Saturday, January 22, 2011

Ubuntu 11.04 Test Run On Acer Aspire One 532H Netbook

Today, I downloaded the daily build of Ubuntu 11.04 and decided to take it on a test drive of an Acer Aspire One 532H Netbook.  The latest daily build of Ubuntu 11.04 has seen a dramatic improvement  in functionality when compared to the previous Alpha Release.

The main thing that I like is that the application side-bar dock now auto-hides!  This is a huge improvement over the previous version of the Unity desktop.

The desktop still seems to be a bit slow, but I think this may just because I was running the OS off of a USB thumb drive.  It is also very buggy, in that you are quite sure if the menus or applications are going to come up when when you click on them.  But that is expected in a daily build.

The other change I noted was that Open Office has been replaced, and the main browser is a beta version of Firefox 4, which came up with an annoying "Test Pilot Study" pop-up.  Ugh.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Will there ever be an Angry Birds Game for Ubuntu?

My daughter got herself an iTunes gift card for Christmas this year, and one of the first things she bought from the iPod App store was the full blown version of Angry Birds.  Apparently, Angry Birds is one of the hottest games for smart phones, and little handheld devices like iPods and iPhones. Would Angry Birds make for a good game with Ubuntu Linux?

I got to play around with angry Birds on her iPod, and I must admit, it is a fun little game. The music is catchy, and the sound effect the birds make when the crash into the pigs are what make the game interesting.  Sooner or later, I will get through all of the different levels of Angry Birds.

I assume Angry Birds could be ported over to Ubuntu.  Perhaps, the developer could add Angry Birds to the Ubuntu Software Development Center and offer it for a small  payment. Since much of Ubuntu is still mouse based, some modifications to Angry Birds may be needed.  Since it is already running on Android, the port should not be too difficult.

According to this blog post, an Ubuntu version of Angry Birds may be in the offing. The  developers of the Angry Birds game may be open to the idea of Angry Birds running on Ubuntu sometime in the future.  So, all you Angry Bird Phanatics better stay tuned!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Ubuntu based Tablet PC Coming in 2011?

I saw some reports that an Ubuntu based tablet is in the works from a Taiwanese manufacturer.  PCWorld is reporting that the P07, built by Teng, is a 10 inch tablet with a multi-touch display.  This new Ubuntu tablet will be initially be released running Ubuntu 10.10.  The tablet will have a 1.66 GHz CPU and a couple of Gigs of ram, along with an SSD hard drive.  There are some pictures floating around the internet that indicate that this Ubuntu Tablet PC will be a sharp toy.

The addition of an Ubuntu tablet adds another software player in the tablet wars. The dominance by Apple's iPad may still remain in place due to savvy marketing practices.  However, it seems to me that Samsung's Android based tablet is starting to pick up steam.

The one major software player that seems to be falling far behind in the tablet wars is Microsoft.  Windows 7 is a much improved operating system, but it does not seem modular enough to have a version that runs smoothly on light operating systems.  Perhaps that is the one advantage that Linux and BSD based operating systems have over Microsoft Windows is that they can easily be slimmed down to work well on lighter devices.

Look for the new Ubuntu Tablet to be release sometime in early 2011.  I have a little money stored up, and just may take the plunge and get a new Ubuntu based toy.

Source: PC World