Evince as a PDF viewer in Ubuntu (continued) [en]

Following my previous post earlier today, I installed Evince to be tested as a PDF viewer on my Ubuntu Hoary distribution. First of all I installed it as a standalone application (later on as a plug-in to Mozilla Firefox), typing on Terminal:

sudo apt-get install evince

The installation process was straight forward without any complications. It downloaded from repositories (universe) all necessary packages, including dependencies.



The above screenshot says everything. Evince is all you need to display a PDF file and it has GNOME's look and feel. You are even able to search inside a file or follow links in the right side panel.

Just another thing, I need to be able to read PDF files in my browser (Mozilla Firefox). Thanks to a tip from a comment in my previous post I searched for mozplugger and install it:

sudo apt-get install mozplugger

According to forums info, next thing to do is to remove ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat (~/ points to my home folder). I consider that is safer to move it to ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat.backup and to do a backup of the new created file /etc/mozpluggerrc during the installation process:

mv ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat  ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat.backup
sudo cp /etc/mozpluggerrc /etc/mozpluggerrc.backup

I edited /etc/mozpluggerrc (sudo gedit /etc/mozpluggerrc) and searched for:

application/pdf: pdf: PDF file
application/x-pdf: pdf: PDF file
text/pdf: pdf: PDF file
text/x-pdf: pdf: PDF file

then for

application/x-postscript: ps: PostScript file
application/postscript: ps: PostScript file

and I added next line after each of the above sections:

repeat noisy swallow(evince) fill: evince "$file"

and it worked, even without restarting Mozilla.

I really recommend all Evince, a light weight open source PDF viewer and it is fully integrated in GNOME. By the way it will come as standard in next GNOME version. Great!

Evince as a PDF viewer in Ubuntu [en]

Reading the article Meet Fedora^tm Core 4 from RedHat Magazine web site, I noticed that Fedora Core 4 distribution is using Evince as their default PDF viewer, replacing ggv and gpdf. It handles PDF and postscripts documents and in future more other types as plug-ins are written.

What abount Ubuntu Linux 5.04 you may ask?

Ubuntu is comming with xpdf as a default PDF viewer. It does everyting I need, but doesn't look very polished on my GNOME desktop. Following the howtos from Unofficial Ubuntu 5.04 Starter Guide I installed Adobe Reader with its plug-in for Mozilla Firefox. It works great but is proprietary source.

Reading the above article from RedHat Magazine I want to see if there is around a precompiled version (in repositories) for my Ubuntu distribution and how it works/looks on it.

More details comming soon... (after a full test of Evince) ...

Unofficial Ubuntu 5.04 Starter Guide [ro]

Am inceput traducerea la ghidul Ubuntu (Ghidul neoficial pentru a incepe lucrul cu Ubuntu 5.04). Acesta poate fi citit la urmatoarea adresa web: http://ro.ubuntuguide.org.

Toti cei interesati sunt rugati sa trimita orice comentarii si sa ajute la imbunatatirea traducerii in limba romana.

Silviu Bojica

Cartea electronica romaneasca [ro]

Primul articol cu care voi incepe este referitor la oferta de carte electronica romaneasca. Si daca e vorba de carti electronice in general (in special cele de limba engleza, dar nu numai) trebuie sa recomand cu mare caldura http://www.gutenberg.org/, precum si http://www.manybooks.net (in genere acelasi continut ca si al proiectului Gutenberg, dar cu downloaduri in formate pentru dispozitive portabile, de ex. Plucker) dar oferta de carte romaneasca este aproape inexistenta. De fapt un singur volum, "Creierul, o enigma descifrata" de Dorin Teodor Moisa umple rafturile virtuale dedicate cartilor editate in limba romana.

Asa ca, folosindu-ma de browser-ul meu favorit (Mozilla Firefox) am tastat in sectiunea de cautare (Google) cuvintele cheie "carti electronice".

Unul din site-urile pe care le-am gasit cu aceasta tema este LiterNet, portal cultural, editura, [de unde putem citi/downloada] carti electronice gratuite. M-a impresionat placut modul de organizare a site-ului si faptul ca toate cartile publicate on-line pot fi citite atat prin intermediul browser-ului de web, cat si offline, putand fi descarcate in format pdf.

Oferta nu este extraordinar de bogata, dar este un inceput si e un inceput demn de toata lauda. Cu siguranta voi reveni in "vizitele virtuale" pe acest site sa imi delectez timpul liber cu lectura cartilor electronice ce le pot gasi in aceasta locatie.

A doua locatie web care mi-a atras atentia a fost e-librarie, realizat de Institutul de Cercetare-Dezvoltare in Informatica sub egida Ministerului Comunicatiilor si Tehnologiei Informatiei, librarie [virtuala] ce are ca obiectiv diseminarea informatiei electronice de tip carte. Initiativa se inscrie in unul din obiectivele planului de actiune eEurope+, si anume crearea colectiilor electronice de date accesibile prin intermediu Internet-ului.

Numarul de domenii este destul de vast si avem si ceva continut. Un singur comentariu as avea de facut si anume faptul ca, in calitate de utilizator Linux (Ubuntu Linux este versiunea mea preferata) mi-a fost imposibil sa vizualizez multe din cartile disponibile aici. Marea majoritate a cartilor electronice sunt in format lit (Microsoft Reader). Am reusit pana la urma cu unele artificii, nu stiu daca intru totul legale (open clit) sa transform aceste fisiere intr-un format mai "deschis" (open) si anume html.

Tin sa subliniez ca marea majoritate a tarilor europene sustin initiativa open-source, de accea doresc sa atrag atentia celor din Romania (caci e implicat in acest proiect si Ministerului Comunicatiilor si Tehnologiei Informatiei) care au puterea sa finanteze astfel de proiecte (in special unde e vorba de bani publici) sa dea o sansa cat de mica si software-ului liber, si a liberei circulatii a informatiei.