Ubuntu Musings

One of the biggest flaps in the Ubuntu community has come about as the result of the new look that’s being applied to version 10.4  of the distro. Suffice it to say that the new interface has been garnering mixed reactions from Ubuntu users.

Some people really like it. Others are loudly complaining about the changes, which involve not just cosmetic alterations but also changes to positions of buttons. I’ve been following this flap in a very oblique way, and I have to chuckle. I’ve only got one thing to say about this:

Stop whining!

The interface is new. It’s a little different. It’s not the end of the world. Anyway, there are more important things to worry and complain about.

Admittedly, I haven’t tried it out in any of the alpha versions of Lucid Lynx. I like what I’ve seen, but I can’t definitively say whether or not the new interface is an improvement.

But guess what? When I upgrade, I’ll adapt. And that’s the key. Adapt. As I wrote elsewhere:

Humans have an incredible ability to adapt. But often, we fall into the trap of complacency and embracing the familiar. Sometimes, developers need to shake things up a bit. Users shouldn’t whine about how one application doesn’t look like another. Instead, give the application a serious try, and try to adapt.

I’ll close with some thoughts from Bruce Lee on this subject:

Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

You’ve probably noticed the lack of updates to this blog in the last while.  I know, I know — about a year ago I said that I was going to let this blog lie fallow …

Anyway, in between work commitments and preparing for a presentation that I’m giving later this month in Seattle I haven’t had much chance to write about the things I’ve wanted to write about in this space.

But over the last few days I’ve been playing with Jolicloud, a Linux distro designed for netbooks.  And I’ve been rather impressed. Even though I’m running it off a USB flash drive, Jolicloud is quite fast. The only problem so far has been with wi-fi — it detects my network but won’t connect. I can get Internet using an Ethernet cable, though.

I’m seriously considering pulling the trigger on installing it on my netbook. But I think I’ll wait until the next update is released.

Have you been using Jolicloud? If so, what are your impressions? Feel free to leave a comment.

Application: BambooInvoice

Replaces: Blinksale, InvoicesMadeEasy, Simplybill

Description: If you’re a freelancer of any strip or a small businessperson, you definitely want to get paid. The most common way to do that is to send clients and customers an invoice.

While you can create invoices in a word processor or a spreadsheet, keeping track of those invoices and their associated payments can be a nightmare. That’s where BambooInvoice comes to the rescue.

Written in PHP, all you need to run BambooInvoice is a Web server that’s running Apache, PHP 5, and which has access to a MySQL database. Most Web hosting firms fit that bill, and enable you to set up a database with a few clicks.

Once BambooInvoice is installed, you log in and create user accounts. If you have clients, you can add them to BambooInvoice by clicking the Clients link on the main dashboard. You can also customize your company information and add a logo to your invoices.

Creating an invoice is easy. Click the New Invoice link, select a client from the dropdown list, and then click Create Invoice. Just fill in the blanks on the invoicing form and before you know it, you have your invoice.

Once you have your invoice, you can print it, generate a PDF file, or email the invoice to your client. The invoice is sent as a PDF attachment.

BambooInvoice keeps track of the invoices that you’ve created for clients or customers, and even suggests names for new invoices. When you receive a payment, you mark the invoice as paid.

You can also export your invoice data to an XML file or a spreadsheet. From there, you can open the file in OpenOffice.org Calc and break down your earnings by client/customer, and even separate out the tax.

On top of that, you can customize BambooInvoice. How? The simplest way is by uploading a logo. But if you’ve got some PHP and CSS skills, you can try your hand at further customizing your invoices.

BambooInvoice has been great to work with. It’s easy to use and lets me quickly generate invoices. The fact that it’s an Open Source application makes it even more appealing to me.

If you’re curious, try out the demo.

Application: Piggydb

Replaces: Evernote, Backpack

Description: Piggyb is described as a Web notebook application that provides you with a platform to build your knowledge personally or collaboratively.

No matter what we do — writer, student, teacher, curious Web surfer — we tend to collect a lot of information. Links, quotes, snippets. And we generate thoughts, ideas, and (if we’re writing) even snippets of … well, whatever we’re writing.

Collecting, organizing, and accessing that information when we need it can be tricky. One way to do it is to use Piggydb.

In a lot of ways, it’s an Open Source version of Evernote. You create notes, called fragments that you link together. On top of that, you can organize those fragments in the same way you would index cards.

You can add tags to your fragments and also invite others to collaborate with you (sort of like with a wiki).

Piggydb requires Java to run. You can run it on your desktop, or as a Web application on a Web server via a .war file. To do the latter, you need a servlet engine like Tomcat. Then again, you can probably also run it off a Web server as long as the server has Java installed.

Overall, Piggydb is easy to use and it’s useful — whether you’re working alone or with others.

If you’re curious, try out the demo.

And there are more than a few of them. Why put your data in someone else’s hands when you can retain control?

Over the next few weeks I’m going to look at some Open Source apps that you can install on a Web server that give you many of the same features and functions of some popular (or even just well known) Web apps.

If you have any suggestions, send me a message on identi.ca or leave a comment in this space.

Recently, the folks at Canonical announced that in the Lucid Lynx release of Ubuntu, the default search engine for Firefox will be Yahoo! and not Google. Seems that Canonical (and, I believe, the Mozilla Foundation) will be raking in a bit more revenue from this deal.

The reaction to this move has been … varied, to say the least. It’s ranged from cheers to jeers (and I’m being kind when I refer to the latter). I think the polarization of this situation is best summed up in this lengthy conversation on identi.ca.

My take? I think it’s kind of ironic that an Open Source company will be garnering revenue from a property owned by one of the biggest opponents of Open Source. Remember that Yahoo! gets its search results via Microsoft’s Bing search engine. You can read whatever you want into that …

From the perspective of a user, I’m ambivalent. I don’t use Firefox much anymore. And I’m not (and never have been) a big fan of Yahoo! Guess what? Instead of stamping my feet and whining, I’ll do the adult thing — go into Firefox and change the default search engine. It’s a one-time process and will only require a few clicks. That will probably take less than a minute out of my life.