What’s Up with Ubuntu-Art?

This item from Ubuntu-Art showed up in my RSS reader. It’s an ad for Levitra masquerading as a Linux font. Now, I’ve seen message-board spam and blog comment spam, but this is something new. I’m kind of shocked that the community of registered users hasn’t reported this account and had it banned. I’m tempted to sign up for an account myself to report it.

Screenlets

Maximum PC has an informative article about customizing the Linux desktop. It’s a great resource for people who have seen people talking about things like Compiz and Emerald and wondered what they were talking about.

One topic the article covered was desktop widgets. For GNOME, it recommends Screenlets, which is available in the standard Ubuntu repositories. This means you can download it by simply opening a terminal and typing in  sudo apt-get install screenlets.

Screenlets comes with a variety of preloaded widgets, and the handy Get More Screenlets button. Since I don’t have a widescreen monitor and want to have some room for my Pidgin buddy list on the side, my widget desires are pretty simple. I went with the obligatory weather widget, a simple calendar, and a Vista-like CPU meter I downloaded from GNOME-Look. Here’s a screenshot:

Wubi and Jaunty Jackelope

For the first time in a couple of weeks, I have an actual Linux dual-boot on my hard drive. Another relative has temporarily moved in with my grandfather and me, so I decided to reinstall Windows on my computer to allow him to work with an OS he was more familiar with. I decided to set up a Wubi install of Intrepid Ibex to tide me over until Jaunty Jackelope came out.

Wubi

That was my first use of Wubi. Having experienced it, I wish it would have been an option when I first got into Ubuntu and Linux (back in the days of Gutsy Gibbon). If I’d had the chance to try Ubuntu out without setting up a permanent dual-boot, I wouldn’t have set up the conservatively sized partition I originally did. Then I wouldn’t have spent so long trying to figure out how to expand the damn thing.

Wubi works very well. The boot-up seems to take longer, but Ubuntu runs just as quickly under a Wubi install as it does on a regular dual-boot. The biggest differences are:

• You don’t have access to your Windows files under Wubi.
• You only have a maximum of 30 GB of storage for Ubuntu under Wubi.

Otherwise, everything seems to work the same, including the update feature.

Gnome Partition Editor (GPartEd)

In my past experiments with the Gnome Partition Editor, I’ve never been able to get the results that I’ve wanted. I finally figured out that this is because you can’t manipulate the partition on which you’re running GPartEd. Thus, when I downloaded the program and attempted to grow my Ubuntu partition, I was out of luck.

Fortunately, the Jaunty Jackelope live CD comes with GPartEd, which allows you to manipulate any partition on your drive by running it from the CD. Unfortunately, I didn’t come to this revelation until after my relative had already saved some stuff on his Windows account, so it’s going to be a while before I can really grow my Linux partition. However, I was able to gain about 10 more gigs for Linux because of the fact that a Wubi install apparently creates an ext3 swap drive separate from the Windows partition.

Jaunty Jackelope

At the end of the day, I got Jaunty Jackelope installed. So far, I like what I’m seeing. A few things struck me right off the bat after I installed it and started playing around.

• The boot time has dramatically decreased, as others have pointed out.
• The new wallpapers (though there are only two of them) are much better than in the last couple of releases.
• The preinstalled themes are better. This batch includes popular third-party themes like New Wave and a couple of versions of Dust.
• The default shut-down widget now gives you 60 seconds to change your mind.
• OpenOffice 3 is now preinstalled. That saves me the trouble of adding the OOo repository to get it. (I do need the ability to occasionall read Office 2007 documents in case I accidentally download or otherwise access them in Linux. Of course, OOo 3.1 is sounding interesting enough that I might end up doing that eventually anyway.

I’m sure I’ll find more to write about as I mess with Jaunty some more, but this is enough for now. Besides, who keeps a blog to write one comprehensive entry every six months?

The Infamous Lauren Ad

Mac fans have been all over the new Microsoft ad featuring a redhead named Lauren looking for the biggest laptop screen she can find for under $1000. For my own take on this ad, I’m not even going to get into the debate about whether it’s real or scripted, or the fact that Lauren is an actress complete with her own IMDB page. Instead, I’m going to focus on the substance of the commercial.

The Apple Blog’s entry about this ad is typical of the Mac fan’s reaction. They track down the only HP Pavilion laptop they can find for $699 (Lauren’s final cost) at the HP site and list its inferior features. However, their methodology is flawed. They went to HP’s site instead of Best Buy’s. It turns out that there’s a $699 model at BestBuy.com which is a much better deal than the one pointed out by the Apple blogger’s. This particular model has a built-in graphics card, making it more multimedia friendly than the one pointed out by TAB. It also has the newest AMD Turion processor rather than “last year’s Intel.” Of course, whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your view of AMD processors.

The one unquestionable tradeoff is battery life. Best Buy’s $699 laptop has the exact same short battery life as TAB’s. You had to trade off something to get that screen size for the price, and the battery got screwed over big time in that process. This is where Lauren’s obsession with size (of the display screen) may have blinded her even to better PCs on the market. For example, for $729, she could have had this model. It has the same resolution as the $999 Mac on a bigger screen, making it more readable. It also has a listed battery life of 6 hrs., 45 mins. Even if that figure doesn’t quite hold up in real life, the end result should be pretty good battery life.

In order not to be overly confrontational, I will mention three things I agree with The Apple Blog about:

1. Lauren is totally hot.
2. Nevertheless, she’s clueless about computers.
3. If she really wanted value for the price, she should have looked into Linux. (In fact, if I had Lauren’s laptop with the 320 GB hard drive, I would be dual-booting Ubuntu or Linux Mint on it).

However, I think the Mac fans are exaggerating the quality tradeoffs for low-priced PCs.

Linux Mint

I had a busy last half of last quarter, so I haven’t blogged in a while. Some things about my computer have changed in the interim, though. Probably the most significant is the fact that I have switched to Linux Mint.

Basically, Linux Mint is like Ubuntu with the restricted extras already installed. That means you can watch .mpg videos right out of the box, among other things. Mint’s default desktop also looks somewhat more like the Windows setup than Ubuntu’s does. By default, Mint has one panel at the bottom of the screen, where the Windows taskbar would be. It also has a MintMenu button instead of the standard GNOME menu bar. Basically, MintMenu looks more like a Windows menu, though it gives you access to all your applications from the standard view. All in all, Mint’s default desktop is less of a shock to the longtime Windows user, making it an ideal candidate for a novice’s first Linux distro.

Fortunately, Mint is also an Ubuntu derivative, which means I feel no need to change the title of this blog. :-p

Vista After Hiatus

I’ve been forced to go back to using Windows occasionally with the start of a new quarter. That’s because my class requires that all assignments to be done in Word or InDesign. Before anybody points out that OpenOffice can save documents in Word format, I should point out that technical writing assignments are judged on design and formatting, so I can’t risk any loss of formatting in the translation. This means that I’ve been using Windows on my home computer for the first time in months.

The first thing that greeted me on startup (besides the much faster startup time compared to Ubuntu) was an interminable backlog of program updates from all those months. I found myself missing the one-click updates for everything that I get with Ubuntu.

The first time I tried to watch a video online, I also missed a little thing that I had taken for granted all those months. I forgot that Windows doesn’t display a volume graphic when you hit the volume button on the keyboard. I kept thinking, “What’s the volume? What’s the volume? I should be able to tell!” One positive, though, was the fact that adjusting the volume while watching a Flash video doesn’t take the video out of fullscreen mode.

Another thing I have to give Microsoft some credit for is Office 2007. Sure it’s a huge, bloated program, but I actually like the look and the interface. The “ribbon” setup is a pretty good compromise between a million toolbar buttons and Adobe’s clunky tools interface. If only I could get it to work in Wine so I could do my homework in Linux.

The Obligatory First Post

My funny tagline really doesn’t describe the purpose of this blog very well. That’s not because I’m a smart-ass who wants to confuse people. It’s because my purpose is hard to sum up in a neat little catch-phrase. So I’ll give you the whole boring backstory.

I started using Linux, specifically Ubuntu, early in 2008, during the latter days of the Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) era. I had read a few issues of computer magazines for Windows users. These were great resources because they were aimed at the average user; you didn’t need a wealth of tech knowledge to gain something from them. Naturally, when I started using a Linux distro, I thought it would be nice if I could find similar resources for my new favorite OS (or OS kernel, whatever the case may be).

It would have been nice, but it wasn’t about to happen. Every Linux magazine I could ever find fell into one of three categories:

• Glorified CD packaging. These “magazines” come with a CD (either a Linux distro or an open source software program). In fact, they’re not really magazines in the usual sense. They’re not monthly issues of content which readers are expected to subscribe to. Instead, they’re promos/basic instruction manuals designed to get people involved in Linux. Now, in spite of the somewhat sarcastic label I’ve given them, these packages aren’t all bad. Their cause (making people aware of alternatives to Windows and other overpriced software) is just, and they contain useful, basic instructions written with the new user in mind. I just wish there was somebody churning out this kind of content in a regular magazine format (even online).

• Geekfests. The flagship of this category is Linux Journal. LJ bills itself as a magazine “of the Linux Community,” but it’s really a magazine for those members of the Linux community who are obsessed with the ins and outs of kernel development and like to write their own scripts for fun. Little of its content seems suitable for anyone without a BA in computer science. I have found a few useful nuggets in this magazine, but most of it isn’t particularly useful to me.

• “Professional” Linux magazines. I’ll admit that I haven’t really looked at any of the magazines that seem to fit this category. Let’s just say that the jargon-heavy content in LJ makes me afraid to find out what kind of incomprehensible (to the average computer user) language I might encounter in a magazine that calls itself Linux Pro.

So I was thinking that it would be great if I could do something about this state of affairs. Unfortunately, I had two problems. First, I didn’t have the resources to start a magazine; nor did I have enough computer geek friends to fill a webzine with content. This problem is alleviated by the fact that any monkey with a computer can start a blog (and I’m convinced some have).

However, that brings up my second problem. I’m fairly intelligent but don’t have the experience with Linux to blog with any authority on the subject. The obvious solution to this problem is not to even try to write an authoritative blog. After all, blogs don’t have to be written from a position of expertise (see previous comments about monkeys).

So the point of this blog is to chronicle my experiences with and explorations of Ubuntu. I will often look stupid, but that’s okay. I’ve looked stupid in public so many times that it doesn’t phase me any more. Hopefully, non-techie Ubuntu users who find this blog will gain something from my accounts of fumbling around with the operating system. Maybe if I’m really lucky, Ubuntu developers (or developers of other distros) will stumble on this blog and get a detailed account of what their product looks like to users who aren’t IT professionals.