Archive for August, 2006
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
Linux Desktop Inroads in Indian Public Schools
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14601359/
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
Gentoo 2006.1 Released
Gentoo has released 2006.1 – for those with Gentoo already.. just emerge update. For those without Gentoo – looks like they’ve really increased the ease of installability. I’ll have to try this out on a blank partition and see what the setup process is like… I have way too much time invested building packages on my current install to start over.
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
Funny stunt – Google Offers 24×0 Support…
Saw this today and had to laugh – yes, they’re a Microsoft partner:
 http://www.intermedia.net/about-us/news/2006/google-apps.asp
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
Most Popular Linux Desktop…. Ubuntu (there’s a non-official stat now)
Just saw SVN (not subversion… Steven Vaughan-Nichols) wrote up a short article on the results of the 2006 Desktop Linux Survey. The winner is officially Ubuntu which unless you’ve been hiding out in Redmond, you probably knew already. Ease of use, out of the box functionality (including wireless) and very few headaches (recent X explosion excepted), Ubuntu is clearly a “polished” distribution despite all the different interpretations of what “polished” means :) It was nice to see OpenSUSE up there with SLED which when combined beat out Debian for 2nd place. Debian plus Ubuntu, however, did account for over 40% of users… that’s quite substantial.
This survey is also interesting b/c they ran a similar one in 2004. That survey had 3,800 voters – this years had over 15,000. That’s quite an increase… is the user base growing?
I have to completely disagree with SVN’s interpretation of Gentoo. Yes, it took 4th place and kudos to the Gentoo squad. However, being described as a platform “almost no one who uses it as their first choice for day-to-day work” is like picking something to say just to say something – and it’s a very poor description. I would agree it is a “Linux experts Linux” but I’d also say for those curious that Gentoo now has a GUI installer and has made great strides to be more accessible to beginners. And besides, the Gentoo forums are quite possibly the greatest helpdesk you will ever find compared to corporate enterprise helpdesks… and it’s no different from other distributions for day-to-day usage… what gives?
Anyway, without further ramblings, here is the article I referenced.
And here is the actual page with the survey’s results.
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006
Code v2.0 Open for Wiki Update
I’d try to tell the story myself, but the intro to this page tells it all. If you haven’t read Code (v1.0) and topics on my website interest you, then head over to Amazon.com and get it today. It is worth every minute you spend with this book open. This is a very novel approach to updating book content. I know of at least one technical resource author that has been evangelizing this approach as well.
—————————
Lawrence Lessig first published Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace in 1999. After five years in print and five years of changes in law, technology, and the context in which they reside, Code needs an update. But rather than do this alone, Professor Lessig is using this wiki to open the editing process to all, to draw upon the creativity and knowledge of the community. This is an online, collaborative book update; a first of its kind.
Once the project nears completion, Professor Lessig will take the contents of this wiki and ready it for publication. The resulting book, Code v.2, will be published in late 2005 by Basic Books. All royalties, including the book advance, will be donated to Creative Commons.
——————————–
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006
Ubuntu… the power alliance
Just saw this Ubuntu craziness over at http://whatwouldjesusdownload.com – Ubuntu Christian Edition. Are we going to see factions develop over Linux-religious affiliations? Will Ubuntu Irish Protestant Edition and Ubuntu Christian Edition get into heated Glade 3 implementation discussions? One of my teammates here suggested there may be an Ubuntu Made Man edition – I wonder if that has extra security features than Ubuntu Picciotto Edition? Does one do SELinux and the other AppArmor?
Friday, August 25th, 2006
NYLUG: Aug 30 Featuring Gentoo
Wednesday August 30th, 2006
6:30pm-7:30pm (stammtisch after 8:15pm)
IBM Headquarters Building
590 Madison Avenue at 57th Street
12th Floor, home to the IBM Linux Center of Competency
** RSVP Closes at 4:15pm the day of the meeting (sharp!) ***
You must R.S.V.P. for *EVERY* meeting.
Register at http://rsvp.nylug.org/
Check in with photo ID at the lobby for badge and room number.
Thanks to Henry Chin for making this meeting possible!
The original notice said Ajai was speaking on Ruby on Rails. While
that was an editing error, Ajai probably wouldn’t mind a few more Ruby
on Rails questions either.
Ajai Khattri
-on-
Gentoo Linux
“Use the source, Luke.” In 2002, Daniel Robbins released Gentoo Linux,
based on his belief in using source code to achieve maximum
customization and flexibity. The defining characteristic of Gentoo
is Portage, a package management and software distribution system,
somewhat similar to the BSD ports system. As the most popular
source-based distro, Gentoo has spawned intense feelings in both its
users and about its users. This month is your chance to get some
answers about the distro whose users spawn more conversation than its
code, and find out the truth about Gentoo. As a bonus, we’ll have some
Gentoo LiveCDs to take home so you can play with it yourself.
Please also join us on September 27, 2006 at IBM for next month’s
meeting. (topic to be announced)
About Ajai Khattri
Ajai Khattri was born in the United Kingdom, and after obtaining a
degree in computer science in London, came to the US in 1994 and lives
in Manhattan. He has come a long way since tinkering with his Sinclair
ZX80 at age 8, and now works as a web developer and sysadmin for local
ISP, bway.net after having previously been a developer, test engineer,
systems administrator, helpdesk technician and IT consultant.
When Ajai isn’t banging out code, he enjoys reading and photography.
He can be seen regularly at nycruby meetings, and is about to be the
only person ever to present to NYLUG two months in a row.
Swag (Give Away) – After the meeting… unusually terrific swag may be
given away.
Stammtisch
After the meeting … Join us around 8:30pm or so at TGI Friday’s,
located at 677 Lexington Avenue and 56th Street, second floor.
Northeast corner.
Please see our home page at http://www.nylug.org for the HTMLized
version of this announcement, our archives, and a lot of other good
stuff.
Thursday, August 24th, 2006
Canon Launches New Rebel DSLR
The Rebel XTi was announced and now features a larger LCD (nice), 10.1MP (not much more than the XT…) and some anti-dust mechanism to protect the sensor (haven’t seen the details of how this works.
Canon’s website has little detail or pictures either.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006
New KDE Start Menu
Very cool - they always have to try and do one better than Gnome…
Monday, August 21st, 2006
Letterman: Tribute to Bill Gates
This is funny if you haven’t seen it. Reminds me of the other day…
Monday, August 21st, 2006
One of those guys if you get to meet, or listen to him talk, you’re guaranteed to learn something
I don’t care how much you may think you know about technology and IT organizational behavior (yes, it’s slightly different than stock OB), but if you get the chance to meet or listen to Guru Vasudeva talk, I’d highly, highly recommend it. He has a way of seeing things that open up new perspectives – like why would you run 350 Linux servers on a mainframe. I’m not much of mainframe person myself, but the first time I heard this story I was amazed by the level of insight – not into just “why did we do it” – but also into the “what behavior did we drive,” “how that drove us to standards” and “how did the organization respond” types of insights.
The article gives you the 35,000 foot view and is ok, but I’d highly recommend finding a way to meet him firsthand.
Friday, August 18th, 2006
I hate Windows – yes it’s official now
Ok, so tonight I thought I’d take a stab at running Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2 and check it out – heck it’s free now. So… here’s my story.
First, I downloaded it after trying to remember my very very old Hotmail account password. Ok, got the setup.exe.
Next, I tried to install it. It requires IIS…. ok… Start->Add/Remove->Windows Components->IIS. Easy right. Well… then it wants my original Windows XP CD… arghh… ok… dig through box of “stuff” and find CD… install IIS.
Ok, all set to go now. Just double clicked setup.exe again to start VS2005 install. Going, going, get passed the IIS check, installing, installing. BAM! “Error 1402 could not open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Msxml2.DomDocument.4.0\CLSID” hmmm… sounds interesting. So I go online and search (Google says we can’t say “googled something” anymore because of trademark law – and they’re right). I find a dozen or so websites right away detailing users nightmares installing VS2005 and getting the same error I have (hmm… anyone in Redmond ever think of fixing this? these complaints are pretty old..)
Everyone says to just go in and delete like 6 registry entries. Ok, done. Try setup.exe again… nope. Same error; argh; go back into regedit and wow, those entries I deleted are back… hmm.. odd… delete them again. I see everyone says to then reinstall msxml4. Ok, download that and try installing it now… I get the same !@#! error that I got trying to install VS2005. Now I’m really getting frustrated.
So I find one website detailing a fix. Heck, it’s a Microsoft employees blog. I follow his steps, install yet another app that works with permissions, run a few .cmd scripts. Now I try installing msxml4 again – new error! Now it says there’s a problem with Windows Installer… aaaarrrggghh…..
So, I find the site for Windows Installer 3.1 download. It requires me to install Windows Genuine Advantage first though. Now I’ve heard what a nightmare this thing is… privacy gone.. Redmond gets remote control of my laptop stuff. Ok, I’m willing to gamble and this point and actually try to install it. You won’t believe what happens next – it won’t install because Windows Installer is broken! THAT’S WHY I’M TRYING TO DOWNLOAD IT!!!!!!
I give up. Seems my Windows install is completely busted now – I can’t in/uninstall anything and I can’t download the app that could fix it b/c of Windows Genuine Advantage (real advantage eh).
Time to go watch a movie. I’ll boot into SLED 10 or Gentoo and feel better tomorrow.
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
Time to patch your Vista PC… err… already?
I don’t even have Vista yet, but it looks like I’ll have some patches to install whenever I do…
http://news.com.com/Patch+Tuesday+comes+for+Vista+too/2100-1002_3-6106974.html
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
IDC – Discussing Open Source’s Impact on Software Innovation (and Likes It!)
http://www.tekrati.com/research/News.asp?id=7614
Need to get my hands on this one.. somehow it has eluded me. The topic sounds very interesting.
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
Linux for the masses (younger ones at least)
The OLPC $100 laptop launched in Thailand which is very cool… an entire generation can get started with open computing rather than going in reverse. I can’t wait to see how this goes – it will either be a huge success or it will just blow over with little impact. This thing has been so widely discussed, hyped, and attacked that I think it can only go big and in one direction – up or down. Should be a great vision to watch unfold. I’m hoping it’s a big winner.
Maybe the Thailand authorities traded this wacko in for a few laptops.
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
XenSource CEO – Drank a few beers and got Xen installed; then IBM won the award
Pretty funny Register story about Peter Levine’s LinuxWorld keynote. Looks like he’s making some tweaks to a secret business model. I think one of his reps disclosed the secret details to me accidentaly at a party a couple months back; but I’ll keep that to myself for now… weird that their keeping quiet about the go to market plans when a high potential group of vendors/partners were probably sitting in the seats.
If you haven’t tried Xen yet, take a tour with SLES 10 – it’s so easy to start with and it’s… well free so there’s very little excuse not to. It will be a game changer at some point. And it seems pretty stable to me; I think Red Hat just has a little Xen-envy at the moment, but soon they will be just as pumped about it as Novell.
I was a bit surprised though to see that Xen didn’t win the LinuxWorld best virtualization award – thought that would be a lock. Apparently our System p folks took top virtualization honors with the Advanced POWER Virtualization product (which is REALLY cool if you haven’t seen it in action). They also announced that x86 Linux applications would be able to run unmodified on POWER Linux systems in the near future – instant access to thousands of applications… too bad I don’t have one of these to play with.
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
Indiana gets schooled in Linux and open source
Ok, bad title… but very interesting Linux desktop story about adoption in Indiana schools. I see HP and Dell are helping this along and if this takes off, we may see more/better support for Linux on personal systems.
I found a few of the quotes from the article particularly telling:
“We have a million kids in the state of Indiana,” he continued. “If we were to pay $100 for software on each machine, each year, that’s $100 million for software. That’s well beyond our ability. That’s why open source is so attractive. We can cut those costs down to $5 [on each computer] per year.”
Huffman said he’s eager to get a read on student acceptance of Linux. In surveying one classroom last year, he asked a student what he thought of using a Linux desktop vs. a Windows desktop, and the student responded, “Who cares?”
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006
Writely… Lots of Potential… But Just Potential…
Today I finally got my “invite to try Writely” that I signed up for the day Google bought it. I had seen it already via a colleague, but tried it out again to see if anything has changed. Well… since my last viewing, there was quite a bit of updating, but it’s still just “a web editor”.. sure there’s some minimal collaboration features built in and a couple tricks, but for the most part at this point…. I can do nearly as much document creation/editing in WordPress.
So… juries still out. There seems to be a lot of potential uses for this, but as of now, I’m not “wowed”
Monday, August 14th, 2006
IBM Sametime 7.5 native Linux client to be released
Add to the Notes on Linux announcement, Sametime on Linux. Let’s see… SLED 10 + Notes + Sametime… hmmm… that covers just about everything I use daily.
Sunday, August 13th, 2006
Open Source Drives Open Standards: Virtualization Proof Point
The message is simple, consistent, and we’ve seen it everywhere, but sometimes people get confused about open source and open standards and how they interact in the long term view. Here’s a proof point. XenSource, an open source hypervisor startup targeted Linux and won the main Linux server distributors over. VMWare mind you was already entrenched – and very closed. Xen has been the most talked about (but not used) technology for probably the last year. At the same time, Microsoft took note, decided to build an open standard with Xen cooperatively so that Windows and Xen enabled Linux distros could play nice.
Proof point: open source (and the threat of not being a part of the standard) drives open standards.
We’ve also seen this recently with Microsoft bending on ODF.
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