Linux Invasion

Submitted by fyl on 5 July, 2008 - 15:06.

This blog article talks about an invasion of Ubuntu Linux in a community in Northern Nicaragua. Follow his link and you find out it is in Jalapa.

After a year’s hard work, one of the biggest government offices has begun to migrate their systems from proprietary software to FOSS alternatives.

There are two interesting projects that involves Ubuntu there. The first one being the digitalization of thousands of public records using Ubuntu Hardy and XSane. There are 15 computers devoted exclusively to this task.

The other project involves 12 cashier booths with Ubuntu and a custom-made software for receiving and making payments.

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Re: MultiSim

Submitted by leogg on 6 July, 2008 - 10:57.

Alra: There are several alternatives to MultiSim in Ubuntu - Hardy Electronics Packages - If you have enough RAM/CPU power, you can also run MultiSim on a virtual machine. Virtualbox is a good choice.

Gracias

Submitted by Alra on 6 July, 2008 - 12:52.

I'm currently upgrading my computers and peripherals.

Once the new set-up is completed, i will definetely experiment with Hardy Electronic Packages and will test MultiSim on a Linux virtual machine.

I did not know of this two possibilities,

Muchas Gracias,

Al

If you need help

Submitted by leogg on 6 July, 2008 - 18:04.

If you need help, feel free to contact me: leogg at ubuntu dot com.

Ubuntu

Submitted by Alra on 6 July, 2008 - 10:33.

About a year ago, i switched from Windoze XP to Linux Ubuntu 6.XX, 7.01, and now 8.04, i found that Ubuntu is a very stable, fast, and robust system, much better than Windoze, it cost me $0.00 and i haven't used any anti-virus medicine on it yet.

On the negative side, there are some technical programs, such as MultiSim, an Electronics simulator by National Instruments that Linux can't run, not even on Wine(Win.Emulator).

IMO, The Nica. government will save lots of $$ by getting away from MS proprietary programs and switch to Linux, the obvious choice.

Al

Re: Linux Invasion

Submitted by leogg on 5 July, 2008 - 22:14.

@dirtbag: Linux is usually free of charge, but it doesn't have to be so. The GPL license allows you to charge (or not) a fee. Free Software refers to free as in 'freedom of speech', not free as in 'free beer'.

Anyhow, the amount of money saved by switching to Linux is considerable.

The quote on the blog is from Linus Benedict Torvalds (LBT), the father of Linux.

@1st capt. Ron: I always recommend to use free software in a Windows environment in the first place (Firefox, OpenOffice, Thunderbird). Once you get used to these applications, switching to Linux is a piece of cake.

BTW, Ubuntu is a great distro for beginners. I highly recommend it. Easy to use and everything works out of the box, plus the community is awesome; everybody is willing to help if you run into a problem.

Free Beer!

Submitted by dirtbag on 6 July, 2008 - 20:47.

we all know there is no such thing as free beer. sigh.. Thanks for your response, and explanation to the neanderthal scottish capitalist pig. This guy LBT sounds like an interesting character. UBANTU. did the name derive from an african tribe? nice to know the "Community" is not throwing spears, only kidding, Service is the name of the game, especially to non-geeks like me.

Ubuntu

Submitted by leogg on 7 July, 2008 - 07:11.

The name comes from the African concept of ubuntu which may be rendered roughly as "humanity toward others", "we are people because of other people", or "I am who I am because of who we all are", though other meanings have been suggested.

Source: Wikipedia

Oh, you...

Submitted by Doug on 6 July, 2008 - 21:05.

rascal...

false advertising in not nice.. You could have started a stampede you know, people trampled, things broken.

There ought to be a law, free speech has it's limits you know.

I feel like a victim here,

I did get free beer once...had a hell of a time climbing out of the men's room window though, and what a stupid place for them to put an open trashcan :)

-Doug ©

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate

Linux

Submitted by 1st Capt. Ron on 5 July, 2008 - 21:34.

I love the idea of sticking it to Microsoft and Linux is great for doing this. My only concern is the ease of transitioning the end user from a Microsoft desktop to a linux desktop weather it be Gnome, KDE or another xwindows. Anyhow, I have heard of Ubuntu before, but never tried it. I am downloading it now and will try it in on a VMWare machine.

1st Capt. Ron (Title by Miskito Alan)

Ease of transition

Submitted by fyl on 6 July, 2008 - 06:20.

Ubuntu uses the Gnome user interface. (Geeks: don't criticize the use of "user interface". This is not a geek site.) Kubuntu, which is from the same people, uses the KDE user interface. We (as in publishers of Linux Journal) switched the office to KDE about 10 years ago so clearly I am comfortable with KDE.

As for "conversion to Linux from Windoze", it is likely a non-issue for the following reasons.

  1. Lots of people aren't currently even using a computer so it is learning, not re-learning.
  2. In a business environment (take a company with an on-line inventory) users don't really see the operating system. They see the application.
  3. Experience says that most anyone can learn Linux. In those photos you see people that have only used Linux.

Interesting

Submitted by leogg on 6 July, 2008 - 11:02.

Sorry, fyl... but, where did you take those photos? Just curious... :)

BTW: Gnome totally kicks KDEs butt!!! hehe... just kidding (nice way to start a flamewar :)

In my house

Submitted by fyl on 6 July, 2008 - 11:12.

When I first moved here I lived in El Rosario. In other words, where everyone was very poor. The kids were attracted to my dog but quickly got excited about a computer/internet connection.

Here I have my office upstairs with some computers but still have a "free computer" in the livingroom. Family and neighbors use it. The questions I get are not Linux-questions.

On, and KDE titally kick's Gnome's butt. :-)

Re: In my house

Submitted by leogg on 6 July, 2008 - 18:02.

Cool. I've had similar experiences with people without previous knowledge about Linux using it. Linux is _not_ difficult, Linux is just different. And you can learn a lot from it. If you want to.

simple

Submitted by 1st Capt. Ron on 6 July, 2008 - 11:22.

Ok, I have it up and running on VMware. the install was really simple. --no partitioning or selecting file systems.

It seems to be running ok on VMWare, but the Wheel on my mouse doesn't work--a little pain, nothing to bothersome.

Well, I went to the logitech website and they do not have a specific driver for my keyboard and mouse that supports linux.

How widely available are linux drivers?

1st Capt. Ron (Title by Miskito Alan)

Drivers

Submitted by fyl on 6 July, 2008 - 12:01.

Unless a vendor is a total control freak about not releasing information on their hardwere, there is almost always Linux driver for things. A Logitech mouse needing a driver seems very strange. If anything, it is probably a problem with VMWare.

mouse

Submitted by 1st Capt. Ron on 6 July, 2008 - 12:08.

I have a logitech mx5000 blue tooth keyboard and mouse. Since this is not the typical USB connected setup, it may be part of the issue.

I do like this Firefox browser, it catches all of my spelling mistakes automatically

1st Capt. Ron (Title by Miskito Alan)

Help

Submitted by fyl on 6 July, 2008 - 12:18.

This link sounds like the right answer. But, there are lots more. A Google search for "Logitech mx5000 Linux" will get you a lot of links.

Besides the freedom of Linux, there is an amazing sense of cooperation.

That's great

Submitted by dirtbag on 5 July, 2008 - 16:38.

now if I only knew anything about Geek stuff I would know how great it is! I did have a laugh reading about LBT declaring he was a right Bastard-who is LBT? ALSO wondered about the Linux stuff as I thought somehow it was free of charge. it would have been cool if this was the case bearing in mind how many dollars the Government of Nicaragua doesn't have.