J_K9 @ Linux

It’s Time To Stop Playing Catch-Up: Intel, Drivers and WiMAX

Too frequently in the past has Linux had to spend months—even years—implementing support for the latest technologies for which the manufacturers have not bothered to make Linux drivers (either due to the extra costs or merely disinterest in the platform). Linux developers had to reverse engineer each technology to find out everything about it that wasn’t disclosed by the manufacturer in the hardware’s official documentation so that they could provide support for it in an Open Source driver.

Thankfully, the substantial increase in the uptake of Open Source software such as Linux, and the more widespread recognition of its huge potential as an adaptable and expandable Operating System, has attracted commercial hardware manufacturers such as Intel to the system and to the entire Open Source movement. There has been an unadvertised revolution.

Continue reading It’s Time To Stop Playing Catch-Up: Intel, Drivers and WiMAX…

HOW TO: Setup a Web-based BitTorrent Client

How many times have you been stuck at work when the latest episode of a podcast such as LugRadio has become available for download, or the latest version of your favourite Linux distribution has been released? Wouldn’t it be really useful if you could access a server at home through your web browser and order it to download that file, so that it’s waiting for you when you get there? Or, if you like to sleep in peace with your desktop off, wouldn’t it be great if you could remotely access a BitTorrent client on the home server in your attic and tell it to run the downloads while you sleep?

The simple answer? Yes, it would: and I’m going to show you exactly how to set it up.

Continue reading HOW TO: Setup a Web-based BitTorrent Client…

Seven.Ten Degrees of Modularisation

Ubuntu Server is a popular Linux server distribution which has been gaining some good ground over the past few years, but is still behind its main commercial rivals: Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. However, one of the new, experimental (but stable) features in Ubuntu 7.10 Server Edition is set to change the course of all server Operating Systems in the near future, and that feature is Tasks.

Continue reading Seven.Ten Degrees of Modularisation…

Ubuntu 7.10—Up To Standards

As always, Ubuntu’s latest release doesn’t fail to disappoint. In fact, I’m severely taken aback by some of the background improvements which perhaps have not earned as much credit as they ought to have.

One such improvement is font rendering. Even with sub-pixel font smoothing on Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn), the font rendering still wasn’t great. Now, it’s on par with Mac OS X—yes, the font rendering really has improved that much!

There are also many other improvements in Bluetooth support, Compiz (which is now enabled by default), desktop graphics, usability and much more, but instead of repeating the same spiel I’ll just point you to some existing articles, including some about the Release Candidate (spoil-sports!).

• Lunapark6: Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Desktop Edition
• polishlinux.org » Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy
• Quick Look at Ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate | tuxmachines.org
• Ubuntu’s New Gutsy Gibbon Brings Linux Out of the Jungle

PC Advisor: Mac, PC or Linux?

When I go on my monthly visit to the local WHSmith’s, I pick up the usual magazines - Linux Format, Linux Magazine and a certain less technology-related magazine. However, I also keep an eye out for any other magazines which may have feature stories on Linux, and this month’s edition of PC Advisor (shown above right) caught my attention so I grabbed a copy, paid and left.

It’s always good to see Linux on the front cover of another magazine, particularly a magazine which focusses primarily on Windows users and is thus more likely to be read by people from this background. Remember the phrase “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”? I think that applies - whether the reviews of Linux are good or bad they will at least educate the public that there is a free alternative and, when they later see this Operating System in action in front of their own eyes, they will sincerely regret having spent £200 on that copy of Windows Vista, or £500+ on a new computer which brings and has hardware powerful enough to run it.

Continue reading PC Advisor: Mac, PC or Linux?…

Converting Geeks

Many technology-orientated users, particularly the geekier ones, have heard of Linux. However, the vast majority of these users have never tried it because they have not felt the need to - if Windows suits their needs so (apparently) perfectly, why change?

When I was selected as one of the people to go on the trip to Seattle, one of our designated tasks was to think of and possibly prototype an application which Microsoft might consider investing in. I was placed in a group with three others and, together, we had to develop an idea and a presentation around that idea to take to Microsoft. Before the trip, not one of the three had tried Linux and only one of them was slightly inclined to. Now, two weeks after the trip has ended, two of them are running Linux and are seriously considering running it as their primary OS and the remaining one is going to run Linux soon (if he is not already - I haven’t spoken to him since the trip). I don’t think that’s too bad an effort on my part

So, what happened? Why did these three guys change their minds about Linux and two then go on to try it and enjoy using it? There isn’t a single, specific answer to that, except that they learnt over the trip that Linux is a much more powerful and capable OS than they had believed.

I quote one of them:

Subject: Installing Ubuntu

7.04 beta. It’s gotta be one of the sexiest OS’s I’ve ever seen. I love the default brown, so refreshing after Windows. And such an easy install (so far).

Well, the User Interface and clean design certainly seems to have played a major part in his decision to try Linux and, more specifically, the new (beta) version of Ubuntu. Yes, yes it did:

Subject: Ubuntu!

Screenshot attached. Oh so nice looking.

Well it is very pretty, but it has other advantages as well:

Subject: Ubuntu is genius

It looks amazing. And the GAIM [in] 7.04 is so good. Easy MSN and Google Talk. I’m switchin my desktop. Just need to figure out WINE.

It is also consistently user-friendly across all of the main applications, making it easy to use and configure according to your personal preferences. Not only that, but the APT package management system allows for centralised updates distribution and software installation which surpasses its Windows counterpart (Automatic Updates, which is hardly comparable in terms of functionality):

Subject: Convert?!

I think you may well have converted me to Ubuntu. Can’t really get enough of it!

I just love how easy it is to install stuff using terminal apt-get etc. Having a central place where you can get stuff from = genius!

The other person in my group who recently tried Ubuntu said:

him: does evolution sync with google calendar then?
me: yes
him: OOh
another reason to switch

The “implement support to scratch an itch” principle is one of the reasons that Open Source and Linux were first started, and it’s good to see that this continues to be true today and is appreciated by users.

As these examples show - and there are more - it is misinformation more than anything else that prevents many people, such as power users, from trying Linux. They think of Linux as “that other Operating System” because they have never experienced it. If more people were made aware of Linux’s advantages - even the subtle, minor, less-noticed ones which might be considered irrelevant - the number of downloads of the mainstream Linux distributions would increase drastically.

Compiz and Beryl: Reunited

Compiz and Beryl, two OpenGL-accelerated (compositing) window managers which split from each other over half a year ago have now officially reunited. Beryl was forked from Compiz for several reasons, partly because some of Compiz’s developers had different aims for the project and wanted to work on achieving those goals as well as possible.

The problem with forks is that the community is split and so the developers on both sides end up working on the same features independently, inevitably wasting time which could have been spent much more productively if the fork had never taken place. This is why I am so glad that Compiz and Beryl have decided to join forces - because they will finally be able to put their minds together and work on producing an excellent and even more aesthetically pleasing compositing window manager than they could ever have created by themselves.

Best of luck to them, and I look forward to upgrading Beryl 2.0 to the new, combined compositing window manager when it comes out!

Raising Linux Awareness

One of the main problems facing GNU/Linux (henceforth referred to as Linux) is that it simply is not known by the majority of the computer-literate users in this world, and is used on a daily basis by even fewer. It is an excellent Operating System which can satisfy the needs of most demographics bar certain specialised ones, such as gamers, so there is nothing stopping it from hitting the mainstream except marketing funds. You know what? These might not be needed.

Continue reading Raising Linux Awareness…

Preview of Ubuntu 7.04

Ubuntu 7.04 Beta was released just two days ago, and a brilliant article entitled “What You Should Expect From Ubuntu 7.04″ outlines the additions and changes in this new version of Ubuntu which should surprise you if and when you install the final version, which will be released on the 19^th April.

I can’t wait for this new version of Ubuntu - it will make it so much easier to achieve a completely functional desktop Operating System, down to the installation of proprietary codecs. For more information, see the article!

Linux on Dell: Get Voting!

It appears that Dell have taken the community’s request for Linux on Dell computers seriously and have now set up a survey to discover what exactly its customers “want from a Linux desktop,” in the words of Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, who blogged about this survey yesterday.

From the Dell blog post announcing this survey:

Your feedback on Dell IdeaStorm has been astounding. Thank you! We hear your requests for desktops and notebooks with Linux. We’re crafting product offerings in response, but we’d like a little more direct feedback from you: your preferences, your desires. We recognize some people prefer notebooks over desktops, high-end models over value models, your favorite Linux distribution, telephone-based support over community-based support, and so on. We can’t offer everything (all systems, all distributions, all support options), so we’ve crafted a survey to let you help us prioritize what we should deliver for you.

Get voting!

By the way, I also recommend you take a look at the announcement on Dell’s blog - few times have I seen that many comments in reply to a post