Archive for the 'quotes & thoughts' Category

Clarifications on KDE4 and KDE 4.0 and Little More

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on January 19, 2008
in desktop environments, kde and quotes & thoughts
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As one of bloggers from kdedevelopers.org site mentioned correctly, KDE4 and KDE 4.0 are not the same. When people are reviewing and discussing the KDE’s latest release, i.e. 4, they are at times messing up the two terms.

  • KDE 4.0 is not KDE4 but only the first (4.0.0 even non-bugfix) release in a years-long KDE4 series to come.
  • KDE 4.0 is known to have missing parts or temporary implementations (eg printing, PIM, Plasma).
  • Most changes happened under the surface and cannot be discovered in a “30 minutes usage”-review anyway.
  • User interfaces being unchanged in 4.0 compared to 3.5 may be still changed/improved during KDE4 life time.
  • KDE 4.0 will not be the fastest KDE4 release, like for KDE2 most speed optimizations will happen later during KDE4.
  • Most applications (many are not even fully ported yet) will take advantage of new features which the new Qt/KDE libraries offer only later.
  • Don’t measure portability success (eg MS Windows) by current availability of application releases, they will come.
  • KDE 4.0 is only expected to be used by early adopters, not every KDE 3.5 user (and IMHO KDE 4.0 shouldn’t be pushed onto other user types like planned for Kubuntu ShipIt [btw said to have only 6 months support for its packages]).
  • KDE 4.1 development will not require the same amount of time as the big technology jump 4.0, expect 4.1 later this year.

BTW, do you know that KDE 4.0 can be installed on Windows as well; while using a Windows machine you can take a dive into the ocean of powerful applications, awesome user experience and the freedom Richard M Stallman talks about. An advanced user can compile KDE 4.0 for Windows through the toolkit available, but an ordinary ‘click-next’ user will have to wait for a while for the Windows-ready-to-install KDE version.

So, there you go. Enjoy KDE4 and the current 4.0.0 release :-p

Related: And here are few more latest reviews on KDE 4:

Why Linux Will Succeed On The Desktop

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on November 7, 2007
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I believe Linux will become the de-facto standard desktop operating system. Though it’ll take a while for many users to break free from ties to Windows, there is good reason to believe that this day will come.

Consider that the global community is already beginning to rally behind standard document formats. In addition, as browsers like Firefox gain more market share, users are less tolerant of Internet Explorer-only web sites. However, the transition is slow and will continue to be a slow one. Most people will switch away from Windows only when dollars are on the line.

The Perfect Generic Client

A desktop supports multiple methods of work habits. For example, you can edit a document with a local word processor like Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Word for Windows, or you can use Google Docs. You need Windows to run Word, but any operating system with a good browser will handle Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Docs well. Once you eliminate the problem of migrating to a new document format, the question becomes, “Why am I paying through the nose for a buggy, bloated, insecure and buggy Windows?” Put more simply, take away the force of legacy inertia, and the cheapest, least-problematic desktop becomes the most desirable.

In the long run, Linux makes the perfect generic client. It is the hub of free software development, which makes it the focal point for generic, open computing. As people continue to use Linux as the basis for cell phones, DVRs (such as TiVo and Dish Network), routers, and other dedicated systems, it is becoming ubiquitous on just about every platform but the PC. This only makes it more likely to dominate the PC in the future.

The more Linux becomes the de-facto standard platform for software development of any kind, the more appealing it becomes as the platform for personal computing. Any overlap between appliances and PCs saves duplication of effort. The vast repository of free software available for the asking makes Linux even more appealing as the basis for development.

Many of the duties Linux must perform on a PC it already performs on appliances like cell phones. We may never see the era of $100 network computers, but network computing is advancing, nevertheless, as is evidenced by the increasing reliance on web-based email and the appearance of network applications like Google Docs. We owe thanks to AJAX and Java for the rich client features now available through your PC and/or cell phone browser.

The more we depend on this type of computing, the more invisible operating systems will become. Most people don’t know or care what OS runs their cell phone. We may always care more about what we run on our PC, but the distinction between the two will gradually blur. As it does, Linux should be the best choice, because it is already prevalent on so many devices.

Continue reading ‘Why Linux Will Succeed On The Desktop’

Will GNOME’s betrayal lead to Microsoft Victory?

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on November 3, 2007
in desktop environments, gnome, news, open source and quotes & thoughts
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Microsoft’s efforts to overturn a vote earlier this year denying its Open XML “fast track” standards certification seem to be getting a boost from the GNOME Foundation.GNOME Foundation founder Miguel deIcaza is a Novell employee, and his actions have been closely scrutinized since Microsoft signed its controversial “patent licensing” deal with the company a year ago.

OpenXML, also called OOXML, was denied “fast track” International Standards Organization (ISO) approval in September, but a final vote on making it a standard will take place in February, and Microsoft is anxious to get the earlier decision reversed.

To that end Microsoft is working with the ECMA TC 45 group to answer detailed questions which accompanied the negative ballots in September, in hopes of changing hearts and minds by February. GNOME’s participation in that group is upsetting Open Document Format (ODF) advocates.

ODF is the format used by Open Office.

Opponents of making the Microsoft Word format an ISO document standard, like OpenDocument Fellowship member Russell Ossendryver, compare GNOME’s actions to Democrats offering counters to President Bush’s 2005 plan on privatizing Social Security — any counter-proposal makes it more likely something bad will happen.

Dave Neary, a member of the GNOME Foundation and community manager for OpenWengo, says it’s all safe as milk. Quoting Jody Goldberg, who calls supporting ODF “significantly more difficult” than supporting OOXML, he suggests ODF will never be the “one true format” without destroying its utility.

In arguing for Open XML on his blog yesterday, Jason Matusow of Microsoft insists no one’s hands are clean, that any decision gives proprietary advantage to someone, and the place to fight all this out is the marketplace, not a standards-setting process.

The issue is vital for this reason. Microsoft Office has a dominant market share. Microsoft Office is proprietary. Microsoft’s XML formatting was changed just before Office 2007’s final release, destroying interoperabiity with ODF until fixes could be found.

Once a proprietary standard is approved by the ISO, and made a standard, its eventual replacement by a truly open standard like ODF becomes impossible. At best the two stand side-by-side, and Microsoft’s market dominance is baked into the market.

That’s why, despite the fact OOXML or OpenXML may be a better format today, groups like NOOOXML are fighting so hard against ISO approval. (The cartoon is from the NOOOXML site.)

Once a proprietary format becomes a standard, the era of truly open standards is over, and the way becomes clear to making anything proprietary.

- by ZDNET

Wordpress is all grown up, wins best CMS Award

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on November 2, 2007
in quotes & thoughts and wordpress/blogging
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Wordpress, which I had previously considered “just” a blogging engine, has been named the best open source Content Management System for social networking, beating Drupal and Elgg. (Picture from PhotoMatt.)The Judges commented on “WordPress’s ease of configuration, professional approach, usability and enthusiastic community,” awarding the project $2,000.

Wordpress was started by Matt Mullenweg in 2003. He worked for a while at C|Net before founding Automattic, which hosts blogs, runs an anti-spam service called Akismet, and does other cool stuff.

ZDNet runs on WordPress, and I must admit that each new version of the software seems better than what came before. I also use Drupal at Voic.Us and my personal blog runs through Typepad, a hosted version of Movable Type.

The success of WordPress offers some great lessons about the Internet space, which many analysts still refuse to accept. Remember that by 2003  Google had already acquired Blogger. CMS systems like Drupal, Slash and Scoop were already well-established. Why would anyone need another blogging engine, let alone an open source CMS?

Yet just as Google was able to blow by Yahoo, which everyone in the late 1990s thought owned the search space (that’s why they expanded and became a portal), WordPress was able to blow by a unit of Google, and in relatively short order. Not to mention all those other competitors, who are not chopped liver. (I do like Typepad and Drupal.)

Any analyst who tells you anyone in the Internet owns anything, and that ownership is permanent, just isn’t living in the real world. Change remains possible. Leaders can be caught. If you’ve got a better mousetrap build it, and if it is better, if you run things right, you can win in the open source marketplace.

One more piece of wisdom. Stay humble.  Mullenweg calls his own blog PhotoMatt, and his announcement of this award was quite brief, a simple, one word celebration. “Yay!” He was unavailable for comment because he’s at an event in Argentina, having just acquired Gravatar.

Young man in a hurry in a very small world.

- by Dana Blankenhorn

Top 13 Reasons Why Linux Should Be on Your Computer

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on October 20, 2007
in quotes & thoughts
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Only a couple of years ago, Linux as a desktop was a pimply adolescent with half-baked ideas. Today we see a handsome, well-dressed grown-up who handles a range of tasks with confidence and even performs some fancy tricks. No longer do we need to make allowances for his dress sense or his strange habits.

The timing couldn’t be any better. Vista is a Wagner Opera that is usually late to start, takes too long to finish. Mac OS X Leopard, meanwhile, is the late show in an exclusive nightclub where the drinks are way too expensive. In contrast, the Linux desktop is the free show in the park across the street — it imposes some discomforts on the audience, but provides plenty of quality entertainment.

The first challenge is getting hold of the tickets, since you can’t just choose your new PC and then tick the Linux box in the list of software options. The good news is that installing Linux is no longer a challenge that rivals splitting the atom. With a handful of mature linux distros designed for average users, the benefits Linux offers are much easier to experience. And there are plenty:

  1. Cost — Linux is free, and that includes most of the apps. On the other hand, Vista Home Premium and Ultimate cost hundreds of dollars, even when upgrading from Windows XP. Moving up to Office 2007 involves handing over another bundle of dollars.
  2. Resources — Even the most lavishly equipped Linux distros demand no more resources than Windows XP. Vista is greedy: a single-user PC operating system that needs 2GB of RAM to run at acceptable speed, and 15GB of hard disk space, is grossly obese.
  3. Performance — Linux worked faster on my Dell Inspiron Core Duo than XP, at least the way XP worked out of the box. After cleaning out the bloatware and trading McAfee’s Abrams Tank for the lightweight NOD32, XP and Linux (with Guarddog and Clam-AV) perform at similar speed.
  4. No bloatware — Linux is free from adware, trialware, shovelware, and bloatware. Running Linux is like watching the public TV network.
  5. Security — Last year, 48,000 new virus signatures were documented for Windows, compared to 40 for Linux. Still, most distros come with firewalls and antivirus (AV) software. Programs like Guarddog and Clam-AV are free, of course.
  6. Dual booting — The best Linux distros make dual booting a simple affair, along with the required disk partitioning (so you don’t need to buy partitioning software). Windows on my Dell laptop is still intact after installing and uninstalling a dozen distros.
  7. Installation — Anyone who’s done it once knows that installing Windows from scratch takes hours or even days by the time you get all your apps up and running. With Linux, it can take as little as half an hour to install the operating system, utilities, and a full set of applications. No registration or activation is required, no paperwork, and no excruciating pack drill.
  8. Reinstalling the OS — You can’t just download an updated version of Windows. You have to use the CD that came with your PC and download all the patches Microsoft has issued since the CD was made. With Linux, you simply download the latest version of your distro (no questions asked) and, assuming your data files live in a separate disk partition, there’s no need to reinstall them. You only need to re-install the extra programs you added to the ones that came with the distro.
  9. Keeping track of software — Like most Windows users, I have a shelf full of software CDs and keep a little book with serial numbers under my bed in case I have to reinstall the lot. With Linux, there are no serial numbers or passwords to lose or worry about. Not a single one.
  10. Updating software — Linux updates all the software on your system whenever updates are available online, including all applications programs. Microsoft does that for Windows software but you have to update each program you’ve added from other sources. That’s about 60 on each of my PCs. More icing on the Linux cake is that it doesn’t ask you to reboot after updates. XP nags you every ten minutes until you curse and reboot your machine. If you choose “custom install” to select only the updates you want, XP hounds you like a mangy neighborhood dog until you give in.
  11. More security — These days, operating systems are less vulnerable than the applications that run on them. Therefore a vital aspect of PC security is keeping your apps up-to-date with the latest security patches. That’s hard manual labor in Windows, but with Linux it’s automatic.
  12. No need to defrag disks — Linux uses different file systems that don’t need defragging. NTFS was going to be replaced in Vista, but Microsoft’s new file system didn’t make the final cut. Instead, Vista does scheduled disk defragging by default, but the defrag utility is a sad affair.
  13. A wealth of built-in utilities — The utilities supplied with Windows are pretty ordinary on the whole, that’s why so many small software firms have made a nice living writing better ones. Linux programs are comparable with the best Windows freeware, from CD burners to photo managers, memory monitors and disk utilities. PDF conversion is built-in, both into OpenOffice Writer and into the DTP application Scribus. All you do is click a button on the task bar.

7 reasons why Ubuntu is so successful

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on October 16, 2007
in debian/ubuntu based, linux/unix/os distros and quotes & thoughts
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Most people like it, many others don’t, the fact is that Ubuntu is the king of Linux distributions right now - and for some very good reasons. Below I will attempt to identify those reasons that made Ubuntu the most popular distribution and explain why its success was “inevitable”.

1) A good start: Ubuntu started with a strong background. It wasn’t “yet another” distribution, it was a distribution that had a vision and enough people and money behind it to support that vision.

2) Easy and straightforward installation: From the text-based installer of the first few versions, to the point&click installer of today, ubuntu always had a very straightforward and simple installation. Every step of the installer was explained in a short, yet clear manner that made it easy for everyone to follow the steps of the installation proccedure (almost) regardless of their experience with computers.

3) ShipIt: Sharing “official” CD’s with the Ubuntu logo increased the trust of users towards the distribution and made it much easier for users on slow connections to try it. People could now give away several CD’s to their friends and coworkers which made the general adoption of Linux much faster.

4) Synaptic: If you ask a first-time Ubuntu user to tell you what impressed them most, chances are that the answer will be “synaptic”. Indeed, this application brought APT much closer to the average user and made program installation in Linux a lot easier. Users didn’t have to search for RPMs or worry that they might needed to deal with dependancies, compile from source etc, synaptic solved everything using a very simple interface. When the first versions of Ubuntu came out, the only thing that could be compared to the flexibility and ease of use of APT and Synaptic was Fedora’s YUM, but unfortunately at that time Fedora didn’t have a good front-end for YUM (although Synaptic could be used with YUM, it was not nearly as easy to set up as synaptic and Ubuntu were).

5) Ubuntu forums/Community: The Ubuntu community was, and still is one of the most important factors that promote the growth of Ubuntu. The forums are very active and old users are very friendly and patient towards newcomers. Maybe it has to do with the philosophy of “Ubuntu”…

6) User promotion: Ubuntu is based heavily on the promotion it receives from it’s users. Nearly every person who uses Ubuntu today has beed advised to try it by someone else who had tried it before them and so on. This, combined with the strong influence of Ubuntu to the internet forums related to GNU/Linux, has led to a major increase in it’s adoption .

7) Fragmented competitors: When Ubuntu started it’s “march to glory” there were three “big” distributions, SuSE, Mandriva, and Fedora. Debian and Slackware were popular but were not very appealling to newbies (Debian still had a text based installer…). All of the “big three” were not at their best when Ubuntu came out and started gathering users. SuSE had recently been bought by Novell and was still undergoing internal reconstructions, Mandriva has in the middle of a severe financial crisis, and Fedora was just at FC2 which wasn’t nearly as easy as it now is. This “fragmentation” (or “decay of the distribution maket” if you like) helped many users make the decision to switch to Ubuntu.

There are definately many other reasons why Ubuntu managed to get to the top, and stay there, but making a complete analysis is not within the purposes of this post. Highlighting some of the points that made Ubuntu what it is today, is.

Till next time, keep drinking coffee