openswitch

Have a Messy Desk? Congrats, You’re More Productive.

FINALLY! I AM VINDICATED!

Everyone’s a snob. But before you get your socks in a wad let me express that I mean the term “snob” in an endearing way. The way I’m using the term, “snob” means simply someone who cares extremely deeply (almost obsessively) about something; like a hobby, a food, a car, etc. I believe that we all, each one of us, are snobs about something. By way of example, you’ve got your coffee snobs, your music snobs, your technology snobs and your toy snobs. Me, I’ve currently started to become an open source snob. I also tend to be a theology and doctrine snob. My question is this: what kind of snob are you?

Since Ubuntu’s Feisty Fawn doesn’t officially come out as “stable” for another few weeks, anything I write here is pretty much uncertain. Things I see in this pre-release version of Feisty may or may not apply to the final version that will be released in April. Nevertheless, since upgrading to Feisty I thought I’d share some of my thoughts.

Yay for restricted drivers support!

Feisty natively finds, installs, and configures any graphics driver you could need (theoretically). Using restricted drivers is a less-than-ideal solution. Obviously the ideal situation is one where the user can utilize open source drivers for his open source OS. Unfortunately sometimes this simply is not possible and in order to get the most out of a 3D accelerated graphics card one must install proprietary drivers. Ubuntu now helps users do that automatically. This is great news for folks like me who, in the past, have had a bear of a time figuring out what graphics drivers to install and then how to configure the xorg.conf file. It’s all automated now, ATI or Nvidia, it doesn’t matter. w00t!

Eye candy is just a click away

As was pointed out in a previous comment by Onno Zweers, Feisty ships with Compiz installed. It’s not enabled by default, but if you want “wobbly windows”, a “desktop on a cube” and transparent windows, then all that need be done is to go to System > Preferences > Desktop Effects and turn it on. I’ve tried it with my other computer which uses an Nvidia graphics card and it works great. Unfortunately my brand-new ATi Radeon X1300 graphics card which is on my home (main) computer is completely retarded and can’t handle Compiz or Beryl. Major bummer. At any rate, it’s not the fault of Compiz or Beryl, it’s ATI that’s mucking up the works. Thanks to the contribution of Mario in the comments of this post I’ve gotten Compiz to work beautifully on Feisty Fawn with my ATi Radeon X1300 graphics card by following these instructions. After installing Xgl I had to actually restart my computer and then select the “Xgl” session from the “options” menu on the login screen. Thanks Mario!

Banshee gets an face lift

A couple cool new features have been added to Banshee, my music player/manager of choice for gnome. When you begin playing a track, Banshee displays information in the footer such as Recommended Artists (if you like this artist then these others might appeal to you as well), Top Tracks by this artist and Top Albums by this artist. When you click on one of these “Recommended Artists” or “Top Albums” you’re taken to the corresponding Last.fm page for that track or album. And we all know how seriously Last.fm rocks. This face lift for Banshee is both figuratively and literally music to my ears.

New default theme options

Make fun of me all you want, but I like the way gnome looks. /me ducks and weaves, dodging the flying fruit. But seriously, even though I like it, doesn’t mean it couldn’t do with a little “polish.” A couple new options are added in to Feisty themes. First, is a readily-accessible GUI from which to customize your window colors. If something like this was included in Edgy Eft (as I’m sure it was) I didn’t spot it, but that probably says more about me than Edgy. There’s also a new theme to choose from called “glossy” which, redundantly is described as “a glossy looking theme.” I like the glossy theme, it’s fresh and … well … glossy. Fun for everyone.

Concluding thoughts

Again, this article simply reports what I have experienced since upgrading to Feisty Fawn. I’m a very “average” user and I don’t require anything specialized or intensive from my PC. I’ve not run any speed tests, or anything like that so your mileage may vary on those fronts. My overall impression, however, is more important than the details (in my mind) so here it is: Feisty Fawn is a good move for ubuntu. It’s not trying to move too far too fast, it’s safe, it’s stable, it’s secure. It does a much better job than Edgy of “just working” on my PC’s and I suspect many others will have similar experiences. That fact alone would be enough for me. But Feisty also comes pre installed with Compiz which can enable some fairly impressive visual effects very easily. I wish that my ATI card could handle it but alas… I think ubuntu is making steady, impressive progress on its Linux distro. I anticipate to see how far ubuntu advances in the next few years. Will it catch up to Windows? Will it catch up to Macs? Or will it surpass them? It’s anyone’s guess at this point, but judging by the enthusiasm surrounding ubuntu these days it’s evident that the developers would like to see ubuntu surpass the other major OS’s in the coming years.

Volkher just published possibly the best article to date about illegal downloads. The most priceless quote in the whole piece is as follows: [Speaking to the record industry] “If you can force an upright citizen, someone who abhors breaking the law, into breaking it because you can’t get your act together, you deserve to disappear into oblivion, die the death of the unrighteous and burn in hell for all I care.” Amen and Amen.

It’s been a little over two full months that I’ve been using Ubuntu Linux as my sole operating system (cold turkey switch from Windows) and I think it’s about time to share some thoughts, some links, and hopefully a little knowledge that I’ve picked up along the way.

First, if you’re brand-new to Linux or are about to be brand-new to Linux, prepare yourself. You’re about to feel like you’re on the “outside.” Linux is picking up steam at an extremely fast rate, yet at current it’s still very much in the minority amongst operating systems. Most people are still using Windows and Macs; some people even tend to look down their noses at people using Linux, but then again that may just reflect my personal experiences.

Second, if you need some suggestions for programs that are user friendly and feature-laden, here is my attempt to point you in a direction (notice I didn’t say it was the guaranteed “best” direction) regarding Linux applications.

NOTE: ALL THESE APPLICATIONS CAN BE INSTALLED VIA SYNAPTIC PACKAGE MANAGER

Internet browsing

For your Internet browsing, Linux or no, you’re really going to want to use Firefox. That’s a no-brainer. It’s the most used web browser by geeks for a good reason. You can’t beat it’s functionality and versatility thanks to the sheer number of free and open source add-ons and greasemonkey scripts. Not to mention the fact that it’s standards compliant unlike some other browsers <cough>IE7</cough>

Music collecting & playing

After browsing the Net what’s the next most important thing? Why, music of course! For collecting and listening to music you have literally dozens of good options; many of which will dock your iPod with their eyes shut. All four apps I list here will dock an iPod effortlessly. Songbird has a huge following but has too many extraneous features for me. Then there’s always the good ol’ standby, Rhythmbox, but that’s a little too vanilla for my taste. After trying most of the music organizers/players myself I’ve found that Banshee offers exactly the functionality and features I need. Others would say that Amarok has Banshee beat and while I’ll concede that it looks nicer, it doesn’t fit me as well. No matter what kind of player/organizer you’re looking for I can guarantee you’ll find something that “fits” you and your personality just right.

Text editor

SciTE is my text editor of choice thanks to a great writeup by Jon on how to include snippets functionality to the already robust app. If you need a powerful text editor then you need SciTE. If you just need a basic text editor then gedit should be fine for you. That said, gedit, the stock text editor that comes with ubuntu is light years ahead of notepad.

Eye candy

Everyone likes a little eye candy. If you enjoy tinkering with things and don’t mind having to reinstall your OS if you screw something up, then I highly recommend installing Beryl (not available via synaptic). It’s freakin’ awesome. But me, this is not only a personal computer, it’s what I use to work so I can’t afford to break it. Once Beryl is out of Alpha and into Beta I may install it but until that time I can’t afford to lose everything on my computer.

If you’re not that technically inclined and are looking for something stable to add a little pizazz to your desktop then you need to install gdesklets. Once you get it installed you may be looking for good weather desklet. The best one I’ve found is (ironically) called goodweather. You’ll want to get your city’s code so the desklet knows what weather to display for you. There are undoubtedly many ways to get your city’s code, but the option I used to obtain my city’s code go to weather.com and do a search for your city. Once finding it I look in my address bar. Here’s what mine looks like:

http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USGA0210?from=recentsearch

So, in this case my city’s code is USGA0210.

Along with gdesklets you need to check out gnome look for some new desktop backgrounds, icon sets, themes, etc. If you’re a blogger you’ve probably noticed that there are a TON more free themes, skins, and layouts available for open source blogging platforms (like WordPress) than there are for closed source (like Movable Type). This is largely due to the open source nature of the software. Everyone has full access to all the code they could ever need and use and the source code is completely open. This results in two things: 1. a massive following and 2. more people putting significant amounts of creative energies into developing the project.

Well, the same thing is happening with Linux. You have literally hundreds of desktop themes to choose from. Some are superb, some are not so. But no matter what way you cut it you’re options are virtutally limitless when you consider that you can combine any theme with any window border style with any icon set. Oh, and ALL OF THOSE can be manually edited to your liking should you so choose, just like a blog theme. There’s no need to rely on your proprietary OS provider to “let” you use a new theme. Go get yours.

The next two applications I’m about to list are a source of contention in certain circles. I won’t go into the arguments here but know that arguments do happen with somewhat regularity when discussing these apps.

Image editor

The Gimp. I used Photoshop (bootlegged) for quite a while before switching over to the Gimp. I was pretty good with Photoshop which made the switch awkward. The Gimp is laid out differently, very differently. There are different steps you have to do to achieve a given result. But now, after using The Gimp for two straight months as my only image editor I’m very comfortable with it and even if I were back on a Windows machine I wouldn’t go back to Photoshop. I truly enjoy using The Gimp. I’ve found that The Gimp was lacking two features that are needed by a web designer: layer effects and define pattern/brush. Fortunately, the active community surrounding The Gimp has given us two scripts that add these functions into The Gimp: layer effects and define pattern/brush. Even more features available via a great article I’ve linked before, but it’s so good it bears re-linking: clicky.

If The Gimp is a little too different for you, that’s understandable. There’s a project called Pixel. It’s not open source, nor is it free, but it’s currently being actively developed to imitate Photoshop. It may be a viable option for those of you using Linux who are having too hard a time with The Gimp and need something that has that Photoshop “feel.”

Office suite

Open Office. I love Open Office. It’s another one of those applications that has, for me, completely replaced it’s proprietary counterpart. Not only does it handle proprietary formats such as .doc, it completely utilizes the open document format meaning that a document you create in Open Office is completely readable in any other application that makes use of this free and open source format. I have also found it to be exceedingly powerful, easy to use, and feature filled. My favorite feature is being able to print a document as a .pdf with one click directly from OoWriter (I’m easily pleased, it seems). I’m not the only one who thinks this way either.

Overall I’m very pleased with my Ubuntu PC. I’m having fun learning about how my computer works, picking up new skill sets left and right, and meeting some cool new people through the community forums. I never see myself going back to Windows, nor do I envision myself switching to a Mac at any point in the near future. Both Windows and Macs are great machines and have excellent software but Linux meets my wants, needs, and desires to the “t”. It fits me like a glove.

French parliament picks Ubuntu for Linux switch. They may have funny accents, but they know their operating systems. (via)

This morning I had the unfortunate privilege of explaining to my mom that the unresponsive, blue-screen laden PC sitting in front of her was dead. It hadn’t just crashed, but somehow, somewhere in the inner workings of computer-ish things unseen it had died. No amount of rebooting could get it to so much as spin a CD in the drive. Just a blue screen with a cursor flashing, taunting about its victory over the mighty OS. The cursor had won, the OS, it was gone.

I wasn’t actually there to talk her through the trauma associated with realizing you’ve lost something as close to you as your personal computer, but I was able to talk with her over the phone about her severe loss. I don’t say that in a condescending manner either, I’m very serious when I say that to loose a computer with 4 years worth of information on it is a horrific thing. All those memories, all those photos, gone in one blink of the screen.

She’s getting a new PC, but this time I’m going to encourage her to regularly back up her data. There are many ways to do this. You can burn a bunch of CD’s, or possibly some DVD’s if you have the capability. There are even Online File Backup Systems in place that are either free or reasonably priced. Another option is to purchase an external hard drive and backup all your irreplaceable data there. No matter what method for backup you choose to use, it’s vitally important that you backup those files which you simply can’t replace. There’s no telling what will happen to your computer, don’t take any chances.

Speaking of which, I really need to burn a DVD backup of some stuff…

I’ve added a couple extremely useful and almost necessary plugins back into Open Switch such as the Search Everything plugin and the Subscribe To Comments plugin. They were originally removed from the site because for some reason after the great Db crash of ’07 I was having trouble with them. They seem to be working fine now though. If you find bugs arising on this site please do let me know via my contact form or email ben (at) openswitch (dot) org.

Pirating software? Choose Microsoft! “Microsoft doesn’t want you to pirate their software, but if you must choose between illegally installing Windows or a competitor’s operating system, Microsoft would prefer that you choose them.”