March 19, 2009
by sjvn01
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Internet Explorer 8 is better than Firefox 3

If you know anything about me, you know I have no fondness for Microsoft. If you really know me, though, you know that, much as I like open-source software and dislike proprietary programs, I’m a pragmatist. What I really like best in technology is what works best. That’s why I put up with Apple’s closed door policies and use an iPod, and why I now have to say that Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is better than Firefox 3.0.7.

How can I say that? I can say it because I’ve been using Internet Explorer 8 on my Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 systems for several months now and it Just Works Better. Of course, working better than IE 7 wasn’t much of a trick. IE 7 was a dog. But after years of lagging behind Firefox, IE has finally caught up with Firefox’s current production version.

Specifically, IE 8 does a great job of handling tabs. I can all too easily get lost in a forest of tabs with Google Chrome or Firefox. With IE 8, when you open one tab from a link in another, the ‘related’ tabs have the same color. By automatically organizing the tabs by color-coding, managing tabs just became a lot easier. This is one of those incredibly useful ideas that, after it arrives, you wonder how it ever could have taken so long for it to appear.

Microsoft has also included three useful new privacy tools in IE 8. The one that I’ve no doubt will see the most use is InPrivate Browsing, aka “porn mode.” With it, you can launch a browsing session that will leave no traces behind of where you’ve been-cookies, browsing history, temporary files, etc-after you ended the session.

InPrivate Filtering sounds like InPrivate Browsing, but its purpose is quite different. With it you can block the site you’re visiting from accessing other sites. While this will make many mash-up sites blow up, it helps make sure that your information is going to only the site you think you’re visiting.

Finally, the anti-phishing filter, now named SmartScreen, has also been improved.

IE 8’s overall performance has also been enhanced. It can now keep up with Firefox 3.

Internet Explorer 8 is far from perfect. I find it more than a little amusing that it can’t render sites that have been ‘enhanced’ for IE 7. All of which goes to show, as I’ve long thought, that anyone who writes a site specifically for a version of Internet Explorer is an idiot. Web sites should be usable to anyone with a standards-compliant Web browser.

That said, IE 8 actually is, I think, better than Firefox 3. I’m not, however, switching from Firefox as one of my main two Windows browsers.

Why not? First, while Firefox has been lagging lately in its upgrades, it still has dozens of powerful extensions that make it more useful. In particular, Firefox with the Google Toolbar and Foxmarks goes from a good Web browser to being a great Web browser. Google Chrome, while it doesn’t have Firefox’s extensions, is the fastest Web browser around.

So, I think, we have a real three-horse race in Windows Web browsers: IE 8, Firefox 3.x and Chrome 2.x. For the first time in ages, Microsoft has a real contender. I’m looking forward to seeing how Mozilla and Google’s developers address this challenge.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.

March 18, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

The rise of the Blue Sun, IBM and Sun

The news broke this morning, March 18th, that IBM is talking to Sun about buying the company. Sources from both companies tell me that such a deal is in the works and it may be completed as early as this week.

Sun’s pricetag may be as high as $6.5-billion with a large part of the deal being made with IBM stock. Sources indicated that what IBM wants is Sun’s software businesses, not its x86 and SPARC server lines.

There are three possible hardware plays here. One is that part of Sun will remain as a hardware server firm. Another is that IBM will go ahead and buy the hardware line and merge Sun’s x86s into its System x line and place SPARC within its System p division. Finally, some or all of Sun’s hardware may go to a third company, such as Fujitsu, which is already in the SPARC business

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March 17, 2009
by sjvn01
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The Linux part of Cisco’s Unified Computing System

Cisco isn’t happy with just being the data center and Internet networking big dog. The company now wants, with its Unified Computing System, to be the data center alpha dog. Cisco will be producing its own high-end 64-bit blade servers with Intel Nehalem processors, which will be powered by VMware, Windows Server 2008, and, pay attention now, Red Hat’s RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux).

In all the excitement over Cisco taking on HP, Dell and IBM in the server space, people seem to have missed that Linux is part of Cisco’s plan. Novell and Red Hat are both partners. While I still don’t know what part Novell will be playing, Red Hat was more than happy to tell me what they’ll be doing.

Mike Evans, Red Hat’s VP of Corporate Development told me that Red Hat and Cisco have been working on bringing RHEL 5 to the UCS (Unified Computing System) for over nine-months. So, when Cisco starts shipping its first servers, RHEL will be ready to run on them.

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March 17, 2009
by sjvn01
4 Comments

Two Cow Jokes: The Science Fiction ones

Two Cow jokes started out as a spin from the introductory economic example of the limits of a barter society. For example, if you have two cows and want chickens, you need to find someone who’s willing to trade an awful of chickens for one cow, and that’s no way to make an omelet. A typical Two Cow jokes goes like this: Communism: You have two cows. The government takes them, and tells you to be happy with your pint of milk a day.

These are my favorites from a set of science-fiction based Two Cow jokes from science-fiction author, George R.R. Martin’s Web forum. Yes, this has nothing to do with the subjects I usually cover. Onward!

Alien – You have two cows, but no-one can hear them moo.

Richard Adams – You have no cows, but you do have a lot of rabbits.

Isaac Asimov Foundation – You have two cows. You keep finding cryptic notes telling you when to milk them.

Roger Zelazny’s Amber – You have two cows, all other cows are shadow.

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March 15, 2009
by sjvn01
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The seven best Linux Foundation contest videos

Linux doesn’t have much in the way of advertising. While Apple’s wonderful “I’m a Mac” TV ad campaign is famous, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ads are infamous, Linux really doesn’t have anything. Now, the Linux Foundation is trying to change that with it’s “We’re Linux” Video Contest.

The winning designer will get a free trip to Tokyo, Japan to participate in the Linux Foundation Japan Linux Symposium in October 2009. The Linux Foundation doesn’t have the money for a major or even minor for that matter, television advertising campaign. But, at the very least, the winning ad will get some news and online exposure for both the winner and Linux.

I’m not a judge on the committee that will decide the winner, but I do know a little bit about both Linux and marketing. So, here are my seven favorite picks in the contest. I tried, I really did, to cut the list to five, but I couldn’t do it. It was hard enough to get to seven.

Whether the committee will like these is a mystery to me. We’ll all find out together at the Linux Foundation’s Collaboration Summit in San Francisco on April 8, 2009.

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March 12, 2009
by sjvn01
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PC Vendors: Put up or shut up on the Linux desktop

I was really happy when Dell started selling mainstream PCs with pre-installed Ubuntu Linux. The Austin, Texas-based company was the first to break the Microsoft line. Other companies, like Asus with the first netbook, Lenovo with its ThinkPads, and, finally, HP started shipping mass-market PCs and notebooks with Linux too. Well. Sort of. You see, except for Dell, everyone makes it a pain to get their Linux-enabled PCs. And, I’m sick of it.

First Lenovo, which has kept up IBM’s high standards with its ThinkPad laptop, pulled Linux as a standard option from its ThinkPad line. Come on! Linux works great on ThinkPads! There’s been a great site for years about nothing but running Linux on ThinkPads, and I’ve loved using it myself on a series of ThinkPads for even longer. Linux and ThinkPads, they go together better than peanut-butter and jelly!

Today, in theory, you can still get a Linux IdeaPad 10s, a baby-brother to the ThinkPad line, with Novell’s SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop). At least, after a lot of looking on Lenovo’s Web site I found a page that said it was available with SLED. Of course, the page also said, in big letters on the leaderboard that "Lenovo recommends Windows for everyday computing."

I can’t think of any reason to recommend Windows, especially not XP Home, which is the only choice you get with the IdeaPad 10s, for everyday, or any day, computing. Endless security threats, the inability to work with Windows’ own servers, oh yeah, that’s a computer for me. As Carla Schroder said in her review of the IdeaPad, "A very sad, regretful thumbs down, because as much as I like this little computer I hate how Lenovo mis-markets Linux, and I refuse to pay for a Windows license when I don’t want one." Amen sister.

Oh, and by the way, as far as I can tell there is no way to get an IdeaPad with SLED on it through the standard ordering system. Thanks Lenovo, thanks a lot.

As for Asus, it’s not really their fault. There’s a pure OEM (original equipment manufacturer). You can’t just call them up or go to their Web site and order one of their Linux-powered Eee netbooks. You have to find a retailer that carried their netbooks with Linux. Good luck with that.

In my experience, for example, the only Asus with Linux you’ll find at a Best Buy store are the ones with the 7" screens. The ones with the bigger screens? The more desirable ones? They always have XP Home.

According to a recent NPD Group study more than 90% of netbooks sold in November, December, and January shipped with Windows on them. What wasn’t mentioned is that NPD tracks brick and mortar retail sales, not online sales. So, sure if you look just at retail chains that carry almost nothing but Windows equipment, all you’ll see is Windows sales.

To find Asus’ Linux netbooks, as well as the Linux netbooks from other vendors, you need to go to online sites like J&R or Amazon. Or, better still, try ZaReason, PogoLinux or other dedicated Linux online shops for your Linux PC needs.

HP, to give them credit, does actually sell its HP Mini 1000 Mi series with Linux on its site. But, unless you know where to look, good luck on finding it. Would it be that hard to edit HP’s Linux page so that it would be easy to find pre-packaged Linux systems? I don’t think so!

So, with the exception of Dell, my final words for all the hardware vendors who say they support the Linux desktop, would you please, please, make it possible for ordinary mortals to buy your Linux equipment?

One last thing, could all of you keep those annoying "Buy Vista" ads off the Linux sales pages. If we didn’t already know we didn’t want Windows, we wouldn’t be on those pages now would we? Thank you. Thank you very much.