Ubuntu Tutorials

PC World has released its list of the 100 Best Products of the Year. I am happy to point out a few OSS products:

• #12: Mozilla Firefox 1.5
• #27: Ubuntu Linux Distribution
• #28: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5

Looks like Ubuntu dropped one place since last year, from the #26 slot. However, in last years review they looked at 5.04 “Hoary” and probably did not get to 6.06 “Dapper” with this review. These three, however, did beat other contenders such as:

• #31: TiVo
• #36: Apple iPod
• #89: Microsoxt Xbox 360

Pretty interesting read here about the DMCA and its past, current & future effects.  Give it a good read & thank Hatch for being such a great supporter.  Perhaps its time for a change?

Also found this interesting.  anti-dmca.org

Today I decided to try out the Dvorak keyboard layout. From what I’ve read it sounds like it could improve my performance and help avoid in repetetive stress injuries, but we’ll see how that goes. I have decided to use Dvorak for the month of June and track my results. I will test myself and post results weekly on both platforms.

Current QWERTY: ~95wpm avg.

Current Dvorak: ~0

Computer World has an article entitled “Visual Tour: 20 Things You Won’t LIke About Vista“. Here is a quick breakdown (and then I’ll stop with Vista for a while, promise!)

20. Minimum video system requirements are more like maximum
19. Aero stratification will cause businesses woe.
18. User Account Controls
17. Two words: Secure Desktop
16. No way to access the Admin acount in Vista Beta 2
15. Some first-blush networking peeves
14. Windows peer networking is still balky
13. Network settings user experience went backwards
12. Too many network control panel applets, wizards & dialogs.
11. Display settings have changed for no apparently good reason.
10. Where are the file menus?
9. Windows Defender Beta 2 is buggy
8. Problems with solutions
7. Lack of windows sidebar gadgets
6. Media Center isn’t all ther and falls flat
5. Faulty assumption on the Start Menu
4. Installation takes forever
3. Version control
2. Price
1. Little originality, sometimes with a loss of elegance.

“I have no problem with Microsoft copying Apple’s or any other company’s
best interface designs. We all win when that happens, and I wish Apple
would steal the best things Microsoft does right back. What’s really
strange is when a company lifts good ideas and makes them worse, not
better.” – Scot Finnie, Computerworld’s online editorial director.

This post is in addition to my previous post on Vista and also in reply to Scott Morris‘ post “SUSE Linux has real security” over on Utah Open Source Planet.

I read Scott’s links on the Get ready for the Vista/SUSE smackdown!, Opinion: Why Windows Vista will suck and confirm seven times to delete something.

Let me share some of the gems that I found in my reading.

1. An experienced MS-NBC reviewer,
   for example, said “Installing Vista Beta 2 was one of the worst
   operating system experiences that I’ve ever encountered.”
2. …that Vista doesn’t do well with Wi-Fi networking.
3. To really do anything with Aero
   Glass, Microsoft says you’ll need a DirectX 9-compliant 3D 128-MB video
   card that supports Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware and includes (WDDM
   (Windows Device Driver Model) driver. Practically speaking, that means
   you’ll need a 2006-vintage 3D graphics card.
4. As unbelievable as it might seem,
   OpenSUSE actually seems to support more hardware than Vista does at
   this stage in its development. Linux having more hardware support than
   Windows — who says we don’t live in a time of miracles?!
5. In the U.S. low-end edition of Vista, Vista Home Basic, for example, you can’t burn DVDs.

Although I’m an Ubuntu user I would use SUSE if Ubuntu weren’t an option. Of all the distros I’ve tried it is near the top of my list! Despite a lot of us using different distros I’m sure we can agree on one thing. Vista will suck.