Monty's Muse » Linux/Open Source

Does Printing Work Well In Linux?

Monty — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:40:09 +0000

Recently I was discussing Linux operating systems with a co-worker. The question came up on how well printers were supported in Linux. As I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.04, I thought I would show exactly how well most printers work in Ubuntu.

First go to System ->Administration -> Printing

Click the new button and it searches for connected printers.

I have a Brother HL-2170W network laser printer connected to my network router. Ubuntu finds it easily. Click the forward button and Ubuntu searches for and finds the printer drivers already included in the default installation.

Click apply to accept the default settings or add your own. The defaults will work quite nicely.

Next Ubuntu asks if you would like to print a test page. I click "Yes" and a perfect test page spits out of the printer.

One last chance to change any settings and options. Everything looks good so I just click "OK"

New printer is installed and ready for use. The entire process probably took less time that what it did to review this post.

So does printing work well in Linux? My response would be an enthusiastic “YES”.

For more information then you will probably ever want to or need to know about printing in Linux you can go to the Linux Foundation’s OpenPrinting Database.

Google’s Path to Success with Chrome OS

Monty — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:27:50 +0000

It didn’t take long for Google’s announcement of a new Chrome OS to cause a stir around the Internet. Almost immediately news articles and blog posts came flying in from everywhere claiming to know exactly why the Chrome OS would either throw M$ Bill into bankruptcy or to the other extreme Five Reasons Google Chrome OS Will Fail or 10 Reasons Why Chrome OS is No Windows Killer. And not surprisingly I have a totally unique opinion on this announcement and Chrome OS, just like everyone else.

Overall I think Chrome OS, based on Linux, can be a success. I’ve never understood why Linux hasn’t had greater acceptance in the marketplace. For the last several years, the Linux desktop (or laptop or netbook) experience has been overall very good. Device support, including wireless, has made some amazing strides and it is seldom that I find a piece of hardware that has been on the market for several months that doesn’t work right away with most Linux distros I use. The price is right (free), it looks good and it just works. Google’s choice of Linux as a starting point is an excellent one and I think most of the issues that people have about their data being stored on the “cloud” can be addressed. There are just a few things that I think Google is going to have to do extra to make Chrome OS a success.

1 – Secure the Cloud, people want to know that their stored data is safe and it is essential to the success of the “cloud” idea that Google provide the proper safeguards for user data. In addition, that data needs to be safe between the user’s machine and the cloud so Google will also need to adopt HTTPS for all data transfers for their applications.

2 – Secure Browsing Experience, in my mind this goes beyond just being able to HTTPS your Gmail and Google Docs. If Google wants to capture the mobile market place with always connected to the internet applications then they are going to have to take steps to make the ENTIRE browsing experience secure. To do that they should offer free VPN back to a secure Google server. They already provide this out in Mountain View, California with their Google Wifi services through Google Secure Access; provide it to all users of Chrome OS.

If Google doesn’t mess up the current Linux experience and does just these two additional things then I think their new OS can rise to the top of the Linux distros and equal Apple’s OS X market share within 2 years of launch. Brand name means a lot and Google has it.

But if they want more than that, if they really want to challenge the big boys in Redmond then they need to take one more big step…

3 – Partner with Adobe! People who use Adobe applications can not live without them. Microsoft’s applications, they can take them or leave them. Microsoft Office? Google Docs or OpenOffice will do just as well for most people when they give them an honest shot. Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Contribute, InDesign, ColdFusion; people don’t want an alternative, they want the real deal. Honestly, Adobe could have made the same announcement Google made (an OS based on Linux), added that they were going to incorporate OpenOffice, guaranteed all their software would work in the new OS and I think it would have been over Game, Set, and Match to Adobe. But they didn’t and the good news is there is still time for Google to partner with Adobe and bring all the Adobe applications to the new OS.

I’m excited about the new Chrome OS. At a minimum I think it will do a great deal to introduce new users to all the current greatness of Linux so many of us already enjoy so from that perspective I think Chrome OS is already a win. If Google plays their cards right though I can see Chrome OS growing to what most Linux users have been building toward, a serious contender to Microsoft for the OS marketplace.

Let me know what you think.

View This Poll

New Cool List of Linux Must-have Programs

Monty — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:49:01 +0000

Have you ever wanted to try out Linux but hesitated because you weren’t sure the available programs would do what you want/need to do on your computer? Or are you a Linux user always on the look out for the best software (that’s why you use Linux, right)? Either way, this extensive list from Dedoimedo is for you. I just did a quick skim and found several programs I want to put on my list to try out.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/new-cool-list-linux.html

And the best part, with any up-to-date and popular Linux distro you will probably find most of these titles in the software repository for quick, easy and trouble free installation on your system. Enjoy, I know I will.

Dell Introduces $299 Ubuntu Laptop

Monty — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:05:35 +0000

Dell last week introduced a 15.6 ” notebook with Ubuntu 8.10 installed by default. Base specification of the new Dell 15n are

Intel® Celeron® 585 (1MB cache/2.16GHz/667Mhz FSB)
Ubuntu Desktop Edition version 8.10
Jet Black
1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service
Glossy, widescreen 15.6 inch display (1366×768)
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD
8X CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card
4-cell battery
High Definition Audio 2.0
Integrated 10/100 Network Card

This laptop is a full $50 less than the Windows Vista version you know you really didn’t want and would be fantastic for all the basic tasks laptops are used for…web browsing, chat and basic office tasks. Best of all it comes with Ubuntu and all the great software available in their repositories (forget paying extra for an office suite or DVD burning software, it’s in there) at no extra cost. I recently bought a netbook so I’m not currently in the market for a new portable machine but if I were I expect there would be a new Dell 15n in my shopping cart.

Highly Recommended Free or Open Source Software

Monty — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:19:59 +0000

Any computer user that isn’t aware of and doesn’t take advantage of the available free and/or open source software is really missing the boat. There are some real software gems, they are free and in the case of open source, if they don’t do exactly what you want them to do you are free to modify it within your ability to do what you need it to do. I’m going to give a quick little run down of 7 programs or categories of free or open source software that you should be aware of.

1. Firefox – Web Browser

I’ve been using Firefox for several years and would not consider running a machine without it. It beat IE to the punch with tabbed browsing and from what the experts say it is safer/more secure. I like the way it stores passwords and you can find themes and add-on to achieve a look and features to satisfy about anyone. Recently I realized that I was missing out on a good deal of Friends for Sale Bucks on Facebook by not logging on frequently enough. You earn $10,000 every four hours you log in. With an add-on auto-reload application I’ve set Friends for Sale to reload it’s tab every 15 mins on a seldom used computer. The result is $60,000 earned everyday. I’m not confident I could have accomplished this quite as easy using IE.

2. Avast and AVG – AntiVirus

I seem to bounce back and forth between these two, currently Avast is my favorite for a Windows machine but I would be quite happy using AVG also. Good Anti-Virus software that keeps its self up to date is essential in a Windows environment and I can’t imagine paying for it with these two available free options. They both need to be registered again every year but that’s a small price to pay for the outstanding free protection that they provide.

3. OpenOffice – Office Suite

I just can’t understand why this quite popular software isn’t more popular than it is. For the total price of FREE (it’s totally Open Source) you have a feature packed, highly compatible alternative to Microsoft Office. I use it, my kids use it, my wife who is a very long term Office user is now using it (at home). Compatibility is not 100% with MS Office but it is awful close. It doesn’t have all the feature Offices has but it has most that most users use. Before spending the cash for MS Office for your next PC, give OpenOffice a try. My guess is close to half the users who give Open Office a try will select it for free over the expensive Office suite from MS.

4. Hotspot Shield – VPN

This is one for the laptops or netbooks that are traveling away from home and connecting to the net by means of an insecure wifi hotspot. What good does it do to connect to the net if you can’t do anything or log in anywhere because you are afraid some guy at the next table is stealing your information. I know with Gmail you can log in with https but that only protects a small part of what I want to do online. The solution is of course VPN. When I’m on my work laptop the first thing I do is set up a VPN connection to the work network and then I can access the shared drives, mainframe, e-mail and other applications securely. I was looking over solutions for setting up a VPN server at home so I could securely connect back to a secure location for all my web traffic and then I stumbled upon Hotspot Shield. Hotspot Shield offers a free service where you can establish a secure VPN connection to their servers, protecting all your wifi data from your PC to their end, protecting it from any snoopers nearby. Hotspot Shield remains free for up to 3GB of use per rolling 30 day period. I expect this will be sufficient. If not they offer subscription options if you need more bandwidth. How can they afford to do this? Advertising! Across the top of your web session appears banner ads, not too tall, probably 50 pixels high. I wouldn’t want to see this all the time but it’s a worthwhile compromise to have a secure web session when I’m away from home.

5. Pidgin – Chat

According to the Pidgin web site,

Pidgin is a chat program which lets you log in to accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time. Pidgin is compatible with the following chat networks out of the box: AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr. It can support many more with plugins.

So if you are tired of having multiple chat programs open at the same time then Pidgin may be for you. My Pidgin has my Yahoo, AIM, Gmail and Facebook (through a plug-in) all together at the same time. I also saw just yesterday that you can also do Twitter through Pidgin but I haven’t tried it yet. Highly recommended.

6. VLC – Media Player

VLC is a “highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats”. Basically, most any media formats that you want to play, this program can handle it and it works very well and is quite lightweight and trouble free. This is one of those must have programs on all of my PCs.

7. Linux – Operating System

I’ll be posting more more about various Linux operating systems but if there is any part of the Windows experience that is unsatisfying to you and you can’t see yourself spending the money for a Mac well then Linux may be for you. Once the exclusive domain of geeks, Linux now sports a degree of user friendliness and graphical configuration tools such that in many way it is far easier to use than Windows. One area where Linux thrives is bringing life back to older hardware that have gotten sluggish with the latest versions of Windows. Installation is usually trouble free with any of the major distros (short for distributions), most hardware being supported right “out of the box”. The good distros to start with is best reserved for a future post but if you are in need of some immediate recommendations on how to get started just reply to this post in the forum and I’ll do my best to address your needs.

This list just scratches the surface so I’m sure there will be several follow up lists in the future. If you are searching out software to do something specific and are not having any luck, drop me a post in the forum and I’ll see what I can do to help out.