TV Ad’s
So, for those of you who aren’t aware – Microsoft appears to be marketing both IE8, and Windows 7…the theme of these is an 8 second advert (for IE8), or 7 seconds in the case of Windows 7. Not bad, emphasises the names of both products.
I’m unsure where these ads are being shown – but they appear to be on far too frequently in the UK, to the point where some people will probably get sick of the sight of them. The thing that interests me the most, however, is that Microsoft feel the need to advertise these…I think I understand why they are, but it shows that times have changed from when Microsoft was almost guaranteed to be on any PC.
I believe that the IE8 advertising is probably limited to Europe. The reason I make this (fairly large) assumption, is because of the EU ruling which ruled bundling IE8 was unfair to competitors, only last week did Microsoft push out an update which advertised alternative browsers to those users who still had IE8 as a default browser. Admittedly, more than 1 of these was based on the Trident engine, the same as IE8.
As for Windows 7, I’ve got a strong suspicion that a slow (but steady) decline in the OS market share has Microsoft a little worried, and they’re starting to push Windows 7 as much as they can, not to mention the catastrophe that came before 7…more commonly known as Vista 
9.10 + 0.94 = ……
Sorry for the Mathematical title 
As you’ve undoubtedly guessed – I’ve upgraded to Lucid, a.k.a 10.04!! So far, from what little time I’ve been able to use it, I’m really liking what I see (I’ve installed the 64 bit version, for those curious). Naturally there are some bugs, but I’m reporting these using the built in tool if/when they occur.
One thing that did frustrate me (immensely), while trying to install Lucid, was the partitioning situation. I wiped my Ubuntu partition(s) completely, including my /home and everything. I decided before installing that I’d make backups of the important stuff, and go from there. Somewhat frustratingly, the partition manager mid-way through ubiquity decided to give up the ghost and die. Not a problem, I thought, as I downloaded the daily live CD, I’ll just install from here….no go – the daily live CD was showing exactly the same issues as the Alpha 2 disc.
Before I ditched my attempts to install Lucid and drop back down to Karmic (9.10), I figured I’d try running GParted, and create the partitions before running ubiquity. Good job I did! This worked fine, without any hitches. Naturally I think I should’ve been able to specify my partitions as part of the ubiquity installer, but at least it’s installed now! More on my Lucid thoughts as I get any experiences to share with it.
Lack Of Motivation
Things like this really bug me, which, given the subject, it really shouldn’t! I don’t know if I’m alone here, but suffering from a lack of motivation to do something you normally enjoy frustrates me.
A couple of examples: I’m working on a project with one of my friends (a Java application, for the more curious of you), and from time to time, I’ll sit and code into the early hours of the morning without realising…other times, despite enjoying coding, I’ll open up the code, look at it, and think “I really can’t be bothered”, despite the fact earlier that day, I was totally motivated and yearning to do it.
I’m not sure why this happens, or if it happens to anybody other than myself, but it doesn’t stop it being any less frustrating
Anyway…time to go back to work!
An Interview With Jono
Posted by Joe in Community Interviews, Ubuntu on February 9th, 2010
I’m about 100% sure that the next person to be interviewed needs no introduction – everybody will have heard of Jono at some point, whether it be from his role within the community, his activity on identi.ca & twitter, or maybe even from Lernid…Either way, I hope you enjoy this as much as I have!
1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.
I am Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager working at Canonical for three years now, I am 30 years young and an Englishman living in the Bay Area, California with my wife, Erica. My parents live in Northern England and I have a brother living in Northern England and another brother living in the Isle Of Man. I was born in the north of England in North Yorkshire, raised in the south in Bedfordshire and and studied at Wolverhampton University in in the Midlands, graduating with a 2:1 in Interactive Multimedia Communication, going on to become a a journalist writing for a number of Open Source magazines and websites and writing a few books. I then became an Open Source consultant for the UK government-funded OpenAdvantage before moving to Canonical to become the Ubuntu Community Manager. My hobbies include writing, recording and producing music, videogames, movies, writing, travel and relaxing with friends.
2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?
I got interested in computers when I was a kid playing with a Commodore 64. I used to play games on it and try to write simple little programs in BASIC. Computers fascinated me, and my interest in video games (I was an epic Sega dork) got me into first learning BASIC and then learning C.
When I was 14, complete with bowl haircut, jack ups and large white socks, I went to night school to learn C and got more and more interested in the technology behind how software works, despite largely sucking at C. Shortly before I left for University my brother Simon came to stay for a few weeks and got me interested in Linux, specifically Slackware 96. Although it was ultra-technical, what really fascinated me was the concept of a global community of passionate contributors working together to build an Operating System that we could all share. I went to University and immediately formed a Linux User Group in my new home and progressively got more and more interested in Linux, starting to contribute to projects and then starting to write for magazines. I heard about Ubuntu when it was known as No Name Yet and it really captivated me: it really represented something I had been dreaming about – the fantastic technical foundation of Debian, but a different focus on integration, usability and ease of use.
3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?
My primary involvement in Ubuntu at the beginning was getting to the know the community, contributing bug reports and feedback and co-writing The Official Ubuntu Book. At the time I was spending most of my spare time knee-deep in the GNOME project and working with local Linux communities in the West Midlands, and my interest in Ubuntu grew from there.
4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?
I am an Ubuntu Member, and proud to be one! I contribute in a range of areas. I lead a team at Canonical that is tasked with helping to produce a rocking community to participate in and we work on a wide range of projects as part of that role. My contributions include team management, governance, software development, some translations, bug triage, raising awareness of Ubuntu and creating new initiatives to get people involved.
Outside of Ubuntu I like to develop community best practice with The Art Of Community and the annual Community Leadership Summit, do some podcasting with Shot Of Jaq and FLOSSWeekly, videocasts with At Home With Jono Bacon and Severed Fifth: Live In The Studio, record Creative Commons metal with Severed Fifth and work on some software projects such as Lernid, Acire, Python Snippets and some other projects.
5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?
I naturally use Ubuntu as my Operating System, both on my desktop as well as on the server that hosts my site and a range of other sites I run. I have so many fave applications – I love Empathy, OpenOffice.org, The GIMP, TomBoy, Scribus, Thunderbird, Docky, Network Manager, Gwibber, Quickly, Glade, and many more. As for least fave, I am not really sure I have a least fave – there are so many programs I haven’t got to yet.
6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?
Fondest memory is a kid who emailed me telling me how he walked five hours from his village in Africa to an Internet cafe to to work on Ubuntu for an hour and then walked back. He emailed me telling me it was worth the effort and that he loved Ubuntu.
7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?
Fairly well, I think. Basically anyone who is not an Ubuntu user gets the advocacy pitch from me about how Ubuntu would rock their world. Many have tried it, which is what I consider a win, and a bunch have switched. Some don’t, which is fine, but my first goal is to have people take a sip of Ubuntu before they drink the rest of the bottle.
8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?
I want to see free software, delivered via Ubuntu, become the most ubiquitous platform in the world for users and developers, available to all, respecting local languages and culture, and inspiring innovation and sharing.
9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?
Welcome to the Ubuntu community and welcome to the start of awesome journey in which we can all put a brick in the wall to create an incredible free software platform. I look forward to meeting you all!
iDroid
Before I start – no, this isn’t a Star Wars post Sorry!
I currently have an iPhone, and no, I’m not ashamed to admit it, though it is a little awkward that I can’t sync it with my desktop. I’m also not ashamed to admit that I love it, I really do. But as with a lot of things, I find the Apple design of the phone a little restrictive. Sure it’s polished, and it looks sleek and sexy (to some at least), but I just can’t help feeling that I’d prefer an Android phone.
I’ve been looking, albeit briefly, at what Android phones are available on the UK market. Out of the choices, I think I’d prefer a Nexus One, though as far as I’ve seen – they’re Vodafone exclusive, and I’m on an O2 contract, so it’s a no-go. I’d love to hear from some of you guys that have Android phones, and what phones they are, because I’m definitely in the market!
Ubuntu Forums Hits 1 Million
…….Members!
That’s right, we have 1,000,000 members on Ubuntu Forums now, and I’m glad I could be a part of that awesome community
A snippet of the screen:
Ubuntuforums.org Millionth Member
Cut In Half…Sort Of
I know, confusing title…though maybe some people get it already?
As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve upgraded both my graphics card, and my monitor recently – both of which, I love, especially the monitor…1920×1200 is a lovely resolution 
That said, I decided to reinstall Ubuntu last night, because I’d been running the same install since Alpha4 of Karmic, and I’d been experiencing a few oddities. I didn’t know whether this was the 64 bit version I was running, or some odd config files left over from somewhere.
Because I was lazy, I used the Karmic CD I got from ShipIt, completely forgetting that these are 32 bit versions of Ubuntu, not 64 bit. I only realised once I’d booted into the system. The upside of this is that I noticed a couple of issues had gone, and that there really is little difference between the 32 bit or 64 bit. So much so, I’ll be going back to 64 bit for Lucid Kudos to the developers though, the installer picked up my resolution perfectly on the LiveCD, and also noticed that I have 4GB RAM, so installed the PAE kernel without even asking! Colour me impressed!
All in all, reinstalling showed me a couple of new things that I seem to have missed out (mainly things like that on the installer), and it has indeed fixed a few issues. I estimate this install will last around 6 weeks, and then I’ll install Lucid…but we’ll have to wait and see….
9800GT
So I have a new graphics card…1 guess as to what that may be!
I previously had a 9500GT, so it’s a relatively small upgrade, but I got it as some games were crashing/bluescreening, and giving a graphics card/driver related error. When I tried rolling back the drivers, and then reinstalling older & newer versions to no avail, I figured the next logical step was new stuff!
I have to say, I was suitably impressed, Ubuntu loaded up, picked up my dual screen* setup perfectly, and it was as though nothing had ever changed. Brilliant…now for Windows 7! I foolishly expected minimum fuss, as it had been good to me when I installed it all those many moons ago, only to boot it twice since then. How wrong I was. 800×600 single screen until I downloaded and installed the drivers, and rebooted.
I think we’ll give the point to Ubuntu then!
* About 30 minutes after installing the new graphics card, I’d purchased a new 24″ screen online, to replace my current 2×20″ setup. I need more desk space!
A Practical Guide To…
…Linux Commands, Editors, & Shell Programming.
I was lucky enough to be asked to review the 2nd edition of the aforementioned book. I just received my copy today, so many thanks to the guys that made that possible! From what I’ve read of the book in its draft form, it’s a book that will come in incredibly useful to me, as I’m a big fan of shell programming & generally using the shell*.
If you’re looking to become more familiar with the shell/command line in Linux, I’d definitely recommend it.
*No flames please!
Happy Holidays 2009!
Just a quick one to say Merry Christmas to all!
That said – I know some won’t celebrate Christmas, so Happy Holidays (whichever holiday that may be!) I hope everybody has a great time, and a good new year.
