The Linux community was very excited when the first netbooks came out from Asus and they were running Linux and not Windows. These days, however, it seems that Linux has all but lost the netbook space. There are many theories out there about why Microsoft is taking over the netbook market. Sure, they’re probably playing [...]
$250 Desktop Runs Ubuntu, Windows 7 and OS X?
by Jim on 03. Jul, 2009 in Articles, Linux, Mac OS X, Tech, Ubuntu, Windows, hardware
I recently wanted to get a new desktop computer to use for some programming projects. Seeing that I have a bunch of old computer parts laying around, I wanted to build my own computer. I started out by looking at some of the newest top-end Intel and AMD processors and motherboards, but the total price [...]
Ubuntu: Still Popular?
by Jim on 29. Jun, 2009 in Articles, Fun, Linux, Tech
Back in November of 2007, we wrote an article about the popularity of Ubuntu. At the time, it appeared that Ubuntu was the most popular Linux distribution according to many different web metrics. Of course, there’s no way to say for sure which distro is the most popular and to know exactly how many people [...]
Find, Share and Install Ubuntu Apps on Facebook
by Jim on 27. Jun, 2009 in Facebook, Fun, Linux, Ruby on Rails, Ubuntu
Recently, I wanted to learn how to make Facebook applications using Ruby on Rails. For my first project, I decided to build a small application to let people find, share, install and promote Ubuntu software right from within Facebook. Determining which software we use can be a very social experience, often we’ll ask our friends [...]
Synchronize Tomboy Notes with Dropbox
by Jim on 26. Jun, 2009 in Dropbox, Linux, Ubuntu
One of my absolute favorite online services of the past year is Dropbox. It’s a very easy to use service that integrates with your Linux, Mac and Windows desktops and allows you to sync files across computers (among other things). Think of it as a big USB flash drive in the sky.
Not only is it [...]
List of Pre-installed Linux Notebooks
by Jim on 25. Aug, 2008 in Linux, notebooks
I’ve started putting together a list of pre-installed Linux notebooks and netbooks that are currently available for sale in the US. Please check out the page and let me know if there is anything I’m missing.
Pre-installed Linux Notebooks
View your site in (almost) every browser with Browsershots
by Jim on 14. Jan, 2008 in CSS, Web Authoring
Ever wonder what your website looks like in different browsers? Even though most of us would prefer that people didn’t use browsers like Internet Explorer 6, these old browsers are still widely used. If you want to make sure that your site is not completely broken in these old browsers, try Browsershots.org.
Browsershots generates screenshots of [...]
Yaml Cookbook for Ruby
by Jim on 14. Jan, 2008 in Ruby on Rails
I wanted to learn some about YAML so I could use it in one of my current Ruby on Rails projects. A quick google search turned up a lot of information, but nothing quite as useful as the Yaml Cookbook for Ruby. The cookbook is full of examples of YAML and the corresponding Ruby code. [...]
Ubuntu: Just how popular is it?
by Jim on 03. Nov, 2007 in Linux, Open Source, Tech, Ubuntu
Update: We updated this article recently to include the latest statistics. View it here.
There is no doubt that Ubuntu’s popularity has grown dramatically over the past few years, but just how popular is Ubuntu? How many people have ever heard of Ubuntu? How many people visit the Ubuntu site each month? How many [...]
Switching From OS X to Ubuntu: 10 Things I Miss
by Jim on 18. Oct, 2007 in Apple, Linux, Mac OS X, Open Source, Software, Tech, Ubuntu, dell
About 2 years ago, I stopped using Windows on my main computers at work and home. I switched to a Mac Mini, then to a Macbook, for all of my daily work, web design, programming, photo organizing, etc. We also have a large install base of Ubuntu Linux machines and a few Windows [...]

