Running your Business on Desktop Linux

Here is an article from DesktopLinux.com. This paper surveys Linux's suitability for use by owners of very small businesses and the self-employed. It was written by Howard Fosdick, a self-employed database consultant who finds Linux fairly well-suited to his needs, and reckons it has saved him thousands of dollars in recent years.

The verdict: From a sole proprietor's perspective, here's how I'd rate Ubuntu Linux:

Criteria:	Rating:
Ease of use	Competitive
Help is available	Competitive
Reliable	Superior
Run office applications	Competitive
Compatible	Minimally acceptable
Run business-specific applications	Competitive
Manage business finances	Competitive
Inexpensive	Superior
Performance	Superior

Ubuntu 8.04 Feature of the Day - Applications Menu

Ok, the panels or "taskbars" you see on top and at the bottom of your screen is how we navigate around the computer: browse menu of programs or locations, see minimized programs, look at the time and click on quick start shortcuts.

Actually, the panels are part of GNOME desktop environment and Ubuntu comes with GNOME by default. What you have to understand is that Linux has several desktop environments like GNOME, KDE, XFCE and many more. So if you prefer something different for whatever reasons, you have a choice. You can visit their sites to see what they look like and how they are different.

A screenshot of my desktop. Look at the top and bottom panels.

Back on topic. The programs or applications menu is located at the top left corner. It is a dropdown menu which lists programs in categories. Here are the screenshots:

When you install a program, it automatically goes to its group. Sometimes after installing a program, it doesn't show up immediately in the menu. You can refresh the panel by entering this in the terminal: "killall gnome-panel"


The names of the programs are mostly self-explanatory. Leafpad is not installed by default. I replaced gedit (like Notepad but more advanced) with this because its lighter and simpler.


The usual list of time-waster games you need. There are more games (or programs) you can install from the Add/Remove menu at the bottom of the list (more on that later). My favorite is Mines (like WinMine).


F-Spot is a photo manager that can automatically catalog your photos when you attach your digital cameras, add tags, organize, etc. GIMP is like Photoshop. The other two programs I don't use and know it only by their name.


Everybody knows Firefox (this is 3.0 Beta) and Thunderbird (I replaced Evolution, the MS Outlook counterpart, since it is too big and have features I don't use). Transmission is a really good Bittorrent Client.


Ubuntu comes with OpenOffice productivity suite - word processor, spreadsheet, presentation. No need to buy or install a separate MS Office suite. Evolution is part of the Office menu but as mentioned above, I removed it and replaced it with Thunderbird. Gnumeric is a lightweight spreadsheet program. I installed it since it loads faster than OpenOffice Calc (Spreadsheet) and has the basic features I need.


The sound and video menu names are self-explanatory. In addition, I installed Audacious and Audacity. Audacious is like WinAmp but better for playing MP3s etc. Audacity is for editing, encoding, etc. audio files. Rhythmbox is like iTunes.

The bottom of the list is the Add/Remove menu where you can find a menu with hundreds of programs ready to install with one click. You can install or uninstall several programs at a time. Just check which ones you want to install and uncheck the ones you want to remove and let the program do its thing. This is a good thing that is missing in Windows.

Really! It's that simple. You don't need to search the web and download programs (are you sure they don't have adware?) or pop-in CDs (make sure you know the CD Key or Serial Number). No need to install one program at a time and reboot. Forget all about that. This is how it is supposed to be done.


You can filter by Category, by Popularity, or by support type and search by name.

That's it for now.

Word, Excel, Powerpoint and more for Free Download

Sorry but the answer is NO. You cannot legally download Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or the complete MS Office for free from www.mininova.org or any download sites for that matter. But if you want to get a free copy that does the same things and more, then you can get the alternative - Open Office 2.4.


Remember when you bought that new PC or inherited an old one? It only comes with MS Works or just the Wordpad, or nothing at all. What is a PC without an office suite? A gaming rig :) But we can always get a "copy" of MS Office from the office or a friend or someone in the mall that sells the whole suite on a CD for a small fraction of the actual price. Don't forget to ask about the CD key :)


Open Office is a free cross-platform office suite. It is an opensource program that is free to download, install on as many computers your like, use it for personal or commercial use, copy and distribute to anyone and you can even look at and edit the source code (if you know what you are doing). It has a version for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX, so you can use the same program if you work on different platforms.

How Open Office 2.4 Holds Up?

Two features I like about OpenOffice are: 1) It has native save file as PDF and 2) it can open the newer MS Office 2007 formats. I don't know if the older MS Office versions can do the same right now(?)

There are minor differences and some minor trade-offs in using Open Office but its a very little price to pay to get a free and open source program.

Finding your Emails in Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a free email program that can be run on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. It is a lean program but its functionality can be extended by installing "add-ons" which can make it as feature-filled than MS Outlook and even more. So you only need to add what features you need and not be stuck with built in features you don't want.

What I like about thunderbird is how easy it is to find your emails. There are several features that are worth mentioning but these are the two I like the most:

1. Quick search as you type. On the upper right corner of the window is a search field that searches your whole inbox as you type. The default is to search by subject or sender. If you wanted to search for an email and don't remember the sender or subject but remember a word in the contents then you can do a "search of entire message" and it searches while you type. Just click on the drop-down arrow inside the search field to choose what kind of search to perform.

2. Another feature that helps you organize and find emails is by "tagging". In addition to built in tags, you can now add your own tags. So, you can tag emails about a project, emails about your vacation plans, or emails from friends for easy retrieving.

I got to try thunberbird because Outlook crashes on me and then it has to rebuild its database which takes up time since I have thousands of emails. Thunderbird solved that problem for me and have used it ever since.

Ubuntu Linux 8.04 - An Easier Alternative to Windows

The new version of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS has just been released. This is a long term support release (LTS) and is supported for 3 years on the desktop and 5 years on servers. This release has added some great apps and polish that will make it easier for migrating Windows users.

What is Ubuntu? It is a free operating system based on Linux

The two additions I like are the Transmission bittorrent client and Vinagre remote desktop viewer. Transmission is lighter and has a more user-friendly interface while Vinagre makes accessing remote desktops as easy as a click of a mouse.

General features of Ubuntu 8.04

There are several reviews already out in the short time of its release and although not everyone sings all praises, all of them say that it's getting closer to really becoming mainstream. For those looking for an alternative to Microsoft Windows, this maybe a good time to take another look at Ubuntu (Linux).

Read LinuxFormat's review of Ubuntu 8.04