In 2007 I did a video on how to share files/folders to Windows with Ubuntu. But since version 8 of that OS the way in which this is done has changed a bit. It is simplified somewhat, but the drawback now is that in order to change the Workgroup name you must edit a configuration file manually instead of having the ability to do it in the GUI like before.

In the video – and here on this post – I make the request that if anybody knows how to change the Workgroup name without manually editing the smb.conf file, please feel free to comment and explain how that’s done, because I couldn’t find it.

Granted, the command line is not a bad thing, but the point here is that you used to be able to edit the Workgroup name via the GUI and now that feature seems to be gone – unless it’s hiding somewhere where I can’t find it?

See video for details.

Although I should have done this last month when it was released, I finally got around to downloading Ubuntu 9.04 to see what was new.

What I found that the most significant upgrades to the OS had almost nothing to do with the interface itself. From what I understand the Ubuntu team was going to revamp the UI in 9, but it couldn’t be completed in time so it’s slated for a later release. Instead what you get is the same interface you got in 8 (with some minor improvements), but the real power lies beneath the surface, so to speak.

What I mean by that is:

• Updated kernel
• GNOME 2.26
• Better multi-monitor support
• Faster startup time

In the UI realm, here’s what’s new:

What was most impressive to me initially was the Brasero optical disc application. This is, said honestly, a great app.  Why so great? Because it has everything people use CDs and DVDs for, and to boot it’s ridiculously simply to use. So simple and intuitive in fact that it should be an OS X app. It’s that good.

Also, since I’m running this in a virtual session in VirtualBox, I can say that 9 works better virtually compared to 8. Installation was super-easy, so I can safely assume that as the native OS it would work great as well.

Ubuntu is getting better. It’s easy to see why it leads the charge as the Linux desktop OS. This isn’t to say other distros can’t do the job (because they certainly can), but the user-centric nature of Ubuntu is what makes it great. Version 9.04 continues with that modus operandi and that’s why Ubuntu users enjoy the OS so much.

Need your Linux fix? Ubuntu’s new version 9.04 is available today and with it some genuinely significant updates, such as:

GNOME 2.26

The biggest improvement (for me) is that GNOME does better multi-monitor setup now with this version. Multi-monitor troubles with a Linux GUI have been a longstanding complaint of mine, and while Ubuntu 8 was a huge improvement over 7 for dual-or-more monitor setups, Ubuntu 9 with GNOME 2.26 should (hopefully) finally nail this so it’s done right the first time.

Linux kernel 2.6.28

This is obviously important because the OS runs on top of this. The Linux kernel has come a long, long way since 1991. You thought the Linux kernel was older? Not really. UNIX is (very) old, yes, but not Linux.

And yes I know the latest kernel is technically 2.6.29.1 at the time of this writing, but 2.6.28 is still a step up for Ubuntu.

Optional ext4 filesystem

This is not required to use as ext3 will still work fine, but this is what Linux distros are heading towards.

Ext4 will support volumes up to 1 exabyte and individual files up to 16 terabytes.

For those that say, "There’s no way I’ll ever have volumes or files that big", remember when we all thought 1GB was huge? Consumer grade exabyte drives will happen; it’s only a matter of time and probably not that far away.

Linux is ready for (what is currently considered to be) disgustingly huge volume and file sizes now with ext4. Best to get familiar with it now if you have the chance.

You can check out more of what’s available in 9.04 here. Lots of good stuff.

I’ll be checking it out personally once the official release is available later today.

With Ubuntu it is important (as it is in XP) to know certain network command functions. When most people have a problem with their router, cablemodem or DSL modem, they simply reboot the computer to renew the IP address. You do not have to do this. Instead you can simply shut down the network interface and restart it.

ifconfig

ifconfig is the command used in Ubuntu at the command line (better known as the terminal in GNOME) to not only find out what your IP address is, but also to disable/enable network interfaces if need be.

To see your current IP, just type ifconfig and press enter. You will see a list of network interfaces. On a wired connection, the first (and probably only) network card listed is usually eth0 (that’s a zero at the end, not letter O).

We’ll say for the moment your router had a screw-up and you had to restart it, so you need your computer to request its IP address back.

Releasing (down) and Renewing (up)

The release/renew commands from ifconfig are simply down and up.

We put a sudo in front of ifconfig to grant administrator privileges, and it all comes together like this:

sudo ifconfig eth0 down (shuts down the eth0 interface, releases the IP)

sudo ifconfig eth0 up (enables the eth0 interface, renews the IP)

And yes, you do have to use sudo both times.

Why know this? It saves time. Downing the network interface and "upping" it again is quicker than a reboot – especially for those of you out there with not-so good routers.

The default email client that comes bundled with Ubuntu is Evolution. Make no mistake, this is a really good email client (arguably just as good as Mozilla Thunderbird that also runs under Ubuntu easily).

Setting up an IMAP-enabled Gmail account in Evolution is fairly straightforward as long as you know where to enter in the SSL stuff and other odds and ends. Watch the video below to see how it’s done.

In Windows XP I use KeePass Password Safe, however in Ubuntu I was wondering if there was a similar program I could use there as well. It turns out there is and it’s nearly identical to the Windows version, called KeePassX.

The great thing about KeePassX is that if you’re already using KeePass there is literally no learning curve whatsoever.  Almost every function and keystroke is identical between one and the other. Additionally, KeePassX is available via Add/Remove in Ubuntu, so you never have to see the command line to install the program.

My only complaint about the software is that I could not locate any way to send or retrieve a database via FTP, but other than that, everything else follows suit, right down to the custom icon choices should you choose to use that.

See video below for details on how it works.

THIS VIDEO AVAILABLE IN HD!
Watch in HD now on YouTube

A common issue many have when installing Ubuntu in Virtualbox is that the default virtual resolution is limited to a maxium of 800×600. By installing the Guest Additions that come with Virtualbox, you can easily get any screen res you want. See video for details.

THIS VIDEO IS AVAILABLE IN HD RESOLUTION. Click here to go to the YouTube page and click the “HD” link in the video player.

Full disclosure: I personally subscribe to the philosophy that “benchmark = lie”, simply because there are so many factors which can influence results and typically the benchmark results have little bearing on actual practical use. That said, I know a lot of readers probably do not share my opinion and enjoy reading about – and performing – benchmarks.

So for those of you interested, here is an article which you might find interesting: Benchmarked: Ubuntu vs Vista vs Windows 7. The tests compared in this article are:

• How long does each operating system take to install?
• How much disk space was used in the standard install?
• How long does boot up and shutdown take?
• How long does it take to copy files from USB to HD, and from HD to HD?
• How fast can it execute the Richards benchmark?

First off, consider the source when reviewing the results. Additionally, you get some ‘colorful’ responses to the article which are pretty entertaining.

Of course, Windows 7 is still in it’s beta stages at this point, so any performance results are subject to change drastically before its release.

Just about every week on the PCMech LIVE show I am asked (more or less), "Where do I go to get a list of Linux distros that people actually use?"

The answer I always give is DistroWatch. Is that place the be-all/end-all for all things Linux? No (because there are many), but it’s a darn good start to get the news on what’s going on with different distros.

On the right sidebar there is a list of 100 different Linux distributions sorted by hit ranking. This gives an indication of what’s being actively used/developed. It is not by any means a master list, but like I said it gives a good indication on what you can try out that other people use.

As of this writing, the top 10 are:

1. Ubuntu
2. openSUSE
3. Mint
4. Fedora
5. Debian
6. Mandriva
7. PCLinuxOS
8. MEPIS
9. CentOS
10. Puppy

Want to see the rest? Check out DistroWatch for yourself.

What sites do you go to for Linux distro information? Are they better or worse than DistroWatch?

Write a comment and let us know.

One of the big perks of using a Linux distribution is having a choice of what window manager you want to use.

You can check out what’s available for Linux window managers and desktops here.

The one I’ll be concentrating on is fluxbox, a window manager.

Fluxbox is one of the lightest window managers you can use for a graphical Linux environment. To put it in perspective, GNOME is like a gas-guzzling Hummer H2 while fluxbox is like a gas-sipping Toyota Prius.

I have used fluxbox on occasion and I really like the way it’s sort of the "anti-GUI" GUI. There is no "start" menu. It has a ton of keycommands. The menu system is fully editable. It does do docking easily. And a whole lot more.

On startup, fluxbox has only a toolbar at the bottom and nothing more. The menu system is available by a single right click and everything expands from there. When most people use fluxbox for the first time they’re usually shocked at how Spartan it is. We’re talking super-barebones here – but it is lightning quick.

If you can get used to the way fluxbox does things you’ll notice that everything seems to run faster. And most of the time it is. Without the "thick" overhead of other managers you can get things done a whole lot faster – all without upgrading any hardware.

What does fluxbox look like? Ask and ye shall receive.

Special note for Ubuntu users:

Ubuntu does have nicely written documentation on fluxbox with Ubuntu, including how to install it, trying it out and moreover what you can do with it – including customization. Yes, there is some command line stuff involved but it’s well worth the effort.

You might like it so much that you use it as your primary window manager.

Those who use the Ubuntu operating system understand that when you go to Add or Remove applications, there are "main" apps and then everything else.

The "main" apps obviously work the best. These are the ones that are in Ubuntu’s main file repository, such as Mozilla Firefox and the OpenOffice suite.

WINE is currently not in Ubuntu’s main repository. It has been proposed that it should be.

My opinion? Yes, it should be there. Absolutely.

For those not in the know, WINE allows you to run certain Windows applications in Linux, BSD and Mac OS X. I say "certain" because WINE won’t run all Windows apps, but it covers a good amount of them.

Some would say "Why not just run a virtual session with Virtualbox under Linux to get all your Windows apps?" Yes, you could do that. But then you need a Windows license to install the operating system legally even in a virtual environment. With WINE there isn’t any OS-licensing necessary because you don’t need a Windows OS to run a Windows app. In addition, every time you want to run a Win app in Linux the non-WINE way you have to either "boot" the virtual OS, wait, then use it or physically restart your computer in a dual-boot Win/Linux style. This can get annoying quickly.

At present if you want to run WINE in Ubuntu you have to specifically choose the non-main repositories from Add/Remove. It installs and works, but the point is that if WINE came as a bundled app with the Ubuntu OS and resided in the main file repository, this makes it much more accessible. It also lets more people know that yes, you can run Win apps in Ubuntu without the need to install/use a Windows OS virtually (or dual boot, etc).

Whenever I need to run a Win-specific app in Linux, I always try WINE first. If it works, that’s awesome because it’s faster and more convenient than doing it any other way.

In this series I’m going to covers the ins and outs of using Linux as your primary home computer operating system. It will cover in a realistic sense what you can and moreover cannot do with it.

This is not going to be a technical explanation of how the Linux file system works but rather it’s immediate differences between it and Windows.

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By default when you create screencasts using recordmydesktop in Linux (Ubuntu specifically), the output is an OGG container file. As anyone who has tried to bring that file into Windows quickly learns, there’s not too much software out there that will “understand” OGG in Windows, and even less available if you want to edit it later on using your video editor of choice in Windows (or Mac for that matter).

So in the end you have to find some way to convert OGG to AVI while still retaining quality both for audio and video just to edit it.

While it’s true you can use ffmpeg from the command line in Linux to convert the file from OGG to another format, audio/video sync isn’t always the best and furthermore the quality is vastly inferior compared to the original OGG.

This article shows you how to get full quality conversions for OGG to AVI, both for video and audio – in sync.

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This article covers the following:

1. Setting up a workgroup in Windows XP.
2. Setting up a workgroup in Ubuntu 8.10.
3. How to share out files from your Windows XP computer on your home network so you can access them with Ubuntu 8.10.
4. How to access files shared by your Windows XP computer on your home network in Ubuntu 8.10.
5. How to share files out from Ubuntu 8.10 to a Windows XP computer on your home network.

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Note: My upgrade didn’t work but my new 8.10 Ubuntu is freshly installed. Here are the immediate things I noticed from my initial use of the OS:

Above: When I customize my appearance settings to “Subpixel smoothing (LCDs)”, “Slight” is now automatically selected and this is cool. Saves me a few clicks.

Above: You can now create a bootable USB stick of Ubuntu natively within the OS. (System, Administration, Create a USB startup disk). All OSes should have this feature, period.

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The Ubuntu 8.10 default wallpaper is the I’ve seen since “Dawn of Ubuntu”.

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The Partition Manager (GParted) is now much more graphical in the best possible way. The previous one was functional but a bit difficult to understand what it was doing. This one, however, shows everything in a clear concise manner. Very much appreciated.

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Above: Deskbar now operates much better. For those that use Launchy in Windows (which I do all the time) or Spotlight in OS X, Deskbar is now up to par with the others. Works very nicely and is buttoned up compared to what was in the 8.04 Ubuntu release.

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Above: At the top right (in the default desktop), the icon is redesigned in a way that totally makes sense. Gone is the green “running man”. A red universal power button now shows that on click is a simplified drop-down menu. You absolutely cannot mistake this for anything else (whereas with the “running man” you could). This is a good design choice.

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Several pop-up dialogs in the panel tray have been re-worded. For example, a wireless network is now labeled as a “hidden network”. For wireless routers that don’t broadcast their names, this makes sense to call it hidden.

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Above: Panels can now be “permanently” locked. Right click any panel and look for the “Allow panel to be moved” option. This is good to have so panels aren’t accidentally moved.

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I am still learning the ins and outs of the Ubuntu 8.10 OS but so far I can say yes, it’s easier to use compared to 8.04. There are lots of nice little touches here and there that make this a more enjoyable computing experience.

Note that I didn’t say enjoyable Linux experience – just computing.

Version 8.10 is good step forward in having a Linux based OS where you simply don’t have to care what the engine running it is.

Put another way: You could put someone in front of Ubuntu and that someone could use this OS without having to know nor care that it’s Linux.

As far as a desktop computing OS goes, that’s the ultimate goal. You should not have to ever think about the engine. You should be able to just turn it on and just do what you do with a computer, because said honestly you can cackle on all you want about Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux, but at the end of the day people will use whatever it takes to get the job done.

Ubuntu 8.10 definitely gets the job done.

If you tried 8.04 and were a bit turned off by the rough edges, many of those edges have been smoothed out with 8.10.