I just run the Sunspider Javascript test on Firefox 3.5.5 (latest stable version), 3.6 Beta 4 and 3.7 pre-Alpha.
The results will vary depending on your PC specifications and Operating System.
Mine was a Pentium Dual-Core 3.2 GHz with 2Gb Ram, running Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 1 "Lucid Lynx" from a Live-USB.
So, the results were:
Firefox 3.5.5: 2306.4ms
Firefox 3.6b4: 2052.8ms
Firefox 3.7pre-a1: 1609.8ms
Well done Mozilla. That represents about 40% increase in Javascript speed. And what about competitive browsers?
Chrome 4.0.249.30 (beta): 812.0 ms
Opera 10.10: 7249.2ms
Well, not so well done I guess...But until Chrome gets 1/10th of Firefox's add-ons, I can't consider it as my first choice. Opera was inexplicably slow, maybe it has something to do with the Alpha version of Ubuntu... But Opera was the amazing feature of being a web server at the same time, which means you can stream your music from it, host your chat room or show your photos to your friends. Firefox is still my browser of choice because of the add-ons and I use Opera when I need this functionality. I hope Firefox and Chrome will release an edition with a built-in server in the feature.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. The best Ubuntu till now. Period.
Having tried the Alpha 5 in September and finding it stable and fast in my laptop, I was very eager to try the official release.
If reading the rest bores you, the verdict in 2 words is:
it rocks!!
And yes, the brown-orange theme has finally gone away!!
Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope had nice improvements such as the ext4 filesystem, which offered faster boot times among other advantages and the cool redesigned notification system, the disaster of the Intel graphics driver made it unusable to 50% of laptops... Having this terrible regression fixed by switching to the new UXA acceleration method, what new does Karmic Koala brought that made me and everyone else write dithyrambic reviews???
(Apart from trolls and Ubuntu-haters...)
First of all, ext4 has now matured enough and it is the default option on a new installation. It makes the boot process a lot faster, which is a big plus especially to netbooks.
In Karmic Koala, apart from the under the hood technical improvements, there were leaps in usability.
Usability improvements:
During the development of Karmic Koala, the 100 papercuts project started with the aim to fix minor annoyances, which experienced users wouldn't notice any more, but are visible to newcomers and adding up they could make a noticeable difference in usability.
While Ubuntu is being installed, there is a slideshow that guides users to the programs they need to use(Empathy for IM, Evolution for emails, F-Spot for photo album...) and most importantly to the Software Center in order to install programs. Amen!!!Finally the new Ubuntu user can figure out how to install a program without having to find someone who has done it before or ask in forums.The Software Center is a much improved version of the old Add/Remove(which many assumed that it was mainly for Uninstalling programs, like in the "intuitive" windows) and has the big advantage of fetching a screenshot of each application to help the user find what he/she wants among the thousands of available applications. It is also lays the necessary infrastructure for Companies to sell their applications, in the likes of the Android market.
(Software Center, new theme, "humanity" icons and cool notifications)
New Artwork:
The artwork finally improved considerably, with a fancier boot screen and a very cool -in my opinion- GDM login screen. As for the notification system, it dims & blurs when you hover the mouse over it and it simply looks awesome!!! I really hope it makes way upstream to Gnome, so every Gnome based distro will have it. The Human theme was updated and it is dark brown instead of the much criticized brown-orange of previous versions and there are other themes you can actually use(in the past versions, I haven't heard of a single person in the world to have ever used Crux theme for more than a day...). The new Humanity icons are far superior to the mundane Human icons of the previous versions and there are abundant wallpapers to choose from vs the only 2-3 wallpapers in the past.
Ubuntu One client preinstalled: Ubuntu One can be very useful for sharing files between Ubuntu PCs. Unfortunately if you use other OSs apart from Ubuntu , you won't find the appropriate client for them...But you can still use the Web GUI to get a file you need or upload something. The more frequent use I can find for Ubuntu One is syncing files between my home PC and my netbook, which runs Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
(Ubuntu One web interface)
Default applications:
The deafault applications are in their newest versions: Firefox 3.5, OpenOffice 3.1, Gnome 2.28 and kernel 2.6.31.Kubuntu comes with KDE 4.3.2, which has the awesome, the best theme ever "Air", to which win7 theme looks suspiciously alike (good move by MS!). If someone would make a Gnome rip-off theme of "KDE Air" I would immediately use it, in place of anything else. Unfortunately Kubuntu doesn't come with all the improvements of Ubuntu, such as the Software Center.
Netbook users will prefer the UNR edition (Ubuntu Netbook Remix), whose interface was revamped to be even easier to use in the small netbook screens.
(Ubuntu Netbook Remix, new simpler-to-use interface design)
Servers:
There is also the server edition, but personally I'll wait for 10.04, which will be an LTS version with 5 year support for servers. Till then my 8.04 install will keep serving me, as it has without failure for the last 1,5 year. For anyone who wants to set up a new server, it is a good choice because you can get official paid support from Canonical should you want to, and it also has Eucalyptus infastructure for deploying your Ubuntu installation to Amazon Servers.
The Future:
Next Ubuntu version 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" will be a Long Term Support(LTS) version and will receive 5 years of support for servers and 3 years for all other editions. Since it will be an LTS version, the primary goal will be maximum stability, which will make it a good choice for OEMs to include in their products. The artwork design will once again improve, as well as the usability with another launch of the "100 papercuts" project. Currently, no radical new features have been announced and there probably won't be any, since ext4 is already the default file system and the next generation BTRFS is still under heavy development. Gnome 3.0 with the totally redisigned Gnome-shell won't make it for the same reason(not mature enough for an LTS version) but it will be available in the repositories.
In the netbook field, Ubuntu Moblin remix will be released as well as the awesome (I have used awesome too many times, haven't I? But it's worth it ) looking Kubuntu Netbook Remix, which will be the best looking netbook OS by a long shot.
So what are you waiting for?? Download Ubuntu today and give it a try.
If reading the rest bores you, the verdict in 2 words is:
it rocks!!
And yes, the brown-orange theme has finally gone away!!
Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope had nice improvements such as the ext4 filesystem, which offered faster boot times among other advantages and the cool redesigned notification system, the disaster of the Intel graphics driver made it unusable to 50% of laptops... Having this terrible regression fixed by switching to the new UXA acceleration method, what new does Karmic Koala brought that made me and everyone else write dithyrambic reviews???
(Apart from trolls and Ubuntu-haters...)
First of all, ext4 has now matured enough and it is the default option on a new installation. It makes the boot process a lot faster, which is a big plus especially to netbooks.
In Karmic Koala, apart from the under the hood technical improvements, there were leaps in usability.
Usability improvements:
During the development of Karmic Koala, the 100 papercuts project started with the aim to fix minor annoyances, which experienced users wouldn't notice any more, but are visible to newcomers and adding up they could make a noticeable difference in usability.
While Ubuntu is being installed, there is a slideshow that guides users to the programs they need to use(Empathy for IM, Evolution for emails, F-Spot for photo album...) and most importantly to the Software Center in order to install programs. Amen!!!Finally the new Ubuntu user can figure out how to install a program without having to find someone who has done it before or ask in forums.The Software Center is a much improved version of the old Add/Remove(which many assumed that it was mainly for Uninstalling programs, like in the "intuitive" windows) and has the big advantage of fetching a screenshot of each application to help the user find what he/she wants among the thousands of available applications. It is also lays the necessary infrastructure for Companies to sell their applications, in the likes of the Android market.
(Software Center, new theme, "humanity" icons and cool notifications)New Artwork:
The artwork finally improved considerably, with a fancier boot screen and a very cool -in my opinion- GDM login screen. As for the notification system, it dims & blurs when you hover the mouse over it and it simply looks awesome!!! I really hope it makes way upstream to Gnome, so every Gnome based distro will have it. The Human theme was updated and it is dark brown instead of the much criticized brown-orange of previous versions and there are other themes you can actually use(in the past versions, I haven't heard of a single person in the world to have ever used Crux theme for more than a day...). The new Humanity icons are far superior to the mundane Human icons of the previous versions and there are abundant wallpapers to choose from vs the only 2-3 wallpapers in the past.
Ubuntu One client preinstalled: Ubuntu One can be very useful for sharing files between Ubuntu PCs. Unfortunately if you use other OSs apart from Ubuntu , you won't find the appropriate client for them...But you can still use the Web GUI to get a file you need or upload something. The more frequent use I can find for Ubuntu One is syncing files between my home PC and my netbook, which runs Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
(Ubuntu One web interface)Default applications:
The deafault applications are in their newest versions: Firefox 3.5, OpenOffice 3.1, Gnome 2.28 and kernel 2.6.31.Kubuntu comes with KDE 4.3.2, which has the awesome, the best theme ever "Air", to which win7 theme looks suspiciously alike (good move by MS!). If someone would make a Gnome rip-off theme of "KDE Air" I would immediately use it, in place of anything else. Unfortunately Kubuntu doesn't come with all the improvements of Ubuntu, such as the Software Center.
Netbook users will prefer the UNR edition (Ubuntu Netbook Remix), whose interface was revamped to be even easier to use in the small netbook screens.
(Ubuntu Netbook Remix, new simpler-to-use interface design)There is also the server edition, but personally I'll wait for 10.04, which will be an LTS version with 5 year support for servers. Till then my 8.04 install will keep serving me, as it has without failure for the last 1,5 year. For anyone who wants to set up a new server, it is a good choice because you can get official paid support from Canonical should you want to, and it also has Eucalyptus infastructure for deploying your Ubuntu installation to Amazon Servers.
The Future:
Next Ubuntu version 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" will be a Long Term Support(LTS) version and will receive 5 years of support for servers and 3 years for all other editions. Since it will be an LTS version, the primary goal will be maximum stability, which will make it a good choice for OEMs to include in their products. The artwork design will once again improve, as well as the usability with another launch of the "100 papercuts" project. Currently, no radical new features have been announced and there probably won't be any, since ext4 is already the default file system and the next generation BTRFS is still under heavy development. Gnome 3.0 with the totally redisigned Gnome-shell won't make it for the same reason(not mature enough for an LTS version) but it will be available in the repositories.
In the netbook field, Ubuntu Moblin remix will be released as well as the awesome (I have used awesome too many times, haven't I? But it's worth it ) looking Kubuntu Netbook Remix, which will be the best looking netbook OS by a long shot.
(Kubuntu Netbook. Was I exaggerating of it being awesome??
I think simply "awesome" is actually an understatement!)
I think simply "awesome" is actually an understatement!)
So what are you waiting for?? Download Ubuntu today and give it a try.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Hosting Your Windows 7 Torrenting Party
A video from Funny or Die UK.
If you are against piracy, yet you don't like paying overpriced products so a Corporation can make billions, while you get payed sh*t, just don't use win7... Use Ubuntu instead or any other Linux distribution.
If you are against piracy, yet you don't like paying overpriced products so a Corporation can make billions, while you get payed sh*t, just don't use win7... Use Ubuntu instead or any other Linux distribution.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Asus EEEPC 701 and 900 Anshul's Theme Manager = ATM
I can only report that this theme manger works great in Asus EEE PC 701 and 900 Xandros EASY DESKTOP Netbooks. Because this is Soooooo Neeeeew that these are the only 2 Netbooks so far that this script has been tested on. Anybody with a Asus Xandros Easy Desktop should try this script out. I run it on my Xandros Easy Desktop and it is the bomb In my opinion. Gives you a way to change wallpapers and themes and icons and also give a bouncy icon Mac look via a GUI interface. Simple to use also.
Here is what the author (a really good guy) of this script has to tell you about this
More Here
If you use his script to change your wallpapers or whatever in Easy Desktop on your Asus EEE PC Netbook. Please take the time to thank him and let him know you appreciate his hard work. If running something other than a 701 or 900 Asus EEE Let him know it works on your model or what doesn't work so he can incorporate it. He did that for me on my 900 when I tested his script. He is a very nice guy in my opinion also. I love my customized Xandros Easy Mode Desktop.
The second screenshot shows the difference between Anshuls older version 1 script and now his latest which I used which is Version 2.2. Notice how I changed the Desktop icons and how the taskbars look now between the two different versions and screenshots. I think Anshuls (thanks man) script is the bomb!
Update: Anshuls site has moved.
Update: He has another new site also
Here is what the author (a really good guy) of this script has to tell you about this
ATM-the theme manager for my eeepc
For my eeepc vanity needs i used to use theemer a wonderfully designed application with great gui.However,of late,i have not been using theemer as there is a bug in it on using gradient based images for the tabs in AsusLauncher the text on the tabs disappear which seems to be due to resizing of images in theeemer.I like changing my desktop look often and since i was unable to get theemer to work the way i wanted it to , I decided to make my own little script with gui using gtkdialog .
More Here
If you use his script to change your wallpapers or whatever in Easy Desktop on your Asus EEE PC Netbook. Please take the time to thank him and let him know you appreciate his hard work. If running something other than a 701 or 900 Asus EEE Let him know it works on your model or what doesn't work so he can incorporate it. He did that for me on my 900 when I tested his script. He is a very nice guy in my opinion also. I love my customized Xandros Easy Mode Desktop.
The second screenshot shows the difference between Anshuls older version 1 script and now his latest which I used which is Version 2.2. Notice how I changed the Desktop icons and how the taskbars look now between the two different versions and screenshots. I think Anshuls (thanks man) script is the bomb!
Update: Anshuls site has moved.
Update: He has another new site also
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Karmic Koala Alpha5
I downloaded Ubuntu Karmic Koala Alpha 5 today and gave it a test in my laptop. This laptop has Intel 945 graphics chip and it performed horribly with Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04). For this reason, I still use Ubuntu 8.10 in that laptop and in my desktop I use 9.04.
The Live-USB booted with no issues. The boot process now uses Xsplash instead of Usplash and it is different than the previous version. The rest of the artwork is still the same, but it should change a lot until September 24th when the Artwork deadline exprires. The notification system dims & blurs when you hover the mouse over it and it simply looks awesome!!!
The first thing I wanted to check was of course the performance of Intel graphics chip. Compiz worked flawlessly and glxgears run at about 1000fps, which was almost equal to 8.10 installed on the HDD. In 9.04, it had regressed several times slower.
I connected using an ethernet cable and as usual it worked fine.
Sound was fine too and after 5 hours of running from the Live USB, it didn't crash (some applets crashed here and there, but the X system never)so I guess I could even upgrade now to this ALPHA version and start using it for my everyday computing!! After installation it will boot and run a lot faster compared to the live-USB and previous versions, since it uses the ext4 filesystem by default. By the time the stable version is released, the stable kernel and the tweaks by Ubuntu developers will probably give it another boost to speed along with stability.
I noticed a bug, the workspace switcher won't allow you to increase the number of virtual desktops, It was already submitted to Ubuntu's Launchpad, but not to Gnome bugzilla, so I filled it in the latter(copied Ubuntu's bug report actually...)
So, that makes me a Gnome developer now, I guess...LOL!
Update: The bug is marked as fixed in Gnome bugzilla.
Summary of tests I performed on my laptop:
So does an upgrade to Karmic Koala seem a good choice?
For those with Intel graphics, it is an absolute must, since the driver in Jaunty was slow & broken and made many Ubuntu users skip that version or switch to other distros. For everyone else, it is a welcome (and free...) upgrade which includes a new kernel, ext4 by default, Firefox 3.5, Openoffice 3.1 and Gnome 2.28.
Next Alpha ver.6 will be available in September 17 and it will probably include new artwork, since the Artwork Second Drop, will take place in September 10th.
The Live-USB booted with no issues. The boot process now uses Xsplash instead of Usplash and it is different than the previous version. The rest of the artwork is still the same, but it should change a lot until September 24th when the Artwork deadline exprires. The notification system dims & blurs when you hover the mouse over it and it simply looks awesome!!!
Default desktop, showing the cool notification system
The first thing I wanted to check was of course the performance of Intel graphics chip. Compiz worked flawlessly and glxgears run at about 1000fps, which was almost equal to 8.10 installed on the HDD. In 9.04, it had regressed several times slower.
I connected using an ethernet cable and as usual it worked fine.
Sound was fine too and after 5 hours of running from the Live USB, it didn't crash (some applets crashed here and there, but the X system never)so I guess I could even upgrade now to this ALPHA version and start using it for my everyday computing!! After installation it will boot and run a lot faster compared to the live-USB and previous versions, since it uses the ext4 filesystem by default. By the time the stable version is released, the stable kernel and the tweaks by Ubuntu developers will probably give it another boost to speed along with stability.
I noticed a bug, the workspace switcher won't allow you to increase the number of virtual desktops, It was already submitted to Ubuntu's Launchpad, but not to Gnome bugzilla, so I filled it in the latter(copied Ubuntu's bug report actually...)
So, that makes me a Gnome developer now, I guess...LOL!
Update: The bug is marked as fixed in Gnome bugzilla.
Summary of tests I performed on my laptop:
- Graphics card: ✔
- Sound: ✔
- Ethernet: ✔
- wireless: not tested
- Microphone:✔
- Touchpad, usb ports:✔
- Function keys: ✔
So does an upgrade to Karmic Koala seem a good choice?
For those with Intel graphics, it is an absolute must, since the driver in Jaunty was slow & broken and made many Ubuntu users skip that version or switch to other distros. For everyone else, it is a welcome (and free...) upgrade which includes a new kernel, ext4 by default, Firefox 3.5, Openoffice 3.1 and Gnome 2.28.
Next Alpha ver.6 will be available in September 17 and it will probably include new artwork, since the Artwork Second Drop, will take place in September 10th.
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