However, many users (including me), shun the Unity desktop for being bloated and slow. Gnome 2 works better but looks dated. Gnome 3 however seems to be a little gem, despite not being released for general use yet.

Personally I managed to break my Ubuntu Natty Narwhal several times by trying various scripts to install Gnome 3. Therefore, this process requires a disclaimer: Backup your data! Do this at your own risk! Gnome 3 wasn’t included in Ubuntu for a reason so think thrice!

For the brave, here is the succession of commands to run (tested on Ubuntu Natty Narwhal and Linux Mint Katya:


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install gnome-session
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell


Good luck!

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Get the latest Ralink driver (this Edimax uses a RaLink chipset) from here: http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2 (get the one called RT3062PCI/… and so on – at the time I wrote this, the file was called DPO_RT3562_3592_3062_LinuxSTA_V2.4.1.1_20101217.tgz)
2. Download the file, copy to your Desktop
3. Open a Terminal window (on default Unity click the Ubuntu logo on top left corner, type "terminal" and click on the Terminal application icon).
4. Run these commands to start:
#sudo su
5. After that type in your password, then:
#cd Desktop
#cd DPO_RT3562_3592_3062_LinuxSTA_V2.4.1.1_20101217
#gedit os/linux/config.mk

6. Find the lines
HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=n
HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=n

   change them to
HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y
HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y

   and save and close the file!
7. Then edit this file:
#gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

   and at the end of the file add these blacklists
   
blacklist rt2800pci
blacklist rt2x00lib
blacklist rt2x00pci
blacklist rt2800lib

   Save and close the file.
8. Then:
   
#make
#make install

9. At last:
   
#echo rt3562sta >> /etc/modules
#exit

10. To wrap things up, restart the computer and when you come back to your desktop, the wireless network icon should warn you about nearby hotspots and allow you to login.

Enjoy!

There is no question that today is about portability rather than performance. Computing power alone is a dead end. We have enough computing power on a mobile phone for everything we need: light gaming, multimedia, writing, reading and so on.

I can’t express how much I love the idea of a light (under 1 kilo) computing device. In this class, computing devices are easy to handle, light, they battery lasts way longer than the 3 to 7 hours of a classic notebook. For the weight, netbooks meet tablets and superslim notebooks, but what are the pro’s and con’s of each?

Setting Apple aside as closed system integrating hardware and software, the Linux world has delivered a heavy punch. Ubuntu, Android and RedHat are leading a steady charge that has finally broken through mobile devices, tablets and laptops. The fall of the PC stronghold is well in sight since it’s a question of time until the users of mobile platforms and laptops will desire the soon-to-be familiar platform on their home computers as well (even if only for file transfer and sync compatibility).

In fact, it’s more about using a strange judo tactic against Windows. If the main reason Windows has pushed so far was its ubiquity, now the tide is turning with Linux-based systems becoming more ubiquitous. The concepts behind Windows (its file system, monolithic approach, etc) stem from the 80’s and are fundamentally untouched. Due to this lack of innovation, Windows has been playing catch-up in just about every area related to usability.

It’s hard to compare the amazing compiz to the Aero interface. Trying to blend the lessons from Linux compiz with those from Mac OS X, Microsoft’s Aero came out already dated. Blending annoying functions like Aero Snap (meaning a window touching a side of the desktop will size itself and bind itself to that side) to more useful ones like Peek (functionality existing in Linux and Mac for years), Aero seems like a poor attempt at playing catch-up with other interfaces.

The structuring itself is counter-intuitive (storage drives appear independently, while various devices can’t even be seen or accessed directly – not easily anyway) when opposing the mac & Linux structure where the tree structure is the computer itself, with all devices and peripherals appearing within that structure. This way, one doesn’t need to always keep in mind that some movies are on a drive while others on another, you just have some folder called movies where all the movies are linked. To have something similar in Windows you need to install some library software whereas a native implementation that breaks the boundaries of this 80’s mentality is much more practical (no other software needed!).

The other systems have opened themselves to the point where your computer works out of the box. A Linux or Mac installation comes with everything one needs to work (ranging from all sorts of players, browsers, office applications, movie & image editing, you name it) so it’s rarely that one needs to look around and install software.

And now even Microsoft seems to slowly acknowledge that Windows is not only illogically impractical but it houses a lot of bloatware. In teh future Windows 8, Microsoft plans to encourage developers to turn to more open technologies such as HTML5, Javascript and classic HTML when developing for Windows 8 (either on mobile or desktop). To general surprise, Silverlight and .NET weren’t even mentioned, raising suspicions on certain forums.

Although home users have been jumping boats for the past 4 years, there are certain classes of users (mainly architecture engineers) that are still waiting for their tools to be implemented up to their industry standards on alternative platforms.