Windows 7

Just recently, I downloaded and installed Windows 7 RC and I've gotta say I'm impressed.

All my laptop's Vista drivers worked just fine, Windows installed most of the drivers through updates.

Everything just works, which is something I really missed in Linux, the closest it got was with Ubuntu but even then it wasn't as easy as it is with Windows 7.

It's fast, it's light, no unwanted features and an amazing new UI.

I'm a big fan of the changes they made to their UI, I like how you can keep only one window open by dragging it and shaking it, and all the other windows will be minimized, do that again and they're back.

And I like the new taskbar I don't know why no one's thought of it before.

I can safely say that M$ has officially outdone itself and that I am actually willing to pay for Windows 7 when it's released.

Linux's Desktop Environments are Failing It

Don't get me wrong, the current one (at least GNOME) is fine. Here's the whole thing:

Around a week ago I was thinking about Windows 7 and how much improvements to the UI it has and how innovative it is and I started wondering why Linux isn't as innovative. I was about to blog about it but good thing I didn't.

Just a few days back I came across an article about GNOME 3.0 and it said that they'll have a major UI change, it said they'll make GNOME Shell the main interface, I got excited 'cause I really like revolutionary stuff, so I started googling GNOME Shell, sadly, it looked awful and pretty weird!

That's when I realized that Linux developers ARE innovative, just not in the right path, there are some cool stuff (rather, a lot), but they're really screwing it with their desktop environments.

Don't get me wrong, GNOME now is awesome, just yesterday I was playing a video at the back, chatting on FB in firefox, and chatting with another friend in Pidgin, all at the same time; I reduced the opacity of both Firefox and Pidgin so I could still watch the video. Now that's cool!

The thing is that both KDE and GNOEME are failing, I used to use KDE 3.x and I was very happy with it (I used to even despise GNOME a bit), but after KDE 4 was released and I tried it, I just didn't like it, and after all major distros shifted to KDE 4, I had to shift to GNOME, now I like GNOME, it's fine.. But it looks like GNOME will screw things up with version 3.. At the same Windows 7 comes with a lot of improvements to its interface, I'm seriously considering shifting back to Windows once Windows 7 is released.

Productivity Script

I've seen the productivity script on Lifehacker for both Mac and Windows, so I decided to make a Linux version of it, here it is:

#!/bin/sh
zenity --question --text "Consider if this is really how I need to be spending my time. Continue?" --ok-label=Yes --cancel-label=No

while [ "$?" == "0" ] # while test "$var1" != "end"
do
sleep 12
zenity --question --text "Consider if this is really how I need to be spending my time. Continue?" --ok-label=Yes --cancel-label=No
done

Make sure you make it executable.

I hope you enjoy it.

A better solution for A2DP

I posted a way to get bluetooth headsets working with Linux but that method has some flaws (doesn't work on sound effects, doesn't work with flash, etc).

There's a better way that I used to use, it's slightly longer to switch to bluetooth with that one, but I'm trying to find a way to make the switching easier (just a mouse click) and I believe there is a way to do that.

You can find the instructions here.

I'll update you once I find a solution.

A2DP (Stereo Headsets) on Linux

I've never got it to work the first time, I always keep searching, trying, and failing until I finally find a way that works.

This time I decided to share it with people so they won't go through this, it's also easier than the rest, here's what you have to do:

First of all, pair your headset with your computer.

Create a file in your home directory called .toggle.sh

Inside that file put the following:

#!/bin/bash

state=`gconftool --get /system/gstreamer/0.10/default/musicaudiosink | cut -d\ -f1`

if [ $state = "autoaudiosink" ]; then
gconftool --type string --set /system/gstreamer/0.10/default/musicaudiosink "sbcenc ! a2dpsink device=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX"
zenity --info --title="GStreamer" --text="Switched to BT headphones."
else
gconftool --type string --set /system/gstreamer/0.10/default/musicaudiosink "autoaudiosink"
zenity --info --title="GStreamer" --text="Switched to speaker output."
fi

echo musicaudiosink set to `gconftool --get /system/gstreamer/0.10/default/musicaudiosink`

replace XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX with the address of your headphone, you can get that by setting your headphone to be visible and running

hcitool scan

That's it :)

This script toggles between your bluetooth headset and your speakers and shows you a dialog.

You can add a launcher to your panel.

Right click on the panel, add to panel, custom launcher, and for the command enter:

sh /home/ljuwaidah/.toggle.sh

of course, replace ljuwaidah with your username.

To get your buttons (play, pause, prev, next, etc) to work, edit /etc/modules and add uinput to the end of the file.

Hope this helps :)

This is taken from this post on board4all: http://www.board4all.cz/showthread.php?t=134759.

PS: this is better 'cause it actually switches between the speakers and headphones unlike what's mentioned in that post where you have to go to your sound preferences to switch back to speakers (they had a bug in the script: they used == instead of =). Also, I found that you don't need the other files.