Practical Technology

for practical people.

June 27, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

A Print Server to Avoid: the Linksys WPS54GU2

Generally speaking for consumer/SMB grade network equipment, I swear by Linksys hardware. I’ve been using he Linksys WRT54G family of access points since 2002 ever since Linksys open-sourced the firmware for many WRT54G models and they’ve never let me down. But, then there’s the Linksys print servers. If I had met these devices first, I’d be swearing at Linksys and using D-Link, Netgear, heck, anyone’s else equipment.

What’s really ticked me off is the Linksys WPS54GU2 Wireless-G Print Server for USB 2.0. All I wanted was a simple print -server for my wife’s upstairs studio. What I got was one of the most annoying network devices I’d ever worked with.

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June 27, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Using Vista instead of XP is dumb

Far be it for me to disagree with my esteemed colleague Robert Mitchell that XP downgrade are dumb but ah… eh… gosh, Mitchell you are so wrong on this one!

Sure, I agree, boy do I agree, that if users dislike Windows they should move to desktop Linux or Mac OS X, but I’m also realistic enough to know that many of them won’t do it. Microsoft’s mind-control ray is finally weakening, but I know darn well that most people would still use a Windows machines even if you put – sob! — that Rolls Royce of latops, the Mac Air into their hands.

So while I certainly think that would-be business Windows PC buyers should check out say the Lenovo R61 ThinkPad with SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10 SP1, I know darn well most of them will still buy a Windows powered PC.

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June 26, 2008
by sjvn01
2 Comments

When is an open-source project ready?

I’ve been getting told that my recent review of KDE 4 wasn’t fair because KDE 4 isn’t really ready for prime time. My response: “When is any program, especially an open-source program, ready?”

I’m not making light of this criticism of my review. WINE, everyone’s favorite way to run Windows programs on Linux, just reached 1.0 status after 15-years in the making. Its developers freely admit that while it’s very, very good at what it does, it’s far from perfect. None-the-less, many of us, including yours truly, have been using WINE for more than a decade.

Is it ready? It’s not only been ready, it’s been useful for years. It’s also only now a 1.0 release.

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June 26, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Mobile Linux has real trouble ahead

If you had asked me where the mobile phone operating system was heading last week. I would have said something like: “Symbian will continue its gradual decline, Apple’s iPhone special mix will continue to grab the headlines, and Linux-LiMo, Google Android, etc.–would continue its slow, but unstoppable, march to victory.That was last week.

This week, Nokia announced that it was buying Symbian. That wouldn’t have changed what I saw in my crystal ball. Then, Nokia announced they were going to open-source Symbian OS and its development tools and its GUI (graphical user interface) and, OK, Nokia and its partners were going to open-source the whole Symbian ball of wax.

Ka-Boom! Sorry, that was the sound my crystal ball made made as it fell off its stand and smashed into a million pieces.

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June 25, 2008
by sjvn01
22 Comments

KDE 4.04: Bad, Just Plain Bad

I wanted to like KDE 4. I really did. I can’t. It is the most annoying GUI (graphical user interface) I’ve used in years. And, yes, I’m including Vista’s slow as sludge Aero in my evaluation.

Since openSUSE 11 offers KDE 4.04 as one of its three default desktops—the others are KDE 3.5.9 and GNOME 2.22—I decided it was time to really give KDE 4 a try. Besides, some people think that openSUSE 11 offers the best KDE 4 experience around.

If this is the best KDE 4 has to offer, may I never get to see it when it’s being bad. I found KDE 4 to be awful.

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June 25, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Dear Microsoft, thanks for the help, Linux

You gotta love it. Microsoft has decided that it will ho ahead and kill off easy access to XP on June 30th. On behalf of desktop Linux users everywhere, and our first cousins, the Mac fans, thanks. You’ve given us the best shot we’ll ever have of taking the desktop.

But it gets even better! Microsoft has also announced that it will be releasing Windows 7 on January 2010. They’ll blow that ship date. Microsoft has never set a shipping date it could meet. But, who in their right mind would now buy Vista?

I mean, come on, I don’t think anyone with their wits about them would buy Vista anyway. Vista is to operating systems what the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers are to the National Football League, the worse of all time. Vista was trash; Vista is trash; and now Microsoft, as expected, is throwing Vista on the trash dump.

It also helps that Microsoft has decided to go ahead and dump XP, the operating system its customers want, no matter how loudly they say they want to keep buying XP. Now that’s showing your customers how much you really care about what they want.

Desktop Linux is poised to make the most of this opportunity to convince Windows users that there is a better way. For starters, desktop Linux doesn’t lock you into a single vendor. This is also where desktop Linux beats Apple all hollow. Whereas Microsoft has just shown you that they don’t care what you want, with desktop Linux you will always ne able to use the version of the operating system you want to use. Absolutely love Red Hat 9, the last consumer version of Red Hat Linux from 2003? You can still download a fresh copy of it from Red Hat. I’m not sure why you would, but you can, and I know some people who are still using it on servers to this day.

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