[141002470010] |<title>Ubuntu Netbook Remix Review</title>
[141002470020] |With Ubuntu 10.10's failure to reach the expectancies version 10.04 LTS trained us to have, our Lucid Lynx review became slightly more important.
[141002470030] |We're all used with fans rising to the surface with every new Ubuntu launch, but an insistence on looks instead of functionality just got Ubuntu 10.04 LTS some extra praises.
[141002470040] |We've tested Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Netbook Edition over a period of one month on the following systems:
[141002470050] |<strong>The Installation</strong>
[141002470060] |After installing Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Netbook Edition (we've used the the UNetbootin tool and an USB drive), there were 1.4 GB free space left on the 4 GB Eee PC 701 system we used on our tests.
[141002470070] |Like any initial installation, there are a few things that need to be done in order to get a fully functional OS.
[141002470080] |We installed Adobe Flash Player for the Firefox browser, Skype, Calibre, as well as downloaded the latest system updates.
[141002470090] |The system was left with around 400-500 MB of free space.
[141002470100] |If you have a small netbook drive, like we had on the Eee PC machine, removing unnecessary language packs frees up some more space.
[141002470110] |To do this, you can either manually uninstall them by using Synaptic Package Manager or by installing the localepurge package (<em>sudo apt-get install localepurge</em>).
[141002470120] |Speed is the main quality I look for when choosing an OS for my netbook device.
[141002470130] |Netbooks need to load pretty quick in order for them to fulfill their role as systems that can be used just about anywhere.
[141002470140] |Ubuntu 10.04 LTS loads in almost 45 seconds on the Eee PC 701, a decent speed considering that the other applications load in a rather fast rhythm.
[141002470150] |For example, OpenOffice Writer takes a bit less than 5 seconds to load for the first time, which is great for a fully featured word processor.
[141002470160] |We've compared it with Gnome Text Editor which takes up 3 seconds to load.
[141002470170] |This was particularly surprising since Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is a fully featured OS.
[141002470180] |To be fair, a long time after the launch of the Eee PC series, most OSes created or configured for 700s did not reach a loading speed less than 45s.
[141002470190] |<strong>Installing software</strong>
[141002470200] |Since I ran out of disk space, I tried freeing it up with Ubuntu Software Center.
[141002470210] |Now USC is a pretty looking application that shows a list of available software which can be easily installed, as well as a list of already installed packages.
[141002470220] |Double clicking on the installed apps gives you a nice view of the software's descriptions, screenshots included.
[141002470230] |However, when using it, the interface was  rather slow, freezing while it loaded (as opposed to Synaptic, which offers a more stable software management experience).
[141002470240] |Canonical's decision to use Ubuntu Software Center instead of Synaptic as the main software management tool could however be a taste of what the company had in mind for the future of Ubuntu.
[141002470250] |<strong>The Desktop</strong>
[141002470260] |The Ubuntu desktop icons are organized in two sections: the left hand side gives you a menu, while the rest of the desktop lists the available applications for each menu entry.
[141002470270] |Take a moment to browse thorough it.
[141002470280] |Of course, they're also some tweaks you can do to increase the use of desktop space, such as installing tiny extensions in the web browser or changing the font size from Settings -  Appearance.
[141002470290] |<strong>Hardware support</strong>
[141002470300] |Once installed, Wi-Fi, sound and the embedded camera worked straight away, and so did most of the Fn buttons.
[141002470310] |You can test your webcam settings by opening the Cheese app from the Sound & Video tab. The microphone was set on mute by default, so it's best to make sure you've checked the sound preferences before making that important Skype call. 
[141002470320] |The keyboard works but it isn't configured to the detail.
[141002470330] |While the basic keys are fully functional, some of the Eee PC 701 keys seem to become redundant for the Lucid Lynx.
[141002470340] |The "Home" (or Windows) button has no functionality and screenshots can apparently be taken with both Fn+Ins or Fn+Del. Still, this is an incredibly small price to pay for an otherwise fully functional and fast distribution.
[141002470350] |Mapping keyboard shortcuts can be done from the System -  Keyboard Shortcuts application.
[141002470360] |Unfortunately, the "Home" key isn't recognized at all, but you can still use the "Show Desktop" shortcut by pressing Ctrl+Alt+D. Otherwise, starting a program can be a rather strenuous activity for us lazy people, requiring to minimize your open windows by clicking the Ubuntu icon in the top left corner and then selecting the desired location or software from the Desktop menu.
[141002470370] |Those of you who are more console oriented have a faster option, to start a console by holding Ctrl+Alt+T and type in the command that runs your desired software.
[141002470380] |One could also use Alt+F2 to run a software, but a terminal obviously gives much more options.
[141002470390] |<strong>Peripherals support</strong>
[141002470400] |Hardware support is arguably the most important feature of a Linux distribution aimed for general use.
[141002470410] |It's often the feature that makes a user move from one distribution to another, in trying to avoid the need to recompile a software or a kernel.
[141002470420] |From this point of view, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS wins the battle with other Linux OS.
[141002470430] |Getting Internet access as soon as the install process is finalized is obviously an important requirement for a netbook.
[141002470440] |We've tested Ubuntu 10.04 LTS with a ZTE MF110 3G modem.
[141002470450] |Ubuntu easily recognized the modem and installing it was a matter of clicking the Network button on the taskbar, selecting Create New Network and choosing the right Internet Provider.
[141002470460] |Previous Linux distros required a bit of installing and tweaking before getting this modem to work, so it was surprising to see Ubuntu make this completely hassle free.
[141002470470] |Printer wise, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS didn't had the drivers for Canon Pixma MP190, so it ended up using Canon Pixma MP180 drivers.
[141002470480] |However, the printer worked and so did the scanner, so the small name change wasn't that much of a concession.
[141002470490] |We've also tested an external Mikomi camera with Ubuntu and it worked as soon as we plugged it in.
[141002470500] |The one place where Ubuntu could do better is auto-mounting the SD card when inserting it in the netbook's card reader.
[141002470510] |Ubuntu doesn't automatically do this.
[141002470520] |Manually mounting it (<em>sudo mount /dev/sdb /media</em> in my case) is terribly inconvenient, as it never takes less than 12 minutes to actually mount it.
[141002470530] |Thankfully, in the end it does mount it.
[141002470540] |<strong>Power management</strong>
[141002470550] |With Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, the battery lasts for for about 180 minutes with Wi-Fi and browsing on.
[141002470560] |Compared with previously used distributions, this is an improvement from the battery consumption of the default OS my netbook came with (Xandros OS), whose battery only lasted around 2 hours after 3 years of usage.
[141002470570] |It doesn't last quite as long as it does with the Jolicloud OS, which can run for almost 3 hours on Wi-Fi before shutting down.
[141002470580] |We'd have particularly liked it if the battery icon would display the amount of time left until battery was depleted or fully charged.
[141002470590] |<strong>Bugs</strong>
[141002470600] |Ubuntu generated two types of errors on the Eee PC 701 netbook we've tested it on, that we haven't previously encountered with any other netbook OS.
[141002470610] |The most bizarre one is a disk failing error saying "A hard disk may be failing.
[141002470620] |One or more hard disks report health problems.
[141002470630] |Click on the icon to get more information."
[141002470640] |Yet when clicking the icon, generic information about my SSD drive pops up.
[141002470650] |Obviously, owning a netbook whose only SSD drive "might be failing" isn't the best of news, particularly since other operating systems did not complain of this.
[141002470660] |It sure doesn't inspire much confidence.
[141002470670] |However, several users reported getting this error for months in a row and not actually having any real issues, so we're doing our best to keep our calm.
[141002470680] |Another error that I keep coming across, when starting the system, was a battery warning that it only uses up to 1.9% of its power, meaning it's either dead or old.
[141002470690] |Obviously a part of us wishes that would be true, as it would mean the netbook could do a lot better power management wise, if it were new.
[141002470700] |It'd be interesting to hear if you came across any errors similar to this.
[141002470710] |The build-in card reader did not work on the eMachines 350 netbook device.
[141002470720] |<strong>Netbook optimization</strong>
[141002470730] |I can't, for the life of me, understand why a netbook edition's taskbar has to be always on top.
[141002470740] |Other then the clock and battery info applets, all the other icons are absolutely expendable.
[141002470750] |We found the taskbar to be quite irritating on a netbook, particularly when it's no easy tweak to auto hide it.
[141002470760] |Sure, a netbook isn't exactly the paradise of desktop area, but there's no use in loosing the little space available to a dispensable taskbar.
[141002470770] |By default a maximized or unmaximized window occupies the same space, with the minor difference that the maximized application's title is included in the taskbar.
[141002470780] |Therefore, peaking at the desktop or a different application requires two steps: first unmaximize, then resize.
[141002470790] |Wouldn't it have been easier to automatically resize all unmaximized applications?
[141002470800] |The only reason you'd want an unmaximized application in a netbook would be to either to see other open applications or the desktop.
[141002470810] |Another thing that was strange was not having multiple desktops in Linux.
[141002470820] |With the little space available on a netbook's screen, giving up on a basic Linux desktop feature is a rather unfortunate choice.
[141002470830] |When using multiple applications at once, it gets difficult to distinguish between them, as their titles are crowded in a small space.
[141002470840] |Thankfully, you can use the ALT+TAB keyboard shortcut to get a far better idea of the running applications.
[141002470850] |<strong>Conclusion</strong>
[141002470860] |Netbooks are easy to carry and simple to use, so it's important to have a fast bootup when you need to write, check or test something on the go.
[141002470870] |With Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, boot time is impressively short for a fully packed distro.
[141002470880] |Besides the minor optimizations Ubuntu 10.04 LTS could do better with, it's impossible to get over the fact that it has a great feel to it.
[141002470890] |Hardware devices simply work, the Ambience theme is lovely and installing software only takes a simple command-line or a tick in Synaptic.
[141002470900] |And, as always with Ubuntu, dependency worries are pretty much non existant if you stick to the right apt sources.
[141002480010] |<title>SoundConverter Review</title>
[141002480020] |Remember those days when we used to put together a music mix for someone special, either on tape or CD?
[141002480030] |In 2010 we don't just have different mediums (CDs, flash drives, FTPs, etc.), but there are also different file format options out there, some better than other.
[141002480040] |So we've reviewed a tiny tool that helps you convert media files in your desired audio compression algorithm.
[141002480050] |SoundConverter is an application that can convert from a multitude of filetypes (mov, avi, mpeg, ac3, dts, alac, mpc, ogg, aac, flac, etc.) into 5 different audio formats: wav, flac, aac, mp3 and ogg.
[141002480060] |To install it, open a terminal line (Ctrl+Alt+T in Ubuntu) and type <em>sudo apt-get install soundconverter</em>.
[141002480070] |Feel free to write us if you encounter any errors, but in our case, the installation was flawless.
[141002480080] |It took up less than 1 MB space to install and it loaded in a couple of seconds.
[141002480090] |In our case (Ubuntu 10.10), the launch icon was in the Sound
[141002480100] |Add Folder/File.
[141002480110] |Before converting them, make sure you indicate what format to convert them in and where to store them.
[141002480120] |This is done by going to the Edit -  Preferences menu.
[141002480130] |Once you've added the desired files in the  list and clicked the Convert button, all the files in the window are converted.
[141002480140] |Note that SoundConverter is configured by default not to delete the original files.
[141002480150] |In one of our tests, it converted twelve mp3 files into Ogg Vorbis format in less than one minute.
[141002480160] |Compared to other applications we've used, SoundConverter has a decent to fast speed conversion even at high quality.
[141002480170] |This makes the application even easier to use, particularly since its simple interface and small size make it a fast loading program.
[141002480180] |<strong>Flexibility</strong>
[141002480190] |In order to convert into mp3 format, you must first install the GStreamer mp3 encoder on your system (if you haven't already done so for your distribution).
[141002480200] |To do this, simply go <a>here</a> and select the right package for your distribution.
[141002480210] |This will install a useful software called gstreamer plugins from the “ugly” set (gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse).
[141002480220] |It is a small group of plugins that let you do various things with media files, from real time sound processing to playing videos.
[141002480230] |After installing it, restart SoundConverter to apply the new changes.
[141002480240] |This will add the mp3 entry to the "Type of Result" section in SoundConverter's preferences menu.
[141002480250] |Everything about changing the conversion options is done from the Edit -  Preferences menu.
[141002480260] |To choose what format to convert the files in, go to the "Type of Result" area in Preferences and select one of the 5 possible choices: Ogg Vorbis (.ogg), MP3, FLAC Loseless (.flac), AAC and MS Wave (.wav).
[141002480270] |To change the folder where the newly converted files are stored go to the "Where to place results" section of the window.
[141002480280] |Each music file format available for converting comes with it's own settings.
[141002480290] |When converting to MP3 you have the option of changing the bitrate (constant, average and variable) and the quality (ranging from very low to insanely high).
[141002480300] |If you prefer Ogg Vorbis files, the quality option is enabled, while FLAC and MS Wave (.wav) are much less flexible in changing the quality of the converted file.
[141002480310] |Below this area, SoundConverter gives you an estimate of the target bitrate, based on the quality option you chose.
[141002480320] |For example, when selecting insanely high, Ogg Vorbis's compression algorithm target bitrate is high as ~500 kbps, while .mp3 and .m4a is ~320 kbps.
[141002480330] |<strong>Naming</strong>
[141002480340] |Soundconverter has the ability to name the files based on a predefined pattern from the Preferences menu.
[141002480350] |The most elementary one is that of replacing the suffix.
[141002480360] |However, you can also create a custom pattern, configuring the program to add the track number followed by the artist's name and then the title.
[141002480370] |To do this, select Custom filename pattern and type {Track}_{Artist}_{Title}.
[141002480380] |You can choose to replace the underscore character "_" with a different character in the filename pattern.
[141002480390] |<strong>Bugs</strong>
[141002480400] |We feel it would have been easier for the main window to display the selected file format and where it'll store the converted files.
[141002480410] |Particularly since there's plenty of free space in the toolbar.
[141002480420] |This would save some effort from going to the Preferences menu entry every time.
[141002480430] |<strong>Conclusion</strong>
[141002480440] |SoundConverter is a friendly,  simple and fast application.
[141002480450] |Because it's designed to handle multithreading, it uses all possible cores to speed up the process of conversion.
[141002480460] |Most of all, it allows for a casual "translation" of both video and audio files into audio formats, making sound converting accessible to any user, not just sound-experts.
[141002490010] |<title>Mozilla Firefox Review</title>
[141002490020] |<strong>Firefox is the second most used browser in the world, after Internet Explorer, so when a new version is launched people are going to be interested in what prompted this move from Mozilla and what are the major differences between the latest version, 4.0 and the 3.x series.</strong>
[141002490030] |<strong>First impressions</strong>
[141002490040] |Most likely, there's going to be some opposition, as there are major design modifications in Firefox 4.
[141002490050] |People aren't usually happy with change no matter how small or big it might be.
[141002490060] |First thing users will see is the redesigned interface, which now tends to be a little "chromified".
[141002490070] |If you have yet to install Google Chrome, then a quick look at the bottom screenshots will clear that up.
[141002490080] |This look-alike feeling is even more obvious with the 'URL preview' feature.
[141002490090] |If in Firefox 3.x hovering over an URL previewed that link in the status bar, in Firefox 4.0 the URL preview will be shown over the status bar, just like in Google Chrome, although in a more eye pleasing fashion.
[141002490100] |<strong>Functionality</strong>
[141002490110] |Tabs are now much better looking, with small gaps between them, transparent so they can borrow the color of whatever persona you are using and can be grouped by categories (a feature called Firefox Panorama).
[141002490120] |Most importantly they are now placed on top of the address bar by default.
[141002490130] |You can now set different groups for work, e-mail, shopping, etc and moreover, every tab can be turned into a "pinned app" by right click and selecting the "Pin as App Tab" option.
[141002490140] |With this option checked the tab will remain pinned even if you restart the browser, which is quite useful if you are working with Firefox on a daily basis and with one or more websites constantly.
[141002490150] |A keener eye will also observe that the "refresh", "stop" and "go" buttons have disappeared, being replaced by a single one, at the end of the URL address field, that changes in regard to the current state of the website.
[141002490160] |This will more than likely upset people, so there will certainly appear extensions which will bring back the old format.
[141002490170] |Unlike Google Chrome which has gathered every item in the menu bar into a single entry, Mozilla has opted to keep them on by default, although users can right click in the Menu Bar and uncheck the option to view it.
[141002490180] |A small button appears in the right side, just like in Chrome or Opera, with everything crammed together.
[141002490190] |Mozilla has certainly observed the trend of minimalist browsers and provided users with the possibility to customize theirs in the same fashion.
[141002490200] |<strong>Add-on Manager</strong>
[141002490210] |The other major feature that got completely redesigned is the Add-on Manager, which is now a lot more spacious, giving it a cleaner look.
[141002490220] |The Add-on Manager opens up in a new tab, not a separate dialog, which makes it a lot easier to use and interact with.
[141002490230] |Unfortunately, restarts are still required for most installed Add-ons, but it's a small price to pay for the abundance of extensions out there (even if some of the more important ones haven't been released yet for Firefox 4).
[141002490240] |Fortunately, there are now add-ons that do not require restart.
[141002490250] |Most importantly, add-ons will be updated automatically, without any user input.
[141002490260] |This may not be a good thing, mostly because developers can sometimes change an important feature and some users will prefer to use an older version.
[141002490270] |<strong>Cloud Sync and rendering engine</strong>
[141002490280] |Another important feature that ships by default with the new Firefox 4.0 web browser is the Sync option, which can be found in the Preferences menu.
[141002490290] |Users are now able to sync their bookmarks, history, paswords, preferences and tabs on any computer.
[141002490300] |In order to do this, they must sign-up for an account which will make sure that everything will be stored in a cloud environment, which is hardware independent.
[141002490310] |So, if you lose your favorites, history and so on, you'll be able to easily get the data back, on any computer, with just a username and password.
[141002490320] |Firefox 4.0 now uses the Gecko 2.0 engine, which has improved the speed of the web browser.
[141002490330] |Still, it's not as fast as Opera or Google Chrome, but at least is a serious step forward and gives us hope that Mozilla can do better.
[141002490340] |Firefox also features a new JavaScript engine, JägerMonkey, which will, supposedly, boost the performance quite significantly.
[141002490350] |This remains to be further tested, but, so far, it has proved to be rather useful.
[141002490360] |The memory usage was also improved, Firefox now getting closer to a normal consumption.
[141002490370] |As far as we can tell, memory usage has dropped to almost half.
[141002490380] |The first thing we noticed was that we didn't have to restart the browser midday in order to clear the 600-700 Mb that were used.
[141002490390] |<strong>Conclusion</strong>
[141002490400] |The Firefox 4.0 web browser still doesn't seem as light as its competitors, but, maybe in the future versions, it will get even more optimized.
[141002490410] |Even if some users will disagree with the new look of Firefox 4.0, everyone will get on board eventually.
[141002490420] |Mozilla has finally got its web browser from the 90's look into the present, even if it's a little late to the party.
[141002490430] |Rest assured that Google and Opera developers will not stand idle in the meantime and Mozilla will have to work a lot harder if they want to stay on the heals of Internet Explorer.
[141002490440] |<b>Follow the editor on Twitter <a>@softpedialinux</a></b>