IT was gratifying to see that Ubuntu 9.10 or Karmic Koala made it to PC Magazine’s Best Free Software of 2010. “That you can get all this for free should make Microsoft and Apple quake,” Eric Giffith wrote in his extensive roundup of free software. I couldn’t agree more. Elsewhere in the article, I found many programs that I already use every day.
A cautionary note to adventurous Ubuntu users with NVidia cards: After the beta release of Ubuntu 10.4 installed without a problem on my netbook, I was eager to test it on my desktop PC. Sadly, the LiveCD would not boot on my PC (Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz, 2GB RAM, 500GB hard disk, and GeForce 7100 GS), going to a blank, black screen after the initial splash screen. I have tried with both Beta 1 and Beta 2, with no success.
AN ongoing poll confirms what many Microsoft competitors have been saying for years: given a choice, Windows users would use a browser other than Internet Explorer.
ARE you getting the most out of your Gmail account? Google, which has been offering the free Web mail service since April 2004, has compiled a list of tips to turn you into a Gmail ninja. I’ve chosen a few of the best tips and added a few that Google has left out.
THE first beta version of Ubuntu 10.4, also known as Lucid Lynx, was released last Friday, giving me enough time to download a copy of the new Linux distribution over the weekend and install it on my Acer netbook. The first thing that struck me was how easy the whole process has become. An operating system is a complex piece of software, but installing the Ubuntu 10.4 beta was outrageously easy. In fact, it was the easiest time I’ve ever had installing any operating system, including Snow Leopard on the Mac or Windows 7. The new beta simply worked.
OPEN source industry veteran Matt Asay joined Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, as its chief operating officer last month. In his new post, Asay is responsible for aligning the company’s day-to-day operations with strategic goals and leading the company’s marketing effort. After barely a month on the job, Asay answered some e-mailed questions about what we might expect from Ubuntu and Linux in general.
MAKE desktop Linux more attractive than Mac OS X. That was the challenge that Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth issued to open source developers in July 2008. Now, almost two years later, Shuttleworth seems ready to put his money where his mouth is with the coming release of Lucid Lynx, the first Ubuntu to break out of its dark brown motif and orange “Human” theme since the distribution was introduced in 2004.
FOR years, American companies have been beating developing countries over the head for copyright violations, egging the US government to threaten trade sanctions against those who do not toe the intellectual property line. Now the same US companies are trying to bludgeon countries such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam into abandoning policies that favor open source software for use in their own public agencies.
A FUNNY thing happened on the way to the Facebook log-in page. Earlier this month, hundreds of users wanting to log into Facebook got “lost” and stumbled into a technology blog instead that had just written about the social networking site. And they couldn’t tell the difference.
HOW do you write about technology and opt out on the latest social networking craze? Simple, just say “no.” Last week, when Gmail popped up a screen announcing Google Buzz, I viewed this as yet another annoying attempt by some company to benefit from a online community I would help create with content that cost them next to nothing. You know, just like Facebook. “Share updates, photos, videos, and more. Start conversations about the things you find interesting,” the announcement said. Not interested, I ignored the large blue button that said “Sweet! Check out the Buzz!” and clicked on the tiny link that said “Nah, go to my inbox” instead.
ONE of the cool things about Google is its informal motto, “Don’t be evil.” When Google was still an upstart, the motto was a jab at its more established competitors, who were seen to be exploiting their users, said Paul Buchheit, a former employee who suggested “Don’t be evil” in a 2000 meeting on company values. Microsoft, which used its dominance in operating systems to stifle competition, surely comes to mind. But now a decade later, Google is a dominant force on the Internet. Is it beginning to look like the new Microsoft?
THERE’S a lot of talk about cloud storage these days, which is just a fancy term for online storage. The idea of saving files on a remote server and accessing them from any machine with an Internet connection isn’t new. That’s been around since file hosting services from the early days of the Web. What’s new is that online storage is becoming more ubiquitous and more convenient, with services that automatically synchronize content on your local drive with a virtual drive on the Internet and a variety of devices.
Digital Life is a blog that features a technology column by the same name that appears every Tuesday in Manila Standard Today, a national daily from the Philippines. This blog gives readers easy access to the column, which started in November 2002. Copyright 2009 Chin Wong.
Made the switch to Linux? Tell me about it here and get your own penguin! Click here for a high-resolution image.
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