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Review: The Logitech MX Air on Linux
For some time I have wondered how well the Logitech MX Air
For starters let’s talk about compatibility with Linux:
Compatibility
It works out of the box. Period.
OK. You can’t install Logitech’s Windows-only software (which lets you reconfigure mouse buttons and mouse speeds) and the cursor doesn’t change when you pick up the mouse, but, to be honest, neither of these features are really important to me. I only tested the mouse in Ubuntu 8.04, but I assume results would be similar in other distributions.
Design
The Air is almost all black on the top with a chrome-style underside that looks, well, a tad ugly, and orange lighting that looks great and is, in some cases, quite useful. Luckily, most of us don’t spend our time looking at the bottom side of our mice and the visible bits of chrome are quite nice. Without having used all that many mice, I can’t really judge how well designed the mouse is ergonomically relative to others, but it definitely feels nice in your hand.
It addition to the two long mouse buttons on the top, there is a row of buttons in the middle. The first part is not really a button, but a touch-sensitive scroll area. Instead of having a physical wheel, you just move your finger up or down the strip. (While you scroll, the mouse makes a sort of quiet scrolling, clicking sound, which is a nice addition. Behind the scrolling area there are four buttons. From front to back they are back, select, play/pause, and volume. The select button, which serves as a second left click (useful in the air), has a small raised bump, allowing you to locate it without looking at the mouse. Again, this is really just for when you use this mouse in the air, which will probably be most of the time. That’s about it to the design. The mouse really appears quite minimalistic, in a good way. “Minimalistic” is a description that fits only the design of this mouse, though.
Set Up
Set up for this mouse, like most, is extremely simple. First, plug in the charging station. All you have to do is plug the power cord in to the wall and and the other end in to the back of the charging station. Next, plug the USB wireless receiver into a USB port. And you’re done.
The charging station is really nice, since you don’t have to worry about replacing the batteries. When you place the mouse in the charger, a battery indicator appears, showing the status of the battery. When you take the mouse out of its stand, the battery indicator lights fade and other lights illuminate the various buttons on the mouse. My only complaint about the charging station is that the mouse doesn’t really ‘click’ in to place, it just sits there. This is not a major problem, but it would be nice to have some physical feedback when you put the mouse in its stand.
In The Air
As soon as you pick this mouse up, the magic begins. You can immediately start pointing at things and clicking on them, making little gestures to control media, and generally having fun controlling your computer from afar. Logitech’s Windows-only tutorial suggest you hold the mouse with all your fingers except your thumb under the mouse and your thumb on the select key (the one with the bump that serves as a left click) while using it in the air. This is a more comfortable position and give you access to the various special keys, but you can’t easily right click with this set up.
One thing you will notice as soon as you start using this mouse is that it quickly gets misaligned. In other words, you sometimes have to point at a different place than you want the cursor to go. This is, luckily, not a big deal, since it happens a lot. All you have to do is hold down the back button (right above the select button) and the cursor will freeze. Then, point the mouse at the cursor and release the button. If you hold down the back button for a couple seconds, it will keep the cursor frozen after you release. This lets you use the other special keys and use gestures to control media without worrying about the cursor flying all over the place.
If you plan to use the Air to control a lot of media, you will want to get used to using gesture. For example, pressing play/pause and making a little forward or backward circle skips to the next item in your playlist or returns you to the beginning of the current item, respectively. Just pressing the volume once mutes or unmutes the sound, but if you hold down and move the mouse to the left or right, you can change the volume. Trust me, its really cool.
Where it is not so cool, though, is when you try to precisely move the mouse. Trying the resize a window, for example, is an absolute pain. Most basic computing tasks work pretty well from the couch, even if you have to do a little typing with an on-screen keyboard. You would not, however, want to do any serious typing. It really only works for typing URLs and short things.
On The Ground
When you are not waving the this mouse around in the air, it also functions as a standard mouse. Just put it down and start using it. Really there is not a lot to it, except that you can do it.
Conclusion
The Air mouse works really well, especially for controlling media, so it really comes down to how well you can take advantage of it’s gyroscopic abilities (all the stuff you do with it in the air). If you spend a lot of time on your computer just watching movies or listening to music, the Air mouse might be a good choice. Where it really shines, though, is when it comes to home theater PCs. The ability to pick up one device and control your computer is amazing. For some time I have used a small wireless keyboard that has a built in mouse, but this is way better. I’ll still pick up the keyboard if I have to type something long, but with a home theater PC, I rarely have to do that.
If you don’t have a home theater PC or watch/listen to a lot of media on your computer, the Air’s special abilities are really little more than a cool feature to play with for a few minutes. If you do spend a lot of time watching/listening to media on your computer or especially if you have a home theater PC, the Logitech MX Air
For several weeks now I have been testing an early copy of StarOffice 9, Sun’s commercial alternative of OpenOffice.org. Finally, today, I can tell you about it.
While StarOffice is a commercial product, it is completely open-source and based on OpenOffice.org, of which Sun is a sponsor. A license of StarOffice will cost you $35 for the download or $60 for a disc, so the focus of this review will be on why anyone would pay $35, when they can get OpenOffice.org for free.
My reviewer copy was a mess to install, but I have been assured that there was a problem with these DVDs and that everything will be fixed by release time. On the disc, I received StarOffice 9, Thunderbird (with the Sunbird calendering plugin), Sun’s PDF Import Extension, Sun Presentation Minimizer, Sun Presenter Console, Sun Report Builder, OpenOffice.org eFax Extension, Sun Webblog Publisher, Sun Wiki Publisher, and Sun Professional Template Pack II. The strange thing about all this is that, except for StarOffice 9, all of the software on the disc is stuff you can download for free.
Features
If you have ever used OpenOffice before, you will find yourself very much at home in StarOffice. Apart from different, and slightly nicer, icons, the interface is basically the same.
(StarOffice 9 above, OpenOffice.org 3.0 below. Click for larger images.)
Despite similar appearance, there are actually some differences, though not a huge number. One nice feature is the inclusion of a huge library of clipart, something that OpenOffice lacks. This might seem like a small thing, but it is actually an important inclusion. Apart from compatibility, clipart is one of the few things that Microsoft Office has that OpenOffice does not. StarOffice also includes fonts that imitate the commercial fonts that are common on Windows, however you can get fonts that work for this purpose for free.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, most of the other features in StarOffice 9 are just free extensions, which can be downloaded and used with OpenOffice, or features from OpenOffice 3.0. The truth is, this is not something for anyone to complain about. It means that Sun is dedicating most of their efforts to the free OpenOffice, rather than hoarding all that away in their commercial product.
As far as compatibility goes, it is the same as OpenOffice.org 3.0. In other words, it works pretty well with older .doc documents and it can import .docx – as long as you don’t have any media, comments, or changes. Yeah. It could be better. A lot better. You have to give them credit for their work, though. It is something of an uphill battle.
So, on to the extensions. I am not going to talk about all of them, just a few interesting ones.
PDF Editing
One of the extensions included with StarOffice 9 allows you to open and modify (and, of course, export) PDF files. I tried it on three PDFs I found online and it appears to work well. Loading and saving them does get a little slow, though, and it sometimes froze up completely upon trying to open or export a 1000+ page PDF.
Weblog Publishing
Weblog publsihing, again with an extension, works just as you would expect. Just go into the extension’s options and tell it where your blog is, what kind of blog it is (including Blogger, WordPress, Movable Type, and a few others), and your username and password. Then, write your post and press the publish button. Formatting like links, pictures, etc. all works.
The templates included in another one of the extensions are fine, but nothing to write home about.
Finally, I should briefly mention a couple of more enterprise-focused features. A license of StarOffice gives your business indemnity against intellectual property lawsuits and, of course, support.
Conclusion
In the beginning of this review, I asked why anyone would pay for StarOffice when they can get it free? Apart from supporting a company that helps make OpenOffice better, you basically get clip art, a slightly nicer to look at screen (due to the better icons), and support. That is not a lot, but, then again, $35 is not much either. I think this product is likely to have the most appeal to enterprises looking for support from a large company, but if you need clip art or one of the other features StarOffice offers, it is a great deal. If not, OpenOffice is great, too.
A Review of Ubuntu on the Dell XPS M1530
As I have written about before, I recently purchased an XPS M1530 from Dell, pre-installed with Ubuntu, of course. It has now been quite a while since I got the machine, but I am glad I waited to review it.
In this review I am going to focus mostly on the software, since other posts have already covered the hardware. Before I begin on the software, though, I would like to mention a few things about the hardware. First, there is a Windows key. Enough said. Second, There is a special media key next to the power button. As far as I can tell it does nothing but display a splash screen and then boot Ubuntu. Likewise, the WiFi identification button on the side also appears to do nothing. Third, one of the things I was surprised by is how much the material on the back of the computer picks up fingerprints. Luckily, it is also very easy to clean.
As far as the software goes, I would love to be able to say everything works perfectly out of the box, but, unfortunately, it does not work that way. Out of the box, I had the following problems:
- The built-in microphone did not work.
- The eject button only worked after unmounting the CD/DVD manually.
- Accidentally hitting the touchpad while typing kept moving the mouse around.
- The second headphone jack did not work.
While all of these problems (except for the second headphone port not working, which I have still not fixed) were easy to resolve with the help of this page, they should have been solved before the computer left the factory. Really, that just about sums up the software. Other than these issues, it is just basically Ubuntu.
I have been very happy with my M1530, but I am still a little disappointed in Dell for not offering a better out-of-the-box experience. Still, it is hard to fault them for being the only one even trying.
If you have ever bought a machine pre-installed with Linux (either from Dell or another smaller vendor), what has your experience been?
Click here to go to the live review of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex.
The review is now over, but you can go read through it. Thanks to everyone who participated.
What I Will Be Looking For In Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex
As you know, this Saturday I will be doing a live review of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex. Today, the day before the review, I wanted to let you know what I will be particularly looking for in this release.
- Artwork. The artwork for this release was a bit of a train wreck up until a few weeks before the release. I will be very interested to see how it comes out in the end. I sharply criticized the original plans, but that was before the last-minute art overhaul. Still, I doubt I will like what I see as much as I like the Heron in the previous release.
- Choice of Software. Last release, Ubuntu included a beta version of Firefox and early versions of other programs in an LTS release. This drew criticisms from many and, although I don’t believe I every wrote about it, certainly annoyed me. Still, without including the beta version of Firefox, Ubuntu would probably not have Firefox 3 yet. This release, particularly since this is not an LTS release, will be interesting. Will early and potentially incomplete software be included, or will this release be more cautious.
- Integration of Private Directory. One of the most talked about features of Intrepid was an encrypted private directory for each user in their home folder. Early reports have suggested that manual configuration is needed to get this working, though. I am going to be interested to see if it is set up out of the box or needs configuration. And, if configuration is requiered, how much.
- Guest Account. This release will bring a special guest account, designed to let someone else check their email or something on your computer. My question is: how is this feature implemented and how useful will this be?
- Overall. The biggest question for me is: do I see a good reason to run out and upgrade my computer to this release. I will most likely be testing it out in a VM for purposes of the review (specificially, so I have the chance to take screenshots if I want) and installing it on my computer later on. Will I see the need to do the upgrade the next day,though, or will I be happy to wait?
These are the main things that I am going to be looking for in this release. If there is anything else you would like me to make a point of covering, please mention it in the comments, or just come and bring up whatever points you want in the live review.
Either way, don’t forget to come! The event will occur on November 1st at 1:00 PM Eastern US time here or at live.linuxloop.com (either works).
A while back, as you may remember, I did a quick look at NimbleX, as well as some of the features of the then upcoming NimbleX 2008. Just a few days ago, NimbleX 2008 final was released, so I decided to check it out. I am not going to do a long boring review and I will say up front that I have only been running it on and off for a few days from the live CD. In other words, I am really just doing a quick look at some of the features.
NimbleX, which is based on Slackware, is advertised as a customizable and slim Linux distro. The CD comes with many desktop environments including KDE, Fluxbox, Enlightenment, Openbox, and more. The default, not surprisingly, is KDE 3.5.
Upon booting from the live CD, you are presented with a login screen and nothing to tell you what the username or password is. You can find this information on the website (just entering root and no password works), but I wish that you didn’t have to look this information up. Oh well, just a minor issue. Once you have successfully logged in, you get a fairly standard KDE 3.5 interface. One feature I really like is an icon on the desktop that, when clicked, starts up Compiz Fusion, with a nice full set of effects (wobbly windows, desktop cube, menu effects, etc.), not just the minimal set many distributions use. I really like the idea of having a button on the desktop to start Compiz Fusion and I have not seen this idea anywhere else yet. It could be even better if things like wireless networking settings were put on the desktop, too, but I really cannot complain, since no one else, that I know of, puts anything like this on the desktop.
As you start to use NimbleX, you will quickly notice that there are an amazing number of applications installed, which is quite impressive, since NimbleX is a very slim distro. you should note, however, that the K office suite is included in place of OpenOffice. You can always create a custom NimbleX CD from the NimbleX website with OpenOffice, though.
In all these applications, you get some applications such as GParted and Partimage that make NimbleX a useful system maintenance CD. Also included are several already-configured servers, that can be started with the click of a mouse.
One thing I noticed, and liked, about the applications menu is that almost every application is named in this form: Application Type (Name), so it is easy to tell what each application does, even if you don’t recognize it.
I did notice a few bugs, but not many. When I start Compiz Fusion, the icons for the workspaces stretch horizontally and when I try to boot up in any of the non-standard modes, such as the web browser kiosk mode, X fails to start on my hardware. Hopefully, these bugs will be fixed soon, though.
Other features of NimbleX include the custom CD creator on the NimbleX website, which lets you create a custom version of NimbleX with the applications, artwork, and settings you want, and the sub-100MB edition, which, as the name implies, is a furthur stripped down version of NimbleX.
If you are looking for a small, customizable Linux distro, you should definetly check out NimbleX. Additionally, if you want to create a customized CD just for your needs, NimbleX is probably the easiest way to go. Even if you don’t fit into either of these categories, you might want to download the NimbleX CD just for the chance to check out some unusual desktop environments without having to download a million CDs.
When the Reviewers Spend More Time With Linux…
Yesterday, Tom’s Hardware posted a review of the KPC, a $200 PC that runs Foresight Linux. ($99 refers to the barebones version, which means the version with not all the parts installed.) The interesting thing about the review was the amount of time they spent on the operating system, and the conclusions they reached (spoiler: mostly positive.)
Most reviews of inexpensive Linux PCs tend to view Linux as not as good as Windows without really appearing to have investigated Linux for more than a few minutes. You would not expect Tom’s Hardware to be much different, since their main audience is Windows gamers, so I would expect them to be biased towards Windows, if anything. Surprisingly, however, they spent three pages of their review discussing the operating system. There were some weird parts of the review, such as complaining about Firefox’s compatibility with some web pages but not about Open Office being incompatible with some Office files, but overall the review seemed very reasonable and concluded that Foresight Linux was quite good.
It is not fair to judge based on only one review, but it seems like this review might be a lesson to other reviewers. Don’t assume Linux is not as good as Windows, try it out and investigate for yourself before coming to any conclusion.
Adobe Air: What it means for Linux
Adobe Air is a technology that allows certain web applications to be run on the desktop, as if they were normal desktop applications.
According to the Adobe Air website, Adobe Air “lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that deploy to the desktop and run across operating systems.” Essentially what that means is that developers can use tools and techniques that are already familiar to them and create web 2.0 applications that will not only run inside a web browser, but also on the desktop, regardless of the operating system that desktop is running.
At the time of writing, however, Adobe Air for Linux is not feature complete, so not all applications will work perfectly.
One of the main barriers people face when moving from one operating system to another is applications that don’t run on their new operating system. This creates an uneven playing ground where the operating systems on top have a huge advantage over other operating systems, regardless of technical merit. Web applications started to solve this problem, because most web applications can be run on any operating system, but web applications have one major disadvantage: they require an internet connection. Air lets developers create web applications that will also run on the desktop, removing that one major disadvantage and allowing web applications to finally level the operating system playing field.
For Linux, if Adobe Air catches on, many new applications will become available for it, not because they were developed specifically for Linux, but because they were developed for any operating system. This means switching to Linux is likely to become very easy in the future.
For a guide on installing Air on Linux, see my tutorial “Adobe Air on Linux: What, Why, and How“.
With the release of Ubuntu 7.10 and Fedora 8, Phoronix did some performance testing of the two distros. Who won? See page 5 of the Phoronix article.
Phoronix just reviews the PC Doctor Diagnostic Kit, a kit a various hardware and software to help you diagnose hardware problems, from the perspective of a Linux use to decide if it is worth the $400 price tag. I will not spoil the answer. Sorry. 