Are you tired of paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for your computer's software? Tired of having to buy upgrades, and new hardware to run the upgrades? Tired of crashes, security flaws, cyber-attacks, and worrying if your computer is safe to use? Had enough of license agreements, lock-downs, and restrictions on what you can do with your computer? Worried about your business being sued for making a careless copy?
It doesn't have to be that way. You can live your life free of Microsoft, and free of their thousand and one petty annoyances. And you can save money in the process.
This website is devoted to helping you say Goodbye to Microsoft, and to "Take Back the PC."
I wish I had more to post about the "other" alternative to Microsoft: FreeBSD Unix. Fortunately TechRepublic's Jack Wallen Vincent Danen has just written a "FreeBSD 8.0 installation walk-through" to guide you through installing the latest version.
Unfortunately, FreeBSD is a great operating system with an unholy awful installer — compared to other operating system installers currently available. Some people are comfortable with text-mode installers, some aren’t.
I guess I'm in the "comfortable" camp. Debian uses a text-mode installer, and I always use the text-mode installer when I'm putting Ubuntu on a computer. Really, text-mode installs are no different from graphical installs: the questions are the same, you just use the keyboard instead of a mouse to make your selections.
Update: I misread the by-line on the Tech Republic piece. My apologies to Vincent Danen, the actual author.
This is a tale of a very specialized application. I mention it not because I think anyone else reading this site will need this application, but rather, as an example of how to find specialized software for your non-Microsoft computer, and as an illustration of the wealth of software available in open source.
Among my activities, I am an electronics hobbyist. I've even designed my own computer from the logic gates up. (Not anything competitive with a modern PC, just an intellectual exercise.) Over the years, I have used an assortment of EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software including OrCad, PC-Pro, and EZ-Board. And I've encountered two problems. First, the commercial software becomes unsupported, requiring me to pay for an upgrade to the newest version (which sometimes, in turn, requires a newer computer or operating system). Second, should I want to share my designs with other hobbyists, I can't really ask them to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for the software I've chosen to use to draw schematics and lay out printed circuit boards.
So last week I began researching new EDA software for my PC, specifically looking for open-source, cross-platform software. Since a major goal is to share designs with others, I can't require that those others install Linux to use the software, so I want software that Windows users can use. I'd prefer cross-platform software that can run directly on Linux, but as a last resort would use Windows software if it ran well under Linux using Wine.
A few hours' work with Google turned up the following candidates:
KiCad. This is an integrated schematic/PCB (Printed Circuit Board) package that is available for both Windows and Linux. It started as a one-man project but now seems to have several developers, and an active user community.
gEDA. The gEDA project has been around for quite a while, and offers a complete suite of circuit design tools for Linux. The layout program, PCB, seems to be a distinct project. At present there is no Windows offering.
Open Circuit Design. This project offers a schematic program (xcircuit) and its own PCB program (pcb). (As nearly as I can tell, this is a "fork" of the PCB program used by gEDA.) There is a Windows port of xcircuit, but not for pcb (whose latest revision seems to have been in 2006).
Electric. This also is a mature package, and is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. It appears that this is intended as an integrated-circuit design system, and that printed-circuit-board (PCB) design is something of an afterthought. It's a free download, but I don't know if it's open-source. (Update: it is open-source, under the GPL. Thanks to our friends the Millers for this info.)
KiCad, gEDA, Electric, and xcircuit are all available from the Debian repository; another sign that these are reasonably mature packages. Technically, KiCad and gEDA seem to be the best match to my wants. And while gEDA may be more capable, KiCad is capable enough, and is truly cross-platform. And for my purposes, that's the deciding factor.
P.S. I should mention that I found, for Windows, two "free" (no-cost) schematic CAD packages for Windows, and one PCB layout package. But with so many Linux options to choose from, I didn't bother testing to see how well the Windows programs ran under Wine.
It's been over a week now, and my wife is settling in to her new Debian system with no further problems. There were a few extras I needed to install when I first brought Debian up, and a few more I've needed during the last week.
Installed from the repository:
icedove - Debian's rebranding of Thunderbird, which my wife uses for email. The Debian KDE install does not include this by default. msttcorefonts - the Microsoft TrueType core fonts; needed to make some web pages and some documents render correctly. These are in the Debian "Lenny" contrib repository, which is not enabled by default; I had to edit /etc/apt/sources.list to add it. java - She needs this to visit some web pages. I was surprised to find the Sun Java Run-time Environment in the repository. gftp - Our customary FTP program, for maintaining web sites. beagle - She really likes this search engine for her desktop documents. bum - The Boot-Up Manager, which I use to configure the system. ssh and rsync - Her computer needs these in order for me to back up her hard drive remotely. (I was surprised that ssh is not installed by default.)
Some programs need to be downloaded and installed manually, not from the repository:
Acrobat Reader 9 - This is "non-free" software and thus not in the Debian repository; since she uses PDFs a lot, and the open-source PDF readers have problems with some documents, I installed this from the Adobe site. hplip 3.9.12 - The older version in the repository does not include the drivers for her new HP multifunction printer, so I downloaded the latest version directly from HP.
I'll probably be installing GIMP for graphics editing -- from the Debian repository -- in the near future.
Worthy of note is one program I did not install: her old copy of Microsoft Word. She's been using this under CrossOver Linux, as a matter of habit, for all of her writing. On the new system I have added a shortcut for OpenOffice Writer instead. I've installed the MS fonts, and have OO Writer configured to save in .doc format by default, since she so often has to send documents to other people. If it becomes an issue, I can reinstall CrossOver and Word, but as of now, she's happy. (She said some of the changes have taken some getting used to, but it's mostly that accustomed functions appear in different places.)
Static Network Assignments. Well, my research has revealed that the static IP problem is a known bug in Debian 5 "Lenny," and has been known for a year. And isn't going to be fixed. Instead, it has been fixed in the experimental version of Debian, so the bug report has been marked as "closed."
Thanks a bunch, guys. It's still a bug in the current version.
The problem appears to be in Network Manager, which was added to make life easier for wireless users. The problem is, as long as it is running, it overrides the manual configuration in the /etc/network/interfaces file. Fortunately, I've previously learned about the Boot-Up Manager program, which controls which services get started at boot time. So for anyone else in this predicament, here are the relevant steps:
1. Edit (as root) the text file /etc/network/interfaces, and change the Ethernet interface (typically eth0) to static addressing. Something like this:
# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.90
gateway 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
where, of course, the numbers will be different depending on your local network.
2. Edit (as root) the text file /etc/resolv.conf, and add "nameserver" lines like this (these are for OpenDNS):
3. Use Boot-Up Manager (bum) to disable network-manager and network-manager-dispatcher (both listed as "network manager framework daemon"). If you don't have this, you can install it from Synaptic or with "apt-get install bum".
Sound. A serendipitous find: I decided to get a minimal set of KDE configuration files by adding a new user to the system. When I logged in as that new user, it didn't have sound either! At this point a bell rang in the back of my mind, and I decided to check if access to the sound system is restricted by user group.
It is. The group is called "audio", and for some inexplicable reason, only the first user gets added to that group. To fix this, go to System->User Manager, click on the user name, click Edit, click the Groups tab, check the "audio" box, and click OK. (Damned if I know why this isn't the default for all new users.)
Once again I learn the lesson that Debian is not a distro for the newbie.
I should mention that the installation of Debian 5 "Lenny" on my wife's computer went smoothly. It started right up, and had no problem connecting to the Internet for updates. And I was able to add a new user account and install some needed packages (about which I shall report later). But then, wham! Two brick walls.
Static Network Assignments. Like every other desktop OS, by default Debian uses dynamic configuration (via DHCP) for networking. But I need to assign this machine a static IP address, and I want to manually select DNS servers (OpenDNS). So, I went into the KDE Control Center, under "Internet and Network", "Network Settings." Under the "Network Interfaces" tab I specified the static IP address (and netmask and gateway), and under the "Domain Name System" tab I specified the DNS servers. All worked fine.
That is, until the next time I rebooted. It seems that Debian remembered the static IP address, but failed to remember the gateway and DNS servers. I tried specifying those directly in /etc/network/interfaces, and doing "/etc/init.d/networking restart", and that worked. Until the next reboot.
To summarize a few hours of experimentation, I can either (a) use DHCP, or (b) manually type "/etc/init.d/networking restart" every time I reboot. The latter is not a requirement I want to impose on my wife. She will quite rightly ask, "why doesn't my computer just work?"
I should note that I was able to make these very changes on my own desktop when I installed Debian. I can think of only two differences: (a) I originally installed Debian 4, and upgraded to 5; and (b) because I installed the Gnome CD-ROM by mistake, and later switched to KDE, I used the Gnome Network Manager instead of the KDE Control Center to set my configuration.
(As an aside, I note that on my own machine the KDE Control Center now reports "Your platform is not supported" and requires me to specify my distro. I guess this happened since I upgraded from Debian 4 to Debian 5. I can specify Debian 5, but it doesn't remember the choice.)
I may try loading the Gnome Network Manager (with a lot of added baggage!) to see if that makes a difference. And I'll do some Internet research. But if I can't get this straightened out, I'll yank Debian from this computer and switch to something else.
Sound. Sound cards are often a weak point for Linux distros, so I was relieved when the sound worked right away after I installed Debian.
Then, the next day, my wife reported that the sound wasn't working. And I confirmed this -- it wasn't working at all.
This morning I discovered, quite by accident, that when I log in on her machine using my account, the sound works. When I log in as her, there's no sound. This leads me to think there's a problem with the KDE configuration files. I just moved her home directory over to Debian, without regenerating those files; so it's likely that some configuration switch from her previous distro (Xandros 4/KDE 3) is failing in the new distro (with KDE 3.5).
I should be able to find this by comparing her KDE configuration to mine. But once again, this is not something that a new user would be able -- or should be required -- to do. C'mon, people: it needs to "just work."
The time finally came to upgrade my wife's computer. She's been running Xandros 4 Linux -- based on Debian 3.1 "Sarge," two releases out of date -- and it's been working just fine. But she now has a new HP printer, not supported by Xandros 4. And her old version of Firefox is starting to be rejected by some websites. Both Debian 3.1 and Xandros 4 are no longer supported -- they still have functioning repositories, but no new or updated programs are being added to those repositories.
Now, in the open source world it would be possible for me to get the source code for every program she needs, and compile it from scratch. But then I'll invariably discover that those programs depend on up-to-date versions of other programs. And those depend on still others being upgraded. It becomes quite a large project to rebuild everything from scratch! In terms of effort, it's much easier to upgrade to a newer Linux distribution.
For the first cut, I settled on three candidates.
Debian 5 "Lenny." This is what I'm using on my desktop, and our full-size laptop. Its advantages are that it's stable (new releases are infrequent), old releases are well supported, it has a huge software repository, it would make both our desktop PCs identical, and I'm familiar with it. Its chief disadvantage is that of all the distros I've tried, it's the most difficult to configure -- not a job for a new user.
Fedora 12. I considered this because we just put Fedora 11 on my wife's Aspire One netbook. Advantages: it's well supported, it seems easy to configure, and it would make her netbook and desktop very similar in appearance and operation. Disadvantages: it uses KDE 4 (a bit resource-hungry for her old 1.6 GHz Athlon, and disconcertingly different from the KDE 3 she knows), I'd have to learn to maintain two totally different systems (e.g. RPM vs. DEB package tools), and older versions seem to be aggressively retired.
Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala." I put Ubuntu back on the list since I found out that older repositories are still available. Advantages: really easy to use and install, and very well supported. Disadvantages: the KDE version (Kubuntu) is less widely used, it uses KDE 4, it demands a lot of resources, the repository is smaller, older versions are aggressively retired, and I've been disconcerted by some of the problems reported with 9.10 (which seems to have been rushed to release).
Before making the final decision, I asked my wife if she would have a problem using different environments on her desktop and her netbook. This was after she'd used Fedora 11 on her netbook for a week or so. She replied that she had no difficulty switching back and forth. So one big argument for Fedora 12 went away.
Ultimately, I realized that my arguments against Debian centered around the fact that it is more difficult to install and configure. Once set up, it's as easy to use as any other distro I've tried. This increased "up front" work is compensated by the fact that all of our computers, save two, will be using the same distro, so my ongoing maintenance tasks will be easier.
I knew that the Free Software Foundation had closed their "BadVista" site, which had documented many of the reasons not to use Windows Vista. But I only just learned that they've started a similar effort to persuade people not to use Windows 7.
Like its plans to include DRM restrictions with Windows Vista, Microsoft's continued attacks against the security, privacy and freedom of your organization, are no mistake. Microsoft has a history of manipulating computer manufacturers into installing its products onto the computers you purchase.
With its most recent actions, it further threatens computing standards by polluting and perverting the OpenDocument standard with its own XML-based file format.
Because of Microsoft, many decision makers in America are now wholly dependent on the Windows operating system for their business computing.
The root cause of this dependency is proprietary software (not free/libre) and with the release of Windows 7, you have an opportunity to break your organization's dependency on it.
If you operate a business, or a non-profit group, you might be interested to read the relevant letter in full. And then start planning a move away from Microsoft products.
My thanks to Powell Gammill, who sent this thoughtful response to my report of cleaning the malware infection from my mom's computer. It's well worth reading if you're still using Windows:
1. I doubt AVG will block that malware either---no antiviral product does a very good job. Malware is an installed by the user program. They behave like legitimate programs and frequently when they block and pop up some warning the user says go ahead and install. Then you know the rest.
3. Now can you scrub a PC clean by attacking the malware one step at a time...sure the video above shows you how. But how much time did you spend versus backing up the data. Nuking. Reinstall everything clean. The check the data.
4. I would have downloaded current drivers for the PC and not used the ones on the PC maker's disk.
5. You might want to install Malwarebytes to block malware. I support my 87 year old dad's PC and I understand. I hate putting CPU cycle stealing software on any computer but sometimes people just can't help themselve. They just got to push the button to watch the dancing pink bunnies or get that free virus scan.
It may have removed the infection for you. But when my brother's PC got infected with malware (Personal Antivirus 2008) neither Malabytes nor SuperAnti-Spyware removed it.
6. If you ever have to install SP3 again, download the networked version from the Microsoft.com website and load it into your flash drive...takes just a few minutes than those agonizingly long Windows Update.
My comments: 1. Agreed. I found a review that tested antivirus products against "new" (mutated) viruses; roughly 50% are detected, on average. 2. Alas, this is a Microsoft Silverlight video, so I am unable to view it. I encourage Windows users to give it a look. 3. Yes, I probably spent as many hours trying (unsuccessfully) to clean the computer as I did re-installing. 4. Good point. 5. I would have done this, but the latest version of AVG claims to have its own malware protection built in. 6. Thanks! I wasn't aware that was available.
One benefit of shooting my mouth off on a blog is that, when I'm wrong, people tell me. In this case, I owe a big apology to the Ubuntu Project. A few weeks ago I complained that they had killed off the repositories for old versions of Ubuntu, including 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" which I have installed on one PC. Well, I was wrong. My thanks to Howard F. and Dick M. for pointing out to me that old versions of Ubuntu Linux, and old repositories, are still available at http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/
To point an older Ubuntu system to the archived repository, open a terminal window and type the command
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
to edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list with the "nano" text editor, as superuser. In that file, in each "deb" and "deb-src" line, change archive.ubuntu.com to old-releases.ubuntu.com. (You might be using a different repository; the important thing is that the repository for the deb commands must now be http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/.) Then save, exit the editor, and type the command
sudo apt-get update
to reload all the package lists. After doing this, the usual Synaptic package manager or "Add/Remove Programs" menu function should work correctly.
Ouch. Some friends, having read of my adventures cleaning up Mom's computer, sent me the link to Ken Starks' latest rant.
Let me tell you something else that is rude; the offensive part I will leave to personal opinion.
Asking a friend to repeatedly fix your computer.
Not "fix" as in "something inside the computer broke" - like a hard drive, or a power supply.
I'm talking about your forays into Myspace and astalavista.box.sk.
I'm talking about having to repeatedly clean the garbage off your computer so it will run halfway decently again.
You seem to have no shame when it comes to this.
I don't quite have Ken's willpower -- he will no longer fix Windows systems for anyone -- but in my own defense, the only Windows users who can call on me for help are my mother and stepmother. And though I've helped them buy new computers and install antivirus software, last month was the first time I've had to do a cleanup job.
If it happens again, though, I'm switching Mom to Linux. And if it happens again, she'll be eager to switch.
applications: The software that lets you do things with your computer (word processor, Internet browser, email, etc.). The programs you see and use.
distribution: Also called "distro." An operating system (usu. Linux) combined with a selection of application programs, in a ready-to-install form. Different distributions are customized for different purposes, e.g., desktop computing, music editing, Internet server, and so on.
FOSS: "Free / Open Source Software," a catch-all term. Sometimes F/OSS or FLOSS.
free software: Refers to free as in freedom, not free as in free beer. Specifically, the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the software.
howto: A short tutorial telling "how to" perform some task. See, for instance, the Linux HowTos.
Linux: Strictly, GNU/Linux. A free operating system, modeled on Unix, developed since 1991 by volunteers around the world.
open source: Refers to software whose source code can be examined, modified, and redistributed. Similar to but not exactly the same as "free software."
operating system: The software that manages your computer's hardware (disk drives, display, network connection, etc.). The stuff "under the hood" that makes your computer work.
repository: An on-line library of application programs for a particular distribution, in a ready-to-download-and-install format. In many distributions, programs can be installed from the repository with just a few mouse clicks.
Unix: A computer operating system originally released by Bell Labs in 1970. It is still widely used in several commercial variants, and in the open-source BSD Unix.
