Greetings Family,

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It's your friendly neighborhood "Digital Drummer" again (smile) I first heard of the concept of "Ubuntu" from Roger Madison's iZania.com (a Black social and business networking site). Imagine my surprise as I've watched the Tech industry, take hold of this purely African concept of humanity, and implement it as a core philosophy in the OS (operating system) wars with Microsoft Windows. The Ubuntu Operating System (Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu) is a community developed, Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need - a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more.

They have collected the best of what the open-source world has to offer in Ubuntu 8.04. eWeek.com reports that this Linux-based operating system is capable of mounting a serious challenge to Microsoft Windows and have rewarded it with the "Labs Analyst's Choice" Award (see Ubuntu 8.04 Is Ready to Take On Windows).

The "Spirit of Ubuntu – that profound African sense that we are human only through the humanity of other human beings.” is central and relative to the official Ubuntu (OS) core philosophy of software freedom that aims to spread and bring the benefits of software to all parts of the world. Ubuntu (OS) is essentially a collective database of open-source software from independent developers.

Hence the Spirit of Ubuntu - It only exists through the contributions of others. Ubuntu (OS) combines all the software application licenses necessary to enable the Ubuntu community to grow, continue to share its collective experience and unlike other OS companies, provide the expertise to improve Ubuntu and make it suitable for use in new countries and new industries. With the public acceptance of non-Windows based multi-platform applications, such as FireFox, Safari, and Linux, the Ubuntu (OS) is finding a wide base of consumer popularity. As an online advocate, I'm always encouraging my readership to try new technology, develop new products/services, and discover new markets.

The Ubuntu (OS) may be a way to go for Black software developers and content producers looking for; The freedom to run their software program, for any purpose. The freedom to study how the program works and adapt it to their needs. The freedom to redistribute copies so they can help others. The freedom to improve the program and release their improvements to the public, so that everyone benefits.

(see The Free Software Definition - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF))

Wikipedia has a great definition of Ubuntu (plus a video from Nelson Mandela) . They quote B Archbishop Desmond Tutu; "A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole". Remember, We Must Share The Knowledge (Network)...To Share The Dollars!!!

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Does this mean I should start talking about Black people world wide standardizing on Linux again like I did 3 or 4 years ago? At least I can suggest a version to standardize on which has Afro-appeal.


What somethings can a powerful Black Campany can do for blacks around the world?

um

I installed it onto one of my old computers a few years back and was amazed by the clean arrangement of the various functions. I've also managed to get it running on my PS3. It's just a shame that Linux isn't getting the market penetration it deserves as only the truly techno savvy individuals will actually bother with it. Screw Microsoft and their market dominance. Hopefully some mainstream software, including high-end games, will make their way to the platform in the future.

I get the impression that a lot of UNIX/Linux gurus like an operating system that is difficult to use. The names of the commands with all of the parameters that make no sense are ridiculous.

vi = I assume that means Virtual Idiocy

grep

dmesg

I don't know how they came up with the name dmesg. I rename it via an alias to "bootlog" because it displays the log of what happens during boot.

I think one reason so many UNIX/Linux users hated DOS was because it was so easy. It made it difficult to seem really smart.

I use links and aliases to create names that are easier to remember or type.

I'll start using this thread for examples.

um

Linux and all versions of UNIX have commands with annoying names that can be difficult to remember. Since computers have perfect memories and can be reprogrammed it should be possible to make them easier to remember and use.

First we need a text editor that is easy to use. There is a simple editor named "nano" but how are we supposed to remember a name like that? So we will give it another name. There is a link command:

ln

There is a subdirectory /usr/local/bin which is in the path on most Linux systems and is usually empty. So the link command will be used to creat a new command in that directory. This has to be done by super user though.

So type this command:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/eed /bin/nano

It will ask for a password because of the "sudo" command and then create a link because of the "ln" command. The link is named "eed" which stands for "easy editor" and is easier to remember and type than "nano".

There is a "history" command which will list the last 500 commands and typing an exclamation mark followed by the number of the command will execute it again. But having to type 12 characters to find a command that might be only 8 characters is absurd. So the alias command will be used to shorten history.

alias h='history'

There is a hidden script file ".bashrc" which runs when a shell terminal starts. So putting that line into ".bashrc" will mean the history command can be run by just typing "h". Typing the line

eed ~/.bashrc

will cause nano to open the ".bashrc" for editing. Inserting the line:

alias h='history'

will create the "h" command.

Save the ".bashrc" script with Ctrl-O and exit with Ctrl-X.

One more command needs to be created, the "hs" command.

sudo eed /usr/local/bin/hs

After entering the password insert the line:

history | grep $1

Save the "hs" script with Ctrl-O and exit with Ctrl-X. "hs" is a history search command. typing

hs ls

will find and list only the commands in the history which contain the letters "ls". All others will be ignored.

So 3 new commands have been created: "eed", "h" and "hs". "eed" is a new name for "nano". "h" is an alias for "history" and "hs" is a script which adds search capabilities to the history command.

umbra

Oops, I forgot!

That "hs" command will have to be made executable. Type:

sudo chmod 711 /usr/local/bin/hs

You will have to enter the password again. The "chmod" command changes the mode of a file and the 711 will make it possible for anyone to execute the file and the owner can read it or write it.

um

Actually there was alot you couldn't do with DOS that you can in UNIX. For instance, if you write a program and if you want to store all of the prints to the screen you can pipe it to a file something like:

a.out > script.txt

This command would run the executable and store all the program's prints to a file called "script.txt". I don't recall being able to do that in DOS. There were no good text editors in DOS, but in UNIX you had VI, PICO, EMACS (Solaris, Linus, etc.) and a few others.

Furthermore, when programming Unix just gave you more control over your machine in their system calls, utilizing network sockets, semaphores, that were all easy to use...but not in DOS. Hell, you could barely compile a C, C++, or Fortran program in DOS and edit it, while you had gcc and g++ already built into Unix.

Oh, and when you needed help on a command just type:

<command> ?

This would display the entire manual for that command to show you how it worked and explained all its possible parameters. You had nothing close to that in DOS. I will admit that UNIX was somewhat of a challenge to catch on to at first, but once you understand how everything works you may not ever want to use a DOS-based OS again unless you like pretty windows.

Quote:

Actually there was alot you couldn't do with DOS that you can in UNIX.

I am not saying that DOS is more capable than Linux, I am simply saying that it is often much easier to use and that Linux is quirky and more difficult to use for STUPID reasons.

Take the file compare command for instance. With DOS it is easy to compare all of the files in one subdirectoy to all of the files in another subdirectory.

In Linux typing the command:

cmp subdir1/* subdir2/*

gave the result:

cmp: invalid --ignore-initial value `subdir2/CC'
cmp: Try `cmp --help' for more information.

It does not work at all.

In the DOS box on Windows 2000 typing the command:

comp subdir1\*.* subdir2\*.*

gave the result:

Comparing subdir\vonNumism.txt and subdir2\vonNumism.txt...
Files compare OK

Comparing subdir\wep_AP.txt and subdir2\wep_AP.txt...
Files compare OK

Comparing subdir\WTC_Mail.txt and subdir2\WTC_Mail.txt...
Files compare OK

Comparing subdir\WTC_PCvid.txt and subdir2\WTC_PCvid.txt...
Files compare OK

Comparing subdir\WTC_PurdMal.txt and subdir2\WTC_PurdMal.txt...
Files compare OK

Comparing subdir\WWE_Activ.txt and subdir2\WWE_Activ.txt...
Files compare OK

Comparing subdir\xeon_2mobo.txt and subdir2\xeon_2mobo.txt...
Files compare OK

Compare more files (Y/N) ? n


I bought an IBM PC in 1981 when they first came out. As far as I can remember that command has worked since the second version of DOS that had tree structured directories. Since UNIX is TEN YEARS oldder than DOS how is it they haven't gotten something so simple straightened out? It is like UNIX/Linux is for gurus who mostly want to hide the tricks of the trade and the command descriptions in the man pages SUCK.

Here is a better source:

Amazon.ca: Linux Desk Reference: Scott Hawkins: Books

umbra

Greetings! Not been in BNV in a long time - so just catching up..

I think that Ubuntu is neat in it's implementation and fits well with the Linux community development spirit, same goes for many other Linux dists.

In response to Umbra: There is quite a difference between Unix and DOS/windows. I remember having many conversations/presentations in the distant past with IT managers who had to make strategic business decisions about which one to deploy. Each one has its' niche. The guys at M/soft have made a lot of improvements since the early DOS/Win95 days, and many Linux has been brought to the desktop with a windows-like GUI between the user and the OS.

When it comes to high-end commercial strength, security, reliability and performance, the DOS/windows package is still no where near Unix. Probably no need to jump into Unix Operating System theory right now, but just look at where Unix is deployed and you will see it dominating High Performance Technical Computing eg. Medicine, Aerospace modeling and design, Telco, Financial Trading systems, Weather modeling, etc... It has had clustering for more than a decade so it has high availability too.

Umbra said:
To achieve what you wanted to do above, use the "diff" command to find the difference between files. You can add switches to diff if you want to do more complex actions like merging the files you've compared on the fly; incorporate into file-1 the differences between file-2 and file-3; recursively compare files...etc and much more!!

You might find Unix a bit quirky, and it sounds like you find it frustrating, but stick with it and have fun. Eventually you'll be totally converted to Unix like me!!

"Unix is user-friendly, it only chooses it's friends carefully" I saw that quote in a text book many years ago, I can't remember the title.