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Is a Linux Desktop Avalanche Coming?
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By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
March 2, 2007
Opinion -- Slowly, ever so slowly, the Linux desktop has been picking up momentum. It keeps getting better and better, but Microsoft's monopoly has kept many PC users from realizing that there really is a viable alternative to Windows. However, that's about to change.
Just like a few more snowflakes can turn a quiet snowy mountainside into an avalanche, Linux is teetering on the edge of becoming a real force in the desktop computing world.
First, the Portland Project started getting Linux desktop developers to work together. No, neither KDE nor GNOME are going to go away. Rather, Portland has got the developers working on a common foundation. With that solid footing, ISVs (independent software vendors) will be able to write one application that will run on both of those popular desktop environments.
Another major step forward is Ubuntu and Linspire partnering on the use of CNR for software installation. I think a lot of people have missed just what an important step this is for desktop Linux.
Ubuntu is, without question, the most popular of the community Linuxes these days. While not nearly as popular, Linspire, with its newly opened CNR, is creating the easiest way, by far, to install software on a Linux desktop. When you put them together, you get a desktop Linux -- with broad support -- that anyone can install new programs on.
Read the rest at DesktopLinux.com
DrHook
Sunday 04 March 2007 - 14:38:23
 Read/Post Comment: 2
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Sen Stevens tries to sneak the Broadcast Flag into law
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Sen Stevens tries to sneak the Broadcast Flag into law
Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has snuck the Broadcast Flag into a bill on Net Neutrality. The stealth clause authorizes "the FCC to establish a broadcast flag to allow TV stations to protect digital content from Internet piracy."
What this means is that Senator Stevens is trying to pass a law that will allow broadcasters -- who enjoy free use of billions of dollars' worth of public airwaves -- to veto any features of digital televisions and downstream devices. Ultimately, that means that the FCC would, on behalf of broadcasters, get control over the design of video recorders, optical drives, network interfaces, hard disks, computers and operating systems. A brief far more sweeping than the FCC has ever had before, making them into America's "device czars," charged with ensuring that the business models of the broadcasters and Hollywood studios won't be disrupted by technology.
One element of the broadcast flag proposal is that is prohibits the use of free and open source software in digital TV applications (including PC operating systems, video drivers, etc). That's because the Broadcast Flag requires that devices be built to be "robust" -- that is, to resist the attempts of their owners to modify or improve on them. It's as if Senator Stevens is trying to pass a law requiring the hood of every car to be welded shut when it leaves the factory, to make sure that no driver ever gets to change his own oil.
Link
BoingBoing
DrHook
Tuesday 02 May 2006 - 11:17:56
Read/Post Comment: 2
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OpenOffice is ten years behind MS Office? That's just fine!
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by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (Mar. 6, 2006)
In an interview with Australian online technology newspaper IT Wire, Alan Yates, general manager of business strategy for Microsoft's information worker group, said that OpenOffice.org is about where MS-Office was 10 years ago. That is to say, Microsoft seems to think OpenOffice.org is only good for single-desktop users.
And, that's a problem because...?
I don't get it.
I use OO.o (OpenOffice.org) 2 every day. It works. It has all the features I need. It's fast. It's reliable. I can send files from it via email directly from my application. It's also secure, unlike Office. And, its file format can also be read now and forever-after by any program that uses the ODF (Open document Format).
Oh, and did I mention that OO.o doesn't cost a penny, while Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 lists for 9?
OK, I give up, what's the problem with OO.o again?
Let's get real for a minute. There has not been a significant upgrade in Office suite functionality, from anyone, since, oh, Office 97.
Read the rest at DesktopLinux.com
DrHook
Wednesday 29 March 2006 - 10:48:25
Read/Post Comment: 2
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An impressive photo-archiving tool
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Network World, 11/21/05
. . . .
[RealBasic] worked well, but with 1,000 files we'd need to do a lot more to have a really manageable system. Then we were contacted by reader Dave Morris: "Please allow me to recommend Coppermine Photo Gallery. It is full-featured, easy to use and free! It is based on PHP and MySQL and therefore doesn't require Flash or anything else to run on any platform with any modern browser!"
He also shamelessly asked us to plug his site, Free IT, which has as its goal "to introduce excellent and cost-effective alternative solutions for your business and computing needs, with the realization that most people are not interested in the technology for technology's sake, but the end result." This is to say, he is all about open source and there's some good stuff there.
Anyway, Morris is correct: Coppermine is really, really good. It is a breeze to install, and the only problem you're likely to have is setting the correct permissions on the image directories.
Along with PHP and MySQL, Coppermine requires a Web server and the GD Library, or any version of ImageMagick.
Among its exhausting list of features, Coppermine makes it possible to organize pictures in categories and albums; allows you to bulk-upload pictures to a subdirectory and then to an album; supports multimedia; allows creation of thumbnails and intermediate-size images; lets you search picture metadata; displays a selection of last-added as well as random pictures; supports private galleries and groups; supports multiple languages; lets you add comments and ratings to pictures and send pictures in e-cards; and has a slideshow viewer.
. . . .
Read the rest at NetworkWorld
Me and Garth Brooks... Shameless. Anyway, thanks Mr. Gibbs for that plug and never let it be said that I didn't return the favor! 
Check out GibbsBlog!
DrHook
Thursday 01 December 2005 - 11:45:02
Read/Post Comment: 2
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Microsoft Seeks Ecma Approval For Office XML Standard
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November 22, 2005 (9:38 AM EST)
By W. David Gardner, TechWeb News
In submitting its Microsoft Office Open XML document format technology to the Ecma international standards body Tuesday, Microsoft hopes to find a solution to the open formats issue it has been contesting with the State of Massachusetts.
Ecma officials praised the action by Microsoft, as it was joined in the submission by Apple Computer, Barclays Capital, BP, the British Library, Essilor, Intel Corp., NextPage Inc, Statoil ASA, and Toshiba. Before the submission, Microsoft's Alan Yates told the Boston Globe that although the new initiative didn't meet the "explicit policy" of the state, he hoped state IT officials will view the move as positive.
Massachusetts state IT officials have been wrangling with Microsoft for months, seeking to establish Opendocument as a standard -- a move opposed by Microsoft.
The Opendocument format has been ratified by OASIS and is supported by OpenOffice, an open-source Office suite, as well as Sun Microsystems' StarOffice.
Yates, who is general manager of Microsoft Office, said the decision to submit Microsoft Office to the international standards body was not specifically related to the Massachusetts brouhaha.
"We are pleased that Microsoft and its partners are making this submission to Ecma International," said Jan van den Beld, secretary general of Ecma, in a Microsoft press release announcing the submission. "Our members around the globe pride themselves in their ability to drive progress and consensus on important technologies."
Apple made a strong endorsement of the Microsoft submission, too. "Apple and Microsoft will continue to work closely together to deliver great products to Mac users and application developers for many years to come," said Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, Philip Schiller, in a statement.
Massachusetts officials maintain that a move to the Opendocument format would open up office productivity software to more competition.
TechWeb
DrHook
Thursday 01 December 2005 - 10:21:14
Read/Post Comment: 2
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Stallman 'Foils' U.N. Security In Keystone Cops Confrontation
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A high-profile protest at a high-security U.N. event leads to a truly peculiar international standoff.
By K.C. Jones
A GNU expert's talk was welcomed at the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society. His stance on RFID was not.
Richard Stallman, GNU founder and featured speaker at the gathering in Tunisia last week, was held by U.N. security after wrapping his identification badge in foil, according to Bruce Perens, vice president of developer relations and policy for SourceLabs.
Stallman, who opposes RFID because of the technology's potential for privacy invasions, objected to wearing the badge because it could track him as he moved around at the summit. Organizers said the technology would not be used since objections were raised over use at the 2003 summit in Geneva, according to Perens.
Stallman was still in Tunisia Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, reportedly unwrapped his badge only to pass through readers.
He briefly addressed the RFID issue during a speaker's panel, passed a roll of aluminum foil around the room and encouraged several people to follow suit, according to Perens' eyewitness account. U.N. security watched in the crowded room until speeches and an open discussion were finished.
Perens said he left to speak with reporters and heard later from several attendees that security would not allow Stallman to leave. Once they allowed Stallman to exit, they prevented him from entering another room, where he was scheduled to appear, according to Perens.
Read the rest at linux pipeline
DrHook
Wednesday 30 November 2005 - 18:16:36
Read/Post Comment: 2
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EnGarde v3 Now Available!
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Source: Guardian Digital.com - Posted by: Benjamin D. Thomas
Date: Wednesday, 28 September 2005
Guardian Digital is pleased to announce the release of EnGarde Community v3.0. This release represents the most significant number of improvements since the first version released more than four years ago.
If you haven't tried EnGarde recently, then I'm certain you'll be equally as excited about this release as we are. Completely redesigned web interface, firewall functionality, integrated Security-Enhanced Linux protection, and completely free updates are just a few of the outstanding new benefits.
With EnGarde, you can build a complete and secure Internet presence featuring all standard Internet functions (web, DNS, email, etc) within minutes using one of the available Wizards.Interested in taking it for a spin? Download the ISO and use the "LiveCD" mode to test it alongside your current operating system to compare.
No other Linux platform provides the security and ease-of-management available with EnGarde. Engineered from the ground up with security as a primary focus, EnGarde is protected from unauthorized access using multiple open source techniques.
Here's a shortlist of features:
- Linux 2.6 kernel featuring SELinux Mandatory Access Control
- Guardian Digital Secure Network features free access to all
system and security updates
- Support for new hardware, including 64-bit AMD architecture
- Web-based management of all functions, including the ability to
build a complete web presence with FTP, DNS, HTTP, SMTP and more
- Apache v2.0, BIND v9.3, MySQL v5.0(beta)
- Completely new WebTool, featuring easier navigation and greater
ability to manage the complete system
- Integrated firewall with ability to manage individual firewall
rules, control port forwarding, and creation of IP blacklists
- Built-in UPS configuration provides ability to manage an entire
network of battery-backup devices
- RSS feed provides ability to display current news and immediate
access to system and security updates
- Real-time access to system and service log information
For information on downloading EnGarde, please visit the community site:
http://www.engardelinux.org/
Also visit LinuxSecurity.com
DrHook
Wednesday 28 September 2005 - 09:50:44
Read/Post Comment: 2
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How-To: Clone Your Linux Hard Drive
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Shrug off a crashed Linux hard disk in minutes, and maybe save a fortune, with this easy hard disk cloning recipie.
By A. Lizard Courtesy of TechBuilder.org
Most system builders know all too well the headaches involved in recovering a crashed hard drive. The bottom line is, there really are only three kinds of hard drives:
* Hard drives that have failed.
* Hard drives that will fail.
* Hard drives that were retired in the course of a computer upgrade before failure.
In this TechBuilder Recipe, I’ll show you how to set up a hard drive mirror clone--as opposed to a new drive mirror (or what’s known as a “bare metal restore”)--for Linux-based systems.
You don't have to be a Linux expert to get these procedures to work. I've tried to keep them simple and specific. Follow them exactly, and you should be able to save yourself days, even weeks, of work. Fixing it yourself can also spare you from the expense of hiring a specialized hard-drive recovery shop, some of which charge thousands of dollars for their services.
In an earlier TechBuilder Recipe, Backing Up Linux Workstations Without Tears, I detailed the process of creating a new drive mirror and set up a backup system drive mirror and DVD-R archives. But that procedure took nearly a week of experimenting to get exactly right. The procedures in this Recipe will enable you to skip that painful experimentation period and get right to drive cloning.
With a hard-drive mirror in place, recovery from a drive crash is as simple as unbolting a hard drive from a mobile rack and replacing the failed hard drive along with it. The whole process should take only 15 minutes. Remember, the completeness of a disk recovery always depends on how recent your last backup is.
[ Read the rest ... ]
DrHook
Tuesday 27 September 2005 - 17:26:18
Read/Post Comment: 2
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