Practical Technology

for practical people.

October 2, 2008
by sjvn01
5 Comments

Ubuntu 8.10 Beta Released

Get your Internet connections warmed up Ubuntu fans, Canonical has just released the beta for the next version of Ubuntu 8.10.

This is the first real look at what will be a major Ubuntu upgrade. There’s a whole laundry list of new features, but I see four major improvements for most users.

The first are the combination of the new GNOME 2.24 desktop interface and X.org 7.4 windows system. This pairing should give users a faster graphical interface. It certainly, in the updated archive manager, File Roller, now has more support for other compressed formats such as ALZ, RZIP, CAB, and the TAR.7Z file types. Nautilus, the GNOME file manager, also now has tabs and I, for one, find that a very useful feature.

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October 2, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

When Linux does well: the e1000e Ethernet bug fixed

One reason I love Linux is that when they’re a problem, it gets fixed. Usually, it gets fixed in a hurry and that’s exactly what happened with the e1000e Ethernet bug.

To bring you up to speed, a pre-release version of the 2.6.27 Linux kernel, which was being used in several beta Linux distributions, was sometimes frying the Ethernet firmware in systems equipped with the Intel ICH8 and ICH9 chipset and their 82566 and 82567 Ethernet chipsets. The major distributions to worry about were the Mandriva Linux 2009 pre-releases; Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Beta 1 and openSUSE 11 Beta 1; Fedora 10 release candidates 1 and 2; Gentoo Linux; and Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex.

OK, so most people were unlikely to ever see this bug, but, on the other hand, a lot of people play with beta Linux distributions. In particular, Fedora was very close to shipping so it’s reasonable to assume that quite a few Linux users were putting it through its paces.

Now, thanks to Intel, and a nudge from Linus Torvalds, there’s now code that will fix the problem. This fix will be in the next pre-release version of the 2.6.27 kernel — Linux 2.6.27-rc9 – on October 5th.

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October 1, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Who writes Linux: Corporate America

I’m not sure why the silly notion that “Only .10068% of Linux kernel developers are paid” keeps circulating, but it does. So, let me just say, once and for all, Linux is written, for the most part, by paid software engineers and programmers from major American corporations.

The Linux Foundation did a break-down of who was doing what with the Linux kernel back in April 2008. The results, Linux: How Fast it is Going, Who is Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It, makes it crystal clear that big business is behind Linux.

At one time, it’s true, Linux was a labor of love, but that was a long, long time ago. While I don’t an exact date for when Linux transformed from being written mainly by enthusiasts to when it was being written mostly by paid developers, I suspect it came twelve months after October 2001.

October 2001? That was when IBM announced that it was investing a billion dollars in Linux. Within a year, then Bill Zeitler, IBM’s senior vice president and group executive for eServer, told me in 2002 that “We’ve recouped most of it in the first year in sales of software and systems.”

Big business wasn’t just paying for Linux. Linux was already paying its own way in big business.

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October 1, 2008
by sjvn01
2 Comments

The Rotting Web

People have this delusion that the Web is a fount of all information. That, if you look hard enough with Google and other search engines, you can find all the answers. That’s crap.

Let’s look closely shall we? Google, in honor of its 10th birthday, has put up a site that lets you search the Internet as it was in 2001. Why not 1998? Because January 2001 was as far back as they had an archived copy of their index.

This time-machine search engine is fun. For example, the top site for Paris Hilton in 2001 was for three Hilton hotels in Paris. All together there were 79,900 records for the two words. Today, it’s all about Paris the pseudo-celebrity and there are 2,880,000 Web page hits.

But, the site does more than just show how things change. It also shows how things disappear on the Web.

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September 30, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Five programs you can afford in a financial meltdown

t’s the afternoon of September 30th and for reasons beyond my understanding the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) is up more than 3.5% after yesterday’s financial fiasco. Hello, Wall Street, what part of “No one has a new bailout deal; the House hated the old deal, and it’s the week of Rosh Hashanah so it won’t be a full week at Congress anyway” do you not understand? Even if you believe the bailout will magically work wonders for the economy — I don’t — it’s not going to happen this week.

No matter what happens to the bailout, it’s a safe bet that times are going to be hard. So what can you do if you’re not in Congress and you want to get new programs, but not pay an arm and a leg? After all, it’s not like you can print money. Unlike, say, the U.S. government. The choice is clear: switch to open-source software.

Like what you ask? Like these five prime examples of open-source software that’s every bit as good, if not better, than their proprietary equivalents.

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September 29, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

When Linux goes bad: the e1000e Ethernet bug

I know some people think I only say wonderful things about Linux and bad things about Windows. Wrong. I call them like I see them. Most of the time, while wearing my operating system umpire’s cap, I see Linux making the right hits… Most of the time. Sometimes, though, Linux strikes out and it surely has with the recent e1000e Ethernet bug.

This bug is found only in the pre-release version of the 2.6.27 Linux kernel. If you’re using a conventional Linux, you don’t have to worry about it.

But, if you’re living on the bleeding edge of technology and want a run a beta Linux that’s using the 2.6.27 kernel, do not, do not run until you’re sure your machine doesn’t use the Intel ICH8 and ICH9 chipsets, with the 82566 and 82567 Ethernet chipsets. If you do, you’re very likely to fry your Ethernet’s firmware and you can say bye-bye to your network connection.

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