₦airaland Forum

WETIN WOMAN WANT SEF?
why did'nt u marry the jobless mofo u knew way back? as u see say oga na pilot now u shine eyes say ground go level small for im side!, now u complaining.

woo abeg do not bore us here, the door is open o! u can just file for divorce and look for a work at home tailor or something like that to keep u company all day.

look i think ur main problem is that you are idle!! assuming u had gone out by 5:30 am, to get back at 8pm after like 5 hrs traffic and strenuous work u for dey very grateful say the guy no even dey around to give you extra work.

look, be contented, or bail out!!!! its a free world,am sure there are babes who will be willing to replace you asap

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_AMD_and_Intel_processors&alreadyAsked=1&rtitle=Comparison_between_intel_processors_and_amd_processors

please go to that link and see, the bot keeps swallowing my posts

Both chips are very similar, but due to marketing, they seem very very different from each other. The primary "marketing" difference is the way they claim their speeds.

The Intel chipsets (Pentium, celeron) use MHz as a speed factor. IE "This Pentium 4 chip runs at 3000 MHz" (IE a Pentium 4 3.0).

The AMD chipsets do not use a MegaHertz rating for speed because they believe doing so would make their chips seem slower than their Intel counterparts. This is due to the difference in instruction set handling that AMD uses, and is too technical to really get into here. Instead you may see an AthlonXP 1600, etc. Apply the following formula to determine the "Pentium" equivalent MHz speed.

MHz = (XP rating/1.5) + (500/1.5)

For example, with an Athlon 1600, the math would break down like this: MHz = (1600/1.5) + (500/1.5) MHz = (1066.66) + (333.33) MHz = 1399.99

Which would be equivalent to the last incarnation of the Pentium 3 (at 1400 MHz).

Because Intel has enjoyed longer commercial success than AMD, you can typically find comparable AMD chips for half the cost. This has to do with brand loyalty and advertising costs as well as the types of memory used in both chips. Intel uses more expensive RDR RAM while the AMD chips use DDR RAM. That said, the RDR RAM is faster (533 MHz versus the 333 MHz of the DDR RAM) and helps to soften the blow of the cost of the chips to the consumer.

oops my post did not show, make i try again

The same as the difference between Coca Cola and Pepsi , they are competitors. Wink

Here are some very simple things that are different between them:

INTEL processors: Intel was the first major brand for desktop CPUs, they survived a lot of competitors. The CPUs they manufacture are always a bit more expensive than AMDs. Because of their market shares, Intel was able to force some "gadgets" onto the market. Until 2002, all CPUs were classified by the speed (for example 2GHz - so 2000MHz). Intel lost some influence on the desktops CPU market because of AMDs techniques - they used not only pure speed but a more specific command kernel. By that the CPUs (i.E. AMD Athlon XP) were slower, but provided the same results as a faster Intel CPU (remember? AMD at 1.666GHz was the same as a INTEL on 1,8GHz). Intel provides most of the "normal" server CPUs today. Private users often choose AMDs for their machines to save costs. Intel supports the classification by the pure speed of a CPU no more. The introduced new numbers for the CPUs which represent the speed, the advanced features, the cache etc. for a certain CPU (and the best for them: you cannot compare them to AMD any longer as easily as it was before , )

AMD: AMD concentrated on the PC and consumer market and cut the costs for their CPUs in order to be more competitive. Nowadays the AMD CPUs are hotter than Intel CPUs, therefore you will need a better cooling and your system will be a bit louder. AMD provides a dual core CPU for PCs longer than Intel and I guess they have more experience with these features.

For gaming systems it is more a question of taste and money than a real difference. I know, there are many people, who would call me a liar, but both platforms have their advantages.

You cannot do anything wrong, as long as you try to get a CPU with a big cache (1mb at least! - so NO CELERON or SEMPRON) and the rest is a question of RAM and the used video card.

so therefore in my opinion, forget story unless ur trying to be cheap, INTEL WINS.

am sure the newer versions of the intel processors support virtualization too

The same as the difference between Coca Cola and Pepsi , they are competitors.

Here are some very simple things that are different between them:

INTEL processors: Intel was the first major brand for desktop CPUs, they survived a lot of competitors. The CPUs they manufacture are always a bit more expensive than AMDs. Because of their market shares, Intel was able to force some "gadgets" onto the market. Until 2002, all CPUs were classified by the speed (for example 2GHz - so 2000MHz). Intel lost some influence on the desktops CPU market because of AMDs techniques - they used not only pure speed but a more specific command kernel. By that the CPUs (i.E. AMD Athlon XP) were slower, but provided the same results as a faster Intel CPU (remember? AMD at 1.666GHz was the same as a INTEL on 1,8GHz). Intel provides most of the "normal" server CPUs today. Private users often choose AMDs for their machines to save costs. Intel supports the classification by the pure speed of a CPU no more. The introduced new numbers for the CPUs which represent the speed, the advanced features, the cache etc. for a certain CPU (and the best for them: you cannot compare them to AMD any longer as easily as it was before , )

AMD: AMD concentrated on the PC and consumer market and cut the costs for their CPUs in order to be more competitive. Nowadays the AMD CPUs are hotter than Intel CPUs, therefore you will need a better cooling and your system will be a bit louder. AMD provides a dual core CPU for PCs longer than Intel and I guess they have more experience with these features.

For gaming systems it is more a question of taste and money than a real difference. I know, there are many people, who would call me a liar, but both platforms have their advantages.

You cannot do anything wrong, as long as you[b] try to get a CPU with a big cache (1mb at least! [/b]- so NO CELERON or SEMPRON) and the rest is a question of RAM and the used video card.

Answer

Both chips are very similar, but due to marketing, they seem very very different from each other. The primary "marketing" difference is the way they claim their speeds.

The Intel chipsets (Pentium, celeron) use MHz as a speed factor. IE "This Pentium 4 chip runs at 3000 MHz" (IE a Pentium 4 3.0).

The AMD chipsets do not use a MegaHertz rating for speed because they believe doing so would make their chips seem slower than their Intel counterparts. This is due to the difference in instruction set handling that AMD uses, and is too technical to really get into here. Instead you may see an AthlonXP 1600, etc. Apply the following formula to determine the "Pentium" equivalent MHz speed.

MHz = (XP rating/1.5) + (500/1.5)

For example, with an[b] Athlon 1600[/b], the math would break down like this: MHz = (1600/1.5) + (500/1.5) MHz = (1066.66) + (333.33) MHz = 1399.99

Which would be equivalent to the last incarnation of the Pentium 3 (at 1400 MHz).

Because Intel has enjoyed longer commercial success than AMD, you can typically find comparable AMD chips for half the cost. This has to do with brand loyalty and advertising costs as well as the types of memory used in both chips. Intel uses more expensive RDR RAM while the AMD chips use DDR RAM. That said, the RDR RAM is faster (533 MHz versus the 333 MHz of the DDR RAM) and helps to soften the blow of the cost of the chips to the consumer.

Anwser

The main difference between AMD and Intel processors are that AMD processors have a 10 step execution process which doesn't allow as fast of a clock but AMD's counter that by being able to do more operations per clock cycle. Intls on the other hand have a 20 step execution proccess which allows much higher clock speeds but they have fewer operations per clock. Thats why a 2.08 Ghz AMD barton can perform at levels like a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4. Another difference between the processors are the sockets they use. AMD's generally use Socket A (462 pins) while Intel generally uses Socket 478 (478 pins). Other differences include supported chip sets, AMD motherboards generally use SIS, VIA, or N force chip sets while Intel motherboards use Intel, SIS, and most recently ATI chip sets. AMD is a favorite for over clockers because with minor modifications the FSB multiplier can be unlocked while Intel multipliers cannot be unlocked (Not to say that AMD is used exclusively by over clockers, because it is not, but this ability to be unlocked is a plus). Also as of now Intel processors have the largest L3 cache at 2mb while the largest for AMD is 1mb.

source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_AMD_and_Intel_processors&alreadyAsked=1&rtitle=Comparison_between_intel_processors_and_amd_processors

fones can be funny at times, have u checked that fone very well to be sure it doesnt have a place where u select the mode it will be when u plug in the usb, eg modem, data storage, printer etc.

i know some nokia have that!! and samsung too

we are'nt techs!! at least am not!!!!

i dunno abt weaver but last time i checked he didnt tell me he was into that anyway, abi weaver don add to repertoire and CV?

anyway, am pretty sure that there should be someone competent in ilorin!! havent been there in 9 yrs but i do hope the place has moved on and up from those agrarian days!!!! dry town!!

u know poppin a ram aint a big deal if thats whats wrong with it. if u coming to lagos, well i dunno o!, Comp Villa for a JJC is like swimming amongst sharks!! put up an AD for a tech in ilorin first then maybe lagos.

am sure there will be somebody who can refer you to a competent establishment and not a roadside ikeja Tech

come o,lynx i see u playing .flv file. i cant seem to play those things. they never play properly on my system. very slow. even in a web page no matter the speed of my internet. thats when i decided to download them instead. but they play like on the webpage. even vlc does not play them

pls who knows a solution??

Klite? Its just dt 3d sound thing. Vlc sound tweaks aint a slouch 2 u knw.

And unless its changed this days dt klite codec ends up messing up ur pc. And some video formats just wont render properly, slow choppy etc. And worst of all it conflicts wit windows media player codecs and makes wmp unusable. U hav 2 use d classic player

where is the mod? i think NL should institute a system where if five active posters vote that a thread be deleted, it gets deleted asap.

that means every new thread comes with a vote out button, or maybe there will be somewhere u can vote the thread out. this dumb threads are really beginning to suck

if u cannot, its probably cos u sh*agged her and what them preachers say is true, that u joined in more ways than one!!!

abeg get real jare, which 1 is u cannot forget, ur eye never comot from the candy jar!! simple

maybe mrs woman has been signalling marriage full time but mr man is not/will not be ready!

at times it may happen cos the guy isnt prepared moneywise etc for the wedding yet the gals goes on and on abt that. the guy may feel that the reason she is going on inspite knowing his status is cos she got an offer!!!

seen that 1ce, crazy relationship. galfriend actually left to get engaged to some other dude, broke up 3 weeks to the scheduled wedding and then remembered Guy and came back. funny thing is everyone around the guy were totally against his taking her back! guy wanted to though.

my point is it depends, if babe is sure there isnt any real hindrance to the the guy marrying her yet he says that then there is fire on the mountain, run run. otherwise he could just be frustrated and unreasonable.

humh!!! OGA LYNX!!!! HAHA! NO DULLING ki o ma ti fi eti ko ni, sharp sharp bros na im we go dey call u now o!

no big deal naw, u sef don suppose see am, ok see that button wey be like equalizer, no be equalizer only dey dere, click am, u will see the oda settings. for video enable the video settings, dash am small brightness, and if u fit do the sigma small sef, ehn o. na so e go just be like magic!!

but haha, u dey try, neva a dull moment!!!. NB im not sure but i think vlc in linux performs better, but of course its meant to be the same thing anyway so maybe its just my imagination.

u did not even confirm if that parol worked yesterday? i logged out. my oga saw my status as active and sent me a pm. lol

D solution is flashing. D thing is they need 2 use d firmware version dt came with d fone and also flash d filesystem also, not just d firmware.

How u find dt out i dont knw o. U culd try google and nokia forums.

Err Compressor Or u mean processor?

U knw wat, y not plug in an external monitor and see if it displays. Besides dt processor burn cant be so easy! Or u had a power surge?

I once had a laptop dt didnt light up, i opened it up and went at .it with a multimeter, found a dead fuse and watsitcalled (small white fuse like component) i put in a copper strand n voila.

Inshort, maybe u shld just give a COMPETENT tech

UNA NO DEY TIRE!!!!

NA WAH O! so that avatar no clear, kai na to get the rip from sendspace be that o!!

make i ja una si one koko, u see that new vlc, 1.3 ehn!, e get i place wey una fit change some kain settings like that wey be say even film wey get naija condition, wey black well well, u go lighten am so tey e go just dey like dele. at least it will be watchable!!!

as in u will actually see details!!!

that vlc has to be the most successful opensource software project ever!!!!!

well its really unfortunate that their has to be a search for all these attributes!! they are supposed to be ingrained in EVERYBODY male and female. its the extras that will now bring attraction.

its crazy sha,sort of like a scenario wherein u come looking for a black man in africa!!!! who come dey there?
its what it is these days!!

NB: most of the guys and gals on NL just say stuff to bring debate anyway, pple (men) are not THAT bad!!!

besides like i always tell folks, u get what u deserve!!! never mind what people tell as stories, u always get what you deserve. its a principle of life!!! if u think your so nice and good and all that and u have been getting wrong partners, u need to do a retreat and really reflect. believe me, God does not pick on you to have bad things.

besides, i dont think i ever met a woman who had not at a point in her life met a guy who absolutely was her mugun, nice and all that, but they always turn them down for the one reason or the other, he is too dry, not suave enuf, not rich enough bla bla, so why complain when u get what u get now?


for men, well suffices to say, shagging half of lagos WILL come back some time, count on it. its just what it is!!!

u know in this thread the one thing that got to me was the sholababa guy actually bragging that his tool is 5.5 inches!!

am sorry but how does that become a thing to brag about? in african terms THAT IS SMALL!!!!! hell man, ur gonna swim in any snatch!!!! WTF that aint exactly big and from the fact u is bragging about that size, am sure u do not even know hw to use it!!!!

haha, wonderment mi o!!!

platinumnk:
Often Women post here that they are looking for this and that, "fine man, rich man blah, blah blah, but let me tell you what a REAL woman Wants :
A Real Woman wants a GOOD man, a GOOD man take precedence over all other things:


A Good MAN includes:

[list]
[li]Character- Character is the essence of a GOOD man NOT Charisma[/li]
[li]Faithfullness- Faithfulness is Faith at Work , Faithfulness is the only way to true happiness and honor. "Good intentions don't go very far"[/li]
[/list]
[list]
[li]Selflessness- It is very easy to put Self first but it is the nature of a GOOD man to put others first. [/li]
[li]Obedient- A Good Man is obedient to the Word of God and Sets an Example[/li]
[/list]
[list]
[li]Self- Control- A Good man knows how to control his passions, Set boundaries "no outbursts of anger" -have control of your temper- [/li]
[li]Authority- A Good man Realizes his authority over his family. Women don't like a passive man, they like a decisive man. [/li]
[/list]
[list]
[li] Protector- Men should treat older ladies as a mother, and younger ladies as a sister, unless they marry. Men are chosen to be protectors.
_{(Means you cannot allow someone to disrespect your wife in your presence)}[/li]
[li] Provider- It is the MANS job to provide for the home. Men, it is NEVER ok to sit at home waiting for the right job, You do not work, YOU should NOT eat! Take Pride![/li][/list]

If you find that you fit in all these things, Then Congrats! you are A Good man, [size=1pt]and leave your contact info[/size] otherwise work on it

But this is a good heads up, next week, the Points of a Good WOMAN!!!

Character: what exactly do u mean by this? what is this character? wat should it be?

Faithfulness: i think u got something mixed up here, faithfulness to who, the woman or God? if its the woman then surely u shldnt be talking about faith in action bla bla! besides, thats wat ALL u women say. i want him to screw only me for ever!! reserve my comment on that point.

Selflesness: well, good point. its an attribute for EVERY HUMAN, but where does the myspace part come in? and i sure as hell know that women have issues with this one. i dont think i know a woman who does not put herself first in anything. the way u pple go at times is sickening! u want the men to practically live to please u. "he will put me first. open doors for me, yackety yack" even when the man get money na problem, she is constantly calculating how much will/should accrue to her "because she is your wife and been for years, " woe betide u shld u fall ill small, she don dey scheme.

Obedient: hmmmnn, this one amuses me, ok so ur now the judge of whether ur man is a worthy son of God and thats a criteria for being a good man? thot that was btw him and God!! infact on this point alone there will be no marriages where the couples are of different faith or where 1 just decides to be lazy on the holy rolling front!!

Self-control: now that has to be a reeaaalllly perfect man, though it will surely help if the woman knows well enough NOT TO PROVOKE THE MAN!! besides, as long as he is not beating u up (assuming u are not the type who likes the beatings) u shld accept him warts and all, thats what the sacrifice in relationship is!! again, the woman had better be THE MEEKEST WOMAN ALIVE!!!!

Authority: as someone mentioned where do u draw the line btw authority and overbearing? becos this days of "equal partnership" the women just no dey gree say the guy na oga, and how can u not be the oga and have authority?

protector: i have no issues with this one! as long as the ones to be protected do not think that they can do what ever they like cos incredible hulk is in the background!! as for disrespecting my wife, sure. but i prefer the wife to take a chill pill and instead of mouthing off to pple just cos am there, she shld look to me to confront the threat. i aint getting into a fist fight for my wife hell no!! she shldnt be insulting pple and expect me to protect her in the name of anger (reference the point on anger). i actually might allow her get a good slap first, then step in. that is always a good lesson for the mouthy ones.

Provider: THE BEST POINT. I AGREE 99.999% but for 1 thing, in my household i will not be the only money making machine and therefore, there will be shared responsibilities!!!! i will undertake most of the stuff, but my wife has to have what she is bringing to the table!!! that way she has a stake in the home too and is not merely waiting for the donkey to go work and bring home hay!! besides any sane man shld knw that as long as u have totally dependent mouths to keep sinking ur money, ur chances of advancement are very limited!! i wont have the nonsense where someone is telling me before i go to work to drop something for this or that! we settle it all when due and if u have stuff u need to do, do it and tell me l8r so i can reimburse u! and i sure as hell aint buying u undies and toiletries unless of course the undies are for a special shag session

ok so basically what weaver is saying is boot up a xp cd, choose the recovery console option, it will take you into cmd prompt, type the following

"copy c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe c:\windows\system32\wsaupdater.exe"

then reboot!

yawn, and they say linux users are geeks, cmd line wahala bla bla. tseew

guu if u cant do that or it doesnt work, use the repair xp option or the one i mentioned earlier. all na same.

weaver, U ARE A NERD!!!! simple!!!

remove all the periperals eg battery, cd drive, charger etc. press the power button down and hold it for like30 secs to a minute.

then plug in only the charger and try to switch it on. lets see what happens.

thats strange, afolabi should know wvdial properly am surprised!!

is the box ok, does it work in windows?

maybe u shld try somehow to update the system particularly network manager.
ps GPPP maywork. (u neva can tell with this things). it doesnt detect the fone modem, is the port ok, or the cable? im just wondering cos i knw about 4 pple who use the starcomms box!

@ lynx u don format the pc? thot u was going 7?

soolari, where una dey hang out these days? i no get una site addy o, miss the fun

Ubuntu 9.10 Review
The Karmic Koala is one frendly operating system


By Doru Barbu, Linux Editor & Marius Nestor, Linux Editor

6th of November 2009, 22:01 GMT

Version reviewed: Ubuntu 9.10

-- Ubuntu is a community-developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work,

--Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from word processing and email apps, to web server software and programming tools.

Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business absolutely for free.

Features:

· Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates.
· Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies around the world.
· Ubuntu includes the very best translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer.
· Thousands of software packages available for download
· Easy to install
· Easy to use


Right after Ubuntu's fifth birthday it was time to celebrate once more, because a Karmic Koala was released, and it brought with it a lot of reasons to upgrade. If Ubuntu 9.10's smart looks haven't convinced you yet, maybe the fast boot times and overall enhanced performance will. You still don't know what Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is all about? Then read on, we will clue you in.


While writing this review, I tried to put myself in the "shoes" of a new Ubuntu user. This meant that I didn't go on to installing my favorite programs or setting up everything as I like right after installing the operating system, but instead I tried to make do with what Ubuntu provides in the default installation. Also, I tried to stay away from the terminal and, largely, succeeded in doing so.

Installing Ubuntu


1.

So, you download this freshly-prepared ISO image, write it to a CD, then you pop that back into the disk drive and reboot your computer. Assuming that your BIOS settings are correct, Ubuntu should start loading and, after a while, present you with an almost empty GNOME desktop. If you just want to see what this operating system is all about, you're free to wander around the menus and try out the applications – since this is a live session, the chances of doing something that will alter or destroy valuable data are slim to none. But if you're talking business, the Install icon is right there on the desktop, waiting for you to double click it.



The average installation takes about 15 minutes, depending on the language options that you select and whether you have an active Internet connection or not, but you can be done with it in less than 10 minutes if you install from a USB drive. Most of the complicated partitioning schemes, like dual booting setups, are greatly automatized, and if you want to dedicate an entire hard drive to Ubuntu then your installation will be trouble-free for sure.


2.

First impressions

When the (short) installation process is done, restart the machine and get a real feel for the new and very polished boot process. At first you will get a minimalistic-looking splash screen with the Ubuntu logo in solid white on a black background, but after a few seconds the new X-based bootsplash will kick in. The developers were hoping to design a streamlined boot process that would be able to start XSplash very early and they nearly did just that in Alpha 6, but the kernel output was destroying its smooth and professional look so they decided to cover up the text with a (albeit short) USplash session.


If you didn't enable automatic logins while installing, GDM (GNOME Display Manager) a.k.a. "the login screen" will disrupt the smooth journey to the desktop by asking you to pick a username and provide a password. The overall look is in line with the USplash theme, rendering a minimalistic and unobtrusive appearance, albeit a little too dark for my taste. After the credentials have been supplied, XSplash will return for a little while, which can be quite annoying.


3.
There is a good side to XSplash's extended presence on your screen. By the time GNOME has finished loading in the background, the X-based bootsplash will fade out and you will be given access to a completely ready desktop environment, no hidden load times here. The view to the wallpaper is unobstructed, the graphic itself being quite an improvement over the abstract and brownish ones that were included in previous Ubuntu versions, or the animal themes in the last few releases. At least for me, the golden sand dune can be too bright at times, but that can be mitigated by lowering the Gamma value in your video card control panel or by simply changing the wallpaper altogether, because you have a wide choice of stunning backdrops right from the get-to.

The new icon set complements the minimalistic look that is present throughout various components, and the libnotify popups integrate well with everything else, sporting smooth fades and transparencies.



4
Initial setup

Probably the first thing that you notice and which you are familiar with is the Firefox icon on the top panel, next to the Help launcher. By using it you can quickly access a browser session, provided by Firefox 3.5.3 (version 3.5.4 was made available three-four days after the official release). As you're probably well-accustomed to this web browser, I won't go on about its security features and the customization possibilities. All you need to know is that it's there, and it's ready to be used.

Let's see what the Ubuntu developers included for instant messaging. In the Internet menu is the Empathy IM Client, it can't be more obvious than that. You start it up and a wizard appears. I was expecting to configure my XMPP account in one go, but apparently Empathy's creators thought that everyone would be using Jabber.org's service, so they didn't provide a way to enter an alternative address in the wizard. The good thing was that the Network Error notification that followed suit had a big "Edit Account" button on it, but unfortunately the server setting was hidden under yet another "Advanced" group.

After you've configured Empathy and your Contact List gets filled with your buddies, it's time to drop them a line and, preferably, some emoticons to express your feelings about this operating system that you have installed. Well, calling the chat window simple would be an overstatement; it's stripped down to the bare basics in fact. There are no formatting controls and, well, no buttons in it. If you want to insert an emoticon (not type one), you will either have to right-click the text area or click the "Conversation" menu and go into the "Insert Smiley" list. For me, that is pretty limited and cumbersome.

When you close the Contact List, it simply disappears. You can access it from the Indicator Applet, but it takes a while to get used to not having a dedicated IM icon in the notification area. Aside from the lack of features, chatting in Empathy works as expected, and I didn't encounter any problems.


Evolution Mail, on the other hand worked flawlessly. I started it up and I was greeted by a setup wizard through which I configured everything, quickly. My e-mail setup requires SSL, and it was right there, along with all the other relevant options. Upon finishing the wizard, my e-mails loaded up and, surprisingly, even my folders and starred items were correctly set up. However, there was no way I could convince Evolution to import my feed list, or to act as a feed reader. Thunderbird is quite a good aggregator, but Ubuntu's default e-mail client is simply not capable of doing that (there is a plugin, but it's not installed by default).

After noticing Empathy's behavior when closing the Contact List, you would think that Evolution works in the same way. In fact it doesn't; once you close the window it's gone for good, and there appears to be no way you can configure it to remain active in the background. If your e-mail client stays opened all the time, like mine, you're stuck with a big window and with an entry in your taskbar all the time.


5.
Productivity applications

With all communication problems sorted, let's figure out how Ubuntu can help us get some work done. In the Office menu you will find a dictionary application, Evolution and the well-known OpenOffice.org software suite.

We knew for quite some time that Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) would incorporate OpenOffice.org 3.1.1. This office suite will take care of word documents, presentations, and spreadsheets, and after you get used to it you will see that it's as good as any other alternative office suite and in some cases better. Proprietary formats are well supported, and the faster startup times will cut down on the waiting period between clicking a document and actually starting to work on it.

I'm not a big fan of Evolution GroupWare, but it seems that it is preferred in corporate environments to the detriment of other similar solutions or software suites. While it lacks some features that would come in handy, it balances them out with the easy setup, no-surprises interface, great stability and low resource usage. It incorporates a calendar, a task organizer and a memo manager, and users can import vCards, .csv, vCalendar files directly. Evolution works with all versions of Microsoft Exchange Server, with the exception of Exchange 2007. It can be synchronized with Palm Pilot devices with gnome-pilot, and OpenSync enables it to be synchronized with mobile phones and other PDAs.

For graphics work we have an old-time classic that has been included in Ubuntu since the get-go. I was hoping that GIMP 2.8 would be ready in time for inclusion into Ubuntu 9.10, but that didn't happen, so instead we have the latest stable version, GIMP 2.6.7, which is about two months old. While it still doesn't feature layer grouping, it is the best free software alternative for graphics and image editing.

Of course, since we are talking about productivity apps, including a good Solitaire card game application is a must. If you're a purist and you want to port your Windows habits to Ubuntu, you will find AisleRiot Solitare to be much more advanced than its proprietary counterpart. It features more than 20 different card games that you can play by yourself, including FreeCell, and if you get bored with it you can choose something else from the collection of logic, puzzle and action games that Ubuntu ships with.



6.
Multimedia support and connectivity

After all this setting up it was time to relax a bit, maybe even watch a video or two on YouTube. So I started up Firefox and I didn't get anywhere fast, because there was no Abobe Flash support. Ubuntu worked on integrating a Firefox plugin that searches and installs the Adobe Flash Player with the package manager, but it appears that YouTube's custom scripts override that function, and instead it will point you to the official Adobe Flash download page. That complicates things a bit, because it misleads a new user into manually installing packages. If the user happens to stumble onto another page that doesn't have any custom scripts, Firefox's Adobe Flash plug-in finder will work correctly and you will be able to choose which Flash support package you want (Adobe's, of course) to install, enter your password and that's it.


The speculation that Banshee will replace Rhythmbox circulated intensely during the initial development of Karmic Koala, but Rhythmbox remains the default music player and media management application in Ubuntu, for now. It is a fairly capable program that can accommodate both novice and more demanding users, and it features play queue and playlist management, multiple playback modes, Audio CD creation and import, podcast support, Last.fm scrobbling and, last but not least, device sync and management. Since some audio formats are restricted, if you load up an MP3 file you will be prompted to start a search for suitable codecs, then you can install them. However, Rhythmbox refused to play the file even after taking those steps, and it was necessary to quit and then run Rhythmbox again for it to work.

Personal Media Players that use the MTP protocol for connecting to the computer have been a constant source of problems, but getting them to work is quite easy if you know where to look. If you plug one of these players into one of your computer's USB ports, you will see that Ubuntu itself recognizes the device and offers a variety of actions for it, but Rhythmbox doesn't appear to detect it. To get it to work you need to enable "Portable Players - MTP" in Rhythmbox's "Configure Plugins" Window, then your will be able to copy music to your player. MSC devices, those that can be manipulated like a regular USB drive, work without a hitch.

ALERT

One particular problem with Ubuntu's setup is that MP3 files, and possibly others, are set up to open with Totem, the video playback application, instead of Rhythmbox. I think the system is configured this way so that you can preview or listen single files quickly, and if you think they should be part of your collection you will copy them to your music folder. This mode of operation isn't fully configured either, because you will need to configure a music folder in Rhythmbox and eventually enable the new file detection in it. However, you can choose to open a file with another application by tweaking its properties.

Although Totem has a simple interface, it is a powerful multimedia player. When the codecs required to play a file are missing, you will be prompted to install them in the same way that Rhythmbox does.

Although I tend to think of media applications as video and audio players, Totem can do a bit of both. It's not a media management utility, but it supports playlists, subtitles, and when you're listening to music it can even display visualizations. A variety of formats are supported, even High-Defintion videos, such as H.264 encoded ones or the popular MKV container.



If you plug in a digital camera, Ubuntu will detect its presence and a helper will be displayed, offering to open a Nautilus window to browse the photos on the camera, or to start up a very functional piece of software called F-Spot. This digital photography management application includes a set of very useful features that allow you to organize, tag, correct, export and, of course, view your photos. Although its interface can get quite busy, with the toolbar, sidebar and filmstrip all occupying a section of the screen, the number of functions packed in F-Spot is well worth it. The timeline slider and the extensions that can upload your photos to various online services definitely deserve being mentioned, and if you need extra functionality, the included extension finder may be able to help.

Large file downloads, like ISO images, are being increasingly delivered through peer to peer networks like BitTorrent. Ubuntu bundles the Transmission application for torrent downloads. While it is a neat and simple to use application, Transmission could be enhanced by adding a first run wizard that will help new users set their download and upload limits so that the torrent traffic doesn't interfere with VoIP or web browsing.

Once you downloaded one of those large ISO images, you will probably want to write it to a DVD or some other optical media. Simple disk creation and duplication tasks like image burning or data backup can be handled by Nautilus, which features a context menu entry for ISOs and a "Send To" item that enables you to add files to a data disk. More complicated tasks, like Audio CD or Video DVD mastering, can be done with the Brasero Disk Burner. It has a very intuitive interface and a lot of useful usage indications, but you won't find any multimedia editing features like DVD menu creation. Also, the annoying "Image Checksum" plugin is still enabled by default, initiating an integrity check of the written data immediately after finishing the burn process. Since most of today's computers and optical drives/disks are reliable enough, I think that the checksum plugin could be disabled by default, or even made to display a prompt asking if you want to check the written data.


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Ubuntu on notebooks

Most of the notebooks on which we tested the new Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) had Intel chipsets, but even so, the level of out-of-the-box functionality is impressive. On both the HP ProBook 4510s and the Fujitsu-Siemens AMILO M1475G all the components were correctly recognized, the hotkeys worked, power management was a breeze, and not even using the hardware wireless switches was a problem. The volume wheel and the remote control on AMILO required no additional setup, and I was happy to see that the Bluetooth module on the HP ProBook was already set up and ready to be used.

A very useful feature for notebook users is the home folder encryption option that is available when installing the system, since the data stored on laptops is more valuable than the device itself in most cases. Encrypted Private Directories was introduced in Ubuntu 8.10, but it wasn't enabled by default and, to actually secure data, the files had to reside in a special folder if they were to be encrypted. However, this approach relied on the user to store sensitive data in the private folder, and configuration files like Pidgin's logs or account settings were still vulnerable. Ubuntu 9.04 extended the encryption to cover the whole /home folder, but it still had to be set up manually. In Ubuntu 9.10, this feature is available at install time, and I must agree that it's a very efficient way of protecting your data. Instead of wasting precious resources by encrypting or decrypting common system files that are of no particular interest, it only secures the place in which the user stores its files, the /home folder.

You need to take some precautions when you use the Encrypted Home Folder feature, to ensure that your data won't be rendered useless. By enabling it, the password that you set during setup is used to initially decrypt a much stronger passphrase, which in turn is used to decrypt the data. This generated passphrase is presented to you upon first boot, and it's recommended that you write it down or otherwise store it in a secure place, because it is vital to the recovery of the data, should something go wrong. If you forget your password and lose this passphrase, your files will be locked, and the chances of recovering them with a brute force attack are slim.


8
Application management

Since there is no feed aggregator preinstalled and Evolution can't do us the favor of fetching the news, the only choice left is to install one. If you have been paying attention to the images on Ubuntu's installer, then you know about Ubuntu Software Center. Add that to the fact that this program is accessible directly from the Applications Menu, and it's not that hard to guess where a new user will go when looking for software to install. So, let's see if Ubuntu Software Center can help us get a feed aggregator. Do a search for "feed," pick one of the listed applications, and in the information page there is an "Install" button that needs to be clicked. After you enter your password the application is installed – it couldn't get much simpler than that.

When the idea of replacing "Add/Remove Applications" first appeared, some voices argued that Ubuntu already had too many different ways to access the repositories and that they should be consolidated. That didn't happen at this time (maybe in later versions), but "Add/Remove Applications" was definitely replaced with a worthy successor. Ubuntu Software Center is a friendly application that has well-defined software categories, built-in search and detailed package information. The Synaptic Package Manager is still included, but its interface and features are aimed at the advanced crowd, so the Ubuntu Software Center is a great resource for new users.


Bugs

I must say that I consider Empahty to be a serious "bug." Although its inclusion into this release is probably similar to the way PulseAudio was adopted, Empathy is seriously lacking in some respects. The audio/video chat function is often unstable or unusable, the configuration options are spartan at best and the account manager and creation tool is complicated and often unintuitive. The latest Pidgin developments have initial multimedia chat support, and the available plugins make it an extremely versatile tool that shouldn't have been replaced so easily.


9
Conclusion

If you read this review from top to bottom, you will see that many of the software installation/customization tasks were related to the lack of support for some technologies, like Adobe Flash or the MP3 audio format.

Support for them, along with many other useful things like fonts, a Java virtual machine and DVD playback can be added to the system by simply installing the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package, with the Ubuntu Software Center app.

All those separate knick-knacks could be done away with a single move if the Ubuntu developers created an after-installation prompt that would clearly lay out the associated licensing problems and through which the Ubuntu restricted extras package could be installed at the press of a button.

Aside from that, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is a great operating system. The hardware support is excellent, and the resource requirements are lower than in many commercial operating systems. The bundled software package is quite useful and it perfectly fits the needs of a novice or business-oriented user. If you're familiar with the previous incarnations of this operating system, Ubuntu 9.10 will appear to you as a mere visual overhaul over its predecessors, but there are many more subtle changes under the hood.

Taking a look at the bigger picture, the Ubuntu family of operating systems is expanding. You can now base your distributed server infrastructure on the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, and if you own a Dell netbook you can even try out the Ubuntu Moblin Remix. Last but not least, I personally hoped that Lubuntu, the lightweight XFCE-based community-developed distribution, would be accepted among the officially supported editions, but it looks like we will have to wait until Ubuntu 10.04 for that.