Howard's BLOG
Well, I've taken to Blogging. Yea, I know, it may not be the best of past times but, hey, it is one. I kinda like it. You don't have to read it if you don't want to. Anyway, here's a link to it. Howard's BLOG
However, you have to make sure to read the very first post! The reason for that is so no one misunderstands what's going on!
Linux
- BUY a Dell with Linux on it!!
- Click here to go to Dell's Preloaded Linux site. Imagine that!
- Distributions
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Here are some links to Distributions I'm either using, have used, or have been trained to use:
Debian Linux (using now)
Kubuntu (using now)
SUSE Linux is here, and OpenSUSE you'll find here. I have used the Desktop for several years, and I've also used the Server SLES 8 & 9
RedHat Linux is here, and Fedora is here. I have never used Fedora mutch, but Redhat ES we use at work.
Mandriva (formally Mandrake Linux) Linux is here, I've not used this distro much, but some guys at work have, and liked its desktop abilities.
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My take on all these? I think which ever one you like, use. How will you know? Try them. If you are new to Linux and just want to get your feet wet, you could go with Kubuntu (which is also a "Live" distro, meaning it could run from a CD for you to tryout), OpenSUSE, Fedora, or Mandrake. No, not necessarily in that order.
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If you are really good with Linux Debian could be your next challenge, even though they have gotten much better, its by far the most challenging distrobution I have used.
- Related Web Sites
- News Sites:
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GrokLaw with Pamela Jones. Excellent OpenSource Legal site as it relates to Linux, and OpenSource in General. If you need (or just want) to keep up with the SCO saga go here.
DistroWatch, If you want to keep up with Distribution News and Info, there's no better site!
Linux Online, Good General information, and news Site related to Linux.
Mad Penquin, Low traffic general Linux news Site, whose quality and quantity of articles seems to have gone down in recent days.
- Linux Magazines
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Linux Journal This is a more Development, and more experienced, technically oriented Magazine
Linux Magazine This is a more User oriented Magazine, but still caters to the Linux savvy.
Tux ezine Billed as the first, and only magazine for the completely new Linux user.
- Linux Help Sites
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These are sites I most often go to for Questions on how to accomplish something, or fix something I've broken.
- The Freely Project
- This is a project to help Churches convert to OpenSource or "Libre" Software.
- If you'd like to learn more about how you can use Free and OpenSource Software in your Church Click Here!
- The CrossWire Bible Society
- This project aims to make Bible Study resources freely available on platforms other than Windows.
- BibleTime
- This is a Free Bible Study Application based on the Sword Libraries for the KDE Desktop on Linux
- E-SWORD
- This is a free Bible Study application for Windows, which has a multitude of great resources.
- The BlueLetter Bible
- An on-line Bible Study web site, with other resources as well. I highly recommend this site for general Bible Study needs, and even some advanced needs.
- As with all of these OpenSource and free resources, don't forget to support them in any way you can! The tools they provide are free to you, but not free to produce. Thanks!
Church Resources
Bible Study
OpenSource Apps
- OpenOffice.org
Office Suite
- This is a complete and full blown Office Suite, with features that not only rival but surpass other well known suites in my opinion. Its free to download, even if it takes a while, and to install on any Windows, Linux, or Mac PC, business or personal! Can't beat the price anyway.
- Mozilla
Firefox Browser
- This
is a very solid browser, you can also download Thunderbird while you
are there, if you like.
Firefox is a lightweight extendible browser based on Mozilla's rendering engine. Its also MUCH more secure, and is as feature rich as can be expected in a browser. - TrueCrypt
- Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows and Linux. Create an encrypted volume on your hard drive, or encrypt the contents of a USB storage device. Good feature set, and its free.
- Play Ogg and VLC players
- Free Open-Source Audio and Video codecs with NO Patent or DRM restrictions. Wonderful for those of us who value freedom, including its responsiblities to be honest, and respectful of rights. I think its very important to understand that there are those whose living is made creating music and movies, and they should get paid. Making Illegal copies of software or music is immoral, however, fair rights dictates that I be able to make a backup copy and preserve my part of the investment as well.
- Visioo-writer
- Free Open-Source ODF or older SXW OpenOffice.org Writer, file Viewer. Quickly installs, even without Admin privileges, in Windows, and can be run from
- Or here,
- As I mess with and break things, :-).