Speedtest Results

Cox Cable advertises all time about Powerboost but only in off hours like almost 4am have I obtained the results advertised.

I ran a second test on a Los Angeles server for comparison and the results were almost the same.

I did these tests in Fedora 11 on my HP laptop. I am using a D-link wireless N card. It has the Atheros chip set which has been very difficult in the past to get any connection. In Fedora 10 it would connect but never go anywhere. In Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04 I was able to get it working but not at this speed rating. I should also mention that my best test ever in Windows only went above just above 12 Mb/s. So once again I am very pleased with the progress Project Fedora is making.

Ripping With Rhythymbox

One of the most used apps on our computers is the music player. In Fedora 11 you will find Rhythymbox v0.12.1. Rhythymbox is at the top of many folks list for a music player. I found it to be a very straight forward player that can do everything I want in a music player. I did notice though that Mp3 support was lacking in the default install. Something I will need since I listen to my tunes on a Nano Ipod. Time to search the repository in the non-free section for the codecs. I was able to open Rhythymbox and rip a cd without looking up any instructions. I am ripping the Doors as I type this and I might add that I am running from the USB key and I am not seeing any negative performance in computer speed or application lagging. That is something I can't say when ripping from iTunes on my XP laptop. When I rip with iTunes in XP everything comes to a halt. The computer is not that much of a dog and I ripped cd's in the past with other programs never having as much lag as with iTunes. Apple has simply let iTunes get too bloated. I think it is time to separate the player and the store and allow the app to direct your favourite browser in that direction. Fedora and Rhythymbox are ripping my cd of the Doors rather nicely. It is now on track 8 of 14 in only about 5 minutes all from the live-USB installation. But everything is not perfect and I have to voice this one gripe. Rhythymbox did not pre-load the cd information in the property fields. That was something that surprised me since this cd has been around for quite a while. Is there a config file I need to edit? If someone knows the answer help me out. I will look to see if that type of feature can be enabled later but for this rip it wasn't that hard to enter the information. But go figure it did show the correct album art. Right now it's time to rock!

Fedora 11 Speedtest

I just hit Speedtest.net and my results weren't way up there on this wireless N laptop but response times are seemingly very fast. Still faster than with Ubuntu but not as fast as WindowsXP. I will test again during the day on this and wired systems and post the link for results. The perceived speed is very fast for page loads and web browsing. Downloads have been quick too. Obviously a lot of testing could be done here but this is definitely faster than Ubuntu 9.04 and Fedora 10. I am starting to become a real believer.

Something To Shout About

Wow is all I can say so far. I am writing this from Fedora 11 on my USB stick. This is the first boot on this laptop and all I had to do to get connected was enter my SSID, select my security and enter the pass phrase. I was connected about 5 seconds later and at a higher rate than I have been with Ubuntu. This is for me anyway, the most polished distro I've ever run. I am looking forward to seeing more.

Fedora 11 Has Arrived

Fedora 11 is finally an official release. If you want to download a copy now click on the banner to the right. I have downloaded the live cd version tonight and the new LiveUSB-Creator. I am loading it to a USB flash drive and will test drive this new version of Fedora right away. I am using a 4gb stick for the live USB install and the first difference I have noticed is the newer USB-Creator is allowing me to use all of the available space left for persistent storage. The older version maxed out at about 2gb's. The LiveUSB-Creator worked in just over 16 minutes which was about 7 minutes longer than the previous version. Okay now for the real test. l booted to the stick and Project Fedora team has hit it right! I was on the desktop in just about 20 seconds as promised. Network was detected, setup and working. Also detected correctly was the underlying file system. I now have a working Fedora 11 USB stick with about 3gb's of useful storage space. That's so cool! I will post more later after trying this out on a laptop or two.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Before I plunk down some of my hard earned cash for Windows 7, I want to know how it will run on my system. I have two options with one option being to download the rather large release candidate and install it. Option two is to run the Upgrade Advisor and get a report of how Windows 7 should install. The test laptop is a HP ze5385us which runs on a P4 2.66ghz cpu with 1gb of ram. My first step is to download the Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft here. The Upgrade Advisor is packaged as a msi file and is 6414kb in size.

Double clicking the msi file starts the install process. Simply accept the defaults for the install and it completes in about ten seconds leaving you at this screen with the option to launch the advisor.

The system check ran for only a couple of minutes. I now had enough information to decide running Windows 7. The good news it reported was that all my hardware passed minimum requirements. I did have two warnings listed in the report. One about the upgrade process and another about Aero Desktop. I won't be able to run Aero Desktop on this laptop since I can't upgrade the graphics card. The upgrade warning gave a link for step by step installation information. This could be very helpful and is a nice touch from Microsoft. All in all I'm glad I ran the tool. Upgrade Advisor has given me enough information to make an informed decision. Upgrading to Windows 7 on this laptop should go quite smoothly if I decide to install.

Are You Ready For Windows 7?

Ready or not Windows 7 is on the way. The word from the Windows blog is set for October 22 of this year. I'll personally believe it when I see it since Microsoft has always pushed back the official release dates for every version of Windows I personally have seen released. However in their defense the release candidates are looking like they are pretty close to full release. Tonight I plan on running Microsoft's Upgrade Adviser Tool on a HP Laptop with an Intel P4 running at 2.66ghz and 1gb of ram. Check back tomorrow for the results.