We are in a real nice BB just north of Hobart Tasmania with a great view of
the bay in a town called Midway Point. Robin is sleeping so I thought I
would send a few of my thoughts on  Linux for those of you that may be
interested. If not delete this message as it will bore you no end.

I found this great book on Linux before I left the States called XFree86 For
Linux. Read most of it on the 14 hour flight over. Learned more from this
book than any other Linux book I bought in the last four years.  It is
focused on the issues of the new Linux user like no other.

The hardest part of installing Linux is getting the graphic interface to
work. This book is about installing X Windows and most of the window
managers.
Don't even think about running Linux before you get a copy of this book.

Unlike Windows, Linux comes in software levels. A command line level
more or less just like DOS that works the same way as DOS and with about
half a dozen  essential commands. Many are the same as DOS commands
such as del, dir and mkdir. This is no problem to install and use.

The big problem for the new Linux user is those programs that use
a graphical user interface like the essentail web browser (NetScape for one
example) and other graphic programs. In  order to do this Linux provides a
universal graphics interface layer called X Windows that runs just like any
other program on top of the command line level. One advantage is if it
crashes the whole computer does not crash. Another, is any number of
windows managers can be used to make the computer look, to the end user,
just like
any other GUI computer such as Windows or the Mac. There are
half a dozen of these Linux GUIs out there.  Another advantage is the
competition between these window manager programs is intense so bugs get
fixed right away
and free updates come fast and furious.

One of the popular  window managers is called Gnome and it makes your Linux
computer look more or less just like MS Windows. I have been using Gnome for
the past three years and it works well.  I don't use much of it however as I
prefer a commnd line file manager called XTree for Linux which is the
same as XTRee Gold for DOS. You can run both at the same time in Linux.
BTW IMHO XTree is the finest file manager ever written. Windows Explorer
is more or less a tedious and slow  busted  ripoff of XTree. You can
manipulate files in XTree in ways Windows Explorer can only dream of.

The thing I need in  a windows manager is to be able to select one of eight
virtual screens. Most Linux window managers have this capabilty.
this is an extremely powerful feature of` Linux window managers. I could
not do the newsletter with out it. It is far far superiour to having a bunch
of less than full screen windows open in MS Windows layered one on
top of the other. One must constantly be clicking on them and moving them
around
to view them. Not so in these X window virtual screen window managers.

There is a little selector icon at the bottom of the screen that allows you
to select, at random, any one of eight virtual full size  screens
instantanously. Each virtual screen can have dozens of windows open just
like
 MS Windows or the MAC. What I do with these is run  NetScape Messenger in
one
screen, an internet connection monitor program in another and about
half a dozen XTree for Linux programs showing different folders holding
my huge collection of digital images used in  the newsletter in  the other
six. I can look up a graphic image instantanously by these means.
This a far far superiour user interface than having a bunch of MS Windows
layered or tiled one on top of the other.

After reading this book I have decided Gnome is far more complicated
than I need so I will replace it with a much more basic  and much older
UNIX windows manager called fvwm when I get back. This will further speed
up my computer and elimanate the few remaining bugs in Gnome.

I will send some messages and pictures related to aircraft from time to time
as I travel around OZ.

Paul Lamar