Archive for July, 2006
Sunday, July 23rd, 2006
Ubuntu gets rave review at eWeek
A very impressive review over at eWeek labs of Ubuntu 6.06 - and it’s not just a server review. Yep, eWeek seems to like this Linux desktop.
From the review summary:
Canonical’s Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long-Term Support) makes an excellent Linux desktop as well as a solid server option. We were impressed enough with the latest version of Ubuntu, particularly with its software management tools and package availability, to award it our Analyst’s Choice designation.
Thursday, July 20th, 2006
Just hit me - how XGL could be a “Killer” feature
So XGL is nice eye candy (and AIXGL). They’re fun and make the X11 interface exciting. But do they really provide “productivity enhancements”. You can make small arguments here/there, but ultimately it’s not a game changer. I feel the same way about Vista’s Glass UI as well.
Now, how could this be a game changer - what if via Xen you could run a Windows partition on a side of the XGL cube. Maybe on another side, you run FreeBSD (or any other BSD of your choosing). Then you can achieve a very simply UI access to multiple environments. It could probably be hacked together today using VMWare and some major chopping of X11 code.
Yeah every developer just shakes their head “dream on” but hey… why not at least throw out a vision that maybe 5 yrs out can be a reality. I think this could be a productivity improvement - use the XGL cube interface to make desktop users, virtualization power users.
Thursday, July 20th, 2006
See you in two weeks
Off to go get married this Saturday… it’s finally here. I’ll be away for the wedding and then off to Hawaii for 2 weeks. Best way to contact me will be via cell.
Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
Calling all Linux device driver developers
Invite IHVs, Linux developers, and anyone else interested in Linux device drivers to this free summit hosted at the OSDL site in Beaverton, OR.
Web Registration
http://groups.osdl.org/apps/2006_Open_Drivers_Summit/register.php
Attendance will be limited to 50, so register early!
The cost if free.
Event Location:
Pendleton Conference Room, OSDL
Address: Â Â Â 12725 SW Millikan Way
Suite 400
Beaverton, OR 97005
Lodging: Â Â Â OSDL is located on Portland’s Metro Area Express (MAX) stop - “Beaverton Central”. Hotels along the MAX line in downtown Portland can be found at:
http://www.osdl.org/about_osdl/lodging.html/document_view
Tuesday, July 25 Â Â Â Agenda
8:00AM: Â Â Â Coffee / Setup / Seating / Intros
8:30AM: Â Â Â Legal issues managers should know when releaseing open source drivers
Protecting IP
GPL and other license issues managers should understand
What does the legal department expect from you?
10:00AM: Â Â Â Break
10:15AM: Â Â Â The Open Source Driver Business Case
Why it makes sense to open the source of your driver
Is the real value in the driver code or your hardware?
Costs, savings, and potential revenues with an open driver
11:45AM: Â Â Â Lunch
12:30PM: Â Â Â Project management principles for open source drivers
Managing principles for open source drivers
The Linux kernel and distribution release process
Risk assessment and mitigation for projects
2:00PM: Â Â Â Developer perspectives
The developer’s dilemma: corporate and open source objectives
A day in the life of an open source driver developer
3:15PM: Â Â Â Break
3:30PM: Â Â Â Case studies of companies that opened their driver code
4:45PM: Â Â Â Firing Squad
An all inclusive panel discussion where the presenters are lined up against the wall and the audience fires question at any one of them
5:15PM: Â Â Â Closing remarks, adjourn
5:15PM: Â Â Â Closing remarks, adjourn
Thursday, July 13th, 2006
VMWare Server is FREE (but not open source)
This should be interesting as it plays out in the market. In one corner you have Xen… coming out of nowhere with a left hook “we’re going to be the open source hypervisor virtualization standard” with RHEL, SLES, and just about every distro adopting it as the “standard” hypervisor for the future.
In the other corner VMWare (the current standard) hits back with an upper cut Free version of VMWare Server hoping to stave off Xen’s momentum.
Who will win? I honestly don’t know. There are arguments MySQL isn’t really “free” even though the source is available. It remains to be seen whether these “free” versions of products threatened by open source offerings give customers, developers, and users enough that they will opt not to choose the open source alternatives. Long term I don’t know, but I’ll bet in the short term, this may prove to be a very savvy move by VMWare.
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
Firefox 2 beta 1 is here
Just noticed the ftp site has the latest and greatest DeerPark beta 1… I hear it’s “really” beta-ish so be careful.
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
Very thorough SLED 10 Review
Madpenguin has a very in depth review of Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. Gave it a 10/10… not that there’s any bias built into that :)
Still images don’t do it justice - so mp made movies to help you experience the magic. It’s very easy to see Novell has put quite a bit of effort into cleaning up and simplifying the Linux desktop interface. SLED 10 reminds me of OS X 10.0.1 for those who were daring enough to try it when it launched. And we all know the OS X interface has only grown better and better with age. I can only hope the same for SLED/Gnome/KDE/Ubuntu etc as the real Linux/ODF vs Windows/Office battle seems to be only in the early stages of infancy. The Linux server was probably just round 1 in the open source and open standard revolution.
Anyway, I can’t wait to run Notes 7 on SLED 10 sometime soon…
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
Stuck on Win98? Time to upgrade to Linux
Interesting CNet article…
——————————–
“From Tuesday, Microsoft will no longer issue security updates or provide support for Windows 98 and Windows ME, which are still being used by more than 50 million people.
Eight years after launching Windows 98, Microsoft is finally washing its hands of updating and plugging security gaps in the aging operating system.
The software giant originally planned to pull the plug in January 2004, but decided to extend support because of the increasing competition from Linux.”
Monday, July 10th, 2006
And how did I almost forget to mention… Notes native on Linux!
Didn’t realize we pushed this to the wire today until I saw the hype in a couple artices and /. … then wondered who leaked it… awesome. You can now run Lotus Notes 7.0.1 (aka “Hannover”) native on Linux - they do it with Eclipse RCP and Workplace Managed Client provides some of the undercarriage work. It’s really awesome to see it on Linux.
The amazing part of this is that b/c the Notes 7 base was built with Eclipse, we delivered the code a full year earlier than anticipated - one year shaved off development costs… if you haven’t looked at Eclipse for client side development… you better take a new look. I was shocked when I started running it and was impressed by the richness of the RCP presentation.
I wonder what it looks like with XGL… hmmm…. I’ll venture to bet IBM tech support won’t like that…
Monday, July 10th, 2006
Google - still fascinating
The infrastructure at Google still fascinates me. Here’s a writeup on “How Google Works”. It’s not very interesting…on the intro/first page. However, click on the next page links at the bottom and it gets much more interesting as it discusses portable data center rumors, a bit of a history lesson, and more.
Monday, July 10th, 2006
What fun - SCO invades my website!
I nearly fell on the floor when I saw a SCO Unix ad on my website today. It’s straight from Google adwords for a company called SysIntegrators. It must be pretty hard selling SCO Unix services these days… can you see the future growth potential?Â
Monday, July 10th, 2006
New! UNIX to Linux Porting: Comprehensive Reference
I’ve interacted with a couple of the authors of this book and just found out it was released. Awesome job guys. This reference covers AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris to Linux porting from start to finish and dives in depth for C/C++ and Java porting projects (yes… some Java code requires porting).
IBMers writing about AIX to Linux porting … we must really like Linux :)
From the Amazon review:
Three of IBM’s most-experienced Linux porting specialists lead you through your entire project: scoping, analysis, recoding, and testing. They present a start-to-finish porting methodology, realistic discussions of key porting tasks, and a questionnaire for assessing the work involved in any new project. You’ll discover what Linux offers in terms of APIs, library functions, versioning, system features, and tools–and the implications for your project. Next, the authors address each individual UNIX® platform in detail, identifying specific porting challenges and best-practice solutions. Coverage includes [click here for full review]…
Thursday, July 6th, 2006
Microsoft Office to Support ODF - via an open source project via a partner
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
USB Audio / Speakers with Ubuntu Linux
I have a pair of Labtec USB speakers that I paid quite a bit for back in the day. They sound great even with a basic laptop sound card. You will find that they do not work at first plugin with Ubuntu 6.06. The problem is that Ubuntu sets up all its audio setting tools and audio players to just use a single sound card - switching to USB is difficult.
Here’s how to do it. FIrst, test your USB speakers. Ubuntu has USB sound compiled in by default (or as a module - didn’t check). Just type at a command prompt: “cat /bin/bash > /dev/dsp” and you should hear sound from your speakers. If not try /dev/dsp1. To stop the ear piercing sound, just type Cntrl+C.
Now that you know they’re working, install xmms - a new audio player. This player gives you much more control over your audio playback. In the preferences tab, take a look at the Output Plug-in that’s configured for ALSA. Click the Configure button and set your audio device to the USB speaker set.
Fire up an MP3 and you should be up and running.
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
Canon - No Interest in Supporting Products on Linux
I received the following response in a support inquiry to Canon about their CanoScan 8400f (an awesome scanner btw). I emailed them asking if they had any beta drivers I could try out for using the scanner in Linux. Unfortunately Sane does not have support for this model… and apparently from what I’ve seen, Canon offers no help unlike HP, MicroTek, and others.
I’m torn because Canon has superior imaging/photo products but they absolutely refuse to support anything - even their high end photo printers - on Linux. It seems absurd to me especially when you factor in they do offer support and drivers for Windows 98 and Mac OS 9. I mean come on, how many users of these two platforms are still out there? I just noticed they even support Windows Me… are you kidding?
And with Gimp, Sane, ImageMagick, gPhoto, F-Spot, and a myriad of other open source apps that deal with imaging and photography, I have to imagine their are many more Linux users out there.
I haven’t looked at the latest IDC data, but my hunch is Apple is hovering near 2.0% of the desktop share and Linux at around 3.0%…
My bet is everyone’s waiting for Adobe to support Linux. They have Reader support but none of the other mainstream dev apps. The Linux desktop seems to be a major chicken-egg problem.
Anyway, here’s the amusing email I received from Canon support:
—————————————–
Dear Mr. Dolan: Thank you for your reply. There are no known plans to develop drivers for the Linux operating system. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused by this. It is your choice what to do with the scanner. However, since Linux is open source, I would suggest searching the Internet to see if a driver has been developed. Please note that if there is one, Canon does not support it. Sincerely, Devin Technical Support Representative
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
WGA = Sony Rootkit 2.0 … When will they learn?
When will executives learn that they just can’t go dropping new software onto their users systems without notifying them…? Hmm… maybe a second large payout by a second corporation will teach a lesson. Unfortunately this will likely wreck havoc on the stock I just picked up (that I thought was a bargain price…) arrggghh….
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
Gotta Love El Reg
Even with a slow news week…. they still have fun ideas.
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