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.

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 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

Feel free to join in a contribute to the discussions

So my main computer had Ubuntu 6.04 installed and things worked out quite well for a while, then a few niggles where peripherals didn’t work and that little add ons took many hours of time to install and run and worst of all I couldn’t do what I used to be able to do with windows. So it was time for a short second stab. I now have 2 drives attached to the PC, one for Linux and one for windows. I plan to run all the radio stuff of the windows drive, things like Ham radio deluxe and other utlilities that I use infrequently such as Fair Use Wizard for when I want to watch my DVD’s on my Archos PVR. All with a long term view of switching over to Linux and it improves and my needs change.

First impressions are that it is still polished and still labour intensive but there are tools like Automatix2 which do a lot for you and it still has the same look and feel that i need to get used to again. but this time the bootloader give me the option of MCE or Ubuntu which is so much better and because there are physically 2 drives I can always unplug on or cut the power with a switch

Story so far.

Installed AMD64 version
Fiddled about and found that loads of the applications don’t seem to work. Got annoyed and binned it.

Installed 32bit version
Much less fiddling around. Much happier. Even the missus started using it without having to ask me questions….where’s this? or what the hell is that? are now things of the past (well almost). Even got Picassa (Linux version)…hurrah

Nova S Plus satellite card not recognised but not really surprised. I ‘ve had a quick look about but not found anything concise (note to self…have a rant about Linux HowTo’s and how absurdly verbose they seem to be, why say it in 10 words when 4000 will do!). Have taken the last resort and posted a ‘help me’ on the Ubuntu forums, shame really but I’m not getting anywhere with this one fast.

To Do List
1. Install Google Earth
2. Install MythTV and get it to recognise my MCE remote
3. Tidy up the OS, remove the programs I’m just not going to use and keep the system clean.
4. Buy a better monitor
5. Leave it alone for a while by which time the next version will probably be ready for installation

There are so many different reports on how to install this distro so I won’t go through the details but suffice to say they are all true. It’s a piece of cake, even for a new user.

So the install is done and everything is updated and the offie based stuff is in and working ok, as is automatix and a few other small radio programs I wanted. But I didn’t get a chance to do the main one ‘Myth TV’. I think this is going to take a while and I want to hve plenty of time to do this kind of thing so I don’t get interrupted with a ‘can you just do this’ from ‘er indoors.

One thing I have to say is that I do like the terminal and the fact that once you do an apt-get install it goes away and does it all for you. This is what it should be like, not more searching around the interweb for an application followed by a click here to register then download and then installing it manually. ‘apt-get install’ is now my favourite thing that does something for you, now how’s that for an accolade. Now I wonder if an apt-get cut the grass works!

All in all I can’t say anything bad about Ubuntu. Having forst dipped my toe into the Linux world with Mandrake 7,8 & 9 and a few others I found this is by far the most user friendly and simplified distribution an I think I’ll be giving it more that just a simple look, this is a probable contender for complete windows removal, not because I’m anti Bill, I don’t subscribe to the ‘Windows was made by the devil incarnate’ fantasies but a change is as good as a rest and if I can run HRD under linux then I think I’ll be a very happy bunny.

I’ve moved email and with the ever useful Hubdog and everything else onto my trusty Dell x50v so I shan’t have to rely on Windows for a while, but just to be on the safe side I’m going to keep hold of the Windows Media Centre edition drive so I can put it back if I end up pulling (the rest of) my hair out.

So whats the plan

Ubuntu
MythTV
Open Office
Wine
Ham Radio Deluxe

I think that will do for the weekend. After all it is the last few stages of the Tour de France