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Ubuntu – Linux for Human Beings
Ok, the “human beings” thing might be a stretch. I’ve found Xandros Deluxe to be more newbie friendly, mostly because it offers Windows emulation via CrossOver Office. However, you have to pay for it, and it costs about the same as Windows XP Home upgrade. I have no problem with that, but I perfer a free as in beer distro for home, because I’m cheap.
For the average techie who wants to make the transition to Linux, I’ve found Ubuntu to be fantastic (and it’s free as in beer and speech). It’s a fairly simple and straightforward distribution, and has good community support. I’m also a big fan of Debian (at least on the server), which Ubuntu is based on. On my spare machine, I actually run Kubuntu, which is the KDE version of Ubuntu (which uses Gnome), because I find myself more comfortable with KDE.
I’ve been trying to make the switch from Windows for several years, but there are just a few killer apps that have kept me on Windows. I’ve tried Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu, Mandriva, and Xandros on the desktop. I really like Fedora, but Ubuntu is gaining more and more of my attention. As the article says, it just works (at least as much as can be expected from a modern Linux distro). I’m still light years away from making the switch, and since I’m currently an ASP.NET developer, I may never make the switch (yes, I’m aware of Mono). But it’s a cool distro to play with.
I’m also fond of Win4lin, which allows you to run Windows in a virtual environment on Linux. However, the standard and home versions only run Windows 9x. The Pro version, which allows Windows 2000 and XP costs $70. Not too bad of a price, but it slightly diminishes the value of switching to Linux in the first place. CrossOver Office Standard costs only $40, but it doesn’t give me the flexibility of Win4lin for doing real testing, and I dislike dual-booting.
September 30th, 2005 
Tags: Ximian Evolution – The Outlook Killer
Finally, a project has been announced to port Ximian Evolution to Windows! This is actually significant, as Evolution is one of the few “Outlook Killers” that support Exchange and GroupWise e-mail and calendar support! This is great news for those stuck on Microsoft Outlook or GroupWise because they need the calendar and/or advanced e-mail features they provide. I personally still like Thunderbird better for my needs, but this will be a capable alternative to MS Outlook in the enterprise. Although, Evolution does allow you to post to a folder without sending an e-mail to yourself 
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 Released
Joy and rapture! My e-mail client of choice, Mozilla Thunderbird, has reached its 1.0 release. Get it while it’s hot (and while you can connect to the servers).
- Link: Mozilla Thunderbird
- Save their bandwidth: BitTorrent Download
- Vote for a my feature request: The ability to POST messages to Thunderbird folders
Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Released!
The day is finally here – the long-awaited 1.0 release of Mozilla Firefox has arrived.
Firefox News
Well, anyone who follows Slashdot already knows that Firefox RC1 was released today, although it still contains the Slashdot rendering bug. However, it is apparently not an actual release candidate as the version number suggests, but merely an interim version. While skimming the comments on Slashdot, I found a link to processor-specific optimized Firefox and Thunderbird builds. The trunk versions fix the Slashdot bug, but have the old Find (Control-F) design. It’s unfortunate I have to choose between my preferred Find method and proper rendering of Slashdot, but I guess you get what you pay for. Right now I’m running the MOOX M3 optimized build of RC1. Not too shabby.
New Releases from the Mozilla Foundation
Firefox 0.9, Thunderbird 0.7, and Mozilla 1.7 have been released. Some changes I’ve noticed in Firefox: new theme and plugin system (old themes need to be ported), an “update” feature that acts like Windows Update for Firefox, and the new theme. I don’t really care for the new theme so much, but the old theme (called Qute) is available here for 0.9.
If only Thunderbird would support “posting” to a mailbox like Outlook/Evolution do. Overall, it’s an awesome product and it’s what I use as my e-mail client.
Running OS X on a PC
Just saw a cool article on Slashdot about a neat utility called PearPC that lets you run PPC software (like Mac OS X) on your PC! It’s been reported that it’s slow as hell, however, but still a neat proof-of-concept.
- PearPC 0.1: Is It A Miracle? – Contains several screenshots
- Another Screenshot
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.6 Released
What a great way to start a Monday – version 0.6 of my favorite e-mail client, Mozilla Thunderbird, has been released. Find out what’s new and get it now!
Web Developer Plugin for Firefox
Wanda found a cool plugin for Firefox called Web Developer. It installs a toolbar in Firefox that allows you to alter all sorts of aspects of a web page, like dynamically modifying CSS, resizing, validation, and more. Very cool for the dedicated web developer.
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