Practical Technology

for practical people.

May 25, 2011
by sjvn01
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Fedora 15’s five best features

Fedora Linux not for everyone. If you’re an experienced Linux user who wants an easy-to-use desktop Linux, I recommend Mint 11. If you’re new to Linux and just want something that’s easy to pick up and use, I think you should give Ubuntu 11.04 a try. But, if you’re a Linux expert, and want to explore the outer limits of what’s possible with Linux, then Red Hat’s new Fedora 15 Linux is the distribution for you.

Why? Well, here are my five favorite reasons to use Fedora 15. I’m going to start though with one reason I don’t care for this release of Fedora. Let’s call this one: Feature 0.

0) The GNOME 3 desktop environment

GNOME 3 claims to be the “the next generation of GNOME with a brand new user interface. It provides a completely new and modern desktop that has been designed for today’s users and technologies.” It’s not.

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May 23, 2011
by sjvn01
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Mint 11: The “Un-Unity” Ubuntu desktop Linux

I like Ubuntu’s Unity interface, but I wouldn’t use it all the time, and I know many of you don’t like it at all. Like me, you like getting your hands dirty with the operating system and Unity is meant for new Linux users. That’s why for day-in, day-out use I’m now using the Ubuntu Linux-based Mint 11.

Instead of Unity, Mint 11, which is now at the release candidate stage, uses the old Linux Mint desktop layout, mintMenu system, and the same desktop elements featured in previous releases. It also doesn’t use GNOME 3.0. That’s fine by me since I don’t care for GNOME 3 at all, but my reasons for that are a story for another day. Today, I want to tell you why I think Mint 11 is a great desktop Linux for experienced Linux users.

To put Mint 11, Katya, which is based on Ubuntu 11.04, through its paces, I first installed it on one of my main Linux workstations. This is a Dell Inspiron 530S powered by a 2.2-GHz Intel Pentium E2200 dual-core processor with an 800-MHz front-side bus. This box has 4GBs of RAM, a 500GB SATA (Serial ATA) drive, and an Integrated Intel 3100 GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) chip set.

How well did it work? Well, after a week on it, I also installed the Mint 11 release candidate on my main work laptop. This is a Lenovo ThinkPad R61 with its 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7500 and 2GBs of RAM. In other words, it not only worked well, it had already proved trustworthy enough that I’d switched to using it on a production machine.

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May 23, 2011
by sjvn01
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What happened to my Klout!?

There I was, happy as a clam with my Klout ranking of “Thought Leader” and a Klout score of 62 when suddenly my Klout score plunged to 1. On a one to hundred scale that put my social networking influence slightly below the neighborhood cat. It turns out I wasn’t the only one. All of Klout’s millions of users had had their scores reset to 1.

Now you think “What nonsense! Who cares what your Klout score is!” I’d agree… until a few months ago when I was in the early stages of a book deal and the publisher insisted on knowing what my Klout score was.

So what is a Klout score? I quickly found out that, according to Klout, that the Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.”

I soon discovered that many companies, and not just publishers, were using Klout scores to determine if they want to work with social networking “experts,” public relations people, marketers, and, oh yes, writers and journalists.

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May 23, 2011
by sjvn01
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Is the Windows business desktop dying?

Once upon a time, you couldn’t get fired for buying IBM. We all used to use Internet Explorer. And today, many of us still think that Windows is the only business desktop. But just as IBM and IE are no longer unassailable, I think the days of the Windows business desktop hegemony may be numbered.

No, I don’t think my beloved Linux is finally going to become the desktop of choice. What’s going to start to loosen the Windows desktop stranglehold is a combination of factors.

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May 22, 2011
by sjvn01
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Where Novell & SUSE Linux goes from here

Attachmate’s purchase of Novell is done, and now we’re beginning to see it plans develop for the open-source power. First, and foremost, Attachmate is dividing up Novell’s programs into three nominally independent divisions. These are NetIQ, which gets Novell identity and security programs and some of Novell data center solutions; Novell, which will manage the company’s older technologies such as NetWare; and SUSE, which will produce SUSE Linux and oversee the openSUSE community Linux distribution.

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May 20, 2011
by sjvn01
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Google is patching the Android security hole

In the wake of the revelation that there’s a huge security hole in Android’s Wi-Fi communications with Google applications, Google told me and other journalists on May 18th that, “Today we’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.” Fair enough, but how?

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