February 5th, 2008
In writing my last article about the various search engines I came across a fun site called Ubuntu Popularity Content. This site shows the number of downloads and installs for every package in the Ubuntu repository. It is certainly an interesting look at what people are using and if you are an Ubuntu users I suggest you take a look, maybe you will find a great new package.
June 1st, 2007
What do other OEM’s think about Linux running on their machine. This story is from Germany but it gives you an idea of what the big manufactures think about Linux.
May 22nd, 2007
With a little help from my friend Jon I was able to successfully virtualize Windows today. I have spoken in a previous post about Innotek’s Virtual Box. For this little project I decided I would use it again. Everything went off with out a hitch. I was even able to find an easy way to install Virtual Box’s Guest Additions brought to you buy Google.com.
The final piece of this puzzle is one I am not looking forward to. The software needs to be registered with Microsoft and I have heard they are not very friendly towards users who virtualize their operating system. Because I am using a previously registered copy (off my old computer) I will have no choice but to call their tech support to get this situation resolved.
April 12th, 2007
Recently, while digging, I stumbled across an article detailing the installation process of InnoTek’s VirtualBox. After seeing how easy it was to install this virtualization tool I figured I would give it a shot.This isn’t my first experience with virtualization software as I have recently found the joy of VMWare. With this in mind I was shocked at how simple VirtualBox was to install. In VMWare you are asked all sorts of questions that can be a tad on the intimidating side, although generally the default is the correct answer (how am I supposed to know that?). VirtualBox on the other hand was as easy as installing the pre-requisites (available in Ubuntu’s package manager) and running the .deb file that I downloaded from Innotek’s site.
After the install the application is almost ready to start, but before you can get to far into it you have to add yourself as a user to the newly created “vboxusers” group. The program does a great job of pointing this out and does so with out letting you move too deep. The downside of this methodology is that I am forced to log out for the changes to take affect. This isn’t the biggest pain as it isn’t a complete restart but none the less a minor inconvenience.
From here the application really gets points in my book, particularly when you consider the price tag of $0 (personal use only). It uses a clean simple interface that is full of context style help. This tactic was very refreshing from VMWare which doesn’t provide much inline help. It seemed like any question I had was quickly answered by simply mousing over the questionable item. Some where on the screen (this was on multiple screens) a text box would change and fill me in on what the item was for and what could/would happen if I changed it.
The overall look and feel was clean and easy to navigate. One thing to note is that it didn’t follow my theme. Instead it had a gray and blue finish. After giving this some thought and looking at some of the files I installed, I believe that this is a QT based program, not GTK. This would easily explain the appearance. With this in mind it still looked great. The icons are large and colorful and easily understandable.
The overall layout follows the task flow nicely. The individual virtual machines(VM) are located vertically on the left with each receiving an icon based on its OS type. On the right you can view and edit the details of the selected VM. When a VM session is initiated a new window opens and the VM is started. This could be done a little better by following in VMWare’s foot steps and running the VM’s in individual tabs. One positive note to the new window is that there is no surrounding items to take up valuable space.
The final piece of the pie for this application comes in how it works. So far (1hr of use) I am batting .500. I was easily able to run the OLPC’s Sugar OS but as of right now cannot get Mandriva One 2007 GNOME — Metisse Inside! to fully boot. It appears to make it all the way through but then it just sits idle with the active cursor at a blue screen (pre-login phase?).
Even with the small hiccup in Mandriva One I am sure this is going to be a great program and with a little more playing I will easily be able to get it up and running. I will try and write an update as I continue to play with this great new program.
March 7th, 2007
Today when I fired up my laptop I was politely notified that there were updates waiting to be installed. I decided I would get it out of the way as, generally, updates on Ubuntu are quick and simple. I clicked on the notification icon which launches the updater. It gives an easy to follow list of what needs to be update and more information on said updates can easily be accessed by clicking on them.
Today’s updates where for Mozilla Thunderbird and Daylight Savings. Each one was identified clearly in the label and in this instance no explanation was necessary. This is in stark contrast to what Windows often offers. I have always been puzzled when updating windows because giving an update a name like K589302 has no value to the end user. On top of that, getting more information is often difficult and convoluted. Ubuntu just lays it out there for the user to decide if it is something they want and/or need.
Finally the best part is after the update is complete…. NO REBOOT! Again this is in great contrast to Windows which often requires a reboot and even worse if you need multiple updates you get to reboot then update again followed by another reboot. This makes a process that should have taken a few moments, take several minutes.
Just another reason why everyone should try Ubuntu 