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Stephen Fry is wishing the GNU project a very happy birthday. Come to think of it, so should I! Happy birthday GNU!

Edit: Heh! On the gnu.org home page they’re referring to Stephen as “Freedom Fry”

Edit 2: GNU, in principled fashion or else perversely, depending upon your viewpoint, has made the video available in the open Ogg (Theora) format. If you happen to have the Mozilla VLC plugin plugged-in to Firefox, you’re laughing, but if you don’t the video can be seen here on YouTube.

A couple of weeks back I bought an Asustek Eee PC 900 in order to obtain some seriously mobile networking and computing (see screenshots). I considered waiting for the 901 but really wanted to take the device on a trip down to Cornwall so took the plunge. I opted for the black model; no kitchenware here thank you ;-). It sports 20 GB of storage split across 4 and 16 GB solid state drives, 1GB of DDR II SDRAM, a 900MHz Celeron Mobile CPU and a 1024 x 600 resolution display on a 22.7cm (8.9″) diagonal TFT panel.

Ubuntu Hardy Heron running on my Asus Eee PC 900

Like many other Eee PC owners it seems, it didn’t take long (about 5 minutes) before I decided that the pre-installed version of Xandros had to go. Functionally, there’s nothing wrong with the default OS but it probably won’t appeal to those who are used to the standard GNOME, KDE or other more conventional Linux desktops. Eee PC’s Xandros eschews common Linux desktop configurations in favour of a simple tab-based application launcher style interface. It also presents you with licensing agreements which must be agreed to for both the customised operating system and at least one of the tools. Nevertheless, it possesses a capable set of applications that will take care of the essential tasks such as web browsing, email, word processing, Skype, music, basic photo and video editing, and more besides. It uses tried and trusted free software favourites such as OpenOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird, together with some of the most popular KDE applications providing the rest of the core functionality and features. Importantly, the Eee’s version of Xandros has (naturally enough) been tailored specifically for the machine and everything works perfectly with the hardware. However, it doesn’t feel much like Linux, not least because neither a terminal window nor package manager is available by default.

If you want a “more kosher” Linux desktop, the full KDE-based Xandros desktop can be installed, but I decided to go for Ubuntu instead. I initially tried a version of Xubuntu 7.10, eeeXubuntu, customized for the original EEE 701, but the wi-fi packed up after I downloaded the first batch of updates and a couple of hours of diddling about with suggested solutions failed to restore it. I was concerned that a  GNOME installation might be a bit much for the Eee’s relatively limited hardware resources, but was attracted to the idea that the Eee would be running the same apps and tools as my desktop machine and so gave Ubuntu EEE a whirl, a customised version of Ubuntu 8.04.

The install went pretty well and most, if not all, of the Eee’s hardware worked without further tweaks. There were some issues such as the audio volume adjustment keys and the wireless adapter power switch failing to work (although the former can always be adjusted via the standard software controls and the latter can be switched on and off in the BIOS). In addition, shutting down Ubuntu from within a GNOME session fails to subsequently power off the hardware (requiring instead a five second push of the power button), whereas choosing the shutdown option from the login screen shuts the machine down correctly. There are a few other minor glitches as well, although workarounds and fixes, which I haven’t yet got around to trying, exist for many of these. (The fact that I haven’t got around to trying them yet indicates how relatively trivial the issues are.)

Multiple GNOME windows running on the Eee PC 900

Glitches notwithstanding, the core features worked fine. Ubuntu installed without fuss and the Wi-Fi worked out of the box. I was immediately able to connect to my WPA2 network and most of Ubuntu’s tools and standard functionality seem to be present and correct. My Wi-Fi connectivity survived the initial surge of updates. I needn’t have worried about performance, it’s perfectly acceptable thanks in part to the full gigabyte of DDR II RAM. The only performance irritation so far has been the boot time which is a rather agricultural 53 seconds. I didn’t record the Xandros start up times, but I think the boot up time was well under half the time that Ubuntu EEE is taking (there are scripts available that claim to reduce Ubuntu Eee’s start up time, I’ll try them out and report back). Not all of that start up time is taken booting Ubuntu, it takes around 6-7 seconds for the Eee’s BIOS splash screen to appear and the grub menu displays at around the 10 second mark.

I admit that I got a thrill when I first saw the Ubuntu logo together with the “circle of friends” on the black boot screen on such a small device. The ability to carry Linux around on a device weighing around a kilo, that is smaller than a typical computing book, is pretty cool. The key differences between Ubuntu EEE and the standard version of 8.04 seem to be driver installation scripts, smaller fonts, Evolution, GIMP and some other apps not installed by default, and the creators have tried to banish the brown and orange hues, replacing them with a conventional blue, Xubuntu-style desktop (based on the Clear Looks theme, I think). I wasn’t having any of that and restored the Human theme and Ubuntu’s default browns and oranges A blue background still appears momentarily somewhere between logging in and the session desktop appearing. I guess the Ubuntu EEE authors are in the “lose the brown!” camp.

This picture should give you a pretty good idea of the dimensions of the Eee PC 900

OK. I’m out of time this evening. I’ll probably create a Part II to this post in the next few days.

Screenshots

NB. The Eee PC’s screen pixels are physically smaller than those on most desktop LCD panels. For example, when viewed on standard 17″ and 20″ TFT panels the “original size” (1024×600) screenshots in my Flickr set will appear around 30% larger than the actual screen size on the EEE.

There’s an interesting discussion on the blog of Debian and Ubuntu user, David Welton, about the relative merits of clean installing versus using dist-upgrade. The opinion of the poster and the commenters seems to be divided between whether or not upgrading, as opposed to doing a fresh install, is an advisable thing. I think Daniel Ruoso’s point that many dist-upgrade problems are likeley to be caused by non-supported packages, is a noteworthy one.

Having come to Ubuntu after having been a Windows user continually since v.3.1, my hunch was that I should favour clean installs over performing upgrades of existing systems (let’s face it, each Windows version generally required several clean installs during its own lifetime, without having to wait for the next official release). My first installation of Ubuntu was the 32-bit version of 6.06, Dapper Drake. I played with this on and off until Feisty was released, and despite my reservations about performing version upgrades as opposed to clean installations, I read the Ubuntu docs and decided to use dist-upgrade to update the system (via Edgy, of course, as dist-upgrade will not allow you to jump versions).

With it being on a spare machine, I was a bit cavalier and carried on using it while the upgrade took place. I was absolutely gob-smacked to see the application I was working with upgrade itself while I was using it. It temporarily used a different font set, then refreshed the window, and then politely advised me that it should be restarted (the app, not the OS) at a time convenient to me. Coming from Windows, this was radical stuff. It was like performing a 12,000 mile service, including tyre changes, while you’re doing 70mph on the motorway.

Despite having used the system while it was being upgraded, the process went well and Feisty ran sweetly (on an old P4 with 1GB RAM and 40GB HD). In fact, it went so well, and I liked Feisty so much that the experience convinced me to take the fateful step of shifting my life and work over to Linux on a permanent basis.

Sadly though, my next attempt at using dist-upgrade did not go so smoothly. When the time came to upgrade from Feisty to Gutsy (something I did mainly to get access to better wi-fi drivers) I again turned to dist-upgrade. Despite having all the latest updates installed on Feisty, and despite being sensible by leaving the machine alone while it upgraded, the resulting systems (one laptop and one desktop) were riddled with glitches and bugs, and sent me running for the ISO image. Gutsy was rather glitchy even after clean installs in my experience, although a couple of months into the life of the release the updates had taken care of the most irksome bugs.

After the Feisty to Gutsy experience, I ignored the dist-upgrade facility when moving to Hardy and performed clean installations instead. It would be nice to be able to rely on dist-upgrade and it would be great not to have to re-configure your machine manually after each version install, but the facility just seems too unreliable. On the upside, I can honestly say that I can build an Ubuntu workstation from scratch, import my data, and install 90% plus of the apps, utilities and other stuff I need, in around three to four hours or so. Windows upgrades used to be a major PITA. It always seemed to take the better part of a day to get a useable system (downloading huge service packs and updates, feeding application suite CDs to the drive and typing in CD-key after CD-key, hunting around for all those 3rd party utilities you’d installed, etc.) and the better part of a week a week to cross the ‘t’s and dot the ‘i’s. Ubuntu takes a few hours for the fundamental system, applications and major utilities (thanks to the wonderful synaptic), and I get most of the fine tuning done within a day, with one or two things I overlook being taken care of on day 2. Of course, the odd thing crops up over the following week or two, but Synaptic generally takes care of it within a few moments. It’s wonderful stuff! But I digress…

Just downloaded a .iso disk image using Ubuntu 8.04. The download completes and Firefox 3.0 (beta 5) pops-up its “Download complete” message in the bottom right corner of my screen. I click on that and up pops the “Downloads” list, with my ISO image at the top. I click on the entry expecting a Nautilus window to fire up on the folder in which the file downloaded, but no, it’s more convenient than that. I don’t know whether I have Firefox, GNOME, or Ubuntu to thank, but instead of simply being taken to the download folder, it automatically fires up GNOME’s “Write to Disk” dialog box. Why shouldn’t it I guess? What else was I planning to do with a .iso file?

Trivial perhaps, but sweet.

UPDATE: The JavaScript script that is pulling in the promotional image from ubuntu.com is now (November, 2008) grabbing the latest one, for Intrepid Ibex. The script is obviously a generic one and will presumably automatically update the image again during the count-down to the release of Jaunty Jackelope.

I’m looking forward to the next release of Ubuntu, not least with it being an LTS and all. My last upgrade, from Feisty to Gutsy wasn’t as smooth and trouble-free as my previous one from Dapper to Feisty (I skipped Edgy). The upgrade from Dapper to Feisty went well using the Distribution Upgrade facility (via Edgy), but Gutsy didn’t behave itself satisfactorily until I installed it clean, from scratch, on the two desktops I use and on our family ThinkPad. Moreover, it took several months’ worth of updates before some of the more irksome bugs were swatted. (I should add that I’ve encountered no significant issues running the command line-only 7.10 Server Edition on my development server.)

I won’t be in a rush to upgrade this time around. I wasn’t in a particular rush at the last release and had intended to wait for at least a month or two, but problems with Feisty’s support for WPA and the wi-fi card in our laptop caused me to install Gutsy early, and once it was on the laptop, I couldn’t resist installing it on my desktops and server as well, if only to keep all machines on an equal footing.

For me, Gutsy has never felt as well-sorted as Feisty. I’m speaking loosely, most of the issues I’ve had have been within applications and utilities and I’ve really been too busy to spend time finding out to what extent responsibility for those glitches lay with Ubuntu developers or with the maintainers of the applications and utilities themselves. Sometimes it’s clear from Launchpad whether or not a particular issue is an Ubuntu-only one, other times the picture is less clear. Whatever, by month 3 or 4 of the release, it seemed that Gutsy had finally settled down. Firefox memory management and proprietary Flash support aside, Gutsy and its apps certainly seem reasonably sorted now.

I like the philosophy behind the LTS releases, but it can be hard to resist compelling new features that appear in the interim releases. 6.06 (Dapper Drake) suffered from relatively poor wi-fi adapter support, which no doubt made it hard for users of such cards to resist upgrading to subsequent non-LTS releases. Perhaps the pending LTS release will fare better vis-a-vis its non-LTS successors, at least for laptop and home users? I see that release 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is planning a complete desktop overhaul. Call me shallow, but I’ll probably find that hard to resist and throw the greater stability guarantee of 8.04 out of the window in order to get me some new chrome!

Some Gutsy groans aside, I’m still enamoured with the whole Ubuntu project (as well as the broader FOSS movement in general). I’m not only highly appreciative of the Ubuntu flavour of GNU/Linux, but also the Ubuntu project’s underlying philosophy and its wider aims in promoting free software (and maybe soon, open hardware?). I’ve been a computer user now for 18 years or so, and for the first time I’ve cared enough about the software I’m using to buy a logo-emblazoned T-shirt, mug, sweatshirt, hooded top and even stickers. I’m 42 years old and I bought stickers! Melissa thinks I’m suffering from an early onset of mid-life crisis.

Well, here’s looking forward to 8.04 Hardy Heron. I’d have put the countdown graphic in my sidebar, but it’s too wide for the my (clumsily hacked) default WordPress theme, and having written this, I’ve now exhausted my lunch-break free time, so, for the time being at least, in this post the graphic will have to stay.

One of the GNOME features I’ve most come to appreciate since abandoning Windows XP last summer is workspaces (Virtual Desktops on KDE, Spaces on Mac OS X Leopard). I now find these so useful, I simply can’t imagine how I got on without them.

As I write this, I’ve got my code editor, a couple of browser windows, Nautilus, an IRC client and a terminal window open in my first workspace. In my second workspace there’s a text editor containing my development notes (notes I write as I learn new stuff), a document open in OpenOffice Writer, and a couple of FreeMind windows containing a functional overview and database schema outline of the application I’m currently working on. My third workspace contains my email client, news feed reader and the browser in which I’m writing this. This is fairly typical although needless to say some days I have more, some days fewer windows open.

Even with dual wide-screen monitors (I’m using a standard 1280×1024 and a wide 1680×1050), a dozen or more running applications would for me be unwieldy and counter-productive in a single workspace. I generally find three workspaces to be optimal. I’ve adopted a pattern of use in which the first workspace is where I do my main work and monitoring, the second holds supporting applications and reference materials (which would only be in the way in the first), and the third I use for communications and personal stuff, especially that which distracts from the work going on in the first two workspaces. That said, for obvious reasons I regularly bounce my IRC client back and forth between my first and third workspaces and not having my email client in the workspace where I spend most time is not a problem thanks to visual and audio alerts.

The two straightforward keyboard shortcuts for swapping between workspaces and moving applications from one to another use the arrow keys to indicate the direction of movement and make managing them easy. The shortcuts are now as ingrained as any other I use on a daily basis.

When I first saw workspaces I thought “Neat idea, might use them occasionally, but for the most part, no thanks”. They appeared to be an attempt to use a software device to overcome the size limitations of a desktop on a single monitor and I erroneously thought that they had been rendered less relevant by the increasing popularity of widescreen monitors and setups utilizing multiple screens. What I had failed to appreciate is that in addition to their desktop augmenting role, they also play a useful and liberating organizational role, and it’s this latter feature that I’m finding such a revelation.

GNOME allows you to have as few or as many workspaces as you need and so you can tailor them to suit your needs. The keyboard shortcuts for manipulating the workspaces make them fast and easy to work with, meaning workspaces become your friends rather than leaving them as awkward features, too clunky to use productively.

If you have access to workspaces on your desktop, give them a whirl. The idea can take perhaps a little getting used to, but now I have, I couldn’t live without them. Without exaggeration, they are one of the most useful (and simplest) complexity management tools I’ve used.

A note for anyone interested in the Asus EEE, Ian Cottee has apparently installed Xubuntu on his and it sounds like it’s running well. I had a play with Francis Norton’s EEE (ahem!) on New Year’s Eve and it was cheap, but cheerful, as expected. It struck me that it could be considered a latter day Psion Series 7 with perhaps inferior build quality but much more flexible OS.

I always hankered after a Series 7 and the EEE is starting to capture my imagination. Among it’s many possible uses it would perhaps be ideal for those who need to monitor websites or remote networks 24/7 over less than secure connections, but don’t want the hassle of lugging around an expensive laptop everytime they go out for a day with the kids or drop into the in-laws, etc (internet connectivity always required of course, but these days that’s less of a problem).

Melissa uses a Thinkpad X60s at work which she frequently brings home when working here. It’s a gorgeous little machine and although it’s noticeably larger than the EEE (about 4cms wider, 4.5cms deeper and about 0.4kg heavier), it still feels very compact indeed. It has significantly better build quality and specification, but not surprisingly it’s nearly five times the price. In other words, it’s not a cheap and cheerful device you can casually throw into a rucksack and take with you on daytrips. Yep, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of the EEE. I’m talking myself into buying one here…