So today, I’ll be telling you not only the top 5 things I miss in Windows, but also the top 5 things I miss in GNU/Linux.

DISCLAIMER: Many of you will disagree. Some of you will give suggestions. These are my own experiences, based on what I use my computers for. You’re daily activity and workflow will differ from mine.

THINGS I MISS IN WINDOWS

1. See Your IP Address Quickly Without Opening A Terminal

See Your Connection Details With The Support Tab

In Windows XP, you double-click the LAN icon in the system tray (you have to set the “Display Icon in System Tray When Connected” in the connection properties, but you only have to do this once) and the local area connection dialog pops-up. If you go to the Support tab, you can find your connection’s information including IP address and subnet there.

2. Middle-click scroll

Yes, the middle-mouse button doesn’t scroll your browser or application in Ubuntu. I’ll tell you why later. While it is possible to set this in Linux,  (heck, practically ANYTHING can be set somehow), there is no fancy GUI way to do it so it’s definitely not for the lesser-experienced. The middle-mouse button is useful for those lazy days when you’re surfing the web and  just don’t want to scroll that mouse wheel.

3. Adobe/Macromedia Flash Yes, I know you can go to YouTube, Miniclip, and everything plays fine. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the Windows-only application that lets you make those Flash applications. Flash 8 and Flash MX both have Platinum ratings for Wine, meaning that they do work almost flawlessly in Linux under Wine.  But personally, and this is a really subjective thing, I would prefer a native port or an equivalent. For most applications, I’ve gotten by with a Linux equivalent, and most perform even better than their Windows counterparts. But it seems strange to me that there is no worthy equivalent for Flash. Heck, I don’t even need the CS3 features, just basic animation and even ActionScript 1.0 would do, but alas the closest thing we have is the long-dead F4L project.

4. Drivers for Weird Devices I really want a device driver for my 1-Seg TV tuner (ahem, driver writers, please get in touch with me). Don’t know what 1-Seg is? Thought so. Linux has no problem handling video cards, sound cards, webcams, and in recent months even wireless support has improved greatly. But there will always be that uncommon device that only a minority would have and that only has Windows drivers. And in my case, it was made by a Taiwanese vendor whose email link at their website isn’t even working!

THINGS I MISS IN LINUX

1. Compiz Fusion

Compiz Fusion with Desktop Cube and 3D Windows Plugins

Oftentimes I find myself moving my mouse to the upper-right corner of my screen because I want to see all the windows I have open. It always ends up in disappointment because sadly, not even Aero can provide such feature. In fact, Vista’s Aero doesn’t really provide anything useful, or new for that matter, to the table as it was meant to just prettify your desktop, and at a higher performance cost. For a list of Compiz features, take a look at its Wikipedia page. And then take a look at the Windows Aero page.

2. Built-in FTP program that doesn’t suck Say it with me, “MS Windows’ FTP program sucks!” Didn’t know that Windows has a built-in FTP program? Well, it’s more like a built-in plugin for Windows Explorer that’s stuck in the tar pits of the stone age. You just type in ftp://yourFtpSite.com in the address bar. I can’t stress enough that it sucks. A few examples:

• In FTP sites where log-in is required, you are plopped onto some sort of limbo directory and you have to Right-click and select Login As… to actually log-in.
• When you Right-click > Properties a file, all you’ll get is the size and permissions. No EXIF data for images, no codec info for music, basically nothing useful.
• Try dragging and dropping, copy-pasting between directories, or any of that stuff you’d come to expect from a modern OS, and you’ll be disappointed because it won’t work in Windows.
• Want to edit files directly from your FTP? Again, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

So fire up your Nautilus and log on to your FTP, because in Linux you can proudly say “Yes! We Can!” to all of these.

3. A Codec Manager

Automatic Codec Searching That Actually Works

When you play a DivX video in Windows Media Player and you haven’t installed the codec yet, WMP will offer to search for a codec for you…and it will fail you every single time! Back in the day, the best way to be able to play all those videos and mp3s was to download the Gordian Knot Codec pack or some other codec pack.

There is no more need to manually download and install codecs one by one for DivX, XVid, Ogg Vorbis and Theora, MP3s. In the modern age, you use Ubuntu, double-click on your media file, and if you don’t have the codec, Ubuntu will tell you and offer to install it for you.

4. Driver Support

I’ve been asked by quite a few Windows-using friends, “how did you find drivers for your hardware?” My answer is, “I don’t have to”. I’ve said this a couple of times in previous posts. I no longer need driver CDs. For all of you out there, go check out your drawers, computer tables, etc. Are your driver CDs still eating up precious space? If you think so, go ahead and throw them away because the only CD you’ll be needing from now on is your Ubuntu CD (maybe your Warcraft CD, too).

While Windows does have a few drivers built-in, in most cases your PC or PC parts came with a couple of driver discs for a good reason. And hardware experts will almost always recommend that you use the manufacturers’ own proprietary drivers instead of the ones made by Microsoft. Go figure.

Back then, and even today, device manufacturers wrote their drivers exclusively for Windows. And the Linux people had to resort to their own skillz to reverse-engineer or communicate with the hardware vendor and write their own device drivers in open-source fashion. In my opinion, I think it was precisely because of this that Linux driver support is so good: Linux users with their hardware + Linux device driver writers far outnumber the employees at Microsoft. And they don’t do it for money, they do it to make their hardware work well.

5. Middle-click paste

Yes, I know I said I missed middle-click scrolling in Windows, but considering that I still had my trusty mouse-wheel, middle-click pasting turns you from one lazy middle-clicking-net-surfing couch potato to a highly-productive middle-click-pasting l33t hax0r!

What is middle-click pasting anyway? Well, normally you would:

1. Select text
2. right-click
3. Click copy
4. Right-click on destination
5. Click paste

With middle-click pasting it’s reduced to

1. Select text
2. Middle-click on destination

That’s 3 whole steps removed, increasing your speed by 60%! Even middle-click scrolling can’t beat that.

6. Easy music preview with mouseover

Do you have lots of music files, say voice recordings or even previewing the quality of an MP3 you just downloaded, and you need to preview them? Forget opening each one of them in Media Player. Just roll your mouse over it and it’ll play! Assuming you’ve installed the right codec of course, but that isn’t really a problem because Ubuntu has it’s own codec manager!

7. Always On Top-ify ANY program

Sure, Yahoo! Messenger, Winamp, and a handful of programs have the “Always On Top” feature, but if you’re typing a document or creating a 3D model or whatever and you need to constantly look at a reference, being able to “Always On Top-ify” that Notepad sure would save you from the dizzy of alt+tabbing. Well, if you’re using GNOME (the default window manager of Ubuntu), you can now say with me, “Yes, we can!”.

Just right click on the program on the taskbar or its title bar and choose “Always On Top” and you can work while keeping that chat window with your honey or never missing a beat while that Totem Video Player is playing the latest CSI DVD you just got.

Ok, I really intended to do a 5-on-5, but try as I might, I could only think of 4 things for Windows and I really had to stretch it. On the other hand, it was quite easy for me to think of stuff for Ubuntu. I hope you guys find this info useful. If there are any Mac users out there, I’d love to hear your side of the story. Hit the comments for your ideas and suggestions.

If you’ve long been dreaming about wielding a lightsaber in your own hands and vanquishing foes with it, this will probably be the closest experience you’ll have short of getting Jedi Training in an asylum somewhere (at least for now, we’ll see if Star Wars: Clone Wars has anything to say when it comes out). This game is exactly like what we saw in the Wii Producer Walkthrough video that we showed in one of our recent posts, only hands-on it gets so much better. In a nutshell, you get a Wiisaber and Forcechuk with the game. So as previously mentioned, Force Push is executed by quite literally performing a “push” (you push forward on your Forcechuck) and enemies go flying! Here are some more Forcechuk moves:

Force Grip: Grip your enemy (by gripping on the Z button)
Throw Enemies or (objects at enemies): Force Grip them, move them around (using the Forcechuk analog stick), then release your grip (by releasing the Z button).
Force Pummel: Grip your enemy, and wave your other hand to send objects hurtling toward your force-gripped opponent.
Force Choke: Grip your enemy, then turn your Forcechuk upside down (similar to how you would turn your hand ala Vader-style)
etc.

Now isn’t that intuitive?
Wiisaber moves aren’t any less spectacular either. You swing your Wiisaber right, left, up, down, or thrust to perform the same moves. The game has a tutorial mode to get you quickly up to speed. You’ll be taught by Proxy, your droid, and none other than Vader’s hand demonstrations themselves! Pardon the screenshots, I don’t have a capture card, just a camera. And yes, you can see my reflection from the TV.

Edit: It’s pretty standard for games to vibrate during gameplay, but did I mention that the Wiisaber also emits lightsaber sounds as well? Yup! Not from your TV, from the Wii mote itself with its built-in speakers whenever you activate it or it hits something like another lightsaber. Can’t believe I forgot to mention this.

Krome Studios did an excellent job with designing the controls. The point here is to maximize, not use for the sake of using. Imagine if you ran by “jogging” both controllers. Thankfully, Krome was SMART enough not to fall down that dark path and just used the nunchuck analog stick for movement.

Sadly, the Wii version does not have Euphoria or DMM, or even an attempt to mimic these technologies. That’s not to say there aren’t a lot of objects flying around, getting thrown, or getting destroyed. The second level boss fight with Jedi Master Gen. Rahm Kota is particularly beautiful (see the video below); it takes place in a TIE-Fighter Construction Facility control room. As the intense battle of two powerful wielders of the force ensues, you’ll have to sometimes stop and marvel (at the risk of your own demise) the surroundings, especially the large glass window that cracks and sends out shards of glass as one of you gets slammed into it. The battle ends in a climactic finish with a large and dazzling display of the destructive power of the force as wielded by the Secret Apprentice.

The Wii game also sports a Duel Mode where you get to fight with another player. At the start, you’ll only have access to the Secret Apprentice, Darth Vader (!), and Rahm Kota. But as you play the Story mode, you’ll be able to unlock other characters, including Ep. 3 Anakin, Darth Maul (no dual-saber though),  Obi-Wan, Qui-gon Jinn, as well as the Secret Apprentice with different costumes. Although, cheating might be rampant as in the following example dialog:
Player 1: Damn it! Why the heck did you push me for?!
Player 2: That was a force push.

As BlendGames points out, Krome “will be focusing the game mechanics around motion control.” In essence, there will be 5 versions of the game (as was covered in our last post’s video): Xbox360/PS3 versions (with DMM and Euphoria), Wii (Duel-mode, motion control), PS2 (Jedi Trials), PSP (play historic missions), and DS (made by N-Gage. No news on this one). So which version do you get? According to LucasArts, you’ll have a different, unleashed experience on all platforms. The first mission on Kashyyyk, for example, is a night-time raid on the Wii version (Here’s a video of Vader fighting the Rogue Jedi in the attack) while it’s day-time in the PS3 version. The Wii will have 5 more levels, and the level design will also be different. Even the Junk Titan seems different in design (PS3: Here Wii: Here).

Basically, if you prefer trees that splinter, metal that bends, and storm-troopers that panic, get the amped-up graphics of the XBox360/PS3 version. But if you like to really get unleashed wielding force powers, as well as playing head-to-head against another player, get the Wii version. If you’re an on-the-go type, get one of the handheld versions. And since most of you probably have a PS2 as well, be sure to pick it up as well. I would. Right now, I’m tempted to buy an XBox360 just to see DMM and Euphoria in action.

I highly recommend that you get the Wii version. If you’re local retailer doesn’t have it yet, you can get one from Play-Asia and say no to piracy. Mine arrived around a week after I ordered it. For now, I’ll leave you with these two videos: The first one is a gameplay video on the Wii, all the way up to a spectacular boss battle at the end. The second video is a compilation of clips from the PS3 version of the game. Enjoy! I’ve got more foes to send flying in the air.
Wii Version Gameplay

PS3 Video Clips

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Miro Video Player

I know a lot of people who love watching videos at YouTube. And among them, there are also plenty who like downloading their favorite videos. The problem though is that YouTube doesn’t freely provide this service. Instead they have to rely on Firefox extensions, download websites (which are either full of ads, possibly virus-laden, or just plain dubious), and other such hacks.

That was how I found Miro. I’ve been using Miro for about a year now, and it has improved over the past year in terms of both usability and stability. But Miro is more than just another YouTube downloader. Advertised as an Internet TV player, it does what it says and does it well.

Downloading YouTube Videos

Downloading Videos

With Miro’s integrated video search feature, you can search videos from YouTube, Daily Motion, Veoh, and other video websites without starting your browser. You then just choose your search results and Miro will start downloading them into your library. I find this feature really nice, especially when downloading a long or large video, when I want to show something to some friends, or when I’m just too busy to watch them immediately. WIth the video in my library, I can load it up anytime at my convenience, whether I’m on the train or relaxing after cooking/eating dinner.

Internet TV with Miro

Viewing The Contents of a Channel

Miro comes with a few default channels and lets you add more channels. There are plenty of channels to choose from the integrated Miro Guide, which offers you some of its recommendations or you can search for a particular interest. Miro uses the open RSS standard for its channels, so it’s compatible with practically all feeds on the internet, including iTunes podcasts.

The beauty of using channels is that you can set it to auto-download New content or All content to download even old videos you haven’t seen yet. For example, I am subscribed to the WebbAlert channel, which offers an almost-daily 5-minute round-up of what’s new on the Internet and computing in general. When I get home and turn on my computer and Miro, it will automatically download new episode(s) if any, for my viewing pleasure, at my own leisure. It’s like turning on your TV to your favorite daily program, only you’re not bound by stiff schedules.

More Cool Features

Video Playback

Miro’s core functionalities are wonderfully complemented by the options that Miro’s intellgent engineers came up with.

Afraid you’ll run out of disk space? That shouldn’t be a problem when using Miro. You can easily set Miro to make sure to leave a gigabyte or two. And if space is a problem, the expire feature comes in very handy. Some people unfamiliar with this concept might be wary at first, but trust me, you’re not going to be watching last week’s podcast episodes anyway. YouTube videos also expire in the default 6 days, but you can choose to keep a video indefinitely by clicking on the “keep” button. Of course, there’s also a “delete” button, in case you downloaded a loser video or this week’s podcast episode just sucks.

Each channel also displays the number of unwatched videos you have, which conveniently turns into a play button when you move your mouse over it, giving you instant access to unwatched content. There’s also a “New” item in the sidebar. Just like the channels, it displays the number of unwatched videos across all your channels and clicking it plays it. By default Miro is set to play all videos consecutively in a section (be it a channel, New, or your library), but if you prefer watching one at a time (like me), you can turn it off in the options.

Miro is available for GNU/Linux, Mac, as well as Windows. Download it now from http://www.getmiro.com

While you’re downloading Miro, click on over here to read more about how Miro does what it does. And if you’re interested in making your own videos or channels for Miro, http://makeinternettv.org is a good resource for information.

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Breaking Barriers

Do you tire of reformatting your computer so that it can be set up with the prescribed environment determined by your superior or client? How about the hassle of making sure that there is a backup copy of your past project? Is quality assurance testing a pain because you have to reset your environment over and over again?

Well I did tire of that hassle. And I also tired of having to run my computer on a specific OS, just because that was what the task prescribed. So I went out and used a few proven tools to remedy the situation, which will be what this guide will be all about.

Installing VMWare Player

Virtual machines is the name of the game, and is the key to this modern workspace. Software that enables you to run virtual machines, such as VMWare’s VMPlayer or VMServer or Innotek’s (now Sun’s) Virtualbox, have been around for quite some time now. However, aside from system administrators, many people don’t know about them. And even less know how to use them to their utmost potential.

We will be installing VMWare’s VMPlayer for this tutorial. If you choose to install VMWare Server or Sun’s Virtualbox, that’s ok as well, although set up will be a bit different.

1. First, head on over to http://www.vmware.com/player and download the latest version of VMWare Player.
2. After you have downloaded the tarball (for Linux), extract it to a directory. It will create a directory called vmware-player-distrib.
3. Open a terminal and go inside the vmware-player-distrib directory. From there, type sudo ./vmware-install.pl
4. The guided installer will then proceed to ask you a few questions about your hardware. For most cases, pressing Enter for all of the questions should suffice.

After that, you will now have a VMWare Player launcher in the Applications menu under System Tools. But that won’t do us much good until we have a virtual machine ready for use.

To create a virtual machine for VMWare Player, you can either use a virtual machine created with VMWare Server, you can download a preconfigured virtual appliance from the VMWare website (I suggest you take a look, there are a lot of appliances for a lot of different needs, and it’ll eliminate the need for the next steps), or use a handy litte utility at EasyVMX. WIth EasyVMX, you can configure a Virtual Machine, set the size and number of hard drives, number of CPUs to use, network cards, floppies, CD-ROMs, practically everything you need.

Once you’re at the EasyVMX website, there are 3 flavors of their Virtual Machine Creator: the regular EasyVMX, the SuperSimple, and the EasyVMX v2.0.

For those who just want this part done quickly and painlessly, choose the Super Simple creator and choose around 15GB or more for the disk space for WinXP (Obviously, you’ll need more for Vista).

For those would like to customize a little, EasyVMX v2.0 will offer the most choices, but for most ends and needs, the regular one would suffice.

Depending on your computer’s memory, change the Memory Size to something greater than 192 (minimum for Windows XP) as long as you will leave around 256MB for your host. (Ex.: PC memory = 1024MB; 1024 – 256 = at most 768 for guest VM). One good reason to use a GNU/Linux distribution as a host is that 256MB is plenty and will give a decent performance while your XP VM might still be thirsty for more memory with 256MB of RAM.

Set the hard drive to around 20GB. Add additional drives if you prefer. Again, thankfully your GNU/Linux host uses less than 5GB for the OS, giving you plenty of room.
Note: When you create a virtual drive, it doesn’t immediately occupy 20GB on your disk. Rather, as your VM uses more and more of the disk space, so does the virtual drive occupies more space on your host.

Keep all other settings at default. If you have an ISO image of the OS that you want to install, be sure to check on the ISO checkbox under CD-ROM.

Click on the Create Virtual Machine button and you will be given a zip file for download containing the configuration file as well as your virtual disk(s). Extract that to a directory and start up your VMWare Player.

Important: EasyVMX will only create the virtual disk and configuration file for your VM. You will still need a LEGAL copy of your intended OS. Also, Be sure to choose the correct number of CPUs. Less than the actual number of CPUs and your VM won’t be able to take advantage of your mult-core processor. Anymore and it just won’t work.

Installing A Virtual OS

If you have an ISO of the OS you’re planning to install, put a copy of it into the directory containing your VM configuration file. Assuming you had checked the ISO checkbox in EasyVMX, when you start this virtual machine, it should boot up from this ISO. Otherwise, place the OS’s disc into your CD drive.

1. From Applications > System Tools, click on VMWare Player
2. When the VMWare Player window appears, click Open An Existing Virtual Machine
3. Navigate to the directory where you extracted your virtual machine
4. It will now start up. If you have put the OS disc into your CD drive, it should now boot up from there.
5. Install the OS as you would on a normal computer. Ubuntu Installation, Windows Installation

Enabling Networking

After starting up your VMWare Player, you’ll notice a few buttons at the top of the window. These buttons can be toggled on off to activate/deactivate peripherals and USB devices. The Ethernet button allows you to choose from 3 different configurations when you right-click on it, Bridged, NAT, and Host-only.

Choose bridged and restart your virtual machine for good measure. You can skip to the next section if you don’t need a brief explanation about the three ethernet configurations.

Important: In a restricted static IP setting, such as in an office, be sure to get an IP address for your VM from your system administrator, since your host OS and EACH guest VM will need a unique IP address each.

Host-only is used if you want your virtual machine to be able to see your guest machine ONLY. Imagine this as like connecting both your host OS and guest VM to the same switch, but not connected to the rest of the network or DSL modem. It won’t have access to other machines on your network, nor the internet for that matter.

NAT stands for Network Address Translation. Similar to Host-only, your virtual machine will be connected to a virtual switch, but this the switch is connected to the rest of the network. In a NAT networking, your host OS sits on the network, acting like a router, while your guest VM sits on a separate network behind this router (your host OS).

Bridge on the other hand is completely different. With bridged networking, both the host OS and the guest VM sits on the same network each with their own IP addresses. Other computers can access the VM directly and vice-versa. Internet access is also direct.

For more info on VMWare’s networking setup, visit this article on VM Weekly.

Sharing Files and Folders

Need to share files between your host and guest? Two simple choices: create a shared folder in your guest VM or create a shared folder o your host OS. It really depends on your preference. Setting up a directory on your host means no matter which VM you’re using, you’ll still have only one share. On the other hand, a localized specific shared folder per VM means the contents of the shared folder will most likely be related to the VM in question; no mix-up of files from different VMs. It’s all up to how you manage them.

If you are using Ubuntu to share a folder, follow these steps:

1. Right click on the folder to share and click Sharing Options
2. Check the box labeled “Share this folder”. If you do not have sharing services installed yet, it will ask for your permission to do it for you.
3. Once that’s done you can select either SMB (Windows share) or NFS (Unix share). Choose SMB so your Windows VM can access it.
4. Check the box labeled “Allow other people to write in this folder” because you are sharing it to exchange files.
5. Check the box labeled “Guest access” so you won’t need to create a user account anymore.
6. When that’s done, click “Create Share”

Extra tip: to connect to a shared folder from Ubuntu, open an address bar in Nautilus or on the Desktop by pressing Ctrl-L and then typing smb://hostNameOrIPAddress

Backing-Up Everything

Now we’ve finished setting up the dirty work, we can now start to reap the benefits of this setup.

Ok, let’s say that we have set up a Windows XP guest VM and we’ve already set up all of the basics like the IP address, registering your Windows copy, installing anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, email clients, and MS Office (sure is a lot of basic setup for a Windows box, huh?).

We’ll want to make this our “starting point”, so that everytime we need a new environment, we can use this initial state and we won’t have to go through all those tedious setup and concentrate on setting up your project-specific workspace.  How do you do it? It’s quite simple.

1. Shutdown your guest VM
2. Go to the folder where all your virtual machine’s files are stored
3. Copy that folder, and name it something appropriate, like WinXP_base.

Need to create a backup? Again it’s quite simple. Just follow the three steps above.

Need to restore from a backup? Again, simple. Copy or your backup and open it up in VMPlayer.

Starting a new project? Again, the 3 steps.

You get the point.

Extra Tip: When making VM copies for your different projects, it would be very useful to change the Display Names of each VM. That way, they won’t all appear as “WinXP” in the VMPlayer. To do this, open up the .vmx file found in the folder of your VM, and change the value of displayName

Using Terminal Server Client (TSC)

Most of the time, I control my VMs via the Terminal Server Client instead of directly with the VMPlayer. I do this for a few important reasons:

• Sometimes, I want my VM to be just a small window. Other times I want it full screen. Using TSC allows me to quickly change between display sizes (or display color-depth) without changing the actual display settings on the VM.
• It performs faster in my experience.
• Keyboard and mouse input are locked to a VMPlayer session, and you have to press Ctrl-Alt together to give back control to your host; With TSC, you simply move your mouse in and out of the window.

You have to turn on Remote Desktop in your guest desktop. Also, it won’t work if you don’t set a user password.

Workspace Separation

By keeping non-project-related programs running in your host OS not only means less distraction (specially when viewing full-screen), it also means not disconnecting your IM client while you’re restarting because your Windows is starting to bog down. A restart no longer means a trip to the pantry to get some coffee, you still get to do something else on your host OS, be it researching for a technical paper or preparing slides for a presentation.

Extra tip: As an added “boss button”, when you’re using your VM at full screen, no one would notice that it’s a VM. If your boss ever figured out that you were browsing blogs at another workspace, this’ll probably take them longer to figure out.

Pros and Cons

Naturally, there are advantages and disadvantages to this kind of setup. But in my case, the pros outweigh the cons.

The downside to all these multi-OS multi-tasking is, you will need a pretty decent computer to do this kind of setup if you do not want impact on your output. In particular, since you’ll be running at least 2 systems at the same time (1 host + 1 guest), you will need ample amount of memory for both. The number or size of your virtual machines is also dependent on how much disk space you have. There is also some performance impact, though it is becoming less and less apparent with multi-core processors. Although, on my 600Mhz Kohjinsha with 512MB of RAM, I was still able to run a WinXP to perform some basic operations. It makes my computer a dog slow, though, but it works.

Now if the pros weren’t already obvious, perhaps the most significant pro is the flexibility in using whatever operating system you desire and the ability to quickly and completely backup that system. When archiving old projects, you no longer just back up the project files, you back up the whole system, environment setup and all. That means, several years down the road if ever you need to revisit those old projects, you just take out that virtual machine out of storage and run it. Workspace separation also has its advantages, which can be used for increasing productivity, or improving the quality of breaks.

For system administrators, the advantage is obvious. Using only one physical hardware, they’d be able to run several different servers, minimizing costs, maximizing server utilization, and making the world a greener place by consuming less energy.

Lastly, of course, with a GNU/Linux host, now you can keep playing with your Compiz-Fusion 3D cube and wobbly windows, hehe…

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It was only 40K yen if you were going to get a Yahoo!BB subscription with it. But at 60K, it was still a bargain, since it was only 6mos used and at half the price of a new one. And I got myself one last weekend.

Taking it home, what was my first impression? First of all, it was preloaded with Vista, and instead of a recovery disc it had a 4GB recovery partition. I had to test all the hardware first to see if everything was A-Ok. Touch screen worked, webcam worked, the controls beside the screen (a lot of ‘em: D-pad, track pointer, launcher, shutter, rotation, enter, brightnes. scroll keys. left and right mouse buttons), webcam, TV tuner, bluetooth and WiFi, all working perfectly. And you had no less than 3 ways to control your pointer: via the touch pad, the thumb pointer, and touch screen. As for text input, well you had the physical keyboard when you really need the typing speed, or you can use the touch screen.

While it still had Vista, I decided to do a quick speed comparison test. Nothing fancy, just a quick test to see which OS would allow me to work more before I had to get off the train at the station. In short, boot times.

Here are the results:

Windows Vista Home Basic Startup time:
1:10.03 – Time to welcome screen
1:49.83 – Time to desktop display
4:06.85 – Time to finish loading everything

Ubuntu Gutsy LiveCD startup time:
0:22.21 – Time to LiveCD menu
3:02.19 – Time to opening tune
4:26.33 – Time to finish loading everything

Vista was able to boot in just a little over 4 minutes (about the time it takes for a train to get to the next station) and 20 seconds faster than Ubuntu. That’s swell, until you consider the fact that IT WAS A LIVECD! For those not in the know, a LiveCD basically allows you to run an OS without installing on your computer. That’s right, that 4 minute Vista on my fast hard drive barely beat Ubuntu running off a CD drive! Hey, I wanted a fair fight, so I had to handicap Ubuntu..<snicker>

Alright, so what are the real comparison figures for Ubuntu and Vista when both are installed in the hard disk?
Ubuntu Gutsy LiveCD startup time:
1:01.44 – Time to Login Screen
1:10.41 – Time to opening tune
1:35.58 – Time to desktop display
1:39.49 – Time to finish loading everything

You could argue that the Vista desktop already appears at about 1:50, but you just can’t do anything with it yet for another 30 seconds, where you can *technically* do something e.g. click a button/menu, just don’t expect your computer to respond well.

So Vista was out and Ubuntu was in, and without needing to install any drivers at all, the CF and SD card reader, controls beside the screen, the webcam, 3D card, sound, and most everything worked out-of-the-box and without my intervention. And from the info in the Ubuntu Forums thread I had found earlier, I was able to get Koji up to speed.

So right now, I can type away on the train(where I wrote most of this post’s content yesterday on the train to Kyoto). Heck, I could do away with the typing altogether and just scribble away with Cellwriter.

I don’t really need to say this but I’m one very, very proud Ubuntu-powered Kohjinsha owner!

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Firstoff, some of you may have heard that Aero stole it’s ideas from Mac OS X. Here’s showing that Microsoft didn’t:

Steve Jobs and Bertrand Serlet also talks about Aero’s features:

Of course, Vista does have it’s good points. Take for example its voice recognition system. See how it performs in action:

And of course, the new window switcher included in Aero:

Followed by a video highlighting the features of Aero. And afterwards, Beryl

Now, let’s hear what this Vista owner has to say after buying a brand new computer to run Vista:

Microsoft is proud to offer several innovations in Vista. Here is a timeline of competitor’s innovations. I think it’s self-explanatory.

• January 2000 – Apple comes out with Aqua
• April 2005 – Mac OS X Tiger is released, featuring Gadgets, Spotlight, Expose, and a host of other innovations.
• Janury 2006 – Novell releases Compiz, featuring Annotate, Scale, Minimize/Maximize/Close animations, Desktop Cube, Zoom, and a host of other innovations.
• October 2006 – Beryl forks from Compiz. Changable window decorators, and other innovations were added.
• Windows Vista – End of January 2007. Features the Aero window decorator, theme, and icon set that looks like OS X, and provides other innovations such as live windows like in OS X and Compiz/Beryl, live icons like in Ubuntu, and transparent windows like on OS X and Compiz/Beryl.

Innovations? I don’t think so.

Edit: Did you know Vista requires twice the computing power of Beryl-powered PCs? People are ditching their perfectly good computers to throw money at computer vendors for top-of-the-line models.

Ok, I’m being too kind. Actually, Vista needs up to four times more computing power:

• 4X HDD (15GB vs. 4GB)
• 4X memory (1GB vs. 256MB)
• 4X 3D card (128MB vs. 32MB)

Take my advice, put the money you’ll use to buy a new computer into savings, and put the money you’re gonna pay for Vista to buy a camera or something. What’s that? You need to pirate Vista to get it free?

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In a recent newspaper ad, Microsoft offers the Pinoy Genuine Kit as a promotional chance to get genuine Microsoft software for only Php7,748 ( roughly $170). The ad states the following:

1. VALIDATE. Log on to www.microsoft.com/philippines/genuine and validate your operating system. If your OS appears non-genuine, you automatically qualify for this special Pinoy Genuine Kit promo.
2. BUY. For only Php7,748, you can now purchase your genuine Windows XP Professional license in two ways:
   • Option 1 – Buy from participating Elite, Advanced Volume License, MVPP Resellers and FG Distributors who will order it online for you.
   • Option 2 – Buy online using your credit card. Major credit cards like Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Diners are accepted.
3. GET YOUR KIT–WE’LL SHIP IT FOR FREE. No need to worry about shipping, handling, duties, and taxes. Your genuine license is on its way to your doorstep!

So what’s wrong you ask? I’m not condoning piracy, but the first step is like a bear trap camouflaged with flowers. If you’re using a pirated copy of Windows, once you go to the validation, there’s no turning back; once the WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) tool is installed, your computer is host to some limitations, including being able to download only critical updates, being nagged at login, etc. You can read more about the restrictions WGA tool places in this Wikipedia article on Windows Genuine Advantage.

The real problem is that the WGA tool is not really perfect; Windows Genuine Advantage Falsely Accuses Millions of legitimate Windows users–as many as 5 million people are being wrongly accused of software piracy! Critics have also slammed the WGA tool’s spyware-like behaviorThe WGA tool “phones home” with information about your computer to their servers. Microsoft admitted to this behavior, but denies that it’s spyware. Something bad is only bad unless it’s Microsoft doing it. That’s such a nice, friendly company you’d like to put your trust that you won’t get burned by them in the future.

They also offer free shipping, which is funny if you know what you’re actually buying. You’re not buying a boxed Windows XP Pro OS. You’re just buying the license, which is basically a paper leaflet with a cardboard backing, and that doesn’t really cost much shipping now, does it?

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Microsoft announced earlier that except for system builders (smaller computer sellers who will be able to sell XP for another year) , XP sales will be stopped. Which is just another way of saying, “buy our new, overpriced OS because that’s the only choice we’re giving you.” By mid-February, XP computers were all but gone from store shelves.

But Dell is clearly not a small computer seller, and you can be sure that other big computer sellers will be moving to appease their consumers as well.

“That there is remaining demand from some segment of (the) consumer market points to the inability of Vista to resonate with consumers,” IDC analyst Richard Shim said.

Current Analysis research director Samir Bhavnani blamed low Vista sales on lack of marketing, noting that he sees more Apple ads than Vista ads. I have two opinions on this matter. First, can you really blame lack of ads? The hype and anticipation for Vista has been around for a long time, causing me to believe that marketing reach of Vista is not as insignificant as Bhavnani states. Secondly, the lack of marketing on the part of Vista seems to be a sign of arrogance for me. Does Microsoft really think of themselves so high that they didn’t need to market their product?

On my side of the globe, Microsoft recently launched their $3 Windows-Office bundles in China. In a country where the average income is $100/month, nobody’s going to buy a $200 operating system, especially since at $200 Vista starter has just the very basic features to get you by. And they’re definitely not going to pay $250 or more just to get Aero. In first world countries, people are crying foul and are demanding that the $3 Windows-Office bundles also be offered to students. And some view this move as first-world countries subsidizing third-world users.

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Further reading: Microsoft Admits Vista Failure