In an earlier post I unfairly trashed Google Earth. The problem, as I've just discovered, more than likely rests with my graphics hardware platform, not Google Earth. While I was working with SLED 10 this morning I pulled down another copy of Google Earth and installed it on SLED.

Kino is one of the better free software video editors for Linux, but it isn't always intuitive. Consider such common tasks as adding titles and graphics to a clip. The best approach isn't obvious. After a little exploring, I figured out good ways to add titles and graphics.

Are we learning GIMP yet?

Inexpensive and driverless - two words that any computer user can appreciate, especially after having gone through a few upgrades that caused problems of their own. As a basic VGA webcam without a microphone that adheres to the relatively new USB Video Class specification, Creative's Live! Cam Optia fills such a void. Are these enticements worth the hassle? Read on to find out.

Whether you're learning a foreign language or just need to look up an unknown word or phrase, a good dictionary application can come in handy. JaLingo and StarDict are two such tools. Each sports a polished GUI and a set of features that puts it among the best dictionary applications on Linux.

JaLingo

John W. Backus, who led the team at IBM that created the computer language Fortran, died Saturday, at age 82.

Fortran, released in 1957, was considered a major step forward in computer programming languages. It was used for intensive supercomputing problems, and thanks to the creation of multiple compilers, was one of the first languages to be widely used across different architectures.

BibleTime is a Bible study program. I have used a few of these under Windows, but found them mostly cumbersome. They were memory hogs and the interface was unappealing and clunky. The amount of available information was astounding however, but one program did not differ greatly from the other. They all used the vast resources that are available in the public domain.

If you type a command on Linux that doesn't exist, normally you get this:-

alan@bishop:~$ mplayer
-bash: mplayer: command not found

With the package command-not-found installed (which is by default installed as of Ubuntu 7.04 [Feisty] [due out in April]) you get something like this:-

alan@tigger:~$ mplayer
The program 'mplayer' can be found in the following packages:

Last year we ran a story on Martus (see story), an open source software tool used by human rights workers, attorneys, journalists and others who need to secure their information from eavesdropping, theft or equipment failure.

It has been said that the database wars are over and the relational database won.

Although not officially announced, Firefox 2.0.0.3 is available on ftp sites. This release fixes several security issues including one described as a memory corruption issue making users vulnerable to phishing and spoofing. This release is also the first to have been tested through a newly executed beta testing program for security and update releases.

Yesterday I decided to put back my Asus WL-130g (based on Ralink RT2500) wireless card back into PCI slot when after few hours I got a feeling that something is wrong with the supplied driver sand decided to use the well established drivers supplied by “rt2×00.serialmonkey project“, which I have been using with SUSE 10.1 and have a famous HowTo for it.

Linux is a great operating system. That's my opinion. I think it is better than any other operating system around. Not everybody views Linux this way and it is the general image of Linux that is holding it back from exploding into the general population.

This tutorial shows how you can display weather forecasts, system information like CPU and memory usage, news feeds, music player controls, etc. on a GNOME desktop with gDesklets. gDesklets is a programm that can place small desktop widgets on top of the user's desktop.

BOSS Linux is a single-CD Debian-based distribution primarily designed for an Indian language user, though everything from the installer to the desktop defaults to English.

Every time Microsoft introduces a new operating system we see the same reaction: before release the gentlemen of the PC press trumpet its wonderfulness, on release they talk about slow adoption and disappointed users looking for alternatives, and a bit later they quietly assume widespread acceptance, write a few articles illustrating the horrors of falling behind the upgrade curve, and start talki

Those who are familiar with Debian-based system with know a thing or two about apt-get. However some linux distro (Ubuntu, obviously) relies heavily on internet connection to access its repository. This sometimes impractical.

One alternative to that solution is to get the repositories on CD/DVD. However packages included in there may not suit your needs and might be redundant.

Many of the programs I have been told about by Switched On readers are not ones I'd typically use day to day. Most of the time I'm more familiar with their commercial equivalents, but in several cases I have found getting to grips with the Open Source alternatives easier than with the mainstream software titles.

Linux has developed quite a reputation since its creation. While the world was using Windows and a select few were using the Mac OS, this new operating system comes into the picture in a sly take it or leave it fashion. It wasn’t for everyone.