Do you have a great idea?

Do you have a great idea that could make Ubuntu an even better operating system? Ubuntu project now gives you an opportunity to share your idea with the world. Also don't get surprised if your idea takes up a shape and the Ubuntu developers put it in the next release. For such marvelous ideas, the people behind the Ubuntu project are proud to announce Ubuntu Brainstorm!

Ubuntu Brainstorm is a place where anyone who cares about the future of the Ubuntu OS, and has a wonderful idea about how the system should look or perform in future versions, can post them for the Ubuntu developers to make these ideas reality!

So if you have a great idea, take a look at the existing posts (over 1,000 ideas by now) or post yours on the brand-new Ubuntu Brainstorm website. Now!

My First Car: Zen Estilo

Surprisingly, My new blog post is not about Java. Its also not about Linux. Its about my new car which is also my first car, Zen Estilo. I feel that I have fallen in love with this thing. Its simply amazing both in looks and features. It has an excellent exterior coupled with an equally good interiors. Above all, its smooth and easy to drive.

When I was about to purchase it, I had shortlisted three cars:

1) Maruti Zen Estilo
2) Maruti Wagon R
3) Hyundai i10

But this beauty captured my heart and I ended up purchasing Zen Estilo. Below are a few pictures for you to enjoy while I am out for a break busy enjoying my fun ride on roads in Delhi. :)

Thats me on NetBeans Community Docs Spotlight

A day before, James Branam, the man responsible for documentation for NetBeans web applications and release notes and is also the NetBeans Community Docs Manager, published NetBeans Community Docs spotlight on his official blog at http://blogs.sun.com/branajam/. Any guesses on who was picked up as a spotlight for NetBeans Community Docs by James this time. It was me! Check it out at http://blogs.sun.com/branajam/entry/nb_community_docs_spotlight_arpit

Well, I have another good news. He is sending all the Community Docs contributors a NetBeans T-Shirt and I am really excited.

With all these good stuffs, I have now planned to write one more tutorial for Community Docs section which will be posted soon.

Thanks James!

Tutorial on Beginning Enterprise Application Development with NetBeans 6.0

You might be aware that NetBeans 6.0 has been released a day before. For all the NetBeans fans its a great news. This time around NetBeans team has done a lot of improvement in all spheres and have tried their level best in making it the "Only IDE you would ever require for any sort of Java Development".

If anyone of you is interested, I have just published a tutorial which may be an excellent starting point for any Java Developer who want to start Enterprise Application Development (J2EE 5) using NetBeans 6.0 IDE, on NetBeans CommunityDocs Wiki. The tutorial has been done entirely on Ubuntu but is applicable to all the operating systems.

Click Here to go through this tutorial and do not forget to post in your comments!

Rush to take 2007 Linux Desktop Survey

The use of linux on desktop/laptop computers continues to grow and it is now quite evident with the latest linux desktop survey which is being conducted by The Linux Foundation. This time around, the survey asks you a few question based on your company's desktop client plans and not necessarily your personal desktop usage.

Linux is quickly catching up with Windows. As per the survey, more than 40% of the respondents claim to use linux on more than half of the computes in their organization as compared to 57% who use Windows. The survey results further show that Linux is now being widely used as Client desktops rather than Development Desktops. About 64% of respondents claim to have already deployed Linux desktops/clients.

One thing that's not surprising to me is, about 56% respondents use Ubuntu and its variants on their desktop both within the organization and for personal use.

About 33% say that they use Eclipse as the development environment to build linux desktop application and 10% claim to use NetBeans. The good news is lot many of us are developing linux desktop applications using one of these Java IDEs for Linux. Impressive!

If you want to have a look at the complete and more comprehensive results of the survey then rush and take the survey!

NetBeans 6.0 Beta 2 on Ubuntu 7.10 Screenshots

As promised, I am back with a few screenshots of NetBeans 6.0 Beta 2 running on Ubuntu 7.10. Enjoy :)











I hope you liked them.

Journey to Ubuntu 7.10 for Java Development

Of late I had been using Windows XP for all my Java Development and found it to be pretty stable and fast. With good support provided by Sun for Java on Windows, I never thought of switching to some other OS. However, with release of Windows Vista, I upgraded and moved all my development to Vista. Not to say, with good Windows XP experience, I was extremely confident while making this move. At first, everything seemed to be working fine and I was satisfied with my decision. After working for sometime, I must say Vista has some really cool UI effects, but at the cost of performance. UI effects at the cost of performance can be managed by a home segment user but is not good for any software developer. My laptop conguration is Intel Duo Core 2 5200, 1 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7400 Go, 120 GB Hard disk, and hell... Vista was running slow on this machine. I felt that I was looted by Mr. Gates. My productivity decreased significantly with this new OS.

I then decided to switch back to XP. But just then my friend, a linux guru, Tirveni asked me to try Linux. At first, I was really very very afraid and not very confident but then I decided to atleast give it a try. Tirveni then explained me the concepts of various Linux distros (Which I will discuss with you soon!) and suggested that I should use Debian based system. He told me relatively comical word "Ubuntu". Frankly, I never heard it before. The best part of all this was that "Ubuntu" was the name of the operating system he wanted me to install on my laptop. The version being 6.10.

So we started, the OS installed pretty easily on my laptop against to common myth that linux installation is very difficult. The best part of it was that I could try it before installing by means of what they call a "Live CD". Simply awesome! Never heard and imagined that in Windows. This gave me an idea about some good things to come into my life. I then started learning Linux so that I could get started with it and start developing Java applications. With time, I became familiar with common linux concepts. In Ubuntu most of the things can be done simply through point and click interface just like Windows. However, it is far more customizable than Windows. It has that special Linux flexibility that allows you to customize whole OS as per your need. For a developer like me, who is willing to write a few lines, just to explore new things, you can completely customize Ubuntu as your own personal OS. Great!!! Ubuntu Forums are really a great help in doing these stuffs.

Although I was able to install NetBeans and Java SDK on Ubuntu 6.10, sadly, in Ubuntu 6.10, I was unable to add java support to my browser etc. due to the complexity involved (keeping in mind that I was a new comer in Linux World). Later, Ubuntu 7.04 fixed this shortcoming with introduction of "Java Stack" in its Multiverse repository which included Java 6, NetBeans 5.5, Glassfish Server and Java DB, what else can you expect in a full fledged Java Development system. It alsoallowed easy installation of set of common plugins such as Flash, Java MP3, DivX, WMA, WMV etc. by means of a simple click in "Add-Remove New Programs" section. I liked Ubuntu 6.10 user friendliness but Ubuntu 7.04 made my Java Development a breeze to work with. It became my favorite desktop OS ever. MAN! I don't need those Vista eye candies at the cost of performance. Ubuntu just consumed around 256 MB RAM as compared to nearly 550 MB RAM of Vista, which left enough room for me to run other Java Development applications on my 1 GB RAM laptop.

I had been using Ubuntu as my Java Development OS from quite sometime now and am pretty happy with it. Recently launched, Ubuntu 7.10 has also lived up to my expectations (unlike Windows Vista) and has continued this tradition. In addition to continued support for Java, it has also introduced desktop eye candies like Vista (not at the cost of performance) in form of Compiz Fusion (Project developed from the merger of Beryl and Compiz). With Ubuntu 7.10, I get the Eye Candy in par (if not better) with Vista and performance of Linux. Even with all the eye candies turned on I don't experience any performance loss. My Ubuntu 7.10 system still consubes about 300 MB RAM in total leaving enough room to run my development IDE and projects.

Last word... who says that "Linux is for GEEKS". I will be posting some screenshots related to Java on Ubuntu soon. My advice, don't use Ubuntu because its FREE. Use Ubuntu 7.10 because its the best and post in your opinions on this.