Image Credit: Sharp World

Features:

• Quick launching of applications
• Long battery time – but this could be affected by your usage. If you watch videos or listen to music a lot, this is going to be lessened.
• Touch screen LCD and keyboard. Your input is not limited to the keyboard. I suppose that a touch screen will come in handy compared to a touchpad because of the small size of the gadget. It will end up being easier to touch the screen to move a cursor. At the same time you will still have a keyboard to type your messages or input your selection, etc.
• You could also create documents if you need them. Although personally, I don’t think it’s going to be practical. Maybe if it’s that urgent and important, yes. But the screen will be too small for comfort.
• Wifi. Yes! Hooray for this. It’s just like having a DSi but better because it has more applications.

And why am I posting it here on New Linux User? It’s because this little baby will use a customized Ubuntu Linux. Sharp customized it so that they could already bundle Firefox, Adobe Flash Lite, Totem, Gedit, etc. on it. Also, because of the tiny screen size, this gadget would need an custom desktop environment or window manager. Interesting, right? It will be released in Japan in late September or around October this year. I hope that I’d encounter someone with it so I could play around with it. It looks more interesting than the Zaurus. Or maybe I am just interested because it’s shiny and new? Either way, I’d love to try something this small when I travel because the long battery life will be beneficial for me. I think that it will also be nifty to store maps on such a small device so that it will be easier to roam around. It won’t be too small for such a purpose, methinks.

In any case, just check it out. It really might be an interesting gadget for those who are more into emailing. But of course, this would be best for those who live in countries which have wifi spots that are open.

Post from: New Linux User

There are so many Linux distributions so it’s not easy at all to pick one distro. A bad experience with a particular distro would be able to affect your perspective about Linux. For one, you could try the disro and end up hating it. That or you wonder if there are other distros that are better. On one hand, you could try this distro chooser. Or you could keep trying one on live CD until you find something that you like enough.

The difficulty about trusting the distro chooser is that you might not like the distro at all when you try it for yourself. The problem about the latter is that you could be spending a lot of testing them one after the other. Then again, if you are the type of person that would like the hands on approach, it’s probably worth it. The difficulty is how much time should you give it. Even you knew what applications you want there by default, the hardware compatibilities, etc. sometimes things could be subjective and you would see that there are other personal reasons you might need to factor in, after everything.

I guess these are the main things I see which are necessary for choosing a distro:

• The applications you need.
• Hardware compatibility issues.
• Package manager.
• User interface
• Users

If the distro checks out against all these things and you think you’ve found your distro, maybe you could stick with it for a while and see if it’s all you expect and more.

Post from: New Linux User

While OLPC pilot projects are currently on in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, the $188-laptops are also expected to start retailing in India by the end of this year. OLPC aims to provide low-cost laptops (XO laptops) to children in developing countries. The World Bank has earlier provided funds for OLPC pilots in Sri Lanka. … Later this year, the XO laptops are expected to hit the retail stores. Sources say Reliance Communications, which partnered OLPC Foundation to conduct an XO pilot project in Maharashtra last year, is looking at retailing these laptops bundled with its CDMA modems. – OLPC looks to World Bank for India funding

Though there’s an upcoming generation of XO laptops that’s targeted to be worth 75USD, that is for 2010. Still a long way to go. I just hope that the 188USD price tag is affordable in India. And maybe they could do something like the Get One Give One promo they used to have. Or maybe a lower price if in case an NGO in India wants to buy a bunch of them laptops.

I wonder if they’re excited about this news. If it were to happen here in Manila, I’d be glad and probably give one to my cousins.

Post from: New Linux User

To someone who travels by riding buses, trains and jeeps, going light is a big factor. There are days when I have to take a cab going to the office because I feel that my bag is too heavy or I am carrying too many bags – one for the laptop, the other for books, and other supplies I need.

The Asus EEE PC is something I’ve always liked because of the form factor. It’s really small and I like that. It has Linux pre-installed and if ever, I could always install the eee Xubuntu on it. It’s just that I wish that were more options for consumers like me. Of course, we could always choose any and install Linux anyway. But not’s the only point: Why should we still get the one with Windows and pay full price when we wouldn’t be using the OS anyway?

In terms of form, I think that my Lenovo C300 N100 isn’t too bad if it were lighter and thinner. Though I find the current generation of Acers lighter than this laptop, I still prefer the look and feel of my Lenovo, in general. I still have ifs and buts about the bluetooth and wifi switch — because there’s only one switch for both, dagnabit! However, I love the fact that I have 4 USB ports and I love my keyboard.

Others say get a Mac anyway. But for the price? I’d think twice. Maybe more than that. But still, I envy Mac users because of the form factor of their laptops. Oh well, I am still thinking about it anyway. And maybe I’d find in the next few months that there’d be several ultra-thin laptops with Linux pre-installed (or maybe they’re OS-less). I shouldn’t probably whine about it. It’s just that the article from Computerworld reminded me about the ultrathin laptop envy.

Post from: New Linux User

On the old computer, run dpkg –get-selections >> packages.list. Get the new computer online and install dselect (yeah, it’s not part of dpkg anymore). Copy the packages.list to your new computer. Then run sudo dpkg –set-selections < < packages.list. Finally, run sudo dselect and choose Install. (Oh the fun of migrating data)

Thanks, Ubuntu Linux tips and tricks! I often forget what other software I install apart from the defaults and my usual ones, this is especially true for the apps that I installed for the heck of it or for other people. I’ve had problems about configuration files complaining to me about not finding files or the app, etc. This would solve it! But, folks, please note that this tip only works for those that came from the repos, not the ones that you just downloaded over the internet or installed from source. So it’s still better to note those other things, ok?

I wish I knew about this earlier. It surely would have saved me from headaches of trying to remember things I installed or not having an application I need. (This is especially bad when I have limited or no internet access.)

If you have other similar tips when migrating data, please feel free to share them here!

Post from: New Linux User

At 250 USD, you might get tempted to buy this ultramobile laptop. Why? Because it’s small and light. And it’s got Linux on it. But there are drawbacks: No webcam, no built-in wifi. Those two things are worth buying in the Asus EEE. Well if you want more space there’s also the Cloudbook to satisfy your needs.

These days Linux users have a great variety to choose from and it could be overwhelming. But in this case, I think I’d have to agree with Slashgear that you could let this opportunity pass. Even if you’re thinking you’re just going to surf and watch some videos, this ultramobile might not be worth it unless you’re sure you could get wired internet access.

I am disappointed that there’s not much information about the Linux distribution they included in this laptop. Really, I am curious. But with this lack of information what does that mean? You could choose any?

Post from: New Linux User

For users of Gnome and Kde, you could simply click the file you want to extract. You might have some trouble though if it’s a rar file you need to extract. If that’s the case, you need to download unrar from the repositories first. That or you get it as source then build it.

I also learned recently about the 7zip archived files. I haven’t encountered them myself but there is a Linux tool for compressing and extracting them. P7Zip is the project you need to check out if you have to open some 7zip files for work. Well, if ever you couldn’t use the graphical tools after installing 7zip, there’s an online guide on how to make the compression work for you. It’s called the 7zip Helper.

I hope that helps!

Post from: New Linux User

*sigh*

Reasons mentioned:

• Compatibility with Flash sites
• Compatibility with other software

And speculations seem to imply that the move by Intel to sell the Classmate PC for a low price was one of the triggers. Why? Because consumers would buy that. And it seems like this shift to Windows XP would help them sell them machines better.

Here’s the thing: Windows XP would make them change their hardware. They need more harddrive space for the operating system alone. Another: How much would those modified machines cost?

Here are some suggestions which I think could help the OLPC team:

• Why not team up with a group such as Asus? I’d rather see them do that than ditch Linux in favor of Windows. Then again, maybe the teaming up with a particular hardware manufacturer would tie them down further? And after what Intel did, they probably felt really bad already so maybe not this one.
• Prepare other educational materials which would cater to the target audience. There are groups out there who could be tapped as resources for materials if they’re worried about educational sites out there.
• Don’t give up yet! Rather than going with the Windows-way, find out if there are other groups who’d be supporting them in their endeavors. Their project could change the way of the world, so why not go through with the changes?

Maybe I sound idealistic but I don’t think that cheap laptops in the hands of children should be the end-all be-all. There are other benefits of having an open source operating system and applications in the hands of these students. We don’t just want them to have the tools. We want them to have the freedom and power in other aspects as well. I don’t know what else to say except that I am disappointed with today’s news.

Post from: New Linux User

This sounds great to me! No lock-up with Windows. You could either go with the default Linux installed or you could install a distro you are more comfortable with.

News from PCWorld.

Post from: New Linux User

If you’ve been wondering if there’s a lite version of Inkscape, there’s a possibility that there might be one in the future. Bryce Harrington blogged about keeping the toolbars simple and changing some settings. He also noticed that the dialog boxes appear bigger so it will probably look smaller when they implement it in Inklite.

A snippet from his blog entry on Inklite:

The main challenge was the aux toolbar – I think we’ll need JonCruz’s toolbar rework (which missed 0.46 but will definitely be in for 0.47); I just hacked it down. Deciding what to keep in the left toolbox was a tough choice, but I think I kept the most useful tools; the paint bucket would be the next on the chopping block, but I understand kids love it, so it just made it.

You’ll note I turned off the scrollbars, ruler, and color palette – this was trivial to do via the menus, and could be turned back on as desired.

Sounds like it’s going to be a dream come true for those who love using ultraportables with low resolution screens, and also for those who are newbies who might have found Inkscape bit intimidating.

Post from: New Linux User