Ubuntu Vs. Windows Vista

Wow. What can I say? I actually had a chance to work on Vista. Really! Since the hard disk in my work laptop died, I was given another portable pre-installed with Windows Vista.

What an experience. It's an HP dual core 1.9GHz 2G laptop with an nVidia graphics card. It should fly, right? Well, it flew about as gracefully as a turtle on it's back in the middle of the highway.

For comparison, I'm currently writing this blog from an older Gateway machine running on an AMD Turion 64 (single core), 1G of RAM with a Radeon XPress 200M. running (for now) Ubuntu 7.10. The machine was out of commission since I dropped an entire cup of coffee into the DVD drive. Thankfully, the folks at Farstar Networking in Alexandria did a fantastic job resurrecting it for a fraction of the cost I would have assumed it would have been.

However, back to Vista. For starters, after I had booted, the machine was already sucking up >700MB of ram. That leaves less than 1.3G to run my applications. That's not overly bad, since I've go to 2G on the HP, but my Gateway has only 1G. So, forget about running Vista on it. In Ubuntu, running the Gnome desktop with Compiz, Apache, MySQL, Firefox 2, Thunderbird and a system update, I'm not quite at the 475MB watermark.

I've heard a lot of folks complain about the performance of Vista. I finally had a chance to experience this first hand. Yuk! Is it ever SLOW. I could not even drag a window without the system studdering. Furthermore, I got kind notification from Norton Anti-Virus that my subscription was expired, and I should renew. What's that about my credit card number? I forgot what it's like to run an OS where you need an anti-virus. Let's not get into the endless array of continual popups.

Here's my first major gripe: No package manager. HP installed tons of crap on the laptop, including a (I would assume) redundant wireless connection manager, a trial version of Norton, tons of little application that are — supposedly — there to improve the user experience, and god knows what else. Time to clean the system!

I crack open the Add/Remove program, click on the first application, hold down control, and click on the next. Guess what? You can't! In Windows, you can only uninstall a single application at a time. Furthermore, it takes forever to remove the tiniest of application. Oh, and let's not get into the reboots. Remember, I'm cleaning this up because I need to get some work done. How much fun is it when all of a sudden, all your windows starts to close one after an other, and the machine reboots. Oh, I just love it when my operating system controls me. Sure! I love being a slave to the machine. Kiss your freedom goodbye.

On the other hand, I want to upgrade my Eee PC to Ubuntu 8.04. Unfortunately, I lacked disk space. No problem. I cracked open Synaptic package manager, selected a number of application for uninstallation, clicked Apply, and waited while the applications were removed. By the time the applications were removed, Windows Vista had finished booting, and was almost at the desktop. Of course, that was just one of the many reboots I had to do with Vista. None so far on the Eee PC!

Vista is slow. I asked one of my Windows Guru how I could turn off Areo. After digging around a bit, my guru showed me the option where I could chose the Windows Basic theme instead of Areo. What a difference this makes!!! I can move my Windows without feeling like the system is about to go into terminal shock. Here, on my Gateway, I've got Compiz working with the wobbly windows and all the fun graphic effects. It works great &mdash smooth as silk. Oh, and the Gateway is Windows Vista Capable. Not Ready, which means that Areo would not even work on the machine. My Eee PC is running eeeXubuntu with Compiz as well. It's pretty!

As a last point, one of my coworker asked about an 'upgrade path' from Vista Home to Vista Premium. He needed to upgrade Vista so he could run SQL Server Reporting Services (if I'm not mistaken). The software does not run on Windows Home. Not because Windows Home is incapable of running it, but because Microsoft thinks you should not. That is why I love free software. I come from a country that enjoys freedom of expression, movement, religion, etc. I cannot imagine myself relinquishing any of those fundamental freedoms for any price. It's the same thing with software.

I'm a free person. I refuse to pay for proprietary software that limits your freedom when there are perfectly good (better!) free solution out there.

In closing, my Eee PC quietly upgraded to Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04). One reboot was all it took. I then reinstalled whatever applications I had removed. No reboots. Everything works. Don't you wish it was the same in Windows? (To be fair, the wireless card did not come back up. But it took two minutes of googling, and found a simple solution)

While I'm writing this on my Windows-Vista-Incapable Gateway laptop running Ubuntu 7.10, I'm upgrading to Hardy Heron. Can you work on your machine while you are upgrading your Windows version?

If the answer is no, I would then ask you: why not?

Oh, and you paid how much for Windows Vista? And that does not even include an office suite???

<SHOCK>!!!!</SHOCK>

Glossy or Matte Screens

About two years ago, matte screens on laptops began to be replaced by glossy screens. The difference is that matte screens were non-reflective, while glossy screen were reflective. This meant that an unfortunately-positioned light-source would reflect on a glossy screen, and make the text difficult to read. That has since been addressed, and glossy screens are (mostly) non reflective.

Glossy screens are pretty much standard now. You'd be hard pressed to find a matte screen on a laptop. However, I still hear from users that they prefer the matte screen.

But which one is better?

The last two laptops I've worked with (Gateway & HP) were both glossy. I actually liked the glossy screen. My newest laptop is an Eee PC. I love the little thing, and it serves me marvelously well. However, I'm starting to realize that its matte screen makes the screen harder to read. I think I would have been happier with a glossy screen.

After having used matte and glossy screens, I think that I'm decided: Glossy it is for me. The screen is so much easier to read.

Control Panel for the Eee PC

This week, I wrote a small Eee PC control panel that takes advantage of the wonderful eee kernel module. The control panel runs in the background and is available through the system tray. Pointing on the icon gives the general status of your Eee PC. A click on the icon will bring up the actual panel. From there, you can control the fan, the front-side bus (overclocking) and the voltage (from what I can understand).

Obligatory screenshots:
The system tray icon & tooltip

The control panel


The control panel is written in Gtk+, and works great on my eeeXubuntu. I would assume that it works fine on the default Xandros install or even (K)ubuntu. From start to end, the control panel was created on the Eee PC, proving that it can be used to get actual work done.

For the convenience of Debian or Ubuntu users, I've create a deb package. Otherwise, a tarball is available with a pre-compiled version of the control panel as well as the full source code. Of course, it's all GPL ;) Please copyleft.

eeectl.deb
eeectl.tar.bz2

Before you install the control panel, make sure you install the eee kernel module available at http://code.google.com/p/eeepc-linux/. Detailed installation instructions are available at http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:overclockfsb.

This is a first for me in many ways, so please forgive any stupidity or ignorance on my part. I've used Gtk, Glade and GkSu APIs for the first time, and I've created my first .deb package. I'm more than willing to learn from any guru who may find improvements to my little application.

Of course, usage of the Eee PC Control Panel is entirely at your own risk. Though I use it on my own machine, I cannot be held responsible if you fry or brick your little machine.

Hope you enjoy!

(Before you ask, there is no Windows version, nor do I intend on creating a Windows version. For starters, I'm not willing to buy a Windows license for my Eee PC. Someone else can take care of that)

Enjoying the Asus Eee PC

Having just received my Eee PC, I'm still getting familliar with it's capabilities. The keyboard requires getting used to, but I'm getting better. As long as I don't have to use the right shift key too much, I can almost achieve the same typing speed as on a regular keyboard ;) All joking aside, once you get used to the keyboard, it's actually quite pleasant.

I got the 8G model, which means that I have a whooping 8 gigabytes of 'hard disk' space. While this is tiny compared to a regular hard-disk, which is usually over 100 gigabytes for a laptop. However, for my needs, I think that 8G, or even 4G should be enough. Since the Eee PC supports SD cards, I'm using a 4 gigabyte card for my /home partition (for Windows users, think My Documents).

The pre-installed operating system is a custom version of Xandros Linux (which is based in Ottawa). Though the default is fine for most people's need, I wanted something that gave me more -- so I installed eeeXubuntu. I removed the default Gnome games, Abiword and
Gnumeric to save space, and them promptly installed:

• OpenOffice.org
• Java 6 SDK
• Eclipse
• C/C++ compiler
• Free Pascal & Lazarus
• Anjuta IDE
• jEdit
• Frozen Bubble
• Cedega
• Firefox 3
• (and a few more which I'm sure I'm forgetting)

I've got ~640M of space left (which ought to be enough for anybody) on my system partition. Not too bad, considering I've got a practically complete portable development system.

One of my goals is to get Morrowind working with Cedega. So far, no joy, but I'm not about to give up. I know some folks got it working, so I'm sure I can as well.

If you are going to install eeeXubuntu or Ubuntu, be aware of the Eee Wiki. One of the coolest trick I found is how to enable the ALT+F11 key to make a window take the full screen. That really takes advantage of the 800x640 screen resolution. There are many more cool tricks on the page. Check it out!

Software for Windows seems to take up much more room than software for Linux. If anyone plans to run Windows on the Eee PC, I would like to recommend they consider using Google Docs. It is a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation package that runs in a web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox. Using Google Docs does not require you to install and special software. As long as you are connected to the Internet, you can use it. Futhermore, Google Gears should eventually allow you to run online application offline.

Actually, I'm using Google Docs one my Eee PC right now to author this article. So far, the Eee PC turns out to be a fun, yet useful machine. My wife is starting to strongly hint that I'm spending too much time on it. Oups! I think I should wrap up this article, and spend some quality time with her! See ya!

(Hum... I'm a bit disappointed with the Google Docs' HTML exporter. I wish it did XHTML)

12 Cool Desktop Linux Tricks

In this article, I would like to introduce newcomers (and maybe oldcomers) to some cool desktop Linux tricks.

...Well, I least I think they're cool!

Quick Copy-Paste
Most users coming from Windows or the Mac to Linux are likely familiar with the CTRL+C, CTRL+V keyboard combo to perform a copy & paste.
Most Linux desktops offers an alternative. Simply select the text as you would normally do, then point where you would like to paste it, and middle-click (press down on the wheel on your mouse). Voila! Instant copy-paste, and you didn't even touch the keyboard.

Restart the X Server
Though the Linux kernel stable, sometimes, a desktop application crashes or goes crazy. Similar to Windows or the Mac, you can bring up your task manager and try to end or kill the offending application(s), or hold down the power-button until the machine restarts.
In Linux, hit the CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE key. This will stop the X Server (your graphical environment), and bring you back to your login prompt. Of course, any unsaved work will be lost, so use this only when necessary.

Move Things Around
Ya don't like the layout of your desktop? Fell free to customize! One characteristic of most Linux desktop (KDE, Gnome & Xfce) is that you control the layout. It is possible to add as many panels as you'd like, and choose what you see on those panel.
Go ahead and try it now! Right-click on a panel, and select 'Add to Panel' or an equivalent command.
To move things around, middle-click (press down on the mouse wheel), and drag the item where you'd like it to be. You can add, remove and move anything you'd like — even the main menu.

Change your Resolution Quickly
Use the CTRL+ALT++ (the plus key) to increase your resolution and CTRL+ALT+- to reduce your resolution. This can be especially handy if you connect your laptop to exernal monitors, and you need to change your resolution quickly.

Open the Menu or Run a Command
For keyboard users: ALT+F1 usually opens your systems menu. In some environments, like KDE, the Meta (also known as the Windows) key may be used instead.
If you like to run commands by typing them in, ALT+F2 brings up a 'run' dialog.
I like keyboard shortcuts!

Measure your Graphics Performance
This trick requires you to use a terminal window. Start a terminal. If you are not sure how, look for Terminal or Console in your menu, or hit ALT+F2, and type xterm. Once the terminal window is opened, type 'glxgears' (don't type in the quotes ;)) and hit ENTER.
You will see three spinning gears. If you wait a moment, the average frames-per-second (FPS) will be displayed in your terminal. The higher the number, the better.
This is not a complete performance test, but gives you an idea of the performance of your video display.

Use Workspaces
On your desktop panels, you may notice a bunch of little squares. These may be your workspaces. Click on them to see. They will bring you to separate desktop. If this window goes away, Do Not Panic™! You have found your workspaces. Click on the various workspaces until you return to this window.
The workspaces are useful if you're scatterbrain like me, and is trying to do 20 things at the same time, but do not want to clutter-up your desktop. You can open some application in one workspace, then others in a second workspace. Try to move windows from one workspace to the next. The trick usually is simply to drag and drop the window outline in the panel from one workspace to the next.
Another fantastic use of workspace is when using application that open many windows like the Gimp.

View Hidden Files
Linux will hide any files that begins with a dot (.). Typically, hidden files contains your configuration settings, so you'll rarely need to see them. However, should you wish to see them, try CTRL+H or ALT+. to view them in Gnome or KDE. If that doesn't work, look in the menu of the application you are currently using. You will most likely see an option to show hidden files.

Turn on the Desktop Effects
You think the Mac or Vista looks hot with the sliding windows? If you have a decent graphic card, turn on the desktop effects and see what Linux has to offer.
Here is a video to show you what the effects can look like:

I can run the 3d effect on a 2 1/2 years old laptop that is marked as Vista Capable. If you have a resonable modern machine, chances are you can enjoy the nice effects.
Oh, and if you are one of those who is fond of saying 'who needs those fancy effect?', well, then don't turn them on ;).

Run Linux Everywhere
As a last trick, try to run Linux anywhere. You have an Xbox or a PlayStation? Try to boot Linux on it. You have an old Pentium computer gathering dust? Try to install Vector Linux on it. You have a USB flash drive, install Slax or Damn Small Linux on it and boot your buddies computer with it. This can also be very handy when you need to rescue a file from a machine that cannot boot normally. There no limit as to where you can enjoy Linux.

BONUS:Try these Linux Games
If you are a gamer like me, I strongly recommend you try the following games:

• Frozen Bubbles (Play it two players for maximum fun)
• Alien Arena for the Unreal or Quake fans
• FreeCiv for the strategy fans
• Nethack Falcon's Eye because some classics never die (but your adventurer will!)
• PySol will give you more card games than you can dream of
• Planeshift for the MMORPG players

There's more. Please fell free to explore!

Middle-Click with Two Button Mouse
Most modern mouse have a scroll wheel, or at least three buttons. Most Linux desktop take advantage of the three buttons on a mouse. However, you are not always blessed with three buttons. For example, I'm writing this from a laptop that has only two buttons on the touchpad. By default, most desktops will treat pressing both the left and right button as a middle-click. For example, if I want to close a tab in Firefox, I can simply point to the tab, and press the left and right mouse button at the same time.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed those little trick!

When I first started this article, I was aiming for 3 cool Linux tricks to show Windows users. Later, I decided to go for five, racking my brain, wondering if I could come up with five cool tricks. Now, I'm up to 12. I know there's probably more I can come up with, but I think I'll leave it as-is for now.

If you know of any cool tricks, please feel free to share them with me as well!