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This is just an archive of previous work.
![why-linux-will-fail[4]](http://indlovu.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/why-linux-will-fail4.jpg "why-linux-will-fail[4]")
This is just to keep readers in the loop about my plans to create an Ubuntu distro that has a bootable Indaba browser session/cloud based upon Mozilla. Expected savings on CPU and RAM overhead are massive and in line with the WEB 3.0 Wave that Google is creating. Obviously, some of you might ask the question, why not a Google Chrome Project, well all good. You go out and do it. For now, I have not been able to get 64bit Chrome running with any success on my home distro which is Hardy 8.04.
–DRL
PS For you edification, my first sighting of Buddahbuntutonight.
Google recently announced the launch of their “Chrome OS“. The Linux-based desktop has been available for at least a year (codename) but for now Google considers it an “Operating System” and according to their marketing machine it will “eat the PC, destroy Microsoft and make every other OS meaningless”. The press love a good story about the world’s Number One brand taking on Microsoft.
Will this effect the exponential growth of Ubuntu, the worlds most popular Linux distribution? I think not. More likely, Google Chrome will become just another desktop variant of Ubuntu and it is Ubuntu which is swallowing all other Linux distros, as the original Gnu-Hurd strategy unfurls. As far as real world computing goes, Ubuntu has the better metaphor. The Ubuntu default Gnome desktop however, is far from being the better desktop. Competition in the Desktop environment has thankfully hotted up over the past months, so users can expect great advances in usability as well as Internet connectivity.
In fact 2009 could turn out to be the Year of the OS and 2010 the Year of the Desktop as Microsoft unveils Windows 7 and Ubuntu Karmic Koala hits the streets, now Google Chrome is also vying for our attention, alongside at least 20 other Linux-based desktops and 250 associated Linux “Operating systems”.
Both Linux and Ubuntu will benefit, regardless. Either way, the public will become more familiar with Linux and when you meet Linux, the long-time mainstay of geeks everywhere, you will realise exactly why Ubuntu cannot be beaten – not only is Ubuntu Open-Sourced, and based upon one of the most open and free distributions in the world – Debian - it has deployed Nelson Mandela’s Principle Number One, in defence of basic human rights when it comes to the computer.
How open to scrutiny will the Google Chrome Desktop eventually be? How safe will your information be, and what about privacy? I hesitate to give Chrome the kind of validity it demands, by calling it an OS or even a Universal Operating System, the kind of the accolade deserving of Debian. Exactly what kind of licensing conditions and what are the terms of agreement between user and the massive Google Corp?
Will Chrome users have the kind of freedom under the hood that Ubuntu offers? Or will Chrome become merely another means of corralling users, above the bare-bones kernel, into the kind of proprietary code-base dictatorship that has strangled Microsoft users and made Apple one of the most lucrative OS’ in the world?
For now, Chrome appears to be another high-minded open-source initiative that sees the ‘network as the computer’, distributed Operating systems like Plan 9 Inferno may offer benefits but at what cost in terms of overall control of the system, which can never be switched off? The move from Google towards the distributed OS and web-desktop environment is more a strategy of getting users to choose the “Google vision of the Internet” along with the “New Wave” of Web Apps than of offering anything new in the way of the Base operating system, which is needed to run the Web as well as the PC.
Short of printing circuits and offering Ubuntu on a Chip, there are a lot of ways Ubuntu could offer similar default integrations and Web Apps, in fact Karma is being touted as Cloud friendly, but with Gnome bloating out of proportion, users in the third world invariably loose out as Ubuntu heads North instead of South. In my mind, choosing a better window manager or another desktop session could provide users with a Chrome-like experience, straight out of the box. In fact, running Ubuntu without either Gnome or KDE has its benefits. I recently experimented with a bunch of Window Managers to see what kind of savings I could get in terms of Web experience and the results were startling.
Merely switching to LXDE or XFCE can speed up low-end machines while avoiding the ever-increasing resource demands and overhead of Gnome and KDE.
[This blog can reveal plans to create a bootable Indaba browser based upon Ubuntu. The new Indaba will be optimised with Mozilla, and run exclusively as a Net Computer. Indaba is the African word for dialogue or meeting.]
Whatever the outcome, Ubuntu will prevail in the long run. As I said, we have a better metaphor than Google. Some people will choose the Chrome desktop or switch over to Android because they want to be more integrated with the Google Vision. Others will choose Ubuntu because they want their machines to become more human and less alien-like.
I used to bandy this quote around quite a lot in the nineties, it applies to today’s technology:
“The problem with computers is, there is not enough Africa in them” — Brian Eno.
Ubuntu puts Africa in the computer. Something organic and environmentally-friendly, some would even say touchy-feely, which is absent from a lot of OS out there.
Before you blindly switch to Android or Chrome, realise that what you are doing is merely adopting another desktop option for Linux, and when you choose Linux, make sure it is Ubuntu.
I find the niche marketing of Ubuntu quite ridiculous sometimes. Of course, given the infinitely variable environment of Linux and the freedom of Ubuntu, there’s always bound to be somebody who asks the question: “What if Ubuntu was more like …..”
Since there was an Ubuntu CE and an Ubuntu ME, why not an Ubuntu Zion? See the problem? So instead of the logical offering, we get a joke – Jubuntu.
Who is going to use anything so idiotically sounding? Maybe the same people who are touting Bubuntu (the black ubuntu) as if Ubuntu wasn’t black to begin with? Okay, okay, I get the joke. I am a Jew after all. No need to Kibbitz about everything.
“Emphasis for Jubuntu is placed on cultural aspects of judaism (eating, family, guilt) rather than focusing religious or linguistic aspects of judaism. For example, themes revolving around bagels or “call your mother” reminders, rather than Torah scrolls and Talmudic references.”
UPDATE: Stumbled across two “official” looking websites. The first one http://www.jewbuntu.org/ is hilarious and says its just a joke. Second one, http://www.jewbuntu.com/ actually provides a download and has a much better looking logo.
I guess this means there really is a Jewish Deli Edition? An should we hold our thumbs and wait for Kabbalahabuntu with Zohar Code?
A lifesaver. Most comprehensive posting I’ve seen on the subject.
http://jamsubuntu.blogspot.com/2008/09/firefox-aboutconfig-hacks.html
You can do the same for Mozilla Thunderbird
edit>preferences>advanced> config editor
In the Config Editor, search for “mailnews.thread_pane_column_unthreads” by typing it in at the top. When you see the preference, change the value from “True” to “False” by double-clicking on it, or by right clicking and changing the value. This will help you keep the threaded view stuck across the different sorting methods.
Work in Progress. This is an exercise. I make no claims as to the efficacy or safety of the advice. In fact, this tutorial is incomplete and should not be used under any circumstances. This is test of the early warning system. I repeat, a test.
Clone your Ubuntu machine into abstraction
This is not the same as backing up. Making a backup of anything in today’s age of superfast Internet, quad-core processors and near unlimited storage space is old-fashioned. Trouble is, in the third world, we still have to deal with issues of bandwidth scarcity, lack of resource capacity and so on. Ordinary people can’t backup everything, and even if they did, using any number of devices, Time Machine springs to mind, the system fails if your array is stolen, if there is a natural disaster, or if simply you run out of time. Result, no backup.
So there you sit without an exact replica of your machine. Next best thing is to reduce the sum of its parts, its totality into an abstraction, with a series of awkward maneouvres which might result in a recipe for a script which presumably could resurrect your machine from the dead.
If there was an abstraction tool, capable of cloning my machine, I would use it. As of now, there doesn’t appear to be suh a device. So here is the beginning of a list of abstractions. Wish I had started out doing this to begin with, with a new installation, but with a bit of reverse engineering, I might end up with an exact replica, a clone of my own machine.
Backup Cycle
1. Backup MBR
Method One
2. Backup Grub
cp /boot/grub/menu.lst ~/new-location/menu.lst
2. Backup Software Sources
cp /etc/apt/sources.list ~/new-location/sources.list
3. Backup Markings File
4. Backup Settings.
5. Output list of installed applications
dpkg –get-selections > apps.txt
Clone Cycle
5. Author a distribution of your setup.
6. Reinstall applications from file list
dpkg –set-selections < apps.txt
dselect update
apt-get dselect-upgrade show
What have I forgotten? If you have any comments, or wish to contribute to this experiment, then please give a shout out, but under no circumstances, do I intend crashing my machine in order to find out if the plan works, at least not for now
My MBR
This posting from Oh my God, its still breathing, caught my attention. I haven’t implemented it yet, not wanting to increase the RAM and CPU overhead on my already strained system. What is the pay-off? If you’re typesetting, this could be a lifesaver, if you’re just surfing, there is no real need to have every bell and whistle turned on. But nice knowing it is possible. Also, anybody know what the Hardy Heron defaults are, or how to backup and reinstall the fontconfig safely? Methinks there is a lot more here than meets the eye, and somebody should write a nice fontconfig application -DRL
I have been looking for a way to favourite my commands. Turning on Bash Smart autocompletion is a start. I found this posting at Ubuntu Blog:
The Bash shell has this sweet feature where you can use the TAB key to auto-complete certain things. For example, when I am in my home directory, the following command:
$cd Do[TAB-key]
will automatically yield:
$cd DocumentsIf you are an absolute novice, like I was, not so long ago, discovering tab completion in the terminal can make you go “Wow!”. Wait till you hear the rest now
Though you can use the TAB key to complete the names of files and directories, by default the completion is pretty “dumb”. If you have already typed $cd D you would expect that the tab key would cause only the directory names to be completed, but if I try it on my machine, the tab completion tool uses filenames too.
Now, don’t despair! There is now a smart bash tab completion trick you can use. Smart completion even complete the arguments to commands!!
To enable smart completion, edit your /etc/bash.bashrc file. Uncomment the following lines, by removing the # in the beginning of the lines:
#if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
# . /etc/bash_completion
#fiNow you can use tab completion to power your way through commands.
You can even extend bash smart completion to your own favourite commands by using /etc/bash_completion, the “complete” utility and /etc/bash_completion.d . Explaining the nitty-gritty is beyond me. I refer you to the Debian Administration gurus for more information regarding smarter bash completion.
Thanks Carthik, I do believe this is the solution. First turn on smart autocompletion, check to see if your favourite commands autocomplete, and if not, then create a file containing these commands using the link provided. Will update if I get this right.
Found a cool Nautilus Subversion Integration tool that allows one to execute SVN commands using Gnome scripts.
sudo apt-get install nautilus-actions
Requires Zenity and Subversion.
Link to download the scripts
Also, found the SVN Workbench from Tigris.org – Open Source Software Engineering Tools
sudo apt-get install python-svn
sudo apt-get install svn-workbench
Also a newer beta version of Nautilussvn which imitates TortoiseSVN on Windows.
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