Tuesday, May 12, 2009

UbuntuOne Online Storage

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_MTRRJXrmok0/Sgl4LDffGHI/AAAAAAAAA7Y/ynzjbq6bqqY/s800/UbuntuOne.jpg

Canonical is launching a beta version of it's UbuntuOne online storage!  Sounds interesting so far even if it parallels the existing, cross-platform DropBox.

Already, the Dell Mini 9 was sold with free DropBox accounts, a great idea for a netbook with a minimal SSD drive to store everything.

Apple has had something like this for a while, called MobileMe (formerly Mac.com). MobileMe includes Microsoft Exchange like features such as email, contacts and calendars which can be synched between systems as well as an online photo gallery and the iDisk online storage.  All of this for $99 per year.

Google has been offering something almost like this for a much better price; free. The Gmail, Contacts and Calendars can be accessed either online or client applications by IMAP (for mail) and various plug-ins.  They also include an online photo gallery through Picasa Web and integrates with Picasa on the client.  Unfortunately it only works with Windows as far as I know.  The only other downside seen with this system is that some personal information may be gleaned off of your content for directed advertisements and interest-gathering.

Microsoft has been making moves with its Live system. Admittingly, though, I don't know enough about what it offers, though the applications that will integrate with it will surely be Windows-only.

So now Canonical is offering its own online drive space only and at $10/month for 10GB, or 2GB for free, it makes me wonder why?

Why would Canonical do this?  I have a theory.

UbuntuOne is an added benefit for using Ubuntu that doesn't require tinkering with the operating system itself. It is an add-on that people can choose to use or not use, and it isn't being forced upon anybody which would surely raise howls of protests from some Linux users.

It also begins a platform for offering other features in the future, whether free or paid for, such as an email account (@UbuntuUser.com?), calendar, contacts, to-do's and such which actually integrates with Linux email clients without a lot of tinkering.  Imagine opening Evolution (Gnome's default email client) and being able to select UbuntuOne as the provider, enter your username and password and that's it, it's done?!

At the same time, this provides a perfect example for demonstrating the power and capabilities of Ubuntu Server and how it can be used for typical uses with alarge loads.

Canonical is shaping up to be a flexible company that seems to be taking pages from other company's playbook and is positioning itself very nicely.  They aren't as stogey as Red Hat yet they offer a solid Server contender. They aren't as flashy as Apple but are closing the gap of out-of-the-box usability, pre-installed channels and user-friendliness.

Of course, don't forget that there have been mention by Mark Shuttleworth about "blending" the desktop to the web. Combine this with the Cloud Computing ambitions with Ubuntu Server and I see UbuntuOne as the ante-up for Canonical to take this and go

I'm hopeful for this, and I hope I am granted a beta account. This could be the beginning of a whole new world.



Friday, May 08, 2009

Remind me, how is Windows the dominant OS?

It doesn't take long to come around and realize how easy Linux has made some otherwise mundane tasks. Let me back up a little.

This weekend our church is running its annual flea market and auction and for the auction we have a pretty slick deal.  We use multiple laptops including one in the auction audience which enters the winning number and amount once the auctioneer yells "Sold!".  So by the time the person gets out of their seat and walks to cash out the information is already entere!  The beauty of wireless technology.

The problem is getting enough laptops to all communicate wirelessly, as one has to run as the database server while each of the clients have to run their own copy of FileMaker Pro. Thus, we need all of the systems to run Windows or Mac.

That's the issue.  All of my home systems, and laptop, run Ubuntu or a special-use Linux. I have been Windows free for a while now.

So last night I took an extra hard drive I have for the laptop, and installed Windows XP on it, which was the operating system the laptop originally came with. Once it finished and I rebooted, that's when the difference between Windows XP and Linux became visible.

While I managed to install Windows on the laptop, it didn't include many important drivers such as the video, Ethernet, modem and wireless.  I was stuck in a 480x640 resolution with no access to the internet! Even clicking on the Internet Explorer icon displays a "What do you want to open this with?" dialog box!

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_MTRRJXrmok0/SgQqx_cyufI/AAAAAAAAA7U/mMmwqLLLAZ0/s144/DellDimD400-Left.gifNow, this laptop does not have any exotic hardware. I believe it has an Intel graphics and Broadcom ethernet and a Broadcom wireless card. It is a Dell Latitude D400.

Using a seperate computer I tried to download the drivers from the Dell website, place it on a USB drive and move it over to the crippled laptop.   When I tried running the self-extracting .exe I get an error that RPC (Remote Procedure Call) server is not running?!

So now, with one day to go, I have to try and find these drivers and install just the bare minimums so I can install FileMaker Pro and connect to the other computers on the network.

What gets me is that with Linux, and especially the later versions of Ubuntu, I have not had any show-stopping errors during installation or even running the LiveCD!  Linux has detected my display adapter and I get my 1024x768 resolution. The Ethernet is detected and turned on immediately so I can get online, updates, whatever immediately. The wireless drivers, I know, need to be downloaded but between the handy hardware drivers application that lists everything needing a proprietary driver, and that my ethernet connection is humming along nicely, getting the wireless to run is a snap!

For all those people talking about how difficult Linux is to install, have you really tried installing Windows lately, or is Windows easier only because somebody else (as in the manufacturer) did all of the work?