Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

Virtual Help

My brother had a typical problem today. He purchased a computer with Vista. The night he bought it, he really liked it. All pretty, and gussied up with it's eye candy. But, Vista's like pretty girls back in the 50's. You can look, hoot and holler, and they'll even wink at you. But don't you dare try to do anything with her. She's not that kind of a girl. Back then, girls had there own version of "Cancel or Allow".

My brother found out that a very important program problem Vista shares with Linux; a lot of programs don't work on it. The one he needed didn't work with Vista.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work with Linux either. But, that may be turning around soon. According to an Evans Data Study, developers are shying away from developing programs for Vista. Instead, more programs for Linux are being developed. I'm betting my future endeavors on it.

A week or so ago, I wrote about a problem with Quickbooks needed for a small business. Quickbooks doesn't support desktop Linux, and most small businesses need Quickbooks. At least, that's what their accountants and advisors tell them. Rightfully so probably. Quickbooks is an excellent product, and the Open Source alternatives don't match the abilities. Not yet at least. Programs like GnuCash may eventually be super powerful, but Quicken and Quickbooks are the name to beat.

Hopefully, the Evans folks are right, and solutions for Linux are lining up as I write. Hopefully, I'll have my ducks lined up, and the IT suitors will be knocking on my door.

We did solve my brothers problem. I had him load VMware player on his Vista machine, use easyvmx.com to make a .vmx file, load a Windows XP version on, then load the necessary program he needed to work. So far, it's worked. I run XP on my Ubuntu laptop when I need to for school. It actually runs faster in VMware than it did natively. Go figure!

(Yes, I'm experimenting with Larger font size)

Learning Experience

Yesterday, I helped a new small business owner out with an Ubuntu system. A Dell GX60, 512 mb ram, 20 GB hard drive, with Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn OEM installed - with extras added for a small business. Everything worked fine till I got to the business. The keyboard didn't work, the mouse was bouncy and sticky, and the wired connection wouldn't connect. One of those tech times when nothing works right. And, to top it off, I forgot to sudo oem-config-prepare the computer for the user!

The business owner had a nice Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop computer that she originally intended on using, but it just wasn't working for her. This is actually typical of Windows XP Laptop owners.

Windows XP Laptop users generally have these problem:

• Almost no system updates are ever done - Even if the automatic updates are set to 'on', they don't happen because the owner has the computer off at 3am in the morning. If you own a Windows XP Laptop, check for updates DAILY! At least every Tuesday.
  
• No hardware driver updates are ever done - Sometimes Microsoft will push some hardware driver updates out, but not too much. Unless the computer has a manufacturers program that automatically updates and install fixes, the user never checks for them. Check for your specific computer drivers on the company website - Especially for computer two years old or older. And, especially check for a BIOS update. If there is, use it! If you're using Ubuntu, most likely it's the only update you really need.
  
• Anti-Virus software gets update, but the Anti Spyware doesn't - And the Anti Virus programs, especially Norton, seems to miss things. You need to have at least two Anti Spyware programs: Windows Defender and Spybot Search and Destroy. In my experience, both have found things the Anti Virus programs missed. Update your Anti Virus and Anti Spyware programs daily, and run them at least ever other day.

At the very least you can keep your system up-to-date. Checking for system updates on Tuesdays is very important. Microsoft puts out updates and security fixes on the third Tuesday of the month (I think). Malicious experts wait for those updates to come out, the learn and practice the exploits. They know that less than half of Windows users will do the updates.

Both laptop and Desktop Windows XP users should completely reinstall their system every year. If you are a serious user, every six months. Laptop users should probably reinstall every six months anyway.

To continue my Learning Experience: I should have checked out the equipment before I left the house. The keyboard was an eMachine keyboard, and they tend to work only with eMachines -if at all. I still have no clue on why the internet wouldn't work. Weird.

This experience also brings me to another point: Until there is a Linux version of QuickBooks, or at least a viable alternative, Linux won't be useful in a small business. GnuCash just doesn't cut it -at least for less tech savvy businesses. A small tech based business would probably be able to work with Linux, especially Ubuntu. But a company that isn't tech savvy won't have much use for it.

The only way to get more of the business type software made for Linux is to get more Linux boxes out. As Free Geek, Dell, and System76 get more Ubuntu boxes out, and as more people install it as an alternative to Windows Vista, It will eventually get there.

Windows Vista Alternative

More on Old vs New

Latest Ubuntu Laptop screenshot:

New hardware is easy. Everything is design to just work. Plug it in, boot back up, and away it goes. With somethings, you don't even have to power down or boot back up. With USB and Firewire, but plug it in and go. New hardware is fast, fun, and easy. But it doesn't teach you much.

Older hardware teaches you how computers actually work. You have much more configuring you have to do.

When I'm working on a Free Geek computer, I have to make some choices. I prefer to work on the best equipment first, and give them the best of the extra hardware I have available. Make a good machine run even better. Ideally, working with one of these machine won't take more than 2 hours (most of that involving wiping the hard drive clean):

1. Check and clean the hardware
2. Boot and Nuke the hard drive (makes a clean install much cleaner)
3. Add in extra hardware
4. Load Ubuntu or Xubuntu on as an OEM installation
5. Update the system
   
6. Add any more programs/packages I think should be on (like Ubuntu Extras)
7. Add extra artwork, if necessary or desirable
   
8. Write out an index card of the machine and installation -stick it in the A-drive slot
9. Right before the machine goes out, I update the system and software, then do "sudo oem-config-prepare" and the machine is ready for a new user

This sequence gets quicker each time I do it, especially with newer hardware. If I'm using a hard drive that's already wiped clean, I can do all the above in less than an hour. But sometimes an older system comes in, and steps 2, 3, and 4 are difficult at best. Part of me doesn't like to be beat, and I want to make whatever is in front of me work. But, sometimes the hardware just isn't worth it. It's just too old.

When we give out a free geek machine, we also help support it for a year. If something goes wrong, and we can't fix it in fifteen minutes, we just give the user a new machine. Better than most support agreements, wouldn't you say? Just like any operating system, it takes a new user about three months to adapt. People who work with technology on a daily basis might need a week or two of support at best. I'm looking for a 'remote assistance' solution on Ubuntu to help me with that. I know they exist, but I've been too lazy to look them up, much less figure how they work.

When I'm trying to get a system working, if it's older and it takes longer that 30 minutes to do step 3 and 4, it's just not worth doing. I can only bother to learn so much about older hardware. If it's the last one that I have, I might play with it. But if I have other systems waiting for an installation, I move on. If a system is under 500 Mhz, the rebuild has to go smooth and easy, or it's not worth spending the time on. I can get something even as low as 200 MHz working, but the machine will probably never be used. If I could figure how to get it to a country where it might be used, I would. When I can do something like that, I might. Most of the equipment I get in is in the 400 MHz - 900 MHz range. Xubuntu is the primary installation I use for those machines. If something is 800 MHz or higher, and I have enough memory around to load 512 MB ram on, I'll load Ubuntu. Occasionally, I'll get a machine in that's over 1 GHz. To the victor......

Blog Inspired

I like the changes to my blog. They inspire me to blog more. I even like the new flickr doohicky. I used an html version, instead of a flash version. It's static, but it load much quicker.

My laptop's battery is doing better with the power changes. I can get twenty to thirty minutes now. 1 GHz works well enough. Anything lower doesn't make the battery life better. I used the instructions in from the Ubuntu documentation website. If you decided to put Ubuntu on your laptop, you'll want to follow those instructions to get as much battery life as you can.

In Other News
Money is tight this holiday season for me. Okay, money has been tight EVERY holiday season for me. One of the issues of being a personal trainer. Many professions experience this during the holidays; doctors, lawyers, accountants. It's the bain of self-employment. For a few years, I did something that helped me though the season. I save my pocket change up all year, and used that for presents. I got the idea from Clark Howard, on his consumer advocate talk show. It worked. The problem this year is that I didn't spend enough money to make it work. I didn't spend enough because I didn't make enough. I didn't make enough because I'm in school. Hopefully, in another year, I'll be able to spend enough to get some pocket change for Christmas. Then, I too can participate in our over-consumer economy, and the over commercialized tragedy everyone knows as Christmas. Christmas has become so very un-Christian. I think Jesus would be pissed. No. He'd be forgiving.

Since I've figured a way to load pictures directly from my PocketPC's sd card, I'll be able to get more pics to flicker soon. I'll start taking more pics. Happy Day! You'll see more of my face plastered around here.

Nancy's cold isn't too bad this year. She called it her, "Bi-annual cold." Is she being insensitive toward the sexual practices of viruses. Viri (whatever multiple virus are called). Maybe, someone will come along and represent the virus, and sue her. It could happen.

I'm wondering how many blogs people read. I read about a dozen a day. I listen to about ten podcasts a week, usually on the way to school or back, and one or two videocasts a week. Being that I'm a techy, and interested in the social aspect of the internet, my actions are expected. But what about people who aren't Web 2.0 active? What about just regular surfers? Do you read boingboing.net? Dvorak Uncensored? How about any of your friends blogs, or interesting blogs you've run across? Do you read any famous persons blog, like Neil Gaiman or Cory Doctorow? Maybe someone like Mark Shuttleworth? Or do you read just your friends blogs? I wish more of my friends would do blogs. It's a great way to stay in contact. At the very least, use the frigging blog entry on your myspace page (no matter how ugly the site is, or how slow your music choice causes it to load!)