Ubuntu : apt-get Basics

Ubuntu apt-get basic usage

KDE in OpenSUSE 11.4 - Screenshots

Here are the Screenshots of my KDE desktop in OpenSUSE 11.4 . The theme is Ghost Rider .

KDE or Gnome ? ?

The two most Popular desktop Environments in GNU/Linux OS are the KDE and the GNOME . Both are intuitive in there own ways . Recently I had the opportunity to attend KDE India Conference held at RVCE, Bangalore and GNOME Asia Summit held at Dayanand Sagar College, Bangalore . At, these conferences I had the privilege to meet the developers of both the desktop environments and exchange some ideas about the features of these desktop environments and their future.

KDE or GNOME ? You ask me Which is the Best ?

I say , Both are great to work and play around with. These two desktop environments have there own advantages as well as disadvantages .

Gnome 3.0 : First Looks

Install Gnome Shell 3.0 on the Ubuntu 10.10

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/testing && sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

Then press Alt+F2 , then type the following command
gnome-shell --replace
To Restore the Old Gnome Hit Alt F2 and then type
debugexit




Screenshots :  First Looks at Gnome 3.0 

Windows Switcher and Activities Menu Bar in Gnome shell 3.0

Android SDK Installation in Linux

Android  as we all know is a Mobile Operating system platform developed by Android.Inc which was later acquired by Google in 2005 . Android is completely Open source and built completely on the Linux Kernel . Android is the most stable, efficient platform for Mobile Operating system application development. Android has got some of the best applications in the world. The popularity of Android Operating system for Mobile devices is also increasing at a Exponential rate, thus Android is the perfect platform for all the application developers to start implementing their ideas and developing cool applications using Android SDK (Software development Kit ) .

Ping Engineering

Ping is networking command available both in Windows and Linux operating systems which is used basically to check the status of the server  or host on the IP network.

According to Wikipedia :
"Ping is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer ".


In simple terms , it is used to check for the availability of the host on an IP (Internet Protocol) network which means to check whether a particular host identified by the IP addresss is up and ready to accept connections or not.
Ping was authored by Mike Muuss . 
Ping uses ICMP (Internet Control Message protocol) echo request packets for pinging the host in the network.
These echo request packets sent are echoed by the particular host pinged. 

Domain Name Server ( DNS )

What is Domain name server ?

Domain name server is a server which converts the human readable domain-names into numeric IP addresses .

There exists basically two namespaces in Domain name system :

1 . The Human readable domain names . Ex : www.google.com

2 . The Numeric IP addresses which is used to locate the computer in the network. 

     Ex : 209.85.231.104

Netstat in Unix

Unix Commands are the most robust to use and easier to implement and understand. Unix is provided with some of the unique and the best networking commands which are used for varied activities from packet sniffing to packet analysis. In this tutorial we will discussing about netstat command which is widely used for statistically analysing the network .

Netstat : Is basically used for displaying the network statistics which include routing tables, network and interface connections .

Usage : netstat [options]

SLACKWARE INSTALLATION IN VIRTUAL BOX

Build and Compile your own Linux Kernel

Kernel is the core of the operating system .Linux Kernel mainly comprises of some million lines of code written in C language. It carries out various tasks which include scheduling, Multitasking, Multiprogramming, access to a shared memory and much more. Linux Kernel is Open source and thus the code is available to the public freely. It is this feature which makes Open Source products superior than the closed source ones. With Open Source Products people are given the freedom to modify or remove the parts of the Kernel program and Build and Compile their own  Kernel .

Linux Shell to the rescue.... My Experience

GNU/Linux provides a rich set of commands . The power of these commands is unmeasurable. This Flexibility of usage is what keeps me so closely connected with Linux systems. These commands along with the shell makes me feel as if "I am the king of the world" because it is like driving an entire operating system as per your taste and will.

A short Experience which describes the power of the Linux systems and the vast set of commands it is built-in with is as follows:

A Magical Trio of Windows , Mac OS X and Linux Operating Systems...

A Magical combination of operating systems that everyone of  you dream about is the GUI(Graphical user interface) of Mac OS X Leopard , Stability and security of Linux systems such as Ubuntu and Compatibility (to support huge number of softwares)  of Windows systems.
This dream of yours is now a reality, Yes, you heard it right. Now it is possible to integrate these three Operating system characteristics into one to convert your dream into a reality.

Xampp Installation and Configuration in Linux

Xampp is a software which provides GUI(Graphical User Interface) as well as CUI(Command Line interface) for designing your database and its entities using MYSQL.

Other than these some of the key features of Xampp include

·Apache 2.2.11
·MySQL 5.1.30
·PHP 5.2.8
·Perl 5.10.0
·ProFTPD 1.3.1
·phpMyAdmin 3.1.1
·OpenSSL 0.9.8i
·GD 2.0.1
·Freetype 2.1.7
·libjpeg 6b
·libpng 1.2.12
·gdbm 1.8.0
·zlib 1.2.3
·expat 1.95.2
·Sablotron 1.0
·libxml 2.7.2
·libxslt 1.1.22
·Ming 0.3

Why use Linux? !!!

Before getting into the intricacies of Why to use Linux over Windows and Mac OS , let me brief you about What is Linux actually?

BACKGROUND :

Linux is a word which derives its origin from the combination of Linus and UNIX . 

 

Linus Torvalds ,a computer science student from University of Helsinki developed a kernel ( Core of Operating System ) which he integrated it with the UNIX ( Earlier OS used in Bell laboratories ) system to develop an operating system known as Linux.

Linux is basically an open-source (free to use and modify) operating system .

HACKING THE GRUB

GRUB (Grand Unified Boot-loader ) is the default boot-loader of almost all Linux Distros except some like Slackware which prefer LILO over GRUB. It is a Boot-loader developed by the GNU project.
GRUB is the most powerful and flexible boot-loader designed ever.

This article throws light on customising your default lousy GRUB background with a wallpaper of your choice.

The image format required for GRUB Background is .xpm.gz

To convert your wallpapers into .xpm.gz format you either need GIMP (GNU Image Manipulator) or Image Magic.

ps2pdf : Post Script to Portable Document Format Converter

PDF(Portable Document Format ) files have become very Popular medium of Information exchange in our daily lives . Most of the Email attachments , E books are now available as PDF files .

Advantages of PDF files being :

•  They are Portable i.e. Compatible across Platforms

•  Secure.

•  Compact and small.

•  Can be Created easily.

•  Most of the web-browsers support it. 

UNetBootin : Carry Operating System on your Pen Drive

UNetBootin ( Universal Netboot Installer) is an Open source application which helps carry your Operating System on your Pen drive. It allows you to create bootable Live USB Drives for Ubuntu, Fedora and many other Linux Distros.This application is also available for Windows . To download and install it on your system visit http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Unetbootin comes with a simple to use GUI (Graphical User Interface) which is uncluttered and clean. It allows you either download the .iso images of various Linux Distros from the net and mount it onto your Pen drive or you can choose a .iso image on your local Hard disk to mount it on to the Pen drive .

Dress Up Fedora with Apps /// Part 4

This article deals with Installation of various applications which are a must in our day-to-day life activities. Dress up Your Fedora with various Apps to make it look and feel good.

NOTE :Switch to Superuser Mode using "su" command .
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• MP3 and Audio Players :

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Rhythmbox music player :

Rhythmbox is the Default Music Player which comes with Fedora GNOME Desktop . If it is not there Install it using

# yum install gstreamer rhythmbox

Downloading Youtube Videos in Fedora /// Part 3

As we all know that Downloading Youtube videos in Windows is achieved either through Youtube Download Manager or through Internet Download Manager Plugin Integrated into your Browser or through some add-ons available for your browser.

In Fedora, the above mentioned methods do fail completely or is complicated.
 So, What is the alternative for Downloading Videos from Youtube through command line ?

Fedora has got a Powerful tool named youtube-dl which is capable of downloading any videos from Youtube from Command line.

Make Fedora move to your Beats with (YUM) /// PART 2

YUM (Yellowdog Updater Modified) is an Interactive, rpm based Package Manager.
It is used for Installation of New packages, Removal of Old packages and perform queries on installed Packages.
YUM is used at the command line as (Works in Superuser mode,Switch to Superuser mode by using "su" )

#yum  [options] [command] [package...]

Commands Include:

1. install package1,package2... (Used to install packages mentioned).
2. update package1,package2.... ( Used to Update already installed Packages).
3. check-update ( Used to check availability of Updates forPackages) .
4. upgrade package1,package2....( Used to Upgrade the packages to Newer Versions).
5. help [command] (Helps you out with specific Commands).
6. reinstall package1,package2,...(Used to Reinstall Packages)

and many more check out the manual for YUM by using the command: