ubuntu

Yes, my grandma can run Ubuntu Linux

Last week Lenovo lent me one of its X61 ThinkPad laptops so that I could give Ubuntu Linux a try. Having had a bad experience with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop a few years ago, I had sworn off desktop Linux and determined not to return.

A week into a new trial with Ubuntu Linux, however, it's clear that desktop Linux has come a long way. I found it extremely easy to use, including when I had to install a program (Skype) that wasn't included in the supported applications list. This is an operating system that my grandma could (and, in fact, did) use.

This isn't to say that my week with Ubuntu Linux was uneventful. I had a few struggles, which I'll detail below. These struggles, however, were almost entirely due to running Ubuntu on unsupported hardware, and not any fault of Ubuntu (or Linux) itself.… Read more

Starting a week with Ubuntu and Lenovo's X61 ThinkPad: First impressions

I finally decided to put my OS where my mouth is. Or, at least, where my typing fingers are. I'm typing this from a Lenovo X61 ThinkPad...running Ubuntu 7.10. I'm going to spend the next week or so reporting on the experience, including some first-person accounts from the lady who has cut my hair for the past 21 years, Valerie, and my grandma, whom I've noted before has been locked out of the Linux experience.

Well, today we're going to see just how much substance there is to my prior contention.

Before I begin, I have to admit that I'm going to be biased by the hardware I'm using...in a positive way. Before switching to the Mac, I was a hardcore IBM ThinkPad devotee. This is my first experience with the post-IBM ThinkPad, and it's an impressive piece of hardware. Equally important for this review, it seems to work flawlessly with Ubuntu.… Read more

Get started faster in Ubuntu

The more I use Ubuntu, the more I like it. That's not to say I was happy with the operating system's default start-up settings, however. Here are three Ubuntu tweaks that speed up the start of my workday.

Do away with the log-in I'm the only one using the ancient laptop I installed Ubuntu on, and I don't feel the need to keep interlopers off it, so I set it to start without requiring a log-in ID and password. To cancel the log-in, click System > Administration > Login Window, enter your password, and select the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 672: Spammer in the slammer

Episode 672

Judge: Wikileaks gets its domain name back http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9883240-38.html

First spam felony conviction upheld: No free speech to spam http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080302-first-spam-felony-conviction-upheld-no-free-speech-to-spam.html

Vista prices fall even further http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9883961-56.html

Pirates find proper way to crack Vista’s activation schema http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/03/0622230

More audiobook publishers drop DRM: Will Audible follow suit? http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/03/more-audiobook-publi.html

Nine Inch Nails uploads new album on Torrent sites http://torrentfreak.com/nin-uploads-new-album-on-torrent-sites-080303/

Fan-funded music http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13526_1-9882091-27.html… Read more

Your chance to feed the Ubuntu Brain(storm)

Ubuntu has launched a new site - Ubuntu Brainstorm - where anyone can submit and vote on ideas for the popular Linux distribution. It's a bit like Dell's Ideastorm (which, perhaps not coincidentally, led Dell to start offering Ubuntu systems for sale).

The difference here, however, is that it is the Ubuntu community that will take the feedback and build a better Ubuntu, rather than submitting ideas into a corporation which will weigh its quarterly objectives against the community's ideas. This is yet another way that Ubuntu continues to demonstrate its community credentials.

It's a way … Read more

Learning from Mark Shuttleworth: Connecting communities

I am fortunate to count Mark Shuttleworth as a good friend. He's the sort of person who is always genuine. I never get the sense that he's taking shortcuts with me or with the business that he's forming around Ubuntu (i.e., Canonical).

This authenticity in his personality is hugely important for an opportunity looming for him and for Canonical. Like a few big open-source projects and companies, Ubuntu sits at the nexus of various other open-source communities. Unlike perhaps any other, however, Ubuntu has Canonical, a company with a social purpose as much as a corporate purpose.

Herein lies the opportunity, as Mark implies in a conversation he had with Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation:

...(It) seems to be that recognizing that enhancing the productivity of collaboration between different groups is a real way to boost the platform as a whole. And at Ubuntu we feel this very, very keenly because not only do we want to collaborate with other upstream projects like Apache or X or Open Office, but we also very much want to be part of and collaborate with Debian which is a very large project in its own right.… Read more

'Intrepid Ibex' Ubuntu priority: Mobile Linux

Fans of Ubuntu, the version of Linux developed by start-up Canonical and its open-source allies, now have a name and a priority for the version due in October: Intrepid Ibex will be designed to make mobile computing better.

"A particular focus for us will be pervasive Internet access, the ability to tap into bandwidth whenever and wherever you happen to be," said Canonical Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth in an e-mail announcement of Intrepid Ibex, also known as version 8.10. "We want you to be able to move from the office, to the train, and home, staying … Read more

Tweak Ubuntu for peak performance

One of the first things I noticed after using Ubuntu for a while was how snappy the OS is, especially compared to Windows Vista (which in my experience can't even keep up with its predecessor XP). Then I poked around the Linux forums a little bit and found out that I could work even faster in Ubuntu by changing some default settings, and using a few of the OS's unique keyboard shortcuts.

Start at the beginning by disabling the auto-start Ubuntu apps that you don't need. For example, the ancient laptop I run Ubuntu on has no … Read more

Survey finds Ubuntu is the fastest-growing Linux distribution

I've written before about the data collected from Alfresco's Open Source Barometer survey. While originally a survey of 10,000 members of Alfresco's "content community" (i.e., those who register with Alfresco to download white papers, documentation, etc.), the survey now includes a swelling population of the community, with 35,000+ members.

The data becomes even more significant when you consider Alfresco's customer base: a high percentage include the world's leading financial services, media, publishing, government, and educational institutions.

So when I see Ubuntu at 23 percent of Alfresco's Linux user base (second only to Red Hat at 35 percent), with 51.3 percent of Alfresco's users choosing to deploy on Linux (with a scant 26.5 percent opting to deploy on Windows), I take notice.

When I see Red Hat and Ubuntu pulling away from the rest of the Linux pack (Debian, SUSE, etc.), it gives me pause. It makes me think that maybe, just maybe, customers actually care about freedom. Maybe they don't think about it in Richard Stallman terms, but they think about it.… Read more