Fabian Rodriguez

I’ll be at Linux World Expo 2008 next week in San Francisco with Canonical, and as such I am putting the final touches to several demos including one about what is different / new / “better” in Ubuntu 8.04 (specifically) on the desktop. I am talking about technical features, so I thought I’d ask around in case we missed the usual suspects. Here are some that made it into my short list for now, but I’d love to hear other ideas:

1. Easy and fast to try, install, use and upgrade: Wubi, LiveCD
2. Free and commercial options for desktop virtualization
3. Recovery options (at boot time in Grub, using bulletproof X…)
4. Launchpad integration in apps (translation, bug reporting…)
5. Desktop effects

I am also looking for any videos or screencasts of interesting uses of desktop effects. Who knows, your video may end up showing off Ubuntu at our booth I started putting together a list of video resources on the wiki, feel free to add individual links to any you find interesting right there - or simply post a comment here.

Apparently Corey was right all along.

I found about this via Ogg’s entry in Wikipedia. So I did the sensible thing.
Ahhh… that felt good.

Now, can someone with proper access in Launchpad make that “Confirmed, Critical, Hardy Milestone”… or whatever you deem more appropriate

It’s been a few weeks already that I joined the Maemo contributor program, which entitled me to a good discount to get a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet.

While I’m proud I was chosen among 500 other contributors-to-be, it really was an ordeal to just get the device. I imagine it’s not easy to set this kind of program up, including coordinating discounts in differents currencies, inventory, shipping, etc. But this being Nokia and their third time running this kind of program, it’s very sad they chose not to tell when problems and delays occured, letalone the fact those happened in the first place.

Unfortunately the holidays came and went and the devices were available at full price for a good time before any contributor got their device. Combine that with dog-slow online stores filled with hungry Flash animations, rude customer service reps and it’s almost a miracle the N810 made it my door. I can’t see what the greater plan is in terms of building a contributor community. Maybe this is some kind of “Amazing Race” obstacle course, for sure the few remaining are the bravest.

Some of you will hunt me down and spam me with threaths and “die, ungrateful spoiled kid” messages, but in the end this won’t change my opinion that this is the worse consumer experience I’ve had in a long time, and I think it is unfair to just go about it like it doesn’t matter. I reminds me of the OpenMoko debuts. Who cares if a product is a precursor in technological freedom if it can’t even be delivered to developers on time ?

Now, going back to the topic of blogging about the N810…

As a full-time Ubuntu user at work and home, I am planning to report about everyday use with an emphasis on VoIP, free media formats use and support (or lack thereof) and generally its “level of freedom” in terms of applications and sync’ing. I don’t intend to write a single line of code - instead I chose to help with bug reports, documentation and some blogging.

For now I am just putting together any links directly related to Ubuntu or LInux in general at the Mobile Devices / Nokia page on the Ubuntu community docs wiki, and trying some of them. If anyone’s interested in contributing to that resource or just finding out about its updates, consider registering to the Ubuntu docs wiki site and subscribing to that resource.

I’d love to see Ubuntu installed and working on the Nokia devices, but just to be clear, I don’t intend to work on that nor do I have any personal or professional plans to do so. To be super-extra clear, I just want to see how well the open Internet tablet scores with Ubuntu - while making it better at it, hopefully. And no, this has nothing to do with Ubuntu Mobile.

Sad as it sounds, there may never be a “year of the Linux Desktop. Linux world domination by 2008 as Eric S. Raymond described it will most probably happen with mobile and embedded devices.

Dear Lazy Web: for some reason these days several people are asking me the same question - What Webcam is the cheapest and best to use in Ubuntu ? Of course, it HAS to work with Cheese and video in Skype.

I’d love to know if anyone has suggestions from FutureShop.ca or BestBuy.com or NewEgg.com, in that order
The Logitech Quickcam Communicate STX seemed like a good candidate but it’s out of stock.

Perhaps what we need is some mashup of this, this and this.

It’ s been some time now that Savoir-faire Linux made available their Ubuntu Online Training courses, using Moodle. After trying their demo preview course (registration reqd’) I was very impressed and Yanick Cyr, a good friend of mine at SFL gave me access to the first level full course.

Shameless plug ? You bet. SFL is one of our local FLOSS success stories. I know Yanick worked his ass off on this and the result is a very complete, polished course with excellent resources. Not only do you get access to content from the official Ubuntu Training material (as SFL is an Ubuntu training partner), but SFL has gone as far as setting up regular live chat sessions, acces to a virtual Ubuntu server, quizzes, video screencasts and even a dynamically generated certificate… which you only get if you score high enough in the quizzes! And they have many other courses available.

I’ll save some of the excitement for next week when I get time to gather the screenshots I have and give a virtual tour of their course.

Well done Yanick and SFL!

Sheesh… I take a break from RSS feeds and blogging few weeks and all hell breaks loose.

“Nokia and Apple have privately pushed to give Ogg the noose treatment (and so far succeeded) in HTML5.“.

I told you so!

Now I am almost confused. I am hoping I will help improve the community support for open formats on the N810 as apparently starting next week they will be available to Canadian customers (and devs).

A few weeks ago I applied to the Nokia N810 maemo device program, as I’ ve become more and more interested in mobile devices. I thought my profile would fit their description of candidates fit for the program.

My close friends know a thing or two about my obsession with mobility (and, consequently, VoIP). I often have enough in my backpack to set up shop (or office) most anywhere and colleagues often come to me with unusual requests for adapters, connectors or accessories that I locate quickly among my desktop chaos. Unless you have lots of free time you don’t want my advice on the subject (including what kind of backpack best carries it all).

Last week I got an email announcing I had been accepted in the program, which means I’ll be able to buy a (discounted) device! Living in Montreal will no doubt help as we have a large free wireless network provided by Ile sans Fil.

My application basically proposed to work and contribute in the following areas, from a non-developer, end-user point of view:

• Making the N810 work flawlessly with Ubuntu: syncing, access to data, etc.
• Look for language support problems
• Abuse the device’s VoIP and video capabilities
• Obsessively use and abuse Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora content
• Share the device with colleagues & friends and collect input about all the above
• Report bugs, document and review this device on my blog based on all the above

I was clear in my application I won’ t be doing any dev work, and I have never contributed to the maemo project before, so I am happy I got accepeted and hope I will make the best of it.

I got an email from the FACIL “forum” mailing list telling me about Dawson College in Montreal putting together a Free and Inexpensive Adaptive Technology Database through the Adaptech Research Network.

The Adaptech Research Network consists of a team of academics, students and consumers. We conduct research on the use of computer, information, and adaptive technologies by Canadian college and university students with disabilities. We are based at Dawson College and are funded by both federal and provincial grants.

Our work is guided by an active and enthusiastic cross-Canada bilingual Advisory Board. Our goal is to provide empirically based information to assist in decision making that ensures that new policies, software and hardware reflect the needs and concerns of a variety of individuals: college and university students with disabilities, professors who teach them, and service providers who make technological, adaptive, and other supports available to the higher education community.

I am not the usability and accessibility expert for software in Gnome or KDE that is included in Ubuntu, but I am going to contact them and make them aware of it. I’d also like to ask anyone more knowledegable about this to also contact them. Here’s the quick explanation of what this resource is:

One concern that has been repeated throughout all of our studies has been the issue of the high cost of adaptive software and hardware. In response to this, we have undertaken the compilation of a list of free and/or inexpensive hardware and software alternatives that might be useful. Some of these are long-running demos, while others are fully functional.

We in no way are suggesting that these replace the higher end hardware and software currently on the market. However, as a short-term solution, or for the purposes of trying out different adaptive technologies, we think they are a good place to start.

How can you help? If you use or know of software that is either free or inexpensive ($200 or less) that you feel would be beneficial to students with disabilities, we want to hear about it. Please send the name of the software and, if you have it, the name of the company which makes it and a web site to catherine.fichten@mcgill.ca. Read more about Adaptech’s search for free and inexpensive software. View our Free and Inexpensive Computer technologies video (WMV support required).

Most of the listed software has no clear indication on its licensing or is clearly non-free/open-source, which I believe would be another way to help them.

And I know the videos are not in any open format. I’ve already contacted them offering help in transcoding them.

Yesterday the “Proyecto de Ley del Software Libre” was presented at the Colombian House of Representatives for a first public hearing with great success, according to this news article on their site.

This is one of many steps to get any legislation in place, so it’s an important day in Free Software history for Colombia ! This is the second time after 1992 that such legislation is attempted, and I consider this to be great news, although the general intent of this legislation is presented as letting free software co-exist with proprietary software.

I wish I could have been there, this is truly a time for changes and progress in Colombia and I am excited about all the opportunities opening there. Apparently the session was recorded and is available on video, it will be interesting to watch it and see how this project was presented.

• Project dicussion and comments organized by Colibri, a Colombian free software advocacy and users group.

Apparently Nokia’s Internet tablets (770 or n800) don’t support Ogg Theora / Vorbis open formats. It’s too bad, since the 700 has dropped in price and is now available around U$140. In a 2005 Linux Journal interview, Dr. Ari Jaaksi of Nokia had an interesting answer to LJ’s question about open formats support:

LJ: Given the proclivities of the Linux community, it has to be asked: will Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora be supported on the 770?
AJ: There’s nothing technical that prevents it. However, the 770 is a consumer device. The challenge is that there is not much [Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora] content right now.

So if I understand correctly, there was a decision from Nokia to actually drop support for open formats on their Internet tablet because it’s a consumer product.

I am left wondering why they didn’t use WinCE in the first place. And no, the n800 that was recenly released still does not support Ogg open formats for audio and video.