Practical Technology

for practical people.

March 12, 2012
by sjvn01
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A Linux desktop and tablet user and Windows 8

Some people think I dislike Windows in the same way some people dislike sports teams-I’m just prejudiced against the New York Yankees, Manchester United, Duke Blue Devils, whoever. Nope. I just dislike operating systems and programs that don’t run well. Over the years, though, Windows has improved. These days, in addition to my Mint Linux desktops, I happily run Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 SP1. Windows 8 though? Oh Lord!

When I installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview in VirtualBox and natively on another PC, I didn’t have high hopes for it. I’ve been playing with Windows 8 alpha releases for a while now and I found Windows 8, like Vista before it, to be pretty awful. But, I decided to give this latest sample of Windows 8 a fair chance to show me its stuff. Well, I’ve been kicking its tires for almost two weeks now and I’m here to tell you Windows 8, and its Metro interface are as awful as I feared they be.

A Linux desktop and tablet user and Windows 8. More >

March 12, 2012
by sjvn01
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What’s the best Linux server for you?

When it comes to clothes, I’m a normal guy. I just want to walk into a store, grab something that fits, buy it (What, try it on? Are you kidding!?), and head home. Well, that’s what I want to do. I’ve learned over the years that just because something should fit doesn’t mean that it will fit. It’s the same with Linux servers. Sure, they’re all built on the same code base and can run the same applications, but one may fit you perfectly while another may make you look like a clown.

Well, let’s start with that basic question you should bring to any computing decision: “What is it that you really want to do?”

Let’s say you have a company with several hundred to several tens of thousands of users. What do you want? This one is actually a pretty easy call. Your first choice should be Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Red Hat has big business support down to a fine art, and it’s easy to find certified technicians, administrators, and engineers who know their way around RHEL. It’s also supported on a wide variety of hardware. Whether you’re running x86 servers on racks, blade servers, IBM POWER systems, or mainframes, there’s a RHEL for you. In short, Red Hat is the gold standard of business Linux.

Is RHEL is too expensive for your taste? Well, you get what you pay for, but there are two other worthy business Linux distributions that deserve corporate attention. These are Oracle Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

What’s the best Linux server for you? More >

March 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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“Official” Fedora Linux Remix for Raspberry Pi arrives

It took several weeks longer than planned, but the “recommended” Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi, the credit-card sized computer that retails for $35, Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix is finally ready to run.

The distribution designer’s Chris Tyler announced the release on March 7th, but the official release came on March 8th. This Linux distribution is based on Fedora 14. This distribution, along with versions of Debian and Arch Linux for the Raspberry Pi, are now available for download.

According to the Raspberry Foundation, “The Remix is a distribution comprised of software packages from the Fedora ARM project, plus a small number of additional packages that are modified from the Fedora versions or which cannot be included in Fedora due to licensing issues – in particular, the libraries for accessing the VideoCore GPU on the Raspberry Pi.”

“Official” Fedora Linux Remix for Raspberry Pi arrives. More >

March 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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Wikipedia is leaving Go Daddy because of SOPA

Go Daddy, the well-known Internet registry, made a business blunder. The company supported the controversal Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Many people noticed, including Jimmy Wales, founder and head of Wikipedia, and were not happy. Wales publicly said he was going to pull Wikipedia’s domains, some of the most popular sites on the Web away from GoDaddy. Whoops.

Go Daddy’s executives, who aren’t fools, immediately started to back away from SOPA. But, even as Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman put his company in full reverse, he kept the door open to SOPA-like laws. Adelman wrote, “Go Daddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities.”

That loop hole of future potential laws appears to have been enough for Wales to go ahead and pull the trigger on Wikipedia’s Go Daddy registration. Wikipedia’s parent company, Wikimedia, announced on March 9th that they had completed their transfer of Wikipedia sites from GoDaddy.

Wikipedia is leaving Go Daddy because of SOPA. More >

March 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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In the beginning, there was the word processor

nce upon a time, and it wasn’t that long ago, instead of word processors like today’s favorites such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs or OpenOffice and its brother LibreOffice, we had to use typewriters. Some of us, dare I admit it, wrote by hand on paper. The horror! The horror! But, then along came word processors and the world changed.

In my case, I made the change-over in 1980. I went from using my “prized” IBM Selectric II to using two word processors at almost the same time. I’ve always been a glutton for punishment.

The first, and the one that counts as a real word processor, was WordStar. I first used it on an Osborne 1 “luggable” computer. This was a portable computer only in the sense that if you absolutely had to move it, you could “lug” its 24-pounds from one place to another. Of course, you had to have a power outlet where-ever you went, we were a long, long way from having batteries that could power something like the new iPad for ten hours.

WordStar, which was God’s gift to touch-typists, made it possible to use the control key-at the time the only “alternative” key most PC keyboards had–to copy, cut, and paste text. While there were earlier word processors, Electric Pencil, WordStar was for many of us the first word processor we could use on a general purpose PC.

In the beginning, there was the word processor. More >

March 7, 2012
by sjvn01
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The new iPad’s great but what’s wrong with a good, inexpensive Android tablet?

Don’t get me wrong. I think the new iPad sounds wonderful. The retina screen, which Ray Soneria predicted, looks great. Even if its A5X processor isn’t as fast as Apple claims, it’s still amazing fast. And, while I really doubt that the iPad’s battery will really last as long as they claim it will, even if comes close it will still be amazing battery performance. But, still the cheapest model, the 16GB Wi-Fi only, is $499. Might I suggest that at $199 Barnes & Noble’s Android-powered Nook Tablet might be the better deal?

What’s that? Of course, I know the Nook Tablet only has a 7-inch display, only has Wi-Fi, has a much slower processor, only 8GBs of storage, no camera at all, and it only runs a simplified version of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

If I wanted to, I could boot the Nook Tablet into Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwtch) with the brand new CyanogenMod 9. Once there, I’ve been able to add the usual Google Android apps to my modified Nook Tablet with the CyanogenMod 9 Google Apps package. But, while the geek in me rejoices in that, the ordinary user in me has found the simple Nook Tablet native interface to be just fine.

Still, there’s no question in my mind that the new iPad is the better tablet. I’ll get one. But, I can afford it. Can you?

The new iPad’s great but what’s wrong with a good, inexpensive Android tablet? More >