Practical Technology

for practical people.

January 15, 2009
by sjvn01
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Why Linux will crush Windows 7

‘ve been toying with Windows 7 for a few days now. I’m not ready yet to talk about it in detail yet, but I can say that it’s better than Vista SP1. Of course, saying 7 is better than Vista isn’t saying much. However, I recently read a Network World column, which claims that Windows 7 will crush Linux. Yeah, and the Detroit Lions are going to win the Super Bowl this year.

Desktop Linux is moving forward. All the major computer vendors are now selling at least one PC, laptop or netbook with Linux. Many, if not most, PCs and netbooks will have SplashTop Linux soldiered right on their motherboard in 2009. Netbooks, the new hot computer model, often have Linux running on them. And, oh yeah, some company named Google seems to be making some interesting moves with Android Linux on netbooks. Oh, and have I mentioned that Windows’ market share has actually dropped below 90% of the desktop market.

Windows 7 also isn’t going to make friends with today’s XP users. True, lots of people seem to really like Windows 7 at this early stage. I think what we’re really seeing though is just Windows users who are thrilled that 7 hasn’t proved to be a total waste of bytes the way Vista was.

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January 13, 2009
by sjvn01
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The real (sort of) $100 laptop

Once upon a time, we were all excited about the $100 laptop, Nicholas Negroponte’s OLPC (One Laptop per Child). While the OLPC did eventually see the light of day, it never did make the $100 price. Instead, OLPCs retail for about $200. Dell, however, will sell you an Inspiron Mini 9 netbook for only $99.

There is, however, a catch. To get the Mini 9 for $99, you have to sign up for a qualifying two-year AT&T LaptopConnect agreement of $60 a month or higher. If that sounds a lot like a mobile phone deal, you’ve got it in one. Dell and AT&T want to find out if people are ready to treat PCs just as if they were cell phones, where you’re really paying for the service instead of the device.

I predicted that Dell was going to explore this service/purchase plan for the Mini 9, a while back and now the deal is here. And, you know what? I think it’s a decent one.

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January 11, 2009
by sjvn01
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SCO: Garbage Time

From the very start, anyone who paid attention to SCO’s attempts to throw a spanner in the Linux works, knew that they had no case. Over the years, I’ve covered their decline from the last major x86 Unix power to an industry joke. And, now SCO’s story is almost over.

It’s garbage time now for SCO. Those of you who follow basketball know exactly what I mean. This is when the winning team, Linux, and its chief champions in the SCO lawsuits. Novell and IBM, can send in the reserves from the end of the bench. SCO’s lawsuits are smashed to bits.

As the clock ever so slowly winds down, SCO is now dumping what was once its heart, its Unix OpenServer and UnixWare business, and its newer mobile software, to continue its forlorn lawsuits. SCO has filed a new reorganization plan with the federal bankruptcy court in Delaware on January 8th.

CEO Darl McBride explained this latest twist in a public letter. McBride explained that, “SCO has been working over the past nine months with several investment groups to formulate an investment plan. With the tightening of the world financial markets, it has been difficult to secure a plan sponsor prior to the restructuring plan filing deadlines.” You think? “However, SCO continues to work with investment groups who could potentially come forward with an investment plan to acquire certain SCO assets.”

Actually, SCO has been looking for someone foolish enough to pour money down its legal rat-hole for over a year. Last February, SCO thought it had found its patsy, Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners and its Arabian oil billionaire friends. These buddies of Bill Gates backed out of the deal and SCO has been looking for an idiotic investor ever since.

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January 9, 2009
by sjvn01
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Linux 2.6.28’s five best features

While you were likely to be opening up Christmas presents, Linus Torvalds was giving Linux users around the world a special present: the release of the next major Linux kernel: Linux 2.6.28.

e had some time to tinker with this latest and greatest Linux, and it’s my kind of Christmas present: solid improvements to my favorite operating system. Here are the five features that I think most of us will appreciate the most as we move into the New Year.

1) Ext4

The next step up in Linux file systems, has finally arrived. Ext4 improves, well, everything about hard drive storage. It gives you larger file-system and file sizes, faster I/O, better journaling, and it can defragment your drive on the fly.

In particular, its delayed allocation functionality greatly improves hard disk write performance. This won’t help your PC hard drive that much, but if you’re running a database server, you’ll see significant improvements. How fast is ‘significant?’ In my informal tests with MySQL 5.0, I saw write-speed boosts of approximately 30% on a 400GB database. Try it yourself on your servers, you’ll be impressed. In addition, since Ext4 can handle up to 1024 petabytes per volume. I expect Ext4 and Sun’s ZFS are going to be fighting it out for top server file-system for the next ten-years.

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January 7, 2009
by sjvn01
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Microsoft’s Windows 7 Vista replacement plan

How badly does Microsoft want you to forget about Vista? Badly enough that they’re already offering people who buy PCs with Vista after July 1st a free upgrade to Windows 7.

According to sources, computer OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) will be given Windows 7 upgrade media. Of course, we still don’t know when that will happen. Maybe later this year, maybe sometime in 2010. Personally, I’m betting that Microsoft ships Windows 7 as fast as humanly possible.

Once Windows 7 is out, the computer vendors can then ship it to their customers. From this, we can conclude that you will not be able to update Windows Vista to Windows 7 online. Windows 7 may be little more than a Vista uber-patch, but Microsoft plans on selling it like it was a completely new version of Windows.

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January 6, 2009
by sjvn01
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Apple kills off DRM

DRM (Digital Right Management) has been a thorn in the side of music and video lovers for years. Now, Apple, after wheeling and dealing with the major music companies, is killing DRM off for good in iTunes.

You should now be able to buy DRM-free songs in one of three price ranges: 69-cents, 99-cents or $1.29. These prices are for, respectively, older catalog titles; current but not especially popular songs; and top hits. So, for example, Credence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 hit Bad Moon Rising, is likely to sell for 69-cents; the Dropkick Murphy’s I’m Shipping up to Boston, should sell for 99-cents; and Kanye West’s Heartless would go for $1.29. Most, about 90% of iTunes musical catalog, will be available at these prices and without DRM by the end of March.

These songs will also of higher quality than their DRM-crippled brothers. Instead of 128Kbps, these tunes are played at 256Kbps. You won’t be able to tell the difference on a set of generic PC speakers, but you’ll certainly be able to tell that 256 is better on any decent stereo system.

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