Tag Archives: Technology

A way to match paint without cutting a chunk out of your wall?

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… or furniture, or whatever.

I really needed one of these a few months ago. And I feel the need coming again soon as I do things to the walls of our new house, now and then.

The Color Muse is not a new technology or a new idea. It is a very expensive technology suddenly available for a few bucks.

The Color Muse is simply a hand held spectrometer that interfaces with your smart phone. You use it to get info about a color of wall paint (or something similar) that you can then take to the hardware store and match.

If you chunk out a bit of the wall, you can have the hardware store do it, using their fancy multi-gazzilion-dollar machine. That machine they’ve got probably works better. But this thing looks like it is good enough for most uses. And, at the price it is certainly worth a try.

Here is a very short video showing it in use:

I have not used this product, so I can’t vouch for it. If you have please let us know below what you think! The reviews look good, though.

I’ll probably get one. I’ll let you know.

Grunt: The science of humans at war

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Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach explores, from a scientific perspective, the gear, technologies, and methods used to keep soldiers alive, or at least less injured, overheated, starved or thirsted to death, killed by gasses, and so on.

screen-shot-2016-09-18-at-11-12-33-amRoach is a well known and quite funny science writer who also wrote Stiff, Bonk, and Gulp.

This is a fun book, well researched, engagingly written, and informative. Also, off beat. Does human blood really draw sharks? What is the virtue of maggots, medicinally? How does the military test dangerous devices and the protections against them?

From the publisher:

Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks?

I think you get the point!

Fun book, great bedtime reading.

Turn Off Your Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Now And Put It In A Secure Container!

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As of October 11th: Samsung is now recalling ALL Galaxy Note 7 Phones. The previous recall and replacement program failed, the phone is basically dangerous, don’t use it, get rid of it, make them give you a new one.

In my view. Samsung should be providing cash back for the phones so people can buy whatever phone they want. That seems to be an option but I doubt they will actually do this for many customers. You can try, though!

Here is the latest information from Samsung.

WARNING As of October 10th or so, it is now known that Samsung phones other than those recalled are ALSO OVERHEATING and in at least some cases, bursting into flames. This may be the replacement phones that Samsung is providing its customers as part of the below described recall.

The FAA is asking people to not board aircraft with a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone because it might bring the aircraft down, should it start a fire. Also, stow the phone in such a way that the on switch can not be accidentally actuated.

The US Consumer Product Safet Commission has issued a warning to stop using the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and to turn them off immediately.

I’m not sure of the frequency with which this happens. However, earlier “exploding phones” problems such as with an earlier version of Apple’s iPhone occurred with very few phones, and generally, only as a result of the phone being damaged. Apparently it is very rare that phones burst into flames entirely spontaneously, and apparently, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is doing this at too high a rate to allow the phones to exist.

According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission

Consumers should immediately stop using and power down the recalled Galaxy Note7 devices purchased before September 15, 2016. Contact the wireless carrier, retail outlet or Samsung.com where you purchased your device to receive free of charge a new Galaxy Note7 with a different battery, a refund or a new replacement device.

As noted, this applies to phones sold on or before yesterday, September 15th.

Samsung has more details here.

You can get the phone replaced or get a refund.

Here is what Samsung says you can do:

  • Exchange your current Galaxy Note7 device with a new Galaxy Note7 as approved by the CPSC available no later than September 21, 2016; or
  • Exchange your current Galaxy Note7 for a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge and replacement of any Note7 specific accessories with a refund of the price difference between devices; or
  • Contact your point of purchase to obtain a refund.

    • In addition, “Customers who exchange a Note7 device will also receive a $25 gift card, in-store credit, in-store accessory credit or bill credit from select carrier retail outlets.”

    Go to THIS SITE with the US CPSC to find the appropriate phone number and link for each of the major carriers (AT&T, Best Buy, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon).

    As long as we are on the subject of Cell Phone Safety, you may be interested in whether or not cell phones cause cancer. (Short answer: no.)

    An Affordable Android and Windows 2-in-1 Tablet

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    I’ve been testing out the Teclast Tbook 16 Pro 2 in 1 Tablet PC. I think the emerging term for this kind of device is “2 in 1” because if configured one way it is a small notebook computer, configured the other way, it is a standard tablet.

    First, a bit of philosophy. When Apple and others invented the iPod Touch and various Smart Phones, it seemed obvious that a larger version of such a device might be helpful. So they went ahead and invented tablets. And tablets are cool. But, as often happens in technology, extreme coolness came to stand in for “the next big thing” in all applications. In fashion, you know that “orange is the new black” or “black is the new white” etc., as though there was only one color allowed at a time. In technology, “tablets are the new notebook” and “notebooks/laptops are the new desktops” is a similarly misguided concept. For some individuals, with a certain range of needs and abilities, such a transition is possible. For others, it is not. those who believe standard tablets like the iPad can replace all technology are few in numbers.

    But there are enough of them that when Apple decided to replace all computer technology, or at least, all semi-mobile or fully mobile tech, with tablets, that worked great until that small number (but still in the millions) all got their tablets.

    Then the market became saturated, and everyone else needed their keyboard, because that is how many interface with their technology. And it is a good way to interface. Years have gone by now since one did not technically need a keyboard, and we still need the keyboards.

    So, the result is the 2-in-2 technology. Even as Apple does away with the longest living and consistent technology ever developed for normal human use, the headphone jack, I promise you that Apple will be shifting towards the 2-in-1 technology if they plan to keep up.

    Anyway, the Teclast Tbook 16 Pro 2 in 1 Tablet PC is my attempt to test out this technology. (Short version, we are having a great time with this affordable and powerful tablet!)

    I’ll provide some comparative data below, but here’s the gestalt. All microprocessors used today are fast and powerful, so all modern tablets have the computing power you need for, well, checking Facebook, handling email, and browsing around on line, which is most of what you do. All modern tablets have excellent high resolution screens. When it comes down to it, there isn’t a lot different between different tablets other than things like size, what kinds of do-dads you can plug into it, and the operating system.

    But, there are 2-in-1 tablets that cost a couple thousand dollars, most of the higher end ones are well over $500. But the Tbook without the keyboard is just over 200 (as it is now on sale, see this link for more info, or click through to the link given above). And, of great importance, the same source (Gearbest) has bundles with various tablets and their keyboards.

    Usually I don’t recommend specific outlets for specific devices, but at the moment, this outlet in China is trying very hard to give you what is essentially a 600 or 700 dollar 2 in one tablet for just over $200. So, I thought you should know.

    OK, details on the Teclast Tbook 16 Pro 2 in 1 Tablet PC. When you boot up, you can chose between running Windows (full version) or Android (a nearly stock current version). When you are in either of these systems, using a link that is very similar to logging out, you can change to the other operating system. The change is essentially (almost) a full reboot, so both changing and starting from off take the usual boot up time for any phone or computer (well, much faster compared to the average desktop Windows computer).

    The screen is large, and cinema shaped, and the overall build seems solid. There is a micro USB receptacle which allows you to expand out as well as charge if plugged into a charger. There is also a regular charting receptacle for a DC connector. The cable for that is provided, and you plug that cable into a USB charger brick or slot. There is an HDMI output as well, and a standard headphone jack.

    I’ve tested all the plugs and outputs. We’ve shown movies and otherwise mirrored the device via HDMI to a TV. We’ve switched back and forth between systems. I’ve heavily used the Android system, and less vigorously tested out the Windows system. All this works great. We also dropped the tablet from a height of about 4 feet and that had no effect. (That was not on purpose.)

    The tablet hooks via magnetic interface (and various contact points) to a nice tablet-width keyboard. The keyboard has multiple USB outlets. This allows you to use this 2-in-1 as a fully functional Windows computer.

    Some of you may wonder why I would want to do that. Normally, I would not as I don’t use Windows. However, the only other Windows computer in the house is Amanda’s work laptop, and that is managed by her school and we can’t really use it. So, having a single, small, yet powerful Windows computer in the house is not a bad thing for that occasional need. For example, I have a small electronic device that needs occasional adjustment to the bios. It is possible to do it from Linux, but (because of the software provided by the manufacturer) easy to do it in Windows. So having a Windows computer hiding inside an Android tablet, for occasional use, is nice. If you do that, though, I recommend running the Windows system every now and then so the infernal upgrade process can keep up with the outside world and not hobble you on your first use after a year of non-use. (Not a problem for Linux.)

    I’m a little disappointed that a Chinese manufacturer does not have a Linux option. Linux is widely used in China, and I think it is the most popular system there. Also, at some point, I’ll try booting from a live USB with Linux. If that works, heck, I just might … well, we’ll see. And I’ll let you know. (This tablet comes with a severe warning to not mess with the OSs, but … well, we’ll see.)

    The specs for the tablet:

    <li>Android 5.1 Lollipop OS</li>
  • Microsoft Windows 10 64bit OS
  • Intel Cherry Trail Z8300 64bit Quad Core X86 Architecture 14nm Process 1.44GHz, up to 1.84GHz (Ultra-low-voltage platform and quad-core processing provide maximum high-efficiency power to go. Intel Turbo Boost Technology delivers dynamic extra power when you need it)
  • 11.6 inch IPS 10-Point Capacitive Touch Screen with 1920 x 1080 Resolution (wide viewing angles, very nice color)
  • 4GB DDR3L RAM
  • 64GB eMMC ROM Storage
  • HDMI Output Expands Your Viewing Options
  • 2.0 MP Front Camera for Photos and Face-to-face Chat (no rear camera)
  • Micro SD Card Expansion up to 128GB
  • Bluetooth 4.0

    • I haven’t played around enough with the keyboard to say anything smart about that mode of use, but I’ll post on that later. Also I’ll note that ordering from this company was easy and shipping costs are very reasonable.

    Now I want to put this in some context. Here is this 2-in-1 tablet in context of roughly comparable, in terms of overall size, etc. devices, listed from most expensive to least expensive. Notice the very steep gradient on price.

    $1,200: Lenovo Yoga 900 13 Powerful processor, more ram, Windows only.

    $700 – $1200: Various Microsoft Surface Pro 4, includes only Windows (usually with a higher end processor)

    $750: Samsung Galaxy TabPro S 12″ Tablet. Somewhat more powerful processor, some more disk space, Windows only.

    $550: HP Elite x2 1011 G1 Ultrabook/Tablet – 11.6″ Windows only

    $250 (approximate) original price ca $700 Teclast Tbook 16 Pro 2 in 1 Tablet PC. Currently on sale with keyboard for $209. Very good graphics, communications, etc, enough storage, expandable storage, high connectivity, powerful enough processor, etc. Windows and Android.

    This tablet is a great and affordable way to ender the 2-in-1 technology in a way that has a significant advantage: The Android OS ready to go along side that other OS.

    How to make a hand crank flashlight

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    This looks like a fun project. I think it works so well, or at least, seams to in the video because LEDs are so damn efficient.

    I would make it somewhat differently, but this is good. For one thing, I’d probably make it out of an LED flashlight, swapping out the batteries for a motor.

    And then, when you have your flashlight ready, you can do this!

    (Hat tip: David Cassatt)

    OpenOffice May Close The Door

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    The history of what we call “OpenOffice” is complex and confusing. It started as a project of Sun corporation, to develop an office suit that was not Microsoft Office, to use internally. Later, a version became more generally available known as Star Office, but also, a version called “OpenOffice” soon became available as well. The current histories say that Star Office was commercial, but my memory is that it never cost money to regular users. I think the idea was that large corporations would pay, individuals not. This was all back around 2000, plus or minus a year or two.

    In any event, the Open Office project built two things of great importance. First, it made a set of software applications roughly comparable to the key elements in Microsoft’s Office Suite, including a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation app, and, depending, something that draws and something that relates to databases.

    The second thing it did was to create and develop an important open source document format.

    But, believe it or not, in the world of software development and programming, even in the happy fuzzy world of OpenSource, there can be fights. And, not just the fun and tongue in cheek fights over which religion you are (vi vs. Linux). These fights often involve differences in points of view between megacorporations that get involved in OpenSource projects, and the unwashed masses of programmers contributing to such things. The majority of code is written and maintained by corporations, much of that in the hands of a very small number, but the contributions from individuals not linked to corporations is extremely important.

    In the case of OpenOffice, the tensions were between the broader Office-interested development community and big corporations shifted in 2010 when Sun corporation which had always been involved in OO development, was purchased by Oracle Corporation. Oracle has not been friendly to OpenSource in the past, so the wider community freaked. There is a side plot here involving Java, which we will ignore. Oracle didn’t end up doing anything clearly bad against the OpenOffice project. But, they also ended up not doing anything good, either, which is essentially a death sentence for a project like this. Later in the same year, an organization called The Document Foundation was created and took on the job of forking OpenOffice.

    Forking is where a given lineage of software is split to create an alternative. Sometimes this is to bring some software in a different direction, perhaps for a more specialized use. Sometimes it is a way of resolving conflict, much as hunter gatherers undergo fission and fusion in their settlement patterns, by separating antagonists or putting a distinct wall between antagonistic goals. In this case, while the latter is probably part of it, the main reason for the fork and its main effect was to get the project under the control of an active development community so work could be continued before the project stagnated.

    That fork became known as LibreOffice. For some time now, it has been recommended that if you are going to install an OpenSource office suite on your Windows, Linux, or Apple Computer, it should be LibreOffice.

    One could argue that the OpenOffice suit or its analog (earlier, Star office, later the LibreOffice fork) is the most important single project in OpenSource, because an office suite is a key part of almost all desktop computer configurations. Of course, most servers don’t need or require an office suite, and there, web servers and database servers, and a few other things, are more important. But to the average end user (in business or private life) being able to open up a “Word Document” (a term misapplied to the category of “wordprocessor document”), or to run a spreadsheet, or to make a presentation, etc. is essential, and that is what an office suit provides. OpenOffice was comparable to Microsoft Office, and now, LibreOffice is comparable to Microsoft Office. By some accounts, better, though many Microsoft Office users have, well, a different religion.

    Now, it is being reported that the mostly ignored, maligned by some, historically important yet now out of date OpenOffice project is about to byte the dust. As it were.

    Dennis Hamilton, VP of the group that runs OpenOffice, “… proposed a shutdown of OpenOffice as one option if the project could not meet the goals it had set. ‘My concern is that the project could end with a bang or a whimper. My interest is in seeing any retirement happen gracefully. That means we need to consider it as a contingency. For contingency plans, no time is a good time, but earlier is always better than later.'” [Source]

    Approximately 160 million copies of LibreOffice have been downloaded to date. The closing of the OpenOffice project, should that happen, will probably have little effect on LibreOffice, since most people had already walked away from the venerable old but flawed grandaddy of OO Suites.

    Electronics for Kids: Great new book for kids and their adults

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    The simplest project in the new book Electronics for Kids: Play with Simple Circuits and Experiment with Electricity! by Øyvind Nydal Dahl is the one where you lean a small light bulb against the two terminals of a nine volt battery in order to make the light bulb turn on.

    The first several projects in the book involve making electricity, or using it to make light bulbs shine or to run an electromagnet. [/caption]The most complicated projects are the ones where you make interactive games using LED lights and buzzers.

    Electronics for Kids: Play with Simple Circuits and Experiment with Electricity! does almost no electricity theory. Thankfully. It simply delves in to messing around with electricity (and in so doing, provides basic theory, of course).

    This is a book about how to play with electricity, not how to get a Masters Degree in electricity. In other words, any kid, the ones who seem destine for a career in electronic engineering and the ones who don’t, can get along in this book because it does not assume itself to be a building brick to a greater career. Yet the projects are interesting and informative and educational, and any kid who does a dozen of these projects is going to learn.

    This kind of activity, which should involve parents for most kids, is the cure for the sense of depression you feel when you go to the toy store and look at the “science” section and everything you see is crap. Just get this book, order 50 bucks worth of parts, and get to work-fun. Then order some more parts, probably.

    No kids’ book on electronics would be complete without a batter made from something you get in the produce section.[/caption]This book for kids is very kid oriented, as it should be. One of the first practical projects you build is an alarm system to keep your parents the heck out of your room. You can make a noisy musical instrument. You can make a device that makes sounds some humans can hear (the kids, likely) and some can’t (parents).

    Although soldering is done, it is minimal and, frankly, can probably be avoided by using alternative techniques. But really, it is not that hard and one should not be too afraid of it.

    A lot of the projects use and develop logic circuits. Kids actually love logic circuits, I think because they end up rethinking a bit about how tho think about simple relationships. And, it is good to know this stuff.

    Unlike many electronic kits you can buy (which can be quite fun and educational in their own right) this approach does not rely on ICs (integrated circuits) that produce magical results with poorly described inputs and hookups. There are some basic ICs, including gates, an inverter, flip flops, and a timer. These are very straight forward circuits that are mostly (except the timer) really just very fancy switches.

    The web site that goes with Electronics for Kids: Play with Simple Circuits and Experiment with Electricity! gives you a list of all the parts used in the book, with enough information to find them easily on line or at a hardware or electronics store. The book suggests a multimeter, which is probably the most expensive thing on the list. (this one is perfectly good and is about 35 bucks.) Other tools include a soldering iron and related bits, a wire cutter, some scissors, tape, etc.

    Many of the parts, including a breadboard, LEDs, hook up wires of various kinds, and pretty much all the resistors, capacitors, etc. etc. can also be used with the more sophisticated Arduino projects, should you end up going in that direction.

    This is a really fun book. If you have a kid of the right age (maybe from six to 12, with 100% adult involvement under 10 years) get it now, secretly, get some parts, and work your way through several of the projects. Then, make it (and the parts) a holiday present. Then look really smart.

    This chapter-end section give you an idea of the level of the projects. There is a lot of stuff in here. All doable, but it will take a while to get through it all. [/caption]Here is the overview table of contents (the book is much more detailed than suggested by this top level TOC):

    PART 1: Playing with Electricity
    Chapter 1: What Is Electricity?
    Chapter 2: Making Things Move with Electricity and Magnets
    Chapter 3: How to Generate Electricity

    PART 2: Building Circuits
    Chapter 4: Creating Light with LEDs
    Chapter 5: Blinking a Light for the First Time
    Chapter 6: Let’s Solder!
    Chapter 7: Controlling Things with Circuits
    Chapter 8: Building a Musical Instrument

    PART 3: Digital Electronics
    Chapter 9: How Circuits Understand Ones and Zeros
    Chapter 10: Circuits That Make Choices
    Chapter 11: Circuits That Remember Information
    Chapter 12: Let’s Make a Game!

    Appendix: Handy Resources

    The New Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Exploding Smart Phone

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    Not many of them, but so far at least 35. Here’s what it looks like after the fact:

    As you may know, I’m not a big fan of Samsung smart phones. The version of the operating system they put on your phone takes a HUGE AMOUNT of your storage space, so you are left with almost nothing. There is no apparent reason for that, and no apparent fix. So, generally, I would NEVER recommend a Samsung smartphone. Also, the company does not stand by their product, at least in some cases. We had to return a Samsung smart phone numerous times, and after realizing that ALL the replacements they were sending us were reconditioned (and broken) begged for a different model. They told us to screw off.

    So, for me, this is a bit of schadenfreude vis-a-vis Samsung, but I feel badly for the people who ended up with the exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones.

    Here is more info on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones that catch fire, and what to do about returning yours to Samsung for a replacement. Don’t expect them to actually replace the phone with one that doesn’t catch fire. They might, but I personally wouldn’t count on it.

    Let me introduce you to my little friend …

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    The ePaper Kindle is back in my life. I started out with one (the original model), then moved on to using tablets and phones and computers and stuff to read ebooks. Then, I got a Kindle Fire (see this discussion), and that was nice.

    But I wanted an ePaper reading surface for all the reasons people tend to discuss. It is more like paper, perhaps does not have the down sides of constantly staring at a light emitting screen, etc.

    There is an ePaper kindle that is under $80 (with the non obtrusive special offers on the sleep screen) that has very long battery time, holds a gazillion books, etc. This link will get you to the “New Kindle 6-inch”. I’m sure that’s a great Kindle, but I opted for the somewhat more expensive “Paper White” model: Kindle Paperwhite E-reader, 6″ High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi. This comes in different colors (black vs. white) and with or without cell phone type connectivity.

    The “Paper White” has mysteriously placed LEDs that light the screen from somewhere nearby the screen itself. It is like having a book light but using quantum mechanics instead of a tiny light bulb. I don’t really understand it. It is optional: can be turned off for the full effect of ePaper, or turned up and down as desired.

    There are a couple of elite super duper higher end versions of this as well that have potentially important differences, and some probably very unimportant differences.

    The Kindle Voyage E-reader is slightly smaller and lighter and brighter (more of the LEDs). The “Kindle Oasis” has even more LED’s, and comes with a fancy “charging cover,” and is even smaller. This is for people who are so fancy they can spend nearly 300 bucks on an eReader that is smaller than everyone else’s eReader!

    To me, this is crazy. If anything, I’d like a larger one, maybe an inch taller and a quarter inch wider.

    Here’s the thing. The original Kindle and several early models had buttons that you could use to turn the page. That was annoying to many people but many got used to it. The “New Kindle” and the “Kindle Paperwhite” use only touch screen capabilities (but built on to the ePaper using some sort of magic). This eliminates the accidental page turning. The touch screen, however, is not the best touch screen in the world. I’m doing fine with it, I’m happy, but some people will want their damn buttons back. The Voyage and Oasis have both touch screen and buttons. And, they are vastly more expensive. I’ve not played around with them so I have no advice on this, but I don’t really like the buttons so it was easy for me to not spend the extra money.

    With this new eReader, I actually find myself reading more, and choosing the eBook option over the paper option more frequently.

    Introducing Your New Robot Dog

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    No, not that one. This one:

    SpotMini is a new smaller version of the Spot robot, weighing 55 lbs dripping wet (65 lbs if you include its arm.) SpotMini is all-electric (no hydraulics) and runs for about 90 minutes on a charge, depending on what it is doing. SpotMini is one of the quietest robots we have ever built. It has a variety of sensors, including depth cameras, a solid state gyro (IMU) and proprioception sensors in the limbs. These sensors help with navigation and mobile manipulation. SpotMini performs some tasks autonomously, but often uses a human for high-level guidance. For more information about SpotMini visit our website at www.BostonDynamics.com

    Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

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    This is one of four related posts:

    Should You Install Ubuntu Linux?
    Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
    How to use Ubuntu Unity
    Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

    Some Linux/Ubuntu related books:
    Ubuntu Unleashed 2016 Edition: Covering 15.10 and 16.04 (11th Edition)
    Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Desktop: Applications and Administration
    The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction

    If you have already considered your options for installing Linux, done the installation, and learned your way around the Unity Desktop, then you are ready to tweak your system. This will be easiest if you use the terminal for several of the steps. Just copy and paste the lines I give you here. Note that in Linux, unless you change it, to paste into a terminal you hit shift-control-v, not just control-v.

    Most of these commands start with the word “sudo.” This is because these tweaks change the software or the operating system, and Linux needs to know that the person in charge of the computer is doing that. Start a command with “sudo” and after you enter the command, you will be asked for your password. Enter the password, hit Enter, and you are good to go. If the next time you use “sudo” is soon enough, you won’t be asked for your password.

    There is one other thing you might want to know so the rest of this makes sense.

    Software, applications, apps (three words for the same thing) typically come in “packages.” A package is a bunch of stuff that includes information on what needs to be installed to make a piece of software work, what needs to be done to let the system know it is there, etc.

    Packages live in repositories, and they live on the internet. (They can also live on a DVD but that is rarely done for the average user … there were in fact packages on your installation DVD but that’s the last time you’ll probably use DVD or USB stick based packages.)

    Your computer, after installation, is set up to know about certain repositories. This is the great advantage of using Ubuntu or many of the other major distributions. You get that distribution’s repository, and the packages stored there are carefully maintained and secured. Installing off a major repository like this means no viruses, malware, “freeware” or other junk will get onto your computer. It also means that when you issue a general update command, your computer visits the repository and updates all of your installed software based on whatever is new or changed in the repository.

    During the following process, you will likely add some new repositories to your computer’s database of repositories. Just follow the instructions. But note, in order for an added repository to be known about, you add it, then you update the package system. Again, just follow the instructions.

    It is also possible to install software using a downloaded package. In the case of Ubuntu (or any debian based Linux distribution), these are files with the “deb” extention. If you have the right software installed, you should be able to just double click on a deb file and pick an option to install it. I include an example or two of that process in with the tweaks below.

    Finally, as you will see, there are several different software interfaces to this installation system. For the most part, you can install anything from the available repositories using the Ubuntu software center. But the Ubuntu software center is one crappy piece of software, in my opinion. It looks slick, but is slow and clunky and frustrating.

    There is a system that works better (it is more responsive) but harder to use (because it does not hold your hand much) called synaptic.

    Check out:

    UBUNTU AND LINUX BOOKS

    BOOKS ON COMPUTER PROGRAMMING AND COMPUTERS

    But generally, the smoothest, quickest, easiest way to install most software from the repositories that your computer is aware of is with the command line, using the command “sudo apt-get install bla-bla-bla.” As shown below many times.

    So, now, on to the tweaking.

    1. Make the terminal program handy

    First, open a terminal. You may have already placed an icon for the terminal on the Task Panel; if so, click that. If not, hit the “super” key (the Key Formerly Known as the Windows Key) to bring up the Unity dash. Then, type in “terminal” and choose the icon for the terminal program.

    Now that the terminal program is running, you’ll see it in the Task Panel. If you’ve not already locked the terminal icon to the Task Panel, right click on that icon, and opt to have the terminal icon always be in “the launcher” even if it is not running.

    2. Update the software and operating system you just installed

    Even if the system was updating while installing (that was an option you had during the install), there are probably still some things that need updating. If you have not done so yet, type or copy/paste this into the terminal (shift-ctrl-v to paste in a terminal) and hit enter:

    sudo apt-get update

    You will be asked for your password. Type it in and hit “enter.”

    If you are asked a question with a “Y/n” answer, type in “y” and otherwise follow any obvious instructions.

    The updated command is a quick and dirty way of making sure that the software you have installed is updated. Chances are that when you do this after install, almost nothing will happen because little or no software will be ready for an upgrade.

    When all the gobbledygook is done in the terminal, type in:

    sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

    The dist-upgrade command will, in short, do a more thorough job of updating the things that are installed on your sy stem (it does not upgrade you to a new distribution, it just updates the software with more awareness of what the distribution specifies in terms of packages and interrelations between packages). The details are not too important. What you need to know is that “apt-get update” is quick and useful, and “apt-get dist-upgrade” will take much longer to run, but do a much better job of updating things and cleaning up after itself, and should be done now and then.

    If you are asked a question with a “Y/n” answer, type in “y” and otherwise follow any obvious instructions.

    These steps can be fast or slow, depending.

    3. Make installing software easier

    First, enable the Canonical Partners’ Repository. This will allow you easier access to some software. A repository is where software lives, and your installation programs know about only certain repositories, and ignore others.

    Open System Settings (on the Task Panel, the gear and wrench icon)
    Click on “Software and Updates”
    Go to Other Software tab.
    Click the check box for “Canonical Partners”
    You may be asked for your password.
    You will be asked to “reload” the repository info. Do that.

    There are a couple of applications for installing and updating software, and you can have fun with them, but two tools that are really helpful that Ubuntu mysteriously does not install by default should be installed now. One is called “synaptic” and it is a menu drive graphical interface to your repositories, the other is gdebi, which allows you to install software that comes to you via download in a “deb” package.

    sudo apt install synaptic
    sudo apt install gdebi

    If asked to choose Y/n at any point, choose Y

    4. Install Linux graphics drivers

    This may not be important, or it may be, depending on your hardware. So just do it and see what happens!

    Unity Dash >>> Software & Updates >>> Additional Drivers

    Do whatever it says there to install any graphics drivers that may be available.

    5. Allow Workspaces To Work

    I have no idea why a Linux distribution would not have work spaces right there in your face by default, but Unity seems not to. Workspaces is one of those desktop things that makes non-Linux users go “wow, that’s cool, now I want Linux!”

    A workspace is a desktop, and multiple workspaces are multiple desktops, on which one or more applications are running. Macs have something like this now (stolen from Linux, but implemented poorly). The Linux implementation is better. You smoothly sail between desktops with Ctrl Alt Arrow Keys, and Linux does not randomly make new desktops for you like a Mac does.

    System Settings >>> Appearance >>> Behavior

    Check the box to enable workspaces, and the box to Add show desktop icon to the launcher.

    6. Install Java

    Java is required for running many application’s on Linux platform, So should install java using these three commands in sequence (one at a time).

    sudo apt-get install default-jre

    7. Fix app menu problem

    One of the bad things about Unity was to cause application menus to become invisible and to not be on the application. If you want to see the menus where they belong, you can fix that.

    System Settings >>> Appearance >>> Behavior tab >> ‘Show the Menus for a Window’

    Check ‘In the window’s title bar’
    Check ‘Always displayed’

    8. Classic Menu

    One of the things I miss most from an old fashioned Gnome 2.0 style desktop is a simple menu, with submenus, that includes all the software installed on my system. To me, this is really important.

    And, solvable. We can add a Gnome 2.0 style menu thingie to the app panel in Unity.

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install classicmenu-indicator

    You will have to log out and back in again for the menu to show up. Use the gear icon in the far upper right of the screen to log out/shut down, etc.

    9. Show Your User Name On The Top Menu Bar

    It may be useful to show your user name on the Top Menu Bar (the strip along the top of your screen). Here is one way to do that, using the terminal.

    gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.session show-real-name-on-panel true

    If you want to turn this back off, do this:

    gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.session show-real-name-on-panel false

    10. What about Adobe Flash? And Therefore, Chrome?

    This is complicated. Flash turns out to be something of a nightmare. Perhaps it was a good idea at the time, but increasingly developers and such are avoiding using it. But you probably need Flash now and then, but almost always in a browser window. So, the way to handle this is to use Google Chrome as your browser. Not Chromium.

    The Firefox browser is installed by default in most Linux distributions. This is cultural, maybe even political. Firefox as a piece of software, and an organization, has been central to the development of OpenSource software, so it is sort of worshiped. I recommend ignoring it. So, when you get to the part below about installing Chrome, do that.

    If you google “how to install Google Chrome on Linux” you get this:

    • Click Download Chrome. Go here to do that.
    • Choose either 32 bit .deb (for 32bit Ubuntu) or 64 bit .deb (for 64bit Ubuntu)
    • Click Accept and Install.
    • Download .deb file to a folder (Downloads is the default folder)
    • Open up your Downloads folder.
    • Double-click the .deb file you just downloaded.
    • This should launch Ubuntu Software Centre.

    NOTE: Google often updates its method of installing. I just installed Chrome and it took fewer steps than indicate above. If you’ve already installed gdebi (as suggested above) this will be very quick and automatic.

    You will be asked if you want to make Chrome your default browser. I recommend doing this. Then, run Chrome and lock the icon to the Task Panel, because you will probably be using it a lot.

    11. Install Dropbox…

    … if you use Dropbox.

    sudo apt install nautilus-dropbox

    Then simply launch Dropbox from Unity Dash and follow the instructions.

    An alternative method for installing Dropbox:

    wget https://linux.dropbox.com/packages/ubuntu/dropbox_2015.10.28_amd64.deb

    This uses the wget command to go on the internet and download a part of a web site, in this case, a file on the web site. This may not work if they changed the name of the file, but this is currently the correct name.

    After downloading the package, install it using the previously installed deb package application:

    sudo dpkg -i dropbox_2015.10.28_amd64.deb

    12. Install VLC

    Linux, and in this case, Ubuntu, comes with various multimedia playing software, but generally not with VLC, which is a very good piece of software. If you want, you can install it this way:

    sudo apt-get install vlc browser-plugin-vlc

    13. Install Gimp Image Editor

    GIMP stands for “GNU Image Manipulation Program.” It is an OpenSource pixel-based image manipulation program for photographs, drawings, etc. In the old days, it was included in most Linux distributions but no longer is. If you want to install it:

    sudo apt-get install gimp gimp-data gimp-plugin-registry gimp-data-extras

    14. Install A Junk Cleaner (Bleachbit):

    I’ve not used Bleachbit. But everyone seems to like it, and you might want to try it out. It cleans up internet histories, destroys temporary files, and other junk that tends to accumulate on your system.

    Linux is not like Windows (or at least, like Windows was in the days I used it). It does not accumulate a lot of junk to the point where it slows down and stops. But it can accumulate some junk, and apparently, Bleachbit helps take care of this.

    I’ve decided to remove the recommendation to install bleachbit. As I already suggested, Linux is designed in such a way that the things a clean-up program like bleachbit does are unnecessary. I suspect bleachbit is a bit like Linux based ant-virus software, something that former Windows users want to see, because such kludges are necessary in Windows.

    So skip this step (I deleted the code for installing it anyway).

    15. Install Skype…

    … if you use it.

    sudo apt-get install skype

    16. Install the Unity Tweak Tool

    You can configure, tweak, and generally mess around with your Unity Desktop using the installed System Settings and various esoteric bits of software, but if you install the Unity Tweak Tool you will probably find most of what you want to do, and more, there.

    sudo apt install unity-tweak-tool

    In the unlikely event that you end up messing up Unity with all your crazy tweaking….

    …you can reset unity like this:

    sudo apt-get install dconf-tools
    dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
    setsid unity
    unity --reset-icons

    Have Fun

    Now, you know how to install software in Ubuntu, and generally, in debian based distributions, and you have some experience with the command line.

    What you can do now is explore all the software that was automatically installed on your system, such as Libra Office (which stands in for Word, Excel, Power Point, etc) and all sorts of other cool stuff. If you installed the traditional style menu applet as described above, that is a good way to explore around among the available software offerings.

    From now on, every now and then, run

    sudo apt-get update

    and

    sudo apt-get upgrade

    Also, on the standard Ubuntu distribution, there is a semi-automatic software updater that will remind you to update software now and then, or that can be set to do it automatically. I don’t like setting it for automatic on a laptop, but maybe on a desktop.

    How to use Ubuntu Unity

    Uncategorized, , , , ,

    This is one of four related posts:

    Should You Install Ubuntu Linux?
    Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
    How to use Ubuntu Unity
    Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

    Some Linux/Ubuntu related books:
    Ubuntu Unleashed 2016 Edition: Covering 15.10 and 16.04 (11th Edition)
    Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Desktop: Applications and Administration
    The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction

    If you have installed Ubuntu with the Unity desktop, you’ll learn how to use it mainly by playing around with it. Discoverability of its various functions is more or less built into the design. But there are a few things you will want to know right away in order to get up to speed efficiently.

    The first thing you need to know about the Unity desktop is that the words people use for the various parts are all over the map. I’ll try to be consistent in my own use of terms, but if you read about Unity in other places, you may need to know, for example, that the “Task Panel” and the “Launcher” and the “Dock” are the same thing.

    Task Panel (Launcher, Dock)

    So, let’s start with the Task Panel (aka Launcher, or Doc). This works much like the doc on a Mac, but placed by default on the left side of your screen, which makes sense for wide screens. The Task Panel has a bunch of icons on it by default. You can remove or add icons as you wish. Most or all of these icons represent software you can run but that is not running now. This is your handy dandy way of running your most commonly used software (apps, applications). Just click on it and it will go.

    Once an application is running, it will have a little thingie on the icon indicating that this is an active application. More than one instance (window, etc.) of an application running will cause the icon to have a slightly different look, and when you click on it you will see small versions of all the windows that are open, so you can pick the one you want to use.

    You can quickly switch between applications by clicking on the icons of running applications.

    If you start an application from somewhere other than the Task Panel, an icon for that application will normally be added to the Task Panel. This is your chance, using right clicking, to tell Unity to keep that icon on the Task Panel, for easy access, even after you shut that application down. Obviously, there is only so much room on the task panel for icons, but you can scroll up and down. You can also make the icons smaller, which will allow more to fit. But really, you should only keep the half dozen or so applications you use most of the time on the task bar.

    Right clicking on an icon, as noted, gives you the option to lock it to, or unlock it from the Task Panel (but that menu item will call it a “launcher.”) But depending on the application, you may have a number of other choices. For example, clicking on the file manager will give you a list of commonly used (according to Unity’s designers) folders you may want to open.

    The Dash

    The top icon on the Task Panel opens the Dash. You can also open the Dash by pressing the Super Key (the key formally known as the Windows Key).

    The Dash is a big giant square thing that comes flying out of the Dash Icon. there is a space on the top that is clearly for searching for things. A common use of the Dash is to open it, and then you start to type in the name of an application. The Dash will show you an ever-narrowing set of choices which you can pick, or, when you end up with only one choice, you just hit enter and that application runs.

    If you have just installed Ubuntu and haven’t done any of the recommended tweaks, try this: Open the dash, and start typing in “terminal”. Once you see the terminal application as your choice, hit enter (or click on it). Now, the Terminal icon is on your Task Panel. Right click on the Terminal icon and lock it to your Task Panel. Once you are set up and using Ubuntu a lot, you may find that you rarely use the terminal, but when you are first installing and tweaking the system, you’ll find it handy to have this icon readily available.

    The Dash has many other powers. It can show you recent files, recent downloads, recently used apps, etc. Searching for apps is pretty smart. Terms that are not in the name of the application but that suggest the application might (depending) show you an icon for the application. For example, the search term “Network” will get you several choices including the “System Monitor,” because the System Monitor monitors, among other things, the network.

    The Dash has what are called “Lenses.” See the bottom of the Dash to find the “home” lens, the “applications” lens, etc. If you select the “music” lens, you see, and search will search among, the music files in your music directory.

    Workspaces

    Workspaces are one of those features of early Linux desktops (before Unity) that makes you look at Linux and go “I want that!!!” This idea has been implemented over the ages in Windows and other systems, with varying degrees of success or longevity, but it was originally implemented in Linux in a way that really works. It is now part of the Mac operating system, though that implementation is rather poor, in my opinion. But it was always there in Linux.

    See this post on tweaks if your workspaces are not turned on. But if they are, there should be an icon in the Task Panel, near the bottom, which is a workspace switcher.

    Here is what a workspace is. Imagine that you open three or four applications and have the windows all visible. That is a workspace. Now, you switch to a different workspace, and those windows are now not visible, because they were on the other workspace. You now have a clean workspace. You can now open other applications (or more instance of the same ones) on this clean workspace. Switching between workspaces allows you to have a handful of applications running and organized on the screen like you want them, but then, you can go to a different workspace and do entirely different work.

    For example, I might have a file manager opened to a particular subdirectory, and a text editor or two, for a writing project, on one workspace. On a different workspace, I have an email client, and a web browser with a tab showing Facebook and another tab showing Twitter. I can ignore the email and social networking while I write, but now and then take a break and go over to the other workspace and screw around on social media and check my email.

    Workspaces are a great way to pretend you are being very efficient!

    When you hit the Workspace Switcher button you get a view of all your workspaces, and can chose among them. You can even drag open applications between workspaces. (And, by the way, you can configure a particular application to always be visible on all workspaces, and otherwise tweak the whole workspace thing quite a bit.)

    But, there is a better way to switch between workspaces …

    Hotkeys and shortcuts

    This is a good point to talk for a moment about hot keys and shortcuts. There is a lot here but I’ll only mention a few features, starting with workspaces.

    In Linux, generally (most desktops) including Unity, you usually move between workspaces by holding down the Alt and Control keys and then manipulating the arrow keys. Also, Alt-Tab moves between windows open on a given workspace. Try alt-tab then hold those keys down for a bit longer, and even more magic happens. So, between these two sets of shortcuts, you can move between all your different work thingies really efficiently.

    There are a lot of shortcut keys available in Unity. To find a cheat sheet of these keys, press the Super Key and hold it down for a moment. The cheat sheet will appear in the middle of the screen.

    All hotkeys and shortcuts can be changed and reconfigured, and you can add shortcuts that don’t exist until you think them up and figure out how to implement them. This is beyond the scope of this post, but you can play around with it later.

    Top Menu bar and Application and System Indicators

    Unless you’ve been living in a command line cave, you already know about Application and System indicators. In Unity, they are located on the Top Menu Bar. Just play around with them. If you click the time/date, you get a little calendar popout. You can see if you are connected to the internet, and what your volume is turned to. Depending on what software is installed, you may see the temperature at your local weather station, or an indicator telling you that you have new mail.

    By default, in Unity, application menus, the menus that go with a specific program, are invisible unless you approach them with the mouse, and then they appear. But they are not located on the application itself, but rather, on the Top Menu Bar. See this post for instructions as to how to move them to the applications and make them not invisible.

    Also, at that link, you’ll find instructions for installing a very cool applet to the Top Menu Bar which will give you an old fashioned menu showing, organized hierarchically, all the software that you have installed on your computer. This is how I usually run software that is not on the Task Panel.

    Now, play

    That’s all the important stuff you need to know right away. There’s more, but you’ll discover it over time. You can go to system settings, and to the various system setting tools suggested here to do things like moving the Task Panel to the bottom of the screen, changing your wallpaper (the image on the desktop) and choosing whether to show icons for hard drives or plugged in devices, the trash can, etc.

    Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

    Uncategorized, , , , , ,

    This is one of four related posts:

    Should You Install Ubuntu Linux?
    Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
    How to use Ubuntu Unity
    Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

    Some Linux/Ubuntu related books:
    Ubuntu Unleashed 2016 Edition: Covering 15.10 and 16.04 (11th Edition)
    Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Desktop: Applications and Administration
    The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction

    Linux isn’t for everyone, so I’m not going to try to talk you into using this superior operating system if you have some reason to not do so. But if you have a computer that runs Windows, it isn’t that hard to install Ubuntu. The main advantages of doing so are 1) You get to have a Linux computer and b) you get to not have a Windows computer.

    Here, I have some advice on installing Ubuntu (this is general advice and applies across many versions).

    How to install Ubuntu

    If you are going to try Linux, I recommend installing Ubuntu’s latest version, which is Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus.

    A Linux distro (the specific version of Linux you install) includes a specific “desktop,” which is your user interface and a bunch of tools and stuff. The default Ubuntu desktop is called Unity. If you’ve never used Linux before, you’ll find the Unity desktop to be very good, especially if you tweak it a bit. If you have used Linux before, you may prefer a different style desktop. For me, I preferred the older style “Gnome 2.0” style desktop. The differences are cosmetic, but I happen to like the cosmeticology of the Gnome style better.

    Check out:

    <li><a href="https://gregladen.com/blog/2017/03/ubuntu-linux-books/">UBUNTU AND LINUX BOOKS</a></li>

<li><a href="https://gregladen.com/blog/2017/03/books-computer-programming-computers/">BOOKS ON COMPUTER PROGRAMMING AND COMPUTERS</a></li>

    ___________________

    What I liked most about the older style desktop is the presence of a menu that had submenus that organized all the applications (software, apps) installed on the system. I also prefer the synaptic system for installing new software over the Ubuntu “Software Center.” But, there is a menu that can be installed in Unity that serves this purpose, and it is easy to install synaptic installation software as well. So, even as an old time Gnome 2.0 guy, I have decided to go with Unity.

    There are many forms of Linux out there, and one of the best maintained and well done versions is called debian. Ubuntu bases its distribution on debian, but modifies it in ways that are good. The most current version of Ubuntu is therefore the version of Linux that is most up to date but at the same time stable, and the best supported. This situation has developed to the extent that people are now often using, incorrectly but harmlessly, the term “Ubuntu” to mean “Linux” with the assumption that the Unity desktop is the primary desktop for Linux.

    So, how do you install Linux, in the form of Ubuntu, on your computer?

    Should you install Linux along side Windows (dual boot)?

    If you just want to install Linux on a computer, where Linux will be the only operating system, skip this section.

    The first thing you need to decide if if you want a dual boot system or not. Say you have Windows installed on your computer. If you make this a dual boot computer, you install Linux along side Windows. Then, when you fire up your computer you chose which operating system you want to use.

    This may sound like a good idea, but I strongly recommend against it. It adds a significant layer of complexity to the process of installing the system. Also, things can go wrong. A normal single-boot installation of Linux will usually give you no problems, and it will be more stable as an operating system than any other operating system out there. But things can go wrong with dual booting which could drive you crazy and, depending on your hardware and a few other things, may cause you to unexpectedly lose the ability to use your computer.

    Dual booting and partitioning are related operations, because in order to dual boot you will have to mess around with partitioning. How you do this will depend on whether or not Windows is already installed on your computer.

    There are people who will tell you differently, that dual booting is harmless and fun and good. Those individuals are unique, special individuals with the ability to solve complex problems on their computers. They may have good reasons to have dual boot systems. In fact, many of them may have several different operating systems installed on one computer. This is because, as a hobby or for professional reasons, they need to have a lot of different operating systems. Good for them.

    I recommend that if you are not sure if you want to use Linux, don’t install it along side Windows, but rather, find an extra computer (or buy a cheap used one somewhere), install Linux on it, and if you find yourself liking Linux more than you like Windows, go ahead and install Linux on your main, higher-end computer and be done with it.

    Using two partitions is a good idea for some

    As with dual booting, I recommend that the first time Linux user skip this idea entirely, but here are some thoughts on it in case you are interested.

    One of the great things about Linux is that it uses the concept of a home directory. The home directory is a directory associated with a particular user, one for each user of the system. In most cases, a desktop or laptop computer has just one user, you. But you still get the home directory. (Apple’s OSX uses this system as well.)

    This means that your data, configuration files for software, and all that stuff, ends up in one single directory. So, in theory, if you decide to install a whole new version of Linux, all you have to do is copy all of the contents of your home directory somewhere, install an entirely new system, then copy all that stuff into the new home directory and it is like you never left.

    This also means that you only have to back up your home directory. Installing software on Linux is so easy that you really don’t have to back any of that up. By backing up your home directory, you are also backing up your settings and preferences for most of that software, so if you reinstall it, the software will figure out how to behave properly.

    One method people use is to make a partition for their home directory and a separate partition for the system. You can think of a partition as roughly equivalent to a hard drive. On a simple system, the hard drive has one petition (that you need to know about … there are other specialized partitions that you don’t interact with). But you can divide (partition) the hard drive into multiple parts, put your operating system on one, and your data (home) on the other. The operating system, if you are running Linux, can be fairly small, while your data directory, in order to hold all those videos you take with your smart phone and your collection of cat picture, needs to be larger.

    There is also a third partition you can make, called the swap partition. This is a separate dedicated part of your hard drive that the operating system uses to put stuff that won’t fit in RAM (memory). If you don’t have a dedicated swap partition, Linux will use another parittion for this purpose. It is probably slightly more efficient to have a dedicated swap partition, but with a reasonably fast computer with a good amount of ram, you probably won’t know the difference.

    You can totally skip the separate partition thing and have Ubuntu put everything on one partition. The advantage of separate partitions are not worth the effort if you are not comfortable playing around with partitions. But, if you do, 10 gigabytes will comfortably hold the operating system, and the swap partition should be something like 5 or 6 gigabytes. The rest should be your home directory.

    Simply installing Ubuntu on a computer.

    There are two major divisions of operating systems for regular computers: 32 bit and 64 bit. If your computer can run a 64 bit operating system, and most made any time recently can, then you should install the 64 bit version of Ubuntu. You need to know that 32 bit operating systems are becoming a thing of the past, so, in fact, some software is no longer developed to run on such systems.

    Due to an historical quirk, the 32 bit version of Linux is often has the word “Intel” in it, while the 64 bit version of Linux generally has the word “AMD” (a competitor of Intel) in it. This does not mean that you have to have an AMD processor in your computer to run the 64 bit system.

    There are other forms of Linux that run on other processors. I’m assuming you have a typical run of the mill desktop that normally would run Windows, so it is probably an Intel or AMD 64 bit machine.

    You should have three things handy in order to install Unbutu on a computer where it will be the only operating system.

    1) The computer

    2) Installation media that will fit in your computer, such as a CD, DVD, or a thumb drive

    3) An internet connection that works

    You can get the installation media by going to the Ubuntu site and downloading a file from Ubuntu and putting it on a medium of some sort.

    When you are looking for the file, look for “Ubuntu Desktop.” There are other versions of Ubuntu, don’t use those. The current version is Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

    This page has the download materials and provides good guidance.

    To do a clean install with a DVD, download the operating system from that link. The file will be called something like “ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso”. The “iso” part means that it is a disk image that you will want to burn onto a DVD using a working computer.

    This download took be about five minutes on a medium-fast Internet connection.

    You then burn the iso image onto a DVD or USB stick.

    Using a DVD

    In Windows, you right click on the iso file and pick “burn disk image” and follow the instructions.

    On a Mac, use “Disk Utility.” Insert the blank DVD and drag/drop the .iso file onto the left pane of the Disk Utility. Select it, and click the “Burn” button. Follow the instructions.

    In Linux, insert the DVD or CD into your computer and if you are lucky a window will pop up asking if you want to burn the disk. Otherwise, run Brasero and follow the instructions to put the iso image on the disk.

    Now, here comes the slightly tricky part. You want your computer to boot off of the DVD/CD drive. (Which, by the way, can be an external USB device if that is what you have.)

    So, first, put the CD or DVD into the computer, turn the computer off properly, then turn it on. It might just boot off that disk and you are good to go.

    But, just in case, watch your computer screen as the computer is booting up. Note any message that gives the name of a function key and tells you what it does. It may say something like “F2 = boot order” or “F9 = configure bla bla bla” or words to that effect.

    If the computer did not actually boot off of the disk you inserted, turn it off again, and start it again, but as it is booting up press the function key that should get you to either boot sequence or configuration.

    Using the arrow keys (the screen will give you info on what keys to use) find the part that shows the boot order. If your computer ignored the boot disk you inserted, you probably have “Internal Hard Drive” as the first place to boot from. But you should see other options down below. Using the arrow keys and other keys as suggested by the instruction on the screen to move the DVD drive, or whatever device you want to boot from, to the top of the list. Then save the configuration (i.e., with F10, or some other method … it will tell you on the screen) and exit out of the configuration thingie.

    You may then have to restart one more time, but your computer will boot from the DVD and will actually start to run a mini version of Linux set up to help you install the operating system on this computer.

    Using a USB

    You can also boot from a USB thumb drive. You may have to make your computer boot first from the USB drive instead of an internal hard drive (see above) and, of course, you will have to make a bootable USB stick.

    You need a USB stick with at least 2 gigs of space and that doesn’t hold anything important.

    Then, if you are using Windows, install the Rufus USB installer. Run that program and follow the instructions to make a bootable USB drive. You’ll be using the same iso image you previously downloaded.

    If you are using a Mac, install the UNetbootin utility and use that to make the bootable USB stick.

    Insert the USB drive before you run UNetbootin, or UNertbootin may not recognize the USB you insert later.

    Since this will be “unconfirmed software” open it by finding it in the finder (the actual finder, not a finder replacement or any other method), control-click on the icon for the software, and select “open.” You will then be asked to confirm that you want to open it. Say yes. You will likely be asked for your password. Enter it.

    Also, no matter what system you are using, make sure to “eject” the USB stick properly.

    The installation process.

    Note: It is possible that your computer will give you some sort of text-based menu when you boot off the USB or DVD drive. Just go with the default, and let the process continue until you get what looks like a normal graphical user interface that is, actually, a temporary Linux operating system running on your computer.

    Also note, that during the install process, if you need to enter any numbers, there is a good chance the “numlock” button is turned off. You can, of course, turn it on.

    If, as recommended, you are going to make your computer a Linux computer and not bother with a separate petition for home, swap, etc., then the rest is simple. I assume you have no data on this computer that needs to be backed up or saved. Indeed, you may have installed a new clean hard drive which is empty anyway.

    You have inserted the boot medium, you taught your computer to boot off of it, you’ve restarted your computer, and now you are looking at a welcome screen that gives you two options: Try Ubuntu and Install Ubuntu.

    If you pick “Try” then you now have a Linux operating system temporarily running on your computer and you can play with it. I’m not sure why you would bother with this.

    If you pick “Install Ubuntu” then you have a series of easy tasks to perform, mostly picking the defaults.

    Make sure to pick “Download updates while installing” and “Install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware, etc. etc.”

    If your computer is not currently logged into a network, you will have the option of doing so. Do so. You want to be hooked up to the network in order to download updates and stuff during installation.

    Logging into the network may not be obvious. It isn’t an option on the install screen, but rather on the desktop that is currently running on your computer. Click on the blank triangular thingie on the top menu bar — this is the network applet. Pick your network, enter your password, etc.

    Then you get to allocate drive space. For the simple, recommended, install, pick “Erase disk and install Ubuntu.” Pick “encrypt the new Ubuntu install” if you like. If you don’t know what LVM is, don’t bother with it.

    Or, pick “something else” if you want to define different partitions for home directory, dual boot, swap files, etc. Then, good luck with that. For your first Linux install on a fresh machine, you don’t need to go down that rabbit hole. While such endeavors are not that difficult to do, you should probably make that the project for your next Linux install.

    How to set up separate Root, Home and Swap paritions

    Skip this part if you are doing the recommended default install. This will destroy everything on your hard drive. If it does not go well, you can always do a new fresh install and pick the default.

    At this point you have booted off the DVD or USB and you have clicked the icon to “install Ubuntu.” You are now looking at several options, including “something else.”

    Select “something else”

    Accept (hit Continue) with the scary message “You have selected an entire device to partition. If you proceed with creating a new partition table on the device, then all current partitions will be removed…”

    (But do note that you are about to blotto your computer, so there better not be anything you want to keep on it!)

    Make the first partition for the Ubuntu install as a primary partition.

    Put it at the beginning of this space

    Use EXT4journalingfilesystem (unless you have some reason to use some other file system) … this will be the default already chosen.

    Set the “mount point” as /

    This is the partition in which your operating system will be placed, and is known as the root partition.

    How big should it be? Ubuntu needs a minimum of 20 gb. I would make it larger. I used 50 gigs when I did this.

    Hit OK

    Make a swap partition

    This is the partition your computer will use as “extra memory.”

    Now select “free space” and set up a “logical” petition (at the beginning of this space) that is twice the size of your installed RAM.

    If you don’t know how much RAM your computer has, open a terminal right there on the computer you are working with (The upper left button with the Ubuntu symbol on it, type in “terminal” and hit enter). In the terminal, type in

    free -h

    That will give you a total number (and other numbers) Round up to the nearest gigabyte and multiply by two.

    Enter that number into “size” (if you want 16 gigs, it will be 16000 mb).

    Select from the dropdown list “swap” to make this a swap file. Hit OK

    Install the home directory (where all your stuff goes)

    Select the free space again.

    Just take for size whatever is left on your computer (hopefully a lot). Pick logical, beginning of this space, and EXT4journalingfilesystem again.

    For mount point, enter

    /home

    This will be your home directory. Hit OK

    Now, you’ll see a nice table with a graphic bar on the top showing you what you’ve set up. If it all looks OK to you, a small but not too small root directory, a smaller swap file (probably), and the rest a huge home file, hit “Install Now”

    You’ll get another warning, but we don’t care about not stinking warnings.

    Later, if you need to change any of these size requirements, run a live USB/DVD (like you did to make this install) and run “gparted” to change the partition sizes. (You can’t change the partition sizes from within an operating system. That would be like changing the fundemental fabric of the universe while you are actually in the universe. Not even The Doctor can do that)

    And now, go back to the normal install.

    Continuing with the default normal install…

    If you have Windows installed, you may then get the option to Install Linux along side Windows. Pick that if you want, and chose how much hard drive space to allocate to each system.

    After that are a few screens that are simple and self explanatory. Give the installation system a location, choose the kind of keyboard you want to use.

    Then you get to chose your login and password details. Here you have to decide how simple vs. secure you want your system to be. You should make sure you never forget your user name and password or you will be locked out of your system.

    So, enter your name, then pick a name for this computer for identification on networks, etc, then enter your user name which will contain no spaces or strange symbols, and be all lower case.

    Then enter your password twice. The system will complain if your password is lower security, feel free to ignore this if you don’t care, pay attention to it if you want a more secure system. You are going to be using this password a lot. Just sayin’.

    Check “require my password to log in” for most installations. You can also chose at this point to encrypt your home folder to limit access to your data if someone gets physical access to your computer.

    Then, the system will install while you get to see some info about Ubuntu.

    Then you are “done” in that you have a Linux computer. You may or may not have been prompted to remove the DVD or USB. If you restart the computer and fail to do so, you’ll be back in the installation system. Just remove the DVD/USB and restart the computer.

    Once the computer is restarted, you’ll have to re-establish your network connection one more time. (This is your new system, it doesn’t know about your networks or network password yet.)

    At this point, go right to this post and start tweaking your computer. If you don’t do that now, at least do the things noted below.

    But there is something else you should do right away. Open a terminal (hit the super key, aka windows key, and start typing “terminal” and the terminal option will come up. Click it).

    Then, type in:

    sudo apt-get updates

    You will be asked for your password, which hopefully you will remember. The computer will then go on the internet and find updates for stuff that was installed during the installation. Even though you told it to do something like this during installation, it probably didn’t do it for all the software that is now on your computer.

    Following all this, you do now have a Linux computer. There are several things you can do after installing Ubuntu 16.04. First, go to this post to find out how to navigate around on your new Unity desktop, and then, see this post for how to tweak and refine your Linux installation in useful and important ways.

    Have a good time using your Linux computer!

    Should you install Ubuntu Linux?

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    This is one of four related posts:

    Should You Install Ubuntu Linux?
    Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
    How to use Ubuntu Unity
    Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

    Some Linux/Ubuntu related books:
    Ubuntu Unleashed 2016 Edition: Covering 15.10 and 16.04 (11th Edition)
    Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Desktop: Applications and Administration
    The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction

    Why you should install Linux

    Linux is an operating system, as are Windows and Apple’s OSX. It is the operating system that is used on the majority of computing devices. Linux is the basis for the Android operating system, so if you have a smart phone that is not an iPhone, then you are probably already using Linux. The majority of servers, such as computers that run cloud services and internet nodes, etc. run on Linux. Your wireless router probably runs on Linux. Many devices in the “internet of things” use Linux. Supercomputers often run on Linux.

    There are a few reasons you might want your desktop (or laptop) to run on Linux. Perhaps you are annoyed with your current operating system. If, for example, you find yourself frequently having to reinstall Windows, you might want to switch to Linux, because reinstalling is almost never a solution to something being broken on a Linux machine. Perhaps you have an older computer and the newer version of Windows runs really slowly for you. Linux runs better on older hardware.

    For the most part, for most things most people do, it really doesn’t matter much which operating system you chose among the main players (Windows, Linux, and Apple’s OSX). What matters most is what software you use (applications, apps). If a particular application that you need to use runs only on one operating system, pick that operating system. But first, check to see if you are right about what software runs on what systems.

    Indeed, most of the commonly used applications have a version or equivilant that runs on each of the three main operating systems, or at least two of them. Microsoft Office runs on Windows and, somewhat less smoothly, on a Mac. You can also run MS Office software on Linux, but I don’t recommend it for the non-expert user. But all of the applications that make up Office have equivalent software that is designed just for the Mac (and won’t run on anything else) as well as equivalent (and some would say superior) software that is not only designed to run on Linux, but that will run on any computer.

    Indeed, from a user’s point of view, getting used to some software on a particular operating system and then being forced by circumstances to switch to another operating system is hardest for Mac users (if you are using, say, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote … you are stuck with the Mac), less hard for Windows users (as noted, Office runs on a Mac but not really on Linux) and trivially easy for a Linux user, since the Libra Office suit, with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, drawing software, etc. runs the same on Linux, Windows, or a Mac.

    In the old days it was said that you needed to use Microsoft Office on Windows or you would not be compatible with other people. That was never actually true. The compatibility issue was much more complex. There were instances where two people using Windows, and running Office, could not reliably exchange documents because they were using different versions of Office that did not play well with each other, but one of those individuals could easily exchange documents with someone using Open Office Writer (a word processor) on Linux.

    But now, that falsehood is even less true than it ever was, and document formats are much more sensible and interchangeable today than they ever were in the past. So the compatibility issue is largely gone, even if it ever was semi-true but mostly misunderstood.

    There are pieces of software that people love that require a particular operating system. The big fancy expensive Adobe products don’t run on Linux. Scrivener, a great writing application, is mainly Mac but will run on Windows and not really (but sort of) on Linux.

    But it is also true that most software that most people use has an equivalent version on each of the other operating system. So, it really depends on what you want and need to do with your computer, and how much money you want to spend on hardware and software.

    If you have an “extra” computer in your possession, and would like to have it usable for basic functions, such as using Google Chrome or Chromium to access the internet, basic text editing, advanced word processing, advanced spreadsheet and presentation work, etc. then installing Linux on that computer is a really good idea. It is probably an older computer, and as such will run much better with Linux than any other operating system, because Linux is so much more efficient. It will be free to do so. It will be relatively easy. Then, you’ll have a Linux computer that you will use now and then, and over time, you may decide that you like the operating system itself so much that you’ll totally switch to it. Or not. There is no problem with having more than one OS in your life.

    Linux History and Background

    This section is not really necessary if you are trying to decide whether to try out Linux, and you can skip it, though the background and history of Linux are interesting and may help you understand Linux a bit better. Also, this is a very brief version and there is much left out. Readers are welcome to identify important parts I’ve ignored and put them in the comments! In any event, be warned: I oversimplify here.

    Many years ago, an operating system known as “Unix” was developed to address certain growing needs, especially the requirement that many users could hook into one machine and treat that machine as their own, keeping their stuff separate from that of all the other users.

    Unix was also designed to run on several different machines. Previously, most operating systems were designed for a specific piece of hardware.

    In 1983, Richard Stallman of MIT began a project called “GNU.” GNU stands for “GNU is Not Unix.” GNU was in fact not Unix, but it was meant to work just like UNIX.

    At the same time, Stallman and his associates created a licensing system for software called the GNU General Public License, or GPL. This license was designed to guarantee that work carried out on the GNU project would be available for anyone else to use, as long as they followed the rules of the license, which essentially required that any new work based on GPL licensed work also had the GPL license attached to it.

    This was the origin of the Open Source movement. The idea of this movement is simple. Instead of creating and selling proprietary operating systems and software, sold for a profit and protected by a user agreement, people would create software that users could obtain and use for free (free as in FREE beer) and this software would be free to modify and apply by anyone anywhere (free as in FREEdom).

    The GPL project involved developing a large number of tools that could be used while operating a computer. For example, when using a computer with a command prompt (there were very few computers that used graphical user interfaces at the time) one might enter a command to list the files in the current directory, create a file, create a directory, move a file, search through a file for certain contents, etc. The GNU collection of tools eventually grew to include a large percentage of similar tools ever developed for proprietary computers, and much more, but under the GPL license. There were tools created back in the 80s and developed through the 90s that are still at the heart of many computer operations today.

    In 1991, the Finnish computer science graduate student Linus Torvalds started to develop a “kernel” that would interface between certain hardware and the larger operating system. The details are a bit complex, but eventually, Torvald’s kernel and Stallman’s GNU tools were combined into a single operating system that would be called “GNU Linux.” Today we often say just “Linux” but the longer name better reflects what the operating system contains and how it came to be.

    All of that history is interesting, but probably more relevant to you, is how Linux is maintained and deployed today.

    Linux is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of programmers and other experts, globally. Each part of the project is maintained by a “maintainer” and different programmers send their work to that maintainer for approval. Most of these developers work for a company that is involved in computing somehow, committing part of their time to Linux development. All the work is done in the open and subject to comment and critique by everyone else.

    This project makes sense, and is valuable to companies involved in computing, because the operating system itself is free for them (and everyone) to use, and direct involvement (by the larger community) means that the functions the operating system serves, and how this is done, is determined by a large scale very open conversation, rather than the more limited ideas of a smaller group of designers within a corporate and proprietary system.

    Even more important is the simple fact that for most of the uses required by these companies, Linux is a superior operating system.

    Also, and I’ll expand on this a bit below, the process does not involve marketing. Nobody is directing the work on the basis of perceived value on the market, or in relation to any profit motive. It is all about getting computers to do things effectively and efficiently, with security and usability firmly in mind.

    When the first version of this operating system was released in 1991, it included 10,000 lines of computer code. Linux currently has just under 20,000,000 lines of code.

    But, here is the important part. The developers of Linux are focused on certain principles. I can characterize those principles from my own observation, but much has been written and spoken about this, and you should seek more expert sources if you want the richest and most detailed story. The operating system needs to be small and efficient, and every aspect of it has to work as flawlessly as possible. The kernel, the deep inside part of the operating system, needs to be very stable and to only contain what is necessary for the kernel to run. There is a great deal of discussion as to what functions should be moved into the kernel vs. left out and treated more as a tool that may or may not be included in a particular installation. This is why the Linux Kernel can sit comfortably inside your cell phone and be amazing, and at the same time, manage a complex super computer with hundreds of processors.

    One of the outcomes of this sort of careful curation of Linux is that sometimes changes made in the guts of the operating system require that related changes be propagated outward into other software. Since changes at this level can affect a lot of other things, they are carefully considered and avoided until necessary. But, once they occur, maintainers of the various parts of the operating system, as well as some of the software that runs on it, have to make the appropriate changes. The result is a bit more work than other methods might produce, but continuation of efficiency and stability of the operating system and its parts.

    There was a lot of competition and bad feelings between the dominant desktop operating system’s developer, Microsoft, and Linux, several years ago. In my view, Linux has long been a superior operating system, measured in terms of how well it works, how adaptable it is, how quickly development responds to security threats, new application requirements, and so on. Also, by and large, Linux has run on a larger range of hardware. Most importantly, perhaps, as Microsoft’s Windows developed over time, it required more and more advanced hardware to operate. So, keeping your computer updated required not only adopting the newer versions of the operating system (and often paying for that) but also replacing old hardware with newer hardware now and then. Linux, by contrast, runs on most (nearly all) of the older computers.

    Eventually the competition and fighting between the Windows and Linux camps died down, and now Microsoft not only uses Linux in many settings, but has become one of the top contributors of code to the Linux project, and supports OpenSource in many ways. For its part, Apple adopted an operating system very similar to Linux as the basis of OSX.

    I suspect that eventually Microsoft will also adopt a Linux like underpinning for its own operating system.

    The most important differences between Windows and Linux

    There are a lot of differences between these operating systems that are internal and often esoteric. As implied above, Windows tends to be bloated (lots of code) and relatively inefficient, requiring fancier and more powerful hardware to run, while Linux is leaner and will run on nearly anything. This also means that installing Linux is usually easier and faster. Linux takes up less space on your hard drive, as do most of the different software applications that run on Linux.

    The Windows operating system appears to the average user as a single entity, a whole thing, that runs your computer and peripherals and at the same time interfaces with the user using a fancy and occasionally redesigned graphical user interface. Everybody gets the same user interface.

    Linux is distinctly different from Windows in that it can be thought of as having two parts (from the average desktop user’s perspective). The basic system, that runs everything, is the Linux kernel and the GNU tools and a few other things, down under the hood. If just this stuff is installed on your computer, you interface with it using a command line. Computers that are used as web servers or to do certain other work operate this way, since the computer’s work is being done without much direct human involvement except by experts who are comfortable using the command line. This saves resources and makes the computer run very efficiently. Indeed, many of these computers are “headless,” meaning they don’t even have a monitor. Since only the command line is being used, an expert can sign into the computer over a network and mess around with it easily in a terminal program that gives them access to the command line. Such computers, most of the time, run themselves and nobody has to look at what they are doing.

    The second part of a desktop Linux system, one that you as a regular person would use, is called the “Desktop.” The word “desktop” is confusing and messy in the computer world. Here, we mean the set of tools and stuff that give you a graphical user interface for the entire system, and that runs your software in windows, like Microsoft Windows and Apple’s operating systems do.

    Unlike Microsoft Windows or Apple’s OSX, there are many different desktops that function on Linux. Any individual or group of experts can design a new desktop and make it available for Linux users to use. When you sign on to a Linux computer, there is a moment when you have a choice to pick among the various desktops that are installed on that computer (if there is more than one). Most people have a preferred desktop and use that as the default. Some people like to collect and play around with different desktops.

    Then, there is the concept of the “Distribution.” When you “get” Linux, you are actually getting a particular distribution (aka “distro”). The structure, history, and dynamics of distributions is actually very complex, but you don’t need to know any of it . All you really need to know is a simple definition of what a distribution is most of the time, and which distribution you should chose to install.

    A distribution is the package of stuff that is needed for Linux to run on your computer. You can think of it simply as a system, like Microsoft gives you Windows, Apple gives you OSX, Linux gives you a particular distribution and that is the thing you install.

    A typical Linux distribution of the kind you might install is in some ways similar and in some, very important ways, different from a products from Microsoft or Apple.

    Like the other systems, a Linux Distro (short for distribution) includes the installer. So you get a CD, DVD, or thumb drive, boot from it, and the installer takes over, asks you some questions, and installs the Linux operating system on your computer.

    A Linux distro has a single desktop that is automatically installed. To the user, this is the most important difference between distros. You pick a distro in part on the basis of what desktop you like. You can install other desktops later, of course. But most likely, you will simply pick a distro with a certain desktop and that will be your desktop.

    A Linux distro includes a whole pile of other software and installs that at the same time that it installs your operating system. Typically, you get a web browser; an email program; an office suit with a word processor, spread sheet, presentation software, etc.; a text editor; calculator; music player; some graphics software; etc. This sounds like it might be annoying because it would take forever to install all that software, but software that runs on Linux is very efficient and takes up less space than for, say, Windows, so it does not really take all that long.

    A Linux distro has a particular way to install, update, and maintain software. If you use a Mac, you are familiar with the paradigm, because Apple copied the Linux method. There will be one or more user interfaces that you can use to search for, pick out, and install software. Every now and then you can issue an update command and all of the installed software will be inspected and updated. Typically, your distro will install and set up at installation time, a program that initiates this automatically and gives you a message saying that you should update your software. You can opt to have this done in the background automatically, or you can do it yourself. Any of this can be done from the command line if you like.

    A modern Mac does this as well. That is because down deep a Mac is running a Linux like operating system. Traditionally, Windows did not do this, though maybe Microsoft has learned to follow the Linux pattern of updating software. I’ve not had to update a Windows computer in a while.

    Here’s a key point that distinguishes Linux from both Apple OSX and Windows. The Linux operating system itself is updated a little bit pretty much every week. And, it is updated more or less flawlessly. Your distro will probably be conservative. The basic Linux OS is updated, and that update is tested out and incorporated into a distro. That distro may have two versions, a bleeding edge version and a more stable version. So the change goes into the bleeding edge version then later into the stable version. Chances are your distro will actually be based on one of those distros, and there is yet another level of checking out the changes. Then it comes to your desktop.

    When Microsoft updates its system, it test the update internally (maybe using beta testers). When Linux updates the system, it is tested by all those thousands of Linux experts who are involved in the project. This means that Microsoft has to do its updates differently, because an update is a major and costly project, just to test. So a typical Microsoft update (and Apple is similar) has more changes, more fixes, more tweaking, and this is why the first version of those updates is almost always at least a little broken or problematic for a good number of users.

    Since Linux updates in smaller increments, and the increments are very widely tested, there is virtually never a problem with such an update. They just happen, everything works, and nothing goes wrong. And, it is lighting fast. The update is just several seconds to a few minutes long.

    So, you want to install Linux?

    The best way for a noob (a first timer) to try out Linux is to get a hold of that extra computer, make sure there is nothing on the hard drive that you need to save, and do a fresh install of the Ubuntu operating system on that hard drive. Ubuntu is one of many different distros, but it is the most user friendly and the best supported. There are actually several versions of Ubuntu, but you will want to install the standard mainstream version, which uses the “Unity Desktop.”

    Click through to THIS POST to see an overview of how you might do this,

    What Are The Best Android Tablets?

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    Which Android Tablet Is Best?

    You will have to decide which tablet is best for you based on your specific needs, and no general review is going to give you that information in a useful way. But, among the many tablets there is a handful that rise to the top and should be looked at either to consider purchasing or to use as a benchmark against which to measure others.

    Here is some guidance to help you decide which Android tablet are in that category, and that you should consider. Note that I look briefly at a very inexpensive option here (not included in the list below).

    Nexus 9
    Nexus 9
    Most of these are higher end tablets for general use, but there are some notable exceptions. Because of the timing of when new technology comes out, many of these tablets are older models that have not been replaced yet with the newer models, and prices might be starting to drop for them.

    First, the Nexus 9 is essentially being replaced by the Pixel, but the Nexus 9 is still an excellent tablet. So, look here for special deals.

    Second, have a look at the Lenovo tablet which combines a projector and a tablet. This could be exactly what is needed for certain folks.

    Third, note that some of the tablets either come with keyboards or have keyboards as an accessory.

    Fourth, do look at the giant tablets (the last two, below). These are a little strange, but may be exactly what you are looking for.

    Finally, if the main thing you are going to use your tablet for is reading Kindle books and watching films (mainly from Amazon) do look at the Amazon tablets. I’ve put two examples here, but you will also find a link below comparing them.

    Some of the key specifications for these tablets are in a table at the bottom, but click through to get more information.

    Google Nexus 9

    Approximate price: $350 and up, look for deals.

    Classic top of the line, not really replaced yet by Google Pixel, but it will be. Will be supported for the near future. Probably a good value right now because it is a great tablet with a dropping price. Sock Android OS. Generally, a Google Nexus product is going to run Android better than anyone else. Easy to hold because of material used to make the back.

    Google Nexus 9 Tablet (8.9-Inch, 32GB, Black, Wi-Fi)

    See also: Google Nexus 10 (Wi-Fi only, 32 GB)

    From the makers: “The magnetically attached, fully-responsive keyboard allows you to type at different angles. Sold separately, it helps you get stuff done at home, at the office, and on the go.”

    Google Pixel C

    Google Pixel C
    Google Pixel C
    Approximate price: $560 and up

    Best pure android tablet. This is the new Google tablet, has great features. Probably overepriced because it is so new, but may be the best tablet in terms of technology.

    Google Pixel C 10.2-in HD Touchscreen Tablet

    From the makers: “Meet the first Android tablet designed and built from start to finish by Google with a full keyboard, USB Type-C charger and multi-angle display functionality.”

    Sony Xperia Z4

    Approximate price: $680.

    Sony Xperia Z4
    Sony Xperia Z4
    Don’t confuse this with the Z4 smart phone. One of the thinnest and lighest, somewhat waterproof, modified Android OS. Has a keyboard, but the keyboard gets mixed reviewes. Great battery life.

    Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet 10.1" 32 GB – Wifi Only – Black (U.S. Warranty) with Bluetooth Keyboard

    From the makers: “This 10.1” Android tablet stretches the limits of display technology. The highest resolution, the brightest screen and the most vivid colours make Xperia Z4 Tablet the best viewing experience you will hold in your hand.”

    Nvidia Shield Tablet K1

    Nvidia_Shield_Tablet_K1Approximate price: $200–250 and up, depending on options.

    Inexpensive, good for gaming, has GeForce. Many versions of this tablet exist depending on what you specify. This is a specialty tablet mainly for gaming, not necessarily the best choice for general use. Long battery life. Not a large amount of onboard storage. (The stylus from earlier models is gone.) Maybe one of the best values given quality and price if you are looking for this type of tablet.

    NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet (WiFi)

    From the makers: “The new NVIDIA SHIELD tablet K1 is a high-performance Android tablet that transforms into an amazing gaming machine with the SHIELD controller and GeForce NOW™ game-streaming service.”

    Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro

    Approximate price: $600.

    Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro, caught in the act of projecting.
    Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro, caught in the act of projecting.
    Powerful processor, great display, good cameras, bulky design, a bit of bloatware. Built in projector, which might make this an excellent choice if you give a lot of presentations in places where there may not be a projector. Ver unique design, with a hinge-stand to help the projector work. This is probably the perfect tablet for some people.

    Lenovo (LENZ9) Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro 10 – ZA0F0050US 10.1" WQHD 2-in–1 Laptop/Tablet (Intel Atom Z8500 1.4GHz Processor, 2 GB SDRAM, 32 GB SDD, Android 5.1 Lollipop)

    From the makers: “The YOGA Tab 3 Pro boasts a revolutionary integrated projector that turns any room into your very own theater. Experience a new way to enjoy videos and movies. Use the rotatable hinge and super bright 50 lumen output to project an image of up to 70” (178cm) on any wall or ceiling.”

    Dell Venue 10 7000

    Dell Venue 10 7000
    Dell Venue 10 7000
    Approximate price: $270 – 400 depending on storage specs.

    Comes with a keyboard. Standard Android OS. Heavy, but sturdy. Wraparound front speakers. See also Dell Venu 8. This is a very good tablet, out does earlier Dell models. Probably has a great battery life.

    Dell Venue 10 7040 v7040–6980BLK 10.5-Inch 32 GB Tablet

    From the makers: “With a sleek design, 10.5-inch OLED touch screen and optional magnetically attachable keyboard, the Venue 10 7000 Series is designed to impress.”

    Amazon Fire

    Approximate price: $50.

    Really cheap, highly modified Android OS, slower and lower quality screen than other tablets, and smallish, but well designed for Amazon kindle reading. I like mine.

    Fire Tablet, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB – Includes Special Offers, Black

    See this review.

    Amazon Fire HDX 8.9

    Amazon Fire HDX 8.9
    Amazon Fire HDX 8.9
    Approximate price: $400.

    Dolby Atmos audio-enhancing technology. Highly modified OS, including parental controls. The Amazon App store is not as good as the Google Play store. Mainly a media tablet, and of coruse, great for reading Kindle books.

    Fire HDX 8.9 Tablet, 8.9" HDX Display, Wi-Fi, 64 GB – Includes Special Offers

    If one of the main things you do with your tablet is reading and watching movies, an Amazon tablet may be an excellent choice for you, but there is a huge range of technologies and prices.

    There is a table here at Amazon allowing you to compare them

    Two Giant Tablets

    Fuhu Nabi Big Tab HD 20

    Approximate price: $550.

    Fuhu Nabi Big Tablet
    Fuhu Nabi Big Tablet
    Huge: 24 inches. There are other sizes as well, and the 24 inch version may be hard to get, leaving you with the smaller 20 inch version. Said to have a pretty good screen. Very kid-friendly, parental controlls, stock Android OS, will not fit in your pocket. Probably best for specialized uses such as in schools.

    nabi Big Tab HD 20"

    “Made especially for children and their parents, the nabi Big Tab HD™ line features a massive 20” and 24” HD display, built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, 16 GB of on board storage, Android 4.4 Kit Kat, integrated parental controls and over 400 kid-focused, parent-approved features through nabi’s Blue Morpho OS. Unlike other tablets that are designed to be personal devices, the Big Tab is made for sharing and collaboration in learning, playing, creating and communicating. It features family fun experiences including Two Play (classic 2-player board games), Game Room (arcade games like air hockey), Showtime (popular movies and TV shows), Story Time (interactive bedtime stories), Big Canvas (drawing and editing videos) and more.”

    Samsung Galaxy View

    Samsung Galaxy View
    Samsung Galaxy View
    Samsung Galaxy View 18.4" 32 GB Tablet (Wi-Fi), Black

    Approximate price $500:

    Another giant tablet (older model) to check out in case you are looking for one of those.

    This is essentially a TV. From the manufacturer: “Knowing how you watch TV, we designed the biggest ever Android-powered full HD screen that’s large enough to double as a beautiful TV and light enough to be portable.”

    This tablet is so big it has a handle.

    Specifications

    Tablet Screen Size Screen Resolution Processor Ram (GB) Storage (GB) SD slot
    Google Nexus 9 8.9 2048 X 1536 2.3 GHz Tegra (2 processors) 2 32 No
    Google Pixel C 10.2 2560 X 1800 NVIDIA Tegra X1 with Maxwell GPU 3 32 No
    Sony Xperia Z4 10.1 2560 X 1600 Quad Cxore Snapdragon 2 GHz 3 32 Yes
    Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 8 1920 X 1200 2.2 GHz Tegra K1 2 16 Yes
    Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro 10.1 2560 X 1440 1.4 GHz Atom Z8500 2 32 No
    Dell Venue 10 7000 10.5 2560 X 1600 2.33 GHz Atom Z3580 2 32 Yes
    Amazon Fire 7 1024 X 1600 1.3 GHz quad core 1 8 or 16 Yes
    Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 8.9 2560 X 1600 2.5 GHz quad core 2 16 – 64 No
    Fuhu Nabi Big Tab HD 20 19.5+ 1600 X 900 1.6 GHz Tegra 4.0 2 16 No
    Samsung Galaxy View 18.4 1920 X 1080 1.6 GHz 8032 2 32 Yes