LtFG at Caltech

An announcement: Larry the Fedora Guy will make his lecture debut at Caltech tomorrow (Thurdsay, July 9) from 7-9 p.m. in 107 Downs on the Caltech campus.

Okay, so while I climb down from the lofty pedestal that I’ve built for myself — yeah, it’s beyond an honor to even be on the hallowed grounds of the campus, let alone speak there — it’s not really a lecture, it’s more of a talk about Fedora 11 to the monthly San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group meeting.

Swag included.

If you find yourself in Pasadena, or nearby, and feel like listening to me testify about how great Fedora is, come on over.

[And thanks to SGVLUG for allowing me the honor to speak on the hallowed ground of the Caltech campus.]

(Larry Cafiero is the Regional Ambassador for the U.S. West Coast for the Fedora Project and he also runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California. He also blogs from time to time as Larry the Free Software Guy.)

The Three Faces of Fedora 11: Xfce

I have to confess that in writing this blog item about Xfce on Fedora 11, I’ve had divine inspiration. I mean, really divine inspiration, as in as high on the divinity food chain as you can get.

Jesus wants everyone to use Xfce. He said so here on my Facebook page two days ago:

So who am I to argue with the Son of God?

And you might think this is the last word on this — He would, of course — but bear in mind you’re dealing with Larry the Free Software Guy, who always tries to get in the last word.

So while Jesus and other diety are paying attention to Texas or Iran or something else, I’ll try to get this in: Fedora 11 using Xfce 4.6 — say it with me here — is probably designed for older machines and/or machines that may not have as much memory as newer ones. But I’ll go one further: F11 with Xfce absolutely flies on machines that are not so old, like this one, even after adding a whole plethora of software and running multiple programs at the same time (like, say, OpenOffice, Gimp, Firefox, Bluefish and Tux Paint all open in one desktop, all performing as if none of the others were open).

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog — those two or three of you outside my family — know that I’ve always been a big fan of Xfce. Herding old hardware like I do, it’s normally what works when 256MB is as high as you can go and you want ol’ Bessie to actually be able to do something. So imagine putting this lightweight desktop on something more substantial, hardware wise, and it’s like putting a 426 Hemi in a golf cart.

Of all the things native to Xfce that are of special note, two stand out: Ristretto, which is a lightening-quick image viewer, and Mousepad, which is like Leafpad but can actually print (I’d certainly like that afternoon back where I tried to print something from Leafpad, but that’s another story). It accompanies the usual array of solid, steady Xfce programs like the Thunar file manager and the ubiquitous calendar Orage.

Think of the Xfce desktop as I do: Like a racing car, it has only what is necessary to make it go, and in this case, go fast; no extras and no frills. If you want the bells and whistles and “optional features” like a luggage rack and the chrome trim, you may want to use another desktop. But Fedora 11 using Xfce certainly takes the checkered flag.

Tomorrow we’ll take a brief look at the “fourth face” of the Three Faces of Fedora 11 — LXDE — and have a wrap-up.

[This blog item also appears on the Larry the Free Software Guy blog.

[Whew. Got that in before the Son of God had a chance to render me completely mute and speechle

(Larry Cafiero is the Regional Ambassador for the U.S. West Coast for the Fedora Project and he also runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California. He also blogs from time to time as Larry the Free Software Guy.)

The Three Faces of Fedora 11: KDE

The following may come as a shock to you all: I had originally written another blog, filled with kute kommentary kompletely katagorizing the klear advantages kurrently available in the new KDE 4.2, and how well it runs on the lightning-kwick Fedora 11.

But after being up all night with this version of Fedora 11, I deleted most of it. I’m not going to go there — not with the “k” thing which, since 1996, has probably been the mainstay of jokes around the desktop environment; jokes which those close to KDE find way beyond tiresome by this time, I’m sure.

“Up all night” sounds bad, too, as if I were nursing a sick child with a fever. That’s not the case here. On the contrary: The reason I was up all night with KDE is that, as predominantly a GNOME user, I was enthralled by the desktop environment and its accompanying programs. Enthralled probably isn’t the best word here, and neither is enamored because neither word does justice to how impressed I am overall with KDE 4.2’s offerings and performance on Fedora 11.

A caveat: There are programs that I still prefer over the ones K provides on KDE. For example, while KOffice is an adequate program, you can have my OpenOffice when you pry my cold, dead fingers from it, and I installed it and tested with it. While I am an unequivocal OOo user, I do think that KThesarus is an excellent addition to KOffice. Konqueror, though adequate, tends to falter when it comes to some sites — Facebook and Gmail come immediately to mind. So Firefox was installed as well.

Having said this, though, there are programs on here that I like very much and would use going forward. I put Konversation through its paces during the Fedora Ambassadors IRC meeting on Tuesday evening, and it gained me as a convert. Also, KMail was very easy to set up and use and is a viable alternative — and in many ways a superior one, once you find your way around it — to Evolution.

[Note: I'm still on the fence when it comes to KsCD, but with the hour being what it was last night I wasn't able to crank up the Judas Priest -- played, of course, for testing purposes only. No, really. Just for testing . . . ]

Despite the digital stumble KDE 4 arguably may have been, KDE 4.2 tends to make up for it and goes way above and beyond the call. Further, KDE is clearly worth considering if you’re installing Fedora 11, whether or not F11 is the first time you’re using Fedora.

Coming tomorrow: Divine inspiration in using Fedora 11 with the Xfce desktop.

[This blog item also appears on the Larry the Free Software Guy blog.]

(Larry Cafiero is the Regional Ambassador for the U.S. West Coast for the Fedora Project and he also runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California. He also blogs from time to time as Larry the Free Software Guy.)