Ubuntu Manual – A Great Addition and Must for Beginners

I must say, we have been pleasantly surprised at the content and quality of the manual developed by the community for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. These past few days, we have had the opportunity to share it with non-techies and people new to Linux. To our great satisfaction and delight, they not only found the manual extremely easy to follow but were able to do most of the tasks (including installation) without anyone's help.

Ubuntu itself is probably the most intuitive Linux distribution out there. But the manual is a great addition, making adoption of Linux even more easy. The document is divided into 9 distinct chapters that deal with its installation, the desktop environment, security, hardware and software management.  There are even some advanced topics on how to use command line interface to accomplish tasks the traditional way, among others. It even has a chapter on how to use Word, Spreadsheets, web browser, Instant Messaging, including Twitter making it easy for people to migrate to Ubuntu without any glitch.

The documentation is well supported by clear and extremely helpful screen shots of various Ubuntu features, that visually guide the user through many cumbersome tasks. This makes life easy for someone who has never used Ubuntu or Linux before.

Considering that it is a community driven project, it is a remarkable achievement and will go a long way in making Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular get mainstream acceptance. We for one are recommending it to anyone who wants to migrate/move to Linux and is unsure of where to begin.

If you prefer to get a printed version of the manual, you can get it through Lulu otherwise, the electronic version in PDF can be downloaded free of cost from Ubuntu Manual Website.

Ubuntu 10.04 is Awesome!

Whenever Apple releases a new gadget, there are scores of people lined up in front of their stores, sometimes for days, just to be the first ones to get their hands onto the next cool gadget. On April 29, thousands of Linux aficionados were glued to their computer screens patiently waiting for Ubuntu to release their latest Linux. And the new 10.04 aptly named Lucid Lynx, was released with much fanfare on schedule with blogosphere covering its launch like traditional media covered the iPad release. We too were among the millions downloading it the moment it was available and giving it a try on our PCs. After tinkering with it for an hour, we were convinced, it is now the most superb OS available in the market.

Over the past two years, since the release of Ubuntu 8.04, the Operating system has matured at a very high pace. Today, it is no longer a hobbiest tool nor just a tool for geeks to tinker with in their basements, it is now a mainstream player which can hold its own in front of Apple's MacOS X and Microsoft's Windows.

Times have changed as well. Today, Dell, Toshiba, Intel, HP and other major hardware vendors are supporting Linux for their devices. If you buy a computer be it a laptop, netbook or a desktop, it will run Linux perfectly well out of the box. To give you an example, I hooked up an HP P1005 laser printer to my 10.04. It not only recognised it immediately, without me needing to install any additional drivers, but also got me the official HP software to manage the printer.

There are many advantages of moving to Ubuntu over other operating Systems. Here are some of my favourite reasons:

1. It is totally free: No cost for life including upgrades. Every six months, Ubuntu comes out with a major upgrade and all of them are totally free.
2. Runs on any hardware: Unlike Microsoft and Apple machines, it does not require any specific highend hardware requirements. Even a computer with 256MB of RAM and 5GB of free disk space can easily run Linux. Try doing that with any other OS and you will see your hardware stall.
3. Free Software Catalog: There is a built in catalog of over 25,000 free softwares to install. No CD/DVD needed. Just choose what you want and get it installed over the Internet. For example, a music player, a mail reader, or chatting software. It not only lets you choose the software, but also automatically installs if for you. And if any software requires certain other software then it will get it automatically for you. Hence, it does not crash like other OS when it does not find what it wants.
4. Automatic Updates: On a regular basis, Ubuntu will prompt you to update the Operating System with new updates. All one has to do is click a few buttons and it will happen automatically. In fact, Ubuntu will also support all future upgrades totally free through this interface. So no need to reinstall the OS as it will happen automatically.
5. Office suite: Openoffice is really popular openoffice application developed by Sun Microsystems now Oracle. But it is not the only one. There are similar office applications from IBM (Lotus Symphony) among others to choose from. And all of them are backward compatible with Microsoft Office. No one will ever feel the difference between the documents created using OpenOffice or Microsoft. I personally have been using it as defacto software for over five years. Not once has someone ever complained that they could not read any document that I have created or shared with them. Sun/Oracle and IBM are companies that are as big as Microsoft. The office suite that they produce are well supported and work wonderfully well. Therefore, qualms that it is not as good as Microsoft Office are but a Myth.
6. Web Browsers: You get Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox working fine on Ubuntu. These are currently two of the most popular browsers available and are easily available here. So surfing the web and doing chores online will always be a breeze.
7. Messengers: I installed Skype without any issues and Pidgin messenger software. Using Pidgin I can use all major messengers including MSN, YahooIM, GoogleTalk among others. In fact, now I am easily able to manage all my chats through one software.
8. Mail Client: You can use Mozilla Thunderbird or Novell's Evolution. Both do a perfect job. However, if you are like me and use webmail, then Mozilla Prism is perfect. It turns my webmail into deskmail. Try it and you will not regret it.
9. File sharing: You can seamlessly share files between Windows and Linux machines using Samba and other available tools. This makes Linux machine part of the network that you have at home or in offices.
10. Side by Side Installation: Yes, you can run it with ease with your Windows Operating Systems. Simply follow the instructions and it will make your machine dual boot. Linux and Windows. This will give you the best of both worlds.

In the coming years, Linux will no longer be a novelty used by the few. It will gain immence momentum and the mainstream will embrace it. Many hardware vendors will pre-install it with their systems for users to use right out of the box. Linux is already prevalent on the mobile platform and is making good inroads onto netbooks. Android and WebOS are just two popular examples of Linux customized to run on your Google and Palm phones. Even Google's much anticipated ChromeOS is based on Linux for the netbooks.

My advice is to give it a try and install it on your system. Once you go Linux, you will not go back to Windows.

The Future of iPhone – Unlocked and Unleashed Worldwide

Later this year, Apple will unveil a major upgrade to their game changing iPhone. One of the new upgrades will definitely be moving it to their own A4 chipset using the long anticipated iPhoneOS version 4. Thus enabling  iPhone to play apps faster and most importantly, the ability to multi-task. Something that Android and Palm Pre devices already do pretty well but iPhone still lags behind. However, the most revolutionary factor would be in the pricing structure and its relationship with carriers. In short, iPhone will most likely be available unlocked and uncarrier bound.

With the launch of iPad, Apple has indicated its desire to sell its hardware unlocked and non-carrier bound. This is just the beginning as more and more devices will follow the same pattern.

While its relationship with AT&T and other international carriers has been highly successful in selling millions of cellphones worldwide, it has also created a major problem for its apps developers (and itself) in the form of jailbroken iPhones. Apple and probably AT&T did make some money on the jailbroken devices (hardware and cellphone contract sales), but at the same time, it has suffered an estimated US$450 million in revenue losses (from unpaid downloaded apps). This is only because jailbroken devices, are able to download iPhone Apps without the need to pay for them.

Earlier in January 2010, Google launched its NexusOne device unlocked and right off their website. No carrier or any shop necessary for purchase. The phone was also made simultaneously available through T-mobile with a two year contract at a reduced price. Among many reasons to adopt this methodology was for Google  to discourage hackers in breaking android operating system and then messing around with the OS. When the phone is already unlocked no one will need a reason to break it. Apple will most likely follow the same path. While its relationship with AT&T will continue but consumers will have an option of picking an iPhone right off the Apple Store; unlocked and ready to use with any carrier in the world. Of course, AT&T locked phone will still be cheaper than the unlocked version.

This move will go a long way in strengthening Apple's outreach to more places/countries worldwide to sell their content. They will no longer be bound by the reach of the (partner) carriers to sell devices. In short, the whole world will become their playing field. And the more Apple devices people choose to own, the more they are likely to buy content from Apple directly. Another advantage for Apple will be that the unlocked variety will finally discourage hackers from jailbreaking their devices, which in turn would be boon for Apple, as it will bring in more revenues in legitimate app store sales. And once the hacker community becomes irrelevant, maybe Enterprise apps will find their way into the iPhone platform. Currently, hacked/jailbroken phones are a cause of concern for many enterprise apps and hence, are not offering as many functionality as expected. Once this hole is taken care of, enterprise class applications will become popular on this platform, thus making Apple king of the corporate world as well.

Apple's iPad stellar launch, earlier this week confirmed many of the rumors going around about the future of Apple. Steve Jobs is now on a path to take Apple beyond IT realm of nifty niche products to the world's largest content controlling and distribution conglomerate. To achieve those goals, they now have the software (iTunes, App Store), the hardware (A4 chips powering iPad for now but soon iPhones, MacBooks and iMacs), the users (over 50 million just on iPod Touch and iPhone worldwide) and now the content (thousands of songs, games, movies and apps). With iBooks now Apple will control almost all major media contents out there.

Google Chrome for Linux is Out and we think it is Superb

Chrome for Linux is truly a superb product. Not only does it render the pages faster, as claimed by Google, but it is fast. This is interesting news for Firefox as so far on Linux it dominated the browser market share with Opera coming in a distant second. However, all that changes with Chrome with its nifty features making a home on all major Linux distributions.

It does seem to consume a bit more memory than Firefox (when the same set of websites are open) but since Linux itself does not consume a lot of memory, we have enough spare out there for it to use.

Firefox still has an edge when it comes to customized add-ons and extensions. Chrome does have a gallery of some impressive extensions but not as comprehensive a list as Firefox. So those, like me, who rely on those extensions for many tasks, will still take a while to switch to Chrome as default browser.

Even though it is still in beta, it is turning out to be a cool Internet user experience.