Linux

It was a long time coming, but nearly exactly a month ago, I made a switch for my home computer, buying an Acer Aspire One netbook[1] and installing Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). Here's excerpts from what I wrote on the new compy that day:

This is the very first journal entry written on my new netbook, an Acer Aspire One. It is running Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04, which I've spent much of the night figuring out how to get running. Actually the real issue was getting a USB flash drive to function as a bootable volume, which was my bad -- the actual install was easy as pie. Currently in the background, I am updating the system and software with everything new out of the repositories. And amusingly, I'm actually writing this in vi, not vim, as the latter has not yet been installed. :D

I can't say how much this moment means to me. I have been anticipating it for years now: my own computer running Linux full-time. Not as a virtual machine, not a compy I'm borrowing. But my own, purchased myself, running my chosen free+open operating system.

Some points for later (potential) expansion:

Managed to get this working without starting up Windows, although while I was troubleshooting the USB drive, it did get to the first screen of installing Windows. But it never went all the way into the hated OS.

Everything about this purchase, including the choice of UNE, happened in a bit of a hurry this week, though I'd been scoping out the Aspire One for a while now. After researching UNE, I decided to go with it for the time being rather than the Debian+XFCE combo I had concluded would be best for me. Which brings me to the next point:

After getting the general update completed, one of the next steps is getting all the Mono-infected stuff uninstalled. Which brings me to the next next point:

This is all about choice, this software -- and thanks to Linux, I don't have to make an irrevocable decision about what desktop environment I'll be running, nor what version. Hell, I could throw a GUI-less, modular window manager and kiss the icon good-bye! ;D

In the interim, I've run into a few issues, but mostly it's been a very smooth transition. I've mentioned several times on this site the last few years that I've been researching and experimenting with Linux -- I really credit that process for preparing me well for this adjustment period.

The few speed bumps so far:

• There's a nasty bug reportedly involving the version of X.org on 10.04, which can be induced running Firefox with the NoScript extension -- the bug is not with NoScript or Firefox itself, but it can cause an immediate crash of the X server, which is disconcerting to say the least. Fixes are being worked on.
• I was not able to switch over to Ubuntu at work yet on my new MacBook Pro there -- still some hardware issues with the brand-new machine, so I'm going to probably just wait a few months and come back to it. I've got too many irons in the fire there with various big projects, so while I could get it working with some time, I just don't have that to spare at the moment.
• There is a bug with the Gnome Power Manager panel applet (part of the standard Startup Applications - see Preferences) that will on occasion misread the battery on the Acer and wind up hibernating the computer after 5 minutes off the AC power. The fix for now is to disable the Power Manager applet, reboot, and install the acpi command-line program (sudo apt-get install acpi) to read the true battery level, amongst other things.
• The netbook's keyboard is surprisingly easy to type on, and I've mostly adjusted to the different arrangement of Control/Function/Super/Alt modifier keys -- although it's hard to adjust back when I'm on a Mac with its Function/Control/Option/Command -- who thought it was a good idea to put the "Fn" key out on the end? To combat this, and since I've seen it recommended in many Unix-geek circles over the years, I've remapped my Caps Lock key on both computers to be another Control key.[2]
• My only real complaint on the Aspire One keyboard is that the standalone Pg Up/Pg Dn keys nestled into the arrow keys make the arrows a difficult target. That and the dedicated scroll area on the right of the trackpad is a bit hard to find at times.

Since I've already been using a number of open-source apps for a long time now, or at least programs that are available on both Mac and Linux, there haven't been many transition pangs there. I dig the UNE experience so far, though I keep trying out the normal (or should that be gnormal? ;) Gnome login as well at times -- there are things to recommend from both.

It was all a bit scary at first, making the leap after 20+ years on Macs, but the anxiety faded quickly. It was well worth the effort. This will be a curious analogy, but it's a little bit like after I quit smoking (2003) after doing so for 17 years. Not the nasty physical addiction stuff, but more the label of Smoker being tossed aside, along with all that that meant to me and other people. Like this year, letting the Mac User label slough off, leaving behind something new.

More, I'm sure, to come in the near future.

Tangentially, I am likely moving blogging platforms here on Celsius1414.com, so please excuse my dust over the next month or so.

[1] Normally ~$300, on sale for $50 less at Target.

[2] Still getting used to it, and it's going to take a lot of time to retrain the muscle memory, but it's already better.

I have been doing some off-and-on research for a while now on netbooks, with the idea of getting one to run Linux on as a home computer. The search has been getting more serious lately. While varying back and forth on different options, I'm currently leaning toward an Acer, running Debian with Xfce.

A pair of articles (as well as Matt Gemmell's iPad photos+posts on Flickr) floated into view the past few days that have added some wrinkles, specifically an iPad-shaped wrinkle.

iPad vs. Netbook

The first, from LinuxCommand.org, "Will The iPad Kill The Netbook? "

Ever since Apple announced the iPad, there have been countless stories in the press about the iPad's effect on the netbook market. I'm a big fan of netbooks and I agree that the netbook market is in trouble but it's not because of the iPad.

The author, William Shotts Jr, goes on to discuss how Microsoft has been systematically attacking netbooks thanks to its Linux threat. Which is intriguing, but of more interest to me is the notion of the iPad as netbook replacement. Shotts shoots down this idea:

[...] the iPad should not be directly competitive with netbooks at the conceptual level. In many ways the iPad is a remarkable device for content consumption. Unlike a Windows computer, it requires virtually no system administration. This makes the device a perfect "television of the future" where one just uses it to passively consume content. However, its lack of a real keyboard and limited connectivity options makes it a poor choice as a portable Internet interaction device; a role that the netbook hardware platform excels in.

Replace "portable Internet interaction device" with "portable word processor and coding device" and that describes my needs. I'm an excellent typist, fast and pretty darn accurate (depending on my caffeine intake ;) which makes typing-related activities a strength for me — I'm afraid I'd lose that advantage with the iPad's virtual keyboard, no matter how "magical" it is.

(See also the TechNewsDaily article that Shotts links to, "Is the iPad Killing Netbooks?")

Reading is Fundamental

Next is this from The Guardian UK, "Apple iPad: will it lead a reading revolution?", which looks at the device from the perspective of another favorite activity of mine—reading. Or more accurately, from that of writers and publishers: in fact, written by someone in the publishing industry who doesn't quite get what's going on. (See the comments for more on that.)

There's no denying the attraction of an ebook reader, if for no other reason than being able to carry around the collected works of, well, pretty much everybody in your messenger bag. However, I'm content with the analog versions most days, and usually limit myself to reading two or three books simultaneously. ;)

As far as the ebooks I read, they're normally found at Project Gutenberg, not the DRM-hamstrung ones from Amazon, iTunes, or any other virtual bookstore.

Still, I found myself browsing the iPad Guided Tours videos on apple.com yesterday, considering the idea of eschewing a netbook and going for an iPad. It was very, very tempting.

Then I saw the "from $499" price tag and came back to Earth.

Numbers Game

It's $499 for a 16GB WiFi-only model. $599 gets you 32GB, $699 = 64GB.

If you want WiFi and 3G, it'll set you back $629, $729, or $829 dollars.

Really?

I can get an Acer Aspire One netbook with an Intel Atom N280, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, 10.1" display with Bluetooth and a six-cell for $340. If I don't mind going down to a 160GB disk, the price drops to $299. (If I browsed around some more, I bet I could find an even better deal.)

I can't even buy the lowest-end iPad for that. And how many years from now would I have to replace the iPad?

Magical Mystery Tour

Don't get me wrong—the iPad is a gorgeous, ingenious device. I've had a chance to play around with one. It is tempting, and for some people makes a ton of sense, especially when compared to a full-sized, few-1000-dollar laptop. Apple has already made a metric crapload of money from iPad sales—hell, they just passed Microsoft in terms of market cap value.

As a decades-long Apple user and evangelist, I never thought I'd consider buying a machine that wasn't a Mac (or whatever Apple put on it), much less one that came with Windows installed.

Yet for my needs—a word processor/coding/browsing/email/music machine with an actual keyboard—Apple won't be adding my dough to the pile this time. And Linux will get another full-time user.

Advantages of MacBook Air:

• .19" less high
• 1.5 fewer pounds (not counting optional super drive)

Advantages of MacBook Pro 13":

• Faster processor
• More RAM
• Larger storage capacity
• Built-in SuperDrive
• More input ports (1 FW and 2 USB vs. 1 USB)
• Twice the battery life
• Out of the box $300 cheaper

Everything else is exactly the same or at least comparable (see below for full comparison). I don't see any real reason to consider the Air.

In fact, I have to say that a middling netbook -- say, an Asus, MSI Wind, or Lenovo -- running Debian would fit my needs just as well nowadays. And at least $1000 cheaper.

MacBook Air

• .76" high
• 12.8" wide
• 8.94" deep
• 3.0 pounds
• 1.86GHz or 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 6MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed
• 1066MHz frontside bus
• 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM onboard
• 120GB 4200-rpm Serial ATA hard disk drive or 128GB solid-state drive
• Optional external USB MacBook Air SuperDrive
• One USB 2.0 port (up to 480 Mbps)
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
• Up to 5 hours wireless productivity
• Starts at $1499

MacBook Pro 13"

• .95" high
• 12.78" wide
• 8.94" deep
• 4.5 pounds
• 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache
• 1066MHz frontside bus
• 4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 memory; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 8GB
• 250GB or 320GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; optional 320GB or 500GB 5400-rpm hard drive, or 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB solid-state drive
• 8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps), two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps), SD card slot
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
• Up to 10 hours wireless productivity
• Starts at $1199

Oooooh, the temptation level is very high on this one.

LinuxCommand.org has been running a series of posts since February 2009 on "Building An All-Text Linux Workstation." The latest, Part 14, looks at installing and running the indispensable Screen program.

Now that we have installed a bunch of interactive applications on our workstations and SSH to allow remote access, we have a slight problem. Is it reasonable for an interactive program (like mutt) monopolize our terminal session? Isn't Linux multi-tasking? On the graphical desktop, we can have many applications running at once and, by moving the mouse, we can switch from application to application. Of course, on the console, we can switch virtual terminals to provide multiple sessions and if we are using SSH, remotely accessing our workstation from a graphical desktop, we can open multiple terminal windows.

But there's another way. The screen program allows multiple sessions inside a single terminal. You can create any number of sessions and can even split screens to view two sessions at once. Further (and this is the cool part), screen allows you to "detach" a session from a terminal and later re-attach the session to a different terminal.

Yay, Screen!

Here's the very first in the series, a short introduction. This URL takes you to the whole kit and kaboodle in reverse chronological order.

What has become a biennial chess obsession of mine has arrived again. This time around, I blame having read Through the Looking-Glass over the weekend. Here are some links to sate the appetite:

Wikipedia

• Chess
• Chess opening
• Chess middlegame
• Chess endgame
• Chess strategy
• Chess tactics

Wikibooks

• Chess
• Chess Opening Theory

Gutenberg

• Game and Playe of the Chesse by William Caxton (1474)
• The Blue Book of Chess by Howard Staunton and Various (1910)
• Chess Strategy by Edward Lasker (1915)
• Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (1871)

Chess servers

• Free Internet Chess Server (FICS)
• The Internet Chess Club (ICC)

Software

• XBoard and GNU Chess
• Sigma Chess (Mac)
• Chess.app source code (Mac)

Speaking of Chess.app (bundled with Mac OS X in the Applications folder), the newer versions include the ability to play antichess and other variants:

Or, Think(ing) different(ly).

In familiarizing myself with Linux as an OS and a community this last few years, I have of course come across the various internecine wars that have flared up during Linux's evolution. I won't try to summarize the kerfuffle for the uninitiated. Suffice to say that the conflicts start with the name of the OS itself ("Linux" vs. "GNU/Linux") and blossom from there.

This is not a bad thing in and of itself -- choice and change are welcome -- but as a long-time Mac user approaching this personal terra incognita the result is, frankly, vertiginous. I just want to get some work done, and here I am needing to make a bunch of political choices.

Now, I don't have to make a bunch of choices. I could go with the most popular distro (Ubuntu) and be done with it. Which is more or less what I did last year, as detailed in the post "Switching to Linux, but which one?" Then I flip-flopped between GNOME and Xfce for desktop environment.

But then the politics started creeping up:

• GNOME's insistence on incorporating Mono-based apps, with accompanying Microsoft cooties.
• The Planet GNOME/GNU Project controversy (aka Richard Stallman vs. Miguel de Icaza).

Most recently is the discussion of replacing the OpenOffice suite with Google Docs in the Netbook version of Ubuntu (apparently not a done deal as "reported" by /.). As this comment by Qubit on that story says,

So they took a Free Software application out and replace it with a non-Free application from Google. What a great idea!

Although an office suite isn't necessary for one to run Ubuntu, being able to create and consume office documents is admittedly a very common task. Making UNR able to interoperate "right out of the box" seems like a very high priority.

Qubit points to this essay by Bradley M. Kuhn from last month, "Back Home, with Debian!", in which the author urges folks to switch to Debian to keep at bay Ubuntu's apparent glee in incorporating non-free and proprietary software. His six specific reasons for moving away from Ubuntu and Canonical after several years are both damning and mirror my concerns. He sums it up:

When considering all this and taking a step back and look at the status of major distributions, my honest assessment is this: among the two primary corporate-controlled-but-dabbling-in-community-orientation distributions (aka Fedora and Ubuntu), Fedora is clearly much more software-freedom-friendly. Nevertheless, since I've twice gone corporate and ultimately regretted it, I decided it was time to go back home — back to Debian.

So, during the last week of 2009, I took nearly two full days off to reinstall and configure my laptop from scratch with lenny. I've thus been back on Debian since 2010-01-01. Twelve days in, I am very impressed. Really, all the things I liked about Ubuntu are now available upstream as well. This isn't the distribution I left in 2004; it's much better, all while being truly community-oriented and software-freedom-respecting. It's good to be home. Thank you, Debian developers.

So, to recap my dilemma-filled experience thus far:

1. I am sympathetic with the open source/free software cause. I do not like the idea that monolithic corporations and proprietary software vendors can hold my computing experience hostage.
2. Thus, I am considering switching to Linux, especially due to the continuing over-commercialization of the Mac operating system and its integration of more and more hooks into various stores, locked-up user experiences, and other folderol.
3. However, I am also uncomfortable about Ubuntu for many of the same reasons, with its increasing intermingling with non-free software.
4. Likewise, GNOME's flirting with Microsoft technology gives me the creeps.

What does that leave me with? Debian running Xfce maybe?

Of course, there's always the option of going straight old-school CLI. ;D

An alternative to the Midnight Commander file manager utility. It's available in the Ubuntu repositories (sudo apt-get install vifm) and via MacPorts (sudo port install vifm).

Vifm is a ncurses based file manager with vi like keybindings. If you use vi, vifm gives you complete keyboard control over your files without having to learn a new set of commands.

http://vifm.sourceforge.net/

While you're getting in touch with your inner geek, don't forget vimwiki, the personal wiki also based on vim:

http://code.google.com/p/vimwiki/