Ads

Linux Hardware Support Better Than Windows 7

Print
PDF

27 August 2011
Posted in Articles

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Are you in the market for a new laptop, desktop or server PC with Linux installed? Please give us the opportunity to quote a preloaded Linux laptop, desktop or server system for you.

I will start this off by adding, “… with the exception of some wireless chip sets and high end graphics cards.” to appease those of you who will act like Arnold Horshack (1, 2) if that is not mentioned. If there are other unsupported devices on Linux that are supported in Windows 7 feel free to scratch your itch and tell me in a comment.

The concept of better is a subjective idea. What is better to me is possibly, even probably, not better to someone else. In my case, and in the case of some of my clients, Linux hardware support is “better”. I do not buy cutting edge hardware and tend to keep systems and peripherals until they stop working and can no longer be repaired at a reasonable cost. When a new release of my favorite Linux distribution comes out I can be 100% certain that my hardware that works with my current release will still work with the new release. That is something I just take for granted. This is not so in the Microsoft camp.

Read more...

How Linux saved my computer from Windows Update

Print
PDF

19 July 2011
Posted in Articles

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

If it wasn't for Linux, a Windows Update crash would have forced me to format my drive and reinstall everything. 

On Friday I got home from work, powered up my HP Pavilion DV6 6055ea laptop and watched as it promptly shut down to churn through Windows Update. It got 30 percent of the way through then the blue screen of death (BSOD) appeared.

According to the error message something had gone terribly wrong with igdpmd32.sys. As far as I can tell the file is an Intel graphics driver. I tried to get into VGA safemode, but the BSOD happened again. I then fiddled with the bios, but to no avail.

Read more...

Open Source is not a Sin, It's a blessing

Print
PDF

30 June 2011
Posted in Articles

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

According to at least one analyst and one  open source vendor, the term open source is no longer an identifying factor

Personally, I think that's a misguided and shortsighted approach that will ultimately backfire.

Matt Aslett of the 451 Group wrote that:

"One of the things that I have observed in relation to open source-related business strategies in recent months is the decreased use of the term ‘open source’ as an identifying differentiator in some companies’ marketing material, either to describe the company or its software."

For me, both as a tech journalist and as a user, I RELY on seeing the term open source to describe a piece of software.

The term open source to me means - no vendor lock-in, it means i can try out (at least a community version) without getting some kind of license key. It means there is likely a mailing list and a bug tracker -- you know the stuff that provides transparency.

What has happened in my view is that some of the commercial open core vendors have so watered down the term open source in their own marketing as to make it meaningless. After all if a so called open core vendor (software based on open source but with added 'stuff' around it) has the bulk of the added 'stuff' non-open source (often the case), then being open source in that context doesn't really matter, does it?

Read more...

Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools

Print
PDF

25 May 2011
Posted in Articles

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Google Chrome netbooks are being targeted directly at education and for good reason. Initial press reactions to the Chrome-book are enthusiastic ... with two caveats. These are: ‘it’s a bit expensive for an empty book isn’t it?’ and ‘great concept … maybe too soon?’.

Nonsense, the Chrome books will save education an absolute fortune and render existing ICT models obsolete: here’s why.

Less hassle and easier to use.

Through Android, Google has broken the ‘OS familiarity’ barrier, a phenomenon that effectively enshrined ‘MS Windows’ for the older generation’s desktop. Through its suite of free web-applications, and generous file storage Google has rendered both desktop Office suites and the infamous shared P: drive redundant. Finally with the instant-on Chrome-book the domain-logon palaver looks like the anachronistic time goblin it is.

Read more...

Intel, IBM, and HP back open source against VMware

Print
PDF

18 May 2011
Posted in News

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Some of tech's biggest names are standing up to VMware, creating an industry group meant to accelerate the adoption of an open-source virtualization stack built atop the KVM hypervisor.

Known as the Open Virtualization Alliance , the group includes IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and KVM Linux distro leader Red Hat as well as Novell, BMC, and Eucalyptus Systems. It was announced on Tuesday at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco, where Intel, HP, Red Hat, IBM, and Novell spoke about the effort.

The alliance will educate users on best practices and provide technical advice to help them "understand and evaluate their" – ahem – "virtualization options". This will include developer use cases, but beyond that, it's not clear what the hardware vendors - who have the most resources of all the Alliance members - will throw at KVM.

The objective is to raise the profile of KVM and encourage software partners to build tools that make KVM more than just a commodity hypervisor and to help improve the overall management and deployment of applications on KVM. And to catch VMware.

Complete story

The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal With The Ubuntu Classic Desktop

Print
PDF

08 May 2011
Posted in How to

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

This tutorial shows how you can set up an Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.

Ubuntu 11.04 will by default start the new Unity desktop which requires that your hardware supports 3D acceleration. If your hardware does not or you don't like Unity, you can still use the Ubuntu Classic GNOME desktop. I will use the Ubuntu Classic GNOME desktop in this tutorial.

I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

Read more...

More Articles...