Ready To go All the way into themed Operating Systems? How about a Dark Metal skin for the Popular Ubuntu Operating System? I’ve sound this neat little thing called Ubuntu Satanic Edition.

Awesome.

Ubuntu Satanic isn’t really a remix. It’s a series of Well executed screensavers, splash screens and desktop themes that change your linux box into a horror themed monstrosity. Fun for the entire family, if your family’s like mine.

Here’s a couple Screen Shots:

^One of Two desktop Themes. One Dark, One Light.

^KDE Destop

^Background. One of Several

^One of the Login Screens

^A Compiz Cube

If you have ubuntu, follow the directions on the Satanic Edition Download page for your packages. If you Don’t Give the Live CD a try.

Linux We’ll use the more than apt description of Linux from ESR’s Jargon File: Linux /lee’nuhks/ or /li’nuks/, not /li:’nuhks/ n. The free Unix workalike created by Linus Torvalds and friends starting about 1991. The pronunciation /li’nuhks/ is preferred because the name `Linus’ has an /ee/ sound in Swedish (Linus’s family is part of Finland’s 6% ethnic-Swedish minority) and Linus considers English short /i/ to be closer to /ee/ than English long /i:/. This may be the most remarkable hacker project in history — an entire clone of Unix for 386, 486 and Pentium micros, distributed for free with sources over the net (ports to Alpha and Sparc and many other machines are also in use). Linux is what GNU aimed to be, and it relies on the GNU toolset. But the Free Software Foundation didn’t produce the kernel to go with that toolset until 1999, which was too late. Other, similar efforts like FreeBSD and NetBSD have been technically successful but never caught fire the way Linux has; as this is written in 2001, Linux is seriously challenging Microsoft’s OS dominance. It has already captured 31% of the Internet-server market and 25% of general business servers. Black shirt with the word ‘linux’ written with a mirror image on the front and ‘Tux’ the Linux mascot on the back. Tux logo by Larry Ewing.

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One recipe, many flavors of the the popular linux distribution

One of the reasons Newcomers to Linux are scared off is the sheer number of choice-Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE, Arch, Debian, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS…And all the variants and forks and amateur releases and specialties and on and on…

So Let’s take a look at one popular branch and see if we an figure some stuff out-

Debian- Our tour starts with Debian. The new release, Debian 5.0 was just released as of this writing, so it’s a good place to start.

Linux distributions are built around certain core projects- They have a charter to provide a certain experience.The Debian Project’s focus is on stability. They update their distribution once in a blue moon. Debian seems to be known for their extensive packages-25,000 and more everyday, and that none of them are the latest and greatest. Debian is Unix-y. Like most Major projects its available on a wide variety of systems- 13 different processors actually.

The ability of these Core Distributions to be all things for everybody means they’re really not for casual users- Installation can be tricky, with lot’s of strange decisions to be made, any one of which could render your machine unusable( Although to be fair, Debian allows you to choose an installer that makes it a lot easier. So, Over time, other projects have cropped up to try to build consumer systems from these projects. Things Like–

Ubunutu- comes from Canonical and wants to be a universal, free operating system. Ubuntu starts with Debian, and makes a lot of the hard decisions that you can’t because you don’t have a computer degree. For example, Ubuntu only works on three different computer architectures instead of 13. That means some packages from Debian aren’t used, but Ubuntu can add some extra that they determine work well enough on their supported platforms.

Ubuntu also makes installation a breeze. It comes on a live CD, which means you can try it without installing anything. It has WUBI, the Windows installer which puts it on your drive with windows, giving you access to both. And finally, if you do decide to do a full install, it asks only a few basic set up questions before taking over and doing it itself.

Ubuntu also tries to be user friendly. It does away with root accounts, has the Mac like GNOME desktop, and has lots of little tweaks� and behind the scenes goings on to make it work well out of the box. True Linux geeks hate all this hand holding, but hey..Who listens to them?

Ubuntu has been an extremely popular distibution for a while now. It’s well supported- Type” Ubuntu” and your problem in Google and chances are you’re answer will pop right up.

But still… There’s more we can do. See, Debian and Ubuntu are free, and customizable. Take either, and we can create and distribute our own Linux systems that have what we want. This is where the power and flexibility of Linux start to show. It goes beyond just changing startup sounds and backgrounds. Any User can literally create whatever operating system works for them:

Xubuntu- Replaces GNome with the Lightweight XFCE Desktop.This Means You give up some Flash, some usability for a faster, more responsive system

ElBuntu- Replaces GNOME with the lighter, experimental E17 Desktop. This means you get to keep the flash, get the performance boost, but lose some stability.

Kubuntu- Replaces the Mac look of Gnome for the Windows look of KDE. Although KDE itself is being transformed into something else entirely…

Edubuntu- Designed for School and classroom use. With Educational packages and user management

All Of the above packages still look and feel a lot like Ubuntu- most of the changes are cosmetic. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take what they’ve built on and go even farther:

gOS- A pared down version of Ubuntu for Netbooks and “cloud” Computing. Designed to use online applications and widgets as integral to the operating system.

LinuxMint- Mint originally was designed to add multimedia codecs to the Ubuntu distribution that the original lacks due to legal/philosophical problems. However, their clean, well designed interface won raves and is what sets them apart the most now.(note: These codecs are available as part of the restricted set of packages off the regular Ubuntu repos)

So,� really, It’s not that hard. I started experimenting about a year ago, picked up a couple of different Distributions, and taught myself what to, how to use common terminal commands and simple scripts. And You Know what? My computer is still Running.

See, the thing is, Linux is the Kernel, not the operating system. They all run the same commands the same way. All the differences? Those are just personal choices. Skins. Packages, applications. What you like and what works for you. That’s how to grok Linux. It’s not about the choices. It’s about what works for you.

Regular readers know I’ve been using Linux, trying to get another year or two of decent performance out of the Coal-fired pentium I use around the house.

(ed.- It died in Sept, 09. Since then I’ve been Running Satanic Ubuntu and Windows 7. )

This led to Live Linux CDs of the various “Major” distributions, a few stabs at dual-boot installations, and finally a full bore, Linux only reformat with Fedora, quickly followed by PCLinuxOS. I’ve been happy with PCLOS, and have been modifying and playing with it pretty much around the clock. I finally got it to do everything I wanted, and then some.

The only real disappointment I had was that OpenGEU did not run on my machine. I really liked the way this looked and performed on my wife’s laptop, and wanted to try it here. OpenGEU uses the Popular Ubuntu as its basic operating framework, and then grafts a hybrid Gnome / Enlightenment graphic desktop on it. This allows users to have some pretty impressive 3D desktop effects on a stable, well supported OS.

I really wanted Enlightment(E17) on my machine. Besides the graphic flair, its supposed to be lighter weight than either KDE or Gnome, Running on Machines as slow as 100 MHZ and I thought that I would see a performance bump. So When BugNux developed their own package to install Enlightenment on PCLinuxOS, I jumped on it.

I Haven’t looked back. Enlightenment is a neat, fast Desktop that works well. Yeah, it looks like a Mac. But it works. And that’s all I’m Looking for right now.

So Here’s a list of five Linux distros that feature Enlightenment for you to check out:

• OpenGEU: Described above, OpenGEU quite simply rocks and looks better than anything else out there . Use the Live CD at the local coffee shop to turn heads and impress all the artists working behind the counter.

• Elbuntu- Another Ubuntu-Enlightenment. Elbuntu takes a standard Ubuntu distribution and strips away Gnome. Unfortunately, Ubuntu Doesn’t run on My system so I couldn’t give it a shot. If you’re running Ubuntu or thinking of it, try it out and let me know how it works.

• OzOS- “A different Reality”. You’d think this would have an emerald green theme, but it looks pretty slick. I especially like the Vista Sidebar. Just what Linux users want: A Vista Clone.

• gOS Rocket E- Designed from the ground up for cheap, low performance PCs, gOS originally was installed in WalMart’s $199 Everett PCs. Works for Novices, and the Space edition is designed around the availability of MySpace Apps.

• PCe17OS- Gonna try this one next. I already use PCLinux, but I want to try the Multigamer Edition. It looks pretty neat. Thank You Sandor!:

Bonus:

Elive-  THE Original Enlightenment Distro.

Maryan Linux- Originally Mint Linux E17, this one is under construction. Take Ubuntu, Add Mint Menus for ease of use and then wrap it up in E17.

Yellow Dog- Designed for the Power PC- Yellow dog will run on your Playstation or Mac

This Showed up on Reddit today:

82 year old runs Linux

I was interested. I’ve been running PC LinuxOS for a couple of months and thought I’d update readers on what’s happening.

First, I’m Using Open Office and Celtx pretty exclusively for Word processing. I still use Firefox for the web and Thunderbird for Email: Both of these work pretty much the same as Their Windows Counterparts.

I’ve got a whole slew of Strategy games that I play Pretty Regularly: Wesnoth, Warzone 2100, FreeCiv and have started to get some of my windows games into the system through Wine when I have the time.

I’ve fallen in love with Enlightenment: It really makes a difference on my ancient machine. I got the Synaptic package for PCLinux from Bugnux. I can’t say enough about this and am working on a review. The only bad thing is a lot of the KDE applications I was using like Ktorrent, don’t show up in this manager. If anyone can tell me what I am doing wrong, I’d appreciate it.

Also, I’ve started Work on a Linux Distro for Writers for my own amusement. If anyone has anything they’d like to see included (Or left out), let me know.

Well, How have you guys been?

Me, I’ve been doing great. Using a few new programs, playing a few new games. feeling like the king of the Leets on Linux.

Couple of updates:

• Got rid of Fedora.based on the responses from the 5 Favorite Linux Distros I thought I’d try PCLinuxOS. Stupid name. Great Product. Based on Mandriva, it’s extremely easy to use.
• Can’t get the printer to work under it. I’ve tried to alien the rpm to a deb (Is that right?) but it just won’t seem to work. Again, the Linux curse seems to be working. Not every peripheral will work at the same time. This seems to be Epson’s fault, however, not Linux’s.
• Found a great article on speeding up the Linux Desktop here. Did the two things it suggested and the system is running faster than it ever did under Windows.

All In all I’m very happy with the switch.