My discussion with Clem on LMDE

Hi all. the other day I was in the Linux mint chat channel and I happened to Chat with Clem (one of the top developers of mint and LMDE) about Lmde and some things i had noticed.

• Q: Update from pack 3 – 4 does not include all that is in the Latest iso.
• A: It updates the apps and things installed only. it does not include any new apps or extras that may be in the iso. This makes for a self managed and maintained operating system.

• Q: As the idea of LMDE is to look and feel the same as the main mint distro why does LMDE have xfce version and Mint Main have lxde version.
• A: Clem was not really sure except to say that Its worth discussing and he might do a poll on it some time. I also mentioned about the rolling release graphics driver I found for lmde. Clem said he would look into it and perhaps add it to the official documentation.

This cleared up the questions I had from using LMDE and it was great. Thanks Clem for providing this valuable info

The Linux Mint Debian: Tidy up the Mate menu

More setup in Linux Mint Debian After installing Mate I noticed that I now had some double entries in the menu. At first I wondered why, then I remembered that gnome 3 was installed and one of the double menu entries pointed to a gnoem app and the other one to mate one. I went through the menu and removed the gnome ones to tidy it up.

1. Right click the menu
2. select edit menu
3. select a category on the left
4. look for double entry and right click one.
5. select preferences (this will show you the app)
6. if it says mate-(app command) then you know that is the mate entry
7. if it does not check the other entry
8. if neither say mate-(app name) then open synaptic and and look up the app command. it will tell you under the description if it is a mate or gnome app
9. un-select the gnome app

This may take some time but it will tidy up the menu for you. If you don’t intend to be suing gnome 3 then you may also want to delete the gnome apps.

Note: if you also have cinnamon installed you might have entries for cinnamon in the mate menu in addition to the gnome and mate ones.

Keep an eye out for my other posts on LMDE click here

Linux Mint Debian Releases Update Pack 4.

Last week Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) released Update Pack 4 and a new iso The new iso, if you don’t already have lmde, can be found click here  Update Pack 4 is a good stable update. here are a few things to note. For more info on lmde read my page about linux click here

1. Update includes gnome 3
2. option to stay with update pack 3 (for those who prefer gnome 2. this will not get many updates)
3. Includes Gnome, Gnome Classic, can install Mate, and  Cinnamon desktops (both included in the latest iso).

Note: if you upgrade from update pack 3 you may find your graphics drivers did not load. This is a bug that needs to be fixed, what i found is if you install sgfix package it will bring rolling updates to your graphics card. click here

Note2: you have a choice of installing mate and cinnamon.

• Mate is a fork of gnome 2 project (or what was the old gnome 2 we all know and love) designed to run on gnome 3.
• Cinnamon is the new linux mint desktop. Like mate it is trying to bring a more gnome 2 feel to your desktop. Cinnamon in lmde is missing all the addons and extras that are available in the standard mint 12 release.

I prefer Mate especially in lmde.

To install Mate all you need is to install mate-desktop-environment. you can do this in Synaptic Package Manager or by opening a terminal and typing

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment

Mate is now becoming very polished. it brings allot of features of gnome 2 to gnome 3 so it is a great choice if you like gnome 2 but want an up to date system.

Here is how i setup Mate desktop.

1. I add a 2nd panel at top. To add apps etc is same as gnome 2 either right-click panel and click + add to panel. you can also drag apps from the menu. I also remove   including (|| = seperator)

• From Left: browsers, email, || pidgin (im), xchat (irc), skype || Rhythembox (musicplayer), vlc (video player), || libreoffice, gedit (txt editor) || picasa (photo), e-sword (bible app) || vbox, dropbox
  From Right: clock + weather, shutdown, LockScreen, IndicatorAppletSession, Monitor Workspace Switcher || search, FileBrowser, terminal, calculator

Make the Internet Accessible.

Here is some interesting stuff on the subject of Web Accessibility or how to make the internet Accessible to those with disabilities.

1. Accessibility and Usability for Web Professionals  click here Interesting ideas for  making the Internet accessible.
2. What is Web Accessibility click here
3. How to make your website more accessible click here
4. Website accessibility click here

• Modified mouse, keyboards etc,
• Applications such as on-screen keyboards, screen readers etc
• Dragon click here, and other similar sortwear, can easily turn a computer into a fully accessible system
• also the invention of  touch screen devices, smart phones, tablets etc can easily be used
• automatic captions to instantly add what a video is about, or what the people are saying .
• website colour
• text font, colours etc
• how you layout things.
• browser add-ons to make things easier for the disabled.

There are many sites online dealing with this. Just Google “internet accessibility” and see for yourself.

It starts with changing the thinking behind internet and computer usage. There is already allot of things out there for the disabled people to use computers.

Its becoming increasingly easy for anyone with a disability to have access to the on-line world. The trouble is we need to change our thinking on how we develop websites and having things to make it easy to do.

People who,  just happened to have a disability, whether physically seen, or hidden  are a valid part of our society. Get on the band wagon and lets make it easier for them to embrace the modern world.

Great Android Reviews.

I found a user on youtube by user Cursed4Eva. He has done some good android tutorials.

Here are the first 3 he has at the time of this post.

encase you are wondering this is not me at all.