Archive for April, 2009
Sharing Printer from Ubuntu to Mac OS X
Quite often we read about how small things are so much more complicated on Linux than on Windows. I set out on a journey today to add a printer via USB to my Ubuntu desktop and share it out to my MacBook at my new apartment. If there’s one thing in this sick, twisted world that I hate, it’s printers.
Given that background, I was shocked at just how easy it was to setup the printer, share it out, and connect to the shared printer using my Macs and other Linux machines on my home network. The printer that I worked with was just a cheap inkjet – an HP Deskjet D2330. I had a heck of a time with the driver for OS X directly connected, so I wasn’t expecting much. I plugged in the USB cable and voila, my Ubuntu desktop popped up a message that the printer was ready to rock. I opened up OpenOffice.org and printed out a doc just to make sure my desktop wasn’t just playing with my heartstrings. Sure enough, it printed my doc just fine.
Now, on to sharing. Doing a little poking around in the GUI, I found the printer configuration at System -> Administration -> Printing. Under the policies, the “Shared” check box was checked, so I popped open the System Preferences on my MacBook and tried to add a printer. I couldn’t find the printer in any of the discovered list. A quick Google search reminded me that the CUPS configuration web GUI could be found at: http://localhost:631 when CUPS was installed and running. I navigated to the page and found the check box called “Share published printers connected to this system”. I checked it and clicked “Change Settings”. When prompted to authenticate, I used my desktop login username and password.
When I flipped over to my MacBook, I opened up System Preferences again, added a printer and there my printer was. I clicked add and it was ready to go within moments.
After my successes on my MacBook, I decided to press my luck just a bit more by adding my Linux laptop as well. On my laptop, I run Xubuntu 9.04 and it was almost as easy to setup. I just opened the printer configuration window via Applications -> System -> Printing and clicked on the new printer button. The Xubuntu machine scanned for printers on the network, discovered my printer and added it. I can’t say I’ve had nearly that smooth of an experience adding any sort of printer to Windows.
Tags: apple, hardware, os x, ubuntu
Filed under How-Tos / Tips :
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Apr 27th, 2009
Zimbra 6.0 Beta: A first look
Over the weekend Zimbra announced the availability of the first beta of its new version 6.0 collaboration suite. The release is expected to be in a production-ready state and is this beta was the public’s first view of the suite. The new beta seems to focus mostly on new user preferences and polishing off the interface. The list of new features is quite extensive, but of note for users that I’ve heard from so far are:
- Compose message has been moved to a tab – you can compose a message, flip to another tab, and come back to the compose tab without saving as draft
- The ability to run new mail filters over existing mail folders
- A new share discovery interface that shows shares that are available to you as well as shares that are created for your account
- Zimlet management for allowed Zimlets in the Preferences tab of the web client
- Ability to attach documents to an email directly from the Briefcase
- IM moved from a tab along the top to the bottom
- Per-user blacklists and whitelists right from within the Preferences tab of the web client
There are also a number of new features on the administrative backend, including a new logger service and the addition of a “Delegated admin” for the Network Edition which is a domain administrator can be allowed to manage multiple domains instead of being limited to a single domain.
Tags: zimbra
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Apr 21st, 2009
Goodbye Windows Small Business Server, Hello eBox
Microsoft Small Business server finally has a competitor. I’ve been looking at eBox for a few years now, just waiting for it to go production. I missed the announcement, but it finally hit version 1.0 in late March. The software is a central management interface for a host of open source software packages that makes it easy to manage. One can use eBox for a network device, acting as a firewall, content filter, DHCP server, VPN server, etc.. It can also be used as a Windows domain controller, print server, IM server, mail server, groupware server, web server and a host of other features. The system can also serve a mix of both of those functions. It also centralizes user management by backing all services against its own LDAP server, duplicating much of the same services as Windows SBS as well as adding some features of its own.
eBox also has Asterisk integration and a captive portal on its roadmap. Plus, if you don’t see an application that your IT department needs to support on its network, you can always use their platform to develop for your application.
The software is built on top of Ubuntu Linux Server and can be downloaded via aptitude after adding the eBox repository, or you can download an installable .iso file to install on a fresh system.
Tags: linux, ubuntu
Filed under News :
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Apr 16th, 2009
Ubuntu-based PC Maker Reports Huge Growth
As a bright spot in our doom-and-gloom economic news, Ubuntu-based PC maker System76 reported 61% growth in PC sales for Q1 of 2009 over Q1 of last year. And, while other manufacturers are preparing themselves for the launch of Windows 7, System76 is working on pushing some of the big new features of Ubuntu 9.04 which will become available at the end of the month.
Features that System76 is counting on in Ubuntu’s version 9.04 will include Active Directory membership support, faster boot time, and better external monitor support. System76 is hoping that these features will help bring Ubuntu, specifically Ubuntu systems built by System76, into both small and large businesses. System76 has also reported that it is working on a netbook.
Tags: linux, ubuntu
Filed under News :
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Apr 16th, 2009
Mac vs. PC: How Well Does It Age?
Yesterday I took a look at a ridiculous study sponsored by Microsoft which supposedly showed how PCs had a much lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than Macs. The study was completely unfair towards the Mac, but there’s another factor that wasn’t taken into consideration either: how well the computers held their value when they aged. The writer of the study assumed that the PC and the Mac could be useful for 5 years before being replaced. However, do Macs and PCs age just as well?
It only took me a few minutes to think about 5 year-old machines that I and others that I know use. Five years ago, I started college and was issued a Gateway M275 laptop. The laptop is a tablet PC and at the time its retail value was estimated at $1600. The laptop now is somewhat usable, though it leaves quite a bit to be desired. Most of my problems with it are cosmetic, though the hard drive and processor speed is pretty limiting. It runs Windows XP all right, and the lighter Linux distros pretty good.
I also have a friend who owns an iBook G4, which was made around the same era. One can track this via MacTracker, and the value of the machine when it was made in early 2004 was $1099. The laptop runs OS X Tiger, which is a release newer than the OS that it originally shipped with, unlike the PC. The laptop does plenty for what this person needs to be able to do.
While both do fairly well for really basic tasks like e-mail, web browsing, etc., the resale value of these computers is drastically different and a factor in calculating the TCO of the computers. The best price I could find for a used Gateway M275 was on eBay with a “Buy it now” price of $225. For an iBook G4, a used iBook G4 at 800Mhz on Amazon, the same as the 2004 model, at a price of $357. That’s 14% of the original retail value of the PC and 32% the original price of the Mac. That has to be taken with a grain of salt, since I’m comparing only two very specific models, but it does seem to be the trend that older Macs are worth much more at resell time than older PCs. While the cause of the drop in value could very well be a much larger supply of used PCs, the reality is that the value seems to be higher.
Tags: apple, hardware, microsoft, windows
Filed under Tech Trends :
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Apr 16th, 2009
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