One of the most interesting aspects of keeping up this blog over time, has been going back and reading about all of the cool stuff I’ve tried out over the past couple of years. For most of that time, I was “stuck” with having only one “good” PC at home, and I tended to keep it in a state of disrepair, so often I’d get myself into some pickles (such as a broken OS) . Things are a little bit different now. I now have a “real” test machine – it’s a Dell Precision M70 notebook. It has a single-core 2 GHz Pentium M, 2GB RAM, 256MB Nvidia Video pushing a nice 1920×1200 15.4” screen and a fairly speedy 7200RPM disk drive. I picked it up as a steal on eBay and I have a nice spot for it right here on my desk next to the monitor for my main home PC (also a Dell Precision – 690 to be exact) and although I’ve decided to keep Windows 7 (yeah, yeah, really!) as the only native OS on the 690 workstation, I can test my heart away on the M70. However, even that may wind down in time as my overall interests are changing somewhat.

Let me explain.

I have become more interested in the general “idea” of Open Source and what can be accomplished with the “open” way of thinking than I am with one particular technology. I’m seeing some very innovative and exciting software come out of open source, and I have a feeling that is more of what I’m going to be writing about in the future.

Here are some general ideas, feelings and predictions I have:

• Intel’s Moblin looks awesome (Based on Fedora), and will make great strides in the Netbook segment
• GNOME and specifically “GNOME Shell” will innovate the User Interface of all computing platforms.
• The sleeping giant known as Red Hat will wake up and give Ubuntu a run for the Linux desktop, and Ubuntu will have to start innovating on it’s own rather than riding a wave of popularity to keep up.
• Novell will continue to push the envelope in regards to interoperability with Microsoft technology, which to the dismay of many “die-hard” free-software fans will bring Open Source technologies to a wide new audience. In fact, Novell and all of what the openSUSE team is doing as well as the MONO team really excites me a lot right now – that’s just some cool stuff!

I’m also very interested in seeing what will develop from the Oracle purchase of Sun. I’m curious to see what will happen with OOo, MySQL VirtualBox and OpenSolaris.

I would especially hate to see VirtualBox die  -  I use it every day and I love it. I also think what has been accomplished with OpenSolaris is next to phenomenal. They took a (somewhat) obscure big-iron UNIX OS and made a nice comfy desktop OS that fits nicely onto an installable LiveCD (a’la Ubuntu). In fact I’ve tried each version of OpenSolaris that has been released and each version has gotten better and better, and the latest, 2009.06 release has gotten so polished and runs so well I think I could live with it as a day-to-day OS on a 2nd computer, such as that M70.

As for my day-to-day stuff, Windows 7 has just plain won me over. I was bored of XP (nothing new to learn and explore), Vista would drive me nuts at times, and I just fiddled around with Linux for a few years as a result. Hopefully it will not be another 8 years before Microsoft can come up with the next suitable OS replacement.

Also, besides all of that here lately I’ve been spending more time (gasp) away from the PC and regaining interest in other passions and hobbies. For example I’m purposely bringing music back into the forefront and simply spending more time sitting on my back patio playing guitar in the afternoon…little things like that.

Who knows – this time next year, this might read like a normal everyday blog, by a normal everyday guy

NAH! I’m way too much of a NERD for that! Who am I kidding!

PS, I’m still going to be involved in the GNOME Journal and we can always use more writers, editors and ideas for articles and people to interview, so stop by and help out if you are so inclined!

?????????????????? Google  ??????????????????????????? Search Engine ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Google Chrome OS ?  Google Chrome OS ?????????????????????????? Open Source  ????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????? ? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????? Netbook ? ????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????  ????????????????????????????????????????????? ! ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Google ???????????????? ??????? ????????????????????????????? ???? ??????????? ?

?????????????? OS Free Free ??????? ????? ????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? OS ????????????? ?????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????  ?  ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Windows ??????????????????? License ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? ??????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????? Open Source Operating System ?????? ! ?????????????????????????????????? ?

??????????????????????????????? ???????? … ?????????? ??????????????? 300-500 ?????????????????????????????????????????? ??????? ?  ?????????????????????????????????????? Suse linux ????? Khmer OS ???????????????????? .. .

Posted in Other Tagged: Google, news, open source, os, PC Tips

I’m constantly picked on I’ve been picked on, once or twice, by Paul Cutler because I’ve tried practically every Linux Distro under the Sun, and then I’ll get fed up w/ it all for a while and jump back to running Windows on my home machine for a while (which is what has recently happened), so I know he’ll love this post

Anyway – I’m in a unique position I’ve never quite been in before. Now that I have my shiny new Laptop, to complement my shiny new quad-core Desktop, I really have 2 nice, current machines at my disposal, which means I can now for the first time run BOTH OSes full time if I like (plus I use Windows at work as well).

Another real plus is as I’ve discovered booting from a Fedora 11 Live USB install I have, my new Lenovo is absolutely 100% Linux compatible. I find Fedora to be a good test of this since there are no proprietary bits by default – everything simply works, Graphics, Wireless, Sound, Webcam, Hotkeys – EVERYTHING. Which is awesome – it would be the *perfect* Linux notebook. I even got to see Fedora’s awesome Plymouth boot sequence for the first time since the Intel 4500HD graphics supports the Kernel Modesetting.

So, my question to you, my readers is what do you enjoy reading from me? It seems anytime I blog about Windows (or anything other than Linux really) I’m lucky if that post get’s a dozen hits a day. I can write a nice Linux post and get several hundred, and I’ve even had some posts hit 2,000 hits in one day.

I know that’s small potatoes compared to the big bloggers out there, but it tells me that Linux is what you, my readers want to read about.

Assuming that is true – what specifically do you want me to come up with in the future? Do you want me to review distro’s, post generic, distro-agnostic how-to’s, or just report general Open Source news?

Tell me what you want – here lately, I feel like I’ve been writing to myself.

I’m a pretty avid on-line reader, and I usually set aside a few hours on a weekend day to just surf some of my bookmarked sites, and read up on what is going on in the world of Technology. Just now, I came across a QOTD article on Tom’s Hardware asking “Have you replaced Windows with Linux?”. Right off the bat, I knew there would be some varied and interesting comments, as well as a nice dosage of FUD mixed in.

As I read through some of the comments, I was really quite surprised at some of what I was reading. I expected some negativity, but what really surprised me was a sheer amount of ignorance. I naturally assumed that Tom’s Hardware readers would be somewhat more educated in areas of actually loading an Operating System and getting drivers and such installed – I mean, it *is* a site dedicated to the hardware enthusiast that builds their own computers – but yet this same crowd went on an on about having to load a driver for a piece of hardware in Linux after the OS is installed, and touted that as a reason that Linux isn’t ready?!? Perhaps I was wrong – perhaps that isn’t the demographic of that site at all…or perhaps people are just ignorant and unwilling to try (and I mean actually try) something new. People for some reason tend to think Linux is supposed to be a drop-in replacement for Windows, and should work the same, even though it is a very different Operating System, and requires a different set of skills to admin a box. Oddly, people seem to accept this fact when dealing with  Mac OS X, but just don’t “get it” when it comes to Linux for some reason. The other surprise was the number of positive comments from users who had made the switch, and even offers of help an advice for some who tried and failed. (You’ve got to love the amount of genuinely nice and helpful people in the world of Open Source).

The first rule of being successful in running Linux – accept the fact that Linux is Linux, and not Windows. It is different, and you will have to learn some new skills. Sorry, but that’s a feature, not a bug

I will say firmly that most Linux distributions are neither harder to install (probably easier) nor harder to use (probably equal) to Windows (any version since 2000). I think the biggest problem is that a huge majority of folks who have *only* used Windows are just simply spoiled by the fact that the OEM that built their machine not only loaded the Operating System, but installed all of the needed drivers, and most of the applications. They simply don’t understand that by simply doing a clean install of a major Linux distribution, far more is going to be recognized (hardware) out of the box than with any version of Windows. Heck, with Windows, you are lucky to get working Ethernet without first loading a driver. Even when building a machine, and have to load drivers, there are always CD’s that come with your hardware that contain the (probably outdated) drivers for your hardware, so you just run that one CD, install everything, reboot and your are good. It simply goes back to the fact that Linux is different. Not “better”, not “worse”, just different in this regard.

As a whole most of the major (and popular) Linux distributions do a great job of having everything configured and ready to go right after install. Even in regards to video cards. If you have Intel video, for the most part you are golden – 3D and all, but even if you have Nvidia or ATI, the Open Source drivers are great for 2D (not true in Windows – everything is painful until you load drivers), and you only need the proprietary drivers for 3D and other advanced features. In fact, right now on my Fedora 11 Preview install, I (for the first time ever) haven’t installed the non-free Nvidia drivers – I’m running the Nouveau driver which is loaded by default. Why? I don’t run dual-head on this box, I don’t play games, and I don’t use Compiz (I like Metacity Cheerios, thank you very much). In other words, I don’t need the Nvidia provided drivers, and I’m enjoying the freedom and flexibility of using my distro provided drivers. It makes for a very different experience (no worries about updates or upgrades breaking X for example).

Personally, I don’t believe the FUD about Linux netbooks being returned more than Windows based models either. I have a friend and co-worker that recently purchased an Ubuntu powered Dell Mini 9. He is an “Open Source Virgin” so to speak – in fact, he doesn’t even run Firefox on his Windows machines – he’s IE all the way baby! He does, however love his Mini, and he likes Ubuntu. No, he jumped into it to the extent a “Linux guy” would have, but it plays his music, he can surf the web, load pictures – basically, he can do whatever he wants, and it just works…the Operating System simply didn’t matter. I have another co-worker, who has an older machine. Ironically, even though he is a PC Tech (and yes I gave him a hard time about this), his PC was infected by a good bit of spyware and malware. As a passing joke, I told him, “just load Linux and be done – don’t fuss w/ it any more”… He came back from lunch that day, PC in tow and asked me to help him load Ubuntu. That was 3 weeks ago, and he’s still running it – and even went through the 8.10-9.04 upgrade on his own. He loves it! Why? He had help going through the initial install, basic instructions on how to install applications (such as use the package manger and not surf the web looking for “installers”), and he has built-in support since I told him he could call me if he needed help…he hasn’t called yet though.

Dell has done a great job of supporting Open Source by offering their line of Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux powered machines (Netbooks, Notebooks, Desktops, Workstations and Servers), and now HP has followed suit by offering Novell’s Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop on a new line of business oriented Notebooks. Also, Toshiba is selling Notebooks preloaded with Open Solaris. We need more large hardware OEM’s like these guys to get into the game, and give the average consumer a Linux/Unix experience equal to the Windows experience, and we could easily see more widespread adoption. We also need those same OEM’s to do a little better job of marketing and advertising those Open Source models, and making them more visible in the marketplace.

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them!

No, no, no…

This isn’t some “how-to” post. This isn’t about things I’ve learned about RPM’s, or yum or KVM…nothing like that. This is about things I have learned about what Fedora is about as a project, and what it’s mere existence means to the entire Linux landscape - in fact, I might stretch that even more… This is about why Fedora, along with other Linux distributions is so important to Linux, Computing, the Internet and beyond.

In this post, I will make some profound statements. Many “fanboys” will not agree with some of the things I am going to say, but if you will think outside of your boxes, you might be able to see the whole picture.

Many people say that Linux can never be a viable player on the desktop because there are too many distributions. I don’t think that is a problem, because the way I see it right now there are only three Linux distributions that are not only constantly innovating, but shape the entire face of Linux, and Open Source Software as we know it.

So, what are the three distributions?

• Ubuntu, which brings the Linux desktop to the masses.
• openSUSE, which brings interoperability to Linux.
• Fedora, which brings the best new technology and features of Open Source software to the enthusiast.

Ok, we’ll start with Ubuntu (since it’s probably the most obvious to most people):

Quick Note: I will go ahead and say that although Ubuntu is built upon Debian, it’s not one of the three. I think, personally, that Ubuntu could exist on it’s on without Debian at this point. Ubuntu is no longer a sanitized snapshot of Debian “Unstable” (Sid) as it was in it’s infancy - in fact, aside from sharing a package manager, there is little compatible between the two now…at least from the way I understand things…I could be wrong, however.

There is one very important area that Ubuntu has been very successful, and that is bringing Linux and Free, Open Source software to an entirely new audience. As important as that is, that doesn’t bring new features into the world of Linux. That doesn’t bring new areas of interoperability into the world of Linux, and that does not make Linux as a whole “better” (although it might make it more “popular”). Ubuntu has found it’s niche - it’s single, yet very important role in the entire Linux landscape - make Linux and FOSS popular with the general public, and not just something for us “geeks”. That doesn’t mean that Ubuntu never sends patches or new features “upstream”, because it does. However, most of what goes upstream from Ubuntu are more like refinements of features that were pioneered in the other two distributions I will discuss in this article.

In other words, Ubuntu is a popular Desktop Distribution, it’s releases are usually stable on a wide range of hardware, and make Linux consumable for even inexperienced users. However, in order to achieve this, it has to be somewhat conservative with what new features it includes and releases as part of it’s stable distribution. Ubuntu relies upon other distributions to pave the way, and bring in the major changes. Ubuntu brings new shutdown menus and a notification system. While those are great things to bring to the table, and add a lot to the distribution, it isn’t ground breaking stuff by any means.

Now, what does openSUSE bring to the table? Simple - Interoperability.

Many Linux fanboys got their panties all in a wad back in 2006 when Novell signed a patent agreement with Microsoft. I’m constantly amazed at how much of the Open Source community just puts on blinders and hates Microsoft for no apparent reason other than just hating them. I love OSS, and I love the model, but get real folks, it is SOFTWARE - not a religion. Don’t take things so personally. Microsoft creates and sells Closed Source software, and makes what is quite literally not only the most used desktop Operating System in the world, but the most used Office Suite as well (not to mention all of their many other products). I don’t hate Microsoft, In fact I use their products every day. I use Windows, I use Office - I couldn’t do my job without them (in fact, Windows is a large part of my job as a Network Administrator, since we have mostly Windows servers at work). In fact, I’m even typing this on a Microsoft Keyboard! They make good stuff. They are big, and they are powerful. By signing the patent agreement, Novell has had the ability to innovate in ways other Linux distributions can’t. Many great Open Source projects have come out of Novell: Mono and Moonlight are two very important examples, but also the Novell build of OpenOffice.org is by far the most widely used in all Linux distributions, and I always recommend the Go-oo build to Windows users wanting to try OpenOffice (the Mac-centric NeoOffice is also based on Go-oo as well). Also, just today, HP announced a new line of business laptops available with Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop (or SLED). SLED is by far the closest thing to a true “drop-in” replacement for MS Windows in most business environments, and has excellent interoperability features with Active Directory and Exchange.  These are some examples of what Novell has done.

Now, for the final of the three: Fedora.

Fedora, as you probably know is a community project sponsored by Red Hat. Love it or hate it, Red Hat is the single largest Linux company in the world. I would also say that combined, Red Hat and it’s “child” Fedora, and the “step-child” (I say this because it’s not officially sponsored by Red Hat) CentOS together have the largest installed base out there, especially in the Server/Datacenter space. Many of the most popular sites on the Internet (can you say Facebook anyone) are built on top of a Red Hat based foundation. Even Oracle uses Red Hat as the foundation for it’s “Unbreakable Linux”, and then there is also Scientific Linux (another RHEL “rebuild”) that is popular in the Science and Education market, along with the Fermilab’s own FermiLinux.

Where does all of that start? With Fedora of course. I would venture to say, that no other Linux distribution out there brings more to the table in terms of new features than Fedora. Somehow, Fedora, approximately every 6 months manages to take the absolute most bleeding edge, innovative features that the Open Source world has to offer, and present it in a usable stable form for the enthusiast to use (and love).

Fedora has come a long way since it’s early days. Originally, Fedora was broken into two separate sections: Core and Extras. Fedora Core was the sole domain of Red Hat employee’s and community members were not able to commit to packages that were part of Core, while Extras was the community playground (if you will). Since the two areas have merged back with Fedora 7, the line between the two has become very transparent, and Fedora has blossomed into not only a great desktop system, but has continued to innovate in ways that no other Linux distro has. Fedora is like a showcase of things to come in other distributions. The Fedora project is committed to contributing as much as possible to upstream projects, and ensuring that everyone can benefit from what goes on inside of Fedora. Fedora is built upon a set of Foundations that state that it will remain dedicated to Free Software, Represent the Strength of the Community, while maintaining a Commitment to Excellence and to always staying Innovative. Fedora is a leader where others are followers and by means of the shared power and talent of the community always tries to create and improve free software and content, and is committed to contributing everything it does back to the Open Source community as a whole.

Just to give an example of how far ahead of other distributions Fedora is, compare the “just released” Ubuntu 9.04 with the now 5 month old Fedora 10, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

So, who uses Fedora? Click the link to find out, and read the rest of the page for even more info about the Fedora project.

As important as each of these three distributions are, none would be complete without features, innovation and talent involved in creating the other two. As a result of the hard work of the developers and communities surrounding these three distributions, we are able to have and enjoy many different Linux distro’s, large and small, general and specified, free and non-free. We have a choice, and that choice, regardless of what distribution you choose is wonderful.

My choice from now on however, is Fedora.

(Thanks to everyone in the Fedora community that has made me feel welcome and taught me a few tricks in the process - you’ve all been great!)

There are all kinds of computer users. On one end of the spectrum, there are folks that just want their MySpace and iTunes, and on the other end there are folks like me who really dig computers - they are a hobby, they are (possibly) a career, and most importantly they are a passion.

Even in the latter category there is often division. You will run into “Computer Guys” who define themselves as “Mac Guys”, or “PC/MS/Windows Guys” or “Linux/UNIX Guys” (or Gals in all 3 cases ).

I just enjoy computers. I enjoy interacting with a machine and making it do something, and I enjoy exploring different systems to see what makes them work, and learning how to make different systems interact with each other. I do enjoy the Linux experience more simply because I can be involved in it. I can test new stuff, file bug reports, send the developer of an application an e-mail, communicate with other Linux users on mailing lists, web forums and IRC chat-rooms. I can help a new Linux user get started, or help an experienced user figure out that really weird error they’re getting. This part of it is the “hobby” for me. Recently I’ve also been getting interested in OpenSolaris, running it in a Virtual Machine. It looks really interesting, and like Linux is an open community and I’m very interested to see where it goes in the future. In short, I simply like the Open Source way of doing things. You can see what’s under the hood, and a community of people, who likely have never met in person can collaborate over the Internet and create something that is used and enjoyed by millions of people (apparently the number of Ubuntu users has now risen to 8 million and growing).

I am blessed to be able to use all three major “desktop platforms” every day. I have my “Home-Grown” Ubuntu desktop at home, my Dell Precision Workstation running Vista at work and I have a MacBook Pro that I’m able to use as well. The odd thing is, between all three Operating Systems, as different (or similar) as they may be, I can use many of the same applications. For example, on all three machines I have OpenOffice.org, Firefox, VirtualBox, GIMP, VIM, and probably something obvious I’m forgetting. There is also the aspect of “Cloud Computing”, and I use Gmail.com for my email and Google Reader to manage my RSS feeds and this very blog is hosted on WordPress.com, which in turn uses Amazon S3 to host media. It seems every day we are getting to the point to where it will not matter what Operating System you are using. What will matter most are the applications installed (or better yet, if it has internet access), and many of those applications, thanks to the Open Source community will be the very same Applications across all of the platforms. I haven’t even touched on the mega-smartphone craze! Man the iPhone and T-Mobile G1 “Google Phone” can in effect be computers in themselves!

Yet another open source project, WINE breaks those barriers down even further by allowing Windows applications to run on Linux/UNIX and even the Mac. Also, all three of the major desktop virtualization applications (VMware Workstation/Fusion, Parallels Desktop and VirtualBox) allow some sort of “unity” or “seamless” mode where the applications virutalized in the VM can be integrated directly onto the host machine’s desktop.

At work, I’m in the middle of a new Citrix XenApp deployment which will allow my Mac using remote employee the same access to the same proprietary Windows applications as his Windows using colleague. I could also fire up a Linux desktop, install the Citrix client, and again access the same applications.

Every year someone predicts “This will be the year of Linux on the Desktop”. Well, every year that hasn’t come to be, but since Dell first started offering Ubuntu systems pre-installed on their website, it’s been getting closer. The “netbook” craze has helped expose Linux to many people who have never heard of Linux (and many that still don’t even know they are running Linux). Lenovo was offering Thinkpads with Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop pre-installed, and Dell offers Precision Workstations with Red Hat Enterprise Linux as well. Wal-Mart has even made a couple of attempts at Linux Powered Desktops. Linux on the desktop is going strong, slowly but surely, but what I’m really waiting for is “The year of Open Source on the Desktop”, and the day that the OS no longer matters!