Shortcomings

I’ve finally realized something about the various operating systems that I have been playing around with for the past few months.

People keep saying that Windows is on it’s way out. And the desktop is dead. But there are currently no suitable replacements (except for Mac OS X).

I consider the ability to print photos to be basic functionality. This is not new technology. People have been printing photos for years. I have a Canon all-in-one printer. It prints great photos… if you’re using Windows or OS X. But if you’re using Chrome OS or any flavor of Linux… forget it.

Chrome OS just isn’t mature enough to have that functionality. And the Linux driver for my printer is so buggy that if I specify any paper type other than “plain paper”, it just doesn’t print. No really.

This is 2014 right? It is absurd that people think an operating system that doesn’t support mainstream printers is actually usable. I could probably hunt down a different printer that has better Linux support. But it’s not like Canon is some obscure brand.

I’ve deliberately scaled-back my requirements for operating systems that I mess with so as to be as tolerant and undemanding as possible. That allows me more room to play. However, one has to draw the line somewhere. And “can’t print photos” is a bit of a show-stopper.

But here is the punchline. The first hit that comes up when searching for a list of printers with good Linux support is a list of recommended printers from the free software foundation. Great! Unfortunately it also states that the list is “currently unmaintained”. And that… is the story of Linux in a nutshell.

Everything is a Chromebox

Not long ago I bought an ASUS Chromebox. And not long before that, I bought an Acer Chromebook. Around the time of my Chromebox purchase… I decided that Chrome OS would be the environment of choice for my personal computing needs.

As a result of that decision I moved all my personal data onto Google Drive. I still have large stash of MP3s. I also have a fair number of TV shows and movies that I bought from the Apple iTunes store.

I’ve already uploaded all my MP3s to Google Play Music. So I don’t need access to those. And I can stream any of the shows I bought from the Apple iTunes store directly from Apple via my Apple TV. So that means I’m done. My life is in the cloud.

After some exposure to the community and the various ideas about Chrome OS, I’ve been very excited about the whole concept. But here’s the thing. Sure a Chromebox is simple, nice and convenient. It boots quickly and updates seamlessly. And they’re typically inexpensive when compared to a full-blown PC or Mac.

But the nicest thing about choosing to live within the boundaries of Chrome OS is that the operating system and hardware that I use is no longer important. Any machine that has Google Chrome installed will give me the same functionality as a Chrome OS device. It actually makes no difference at all what hardware or operating system is running under the Chrome browser.

Our household has three Windows 8.1 machines. I also like to play with various distributions of Linux. But none of that matters. Because now, to me they are all Chrome devices. That is now the only functionality of these machines that I need or depend on.

A new version of Ubuntu came out yesterday, and I had previously been anxious for it’s release. But I figured my days of playing with Linux distributions were over now that I had moved to Chrome OS. Then I realized, not only could I slap the latest Ubuntu on my machine, but I could largely skip the painful and tedious configuration process that always follows. Because all I need it to do is run Google Chrome!

I have to say that it’s pretty liberating to wipe a drive and install a new OS and not worry one little bit about my data or configuration. My computers now only have one operating requirement. As long as they run Google Chrome, the rest is gravy.

Another reason

I’ve been thinking more about the Chrome OS thing. See here’s the sweet thing… if a person can do the Chrome OS thing and live with it… they’ve just become the ultimate tech nomad. They use any computer anywhere, login to their Google account and walla. Everything is there. Everything. No configuration. No set up. No installing anything. No compatibility issues.

Ok, does one give up a thing or two? Sure. I am assuming I’ll need occasional access to a real PC. I have a 160GB iPod. It’s needs to be synced. Honestly… that’s probably about the only reason.

Part of what will make this easier for me is that I’ve been working toward it for over a decade. In all my playing with Linux, Windows, and Macs… the holy grail has been trying to put my data in a format that was independent of the platform. Otherwise it would be very cumbersome and painful to switch from one OS to another. And yes… I used to do it anyway. But I like the idea of what amounts to zero impact.

New experiment (Chrome OS)

I have played with Linux a lot over the years (and in the last 12 months). Been running Windows 8.1 on a few computers since it came out. I’ve used Macs exclusively for about a 10-year stretch.

It used to be about the technology. It was fun. I liked trying different things. But anymore… how much energy and time do I really want to spend so that I can do things that pretty much any $299 computer will do out of the box? I mean really?

At some point it should no longer be about the technology, but about what one can do with the technology. Short of setting up computers with different operating systems and playing with all kinds of different configurations… I don’t actually DO that much with computers.

Maybe it’s time to focus more on doing things and less on the means involved. Rather than continuing to go through the endless number of ways I can setup a computer to do the basic stuff I normally do, I’ve decided to dumb down.

The fact is, I just don’t do that much on a computer anymore that is outside my browser. So I’m going to try an experiment. Yesterday I pre-ordered the new ASUS Chromebox. This will go nicely with the Acer Chromebook I bought a few months ago. And Google just announced a huge price cut for their Google Drive cloud storage options. I think my life is about to get a lot simpler.

My plan is to put pretty much all my data into the cloud on Google Drive. And because I will be running Chrome OS, I will essentially be doing without anything that won’t run in a Chrome browser. I think I can do this. There are a few loose ends and known concerns.

1. I’ll give up Quicken. Not really a big deal. It’s been messing up my transaction downloads for the last few months anyway. My custom-designed spreadsheet (in Google Docs) is better.

2. I’ll need a different backup solution. I’m thinking about using something called “Spanning Backup”. It’s essentially a cloud-to-cloud backup solution designed to backup one’s Google data. It will backup all my Google stuff for me (gmail, calendar, contacts, and Google Drive stuff) to some other location in the cloud.

3. I’ll need to think about no longer using iTunes. I could leave it running on a spare Windows machine just so I can use it from my Apple TV. Might do that, might not. All my music is already available on Google Play. So no compelling reason to stick with iTunes except for the movies and TV shows I own and never watch that are DRM-locked to only play in iTunes (yay).

4. I need to figure out printing and scanning. There is something called Google “cloud printing” which would be perfect except that my printer won’t natively do it. New printers will. I might be able to get mine to work. Or I might just pop for a new printer.

I have no need to do this. I have a Windows desktop machine and a Windows laptop. Both are happily running Windows 8.1. My wife also has a Windows 8.1 desktop machine. But I like the idea of an experiment. I want to give Chrome OS a whirl to see if it might be enough. Honestly we’re talking about less than a $400 total investment in the equipment necessary (Chromebook and Chromebox).

I do understand the irony of setting up yet another computer configuration while at the same time saying that I’m doing it because I’m tired of playing with all the different computer configurations. We’ll have to see about that. Will this be the final iteration? Probably not.

Being a hobbyist

Technology hobbies are a funny thing. We might be talking about computers, operating systems, ham radio, cell phones, tablets… you name it.

Let’s take Linux as an example. When I install a Linux on my computer, what do I use it for? Honestly, the first thing I do is join forums, chat channels, and mailing lists so I can talk to other people who are using whatever flavor of Linux I’ve just installed. And for the next number of weeks I spend a lot of time using Linux to talk to people regarding the use of Linux.

Is there something wrong with this picture? Ham radio is no different. People get their ham license. They set up a radio station. When they get on the air the main thing they talk about is ham radio. So they are using the technology they’re interested in primarily for the purpose of talking to others about that technology.

Of course I use my computer and my cell phone for a few other things. But my main use of technology in general is to learn about and keep up on what’s happening with that very technology.

That just seems a little funny to me. I wonder how much I would use technology if I only used it things not related to the technology itself. Honestly, probably not much. But it might be a fun experiment.

Chromebook

I’ve been curious about Google’s Chrome OS for awhile. And recently I’ve been reading that the new Acer C720 Chromebook finally nailed the sweet spot between price, quality, battery life, and performance. At $199 it was supposed to be a pretty good value. Finally, a Chromebook that lives up to the promise.

So I decided to give it a go. One free offer that comes with the Chromebook purchase is 100GB of extra Google Drive space for two years. Nice. That means I can downgrade my $99 per year Dropbox account to the free level of service and save… $198. Hmm… that would make this a $1 laptop.

The Acer C720 has an Intel haswell processor. Battery life is supposed to be 8+ hours. Not sure what to expect as far as performance goes. But pretty much all the OS has to do is run the Chrome browser.

That’s really the Chrome OS in a nutshell. It’s the Google Chrome browser with all it’s various extensions and plugins. And of course there is whatever level of hardware support to make it all work. With the standard Google Chrome browser you go into “Settings” and you get the browser settings. In the Google Chrome OS… if you go into “Settings” in the browser you get the browser settings and various hardware and operating system settings. There seems to be very little else to it.

I’ve been arguing for several years that anymore all one really needs is a good browser with a few choice plugins. Obviously Google has been thinking the same thing. And in 2013 it seems that Chromebooks have captured a pretty significant chunk of the notebook market.

Full circle

Back on July 21st of this year I started playing around with Linux again after about a 12-year break. The first distribution I chose to try was Linux Mint 15 MATE edition. Linux Mint had/has the distinction of being the most popular distribution out there (neck and neck with Ubuntu). I’ve installed and reinstalled many different Linux distributions since then. Playing around with just about all the more popular ones.

But not long ago, Linux Mint 16 MATE was released. So I’ve come back around to where I began and installed that to give it a whirl. It’s pretty nice.

This reminds me of when I started using Macs. When I made that choice, it was because the new Mac OS was unix-based. And I had been playing with Linux and FreeBSD a lot. While the Mac had always had a reputation of being “easier” than Windows. I insisted that I was not chosing the Mac for that reason. Because I truly did not need computers to be easier. I was perfectly fine running Windows or whatever. I was not after easier, I was after “better”.

Linux Mint has a very similar reputation for being easier. Only maybe now I’m not so adamant about not using that as a reason for running an OS. After trying so many different distributions, it is rather refreshing to run one where things work without a great deal of effort. And when it comes to Linux, it’s not so much a matter of easier or harder. It’s a matter of things working or not working. I don’t mind doing my homework to figure out how to do something. But I’m still an end-user, not a Linux developer. If I can choose a distribution where things work without having to spend days and weeks getting them to do so, then great!

The other side of the story

My last post was less than two weeks ago. At that time I was seriously questioning any benefit I would receive from running Linux. At that time I wiped Linux off my machine and went fully back to Windows 8. This was easy due to having good backups.

But about one day later I wrote up a document of pros and cons to running Linux. I like doing that when I’m making a decision. I debate with myself in the form of a document. It helps me come to a decision and solidify my logic.


Well, in doing this with my decision whether or not to run Linux… I was sort of surprised. I was able to find solutions to each and every drawback to running Linux except one. Quicken.


Ok, not totally surprised. That’s been a recurring theme. As a matter of fact, that’s why I got rid of my Macs and went with Windows computers back in 2008 or so. I was tired of dual-booting or running Windows in a VM just so I could run Quicken.


However, I’ve mentioned before on this blog that I’ve been tinkering with the mother of all budget spreadsheets on Google Docs. I keep honing it and making it better. And that, like Linux, is also a lot of fun. And it can totally replace Quicken in my life if I choose to do that.


So as much as I’d really rather that my choice to run Linux was not a philosophical one, it very well may be. The desire to run Linux, just for the fun of it, prods me into ridding myself of the shackles of proprietary software. It has definitely moved me in the direction of things that are “operating system independent” like Google Docs, non-DRM media files, and web-based applications in general.


The nice thing about this… if I decided to move to a Chromebook for example… no problem. I’ve been moving that direction for years. Just give me a good browser with a few essential plugins and I’m good to go.


So it is philosophical. And there is a definite benefit.

Linux why?

I want a divorce from technology. Somebody write up the papers… I’ll sign.

In all my messing around with Linux… it’s fun and all. I learn stuff. I can setup pretty much any of the various distributions with my preferred setup in a matter of hours. Sure they all have their quirks, but no big deal. I had my machine booting into six different Linux versions. All set up and working nicely.

Then I had to stop and ask myself, what’s the point? I mean really. Why would one run Linux instead of Windows unless they HAD to? Windows works so well. What’s not to like? I know that it’s popular or somehow “hip” to be anti-Microsoft. But I see no benefit in that.

Linux might make sense to me if my wife was open to using it. We have two desktops (her’s and mine) and a laptop. It’s just not that great to have one Linux system and two Windows machines. If they were all Linux I think it wouldn’t be so bad. But nothing cooperates with a Windows machine as well as another Windows machine running the same software.

I am quite torn over the issue really. Because messing with Linux is a lot of fun. And I mean a ton of fun. But if I want something more than a toy to play with… something that will actually do all the things I want it to do… I have to keep coming back to Windows. So it’s the difference between being fun or being useful.

Linux might be nice if I wanted to learn PHP, Perl, or certain other programming languages that are non-Microsoft based. But what’s the point of setting up something like dual-boot with Windows and Linux when I have to boot into Windows to do certain things? What’s the upside to that hassle? I don’t know that there is one.

It is kind of funny though. When I get Linux all set up nicely and working they way I want, I feel like I’ve really accomplished something. But when it comes to Windows… that sense of accomplishment is not nearly so pronounced, because it comes so much more easily. Maybe that’s why Linux is fun and Windows is useful.

Giving KDE a whirl

In my last blog entry about choosing a Linux distribution, I mentioned favoring the Xfce desktop environment. I mentioned ruling out Suse because it was crashing upon initial configuration. And I mentioned that I hadn’t really given KDE a try.

Well… since that time, I was able to get past the Suse instability and install a couple of different flavors of that. And I’ve tried Kubuntu, Suse w/KDE, and Fedora’s KDE spin. I also got a little tired of having 6 different installations of Linux. So I decided to settle on just one.

For now it’s Fedora with KDE. I’ve condensed my partitions and that’s what I’m running. So far so good. Everything works except for my scanner. Which is no problem since I can access that via my Windows 7 VM.

I’m leaving the door open to going with Suse in the near future. They are about to release their next version. And they are a distribution that seems to lean toward KDE as their default choice. So it makes sense that someone wanting KDE might choose Suse.

My current choice of KDE is a little strange. Because KDE is about as heavy as it gets when it comes to desktop environments. And because so far one of my favorite distributions of all has been Crunchbang which uses the extremely lightweight and barebones Openbox window manager with no DE at all! So I am torn between the two extremes. Typical.

In other boring news… I ordered two new hard drives.

I’m using an old spare 160GB HD in my laptop running Windows 8. I pulled my 128GB SSD and put that in because having only 12GB free space is a little too tight for my taste. In thinking about replacing the drive… I could have gone with a new 250GB SSD for about $180. Or I could get a 750GB 7200RPM HD for $73. I went for the 750GB drive. Space over speed.

The second drive is a “green” WD 3TB drive for my external Lacie enclosure. I have two of these enclosures. They are pretty spiffy looking. Although buying a drive with an enclosure was almost cheaper than buying just the drive… I went ahead and did the drive anyway.