J_K9 @ Linux

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?…

Mira Groupware: Bring On The Code

Having been almost 3 months since Mira was accepted for hosting on SourceForge, I think it’s time to get the ball rolling. A few friends, developers and I have spent this time wisely, discussing Mira’s architecture and design on the project’s forums, on Skype and elsewhere. I have also spoken to some of the people I see every day, such as a few of my friends (and their friends), to ask them what they would do if they were in my position. Which programming language would they develop a platform like Mira in? Would they choose a client/server model or a centralised server/clients model, and why? How would they change the User Interface if they could? Which Utilities would they like to see become a part of Mira?

I’ve learnt a lot along the way. Building a community for a small project is not too difficult, because development times will be short and as long as the project has a clear and, to potential users, beneficial purpose it will thrive fairly easily, as continues to be the case with HyperGet. However, with a project as large as Mira which will take months, and certainly over a year to reach a state possibly considerable by enterprises and small businesses it is a lot of effort to draw people in and keep them interested along the way, simply because it takes such a long time to see results. With HyperGet, an incomplete but graphically accurate version of the application was available just weeks after its addition to SourceForge. And Mira? It will be a few months before you can build a version of the software which will allow you to see something that looks vaguely like the mockups on your desktop.

The quantity of documentation required before a single line of code is written also rises exponentially. I have been adding to Mira’s Documentation whenever I have been able to, and it is already much larger than the documentation we created before we began developing HyperGet - a 2 page PDF document distributed by email. The problem? It still has a long way to go and a lot of detail to cover before it can be considered ‘ready for primetime’, so to speak, and allow us to begin writing code.

This post is not only to give all of my readers a general idea of how Mira is going - it’s also a call for help. Mira is in need of C++ developers, writers to extend its documentation, software engineers to propose alternative models for features and, as long as you are willing to help, we will almost certainly be able to find a role for you, even if that role is a Spreader of the Word. The Mira Groupware platform will be realised - it’s just a question of how long it takes for that to happen If you’re interested, please contact me or post on Mira’s forums.

Exams Approaching

I’m sorry for the shortage of posts - juggling schoolwork, revision for exams and the other joys of life has been consuming almost all of my time.

The regular, scheduled posting will return soon

Ubuntu 7.04: A Hit

All of the reviews I have read of Ubuntu’s latest and greatest release have implied the same thing: it’s a hit. I have been running the Beta since a few days after it was released and it has worked flawlessly with the exception of one or two bugs which were already on Launchpad, the Canonical-run service which Ubuntu’s developers use to track the product’s bugs and their status.

There was plenty of talk before the final release about some of Feisty Fawn’s new features, such as the innovative Migration Assistant to aid your transition from Windows to Ubuntu and the Proprietary Drivers Manager to allow you to more easily control which proprietary drivers are installed and in use on your system. There are also some more subtle changes which have been blogged about.

On the developer front, due to the recent (well, fairly recent) Open Sourcing of Java and Sun’s partnership with Canonical a complete Java stack has been made more readily available for those who require it, which is excellent.

Oh, and did you know that Michael Dell, CEO of Dell is running Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn on his newest laptop? This was announced not long after Dell’s decision to pre-install Linux on more of the computers in its range, so it’s good to know that Michael Dell practises what he preaches

In fact, there was such anticipation for this release that celebration parties were organised and blogged about all over the world! I just wish I could have gone to one!

We should also expect to see the first release of Ubuntu Studio, a specialised version of Ubuntu geared towards audio, video and graphics enthusiasts and professionals, in the next few days.

There are plenty of screenshots boasting the graphical elements of Feisty Fawn and I hope to get my hands on the installation CD, or unrestricted internet so that I can upgrade my still-beta laptop soon!

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.

No Ubuntu 7.04 Release Candidate?

I was expecting a Release Candidate for Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn to be made available yesterday (Thursday), a week before the release of the final version, but apparently the jump has always been from Beta straight to Final just less than a month later and there will be no such Release Candidate. Well, at least not until the final stages in the development of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon when a Release Candidate will, apparently, be released one week before the Final release.

I think this is a good move by the Ubuntu team because, although compiling and uploading a pre-release does take a lot of time and effort which could be better spent bug-fixing or developing, it allows more people to test an almost-ready version of Ubuntu and thus iron out any final critical bugs which may remain and not previously have been spotted (which is always possible). The users of the Release Candidate could then submit feedback reports and requests to the developers to allow them to apply the final touches to the release before it is made final. I think this is an excellent approach which is much better than the current one. I’ve been running Ubuntu 7.04 Beta since a few days after it came out, and since then I’ve downloaded and installed more updates than I could keep count of. This substantial jump from the Beta release to the Final may only incorporate minor changes to individual applications but one minor change has the potential to cause major problems, and so adding in a Release Candidate will set the point for a reduction of changes and a focus on polishing the distribution before the final version is released and distributed to the public.

Bravo Ubuntu! The team have done a great job with 7.04, as you can read about here and here, and I cannot wait for the Final release on the 19th April! Make sure you’ve all got that noted down in your calendars.

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…

Day 7: Boeing Tours

The largest building by volume in the world as recorded by the Guinness book of records is one of Boeing’s aircraft production sites, which we visited today. We also visited some of Beoing’s concept centres and learnt more about its upcoming commercial aircraft, the Boeing 787.

Continue reading Day 7: Boeing Tours…

Day 6: Final Day at Microsoft

Today was our final day at Microsoft. It is odd to think that, after being here for five days and visiting Microsoft’s headquarters so regularly that I will not be returning there for an indefinite amount of time, but not at least for the foreseeable future. I may dislike their business tactics and disagree with some of their products, but they have brilliant people working for them and have an excellent workplace environment. Anyway, I’ll leave the bad note until the end: let me tell you, in the usual detail what I did today.

Continue reading Day 6: Final Day at Microsoft…