Posts by khess

Beware the Ides of March. I just received the news that one of my most favorite services is shutting down due to the cost of providing the free service. That's right, the public g.ho.st cloud desktop service closes on March 15, 2010. I loved the Global Hosted Operating System and realized that it is truly the way of the future. Of course, I understand the need to make money and they were providing a lot of space per person for each user account. They must have had hundreds of thousands of accounts. Still, March 15, 2010 is the end of an era.

Now known as Ghost Cloud Computing, the current owners want to sell out. The following message is the email I received from them a short while ago:

Dear Ghost User,
We hope you have been enjoying our free Ghost service. Regrettably changes in the marketplace mean that it is no longer economical for us to host the Ghost service and we will be closing down the service on or around March 15. We will instead be focusing on licensing or selling our technology to larger companies.
We advise you to migrate ALL important folders, files and emails to another secure place before March 15. You might like to consider Google Docs or Microsoft SkyDrive for files and services such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail for email. Some instructions for migrating data are included below.

We are really sorry …

Yes! You got it. I had a website that showed it but now have lost it.

LOL. I must have slipped a cog or something. You're right. Sorry. My Acer One is Intel Atom too, not ARM. <sigh> There's nothing like defending your position to the death and then you find out you were wrong all along. If it's any excuse, I was doing some research using QEMU with ARM processor emulation for another project. I must have had ARM on the brain.

In any case, there's a new Kindle brewing and either they'll use Windows CE on it or they'll use Windows 7 with a compatible processor. The Atom would be a good choice.

You're not really going to use wikipedia as a reference are you? In any case, I'll check on my Acer One tonight and let you know.

Windows 7 does run on ARM processors. Did you not see the link I gave? It runs on the EEE PC and many others, including my ARM-based Acer One Netbook.
If you don't believe this post and want to chalk it up as FUD, that's up to you but I think you'll see that this post holds a lot more water than anyone is willing to admit at the moment.

Windows 7 does run on the ARM processor. It's called the Windows 7 Started Edition. Here's the link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/starter.aspx

Don't believe for a second that they aren't going to upgrade the processor to compete and accelerate past the iPad because they will.

Put those lines anywhere in the file. But you can just edit the .bashrc file and add that stuff in. Use vi or something at the command line.

I like Linux Mint. I did an article on Ubuntu offspring over at linux-mag.com a couple of years ago. http://www.linux-mag.com/id/6200

Then what the heck is Amazon paying Microsoft for? And, why were the details of their deal not released? It would cost Amazon a bigger fortune to pursue a Linux-based gadget that aspires to do more than read books.

A few hours ago, I posted "Is Microsoft the New SCO?" but now I realize, after a little research, that Amazon and Microsoft are in this patent agreement for one reason: so that Amazon can abandon Linux on its Kindle in favor of Windows 7. Crazy? Nope. It makes perfect sense. Why would the world's largest software company and the world's largest online retailer team up? To Window-ize the Kindle. I'm afraid it's true. Amazon wants the Kindle to run apps, like the iPad and this is the best way for them to accomplish that. They didn't give any details in their agreement but I'll fill-in the missing bits for you.

Amazon uses Linux for its Kindle now. Amazon uses a lot of Linux for its EC2 service. Just one day after their patent agreement deal, Amazon announced that they now offer Windows reserved instances just like their Linux ones.

Are you getting the picture yet? If not, let me help some more.

If you think about it, Amazon can't or won't team up with Google because Google wants to give away books. Amazon wants to charge for those books.

Apple and Amazon wouldn't make a good gadget-based business pair since Apple already has the iPad and the Kindle would compete directly with that device.

Linux has some distinct advantages for embedded devices but which Linux company would Amazon pair with …

Earlier this week Microsoft and Amazon signed a patent deal covering Amazon's Linux-based Kindle and its use of Linux-based server systems. Amazon will pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount as a result of this deal. I know it's just me but what the hell is up with that? I don't have a lot of details of this deal but why would Amazon have to pay Microsoft anything for the use of Linux on its Kindle or on its use of Linux-based servers? Your guess is as good as mine.

My guess is that this is more Microsoft FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) forcing Amazon into a deal that isn't good for Amazon. I assume that Microsoft thinks it owns some patents for software used in Linux. My other assumption is that Amazon figured it would be more cost-effective to give in rather than fight about this in court.

What I also assume is that Microsoft tried to purchase Amazon and Amazon said 'no.' Microsoft, in turn, decided to exert some imaginary force on Amazon by "suggesting" that the two enter into this deal to "protect" Amazon from any future patent disputes.

Thanks Microsoft. That's so awesome of you. Always thinking of someone else. Thinking of someone else's money that you can tap into, that is. My question to Microsoft is:

"Are you the new SCO?"

It's hard for me to believe that you have that much to gain in these …

Here's some buzz for you, Google Buzz is killing my GMail. I'm adding Google's Buzz to the top of the list of the worst tech ideas to come along in quite a while. I'm not a social networking fan, anyway, and to break my GMail, my primary email account, with something as stupid and useless as Buzz; I'm irritated. I usually wake up to 20 or more emails in my Inbox first thing in the morning. Today, I had one. Yes, one. I've sent numerous messages out today and I don't know if they're swirling about in some mail queue or if they've reached their destinations. Thanks Buzz. Thanks a lot.

I'm not sure that Google's tech people realized how much bandwidth a service like this uses. It's a lot. Just ask Twitter. It's especially bandwidth hungry because, unlike Twitter, Buzz doesn't limit you to 140 characters.

Great idea.

Poor execution.

It's poor execution in the sense that perhaps they (Google) should have limited Buzz updates to a few times per day. As far as I can tell, there are no limits on number of buzzes, size of buzzes or how often you can buzz.

I'm a happier person now that I've removed Buzz from my GMail account. Free yourself by following these simple steps to remove Buzz from GMail:

Click Settings in your GMail account. Select the Buzz link. Click the Disable Google Buzz link.
There …

It's my pleasure to bring you the CTO of Devil Mountain Software, Craig Barth, in this exclusive interview, his first, after the much publicized outting of InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy. Barth, perhaps best known for his Windows performance expertise, is also a huge Linux fan. Here now, is my interview with Craig Barth in its entirety. Transcribed from an Audacity recording over Skype.

KH: Hello, Craig. Thanks for agreeing to this interview. May I have your permission to record this call?

CB: Yes, of course.

KH: Let's jump right in with some questions about your involvement with Linux and its performance. First of all, how does a Windows-oriented guy become involved with Linux at all.

CB: Quite by accident really. I had used Linux early on but tossed it aside when the Windows 2000 product hit the market. Linux, we all thought at the time, was nothing more than a niche OS that would do well as a web server or a geek toy but little more.

KH: Why have you suddenly changed teams?

CB: I haven't for the most part. What I have done is realize that it is no longer a Windows world or a Linux world or a Mac world but a heterogeneous world in which we live. You can't run a data center or a software company in a vacuum.

KH: Do you think a lot of software companies exist in a vacuum?

…

Responses (from another site) on my recent, "Security Alert: They Should Have Used Linux" led me to explore the conclusion that hacking is really only for those seeking the low-hanging security fruit as their prey. These folks, who tout themselves as "Linux Experts" intrigued me so much with their comments that I'm compelled to write this post as an analysis of that dialog. One said that, "Hacking is a business. Windows is targeted because of the size of the target... combined still over 90%, and XP allegedly *still* 65%+." Still another asserted that, "Windows is the most attractive target for botnet crackers because of its ubiquity...." Could this be true? Could it be that hackers are simply hitting Windows because it is the biggest target?

I beg to differ.

I think Windows is an easy target because it has some pretty glaring insecurities. But it isn't the least secure out of the box OS.

One of the commenters said, "I myself recently changed from PCs running Linux to MacBooks for both work and home; though almost all of my work is via ssh to Linux or FreeBSD servers."

Want to know which OS (from Mac OS X, Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux) was hacked first at two (that I know of) security conferences?

It wasn't Vista. It was hacked on the last day of the conference.

It wasn't Linux. It was never hacked.

…

My suggestion is to install webmin and use it to configure your virtual hosts. If that, for some reason is not an option, let me know and I'll tell you how to do it using the scripts.

I've seen a collection of articles about computer security breaches originating from China and would like to give a report from the ITYS Foundation. ITYS, for the unaware, is "I Told You So." I've discussed the use of Linux on the desktop for years, touting its security, stability, thousands of free software applications and feature-rich interfaces. I'm constantly told that Linux on the desktop is dead. I've even said it myself after taking too many verbal lashings when touting Linux as a prospective desktop operating system. Novell and RedHat have both put the Linux Desktop out mind.

So, I guess we're all saying that we'll just stick with Windows and deal with the viruses, botnets, hackers, malware, email bombs, spyware and all the other goodies (baddies) that are sent our way.

Alternatively, innocent people shouldn't have their computers and their choice of operating system destroyed, hacked or spied-on by people with nothing better to do than to write malware and release it.

However, if Linux were the desktop of choice, most of these news items wouldn't exist. I'm not saying or suggesting that Linux is perfect but most of the issues that plague Windows don't exist for Linux.

It's my sincere hope that companies will soon discover that their reluctance to embrace Linux on the desktop is foolish. It's also my hope that virus and malware writers will face the maximum penalties available for costing innocent people millions of dollars …

The announcement from The Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin:

MeeGo combines Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo projects at the Linux Foundation to create one open source uber-platform for the next generation of computing devices: tablets, pocketable computers, netbooks, automotive IVI and more.

Why should you pay attention to this announcement? With MeeGo you have the world’s largest chip manufacturer and the world’s largest mobile handset manufacturer joining forces to create an incredible opportunity for developers who want to reach millions of users with innovative technology.

MeeGo, as Zemlin describes it, " is not an OS designed for a legacy purpose that is being crammed or expanded into a new device form."

It is a Linux-based OS for the next generation of devices.

You might be asking yourself, "Why is The Linux Foundation involved in MeeGo?"

Good question.

The answer lies in The Foundation's purpose, part of which is to move Linux forward and to promote Linux to the world. It's the right place to plant, grow and monitor such a project. Who better than the Linux developers, themselves, to host a high profile, future-oriented project like MeeGo?

No one.

MeeGo is multi-architecture, cross-device and consumer-oriented.

When The Linux Foundation releases the first incarnation of the project that's suitable for use on a device, watch my blog for a review of it.

@alexanpasha
You're right, those are left out. In the enterprise I work in, we don't use Mainframe, supercomputing clusters or parallel processing systems. I was basically referring to what we use Linux for, realizing that places like Los Alamos Nat'l Labs and others use Beowulf clusters and other leading edge stuff.

No, this one is cool. I'm a big Ubuntu fan but I call them on it when they don't do a good job. 9.04 was a bummer but 9.10 rocks! And 10.04, at least on the server end, is awesome.

It isn't too soon to anticipate the next major release of Ubuntu is it? I hope not. Ubuntu 10.04 has a few surprises up its virtual sleeve in store for you. I can't tell you everything that's in store but you'll certainly have fun discovering some of them through this blog and my other writing venues as I obtain permission to print them. I did have the pleasure of speaking directly to one of the Ubuntu developers on Friday and will tell you a bit of what he told me about this exciting new release.

Ubuntu 10.04, aka Lucid Lynx, is an LTS (Long Term Support) release. This means that this version of Ubuntu will be supported for five years after its release. The last LTS was Ubuntu 8.04.

Ubuntu produces a new LTS release every two years.

For those of you who don't know, Ubuntu Linux was the brainchild and is the financial support burden for billionaire, Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical is the official commercial support company for the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

In this new release, Ubuntu will be even more enterprise focused with a continuation and enhancement of some new features that first appeared in earlier releases. Some of the new key features involve power management and virtualization in the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud version of Ubuntu Server. Some Ubuntu developers refer to Lucid Lynx as a "green" release due to these power management enhancements.

The developer promised me that careful …

OK osgui, you're apparently the winner and only entrant. Congrats. If you're interested, send me a PM with your address and I'll have the prizes sent to you. Thanks for participating.

It seems that I caused quite a stir and some arguments among some of my readers with the likes of my 5 *nix Myths Busted and the ever popular Retraction: 5 *nix Myths Busted, when I referred to rebooting systems. I never thought that something so benign would cause such a fuss. Though shocked and awed by some of the responses, I can tell you that rebooting a system, any system, is a fact of life. Until now, that is.

A new service, created by real geniuses at MIT, alleviates the need to reboot after patching the Linux kernel. Awesome, huh?

Here's the full scoop:

Ksplice Abolishes the Reboot

* New Ksplice Uptrack service allows system
administrators to update Linux servers without the disruption
and downtime of a reboot

Cambridge, Mass., February 9, 2010 — Ksplice Inc. today
announced the general availability of its Uptrack service, eliminating
the need to restart Linux servers when installing crucial updates and
security patches.

Based on technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Ksplice Uptrack is a subscription service that allows IT
administrators to keep Linux servers up-to-date without the disruption
and downtime of rebooting.

Before Uptrack, system administrators had to schedule downtime in
advance to bring Linux servers up-to-date, because updating the
central part of a computer's software — known as the kernel
— previously required rebooting the computer. Until a …

The world's largest technical support, software and hardware companies use Linux on a daily basis for a variety of tasks and solutions. This post gives you an overview of all the ways in which large companies use Linux. Most don't use Linux on the desktop but do use it in ways you might expect (and a few you might not expect) a company of that magnitude to use it. They've leveraged Linux for some of the most critical workloads and 100% uptime service levels. Welcome to the world of enterprise Linux.

10. Intrusion Detection Systems - Linux provides the perfect network intrusion detection services platform because it's free, runs on just about any available hardware and is the favorite platform of open source developers. Applications such as Snort, the most widely deployed intrusion prevention and detection technology in the world, were built upon the free, open source ideal in mind.
From the Snort website:

Snort® is an open source network intrusion prevention and detection system (IDS/IPS) developed by Sourcefire. Combining the benefits of signature, protocol and anomaly-based inspection, Snort is the most widely deployed IDS/IPS technology worldwide. With millions of downloads and over 270,000 registered users, Snort has become the de facto standard for IPS.

If you're not using Snort, you might want to.

9. Google Search Appliances - Google builds its search appliances on the Linux platform. If you're using one in your company, you're using Linux. Sure Google uses a special version …

Google Chromium OS version 4.0.253.0, Free, 3GB image.

I took Google's Chromium OS for a spin yesterday for two reasons: One, I thought that it looks interesting and, two, I wanted to see how it runs in real time on my netbook. I've used Google's Chrome browser for sometime now so I thought I'd give their Chrome browser-based OS a go. Here are my first impressions of Chromium and its features.

Hardware: Acer Aspire One netbook with 1GB RAM and using a 4GB USB thumb drive for the OS container.

Boot Time: WOW! It boots so quickly that I had a hard time timing it. Initially, it booted in about two seconds but after setting up wireless networking, it was a few seconds more. Five seconds is as close as I've come to an actual time on boot after setting the . My netbook is one of the nicer ones that really is a mini laptop and not a standard SSD-based (solid state drive) notebook gadget so your actual mileage may vary. Boot time: Impressive.

Look and Feel: Chromium looks like the Chrome browser with two tabs already created for you. A Gmail tab and a Google Calendar tab await you. There's also a Google Chrome button in the upper left corner of your screen, that, when clicked, displays several social networking and productivity tools for you to explore. Response is excellent …

I've posted a retraction of this post here: http://www.daniweb.com/news/story256070.html

To you, my loyal readers, I must offer up a sincere apology for my recent post, Five *nix Myths Busted, and am posting this full retraction for that post. To fully drive home my retraction and refute any myths about my competence with Linux or Unix, I am going to go through each point that I made in that errant post and recant it.

5. Logging in as Root - You should never login as root to a *nix system. Never. In fact, you should never login as yourself and then su to root. By becoming root, you're putting yourself and your system at undue risk and you don't want to make any mistakes as root, since a mistake as root might prove unfixable. Use sudo exclusively. Always use sudo to issue any commands as the root user. The commands take the form of the following:

$ sudo cp -p httpd.conf httpd.conf.$DATE

You'll be prompted for your user account password for this initial use of sudo but not on subsequent uses unless you don't use sudo for five minutes. And, no, you may not login as root at the console or in single user mode either. Figure out some other way to fix your broken system by using sudo.

4. su is SuperUser - su means Super User. I thought everyone knew that. My CentOS 5.x system (RHEL 5.x) falsely reports that su is substitute user--but what the heck does Red Hat know about *nix? There …

I don't think it was bad RAM...The Sun Tech would have done diags on it. And for the coworker, he wasn't an idiot, he was careless. He had just done some updates on his software and there was a vulnerability on one of the services he was using. Can't remember which but he got hacked.

@ihatewebforms

No the Sun box had no Internet access. It was my co-workers' FreeBSD box that was compromised.

@cantbebothered

Well, the exact details are too lengthy for a short entry and it happened a few years ago so the details are a bit fuzzy. For some reason this system had remained up and unpatched for an extended period of time. I can't give a lot of details too because of the confidentiality of the work done on this at my client's site. Just realize that we had good SAs and Sun available to us as an enterprise customer to solve these issues.

Good comments, thank you. You offer up some interesting points.

This review covers the Astak 5" EZReader PocketPro eBook Reader which sells for $199 US. Technical Specs: ePaper, E-Ink Technology, 5" screen, 800x600 resolution, 8 Grayscale colors, Dimensions: 6"x4.1"x0.4", Linux OS, 512MB RAM, Samsung ARM9 400MHz CPU, One USB 2.0, One SD Card slot, Earphone jack, Weight 6oz, Li-Polymer battery.

The Astak EZReader eBook Reader was the darling of the Consumer Electronics Show this year and it's no wonder--this little device does it all: Displays eBooks, plays music and reads your eBooks aloud in case you don't want to read them for yourself.

I was excited to receive the Astak EZReader and quickly tore open the package to find the treasure within the cardboard container. There it was, finally, magic in a black box. I first noticed the simple controls and paper-white screen that stared blankly back at me. The reader arrives in its own magnetic clasp leather case--very impressive. Also included in the box are the printed user manual, a pair of earbuds, a small screwdriver for changing the battery, a wrist leash, a power adapter for charging and a USB cable.

The user manual suggested that you plug in the device for 12 hours prior to first use. Rats! I wanted to dive right in but, alas, patience is a virtue--although whomever spoke those words never anticipated an eBook reader. After my long wait, I turned on the device to find that the user manual, in pdf format, was included on …

@weq
fdisk? Linux Journal? What are you talking about?

@aberriosdavila
What myths did I write?

Who says you don't get something for nothing? Certainly not the good people over at The Linux Foundation (TLF) who're offering free Linux training. TLF is doing its part for the worldwide Linux community by offering this free training plus the Linux Jobs Board and all of its other services. I paused to write this post before going there to sign-up for the whole list myself.

Linux Training from the Linux Experts
Linux Training from The Linux Foundation features instructors and content straight from the leaders of the Linux developer community. Attendees receive Linux training that is vendor-neutral, technically advanced and created with the actual leaders of the Linux development community themselves. The courses give attendees the broad, foundational knowledge and networking needed to thrive in their careers today. With in person or virtual training, Linux training from the Linux Foundation can keep you or your colleagues ahead of the curve on Linux essentials.

Here is a preliminary list of Linux Webinar courses offered:

“An Introduction to Git,” by kernel maintainer and TAB chair James Bottomley;

· “Linux System Troubleshooting and Tuning” and “Linux Administration 101,” by Linux author and community manager Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier;

· “How to Work with the Linux community,” by LWN.net editor and kernel developer Jon Corbet;

· “A Linux Filesystem Overview” and “Linux Virtualized Storage,” by TAB member and kernel developer Christoph Hellwig;

· “Btrfs: An Intro and Update” to the new …

I just read an article called: Life after Windows: What happens to tech if Microsoft dies?" The article made me think of what it really would be like without Microsoft. I didn't like it. We need Microsoft over there competing with us. No matter what happens to the economy, to the PC hardware format or to the demographic of the common computer user; Microsoft and Linux will never be "best buddies." And I know that "Linux" includes the major commercial Linux players: Novell, Red Hat and Canonical. I know that Novell and Red Hat have both crossed enemy lines with agreements but to think that the two camps will ever kiss, makeup and live happily ever after is pure fantasy. Frankly, I like it that way.

Competition creates a good business atmosphere for the consumer and for the competitors. Though Microsoft has been blessed with the "monopoly" label, it really is not a monopoly. As long as Apple and the Linux commercial companies exist, it is not a monopoly. To go further, as long as any alternative to Windows and its products exist, it is not a monopoly.
We feel like it's a monopoly because Microsoft does dominate the desktop and office suite software markets. Their products, ads and faces seem to be everywhere but a ubiquitous presence doesn't make it a monopoly. It makes it a tough competitor.

I want Microsoft to remain on …

And for some reason, my man page for su says substitute...

Others incorrectly use the term super user.

Show me that user on a *nix system. There are users and there is the root user. No super. I'm sorry,...you're not going to turn Latin into Italian for me by saying it wrong. Ah, that's me again, trying to educate. ;-)

@ultrapup

Thanks, you "get it." It must be my roots as a teacher that makes me want to challenge accepted thought and make people think a bit. A lot of people don't get it. They also don't get my offbeat and dry sense of humor. It takes time, I guess. Thanks for reading.

Umm, you guys think that Unix was designed as secure? That is wholly incorrect. Unix was originally designed as a workgroup operating system as a replacement for Multics with very little security in mind. It's only after it gained more widespread acceptance that security became a concern. Why else would you have services like the "r" services and commands? Have you ever heard of finger and the .plan file? What about a .project file? How about the talk service? How about FTP and Telnet?
These are all insecure and they were part of *nix (Still are if you want them) but to say that it was designed as secure is incorrect.
So, tell me again, please--where you think I'm incorrect in anything I said.

And to jejejeje:
See comment #7 on that link you sent me to--it reads:

I’m looking at volume 1 of the “UNIX Programmer’s Manual, Revised and Expanded Version”, published by Bell Laboratories, copywrite 1983, 1979 and according to this source, su means “substitute user id”. Of course the C code you posted above predates that, but I think you might be misinterpreting the comment. The comment is merely saying the “substitute user id” command is used to become the “super-user” AKA root user.

That's published by Bell Labs...you know, the people who started Unix. And posting the excerpt from the su man page didn't help either, I guess.

Anyone else? C'mon, put 'em up, put 'em up, I'll murderlize you even...

I love mythology and there's nothing like hearing a technology myth to make my day complete. Just today someone applied one of the following myths in a conversation with me. I didn't say anything but it gave me the idea for this post. Here are the five myths related to *nix systems that I hear most often when dealing with technical and non-technical people alike. You'd be surprised as to how often even the most technical people spout these myths to each other and to the unsuspecting and unknowledgeable bystander. I have to bite my tongue when I hear them. And now that you know them, I hope it ruins your day too when someone slips into mythland with one of these gems.

They are in reverse order of how much they irritate me. Enjoy.

5. Logging in as Root - The long-held myth that you should never login as root is ridiculous. The logic goes something like this: Login as a standard user, then su to root or use sudo to run something as root. Yes, it's safer to do so but not by much. If you su to root, then you are root. If you use sudo then you are executing a program, editing a file or doing whatever it is you're doing as root.
Should you disable the ability to ssh as root? Yes.
Should you never login as root to a system? No.
Should you always use sudo to perform single …

@AdamWill - I don't have the Command Line option available for my Ubuntu 9.04, Ubuntu 9.10 or my Debian 5 system. And I'm sure it's not exactly what I'm describing.
Anyway, I know about GNOME's new version coming out. I've written other articles on GNOME. I just don't want it to be another KDE 4 disaster. And innovation is a loose term. When I think of innovation, I think of something useful that works...I mean, Thomas Edison patented concrete furniture but...it isn't practical now is it? Innovative maybe, useful no. You see? I do my research.

And, by the way, I doubt that anyone knows *all* the features. I certainly don't profess to.

I use GNOME a lot. I use the command line and vi to do my web development in PHP and anything server-related. Here's what I'd like as a innovation:
a little command bar/field at the bottom of the screen where I could type in a command and get a response as if I were at the command line but without having to open a terminal window. And it would save some of my recent commands in history so that when I start typing it would allow me to quickly reuse another command that I use often.
That would be coolness. And I want it to be named the hessbar or kencmd or something in honor of me, it's inventor.

You didn't think I had any ideas, did you?

As a current GNOME user and former KDE user, I'd like to know when we can expect some new innovations from either of these desktop environments? I know KDE came out with KDE 4.x just over two years ago but it seems that its popularity has fallen away in favor of GNOME. GNOME only releases new version twice a year and so far they've all generated more yawns than a Ben Affleck movie for me. I like GNOME and have used it exclusively on every Linux distribution that I work with for a few years. The fact that it's installed by default on Debian and Ubuntu have nothing to do with it. I just like it better. Still, I wonder when I'll see something really cool out of it or KDE.

I used KDE for years because it had a slicker, snappier feel to it than contemporary versions of GNOME. It also felt more stable. Since KDE 3.3 or 3.4, I haven't wanted to use it. I switched to GNOME. I tried KDE 4.x, thinking that I might like it better than those later KDE 3.x versions but I didn't.

It's also worth noting that when I used KDE, I always had to install GNOME (or pieces of it) too so that I could use certain applications that I wanted or needed. However, I've never needed to install any part of KDE, since I've made the switch.

But, GNOME …

@time123:
I know...see my paragraph from above:

To be completely fair to TLF, the jobs that don't relate to Linux aren't explicitly part of Linux.com's job board but are shown to you when you perform a job search. They are "sponsored" links from another job site called LinkUp.com.

I will check the site again to see...that would be great if it's really gone. Thanks for the note.

Last week, The Linux Foundation launched it's new Linux Jobs board and normally, I applaud anything that The Linux Foundation (TLF) does but not this time. And I think it's great that TLF has a job board on Linux.com, however, the execution lacks the luster I've come to expect from these guys. So, what's my beef with something so positive as a job board? What would make anyone, much less me, irritable at a Linux job board's implementation and launch? It's simple, really. To call something a Linux Jobs Board, what would you expect to see there? Linux jobs, perhaps? Yes, they have those. So, what, you ask, do I have a problem with?

The "Linux" Jobs Board also has truck driving jobs, nursing jobs, AIX jobs, Solaris jobs and more jobs that have nothing to do with Linux.

Now, I do realize that the businesses that post to the job board pay a fee for their postings to the board. There are two options. Option 1, which I don't really understand, costs 49 cents per matching view--not sure exactly how that works but the second option is clearer: $99 for a 15 day posting and $199 for a 30 day posting. With Option 1, your posts are also placed on the Job Thread Network.

To be completely fair to TLF, the jobs that don't relate to Linux aren't explicitly part of Linux.com's …

Did you hear that one of the web's most popular web-based collaboration suites, Zimbra, was purchased by virtualization leader, VMware? Zimbra customers like the idea of VMware owning the software suite. Industry observers have differing opinions on the topic. Formerly owned by Yahoo, Zimbra now has the advantages of VMware's marketing engine and huge customer base behind it. So, what's the downside? Is this VMware-Zimbra connection a good idea?

I think everyone wins in this situation. I know, this is a departure for me. Perhaps it's the new year, the new decade or that this is one of those rare situations that makes sense from every angle.

It's good for Yahoo, because they now they have some cash in the bank and they are out of a business that is foreign to them. Yahoo is great at what they do but Zimbra wasn't a good fit for them.
Zimbra customers and partners will benefit from this purchase because VMware has years of experience in selling software and improving it for a massive audience.

But, what, you ask, does VMware get out of this?
VMware purchased a huge customer base, a first-rate collaboration suite and it adds to their plan to stake their claim in the burgeoning SaaS market.

What will you see in the future from VMware? You'll still have the excellent Zimbra offering but now you'll have the power of VMware under it. You'll also see a …

One of my Christmas presents to myself this year (2009) was a new laptop. It's an Acer Aspire 7535-5020 with 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, Wireless LAN, Built-in Camera, GigaBit LAN, Modem (Does anyone use a Modem any more?), a huge 16:9, 17" screen and a full-size keyboard. It has to be the biggest laptop that I've ever seen. It's not as heavy as it looks but it's certainly not as portable as my Acer One Netbook. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium, which I quickly removed in favor of the more robust and feature-rich, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, which I need for the virtualization capability. In my short 2 weeks of using Windows 7, I've found that there are some things I don't like about it but I don't hate it.

I have two significant issues with Windows 7. The first is that it isn't Windows XP and the second is that it's not Windows Vista.

Windows 7 should've followed XP and, for me, it did.

It's hard to let go of Windows XP. It's easy to ignore Windows Vista. In fact, I'm pretending that Windows Vista never happened at all. Kind of like that other figment of my imagination: Windows Me.

One of the things I really miss about XP is the right-click search that allowed me to search folders, drives or the whole computer for a particular file and even search for a string inside the file. It …

@jsp722

You're right, perhaps a poor choice of words. I guess the real fallout is that by writing this some people feel that I have some responsibility in causing it to happen and I don't, of course.

I think you guys are getting this all wrong. I'm not saying that I want this to happen but I think it will happen. I think that within the next couple of years, Internet access will be everywhere that you have cell phone access, XM radio access, etc. Satellites will provide that Internet everywhere access for our gadgets.
Your "operating system" if you want to call it that, will exist in the "cloud." Yes, I know that the "cloud" is marketing but people understand the concept so I have to use it. When in Rome, you know?
And, I'm afraid, that regardless of how much we all love it, the traditional desktop operating system's days are numbered.
To see the future, check out http://g.ho.st
Sure there will be things you can do in an unconnected state using something like portableapps.com.

I think you guys are getting this all wrong. I'm not saying that I want this to happen but I think it will happen. I think that within the next couple of years, Internet access will be everywhere that you have cell phone access, XM radio access, etc. Satellites will provide that Internet everywhere access for our gadgets.
Your "operating system" if you want to call it that, will exist in the "cloud." Yes, I know that the "cloud" is marketing but people understand the concept so I have to use it. When in Rome, you know?
And, I'm afraid, that regardless of how much we all love it, the traditional desktop operating system's days are numbered.
To see the future, check out http://g.ho.st
Sure there will be things you can do in an unconnected state using something like portableapps.com.

Thanks Bhaskar,
I think that a real Linux guru would not call himself/herself a Linux guru but I could be wrong.

Due to commentary throughout the world, I've decided to extent the deadline until February 10 for submissions and winners will be posted on February 15. I hope that helps.