Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 10, 2010
by sjvn01
0 comments

It’s not Apache vs. Oracle; it’s Oracle vs. open source

Apache is stuck between a rock and a hard place. It can’t certify that its open-source Java, Harmony is Java compatible. Oracle, like Sun before it, won’t release the needed certification tests. Without that Apache can’t certify that Harmony is really Java for legal purposes. Adding insult to injury, IBM, which had been Harmony’s biggest backer, moved away from the project to support, with Oracle, OpenJDK.

What’s an open-source foundation to do? It can try to force Oracle to co-operate by using its seat in the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee, the group that, in theory, runs Java to vote against approving Java 7 when it eventually comes up for approval. By itself, Apache can’t stop it, but it’s calling on other JCP members to also vote against it to protest Oracle’s refusal to work with Apache on certifying Harmony.

More >

November 9, 2010
by sjvn01
0 comments

Shearing Firesheep

Thanks to the Firefox plug-in Firesheep, anyone today can snoop on anyone else on the same network. Worst still, Firesheep enables any user to seamlessly hijack another user’s Web session. Programs are beginning to show up that will block Firesheep from looking over your shoulder. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the ones I’ve seen are Firefox specific and they don’t deal with the problem’s root causes.

I’ve also been finding that even now many people don’t really understand just how dangerous Firesheep can be in the wrong hands. Sure, a network hacker could always WireShark or another professional-level network sniffer tool to see what you were doing and harvest your user IDs and passwords, but Firesheep lets anyone do it.

Oh, and this may sound hopelessly simple to some of you, but you only need Firefox to run Firesheep. If someone is watching you with Firesheep, it doesn’t matter what browser or operating system you’re running or whether they’re up to date with their patches. Someone with Firesheep can watch you no matter what you’re using on your PC, tablet, or smartphone if your network connection isn’t secure.

More >

November 8, 2010
by sjvn01
0 comments

The iPad stands alone, lacking real competition

Where is the iPad’s competition?

By this time, I’d expected to see some real comers gunning for Apple’s iPad tablet. Hasn’t happened.

You want to talk about HP’s just-released Slate 500? It has a starting list price of $799. An iPad can cost that much, but the price starts at $499, and people have demonstrated that they’re willing to pay that much and more. Are people going to feel the same way about the Slate 500? Highly doubtful.

The Slate has an 8.9-in. screen, compared to iPad’s 9.7 in., and it runs Windows 7. Now, tell me, how many Windows 7 apps are there for a pure touch-screen tablet? The iPad boasts over 5,000. And get this: For your 800 bucks, you get a Wi-Fi-only device. Makes you wonder whether HP’s goal is to see whether it can ship a product that can die even faster than Microsoft’s Kin did.

Some people would tell you that since Windows is under the hood, the Slate is going to get snapped up by business users who wouldn’t touch an Apple product. Really? Thousands of people are already buying iPads for business use.

More >

November 8, 2010
by sjvn01
2 Comments

The new Linux Desktop: Ubuntu’s Unity

The Linux desktop has been around for more than a decade now. Despite its best efforts, and Microsoft’s dumbest missteps — I’m looking at you, Vista — it’s never owned more than a fraction of the market. Canonical, Ubuntu‘s parent company, plans on changing that with its Unity desktop.

The more I look at Unity, the more I see Ubuntu taking a radical new approach to the Linux desktop. As my friend Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier observed, "Look at the Ubuntu.com site and you’ll notice — there’s nary a mention of Linux or GNOME on the front page or on several of the ‘About’ pages. The company and project are pursuing branding that doesn’t even mention the Linux heritage of the project. That might be a good strategy, considering the perception of Linux for many users [as] ‘something just for geeks, not for me.’ But at the same time, some of the rest of the community are a bit — dare I say — jealous of Ubuntu’s success and wishing the project were more effusive with its acknowledgement of its heritage."

That’s no accident. Yes, Ubuntu is based on Linux, and the Unity desktop is built on GNOME, but at this point I think Canonical has decided that everyone who’s ever going to use a "Linux" desktop is already there. Therefore, to broaden the Ubuntu Linux desktop base, they needed to reach users who know nothing about Linux.

Ubuntu has always been about making it easy for new users to use Linux. Now, I think they’ve decided to go recreate the Linux desktop in order to make "Linux" easier for still more users. For starters, that means dropping a graphical desktop that’s reminiscent of Windows and Mac OS X. Say what you will about Unity, it doesn’t look much like any other desktop interface. Indeed, Unity is an interface that will work for desktops, netbooks, tablets, or even smartphones. That’s quite deliberate. Unity is meant to be a universal interface.

This isn’t just skin deep. While it won’t show up in Ubuntu 11.04, Canonical plans on making Wayland, the OpenGL-based display management system, in place of the X Window System, the foundation for its GUI. While developers for years have gotten sick and tired of the Byzantine complexities of X Window, no one had the guts to say enough was enough and dump it from their desktop plans until the Ubuntu developers did it.

I’ve also noticed that Ubuntu is making unusual application choices for its next desktop. These include the Mono-based Banshee for its music-player and LibreOffice, the OpenOffice fork, for its office suite. In other words, Canonical is going its own way with applications, too.

So what are they up to? You put it all together and I see Ubuntu striving to create a new kind of Linux desktop. It’s one that will run on every device with a user interface and will use whatever Canonical believes will deliver the best possible user experience. If that means it won’t look or work much like everyone else’s desktop Linux, so be it.

Can they do it? I think they have a shot. I do know that the traditional Linux desktop, much as I may love it, has reached about as broad an audience as it ever will. That said, the Ubuntu programmers have a lot of coding to do to make this happen. Then, we’ll see if Ubuntu has found a new way to popularize the "Linux" desktop, or if they’ve gone up a blind alley.

The first version of this story appeared in ComputerWorld.

November 8, 2010
by sjvn01
0 comments

RockMelt: Dumb or Stupid? You Decide

By my count, there are three really important Web browsers today: Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. There are also two others that are good enough, Opera and Safari, that they’re worth considering. So, really why the heck should I think that there’s room for yet another Web browser, the much ballyhooed RockMelt?

Seriously, as the guy who first reported on the Web for a popular publication back in 1993, I’ve seen more Web browsers than I can recall, and I really don’t see a lot of reason for yet another one. Sure, there was a time when we really needed a new Web browser to free us from the horror that was, and is, IE 6, but that was in 2004, and Firefox unlocked us from IE 6. Today, we already have many excellent Web browser choices. So, really, what’s the point of another one?

The logic behind RockMelt is that you can take the open-source Chromium Web browser code, which powers Chrome, and pair it up with Facebook, Twitter, and RSS integration to produce a super social-network savvy Web browser. I’d be a lot more impressed by the potential of this idea if it wasn’t that it’s already been tried in Flock.

Technically, I wouldn’t call Flock, which is also built on top of Chromium and also works hand-in-glove with Facebook and Twitter, a failure. In fact, I rather like it. The bottom line though is that after years of being on the market, according to Net Applications’ NetMarkets statistics for October 2010 Flock has a pathetic 0.05% of the Web browser market.

More >

November 6, 2010
by sjvn01
0 comments

Dealing with the Pain of Giving Up IE6

I hate, hate IE 6. If I were the CIO of a company that was still running IE 6, which it turns out 20% of businesses still are, I’d blast it out with dynamite. But, some companies, said Browsium CEO, Matt Heller, just can’t seem to get rid of IE6. That’s why his company came up with an extension that lets you run IE6 inside newer, safer versions of IE.

I’m not crazy about the idea of enabling companies to continue their bad IE6 habit, but Heller explained, “We want to see IE6 go away too. Having spent years working with business customers around the world, it’s clear they just can’t make that happen without a decent amount of pain. It’s not our intent to keep enterprises browsing with IE6 and we believe UniBrows will actually help remove IE6 from the Web.”

More >