This post is kind of a response to this post on OMG!Ubuntu. What is wrong with Unity?  It's a question with a lot of different answers. For me? Speed and ease of use. Those are the most important things.  An operating system should allow me to do what I want without bugging me.  Without making it difficult to get to my files.  Without making me relearn where everything is. That is where Unity is a problem for me.  Maybe I'm used to my dock-and-menu setup in Ubuntu, or my taskbar-and-menu setup in Windows, but making me think about where my files are, or making me type up a search (while handy in some respects) can make me irritated, as I can't get to my files and programs faster.  If I wanted a search metric, I'd be using Gnome-Do or Launchy or something. I've grown used to the menu structure of Gnome.  I like it and it's comfortable. I also don't want to have to wait for my operating system to chug and think about getting my file structure.  I'm particular about where I put things, and I have a special way I do it.  If I were to just throw everything in /home without a thought, then this searching metric might work for me, but I don't. Unity seems to be aimed at someone who's never seen a computer before.  This is fine, but the further we go on in time, the fewer people will have not seen a computer before (anyway, speaking from my white, middle-class, college-educated, engineering background).  I mean, everyone in my community has access to computers either though their own houses, a public or private school (for students), a university, a community college, or the library system.  I'd be shocked at anyone under the age of 60 who hasn't seen a computer in their lives. Also, most of these people who have seen computers will have seen a Windows or Mac-based system.  It's just a fact of life because of the market share Windows and Apple have.  Ubuntu and other Linux-based operating systems are trying to change that, but with Ubuntu and Gnome3 going to the "shell" model of things, many people are going to see it and reject it.  Which is unfortunate because there are a lot of good ideas that have come out of Unity.  For instance, the dock.  I use a dock (Docky), but at a different location than where Ubuntu puts it.  If Unity wants to win me over, they can do the following:

• Make the dock movable; to the right, top or bottom, as I please.
• Make the dock re-sizable, which I think they're working on (this is not available in the version I'm running on my netbook).
• Allow me to change the size of the icons on the dock and make sure Unity respects that.  I'd like a smaller dock on my netbook, as the screen is very limited.
• Allow me to use the regular file system easier.  When I click on the folder in the dock, I expect a Nautilus window to open; this does not happen.
• Give me better categories and whatnot when I click on the applications button.  Seriously, having a list of my applications is not helpful if they're not sorted better.
• Make the dock expand to hold the icons, instead of expand the whole side of my screen.  This is similar to the behavior of Docky.
• Use Compiz (this is in the works; Mutter was found to be unstable, so the Ubuntu devs have moved to Compiz, which is more stable.  I remember when it wasn't, and I was unsure of why anyone would use Compiz.  Now I can't live without it.).

I will be looking forward to the improvements in Unity.  Hopefully with the inclusion of Compiz, the speed factor will be taken care of (my netbook can handle Compiz, which is pretty cool). The Natty release looks to be interesting at the least.

I've been following all of the concerns surrounding the Ubuntu and Banshee profit-sharing "kerfuffle", as Greg puts it here.  Craig Maloney (aka snap-l) responds here.  Mark Shuttleworth responds to everyone here.  Also, I can't forget about Jono's post about it as well. So, I guess this is my response: I think the whole thing is embarrassing.  Canonical shouldn't have suggested what they did, nor should they have backpedaled in the manner they did. Banshee is an awesome application.  I use it every day to manage and listen to my music and download new tracks from Amazon (mostly free individual tracks and album samplers).  I have never used the Ubuntu Music Store, but I think it's a great idea.  (Note: I get most of my new music from actual CDs or through Jamendo or other CC-music websites.) Now, I've been a part of the Ubuntu community since about 2006 (yes, I'm old) and seeing something like this pains me.  It makes me feel like I should be embarrassed to use Ubuntu and Banshee.  The Amazon store should never have been an issue; Canonical should never have offered to mess with it, instead offering their own store with a choice of stores (even enabling both!) at the startup of Banshee. I understand that Canonical needs to make money.  All businesses need to make money.  If UbuntuOne was available for Windows and was a comparable price to Dropbox, I would probably be using UbuntuOne instead of Dropbox.  Selling cloud services is a great idea for Canonical.  Same with selling merchandise through their store, and CDs with Ubuntu on them.  Heck, I've bought stuff from them. I guess my question is, couldn't Canonical come up with a better way to deal with this profit-sharing or whatever?  What about offering 85/15 (85% to Gnome, 15% to Canonical)?  Heck, even 50/50 would have been more fair.  25/75 for doing no work whatsoever doesn't seem kosher.

I decided to take the plunge and try out pinboard.in. At the time I signed up it was something like $9.17, but it's gone up to $9.22 (due to go up with more subscribers). Well, I did an import of all my delicious bookmarks, and found that it was a much faster process than importing into diigo. After importing, I noticed that my private bookmarks were kept (very important to me) private. The look of pinboard.in is very similar to delicious, but it's cleaner. I love the way it integrates with my Shareaholic extension for Chrome/ium. To save to Pinboard is the first link in my drop-down menu. Anyway, how about a picture?

The default Pinboard.in look. Very similar to delicious.

It's almost easier and faster to send to Pinboard than it is to send to delicious. First off, there's really nobody to share with, so you don't have to pick who you send links to. Second, it doesn't have automatic twitter integration, so you don't have to deal with that (I have twitter integration though Twitterfeed and my #pinboard hashtag). It's simple, quick, bookmarking with tags and privacy options. Nothing else.

The navigation is really, really simple. A picture says a thousand words, so here's a picture: As you can see, there's a way to choose what kind of tags you want, a search box, and a way to get to popular places in your account. I haven't tried the note-taking functionality yet, because I have tomboy notes on all of the computers I use, so I don't really need them. I guess if I got a Cr-48, I'd need the note functionality. You'll also notice that there's "recent" and "popular" links up top. I'll go over there sometimes to see what's been bookmarked, just like I used to when I was on delicoius. Sometimes there's some cool stuff in there, and if you explore other popular tags, you'll find even more websites that tailor to your interests. There's also a networking aspect to pinboard.in that I really haven't had a chance to explore. I've added a couple of people who seem to post linux-related sites, but I'm not sure exactly what the networking will amount to. Pinboard sells itself as "antisocial bookmarking" and to an extent that's fine. I'm using it as a repository of my favorite links, and I'm sharing through twitterfeed. The actual bookmark list is very clean and easy to follow. How about another picture?

The bookmarks themselves.

Easy to see tags, when you posted the link, the link itself, and in light grey, you can make out "edit" and "delete" links. I seem to have a lot of GTD stuff in this screenshot. Ahem. Onto tagging! I've gotten used to tagging my bookmarks, photos, blog posts, and pretty much everything else. I like the idea of tagging as opposed to folders. I can assign more than one tag to something and that something will show up in both of those categories; for instance, I have many links that deal with Ubuntu, Gnome, KDE, and Linux. I can assign the general tag of Linux, and have everything Linux-related show up, but if I want to narrow things down, I can go Linux -> Ubuntu -> KDE and get all the KDE links relating to Ubuntu. Simple. Anyway, here's what the tags look like:

Tags, oh, how I love thee.

So, pinboard.in is a great service to replace delicious. I'm sure Yahoo is regretting the decision to have that slide show up. I think they've lost a lot of their userbase. It might put some people off to purchase the initial login, but it's well worth the $9-ish for it.

I've been meaning to put together a tech bag/urban assault bag/art bag for awhile now, and I found the perfect bag for it: a Swiss Gear small messenger bag. I can't seem to find any pictures on the web for it, so I suspect that it's a discontinued model, which is fine because I got it at Meijer for about $25. This bag has padding in both of its sections, and the main compartment is expandable with a zipper to accommodate the extra room. I can easily carry my netbook, a regular book or my Nook, my sketchbook, and other things. So, let's see what I might carry for what applications. Always Carried:

• cell phone
• pen
• wallet
• misc. bag (contains some meds, tissues, my dues cards for OES and Nile, chapstick, etc)
• my version of the "hipster PDA": a moleskine calendar and a moleskine small lined book, held together with the stretchy cord of the calendar
• Walkman MP3 player
• keys
• book I'm reading

Art Bag:

• sketchbook
• pencils
• pastel crayons
• drawing ink pen
• small canvases if they fit

Tech Bag:

• netbook
• usb key (holds some of my most important files)
• charger for my netbook (if I'm going to be out or travelling)
• Ubuntu LiveCD (for fixing other people's computers; happens more than you think!)
• moleskine cashier for notes, even though I use Tomboy Notes for most everything

Other Applications:

• library bag, with Nook and library books
• bag to hold my stuff for Nile; actually this will work; as it holds everything but the charitable giving notebook, but I can carry that in my hands

I don't know. This bag is very versatile, and I'm hoping to use it for one of these applications. I'm almost keen on replacing my purse with it, but I feel that it'd be too heavy for regular purse use. Also, I have a tendency to load up my bags with too much stuff; this is why I carry a relatively small purse. If I didn't have a small purse, I'd probably load it up with everything but the kitchen sink and have major back pain as a result.

I've noticed a lot of posts in this thread on the Ubuntu forums so I decided to give a 1.5 year review as it were of both of my System76 computers. Lets start with the Pangolian. I have a PanP5, which is the fifth version of the Pangolian laptop. I ordered it in June of 2009, and it arrived at the tail end of the month. This laptop replaced my brother's (at least) eight year old desktop (that's now being used by my mother with Windows XP) that replaced a Dell Dimension (that ran Windows XP and various versions of Ubuntu). My old desktops ran well and for a long time, but I felt it was time for an upgrade. I chose some upgrades (from my blog post on the subject):

It has a 15.4 screen (huge, IMHO) with 1680×1050 resolution (upgraded), Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53 GHz 1066 MHz FSB 3BM L2 (25 Watt) (upgrade also), 4 GB RAM (upgrade), 320 GB hard drive (upgrade), 1 DVD/CD burner drive, 512 MB DDR2 nVidia GeForce G105M graphics card, standard networking and wireless, 2.0 MP webcam (built-in), Bluetooth, and all the standard ports (including HDMI, VGA and 3 USB). Oh, and I forgot to mention; it comes with 64-bit Ubuntu 9.04.

Now, the laptop has a 500 GB drive in it, with Ubuntu 10.10, dual-booted with Windows 7. I had some repairs that needed to be done to it in November. Basically, I needed a new motherboard and hard drive. A year later, the replacement hard drive died, and I got the 500 GB from NewEgg. I derive a great deal of pleasure from just booting this machine up. I like typing on it; the keyboard is amazing, the sound (out of speakers, through the headphone jack) is great, the DVD drive has no problems (knock on wood), and everything is working just fine. I've hooked up a second monitor to my laptop (my Westinghouse 1280x1024 LCD panel) so I have more screen real estate to work with. I use it for the following:

• Podcasts
• Music
• Blogging
• Browsing
• Light gaming (stuff like Xmoto, Gweled, Mines, etc)
• Moderate gaming under Windows (some Sims2)
• Gimp
• Writing (penned [penning] two unfinished NaNo novels)
• Chat
• IRC
• Microblogging
• Flier creation (for OES and Nile)
• Making invitations
• Making programs (for events, not programming)
• Seti@home
• Ebooks (organizing and sending to my Nook)
• Picture organization (not much; mostly related to my blog)

Basically, the computer is a home office laptop. Now, how about a screenshot?

My Desktop Screenshot

I'm running Docky, Empathy, Gwibber, BOINC, Bloglio, Gpodder, Dropbox. Wakoopa, Radio Tray, and Tomboy Notes. This is Gnome, which I love. The wallpaper is from everydayishock's Tumblr. This is Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron from An American in Paris, the ballet scene. Again, I derive pleasure from starting this laptop up every day. I love the way the keyboard feels, the way the trackpad works, the sound through my external speakers, and the sheer speed of the laptop. I've seen virtually no slowdowns from the day I've bought it, and there are few changes I've made to the machine (the exception being a 500 GB 5400 RPM drive replacing my 320 GB drive). I feel that this computer will last several more years, and that's why I bought it. If I'd wanted something to last one year, I would have gone to Best Buy and gotten a $500 Gateway or something. Not to diss Gateway (the desktop that went from my brother, to me, to my mother is a Gateway), but I don't feel their laptops are as of the quality they used to be. Also, Best Buy didn't have exactly what I wanted. What I wanted was something with a discreet video card, and nothing at my local Best Buy fit that bill. Still doesn't. Now, I'll cover my Starling. I have a Star1 which is the first version of the Starling. There is now a refresh of my netbook (the Star3, I think) and a Starling Edubook. I didn't have any upgrades, really. For simplicity, I'll take the specs from my last blog post on the subject.

The screen is 10.1 inches, the memory is 1 GB of RAM, the hard drive is 160 gigs, and it has standard wifi and lan networking.  The graphics aren’t anything to really write home about, but this is a netbook: a portable device for browsing, blogging, writing and reading.

I've made no changes to this netbook, as there is nothing to change. I've updated to 10.10, and I'm now using the Unity desktop. It's quite different from anything I'm used to, but I'm interested in how this will work out. I'm taking a "wait and see" approach to the whole Unity interface. How about a screenshot?

Netbook Screenshot

I've got Wakoopa, Dropbox, Tomboy Notes, and Unity running here. The wallpaper is the same as my laptop. I like to keep things consistent. This netbook has been with me all over the house, outside for computing in the backyard, down to Indianapolis for Supreme Session, Battle Creek for Grand Chapter, and the coffee shop. It's perfect for couch surfing while I'm watching TV. It stays very cool, even when running YouTube videos. I've had to replace the battery at $99, so that wasn't cheap, but it was still cheaper than buying a new netbook. I'm taking care of the battery better now (ie, not using it when I'm on the couch but plugging it in) and trying to conserve its cycles for when I need it. The only real complaints? The battery issue (a battery should last longer than a year) and the wireless (slightly flaky; I hope Natty will resolve this for good). This is a first generation machine, so if those are the only issues, then I'm not too peeved. For the Pangolian, I give a 5/5 for everything. This machine is a workhorse, and I'm very pleased with it, even at a year-and-a-half-in. The Starling gets a 4/5, only because of the wireless and battery issues. I'd really like to have a larger range for the wireless card; it'd be much more useful to me when I go out. Unfortunately, there's not ubiquitous wireless internet; and I don't have the money for a 3 or 4G connection. System76 gets a 5/5 for service, speed, help, and just all around good products. Depending on what they have when I'm in the market again, I'll definitely go with them.