Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

As an Asus Eee Pc 900 netbook user (the 900 model that came with 20gb), I use a homemade, slimmed and trimmed down Windows XP Professional version as my main OS. I installed over the dorky Linux version that came with my Eee PC. I prefer XP because I can get all the apps that I need for it, but still I think it’s too bloated. Thats why I also installed EeeBuntu (EB for short) on a 8gb SD-card as an alternative. It’s real easy to do and it works – so far – like a charm. But Eeebuntu is based on Ubuntu 9.04 and we already are at 9.10. Until EB 4.0 is coming out, I experimented with Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but that had way too many little glitches. Mainly my mousepad not working correctly and very poor battery performance i.e. my battery time was almost cut in half. Eeebuntu is doing a little better as it comes with a tool that helps with battery life, but still it’s not as good as XP. So, this weekend I tried the Kubuntu Netbook Edition 9.10, but it performed like crap and the interface just sucks.

But here enters Jolicloud. Jolicloud is what I consider a competitor for Google Chrome OS. It’s a lightweight, Linux based operating system (Debian/Ubuntu) that is aimed primarily at netbooks. Just like Google Chrome OS. It is currently in it’s beta phase, but so far it looks promising. The interface is fully modeled after the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which isn’t bad to start with, but leaves a lot to be desired for more seasoned users that (also) want a regular desktop.

The idea, just as with Google Chrome OS, is, that users store a lot of there work online on the servers of Google. It’s no surprise then that Jolicloud works mostly with Google apps. But you can install many other apps as well, including Skype.

At the moment I am trying to install it on a 8gb USB stick so I can run it from there, just like I did with some other Linux alternatives, but it seems that the version of Grub that comes with the latest version doesn’t like this, so my first attempt ended in a Grub error.I am, however, able to run it from a USB stick without installation. This is off course not a persistent install (i.e. I loose my settings with every reboot).

So far it looks good, responds snappy – as far as my 900Mhz Intel can be called snappy – and just works. I just need to figure out if I can get it working (persistent) from a USB stick (or maybe SD-card). That might require an email to their support department, but I guess it’s worth it.

Anyway: I will keep testing this puppy a bit more and will report back here on my findings.

Ok, I have said it before and I will say it again: when it comes to pimpin' Vista, Window 7 and even Mac OS X do not even come close to the eye candy you can achieve with Linux.

There are many flavors of Linux you can install and run, but Ubuntu must be one of the most popular distributions out there. Now this guy figured: "let's pimp Ubuntu" and came out with "Ubuntu Ultimate Edition". It loaded - I mean LOADED - with eye-candy and very useless but cool kewl features. When Ubuntu Gutsy (7.10) came out it had pretty nice features, but 8.10 has been improved in many ways and the eye candy is a lot more stable.

Anyway, check out the video below as seeing is believing.

Ultimate Edition 2.0

Here is a cool thing I stumbled upon: Wubi.

Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, this is for you.

In other words: if you have been wanted to try out Ubuntu, but you are afraid about repartitioning your harddisk and you want better performance than running Linux in a virtual PC (usually sucks unless you have a high-end PC), then this is the tool for you.

Wubi installs Ubuntu on a virtual disk. It's a big file and Linux is run from within that file. This means no partitioning is needed but you still can run and install applications as with a real installation. It also means you can uninstall it whenever you want and reclaim your harddisk space. Another benefit is that you do not have to download, burn and boot from the Ubuntu CD as the installer downloads the CD image and boots from that. Also useful if you have a ultra portable laptop or a PC without a CD-player.

Related to this project (in the sense that it is similar), is UNetbootin:

UNetbootin is a tool that allows you to install various Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, OpenSuSE, Debian, ArchLinux) from a Windows or a Linux desktop over the internet (i.e., you don't need to burn the Ubuntu, Fedora, ... CDs). Unlike the Ubuntu installation with Wubi, real partitions are created during the installation. In the end, you have a dual-boot system (Linux/Windows or Linux/Linux).

As the description tells you, you will be partitioning your harddisk when you use this tool.

Either way: both options are interesting if you like to mess around a bit with Linux. So go ahead and give it a spin.

One of the classic problems with releasing software is making the mistake to give people a tight deadline and then work towards that deadline. About 2 weeks ago I wrote about the upcoming version of Ubuntu Linux, which was scheduled to come out yesterday, well it's not out yet. When you go over to their website the counter says 00 days but you won't find it; just the Beta is there. Canonical, the software support organization behind Ubuntu are going to put seven releases (versions) of Ubuntu out, and it's no shame they won't make it in time. It's just so "Vista-like" to announce a date and then not make it. It will be interesting to see if the final version of Gutsy Gibbon can be found on the Ubuntu website tonight...

When I migrated my server at home (zion.demon.nl) to this server at Site5, I realized that I now had one spare computer left to mess around with. So, what to do with it? Well, that was an easy question: put Linux on it! My main PC which I use for games, downloading etc. etc. is a Windows XP machine and is actually dual-boot; I have Vista Ultimate on it as well. And even though I use Vista less than 1 hour a month I don't really want to put Linux on that PC. Although the idea of making it triple-boot is appealing ;-) So instead I went over to the Ubuntu website, downloaded the latest Beta version of Ubuntu 7.10, codename "Gutsy Gibbon" and burned a CD. Then I wiped my old server, disconnected the faulty 60gb drive that caused my Ubuntu 6.06 LTS to die (I had it configured using LVM - bad choice!) and started the install.

The installer was straight forward as is always the case with Ubuntu. About 20 minutes later I was staring are the GDM login screen and logged on. I was immediately greeted by the "restricted driver" dialog that told me my hardware would perform better if I used the restricted Nvida drivers, which I did. It worked great, right away. Compiz Fusion is enabled by default and gives you lots of desktop visual effects (see video below). Before configuring Beryl or some other 3D desktop was a pain in the ass and way to geeky. But with 7.10 it will become mainstream. I also noticed that it does NOT make your PC slower as all effects are handled by your GPU.

So what makes 7.10 so interesting? To me it represents a step forward in the development of Linux for regular users that want a good alternative to winblows. It is easier in use and it is getting more mainstream with each release. 7.10 will have the latest version of the Gnome desktop (2.20), has better drivers, better laptop support, easier installation of printers (supposedly automagically), better graphics (including dynamic resizing of your desktop and support for beamers etc..), and loads of other cool things.

However, after I installed the KDE desktop as well, I couldn't get Gnome (or better Compiz) to work properly anymore so I better wait for the final release and stick with Gnome. You can still run KDE apps anyway. For now I reverted to Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn).

Yep folks, Ubuntu is here to stay and rock your world... Uh.. your PC...

Gutsy Gibbon Goodness