This blog really came into its own recently. After putting Jaunty on my new old computer, I was left with a very vanilla Ubuntu install. For the most part, I knew what packages I wanted, and where I wanted my panels, and so forth, but I’d completely forgotten stuff like getting the text on my panels to be white, or how to get ViGedit. Yes, I could’ve Googled around for a while, but instead I just got the instructions right off this blog (that would be the panel here and ViGedit here). Five minutes, problem solved.

I know it’s not really that big of a deal, but it’s nice when the work I put into something starts reciprocating (I’ll be happy if the ads cover the cost of the domain name. Very happy).

In other news, I’ve started a 20-page research paper about ReactOS, AROS, Haiku, FreeDOS and MenuetOS. Expect it to be done next year. I’ll keep you posted though.

My programming class just learned about methods a few weeks ago (I spent the time reminding myself why I like Python so more than Java–compare “def” with “public static void, no–String, no–Color, no–Aaaaah!”). Which means that for the last week we’ve had a group project, glued together by the members writing different methods, and somebody (aka “me”) gluing it all together into a coherent program.

It’s definitely not the awesomest thing in the world, but maybe somebody will find a terminal-based Hangman game entertaining for…a few minutes? Or else you get bonus points if you make a GUI, make it object-oriented, make it an applet, or port it to C or Python.

*Note: It reads words from “word.txt”, so edit that if you want to change the word list.

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As I said a few days ago, people have a tendency to complain when Linux doesn’t like their hardware. The converse of that, of course, is that people rarely speak up when things just work. Here’s an exception to the rule:

When I installed Jaunty on my spiffy new laptop, the following things happened:

• I got a pop-up window offering to install a driver for my wireless card (Broadcom driver). After a click, password and reboot, wireless worked.
• My entire screen worked at full resolution.
• I was greeted by that loud jungle drums sound when GNOME started up (sound works), reflexively, I hit the mute button on my keyboard, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked. So do the volume up/down buttons.
• In fact, I have no complaints whatsoever about hardware performance under Linux.

Yes, I know that just because I had success doesn’t mean everyone has success, but can we at least acknowledge  that many computers do work? Thanks.

I finally got a new laptop yesterday–a secondhand Dell Latitude. I’m pleased with its specs, of which you can learn more than you wanted to on my hardware page, but this also meant something else: I had the perfect reason to install Jaunty.

Upgrading from the Upgrade Manager always kind of scares me–the Ubuntu people are abundantly clear that it could make the system go banoonoos–and it’s a lot of work to do a fresh install over an existing install. But this computer needed Ubuntu anyway–so I just burned a Jaunty disk and used it.

I’m impressed.

First of all, the thing is fast. I don’t have the greatest hardware on the block, but it still boots in under a minute, and–almost as good–there’s no more Windows-ish “Show the desktop but don’t make it usable for another thirty seconds.” When GNOME looks like it’s done loading, GNOME is done loading. Period.

To be fair, I’m using a faster processor than I did with Intrepid and Hardy, so I don’t know if I can honestly praise Jaunty for this, but it seems a lot more responsive.

The new notification system is great. For people miffed by the fact that you can’t close notifications: why would you want to? If you need to see something under them, hovering over them with your mouse makes them mostly transparent, and otherwise–who cares what’s going on in the top right corner of your screen?

Maybe I wasn’t paying attention in Intrepid, but I’m reasonably sure the System Janitor (System>Administration) is new. It looks like a really good idea, though I haven’t needed to use it yet.

The default wallpaper was subpar–I was really hoping for a picture of a jackalope. Oh well, I changed it to this anyway.

I don’t know who to blame for this–Compiz, maybe?–but the new way for switching between workspaces moves the windows, but not the desktop itself (i. e. the wallpaper remains static while other stuff moves over it). I know it’s minor, but I still disapprove. I’ve always maintained the image of a bunch of windows tied to various desktops, which could be moved about like a slide under a microscope to be viewable by my screen. Now, the image seems to be of a bunch of windows floating in outer space, ready to be snagged and plopped onto my desktop. There’s a subtle distinction, and I don’t like it.

I know I’m supposed to be excited by the new GNOME release, but so far I haven’t seen anything different. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Overall, though, I’m very excited about this release–much more so than I was about Intrepid–and happy to call myself a Linux user.

This is the best article I’ve read all month. I wish I’d written it myself .

A Man and his Penguin : Is OS X ready for the desktop?

Dear World,

Sometimes, you just have the hardware of the darned, and getting Linux to cooperate on it just isn’t worth the time.

This is usually not the case.

Please try the Live CD of a distro beforer you install it onto your hard drive–just to make sure everything works as it should.

Please don’t let one bad experience make you trot around the Internet telling people that nothing ever works with Linux.

If you must trot around the Internet, please don’t whine.

Adopting a pessimistic attitude of, “Linux didn’t work on this one computer–it won’t work on any” is spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt around. Nobody needs this–not Linux fans, not Windows fans, not Mac fans, not the greater computer-loving world.

Thank you,

Timmy Macdonald

Just for kicks, I decided to install CrunchBang Linux (Ubuntu core, but with Openbox instead of GNOME).

I’m still learning about it, so this won’t be the moment to give you a 2,000-word description on “CrunchBang for Power Users” or something like that, but I’ve been able to do everything I did in GNOME, and have the following to say:

1. It’s not for l33t h4x0rs. I’m far from being a Linux guru (in the sense of having an intimate knowledge of the guts of my system), but I still don’t think there’s that big of a learning curve between something like GNOME or Xfce and this. To be honest, I think it’s easier than Xfce.
2. It’s fast. It’s definitely faster than the behemoth mammoths that are GNOME and Xfce, and it seems a bit more responsive than Xfce (which I have installed on the same computer, by the way).
3. Try it. Really, there’s nothing to lose. If you have the hard drive space, snag the .iso and throw CrunchBang onto a 5GB partition. Failing that, try it in a virtual machine, or off the LiveCD. Maybe you’ll hate it. Fine. Don’t use it. But maybe you’ll love it like I do, and feel liberated. Why not?

And finally, the obligatory screenshot (which represents about 8 minutes of work, I haven’t even changed the background yet)

Well, when my laptop’s screen started to go, I should have listened.

Now, the vertical cluster of dead lines is three times as wide, completely filled in (instead of just being scattered), the top left quadrant of the screen is toast, and everything is substantially whiter (it was unusably white until I managed to run JScreenFix, which ameliorated the situation a bit).

So this laptop has moved from “kind of inconvenient to use” to “use as little as possible, until it can be turned into some kind of server, or desktop replacement.”

And, thankfully, I think I’m getting a secondhand replacement.

In other news, today is the day when Jaunty (aka Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope”) came out! It looks really enticing–I’m a fan of both jauntiness and jackalopes (much more than ibeces, however intrepid they may be), and I’m also all about faster booting, Ext4, and that new notification deal. Speaking about the new notification deal, I think it’s going to solve a pet peeve of mine–left-clicking on the volume applet in the taskbar gives you a slider for volume, while right-clicking gives you the checkbox for muting. What’s more, if it’s muted, no sound will come out, no matter how high you raise the volume. It’s a minor complaint, but I’m looking forward to being able to control both from the same menu. Happy Release Day!

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Again, I apologize for any misspellings or typos–half of this is typed without the benefit of vision.

PS-I’m sorry if I scared you with the title (could an Ubuntu release ever be that bad?   .

I’ve made a hardware page, because I can.

Woot.

Move on.

I’ve predicted that my laptop (Sony Vaio PCG-TR3A; 512MB RAM, 1000mHz processor, 40GB HD) would be put on the “List of Things Timmy Wants Replaced” because of a hardware failure, not a software failure. I wish I didn’t know if I was right or not.

A few days ago, I turned it on, and discovered a 1-inch wide cluster of vertical, multi-colored lines, and a 1/4-inch cluster of horizontal, black and white line going across my screen. Eek! I’ve tried cycling the pixels, the press-on-it-with-a-damp-cloth method, and the tap-it-with-a-pen-lid method, and nothing works. I also asked for help on the Ubuntu Forums, and they told me that it sounded like my pixels were gone for good.

This is the part where the teeth-gnashing starts.

I searched eBay for either the same laptop, or a replacemnt screen ($261), both of which were too expensive to consider. And the money I have in the bank is for stuff like cars and college, not fixing a computer annoyance. I may be able to complete a programming job which would cover a new one (I’ve been wanting to have a full GB of RAM for a while. Maybe I’ll live dangerously and get two…or four), or if that doesn’t work out I’ll sit tight and wait and see if somebody I know is getting rid of their “old” laptop.

In the meantime, though, I’m left guessing about what a few of the words in the middle of my screen are, and shifting windows, StarCraft units, and text around to compensate. It could be worse–it’s been a much bigger inconvenience to boot up to a GRUB Error 17. But I can fix a GRUB Error 17. Oh well.

——

I tried to take a picture, but the several I took didn’t look right at all.