Stop Updating Shit I Don't Need!

Ubuntu Linux has an automatic update feature like every other piece of software on the planet. Unlike the good old days when I could go out a purchase a floppy disk, bring it home, and be left alone with my software working the way I want, these days, everything is exposed on the Internet. Therefore, all software must phone home to be patched daily for exploits that the jerks on the Net have managed to use to hijack computers and break into sensitive data.

I hate it.

What I hate most about it is being interrupted by a notification icon telling me updates are ready. I also hate popups reminding me to restart after an update. Remember when Linux guys used to brag about having their machines up and running for months without restarting? Remember when they used to brag about how Linux could be patched without a restart?

HAHAHA! Those days are over.

While I was typing this, Ubuntu Hardy told me to download updates. 11 files were patched. Here's what pisses me off more than anything else: All the files being patched on my system are shit I don't use!

Evolution received an update. I use Gmail. I don't need evolution updates. If evolution is a security risk, give me the option to uninstall it instead of integrating it with the clock on the task bar. OpenSSL was updated. I'm sorry, but I don't have any SSL certificates to build. Why is this even on my machine? Samba was updated. I'm using this machine to blog. Why is Samba even installed on the friggin' thing by default. Samba is an obscure rarely used file server solution that is supposedly compatible with Windows networks.

Come on! Almost anyone with a Windows network and a site license has Windows servers! Samba is a stupid idea for a desktop system! Get rid of it! Make it an obscure option post-installation.

In short, I had to download and install patches for my machine, and I must now restart because three applications I have ZERO USE have holes in them that need plugging.

Stop it! Stop patching shit I don't need! Don't patch my system if I don't have the program running actively or use it! Hell, don't install it if I don't ask for it.

I tried to uninstall Samba. The system warned me that the entire operating system would be uninstalled with it. What a crock.

Apple Slim Aluminum Wired Keyboard - No Joy

I bought myself one of those slim aluminum Apple keyboards. I don't know if you have seen them, but they are exquisite. The keys are spaced apart from one another to prevent gunk getting under them. The tactile sensation is incredible. The keys are quiet, and the keyboard itself is beautiful.

However, Hardy Heron doesn't like the Apple keyboard.

First, when I plugged it into a USB port on my monitor, the PC would not boot. Grub launched, I saw the word "Starting..." and then it just froze there for 10 minutes. I plugged the old keyboard back in, and it started right up.

I tried plugging the keyboard into the back of the PC instead of onto a peripheral. The same thing happened. Ubuntu did not want to start up with that keyboard plugged in. WTF? Other people had purchased the keyboard and it worked fine for them.

Finally, I booted up, unplugged my windows keyboard, and plugged it in. It only typed numbers from certain keys. After much research, I discovered that Hardy Heron had a "fix" put out for MAC computers that were running Ubuntu to make the keyboards work properly. However, it made all Apple keyboards work like laptop keyboards.

There is no num-lock key, and the CLEAR key was being used as one. Pressing F6 twice undid the permanent numlock and allowed me to type. When I rebooted, my PC would not start.

I assumed it was a problem with my BIOS, so I tried flashing it. But I couldn't figure out how to create a boot floppy in Linux. Apparently, you just can't. I found an old floppy, and I put it in the drive. I went to properties to format it, but there was no option to do so. After more web research, I found a program already on my Ubuntu installation called gfloppy that will format a floppy.

I typed gfloppy at the terminal, and nothing happened. I typed sudo gfloppy, and finally, there was a formatting program. However, it had no option to make the floppy bootable. Sometimes, Linux is so awesome I cannot imagine going back. But sometimes it is like owning a boat and finding out that a major part is missing - like a steering wheel. Something that you will obviously need.

After even more research, I found out how to create a bootable CD to put my BIOS files on.

After creating a bootable CD, I rebooted, set up the CD to be the first boot device, rebooted again, and then the CD booted up. Surprise! It threw an error at me. Wrong hardware. I rebooted, downloaded the bios update again, and tried it again with another CD. Same error! I was sure it was right. I did more research. I found that the switch /Py on the command line would over-ride the hardware version compare function in AWDFLASH.EXE (the program that updates my ABit BIOS.

I ran AWDFLASH.EXE again and typed in the filename. This time it said, "Invalid op code!" I rebooted, tried it again, and this time at the command prompt I typed, "AWDFLASH.EXE M9269_16.bin". This time it worked, and it flashed the bios.

I rebooted, and everything worked. I noticed zero improvements from the old BIOS. I rebooted, and stuck the keyboard USB pin into the back of my PC.

It would not start!

I gave up. The keyboard is now back in the hands of Fry's Electronics, and I now have a WD Passport 250GB portable hard drive instead.

Since this experience, I have read even more about Apple Keyboards that make me glad it didn't work out:

• You have to hold down the Fn button for the F keys to function
• There is no insert key
• There is no print screen key (goodbye screen shots)
• The numpad does not work
• If you touch the numpad, num-lock engages and the rest of the keyboard won't work until you type F6 twice quickly.
• There is no num-lock key to engage or disengage num-lock
• Alt and the Command key (windows key/apply key) are reversed, leading to touch-typing chaos
• The cord on the keyboard was too short to sit on my desk and reach the back of my PC underneath.

So, all's well that ends well. Here's hoping that a knock-off keyboard just like it will be released in the coming months.

Question: Why doesn't Apple make peripherals that will work with PCs? It seems that this would not hurt revenue - only help, and would spread their reputation around even faster. It's because they use a closed business model that is all about locking the customer in and locking all non-customers out.

I had been saving up for a cool Apple Macbook Pro. I am no longer. Searching for info on Apple keyboards led me to site after site with complaining Apple experts lamenting the shortcomings of owning an Apple computer - even one of the brand new ones. I've lost interest. I will keep fighting with Ubuntu for now.

Would some non-dumbass in Ubuntu world please make an app that formats floppies and CD's as bootable so we can update our BIOS?

Invalid File Names Can Slow Backing Up in Ubuntu

I went out and bought myself one of those 250 GB Western Digital Passport USB-powered portable hard drives to back up our computers. My wife has a Vista Laptop. I have an XP laptop from work. I also have a desktop running Ubuntu Linux exclusively.

I hate using backup software. I think it is stupid and a waste of time. I don't like installing software just to recover my documents. I've also had backup files be corrupt in one spot and have lost the entire backup because of it. I'd rather just lose a file here and there. I prefer to simply copy the files from my home directory to the backup drive. That seems to make the most sense.

These new portable USB powered drives are inexpensive, extremely fast, and have huge amounts of room on them. I was happy to give mine a try.

However, I discovered a major snafu while copying my mp3 files from Ubuntu Linux to a fat-formatted backup drive. The Linux ext3 filesystem allows special characters in filenames. The FAT filesystem on most USB powered drives does not. I had tons of mp3s (7 GB) with commas, parentheses, and colons in their names.

Was I going to rename them one at a time? Hell no!

I found this command in a forum, and it worked beautifully to remove every special character from all of my mp3's:

find /home/me/Music/ -iname "*" -exec rename -v 's/\:|\*|\?|\"//g' "{}" \;

In one stroke, all of my special characters were deleted and my mp3's could copy over without issue. This is another reason I don't like backup programs or automating the backup process. I like to monitor what is going on.

I backed up all of my email, pictures, music, documents, web site source, and everything else in about 20 minutes - in total it was about 44 GB of data. The drive could back up 4 more sets of computers this way and not run out of room.

I love the drive, and I love that command.

Make sure you backup weekly. You will hate yourself if you do not.

The Disappointment of Hardy Heron

We waited for six months for Canonical to produce Hardy Heron, the 8.04 version of Ubuntu Linux.

What a disappointment.

Friends I had convinced to make the switch to Linux from Vista are switching back, experiencing buggy, unreliable performance under Hardy that never should have been allowed out into the open daylight.

Problems include:

* The included browser is a beta of Firefox 3 - not a final release. An update is available, but newbs will never figure out how to upgrade to the latest and leave the included browser behind. The new release has not been packaged for Hardy Heron.

* The video driver from Nvidia does not yet support the Linux kernel version. In newbie language that means that video is unreliable, desktop effects are screwed up, and people are getting pink everything from drop shadows on their desktops to blank screens and no functionality at all.

I'm very disappointed in the quality of this release. I cannot say I am totally surprised. Linux is free, and that price tag means something: it's not as polished as a professionally developed operating system.

What I'd really like to see for the PC is Apple's OS X. I know, the whole secret to its stability is locking you into Apple's short list of supported hardware.

My pennies are going into my jar to save up for my Macbook Pro. A review coming after I get it. Hardy Heron has fully convinced me to jump ship from Microsoft. After six months of surviving without Windows, I'm ready for something smoother, easier, more toaster like.

Apple looks like the viable alternative.

Install Firefox 3 Beta 3 in Ubuntu Linux

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Firefox-3-Beta-3-on-Ubuntu-7-10-78875.shtml

Complete directions for installation and configuration are in the link above. I installed it successfully and made it my default browser. It is not a dramatic upgrade, but Firefox 3 is proving to be faster, better looking, and a little more feature-rich than the default version that comes with Ubuntu.

Read the directions carefully all the way through before starting off, or you could accidentally install more than you were bargaining for.

Bored with Ubuntu is a Good Thing

I never cease to be amazed at how many interesting things I had to do with my Windows PC that I no longer am able to spend time on now that I run Linux.

I used to spend considerable time defragmenting my hard drive to increase the speed that Windows would run at. In Linux, there is no need to defragment, and in fact they don't even make a defragmenter, because the filesystem uses disk space more efficiently and doesn't degrade.

I used to run virus scans, and every now and then some attachment would contain a virus and I would have to react like an emergency response administrator to quarantine it, find out what evil it could have reaked on my system, and clean it out. Now, I don't even have a virus scanner.

I used to sit around salivating over new hardware - more RAM, better video card, better motherboard... now I don't spend time on that any longer. The CoreDuo2 processors I have running at 2.66 ghz never seem to be challenged by Linux. The 2 GB of ram I installed for Vista? I've never used more than 300 MB of it so far with ten applications running at once. My bottom of the barrel 8500 GT graphics card runs all of the Linux 3D games I could want faster than my XP box did. My hard drive is 300GB. Under Vista, I had used 150 GB of that space. I copied my personal files over to Ubuntu, and I have 260 GB free.

I could have installed this operating system on my computer from five years ago and it would have run just fine.

All of the magazine articles I used to read about how to clean off spyware or find an update to handle some operating system problem - GONE!

I used to spend 45 mins backing up my critical files to a USB key. Uh oh. Linux does the file copying ten times faster than Windows. It's done before I can finish making myself a sandwich.

I decided to search the web for a way to upgrade to the latest Firefox 3 beta 3. I would install some new, beta software, and surely that would throw my system into chaos. But it turns out that I just turned on a checkbox, pushed a button, copied a single line, ran it in the terminal window, and then unchecked the box and restarted Firefox. I didn't even ever have a file on my desktop. That's so boring!!!

What the heck am I supposed to do? I used to spend all of my time making my operating system function efficiently. Now, I sit down, browse the web, work on a project, and log out, and then I sit around feeling like there is something missing.

I just read through the articles on MaximumPC, PC World, PC Magazine... nothing. None of their guidance or advice on tweaking my system applies. My system is so lean and running so smooth that it doesn't need any tweaking. It's lightning fast.

I thought I might change up the icons the system uses and get rid of the default brown theme. Three minutes after I opened up the theme browser and clicked a different theme - I was done and left with nothing to do.

Frankly, Ubuntu Linux has left me feeling as though I am not getting everything out of my PC experience that I could be getting.

Banish the Damn Command Line!

Go to any Linux forum, and ask someone how to accomplish something, and some well-intentioned but utterly moronic science geek will spew out an answer that the person asking will quickly brush aside as useless.

Why is the answer useless?

Because the user wanted to push a button, click with the mouse, drag and drop, and get a result quickly. However, the typical Linux expert is a computer science nerd who thinks a graphical interface is for children, so he thinks he is being helpful by teaching us all how to use the command line and type in complicated commands that look like code out of a Hollywood movie.

Every someone writes in response to a new Ubuntu user, "That's easily done. Just open a terminal and..." the glazed over lack of interest on the part of the target audience is almost audible through the network cable.

Guys: NO COMMAND LINE. NONE. EVER. NADA. If you have to drop to the command line in an OS, the OS is doomed to being used by scientists and programmers only. The goal for Ubuntu is to reach a wider audience: Your grandparents, small children, artists, and people who DO NOT LIKE COMPUTERS.

Everything must be accessible via the GUI. It should be possible to run Ubuntu with total effectiveness without even knowing what a terminal window is.

If you think the terminal window must be opened to solve a problem, you are missing the point. The need to even have a terminal window IS THE PROBLEM.

Eliminate it and banish it to the background. Experts will always be able to find it and configure it to be reachable. The rest of us refuse to use it, as we get paid to work on things other than our computer.