A Mepis User Rooting for Mageia...WHY NOT?

Today I read something very good: Mageia Alpha 1 will be ready for January, 2011!!!

At this point some users of other distros may be thinking "so what? My distro is much better anyway!"

Others might be secretly grinning while thinking "Look! A Mepis user rooting for Mageia!" "It seems that this guy is coming from the moons of Coockoo-land or Mepis is not such a good distro after all!"

Neither is true. Well, maybe I'm a bit crazy indeed...some colleagues say it is a vital requirement for my job! :P

But that has nothing to do with my support to Mageia, or the fact that I am learning to use Mandriva, or that my main OS is Mepis.

To me, the crazy ones are those who push only to favor their distro. That "MY distro is THE distro" mentality, in conjunction with a constant mudding of all the other distros is, in my honest opinion, what keeps many away from Linux.



True, I have my favorite distros: Mepis, Mandriva, Pardus, Antix...

Also, some Linux flavors out there don't please me much. But the fact that I dislike them does not mean those distributions or their communities are useless. If there are 2 people following them, that means those distros have something to offer. Is that so hard to understand? Still, some Linux fans, or better said, Distro Trolls, don't seem to understand it.

True, something happened among the ranks of Mandriva and that led to the birth of Mageia. Should we then be forced to choose one or the other? Should we, users of other distros, throw mud at both of them so that our distro may have less competition?

I have a question. Who are we competing against? Are we competing against someone? So, is choosing free software the equivalent of entering a giant arena?

This is not right. I don't even see free software as the competition against Microsoft or Apple. Why? Because Open Source belongs to a different model. Open Source is about learning, sharing and improving. The greedy ideology of the traditional business model and its compulsive "kill or be killed" philosophy do not fit well in Open Source mentality.

Let Microsoft and Apple do the competition against each other. Also, let them keep directing lots of resources trying to kill Free Software. So far, they haven't been successful in spite of all their money. They are wasting money trying to kill an idea...an idea that grows slowly, but that keeps growing thanks--paradoxically--to their abusive business practices.

Instead of competing against them --or against ourselves-- let's invest our time more wisely: let's support each other...let's root together for Mageia!!!

An Environment to Test Linux and OpenOffice? What about an Academic Dissertation?

Many say that Linux is good to play with but never to be used in a serious work environment. Also, Microsoft said in a video that OpenOffice is "unprofessional."

Is that true?


Of course, I made all my documents through my major with OpenOffice, but I decided to put both Linux and OpenOffice to a very serious test. Which one could be better than my academic dissertation for my Licenciate in Education?

Yes! If Linux does NOT work, I'll be put to shame not only in front of those who attended the public defense, but also in front of the examining tribunal. How about that? Does that sound serious enough?

My dissertation was today.

I was the only one who used Linux (Mepis Linux 8.5) and OpenOffice Impress while all the others used Windows XP (Why not Windows 7 Starter? Someone brought a netbook with it!) and MS Office 2007.

Interesting detail: XP refused to show the presentations on the wall and the netbook's screen at the same time. No function keys worked. The presenters had to read from the wall when changing the slides.

Interesting detail 2: One candidate who had made her presentation with an earlier version of PowerPoint had a problem: her titles and subtitles got somewhat garbled. What happened to the great compatibility of MS PowerPoint 2007 according to the video from Microsoft?

What happened to me? Could Linux do any better than that?

Well, I could use both the screen and the wall without pressing any special keys...Thank you, Linux!

Along with my presentation, I could even open 2 more programs and several different windows without my modest netbook getting stuck. Oh, and the audience was very impressed by Kwin and its desktop cube, which let me organize all my windows without cluttering.


What about Open Office? Both the audience and the academics judging my work showed me in their faces they were greatly impressed by this software and its OpenGL 3-D effects that PowerPoint cannot mimic.


The members of the tribunal were very satisfied...I ended my degree in Education successfully thanks to Open Source. THANK YOU, LINUX; THANK YOU, OPEN OFFICE!

Did I mention my topic? It was the inclusion of Open Source Software in language courses at the university. Yes, Linux is dead! :P

Se me pasó el cumpleaños de Windows! :P

Ayer se me pasó una fecha interesante: ¡el aniversario número 25 de Windows!

¿Y por qué estoy escribiendo esta entrada sobre Windows en un blog acerca del software libre? Después de todo, olvidé a Windows desde que empecé a usar Linux...

Cierto, como usuario de Linux, poseo mis razones para haber saltado del barco de Windows en busca de una nueva ruta. Los fanboys de Windows pueden querer disimularlas o ignorarlas, pero las mismas son sencillamente evidentes.

No obstante, también guardo recuerdos gratos asociados a Windows. Después de todo, lo usé desde la versión 3.11 hasta XP. Además, como he dicho varias veces, mi edición favorita de Windows fue Windows ME. ¡Aún la extraño, en serio! ¡¡Esto NO es sarcasmo!! En verdad disfrutaba usar WinME. No encontré una razón práctica para cambiarlo por XP, pero terminé haciéndolo cuando descontinuaron mi antivirus.

Tal vez en la actualidad me hallo muy alejado de la escena de Windows, pero parece que me perdí toda la celebración de Redmond, a menos que haya ocurrido muy silenciosamente.

De todos modos, usuarios de Windows, ¡no olviden darle algo especial a su Windows! :)

Oops! Missed Windows Birthday! :P

Yesterday, I missed an interesting date: Windows 25th Anniversary!

And why am I writing this post about Windows on a free software blog? After all, I forgot about Windows since I started using Linux...

True, as a Linux user, I have my reasons for jumping off the Windows boat in search of a new route. Windows fanboys may want to cover them up or ignore them, but they are just evident.

However, I have good memories tied to Windows as well. After all, I used it from version 3.11 to XP. And, as I said it several times, my favorite Windows edition was Windows ME. I still miss it, for real! This is NOT sarcasm!! I truly enjoyed using WinME. I saw no practical reason to move from it to XP, but ended doing it anyway when my A/V was discontinued.

Maybe nowadays I'm too detached from the Windows scene, but it seems I missed all the Redmond celebration unless it went by very silently.

Anyway, Windows users, don't forget to give your Windows a special treat! :)

¡Feliz cumpleaños, MEPIS LINUX!

¡Mepis está celebrando su octavo aniversario hoy!

Los miembros de la comunidad se encuentran muy felices y agradecidos con Warren Woodford, el creador de Mepis.

A pesar de que soy bastante nuevo en Linux y en Mepis (Me volví parte de ambos mundos a la vez), pude sentir la cálida bienvenida que me dieron en la comunidad de Mepis.

Para aquellos que lo desconozcan, aunque Mepis introdujo grandes innovaciones a Linux en el pasado, es una distro poco famosa en la actualidad. ¡Incluso, en sus días pasados enfrentó las críticas de que "volvía a Linux demasiado fácil" por parte de usuarios de Ubuntu!

Mepis no alcanza mucho eco en la prensa. Sin embargo, personalmente encuentro esta distro muy estable y fácil de usar. En realidad, esos fueron mis motivos para escogerla en el momento de mi migración.

Ahora estoy probando el Alfa 2 de Mepis 11...¡Es una buena forma de celebrar el cumpleaños de mi distro favorita!

¡¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS, MEPIS!!

EDICIÓN: ¡No he terminado de jugar con el Alfa 2 y el Alfa 3 ya se halla disponible! Tengo que descargar ese entonces...

Happy Birthday, MEPIS LINUX!

Today, Mepis is celebrating its 8th anniversary!

The members of the community are very happy and thankful to Warren Woodford, the developer of Mepis.

Even though I am quite new to Linux and to Mepis (I entered both worlds at the same time), I could feel the warm welcome that they gave me at Mepis community.

For those who don't know, although Mepis made great innovations to Linux in the past, it is a little known distro nowadays. It even faced criticism in the past "for making Linux too simple" coming from UBUNTU users!

Although Mepis doesn't get much press, I personally find it very stable and easy to use. Actually, that's why I chose it for my migration.

Now I am testing Mepis 11 Alpha 2...a nice way to celebrate the birthday of my favorite distro!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEPIS!!

EDIT: I haven't finished playing with Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 is already available! Gotta download that one, then...

¿¿Dónde están Mepis 9 y 10??

El Alfa 2 de Mepis 11 estará listo para descargarse bastante pronto. Yo lo pienso descargar para probarlo tan pronto como pueda.

Por cierto, algunos se han preguntado si se han perdido versiones porque Mepis salta de pronto desde la 8.5 a la 11.

¿¿Dónde están Mepis 9 y 10 entonces??

Aquellos interesados en descargarlas tendrán que visitar la Dimensión Desconocida porque dichas versiones simplemente no existen. La nomenclatura de Mepis parece basarse en el año de lanzamiento (algo así).

Personalmente, no me parece que dicha cuestión sea molesta. Después de todo, a mí me preocupa más la estabilidad y eficiencia de esta distro, que no me ha decepcionado. Ni siquiera me preocupan el impacto visual o la innovación. Algunos amigos, no obstante, parecen encontrarse en medio de una crisis existencial por causa de los números faltantes.

¿Debería Mepis cambiar su sistema de nomenclatura para evitar estos problemas? ¡No sé!

¡Había una discusión interesante sobre ello en el foro de Mepis, jeje!