Aqeel Zafar

Due to some personal problems, I had to swap my notebook (Sony VAIO) with my brother’s (Acer Aspire 5720, also known as TravelMate 5720), for a month. So, like any honorable linux geek, I didn’t waste any time and installed linux – Ubuntu 8.04 – on it.

Hardware:

• VGA: Intel X3100
• Audio: Intel 82801H HDA (ICH8 Family), builtin microphone
• Modem: Conexant
• Ethernet: Broadcom NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet
• Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945abg Network Connection
• Special Keys: FN keys, volume control, hotkeys (wireless, bluetooth & two editable keys), euro sign, dollar sign
• Misc: Card Reader, Bluetooth, InfraRed

What Works:

I really love it when everything just works, and with Aspire 5720, everything really does, well atleast all the important stuff anyway. VGA, audio, ethernet, FN keys, volume control, wireless, bluetooth and power saving options (hibernate and suspend) works out of the box.

What Doesn’t Work:

• Modem: Unfortunately, soft-modems are still a weak point for linux, though, fewer and fewer people use dialup connections now, so, it’s not much of a problem. If you really want a driver, you can get it from linuxant.com, for a suitable price ofcourse.
• Programmable Hot keys: These hot keys don’t work out of the box, and I couldn’t find any way to make them work in my quick google search.

Couldn’t Try Completely:

• Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945abg is fully supported in linux, and according to many reports works out of the box in ubuntu but I wasn’t able to check that because my wireless router is out of order.
• InfraRed: I don’t have any infrared device, so, didn’t check it either.

Conclusion:

I don’t have vast experience with notebooks, I have only tried a few, but out of these all Acer Aspire 5720 offers most hardware compatibility with linux. So, if you are looking for a nice laptop to use with linux, I would definately vote for this machine.

Aqeel Linux acer aspire 5720, Linux, notebook

A friend has just started a blog, Politics Pakistan. As the name implies, this blog is about the political situation of Pakistan, with urdu translation for each post. Due to my exams, there are still somethings left undone, which are being worked on, like there isn’t translation of posts yet.

If you have any interest in the above said topic, check the blog and share your feedback. Even if you don’t have any interest, then still visit the website and give me your feedback for the layout etc. of the website as I am the one managing all the technical aspects of the website.

Aqeel General PoliticsPakistan

Today, there was a small and very informal meetup at LUMS of bloggers and other IT related people with Mr. Rishi Jaitly, Google’s Policy Analyst and Government Affairs Manager for South Asia, and of course Badar Khushnood, Google’s Country Consultant for Pakistan.

I went there with Nabeel(my brother) and his friend Shahrukh, who have just started a new blog PoliticsPakistan, (more on that later). Other than us, there were around 7-10 other guys, mainly bloggers & entrepreneurs, though unfortunately I have forgotten most of their names.Discussion was mainly about Google’s future in Pakistan, what are the problems people are having with Google services here etc.

Question of the day was undoubtedly, when is Google going to open an office in Pakistan (or start hiring more people from here)? There wasn’t exactly a straight answer to that, though Mr. Rishi said that he does sense great opportunity and potential here, let’s see if anything good comes out of it.

I forgot to take pictures during the meetup, just took a few after refreshments with Rishi, which you can see below

Aqeel General google, meetup