OpenSource
gregladen | March 23, 2009Everybody knows the answer is almost always Linux, and one of the reasons for that is because Windows cheats. Mr. Exile has run a test in which he compares two laptops, one with four times the memory and about double the processor speed and a more advanced processor, with the hotter computer running XP and the older, less powered computer running Linux.
Since the valid test is not when the desktop pops up (because Windows is still busy booting when that happens), Mr. Exile instead timed how long it took for him to have a browser opened to his web based email page.
If you are a Windows…
gregladen | March 23, 2009... as usual ...
a legislator in Texas has introduced a bill to require open document formats in all state government business. The bill is carefully worded such that only ODF could pass its test as "open." The story is covered by the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which is careful to be even-handed, giving Microsoft's spokesman equal time. A ZDNet blogger notes that the bill, introduced by a Democrat in a state whose politics is dominated by Republicans, faces chances that "...fall somewhere east of slim and west of none."
from /.
gregladen | March 21, 2009Why is Linux the coolest erector set in the world, that you should be willing to pay for? In part because Linux lacks the kind of freaky design oddities that arise when the makers of the software must go to meetings with a marketing department and a bunch of liability conscious lawyers, alternatively. In part because the fundamental design of the system is such that it is powerful yet lean at the same time. In part because basic security is so much easier to manage in Linux that it is not necessary for the processor to spend a sizable amount of time (using big chunks of memory) fighting…
gregladen | March 18, 2009Open source healthcare is forging forward quickly on the Internet. But, fast developments often produce many failures. But, many medicinal open source projects that have gained success development. This success shows that open source alone is not the solitary factor in development. Instead, look to great management, public relations, marketing and a sound program that stands up under the scrutiny of a growing number of peer users and, often, patients.
......... read it here ...
This is actually quite interesting . Not every "project" is a linux app, as one might expect with the "Open Source…
gregladen | March 18, 2009No, this is not a post about which one is better. Not yet, anyway. I just want to mention that today, March 18th, the next version of Gnome is expected to come out, and yesterday, March 17th, I finished my personal test run of KDE 4.whatever.
I like KDE ... the new version .... to recommend it and to seriously consider using it just for fun on some computer somewhere. But my main desktop will remain Gnome because, well, it has not annoyed me and it works.
Keep an eye out for the new Gnome. Details here.
gregladen | March 16, 2009Dear President Obama,
Congratulations on passing the stimulus package! I hope that the stimulus package will help the economy get back on track.
One thing that could help is to eliminate some of the approximately five billion dollars a day that we waste as a world economy with closed source, proprietary software.
How do I arrive at that figure?...
continued here.
gregladen | March 13, 2009... Not politically better, not feel good better, not any of that. Well, yes, that too. But for all areas where Open Source is developed, it it simply better technologically. Anybody telling you different is selling you a bill of goods.
I tried to say something of this sort here, on Bill Hooker's blog post "On science and selfishness," but his #%$@$#$ (presumably OpenSource) blog software would not accept my comment!!!! (Hey Bill, get that fixed, man, you're ruining it for everybody!!!). So, instead of saying it there, I'll say it here. This is my comment:
~~~
Bill:
I deeply disagree…
gregladen | March 3, 2009Emacs is exactly like a religion. A western religion, at least, operates by testing the faith of its participants. The god coldly allows babies to die of unexplained illnesses, violence to affect the innocent, wars to break out, natural disasters to ruin everything. That we mortals have faith that this is a loving and intelligent, all knowing god causes us to question reality itself, our selves, our church or temple, and our religious leaders. But this questioning followed by resolve, strengthens character. Or, ruins character. It could really go either way, which is why so many object…
gregladen | March 1, 2009Should OpenOffice.org (OOo) writer (the text editor unit of the OpenSource office suite) have the horizontal ruler, on the top of the page, visible by default, or should it be hidden by default? This is the argument that it should be hidden by default. If you become a registered user of the OOo web site, you can actually vote on this. Let me know how that goes.
Xfce 4.6 is released (yesterday). Xfce is a gnome-ish desktop for Linux that uses very few resources (and has very few bells and whistles). "Xfce 4.6 features a new configuration backend, a new settings manager, a brand new sound…
gregladen | February 26, 2009An Open Letter to All Software Developers,
I don't like changing, shifting, cutsie, idiotic date formats, and I don't like rounding off much either.
Many systems that provide information on date and time make unwrarented and embarrassingly stupid assumptions about what you want to know. In Movable Type, the system designers assume that if a post is set up for the future by a few days, that I don't care what time of day it is scheduled for. WTF is that all about??? A scheduled post for two hours from now is listed with the date/time "2 hours from now" but a post scheduled for 48 hours from…
gregladen | February 21, 2009I know every computer box needs a CD/DVD reader in order to boot the thing up under adverse conditions (and your system should always be set up so that you can do this, by the way!). But as a matter of actual functionality, maintaining a current and high-functioning version of this sort of device, or two or more of them especially, built into the box is usually a bad idea for me. My computer boxes are not ever conveniently located. For my main computer, I can reach the off on switch with my toe, which is how I start up the machine. (The button is not needed to turn it off, of course.) So…
gregladen | February 14, 2009If you buy an iPhone from Apple, you don't own the iPhone. No. Apple owns you.
According to this item on Slashdot regarding this item from somewhere else on the intertubules.
So if you buy this thing, you can do whatever you want with it as long as whatever you want is what Apple wants. If you want to do something else with your thing, the Apple Police will come and get you.
Big brother, it turns out, is all about Oedipus.
gregladen | February 7, 2009From slashdot:
"Microsoft is advertising for a new director of open source strategy, but this one has a specific purpose: fight the Linux desktop. 'The Windows Competitive Strategy team is looking for a strong team member to lead Microsoft's global desktop competitive strategy as it relates to open source competitors.' For a variety of reasons, this move is almost certainly targeted at Ubuntu Linux's desktop success. With the Mac, not Linux, apparently eating into Microsoft's Windows market share, what is it about desktop Linux, and specifically Ubuntu, that has Microsoft spooked?"
figures.…
gregladen | January 11, 2009If you don't know who Larry Wall is then never mind.
Here's a sampler:
"Doing linear scans over an associative array is like trying to club someone to death with a loaded Uzi."
"Hubris itself will not let you be an artist."
"Real programmers can write assembly code in any language."
The rest are here. But I warn you. I've shown you the only ones that are not inane.
gregladen | December 16, 2008If your iPod Touch does not work on your Windows XP, you can ...
A. Uninstall and reinstall everything (Hint: Don't actually try ANY of this, it doesn't work!):
Okay well I spent about an hour on the phone with Apple trying to fix this problem. The guy I talked to seemed to have delt with this problem before. He tould me that Apple was getting numerous calls about the iPod touch not connecting with iTunes. So here is the solution that worked for me.
The first thing you must do it uninstall iTunes and Quicktime using the controll pannel, add/remove hardware, on your windows computer. Once…
gregladen | September 25, 2008... according to a recent study funded by ... oh, never mind. Funded by Microsoft. OK, skip that, but there is some other interesting tech news.
Here's a piece on how Linux is better than Windows. I don't know where I find these things. Have a look:
Microsoft encourages us to think of Linux... as an also-ran operating systems for nerds. The last thing Microsoft wants us to think about is that there are some spaces where Microsoft is a distant number two and Linux is on top. ... One such is HPC (High Performance Computing).
At HPC's very highest end, supercomputers, Linux rules. The…
gregladen | September 22, 2008Codeweavers has got a Linux 'version' of Chrome!!! (And a Mac version too.)
Chromium is the new Google browser. It is good because it is open source. (Yes, Virginia, that is one criterion for being 'good'). Also, it might be good for other reasons. My friend Gayle really likes it, for instance. I might especially like the fact that it is multi-threaded, so when some moron produces a web site that crashes my browser over there (pointing to left side of monitor) I don't lose the thing I'm working on over here (pointing to right side of monitor) like I did the other day (angry, frustrated…
gregladen | September 2, 2008How can Google be taken seriously if a) it runs it's own business on LAMP servers using mainly Python; b) develops a multi-threaded browser with a memory-conservative development API; c) call it all open source and d) make it available only on Windows?
Since Google Chrome is probably very good competition for the remaining users of Microsoft Internet Explorer (which apparently is some kind of a web browser) I'll refer you'all to THIS very interesting cartoon (hat tip: Joe) that will convince you, if you are a Windows user, to install Chrome. But if you are a Linux/Unix (including Mac) user…
gregladen | August 17, 2008
This is intereting, but I hate the word "The Enterprise." Unless, of course, you are talking about The Enterprise.
The OpenSource Census is here.