Ubuntu is way easier to install than certain other operating systems. But it would be even greater if I could select which applications I wanted on my new system before the Ubiquity installer goes about its business–an idea that was proposed recently on Ubuntu Brainstorm. Here’s why it should go through. An Ubuntu installation requires […]
If the American government invested as many resources rounding up violators of software licenses as it does fighting “terror” (and no, I don’t mean the Jacobin variety), I’d have been put away long ago, because all of my Ubuntu systems use patented multimedia software that I didn’t pay for. But I’ve recently realized that it […]
For a long time, the Ubuntu family has had three members–Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu (sorry Edubuntu; we’re not counting you). But that may change, with a new project, Lubuntu, vying for official endorsement by Canonical. Here’s a look at Lubuntu, and thoughts on what its future may hold. The Lubuntu project, which was established a […]
If you’re like me, you don’t put much thought into where your multimedia codecs come from: you run a quick “apt-get install gstreamer-plugins-ugly” on new installs and move on to more important things. But not everyone’s like me, and as Ubuntu moves increasingly into government and the workplace, patent and licensing issues are becoming more […]
These days–in contrast to ten years ago–the world has plenty more Web browsers than it needs. And yet I can’t find one I’m happy with. My continuing search for a browser I get along with led me recently to try Opera, a seasoned but still largely obscure player on the browser scene. Here’s what I […]
Traditionally, configuring Ubuntu servers to integrate with Microsoft Active Directory was not a lot of fun. It wasn’t exactly difficult, but it involved editing lots of PAM and Kerberos configuration files, and often some perilous trial-and-error. But these days, there’s a better way–for many situations, at least–and it’s called Likewise. Here’s how it works, and […]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about five features that make Ubuntu so much more enjoyable to use than certain less-Free operating systems. The comments on that post got me thinking about several other great features that I didn’t mention. So to give those their due, here’s a second list of five things Ubuntu does […]
I’ve long heard good things about Ubuntu Tweak, but never used it myself. With the recent appearance of its 0.5 release, however, I decided to give it a go. Here’s what I thought. As its name implies, Ubuntu Tweak is a third-party application that tweaks Ubuntu’s default configuration. Its goal is to provide “many useful […]
Last spring, the world changed forever when VirtualBox implemented support for 3D acceleration in Windows and Linux guests. I have a tendency to be behind the curve on world-changing events, so I didn’t found time to play with this new feature until a few days ago. But what I found made me really happy. Read […]
Although it may not be news to many Ubuntu users, I recently discovered the Disk Usage Analyzer tool, which has proved enormously useful. Here’s why I think it’s so great. For a long time, I either ignored disk-usage concerns or monitored disk space with command-line tools, not because I’m a geek (although that may be […]
When Lucid Lynx ships in April, it will come with a video editor installed by default, which will be a first for Ubuntu. With this in mind, I decided to test drive OpenShot, an open-source, nonlinear editor that reached its 1.0 release very recently. Currently, Ubuntu developers are planning to ship Ubuntu 10.04 with PiTiVi, […]
I recently tested the open-source video editor OpenShot, so I thought it would only be fair for me also to play around with PiTiVi, the editor that at this point is set to come installed by default with Ubuntu 10.04 when it debuts in April 2010. I found some time to do so today. Read […]
I just finished configuring a Vista laptop for my brother, who needs to run some Windows-only applications for college. Whenever I find myself compelled to deal with proprietary operating systems, I’m reminded why I use Ubuntu. Here’s a short list of some of those reasons.
In fairness, Windows does a lot of things well, especially when computer vendors configure it ahead of time. And Ubuntu is far from perfect.
I’ve read a lot about Google’s Chrome browser in the blogosphere, but have yet to see it being used in the wild. Given this observation, and my increasingly strained relationship with Firefox, I decided to give Chromium, the open-source browser on which Chrome is based, another try. Here’s what I found. I’ve been a Firefox […]
As regular readers of WorksWithU are aware, I recently purchased a Latitude 2100 netbook from Dell and am pretty happy about it. Now that I’ve used it for a couple weeks, it’s time for a review of its performance under Ubuntu.
Before getting into the Ubuntu-specific aspects of the netbook, let’s start with the basics.
As the new owner of a Dell Latitude 2100 netbook, I’m eager to get as much performance out of my little machine as possible. One of the most pressing issues in my life over the last week, therefore, has been to decide whether to use the i386 or lpia build of Ubuntu on my new […]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my search for an Ubuntu netbook. I finally made a decision and received the new machine this week. Read on for the details. As I discussed in the earlier post, my search centered around three vendors–System76, Zareason and Dell–each of which offers Ubuntu as a pre-installed option on […]
As 2009 draws to a close, it’s time to take a look back at what Ubuntu and its community have accomplished in the outgoing year. There may be nothing revolutionary to report, but there have nonetheless been some notable changes to Ubuntu itself and the community around it over the last year. Here’s a look […]
If you’ve checked out Ubuntu’s website lately, you’ve probably noticed that it’s looking pretty slick, especially compared to a few years ago. Here’s a look at how ubuntu.com has evolved over time, and why it matters. Well designed websites aren’t a forte of the open-source community. There are some exceptions, but many projects have home […]
The big news in the Ubuntu world this week is Mark Shuttleworth’s announcement that he’ll be stepping down as CEO of Canonical and transitioning the CEO crown to Canonical insider Jane Silber. Here’s the news, with some thoughts on what this means for Ubuntu and Canonical. As Shuttleworth explained on his website, Jane Silber, who […]
