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235 lines
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<title>Linux On Your Desktop: Setting Up GNOME LG #61</title>
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<H4 ALIGN="center">
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<H1><font color="maroon">Linux On Your Desktop</font></H1>
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<H2><EM>- setting up GNOME -</EM></H2>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:mandreiana@yahoo.com">Marius Andreiana</a></H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<P>First of all, a Happy New Year! If you don't use Linux at home yet, you'll learn now more
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about it and you will have a happier year!
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</P>
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<P>
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Why would one use Linux on the desktop ? Isn't Linux an operating system for servers ?
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It was designed for multi-user, networked environments, but it's stability pushed it on the
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desktop too (if you are on the desktop, doesn't mean you can afford you can boot from time to time).
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</P>
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<P>
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Okay than, it's stable, but you still like MS Windows because you don't want to type commands, and
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MS Windows is so easy to use! Easier and more user-friendly than Linux ? Don't think so!
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Sometimes I use MS Windows machines and it's quite frustrating. Illegal operations,
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Explorer not responding and popups from shareware applications. No thanks! Let's give Linux a try!
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</P>
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<P>
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Get a recent Linux distribution (I recommend <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com">Red Hat</A> Linux 7.0 or
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<A HREF="http://www.debian.org">Debian</A> 2.2) and install it (see the instalation manual included for
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details). You don't need to delete Windows (yet :-), just make sure you have a 1G+ partition available.
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</P>
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<P>
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I assume at this point you have it installed Linux, created an user (during instalation) to login with (don't use
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the special user <B>root</B>, which has complete powers over all system, unless you need it) and installed
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the <A HREF="http://www.gnome.org">GNOME</A> desktop environment (being by far my favourite), which I'll focus on.
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Remember this article expresses my personal preferences, which may not suit you.
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</P>
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<P>
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Login at the graphical promt and let's start! If English isn't your native language, you can select yours at login
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time. After logging in, you see a panel and the default desktop launchers (shortcuts).
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</P>
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<P>
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The panel hosts the main menu, applets and launchers. You can have more panels, but we'll stick to one for now.
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Applets are small applications embedded in the panel, such as task list (all open windows have buttons with their title
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and icon) and clock. You can remove/add applets easily by right-clicking them or right-clicking the panel, and selecting
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Panel -> Add to panel -> Applet and the applet you want. Right-click on the clock now, Remove from panel, then add
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Applet -> Clocks -> After Step Clock. Right click on it again, select Move and put it where you like. Feel free to experiment
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with the applets. It's nice to have the Multimedia -> Mixer applet for sound card volume.
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</P>
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<P>
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There's also the Desk Guide applet, which shows a list of desktops. What's that ? Well, you can have more desktops, unlike
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MS WIndows, where there is only one. If you open lots of applications, it's getting hard to navigate through them. I like to use
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a desktop for terminals, one for editing, one for internet browsing, and so on. You can flip through them clicking in the Desk Guide
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applet or pressing ALT+F1, ALT+F2, etc. (note: this is the default on the Sawfish window manager. ALT is also called Meta).
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</P>
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<P>
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Before going to the window manager, let's work a little more on the panel. I like it clean, so I remove the After Step clock, add back
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the simple clock. RIght click the panel, select Panel -> Properties -> All properties, and choose the Tiny size. Notice how
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the mixer applet changed, moving to the horizontal position to fit the panel size. You can add launchers to panel, I'll let you
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figure out how (no need to read the manual for that :).
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</P>
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<P>
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The window manager manages windows (surprise!). Moving a window, the title bar and all window-related operations is its job.
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Sawfish is very nice. Go to Control Center, and after experimenting with different settings, try Sawfish window manager -> Shortcuts.
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(M stands for Meta, which is the ALT key). I like start Netscape by pressing Ctrl+Meta+N, instead of selecting it from the menu or
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panel launcher. To do that, choose Insert, Run Shell Command, type the command (netscape) and Grab the key shortcut.
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<BR>
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I have lots of keyboard shortcuts, and don't use desktop launchers at all (to double click one, you need to minimize all open
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windows, or move to a unused desktop). Other shortcuts I use is Ctrl+Meta+M for maximizing window, Ctrl+Meta+D to delete it
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(close). Windows have gravity, meaning when you open a new window, it will be posistioned in the place where it has the most
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unoccupied space available.
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</P>
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<P>
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Some quick tips:
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<UL>
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<LI>You can move windows by pressing Meta, press and hold click anywhere in the window and move the mouse
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<LI>To copy & paste text, select it with the mouse, then click where you want to paste it with the middle mouse button (if you don't
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have one and choose to emulate a 3 button mouse, press both buttons)
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<LI>To log out quickly, press Ctrl+Meta+Del (it's the default shortcut on Sawfish). Your open applications wil open again next
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time you log in
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<LI>To open a link in Netscape in a new window, press it with middle mouse button
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</UL>.
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</P>
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<P>
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Here is a screenshot of my desktop :
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<P>
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<DIV ALIGN="CENTER">
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<IMG SRC="misc/andreiana/marius_desktop.jpg" WIDTH="800" HEIGHT="600" BORDER="0" ALT="Marius' Desktop"></P>
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</DIV>
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</P>
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<P>Don't like how it looks ? Change it! Use themes, both for GTK (Gimp Toolkit, such as buttons, labels...) and Sawfish.
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Visit <A HREF="http://themes.org">themes.org</A> to see more themes than included ones. Now how about this (older screenshot):
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<P>
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<DIV ALIGN="CENTER">
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<IMG SRC="misc/andreiana/marius_desktop_startrek.jpg" WIDTH="800" HEIGHT="600" BORDER="0" ALT="Marius' Desktop - Star Trek theme">
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</DIV>
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</P></P>
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<P>
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Next, you'll see how to manage your system. If this would have been about MS Windows, I would have talked about using
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several shareware anti-virus programs, using Defrag, purchasing and using Norton Utilities, provide links to several sites with
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shareware software, learn to install & remove them, cleaning up after them, making backups of your registry, and tips about how
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to reboot faster.
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<BR>Fortunalley, this is Linux, so managing your system means installing and removing applications! :-) An application comes
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usually in a package (.rpm for Red Hat, .deb for Debian). Using Red Hat Linux, I'll focus on RPM.
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</P>
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<P>
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Open GnoRPM (Main menu -> Programs -> System). If you want to install/remove packages, you'll need to enter root password.
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Look around to see what you have installed now. To find out more about a package, Query it.
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<BR>
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You can search for software at <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net">freshmeat</A>. For example, get the Bluefish HTML editor,
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which I've used to write this article. Download it, then in GnoRPM use Install.
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</P>
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<P>
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I update my packages quite often, software evolving pretty fast, being free open-source software. If you use Red Hat Linux 7.0,
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visit <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/rh7-errata-bugfixes.html">
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http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/rh7-errata-bugfixes.html</A> and update glibc libraries to version 2.2.
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</P>
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<P>
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A quick note about accesing your CD-ROM : in GNOME, when you enter a CD, a file-manager window opens. What happens
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it that it's also automatically mounted. To access a storage device in Linux (CD-ROM, floppy, hard-disk), you have to mount it
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in a directory. There are no letters for it (like A:, C:, D: etc). The CD-ROM is mounted by default in /mnt/cdrom.
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<BR>
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The easiest way to use Windows-formatted floppies is with a text terminal, with commands such as <B>mdir a:</B>,
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<B>mcopy file.txt a:</B>, <B>mformat a:</B>.
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<BR>
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Please read the distribution manual for more details.
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</P>
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<P>
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That's it for this month. Please have a look at the Getting Started manual and GNOME manual (skim through them to see what
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they talk about, and return later when you need something).
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</P>
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<P>
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Experiment & learn more about Linux; once you get used to it,
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you'll love it. Don't use root if you don't know what you do.
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<P>
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Keep your files organized.
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I've had more partitions, but always I was running out of space on one of them, so now I have one big
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partition (10G). I've created two directories in <B>/</B> : <B>/opt</B> and <B>/my</B>.
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As the Linux <A HREF="http://www.pathname.com/fhs">Filesystem Hierarchy
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Standard</A> says, <B>/opt</B> is reserved for the installation of add-on
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application software packages; large applications, such as <A
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HREF="http://www.openoffice.org">Open Office</A>, can keep all their files
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together. But I also store there files already saved on CDs, like mp3s and
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documentation.
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<P> <B>/my</B> isn't a standard, but I've found it to be a convenient location
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for files I need to save when I make backup, such as my work or documentation.
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<B>/home</B> is a symlink to <B>/my/home</B>. If you have a web site or MySQL
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databases, you may want to symlink <B>/var/www</B> and <B>/var/lib/mysql</B>
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into <B>/my</B> as well. You'll also need to back up <B>/etc</B> and
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<B>/boot</B> too. (You could symlink these into <B>/my</B> as well but you
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probably shouldn't, since the machine won't boot if these directories get
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erased or anything funny happens to the symlink.)
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<P>To learn more, visit <A HREF="http://linuxdoc.org">linuxdoc.org</A>. There you'll find, among others, HOWTOs, short documents
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which talk about a specific thing. If you want to learn more about your computer & Linux, you can! Unlike MS Windows, Linux is
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an open operating system, with lots of features and documentation.
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</P>
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<P>Some interesting sites to visit regularily are <A HREF="http://lwn.net">Linux Weekly News</A>,
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<A HREF="http://linuxtoday.com">Linux Today</A>, <A HREF="http://slashdot.org">Slashdot</A> and
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<A HREF="http://freshmeat.net">Freshmeat.</A></P>
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<P>
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Next month we'll talk about how to play mp3s cross-fading them, divx movies and more! Until then, happy Linuxing!
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</P>
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
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Copyright © 2000, Marius Andreiana.<BR>
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Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
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Published in Issue 61 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, January 2001</H5>
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