Practical Technology

for practical people.

May 28, 2009
by sjvn01
3 Comments

Novell fattens net in bad financial times

Novell announced good financial results for its second fiscal quarter on May 28th, which ended April 30, 2009. While the net revenue of $216 million was down compared to the net revenue of $236 million for the second fiscal quarter of 2008, Novell squeezed out an increase in its net revenue by cutting costs. Net income was up to $16 million, or a nickel per share form $6 million, or two-cents per share, for the second fiscal quarter of 2008.

The company saw its biggest growth in its Open Platform Solutions area, which, for all intents and purposes, is Novell’s Linux business. Open Platform showed $39 million revenue, and $37 million of that was from its Linux Platform Products. Novell also saw a bit of growth in its Identity and Security Management division. Workgroup product revenue, which was the single biggest profit center, with $79 million of revenue, saw a decrease of 14% year over year. This area, the old NetWare business under a different name, will continue to decline as more and more businesses move away from NetWare.

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May 28, 2009
by sjvn01
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Fedora 11’s best five features

Fedora, Red Hat’s community Linux’s arrival has been delayed until early next week, June 2, but the release candidate is already looking mighty darn good.

I’ve been using Fedora 11 since the late beta showed up in mid-April, and I’ve been very impressed. It’s fast, it’s stable, and it’s got a snazzy new look. That said, there’s one change that I’m not crazy about, audio control, so let’s get that out of the way first.

In Fedora 11, or more properly its main desktop interface, GNOME 2.26, uses a new and mindlessly simple audio control: the PulseAudio volume control widget. Instead of multiple sliders that give you direct control over the low-level ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) system, you get one slider for volume. That’s it.

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May 27, 2009
by sjvn01
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Here comes summer’s first Linux netbook

Reports of the Linux netbook’s death at the hands of Microsoft have been greatly exaggerated. A flood of Linux netbook news will be made next week at the Computex trade show in Taiwan, but, after Intel announced the beta of Moblin 2, HP have decided not to wait until then and made an important Linux netbook announcement this week.

HP announced that it was releasing a new netbook, the HP Mini 110, that runs Ubuntu Linux 8.04 with HP’s easy to use Mi (Mobile internet) desktop interface. It will also be available with XP Home, but, for once, the Linux powered model looks to be the more compelling buy even if you don’t care for Linux.

The new Mini will give you a choice between the N270 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU you find in almost every netbook on the market today, and the newer N270 Intel Atom processor N280 that runs at 1.66-GHz. It also boasts a 10.1? LED anti-glare display. This screen may have the option of a Broadcom Crystal HD decoder, which HP says will optimize HD video in H.264, MPEG-4 and other formats. I say may because HP has confirmed that this will be an option on the XP model, but they’re mum on whether this will be available for the Linux Mini.

Interestingly enough, otherwise, the Linux model has more and better options than the XP netbook. On the XP, your storage choices will be a 160GB hard drive or a 32GB SSD (solid state drive). For Linux, though, you also have the option of a 250GB hard drive. In addition, and this is important, on the XP system your only choice in memory is 1GB of RAM. If you go with Linux, though, you can have up to 2GBs.

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May 26, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

An early look at Firefox 3.5

There was a time when Firefox was the Web browsers for the cool kids who knew their tech. Most would still agree that it’s better than Internet Explorer, but that’s damning it with faint praise. Over the last year or so, Firefox have become better known in tech. Savvy circles for its relatively poor performance and mediocre memory management. Chrome’s insane speed and Internet Explorer 8’s overall improvement have also dinged Firefox’s reputation. But now, Firefox 3.5 is almost ready to go. Does it have what it takes?

I downloaded the latest beta, Firefox 3.5 beta 4, to find out for myself. I used it on two different PCs. The first was my workhouse Windows XP SP3 system, and the other was my Fedora 10 computer. The XP box was a Dell Inspiron 530S with a 2.2-GHz Intel Pentium E2200 dual-core processor, 4GBs of RAM, a 500GB SATA drive and an Integrated Intel 3100 GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator). For Fedora, I used a Gateway GT5622 desktop with a 1.8GHz Intel Pentium E2160 dual-core CPU, 3GBs of RAM, a 400GB SATA drive, and an Intel 950 GMA.

On both systems, installing the browser took no more than five minutes. Once installed, I found that my two must-have Firefox extensions the Google Toolbar and XMarks were both working.

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May 25, 2009
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Moblin netbook Linux preview

Intel’s Moblin 2.0 Linux desktop for netbooks is really still too raw to be called a beta, but with a fresh take on what a desktop should be, it’s showing great promise.

When Intel announced that it was turning its Moblin mobile Linux project over to the Linux Foundation, I assumed that it had decided to walk away from the project. Then, Intel announced that it was partnering with Novell to bring pre-installed Moblin desktops to netbooks. At this point, I was really puzzled. But, then Intel released the new version of Moblin and their moves suddenly made sense.

Intel wants to compete with its long-time partner Microsoft in the operating system business. To do that, Intel wants broad support from the Linux community. Intel doesn’t want Moblin to be ‘Intel Moblin,’ the company want it to be Linux’s Moblin with support from everyone.

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May 22, 2009
by sjvn01
4 Comments

Finding the right open-source savvy lawyer

Some days, like it or not, you need a lawyer. For most business purposes, picking the right law firm isn’t usually that big of a deal.

Chances are you already have at least an idea of how to find a contract lawyer, a tax law specialist or a real-estate attorney. But what if your programmers are using open-source code that’s licensed under two different licenses? What if you’re concerned with how a patent might affect open-source software your company is already using? Or let’s say a company based in Utah decides that you’ve put its proprietary code into Linux, who do you turn to then? Now, what should you be looking for in a law firm?

Darn good question. Here are some of the answers you’ll need if you find yourself in a spot where you need someone who knows both IP (intellectual property) law and FOSS (free and open source) licensing.
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