"And I gave that guy directions even though I didn't know the way. Because that's the kind of guy I am this week." --Homer Simpson

Do a web search for Linux desktop systems and you're likely to find opinions from many thousands of magazine-style authors. How do you know which ones to trust? Well, I would suggest that the ones who actually rely on a Linux desktop system will have the most relevant answers to your questions. Sadly, most of these magazine-style authors are just tourists who project their experience using Windows or Macintosh on to one of the many Linux distributions.

Tourists find it trendy or hip or lucrative to claim they run Linux. It makes them look sophisticated to their non-Linux-using peers. But their idea of running Linux is installing a new distro every week, frobnicating the control panels for a few hours, and taking thousands of screenshots of every window to prove they were there. When I say someone is using Linux I mean they don't go running [dual-booting] to Windows or Mac when they don't immediately know how to accomplish a task. When I say "Linux user" I generally mean they don't even own a Windows or Mac system.

So, how do you spot a Linux Tourist? It isn't too hard if you know the signs. Here are some common phrases to help you spot Linux Tourists:

1. dual boot or multi boot
   
2. (almost, will be, not) ready for the desktop
   
3. (I, we, you, people, they) will use Linux
   
4. switch to Linux
5. I'm running (insert latest distro featured on TechTV) Linux this week.
6. when it can run Windows programs (better, at all, that I lust for)
7. too complicated
   

1) Dual booting to another OS is too tempting if you truly want to switch to Linux. 2) Linux has been ready for "the desktop" since at least 1998 when I started using it exclusively. Maybe it's not ready for your desktop because you're not willing, or sufficiently compelled, to give up your old OS and software. 3) Tens of millions of people, or more, use Linux all day every day. Whoever "they" are don't matter to anyone but the corporate Linux pushers. 4) Switching to Linux would imply that people don't already use Linux. Experience tells me otherwise. 5) Isn't it a bit difficult to get any work done if you're changing out your OS every week? 6) I think Windows will be more popular when it can run Linux programs. 7) Everything is too complicated when you are unwilling to learn.

Hi, my name is Dave and I am a Linux desktop user. Which Linux distro(s) do I use? Red Hat (and Fedora) Linux since 1997. Ubuntu Linux on my desktop systems since shortly after Warty Warthog released.

Borland Kylix Open Edition doesn't seem to like UTF-8 environments. Specifically, it doesn't work well at all by default on Ubuntu Linux. However, it is easily worked around. You simply need to change the language when you run Kylix. For example, can start Borland Delphi on Ubuntu Linux by running it with the command line:
$ LANG=en_US.ISO8859-1 startdelphi

Also, you will need libxaw.so.6. On Ubuntu that is in the libxaw6 package.

Task Oriented Computing

1. Turn on the computer.
   
2. Add color to great-grandfather's photo.
3. Create a new document and write an essay.
4. Search the web for chili recipes.

Brand Oriented Computing

1. Boot Windows.
   
2. Photoshop great-grandfather's photo.
3. Open MS Word and write an essay.
4. Google for chili recipes.

Brand Name Madness

People seem to become emotionally attached to brand names. I find this fascinating. In software, it seems to have the effect of paralyzing these people when they are confronted with an unfamiliar brand. Some people will simply refuse to use any other brand just on the principal that it isn't the one they normally use.

Take paper towers, for instance. Really, what is the difference between generic and brand name paper towels? As far as I can tell the price is the only significant difference. Maybe the really expensive ones are slightly fluffier with some pictures on them. But think about it for a moment. They will be used for mere seconds and then become trash. Yet many people will absolutely refuse to use any other brand but the one they always buy.

If so many people weren't like this I'd think it was some sort of mental dysfunction. Maybe it's localized mass insanity.

Ubuntu Spatial file manager mode sucks. If it isn't good enough to convince upstream GNOME to include it then it shouldn't be in Ubuntu.

The only reason I'm using Ubuntu at all is because of GNOME and Debian. I want GNOME to be GNOME and I want to use Debian software. If Mark Shuttleworth wants GNOME to be different I think everyone would appreciate him working with the GNOME developers to change it. This sort of stunt makes me reluctant to continue spending my free time and money advertising Ubuntu for his company.

Mark Shuttleworth should consider putting Matthew Thomas in charge of Ubuntu usability and start with fixing the problems in Ubuntu and GNOME he has described. I agree with nearly every point he makes. I especially agree that the menus belong on the menubar like with MacOS even if it means non-GNOME programs look different. And all of these changes need to be made right this very minute and not in October a few days before the next release. And major changes need to be immediately taken upstream and the details hashed out. If upstream GNOME doesn't want them as default that's wonderfully fine. But upstream GNOME should at least accept the changes.

It's a pretty solid design principal that you don't inflict a major change at your whim two days before a major release. Especially not undocumented changes which have unknown, untested implications for every single person using Ubuntu. This little change has introduced dozens of bugs and inconsistencies. As Matthew Thomas pointed out it doesn't even work much of the time. Worse, there's no obvious way for someone to revert to the documented behavior.

This is just like them changing the main menus in the last release. That ended up being a good change albeit poorly thought out at the time. Only when the new menus went upstream were they refined and documented to everyone's satisfaction. It seems like Mark sees injecting changes as some way to "brand" GNOME for Ubuntu or something. Well, it sucks. Really it does. I went to considerable effort to switch to Ubuntu because I wanted a non-hackish system. Now I have to patch every single system I install just to get it to work according to the GNOME documentation.

I was perusing Big Lots electronics section the other day and came across a bunch of $8 USB gizmos made by Sakar. One that caught my eye was the Mobile Mini Numeric Keypad. It's a small USB numeric keypad meant for a laptop, of course. I'm using it on my desktop since my keyboard has no numeric keypad.

Sometimes I would like to use a calculator or spreadsheet without hunting and pecking through the number row. Well, this little USB gizmo even improves on the PC-style numeric keypad a bit. It provides escape and backspace keys in place of numlock and the lower half of the oversized addition key. In the GNOME Calculator, escape acts as clear-all and backspace acts as clear-entry. I would assume other calculators work similarly. Very slick little detail. Since they are $8 in Big Lots I'm guessing they didn't have as much of an impact on the market.

As for my regular keyboard, I use a Happy Hacking Lite2 keyboard. It's not entirely unlike the old Apple IIgs keyboard but without a numeric pad. I use this particular keyboard because it is one of few affordable PC-compatible keyboards with a UNIX oriented keyboard layout and, at one time, a Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout kit. Specifically, the Lite2 mimics the layout of the Sun Microsystems Type 5 keyboard (other types). Over other Happy Hacking models, the Lite2 adds the old, familiar inverted-T style arrow keys found on the Sun Type 5. The other models have no arrow keys at all. That seemed a bit too spartan for my taste.

I know, what's with the weird little keyboard? Well, PC keyboards are geared essentially toward DOS circa 1980 or so. That's awkward on Linux and UNIX systems. PC keyboards have tons of extra keys and are missing several important X modifier keys. (Compose, Alt-Gr, Meta, Super, Hyper, etc) This keyboard provides markings for some of the missing X modifier keys and removes quite literally all of the secondary keys. And it has no caps-lock. I truly despise the caps lock key. Where you would find a caps lock key on the Type 5 it has a Function key that you chord with another to access less common keys. Function+1 is F1, Function+2 is F2, Function+Up Arrow is Page Up, Function + Left Arrow is Home, and so on.

I wanted Dvorak layout simply because I spend most of each day using my keyboard. A few weeks into a large programming project many years ago I started becoming fatigued after typing for more than a few minutes. If I forced myself it would become quite painful to type. So I experimented with Dvorak and it seems to almost completely eliminate irritation and fatigue for me. The chording feature of the Happy Hacking also means I never have to strain my wrist reaching way across the keyboard to press some odd key like F1. I don't even have to leave the home keys.