Firefox and add-on

Firefox and Opera are two browsers I used on my Ubuntu machine. However, I always thought Firefox is less stable when it comes to Flash heavy website. Today, I finally fed up with all these crashes, and search Google again to see if there is a solution to my problem. Well, it seems my unstable Firefox problem can also caused by bad add-on. So, I went through my add-on list and start to uninstall them one by one. I started by the one which is flash related.

I have this add-on called Download Helper, which I used to get flash videos from site like YouTube. I have been using it on my Windows version of Firefox for a long time now. I don't if it is a coincident or real, ever since I have uninstalled it, my Firefox seems to be a bit more happier.

Getting Skype

Skype can be setup and update periodically by including the

deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

in the sources.list

Windows Troubles

Well got trouble with Windows again. This time Windows won't let me install or unistall programs. This seems to be a well known problem associated with the Windows Installer service. In fact, someone even written a software for it, and I guess this shows how bad it is. Anyway, if you like me run into this Windows installer service problem which blocks to install/uninstall software (including getting updates from Microsoft), you may want to try out this little utility called Dial-a-fix. It fixed the problem for me, hope it does the same magic for you too.

Good to share!

My sister got this cheapy Samsung ML-2010 Laser printer, and it is so simple to set up under the latest version of Linux. You plug the printer in one of the USB port, and you are ready to print. You can't get any simpler than this.

After getting the nice test page printed, I brought up the printer set up tool, and configured the printer to be shared on the network. Both Windows XP and Vista found the printer as they should, however, they required drivers to print. As XP and Vista are two "different" operating systems, I need to download two separate large drivers for two systems (what a pain). Now, there is a problem. The drivers are come as installers, i.e. EXE files. Luckily, if you expand it using 7-zip, you will find these driver EXEs are just fancy archived files. Once you expanded the file, pointed Windows to the right direction, you are ready to print too.

Update Previously, I have problem to print from certain application in Vista. This problem has now solves by using the connection string below instead.

http://<hostname>:631/printers/<printername>

What a joy! My Creative Zen finally works in harmony with Ubuntu (without fiddling things manually). I still can't add or remove songs to or from my Zen, but at least now I can play songs on my Zen using RhythmBox. Baby steps.

Opera respository

If you like me who likes Opera browser, you may want to add this into your sources.list file:


## Opera
# wget -O - http://deb.opera.com/archive.key | sudo apt-key add -
# deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ sid non-free
# deb http://deb.opera.com/opera-beta/ sid non-free
deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free
deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ testing non-free
deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ unstable non-free


Update: You may want to use the official Howto at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OperaBrowser instead.

This would allows you to get the program and its updates through aptitude

Ubuntu as an alternative to Windows

After numerous calls from a friend for his troubled Windows XP PC, I finally put a copy of Ubuntu on his PC and told him to give it a fair trial. As an operating system, Ubuntu has made a tremendous leap from geek only Linux to a more general Linux. As my friend uses USB Wifi stick and HP USB printer, I was a bit worried about the possible compatibility problems. To my surprise, Ubuntu picks up the Belkin USB Wifi adapter and the HP All-in-one printer straight away. I can even use XSan to scan pictures. Instead needing to battle with Windows and numerous visits to Windows Update, I have manage to get the Ubuntu system up and running in an hour. I don't know if my friend will accept the system at the end, but I am certainly impressed its much improved support to hardware.

Since my friend's family mainly use the computer for internet, I don't think they will feed much a different. However, I am a bit worried about Firefox. First, it is not that stable. It seems to be very easy to crash for sites with Flash contents. Also, CSS drop down menu still goes behind Flash videos. Anyway, hopefully my friend's family can see beyond these little glitches, and can see Ubuntu as a more secure system.