Kopete Instead of GTalk

If you're a Linux user like me, you may have noticed by now that Linux doesn't have GTalk. So if you want to chat with your Gmail buddies, you're gonna have to do it over the browser using your email account. No other way, right? Wrong.

I came across Kopete, a chat client that's approved by Google and available in Ubuntu Linux's repository.


It's fairly easy to use, but make sure you have the necessary Debian packages installed in your Ubuntu or whatever installation system is supported by your Linux -- make sure the packages that support SSL and QCA-TLS are there.

Google documents it pretty well. Just click here. I followed the instructions and they work. The most important part is that Kopete uses Jabber to connect to Google, so you have to set up a "Jabber" account that actually connects to Google. But you have to override the default server information and specify connection points. I encircled the connection points below:


When using Kopete, all chats are automatically saved to your Gmail account. And if there are people who suddenly appear online, a widget pops up.

Paint.NET on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)

I was able to install Paint.NET on a Linux, an Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). My first attempt was on an Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) which failed. It seems that the mono package was outdated.




It can be done with a few simple steps:

$ sudo apt-get install mono-common libmono* mono-gmcs
$ svn co http://paint-mono.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/src paint-mono
$ cd paint-mono
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install
$ paintdotnet

The first line installs the needed Debian packages, the second downloads the Paint.NET source code, and lines 3 to 6 compile and install Paint.NET from the source code. To execute the program, simply follow line 7 in executing it from the command-line.

Based on the command-line execution, I made a shortcut on my desktop so it will be easy to start Paint.NET.

Bill Walks Out the Gates

Bill Gates, Microsoft's Chairman, bids farewell. I quote,

The geeks at Microsoft mourn his departure. The Ballmer-Gates dynamic duo will now be a solo flight.

Personally, I'm not a Microsoft fan, though I'm grateful for everything I've learned from MS-DOS to Windows. Will Bill Gate's move gain more ground for open source?