No real problem? Well, there is one big problem: Java programs on Linux look terrible. The default look and feel, “Metal”, is very ugly. But it’s at least cross platform . Well, since 1.6.0, (Sun’s) Java has support for a GTK Look & Feel — why no Qt? See my article about the GPL — built into the VM. But it’s not enabled by default. I’ve tried running a program with Metal and with GTK Look & Feel, and man, that’s a huge difference! This is how to enable GTK Look & Feel for all programs.

First, you’ll have to locate the directory your JVM is residing in. Unless your distribution did some real weird things, it’s usually either /usr/lib/jvm/<version> or /usr/java/[<version>] . Wherever it might be located, i’ll use /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0_10/ for the examples.

Locate the file named /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0_10/lib/swing.properties. If it doesn’t exist, create it.

Put the following inside the file:

swing.defaultlaf=com.sun.java.swing.plaf.gtk.GTKLookAndFeel

Save, quit, try running an application and see if it worked

Screenshots:

NetBeans with Metal L&F

NetBeans with GTK L&F

So, what’s happened in the past year? Except for yet another 2 versions of Ubuntu, Steve Jobs getting ill and accidentially declared dead, me getting my Mac, and of course, how could I forget it, the invention of libsylph. Well, apart from that, not too much happened.

Well, I can only say one thing… I hope that this time 2009 is the real year of the Linux deskop.

Greetz,

- SeySayux

Back to the point. The FSF has brainwashed most of us with the idea that all our software should be under the GPL. I also prefer free as in speech software myself, but in a non-perfect world — i.e. perfect according to the FSF — there is also software that isn’t under the GPL. Not a problem, you say. It’s a lot different from a users’ perspective than from a programmers’ perspective. For example, I am a programmer myself, and I program both open-source and closed-source programs.

The main ‘problem’ of the GPL is its ‘viral’ nature: when you link a GPL library, your program should also be GPL. While this will make the ‘perfect world’ come closer, there is still a problem when you want to use a GPL library to design a non-GPL program. Suppose I would want to write a program connecting to a MySQL server, for which there are official drivers, but under the GPL. I either could:

• Use the official MySQL drivers, and GPL my program — easy, but undesirable
• Write my own MySQL drivers — difficult, takes a while
• Use PostgreSQL — easy, and their drivers are BSD licensed.

So, after thinking a while, I descided to replace MySQL with PostgreSQL. In this particular example, I was using Java with JDBC (a cross-SQL server driver framework), so replacing MySQL with PostgreSQL was only changing one line of code. If I really wanted to use MySQL, I could have bought a license, and no, not a cheap one. But PostgreSQL does the job just as well. And since I’m now used to PostgreSQL, and have set up a PostgreSQL-server on my development machine, I’ll be using it for my open source projects as well. Voila, the effects of the GPL!

The next issue is what I call “Free Software — freedom, as defined by the FSF”. When you use the GPL, the FSF descides what is free, and what is not free. Total freedom means: do what the heck you want with this piece of software. In other words: public domain. Freadom means: no restrictions. And the GPL sure has a lot of restrictions, doesn’t it? The GPL “freedom” as defined by the FSF. And their definition isn’t freedom at all: like I said, there are tons of restrictions. The FSF sure likes the fact that they made the so-called “4 fundamental freedoms” and that they can determine what is free, and what not. In fact, they’re becoming pretty “good” at it. “Good” in the sense that they have classified a lot of licenses as free and others as non-free. Which brings us to licence-compatibilty: is licence XYZ compatible with the GPL?  In other words: can you use code written under license XYZ in a program under the GPL? Their own documentation license, which is used a lot, for example at Wikipedia, is “incompatible” with the GPL. Most of the Creative Commons licenses are “incompatible” with the GPL. The APSL, or Apple Public Source License, is “incompatible” with the GPL — while lots of stuff from Apple could be used to improve support of Linux on the Mac platform. But oh, XNU (the Mac kernel) is APSL, and Linux GPL, and therefore you can’t take code from XNU and adapt it to Linux. Instead they have to rewrite the code from scratch. Sounds dumb? I think that as well.

Another thing is: suppose you’ve a very large program released under, say, the BSD licence. You add a few lines of code under the GPL (an algorithm of some kind perhaps?). Bam, you can release your entire program under the GPL. Suppose I wrote a “Hello World” and released it under the GPL. Would that make everyone obligated to release their “Hello World”s and deriatives under the GPL?

Next stop on the list is the part when it comes to for what kind of software the GPL was designed. The GPL, and its sidekick, the LGPL (which I like slightly more, but still has a few flaws IMHO), were designed for general compiled-and-linked languages, such as C and C++. But these days we have stuff like interpreters, virtual machines, inter-process communication, client-server stuff, SSI, etc… Let’s take the MySQL example again. MySQL is often used together with PHP. Since PHP is released under the GPL, that’s not a problem. But, you know, not every PHP script is GPL, while they still do use the MySQL functionality. So, when I write a script in PHP, I can use MySQL without GPL’ing my script. But using MySQL with Java would require that I GPL my program. So, you can clearly see an ambiguity. The GPL needs to be redefined. Either you allow all linking (which they won’t) or disallow all linking (which means that every PHP script on the net needs to be GPL’ed, not something many developers of professional — read commercial — PHP sites will do).

I just mentioned inter-process communication. That means that one process can send messages to another process which is configured to recieve and reply on those messages. So, in other words, I’ll just write a so-called middleware server. The middleware server will connect to MySQL. My program will connect to the middleware server through inter-process communication that is not GPL. I release the middleware server under the GPL, and voila! Everyone can use MySQL without needing to GPL their programs, if they use my middleware server (which can be very simple, or even trivial, by just passing everything it recieves to MySQL, and returing MySQL’s answer).

In the beginning of the article, I mentioned that the GPL is “viral”. In other words: everthing that once was GPL, stays GPL. Even if the FSF decides the GPL is obsolete and create something new (maybe after they read this article? ), you can’t do a lot but still use the GPL. Even if you find a better license, you’re still stuck to the GPL. I personally recommend that you first release your program under the BSD license, or your own license, before sticking to the GPL.

Yet another point where the GPL restricts us: the Linux kernel. We’ve all heard about the driver problems, especially when it comes to the nVidia or ATI GPU drivers. The problem is not that they can’t be redistributed: nVidia allows you to put their driver on the CD if you are making “any OS derived from the source, such as Linux or BSD”. I don’t know for sure what ATI says in their license. The real problem is that the GPL does not allow you to use the driver, since you’re linking non-GPL code with GPL code. If Linux would be “de-GPL-ised”, or a extra exception would be added, it would benefit hardware support a lot. For example, closed-source GPU drivers, APSL code from Apple, etc…

Sometimes I even consider the GPL a form of DRM. DRM on the source code, that is. It effectively restricts you what you can do with your source code, what parts you can add from a piece of source code, what libraries you can link to, etc. If Richard Stallman ever reads this section (if he didn’t die from a heart attack yet), I hope that I can find a nuclear bunker .

I hope that this article made it clear that the GPL isn’t always the best choice for your software, because it isn’t “Free” at all. Unless you want compatiblity (the licence-kind of compatibility, not the software/technical kind) with GPL programs, I discourage you to use the GPL. I haven’t found a acceptable replacement yet, but we all know Google, don’t we?

- SeySayux

BTW, this article does NOT fall under the GPL. Instead, I put it under the simple terms:

Do whatever you want with this text, as long as

1. You don’t change anything fundamentally, you are allowed to take parts of the text or embed it in another article, as long as it is clear what parts are mine, and you don’t add stuff I didn’t say.
2. You put the following attribution somewhere: © SeySayux, 2008. See http://seysayux.wordpress.com/2008/12/25/free-software-not-so-free-after-all/ for the orignial article.
   
3. You agree that I’m not responsible for anything happening after you place this text somewhere. You should clarify that you aren’t associated with me in any way, or that my opinion doesn’t always conform with what you think.
4. You don’t release this under the GPL.

1. In den beginne was er de Source. En de Source was LINUS, en de Source was met LINUS en de Source was in LINUS.
2. Toen zei LINUS: “gcc -o vmlinux *.c”. En er was Linux.
3. En LINUS zag dat het goed was.
4. Toen zei LINUS: “Er zij een splitsing van processen!”. En zowaar, er was een splitsing van processen.
5. In het vervolg zou LINUS deze splitsing van processen fork() noemen.
6. LINUS zag dat de fork() goed was. Hij maarkte onderscheid tussen het splitsen van processen en het uitvoeren van een nieuw proces. LINUS noemde het het uitvoeren vannieuwe processen voortaan exec().
7. En LINUS zag dat het goed was.
8. Verder zei LINUS: “Er kome een opening van bestanden en er komen een sluiting van bestanden.”
9. En LINUS noemde de opening van bestanden voortaan open(). En Hij noemde de sluiting van bestanden voortaan close().
10. LINUS zei: “Het is niet goed voor bestanden om enkel geopend en gesloten te worden.”. Daarop zei Hij: “Er zal uit bestanden gelezen en naar ze geschreven worden, totdat zij het hele bestandssysteem zullen bevolken.”
11. LINUS noemde de leesactie read() en de schrijfactie write() en zag dat het goed was.
12. Toen schiep LINUS de Nerd naar Zijn beeld en gelijkenis.
13. En LINUS zei tot hem: “Wees innovatief en vul het hele internet met uw broncodes. Gij zult de read() en de write(), de fork() en de exec(), de open() en de close() tot u onderwerpen.” En LINUS zag dat het goed was.
14. Voorts zij LINUS tot de Nerd: “Gij moogt elke system call gebruiken, van seteuid() tot sleep(), van uname() tot readlink(), maar gij zult geen Apple gebruiken!”
15. Doch, LINUS had niet gerekend op de Steve. De Steve sprak tot de Nerd: “Is het waar dat LINUS u verboden heeft om maar gebruik te maken van enige system calls?”
16. De Nerd antwoordde: “LINUS heeft ons gezegd dat wij eender welke system call mogen gebruiken, maar we zullen geen Apple gebruiken.”
17. Waarop de Steve zei: “Weet gij dan niet, Nerd, dat op het moment dat gij Apple gebruikt, gij gelijk zult staan aan LINUS?”
18. En de Nerd probeerde Apple en zag dat de interface zeer intiutief was, en dat enige kennis van de terminal onnodig was.
19. Later ging LINUS kijken hoe het met de Nerd was. Waarop de Nerd vroeg: “LINUS, waarom hebben we geen GUI?”. Waarop LINUS sprak: “Wie heeft u vertelt dat gij geen GUI hebt?”
20. De Nerd zei: “Het was de Steve, die ons gezegd had om Apple te gebruiken!”
21. LINUS sprak: “Steve, gij zult voor uw zonde de rest van uw leven een kreupele versie van Mac OS X verkopen. Gij zult tot het einde der dagen sukkelen met uw gezondheid, wat spanningen bij uw volgelingen zal opwekken, tot de dag dat gij uw eigen keynotes niet meer kunt geven!”
22. Tot de Nerd zei LINUS: “Omdat gij gezondigd hebt, Nerd, zult gij voortaan dit minderwaardige Windows-systeem gebruiken. Enkel met een hoge opleiding zult gij met moeite Linux kunnen gebruiken. Uw computer zal crashen, gij zult gegevens verliezen en gij zult eindeloos moeten wachten terwijl uw trage computer berekeningen maakt”.
23. Vervolgens sloot Linus het datacenter af met een wachtwoord en codeerde het met GPG.

Play: mac_vs_pc.swf

Wouldn’t it be nice to have some kind of button to enable or disable Compiz at will? Just one click to disable it, and launch your game. After you finished playing, just click again, and tadaa! Compiz is back, in full glory?

Well, it’s not that difficult. Continue reading for an easy guide on how to make a script that does the work for you.

Part 1

First, gain root permissions and open your favorite text editor, for example:
sudo nano /usr/bin/compizswitch.sh
or:

su
vi /usr/bin/compizswitch.sh

Next, you’ll need to put the actual script in:

#!/bin/bash
if [ `cat $HOME/.compiz-enabled` == "true" ]; then
$DEFAULT_WM --replace &
echo "false" > $HOME/.compiz-enabled
else
compiz --replace &
echo "true" > $HOME/.compiz-enabled
fi

Don’t bother yet wat this script will do, believe me, it will work.

Next, chmod a+x this script. You’ll need to be root for this ( sudo or su )

When that’s done, you’ll need to do some other stuff. Replace nano by your favorite editor:
nano ~/.bash_profile
Append this:
export DEFAULT_WM=mydefaultwm
echo "true" > ~/.compiz-enabled

Replace mydefaultwm with the default Window Manager for your deskop. For Gnome, this is metacity, for KDE it’s kwin.

If Compiz isn’t started automatically after you log in, replace true with false.

Now test if the script works (maybe you made a mistake, but it could also be that I wrote an error in my script — please tell me if this is the case). Logout, and login again. At the command prompt, type (without root rights!)
compizswitch.sh

Now, compiz would normally be disabled if you had it enabled, or vice versa. Type again:

compizswitch.sh

Now compiz would be back enabled/disabled.

Part 2: the button

While we have a nice script now, it’s not a lot easier than just typing kwin –replace &, compiz –replace &, or metacity –replace & in the command prompt. So we’re gonna make a button to do this.

First, create a starter/shortcut to application on your panel. Please refer to the documentation of your desktop environment on how to do this ( hey, I’m typing this on Mac OS X, you know ).

Next, when you have to specify the path to the executable, type /usr/bin/compizswitch.sh.

Give it a good icon, like a compiz logo, or something else you like. Heck, you can even use a penguin, or an Apple logo (  — if you don’t see a box or 3 lines, you’re the best), it doesn’t matter, your — actually, my — script will work anyways. Just make sure you’ll remember within three months when you finally boot Linux again — that’s why people discourage dual-boots (j/k).

Click it. It will work as expected. If not, see if you didn’t miss a step. If it still doesn’t work, please give me as much information as possible. I only tested this on KDE 4, so…

Have a lot of fun with 3d gaming!

- SeySayux

Since i’m kinda lazy, I want to have my computer do as much for me as it can. But that was obviously the main reason why we all bought a computer, or any piece of technology: because they make life easier (unless you use Microsoft products of course *sarcastic grin*). Well, I heard about this Phatch program, and because it was free (as in beer, it is free as in speech as well, but that’s not the main point I decided to try it), I gave it a twist.

The program is written in Python. Uh-oh. Python+Mac = trouble with packaging. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that when it’s difficult to package something (even more difficult since not everybody owns a Mac), you’ll probably see yourself without precompiled package. And, like I said above, I’m of the lazy kind. Well, after reading all the dependancies (and the dependancies’ depandancies, and so on), and having half my Downloads directory stuffed with .tar.gz files (and a .dmg, FYI), I decided to start compiling… Well, after I tried to install the first program, the installer crashed with an unclear error. You know them: Error. An error has occured. Thank you, Captain Obvious!

Well, I still have this miserable, unknown operating system that only some die-hard nerds use. I’ve installed it in VirtualBox, so I don’t need to shut down my glorious Mac OS X (that, and that my glorious Mac OS X screwed up my partition table). I believe it’s called Ubuntu or something( ). Well, booted that one, and oh miracle, a precompiled package was available!

Well, so I installed the package and tried it. While it wouldn’t be bad to have some more features, and that there is not a lot of help available (the names of the options aren’t very intiutive), and a preview-option would be nice, it’s still a very good program — better than doing all this stuff by hand (i.e. with The Gimp).

Below are a few screenshots of the program, token from the site itself (did I tell you I’m kinda lazy?)

Screenshots

Example

Rating

Ease-of-use: 9
Translations: 8
Supported platforms: 6
Intuitive: 8
Overall: 8. Recommended

Website

http://photobatch.stani.be/

Direct download link:

0.1.4, Ubuntu Hardy:http://launchpadlibrarian.net/15095968/phatch_0.1.4.bzr538-0ubuntu1%7E8.04%7Eppa1_all.deb
0.1.5, source code: http://sd-2469.dedibox.fr/photobatch/download/package/phatch-0.1.5.tar.gz

I removed my old articles too, because they were in Dutch, and they were outdated (and people used them to laugh at me because I wrote that Mac OS X doesn’t have any problems, but that’s not the point — Mac OS X still doesn’t have any problems, but I can blog about Linux, not? j/k ).

Since I’m quite busy now — my school work, programming, graphics modelling, etc… — I won’t be able to write a lot of articles. But anyways, expect my first “real” article soon.

See you,

- SeySayux