TUX Magazine

I subscribe to an online magazine called TUX which basically comes as a PDF in my eMail. After being a subscriber since its inception I read it often. However they are now changing the way they do things. I got this email in my inbox today;

Dear TUX Subscriber,

NOTE: This is a corrected copy of a previously sent e-mail.

This week you'll notice a change in TUX. It will move from being a
free digital magazine to a paid one. Your current complimentary
subscription will be extended for 12 issues (expiring after the
July 2007 issue). That being said, this is just a note to let you
know what's happening -- there's nothing at all you need to do
today. Your free subscription will continue to be delivered to you
as you had originally requested.

When your subscription does expire, we will send you a notice
offerring you an opportunity to renew at our paid rate of just
$9.95/12 issues. In addition, since you've been a long-time (and
apprecited!) loyal subscriber, we'll make certain to offer you a
very special gift if you do decide to renew at that time. Again
though, there's nothing for you to do today. Your free subscription
to TUX will continue through July 2007.

We started TUX in 2004 because we felt strongly it was a needed
publication within the Linux community (many of our Linux Journal
readers would write in asking for exactly this, and truthfully, many
of our own staff members wanted to learn more about their Linux
desktops also). We invested revenues from our other publication,
Linux Journal, to make it possible. We've seen it as a labor of
love. Today, however, 15 issues later, we need to turn TUX into a
self-supporting publication and that's why we are asking for our
readers' help.

We promise to put more heart and effort into TUX with this
conversion. In the coming months, you can expect several new topics
and article series introduced by TUX Editor Kevin Shockey.

Please let us know how we can make TUX better for you. We strongly
encourage your feedback and suggestions; please send to
info@tuxmagazine.com.

From all of us at TUX Magazine, we sincerely thank you.

Adobe and Flash Player for Linux

This is a bit of a gripe post. Adobe has yet to update its versions of Flashplayer for Linux. The most current version available is 7.0. the current version available for windows is 8.0. while I am ok with Adobe not updating the Flash Program that creates flash programs its not ok that they lag behind on the development of their player. So far we are being forced to wait till version 10 until a player is available for Linux. With more users leaving windows for Linux or OS X it becomes more apparent that those architectures should be considered too. OS X does currently have a player for version 8 of flash so what is the deal? Being that my primary PC at home is a Linux PC I cannot see how its possible for Adobe to delay any longer with more users like me switching to Linux everyday. All I can say is shame on adobe for not keeping its user-base in mind when making decisions.

OpenSuse 10.1

I recently downloaded Suse 10.1 for a spin on my laptop. I was impressed by this distro. Installation was a snap. I was able to install some programs off the extra disk using Yast. This distro is quite stable. It is a bit slow on older hardware. The machine I installed it on is a Sony Vaio I bought some six years ago. The processor is a 650 mhz so it wasn't that surprising that Suse wasn't zippy. The GUI works Just fine and I was able to autoboot a CD which I am not able to do without some configuring in Slackware. Using GRUB is always a bit different to me because I am more familiar with lilo. It does give a prettier interface than what lilo can give you. I would recommend Suse 10.1 to any who wish to try Linux out for the first time. Though I think you would be better to try it on a desktop so that you don't have any issues with hardware incompatibility. Installing on a laptop is daunting for a first time user. Out of the box there are somethings missing but with a little help and some work on your part you can have those things worked out in no time. For starters MPlayer would have to be installed to get video playback to work. It does come with some default players but on web pages those players might not work to play streaming video. Mp3 support would be offered under LAME. On the extras Disk there is java, Flash player 7 and a couple of other useful programs you need to install.


next for me to try is SimplyMepis 6...