My Manjaro Experiment

I might make a new section in this blog dedicated to my tinkering with Manjaro. It will primarily function for me as my build notes for a new laptop down the road if I will start from scratch again. 

For now, this will serve as my new chapter of the blog.

Reviving this Blog

After a long hiatus, I will be bringing this blog back down from the attic. Lots of cobwebs to clean up...

Decided to keep the old posts for good 'ol nostalgia.

Upgrading Nokia (un)Astound back to C7

 

 

Before I begin, let me apologize for the title. It may be harsh, but is the dirty truth, that the Nokia Astound’s performance and overall use is very poor. For those of you wondering what the Nokia Astound even is, it is the U.S. version of the internationally sold Nokia C7. It is a very well-made device from Nokia, and really pleasantly surprised me when I received my Astound in the mail.

 

Ubuntu and "Volume Shadow Copies"

I don't know if this is big information or new information - but I just read that the Ubuntu development community released and is improving an application called TimeVault. This app will act very similarly to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Vista's Volume Shadow Copy, or commonly known as "Previous Versions". It is my belief that this application will do the same thing- it will save each version of a document or file you create and modify - enabling you to go back in time and grab the version you wanted before hitting the "Save" button. If any of you are Apple fanatics, this is also similar to Time Machine on Apple's latest OSX Leopard.

So, pretty much, if you do photography, have family photos, write documents, record audio files, design graphics, etc., then this application is for you - which pretty much sums up every computer user. The technology we grow to love in Windows and Mac is now on a Linux machine, making the UI environment that much more comfortable and familiar.



Also as an aside - now that Amazon has an MP3 store and released their MP3 downloader application for Ubuntu, you also no longer need to rely on music stores like iTunes or Rhapsody to get your tunes. Amazon has what you need, in any platform, and you can use the built-in software which is compatible with almost any portable music player on the market, ranking from iPods to PlaysForSure devices.




I'll create another blog on my review of Ubuntu's TimeVault as soon as I install Ubuntu on my desktop PC here, so be expecting another blog detailing what I find interesting in the application.


-Ciao,
-Jonathan

Reasons for an Office 2007 Linux/Mac Port

This one will be short.

I think the best strategy Microsoft could take as a business move is to port MS Office 2007 for Linux and Mac. I believe that if MS Office 07 was available on any software platform, demand would rise exponentially for it. Nothing else compares to the 2007 suite - I have used OpenOffice.org multiple times in Ubuntu, but I still have to side with Office. It is has a smooth interface, ease-of-use, inter-compatibility with the other Office products and SharePoint, and so much more. If Office became the number 1 suite to use across all platforms, I do believe that it would knock competition out of the game. I am by no means a Microsoft fan - I just like what works well. I am willing to pay extra money for a better office product that will have many more features. Plus, still nothing can compare to MS Outlook 2007 for Exchange, POP, IMAP, or any other form of email use. It just works, and it works excellently with every other 2007 product - MS Infopath, Access, OneNote, Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

I think it would be wise for Microsoft to branch MS Office 2007 out of strictly Windows. Office is far better than Windows anyway. I am also writing this blog in Windows, though.



Microsoft Office is the one thing that is holding many users from being able to switch to Linux. Linux should no longer be a competition to MS, but more revenue with the Office system.