Now that was nice. I’ve been managing shared printers on Windows (and even Netware and DOS) networks for a few years now[1], and while it generally works, there are times when it’s a bit too fiddly. Either too many clicks, or a failure to load drivers, or just general awkwardness.

Having finished arranging my desks[3], I reconnected my Canon printer and did a test print from the Mac Mini. Then I decided to see how easy it would be to add it to the MacBook. I selected the Print option from Firefox, which told me I didn’t have any printers, but did offer a “add printer” button[4]. It found both the Canon and the little photoprinter. I asked it to connect to the bigger printer, which it did with no fuss at all. All very nice, really.

[1] Exact number a closely-guarded secret[2]
[2] Or maybe I just can’t remember
[3] I got a side table to go with the main desk. Unfortunately, it was about 10mm too wide to fit across the wall of my home office. So I got some “Elephant feet” – risers to bring it above the level of the main desk
[4] A very good place to have one, too

Well, it’s been a while since the last report on my ickle notebook, so I thought I’d do a quick update. The main reason for the lack of reports has been, well, there’s been nothing to report. It’s been working nicely with Ubuntu Netbook Remix – Firefox does all I want, though the Evolution mail client tended to be a bit slow connecting to my IMAP account. But it was quite acceptable.

But hey, it’s April, and that means it’s time for a new version of Ubuntu! Yes, Ubunto 9.04, or Jaunty Jackalope, is due for final release in a day or so. And this time, hte Netbook Remix is entirely official and not a side project. I decided to give the release candidate a go, after backing up my current installation. I grabbed the Netbook Remix image file, and moved it to a handy USB memory stick[1]. Installation was a very smooth process indeed. It offered the choice of partitioning the disk and keeping my old installation or wiping it and starting afresh. I went for the “total destruction” option, as I had a backup, and the few files I need to keep are on an SD card anyway. It copied all the files and rebooted nicely. No errors, and no manual tweaking or fiddling needed to make the Aspire One’s wireless work. Still no activity lights, but I don’t need (or particularly want) those anyway.

Once I’d entered the key for my wireless network, it connected to the internet as normal, and well, just worked. Jackalope comes with Firefox 3.0.x, OpenOffice 3 and a slightly refreshed look.

Get it here

All being well, it should automagically update to the final release once that’s been, err, released.

[1] Methods for this vary depending on whether you’re doing it under Linux, Windows or Mac OS X. Do the reading

Oooooh! Down a whole pound today. Amazing!