[How-to] Draw arrows in GIMP? Yes!

Here is how you can easily draw an arrow using the GIMP software.

1) First install GIMP. (how? damm easy!)

Open Ubuntu Software Center, type “GIMP” and press install. or Open a terminal and type sudo apt-get install gimp

2) Download the arrow plug in (here)

Open a terminal and type

> gksudo nautilus (this opens a filesystem browser in administrator mode!)

Then copy that file (the plugin.scm) to the /usr/share/gimp/2.0/scripts folder.

3) Open GIMP

Draw a bezier curve (shortcut is “b”) and go to Tools and Click on Arrow. It will create an arrow with the bezier curve.

 

Cool. GIMP rocks.

How-to: Find out what is your Ubuntu Version!

Appendix II) Find out what is your Ubuntu Version

1) Choose one of the below methods

A) System > Administration > System Monitor

B) Open a terminal window > type  “more /etc/apt/sources.list | grep Ubuntu”

C) way cooler versions here.

2) Understanding the crazy names!

Sometimes people refer to Ubuntu (and other Linux distributions) by their number-code and other times by code-name, here’s a quick reference list:

• Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)
• Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog)
• Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)
• Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake)
• Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)
• Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)
• Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
• Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)
• Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
• Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)
• Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
• Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
• Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
• Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) (still beta as we write)

 

Dropbox, is for Linux!

Dropbox is a online storage system that also synchronizes a folder in your computer. Thus, it can synchronize files that you have on multiple computers, imagine: your music folder is the same on your laptop and home computer, when you grab some new songs they “virtually fly over from one computer to another” at the speed of an internet connection.

The service is very interesting and actually good, they offer 2Gbytes free of charge, and of course you can be tricky and make multiple accounts and so forth. But actually 50Gbytes are so cheap that I’d strongly advise to thing twice and maybe spend a few dollars from your pocket.

Full Linux Support

Yep, this is how contemporary apps sound like (and should be). Go to their website and download the Linux Dropbox version, install it. It will run a small “tour” installation program that allows you to create or link to an existing account, and customize the place for the Dropbox folder (this is the folder that will be automatically updated and uploaded/downloaded).

(dropbox being used, double click the item and your folder will appear)

Also if you use a Window Manager called Gnome (this is the part of the Operating system that takes care of the visual aspects of your Windows and running programs) you can install an add on. The add-on is called nautilus-dropbox and is very useful, it allows you to right-click on an item in your dropbox and access some neat shortcuts, such as “get public link” which is extremely useful to share things with your friends.

(installing the nautilus-dropbox plugin via synaptic, use whatever installer you like the most!)

Dropbox in Linux, sounds like a sea of possibilities

Of course, like everything in the open-source community there’s a lot of scripts, add-ons and cool things to use along side the standard dropbox. A bit after started using dropbox (more than one year ago) I developed a simple script that allows to: “zip a folder” + “move the zip automatically to the dropbox public folder” + “return the public link” ! Since this is all very basic, I just noticed that it is already available on the add-on section of the dropbox site: shell script that uploads to public folder!
And if your really hardcore Linux (then you’ll probably won’t find anything useful in this blog) you can install dropbox in a entirely text based environment, see this tutorial (no graphics!). This is cool if you manage a server and want to use dropbox, or share folders with your users.

Hello (Linux) world!

This blog documents the change of Operating System (OS) from Windows to Linux.

It is not a reality-show but more like an open and honest documentation of the whole process. I’ve been a Windows user for whole my life, but of course I’ve used Linux every now and then (at college, sometimes at home, at the radio) but never regularly nor even kept a running version for more then a couple of months.

This marks my transition to Linux, the intentions of keeping Windows are very low, maybe just as operating-system.-for-my-darn-stupid-soundcard or if needed-to do-something-creepy-that-I-cannot-imagine-right-now.

[As you can see, at exactly the time of this post, I’m using my WinXp with the usual stuff]

Because these blog is all about honesty towards software, I must state imediatly that I’m a fan of Open-Source Software, even running windows I can show you that about 90% o what I use is open source or free and the remaining 10% is licensed through college (Windows, Visual Studio, Enterprise Architect) or bought by my own money (Ableton Live, MOTU’s software, Lite version of Cubase). I’m a programmer and not a huge fan of pirating… not a holy guy of course (theres a couple of stolen bytes here and there!)… just a regular person.

My current open source software list: Blender, LilyPond, Filezilla, Pidgin, GIMP, Inkscape, Open Office, ArgoUML, PotRace, UFRaw, VLC, Gantt Project, Ogre, Mogre, PureData, Open CV, Processing, Notepad++, QFSM, JabRef, Mozilla, Thunderbird, etc…

The free (not open sourced) list includes: Google Chrome, LEd, Cmap, Xvid, infinite numer of VSTs (like dbglitch).

Purpose

To document the transition of Windows to Linux operating system.

To be honest and post instalation-difficulties, but also what good came out of this.

To show to regular people that there are different perspectives on software, and how they can use that.

Remember: although I am a programmer and I can use stuff a bit more easily, I’m a regular user very (very!) acommodated to Windows workings… I usually prefer non command-line instalations and ready-to-go stuff. I like clean interfaces (another reason to get out of Windows..) and productive software.

Also, because I’m a intense worker on the virtual world (programming, computer music, and so on…) I have very very high demands, if you’re just a regular user… then probably you can suit with just a third of the applications or so! This means I’ll be honest if anything is not up to my expectations…

The process…

I’ll be documenting here every now and then. I’m currently developing my thesis proposal , so I cannot go into moving right now. Probably start in January 8… although untill then there’s a lot to post:

1) Analyse your current needs

2) Choose a Linux Distribution

3) Make a plan on how to change everything

Only then, format the actual computer!