Review: Edubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal"

GNOME Main Screen

Before I get on with the rest of this post, I need to apologize for not having posted anything this week. It turned out to be a good deal busier than I anticipated, and even otherwise, there wasn't a whole lot to write about, at least at the beginning of the week. I did say in the latest "Featured Comments" article that I would review the latest release of Ubuntu — version 11.04 "Natty Narwhal". That is still happening, but for reasons that will become clearer, I will not write reviews of Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu just yet, but will wait a day or maybe a little more.

JAVA Session Welcome Screen

With that aside, I find it interesting that having written this blog for almost 2 years and having reviewed Linux distributions for almost as long, I have never formally tried and reviewed Ubuntu or any of its official other editions (Kubuntu, Edubuntu) or officially-sponsored community derivatives (Xubuntu, and hopefully soon Lubuntu as well). I've reviewed quite a few other derivatives, most notably Linux Mint, but I've never tried straight-up Ubuntu itself. I guess that's because I've always sort of taken Ubuntu for granted; I installed it on the laptop of a member of my family, I've seen people put it on their computers, and I've used it at the Athena clusters here at MIT. Well, that's changing today, with a review of Edubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal".

Why Edubuntu, and not Ubuntu? As mentioned earlier, one reason will become apparent when I publish the review of Ubuntu. The other main reason is that I haven't really seen Edubuntu reviews on the Internet; that could be because of its specific target audience, but in any case, I think it deserves a review, especially given that it is an official Canonical product. For those who don't know, Edubuntu, as you might be able to guess from the name, is a packaging of Ubuntu with lots of education-related software included out-of-the-box.

Thanks to Canonical's efforts in this regard, I was able to test it in two ways: I was able to try it out online from the comfort of my current Linux Mint system, and then I tried it through a live USB made with UnetBootin. Follow the jump to see what it's like.

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Featured Comments: Week of 2011 April 17

There were two posts this week that got a handful of comments, so I'll try to repost most of them.

Joking Around with Professors

Reader Abhijith said, "You're absolutely right about the state of this in India. Let alone school teachers; teachers/lecturers in undergrad were still uptight about having a good chat with students. But then again, not all were. We have attended marriages of lecturers, teased them about it, had pointless chats with some lady teachers(they are more approachable any day). But I still don't think the relationship goes beyond the boundaries of the college. If they met you outside, you would probably be treated as a stranger. Apart from a few, most lecturers don't mix with students outside of class at all."

Adobe Flash Troubles: 64-Bit or 32-Bit PAE?

An anonymous commenter suggested this: "Fix the problem: Hulu checking your Flash version string. Don't attack issues that aren't the direct cause of your symptoms. Spoof the version string." Unfortunately, I couldn't find any further information regarding this or telling how to do this.
Another anonymous reader said, "Try this: they don't seem to update it timely.. but at least it works (on Hulu as well)! http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10_square.html" I tried to avoid this in order to minimize conflicts with the existing installation of Adobe Flash.
Reader John Lewis had this tip: "Did you try the native 64 bit flash? I find it to be a lot more stable and less problematic than the 32 bit version under 64 bit Ubuntu. Follow shameless plug for my own article on the subject :) http://johnlewis.ie/improving-flash-experience-in-ubuntu-64-bit/"
Yet another anonymous commenter had a different take: "Running 64 bit Ubuntu 10.10. I'm using Chrome as my web browser because it works better than Firefox with Flash. Hulu has no problems." This was supported by reader Tim, who said, "I'm running Chromium on 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid). I have no problems running Hulu. Also, 64-bit does have some advantages even with less RAM for certain things--compiling code and rendering video, I believe, I are two areas where it is a bit quicker. Unfortunately, the RAM address sizing is bigger so you actually end up with less effective memory. (I could be a bit off on some of the technical details.)"
Still another anonymous commenter clarified, "32bit OS limits your process virtual memory to 2^32 or 4GB of memory. If your laptop has 4GB of RAM, then 64bit OS will not make any difference. In any case, I am running a 64bit Ubuntu 11.04 and have firefox and flash versions of 64 bit and I don't have any issues with hulu. You can also have firefox run flash in 32bit mode using an intermediary library."
Finally, reader piquant00 suggested, "If you're using Firefox, there's an extension to make installing 64-bit flash quick and painless: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flash-aid/" This was what I tried, and it worked like a charm. Thank you so much for that amazing tip!

Thanks to all those who commented on this past week's posts. I'm going to be pretty busy this coming week and probably the following week as well, and in any case, I don't really have anything planned...wait, what am I saying, Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" comes out this week! I've been saying a lot of stuff about Unity only based on other people's reviews without having actually tried it myself, so I'd certainly like to see what Unity is like in the final release. Interestingly enough, I have never actually directly reviewed Ubuntu or any of its directly-related variants, so that'll be a first for this blog. Anyway, if you like what I write, please continue subscribing and commenting!

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Grades When You Want Them, Not When You Don't?

One of the nice things about freshman year at MIT is the grading system of Pass/No Record. Letter grades are recorded, but they are for the student's personal records only, and if the student gets at least a 'C', the grade is recorded as 'Pass', while if the student gets lower than that, the grade is not recorded at all (though no credit is earned). The big benefit to this is that it helps new freshman proverbially get their feet wet at MIT and explore different areas of study without fear of getting poor grades. For the second semester, however, letter grades of 'A', 'B', and 'C' are recorded instead of just 'Pass', though grades lower than a 'C' aren't recorded at all.

I've been chatting with quite a few people on how the second semester is going generally, and one of the things I keep hearing over and over again is that they did really well and got great (hidden) letter grades, so they wish that those grades could be present on their transcript to give them a good starting GPA. At first, I agreed with this, because I also did pretty well even in terms of hidden letter grades in the first semester, if I may say so myself. But now, as I have thought about it more, it makes sense that all freshman students are treated on the same footing. Why?

Well, suppose a group of MIT students applied for an internship, and the internship organization asked for their transcripts. Furthermore, suppose that some of these students got great grades like mostly 'A's and some 'B's, while some of these students got some 'B's and some 'C's. Finally, suppose that 'A's are recorded as 'A's to give the students a good starting GPA, while 'B's and 'C's are simply recorded as 'Pass's. The internship organization will probably compare the transcripts of the applicants and see that the students with 'Pass's didn't get 'A's, or else they would have 'A's recorded just like the students who did actually get 'A's. In such a situation, 'Pass' becomes a placeholder for "I got a 'B' or a 'C', but not an 'A'", at which point there is only marginal benefit to A/Pass/No Record over A/B/C/No Record. And that's why I think it's important that 'A's are still recorded only as 'Pass's. What do you think? Please let me know in the comments below!

On a side note, I am now officially majoring in MIT Course VIII – Physics, and I further plan to pursue the focused option. Yay! I'm excited!

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Adobe Flash Troubles: 64-Bit or 32-Bit PAE?

I am a big fan of both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, though unfortunately I haven't been able to watch full episodes of either show in a while because of college work. I have, however, been able to watch clips here and there on their respective websites, but I cannot do the same thing on Hulu, the awesome website that aggregates segments from different TV shows and supports it through advertising. The reason for that is because I supposedly don't have a valid working version of Adobe Flash, and that is probably because I'm running a 64-bit Linux system on my laptop that has a 64-bit processor. As far as I know, Hulu is the only problematic site, because YouTube, online games, and other sites that obviously use Adobe Flash work fine.
I know that 64-bit operating systems are able to recognize RAM amounts greater than 3 GB, which is important for me because my laptop has 4 GB of RAM, and I'd like to put all of that to good use when necessary. I have also heard, though, that using a 32-bit Linux distribution with a PAE modification in the kernel (or something like that) allows the OS to recognize and use up to 4 GB of RAM, up from 3 GB previously. Linux Mint 9 LTS "Isadora" is supported for another 2 years from now, so I'd like to continue using that until either Linux Mint 13 LTS "M[...]a" comes out or, if that doesn't happen, for the next two years, at which point I will likely switch to a snapshot of Debian-based Linux Mint (or maybe #!, I'm not sure). When that happens, I'll choose either between 64-bit or 32-bit with PAE. My question is, do the benefits of a 64-bit OS outweigh the loss of Hulu viewing, or will switching to 32-bit with PAE be the better option with few side effects otherwise? Please let me know in the comments below. Of course, ideally, in one or two years, I'll actually be able to use a working version of Adobe Flash on a 64-bit Linux distribution.

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Joking Around with Professors

This was something that I meant to write a few weeks ago, but I haven't been able to get around to it until now.
A few weeks ago, the Society of Physics Students (SPS) along with the Undergraduate Women in Physics (UWIP, and it was actually mostly organized by the latter, though of course men were allowed to participate as well) held an event called "5-Minute Lightning Physics Lectures". I actually gave the 5-minute lecture on the slightly more advanced version of the first physics course, as I took that class last semester and did pretty well.

All of the other classes that had prepared presentations were presented by students as well, except for one, and that was the second electricity & magnetism course, and that was presented by the same professor who currently teaches the class. After the whole event was over, I went up to him and jokingly asked him, "All the other classes' lectures were presented by students except for yours. That tells me that students hate your class enough that they don't want to present for it. That means to me that your class is insanely hard, so why should I take it?" (Please do note that I was planning and am still planning to take the class anyway, because it sounds super cool.) He recognized the lightheartedness of my question and took it in good humor, responding, "Well, I'm not really sure why no one stepped up to present a 5-minute lecture for this class, but from what I've heard from past students, they really like this class, and I think you should take it because it's really cool and useful."

My justification for conversing with a professor (who, by the way, is 70 years old) I had never met before in such an informal/irreverent way is that he plays the video game Halo in his spare time, often with other students, and when he does, he stops being the formal professor and turns into just another Halo player. A few months ago, SPS held a Halo party featuring this professor after one of the general body meetings, and apparently the professor lost miserably, which is practically unheard of. The professor later sent a mock angry email demanding a rematch and claiming the match was rigged against him. But all that aside, the point is that I'm glad I could have such light banter with a professor without any repercussions. I told my family and other relatives about this, and they all told me that if I was back in India, they would have thrown me out of the school for such insolence; they didn't mean this to tut-tut me, but more to remind me that I'm lucky that I can do such things here in the US. And I think that it's great that I can; I think it's really sad that teachers my relatives in India have to deal with practically believe themselves to be divine beings who cannot be approached or questioned in any way.

So what do you think? Are your teachers/professors generally OK with such informal banter and do they make efforts to reach out to students, or are they unapproachable and always right (even when they aren't)? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

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The Wonders of Communicating over Computers

A few days ago, I was talking to my family back home on Skype. They were actually helping me fill out college financial aid forms for the next academic year, but we were also chatting about random things at the same time. This was far from the first time we had talked on Skype since I came to college, so why was I particularly amazed with it now? Well, the phone at my family's house rang at one point during our conversation, and I had the video call set to full-screen on my computer. The phone nearest my family's computer is just to the right of the computer, which means in the video call it appeared to the left side of my computer screen. As the phone rang, I instinctively started to reach to the left for the phone until I remembered that I'm not actually there.
That's the beauty of things like video calling; if you allow yourself to be immersed in the conversation, you forget that you aren't actually in the same place as the other person in the conversation. And sometimes, it's nice to stop focusing on super-technical things, take a step back, and let yourself be wowed by modern technology and progress. What do you think?

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Featured Comments: Week of 2011 April 10

There were two posts that garnered a handful of comments, so I'll try to repost all of those.

Review: GNOME 3

An anonymous reader had this tip regarding my complaint about the number of steps it takes to shut down: "You get that option if you hold down the alt key after selecting the profile menu. Can't begin to guess the thought process that went into that design decision."
Another anonymous commenter had this counterargument to my overall criticisms of GNOME 3: "I don't agree with your idea that GNOME is for netbooks - I have a 24" monitor and enjoy the experience... You don't understand that the design principle behind banning unnecessary information, like panel-applets, is to reduce distraction from the task at hand and improve focus. It is about information management, not about saving space. I don't want to have to 'figure out' my netbook's homescreen like it was the dashboard of an airplane; that's what ANDROID 3 does, and it's horrible. I just want to get stuff done, and GNOME 3 is brilliant for that."
Another anonymous reader followed up on that, saying, "+1 I really like Gnome 3 with my dual screen setup (and the 40" HDTV when used). A well designed command-line interface minimizes how much information you need to recall/process for common tasks. A well designed GUI interface minimizes how much information you need to recognise/process for common tasks."
Yet another anonymous commenter had this to say: "I like Gnome 2 better. Far better. I almost feel like everything they did goes against everything I loved about Gnome 2. I like the option of making the top panel moved to the bottom, the time in the right-hand corner, menu driven not icon driven, adding launchers to the panel for the top 7 applications I use (kicker, nautilus, firefox, chrome, thunderbird, software updates, VLC) It is like a one click application launch, no need for any extra movements. I don't like the whole name/system menu thing. I know what my name is, I want to have to click on it for options. I would rather have that whole thing under the main applications button (or application launcher). I also don't have the option to add a "lock computer" button in the panel, for those times you need to jump up quickly to answer a call or get some documents from a printer that is at the other side of the room. I place this in the far right corner beside the time so that it is available to me with one click. Fast, Functional... not like Gnome 3, which claims to be forward thinking. Obviously they weren't thinking about office use much. Gnome 3 is nothing but a frustrating experience. The only way I can see myself liking Gnome 3 is if they make it more like Gnome 2... or just continue supporting Gnome 2 and Gnome 3 will become unnecessary."
Another anonymous reader said, "I think that this is a pretty reasonable and nice review. Personally i like GNOME 3 is very much and i am pleasantly surprised by how stable it is. For those who prefer the GNOME 2 way of doing things, the fallback mode can actually be configured to resemble the older GNOME interface pretty well. Once you install gnome-tweak-tool and dconf-editor a lot of hidden options appear - like for example the ability to make nautilus draw the desktop (in a GNOME 2 style), the options to configure fonts and the titlebars buttons. I am also sure that the colour of the panels can be changed to the default GNOME 2 white colour. Right now i am pretty much using a GNOME 2 in the default configuration - i have only changed the icon theme and have added several launchers on the top panel - I already like GNOME 3 but should i decide i can pretty much recreate my old desktop in the GNOME 3 fallback mode - you can put launchers on the panels, make nautilus draw the desktop and configure the fallback mode to more or less appear like a standart GNOME 2 desktop."
Commenter neeraj said, "I have used Gnome 3 for over a week now, and I must admit its well thought out.You quickly get used to the new interface...plus if you know few shortcut keys (like windows/Super key to show activities) you'll never regret the change.Wish all a better experience with Gnome 3"

Wireless Electricity: I Could Have Thought of That

Reader somethingquarky said, "more cool is near-field evanescent coupling of coupling of coils. madd cool science. i can send u the paper if you want, but im certain you have access to the paper at school as well (it was done by a founder of Witricity ;))."

Thanks to all those who commented on this past week's posts. I have a four-day weekend this week (yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the day after that), so I'll have a little more time to write. I do have two posts planned for this coming week, but these are going to be more personal things, not software reviews. Once again, if you like what I write, please continue subscribing (anywhere on the sidebar, though if you subscribe via email, please remember to click the link in a confirmation email to confirm your subscription) and commenting (at the bottom of every post)!

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