I have already discussed the installation of Ubuntu on my Dell Laptop E1505:
Intro to Ubuntu
Ubuntu Installation on Dell E1505
Living with Ubuntu - likes and dislikes
I also have a DELL XPS One - it is an all in one PC with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse that I picked up at the DELL Outlet for the living room. Like an iMac, it is a big screen with laptop parts stashed behind it. I know that I could have gotten a laptop and had the same or similar performance, but I wanted something that would look nice in the family room, not a big white box, and I wanted a nice screen. This fit the bill.
Son #1 had been complaining that the Dell ONE was slow to boot and application opened slowly. I had looked online a few months back about installing Ubuntu 9.04 on it. The dell has some touch sensitive controls on the screen that people were saying would not be useful, so I had put it off. However, I decided to test the live CD of Ubuntu 10.10 (newest release) on it.
This was a result of my observing Son #1 viewing videos on a sketchy looking site. The videos were not bad, but they were not available on Hulu or the network site. However, like many kids nowadays, he has no sense of security on the Web, and he has recently started online banking, so I wanted things to be secure.
Well what do you know, Ubuntu 10.10 picked up everything - the proximity sensitive buttons, the video card, the network card, the bluetooth keyboard and mouse, EVERYTHING! It also installed the latest updates for Firefox and it installed OpenOffice. I brought over his bookmarks, installed a little eyecandy for him and he is happy as a pig in slop.
He even neededt write a paper and could not find Microsoft Office, but he saw something that said "office" in it so he opened it up, it looked like a word processor and away he went.
The performance is snappy, it installed like a breeze and it is more secure. What more do I need?
Very pleased.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Recession Tech: Ubuntu 10.04 - what I like and don't like (I mostly like!)
Hey all,
Another in my series of recession tech blog postings. Previously we have looked at:
Deciding on Ubuntu
Installing it on my old Dell E1505 laptop
Now after using it for a week or so, I want to relate how it is working for me.
I like it. So far, everything has been picked up by Ubuntu. My wireless card, my video card. I even like that I have circular scrolling with the touch pad.
And seriously, I use webby tings for almost all my functions - I use gMail , and FireFox for email and browsing. And for the few times when I am word-processing a document, I can use OpenOffice, no problem. There is even a HULU client for Ubuntu as well as a Boxee client, for those times when I just want to veg around.
And a super bonus is that things are much snappier - things just pop open in seconds. Even the reboot is faster.
The only down side is that there is not a Netflix client for Ubuntu/Linux. I get around that because I have an old subscription to PlayOn.TV, and it streams the Netflix as a MPEG2 stream which I can pick up in the media player Totem.
I do cheat a little. I have a nice multimedi alaptop that I run some old Windows App that I paid for to create slide shows.
So here is the rundown of tasks and Ubuntu applications:
email - Gmail
regular browsing - Firefox
Adobe Flash - Firefox w/ flash installed
Hulu - native Hulu desktop client for Ubuntu
music - I still really like MediaMondey, and have not found a reasonable replacement. They have a player, but nothing with the full flexibility of MediaMonkey.
Videos - Totem
UPNP Client - Totem with Coherence UPNP plugin
Word processing and other office tasks - Open Office
Facebook (well, I don't really do Facebook, but it just takes a browser) - Firefox.
So seriously, for 99% of things done on the web, you just need the flexible and secure Linux.
I like this!
Recommended.
Lyman
Another in my series of recession tech blog postings. Previously we have looked at:
Deciding on Ubuntu
Installing it on my old Dell E1505 laptop
Now after using it for a week or so, I want to relate how it is working for me.
I like it. So far, everything has been picked up by Ubuntu. My wireless card, my video card. I even like that I have circular scrolling with the touch pad.
And seriously, I use webby tings for almost all my functions - I use gMail , and FireFox for email and browsing. And for the few times when I am word-processing a document, I can use OpenOffice, no problem. There is even a HULU client for Ubuntu as well as a Boxee client, for those times when I just want to veg around.
And a super bonus is that things are much snappier - things just pop open in seconds. Even the reboot is faster.
The only down side is that there is not a Netflix client for Ubuntu/Linux. I get around that because I have an old subscription to PlayOn.TV, and it streams the Netflix as a MPEG2 stream which I can pick up in the media player Totem.
I do cheat a little. I have a nice multimedi alaptop that I run some old Windows App that I paid for to create slide shows.
So here is the rundown of tasks and Ubuntu applications:
email - Gmail
regular browsing - Firefox
Adobe Flash - Firefox w/ flash installed
Hulu - native Hulu desktop client for Ubuntu
music - I still really like MediaMondey, and have not found a reasonable replacement. They have a player, but nothing with the full flexibility of MediaMonkey.
Videos - Totem
UPNP Client - Totem with Coherence UPNP plugin
Word processing and other office tasks - Open Office
Facebook (well, I don't really do Facebook, but it just takes a browser) - Firefox.
So seriously, for 99% of things done on the web, you just need the flexible and secure Linux.
I like this!
Recommended.
Lyman
Monday, September 6, 2010
Recession Tech: Ubuntu 10.04 install
Hey all!
Continuation of the Ubuntu investigation as part of my recession tech phase.
I wanted to install Ubuntu 10.04 on my Dell E1505 laptop. The last time I wanted to try Ubuntu on this laptop, I had problems with getting the Dell wireless minicard working (Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN MiniCard). Using the Ubuntu Live CD for 10.04, it looked like this was going to work better.
So Ubuntu released 10.04 a couple of weeks ago. I have waited for a few weeks to let things shake out and reduce some of the traffic on the server.
I plugged my laptop into my network using a cable - I wanted to make sure that I if anything went wrong, I could download what I needed without having to worry about drivers for the wireless card. Then I went to the Ubuntu site.
I downloaded the 10.04 .iso file and burned it to a CD.
I popped it into my CD drive and made sure my BIOS was set to boot off the CDROM drive, and I hit reboot.
After a few seconds of churning on the CD drive, I was presented with a few options from which I selected the default and then let it rip.
After a few minutes, I got to a Ubuntu screen and miracle of miracles, it found the Dell wireless card and offered to install the Broadcom wireless drivers and I was online!
This version of Ubuntu is sweet. It comes with Open Office, Firefox and a number of other standard application installed. I popped my SD card into the slot on the side of my computer, and it found the card instantly.
I had it check for updated drivers and it even installed some drivers for the ATI video chipset on the machine.
I launched my iGoogle applications and I was instantly checking my Gmail, visiting my usual sites and even watching a few videos on the Hulu website.
Next post will tell what I like, what I don't like and what is missing.
Continuation of the Ubuntu investigation as part of my recession tech phase.
I wanted to install Ubuntu 10.04 on my Dell E1505 laptop. The last time I wanted to try Ubuntu on this laptop, I had problems with getting the Dell wireless minicard working (Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN MiniCard). Using the Ubuntu Live CD for 10.04, it looked like this was going to work better.
So Ubuntu released 10.04 a couple of weeks ago. I have waited for a few weeks to let things shake out and reduce some of the traffic on the server.
I plugged my laptop into my network using a cable - I wanted to make sure that I if anything went wrong, I could download what I needed without having to worry about drivers for the wireless card. Then I went to the Ubuntu site.
I downloaded the 10.04 .iso file and burned it to a CD.
I popped it into my CD drive and made sure my BIOS was set to boot off the CDROM drive, and I hit reboot.
After a few seconds of churning on the CD drive, I was presented with a few options from which I selected the default and then let it rip.
After a few minutes, I got to a Ubuntu screen and miracle of miracles, it found the Dell wireless card and offered to install the Broadcom wireless drivers and I was online!
This version of Ubuntu is sweet. It comes with Open Office, Firefox and a number of other standard application installed. I popped my SD card into the slot on the side of my computer, and it found the card instantly.
I had it check for updated drivers and it even installed some drivers for the ATI video chipset on the machine.
I launched my iGoogle applications and I was instantly checking my Gmail, visiting my usual sites and even watching a few videos on the Hulu website.
Next post will tell what I like, what I don't like and what is missing.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Recession Tech: Ubuntu
I kind of have a gadget addiction. I like electronics and technology more the the average bear. But, I have to save for retirement and kids college, so I have challenged myself to come up with more uses for my existing tech.
Challenge #1: Older PCs.
Technology moves quickly, and things seem older faster. Many of us have a PC with an older OS that may seem more than a little long in the tooth. And maybe you feel less secure about it safety wise.
So what to do.
I decided to try Linux - specifically Ubuntu - on it. Ubuntu is cool because it has a Live CD version that you can burn to a CD and then boot off of it for a test drive and not make any changes to the original computer.
I had an oldish laptop still running around that looked like a good candidate. Its a Dell. The last time I gave it a shot, the linux versioncould not pick up the wirelss card, leaving me in the lurch. But I decided togive the Ubuntu 9.04 (?) version a shot. It looked like it was going to find the wireless card no problem, but the next version 10.04 was coming out in a week or so, so I decided to wait it out and install the latest one.
More to come.
Challenge #1: Older PCs.
Technology moves quickly, and things seem older faster. Many of us have a PC with an older OS that may seem more than a little long in the tooth. And maybe you feel less secure about it safety wise.
So what to do.
I decided to try Linux - specifically Ubuntu - on it. Ubuntu is cool because it has a Live CD version that you can burn to a CD and then boot off of it for a test drive and not make any changes to the original computer.
I had an oldish laptop still running around that looked like a good candidate. Its a Dell. The last time I gave it a shot, the linux versioncould not pick up the wirelss card, leaving me in the lurch. But I decided togive the Ubuntu 9.04 (?) version a shot. It looked like it was going to find the wireless card no problem, but the next version 10.04 was coming out in a week or so, so I decided to wait it out and install the latest one.
More to come.
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