Aug 24th, 2009 - Since its inception in 2004, Ubuntu has been the beneficiary in what seems like a bottomless money pit for South African entrepreneur, Mark Shuttleworth via his commercial support and development venture, Canonical. Since Canonical, Ltd. isn't an American publicly-owned company (and I don't know... (Read More)

Aug 19th, 2009 - Nothing gets people in the Linux World riled up like comparing distributions, desktops or editors. But for the new Linux user, the whole thing is a bit confusing. What do we tell them? Do we verbally slug it out in forums or do we offer gentle guidance to those entering the Linux jungle for the... (Read More)

Aug 16th, 2009 - Today I'm pondering if the current open source model is still valid or if it's outdated. Do we need licensing for open source software? Do we need the GPL, LGPL, APL and all the other licenses that plague...er, grace us? If your software is free and open source, why bother with a license at all?... (Read More)

Aug 6th, 2009 - My good friend and partner in crime, Jason Perlow is working on (as I'm writing this) a new Linux distribution that is Hyper-V ready. It is a modified OpenSUSE 11.1 that includes the Linux Integration Components (ICs) from Microsoft. He'll have a link to it on his blog in a day or two for everyone... (Read More)

Aug 4th, 2009 - It's hard to convince Joe and Mary User to convert to Linux when the first things you hear from them are: "Where's my <insert stupid application here>?" "Why can't I just have <insert ridiculous thing here>?" or the ever-popular "This doesn't work like <insert overpriced application here>?"... (Read More)

Jul 31st, 2009 - DATELINE - July 30, 2009 An open letter was sent to Lance Davis, primary administrator, describing the problems experienced by the other major members and contributors to the CentOS project. Here is that letter, in its entirety that's also posted on the front page at centos.org: ... (Read More)

Jul 30th, 2009 - If you haven't heard of ProxMox yet, you need to hit the site right now and grab the ISO file for the latest version (1.3) as of this writing. ProxMox is a bare metal (Type 1) hypervisor that comes with KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) and OpenVZ technology rolled into a single system. That's right.... (Read More)

Jul 7th, 2009 - Quick question: What do the following things have in common? A Mythical Horned Rabbit from Douglas, Wyoming. A French-Canadian Linux Guy. An A4 Format. An African Word. A Double-sided DVD. An Abundance of Information. Give up? (Read More)

Jun 25th, 2009 - Ok, so we all know that I've been giving Fedora a bit of a black eye lately with my BaitNSwitch and Is Fedora Still Relevant posts so I've decided to give them some positive press and enter their Spins Zone. Spins are live Fedora CD images designed with a specific purpose or function in mind. ... (Read More)

Jun 3rd, 2009 - The Linux Foundation notified me a few days ago about some new member benefits and I'm excited to tell you about them. For starters, you receive discounts on their training courses and entrance to their conferences--which translates to several hundred bucks to those of you watching your budgets.... (Read More)

Jun 2nd, 2009 - I received a newsletter from rPath concerning Lean IT and it occurred to me that Linux is the keystone in each one of the elements listed in it: Virtualization, Cloud Computing and Cost reduction mandates. As more businesses work toward saving money, they'll look for ways to save on IT... (Read More)

May 17th, 2009 - This week I'll be at InterOp Las Vegas looking for the latest and coolest Linux-based technologies that InterOp exhibitors have to offer. My favorites are certainly the "new innovators." New innovators are small companies who've developed their own products and are trying to get noticed in the... (Read More)

May 13th, 2009 - The topic of certification surfaces every so often in technical circles--especially when job seekers face tough job competition. The value of such certifications comes into question versus that of years of experience. For experienced technicians and engineers, the opinion is that experience is the... (Read More)

May 11th, 2009 - I wonder if the Linux Foundation is prepared to go to task for us, the Linux users, the Linux supporters, the Linux developers and the Linux Foundation members? I wonder if they are our National Rifle Association (NRA)? I wonder if the Linux Foundation is prepared to meet the challenges of the... (Read More)

Aug 11th, 2009 - For Sale By Owner: One Commercial Linux Company with excellent history and reputation in the enterprise Linux arena. Profitable concern specializing in open source and Linux-based solutions. Offers top-notch distribution with broad hardware support, superb technical solutions, built-in... (Read More)

Aug 9th, 2009 - Linux distributions could use a boost in a few different areas, specifically these five: Virtualization, Graphics, Games, Point-of-Sale and Education. Some significant progress has been made in the past year or so in virtualization and graphics but there's still more to do. Everyone has their own... (Read More)

Jul 16th, 2009 - If I hadn't already known--or at least had some idea of the religious zeal I was about to face, I would have been more shocked at the response to my 2009's 10 Worst Linux Distributions post from the other day. I now have definitive evidence that Linux is a religion--a religion that spans the globe,... (Read More)

Jun 22nd, 2009 - Prejudices and opinions aside, at some point in your career you'll be asked to select a viable Linux distribution for your corporate network. How will you choose? Will you use the same distribution that you use at home or will you do some research and find something that's corporate-ready? Are you... (Read More)

Jun 19th, 2009 - I've been in discussions with a group of other writers, Linux distribution watchers, Linux community leaders and developers in the past few days concerning Linux commercial vs. Linux community versions and some of us came to the conclusion that Fedora's relevance has waned. In fact, it might be... (Read More)

Jun 16th, 2009 - Today, I'm announcing my new Linux company, HookLineNSinker, Inc. (HLNS) which will produce a new commercial Linux distribution: Pricey Linux. HLNS products include Pricey Linux Enterprise, Pricey Linux Small Business Server and The Pricey Linux Desktop. There are also Pricey Linux Support options... (Read More)

Jul 29th, 2009 - I'm having a rather traumatic experience with certain Microsoft products lately. My problem is that I'm trying to "get to know" Microsoft's Hyper-V for my virtualization column over at Linux Magazine. The problem is, that to manage a true Hyper-V system remotely, you must have a Windows Vista or... (Read More)

Jun 5th, 2009 - Intel acquired Wind River for $884 million to boost Linux adoption in the Intel Atom market. Obviously Intel sees Wind River's embedded Linux market as new opportunity for its Atom processor family. There's also buzz about multi-core processor offerings from the two in the near future. I see... (Read More)

Jul 26th, 2009 - I recently upgraded a friend of mine to Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop for his five-year-old Acer laptop with 512 MB of RAM. I removed Windows 2000 after backing up his precious documents, pictures and browser favorites. I installed the latest stable version of Ubuntu, restored all of his settings, Internet... (Read More)

Jul 24th, 2009 - Linus has spoken so get back to work and stop burning up the Internet with your hate speeches and endless ramblings about Microsoft and how this is so wrong. Linus accepted the code and gives his reasons as to why. Here's my take on the whole thing with responses to an interview with Linus done by... (Read More)

Jul 19th, 2009 - Just like the international gang summits in Los Angeles, Linux needs a collective, "sit-down" to discuss the future of this now formidable operating system. I'm not talking about a nice little get together with keynote speakers with high-powered, 10,000 foot views of where Linux is and where it's... (Read More)

Jul 12th, 2009 - Any list of best or worst will have its opponents and proponents and I foresee that this list of worst Linux distributions will be no different. There were, at last count, almost 300 Linux distributions and they all can't be great. But, this list of Linux distributions are, in my opinion, the worst... (Read More)

Jun 13th, 2009 - Back in October '08, I wrote "5 Things I Wish Linux Had" but never realized that it would inspire the heated debate (Read the comments) that it did. I also didn't realize that it would inspire an actual operating system. One of my readers commented briefly that he would take on the project. With... (Read More)

May 29th, 2009 - Perhaps it's my role as the family computer guy that's leading me in this direction today but it seems to me that there should be Linux distributions that are age-oriented and age appropriate. Seldom do I see my parents-in-law playing a heated game of Quake or doing any kernel tinkering, nor do I... (Read More)

May 6th, 2009 - I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and am happy to say it's an overall success. Of course, I would say that because I love Ubuntu; it's my favorite Desktop Linux distribution and I've seen a lot of them. Being Debian-based, it is rock-solid, stable, easily updatable and a... (Read More)

Jul 8th, 2009 - Yesterday, Google announced that they are entering the Netbook operating system market with the Google Chrome OS--a Linux-based, web-oriented effort. On the surface, I see this as yet another ploy to take my Netbook from me. No, Google won't realize any direct profits from taking over my little... (Read More)

Jun 28th, 2009 - Most often, when someone talks about a filesystem or file system, they're referring to disk filesystems such as NTFS, FAT, ext2, ext3, ext4, ISO 9660 and many others but can also refer to network file systems such as CIFS (Common Internet File System aka Samba) and NFS. A filesystem is a... (Read More)

May 4th, 2009 - The cheap Netbooks you see advertised at discount stores might not turn out to be so cheap after all. If you see a Netbook advertised at $100 or less, beware--it will end up costing you many times the regular price of $275-$400 USD. As I predicted in my post, "Branded Netbooks," vendors (Phone... (Read More)

Jul 2nd, 2009 - This post has nothing to do with Michael Jackson, his death, his kids, his Neverland Ranch or anything related to him. It has everything to do with my need for a virtual laboratory where I can test virtual machines, write about them or produce other documentation about them without a significant... (Read More)

May 14th, 2009 - Well, well, well...Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO added Virtual Iron to his collection today. Congratulations, Larry. When is Oracle going bankrupt? Every time that I've seen a company acquire too many other companies in a short time period, they always end up in the dustbin. Oracle just acquired Sun... (Read More)

Jun 11th, 2009 - FireFox 3.5 is due out by the end of June and includes some pretty interesting new features--and not a moment too soon. Some of these new features include the ability to play videos in the browser without the need to download and install a third-party plugin. It also includes TraceMonkey, which is... (Read More)

Jun 9th, 2009 - Yesterday, Apple announced significant price drops on many of its consumer products including the iPhone and Mac Air. This is an unusual move by Apple since it carefully controls its pricing--so much so that rarely, if ever, do its products go "on sale." So what's up with this big price drop? Is... (Read More)

Jun 8th, 2009 - Have you bought a Kindle or Kindle 2 yet? Don't--at least not until you check out the COOL-ER ebook reader. It's about the same size and weight of a Kindle--so what makes it so much cooler than the Kindle? It could be your choice of eight cool colors, its magical portrait/horizontal page... (Read More)

May 27th, 2009 - I'm in search of Linux--which sounds odd since it seems that I should be able to find all the Linux I'd ever want but I want to know about your favorite Linux gadget, project, invention, software, innovation or appliance. I want to know which ones are most important to you--which ones you're... (Read More)

May 23rd, 2009 - Jason Perlow and I had the pleasure of interviewing Kickfire CEO Bruce Armstrong for the May 22nd episode of Frugal Friday to discuss the Kickfire appliance. The Kickfire appliance is a Linux-based, rack-mountable, database appliance tuned for Data Warehousing. Here's the real scoop: Starting at... (Read More)

May 20th, 2009 - InterOp 2009 is a success by anyone's measure but it's been a mixed bag for me so far. Internet access on the show floor is almost non-existent. For a major tech show like this, it's absolutely ridiculous. You'd think that Internet access would be a standard feature of any technical... (Read More)