Introduction to Linux

Ever wonder, "What the heck is Linux? What does it do? where do I get it? How do I run it?" Well, this video will help answer many of those questions.

Installing Linux

Here's an in-depth, step-by-step look at how to install Linux on your computer. As you'll see, it's quite easy to do. So, grab an older spare PC that you might have sitting in the corner, collecting dust, download a copy of Linux, and give it a try!

Gimp 2.6 Cookbook

Gimp 2.6 Cookbook. Over 50 recipes to
produce amazing graphics with the GIMP.

I've been using graphic photo manipulation software programs for nearly 20 years. After using several, I've come to the conclusion that all of them are quite similar in features, bells, and whistles. The main difference comes in how they carry out the task at hand. That is to say, the menus, tool bars, and commands are laid out differently from program to program. So, migrating from one program to another isn't difficult, it's just that you need to learn (or relearn) the “moves” and menus in order to get the application to respond to your input.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you already know that my graphics application of choice is the Gimp (current version 2.6). The Gimp is a free, open source software application available with the Linux operating system. Gimp is also available for Windows and Mac.

After cutting my teeth on many other software programs on the Windows platform, I moved over to the Gimp when I switched to the Linux operating system. The minor challenge for me, as noted above, was relearning some of the moves in order to get the Gimp to do what I wanted it to do.

This is why I LOVE the Gimp 2.6 Cookbook by Juan Manuel Ferryera so much! How I wish this book was available when I made the switch to Linux and the Gimp! It would have made the transition much easier. A lot of my questions would have been answered in one place rather than spending countless hours on Google trying to track down some of the information I needed.

The Gimp 2.6 Cookbook is a terrific combination of step by step tutorial along with being an introduction to The Gimp and all its features. The book, when followed sequentially, chapter by chapter, gives the user a good foundational understanding in how to use the Gimp. You build your understanding of how to use the program from the ground up.

The challenge in using The Gimp sometimes comes from not having enough good instructional books available to learn the program.  It's important to learn the moves, so to speak. Once you know some of the basics, you can build on doing more and more complex projects.  The Gimp 2.6 Cookbook - Over 50 recipes to produce amazing graphics with the Gimp does just that!  It's a wonderful resource manual to learn the Gimp! I love this book!

Juan starts you with simple tasks, increasing the level of difficulty with each chapter. As the difficulty increases, you're introduced to new tools and methods to accomplish the task.  In this way, you learn more about the program.  You learn where the tools and filters are located and how to incorporate them into the various tasks.

Juan also encourages the user to experiment. That's where the fun in using Gimp comes into play. Juan recognizes that there are many approaches to achieving the same result. He shows you the most common and fundamental path. By encouraging experimentation, the user can teach themselves new ways to to achieve a desired result. In so doing, the power of the Gimp is really unleashed. It becomes a continual process of uncovering new tools and methods to reveal a new way to edit an image.

Many times, while using this book, I've said to myself, “Oh! So THAT's how you do it!” Which means, I’ve learned a new process from Juan or realized that there's a better way to editing an image than the one I've been using.

The book shows you how to use color, paint tools, cloning, filters, effects, text, fonts, photo manipulation, etc. The Gimp 2.6 Cookbook covers all the bases!  It shows you how to achieve professional results, step by step! It gives you a great start and, as you go through each lesson, you can actually have some finished pieces to add to your portfolio.

With the Gimp 2.6 Cookbook,
learn cloning basics to
transform the top photo
into the bottom photo!

Whether your a beginner or seasoned pro, Gimp 2.6 Cookbook is incredibly helpful. Even after 20 years of using graphics editing software, I've learned some new techniques and methods, and gained a new understanding in using Gimp. I know I'll be pulling this book out from time to time as new photo editing/cartooning projects come along.

The Gimp 2.6 cookbook is available from Packt Publishing.

Web Hosting

Maybe I should start looking for a reliable cheap web hosting company to host my sites in. Some of them have impressive reviews than the more expensive ones.

A New Blog!

I have a new blog!

It's at:
www.georgetoon.com/blog

I'm now blogging at this new location.  The great thing is, this new blog now features George cartoons!

I'll keep OneClickLInux online for archival reference/purposes.  But the new Georgetoon blog is where all new material will be posted.

Hope to see you there!

Cleveland Sports

Cleveland Sports in under ten words.

The drive, the fumble, the shot, the betrayal.

The Drive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Drive

The Fumble:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fumble

The Shot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shot

The Betrayal:
http://wtam.com/cc-common/news/sections/sportsarticle.html?feed=208459

Whoops!  

It's been a while since I posted something here.  My apologies.  I've been taking care of georgetoon.com.  And, there are some changes coming.  Stay tuned.

Anyhow, here's the announcement (a little late) for the current issue of PCLinuxOS magazine.  Once again, I contributed a Double Take cartoon and Gimp Tip.

The NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine staff is pleased to announce the release of the June 2010 issue of the PCLinuxOS Magazine. The NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine is a product of the PCLinuxOS community, published by volunteers from the community. The magazine is lead by Paul Arnote, Chief Editor, and Andrew Strick, Assistant Editor. The NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license, and some rights are reserved.
In the June 2010 issue:
How Can YOU Contribute To PCLinuxOS?
Creating A Local PCLinuxOS Repository
Xfce 4.6.1: An Overview
Xfce 4.6.1: Xfce Settings Manager – Part 1
Xfce 4.6.1: Customize Your Xfce Menu
OpenOffice: An Overview
Ms_meme’s nook: If My Friends Could See Me Now
Computer Languages A to Z: Lisp
Command Line Interface Intro: Part 9
Zip-Player Plays Music Archives: Part 2
Screenshot Showcase
Alternate OS: ReactOS
Game Zone: Warzone 2100
Configuring USB Speakers on KDE 4
and much, much more!
This month’s cover features artwork from Timeth, and literally places Phoenix, the Xfce remaster of PCLinuxOS, in the spotlight.
Download the PDF (15.3 MB)
Visit the HTML Version

2012. Not Worth The Price Of Admission.

More and more films are using Linux as a platform to produce their special visual effects. I've blogged about this in the past. I don' t know if they used Linux in producing the effects in this film, but it doesn't really matter. Linux or not, avoid this movie!

Ya know when you go into Walmart and they have those big bins of DVDs for only five bucks? Well, give 2012 another three days and it'll be in that bin.

Oh, and Danny Glover plays the president of the United States. Much like the current occupier of that office, he can't save the country. Probably the only accurate part in the movie. Go figure.

Get Linux. Avoid 2012!

Help the Hodges part 2

The Ebay Auction to Help the Hodges is still in full swing!  Please take  a moment to bid on some terrific cartoon and animation art and help the Hodges.

Help The Hodges

As many of you know, I'm a cartoonist.  I belong to a group called the National Cartoonists Society.  It's made up of cartoonists/artists from all areas of this terrific art field.  And sometimes, the NCS sends out an "all hands on deck" to help our fellow cartoonists. 

Well, that call has gone out and I'd like to share with my blog readers the email I just received.

The NCS Foundation is excited to announce our first major fund raising effort through the use of eBay which launches this coming Thursday, January 21.  Many of you, along with our colleagues outside of the NCS, have donated 160 pieces of amazing artwork in a concentrated effort to Help the Hodges.

Tim Hodge is an animation artist having worked on storyboards for Disney and directing Veggie Tales projects. His teenage son Matthew, an A student and a drummer in his Tennessee high school championship marching band, was in an accident involving his car and a train in August of 2009, and has been in a state of a coma ever since. Tim's insurance refused to cover Matthew's long-term recovery, and the financial strain has only added to the emotional strain that the family has been experiencing.

Several NCS members have partnered with the NCSF to make this event happen, but we need YOUR HELP to make it a success.  We need the word to get out!  If you have a blog, or you frequent chat rooms on the web, please put in a good word that this event is taking place.  And please come bid on items, too!

The line-up of artists is incredible! Here are just a few of the over 100 names you'll see in our auctions:

Drew Struzan
Patrick McDonnell
Mort Walker
Nick Parks
Tim Sale
Mike Mignola
Stan Lee
Stephen Silver
Don Bluth
Peter de Sevè
Glen Keane
Bil Keane
Dan Piraro
Gary Kelley
Marc Davis
Frank Thomas
Walt Kelly
Paul Coker, Jr.
Jim Borgman
Charles Schulz

To see the items for sale, we have set up a special website where everything is being posted. New items continue to be added daily.  Also, please feel free to use any of the images from our special website to promote this event, along with the graphic that we are attaching that represents Matthew's love for his marching band drums.

http://www.HelpTheHodges.com

Thank you,
The NCS Foundation








To all my blog readers, please take a moment to visit the site, bid on an item on January 21st, and help a family in need.

New System Update

I ordered that USB/eSATA back up drive from linpc.us.  It's pictured above.

The folks at linpc.us are partitioning this 1TB drive as FAT32 on one side and a portion of the drive to be formatted for Linux EXT3.

The reason is, FAT32 cannot read a single file larger than 4 gigabytes.  I have a single file that is 9 gigabytes in size on my current system.  I need to move this file from my existing system to the new system.  FAT32 cannot handle this.  But, EXT3 can!

Once again, another great reason to Get Linux!

Motherboards, SATA, eSATA, and USB

I spoke with Eric Keeler of LinPC.us today. LinPC.us is the online computer company that is building my new PXLinuxOS computer system.

Eric recommended that I go with an ASUS motherboard. Not only does it have extra USB 2.0 ports, but it also has an external SATA port.

eSATA has extremely fast data transfer rates.

However, eSATA requires it's own power source. this is not a poblem as the eSATA drive is not going to be a mobile drive. I stil have an old 80 gig USB 2.0 drive with its own power source stil conected tomyucurrent compuer.

So, for my purposes, I'll be purchasing a new external hard drive that supports both USB 2.0 and eSATA (like the one on sale at amazon.com above).

I'll move files from my current system using the USB interface and plug it into eSATA on the new system.

Once I have all files transferred to the new system, I'll keep the external eSATA drive plugged in for backup.

And of course, PCLinuxOS fully supports the SATA standard.

Get Linux.

My New Linux Box! Ordered!

Yesterday, my company, georgetoon.com, sent a purchase order for a brand new PCLinuxOS computer system! It's a rack system (similar to what I currently run) with space for five swappable hard drives. The case is pictured above.

My system will come with three Hard drives and two DVD burners. I'll also be running an AMD Phenom Quad core processor with 4 gigs of RAM.

PCLinuxOS running KDE 4 is going to be the main OS. I'll also have three other desktop environments installed, Gnome, LXDE, and XFCE.

I plan on running Windows XP via VirtualBox (for Quickbooks). Surprisingly, WinXP runs faster in VirtualBox than on it does on a real hard drive. I guess this is due to not needing all the added apps for anti-virus, etc. which constantly run in the background.

I'll have more information as the delivery date draws near.


Get Linux!

A New Year And A New System.

A blogger reader named Gary, in the first post of 2010, asked, " Are you using the KDE version?"

He was referring to the desktop environment I use when running PCLinuxOS.

Yes, I'm currently using KDE 3.5. But, the folks at KDE have rolled out version 4. 

PCLinuxOS is a "rolling distro." Each new update improves the OS and gives you new functionality and security. PCLinuxOS has evolved and moved all its repositories to support KDE 4.

I can easily update my current system to  KDE 4.  It's not difficult.  But I really like and enjoy using KDE 3.5.  Plus I have cartoon panels, strips, etc. that still need to be backed up.  once I get all my critical data and art safely backed up, I may upgrade the system to KDE4.

However, for now, I chose to point my current install at a frozen repository supporting KDE 3.5 for both my desktop and laptop systems.

The good news is, I'm in the process of purchasing a new PCLinuxOS computer system. This new system will be running KDE 4.0.

BTW, my laptop is running PCLinuxOS with KDE 3.5, Gnome, LXDE, XFCE, and E17 desktop environments.

So, yes, my main Linux Desktop environment is KDE 3.5.  I run KDE 3.5 on my main desktop system and laptop system.

I'll soon to be running KDE 4 on a brand new system!  (More later when the system is ordered, built, and delivered.)

Get Linux!  (I am. Again.)

Happy New Year!

2010 has arrived!  Make it the best year ever!  Download and install Linux to your desktop or laptop computer!  I recommend PCLinuxOS.  It's complete, stable, has a terrific group of users on its forum, and is totally free!


Make 2010 the year you said goodbye to Windows' viruses, spam, trojans, spyware,  pop-ups, and headaches!

Get Linux!

Linux Is Amazing!

I got wind of this from the PCLinuxOS forums.

Here's a Linux enthusiast who created a theme for Ubuntu Linux. The theme makes his Ubuntu Linux disro look just like Windows XP! This way, you can sit your family members or friends in front of the system and they'll feel right at home. They'll think they're using Windows! (Except they won't have the BSOD, viruses, or spyware to contend with).

After using it for awhile, you can surprise 'em! Let them know they've really been using Linux all along!

See? Linux is easy!

Get Linux

It's Cyber Monday!

Today is Cyber Monday! As defined in Wikipedia, "Cyber Monday is a marketing propaganda term that refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday being the busiest day of the year for retail electronic commerce."

Online holiday shoppers are going to be logging on to the various "big box" web sites to try and get a deal on the latest electronic gadget to give as a gift this Christmas.

May I suggest Linux? And specifically, give linpc.us a try.

Linpc.us has terrific prices and builds its systems with PCLinuxOS. I'm running PCLinuxOS and I gotta tell ya, it's a terrific flavor of Linux. It's very stable and very cutting edge! Everything works!

Why give a Windows computer this Christmas when in three months time, you're only going to hear that it's either slowed to a crawl or been infected with a virus?!

Give Linux!

Black Friday. A Better Buy!

It's Black Friday. One of the biggest shopping days of the Christmas season!  But, before you grab that charge card and rush off to buy the latest and greatest in computer hardware, please take a moment to consider the following:

Recently, I started a thread on the PCLinuxOS forum.  It was regarding a comment a Facebook friend made about his computer.  It seems that his Firefox browser would not launch and he could not send Email.  In addition, his primary browser was crashing.

Here are some of the comments forum members posted (some have been edited...read on, you'll know why):

"Not surprised.  I saw one that was taken apart at the local computer store.  All it was is a few components put together into a case...It was simplicity in itself, even the inside of my custom box looks more complicated.  It was getting its screen replaced.  That's when I knew, that these are just expensive but flimsy pieces of hardware."

"I guess people really do believe that they will just magically work perfectly forever."

"Problems with drivers is what occurred to me. I'm also curious as to whether the power supply would be up to most add in video cards available now."

"problems in these are extremely common, the previous os had a error that if you tried to move files from a laptop or desktop to a external device and if the device was removed or something happened in the middle of the process, the file was deleted from both devices, vanished.  the current update breaks many things on the system that was supposed not to be a problem."

"The software contains continuous unfixed security flaws that are never getting patched promptly enough. Some folks are discovering said flaws and reporting it to the manufacturer on the quiet and end up publicly releasing the specifics of the flaw due to frustration of no fix being available soon enough."

Okay, now what did I edit form these comments?  The name of the computer being discussed.  Care to guess which computer?  Dell?  HP?  Acer?  Sony?  Gateway?  Lenovo?

You'd think it would be any of these and the problems being discussed were ones occuring in Windows.

However, all of us were talking about problems happening with the Apple Mac and the Mac OS!

That's right!  My original post   had to do with a problem a friend was having with his Mac computer.  And I was surprised.  Because all I've ever heard is that Apple computers are the most reliable, easiest computes on the face of the planet.

It appears many feel that Macs aren't all they're cracked up to be.  And the price tag for a Mac can be staggering!

The other alternative, Windows, isn't much better.  If you're not paying a high price for Apple hardware and software, you're paying extra dollars to protect your Windows system from bugs, viruses, and spyware.

Then there's Linux.  It's affordable (free), secure, and friendly!  Linux will bring your older hardware to life! Linux will run blazingly fast on new computer hardware!   Linux has a friendly and helpful community to show you the ropes.  Best of all, Linux has tons of free software!

Christmas 2009 finds families pulling in their belts more than usual.  Why spend hundreds or thousands on a Windows system or Apple Mac?   Both have their own share of headaches.

Get a Linux Computer!  Save money and free yourself from overpriced hardware and software!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Google operating system, known as Chrome OS is on it's way.  It's open source, utilizes cloud computing, and boots in 7 seconds!  Google is working to get it to boot even faster!

And, you guessed it, it's based on Linux!

"Chrome OS itself is built on Linux foundations so many people could find themselves using a version of Linux without knowing it"

A Q&A with ore information can found here.

In the meantime, get Linux.