First impression of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

After a long time it's about time I wrote a new post, nothing like a new version of Ubuntu to sit down and a write a post, enjoy.

Installation

Basically there the are three options: keeping all your information and programs, fresh installation on the same partition and the last option is if you want to do some thing else , mainly changing or adding partitions. If you choose the last option and you want to change one of your partitions, you'll need to enter the size of the partition, in older versions you could have done it using a scale, I miss the older version. Other then that everything fast and smooth. It was the fastest installation I ever did with Ubuntu. The only problem was when downloading things went a little slow the same when installing more applications, but that cloud be understandable since it was lunched that day and Ubuntu's servers where overloaded .

Default applications

Office suit – Libreoffice instead of Openoffice – It's hard to find any big difference between them. I had only one problem which took me some time to solve, since I also write in Hebrew (Right-to-Left) I couldn't find the buttons to change the writing directions. In the beginning I tried Installing Openoffice using the “Ubuntu Software Center” but it installed Libreoffice again, at the end I found the solution. (Tools → Options → Language Settings → Languages → Locale Setting ->[Your language]) If you write from Right-to-Left the buttons will appear in the tool bar, in Openoffice the buttons are default.

1. Media – Banshee – Love it used it until now it's about time it was the default music player in Ubuntu. In the video section I've installed VLC, here again I've used it before and I'm very happy with it. VLC's main strength is in it's ability to play many video formats.
2. Graphics - Picasa & GIMP since I use the Picasa on the web using Picasa was a natural choice. Once in a while I need to do some photo editing until now I've used GIMP, no reason changing that.
3. Browser – Three month ago I have started using Chromium instead of Firefox, that was before Firefox 4 came out, since then I've got used to it and I'm very happy with it's performance.
4. Last but not least the “Ubuntu restricted extras” applications with restricted copyrights , Skype for communication, Synapse a friendly file and application launcher and Gdebi package installer (I don't understand why it doesn't come in default) . Dropbox instead of Ubuntu One cause I also use Windows.
5. Removing – Evolution, I use Gmail. Gwibber, I prefer the web interfaces of Twitter and Facebook.

User Interface

In Ubuntu 10.10 I've used Gnome 3 now I'm using Unity 2D, unfortunately my graphic card doesn't support the 3D version. The only thing is that I had to figure that by my self and install the 2D version, the 3D came installed by default. This is the biggest change between the Ubuntu 11.04 and the privies version, at least as the eye can see. Compared to Gnome 2 it's a huge leap. Compared to Gnome 3 it's hard to decide which is better, after using both I think I prefer Unity, but I haven't used it enough that I can be sure. The only thing I miss is the option to add applets to the bar above, I hope in the future they'll add that option to do it the same way as in Gnome 2. I thought of installing Gnome 3, but the roomer is that it will only cause problems and even may result in the need to install Ubuntu from scratch.

One problem I've had in both versions and both interfaces is with the battery applet, when charging or working on battery I can't see the percentage it's stuck on “estimating”.

For conclusion the difference between 10.10 and 11.04 (as a simple home user) are changes in some applications, Banshee & Libreoffice added, GIMP removed. The bigger change is in the interface. Looks like Ubuntu is in the right direction, better applications (no reason removing GIMP), better user interface. Both increasing the user's experience, hopefully attracting more users to Ubuntu.

Already waiting for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.

Software I couldn't leave with out - Part I

Here are six software apps I find hard to leave with out, I use them on a daily bases and they are the main reason for me having a computer:

 Ubuntu - Linux - as appose to other items on this list, this is a o.s., I hav'e been using It for the past year. It all started a year and a half ago I purchased a new laptop with Windows Vista installed on it, I immediately encountered problems  ,so I decided to check out Ubuntu Linux after trying it a few year back, and returning to Windows after a while. I first did with the Wubi installation, and after a while I read "The Ubuntu pocket guide"  installed it on my laptop along side Windows Vista. It's been now a year and a half and Ubuntu is my preferred choice for an o.s. It's reliable, It's free, It has plenty of customizing options, It doesn't slow out with time, there is plenty of software for it and the part I liked the most is the support Ubuntu has, It's forums are undeflatable , for every problem you encounter you just post it on the forum and someone will get back to you with a solution, some time more then one person gets back to you and if you need more help, someone will always be happy to help you, and all of that for free. When using Windows I always feared that I will have a problem (and Vista had allot of them) that I couldn't solve and no body could help me, with Ubuntu I never got this filling there is a strong and helpful community behind you. Thanks to Conical for developing Ubuntu, thanks to all the Ubuntu users that dedicate from there own time for helping other users.

Firefox - My preferred  choice of browser for the last 6 years has been Firefox, I still remember when people didn't understand what I was talking about when I told them that I serf the web with Firefox, they didn't even understand the difference between the internet and Internet Explorer, most people thought it's the same thing (people today don't know what a browser is). Firefox gets its power from it's addons, an endless amount of extensions that can be added to it, they change a simple browse in to a great tool not only for serfing the web but also a great tool for working or studing, it has an endless amount of addons, any problem you incounter there's a good chance there is an addon that can help you, you can see my list. This is a great demnstration of opensource's power.

Skype - One of the greats achievements on the web is VOIP and the software that makes it so good is with no doubt Skype it has more then a 170 million users all around the world, the technology it uses combined with the big number of users, had changed the face of telecommunication in the last decade, the price of international phone calls dropped and in the same time it makes people closer. Another thing is video capabilities ,not only I can speak with my friends and family who live far away, I can also see them and all of that for free. For a very cheap price you can call a land line phone or a cellular phone all over the world, you can all so get a voice mail if you want. Their is only one thing I'd be happy to see, they haven't upgraded there Linux version for more then 2 year, it's about time they do it.

To be continued.....

Google Chrome OS

Finally it came out the Google Chrome OS, I installed it in a virtual machine (virtual box) and gave it a test drive. Here are some of my thoughts:

• It's A browser  and you can't change to any other browser.
• You can't logon or work when you're offline.
• You can only surf the web.
  
• When you look under the hood, you find something familiar.

To make things short until now all I see is Chromium on Ubuntu.

No Internet No OS

Look's like Chrom the browser

The applications tab, all web applications

It's not the browser it's the operating system

This is what you happens when you want to get in "Microsoft Live Office" when using Ubuntu, you are asked to install I.E. or Firefox, the only problem is that I am running it through Firefox. The problem isn't the browser it's the operating system, Microsoft can't tolerate competition.

My quest after a Ubuntu blogging client

Those of you who've been following my twitter may have noticed I've been looking for a good blogging client for Ubuntu. I've tried scribe, an extension for firefox, but it made a lot for problems when I published, some times it just crashed, some times the design changed (font size etc') and I had problems every time I wanted to add a picture or embed a video.

Yesterday thanks to LazyFeed I discovered Bilbo Blogger, I must say it looked very promising, since all the other clients haven't been updated since 2004 or 2005, like BloGTK. I installed it, and went on to configure it, already while configuring the problems started, I have two blogs, it couldn't distinguish between the two, it showed one blog and published a post on the second blog. There is a side bar to see the last posts on the blog that doesn't quiet work, while writing the editor stops responding for a few seconds and some times the client just crashes.

But to finish with a face forward this is a very good sign, for the beginning it means that some one is aware to the problem and is working to solve it, the design is quiet good and intuitive so Bilbo Blogger is on the right path and hope fully those problems will be solve and maybe more people will take on the challenge of developing a good and easy to use blogging client for Ubuntu

Until then, while working off line I'll continue writing my posts on OpenOffice Writer.

Flock, Shame on you

Flock is one of the open source browsers it uses the Mozilla public license, you would accept that an open source browser would be more friendlier to open source operating system users, like Ubuntu which I use. This is what I got when I downloaded flock today.

Until now everything is cool, but look what happens when the download begins.



A Linux file can start download, but all Installing information is for Windows.
What kind of open source is this ?

Is Apple becoming Microsoft

Is Apple becoming Microsoft (or should I call it M$). No doubt Microsoft's designs are no match for Apple's , nor are most of there products specially Windows Vista. All that matters is money. Until now Apple had tried to keep away from the image of a big and money hungry corporation, but apparently they can't hide forever .All big software companies are interested in one bottom line MONEY and everything that is related to money, like P.R. Lately Apple is getting more and more to Microsoft, products are sold with defects , reminds me of some of Microsoft's operating systems. Apple is behaving like a monopoly by preventing from other companies to develop applications to it's products, the same way Microsoft is doing by changing it's office format every tree years, this way no one can develop an alternative office suit. It doesn't let other devices use it's services, and the most amazing, they want unhappy customers to shut up !!!
May be all big companies behave this way, it doesn't mean it's right, there should always be an alternative, in the case operating systems there is Linux.

Ubuntu

Two month ago I tried Ubuntu Linux on my desktop, I realy didn't install it on my computer I used WUBI which installs Ubuntu on Windows. I fell in love immediately, a week later i installed it on my laptop, this time in a separaet partiton, at the begging I was a little bit nerves that it wan't work. It went smooth, and evrything went as plan.
The first thing I did is read Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference which you can download in PDF or by here, this is a basic guide to help you understand how things work in Ubuntu.
It wasn't enough so I bought Ubuntu Kung Fu, this book shows you nice tricks and hacks that you can do in Ubuntu, the next book that I want to buy is Ubuntu Unleashed .
Finaly if you fall in love with Ubuntu the way I did, you sould now htat if you get in to any problem the Ubuntu support is amazing there are tones of people who would help you in any problem. There is also a nice magazine which comes out once a month, on the last friday of the month, it's called Full Circle Magazine or FCM.