Welcome, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

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Ubuntu 12.04

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, released today!

I am composing this post on a Lenovo ThinkPad X61t running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, released today.  I always stick to the LTS releases at work, as the three and five-year support is a real boon here.

Ubuntu 12.04 marks the first LTS to make use of Ubuntu’s Unity interface.  Unity has been incredibly controversial since day one.  I have never been a fan.  I quite liked both the standard Gnome interface and Canonical’s Netbook Remix interface found in Ubuntu 10.04.  Lucid started out a little rough but has been a great release overall.  Now we have a new LTS with a new interface, and many other significant end-user changes.

I’ve only used it for a few minutes on mid-range hardware, but so far I don’t absolutely hate the new interface.  It’s taking a bit of getting used to but it just may be worth the effort, and I’m willing to run with it for a bit to find out.  If it wasn’t for changes like this, we’d still be stuck with Gnome 1, or maybe even FVWM and TWM.  Progress can be slow in Linux Land, as getting everyone to agree on anything is problematic at best.

Say what you will about Canonical, they clearly have a vision and are doing everything they can to execute this vision.  From Landscape to Unity to Ubuntu One, Canonical clearly isn’t afraid to push long-time Linux user’s expectations and comfort zone.

Congratulations on the new LTS release, Canonical.  I look forward to getting to know Ubuntu 12.04 over the next few years.

Android 4 (ICS) on an Eee Pad TF101

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After many failed attempts, I have finally successfully upgraded my Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 from Android 3.2.1 to Android 4.0.3. This is my first look and Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS.) So far, I very much like what I see.

First and foremost, Google has fixed my biggest complaint with Android 3, or Honeycomb. That is to say that they have replaced the hideous font that shipped as the default for the unlock scree, the clock, and more. I’m not too picky about fonts generally, though this one was unusually bad and just irritated me constantly.

This also appears to be the first version of Android that has been treated as a cohesive whole. While the behaviour is still very much Android, there are UI and UX refinements throughout the OS. I have only been using it for a few minutes, but I already much prefer it to earlier versions of the OS. It still isn’t as good as BlackBerry’s PlayBook OS, Palm’s webOS, or even Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, but it finally seems to be approaching these other OSs in terms of usability.

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BlackBerry Mini Keyboard for PlayBook

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I’ve been a happy BlackBerry Playbook user since I bought it last April.  I like it so much that I replaced my original 16GB with a 64GB model when the price dropped.  I greatly enjoy the interface and have it with me most of the time.  I’ve been watching for the mini keyboard with interest and picked one up on Sunday.  I really wanted to like it, but the keyboard, while well built, is unusable due to the size.  I planned and hoped to type a glowing review on the mini keyboard, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Ultimately, after only a few painful minutes of use across three short sessions, I’ve boxed it up to go back to the store.

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Tip: Clear out “hidden” Mac OS files

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One of the very few annoyances of using Mac OS and deploying on a Linux server is that occasionally Mac OSlitters your directories with annoying “hidden” files that start with “._”.  Here’s how to clean them out in one fell swoop:

find . -iname '._*' -exec rm -rf {} \;