Don’t buy Dell laptops, really

This comes from someone who bought a Dell laptop (Inspiron 14R N4010) about two years ago. I totally regret buying Dell laptop right now. The hardware starts sucking once you pass the first year mark. The battery got spoilt more than a year ago and recently, the laptop started overheating once I start using the laptop for more than 10 minutes.

The only part that I am relatively satisfactory about Dell is that most components work out of the box with Ubuntu. Initially, I had problems with WiFi drivers in 10.04 and 10.10, but luckily those were sorted once in 11.04 onwards.

However, I still have not gotten my Bluetooth working. Actually, I don’t even remember being able to use Bluetooth in Ubuntu. I am not sure whether it is Dell hardware to be blamed or the Linux kernels but I’ll blame both of them just to be safe.

Anyway, I have developed an immense dislike towards Dell hardware. Add to the fact that I broke my laptop screen last year and it took more than three weeks to get it replaced thanks to the awesome customer support at Dell. And one other thing: One of my friends b0rked his laptop because it ended up overheating to such an extent that BIOS did not even let the computer boot up and I totally don’t want to end up like him.

I know Linux kernels in Ubuntu took a drastic hit in power management since 10.10 onwards, but it still doesn’t mean the batteries can get spoilt to such an extent that it can barely hold power for more than 5 minutes or so. Because of this, my laptop has been effectively reduced to being a mere portable desktop, having to plug in to a power socket if I ever intend to do anything useful or productive.

And, as if the spoilt battery is not enough, now the cooling fans are blazing at full speed for most part of the time. It barely slows down and has been very annoying and worrying at the same time. I even got myself an laptop cooling pad but it doesn’t really help the case. And, don’t tell me it was Unity’s fault for this overheating. The same happens when I am using Unity, GNOME or even Unity-2D. Lubuntu has been somewhat gentler compared to the rest but I don’t like the bluish feel of Lubuntu. KDE has been somewhat of a compromise between looks and hardware constraints and I have been using it for quite some time now. Though I don’t really like the looks of Qt apps in KDE and I would really like the looks of Gtk apps in GNOME or Unity.

What were we talking about again? Ah, yes. Dell hardware is pathetic. I am looking forward to getting myself a new laptop as soon as possible. Looking at the alternatives, it looks like I’ll get myself a Thinkpad.

Ask Ubuntu update for June 2012

After the 12.04 release madness, the site’s traffic has gone down a bit. Nonetheless, we are still getting a considerable number of quality questions and answers every day. Lots of things are happening behind the scenes in Ask Ubuntu. Of which the following are noteworthy

Hottest questions
Some of the hottest questions for the month of June:

• What is the best way of testing Ubuntu on my computer?
• How do I use pm-suspend-hybrid by default instead of pm-suspend?
• How can I get octal file permissions from command line?
• Python script: How do I execute a sudo-command without needing a password?
• How does this [t]ricky bracket expression in grep work?

Ask Ubuntu on Twitter
Most regular users of Ask Ubuntu would have already known that Ask Ubuntu is on Twitter. Until recently, this account was using the handle @stackubuntu. Now that we have the Twitter handle @askubuntu, Ask Ubuntu account on Twitter has been renamed to @askubuntu. This Twitter account tweets interesting questions and answers, questions that are bountied and important community discussions. So, if you are on Twitter, please do follow @askubuntu and keep yourselves up to date with the interesting content in our site.

Ubuntu Accomplishments System
Ask Ubuntu badges are now available as opportunities in Ubuntu Accomplishments system. Work has been put in to sufficiently document several of the badges but we still have considerable number of badges to be documented. If you are interested in documenting them, check the list of badges that are already completed and finish off those that are not.

---

If you are looking to help, the featured questions should be a good place to start. If you are interested in the site, you can sign up for the newsletter and you will be kept informed of quality questions and answers every week.

In case you are struck and is looking for help on how to use the site, feel free to ask your doubts on the Ask Ubuntu meta or join us in the chat*.

*Requires 20 reputation to participate in the chat.

Celebrating first anniversary of using Ubuntu

It’s been exactly a year since I really started using Ubuntu. Yesterday, as I was going through my tweets over the last year or so, I came across this tweet:

Updating to Natty Narwhal is slower than I ever thought. This is going to take another 2 hours to finish. arrrghhh—
Barneedhar (@jokerdino) June 15, 2011

That was the time I really started to try out Ubuntu. It is a pleasant surprise that I stuck to using it since then. The first year of me using Ubuntu has been splendid and one of the main reasons for that has to be the awesome community. The community has been wonderful and it made me feel that everyone can contribute in their own unique way and that made me feel special in spite of the differences amongst us.

During the first year, I have had a lot of fun while translating strings to Tamil, answering questions on Ask Ubuntu, writing articles for the community blog 2buntu.com and many more other fun activities. I have had tried out packaging, fixing string-size bugs, syncing packages from upstream, report and triage bugs and even test development release for a significant amount of time.

If I were given a choice between the various operating system right now, I would choose Ubuntu hands down. And, I would continue to use it as long as the project stays alive. Many thanks to sabdfl for starting this wonderful project and many more thanks to everyone who has contributed to Ubuntu in their own way making Ubuntu a better software for others to use.

My thoughts about dropping Unity-2D

While the idea of not having to split resources to develop two different desktop environment is welcome, I have my own reservations regarding this interesting development.

One important issue is the energy consumption. Unity-2D was a smarter choice when you are working on battery as it allows you to use your laptop for much longer period than Unity. I can’t quite tell if you are to blame Unity or Compiz for that but whichever it is, there should definitely be improvements on this part as considerable number of us use Ubuntu on our portable devices.

Also, Unity-2D has been way more responsive than Unity. While I can hope that the newer Unity versions improve on this matter, I was conveniently using Unity-2D until that actually happens. Now that the development on Unity-2D is going to be dropped, let’s just wish Unity stops being as resource intensive as it currently is.

That brings me to the next point. Accessibility has been broken in Unity for quite some time. I was quite happy that accessibility has not been neglected in Unity-2D, but since it has to go away now, I hope this no longer gives the Unity devs an excuse to neglect accessibility for one more cycle.

For all its worth, I hope the idea of dropping Unity-2D is given much thought and strongly discussed before anything actually happens. But, it seems we are well past that stage, leaving us with only one option: hope Unity can deliver.

Ask Ubuntu update for May 2012

This month has been fantastic for Ask Ubuntu. With the 12.04 released just a month ago, Ask Ubuntu has been pretty active for the past couple of weeks. There has been a large influx of new users trying to get their questions answered and considerable number of users joining Ask Ubuntu to help out stranded users as well.

Hottest questions
Some of the hottest questions for the month of May:

• How to understand the Ubuntu file system layout?
• How do I add a DNS server via resolv.conf?
• Promoting an app in the Ubuntu software-center through a ratings and reviews API
• Is Seagate’s new “FAST Factor Boot” technology compatible with Ubuntu?

50,000 questions!
Earlier today, we just reached yet another milestone of 50,000 questions. With almost 55,000 registered users, Ask Ubuntu has been growing from strength to strength since it was launched in October 2010.

Deeper integration with the IRC community
With plans to get Ask Ubuntu integrated with the rest of the community, preliminary steps towards that have already been kickstarted. Community member Amith KK has implemented a preliminary bot setup that posts links to the questions that have specific tags. His bot twobottux is currently serving #ubuntu-community-team, #juju and #application-development. If you are interested in having this bot in your room, please do let us know.

If you are looking to help, the featured questions should be a good place to start. If you are interested in the site and want to be informed of some of the good questions and answers, you can sign up for the newsletter.

In case you are struck and is looking for help on how to use the site, feel free to ask your doubts on the Ask Ubuntu meta or join us in the chat*.

*Requires 20 reputation to participate in the chat.

That win by Manchester City

Warning: Football nonsense by a relative newbie (much less a soccer geek). If you don’t like Football or don’t want to involve yourself in some anti fanboyism, then this post is not for you.

Occasionally, I get an urge to vent my emotions. Regarding a vast range of topics from soccer, academics, open source software, politics to religion, technology, scientific discoveries, etc. But, more often that not, I end up not conveying what I feel. Not this time.

Just some context: this is mainly focused around the EPL match between Manchester City and QPR.

When Zaboleta scored the first goal, you could feel the animosity in the entire stadium.

When Lescott made an error with his header that led to QPR’s first goal, you could see the horror in his face.

When QPR scored the second goal, you could see the tears running down the cheeks of numerous fans.

When time was fast ticking down, you could see several fans praying for a miracle.

When Dzeko headed in the stoppage time equalizer, the fans were still unconvinced they could win the game and the title. But, that goal did instill a slight hope in the hearts of many.

But, when Aguero scored the winner, the whole stadium erupted in joy. Joe Hart was running circles. Mancini was jumping in joy. Aguero himself was running wild. They couldn’t hide the emotions that was in them. They somehow managed to clinch victory from the jaws of defeat. It almost felt impossible to have had happened. “How did that even happen?!”, I wondered.

The crowd at Etihad stadium showed what it meant to them, what the title win for Man City was to them. They could not hide their passion for the club.

Mind you, I am only a Manchester City follower and not an ardent fan of the club. Not much of a reason to like it. Just silly reasons like the anti depressing colour of their shirts and the fact that Tevez joined Manchester City from Man United a couple of years ago. I was saddened when Tevez lost his mind and went on an exile. He was such a wonderful player and it didn’t feel right that he committed such stupid acts.

I don’t know why some of the Man Utd fans are brushing off this title loss. Yes, it was won merely just on goal difference, but Man City did win both the games against Man Utd, with a pretty awesome aggregate of 7-1.

Barely a month ago, Man Utd were comfortably placed with a lead of 8 points at the top of the table. It was clearly Man Utd’s title to lose and no one would know whether they choked or became too cocky. In any case, this title loss, regardless of whether it was on goal difference or not, will serve as a much needed reality check to Man Utd.

This is not one of those senseless posts by a crazy football fan. I, for once, think sports should not be compared to a battle of sorts and it hurts me when people start using abusive language when things go out of hand. Regardless of how passionate you are towards your favourite club, I don’t think it helps your case when you go out and trash talk other clubs.

And, that brings me to one other point. Yes, Man City spent over a billion pounds for a period of four years to win this title. So what? Most of you were mocking when it didn’t win the title even after spending so much of money and now that it did win, you have just changed your stance. Choose one and try to stick with it.

Just to finish off, I am very much happy that Man City won the EPL. Almost all of us will agree that a new champion is only good for the league and hopefully, this competition carries onto the future leagues as well.

Ask Ubuntu – 12.04 release day update

As many of you already know, Ubuntu 12.04 has just been released to the masses. Unsurprisingly, Ask Ubuntu has seen a large swirl of activity just before and after the release of 12.04, bringing in a large influx of users looking into getting their favourite OS into perfect shape. And, most of our awesome contributors are helping the excited users with their various issues and problems.

As part of our site’s plan to make it easy for everyone upgrading to 12.04 from either 10.04 or 11.10. we have documented the various steps that are necessary. And, of course, we have tried our best to ensure that the instructions are “precise” and up-to-date.

In the unfortunate circumstance that you find your upgrade process crawling like a snail, you can also automatically use a mirror that is close to you which will definitely help boost the downloading speed. Andrew Mitchell provides important guidelines on how exactly that is to be done.

Alternatively, if you find your mirror being severely hammered, you can also upgrade to 12.04 using the S3 mirrors.

If in case, your upgrading process is being bogged down by “404 Not found” errors, fear not. We have got it covered as well. All you need to do is just follow the instructions provided and you will be good to go in no time.

If any one of you have any other issues with your upgrading or you would like to help us help the users, you know where to find us.