August 25, 2006

Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way review

Filed under: Tech Book Reviews — @ 3:16 pm

Learning to make your own Web pages almost seems like an obsolete skill now that there are so many content management systems (CMS) and blogging tools available. But for small, generally static sites, a CMS can’t beat the security, ease of implementation, search engine friendliness, and low bandwidth usage of hand-coded HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS). Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS is a good tutorial for people who want to create their own Web sites without being tied to a CMS with all of its overhead and maintenance.

Writing analysis

I was surprised at the poor quality of the writing in Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way. To begin with, there’s a major typo on the first page of the preface. How can you miss a typo on the first page of written text in the entire manuscript? Then there are the commas; there are so many superfluous commas in this book that I’m certain the author must have had a financial incentive to put them there. Capitalization of words like Web and Internet is selectively enforced. He also frequently goes on little adventures with either obscure British colloquialisms or the apparent correction of them, so readers are left to stumble through sentences like this one: “Building web sites is something from which many of us get a lot of enjoyment.”

While the author may not be much of a writer, he does know what he’s talking about when it comes to static Web site design principles. Having created many Web sites with the same techniques and technologies, I couldn’t disagree with any of his advice or instructions on HTML and CSS coding. So the book is very informative but at times hard to read because of the author’s style.

Putting the book to the test

Usually I fault most programming books for not providing exercises for readers to follow — after all, you can’t really learn a language if you don’t use it, and often a reader won’t immediately have a good reason to use it — but Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way is different. Anyone can build their own personal Web site for themselves while following along with the book’s instruction, substituting their own project for the book’s.

The book covers a lot of ground with site design in XHTML and CSS. It begins by building an example site with basic XHTML, and progresses by adding more elements and techniques along the way. In the latter portion of the book, advanced concepts like Web forms and the implementation of outside APIs (Blogger.com is the example) to create dynamic sites are discussed. The only thing missing is a serious discussion on WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, and Nvu. While Dreamweaver is mentioned in passing a few times, the author never really stops to explain what it is, how it should and should not be used, and how it might benefit Web designers.

Also left uncovered is Javascript, though that is such a confusing subject that its omission in this book is a good thing.

It’s always disappointing to see GNU/Linux ignored in books like these. The author’s advice on software is limited to Apple and Windows users, and all of the book’s screen shots are of either OS X or Windows XP. Software recommendations and cosmetics aside, the entire book is still valid for GNU/Linux, *BSD, or other alternative OS users and it is not specific to any certain HTTP server.

Conclusions

If you’re thinking of building your own HTML/CSS-based Web site for personal, family, or business use, this book is an excellent resource for learning as you design. The author says in the preface that historically there have been many mediocre or incomplete HTML instructional books, and that Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS is the answer to them. He’s right in many ways — there have been a number of low-quality tutorials and guides over the years that have taught bad design principles. I know because I’ve read them. But while I find the quality of the writing to be sub-par, this book’s technical advice is correct, thorough, and appropriate for readers of all backgrounds. It is definitely the best HTML/CSS design book I have ever read.

Title	Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS
Publisher	Sitepoint
Author	Ian Lloyd
ISBN	0975240293
Pages	Paperback, 488 pages
Rating	8 out of 10
Tag line	Learning HTML and CSS has never been so much fun.
Price (retail)	U.S. $19. Buy it from Amazon.com

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Open up the /components/com_rss/rss.php file with a text editor and skip down to line 212. You should see this:

$item_link = $mosConfig_live_site .'/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id='. $row->id .'&Itemid='. $mainframe->getItemid( $row->id );

That’s the line that forms URLs for your content. The standard, built-in Mambo SEO function changes this URL to something simpler that search engines can more easily follow and index. If you’re using this function (and not some other third-party SEO/SEF hack), you will have to replace the above line with this one in order to get SEO URLs in your feeds:

$item_link = $mosConfig_live_site .'/content/view/'. $row->id .'/'. $mainframe->getItemid( $row->id );

Save and close the file, then check your feeds to make sure the addresses are being written properly.

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Ken Wong, Senior Quality Support Manager

Who are you? What is your role in the company or project, and what are you responsible for?

Ken Wong

Ken Wong: I am Ken Wong, the Senior Quality Support Manager at Xandros. I oversee and manage both the Quality Assurance and Technical Support teams.

What drew you to Xandros?

KW: I am a believer in OS alternatives to Windows. I joined Xandros because the company does exactly that — develop a user-friendly Linux OS that is a true alternative to Windows for average computer users. I was also attracted to Xandros because everyone here believes in that mission, and works to ensure the highest standards in product development and quality testing. We have an extremely rigorous quality assurance process, and everybody at Xandros respects that, even if it means delaying a product release.

What’s the best part about Xandros’ GNU/Linux distributions?

KW: Xandros OS is designed with the Windows user in mind, specifically with the intent to ease the migration from Windows to Linux. To do that, we incorporate bug fix patches to many Linux applications so that the Xandros OS closely parallels Windows features and behavior. Windows users can be productive without having to learn Linux commands. Xandros is also extremely simple to install — a lot simpler than Windows or any other Linux OS, I would say.

What other open source projects have you worked on in the past?

KW: Prior to joining Xandros, I worked on the NetWinder server appliance at Rebel.com, a general purpose server for small businesses running on customized hardware. The software offered a friendly GUI to configure all server components over the Web. The company had similar goals of helping Windows administrators/users on alternatives to Windows server. The company is no longer around but I’m still running a rebel.com server at home. It’s still running great — it uses only 7 watts per hour.

What is the most overlooked fact or most commonly misunderstood idea about Xandros? What should people know that they don’t know from other interviews and reviews of Xandros Desktop and Server?

KW: We have received many great reviews, but one thing not well understood is that our desktop is not a vanilla KDE. It includes a lot of usability enhancements to KDE plus our own Xandros applications where there is no open source equivalent to meet the Windows user’s needs. For example, our Xandros File Manager has similar look & feel and functionality to that of Windows Explorer, and our Xandros Networks is a central place to install, update and remove software that should be familiar to anyone who has used Microsoft’s “Update” and “Add or Remove” facilities. It all comes down to our shared commitment to the end user that, in turn, makes Xandros an exciting place to work.

Erich Forler, Senior Product Development Manager.

Who are you? What is your role in the company or project, and what are you responsible for?

EF: Erich Forler – Sr. Product Development Manager.

What drew you to Xandros?

EF: Xandros is comprised of an exceptional group of developers working on a very cool product. It was a great opportunity to work with good people in a product area that has potential to have a significant impact in the computer market.

What’s the best part about Xandros’ GNU/Linux distributions?

EF: The ease with which a Windows user can sit down and start using the software right away without any training. There’s no learning curve and it’s really satisfying to see people discover things like Xandros File Manager which makes migrating so easy.

What other open source projects have you worked on in the past?

EF: I was part of Corel Computer’s Netwinder team before we launched Corel Linux but I haven’t worked on Open Source projects extensively.

What is the most overlooked fact or most commonly misunderstood idea about Xandros? What should people know that they don’t know from other interviews and reviews of Xandros Desktop and Server?

EF: I think most people understand what Xandros is about and who our products are designed for. There are still people in the Linux community who believe that everyone should learn to roll-your-own Linux, compile new applications from source and harness the power of the command line but clearly Xandros isn’t designed for those users. However, I’ve talked to dedicated Debian users who thought Xandros was the ideal distro to give to their friends and family who weren’t Linux savvy because Xandros gave them the reliability and familiarity of Debian under the hood with an easy-to-use environment on top. So, not everyone is looking for a desktop or server that makes it easy for Windows users to migrate to Linux and there are some people who don’t think that’s even a good idea, but the vast majority of people seem to have a pretty good understanding of the benefit of using Xandros products.

Jeff Tranter, Senior Software Development Manager

Who are you? What is your role in the company or project, and what are you responsible for?

Jeff Tranter

Jeff Tranter: I am Jeff Tranter, a Senior Software Development Manager at Xandros. I lead the team the develops and customizes desktop applications at Xandros in Ottawa Canada, both open source and our own applications.

What drew you to Xandros?

JT: I came to Xandros from Corel, where I worked on Corel LINUX and the Linux versions of Corel applications. Most of the original Corel LINUX development team came to Xandros when Corel exited the Linux business.

What’s the best part about Xandros’ GNU/Linux distributions?

JT: We spend a tremendous amount of effort ensuring that things “just work” on Xandros, from hardware drivers, to networking and applications. We fix hundreds of bugs, make usability improvements, and try to make the user’s desktop experience as seamless as possible.

What other open source projects have you worked on in the past?

JT: I’ve worked on a number of projects including KDE, Wine, the kernel, and the Linux Documentation Project.

What is the most overlooked fact or most commonly misunderstood idea about Xandros? What should people know that they don’t know from other interviews and reviews of Xandros Desktop and Server?

JT: Some people have the impression that Xandros is a dumbed-down or crippled version of Linux. That is not the case. We install a limited number of applications by default as part of our philosophy of offering one best of breed application for each major task and keeping the install to one CD. Being based on Debian, you can do anything on Xandros you can on any other Debian-based distribution. If your favorite application is not installed by default, chances are you can get it from Xandros Networks or Debian.

We’re also not just a desktop company anymore — in addition to business and consumer desktop products, we offer a full line of server and management products.

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SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop overview

Originally, SuSE Linux produced a corporate desktop distribution called SuSE Desktop. It used the old UnitedLinux kernel, but was otherwise much like the SuSE consumer desktop products of the same era. It was the first commercial corporate desktop GNU/Linux distribution, and had a large but quiet impact on the GNU/Linux distribution market. Sun Microsystems adopted SuSE Desktop for its first and second editions of the much-hyped Java Desktop System. Later, Sun decided that Java Desktop System would no longer refer to a specific operating system; instead it would be the name of the customized GNOME desktop theme that Sun uses for both Solaris and for future GNU/Linux-based operating systems that it releases.

When Novell bought SuSE, it changed SuSE Desktop’s name to Novell Linux Desktop. With this release, Novell again changed its name, this time to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. Though KDE was the traditional interface for all SUSE products, GNOME is now the standard desktop environment.

You can expect SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10 to include a majority of the packages necessary to run a desktop computer in a large business — and not one single program more. The default installation differs little from the maximum installation, and the extra packages are really only for special-case situations.

What’s new in version 10

First, the obvious: all of the standard packages have been updated. The kernel is at version 2.6.16.21, OpenOffice.org is at version 2.0.2, Firefox at 1.5.0.4, and GNOME is at version 2.12.2. Were you expecting KDE instead? With SLED 10, Novell has changed the default desktop environment from KDE to GNOME, thought KDE is still available if you wish to install it.

SLED 10’s GNOME implementation has been modified from its highly usable default interface to to one that very much resembles Windows XP and Windows Vista in terms of functionality and menu placement. Taken as a whole, however, SLED 10’s interface is unique enough that even seasoned GNU/Linux, OS X, and Windows veterans will have some initial trouble figuring out where things are and what everything does. After I became accustomed to GNOME ala SLED 10, I concluded that the interface design is only useful to people who need a maximum of eight programs (the number of programs that will fit in the “favorite programs” group that dominates your Computer menu). If I were to use this operating system long-term, I think I would have to modify the interface so that I can avoid the click- and scroll-heavy main menu. It is a big production to get to a program that isn’t shown in the main Computer menu screen. If, after clicking on the Computer menu button, you need to use something that isn’t considered a “favorite” application, you have to click another button, then scroll through a double list of installed programs in a separate window. SLED 10’s GNOME implementation won’t win any beauty contests, either — it’s plain and uninspired to the point that the bland theme actually further detracts from its usability by unintentionally disguising the Computer menu button. If you weren’t familiar with the purpose and placement of the Windows Start menu or KDE K menu, you’d find SLED 10 very difficult to navigate.

Another major change in this release is in the software management framework. Novell ZENworks is now the default program for installing, removing, and updating software in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (and other current SUSE products). If you want, you can still use YaST and YaST Online Update (YOU) for these tasks, but it has officially been deprecated in favor of ZENworks. Unlike the consumer-grade SUSE Linux 10.1, SLED 10’s ZENworks implementation actually works as intended, though it still requires a small amount of configuration to allow normal users to access it. You also need to register your email address with Novell in order to activate ZENworks, but this is a quick and painless process that literally takes a few seconds. This registration process also enables proprietary software repositories in ZENworks, so you can download and install the Nvidia and ATI video card drivers, among other things.

Though they only very recently began to see usage in desktop operating systems (well, SUSE Linux 10.1 and DIY distros like Gentoo and Debian are the only ones so far), the XGL special effects engine and the Compiz window manager are included in SLED 10 and activated by default, assuming you register with Novell to get the required proprietary video drivers. Given the wide range of problems with these early XGL and Compiz releases, I’m surprised to see them included as standard packages in an “enterprise” operating system. Even if these packages were optional, I can’t imagine any sane company rushing to provide support for them. I predict XGL will be a major source of trouble for Novell’s support department over the next few months.

JFS support has been dropped from YaST, so if you had any JFS volumes, you’ll be unable to manage them through the GUI. The JFS kernel module is still in place, however, so you can still read existing JFS partitions.

The default install includes an outstanding computer-based audio/visual training program and interactive help system to assist new users in learning how to operate and configure SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. The program is broken up into tasks, so you can skip directly to the section that applies to your situation. It’s by far the best desktop GNU/Linux CBT that I have ever seen.

Lastly, the NetworkManager applet introduced in SUSE Linux 10.1 has been incorporated into SLED 10. It allows you to easily manage and connect to wired and wireless networks. I’ve got no complaints about NetworkManager at all — I think it’s an outstanding tool that every desktop operating system should have, and I’m glad to see it in SLED 10.

SLED 10: bland and buggy

Putting it to the test

Installing SLED 10 is easy and intuitive — just like SUSE Linux 10 and 10.1 — and not too much different than it’s been over the past several releases. The default disk partitioning scheme is excellent; it assigns enough space to the root and swap partitions to run the system, then gives the rest to /home, where the bulk of your data will ultimately reside.

SLED 10’s install routine intelligently detects laptop systems and installs the laptop package group by default. This group consists of wireless network drivers (Centrino, Atmel, Atheros), PCMCIA slot drivers, infrared drivers, and sleep/suspend software. Although this group is not selected by default on desktop systems, the Madwifi (Atheros) wireless drivers are still installed if you have a wireless PCI card that needs them.

SLED 10 can authenticate users against the local system (/etc/passwd), OpenLDAP, NIS, a Windows domain, and eDirectory LDAP, a selection I found to be rather eclectic.

I was pleased to learn that the default SLED 10 install included Firefox plugins for Java, Flash, Adobe Acrobat (PDF), RealPlayer, and Citrix. That means that there is little or no post-install configuration or hacking to be done to make the Web browser meet the expectations of the average business desktop computer user. The only thing that is missing is the ability to play video files through Firefox. The absence of such a plugin could prevent important work-related activities like attending online meetings, viewing product demos, and participating in computer-based training programs. As is now customary, I have written a guide to show you how to add missing pieces like these.

While there was a Java Runtime Environment installed, it was the older 1.4.2 version. Since there are significant, oft-used features in Java 5.0 (1.5.0) that are not backwards-compatible with older JREs, I’m puzzled as to why Novell did not go with the newer version. To add insult to injury, there are absolutely no integrated development environments included with or officially available for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. No NetBeans, Eclipse, Bluefish, Screem, Quanta, or KDevelop – nothing. What are programmers supposed to do if their company installs SLED 10 on its desktop computers — switch to Vim?

My first impression of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 was quite negative. On my first test machine — a desktop computer with an Asus A8N-E motherboard, 1GB RAM, an ATI Radeon X700 video card, and a 17″ LCD monitor — the default font settings were so tiny that I couldn’t read any text. The login screen was fine, as was the virtual terminal, but everything in the GNOME desktop had its font set to what must have been the smallest size. I tried to mess with SaX2 for a while, and other YaST modules, but couldn’t fix the problem.

Moving on to my Acer TravelMate 2300 laptop system, the first thing that happened after installation was a hard lockup. It turns out that SLED 10 doesn’t get along with the Linksys WPC11 version 4 wireless network card, and the system crashes when it tries to connect to an access point. Further confounding my wireless networking options, I discovered that NDISwrapper is not installed by default; it is available in the standard SLED 10 package repository, though.

Lastly, the Synaptics touchpad on the TravelMate had the infamous scroll problem. This is fixed by installing a Synaptics control program like KSynaptics, which is not officially available for SLED 10. So you’re stuck with an unfortunately remapped touchpad that wants to scroll the screen when you get near the bottom or right side of the pad. In Firefox, this makes the browser go back and forward in the page history.

Conclusions and developer recommendations

As a veteran of dozens of operating system reviews and hundreds of articles on computer technology, I have found that if you don’t stop and recalibrate your frame of reference from time to time, you can start to accept the fact that most operating systems these days ship with obvious and easy-to-find problems. Not just software bugs, but configuration issues and usability blunders. In a free-of-charge BSD variant or GNU/Linux distribution, some of these sins are forgivable. But when you tell me that you have a product designed to work in a big business — a real production environment where you lose thousands of dollars for every minute of downtime or lost productivity — then you’re throwing down the gauntlet and saying that this operating system is not just pretty good, it’s damned good. Well, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is not good enough. This is definitely not what I would call an “enterprise” operating system; you would have to be crazy to deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on corporate desktop and laptop systems, considering your alternatives. Red Hat Desktop, though only available in volume orders with the higher classes of Red Hat server products and being comprised of somewhat older software, is a perfect example of an “enterprise” desktop OS. You can put OpenBSD and CentOS in the “enterprise” category as well. They don’t crash, they accept a wide range of hardware, and have a better and more varied selection of business desktop software available for them. They’re everything that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is not. Xandros and Mandriva also make outstanding, far more thoroughly tested business desktop operating systems that — having reviewed two versions of each — I consider to be superior to SLED 10. It seems to me that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is not so much Novell’s attempt to push into the business market as it is an attempt to provide a for-profit version of SUSE Linux for home desktop users.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is, in effect, what the buggy SUSE Linux 10.1 should have been. Or at least, that’s the most positive way I can think of to say that both operating systems were insufficiently tested for their intended markets. I hope Sun Microsystems takes this first draft of an operating system, fixes the problems I listed in this review, and comes out with a killer Java Desktop System 3.

The following issues must be addressed before I will consider SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (assuming Novell doesn’t change the name again before the next release) truly enterprise-ready:

Improved release engineering. Did Novell fire its QA department or something? I found showstopping bugs in this product within five minutes of post-install use. That is totally unacceptable for a supposedly production-ready operating system. Don’t give customers your beta builds and promise to try to fix them later.
Synaptics touchpad configuration. Really this is a suggestion for the GNOME people, but nothing is stopping Novell from designing its own Synaptics touchpad configuration utility (or just including KSynaptics). At very least, X.org could be configured to disable touchpad scrolling by default. If you think I’m being petty about this seemingly minor issue, I challenge you to use SLED 10 for your daily computing work for three days with a Synaptics touchpad and we’ll see how long it takes before you crack.
Developers, developers, developers. SLED 10 doesn’t have any IDEs. What operating system is the Web development team supposed to use? What about the programmers — what OS do they use? Unless you want to hack SLED 10 to use SUSE Linux 10.1 packages, or download and install RPMs manually from the Internet, these people are left out in the cold. How many businesses do you know of that don’t employ either a Web developer (or designer) or a programmer? The people at Novell who decide what packages go into the Enterprise Desktop product need to create a “Development” package group that includes popular integrated development environments and other development packages. Note: A Novell employee wrote to me about the SUSE Linux Enterprise SDK, which has IDEs and other development tools for SLED 10. I don’t know how I would have found out about this extra disc if someone hadn’t told me — at the time of the review, the SDK was not on the media download page for SLED, nor was it mentioned in any place where I’d notice it.
Forget XGL. Graphical desktop effects have no place in an “enterprise” operating system. Principles aside, XGL is buggy and causes a variety of stability and usability problems, some of which are even listed in the SLED 10 release notes. If Novell knew that this undeniably superfluous technology caused so many problems, why on earth did the release engineers include it in the base system and enable it by default?
Fix the upgrade problems. As much as sysadmins adore an operating system that they only have to apply occasional patches to, eventually everyone must upgrade. The bad news for SUSE customers is, upgrading from one version to the next can be difficult at best and impossible at worst. Smooth upgrading from one major version to another is an issue that every operating system developer struggles with, but again, this is supposed to be an “enterprise” operating system. System administrators expect an operating system that they don’t have to mess with.
Improve hardware autoconfiguration. SLED 10 was totally clueless when it came to detecting the size, resolution, and aspect ratio of two of my LCD screens. It also had trouble switching from the standard ATI driver to the proprietary one. Again, this is stuff that sysadmins don’t want to bother with; the software should be able to do its own configuration.
Improve usability. I found SLED 10’s interface to be difficult to use. The Computer menu looks more like a minimized application than a menu button. It’s also fairly nondescript, and if I wasn’t already used to the K menu or Start menu being in the lower left corner, I wouldn’t know what that “Computer” icon was. Furthermore, the menu structure is anti-productivity. Perhaps there should be a step during post-install configuration which asks each user what icons they would like in their “Favorite” group, rather than just guess and make them swim through a two-part menu system to get to the software they use most.

Purpose	Enterprise desktop operating system
Manufacturer	Novell, Inc.
Architectures	x86, AMD64/EM64T
License	Mostly under the GNU General Public license, but several packages are under restrictive proprietary licenses
Market	Business desktop computers
Price (retail)	U.S. $50 per year per computer
Previous version	Novell Linux Desktop 9
Product Web site	Click here

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A warning

Following most of the directions in this guide will alter your operating system in ways that are not supported by Novell. This article will show you how to modify SLED 10, and force it to depart from the standard configuration. All of these hacks have been tested and are believed to do no harm to your software; there are always possibilities, though.

Installing non-distribution software

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 doesn’t come with very many software packages, especially if your job involves software development, Web design, or desktop publishing. Fortunately, you can use packages from SUSE Linux 10.1 to fill the gaps. The procedure is as follows:

Click the Computer menu in the lower left, then select More Applications. Click the System link on the left, then YaST in the right pane (you’ll probably have to scroll down a little to see it).
Enter your root password and press Enter.
Click the Installation Source icon in the right pane.
Click the Add button, and select HTTP from the drop-down list.
A dialogue for entering a new installation server should appear. In the server field, type this in:
mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source
Click OK. It will be several minutes before the server is properly registered with your machine. Depending on your location, your Internet connection speed, and the traffic level of the server, it could take quite a while for this process to complete.
Repeat this process for the following server address:
mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source
Afterward you’ll be presented with a license agreement. Click “Yes, I Agree to the Software License” if you do agree (or if you don’t agree and don’t care, and just want to get on with adding software).
Click the “Refresh On or Off” button, then click Finish.
You’ll find yourself back in the main YaST screen. To install extra software, click the Software Management icon on the left, then either search or browse for the packages you want to install. Click Accept to install them.

I tested a few different packages to make sure that this process would work. There are, however, thousands of software packages in the SUSE Linux 10.1 repository, so it is possible that some programs may not work properly with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.

If you continue with the rest of the instructions in this guide, upon restarting your computer you will more easily be able to install new software packages through ZENworks instead of having to go into YaST.

Installing the Java Development Kit

If you’re going to be doing any Java programming on a SLED 10 machine, you need to have a JDK. Most people prefer to use the most recent version of the Sun JDK, as opposed to older editions or JDKs released by other companies or open source projects. For that reason, this guide will only cover the Sun Microsystems Java 5.0 Development Kit.

Installing the JDK 1.4.2 is quite simple. Just go to your Computer menu in the lower left, then click on Install Software on the right side of the menu. It may take a few moments for ZENworks to connect to the software servers. When it’s ready, type in “Java” in the search field, then press Enter. Select the java-1_4_2-sun-devel package, plus any other similar packages that you may need for your projects, then click the Install button and follow the on-screen directions from there.

The Java 5.0 development kit is not available through standard SLED 10 channels. If you would like to install it anyway, first remove the old 1.4.2 packages by following this process:

Click the Computer menu, then select More Applications.
Click the System link in the left pane of the ensuing dialogue, then click on YaST in the right-hand pane (you may have to scroll down a bit to see it).
Input your root password when prompted.
When YaST comes up, click the Software Management icon in the right pane. Type “sun” into the search field, then press Enter.
Mark the 1.4.2 packages in the right pane for removal (click them twice; the garbage can icon should be next to each of them when they are properly marked for removal), and click the checkbox next to the 1.5.0 packages that you need. then click Accept. A window may come up to warn you that the 1.4.2 JRE is required for OpenOffice.org (this is irrelevant because you’re replacing the 1.4.2 JRE with a newer version, but YaST doesn’t know that). Select the option labeled “Ignore this requirement generally” and then click the “OK – Try Again” button.
When installation is complete, you can close YaST, or install your favorite Java IDE from the Software Management area of YaST as described above.

You don’t have to restart your computer for the JDK changes to take effect, but if any programs that require the JDK or JRE are currently running, you will have to restart them.

Video playback: DVDs, Windows Media, and QuickTime

SLED 10 already has a number of multimedia codecs installed, but you won’t be able to play commercial DVD discs or Windows Media files, and you won’t be able to watch video clips through your Web browser. Be warned that following the processes in this section may violate copyright- and patent-related laws in your country. It is your responsibility to verify that this software is not illegal before you attempt the below procedure; proceed at your own risk.

First you need to install the decryption library. Here are the instructions for 32-bit SLED 10:

If you’re using the 32-bit version of SLED 10, download and install the libdvdcss RPM from this address (just click the link if you’re using Firefox in SLED 10 right now): http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.9/rpm/libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm.
Click OK in the Firefox file dialogue. The default option should be to install the package with ZENworks.
Click Install in the ensuing ZENworks window.

If you are on the 64-bit version of SLED 10, the process is more difficult. You’ll have to install from source:

Click this link to download the DeCSS code: http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.9/libdvdcss-1.2.9.tar.gz
When Firefox asks what you’d like to do with the file, select the Save To Disk option. The file isn’t very big, so it should download almost immediately. You can close the Web browser now.
Open a terminal by clicking the Computer menu in the lower left, then selecting More Applications. Click the System link on the left, then Gnome Terminal in the right pane.
Type this command to switch to root permissions: su
It’ll ask for your root password — go ahead and type it in, then press Enter.
Now you need to switch to the directory that Firefox downloaded the file to: cd Desktop
Next, decompress the file you just downloaded. Type this in: gzip -d libdvdcss-1.2.9.tar.gz
Then unpack it from its archive by using this command: tar xvf libdvdcss-1.2.9.tar
The file will un-tar to its own directory, so you can now safely delete the tar archive: rm libdvdcss-1.2.9.tar
Now you need to compile the DVD decoding library. Change to the directory first: cd libdvdcss-1.2.9
And then run the configure program with this command (don’t leave out the dot and slash): ./configure
When it’s done configuring, run the make command to build the files: make
Finally, it’s time to install the library: make install

The remaining instructions are valid for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of SLED. The next step is to modify ZENworks so that it uses checksums instead of signatures for repository verification:

Open up a terminal window by clicking the Computer menu, then More Applications. Click the System link on the left, then the Gnome Terminal icon on the right.
Switch to root permissions by typing this command: su
Copy and paste in the following command: rug set-prefs security-level checksum
Close the terminal — you don’t need to use it again for this article.

Next, fix the disabled Xine libraries so that they support DVD playback:

Start YaST by clicking the Computer menu, then More Applications, then the System link in the left pane, and the YaST icon in the right pane (scroll down a bit to see it).
Enter your root password when prompted.
Click the Installation Source icon in the right pane.
Click the Add button, then select HTTP from the drop-down list.
In the ensuing dialogue, copy and paste this address into the server field:
packman.unixheads.com/suse/10.1
Click OK, then close the Installation Source window.
If you wish to install the Windows Media codecs and a Firefox plugin for watching video clips, click on the Software Management icon in the main YaST window. Search for the following terms:
w32codec-all
mplayerplug-in
libffmpeg0
Click Accept, then agree to install the dependent packages. You’ll probably have to have your SLED 10 installation discs available to complete this step.
Continue to follow the on-screen instructions until installation is complete. Close YaST when you’re done.
Right-click the ZENworks update icon in the lower right corner. It should look like a globe with two arrows going around it, or a yellow circle with a white exclamation mark in the middle. A popup menu will come up; in it, select Refresh. It will take several minutes for ZENworks to check for updates.
Once ZENworks is finished looking for updates, the notification icon will turn into an orange circle with an exclamation mark in the middle. Click on it to bring up the ZENworks update tool.
When all of the updates are found, they will be presented for your inspection. De-select the Kino package if it appears in the list; this update seems to have trouble in SLED 10 as of this writing. Click Install once you’ve done that.
A dependency list will come up next. All it’s doing is showing you what will be removed and/or installed. Click OK to proceed.
When all updates have been applied, click Close, then close the ZENworks updater. You now have the ability to play encrypted DVD movies, play Windows Media files, and watch videos on the Web.

Disabling the annoying Synaptics touchpad scroll feature

Of all of the “features” that I have ever been annoyed by, the Synaptics touchpad scroll areas is the most infuriating. If you have a Synaptics touchpad (most laptop computers do) and find that you are getting odd behavior in your Web browser, you probably need to disable the scroll feature of the Synaptics driver. This option reserves the bottom and right sides of your touchpad for scroll wheel functions. So moving up and down the right side of your touchpad will scroll up and down, and moving sideways along the bottom will act like a side scroll wheel. In a Web browser, the side scroll makes you go back and forward in your page history. Most people aren’t used to this “feature,” so it seems more like a bug — a very annoying one at that. To disable it, you need the KSynaptics package:

Make sure the SUSE Linux 10.1 sources have been added as per the above instructions. If you have not restarted your computer since the beginning of this guide, it might be a good idea to do that now, so that ZENworks has a chance to enable all of the updates you applied (some of them require a restart).
When you’re back at the SLED 10 desktop, click your Computer menu, then select Install Software. In the search field, type in KSynaptics and press enter.
Click the checkbox next to the KSynaptics entry, then click Install.
Follow any remaining on-screen instructions to install the package. When it’s complete, you can close ZENworks.
Open your Computer menu, then click More Applications. You should see a Touch Pad icon near the top of the right pane in the New Applications section. Click on it.
Click on the Scrolling tab at the top of the KSynaptics window. Un-check all of the checkboxes in this screen, then click Apply, then OK. The scrolling feature is now disabled.

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