Is Fedora/Red Hat planning to now really go after the netbook market? I noticed the release announcement for Fedora 12’s Alpha release states:

All software packages on 32-bit (x86_32) architecture have been compiled for i686 systems with special optimization for Intel Atom processors used in many netbooks but without losing compatibility for recent hardware.

I’m assuming that the x86-64 version of the distro will continue with the same optimizations as past releases.

So, I can’t help but wonder if Fedora is about to pounce on the Netbook market full-force, or if the optimized kernel is perhaps a result of working with Intel on Moblin (which switched to a Fedora base from Ubuntu last year).

Either way, I find the news highly interesting (as is Moblin – you should check it out if you haven’t!).

Finally got my hands on a Windows 7 RTM ISO and I updated my Quad Desktop with the final bits. So far, so good.

I simply did the install w/o entering a license key, so hopefully I can keep “re-arming” it until I get my upgrade (and CD KEY) in the mail…just so long as it comes within 120 days

Luckily the application “set” on that PC is very small, and all data is on a separate drive (actually RAID-1 array) so should I need to re-wipe in October (or whenever I get my CD KEY) it’ll be no big deal.

I still can’t get over how polished everything is – it really does make using Vista feel like a muddied up mess.

My favorite feature of Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04)?

Dust is installed by default.

There has been lots of discussion on this in the Ubuntu community for a few releases now…I think Dust is a definite winner. There will never be any theme that will please every one, but I think Dust not only looks great now but will integrate into GNOME shell very nicely as well!

Just a random comment – now back to your regularly scheduled Blog reading.

Let’s face it. Ubuntu is based on Debian – each new release of Ubuntu draws packages in from Debian’s Unstable branch, polishes those packages and with the wave of a few thousand magic wands, a new Ubuntu version is born.

Ok, ok – there is more too it than that, but it is true that although technically no longer “compatible” with each other, Ubuntu is based on Debian, and does to a certain extend depends on Debian for it’s mere existence.

You would think that these two projects (both being Linux distributions) would have the same end goal in mind, which would be to offer a free, and open PC Operating System to end users. However, with some discussions I’ve been reading lately I wonder if that is really the case, at least in regards to Debian. I’m really confused by the attitudes and beliefs of some of the Debian developers. I know of two separate occasions where members of Ubuntu’s leadership, first Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon, and most recently Ubuntu and Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth have reached out to the Debian community offering help in having the two distro’s work together to achieve a common goal of providing quality free software to the end user.

Although Mark’s attempt is probably too recent to really “call” either successful or unsuccessful, but judging by some of the comments being made, it hasn’t exactly been met with open arms by the Debian community. Some in the Debian community see Ubuntu as a “leech” that takes and doesn’t give back. Ubuntu does give back! It gives back upstream, and it also gives in a big way that Debian never has and that is by exposing the mass public to free and open software. Ubuntu got Linux installed on PC’s being sold by what is probably the largest PC Manufacturer in existence (Dell). Not only did Dell start the Ubuntu line back in 2007, it’s kept it going since! Also, Dell recently commented that they hadn’t seen any of the “rumored” high returns of Linux netbooks, hinting that the entire Linux line has been successful.

I guess what I’m getting at is that it seems that Debian developers are creating a free and open Operating System for themselves, and could care less about a “stupid user”, while Ubuntu is more concerned with the end user experience, and is committed to providing the best that the Open Source world has to offer in a nice, stable easy to use package. Although there are only small fundamental differences between Ubuntu and Debian on the technical level, there is a *huge* difference in the public “opinion” of the two projects. For example, Linux creator Linus Torvalds himself has admitted himself in an interview that he’d never tried Debian, stating (and I quote):

So the only major distribution I’ve never used has actually been Debian, exactly because that has traditionally been harder to install. Which sounds kind of strange, since Debian is also considered to be the “hard-core technical” distribution, but that’s literally exactly what I personally do not want in a distro. I’ll take the nice ones with simple installers etc, because to me, that’s the whole and only point of using a distribution in the first place.

So the creator of Linux itself has never tried your distro because it’s believed to be so “technical”. If he has that opinion of Debian how do you think the guy just wanting to try Linux out for the first time would feel? Why would you not want to work with an easy to use distro such as Ubuntu that was created from the ground up to be a competitive, user-friendly OS?

I just don’t get it.
Flame suit on – fire away!

I neglected to include this info in last nights post.

To enable plugin-ins, simply place them in: /usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins and also modify your launcher for chromium to include the --enable-plugins options.

Flash is working perfectly for me.

I have been Firefox fan for many years, in fact, I was a Mozilla and Netscape fan before that. I’ve tried many different browsers, but nothing, to me ever came close to what Firefox could offer. Although many people like Firefox for all of the available add-on’s, I’m more of a simple user…there have been a few small addon’s I’d adopted over the years, but nothing I couldn’t live without, and honestly I’d forget about them most of the time. I simply liked Firefox because it was an excellent browser that was available on all of the platforms I used and it just worked – plain and simple.

When Google first announced Chrome for Windows, I was pretty skeptical. In fact, I hated the initial build that I installed. However, I warmed up to it quickly and it has become my browser of choice on my Windows boxes, while continuing to use Firefox on my Linux boxes.

I recently found out about the PPA repositories for Ubuntu and since then I’ve been doing as much browsing as possible on my Ubuntu laptop with Chromium (the open source browser behind “Chrome”). These are all daily builds, and can be unstable, and may change from day to day. As of right now, there are still some things that simply do not work as expected (such as plugins and add-ons) but I kinda like browsing the web w/o Flash every once in a while

If you would like to experience the awesomeness of this light-weight Webkit browser follow the instructions below.

Bear in mind that there are no x86_64 builds as of yet, so if you are running 64-bit Ubuntu as I am, you must have the ia32-libs installed.

First you’ll need to add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:


deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu [version] main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu [version] main


Where [version] equals the version of Ubuntu you are on in it’s “codename” format, so you can choose between:

• Hardy (8.04)
• Intrepid (8.10)
• Jaunty (9.04)
• Karmic (9.10)

After adding the repositories to your sources.list you’ll want to add GPG key for the repo to your apt keyring by executing the following command in a Terminal window:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 4E5E17B5

Finally simply run sudo apt-get update to update your sources. Bear in mind for Chromium to work, you must have the package msttcorefonts installed or no text will render, so before installing Chromium, install the MS Core fonts by executing sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts once they are downloaded and installed, you can install Chromium with sudo apt-get install chromium-browser.

Now you can Chromium in all it’s glory. Be sure to see this page for more information. Also, be sure to check out the Chromium Project page in Launchpad as well as the official web-site of the Chromium project.

Thanks to all of the hard work that have made this browser, and this repository possible.

See Part II for info on plug-ins.