Being the OS whore that I am (XP, Vista, OSX & XP within OSX running in this household don’t you know…) it was inevitable that I was going to end up playing with Linux.

Mum’s old computer arrived just before Christmas and with it being half-term I thought I’d have a go. Initially i was concerned because it’s an old, slow bit of kit which, despite having a network cable attaching it directly to the Livebox, refused provide an internet connection.

I downloaded the latest Ubuntu disc image onto the Mac and burned it to CD. Then I changed the boot sequence on the old PC so I could boot off the CD and watched as Ubuntu smoothly installed itself…

I was delighted to see that the old machine was running more quickly than with XP, and was surprised to see Firefox, Open Office and a range of other pieces of software already installed and ready to go.

Firstly I had a click around to see what was where. It all seemed fairly straightforward, and it was obvious where everything was. Another great thing was that the computer was now on the internet – no connecting to networks or configuring required. Just on the internet. Simple.

Just as when I first started playing with OSX I wanted to see how things work behind the scenes and that seems fairly simple. In short, I’m initially impressed. Or at least I was.

If I was to ever start using Linux properly (on a main, everyday computer for example) there would be some things I’d have to be able to do. Internet. Sorted. Office apps for Work. Sorted. Simple graphics. I’m sure there’s something. Music – I own an iPod. I looked at this issue before installing Ubuntu and I knew that iTunes wasn’t available. There were others though, so once I’d had my first bit of a play I looked into this.

Amarok & Banshee were both recommended in a couple of places. As I understand it they both allow access to iPod features and although you can’t play AAC tracks they are both pretty good. Not perfect, but good. I can settle for that. So I downloaded them both and extracted the archives. And that’s when I hit a wall.

Banshee had an install file so I tried that. Nothing. The install text file gave instructions I’m going to have to sit down and read through very slowly – it’s not obvious…

For example, from the Banshee FAQ :

Q: Where do I get avahi-sharp?

A: Avahi.org (http://avahi.org/), specifically from this page http://avahi.org/wiki/DownloadAvahi. If you are using Ubuntu Dapper or Debian Unstable avahi sharp is fixed. Issue the command apt-get install libavahi-cil.

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Q: Why do I get the error don’t know how to handle application/x-id3?and/or

Q: My MP3 files will not play?

A: This is caused by not having MP3 support in your version of gstreamer. For Ubuntu Dapper, sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 should do it.

It seems they’re very helpful on how to download and very helpful on how to use, but swimming in techno-babble when it comes to installing…

Amorak had almost nothing – a text file telling me to see the website for installation details and that’s it. So I went to the Amarok website and found installation instructions in Portuguese & French but not in English. I looked elsewhere and my very basic understanding suggests that I have to install five or six other pieces of software before I can even think about making Amarok work. So I gave up.

It might be that I’ve been spoiled, that I’ve had everything done for me, but this is rubbish. I know it’s free but surely I should be able to just download a program, identify the “install”, “setup” or “run” file and that’s it. Or am I missing the point of open source? Do you really still have to be an enormous tech geek to extend it? Isn’t just being a normal geek enough?

This computer’s staying here in my office so I’m going to have Ubuntu to play with for the coming weeks and I’ll see how I get on. So far, it seems that the operating system itself is very easy to install and use, but it’s a right pain to add anything to it.

More to follow…

After four years of being a Sony Ericsson evangelist and owning a T610 (still my favourite design), K700, K750, W810 & W880 I’ve got an LG. It’s as big a moment in my consumerist life as when I bought my first pair of Puma trainers after years of only wearing Adidas. How shallow it all seems!

My contract was up, Orange asked me what ‘phone I wanted, and so I looked at what was available. Helen has the K850i and it’s a good ‘phone – it just didn’t do it for me, and it’s been a little unreliable. I don’t do Nokia, and Motorola (the only other make I’ve ever owned) didn’t have a good enough camera in any of their ‘phones. So it was Samsung or LG. The LG Viewty is special, so I went for it.

Three days in and I’m impressed. There are areas of its functionality which I’ll never like as much as my Sony Ericssons (having to press the back button three or four times when a long hold should do it – not going back to the homescreen when you’ve finished a call, meaning you have to do all that pressing – the way that the T9 predictive text seems to switch itself on and off at will or stay on or off in all applications when you always want it on for texting and nearly always off for website addresses…to name just a few…) but it’s just such a lovely thing to use. The big screen is clear and well lit in the way that Nokias never seem to be, and whilst it’s not as responsive a touch-screen as on the iPhone (see below) it’s still far, far better than I expected and getting easier to use each time I operate it. The pictures I’ve taken seem good quality but I’ve yet to print one out yet to see how good it really is. My particular bit of gadget related joy is the way that the ‘phone vibrates very gently when you press a key on the touch-screen. Nice. I’m enjoying LG life.
It’s not a perfect ‘phone but I know I’m happier with it than I would have been with what Sony Ericsson currently has on offer. And after four years using variations on the same basic operating system it’s nice to explore something new.

So why didn’t I get an iPhone then? I’m an Apple user. I have a MacBook and an iPod. I’m typing this on an Apple keyboard plugged into a PC because I’ve yet to find a PC keyboard which types as nicely… Getting an iPhone seems an obvious thing for me to do. I had a play on one last week and it was such a fantastic device. The touch-screen was beyond what I thought was possible (especially when scrolling) and it was so well thought out in the way that only Apples seem to be – it puts the Viewty to shame in both areas.

But.

1. I get my broadband free with Orange. O2 don’t do broadband in this area. The iPhone is only on O2 so I’d have to move networks and end up paying an extra £15-£20 a month on broadband.
2. My Viewty is still a lovely bit of kit despite its little foibles and I got it thrown into my mobile contract for free. An iPhone would have cost me £269. It’s good, but it’s not £269 better than a Viewty.
3. The iPhone currently only holds 8GB of music, video and files. So if I want to be able to carry around all my music with me, which I do, I’m still going to need my £160 iPod Classic.

In short even with free internet browsing (which is almost offset by a higher minimum monthly tariff on the iPhone with O2 and the cheap data deal I get with Orange) the iPhone would cost me an extra £450+ over the length of my eighteen month contract. And I’d still have to carry my iPod around. I was happy paying a little bit extra for my MacBook because I was getting a much better product, but the gap between an iPhone and a Viewty, Nokia N95 etc. isn’t that great.

Maybe I’ll get a second generation iPhone when Apple stop taking the piss about the price. In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy my Viewty…

Lucky me! I’m one of probably millions of those who have had the revised version of GMail / Google Mail made available to them. The full list of changes have been written about here but in short the key differences are this :

• Your e-mail address is now shown in the address bar
• You can “mute” dull conversations so they skip the Inbox automatically
• There’s a fancy new contacts interface (easily the weakest part of GMail before I think)
• A new “Filter messages like these” option appears in the message drop down
• If I needed to I could use IMAP
• You can use AOL chat. Should you want to…
• The contacts pictures integrate with Picasa Web, should you use it

And that’s it…

There are probably other things too, and I can switch back if I want. I’ve noticed none of the other minor teething troubles I’ve read about in a quick search of the net, and it’s certainly not as horrible as the Yahoo! and Hotmail updates.

It’s OK. Shame the CustomizeGoogle add-on to Firefox doesn’t seem to work with it though. I can see the spam counter & adverts again now…

OK, so earlier in the week I was wondering why I’d joined Facebook and questioning what its point was as a site. And yet today I sign up to Twitter and with the help of a very useful blog post have added it (as I wish it to be) to this site. I even tweaked the code a little which impressed me in my own simple way. What I do quite like about Twitter is that I can update it from my mobile for the cost of a text, which on my plan essentially means free. With LJ & (the hapless) Vox it had to be MMS messages which cost extra. I’m not sure why I need to be able to update my blog (or a part of it) from anywhere at anytime, but I like the idea that I can…

By Alfie & I!