Kungfuice.com

I have been running Ubuntu Gutsy for the last couple of months while it was in Beta and RC stages, but this week marked Gutsy’s full release to the public. I have to say that this is probably one of the best Linux Distro’s I have used to date in terms on out of the box functionality and completeness. It looks like finally someone has listened to many people cries to make Linux more available to regular users, in order to penetrate the Desktop software market.

Although I wouldn’t say Gutsy is a complete success, it definitely has hit the nail on the head in terms on where Linux distributions need to move in the coming future. Being a software developer Linux has always felt comfortable to me. I never really took the time to consider that not everyone in this world wants to spend a day tweaking the kernel, or trying to configure some bleeding edge application. At the same time to me this was one of the things I always loved about Linux, was that it afforded me these luxuries. To me Ubuntu Gutsy finds a happy medium between both of these extremes.

Out of the box Gutsy can be used by any regular user without the need to spend time configuring and setting up the user environment. However Gutsy does not prevent more experienced users from taking this approach. Installing a few tools you can build your own kernel image or compile any bleeding edge software you need. To me this is the real strength in Ubuntu and especially in Gutsy. I find that in my day to day life I don’t always have to be using the the bleeding edge, or do I feel the need to spend hours on end trying to get some new software configured. I am happy with just turning my computer on, firing up my development environment and getting to real work. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy “playing” around with Linux, but I have found more and more that I expect an OS that just kind of works without too much fuss. I would rather use my time to do my job, or write code then fight to get things working.

I think Gutsy does a good job of achieving this goal for me, since it includes some of the latest bleeding edge software like compiz-fusion, gnome 2.20, open-office 2.3 etc … but it doesn’t require that I spend hours on end getting any of this working, because all of it just works from the start. For example in Feisty I was running beryl, and just before I upgraded I had made the switch to compiz-fusion. Both these pieces of software took me many hours to get configured properly, not to mention that every couple of days they would break because of some new change to the SVN code base. This was acceptable for me since I knew ahead of time that both pieces of software were bleeding edge and would have their issues, but when you need to print a simple PDF and can’t get X to come up it can be a little frustrating.

Gutsy has done a good job of integrating these new bleeding edge pieces of software but at the same time running versions that are relatively stable and offer a good user experience.

A supposed great new feature of Gutsy is it’s automatic printer configuration. Gutsy will find printers connected to your computer and on your Network and automatically configure them to “work”. Well I have yet to get this feature to “work” properly, and since my printer worked just fine in Feisty I find this to be extremely frustrating. Although I don’t physically have a printer connected to my machine I do have a laser printer shared from a Windows XP box in our basement. It’s a simple Samba based printer share that worked flawlessly in Feisty and on all my other machines, except for Gutsy. It simply won’t print anything, it won’t even spit out garbage, since I’ve been so busy with school as of late I haven’t really gotten a chance to sit down and figure out why it’s not working anymore.

Other then this oddity though, Gutsy has been a great upgrade for me, and I don’t regret moving up to this release. I recommend Gutsy for anyone who wants to use Linux, whether you’ve been using it for years or simply want to make the plunge to the Linux dark side. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed.

Look forward to some configuration and tweaking articles I’m putting together, to really maximize how your gutsy install performs.

kungfuice Technology, Ubuntu

Well I have been using compiz fusion and beryl for some time now, but ever since I made the switch to compiz fusion I have noticed a very annoying “bug”.  When you try to move a window anywhere near the top of the screen it is repositioned to the very bottom, or simply sits at the top of the screen wobbling incessantly.

I tried a couple of different things to try and get it to stop the first being to disable window snapping, but for some reason that just didn’t work. Luckily trusty google was to the rescue and has provided me with a great fix for this silly problem.

I wish I could take full credit for this but I really have to thank TechBlog for this one.  The issue really comes down to a property of the wobbly window plugin called “Snap Inverted”.  Disabling this property gets rid of this annoying behaviour and makes compiz fusion work with windows properly. The steps for fixing this are rather simple, so without further adu let’s get to it.  These steps work with Ubuntu Gutsy, but should work fine with any Distro runing compiz fusion and having the compiz-settings-manager installed.

1. Goto System -> Preferences -> Advanced Desktop Effects Settings.
2. Scroll down to the “Effects” Section and Click the “Wobbly Windows” plugin.
3. Under the “General” tab you will see as your first option “Snap Inverted” simply uncheck the checkbox beside it to disable.
4. You are now done, close down the Compiz Setting Manager and enjoy.

I hope this helps anyone getting really annoyed with this behaviour.  Hopefully compiz will disable this property by default in upcoming releases.

kungfuice Linux, Technology, Ubuntu

Well I just realized in my post about my car that I didn’t really explain why I wasn’t going to be putting insurance on my car this summer, and I guess I should finally let the cat out of the bag about what I will be doing this summer. I have accepted a job for an co-op term at Research In Motion in Waterloo Ontario.

I’ll be starting in April and working out there until the end of August. I honestly cannot wait to get out there and be part of an amazing company like RIM, I really hope to bring a lot to the team and I also hope to learn a lot about working in a team environment in such a technical company like RIM.

Look forward to lots of pictures of Waterloo, it’s supposed to be an absolutely beautiful to be in the summer time, I can’t wait to get out on my own

kungfuice School, Technology

Well I spent a good portion of yesterday implementing Better Then Live Search and can finally say that I have everything looking and working the way I wanted.

I spent a lot of time re adjusting my div tags for the sidebar, and chasing a bug where the lower categories were not being pushed by the prototype effect engine the way they should have been. I then realized that I had forgotten to apply the div tags around the elements in the sidebar that needed to be pushed down to make room for the search results.

There may be more tweaks to come but right now I’m very happy with my minimalistic theme, and minimalistic ajax search box. I may be adding more ajax tools to this blog in the future. I had tossed the idea around of an ajax enabled comment system kind of like Digg.com but we will see how my time pans out over the next couple of weeks/months.

Anyway back to studying

kungfuice Technology

Well over my reading week I decided to make the transition to Windows Vista. I had recently been running Ubuntu Edgy exclusively on my desktop, but decided that I wanted to see what Vista was all about. I picked up a copy of Home Premium (Legally!), and installed it on my box. I must say that I was very impressed with the changes to the Windows Installer. The image based install went smoothly and I was up and running in just over 30 minutes.

Once Vista booted everything just worked, I didnt’ need to download any drivers everything was done for me, which was a pleasant change from what I remember installing when I last installed Windows XP. Although Vista doesn’t have any services packs yet I think this will eventually change but we will see.

I was concerned about how my box would handle Vista, my computer is by no means old, but at the same time it’s definitely not bleeding edge. Currently I am running 1.86gz Centrino Processor with 1gb of PC3200 Ram, and an 80gb Sata Drive with a 120gb IDE storage drive, and I have an AGP 6600GT Nvidia Video card. Vista actually runs quite nicely on this setup. The overal experience seems very “snappy” everything opens quickly, and my memory usage is usually between 500-750mbs of my overall 1gb. I did however make the upgrade to 2gb recently just to give myself that extra “room” just incase.

Overall I really do enjoy the UI changes that have been made, and with the system in general. The search improvements are a blessing, and it’s nice to just type what I’m looking for in any window and have it just come up. Overall the Vista Eye Candy is nice, but is by no means as good as Beryl in Linux, however I do find that it is a lot more stable.

I really enjoy the integration of windows media player and the improvements they have made to it. I was always a fan of windows media player when I used windows. I liked it’s small memory footprint, library folder watching, the only thing I didn’t ever really like was the UI and they have definitely improved in that department.

All things considered if would definitely recommend anyone who is still running windows xp to go out and make the switch. I find that Vista has given me a reason to enjoy windows again, for now, but that definitely does not mean I spend a lot of time in it. I still use Linux as my main OS and would say I’m in that at least 85% of the time.

So yeah I guess that’s my pseudo review of Vista. I hope it helps some people make the decision to make the switch.

I almost forgot here’s a screenshot

kungfuice Computers, Technology