After a month or so living with Ubuntu Net Book Remix, it was time to move to Karmic Koala. Whilst normally I’d jump at the opportunity to get the latest and greatest I didn’t actually feel the need to update on the release date.
So far I have been really impressed with Net Book Remix. It seems to fit the screen very well, only a few functions didn’t seem to work well. Connecting an external monitor is one of them. I don’t use it often but when I did need it it wasn’t there. Other than that minor niggle (I’m sure there’ll be a way of getting around it but I haven’t had the time to work it out or visit the forums !!) it works brilliantly.
I still use windows on my net top (Acer Revo) and had the opportunity to upgrade to Windows 7 for a small fee and whilst it is a vast improvement over the Vista that it came with I’m starting question what strikes the OS’s apart. So far I have worked on the basis that….
- Both work – Fundamental really but worth pointing out
- Windows is a more polished product
- Ubuntu suits those who may want to tinker
- Ubuntu updates slowly in a continuous improvement / kaizen methodology whilst Microsoft produces innovation type updates – smaller steps versus bigger leaps (sometimes the leaps are in a wobbly direction)
- Software for Microsoft OS’s is great. Ubuntu is good but not quite as good for specialist software (Ham Radio Deluxe springs to mind). Yes, there are alternatives available and no doubt one day they will exceed the Microsoft versions but Microsoft just pips it.
Here’s a question, why can’t the OS’s work with everything? HRD on Ubuntu would probably seal it for me as Office runs under wine.
Fundamentally both the OS’s work for me, just in different applications. My netbook will carry on running Ubuntu. It is running Open Office and Evolution as well as XBMC and a few others like Fldigi on a small screen and it works well. The net top runs Windows 7 for MS Office and HRD, MCE and others. Crucially they both run Dropbox, Picasa and Firefox
I’m still waiting for the cloud to deliver what it promised and then I wonder if I’ll need an OS at all. Especially if it means long battery life and energy efficiency.
Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR)
For a year or so I’ve owned an Advent 4211. It’s been very good with one exception, the small hard drive is quite small and I / we use it to playback video on journeys in the car for the kids. I installed a simple interface that I used many years ago called myHTPC to make selecting media easier and it seemed to work well. For one reason or another and despite using AVG it picked up a bunch of viruses (virii?) over the year and occasionally fell over. This needed a reinstall of XP using the techguys method. Then after many hours updating and reinstalling software it was back to where it was.
Having done this for the third time in as many days I got the hump with XP and am now running Ubuntu Netbook Remix. A redesigned version of v8.04 with a fancy launcher and some tweaks to make it work better on Netbooks. Guess what it does – Nothing more needs to be said
I think it’s nearly time for a new PC. I’ve been wrestling with a dying hard drive and a soundcard that only seems to work on a few randomly chosen days so it’s probably about time to put it out of it’s misery.
It has been a really frustrating time trying to get a working PSK-31 set up with this rig and I was beginning to think that it was the rig and not the PC, but after switching things around with our Advent netbook and several copies of Ham Radio Deluxe and using both the ACC socket, RJ45 and speaker output I finally came to the conclusion that the rig is ok but in desperate need of the mic mod.
So what to get? I quite fancy something powerful and a bit useful but also something low energy. Unfortunately the two don’t go hand in hand. I like the idea of the desktop type set ups using Intel Atom processors but it might be worth waiting until the graphics get sorted out with the Ion GPU. Also either an internal or external soundcard will be a must if I’m going to venture into the SDR route with a bit of gusto.
Decisions, decisions
At least the rig is ok
As a long time fan of Ubuntu I thought about having a linux distro specifically fro ham radio. Sounds like I’m too slow. Shackbox seems to be floating about.
I think I’ll download a copy and see how it works under a virtual machine. Sounds like it could be worth a punt for the shack computer
I’m a big fan of portable applications. By this I mean normal applications that can be run from a pen drive (Usb stick or whatever you like to call it). For a year or so I’ve used the portable apps suite that provides a nice little launcher for the applications.
In addition to this I’ve got a copy of Microsoft live writer for composing blog posts onto this site that also runs off a pen drive.
The number of options is quite large although not all applications are suitable so it’s worth thinking about what you need to do but don’t want to install or can’t install on various machines you use. The Key ones for me are
There are loads more applications to suite all sorts of tastes but I would struggle to live without these now.
