The Karmic Experience with Hints & Tips [upd]
Friday, 6. November 2009, 16:22:19
Working with the new Ubuntu Karmic (Koala 9.10) is much of a pleasure. My 6 years old ASUS P4P800 hums like a bird on it, though using the 32-bit version only. Yes, I did 'upgrade' from the last Beta release, which went totally flawless. Of course I downloaded the official version as an image-file that I burned as ISO on a 700 Mb CD for possible later usage. From an angle I looked at Windows-7, that -though nicely polished- had nothing to offer that could attract me and which was not already available in Ubuntu. I realise that Win7 has more in common with Apple's OSX, than any Linux distro. On my older computer Win7 showed no advantages, was markedly slower and more cumbersome to handle than the very agile Karmic. And of course the confrontation with licenses and costs for everything extra beyond the between 90 and 300 USD priced official Win7 versions is a definitively passed station for me. Tiny amounts make a big heap in the end experience taught me, particularly when needing anti-virus subscriptions. Karmic comes 'gratis', as does (nearly) all of its im- and approved software. All I need can be found in Ubuntu repos: gratis. An interesting difference. But there is far more to tell...Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic comes standard with an Ext4 journaling file system and an upbeat new Linux kernel 2.6.31-14. More interesting though is the usage of a new boot loader (Grub2-Xsplash) that can be nicely polished by a user.
A subject that newcomers will want to avoid. I assume that a Grub2 editor might appear some day to do that job. Manually editing this new boot-loader is not as complicated as it appears at first. The installer automatically takes care of the Grub2 for novices. Using clever coding the boot process itself goes very fast and on my computer a tiny notch faster than Windows-7 when no Linux user password was required. That is not the way I deploy Ubuntu, having my wife as another user on the same OS and it has some minor disadvantages (f.ex. Evolution email asking your password). From power-up to running FireFox on the desktop new Karmic was hands-down faster even: 38 against 92 seconds. Some may find this important. I believe that a safe and secure boot process, when multiple operating systems reside on your hard drives, is where we should look for. I run 4 OS's for example, with Karmic as ' / ' boot installation and Windows for tests in a virtual environment to protect my data. Windows remains Windows, mind you. 
Karmic has a simple 'ufw' firewall enabled, which suffices at all to keep badware out. However, it appeared very well possible to / boot from an older ('legacy') Grub with earlier Ubuntu versions into Karmic. I wouldn't recommend this for loss of several seconds from your precious time and the (remote) chance of data losses. GParted can assist in correcting or changing the new situation.
The renewed Ext4 journaling file system appeared sufficiently mature to combine my Ext3 and NTFS partitions and does file checking (with long intervals between boot-ups) rapidly. Suffering from the 'Spanish disease' of frequent sudden power-outages when somewhere raindrops fall or the wind starts blowing, I noted that no files disappeared, went lost or indexing problems occurred. Most software (f.ex. Evolution email, FireFox browser) picked up where the power went down, so data flushing to disk saves and registers data sufficiently rapidly thanks to the new kernel structure. Yet, the way Linux and Ext4 stores data is very different from Windows. A 500 Gigabyte hard drive, a vast and 'forever' spacious universe for Linux, can fairly easy be filled with Windows programs and data. Terabyte drives for Ubuntu appear to me for personal usage overdone! Until now I never succeeded in filling my 200 Gb hard drives, that is: not even for 30%. Despite huge capacities both Windows and [html:a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-anatomy-ext4/"
]Linux file systems
Although Karmic has an innovative 'Ubuntu Software Center' to find and install software from approved repositories, many users still will continue with Synaptic Package Manager or even the swift Terminal to acquire their software. The latter often posing a riddle for novices when typing or pasting rather esoteric commands to get things done. A somewhat 'hidden feature' can make this easier:
And here is an important addendum for not-so-noobies:
To adjust Karmic's Gnome desktop to your needs and work with it, is hardly changed. As usual many themes and icon-sets can be selected to create a unique, personal operating environment. Epidermis is an upcoming tool to do all this. The famous and useful 3D Compiz Cube-Ball-Cylinder with many exclusive features and Linux workspaces underline the distance Ubuntu has taken from Windows. Funny to see that Microsoft has copied some optical features from OSX and Gnome into Win7. Why not? Earlier others did the same copying from Windows. The optical appearance of the current 'big three' desktops is reasonably at par, yet different in design flexibility and efficiency for users. Win7 looks like 'any other' Linux distro or Apple OS, though based on a 20 years old Disk Operating System - its major, yet for most users invisible weakness. A major change in desktop look and feel might come with Gnome-3, early next year in Ubuntu "Lucid Lynx" 10.4 (meaning: to appear in April 2010). A gamble?
Upon working with Karmic I discovered that its standard-browser FireFox had been upgraded to version 3.5.4. I hurried to add a few efficient Add-ons like the 'extensions': CoLT 2.4.5, Ghostery 2.0.1, DownloadHelper 4.6.4, FastestFox 3.0.0, GreaseMonkey 0.8.2, Linky 2.7.1, Web Developer 1.1.8 and a very interesting novelty: InterClue 1.6.1.
InterClue does what many so long wanted: show what's behind a link on a webpage in a small, but readable pop-up window. "Hover your mouse pointer over the link, and a Linkclue icon will appear", its website tells. A really useful extension of the browser functionality. Test it on this page, if you will. You'll stay on this page, but you will be able to see, hear (!) and manipulate what's behind my links without switching to a new Tab or browser window. You can go into the InterClue widget and perform various tasks, or leave it and the pop-up disappears again. It fails to have the annoying quality of popping-up undeliberately when hovering the mouse-pointer over a link. Hitting its transparent and tiny icon suffices to initialise its function. Recommended. An alternative is Apture that doesn't work with Opera or this blog. I use it for my geophysics related Blogger blog (see sidebar: Flashpoint ).
Karmic offers cloud-based file-storage and syncing, somewhat like DropBox. The program that drives it is called: Ubuntu One. Still rather experimental I wait to see what develops here and keep my DropBox as primary internet (cloud) storage and sync device. The installation of DropBox in Karmic is a bit complicated, but well-documented. It is a very good exercise to overcome Terminal-fear! How often did I struggle with commands like: ./configure? It's really easy when you understand (from the link) that after ./configure comes the route to the extracted DropBox package, which is a folder. With the Terminal window open and after typing ./configure drag and drop that folder in the Terminal to see the full path appear behind what you wrote. Then press Return and whoops, things work. Next type the other commands in the link to finalise the installation. That's one of the ways to get things done. And mind the YouTube video, should you ever need to repeat a similar operation. The rest is exactly as explained! Easy when you know it, exercised and understand it.
Is it worthwhile to change to Ubuntu Karmic 9.10? Absolutely. It is the most pleasant distro I have seen so far. It works 'real time', very fast and pleasant on my older computer. As always things depend a bit for different computers and their particular qualities. As always I am not in favour to run Windows upfront and add Ubuntu to that, but rather the reverse having Linux manage and control things. Windows can be run far more safely and just as well in a virtual environment, f.ex. using Sun's VirtualBox. When making system snapshots (from VB's menu) after installing Windows you can always quickly return to an earlier situation when collecting a virus... Something you will most likely never find in Linux. That alone makes it worthwhile to start using Karmic.
John
PS1. Mobile Media Converter is a new, Open Source (free) media converter, that I can recommended. I ran a few tests and they were very satisfactory. It is a cross-platform utility, so Vista/W7 users as well as Linux or OSX users can use it for multi-format conversions that go very rapidly indeed. Conversion of media formats still is a cumbersome subject, but no longer with this interesting program! iPhone-iPod users will appreciate this. This concerns conversions from music and video files, even from YouTube.
PS2. I realized that some users would want to run Windows-7 as a virtual OS under Linux. Just download VirtualBox from the repos, inclusive its 'VBox Guest Additions'! That however is an ISO image that can be accessed after installing Windows (or another virtual to run OS). It integrates that virtual OS into Linux (f.ex. Ubuntu) making quick file exchanges and other nice things possible. However, where is this ISO after installing VirtualBox? It is, like most Ubuntu programs in FileSystem-> usr-> share. Just browse it up there. Start-up programs you'll find under ->user->bin. It's just a matter of getting accustomed to this. Sometimes cross-platform programs will install themselves in the FileSystem elsewhere, like the Mobile Media Converter in ->opt. It is that you know.
PS3. Shantz XWinWrap for Linux is still there for those who want an animated wallpaper. That can be a YouTube movie, your own background movie or even some animated screensavers. As a 'special effect' to impress friends a good tool. On the website more downloads.
WIDGETIZE
Angeliki # 7. November 2009, 01:50
Dr. John v. Kampen # 7. November 2009, 07:13
Aadil # 8. November 2009, 02:46
Dr. John v. Kampen # 8. November 2009, 07:34
Jurjen # 11. November 2009, 21:43
It's good to see how actively Ubuntu is being developed and with a solid base I think the future will even look brighter
I think Windows 7 is a very good product that most people will be very happy with. I don't like it so much, because I like to be the one in control of things, I like to fine tune so it works best for me. Ubuntu does gives that and it gives you full insight in whats happening. But you need to be a bit of a computer geek to understand, that's why most people will like windows 7 or OSX better I think.
Dr. John v. Kampen # 12. November 2009, 04:50
I think I will make a blog post on an interesting issue that occurred to me, working with my Win-addicted wife...
Jurjen # 12. November 2009, 14:45
I guess the main problem microsoft is facing is they can't change their OS to much under the hood, because hardware drivers and software will not work anymore and also needs to be ported then. Already a lot of people had issues with that with Vista. Many companies decided not to update because of this. I'm sure they are not to proud to use Linux solutions in their product. Thats what they do, 'borrowing' from others
I guess people will always struggle with pc's, they are just very advanced machinery. It's just a bit more then a coffee machine, you can't change that.
I do want to test Ubuntu One soon. I wonder how this will work compared with dropbox. I think these file repositories on internet will have an important role in the near future.
Dr. John v. Kampen # 12. November 2009, 16:15
Yes, Linux drivers ought to be Open Sourced. Some of them still aren't and thus not used in distros. Something to be very careful about when buying new audio or graphics cards! Most Win-drivers were/are rubbish and not seldom open for badware. Impossible under Linux. Flash is an example and one still struggles with it (YouTube). Gnash is an Open Source alternative, but you must delete the flash-non-free plugins first or you get problems. The same applies unfortunately to Opera that is partially useful under Linux, failing most of the strong add-ons for FireFox.
I overhauled Ubuntu Karmic this day and installed the latest updates, which took me about 35 minutes in all (install+updates). Just to exercise anew. Did you realize that the last Alpha had KDE and Gnome on board? You can update that one too! Two systems in one that is, which you choose when logging in (lowest line on screen, watch that).
That disappeared in the official Karmic release, I now saw. That is Gnome only. Windows-7 took a full 3.5 hours to install instead in its naked version with anti-virus stuff (on Sun's VBox). I don't like its GUI either. You get accustomed to Ubuntu/Mint very quickly! My wife wanted to see it, but dislikes it now as well. The driver problem for my old ASUS P4P800 is overwhelming though on Win7. That's where my love for it comes to a final halt. Lack of free software also..., you have to pay even for amateur-software with nice looking screens only.
It is not so far tmho that Ubuntu can be mass-produced, though it is stable enough for it in Karmic. Thus pre-installing it on a new box is a trivial matter (for need of immediate updates). Better indeed is a new box without anything but some discs to install stuff, either Win7 or Ubuntu (etc.). I don't have that problem: in Spain you have your computer built for you to your liking! Is cheaper, that's why. Except notebooks and that sort of micro's, which come with Win7. It's easy to repartion them, for they often have terabyte hard drives for MS! Ubuntu is satisfied with a HD of about 100 Gigabyte to have that run forever...
Then a last comment: try Epidermis from the repos to make with one or two clicks a very nice, new User Interface (Theme, icons etc.). The only thing that doesn't work still is the Grub2 editor, so cave for that part. Working with Ubuntu gets more easy each day!
Jurjen # 12. November 2009, 19:15
I bought a simple printer some time ago, which doesn't wanted to work on ubuntu 64bit (it may work now, still need to test that). There was some support for 32bit, but things like adjust print head alignment, all kinds of print settings, etc. I solve that to print via windows on a VM. These are problems that the average user won't accept. It has nothing to do with the quality of the OS.
The hardware that work fine still doesn't perform as it can in windows. Video cards of today are almost computers on their own, with loads of features, nVidea does have Linux support but its obviously not as good as on windows. Soundcard, same problem.
When more people start to use a Linux distro, more support will be available and the growth of user will grow exponentially because of that, looking at the progress the last few years this may happen. We'll see.
Dr. John v. Kampen # 12. November 2009, 21:40
Aadil # 15. November 2009, 18:28
For those computer users that have been using Windows all along, the incentive to change is much less. But consider this, Most of the people I know have at least one Linux distro that they experiment with, even if they're die-hard Windows/Mac fans. But I know a few Linux only users who wouldn't dream of using propriety software.
That's the difference in my opinion. Linux is free to experiment with in your spare time, regardless of what your primary operating system may be. But a propriety operating system is too costly to be a mere experiment. Unless you absolutely need to use a particular software that won't run under Linux, there is no reason to use any other system.
It's also interesting to me to observe that many Windows fans will proudly proclaim that they don't use Linux, and in the same breath, mention how many times a day they Google something!
Google, and many other web based services, runs on Linux servers. So many people around te world are already using Linux as a matter of course.
Dr. John v. Kampen # 15. November 2009, 22:54
The screen clutter still is there in Windows, to name but one thing, whether you 'shake' or not.
Donny # 20. November 2009, 19:41
I have upgraded to 9.10 too some time ago, and all is well
Dr. John v. Kampen # 20. November 2009, 22:02
Exaile is one of my favorites also. Here you'll find useful news...