[A moment of silence, please, for my dearly departed laptop power brick. Anyone who has a brick for a Fujitsu Lifebook that they can spare, please contact me.]

[Thank you]

Friday’s edition of the Utah Open Source Conference must have been good. Reason: The day flew by.

Traffic in the exhibit area flowing pretty steadily for the better part of the day and the swag was getting into folks’ hands. Some of the questions we were getting ranged from the basic (“So what is Linux, anyway?”) to more complex (“Why does yum suck?” — No, it doesn’t, but that’s been handled in a past blog). The usual suspects are here: Open VZ, GNOME, KDE, for starters, as well as the Fedora, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu — the interesting part about this is these three represent the three roots in the Linux tree: Fedora roots go back to Red Hat, OpenSUSE’s to Slackware and Ubuntu to Debian.

Both Ian Weller and Paul Frields presented yesterday — Ian’s presentation was filmed by Scott Dowdle and should appear on the Montana Linux User Group site sometime soon.

Stormy Peters of the GNOME Foundation gave the keynote yesterday, and it was quite informative. I wish I could have stayed for the entire address, but someone has to watch the booth.

Again, with the amount of traffic and the number of people who have visited the booth, the day went quickly. I went to get lunch and realized it was 4 p.m. Not much later was the geek dinner at Mama Spaghetti’s (I think that’s its name).

Day 3 — the Saturday edition — to follow.

(Fedora ambassador Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

First things first, before I forget (something, sadly, that is more commonplace these days — what was I saying again?); It’s good to see that the Utah Open Source Conference, now in its third year, is growing into one of the more established events on the annual GNU/Linux (or Linux, take your pick) calendar.

The reason I say that is because after a conversation with Will Smith — the UTOSC guy, not the actor — I was surprised that the event has come quite far in only three years. UTOSC is clearly one that I am going to mark on my annual calendar.

Day 1 at UTOSC — and this is from the perspective of the Fedora booth, where I am parked — started out quietly and as the day progressed, became busier with more visitors, questions and comments about the distro.

At 12:30 or a bit later, I was marshalling the forces for a Fedora Activity Day in one of the classrooms at Salt Lake City Community College, the venue for UTOSC. I say “marshalling” because the best part of organizing a FAD is letting people who know more than you take off with it after you introduce it. Such is the case at this event, with the FAD around Fedora Event Splash, or FES. After introducing it, both Ian Weller and Clint Savage — both of whom had been working on it for several months — took the reins and we had a productive meeting that Fedora folks will hear more about going forward.

Later in the day, Clint walked in and said “Here, you’ll like this,” and handed me a box. I looked quickly inside and noticed what I thought was a . . . tent? Actually, it was the vertical banners for the Fedora booth, a new addition to the event box.

Day 2, which starts in a few hours, appears to be shaping up to be another great day at UTOSC. More to follow.

(Fedora ambassador Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

For those of you who have a free weekend — assuming your weekend starts on Thursday (hopefully) — and you happen to live within walking, driving or flying distance of Salt Lake City, the Utah Open Source Conference is someplace you might want to be.

According to this badge, yours truly is speaking. Well not really speaking as such — although finding me at a venue where I’m not speaking is rare, unless I greak into my impersonation of Marcel Marceau — but I am running the Fedora Activity Day which, next to talks by Paul Frields and Ian Weller, is the highlight of the event (if I do say so myself).

The booth will be open for business, as usual, complete with the usual “stuff we all get” (aka “swag”) and media. In fact, I thought I had given out all the Fedora buttons I had at OSCON until I found a box of buttons in the trunk of my car, left there since OSCON no doubt.

The Fedora Activity Day, on Thursday Oct. 8, will revolve around the design and creation of a workflow for the Fedora Event Splash application. The concept is simple, but there are a lot of things to decide before getting this up and running. It starts at 12:30, but you’re welcome to stop by anytime during the course of the FAD.

Following the FAD will be a Birds of a Feather meeting at 6:30, where we’ll either socialize (one vote here for that!) and/or continue working on the application.

A running narrative on UTOSC will appear here, starting with the train trip on Wednesday — despite the derisive mocking I get from my colleagues, I refuse to fly unless completely necessary — and throughout the end of the week next week.

Watch this space.

[NOTE: This blog is also reprinted in the Larry the Fedora Guy blog.]

(Fedora ambassador Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

For those of you who follow this blog religiously — and that would be only about four of you — you know I don’t normally write anything unless I have something to say. Normally, I have lots to say, but having the time to put it down in this blog is a luxury that, sadly, escapes me.

But I did want to put down a couple of things on this quiet Sunday evening, nearly Monday morning, while I’m still thinking of them. Like

It’s getting ready to be Monday and, perhaps, I may write more later.

(Fedora ambassador Larry Cafiero runs HeliOS Solutions West in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

An announcement: Larry the Free Software guy will make his lecture debut at Caltech tomorrow (Thurdsay, July 9) from 7-9 p.m. in 107 Downs on the Caltech campus.

Okay, so while I climb down from the lofty pedestal that I’ve built for myself, it’s not really a lecture, it’s more of a talk about Fedora 11 to the monthly San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group meeting.

But if you find yourself in Pasadena, or nearby, and feel like listening to me testify about how great Fedora is, come on over.

[And thanks to SGVLUG for allowing me the honor to speak on the hallowed ground of the Caltech campus.]

(Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

During the course of the week, I had been asked the following question in various forms (the “forms” being a mangling of the desktop’s initials): “What about LXDE? Are you going to discuss the ‘fourth face’ of the Three Faces of Fedora 11?”

Well, the answer is: Not right away. Though very appealing and a desktop that has piqued my curiosity, LXDE was not part of the Fedora 11 constellation this time around (key words here: “this time around”) — neither was it an offering on the regular distro nor was it a “spin” (the spin list is here). However, I have the instructions on how to get going with LXDE, and I promise to take it for a test spin in the next couple of weeks.

Watch this space.

As for the “three faces” blog series, it’s always a joy to do blogs like this because a.) I get to play with software I normally wouldn’t fiddle with, and b.) I get to find out a lot of stuff that I didn’t know in the first place (look up “lifelong learning” in the dictionary and you’ll see my picture).

For those of you who are curious, and even if you aren’t, I think I’m going to break ranks with my GNOME roots and primarily use KDE on Fedora 11.

(Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

I have to confess that in writing this blog item about Xfce on Fedora 11, I’ve had divine inspiration. I mean, really divine inspiration, as in as high on the divinity food chain as you can get.

Jesus wants everyone to use Xfce. He said so here on my Facebook page two days ago:

So who am I to argue with the Son of God?

And you might think this is the last word on this — He would, of course — but bear in mind you’re dealing with Larry the Free Software Guy, who always tries to get in the last word.

So while Jesus and other diety are paying attention to Texas or Iran or something else, I’ll try to get this in: Fedora 11 using Xfce 4.6 — say it with me here — is probably designed for older machines and/or machines that may not have as much memory as newer ones. But I’ll go one further: F11 with Xfce absolutely flies on machines that are not so old, like this one, even after adding a whole plethora of software and running multiple programs at the same time (like, say, OpenOffice, Gimp, Firefox, Bluefish and Tux Paint all open in one desktop, all performing as if none of the others were open).

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog — those two or three of you outside my family — know that I’ve always been a big fan of Xfce. Herding old hardware like I do, it’s normally what works when 256MB is as high as you can go and you want ol’ Bessie to actually be able to do something. So imagine putting this lightweight desktop on something more substantial, hardware wise, and it’s like putting a 426 Hemi in a golf cart.

Of all the things native to Xfce that are of special note, two stand out: Ristretto, which is a lightening-quick image viewer, and Mousepad, which is like Leafpad but can actually print (I’d certainly like that afternoon back where I tried to print something from Leafpad, but that’s another story). It accompanies the usual array of solid, steady Xfce programs like the Thunar file manager and the ubiquitous calendar Orage.

Think of the Xfce desktop as I do: Like a racing car, it has only what is necessary to make it go, and in this case, go fast; no extras and no frills. If you want the bells and whistles and “optional features” like a luggage rack and the chrome trim, you may want to use another desktop. But Fedora 11 using Xfce certainly takes the checkered flag.

Tomorrow we’ll take a brief look at the “fourth face” of the Three Faces of Fedora 11 — LXDE — and have a wrap-up.

[Whew. Got that in before the Son of God had a chance to render me completely mute and speechle

(Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

The following may come as a shock to you all: I had originally written another blog, filled with kute kommentary kompletely katagorizing the klear advantages kurrently available in the new KDE 4.2, and how well it runs on the lightning-kwick Fedora 11.

But after being up all night with this version of Fedora 11, I deleted most of it. I’m not going to go there — not with the “k” thing which, since 1996, has probably been the mainstay of jokes around the desktop environment; jokes which those close to KDE find beyond tiresome by this time, I’m sure.

“Up all night” sounds bad, too, as if I were nursing a sick child with a fever. That’s not the case here. On the contrary: The reason I was up all night with KDE is that, as predominantly a GNOME user, I was enthralled by the desktop environment and its accompanying programs. Enthralled probably isn’t the best word here, and neither is enamored because neither word does justice to how impressed I am overall with KDE 4.2’s offerings and performance on Fedora 11.

A caveat: There are programs that I still prefer over the ones K provides on KDE. For example, while KOffice is an adequate program, you can have my OpenOffice when you pry my cold, dead fingers from it, and I installed it and tested with it. While I am an unequivocal OOo user, I do think that KThesarus is an excellent addition to KOffice. Konqueror, though adequate, tends to falter when it comes to some sites — Facebook and Gmail come immediately to mind. So Firefox was installed as well.

Having said this, though, there are programs on here that I like very much and would use going forward. I put Konversation through its paces during the Fedora Ambassadors IRC meeting on Tuesday evening, and it gained me as a convert. Also, KMail was very easy to set up and use and is a viable alternative — and in many ways a superior one, once you find your way around it — to Evolution.

[Note: I'm still on the fence when it comes to KsCD, but with the hour being what it was last night I wasn't able to crank up the Judas Priest -- played, of course, for testing purposes only. No, really. Just for testing . . . ]

Despite the digital stumble KDE 4 arguably may have been, KDE 4.2 tends to make up for it and goes way above and beyond the call. Further, KDE is clearly worth considering if you’re installing Fedora 11, whether or not F11 is the first time you’re using Fedora.

Coming tomorrow: Divine inspiration in using Fedora 11 with the Xfce desktop.

(Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

Yeah, I’m late. I said I’d have this written by Monday. I’m sorry, or “Mea damn culpa,” as San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll likes to say.

While I blew that deadline — only the second in a 31-year journalistic career — I have what I think is a pretty good excuse.

It’s Fedora 11’s fault.

There’s a 12-step program for this, no doubt, but I’m powerless in trying to tear myself away from Fedora 11, putting version with the de facto default GNOME desktop through more paces than I really should (about nine straight hours worth, last time I looked up, counting the download of OpenOffice — more on this later).

GNOME 2.26.1, the desktop version that comes essentially as the default with Fedora 11 is like an old friend; an old friend with a couple of extra benefits. Most notable in the additions department in 2.26 like a new Brasero (with which I burned the Live CDs that went into each of the three test machines) and monitor detection improvements that prevented me from the xorg.conf tango I usually have to perform this time around.

What makes the rock-steady, ever friendly GNOME a good fit is what’s new under the hood for Fedora 11, especially ext4 and PackageKit to name only two of the 60 or so new features which, even with all the time I’ve spent on it, I haven’t gotten to yet.

Because this test machine doesn’t have a DVD drive — while I proudly built this frankenbox myself several years ago, it does lack a certain je ne sais quoi in the hardware department — the install came courtesy of the Fedora 11 Live CD, upon which OpenOffice is absent for space reasons (i.e., it doesn’t fit). Adding OpenOffice and other software was a snap and, while I have no benchmarks to go by, seemed a lot faster this time around.

In addition, everything worked right away, right out of the box, so to speak. Everything I downloaded came right up and, with the standard tweaking, ran flawlessly.

In closing, I’d like everyone to remember the adage, “Your mileage may vary,” meaning in this case that you may not have the same results as I do.

But having said this, I can now safely proclaim that this latest release is nothing short of remarkable.

Coming tomorrow: Follow the bouncing cursor when I detail The Three Faces of Fedora 11, Part 2: KDE.

(Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

Although the title above takes a page from film history, Joanne Woodward won’t be appearing in this blog.

[Okay kids, Joanne Woodward was an actress in the mid-20th Century who was married to Paul Newman, another actor around the same time who retired from acting to race cars and make great salad dressing and cookies. One of her most famous roles was playing the schizophrenic woman in "The Three Faces of Eve," hence the source of the title of this blog series.]

[No, I'm not saying I think Fedora is schizophrenic. I'm just playing off the film title. Sheesh.]

With a few of boxes to spare at the offices of Redwood Digital Research in beautiful downtown Felton, Calif. — no, you can’t have them — I thought I’d run a small experiment: Take Fedora 11 and run it on separate machines with three different desktop environments. You know the lineup — GNOME, KDE and Xfce, which comes as a Fedora spin.

Then, of course, write about the results and observations here.

Starting Monday: The Three Faces of Fedora: GNOME on F11. Watch this space.

(Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)