For the last week, I have been using Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on my personal laptop. I can say that the experience has been mostly transparent for me, even with the need for a complete re-build last night after an attempt to install a complex theme replacement.

I can say that it has been transparent because I have been using Linux desktops in one form or another on an intermittent basis since 1999. When business was slow in the Fall and Winter of 2001/2002, I was the Guinea Pig in my organization to see if Linux could be a corporate replacement for Windows for all desktops and laptops.

So, when I say that the process has been transparent, you will have to realize that I have been a technical user of these desktop interfaces for a number of years. But I can say that since my first positive experiences with the Red Hat Fedora and the Ximian Gnome replacement interface, things have come a very long way.

Ubuntu 8.04 is the first real interface that seems to work predictably, efficiently, and effectively with external devices and programs that are business friendly. This is especially the case if most of the tools are Web-based, as Firefox and Opera work seamlessly. OpenOffice 2.4 can open DOCX files, and media players support most of the files I want to watch/listen to.

It prints to the home network printer.

It accesses the home file server.

I can share and synchronize files among my computers using DropBox.

Some caveats to my positive experience.

• I work mainly on the Web
• I do not play games
• I have been using Linux in various forms and editions since 1999.

If you have technically savvy friend, or really want to push and expand your knowledge of computers and highly configurable operating systems, I would definitely suggest giving Ubuntu a try on the extra computer you have lying around. My laptop is at least 3.5 years old, and not anywhere near as fast as my work laptop running XP. However, with Linux, the two are comparable in speed and performance.

Go on. Try it. I know you want to.

Tags: configurable operating systems, external devices, Fedora, home file server, home network, Linux, media players, operating systems, Ubuntu, ubuntu 8.04, ubuntu hardy heron, Windows, XP

Since the release of Google Chrome on September 2, I have been using it as my day-to-day browser. Spending up to 80% of my computer time in a browser means that this was decision which affected a huge portion of my online experience.

I can say that I put Chrome through its paces, on a wide-variety of sites, from the simple to the extremely content-rich. From the mainstream, to the questionable.

This morning I migrated back to Firefox, albeit the latest Minefield/Firefox 3.1alpha.

The reasons listed below are mine. Switching back is a personal decision and everyone is likely to have their own reasons to do it, or to stay.

Advertising

I mentioned a few times during my initial use of Chrome that I was having to become used to the re-appearance of advertising in my browsing experience [here and here]. From their early release as extensions to Firefox, I have used AdBlock and AdBlock Plus to remove the annoyance and distraction of online ads from my browsing experience.

When I moved to Chrome, I had to accept that I would see ads. I mean, we were dealing with a browser distributed by one of the largest online advertising agencies. It could only be expected that they were not going to allow people to block ads out of the gate, if ever.

As the week progressed, I realized that I was finding the ads to be a distraction from my browsing experience. Ads impede my ability to find the information I need quickly.

Older Machines

My primary machine for online experiences at home is a Latitude D610. This is a 3-4 year-old laptop, with a single core. It is still far more computing power than most people actually need to enjoy the Web.

While cruising with Chrome, I found that Flash locked up the entire machine on a very regular basis. Made it unsuable. This doesn’t happen on my much more powerful Latitude D630, provided by my work. However, as I have a personal laptop, I am not going to use my work computer for my personal stuff, especially at home.

I cannot have a browser that locks up a machine when I simply close a tab. It appears that the vaunted QA division at Google overlooked the fact that people don’t all run the latest and greatest machines in the real world.

Auto-Complete

I am completely reliant on form auto-completes. Firefox has been doing this for me for a long time, and it is very handy to simply start typing and have Firefox say “Hey! This form element is called email. Here are some of the other things you have put into form elements called email.”

If you can build something as complex as the OmniBox, surely you can add form auto-completes.

The OmniBox

I hate it. I really do. I like having my search and addresses separate. I also like an address bar that remembers complete URLs (including those pesky parameters!), rather than simply the top-level domain name.

It is a cool idea, but it needs some refining, and some customer-satisfaction focus groups.

I Don’t Use Desktop-replacing Web Applications

I do almost all of my real work in desktop-installed Web applications. I have not made the migration to Web applications. I may in the future. But until then, I do not need a completely clean browsing experience. I mentioned that the battle between Chrome and Firefox will come down to the Container v. the Desktop - a web application container, or a desktop-replacing Web experience application.

In the last 48 hours, I have fallen back into the Web-desktop camp.

Summary

In the future, I will continue to use Chrome to see how newer builds advance, and how it evolves as more people begin dictating the features that should be available to it.

For my personal use, Chrome takes away too much from, and injects too much noise into, my daily Web experience to continue to use as the default browser. To quote more than a few skeptics of Chrome when it was relased - “It’s just another browser”.

Tags: Adblock, Adblock Plus, auto-complete, autocomplete, browser, browser wars, Chrome, conatiner, desktop, Google, Google Chrome, latitude d610, omnibox, wars, web app, web-based application

In April 2007, I tried out the Joost desktop client.  [More on Joost here and here]

I was underwhlemed by the performance, and the fact that the application completely maxxed out my dual core CPU, my 2G of RAM, and my high-speed home broadband. I do remember thinking at the time that it seemed weird to have a Desktop Client in the first place. Well, as Om Malik reports this morning, it seems that I was not alone.

After this week’s hoopla over Chrome, moving in the direction of the browser seems like a wise thing to do. But I definitely hear far more buzz over Hulu than I do for Joost on the intertubes.

Update

Michael Arrington and TechCrunch weigh into the discussion.

Tags: browser, desktop client, Hulu, Joost, Malik, media, Om, Om Malik, Streaming, tv

Google Chrome is out. And from first impressions, it is stinking fast. However, i do have some gripes.

1. Comes with link underlining enabled. I hate this. It’s the first think I disable in Firefox and any browser that supports disabling underlining
2. Where’s the “get your hands dirty under the hood” option list? I love the Firefox about:config list. Chrome needs this.
3. Ads. I know. There is little chance for built in ad-blocking, but it’s on my wish-list.

Otherwise, it’s good…so far. And the memory usage is, well, definitely less intrusive.

I plan to use this for a while and see what happens. I will likely find something that drives me back to Firefox eventually.

Ok, found a weirdness when you use a <li> tag in the Wordpress editor. It seems that it starts injecting <div> tags to differentiate paragraphs after you close out the list.

Tags: browser, Chrome, Google, Google Chrome, test drive, testing, Web Performance, web usability

We got Samantha a new T-Mobile cell a few weeks back. But it came with an unwanted and expensive feature: every morning at 11:00, she receives a weather update from Windows Live Alerts.

Apparently the previous owner of the number had these alerts programmed. And of course, there is no way to shut them off because we have no clue who this person is/was.

If anyone out there from the Windows Live team or the T-Mobile support team can try and help us, it would be very much appreciated.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live, T-Mobile, TMobile, Windows Live Alerts, help, sms

Tags: app, HTTP, it, live, Om, One, pr, T-Mobile, Technorati, TMobile, update, window, Windows

If you use GrabPERF on a regular basis, the somewhat flaky navigation method has become second nature to you. In fact, to circumvent some of the idiosyncrasies, you have probably bookmarked your favourite pages.

Yesterday, I broke your links.

When I redesigned GrabPERF in February 2006, I had just discover the require function in PHP, and decided to build the entire the structure using a single container page as the framework, and individual functions called using URL parameters.

As time went on, my own “brilliance” started to get in the way of maintaining and updating the code. It took me 10-15 minutes to figure out how I constructed pages, and then find the right code to fix or update.

Yesterday, I got completely fed up with this structure.

Now, all functions have their own unique pages, making maintenance a snap. And as an added benefit, I can now effectively track the usage of individual pages, so I know where to through development efforts.

Some of the changes.

http://grabperf.org/homepage.php?page=compare&test=2&tests%5B%5D=276&tests%5B%5D=277&tests%5B%5D=279&tests%5B%5D=280

becomes

http://grabperf.org/compare.php?test=2&tests%5B%5D=276&tests%5B%5D=277&tests%5B%5D=279&tests%5B%5D=280

http://grabperf.org/homepage.php?page=scatter&test=277&hours=2

becomes

http://grabperf.org/scatter.php?test=277&hours=2

I apologize for the confusion that this may cause, but in the long run, this will help me make the code better, and more robust.

Tags: book, content, design, GrabPERF, GrabPERF.org, HTTP, IE, IM, improvement, ISP, it, maintain, maintenance, Om, optimize, Pages, performance, PHP, pr, run, Technorati, update, web, Web Performance

This morning, I noticed that Gizmo has one more advantage over Skype: substantially better performance over slower/less optimal WiFi connections.

Skype is slowly getting the can from me. Sorry kids.

Tags: IM, Om, One, performance

Dear Apache Software Foundation, and the developers of the Apache Web server:

I would like to thank you for developing a great product. I rely on it daily to host my own sites, and a large number of people on the Internet seem to share my love of this software.

However, it appears that you seem to want to maintain a simple flaw in your logic that continues to make me crazy. I am a Web performance analyst, and at least once a week I sigh, and shake my head whenever I stoop to use Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) to visit secure sites.

I seems that in your SSL configurations, you continue to assume that ALL versions of MSIE can’t handle persistent connections under SSL/TLS.

Is this true? Is a bug initially caught in MSIE 5.x (5.0??) still valid for MSIE 6.0/7.0?

The short answer is: I don’t know.

It seems that no one in the Apache server team has bothered to go back and see if the current versions of MSIE — we are trying to track down the last three people use MSIE 5.x and help them — still share this problem.

In the meantime, can you change your SSL exclusion RegEx to something more, relevant for 2007?

Current RegEx:

SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive
	ssl-unclean-shutdown
	downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

Relvant, updated REGEX:

SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE [1-5].*"
	nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown
	downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE [6-9].*"
	ssl-unclean-shutdown

Please? PLEASE? It’s so easy…and would solve so many performance problems…

Please?

Thank you.

Tags: Apache, SSL, TLS, MSIE, persistent connections, keepalive, web performance

Tags: apache, Dear Apache Software Foundation, http persistence, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, persistent, ssl, Web Performance, Web server

I have been using Skype as a landline pretty exclusively for the last 6 months, but the quality of the service has been degrading rapidly. Today, I called Samantha from the office and she said it sounded like I was calling from inside a tin can.

So, on a recommendation from a co-worker, I am giving Gizmo a try. Pretty immediately, I noticed a quality improvement over Skype, and people on my conference calls said it was much better.

So, if you want to reach me, try spierzchala on Gizmo, or +1-508-635-4420.

And Skype, let me know when your quality improves.

Tags: Gizmo, Gizmo Project, sound quality, SIP, VOIP, Skype

Tags: API, HTTP, IE, IM, improvement, IP, it, LAN, media, Om, pr, Technorati

I have finally given up on Trillian releasing a new version anytime before the next ice age, and switched to the the messenger client formerly known as GAIM, now known as Pidgin.

Solid, functional, and showing signs that it is in active development. Unlike Trillian, which is slowly becoming the Duke Nukem Forever of messenger clients.

I’m sorry, but promising a cool new product, and then not letting anyone try it leads to scores of new Pidgin users.

Tags: Pidgin, Trillian, Duke Nukem Forever

Tags: ads, client, cool, EAD, HTTP, IE, IM, IP, it, Om, One, pidgin, pr, Technorati, trillian, users