To have Eclipse use a particular Java VM :

Edit the eclipse.ini file and add the vm argument below the line org.eclipse.platform

-vm /absolute/path/to/your/java/executable

I’ve found this particularly useful on Windows when I’ve installed and removed various versions of JDK and eclipse appears completely lost and confused.

Kubuntu left a lot to be desired on my machine so I looked around for another good KDE distro and found Mandriva!

What works out of the box:

• External Speakers! Hallelujah! Finally!!
• Desktop effects run right off the live CD

What doesn´t:

• Webcam still doesn´t work but that´s really low on priority
• Power management is still a pain (I´m looking into this, expect a post soon)
• Bluetooth needs a lot of tweaking go get to work

Repository Setup :

Setting up repositories in Mandriva is not quite as easy as Ubuntu´s sources.list way. However, no need to fret. Head over here and follow the instructions. Voila!

Also, you´ll find that the repository locks every now and again with a ¨”URPMI DATABASE LOCKED”¨. This post is what you´ll need.

Very easy and intuitive , Mandriva is the Ubuntu for the KDE fan!

With my recent conversion to Linux one of the first things I missed was a familiar DB client.

I’d been working with Toad on Windows for quite a bit now and had grown rather used to the interface. I needed a similar replacement on Linux. A search for “Toad + Linux” threw up a lot of TOra.

TOra has all the same features as Toad with very similar interface, including schema browser, syntax highlighting and support for common databases.

Trouble is, by default TOra comes packaged with only the PostgreSQL “Connection Provider” .

So if you want to get it to work with MySQL the following Qt dependencies need to be installed as well:

sudo apt-get install tora libqt3-mt-odbc libqt3-mt-mysql

• 	svn --version

• 	svnadmin --version

Create a repository :

• 	mkdir ~/svn-repos

• 	svnadmin create ~/svn-repos

At this point you should have a folder called svn-repos in your home directory with several folders and a README.txt in it. This will be your repository

Say you want to import all the contents of your ~/development folder to your repository

• 	cd ~/development

•  	svn import -m "this will be the comment for this import" . file:///~/svn-repos/myproject/trunk

TortoiseSVN

TortoiseSVN is a windows client for subversion.

• 	Right click on an empty folder you want to check out the project into

• 	Select SVNCheckout...

• 	Use svn as the protocol if you're accessing the repository over a network (file if you're accessing a local repository)

                           eg: svn://url.of.repository:3690/name_of_repo

Subclipse

While trying to install Subclipse with Eclipse Europa (3.3.1.1 ) you may run into some trouble with dependencies. So perform the install as below :

When I first decided to shift from Windows to Linux, these were the main reasons:

1. Costly upgrades : I was running XP SP1, however if I needed to play .mp4 files I would need media player 9 for which I would need IE7+ which will only run on XP SP2. So blow up thousands to upgrade the OS? Not bloody likely.
2. Virus : The cost of good antivirus software and the amount of space it takes up not to mention the amount of time spent scanning files and updating definitions.
3. Costly software : Any decent software I needed, from file type conversion to antivirus meant I had to buy and maintain it at a cost. If it were free, then you´ve just sucessfully added another denizen to your community of spyware and adware.
4. Lack of choice : A little research and I was blown over by the number of options you had in the Linux-verse

I experimented with Ubuntu, like all greenhorns should. Installation is delightfully intuitive and the Gnome DE is easy to use and a lot like the familiar Windows desktop.

Ubuntu Installation:

Running ¨sudo lshw¨ in a terminal tells me that among other things, I have a AMD Turion 64 2.2GHz processor, an ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 and an ATI SB450 HDA sound card

Although I have a 64 bit processor, I went ahead with the 32 bit installation since the 64 bit Ubuntu distro would just freeze up during installation.

I partitioned the 120 GB hard drive into Primary partitions: / – 10GB, /boot – 400MB
Swap: 2GB ( I have 1 GB of RAM) and the rest as a Logical partition: /home

First thing to do after installation would be to sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list and uncomment all the repositories.

Graphics card setup:
Go to System -> Administration -> Restricted Drivers Manager, then check ATI accelerated graphics driver. Once that downloads, open /etc/X11/xorg.conf and replace “ati” with “fglrx”. Reboot.

From there everything is a breeze.

Right. now for what doesn’t work:

1. No sound from the external speakers – I am unable to get the external speakers working with Ubuntu. And although sound works on the headphones, behaviour was erratic in that even if the Volume Control is set to mute, I volume levels were inconsistent across different applications
2. Power Management – power management says “no battery present” , refused to recoginse the battery and gives about 1 hourś running time. Which is fine for now.
3. The integrated acer orbicam doesn´t work but then a lot of digging about in the forums shows that although there seems to be some luck in the desktop department, the era of integrated laptop cameras on linux is yet to come.

KDE

I strayed into KDE country via Kubuntu and at once knew I´d never be able to love Gnome again. Not only was the KDE gorgeous compared to the mousy Gnome but one could pop up the settings manager and customize the desktop till it was completely unrecognisable. More importantly, the applications! Rhythmbox couldn´t hold a candle to Amarok, Ktorrent is unmatched in reconfigurability. K3B is simply the best in the business.

So Kubuntu is the way to go you say? Unfortunately, Kubuntu is Ubuntu´s under-favoured step-brother. Hardware support is shaky in the live CD, repositories aren´t always up to date. I´ve seen some improvement in the new KDE4 version, so perhaps things have changed since. (Disappointingly, I find KDE4 stepping backwards in the Gnome direction. But I´m sure the powers that be will learn and mend their ways)

The next distro I tried was Mandriva, mainly because of the KDE promise. And has since become my personal favourite. Strongly recommended for laptops.

However Ubuntu remains my silver bullet. I’ve used my original, straight from Canonical CD for everything from impressing my friends with the live CD concept, to rescuing my machine after problems due to distro hopping, to recovering data from Windows machines left for dead. Can´t imagine life without my trusty live CD.