Ubuntu Test Drives

Well, I've had more than week to play with Ubuntu 10.04 and I think it's great. There are a few rocks out there, but overall, it's rock stable, feature rich and totally customizable.

Here's the good:

• Ubuntu, the Open Source Community and a few business have pretty much every application you want. For free. With source code. With the ability to contact developers easily to suggest improvements and features. In other words, Screw the Ribbon. Open Office has everything you need, fer free, there's one exception which I'll discuss in the Disadvantages list.
• It doesn't slow down.
  
• You can blow off PhotoShop. The Open Source Gimp photo 'manipulator' and Open Office's Draw Program pretty much have all the features of PhotoShop and Correl Draw for vector and raster graphics files.
• I've only seen one blue screen and it was my fault.
  
• Much as I love Winamp, Rhythmbox pretty much beats it in every feature.
• I can do without the Outlook replacement Evolution (fingers crossed) because, while it does everything Outlook does. I'm used to and like Thunderbird and its Lightning Add-In, I don't like the way Evolution' calendar works and I like having separated InBoxes for my e-mail accounts. This is obviously a matter of preference.
• There are so few of us using it right now (comparatively speaking) that the evil forces of Virii and Malware pretty much don't care about us. Hence- while you should still run an Anti-Virus Program and software firewall (both free, of course), there's not much out there to hurt your 'puter.
  
• You don't need Snag It. There are a couple of screen grabbers (free) that work very well.
• Ubuntu comes with Open Source versions of Disk Burners, E-mail client. IM client (that will handle all of your IM accounts in a single screeen), FireFox (Linux Version- slightly different), a video editor, video viewer, print manager... yuddah, yuddah. In short, you can get started right after the installation is complete with new, free tools that work as well, if not better than Windows tools and applications.
  
• It doesn't crash.
• There are three ways to download and install software. Two are very easy. One isn't. So use the Ubuntu Software Center or Synetics Package Manager to handle this for you.
• It doesn't crash.
  
• Wireless not only worked right of the box, the client actually knew what security my system has and just asked for the password.
• It doesn't crash.
• If you have a smarphone, the makers of Ubuntu have a new service called Ubuntu One (actually it came out with release 9.04, but I had no idea what it was).... a combination Boxnet.net (i.e. secure cloud file space) and activesynch (for Windows Mobile) on Mozilla's Thunderbird. If you use the built-in email client called Evolution which synchs right out of the box. I don't like its calendar since I'm used to Lightning o the $10 a month for the synch service and 50 Gb of free cloud space is a good deal. You get 2 Gb for free.
• It doesn't crash.
• It will integrate all your social media- including Instant Messaging, Web Services and e-mail in a superb user interface.
• Ir doesn't crash

Now there are some minor issues, nits, really:

• Once I paid my first ten bucks to Ubuntu One, they took down the synch to Windows Mobile option. Arrrrgh.
• While I can install Microsoft VISIO using the WINE application, and it will launch. It craps out very easily and consistently. Yes, I have a certified copy. I couldn't open a 2003 VISIO document and had to make due with creating a bunch of boxes in Draw. It worked, but was a pain. I use VISIO a lot, so I guess my next employer is going to have to gimme a laptop with Windows on it.
• Do NOT put your media files on an external drive and have that drive unavailable when you launch Rhythmbox. It indexes media files on initiation and  it has to re-index when you get your external drive up. You're supposed to be able to put media files up on your Ubuntu Cloud share, but I haven't had time to check that out yet.
• The documentation (web-based) is fine for very unsophisticated users and walk them through simple processes and procedures. You really gotta dig for answers on the community wiki or other websites if you have something more complicated than installing a software package from Ubuntu Software Center. I spent a half hour finding out what to do with a *.bin file containing a program I wanted. It was a simple answer (you right click on it, change the properties by adding 'execute' permission and taking out 'read only' permission and then double click it or right click again and select EXECUTE).

Would I install it on my mother's machine? I'm actually thinking about it. She gets so much adware and malware on her machine it's not funny. I'm thinking not because you do have to be a little technical.

For my wife? Yew betcha. But she's a developer using Visual Studio, so that' out.

The kids? Like a shot. Fast, malware and spyware resistant, FREE software and IT DOESN'T CRASH. Yeah, I'm thinking about doing a demo for them.

Oh Yeah---did I mention it doesn't CRASH?

Ubuntu 10.04

Well, it took a bit of doing, but I've got Ubuntu 10.04 LT on my Lenovo T-61 laptop. I had version 9.04 installed as a dual boot Windows XP/Ubuntu system. All of the issues I've identified were caused my me, not Microsoft nor Canonical, the company that creates and supports Ubuntu.

You say you're not sure what this stuff is? Well, you must have heard of UNIX, right? UNIX (and there are variety of flavors out there such as Sun OS, AT & T, etc.) usually runs on what used to be called 'mini-computers,' which used to be between a PC and a Mainframe. Now it runs on what are known as 'workstations,' which are nothing more than really beefed up PCs. Anyway, LINUX is UNIX which can run on your PC.

The problem has been that despite installation scripts, graphical user interfaces and better installation programs, LINUX has been the haven for the technical among us. Until Ubuntu.

Ubuntu has a philosophy. And in its most recent revisions, shown that it can replace your Microsoft or Apple-centered operating system (in fact, one of the reasons Apple moved away from the Motorola Chips a few years back was to get the Intel x86 architecture. OS 10 and above are based on LINUX.

With Ubuntu, you download a file (called in image file) and burn it to a CD. You then boot your PC with the CD. After it boots, you have the option of playing with Ubuntu to see if you like it, or install it on your PC.

Here's where Ubuntu shines over many other forms of LINUX (because the operating system is 'open source,' anyone can change, adapt and create his/her own version...just like the different flavors of UNIX) since the installation routines have been honed for several years. And its very easy to do.

You have a couple of decisions to make during the install. Of course, I blew it. The power was going on and off during a storm and I had to get it done so I could re-do my resume. This is a recipe for disaster.

The first decision you have to make is whether you want to run Ubuntu as the sole operating system on your PC or with Windows or OS 10. If you pick the former, the installation program completely reformats your hard drive and then installs the new OS. If you select the second option (which I did), Ubuntu adds a 'boot manager.'

This is a program that interrupts your PC's start-up routines and allows you to use either Windows/OS 10 or LINUX. This is what got trashed on the second of my installations. Yeah, I know. I use a laptop and the battery should have taken care of it.

Except the battery wasn't installed because I read an article that says you sharply reduce the life of a Lithium battery by not using it and charging it well before it needs to be charged.

Then, I had trouble. Lord did I have trouble. I knew what I did and knew what I had to do to get out of it. I rebooted into the setup routine.

And pressed the wrong button without realizing it (because I didn't read the damn screen). Big Shot IT professional.

I pressed the button that lays in Ubuntu as the only operating system. And I didn't realize what I had done until the re-format routine was half over.

Office 2003. Gone. All my e-mail archives. Gone. All my resume and archive files. Gone. All my website files. Gone.

Wait a sec.

Ubuntu comes with Open Office (a free, open source Microsoft Office replacement) right out of the box.

It comes with FireFox. XMarks will re-synch all my bookmarks. The password synching didn't work for some reason.

It comes with GIMP, an open source alternative to PhotoShop. It also comes with free Instant Messaging, integrated E-Mail/Personal Information Manager (Evolution), allows you to install Thunderbird and its Lightning add-in and a raft of other 'must have' utilities.

There are dozens of free, downloadable open source programs. In fact, Ubuntu doesn't use the Synaptic Program Manager anymore- it has its own Add/Delete software utility now.

The interface is much cleaner than before. All those upper panel icons have been grouped together to make things a lot easier to find.

Hmmm.

Yes, I can install Microsoft Project and VISIO (the only programs that the open source community or Apple have no replacements for) using WINE- a real time application that allows you to run Windows programs under LINUX without the hurky-jerky screens we used to see on Apple machines running similar utilities.

Version 10.04 comes with integrated social media (a one stop application that gathers all the Tweets, Status Changes and FaceBook attaboys you got).

It integrates with Ubuntu One. That's a web site in the 'Internet cloud' that automatically gives you 2 Gigs of free, integrated data space and the option to pay $10/month for 50Gb (yeah, you read that correctly) AND will synch your Smart Phone (even my Windows Mobile 6!).

Maybe I won't miss Windows much at all.

It's been five days and there's been no withdrawl symptoms at all.

I recommend you run it in a dual boot configuration like I did for a few months so you can ease yourself into it. There's a lot to learn if you have trouble (and I realized I had trouble with R9.04- WINE didn't work, the OS didn't recognize the SD Card Reader nor the USB connection to my phone) and it was because of the multiple installs I did on 9.04.

Don't do that.

Fixes for FaceBook

OK, friends and neighbors, it turns out we do not have to take this constant change of FaceBook sitting down. You have to get a little geeky, but it's pretty simple. if you follow these instructions you should be just fine.

What we're doing is adding a 'scripting' program to Firefox called Greasemonkey, three scripts and a program to manage your scripts to make things as easy as possible.

Greasemonkey and its scripts are designed specifically to do the sorts of things we're going to do. There are hundreds of available, free scripts so you do not need to be a programmer. The scripts alter the way Firefox displays pages... including the never ending changes to FaceBook.

• You have to install and use Mozilla Firefox, latest release (3.6) because that's what I'm using and no, I'm not gonna test it on anything else. Go here if you don't already have Firefox 3.6. Install it over your older version, you don't need nor want it. If you really think you need the older version, this procedure may work. It may not. If it doesn't, I told you so and you'll need to go back and install 3.6 anyway. Is this making any sense?
  
• Install the add-on called Greasemonkey.
• Install the add-in Greasefire.
  

• Allow Firefox to shutdown and restart.
• Click Tools, then Add ons on the Firefox Tool bar:
  

• Click the Greasefire add on and 'update' the list:

• Open FireFox to your FaceBook homepage. Then click TOOLS|ADD ons again until you reach Greasmonkey. Add the three items you see below:

• Close everything up except FireFox and your home page will look like this:

• You will see a new icon at the bottom of FireFox, this is the Greasemonkey Icon.
  

If you want to delve deeper (like find the script options, or finding other scripts), lemme know and I'll try to help. Or you could read the same web pages I did (They're all marked above).

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