Frugalware Linux Newsletter - Issue 58

...to inform...to educate...to entertain

"If you want to travel around the world and be invited to speak at a lot of different places, just write a Unix operating system."  Linus Torvalds

Welcome

The newsletter's aim is to keep you up to date with what's happened recently in the world of the Linux distribution 'Frugalware'.

Features of this issue include:

• "Frugalware's Gonna Git Ya"
• Frugalware's artists are people too - WebEagle
• FLOSS developers are people too - Ali Abdallah
• Got a problem? Ask your teddy bear!
• Focus On Package(s) - Droid fonts set

NOTE: There is no "Getting To Know You" section in this issue. I am not sure when this section will return, or if in fact it will return. For the moment, I have explained all that I think is suitable for the newsletter. If you would like to see this series continue, please post a message in the forum.

 Events

Here's a selection of events which have occurred since the previous newsletter:

• Frugalware 1.2pre2 has been released

  On 22 February 2010, VMiklos announced the release of Frugalware 1.2 pre2. This is the second in the series of pre-releases for 1.2 - codename 'Locris'. It already features some significant improvements over 1.1, including:

  • Linux kernel 2.6.32.8
  • OpenOffice.org 3.2.0
  • KDE 4.3.5
  • Mozilla Firefox 3.6
  • Thunderbird 3.0.1

  As with every release, if you have the required bandwidth and time available, please download and test this release. The more bugs that are found now, the better quality will be the final release. If you want to know the schedule for 1.2, refer to the roadmap page.

• Curses! It's pacman-g2!

  Frugalware developer ryuo is considering writing an ncurses-based interface to pacman-g2. For those that don't know, ncurses interfaces have many of the features of GUI interfaces: windows, checkboxes, radio buttons etc, but these are in a terminal. The aim would be to produce an application which made it easier to manage packages, for those who don't run XWindows or don't like GUIs. If you are interested in this being developed, please mention in the forum. Please understand that ryuo is seeking votes for or against this idea. Even if there are many votes of "Yes", there is no guarantee that it will be developed.

• Fwife 0.6 released

  On his blog, Frugalware developer Elentir announced the release of Fwife 0.6, a GUI installer for Frugalware. Since starting on the project about 12 months ago, Elentir has made great progress. So that users can test this release, he has created ISOs for both i686 and x86_64 architectures. You don't have to use a physical PC to do the testing, since you can use software like QEMU and VirtualBox to create a virtual environment. If you have some time available, please do help because it's best if Fwife is tested on as many PC hardware combinations as possible.

• Beautiful Bisigi

  The Bisigi project has been mentioned in the newsletter before, and its aim is to produce attractive, consistent themes for the GNOME desktop. They were created primarily for Ubuntu, but they look equally good on a Frugalware desktop (providing logos are changed :) ). Devil505 recently adapted them for Frugalware and packaged them for installation via pacman-g2. If you are running GNOME and/or GTK-based applications, try the Bisigi themes because they are quite beautiful.

• "And the award for the best book goes to..."

  I recently downloaded and began reading the "Git community book", which was created from content submitted by the community of Git's users. In the first few pages is a list of people thanked for their help with the book. I was excited and surprised to see, amongst names such as Linus Torvald, the name Miklos Vajna. Whatever you did for the book, well done VMiklos! Now I need to read the rest...

• "Frugalware's Gonna Git Ya"

  Amongst the Frugalware team are several talented musicians and to celebrate Frugalware's 5th birthday, they have collaborated in making a CD titled "Frugalware's Gonna Git Ya". The team's goal was to create an emotional tribute to the Linux distribution that they work so hard to maintain and improve. Every song was chosen because its title meant something to its author. Although the song titles themselves are of very popular songs (in some part of the world), the lyrics are entirely original. WebEagle provided the use of his home studio for the entire process of recording, mixing, editing and mastering of each track.

  So far public reviews have been very positive, with the reviewer in Stone Rolling magazine quoted as saying "Every track on the CD made me so emotional that I had to leave the room and couldn't return for a long time." All tracks are available under a Creative Commons, Share-alike licence, so please download them and share them with your friends and family. A new album is already planned, with the working title "Frugalware's Greatest Hits".

  "Honey Honey" (Original artist - ABBA)

  This song is dedicated to that amazing creature - the honey bee. This amazing creature collects pollen from flowers and in turn produces a very nutritious food. On this track Carl Anderson (AKA beecarl) gives an emotional performance about the honey bee and what this creature means to him.

  C'Mon Wit Da Git Down (Original artist - Artifacts)

  Frugalware has used the git version control system for several years now. Its features have allowed us to focus on our goals, instead of having to worry about the version control system itself. The title of this song could be translated to "If you want to join the development team, first download git." All of Frugalware's development team sing on this track, since they all use and love git.

  Git Bizzy (Original artist - Big Daddy Kane)

  In this song we are all encouraged to use git in our daily lives, or "git bizzy", as the title says. Crazy sings the lead vocals on this track. If you listen closely, you may be able to hear some of Crazy's actual commit messages amongst the lyrics.

  I Want You Back (Original artist - The Jackson 5)

  This song is for everyone who has ever cried after accidentally deleting an important file/partition. At the moment you clicked the mouse button, or pressed the wrong key, you experience many emotions, including rage, regret and sorrow. Don't be surprised if you find a few tears come to your eyes as you listen to this track. The entire development team sings, since everyone has been affected by this tragedy at some time in their lives.

  If You Don't Know Me By Now (Original artist - Simply Red)

  Let's be honest - geeks don't like to read documentation. Instead they will try everything, before they finally give in and read the manual. The full title of this track is "If You Don't Know Me By Now, RTFM" but censorship rules required that the "RTFM" be removed from the title. VMiklos is the lead singer on this track, with other developers humming along.

  "We Are The World" (Original artist - Various)

  Frugalware developers, contributors and artists live in many countries. Cooperating in developing and improving Frugalware is a great example of people making the world a better place. Each member of the team takes a turn to sing part of this song, with everyone singing on the chorus.

  Pacman (original artist - Weird Al Yankovich)

  Pacman(-g2) is such an important part of Frugalware that it simply had to have an entire track dedicated to it. VMiklos gives an incredible, emotional performance.

  Jump (original artist - Van Halen)

  On this track WebEagle sings about his career, which has involved a lot of jumping out planes (with a parachute attached). In the time between jumping out of the plane and landing on the ground, he plans new artwork for Frugalware. If he is at work in the office and his boss says "Jump", WebEagle's only question is "From how high?"

  Secure Yourself (original artist - Indigo Girls)

  In the modern world of technology, there are threats all around us. To help every Frugalware user improve the security of their PC or server, voroskoi sings about security hints and tips.

 Frugalware's artists are people too

This is the latest series of interviews with members of the Frugalware artwork team. Their role is to create artwork which can be used various aspects of Frugalware to make it look good. It's not as easy as it sounds, with monitors of different dimensions and the various applications which can be themed having different methods of themeing.

This issue's interview is with WebEagle, so please read on...

What's your name?

My name is Tristan Jouët.

What's your IRC/forum nickname?

My nickname is WebEagle and I am often on the French channel (on Freenode).

In what country do you live?

I live in Paris (France).

In what country were you born?

I was born of course in France.

Have you always been artistic?

I am an officer in the paratroopers in the French Army, but I have loved everything related to art since I was little... I like to draw from time to time but that is not really my passion. I have begun doing web-site design but it's hard to begin it with free software (I know I only need to use a text editor but that's a little bit boring).

Do you create artwork in other forms - sculpture, painting etc?

I play airsoft (I know, I love action) so I love customizing (by painting) my replicas. I play music too (synthesizer). I love electro music and free music (I will also soon publish singles on Jamendo).

What operating system(s) do you use when creating artwork?

I discovered Frugalware 4 months ago , by a post (I don't remember where) of Devil505 and I fell under the spell of this very responsive distribution with a great community.

What software do you use to create artwork?

I only use a tablet, Gimp, and Agave to create this artwork, and of course on Frugalware . I did it just for fun, no stress ... Through this I met many very nice people like Devil505 , Lenezir , Centuri0 , Mckey and other super guys.

How do you think Frugalware's artwork might be improved?

I think Frugalware's artwork might be improved by a larger number of artists because there are only three of us and all are French, so that's not really funny. But Frugalware is not really famous, its installer is full of bugs and not very attractive, but I know the team works hard to arrange it all. I hope this artwork will make people want to create the next release's artwork and to test Locris. I hope that Locris will be really great ... maybe that soon you will see me as a packager ;) .

 FLOSS developers are people too

Without developers, we wouldn't have the Linux kernel and all the software that we run on the platform. What motivates FLOSS developers? Why does anyone choose to spend their time writing software when they don't get paid to do so? What do developers do when they're not writing software? These questions and more are the inspiration behind this new section of the newsletter.

In interviews with FLOSS developers, we get to know them a little better as people, and what motivates them in their quest for better software. I'm very excited by this new series because I admire their work very much. I'm also very grateful to them for taking the time to reply to my requests.

Interviews in the next few issues will feature:

• The developer of Code Browser;
• David Siegel - Gnome Do developer;
• Jesse van den Kieboom - gedit developer.

This issue, we have an interview with Ali Abdallah - Xfce and Parole developer

What's your name?

Ali Abdallah

What FLOSS projects are you involved in?

The Xfce Goodies Project, which includes additional software for Xfce to make this desktop environment more complete. I developed a power manager and currently I'm developing a media player called Parole, with plans for more projects.

What led to you being a FLOSS developer/contributor?

I was having fun building my own packages from scratch to get a functional system. I knew Xfce by coincidence from a forum, got its source code and started building it. Without too much pain and external dependencies, I quickly got a fast, simple and usable desktop environment. At that moment also I was reading a book about Gtk+. Having the book and the Xfce code as perfect examples in front of me was a big motivation to start learning real world programming, so I started by writing my own battery plug-in for the Xfce panel. Shortly after that I started to work on a power manager for Xfce, since it didn't have one. I sent my work to the Xfce mailing list and they were very kind to encourage me to continue.

What do you like about being a FLOSS developer/contributor?

Freedom and knowledge sharing, the thing that when you work on a project and you publish the results including the source code is a major point. Just like Math when you work on a theory and you publish your work so other people can contribute and continue its improvements. This is the case in Math and FLOSS, but unfortunately it is not in computer science. FLOSS is a very big source of information. When I work on a project for Xfce I already have many working examples to learn from, to get their source, modify it if needed and publish the modifications.

What don't you like about being a FLOSS developer/contributor?

Too much freedom probably. Let me explain, it is not about FLOSS itself, but it is about two issues that I face all the time as a FLOSS developer, contributor and user. First, the relationship between the developer and the end users is sometimes horrible. A simple search on a bug tracker system of a FLOSS project will most probably reveal sentences like, "you don't pay me", "it is working for me, if you have a problem with it fix it yourself", "don't waste my time" and so on... In addition you will see important bug reports that are lingering forever, fortunately this is not the case in Xfce. Honestly I'm not saying that because I work for this project, but I face this problem myself almost everywhere.

Second the developers of FLOSS feel that they have too much freedom to completely re-write their projects. Things get complicated when these projects are important services and libraries. If there is an API change it makes life harder, specially for desktop developers, to keep their project compatible with these changes. But I have to say this is reduced a lot these days, and now i feel that there is a clear strategy on how things should go.

What motivates you to work on your project(s)?

The same motivation that motivates me to work on Math, drink alcohol have sex and other things that I like, the pleasure.

What do you do outside the FLOSS world?

Professionally, I work for the the European Organization for Nuclear Research - CERN, as a programmer. Aside from that, as I'm mathematician by the way, I'm interested in mathematics and fundamentals, especially logic, and i work in my free time on these topics.

What operating system(s) do you use and why?

I use Linux, on my laptop and my home server, because I have the possibility to study it and at any time I can modify a part of it to fit my needs. Of course this is possible on other operating systems but I use Linux because in the last three years Linux gained good hardware support compared to other operating systems. In addition a lot of FLOSS projects are developed and tested under Linux.

If people are interested in helping your project(s), how might they do this?

Probably in my projects I need people to translate into their own native language and to test of course. In Xfce we are in need of people, there are a lot of things to do, for very few people. It is a pleasure for everybody in Xfce to see people wanting to contribute to this nice project.

 Tips and tricks

Disclaimer - Be aware that the hints & tips provided here have NOT been tested and so come with no warranty.

Configuring font settings without a desktop environment - ryuo

Configuring the appearance of your desktop is easy if you are using a desktop environment such as GNOME, KDE, Xfce etc. But how do you configure these options if you are not using a desktop environment? This question has been answered by Frugalware developer ryuo.

There are several options available which you can set to change the appearance of fonts. To set these without a desktop environment, you have to edit a file named .Xdefaults, in your home directory. If you don't already have such a file, simply create it. Below is a table of the options and the values to which they can be set. Put one setting on a line, a space, then the desired value. To enable most of these settings requires you to restart X.

Xft.dpi:

This option defines the resolution at which X is to run. For best results, make sure your monitor can use this resolution.

Xft.rgba:

This option defines the subpixel hinting. Options are: rgb, bgr, vrgb, vbgr and none. Refer to your monitor's manual for the optimal value.

Xft.hinting:

This option turns hinting on or off. Options are: true or false.

Xft.hintstyle:

This option defines the hinting style. Options are: hintslight, hintmedium, hintfull or hintnone.

Got a problem? Ask your teddy bear!

In a blog article I read recently (which was apparently based on another blog post), readers were encouraged to talk to their teddy bear if they had a problem. The idea was that if you had a problem, you could sometimes solve it yourself if you had to explain it to someone. Simply explaining the problem and its symptoms to someone else sometimes brings on a "eureka" moment, when something in your brain clicks and you suddenly think of the solution yourself. In the original blog entry or article, a person in a technical support role would not listen to people's problems until they had first explained it to the teddy bear tied to his desk. This person found that many people turned away, having solved their problem for themselves.

Before reporting a bug then, perhaps you could first try explaining it to your teddy bear. If you don't have a teddy bear, perhaps choose something else - maybe a door? Just make sure you are alone, otherwise you might solve your technical problem but find yourself with another problem. :P

This section relies on your contributions! If you have some tips and tricks that you would like to be shown in the newsletter, please post them on the forums.

 Focus On Package(s)

Droid fonts set

Frugalware developer Devil505 recently took a break from packaging games and instead packaged the Droid set of fonts. The TrueType fonts were created specifically for the Android mobile platform, but they are compatible with Linux and other platforms. They were designed to look stylish but also be clear and crisp, especially important on a small screen. The set of fonts currently includes Droid Sans, Droid Sans Mono and Droid Serif, with condensed versions of Droid Sans in development. The Sans Mono (obviously a monospace font) is especially nice, so try it in your favourite terminal emulator, text editor or IDE.

If you are interested in fonts, please also read the story about the development of the Droid fonts because it's very interesting. Like the software we run on Linux, the freedom of the fonts we use is also important. Many thanks to Google for making these fonts available for everyone to use.

 Bug fixes

The following table gives you a overview of activity on bugs and feature requests as at 23 February 2010. In each cell of the table is a link to a detailed list of the relevant bugs or feature requests.

Activity	Bugs	Feature Requests
Open	155	192
Opened since the previous newsletter	7	5
Closed since the previous newsletter	23	9

 Security announcements

Remember - According to the normal support arrangements for Frugalware, the release of 1.1 ("Getorin") means that no further security or bug fixes will be released for Frugalware 1.0 ("Anacreon") or earlier releases.

Here is a list of security issues which have been discovered and fixed in the 1.1 release since the previous newsletter.

None

 About the newsletter

Author

The Frugalware newsletter is written and edited by Russell Dickenson (AKA phayz). Credit for the Frugalware distribution goes to the development team.

Translations

The newsletter is currently translated into French and Danish by their respective communities as soon as possible. Please be patient as it can take some time to translate each issue. Thanks to all those involved in providing and hosting these translations.

Release

To allow time for review and corrections, each newsletter is written ahead of its release date. Therefore it may not mention events which occurred in the few days before its release - e.g. security fixes. To be sure that you've got the very latest information on these topics, go to the appropriate page of the Frugalware web site.

Feedback

If you have feedback about the Frugalware newsletter - whether good or bad - please provide it via the forums. Your feedback is valuable because we want the newsletter to meet the needs of Frugalware's users.