Welcome From The Editor
December 2009

by Paul Arnote

Paul Arnote

Welcome to the December, 2009 issue of The NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine!

As the holiday season descends upon us, it's a time for sharing with friends and family. And, the PCLinuxOS community has become my second family — not to mention the fact that I have made a lot of friends here. So, I am happy to be able to share with my PCLinuxOS family and friends.

This month, we explore the next great stage of USB development, called Wireless USB. I continue my Multimedia Mean Machine article, taking a look this month at ffmpeg. I also take a look at WinFF, the GUI program that allows you to work with ffmpeg, without having to switch to the command line interface. Speaking of the CLI, Peter Kelly gives us the third installment of Command Line Interface. David Kalwisti follows up his article from the November issue on LaTeX, by providing a list of references to continue your learning of how to work with TeX. Meemaw walks us through using Hugin to stitch panoramic photos together. Peter Kelly also does a review of the Samsung N510 netbook in this month's Gadgets & Gear column. Patrick G. Horneker writes about how he has managed to merge his two favorite Linux distributions, with PCLinuxOS & Slackware: The Odd Couple. Ms_meme graces us with another installment of ms_meme's nook and Forum Foibles. We continue to explore the people behind the scenes, getting the chance to learn more about Linuxera.

I undertook a self-imposed, self-approved shopping trip to two of my favorite online retailers, to bring you the Holiday Gifts & Stocking Stuffer Guide, where I highlight 20 items that are sure to make any PCLinuxOS user happier than a clam at high tide, without breaking the bank. Gary Ratliff, Sr. continues his alphabetical journey through computer languages, with Computer Languages A to Z: Fortran. AndrzejL leads us through the steps to install, and run, the Linux client for Quake III Arena, in Game Zone. Andrew Strick reviews one of the newer additions to the PCLinuxOS repository, Dropbox. Mark Szorady gives us another installment of Double Take, along with his monthly GIMP tip.

As 2009 wanes, and gives way to 2010, there are lots of exciting changes in store for PCLinuxOS users. Texstar continues to develop and refine KDE 4.x, with KDE 4.3.3 being the latest offering. Work is also progressing on rebuilding the applications in the repository with the new tools in the toolchain, preparing for the 2010 release of PCLinuxOS. Keep your ears tuned and your eyes sharp in the upcoming months, for announcements about the continued evolution of PCLinuxOS.

Finally, I'd like to take just a moment to wish everyone, everywhere, a very happy holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Paul Arnote [parnote]
PCLinuxOS Magazine Chief Editor