en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/10/24/94ff10a67047aab73e639713a833ca48.html This is highly disappointing and so I might just wait off a few months before reattempting to upgrade my OS. Unfortunately, this also means I have to re-install 7.03 on my home system since the upgrade totally whacked my system.

I don't know what happened, but I think it's best to hold off until they can get this resolved. Then again, knowing how Linux distributions go, it's really best to wait two or three months before grabbing the current distribution. They really need to stabilize this.]]> Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:25:46 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/10/24/94ff10a67047aab73e639713a833ca48.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/30/1c36cfb8e130a16b4508894bc3463af0.html
I'm thinking that once I finish migrating the rest of my system over (which is just some files, directories, and my application configuration) I will upgrade my laptop to the latest edition of Fedora Core or PCLinuxOS. I like (K)ubuntu a lot but I think it's good to have a wide variety of Linux flavors to test drive each one. On top of that, I'm also considering making my laptop a kind of "dumb" client terminal, where my desktop Linux box will serve as a permanent NFS system and that I'll mount my main home directory from this system. The idea here is that I'm becoming super lazy in the way I work and that I really want to just work from my couch (couch potato programming anyone?). My laptop has been doing some serious damage to my wrist so I want to move it around a bit. The only issue will be the touchpad, which I really dislike. But I'll figure out something there too eventually.

Either way, I was pleasantly surprised at how this tutorial helped make my NFS work with just one try. Give it a shot.]]> Sun, 30 Dec 2007 13:50:49 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/30/1c36cfb8e130a16b4508894bc3463af0.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/30/bfbc901cf8b123def0ec49b4efe0ebc4.html
Funny thing was that my intention of getting a new video card was to upgrade my linux system. I had some trouble as mentioned before with upgrading from 7.04 to 7.10 ubuntu. In the end, I figured part of the problem was the video card/driver since rebooting the system caused some havoc after various upgrade methods. Well, it looks like I'll be stuck with 7.04 until they figure this ATI problem out. Or perhaps, I'll just suck it up and get myself a new NVidia card.]]> Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:47:38 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/30/bfbc901cf8b123def0ec49b4efe0ebc4.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/30/29bb1cd29f20b11e822a603e2353d76d.html
I think I mentioned that I held off on debian based systems for a while since my disaster a few years ago of having to deal with debian. However, this time I gave it another try on the basis that the ubuntu distribution looked quite handsomely put together and having a nice community. Tired of Fedora and the bloat, I wanted to try something new with a bit of hype.

As a desktop, it's not based. I always liked the synaptic package manager, especially over yum/yumex. This helped simplify adding some of my favorite software quickly. I mostly prefer KDE over Gnome, but there are a few Gnome packages that I enjoy such as multi-gnome-terminal (although it hasn't been upgraded in ages). Also, gthumb is a very nice picture viewer.

Since I've been using this cruddy, old Fedora Core 5 system, I didn't have a chance to see some of the newer packages or hood ornaments from some of my favorite pieces of software like xmms. Man, xmms has come quite a way! I use ubuntu 7.04 also at work, but I don't use the multimedia stuff as much on the basis that I prefer utilizing my ipod.

One of the biggest things I decided to move towards ubuntu was that my little laptop exhibited issues trying to handle DVDs. It simply would lock up. I noticed this for Fedora since 3. And it wasn't just on my laptop but my old desktop. Naturally, one of the big test was to try playing a DVD. So far it read one of my burned DVDs. I haven't tried putting in a regular DVD in yet, but that's coming up!

Right now, things seem to be moving smoothly. I was able to quickly find some packages like ffmpeg, mencoder through the synaptic interface. I think with Fedora you have to add the non-standard distribution repositories manually. At least, you did the last time I checked. I did a simple search and grabbed those packages without blinking. Also, I didn't have to jump through too many hoops when getting mp3s to work on my system. I'm certain there are a few media formats that'll have issues, but I'll get to those eventually.

Overall, my home Kubuntu system has more functionality than my work's system and I'm starting to taste the delight of working with a better performing system. Now, if I can just add a better video card and another 1gb of ram, I think this thing will seriously kick rear!

If I do have a few disappointments, it's that the upgrade process doesn't seem as smooth as I'd like. I'm a bit timid now of moving off 7.04 since my last disaster. Also, I dislike the fact that despite coming on only one CD, you pretty much have to download all the updates almost immediately after installation. My router is really flaky so I get nervous whenever I have to run upgrades or massive installs via a network. Although Fedora's size has become disputably huge in the last few releases with many unnecessary packages, one thing I do like is that once you have the system, you just need to grab updates through the network; in other words, you're not necessarily forced to grab updates immediately because you'll have most of the packages on disk. Another complaint is that I really want these distributions to have base installations contain all the most recent updates. I don't know if this is necessarily the case, but I'm certain that once a release gets made, there's bound to be large bugs. Instead of having workarounds, just post another bug fix type of release. For me, I just want a fresh install to be 100% reliable. I heavily dislike wasting valuable time re-installing a system.

Anyway, at least with 7.04, I heavily recommend giving this a try. Maybe I might try to switch my laptop to 7.10 and see how that goes.]]> Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:13:09 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/30/29bb1cd29f20b11e822a603e2353d76d.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/2/01c0244d7fb5e4f98efe070cac1c9bec.html Every year you'll see a discussion from the OSS community regarding whether or not Linux as a Desktop is ready for prime time. Certainly, rumblings for 2008 will become apparent with each new release from distributions like Fedora, Ubuntu, and PCLinuxOS. While tons of improvements have been made to the Linux OS and the various tools involved, my primary complaint is that it's still too developer oriented.

Let's face it. Most of us who use Linux as a tool are developers. Good development environments often implement Linux on the desktop and virtually most of the tech groups employ Linux as their main OS of choice (Mac OS comes in a close second). It's funny to think then that those same environments where the techies understand what a great OS Linux is fail to convince management to standardize it across the company. So strike one. Not business friendly apparently.

From an at-home viewpoint, things aren't much better. It reminds me of Apple's commercial bashing Windows 95 or 98 back when Steve Jobs/Apple were making their comeback. It was funny actually because you had this regular guy at home going, "What is this io.sys file?" Hey people, why give something such a mysterious name like "grub?" You think these names make it any easier for someone coming from a "it just works" background to a "I know how to fix my own plumbing!" background? Transparency, transparency, transparency. Developers need flexibility but home users need transparency.

Next the number of tools are enormous. It's great to have choices and avoid M$-like monopolies. But in all honesty, most people just need a few tools to get their work done. It seems whenever someone gets pissed off that a certain tool doesn't have a feature they want, they scurry into their dank hovel and build another one just for the sake of the feature. That doesn't seem that efficient. And to try and figure out which tools to employ is pretty brutal because the number of tools in something like synaptec is downright mind boggling! How can one attempt to figure out what the best media player is? Totem? Mplayer? XMMS? Xine? In Windows, you just use Media Player and it handles most of your tasks. While I'm somewhat familiar with a number of the programs available from synaptec, imagine how a newbie might be intimidated by the availability of programs there.

Next where are all the games? Yes, there are games for Linux but they suck! Well, I don't think the PC game market is thriving that much anyway since you have the DS, PS and XBoxes roaming out there. But believe it or not, there are some people like myself who will actually PAY for games developed on a Linux box just to avoid having to start up my Windows piece of garbage.

Just simple compatibility problems from browsers. This seems like a small one, but it's really frustrating going to a site that's IE only or that renders funny on Linux. The thing is that people just don't test for compatibility on Linux or really don't care to when it comes to websites. Fortunately, many sites render fine but as we move towards richer web applications, I'm afraid that this issue will get worse.

Better hardware support. It's come a LONG, LONG WAY since the days where even a modem would be difficult to get working. But they really need to resolve compatibility problems. ATI video cards? This isn't as much fault with the Linux community as it is with the hardware manufacturers. But it's a two way street since the hardware manufacturers probably still see Linux as a server side component with spots of life on the desktop side. Therefore to them there's not really a huge business case (at the moment) to invest more money into testing and the extra coders. So you could say that this is a chicken-or-the-egg type of problem.

Even if all the most useful applications move to the web, I seriously doubt that Linux will become a force on the desktop, at least in the vision that most people probably want. Maybe someone might invent a "dumb client" where you just have a browser with flash. But by that point, Linux won't have any real use as a desktop. Think about that point long and hard.

I'm certain that most people in the Linux community recognize these points as the chief ones in helping Linux penetrate the desktop market (except the one about it being too developer oriented). However, it never can be understated that these have to be addressed over and over again.

I think one inroad that Linux can make against M$ and Mac OS is determining what a person needs before they need it. This is sort of B. Gates' philosophy for M$, except his aim was generally for businesses. Whenever you get a newly installed Linux system (or as you're installing Linux), you either get some minimal working environment where you're forced to grab a ton of packages, taking a few more hours, or you're force to grab a ton of packages from a menu and that most of the packages aren't really the ones you're looking for (because of legal reasons). I see this methodology as being ass backwards.

I kinda like the minimal install idea because you really don't want a lot of garbage floating around your system. But you shouldn't have to choose between a million packages, especially if you don't know what you want to do. One major problem I see in Linux and its design is in the assumptions made about the user. Most of the time, there are either no assumptions being made, or that the user is some silly Windows convert, or that the person is a guru. You can't market something without assumptions so this item must be crossed off the list. Probably most of the Linux system is designed for the "average" (read: guru) user. And when Linux tries to do Windows (or should I say a bad Mac impersonation) it's just plain bad.

There should be (simply stated) two modes of operation: idiot and guru. In my world, I'd even assign points/levels as the person makes progress. But you have to design for idiots because the world is composed of them (including myself). That means, you have to go back to fundamental questions in designing your interfaces, since this is what people have to work with. The most fundamental question is, what do you want your users want to do with this thing?

Before trying to re-create Windows, Mac OS or anything, answer that question first. Why should people go to a website and download a specific distribution for servers, desktops, or alternatives? What difference does it really make? The download should NOT determine the user's preference (because people can tend to become confused on this purpose).

I think there should be just two distribution types: guru and idiot. The guru version has no wizards and is just what it is at the moment. The idiot version is the one that the Linux community needs to work on. Ever see Winzip and how they've done their interface? It's great. You have a wizard (idiot) or classic (guru). Or have you used TurboTax? Again, guru (fill out everything by hand) or idiot (tons of questions that you need to answer).

I know Fedora tried something like this, but even I'm skeptical. To me, there were too many questions and choices. Worse yet, some were plain obvious. I mean, why not install OpenOffice? You don't see the ipod or iPhone asking questions on what applications need to available when you receive one.

I think the killer application for Linux would be to automatically figure out and get something to run, load, view, etc. a file based on the extension type and headers. Imagine encountering an mp3 for the first time. Certainly, most distributions for legal reasons will not ship an out-of-the-box codec. But why should a home user be forced to go through hoops just to listen to music? If a home user was browsing his file system via Konquer and double clicked on the file, if the application did not already exist on the system, a little popup should appear saying, "Installing XXX...." making some specific assumptions about what the user wants based on the most popular viewer or whatever for that application. In the case of the mp3 file, a legal disclaimer could popup and get the user to check it off before going out and grabbing the correct codec.

Next, forget the whole menu system. There should be a question based system based on the most commonly used applications on the system. You could have it say things like, "I want to listen to music," or "I want to watch a movie," or "I want to read my email". As people use more applications, these questions might disappear and form shortcuts, learning about the user, rather than the user being forced to learn about the system.

This is a big thing because really menu systems in general have sucked for the longest time. In the case of linux, even with synaptec, you still can get a boatload of confusion. For instance, after installing something like multi-gnome-terminal, where the hell in the menu is it supposed to be located? Should the application be readily available after I installed it? It's again not transparent.

Overall, I seriously doubt that Linux will adjust itself based on my recommendations. They are very much valid and should be considered heavily. Instead of imitating, the Linux desktop needs to innovate. People who work on things like installation or KDE need to focus more on how the average person can arrive to the answers of their problem, rather than just writing a million applications that most people won't ever use. Copy the core philosophy that Apple has, not just the appearance of it.]]> Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:53:11 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/2/01c0244d7fb5e4f98efe070cac1c9bec.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/5/741a5aa26316c3f344e4699da21b1faf.html
Just make it work.

A recurring theme for people who switch to Mac, or those who might employ an X-Box for games and those who go through any reasonable amount of trouble with a PC want that one thing of having things work. Again, transparency.

One frustrating aspect of the Linux world is that it reminds me of the video card world: just too many choices. Having choice is a great thing. It's democratic and allows people to pick something based on their personality. However, if you go to a site like DistroWatch.com, you'll see a huge number of distributions, each more or less doing the same job as the other. It's kinda like when python and ruby came out. You could still do the same thing in perl, but just with different syntax.

Just as I started warming up to (K)ubuntu, a new more friendly distribution comes out called PCLinuxOS. What? Another one?

I think it's wasted effort from the Linux community in having so many distributions. Why not simply focus on hardware compatibility and improving the interface for what's available? Focus on certain core packages that people seem to be interested that have traditionally been well supported like OpenOffice, mplayer, gaim, gimp, xmms, etc. and allow people to check out similar ones on their own.

The main thing is that people don't need so many different software packages; they just need ones that work for certain purposes. Until those ones are done well enough and marketed well enough, people will continue flocking towards the Windows and Mac OS of the world.]]> Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:19:54 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/5/741a5aa26316c3f344e4699da21b1faf.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/f2f47f6682cdba185893998c278cc42c.html transparent as I had hoped (and as the support piece of ubuntu's documentation had said). Upon starting up my desktop with the new card, I received a message in how the xorg.conf was misconfigured. Fortunately, the system had OpenSSH server loaded, so I could login through my Windows desktop (while reading the proper upgrade procedure), used apt-get to install the correct drivers, then finally ran a command to reconfigure the nvidia driver. Upon rebooting the system, I had a working display. But I still wasn't out of the fryer.

The system had left the resolution in a 1024x768. Not so great considering that my monitor can easily handle a good step above that. I ran another utility (after some searching) to configure the resolution. Now, it's much nicer at 1280x1024. I almost got into a trap of running a slightly lower level (and much more confusing!) utility to configure the card. But I managed to sneak out and find the proper utility to configure my card. Now, it looks quite decent!

The last step is to attempt to get the dual head part working. I can try with my old emachine 14". It's not a bad monitor, just SMALL. I really like working at 1280x1024, so I plan to examine a few more 19"+ type of monitors when I hit Akihabara again sometime.

As an added bonus, I moved things around in my apartment. Funny how switching two tables and moving my laptop somehow has increased my workspace.

Ultimately, after I finish the last few migrations and install a new OS on my laptop, I hope to completely turn my (k)ubuntu desktop into an NFS server. I have a "smaller" 250 GB external drive that I plan to externalize all my main data. Then I'll mount my home directory to either my local home directory, or to a mirrored directory. Sadly, my main goal in all of this is to work under the covers on my couch on my laptop. But also, if I get this type of "home architecture" going, I'd like to take one of my home systems in America and install ubuntu or some other form of linux on it as well. Then every time I cross the Pacific, all I have to do is bring my external hard drive home. The beauty of that situation is that I'd avoid having to lug around a heavy laptop (unless I go overseas for business trips) and would need to simply mount the mirrored external drive up.]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:17:30 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/f2f47f6682cdba185893998c278cc42c.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/9d096f3f25edeab3997c3c1c577a8775.html
I totally forgot about that situation, tried going to sleep (failed), and woke up intending to watch youtube. Then youtube started freezing as did other video sites. And then I tried playing other video files. Originally, I was going to blog that the problem was the nvidia driver, but I realized/remembered (faintly) that mplayer had bogged down and probably was still running. I rebooted my machine to clear the problem and now everything is working again.

The worst part was that I spent several sleepy/waking hours trying to figure out what the hell was going on. What a waste of time!!!!]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:44:56 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/9d096f3f25edeab3997c3c1c577a8775.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/9/282a946c9724215b0d40b054f66e8745.html Fedora Core 5 laptop system. I like RedHat and I liked Fedora, but Fedora had become overly bloated and no longer was supporting my hardware that well. For instance, since Core 2 my DVD stopped working properly and would lock up.

On the other hand, I've been extremely impressed with my (K)Ubuntu experience and decided to use it for both of my systems. I started off with Ubuntu 7.04 because of the problems when I initially installed 7.10. I think that I had downloaded it too early and encountered a more buggy version. Now though, I think they managed to stabilize it so I did a network type of upgrade. And it went smooth! I had a minor hiccup with Adept (Kubuntu's upgrade manager), so I switched to Gnome to handle this part. No problem there. Took about an hour to download roughly ~1100 packages and install them. Now, I have a shiny new system with all the latest packages that are not in the unstable branch.

Next plans of action are to get LDAP working, NFS, maybe even wireless. Wireless would be nice so that I can just use my main system as a file store while I lazily recline on my couch and program. Having mobile (or immobile computing if you consider being a couch potato) would be cool, even in a spot as tiny as my own.

Anyway, this time around things seem better. I'm still a little hesitant about upgrading my main system, at least until I can get my information properly backed up on a periodic basis to my external drive.]]> Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:11:08 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/9/282a946c9724215b0d40b054f66e8745.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/7/eb9eb783c0872a206af9d51b04df31c4.html
Outside of some initial slowness, the upgrade went SMOOTH. In the past, I painfully would burn a completely new installation CD for my Fedora upgrades because I just didn't trust the package managers bundled with Fedora, leaving my system to out-of-date for significant periods of time. However, between 7.04 until the current version, I've had no major issues (at least with my laptop) with regards to the upgrades. Usually, you should wait about 2-3 months for the bugs to be ironed out before doing a full upgrade. But my laptop posed no risk and I made a go.

At least for now, I don't see much difference visually. The biggest three areas of immediate impact to me are:

• Lack of Multi-Gnome-Terminal support (we'll get to this one).
• A Beta version of the upcoming Firefox 3.0 release.
• XMMS moving a full version up to 2.

The lack of multi-gnome-terminal was a bummer for me. You have to do a fair amount of tweaking because the packages are old. It's not hard to get working, just grab the deb files and some of the unsupported repositories, and you should be fine. There was one part of the upgrade process where the upgrade program mentions, "Remove These Packages?" I hit "Yes" intuitively not bothering to read the details and then realizing what it was doing. Should've left them but I don't know if things like MGT would be disabled (btw, multi-gnome-terminal is great, but the package is practically unsupported and hasn't had an update for a good period; sad).

Firefox 3.0 as a beta is something rather debatable as something to be included in such a major distribution release. Some of my best plugins are currently disabled as a result (Del.icio.us, colorzilla, Tabs Mix Plus, Restart Firefox). They aren't complete killers and I can always install a local version, but it defeats the purpose of moving up a full version. Still, the fact that Firefox 3.0 still is in beta makes me wonder about the decision to move forward.

Next, apparently XMMS is now XMMS 2. XMMS is similar to the Winamp, except that it feels lighter and isn't run by a visionless company who decided to kill it off. I'm still waiting to give it a try, so we'll see about that soon.

There were a few other upgrades in the package that I haven't looked at, most notably Open Office. The other major packages that affect me seem like only minor security patches (e.g. Apache, PHP, Perl, etc.). Cosmetically, there's not a lot of difference that I can say would make a huge impact upon my work with this version upgrade. I use the Kubuntu version and there really isn't anything to write home about with the latest 3.5.4 packages. Once KDE manages to move towards 4 and (K)ubuntu does the full upgrade, I think it'll be worth upgrading. If you're just looking for some simple eye candy though, don't do the upgrade just for that.

Overall, I think using my laptop as a testbed for the upgrade was a great idea. There's no critical dependencies upon it for me at the moment since my desktop has become my chief work station. My desktop, on the other hand, is something I'm holding off on for a little while. I had some issues with the nvidia driver when I first tried to install it. Not sure if it'll happen again, but I want to make sure my secondary (laptop) system is okay so I can use it as a backup when I go for the major upgrade to my desktop. Also, some of those elements that I'm missing were a bit painful. Luckily, I managed to get a few working, but it looks like I'll have to bite my tongue while waiting for those Firefox plugin authors to finish up.

At work, I'm currently trying to upgrade my system to 7.10. It was taking far too long so I'm praying by the time I get in tomorrow, the packages should be downloaded and ready to rock.

I've still got a bit of customization to do with my laptop in getting it to mimic my usual desktop environment. Shouldn't take much work now though. After that, I need to start importing my application data over. I'm using a Dell Inspiron 600M with a smaller-than-usual hard disk (only 40 gb as opposed to my original 80 gb which crashed), so I'm a little constrained. Maybe I'll upgrade that too when I go back to LA this coming weekend :)
]]> Wed, 07 May 2008 12:29:01 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/7/eb9eb783c0872a206af9d51b04df31c4.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/18/b968b3ec44efdd2a276072ae32d6c934.html
My laptop is an old Dell Inspiron 600M with the ATI graphics card option.

• Firefox 3b5 should NOT have been packaged in the distribution. You're sacrificing a lot of previous usability with this upgrade in losing the capabilities with many plugins. Worse yet, it's BETA software.
• KDE 4 was not packaged as part of the distribution. That's probably a good decision considering that I've read a lot of bugs are springing up left and right.
• I can't tell if my ATI driver is working appropriately with this distribution. I'm getting numerous crashes, both with Skype, Flash and Firefox. It's hard to say what the root cause was.
• You lose XMMS to XMMS2 and will be missing all the playlist capabilities associated with that system.
• For a "mature" release, they still can't get something simple as dual monitors working with a simple checkbox/detection. EXTREMELY disappointing.
• Synaptic needs a major overhaul as does all the other visual package management systems. Scrolling through that overloaded list is just insane. There's too many packages that overlap with each other and it can potentially confuse users.

I left Fedora in the dust a while back when it became clear that the Fedora distribution was nothing but bloat ware. Even if the base distribution for Ubuntu is slim at one CD, the number of packages and lack of testing does not produce a better distribution than what Fedora has.

I feel that all the hype that Ubuntu has received is unjustified. It is clearly NOT a distribution that works out of the box, but more like a Mac that works with a limited range of hardware with iffy results at best.

People keep clamoring about the coming of Linux as being ready for the desktop. Truthfully, I doubt that the mentality of the greater Linux community will ever understand what makes a decent desktop: simple usability. The Linux community does not nor probably will ever develop just for the average joe, instead opting for the average geek by providing a confusing number of options that blend together in some meaningless fashion. Choice? Certainly. Making a good decision? That's something left to be desired.

Right now, I'm truly regreting my decision in upgrading my desktop back in Tokyo and even using anything above 7.04 for my laptop. This experience has been excruciating. Right now, my feeling is that until the Linux community (or distributions) like Ubuntu get major support from the hardware manufacturers to provide better QA and just describing flat out the support of their stuff that they have no chance of making any headways at the desktop level. That's the raw truth.]]> Sun, 18 May 2008 22:32:27 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/18/b968b3ec44efdd2a276072ae32d6c934.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/8/38a794e6bddd8d33fb746a5295e08031.html
Another reason why I was offline, so to speak, was that my internet in LA sucked dick. I use Time-Warner and either my cable modem or router has a problem of constantly rebooting. I'm not sure what other options I have in LA, but if I move back permanently, that's one thing I'll definitely address.

Then my main system had gone down just before I departed for LA. Actually, it didn't go down so much as I attempted to upgrade the damn thing from Ubuntu 7.04 to 7.10. Something I didn't know much about was that the system requires that you use something called a "restricted driver" because I have an NVIDIA video card. Ubuntu is rather retarded in that the community displaces the driver in a restricted area rather than automatically being integrated when you're building your system. Even less known is that the driver must be re-upgraded each time or re-enabled during kernel upgrades. It's truly retarded ideology that seems counterintuitive in spreading Linux as a mainstream desktop.

I ended up buying a new hard drive (a cool Seagate 500 GB) and simply doing a clean install. After a few unexpected lockups, the system started to experience more smoothness. I had to re-enable the NVIDIA driver, reboot twice (once where I got locked up), upgraded the base software and booted into KDE (KUbuntu) for all this to work. I think the next time I decide to upgrade my system, I'll just purchase a new hard drive, externalize my data and do a clean install (well, I'll at least get another external drive, backup my data and then try an upgrade). Hopefully, the next version of Ubuntu will focus more on system stability with hardware. You really can't call a system "stable" if it keeps crashing and locking up!

Hopefully, all these issues are behind me as I have more things to deal with in the upcoming weeks. Got to renew my passport, two credit cards and get my fat ass back in the gym. At least, things are improving a little here and there....]]> Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:23:54 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/8/38a794e6bddd8d33fb746a5295e08031.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/9/db8354118e2dd0dc98c3a431e4b4bd74.html Adobe Flash plugin. I read a blog where the new default sound system in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy is something called PulseAudio. Apparently, there's a bug in the Flash plugin when working with PulseAudio so your whole system freezes as a result when you play some media files. In my case, the system would crash and the audio would go into an infinite loop. It's definitely an audio issue as I have narrowed this crash down to Flash sites.

There is a work around that involves some wrapper and utilizing Alsa instead. But I just can't fathom how people can go about making these stupid decisions without testing them. I mean, why employ a new default audio system when you don't bother testing the base system for what might be considered a commonly used feature?

The great thing is that it's not only me who is complaining. I've read numerous other comments where frustrated users say that the latest release has been a complete and utter disaster.

The old slogan where Ubuntu would "just work" no longer can apply if it slowly is becoming a new form of bloatware. I avoided Fedora because I was sick of untested bloatware and wanted a cheap distribution that would "just work." I'm not getting it and am deeply disappointed.

It's obvious that the Ubuntu community seems far more interested in pushing the envelope of technology by trying to push new, untested default software rather than stable releases. I think in attempting to compete against Fedora or other distributions, the Ubuntu community is going to slowly wreck itself in this path.

I keep saying this but if Linux as a whole wants a flagship distribution for the desktop, the main thing it needs to prove is to be stable and "just work" out of the box. Without these basic requirements, there's absolutely zero possibility of Linux becoming a standard desktop distribution. At this point, you're really going to be better off purchasing a low end Mac, since at the very minimum, you're guaranteed that stuff will work.]]> Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:34:33 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/9/db8354118e2dd0dc98c3a431e4b4bd74.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/9/fb8d533f235411bff82a1d2ae6530d25.html Flash woes can be purely pinpointed on Adobe. The biggest complaints I've been reading are that Flash is not open source so developers have no chance to go in and fix the issue for Linux. PulseAudio people, Firefox people, Ubuntu people, etc. are all pointing the finger at one point. Well, if this is true, then Adobe should at the very least open source the Linux version of their plugin to the community. I'm going to be forced to remove the flash plugin from my browser temporarily in case some stupid site in flash takes down my whole system.

(Updated)

In the meantime, I read that the new Flash Beta 10 plugin solves these problems. I've linked the plugin here so you can get it. Also, I believe you need to add libflashsupport using something like apt-get or synaptic for compatibility since there might still be some issues with PulseAudio and Flash.

Funny how Adobe's Beta software works far better. This isn't something new for me either. But again, if they just open source their stuff I think these frustrations might go away....]]> Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:37:38 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/9/fb8d533f235411bff82a1d2ae6530d25.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/15/3ee1f0d33b123c068b610b7e965f12ed.html
My biggest issues seem to come from Firefox usage and media files. This is really bothersome since I use my desktop for internet browsing. Now, I can't even trust it for that purpose.

Anyway, this is really depressing since my Windows system seems more stable than my Linux desktop. Heck, I have to hard reboot my system whenever it freezes. I don't think the guys over at Ubuntu are going to be able to fix these issues anytime soon either.]]> Sun, 15 Jun 2008 06:51:19 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/15/3ee1f0d33b123c068b610b7e965f12ed.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/10/c0565576c8e813493e982ce8ed8d87bf.html
My system is currently fully upgraded with the latest kernel from the repository installed. Movies no longer jam my system as I simultaneously do some other tasks. I don't have some things turned on though like Compiz. While others have sworn by it, I'm keeping away until it reaches a relatively stable version.

Bottom line for is that what I see isn't bad so far. No more down time. Things work quite well. But definitely when the next version comes out, I'll wait at least 3 months before upgrading.]]> Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:13:58 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/10/c0565576c8e813493e982ce8ed8d87bf.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/16/77b842df629a60c02b524ae90eb6bf3b.html
At home, my little chair has been tortured by my increased physical laziness in that I tend to lay back on it as if it were a recliner. Rather than await the day when the back snaps off and stabbing my spine with remnants of a jagged plastic stump, I decided to move into a pro-active mode through achieving independence of my computer desk and utilizing my recently neglected laptop.

From that, I just configured my desktop and laptop with NFS, mounting my home directory. My LAN lines giving me about 100mbs, I can fluidly utilize my desktop's generous hard drive space while employing my laptop from the comfort of my couch as my legs are indolently propped up against my one seater.

To me this is the future of home computing. Hopefully, more offices start to realize this and implement more relaxing settings for their employees.]]> Sat, 16 Aug 2008 02:01:29 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/16/77b842df629a60c02b524ae90eb6bf3b.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/2/18bf6e4e100e3f977a52d5076cbf078c.html
There's a sweet group of tools for creating DVDs that you can watch in your player. Among them are DVDAuthor and tovid. DVDAuthor is the real tool. Very simple command line scripts that will practically do everything including burning your DVD. Tovid, on the other hand, is a group of command line tools and GUI tools to customize your DVD creation.

What I really like about DVDAuthor is that you just have to type:

makedvd -burn /path/to/your/VOBs

Extremely simple.

By comparison, the tools for Windows usually require a license or inject some sort of watermark for shareware versions. This is just another motivation to make a switch to Linux. When Linux works, it works well.]]> Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:58:15 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/2/18bf6e4e100e3f977a52d5076cbf078c.html