Quick posting from Gnome-blog

I am running sidux in virtualbox on a Macbook Pro and using xfce as my desktop. To get gnome-blog to work was a simple task of installing the utility for gnome applets to work in xfce and then selecting it from the list.

I am writing this hoping this will post. Two things I have noticed is the when selecting the blog in setup I had to choose the “self-run” wordpress and secondly, the spell checker is somewhat strange in that there is no-where to select the dictionary.

Now posting…

Sidux and Fedora on a Mac

I have been itching to put Linux on my MacBook Pro, so now I’ve ventured into trying it out in VirtualBox.

I installed the latest Sidux offering. So far so good. I’m having to use the Xfce desktop as the KDE4 version wouldn’t install, it kept failing on verification of icons. I tried a couple of downloads but still the same, even straight from the iso file. But I’m happy to have Xfce. One nice touch done by Sidux is that it recognises if it is booting into a VirtualBox and automatically installs the guest additions for you. Sidux have done a good job in the layout of the desktop, nice and straight forward. I’ve installed Bilbo Blogger from source and am pleased with the result. Works fine. I’m using it now.

I have also installed Fedora 11 in VirtualBox. This was a fairly straight forward operation. The only extras required was to install the extras for the guest additions like gcc and kernel headers etc and then install the guest additions. After that it is a matter of enabling some of the repos to get some useful software and done. The boot-up graphics don’t work so I get the multicoloured bar along the base. Everything else works fine so far, even the sound.

I don’t mean to sound surprised but I am plesantly pleased. For both to install without errors the SATA drive has to be enabled. The window they boot into is fine and can go to full screen and back without problems (makes it look as if Linux is running natively).Both installs are 64 bit. One of the main reasons for trying Sidux is several. I am very familiar with Debian and its easy to install the 32 bit stuff if needed. Fedora I thought I’d try as my first venture with Linux was with Red Hat 7.1 but Fedora is a pain to install the 32 bit stuff, so Debian works here. Thats the only down side I can immediately see of Fedora. Both run fast and stable.

I only intend to use this for stuff I can’t do on the mac or for things I’ve been doing on Linux and so is easier for me to use Linux than OSX, while my linux machine is in transit. Later my intention is to install linux and OSX in multiboot just to see how it works.

Bilbo Blogger: a blogging application

I am now running Fedora 11 on my R61 Thinkpad with the Gnome desktop. This will change to Openbox in the near future and I plan to do a short review of Fedora 11 on this machine.

But the purpose today is give a brief overview of Bilbo Blogger.

Bilbo Blogger appears to be a neat and well over due blogging client for GNU/Linux. It uses the Qt and Kde4 libraries with SQLite to store the data. It includes a WYSIWYG editor, an HTML editor, and a Post Preview function that can even fetch your blog’s CSS to render the entry and see how it looks.

A package for Fedora is not yet available so I had to install from source, which after working out all the dependancies, installed fine and I’m posting from it now.

And the Preview of which I’m impressed with…

It seems solid for a beta (which is something I’ve come to be not surprised by with GNU?Linux apps) and I’m looking forward to all the features being included. But for the moment, I am very impressed.

More later…

Apple or GNU/Linux

I normally use GNU/Linux because it is far far better than MS windows. Recently though I bought a MacBook Pro 13.3″. Because of the work I do, I have to use Adobe CS4, for the time being anyway, so it was either use MS Windows or Apple OSX. Really this is a no-brainer, and I went for the model above. I up graded the RAM memory to 4 gig in preparation for Snow Leopard. I have been using this for about a month, so I thought I’d give a brief comparison of the two.

The Apple

The hardware is as standard except for more ram. OSX is fully updated with added software of my choosing. Thunderbird for email, Nambu for twitter and identi.ca, Firefox for browsing, Vienna for rss, cyberduck for ftp and sftp, Adium for IMing, Ecto for blogging, Lyx for writing (also use openoffice) and MaxSword for Bible study. There are a few others but these are the main ones.

Overall:

The battery life is nothing short of brilliant. Up to 7 hours, haven’t tested to 7 hours though, just says so in the battery monitor. It has gone for more than 3 hours watching a DVD (Star Wars) which is pretty impressive. The screen is LCD lit so is good, clear and bright, but does suffer a little from reflection but you get used to it. The key board is good to. It reminds me of the square tablets with letters on that you use for playing Scrabble. Back lit keys are really useful. The only problem with the keyboard is that I ordered a UK spec machine and the “@” symbol is swapped with the ” ” ” symbol like the US model. Apple do have these annoying quirks. The track pad is good to. On to the software. It all just works. The only thing I had to do was to download a plugin so I can sync my Nokia E71 phone. Some of the security setups can be a bit of a pain. I use 3 login (user) accounts, admin, mine and guest. I use admin purely for doing updates and admin things. I use my user account for doing everyday stuff, and guest for trying out new software, so it dont effect the machine if it goes wrong. Some software has to be installed in admin account otherwise you cant update it, all the permissions are wrong like CS4.

GNU/Linux

The hardware is a Lenovo Thinkpad R61 with 4 gig RAM. It is similar in many ways to the spec of the apple. The screen in 14.1″ TFT but is good and clear. The keyboard is one of the best I’ve used, light and responsive with a definite feel, better than the Mac, I think. The track pad is small compared with the Mac so I use a wireless mouse. Battery life is two and a half hours max, but that is with a high workload. On to the software. Here I use different “distros” or flavours for different tasks. I run Debian Lenny “stable” as a production desktop. Sidux as a personal desktop, to test things I might want to put on Lenny, like Gwibber (a twitter client), and other such things. I have space for three more distros which will be Fedora 11, CrunchBang, and a version of slackware like Kongoni. All these are 64 bit systems. All the software running on Debian just works. No problems no mess, it just works. The only thing I find with Linux is that sometimes I have to hook the laptop to the router physically to download the wireless network card drivers. I also run Virtualbox on Linux in which I run windows, which to my amazement runs quicker that natively installed. I also try out other systems in Virtualbox like Openbsd.

Peripherals

I have an Epsom printer that works on both. A Wacom tablet that worked “out of the box” on GNU/Linux, but had to install the driver for the Mac. The Canon scanner (4400f) was a pain on both the Mac and GNU/Linux. It now works with the Mac, but its a no-go with GNU/Linux. I will not buy a Canon product again until they become a more caring company, not just to GNU/Linux, but the computing community as a whole. They don’t support GNU/Linux at all. Nothing. When queried about updated drivers to fix bugs, one is greeted with a stoney silence. Phewy! They don’t even seem to like to update their driver at all, but I may be wrong, I hope so because they make good products. External hard drives and audio players sync on both with very little set up.

Lasting Impressions.

Writing this has made me thing about both products. The Apple came with everything working, although I had to add and adjust things to get it right for me. The Thinkpad I had to add more and adjust more to get ti right for me. Which do I prefer? I like them both for what they do and for what they give. I am reminded of when cars where built in such a way you could tinker with them and make them unique and yours. The thinkpad is in a way like that. I upped the memory, I put GNU/Linux on it and configured it to work the way I like it. A bit like the Ford Escort MK2 with a new paint job, stereo, seats and a custom center console, a sound solid performer. The Mac is like the Ford Capri Ghia, a little plusher but just as much fun to drive. If I had to choose between the two, it would be a tough call, but at the end of the day, the Thinkpad would just edge it, and I think that mainly on the grounds that it is more adaptable and flexable than the Mac. The Mac after all is proprietary and GNU/Linux isn’t. I can do more with GNU/Linux than I can with a Mac, and that for me says a lot about how far GNU/Linux has come.

The future of GNU/Linux – possibly

I have a number of friends who have gone from Windows to Mac and when asked why not GNU/Linux? They mutter something like the Mac just works while GNU/Linux needs setting up and can take so long to do it, and GNU/Linux isn’t known, its geeky!

People also have comfort zones. Windows is most peoples comfort zone. Pull them out of it by putting linux on their PC and they don’t like it. So you have to give them something new, something different. Both the iPhone and the HTC G1 did that and they are doing well. Even Palm are doing well with the Palm Pre phone. And the Apple range look different and are different and people know that, but they also see quality.

“Is this the year of the Linux desktop?” and such like are all missing the point and asking the wrong question. The question should be “who wants Linux?” and “How do I get people to want Linux?”.

This is where a leaf should be taken out of the Apple book, and RIM (Blackberry) and Google have done similar and now Palm also. Why is Apple so successful? Mr S Jobs turned Apple into a brand that he convinced people wanted and or needed to have. He made it attractive and he made it work, he gave it style. This is where I think Ubuntu and others have gone wrong. Developing an easy to use system and marketing it to the PC makers is fine, but if the users don’t want it, it aint gonna sell, and you’ll end up bashing your head against a brick wall. Trying to compete head-on with a 90% monopoly I think just daft. You have to go round them.

So how then, you ask? It is simple, develop a system that “just works” and put it on a specific piece of hardware that hasn’t had windows or apple or anything else, and make it look different, unique, and market it as the next best thing because it “just works”. People like simple and beauty and function and style. Google and Apple are doing this with the HTC G1 and iPhone respectively. Follow their lead and you can’t go far wrong.

Apple have a problem as soon as they moved their hardware platform from PPC to Intel, because geeks suddenly thought that if OSX can run on Intel Macs then it should be able to run on most Intel machines, with just a little hacking, and it does. What GNU/Linux has is that it already runs on most if not all platforms, so moving to something else is easy.

All thats needed is a nice bit of hardware covered with style, form and function, running GNU/Linux with a new style and intuitive desktop and make sure it “just works” with everything, printers, cameras, scanners, internet etc. and then brand it. Market it as a brand. And yes, I know, easier said than done.

Hello world!

Hello world! This blog will be where I voice my opinions about life, the universe, and review the restaurant at the end of the galaxy.

I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I hope to.

James