Firefox 2.0 Beta 2

I just installed Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 on my MacBook Pro a few seconds ago and I'll post my observations here as they happen:

Smooth scrolling with trackpad gestures (two fingers) is actually smooth. It now behaves like it does in Safari and Camino!

Typing is more responsive!

Actually, the whole UI seems more responsive.

Fast-back is basically instant now, like Opera.

Suggestion boxes, the url entry line, and other tooltip-ish things have a fade out effect.

You can open all recently closed tabs at the same time using the history menu.

The Extensions and Themes menus have been combined into an Add-ons menu.

A few of my old extensions, such as DownThemAll and Adblock still work.

The stationary tab-closing button that used to reside on the far right of the tab bar is gone. Oh well, I still have cmd-W.

Underline-as-you-type spell checking!

It does sessions! And, it's smart about crashes, offering the choice of a clean start or a session restore during recovery.

It has auto-suggest in the built-in Google search box.

Trying out Linux

OS Install

I downloaded the Kubuntu CD image from the official site, burned it to a CD, set my BIOS to boot from removable media first. I have a Dell Dimension 9100 and it was set to boot from HD first. The installation seemed to go smoothly. The only option I had to change from the default was the time zone.

Unfortunately, after booting up, I discovered that my display was stuck at a sub-optimal resolution. To remedy this, I used sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and was able to select the correct resolution for my FP2405.

Additionally, my Logitech MX510's extra buttons were miss-mapped. For example, the foreword and back buttons don't go foreword or backwards in any of the browsers.

Installing and Upgrading with apt-get

Kubuntu includes a apt-get GUI called Adept. One of the first things I did was use the System Update Wizard. I basically just pressed "Upgrade" and everything on my machine was upgraded.

Next, I used the System>Package Manager (Adept) to install the linux-686-smp kernel metapackage, which, I hope, took advantage of the HyperThreading available on my 3.0Ghz Intel P4. This required a reboot.

I'd heard of Native Eclipse and wondered if Adept had it. All I had to do was type "Eclipse" into the Adept search box and install everything. Apparently, the GCJ appended packages provide the natively compiled portions of the installation.

Eventually, I discovered Kubuntu-Automatix. This is basically a super-install shell script with a GUI. I used to install common codecs, media players, Firefox + all plugins (flash etc.), SUN Java, MS TrueType Fonts, RAR, ACE, MPlayer, OpenOffice.org 2.0, and DMA (Direct Memory Access - devices can directly shuttle information to memory without using the CPU). This script includes a ton of packages. There are even DVD decoders, (which the installer says are illegal to install in the United States).

Running Linux 5th Edition

I just finished reading Running Linux. As a result, I am hyped up about linux. I think I'm going to install openSUSE or Fedora Core 4 on an old junker and try it out.

Fink

Fink has been building for more than 8 hours now...
287 FinkComman 5.2% 8:05.02 4 96 204 10.2M 12.3M 29.2M 124M

I wonder if killing the process will do any harm...

Google Summer of Code

My project got accepted to Google Summer of Code! I haven't felt this happy since I got my HAM radio license!