Oliver Meyer has composed an incredible step-by-step installation and setup of Mandriva 2008.1 at HowToForge.com.
It covers everything from installation to setup to tweaking. Pretty amazing, and it applies to most every other Linux distro. Well worth cruising Mr. Meyer’s masterpiece.
Nice set of videos from ubunite.com on the success (and problems) a Windows user encounters when installing and running Ubuntu for the first time. He makes some excellent usability suggestions that distro writers should note. You don’t need billions of dollars to do this kind of testing. Just grab a friend and watch what happens.
One of the goddamnedest things I’ve seen in tech in the past 25 years was not Windows ME, but Vista. I promised I’d stop talking about the OS because it’s pretty much been a disaster on so many fronts, as if Microsoft spent years figuring out just exactly the right mix of fuck-up. But it was Microsoft itself who re-opened the Vista wound this week.
Gartner, Forrester, and IDC research firms have all concluded new bad news about Vista, and now Microsoft shares that even though they’ve “sold” millions (Microsoft OSes come on virtually every new PC, which becomes a tax: you pay for it whether you want it or use it or not), they are losing both money and market share to GNU/Linux and Apple’s OS X. But the reason why is really rather simple: Vista did not make your computing experience better. Using it was like ripping an air-splitting fart just before you walk out of a crowded elevator.
That experience was newer, with a refreshed UI, but it brought too much baggage and hassle between its EULA, lack of drivers, poor laptop support, WGA, exponentially higher hardware requirements, and high cost. Vista was only ready for release with its recently released first service pack.
Meanwhile, the failure of Vista opened the door for life-long Windows users like myself to try GNU/Linux and/or OS X. Lots and lots of people went for OS X, but the one thing it shares with Microsoft is cost. Like Scientology, Apple makes you pay through your ass up front, and you feel so guilty that to justify the cost, you convince yourself that it’s great even if you don’t care for it. GNU/Linux offers a real desktop alternative, despite ongoing articles of “Is Linux ready for the desktop?” GNU/Linux requires you make a leap and unlearn a few things that Microsoft taught you. For example, I switched from Vista to Linux in the Fall of 2007 and it’s been jarring not to worry about security, lost files, data corruption, and kludging up my Registry.
Moving to Win7 asap is fine, except it won’t fix Microsoft’s migration problem. Once you lose a customer to GNU/Linux or Apple, they’re not coming back. Windows is no longer must-have software, and doesn’t offer any deal-breaking advantages after you’ve used Linux Mint, for example, or for the millions who’ve jumped to OS X.
Most people who continue to argue that Linux is not ready for the desktop and others that it is ready. I say it doesn’t matter to me, because Linux is ready for the desktop now, and easily back to 2006 if you’re a lifelong Windows user.
Linux is capable of running a big iron server, routers, tiny devices, supercomputers, mobile phones, OLPC, and ATMs. However the question the continues to come up is whether can Linux finally crack Microsoft’s hold on computing’s most visible domain — mainstream PCs. But from a GNU/Linux perspective, that’s the wrong question.
Market share cannot be accurately measured for an OS that’s not part of the commercial desktop market. The only copies of Linux that are included are primarily enterprise versions sold by Red Hat, Novell, et al. I refuse to pay for a Linux distribution because most all of them are free. My favorites for now are Fedora and Linux Mint, both free. However, you can pay for the Enterprise version of Red Hat, for Novell’s desktop version, or others like Mandriva if you like. So I have five computers, four of whom are running GNU/Linux. Am I counted as zero since I didn’t purchase them, or am I counted as one desktop Linux user, or am I counted as five Linux users? (We know that Microsoft counts you as a Windows user whether you are or not. Buy a commercial PC with Windows preinstalled and you just became another Windows user, even if you did reformat your drives to a GNU/Linux distro!
Use GNU/Linux for any time and you realize it just is. “It” truly doesn’t care about Windows, unless you have one foot stuck in Microsoft’s world, such as having to use it at work. But for the rest of us, the enormous enterprise support of Linux alone guarantees its future viability. If you’ve seen how far desktop Linux has come in the past three years, then you understand why there’s nothing to worry about. Desktop Linux users will be fine, and will continue to have a blast. While it’s nice to see Adobe build a Linux version for AIR, it won’t revolutionize it, only continue to push it one step closer to a grand unified cloud.
Maybe it’s Spring time that evokes the annual “Is Linux ready?…” articles, but the question has been asked and answered. See for yourself.
If there’s a killer app on the Windows platform, it’s not Photoshop, it’s the XYplorer File Manager. Because you spend your day amidst files, XYplorer will save you time and money — by not having to buy additional utilities for Windows.
I have no idea how Donald Lessau, XYplorer’s developer, is able to hold down prices on this app, but do yourself a favor and dump whatever the hell you’re using — yes, even that bloat-ass Directory Opus — and run get a Lifetime license for XYplorer!
Jupiter Kalambakal over at AHN reports on the seriously sweet rewards for hackers to crack the security of various laptops running the three majors operating systems. Apple was toast in two minutes. Vista fell next. But no one could crack Linux.
Go figure. And you wonder why I don’t run Windows on my main machine anymore.
Maybe so, according to one of its devs and IDM owner, Ian:
Hi Everyone,
We just wanted to give everyone interested in this thread a little insight into our efforts towards porting UE to LINUX/Mac.Along with ongoing development of our products over the last year we have indeed been working on a Linux version of UltraEdit we call UEx. That’s right…it does exist and we are very pleased with our progress to date!
As DaveS indicated, this is not a trivial process but we do have the in-house resources to accomplish this. Furthermore, we are also adding additional resources to those already being applied to this task.
We expect to have a Linux version of UltraEdit ready for market late in 2008 (Q3 -Q4). We want to assure you, our customers, that we have heard your requests and we are working hard to provide the Linux/Mac version of UltraEdit you all want so much to see.
Best wishes,
Ian and team
Been talked about for years, but maybe it will finally happen. Most Linux users miss UltraEdit’s column mode (KDE’s Kate text editor has it, along with Vim), but UltraEdit would likely become the dominant Linux text editor if it could carry over 90-95% of its Windows version features.
Vista-SP1 is finally here and so is its updated kernel. Fewer parts of the OS as a whole run in Kernel mode — most drivers run in User mode, for instance. Things that run in Kernel mode are prevented from installing without verified security certificates, and even then they require administrator-level user permission. It was also the smoothest Microsoft service pack installation of the decade. And while it’s still full of spaghetti code (sorry if that truth hurts, Ed Bott, but please don’t email me and curse me out again because I don’t worship Windows), Vista’s kernel can’t compare to the current Linux (kernel), which boots faster, and will always handle files far more efficiently and safely.
Meanwhile, check out Mepis instead.
I’ve really enjoyed IBM’s Lotus Symphony office suite for a few months in beta and frankly, I love the interface. Built on top of OpenOffice, its native file format is the ISO-certified ODF, which means you’re not locked into proprietary file formats, software licensing agreements and upgrades. It’s a better UI than that of MS Office 2007, and hey, it’s free.
Check it out, even invite a friend to try it.
Your future with Microsoft is restricted, expensive, and uncertain. The sooner you make the switch to GNU/Linux and open source software, the easier — and cheaper — your life will be over the next decade.
Businesses are always trimming costs. IT is a necessity, and often a bare one, not a luxury to be entertained. Much like advertising, what businesses can trade for free, they will find a way to do so. Open source is and will always be free. (Note, I’m not talking about services.) Microsoft, however, has never and will never be free. They’re so duplicitous that Microsoft even hedges its own “open” specification promise in the same vagueness as its highly vilified Vista EULA that only Microsoft contortionists and fanatics like Ed Bott can justify to themselves at the cost of their own reputations within the industry.
Further, what you will never have with open source is lock-in, because its very nature belies proprietary solutions. Microsoft, on the other hand, has spent the past decade to its detriment — and to Google’s delight — defending its shrinking monopoly and continuously forcing customers into proprietary lock-in strategies with their software through file formats, EULAs, driver model, developer tool giveaways, built-in DRM, and trusted computing, among other nasties.
With open source, your choices are expansive; with Microsoft, they shrink until you can only use a Microsoft product to access a Microsoft file (try opening an MS-OOXML file and saving it in anything other than Office 2007 — it cannot be done). Compare that sad state to all the things you can do with an ODF file.
Same reasoning goes for the desktop. Webware is not only real, but getting better every month. Microsoft’s limited webware — Live! — is a joke with deep ties to its proprietary office software. Don’t use MS Office? Tough shit, says Microsoft. Where’s the value for consumers in that? There is no value there, since other companies like Google, Zoho, Thinkfree, Ubuntu, et al. already have better software on the market… for free. They even offer premium and secure services to businesses for a small annual fee. And GNU/Linux enables a webcentric desktop far more easily than Windows ever could (ask those 200,000 people who bought $190 gOS computers last November).
To sustain itself, Microsoft must offer something the consumer wants that is worth paying for, an advantage it cannot get from open source. With exception to DirectX for gaming, Microsoft’s OS platform offers no other advantage over GNU/Linux. In fact, Vista-SP1 loses in all but one way to GNU/Linux: font rendering. Essentially, that’s all that’s left to conquer on the GNU/Linux side to fully equal Windows on the desktop, and most Linux users don’t see the real difference, its fonts being equivalent to that of Apple. As for gaming, buy a Wii and have some fun.
For two years now, businesses have strongly gravitated toward open source solutions, sinking lots of money into them. Google is doing its part by directly enabling Linux on its new mobile platform, Android. Microsoft, meanwhile, can’t even get Vista-SP1 ready for delivery, which brings you more TCO, stricter licensing, a confusing, unusable file format, no interoperability (ask Apple users about this one!), and a lifetime data lock-in and financial dependency on the Microsoft Corporation for access to your own data.
If that’s what you’re paying for, where’s the advantage?
(Time for someone like Ed Bott to tell me to get a new computer because my Penryn sucks at running Vista-SP1.)
I did not know. Well worth spending time at, considering this man’s prolific creativity.
Jimmy Atkinson has done a lot of heavy lifting to compose this list of open source alternatives to proprietary apps. I disagree with some of the choices, but wow, it’s pretty fantastic.
While some software hasn’t changed in ages — QuickPAR is one — most change only incrementally, especially mature apps like UltraEdit, most photo editors, spreadsheets, word processors, and archive apps to name a few. Gone are the days when we will see broad leaps in software, primarily because of the shifting focus of the code itself. Coders and the results their apps can produce are constantly dancing, always in motion, and sometimes moving laterally to maintain themselves.
A coder can only learn so much at one time, and then putting his ideas into a finished app with as few bugs as possible is another level of commitment. This is why you see so many apps that have raced through major upgrades as fast as the years on the calendar changes actually change so little. One exception is Microsoft Office 2007. It includes a clever new interface that frustrates its own goals, and in turn its new interface restricts creative changes. And I won’t even mention its failed MS-OOXML file format. Oh wait, I just did.
Another example are web apps, or webware. The more mature they get, the more they look and act like their localized counterparts. That’s a good thing! And now that more webware is providing local installations that can be synched with their online versions, you’ll gradually start to use one or two or three, and stay with them.
Still, the sense of incremental change is seen most clearly on the GNU/Linux platform, where changes happen more frequently, but much like watching yourself age, you don’t notice it so much. So don’t be surprised if in 2019, software hasn’t changed as much as you expected.
By any measure you take, Microsoft is not gaining new users. It’s losing them to GNU/Linux and Apple by significant percentages. And once those users see what other platforms have to offer, Windows ain’t that impressive. In fact, Windows compares only in unfavorable, negative ways. Let’s look at some of Microsoft’s “brand” and what is the first word that comes to mind when you read:
While I’m happy to see Microsoft announce they’re serious about Windows7, I recall they were also serious about Vista. So while I wish them luck with building a better OS for the masses, call me when Window7-SP1 arrives.
Meanwhile, I encourage you to check out GNU/Linux, which will continue its steady improvement every six months until Microsoft replaces Vista.
At least that’s the recommendation:
The British government’s educational IT authority has issued a report advising schools in the country not to upgrade their classroom or office systems to Windows Vista or Office 2007. According to this InformationWeek story, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency says costs for Vista and Office 2007 ‘are significant and the benefits remain unclear.’ Instead, Becta is advising British schools to take a long look at Linux and open source suites like OpenOffice.org.
I spoke with an exec Wal-Mart IT buyer from Bentonville today who said his company plans to sell Linux from now on. Microsoft will still be on the shelf, but when consumers compare prices of the same machine and finally see how much the “Microsoft Tax” costs them, they’ll think twice. Considering the devalued USDollar under the grand idiot Bush, the future is less profit for you know who.
As if an application could get any better, Donald Lessau’s XYplorer continues to impress us. 2007 brought customizable keyboard shortcuts in an entirely imaginative way.
Now comes scripting for 2008, allowing you to create (or mash) more than one function into a keyboard shortcut. Note the command code for the screenshot below, #121. The scripting feature is just being rolled out and will quickly evolve, so be patient with its development. Lessau is not the one to disappoint… ever! Don’t believe me? Check out the clever ”All Free Shortcuts” button dialog:
I’m working hard on a site redesign that will be simpler, better coded, and easier to read among the big three browsers.
Gone will be the short reviews, as those will shift to the blog as new programs are added, dropped. Gone are the screenshots, more links will be added, and the site will shift focus from Windows only to Windows and cross-platform software which includes a few apps on the GNU/Linux side. GNU/Linux really only has one or two programs in each category that can compare to Windows shareware programs, at least the ones I use. And while the changes in Vista SP1 will stabilize and update the Vista’s multimedia feature set somewhat, I think Windows 7 will be great if Microsoft learns to learn from its mistakes.
Ask PCLinuxOS, who announced a $150 pre-installed Linux computer, albeit refurbished and with older hardware. But hey, you can’t run Windows on this stuff, but GNU/Linux treats old hardware like candy. Just more proof that GNU/Linux has claimed cheap computing.
Linux Outlaws consists of two guys, Fabian Scherschel and Dan Lynch, who have quickly created one of the best podcasts running today. Easy-going, knowledgable, fearless, they cover a lot of ground and each podcast is an casual, informative conversation. Geared for all levels of users, they are especially helpful for beginners to the platform. Check it out!
Microsoft’s latest update to Office 2003 blocks some older formats, including CorelDRAW under the guise of “security.” Hey, but wasn’t Corel one of the companies at the forefront of supporting MS-OOXML back in 2006? So much for supporting the failed MS-OOXML format gets you these days.
Ah yes, but that’s the way Microsoft works. You do for them, and then they screw you anyway. Microsoft is not about making technology better, it’s about fucking up the other guy.
But alas, here’s a solution! Within any program you have, delete all of Microsoft’s format profiles. That’s right, delete them. Still using .doc? Start saving to ODF and switch to ODF permanently. Already using Microsoft’s failed MS-OOXML format? Dump it and switch. Given enough time and files, there won’t be any Microsoft formats in use, and thus no need to support them anymore.
In his Vista Death Watch article, John Dvorak writes: “I’m certainly not going to be a happy camper if I have to switch to a Mac or Linux system full-time, yet that is exactly where this scatterbrained company seems to be sending me.”
Been there, done that, and have moved on to GNU/Linux. Windows is now relegated to an older machine that is designated for porn and DVD burning. I got so frustrated with how slow (even on a fast new computer!), how expensive, how vague the EULA was, how security had not improved, how aggravating the default UI could be, WGA, forced automatic updates, yada yada. I could go on like that for hours. But in 2007, enough was enough and I struck out for greener, free-er pastures, finding them in FLOSS.
Without a stake in Windows anymore, I can no longer maintain The Great Software List in good conscience simply because I’m not using the software that much. I could expand it to include more open source software and make it cross-platform. And perhaps that’s a better, more focused way to proceed — adjust to list to include only software that works across more than just Windows. But there are a half dozen very good “equivalent” or “alternative” software sites out there who do a more thorough job than I ever could. The other problem with that approach is that I’m no Linux expert and will never pretend to be. But as my interests are no longer centered on Windows software, I cannot recommend what I do not use.
Besides, right now in my life, I’m in terrible health, suffering from crippling headaches that last for days. Without health insurance, I’ve scoured the web and attended many a free clinic to figure their cause. I’ve always had headaches, bad ones. But at age 46, they have intensified to a point where I can no longer hold a job, and when I get them, I can do nothing except go to bed. That means I hurt so bad I can’t read, can’t sit at the computer, can’t even watch TV. I retreat to a dark basement and try to make it as cold as possible. On the flip side, when I don’t have a headache, I can do amazing things and with vast energy.
Linux will continue its incremental improvement in 2008, but will Windows? If Microsoft is smart, it will take Dvorak’s advice and scuttle the OS, and hit the restart button with Windows 7. I’ll continue to be part of the discussion, but with Vista, Microsoft has asked me to sign onto something so bad, I can no longer be a fan of the platform. Apple is not much better, since they just submitted their own WGA-type patent for their OS. So you won’t see me going down that road. Ever. No matter what happens, let’s all hope that 2008 is a better software year for Windows than 2007 was.
Wow what a non-surprise. Microsoft, who once set the standard for quality application software, stunk up Dan Tynan’s biggest disappointments of 2007. And that’s what Microsoft is anymore: a disappointment in every way from licensing to pricing to quality to design to PR to its shitty ISO politicking, and on and on. Based on what Microsoft and its evangelists led us to expect in 2006, Vista was not just a disappointment; it was a disgrace, and the broad perception of its failure has Redmond racing to Windows 7. And please, don’t tell me how many copies were “sold.” Those numbers can be manipulated in a wide variety of ways. A Microsoft person will never tell you how many people downgraded to XP from Vista.
I’m still waiting for visual confirmation of Ed Bott’s amazing 45-boot times for Vista, which I’ve never managed to achieve across a half dozen installations on new hardware in 2007. (And no, disabling several needed systems within the OS doesn’t count for “faster” boot time, excluding AV software.) So I’ll take his column on the subject as another myth of Microsoft land for now. Besides, I’ve never seen another article in 2007 bragging about how fast Vista boots!
Office 2007? No better. The “ribbon” is a ridiculous conception that serves only to take up valuable screen space and reduce efficiency, even though in true “Fox News” fashion, we were told it’s smaller than Office 2003’s toolbar, even though that lie was easily exposed. 2007 users spent the year asking: “Where the hell did ___ go?!” Zune is the last disappointment, and why not. Have you ever — ever! — seen anyone carting around a zune? Between Chicago and Missouri, I have not, even on public transportation and among several downtowns and college campuses. If you do, you can bet that person is also using AOL and liking it.
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PS: Spam killed my comments section for the tenth time. I’m tired of fucking with that problem. So please comment over at DonationCoder.com.
