May 17th, 11:26am:

I’m here at the Ubuntu/Fedora InstallFest at Emory.  Right now the Fedora rep is giving his presentation on the new Fedora release.  Cool stuff…

We’ve got around 25-30 people in… next up will be lunch!

1:42pm:

I have the KDE 4 Remix version of Ubuntu working on my laptop.   Turns out official CDs worked better than the ones I created… My Broadcom wireless and the ATI driver are working.

4:45pm:

For me, the InstallFest is over.  It was an awesome day, full of Linux installs, support, and CDs.  Great fun everyone, and thanks for coming!

After running an update of Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, I now have desktop effects!

The new ATI driver in the Ubuntu 8.04 (codename Hardy Heron) works with my ATI Radeon XPress 200M graphics card.  I upgraded without installing any updates or drivers though the “restricted drivers.  The upgrade went smoothly, and all I had to do was remove bittorrent.  No problems here, and even my wireless works!

There’s a “For Dummies” book written for it.

Here’s a screenshot of seamless mode of Ubuntu running in OpenSUSE on VirtualBox… Interesting effect:

Looks like I have another reason to like my favorite news channel:

http://enterpriselinuxlog.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/05/07/ubuntus-hardy-heron-nests-at-fox-news/

Fox News has fixed the video problem, allowing anyone with Linux to view the videos on the Fox site.  What’s neat about this is that they are one of the first major news sites to give full compatibility to Linux users — if not the first.  Note that many of the developers at Fox News run Ubuntu.  Good stuff all around!

Now that OpenSUSE is working well on my laptop, I will be using it for a while. Really, I do not want to keep jumping distributions as much as I have, and I also enjoy using OpenSUSE. It’s a refreshing break from a round of Ubuntu-based distributions that I have been in for the past few months. I haven’t backed out on Ubuntu, as I still believe it’s the best distribution, but testing out another system always provides another look at Linux.

While I like OpenSUSE, I still do not support the Microsoft/Novell patent deal that was announced back on November 02, 2006. The OpenSUSE community has been free of this deal, but unfortunately have suffered the consequences of a damaged reputation from Novell as a result of their collaboration. To be honest, the collaboration that has been happening between Microsoft and Novell are good things, but the patent protection part of the deal is one that is damaging, as it says that Novell has been violating Microsoft patents. Microsoft has made such claims about Linux and patents, but have never specified which ones are violated. It is a strategic move, because if Microsoft revealed the patents, the offending code would either be fixed or the patents declared invalid. The result would be Microsoft having no way to scare users from using Linux. Just look at the last Yahoo! deal, where Microsoft gave Yahoo! a 3 week deadline to accept their offer, or Microsoft would stack the Yahoo! board in their (Microsoft’s) favor. That never happened, and Microsoft made several more attempts to please Yahoo!, only to back out of the deal after Yahoo! raised the bid price — a perfect example of empty threats in action.

On the topic of Microsoft, the Windows version of the new ASUS Eee PC will cost less than the Linux version. It is always interesting to watch the prices of Linux and Windows computers. In the past, Microsoft has been known to threaten PC makers into releasing computers with Windows for cheaper than the competition, even if they are installed on the same make/model computer. One of the most recent examples was the higher price of the Dell computers, where the Ubuntu Dell cost more than the same model with Windows preinstalled. This goes against common logic, as Ubuntu is free, and Windows (or at least a box version) costs $129. The Eee PC comes with Xandros (another company that signed a patent protection deal with Microsoft), and the system had been tailored for the Eee PC. Xandros is not free to download, but rather available for purchase, and is still far cheaper than the Windows XP being installed on the new Eee PCs.

The question does arise — Did ASUS get threats (or an amazing deal) of some sort to sell the Eee PC with Windows for cheaper than the one with Linux preinstalled?

My guess would be… yes. I am sure something happened, but whether or not it was good for Xandros is impossible to tell. Also, it could be possible that ASUS is looking to impress Microsoft, especially since they predicted that they would sell more Windows Eee PCs than Linux ones? Of course, I doubt that many of the higher end Eee PCs will sell over the lower spec all Linux versions available for $400. Who would want to pay $500+ for an underpowered device, especially since at $500 you can get a modestly priced laptop or desktop?

In my last post, I was able to get my ATI graphics driver working on my laptop in OpenSUSE.  Now, my broadcom wireless chip, the notorious 4318, is working perfectly, thanks to a how to:

http://en.opensuse.org/Wireless_network_card#BCM43xx

As it seems, the bcm43xx-fwcutter package was already installed (although I could not find it in yast), and all I had to do was copy/paste “/usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware” without the quotes, reboot, and I have wireless!

Yup, I’m in OpenSUSE. So, why am I so happy?

I was able to get my ATI Radeon Xpress (fgrlx) driver working!

It provides accelerated graphics on my laptop, which makes using KDE a lot easier.

Up next will be my attempt to get my wireless driver, a Broadcom 4318 54g Air Force One card, working. So far, only Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS have been able to work, bringing full compatibility to my laptop.

While I’m on the topic of OpenSUSE… a nice feature is the Amarok music player, which works under the preselected gstreamer (or at your option, xine) backengine, which gives me mp3 support. Very cool!

=== UPDATE ===

If you want to use the how-to that I followed, see this page.

Looks like Ubuntu’s portability has led to it being installed on a Zaurus PDA.  A programmer was able to use the ARM port of Ubuntu 7.04 in order to get it working on a Zaurus handheld.  Very cool!

Check it out!

After using OpenSolaris for a day, some things have really become clear to me. For one, OpenSolaris is a new system, and one that does not have all the functionality found in other Linux distributions. I won’t go as far to say that it is bad system. After using it in VirtualBox, I couldn’t resist installing it on my computer. It works rather well, but there is no available driver for my printer (which is found in Ubuntu) or drivers available for my wireless card or graphics card. The system is also a little slow, especially when loading a web page. There are also only a few over 1000 programs in the repositories, compared to the 24,000+ programs in Ubuntu’s repositories. I also could not install my printer, which is an HP Deskjet 3845 (all that is missing is an hplip package). Seeing as this is the first release, there are bound to be bugs and missing features.

OpenSolaris has a release schedule of 6 months, just like Ubuntu. This regular release schedule has often done well for distributions, such as Fedora or Ubuntu. It will be interesting to see where this system goes. One writer says OpenSolaris is what Ubuntu wants to be when it grows up. After using OpenSolaris for a day, that whole statement should be flipped around. Ubuntu, is what OpenSolaris wants to be when IT grows up. Painfully slow, missing drivers, incomplete functionality, eesh.  I don’t plan on using it for a while.  The writer of the article I linked to brings up a interesting point, the fact that OpenSolaris borrows a lot from Ubuntu.  In my opinion, they don’t borrow enough, but it will get better, and it will be usable probably after this release or the next.

OpenSolaris has a lot of potential, but like most other systems, it will take some time for it to mature. Applications need to be included, and drivers need to be updated if OpenSolaris is to be taken seriously as a system to be used by average users.