Copy.com

You might have noticed that the frequency of my blog posts has slowed down considerably.

This normally happens once I have gotten my system up and running with a fresh install, the kinks are worked out (meaning that my wifi driver is installed), I have my favourite apps installed and I am basically almost out of material.

Don't despair however, as I recently discovered Copy.com (a suggestion someone made on a forum for a discussion of what to do now that Ubuntu One has closed down). I am interested in Copy.com because of the initial 15 GB you get when you join and for the additional 5 GB you get for every referral (up to 5 referrals) and the rest you pay for. I am a long term Dropbox user, and they have been very good to me. During the time that I did computer training I installed Dropbox on a lot of computers and I was able to get my storage up to 13 GB free space.

Although, I normally don't use more than about 1 GB of space in my Dropbox account - I considered Copy.com because of the benefits it has for people I know. I know a lot of people who have a free 2 GB Dropbox account which is nearly full, and migrating over to a new service makes a lot of sense if you get more space.

Caution, rant follows >>>

My max upload speed is about 50 kb per second at the moment (the joys of adsl in South Africa, where our maximum Internet lines in my area are 10 Mbps for R399 (USD 38) per month, with an additional R399 (USD 38) per month fee for Uncapped Internet. So I have a slow entry level line, which means that it will take days (maybe even a week) to fill my copy.com account.

Internet access in South Africa is expensive by my standards. 3G data is very expensive as well, but I am getting totally off track now.

<<<<<< rant ended

My point is that I was only able to really get into Linux when I had a "decent" Internet connection. Downloading a 700 MB file over 3G can easily cost R200 (USD 19) and I am sure that a lot more people would be using Linux in South Africa if our Internet fees were lower.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Copy.com comes to the rescue of folks everywhere who want more free space than what Dropbox is willing to offer them.

Go to www.copy.com and create a free account. Here is my referral code: https://copy.com?r=vEWnoM if you like, you can post your code in the comments section and I will try to rotate them from time to time.

To install Copy.com in Linux, you can do it the hard way (on their website you can download the tarball) or check http://www.webupd8.org/2014/06/install-copycom-client-in-ubuntu-or.html for a great tutorial on how to set up everything. I will highlight the important part now:

• Open a Terminal window (click Menu >> Accessories >> Terminal)
• Type in:
• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paolorotolo/copy
• Press <ENTER>
• Type in your sudo password, press <ENTER>
• Type in:
• sudo apt-get update
• press <ENTER>
• Type in:
• sudo apt-get install copy
• Press <ENTER>

If Copy.com does not run automatically after this, click on Menu >> Accessories >> Copy and sign in with your username and password.

The future is definitely in cloud computing, something that Peppermint Linux does very well. For me, being able to use a hybrid OS, where I have LibreOffice downloaded for when I need to work offline as well as all the Cloudy goodness that comes baked into the OS is perfect.

Dropbox won't finish installing

So, I click Menu >> Internet >> Dropbox to install Dropbox.

It loads up to 100%, but never finishes. Here is how to fix it: (from forum)

Open a Terminal window and type:

sudo apt update
press <ENTER>

enter your super user password, and press <ENTER>
wait

sudo apt upgrade press <ENTER>
wait
sudo apt dist-upgrade
press <ENTER>

wait

reboot

Then try reinstalling Dropbox again, should work.

Peppermint 5 here we go!

So today I finally got around to installing Peppermint 5. I formatted my entire hard drive, so I am no longer dual booting Windows XP (which means that at this point I need to fire up my desktop if I need Coreldraw or my Canon Lide 90 scanner).

I am currently downloading LibreOffice and I still need to set everything up. At least Conky is installed already :)

So, unetbootin helped me (once again) to create a live flash drive, after downloading the Peppermint 5 ISO from www.peppermintos.com This truly is a wonderful little program.

Installation was uneventful, as expected. My Broadcom wifi card still needs proprietary drivers. This means I need to plug into the router when installing, afterwards click on Menu -> Preferences -> Additional drivers. Here you need to enable the wifi driver. Wifi works again, whoop whoop.

While Googling, I found http://www.binarytides.com/better-linux-mint-17-cinnamon/ and I started working my way through the list. Pepperflash is installed by default, which is great. When installing ms-tt-corefonts I had a strange blue window with white text in it. I could not get past this window, so I Googled some more. Finally found a page that said "press TAB, then ENTER", which worked and  was able to complete that installation and load more software.

Conky is back on, (Audacity, Deluge, UGet, VLC and a few others too), I need to install Dropbox next. I have a new approach to Dropbox: I move stuff that I am not actively working on into my OneDrive or Google Drive, this means when I reinstall it does not take as long to sync.

Will post an update as soon as I am ready.

Ubuntu for phones, thoughts and opinions

I've been thinking about this since I listened to a podcast today (FLOSS episode 252 where Jono Bacon talks about Ubuntu for mobile phones).

When Android first came out, it was strange and new. Being in South Africa we have excessively high mobile data charges and people were getting slammed by the mobile phone operators for high data usage. At that point the HTC Dream phone was the only phone running Android, I worked as a Customer Service Agent at a mobile phone store selling contract phones. A friend bought one of these phones and managed to install something that totally bricked his phone, he sent it in for repairs and ended up waiting almost 6 months for HTC to send it back. I was NOT going to recommend this phone or the Android brand to clients.

Fast forward 2 years, Samsung had launched plenty of phones running Android (Gingerbread the then current flavour) and the platform had matured a bit. I started to get to know how it works and how to stay out of trouble. Fast forward to today and there are many communities that will help you get the right software tools, advice and ROMs needed to customize your phone. 

Why is this relevant? Because we are at the point of Ubuntu phone being launched. It's still a work in progress, but if you listen to FLOSS #252 you will see the passion that these people have for the new platform. Ubuntu One will play a crucial role in everything as you can sync your files across phones and computers, buy and stream music and sync your contacts to it (among other things). 

When comparing Ubuntu One to its greatest competitor, Dropbox, you will notice that Dropbox is more polished. Dropbox probably has more money invested in its service than Ubuntu One though. 

It's not really fair to evaluate a new platform that's still being built. I mean, the first iPhone could not send MMS messages and iOS 7 has now only caught up with Android as to having live wallpapers. But Android wasn't perfect either when it launched, it's going to take Ubuntu a while to catch up to the competition, and they aren't the only one's trying to get a slice of the action. Nokia and Blackberry and trying desperately to make their platforms a success again, while Firefox OS has beaten Ubuntu phones to market (who knows if they will become a mayor player?). 

The future is uncertain, but I wish the Ubuntu phone team every success with their endeavour. I'm not a fan of using Unity on the desktop and I may not like how their phone OS turn out. They have a lot of hard work ahead of them. Google (with Android) proved that it is possible to come out of nowhere with a new phone OS and become a dominant player within 4 years of launching it, so anything is possible.