Taking Gloria out for a spin: A review of Linux Mint 7.0

There is a soft spot in my heart for Linux Mint: Mint 3.0 was the first Linux distribution that I really used rather than experimented with. Since then I have moved on to Ubuntu (on which Mint is based), but the release of the new Linux Mint 7.0 codenamed Gloria made me want to install and review Linux Mint again. I brought my old Dell latitude D400, a 5 year old subnotebook, out of storage and started the Mint live CD.

The Live CD experience

Running from the CD is never a really pleasant experience, but Linux Mint seems to have made the process as painless as possible: at start up I am greeted by the Mint logo, soon replaced by the usual boot "text mode". after about a minute I am in front of a very nicely designed login prompt with a 10 second countdown to login. Maybe they should have made the CD autologin faster, as the wait could worry newbies. Once logged in I am presented with a very polished desktop complete with some Compiz eye candy. No network connection however. I have a look in the start menu for help: the menu is very Windows like and the control center easily accessible. The hardware driver applet tells me that I will need to download a legacy driver for my Broadcom wireless adapter.I am not too surprised as I know from my old Mint 3.0 installation that this adapter is badly supported on Linux. Beside this everything seems to work perfectly, so I'll continue the review with the installation

The Installation of Linux Mint

I click on install and a 7 steps wizard starts. The first question is language selection, which I'll keep to English, second step is location, third step is keyboard, nothing really difficult up to now. At step 4 a very nice graphical partitioner starts. The Mint partitioner detects that I have an old Ubuntu 7.10 installation on the disk offers to resize a partition and to dual boot by default. Its a good decision to avoid new users wiping an OS they did not intend to erase, but in this case I'll use the entire disk. The next screen ask me for a name, a password, a computer name and gives me the option to autologin. Although it could be considered insecure autologin is really practical for home desktops and cut down the time between the moment you start your computer and the moment you start to surf, so I turn it on. The last step is only a recap. I push install and wait about 15 minutes for the install to complete. During that time I go fetch a network cable to plug the laptop into my ADSL router.

Booting Gloria for the First Time

This time I come prepared: I boot the computer for the first time while connected to the router with a cable. The boot process is almost entirely graphical and is faster than with Ubuntu 8.04. As I requested the system did log me in automatically. There is welcome screen waiting for me: I am offered the option to see the new features of Linux Mint 7.0, download a pdf manual or visit the Linux Mint forums. These are very good starting points for users new to Linux. There is also a message appearing on the screen to tell me that a new restricted driver is available.The driver applet is also present in the system tray, just where a Windows user would expect to find it. I click on this driver applet and the missing wireless driver is flagged for my attention. I click activate, enter my password and the missing driver is installed automatically. I enter my wireless access point name, disable and enable networking and then I am connected through Wifi: all my hardware works! I tried to suspend and wake up the machine and this worked flawlessly too. This review is on to a good start!

Presentation: Gloria is beautiful


The first thing that strikes you when starting Linux Mint 7.0 is how the design is polished. Not only is the theme and wallpaper superb, but everything seems to be just where someone straight out of the Windows world would expect it to be. Although this is no Windows copycat, it is much easier to get used to immediately than Ubuntu. One thing that is very different from Ubuntu is the start menu: it looks like an improved version of Windows start menu. On the left pane you have shortcuts to important places like your home folder, the software installation applet, control center, command line (terminal) and quit button. On the right pane you have either your favorite applications or a start menu. This is a good design decision, as it allows users that just want to surf, email and play music to do that without having to search for the proper application, but at the same time all the other applications are only a button away.

Included Software

The software selection is very good, with classics like Openoffice, GIMP, Rythmbox, Gnome Mplayer, Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, etc... This is complemented by a large library of open source and proprietary applications that can be installed. What is more interesting is that the Adobe flash plugin is pre-installed: YouTube videos play straight away in Firefox. Moonlight is also present, and even if I don't support the Silverligth technology I must admit that this will be helpful to users unsure of how to install a plugin. The same principle is true for audio and video codecs: videos played straight away in the default video player, but the colors were a bit strange. Playing the same video in the included Gnome mplayer produced a perfect image however, so this is not a big issue.

Installing More Software

there are 2 options to install more software: software manager and package manager. I start with software manager and I am presented with a very neat application where I can find new software ordered by categories or by the "score" that was attributed to them. Not only is all the important open source software available, but also some proprietary offerings like Opera, Sun Java, the Nvidia proprietary Driver, Skype, Picasa and Google Earth. All applications are illustrated by a screenshot. This is an excellent idea as it immediately helps the user to see what the application is about. The package manager is synaptic and allows those who are used to managing packages themselves to continue doing so.
The update manager mintUpdate is very well done also: all updates come with a risk factor number: the higher the number, the more chances you have to break something with the update. By default only the safe updates (risk level 3 or lower) are visible so that newbie users don't risk breaking something, but this setting is easily changed!

What Linux Mint is Missing

Given how good Linux Mint is why would you install anything else? Well, there are a few caveat. First Linux Mint does not have a big support corporation behind it like Ubuntu. This means that it is more difficult to purchase paid support and that there is no software shop where you can purchase commercial applications like PowerDVD for Linux. The second point is that there is no "one click upgrade" option right now, although I think that the Mint developers are working on a solution for that. The Final point is that the inclusion of multimedia codecs in the main edition could bring some users into legal a gray area in some countries, however a version of Mint without the codecs, the universal edition, is also available for those users.

Conclusion

The main point of the review is that I personally consider Linux Mint as the easiest distribution for new Linux users. Everything has been thought out to make the transition easy for those users without sacrificing what makes Linux unique. Nice touches like the screenshots in the software manager show a level of polish and user friendliness rarely seen in a Linux distribution. Linux Mint is also interesting for more advanced users that want a distribution that install quickly and include all the multimedia components without the need of adding codecs and flash from the repositories. If Linux Mint continues to provide such high quality releases I may well switch back from Ubuntu by the time of the next Long Term Support release.

UPDATE: Clem (from Linux Mint) responded to my review on the Linux Mint Blog. You can also check out my interview of Clem.

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MS to ship Windows 7 without IE, The EU is unimpressed

Microsoft has announced Thursday that they intend to sell version of Windows 7 without the bundled Internet Explorer browser. The Idea is that PC manufacturers would then be free to bundle whatever browser they like with Windows.

The European Unions however is absolutely not impressed by Microsoft's move. It is clear that what the EU wanted was to force Microsoft to include alternative browsers with Windows 7 rather than removing Internet Explorer, and with good reasons. The EU competition commission has certainly not forgotten the Windows N debacle, when they managed to force Microsoft to sell a version of Windows without a media player only to see all OEMs ship the versions with the media player included.

The big problem is that from an economic point of view, a monopoly is good for sellers and bad for buyers, and here the OEMs are sellers. There are some advantage for the computer manufacturers to limit the versions of Windows they ship: less support cost, easier inventory management, better relations with microsoft etc... so to offset these costs a competitor to Microsoft would actually have to pay the computer manufacture to include an alternative browser or media player, something unlikely to happen unless Google really decides to push Chrome. Another reason that could push OEM to include alternative browsers would be consumer demand, but that is very unlikely to happen as most of the consumer looking for alternatives are moving to systems with Linux or OSX.

What this means is that selling a version of Windows 7 without Internet Explorer do not level the playing field at all: it would still be more difficult for alternative browsers and media players to be preinstalled on computers. If other browsers are included by default then the advantage of Microsoft is negated as this would give other browsers the exact same advantage: it would not be easier for computer manufacturers to sell a computer loaded with IE. That is why the better option is to force Microsoft to include other browsers in Windows 7 rather than removing Internet Explorer.

At least it looks like the EU is not ready to let itself be pushed around by Microsoft. Let's hope for the best.

Photo CC by Robert Scoble

PR disaster alert: Asus attacks on Linux

So ASUS decided to part way with Linux, the operating system that made the brand famous, to join forces with Microsoft. And they decided to make it in a very public way by stating a nice 'better with Windows campaign'. Well, sorry to disappoint you ASUS, but this is turning into a Public relation disaster!

As the articles here and here as well as the discussion here point out, leaving Linux is not only a bad move from a technical point of view but the way it was done also angered and insulted members of the Linux community, many of which are your customers. Guess what? They are not you consumers anymore. Worse, these are usually people responsible for purchasing the computing equipment for their families or their companies, so the loss goes much deeper than just a few Linux users. Let's look at a few chosen comments from the articles above:

Sorry Asus, but while I was open to buying an EeePC, you're now in the lower echelons of my list of vendors. And, just so you know, I have a reasonable list of mothers buying PCs for the kids to take to school who are looking to me for guidance. A word from me and Asus is off the shopping list, even if the alternative has Windows.

My current laptop is from ASUS. My next purchase will not be from them.

Over many years as a custom computer builder, I had used and recommended ASUS MB's and other parts. However, as a linux lover and open source advocate for years, I can no longer recommend or buy their products.

I have nothing but contempt for Asus now , Helping in purchasing decisions of a company that pays well over 80,000 on parts annually , Those parts will not have an Asus brand on them , I swear to that. Nor will I suggest to customers to buy anything from Asus again , Period.

The problem for ASUS is not so much losing the potential sale of a Linux computer, it is destroying a reputation that took ASUS years to build in just a few days. Now ASUS lost Linux customers, Windows customers, enterprise customers and motherboard customers. Oh, and don't expect many of these people to buy an ASUS graphic card any time soon either.

Imagine if tomorrow Toyota announced that in their opinion hybrid vehicle sucked and that they would revert to traditional combustion engines, don't you think they would lose face and customers? The Prius is the symbol of Toyota innovation as the Linux eeePC was the symbol of ASUS innovation, a symbol they have now lost. Without that symbol they are just another Asian computer manufacturer, nothing special anymore.

Nowadays being friendly to the Linux community is a Public Relations matter more than anything else! Don't forget that a lot of the Linux geeks out there have day jobs supporting, assembling and purchasing Windows computers. If you insult Linux you insult them. Yes, to you the choice of OS is just a business matter, but for them it is a very personal thing, and when they shop for new equipment or recommend it to someone else they do it with their feelings as much as their heads. This is something that Dell, HP and Acer have understood, but that ASUS still has to learn apparently...

Will the way ASUS insulted the Linux community change your purchasing decisions? Let me know by posting a comment below!

Image cc by jaaron

iPhone 3GS: evolutionary, not revolutionary

So the keynote of WWDC 2009 is over and the results are in. What was the dominant feeling of the announcement: evolution, not revolution. Most of the Mac notebooks were upgraded to the new improved battery that had been announced earlier in the year, and the price of some high end models dropped. Entry level Apple notebooks however are still way too expensive to compete with $299 Linux notebooks. The only good news for the price conscious Mac user (admitting that such a person even exists) is that the upgrade to Snow Leopard, the next version of OSX, will only cost $29. This is a lot cheaper than what Microsoft usually asks for Windows upgrades, so at least the users that invested in expensive Macs will get the benefit of a cheap OS upgrade.

The star of the show was of course the next iteration of the iPhone: the 3GS. Gizmondo has a nice feature guide that will get you up to speed on the improvements in this new version of Apple star smartphone. Improvement is the main idea behind the new iPhones: there are no revolutionary features, but Apple solved a lot of the issues of the current model. Copy and paste will now work thanks to the inclusion of iPhoneOS 3.0, and the crappy camera of current models has been replaced by a nice 3 Megapixels one with autofocus, auto exposure and the possibility to capture video. Tethering will finally return to the iPhone, but unfortunately not for AT&T users.

Of course some will say that this is only fixing omissions and flaws that shouldn't have been in the initial product, and they are not entirely wrong, but at least Apple is fixing it's mistakes. As far as improvements go we have a faster processor, faster 3D graphics, more ram and more storage. 3G speed now reach 7.2 Mbps thanks to HSDPA, and the price is down to $99 for the entry level model. In other words: more of the same for less money. Even the design will be exactly the same as the previous version. As really new features there will be voice commands, but personally I am not a big fan of these as they tend to be unreliable in noisy environments.

To conclude I would say that a lot of what Apple announced leaves an aftertaste of "more of the same". Most of the progress has been in fixing flaws an evolving the existing products, and that is a good thing, but nothing really new was announced.

Image cc by katielips

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Content producers dig Linux too!

Content creation used to be the stronghold of Apple and it's OSX operating system, but recently there have been signs that content producers are more and more attracted to Linux. What made me realize that creative software on Linux had made it with the content creation crowd is this poll on the DAZ Studio forums: more than 150 Daz Studio users would like to see a Linux version. What made it important is that DAZ Studio is not Blender: it is a program that is designed for "artistic" content creation rather than for "technical" content producers, but still a lot of these non technical users run Linux and want a Linux version of the application. It is not top of the line professional contents producers like Pixar that are switching to Linux, these are average users.

When looking back, I can't help but realize that creative software for Linux has made a lot of progress in very little time. I remember when the main graphic creation tool on Linux was The GIMP. Now we also have Inkscape for vector graphics and Blender for 3D graphics. Both Blender and the GIMP are very polished creative software that can easily rival commercial offering such as Photoshop, even for advanced use, furthermore these are still actively developed and new versions are being released at a sustained rate. Inkscape is lagging behind Illustrator but is still very usable for all but the most demanding graphic designers. In the field of desktop publishing Scribus has also been a success. It is used to publish "Full Circle" the monthly magazine on Ubuntu and the results look very professional.

For Audio content creation Linux has what must be the audio editor the most widely used in podcasting: Audacity. The application combine powerful features with an easy to use interface that complete beginners can easily master. For music creation there is the excellent LMMS (Linux Multi Media Studio), a worthy alternative to Fruity Loops, as well as more advanced software like Ardour, which could be used in replacement of a DAW application like Cubase. With Ubuntu Studio these applications are pre-installed, a no brainer for the audio content producer that wants to try Linux.

As far as video editing goes Linux is still lagging behind OSX and Windows unfortunately. Cinelera is a very powerful video editor, but it's complex interface reserve it for the expert video content producer looking for advanced features. Kino is a much simpler program, but it's focus on DV prevent it from being the jack of all trade editor Linux needs. KDEnlives seems to be a good application that could be a substitute to PowerDirector but I could never make it works on Gnome. Lives is stable on Gnome, but the interface is too weird to appeal to the average user in the content creation field.

The lesson to remember: watch the user interface when designing creative software. Unlike what some may believe content producers do not always have much technical knowledge outside of their fields (some do, some don't) As a result they want creative software that is very easy and intuitive to use, but can also provide advanced content creation features when required. Something that is very successful in the creative software world but could be better implemented in open source software is the concept of plug-ins and extensions. Instead of releasing one big application that will be too complex for the beginner content producer, create a simple application but allow extra functionality to be added later as the user becomes more experienced with the program. Some open source applications that have implemented this with success include Firefox, Audacity and Blender. Unsurprisingly these are also amongst the most successful open source projects.

To conclude I would say that content producers like the idea of Linux: its stable, comes with a lot of free creative software and do not require much administration after the machine is installed. It is also much cheaper to purchase a Linux desktop that an Apple Mac, but what currently let these users down is the lack of intuitive, easy to use and expendable creative software in some fields.

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