Not a Good Week

Lets just say its not been a good week....

Fedora 13 vs Windows 7

I recently tried moving over to Fedora 13 as most of the applications I used were web based. I felt that Linux had more to over me as a managed mainly Linux servers over ssh. Unfortunately it just didn't work out.

I downloaded the 64-bit live CD and ran it up with a spare HDD I had. Installed away and it all went well - the install worked perfectly. I tried to setup the Active Directory authentication, but when I tried the first login - it failed. Because of this i had to CTRL-ALT-F2 to get a shell, and login as root. Once logged in I created a user and then went back to the gui to login as the sub-user.

First thing I noticed was the proportion of the screen - it just didn't seem right. I have an ATI PCIe graphics card and a 22in widescreen monitor but everything looked stretched. It was already set at the maximum resolution, so I couldn't do any more.

I downloaded Chrome 64-bit (why don't we have this option on Windows???) and that worked fine, but Flash kept telling me it needed to be installed. It always did install but never worked. I presume this was down to the fact flash is 32-bit and my browser was 64-bit.

Next - install Skype. Easy peasy, except it won't run. Again its a 32-bit app and my machine only had 64-bit libraries. Again buried in the Skype forums was how to resolve this issue by installing the 32-bit libraries it needed.

OK, now KeePass. Keepass for those that don't know is a secure password store. Its used on Windows and is open source and allegedly cross-platform. Well it is, sort of. I had to install Mono to get it working, which it did. However the main function of it was missing. In windows you right click on the password, and copy it to the clipboard, and then paste it into the window of your choice. This function doesn't work on Linux :-( I could of course install KeePassX - which doesn't read v2 files. So I was left high and dry with this one.

So, to summarise, On the surface you could easily swap from Windows to Linux on the desktop. But when you start using it, you end up having to do lots of tweaks to get 90% of the way there, and have to compromise. In the end it was too much for me. I couldn't afford time tweaking things to get it working, and the lack of full KeePass functionality just killed it for me.

Back to Windows 7 I went. Until its made for ordinary people and not people who love tweaking things, I will stick with Windows.

Blackberry Bold

Well my latest news is I have upgraded from a Bold 9000 to a Bold 9700 and what a sexy pice of kit it is! Smaller than the original Bold and so far battery life is a lot better. Screen is nice but a little smaller, as is the keyboard, but still easy to use.

Doesn't seem to work with Nokia car kits which is a bit of a pain, but seems to work great with everything else.

Blackberry Update

Regarding the Blackberry question of PIN transfer.

It seems that whenever you enable Blackberry service on a network, the PIN moves over. So in short when you want to change network just make sure you add on the Blackberry service on your network. Once you have that every thing works. You don't need to contact your old provider.

Also without BIS on your tariff, none of your internet apps work as the BIS operates like a proxy server for all internet stuff.

I am currently trying out T-Mobile PAYG with Blackberry add-on, which works a treat!

Orange PAYG!!!!!

Why oh why do Orange still issue 2G PAYG SIMS??? I want to test their 3g signal strength and speed, but all the sims they issue are 2g. I can't see why they do it.

Last time I enquired they told me to pop to a store and have it exchanged, but if I had time to do that I would have gone there in the first place!!!!

OK Orange, you are now crossed off my list of prospective providers, and I won't recommend you to anyone.

Blackberry PIN registration

It seems that once you put a sim in a Blackberry, with the BIS service provision, your BB just hooks into that service providers service - Excellent!!

O2 quoted me 28 days to unlatch it from their servers but it looks like they don't know what they are talking about.

Next choice is SIM free 12 months - or PAYG with BB add on.

Decisions decisions....

Google Mail App on Blackberry

I am just in the process of trying out the Google Mail app for Blackberry on my Bold as an alternative to bog standard, network provided BIS.

Its not bad and the multiple accounts option is pretty good, but the fact it doesn't render HTML the biggest drawback.

But anyway here is my opinion.

Pro's

• Multiple Accounts handled well
• You can view all your emails, past and present
• You can keep your settings when changing network providers (yet to be proven - watch this space)

Con's

• Doesn't render HTML emails
• Polling time very bad (5/20 minutes)

So the question has to be - which do i prefer? I think I prefer the BIS setup - its time to uninstall I think...or shall I?

UPDATE: I uninstalled the GMail app and went back to normal BIS. Its a lot better...

The Answers....

Well, in case you wondered, i got the ring and the netbook - it just had to be done!