HP Releases New Netbook GUI For Ubuntu 261
dan of the north writes to tell us that a new custom version of Ubuntu aimed at netbooks and based on 8.04 Hardy Heron has been released by HP. Targeted to the HP Mini 1000 Mi, the netbook customization comes complete with OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Pidgin, and a few others. "Overall, HP has created one of the best thought out Linux interfaces for netbooks. The software is designed so that users who have never used Linux should have no trouble performing basic tasks. But experienced Linux users can always fire up a terminal window by hitting Alt+F2 and entering 'gnome-terminal.'"
netbook (Score:5, Interesting)
I almost got the HP Mini 1000 but decided on a different netbook due to the proprietary VGA cable needed to connect the HP to a larger screen. I went with the Samsung NC10 instead, and I am not disappointed in the least. The first thing I did was to install Ubuntu on the Samsung, and it works just fine for the most part (the function keys to control brightness being the only thing I had to work around). I got a 2GB stick of RAM for it, and honestly don't find it underpowered in the least. I think it's a great machine to bring on the road to get some coding done; I don't think it's limited to simply web browsing and email.
A way to unseat Windows dominance (Score:5, Interesting)
Excellent! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Pretty cool, actually (Score:3, Interesting)
Eh... yeah, Unix, too, I guess. I'm not as much of a fan of Unix, having used solaris/hp-ux/aix.
Apple is a bit different in that they have a proprietary OS that they license only for specific hardware (isn't that still the way it is? or no? I could be behind the times here). I'm not a fan of that.
I also just generally dislike the "I'm cool, I have an Apple. I'm artsy. PC users automatically get -5 points for using a PC even if their [music, art, web design] is great." thing, but that's neither here nor there (not sure where it is, I guess) :)
installing the HP packages? (Score:2, Interesting)
Mini 100 specs are the same as most netbooks... (Score:4, Interesting)
With that said, I do not see there being any problem installing this on other brands.... Specifically in my case, the Samsung NC10, which has identical hardware.
One thing I did not check out was the keyboard layout, and how the extra function keys (volume, brightness etc) are mapped, and whether those will work with this distro.
Win+R (Score:2, Interesting)
Alt+F2
This is one of most annoying things about Linux. It sometimes tries to copy Windows, but instead, does a half-assed job.
Why not just use the WIN+R command? Microsoft created the Run command, and the Windows Key makes the keystroke very easy. It is certainly easier than reaching for Alt+F2.
Even Apple created their launch application using the command+spacebar keystroke.
Why can't this be made standard? Instead of having to add some other unsupported key application just to get that mapping to use the Windows Key. Practically all keyboards have the Windows key standard.
Theme available to download? (Score:5, Interesting)
I *think* this was posted on Lifehacker yesterday, that you could download and install the theme that this uses. Here's the link:
http://lifehacker.com/5147379/get-hps-dark+themed-mini-look-on-your-ubuntu-desktop [lifehacker.com]
I tried it last night, on 8.10, and didn't have much luck. I'd really like a dark theme, but none of the ones I find seem to work well. Sure, I'll grant that the theme *did* look good. But it screwed up the controls so that iGoogle looked like crap and I couldn't read half the HTML elements. I like the window border of the theme, but if I only use that I lose the all-black task bar. All in all, I thought Firefox looked pretty bad under this.
Also, I still didn't like the icons. Why do 99% of the gnome icon themes suck? They all have this ugly volume control, and ugly 4 bars for the wireless connection. I've found some nice minimalist OSX-like icons themes, but they are always black and don't work well with the dark interfaces!
I did like the mini-style of the theme. Changing back to some of my others I realized how much space is wasted on some of the menus and the bars. Just my $.02.
Re:Pretty cool, actually (Score:5, Interesting)
Except all their doing is fancying up the interface, the drivers are already there for everything. I installed vanilla Ubuntu Netbook Remix on one of these pre-Xmas and it ran perfectly out of the box:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=997590 [ubuntuforums.org]
Re:FOSS At Its Best (Score:2, Interesting)
Now, that's not really true, and it has been pointed out in those threads before. Surveys have been done, and "Seasoned Citizens" are as prepared for the conversion as the general populace. The segments that are unprepared are the poor, minority, and immigrant... those without cable, without a computer, sometimes with poor literacy. Not the senior citizens.
But the assumptions and blame keep on being pitched.
Re:FOSS Humiliated By HP (Score:1, Interesting)
You do realize that open source doesn't just come from a bunch of volunteers working in their parent's basement right? This is the whole point of open source. ANYONE (individuals and companies alike) can go and take the source code and improve/modify it. Yeah sure, your opinion is the current efforts are lacking but a company used the base of those efforts and created something well thought out. I personally find some of the Gtk themes and especially the ones shipped by default with ubuntu to be kind of cartoony and crappy. It might just be a windows bias but I usually just swing over to gnome-look.org and grab a theme that makes everything look much more polished.
I also have to agree with you on some points and address a bunch of people in the OSS community that seem to have these stupid thoughts in their mind.
If you FOSSies keep using the excuse that "it's free stop complaining" nobody will respect open source. If you are writing something and your motivation is for others to use it, fix the damn bugs. Why would anyone create something and not want to put in their best effort? Software costing $0 is just a by product of it being open sourced in most cases and is a piss poor excuse and an exercise in laziness.
best foot forward with Ubuntu (Score:5, Interesting)
Ubuntu is simply the sane thing to put on a desktop machine these days, especially for users who may not already be familiar with Linux.
It was always really frustrating to me in the past to see hardware companies selling machines with Linux preinstalled, but with some crappy version of Linux that was bound to create a bad impression of Linux in general.
Back when Fry's was selling Great Quality boxes for as low as $180, I bought several of them. They had something called ThizLinux on them, which was apparently a distro that GQ created themselves. No documentation for ThizLinux came with the machine, and googling for ThizLinux turned up a Chinese-language web site with no English translation. The printed docs that came with the machines were actually 90% information on how to wipe ThizLinux off your hard disk and install Windows. The impression any user would get from this was probably that Linux was crap, and nobody really wanted it.
Same deal with the Everex gPC, which I reviewed a while back [lightandmatter.com]. This may be a little unfair, because what I bought from them was a beta of their gOS distro, and now they have a newer version out, but basically it sucked, and I very quickly decided to replace it with Ubuntu. IMO it was just foolish of Everex to put out their own distro. I think they were imagining that by making it look slick (and a lot like MacOS) they would attract users. But in reality it worked so poorly that I think they were shooting themselves in the foot.
Re:A way to unseat Windows dominance (Score:4, Interesting)
... In other news, a new Windows 7 edition has been released by Microsoft for exclusive use by OEMs in their netbook products (a "netbook" is defined as a laptop with retail price below $400). The so-called "Windows 7 Net Home" costs $5, with the more advanced "Net Pro" version going for $10. EULA for the software restricts the ability to install it on non-netbook computers, and the corresponding checks have been added to the Windows activation system.
Re:FOSS Humiliated By HP (Score:3, Interesting)