Entries by Myriam Schweingruber

http://gitorious.org

Since Amarok switched to Gitorious, those of you running a local SVN build with markey's instructions will have to do some changes to stay up-to-date::

First, you need to install git, which is in the package repositories of your distribution.

Erase the installation you have in ~/kde/src/amarok/

In the folder ~/kde/src/, type the following command:

git clone git://gitorious.org/amarok/amarok.git -> this will drag approx. 56Mb of data

Go to your build folder in ~/kde/build/amarok/ and erase its content, as you need to do a full rebuild

Run again the cmake command:

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/kde -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debugfull $HOME/kde/src/amarok

Then complete with 'make install' and voilà, you have the most recent 2.2-git

For updates, you just run 'git pull' in your ~/kde/src/amarok/ folder and proceed as before with 'make install'.

As usual, don't hesitate to come to #amarok on irc.freenode.net for more questions.

Image by Benjamin Kirschner, Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

I suppose we all have come across that "red button" on websites asking you to download Acrobat Reader to read a PDF document. Even free for download, it still is a proprietary solution and in no way a Free Software tool.

Now, my friends at the Free Software Foundation Europe have been busy working on a website to propose alternative readers for all OS platforms: pdfreaders.org. And it seems that there is only one alternative package running on all operating systems: Okular Another proof that KDE is "The Universal Desktop".

Don't forget to use the buttons provided for your websites: There are other models in the "Graphics" part of the website.

Update: if you want to get in touch with the authors of pdfreaders.org, you can drop them a mail with this link.

Since Mark lives here, people in the house are in awe about the man sitting in front of his desk all day long, "programming computers". Of course, we have been asked a few times to give a hand in choosing hard- or software, until now only to manage one dual install and a helping hand to install proprietary software...

A few weeks ago, our neighbor, a fifty-something housewife, asked us to have a look at her rather new computer making strange noises and refusing to boot. Of course, this was the ideal moment to try what we first thought to end up with a dual boot:

It was not only impossible to boot the installed Windows XP, but all attempts to repair the existing installation were vain. Wild guess, total infection as she used the Internet without almost any protection, a very likely scenario. So, what to do? Either reinstall first Windows, then Linux and make the traditional dual boot for newbies, adding tons of firewalls and anti-virus tools. Else, convince the lady that she could continue to use the computer as before with mostly Free Software and get rid of the Windows part, a far easier choice for us who don't use Windows at all since quite some years, but what about her? She put all her trust in our affirmation that Linux was a far better choice for her. I should add that she is by no means an expert user but also a beginner in the Windows field, so there would be quite some knowledge building.

Bold move, we didn't hesitate long and decided to install Kubuntu in the Intrepid Ibex flavor, with a all shiny new KDE 4.1.2 desktop. Yes, I know, it is still beta and one shouldn't do that, but we live in the same house and Mark would in the worst case have been the daily emergency repair man and instructor.

Here are the needs: mailing, some text processing, some basic image manipulation and, most important, Skype with video to keep contact with her family abroad. Languages would be German as system language, quite unfamiliar to us as we both use an English installation and Polish to keep the computer usable for the husband who is not as fluent in German as she is.

Long story short, we installed everything and configured a basic installation with Kubuntu Intrepid Ibex beta and KDE 4.1.2. We did no particular hardware configuration except for the wide screen which turned out to be actually a flat TV and this went in a dash after we set up the 1440x900 specification. The HP color printer was recognized auto-magically, same for almost all the hardware, except for the Canon 4400 F scanner that turned out to be totally unsupported by SANE. The most tricky was actually to install Skype with video support and gave us an evening of headaches, the Logitech camera with built in microphone accepting either only the sound input or the video one. Some two hours of tunning the sound settings (K Mix REALLY needs more usability!) later we managed to make it work with an external headset and suggested to buy a headset, anyway nice to have for late night phone sessions.

Now, two weeks later I did an update of the language packages, we still have an awful mix of German, Polish and mostly English as the Canonical folks are sadly behind schedule with language packs, the lady managed to nuke the panel and unfortunately it's not possible to add it at the bottom as it stubbornly decides to turn up at the top of the screen. Moving .kde/ to .kde-old/ and restarting did the trick. I still have to figure out how to activate desktop effects with the Radeon-HD driver, some residual fglrx (installed by default, such a shame) probably preventing the run (it did for the older Radeon driver on my laptop).

But, on the bright side, she was able to use Skype almost all the time with both sound and video, used text processing and the next step will be to install Krita for image handling which she is very keen of and bringing her my old HP Scanner I don't use anymore.

Overall a nice demonstration of how Mom-compatible both Kubuntu and KDE4 already are, enabling a computer newbie to use her computer without those "horrible beeps" and restarts she experienced before. She doesn't miss Windows at all and say that it's far more beautiful and not more difficult now than before

Funny how people behave sometimes:

I remember from the times I was still in the Closed Source user fraction, I sometimes send bug reports and/or wishes which were simply ignored, as I was a insignificant small user, not investing much money into software, although from a private user perspective, it still was a horrific amount: I remember having payed sFr. 4000.- on AshtonTates Framework 3 when it was released, as well as more than sFr. 1200.- for a complete MS-Office Suite quite some years ago. Years later the school was offered license packages for their computers which made software a bit more accessible for us teachers, but still we payed for. I know for sure that the bugs we filed from the school software were as ignored as my previous private user ones, ditto for the wishes. Occasionally we had some security updates where we sometimes discovered that the security hole had been there since years, but we were still happy to have it finally fixed. On the whole, we were just the cattle supposed to use the software as is and pay money for so the bosses could get rich.

When I discovered Free Software, it was a whole new word: bug reports and/or wishes were answered most of the time, especially if one did the homework exploring the bug databases looking for duplicates. Although the answers were not always what one expected and not always very polite, at least I was sure that someone had read it and reacted to it. I didn't have to pay by default but could make donations if I was pleased with the software I got. It was a whole new user experience, something quite a lot of the users still in the Closed Source world would love to experience. I had and still have a tremendous respect for those Free Software developers who listen to the users (most of the time), and I feel respected as a user. Of course, as with most of the Free Software around, it exists mainly because the developer made it to suit her/his needs, occasionally integrating user wishes because they fit in the whole. One doesn't have to use this particular software but can choose form more than one for the same task (remember, once upon a time in the other world we had no choice).

One thing that is not known from (or not thought of by) most of the users: if they want a particular feature that can not be integrated by default because of lack of time/money/whatever, they can pay a developer to integrate it. The source is free and can be modified by a skilled developer, so every user can find someone he pays to work on that feature. Of course I'm talking about reasonable features that do not demand years of work and can be done within that particular project.

The world is changing all the time. You get aware of it when you look in the mirror: you change too within time, even if it's only on the outside . The way we use computers has changed a lot in the last 30 years (yes, I use computers since 30 years!), and most of the time the integration of new ways was made in the Free Software world before the Closed Source one. I remember database software existing and working smoothly in the *nix world long before the MS-world or the Mac-world. Ditto for the security features for private data or internet access, my first Linux computer back in 1998 was by far more secure than all the Windows PCs I had before and after that time. I switched to Free Software only in 2000 and never looked back with regret, but then, I might be a bit more geeky than others and have never been afraid to read a manual (does this qualify for geekness BTW?). Still, in the pharmacy, for various reasons not always clear to my little pharmacist's mind we still use Closed Source software on closed operating systems and I sometimes feel desperate at the lack of usability and features in this environment as I'm used to so much more possibilities in my new world.

I'm very pleased to see that the progress is still going on in my world, KDE 4 is showing brilliantly how the way we use computers is changing and how Free Software is not staying behind. Of course, there will always be those who don't like changes and refuse to follow progress because it forces them to integrate new concepts in their already quite narrow mind. And yes, changes do not always go smoothly, especially not in bleeding edge software based on new concepts and using new technology. Using a whole new technology also means that not everything we are used to from the old one is immediately available as it has to be brought to that new technology and is not working the same way as it used to. That means a lot of time investment and sleepless nights and sweat and tears on the developer's side which sometimes the user tends to forget.

So, Thank You, Free Software Developers! I like my new modern and shiny world

Please nominate Amarok for the Sourceforge Community Award 2008. Simply click on the button:

..those "Neinsagers" who permanently complain about KDE4. That's what I wrote today on the Kubuntu mailing list, after a recurrent complaint about KDE4:

Don't compare apples with pears, please!
KDE4 is still in heavy development, and it never has been announced to be finished yet, so please give the developers time to polish that!
Don't forget that, as with Firefox 3, there was a choice to be made to be included in the LTS and other upcoming releases of distributions
like OpenSuSE etc. and to be able to upgrade in the standard package sources.

If you can't run KDE4 decently then you must have a problem with your installation that usually is sorted out with a clean install (one
mayor reason why /home should be on a separate partition BTW). I run KDE4 since before KDE 4.0.3. on my very old Acer laptop (like 3+
years) and can use close to every app I need.

Also, there is a change in the way computers will work in the future and how GUIs are designed, based on intense usability research, a
change you can see the beginning of in KDE4. What do you expect, that developers stay behind mayor evolution in desktop design? Of course
there will always be those who don't like changes, and nobody forces you to use KDE 4, KDE 3.5.9 is still around and will be around for
quite some time, so make your mind up and try to understand what the computers of the 21st century will look like or stay put with the "old
way".

And if you read a little info coming from the developers, be this on kde.org or planetkde.org, you might eventually change your mind and
understand why KDE 4 is at the current state. Gnome is not near in ages to that GUI changes we need to do to catch up with the modern
world

Well, the last sentence is a bit bold as I have no insight in the current Gnome development, and I would not be astonished if they were on the same ways for coming releases. Please correct me if my statements are false or incorrect...

well, that's my first blog entry, so I should present myself:

my name is Myriam Schweingruber, of 1959 flavor, I am a trained pharmacist living and working in Switzerland.
I also do translations in my spare time, and help out in various Free Software communities, like Linuxbourg (my local LUG), Wilhelm Tux, a Swiss campaign for Free Software and of course the FSFE, where I help out at booths in Europe and do some mailing list administration.
My other activities include the Swiss (K)ubuntu Team and occasionally I hang around in #ubuntu-women, where I also met Lydia aka Nightrose.

Since last summer I hang around in various #amarok.* channels and am known as Mamarok. Funny name, isn't it? Well, after last years Froscon I met with the Amarok people in Cologne where we went for a beer. Taking our seats in a garden café with the funny name "Der Fiese Kunibert" (the wicked Kunibert), the waiter asked me: "Are these all your children, Madam?", and after a shock second I of course answered "Yes!", hence my nick
I also happen to hang around a lot with markey aka The Founder, whom I sometimes call "Paparok" ;P