bergfly - missives from the field

29 December 2005

Linux update


It has been a while since I have given an update on my constant battle with software. For work and Google earth reasons I have been using a lot of windows recently. My attempts to use Linux for all my work stuff failed when I could not get iSite (modem configuration software) to work under Wine. Google earth also sadly does not work under Linux either and we use it a lot here.

On a more positive note, I did get 360E software (different modem configuration software) to run under Wine. I have also been playing with Digikam recently and have been well impressed with version 0.8
I have played with lots of different photo organising software over the years and have yet to find the perfect programme. I use Picasa on windows but have a good few gripes with it. For one, it is crap at importing photos, as it insists on creating a folder for every import. Windows importing insists on renumbering the photos. Under windows I end up just drag and dropping my photos into a folder I want them in. I prefer to actually organise my photos into real different folders, not in the virtual collections like Picasa does. The tools given by Picasa are also not very configurable. They are nice, and do some good work, but they don't allow the sort of configuration operations I like to see.

Digikam on the other hand is getting better all the time and now has a really meaningful set of tools in the box. It also arranges photos in a meaningful way to me. Sadly I still have version 0.7.x on this laptop as the Ubuntu binary of 0.8 is not in the repositories yet. I have debian working on my home computer, which has version 0.8 and is working really nicely. The only issue with my home computer is the DVD burner does not work under Linux. Given I have no other OS on the box, I do need to get it working somehow. This is a real hassle, as it work pretty much flawlessly otherwise and keeps me happy. It runs fast and smooth and, aside from a real noisy fan, is a perfect machine. Another killer App that I love in Linux is Gnucash. It does a great job of getting your accounts in order and keeping them balanced. It takes only a couple minutes to understand and has great tutorials. Version 1.8.12 also has online banking ability, but has yet to appear in the Ubuntu repositories.

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