Back on Vista…. and using Opera
Posted by Tyler Brown
Yes, you heard it correctly. I am back on Vista. So what happened? I was on Windows 7 Ultimate for nearly a year (From the RC to the RTM).
Well, as some of you may have known, I had gotten an MSDN account through another staff member when I was a staff member at McInTEC. After I had decided to leave in January, I lost my MSDN account too. No big deal, right? I saved my keys. That was all fine and dandy until just within the past week or so all my Windows 7 Ultimate Keys that I had, about 3, ended up getting blacklisted from Microsoft for no reason.
So why didn't I fight Microsoft to get my keys back? Well, for a couple reasons. First off, I got the MSDN account for free through that other staff member at McInTEC. No point in trying to get back keys that I didn't even pay for in the first part, even if they were legit in the first place. Secondly, I will be going to college this fall, and as a college student, I will either be able to get a huge discount on Windows 7, or the school that I plan on going to will offer a copy of Windows 7 Pro to their students via an MSDNAA account.
So anyway, now that I'm back on Vista, this time Vista Ultimate x64 (Thanks to a couple good friends! 
), I might as well talk about my experience a tiny bit. I will say one thing for sure, it isn't until you go back to using Windows Vista, that you start really noticing the small things in Windows 7 that you got really used to. For example, on Windows 7, I had gotten quite used to the superbar, especially how it grouped applications together, and how I could close a window just by clicking the scroll-wheel on my mouse. I had also gotten used to using Aero Peek to check my widgets, primarily using the keyboard shortcut Win+Space. Yeah, I know on Windows Vista it also brings the gadgets to the front, but it doesn't put them back in the background either. Those were just probably a few of the things I've kinda gotten used to again.
So, as usual when it comes to an OS reload, it'll probably take a couple weeks to a month to remember to reinstall everything that I use every now and then, but from the looks of it, everything is running alright, I am having no issues, etc. Enough about Vista though, I'm going to talk about Opera.
So about early March is when Opera 10.50 came out to the public as a final release, in time for the EU Mandated Browser Ballot Box Microsoft had to include in Windows 7 to be released, which is the reasoning they used as to why the Linux and OS X releases hadn't been released. Then about later that month Opera 10.51 was release, which fixed a few bugs, improved performance, etc. Anyway, when I did the reinstall of Vista, I decided that instead of installing Chrome first, I would instead give Opera a chance and use that as my primary browser for a little while. So far its been a pretty interesting experiences, a few bumps here and there, but definitely I can say its a great browser.
To start off with, Opera 10.5x sports an amazing new UI, including support for Aero integration with Vista/7, as well as including integration into XP Luna, Zune, and Media Center themes, which is going above and beyond what Google has done for UI integration w/ Chrome on XP and what Mozilla has done with Firefox. Opera 10.5x also includes a new tab design, and has moved the entire menu bar over to one button on the top left corner, that sports a red background and a white Opera logo (you still do have the option to move the Menu bar back to normal).
Opera 10.51 UI for Vista/7
Enough about the UI, what about the speed, and its performance. Opera 10.5x is the first version of Opera that I've used that has had an amazingly fast JS rendering engine. Its about as fast as both Safari and Google Chrome's Javascript engines. Its loading of pages is also very very quick. Loading pages is also very very quick. In terms of resource usage, when using flash, it can be a bit of hog, but thats not very surprising. Flash by itself on browsers that take advantage of out of process flash is also very much a hog. Overall, performance for me has been very good, speed has been great, and most of my issues may have come from the websites themselves.
So despite the many great features I've found with Opera, it does have its own issues. Mostly with how certain websites act in it, including a few pages on Facebook, Google Reader, and including Geeks.pirillo.com. I'm not going to go more in-depth of other features, issues, etc. Because, its nearly 2 months after the original release of Opera 10.50, so theres probably already enough blog posts on it. Overall, I'm just going to say thats its been a great browser so far in the past few days, and I'm going to continue using it for a little while. Who knows, it may stay my default browser, or I might have to go back to Chrome. I'll update that for you all in a week.
Anyway, thanks for reading the first blog post in a couple months! Please subscribe to my blog by clicking the orange RSS icon if you want to see more content. I also appreciate comments, and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on my writing.
- Tyler Brown
Ubuntu 64-bit – My experiences so far Plus Other Things!
Posted by Tyler Brown
Well, so far I am really enjoying Ubuntu 64-bit. It works with all the hardware I have, works very well with the Flash 64-bit Alpha version that is out (=D MUCH better than nspluginwrapper,) Pulseaudio actually works properly on Ubuntu 64-bit, and to add on top of that experience, Chrome for Linux is very close to release-ready.
On a side note, my 160GB drive ended up having issues. =/ but no worries, I should be getting a new one later this week! =D so I can dual boot Windows and Ubuntu again, but all 64-bit this go around.
Also, gonna refer ya to a couple sites to check out and possibly subscribe to:
http://geeknexus.com - A Place where Geeks Get Connected! A Twitter-Like Service specifically for Geeks!
http://ipaidcashformyclunker.com - A blog basically explaining the problems that exist within the Cash for Clunkers program.
Anyway, thanks for reading! =D Please check out those links above, and if you like this blog, subscribe to this one too!
~ Tyler J. Brown
My browser situation in Linux
Posted by Tyler Brown
I don't know why, but it seems with every release of Firefox, on Linux it starts to feel more and more sluggish. Not just loading pages (Thats actually improved in a way,) but in overall performance, CPU usage, Javascript performance, and overall sluggishness. It really feels as if Mozilla is catering more to those that are switching over from IE on Windows, versus those that have been using Firefox on Linux for many years, and its just been starting to feel more and more like a bad port (not entirely, but it feels like its going into that direction,)
Though, I guess one thing I do have to realize while in the middle of this rant, is the architecture of my CPU is kind of aging, bit time. I have a Pentium D (also note that I have 2GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon HD2600XT 512MB Video card, and an 160GB SATA HDD,) which is basically two P4 cores on one chip, which was fine at some point, but most developers these days, and I'm assuming the same goes for Mozilla, are developing more so for the Core 2, Athlon X2, and Phenom architectures versus the old P4 architecture, despite a good amount of people still being on that architecture (Whether it be the actual P4, Pentium Ds, or a Celeron.)
Anyway, before I go onto that tangent, I will get back onto browsers. Firefox has just not felt like the fast Ferrari it used to be on Linux, or on my system in general. On Windows Vista/7 I've already switched to Google Chrome, Webkit has got to be the fastest rendering engine I have ever used, and Chrome's V8 Javascript engine is also amazing. The way it manages its processes also allows it to have amazing performance on my system.
So what does that have to do with Linux? Well, on Linux, Chrome is not officially out yet, and the Chromium Builds have just finally started to feel better and more stable, but they're not good/stable enough to be put into daily use, although, the latest Chromium Build on Linux has possibly got to be the fastest browser I have ever seen in terms of loading pages, and, it definitely doesn't feel the sluggishness I feel on Firefox.
So, if Chrome isn't ready, and Firefox is starting to feel very sluggish on Linux on my system, where do I turn? Epiphany doesn't exactly offer what I want, Konqueror doesn't have the same feel in GNOME that it does in KDE, and many of the other browsers designed specifically for Linux are just too basic for me/don't function the way I want it to.
I think just within the past few days I have grown to really love the Opera web browser on Linux. Its fast, its stable, the Opera 10 beta has a new beautiful theme, and new functionality I have grown to love. Opera just doesn't feel the same sluggishness that I have felt in Firefox recently either. Another thing I love is Opera sync - so if I so happen to find a piece of software I want to try out of look at on Windows (natively, mind you,) but don't feel like rebooting, I just bookmark it in Opera, and then reboot when I feel like it.
A few of the other features I like? Tab locking, prevents you from accidentally closing a tab you absolutely want open (like one you are typing an extensive Google Docs, or e-mail document on,) the tab bar now has built in previews when you resize it (screenshot below,) an amazing download manager, notes, Speed Dial (which in Opera 10 beta is customizable,) and probably many other hidden features I have yet to find.
Now time for the screenshots! 
Opera's speed dial is now customizable
Opera's new tab bar feature
Overall, in terms of a browsing experience, and features, I give Opera a 10/10. I feel this browser definitely isn't getting the attention it deserves, or is over-looked way too much. Maybe because its not entirely open source? Or maybe the fact its been around forever (but you think that'd be a sign of strength.) Whatever it may be, it doesn't change the fact the Opera is a great browser, and for the time being, it will become my default browser on Linux, well, unless the final version of Chrome for Linux just completely wows me (and knowing how they did a good job on that on Windows, it is very likely.)
Anyway, thanks for reading my blog, and my blog post. Please subscribe, and check back for more. I promise, this time, I will be more dedicated to blogging. (to subscribe, just click on the orange RSS icon at the top of the page that says "Subscribe to RSS")
Also, if you need great, reliable web hosting, or a VPS, please check out Constant-Hosting.
~ Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)