[Tue Nov 26 09:10:45 CST 2013]

Yesterday, while checking the technology news out there, I came across an article on Wired's website about "the Apple of Linux OSes". They are talking about the Elementary OS, which indeed looks a lot like Apple's Mac OS X. However, what drew my attention here wa s the fact that, while in the 1990s and early 2000s Linux distributions with an eye in the desktop market tried to copy Windows, they have now turned their eye to Apple instead. It certainly tells you that things have changed quite a bit out there. Apple is the new standard when it comes to user-friendliness and success in the mass market. There is no doubt about that. We only have to go to the closest Starbucks and realize that about 50% (if not more) of the laptops there are Apple laptops. However, now as then, I am still convinced that Linux should not simply copy one or the other. On the contrary, it should come up with its own approach to computing. In conclusion, I am convinced that the Elementary OS, like so many other products before (remember Linspire?) will not become popular. {link to this entry}

[Sun Nov 24 12:58:28 CST 2013]

Interesting. It never occurred to me that someone might need an non-X-based lock application to lock the console session. However, today I saw someone asking just that on Google Plus. And the answer is that yes, there is such an app. Check out vlock. {link to this entry}

[Sun Nov 17 08:45:41 CST 2013]

A couple of years back, I wrote a short piece explaining how to change the default GDM login window in Debian Squeezy. Well, as it turned out, that doesn't work in Debian Wheezy anymore. However, the solution still is quite straightforward. I found it on a message sent to the debian-desktop mailing list. In my case, I opted for a variation of the third solution suggested in that message. As root, run the following command:

# ln -s /home/user/Pictures/wallpapers/image.jpg /usr/share/images/\
desktop-base/login-background.svg

It truly doesn't matter that the file you are linking is a JPG, instead of an SVG. It will work just fine. {link to this entry}

[Sun Nov 10 09:37:58 CST 2013]

If you use GCStar on any Linux distribution, I bet you have run into this problem. You try to add a new item to your collection, enter the title or ISBN, hit the Fetch Information button and... it never finds anything! Well, the solution is easy enough. You need to update the plugins that GCStar uses to fetch the information. Simply log into the terminal as root, and run the following command from the shell prompt:

# gcstar -u

Obviously, since the websites and databases change their services every now and then, you may also need to run this command periodically or, at the very least, whenever you see that things are broken. You will find more information here. {link to this entry}