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Archives for August 2009

August 18, 2009

Gimp 2.7.0

For those of us who are Gimp fans, the latest version 2.7.0 contains features essential for photographers. The latest Gimp release contains a feature to correct barrel distortion, a feature called “perspective transform, sample colorize” to make your black and white photos stand out, and a few cloning tools for digital retouching.

List of Features:

  • Change the Text Tool to perform text editing on-canvas (GSoC 2008)
  • Add support for tagging GIMP resources such as brushes and allow filtering based on these tags (GSoC 2008)
  • Separate the activies of saving an image and exporting it, there is now an ‘File->Export…’ for example
  • Port file plug-ins to new export API which gets rid of many annoying export dialogs
  • Add a simple parser to size entry widgets, images can be scaled to e.g. “50%” or “2 * 37px + 10in”
  • Arrange layer modes into more logical and useful groups
  • Added support for rotation of brushes
  • Make the Pointer dockable show information about selection position and size
  • Get rid of the Tools dockable and move toolbox configuration to

Preferences:

  • Add status bar feedback for keyboard changes to brush paramaters
  • Add diagonal guides to the Crop Tool
  • New docks are created at the pointer position
  • Add support for printing crop marks for images
  • Move ‘Text along path’ from tool options to text context menu
  • Change default shortcuts for “Shrink Wrap” and “Fit in Window” to Ctrl+R and Ctrl+Shift+R respectively since the previous shortcuts are now used for the save+export feature
  • Make Alt+Click on layers in Layers dockable create a selection from the layer
  • Allow to specify written language in the Text Tool

Filed Under: General Tagged With: gimp, gpl

August 13, 2009

Do you really need Windows?

Do you really need to run Windows? It’s a question most computer users haven’t really thought about. Most users perform basic functions such as browsing the web, checking email, word processing or running a basic spreadsheet. What most people don’t realize is that these are functions that you can easily perform and run in Linux.

Most users are already familiar with the Firefox browser. If you’re not a Firefox fan, you can use Google Chrome which also available in Linux. If you’re still not happy with either one, you can try Opera, Konqueror, Flock, Galeon, Epiphany and even Lynx, a text-based browser.

There are a number of options in Linux for word processing. Open Office is pretty much standard in most Linux distributions. You can also use KOffice or AbiWord. The same goes for spreadsheets. The choices are many.

One benefit Window users will get from Linux is having a rock stable environment that’s free from viruses. In addition, Linux will cost you $0 dollars. It’s absolutely free. Compare that when buying Windows 7 upgrade or the full version.

When I converted to Linux, there was a transition period where I was running both Windows and Linux on my desktop. I dual booted for several months before moving strictly to Linux. Weaning Windows users might be the ideal approach for the switch.

Linux has come a long way. Linux is grown up. Linux has improve by leaps and bounds. If you’re still on the fence about converting to Linux, well, get off it. Give Linux a try. It’s definitely worth your while.

Filed Under: General, Linux Tagged With: Linux, office, open office, star office, windows

August 13, 2009

KDE 4.3

KDE just released version 4.3 which includes over 2000 new enhancements to the K Desktop Environment. The latest version showcases the latest theme called “Air.” Improvements in performance, memory usage and a stack of new widgets are just few available in the latest release. If you haven’t tried KDE in a while, give it a spin. You can install it via Synaptic Package Manager or just type:

#sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Filed Under: General, Linux Tagged With: desktop, kde, ubuntu

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