After upgrading your desktop or laptop to Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx you may experience the following symptoms:
All of the above issues can be resolved by removing Skype and ensuring that the newest version is installed (2.1.0.81 at time of writing)
Skype can be downloaded here.
If like us, you try to keep the majority of the software you use open source, then Mozilla Thunderbird (with the Lightning add-on) might just be the perfect solution to your PIM (personal information manager) needs.
We use Thunderbird exclusively within our organisation for email, and with the Lightning add-on, for task and calendar management.
Recently, we have come across an issue with Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) whereby the New Event and New Task buttons were greyed out or disabled – making adding calendar entries impossible.
This was fixed by uninstalling the add-on, closing Thunderbird and running the following command in a terminal session:
sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
Reinstalling the add-on after libstdc++5 was installed fixed the issue – the calendar portion worked as it should. It appears that this prerequisite was not installed on the machine we were using.
In any case, Mozilla Thunderbird and Lightning represent (in our opinion!) the killer email and calenar application for Ubuntu.
You can download Thunderbird here, and Lightning here.
Thanks to this blog for the pointer!
From FastUpFront.com comes an extremely useful list of Open Source applications. As the recession drags on, more and more businesses are looking at Open Source software as a way to reduce the amount they are spending on software licensing.
From the article:
Open source applications and online services have been generating a lot of buzz over the past few years. Many of the open source alternatives are formidable contenders to the major liscensed software programs and services out on the market. Depending on the nature and circumstances of your business, bringing in open source apps may be a cheaper and more practical option to shelling out hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars in liscensing fees for the commercial versions.
The list is reproduced here:
Accounting Software
TurboCASH. – A powerful fully-featured, multi-user accounting system.
GnuCash. – A personal and small business accounting software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
SugarCRM.- Probably the most well-known, and powerful, CRM open source options. It is better suited to bigger businesses, however.
Daffodil CRM.- Full-featured CRM application
ConcourseSuite. – Formally CentricCRM, it is a “front office application suite to integrate Customer Relationship Management (CRM), web content management and team collaboration capabilities into a single, easy to user web application.”
vtiger.- Easy to use CRM software. Good option for smaller businesses.
Office Suite/Word Processing
Open Office. – Full-featured office suite, compatible with all other major office suites including MS Office
The Fifth Element.- Full-featured office suite, compatible with all other major office suites including MS Office
AbiWord.- Word processing software, easy-to-use version of MS Word.
Thunderbird. – Open source, cross-platform email and news client developed by Mozilla
Pegasus Mail. – Less well-known email system, but offers plenty of features and easy-to-use format
Graphics
Photofiltre.- A full-featured image and photo editing program; a good Photoshop alternative
Paint.NET. – A solid image and photo editing program; a good Photoshop alternative
The GIMP. – the GNU Project’s excellent image manipulation program.
Blender 3D.- Richly featured 3D content creation and animation program. Check out the features and gallery section.
Point of Sale Software
Openbravo POS. – Popular Point-of-Sale application designed for a wide range of retail businesses.
NolaPro POS. – A Web-based accounting, inventory, POS, and business management suite.
Business Tools/Apps
Asterisk.- IP PBX software
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. Anti-virus, anti-spyware program for Windows XP and Vista
Freemind.- Mind mapping software
Google Pack. – Download a bunch of Google applications/tools, such as the Chrome web browser and Goggle Apps, in one shot
Opera Browser.- A fast, secure web browser. There’s also a version for smartphones.
Mozilla Firefox. – A fast, secure web browser; a good alternative to Internet Explorer.
Web CEO- A collection of powerful SEO tools
CCleaner – A system optimization, privacy, and cleaning tool
PDF Creator – Convert documents to PDF format
A mixed bag of Windows and Linux software there. We at Jaytag heavily reccomend Ubuntu Linux for desktop computers and servers, as a fully featured office can be set up with no licensing costs whatsoever.
FastUpFront.com often has useful information for small businesses on how they can save money or improve existing IT processes. There is a full list of their technology articles here.
Windows 7 is Microsoft’s newest addition to its stable of operating systems. Along with Windows XP and Vista, it will soon be one of the most installed (and used) operating systems in the world.
But – we at Jaytag are of the strong opinion that it is a good idea to wait for Microsoft to iron out the slew of bugs and problems that inevitably go along with a new operating system. We aren’t the only one’s either – Computerworld have an article discussing why you should wait before upgrading.
The reboot bug. Some users have reported that following an upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, their computers go into a loop of starting up, then immediately rebooting. There is currently no solution from Microsoft for this issue.
The cost. To purchase Windows 7, you are looking at at least £90. Although this isn’t a lot, you may find it hard to justify in this economic climate – especially if your PC is working fine with Windows XP or Vista.
The hardware requirements. Windows 7 requires:
Compare these to Windows XP (home edition):
A significantly lower requirement. A huge saving on hard drive space is the key if you keep Windows XP. Overall, this means your 2-3 year old PC with Windows XP will be more than adequate (scratch that, a 2-3 year old PC will easily meet and exceed these specifications – you’ll be flying with a 1.6GHz or better processor with 1Gb of RAM)
With Windows Vista (home premium) the requirements are a little higher:
But still easily achieveable with a 2-3 year old PC. We’ve noted Vista only really works well on machines with more than 2Gb of RAM, and a new dual-core processor.
Our strong recommendation (unless you are planning on buying a new PC or laptop with Windows 7 preinstalled) is to wait until the first service pack is released. Normally, Microsoft releases SP1 of a new OS between nine months and a year after the system first ships.
Of course, Windows 7 offers some great new features – we just don’t think its worth the leap just yet for most users.
If you just can’t wait – or want to find out more, check out the Official Windows 7 page from Microsoft.
We’ve talked about AVG Free Anti-Virus on the blog before. We haven’t talked about Avast however, which is another alternative to the expensive Anti-Virus products from Norton and McAfee.
Avast is quickly becoming one of the most popular free anti-virus products on the market.
The producers claim that Avast is:
The most popular free antivirus with more than 80 000 000 registered users. Perfect for people who send e-mails and surf popular websites, but do not store any sensitive data on their computers.
Although we mainly install AVG Free edition on the computers we repair (if there is no anti-virus already installed) a number of our customers have requested Avast by name.
We’d always recommend that any customer that uses a free anti virus, also considers a software firewall (such as ZoneAlarm basic firewall) as this will provide added protection from trojans, malware, viruses or spyware.
