Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Release Dates

We'll the new Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) is out soon and here is the release dates for it. Remember not to download and install on a production computer until it's final release.

Alpha 1 release date: December 1st 2011
Alpha 2 release date: February 2nd 2012
Beta 1 release date: March 1st 2012
Beta 2 release date: March 22nd 2012
Release Candidate release date: April 19th 2012
Ubuntu 12.04 Final release date: April 26th 2012

Been Busy
     Hey there guys sorry for not updating my blog in along time. I have been busy with school, work and my personal life. I plan on making more effort to update this site more often. With more information about Ubuntu (Linux) and the changes that have come.

Green Computer/Environment Part 1

     We'll I am trying to start a new greener (environmental) chapter in my life. One of my first steps to be greener is my test computer. The biggest thing I have done to the test computer is turn off the overclocking and turn on Amd Cool n Quiet. So you might be asking what does Amd Cool n Quiet do. What this does is brings the speed of all the cpu cores down when the computer is not in heavy use. Now when the cpu cores speed comes down the amount of power the cpu needs comes down as well. The speed only lowers when the default cpu speed is not needed. When the speed is needed the default cpu speed will come back up.
     The lowest speed that it drops down to is 800 Mhz on all cores. When the cpu is at full speed it is 2.8 Ghz. This is a 2 Ghz drop on all cores when in power saving mode. I have also noticed that the temperature has dropped down 10 degrees from 45 to 35. My next step with the computer is to replace the two hard drives with solid state drives. Now I know I have one but replacing the other two with solid state drives will help with power consumption. The way solid state drives are better is because there are no moving parts. The moving parts in regular hard drives take more power to function.
     Also one of my next certificates I am working towards is CompTIA Green IT. This certificate will go along way with with showing to myself and others that I have a firm commitment to the environment. In part 2 I will be going over how to get Amd Cool n Quiet to work on your computer. I will be also talking about how Ubuntu works with the Cool n Quiet technologies.

Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 Released

     Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 has been released today with a few new features. But since this is still in the Alpha stage I am not going to highlight the changes. Remember the changes could/can change once the final release is out. Remember you should not run the Alpha 2 on your main computer. It can break down easily and you might have to reinstall. If you are interested on giving it a try you can download it here. If you are going to install and try it out I would install it in a virtual environment.

Comptia A+ CE Continuing Education (MCDST)

     We'll if you have read my last blogs about certifications you will be able to tell that I have my Comptia A+ CE certification. Now with A+ CE, Network+ CE and Security+ CE they are only valid for three years. If you want them longer then three years (three year extension) you have to get Continuing Education credits. If you do not go this direction you will have rewrite the certifications after the three years is up.
     Now with any of the CE's you will have to do a few things. First thing is that you will have to pay a $25.00 fee for three years $75.00 total for the A+. For the Network+ and Security+ it will cost more per year. You can either pay once every year or the full amount up front. Once you make the payments you will have to start earning credits. Now there is a full list of different ways you can start to earn credits. Now there is a list of External Credits that you can get, this is the way I got my extension of my A+. When I got my Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) certification it was one of the External Credits.
     Now I know this can be a little bit of a pain but remember this does show you are willing to work towards better education for yourself.

Certifications And Certificates #2

     Current certifications that I have are CompTIA A+ CE, Microsoft Certified Professional and Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician. Certificates that I have are CompTIA Strata IT Fundamentals.

Microsoft Certification #2

     We'll on Tuesday the 28th I went to write Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Microsoft® Windows® XP Operating System (072-271) and passed. Now having this plus 072-272 gives me the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician designation. This is the next best step for myself, this will help me more to understand how to help out people with computer issues. This will also help me out to get Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA). I am a big believer that the more certifications you have the better you are to help people out. I think right now though I will be holding off on more certifications and more on my school work.

Certifications And Certificates

     Current certifications that I have are CompTIA A+ CE and Microsoft Supporting Users and Troubleshooting Desktop Applications on a Microsoft® Windows® XP Operating System (72-272). Certificates that I have are CompTIA Strata IT Fundamentals.

Microsoft Certification

     We'll I know it has been sometime since I have posted on here and I am sorry about that. I have been really busy with personal issues and with school issues. On a positive note yesterday I passed my first Microsoft Certification. The one I passed is called Supporting Users and Troubleshooting Desktop Applications on a Microsoft® Windows® XP Operating System (072-272). This certification gives me the MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) designation. I am aware that this certification is pretty old but I believe that this is a good start for myself. I will be working on new blogs again in the very near future.

How To Run Another Operating System In Ubuntu

     If there is some reason that you still want to use the Windows OS while still using Ubuntu it will not be that hard to do. There are two programs out there that will emulate Windows OS very easily VirtualBox and VMware. Both programs will work with Windows, Apple (Mac) and Linux machines.
     Now I will take a look at VMware and why I find it a stronger program to run a virtual operating system. Now VMware has two versions for desktop users the free version VMware Player this version is a stripped down version. VMware also has a Workstation version. I am going to be covering the Player version in this write up. To get your hands on this version you will have to register and download a copy off the VMware website.
     To install this program will take a little bit of work. Go to were you downloaded the program. Right click on the file and go to properties. Go to the Permissions tab and click on the Execute box. Then close the box and then you should move the file to your Desktop if it is not all ready there. You will then have to open up your Terminal program. Once the program is up you should be able to get to your Desktop by just typing in cd Desktop and then press enter. You will have to then type sudo sh and then the whole file name. Terminal will prompt you to put in your password to install the program. You will then just have to follow the prompts until it is installed. When it is done installing you will have to click on your Ubuntu icon on the top left and do a search for VMware.
      When the program opens up you will want to right click on the Home icon and select Create a New Virtual Machine. Here is a list of operating systems you can install Windows, Linux, Novell Netware, Sun Solaris, MS-DOS and FreeBSD. Now I am not going to be covering all the installs but I will cover Windows a little bit. The other operating systems should be pretty straight forward if you are use to them. Now depending on what Windows version you are installing there will be things you can enter to help the installation. Depending on the install you can put in a system password and put the product key code in. You will also be able to install the operating system into what ever hard drive you want. If you have a faster hard drive I would install the OS on the faster hard drive.
      Now another great feature that VMware has is that if you have to format or remove VMware you can still reuse the OS you installed. You will have to make sure you save the directory the VMware OS is installed. Right click on the Home icon after VMware is reinstalled and click on Open a Virtual Machine. Then look for were you saved the OS and look for the file with .vmx extension. Once your operating system is installed you can start it up by double clicking the operating system name in VMware. VMware also lets you move one VM from one to computer to another. This is a great idea because if you are running a production system that needs to stay up all the time. You can move the OS to another computer while you shut down the other one if need be in real time. So if you are running say a web site your customers will not see it go down. The only down side is that you need another computer running at the same time that is identical to the production computer.
     Now I know I have not covered VirtualBox but that program works almost the same as VMware. There are a few things that VirtualBox can not do like move a VM from one computer to another in real time. Also I wanted to cover the stronger of the two, I might cover how to install with VirtualBox down the road.

A little Off Topic (Tux The Linux Mascot)

     Hey there if you are not aware yet the mascot for the Linux operating system is the penguin named Tux. I found on YouTube a video showing him on a Fruit Loops commercial. This is off topic but I thought it would be a little fun to see were Linux is showing up at. 

DVD, Flash, MP3 Playback And Much More

     Are you new to Ubuntu and you are wanting to watch DVD's, watch on-line video's or listen to mp3 music. Then you will have to install a certain software package. This package should work with any Ubuntu version out there. Please note that this package may not be legal in some countries. If this package is illegal in your area you should not install it.
     You will need to open up the Ubuntu Software Centre or Synaptic Package Manager. You will want to do a search for ubuntu restricted extras. You will want to install this package and also ubuntu restricted addons package. If you are running Xubuntu, Kubuntu or Lubuntu you will need to install the package that belongs to that distro. You can also buy and download the Fluendo Windows Media Pack for $24.95. You can get this program in the Ubuntu Software Centre under Get Software then under For Purchase. But note this program will only work for Windows related media files. I have found that the ubuntu restricted extras/addons package has everything that the Fluendo Windows Media Pack has. I have also bought and tried playback of a .avi file with the Fluendo Windows Media Pack and found it to be choppy.
     Now you need to note that this package will play dvd's but only if they are not encrypted. So home movies and some foreign movies should be fine. Now to play restricted movies you will have to install libdvdread4 into your system. Now what you will need to do is first open up the terminal program. After that you will need to put this in "sudo apt-get install libdvddread4" without the quotes. Next you will have to put in " sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh" without the quotes. After that you should be able to play DVD's without reseting the computer. Remember you will need to make sure this is legal in your area.

Ubuntu 11.10 Release Schedule

     With Ubuntu 11.04 now out Canonical (the makers of Ubuntu) have now set there eyes on a release date for Ubuntu 11.10 code named Oneiric Ocelot. The dates are as followed and remember they can change at anytime:
June 2nd, 2011 - Alpha 1 release
June 30th, 2011 - Alpha 2 release
August 4th, 2011 - Alpha 3 release
September 1st, 2011 - Beta 1 release
September 22nd, 2011 - Beta 2 release
October 13th, 2011 - Final release of ubuntu 11.10
     Now I will not be going over the up coming changes right now. The reason for this is because of how far the release date is. With the other versions that have come out things have changed a lot before they were released. Once the alphas start coming out more I will take a better look into what has changed or should be changing. The next release after 11.10 is 12.04 and it is a long term release support (LTS). Mark Shuttleworth has recently stated that with the new releases coming and the change to the Unity interface. Canonical is pushing for two hundred million new users.

CompTIA Strata IT Fundamentals Certificate

     Today I went to write and passed the CompTIA Strata IT Fundamentals certificate. You maybe saying since I have my CompTIA A+ CE I should have taken the CompTIA Strata IT Fundamentals first. You would be right in saying that. I felt that getting this certificate would help me have a stronger feel for computer hardware and software.

     Now the certificate is seventy questions and you only have sixty minutes to complete the test. If you have never done a test before or you are new to computers you should take your time. Make sure you read over all the questions carefully. Make sure when you are done answering all of the questions if you have time to review your answers.

     If you are just getting into the computer industry the CompTIA Strata IT Fundamentals certificate is the best place to start with before going for your CompTIA A+ CE. The IT industry looks very positive towards getting your papers. Certifications and certificates will not only show to yourself but to employers that you know what you are doing when it comes to computers.  For more information on CompTIA Strata IT Fundamentals and CompTIA A+ CE certifications/certificate CompTIA.

Atom Zombie Smasher Review

     We'll today I am going to take a look at a game I have been playing on and off for the past 6 months the game is called Atom Zombie Smasher. Remember that this game is tested on Ubuntu so it does not one hundred percent reflect any other platform that this game maybe on.
     This game is a top down action style game with not a lot in the way of cut scenes. You play from a over the city few of the game. During the game you get different mercenary units that can help you out in different ways. You will have to get the people out of the city via a helicopter before night fall. If you get them all out before night fall you capture the city.
     For some information about the back story of the game. The game looks and feels like it is based around the 1940's. There is a zombie out break for what looks to be a country and you have to go around to each city and destroy the zombie's there. 
     Taking a look first at the good points of the game. The music plays very well with the game play, the music is better to have on then no music at all. The controls are really solid I did not have any issues getting my characters to were they needed to be. The graphics are solid as well with buildings being able to be destroyed and the people and zombies as square dots. Now I did not mind the fact that people/zombies are square dots. Since you do play on a top city view it would be to hard to see the people/zombies if they looked real. They seem to be also putting out updates almost every week or so, so they are actively supporting the game. 
     For the bad parts of the game and there are a few. The first part would be the fact that then you are picking up people to rescue they seem to run away from you. I have found quite a few times people running away from the helicopter and right into zombies. Speaking about the helicopter it does not stay down long enough on the ground. What I mean about this is that you could be almost full of people and more people coming and the helicopter just takes off. You should be able to tell it to stay down as long as you want. There is also no installer for the game so that means also that there is no game icon in your game menu. This would be bad for people that was not use to finding the game in the game directory. There is not much in the way of replay value in the game you just play the same levels over and over. The levels do change a little bit were the zombies come out but there really is no difference in the levels. There is also not much in the way of a story to the game. You have to click on a button during the load times between levels to see what little story there is. When you do click on the button the story that is told does not have any continuity in the story. There are characters in the game but you do not have a feeling about what there involvement in the game really is.
     I would give this game 5.0 out of 10. It would have been nice to see with all the updates that they have been putting out to make it a more solid game. You can find the game here Blendo Games and as of this writing the game cost $15.00.

Test System Hardware Update #3

     We'll I have upgraded the test system with adding a second Nvidia Geforce GTS 450 video card. I now have the the system in a three way sli configuration. Now you maybe asking how do I have a three way sli with only two Nvidia Geforce GTS 450 cards. We'll the Asus M3N-HT motherboard has a built in video card with what Asus calls hybrid technology. What this does is let you run your built in video card in a sli configuration so you can get more graphic power. When you want to use your built in video card this way you have to make sure that you have the card enabled in the BIOS. You should start the Nvidia X Server Settings program when your operating systems starts up.  In there you will see well for this motherboard the nForce 980a/780a SLI video card and the other video cards in your computer.
     When I added the Asus Xonar DX 7.1 and the D-Link DWA-556 Xtreme N cards I could not install another Nvidia Geforce GTS 450 card. There was just no more room on the motherboard to add another one. So remember if you want more video cards you need to plan out what you are going to put into the computer first. You will also need to be aware of how much more power another video card is going to pull from your power supply. If you are going to run two or more none built in video cards you should be running 800 watts or more of power. If you do not have enough power you could do some damage to your computer components. I have yet to push this system yet with the new video card installed but I will let everyone know how it works out.

Gnome 3 Issues

     We'll I just tried Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 11.04 and I have mixed thoughts on it. Some good thoughts but mostly disappointed thoughts on my Gnome 3/Ubuntu 11.04 experience. It took some effort to get Gnome 3 to install in Ubuntu 11.04. It would not install with out adding a Gnome 3 ppa installed and if I tried without the ppa it would come up with a broken package error.
     So when I finally got it installed it worked great when I got it to finally to install. I found the interface a lot more user friendly then Unity and found there more you could do with the desktop. There is a lot of similarities to the Unity interface with the left side bar for your programs. The ability to be able to use multiple desktops easier. I was not able to do a full test of Gnome 3 because of the major issue so I can not highlight all the positives. 
     Then everything went down hill my mouse froze as I was in a game to test out how well it works. My keyboard was working but my mouse would not work and I could not back out of the game so I had to reset the computer. After the computer reset I tried to load Gnome 3 again it would not load. The background would load up and a couple of programs I had to start up in background would load. But that was it nothing else would load. So I tried Ubuntu Classics and that would not load because Gnome 3 update Gnome 2.32.1 to 3.X. Also Unity would not load up I am not sure why that is. I did not have any other desktop interface installed like KDE or XFCE. So the only thing I could do was to reinstall the Ubuntu operating system. At least it only took me under fifteen minutes to reinstall the operating system.
     I am not sure why this has happened, as of right now I will not be trying Gnome 3 again for some time. From what I read Gnome 3 will be out in 11.10 by default along with Unity. Right now other Linux distro's like Fedora in there up and coming version 15 will have Gnome 3 as there default desktop. Right now at least till 11.10 I would recommended Gnome 3. Ubuntu users should stick with Unity or Classic. Even with the slick desktop that Gnome 3 there is no guarantee that it will not crash on you and you will have to reinstall your operating system.

Ubuntu 11.04 Released Today

     We'll the new Ubuntu 11.04 operating system has been released today. This also means that I have updated the test computer to full version of Ubuntu 11.04 from beta. There are a lot of major changes that has gone into the new version of Ubuntu.
     The first major change is the fact that they got rid of Gnome as the default desktop. Canonical (the makers of Ubuntu) decided to make there own desktop called Unity as the default desktop. There is still a version of Gnome in the list of desktop's you can choose from called Ubuntu Classics. But from what I have read on-line with version 11.10 Canonical will get rid of that option. Now you are still able to install what ever desktop you want and with Gnome 3 out you can install that one if you want as well. I have not tried out Gnome 3 yet but I may try it out down the road. Another major change would be on how the installer for Ubuntu 11.04 works. The installer is very sleek and is very user friendly to new and veteran users. Also if you have a internet connection you can download important updates while Ubuntu is installing. These updates are important for new people to start using Ubuntu 11.04 right away. The next major change they did was to get rid of Rhythmbox as the default media player and put in Banshee in it's place. They have also taken out OpenOffice as the default office suite and put in LibreOffice. From what I have read the reason for the office change is because of the fact that LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice. LibreOffice is also being supported more in the open community. Also Firefox has also been updated to 4.0 as the default web browser. They have also got rid of the Netbook Edition so you will have to use 11.04 on your netbook now. There is no real difference from the feel and look of the Netbook Edition to 11.04 since the Netbook Edtion was using a version of Unity.
     With all the changes I find that this update to the Ubuntu operating system is a very much welcomed and needed. Kubuntu another spin off of Ubuntu has released there 11.04 update as well today. With Xubuntu another spin off of Ubuntu will be bringing out there 11.04 update very soon. I would give Ubuntu 11.04 10 out of 10. If you are wanting to upgrade from any earlier version press Alt and F2 then type update-manager -d. Your update manager will open up and there will be a option there for upgrading to the new version. If you are looking to download Ubuntu you can go here Ubuntu and remember there is no cost for this operating system.

New Humble Bundle (Frozenbyte) Update #6

     We'll the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle has ended with $909,849.56 in sales and 183,193 copies sold. As it stands linux users have spent the most on average $11.82, Mac users $6.42 and Windows users $3.91. Also as it stands Windows users bought the most copies with Linux users and Mac users next. On the Huble Bundle website you will be able to download your games for sometime and also sign up for future humble bundle news.

Trine

     I am going to take a look at the game Trine another game from the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle. Remember that this game is tested on Ubuntu so it does not one hundred percent reflect any other platform that this game maybe on. I am reviewing this game next because of how different this game is compared to the other games in the bundle.
     First off this game is a full side scroller game with not a lot of cut scene, they are focusing on game play here. The only cut scene they have in the game are during loading times between levels.
     Now for some information on the back story and what is going on in the game. You are set in a medieval kingdom and evil has taken over the entire kingdom.  You either pay as a thief, knight or magician that has been trapped in a magic orb. The only way to get free of this orb is to make it to the end and free the kingdom of the evil.
     Now for all the good points of the game and why this game is Frozenbyte best game out of all the games in the bundle. Installation of the game went very well, the install put a shortcut onto the desktop and games menu. A lot of games that run on Linux that are cross distro (different Linux companies) do not even do this. The graphics for the cut scene and game play were maybe the best I have ever seen in a long time. You could tell they put a lot of effort into the graphics. The background had just as much going on as the foreground did. The soundtrack also worked very well for each level and did not over power what was going on in game. There was also very strong voice acting in the game and cut scene. The controllers were also very solid I had no issues with the controls randomly freezing. The game also had multi player action but no online multi player. From what I have read they are looking to put online multi player in Trine 2. From what I am told Trine is Nvidia 3D Vision compatible but for only Windows users right now. I am told this issue is a Nvidia driver issue and it looks like there will be drivers out soon.
     Now I am going to go over the bad parts of the game because there is not a lot of bad points. For the game play itself when you would walk on a trap to open a door your character freezes but enemies or other items can hurt you or kill you. I find this frustrating when your frozen from a door opening and a big spike ball is coming at you. But this does not happen that much through out the game and you can work around this issue.  The next issue and it's not with the game but what should come with it is a level editor. I am aware that there is one for Windows versions but there should been one for Mac and Linux users.
     With all the small bad points in the game I would give this 9.5 out of 10. If it was not for the small issues in this game it would be a 10 out of 10 game. Now with one of these issues (level editor) I do know it is a Linux related issue. But the other one I am not sure if it is Linux related or not. Either way I can not wait for Trine 2 to be released in the next few months. You can find the game here Frozenbyte and as of this writing the game cost $19.99.