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This page says GNOME 2.6.0 started spatial but now we have GNOME 2.3. Going backwards with the version numbers
http://www.bytebot.net/geekdocs/spatial-nautilus.html

Also on wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gnome-2.6-en.png

Well, there was a lot said about the benefits of spatial around the time it was introduced. I sort of assumed that readers here would either remember the discussions or else would be capable of using google. E.g. this has an overview and links, including to this.

Basically file windows remember their form: where they were opened, what size and other properties. I found that I would become familiar with what windows should be where as I opened them, and I found this really helped finding them back. It was just a very nice organisational touch, assisting my brain in associating windows on the screen with what I should expect to find in them.

As for many windows:

- just hold shift as you click a folder

OR

- use the "close parent folders" option in the file menu

As for navigation: Did you miss the button in the bottom left that drops down to show the hierarchy of folders, and lets you open any them by selecting them?

I've noticed Nautilus in Ubuntu seems to be screwed up wrt spatial though, least it's quite different to Fedora. Did they apply weird patches?

It doesn't really matter what they use it for, now does it? The fact that they choose to use MySQL at all shows they put an amount of faith into it. You don't store data in a database because you want to lose it, right?

But, to answer your question, a quick Google learns Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia store all of their important data in MySQL databases. I know Google doesn't use MySQL for searches, but they do store other stuff. I'm not sure what Nokia does, but they do seem to like MySQL a lot.

Earlier versions of Pegasus Mail could run under WINE, see Wine Application DB - Viewing App - Pegasus Mail, so I hope this will continue. See also Pegasus Mail on Linux (or an intro to WINE).

The emphasis in Malaysia is the FREE part, not the open source part.

There is an organisation here called MAMPU who 'advocates' open source software and trains other government agencies, but they don't seem to be able to distinguish between Free as in Freedom and Free as in Free Beer..

This was demonstrated well by the spokesperson for MAMPU in a recent talk on Software Freedom in Malaysia by Richard Stallman.

There is an active open source community in Malaysia, one of the main problems is the prevalence of copied proprietary software, and the ease of it's availablility. Plus the schools are not yet educating the children on non proprietary software or operating systems.

Other places of interest:

OSSIG - http://www.mncc.com.my/ossig/
MyOpenSource - http://www.my-opensource.org/
MyOSS - http://myoss.bytebot.net/

I purchased a Mac Mini and am dual booting Fedora Core 3 with OSX, though I probably will reclaim the OSX space.

Instructions on how to do this are
here

I recently read Colin Charles' blog and came across his announcement of FC3 for PPC is in testing. He notes that "the release is known to not boot on G5's, and we are working on re-building another tree, which we can push out soon", would this new Linux kernel patch help with this?

I think part of the point of this stunt is the manuals, which are at least potentially better than anything you could get elsewhere. The books are written by Colin Charles http://www.bytebot.net/blog/index.php, who is an interesting guy. Lulu's strength is obviously in providing a distribution platform for unconventional books; in essence this is just a way to package software with the books.

My request to any Star & OpenOffice users out there is: could you please provide some scenarios where going with StarOffice has been beneficial to you as opposed to OpenOffice? I know the link I provided mentions features like a database component in StarOffice but I'm more concerned with real life examples. It would be interesting to see how both suites practically stack up to each other.

A nice presentation from a tlug describing the changes.

No, Linux works alright.

Disclaimer: I, myself, prefer the browser-based file manager. So I'm not a "spatial fanboy". But I do think spatial is the right way to go for a total newbie. (I routinely work with directories nested deeply, but newbies tend to have few files and probably will only use one or two directories.)

Is there a fucking guide somewhere that says, "Hey, here's why spacial rocks and here's how to use it effectively."

Here are two such guides.

About the Finder...

This article, if you read all the way through it, will convince you. It might not convince you that spatial is for you, but it will at a minimum convince you that the spatial fanboys are not all insane.

The Spatial Way

This is a good article that covers the basics. At the end it has a list of things you can read to find out more, and some of them are really worth reading. I especially liked the "What were you thinking?" thread; my favorite single email from that thread is here.

the fact that I have to open up the gConf editor just to turn that ridiculous, annoying, FUCKING RETARDED default off is insanity.

I concur. The GNOME developers have realized this as well, and the next release of GNOME will have a preference someplace you can actually find it.

But, I have to say I understand where they are coming from. They feel that if you have outgrown spatial, you are a power user, and if you are a power user, you won't be scared to run GConf. And it really isn't hard to change the option using GConf.

(I'm a dual pane junkie myself.)

I use Nautilus, in its "browser" mode, as a sort of dual-pane browser. I have two or more Nautilus windows open, and I use them to copy and move my files.

One of the points the spatial guys make is that it's easy to shuffle your files around when you have multiple windows open for multiple folders. That's true, but I just open as many Nautilus windows as I wish, and then set them where I want them.

steveha

I miss that Nautilus... I want it back

Okay.

If you are currently in spatial, right-click on a folder and choose "Browse Folder". Or click on the button on the top panel that says "Browse Folder".

Now, pull down the View menu, and make sure "Side Panel" is checked (enabled). You can also hit the F9 key to toggle the Side Panel enabled/disabled.

Now, notice that at the top of the Side Panel there is a dropdown. Click on that and choose "Tree". Voila, you have it back.

It never left. It's just that the default changed to the new spatial mode. Personally, I changed the setting in GConf to make the browser mode the default. (For more on the file browser mode and changing the GConf setting, see this.)

Sometimes I like the "Tree" mode, but usually I like the "Information" panel, where you can see how many files are selected, and you have buttons you can click to launch programs.

steveha

• OSSIG
• MyOSS
• Planet MyOSS Community
• ASIAOSC
• Alphaque
• IOSN

So....If I understand the article right, to make Fedora Core 2 good, you need to install packages, change some gettings for gnome, and adjust the sound properties?

As long you don't quit on the spatial mode Nautilus as quickly as the author you don't need to make any changes.

Personally, I always rearrange the GNOME panels from the default Red Hat/Fedora layout to the default GNOME layout (Applications, System menu on the top panel). But that's my preference, and certainly not something I should shake a stick at the Red Hat/Fedora guys.

Perhaps the author would enjoy reading The Spatial Way then debate the merits rather than pull a "my desktop doesn't look they way it used it, it must be broke".

I am, strictly speaking, religous about this. Nostalgic, nope.

There are lots of people who don't like spacial nautilus because it doesn't work like they want to work.

Given the amount of backlash there is towards the spacial environment I think that a check box in nautilus itself is reasonable.

I'm a little behind in my GNOME versions... so I had to dig up this short article with pictures of this spatial mumbo-jumbo. Here I was imagining the weird virtual reality type file navigation in Jurassic Park, but no, it's just another file browser - albeit one that is somewhat more like Explorer in recent versions of Windows.

I really don't see the fuss, it's not like anyone's forcing GNOME 2.6 on anyone. No button to turn off the feature? If it is that big of a deal, then someone will create said button... it ain't rocket science.

For those of you who want to know what they are talking about. http://www.bytebot.net/geekdocs/spatial-nautilus.h tml

No, but there's a fairly good guide at http://www.bytebot.net/geekdocs/ibook/fedorappc.ht ml.

I don't think so ...

OpenOffice was based on StarOffice ...

StarOffice is now based on OpenOffice.

From the OpenOffice.org Unofficial FAQ:

1. 1.3. How does it differ from StarOffice?

   OpenOffice.org is an open-source project, which means that it is a piece of software (an office suite in this case) developed under a set of very liberal licenses (the LGPL and SISSL - more on this later).

   One of the freedoms provided is that one can take OpenOffice.org and package it as his/her own distribution. Then, this distribution can be sold to make a revenue. Such a distribution is StarOffice, from Sun Microsystems.

   Therefore, OpenOffice.org and StarOffice have exactly the same core applications, except that it misses out on certain fonts (like Asian language ones and a few for improved Microsoft file format compatibility), a database component (AdabasD), certain file filters, templates & a clip art gallery, and some sorting functionality. However, most of what OpenOffice.org lacks can be made up with the help of third-party applications...

What you're saying is rather like saying Mozilla is based on Netscape ...