A glass of Wine with a side-order of p2p please!

So I promised I would try my luck with p2p and music on Kubuntu for my next post, so here it is.
Im a regular in several chatrooms (As well as an Admin) on the Ares Galaxy p2p servers, so Ares was my first choice for p2p software, after finding out that Ares isnt available on Linux I was puzzled as what to do, So I hopped on MSN and spoke to one of the server owners and he said I should try my luck with Wine, for those who dont know, Wine is essentially a Windows emulator for Unix based operating systems, it allows you to run software for Windows under Unix based operating systems such as Linux, meaning Kubuntu - So I grabbed Wine and was thrilled to see it allowed me to install Ares with no issues - My next step was to see if Ares would run without any tweaks needed (As its open source). To my suprise Ares runs smoothly and without any flaws under Wine!
Im downloading mp3's as we speak (Arrr Im a pirate!) though I thought I might say - I only download music I cant find on iTunes :P .

-Kiefer

Sasaki Yukinari, Bravo!

So today I decided I might try my luck at getting my extensive anime collection to work on Kubuntu, And quite to my suprise the video's run smoother than they ever used to on WindowsXP, which is a massive improvement, I can now watch Sasaki get beaten up by women at proper speed! hooray!
Im using .rmvb (RealMedia Variable Binary - Or something to that extent) files, which have become quite popular among the anime community, especially in Japan and China due to its low filesize and high quality (greater then even MPEG4 or Xvid). I had some issues getting the files to play in Vlc Player, so I hopped on the Kubuntu IRC chat and asked around and I was directed towards RealPlayer, after the painstaking download process on their webpage (constant argument that you should purchase their 'superpass') I installed with no issues and after playing around with the configuration within RealPlayer, the video's play smoothly - So a thumbs up for media under Linux!

Coming next: p2p & Music!..

Konsole? Console?

The worst mistake a developer (in progress) can make is becoming accustom to using GUI based applications, you know; click here, drag here, click here, type here, etc. And any Windows user can tell you, Console is for hard-core hackers and nerds (of which i am both), but a common misconception is the the command-line interface is scary, when in actual fact its alot simpler and easier to use, even for the end-user. Ive become accustom to Konsole now, though I always liked the idea of doing things with commands (kommands?) but that was a little before of my time (slightly hehe). And even when I did get serious about programming and developing, I tried to stray away from the dreaded Windows command line - But Kubuntu has changed my perception of command line interfaces, I've come to learn that if your willing to spend 10-15 minutes learning the basic commands that the Konsole is an invaluable tool when using Linux, Im in the process of writing a small guide to get Linux newbies accustom to the Konsole interface, it will be online shortly!
stay tuned, and remember - Always look on the bright side of linux.

Kooboontoo?

So a few weeks ago, Dave; a mate of mine, and I were chatting on MSN, when all of a sudden I was struck with the dreaded BSOD that I had seen all too many times in my almost 10 years of Windows, I had gotton used to the screen, and used to the procedure that followed, restart.. Forget whatever I was doing.. Start all over and pray it didnt happen again, Once I had rebooted and gotten back on to MSN I vented my frustration to Dave, he suggested switching 'to the dark side', intrigued, I asked what he meant; 'Ubuntu! or Kubuntu!" he exclaimed, after 15 minutes, I had hopped onto shipit.kubuntu.com and ordered Kubuntu 7.10 and Ubuntu 7.10 (For free I might add, it didnt cost me a cent, not even P&H). so a few days ago, The CD's arrived (with free stickers!) and I decided to leave MS Windows XP behined after a lifetime of use, to switch to Kubuntu 7.10, The installation went smoothly and a day hasnt gone by where I didnt find a cool new feature that was not to be found in Windows, but I am admittidly a Linux Newb, so I'll be blogging about my adventures through Linux from an end-used and programmer point of view - Lets hope its a smooth ride!