[HLUG] Herefordshire Digest, Vol 1452, Issue 1

[Kevin Dontenville]

Hitting a few things with the same stone: 


Sarah GUID can be got with http://linux.die.net/man/1/uuidgen. The original definition was I think (might be wrong) UUID it is MS that referred to its implementation as GUID later. Quite unique it is too, but only about half the atoms in the known Universe could be labelled with it ;-) 


I agree with Alan about desktop enironments, similar experience with Mint and ended up with Gnome 3 too but I went a step madder and now use Debian Testing rather than Ubuntu - basically for its flexibility and that it is heading to stable this year. 


If people are having fun with 12:04 but not sure of Unity, try installing gnome-shell (sudo apt-get install gnome-shell) and have a play with Gnome3 as well. Unity is built on Gnome 3 so you aren't really loading your system up with loads more so much as putting back the original look of the system. 


You can add in gnome-tweaks too and get a little more control over how things look and work. Then visit hhtp://extensions.gnome.org (think Firefox and Chrome extensions but for your desktop) and try the really r ather slick way of turning on and installing extensions. They can make lots of the default behaviours change to get something more useful and practical for those of us who find Unity a little cumbersome for the way we work. 


Unity is intended to be locked down by design for consistency. I really disliked Gnome and Unity to start with but now G3 has won me over - it is interesting how much small changes can make a big difference. 


As to search engines, I like some of the ideas about DuckDuckGo but the underpinning search is control by Bing still so results are not as widely comprehensive and old chestnuts like the higher ratings of MS products and lower ratings of open source alternatives still have some substance. There is an open source distributed search engine idea out there that throws it all out across the world rather than under the control of one company, but sadly has yet to become main-stream technology. http://yacy.net/en/ 


Finally very interested in open mobile suite - will have a play. 


K