Friday, July 31, 2009

Ubuntu's parent company Canonical is launching "switch to Ubuntu" migration services

Including varying levels of desktop support.

First, a little praise for Canonical: Now is exactly the right time to promote Ubuntu to individuals and small business owners. The reason: We’re nearing another PC market inflection point, where millions of uses will be forced to decide whether to hold tight to Windows XP or leap to Windows 7. Converting some of those users from Windows to Ubuntu sounds like a logical, timely strategy.

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/30/canonical-launching-switch-to-ubuntu-migration-services/
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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Drama in the Linux world Linus vs Cox; trouble at CentOS

After a dispute with Linus Torvalds, the long time developer and Linux kernel maintainer Alan Cox has stopped development of the Linux TTY subsystem. A debate took place on the Linux kernel mailing list over the question of whether changes in the TTY code should, or could, affect the operation of existing programs
Dispute between Linux gurus Alan Cox and Linus Torvalds



Open Letter to Lance Davis
July 30, 2009 04:39 UTC

This is an Open Letter to Lance Davis from fellow CentOS Developers

It is regrettable that we are forced to send this letter but we are left with no other options. For some time now we have been attempting to resolve these problems:

You seem to have crawled into a hole ... and this is not acceptable.

You have long promised a statement of CentOS project funds; to this date this has not appeared.

You hold sole control of the centos.org domain with no deputy; this is not proper.

You have, it seems, sole 'Founders' rights in the IRC channels with no deputy ; this is not proper.

When I (Russ) try to call the phone numbers for UK Linux, and for you individually, I get a telco intercept 'Lines are temporarily busy' for the last two weeks. Finally yesterday, a voicemail in your voice picked up, and I left a message urgently requesting a reply. Karanbir also reports calling and leaving messages without your reply.

Please do not kill CentOS through your fear of shared management of the project.

Clearly the project dies if all the developers walk away.

Please contact me, or any other signer of this letter at once, to arrange for the required information to keep the project alive at the 'centos.org' domain.

Sincerely,

Russ Herrold
Ralph Angenendt
Karanbir Singh
Jim Perrin
Donavan Nelson
Tim Verhoeven
Tru Huynh
Johnny Hughes

http://www.centos.org/
Also on the website, it states:
Facts Regarding CentOS and the Open Letter to Lance Davis
- CentOS is not Dead or going away.





Read more...

Easy Netbook Linux

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Software/8949.html

But Linux's declining popularity on netbooks also had something to do with the choice of Linux versions that PC makers chose to run on their hardware. Acer's awfully-named Linpus Linux was adequate but had none of the coolness of something like Fedora or Ubuntu Linux. And Asus' EEE Linux also failed to sparkle.

Easy Peasy

Now there is a version of Linux that runs exceptionally well on the likes of the Asus EEE, even on the smallest 4G version with its slimmed down solid state drive. Easy Peasy Linux (http://www.geteasypeasy.com/) was previously called Ubuntu EEE and, as its former name suggests, is based on the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution.

I installed Eeebuntu (NBR) on my wife's eeePC. Like it a lot, but this looks really similar.




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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Debian to adopt time-based releases ... well maybe not.

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/26567/1090/

The Debian GNU/Linux Project has decided to adopt time-based development freezes from now on, on a two-year cycle.

The policy was proposed and adopted at the project's yearly conference which is taking place in Caceres, Spain.

According to the scheme, details of which have been released by project spokesperson, Meike Reichle, from now on freezes will take place in the December of every odd year - 2009, 2011 and so on.


edit!

http://mdzlog.alcor.net/2009/07/29/debian-is-not-switching-to-time-based-releases/

they will use the same approach as in previous releases, where they set criteria for release-critical bugs, and release when all release-critical bugs are closed.

The difference is that they will schedule the freeze date in advance. This means that there is a bounded time period available for new development, where things sometimes need to be broken in order to make progress. Once the freeze point is reached, Debian developers will minimize breakage and focus on stabilization. Once the RC bug count drops to zero, they’ll release as usual. That could happen soon after the freeze, or it could take a long time, depending on how many bugs are introduced during development.

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

"Which linux desktop for you?" and "an open source answer to Google Apps"

GNOME, KDE, and Xfce: Which Desktop is Right for You?

OpenGoo: An Open Source Answer To Google Apps




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Monday, July 27, 2009

We live on the east coast, where we happen to have slaves. ... and happen to believe in slavery. and made in china.


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Why aren't schools adopting open source?

I've often wondered this same thing, myself.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=811

Adoption = savings, freedom, updates
Here in Kentucky the public schools are seriously strapped for cash - to the point that arts, humanities, and teachers (a precious commodity) are being dropped to save money. I have a suggestion for the public school systems around the country - adopt open source software and you will save a lot of money. Not only will you save a lot of money, you will also be able to keep all of your software up to date.

This would not be the case if the schools adopted open source software. No longer would schools be using out of date and unsupported operating systems (I know schools and institutions still using Window 98 because they can’t afford to upgrade). Every school would have the latest-greatest software and the students would be somewhat closer to the cutting edge.

If adopting open source software would allow schools to save thousands upon thousands of dollars per year (per school) I have to ask, again:
Why are schools across the country not migrating to open source software so they can focus the dollars spent on software in such a way to further the education of our children?

Educational institutions are supposed to be a pillar of learning and intellegent decisions. But it seems, as far as software is concerned, our educational system is consistently making some farily unintelligent choices.

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Distro-hopping update (Part 2)

Of everything I have tried so far, my top 3 favorites at this point in time are:
  1. Ubuntu
  2. Sabayon
  3. sidux
  4. Linux Mint

1. I like Ubuntu a lot, and I have been using it for quite a while. The LTS is stable, and does not give me any problems--or they are few and far enough between that I can't really remember the last issue I had. I use this on my desktop. Pros: stable. just works. Cons: can be a pain to configure with codecs/dvd burn type stuff. Also not always with the latest software.

2. Sabayon is pretty awesome. based on Gentoo, it is definitely powerful, and runs well even on this junky-ish laptop. Entropy is well laid out and handles updates and package dependencies. Also, emerge/portage is available for packages not contained in the Sabayon repositories. Pros: fast. flexible. stable, for the most part. everything works as it should. Cons: have had a couple of bugs, but definitely nothing major.

3. sidux. another one that is very cool. sidux is based on Debian, so it can use Synaptic GUI with the very powerful apt-get command. the debian repositories are filled with tons of stuff, and .deb packages are very common. this is a rolling release distro, so there are no real upgrades in the normal sense. just run a command and everything is updated to the latest version. neat. Pros: bleeding edge software (and lots of it!). rolling release model means no big upgrades. fast. Cons: things can break when running the latest--the downside of being based off of unstable branch/sid.

4. Linux Mint. This is like a better version of Ubuntu. comes with codecs, video drivers and things preconfigured. all of the Ubuntu repositories are available. Pros: stable, lots of software available. Cons: can't really think of any, unless the style just doesn't suit you.
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Friday, July 24, 2009

My Distro-hopping journey (part 1)

A while back I mentioned that I wanted to start testing out/reviewing several GNU/Linux and BSD operating systems. I've been doing this, however I have found that it is awfully imprudent (or maybe just overambitious) for me to do a full in-depth review of each one.

That really isn't much my style, anyhow. I don't really observe all the specifics about much of anything. I'm more of a "generalizer."

So, instead of having the goal of writing a full review of each one, what I am going to do is have a personal synopsis of each one, and how well it meets my criterion for being an OS that I like, or could even come to love.

Mainly, the things I would like to see:
  • a decent-sized software repository
  • a way to get updates (both for newer software, and security) that is not too complicated
  • a few desktop environments to choose from
  • stability
  • support of newer hardware
  • speed
  • ease of use (this does not necessarily mean "no command line" or "no config files")
Obviously, can't really have everything--but that's why I would like to see them, instead of them being "must-haves."

So far I have used:
  1. CentOS
  2. CrunchBang
  3. Linux Mint
  4. Mandriva
  5. openSuse (although I wouldn't say I actually got to USE it)
  6. Pardus (2008.2 and 2009)
  7. PCBSD
  8. Puppy
  9. Sabayon
  10. sidux
  11. Slackware
  12. Ultimate Edition
  13. VecorLinux
Some of these I haven't used very extensively--Puppy and sidux, for example.


My day-to-day distros:
  • Desktop: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS "Hardy" (been using this since it came out)
  • Laptop: Sabayon 4.2 Gnome


Of those my top 3 favorites so far are:
  1. Linux Mint
  2. Sabayon
  3. Pardus
My least favorite 3 (1 being the worst for me):
  1. openSuse
  2. CentOS
  3. Slackware
I don't want to get flamed for these. I do not mean that they are bad, or even that I disliked them-- I just would not choose them for my daily use, for various reasons.

I'll write a little more in-depth overview of each as I get the chance.
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

GI Joe PSA redub parodies!

Part 1




Click read more for Part 2




And Part 2:




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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

C4L: Don't Tread on Me (newsletter)

Some of this is cheesy (like asking for money), but some of it is good.

Click to visit Campaign for Liberty

July 13, 2009

Dear Friend of Liberty:

When you’re backed into a corner, all you can do is FIGHT your way out.

Today, that’s exactly where Patriots like you and me find ourselves.

It doesn’t matter that the big government politicians from BOTH parties have nearly wrecked and bankrupted our country.

The out of control Fed...Trillion dollar stimulus bills...Record deficits under both Presidents Bush and Obama...

Bailouts...Government takeover of the Auto industry...Taxpayer-funded handouts for bankers and Wall Street...

I’m sick and tired of it. And I’m sure you are too.

...and there's more.



You and I can’t count on politicians in either party to do the right thing, not without being pushed.

The good news is Ron Paul and Campaign for Liberty are fighting back. And you and I are starting to see results.

Not only that, but there’s a groundswell of folks all over the country who are also FED UP and are supporting our cause of Liberty.

With our battles heating up, I’m asking you to dig deep today to support Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty.

These battles simply can’t be won without your help.

Your support for ALL of Campaign for Liberty’s critical efforts is absolutely vital, including:
*** AUDIT THE FED, so the American people can finally see the corruption and economic devastation caused by the central planning of a handful of bankster bureaucrats;

*** STOPPING the radical environmentalists’ Cap-and-Tax scheme that would drive already sky-high energy costs through the roof, massively hike taxes on hardworking Americans and grind our economy to an immediate halt;

*** DEFEATING Big Government Medicine that would not only lead to astronomical tax hikes, but would give big government bureaucrats decision-making power over our healthcare system and virtually EVERY medical decision.
That’s why Campaign for Liberty is fighting – and why I’m asking you to act TODAY to push our battles forward!

You see, Campaign for Liberty supporters are making a REAL impact in Washington.

So many patriotic Americans are FED UP, and it’s thanks to your efforts on H.R. 1207, AUDIT THE FED.

Already, Dr. Paul’s bill has gained the support of over half of the House of Representatives! That would have been unthinkable just a year ago.

But today is a new day for our movement.

You know, it’s funny. If you read a newspaper, you won’t see a call for a full-fledged audit of the Federal Reserve.

Turn on the television and you won’t hear the talking heads calling for AUDIT THE FED.

So what’s happening? Where is the pressure coming from?

It’s simple. It’s YOU!

It’s called a grassroots R3VOLUTION.

And if you and I can succeed, Washington DC and your state government will never be the same.

But the truth of the matter is there’s still much, MUCH work to be done if we’re going to hold on to the precious freedoms we still enjoy and restore the freedoms that have been whittled away.

This is not a battle that will be won in weeks, or even months. You and I must prepare for long-term revolution to take back our country and our liberty.

In the past, the Socialists and Statists have used crises like our current economic disaster to grab more and more power.

They’re trotting out the same tired playbook now, trying to take more of our money and liberty each passing day.

The only difference is that -- in the past -- there’s been no cohesive, organized opposition ready and able to fight back.

But today, we have Ron Paul.

Today, there is Campaign for Liberty.

And you.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of folks all over the country just like YOU.

And together, we must fight back, and not back down from this challenge.

Of course, just knowing how the regime works and what it’s up to isn’t going to be enough.

As I said before, we have to start “throwing punches.”

It’s sad but true -- too many politicians don’t care about right or wrong or what’s good or bad for America.

If they did, they wouldn’t be so intent on stripping us of our God-given rights, plunging us into unconstitutional, undeclared wars and spending us to the verge of bankruptcy!

At the end of the day, too many politicians care ONLY about getting and keeping POWER.

That’s why if our movement is to succeed, you and I must FIGHT back and DEFEAT the big government politicians’ pet legislation.

And then hold the politicians accountable as well.

But to do this, the R3VOLUTION must continue to grow.

Already, we’ve recruited over 180,000 supporters for Campaign for Liberty. But that’s nowhere near the number we’ll need to really bring pressure to our elected officials. And my research indicates there may be as many as 700,000 more ready to join us – if we can reach them.

As I’m sure you know, reaching like-minded Americans through direct mail, phone banking and the internet to recruit them to our cause all takes a good deal of money.

Media campaigns like the one we’re about to embark on to help push Audit the Fed are even more expensive.

And unlike the government, we can’t just print money to cover our operations.

That’s why I’m counting on you.

I’m counting on you to make a generous contribution TODAY to help Campaign for Liberty fight back against the politicians’ big government schemes and recruit hundreds of thousands of new supporters.

When Dr. Paul announced he was running for President in 2007, few people could have imagined the movement he -- and you -- would create.

You see, you are an important part of this movement.

And today, despite all the naysayers, YOU have a very real opportunity to help turn our movement into a major political force in Washington through Campaign for Liberty.

And what you and I are able to accomplish over the next several months will help determine whether Dr. Paul’s Presidential run was truly the “start of something” or just “a flash in the pan.”

I think I know the answer. But I’m counting on every single one of Dr. Paul’s supporters to heed his call to arms today.

So please make a generous contribution of $250, $100, or $50 TODAY.

Nothing worth achieving is ever easy. Nor is it free. And I’m sure you agree, restoring real liberty in our time is truly a goal worth achieving.

Sincerely,

John F. Tate
President

P.S. Campaign for Liberty supporters are making a real impact. But the truth is, you and I have to prove we’re here for the long haul.

That’s why what Campaign for Liberty can accomplish over these next several months will help determine whether Ron Paul’s Presidential candidacy was the “start of something” or just “a flash in the pan.”

So I urge you to help Campaign for Liberty fight to reclaim our freedoms, to stop more Big Government schemes and to grow our movement by making a generous contribution of $250, $100 or $50 TODAY.

Don’t let this opportunity go to waste!




Read more...

Sunday, July 12, 2009

VirtualBox.... is amazing.

I know I'd heard of it before, but i don't know why it has never crossed my mind before to use it! VirtualBox is so cool in that it lets you install any operating system WITHIN your existing operating system through the "virtual box" which is basically like it's own virtual computer. This is SO much easier than doing an actual install everytime I want to test out a new OS.

sweet.





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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

5 reasons Microsoft is afraid of Linux

5 reasons Microsoft is afraid of Linux.

Maybe "WILL be" is a better choice of words. Right now the market share isn't too concerning for them, I'm sure. But I bet they are looking forward.







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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Windows pricing is so jacked up...

Link

Monopoly lets you determine your own pricing, I guess...

Until then, let me just say that a good desktop Linux, like Ubuntu 9.04, Fedora 11, and openSUSE 11.1 won't cost you a penny and that when Apple upgrades its operating system to Snow Leopard, it will cost you $29. Period. No extra charges. No half-a-dozen different versions with different requirements and features sets. Apple and the Linux vendors just deliver the goods, not a beating with their desktop operating system offerings. Too bad Microsoft won't follow their lead. Of course, so long as Windows users are willing to pay to be abused, I guess we can count on Microsoft continuing to beat on them.




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Sunday, July 5, 2009

Linux Review: openSUSE 11.1

OpenSUSE

I would tell you how it was...but the live DVD never would load Xorg GUI, "too many failures."
If you can't even get X to load...I don't think it bodes well for the rest of the OS.

I tried a few times, and I could dig around online and try to figure it out, but honestly this is something I feel should work out of the box (especially for a major distro)--and if it doesn't, well, I don't want any part of it.

Pity, I was looking forward to checking it out.
Oh well

Conclusion: EPIC FAIL




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Linux Review: Mandriva 2009.1

this was originally posted on July 3rd... I have come back to edit it as I gave Mandriva another shot. Click "read more" to see the update

Mandriva

This was really a disappointment. I really wanted to like this distro, but that just wasn't in the cards.

The liveCD booted up nicely, came up to an attractive desktop. Everything seemed to work right out of the box. However, Firefox did crash a few times--but I figured this would be resolved once the OS was actually installed.

Photobucket

I really liked the "linux control center", and rpmDrake looked pretty cool (click "read more" below for a couple more screenshots).

After playing around a little more, I decided to go ahead and install. It plodded along normally...and then froze. nothing at all was happening, and I had to shutdown. This was a good way along with the install process, too.

Conclusion:
It may have been a hardware conflict or something of that sort, so I will definitely be trying out Mandriva again. In the liveCD, I didn't see anything that would particularly make me want to switch from Ubuntu, but it does look interesting!





Photobucket
Photobucket


Mandriva

-----------------------------------------------------------------
July 5th - Re-review

So I decided to give Mandriva another chance. I tried to install again, and it did freeze, but I let it sit for long enough and it unfroze and actually completed installation. However, then I messed up the part of installing the bootloader... Mandriva did not show alongside my Ubuntu installation. Doh! So I went ahead and did the install again, but this time there was no Ubuntu alongside the "linux" entry (which I renamed Mandriva). Luckily I had made a backup of /boot/grub/menu.lst so I added my ubuntu entries back in.


Photobucket

Photobucket


NOW...everything is working normally. So far, no firefox crashes. The updater is doing lots of updates. System is up-to-date.

I don't really use a lot of software, but it seems like everything that I use was already included:
  • the Gimp
  • Openoffice
  • Firefox
  • Brasero
  • Pidgin

I did have to install gParted, though.

this seems like a pretty solid OS, and it seems to have several things that I like...
  • video drivers installed (although not totalliy free [as in freedom], it works!)
  • with the "Linux Control Center" it looks as though setting up Samba MS Windows shares and otherwise connecting to MS Windows is made to be pretty easy
  • the RPMDrake package manager looks like it works well, as does the software updater
  • good amount of software options in the rpmDrake repositories

That's about all I can say, really. It WORKS, and it would do everything I need to do. Although there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with Mandriva (aside from the initial install flop), there is not anything that "draws" me to it over any other distro. For now I most certainly prefer Ubuntu (or even Fedora).


Forums/Linux Reviews


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Saturday, July 4, 2009

Celebrating freedom with open source


Celebrating freedom with open source


Happy Independence day to my US readers. This holiday is a celebration of the United States adoption of the Declaration of Independence which declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Of course many countries have similar celebrations serving a similar event in their history. And with this celebration, I thought it would be a good day to remind everyone what open source is all about…at least on a fundamental, non-TCO-ROI level.

Freedom.






http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/
# Date: July 4th, 2009
# Author: Jack Wallen


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Thursday, July 2, 2009

We The People Stimulus Package



Bob Basso author of "Common Sense" plays the role of Thomas Paine to ignite the fire of change in America. Patriotism and Pride for America lead Thomas Paine to help take back America!

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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

funny because it's true: Microsoft reminds us that Windows is f*cking expensive


Microsoft reminds us that Windows is f*cking expensive


also another related article:
Microsoft punishes Linux, Mac and white box PC builders

This one is pretty funny... mostly about a guy that bought a Gateway PC and tried to run Vista...and what ensued...
It Is Like a Cow in That I Can’t Use It to Get Work Done


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