Two things have changed (and one has not) and one is new.

• First, Ubuntu 8.10 is reported to be even better at hardware compatibility.
• Second, OpenOffice is reported to have better MS Office compatibility. If a recent PowerPoint presentation is any indication, the compatibility still sucks. I can only hope the file I received was OO-2.x.
• Lest I forget, there is still no Blackberry support so no matter what I do, I will need a VMware image of the RIM software for the two or three times a year when I need to reset my device and for those occasions when I need a tethered modem.
• Lastly, there is a new challenge for Ubuntu - I need support for ActivClient. They have a client but they only report working with RHEL 3 and 4 as well as Suse 9.3 and 10. I will be running Ubuntu which is based on Debian.

So, in a few days, I will take my test machine and install Ubuntu 8.10. I’m not so stupid as using my real machine for the first attempt. Give me some credit !
So, the fact I will have a small VM image is telling. Linux is still not ready for the corporate world, if for no other reason that the Blackberry *is* for the corporate world. Still, I’m crazy enough to throw myself into the breach once more.

Well, with my switch back to Windows for my work PC, I now have the option of using the new and richer Notes Standard client and adding lots of cool plug-ins to the side panel, or go back to Notes Basic. I chose the latter. “Why ?!” I hear people asking. Simple - “performance” was my number one reason. Notes 8.0.2 is reported to have improved performance and I will definitely watch for it. My favorite comment on the subject was “I already set ClientRunFaster=1″.

Secondary was that some events in the Eclipse framework tend to “single thread” everything else. In switching, I do lose one of my most favored capabilities. With Notes Standard, I ran Sametime in the side panel and that allowed me to save my chats directly into my mail file. I really like that. But I will give it up and run Sametime as a separate application to keep my machine running smoothly (and quickly).

BTW - savvy readies with elephant memories will recall I’ve reverted to Notes Basic before. … and who said, “there’s no going back” ?

My latest problem is a solution for virtual desktops. I keep multiple applications open for much of my work day and one of my computers only has 1024×768 screen.

Forget about Compiz and 3D and spinning cubes and glitz and glamor. I use the very simple and very useful default “workspace switcher” …

Ubuntu Workspace Switcher (enlarged for your viewing pleasure)
real size is only about 150 pixels wide

The simple virtual desktop gives me 4 virtual screens. The four box interface sits in the taskbar. It takes about 150 pixels of space. With it I can …

• the switcher UI sits in the taskbar
• switch to a virtual screen and open an application
• easily see which virtual screens have applications - 
• the ability to see where my apps are is a major advantage
• in the image above I have Lotus Notes on screen 1, Pidgin and a chat on screen 2, and a file browser on screen 3
• quickly drag an app from one screen to another by dragging the little iconic thumbnails
• switch virtual screens
• hotkey back and forth
• click on the associated box in the taskbar

I have tried 5 or six different virtual desktop products for Windows. None even get close. Why is that ?!

Is there a product for Windows that will do what I list above ? What virtual desktop solution do you use ?

This post is targeted for a very specific audience - Linux users who want a non-neutered ffmpeg for audio and video file conversion. Windows users don’t have this problem but because of various licensing issues, the most common ffmpeg packages for Linux have all been built without MP3 or ACC support. This makes things like “converting for iPod” a PITA.

There are loads of site that tell you how to fetch the source code and build ffmpeg with the right switches to add the support back in but there is no need. It is nicely documented at the ffmpeg Wiki …

Install ffmpeg with MP3 support:

vi /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable main

apt-get update

apt-get install ffmpeg

Another place to get the media support you need is at www.medibuntu.org. That’s all there is to it. Enjoy !

Oh, by the way, to convert a video for the iPod (iPod video in my case) I use one of the following commands …

:original

ffmpeg -y -i <inputfile> -f mp4 -acodec aac -ac 2 -ab 48 -vcodec xvid -qscale 4 <outputfile>

:tv

ffmpeg -y -i <inputfile> -f mp4 -acodec aac -ac 2 -ab 48 -vcodec xvid -qscale 4 -s 512x384 <outputfile>

:widescreen

ffmpeg -y -i <inputfile> -f mp4 -acodec aac -ac 2 -ab 48 -vcodec xvid -qscale 4 -s 720x304 <outputfile>

:custom

ffmpeg -y -i <inputfile> -f mp4 -acodec aac -ac 2 -ab 48 -vcodec xvid -qscale 4 -s <customXxcustomY> <outputfile>

common custom resolutions:

    720x304 (2.35-1)

    624x336 (1.85-1)

    624x352   (16-9) widescreen

    512x384    (4-3) tv

• I need good blackberry support (both sync’ing and use as a tethered modem)

• while it is theoretically possible to use a Blackberry with Ubuntu, it is difficult at best and some things like a full resync and updating certificates is a Windows only proposition. The same is true for using the Blackberry as a modem (unless you are a *nix God).

• I need my documents to look perfect when I share them with colleagues and executives

• no matter how you cut it, an OpenOffice document is not 100% the same as a Microsoft Office document and the same goes in reverse. It is this last bit that was one of the fatal nails. I could not reliably round trip a document or presentation with coworkers and worse, if the presentation went up to an executive, odds were nearly 100% something would look wrong.

• I need my heavy use apps to work and be supported by corporate IT

• the two most used applications in my office are Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime. They both are available on Linux but neither is 100% as functional as on Windows. I realize that Ubuntu is not yet supported by the Lotus products but that just means every issue is answered by “sorry”. And I know some of these exist on Windows but I can’t do much about that until I switch back. I have lived with so many PITAs that shouldn’t exist - and this is not just “the first Linux release”, but after subsequent releases.

The good news is that some of my favorite things will travel back with me. Tools like GIMP for graphics arts work; Thunderbird as my blogging client; SystemRescueCD (installed on the HDD or course) as my full image backup strategy; and while I can’t take my very clean TAR-GZ daily backup solution back to Windows, I will take the strategy and implement it with DataSafe Backup or Comodo Backup.

There will be some things I will miss. But it’s all about productivity and Windows for my corporate life has provien too difficult to rebuff. Fortunately, Ubuntu remains on my personal laptop. <yippie>

• I did not install the ATI video driver
• I did not attempt to get Compiz Fusion working
• I installed and later removed xcompmgr (initially to get AWN working)
• I did configure, but later disabled, Avant Windows Navigator
• I did ‘theme’ Ubuntu to look a bit like OS X (I’ve gotten comfortable with the look and having my window controls on the left)

I am left with a 24 pixel panel at the top and bottom of my screen. The one at the bottom is for my “open windows” but I seldom use it so it will be the next thing to go. The one at the top has icons for the most used apps, the default desktop switcher, and my status icons. With this setup, I have all nearly all of my screen real estate for work and I have nearly all the same function as my “cool desktop”.

I miss the 3D effects but I have not really given up much in the way of functionality. What I have gained is a faster startup time, hibernate and sleep functions, more available memory, and a few less distractions. Most of all, the machine is more stable and less vulnerable to system updates that trash the video.

Recently, I’ve been wanting suspend and hibernate to work and recently there has been a bunch of internet traffic about new ATI drivers - specifically the new Catalyst 7.12 driver. I followed the easy instructions and rebooted to be witness to a video disaster - the video rendering of Comiz and VLC were very slow.. I panicked but had enough still functioning to try the alternate install process. That was worse - now I had a square block under the cursor that would appear more often than not and remain until some other action refreshed the screen.

I Googled for a solution and started editing the xorg.conf. That was a *big* mistake. On the next re-boot, I ended up with a whopping 800×600 display and not much else. In a panic, I Googled some more and got instructions for unistalling my mess. Yet another big mistake as I dug the hole even deeper. When I finished uninstalling what the instructions indicated, and rebooted, I had lost my network.

The saga went on for a couple more hours. I finally got networking back. Then I looked for my old instructions and found some that were good enough.

The consisted of …

• install the ATI 8.42.3 driver
• check the install with “fglrxinfo” to see the following:

display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5200
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6473 (8.37.6)

• check your xorg.conf against the one for the “good enough” link

This whole ordeal would have been easier if I had not been traveling as I could simply restore my system form the NAS. All the backups in the world can’t help when they’re not accessible. I guess my next trick should be cloud storage !

Easy blogging from Linux is no longer an illusion. Now that I have found a good interface for using email, I can get back to regular blogging.

My new workflow is to start writing my blog; decide what picture or artwork complements the subject; launching the image in GIMP to size it and then with a single click, border it, shadow it, and save it. “Yes”, a single click. Thanks to Kevin Galligan over at bigheadco, I have a tweaked a macro to just “click and save”. My next trick is to make it work directly from Nautilus folder so I can just right-click an image and bingo-presto have a nicely sized / bordered / drop-shadow image for my post.

To get the right look, I format my email using “paragraph spacing”. This may not be necessary but it generates the most appropriate HTML. I have also added my blogging email address to my address book in Thunderbird and designated “HTML” as the preferred sending format. It may sound like a bunch of different steps but it is about 90% as easy as sending emails - and I send *lots* of emails !

If you want to see what the pre-post email looks like, click here.