Practical Technology

for practical people.

February 10, 2009
by sjvn01
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Minty fresh Linux

In case you haven’t guessed by now, I like desktop Linux. I admit though that Linux is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to deal with proprietary media formats. These formats are designed to lock users into a particular video or audio player and those programs seldom come in a Linux version. There are answers though to this problem and that’s one of the reasons why I like the Linux Mint distribution. It makes listening to proprietary audio and viewing restricted video as easy as it’s ever going to get on Linux.

Mint isn’t well known outside of Linux fan circles, and that’s a pity because it’s an outstanding distribution. It’s based on Ubuntu, and it tracks Ubuntu quite closely. So, the latest version, Linux Mint 6 Felicia, is based on Ubuntu 8.10, aka Intrepid Ibex.

As such, Mint is an up-to-date desktop Linux. It’s based on the Linux 2.6.27 kernel and uses Gnome 2.24 and X.org 7.4 for its graphical interface. Mint comes in two versions. The first, the Main Edition, is the one that comes with support for multimedia codices and drivers for proprietary hardware. The other, the Universal Edition, doesn’t include any proprietary multimedia or hardware support.

The Main Edition is the one that has the goodies in it. Right off the disc, Mint Main Edition can play WMV (Windows Media Video), WMA (Windows Media Audio), QuickTime, and Flash media files. In short, with Mint you’ll be able to watch and listen to pretty any media you’ll find on the Web.

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February 9, 2009
by sjvn01
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Installing Linux software 101 for Windows users

Lately, I’ve seen several articles by Windows users grumbling about how hard it is to install software on Linux. It is? You could have fooled me.

Still, people are having trouble, so here’s my 101 class on installing programs on Linux.

First, chances are good you won’t need to install any software on a Linux desktop. Almost all Linux distributions already come with an office suite, usually OpenOffice; a Web browser, Firefox; a universal IM client, Pidgin; and so on. Don’t like the main choices? Most Linux distributions also come with alternative picks. For example, there’s Gnome Office; the Epiphany Web browser and the Kopete IM client. You get the idea.

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February 5, 2009
by sjvn01
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FAQ: How Google Latitude locates you

Yesterday, Google Inc. released the real-time location tool Google Latitude and opened up a new world of location-based services (LBS) for both PC and mobile phone users.

Latitude enables you to track friends, family, employees and so on — and vice-versa — in real time. Whether this is a good thing (hey, you’ll always know where your buddy is in the stadium parking lot), or a preview of a corporate 1984 world where your boss can track your every move, will be determined by how we’ll use the service. It’s no surprise that at least one privacy group has already voiced security concerns over Latitude.

For now, though, most questions center on how people can use Latitude and how it does its location voodoo.

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February 5, 2009
by sjvn01
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Picking Linux software made easy

In a recent story, my fellow scribe Preston Gralla wrote, “If Linux has an Achilles heel, from the point of view of a Windows user, it’s installing new software.” Now, he’s seen the error of his ways about that, but he also noted that, “I was rewarded with a long list of recommended updates — and what they were, or were used for, is anyone’s guess. For example, the first four were: alacarte: easy GNOME menu editing tool. … ” His point was that he didn’t have a clue about what this program might be.

He’s got a point there: A really big nasty one. I, and if you’re a regular reader of my Linux stories, know what alacarte is, or at least can figure it out after one glance at the description. But, really can we expect anyone who doesn’t know Linux to know what it is? I don’t think so. Or, for that matter, what GIMP, open-source’s answer to Adobe Photoshop, is?

When we live with any technology, we start taking for granted knowledge that we know without realizing that’s it’s a foreign language to everyone else. So, while package manager programs–that’s software installation programs for the non-Linux using members of the audience–like YaST, Synaptic, and PackageKit make installing software easy it doesn’t give new Linux users much of a clue about what it is they’re installing.

That’s where ASUS’ service for installing software on its Xandros Linux-powered netbooks comes in.

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February 4, 2009
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu Server Linux is for business

When you think Ubuntu, you probably think of an outstanding, easy-to-use desktop Linux. You probably don’t think of Ubuntu as a server operating system. Maybe you should.

In a recent survey, conducted by Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, and the research company, RedMonk, they found that Ubuntu Server Edition is being used for all the usual infrastructure and edge services you expect from a first class server operating system: Web, database, file, print, back-up and mail serving.

That, I expected. Linux has owned edge server jobs for years now, and Linux is also usually strong as an infrastructure player. What did surprise me though was that larger companies, with more than a 1,000 employees are also using Ubuntu in clustering, batch processing, and data mining. That’s the kind of work I usually see Red Hat and Novell SUSE doing, not Ubuntu.

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February 3, 2009
by sjvn01
6 Comments

Microsoft’s long, slow decline continues

Yes, yes, we know Microsoft rules; no other company will ever knock it off the top of the software mountain, etc., etc. History tells us that no business is immune to the decline of age and Microsoft is proving to be no exception.

You’ll find the latest proof of this at Net Applications’ January 2009 Web site usage numbers by operating system. There, you’ll see that Windows is continuing its slow fall from total desktop operating system domination.

Windows’ fall has been happening now since early 2008. Microsoft was running scared well before then though as Jim Allchin, former head of Microsoft’s Vista program, said in 2002, “we are not on a path to win against Linux.”

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