Archives for 2008

December 10, 2008

Install Linux In Your Old Laptop

Breathe new life in your old Laptop by installing and running Linux. I have a Fujitsu Lifebook S6210 that’s about four years old. It showing its age. The laptop has cracks in the housing unit, several missing screws, worn out edges and a couple of dead pixels on the screen.

It was running Windows XP Home Edition. It was painfully slow. Applications took over a several minutes to fire up. My laptop needs a makeover. Quick. Well, after years of abuse, installing and uninstalling software, system updates, etcetera, the laptop is about to give up the ghost.

I found the original Fujitsu box containing several factory CDs. One of the CD is the Recovery Disk. Perfect. It was time to reinstall the software as if it were new when I first bought it. I ran the recovery, rebooted, then the Blue Screen of Death.

I reinstalled twice. Each time I got the same result, the Blue Screen of Death. This I know for sure, the Factory Recovery CD image does not work. Next move. Install Windows XP Home Edition from another source. The problem is I don’t have one.

My brother has Windows XP Professional. So, I tried that. I found out my OEM Serial Key does not work on Windows XP Professional only with Windows XP Home Edition. It was so frustrating.

Finally, I was so fed up. I switched over to Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. I even tried Fedora 10. That worked as well. Needless to say, I didn’t have issues with the install. Just a couple of tweaks and I was ready to go.

So, if you have an old laptop that’s dying, don’t chuck it away. Install Linux. Install Ubuntu, Fedora or any other distribution you like. You’ll be amazed how your old hardware has found this fountain of youth called Linux.

December 7, 2008

Firefox 3.0.4 in Ubuntu Hardy Heron

After a clean Ubuntu 8.04 install, Firefox 3.0.4 web browser was not working quite right. Flash plugins and MMS videos were not working on some websites that use them. A prime example is the MLS or Major League Soccer website.

This post provides all the details to in order to get your Firefox browser working after a clean Ubuntu install. Just follow the steps below.

1. Install the latest Adobe Flash player. Download it directly from Adobe’s website. Select the Ubuntu 8.04+ deb package. Choose Save to the Desktop. Once saved, go to your Desktop and right click the file. Open it with GDebi Package Installer. Click Install Package!

2. Next, remove the SWFDEC plugin; the open-source replacement for Adobe Flash.

$ sudo apt-get purge swfdec-mozilla

Or you can also use the “autoremove” option.

$ sudo apt-get autoremove swfdec-mozilla

3. Finally, install MPlayer for sites running MMS videos.

$ sudo apt-get install mozilla-mplayer

There you have it. 3 easy steps to get your browser running in no time.

December 3, 2008

IE Explorer Losing More Ground

The latest web metrics from Net Applications, Inc. gave Internet Explorer a market share of just below 70%, a decrease of a few percentage points from last month’s numbers.

Meanwhile, Mozilla Firefox climbed above the 20% mark for the first time, while Safari increased to 7.1% and Google Chrome settled at 0.83%. The market share for browser use is available here.

I expect Internet Explorer use to diminish as the months go by as more and more home users will opt for Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari or Google’s Chrome which is currently in Beta mode.

A large percentage of the 70% market share for Internet Explorer is corporate use. Corporations can’t easily depart from Internet Explorer due to legacy applications that only work with Internet Explorer.

As more of these applications are phased out and new applications becoming more compliant to run on any browser – not just IE, you’ll see more companies turning over to Mozilla’s Firefox.

Another factor is the economy. Belts will tighten, more corporations will opt for open source solutions if and when available. The Internet Explorer market share can dip further down under the current recession.

With IE 7 having been out for a while now and IE 8 looming in the horizon, many corporations will not upgrade to the upcoming release of IE 8. At least not right away.

Expect the trend to continue for IE Explorer. It will lose more market share in the upcoming months.