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I’m going to split my next topic into two sections, the first will be “Community you see” and the second will be “Community you don’t see”.  Ok so you have your ubuntu machine getting to the way you want it, you’ve installed apps, tweaked it but you’re starting to think, surely i’m not the only one doing this?  And you’d be right.  Ubuntu has one of the most amazing communities i’ve ever encountered [i will point out that the other is the Fedora Community :p], it has the most amazing people you’re likely to meet or talk to, and just rocks  ok ok it sounds awesome where do i sign up.  Well there are a number of ways but it all depends on what your interests are, i’m going to cheat a litle now and point you to here, it’s the official ubuntu community page at ubuntu.com

I’m not a developer, i’m a decent sys admin, i can code websites and do basic php, so i would of thought, what the heck can i do for the community.  Well that’s quite simple, i can advocate.  If anyone wants to know about alternatives to MS i can show them Ubuntu, if anyone complains about viruses i can show them Ubuntu.  If i talk to my mates or family and they complain all the time about how crap <insert os here> is, i can show them Ubuntu.  there are a probably a thousand ways to promote Ubuntu to your community, how you want to do it is up to you.  If you’re wanting to give away Ubuntu cd’s to family or friends, then go here, you could even just download the ISO and make a copy on request.

But what if i want to talk to like minded individuals?  This is easy to, in the UK, the ubuntu-uk community has a number of ways to communicate with each other.  Here are a few [please note that there are hundreds of what are called Loco teams around the world, so if you're not in the UK, then go here and see if there is one in your area]

IRC

Internet Relay Chat is a real time way of talking to people, you install an application and you basically chat, about anything really, there is a Code Of Conduct you should abide to but all in all it’s pretty relaxed and if anything does go wrong you can allways #blamepopey [don't ask]

irc.freenode.net #ubuntu-uk    that’s the UK community on the freenode network, if you want to say hello my nickname is MooDoo

Mailing Lists

Another simple one, subscribe to the mailing lists and join in the conversation, it’s not real time you just receive emails and reply to the ones you want to – https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk

ok that’s just two, there are a few more such as the forums, but i’ll leave you to go check them out, you should travel your own path yourself :p

I mentioned earlier the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, you might want to read it, ”It’s our bible for collaboration and helps define the way we all work together.”

That was a brief intro into the Ubuntu Community, to be honest i’ve not even broken the surface, it’s a ride that i think you should all take if you want to get more involved in it.

Tomorrow……the community you don’t see [launchpad/wiki/user pages]

To be honest i’m going to cheat on this one, and pass you straight to the wiki article on the company, it makes and interesting read.

Tomorrow…….Community

Yesterday i installed codecs etc, that allowed me to play mp3 and do various other stuff and i said i would mention what apps i was using.  Todays post will go through a few that i will use and how to install others that i find useful

Music

Playing music is something i do quite often, it’s nice to listen to some tunes while surfing or working and my music player of choice is Rhythmbox, you’ll find it in the menu as it’s one of the apps that’s installed by default.  It’s looks loosely resemble itunes, but that’s where the similarity ends.  **One thing that i will mention is that, if you’ve not already installed the ubuntu-restricted-extras, rhythmbox will prompt you to install codecs to play your media**

Surfing

The default web broweser is Firefox, works fine, but a few people i know have suggested i try Google Chrome As i’m running a 32bit version of Lucid i downloaded the 32bit Deb, there are multiple ways to install a .deb [a packaged file] but i simply used sudo dpkg -i filename.deb and yes it does seem faster

Photos

The new default photo manager with Ubuntu is now a app called Shotwell, i love this app, it’s clean, simple to use and does actually work [for all my needs]  Looking at the Shotwell page the version that is supplied with ubuntu is not the latest version, not a problem as i’m sure it will upgraded, but i want it now as it has a better support for RAW files which some of my photos are.  Right so how to i get the latest version?  I’ve read about PPA’s on the internet so was wondering if Shotwell has one, hell yeah baby

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yorba/ppa
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install shotwell

I also like to use certain apps that arn’t installed by default, i wondered why apps weren’t installed and it basically all comes down to the fact that on the Live cd [i'll come to that in a bit] there isn’t enough space.  But it’s simple enough to install, from command line

sudo apt-get install miro vlc leafpad gftp <insert anything else you want here>

That was just a very brief intro to apps, there are hundreds if not thousands more…..now it your time to go play and take a look at what’s available.

Tomorrow i’m going to step away from the laptop and find out a little more about the company that produces ubuntu, Canonical

I’m now running a default lucid install, it’s nice and shiny….but like any modern operating system that you’ve downloaded/installed it needs updates.  Thankfully another simple task.  I’m a command line kinda guy so the update was easy, now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the only way to achieve this, there are multiple ways, this just works for me.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

After a few downloads and a restart i’m all up to date.  Now to install some other stuff, which leads me on to codecs and repositories.

I’m not going to go through what a repository is here so i’m just going to link to a page that explains it all.  I’ve enabled all the repos i want and done another update.  Kushty:)

To quote from here -

“Ubuntu strives to make all software that meets the licensing terms in theUbuntu License Policy available. However patent and copyright restrictions complicate free operating systems distributing software to support proprietary formats.”

Well that doesn’t help i want to play all my mp3′s, watch dvds, watch flash in webpages, all stuff that i can’t at the moment [yes i know there are alternatives, i'm just doing it from my point of view and what i think to be the easiest way of doing things]

ok ok i’ll get to the point – From the command line : sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Now i’m listening to Muse [i'll come one to the app i'm using in the next post] and surfing the web…lovely

Tomorrow …… Applications

Being a Fedora user, i’ve decided to do an experiment for a month.  I’m going to use nothing but ubuntu and document my daily activities.  Starting today.  Well that was the easy part, install.  Can’t put it more simply than, download the ISO, pop it in the drive [once you've burnt it to a cd, see comment ] answer a few questions and reboot…..er is that it?  You would of thought so but alas no, my wireless didn’t work.  That’s one of the problems i have with linux, certain drivers can’t be installed at installation, licensing and such, but unless i have wired connections available i’m stuffed.  Luckily i do, so i plugged the laptop into the lan and ran the Hardware drivers, it picked up my wireless and gave me the options to download and install the drivers…bish bash bosh, job done…..yeah it’s that simples.

I’m typing this via my blog on my ubuntu lucid laptop using my wireless connection….lovely

Tomorrow…….mp3/flash/codecs

I’ve had a few issues with hosting lately and have a few things that i’m concentrating on that took me off the Fedora Radar, I didn’t think anything of it until people started noticing i wasn’t there.  It still amazes me how awesome the Fedora community is and how awesome the people that make up this community are.  For this, i take my hat off to you all

I can’t wait to meet you all in person one day, just to shake your hand and say thanks [knowing me i might even give you a hug too ]

Something i also should of mentioned ages ago is the appointment of the new Fedora project leader, welcome Jared [more here]  not forgetting the fantastic outgoing FPL Paul Frields [you rock my friend]

Fedora – All the way baby!!!!

Well i got myself a Ubuntu t-shirt from the store, so i thought it’s time for a MEME, we’ve not had one in ages……So come on folks, picture in your Ubuntu Wear

Larger image here [why you'd want to view it i've no idea]

You’ve probably noticed that Fedora 13 torrents aren’t that easy to find on the Fedora website, so i thought i’d let you know where they are. Here – http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/

Now there really is no excuse not to download Fedora…..

I know i’ve said it a thousand times, and tried to do it that many times as well (i think i’m an addict), but i’m going to close my facebook account.  It’s got to a stage where i’m not really logging into it all that often i just seen to update the status with gwibber.  So before i do, if you still want to remain in contact (if you don’t then pah! :p) then please send me a message with your contact details.

I thought it was about time i started to slowely introduce my 19 month old to FOSS/Fedora, well it’s a start

Image on Flickr