Michael Dolan Dot Com

Archive for October, 2008

Monday, October 27th, 2008

Seen on campus: 2 Ubuntu Laptop Success Stories

I have two younger sisters who are currently in college – both at the same school. It’s a private college and has what I would consider your average IT setup for a campus.

Within the first two weeks, both had their laptops infected by viruses separately – different viruses, different times. One was running XP, the other Vista on you basic Dell laptops. Of course, who did they call? Answer: me.

Well, I took in both laptops and tried to fix them. I found that viruses today are far more advanced – one modified the MBR and the other completely wiped out the Dell recovery partition – savvy indeed. I did my best to try re-installing their respective Windows OSs, but I found that Microsoft’s licensing practices prevented me from succeeding. First, I only had Pro CDs of XP and Vista so the Home license keys on the underside of each laptop were of no use. I’d install the OS, then Microsoft Genuine Advantage would block me… thanks Microsoft.

So I had them try calling Dell – of course, no luck. They wouldn’t send a replacement media for Windows. If I had the time and energy, I’d file a lawsuit against them tomorrow.

So I turned to my laptop OS of choice: Ubuntu. No chance for a license key or media obtainment problem.

My sisters had both seen me using Ubuntu before so they had seen “what it looked like” but they never knew it wasn’t Windows. When I loaded it on their laptops, they actually didn’t know it wasn’t Windows. In fact, the first thing they both did was try downloading/installing iTunes from Apple.com. No luck – Apple, where’s an Ubuntu client?

So I set them up with all the software they needed for iPods. They actually installed their own printers without even calling me (HP printers – great compatibility). They use OpenOffice for their papers/spreadsheets/presentations, Firefox was not new to them, and Evolution is just as easy as Outlook.

They’re now both about to close out their first semester – both made it on Ubuntu alone. And the best news – not a single virus.

More amazingly, the overall number of “support requests” have gone down. Even when they had Windows there were other reasons for calls, but now… only an occassional “how do I?” type question here or there. It’s been great. They easily download from the digital cameras, they manage their music collections (no corrupted iTunes libraries), and they use all the latest social media networks. Now they would both prefer to get a Mac, but that’s the really interesting part – they have no need for Windows.

We’re making progress. Ubuntu is leading the way.

Saturday, October 25th, 2008

Battling Bot Registration Spam

I setup Register Plus with re-Captcha today – we’ll see if that reduces the number of fake registrations I’ve been seeing.

I’ve been behind on blogging recently with an enormous amount of work but I have a few things coming.

Oh, and the next release of Ubuntu is coming out soon – test the RC now.

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Stephen O’Grady covers the Linux Foundation End User Summit

O’Grady’s comments, views and reaction to the Linux Foundation Summit here. Regrettably I couldn’t be there…

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Adobe releases Linux Flash player with launch of v10

My how far we’ve come when Adobe releases a Linux version of its Flash player concurrently with other platform releases. Great news! Now if only Apple would let them release an iPhone/Safari player..

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/15/200226

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Did hell freeze over? Broadcom releases an open source, Linux wireless driver

I had to read this article twice to ensure I was actually reading it correctly. Then I visited the Broadcom website and downloaded it just to be certain this wasn’t a hoax. Yes, Broadcom, the most open only about not supporting Linux has released an open source Linux wireless driver. And it’s really under an open source license. The source files I opened were clearly GPLv2.

So Dell and Canonical forced them into it – but they did it. I’m honestly shocked.

Linux has hit a critical mass. It may not be taking over the desktop world, but it has at least reached “Mac” support status.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/new_linux_broadcom_wi_fi_drivers_arrive

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Linux turns 17… world domination next?

I first installed Linux around this time in 1997… it doesn’t seem like it, but Linux has been around forever. Doc Searls notes it’s been 17 years since Linus first post. If you read to the end, Doc seems to also think the mobile explosion could lead to the ultimate end goal of world domination.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/linux-turns-17