Jamie's Random Musings
Various thoughts and adventures, including but not limited to Video IM, Linux, Windows XP and Widows Vista, and various bits of hardware new and old.
Friday 27 March 2009, 3:08 PM
OpenOffice to the Rescue
I got a call earlier this week from the son of a close friend. He had received a Word document which he urgently needed to open, and MS Office refused, complaining that it was damaged or corrupt. After just a bit of diagnosing on the phone, I told him to just forward it to me, and I would see what I could do. A few minutes later I got the document, and OpenOffice (3.0.1) opened with no problems whatsoever. What he most desperately needed to do was just open, read and print the document, so I saved it directly to PDF from within OpenOffice, sent the PDF back to him, and the problem was solved.
It really totally escapes me why most people pay money for Microsoft Office these days - and quite a lot of money, at that. OpenOffice does virtually everything MS Office does, and it does quite a lot that MS Office can no - such as save directly to PDF format. It can read and write MS Office file formats, so it is easy to exchange documents with others who are still unfortunate enough to be using MS Office.
jw 27/3/2009
It really totally escapes me why most people pay money for Microsoft Office these days - and quite a lot of money, at that. OpenOffice does virtually everything MS Office does, and it does quite a lot that MS Office can no - such as save directly to PDF format. It can read and write MS Office file formats, so it is easy to exchange documents with others who are still unfortunate enough to be using MS Office.
jw 27/3/2009
Thursday 26 March 2009, 11:09 AM
What Do We Expect from Netbooks?
I am interested in hearing some opinions about what people really expect from a "netbook", and from those who actually own one, or have used one for a while, what did you actually use it for?
On one hand, a lot of people seem to expect them to be essentially the same as ordinary laptops. The most typical thing in this category are expectations (or demands) for complete Office Suites, media players and the like.
On the other hand, there seems to be a lot of work going into "dumbing-down" of netbooks, giving them special user interfaces, making everything proportionally larger on the screen and "simpler" to use. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix is one example of this, but there are plenty of others. Some seemed to be designed to compensate for the limited capacity of the netbook hardware, while others seem more aimed at the limited capacity of the typical netbook user.
I've had an HP 2133 Mini-Note for a few weeks now, and I think that both of these things miss the mark. Now, this has to be qualified with the fact that I have never tried any other netbook, and in particular I have never tried one with an Intel Atom CPU (the Mini-Note has a VIA C-7M CPU), but that is one of the reasons I am posting this for discussion. I'm interested in BOTH expectations and experiences.
In my experience with the Mini-Note, the major limiting factor is the size. Period. Not the processor, not the memory, not the disk space, only the size. It has a small screen (8.9"), and a small keyboard, although it is supposed to be one of the best keyboards in this category. The screen is small enough that you have to make some compensation in the size of fonts and icons - how much depends on how good your eyesight is. But in any case, I wouldn't want to do much Text/Spreadsheet/Presentation work on it, there just isn't enough screen space to work comfortably. I probably wouldn't want to watch a lot of videos, movies, or TV on the small screen either. Likewise, I wouldn't want to have to do a lot of typing for an extended time on the keyboard. I'm a good, fast, 10-finger typist, and I've seen a lot of keyboards over the years; the Mini-Note keyboard is quite good, for its size, but it is still error-prone, and the basic key design and feedback are not all that good. Finally, the small size limits the number and type of external connections it can have. At least HP was good enough to put a normal sub-D external monitor connection on it. But if you need to connect a lot of stuff, or you need/want a docking station, you're probably not going to be happy with a netbook.
On the other hand, the Mini-Note is small, it's not brain damaged. It doesn't need a special version of Linux (or Windows) that has lots of stuff ripped out in the interest of saving space, memory or processing power. Mine is currently loaded with Ubuntu, SuSE, Fedora, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS and Windows XP Professional (although I honestly can't remember the last time I booted Windows on it). All of those run and perform perfectly well on it; in fact, the only thing I have ever seen that didn't run acceptably on it was Vista (big surprise). So in my opinion, if I load a "stripped" operating system, I don't gain much, if anything, and I get a lot of unpleasant surprises when I go looking for something and it isn't there. One good example is the Office software I mentioned above. I don't want to work all day with OpenOffice on my netbook - but if someone sends me an email with a document, spreadsheet, or presentation attached, I want to be able to open it.
What do others think? If you currently have a netbook, how do you use it, and how happy are you with it? What do you find it particularly good or bad at? If you have considered one, but decided against it, why? What was missing or wrong in your opinion? What could be added or changed to make it fit your needs?
My personal experience can be summarized very easily. For what it cost, my Mini-Note is fantastic. I don't see how I could be much happier with it. I use it every day during my commute on the bus and train, and I use it at home so that I am not tied to my desk, I can sit in the living room, in the garden, or wherever, and still get to my email, web searches, pictures and documents. It cost something like 15% of what my Lifebook S6510 did, and I certainly get something like 75% of the use out of it. There are still things that I need/want a "real" laptop for, so I wouldn't want a netbook to be my only computer. Yet.
jw 26/3/2009
On one hand, a lot of people seem to expect them to be essentially the same as ordinary laptops. The most typical thing in this category are expectations (or demands) for complete Office Suites, media players and the like.
On the other hand, there seems to be a lot of work going into "dumbing-down" of netbooks, giving them special user interfaces, making everything proportionally larger on the screen and "simpler" to use. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix is one example of this, but there are plenty of others. Some seemed to be designed to compensate for the limited capacity of the netbook hardware, while others seem more aimed at the limited capacity of the typical netbook user.
I've had an HP 2133 Mini-Note for a few weeks now, and I think that both of these things miss the mark. Now, this has to be qualified with the fact that I have never tried any other netbook, and in particular I have never tried one with an Intel Atom CPU (the Mini-Note has a VIA C-7M CPU), but that is one of the reasons I am posting this for discussion. I'm interested in BOTH expectations and experiences.
In my experience with the Mini-Note, the major limiting factor is the size. Period. Not the processor, not the memory, not the disk space, only the size. It has a small screen (8.9"), and a small keyboard, although it is supposed to be one of the best keyboards in this category. The screen is small enough that you have to make some compensation in the size of fonts and icons - how much depends on how good your eyesight is. But in any case, I wouldn't want to do much Text/Spreadsheet/Presentation work on it, there just isn't enough screen space to work comfortably. I probably wouldn't want to watch a lot of videos, movies, or TV on the small screen either. Likewise, I wouldn't want to have to do a lot of typing for an extended time on the keyboard. I'm a good, fast, 10-finger typist, and I've seen a lot of keyboards over the years; the Mini-Note keyboard is quite good, for its size, but it is still error-prone, and the basic key design and feedback are not all that good. Finally, the small size limits the number and type of external connections it can have. At least HP was good enough to put a normal sub-D external monitor connection on it. But if you need to connect a lot of stuff, or you need/want a docking station, you're probably not going to be happy with a netbook.
On the other hand, the Mini-Note is small, it's not brain damaged. It doesn't need a special version of Linux (or Windows) that has lots of stuff ripped out in the interest of saving space, memory or processing power. Mine is currently loaded with Ubuntu, SuSE, Fedora, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS and Windows XP Professional (although I honestly can't remember the last time I booted Windows on it). All of those run and perform perfectly well on it; in fact, the only thing I have ever seen that didn't run acceptably on it was Vista (big surprise). So in my opinion, if I load a "stripped" operating system, I don't gain much, if anything, and I get a lot of unpleasant surprises when I go looking for something and it isn't there. One good example is the Office software I mentioned above. I don't want to work all day with OpenOffice on my netbook - but if someone sends me an email with a document, spreadsheet, or presentation attached, I want to be able to open it.
What do others think? If you currently have a netbook, how do you use it, and how happy are you with it? What do you find it particularly good or bad at? If you have considered one, but decided against it, why? What was missing or wrong in your opinion? What could be added or changed to make it fit your needs?
My personal experience can be summarized very easily. For what it cost, my Mini-Note is fantastic. I don't see how I could be much happier with it. I use it every day during my commute on the bus and train, and I use it at home so that I am not tied to my desk, I can sit in the living room, in the garden, or wherever, and still get to my email, web searches, pictures and documents. It cost something like 15% of what my Lifebook S6510 did, and I certainly get something like 75% of the use out of it. There are still things that I need/want a "real" laptop for, so I wouldn't want a netbook to be my only computer. Yet.
jw 26/3/2009
Wednesday 25 March 2009, 2:57 PM
SuSE Linux Enterprise 11 Released
Novell has released SuSE Linux Enterprise 11, both the Desktop (SLED) and Server (SLES) versions. I am interested in this distribution because SLED is one of the factory-installed options for my HP 2133 Mini-Notes. In fact, one of them came with SLED 10 installed, so I am particularly interested in seeing how well the newer SLED 11 works on them. I had previously downloaded and installed the public beta release (SLED 11 RC4), with reasonably good results. This final release can be used on a 60-day evaluation basis, so I decided to give it a go once again.
Download was the same as for the RC4 release; you have to register on the Novell SuSE web site, and then you are free to download it and will be sent an Activation Code by email. You should be prepared for a long download and DVD burn process, because there is no "LiveCD" version, you have to get the entire 3.6 GB ISO image. Once you slog your way through that, the installation is routine. The installer is similar to that for openSuSE, of course, but looks a bit more "refined" to me. In addition to the typical installation dialog on the console, you can also choose to look at a "slide show" of SuSE Linux Enterprise propaganda, or the Release Notes.
I installed it first on my Mini-Note, the one with the WXGA (1280x768) display. Although the installation was no problem, it was left using the "fbdev" display driver, at a resolution of 1024x768. Close, but not good enough. I grabbed the openchrome driver files from Ubuntu 8.10, which is using the same X server version, and it came up properly at 1280x768.
Next problem, the Broadcom 4312 WiFi network adapter wasn't working. I had the same problem with openSuSE 11, and found that there was a script to download and install the necessary firmware (install_bcm43xx_firmware). Unfortunately there is no such script on this SLED release. Even worse, the b43-fwcutter utility, which is used by the script, isn't even there. I got around all this mess by simply copying over the /lib/firmware/b43 directory from the openSuSE partition to the SLED partition; of course, it would also be possible to follow the instructions at the Linux Wireless site, to first compile the utility and then download, extract and install the firmware.
Once these two problems were fixed, everything looked good on the Mini-Note with SLED 11. Overall I would say that it was a LOT less difficult than my recent excursion with openSolaris. I will try it again this evening on the other Mini-Note, with the WSVGA (1024x600) display. Actually, I'm anxious to compare SLED 11 with the pre-installed SLED 10 that is still on that one.
jw 25/3/2009
Update: On the WSVGA (1024x600) Mini-Note, the SLED 11 installation procedure is not able to figure out how to get the X server running on the display, so it brings up a text mode installer. That works just fine, and the installation is exactly the same. As for the WXGA system, once the installation is finished I copied over the openchrome driver and the Broadcom b43 firmware files, and everything works just great.
jw
Download was the same as for the RC4 release; you have to register on the Novell SuSE web site, and then you are free to download it and will be sent an Activation Code by email. You should be prepared for a long download and DVD burn process, because there is no "LiveCD" version, you have to get the entire 3.6 GB ISO image. Once you slog your way through that, the installation is routine. The installer is similar to that for openSuSE, of course, but looks a bit more "refined" to me. In addition to the typical installation dialog on the console, you can also choose to look at a "slide show" of SuSE Linux Enterprise propaganda, or the Release Notes.
I installed it first on my Mini-Note, the one with the WXGA (1280x768) display. Although the installation was no problem, it was left using the "fbdev" display driver, at a resolution of 1024x768. Close, but not good enough. I grabbed the openchrome driver files from Ubuntu 8.10, which is using the same X server version, and it came up properly at 1280x768.
Next problem, the Broadcom 4312 WiFi network adapter wasn't working. I had the same problem with openSuSE 11, and found that there was a script to download and install the necessary firmware (install_bcm43xx_firmware). Unfortunately there is no such script on this SLED release. Even worse, the b43-fwcutter utility, which is used by the script, isn't even there. I got around all this mess by simply copying over the /lib/firmware/b43 directory from the openSuSE partition to the SLED partition; of course, it would also be possible to follow the instructions at the Linux Wireless site, to first compile the utility and then download, extract and install the firmware.
Once these two problems were fixed, everything looked good on the Mini-Note with SLED 11. Overall I would say that it was a LOT less difficult than my recent excursion with openSolaris. I will try it again this evening on the other Mini-Note, with the WSVGA (1024x600) display. Actually, I'm anxious to compare SLED 11 with the pre-installed SLED 10 that is still on that one.
jw 25/3/2009
Update: On the WSVGA (1024x600) Mini-Note, the SLED 11 installation procedure is not able to figure out how to get the X server running on the display, so it brings up a text mode installer. That works just fine, and the installation is exactly the same. As for the WXGA system, once the installation is finished I copied over the openchrome driver and the Broadcom b43 firmware files, and everything works just great.
jw
Tuesday 24 March 2009, 2:42 PM
ooVoo Releases Mac version 1.7
ooVoo has released verion 1.7 of their video chat program for Mac. I may be a bit "ahead of the system" here, because I haven't seen a press announcement of it yet, but the download is available on their Downloads page. They have been due for a Mac update to catch up with some of the nice new features in their (excellent) Windows version, and it looks like this is a step in that direction:
- High resolution video (640x480)
- Web call support for video calls to non-ooVoo users
- Video recording
- Video effects (apparently developed by ooVoo, not a licensed package)
- Improved find/add friends, covering other IM programs and social networks
- Advertising banners added - as I said before they have to pay the bills somehow
This release is still identified as a Beta, which I assume means that there is even more good stuff to come. I continue to be impressed with the quality of the work that ooVoo produces, both in development AND support.
jw 24/3/2009
- High resolution video (640x480)
- Web call support for video calls to non-ooVoo users
- Video recording
- Video effects (apparently developed by ooVoo, not a licensed package)
- Improved find/add friends, covering other IM programs and social networks
- Advertising banners added - as I said before they have to pay the bills somehow
This release is still identified as a Beta, which I assume means that there is even more good stuff to come. I continue to be impressed with the quality of the work that ooVoo produces, both in development AND support.
jw 24/3/2009
Monday 23 March 2009, 12:53 PM
Linux Distributions Reducing Boot Time
Those who want or need faster boot times should be happy with some of the upcoming Linux distributions. For purposes of this discussion, I consider "boot" time to be the elapsed time from when I press return in the GRUB boot menu, until a login window appears and is usable. The time is measured with a wall clock; precision is not my goal here, the general user feeling is.
On my laptop computers, most of the current distributions take about one minute, plus or minus 5 seconds, to boot; a couple of them take somewhat longer than that. However, the current test releases of Ubuntu (9.04 Alpha 6) and Mandriva (2009.1 RC1) both boot in about 30 seconds! That's a dramatic improvement.
So, at the end of April when these distributions are released, there are likely to be quite a few very happy people around.
jw 23/3/2009
On my laptop computers, most of the current distributions take about one minute, plus or minus 5 seconds, to boot; a couple of them take somewhat longer than that. However, the current test releases of Ubuntu (9.04 Alpha 6) and Mandriva (2009.1 RC1) both boot in about 30 seconds! That's a dramatic improvement.
So, at the end of April when these distributions are released, there are likely to be quite a few very happy people around.
jw 23/3/2009
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