Sí, es Agosto. An update and some iPod hackery.

After a seven month period of almost total inactivity, this post is in attempt to save a now-defunct blog. Exactly what have I been up to?

I do have to say I have kept up activity on all of my favorite websites, including sites like http://phoronix.com and others. http://tuxmachines.org must be thanked as well, since the founder of that website has been a great resource for myself, expanding my readerbase and giving me inspiration for new posts. Thanks to srlinuxx!

Arch Linux continues to be my Linux distribution of choice, holding it's place as light and fit for my ASUS system. Head on over to Arch Linux to check it out!

This summer has been filled with advocacy and opportunity. This is the reason why the blog has not been updated in a while, not to forget the past time for school.

This truly is just a garbled bunch of thoughts, so while we are participating in it, let us continue on to the current project at hand.

iPod Touch as a Secondary Display on Linux

Unfortunately, the iPod Touch is an Apple-produced, close source device, with many free or paid applications. Luckily, despite limited integration with Linux, a user can still run it as a secondary display. This does not mean that the user will be able to mouse over to the iPod and click, but rather, the iPod is comparable to a second computer running on the first. Perhaps in the future, with a little bit of hackery, this will be possible. For now, sit tight and enjoy the ride.

First, Set Up a Working Environment for the iPod

What do you need?

For this mini-project, you will need the following:

• A Linux Computer, Arch Linux, mentioned above is used primarily for experimentation.
• An iPod Touch, or a device with a VNC client.
• Information about the screen resolution on the device
• A VNC Application. I am using Mocha VNC Lite for the iPod Touch.
• The TightVNC package for the command vncserver
• About an hour or so of time for basic functionality. You will need more time for understanding and tweaking.
• Some applications on your Linux machine to test on the device.
• A Wireless network

Please note, this project is currently incomplete. It will remain incomplete until it is
completed. :)

Roll up your sleeves.

1. Start up your Linux Machine and prepare to get started. Have a working network connection.

2. Ubuntu Users, please install the package tightvncserver Fedora Users should install tightvnc Arch Users should install tightvnc Other users should find a package that provides the vncserver command.

3. Get Mocha VNC Lite from the Apple App Store.
4. Find the computer's IP Address using ifconfig
5. Run the vncserver command, using vncserver -geometry 320x480 :1 Note, the geometry sets the screen resolution. Customize this for your device. 320x480 is appropriate for iPod Touch and iPhone. Enter the required data. Note, I find that VNC does not like passwords that are not 8 characters.
   
6. On Mocha VNC Lite, enter your computer IP Address, the VNC Server Port, which is 5901, the password, and a name. Change 32-bit Color mode to On.
7. Connect. You will probably be given a TWM session, we can change that.
8. Enter nano ~/.vnc/xstartup and change the included text to exec ck-launch-session openbox-session for openbox, or exec ck-launch-session gnome for Gnome.
9. Enter vncserver -kill :1
10. Enter the vncserver -geometry 320x480 :1 again. To ensure that the VNC server will always start up, enter vncserver -geometry 320x480 -alwaysshared :1
    
11. Connect with your iPod
12. Enjoy your iPod external monitor.

A Review on ASUS' RMA Process

Recently, my laptop charger had broken, and the laptop would not charge. The battery also had very little capacity. Luckily, I was able to borrow a charger from a good friend whom of which had the ASUS EeePC 1000H, with a compatible charger to my 904HA. With this, I was able to take off any files that I wanted. After this, I had to finish the RMA process.

Issues:
The netbook was beginning to give me problems, the battery was unable to hold a charge for more than an hour, the charger was unable to charge the battery (Possibly caused by a frayed cable inside of the charging cable), and as we have known before, the audio did not work ( See Ubuntu on the EeePC 904HA). I also had a few filesystem errors (as named in the post entitled Saviour). The laptop was becoming something with very limited function, it was becoming unusable.

The First Encounter
The first encounter with ASUS was when I contacted them to ask if the issues were hardware or software issues, and if I could get a new netbook as a replacement. I was greeted by a couple nice people who stated that they were hardware issues, but unfortunately their policy states that they cannot offer a replacement. They promptly responded to this message and gave me a link to RMA the netbook. This was before my charger died. Once it did, I promptly filled out the RMA request.

The Second Encounter
Once I filled out the RMA, I waited for a while for my RMA number. I waited a total of one or two weeks. During these one or two weeks, I sent a second RMA request. After this, I was replied with two emails from ASUS, one stating the directions and the RMA number, and another stating that I had already been given an RMA number. I then proceeded to follow the directions. The directions were not in order, although they were easy to understand. After I recieved my RMA number, I readied, packaged, and sent my EeePC via USPS Priority Mail. Goodbye EeePC, See you sometime soon!

The Third Encounter
With the mailing, I ordered delivery conformation to ensure that ASUS recieved the laptop via USPS. I also insured it. After I had mailed it on Thursday of the previous week, I confirmed that ASUS had recieved the laptop on Monday. As soon as I noted this, I headed to ASUS' website, and clicked Live Chat. I spoke to a person named Roald, a very nice person (Thank you Roald!), who I asked what the state of my RMA was in. He replied with repair (This was Tuesday). I thanked him and continued on my way, expecting to not see my laptop until the next month.

The Final Encounter
After I checked the status, I waited for a little while not expecting to see my laptop for a while. The holiday of Christmas goes by, and I have not checked the status for a while. One day when I return home, there is a FedEx slip saying that the company had missed finishing shipment. This went on for another day. On the third day, my laptop was back. Thank you ASUS!


A Final Statement

The process of RMAing my laptop was decently short. ASUS has provided for every aspect of my laptop that needed to be fixed. Even my Audio is fixed. My charger and battery were replaced at a cost of nothing with an increased capacity. Thank you ASUS.

Linux Review 12- Ubuntu 9.10

With almost a two month absence, the blogger is back, and ready to do just that.

Ubuntu is a distribution designed for ease of use and simplicity of use. The Ubuntu team releases a new distribution at a frequency of every 6 months, and the next distribution has work beginning as early as the beta stages of the current one. My distribution of choice, the ultimately customizable Arch, is a rolling release distribution, meaning that once packages are ready and tested, they are released into mirrors for the user to download the package and use it on the system. Anyway, let's review how the systems are looked at.

Either VirtualBox or KVM is used. VirtualBox reviews are performed on my Intel Atom Netbook with 1GB of memory. KVM reviews are currently not taking place, as the desktop with KVM is currently nonfunctional. VirtualBox reviews are performed with 512MB of memory, and a 1.6GHz processor. VirtualBox is less efficient than KVM, so it is hoped that the KVM machine will be usable again soon.

Ubuntu 9.10- Karmic Koala- Tested with VirtualBox

Ubuntu is and has been the distribution for new Linux users. Ubuntu is known for it's simplicity of use, easy user interface, and a simple installer. The installer is basically identical to the previous install guide that was made for Ubuntu. Otherwise, to the graphical user, Ubuntu's appearance has not really changed. The boot of Ubuntu is much sleeker, a process that seems almost seamless from after the boot menu, other than the GDM login screen. The scrolling bar across the screen no longer shows progress. It is now for eye candy, and a sleek boot.

Installation
The graphical installer continues to be simple, very similar to the previous guide to install. The installer is one of the easiest with Ubuntu, the directions are clear, and the installer reccomends defaults. New users will most likely encounter this installer as easy and clear to use, and many guides to help them along with the process exist.

User Interface
Ubuntu's brown interface still remains in the distribution, along with a new theme, called New Wave. (New Wave is shown above). The themes are familiar and the artwork in Ubuntu 9.10 is simple.


Features
Ubuntu 9.10 incorporates new features such as Ubuntu One, and a new Add/Remove Software interface, similar to a storefront. The software interface is now more intuitive, and software installs with a single click once located. Synaptic Package Manager still exists, in the System -> Administration Menu. Ubuntu's software set continues to be the usual, Openoffice.org, and Firefox, but Pidgin is now replaced. The Gnome Project's Empathy Instant Messenger has replaced it. The set up process with Empathy is somewhat more simple, but it does not give options to set up settings such as only use SSL.

Stability
Stability is important for a new Linux user. When using their computers, they want no crashes and a stable system. Today, the Virtual Machine for Ubuntu was booted, and X server would start, crash, go back to the CLI login prompt, and repeat over and over again. It seems that Ubuntu has an unstable X server inside of VirtualBox. Because of the flashing screen, repair by a new user cannot be performed. Ubuntu also has a strange Grub setup. At this time, the test will end here.

Conclusion
Ubuntu 9.10 continues to be the simple, easy distribution that it has been previously. The stability issue may have been caused by the usage of VirtualBox. Hopefully, KVM will be operational soon.
Features-4/5
Stability-3/5
Graphical User Interface-4/5
Installation-4.5/5
Total- Ubuntu earns 15.5 points out of 20 possible.
Ubuntu will continue to be the distribution it is, but Ubuntu is not for me. I have found my cozy home with Arch, but distributions will continue to be reviewed, without bias. Distribution reviewing is a fun thing to pass the time with. Have a good Thanksgiving for all who celebrate it. I plan to review OpenSUSE and Fedora next. Have a nice, Linux-filled day.

Would you like to install Ubuntu?

A friend/New Linux user asked for the creation of directions on how to install Ubuntu. Hoping that these will help someone out there, they will be made available to blog readers. This may continue to span many distributions.

Preview and Download:
How to Install Ubuntu

Saviour

I recently ran into a file system corruption on my laptop. Today, everything is fine. The day it happened, I thought I lost over 400 pictures. I realize that it is my fault for not backing up that single copy, but that is besides the point. I had deleted all of these pictures off my memory card (Via Linux - FAT32 Formatted SD Card), and my laptop file system was inaccessible. How did I recover the photos? I recovered them with a free software named Restoration. This little software may not be the best way of recovering these pictures, but it worked for my purpose. This software is not Open Source, and it runs on Windows, but it was perfect for my situation. It also doesn't need an installation, and if you are in a dire situation without rights to a computer, this means a great deal.
Restoration was able to retrieve the "deleted" pictures from the SD card, as files are not deleted until they are overwritten on the FAT32 file system. Thanks Restoration!
Unfortunately, I believe that undelete capabilities do not exist on Linux's EXT3 and EXT4 file systems, correct me if I am wrong.
Restoration
My laptop has a new install of Arch, and I will be working on that to show off when it is ready!

Current Arch Setup

After my review about Arch, I reinstalled from scratch. I started again, building up from the basics. I do this because I appreciate the leanest system possible. Here is a screenshot of my current desktop-
This is Openbox with an XFCE4 Panel. I also use GDM for the login. The total memory usage with Firefox and Pidgin running is 195 MB. This is one lean setup. It boots with Xorg started in about 21 seconds, on an Intel Atom. Arch is my favorite distribution that I have found, and I am sure that it will continue to be so for a while.

Linux Review 11: Arch Linux

After 11 successful looks at Linux, I think I may have found my favorite...

Arch Linux is a Linux distribution striving to Keep it simple. My opinions on this? Its great. Arch is lightweight and you can do anything in relation to Desktop Managers and configuration. I installed it on my Eee PC 904HA, and had similar results to Fedora. Sound from the headphone output is full of static, but I think that might be a hardware problem. Wireless basically worked out of box. Even with the core install, essentials to a laptop configuration were working. I went from there, installing and configuring X.org, GDM, Gnome, XFCE, and getting programs like Firefox, Pidgin, and OpenOffice.org. What I got out of doing this all by hand was a fast, slim system with only the essentials.

Arch Install
The Arch Linux installer is a text base installer, covering everything needed to get a working install on first reboot. It goes through partitioning, keyboard, time zone, and other settings. If you download the FTP image, you download packages from mirrors to use on the first reboot. I downloaded the ~150MB FTP image, and then downloaded some packages such as the kernel and Text editor, nano. I also dived into using EXT4 for my root partition. EXT4 is the latest EXT filesystem, and it seems faster than EXT3 would be. I had to use EXT3 for my /boot partition as GRUB doesn't yet support EXT4. Otherwise, the install went smooth, and I checked the configuration files to make sure that they were ok. They were, and I proceeded into my first installed start-up of Arch.

Arch Startup
The installed system was blazingly fast. I logged in as root, and I had a command line based system, that I was ready to install things like X onto. I read around the Arch wiki (Great wiki), figuring out how to go around installing what I wanted. Soon after, my system was ready and very usable.

Overview
Arch is a nice Linux distribution. It is lightweight and fast. It works great, once you have it configured properly. It gives you flexibility. You only download things you need. I have to say, with all of these things together in one distribution, it is my favorite. I have to give it a 5/5. I think this will be my distribution of choice for a while. Until something similar to arch comes along with a better mixture of performance and features, Arch will be my favorite. For now, I will stop distribution hopping and stay with Arch.

Fedora on the Eee PC 904HA

I installed Fedora 10 onto my EeePC. Here is what works and what doesn't work-


Worked Out of Box
Wireless, Ethernet, All normal things, sound, correct resolution on the screen, etc...

Does not work out of box
Headphones :(

The Good And Bad things about a Multi-Touch Touch Pad

After that much of a title, lets get talking. My new laptop, the Eee PC 904HA, came with a multitouch touchpad. It is similar to the technology found in the newer Apple Macbooks. The whole concept makes it easier to navigate the interface. It allows gestures to be used to zoom, scroll, change workspaces, etc... What do I think about it? I think this technology is great. It makes doing certain things quicker, which increases productivity, and makes the computing experience that little bit greater. Is it the next big feature? I'm not sure, it could be. More and more laptops (now the most popular type of computer) will get touchpads with new features.
I found myself immediately using the gestures with the touchpad. It only takes a little while to master the easiest of them. Multi-Touch-Pads, the tech of the future?

Ubuntu on the Eee PC 904HA

After creating my first bootable USB thumb drive for installing Ubuntu with an easy to use tool called UNetBootin, with the Ubuntu 8.04 Alternate CD, and finding that it wouldn’t work because the installed couldn’t find the network interface, I used UNetBootin to download and create a USB stick of Ubuntu 8.10 Live, and it installed perfectly. The live version did find the Atheros network interface, and I could proceed with the install.

Installation

The Ubuntu install went without issue other than the problems with Network interfaces as described. It took about 10 minutes from the USB stick I was using.

What Worked, What didn’t work-

Most things worked with 8.10, including the Graphics, Ethernet Interface, USB, Webcam, and Multi-Touch touchpad features. The wireless card- Atheros AR5007EG, worked after following a few guides, easily  found on the internet. Sound works from the speakers, but doesn’t work with headphones.

Sound Issues

On the Eee PC 904HA, the speakers work fine in Ubuntu. Headphones produce a loud static noise, while you can’t hear what you are supposed to be listening to. I have searched for the problem on Ubuntu Forums and across the web for this problem with the 82801G (Intel ICH7 Family) sound interface, to no avail. If anyone in the audience can shine some light on this issue, please comment.

Overall

Installing Ubuntu on the Eee PC 904HA was surprisingly easy. It also took a very low amount of time to start and complete the install. I am very happy with the support for the hardware in this laptop, as I know that laptop hardware isn’t always supported. As I said, if anyone can shine light on the issue with sound, please comment.

Gadget Review- ASUS Eee PC 904HA

As ASUS releases more and more Eee PC’s, the model names get more and more confusing. This particular model, the 904HA, has a 8.9” screen, but almost everything else is the same as the 1000HA. It features the Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, 160GB of hard drive space, an 8.9” screen, and a great keyboard. It also features a 1.3 MP webcam and has a multi-touch track pad. I really like this machine. The keyboard is absolutely excellent (Other than the right shift key) for a netbook with small size like this. The device is smaller than a standard letter size paper. It comes with Windows XP preloaded onto the Hard Drive.

Preloaded Software

The 904HA comes with Windows XP, and the software preloaded onto the XP install is a mixture of things. It includes Adobe Reader 8, Intervideo WinDVD, Windows Live Suite, and Microsoft Works. It also comes with ASUS’s “Super Hybrid Engine”, the key behind the device’s excellent battery life (Up to 7 hours when Wireless is off, the Camera is off, the device is in Power Saving Mode, and the screen is turned to the lowest brightness.)

Hardware

The 904HA comes with the Intel Atom N270, clocked at 1.6GHz. It also includes 1GB memory, a Seagate 160GB 2.5” Hard Drive, Atheros Wireless and Wired Network interfaces, 3 USB ports, standard Line In and Line out audio jacks, an SD card Reader, and the Intel GMA 950 from the 945 chipset. It allows for multiple monitors in Extend and Clone Modes, It can also do CRT only (External Monitor Only) and LCD only (the 8.9” screen). The input devices are PS/2 and the Webcam is USB. The machine is surprisingly quick for my use. Unfortunately, the ElanTECH touchpad had an issue with Two Finger Scrolling in Firefox, but that was easily fixed by installing the newest driver from the ElanTECH website. Most of the hardware is great, and this laptop has an excellent build quality.

Looks

The Eee 904HA looks great to me, the smooth Matte surface on the inside is good, as it doesn’t catch any fingerprints as the glossy screen cover does. ASUS includes a sleeve, and a cleaning cloth. The bezel isn’t a deal breaker for me, and I actually like it. The large bezel is from the 8.9” screen on the 10” screen frame. Other than that, this laptop is very simple in design, and doesn’t stand out too badly, other than the fact that it is a “little laptop.”

Why I Chose This Model

I chose this model because I wanted a cheap and small typing machine. I wanted it to be light and simple. I also wanted it to be upgradable. I didn’t see the benefits from the 10” screen that was at the same resolution from the 8.9” screen on the model that was at least $50 cheaper.

Overall

I really like this gadget. I have to give it a 4/5 because of the strange software selection. Soon I will be trying to install Ubuntu 8.10 on it, and I will keep you updated on that.

Fedora 10: LiveCD install

     I've had an all-around good experience with Fedora. It never stumped me out of my mind, and gave me enough options so that I was satisfied. I have used CentOS, Fedora Core 6, and Fedora 8, 9, and 10.

Fedora 10: Live CD Install
     Fedora's primary download media has gone from Installable DVD, to Installable Live CD. There are a couple benefits to this-

• Image takes less time to download. Whoever thought that going from a 4.7GB (Maximum) medium to a 700MB (Maximum) medium would improve that!
• Smaller size on your hard drive when it is waiting to be burned.
• Can be read by computers with a CD-Only drive.
• Doesn't need a DVD+R drive to burn.

There are also a few downsides-

• Less Software, A lot less software.
• Slower to boot (Live CD's have been this way for a while.)

     While going to a LiveCD primarily can be good, I found this release of Fedora with the LiveCD to have much less software.
Graphical Interface

      Fedora 10 comes with GNOME version 2.24.1. It also comes with some beautiful new desktop artwork. Nothing else that is special here, but I find the Graphical User interface quite nice. The experience is overall fast and nice to work with.
Installation/Updates
     I was lucky, I was able to download the image within a week of release. I had about 40 updates that all downloaded within 30 minutes. Installation took about 25 minutes (With 512 MB of memory). The installer (I assume it is still anaconda) was very easy to navigate. Once out of the live CD interface, Fedora 10 was fast and ready to be used.
Software
     I was suprised by some of the software that was installed/not installed. With the LiveCD medium, you can only fit a limited number of things that the DVD would otherwise have. I found that instead of the entire OpenOffice Suite, only Abiword was installed. Under Graphics, only GIMP and gThumb were installed. Things like iok were installed. I found Intresting the changes that were made with software, but most things that you can't find installed directly after installation can be found and installed from the repositories.
Conclusion
     Fedora 10 is easy to install, update, and use. Although the software from the LiveCD is a little less than you can get off of a DVD is less, there is probably enough to satisfy a normal PC user.
     Fedora 10 pros-

• Less of a download size than the previous DVD
• Easy to use
• Easy to install and update
• Does most of what it needs to do on it's own, not much human interaction is required other than pressing a few buttons.
• Works inside Virtualbox (Yes, I have decided to stick with SUSE and virtualize).
• Great User Interface

and Cons-

• Fedora 10 has a little less software than I would prefer.
• LiveCD boot-up is slow (Like always, Not Fedora's fault.)

     Through everything, I believe Fedora 10 deserves a 4.5/5.  It is easy to use, and fast. It may not be the distribution of choice for the newest user, but if they have a decent understanding of Windows/Other PC operating System, I think they would be fine with this.

Happy Birthday Blog! How About a quick look at Ubuntu 8.10?

Today Marks this blog's first birthday. I started blogging a year ago, on November 12th, 2007. Since then my writings have improved, and my viewers have left insight on how to improve things. I thank you for that, and I hope more insight will come, so that I can improve by even greater amounts. I also hope to provide you with more information, and interesting links. On November 5th, 2008, I opened the Everyth1ng blog, be sure to check that out ( http://everyth1ng.blogspot.com ). Now how would a quick look at Ubuntu 8.10 be?

Ubuntu 8.10
I think I have had enough Ubuntu. I find that with each release the startup gets slower and the interface clunkier. The new "Theme" isn't exactly all that either. I do not think that I am expecting too much, but promised features that the Canonical teams seem to be put off until the last minute, which is not something you want to do with something as big as a piece of software, let alone an Operating system.

Installation
I can't say much about installation this time, as I opted to upgrade right from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. The update process was smooth, and took about 2.5 hrs (Not Ubuntu's Fault). It was smooth on first boot up, but it seems alot slower than 8.04 was. It also seems much slower from the login to desktop (In either XFCE, or GNOME).

Theming/ User Interface

Although  theming isn't important in my mind, Ubuntu teams had promised a big theme change for 8.10. Other than the small change in colors and new desktop art, there isn't much to be found here. Where is it Ubuntu? I can't find it! Other words for the User Interface, it is still GNOME and Ubuntu-y

Conclusions
I liked the previous releases of Ubuntu. 8.10 doesn't really introduce anything special, at least that I can see. In fact, I almost think that the release quality of the releases is degrading. I do not know if it is just me expecting more, but I really do think it is getting lower each release. What do you think? Any Die-Hard Ubuntuers out there that have been with it since the first release? Please give me insight as to this. Maybe I'm going insane. I give this release of Ubuntu a 3/5. Promised features seem to be getting put on the back burner. In fact, the "new" theme we have was promised for 8.04. It may be the newest kernel technology, and some other nice features, but they aren't nessecarily what new users will see.

Overall score: 3/5


 Disclaimer: Open_N0DE is not going to listen to any comments that involve my reviewing strategy, unless you tell me HOW to IMPROVE it. I review from a new user's perspective, and I look at distributions that look easy to use for the new user. I believe that I have a small amount of experience in Linux, and I run a webserver for testing the PHP pages that I am learning how to code. I also know a little of the Command line, and YUM and APT-GET tools. Unfortunately I do not know around in some things, and I apoligize for that.

Wiki's

From Wikipedia-
"A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language"

A wiki is a powerful collaboration tool used by many. In fact, Wikipedia, the well known encyclopedia is a Wiki. Wikipedia is also based off of the open source MediaWiki. I am running Ubuntu Linux with Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Webmin. I decided to take a look at it. Although Installing it is an easy procedure, I thought I would make a small tutorial on the basics. Here it is-



I will be making more tutorials, and If anyone would like to suggest a topic, I am open to suggestions. Have fun wikiing!

Food For Thought

Twas the month of October, and Linux Users cheered, as new releases of their favorite Linux Distribution were coming...

I also have some new reviews planned! This month and next month I will be reviewing Ubuntu 8.10, and possibly Fedora 10. Once December comes around, I will start using SUSE again, and will publish a series of articles on it for new users and some for more advanced users. Some I may even do in video format. For now, I checked out the Mac4Lin project, and I thought that was pretty cool-

From Experimentation

Happy Birthday Google!

A great big and happy birthday wish to Google, which turns 10 years old this month. I've been using Google itself for many years now, and started to use their awesome services a little less than a year. I've talked about Google's Services many times, and my original conference presentation can still be found on the blog. In Fact, Here is the post- FOSSVT April 4^th.

I downloaded Chrome and Picasa 3 right when I got news of them being available. My Firefox start page is set to my iGoogle. My word processing is usually done on line on Google Docs. I now use Gmail, and Love it. I love using Google Calendar to organize my tasks. This Blog, which will be celebrating it's own Birthday in a couple months, is hosted on Blogger, another Google service. My School started using Google Apps a small while ago. I can't wait until Chrome comes for Linux. Google is all around us.

So Google, on your 10^th birthday, have some fun, and enjoy it. Who knows what you will be doing in another 10 years!

Happy Birthday Google!

Online Video Version 1

Getting Back To School with New Gadgets, Services, and Software

School is back, and summer is over. While we wait for some awesome new Linux Distributions, coming in the following months, there are new gadgets and services to check out. Lets do just that, here it comes.

ASUS EeePC/ Netbooks

At least for part of the year, I have this to experiment with. The light, small laptop is great for light tasks, such as Word Processing and Web Browsing. Luckily, Firefox and OpenOffice.org are included for these tasks, and even though a little slow at times on Launch, it is plenty fast. One great thing is that KDE can easily be enabled for a more advanced user interface. It is great for what I need, and works pretty well. The battery only lasts about 3 hours, but the Power Supply is very small and portable.

Services- Google Services

As always, Google is helpful to me. I use several of their services, and they are a great help in organizing my work. I dislike carrying a thumb drive with me everywhere I go, and I like access to my docs or notebooks wherever I go. I also find storing my docs online does help. Google Gears makes it possible for me to get them offline too. I think it works great for what I need it for.

All In All, from Google I use,

• Docs
• Gmail
• Notebooks
• Blogger
• Bookmarks
• Talk
• Analytics
• Calendar
• Picasa

Software- Google Chrome
Google Chrome, Google's browser, is now In beta and available to the public. It seems to be a fast and speedy download, and after the tool is installed, it operates quickly, and has a nice interface, obviously Google Themed. Each individual tab runs it's own process, so simply going in to task manager and killing a single process will close a tab. The beta seems to be somewhat stable, but Java content does not work as of yet. The browser is Open Source, and it is based on WebKit, also Open Source. Chrome's new tab page is a little useful, and shows recent bookmarks, most visited pages (With a thumbnail of the page). It is very speedy, and I think it is almost faster than Firefox and Internet Explorer. It only works on Windows as of right now though.


Software- iTALC
I just learned about this one. It is like Synchroneyes. You can easily teach classes with it and if you use the master application you can take snapshots of others screens, power up a whole lab of computers (Wake on LAN must be enabled in the BIOS), log in remotely, shut down computers, demo your screen onto computers, and allow students to present things from their computers.


Hardware- Energy Efficient Systems
Energy Efficient systems are becoming more and more wanted. Non- Gamers don't really enjoy having a power hungry computer that uses 300 Watts of power(3.33 Hours = 1 Kilowatt Hour.) People also like laptops that have a long battery life. Intel's Atom processor, Possibly AMD's Athlon 2000, and VIA's C7/Nano, are making this possible. With an Energy Efficient power supply, the Intel and AMD systems have measured about 40 Watts. That is a small amount of power, and In Standby mode, Intel's C6 mode has seen about 5-10 Watts! Although not exactly the best thing for school (Maybe the Netbooks are) the Net-Top can be an interesting thing to experiment with. It would make an excellent always-on system, and could make an awesome Linux box. (The Realtek chip doesn't work great with Linux though.)

That wasn't so bad was it? I think the new coming software and hardware will be able to hold me off until some new big Linux distributions come out? Will it hold you over, there isn't that long to wait!

Linux Review 10- OpenSUSE 11.0

Ok, last time I looked at OpenSUSE, I completely confused myself when trying to configure things. This time, even with little knowledge of the settings manager, or the package manager (Both tasks are handled with YAST2) I was able to figure things out. I actually set mount points for Windows partitions correctly this time! (This is done before installation starts). So even when I wasn't sure what setting in YAST did what when I began, I quickly discovered that YAST for settings is absolutely Awesome. The YAST package manager is a little slow, and seems to take up a bit of System resources. So let's get started, shall we?

OpenSUSE 11.0
You know, you want a system to be able to do something with. You don't want it to just sit there not allowing any work to be done, because (Insert Bloated Anti-Virus Software Here) is using too much memory, and the system is slow. You do want a secure system, so you think that using this anti virus and anti spyware/adware/malware and a huge firewall will protect the system. Even then, some of this malware can get in. Tracking Cookies are spyware, and they aren't automatically detected when the browser picks them up. You have to scan with your Spyware tool to find them. OpenSUSE is very secure, and when you want to change a setting, it's easy. For example, a webserver will bring you through the process, and even ask to open up a firewall port. That's great, most distro's have you doing that yourself.

Installing
Installing Open SUSE was a shorter process this time. It only took about 45 minutes and required a single reboot. I was running OpenSUSE right off, but found that I could not hit the power off in the start menu, I just powercycled the machine, but I still wonder why that was. On the next reboot, (Start Ups are a little slow) It worked just fine. Installing was painless, I knew what I was doing this time, and I was up and running OpenSUSE 11 right off the bat.

User Interface

The user interface is friendly, and the apperance is good looking. Starting Compiz fusion was also easy. Packaging with YAST is also prettty good. I was able to install the Phun Physics Simulator really fast, and It seemed to understand that that package needed 2D acceleration drivers, and downloaded those for me too. Wow, thats just awesome. It seems easy enough to the end user, that is a little tech savvy. It is pretty easy, but I would be weary about people wiping out their C:\ Drive because they don't know what a partition is. OpenSUSE does use some technical language, so be weary. The partition tool was pretty good too, speaking of partitions.

Conclusions
After figuring out OpenSUSE 10.3 slowly, I came into 11 quite easily, I have a picture of the installer, and will upload that once I can. So let's outline the main points.

The Good

• Installer was easy to use
• Interface was nice
• Configuring things is quick with YAST
• User Friendly
• Pretty Fast when using
• YAST
  

The Bad

• Technical Language (Not bad for me, but maybe another user)
• Boot Is slow
• YAST for package managing is just a little slow

The Inbetween

• YAST
• Technical Language

 As for a rating, I can't resist giving OpenSUSE a high score, I had a great experience with it this time. It's nice! I have to give it a 5/5, I almost found it perfect for my needs. For another user though, I'm not so sure. 

Switching To Open Source Completely- One Step at a time.

The Introduction

There may be an interesting story behind my switch to Open Source, I didn't switch completely at one time. I started using Open Source with Windows, with programs like Open Office and The GIMP. I liked The GIMP because it didn't cost money and I felt that Open Office had much better features compared to Microsoft Word.  I liked the ease of use of Open Office. Because the original copy of office I had preloaded on the PC didn't have a presentation tool, OO Presentation was perfect.


A little Farther...

After the Introduction to those utilities, I started looking for more and more free tools. I found them quickly, but not all of them were great. I still used Open Office and GIMP more than the closed source applications of the same kind. I found things like Audacity and Mozilla Thunderbird for Email. I had been using Firefox before I started to use OO. SourceForge was a great place to find these, so I went there from time to time if I was looking for something.

After that?

After finding these Open Source applications, I felt pretty good with the software. At the time I didn't really know about GNU/Linux, but I was lucky enough to be able to get an introduction. The first distribution I actually used was K12LTSP (Article Anyone?) to set up a server for several older clients to be used again. Even though we ran into countless problems with things such as PCs with no PXE capabilities and garbled graphics, we continued with it for a while, and quit because the older machines to be used were being retired soon anyway. The next "Adventure" was with Xubuntu on these same old machines! This was a funny story (Another Article Possibly?) and there were problems with this too. Being so very persistent with these tasks, I would have probably stayed all night working on these things. For the real detailed story on that, you would have to ask my Tech Teacher.

Around these times, I became intrested in the Hardware pieces too. I was fascinated by the fact that these computer parts were so powerful and fast enough to run the awesome software that I liked to use. It was still a little while before I built my own system, and right after that I started to use Linux for real by myself. I found that the hardware I had used in building this computer was very well supported.

Is there more?

Of course there is more. I began to use Linux and found some applications that seemed hard to use. I hadn't done Video Editing with Linux, but I am now beginning to do that too. I like using free formats like .OGG for Music and Theora for Video. I also found that these formats were good with high quality and a decent file size. I thought these formats were great, but many Media Players, like Windows Media Player wouldn't play them. Most people don't usually install more Media Players on their systems, unless they needed Quicktime or Real.


We also use Linux in the form of Edubuntu at our writing labs, and the school uses the software that I have already mentioned. By using free software we can save money so that we can replace our old hardware. Our Oldest hardware was just replaced this year, in the writing labs we had machines with 64MB of memory and Celeron processors at 566Mhz, by donated machines with 256MB-512MB of memory and Pentium 3's at 1Ghz, and P4s with 1.8Ghz. Not the best, but it helps us to get through the years.