February 16, 2005
FireFox now the most used Windows application
Scoble writes:
In just a few months your app has become one of the most used Windows applications in the world. My hat's off to you!
Battelle comments:
Note the use of "Windows application." Winning by moving the goalposts, is what I think that's called.
Posted by darkmoon at 05:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 12, 2005
FireFoxIE
If you're having troubles shifting over to FireFox, but you are sick of the popup ads and the other security holes of Internet Explorer, FireFox now has a new extension! FireFoxIE, an extension to FireFox that makes it look and feel like Internet Explorer without the problematic issues.
For most users using FireFox, there is not really a need for this extension. For converting current Internet Explorer users, please take some time to read ALL of the tutorial. There is quite a bit that needs to be done to make everything feel the same. Estimated time: 5-15 minutes.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 11, 2005
FlightGear Flight Simulator
Open-source provides another great piece of work. If you have ever wondered about OSS flight simulators, this one definitely takes the cake.
From flying an Airbus A380, to a B52-F Stratofortress, FlightGear has it all. This piece of ingenius design work grew out of many flight sim fans dissatisfaction with current commercial flight simulators.
View the screenshots here and pee your pants in envy. Then approach the downloads here and get to taking off into the wild blue yonder.
FlightGear Flight Simulator is open-source, and is supported in linux, Windows, Solaris, SGI, MacOSX and FreeBSD.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 08, 2005
12 hours later, Mozilla is patched
12 hours later, the IDN exploit has been patched by Mozilla dev team. Microsoft? where are your 12 hour turn-arounds?
Via BoingBoing and ForeverGeek
Posted by darkmoon at 10:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 04, 2005
Access your home server remotely!
Anyone that has been in the corporate arena has probably heard of Symantec's PCAnywhere, a program that let's you take control of computers at work, or home just as you would logging into the computer itself (except in a window).
Opensource provides a couple of great solutions. The easiest would probably be RealVNC. VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. This is how it works.
The second to try would be TightVNC. There are a number of features that make it superior to the original VNC, but that is up to you to decide.
The last would be FreeNX. FreeNX is a bit more difficult to install, but has vastly better networking abilities. What does this mean? You can remote-control your computer over a 56k modem. Original based on NoMachine's proprietary NX where the core was open-sourced. A howto is here to help those that are interested in pursuing a server/client system based on FreeNX.
All of these solutions allow the user to be mobile, but access the power wherever it may be without bringing it along. Useful? Definitely.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 03, 2005
Curious as to how much traffic your server puts out? MRTG is your friend
I saw and used MRTG back when it was released in 1995. It has come a long way since then. MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) basically shows you a graph of how much you are outputting via your network, and how much traffic is accessing your server. Yes, INPUT/OUTPUT. Banded together with a statistics package (Webalizer or AWSTATS), this can be a very formidable tool in the weaponchest of a server administrator.
Screenshots of MRTG here.
MRTG-eth.pl is a perl script that can setup MRTG without setting up an SNMP daemon. Too much information? Just go take a look.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 01, 2005
Software Freedom Law Center
From the two JDs that fight for open-source software, Lawrence Lessig and Eben Moglig. The Software Freedom Law Center is a place that will provide legal advice and issues for free for open-source projects. Another huge score for OSS, thanks to some great champions of OSS.
Posted by darkmoon at 02:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Want to optimize your bootup in Linux?
There are a couple ways to optimize a linux bootup.
You can:
1) Optimize your kernel - recompile your kernel so that all the essential things boot straight from kernel, maximizing speed.
2) Optimize your current boot configuration (services)
3) Run stage 2 processes in parallel
First you must diagnose your kernel. I suggest to use BootChart. Bootchart is a wonderful program that documents what services are proceeding at what time during the bootup and gives you a timeline and CPU usage outlook. This helps clean up some services and re-time bootup sequences.
You can do the first by following step-by-step on The Linux Documentation Project's website here. For specific distributions, there are easier ways to do this.
The second step is simple. Take a look at your init.d and turn off any services that you do not need to use at bootup. For a laptop, this may include ftp server services, ssh server services, etc.
The third step, I would suggest to take a look at runit. Simply, runit takes your stage 2 and processes services in parallel instead of one at a time. This will maximize your processor load and decrease bootup time.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity
Lawrence Lessig, Professor at Stanford Law School and founder of the Center of Internet and Society. He brings us a new book called Free Culture, distributed under the Creative Commons license.
Lawrence Lessig shows us that while new technologies always lead to new laws, never before have the big cultural monopolists used the fear created by new technologies, specifically the Internet, to shrink the public domain of ideas, even as the same corporations use the same technologies to control more and more what we can and can’t do with culture.
Download the pdf here. Or if you like audio, go here for the free audiobook.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 25, 2005
NY based teachers move to Open-Source
NY based United Federation of Teachers, a 150,000 member teachers union, has moved to open-source. They support 1,300 schools in the New York City area and have migrated from a Windows and AS/400 solution to a RHEL solution. Reason? "Past iterations were based on proprietary technology and everything had to go through the consultant—that turned us off."
Posted by darkmoon at 07:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 22, 2005
Free Software Magazine
Just like it sounds. They talk about everything from XML to formats. Probably an interesting read for any geek or wanna-be. In any case, subscription to print is $10.00 (since it costs money to print on paper) and the PDF downloads are free here.
Posted by darkmoon at 09:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 20, 2005
Need antivirus? Here are a couple of solutions
Most people know the names of Norton Antivirus and Mcafee AntiVirus. There's also Panda Antivirus, and Trendmicro, and a few others that are on the market.
What you probably don't know are the couple of FREE antivirus utilities that are either freeware for personal use, or open-source.
Trendmicro has a great utility called HOUSECALL. Java applet that scans your system. I usually use this on computers I have no clue about and happen to not bring my rescue utility USB keydrive. Very useful to find what's wrong with a unknown Windows computer.
Grisoft has a suite called AVG Free Edition. This is provided for free to home users. Very useful, and as good as Norton or Symantec in use, although not as pretty. Works fine on the couple of Windows machines that I do administrate.
Running linux or Windows? Open-source has you covered. ClamAV is an antivirus suite that was written by open-source developers for servers and workstations. There is also a Windows port called ClamWin.
As you can see, there are many solutions without breaking the bank, thanks to different licensing schemes and open-source. Support those software developers!
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 19, 2005
Brendan Themes - Black Ink
More on open-source music. Brendan Themes has released Black Ink, under the Creative Commons license. A bit of Folk/Rock Genre. Many other musicians over at the Internet Archive.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Need to Instant Message but afraid someone's reading your messages?
Use GAIM. GAIM is open-source and supports plugins. OTR (Off-the-Record Messaging) plugin adds in encryption, authentication, and deniability.
Worthwhile if you're the paranoid type and think that big brother is watching you.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 17, 2005
Adium X for MacOS X
Open-source was missing a good instant messaging client for MacOS X until Adium X came along. Available with support for multiprotocols, this fills a gap that GAIM did not fill in the MacOSX realm.
Take a look here!
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 16, 2005
Open-source and school systems
So why are school systems not adopting open-source to further their technology plans? Beats the living daylights out of me.
From the local school systems, you can read student blogs about the slow Internet connections, or how there is no technology capable to teach them what they wish: here and here.
Let us state some obvious facts:
- school districts have NO MONEY.
- Internet at schools are slow.
- Manpower is minimal and overworked.
- Good pieces of software are difficult to find.
- Technical training is sparse.
If no one agrees with this, please step forward. Otherwise, here is the solution to the rest of the problems and my rant.
WHY are we not considering open-source software? We have OpenOffice, Blender, GIMP, FireFox, and an array of other things that are comparable to the Windows environment today. Being that they are good replacements (I have personally switched over for more than a few years and have had no issues), I think that I need not point to the first bullet.
My personal opinion, is that the network design could use a LOT of work. Bottlenecks are the last thing that people should be seeing in a good network design, and networks are supposed to be as transparent as local machines if the bandwidth is provided. Technical jargon aside, here's what I just said: The speed of a remote computer should not matter if there is sufficient connection, and it should act like it was placed right next to you. Example: Take a telephone call. A call to your mother on the West Coast doesn't have a slight delay. She can still tell you to wash behind your ears, just as you were right next to her. Correct?
Computers? I benchmarked Quake III back in my days of college. My P2-450 could outproduce my PIII-600 any day of the week. Take a wild guess which one was running linux versus Windows.
So open-source not only allows school systems to save money on needed materials such as books and other products, but also allows usage of old hardware (computers), has good availability of software tools, and allows a network to be redesigned with little to no cost? All of this would definitely satisfy a low manpower base and allow for more stability from both staff and teaching perspective.
Greensboro Linux User Group (GLUG) is standing by to help with training, if there was need to train in linux utilities. Any linux user group from any locale would be happy to oblige likewise.
Before some Windows fanatics come and tell me how many bugs there are in open-source, let me point to this and at OpenBSD. Can you claim that Microsoft servers have only had ONE remote hole in eight years? OpenBSD can.
Here is the biggest point of them all: I am not saying that we should get rid of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Microsoft does a good job at providing great discounts for software to schools and that should not be throw out. There should be playing in both ends of the court, instead of just one end, to maximize the school systems' interests.
So in the end, what's STOPPING the school systems from using open-source to better the lives of their students, teachers, and staff? NOTHING. What are we waiting for? Beats the living daylights out of me.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:53 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Cyberduck FTP for MacOS X
Probably the most well-touted ftp/sftp client for MacOS X, and it's open-source! Get it here.
MacWorld
There are a few free FTP clients for the Mac, but none is as polished or as easy to use as Cyberduck.
Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing writes:
I've been using David Kocher's Cyberduck FTP client for several months now. It's freeware for OS X and it is fabulous. All the other FTP clients I've used have been hard to learn and are confusing, but I've never had to look at the help file for Cyberduck. I don't even know if it has a help file.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 14, 2005
Lockergnome says, time to switch to linux
Lockergnome says,
Linux is becoming more and more popular by the minute, and I think everyone is going to start switching. With the threat of Microsoft letting the RIAA/MPAA scan your computer on its next version of Windows (Longhorn), everyone is on the urge to switch. I am even trying to convince my girlfriend to switch to Linux. Better yet, it even runs like clappers on old pieces of hardware.
He also gives you the top five reasons to switch over.
Personal note: I suppose you could stick with the "I won't upgrade" path. But that's what I said back in the mid-90s. Eventually, EVERYONE was using Word 95. I was forced to be assimilated. Now, I've broken free. Won't you join me by taking the red pill?
Posted by darkmoon at 09:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
VoIP telecommunications for about $6000
VoIP has been around for ages. Those of you that have browsed through Net2Phone, and even newer technologies such as Skype know how far it's come. Even Vonage and Packet8 are basing their business models purely on the basis of VoIP technology.
Perhaps it's time to take it one step further. Asterisk has been around the open-source community for a while now. The model itself is basically an open-source VoIP server, where all the costs lies in the hardware. Being that this system can support up to 72 telephony devices and and up to 23 simultaneous PSTN connections, this could be the wave of the future for rural telcommunications. All of this in a 1U chassis.
This perhaps isn't the way to combat Bellsouth and other big telcos, but it definitely offers an alternative solution for rural communities that need a technology savings.
Slashdot driven off a ZDNet article.
Personal note: Have I drooled over this technology? A long time ago, and now I've stopped. However, I grant you permission to drool over it since it has finally hit mainstream media. Hallelujah.
Posted by darkmoon at 02:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 11, 2005
Need PDFs but can't afford Adobe Acrobat? No sweat
PDFCreator for Windows is your open-source replacement. Released under the GPL (GNU General Public License), this program has been the basis of driving other features into Adobe Acrobat. Migrate Word documents, pictures, slides into PDF with PDF Creator and worry no more about compatibility issues when you hand someone your files!
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 10, 2005
CodeCon 2005
CodeCon 2005 February 11-13 - Club NV, San Francisco
Many open-source developers are going to be there along with Defcon presenters. Some of the more known projects: Audacity, OTR (Off the Record Messaging), and Wheat.
Founded by Len Sassaman and Bram Cohen. For those that don't know, Bram Cohen is the one behind BitTorrent's swarming technology.
From BoingBoing.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Thinking about migrating your office to Linux? Big Blue is here to help
IBM provides a guide to migrate your office to Linux. Desktops of course, but why else would you migrate? If your systems administrator is still running on Windows IIS platform, take a long hard look at why you're paying for a rebooting nightmare. Otherwise, take a look at how to manage a workstation migration smoothly from big Blue.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 07, 2005
Gates points accusing finger at open-source communists
In wide world of open-source, public enemy number one would be Bill Gates. This is no laughing matter either. While Bill's company keeps trying to break into the open-source world with programs such as Paint.NET and WiX, he's having fun relating the open-source community to communists. BoingBoing and others poke fun at him after that interview by creating CreativeCommie emblems here, here, and here.
Power to the people!
Lessig writes:
what a total (intellectual) disappointment this man isIf I had the time, and the money, I'd do the deep analysis that it would take to explain to myself why it is I constantly hope to be surprised by Mr. Gates. Yet I never am. Here's BoingBoing reporting the red-baiting of Mr. Gates.
It's one thing to read this sort of thing from a studio exec, or head of a record label -- surrounded as they are by the sort that surround them. But the people I've met at Microsoft are miles beyond this sort of silliness. Does Mr. Gates not even talk to them?
Oh well, seems like Mr. Gates has felt the pressure of the people.
Power to the people!
UPDATE: GiantRobotPrinting is selling the shirts for $5 a piece (Youth S-Adult L) or $6 a piece (Adult XL-Adult 3XL) and shipping is $5.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 02, 2005
The Life Cycle of Software Technology - Craig A. James
FOSS (Free Open-Source Software) has revolutionized the software industry to think "outside the box." This article shows the debunking of several myths on why the corporate structure fights a losing battle against FOSS, and why it is so important the the next generation of the soft architecture.
Found here from Slashdot.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Easy listening: nerd style
Have you ever wondered what nerds and geeks REALLY listen to? While I cannot speak for the rest of the world, I can say that I happen to listen to a lot of Japan-a-radio and Digitally Imported. This is a live-audio stream feed that is sent through your broadband connection much like a radio signal, except that the quality much better depending on the system being used. You can find a list at Shoutcast or iRadiocast. How do I do this? I use Winamp (when I'm bound to Windows), xmms (linux), and mpg123 (linux-console).
When I can't listen to the radio, I buffer up the things that I want to listen by using Streamripper. This program can be used for Windows or Linux and can buffer up music as long as your broadband connection is up and you have harddrive to spare. It basically pulls the radio stream right onto your harddrive.
So join the ranks today, use and support Internet broadcast radio.
Posted by darkmoon at 09:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 01, 2005
Some open source utilities
Since Len loves this stuff. Here it goes: If you want to replace a lot of your Windows applications with open-source, The Open CD Project will allow you to participate in Windows replacement applications such as OpenOffice, PDF Creator, and others.
If you want clean (no spyware software), use Clean Software. There are a lot of other pieces of software that can be used as replacement such as ReactOS (Windows NT4 replacement). If there is anything you need via open-source, let me know and I can probably find a replacement.
Personal note: What do I use? Linux. Everything except my work computer, which I have no say over, or else I would load that with linux also. I support OSS fully and if you're interested in learning more about linux, join a Greensboro Linux User Group meeting.
Posted by darkmoon at 09:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Speeding up Firefox
While this is some older news for techies, this is something that I thought everyone that is using Firefox could probably use if they're on a broadband connection. Read below on how to speed up FireFox over a broadband connection. Pulled from Hack a day, care of Forever Geek.
1.Type about:config into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.
2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set network.http.pipelining to true
Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true
Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.
3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to 0. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.
If you're using a broadband connection you’ll load pages MUCH faster now!
Posted by darkmoon at 07:46 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Knowing Knoppix
Knowing Knoppix - The first guide to Knoppix for the complete beginner. Another great product of open source. Released under the GNU Free Documentation license, and available in PDF format, this documentation shows how you can use Knoppix for curiosity without installation, or rescue a Windows installation that doesn't boot anymore.
Covered in Slashdot.
Posted by darkmoon at 01:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 27, 2004
State of Emergent Democracy
Joichi Ito is heading off to Berlin for the 21st Chaos Communications Congress to speak about the State of Emergent Democracy.
Emergent democracy refers to the internet phenomenon of web-based communications platforms to change the geopolitical landscape to increasingly reflect more democratic principles. It is used in the context of defining a political rift in the current world order between the interests of corporate-run business and the public, and to describe the new abilities of the public to organize as ('at long last') realistically capable of trancending the preexisting and established order.
Background information on speaker:
Joichi Ito is someone that I have come to admire greatly for he is one of the few non-corrupted individuals in the corporate world that still fights for what should be in the cyber realm of the Internet. Joi is associated with ICANN, Creative Commons, and other organizations and founder of Neoteny, Infoseek Japan, Digital Garage, and other major players in the communications industry.
With the state of the current Greensboro blogging sphere, I would well-recommend everyone read Joi's paper on Emergent Democracy. In it, he writes that blogs are evolving beyond the interests of the author. The role of media is to incorporate these ideas and philosophies into their every day practice to initiate a more alternative media.
The balance between what’s relevant and what’s not relevant is culturally biased and difficult to sustain. We need mechanisms to check filters for corruption and weighted perspectives. A variety of checks and balances and a diversity of methods and media can provide the perspectives we need for a balanced view of current events.
Interestingly enough, this is exactly what has happened with the current tragedy in south east Asia with tsunamis that have caused upwards of 21,000 in deaths and bloggers everywhere are gathering to help those in need and keep people informed.
Whether a system is democratic or otherwise, people or groups with power or wealth often see no benefit in keeping the general population well informed, truly educated, their privacy ensured or their discourse uninhibited. Those are the very things that power and wealth fear most. Old forms of government have every reason to operate in secret, while denying just that privilege to subjects. The people are minutely scrutinized while the powerful are exempt from scrutiny.[5] (Dee Hock) We can’t expect support where power and wealth are concentrated, beyond lip service, for greater, truly meaningful citizen participation in governance. Greater democracy requires that we work constantly to build and sustain structures for effective democratic participation.
Simply put, democratic involvement should not require the wealth nor should there be "secret" meetings where certain individuals are slandered. The immersion of blogging should provide a more well informed perspective to whatever event or subject matter.
I find that the concept of emergent democracy should not be foreign to Greensboro since we have been a piece of the pie all along. We have all been fighting for the same cause [blogging community], the same goals [growth of the Triad blogosphere], agreeing with and/or challenging the same bureaucracy that binds this nation together but also allows us to participate in the governance of our society. Strangely enough, different perspectives as shown in the latest of discussions between Greensboro's finest has shown emergent democracy at work. This is the next step in which all of us will play a part, however significant. Perhaps it is time to show the world that we are a prime example of emergent democracy within the fair Gate City.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 23, 2004
Mozilla Lightning shooting for Outlook replacement?
The Mozilla Foundation is at it again. Code-named Lightning, it is to integrate current projects of Sunbird (calendaring) and Thunderbird (mail) to combat Outlook. Microsoft has already dismissed the project claiming that the Outlook/Exchange model is better and that the Mozilla project will probably "not be suitable for business use." Slashdot covers it here.
Personal note: The one bane that holds back many Windows users from using open-source. Outlook. Yet, there are stupid issues in Outlook that I hope to get fixed with Lightning. Outlook's Out-of-office assistant promotes SPAM. Why? The spam that hits my Inbox gets sent to a folder called "spam". When you turn on the assistant, it replies to ALL e-mails that there's no one home. So the next time you turn on your assistant, remember: You're perpetuating the spam too.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Paint.NET tries to take on GIMP in Open Source
Paint.NET is an Open Source initiative by Washington State University and Microsoft to try to replace the MS Paint in Windows XP. Written in C# and with GDI+ extensions, this is project will try to give The GIMP, a GTK based graphics program, a run for its money.
Slashdot covers it here.
Personal note: I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry over this one. GIMP is an Adobe Photoshop alternative while Paint.NET is to replace Microsoft Paint. Anyone that's worked in graphics knows that you do everything in Photoshop. Period. So, if this is supposed to compete, we better see some brilliant workings in the making. Second, this comes from my alma mater. Graduating from the same department, I'm STILL trying to figure out if the department finally found direction or not. Reason being? These were the same people when I was a senior in college that told us that learning C and Unix filesystems wasn't important for freshmen CS majors anymore and that Java and Windows was where the world was going to go. WSU CS, if you've finally found your calling, I applaude that it only took all of my collegiate career plus some. If not, I'm hardly going to bring up old wounds.
Posted by darkmoon at 01:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 19, 2004
Open Letter to the Digital World - Chris Spencer
Chris Spencer, a system adminstrator, writes an open letter to the digital world which was also published in Linuxworld. In it, he writes that even with all the common sense type maintennance activities (anti-virus scans, using a firewall, not opening attachments, etc.) there are still ways to exploit a Windows system transparently.
It's time for anyone running a Windows PC to switch to Linux.You see, the Windows platform is not just insecure - it's patently, blatantly, and unashamedly insecure by design and for all the lip service to security it's really not going to get better, ever. To make matters worse, it's more expensive and gives you fewer necessary applications right out of the box than Linux. Everyone, even Microsoft, knows this - they are just too afraid to say it. The tide is coming in. Nothing on this planet can stop it.
Now what's stopping YOU from trying Linux?
Posted by darkmoon at 01:13 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
December 16, 2004
Firefox words spreads like wildfire on NYT
Here is the New York Times today. Yes, the Mozilla ad has finally made it and it's a whopping two full pages thanks to all the donations! Another great day for open-source.
Here is the PDF version.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 15, 2004
P2P freedom in 9 lines of Perl
Molester was written by Matthew Skala, in response to Dr. Ed Felten (TinyP2P) which was in 15 lines of Python. This was posted on the blog "Freedom to Tinker" and shows the futile nature of regulating P2P applications. Slashdot covers here.
Personal note: Everyone wants to regulate everything. Why can they leave open-source alone? You have to realize that just like the DVD decrypt by a Carnegie Mellon professor in 5 lines of perl, this is one of the other things (BitTorrent) where you're sticking your head in the lion's den. The open-source swarm technology has nothing to do with the actual uses, just like Smith & Wesson doesn't commit murder when someone uses one of their handguns to "murder" someone. People are the ones that take action, not automatons.
Posted by darkmoon at 04:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 14, 2004
Linux more stable than Windows with fewer bugs
Wired has an article stating that according to a four-year analysis of the 5.7 million lines of Linux source code conducted by five Stanford University computer science researchers, the Linux kernel programming code is better and more secure than the programming code of most proprietary software. The report, set to be released on Tuesday, states that the 2.6 Linux production kernel, shipped with software from Red Hat, Novell and other major Linux software vendors, contains 985 bugs in 5.7 million lines of code, well below the industry average for commercial enterprise software. Windows XP, by comparison, contains about 40 million lines of code, with new bugs found on a frequent basis. Commercial software typically has 20 to 30 bugs for every 1,000 lines of code, according to Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab Sustainable Computing Consortium. This would be equivalent to 114,000 to 171,000 bugs in 5.7 million lines of code.
Personal note: Let's put it another way. Who didn't know this?
Posted by darkmoon at 10:35 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 13, 2004
Study shows Linux wins again
A study by Cybersource, an Australian open-source firm shows that a corporation of 250 employees can save up to 36% of expenses by moving to a linux based solution of servers, and workstations. Even with a commercial linux such as RedHat Enterprise, the corporation can save up toe 27%. Also great to note that this doesn't include malware, cost of poor performance, or external resourcing and only covers infrastructure costs.
The Age article here.
Slashdot covers it here.
Personal note: It's a wonder why we're pushing this for small businesses via the Greensboro Linux User Group. We have bias, of course, but certain infrastructure from cost perspective become very effective from the open-source standpoint when compared to Microsoft. In a dog-eat-dog world, where small businesses need to manage money effectively, Linux is definitely a viable choice.
Posted by darkmoon at 09:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 12, 2004
Dutch government doubles back on open-source goals
Even after the Dutch government unanimously voted in 2002 on open-source goals, they have been in talks with Microsoft over not only desktop software, but also server software. This deal has been behind closed doors and infuriated organizations such as Novell since there was no public bid put in place.
Slashdot covers this in more detail.
Posted by darkmoon at 09:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 11, 2004
Redhat and IBM team to certify Linux apps
Redhat and IBM are teaming up to help certify Linux applications. This will create more enterprise level applications that run on Redhat Enterprise Linux on IBM hardware. It's great to see the corporate structures backing Linux have been are looking into the future of computing and seeing that it is a feasible and great alternative solution to Microsoft.
Slashdot covers this in greater detail.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:41 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 08, 2004
PalmSource to run Palm OS Cobalt on Linux
PalmSource is acquiring ChinaMobilesoft, a leading chinese company that uses linux for mobile devices. This is an effort to put together a proprietary PalmOS software layer that sits on top of a linux kernel. This is an effort to bolster the runnings against Microsoft PocketPC devices that has been demolishing PalmSource's market share.
Here is the open letter to the Palm community (PDF).
Here is the open letter to the linux community (PDF).
Personal note: Haven't we heard this before? While the technologies are slightly different, MacOSX is based on a BSD kernel, with the GUI interface as a layer on top of the stable kernel. This has significantly raised the stability and performance of Apple's operating system and has definitely played a part in gaining market share from nerds that like stability.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 30, 2004
Linux wins again: Attacked only 0.26% of the time.
In a blurb on Slashdot, where it says that given a Windows XP SP1 stock load, and a Mac stock load, with a linux stock load, the Windows was exploited on average in about four minutes. FOUR! The linux system was only hit about 0.26% of the time. That's amazing. And people wonder why the switch to linux wouldn't be advantageous...
Posted by darkmoon at 07:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Pro-Ams are the only serious challenge to MS? Dang right they are!
Amazing how it took normal people to finally observe something that us nerds/geeks/and the like have known forever. Here is the UK thinktanks study on Pro-Ams. Slashdot also covers it here.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack