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This is an invitation for the Kubuntu and KDE community to join us at LinuxTag on 6 May in Wiesbaden near Frankfurt to chart the future course of Kubuntu. We will hold a series of meetings and presentations on the structure of Kubuntu and Ubuntu, the goals of the project, and an open discussion on how Kubuntu can come to represent the very best example of KDE in action.

I believe that the KDE community does phenomenal work, and having a community-driven distribution to showcase that work will help attract users and developers to the project. Our overall goal in the Ubuntu project is to further the adoption of free software on the desktop and the server, and we recognise that KDE is an essential part of the mix of desktop environments that allows people to find the best environment for their needs.

During the course of these discussions I would like us to nominate a core leadership team for Kubuntu which can take overall technical responsibility for the desktop, as well as teams to drive artwork, documentation, quality assurance, translation, marketing and distribution.

Bristol City Council is set to save 60 per cent on software costs over five years following its decision to switch from Microsoft Office to Sun’s StarOffice.

The decision was taken following a full evaluation of the costs and benefits of both platforms that included staff retraining, migration and support costs of switching the 5,500 users from a mixture of predominantly Microsoft systems to StarOffice.

The council had identified a need to simplify the mixed environment of Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect and Microsoft Office. Too much time was spent on converting documents, even for internal sharing, and without a corporate licensing agreement there were many versions of each product in use. Many of these tools did not support the newer features of Microsoft Office, and this made collaborating with partners more difficult.

The obvious solution was to standardise on Microsoft Office, but the decision by Microsoft to make changes to its volume licensing terms, removing upgrade rights and introducing Software Assurance, significantly increased costs for Bristol Council and provided an opportunity, and another incentive, to explore the other options available.

Ultimately the decision was made to move over to Sun’s StarOffice office suite. Not only was this a key win for the supporters of ‘open source’ software (OSS), it also closed the door to the dreaded vendor lock-in that plagues some of its ‘closed source’ counterparts. Such proprietary software is upgraded and updated regularly, requiring other vendors to have to continually play catch up to ensure continued interoperability. This places pressure on users to remain with the proprietary software and pay for upgrades frequently. OSS uses an Open Standard format which makes the development of compatible products simple and interoperability is guaranteed by design, thus reducing costs in the long term.

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When you’re done installing OpenSUSE 10.0, your desktop system is not complete. You still need support for Java programs, MP3 audio files, and browser plugins for Macromedia Flash, Adobe Acrobat, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Video. You may also want to add support for playing DVD videos on your computer. Here’s how to effectively make the open source version of OpenSUSE 10.0 into SUSE Linux 10.0.

OpenSUSE is comprised entirely of free, open source software. What you will be doing in this tutorial is installing proprietary add-ons that add functionality. All of the browser plugins are proprietary and will require you to agree to software licenses. The DVD playback capabilities are in violation of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (and similar laws in other countries), which many believe to be unconstitutional and a violation of consumer fair use rights. Click here for more information on DMCA reform. In other words, installing the DVD decoding software could be illegal where you live; therefore I’m not telling you to do it, but I’ll tell you how it’s done for educational and informational purposes.

Adding sources to YaST

First you’ll need to add some software repositories to your YaST installation sources list. Go into the YaST utility by clicking on the green Gecko menu in the lower left corner of your screen. Select System, then click on Control Center (YaST). You’ll be prompted for your root password. Go ahead and type it in, check the box next to Keep Password, and click OK.

You’re now in YaST, and the Software category is already selected by default. Click on the Installation Source icon. This will bring up a window that will allow you to add software repositories so that you can download the add-on software. You’ll notice that your CD or DVD installation media is already listed. Go ahead and disable it by clicking the Enable Or Disable button — we’re going to add an Internet address that will replace your discs. That way if you need to add software from the CDs or DVD, you can get the packages from the Internet instead of putting a disc into your computer. If you need to, you can just as easily enable the CD/DVD source later.

Click the Add button, then click on HTTP in the popup menu. Add the following Internet address to the Server Name field and then click on OK:

packman.iu-bremen.de/suse/10.0/

Now repeat this process and add the following servers to your installation sources using the FTP option instead of HTTP:

* mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.0-OSS/inst-source-java/
* mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.0-OSS/inst-source/
* mirrors.kernel.org/suse/i386/10.0/SUSE-Linux10.0-GM-Extra/

Without adding the preceding sources, it will not be possible to follow the next three steps. You can now close the Installation Source window.

Installing Thunderbird

OpenSUSE 10.0 doesn’t come with Mozilla Thunderbird. If you’re a Thunderbird fan, rather than download it separately, why not install it properly through YaST?

Go back to YaST, then select Package Management. In the Search box, type in MozillaThunderbird and click on Search. Click on the MozillaThunderbird checkbox in the right-hand pane, then click on Accept. When it’s done, click on Finish to go back to YaST.

Java support

To add support for the Java language both for standalone applications and as a browser plugin for Web applets, go into YaST, then select Package Management. In the Search box, type in sun and click Search. A bunch of packages will show up in the right-hand pane. Click the checkbox next to the following packages:

* java-1_5_0-sun
* java-1_5_0-sun-alsa
* java-1_5_0-sun-jdbc
* java-1_5_0-sun-plugin

There is no harm in selecting all of the java-1_5_0-sun packages (you’ll notice that there are a few more that weren’t selected), but they are not necessary for running Java programs. If you’re a Java programmer, of course you’ll want at least some of the other packages. When you’re done selecting them, click on Accept. When it’s done installing, click on Finish in the popup window to go back to YaST. Your computer will now be able to run Java programs and applets.

Flash, Acrobat, Windows Media, MP3, and RealMedia support

Go back into the YaST software manager. In the Search box, type in w32codec-all and click on Search. A single package should appear in the right-hand pane. Click the checkbox next to it.

Erase your previous search term in the Search box, type in acroread and click on Search. Click the checkbox next to the acroread package in the right-hand pane. You’ll have to accept a software license agreement to continue.

Now search for flash and click Search. Select that package for installation by clicking its checkbox and agreeing to its license.

Search for realplayer and click Search. Click its checkbox. You only need the RealPlayer package itself — the other search results are not necessary.

Search for mplayer and click Search. Click its checkbox. You don’t need the other package that appears in the search results.

Search for kaffeine-mozilla and click Search. Click its checkbox.

When you’ve done all of this, click on Accept. Other packages will be dependent on some of these, so you’ll have to click Continue in the Automatic Changes screen that comes up. After that, all of the packages you just selected will be installed and your Firefox Web browser will have all of the plugins it needs. You’ll also have the ability to play MP3 music files. A popup window will appear when it’s done — just click on Finish and you’ll be brought back to YaST.

DVD playback

I couldn’t find any SUSE installation sources for the DVD decoding program, so you’ll have to download it on your own. Go to your Gecko menu, then select Internet, then Web Browser, then click on Web Browser (Konqueror). When Konqueror opens, copy and paste in this address:

http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.9/rpm/libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm

Or just click here if you want a link. Konqueror will ask you what you want to do with the file. You could save it to your Desktop, then double-click it to install it, but an easier way is to select the Open With button. That will bring up a popup window. In that window, click on System, then Configuration, then Package Manager (KPackage). (If you do not have KPackage installed, go back to the YaST software manager and install the kdeadmin3 package, then restart this process.) The KPackage program will read the DVD decoding package from the Web. Click on the Install button at the bottom of the KPackage window, then click on Install in the next window too. You will be asked for your root password; type it in and press Enter. Shortly thereafter, the DVD decoding library will be installed. Click on the Done button, then close KPackage and Konqueror.

Next you’ll have to modify the video player so that it will play DVDs. While it originally had this functionality built in, Novell has removed it to make life more difficult for people who want to watch DVDs on their computer.

Go into YaST and select Software Management. The familiar package selection screen will come up. In the Search box, type in xine and then click Search. About two dozen entries will appear in the right-hand pane. Right-click on all of the blue-colored packages (there should be at least two) and select Update from the drop-down menu. Click on Accept when you’re done, and then click on Continue in the ensuing Automatic Changes screen. The updated software will now download and install properly. When it’s finished, a popup window will ask you if you’d like to install more software. Click on Finish and you’ll be brought back to YaST’s software manager.

You now have the ability to play commercial DVD movies on your computer — put one in and try it, if it’s legal where you are. A popup message should appear when you put in a DVD movie. If it asks you if you want to play the movie with Kaffeine, click on Yes and you’ll go straight to the video player. In some instances the disc may be recognized as a data disc, and SUSE will ask you if you want to open the DVD with K3b. In that case, click on Ignore, then go to the Gecko menu, select Multimedia, then Video Player, then click on Media Player (Kaffeine). When Kaffeine starts, click on the Open DVD icon.

Welcome to SUSE

And that’s all you need to do to make SUSE a super-powered desktop operating environment. Aside from running Windows binaries, OpenSUSE 10.0 can do everything that Windows XP can and more. If you have any specific questions — like how to make all of this stuff work on a 64-bit system — feel free to…

Discuss this article on the forums.

Copyright 2005 Jem Matzan.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

Massachusetts set to switch off Microsoft
The state of Massachusetts has laid out a plan to switch all its workers away from Microsoft’s Word, Excel and other desktop software applications, delivering what would be one of the most significant setbacks to the software company’s battle against open source software in its home market. more

Microsoft’s reaction:

Microsoft Blasts Massachusetts’ New XML Policy
Even as millions of dollars worth of Office business hangs in the balance, Microsoft says it will not support the OpenDocument format likely to be adopted by the state of Massachusetts this month as its standard XML format. more