Wednesday 20 August 2008, 1:04 PM
New Debian GNU/Linux Update
A new Debian GNU/Linux Update was released a few weeks ago - well, actually one and a half new updates, to be precise. I just got around to giving it a try, and I'm pleased and impressed.
The new release is 4.0r4a, and it incorporates security updates and bug fixes. At the same time, they have released what they call an "etch-and-a-half" release, which adds support for new hardware to their current stable release, largely by updating to a newer Linux kernel (2.6.24 instead of 2.6.18). Given that Debian tends to be VERY conservative about updates to stable versions, this is a big step forward.
I initially installed the basic 4.0r4a release, with no problems at all. Then I went back and installed the etch-and-a-half release (from scratch again, not on top of the first one). On this installation it took much longer to search the ftp archive for packages, but it eventually installed properly.
The first piece of good news is that it seems to understand the Mobile Intel 965 display adapter better than the previous version, and it adjusts the display resolution to 1280x1024 when I have the laptop docked, which only Ubuntu had managed to figure out until now.
The first bit of bad news is that it seems not to understand the Realtek audio system for some reason, so I'm not getting any sound quite yet.
I'm now working my way through some of the things which I find to be irritating differences (iceweasel instead of firefox and such), and installing the tools and utilities that I use every day. if it continues to work this well, I might use it as my preferred Linux system for a while. Hmmm. What an interesting development that would be, wouldn't it? I would then have one disk for my S6510 laptop that triple-boots XP Professional, Ubuntu and Mandriva, and another that dual-boots Vista and Debian. Not the way I expected things to go, to be honest!
jw 20/08/2008
Thursday 14 August 2008, 1:58 AM
Windows XP Embedded Standard 2009 CTP#1 & CTP#2
(or Micro$oft decided to let the marketing hacks screw with XPE.)
What really cranks the whole thing was that after going to MEDC last year, after being told by the XPE MS people and believing(!) them that Windows XP Embedded was finally going to get IE7 in component form, the MS marketing nimrods got into the mix and decided to change the name of the product AND take the previously promised but canceled FP2008 and turn it into Windows XP Embedded Standard 2009. With a name that sounds mostly like a meaningless jumble of BS, it looks like its going to be marketed as a new product, not the upgrade it should be. I feel like the product is being needlessly churned with marketing ju-ju just to see if they can extract more $1000/year subscriptions from the business market. All without having to continue to allow Windows XP Pro to be sold instead of Wista.
They added Silverlight, yipee. So what. Another proprietary web browser plugin that requires lots of CPU horsepower.
Its pretty obvious that the only people they will get to test XPE 2009 before release are the same ones that already use the current Windows XP Embedded product. Documentation on installation and troubleshooting are 3 or 4 paragraphs at best, usually not more than 2 or 3 sentences.
The only feature that looks promising is that they have FINALLY integrated it into Visual Studio. We'll see exactly how they've managed that. VS2008 has the right hooks to make it work, so that's pretty obvious. The question is, how much of VS2008 do you have to buy to make it work well? VS2005 had to be at the Professional level at least to get Win CE and WIn Mobile "built-ins" to work.
Evidently they've included the new Peer-to-Peer Vista protocol into the XPE2009 system so that XPE systems can connect to Vista boxes. A dubious feature at least in our environment since our Windows based software applications won't run on Vista. We've already tested that out.
One other item is a 10 year product support life-cycle. Knowing what that means to other Windows products, I expect maybe another couple of years before they decide to ashcan this product. XPE is already 6 years old and you probably won't get any new component support for it past January this coming year.
Yeah I believe Microsoft really means 10 years this time, yeah buddy. Let me know when you come around with the KoolAid OK?
Details once I decide how I'm going to test it out without trashing my current XPE installation.
“20% Brighter Colors!” “New Fresh Lemony Scent!” Emphasis on the lemon.
Wednesday 13 August 2008, 10:34 AM
meebo - Browser based multi-system IM chat
I have been looking at meebo, an IM chat program that is entirely browser-based (thus nothing to download and install), and in addition to its own account allows you to register your AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk and MSN accounts, so you can chat with your contacts on those services as well.
The idea is good - in fact, I should say the ideas (plural) are good, because cross-system chat allows you to consolidate several clients into one, and having it browser-based not only saves you having to download and install a client program, but also means that it is not tied to whatever operating systems the developers choose to support. I have tested it on Vista, XP, Ubuntu and Mandriva, and it seemed to work just fine on all of them. According to their web page, it will also work on the iPhone and iPod Touch, but I don't have either of those to try. In principle it should also work on a cell phone with internet access, but I just tried it on my Nokia 6234, using Opera Mini, and I couldn't get it to connect.
Besides ordinary one-to-one IM chat, meebo also has "rooms" which any user can set up for community (group) chat. Rooms can be focused on common interest or hobbies, groups and families, or pretty much anything else you would like. There is a "room-browse" page that shows featured rooms, and has lists by topic. Judging from the number of rooms, and the number of participants in each room, this is apparently a well-used feature.
The people behind meebo seem to be quite enthusiastic as well, judging from their web page and their blogs. I got a blog notice about new wallpapers being available, with a good, detailed explanation of how to find and use them (and a nice needle at one particular browser, when they said that the new wallpapers were resizable on Firefox, Safari and Opera, and if they wouldn't resize for you then you should get a standards-compliant browser. Hmmm... I wonder what browser they could have been talking about, if it isn't Firefox, Safari or Opera...).
There are a few significant shortcomings with meebo. One of the largest is that while they support four other chat services, and they are big ones, that isn't really all that many. Gizmo5, which I use daily, supports quite a few more, such as iChat, MySpaceIM, ICQ, QQ, Gadu-Gadu and more. Gizmo5 also has a browser-based client, accessible through giz5.com (a fairly new development), but the Gizmo client isn't as sophisticated as the meebo client. Gizmo also has a native client for lots of mobile devices, smart phones and the like. I can tell you, using the Gizmo5 client on my Nokia cell phone is a lot nicer, and a lot easier, than working my way through the web page, even with Opera Mini. Also, Gizmo has put a LOT of effort into optimizing the internet use of the mobile/cell clients, to keep down your mobile internet bills.
Overall I find meebo to be well designed, pleasant to use, and good at what it claims to do. If you want IM text chat, and only that, it can be a good, fast, easy choice, and you can consolidate your contacts from a few other services at the same time.
jw 13/8/2008
Tuesday 12 August 2008, 5:17 PM
Dell launches new business laptops
We've all been waiting for the rumoured Dell "E" netbooks - and that may still come out of today's announcements - but right now we can reveal the company's new line of Latitude notebooks.
The E4200 is a 1kg (!) 12.1-inch laptop. The E4300 has a 13.3-inch screen and starts, weightwise, at 1.54kg.
So much for the light stuff. Next up are the 14.1-inch E5400 and the 15.4-inch E5500, both starting at £469. Those will be the cheaper ones then. Also launched today are the 14.1-inch E6400 and the 15.4-inch E6500 - both just a bit more than £700.
Interestingly, that E6400 has a claimed battery life of 19 hours - we'll certainly be testing that claim!
There's also a semi-rugged laptop - the 14.1-inch E6400 ATG, built to "military" standards.
Still no "E", but one anticipated feature has come up. From the statement: "The company also previewed Dell Latitude ON, a new technology that will enable near-instant access to e-mail, calendar, attachments, contacts and the Web without booting into the system’s main operating system (OS). Expected in the coming months on the Latitude E4200 and E4300, Dell Latitude ON uses a dedicated low-voltage sub-processor and OS that can enable multi-day battery life."
So, a bit like Asus's "Express Gate" technology, then.
Two "mobile workstations" were also announced - the super-specced Precision M4400 (starting at £939) and the lightweight Precision M2400 (starting at £889).
We'll have more details and pics soon, but that appears to have been today's announcement in full. Sorry folks, no netbooks (though I hope I'm wrong about this).
Monday 11 August 2008, 3:42 PM
Android slips onto YouTube (possibly)
Is this the HTC Dream, bearing Google's Android OS?
According to the chap who uploaded this clip to YouTube, it's genuine, but frankly I don't have the foggiest. It does look like an intriguing device though - touch plus keyboard is a winning combination in my book, and it looks to be a decent size too. Bring on the Androidy goodness!
Monday 11 August 2008, 12:32 PM
Asus's homeopathic Eee
Ah, Asus and its Eee brand. It all started off so well with the Eee 701, with its titchy 7" screen and lightweight, cheap-as-chips goodness. Then the second and third generations rolled in with obscene haste, and suddenly it's all starting to look like the Eee brand is becoming diluted beyond recognition.
The most egregious example thus far has been the Eee 1000. I've had a play, and this 10.2"-screened laptop is just that: a laptop. Not a "netbook". It's too heavy and, frankly, a tad too pricey to be a netbook. It's still relatively cheap for a small laptop, but it's really pushed the boundary that bit too far to be as cool as the 701, or even the 8.9"-screened 901.
Now we have the S101, which many sites are reporting as a new Eee PC. This one will probably cost around £450 (the original Eee 701 was around £200), will have a 64GB SSD (nice, but unnecessary for the device at hand), and a 945GME chipset to power its LED-backlit screen.
Is it an Eee? It does use the Atom processor, but it's too expensive and probably too heavy to qualify in my book. A spokesperson for the company told me today that the S101 is not - as widely reported - definitely going to be branded an Eee, because Asus management are still deciding whether it fits with the Eee's "original purpose".
Much as I abhor marketing-speak, I think the term "brand dilution" was made for situations like this. With Asus rumoured to be readying oodles of new Eee models, let's hope they keep the core purpose in mind. With every other manufacturer diving headfirst into the netbook market that Asus opened up, the company would be foolish to lose track.
UPDATE: Eagle-eyed Karen found this page on Asus's own website. It refers to an "Eee PC S101" and, interestingly, the 1002 model. Of which we have heard nary a whisper at the time of writing. We're onto Asus's PR team about this one now...
Tuesday 5 August 2008, 9:37 AM
Lenovo joins the netbook crowd
We've been wondering when Lenovo would toss its hat into the increasingly crowded netbook (or, as we prefer it, mini-notebook) ring. Now the Lenovo hat is there, in the shape of the IdeaPad S9 (8.9in. screen) and S10 (10.2in. screen). Like most other notebook vendors with established ranges of 'proper' business notebooks to protect, Lenovo pitches these Atom-based systems towards the consumer/second PC end of the market. To that end, they come in a range of colours, including Eee-like white and 'pastel pink':
However, as with the Eee and its brethren, we fully expect mobile types within businesses to infiltrate these highly portable (1kg, 2.5cm thick) notebooks through the back door in the process known as 'consumerisation'.
As well as the Atom CPU, the IdeaPads come with 1GB of RAM, either a 160GB hard drive or a 4GB SSD, Wi-Fi and optional Bluetooth, an ExpressCard slot (handy for adding a mobile broadband modem), a pair of USB ports, a 4-in-1 flash card reader and a webcam.
Lenovo claims that the keyboard — always a crucial factor on a mini-notebook — is 85 per cent of the size of a full-sized notebook unit. Given Lenovo's track record with its ThinkPad keyboards, we're hopeful here.
Pricing for the 8.9in. S9 is a reasonable £279 (inc. VAT), while the 10.2in. S10 comes in at £319 (inc. VAT). The IdeaPads will be available in early October 2008.
Friday 1 August 2008, 1:21 PM
A Week Working With Linux
After a short vacation during which I made a traveling test with Linux, which was very successful, I decided to continue the test by using it as much as possible for my work this week. As I have mentioned previously, I have my primary laptop set up to multi-boot Windows XP Professional, Ubuntu or Mandriva, so it is just as easy for me to boot Linux as Windows at any time. I was very curious as to how many times during the week I would "have to" boot Windows.
What I have found, in a nutshell, is that I have to run Windows in order to use the Sierra Wireless AirCard for HSPA cellular access, and that's just about it. I use my laptop at home, either wireless or wired to a Linksys router, in the office, connected to the company wired network, and on the bus and train as I commute, with cellular access. So two out of three times I have been able to run Linux.
When I am at home, I need internet access (duh), email (Thunderbird, the same as I use when on Windows), web surfing (Firefox, the same as I use when on Windows), Gizmo5 (the same as I use when on Windows), digital photo management, and a few other utilities.
When I am at work, I need the Citrix VPN client (the same as I use on Windows), XTerm and/or other remote terminal access to our internal company hosts, OpenOffice (which I use on the same documents that I work on with MS Office on Windows), email and web surfing, and a few other utilities.
During my commute, I need HSPA cellular access, so I have to boot up Windows for that part of my day. It would be nice if I could get the Sierra Wireless card working on Linux, of course, so that is on my priority list now.
Of course, I have made some choices which make this a bit easier for me. I have used Firefox and Thunderbird on Windows for a long time, originally because I simply wanted something other than the MS equivalents (you still couldn't pay me enough to use Outlook!). Now I use them on Linux as well, not necessarily because I think they are better than any of the "standard" Linux equivalents, but it makes moving back and forth a lot easier. But the important point is, the choices are there, the functionality exists and is at least as good as what you are accustomed to on Windows (including OpenOffice vs. MS Office).
So, think about it. What do you use your PC for, at home, at work or when traveling? What kind of things do you need to do on a regular basis? Could you do it with Linux? I'd love to hear in comments about other things that do and don't work, or exist, on Linux.
Thursday 31 July 2008, 11:56 AM
500,000 Classmates for Portugal
Amid rumours of a 'third-generation' Classmate PC, Intel has announced that it's to supply half a million of its second-generation (9in. screen) netbooks to the Portuguese government for use in elementary schools.
There are few details on the upcoming third-generation Classmate, although a new look-and-feel is promised, according to a PC World report. It's pretty certain to be Atom-powered, and may well offer the Sugar interface, first seen on the rival OLPC XO. Sugar development is now under the auspices of SugarLabs, following a split from OLPC in May this year.
Wednesday 30 July 2008, 11:13 AM
Eee Box to ship in September
Having already used the 'Eee PC' name for its successful and rapidly expanding range of mini- (and increasingly not-so-mini — see the latest 1000 model) notebooks, ASUS must have scratched its collective head when seeking a name for its Eee-branded mini-desktop. It came up with the catchy 'Eee Box', and it'll be available in the UK for £199 from September.
This little 1kg system can be desk-mounted on a stand, or VESA-mounted to the back of a flat-panel monitor. It's powered by Intel's 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, comes with 1GB of RAM and has an 80GB hard disk. Connectivity includes Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi, and the system is powered via an external 65W AC adapter.
ASUS is proud of its Express Gate firmware, which (it says) enables a 'super-speedy' 8-sceond boot time to 'Internet ready' status. We look forward to investigating this — Windows XP will be available first, with Linux to follow. Other claims we'll be looking at are power consumption (reduced by '90 per cent when compared to full-sized conventional desktops') and noise ('50 per cent of the noise levels of the average desktop').
Watch this (compact) space.
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