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Who says you can’t have some Fireworks with a little Wine?

Nov 17

Posted by ScottW in Linux | Comments off

Of course you can! All you need is a bottle of your favorite vintage, a pack of Black Cats, a lighter and…..wait a minute! Ooops, wrong wine and fireworks. My bad. Heh, heh! :P I meant of course, Fireworks MX! One sweet vector graphics program made by Macromedia. Well, made by Adobe these days but tomato, tomatoes.

Fireworks MX running under WINE on Linux Mint 7My main reason for installing Fireworks MX under Wine is that I bought the program a while back and love using it. This was long before my days began with Linux and I was using Windows XP exclusively. I had Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Freehand and Flash installed back then under the MX series and loved working with them.

I still like using Fireworks over GIMP and/or Inkscape mostly because I am much more used to using it. I’m sure that if I spent enough time trying to get more familiar with the open source alternatives, I’d be more proficient with them as well. Guess I need to set aside some time to do just that one day. If I can find the time that is.

I prefer to use software of my choosing and seeing as I like Fireworks and how it works, I installed it under Wine and am quite satisfied. Now for the installation details:

  • First, you need to install Wine via Synaptic or what ever method you prefer.
  • Next, pop the MX CD in your drive and wait on it to mount to your desktop.
  • Once the folder opens on your screen, right-click the program you want to install and select install under Wine or with Wine.
  • Follow the prompts, letting the software install to the virtual ‘C’ drive and then click Finish when prompted. Follow suit with each program you want to install.

Now, I’ve only installed Fireworks so far but I believe the others will install just as easily. The only other thing of notice is that the program has the appearance of running in Windows 95/98. However, it runs just fine on my system (Linux Mint 7).

I’ve been using it for a few days now and so far it works just fine. So, if you have a copy of some software that you paid good money for a while back before you went with Linux and want to see if you can use it again, give it a try with a little Wine. Just make sure you have a designated operator. ;)

Here’s a link to the Wine Application Database so you can check to see if your favorite application is supported. You’d be surprised to see just how many are. :) Happy hunting!

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Ubuntu 9.10 Revisited

Nov 6

Posted by ScottW in Linux | Comments off

hp_pavilion_dv1000Previously, I installed Ubuntu 9.10 to my HP dv1000 laptop with disastrous results. Recap:Wired/wireless connectivity was slow as sludge in January and the machine itself ran extremely slow as well. Case in point was any app, program, file or folder clicked upon to open seemed to take an extra long amount of time to do so.

This install was precipitated by running the LiveCD first which failed to show any of these issues. An odd circumstance considering that’s one reason why the LiveCD exists in the first place. To detect any possible issues with the system in which may be installed.

Since that time, I wiped the laptop again and reinstalled 9.04 which still runs like it did before. Flawlessly! Read the rest of this entry »

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Take Two with Ubuntu 9.10

Nov 1

Posted by ScottW in Linux | 2 Comments

Ubuntu LinuxAs much as it pains me to say this, I’ve removed 9.10 from my laptop and reinstalled 9.04. Yeah, you heard me. In my personal opinion, Ubuntu 9.10 just isn’t ready for public consumption yet as it is experiencing too many issues especially with internet connectivity.

Try as I did to get mine to speed up, it just wasn’t going to happen. No amount of searching as of this morning has produced a solution. 9.04 had no issues with wireless or wired connectivity so why this newest release does is beyond me. Maybe when the devs have had more time to work this one out I’ll try it again. But not on one of my production machines. I’ll try it out on a testing machine first.

I did post my opinion over on Ubuntu’s forums about this and probably will get flamed but I look at it like this: If a product is released for general public consumption, it should just work! Not be buggy and it’s creators or more experienced users tell folks who are trying it for the first time to be patient while the developers work out a fix for the bugs! Sound familiar to you? Windows does this all the time. We don’t like them doing it so why should we be any less demanding with Ubuntu Linux or any other distribution?

We should be getting a stable release when they say it’s ready for general use. Why would they expect us to be accepting of anything less? Especially when Linux in general is pushing so hard for public acceptance. Ubuntu themselves have been pushing hard lately but with this latest release, I feel let down and that they fell short of the mark. I thought that things would have progressed to the point that this release would be very impressive with far less issues. Internet connectivity is paramount in that we have computers just for that purpose.

In this day and age where large corporations have caused economic turmoil, politicians getting caught breaking the law, and we the public generally getting tired of being ripped off, it’s time we started demanding better of our providers and less excuses being made.

Linux as a whole is usually a great and wonderful experience. I love using it. However, please…please take your time and release a stable product next time. We’ll be patient and much more receptive to it than getting one that requires an exterminator to shoo all the bugs out of it.

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My Take on Ubuntu 9.10

Oct 30

Posted by ScottW in Linux | Comments off

Ubuntu 9.10Well, everyone out there is posting away on the subject of Ubuntu 9.10 so why not me? My take is my installation on my HP dv1000 laptop. Make that my clean installation as in old operating system wiped, new one installed. Ready? Good, let’s go.

Like I mentioned already, I wiped the 100gb hard drive clean (I prefer a clean install over an upgrade) after making a backup of all my important files and saving them to my external drive. This way, no issues should present themselves from an upgraded OS (operating system). A lot of folks were making upgrades to their systems and were reporting issues galore from them. This to me represents the number one reason why to make a clean install over an upgrade anyday. By the way, Win7 upgrades are reporting much the same scenario so, this seems to be an issue that cares not for which system is being upgraded. All the systems out there are unique after an owner has them for a period of time.

The installer is slicker than ever with a slide show during the installation that highlights features the new system will have for you. I went with the default installation that takes over the entire disk, entered my info for name, logon, password, etc. and pressed the ‘Enter’ key. Installation took around 30 to 45 minutes total. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ubuntu Linux, Wine and Windows Apps

Oct 6

Posted by ScottW in Linux | 2 Comments

Powered by Ubuntu Linux (Sticker)
Image by jcraveiro via Flickr

A while back I tried installing Wine in my Ubuntu Linux system so I could try running some of the programs and apps that I had on my other computer. Needless to say, it didn’t work out all that well. Now, however, I’m rethinking this tack as this morning I installed Macromedia’s Fireworks MX (at the time it was still under Macromedia) and was met with a lot better results.

The UI (user interface) isn’t as pretty as on a Windows box but functionality is much improved. There are still some issues with the interface and editing the program’s size or workspace if you will but overall, the experience is much improved over my past attempts. This screenshot does it no justice really but does give a somewhat effective view of Fireworks on my Ubuntu Linux desktop. (Warning! Large image size!) Screenshot-Macromedia Fireworks MX under Wine on a Ubuntu Linux desktop—>

I’m sure that at least someone has thought to ask by now why I’m using Fireworks instead of say Inkscape or the GIMP. Kind of odd to use something that one would have to install under Wine and lose some of the appealing aspects of the app and some issues with the UI, right? Well, the only answer I can give you would be the honest one: I paid for the programs a number of years ago (and even the upgrade to DW8/FW8) long before I got into Linux. So to me, just tossing them to the side just because they don’t work natively in Linux like Inkscape would be just plain dumb.

I’m planning on seeing if FW8 will work under Wine too. May as well as the upgrade had some more features in it that I liked. I might later on try DW but seeing as I have Kompozer doing a great job in that area, it’s no rush at this point.

My initial purpose in this was to see if I can run what I need/want to on just one computer and be done with Windows forever. I’m not interested in Windows 7 because to me it represents yet another attempt by M/$ at screwing up someone’s computing lifestyle yet again. I mean, Vi$ta failed miserably, folks are still clutching to XP by the millions and M/$ wants to toss another OS into the mix? I’ll pass thank you very much.

Give me my Ubuntu Linux OS and I’m a happy camper. ;)

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Getting Reacquainted with Ubuntu

Jul 16

Posted by ScottW in Linux | 8 Comments

I’ve just about gotten Ubuntu 9.04 tweaked to my liking now. I reinstalled it this morning and got all the updates and apps installed that I tend to use most often and actually got some cool new themes installed too thanks to the gang over at Web Upd8 with their post about Gnome Themes.

Thing is, with all the testing of different distros that I’ve been doing, I’ve sort of lost touch with Ubuntu and it’s seemingly simple way of doing things. It didn’t take me too long to get back to the hang of it but to be honest, it was a refreshing take on things.

I’m liking the new themes and am going to start trying to come up with some new backgrounds to go with some of them for alternates.

OK, I did like Linux Mint. I just found myself wanting to go back to Ubuntu more and more. Mint was a great learning experience and all but Ubuntu is the mainstay and my decision I guess after trying all the rest is to stick with Ubuntu. Can’t say I didn’t try the ones I did or say I didn’t give them time or whatever…I’ve actually been made fun of for trying so many.

Anyway, Ubuntu is here to stay and I’m good with that. Now, to finish up getting Songbird loaded with my music and so forth and some other minor details. :)

New Theme and Desktop:

Balanzan Theme Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop with Balanzan Theme

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The Waiting Game

Jul 2

Posted by ScottW in Linux | Comments off

Waiting on the repos to get updated with the latest versions of your favorite apps is like having your teeth pulled sometimes. However, adding them (or some at least) by downloading the deb file is a better plan than just hanging around and waiting on the distro of your choice to get it down the pipeline.

So, Filezilla and Pidgin are updated but I’ll wait for Firefox 3.5 to come down the pipe due to some issues I’ve been hearing about others downloading it from the site and running into theme/widget issues.

One day, I’ll get patience…maybe. ;)

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Linux Mint 7 (Gloria)

Jun 19

Posted by ScottW in Linux | 5 Comments

Linux MintIt’s been around 2 weeks since I upgraded my distro from 6 to 7 and so far I’m pleasantly impressed.It’s been a smooth sail ever since I installed it and with no issues during the installation to mention either.

I naturally backed up my /home directory and took snap-shots of all my apps and programs for later installation into LM7 and then inserted the disc for my copy of gparted to wipe the drive clean. I kept my partitions as they were since I couldn’t see any reason to change them and then ejected gparted.

So far everything has been running smoothly with the only minor issue I have is that sometimes, things seem to load slowly like Firefox for example. This could be attributed to some of the addons so I’m going to check those by eliminating them one by one to see if there’s a difference.

Other than that, I’m rocking right along enjoying my new desktop and what all it still does for me.

Anyone else out there tried Gloria yet? What do you think of this new version of Mint?

Update:

I got a comment from someone who made an accusation against Clem. Something to do with either politics or racism. Let’s get one thing straight here now….I don’t cater to politics nor accusations. Keep that stuff elsewhere. It has absolutely nothing to do with an operating system. Understood? Good!

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