Sunday 29 April 2012

Press Reaction to Ubuntu 12.04


It’s been almost 4 whole days since Ubuntu 12.04 was released – but what sort of reaction has it received from the mainstream technology press?
Let’s take a tour through a maze of quotes and reaction from some of the internet’s leading voices..
Quote from Engadget on Ubuntu 12.04
Engadget were traditionally brief in their nod to the release, but mention that ‘Pangolin does include some rather notable tweaks.’
But reviewer Terrence O’Brien seemed most excited about the ‘…vastly improved performance and power management.’
‘Ubuntu, for all of its finer points has never been particularly battery friendly. But Canonical is promising that is going to change. We’ll have to wait to find out once we get this bad boy installed on some machines of our own.’
Whitson Gordon over at Lifehacker was passionate about the HUD, citing it as being ‘…enough to get us upgrading as soon as possible’. 
lxerquote
Patrick Quinn of LXer was eloquent in giving his take, saying that  “…with each release the focus on the user becomes more and more evident, culminating with this, Ubuntu’s Unity finally stating to leave that dark tunnel and enter into the warm light of general acceptance.” 
Ars Technica‘s Ryan Paul, in one of the tech press’s more in-depth run-downs of the release, was succinct in his summation, calling the release ‘…an incremental update that is fairly reliable, but doesn’t introduce many ambitious changes. Advanced users will benefit from the introduction of the HUD, but most users won’t notice major differences.”
Quote from PC Advisor
Mike Williams of PC Advisor notes that there are a ‘stack of worthwhile improvements everywhere you look’, and cites ‘significant performance improvements mean the fancy visual effects work smoothly even on systems with basic integrated graphics.’
The ever on-the-level Computer Active were far more enthusiastic in selling the benefits of the OS to their readership, giving the release a full 5/5 stars and billing it as ‘an excellent alternative to Windows.’
Tim Smith, in writing the review, addresses the ‘Unity’ issue from the get go, advising that ‘[Unity is] worth persevering with even if you don’t like it at first.’ 
‘Ubuntu is a great operating system that …can be used to give a new lease of life to older computers. [It is] is much more convenient when wanting to quickly check some information on the internet.’

Where’s the negative?

So where’s the negative stuff; the list of annoying quirks in Pangolin?
It’s worth remembering that the majority of the mainstream tech press only dip in to Ubuntu twice a year, and then only spending a short time with it to write their posts.
So far the ‘negatives’ have been fairly coy or subtle – Terry Relph-Knight from ZDnet, for example, cites the lack of ‘creative software that’s comparable to the proprietary apps available for Windows and Mac OS X’ as a negative. Something that is hardly Ubuntu-specific.
Fellow ZDnet writer – and it’s fair to say general critic of Ubuntu – J.A. Watson, reports a less than pleasant experience with installing the release on a Samsung netbook.
But overall the general feeling i’ve got from the reviews I’ve read is that Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is a notable success. 

Tuesday 24 April 2012

[How To] Access Google Drive Via Nautilus in Ubuntu

Google’s newly-launched ‘Drive’ feature may have failed to give Linux users a client from the get go – but that doesn’t mean we need to go without entirely.
A temporary solution is available for those willing to try it.  It’s not as elegant or featured as the clients Google provides for Windows and Mac users, but it may help bide the time for avid Google-users looking to make the most of Drive before something more official arrives.

Google Docs Drive FS:


The package comes courtesy of Luca Invernizzi, and is based on the discontinued ‘google docs fs’ project that ”[allows] you to connect to Google Docs and treat it as a file system.”

Sounds technical, but put simply it means you can access the files and documents in your Google Drive as you would any other folder.

But there are limitations to this approach.

The majority of features billed in the Google Drive clients themselves are not provided in this fix – the most notable of which is the inability to add files, sync files or otherwise access the folder whilst offline; uploading additional files to the Drive also doesn’t seem to function fully.
        With the disclaimers out of the way lets see how you get it all set up.
First you need to add the packages provided by Luca and available in his PPA (11.10 only at present): -
  • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:invernizzi/google-docs-fs
  • sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-docs-fs
Once everything that’s needed has been installed log out and back in.
  • Open Nautilus
  • Create a new folder in your Home folder titled ‘Drive’
  • Open a Terminal and run: -
    • gmount Drive username@gmail.com
  • Input your password
  • Your Google Drive is now mounted in the ‘Drive’ folder.


Google Drive Launches, Lacks Linux Client

Google has finally launched its long-anticipated cloud storage service ‘Drive’.
Google Drive Linux
Offering 5GB of free storage to anyone with a Google Account, the service outdoes similar offerings from Dropbox, and matches that offered by Ubuntu One.
Drive is accessible from any web browser at drive.google.com or one of the dedicated clients it provides for Windows, Mac and Android. An iOS app is to follow ‘in the coming weeks’.
Amongst the features touted by the service: -
  • Collaborative editing
  • ‘Smart Tagging’ feature
  • OCR support (inc. for images)
  • Support for 30 different types of file in the browser – including Photoshop and Illustrator files
  • Buy up to 16TB of space
  • 99.9% Uptime Promised

Open Platform

But for all the celebration there is something missing: a Linux client.
It was hoped that, based on past software offerings from the search giant, that Linux users would be provided with a desktop client similar to that offered for Windows and Mac users.
Google Drive App on OS X
The good news is that Google have made Drive an open-platform, with third party developers free to add additional functionality - such as ‘sending faxes, editing videos and create models’ – to the service .
And as Linux users can take full advantage of the web-interface, there is in theory at least, the potential for some form of desktop integration (even if it’s notification support for updated/edited files) to appear down the line.
But there’s still reason to believe that a Linux-client of Drive could yet appear. Google say that today marks only the beginning of Drive, and that there are ‘many developments’ yet to come.
Here’s hoping that one of those ‘many developments’ is a treat for faithful Linux users.
Edit: Commenter Matt Katzenberger suggest using the Google Drive feedback form to let Google know there is a demand for a Linux version.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Will Google Drive Support Linux?

Google Drive
Word on the winds is that Google will launching their own cloud storage service – called Google Drivenext week.
The service will go head to head with long established titans of the cloud-storage scene such as current market leader Dropbox and Canonical’s ‘Ubuntu One’.

Google Drive – “All your files – everywhere.”

With its release yet to be formerly announced by Google it’s no surprise to learn that official specifics of the Google Drive service are scarce on the ground.
But leaks, hints and rumours point towards Drive offering at least 5GB of free online storage to users. Details on additional storage options beyond that are, as yet, unknown.
In order to compete with Dropbox and similar Google Drive has to offer more than a place to put your files; it needs to provide a way to easily access, edit and upload them too.
To this end a set of applications are expected to launch for use alongside the service, allowing users to sync files to and from their Google Drive directly from their operating system – be it mobile,desktop – or through a browser at drive.google.com.

Mac App

Google Drive Mac App (Via techcrunch)

A leaked build of the Mac app has already been uncovered by one leading tech site (although as the service is not yet live it doesn’t do anything).
With Mac users tended to it’s safe to assume that Windows will also be supported with a similar app - but what about Linux?
No official word, but, based on Google’s past products, it’s likely that a Linux version of the Google Drive sync client will be produced – although may not be available at launch (E.g. as with Chrome, Google Music Manager, etc)
But given that Google’s own internal OS is based upon Ubuntu, and that Google Drive is likely to be useful to its employees as it is to Joe User, I would venture as far as to say that a Google Drive sync client for Linux is all but a certainty. 
 

Friday 13 April 2012

Ubuntu Phone OS Takes A Step Closer?

Ubuntu Phone - Fan Concept
A recent job posting from Canonical appears to show that the company is serious about its intentions to enter the mobile OS market.
In a vacancy titled ‘Business Development Manager (Ubuntu Phone OS), the company are calling for ”a business development lead to engage and develop strong relationships with industry partners in the run up to the launch of Ubuntu as a smartphone operating system,” so as to, they say, “establish a commercial ecosystem around Ubuntu as a smartphone OS.”
With recent announcements (and positive reaction) to Ubuntu for Android, you could forgive Canonical for leaving their ambitions there.
But, if the job posting is taken at face value, they haven’t.
By continuing with plans for a bona-fide Ubuntu Phone OS of their own, they company are putting the ‘Can’ into Canonical.
How well would competing against Android with Ubuntu Phone OS on one tack, whilst also complimenting it with Ubuntu for Android on the other work out? That remains to be seen.
Canonical Jobs, via Tips Form

Saturday 7 April 2012

How Linux Is Built

You use Linux daily – but do you know how it’s built?
The Linux Foundation explain in this slick 3-minute video.