Friday 6 November 2009, 3:19 PM
Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic Koala) on Netbooks - Part 3 (Kubuntu Netbook)
In Part 1 of this series, I looked at the "standard" Ubuntu distribution, and found that with some adjustments, it could be made into what I considered to be a fairly nicely usable netbook. In Part 2 I looked at the Karmic Netbook Remix release, and found it to be significantly improved over the previous releases, at least in cosmetic terms. Now, in Part 3, I am going to look at "the new kid on the block", the Kubuntu "Technical Preview" of the KDE Netbook Plasma-Netbook project.
The first, and probably most important, thing to say at this point is that this is still a development project, and it is still very much in the middle of dynamic development; it is not scheduled for release until February 2010. I was prepared to temper my expectations and comments based on this status, but in fact what happened was that I was completely blown away. It is very, very impressive.
The concepts and implementation of KDE Netbook are quite different from those of UNR, and I have been struggling to find a way to do them justice without getting bogged down in endless descriptions of details. I'm going to try to describe it (at least superficially) in the same way that I did UNR. I have a feeling that won't do it justice, though.
The initial desktop has three main areas of interest. There is a Task/System/Icon/Status/Whatever bar across the top of the screen, with many of the usual icons and controls on it (Battery status, Network/Bluetooth status, Audio control, Notifier, Clock and Lock/Shutdown). There is a rather large horizontal bar across the screen, which contains large, colorful icons for most of the typical menu groups (Office, Internet, Multimedia, System and so on). Between that menu bar and the top of the screen there is another horizontal bar, initially empty, which turns out to be a "Favorites" area.
When you click on any of the menu icons, the contents of that menu are shown in the bar, and a "Home" icon appears at the top left of the screen which will get you back to the top level menu. I assume from this structure and action that menus are by definition only one level deep, but that is arguably a good thing anyway.
I will say again here that the icons are very large and colorful, and seem to me to be particularly well suited to a netbook display. I think they are much better than those of the other two major contenders in this area. I would say that UNR is not bad, but the menu bar icons are too small and the text too large - the goal here is supposed to be to make things simple and intuitive, and good pictures beat reading text at that every time. Moblin... well, uh, Moblin... What the heck are those stick-figure icons supposed to represent, anyway? Why use icons that are so abstract that the user is going to have to read the associated text to figure out what they mean anyway?
Getting back to Kubuntu Netbook, when you click on a launcher and start a program, the window does NOT automatically come up maximized (unlike UNR). It is a window with normal decoration and controls, so you can minimize, maximize or close it as you wish. It seems to me that average users are often disturbed or confused when the click on something and the whole screen changes, so I find this approach better than UNR automatically maximizing everything you start, or Moblin creating new "Zones" and putting things into them every time. There is one other interesting effect when you start a program - the Task Bar (panel) across the top of the screen disappears. If you move the mouse cursor to the top edge of the screen, or if you return to an empty desktop, it comes back. This is an interesting variation on "Autohide" that I have not come across before, and I find it nice and intuitive.
Things get interesting when you want to start another program. If you either minimize the open window, or just click on the desktop outside of that window, the window disappears! Gone without a trace! Well, not entirely without a trace, but at least without the usual icon on the task bar or whatever. If you look at the top left corner of the screen, you will see that it says "1 running app". Click on that, and if you have a graphic card that supports advanced graphics (the Intel Atom/945 is good enough), you get a tiled presentation of the main desktop and all currently active applications, and you can then click on any of those to select one. If your graphic driver isn't good enough (neither my HP 2133 VIA nor my HP 1010ez Radeon was), nothing happens. Don't despair, just fall back on the old standard Alt-Tab to select windows. Again, if your graphic driver is good enough, you will get a spiffy "rotating wheel" of windows to choose from; continue holding the Alt key, and each time you press and release Tab it will move to the next window. Wow! This is a sure-fire way to impress your friends. If your graphic card isn't up to that, you will get a more typcial-looking list of active applications to choose from.
Ok, enough already about the user interface. It's good, it's flashy, and I could write about it for a lot longer and I don't think you would get a lot better feel for it. I'll just add a few words about specific applications included in Kubuntu Netbook.
As this is a KDE distribution, I suppose it is not too surprising that it has the Konqueror browser installed, but at least it has a link to install Firefox. The really good news for most users, though, is that it includes OpenOffice, rather than the more obscure Koffice. It has Dragon Player and Amarok for Multimedia, a reasonable selection of games and educational programs, and Ksnapshot and Gwenview for digital picture viewing and organization.
Finally, there is the "Newspaper" panel. Here's my theory on that. The KDE developers have taken a lot of criticism since the release of KDE 4. They have said all along that they are working toward a much larger goal, and the changes would pay off in the long term. I think the Newspaper panel is included as an example of how that payoff can come. When you select it, you actually get a different desktop from the original "Application" panel. It includes a news feed reader, weather reader, calendar and note block. I haven't really investigated it yet, but I assume all those and others are selectable and configurable, so you could have things like micro-blogger applets and such on there too. I suspect that this is one of the areas where there is going to be a lot more development before the final release comes out, but it already looks very interesting.
To wrap it all up, if you need a finished, stable desktop then you probably don't want to risk loading Kubuntu Netbook quite yet. There are some quirks, rough edges and bugs still in it. But if you want to see some of the latest, greatest ideas in netbook desktops, or if you just don't find either UNR or Moblin very pleasing, this could be just what you are looking for. Trying it from a Live USB stick is quick, easy and painless, so go for it!
jw 6/11/2009
The first, and probably most important, thing to say at this point is that this is still a development project, and it is still very much in the middle of dynamic development; it is not scheduled for release until February 2010. I was prepared to temper my expectations and comments based on this status, but in fact what happened was that I was completely blown away. It is very, very impressive.
The concepts and implementation of KDE Netbook are quite different from those of UNR, and I have been struggling to find a way to do them justice without getting bogged down in endless descriptions of details. I'm going to try to describe it (at least superficially) in the same way that I did UNR. I have a feeling that won't do it justice, though.
The initial desktop has three main areas of interest. There is a Task/System/Icon/Status/Whatever bar across the top of the screen, with many of the usual icons and controls on it (Battery status, Network/Bluetooth status, Audio control, Notifier, Clock and Lock/Shutdown). There is a rather large horizontal bar across the screen, which contains large, colorful icons for most of the typical menu groups (Office, Internet, Multimedia, System and so on). Between that menu bar and the top of the screen there is another horizontal bar, initially empty, which turns out to be a "Favorites" area.
When you click on any of the menu icons, the contents of that menu are shown in the bar, and a "Home" icon appears at the top left of the screen which will get you back to the top level menu. I assume from this structure and action that menus are by definition only one level deep, but that is arguably a good thing anyway.
I will say again here that the icons are very large and colorful, and seem to me to be particularly well suited to a netbook display. I think they are much better than those of the other two major contenders in this area. I would say that UNR is not bad, but the menu bar icons are too small and the text too large - the goal here is supposed to be to make things simple and intuitive, and good pictures beat reading text at that every time. Moblin... well, uh, Moblin... What the heck are those stick-figure icons supposed to represent, anyway? Why use icons that are so abstract that the user is going to have to read the associated text to figure out what they mean anyway?
Getting back to Kubuntu Netbook, when you click on a launcher and start a program, the window does NOT automatically come up maximized (unlike UNR). It is a window with normal decoration and controls, so you can minimize, maximize or close it as you wish. It seems to me that average users are often disturbed or confused when the click on something and the whole screen changes, so I find this approach better than UNR automatically maximizing everything you start, or Moblin creating new "Zones" and putting things into them every time. There is one other interesting effect when you start a program - the Task Bar (panel) across the top of the screen disappears. If you move the mouse cursor to the top edge of the screen, or if you return to an empty desktop, it comes back. This is an interesting variation on "Autohide" that I have not come across before, and I find it nice and intuitive.
Things get interesting when you want to start another program. If you either minimize the open window, or just click on the desktop outside of that window, the window disappears! Gone without a trace! Well, not entirely without a trace, but at least without the usual icon on the task bar or whatever. If you look at the top left corner of the screen, you will see that it says "1 running app". Click on that, and if you have a graphic card that supports advanced graphics (the Intel Atom/945 is good enough), you get a tiled presentation of the main desktop and all currently active applications, and you can then click on any of those to select one. If your graphic driver isn't good enough (neither my HP 2133 VIA nor my HP 1010ez Radeon was), nothing happens. Don't despair, just fall back on the old standard Alt-Tab to select windows. Again, if your graphic driver is good enough, you will get a spiffy "rotating wheel" of windows to choose from; continue holding the Alt key, and each time you press and release Tab it will move to the next window. Wow! This is a sure-fire way to impress your friends. If your graphic card isn't up to that, you will get a more typcial-looking list of active applications to choose from.
Ok, enough already about the user interface. It's good, it's flashy, and I could write about it for a lot longer and I don't think you would get a lot better feel for it. I'll just add a few words about specific applications included in Kubuntu Netbook.
As this is a KDE distribution, I suppose it is not too surprising that it has the Konqueror browser installed, but at least it has a link to install Firefox. The really good news for most users, though, is that it includes OpenOffice, rather than the more obscure Koffice. It has Dragon Player and Amarok for Multimedia, a reasonable selection of games and educational programs, and Ksnapshot and Gwenview for digital picture viewing and organization.
Finally, there is the "Newspaper" panel. Here's my theory on that. The KDE developers have taken a lot of criticism since the release of KDE 4. They have said all along that they are working toward a much larger goal, and the changes would pay off in the long term. I think the Newspaper panel is included as an example of how that payoff can come. When you select it, you actually get a different desktop from the original "Application" panel. It includes a news feed reader, weather reader, calendar and note block. I haven't really investigated it yet, but I assume all those and others are selectable and configurable, so you could have things like micro-blogger applets and such on there too. I suspect that this is one of the areas where there is going to be a lot more development before the final release comes out, but it already looks very interesting.
To wrap it all up, if you need a finished, stable desktop then you probably don't want to risk loading Kubuntu Netbook quite yet. There are some quirks, rough edges and bugs still in it. But if you want to see some of the latest, greatest ideas in netbook desktops, or if you just don't find either UNR or Moblin very pleasing, this could be just what you are looking for. Trying it from a Live USB stick is quick, easy and painless, so go for it!
jw 6/11/2009
Thursday 5 November 2009, 2:21 PM
KBOX update simplifies Windows 7 migration
KACE is updating its K2000 systems management box to include a module that allows you to migrate to Windows 7. Although there are plenty of products that promise similar benefits, KACE seems to be cornering the market for appliance-based products that are very easy to use — see our full review from August 2009.
Windows 7 seems to be on the roadmap of most enterprises, large and small, with a survey of 1200 IT professionals commissioned by KACE showing that 60 to 70 percent planned to roll out Microsoft's new OS within the next 12-36 months. Not today, but soon-ish. The survey also revealed that 83 percent of organisations are likely to skip Vista altogether and migrate directly from Windows XP to the Windows 7.
The main barriers they cited along the road to migration were (in descending order): software compatibility; new hardware requirements; and (interestingly) user training.
Microsoft in its infinite wisdom doesn't provide a direct upgrade path from XP to Windows 7, which is where the K2000 comes in. KACE reckons that it simplifies the migration from either Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7, saving organisations time and money.
So if you need to automate the process, which means you might get more weekends to yourself, take a look at the new KACE K2000. Existing users will get the Windows 7 patch as a free upgrade, while a new box will cost you in the region of £6,000.
Manek Dubash
Windows 7 seems to be on the roadmap of most enterprises, large and small, with a survey of 1200 IT professionals commissioned by KACE showing that 60 to 70 percent planned to roll out Microsoft's new OS within the next 12-36 months. Not today, but soon-ish. The survey also revealed that 83 percent of organisations are likely to skip Vista altogether and migrate directly from Windows XP to the Windows 7.
The main barriers they cited along the road to migration were (in descending order): software compatibility; new hardware requirements; and (interestingly) user training.
Microsoft in its infinite wisdom doesn't provide a direct upgrade path from XP to Windows 7, which is where the K2000 comes in. KACE reckons that it simplifies the migration from either Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7, saving organisations time and money.
So if you need to automate the process, which means you might get more weekends to yourself, take a look at the new KACE K2000. Existing users will get the Windows 7 patch as a free upgrade, while a new box will cost you in the region of £6,000.
Manek Dubash
Thursday 5 November 2009, 11:17 AM
Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic Koala) on Netbooks - Part 2 (Netbook Remix)
In Part 1 I discussed some generalities about the new Ubuntu 9.10 distribution, and some issues related to using it on netbook computers. Now it is time to move on to the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, a special version produced by Canonical themselves, as opposed to the various "Community" remixes and other derivatives. As I did for the first part, I am using my ASUS N10J netbook for this evaluation. It is a relatively standard netbook, so these comments and observations should be applicable for most netbooks in general.
From the user's perspective, UNR has been changed in two critical ways from the "standard" Ubuntu (Gnome) distribution. First, the usual Gnome desktop with upper and lower Panels has been replaced with a more obvious (blatant) Launcher which lays everything out directly on the desktop. Those who have previously tried the UNR 9.04 release will notice that the desktop has been refined somewhat, and I think the changes make it quite a bit better. The large vertical bar on the right side of the screen, which basically contained the "Places" menu, has been merged into the single remaining left side vertical menu bar. This makes the desktop look much less cluttered and leaves more room for launcher icons, which really should be one of the highest priorities for limited-size netbook screens. In addition, I think the entire desktop looks more "refined", rather than just sort of "everything slapped up there" as it was previously, but that is a very subjective evaluation. Second, application windows are automatically maximized (made full screen) when they are started. They are also represented in the task list, at the top left of the screen, by an icon only, without text. Those icons are your most convenient means of window control and selection, by the way. Simply clicking on them will minimize/unminimize/select the window, and by right-clicking you can then unmaximize, if you really want to have several windows open together on your (presumably small) netbook screen.
Other than merging in Places (now called "Files & Folders"), the content of the menus is essentially the same in Karmic as it was in Jaunty. One nice touch is the "Favorites" menu, which I consider to be sort of the equivalent to having launchers on the Panel or Desktop of the standard Gnome desktop. It gives you a way of having things handy, rather than having to slog through the menus every time to find commonly used programs. When you are in the other menus, you will see a "+" at the top right of the launcher highlight, which you can click to add that launcher to the Favorites menu. I don't recall this from the previous UNR release, and I think it is a good addition.
The top Panel/Task Bar/Title Bar/Whatever has been improved a bit in the Karmic release as well. It resembles the standard Ubuntu (Gnome) panel more closely, with the notifier, shutdown options and the like there, rather than taking space in the main screen menu bar, which seems much more logical to me.
The "selection" effect, which is show when the mouse is over an icon on the desktop, has been completely changed in the new release. Instead of "growing" the icon (my term, I don't know what the proper name for it is), it displays a box with a darker background around the icon. This is certainly less overhead than the old effect (although arguably less "cool" or "flashy"), so I was quite disappointed to find that UNR still needs 3D/GL support in the graphic driver to perform in any reasonably usable way. That means that for netbooks such as my HP 2133 Mini-Note (VIA Chrome 9) and HP Pavillion dv2-1010ez (ATI Radeon 3410), running UNR is out of the question. Of course, by far the most common graphic hardware for netbooks is the Intel 945/950 chipset, and those drivers are more than adequate for UNR.
The Netbook Remix distribution includes a few more packages than the standard Ubuntu distribution, presumably to make the netbook more "user friendly", and a few others have been removed, either to save space or because they aren't considered "typically useful" on netbooks. In the added category are things like Adobe Flash and the Cheese webcam program; while removed includes CD/DVD creators (most netbooks don't have optical drives), GIMP (perhaps they think most netbooks are not up to it, or most netbook users?), XSane (scanner support) and Remote Desktop and Terminal Server Client (not relevant?).
Ok, so much for slogging through a lot of the details. Overall, I like the Karmic Netbook Release better than I did the previous ones. I think it is visually better, clearer, easier to understand and use. Some time ago I set up an HP Mini 2140 with UNR for a friend. I will be seeing her again soon, and I will show her the new UNR release and ask if she would like for me to upgrade it for her.
It will be interesting to see what the future brings for the Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Canonical has announced support for Moblin v2, and are providing an "Ubuntu Moblin Remix" for the Dell Mini 10v. I wonder if that will have any impact on the future of the Netbook Remix? Time will tell.
jw 5/11/2009
From the user's perspective, UNR has been changed in two critical ways from the "standard" Ubuntu (Gnome) distribution. First, the usual Gnome desktop with upper and lower Panels has been replaced with a more obvious (blatant) Launcher which lays everything out directly on the desktop. Those who have previously tried the UNR 9.04 release will notice that the desktop has been refined somewhat, and I think the changes make it quite a bit better. The large vertical bar on the right side of the screen, which basically contained the "Places" menu, has been merged into the single remaining left side vertical menu bar. This makes the desktop look much less cluttered and leaves more room for launcher icons, which really should be one of the highest priorities for limited-size netbook screens. In addition, I think the entire desktop looks more "refined", rather than just sort of "everything slapped up there" as it was previously, but that is a very subjective evaluation. Second, application windows are automatically maximized (made full screen) when they are started. They are also represented in the task list, at the top left of the screen, by an icon only, without text. Those icons are your most convenient means of window control and selection, by the way. Simply clicking on them will minimize/unminimize/select the window, and by right-clicking you can then unmaximize, if you really want to have several windows open together on your (presumably small) netbook screen.
Other than merging in Places (now called "Files & Folders"), the content of the menus is essentially the same in Karmic as it was in Jaunty. One nice touch is the "Favorites" menu, which I consider to be sort of the equivalent to having launchers on the Panel or Desktop of the standard Gnome desktop. It gives you a way of having things handy, rather than having to slog through the menus every time to find commonly used programs. When you are in the other menus, you will see a "+" at the top right of the launcher highlight, which you can click to add that launcher to the Favorites menu. I don't recall this from the previous UNR release, and I think it is a good addition.
The top Panel/Task Bar/Title Bar/Whatever has been improved a bit in the Karmic release as well. It resembles the standard Ubuntu (Gnome) panel more closely, with the notifier, shutdown options and the like there, rather than taking space in the main screen menu bar, which seems much more logical to me.
The "selection" effect, which is show when the mouse is over an icon on the desktop, has been completely changed in the new release. Instead of "growing" the icon (my term, I don't know what the proper name for it is), it displays a box with a darker background around the icon. This is certainly less overhead than the old effect (although arguably less "cool" or "flashy"), so I was quite disappointed to find that UNR still needs 3D/GL support in the graphic driver to perform in any reasonably usable way. That means that for netbooks such as my HP 2133 Mini-Note (VIA Chrome 9) and HP Pavillion dv2-1010ez (ATI Radeon 3410), running UNR is out of the question. Of course, by far the most common graphic hardware for netbooks is the Intel 945/950 chipset, and those drivers are more than adequate for UNR.
The Netbook Remix distribution includes a few more packages than the standard Ubuntu distribution, presumably to make the netbook more "user friendly", and a few others have been removed, either to save space or because they aren't considered "typically useful" on netbooks. In the added category are things like Adobe Flash and the Cheese webcam program; while removed includes CD/DVD creators (most netbooks don't have optical drives), GIMP (perhaps they think most netbooks are not up to it, or most netbook users?), XSane (scanner support) and Remote Desktop and Terminal Server Client (not relevant?).
Ok, so much for slogging through a lot of the details. Overall, I like the Karmic Netbook Release better than I did the previous ones. I think it is visually better, clearer, easier to understand and use. Some time ago I set up an HP Mini 2140 with UNR for a friend. I will be seeing her again soon, and I will show her the new UNR release and ask if she would like for me to upgrade it for her.
It will be interesting to see what the future brings for the Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Canonical has announced support for Moblin v2, and are providing an "Ubuntu Moblin Remix" for the Dell Mini 10v. I wonder if that will have any impact on the future of the Netbook Remix? Time will tell.
jw 5/11/2009
Wednesday 4 November 2009, 2:08 PM
HP Mini 5101
There are plenty of netbooks around, but those aimed specifically at businesspeople are few and far between. Hewlett Packard’s Mini 5101 is just that, though, and we like it.
You have to be prepared to live with Windows XP Home, Windows 7 Starter or Linux and deal with the usual netbook constraints such as a 10.1-inch screen, no optical drive and an Intel Atom N280 processor.
But a good netbook isn’t just about these headline specifications. The screen, for example, delivers a very clean and crisp 1024 x 600 pixels. We found Web browsing, doing webmail, and editing text to be a pleasure.
The chiclet keyboard is very well made, and we found typing at our normal touch-typing speed no problem. Other features include 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, memory card slot for SD and compatible formats, three USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, and a 2 megapixel webcam. And the weight is just 1.2Kg.
The four-cell battery won’t keep you going all day, but for the odd bit of work between meetings this could be a better bet than a larger, more weighty notebook.
Prices start at £327 ex VAT and full details of the various models available are here.
Snadra Vogel
You have to be prepared to live with Windows XP Home, Windows 7 Starter or Linux and deal with the usual netbook constraints such as a 10.1-inch screen, no optical drive and an Intel Atom N280 processor.
But a good netbook isn’t just about these headline specifications. The screen, for example, delivers a very clean and crisp 1024 x 600 pixels. We found Web browsing, doing webmail, and editing text to be a pleasure.
The chiclet keyboard is very well made, and we found typing at our normal touch-typing speed no problem. Other features include 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, memory card slot for SD and compatible formats, three USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, and a 2 megapixel webcam. And the weight is just 1.2Kg.
The four-cell battery won’t keep you going all day, but for the odd bit of work between meetings this could be a better bet than a larger, more weighty notebook.
Prices start at £327 ex VAT and full details of the various models available are here.
Snadra Vogel
Wednesday 4 November 2009, 1:07 PM
Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic Koala) on Netbooks - Part 1 (Overview)
I have promised several people that I would take a look at Ubuntu 9.10 and several of its derivatives on netbook hardware. My intention is to consider the following:
- Ubuntu (plain vanilla, Gnome desktop)
- Ubuntu Netbook Remix
- Kubuntu (KDE desktop, both with and without KDE netbook)
- Xubuntu (Xfce desktop)
I will be trying each of these on my ASUS N10J netbook, which I believe is very typical of netbook hardware configuration - Intel Atom 270 CPU, Intel 945 GME graphic controller, 10.2" 1024x600 screen, wired and wireless network connection, and bluetooth. The one thing that makes the N10J unique is that it also has an nVidia GeForce 9300 graphic controller which can be switched on and off.
First up, before diving into the Ubuntu derivatives, is the standard distribution. The basic installation, and the standard Gnome desktop, work just fine on the N10J. All of the devices are recognized and supported with no trouble. There are several things that you can change in the standard Ubuntu desktop to make it more netbook-friendly. One of the first things I always do (and not only on netbooks, but it is particularly important here), is right-click on each of the panels, choose Properties, and enable the Autohide attribute. That helps squeeze every last bit of usable space out of the small screen. In that same Properties panel, on netbooks I have recently been disabling the Expand attribute. That lets the panels be only as wide as necessary for their current content, rather than always spanning the entire screen. That sometimes helps by not obscuring parts of windows, but I think it also helps by simply making the screen appear less "full". I am also of the opinion that space on netbook displays is more critical in the vertical direction than the horizontal (as they are typically 1024x600 or even 1024x576), so I also change the Orientation of the Bottom panel to one of the sides (choose whichever you are more comfortable with).
Another useful area to adjust on netbooks is Power Management. You can get there either by right-clicking on the battery icon in the top panel, if it is visible, or by going to System/Preferences/Power Management. In addition to power saving adjustments, you can choose what action to take on various events; I want my netbooks to continue running when I close the lid to carry them around the house, so I set that attribute to Blank Screen rather than Suspend. Also on the subject of Power Management, both the Suspend and Hibernate operations work properly on my N10J. It's worth knowing, though, that when awakening from Hibernation, it will initially look as if the netbook is going through a new boot, but as it comes up it will notice the hibernation image and will then resume the state it was in when it hibernated.
The Fn- keys work for hardware control as they should, which has not always been the case with previous releases. I am able to adjust screen brightness, audio volume and mute, turn the wireless receiver on and off, and Suspend the N10J.
One slightly fun note. Most netbooks that are based on the Intel Atom CPU also have the Intel 945/950 graphic controller. The driver for that is good enough to support Extra Visual Effects. Some people like those, some hate them, and some say they feel sick when they watch the squiggly windows. You can turn them on by going to System/Preferences/Appearance, then the Visual Effects tab. Try it, and see if you like it. It's easy enough to turn off again.
If your netbook includes Bluetooth support, it will be detected and activated automatically when Ubuntu is installed. To use a Bluetooth mouse, just click the icon in the top Panel, choose Set up new device, and then press the Connecct button on the mouse. Once a mouse is configured, it will continue to work after rebooting the netbook. I have also used Bluetooth connection to transfer pictures from my mobile phone to the netbook. Bluetooth support is even better in 9.10 than it has been in previous releases. For one thing, Bluetooth printers are automatically detected by the Printing Configuration process, which makes getting them connected much easier than it was previously. Connecting my HP Officejet h470 printer was a breeze this time, and as with mice, once it has been connected, it will automatically reconnect when Ubuntu restarts. By the way, if you don't intend to use any Bluetooth devices, you can save a tiny bit of screen space by right-clicking on the Bluetooth icon, choose Preferences, and un-check the Show Icon box.
When you install Ubuntu, during the user definition you can specify if you want the user to be automatically logged in on boot. If you change your mind about this setting after installation, you can change it by going to System/Administration/Login Screen.
So, with these changes I have ended up with what I consider to be a very usable netbook desktop for the standard Ubuntu distribution. I think it is good for experienced users, who know their way around and don't need to have everything spread open in front of them all the time. Next up, I'll take a look at the Karmic Netbook Remix, and see what has been done to make Ubuntu even more user friendly on netbooks.
jw 4/11/2009
- Ubuntu (plain vanilla, Gnome desktop)
- Ubuntu Netbook Remix
- Kubuntu (KDE desktop, both with and without KDE netbook)
- Xubuntu (Xfce desktop)
I will be trying each of these on my ASUS N10J netbook, which I believe is very typical of netbook hardware configuration - Intel Atom 270 CPU, Intel 945 GME graphic controller, 10.2" 1024x600 screen, wired and wireless network connection, and bluetooth. The one thing that makes the N10J unique is that it also has an nVidia GeForce 9300 graphic controller which can be switched on and off.
First up, before diving into the Ubuntu derivatives, is the standard distribution. The basic installation, and the standard Gnome desktop, work just fine on the N10J. All of the devices are recognized and supported with no trouble. There are several things that you can change in the standard Ubuntu desktop to make it more netbook-friendly. One of the first things I always do (and not only on netbooks, but it is particularly important here), is right-click on each of the panels, choose Properties, and enable the Autohide attribute. That helps squeeze every last bit of usable space out of the small screen. In that same Properties panel, on netbooks I have recently been disabling the Expand attribute. That lets the panels be only as wide as necessary for their current content, rather than always spanning the entire screen. That sometimes helps by not obscuring parts of windows, but I think it also helps by simply making the screen appear less "full". I am also of the opinion that space on netbook displays is more critical in the vertical direction than the horizontal (as they are typically 1024x600 or even 1024x576), so I also change the Orientation of the Bottom panel to one of the sides (choose whichever you are more comfortable with).
Another useful area to adjust on netbooks is Power Management. You can get there either by right-clicking on the battery icon in the top panel, if it is visible, or by going to System/Preferences/Power Management. In addition to power saving adjustments, you can choose what action to take on various events; I want my netbooks to continue running when I close the lid to carry them around the house, so I set that attribute to Blank Screen rather than Suspend. Also on the subject of Power Management, both the Suspend and Hibernate operations work properly on my N10J. It's worth knowing, though, that when awakening from Hibernation, it will initially look as if the netbook is going through a new boot, but as it comes up it will notice the hibernation image and will then resume the state it was in when it hibernated.
The Fn- keys work for hardware control as they should, which has not always been the case with previous releases. I am able to adjust screen brightness, audio volume and mute, turn the wireless receiver on and off, and Suspend the N10J.
One slightly fun note. Most netbooks that are based on the Intel Atom CPU also have the Intel 945/950 graphic controller. The driver for that is good enough to support Extra Visual Effects. Some people like those, some hate them, and some say they feel sick when they watch the squiggly windows. You can turn them on by going to System/Preferences/Appearance, then the Visual Effects tab. Try it, and see if you like it. It's easy enough to turn off again.
If your netbook includes Bluetooth support, it will be detected and activated automatically when Ubuntu is installed. To use a Bluetooth mouse, just click the icon in the top Panel, choose Set up new device, and then press the Connecct button on the mouse. Once a mouse is configured, it will continue to work after rebooting the netbook. I have also used Bluetooth connection to transfer pictures from my mobile phone to the netbook. Bluetooth support is even better in 9.10 than it has been in previous releases. For one thing, Bluetooth printers are automatically detected by the Printing Configuration process, which makes getting them connected much easier than it was previously. Connecting my HP Officejet h470 printer was a breeze this time, and as with mice, once it has been connected, it will automatically reconnect when Ubuntu restarts. By the way, if you don't intend to use any Bluetooth devices, you can save a tiny bit of screen space by right-clicking on the Bluetooth icon, choose Preferences, and un-check the Show Icon box.
When you install Ubuntu, during the user definition you can specify if you want the user to be automatically logged in on boot. If you change your mind about this setting after installation, you can change it by going to System/Administration/Login Screen.
So, with these changes I have ended up with what I consider to be a very usable netbook desktop for the standard Ubuntu distribution. I think it is good for experienced users, who know their way around and don't need to have everything spread open in front of them all the time. Next up, I'll take a look at the Karmic Netbook Remix, and see what has been done to make Ubuntu even more user friendly on netbooks.
jw 4/11/2009
Tuesday 3 November 2009, 3:30 PM
Gyration Air Mouse
Mice fascinate me. I don’t mean the little furry mammals, though actually they do fascinate me. In this context I mean computer mice. I’ve a bit of a thing about trying different types of mouse, and the latest to hit the desk is Gyration’s Air Mouse.
This is an ordinary looking cordless mouse and it works in an ordinary looking cordless mouse way. Plug the provided dongle into a USB port, hit its Connect button, hit the Connect button on the mouse, and you are in business.
But there’s more. This is one of those mice that you can wave about in the air. There’s a trigger button on its underside and if you hold this down while waving the mouse around you can move the cursor and left and right click.
In addition to the main large mouse buttons there are three programmable buttons sitting just beneath the scroll wheel. Two are simple tap buttons, the third you hold down to swipe the mouse in eight directions. To programme these and two shake control functions you need to install some software, and here I hit a snag. I was installing the mouse on a netbook without an optical drive. Copying the installation file to a USB stick was no bother, though.
The range of activities you can attach to the button presses, swipes and shakes is vast. They include launching software or issuing commands within applications, actions like image capture, zooming and opening the display configuration, and functions like closing windows, cut, copy and paste.
If the variety here is not enough you can set up screen hotspots to trigger actions. There are eight in all – the four screen edges and the four screen corners. And you can even invoke an Alt, Shift, Ctrl or Windows based keystroke combination.
And yes, all those options work both when the mouse is on the table and when it is wielded in mid air.
The Gyration Air Mouse is designed for both left and right handed users. On the desk I had no trouble at all with it. However in the air I found holding down the ‘trigger’ button on the underside was fine for cursor movement and using the two large mouse buttons, and for the shake controls. The smaller three programmable buttons were a bit tricky to reach though.
Gyration has second guessed this potential problem, and you can double click the trigger button to force the mouse into ‘motion mode’ so you don’t have to hold it down. This makes things a whole lot easier.
I am ready to pack the Gyration Air Mouse in its little travelling pouch and take it with me next time I work away from the office. I want to see the look of amazement on the faces of those on the train when I start waving my mouse in the air.
The Air Mouse costs £85 if you buy it online from Gyration.
This is an ordinary looking cordless mouse and it works in an ordinary looking cordless mouse way. Plug the provided dongle into a USB port, hit its Connect button, hit the Connect button on the mouse, and you are in business.
But there’s more. This is one of those mice that you can wave about in the air. There’s a trigger button on its underside and if you hold this down while waving the mouse around you can move the cursor and left and right click.
In addition to the main large mouse buttons there are three programmable buttons sitting just beneath the scroll wheel. Two are simple tap buttons, the third you hold down to swipe the mouse in eight directions. To programme these and two shake control functions you need to install some software, and here I hit a snag. I was installing the mouse on a netbook without an optical drive. Copying the installation file to a USB stick was no bother, though.
The range of activities you can attach to the button presses, swipes and shakes is vast. They include launching software or issuing commands within applications, actions like image capture, zooming and opening the display configuration, and functions like closing windows, cut, copy and paste.
If the variety here is not enough you can set up screen hotspots to trigger actions. There are eight in all – the four screen edges and the four screen corners. And you can even invoke an Alt, Shift, Ctrl or Windows based keystroke combination.
And yes, all those options work both when the mouse is on the table and when it is wielded in mid air.
The Gyration Air Mouse is designed for both left and right handed users. On the desk I had no trouble at all with it. However in the air I found holding down the ‘trigger’ button on the underside was fine for cursor movement and using the two large mouse buttons, and for the shake controls. The smaller three programmable buttons were a bit tricky to reach though.
Gyration has second guessed this potential problem, and you can double click the trigger button to force the mouse into ‘motion mode’ so you don’t have to hold it down. This makes things a whole lot easier.
I am ready to pack the Gyration Air Mouse in its little travelling pouch and take it with me next time I work away from the office. I want to see the look of amazement on the faces of those on the train when I start waving my mouse in the air.
The Air Mouse costs £85 if you buy it online from Gyration.
Monday 2 November 2009, 3:09 PM
Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) - Mixed Impressions
Ok, Ubuntu Karmic has been out for a few days now, and I have to say that both for me personally, and I get the impression for a good part of the Ubuntu user community, the feelings are slightly mixed. i find this mildly amusing, because when Jaunty came out, six months ago, I thought it was truly excellent, and it was met with a collective yawn, and a lot of comments along the lines of "why bother?". This time, the buildup to the release of Karmic has been pretty significant, fueled to some extent by comparisons with Win7. But now that the release is available, suddenly there is are some complaints...
As I have said previously, one of the biggest changes in Ubuntu is the switch to GRUB 2, at least for new/clean installations. I don't do upgrades on this kind of software, so I have no direct experience with that, but if I understand correctly, installing Karmic as an upgrade to an existing pre-Karmic Ubuntu release will leave Legacy GRUB intact. What I would say is, if you have never done anything or changed anything with GRUB or its configuration files, you're likely to be ok either way. If you have changed GRUB in any way previously, you are likely to be in for a surprise if you make a clean install. Be prepared to read the release documents carefully.
I have seen one other problem so far. When I install on my ASUS N10J, it seems the the installer (Ubiquity) crashes near the end - I think it is during the finall installation and cleanup. The install has progressed far enough that I am left with a functioning system, but certain things are wrong - for one, it will not automatically mount USB disks, and several packages that should have been deleted (such as gparted) are still present. I haven't been able to isolate this far enough to really pin it down, though.
I have also heard from a few people who have other problems, in particular with installing on an HP 2133 Mini-Note. Again, I always make clean installations, and it works just fine for me, but it seems that upgrade installations run into problems with things like sound and wireless networking. Again, be careful.
Last, but certainly not least, the release of Ubuntu is creeping even more in the "commercial" direction, with the addition of things like Ubuntu One, the Software Soure (or whatever it is called), and the likes. If you are a Linux/FOSS "purist", you really need to think very carefully before installing Ubuntu, and look at some of those things.
I have installed Karmic on my Fujitsu S6510 Lifebook, HP 2133 Mini-Note, HP Pavillion dv2-1010ez, and ASUS N10J, with only the few problems mentioned above.
My next few days will be spent looking at UNR 9.10 and the Kubuntu netbook release. I hope to find some nice things to talk about there!
jw
As I have said previously, one of the biggest changes in Ubuntu is the switch to GRUB 2, at least for new/clean installations. I don't do upgrades on this kind of software, so I have no direct experience with that, but if I understand correctly, installing Karmic as an upgrade to an existing pre-Karmic Ubuntu release will leave Legacy GRUB intact. What I would say is, if you have never done anything or changed anything with GRUB or its configuration files, you're likely to be ok either way. If you have changed GRUB in any way previously, you are likely to be in for a surprise if you make a clean install. Be prepared to read the release documents carefully.
I have seen one other problem so far. When I install on my ASUS N10J, it seems the the installer (Ubiquity) crashes near the end - I think it is during the finall installation and cleanup. The install has progressed far enough that I am left with a functioning system, but certain things are wrong - for one, it will not automatically mount USB disks, and several packages that should have been deleted (such as gparted) are still present. I haven't been able to isolate this far enough to really pin it down, though.
I have also heard from a few people who have other problems, in particular with installing on an HP 2133 Mini-Note. Again, I always make clean installations, and it works just fine for me, but it seems that upgrade installations run into problems with things like sound and wireless networking. Again, be careful.
Last, but certainly not least, the release of Ubuntu is creeping even more in the "commercial" direction, with the addition of things like Ubuntu One, the Software Soure (or whatever it is called), and the likes. If you are a Linux/FOSS "purist", you really need to think very carefully before installing Ubuntu, and look at some of those things.
I have installed Karmic on my Fujitsu S6510 Lifebook, HP 2133 Mini-Note, HP Pavillion dv2-1010ez, and ASUS N10J, with only the few problems mentioned above.
My next few days will be spent looking at UNR 9.10 and the Kubuntu netbook release. I hope to find some nice things to talk about there!
jw
Thursday 29 October 2009, 8:43 AM
Hands on with Vodafone 360
I spent some time yesterday afternoon with Vodafone taking a look at its 360 service. Due to go live tomorrow, this service puts people at the heart of your mobile phone.
It is hardly a new idea, but Vodafone obviously thinks it needs to push itself forward in this area, believing that connected services based on aggregating social networking tools are the way forward.
The launch handset is Samsung’s full screened, touch enabled H1. Exclusive to Vodafone it is a well specified phone. It has a 3.5-inch touch enabled OLED screen, 16GB memory, WiFi, GPS, a maximum talk time of over 400 minutes on 3G, and a 5 megapixel camera. The H1 is one of two exclusive Samsung handsets to offer Vodafone 360, with the second handset to follow shortly. The service will also be offered on other more widely available handsets going forward.
The H1 runs the Lunix based LiMo operating system, and the user interface is designed primarily to appeal to a consumer market at the outset. It takes a slightly tangential approach to things, with the home screen offering views of your contacts around with you can pan with a finger. Those you contact most often are shown first, you need to pan through the list to get to those you contact least. Choosing a contact lets you see their current level of connectedness across a range of social media and initiate a contact using the method that suits you best.
Another screen, easily accessed via a hard button on the handset, offers a mix of application shortcuts and live data. A shortcut to the music player can sit right next to a display of live weather data, for example, and you can enlarge the size of the data carrying applications so that they stand out.
It is an unusual approach to user interface design, which tends to rely on a home screen offering time, date, maybe live weather, and some user identified application links. Unusual but actually, for those who see their handset as a link to their friends, very sensible.
Among the other services that form crucial elements of Vodafone 360 is an app store and access to Vodafone’s music store. Vodafone 360 is all about sharing. Part of the services includes a Web store which backs up the handset’s contents automatically and through which you can share things like photos, music and your location with others. Providing they are signed up.
That’s the rub for Vodafone. 360 will only really be a success if people sign up to it and join the community. Which means Vodafone needs to push them hard.
The lure at launch is the H1 plus Vodafone 360 services for contracts from £35 a month. Details here.
It is hardly a new idea, but Vodafone obviously thinks it needs to push itself forward in this area, believing that connected services based on aggregating social networking tools are the way forward.
The launch handset is Samsung’s full screened, touch enabled H1. Exclusive to Vodafone it is a well specified phone. It has a 3.5-inch touch enabled OLED screen, 16GB memory, WiFi, GPS, a maximum talk time of over 400 minutes on 3G, and a 5 megapixel camera. The H1 is one of two exclusive Samsung handsets to offer Vodafone 360, with the second handset to follow shortly. The service will also be offered on other more widely available handsets going forward.
The H1 runs the Lunix based LiMo operating system, and the user interface is designed primarily to appeal to a consumer market at the outset. It takes a slightly tangential approach to things, with the home screen offering views of your contacts around with you can pan with a finger. Those you contact most often are shown first, you need to pan through the list to get to those you contact least. Choosing a contact lets you see their current level of connectedness across a range of social media and initiate a contact using the method that suits you best.
Another screen, easily accessed via a hard button on the handset, offers a mix of application shortcuts and live data. A shortcut to the music player can sit right next to a display of live weather data, for example, and you can enlarge the size of the data carrying applications so that they stand out.
It is an unusual approach to user interface design, which tends to rely on a home screen offering time, date, maybe live weather, and some user identified application links. Unusual but actually, for those who see their handset as a link to their friends, very sensible.
Among the other services that form crucial elements of Vodafone 360 is an app store and access to Vodafone’s music store. Vodafone 360 is all about sharing. Part of the services includes a Web store which backs up the handset’s contents automatically and through which you can share things like photos, music and your location with others. Providing they are signed up.
That’s the rub for Vodafone. 360 will only really be a success if people sign up to it and join the community. Which means Vodafone needs to push them hard.
The lure at launch is the H1 plus Vodafone 360 services for contracts from £35 a month. Details here.
Wednesday 28 October 2009, 8:38 PM
Preparing for Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
Is there anyone around who doesn't know that the next release of Ubuntu Linux, 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is due out tomorrow? I doubt it, and even if there were they wouldn't be reading this, so I'll just forge ahead.
I don't intend to add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of the new release. What I would like to do is take a quick look at a few simple things that can go a long way in making the upgrade easier.
First, and this is very important, DO NOT DOWNLOAD FROM ANY OF THE "SECRET PRE-RELEASE LINKS" that have started to pop up in a few places. This is something new to me, I haven't seen it with any previous Ubuntu release, or any other Linux release for that matter. I suppose it is a good thing, a sign of how anxious people are to get this release. However, from what I can tell (and I have followed a few of them), they are nothing more than links to a recent Ubuntu "daily build". First, the daily builds are NOT the final release, and there is no way of knowing if they will be different in any significant way, but they certainly could be. Second, in many cases, after the download has been bounced between any number of "unofficial" systems, you can't even be sure of what version you are getting, how recent of a daily build it is, or anything else about it for that matter. If you can't wait, if you absolutely have to have it right now, at least go and get it directly from the Ubuntu daily build download.
Second, remember that the Ubuntu LiveCD image can now be copied to a USB stick, and then booted and installed from that. If your computer will boot from a USB drive, this will save you having to burn it to a CD. Assuming you are already running Ubuntu, the utility to copy the image to USB media is in the Administration menu. If you are changing from Windows to Ubuntu (congratulations), there is a free Windows utility to do the USB copy, check the Ubuntu download page.
Third, in addition to backing up your data before you install it (I know everyone was going to do that, weren't they?), consider taking the opportunity to really separate your data from the main Ubuntu installation. I'm sure there are a lot of people who, like me, were lazy with their first Ubuntu installation and shoved it all into one file system, thinking that they weren't going to keep it that long anyway, and now here they are still using it that way. This would be a good time to correct that.
Fourth, look carefully at the additional packages and programs that you have installed. Clean out the ones you don't need. If you have some which you installed from downloads, as I have for things like Opera, Gizmo, Picasa and such, they haven't been automatically updated by the Ubuntu Update Manager. This is a good time to check for a newer version, and if there is one remove the old version before you upgrade Ubuntu, then download and install the new version after the upgrade. In fact, check to see if your favorite package might have been picked up and included in the new release of Ubuntu, which would save you downloading and manually installing, and would get it included in automatic updates in the future.
Last, if you are going to install Ubuntu on a netbook or some other system with a very small screen, when you boot the LiveCD choose the "try Ubuntu without changes" option, instead of going directly to the "Install Ubuntu" option. Once it is booted, set auto-hide on both the upper and lower panels, by right-clicking on each of them, choose Properties, and then click auto-hide and OK. Then start the installation from the desktop icon. You'll be happy to have the little bit of extra screen space this gains you for the installation window.
jw 28/10/2009
I don't intend to add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of the new release. What I would like to do is take a quick look at a few simple things that can go a long way in making the upgrade easier.
First, and this is very important, DO NOT DOWNLOAD FROM ANY OF THE "SECRET PRE-RELEASE LINKS" that have started to pop up in a few places. This is something new to me, I haven't seen it with any previous Ubuntu release, or any other Linux release for that matter. I suppose it is a good thing, a sign of how anxious people are to get this release. However, from what I can tell (and I have followed a few of them), they are nothing more than links to a recent Ubuntu "daily build". First, the daily builds are NOT the final release, and there is no way of knowing if they will be different in any significant way, but they certainly could be. Second, in many cases, after the download has been bounced between any number of "unofficial" systems, you can't even be sure of what version you are getting, how recent of a daily build it is, or anything else about it for that matter. If you can't wait, if you absolutely have to have it right now, at least go and get it directly from the Ubuntu daily build download.
Second, remember that the Ubuntu LiveCD image can now be copied to a USB stick, and then booted and installed from that. If your computer will boot from a USB drive, this will save you having to burn it to a CD. Assuming you are already running Ubuntu, the utility to copy the image to USB media is in the Administration menu. If you are changing from Windows to Ubuntu (congratulations), there is a free Windows utility to do the USB copy, check the Ubuntu download page.
Third, in addition to backing up your data before you install it (I know everyone was going to do that, weren't they?), consider taking the opportunity to really separate your data from the main Ubuntu installation. I'm sure there are a lot of people who, like me, were lazy with their first Ubuntu installation and shoved it all into one file system, thinking that they weren't going to keep it that long anyway, and now here they are still using it that way. This would be a good time to correct that.
Fourth, look carefully at the additional packages and programs that you have installed. Clean out the ones you don't need. If you have some which you installed from downloads, as I have for things like Opera, Gizmo, Picasa and such, they haven't been automatically updated by the Ubuntu Update Manager. This is a good time to check for a newer version, and if there is one remove the old version before you upgrade Ubuntu, then download and install the new version after the upgrade. In fact, check to see if your favorite package might have been picked up and included in the new release of Ubuntu, which would save you downloading and manually installing, and would get it included in automatic updates in the future.
Last, if you are going to install Ubuntu on a netbook or some other system with a very small screen, when you boot the LiveCD choose the "try Ubuntu without changes" option, instead of going directly to the "Install Ubuntu" option. Once it is booted, set auto-hide on both the upper and lower panels, by right-clicking on each of them, choose Properties, and then click auto-hide and OK. Then start the installation from the desktop icon. You'll be happy to have the little bit of extra screen space this gains you for the installation window.
jw 28/10/2009
Wednesday 28 October 2009, 7:48 AM
Panasonic CF-T8
Panasonic’s Toughbooks are well known as super-rugged notebooks for specialised use. But there is a little more to the range than that, and the ‘business ruggedised’ line includes a number of machines aimed at the besuited business traveller who needs a little more solidity in their notebook than usual crop of machines can provide.
There are several options in the range, and I’ve been taking a look at the CF-T8.
The design is startling. The magnesium alloy casing can withstand 100kg/f of pressure and while I can feel some flex in the lid the outer casing is a long way removed from the display so there is plenty of protection as far as that is concerned. There are ridges on the outer casing which look distinctive and help disguise the overall thickness of the notebook.
Inside the keyboard and touchpad are spill resistant and feature a water drainage system. There is a carrying strap on the back of the shell which helps you balance the notebook in the crook of an arm when standing up. There is a touchscreen which you can use while standing – or sitting, of course. This is finger-responsive so there’s no need to fiddle with a stylus.
The notebook is surprisingly light at 1.3g, and quite small at 272mm x 214mm x 28-48mm. The thickness varies greatly with the deeper measurement at the back. This gives the CF-T8 a very sloping profile when on the desk.
There is no optical drive – but look around the CF range if you need one of these. The screen is relatively small at 12-1-inches, and a squarer shape than we are used to seeing these days. Its 1024 x 768 pixels seem somewhat behind the times.
The round touchpad looks distinctive and was not actually too tricky to get used to. You can equip the CF-T8 with mobile broadband, and Wi-Fi comes as standard. Windows Vista Business is pre installed and there’s a downgrade option to XP. There is no mention of Windows 7 at the Toughbook Web site yet.
The 160GB hard drive has shock proofing. Ports and connectors include three USB ports, Ethernet and modem, PC Card and SD and compatible card reader, monitor connector, headphones and microphone jacks and a port replicator connector. There is a manual toggle switch for wireless on the front edge of the casing.
There’s more about the Toughbooks here.
There are several options in the range, and I’ve been taking a look at the CF-T8.
The design is startling. The magnesium alloy casing can withstand 100kg/f of pressure and while I can feel some flex in the lid the outer casing is a long way removed from the display so there is plenty of protection as far as that is concerned. There are ridges on the outer casing which look distinctive and help disguise the overall thickness of the notebook.
Inside the keyboard and touchpad are spill resistant and feature a water drainage system. There is a carrying strap on the back of the shell which helps you balance the notebook in the crook of an arm when standing up. There is a touchscreen which you can use while standing – or sitting, of course. This is finger-responsive so there’s no need to fiddle with a stylus.
The notebook is surprisingly light at 1.3g, and quite small at 272mm x 214mm x 28-48mm. The thickness varies greatly with the deeper measurement at the back. This gives the CF-T8 a very sloping profile when on the desk.
There is no optical drive – but look around the CF range if you need one of these. The screen is relatively small at 12-1-inches, and a squarer shape than we are used to seeing these days. Its 1024 x 768 pixels seem somewhat behind the times.
The round touchpad looks distinctive and was not actually too tricky to get used to. You can equip the CF-T8 with mobile broadband, and Wi-Fi comes as standard. Windows Vista Business is pre installed and there’s a downgrade option to XP. There is no mention of Windows 7 at the Toughbook Web site yet.
The 160GB hard drive has shock proofing. Ports and connectors include three USB ports, Ethernet and modem, PC Card and SD and compatible card reader, monitor connector, headphones and microphone jacks and a port replicator connector. There is a manual toggle switch for wireless on the front edge of the casing.
There’s more about the Toughbooks here.
Previous
