Most of you already know this, but just in case:
Tag Archives: Linux
More on Open Source. Much, much more.
We have been discussing the relative quality of support in OpenSource v. proprietary software, and I am reminded of some other issues that we’ve spoken of before. We had a fight here some time back (in November) over the question of Black Boxes in research software (I won the fight), a topic which has been touched on in the present discussion. The code has to be exposed. (see also this for a specific example)
Another argument we’ve had is how a system like Linux is maintained vs. a system like Windows. Developers argue about this, but the truth is that since Linux and most of what is attached to it is OpenSource, the system can constantly be updated in a way that improves things (usually) going forward instead of simply building up code. (This is the question of a stable Kernel API vs. not.)
With respect to the business model, the difference between the two paradigms is astounding. To put it simply, a proprietary model allows and often encourages decisions that are just plain bad for the user. See for example:
- Microsoft Blocks Older File Formats
- Microsoft Attempts to Patent the Very Essence of Humanity
- Apple Feels It Owns You
In some ways, in the day to day experience of the end user, it is true that things like the Linux/MS difference, or more broadly the FOSS/Pirate difference is a cultural one. But certain truths are highly manipulated or overlooked.
For instance, Linux is grandma ready. It is a grandma ready as any other system has ever been. One of the reasons people think it is not is because they or someone they know encountered problems with installation. This overlooks another important truth: No arbitrary OS will install flawlessly on an arbitrary box. That has never been true. Of all the OS’s out there, a good distro of Linux will install easily on more boxes than any version of Windows that has ever, ever existed for all time up to now. That is a plain and simple truth that cannot be denied. For details, see this.
Open source is changing your life, even if you don’t know it. The maximum attained quality of the produce for OpenSource is always better when the project exists, in part because the requirements of the proprietary business model will interfere with best practices of development in almost all projects. OpenSource is usually more cost effective than proprietary solutions.
Since its origin, Open Source and Linux has been there to save us all!
What does it mean to be free?
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Printing Problems
The other day I wanted to print a single 4 by 6 photo on the all-in-one printer Lizzie gave me last year. I was doing this from my Linux computer. I assumed that this would be tricky because this is one of those machines that’s gotta have a complex and strange printer driver and maybe it would not work on my humble Linux box.
I don’ t know why I had such a stoopid thought. I got the image up in The Gimp, opened “Printer Properties” and specified that I wanted a 4 by 6 photo quality, and hit “Print.” And it was done.
Linux in Exile has a post on Windows Printing and how much of a pain it is. There are some Windows Jingoists giving Mr. Exile a hard time. Have a look: Frustrated by Windows printing
Another Linux Guide
A couple of days ago I told you about a “getting started” guide for Linux. Here is another free PDF file that you may find interesting. This is a 170 page Ubuntu reference guide. It predates the current version of Ubuntu, but the vast majority of the contents are 100% useful.
You need to go here to down load it.
How to pronounce ubuntu
“ubuntu” is a southern and/or eastern Bantu word … one of those words that is found in a number of languages and that no one is quite sure of the origin of. But this does not mean that it can’t be pronounced correctly.
There are very straight forward rules of pronunciation for Bantu words in general. Especially in Eastern and Southern Bantu languages (of which there are hundreds) you can think of the vowels as always being pronounced the same way whenever and wherever they are encountered. There are not really any silent vowels, and although there is some elision, there is very little. In the case of “ubuntu” all the vowels are separate so that is not an issue. And all the vowels in “ubuntu” are the same vowels, therefore, they are all pronounced the same way.
Here is a Bantu vowel pronunciation guide that you may wish to clip out and keep in your pocket:
a like “ah” such as “Ah, I see. Roosevelt’s dog’s name was fala. Aha!”
e like “ey” such as “Ey, how boot a Molsen’s, ey?”
i like “eeek!” such as “This is good shit, mon” in a thick Caribbean or Mexican accent.
o like “oh or “toe” such as “No. Which part of ‘No’ do you not ‘Know'”
u like “oooo” such as “Desmond Tutu does not wear a tutu.”
There are not really alternative pronunciations for these vowels. Just pronounce them as specified here and you’ll be fine. In truth, when you put a vowel between some consonants or next to some other vowel, it will get pronounced slightly differently, but your mouth, tongue, and larynx takes care of that for you. Just follow the guide above until it is internalized.
So, for example, a common Eastern Bantu (KiSwahili) greeting is:
Tutaonana, habari gani?
Which is pronounced (to an English speaker):
Too Ta Oh Na Na, Hah Ba Reee Gah Knee
Not
Tut own anna, hey berry gain ee
So, the vowels in “ubuntu” are simply:
Ooo , ooo, oooo
Like that kid on Welcome Back Kotter:
“Ooo, ooo, ooo, Mr. Kotter! Call on me!”
Then you stick in the consonants and the rest is pretty obvious:
Ooo (as in “ooo ooo ooo, I know the answer”) .. boon (as in Daniel Boone) … too (as in “me too!”).
Ooo boon too… ubuntu.
Not Ooo bun too
Not Ooo boon toe
Not oo bun toe
Just ooo boone too …. ubuntu.
But what does it all mean? Ask this guy:
Do you want to get started with Linux?
There are a lot of ways to do this, but I just ran across one that may be just what some people need. This is an Open Access book called The Linux Starter Pack produced by Linux Format (which is an over-priced but entertaining Linux magazine).
The “starter pack” is a giant PDF file, 130 pages, which tells you how to install and use a common Linux distribution known as Ubuntu. You’ve probably heard of it.
Here is where you download the PDF file and learn more about it.
Which boots faster, Linux or Windows?
Everybody knows the answer is almost always Linux, and one of the reasons for that is because Windows cheats. Mr. Exile has run a test in which he compares two laptops, one with four times the memory and about double the processor speed and a more advanced processor, with the hotter computer running XP and the older, less powered computer running Linux.
Since the valid test is not when the desktop pops up (because Windows is still busy booting when that happens), Mr. Exile instead timed how long it took for him to have a browser opened to his web based email page.
If you are a Windows Apologist Jingoist, don’t even bother reading Mr. Exile’s analysis, because you will simply become depressed and despondent when you see the results. If you are a Happy Linux person, go over to Mr. Exile’s post and drop him a line.
The analysis and results are here.
I should say that I have the same exact experience, except to get to email, I compare Evolution on a Linux computer with Outlook on a managed Windows computer. The amount of time from turning on the Windows computer on a Monday Morning (I turn the computer off over the weekend) and being able to read the most recent email on the managed computer is between 15 and 25 minutes, if I don’t have to reboot. It has been as long as 45 minutes, and earlier this week it was one day because the network was borked so I just went home and worked there. Yes, you read that right. NORMAL startup is 15 to 20 minutes before the first readable email.
The amount of time on the computer running Linux and using Evolution to access the same account plus four other accounts is … I don’t know, never felt the need to measure it. Three or four minutes, I think.
Best Comment Of The Month!
… comes from D.C. Sessions.
HERE
…
Why Linux is Better
Why is Linux the coolest erector set in the world, that you should be willing to pay for? In part because Linux lacks the kind of freaky design oddities that arise when the makers of the software must go to meetings with a marketing department and a bunch of liability conscious lawyers, alternatively. In part because the fundamental design of the system is such that it is powerful yet lean at the same time. In part because basic security is so much easier to manage in Linux that it is not necessary for the processor to spend a sizable amount of time (using big chunks of memory) fighting viruses and other threats.
You know how spam works: It does not matter if one in one thousand people are annoyed by spam, as long as one in a thousand responds in the way the spammer wants. If you send out a million spamoids, that will yield one thousand positive results. Not bad.
If a committee of managers and marketers sits down and makes decisions about how the software everyone will be using works, how it looks, how it operates, they will sometimes (often, perhaps) make decisions that actually cause harm. They will opt for features that will annoy many users, if they know they can get away with it and that it will produce some positive effect that may have nothing to do with what the end user is looking for. A relatively innane example, but one that illustrates this principal well, is the feature of Window’s Help that provides, as an answer to almost any question (sometimes as the only answer) “Would you like to tell if the software you are using is pirated?” WTF?
In contrast, OpenSource software is designed, built, and deployed in an entirely different manner. Yes, there are committees, or small groups that actually are making most of the decisions, but these groups are generally open in their communication and anyone can get involved. The decision making process is fundamentally different for OpenSource than it is for Commercial software.
(Note: OpenSource does not equal Linux. Linux IS an OpenSource operating system, and Ubuntu Linux and a couple of other versions are especially well designed for people just cutting their teeth on the penguin, but OpenSource software is also available to run on Windows and Macs.)
If you want to see how this works, and get a feel for how open this process is, pick up a copy of Linux Journal (the one meatland computer mag I read regularly) and read the column they have every month on what is going on with the Linux Kernel. If you are like me, you’ll understand a very small percentage of the technical detail, but you will see things being discussed of the type that are not discussed openly in commercial context. If you came apon a document discussing this sort of detail for Windows, you would either be a very very deep insider or you would be followed by guys in a black helicopter until they hunted you down and killed you. Like in that movie.
That is a pretty remarkable difference. And it is one of the main reasons that Linux is better.
Gnome vs. KDE
No, this is not a post about which one is better. Not yet, anyway. I just want to mention that today, March 18th, the next version of Gnome is expected to come out, and yesterday, March 17th, I finished my personal test run of KDE 4.whatever.
I like KDE … the new version …. to recommend it and to seriously consider using it just for fun on some computer somewhere. But my main desktop will remain Gnome because, well, it has not annoyed me and it works.
Keep an eye out for the new Gnome. Details here.
Economy + sucks = Linux 4TW
As has been predicted, with the economy in a down turn, businesses (and everybody) are abandoning sucky proprietary software for free and excellent OpenSource software …
A February survey of IT managers by IDC indicated that hard times are accelerating the adoption of Linux. The open source operating system will emerge from the recession in a stronger data center position than before, concluded an IDC white paper.
Sixty-five percent of the 330 respondents said they plan to increase Linux server workloads by 10% or more this year. Sixty-three percent said they will increase their use of Linux on the desktop by more than 10% this year, although such an increase would still probably represent a miniscule share of all desktops. Forty-nine percent said they expect Linux will be their primary server platform within five years.
The One True Editor
Emacs is exactly like a religion. A western religion, at least, operates by testing the faith of its participants. The god coldly allows babies to die of unexplained illnesses, violence to affect the innocent, wars to break out, natural disasters to ruin everything. That we mortals have faith that this is a loving and intelligent, all knowing god causes us to question reality itself, our selves, our church or temple, and our religious leaders. But this questioning followed by resolve, strengthens character. Or, ruins character. It could really go either way, which is why so many object to religious pursuits.
But in Emacs we find a solution.
Continue reading The One True Editor
Lenovo Dual Screen Laptop
The Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds is a rather unique product, targeted squarely at mobile professionals who require the power, features, and performance of workstation-class machine on the go. We previously evaluated the standard ThinkPad W700 and praised the system for its performance and stand-out integrated features, like a Wacom Digitizer Tablet and X-Rite Color Calibrator. The ThinkPad W700ds takes all of the features offered by the W700 and ads a secondary, slide-out display, which increases monitor real-estate by 39%.
Gigs of everything too. Linux plays well with Lenovo laptops, even if Lenovo (as a company) does not always play well with Linux.
Technology Today
Should OpenOffice.org (OOo) writer (the text editor unit of the OpenSource office suite) have the horizontal ruler, on the top of the page, visible by default, or should it be hidden by default? This is the argument that it should be hidden by default. If you become a registered user of the OOo web site, you can actually vote on this. Let me know how that goes.
Xfce 4.6 is released (yesterday). Xfce is a gnome-ish desktop for Linux that uses very few resources (and has very few bells and whistles). “Xfce 4.6 features a new configuration backend, a new settings manager, a brand new sound mixer, and several huge improvements to the session manager and the rest of Xfce’s core components.” Details here. Personally, I’m thinking about setting up an install that uses emacs as the ‘desktop.’ I’ve got an old laptop that I might try that with. I would have the simplest possible windows manager to run a web browser and do everything else in emacs. This would be for writing in coffee shops and similar locals. That would be cool. I would name the computer “Ivan.”
But even with emacs running the interface, one might want to use vim now and then. and since everything is running on the command line one would want to use regular expressions all the time. So I’ll be wanting to read about Using regular expressions in Vim
According to reports, OpenOffice 3.1 is blindingly fast, and it has some interesting new features and important bug fixes. It won’t ever be as good as my fantasy emacs system, but for a gui-office it is pretty impressive. Here’s and early look.