Get Your Microsoft Out of My Linux

This week's article was going to be about Gnome-Do & Docky, but those programs are dead to me, as well as Banshee, Tomboy and Beagle. This is sad because I really liked Gnome-Do, Banshee and Beagle. The problem is that they use Mono, an open source implementation of the .NET development framework.

Christopher Smart has written an excellent article, Mono: An Infectious Disease about the dangers of using Mono. I encourage everyone to take the time to read this article. There are very serious consequences with allowing Mono to infiltrate GNU/Linux. Novell and Miguel de Icaza have been pushing Mono dependency into Gnome, giving Microsoft a foothold into Linux's most popular desktop environment.

An excerpt from the article:

Through the recent TomTom case it is clear that Microsoft is using patents to leverage power over open source. Microsoft knows that if they do nothing, free software will eventually destroy their bottom line. They have to do something, which they certainly are. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted, "Linux is a serious competitor" and promised that the company will outsmart open source. So what’s their game plan?

One of the ways they are trying to gain the upper hand is by introducing their own proprietary programming framework into free software, which is called ‘.NET‘. While some parts of the .NET framework such as CLI and C# have been submitted to Ecma for standardisation, others have not. Even so, Microsoft still holds patents in relation to these standards, although the company grants “licenses on reasonable terms and conditions”, but only so long as the corresponding Ecma standard remains valid. The non-standard components also pose a risk.

Microsoft has ulterior motives for wanting support for .NET under Linux. They might not be able to destroy free software, but they sure want to control it. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said: "I would love to see all open source innovation happen on top of Windows".

Mono will be the trojan horse that will add a ‘Microsoft tax’ to your GNU/Linux. I agree, Mono poses a real threat to free software. Richard Stallman said it best,

Microsoft has declared itself our enemy and we know that Microsoft is getting patents on some features of C#. So I think it's dangerous to use C#, and it may be dangerous to use Mono. There's nothing wrong with Mono. Mono is a free implementation of a language that users use. It's good to provide free implementations. We should have free implementations of every language. But, depending on it is dangerous, and we better not do that.

This is why more projects like Gnote, a port of Tomboy written in C++, need to be started and maintained. Free and proprietary software can co-exist and should, but free software doesn't need Microsoft's backhanded help.

Mono: An Infectious Disease excerpt was used with permission by the author Christopher Smart / CC BY 2.5

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

Become a Command Line Commando

The command-line interface (CLI) is a tool for interacting with the operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks.

In Ubuntu the default command line interface is the gnome-terminal. You can find it under Application>Accessories>Terminal.

For some tasks, especially things like system configuration, it makes sense to use the terminal. This guide will show you how to use the command line to keep your system up and running, how a fix common errors and edit some things.

- The majority of these commands require you to be the superuser. To execute these commands as the superuser you will use sudo at the beginning of each command.

apt-get is the command-line APT package handling utility. It works with core libraries to handle the installation and removal of software in Ubuntu. The following are the most common APT for managing your software and system.

Install a package

sudo apt-get install [name of package]

Remove a package

sudo apt-get remove [name of package]

Remove a package and its configuration files

sudo apt-get purge [name of package]

Update your system

sudo apt-get update

Install updates

sudo apt-get upgrade

Does the same as clean but it only removes package files that can no longer be downloaded, and are largely useless (my preferred method)

sudo apt-get autoclean

Used to remove packages that were automatically installed to satisfy dependencies and that are no more needed (another favorite)

sudo apt-get autoremove

Frees up space by clearing out the local repository of retrieved package files

sudo apt-get clean

If you want to learn more apt-get commands read user manual

man apt-get

dpkg is the software at the base of the Debian package management system. It is used to install, remove, and provide information about .deb packages. These are some of the most common dpkg commands for fixing problems with .deb packages and broken systems.

When something goes wrong with an upgrade, use this command and all unpacked but unconfigured packages we be configured.

sudo dpkg --configure -a

To fix a specific .deb package

sudo dpkg-reconfigure [name of package]

To fix your xorg.conf file, for resolution or graphical problems.
- In most cases, selecting the default options will fix the majority of your issues on the Dell Mini 9.
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

If you want to learn more dpkg commands, read the user manual.

man dpkg

Some other helpful terminal commands:

To terminate the process currently running in the terminal by sending it a SIGINT command.

Ctrl+C [press the Ctrl and C keys simultaneously]

Edit you source list.

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Edit your file system table (fstab).

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Edit your xorg.conf.

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Add kernel modules to load at boot time

sudo gedit /etc/modules

List all drives.

sudo fdisk -l

Mount a drive.
sudo mount [/path/to/drive]
- to learn more on how to mount drives, read the mount user manual
man mount

To unmount a drive.
sudo umount [/path/to/drive]- to learn more on how to mount drives, read the mount user manual
man umount

Configure, control, and query TCP/IP network interface parameters.

ifconfig

- to learn more commands for using ifconfig, read the usual manual.
man ifconifg

Configure, control and display the parameters of wireless network interfaces.

iwconfig

- to learn more commands for using iwconfig, read the usual manual.
man iwconifg

If you have a favorite command, feel free to leave them in the comments, I'll add the best ones to the guide.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.