Ultimate Ubuntu Linux EyeCandy

Ok …out of the box, most Linux distributions are eyesores compared to MacOSx and Vista [even XP for that matter]. But the tools to make this beautiful lady shine are out there. Here is what an average guy like me was able to accomplish … so you can imagine what an organized set of people can do in this sphere.

So let me give you my own version of the Obama dream for Linux …. ¨If there is anyone out there who still …
….doubts that Linux can be as cute or even cuter than Windows or MacOS,
…who has not yet awoken to the the fact that Ubuntu is the most flexible operating system there is…..
…. who still doubts that Ubuntu is the virtual land where all dreams can come true …. THIS POST IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG!!!!¨ [not exactly like the great guy himself but .... u get the idea ]

First by laptop is an HP Pavillion dv5-1199ei, 2GHz Intel Centrino 2, 4GB RAM, with Nvidia chipsets for graphics. To honour this beauty [my girlfriend calls the laptop by concubine ] … I decided to go with 64-bit Ubuntu 8.10 and so far, I have not been disappointed [...I am NEVER using the 32bit OS if I can help it].

Here is a list of the common applications I installed:

• I installed Wine so I can run some Windows applications.
• I installed Google Desktop Gadgets and Screenlets to suit all my desktop Widget/Gadget itches.
• Songbird for media player — it is the only Linux media player beautiful enough for me [others may be better but the aesthetics also matters to me]. Even then, I have installed the latest version of WinAmp using Wine [but in truth, it is not much better than XMMS]
• I also have Mplayer [with additional skins], and also VLC player.
• For Bible study, I have GnomeSword [a lot like e-Sword which I use on Vista]
• I use Pidgin for instant messaging [waiting for Digsby to become available on Linux]
• For the geek in me, I have GNS3/Dynamips/Dynagen for network emulation, Ethercap and Wireshark for packet analysis.
• To support my Webcam, i installed and use Cheese Webcam booth — works great.
• Openoffice Draw is a little clunky for my liking, so I installed Inkscape.
• My life is always very miserable if I don´t have Freemind, so I have the latest beta version of Freemind.
• I have latest Java installed with Flash 64-bit plugin for Firefox so I can watch Youtube movies.

bla bla bla, so here are some of the pictures ….

Fig 1: My desktop with some Google Gadgets running and my custom panel that holds shortcuts for applications I use most [my version of Windows QuickLaunch bar]

Fig 2: My cool dock application – AWN: I especially love that cool curving popup of a frequently used partition on my hard drive.

Fig 3: This is one version of my ¨Start¨ menu …. from the top toolbar [which automatically hides itself to give me more screen real estate when i am using other applications]

Fig 4:Freemind … the other part of my brain that is outside of me.

Fig 5: Songbird, my favourite audio media player on Linux.

Fig 6: All my running applications in ¨shaded mode¨ … let´s see you do that on Vista [out of the box]

Fig 7: What can I say? my workspaces visible at the same time in 3D! Cool isn´t it?

Fig 8: Switching through my running applications in an elegant and visual way.

Fig 9: Another way to flip through my running applications … the more traditional way.

Fig 10: My dock [AWN] and the second way to access my applications.

Ok …. all of these are not some artist impressions, i use them everyday. And this post was done using the ScribeFire plugin in Firefox.

Thank you to all those wonderful guys out there who make these beautiful things possible and affordable. Welcome to the future of computing …. it is painted in Linux!

Baby Steps for Leveraging ICT in Universities in Developing Countries

Let me start with a disclaimer, —- I don´t like baby steps, to me they usually end up in medocre solutions, I would rather fail at doing something really big and thus set the stage for someone else to do something significant by learning from my failure. However, sometimes, baby steps have their place – to set things in motion so here we go.

While many CEOs now find it trendy to talk about how their organization is using IT, that typically  means that there is Internet access and some dysfunctional website which is rarely updated. Sometimes i must admit, these organizations are overwhelmed by the complex solutions we in IT try to pitch. Here are a few very uncomplicated things any serious organization can start doing now …. especially higher institutions in developing countries:

1. Put a PDF copy of every major form used in the organization online. Yes forms are the instruments of bureacracy and in most institutions, there is rarely a  process that doesn´t use a form or another. In my experience, sometimes, there are no copies of these forms available or a copy that has been photocopied so many times it is illegible. So just make fresh copies and put them online in PDF — a fresh one is there for anyone to download and print. Going a step further, each form should have accompanying instructions for how to fill it, who to send it to and what else to bring along when submitting the form.

In the future, this could evolve to the ability for students, employees, customers to fill and submit these forms directly online.

2. Put soft copies of popular literature online – employee handbook, procedures for doing certain things, etc. Not to complicate issues (some of those documents might not be for public consumption), only put non-sentive information online.

This shall in the future evolve to an intranet or private part of the website accessible only to users that login, depending on their credentials.

3. Soft copies of all lectur notes (of course lecturers who simply pass of their old student notes or shamelessly copy other´s notes may resist this , slides, lab manuals etc that students use. I had the terrible experience of having to read notes that I could barely see [50th generation photocopies].

In the future, this shall evolve towards a full-blown Learning Management System (like Moodle).

4. Official lists of the institution eg Admission lists and why year books? (So now any organization can fish out those that falsely claim to have finished from one university)

In the future, this shall evolve to online applications for applying for admission online,  online registration, e-transcripts and to enable third parties authenticate certificates against forgery.

5. Payslips should be sent to employee´s email accounts (even if they are still using free webmail for now .. the ideal will be all employees use the institutions email system)

These things are easy, cheap and don´t require any contractors so COME ON!!

Windows 7 – Nail in the Desktop Linux Coffin?

Two events in the last month have gotten me worried about the future of desktop Linux. First is a declaration by Mark Shuttleworth [Ubuntu's founder] that there is no money in desktop Linux. This is significant because Ubuntu represents the closest stake the Linux world has had to being used as a desktop operation system. First of all, Ubuntu seems to have matured [I didn't upgrade from 7.10 because I didn't have a compelling reason to.]. Of course there is the mist of cloud computing and broadband which might make most of our computing to become utilitarian … but I have always thought that is a plus for desktop Linux because you still need an OS to run a web browser. If cloud computing makes the case for desktop applications less compelling for most, then desktop Linux will gain a huge edge over both Windows and MacOSX.

The second disconcerting piece came out of the last Microsoft Professional Developers Conference – the unveilling of Windows 7. I made the case on this blog earlier in the year that given the kind of hardware specs Vista needs to really fly, desktop Linux is a better alternative. Well … Microsoft seems to have pre-empted that with Windows 7 … I learnt that the executive who heads the Windows development team has as his primary laptop, a netbook based on an Intel Atom processor and 1GB of RAM and that Windows 7 will run very fast on those specs!! Considering the Windows familiarity and eye-candy factors, it seems Window 7 suddenly is putting Linux out of the play on most things that matter to the typical PC user except price?

So please share your take on this? Is this a move the Linux desktop community need to worry about? What moves must desktop Linux make to counter this? However it turns out, am planning to get a new laptop soon and irrespective of its OS, I plan to install Ubuntu because I specifically need it … but then, I am not the average user.

Obama’s Brilliant Use of Technology

2008 presidential race: Obama vs. McCain — chicagotribune.com

Here he appears on the billboard within a popular videogame!! Talk of gaining mindshare. Is it any wonder that he inspires more people … the guy is reaching out to geeks and making them feel involved.

Why Linux Still Struggles on the Desktop [but Thrives in the Datacenter]

I was reading through a Harvard Business Review article and I came across a distinction made by a Harvard professor which essentially says [in my own words] … “people don’t want a car, they just want to get from here to there”

I was struck by how true this is and how often we geeks fail to understand that subtlety. Linux is doing very well in the data center for this reason [plus the fact that it is free and libre] : organizations want a website, a mail system etc, they don’t want a server OS. Since Linux does this well AND is free and libre, then it is very compelling in many scenarios.

In the same vein, enterprise IT admins want to be able to control desktops and laptops, what applications are installed on them and enforce highly granular control of access privileges – it is only natural that they turn to Microsoft’s Active Directory in Windows Server and hence Linux hasn’t made a dent in that portion of the data center.

Now for the desktop – Linux hasn’t gotten this quite right [yet] because people just want to

• Type notes, resumes etc and share them with others.
• Edit photos and movies and share them.
• etc etc

They will use the tool that helps them do these things in the easiest and cheapest possible way.

While it is generally believed that the Apple Mac is the most elegant computer out there, its high cost keeps it out of the range of most people but most of those who can afford it do get it. This perhaps explains its popularity in the high end desktop publishing and graphics space.

Windows has evolved to be easy to use  [perhaps more accurately, Windows is familiar and popular] and has surpassed MAC OS by supporting a large ecosystem [applications and hardware] which gives users a greater range of options to get the job done and painlessly share their work.

For all its virtues, desktop Linux is not as elegant [visually and usability-wise] as Windows or Mac OS X. Yes it is getting better but consider these things that the typical person needs to do but can’t do easily on Linux:

• Play DVD movies.
• Manage and synchronize digital media on their ipod or Zune/Zen etc.
• Create documents and share them with others in their native format [aka file format agnostic]
• Connect and use the latest peripherals [printers, scanners etc]

Some of these limitations on the part of Linux are due to vendors and manufacturers not opening up their devices or applications for whatever reason. Such practices are evil but guess what? – the user doesn’t care – she only cares that she can’t play that new DVD, use that photo printer or sync her ipod.

The key then is to orchestrated the average user’s Linux experience well: A geek with taste takes the vanilla desktop Linux and

• Installs some good eye-candy and fonts.
• Sets up a cool media player with any plugin and codecs for using the popular media formats and working with the latest ipod, zune or zen.
• Sets up drivers especially for wireless networking and wireless WANs.
• Configure such things as hibernate and suspend etc etc.

…… and viola!!! when a user starts their PC, they can go straight to gratifying themselves. Now for the hard part: how do we do this and still give the OS for free?

Leveraging ICT in Entrepreneurial Ventures IV: Use ICT to Cut Costs

Unifying your inter-office Communications: The typical small business office today has about 4 computers, need a printer or two (in fact one CEO I spoke with last year had a grand vision of putting a printer on each of the 20 desks and PCs in his office!!!). There also is some kind of voice system … and Intercom or PBX. Not only does this complexity increase maintenance costs, it increases the chance of something going wrong and is more importantly from and entrepreneurs perspective an unfortunate waste of money.
For starters, with ensuring that your computers are networked will allow the organization to get a lot more from it. Over the network, the organization really doesn’t need more than 1 printer for 10 people. With a network in place, a single Internet connection can be share by all computers in the office, printers, document templates etc. Furthermore, you can completely leave out the extra cabling and PBX for your intercom and do chat, voice, video and even application sharing on your local network. The resultant cost-savings are non-trivial.

Automate Back-end Processes: Information about products and services can be put on a company website. Similarly forms and information brochures can be put online so people can access them rather than having to call every time and make inquiries. Any work that involves filling of forms by your clients can be automated and done online – not only does it reduce the opportunities for mistakes (as the computer can validate data on the fly)
Go Quasi-Paperless or Fully Paperless: And with a fully networked office, do we really need to print a document that we want to send to a colleague in another cubicle/table? Definitely not. Such things as interoffice communications, memos and reports can be done completely digital. But a caveat here … for this not to be a recipe for a business disaster, there must be proper backups in place so that the entire business does not come down because a computer failed.
Keep Physical Office Space as Lean as Possible: Probably my most disconcerting suggestion, if the infrastructure exists, using innovative management, consider the possibility of cutting out fixed and recurring costs relating to maintaining a physical office and run your venture predominantly virtually. Rather than office cubicles for each employee, why not just buy each employee a laptop and let them work from their homes? This way you will substantially cut your utility bills – power, cleaning etc. This is quite disconcerting because poor management has a huge need to control and micromanage people but to with a forward thinking management system in place, this will work out quite well because it gives employees huge flexibility. Obviously this can’t apply to all ventures and a critical amount of real estate in the form of office space and accessories will still be required. Even in manufacturing where people need to be on ground, there are some staff that can do the majority of their work without being physically present. This is however not without its caveats and so….. Proceed with caution.
Communicating with Suppliers and Distributors: Since no business operates in isolation, part of normal business administration involves contact with supplies and distributors to manage the supply chain end-to-end. Communication with these partners has come a long way from physical meetings to phone calls and now the rich messaging applications are a new and exciting addition to the mix. It is now possible to hold meetings online (GotoMeeting, WebEx) with full videoconferencing with nothing more than your Internet connection and a relatively cheap value computer. On the lower side, plain email and instant messaging can do a tremendous amount of work. These same multimedia communication technologies can also be leveraged to make product demonstrations to customers in different parts of the world.
Leverage e-Learning: As multimedia computers, networks and the internet become more commonplace; start-ups can leverage them to provide training to their employees at lower costs that traditional, consultant led alternatives. The idea is not to completely eliminate consultants and their workshops but to provide tools for employees to get more skills and knowledge from the convenience of their personal computers.
Use Freeware & Open Source Software: Legally acquiring the software that most business need for office automation can cost significant amount of money (See the article “The Simple Case for Free and Open Source Software” at http://ibiztech.wordpress.com for details). It is possible to shave off more than 50% of the acquisition cost for relevant business applications by using software that is free of charge. Examples include Ubuntu Linux instead of Microsoft Windows for your desktop computers, several variants of Linux for practically all your server applications, OpenOffice.org suite of applications (replacement for Microsoft Office). Some of these applications are the best in their class and very reliable.

Leveraging ICT in Entrepreneurial Ventures IV: Group Collaboration

Collaboration can be between people within your organisation eg sharing documents, ideas, leads and a single contact database. We could take it further and use the Internet to collaborate with partners, suppliers, distributors as well as clients with new web tools like Wikis, blogs, bookmarks and social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn.
The emergence of the knowledge worker means increasingly that more and more of the key assets of an organization rest in the brains of their employees. So if there isn’t a platform that helps your employees share their knowledge, then they won’t collaborate well and teams will function sub-optimally and no synergies can be formed. As an example, suppose you have a 5 person marketing team. Each goes to different parts of the market and makes their own contacts independently. What happens the day one of them gets sick and is unavailable? – it means all critical information relating to the aspects of the market she was handling is lost to the organization. Worst still, what happens when she leaves the organization? She takes with her (in her brain so there’s nothing you can do about it) critical business information that can confer an advantage to your competitors. Sure you might not be able to do anything to stop an employee who wants to leave, however, with appropriate IT systems AND the supporting managerial systems in place that had let your employees share knowledge, contacts and resources, that information doesn’t need to be lost to the organization.
Collaboration doesn’t need to be done only by marketing department. It can also be done with partners in different locations around the world, with existing customers on product support and why not product-design? Picture this scenario … during a recent trip to Lagos, you meet a potential partner on the plane and exchange contact information. Later on getting back to base, you send him and email and arrange to chat using instant messenger. Even though you are in two different parts of the country or even the world, you can discuss the framework for a future collaboration, agree on specifics and then meet physically only to seal the deal. How much will that save you in travel costs and time lost being away from your base?
Similarly, amongst your staff in the office, it will be more cost effective to collaborate on documents digitally rather than having to print. Not only does this save you money in terms of not using paper but it also saves the environment (a key selling point to most businesses these days if you haven’t realized) and is faster once a good system is in place.

Leveraging ICT in Entrepreneurial Ventures III:Business Intelligence

As your business begins to grow, you will need to carefully keep track of key information relating to sales, your customer and business contacts. ICT offers many tools to help you with this, from simple contact managers like Microsoft Outlook and Gnome Evolution to sophisticated Customer Relationship Management software like SugarCRM. When you venture has been able to run for about two years, you need to know the answers to the following questions:
• What is the profile of my typical customer? (sex, age, income etc)
• Which industries give me the most patronage?
• What products or services sell most in what geographical locations?
• What products or services sell most in what seasons?
• What products or services sell most in which industries?
• What products or services sell most in what organizations?
• Of your product/service mix, which one brings in the highest margins?
• What are the worst performing products or services?
• What are the relationships between the performance of a product/service with respect to time of the year? season? etc?
• Who is my most profitable customer?
• Which customer do we need to focus more|less on?
• Breakdown of product or service performance per quarter.
All these are questions that except for the most trivial business, will rely on data analysis to answer – hence IT applications to the rescue. The answers to the above question can help with marketing strategy, product strategy and consumer targeting.

OS [Ubuntu/Vista] Cross Compatibility – Critical Success Factor for Application Success in the Market

Anyone who has been reading my blog knows am a Ubuntu fan … and on all my computers, I dual-boot between Windows XP and Ubuntu desktop. It just occurred to me this morning [18th May 2008] why of two applications capable of achieving the same task, I choose one over the other even though both are installed on my machine.

Since I use both OSes approximately equally, what determines what application I use is whether I can continue my work irrespective of Operating system. It is for this reason that open file formats and cross compatible applications [even if file formats are closed] are an extremely important determinant of application success in the marketplace.

Even though I think Mindjet Mindmanager is way cooler than the Freemind, I almost always use Freemind for my mindmaps because it is installed both in my Windows & Ubuntu OSes and I can start my work in Windows and continue in Ubuntu [Linux] or vice versa. That is not as easy to do with Mindmanager unless u are a WINE guru — I for one frown on running XP in a virtual machine on my Linux just to run one application … thank you sir …. I’ll use Freemind.

Other applications in this category … ie those becoming more and more OS-agnostic [ie apart from web applications that is] which I frequently use are

1. Inkscape over CorelDraw [I think OpenOffice.org Draw sucks!!!]

2. Juice [Linux version is called Icepodder] as podcast aggregator vs Itunes.

3. OpenOffice.org Writer and Calc for wordprocessing and spreadsheets.

It may then be that one strategy for an application to take to gain market share is to keep your file format proprietary and closed but make the application OS-agnostic … and there better be a free [yes as in free beer] version or else …..

Leveraging ICT in Entrepreneurial Ventures II: ICT as the Product or Service of the Venture

ICT is particularly attractive for new entrepreneurial ventures because of the proliferation of the web and the increasingly complex things people have to do. The product options run from manufacturing to software services.

Here are a few of the opportunities that exist in the Nigerian and developing country market. Even though most of these are already crowded, with some creativity and innovativeness, an entrepreneur can find ways to cut down the price even further or even come up with high value products that they can sell at even higher prices to niche markets.

1. Provision of affordable computers: Even though the price of computers has fallen dramatically in recent years, there is still a large demand for computers especially by students and institutions of education. Businesses are also now using computers by default rather than typewriters. The secret is to find out how to make these computers even cheaper than most of the big manufacturers can.
2. Computer peripherals to help people get more value out of their computers. These include not just common printers and scanners but more specialized input devices like digitizing tables tablets for architects and artists, larger than ordinary printers and scanners, plotters etc.
3. Device Repair and maintenance: A lot of money lies in people’s offices in the form of equipment that is bad and cannot be repaired. These equipment can not be repaired either because there is no one competent to do the repairs and/or the parts needed for replacement are not available. This presents an opportunity for a technical services venture that helps people save money by repairing their bad equipment.
4. Re-furbished equipment: This builds on the last idea … you buy broken-down equipment from people and give-away prices (after all they haven’t been able to fix them), repair them and by cleaning them well, you could sell them at good margins.
5. Mobile IT Support – this would probably work best in middle-class and higher neighbourhoods – people with computer issues can call a number and have a technician be on ground within the hour to fix the problem.
6. Up-to-date demographic data for business intelligence. Suppose I want to start a new business or expand an existing business into a new geographical area. Wouldn’t it be helpful if I had some kind of data related to the demographics of the target market that would help me plan my strategy? But the reality is that such business data – demographics, updated directories etc.

Obviously, these ideas have not been explored deeply in developing countries as they have been in developed countries. So long ….