In any event, having taken the plunge, I soon had Precise up and running. I was staring at that butt ugly Unity launchbar that I had first seen in the VM. And where the hell was everything? My friendly GNOME desktop was gone. It was clear that I needed to “bone up” on what had developed over the last two years. I moved over to my Mac, did some googling and got three valuable insights.

First, with a few commands I could install the GNOME desktop as well as a new CINNAMON desktop developed for Linux Mint. It’s interesting that a desktop developed for one distro could run on another, but as Mint is built on Ubuntu it was not surprising. Second, I learned that the ugly launcher could be hidden via a System Setting that could accessed through a little gear icon in the corner of the display. This was a clue as to where Precise was hiding things. Third, I learned that Precise was implementing something called Heads Up Display(HUD). Query boxes could be brought up by hitting the ALT key on the keyboard, whatever that meant.

I returned to the Linux box, managed to find a terminal and quickly installed the alternative desktops. With little delay I was soon enjoying the CINNAMON desktop. I really like this but unfortunately it’s not completely developed. I tried, without success, to install my wireless network printer. I thought that maybe if I figured out how to install the printer in Unity, it might work in CINNAMON. Logging back into Unity and following the instructions I quickly had the launchbar hidden and the printer installed. Then the light bulb in my brain suddenly clicked ON. Unity was trying to act like a Mac! The HUD thing was the equivalent of the Mac spotlight, the lauchbar was a dock! I didn’t need menus! Just type a few letters into the HUD box and you get what you want!  I typed in “syn”, the built-in word completion showed Synaptic Package Manager and bingo, there it was. Yes, after a few more entries into the HUD I was convinced that this was a truly remarkable milestone in Ubuntu’s development.

The somewhat unintuitive task of software installation and removal has long been a criticism of Linux distros. Those of us comfortable on the command line do not represent the general population. The task has now been given to the Uuntu Software Center, accessed via a button in the launchbar. After finding the disired package(app) in the Ubuntu repository there are two simple buttons labelled “Install” and “Remove”. It can’t get any simpler than that. Now some of us, being the geeks that we are, will still insist on using the command line with its powerful options, however, it is clear that the Ubuntu delopers are striving for a Mac-like OS, OS X being famous for its ease of use. The terminal will not disappear but the need for its use will diminish over time. The need for exploring menus also diminishes as the query language becomes more intelligent. Precise already seems to be pretty smart.

OS X on the Mac is excellent but Mac hardware is expensive. Unlike versions of Windows from Microsoft, OS X can be installed without a license key. There is no “Apple Genuine Advantage” and if you are successful in its installation you will not encounter anti-theft booby traps. Find compatible hardware and you can have a “Hackintosh” desktop computer. In reality it’s much easier said then done. Windows is the most stolen and counterfeited OS in the world because it will run on so many hardware configurations. OS X will not. Apple does attack flagrant violators of its copyrights but does not seem to be concerned about individual hobbyists. Ubuntu is FREE open source software. It cannot be stolen. It will run on most any hardware that can support Windows. It behaves a lot like a Mac.

Yes, the launchbar is butt ugly, but I’m sticking with Precise until my next upgrade.

All kidding aside how in the world can Microsoft justify this? Yes, there are some folks who insist on using Windows but is this niche large enough to support the product? Does Microsoft need to charge that much to recoup their development and production costs?

The Wi-Fi Motorola XOOM will launch next week with a price tag of $599 (32GB). Although a bit heavier then the iPad 2, it offers Google’s Android OS and a huge selection of apps from the Android AppStore. It will be a strong competitor to Apple. Hewlett-Packard has projected June to include the launch of their WebOS tablet, I don’t know what the price of that device will be bur you can bet that the Motorola team will be closely watching XOOM and Microsoft.

Another concern I have about a Windows tablet is Windows malware. A Windows desktop user is just about forced to simultaneously run antivirus and antispyware products. These consume processor power. Tablet computers have less processor power than their desktop counterparts by design. What will a user do when the tablet’s OS is trashed? Will there be a way to “flash” a clean OS image to the device? Even at a more reasonable price these would be questions that I would want answers to before I made an investment. Yes, I have some gripes about iTunes and my iPad 1,  but in the unlikely event that I trash its OS, iTunes will restore it.

Historically, Apple products are innovative and generally priced higher than competitive products that followed. The iPad was an exception being priced competitively with laptops and netbooks. Whether this was intentional or unintentional it did set a price point that competition would have to meet. At $1099 the Microsoft tablet will fail. Intelligent buyers will quickly recognize a lack of value.

Several manufacturers have announced tablets that will run on Google’s Android OS. Hewlett Packard will soon release a tablet featuring Palm’s WebOS. If you are not already aware, both of these operating systems are Linux based. It would not surprise me to see others and, of course, Microsoft could come out with some tablet running a version of Windows. If not, Microsoft will at least file complaints about violations of their “intellectual property”. It appears that 2011 will at last be the “year of Linux”, although not as a desktop distro as the Linux advocates have imagined. Does it matter? Many enthusiasts believe that tablets will replace desktops and laptops. Some even envision schools passing out tablets instead of textbooks.

The difficulty with Apple’s iOS is Apple’s unwillingness to open the devices’ file systems. Apple tightly controls what goes into and what comes out of the Apple products. Firmware upgrades can only be done via iTunes. Data input for many apps is done with iTunes. It’s usually not difficult but the user is required to have iTunes on his/her PC. Linux users are challenged as there is no Linux version of iTunes. Technically advanced users will “jailbreak” their devices to overcome some of these restrictive Apple policies. Jailbraking an Apple device will install the Cydia app. Cydia is sort of a rogue app store allowing the installation of apps not acceptable to Apple. The downside of jailbreaking is that the device cannot be upgraded without losing the jailbreak benefits. The user must wait until hackers figure out how to jailbreak the current release of the Apple firmware. This can be weeks or even months and there is little assurance that the loosely knit jailbreaking teams will continue their efforts.

Some apps do have the ability to connect with external servers such as Dropbox, thereby allowing data to enter the device via an Internet connection. The GoodReader app has a built-in webserver. Not only will it connect to Dropbox and other servers, it can connect directly to shared folders on network connected PC’s. Any filetype that the Apple device natively accepts will be viewable or playable in GoodReader. In my Goodreader I have several mp3 recordings of verbally read short stories. They are short audiobooks. While I would prefer to listen to them as bookmark-able audiobooks, I have yet to find an audiobook app that will connect to a local server. In the meantime Goodreader gets the job done. Before spending the $2.99 for this app, you might want to visit their website at goodreader.net.

Of interest to book readers, another remarkable program is Calibre. Calibre is not a device app but is a server for ebooks with (free, donationware) versions available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Calibre will load your ebooks into your Kindle, Nook or other device via USB. It will convert most popular ebook filetypes into that needed by your specific device. It also features a web based content server. On your Apple device all you need do is to open the web page with Safari. Select your ebook from your collection and it will open in iBooks. Most ebook readers are Linux based tablets. If you don’t have a stand-alone reader there are many apps to choose from including Nook and Kindle. Some critics have said that the ebook apps on tablets are “killers” of the dedicated devices. I can assure you that the serious reader (I’m married to one) will opt for the feather-weight hand-held with an e ink display.

Available hardware specifications from the major manufacturers indicate that most will be worthy competitors of the Apple products.. Their success will depend on available apps, pricing and, as discussed in this post, open operating systems. I am looking forward to my untethered tablet later in the year. The choice will be difficult.

Technorati Tags: iPad, Android, WebOS, Nook, Kindle’ iTunes

A death in my family (my mother) resulted in my inheriting a nice home in southwest Florida. My girlfriend, now my wife, Mary retired from her employment and we are both relocating to the new home. Mary is a heavy computer user. She relies on the Internet for family communication via email and Facebook, and for gathering information using search engines. There was a problem. Mary had never used anything but Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer. And of course there were no Microsoft products at the new home. I gave Mary some choices. She could use the Apple desktop running OS X or the Toshiba laptop running Ubuntu Linux. For a browser Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome were installed on both computers and Safari also was on the Apple equipment.

We started off on the Apple and the Chrome browser. She liked Google Chrome immediately. Just a few questions on how to get around in Mac OS X. A few days later I had the Apple tied up and she wanted to get online. She asked about the laptop. I warned her that it was a Linux machine. She replied that she was willing to try it. I booted the machine and showed her how to use the drop down menu to launch Chrome. In a minute or two we were both doing our online activities.

The following day was even easier. She simply asked if I would be needing the laptop? I said “No, go ahead and use it.” With no instruction at all she booted up and was quickly online. There were some photos in her camera that she wanted to email. I introduced her to F-Spot and in a few minutes the task was accomplished.

The point is, that all three OS’s are equally easy. Yes, there is a “learning curve” for general computer usage. but once you’ve completed it you can be comfortable with any OS. The myth that “Linux is hard to learn” is being quickly dispelled as more people like Mary simply try it out.

When Mary’s Windows desktop gets moved to the home she wants to leave Windows on it… for a while anyway. Eventually a virus will bring it down.

Prior to the upgrade I made sure that my Karmic system and all my installed apps were as up to date as possible. Then I backed up my my installed apps with APTonCD. Fortunately, this was not needed but it gave me comfort in knowing that I had some level of recovery in case something went wrong. The upgrade proceeded without problems unlike the upgrade to Karmic that aborted and left with me with many days of cleanup work. There were a few questions about whether to keep certain configuration files that had been created by third party software. Not being certain on how to answer, I simply opted to keep them believing that I could resolve any problems at a later time.

At the start of the upgrade, Ubuntu informed me that third party repositories would be disabled. I would have to manually re-enable them after the upgrade. This is where I encountered the “bumps”. I have over a dozen third party repositories enabled. The upgrade took a little over an hour to complete. But then there remained the repository update. Simply re-enabling the repositories did not work. The authentication keys were lost in the upgrade. A little research on the Internet taught me how to regain a lost key. This added about another two hours to the upgrade.

I am not criticizing Ubuntu for this upgrade necessity. I am simply calling it to my readers attention. It is part of the upgrade process. The Synaptic Package Manager will inform you of disabled repositories. Go to the Settings tab and click on Repositories. Re-enable them one by one, editing and changing the distribution information to “lucid”. Then “reload” the repositories. It is at this point that you will encounter problems involving authentication keys, missing repositories and other problems.

Ubuntu improves a bit with each release. This release is no exception. I recommend that all Ubuntu users do the upgrade as long as their equipment permits it.

Apple names Mac OS X releases after wild jungle cats, Jaquar, Tiger, Leopard and etc. A Lynx is a genus of medium sized wild cats. If future Ubuntu releases are to be more Mac-like in look and feel then this is certainly an apprpriate release in which to make that change.

The GNOME desktop is highly customizable. If it happens that you prefer the window controls to remain on the right this click here for instructions on how to use the GNOME Configuration Editor to make that change. Alternately if you have the latest version of Ailurus installed it can make the change for you.

What this clever program does is to setup a web server on your machine. Besides the money manager, there are programs for file and photo sharing, music playing and a bittorrent client. Upon initial use you setup a free account and receive a URL for your server. At this point you can access your data or share it from anywhere on the Internet with a web browser! As remarkable as that is there is more.

Codelathe markets a gadget they call the Tonidoplug. The plug has an embedded Linux distro, specifically Ubuntu 9.04. Besides the electrical plug (available for both European and North American standards) the plug has only two connectors, a USB port and an ethernet port. The idea is that you store data you want available on the Internet on a USB storage device and cable it to the plug. Use the ethernet port to connect to your hub or router. The embedded Linux runs the server so you do not need to be running it on your regular machine or even have your regular machine turned on! The Tonidoplug is priced at $99 (US) and equivalent euros.

With the free server you can access the Tonido App Store to keep the installed programs up to date or to buy new ones as they are developed. This is similar to the concept used by Apple on the iPhone. Do not expect many more free apps from Codelathe but the current free apps are well worth the download. This is a great way to share files. Unlike Dropbox and Ubuntu One, all your shared files are stored on a local device without a limitation on size before additional cost.

Get it today!

The machine had a recoverery partition so I booted into that. Recovery failed after about 90% complete. The partition was damaged. My final option was to download an XP Home .iso from a bittorrent site. This installed nicely. This is not necessarily illegal as the Windows install now requires activation. Of course. my customer had no knowledge of product keys or activation. I told her that the computer would only work for 30 days without activation and wished her good luck. I also gave her a copy of Linux Mint to install when Windows stopped working.

There are a few Windows utilities that will reveal the OEM install product key. Here is a link to one. If you are still using a legal copy of Windows, I strongly reccomend that you retrieve your product key. It may save you some grief in the future.

Air Sharing was an early (September 2008) entry into this arena. Currently the basic version that supports WebDAV is priced at $2.99 and a $6.99 upgrade adds print (to a wireless network printer) and email capabilities. Unfortunately, there seems to be a bug in Ubuntu that is preventing the setup of wireless printing. Once installed, Air Sharing will play or display all file types synced to it and supported by the iPhone platform. I have successfully synced a 350MB movie file and played it.

WebDAV is a file transfer protocol natively supported in both the GNOME and KDE desktops. The iPhone/Touch app will report its assigned IP address on the local network. Typically this will look something like http://192.168.1.101:8080. A GNOME user will go to Places>Connect to Server… and enter the IP and Port into the indicated fields. Depending on the app either a window will open or a folder will appear on the desktop. Files can now be synced to the device via drag and drop. Similarly, KDE users can use Konquerer to open “webdav://192.168.1.101:8080. With documents available locally, printing locally is possible despite the Ubuntu bug.

GoodReader is priced at 99 cents. The basic version supports WebDAV and email and like Air Sharing it will display/play all or most file types. A 99 cent upgrade adds the ability to sync with Google Docs. Again, the printing problem is solved. GoodReader has a free Lite version that will let you try all features before purchase. It is limited to five files. Another upgrade will add FTP ability if you prefer that protocol.

In combination, all the above apps provide you with an office suite for your iPhone/Touch. They will also work on the soon to come iPad. Apple has promised an office suite for the iPad. I can only wonder about what abilities that app will add.

Back in the days when I was a student, I always wondered if classmates who took copious amounts of notes ever really learned anything. It’s much the same with learning Linux. You can copy and paste a lot of commands but that is just blindly making changes. It is not learning.

Apply a tweak in the same way that you would use the command line. You should never issue a command until you understand exactly what it is doing. Neither should a tweak be applied unless the user completely understands its effects. I have pointed out before that the GNOME configuration editor is purposely not enabled in the menus to avoid newbies from messing up their desktop. And if you do tweak, I would strongly advise keeping a record of it in case strange events start occuring at a later date. I practice what I preach, and believe me, good notes have saved my day numerous times.

Tweak only with caution!