While I am not new to Linux, I still have some confusion. My dilemma is: "What distro to use and why?" I have tried various flavors of Linux, but I am still a little baffled about which distro I should choose. One of my hurdles is my laptop, because it has a broadcom chipset for the wireless card, but I did get it working once with Fedora, so I know it is possible. What really makes one distro better than the other? They all use the same basic kernel, KDE, or Gnome, have a package manager, etc., right?
So, which distro and why?
BTW, love your magazine.
Jeff Gillivan
| LM |
As a magazine for the whole Linux community, we try to avoid choosing sides in the great distribution debate.
The choice of a favorite Linux flavor is often a matter of taste. Some distros offer access to a huge variety of applications out of the box, and others attempt to add value by simplifying the menus to reduce clutter. Some are targeted for home users, whereas others are outfitted for business. And each Linux has a distinctive visual style.
The installers are getting better at finding hardware, so some of the hardware detection differences between the distributions are disappearing. Still, getting Linux to work with your devices is one of the biggest challenges, so if you have a distribution that works well with your hardware, and you are satisfied with it, why not keep using it?
If you feel like experimenting, the Live boot option included with many Linux variants will provide a convenient preview of how the Linux release will work with your system.
I noticed that there were no sections solely dedicated to security practices for desktop and server usage as a whole, although you do have some articles pertaining to security lessons in the Sysadmin section.
It would be nice to have a "Security Practices" section for the casual desktop user and the beginner/novice system administrator.
Joshua Ebarvia
| LM |
Security is such an omnipresent theme that we try to follow it in all sections of the mag, rather than devoting a single section to it.
We sometimes base whole cover stories on security topics, and you'll find security-related articles in our Know-How, Sysadmin, Programming, and even Community sections. You are probably right that our LinuxUser section, which focuses on the experience of the desktop user, might have less of a security emphasis than some of the other sections; however, we are always looking for good desktop security articles.
Perhaps more to the point, even if you are a casual or beginning user, we encourage you to delve into our Know-How and Sysadmin sections. Our goal is for every article to be useful for every reader.
Even if you aren't cooking up enterprise firewall configurations or implementing your own intrusion detection system, the concepts discussed in these advanced articles will still provide some insights on how to build a safer network.
As your article on the Jokosher audio editor in the April 2009 issue states, Jokosher is a work in progress. However I think you did a really good job of covering the things it does well currently. There were few criticisms in the article. I guess this means we are doing pretty well. I'm sure there are many things that could be a lot better. You can always let us know.
The article states:
"It is impractical and downright annoying that you cannot select multiple track takes to move them at the same time."
I found there is already a bug for this one, but I will make sure it is top priority for the next release.
Thanks for the good review.
Laszlo Pandy (Jokosher maintainer)
| LM |
We were happy to provide our readers with this introduction to Jokosher. Certainly the open source world has a need for a free audio editor that is easy enough for amateurs, and Jokosher has lots of potential.