The VAR Guy

In April 2011, Ubuntu 11.04 was foist upon the masses — or at least upon those who chose to upgrade. Now that the new operating system has officially debuted, it’s time to recap its upsides and downsides. Read on for one user’s opinion.

A slightly belated “happy second anniversary” to the Google Chrome web browser, which debuted September 2, 2008. And Google’s marked the occasion with the launch of a Chrome 6.0. Here’s a quick look back at the birthday browser, and Chrome’s growing popularity with The VAR Guy’s readership.

A couple weeks ago, Google, along with a number of other groups, famously advanced the WebM codec as a supported video format for HTML5-enabled browsers, in an attempt to finally put forward a standard that all parties involved can agree on.  How far has the Linux community come since then in implementing support for the new codec?  Here’s a look.

I’ve read a lot about Google’s Chrome browser in the blogosphere, but have yet to see it being used in the wild. Given this observation, and my increasingly strained relationship with Firefox, I decided to give Chromium, the open-source browser on which Chrome is based, another try.  Here’s what I found.

If you thought using free software protected you from the privacy invasion and forced advertising that are often bundled with proprietary platforms, you may have thought wrong. Until recently, the alpha release of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) sported a feature in Firefox called “Multisearch,” which modified Google searches in order to collect data about user behavior.  Here’s the story.

With an alpha version of Google’s Chrome web browser recently released, I’ve been using it on Ubuntu for a few days.   Below are some thoughts on the new browser and its ability to improve the Ubuntu experience.

I wanted to view the Wikipedia article on OpenOffice recently, so I googled ‘openoffice’, correctly assuming that the link I was looking for would be near the top of the results.  While doing this, I noticed that a Google query for OpenOffice also turns up a couple of paid ‘sponsored links’ on the right side of the screen leading to websites offering dubious downloads of what purports to be OpenOffice, or something close to it.  Here’s a screenshot:

Here’s to the next generation IT channel. The VAR Guy’s readership continues to master new technologies. For instance, 3.99% of www.thevarguy.com visitors now run Google Chrome. Not bad for a one-week-old Web browser. Here’s a breakdown of the browsers readers use when visiting this site.

Sure, Dell Inc. sells desktop and mobile PCs with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled. But will the company actually advertise those systems? Such a move would stun Microsoft Corp., which had expected 2007 to be the year of Windows Vista. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that Dell is taking a look at a potential Ubuntu ad campaign.

I’m out in Colorado Springs this week for an Avnet/Sun Microsystems partner conference. Although I’m blogging away from my MacBook Pro, I was pleased to see dozens of attendees using Sun Ray 270 thin clients. Sun donated the systems for the event’s cyber cafe. Each thin client includes the Thunderbird e-mail client, StarOffice 8 and Firefox. Sun would be wise to show these thin clients — and their open source components — at additional events across the country. Most users don’t even realize they’re on a thin client rather than a PC.

I’ve noticed that many sites on the Web require Java code that doesn’t come preinstalled on my Dell PC. I’m sure it’s an easy fix (fingers crossed). I haven’t had a chance to read up on Java, find the appropriate downloads to work with Firefox, etc. I’ll be sure to do so after the 4th of July holiday here in the states. I assume the rest of the free (Ubuntu) world has already found the appropriate downloads. I’ll catch up … soon!

A few hours after setting up my new Dell Ubuntu PC, my wife jumped onto the system. You know her kind: She is an Apple Mac OS fan who uses Windows — but doesn’t really like Windows. So, how did she do with Linux?

I’ve finally had a chance to run my Ubuntu PC from Dell. I can see why the systems aren’t quite ready for all users. But I’ve got to tell you, folks. It’s clear to me that Ubuntu will be able to serve a large segment of the consumer population. In fact, Ubuntu is better than Windows in at least five areas. Here they are.