Loving Linux Mint

(Continued from Part 2)

After trying openSUSE and Fedora and getting frustrated, I was almost ready to give up. Surely if people are trying to get Linux onto desktops, it should be easier than this? All those people that are saying Linux is ready for personal use must be delusional, or have really simple needs.

Anyway, my next was Ubuntu. Ubuntu is by far the most popular Linux distribution with a huge commercial backing. The installation screens of Ubuntu is also different from others in that it highlights Ubuntu's features instead of showing technical messages that most people probably won't understand.

Ubuntu has multi-lingual support built-in, but maybe because they don't have a lot of Asian developers, their selection of pre-installed input method are more than strange, to say the least, and the most commonly used Pinyin input, ibus-pinyin, isn't available by default, and none of those Chinese input selections in the screen below worked in a useful manner.

You might also think I'm easily discouraged. The thing is, I have no problems with using Windows or OS X in my daily work. I don't think Bill or Steve are the devil, and I use the right tool for the right job. I can easily learn to compile my own kernel or drivers, but I want to see how difficult it would be for an average person to get Linux going, without getting all frustrated.

Like Fedora, Ubuntu supports brightness and volume OSD out of the box, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth toggling using Fn-F5. Trackpoing scrolling and sensitivity can be installed and configured the same way as Fedora.

The big surprise was for Active Protection System, which I couldn't get to work in Fedora. In Ubuntu, both tp_smapi (called tp-smapi-dkms) and hdaps are available in the repo. After installing them from the repo, APS worked right away without additional configuration.

I was almost going keep Ubuntu when I went to uninstall Evolution. I don't use a desktop mail client, so Evolution is no use for me, but when I tried to remove it, Software Center also wants to uninstall ubuntu-desktop as well, which is probably not a very good idea. Evolution is just too integrated with Ubuntu to make a full and clean uninstallation possible.

Next and final in queue, Linux Mint.

Ubuntu and Linux Mint are almost exactly the same thing. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu but with somewhat different pre-installed applications and themes (Thunderbird instead of Evolution, Pidgin instead of Empathy, and it's green instead of brown), the partner repo is pre-enabled, and video codecs are pre-installed instead of auto-installation on first use.

Linux Mint's Software Manager is a lot like Ubuntu's Software Center. But it adds community reviews and stars, which sounds like a good idea at first, until you see the reviews for programs like Adobe Reader which is really useful for enterprise users like me, but typical "fanbois" would hate. I think this is Linux Mint's only drawback, and I wish there's a way to use the Software Manager without seeing those amateur reviews and scores.

In conclusion, I've been using Linux Mint for a couple of weeks now. As of this writing Ubuntu 10.10 is out, and I imagine a new version of Linux Mint would be coming soon.

(To be continued...)

Finding the right Linux distribution

(Continued from Part 1)

After picking my distributions using VMware, I installed them on my test laptop, a ThinkPad X61. The X61 is an older Penryn Core 2 Duo machine with 2 GB RAM and 80 GB hard drive. It also has Bluetooth, fingerprint reader, but no WWAN and no webcam.

My goal is to have a Linux distribution that supports all of the X61's hardware properly and is easy to configure and use day to day. i.e. as a machine that I can do work with, and ocassionally watch some movies, and not something that I need to continously update in order to get things to work.

I started with openSUSE, which was actually my favorite of my four final choices while testing out with VMware. openSUSE is also special is that it knows it's running inside VMware and automatically installs VMware Tools. openSUSE is the community supported edition of SUSE Linux Enterprise, which is commercially supported by Novell. This is also one of the reasons I'm interested in openSUSE.

For the ThinkPad X61. Out of the box, openSUSE supports trackpoint scrolling, brightness control (without OSD), volume control, Fn-F5 to toggle wireless, and also hold down Fn-F5 to toggle Bluetooth.

Unfortunately, for some reason Wi-Fi didn't work out of the box, after some trying, I restarted networking by issuing the command /sbin/rcnetwork restart which started thing up, and after that it just worked, even after reboots. I have no idea why it didn't work the first time.

openSUSE doesn't have any non-free software installed by default or even enabled, so I had to first add the contrib repo and restricted formats repo (for playing videos).

Also due to licensing issues, openSUSE doesn't have subpixel smoothing installed by default, so I had to add the subpixel repo and enable it. Strangely enough, I noticed that the Gnome edition of openSUSE does have subpixel smoothing already included and enabled. Unfortunately, with either the KDE or Gnome editions, having subpixel hinting enabled didn't mean that it automatically works with all applications without some hacking.

Aside from subpixel smoothing, openSUSE seems to work perfectly at this point, except the KNetworkManager would randomly segfault. I was about to attempt to get APS to work (see below) when it froze and hung the entire OS (thought this wasn't possible with Linux, but people also say the same thing about OS X and I've had OS X freeze up more times than I could count). When I rebooted, KNetworkManager kept segfaulting non-stop and the network kept going down, so I decided to give up and installed my next favorite: Fedora.

Fedora for some reason can't find my external USB DVD drive when installing from the install DVD. So I had to install using the Live CD.

Out of the box, volume and brightness OSD work, and Fn-F5 toggles Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Subpixel hinting is available in Fedora, but disabled by default. Go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Fonts to enable it.

One surprise in Fedora is that iBus is already installed and enabled by default. This is really helpful for non-English users since there's no need to figure out how to install iBus and an input method.

Unfortunately, when I tried to play a movie, Fedora automatically offered to install the appropriate codecs for me, but no matter what I did, the installation always fails and I couldn't get any videos to play, since attempting to play would just bring back the failed to install package error again.

Unlike openSUSE, trackpoint scrolling wasn't available by default. I had to install gpointing (from the repo) to enable it. Trackpoint sensitivity can be configured after installing configure-trackpoint. No problems here.

Active Protection System turned out to be really difficult. APS is what ThinkPad calls their hard drive protection system that automatically parks the drive head when a vibration is detected. Normally Linux needs tp_smapi to read the vibration sensor, and hdapsd to read the output from tp_smapi and do the actual parking.

For Fedora, hdapsd is already included in the standard repo, but tp_smapi was nowhere to be found. I eventually found a site that has tp_smapi pre-compiled but there were four different ones available for download with no documentation whatsoever, and none of them worked. Google turned up nothing helpful.

So at this point, I gave up and installed the next in list, Ubuntu.

(Continued in Part 3)

Linux distributions

What happens when an experiened Windows guy with a bit of OS X experience tries out Linux for the first time? Well, not really the first time, I did use Linux long ago, and I use Linux inside VMware for some cross-compiling, I also have Linux on my netbook for browsing, but what happens if I install it on a regular laptop, and attempt to use it like a regular desktop OS?

Man, installing Linux in 2010 is nothing like it was in 1992. (1992 in computer years is a little bit like 1492 in human years.) The first thing I had to do was determine which distribution to use. My "long ago" Linux was SLS Linux, or Softlandindg Linux System, which was the great-great-great-grand daddy of all distributions. It wasn't really even a distribution, it was more like a set of floppy disks that gets the Linux kernel installed on the hard drive and made bootable, and creates a user then a login prompt, that's it. Everything else had to be downloaded (at 28.8 Kbps!) and manually compiled and installed. I even had to install X (X11R5) and fvwm and create the Xconfig, all by hand.

Oh, it's not like I haven't kept in touch with the Linux world. I know of all the popular distributions and I've tried them out from time to time inside VMware. I just don't see why there are so many distributions, surely there's no need for religion specific distributions?!

Anyway, I don't want to do a lot of things manually now, so I want a modern distribution that's easy to use. Isn't Linux supposed to be taking over the desktop? So things should be easy? Let's find out.

Testing Linux distributions is really simple with Live distributions or installation through VMware.

The images above were captured from Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint, and openSUSE, using their default desktops, in the order they appear on distrowatch.com. I actually tried a whole bunch of distributions, but these four were my favorites based on ease of use and initial configuration. It's no surprise that they also happen to be the top four on distrowatch.com. After trying them out in VMware, I then proceeded to install them on my laptop.

(Continued in Part 2)

Reviving EEE PC 701

Since installing Ubuntu Netbook Edition I've actually put my old EEE PC 701 to great use. I went on two trips without having to carry my MacBook with me. I only needed to access my mail and use Skype, so the little EEE PC was all I needed.

While researching which distribution to install earlier, I also came across Jolicloud and EasyPeasy. I chose UNE at the time since it was just released, while Jolicloud was still in beta, and EasyPeasy was based on a previous version of Ubuntu.

Since my EEE PC really doesn't have anything important on the SSD and I don't really care if the SSD dies by overuse, I decided to give all of them a try. (Note: the screenshots below are not taken from the EEE PC's 800x480 screen.)

Jolicloud application directory

Jolicloud has a completely different home screen that's not based on UNE. The strange thing about Jolicloud is that you have to "activate" your installation, and then it automatically syncs the applications installed from the application directory between your computers. I don't really see how useful this is. I mean, who has multiple netbooks?

Kubuntu Netbook Edition

Thanks to Plasma Netbook, Kubuntu Netbook Edition has by far the best looking desktop that's closer to a... er, desktop rather than a netbook specific look. Strangely enough, even though it's supposed to be designed for netbooks, it requires 3D capability, and I guess this is why it's really slow on my EEE PC.

Skype on EasyPeasy

EasyPeasy looks exactly like Ubuntu Netbook Edition, except it's green instead of brown, and has proprietary third-party applications such as Skype and Picasa installed by default. The most surprising thing about EasyPeasy is that it fixed the 1.9% battery bug. Due to all the extra installed programs, EasyPeasy takes more than 3 GB when installed.

Unlock Keyring on Leeenux Linux

Lastly, I tried Leeenux Linux. Leeenux Linux's idea is to create a tiny installation (less than 1.5 GB when installed) by using only GNOME and GTK+ applications. So you get GNOME Office applications like AbiWord and Gnumeric instead of OpenOffice.org. The idea is completely opposite of EasyPeasy above. Leeenux Linux has some annoyances such as having a non-obvious default keyring password (the password is '1'). Not a big issue, but it means I had to look it up instead of being able to guess the password.

In the end, I decided to use EasyPeasy on my EEE PC. I removed all the applications and games except for Firefox and Skype and got the installation down to a slightly more manageable 2.5 GB. But 2.5 GB is still a lot of space to run just those two programs. When I got my EEE PC in early 2008 I installed Windows XP as well as Microsoft Office XP in less than 2 GB. Linux shouldn't be so bloated... so I downloaded deborphan and tried to remove all stuck packages, and that got it down to 2.4 GB.

My EEE PC only has 512 MB and EasyPeasy automatically created a 200 MB swap partition. I guess I could get a bit more space if I installed more RAM and completely got rid of swap.

Ubuntu Netbook Edition

I have an original EEE PC 701 that I've not used since getting my MacBook. The stupid reason was that I didn't have enough RAM in the EEE PC to run Windows XP since I moved that RAM into my MacBook.

However, recently I wanted to put the EEE PC to use again by installing one of those netbook-specific Linux distributions. Since Ubuntu 10.04 ("Lucid Lynx") happens to be released today, I decided to go with the newest. Starting from 10.04, the netbook version of Ubuntu is called Ubuntu Netbook Edition. It used to be called Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which I think is a much better name.

I have an external DVD drive, but I wanted to try installing from a USB flash drive, so I ran the USB creation utility included in the Ubuntu CD to create a bootable USB drive to do the installation.

The entire installation only took a few minutes, and it automatically detected all the hardware of the EEE PC 701. It just works. One issue I have is that since the EEE PC 701 only has an 800x480 screen, a lot of the dialog boxes are cut off on the bottom. However, it's possible to drag dialog boxes off the top edge of the screen by holding down the Alt key and dragging anywhere inside the window.

The second issue is that when waking up from standby, Ubuntu complains that "disk is being used outside design parameters", which is apparently a known bug. Since my EEE PC has a 4 GB SSD, it shouldn't have any trouble, so I just ignored the warning by clicking "don't warn if the disk is failing".

I had a lot of experience with Linux a long time ago before it turned all graphical, but recently I've only used Linux to cross-compile router firmware. The only Unix-like OS I still use these days is actually OS X, which is Unix-like, with a GUI. So with these experiences behind me, you would think that I should have no trouble using Ubuntu, especially the simpler netbook specific edition. But noooooo, I can't even figure out how to install Skype from the GUI.

After a lot of Googling, I found out the best way is to install Ubuntu Tweak, which is supposed to help with the installation of third-party software from in third-party repositories. After installing Ubuntu Tweak, I could see Skype being an installable option in Ubuntu Tweak's Application Center, but no matter what I did, I still couldn't get it to install.

After like two hours of Google and trying everything in the GUI without getting anywhere. Give up simple user interface. Open terminal. "sudo aptitude install skype". Done.

Thinner client

I've been interested in thin clients for a long time. Unfortunately, the biggest problem for me was that thin clients often cost more than a "fat client", that is, a full computer. Some may argue that a thin client has other cost-saving advantages that a full computer can't match, such as Windows licensing costs, space saving, and electricity saving. But with a computer, I get a powerful processor for running applications without having to have a powerful server, so why would I want a thin client that may become non-functional if my network goes down?

But recently, I noticed that Norhtec now lists a cheap $99 thin client called the MicroClient TC on their website. At that kind of price point, the thin client becomes interesting again, since there's no way I can build a full computer for that kind of price, and now that email is considered "mission critical", thin clients would really save a lot of money for users that only need to use email and nothing else.

Norhtec is relatively well known in the embedded Linux market for making small PC's and servers and thin clients. Unfortunately, when I looked at their thin clients a while ago, they also had the same issue as being costly. Norhtec is practically next door to where I work, so I called them up to see if I could order a unit or just go over to pick one up.

Stupidly enough, I seemed to be the very first person to ever inquire about the MicroClient TC, and the person who answered the phone mumbled something about not able to deliver the product immediately, then referred me to a salesperson that's actually from a different company. Eventually I ended up getting the Kaser NetClient, which is identical to the Norhtec MicroClient TC, except it seems to be housed in a cheaper plastic case, and it cost me $117 (today's exchange rate) instead of $99. The salesperson also didn't know anything about the NetClient either, and said I was the very first person to buy it from his company. He also claims the unit doesn't come with an OS and I need to install a hard drive first and install my own OS. Uh... right.

MicroClient TC image from the Norhtec website:


YF-700 NetClient image from the Kaser website:


After I took the photos below, I noticed that the Taiwan Kaser website has better photos:


This is the front side with an SD/MMC slot. Three USB ports and audio ports. Reset button. Indicator lights. My unit doesn't come with the wi-fi option so there's no antenna.


Backside with power switch. Proprietary power adapter jack. LAN. VGA. Mouse. Keyboard. The metal thing is a mounting bracket for mounting the unit to the back of monitors.


With the mounting bracket removed, what appeared to be a door turns out to hide an IDE port. I think it would make more sense to have a CF port.


The relatively large power adapter, and comparing the NetClient to a DVD disc.


Unfortunately, the QuickRDP software included in the NetClient unit has a problem with screen refreshing. When the screen is refreshing and the mouse pointer is inside the area that's being refreshed, the mouse pointer freezes until the screen finishes updating. This causes a huge problem when doing repetitive tasks that involve mouse movement and screen updates. In fact, the main reason I'm interested in these thin clients is to connect to our terminal servers to access Dynamics NAV. The ERP software has huge amounts of data entry fields and drop down boxes that need to be clicked on repeatedly, and the screen refreshes constantly as the onscreen data loads and updates.

One other problem with QuickRDP is that it that it appears to only support 1024x768 resolution. Haven't they noticed that only widescreen monitors are available in the market these days?!

Singapore trip

Took a much needed break in Singapore for four days last weekend. The weather was beautiful during the day and the evening, and it rained every single night to cool things down.


I haven't been to Singapore in many years. The last time I was there, I felt Singapore was ahead of Thailand technologically and culturally roughly 5-10 years. This time I felt Singapore was ahead of Thailand about 2 bajillion years.

To keep this post somewhat on topic for this blog, I visited both Kinokuniya (huge!) and Borders, but I didn't buy any books since I already have enough backlogged reading to do, and I didn't want to have an overweight luggage on the way home.


This is also the first time I carried my new Panasonic LX3 camera on a trip. The LX3 is such a great little camera. (All three pics in this post were taken with the LX3.) It's much much easier to pull out than my Canon DSLR, which I did also bring on this trip. Having such an easily accessible camera allowed me to capture gems such as this:

Switch

• 1986 - Commodore 64
• 1990 - Windows 3.0
• 1991 - OS/2
• 1992 - Linux
• 1997 - Windows 3.11
• 1999 - Windows 98
• 2000 - Windows 2000
• 2006 - Windows XP
• 2009 - OS X?

These are the operating systems that I've used on my main computer(s). My age is showing!

But OS X has been calling my name for a long time, and since getting the iPod touch recently, I've been so tempted to get a Macbook to start writing some programs for it. Unfortunately, Apple had a special 10-month interest free installment plan that just ended two days ago.

I'm going out right now to buy some lottery tickets.

Lenovo IdeaPad S9 Linux

My company asked me to go out and buy a netbook for a customer for Christmas. For the allotted budget they gave me, I could only get either the lowest end Acer Aspire One or the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, so I decided to get the Dell since it's the only netbook that I didn't have any hands-on experience with.

But when I arrived at the shops, they happened to be putting the new Lenovo IdeaPad S9 with Linux on display, and it happens to be within the allotted budget as well.

When I looked at the specs, I was surprised to find that even though it's the lower priced Linux version and cost the same as either the Acer or Dell, it has the exact same hardware specs (besides the screen, of course) as the IdeaPad S10 Windows XP version that I got earlier. i.e., 1 GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive, etc. It even has Bluetooth! So I bought one immediately.

The picture above shows some of the specs as found by the pre-installed Linpus Linux Lite.

I can't wait for the customer who will be receiving this to call back and say, "I can't run NFS on this thing! And where's the DVD writer?!"