricks and Web Applications. 0 Comments

The current release of mailman lacks a very important feature. There is no immediately obvious way to export a list of subscribers from a mail list — at least not via the admin interface. There is, however, a way to get this data. In my case I needed it in order to move the list of people from one mail-list to another way.

I read the following was an option:

Here is how to get a list of subscribers in one shot:
Send a message to: list-request@some-domain.org where list is the actual list name (e.g. sds-request@some-domain.org)
The subject line should read: who password*

* if the listserv is locked down you’ll need a password
(if you send it without and the list is locked it will complain in a reply email) Although it seems bizarre to send your password as part of the subject

I tried this method and nothing was emailed back to me. It may be that the mailman server I am using is configured to not allow this feature to work. I am not sure, as I only have access to the lists I manage and not the entire set-up.

So, here are some other options:

Go to the following address: http://www.yourdomain.com/mailman/roster/<listname>

This will produce a page with all members listed on it. Be prepared for a long page if you have lots of subscribers. The format is this:  address at domain.com as opposed to address@domain.com. If you have a lot of subscribers there is an easy way to use Excel to convert this data into the format you want (address@domain.com). There is an Excel file available right here. Just unzip the spreadsheet into a directory of your choice. Open the Excel file (it is free of macro viruses, but you may like to scan if first if you’re not convinced). Highlight and COPY the list from the web page. Past into Column A the data you have just copied. Now all you have to do is fill the formulas in columns .

Enjoy, and let me know if this helps some.

Jonathan Evatt

The Free Portable Privacy Machine

Published on January 25, 2007 in Freeware Applications, Linux OS related and Tips & Tricks. 0 Comments

Looking for a portable secure computer system that fits onto a USB key?

Look no further… take a look at the free solution from Metropipe (here)

Here the info on it…

 

Feature Overview

  • Carry your entire Internet communication system on a tiny USB drive.
  • Contains a complete virtual Linux machine with privacy-enabled Open Source Internet applications.
  • Carry your Internet applications, email, bookmarks, history, web cookies, download files in your pocket.
  • Perfect for travelers - nothing to be scanned, started, poked, or prodded at the airport.
  • Get English keyboard support no matter what computer you use.
  • No installation needed - just plug the drive into any Windows or Linux computer, and click on the Virtual Privacy Machine icon and you’re ready to go.
  • The VPM’s network connection will auto configure and run seamlessly on any machine with a working internet connection..
  • All Internet session data (cookies, history, downloads, etc.) are stored on the VPM, not the host computer.
  • Runs on any rewriteable media (USB drives, Flash Memory cards, Secure Digital devices, iPods, etc.)
  • This PR1-2 release runs on Windows and Linux - OS X support is also possible, details in the readme.txt.
  • Runs in full screen mode (CTRL-ALT to Exit Grab and CTRL-ALT f to Toggle Fullscreen)
  • Includes the Latest Firefox 1.5.0.2 Browser with MetroPipe Privacybar for Firefox and the NOSCRIPT Extension Pre-installed.
  • Includes Mozilla Thunderbird News/Email client (with Enigmail plugins for PGP email encryption)
  • Persistent Home directory, changes, bookmarks are saved to the PVPM and available on next reboot.
  • Created from 100% Open Source GPL code and binaries.

In the Press

The Portable Virtual Privacy Machine was featured on:
Slashdot: PVPM: Secure, Portable, Virtual Privacy Machine
Wall Street Journal: (subscription required) WSJ.com and AWSJ.com by WSJ columnist Jeremy Wagstaff.
Also: A Directory Of Programs Designed For USB Drives written about in WSJ article.

Download

The Portable Virtual Privacy Machine may be downloaded from via the link below. Size: 82 MB Download (108 MB uncompressed)

DOWNLOAD VIA HTTP

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

Published on December 1, 2006 in Linux OS related, OS Tips & Tricks and Windows XP. 0 Comments

Windows Vista, for those who operate their computer with a Microsoft operating system, is the next big thing in the world of Microsoft Windows. Windows XP is the current release of the MS desktop operating system. Vista takes things to the next level in the evolution of this product line.

The thing is, Vista is such a leap forward that many computers may not cope with it or at least not with the fully unleashed version of the product. Will your PC handle the heavy demands of Vista or will an upgrade be necessary to experience the gloss and features Vista has to offer?

You can find out using the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. Click here to download and run it now.

If you find your PC can not handle Vista without costly upgrades or a complete replacement of your hardware, you may want to check out the free, feature rich, and less resource hungry alternatives such as Ubuntu or other Linux distribution.


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Ubuntu Dapper to Edgy upgrade issue

Published on October 29, 2006 in Linux OS related and Ubuntu. 0 Comments

There is an issue that appears to be more common than others when it comes to upgrading Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 up to Ubuntu Edgy 6.10. This error arises when the Upgrade Manager tries to calculate the packages and dependencies. The error displays this:

The error title is: “Could not calculate the upgrade”

The message is: “An unresolvable problem occured while calculating the upgrade. Please report this bug against the ‘update manager’ package and include the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/ in the bugreport.”

In my case the last few lines of the /var/log/dist-upgrade/apt.log file showed the following issue:

Starting

Starting 2

Investigating libgl1-mesa-dri

Package libgl1-mesa-dri has broken dep on libgl1-mesa

  Considering libgl1-mesa 8 as a solution to libgl1-mesa-dri 0

  Removing libgl1-mesa-dri rather than change libgl1-mesa

Investigating xorg

Package xorg has broken dep on libgl1-mesa-dri

  Considering libgl1-mesa-dri 0 as a solution to xorg 0

  Holding Back xorg rather than change libgl1-mesa-dri

Investigating ubuntu-desktop

Package ubuntu-desktop has broken dep on xorg

  Considering xorg 0 as a solution to ubuntu-desktop 10000

    Reinst Failed because of libgl1-mesa-dri

Done

The problem is being cased by a dependency issue with libgl1-mesa-dri. I found that libgl1-mesa-dri indicates that the package ubuntu-deskop is dependant on it, yet ubuntu-desktop does not indicate it has this dependency. The other package that is dependant on this one is x-window-system-core.

The solution that I and many other people have found works for this is the following:

1) Run “sudo dpkg -r –force-depends libgl1-mesa libgl1-dev libgl1-dri libglu1-mesa libglu1-mesa-dev mesa-common-dev mesa-utils” from the command prompt

2) Then run “sudo apt-get install -f” from the command prompt.

Also, if you have an entry in your /etc/apt/sources.list file with “compiz” in it then comment out that entry (or entries) by putting # in front of them. One way to do this is by running “sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list” from the command prompt.

You may need to manually uninstall libgl1-dri in the Synaptic Package Manager. At least check that it is not installed before proceeding.

You should now be able to install the upgrade. The fastest way to do this is by downloading the Alternative Install ISO file, burning it to a CD-R and then running the command: gksu “sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade”

Of course if you have a really fast internet connection, and it is well past the release date of Edgy (October 26th) then you may wish to just upgrade online with the command: gksu “update-manager -c”

The upgrade procedure is outlined here: http://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdgyUpgrades 

Some information on the above fix is available at Launchpad.net Bug # 58424

Please let me know how you get on if the above information helps your upgrade issue.

Great free PDF Creation program

Published on September 28, 2006 in Opensource Apps. 0 Comments

There are numerous programs I have on hand for the creation of PDF (Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format) files. Today I am installing and testing out the free (opensource) PDFCreator from http://www.pdfforge.org/. So it looks like a great tool for creating PDF files, and it’s free.

It can be installed in both a standard way and as a Network Installation. Fantastic. So it even supports operation over a network providing PDF creation capabilities to all ones networked computers and users.

If you want to create PDF files check it out today.

Already using a commercial PDF creation program—like Acrobat Professional or PDF Factory or CutePDF Professional?

I also recommend checking out this tool if you are currently using a pirated/warez version of a commercial PDF creation program. With PDFCreator avaialble there is really no excuse for using a pirated/warez copy of some other pdf application.

Remote desktop XP to Ubuntu Linux

Published on August 16, 2006 in OS Tips & Tricks, Ubuntu and Windows XP. 6 Comments

It took me some time to figure this one out. I found many sites / blogs / wikis / forums giving very elaborate instructions on how to do this, but they all seemed much to complicated. What I wanted to do seemed like a simple “want” to me. How do I access my Ubuntu linux box remotely (over the LAN) from a windows xp machine? My linux machine runs Ubuntu. If you are trying to RD into another distro you will have to modify these instructions accordingly. So here is what I did:

  1. Activate XDMCP on Ubuntu - SYSTEM >> Preferences >> Remote Desktop - “Allow other users to view your desktop” - “Allow other users to control your desktop”
  2. Install Cygwin/X onto the Windows XP machine. - Download and run setup.exe from http://www.cygwin.com/ - Install the standard packages on Cycwin/X along with :

    - X11 –> X-Startup-scripts - X11 –> xorg-x11-base (this will set a lot of x11 dependencies to install also — you want to install these)

  3. Run Cycgwin
  4. In the Cgywim terminal enter the following command: $ XWin.exe :1.0 -unixkill -scrollbars -screen 0 1280 1024 -emulate3buttons -once -query (NAME / IP) & Put the name of the linux computer or its IP address
  5. You should then see the Ubuntu login page. Voila.

It’s possible I installed one or two other things on the Ubuntu system. I don’t recall just now as I tried so many other ways to get this functionality working I now forget exactly what was done for what. If you try the above and it does not work, let me know and I’ll figure out what else has to go onto the Ubuntu system. I know I installed freeNX although I am not sure if this was for the Cygwin connection or not. If you want to use SSH to Ubuntu via Cygwin there are some instructions here. I tried various SSH related ways of going about this. SSH from Windows directly and SSH via the Cygwin terminal. I kept getting the error that the port was not open. I tried port 177 (which XDCMP users) and 5901 and others, all to no avail. I am not sure how to make these ports available from Ubuntu. But the Xwin route works great.

A little extra info on this tip can be found here, along with links for further research 

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