“The stereotype for each OS is well known: Mac OS X is elegant, easy-to-use, and intuitive, while Ubuntu is stable, secure, and getting better all the time. Both have come a long way in a short time, and both make excellent desktops. So we have two great desktop operating systems out at roughly the same time. Let’s see how they stack up against each other.”

Read the review here

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The Ubuntu Dell systems deal with the “Home and Home Office” category and only that. According to cosborn72, an Ubuntu Forums user, Dell refused selling him one of its Ubuntu Dell systems because he intended to buy it for his business and not for personal use only.

After contacting Dell’s small business departments, the above mentioned user, (cosborn72) found out it could not order one of the Ubuntu computers through that department, which is not actually surprisingly at all so far, as the respective systems were placed to the “Home and Home Office” category. Therefore the client went to the home department. Here is where the surprise was to come. The Dell representative the man contacted responded: “these Dell computers are designed for personal use only, as long as you use it for personal use, you can purchase one.”

But that’s not all. If you lie and say you buy the system for yourself and not for your business you’ll stumble upon another problem at pay time, in case you intend using the business credit card. Dell would accept only personal cards. What a shame.

A while ago, Dell Inc. company made an announcement according to which it would start releasing desktop computers and notebook systems with pre-installed Linux as an option. At the time Dell said it did not decide on what Linux distro would be shipped with their systems. In the end, after the suspense and rumors reached a really high quota, Canonical broke the silence and stated that its brand new Ubuntu 7.04, Feisty Fawn, was the chosen Linux version to run on Dell’s computers. The open source fans got so excited with the idea that they even set up online motions to convince Dell to start selling the systems outside the US too.

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The PC World editors have ranked Ubuntu Linux 7.04 as one of the 100 Best Products of 2007. The PC World’s editors said they’ve examined hundreds of products, among which also those that have appeared in the magazine over the past 12 months, in order to select the best 100 out of them.

“Products that win PC World’s 100 Best Products of 2007 Awards set the standard for excellence in the IT and consumer electronics industries… From notebooks and security software to MP3 players and smartphones, the editors reward the most outstanding performers in this annual awards program… Congratulations to Ubuntu 7.04…”, said Harry McCracken, vice-president and editor in chief with PC World.

Ubuntu 7.04, a.k.a Feisty Fawn, is the most recent Ubuntu Linux distribution, designed especially for the personal computers. As any other Ubuntu distro, it is based on Debian GNU/Linux, and focuses mostly on usability and ease of installation as well as freedom from any restrictions. And according to PC World Feisty managed to successfully accomplish all of its tasks and purposes. Its design, features and performance stand as the most obvious proofs of the reasons it earned the award. Ubuntu started as an initiative of Canonical Ltd., a private company founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, and it is still supported by it. Jane Silber, director of Operations with Canonical Ltd. considers this winning as the reward of the efforts made in order to spread and develop the open source software:

“Our goal is to make free software widely available to users and businesses in a commercially sustainable manner. To be ranked 16th by a leading consumer IT publication such as PC World is a strong endorsement of that approach. We hope that our position as the top open source project on PC World’s list will encourage even more people to try Ubuntu and perhaps explore the broad range of other open source technologies that are available”, said Jane.

The entire list of the top 100 best products is available on PC World’s website.

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Open Source applications can bring unique value to business owners. Since the base application development costs of open source applications is free, small and medium business owners are able to leverage previously unobtainable technolgies against their sales objectives, operational costs and customer satisfaction levels.

Most small and medium businesses cannot afford the typical IT infrastructure model - nor does it make sense even if it is within their budget. Consider the following expenses:

* Hardware Infrastructure (Servers, Routers, etc)
* Bandwith
* Software licenses
* Software maintenance
* IT Staff

The creation, countinued adoption and proliferation of Linux (Open Source Operating System) in many server installations across the world has changed the way businesses run their IT operations. Although Linux is not yet a viable technolgy in the workstation model, it most certainly has gained a large market share in the server/application world. Companies adopting Linux into their server environment have realized the decreased costs, increased efficiency and increased security associated with this platform. The secret is now out and organizations are jumping the Microsoft ship at an ever increasing rate. This trend has not been lost on the major players in the IT industry, as IBM and Novell have been furiously waving the Linux banner and adopting the Linux penguin into all their marketing efforts over the last 12-24 months.

What does this mean to the typical Small & Medium Business Owner?

Since the proliferation of Linux, many applications have been developed by programmers from around the world to run on this platform. Pretty much any application a business could require, no matter how specialized, can now be found in the Open Source community. By choosing an ASP (Application Service Provider) provider that has experience with these applications, and the necessary infrastructure to host, manage & support these applications for you, a business owner can now leverage core business applications at a fraction of traditional, “expected” costs. Although IBM has never been able to capitalize or deliver on their now famous marketing slogan “Pay like a little guy, Play like a big guy” - Savy business owners are learning how to accomplish this, even if it isn’t by calling IBM.

Enterprise level applications such as eCommerce, CRM, Content Management and Portals are now available for 100’s of dollars setup, not 10’s of thousands or 100’s of thousands dollars. Combine this with low, fixed operational monthly hosting and support fees - effectively eliminating infrastructure, IT staff, software and bandwith expenses - and the value statement becomes VERY strong for the typical business owners.

Other advantages with Open Source applications:

* Real time updates and upgrades. No more waiting for your vendor to release the next version before bugs &/or security holes are patched.
* Once a bug is identified and validated, the Open Source community is quick to release a fix.
* Open source means open and available code - unlike various proprietary systems, where source code is not available - application integration is now affordable and possible, even for small business.

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Dell has officially become a friend and supporter of the Ubuntu users’ community. The American computer-hardware company based in Round Rock, Texas, has just updated its website where it presents its open source offerings. Dell’s interest in open source is not new. Dell has also been known as partnering with companies such as Red Hat or Novell/SUSE. Now, after having announced on May 1, 2007 that it would be shipping the Ubuntu Linux distribution on its notebooks and laptops, Dell started selling them. For the moment the offer takes in only a laptop, a budget computer and a high-end PC.

Dell said it would offer hardware support, where the standard hardware warranty is applied, for all the three systems. The customers can get help and latest updates from the Dell Community Forum & the official Dell Linux website. Canonical also said to offer support to everyone who buys a Dell system with Ubuntu pre-installed. There are fee-based options that include 30-day Get Started, One-year Basic and One-year Standard.

The configuration of the three systems coming with pre-installed Ubuntu:

Dimension E520 N :

- Intel Core Duo Processor E4300 (1.8GHz, 800 FSB)
- Ubuntu Desktop Edition version 7.04
- 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
- 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache

Inspiron E1505 N :

-Intel Pentium dual-core proc T2080(1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB)
- Ubuntu Edition version 7.04
- 512MB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 DIMM
- 80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive

XPS 410 N :

- Intel Core2 Duo Processor E4300 (2MB L2 Cache,1.8GHz,800FSB)
- Ubuntu Desktop Edition version 7.04
- 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs
- 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache

Buy from Dell here.

Related: http://fossm.freeweb7.com/index.html/?p=10 

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It all started from a low level tool, used to install, remove, update or provide information about the .deb packages, called dpkg (which is the short for Debian package). As the system started to catch a more Gordian aspect, a higher tool was needed, so that it could be able to fetch packages from remote locations or deal with labyrinthian package relations. The APT (Advanced Package Manager) came then to make easier the process of managing software on the Debian GNU/Linux- powered machines. APT was automatically retrieving, configuring and installing software packages from binary files or even by compiling the source code. It could also work with the RPM Package Manager system through the apt-rpm version. APT is actually just a C++ library of functions (known as libapt). Based on this library, Conectiva company considered the development of a tool that should fuse the point-and-click simplicity of a graphical UI with the power of the apt-get command line. And that’s how the Synaptic graphical front-end for APT took shape. There is also a “brother” of Synaptic, which runs on the KDE desktops and which is called Adept.

That was a pretty long history lesson indeed, but I think it was worth remembered, for a better understanding of Synaptic’s purpose and how it actually works. As it comes as default once with the 4.0 version of the Debian based systems, Synaptic can be easily found by following the System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager menu path. Do not panic when you’ll be asked for password at start-up. It’s natural to go this way in order to prevent possible hacking attempts over the system from some potential malicious “friends” of yours using the computer while you’re away. This password requirement might also be there to discourage the newbies from damaging their system by accidentally removing the important packages. However, the later scenario is less probable, as Synaptic’ s GTK+ user interface is probably the most user-friendly UI I’ve ever encountered that even the most occasional Linux user can figure his/hers way through Synaptic’ s pallet of functionalities and features. Let’s stick our nose a little inside the mind-boggling package database. But this shouldn’t be confusing, as it benefits of a very clever and well-organized
management. One can choose the way the packages are grouped according to criteria related to the section they belong, or category, the package status, custom filters, or recent search. Also if you’re interested in some specific details such as its size, its dependencies, recommended or suggested additional packages, or a short description of a package, you’ll just have to take a look at the lower right window pane, where you will see such a details list. You can also examine these details with a simple right-click on the package and then choose the Properties option. Installing packages through Synaptic is also piece of cake. After you’ve selected the package(s) you want to install, just press the right mouse button and a context menu will pop-up where you can choose to mark the package(s). After you’ve completed the marking you can press the Apply button in the toolbar, or you can press the Ctrl + P keys combination. And here comes in action an interesting feature provided by this application. Synaptic has the ability to warn you if your choices conflict with packages that are already installed on your system. In this unfortunate case, a dialog box should show you the packages that need to be removed. Also, if the package you want to install needs other dependencies, Synaptic will let you know about them and will install those dependencies for you.

Things go the same way in case you want to remove any package. When it comes to removing, Synaptic also provides you with a more powerful option, Mark for Complete Removal, which will also remove the configuration files associated with the package. The list of repositories or software channels can also be easily managed from the Software Preferences Panel. The software preferences panel can be accessed by selecting Repositories from the Settings menu. Synaptic uses the system list of software from: /etc/apt/sources.list. If you alter your sources.list, you should then click on the Reload button at the top left of the screen to sync your repositories with the Package Manager. You can also do that by using the Ctrl+R key shortcut. The Settings menu offers another handful tool, Filters, which can create new filters for better managing the packages. Let’s have a word about the incommode broken packages. I’m sure most of you have already met them, and I don’t think you were too pleased with the message warning you about those unsatisfied dependencies. Well, Synaptic brings in the solution to this messy problem. A Fix Broken Packages tool. Moreover, Synaptic will not allow any further changes to the system until all broken packages are fixed.

The Good

For all you Debian-like users, Synaptic was created to give you a hand with all those packages and dependencies. Once Synaptic is running, dealing with system and application upgrades becomes as easy as abc. It finds, downloads, and installs all the upgrades.

The Bad

The “I haven’t encountered any unpleasant situation since I’ve started working with this application” statement applies in Synaptic’s case too. Besides the large official (and also unofficial) maintained packages, it also comes with many handy features and functionalities, easy to use by any user, no matter how limited his Linux knowledge would be.

The Truth

Synaptic is a graphical package management frontend for apt. It provides the same features as the apt-get command line utility but through a nice and ease-to-use GUI based on Gtk+.

by  Alfredo K. Kojima

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