October 21, 2011
by sjvn01
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I don’t know exactly what happened with fellow ZDNet writer David Gewirtz’s Linux server, but I do know it was bad. Really bad.
He’s been having constant trouble updating and managing his software. The final straw was when he tried to install some updates to his hosted CentOS, a Red Hat Enterprise Linux clone, and it blew up on him.
His conclusion was that you need to be a Linux guru to keep a simple Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl (LAMP) up and running properly. I beg to differ.
October 21, 2011
by sjvn01
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In my initial look at Android 4, the first thing that impressed me was its cleaner interface. A closer look showed that the new, simple “Roboto” font helps to give Ice Cream Sandwich’s interface its crisp look.
October 20, 2011
by sjvn01
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Given my choice of desktops, I’m running Linux, but over the years Windows has gone from being a bad joke of a desktop operating systems–Windows ME and Vista–to being a reasonably good choice-Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7. But Windows 8? What the heck is Microsoft thinking?
After looking at Metro, Windows 8’s default interface, for the last month, all I see a lame, reactionary response to iPad and Android. In a broader sense, it’s Microsoft’s response to the move away from the desktop to smartphones and tablets.
Microsoft has made it clear that while there will be room for the Windows 7’s Aero style interface, in Windows 8, Microsoft really wants everyone working with the Metro interface and applications. When I look at Metro, I see gaudy colors, boxy designs, applications that can either run as a small tile or as full screen with no way to re-size or move windows. Where have I seen this before… Wait, I know! Windows 1.0!
No, I’m not kidding. Let’s take a look at Windows 1.0:
October 19, 2011
by sjvn01
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Silly name aside, Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), is perhaps the most important Android release to date. With this release, Google has brought its tablet Android fork, 3.x, back into sync with its smartphone trunk, 2.x. In addition, all of ICS will soon, as I understand it, be made open source.
What that means for you is that independent software vendors (ISV)s can stop wasting time in developing two different versions of programs and focus their energies on making the best possible Android applications. Since, at the end of the day, the success of any operating system is all about its applications, this bodes well for Android.
Like Google told its developers, “Android 4.0 is a major platform release that adds a variety of new features for users and app developers. Besides all the new features and APIs [application programming interfaces] discussed below, Android 4.0 is an important platform release because it brings the extensive set of APIs and Holographic themes from Android 3.x to smaller screens. As an app developer, you now have a single platform and unified API framework that enables you to develop and publish your application with a single APK that provides an optimized user experience for handsets, tablets, and more, when running the same version of Android-Android 4.0 (API level 14) or greater.”
Don’t get too excited about Android 4 quite yet though. While Android 4 has lots of good features–the most important of which I’m going to talk about here–it’s also not going to be available for most of you on your existing smartphones and tablets.
October 18, 2011
by sjvn01
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If you buy Microsoft’s explanation for the company requiring a version of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) on PCs that can run Windows 8, it’s there to protect users from next-generation malware. If you think that’s the only reason for the UEFI to be in there, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. The UEFI requirement is also there to block Linux and other alternative operating systems from booting on Windows 8 PCs. In response to this open-source operating system threat, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has started a petition to urge original equipment manufacturers (OEM)s to give people a way to easily opt out of Microsoft’s Windows 8 UEFI cage.
The FSF fears, with reason, that Microsoft will make it difficult, if not impossible, for end-users to install other operating systems, such as Ubuntu 11.10 on Windows 8 systems. So it is that the FSF is asking users to “Stand up for your freedom to install free software” by signing a petition asking that UEFI be installed on Windows 8 systems in a way that will allow users to install Linux or other alternative open-source operating systems such as FreeBSD or OpenIndana, the successor operating system to OpenSolaris.
Specifically, the FSF is urging “all computer makers implementing UEFI’s so-called ‘Secure Boot’ to do it in a way that allows free software operating systems to be installed. To respect user freedom and truly protect user security, manufacturers must either allow computer owners to disable the boot restrictions, or provide a sure-fire way for them to install and run a free software operating system of their choice. We commit that we will neither purchase nor recommend computers that strip users of this critical freedom, and we will actively urge people in our communities to avoid such jailed systems.”
October 18, 2011
by sjvn01
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As people are getting their heads around the economic benefits of cloud computing–pay just for what you use servers and services–I’ve been hearing a lot of people say they’d use the cloud if only they could move their existing servers to the cloud without a lot of blood, sweat, and toil. This is where Racemi, a cloud-services company, comes in with its easy server migration program.
Racemi’s answer for server to cloud migration is an online point-and-click tool that lets you easily take your servers from your server room to the cloud of your choice. This magic trick is called Racemi Cloud Path.
Cloud Path is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that the company claims “requires no infrastructure at the customer location so there is no hardware to buy and nothing to maintain. Cloud Path makes it possible to quickly migrate existing applications to cloud computing providers, like Amazon EC2, Rackspace, Terremark, and GoGrid without costly professional services or rebuilding servers from scratch. By comparison, it can take hours or even days to migrate an existing application manually, costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars.”