Ernies Tech Thoughts

I have begun the search for a software app to manage project tracking and collaboration. It will need to be browser based so I can have it used internally and externally for Aura Media. Using PHP as the scripting language is the preference as that is what I am most comfortable with, but I am not against a solution that used Python or Ruby. The last requirement is a free and open source license.

In the past I have been a happy Mantis user for bug and issue tracking. So much that I have installed it in a few client sites. However now I want a broader product that includes time tracking and more collaboration features. Also Mantis is showing its age in a visual sense, and this can put off less technical users. Project tracking is the aim, not project planning with features like gannt charts.

In the past I did look at ActiveCollab, but they changed their license, and Streber, but it was immature and moving in a more wiki direction.

My current investigation lisr is:

• ProjectPier (activecollab fork)
• the terribly named OpenGoo (another activecollab fork)
• Redmine (RoR based)

Open to any other suggestions.

For many years now I have been a very happy KDE user when it came to a Linux desktop. Not that I have anything against Gnome, but KDE just felt right. So for a while now I have been looking forward to KDE4 as a big jump to even better functionality, ease of use etc. The KDE developers have been very open that KDE4 is still rough around the edges, but the best way to get the most users and widest use is to take away beta from the title and let it go. Now KDE 3.5 is serving me fine, but with the release of Kubuntu 8.04, this way the chance to give the new KDE a real go. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in the dark ages when i did all my dev work on a Windows machine, my FTP client of choice was FileZilla. It was one thing I missed in the Linux world. gFTP was ok, but sometimes flakey, and Konqueror did the job, but the layout was not as good as FileZilla.

So now the great news. Filezilla 3 is in beta not just for Windows, but also Linux. I am running 3.0.0-beta7, available in the Kubuntu Universe repository. So far smooth and reliable.

They promised April 19th and they have delivered. Kubuntu 7.04 has been released. Right now it is downloading (700Mb takes a while even on broadband). I have been looking forward to this with upgraded and new apps, especially K3b and the possibility to try out snapshots of KDE4.

I have a number of different mail accounts which I read using Mozilla Thunderbird. Each time a new account is added it appears at the bottom of the mail list. One new account I wanted to move near the top, but Thunderbird does not give an option to reorder accounts. The answer is to edit prefs.js file. On Linux systems ~/.thunderbird/<your profile>/prefs.js, and for Windows C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your profile>\pref.js

Look for a line like: user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts", "account3,account2,account5,account4,account1");
This is the line you will need to modify.

So what does account3 mean and which email account does it match?
In the lines above you will find something like: user_pref("mail.account.account3.identities", "id2");. If the id was 2, search in the prefs.js file for user_pref("mail.identity.id2.useremail". This will give you the matching email address.

One little extra if you wish to make a certain email address at the top. It needs to be made the default. See the line starting with: user_pref("mail.accountmanager.defaultaccount"

Remember, only edit this file while Thunderbird is closed.

Don’t forget software freedom day this Saturday the 16th. Plenty going on in Sydney, and the rest of Australia. Unfortunately all this weekend I locked up in small business course so will miss the talks and events. But if you some spare time on Staurday, find out what is going on in your local area, and drop in.

Attended my first meeting of the Sydney PHP Group the other night. A reasonably small affair, but with a very good talk from the founders of the site Remember the Milk. It was good to see two passionate and talented people talk about all the work they have done, the boundaries that needed to be pushed, and some of the pitfalls they have encountered. A lot of Free and Open Source Software is used (some of which they created) based around PHP, Python, web servers and postgress as the db. And it makes good use of AJAX technologies. I can see the purpose rather than a gimmick. Inspiring for a couple of ideas I am working on.
There is a pdf of the presentation, which includes relevant links.

Over the years I have tried a number of Linux distributions: Redhat, Mandrake/driva, suse. All had their pluses and minuses, with my preference generally for Mandrake.

Last year when I changed to a Dell laptop as my primary work computer, I again set up a dual boot system. This I didn’t enjoy so much. Many frustrating hours when there are other things to be done. Redhat Fedora 3 & 4 annoyed me no end, getting info about Mandriva was a pain, so I settled with opensuse. Some config on my part but relatively smooth and it did the job with minor quirks.

During this time I had never tried a Debian based system, but I was hearing so many good things about Ubuntu I had to give it a try. I have always had a personal preference for KDE over GNOME, so I went for the sibling Kubuntu. Download the iso file, burn it to disc, and start the install. 6 steps and I was up and running. This I found scary. No extra config or hunting the internet for drivers. System updating was simple, and it just works. I am sure there are issues I haven’t hit yet, but they should be small. If K/ubuntu keeps this up I may just use it on the server.

As I talk to clients about their software needs, some are suprised there is another way to get software than shrink wrapped vendor supplied. I sat down and put together a small paper on how free and open source (FOSS) software can be a better alternative in many cases, and especially for smaller organisations. It is in pdf (90Kb) .

Today we released our first version of a bridge for punbb forum and Mantis issue tracking software. Both are GPL and so naturally is this bridge.