A Man and his Penguin

I love certain types of relaxation music; I have two whole series of relaxation CDs that I love. One of those is by a guy called Clive Lendich, who basically has his CV on the inside cover of each of the CDs.

RIght now I’m listening to one of his CDs, and I suddenly decided to look him up online. Bingo: www.clivelendich.com.

And I go to his Links page:

Nathan Foley

I’ve been working with Nathan for many years now - he’s a great talent, good friend and has an awesome web site ! Check it out !

www.nathanfoley.biz

Isn’t it a small world, that I’d be fan of a relaxation music composer/performer, and he works with another of my idols in a completely unrelated genre of music?

Not worked on Copland any more since my last post. I’m still looking for helpers. I decided to give it a more OS 9 feel, than the "Windowsy" thing with a taskbar. As such, the bottom panel will not be full length, it will be anchored to the bottom-left, it will contain the system tray and workspace switcher, plus any useful panel applets. The top panel will be the same as Xubuntu, except for the Window List applet in the top-right corner. No taskbar. Thinking of including Skippy (for the "Expose" effect), as long as I can remap its key command so it doesn’t conflict with the Mac’s "right-mouse" F12.

Annoying bug: When I boot any Edgy-based Live CD on my PC, it always hangs on a blank screen at what seems to be the end of shutdown. What’s worse is that the next time I try to start up my computer, the fans spin to full speed and stay there. Holding down the Power button til it shuts off, and then starting up again, fixes the problem.

I love certain types of relaxation music; I have two whole series of relaxation CDs that I love. One of those is by a guy called Clive Lendich, who basically has his CV on the inside cover of each of the CDs.

RIght now I’m listening to one of his CDs, and I suddenly decided to look him up online. Bingo: www.clivelendich.com.

And I go to his Links page:

Nathan Foley

I’ve been working with Nathan for many years now - he’s a great talent, good friend and has an awesome web site ! Check it out !

www.nathanfoley.biz

Isn’t it a small world, that I’d be fan of a relaxation music composer/performer, and he works with another of my idols in a completely unrelated genre of music?

Not worked on Copland any more since my last post. I’m still looking for helpers. I decided to give it a more OS 9 feel, than the "Windowsy" thing with a taskbar. As such, the bottom panel will not be full length, it will be anchored to the bottom-left, it will contain the system tray and workspace switcher, plus any useful panel applets. The top panel will be the same as Xubuntu, except for the Window List applet in the top-right corner. No taskbar. Thinking of including Skippy (for the "Expose" effect), as long as I can remap its key command so it doesn’t conflict with the Mac’s "right-mouse" F12.

Annoying bug: When I boot any Edgy-based Live CD on my PC, it always hangs on a blank screen at what seems to be the end of shutdown. What’s worse is that the next time I try to start up my computer, the fans spin to full speed and stay there. Holding down the Power button til it shuts off, and then starting up again, fixes the problem.

I love certain types of relaxation music; I have two whole series of relaxation CDs that I love. One of those is by a guy called Clive Lendich, who basically has his CV on the inside cover of each of the CDs.

RIght now I’m listening to one of his CDs, and I suddenly decided to look him up online. Bingo: www.clivelendich.com.

And I go to his Links page:

Nathan Foley

I’ve been working with Nathan for many years now - he’s a great talent, good friend and has an awesome web site ! Check it out !

www.nathanfoley.biz

Isn’t it a small world, that I’d be fan of a relaxation music composer/performer, and he works with another of my idols in a completely unrelated genre of music?

Not worked on Copland any more since my last post. I’m still looking for helpers. I decided to give it a more OS 9 feel, than the "Windowsy" thing with a taskbar. As such, the bottom panel will not be full length, it will be anchored to the bottom-left, it will contain the system tray and workspace switcher, plus any useful panel applets. The top panel will be the same as Xubuntu, except for the Window List applet in the top-right corner. No taskbar. Thinking of including Skippy (for the "Expose" effect), as long as I can remap its key command so it doesn’t conflict with the Mac’s "right-mouse" F12.

Annoying bug: When I boot any Edgy-based Live CD on my PC, it always hangs on a blank screen at what seems to be the end of shutdown. What’s worse is that the next time I try to start up my computer, the fans spin to full speed and stay there. Holding down the Power button til it shuts off, and then starting up again, fixes the problem.

The default theme for Copland has been selected!

The wallpaper is a modified version of "ubuntu-unity" from Gnome-look.org.

The GDM theme is (I think it’s called) "tango-project" from Gnome-look.org; but I’ve modified it to use the wallpaper as the background, and I’ve slightly altered the icons and colour of the text.

The GTK 1+, GTK 2 and XFWM themes are all Ghrome. Have a look at it on Gnome-look.org - it’s one of the few really distinctive themes (I wanted it to be distinctive), and it’s based on the Pixmap engine I think. It also comes with a Metacity theme, for the Gnomers out there. The XFWM set is extra-special, because it comes with a slicker "ghrome-slim" theme which I’ve decided to have as the default.

This theme needed one change in particular: Since the close button must be on the left side of the title bar, it doesn’t have that nice bezelled look that you get with the buttons on the right side. I don’t have enough art skills to create a rounded bezel for the close button, but I just improvised a square bezel and it looks a little better than before.

Package list: I’ve come up with an "extra package list" which hopefully I can fit in, for this first release. This does not include extra applications which I will need to source from outside the repos or write myself…

MoL - Mac usability
Maelstrom - feel
LinBolo - feel
hfsutils - Mac usability
hfsplus - Mac usability
hfsutils-tcltk (xhfs) - Mac usability - buggy?
Ghrome theme - feel
Zim - usability
Qemu - not necessary yet.. maybe in later releases or plugin packs?
Sox (note to self: find a sound-playing program that uses Sox) - Mac usability
Fish - usability
Gtkpod-aac - Mac usability
Macutils - Mac usability
Netatalk - Mac usability
Fontforge - Mac usability
tkchooser - feel
installation-guide-powerpc - Usability, but optional
SheepShaver - Mac usability, but possibly optional (note: Must convert from RPM)

Please, please, if you know anything about user-mode Qemu, or can write some simple Python programs, please send me a message!

Your assignment for this week: Read through your /etc/gdm.conf file.

Yesterday I noticed that Australian PC magazine has Xubuntu 6.10 on their cover disc, so I bought the magazine. (quite a good mag, actually… a reasonable amount of Linux content, and some Linux applications on the disc. Also, the Dr Schueler’s Home Medical Advisor Pro included on the disc works pretty well on Wine.)

I booted up the Xubuntu disc and did some customising. I changed the themes, the homepage in Firefox, customised the panels, and adapted 2 existing wallpapers from www.gnome-look.org. Then I mounted my ordinary Ubuntu partition, copied over the hidden configuration directories, and now I have some plain-text files I can modify at my lesiure until I get Xubuntu PPC Edgy (on Christmas day, probably, to take advantage of my ISP’s billing months arrangement).

I’ll try to make first release in February 2007, and the disc will be based on Edgy Xubuntu.

I’ve been trying to find out license information for the Chicago and Charcoal fonts that I’ve converted from Mac OS and am thinking of using within Copland’s artwork, but I can’t find any information. I think I’ll just use them - after all, fonts are there to be used, and my copies of them have been legally obtained.

Do you have any skills that might help me? Are you an artist, Python programmer, experienced User-mode Qemu user or distro reconstruction expert? Do you want to have a say in YOUR PowerPC operating system? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, please contact me through Friendster.

I think I mentioned this earlier on the blog: I want to use Live CD customisation techniques to fork Xubuntu for PowerPC. Here are some more details.

Copland was originally a project at Apple in the 1990s, to create a next-generation (by their standards) operating system for the Mac. One which was reliable, with room to grow, was easy to use, and still had good performance even when under load. (the classic Mac OS had no memory protection, and its multi-tasking and multi-threading support was tacked on during the early 90s).

The Copland project failed; it was probably mismanaged. It took years to get to the stage where it could be demonstrated in public, and even then it was terrible. No multi-threading, the Finder still didn’t run at the same time as other applications, and it was unreliable. The best new features of it were backported to System 7.5 and Mac OS 7.6 and 8.

I don’t believe Apple has filed a trademark, so I’m going to appropriate the name Copland and use it for my own Linux distribution. To misquote one of Apple’s early marketing phrases, "Copland will not be like Copland"

My Copland distribution will be a heavily-customised Ubuntu PPC Live CD, containing:

XFCE, which will make the system fast and resource-efficient.
The latest PowerPC kernel, to make the system compatible with the G5s.
HFSutils and xHFS, to access Mac-formatted CDs and things; and a utility to help the user perminantly mount their Mac partitions.
A Bash script with Fontforge, to convert the Mac fonts to Type1 fonts and use them on Linux.
A distinctive, professional theme; with the XFCE compositor on by default.
A brightness control application - the need for one has been talked about recently on UbuntuForums
GTKpod and Exaile - here’s hoping that Exaile can add full iPod support soon
Gnash
Maelstrom and Linbolo - yep, to make the Mac users feel at home.
Zim and a good photo management app - I want the functionality of Tomboy and F-Spot, but I don’t want to pull in Mono due to size concerns.
build-essential - On PowerPC, it’s absolutely necessary.
No obscure language support - I don’t believe any Macs were sold to Benghalis.
Original artwork - Made with original, possibily unusual design techniques. None of this "Make the top of the logo one colour and the bottom a darker colour" like Ubuntu
Lightweight applications with no Gnome or KDE dependencies. No Evolution - Sylpheed Claws, maybe Eudora if it’s available for Linux by then? (Mac users are familiar with Eudora). No OOo - instead, Abiword and Gnumeric, and let’s try and find a presentation program.
User-mode emulation with Qemu - a big ask here, probably defer this until the second release, and even then only through optional download. Pre-defined user-mode emulation profiles that will let you use MPlayer for x86 with w32codecs, or Wine, or possibly even Skype. You’d need a heck of a machine - a dual-core G5 with a gig of RAM would probably do the trick, but it would be possible. Assuming it’s possible.

I’m a step closer than I was this morning. This morning, as I recorded the podcast (which I will upload tomorrow), I had no idea how to make predefined XFCE settings stay across new user accounts. I could put the settings into the first user’s home directory, but if they created a new user that second user would just have the Xubuntu defaults. This evening, while carefully examining a Xubuntu Live CD, I figured out how to keep this kind of persistance. I was so thrilled. I feel like this distribution is going to go somewhere.

Wouldn’t it be cool if I could get the distribution onto the Linux Format cover DVD? I know they’re not interested in putting PowerPC distributions onto their DVD, but it would be quick enough to run in Qemu on x86 and they’ve been having lots of complaints from PowerPC users recently

Anyway, I know this has been a long post, thanks for staying with me. I am sending out the call: Artists, I need a logo, a wallpaper, a GDM screen, and an XFCE splash (hint: Dark blue and dark grey). Programmers, I need a PowerPC kernel that has thermal control for the G5s, and a way to improve Xorg’s auto-detection on iMacs. PPC Linux users, I need suggestions for what programs would be specially useful in a PowerPC distro; ideas for programs that don’t currently exist can be submitted too, if I get some programmers :-)  People who want to donate hosting or web design/web development services, much much appreciated. Anyone who I haven’t listed here who know that they’ve got something to offer (information on bits that can be customised, test machines, anything really), please also get in touch with me.

Our Copland will be the operating system that Apple could never develop.

…That’s how much disk space I freed on the iMac’s Ubuntu partition, just by getting rid of stuff that I didn’t need.

Build-essential? Not planning to compile anything.
laptop-detect? Useless on a desktop machine.
Free Java implementation? I’ve never even missed Java on my main machine.
Fonts for languages I’ve never heard of? Why keep them installed?

It’s not like the machine was full of junk, either - a default Ubuntu Breezy install leaves less than 100 megabytes free on the partition. AND I’d already deleted some of the default stuff that I didn’t need, (but added things like Gift and Ace Of Penguins :-).

What startled me is that there was that much I could safely get rid of, but there was still more superflous stuff that was unfortunately a dependency of a critical component. For instance, I couldn’t get rid of all the obscure video drivers, because that would get rid of Xorg itself.

So, why was I removing packages? To speed up the computer and get some more disk space going. Why did I need the computer to go faster? Simply, because my father has now decided to use Ubuntu. I’ve finally worn him down to it.

Not quite true; somebody sent one of those web Christmas cards to his previously spam-free e-mail account, and suddenly he was inundated with offers of Viagra. There’s no up-to-date spam filter for Mac OS 9, so I suggested he use Ubuntu on my computer to check his e-mail, and I would set up SpamAssassin. He decided to use Ubuntu on his iMac instead, so now I’m about to see if I can get SpamAssassin working properly without using Usermin or Webmin.

Whose great idea was it to package Usermin and Webmin for Ubuntu? They are completely useless without an actual root account - the first time I’ve ever needed an actual root account in nearly a year of Ubuntuing. I’ll just hope that the default settings and its integration with Sylpheed Claws works okay.

I’m also thinking of removing some of the Gnome programs and replacing them with lighter equivilants - for instance, getting rid of File Roller and replacing it with xarchiver; getting rid of Gedit and replacing it with Leafpad, etc. Not sure it will work, and besides I don’t really need that done. I would have preferred setting up XFCE, but I’ve already shown my father how to use Gnome.

Breaking news: He just asked me again why I prefer Ubuntu over Windows, and partially answered his own question: "I suppose you’re familiar with the programs". Then he added "I’m sure I’ll become familiar with them too in time". This is a good sign… until he asks me to put Feisty onto the iMac

A couple of nights ago, the Ubuntu development team decided to end their responsibility to PowerPC. Now, the PowerPC version of Ubuntu is in the hands of a "PPC team" which does not exist.

Here’s the situation: Ubuntu’s developers will continue to build snapshots of Ubuntu for PowerPC. If they don’t build, no resources will be allocated to fixing the problem. If the build succeeds but there are critical bugs in it, no resources will be allocated to fixing the problem. If such a bug makes it to release date, the x86 and x86-64 versions will still release on time. Any problems that crop up will have to be fixed by volunteers in the community.

Sounds okay, right? Er…. it’s anything but okay. There are not enough people with C coding experience who use PowerPC and AREN’T already involved with a distribution. Look at what happened when Mandriva downgraded their PPC version to a "community port". There was one further release, and then nothing.

PowerPC is anything but a dead architecture. It’s still used in servers, games consoles (which are slowly turning into Media Centers), embedded devices, and even some desktop computers which are shipping as we speak. The last Apple-branded PPC computer was sold less than a year ago; even Apple, who are notorious for ending support quickly and forcing the user to upgrade, is planning that the next version of OS X will still support PowerPC.

Citing "there’s no Flash and no accelerated 3D" as a reason to delete the PowerPC version of Ubuntu is terribly short-sighted. Gnash is still being developed, and will soon provide better compatibility than the last Flash Player that shipped for Mac OS 9. The Nouveu project may provide open-source 3D acceleration for Macs which have Nvidia cards.

Saying that "there’s not enough demand for it" is a stupid thing too. PowerPC accounts for under 5% of Linux use. Linux accounts for under 5% of desktop computer use. Both figures are growing steadily. If you’re going to stop supporting PowerPC because of low usage, how on earth do you expect ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) to support Linux?

This whole deal stinks. I’ve toyed with the idea of forking Xubuntu myself using Live CD customisation to create a distribution that has everything a Mac user would need. Maybe I’ll do it, maybe I won’t. One thing I’m sure I’ll do is switch to Fedora as my main desktop. I’ll run Ubuntu Edgy in Xen, so I can continue to do the podcast. (BTW: Mr Shuttleworth, I thought Edgy was supposed to include Xen?)

Yeah I know Fedora (well, Red Hat) has been thinking of ending PowerPC support too, but at least Fedora will never ship an ILLEGAL kernel tainted by non-GPL drivers.

Sorry for the dummy-spit, but I feel really betrayed. The iMac isn’t my main computer anymore, but it was my first Linux machine. The thing that taught me about freedom and security. The thing that taught me that computers should not be made obselete just so a company can reap in more dollars by forcing you to upgrade the operating system or the computer. But now Ubuntu is doing something very similar.

In other news, the first Ulteo alpha has been released! Announcement. Release Notes. I won’t run it as my primary desktop, firstly because it’s probably unstable and secondly because it’s KDE-based. I wanna run Fedora, because it’s a Gnome distro.

A couple of nights ago, the Ubuntu development team decided to end their responsibility to PowerPC. Now, the PowerPC version of Ubuntu is in the hands of a "PPC team" which does not exist.

Here’s the situation: Ubuntu’s developers will continue to build snapshots of Ubuntu for PowerPC. If they don’t build, no resources will be allocated to fixing the problem. If the build succeeds but there are critical bugs in it, no resources will be allocated to fixing the problem. If such a bug makes it to release date, the x86 and x86-64 versions will still release on time. Any problems that crop up will have to be fixed by volunteers in the community.

Sounds okay, right? Er…. it’s anything but okay. There are not enough people with C coding experience who use PowerPC and AREN’T already involved with a distribution. Look at what happened when Mandriva downgraded their PPC version to a "community port". There was one further release, and then nothing.

PowerPC is anything but a dead architecture. It’s still used in servers, games consoles (which are slowly turning into Media Centers), embedded devices, and even some desktop computers which are shipping as we speak. The last Apple-branded PPC computer was sold less than a year ago; even Apple, who are notorious for ending support quickly and forcing the user to upgrade, is planning that the next version of OS X will still support PowerPC.

Citing "there’s no Flash and no accelerated 3D" as a reason to delete the PowerPC version of Ubuntu is terribly short-sighted. Gnash is still being developed, and will soon provide better compatibility than the last Flash Player that shipped for Mac OS 9. The Nouveu project may provide open-source 3D acceleration for Macs which have Nvidia cards.

Saying that "there’s not enough demand for it" is a stupid thing too. PowerPC accounts for under 5% of Linux use. Linux accounts for under 5% of desktop computer use. Both figures are growing steadily. If you’re going to stop supporting PowerPC because of low usage, how on earth do you expect ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) to support Linux?

This whole deal stinks. I’ve toyed with the idea of forking Xubuntu myself using Live CD customisation to create a distribution that has everything a Mac user would need. Maybe I’ll do it, maybe I won’t. One thing I’m sure I’ll do is switch to Fedora as my main desktop. I’ll run Ubuntu Edgy in Xen, so I can continue to do the podcast. (BTW: Mr Shuttleworth, I thought Edgy was supposed to include Xen?)

Yeah I know Fedora (well, Red Hat) has been thinking of ending PowerPC support too, but at least Fedora will never ship an ILLEGAL kernel tainted by non-GPL drivers.

Sorry for the dummy-spit, but I feel really betrayed. The iMac isn’t my main computer anymore, but it was my first Linux machine. The thing that taught me about freedom and security. The thing that taught me that computers should not be made obselete just so a company can reap in more dollars by forcing you to upgrade the operating system or the computer. But now Ubuntu is doing something very similar.

In other news, the first Ulteo alpha has been released! Announcement. Release Notes. I won’t run it as my primary desktop, firstly because it’s probably unstable and secondly because it’s KDE-based. I wanna run Fedora, because it’s a Gnome distro.

A couple of nights ago, the Ubuntu development team decided to end their responsibility to PowerPC. Now, the PowerPC version of Ubuntu is in the hands of a "PPC team" which does not exist.

Here’s the situation: Ubuntu’s developers will continue to build snapshots of Ubuntu for PowerPC. If they don’t build, no resources will be allocated to fixing the problem. If the build succeeds but there are critical bugs in it, no resources will be allocated to fixing the problem. If such a bug makes it to release date, the x86 and x86-64 versions will still release on time. Any problems that crop up will have to be fixed by volunteers in the community.

Sounds okay, right? Er…. it’s anything but okay. There are not enough people with C coding experience who use PowerPC and AREN’T already involved with a distribution. Look at what happened when Mandriva downgraded their PPC version to a "community port". There was one further release, and then nothing.

PowerPC is anything but a dead architecture. It’s still used in servers, games consoles (which are slowly turning into Media Centers), embedded devices, and even some desktop computers which are shipping as we speak. The last Apple-branded PPC computer was sold less than a year ago; even Apple, who are notorious for ending support quickly and forcing the user to upgrade, is planning that the next version of OS X will still support PowerPC.

Citing "there’s no Flash and no accelerated 3D" as a reason to delete the PowerPC version of Ubuntu is terribly short-sighted. Gnash is still being developed, and will soon provide better compatibility than the last Flash Player that shipped for Mac OS 9. The Nouveu project may provide open-source 3D acceleration for Macs which have Nvidia cards.

Saying that "there’s not enough demand for it" is a stupid thing too. PowerPC accounts for under 5% of Linux use. Linux accounts for under 5% of desktop computer use. Both figures are growing steadily. If you’re going to stop supporting PowerPC because of low usage, how on earth do you expect ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) to support Linux?

This whole deal stinks. I’ve toyed with the idea of forking Xubuntu myself using Live CD customisation to create a distribution that has everything a Mac user would need. Maybe I’ll do it, maybe I won’t. One thing I’m sure I’ll do is switch to Fedora as my main desktop. I’ll run Ubuntu Edgy in Xen, so I can continue to do the podcast. (BTW: Mr Shuttleworth, I thought Edgy was supposed to include Xen?)

Yeah I know Fedora (well, Red Hat) has been thinking of ending PowerPC support too, but at least Fedora will never ship an ILLEGAL kernel tainted by non-GPL drivers.

Sorry for the dummy-spit, but I feel really betrayed. The iMac isn’t my main computer anymore, but it was my first Linux machine. The thing that taught me about freedom and security. The thing that taught me that computers should not be made obselete just so a company can reap in more dollars by forcing you to upgrade the operating system or the computer. But now Ubuntu is doing something very similar.

In other news, the first Ulteo alpha has been released! Announcement. Release Notes. I won’t run it as my primary desktop, firstly because it’s probably unstable and secondly because it’s KDE-based. I wanna run Fedora, because it’s a Gnome distro.