I think all Linux users appreciate freedom to some extent or another and we are willing to compromise certain features or conveniences in order to have it in our devices. Yes, there is probably a whole lot of Linux users that like to use it because it means lower cost, but that is not the main attraction. In fact, some believe that Linux users may sometimes be willing to spend more money than others in order to have that coveted feature: Freedom!

If you haven’t seen it before, let me introduce to you the most amazing portable Linux computer ever to reach the consumer market.

Obviously the N900 is a competitor in the smart phone market with the iPhone, Android devices, and the Palm Pre. But, even when there is going to be some overlap in the type of customer they attract, I think that, overall, this device is going to attract a somewhat different type of user than the above mentioned phones. In other words, some people who would have never been interested in an iPhone, or an Android device, or a Pre, are going to want this device, badly. At the same time, a lot of existing smart phone users are going to look at this and yawn. That is to be expected and should be understood by all. There is no point in comparing these devices in order to proclaim which one is the absolute best device. Comparisons are useful only to determine which device, if any, is good for you in particular. So, let me run you trough some of the facts that distinguish these devices to see why I think the N900 should be the right device for a lot of people. Note that I will not discuss the Palm Pre since I am very biased against it due to my previous experiences with Palm products. (I guess I can say the same thing about WinMo devices, in case you are wondering.)

Primary Appeal

Many people agree that the iPhone’s greatest asset is convenience. The people buying iPhones -enjoy- having apple do all the work. These people value convenience so much, that they are willing to pay for it, whatever it costs. And as a result, a huge app store has built around that device with a nice symbiotic ecosystem of developers and customers, closely overseen and controlled by Apple.

Google is following a very similar strategy, with the difference that Google is trying to make its OS ubiquitous by licensing it to third parties, something Apple is not doing with the iPhone OS. So, we are starting to see an explosion of Android devices in the market, all of them able to access the Android Market.

The N900’s greatest asset is different. It seems to me that the N900’s greatest feature is its dynamic potential. The N900 is able to do a lot of things that the iPhone and Android devices can’t and maybe never will. And I am not only talking of things that are physical limitations of the device. I am talking about things that the iPhone and Android devices can’t do simply because Apple or Google restricts some things things from being done with the device, whereas Nokia has set the N900 free for us to use it as we please. We’ll get into some examples below.

Major differences

The iPhone, Android devices, and the N900 have similarly powerful OSs with a Unix heritage. So, there is no difference in capabilities except for those that the developers themselves decide to incorporate. Therefore, in practice, more important than the OS itself will be the philosophy of the respective companies and its developers that count. And this can only be discerned by the choices that the two groups decide to make. Lets look at some examples.

Multitasking

The iPhone developers chose to make their device a single task OS. What that means is that if the user is working on a program and wants to briefly go to another program, the first program needs to quit. The N900 on the other hand uses multitasking very effectively as can be seen on the videos above. Again, this is a deliberate choice from the developers. In fact, Apple did include a bit of multitasking for its own applications. But you can not, for example, open Skype and leave it running in the background for a call that you are expecting, while you go about your business in other apps.

Now, why did Apple do that? Well, I have heard some people say that it is because they thought it would make the interface too complex for the users. Another reason I have heard is that Apple was concerned about increase battery and memory drainage from having active applications in the background. In either case, it seems to me that Apple made the choice that would reduce complexity for its users at the expense of flexibility and power.

Android devices like the HTC Hero as well as the Nokia N900 went with the more powerful option believing that its users will be able to handle the complexity and be able to manage their battery use on their own. Which choice is better? Well, it depends who you ask and for what target user. But it seems to me that the N900 developers did a very nice job with the interface and made multitasking not only simple, but even natural.

There is however an important difference between the N900 and the currently available Android devices that will affect multitasking performance – available application memory. The N900 has 256 MB RAM plus 768 MB virtual memory, for a grand total of 1GB of application memory! That is a lot of memory for a small factor portable device. Android devices, as well as the iPhone, are much more limited as far as application memory is concerned. To alleviate this shortcoming, there is an application available for Android devices called Swapper, but this is unfortunately nothing more than a crutch.

Development

Developers are not your typical users (if you are not a developer you can safely skip this section). But, they are users non the less. They have to be enticed as well. Further more, there are different types of developers, just as there are different types of regular users. So, device makers have to decide what type of developer to target. Lets see if we can figure out what type of developer each of these devices is geared to by what they and the companies behind them offer.

First of all, lets take a look at the market leader, the iPhone. One big advantage for Apple was that of being first to market with a phone that finally offered a decent web experience combined with strong multimedia and PDA capabilities. That combined with good marketing made the iPhone an immediate success. Those who bough an iPhone were generally tied to it with a 2 year plan. Can we call that a captive audience for iPhone developers? Understandably, commercial developers flocked to develop applications for the iPhone. Apple gives developers a clear path to do so, which includes among other things, buying an Apple computer, learning to program using the Objective C language, agreeing to a NDA (Non discussion agreement) for the SDK, and paying $99 for a standard developer program or $299 for an enterprise one.

There are however some restrictions as to what applications can be made for the iPhone. Of course, some of these restrictions are due to the restrictions that the OS and the device’s hardware impose, such as lack of multitasking and the lack of removable storage. But other restrictions are imposed by Apple’s vision of what it wants the device to be able to do. For example, Apple unabashedly restricts applications that compete with their own offerings. That is why there is no application available in the app store for purchasing MP3 songs from Amazon. That is not to say that that application can not be written, only that Apple does not approve of it. Not approved apps can not be run on the device. There is, of course, a way around that limitation; it is called “jailbraking“. However, it is apparently illegal under current US law. But, that still leaves room for a lot of applications to be made, a lot of hip customers to be catered to, and a lot of commercial developers to oblige them, as long as they do not want a feature that Apple disapproves of.

What about Android? Well, as I said before, in a lot of ways, Google seems to be trying to follow the same market strategy that Apple is. For example, they have a similarly easy and convenient consumer purchasing system called the Android Market. Google also restricts development to a single programming language, in its case, its own proprietary version of Java. Java is a fine language to program with, but it does impose a speed penalty on applications written on it. This is especially problematic for game developers. However, compared to the iPhone OS, Android is less restrictive in what an application can achieve due to its more open nature and its ability to multitask.

But, there are several important differences in what Google offers for developers than what Apple does. First and foremost is the fact that Google is a lot less restrictive about what kind of applications can be sold through the Android Market. Developers do have to follow the Developer Distribution Agreement, but just about anything goes. Well, almost. You see, in order to gain the favor of telecom operators, Android device makers have had to agree to imposing some restrictions on its users. The same goes for the iPhone. Interestingly, just like iPhone devices can be jailbroken, Android devices can be “rooted” in order to get around this type of restrictions. But again, there are moral and legal implications with doing that. For example, if one obtains an Android device subsidized through one of the cellular networks operators there are likely contracts that one has to agree to in order to get it. Usually those contracts have language that forbid actions like jailbraking or rooting the device. So, at the very least, rooting an Android device is likely to make you a delinquent for breach of contract.

However, the reality is that Android has filled a large demand for powerful, inexpensive, smart phone devices. Even non phone devices, like the Archos 5 tablet, are proving to be very popular. All of these devices have users willing to pay for some applications. So, there is a good market for Android developers as well.

Now, what does the N900 offer for developers? Freedom! Yes, the N900 is a heaven for coding artists. For example, with the N900 developers have open access to device hardware, and you can talk about it (as opposed to the iPhone developers). This means that, as with desktop Linux, you can expect lots of deep coding information for Maemo (the N900’s Debian Linux derived OS) freely available trough the web. The N900 out of the box has support for more programming languages than any other mobile platform, and there are surely more to come. Already, you can write applications in C, C++, Python, etc. For the GUI layer you can use either GTK or Qt, the two most popular GUI tool-kits in Linux.

With the N900 developers can easily install home-brewed software without need for approval from the device vendor. There is currently no unified store application for the N900, but this is likely to appear in not too distant future. In the mean time, application developers can sell their N900 targeted applications through their own web pages, sending CDs through snail mail, or whatever other way they can think of. The question is will the N900 users buy applications? I think they will. I know I will if some packages I am interested in become available for it, such as Documents to Go and iSilo. But, an even more interesting question is, how many Maemo developers even care to sell their applications? A lot of them, I believe, are going to be developing their creations for free, just as they do in the Linux desktop, for a variety of reasons. And that should make the N900 and other future Maemo devices increasingly appealing and powerful over time.

But what about restrictions imposed by cellular network operators? Well, Nokia has decided to side with the users and developers instead of caving to the telecoms. That means of course that, at least in the U.S., you likely won’t be able to get the N900 as a subsidized part of a 2 year deal, for example. In other words, if you want the N900 you will have to pay full price for it. Fortunately, it seems that Nokia itself is subsidizing part of the cost. Because for what it offers, I think the current prices are not that bad. Also, besides the obvious advantages of the N900, there are several advantages in buying an unlocked device.

The screen

All three devices share more or less the same size screen, about 3.5 inch (diagonal). However, there are two very important differences between them. First of all, the iPhone’s and most Android device screens are what is called a capacitive screen, while the N900’s is a resistive screen. Capacitive screens are more sensitive to touch and therefore a bit easier to use with your bare finger. They are also harder and more resistant to scratches. However, they do have some disadvantages. For example, they cannot be used with anything except your bare finger, which can be a bit of a pain in the winter in colder climates. Another disadvantage of capacitive screens is that they are not as good for point accuracy. So, although the N900 is designed to be used with one’s fingers, it can also be used with a stylus for some operations that require more accuracy.

The second difference in the screens is the resolution. The iPhone’s resolution and the HTC Hero share the same respectable resolution of 480 x 320. But the N900 has a whooping resolution of 800 × 480. What that means is that N900 screen can present a lot more detailed information on the screen at any one time, being a web page, a video, or a spreadsheet.

TV-Out

The HTC Hero has no TV-Out port. The iPhone has part that you can buy that will give you TV-Out, but only for the gallery program (Apple restrictions at work). On the other hand, out of the box you can connect your N900 device to your TV and see exactly what you see on the device. Imagine being able to play games with the N900 accelerometer on your big screen. How about playing videos for your kids on a hotel TV while traveling. Again, the possibilities are what distinguishes the N900.

Storage

So far, Android devices seem to have been targeting the low end market, with somewhat underspecified devices. For example, the G1 came out with a mere 1gb or storage space available (yes expandable with an 8gb MicroSD card, but still). The HTC Hero doesn’t even have any user-accessible storage other than what you can add through an MicroSD card. The iPhone comes in either 16 GB or 32 GB editions, but with no access to removable memory. The N900 comes with a 32GB flash drive and an external memory MicroSD port for an additional 16 GB of storage which make a total of 48 GB of available storage.

Keyboard

Neither the iPhone or the HTC Hero have a hardware keyboard. However, because these devices have capacitive screens the feel and functionality of their on screen keyboard is not that bad. Also, not having a keyboard allows for those devices to be slimmer and lighter than the N900, and believe me, I know that this is a large advantage for many users. However, other users actually value more the advantages of having a proper keyboard than having a slightly thinner device. For example, having a real keyboard saves screen real estate, which on these small devices, and depending on the application, can be a big deal. Also, having a real keyboard is a big advantage for game developers which can configure some keys for certain functions. And of course, typing on an actual keyboard is a lot faster, more accurate, and more comfortable.

The web browser

All I am going to say here is that the browser on the N900 is a lot better than that of the other devices. It supports Adobe Flash™ 9.4, and java script, which means that you can access the normal versions of GMail, Youtube, etc., just as you would in your desktop machine. You can see for yourself here:

Other differences

There are many other differences for which I find the N900 a better option in my case, but I don’t have time to go into detail with all of them. Let me just list some of them.

• Micro-USB connector – Charge the phone through USB or transfer data to/from it as a mass storage device.
• Integrated FM transmitter – Play music from your device on your car’s stereo system (or any other’s) without any cables.
• Carl Zeiss optics camera – With Dual LED flash, CMOS sensor, and 5 megapixel pictures I may finally start using my phone’s camera to take pictures. It can also do very nice 848 × 480 pixels video with sound.
• Codecs – Basically, it will play just about any video or music format there is without having to convert it first. Some of the codecs will not be on the machine out of the box but will be easily installed latter.
• Removable Battery – This is huge for me. I almost bought the Archos 5 until I realized it has no removable battery.
• Desktop Shortcuts – Place a contact on one of your desktops and with a single click you can call, email the contact, or initiate an internet call.

Conclussion

I wrote a previous entry explaining why I was looking for a replacement for my old Palm TX. Frankly, when I first saw the specs of the N900 I was speechless, it was all I could want. However, when I saw its price I was initially shocked and thought that it was just a bit too much to spend on a PDA. Since my last Palm device died I have spent a few months using a paper based PDA. Inspired by some do it yourself guides I found I made myself a nice custom planner. But, frankly I need more help than that. So, a PDA is definitely something I can use and benefit from.

I then took a closer look at the cost of the N900 compared to the other devices mentioned here. One thing that stands out when buying an iPhone is that you are required to enter a $30 a month data plan. Lots of people wish they could skip this part of the contract and simply use the iPhone as a phone/PDA and connect to the Internet occasionally through wi-fi. I understand that TMobile has allowed its customers to forgo the data plan for its Android device owners (although it is required for the initial setup of the device). But I am not sure if that is still the case for new subscribers. In any case, this is definitely an option for N900 users. And it is the way I am planing to use it, although I may, from time to time, buy a data plan for a month if I am going to be traveling or on vacation.

The N900 is well built and should last me a few years (I hope). So, considering the savings in data plan, the fact that I was spending almost $200 a year on the Palm for much less functionality, and the fact that I like this device so much, I decided to change my mind and ordered an N900. It basically costs what a low en laptop would. Now, I know this device is not for everyone. That is for sure. But, if you are interested in a smart phone/PDA, value freedom, and appreciate the possibilities that a device like this can offer, the Nokia N900 may be the device for you too.

People who enjoy digital photography as a creative outlet are very familiar with software products from companies like Adobe, Corel, ACD Systems, Bibble Labs, Light Crafts, and even Google. Most of them are also likely familiar with what until recently was the premier open source photo editor, the Gimp. Unfortunately, the Gimp has lacked a very important feature for a lot of photographers, 16 bit per channel editing. Because of that, most serious photographers do not consider the Gimp a viable alternative. True, there is also Cinepaint, which forked off of the Gimp a few years ago, and it does offer 16 bit per channel editing. Unfortunately, its interface leaves a lot to be desired and does not seem to be heavily maintained.

Happily, there is now another open source alternative with 16 bit mode editing capabilities which appears to be getting ready to give the big guys a run for their money – digiKam. I have personally only recently discovered digiKam. Well, I had tried it before, but only since I tried its KDE4 edition did I think it was ready for my use. I was actually quite surprised to see how much it has improved and how many features have been included with it. Some of its features are:

• 16 bit per channel support.
• Curves and levels tools.
• Color management support.
• White balance tool with color picker.
• Lens correction tools.
• Aspect Ratio Crop tool with several standard formats available.
• Proper black & white conversion tool.
• Batch processing.
• Tagging and searching features.
• Export to Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, etc.

And there are many, many more that I just don’t have time to even mention. Of course, digiKam is not perfect. And there are a couple of items that I expect to be improved or corrected soon. But, I assure you that if you are into photography, you are going to be hearing a lot more about digiKam in the future and, hopefully, you will be enjoying its use too.

Now, allow me to take you trough a quick tour of what it is like to work in digiKam. I am currently using digiKam version 1.0.0-beta4 as found in PCLinuxOS KDE4 repositories.

RAW Editing

For this tour I decided to use this photo because of its somewhat challenging lighting.

This is a RAW image taken with my old Pentax istDS*. This is how it looks in digiKam’s editor, which by the way exists as a standalone application as well called showFoto.

If you are familiar with histograms, you may have noticed that the histogram on this picture seems rather odd. The reason for that is that digiKam can show two different types of histograms, linear and logarithmic. The one displayed here is the logarithmic histogram, but most people are only accustomed to the linear type. One can switch between histogram types by clicking their respective little buttons above the histogram. Unfortunately, when clicking on the linear histogram button for this image all I get is a flat line. This is what digiKam’s documentation says regarding this:

“for images that contain substantial areas of constant color a linear histogram will often be dominated by a single bar. In this case a logarithmic histogram will often be more useful.”

I am sure there are technical reasons for this, but I do wonder why other programs, like Cinepaint, are able to show a linear histogram for this image just fine. I mention this because I know that some people do rely on the histogram a lot and I do think that the linear type is more useful. But I agree that having the logarithmic histogram is better than nothing. So, since this is not really a show stopper lets move on.

I am by far not a post processing expert. My normal work-flow when editing an image is to edit the levels, adjust the saturation, crop or resize, and then sharpen the image. So, lets try to do that with this image.

Levels

First lets use the levels tool found under Color > Levels Adjust.

I basically just added a bit of contrast by moving the left lever (below the second histogram) to the right and lighten the image by moving the right lever to the left. The preview window adjusts automatically as I make my adjustments so that I know what the result will be.

Saturation

Now, lets increase the saturation to try to bring out the color a little. For that we use the saturation tool found under Color > Hue/Saturation/Lightness.

I don’t like the “Disney” look that some point and shoot cameras default to with supper saturated colors. I like to keep my images somewhat realistic looking. So I don’t like to bump the saturation too much. I feel that, for this picture, that amount of saturation is just enough to give it a bit of life without going too far into cartoon land.

Cropping

Now I am going to crop the image. This is really an important step if you are planing on printing the image. If you have ever taken your DSLR images to be printed without cropping them first, you may have been unpleasantly surprised by the fact that they were not centered correctly, or that an important part of the image was left out. The reason for this is that the image you gave them did not have the same proportions as the paper you asked them to print it on. And so they had to crop it for you. To prevent that from happening you need to crop your images to the same proportions of the paper you will be printing on. Yes, that means that you will need a different image if you want to print 8×10 than if you want 5×7, 14×20, etc. Fortunately, digiKam makes this step a breeze with its aspect ratio crop tool found under Transform > Aspect Ratio Crop.

As you can see I chose to use the “Golden Ratio” option for this image, but digiKam has predefined settings for all the common printing paper ratios in the market and even allows you to choose a custom ratio if you desire.

Sharpening

The final step in my photo processing work-flow is to sharpen the image. I am used to using the “Unsharp mask” method for this purpose, but in reading digiKam’s documentation I was surprised to learn that they actually recommend the “Refocus” method as a way to obtain better results. This is how the Sharpen tool looks like, found under Enhance > Sharpen.

As you can see you can change the sharpening method used with a drop down button. You can zoom in to the image as much as you want using the Zoom button, and you can move the zoom window around in the small preview image above the settings area. I was conservative in the amount of Circular sharpness specified because I could see in the preview area that going for more would result in a lot of grain being visible. This amount improved the sharpness significantly while still retaining the smooth look of the overall image. This is my final result.

As you can see, there is quite a bit of improvement over what we started with.

Auto-Correction

Normally I would have been content with leaving it at that. But since I am still in the exploring digiKam mode, I decided to test some of the Auto-Correction tools available. To do that, I went back to the original RAW image, and after importing it, I went straight into Color > Auto-Correction. This is what it looks like.

As you can see, there are five automatic correction levels that you can choose from to improve your image. In most images that I have tried this with, the Auto Levels option gives the best results. However, in this particular image the result was too dark. I had not seen any image for which the Equalize option resulted in an improvement, but for this particular image the results it gave me were surprisingly good. This is what the digiKam documentation says about the Equalize method of Auto-Correction:

Equalize: this method adjusts the brightness of colors across the selected image so that the histogram for the Value channel is as flat as possible, that is, so that each possible brightness value appears at about the same number of pixels as each other value. Sometimes Equalize works wonderfully at enhancing the contrasts of an image. Other times it gives garbage. It is a very powerful operation, which can either work miracles on a image or destroy it.

Well, looks like they were not kidding. My image turned out much better using this method of correction instead of my normal level adjustment step. This is how the image looks after adding saturation, cropping it, and sharpening it.

Conclusion

Without a doubt digiKam has a lot to offer for the photographers among us. Unfortunately, it still has one glaring omission – a clone tool. You may have noticed that the original RAW image had some dust specks in the sky above the trees and in other parts of the clouds. In digiKam, the only tool available for trying to remove such things (other than cropping them out as I did here) is a tool called In-painting, found under Enhance > In-painting. However, that tool is not easy to use and is rather slow. With a proper clone tool, as available in most other photo editors, removing such items only takes a few seconds. The good news is that the digiKam developers have acknowledged this omission as a bug and we can expect to see it implemented in a future version of digiKam. In the mean time we can use the Gimp to take care of these items as a final touch up step.

I think you will agree that digiKam is an amazing open source tool. It has now become my main photo editor. If you are into photography, why not give it a try?

Desktop Activities is a desktop usability concept that allows you to have multiple style and other settings for your desktop or desktops. There you have it, my attempt at a one sentence definition. Of course, that only pleases people who write dictionaries and encyclopedias. As for us, regular users, what we like to see are tutorials that actually show us what we are talking about. So, I will try to do that now for you as well.

For this tutorial, I will be using KDE 4.2.4 as found in Fedora 11.

Creating your activities

Before you start, ask yourself, what are the primary tasks that you use your computer for? Of course, just about all of us use it to access the internet. But, what else? If your answer is “not much else”, then stop right here. No need to read any further. Desktop activities are not for you. You will be perfectly happy without them. However, if your answer includes a few other tasks, then you may find that spending a few minutes configuring some desktop activities is a great way to improve your productivity and of making your use of the computer more enjoyable.

Now that you have though about it a bit, lets start with just one or two activities. You can add more latter once you understand the concept and your needs better. To add an activity we need to first Unlock the Widgets and then Zoom out of the default desktop/activity. Both of those options are reachable through the plasma logo in the upper right corner of the desktop (A.K.A. “the cashew”).

Plasma logo

You will then see your primary desktop activity next to a large empty area where you can place other desktop activities. To do so, click on the Add Activity button that is just below your zoomed out desktop. (Note: If you don’t see that button it is likely because you forgot to unlock the widgets.)

Add activity button

Configure your activities

After you create one or two extra activities click on the desktop settings button, the right most button below the zoomed out desktop, the one that looks like a wrench. That will bring up the Desktop Settings dialog box where you can give a name to that activity and customize it as you wish. When finished, simply zoom in to any of your desktop activities to use it.

I like to create a directory under my home called “Activities”. Under this directory I create one directory for each of my desktop activities where I place items that are particular to each of them, such as links to applications, files, links to other directories, etc. I then configure each desktop activity to show me the contents of its own assigned directory. The process to do this is different depending on the Type of activity you chose in the Desktop Settings dialog box. If you chose the Desktop type, you will need to add at least one Folder View widget to that desktop (through the plasma logo – the cashew) and configure the widget to access the desired directory. If you chose the Folder View type you can right click on the desktop and select Folder View Settings (since the whole desktop is a Folder View widget) and configure it to access the desired directory.

Finally, do make sure to install an “Activity Bar” widget under each of your desktop activities in order to easily switch between them.

Final thoughts

As you can see, it doesn’t really take much effort to configure your desktop activities. Combined with the multiple desktop functionality they offer a very comfortable way to perform multiple tasks. But, there are still some areas where they need to be improved. For example, in KDE 4.3 you will be able to assign a desktop activity to each virtual desktop you have configured. It seems that there is a way to hack that functionality into the current release, but I have not tried it.

I wish there was a way to add a desktop activity without having to go into the Zoomed out workspace. I also wish that the Activity Bar widget could be configured to stack vertically rather than just horizontally. When docked in the panel it should display an icon the current activity name and cascade perpendicular to the panel when clicked, only then showing all the available activities.

But, I am very happy with what we have right now. I hope this little tutorial is helpful to you.

PCLinuxOS Minime 2009

For the last few months my Thinkpad has been, and still is, the host of several wonderful Linux distributions, all of them based on the new KDE 4 desktop environment. So, today, in mid summer 2009, is there still a reason to run a KDE 3 desktop? Well, if it wasn’t for PCLinuxOS I would have to say no. But this little distro can really hold its own against any of the large commercially supported distributions around. I am going to divide this review in three parts, “The Good”, “The Bad”, and “The Ugly”.

The Good

PCLinuxOS has some very unique features that make it a standout among Linux distributions. Perhaps the most important reason that keeps me coming back to PCLinuxOS is the fact that, once installed, you just have to keep applying updates and it stays current for years. For example, I installed PCLinuxOS on my home machine in early 2007 and down to today I have not had to reinstall it again. Today it has the latest and greatest software that is available on the recently released 2009 batch.

While we are on the subject of updates, I think it is important to mention that PClinuxOS now has a new “Update Notifier” that helps for remembering to stay up to date.

PCLinuxOS Updates Notifier

When one clicks on the Update Notifier icon on the tool bar, a small window appears with options for updating the system.

Update Notifier Options

I particularly like that, when updates are available, it offers the option of using aptget for installing them. When selecting this option, aptget opens in a terminal, prompts for the root password, and shows you all the available options for you to accept. This is very fast, and yet it shows all the details of what is being done. If you want to read a little more about why I like PCLinuxOS in general, take a look at my review of PCLinuxOS 2008.

But what about Minime 2009.1 specifically? Minime is a very streamed down variant of PCLinuxOS. It is meant for those that are familiar with Linux and want a bare bones installation of Linux to build up from. That is why the ISO image is only about 300 Megabytes. If what you prefer is to have all the basic applications already on the default installation don’t use the Minime. Download the 2009.2 ISO image instead. Having said that, bringing Minime up to snuff with all that you may need or like is really not that hard and you end up with a very slick, very slim system. That is why I chose to use it myself and so far everything, and I mean everything, has performed superbly on this laptop.

The bad

Some unsuspecting users may be horrified about just how bare bones Minime is. I mean, out of the box, not even wireless works. But, really, that is exactly the point of Minime. You add what you need to the working base. Let me tell you what I did to bring my installation to where I like it. First of all, to get wireless working you will need to install the proper firmware for your wireless card. That is right, you will need to have a wired connection to start with. In my case, it was simply a matter of plugging in the network cable, opening Synaptic, and installing the ipw3945-ucode package (since my laptop has the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 card). After that wireless has worked perfectly.

From there it is just a matter of installing whatever applications you desire. I personally installed Firefox, The Gimp, Amarok, wine, Kuickshow, etc., without any trouble. On the desktop there is a folder called Utilities. In it there is a special script available for installing OpenOffice with your desired language pack, although you can install the English version from Synaptic if you prefer. For further recommendations see the “General and ThinkPad T61 Specific Recommendations” section of my 2008 review. I can’t think of anything else that would be a stumper, except for the fact that it doesn’t seem to have support for the ext4 file system. You see, it is not really that bad after all.

The Ugly

There had to be a negative. I guess it is a matter of taste, but I personally do not like the icon set that comes installed by default.

Default Icon Set

What I don’t like about it is that the default icon used for folders does not have any contrast and looks washed out. For example, look at the “Downloads” folder on the picture above. So, to fix that I went to Synaptic and installed the kde-icons-crystaldiamonds package. I also installed the Liberation fonts while I was at it. To apply them I went to the KDE Control Center -> Appearance -> Icons and chose the Crystal Diamonds theme. Under fonts I changed all the fonts for the Liberation Sans. And that was it.

CrystalDiamond Icon Set

Now I have a beautiful, very fast, very mature and stable Linux installation to enjoy and do my work. The result is so nice that I am debating on whether I will want to install the KDE 4 packages that are supposed to be arriving to the repository soon. I will have to think about that. In the mean time, PCLinuxOS Minime is working great and looking very nice on my machine, and it most likely can do the same on yours. Why not give it a try?

I wrote a blog entry recently in which I expressed my displeasure with the situation around the use of Mono for FOSS development. Since then an interesting and unexpected development has occurred. Microsoft has promised, irrevocably, to not sue anyone using or creating a fully compliant implementation of C# as defined through ECMA.

http://port25.technet.com/archive/2009/07/06/the-ecma-c-and-cli-standards.aspx

I am glad to see that some of the questions about Mono have been settled. What other questions remain? Well, it will be interesting to see what happens in the future, when newer versions of C# come out of Microsoft. How will those be licensed? Will they be standardized as well? Under what terms? Will it matter for Mono developers? Will Microsoft become litigant against the other, non ECMA derived, parts of Mono? And, more immediately, what is meant by “only if the implementation conforms fully to required portions of the specification”? Those are some of the questions that I still have.

What about GPL compatibility? It seems that a lot of it has been settled. I don’t see a conflict any more. Of course, if a developer chooses to deviate from the ECMA specification he is free to do so, as per the Mono license, and he would have to fend for himself against Microsoft, or any other patent holder in the world. But, that is the same thing that could happen if I chose to write a program in C++ that infringed someone’s patent. It just so happens that any deviation from the standard immediately makes you liable. But at least a legally safe implementation is possible. And who knows, maybe the patent landscape will improve in the future allowing for non ECMA compliant implementations without the risk of a lawsuit.

Will this be enough to make me want to develop in Mono? No, not me, not yet. I prefer to use languages that have no questions surrounding them. I also still think that Mono should not be used for important infrastructure parts of FOSS projects like KDE or GNOME because of the long term questions that remain. But, I can see that some may want to avail themselves of Mono’s C# for writing some applications. I now feel that, as long as they are well informed of what the possible gotchas are, I can respect their choice. And I don’t mind if a Linux distribution chooses to include them as part of their default release. It is their free choice.

Congratulations Mono developers!

Linux users have been aware for some time that Microsoft does not share their love for their favorite operating system, Linux. Microsoft has spent a lot of time, energy, and resources trying to marginalize Linux and the slew of FOSS software than has sprung up around it. The European Committee for Interoperable Systems provided us with a good summary of this in a recent report.

In spite of all that, Linux has continued to grow and improve at an impressive rate. And that is precisely what seems to have Microsoft worried. As Steve Ballmer himself has acknowledged, “Linux is not about free software, it is about community… It’s not like Novell, it isn’t going to run out of money–it started off bankrupt, in a way.”

In contrast with Microsoft’s previous competitors which depended on the success of a product, FOSS is primarily a social movement, a movement which springs forth a variety of products. And those products end up having a negative effect on Microsoft’s returns.

It is clear that the more people are interested and able to improve and maintain the FOSS pool, the more Microsoft will find it hard to continue having success in the market. In other words, the only hope for Microsoft to contain Linux is to remove the desire for people to continue contributing to it. If you were Microsoft how would you attempt to accomplish that? Obviously, you would first have to identify the reasons why people contribute to FOSS. Then you would have to find ways to remove or dilute those incentives.

Of course, that is easier said than done. There are a lot of reasons why people like to contribute to Linux. So, I don’t think Microsoft can realistically hope to completely eradicate Linux or FOSS. But, maybe, just maybe, it could discourage the right type of contributors, the ones that contribute to its infrastructure and its foundation parts. Or. if that doesn’t work, maybe it could remove the incentive for a large enough number of top layer contributors, the ones that provide interfaces and user visible features. Microsoft would hope that this would slow down Linux enough for it to be able to outrun it in terms of features and quality.

So what is it that motivates the contributors to the foundation layers of Linux. Well, primarily these are the type of people that grew Linux from its “bankrupt” origins. These people are idealists or visionaries. They thrive in overcoming practical considerations. Their happiness comes from the realization of their ideals more than from any financial rewards. These are the hardest people to discourage. They tend to have a long range view of things and are willing to sacrifice present advantages in order to secure future success. They become more dangerous when attacked since this has the tendency of galvanizing them and increasing their focus and determination. Probably the best results in containing these type of people are achieved by disrupting their unity from within. So, it would not be surprising to see Microsoft attempting to introduce “moles” and bought out defectors into the Linux camp.

The other mayor group of FOSS contributors are the ones attracted by the practical advantages of Linux. Within this group are those interested in Linux because it gives them an advantage in the market. This group likes to create products or features that are very visible to the user and that produce returns either directly or indirectly. They are willing to risk long term success when the chances for short term success is high. These group of people can become impatient with the former group when their caution appears to put obstacles in their quest for immediate results. This is the group that started to congregate around Linux in the late nineties. It certainly accelerated the utility and uptake of Linux. These people tend to view themselves as pragmatic and practical. To undermine this group a couple of strategies can be used. One of them would be to divert their interest from FOSS technologies to others that promise greater “efficiency”. The second would be to negate or dilute the returns that could be achieved through the use of FOSS.

When both of these groups are able to work together unhindered the results are amazing and explosive. However, it is not uncommon to see conflicts between these camps. I think a very visible conflict that has created a lot of discussion lately is the mono controversy. A mono proponent expressed his view this way:

“It is the ‘best technology’ Linux camp that is a threat to Microsoft, and Microsoft is surely pleased when the two camps argue. If the ‘free software’ camp can hold back Mono, that is a loss for the ‘best technology’ camp, and a win for Microsoft.”

I think it is interesting that he thinks that it is the “best technology Linux camp” that is the camp that offers the greatest threat to Microsoft. I can understand why some may think that this is true since this camp is creating flashy and very useful products and features that increase the appeal of Linux. However, mono is not the only tool that the “‘best technology’ Linux camp” has at its disposal. Many view the use of the Qt toolkit as a better alternative, and one that does not have the risk associated with mono. Furthermore, I do not agree with the thought that “‘best technology’ Linux camp” is the one that Microsoft feels most threatened by. I think Microsoft is only threatened by the combination of both camps.

I view mono as a distraction for FOSS developers. Yes, there are some practical advantages in its use, but there are a lot of questions surrounding it. It has the potential of dividing the two mayor camps of Linux contributors. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this controversy.

Since the introduction of the Palm Pilot, in the mid 90’s, people have been enjoying the ability of having instant access to one’s data almost any where and at any time. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have also saved many of us afflicted with bad memories from getting in trouble by reminding us of one important event or another. However, their use has not always been devoid of headaches. While PDA users are notorious for the love they have for their little devices, they have always wished for one improvement or another. Nevertheless, when I bought my Palm T|X I thought I was going to be all set. It seemed to have all I really needed and more. It had a very nice screen with great resolution. It was much faster than any of my previous devices and could handle music and video with no problem. It was compatible with my collection of Palm programs that I had accumulated over the years. It even had wi-fi connectivity to check Google Maps and browse the Internet at any hot spot for free. What more could I want? Well, how about durability?

My Palm T|X began showing problems after about 7 or 8 months of use. It seemed that some areas of the screen were becoming desensitized. I had not purchased an extended warranty since I am usually very careful with my things and it would have added a lot to the cost of the device. Unfortunately, the problem kept getting worse and worse, until it finally became completely unusable. The cost for repairing it (I can’t remember exactly what it was right now) seemed ridiculously high. It was obvious that they had set it so high to discourage people from availing themselves of it and to steer them instead towards simply buying a new replacement. To say that I was very disappointed at the quality of Palm’s craftsmanship is an understatement. At the time the iPhone had not yet been released, and my only alternative would have been to buy a device with Windows CE on it. I really was not interested in buying a smart phone that would require an expensive data plan. So, very reluctantly, I decided to give Palm one more chance and I bought my second Palm T|X, my last one. Unfortunately, after about 8 or 9 months, the screen began to give me trouble again. I purchased a program called PowerDiGi which alleviated some of the screen problems, temporarily. But, eventually the device also became unusable. What to do?

I guess that what I would love to have is a small portable device, that wouldn’t require waiting for it to boot, that gave me access to my data without requiring a cellular data plan, and that was able to give me audible reminders.

Well, for the moment, I went back to a paper based agenda. It has some advantages, such as an unbeatable resolution, even under bright direct sunlight. It doesn’t need to be recharged and never runs out of power. And, it is very reliable. However, some of its disadvantages are that it tends to get full rather quickly. There is no efficient way of transferring its data when upgrading to a newer model. And, it completely lacks one of the most important features of a PDA (at least for me), audible reminders.

So, I think I do want go back to some form of PDA. But what is there available to me? Paying $300+ a year to Palm, with plenty of aggravations, for the luxury of having a PDA seems a bit high to me. I do have a cell phone (through AT&T), but paying another $40 a month (on top of my current cell phone charges) to have a smart phone does not feel very smart in my case. Nevertheless, I am tempted. I am especially tempted by the Android OS. First of all, it runs Linux! Secondly, I am a heavy user of Google Apps. I migrated our office to Google Apps Premier Edition and have to offer support for it. So I am rather knowledgeable on its use and its features. Having access to my Google Apps any time any where is certainly luring. No more having to transfer my data from one device to another. The data all resides in one place, securely. But, that would mean changing carrier and, again, adding a data plan. Is the privilege of getting reminders and not having to transfer my data manually really worth the cost of the data plan? I am not sure yet.

I guess that what I would love to have is a small portable device, that wouldn’t require waiting for it to boot, that gave me access to my data without requiring a cellular data plan, and that was able to give me audible reminders. Does such a thing exist outside of Palm and Windows CE? Well, there are rumors of an interesting device from Nokia called N900, but I am not sure about its features yet. It does seem to be a Linux device, which for me is a big plus, and since it is made by Nokia, it is probably programmable with the Qt toolkit which I am familiar with from KDE. If the Trolltech guys are behind this device and are able to turn it into a fully open platform, I may be swayed into going with it instead of going with Android. I do enjoy coding in Qt more than in Java. Yes, it does seem to be described as an “Internet Tablet” which would likely mean that a data plan is required to take advantage of all its features, but would it be usable without a data plan? Would it be able to provide audible reminders for me? I need more details before deciding.

The iPhone store is not my thing. Yes, I am tight fisted with my money. Hey, we are in the middle of an economic recession, and not just any recession. They are calling this one, “The great recession”. The only thing I know for sure is that I will not be getting a Windows CE device (since I do not want to contribute to the monopoly that is trying to destroy my favorite OS), and that I will not be getting a Palm device. Even though the PalmPre is a Linux device, I am through with Palm and its shoddy craftsmanship.

Are you a Palm T|X user? What are your plans for a replacement?

The vast majority of Windows users in the world have never experienced the advantages that a multiple desktop computer environment provides.  That is because most people use Microsoft Windows and that operating system only comes with a single desktop environment*.  Users of the Linux operating system have been enjoying multiple desktop capabilities for many years already, and they are about to experience the next step of the multiple desktop paradigm evolution.  So why are multiple desktops useful and how much do they really help?

Single desktop deficiencies

First of all, lets discuss the problems that having only one desktop creates.  Most people I know of like to place items on the desktop.  They do that because they hope to be able to find them quickly next time they need them.  The idea is to have them readily available rather than having to dig down searching for them.  Ironically that is what they end up having to do, in a way.  That is because just about every user likes to have two or more applications open at a time. And, more likely than not, those applications will be in the way when trying to reach for those “handy” desktop items.

Usability experts are well aware of that problem and that is why you hear them discouraging the use of desktop items.  Microsoft has been trying for years to wean off its users from placing things on the desktop, but no matter how much they try, users continue to fall for the temptation of placing things on the desktop.  Whose fault is it?

But, the difficulty of accessing items on the desktop is just part of the problem that comes with a single desktop interface.  Since modern computers excel at multitasking most users enjoy being able to do more than one thing at a time.  Unfortunately, the Windows interface does not scale well for multitasking.  For example, lets say that one has just returned from a vacation and now finds some time to do some photo processing.  This task will usually involve a file manager, and one or two image management applications.  So far so good.  We can manage to work with that in just one desktop.  However, if you like taking pictures as much as I do, and if you are as much of a perfectionist as I am about the final quality of your photos, that task is likely to be a several hours long task.

Lets think about that for a moment.  Can anyone really hold their undivided attention to a single task for several hours on a Saturday afternoon?  Should any one even try to?  In practice, I find it very hard to work on a single task for a long period of time.  I get bored, uninterested, and unproductive.  Switching between tasks allows me to keep my interest and intensity up.  And I am quite sure that I am not alone in this.  There have been many studies that find that one cannot efficiently maintain attention spans longer than 10 or 15 minutes.  That is why it is recommend that teachers switch to a different teaching method every so often to keep the minds of their students engaged. I find the same applies to my type of work most of the time.

So getting back to our photo processing task, what other tasks are we likely to want to do in parallel with it?  I don’t know about you, but I am rarely at the computer without running Firefox.  I am also very likely to have a Word processor and an email client open, at least!  That means that to switch between tasks in Microsoft Windows I am going to have to minimize and maximize applications often.  And if I try to reach out for something on the desktop, restoring the sometimes multiple windows that belong to each task can start to get quite laborious.  But why does it have to be that way?  Having multiple desktops solves all of these problems.

Desktop shortcuts are a great way to start populating a desktop with the applications needed for the task it is going to be handling.

Multiple desktops advantages

I have to admit that, in spite of the fact that I had used Linux for many years, I was still mostly a one desktop user.  What finally made me realize that I could work more efficiently by using multiple desktops was Compiz. With it, it was easy to see visually what was going on in each of the desktops and made me realize that I could separate my tasks between them.  With KDE 4 one does not need to use Compiz to get the same 3D functionality.  See this for example.

While those effects are fun and were instrumental in helping me understand the multiple desktop potential, I find that I don’t need 3D effects any more.  I have developed a “standard” methodology for my work.  I like to use between 4 and 6 desktops at a time, depending on if I am at work or at home.  This allows me to have all the windows related to each task on their own desktop.  Usually, the first desktop is reserved for Google Apps running on Firefox.  Desktop 2 is file management.  Desktop 3 is general web browsing.  Desktop 4 is word processing, etc.  These guidelines are not very rigid, but I tend to stick to them.  It took me a while to unlearn the minimize and restore habits, but now I find that my workspace is much better organized and clean, and this makes it easier for me to work.  There may be a bit of a learning curve, but it is not steep and it is very worth wile.  Once you get used to the multiple desktops you will never want to go back.

Just last night, I was copying some very large files to an external hard drive on one desktop, backing up a DVD on another, browsing on another, and working on some spreadsheets and schedules on another. Of course, one can minimize and restore windows to do this too, but it is so much easier to switch desktops with a single click to see how the task is doing on another desktop (with multiple windows open), and then switch right back with another single click to the one that I am presently trying to give most of my attention.  And, when I want to reach for an item on the desktop all I have to do is switch to a new desktop and click on it.  No need to waste all that precious and handy space.  Desktop shortcuts are a great way to start populating a desktop with the applications needed for the task it is going to be handling.

Desktop activities

And that takes us to what is clearly the next step in the evolution of the multiple desktop paradigm, the ability of being able to preconfigure multiple “activities”.  The idea is that, instead of having a desktop populated with everything you could possibly need for any ‘activity’, one can have several types of desktops, each one populated with what one would need for a particular activity.  For example, one could have a desktop populated for general work, one for graphics work, another for research, another for development, another for gaming, one with nothing but your beautiful desktop, etc.  That way, if you are working on something and decide to start working on something else, all you have to do is start a new desktop and switch the activity.  With two click of the mouse you are ready to go.  Let me show you how it works.

Conclusion

So, are you convinced yet?  If you are not, it is probably my fault.  Do give working with multiple desktops a chance.  Avoid the minimize button like the plague.  Maybe then you will come to agree with me in thinking that single desktop interfaces are so last century it is not even funny.

*I am aware of several third party utilities that attempt to provide
multiple desktop functionality to Windows.  Unfortunately, neither of
those utilities provides a smooth experience.  They all fail due to
various bugs and/or heavy resource utilization.  What is needed is for
Windows to provide native multiple desktops.

According to some estimates, about 70% of those using the Internet are doing so with Internet Explorer.  Those of us that work with computers a lot know that there are better alternatives, but it seems that a lot of people just use what comes with their computer and rarely stray to far from it.  There is currently a very bad security problem in Internet Explorer that is actively being exploited by the bad guys and that threatens to make the Internet even more infested with compromised machines that the bad guys can then use for their nefarious purposes.  See here for example:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212400523

7/8/2009 update:
Here is a more recent vulnerability:
http://secunia.com/advisories/35683/

With that in mind, I thought that this may be a good opportunity to help our friends and family members that are Internet Explorer users try out some of the alternatives.  For example, what do you think about sending an email like the following to all (or most) of those in your email’s contacts list:

I don’t normally send mail to a distribution list, but this time I am making an exception.  Since I work with computers so much, I keep abreast of what goes on in the computer field.  From time to time I become aware of security problems that affect most people.  When this happens I just say to myself that people using the internet should be smart enough to keep their computers up to date and to have virus scanner software installed.  This time it is different however.  I have become aware of a security vulnerability in Internet Explorer (the web browser that comes with Windows) that is, for the moment and for the most part, impossible for people to defend against.  Microsoft recommends taking some steps to protect oneself, but those steps are hard to implement for most people and in the end they leave Internet Explorer mostly unusable any way.  The only practical protection is to use a different web browser.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10122203-83.html

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212400523

Personally, I have been using the Firefox web browser for years and I am very pleased with it.  Other options are the Opera browser and Safari.  Firefox is my favorite due to the fact that it is an “Open Source” browser. That means that it is a product made in the open, mostly by volunteers, that has nothing to hide, including bugs.  This type of software has proven to be much more secure than older style software since thousands of people are able to look for bugs or security problems and quickly offer patches to fix them.

You can download any one of those browsers for free from the following links:

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

http://www.opera.com/download/

http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

http://www.google.com/chrome/

Take care.

So, what do you think?  Are you game?

My Fedora KDE Desktop

My experience with Fedora has not been bad at all. I think a big reason for that is that my Thinkpad T61 laptop has practically no need for proprietary drivers. The Intel graphics card open source driver has gotten quite good and provides painless and efficient compositing out of the box. In fact, every piece of hardware, including sound, works out of the box. So, that leaves me free to compare distros by their features and ease of use. So what have I found in using Fedora 10 KDE version?

The good:

• Beautiful KDE 4.1 and artwork.
• Fast boot up – With auto-sign on enabled, it takes less than a minute from boot start until the last tray icon loads! (For comparison, on the same machine, PCLOS takes 1 minute 15 seconds.Yes it loads a few more things, like the compiz icon and the OOo icon, but still, the desktop is not even shown after 1 minute wile Fedora shows me the desktop after just 45 seconds.)
• Up to date repository – Firefox 3.0.4, OOo 3.0, Django 1.0-1., Gimp 2.6.2, etc. (I only wish it came with Python 2.6 )
• Adequate package manager. KPackagekit has had no trouble resolving dependencies so far and it is quite fast.
• Because packages are presented in a more granular way, instead of as single large packages, some nifty extra packages are discoverable, such as the Ufraw plugin for Cinepaint and the one that provides extra PDF functionality for OOo.
• Good wireless networking – connects very reliably and fast.
• Good Print Configuration tool (it really is quite intuitive, but it took me for spin at first because I didn’t think that connecting to a printer on a remote CUPS server would involve creating a new printer object on the local machine).
• I love the new KDE4 Gwenview image viewer.
• Comes with a slick translucent Folder view widget ready to be populated by dragging and dropping from the application launcher or any way you like.
• I was able to create an icon to launch konqueror as root (other applications launch as root from there if needed) [/usr/libexec/kde4/kdesu konqueror].
• So far no crashes or hangups.

The not so good:

• It is not obvious how to get some things working, like flash, DVD playback, etc. One has to know what to look for and be proficient at Googling.
• There does not seem to be a way to make “File Management” the default profile when launching konqueror.
• It does not have OOo or Firefox installed by default.
• Dolphin will not load as root using the above method.
• KPackagekit sometimes sits there for a little while with no feedback for the user to know that it is doing something.
• Installing applications like OOo involve selecting several packages instead of just one (while the granular approach has advantages, there should still be the option of just selecting one all encompassing package with sane defaults).
• Amarok does not yet have a graphic equalizer.

• It asks for the keyring password before connecting to wifi every time you boot.

Of course, both of those lists will probably grow as I use the distro more. But, using it exclusively for about 4 days now that is what I have found. Overall, I am finding it a pleasure to work with.