Xubuntu Intrepid

The Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (8.10) release came today, and with it came Xubuntu 8.10! I like Xubuntu because of how light it is, which is the Xubuntu development team’s mission statement:

The goal of Xubuntu is to produce an easy to use distribution, based on Ubuntu, using Xfce as the graphical desktop, with a focus on integration, usability and performance, with a particular focus on low memory footprint. The integration in Xubuntu is at a configuration level, a toolkit level, and matching the underlying technology beneath the desktop in Ubuntu. Xubuntu will be built and developed as part of the wider Ubuntu community, based around the ideals and values of Ubuntu.

I just upgraded my laptop to the 8.10 release and will be upgrading my desktop when I am done with this post. To anyone with an older computer that wants to run a Debian-based Linux distro, I recommend giving Xubuntu a shot. I run it on my laptop and desktop which are definately not old or slow computers, but I dislike bloated software that takes a while to run and I do a lot of gaming so I like keeping my computer’s resources free for that and multi-tasking.

~ Tinny

I switched to the Listen music player after I noticed that Rhythmbox had created huge XML files to use as song info databases and it listed a large amount of files to “ignore” that weren’t even in my music directory. It looked was worse than an iTunes database to me. Listen has .db files that are small and non-intrusive. I also like that Listen has Last.fm, Wikipedia, and access to lyrics built into it, I commonly use them when I find a great song.

At the LAN Party we played some Unreal Tournament GOTY, UT2K4, Tremulous, DPBall 2, and World of Padman.

It runs a resolution of 800×480 which is a 5:3 display aspect ratio. I switched to this theme, the default one was much darker. On the desktop I have an RSS feed reader, Google / Wikipedia search, clock, contacts (didn’t set up my GoogleTalk or e-mail yet), and an applet that controls the media player’s “Internet Radio” section. In the upper right you can see a Bluetooth status indicator, display settings, sound settings, connection manager, a screenshot applet that shows the CPU load and memory consumption…and then magically disappears for the second that the screenshot is being taken, and a power status indicator. When the N800 is connected to a computer via USB it shows on the far left of that applet tab.

The battery outlasts my MacBook’s on normal usage and charges really quick, I’m sure that you could look into getting a longer lasting battery if you wanted, Nokia already has some accessories out for it.

Here’s a shot of the menu.

There’s an on-screen (virtual) keyboard that’s easy enough to use. It also supports some Bluetooth keyboards, but you can always be creative. Touching the screen with one of your fingers instead of the stylus will bring up a larger virtual keyboard that can be typed on with your fingers or thumbs.

After “training” it to recognize my handwriting, which is very easy and has many shortcut features, it stopped mis-guessing what I’m typing and I have it down pretty well, the word prediction is really nice too. It will remember new words that you enter that it doesn’t know yet, so in the future they are available. If you are at a password prompt it does not list word options and does not remember what you tell it in the word list, you can have it save your passwords but I’m used to not saving passwords. It displays the character for a short period of time and then changes it to an asterisk.

Here’s some neat Linux info on it, Nokia’s Internet Tablet OS 2007 Edition is built off of Debian for an ARM CPU.

BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 3:1.1.3-3.osso17) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.

~ $ uname -a
Linux Nokia-N800-51 2.6.18-omap1 #2 Tue Dec 19 18:41:02 EET 2006 armv6l unknown

The Application Manager is just a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to apt-get and dpkg, which is how you install applications, from .deb files and repositories.

The built-in camera is pretty cool, and it comes in clear when you’re in a well light environment. The camera hides away in a bulge that’s on the back of the tablet, which I think is very ergonomically suitable and helps it fit the hands better. The hardware buttons are easy to use and they don’t get bumped easily, there’s even a zoom-in, zoom-out, and fullscreen button on the top of the tablet. The speakers are way better than those of any laptop I’ve ever owned, they are loud and clear. The fold-out stand is handy for setting it on a table where it is still visible and usable, who wants a tablet that lies flat on a table? Not I.

That’s the end of my quick review on the Nokia N800, now go buy one and contribute to making me some sweet apps.
=D

I am posting this from my new Nokia N800.

I’ve been working on a project with the Quake 3 Engine, but I will probably put it on hold to play around with the Maemo SDK (Software Development Kit) to port some apps to this. It runs Nokia’s Internet Tablet 2007 Edition (Maemo 3.0 ‘bora’) which is obviously new and there are still many apps from the 2006 catalog that haven’t been ported to 2007 (3.0) yet.

I’m callng it a night and leaving you with this: Nokia N800