Phone Demos CES 2013

Firefox Phone OS DEmo

Ubuntu Phone OS Demonstration

These two look like great phone operating systems. The Ubunto phone though surely has more developers and would most likely have a greater chance of surviving the market. but if the Firefox phone makes it out to enough people in the market, we could see a huge drop in phone prices and an increase in advertisement (sponsored by) but the question I have is “Does the firefox phone run on a Linux kernel?”. If this is a fact then lots of my fears of Microsoft and Apple consuming Linux, can be put to rest. Unless the Linux group is building up (fattening up) the market for sell off.

but that has very little to do with phones.

Sorry I didn,t have anything to write so I popped out opinions. These phones look like they will be great options/alternatives over the big three. Sorry rim lovers, you don’t make the list.

ubuntu_phone

ubuntu_phone

Trying Different Operating Systems

I have had my share of Microsoft operating systems, and I am not about to jump into a 2002 looking os like windows 8
So I am going through  5 different Operating systems on the Linux build. Downloaded them fresh today. Of course I did the Torrent download of each (if available) to prevent any issues of dropped service anywhere.
With the testing of each of these operating systems, I will be testing my every day tasks. and this will be in live boot mode if possible. If not then I will have to snap something together to test the full installation.
Part of this test will consist of me just doing every day in commands. Such as logging into facebook and reddit to comment. Taking a screenshot. Using the calculator button (a button that requests the calculator to pop up) on my keyboard. Email button on the keyboard. Web browser button and volume buttons on my keyboard. To see what is going to work the easiest.
Mint 14 64 bit
Mageia 2 64 bit
Kubuntu 12.04 64 bit
Xubuntu 12.10 64 bit
Fedora 17 64 bit

Trying Linux mint for my first time.

This is a test of Mint live

Not too bad

Mint looks a bit bland, almost Windows vista-ish. Square, no Opaque  as far as I have seen yet. but start up was simi fast and drivers right out of the disk run me pretty well.

First linux cut that doesn’t make my mouse act weird (scroll wheel too fast or slow or pointer too fast too slow etc)
Images look right as if latest Nvidia drivers are in disk.
Taskbar menu has many of the usual items found in linux . The items you kind of need . VLC player, G.I.M.P., Libre Office (i guess no one uses open office anymore?)
All of my keyboard shortcut buttons worked.

Review scoring of mint
looks: 6/10
function 10/10
drivers: 10/10
speed: 9/10

Over all scoring of Mint: 8.75/10

fedora

This is a test of fedora live
again, right out of the Live dick, nice fast load. Clean load. a big odd on the mouse but nothing terrible. Images look great, no anti-aliasing issues. Task bar at top with the android looking shortcuts at the bottom of the screen, I don’t like that. Too much real estate wasted when you open a browser and see half an inch of screen not being used. again no Opaque, everything is boxy.

Probably not the operating system for me.
Might do wonders for you but fedora is not what I am looking for.
Libre office again on this one.
None of my keyboard shortcut buttons worked.

 

Review scoring of fedora
looks: 3/10
function 8/10
drivers: 10/10
speed: 9/10

Over all scoring of fedora: 7.5/10

Kubuntu

This is a test of Kubuntu Live
Now this feels like a complete operating system. Everything has a nice sharp look to it. Mouse movement is a bit slower. and scroll wheel is a tad more sluggish, but that’s only after using two other operating systems first. So my opinion may be swerved from the feel of the others. Menu is a bit empty Lybre is there again. yet another operating system not using open office. Why the sudden disinterest in Open Office? but the whole taskbar in it’s self is very nice. Widgets add with ease and look great.
None of my keyboard shortcut buttons worked. never found the calculator so I could tally my review score.. -1 point. So I used my phone.After a complete install of Kubuntu, it’s hard to get wifi drivers if you didn’t do the install while hard wire lan connected to the internet. If you are not connected to the internet when installing, it’s also hard to connect to the internet. Wifi set up has no useful “scan for nearest connection” option at all.

Review scoring of Kubuntu
looks: 10/10
function 8/10
drivers: 10/10
speed: 9/10

Over all scoring of Kubuntu: 9.25/10

Xubuntu
This is a test of Xubuntu live
Xubuntu has a look and feel. Much better than the first two operating systems. and some o the look and feel of Kubuntu. Menu was easy to navigate, found the calculator right away and the screenshot program right away. Browsing the web, some pages hung up for a moment. Mouse is quick, scroll wheel is quick. If I just wanted a live boot it would have to Xubuntu, the boot up was half the time of the other operating systems.

None of my keyboard shortcut buttons worked.
Which is kind of a let down for me. After a complete install of Xubuntu, it’s hard to get wifi drivers if you didn’t do the install while hard wire lan connected to the internet. If you are not connected to the internet when installing, it’s also hard to connect to the internet. Wifi set up has no useful “scan for nearest connection” option at all.

Review scoring of Xubuntu
looks: 7/10
function 8/10
drivers: 10/10
speed: 7/10

Over all scoring of Xubuntu: 8/10

Mageia
This is a test of Mageia live
Web browsing, default fonts, wow, not from the typical/traditional choice.
Never found the calculator. So I am using my phone to tally up the score this one -1 point. Libre office again.

For what it’s worth this is a decent operating system.
I mean I could let my mother use Mageia and not have to worry about showing her much, but same with the rest of the operating systems listed on this page. but it does look better than most  here. Some of it is a bit bland. pages freeze up from time to time, and editing in wordpress is a nightmare. Kept placing bold font in places I didn’t even ask for bold font.
Didn’t do that with any of the other operating systems tested.

Review scoring of Mageia
looks: 9/10
function 5/10
drivers: 8/10
speed: 7/10

Over all scoring of Mageia:7.25/10

Of the five operating systems. I find it kind of a toss up between Mint and Kubuntu. Mint seems to have all that I need, but Kubuntu has the nice sharp look I want in an operating system. Let’s see what happens when I throw a hard drive in one of the spare computers laying around and I get to test out Mageia.
*update, found the live disk for Mageia*

Mageia. Seems okay, looks nice. KDE version
bit of a load issue when switching apps . some drivers not found.

Looks like Kubuntu for the win. just a bitch locating anything in the menu.
even over mint. Mint is fast and has excellent drivers, just looks somewhere pre-windwos 95 and that bugs me

So. Mageia, not there yet. but looks great. just don’t do anything or you will see the issues.
Something I do like though.

Are you ready to jump to Windows 8 yet?

[poll id=”26″]
What measures have you taken to prepare yourself for the best Windows 8 transition experience possible?
Have you purchased a touch screen capable monitor?
Have you bought the latest motherboard,processor,memory and Solid state hard drive?

Yeah, me either.
Maybe I will wait a couple years for the computers to start shipping with windows 8 already on them. Not the ones that say “Windows 8 ready” or “windows 8 upgrade for free”. The machines built for Windows 8.

Typically when the new operating systems come out, we find later that current hardware is less than able to run the operating systems and soon after come new and improved hardware. Most often is ram/memory. but the inevitable is processor. with a new CPU it’s usually a good idea to get a new motherboard also. or you will be left behind.

The part you have to prepare for is, what is available now, at it’s max is usually just barely above minimum requirements of what ever software or operating system that has just been released. Like say, ddr2 memory was the highest we had when Vista came out. That memory capped out in it’s time at 2 gigs per stick. many motherboards have only two slots. Wouldn’t you know it, 4 gigs memory is optimal for windows 7. That’s not how it was announced but that’s what we have come to learn on our own. This will be the same case with windows 8. Now with Windows 7 out we have DDR3. Which has a cap of what I think is 8 gigs per stick. Count on DDR5 becoming the common with in the next year, and the first bloat pack (service pack) coming out and everyone realizing that new optimal for windows 8 will be crazy high like 8 gigs. best performance 32 gigs.

So hold out on your upgrade to any new operating system for a few months. let the new hardware come out. Let the first few updates come out. Let the internet swell with complaints. Don’t buy parts until you see the crying stop. Prices should level out to a fair cost. If you buy any parts or computers now, you are basically buying off the junk that the stores are trying to get off their shelves. They too know how it works. Every single time.

Fear Monger
Basically, based on past experience, if you are running DDR2 or older, you will be left behind. That mouse of yours is antiquated, and that video card you have that is the top of the line, is now ….. just cute. That 250 gig spinning hard drive will be pointless. Of course because the numbers are higher on everything, we will bloat out our videos and music. Count on songs becoming 1 gig minimum. So that one TB hard drive you have in the external case, will be antiquated, 50 TB hard drives coming with in the next two years. Easily. (not easy task, but is a must). Well at this rate . What does this mean?  It means your 250 gigs a month cap from Comcast, will easily be reached. Your 2 gig cap from at&t is less than laughable now. Just wait until ALL of your software is apps based and you begin to agree that cloud storage is the only logical option. That 250 gigs a month will be less than a week to break.

This of course is one hundred percent plausible fiction.

but as always. Software should always excel hardware. That’s how we evolve. If not for something to push the hardware to be better, faster, stronger, we would be complacent. We would not innovate. When we have greater speeds and storage, we can then come up with ideas that seemed farfetched and impossible.

I admit that I am currently satisfied with Windows 7, fearful of what Windows 8 could mean, and skeptical of any positive claims we see in the next 5 months of Windows 8.

So no.. I am not ready.

Microsoft to End Pc Gaming

Microsoft is giving out an xbox 360 to students who purchase a new computer. Article on M$ website. Code name Windows 8, is to be predominantly touch screen, and we all know that the hippy hipsters will jump at the chance to have the fastest reaction touch screen and the most accurate touch screen monitor, and the most touchy video card. This forcing monitor manufacturers to focus more in the direction of interaction, and video card companies to do the same.
When Code name Windows 8 comes out, you will be a cave man if you have a keyboard and a mouse. you will be the dorky kid in the tuff skins pants. And that my friend is how Pc gaming will die.
Code name Windows 8, is not the final hatchet, just the precursor to the inevitable world of not having local storage on your pc. and the biggest seller is there is no maintenance and no hacking and no virus. because your operating system will be on someone’s server somewhere else and completely out of your control.
How fat and lazy and stupid do you have to be to not be able to do three clicks and start and finish a virus scan?

Droid 3 Preview


Very nice looking cell phone that has Android on it. The Droid 3 has a slide out keyboard. Makes a very smooth powerful usage of the android operating system.
Verizon will be selling this android cell phone.
8 mega pixel camera
Functionality of the Droid 3 is very similar to past android cell phones, but a bit better looking and much smoother.
The Droid 3 looks like a win of an android operating system cell phone.

Peak at Windows 8

Windows 8 is the code name for the next Microsoft operating system.
This new Operating System looks to be very tablet focused. Windows 8 operating system is focusing quite a bit on the ap structure that all of the tablets and cell phones are using. Kind of reminds me of the Sony playstation mixed with android. I don’t see much gaming function in what they present. Hopefully there will be a way to turn this back into a taskbar operating system. And lets just see how much closer to windows 3.1 this gets. Because it looks like a windows 3.1 with better icons. i mean tiles as they call them now.

Windows 8 looks to be jumping on current trends. As far as operating systems go, this one does not look like it is in for the long haul. Let’s see what it does to your resources. Would be nice on the Xbox.
Let’s see how hard they push us with cloud computing, during a time when internet providers are going to set caps of how much you can use in a month’s time.

Nazi-Net

Welcome to the Nazi Net. What you thought the internet should be no longer is. What you enjoyed no longer . What you can and will see is up to us.
Microsoft, Linux, Apple and BSD have all banned together with your local internet provider, the only internet provider, comcast. All to cook up similar but slightly different operating systems. The operating systems come with just a web browser. You have no local storage drive. Storage drives have all been removed. You now have Cloud computing. Where all of your software is safely stored at a location far far away. but you can access it at a monthly fee. Our blessed internet provider has put us all on ungodly small bandwidth per week, anyone exceeding that bandwidth will be charged enormous massive fees in small increments in excess of allocated limited amount of downloads a month. So what ever you store in the cloud, better be small.
Now we had to sell it to you by forcing you to believe that it is easier to have Microsoft or Linux or mac do all the maintenance of your computer. So it’s a no hassle computer. and a virus is a thing of the past. Since of course the new internet only lets computers with just a web browser, onto the internet. and the ISP blocks all websites they consider bad. Or who have not paid their monthly “thank you for letting people connect to us” fee.
As time goes by, we will be making it easier for you and easier for you. Our end goal is the WCIS button, never mind what that stands for (What can I See). This wonderful button will bring new media and ideas straight to your computer, educating you about the world and teaching you about your rights. This wonderful button will be the only button on your computer other than the power button. Mouse no longer needed, Keyboard no longer needed. That stuff is too much work anyway. Television and computer melted into one wonderful being (but you will still pay cable fees and internet fees and land line phone fees [why? who uses a landline phone?]). To assure quality levels of our content, you must do a follow up survey for every experience you encounter with our new internet. The questions will be a simple yes or now. one click for yes, two for no. So we can better assure you that we are serving good content. Negative responses or lazy clicking yes to everything, will land you in prison for 5 years, so we mean business, you must participate.
Nazi-Net Innovating the world, making the world a better place. Nazi NEt, single handedly stopped pirating, pedos and terrorists. We’re a good thing. (wink)

The advertisement – Campaign that ends the world. Would be funny if any of that could happen. Or is it already?

Lubuntu – Lightweight Ubuntu

The Light Weight Ubuntu Operating system designed for people who want to use the least amount of resources possible. It’s a bit like Windows Tiny Vista, Tiny xp and Tiny 7. But legal.

Great for those people who have a small child in their family or household who just wants to log into some small gaming site like nick or pogo, that runs on flash, and you have an old computer that is bloated down with windows bundleware, got so many viruses it can barely boot. Now you can just format that thing, install Lubuntu, and update flash (as with all computers) and Java, hand the machine over to the kid, and  you can continue playing your farmville or what ever it is you consider important.

On that note, great for running as many farmville accounts as you can create and as many computers you have just waiting to boot up again.

Wonder if there is a “Live” Version.

So far I don’t see but going to try the Pendrive site and see what can be done. Maybe the kubuntu or xubuntu or Vanilla Ubuntu  installer will work for this.

If you do not feel like doing all of this, donate your old computers to On My Front Lawn and the site owner will install Linux to the machine and give it away to a needy family or child.

Mac or Linux Or Windows?

Mac or Linux Or Windows?

Which one do you think is better? Which one do you think is safer?
[poll id=”5″]
The question that comes up more than Star Trek or Star Wars, “Which is better Mac Windows or Linux?”. The question that people really want answered now is which one is less likely to get a virus. Mac would like you to believe they are completely and entirely 100% virus proof. That is not even close to the truth. Mac has less people writing a virus for it simply because there aren’t enough users on that system. it’s like spending 200 hours creating a pill that makes people with smiley face looking freckle patch beneath their left pinky nail, have a bad day. why would you do that? Unless you were attacking that one specific person. o a $1000000 Car modification that lets people with a smiley face patch of freckles below their left pinky nail, get good gas mileage. Why would you? no one to use it. Same thing goes for Linux. but imagine that one of the eyes on the smiley face are winking.
On that same note, if there are less people to infect on an operating system, then there are less people to write software for to market them. So lots of software that is available for windows. might not be available for Linux or mac, (under the same license). Linux of course is full hobbyist programmers working more and more to add more software for Linux and make it more useful. So for just about every single piece of software out there for Windows or Mac, Count on the Linux community creating something that is very similar and just as effective, for free.

Pros

Mac
Software is written to match the operating system
operating system is written to match the hardware.
hardware is written to match the software need
All software can be downloaded now like aps for a cell phone
Looks really nice.
The available software works very well and crashes less.
Mac specific repair, so you know your mac computer will be fixed right.

Windows
You can install the operating system on any computer you build
Every electronics store has multiple times more software in stock that works with windows.
Most hardware you buy, is windows ready when upgrading.
Very Customizable.
Large selection of computer repair specialists that are prepared to help you. So you can price shop for help.

Linux
You can install Linux on any computer you build, even outdated ones.
There is a unique version of Linux for every need.
You can even install Linux to a thumb drive and use it on any computer without effecting that computer’s current settings.
More developers for Linux than for any other operating system.
Linux is Free (most distributions) you just download it.
Millions of programs and software available, and different variations
influences all other operating systems while being influenced by other operating systems.

Cons

Mac
You have less ability to customize.
Upgrading your computer could lead to issues since every piece of software is written specific for the hardware.
Not a whole lot of software
The creator of the phrase “Sad Mac”
Only mac employees can help you fix your computer.

Windows
The creator of the phrase “blue screen of death”.
Every time you upgrade, you have to buy new stuff.
Patches like crazy bloat Windows down and makes it slower.
So many different malware written for Windows
They invented the phrase Malware.

Linux
Huge learning curve for people who are used to one of the other operating systems.
Nearly no repair companies want to touch your computer, not even your internet provider.
You have to install the operating system and all addons yourself, almost no computers come preset-up.
Maybe to large of a variety of software and programs, can be overwhelming to figure what one is best for you.
Though more and more hardware companies are compatible with Linux these days, just not near enough.