Installing Ubuntu Linux

Recently i have installed Ubuntu linux on my Dell desktop. I am suprised to find out the installation user interface is comparable with windows XP/ Vista kind of installation. I am really impressed with this.

Downloaded the latest Ubauntu desktop edition from the website and burned the ISO image on the CD. Restarted the system by changing the BIOS booting preferences and ubuntu booted from the Live CD. The advantage with the Live CD kind of installation is, you can play with the system , before you want to really decide whether to install it on your hard disk. As i am impressed with the following features..

• Hibernate option
• Network configuration is much easier than windows, Lot of screens to resemble the Windows Control panel, So you really dont need to go to xterm/CLI.
• Sound Card, Network Interface detected automatically..
• Update manager to make sure your system is up-to-date with new fixes/patches.

I decided to install it.

After 15 minutes, asked for the the boot loader preferences and i am ready to using linux along with my windows vista . But the most annoying thing after installing the linux is the ability to choose the right screen resolution. By default the maximum screen resolution i have got is 800x600, So, i have to spend around 3 hours to download the latest nvidia drivers and install it.

The configuration i have used is

nvidia geforce 6150 Video card came with Dell Dimension C5221
Samsung 941BW screen resolution 1440x900

Actually, ubuntu is maintaining very good website http://packages.ubuntu.com/ to search for any kind of packages you might need.

I just downloaded nvidia-glx-new_1.0.9755+2.6.20.5-16.29_i386.deb and executed some of these steps.

installed this package like this
dpkg --install #pkg name#

enabled the new driver like this..
nvidia-xconfig -c /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Thats it, after restarting the system and i have got the beautiful screen resolution i was looking for..

New ways to control the browser

Ever wanted to control the browser easily while browsing internet on TV, This feature from firefox is interesting..

Mouse gestures to control the browser.. :-)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/39

Internet on TV

Everybody will have different requirements for their in house living room experience. Some people like me want to watch all internet videos, internet radios on TV and home theater. Yes there are many upcoming products to address these like Apple TV, D-Link and neatgear's digital media receivers. But i can not get complete internet experience with these devices.

So, i ended up connecting my HP media center laptop to my TV + Home theater. The problem is i still have to depend on another laptop/desktop to control using VNC client. One more solution is buying Nokia N770 Internet Tablet to use as remote control. This sleek device entirely developed on linux and exciting thing is vnc viewer just works !! Even my favorite SIP client gizmo project also works, what else you need? it does not have phone.

Seems there is lot of development going on for these kind of devices..check out this open set top box..

http://www.last100.com/2007/06/28/neuros-open-set-top-box/

Future Video Phones

Recently i came across the intel's new media processor CE 2110, which will address the gap in the video conferencing experience in the living room. I am searching for this kind of solution from long time.

But i could not really find which companies are developing the set-top boxes using these processors.

http://www.intelconsumerelectronics.com/Vision/Family.aspx

Check out the video its interesting..