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Editorial changes

No, I am not going to beat that old horse again - This is about some editorial changes I suffered. Yesterday, I bought the Mexican edition of PC Magazine. Why? Because I will be writing there every month, and this is the first article they publish. A two page long article, the “Linux” section. I wanted to check how butchered was it, as I understood it has to undergo stylistic review - Probably they were too busy removing the excess of emphasis in “Free Software” from my text, or something like that. Ok, so they deleted some paragraphs here and there, mutilated some others… But in general, yes, they took the central idea - They removed my emphasis also on how Free Software builds -like the Unix tradition- around many small tools that know very well how to do specific tasks… Well, whatever. Now, something just jumped to my eyes: I was talking in this article about firewall helpers, monitoring tools, intrusion detection, and… CD and DVD burners?! Yes, as silly as it sounds, I found this paragraph (obviously, in Spanish):

Nero has made available NerlLinux, with capabilities to record audio and mixed disks. This version uses the NeroAPI for low-level operations in the CD recording process, offers automatic detection and support for all kinds of internal CD or DVD recorders supported in the NeroAPI 6.6. It also includes optimizations based in the Kernel, support for UltraBuffer, support for hot-plug for external USB devices, without you having to reboot any of your applications. It supports RedHat Linux 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, 9 and Enterprise Linux 3, as well as SuSE Linux 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2 and Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (with kernel 2.4 or higher). It is available for download at ww2.nero.com/enu/NeroLINUX.html

Ok, just in case somebody finds my page looking for information about NeroLinux: DON’T USE THAT CRAP. There are many better, free alternatives. My personal favorite is cdrecord - Yes, console-based and all, but it is extremely easy and efficient to use. If you want a complete, graphical, nice, easy and beautiful solution, take a look at gcombust or gnomebaker if you are Gnome-headed, k3b or arson if you like KDE, or any of the other available free tools. Say no to evil propietary software.

Comments

damog 2005-08-19 06:57:00

RE: Editorial changes

If you are a good GNOME user, you’ll be using nautilus-cd-burner. Stop old school! :-P


damog 2005-08-19 06:58:00

RE: Editorial changes

Y creo que no todo el software propietario es íbol. Quizá Nero sí, pero no todo.


Gunnar 2005-08-20 10:13:07

RE: Editorial changes

Well, first of all: I cannot stand on piracy’s side. If you got a .nrg of a game, it is probably because it is a propietary game and you didn’t get it legally. But let’s forget about this technisisms for a minute. I use Debian, so I am happy. If I happened to get a .nrg file, I would just have to do this: <blockquote><tt>gwolf@lactop:~$ apt-cache search nrg libcdio-dev - library to read and control CD-ROM (development files) libcdio3 - library to read and control CD-ROM nrg2iso - Extracts ISO9660 data from Nero ".nrg" files pydance-music - Songs and step patterns for pydance </tt></blockquote> Aha! So there is a nrg2iso converter… Ok, lets look at it… <blockquote><tt>apt-cache show nrg2iso Package: nrg2iso Priority: optional Section: otherosfs Installed-Size: 28 Maintainer: Misha Nasledov <misha@debian.org> Architecture: i386 Version: 0.4-1.1 Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.5-1) Filename: pool/main/n/nrg2iso/nrg2iso_0.4-1.1_i386.deb Size: 4974 MD5sum: d029192b7fe7cbb697e6c79beeff9497 Description: Extracts ISO9660 data from Nero ".nrg" files This extracts the ISO9660 CD image data from Nero ".nrg" files. Tag: format::iso9660 </tt></blockquote> Looks like a winner… <blockquote><tt>gwolf@lactop:~$ sudo aptitude install nrg2iso (…) Need to get 4974B of archives. After unpacking 28.7kB will be used. Writing extended state information… Done Get:1 http://nisamox.fciencias.unam.mx unstable/main nrg2iso 0.4-1.1 [4974B] </tt></blockquote> Done. I can use any regular CD recorder for those pesky .nrg images! No more need for Nero.


Gunnar 2005-08-21 21:37:49

RE: Editorial changes

Pues… Sí. Y, tristemente, sí voy a seguir escribiendo ahí - Vamos a ver cómo va. Voy a escribir un par de veces antes de hacer ruido a los editores. Como sea, creo que es un medio que llega a mucha gente, y el balance total termina siendo positivo. …Veremos.


Gunnar 2005-08-19 14:01:36

RE: Editorial changes

Ok, you got me - It’s no secret that I don’t use neither Gnome nor KDE :)


Kaio 2005-08-18 14:01:06

RE: Editorial changes

I’ve used it ‘cause I have a bunch of .nrg images of games and so on.

I don’t think it’s crap. It is propietary, but in overall, it’s a good product.


Kaio 2005-08-18 14:07:36

RE: Editorial changes

BTW, I prefer xcdroast which uses cdrecord and mkisofs in the background.


markuz 2005-08-19 19:45:49

RE: Editorial changes

It is propietary software, it is crap.


sergio 2005-08-21 17:32:41

RE: Editorial changes

Gunnar, pero entonces, ¿PC Magazine puso lo de Nero como parte de tu artículo? Y vas a seguir escribiendo en esa revista, sabiendo que meten cosas que no escribiste ?


visor 2005-08-19 00:44:15

RE: Editorial changes

The problem with most of the free software applications out there capable of burning cd’s is that most of the times they wont work. I mean nero works out of the box, has decode support for many formats while k3b for example doesnt, this kind of things make programs like nero a tempting alternative even when they are not free because users expect programs to do what they are suppossed to do, like burning a CD. Sometimes doing this on linux its not trivial (yes, not yet) because of cdrecord permissions, a plugin to decode mp3 to wav and the like. I know we should use free formats (and i always fight for this) but most people wont do a light-speed change and most of them would do as those formats become wider to the users.

For example, i have spent more money on buying CD’s that were left useless with free software burning programs than what i had in buying nero license, yet freedom is priceless for me but not everyone thinks the same.

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