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.

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Windows Vista

Technorati Tags: vista,ubuntu,hardy heron,8.04,lts,wubi,virtual clone drive,windows,dual,boot,loader,ntfs

 

If there has  ever been a time to try Ubuntu, now is the time. The latest soon-to-be full release supports the latest hardware, almost entirely out-of-the-box. What's even better is the latest release, 8.04, allows for the option to install Ubuntu directly inside Windows.

Support for NTFS partitions has been in beta and almost a risk to the user, but now it works seamlessly with Ubuntu. When you download the latest ISO image from http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.04/, or any other mirror, instead of burning the image to a CD, just download and install Virtual Clone Drive, a free tool used to mount ISO images as a CD-ROM. Of course this tool won't let you use an ISO image as a bootable disk to install Ubuntu the "normal" way, but it does work to install Ubuntu directly inside of Windows.

The installer (called Wubi) works almost exactly like a virtual machine. It creates an image that is whatever size you desire, and then uses that image as the drive. Wubi will then alter your boot-loader (this works with the Vista boot-loader as well). So unlike the olden days where a user who was curious about testing Linux would create a second partition, alter the Master Boot Record (MBR) and then install another boot-loader (like Grub), Wubi keeps it simple. Wubi installs Ubuntu into Windows, adds a line into the Windows boot-loader, and then works like normal.

The problem with the old way of installing Linux is it would alter the MBR. Once the MBR has been altered, it takes some extra hoops to jump through if the user desires to delete Linux and go back to just Windows.

Now you just delete a file.

Actually, it's easier than that. You run an uninstaller, and it restores the Windows boot-loader, deletes the virtual image, and any other files it created to set this up.

For all the Linux-illiterate people, if I could sum this up into two messages, I'd say this:

 

1) Try the latest (I have the beta) version of Ubuntu, 8.04.

2) Try it in Windows (it supports Vista).

 

***Side-notes:

1) Make sure you install the 32-bit version of Ubuntu inside the 32-bit version of Windows, or 64-bit with 64-bit.  Don't try to cross them. IT JUST WON'T WORK.

2) Don't deal with burning the ISO to a CD. It doesn't support some drives anyway. Just use Virtual Clone Drive - it's free.

Vista SideShow and Common Sense

I upgraded to a new laptop recently and it came with Vista. The things of Vista really didn't interest me until I set out to learn and like it with this new laptop.

The one thing that really piqued my interest is Vista's SideShow feature. I think this makes sense, but not in the area they were intending. I would never want to buy a laptop like the one from ASUS that has as second display on the outside of the lid. (I thought the lid was to protect that screen... so now I have one without a lid. Ok...)

However, I can totally see this SideShow being very useful when working with secondary displays plugged in by a VGA, DVI, or HDMI connector. I use my secondary display very infrequently, unless I am monitoring my emails like I am panicked. But otherwise, that screen just sits there with a window sitting on it. If Sideshow could be put out to other monitors, it would then become something very cool, and useful.

People could even add a touch-screen monitor to their computer, and let SideShow run on it, with a user interface added. I think this could add a new level to secondary attached monitors.

 

What would this take to make this possible though?

 

I think there would either have to  be an updated driver for video cards to remain online while the PC is on standby, or an updated BIOS to allow the video card to remain on. This would not take much to add this great functionality to our second (or third) displays.

 

Ok, now somebody who knows how to do this, patent it and make money off it. Do whatever you want with the idea. I just want SideShow to make some sense.

The Way It's Meant to be Played

Among computer gamers and 3d-application aficionados, the question of which video card to buy is not as much a question as which manufacturer to go with. The primary two video graphics producers are ATI and Nvidia. Having owned both brands of video cards, it is hard for me to say which is better. Because their differences are so slight, the question you'd ask is, which logo do I like better? Although that is just in humor, both cards do have their differences. One company focuses on one aspect like the number of pipelines, whereas the other company focuses on the bits of the card - 256bit, 512bit, and so-on-and-so-forth.

I am not going to tell you which card is better, because new video cards are always being released - almost every week. But I will tell you my experience with one card I am quite happy with.

Earlier on another post, I talked about the Nvidia 7600 GT I bought. Well, I won't talk about how great of a deal it was, or all the features it has, because frankly, I already did. Instead, I will tell you about how great this card has performed while in Windows, as well as in Linux.

The card works in Windows. That is obvious. The drivers are great, Oblivion is pretty, Half-Life 2 is extremely fast. But in Linux is where I have grown a deeper respect for the card, as well as for Linux overall. Ubuntu has a new system of supporting non-free drivers if the user should so choose to. Well, I figured, shoot, I want 3d-graphics, I'll support Nvidia's non-open-source driver. It was two clicks and a reboot for me to have a 3d-desktop working perfectly in Ubuntu 7.10.

However, I did not know that I would get all the goodies that the Windows driver package has as well. For those of you who like the Nvidia settings, this will mean something to you. When you enable the Nvidia non-free drivers in Ubuntu, the 3d-settings are enabled, but also a tool from Nvidia is now able to be used. Before you use this tool, I would suggest you install something else, for your benefit. I suggest you install the Sysinfo tool. To install it, simply type this in the console:

sudo apt-get install sysinfo

Then open the tool by typing sysinfo, or selecting from the menu, Applications -> System Tools -> Sysinfo

This tool alone is the equivalent to many system info tools that would cost you $20 or more for the same functionality in Windows. You'll see an Nvidia button on the left-hand side of this application.









When you click the button, You'll see an Nvidia settings tool open. Within this tool you have many options, like anti-aliasing, Digital Vibrance to change the color-intensity, and so on.

If you did not want to install sysinfo, you can still access the Nvidia tool by typing in the terminal "nvidia-settings".



For any of the settings you specify within this tool, you will want those settings to automatically load at startup. To do this, go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions

Click on the "Startup Programs" tab, and then click on "Add". Type whatever you want for the name, but for the command type in "nvidia-settings -l" and it will load the settings without launching the nvidia-settings application.

The (Future) Best Media Player

I love searching the net for great information, and I just happened to stumble upon something like that. Mozilla, who is responsible for the creation of Firefox and Thunderbird, now is putting out a new project - Songbird.

Songbird bears an uncanny resemblance to Apple's iTunes, while proudly bearing the name of the Mozilla family tree. Songbird is currently in a development state, but it is currently available for download Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Why would this program become widely used? People, like me, have a computer with more than one operating system on it. I have Windows and Ubuntu Linux; other people have a Mac with Windows XP or Vista on it. The great thing about cross-platform software is familiarity and friendliness. Songbird, like Firefox and Thunderbird, is about being widely available to all computer users, regardless of operating system. My web browser of choice is Firefox, regardless of what computer or OS I am using. The same most likely could be with Songbird.

Straight out of the box (in Windows) Songbird supports playback 0f Windows Media files and Quicktime files. Upon install, it will automatically download and install the necessary packages based upon the options you choose.

If Mozilla creates this piece of software to be lightweight, fast, bug-free (for the most part), and very useful - which is why people use Firefox - this will be yet another friendly tool that can be used cross-platform.

Perhaps iTunes and Windows Media Player 11 might want to jump on the bandwagon. DRM is already becoming a thing of yesterday, so why not just let all users purchase the music they love anyways? (It would either be that, or the old-fashioned way - Limewire, Frostwire, Bittorrent, or whatever else is out there that people already would use for music.)