My wife has just finished installing Ubuntu 8.04 on her T61.
A few years ago I decided that I should not try to persuade friends/family to use Linux but I will tell them about the benefits if they show any interest. I think it should come from them - people should install it whenever (if) they are ready to do it.
My wife insisted to do it on her own. She's a pretty technical person and when it comes to computers - she knows her way around.
She did it on her own while I sat near by, waiting for that moment I'll have to come and help her install some drivers or fix something. After 20 minutes she had a working Ubuntu installation and I was still sitting at the same spot.
Connecting to the encrypted wireless network in our house was easy enough. The network connection wizard worked well (I remember that in 7.10 it was still very buggy).
First thing she wanted to do after installation is change the background with the ugly bird.
I gave her the gnome-arts and gnome-looks addresses and she found something she liked in a few minutes. The "set as background" from FireFox3 didn't work (BoOoOo!) so she saved to disk and set it as background.
Next thing she wanted to do - enlarge the font sizes because her screen is HiRes and the text is too small for her. She changed it in the Appearance Wizard (System->Preferences->Appearance). On the way, she changed the Font rendering to "Subpixel Smoothing (LCDs)" because she noticed it looks better.
I tried to tell he that changing the DPI might be the correct way but she didn't listen to me =\
She though the way she found was good enough.
She had a bad experience with Windows XP - when she changed the DPI in XP on her new laptop, some system fonts were not affected and some websites she visits regularly (like Walla.co.il) remained small looking. In XP eventually she found a solution that involved changing the DPI + adding an entry in the Windows Registry (WTF?) that makes Explorer7 resize all fonts. She was pleased with this solution but it took 3 days until she found it (after calling MS support for help which referred her to IBM support (because she has the OEM version) which knew nothing about the problem... sigh. Everybody just kept telling her to change the DPI and they had no knowledge of the registry fix for Explorer).
Now she was happy with the size of fonts in the system so she executed FireFox3 to see if the problem was solved - well , it wasn't. Walla.co.il was still displayed with small looking fonts. I said "it's probably caused by the web developers who are using px (pixel size) to set the font size". Then I told her to try the ctrl-'+' to enlarge the fonts. She though it wouldn't work because in Explorer7 it screwed up all the locations of objects on the web page and looked terrible.
Surprisingly (or not), on FireFox3 it looked great and Ctrl-'+' seems to scale up everything including pictures and other objects. Additionally, it seems like FF3 saves this size/scale setting automagically for each site. Cool.
Then my wife tried to watch some DivX video file using Totem Video Player. Totem popped-up the Automatic Codec Installation and after 2 minutes started playing the video. The display was a bit flickery while playing the file and I said she should try VLC and instructed her to run the Synaptic Package Manager (System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager). That was easy enough but didn't solve the problem. I went "hmm, something here is fishy, try to set Visual Effects from 'none' to 'normal' in the Appearance wizard". I wanted to see if she was able to see accelerated 3d graphics. She tried that and another window popped-up suggesting to install the propriety nvidia driver .. "hmm, the nvidia driver wasn't installed .. Oh my god, they made everything automatic!" I said. After another minute the driver was installed and after a reboot the Divx was playing smoothly.
Joy! "I'm totally useless here, my days as Linux Installation Guru are over.", I though to myself.
"I'll just go to sleep" I said.
Good night and Happy passover everybody!
1.4.08
Hired by Microsoft, ditching Open Source for the real money
Edit : Please notice the date of the post :P
Yeah , You heard it. I was hired by the great Open Source company - Microsoft.
As you probably already know, Microsoft has changed it's evil ways by announcing the acquisition of the Open Source Community and started working with Open Source ... and I for one, welcome our new Monopolistic overlords.
As a result, a position for Open Source spokesman and coordinator was opened in Microsoft IL offices and I jumped on the opportunity.
In my new position at MS I am hoping to change things "from the inside".
The first task they gave me at the MS Office was to port all the trolling messages I wrote against Vista to other platforms.
Resistance is futile!
OMG!!! ponies !
.. and so on and so forth ...
Yeah , You heard it. I was hired by the great Open Source company - Microsoft.
As you probably already know, Microsoft has changed it's evil ways by announcing the acquisition of the Open Source Community and started working with Open Source ... and I for one, welcome our new Monopolistic overlords.
As a result, a position for Open Source spokesman and coordinator was opened in Microsoft IL offices and I jumped on the opportunity.
In my new position at MS I am hoping to change things "from the inside".
The first task they gave me at the MS Office was to port all the trolling messages I wrote against Vista to other platforms.
Resistance is futile!
OMG!!! ponies !
.. and so on and so forth ...
3.11.07
Ubuntu Hebrew Remix
In the past two weeks I have been working (on and off) on a script to remaster Ubuntu Live CD to make it include essential packages, fonts and configuration for Hebrew speaking users.
A big portion of the work was kindly sponsored and supported by Lingnu, the company that hired me last April.
For more details about the project go to:
http://lingnu.com/ubuntu-hebrew-remix/ (Hebrew)
IMO the script I wrote is far from perfection. The initial goal was to easily create an Ubuntu "Remix", and this goal was achieved, but the script can be easily be modified to create the next Kazit (Hebrew), or Kinneret.
The LiveCD defaults to a fully "Hebrewalized" UI but you can easily boot to a "Hebrew Enabled" environment by hitting F2 and choosing English in the initial boot menu.
The name "Ubuntu Hebrew Remix" was chosen according to the terms of the Ubuntu Trademark Policy document:
A mailing list was created for patches, suggestions and requests for package inclusion.
A big portion of the work was kindly sponsored and supported by Lingnu, the company that hired me last April.
For more details about the project go to:
http://lingnu.com/ubuntu-hebrew-remix/ (Hebrew)
IMO the script I wrote is far from perfection. The initial goal was to easily create an Ubuntu "Remix", and this goal was achieved, but the script can be easily be modified to create the next Kazit (Hebrew), or Kinneret.
The LiveCD defaults to a fully "Hebrewalized" UI but you can easily boot to a "Hebrew Enabled" environment by hitting F2 and choosing English in the initial boot menu.
The name "Ubuntu Hebrew Remix" was chosen according to the terms of the Ubuntu Trademark Policy document:
if you are creating a derivative of Ubuntu, you may use the Trademarks in association with the software product provided:
the changes are minimal and unsubstantial, as described above
there is no commercial intent associated with the new product
the Trademark is used in a way that makes it clear that your project is a development effort related to the Ubuntu source, but that the software you are working upon is not in fact Ubuntu as distributed by the Ubuntu project. The approved naming scheme to facilitate this is through designation “Remix”. For instance, a new ISO image which has been packaged special tools for software developers could be called “Ubuntu, Developers Remix”, or an image was has been created with Thai language packs could be called "Ubuntu Thai Remix". Words such as "Edition" and "Version" should be avoided, as they have specific meaning within the Ubuntu project. Prefixes, such as “ThaiBuntu” should also be avoided. Any other naming scheme will require explicit permission.
there is no suggestion (through words or appearance) that your project is approved, sponsored, or affiliated with Ubuntu or its related projects unless it has been approved by and is governed by the Ubuntu Community Council.
A mailing list was created for patches, suggestions and requests for package inclusion.
22.10.07
13.4.07
RTL patch accepted to Pidgin
Yep , now it's official. The RTL patch was accepted and will be part of the next Pidgin release. For the next few months we'll probably still have to compile from MTN or use unofficial packages built by the kind people of the Israeli Linux Community, but as soon as Pidgin hits the popular distros - The itch was scratched - problem solved :)
26.2.07
A patch to fix some Bidi-text issues in Gaim2
It has been 2 years since I reported bug #1121620 to the Gaim Bug Tracker. I expected that someone will resolve it for Gaim 2.0 but the issue was ignored. A friend told me last week that he doesn't like Gaim because of it's bad Hebrew support in MSN Messenger protocol. I decided that this itch just got too itchy to ignore. So, I looked into it during the weekend and realized I know how to fix it, and so I wrote this patch.
This patch doesn't only fix the problem described in bug #1121620 but also resolves the problems with displaying RTL messages on Gaim's IMHtml Widget.
Before my patch MSN conversation used to look like this:
Notice that the direction of the text was automatically (and correctly) detected in the text input field on the bottom. However, the conversation window displays all lines aligned to the left and the text direction is always LTR - therefore RTL text which includes embedded English words (LTR) becomes unreadable because the words are displayed in the wrong order.
The MSN Messenger user will also see the text displayed using the wrong alignment and the wrong direction:
The patch above will fix all these issues. After patching your Gaim, the above conversation will look like this:
And the MSN Messenger user will see the text displayed correctly:
The Code
Writing the patch was a little tricky - some of the code in there may seem like an ugly hack and there's probably a better way of doing some things. But that's the best I could do with my basic knowledge in GTK and Gaim API.
In this patch I implemented the following:
* Added support for [SPAN dir="rtl"] tag in the parser of the IMHtml Widget. (AFAIK this HTML tag is deprecated, but most browsers implement it and it beats coding CSS support)
* Added text direction detection to outgoing messages and send it with the correct SPAN tag.
* Added support for the "RL=1" flag in Messenger protocol implementation, both in sending and receiving messages.
* Fixed some display issues: Insert RLM and RLE Unicode characters to the conversation display according to the expected alignment and direction.
UPDATE:
Now timestamps will show up on the right side:
in the screenshot:
Hebrew alias + English text
Hebrew alias + Hebrew text
English alias + English text
English alias + Hebrew text
This patch doesn't only fix the problem described in bug #1121620 but also resolves the problems with displaying RTL messages on Gaim's IMHtml Widget.
Before my patch MSN conversation used to look like this:
Notice that the direction of the text was automatically (and correctly) detected in the text input field on the bottom. However, the conversation window displays all lines aligned to the left and the text direction is always LTR - therefore RTL text which includes embedded English words (LTR) becomes unreadable because the words are displayed in the wrong order.
The MSN Messenger user will also see the text displayed using the wrong alignment and the wrong direction:
The patch above will fix all these issues. After patching your Gaim, the above conversation will look like this:
And the MSN Messenger user will see the text displayed correctly:
The Code
Writing the patch was a little tricky - some of the code in there may seem like an ugly hack and there's probably a better way of doing some things. But that's the best I could do with my basic knowledge in GTK and Gaim API.
In this patch I implemented the following:
* Added support for [SPAN dir="rtl"] tag in the parser of the IMHtml Widget. (AFAIK this HTML tag is deprecated, but most browsers implement it and it beats coding CSS support)
* Added text direction detection to outgoing messages and send it with the correct SPAN tag.
* Added support for the "RL=1" flag in Messenger protocol implementation, both in sending and receiving messages.
* Fixed some display issues: Insert RLM and RLE Unicode characters to the conversation display according to the expected alignment and direction.
UPDATE:
Now timestamps will show up on the right side:
in the screenshot:Hebrew alias + English text
Hebrew alias + Hebrew text
English alias + English text
English alias + Hebrew text
4.2.07
Who will start the next war on Israel
It's almost funny to read that some people from Tehran think that Israel will be first one to attack Iran when they live in the only country in the world who has an elected president who constantly calls for the destruction of another country while insisting on their undisputable right to develop Nuclear energy for peaceful needs (..... can you do 1 plus 1 ?).
In addition Hezbollah, who brought the war on Lebanon, receives arms, training, financial support and commands from Iran. This organization which tries to disguise itself as a local and legitimate resistance organization is nothing but a wing of the Iranian army.
Dear roozbeh , how can teach me about war when only few months ago Iranian missiles where flying over my parents heads in my own home town?
Here is my scenario for the war with Iran:
Iran will continue to develop it's "peaceful" Nuclear Energy capabilities.
In a time of a year or two Iran will conduct it's first nuclear bomb experiment.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will call, once again, for the destruction of Israel and America. The US may launch a massive air strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. The US will not invade Iran while still being involved in the Iraqi mess. Iran will respond by launching conventional war-heads on Haifa and Tel-Aviv and by initiating terror attacks in the lebanese border using the Hezbollah. Israel will not retaliate and will be ordered by US and UN to hold back (Exactly what happened during the first Gulf War when Iraq launched missiles against targets in Saudi Arabia and Israel). Israel may start bombing Hezbollah targets in lebanon again.
Iran's nuclear capability will not be destroyed by the attack because most of their facilities are underground and scattered all over Iran. Iran will have the ability to launch tactic war heads. In the end we will have a small-scaled version of the Cold War against Iran. Iran will not use it's nuclear weapons knowing that Israel probably has the same capabilities.
Iran will start to develop war-heads interception systems like the systems being developed by Israel and the US.
I hope roozebeh can sleep better tonight.
In addition Hezbollah, who brought the war on Lebanon, receives arms, training, financial support and commands from Iran. This organization which tries to disguise itself as a local and legitimate resistance organization is nothing but a wing of the Iranian army.
Dear roozbeh , how can teach me about war when only few months ago Iranian missiles where flying over my parents heads in my own home town?
Here is my scenario for the war with Iran:
Iran will continue to develop it's "peaceful" Nuclear Energy capabilities.
In a time of a year or two Iran will conduct it's first nuclear bomb experiment.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will call, once again, for the destruction of Israel and America. The US may launch a massive air strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. The US will not invade Iran while still being involved in the Iraqi mess. Iran will respond by launching conventional war-heads on Haifa and Tel-Aviv and by initiating terror attacks in the lebanese border using the Hezbollah. Israel will not retaliate and will be ordered by US and UN to hold back (Exactly what happened during the first Gulf War when Iraq launched missiles against targets in Saudi Arabia and Israel). Israel may start bombing Hezbollah targets in lebanon again.
Iran's nuclear capability will not be destroyed by the attack because most of their facilities are underground and scattered all over Iran. Iran will have the ability to launch tactic war heads. In the end we will have a small-scaled version of the Cold War against Iran. Iran will not use it's nuclear weapons knowing that Israel probably has the same capabilities.
Iran will start to develop war-heads interception systems like the systems being developed by Israel and the US.
I hope roozebeh can sleep better tonight.
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