Slashdot Mirror

Nicholas Petreley writes, "Wake up little SUSE, wake up. No, that's not good enough. Wake up SUSE customers, wake up. Novell is jeopardizing the future of Linux for its own short-term rewards. If you want to see Linux flourish, let alone survive, after Novell's five year deal with Microsoft expires, I suggest we make an alternative five-year deal with Microsoft. In this case, our part of the deal is to spend the next five minutes, months, or years migrating away from every shred of Novell/SUSE software in our home, office, or enterprise."

Silent Node asks: "I am currently working for a ski and backpacking shop in Jasper, Alberta Canada (Everest Outdoor Stores). Right now all the inventory, sales system, rentals, etc. is being done the 'old fashioned' way (read: paper ledgers, circa 1980 cash register w/cryptically translated manual and 50 bytes of memory). This store is planning to computerize their POS (point-of-sale) system in the near future. I would like to advocate a Linux based solution, but don't really know what's out there." Quite a few people have been submitting questions about Linux-based point-of-sale systems, and we did touch on those waaay back in April, however now it's 2001 and to my knowledge at least one more vendor of Unix based POS systems has popped up on the radar. Are there any more options? And how have the systems mentioned in the previous article kept up with the times?"

"This is a small business (under $1,000,000 a year in inventory). This system needs customizable for both our rental and sales needs. Cost is a factor. What POS systems, and support packages are available that would fulfill our needs?"

And in a fortuitous happenstance 10 hours before press-time, swagr, who is assisting in the search for a Linux Point-of-Sale for a women's clothing store, slides in this bit of information: "I figured a Linux-based solution would be the lowest cost...so I did a search for Linux POS software and found only this. Doesn't seem like there's much to choose from. Anyone used this or heard of any open-source equivalents? Check out the (lack of) activity on the open source POS mailing list . What's your take on Linux in the retail sector?"

Carlie Fairchild writes: "Big Mouth Billy Bass as a webcam? This and 99 other projects were selected as finalists in Embedded Linux Journal's "Win a MZ104 -- Embedded Linux Design Contest". The contest is based on products by Tri-M, ZF Linux Devices, BlueCat and M-Systems. One hundred finalists have been selected to receive kits and build the projects submitted in their proposals. A full list of the finalists' names, titles of their projects, project descriptions and project URLs can be found at [the linuxjournal site]."

Carlie Fairchild writes "Linux Journal opened its polls for its fifth annual Readers' Choice Awards. The polls will be open until October 15, 1999. It's your opportunity to vote for your favorite Linux software, hardware and companies." Seems like there are quite a number of options in each category this year

The return of SEGV brings with it a review of Michael J. Hammel's The Artists' Guide to the GIMP. This is an interesting book for those artists and wanna-be artists using the GIMP, and wanting to learn more what you/they can do-click below for more information. The Artists' Guide to the GIMP author Michael J. Hammel pages 340 publisher S rating 8/10 reviewer SEGV ISBN summary A well-done user manual for the GIMP. Walks the reader through common GIMP tasks with practical advice and suggestions.

User Manual

The GIMP has been hailed as an open source alternative to such commercial image manipulation "killer apps" as Adobe Photoshop. However, there are obvious areas where the GIMP falls short. For example, it does not come with a commercial quality printed user manual.

Now GIMP aficionados have an option: Michael Hammel has written what amounts to a user manual for the GIMP. It is "meant to be a reference guide for non-technical users -- people who want to use the GIMP to do real work."

Topic Coverage

The book covers release 1.0 of the GNU Image Manipulation Program. The first half covers GIMP features and functionality. The second half contains many examples of filters and script-fu effects applied to images.

The book does not cover GIMP development, particularly plug-ins and scripting. However, the author does mention that these are potential topics for revised editions.

The introductory chapters cover such basics as graphics formats, colour models, resolution, and so forth. The author also briefly covers SANE, Ghostscript, the GFig plug-in, the gimprc file, and fonts.

Explanatory Style

The author adopts a relatively informal explanatory style which I found easy and enjoyable to read, while not detracting from the topic at hand. It is clear that the author understands what he is writing about, and also how to communicate with the casual reader.

He offers tips throughout the text, from effective settings for specific dialogs to how to scan three-dimensional objects. He's also at ease enough to criticize aspects of the application where deserved, such as inconsistent dialogs or awkward interfaces. This honesty reassures the reader that he's on her side.

The author points out where GIMP and Photoshop are alike and differ, which will be a boon to readers with experience with the latter.

Tutorial Approach

Many of the chapters conclude with a tutorial summarizing the material covered: 16 pages in all. They are easy enough to follow and serve to reinforce the concepts learned.

Frequently the author employs a "how-to" approach when describing a feature. For example, he uses an image of a skyline to demonstrate how guides can help select buildings. He enumerates the steps you might take to correct a scanned image.

Book and CD-ROM

The book is printed on glossy paper in full colour. This is important, as many of the images illustrate subtle graphic effects. For example, an image may be a slightly brightened or blurred version of another.

I'm not sure how well the book would stand up to everyday use. My copy developed a cracked spine, so it's possible to lose a page or two if the reader is not careful.

The CD-ROM contains the software, although I'm sure most will acquire later versions from the net. It also includes the book's tutorials, images, and more images from the author's collection, as well as documentation, resources, and links.

There are plenty of tables of shortcuts and modifiers, but strangely no quick reference card (an obvious added value).

Drawbacks

The book as one or two minor drawbacks. Generally, there are a couple of places where the text could have been improved.

Some extended explanations (e.g., crop tool) are very confusing. The reader is hard put to make progress without the application running in front of her. Admittedly, part of the blame for this lies with the application itself.

The author references some Linux Journal covers, yet does not provide their images for illustration.

Summary

I've seen industry award-winning commercial user manuals, and this book is in that league. If you're looking for a simple user manual for the GIMP, this is it.

If you're looking for a more advanced manual or reference, you might be a little bit disappointed. There are still stones left un-turned.

If you're looking for an art book, again you might be disappointed. It isn't a text on graphic design, although there are tips throughout.

It's a user manual for the GIMP.

You can pick it up at Amazon.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
1. Introduction
2. GIMP Basics
3. GIMP Windows
4. The Toolbox
5. Selections
6. Layers and Channels
7. Colors and Text
8. Drawing and Painting
9. Using Transforms
10. Gradients
11. Scanning, Printing, and Print Media
Part 2: Filters and Script-Fu Effects
12. Artistic
13. Blur
14. Colors
15. Distorts
16. Edge-Detect and Combine
17. Enhance
18. Glass Effects
19. Light Effects
20. Map and Miscellaneous
21. Noise
22. Render
23. Script-Fu
Glossary
Appendix A: The gimprc File
Appendix B: Keyboard Shortcuts
Appendix C: Adding Fonts to Your System
Index
About the CD-ROM

Paul wrote in to point us to the GNU Jobs Page. ^BR wrote in to say that the may issue of Daemon News is out for your BSDies out there, and CaVi wrote in to say that the Linux Gazette is out (sorry that these took so long to announce... moving was a bitch). Bitscape sent us a Salon story about Coding in Vampire Mode. Mikesch noted that www.palmcolors.com is selling colored Palm Pilots rsn. Looking for new backgrounds? President John F. Kennedy wrote in to tell us that the Volume 7 of Propoganda is up. And for those who are curious, he actually did send me beer! robert@budzynski.ddns.org sent us this art gallery with fodder and dayeight sent us a photomosaic picture for you Lara Craft Perverts out there. HighJack noted that the latest version of JWZs X Screensaver distribution contains a new one that looks like those funky falling charachters from The Matrix. And finally for some crazy fun stuff, dave sent us hilarious proof that Star Trek is Satanic, and chrisd sent us one of the best ebay auction items in recent memory. Psst-this is Hemos. It was Rob's birthday on May 10-he thinks he escaped. E-mail him and tell him how much you love him.

So I'm here at the Babylon Cafe, and all these people are chatting and drinking and having fun, and I'm in the corner posting morph- is asking for someone with a lick of design sense to design a Logo for SlashNET- email him if you come up with one. 600x150 pixels on black. mschmitt linked us to the UNIX pronunciation HOWTO. Carlie Fairchild wrote in to plug The Linux Journals online Store. An anonymous reader sent us a link to an InfoWorld article that talks about the recent warring in the free software movement. President John F. Kennedy wrote in to tell us that Propoganda 4 is out if you're looking for sweet background images. cpfeifer sent us a link to a site that is selling aluminum light sabers. I bet they don't work, but I still want one. Brian Craft sent us a link to the most Unusual Ergonomic Keyboard that I've seen in awhile. Lord Hiades sent us a link to a t-shirt based on Adminspotting. cpfeifer sent us a link to The Jesus Dance. An anonymous reader sent us a link to a freaky site where you can get funky contacts to scare your friends with. An anonymous reader sent us a link to the truth about Steve Balmer

Anthony Ball writes "Michael Hammel's new book "The Artist's Guide to the GIMP" is now available at SSC. " How long before we can see that on the shelves right next to the Photoshop books?

Norm J, who I had the pleasure of seeing again at ALS, dropped a line to let everyone know that the Linux Resouces Wish List has opened it's doors. This is a project to convince ISVs that porting their software to Linux is a must do, and convince the companies that it is worth the time to port it. So, head over, vote, and add your software to the wish list.

Joel Stone was the first to tell us "Stop the presses! Compaq has thrown it's weight behind Linux - For details see link " This follows on from Compaq's announcement back in September. However, this goes one step further: Compaq will help the Linux community get Linux working on Compaq hardware (as they did with with their donation of an Alpha to Debian), they will provide telephone support, and port Compaq software to Linux on the Alpha and x86/IA 64 platforms. In related news, we are informed by an anonymous coward^H^H^H^Hntributor that ISS Technical Support staff are telling current customers that they will no longer support their products (at least RealSecure) under Linux. Only WindowsNT and Solaris.

David Rudder writes "Bill Spitzak sent me an email explaining the change of license for FLTK. As you may remember, FLTK was taken off the GPL recently." Click below to read on. "Here's his email:"

I. History of fltk:

I wrote a very large compositing program ("Nuke") for Digital Domain. As a toolkit I used Forms (not XForms), with several modifications of my own, particularily the file chooser and menu system that is in fltk.

Fltk was written in order to port Nuke from it's origial Forms/GL implementation. For a lot of reasons (all of them stupid, imho) this version has still not been adopted as the primary version used for production. However this version was ported to DEC Unix and to Linux and was used for Titanic on those machines.

I originally decided that it would be nice if fltk was free back when it seemed that official software department policy was to switch to a commercial toolkit (Motif, RapidApp), leaving my work unused and thus wasted. I received permission from Wook, who was VP of technology and operations at Digital Domain at that time. He agreed and at that point I started writing on my own time some things that I thought would make it useful for the outside world such as documentation.

An unexpected bonus was that immediatly after leaving the employment of Digital Domain (on his own decision), Matt Melchier wrote a port of fltk to NT, which he sent to me. I further modified this and used it to port Nuke to NT. This involved considerable work on fltk on DD's time, and I think the resulting increase in quality plus the cross-platform nature suddenly made fltk's popularity increase significantly.

At this point a new VP of technology (Wook having left near the end of Titanic production) noticed it and asked me about it. I thought I had explained that the code had absolutely no monetary value and that we had recieved considerable value of input by making it public. He expressed doubts but let me continue. After about 5 months this same manager announced plans to leave Digital Domain to start his own company in five weeks. Two weeks later I was called into a meeting with him and his replacement and told that I had to remove it from the web site and discontinue work on it.

II. What parts of FLTK does DD own?

Officially DD owns all parts that I wrote of fltk, whether or not I did them on their or my own time. Most was developed using DD's equipment, and about half on paid hours by DD. The intellectual property agreement with DD says this. Less officially it seems DD's policy that stuff done on my own time is not under their control as long as I don't profit from it.

DD's time: the core of fltk including the event handling and the windows, all support of OpenGL graphics, the NT port, and the few widgets used by Nuke, in particular the menus and input text fields.

NOT DD's time: is the fluid user interface builder, about half the documentation, the web site and mailing list, the tile, scroll, pack, and tabs widgets, all "valuators" except the slider, the fl_draw_image image drawing code, pixmaps, bitmaps.

Everything else is kind of vague. A large chunk of documentation was written while waiting for Titanic images to render and thus on DD's time, but in my opinion I would otherwise be wasting this time thus DD lost nothing.

The NT port is based on code submitted by Matt Melchier, and he definately submitted it assumming he was contributing to an open source toolkit. Although much of this code has been modified by me it is still based on his work.

Several files from the original Forms library written by Mark Overmars are in there almost unchanged, such as the chart. Forms appears to be under a bsd-style license (unrelated to the strict XForms license).

Other people have written submitted widgets and bug fixes. The widgets are not being used by DD's in-house code. The bug fixes are of course...

III. What reasons were given to make FLTK non-public:

1. I was simply told that

2. Ed also thought DD might be liable in some way (yes I know this is total BS...)

There are *NO* plans to turn fltk into a commercial product or otherwise sell it or distribute it. I think everyone knows that is totally impossible and could not possible produce any income.

There are also no plans to use fltk in-house for any long term. Officially the software department wants to rewrite Nuke to use Java for the user interface. All other programs that potentially could use fltk will remain using the Forms library.

IV: Can development continue on the already-distributed version.

Yes, this is allowed under the LGPL. I don't think I myself risk work on it. I have stopped working on it in-house proprietary version until the matter of Matt's code can be resolved.

V. Do you believe that the previous public-ness/free-ness of fltk has made developing it more efficient

Probably the most important part of fltk (the NT port) was contributed due to the free nature. And fltk is far more robust and featurefull than it ever would be in-house.

Overall though I can't argue that the effect is any better than break-even. The amount of time spent answering mail and merging bug fixes that probably would not have affected in-house stuff may be equal to the time saved by those bug fixes.

Ed: Digital Domain is the same company that made Titanic (which did rather well financially) using Linux.

Jeremy Dinsel wrote in to tell us about SSC updating their Linux Resources site. I think it looks very nice. Sections updated include: the Linux Speakers' Bureau Announcement, the currently empty Linux Employment page, and the Linux Journal 1998 Readers' Choice Announcement. It looks like Slashdot got nominated for best web site! Uh-oh. Did I just accidentally invoke the so-called "Slashdot effect"?

Carlie Fairchild sent us a link to SSC's Open Systems Products Directory . Next, Sean Leach sent us a link to A PlanetQuake/Linux Article. Third Joe Pranevich sent us a link to his Linux Q&A site. He's collecting FAQs to provide a database of helpful information for Linux Users. He's seeking anyone interested in helping. Finally we have another Linux help site sent in by Jason James. This site is seeking folks willing to help field technical questions for users.

Carlie Fairchild sent us a link to SSC's Open Systems Products Directory . Next, Sean Leach sent us a link to A PlanetQuake/Linux Article. Third Joe Pranevich sent us a link to his Linux Q&A site. He's collecting FAQs to provide a database of helpful information for Linux Users. He's seeking anyone interested in helping. Finally we have another Linux help site sent in by Jason James. This site is seeking folks willing to help field technical questions for users.

This certainly has been a hot topic around here the past few days, but check out what Dave Finton says: "In the latest edition of Linux Gazette They talk about the good and the bad points of Linux evangelism. This guy couldn't be more true, in my opinion. Linux ain't for everybody. However... My goal in life is to prove that Windows ain't for everybody, either. Maybe not even for most people. :) "

This certainly has been a hot topic around here the past few days, but check out what Dave Finton says: "In the latest edition of Linux Gazette They talk about the good and the bad points of Linux evangelism. This guy couldn't be more true, in my opinion. Linux ain't for everybody. However... My goal in life is to prove that Windows ain't for everybody, either. Maybe not even for most people. :) "

Fudd writes "Linux Gazette for April appears to be up" I see articles on X Terminals as well as IP Masquerading and customizing xdm.

The original is back with a new issue. The Linux Gazette has out its January 98 issue which features a ton of cool stuff. Dave Finton pointed me to the Gnome/KDE article in this issue which is an excellent comparison of the 2 major contenders in the desktop Widget Wars which will significantly change our desktops in the years ahead.