Posts Tagged ‘Ubuntu’
I was lucky enough to have a friend at Dell who let me play with Dell’s new Latitude 2100-N for a few hours. After he chased me down, he pried it out of my fingers. I didn’t want to give it up. This is one nice Ubuntu Linux-powered netbook.
The Dell unit I looked at came with an Intel Atom N270 CPU running at 1.6GHz. This one had 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM, an 80GB, 5,400rpm hard drive, and integrated Mobile Intel 950 GMA graphics chip set. It also had a 6-cell battery. Like most new netbooks, it comes with a good-sized display: 10.1″. As equipped, this unit would sell for $444.
The base Ubuntu Linux 8.10 equipped unit comes with 512MBs of RAM, a 16GB SSD (solid state drive) and a 3-cell battery. This version of the netbook sells for $369. If you wanted to get the same netbook with XP Home SP3, it would cost you $399. It’s always nice to see a vendor offer you the Linux cost savings.
It’s also worth noting that while Dell also offers Vista Home Basic on this netbook, they also point out that “if you choose Microsoft Vista and also would like Microsoft Office productivity software, you will need to select a hard drive option with at least 80GB of space.” I’d add that you’d also need to upgrade the RAM to at least a gigabyte if you expect to run Vista without screaming in frustration.
One of the features I like about this netbook is that, unlike most of its breed, Dell makes it easy to upgrade the Latitude 2100-N’s RAM. While Ubuntu runs great in 512MBs of RAM, and XP does decently in it, the netbook comes with a SO-DIMM (small outline dual in-line memory module) slot that, combined with the memory on the motherboard, will let you give the PC up to 2GBs of RAM. Nice.
Ubuntu 8.10 ran like a charm on this system. It came with Dell 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and I was immediately able to find and use the local Wi-Fi. I used the net for almost the entire time I had my mitts on the netbook, and I was really pleased to find that with the pumped-up battery I wasn’t even close to out of power after four-hours of zooming around the Web.
What I really liked best about this unit though wasn’t really computer related at all. It comes with a hardy plastic body, which they tell me is made of PC ABS (polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), which gives it a very solid feel. It also has a rubberized lid and base. The over-all effect is that you feel like this is one laptop that could take a licking and keep on ticking.
Best of all, with this rugged exterior, the Latitude comes with the option of a shoulder strap that connects directly with the netbook. At just over 3-pounds and with great battery life, this is a netbook that you can just slip on your shoulder and run from class to class, or, in my case, from home to library to coffee shop without a thought.
I like this strap idea a lot. Seriously. A netbook gets lost in most laptop bags, and you sure can’t put any of them in your pocket. Now, if you’re a woman with a good-sized purse, you’re set. But, for most of guys, this shoulder strap makes a great way to cart a computer with you without pulling out a laptop bag.
I expect to see many other netbook vendors picking this feature up. It really makes a lot of sense. Portable, powerful, and Linux: the Dell Latitude 2100-N makes a great netbook for students and workers on the go.
I like what I’m seeing. I like it a lot. Well done, Ubuntu guys!
The changes are subtle but impressive. The dramatic improvement in boot speeds is a lot more useful than it might first sound. It’s no longer a matter of suspending to disk at the end of the day for me and my computers. Now I just shutdown and reboot. Hibernating is too time-consuming nowadays!
There can be no doubt that the Ubuntu guys have finally caught up with Windows and Mac OS X (and, after all, this was the whole point back in the beginning).
Crossing the line
However, I’d argue that Ubuntu actually crossed the finish line this time last year, when 8.04 was released. Sure, there were a few bad decisions rolled out as part of that release, including a sound subsystem that was essentially unfinished. But what you got with 8.04 was a genuine swap-in replacement for Windows or Mac OS X. It really was Linux for the ordinary human. No hype. No bullhonkey.
The new Network Manager in 8.10 brought significant functionality for mobile workers, but it’s getting harder and harder to list genuinely new features in each release. Subsequent releases have been most about polishing the diamond.
All of this leaves the Ubuntu guys with a very real problem: Where do they go next? What do you do once you’ve won the race?
It’s an interesting question, and it’s not hard for those of us who follow Linux to dream-up suggestions. Just take-up a few interesting technologies that are lying about on the open source workshop benches. The Ubuntu project is already sponsoring the porting of Google Chrome to Linux, but they could be the first distro to feature Google’s speedy new browser. That would be a significant coup. How about if they made Gnome Do a large part of the project? And what’s been holding them back from including gDesklets all this time?
I’m sure you can think of other suggestions (mention them in the comments below).
Recently I started work on a new Ubuntu tips book that will partner my existing title, Ubuntu Kung Fu. The new book is still being planned and won’t be published until next year, but I thought I’d share 10 tips that are on my list to be included. If you have any others that you think would go into such a book, put them in the comments below. I’d love to hear them, as would other readers, I’m sure.
These tips aren’t Ubuntu-specific, but they’ve been tested on Ubuntu, and I can’t guarantee they’ll work on other distros. You might already know about some or all of them them, but resist the temptation to gloat about this in the comments. You’re just extra clever, OK?
With that said, let’s start!
1. Open a Superuser Run Programs Dialog
You probably already know that hitting Alt+F2 will cause a “Run Programs” dialog box to appear. Here you can type any program name to run it — I often use it to run gconf-editor, which hasn’t got a menu entry, or example. However, if you type gksu into a terminal window (with nothing following), a similar dialog box appears, but this time it will let you run the program as root (or any other user on the system). You can bind the gksu command to a keyboard shortcut (perhaps Shift+Alt+F2) using System, Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts, to effectively produce a “superuser” Run Programs dialog.
2. Install Packages Quickly With GDebi
I spent a long time ignoring the GDebi program. To remind you, this is a GUI application that allows the installation of packages you’ve manually downloaded. It attempts to resolve dependencies using the repositories, which is a very useful feature. However, I’ve always preferred the good old-fashioned dpkg command. Then one day I tried GDebi at the command line and was shocked to find it also runs in a fuss-free non-GUI mode (i.e. sudo gdebi package.deb), yet still has the ability to resolve dependencies. Give it a try. Once you do, you may never want to use dpkg -i again.
3. CD Tricks
I’m sure that even bash experts occasionally slap themselves on the forehead and say, “Wow! I never knew you could do that!”. Recently I learned two tricks for the cd (change directory) command that had passed me by until now. Typing cd on its own will switch you back to your /home directory (i.e. the equivalent of cd ~). Typing cd - will switch you to the last directory you were browsing before you switched to the current one.
4. Add Directories To the Directory Stack With PUSHD
While we’re on the subject of directories, let’s talk about the directory stack. Quite simply, this is a list of directories stored by bash. The currently-browsed directory always tops the list, but the list is otherwise empty until you add a new directory, which you can do using the pushd command. For example, pushd /usr/bin will add /usr/bin. It will also switch you to that directory, so you could use it instead of cd to navigate (the -n command option will let you add a directory but stay where you are). The dirs command will show the directory list (remember that the currently-browsed directory will always be at the top). popd deletes the topmost entry in the list, and switches you to the next in the list. Give the directory list a try. It can be very useful if you’re administering a system and have to leap from directory to directory, and are inclined to forget where important things are.
5. Kill Processes Quickly With PKILL
To kill a process I’ve always either used top, or the kill or killall commands along with ps|aux to discover process numbers/names. However, the pkill command removes a lot of work — pkill firefox, for example, will search the list of processes for anything matching firefox, and then kill it (i.e. send a SIGTERM). pstree is also a pretty cool command, and will show all the processes in a family-tree arrangement, organized by who owns them.
6. Customize Gnome With Gnome Control Center
For those who have trouble giving up their Windows cravings, and who want a nice organized Control Panel-like experience, consider using gnome-control-center for your system configuration needs. Adding a desktop shortcut to this program can help newbies get to grips with Ubuntu, giving them a familiar Windows-like experience, and avoid forcing them to explore the scary System menu.
7. Launch OpenOffice.org Faster
If you use OpenOffice.org a lot, you might be frustrated at how long it takes to start each time. To get around this, open the Sessions program (called Startup Manager in Jaunty; whatever the case, click System, Preferences, Startup Applications to find it) and add a new entry. In the Command field, type openoffice -nodefault -nologo. Then reboot. This will cause OpenOffice.org to be cached when the Gnome desktop starts up, so starting any OO.org application in the future will happen in a split second. Effectively, you’re moving the OpenOffice.org startup delay to initial boot-up, but you’ll hardly notice it.
8. Clear Up Disk Clutter In a Jiffy
Running short of disk space? Try typing sudo apt-get autoremove and then sudo apt-get clean into a terminal window. The first command removes any unused (redundant) dependencies from the system. The second removes all cached package files. Both are harmless. On a well-used system that’s been updated a couple of times, you could free-up as much as a gigabyte using these methods. (Compare before and after using the df -h command.)
9. Figure Out Missing File Extensions
Been sent a file without an extension by e-mail? No idea what type of file it is? (Mac users are particularly guilty of the sin of considering file extensions optional.) Try the file command. Just specify the filename straight afterwards. Also, give the strings command a try. This will show any “printable strings” within a binary file (i.e. anything that isn’t unprintable, which usually indicates data). The type of file is usually listed right at the top, so it’s a good idea to pipe the output of strings into head (i.e. strings filename|head).
10. Don’t Forget Your Man Pages
Check out these interesting but not-widely-read man pages: intro — a beginner’s guide to the command-line; hier — a rundown of the filesystem hierarchy; builtins — mini man pages for miscellaneous commands that don’t have man pages of their own (including pushd, popd and dirs, as discussed above).
So far there have been six alpha releases of the forthcoming Ubuntu 9.04, due for final release next month, and late yesterday the one and only beta release was made available for download. From this point forward there’s a release candidate in mid-April, before the final release is made on the 23rd.
With this beta release everything should be shaping up nicely, and (theoretically) the work from this point onwards should be bug-fixing and polish.
Let’s find out how the release is shaping up.
Performance
One of the things demanded by Ubuntu head honcho Mark Shuttleworth in his announcement of 9.04 was that boot times should be improved. This certainly seems to have happened, and in my tests 9.04 booted pretty quickly. In fact, booting to the login prompt was actually quicker than resuming the machine from hibernation. (My test machine was a crappy budget laptop with a Celeron chip and 1.5GB of memory; I did a full hard disk install.)
Additionally, the ext4 filesystem driver is now included, although isn’t used by default, and must be deliberately selected by the user during partitioning. The big boasts of ext4 as far as end-users are concerned include support for insanely large file systems of up to one exabyte, but the feature that’s got most people excited is a performance boost compared to the older ext3. I ran some quick and unscientific tests on an ext3 installation of Ubuntu, and then repeated the tests of an ext4 install. The testbed was the aforementioned budget laptop, and the highly-accurate timing device was myself, my thumb, and the stopwatch mode of my wristwatch. In other words, don’t hold too much store by these results.
There were some marginal improvements with ext4, especially in boot times and when copying significant amounts of files, but perhaps not enough to overcome the potential risks of using ext4 this early in its life. (You might be wondering if the hibernate to disk performance is improved but remember that Ubuntu hibernates to the swap partition, not the filesystem, so this is unaffected; I realized this after performing my tests, but it was borne out in my results which were virtually identical between filesystems).
Ext3
Boot from cold: 25.93 seconds
Start Firefox on a cold machine: 4.64 seconds
Start OO.org Writer on a cold machine: 7.11 seconds
Copy /usr directory to the desktop (1.5GB; using cp command): 6 minutes, 6.62 seconds
Hibernate to disk: 29.21 seconds
Hibernate wake-up from cold: 30.86
Ext4
Boot from cold: 22.23 seconds
Start Firefox on a cold machine: 4.35 seconds
Start OO.org Writer on a cold machine: 7.74 seconds
Copy /usr directory to the desktop (1.5GB; using cp command): 5 minutes, 21.48 seconds
Hibernate to disk: 29.56 seconds
Hibernate wake-up from cold: 29.91 seconds
Any Windows fans out there will be pleased to hear that ext4 includes an online defragmentation tool, e4defrag. However, this doesn’t appear to be installed on Ubuntu 9.04 (or perhaps it resides under a different command-name; if you know the situation, post a comment below.)
Visual Refresh
There’s a new boot progress graphic (i.e. usplash), which I can’t say looks better or worse than previous efforts. Additionally, there’s a new wallpaper that takes as a starting point the swirly lines seen in virtually every operating system wallpaper since 1998. The only different here is that the color scheme is orange and brown, in the usual Ubuntu style. My advice: install the gnome-backgrounds package, which includes a terrific sample of images.
Some of the community themes that were optional in 8.10 are now default (Dust, Dust Sand, New Wave), and this helps mitigate the fact that the whole Ubuntu desktop experience is starting to stagnate. It hasn’t changed significantly for quite a few years now.
It’s now possible to set transparency effects for the panels, provided the Compiz visual effects system is activated (it is by default). This is kinda cool, and brings Ubuntu into line with OS X Leopard, which introduced a similar feature.
The Log Off/Shutdown etc. items have been removed from the System menu, and now live on the fast user switcher icon at the top right of the desktop. This icon is turning into something of a status display and mode-switcher–not only does it now let you log out etc., and switch to a different user account, but it also shows your Pidgin status. Rather annoyingly, the fact it is now the only way to shutdown means that you can’t get rid of it, unless you intend to use telinit each time at the prompt.
Notifications
The last few releases Ubuntu have featured notification bubbles that pop-up near the system tray area at the top right of the screen. These inform the user about events that have happened, such as connecting to a wireless network.
With 9.04 the notification system has been visually overhauled so that the pop-up boxes have a smoked glass appearance. All notifications now appear as pop-up boxes in this style, including notebook screen brightness status displays, for example, or low battery warnings. If more than one notification appears at the same time, they stack-up beneath each other.
Unfortunately, the notifications don’t work like those on other systems, whereby you can click on them to clear them. Put your mouse over the notifications on 9.04 and they turn semi-invisible, letting you click beneath them. They only go away when they want to, which seems to be after a couple of seconds by default. This is a little annoying.
OpenOffice.org 3
Although it was skipped for the 8.10 release last year, despite being available (the omission was caused by problems with packaging, apparently), OpenOffice.org 3 has made it into the 9.04 release.
To be blunt, this is very hard to get excited about. There’s a handful of cool new features, including inline commenting, which as an author I find useful. If you want to know more, see the OpenOffice.org Web site.
Synaptic
Synaptic now features a “Get Screenshot” button in each package description that will, as you might expect, download a thumbnail screenshot of the application (provided it’s the type of application that it’s feasible to have a screenshot of; system components don’t have them, for example). Clicking the thumbnail will then download the full-resolution version. This is a nice feature.
Gnome 2.26
It has to be said that Gnome is maturing into a very nice desktop environment, and the 2.26 release sees only minor tweaks here and there. Sadly, many of the key features boasted about on the Gnome Web site are skipped in the Ubuntu distribution of Gnome. You won’t see the Empathy Instant Messenger, for example, unless you specifically install it. On the other hand, Ubuntu’s IM choice of Pidgin is better right now, so this is a good thing. Evolution sees a few new additions, primarily in the area of Windows integration, although missing from Ubuntu’s Gnome distribution is the all-new ability to import Microsoft Outlook PST files (the central database of messages). This seems to be because the libpst library is missing, but I haven’t investigated any further. Still, this is a shame.
Cruft Cleaning
One of the features slated for 8.10, but postponed until 9.04, is the Computer Janitor program. This lives on the System, Administration menu. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in the beta, complaining that a package is missing, but I played with it in the alpha releases I’ve tested. It’s purpose is to get rid of old packages, such as old kernel files that stick around when you upgrade. As far as I can tell, it’s a GUI equivalent of typing sudo apt-get autoremove and sudo apt-get clean at the command-prompt. Beware, however, that it might be a little overzealous: in one of my tests using the alpha release, it considered no longer necessary a package I’d installed by hand (TrueCrypt). I had a little too much faith in it, and agreed to its deletion, only to have to reinstall the package afterwards.
Brasero
Technically Brasero should be discussed under the Gnome 2.26 heading, because the program is officially part of the Gnome desktop experience. And like Gnome itself, Brasero is maturing quite nicely. The big change in Ubuntu 9.04 is that it has entirely replaced Gnome’s built-in CD/DVD Creator, that formerly lived on the Places menu. In this beta release, there are two menu entries for Brasero on the Applications menu: one under Sound & Video, which starts the full Brasero interface, and one under the System Tools menu, that starts Nautilus in CD/DVD recorder mode. When the Write To Disc button is hit, after you’ve dragged across the files you want to burn, Nautilus hands over to Brasero to actually create the disc.
Conclusion
In his announcement of the 9.04 release, Mark Shuttleworth only laid down two demands that were of interest as far as end-users were concerned: faster booting and integration with web apps. The first nail has been squarely hit on the head, but the second seems to have been entirely ignored. Firefox doesn’t have Google Gears installed, for example, and the interesting Prism project, that “wraps” online applications to make them appear like local apps, hasn’t been integrated.
It doesn’t even appear that the version of Firefox supplied is the exciting new 3.1 release–the version number supplied with the beta is 3.0.7 (although admittedly 3.1 is still in beta). Personally, I believe that online applications are going to become more and more important in future, so I’m disappointed that Ubuntu isn’t making any progress in this direction. There’s a real chance to make a stake on virgin ground here, and it’s land that Microsoft and Apple don’t even know exist yet. Still, here’s hoping for the Ubuntu 9.10 release in October. (Until then, anybody wholly committed to the online application experience can use gOS, which takes Ubuntu and adds-in exactly what Shuttleworth requested.)
Should you upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04 when it’s released? To be honest, I don’t see any reason not too. But I also have trouble of thinking of reasons why you should. With each new release of Ubuntu, it’s becoming harder and harder for me to make a genuine recommendation, and this is something that worries me. The only compelling reason I can think of making the upgrade to 9.04 is the faster boot times, and the possibility of experimenting with ext4 file systems. Other than that, you’re perhaps better sticking with 8.10, or even the 8.04 LTS release, which despite being a year old, remains a strong and stable release that’s perfect for most users. With the recent raft of bug fixes, it just gets better and better. I use 8.04 LTS on most of my computers.