The Geeks’ Agenda

What is ReactOS? It is an attempt to code, from scratch, an open source Windows NT clone. What is means is an operating system with a similar look an feel to Microsoft Windows (the most used OS in the world) but which is open source and completely customisable. Not to mention free! Now those of us who want to branch out and explore what our computers can do without the limitations of MS windows can, without turning to Linux. Although Linux is an amazing project [ especially the Ubuntu project. ] in its own right, there are a number of factors which make it impossible for me to use it as my primary OS, primarily the lack of commonly accepted programs that run on Windows natively. I plan to write more about this in a upcoming article or perhaps simply update this one at a later time.

If you get a chance cruise over to their website at reactos.org to read more and perhaps download a copy for yourself.

I have been a linux fan for many years mainly because of the idoligy of Open Source software but I would be lying if I didn’t admit to the cost also being an important factor. While Linux in general hs been steadily improving over the years occasionally a new distribusion appears that shows great promise to go along with the hype.

Network Tools

This is a graphical front end for all the frequently used network tools like ping, traceroute, netstat, finger and whois. Accessed through ‘Applications -> System Tools -> Network Tools’ , It is designed with the new user in mind and is quite intuitive to use. In fact all the user has to do is type in the IP address of the machine to ping to and press a button and lo, it displays the result in a user friendly format.

Ubuntu Device Database Submission Tool

This is another tool I found unique to Ubuntu. Consider this scenario, you have a machine whose sound card is not detected properly by Ubuntu. By using this tool, you can send a report to the developers of Ubuntu giving details of your sound card (like the chipset used) and be assured that in the next release, they will have support for your hardware. But if everything is working properly, then also this tool is useful because it will automatically detect all the hardware and send a report back to the developers for storing in their database. Access it through ‘Applications -> System Tools -> Ubuntu Device Database’.

This is the HAL Device manager. HAL stands for Hardware Abstraction Layer. This utility accessed through ‘System –> Administration –> Device Manager’, gives you more information about the various parts of your PC like the type of processor used, memory, sound card chipset, mouse and the likes. Even though you can get all the data by browsing the /proc directory, neophytes will find it comforting to have these details a few mouse clicks away.

Manage your sessions with ease

If you select the Sessions tool from ‘System –> Preferences –> Sessions’, you can enable any program to start automatically when you login to your account. For example, I use Tomboy - a popular note taking application to jot down notes. When not in use, it resides in my system tray. I have set this application to start each time I log in to my account by including it in the sessions box.

Services Settings

This is a very intuitive and simple GUI tool which helps a user take control over which services are started at bootup time. In a default installation of Linux, a lot of daemons are started up during bootup which significantly increases the time that the system takes to fully load a desktop. For example, if you are using a stand alone desktop PC, you can do away with services like NFS, PCMCIA (which is needed only in laptops), Cupsd (if you do not have a printer) and so on; which will make your machine more responsive. You can use the service settings GUI to start or stop all the services. However another tool that can be installed that allows for managing the start up services BUM [ Boot up Manager ]

Automatrix

Finally there is a third party project called Automatrix that was created by Arnieboy.

Capabilities:

1) Installs multimedia codecs
2) Installs all Firefox plugins (java, flash, etc) (except Adobe reader and mplayer)
3) Installs RAR, ACE and UNRAR archive support
4) Installs skype
5) Installs Acrobat reader 7 and firefox plugin for the same.
6) Installs Gnomebaker (CD/DVD burning s/w for GNOME)
7) Installs gftp (FTP client for GNOME with ssh capability)
8) Installs DC++ , amule and Limewire (file sharing progs)
9) Installs Frostwire (GPL clone of Limewire)
10) Installs multimedia editors (Audacity (audio), Kino (video), EasyTag (ID3))
11) Installs DVD (dvdrip) ripper
12) Installs Mplayer and mplayerplug-in version 3.05 for Firefox
13) Installs totem-xine, VLC and Beep Media Player (with docklet)
14) Installs Opera Browser
15) Installs Debian Menu (shows all installed applications) (this kills and restarts your gnome-panel without warning u but its a completely harmless operation!)
16) Installs Bittornado and Azureus (Bittorrent clients)
17) Installs Avidemux (Video editing tool) (New version 2.1.0)
18) Enables Numlock on (turns numlock on Gnome startup)
19) Installs Programming Tools (Anjuta (C/C++ IDE), Bluefish (HTML editor) and Screem (Web Development Env.)
20) Install GnomePPP (Graphical Dial up connection tool)
21) Installs MS true type fonts
22) Configures ctrl-alt-del to start gnome-system-monitor (aka windows)
23) Installs Streamripper and Streamtuner
24) Installs NON-FREE audio and dvd codecs
25) Installs ndisgtk (WiFi configurator Graphical user interface)
26) Upgrades Open Office to 2.0 (final version), installs openoffice clipart and installs OO2 thumbnailer. (no support for AMD64 and ppc packages)
27) Adds 3 nautilus scripts (open any file with gedit as root; open a nautilus window as root in any folder; open gnome search tool in any folder (Right click in a nautilus window and look under “scripts”)
28) Installs SUN’S JAVA JRE version 1.5
29) Installs SUN’S JAVA JDK version 1.5
30) Installs wine (u need to run winecfg manually after installation)
31) Installs firestarter (GNOME firewall frontend) and adds firestarter to GNOME startup
32) installs gdesklets (GNOME eyecandy) and adds gdesklets to GNOME startup
33) Gamepads (Makes USB gamepads work)
34) Turns DMA ON on Intel and AMD machines (needs a restart)
35) NVIDIA cards (Detects Nvidia cards and installs drivers) (Needs a restart)
36) Adds midi capability to your Ubuntu box [b](test by playing a midi file with timidity or pmidi from terminal)
37) Installs Firefox 1.5 and its plugins(themes and extensions are not retained, bookmarks need to be copied from backup folder)