The Great ini File in the Sky
The main reason I did this was so I could use Ubiquity, a Firefox addon. I knew that in the short term I’d be giving up some features I’m fond of in Opera, but hoped I’d be able to have them in Firefox after installing some Add-ons (the one thing Firefox does really well that Opera doesn’t).
I essentially use three computers throughout the day:
- The main PC at home.
- The laptop at home.
- My PC in work.
The joy with Opera was whenever I started out with a fresh install, or a different PC I could simply log into Opera Link, and it would update my bookmarks, speed dial settings, search history, search options and side-panel options from ‘the cloud‘ (ie. from some settings saved on the Internet). Within seconds I’d effectively have the same setup on the new PC as I would at home and in work. This not only saves a great deal of time, but also gives you confidence when using the app that everything you want is there to be used.
There is still more Opera could sync to make my life easier, but as the app has almost all the features I wanted out of the box, its not such a big deal.
Firefox on the other hand is a different story. So far I’ve managed to install an add-on (Foxmarks) that gives me some limited synchronisation (Bookmarks and passwords), and in fairness to it, that add-on works better than Opera’s own Bookmarks sync. However, due to the number of different add-ons I’m installing to recreate my Opera experience, I could do with some decent sync more than ever!
My ideal Firefox setup would work as follows. Users would be able to sign up to a service with a name such as ‘My Firefox’. This account will hold all sorts of information that the Firefox application can access when provided with your username and password.
It would contain a list of all the add-on’s you have installed on Firefox. When you’ve installed an add-on on one machine (work’s PC), the next time you use Firefox on another (home PC) it will ask if you would like to install that add-on on that PC. If you perform a fresh install of Firefox, it would prompt you to install all the add-ons you have installed on the other PC (if you wish).
The second part of the plan would be for the creators of Firefox (Mozilla) to offer some space in ‘the cloud’ for add-on developers to store configuration details in a central location – essentially a .ini file centrally hosted. So every time you update a setting for an add-on (perhaps you change the way new tabs are opened in Tab Mix Plus), the setting is saved to the cloud and will then be used on your other installation(s) of Firefox.
For me this would have the following benefits:
- It would save me a great deal of time installing and configuring add-ons on 3 PCs every time find a new one.
- Starting a fresh-install would become almost a pleasure, not a chore.
- As mentioned earlier, it would give me confidence in using the application. Don’t underestimate that in terms of the pleasure you get from using an application (or rather the frustrations you avoid).
This is just one example of how storing settings remotely can help. It could also be used for other applications. I’m very specific about how I like UltraEdit to work, so I’m often manually changing settings on 2 separate PCs. That could be improved.
Why stop with apps though? Why not give Windows similar functionality. Imagine performing a fresh install of Windows, clicking Sync and and after some processing you have your Windows setup just how you like it. As Linux (eg. Ubuntu) comes only with free software, it could go further and install the apps you have installed on a different build, all based on the configuration details held in the cloud.
Of course, there will be situations where just because you like it to work such-and-such way at home, doesn’t mean you want it to be the same in work. With that in mind there would have to be some granular control.
This syncing with the cloud is already happening (as mentioned earlier, with Opera). I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.
For completeness sake, I should mention that I believe Mozilla have started working on something along these lines with its Weave project.
Installing Ubuntu on the Laptop – Well Worth It
We got our laptop as part of Becky’s mobile phone contract. Its advertised as ‘free’, but its obvious you’re paying over the odds if all you were getting were the phone and the free text/minutes etc.
We weren’t expecting much from the laptop – just enough to browse the web. The desktop can take care of the rest.
The laptop got off to a good start. It was quick enough and Becky used it far more than she was expecting (she barely touches the desktop now). However, over time (a short period of time) the laptop has struggled under the strain of Windows Vista and all the bulk it brings with it.
One of the reasons we wanted the laptop was so we could do quick impulse searches. For instance, we’re watching something on tv and wonder what other films we’ve seen the actor in. We’d crack open laptop and look it up on IMDB or Wikipedia.
This part of the plan didn’t work. It takes around 5 minutes for our laptop to come out of hibernation and be of any use. Since then, I’ve got a Blackberry Curve, and with Opera Mini installed it does the impulse research job nicely.
A while back I installed Google’s Chrome browser. The browser was built around the idea that we now do most of our work through the browser, and will increasingly do so as the web matures. That made me think “Wouldn’t it be great if you could have an OS that just had the bare basics, with Chrome installed. Thats what I need for the laptop!”.
You can’t customize Windows to that extent, but you can Linux (eg. Ubuntu).
I then decided that I’d quite like to get Linux on the laptop. I might not be able to strip it down as much as I wanted (or install Chrome for that matter) but it should still run quicker than Vista. The problem was, I didn’t want to bugger up my existing setup. The laptop has partitions that are used for re-installing Windows, and I didn’t want to risk screwing that up. It just wasn’t worth the risk.
A few months later (a couple days ago now) and I used the laptop to burn off a copy of Ubuntu for a spare PC. To test it I put the disc back into the laptop to check that it works. When I did there was the option to install Ubuntu as if it were any other Windows app (and could be uninstalled as easily). Since didn’t seem at all dangerous it was worth a go. So I tried it.
The install process was as simple as can be, and I have to say its working out for me better than I hoped.
The only issues I had were with the wireless network card – by default Ubuntu didn’t recognise it. However, thanks to the Open Source nature of Ubuntu, there was plenty of posts online explaining how to fix it.
In terms of performance, Ubuntu is working out much better for me than Vista. Where as Vista takes 5 minutes to warm up, Ubuntu is up and running within seconds of me lifting the lid.
As a bonus, the battery life is almost twice as long.
The only downside so far in terms of usage is the fact the touchpad on the laptop is all to keen to consider a tap, a mouse click. It wasn’t so sensitive in Vista.
Until I put Ubuntu on there, the laptop was becoming less and less useful. It was purchased so we could use it for short sessions, but due to the time it took to warm up, it was only of use when you wanted to spend 30 mins on it. If you’re going to do that then you’d just as well make your way to the desktop (of course, that doesn’t take into account the fact you can crash out on the sofa with the laptop). Now though, thanks to Ubuntu it does what we purchased it for.
I’ve been looking for an excuse to use Linux in anger. This appears to be it.
