It’s simple to install, just open a terminal and run:

sudo apt-get install lxde

then logout and select LXDE from the sessions tab in the login screen.

Your system will then boot into LXDE.

After a little tweaking my desktop looks like this:

LXDE is a GPL licensed open source desktop environment and stands for “Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment”. It’s based on Openbox, built in the c programming language and uses the GTK+ toolkit. Because its components are not tightly integrated, they are able to run independently of each other. This enables a window environment which is fast and snappy, where resource usage, both CPU and RAM is surprising low, achieving a similarly low disk usage footprint.

As such, this is an ideal window manager to use in conjunction with a netbook and I have noticed a quite considerable performance improvement.

It is highly configurable with various appearance tweaks, accessible via the appearance and Openbox configuration manager in the preferences menu.Various panel applets/plugins are integrated to enhance the experience, ranging from temperature and cpu usage monitors to volume control and bateery monitors.

I must say that I am very impressed so far and plan to adopt LXDE as the default window manager for my Netbook.

I have also determined to become more pro-active with Linux advocacy, with a firm commitment to bring as many people over to Linux and the philosophy of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) as I can.

As far as my own preferences go, I like to use Debian based systems, with my distribution of choice being Ubuntu ( the latest incarnation being 9.10 “Karmic Koala”). Ubuntu has come a long way in recent years and is surely the most popular of all the distributions (distros) available today. It would certainly be my recommendation to new users to Linux, not only because of it’s ease of installation but also the tremendous choice and depth of available software.

I have dabbled with Linux since around 1999 and even now I do tend to distro-hop, having tried, amongst others: Fedora, Open Suse, Mandriva, Mepis, Puppy Linux and Arch Linux. However, I always seems to drift back to Ubuntu, it just works for me and I prefer the apt-get method of package and software management. I just cant seem to get along with RPM (Redhat Package Management) that distibutions such as Fedora and Open Suse use.

Ubuntu’s hardware detection is second-to-none, most hardware configurations being detected automatically without the tiresome need for finding and installing additional drivers.

For those requiring more flair in the way that the window manger displays and performs, there is Compiz-Fusion which will add all sorts of 3D effects and enhancements to your desktop experience.

I had, until approximately six months ago, dual-booted with the XP windows operating system but ultimately decided to bite the bullet and remove all Microsoft software from my system. I haven’t looked back since, no more rebooting each and every time new software is installed, no more crashes or corruption, no more viruses and no more BSOD’s. Do I miss all that do you think?

As far as window managers are concerned, I lean towards Gnome but have been known to use KDE, Fluxbox and XFCE. I have to admit that I am a bit of a traditionalist as far as my choice of WM’s go although I have to say that KDE has improved considerably in recent years with KDE4 looking very good.

In April, the next iteration of Ubuntu will be released, there being a six-month release cycle in this respect. The new v10.04 “Lucid Lynx” will be the next LTS (Long-Term Support) version. Undoubtedly, when ready, it will come with many improvements and enhancements,already in development and testing. I look forward to upgrading my system when the time comes.

Well that’s all for now folks! I promise to return soon with more news and views.

Watch this space!

Prices in the US will start at $399 and it will come with a 7-inch display, 1.2GHz processor, and 30GB hard drive.

For a full review and specs, see here

However, initially, it will be probably prove hard to get hold of since the initial batch will only number 200,000 machines.

The One will be available in 5 colours: black, pink, green, white and silver. To secure your order, simply send a reservation fee of £10 to Elonex.

The gadget’s specs have been confirmed as:

7in, 800 x 480 display; 300MHz LNX Code 8 processor; 128MB of DDR 2 memory; 1GB solid-state drive; 802.11b/g Wi-FI; 10/100Mb/s Ethernet port; two USB 2.0 ports; and a four-hour, three-cell battery.

It will run the Linos version of Linux.

This remarkable little sub-laptop continues to gain global sales momentum, sales of over 200,000 in 2007 are expected to increase to several million this year.

More power to Linux!

See here

For those of you wishing to give the latest beta version a test run on your Ubuntu system, here is a simple terminal command which will download and install it in your home folder:

wget -P ~ ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/3.0b3/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-3.0b3.tar.bz2 && tar xjf ~/firefox-3.0b3.tar.bz2 -C ~

Further information here

Conforming to Ubuntu releases being named after animals found in South Africa, an Ibex is apparently a type of wild mountain goat.

Jono Bacon, Canonical’s Ubuntu Community manager has further elaborated here

For those of you wanting a simple way to install Linux Ubuntu on such drives, a simple howto can be found here

Only currently available to customers in the UK, France, Spain and Germany, however, it will be available in the US later this month.

Great to see Dell expanding it’s Ubuntu range!

For UK customers and for further information, see here