One catch is the need to have a Windows OS enabled device.
The creators have nicely created a couple of different versions – ranging from PDA / phones with Windows Mobile, as well as the ability to have it on any GPS device with a Windows CE Core.

Having purchased a Windows CE based GPS unit from Aldi, I found a few guides which would allow me to modify it so as to bypass the default ‘interface’ and to interact with the core OS.
Here’s a concise guide how to do it – and should only take you about 20 minutes.
Credit: I discovered the specific chipset used on the device from here.
There was another guide dealing with a similar device that outlines how to do this ‘hack’ here.
Warning: I provide this guide ‘as is’ with no warranties or guarantees. This worked for me – but there can be things that change in models, or other glitches that can happen along the way. If you happen to kill your device in the process, that is your fault – and have only yourself to blame.

You’ll need:

Step One
Having installed ActiveSync / Mobile Device Center, connect the PDA/GPS to the computer
Next, browse to the files / folders on it.

The manual actually tells you to backup the GPS software (Found under ResidentFlash\NNG). Do this if you want, but it’s not necessary for this hack.

Step Two
Fire up CE Reg Editor. Connect to your device, and you should be able to see the registry of it, just like you would on your own PC.
Note: For Windows 7, I had to put it into ‘compatability mode: XP SP 3′, and “Run as Administrator”.

Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder. You’ll have to do a few modifications.
Note: The guide tells us to remap the My Documents, Application Data, Desktop & Programs. I’m fairly confident this isn’t important – but remap to the SD card if you’d like (means you have more space to work with).
The real key is the first change. IF you’re going to change the others as well, might as well do it all now.
To Change the value of the registry key, simply select the key on the right hand panel (eg. Launch50), and then change the text in the “Value name” field:

List of values to change:

1- HKEY_Local_Machine\init\Launch50
Old value: launch.exe
New value: explorer.exe

2- HKey_Local_Machine\System\Explorer\ShellFolders\Desktop
Old value: \Windows\Desktop
New value: \SDMMC\Desktop

3- Hkey_Local_Machine\System\Explorer\Shell Folders\Programs
Old value: \windows\programs
New value: \SDMMC\Programs

4- Hkey_Local_Machine\System\Explorer\Shell\My Documents
Old value: \My Documents
New value: \SDMMC\My Documents

5- Hkey_Local_Machine\System\Explorer\Shell\Application Data
Old value: \Application Data
New value: \SDMMC\Application Data
Note: There doesn’t seem to be an “Application Data” folder created in the \ root directory (where as there is the “My Documents” / “Desktop” / Programs”). I created one on the SDMMC just for good measure (in case “Application Data” is a hidden directory).

Once you’ve modified the registry, copy the folders from where they were originally ( \ root directory) to your SD Card.
Also, whilst you’re at it: Create a folder on the SD Card called “Ozi Explorer”. Copy the contents of the ZIP File into there.

At this point, we’ve updated the registry, and copied over the the Ozi Explorer program. Next, restart the system. You can either goto “Tools | Reset Device” within CeReg Editor, or you can just turn the device off and on again.
If all has gone well, you’ll be greeted with the warm, familiar Windows Explorer Interface:

From now on, every time you start up the device, it’ll boot into Windows CE.
This only presents a small problem with accessing the navigation programs: So, we’ll create some shortcuts to these programs on the desktop.
Remembering, we have no mouse or keyboard, so we have to improvise with a touch screen. There’s an ‘onscreen keyboard’ we will be using – accessed via the little keyboard icon in the bottom right of the screen.

On the top left corner is an icon called “My Device” – this is basically the equivalent of “My Computer”, the file explorer for Windows.
Double tapping that opens up the main screen:

Browse to the ResidentFlash drive – which is the system reserved partition for the GPS software.
Open NNG, and you’ll see the files pertaining to the GPS software:

Select NNGNAVI (with the blue ‘iGo’ icon).
Go to EDIT – COPY. Then EDIT – PASTE AS SHORTCUT.
Select the “Shortcut to NNGNAVI” file and go EDIT – CUT.
Close that Window, and when on the desktop, go to the onscreen keyboard, tapping first CTL and then V (Ctrl-V, universal shortcut for ‘paste’):

Similarly for Ozi Explorer; Go to My Device, Browse to the SDMMC drive.

Open up the ‘Ozi Explorer’ directory you created, and copied the files into. Select “OziExplorerCE”, EDIT – COPY, EDIT – PASTE AS SHORTCUT.
Select “Shortcut to OziExplorerCE” and EDIT – CUT; Go to the desktop, and paste (CTL then V).

You can do this with any program that you install onto the SDMMC card.
Note on installation of files
This particular Windows CE installation wipes any changes you make to the system – ignoring shortcuts on the desktop (remember how we moved the links to the desktop, etc. at the very beginning to the SD card? That’s so that the system wouldn’t wipe our hard work every time we shut the system down). This is because Windows CE is the same OS used on ‘Kiosk’ Terminal machines: Any changes attempted to be made to the system will be wiped / undone as soon as the system reboots (all the core OS files are stored on a ROM – Read Only Memory). Unless you’re logged in as ‘administrator mode’ which normally requiring a combination of key strokes to be pressed on boot – you can’t modify the core system settings or save it back to the ROM.
So make sure you install additional software to your SD card.

When you press the power button, the system will only go into hibernation mode; luckily, the system designers added a shutdown command on the desktop:

Double tape the icon marked “EXIT” and you’ll get a prompt saying “Shutdown?” with a big YES and NO to choose from.

There you have it – a more functional GPS unit, for only AU$129.

]]> http://equima.pfpfree.net/2010/aldi-go-cruise-4300-hack/feed/ 17 http://equima.pfpfree.net/2009/apport-integration/ http://equima.pfpfree.net/2009/apport-integration/#comments Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:35:34 +0000 insanity http://equima.pfpfree.net/?p=144 So for the last day or two I have been attempting to add support for bug reports from within the application.  In the spirit of open-source, I have searched around and found that Apport seems to be heavily used in Ubuntu, and has clean integration with http://bugs.launchpad.net/, which is my chosen bug tracking system for these projects.

Unfortunately, in the other spirit of open-source, the simple documentation is lacking a bit, so this blog post will hopefully help pave the way for people who might follow in my footsteps.

Intended Use

Basically, within one of the applications, I desired to have a link available in a menu that simply says “Report a problem”, which then submits a prefilled report to a bug tracking system including important information such as which version is being run, OS details etc.  My experience with Ubuntu has taught me that Apport is an ideal system that already supports the intended use-case, and is integrated into some existing apps in the same way that I’m looking for.

UbuntuOne Apport Configuration

The existing documentation that I referenced most heavily was found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport/DeveloperHowTo.  The first thing that struck me was that there seems to be no simple uses cases for what I thought would have been a reasonably commonly required use case, i.e., how to integrate with an app being released from a launchpad-hosted ppa.  The existing apport configuration makes apport-bug prevent reports being generated for non-Ubuntu packages (i.e., packages that are not in the main Ubuntu repositories).  This creates a hassle if releasing from a private or team ppa.

Fortunately, through browsing /etc/apport/ I found that the ubuntuone-client already uses apport with a non-genuine Ubuntu package.  This is done by placing a config file in /etc/apport/crashdb.conf.d, and an apport hook in /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_ubuntuone-client.py.

Basic Configuration

So, from all this, the most simple example I can come up with is the following.  To configure Apport to behave with an application, the following steps are required.

1. Configure the CrashDb

Place a CrashDb config file in /etc/apport/crashdb.conf.d called <package-name>-crashdb.conf (note: you can actually called it whatever you want… but for sanity’s sake I’d keep it as package-name ).  Inside this file place something similar to the following:

<package-name> = {
 'impl' : 'launchpad',
 'project' : '<package-name>',
 'bug_pattern_base' : None,
}

2. Install an apport hook to specify the CrashDb

Place a file in /usr/share/apport/package-hooks called <package-name>.py or source_<package-name>.py.  This file should contain the following, which simply  sets the CrashDb to use the correct configuration:

import apport

def add_info(report):
 """add report info"""

 if not apport.packaging.is_distro_package(report['Package'].split()[0]):
 report['ThirdParty'] = 'True'
 # replace <package-name> with the crashdb config defined in the previous step
 report['CrashDB'] = '<package-name>'

Testing the settings…

Assuming all has been correctly set up, you should now be able to report bugs against the custom package by entering the following command in a terminal (or using alt+f2):

ubuntu-bug <package-name>

This will open up a window allowing you to send a report.  If you click submit, you should be taken to launchpad, with a new bug being logged against the specified application.

One of the things I really wanted to demonstrate was the compatability mode, showing how old programs can be forced to run in a environment that pre-dates Windows 7.
It’s quite useful for older programs that worked fine under Windows XP, but seem to struggle / have issues (for whatever reason) under newer Operating Systems.
So, I hunted around my office, and found a copy of Lotus Smart Suite 9.6.
I figured that since this program came about in 2000/2001 it should break enough to require Compatability Mode.

However, sadly (or goodly, as it may be) it didn’t need to. When installing, I did have to run the setup.exe as an Administrator (because otherwise it couldn’t write to the registry). It prompted that there was an incompatability with Lotus 1-2-3 printing certain formats, but you clicked through that, and it installed OK. And then – it ran fine. No problems.
I even tried an old version of Winamp. That worked fine too.

I’ve only ever had to force Compatability Mode for playing older games, and they work fine under that.
I’m keen to find an actual program that WONT work in Compatability Mode, and that requires the Windows 7 Professional ‘XP Mode’ Virtual Machine.

So far, all I can say is that Windows 7 is freakin’ awesome.

I must warn, the sound quality is VERY dependant on your network speeds and CPU loads at either end.  If you are running a lot of programs on either the server or the client, the sound will be erratic.  See the bugs on the pulseaudio website.  I was unable to get the sound to run very smoothly for any length of time on between two Ubuntu VM’s on pulseaudio version 0.9.19-0ubuntu4.  The specific bugs are:

• http://www.pulseaudio.org/ticket/670
• http://www.pulseaudio.org/ticket/477

Either way, it is a fun exercise in pulseaudio configuration.  In order to demonstrate this I have set up two Ubuntu VM’s using VirtualBox on a local network.

Graphical Setup

The first step is to install the tools we’re going to use to configure this. Install PulseAudio Device Chooserm PulseAudio Volume Control and PulseAudio Preferences. Select these items from the Ubuntu Software Centre. You can easily reduce the list to these items by searching for pulseaudio in the search bar as shown in the following screenshot:

Screenshot of Ubuntu Software Center installing Pulseaudio

Once this is installed, you can launch it by selecting it from Applications menu.

Open the Pulseaudio Device Chooser

This will put an audio plug icon up near the clock. Left-click (or primary click) . Select “Configure local Sound Server” and change to the Multicast/RTP tab in the Preferences window:

PulseAudio Preferences

Server Computer

The first computer set-up will be the server. This is the computer you will be controlling & playing the sound from. On this computer you will need to open up rhythmbox or your chosen audio program that supports pulseaudio output. Totem or VLC also fit this prescription.

On the server computer you will want to “Enable Mutlicast/RTP sender”. If you want to play the sound out this server computer’s speakers, select “Send audio from local speakers”. If you want to be more specific about what is sent, I would recommend you select “Create separate audio device for Multicast/RTP”. For my setup, I want to be able to send only music to the stream when I want it, so I am going to chose the second option.

Client Computer(s)

The client computers will all need to be set up with the “Enable Multicast/RTP receiver” option enabled. Assuming the networks are working properly, you should immediately start hearing music on all the client computers!

Manual Configuration

If you don’t have the benefits of a running Xserver, or want to configure these settings to work on a headless machine, you will need to be manually configuring the pulseaudio config files. The pulseaudio config files are stored in /etc/pulse/system.pa if you’re running in daemon mode, and /etc/pulse/default.pa if you’re running in a per user setup (this is the default method in Ubuntu). I’m going to write this assuming you are using daemon-mode, so we will be editing /etc/pulse/system.pa.

Server Computer

To setup the server computer, you need to edit the configuration. In a terminal or on a console with admin access type the following:

sudo nano /etc/pulse/system.pa

In this file, find and uncomment the lines that look like:

load-module module-null-sink sink_name=rtp format=s16be channels=2 rate=44100 description="RTP Multicast Sink"
load-module module-rtp-send source=rtp.monitor

(If these don’t exist, just add them to the end of the file)

Once this is done, restart the pulseaudio server by running:

sudo /etc/init.d/pulseaudio restart

Client Computer(s)

The client computer will be done by editing /etc/pulse/system.pa (alternatively, you can copy this file to ~/pulse/default.pa). Edit this file by typing:

sudo nano /etc/pulse/system.pa

In this file, find and uncomment the lines that look like:

### Load the RTP reciever module (also configured via paprefs, see above)
#load-module module-rtp-recv

Again, if this doesn’t exist, just add them to the end of the file.

Once you’ve saved this, apply the changes the same way you did previously… by restarting pulseaudio:

sudo /etc/init.d/pulseaudio restart

Once again, assuming the network is behaving correctly, you should be hearing sound out both ends.

Troubleshooting & More Information

Troubleshooting guides are well written on the pulseaudio site. If you have any issues I would suggest reading the wonderful article at http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/HowToListenToTheRtpStream. The key thing is to check that you can see the broadcast packets (see the tcpdump section in the article).

Another good tip is to start the pulseaudio server in non-daemon mode. This will allow you to see and interact with the pulseaudio from the command line. To do this, stop any existing pulseaudio servers with the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/pulseaudio stop # in system or daemon mode or

pulseaudio -k # for single user mode

To start pulseaudio server, run the following:

sudo pulseaudio --system -Cv # in system or daemon mode or

pulseaudio -Cv # for single user mode

Take note of any errors you see when starting this. Once the server is started, you can list the modules loaded by typing the following in the pulseaudio console:

list-modules

For more information on how to load modules see http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/Modules, and specifically http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/Modules#RTPSDPSAPTransport.

More information about the commands that can be run in the pulseaudio console, see http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/CLI

He made a single point that I thought relatively brilliant:

Where is the Microsoft personality?

In summary, he’s referring to how Apple has played the marketing game brilliantly. It’s never been afraid to push itself. They make snide (albeit true) comments about the PC and Windows systems in their I’m a Mac advertisments.

Steve Jobs is a passionate man. A little too passionate at times, if the rumours are to be believed. However, if you have a dream – a goal – and have no burning passion, the likelihood of reaching that dream is slim-to-none.
Whilst I’ve had my fair share of Apple related problems (From a hardware – and always a hardware level), they’ve always sold themselves as being ‘better’.

And, as basic psychology tells you – if you’re told something enough, you’ll start to believe it.

Sure there are forums, and groups out there that criticise Apple because their iPhone blew up, or because they wont replace the casing that seems to crack from normal use over time – but these people bought an Apple product – either to be different, or because they firmly believed that the product was superior in some way.

The other issue is that most other non-Apple companies marketing departments don’t know how to sell something with a subtle push. Microsoft has recently sent out advertising posters claiming “Windows Vista: Now Future Proofed“:

As you can see, it’s nothing more than offering a free upgrade to Windows 7 for computers bought between 22nd July 2009 and 31st January 2010.
A similar thing happend before Vista was  released with people who bought computer with windows XP (However, I’m sure many people went back to XP after they found their systems to be inadequate for Vista, or had issues with Vista’s performance and/or operation).

So, tell me Microsoft: Why are you ‘better’ than Apple? Is it because you’re cheaper? Because, if you sincerely believe that – you’re misguided. Apple at least has multi-System licenses for their operating system, because they realise many people have more than one computer.
Microsoft was clever in bringing out a 3-PC License for Microsoft Office Home and Student, but will they do a similar thing with Windows 7? And will it be just as cost effective?

The computer may be cheaper, but the software isn’t.
Apple operates in reverse: It’s software is cheaper, but the hardware isn’t.

So, if the old addage goes “You get what you pay for” – Which is the ‘better’ product?

And at this point in time, there’s a lot of speculation around the ‘hype’ of Windows 7′s ability to perform on older hardware.
Vista suffered from the ‘lets throw more hardware at it‘ syndrome – where you don’t ensure enough backward compatibility, and tried to bring about too much change in one hit.
Funnily enough, many users expect their computer of 5 years to be able to handle the next operating system – not being fully aware of the changes in technology. Which is fair enough – to a point; It’d be nice if users actually read the ‘minimum’ and ‘recommended’ requirements for the program they’re trying to install, and to then follow that thinking, investigate what they have, and then learn a bit along the way.

A lot of people don’t always want to upgrade their system. It’s a comfort thing. They know where their files are. They know how things look, and feel, and where to find elements of the system (control panel, programs, games, etc). Others are willing to throw away a computer that’s two years old (and was top of the line when they bought it) simply because it’s running slow.
What they might find is that they have some virus’s or malware – or just too many programs running, causing the slow down. More RAM and a clean up would help it – but they don’t care. Like many organisations, they just throw money at the problem, and that should fix it.
Right? Wrong.

So, we’re hoping people are going to start appreciating what they have, and maybe take maintainance measures to draw out the life of their computers – Perhaps this is also part of the reason why windows 7 is ‘said’ to be able to work on a:

• 1 Ghz 32-Bit or 64-Bit Processor or higher
• 1 GB of system memory or more
• 16 GB of available disk space
• DVD-R/W Drive

Apart from the ’16 GB’ of disk space, that’s pretty much a standard PC. That’d almost work on my old 900 Mhz Duron – which is 9 years old!
If you have a 40 GB Drive – which many systems come with as a basic setup, especially in corporations- Then that might be starting to get too close. With half your drive spent on the Operating System, you’d be possibly dealing with a bit of a slow system. Possibly.

There are some people (Farseeker, of this site, and more notably – John C Dvorak) who think that the current state of Windows 7 (The beta of which runs quite happily on my EEE 701) is only a facade: That whilst it runs nicely, and efficiently now, the final product will be bogged down with ‘crap-ware’.
And, as John Dvorak happily notes – he feels that the success of Microsoft – indeed, the entire Windows line – is based on whether Windows 7 works – and works well.

I agree – in part – with this opinion. Vista was a bad move by Microsoft. Even they’ve admitted to that. However, whether people like it or not – They still hold the market in most corporate environments. But part of the key to Windows 7 is how it will be priced -  especially given the current ‘economic crisis’.
Windows XP, whilst great for its time – is buggy. More and more security holes / flaws are being discovered, and I don’t think that patching the Swiss-cheese like architecture that is XP is going to work forever.

The real ‘key’ to Microsoft’s success with Windows 7 is two fold.
1. Pricing. They need to price it in such a way that it wont be hideously expensive, but still represent a value for money. Both in terms of features and security. Corporations aren’t going to spend $400 per machine to upgrade. Especially in an environment consisting of 500+ desktops and laptops.
And the average Joey Bloggs isn’t going to upgrade his nicely working year old Vista machine – especially if he’s just layed out a pretty sum for it.

2. Upgrade path. At the time of writing, every indication has said that there’s no way of ‘upgrading’ from Windows XP. The architecture is just too different. However, you *could* go from XP – Vista. Hmm.
Win7 is based on Vista – but I wonder how much of the ‘base system’ they actually changed that you can’t go from XP – Win7.

Or is this another ‘push’ to customers to do a clean install? Those of us in the industry know the benefits and ‘psychology’ of a clean install. Things are fresh, and you don’t bring your old garbage to the new house. Microsoft tried the ‘push’ strategy with Vista by forcing people to upgrade their hardware. That went down like the Titanic.

It’ll be interesting to see how much the economy of current times will affect the release and adoption of Windows 7.

We’ve had the credit bubble go *pop*,  the subsequent mass hysteria of everyone pulling money out of investments so fast (thanks to the wonder of technology: High speed Internet and Internet banking) causing entire countries to become bankrupt, and generally society starting to panic and think “Is this the next Great Depression?”.
That question, I’m not in a position to answer – nor is it the purpose of this post. Rather, considering where consumerism has taken technology.

So, there was this lovely scene. Everyone was working for someone, making some money – and then you had these people in the financial sector willing to give out credit to the workers – it didn’t matter how much you earned, you could get a line of credit from as little as $2000, to as much as $20,000. Whether you could repay it or not they wouldn’t care.
Some people don’t really think about that. They just thought: “You beauty, quick money – I can get all those cool things I want” – but don’t really need.

That well suddenly dried up – and the horse drinking from it: no one’s seen him since.
The last 10 years has seen some dramatic growth and change in technology: I point it squarely at the consumer market.

Advertisers are always trying to get the everyday person (consumer) to feel that they need something to fill their otherwise boring life. That new 52 inch Plasma. That 10.2 surround sound system.The latest Mac Book pro. Anything they think will help them get on with everyday life in a more ‘interesting’ fashion.

The huge profits that this generated for the companies allowed them to push Research and Development, to make things better, & to find new technologies. Along the way, the additional hype of a growing energy crisis and shortfalls in resources has prompted certain companies to rethink what resources they are using. Never a bad thing – provided they could come up with a reason why they’re wasting it all on products that in 8 years are going to sit in a rubbish dump.

It’s always a ‘short lived’ focus.

People used to go out every 6 – 12 months and get the newest, greatest digital camera.  People will now stick to the one they’ve got. The number of mega pixels is irrelevant these days. They all do a fantastic job of capturing an image. That’s all it has to do.
People are no longer throwing out computers that are a year or two old because they’re “getting slower”. They’re putting more memory in it, running maintenance procedures, and trying to make it last a little bit longer. One has to wonder how long they’ll really last – but it’s reasonable to expect at least a 5 – 8 year life span.

I’d like to think hope that we’re going back to a different mindset. Sure, the ‘throw away’ society will remain to a degree, but maybe people will hold off on throwing away technology that still works for a little while longer.

In my current line of work, I do a lot of tech-support, and trouble-shooting/repair of infected and non-working systems. This means having to install programs from my USB Memory Stick on occassion, which means this little stick does get into some dangerous territory.

I’m not one that usually has protection (AntiVirus or Firewall) on my desktop at home – since I stay away from the types of sites you might get your computer sick from.

Alas, I have learnt my lesson. It took 2 mins. 2 mins of innocence, where I plugged the stick into my system, and the deed was done. 98 Infections – well, trojans and various ‘messy’ malware; all found using MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. I backed up the critical documents, and then wiped the drive.

It may have been safe, but I just dont trust these critters these days. They’re smart, and hide deep. Nothing beats a full wipe.

No matter how geeky, technical, or Boffin-like you are: It seems no one is safe anymore.

We were discussing how stupid it was, the main reason being that the Mac’s are actually four or five times more expensive (depending on what model you get) than a standard PC varient.
I can testify to how silly it is, because a few years ago I actually took out a personal loan to purchase a powerbook (back when they used PPC processors).

One could argue you get what you pay for; However, in my personal experience, that is definatly not the case with a Mac.  Their smallest, and cheapest notebook starts at $1500.

I recently purchased an Asus for $786. This came with 2gb’s RAM, 160gb HDD, Vista Home Premium, Webcam, and 2 years manufacturers warranty, and I purchased an additional 2 years warranty (for a total of 4 years) for $189. Subtotal: $975

If I went with the cheapest option for the Macbook, the base system is $1,499. Add an additional 1 gb memory ($150), bring the hard drive up to 160gb ($80), Additional 2 years (for a total of 3 years) warranty $419. You’re now looking at $2148.

There’s only two key arguments to try justify this cost.
1. It’s a stylish unit. Yes, it is. Some *may* call it ‘sexy’ – I wouldn’t.
2. The system is responsive and flies. This is true. I’ve seen it. It’s scary. It’s even more embarrassing for Microsoft when Vista runs the best on a Mac. Battery life is also apparently up to 6 hours on these units. Mine does close to 4.5 these days.
3. They seem to use a 2.1 ghz Intel Core 2 duo, as opposed to the Asus 1.7 ghz.
They both use the same graphics card though (which I was a bit surprised at); Seems the macbookPro’s are the ones with the dedicated high-end cards (Nvidia GeForce 8600). Of course, these notebooks start at $2,699.

The reality is, Apple can’t really justify the cost of their products. Once upon a time, during the megahertz wars – they may have been able to. Unfortunately, it appears the fools and their money is parted all too easily these days- since people are still prepared to pay that price for the Apple products; many are under the illusion that they’re either ‘easier to use’ or ‘better’. Whenever I ask the people to explain “What exactly is ‘better’ about it?”, they stare blank-faced.

I give full credit to the marketeers at Apple for this. They’ve managed to create the perception that there’s a product that is ‘worth’ spending that much money on. I’ll let my own personal experience speak for itself.

At anyrate- if you buy a mac, at least try use the operating system / software that comes with it, and get your head out of the ‘windows’ mindset. It’s really not as cool as it was in 1995. I’m serious. Otherwise it’s like buying a Ferarri and replacing the enging with one from a Datsun 120Y.

Now, apart from the general ‘hype’ around anything that’s meant to be able to ‘kill’ or be a ‘better’ alternative to Microsoft’s latest operating system, the idea that this particular version/distribution of Linux has the ability to put Vista to death is just absurd.

I had the oppertunity to use Vista for a time – partly as a feasibility study for my work, and partly out of my own self-interest to see what progressions / changes Microsoft had made to it’s OS.
My own personal criticism’s were that it required too much memory and drive space, and was quite a ‘bloated’ operating system in general. Now, of course, this is in light of the ‘average’ technology that is still kicking around for 90% of the populace. From that perspective, to call Ubuntu 8.04 “The Vista Killer”, would maybe be accurate. But even I, a linux user, find it a bit far fetched.

Windows is still the primary operating system being suppored by a large percentage of products – with Apple’s ‘Mac OS’ coming in second place. Adobe is a good example of industry software that is only supported on those two major operating systems.
Linux does have it’s open source ‘alternatives’, (and admittedly I’ve not spent much time in using or even trying any large number of these) but even I don’t believe that all of these are in a position yet to be used widely by industry. Don’t get me wrong, I have every faith that there will one day be open source software that is usable by various industries – but this isn’t the reality we live in. Not yet.

Sometimes I just wish that consumer-orientated publications could be a little more ‘balanced’ in their approach – and marketing. Considering the criticism’s I found with Vista, Windows 2000 could be percieved a “Vista-Killer”. So could the latest Mac OS. So could Dos.

It all comes down to what part of Vista (in this case) that you’re not liking, and want a ‘better’ alternative to.
I suppose, ultimately, it’s all subjective.