mray's blog

What a nice surprise! Along with the new release of Ubuntu I discovered the game project PlayDeb.net that aims to extend the official repositories with recent versions of great games. Not only does it provide really good games with nice meta information in a well structured and clean website, but also eases the process of installing them: just install their package and get any game with a simple click on their homepage. Any? - not really, some don't seem to work yet. (I guess that's why they still call it beta 2 :P) Look for availability of 9.10 - unfortunately not all games have support for the latest Ubuntu.

Anyway a great project!

As you have probably heard already, the new Ubuntu (Karmic Koala) is now available. I use this operating system not only because it is the most usable GNU/Linux distribution out there, but because it is a really good operating system in general. If you don't know it - try it! Because it has more to offer than just a few features or a nice price: freedom.

Maybe one day I'll finally switch to some OS that offers even more freedom than Ubuntu does today, but until then I certainly recommend Ubuntu to anyone.

(For all you windows people out there: you can even install this complete operating system inside Windows just like you install/uninstall other applications - try that if you're too cautious!)

Yes! The The Software Freedom Law Show is a really fun and interesting podcast suited for everybody keen on free software. The Hosts Bradley M. Kuhn and Karen M. Sandler interview people, discuss legal aspects of free software and explain things that matter in a free culture. Both are deeply involved in the movement and know what they talk about - and they are fun!

But listen for yourself...

image sources: 1 2

Nice! PiTiVi, the free and simple video editor, has been released in version 0.13.3. The official page just points out to the standard (old) Ubuntu repositories but there is a more recent one PPA for GStreamer developers: it did the trick for me.

Personally I love PiTiVi for its amazing Ogg/Theora video compression customization settings and the clean UI. It also runs rather stable and has a happy and active developer community.

Video mixing (transitions) didn't make it into this rather small release, but the feature list draws a little smile on my face nevertheless:

• Fix rendering failures
• UI beautifications
• Switch to themeable ruler
• Speed optimisations
• Show the project name in the window title

Try it! It is really easy to use, and if you're not happy maybe you need to have a look at KDEnlive?

I'm not militant about free software, but I honor distributions that follow their goals and ARE free instead of just trying:

• GNewSense for example is based on Ubuntu and replaces canonicals former truly free approach, but is not official.
• Trisquel also derives from Debain/Ubuntu and makes a promising impression.
• Kongoni is KDE based and has its origin in Slackware

Unfortunately those distributions don't have proper hardware support on my laptop (probably more the manufacturers fault); yet audio, input devices and screen resolutions don't seem to be a big issue anymore - which offers enough functionality for simple tasks. But if you really need to work with your PC you need to rely on a better video-driver and wireless support. That is why I still remain a patient Ubuntu user, waiting for some real freedom in the near future.

The FSF maintains a more extensive list of completely free operating systems, but I feel like the three mentioned ones are the most promising right now.

Respect and good luck to all developers that keep working hard!