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.
Thursday 30 April 2009, 3:38 PM
Mandriva Spring 2009 Released
Mandriva made their 2009 Spring Release yesterday, and what a beauty it is. I have loaded it on all four of my laptops and netbooks (Lifebook S6510, Lifebook S2110, HP 2133 WXGA, HP 2133 WSVGA), and I am quite impressed.
Congratulations are in order:
First, for hitting the planned release date - they seemed to have a problem hitting the planned pre-release dates, as they were consistently anywhere from one to several days late. But they hit this one - well done!
Second, for fixing a number of significant problems between the Release Candidate and the final release. I haven't said much about Mandriva 2009.1, although I have been trying most of the pre-releases, because I had significant problems loading it on ALL of my systems - and I don't think it is fair to write what could be considered negative blogging about what is clearly released as a test version. But much to my surprise and pleasure, it appears that they have fixed all of those problems in the final release. Loading it on all four of my systems was absolutely routine, no special antics, secret boot flags or other manipulation was necessary. That is particularly impressive when you consider that two of them are netbooks with VIA Chrome 9 video chips and very small screens, and another one has an ATI video chip which had been a problem for the Mandriva distribution even in the 2009.0 version - but no more!
Third, for producing an all-around good, solid release. I have only been using this release a day or so, but I have been using (and struggling with) Mandriva for quite some time, so I have a pretty good idea where trouble has been lurking, at least on my systems, and so far it looks much, much better than any of their previous releases. I've always felt like Mandriva should be a better distribution that it actually seemed to me, and this time I think it is much more what I have been expecting.
Ok, a few details about the release (complete information is on the product page, of course):
- Faster boot. I haven't made specific timings yet, but although this release clearly boots faster than the previous Mandriva release, it doesn't boot as fast as Ubuntu 9.04 does.
- netbook support. As I said, it installed with absolutely no problems on both of my HP 2133 Mini-Notes. I assume that it is at least as good, or even better, on "typical" Intel Atom based netbooks.
- On my systems, everything works. Everything. Intel, ATI and VIA Chrome 9 display controllers (with various displays at 1280x1024, 1280x800, 1024x768, 1280x768 and 1024x600), Marvell and Broadcom ethernet adapters, Atheros and Broadcom WiFi controllers, sound on all four systems... all without having to download, install, configure or otherwise fiddle with anything.
- ext4 file system. Full support, including boot from ext4.
- KDE 4.2.2. Although I am not a KDE fan, I generally load the KDE version of Mandriva as my "reference" for that desktop. KDE has taken a lot of criticism since the 4.0 release, but it does seem to be getting better with every update, and this one is no exception.
- OpenOffice 3.0.1. This is no surprise, Mandriva actually went to OpenOffice 3.0 with their previous release.
- Firefox 3. The surprise here is that it is still 3.0.8, they haven't updated to the latest (3.0.10) release yet, but I assume that is because they have been busy getting their release out the door, and the updates will come along quickly.
Lots more, of course, that I haven't seen or thought about in the first day working with it.
If you're already a Mandriva user, you are going to be really pleased with this release. If you haven't tried it before, of if you tried and didn't care for it for some reason, this would be a good time to give it another look.
jw 30/4/2009
Congratulations are in order:
First, for hitting the planned release date - they seemed to have a problem hitting the planned pre-release dates, as they were consistently anywhere from one to several days late. But they hit this one - well done!
Second, for fixing a number of significant problems between the Release Candidate and the final release. I haven't said much about Mandriva 2009.1, although I have been trying most of the pre-releases, because I had significant problems loading it on ALL of my systems - and I don't think it is fair to write what could be considered negative blogging about what is clearly released as a test version. But much to my surprise and pleasure, it appears that they have fixed all of those problems in the final release. Loading it on all four of my systems was absolutely routine, no special antics, secret boot flags or other manipulation was necessary. That is particularly impressive when you consider that two of them are netbooks with VIA Chrome 9 video chips and very small screens, and another one has an ATI video chip which had been a problem for the Mandriva distribution even in the 2009.0 version - but no more!
Third, for producing an all-around good, solid release. I have only been using this release a day or so, but I have been using (and struggling with) Mandriva for quite some time, so I have a pretty good idea where trouble has been lurking, at least on my systems, and so far it looks much, much better than any of their previous releases. I've always felt like Mandriva should be a better distribution that it actually seemed to me, and this time I think it is much more what I have been expecting.
Ok, a few details about the release (complete information is on the product page, of course):
- Faster boot. I haven't made specific timings yet, but although this release clearly boots faster than the previous Mandriva release, it doesn't boot as fast as Ubuntu 9.04 does.
- netbook support. As I said, it installed with absolutely no problems on both of my HP 2133 Mini-Notes. I assume that it is at least as good, or even better, on "typical" Intel Atom based netbooks.
- On my systems, everything works. Everything. Intel, ATI and VIA Chrome 9 display controllers (with various displays at 1280x1024, 1280x800, 1024x768, 1280x768 and 1024x600), Marvell and Broadcom ethernet adapters, Atheros and Broadcom WiFi controllers, sound on all four systems... all without having to download, install, configure or otherwise fiddle with anything.
- ext4 file system. Full support, including boot from ext4.
- KDE 4.2.2. Although I am not a KDE fan, I generally load the KDE version of Mandriva as my "reference" for that desktop. KDE has taken a lot of criticism since the 4.0 release, but it does seem to be getting better with every update, and this one is no exception.
- OpenOffice 3.0.1. This is no surprise, Mandriva actually went to OpenOffice 3.0 with their previous release.
- Firefox 3. The surprise here is that it is still 3.0.8, they haven't updated to the latest (3.0.10) release yet, but I assume that is because they have been busy getting their release out the door, and the updates will come along quickly.
Lots more, of course, that I haven't seen or thought about in the first day working with it.
If you're already a Mandriva user, you are going to be really pleased with this release. If you haven't tried it before, of if you tried and didn't care for it for some reason, this would be a good time to give it another look.
jw 30/4/2009
Wednesday 29 April 2009, 2:29 PM
Ubuntu Jaunty - Positive and Negative
After a few days of working with Ubuntu 9.04, I have two comments to make about it - one positive and one negative.
On the positive side, the release notes say that they improved handling of multiple displays, and they really have done that. This is something that has been important to me, because of the way that I use my primary laptop, for quite some time now. In Ubuntu, it has basically gone from not working very well (or at all) in 8.04, to working quite well in 8.10, and now to working extremely well in 9.04. I have tried it with both my Lifebook S6510 (Intel 965 display controller) and my Lifebook S2110 (ATI Radeon Xpress 200 display controller), and both of them handle two displays, not mirrored, just fine.
On the negative side, I'm not terribly pleased with the way the Ubuntu Update Manager works with the new notification system. When there are updates available, all that happens is that I get a very brief flash of a window on the screen, which immediately minimizes (disappears from the display and is only present in the panel icons). There are plenty of ways that I can not see that window flash past, ranging from simply not paying attention, to not even being at the screen when it happens. Now, add to that the fact that I always auto-hide the panels, so I don't see it down there right away either. The result is, I'm not aware that there are updates available until I shut down, when the Update Manager window once again flashes onto the screen briefly before the screen goes blank. It seems to me that the obvious solution is that the Update Manager window should stay open, rather than iconify, but I can't find anywhere to set this.
Anyway the bottom line is, if the only thing I have to complain about after a week of use is something as trivial as this, Ubuntu 9.04 looks like a very solid release.
jw 29/4/2009
On the positive side, the release notes say that they improved handling of multiple displays, and they really have done that. This is something that has been important to me, because of the way that I use my primary laptop, for quite some time now. In Ubuntu, it has basically gone from not working very well (or at all) in 8.04, to working quite well in 8.10, and now to working extremely well in 9.04. I have tried it with both my Lifebook S6510 (Intel 965 display controller) and my Lifebook S2110 (ATI Radeon Xpress 200 display controller), and both of them handle two displays, not mirrored, just fine.
On the negative side, I'm not terribly pleased with the way the Ubuntu Update Manager works with the new notification system. When there are updates available, all that happens is that I get a very brief flash of a window on the screen, which immediately minimizes (disappears from the display and is only present in the panel icons). There are plenty of ways that I can not see that window flash past, ranging from simply not paying attention, to not even being at the screen when it happens. Now, add to that the fact that I always auto-hide the panels, so I don't see it down there right away either. The result is, I'm not aware that there are updates available until I shut down, when the Update Manager window once again flashes onto the screen briefly before the screen goes blank. It seems to me that the obvious solution is that the Update Manager window should stay open, rather than iconify, but I can't find anywhere to set this.
Anyway the bottom line is, if the only thing I have to complain about after a week of use is something as trivial as this, Ubuntu 9.04 looks like a very solid release.
jw 29/4/2009
Tuesday 28 April 2009, 11:18 AM
Experimenting with Alternate Desktop Managers
I have been recently been looking into desktop managers other than Gnome and KDE. Of course, there are Ubuntu distributions with different desktop managers, including the "standard" Gnome, Kubuntu with KDE, and Xubuntu with Xfce. But I don't want to reinstall just to try a different desktop, and heaven knows I have enough bootable partitions on my laptops without adding several more just for this...
Fortunately, with Ubuntu (and probably others) it is relatively easy to download and install several such desktop managers, and then choose between them on login. There are meta-packages for both xfce and lxde, so you can simply go to Synaptic and mark the metapackage, accept the (rather long) list of additional packages to be installed, and then Apply the changes. In a matter of a minute or two you will have them installed (and it appears that lxde brings along most of openbox as well).
Once they are installed, you can log out (or reboot) to get back to the login screen. Then click "Options" at the bottom left corner of the login screen, and choose "Select Session...". That will present a list of sessions, which will include Gnome, Xfce, Lxde, Openbox and a few others. After you select one and login, you will have the opportunity to specify if this is a one-time selection or should be made the default session for future logins.
The idea behind all three of these alternative desktop managers is that they are supposed to be smaller, lighter and faster than the standard Gnome or KDE desktops. My experience with them so far varies, but I suppose they generally follow the old saying "you have to give up something to get something". I have been testing them on my HP Mini-Note netbook, on the idea that if the most important advantage should be better performance and less system load, I should see it most easily on a supposedly "under-powered" netbook.
Xfce seems to be the most advanced of the three, which means you aren't giving up much and (surprise) you don't gain much in terms of performance. I like Xfce, I think the look is a bit "cleaner" than Gnome (try to quantify that one!), and although it doesn't have all of the applets and controls that I normally use, it looks like it has all of the most important ones. However, I don't see any significant difference in speed between Xfce and Gnome, either on login time or in menu/icon selections, program startup or whatever. If I were to decide to use Xfce in the future, it would be because I like the "look and feel", not because of performance considerations.
LXDE seems to have stayed much closer to the "minimalist / performance" philosophy. Both of those things jumped out at me the first time I tried it - login was much faster than with Gnome (or Xfce), and the default desktop was extremely sparse. As with Xfce, it looks like everything you really "need" is there, but there are even less options, applets and accessories than Xfce, and fewer configuration and customization possibilities. But it still looks decent, and everything about it just feels a bit faster than either Gnome or Xfce. My summary on this one is just the opposite of Xfce - if I were to choose to use this one, it would certainly be due to the speed advantage, not because I just "liked" it.
openbox seemed to get installed along with LXDE, I assume because the latter is built on it somehow, or uses some part of its functionality. In fact, that pretty much sums up my impression of openbox - it is so minimalist that it seems to me that it is better suited to be used as a base to build something else on, rather than being used as a desktop management system itself. In fact, the first time I tried it I didn't even realize when I had gotten logged in, because all it gave me was a blank screen - and it did that REALLY fast. But when I right-click the mouse, I get a minimal menu system, with choices to start a web browser, terminal emulator, or the openbox configuration program. I assume that with some time and effort, I could learn to configure openbox much more to my liking, but it is really off-scale below the requirements that I am looking for right now.
For the time being I am going to be using Xfce on the Mini-Note, just to gain a bit more experience with it. As I figure out a few things, I'll probably switch to Lxde to see how it compares, whether it has comparable configurability, applets and the like. I have a feeling I'll still end up staying with Gnome, though, because even on the Mini-Note the speed difference doesn't seem to be enough to justify having to deal with different desktops on different systems.
There is a lot more to desktops than what I have considered so far here - primarily the look and feel, menus, applets and configurability. Gnome and KDE come with a whole range of utilities and applications, from CD/DVD burners to Office suites, to graphic programs, file managers, web browsers, mail and calendar managers, and much more. These lightweight desktop systems generally don't include nearly as much, but they can often use programs and utilities from either Gnome or KDE to supplement what they have.
jw 28/4/2009
Fortunately, with Ubuntu (and probably others) it is relatively easy to download and install several such desktop managers, and then choose between them on login. There are meta-packages for both xfce and lxde, so you can simply go to Synaptic and mark the metapackage, accept the (rather long) list of additional packages to be installed, and then Apply the changes. In a matter of a minute or two you will have them installed (and it appears that lxde brings along most of openbox as well).
Once they are installed, you can log out (or reboot) to get back to the login screen. Then click "Options" at the bottom left corner of the login screen, and choose "Select Session...". That will present a list of sessions, which will include Gnome, Xfce, Lxde, Openbox and a few others. After you select one and login, you will have the opportunity to specify if this is a one-time selection or should be made the default session for future logins.
The idea behind all three of these alternative desktop managers is that they are supposed to be smaller, lighter and faster than the standard Gnome or KDE desktops. My experience with them so far varies, but I suppose they generally follow the old saying "you have to give up something to get something". I have been testing them on my HP Mini-Note netbook, on the idea that if the most important advantage should be better performance and less system load, I should see it most easily on a supposedly "under-powered" netbook.
Xfce seems to be the most advanced of the three, which means you aren't giving up much and (surprise) you don't gain much in terms of performance. I like Xfce, I think the look is a bit "cleaner" than Gnome (try to quantify that one!), and although it doesn't have all of the applets and controls that I normally use, it looks like it has all of the most important ones. However, I don't see any significant difference in speed between Xfce and Gnome, either on login time or in menu/icon selections, program startup or whatever. If I were to decide to use Xfce in the future, it would be because I like the "look and feel", not because of performance considerations.
LXDE seems to have stayed much closer to the "minimalist / performance" philosophy. Both of those things jumped out at me the first time I tried it - login was much faster than with Gnome (or Xfce), and the default desktop was extremely sparse. As with Xfce, it looks like everything you really "need" is there, but there are even less options, applets and accessories than Xfce, and fewer configuration and customization possibilities. But it still looks decent, and everything about it just feels a bit faster than either Gnome or Xfce. My summary on this one is just the opposite of Xfce - if I were to choose to use this one, it would certainly be due to the speed advantage, not because I just "liked" it.
openbox seemed to get installed along with LXDE, I assume because the latter is built on it somehow, or uses some part of its functionality. In fact, that pretty much sums up my impression of openbox - it is so minimalist that it seems to me that it is better suited to be used as a base to build something else on, rather than being used as a desktop management system itself. In fact, the first time I tried it I didn't even realize when I had gotten logged in, because all it gave me was a blank screen - and it did that REALLY fast. But when I right-click the mouse, I get a minimal menu system, with choices to start a web browser, terminal emulator, or the openbox configuration program. I assume that with some time and effort, I could learn to configure openbox much more to my liking, but it is really off-scale below the requirements that I am looking for right now.
For the time being I am going to be using Xfce on the Mini-Note, just to gain a bit more experience with it. As I figure out a few things, I'll probably switch to Lxde to see how it compares, whether it has comparable configurability, applets and the like. I have a feeling I'll still end up staying with Gnome, though, because even on the Mini-Note the speed difference doesn't seem to be enough to justify having to deal with different desktops on different systems.
There is a lot more to desktops than what I have considered so far here - primarily the look and feel, menus, applets and configurability. Gnome and KDE come with a whole range of utilities and applications, from CD/DVD burners to Office suites, to graphic programs, file managers, web browsers, mail and calendar managers, and much more. These lightweight desktop systems generally don't include nearly as much, but they can often use programs and utilities from either Gnome or KDE to supplement what they have.
jw 28/4/2009
Friday 24 April 2009, 9:18 AM
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Final Release
As well described in an article by David Meyer here on ZDNet UK, Canonical released Ubuntu 9.04, known as "Jaunty Jackalope" (as time goes by, I find myself less and less enamoured with the naming system...). The downloads became available yesterday afternoon, European time, and I have now installed it on all four of my laptop/netbook computers. I won't spend a lot of time rehashing what David has already said, so here are only the highlights from my personal experience and observations during and after installation of the final release:
- It's here, it's good, it works
- I have not installed the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR), because it has serious performance problems with the openchrome driver in my HP Mini-Note netbooks. I'm perfectly happy with the standard Ubuntu desktop release on them anyway.
- Boot time has been cut in half on all four of my systems
- If you don't like the new 60-second delay before shutdown or reboot that has been introduced with this release, the option to disable it is lurking under "User Switcher Preferences" - right-click on the icon at the top right of the screen.
- I always make a fresh installation of a new release, I do NOT try to upgrade an existing installtion
- I have installed it using ext4 filesystems
- A number of drivers have been updated - most interesting to me is that it has the latest openchrome SVN version, so it works correctly on my HP 2133 Mini-Notes, without my having to download, compile and install those myself
- It includes a new notification system, which I doubt will be the highlight of anyone's day or the single reason that anyone may choose to upgrade, but it is a nice improvement
- Updated OpenOffice.org 3.0.1
- Updated X.org (including X server 1.6.0)
- Although the base distribution does not include the absolute latest Firefox (3.0.9), when the installation completes there is an update waiting to be installed which brings Firefox up to date
- My Kensington Bluetooth SlimBlade Mouse/Trackball works just fine, and once the pairing has been set up, it remains valid (and automatically works) across reboots and power cycles of both the computer and the mouse.
Here are a couple of notes about installation and use:
- During installation, if you have large disks with a lot of partitions, the disk layout window is likely to be much too large to fit on the screen. I initially thought that this was happening only on my HP Mini-Notes, but in fact it also happens on both Fujitsu laptops too. I suspect that if you have a small number of partitions this won't be a problem. If it happens you can get around it by choosing "Try Ubuntu without changes" from the LiveCD boot menu, then choose "Install" from the live desktop. When you get to the disk layout window, you can then move it back and forth by using Alt-Click-Drag.
- After installation, you might be surprised to find that "Screen Resolution" is missing from the System/Preferences menu. If you look carefully, you will find that it has been renamed to "Display".
- I am using dual displays (laptop and external) on both of my Fujitsu Lifebooks (one Intel 965 and one ATI Radeon Express 200M), and I have changed the Display setting to "not mirrored", so the desktop spans both displays, and it works great. The one with the ATI adapter doesn't even use the proprietary fglrx driver any more, it works just fine with the X.org radeon driver.
Summary: Good stuff from Canonical, once again.
jw 24/4/2009
- It's here, it's good, it works
- I have not installed the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR), because it has serious performance problems with the openchrome driver in my HP Mini-Note netbooks. I'm perfectly happy with the standard Ubuntu desktop release on them anyway.
- Boot time has been cut in half on all four of my systems
- If you don't like the new 60-second delay before shutdown or reboot that has been introduced with this release, the option to disable it is lurking under "User Switcher Preferences" - right-click on the icon at the top right of the screen.
- I always make a fresh installation of a new release, I do NOT try to upgrade an existing installtion
- I have installed it using ext4 filesystems
- A number of drivers have been updated - most interesting to me is that it has the latest openchrome SVN version, so it works correctly on my HP 2133 Mini-Notes, without my having to download, compile and install those myself
- It includes a new notification system, which I doubt will be the highlight of anyone's day or the single reason that anyone may choose to upgrade, but it is a nice improvement
- Updated OpenOffice.org 3.0.1
- Updated X.org (including X server 1.6.0)
- Although the base distribution does not include the absolute latest Firefox (3.0.9), when the installation completes there is an update waiting to be installed which brings Firefox up to date
- My Kensington Bluetooth SlimBlade Mouse/Trackball works just fine, and once the pairing has been set up, it remains valid (and automatically works) across reboots and power cycles of both the computer and the mouse.
Here are a couple of notes about installation and use:
- During installation, if you have large disks with a lot of partitions, the disk layout window is likely to be much too large to fit on the screen. I initially thought that this was happening only on my HP Mini-Notes, but in fact it also happens on both Fujitsu laptops too. I suspect that if you have a small number of partitions this won't be a problem. If it happens you can get around it by choosing "Try Ubuntu without changes" from the LiveCD boot menu, then choose "Install" from the live desktop. When you get to the disk layout window, you can then move it back and forth by using Alt-Click-Drag.
- After installation, you might be surprised to find that "Screen Resolution" is missing from the System/Preferences menu. If you look carefully, you will find that it has been renamed to "Display".
- I am using dual displays (laptop and external) on both of my Fujitsu Lifebooks (one Intel 965 and one ATI Radeon Express 200M), and I have changed the Display setting to "not mirrored", so the desktop spans both displays, and it works great. The one with the ATI adapter doesn't even use the proprietary fglrx driver any more, it works just fine with the X.org radeon driver.
Summary: Good stuff from Canonical, once again.
jw 24/4/2009
Monday 20 April 2009, 10:04 AM
Nice Wallpaper
If you want something a bit more interesting than the standard desktop background for your display (or you use Ubuntu and you're just tired of BROWN!), you might want to take a look at what is available on the NASA HubbleSite web page. There is lots of interesting information, and more beautiful pictures than you can look at in one sitting. So far 80 of the pictures have been specially formatted and made available in a variety of resolutions to match most of the common display settings (and a lot of uncommon ones as well). You can download them from the Gallery/Wallpaper section.
jw 20/4/2009
jw 20/4/2009
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