What is this page for?

This is where we put articles of a certain age (some might say "maturity"), so the main adopters' page doesn't get too insanely long! Enjoy.

Added 04/30/04
Nancy Baiter

For those confused by technical issues and deciding between Konqueror and Galeon, here's a bit of background. This is what a Web page really looks like:

Some of it makes sense - the body text is color number 009900, the background color is FFFFEE (this is counting by fifteens, which you can promptly forget). This is from a web site I maintain for an artist friend. You can go to http://www.judiwood.com to see what it looks like.

These are just words, and they are sent over the Internet exactly like e-mail, letter by letter - which is why it can be so slow. (The Internet was never intended for popular use, so isn't well designed for that purpose.)

In order for us to see that page something on my computer has to take these words and interpret them into pictures. (Even a black letter on a white background is a sort of picture.) "Browser" is the name of the program (application or 'app') that 'renders' the page for us. As with everything else different ones do it differently(!) so what looks good with one will look crazy on another. (I was horrified when I looked up Judi's page on a library computer, after working so hard to have it look good on mine!)

Most people use computers in an office or library, offices and cities go with Microsoft almost always, so to most people there is no question how to see a Web page, you just click on the icon. Linux is free, as in freedom, so we have choices. (Windows users do, too, just most don't know it. There is Netscape, Opera, Mozilla...)

When we at Free Geek were designing the Freekbox 2, which you all have, Galeon was chosen as the best at rendering Web pages - without crashing, without getting confused, with handling different formats. But Konqueror can also be used to 'browse' one's own files, and is very good at that, so it was included as well. (If you doubt that it's also a Web browser, try this experiment. Dial your ISP, then click on "My Files" to open Konqueror, then, in the location box, type http://www.freegeek.org and watch what happens.) Mozilla comes with Debian, so that was left in, though it is quite new and has its own problems.

It's easiest to use one and stick to it, but it isn't necessary. Sometimes it's to your advantage to use one for a specific job, then close it and go back to your usual one. You can have two browsers open at one time, and jump back and forth (though, if the pages are heavy on pictures it might overwhelm your computer and cause a crash).

Happy computing,

-nb

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Added 01/21/04
Nancy Baiter

Now that some people are happily downloading away, they may get too much stuff.

If your system slows down markedly, or if, like me, you just don't like having stuff around you're not using, back to the terminal window to remove the packages.

For example, I found that I didn't actually like the game kshisen, which had sounded interesting.

At the command line, as root, type

apt-get remove kshisen

and it's gone!

If you've made some change to the settings of the unwanted program, or if it has settings (size, color, etc), these are saved in configuration files in your home directory. (These are visible from a terminal window with the command ls -a (list all).) Those are not removed by the 'remove' command, you need to add --purge.
(Notice the double dashes)

apt-get --purge remove kshisen [or whatever you don't want]

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Added 01/21/04
Auntie Nannie

Note: for those with Freekboxes made later in 2004, ktouch is already installed. However, these instructions are a good introduction to apt, the "package management" software that Debian Linux uses.

For those of you not afraid to tackle the command line, Auntie Nannie has a nice New Year's present.

Ktouch is a nice small program that teaches correct touch typing in a nice gentle way. There are no instructions but all you have to do is type what you see in the white bar, spaces and all, and it responds to your mistakes, advancing if you're correct, repeating in a different order if there were mistakesss.

So, here's what you do:

Connect to the Internet however you normally do.
Open a terminal window (Control-Alt-T)
Switch to root (su -)
Type: ln -s sources.list.public sources.list
(This step will have been done already on some Freekboxes. If you get that message just carry on.)
Type: apt-get install ktouch.
You may get asked if it's ok to go ahead - you decide. :)

That is ALL! Debian will send you ktouch which will then put itself in the right place and even put itself into the menu.

When this is over and you're back at the prompt type exit to become a plain user again, then close the terminal window.

Click on Menu -> Programs -> Apps and you'll find a new category, Educational, and the only thing in there is ... Ktouch! Is that neat, or what? Read the letters in the white bar and type them as you see them, including the spaces. If you don't know where the key is look at the picture of a keyboard - the correct key will be darker.

If you don't want to do this yourself bring your box into Free Geek and Nancy will do it for you.

Watch this space for more goodies, till then,

Happy Computing, I mean, New Year's,

Auntie Nannie

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Added 11/22/03

Let's say you've finally worked out which four or five programs you use all the time, and they don't happen to be the ones we thought you would use. You got rid of that pesky dictionary (who wants to know how to spell?) and want to add an icon to your desktop for, let's just say, RealPlayer.

RIGHT click on the desktop (that other mouse button)
Hover the mouse over "Create New"
Select "Link to Application"
Change the text "Link to Application" to say whatever you want it to say. If you're making a link to realplayer, then "realplayer" would probably be a good choice.
(optional) Click on the sprocket-looking icon, and select an icon for the application.
Click on the "Execute" tab
You should then see a "Command:" box. Either put the location of the program you want to run, or click "Browse..." to go looking for it. RealPlayer might be installing itself into the home directory, so you're probably looking for something like /home/myname/rp
Click on "OK"

That should be it. You may have to right-click on the desktop and select "Refresh Desktop" to get the icon to show up. Repeat as necessary for quick and easy access to all your favorite applications.

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Contents

What is this page for?

What's a browser?

Removing Unwanted Packages

Installing a Typing Program

Adding Desktop Icons