Jamie's Random Musings on Video IM
Having spent a good part of the last year struggling with a variety of video chat and IM programs, I have decided to write a few things down and see what other people have to say about them.
Monday 28 July 2008, 7:10 AM
Traveling Success with Linux
I have spent the past four days on a short vacation in the Piedmont area of northwest Italy (beautiful landscape, wonderful people and excellent food!). This has given me the opportunity to make a "traveling test" of Linux on both of my laptops. During this trip I have tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu (Ubuntu with the KDE desktop), and Mandriva, and all three have performed extremely well.
What does one want or need to do with a laptop while traveling? In my case, it falls into two major categories - internet access (email, web browsing, blogging, working) and digital photo management. It is also relatively important that suspend/resume work correctly on the laptop, for quick and easy access. That much I was able to test before leaving, and confirmed that both Ubuntu and Mandriva suspend/resume just fine.
So, the first major test on arrival was to get an internet connection. If I couldn't pick up a WiFi connection, I would have to boot Windows and try my cellular wireless card. I didn't want to do that not only because I wanted to run Linux, but also because cellular roaming data fees can be quite steep. So I was very pleased to see an available network pop up the first time I booted Ubuntu after we got to the B & B, and even more so when it connected on the first try with no problems. A few quick checks confirmed that the connection was working well, and at a reasonable speed - pick up email, check ZDNet UK, VPN connection to work, all just fine.
Next up, digital photo handling. Both of these laptops have slots for SD/MS flash cards, and both of our cameras use SD cards. We took a few pictures on the way down, so pop the SD card out of the camera and into the laptop... with Ubuntu a very nice, very obvious SD-card icon appears on the desktop, and the F-Spot photo viewer opened; With Kubuntu and Mandriva, both of which use the KDE desktop, the flash card was added to the removable storage menu, and a window came up asking if I wanted to open a browser window or start the digiKam photo manager. Mandriva also includes the ShowFoto program.
Obvious things work - double-click the SD icon and it opens a file browser, navigate to the pictures and they show as icons, double click a picture and it opens in the image viewer. The image viewer has simple options for rotating pictures, full-screen viewing and a slide show of some or all photos. For more advanced photo handling and image editing, the F-Spot photo viewer and/or the digiKam photo manager will download the photos to your computer (and can be set to do that automatically when the flash card is inserted), and then give you options to edit them, adjusting exposure, hue and saturation, cropping and much more. For very advanced photo/graphic editing, the GIMP image editor is available as well.
The bottom line is, I was perfectly happy on the road with Linux, it was able to do everything that I needed and a lot more. This was all with the Linux distributions absolutely "stock", the way they come from their respective web pages, I haven't downloaded or installed any additional software.
PreviousComments on this post
You had me going until the last line "I haven't downloaded or installed any additional software"...I'd like to know how you got WiFi working in Kubuntu or Ubuntu without installing any other software. Only Mandrive 2008.1 Spring Edition, managed to work out of the box on my computer.I am glad you had a positive Linux experience to report.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I promise you, I didn't download or add anything to get WiFi connections working on Ubuntu and Kubuntu (both Hardy Heron 8.04.1). Click on the network icon in the task bar, and a drop-down list shows any wireless networks that have been detected. Click on one of those networks, and if it is unprotected it will connect (as it did while I was in Italy), if it is protected you will be prompted for the key. and then it will connect (as it does here at my home).
This works for me flawlessly with two totally different laptops and wireless interfaces; the Lifebook S2110 is an AMD cpu and Atheros wireless interface, and the Lifebook S6510 is an Intel cpu and Intel 4965 wireless interface. I am writing this on the S6510 running Ubuntu.
As I wrote previously, the one thing you can't do is over-complicate this - don't go digging around under the covers to try to set up wireless, just click on the task bar icon and let the wizards do the work for you. The mistake I made initially was to assume, based on previous experience with LInux and Unix in general, that I would need to set up the wireless configuration manually. The first help I found on a Google search described doing exactly that, editing various files in /etc and such, and it didn't work at all. The next thing I found described going through the menus - System / Administration / Network, and entering the SSID and key there. That got me connected once, but after a reboot it would never connect again. What finally tipped me in the right direction was wondering why it initially said "Roaming Mode Enabled" in the network settings. Then I stumbled over the wireless configuration through the network task bar icon, and once I removed the fixed configuration from the network settings, it worked perfectly.
As for Mandriva, it was every bit as easy to set up the WiFi, and it works just as well. I'm glad to hear it is working for you as well.
Thanks again,
jw
Linux is a lot easier to use than most people think. It is no longer command line only, but I find times the command really comes in handy. I also use digiKam and gimp and find them easier to use than photoshop. When it is all said and done Linux is actually fun to work with, plus you are learning as you go. I like to see why things do what they do and with Linux you have the source code and can change things, if you like. It is much more customizable than windows.
My experience with Ubuntu 8.04 is similar. I had some problems with wireless connectivity after upgrading my router's software. By just using the wizards, and not trying to "customize", I got it to work again by enabling "Roaming mode".
Ubuntu is installed on the laptop using Wubi. No partition FUD for a Windows user, and full access to all the Windows files. My sweet bride uses the laptop for e-mail, internet, and documents, and she is unaware of which OS is being used. "The Innocent Eye test"! [for the original, see http://www.101bananas.com/art/innocent.html ]
i have been researching for a good linux version to use and your article has helped me out alot! thanks for the posting!!
