LPH - December 21

[TRN]

While we were driving home from LA, EMH wrote a wonderful status paper the other day. Unfortunately I lost the papers. The following is written from my poor memory and Birdie's memory. EMH charges by the word -- so we'll not ask her to write this update again. :-)

Enough of the introduction and excuses.

Tux Reports has four main projects currently under development: the server project, review project, HOWTO project, and the documentation project. This will help guide us as we attempt to enlarge the website to meet our latest goal of giving space for our penguin friends to share their experiences. We've listed the projects by their priority. There is also a poll to help us gage where you would like us to place emphasis over the next few weeks.

Server Project
Our first priority has been moving our home to a new server capable of handling higher traffic and also giving us greater freedom.

Move
Our move to a dedicated server was successful. We have all of the files from the previous server uploaded and we are now just moving through the site and cleaning up any errors.

DNS
The DNS paperwork was filled out today and it will take a little time to propogate. Eventually it will be more convenient to just type in www.tuxreports.com rather than the IP number.

PostNuke
We are not using the latest version of PostNuke. This is because we have modified the language files and a few other modules and don't want to wipe out that work. We will work with the files and see if we can enhance our visitor's experience.

(1) New modules
We'll be adding new modules as time permits.

(2) Modifying modules
The reviews and sections module are not perfect and hopefully we'll take the time to fix them as they are shown on http://www.armorama.com/

Review Project
Template - we are putting our format together so that we make sure each review is complete and readable.
At-A-Glance - the other day we published the Phoenix At-A-Glance. More of these will follow as we look at the latest releases of applications and distributions.
T.R.U.S.T. :: Tux Reports Usability Scale

HOWTO Project
EMH and Birdie are trying to put together steps for using GNU/Linux that will help others use GNU/Linux.

Documentation
This is EMH's latest project. She loves to read documents and wants to put together her thoughts about how to improve documents.

Our priorities have been to fix the server. Now we'll work on the At-A-Glance articles. Please take the time to fill out the poll and let us know your thoughts about the current direction for Tux Reports.

[muskrat]

I for one find the how to's in useing terminal mode very sufecent.

Most how-tos tell you the commands but each command is sepperate. They expect a person to have a basic understanding of commands. I started my PC experance in MS win95. We didn't need any commands to function.

Most one word commands I can handle. But often in termenal mode you need to compile a string of commands in order to get some program to function. I would think a how-to that showed examples of the basic commands already complied would be a big help in learning how to write those.

Maybe I'm an exception. But if we are to ever take back more of the avaerage PC user market. There will be a need for this. IF and when I learn enough I may have to write it myself.

[muskrat]

I for one find the how to's in useing terminal mode very insufecent. :oops:

This key board need to go back to school! :lol:

[Clayt]

Maybe it's too big a topic, but how about a HOWTO on fonts. Specifically getting those TrueType Fonts (you know whose) that can make a GNU/Linux installation look more professional and in step with the rest of the world.

I want both the desktop, the browsers, and the word processors to have these fonts. Unfortunately it's not always easy. Libranet makes it easy, Red Hat does not. And Abiword has its own problems.

Anyway, it's a thought. Maybe a HOWTO for adults, not just kids.

:idea:

[TRN]

Do you mean something like this?

http://www.blankslate.net/linuxtype/add.php

Unfortunately the author was not able to add information regarding AbiWord and... "I'll be unavailable except via snail mail until August 2004" is at the bottom of the page.

[Clayt]

Yes, that's the idea. It's such a downer to have to start by reading "Working with fonts in Linux is an admittedly difficult task." And there are all those "coming soon" and "no success here" comments. Is there a global solution coming one of these days? For now a distro by distro overview followed by an application by application overview might be a help. Big job!

There's a useful link page on the site until Ben (a 19 year-old who's way ahead of me) gets back from Thailand.

Try: http://www.blankslate.net/linuxtype/links.php

[TRN]

The most useful link for fonts may be this one:

http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~dchest/xfthack/