Canonical taking on Microsoft with Ubuntu Business Remix

A new tab has appeared on the Ubuntu.com website along the top menu. It appears that Canonical, the lead development company for Ubuntu, is looking to take on Microsoft by directly entering the business PC area. If you click through the links and attempt to download the Remix version of software, you are even asked to sign off on some licensing agreements. This new version of Ubuntu contains some proprietary software. I have not downloaded or tried out this latest version of Ubuntu. It appears to be running the Unity desktop. The oft criticized Unity desktop just may be seen as a slightly better evil to work with than the upcoming Windows 8 version.

Microsoft has continued to dominate the business PC desktop world over the past couple of decades with its Windows based operating system. However, support for Windows XP is coming to an end, and Windows 8 is creeping on the horizon. Many businesses have already upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7, and may be looking at shelling out more dough to upgrade to the next version of Windows. Ubuntu Business Remix may be the ticket for businesses to convert to to avoid the Windows update costs.

However, Canonical's launch of Ubuntu Business Remix may still be coming about a year too late. They could have really taken advantage of Microsoft's Windows Vista debacle. Windows 7 is a much improved version of Windows. Since Remix is free, it may still make significant inroads into the business arena if Windows 8 comes in at a premium price point, especially in the cost cutting era phase of the economic downturn.  

Kubuntu Loses Funding Support from Canonical

Kubuntu will lose its funding support from Canonical after the 12.04  release according to a recent e-mail to the Kubuntu Developers List .  In the e-mail, John Riddell stated that it was "unrealistic
to expect it to continue to have financial resources put into it" since the Kubuntu desktop has not been a business success for Canonical.

This does not imply that Kubuntu will disappear from the Linux scene.  It will simply slide further on down on the Ubuntu totem pole.  Down with the likes of Xubuntu, not bad company.   It seems that Cannonical just wants to do away with the GNOME vs. KDE desktop war by turning to Unity, a desktop interface that still leaves a lot to be desired.

Unity may work great on Tablets, TVs, and smart phones, but for desktop PCs, it is just not as productive.  Maybe Unity in Precise Pangolin will work better?

Changes for Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin in April 2012

The next version of Ubuntu, called Precise Pangolin 12.04 , will be released in April of 2012. An early development version has already hit the streets. It is available for Ubuntu users to download and test. The upcoming release of Ubuntu will be a Long Term Release (LTS). This means that the operating system will be supported for five years. This is an increase from the usual three years for Ubuntu desktop releases.

The alpha release of Ubuntu are usually full of some rough edges. If you decide to try it out, be sure to use not to use it on a computer that is involved with key production. Be prepared of an occasional crash or process failure, and be prepared to file a bug report or two to help the developers of Ubuntu.

Here are some changes of note for next release of Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin. Since April is still a little ways off, some more changes may still be on tap.

Old to New Linux Hardware
Ubuntu will continue the trend of losing its luster when it comes to running on older hardware. The introduction of Unity and its bulky and slow interface, along a beefier Linux kernel in recent Ubuntu releases makes this operating system a less than suitable Linux distribution. when it comes to running on my older hardware, recent Ubuntu releases have been steadily getting slower.

Precise Pangolin continues the trend of shedding compatibility with older hardware, by making a 64 bit version the default. A meeker 32 bit version will still be available for older computer systems, but don't count on Ubuntu winning speed tests when running on older systems. There are better options for running Linux on older computers, like Linux Mint LX, or Xubuntu.

Ubuntu Precise Pangolin will also shed CD install disks. The new release will only be able to fit on a DVD or USB device that can hold about 1GB. Daily builds of the alpha release of Ubuntu are coming in a little over 700 MB which is too big to fit on a CD. You will need a computer that has a DVD drive, or is able to boot from a USB device.

With the move to DVD, Rhythmbox makes a return as the main media player. It was replaced by a slimmer Banshee a couple of Ubuntu releases ago. Now that the Ubuntu developers have more space available in the Precise Pangolin Linux distribution, Rhythmbox returns to the Ubuntu stage as the main desktop media player. The move for Rhythmbox may only be temporary, as it seems that Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu's founder, favors Banshee.

Despite Complaints, Unity Hangs On
According to statistics from Distrowatch, Ubuntu may have lost some of it popularity due to the Unity interface. But these stats do not give a real indication about the actual number of users still using Ubuntu. But Precise Pangolin will stick to this very same graphical user interface and Ubuntu will look to expand its horizons into tablets and mobile devices in the future. The new release should have some tweaks tucked in to help appease the many complaints that Unity has received.

Ubuntu starting to Fade Behind Fedora?

There is no question that Ubuntu dominated the desktop Linux world over the past few years. Yet if recent statistics from distrowatch.com are to believed, then the Ubuntu star is starting to fade.  Even Linux Mint, which overtook Ubuntu in the number of times.  In the statistics, you can also see that Fedora is rising fast.  I am inching toward giving Fedora a try, at least on a live CD, just to see what it has to offer.  I am fairly sure I will run into hardware issues, since some of my machines are a little bit more of the vintage kind of PC!

This certainly does not mean that the number of desktop Linux Mint users, or even Fedora users now outnumber Ubuntu users. But it is strong indication that Ubuntu users are unhappy with the complete devotionby Canonical to the Unity desktop.

The Unity interface is something that I abandoned earlier this week in favor of GNOME Classic on every single one of my computers.  Even my netbook is now GNOME  classic.   Yet, even with the switch back to GNOME, there was no need for me  to completely leave Ubuntu.  I simply installed GNOME from the Ubuntu Software Center and moved on with my life.

It is amazing that I lasted for so long with the slow Unity interface!  My computer is so much faster and zippier with GNOME.  Then again, these are older PC.

Ubuntu Looks to Mobile Operating System for Tablets

Canonical has asked member developers to provide their thoughts and ideas on creating a mobile version of the popular Ubuntu operating system.

The company wants to jump into the mobile arena and create software that will run on smart phones, tablets, smart TV's by the year 2014.  By then, maybe most of the kinks that are in the Unity interface will have been worked out. Canonical still has plans to have a smoother user experience over the next few releases.

The Ubuntu user interface has gone through a lot of changes in the past few months. Mark Shuttleworth has received a lot of negative feedback since the introduction of the Unity interface.

It is likely that Canonical will have a tough time selling its Unity interface to tablet makers. It is unlikely hardware makers will be willing to stake their money on the Unity interface.  This interface is going to have  two more year worth of developing a 'bad reputation' by many unhappy and vocal Linux users.  It will not matter if things in Unity are going to get fixed, the damage has been done.

I suspect that the best the Canonical could hope for is to find some obscure Chinese company that makes cheap tablets to install  an Ubuntu operating system, and try to sell them on some obscure website that typical web surfers will never find.  Pretty much the same story for Canonical as it tried to enter the desktop and laptop OEM market a couple of years ago.

Maybe by 2014, things will be different....

Install Firefox 8 on an Older Ubuntu Linux PC

Firefox 8 has hit the streets, and if you can not wait to get it up and running on your older version of Ubuntu, then you can run these commands at a prompt to get Firefox installed and running on your Ubuntu PC.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install Firefox language-pack-en language-pack-en-base

There are a number of enhancements that have been added to Firefox 8. Twitter had been added to the search bar and there is more support of locals.  Firefox should also be even faster and more responsive.

Another Quick Review of Ubuntu 11.04 on my Acer Aspire 532H-2326 Netbook.

I wanted to provide a quick update on how Ubuntu 11.04 runs on my Acer Aspire One 532H-2326 Netbook.  I downloaded the Beta version of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

Of course, by now, we all know about the new Unity interface that has been introduced for all flavors of Ubuntu desktop, and the strife that has been going on amongst traditional Gnome desktop users.  I dare not comment on that one.  But, I will say one thing about the new Unity desktop to is that it is leaps and bounds better then 10.10 in terms of looks and usability for a netbook.  The main improvement that is present is that now there is an auto-hide feature enabled for the sidebar.

Mouse touchpad fixed in Ubuntu 11.04 on Acer Aspire One 532H??
I used a daily download version of Ubuntu 11.04, and use the USB disk to run the software.  The first thing I checked to see is if there was a 'touchpad' tab under 'mouse preferences.'  Lo and behold, there was a tab available!  Upon clicking the pad I found the treasure that I was looking for, the checkbox to 'Disable touch pad while typing.'  And the feature works!  Having the 'Disable touchpad while typing' feature working in 11.04 will be more than enough perform the upgrade on this Acer Aspire One netbook.  I just hope that it carries through upon completion of the installation process.

Once Ubuntu 11.04 hits the streets next week, I will take the plunge and upgrade once my files are backed up.

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!

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

After you Install Ubuntu You Should...

1. Update your fresh Ubuntu installation using the Update  Manager

2. Open the  Ubuntu Update Software Center and install the following programs:  Chromium, Gimp, Xiphos Bible Study Guide,  and whatever other software you fancy.

3. Go to the Bisigi Project page and install Bisigi Themes Package.  These are just cooler than the  default Ubuntu Themes.

4. You may also want to install Ubuntu's Restricted Extras if that floats your boat.

Unity Lacking in Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Remix

I decided to do away with Ubuntu 10.10 on my Acer Aspire AO-532H Netbook and re-install the Ubuntu LTS 10.04.  The main reason is because of Unity.   There is no way to configure the darn thing, and it takes up way too much desktop space.  There should at least be an Auto-hide feature, but even that is lacking.  Mark Shuttleworth has said that Autohide for Unity may be coming for Ubuntu 11.04, but for now this version of Ubuntu Netbook Remix is painful to use.  Windows 7 Starter has a better desktop layout.

It is scary to think that Unity is going to run on Ubuntu Desktop when 11.04 is released.  Touch screen devices will dominate the market at some point, and someday Unity will be the goto choice to run on a desktop.  It's just that someday has not arrived for me yet.

Easy Upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat on Acer Aspire One AO532-2326

Yesterday I took the plunge and upgraded may Acer Aspire One Netbook, which is the AO532-2326 model to Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.   I used the update manager to perform the upgrade and every thing went  fine.  The new Unity desktop is really sharp compared to the desktop that came with Ubuntu Linux 10.04.

The upgrade went fine by opening a terminal and running update-manager -d.

The mousepad  still does not quite work right.  The mouse stays active while you type, causing inadvertent mouse clicks while typing.  To get around this I use the Function-F7 key to enable and disable the mouse whenever I am typing in a window. I do not have this problem if I use the Windows 7 OS that is also installed on this netbook.

Another small change is that you may want to use the new Ubuntu fonts that come with Maverick Meerkat.    These can be enabled in the desktop appearances section.

Covert a Business from Linux to Windows

I love to read stories about how small businesses convert to Linux from Windows. There are many paths to follow when converting Linux but there is always one common thread. The first is to take it slow and have the patience to work with individual users to make sure that they become more comfortable with working with the new operating system. In addition, if it is a business that make heavy use of applications, you should always try to find the open source equivalent of those applications to run within Windows first.  This will  make users comfortable with the open source applications before the big switch.

Here is a link to an interesting article about the conversion of Windows to Linux. Hey, and they are using Ubuntu too!

Upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

I decided to hit the old upgrade button and went from Ubuntu 9.04 to Ubuntu 10.04 Beta. On my machine it was not a smooth transition. If you are using the proprietary Nvidia drivers it would behoove you to uninstall them before you do the upgrade, then reboot to revert to the open source video driver. Then do the upgrade. There is a bug in the current Beta release that will cause the upgrade to fail.

You probably should do this before any upgrade. Anyway, being in a hurry, I neglected to uninstall the proprietary driver and my upgrade stopped in midstream. To get around it, I rebooted and entered into the failsafe graphics mode, reinstalled the proprietary Nvidia driver, rebooted, and the computer seems to be playing nice now. The bug seems to have been reported numerous times on LaunchPad, and will likely get fixed soon.

Other than that, everything seems to be working fine. It will take a while to get used to the buttons on the left side of the screen.

There is a new chat client widget (gwibber) in the notification bar that seems pretty handy. There is a whole bunch of other changes that I still have to look into. It looks like the Software Center has been re-organized, and the Ubuntu One Music Store is also something new. I like it so far...

Ubuntu Buttons: A Simple Solution

I did not press the update button the other day to download and upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04. I decided to wait a while before I do the big upgrade. I'll give it a few more weeks.

I also saw that the maximize, minimize, and close buttons have been shifted over to the left side in the latest release from some screenshots online. This is not a big deal for me. Some Ubuntu users, especially those who are Microsoft converts are complaining loudly about it. Mark Shuttleworth put his foot down and said that this is how it is going to be.

By the way, if you want to move your buttons back the other way, then type this command:

gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout --type string "menu:minimize,maximize,close"

Mac converts, what little of them there are to the Ubuntu ranks are probably quite happy. In KDE is it is not a big deal to switch buttons around, it is as easy as opening the preferences window and sliding them where you want them. You can also place them in different order.

For the next Ubuntu release, maybe they should just put the buttons smack dab in the middle. It will appease the Mac users, and the Windows users. Or maybe it will just piss everyone off?

Default Search for Ubuntu Will Set to Yahoo

According to a report out of The Register, the next version of Ubuntu, Lucid Lynx, will have the default search setting for the Firefox Browser, set to Yahoo Search.

Is this a big deal? Not really. It is easy enough to change the search settings on Firefox. Just click on the tab just to the left of the search bar and select which engine you wish to use. It is the little search engine icon. Then the default is set. Even if you quit and restart your browser.

The funny thing is that Yahoo is actually paying Cannonical to have their engine set as a default. Since Microsoft is now in partnership with Yahoo, in a sort of weird way, Microsoft is paying a share to build and distribute Ubuntu. Still, not quite as overt as the Novell deal, but the link is there.

Will there be a backlash against Ubuntu in the Linux world? Who knows. Let the griping begin!

I have been using Chrome a lot anyways. It seems to work quite well.

An alternative Desktop for Linux: LXDE

LXDE is a fairly new desktop for Ubuntu and other flavors of Linux that has been around since 2006. It uses less memory than Gnome or KDE. According to some reviewers, LXDE even trounces Xubuntu in memory tests. I have and old laptop and I gave LXDE a spin, and yes it is lighting quick. It sports a usable, and intuitive interface as well. I can foresee something like LXDE running on a netbook or some other lightweight computer.

For more information about LXDE, here is a nice review: A Review of the LXDE Desktop for Linux

To install LXDE on an Intrepid Ibex Ubuntu or newer run:

sudo aptitude install lxde

I run this Ubuntu 9.10 with no problems.

Chrome Used more than Safari

In the browser wars, Google Chrome has established itself by skipping ahead of Apple's Safari browser in terms of usage. In comparing the two, Chrome seems to offer very similar features. What makes Chrome stand out is speed. Safari is nearly as slow as Firefox and Explorer on my rarely used Windows PC. But as in my Ubuntu PCs, Chrome is very fast, especially on start-up. I doubt there will ever be a Linux version of Safari, but it would be nice to do a comparison.

There seems to be ways of getting Safari with Wine on Linux, but that would not quite be the same. In either case, I'll stick with Chrome for now. The beta version has been running very well. It will be interesting to see if Chrome catches up with Firefox. My guess is that it probably will!

Download and Save Youtube Videos in Ubuntu

Here is an easy way to download and save Youtube videos using Chrome and Ubuntu. I suspect that this will work with Firefox as well.

Here are the steps:

1. Visit the Youtube and select the video that you want. Start watching the video and wait for it to complete loading. Keep the web page up. Once you navigate away, the file found in step 2 will be removed.

2. Open up Nautilus and navigate to the /tmp directory.

3. In that directory is a file called "FlashBkJpeo" or something like that. Simply drag it onto your desktop and rename it!

4. Once it is on your desktop, you can play it by double clicking on the video.

Voila! You have downloaded a Youtube video.

Ubuntu One

Anybody try Ubuntu One? With the latest version of Ubuntu, 9.10 there is a software package that allows you to sync files on your desktop to another PC, via a file drop box service. It is part of the default install for Karmic Koala. I thought it was a nice feature. You get about 2 GB of storage area.

The client runs on your desktop and checks a folder in your home directory every so often for updated files. When it sees that a file has been updated, it will automatically sync it up to a server. I wonder what would happen if you logged off in the middle of a sync? I have not tested that out. So far I have been only using it to save documents and a few work files. I was able to sync them up from my Ubuntu machine at home, and upload the files. The next day at work, it was an easy retrieval, even from a Windows machine.

There seems to be no equivalent to a client that would run on a Windows machine for automatic file syncing. That probably would be the next step.

If I stick to straight documents, I seem to get the same functionality out of Google Docs. But Google Docs is a manual process. My guess is that some sort of file syncing process will arise out of the new Chrome OS. The possibilities are there.