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Archives for May 2009

8 Linux Distributions Compared

Here’s an interesting article comparing 8 Linux distributions. The distros reviewed were Fedora, Mandriva, OpenSuse, Knoppix, Ubuntu, PuppyLinux, Backtrack and ArchLinux. Surprisingly, Fedora got the highest grade of 28/30, while Knoppix posted the lowest grade of 23/30. The specialty distros: PuppyLinux, Backtrack and ArchLinux were not given grades.

It certainly is a good idea to try other distributions. It gives you an idea of their look and feel, and how they work and behave. You will also get to know their quirks. I personally like Ubuntu. Mandriva used to be my favorite. I have Fedora now on my laptop. I haven’t tried OpenSuse in years. The last 3 specialty distros, I’m not too excited about.

So, here’s my advice. Go with a distro that floats your boat. One thing I’m glad of is that, there are many, many choices for Linux users. And that’s a good thing.

OpenOffice 3.1

OpenOffice 3.1 was released today. The previous version, OpenOffice 3.0 has been downloaded over 60 million times since it was released last October 2008.

So, what’s new with OpenOffice 3.1? An improved on screen graphics or anti-aliasing heads the list of improvements. The improved graphics even extend to images that are dragged across the screen.

Writer, the word processor now supports ‘reply’ and ‘conversation’ as well as an integrated grammar check operation. Calc, the spreadsheet comes with improved sorting, hot new formulas and overall improved performance.

To see all the new features of OpenOffice 3.1, check out the official release statement from the OpenOffice.org community.

Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope released just a few weeks ago comes with OpenOffice 3.0.1. To upgrade to OpenOffice 3.1, just follow the instructions detailed by Andrew.

Windows 7 At First Glance

I’ve just gathered a few articles worth noting as Windows 7 begins to take shape. As most of you know, Windows 7 Release Candidate was released to the general public for download. It’s a bit odd for Microsoft to do this. Was Microsoft feeling the pressure to release it? I just can’t get over the fact that Microsoft is giving away their latest OS for free with a license that will not expire until June 1, 2010. Perhaps, it was to relieve the pressure from Vista users for all their troubles.

Microsoft plans to offer six different versions of Windows 7. That seems a lot. Confusion may abound. There is a Starter edition which runs in XP mode targeting netbooks. XP mode is a bit restrictive since it can only run three applications at one time. Also, initial results of the speed test indicate that Windows 7 is not much faster than Vista. In addition, Microsoft also released the Windows 7 system requirements and they are not much different than Vista.

Complaints are beginning to trickle in. Mozilla recently said Windows 7 poses an unfair advantage over other browsers. That sounds familiar? There are other issues as well. One reviewer said Windows 7 did not install because it could not recognize the hard drive. The user had to use Gparted, a Linux tool to partition a drive and then Windows 7 proceeded with the install. Classic.

Do we expect big changes between now and the final release? Maybe. Maybe not. Report show that Microsoft tends to be slow in their development. There are not too many changes between the beta version and the release candidate. The downer is that initial reports indicate that as much as 84% of businesses will not upgrade to Windows 7.

In any case, we all want the Windows 7 product to succeed. We don’t want all Windows users switching to other operating systems like Linux and the Mac, do we?

You can read all Windows 7 related articles from ComputerWorld.