May 11, 2009
by sjvn01
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OpenOffice.org 3.1: The next generation

The latest version of the open-source office suite OpenOffice.org 3.1 has just arrived, and it’s a good one. While some of the improvements are visible to the naked eye, I found that the most important changes were hidden under the hood.

What is it? OpenOffice.org 3.1 is a set of office productivity applications: Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation manager) and Base (database manager). It’s missing an Outlook substitute, but otherwise it’s a complete replacement for Microsoft Office. The suite is available as a free download for Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, and Windows; there are versions for most major languages.

What does it do? The first thing you’ll notice about the new OpenOffice.org is that it just looks better. Thanks to its use of anti-aliasing, the program menus, letters and images it displays are sharper and clearer. (You can see examples at Sun’s OpenOffice.org engineering blog.)

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May 11, 2009
by sjvn01
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What was the first netbook?

wasn’t aware that there was a question about what the first netbook was, but Anthony, a blogger at the Coffee Desk, asserts that 1996’s Toshiba Libretto 70CT was the first netbook. Ah… no.

His post was then picked up by Slashdot, and, to my surprise, most of the people there also don’t seem to know what the first netbook was. Odd.

So, let me start from the top. What is a netbook anyway? First, legally speaking, Intel is fighting with Psion, the UK hand-held OEM, over who owns the trademark. I’m not interested in that aspect of the conversation and I don’t think anyone outside of marketing and legal circles is either.

OK, so technically speaking what’ a netbook, or to use the long-winded phrase we used to use for them: an UMPC (ultra-mobile PC). According to Anthony, it wasn’t the size-factor alone, the Toshiba made the grade because it was the first to use infrared and PCMCIA-based phone card connections and it also included a Web browser, Internet Explorer 2.0.

Sorry, that doesn’t make it.

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May 7, 2009
by sjvn01
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The Ubuntu and ATI Blues

I like Ubuntu 9.04 a lot, but ATI graphic drivers don’t work and play well with it. This is especially annoying since, for a while there, ATI was working hand-in-glove with Linux and even ATI’s proprietary drivers worked well with Linux. ATI has stopped keeping up with Linux though and the result is mediocre graphics performance.

This has happened because of two changes and a lack of co-ordination between ATI and Linux developers. The first change is that many desktop Linuxes, including Ubuntu 9.04 and Mandriva 2009 Spring are now using the latest X.Server, version 1.6.. X.Server provides the basic framework, or primitives, that Linux and Unix computers use to display their graphics. Everything else you think of as the Linux desktop, such as GNOME 2.26 and KDE 4.2.2, runs on top of X.Server.

X.Server 1.6 has been available since February of this year. ATI didn’t support it immediately. And, this is where the second change came in. The graphics branch of AMD finally got around to supporting X.Server 1.6 with the ATI Catalyst 9.4 driver (aka fglrx 9.4) release in late March. There’s only one problem with these new drivers: They don’t work worth a darn.

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May 6, 2009
by sjvn01
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Installing Windows 7 with some Linux help

I’ve been working with Windows 7 for some months now, and while 7’s not for netbooks, I vastly prefer Windows 7 to Vista. So, when it came time to try out the release candidate, I didn’t expect to have any trouble. I was wrong.

For the Windows 7 RC (release candidate), I used my main Windows test desktop: a Gateway DX4710. This PC is powered by a 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor and has 6GBs of RAM and an Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 3100 for graphics. It’s no speed demon, but it gets the job done.

In the past, I had updated this desktop to Windows 7. This time, I took Microsoft’s word that the best thing to do was to install Windows 7 as a new operating system. That was a mistake. After zapping the Windows 7 beta on my PC, Windows 7 couldn’t find a hard drive partition to install itself on.

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May 5, 2009
by sjvn01
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How many desktop Linux users?

So how many desktop Linux users are there? If you believe in Net Applications’ numbers it’s just over 1%. If you want to buy W3Counter’s numbers, 2.16% of users use Linux. Or, if you want to go by my own Web site, Practical Technology’s AWStats statistics, 29.9% of desktop users prefer Linux.

The truth is we really don’t know how many Linux desktop users there are. That’s a pity because those numbers do matter. The more Linux desktop users there are, the more likely it is that ISVs (independent software vendors) and PC manufacturers will support desktop Linux. If Linux is to ever stop being considered a ‘niche’ desktop operating system, it needs more than just users, it needs an accurate way to count those users.

Web site surveys are all well and good, but they only tell part of the story. And, as the numbers I cite above shows, Web site numbers show an enormous range. Some of that may represent bias. The Boycott Novell Web site, for example, recently proclaims that Net Applications’ operating system numbers are a “Big Lie” and pointed out that Microsoft was one of Net Applications’ biggest customers. My own site focuses a lot on Linux, so it’s no surprise that I have a high percentage of Linux-using visitors.

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May 4, 2009
by sjvn01
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KDE 4.2: Finally a new Linux desktop I can like

I won’t rehash my feelings about earlier versions of KDE. Suffice it to say I didn’t like it and you can review my comments about KDE 4.0 and KDE 4.1 elsewhere. At first glance, I also wasn’t impressed with KDE 4.2, but I decided to give it one more try, after some performance fixes in the latest edition, and I’m finally impressed.

What got me to look at KDE 4.2.2 was the unofficial release of openSUSE 11.1 ‘Reloaded’ with KDE 4.2.2 packages. As Joe Brockmeier, openSUSE’s community manager told me, “This is an installable live CD, so it’s good for anybody who wants to run 11.1 without having to grab all of the updates since December, and for users who want to test out the latest & greatest KDE without having to re-do their system.”

Brockmeier, aka Zonker, added “This is not an ‘official’ release, so it’s not gotten the same level of testing as an ‘official’ release, but should be a relatively good release and is based on packages from 11.1, excepting the later KDE software.”

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