Finding the KNetbook (part II)

As I wrote a view weeks ago I am searching a notebook for my wife to run KDE SC 4.4 on Linux on it. Now we decided that it would be a netbook.

Why am I telling you that. I am still unhappy with the small market share Linux has and want to point to some points I recognized during my way to find my product.

Steps if I wanted a netbook without preference for an operating system:

1. Check some netbooks at a netbook test or discussion site of your choice.
2. Check the hardware in a store of your choice.
3. Buy the netbook and have fun try to use it.

Steps if I want a KDE netbook:

1. Check some netbooks at a netbook test or discussion site of your choice.
2. Spend hours to search the web if there are known issues with hardware compatibility.
3. Oh yes, there are known problems. But the sites were last updated one year ago. Perhaps the problem is solved by now? Keep on searching!
4. Check one or many of the hardware compatibility sites of major distros.
5. Find out, that your favoured netbook is not listed (the compatibility databases are often by far not completed) and the sites are a little bit outdated anyway. [1]
6. Go to bed and spend your next free evening, too.
7. After several hours of searching for other nice and affordable peaces of hardware finally write about your martyrdom on identi.ca. (Thanks to anyone who answered!)
8. Get really useful information from your fantastic KDE community within a couple of minutes / over night and decide.
9. Search the web for a reseller shipping your favoured netbook to your country WITHOUT operating system.
10. Renege your promise never to pay again for an operating system you don't use and order a Acer Aspire One D250 with XP/Android. (It is not possible to buy state of the art hardware without OS. Something goes definitely wrong here.)
11. Before wiping the hard disk have a look at android. Find out that you have to end the windows install (incl. licence agreement) before you can use android. Forget about android and pass to the next step.
12. Download your linux distro of choice and copy it onto an usb-stick. (Excellent descriptions for OpenSUSE and the KDE netbook reference are here and there.)
13. See your netbook come to life and HAVE FUN!

You might assume that it is much easier to find a windows netbook than one with linux. And you are totally right.

My resume:

• Simplicity rules: If we want to increase the market share of Linux/KDE it should be really easy and fast to find proper hardware and software.
• Our strength is the community: I spent hours searching the web without usefully results. The community helped me within minutes.

What can we do to improve these two major points? Is it only a personal issue or is this important for anybody else? Where can I steel the time to contribute? ...

P.S.: About my experiences with the KDE netbook reference I will blog another time.

[1]
http://en.opensuse.org/Hardware
http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Laptops/Asus
http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Laptops/Acer#Aspire_One
http://hcl.mandriva.com/
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Laptop/Reports
http://hardware4linux.info/systems/
http://www.ubuntuhcl.org/
http://www.linlap.com/
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/
http://www.linux-drivers.org/

Finding the kBook

My wife as well as my sister are looking for a small notebook or a netbook. I did a quick research to find a proper gadget to run KDE on it. I made good experiences with Lenovo, so I started there. One thing was clear to us all: We don't ever gonna pay for a Windows whatever version.

It seems that Lenovo has a "close relationship" with MS. No refund for MS operating systems possible. :-(

Same situation with some bigger vendors and reseller. Lenovo UK wrote in their mail about an agreement with MS only to ship windows with their machines.I have to admit: I'm shocked. Windows only systems where ever you look.

I didn't knew if I should laugh or cry as I read the Lenovo slogan "New World. New Thinking."

Hey European Commission! Wake up! After your success against Microsoft in the browser war here is your next goal: Every computer (esp. notebooks) should be available WITHOUT operating system. The price should be reduced by the cost of the OS.

Still alive

4yo and 2yo "working" with their favorite app Krita.

It has been a long time since my last post.

Since my move to Switzerland and my new job I haven't found any time to support the KDE-promo or www-team. (Ok. I never was one of the top-contributors, but it was always a great pleasure to contribute a little bit to such a great community).

From time to time I can read the promo mailinglist and are happy to see how many remarkable people are doing fantastic things. I can't wait to see the new web-design and new t-shirts and of cause KDE SC 4.4.0.

The only two things I could achieve the last 1/2 year.

1. Spread KDE in the private environment: Infect my sister and her husband with KDE passion. I could convert them from windows and now they are two proud only-KDE-on-Linux-users.
2. Convince future users: Show my two kids the free world of KDE. Their favorite app krita saved a small forrest (in form of paper) so far (see the picture above).

Thanks to all (real) contributors who keep the KDE-community running!

Life is Great!

Photo by mikep (CC-BY-NC-SA)

A view days ago Lydia dented me to an interesting video on TED. (If you don't know TED it's worth having a look. The clips there are much better than the regular TV program.)

It's a talk from David Logan on tribal leadership.

According to Logan the difference between tribes (or communities) are their cultures. Build on the culture communities can reach different states. He suggest 5 tribal states:

State 1: Life Sucks

That's the culture of gangs and in prisons. Life is horrible and you just try to survive.

State 2: My Life Sucks

Life isn't so bad. But mine! If I had other possibilities I would have fun.

State 3: I'm Great (and you're not!)

That's the culture in most companies and other "tribes". These people keep telling you their own success stories.

State 4: We're Great

Tribes in this state focus on the WE, not the I. The spirit glues those communities together. They produce excellence and are having fun. A view brilliant companies and many FLOSS communities have reached that level.

State 5: Life Is Great

Tribes in state 5 are those who change the world. They focus on values.

According to David Logan's research 2% are in state 1, 25% in state 2 and the majority (48%) is in state 3. Only 22% are in state 4 and 2% in state 5.

David Logan introduces two assumptions:

1. You can only understand someone who is at the same state (plus minus one).

2. The way as people see the world so they behave.

You might have been wondering what that has to do with KDE? Here it comes: KDE (as a brilliant community) has definitly reached state 4. How can we move from 4 to 5?

Eric Raymond discribes the attitude of FLOSS hackers: "The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved." This discribes exactely the attitude: Life Is Great!

What is your attitude?

When you are looking for fascinating problems: Grab one! ...at http://bugs.kde.org

The four questions I am asking myself are:

How do I see the world? At what state are the people around me? How do I communicate with others? How do we change that amazing world?

OpenExpo in Winterthur, Switzerland

I just came home from OpenExpo in Winterthur, Switzerland. Unfortunately I could only send the afternoon and of cause the social event afterwards. It was a great pleasure to meet Myriam, Adriaan, Eckhart, Andi, Luca and Markey and Sven from Amarok.

Sesame backend for soprano on openSUSE

Just a short note. I tried to install the sesame backend for soprano on opensuse 11.1 factory (KDE 4.3.0). Since I installed the java openjdk-devel packed (thanks for the hint) and of cause soprano-backend-sesame Nepomuk runs perfectly well.

Second note: I'm really happy that openSUSE is a community based distro and is (again) selecting KDE as the default while installation. Gnome is still at the top of the list but it's a great sign. If you are not an openSUSE user you might give it a try.

The World is moving

Not only the famous and great members of the KDE community are moving. Also a small member of the KDE promo team has moved to a new country. (To be exactly I moved from Munich, Germany to St. Gallen, Switzerland.) Switzerland is really a great country. I love it! And it seems that I might win the power-plug-adapter-battle and as you can see I managed to be online again.
The only purpose of this post is to say: Hello KDE Switzerland!
Anybody who lives near St. Gallen?