One-week Ubuntu check-in

Just posting status on the Windows nuke from last week.

Only one glitch to report, and that is Flash player (non-free) not playing nice with ALSA. I have two audio devices because Mixxx uses one for headphones and one for speaker output; Flash is deciding to always use the one for my headphones, which is not configured as my primary device in ALSA. I'm sure there is a fix, but it's annoying.

I've also started using MusicBrainz Picard to id3 tag and rename all of my music before it goes into my media player/iPod. It uses existing metadata and audio fingerprinting to identify tracks. And I am leaning toward using Rhythmbox player as opposed to Amarok for arbitrary reasons, including it "seems" better integrated and to have a more clean UI.

There is also a correction from my last post: gtkPod does have a pre-compiled package in the repository for AAC support, gtkpod-aac. I had complained that it wasn't compiled in by default.

Aside from Flash/ALSA, everything is going perfectly.

I Nuked Windows Again

I've been bouncing between FreeBSD, Linux and Windows for years. I usually end up back on Windows for one reason or another, usually related to a new piece of hardware or software that doesn't work.

Every single application that I use with the exceptions of iTunes and Rosetta Stone is free or open source software: Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Java, Netbeans (previously Eclipse), Vim, Emacs (yea, I use both... for different things :), Maven, Subversion, Git, Mixxx, etc. I also use Cygwin on Windows. Because of this arrangement, I don't even have to notice the difference between the two software environments and switching is a fairly painless process.

One thing that's been different with Ubuntu Hardy is that hardware support is better than in Windows, at least for my setup. Here are the major points of improvement in Ubuntu:

1. Front audo jack works, period. It has never worked in Windows.
2. Mixman DM2 works flawlessly as a MIDI device. In Windows I had to install two pieces of software and explicitly run it before I started mixing applications; in Ubuntu there is an easilly installed Kernel module.
3. Bluetooth works flawlessly. In Windows I had to search for and install a very bulky software stack.
4. Wiimote works with my bluetooth adapter. People claimed that I needed a new revision of my adapter for it to work in Windows.
5. UPS integration is flawless. In Windows there was a severe issue with the alarms interface and it took installing drivers and software from APC to work correctly.
6. Accelerated 2D is actually FAST. In Windows it was responsive but not to this degree. Granted I had to explicitly allow the use of a proprietary nVidia driver for this one.
7. Wireless works flawlessly. In Windows I have to put a driver on a CD and bootstrap that way.
8. I can use all my RAM--Windows XP is 32-bit so I could only use ~3 gigs. I simply opted for 64-bit Linux over the free (er, "included" :\) copy of Vista I get through school.
   

Keep in mind that all of these things except #6 were out of the box and I had to do absolutely nothing to make them work, except possibly install software to make use of the hardware.

The only thing lacking now is cohesive iPod support. I'm bouncing between Amarok and Rhythmbox as a player (I like both, deciding), and gtkPod to sync--I want that all to be integrated and effortless. Support wise, the pre-compiled Amarok package does not support iPod syncing out of the box, and pre-compiled gtkPod does not support AAC out of the box.

Overall of course I'm happy with the switch, but I always am after I switch :) Each switch brings with it a new set of frustrations to replace the old, so we'll see how long it takes to become frustrated back to Windows. I'm hopeful that it'll be good for quite a while this time.

More Thoughts on Maven Loader

Continuing the train of thought I started laying out last night, I have some more details about the MavenLoader client module.

The Maven JS Plugin could generate a Javascript file or replace a token in HTML files in war projects that sets up the MavenLoader in the way talked about yesterday automatically based on the war project's POM dependencies upon Javascript artifacts. I suppose this could also be a stand-alone plugin that operates on wars.

There could also be a POM configuration option whether to prefer local copies of dependencies or ones from a specified repository (repopath). The code that expands the artifacts and rolls them up into YUI Loader format could be shared between the daemon and the Maven plugin.

This would close the circle a little more for Maven developers but still not require Maven in order to take advantage of the system. It would also be a step toward building the YUI Test integration with the JS plugin that I want :)