Practical Technology

for practical people.

July 22, 2008
by sjvn01
22 Comments

Linux is easier to install than XP

When you buy a new PC today, unless you hunt down a Linux system or you buy a Mac, you’re pretty much stuck with Vista. Sad, but true.

So, when I had to get a new PC in a hurry, after one of my PCs went to the big bit-ranch in the sky with a fried motherboard, the one I bought, a Dell Inspiron 530S from my local Best Buy came pre-infected with Vista Home Premium. Big deal. It took me less than an hour to install Linux Mint 5 Elyssa R1 on it.

As expected, everything on this 2.4GHz Intel Core2 Duo Processor E4600-powered PC ran perfectly with Mint. But, then it struck me, everyone is talking about having to buy Vista systems and then ‘downgrading’ them to XP Pro, how hard really is it to do that.? Since I had left half the 500BG SATA hard drive unpartitioned, I decided to install XP SP3 on it to see how much, if any, trouble I’d run into. The answer: a lot.

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July 22, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Open source still the best way to develop software

The open-source way of creating programs is still the best way, just don’t confuse it with being the perfect way — there’s no such thing.

A recent report claims that one of the fundamental benefits of open-source development, the co-called Law of Many Eyes is wrong. The idea behind the law is that since anyone can read the source code and find problems with it, they can then either fix them or report them back to the community. The end result is that you get better software.

The study, by Fortify Software, a company that makes development tools for checking security, found that many popular open source software programs contain significant security holes. I can’t take this study too seriously. After all, what else is Fortify going to say? “Open-source’s Law of Many Eyes works great. You don’t need our products?” I don’t think so.

Here’s what I think. I think the Law of Many Eyes, or as Eric Raymond phrased it in his seminal work on open source, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow,” does work. All you need do is watch how quickly open-source projects progress and how quickly they fix bugs to know that.

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July 21, 2008
by sjvn01
4 Comments

SFLC Keeps on the GPL Case: Sues Extreme Networks

You’d think the electronics vendors who keep breaking the GPL by using the BusyBox Unix utilities would finally learn that they can’t get away with it. It doesn’t look like they have though. This time the SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) is taking on Extreme Networks, a major network hardware provider.

The SFLC announced on July 21st that it had filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Extreme Networks on behalf of its clients, BusyBox’s two principal developers, Erik Andersen and Rob Landley, on the grounds that Extreme had illegally included the GPL-protected BusyBox code in its products.

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July 21, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

PC vendors want to sell you desktop Linux

It used to be that finding a PC with pre-installed Linux was harder than finding a needle in a haystack. Now, though, all the major PC vendors are offering Linux-powered PCs.

Last week, for example, Dell announced that it was selling PCs with the latest version of Ubuntu Linux, Ubuntu 8.04 installed. What they didn’t point out was that Dell will soon be offering Ubuntu Linux on six different systems, including its forthcoming UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) Dell E line. In the past, Dell usually offered Ubuntu on no more than three systems.

Dell is not a charity. If people weren’t buying desktop Linux, they wouldn’t be selling it. And, if more people weren’t asking for it, they wouldn’t be offering it on more systems.

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July 19, 2008
by sjvn01
6 Comments

Dell adds Ubuntu 8.04 to expanded Linux desktop line-up

As promised, Dell is bringing the latest Ubuntu Linux, Ubuntu 8.04, to its line-up of Linux-powered consumer desktops and laptops.

Starting on Friday, July 18th, 2008, Dell started offering Ubuntu 8.04 on its XPS M1330N and Inspiron 1525N laptops and its Inspiron 530N desktop.

That’s just the beginning though. Dell will also shortly be offering Ubuntu on its forthcoming UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) line, the Dell E series. According to a blog posting by Daniel Judd, Dell product group manager, Dell will also be offering its XPS M1530n and Studio 15n with Linux in early August.

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July 18, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

VMware exec says Windows days are numbered

Seriously.

In an ITWire tale, Paul Harapin, VMware’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand said Windows is already being replaced by virtual appliances running on Linux. In ten-years, there will be no more Windows.

OK. I know people at Red Hat who would say that that’s exactly what will happen. That’s right out of the new Red Hat KVM-based virtualization playbook. But, someone from VMware saying this? Wow.

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