Practical Technology

for practical people.

July 5, 2008
by sjvn01
5 Comments

Adobe Flash 10 on Linux: Looking Good

Adobe Flash Player 10 for Linux may only be a beta, but it’s one heck of a beta.

I didn’t care for Adobe Flash video at first. It was just another proprietary audio/video format in a world already over-flowing with them.

Three things have happened to change my mind. First, Adobe made it possible to use the open H.264 video and HE-AAC (High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding) audio standards in Flash SWF (Shockwave Flash) files. Then, they made the Adobe Flash player available on Linux, and, this May, Adobe announced that it was opening up the SWF and FLV/F4V (Flash Video) formats and dumping the format’s licensing fees. At about the same time, Adobe also released the Flash 10 beta for Linux, as well as some other desktop operating systems you may have of heard of: Mac OS X and Windows.

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July 3, 2008
by sjvn01
8 Comments

KDE Developer Quits

Being grumpy is almost part of the job description for developers.

Recently though several KDE developers came right out and asked, “Does KDE even need (certain) users?” While, Troy Unrau, a KDE developer and perhaps best known as the author of stories for KDE News, opened this can of worm by saying “This is a rant,” it was soon taken in earnest. Unrau’s opinion was quickly seconded by another KDE developer, Jason Harris, who said, “KDE, like many other open-source projects, doesn’t really need users at all, whether they are poisonous or not.” Instead, both Unrau and Harris wanted to see KDE get more developers.

In the end though, KDE has ended up with at least one less developer. Unrau has quit KDE. He puts the blame, in part, on simply having too much to do and too little time to do it and on both internal and external criticism of KDE’s recent development direction.

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July 2, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Ultrathin Linux PC Envy

I want; I mean I really want, an Apple MacBook Air. Mind you, I wouldn’t kick a Lenovo ThinkPad X300 or Toshiba Portege R500 out of my hotel bedroom either. If you’re a Mac or Windows user you’ve got several excellent top-of-the-line ultra-thin laptop choices. If you’re a desktop Linux user, your choices aren’t that great. So far.

Oh, there are excellent pre-installed Linux laptops. For a full-powered one I see it as almost being a coin-toss between the Lenovo R61 with SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10 SP 2 and the Dell 1420N. The quick and dirty on how to choose between them is that the Lenovo works extremely well with office network environments, especially those that use AD (Active Directory), while the Dell with commercial DVD-playback built-in is a better home user buy. One last thought on solid working Linux laptops: Dell will be moving to Ubuntu 8.04 any time now, so you may want wait a tick before buying one. Good machines and I paid my own money to get an R61, but these are not ultra-thin sexy laptops.

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July 1, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Struggling towards a great Linux desktop

I’m very happy with my Linux desktop. To be precise, I’m very happy with SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10 SP2; openSUSE 11, Kubuntu 8.04, Mint 5 and MEPIS 7. I’m also getting fond of Fedora 9.

Anyone see the problem here? I do.

That’s too many desktops, except for a nut case like yours truly who really likes playing with operating systems. Most people, most sane people anyway, want one desktop that works for them and can at least get along with the other desktops in the office.

The beauty of Linux is that you can have a safe, powerful desktop operating system. The ugly thing about Linux is that it can you also give you enough options to drive you batty.

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July 1, 2008
by sjvn01
2 Comments

What’s what with Xandros buying Linspire

t’s safe to say that no one saw Xandros, the oldest of the desktop Linux companies thanks to its Corel Linux ancestry, buying Linspire, the desktop Linux perhaps best known for being the first Linux to openly embrace proprietary software. So how did this deal happen? Why did it happen? Here’s what Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos had to say about the surprising deal.

First, Typaldos explained during a call and in a e-mail memo that Xandros was indeed acquiring Linspire lock, stock and barrel. Xandros will own “the CNR software distribution facility, and the Linspire and Freespire Linux desktop operating systems.”

Why make this deal when Xandros, thanks to its Asus partnership, appeared to be gaining users at a quick rate. According to Xandros, his company made the “acquisition will provide an exploding number of mobile Linux customers with one-click software delivery to update and enhance their platform.”

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July 1, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Best Practices for using Open-Source Software

When faced with using open-source software in your company should your first reaction be:

1 )Run in terror.
2) Pick up and cuddle your stuffed Steve Ballmer doll while shouting “No!”
3) Refuse to even consider it
4) Deal with it.

Even if you think open source is the dumbest idea to hit IT since Microsoft Bob, number four is your only real choice.

There was a time when SCO and Microsoft could pull the FUD over some people’s eyes and convince them that using open-source software would be leaving your company open to lawsuits or that the only support you’d ever get for your open-source software would be someone who looked like he’d been playing Jesus in a third-rate road show of Godspell. Those days are long gone.

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