just seemlessly upgraded my Mandriva 2010 Free edition to the 2010.1 Free edition. no cost is wonderful. This was a rare time when the OS required me to reboot after an update. its a shame that Windows doesnt do the same thing. Upgrade you for free. since all the "new" OS is is a rebuild of the last one with tweaks that they deem necessary.

---

In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I grew up on unix. With a distaste for windoze. And zero interest in the apple products.

But.. I run Windows. Why? Because all the programs I want to run work on it.
That is the only reason. The same content is just not all available for linux.

The reason windows has so many problems and is so hard to secure, is that microsoft keeps introducing new "features" that help make it easy for others to.. "let you know of their special offers by themselves and business associates(read: anyone that they can sell whatever information they can filter out of you.) This enables microsoft to "double dip" from this conflict of interest.
But they are far from alone in doing so. As soon as the html codes allowed others to "redirect" you without your explicit authorization, bounce you through multiple sites at a single click, each able to "track" their server use.. The end user lost control. This is compounded by the ability to make it unclear WHERE each click will take you.

So until someone develops a browser that will require each step to be manually confirmed, and such a browser to become widespread.. We are all regardless of operating systems compromised.

If all of the latest software was developed for both windoze and linux, I would quickly convert to linux. Until then.. Mickey soft keeps the only game in town running to the best profit potential. I hate it, but I need it.

---

Janice

This piece of (anti) press is almost unbelievable for having been published:

Why Android is Bad for Business

The news seems to be all Android, all the time these days, and various analysts have recently revealed predictions that Android will soon be the leading mobile platform. Despite the popularity of the Android platform, though, there are some critical elements of Android that make it unsuitable for business use...


Is that an example of FUD at its extreme worse?

Anyone like to play with the libel and defamation laws?... I guess there may be deliberate ambiguity there about who's "business"...


Amazing stuff!

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Well, Linux is quietly and unobtrusively continuing to gain ground, both on the ground and in cyberspace. It is looking like Linux will gain and hold the major market share in the guise of Android on smartphones and mobile devices. Unlike the demise suffered under the withering influence of Microsoft Marketing in the world of netbooks... Or perhaps?...


Jolicloud netbook ships in the UK

A Linux-based netbook that uses software from French development company Jolicloud has been launched. ...

The Jolicloud OS places an emphasis on cloud computing and is built using HTML5. It comes preloaded with a number of popular apps such as the Google Chromium browser — the open-source version of the Chrome browser — as well as Facebook, Spotify, Skype and the VLC media player. ...


Meanwhile, behind the scenes, one of the big Linux distros moves onwards:

Shuttleworth's Ubuntu makes like Space Shuttle

It looks like astronaut and tech magnate Mark Shuttleworth's investment in the Ubuntu commercial Linux distribution is about to pay off. Ubuntu is taking off like a rocket, and the sale of Novell to Attachmate plus the higher prices Red Hat is charging for its Enterprise Linux 6 are probably going to fuel Ubuntu's adoption even more in the data centers of the world.

The third Long Term Support release, Ubuntu 10.04, came out in April and seems to have been a [very positive] turning point for the Ubuntu distribution. ...


Meanwhile, it's the usual sort of news for Microsoft of malware exploits and Microsoft buying itself into the marketplace:

Windows zero-day allows malicious code execution

Antimalware provider Prevx has sounded the alarm about a serious vulnerability in fully patched versions of Microsoft Windows. It allows attackers to execute malware, even in versions designed to withstand such exploits.

Technical details have already been published on a Chinese forum, leading to speculation that it won't be long before attackers exploit it in the wild.

“This could potentially become a nightmare due to the nature of the flaw,” ...


Attachmate [Microsoft controlled?...] gobbles up Novell for $2.2bn

... In the statement, Jeff Hawn, Attachmate's CEO and chairman, said that it would operate Novell as two business units: one for the SUSE Linux stack and another for all of the other Novell bits...

Novell keeps Unix copyrights from Microsoft

Novell has moved to quell growing concerns that it has sold Linux out to Microsoft as part of its Attachmate deal...


Untangle that little lot if you can!

So... Microsoft is to openly start selling Linux and a Linux distro?



If you wish to jump in early:

Linux beginners' guide: first top five apps to download

... Linux has been known for years as a nerd's playground, where those wanting an alternative to Apple and Microsoft existed in a largely independent and free computer environment. However, the techie nature of most users had led to it developing into something far from user friendly for beginners.

However, with distributions such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, OpenSUSE, Fedora and Debian becoming more user friendly and stable, Linux is starting to become a place beginners can dare to tread. Linus operating systems tend to cut out a lot of excess nonsense you don't really need, making them light and fast (so perfect for laptops, netbooks etc) - and best of all, it's still free.

Of course, one of the biggest stumbling blocks for those trying Linux distributions is the lack of familiarity...

Note that the "top five apps" doesn't include any 'anti-virus' software. Things are just positively different... :-)


Happy crunchin'!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

As soon as the major commercial programs I use (okay most are games, but not all) are made widely available on Linux.. I am there.

---

Janice

As soon as the major commercial programs I use (okay most are games, but not all) are made widely available on Linux.. I am there.

Whoosh... Long ago when my high hopes for WindowsXP were dashed, I think I took a few months to fully switch over to Linux. But then again, I was doing a lot more than just email and web surfing... For me, the push was that: WinXP was still painfully still a "single user system with multi-user profiles" rather than being truly multi-user; And that Windows still didn't have readily usable preemptive multitasking for programming applications.

Also about then was the start of the serious onslaught of Microsoft specific malware that pretty much required the use of a firewall and 'anti-virus'.

Also about that time, the Linux desktop became a lot more pretty!... So I swapped over.

Here's an example screenshot from a little while ago now: s@h forum on KDE desktop

Ofcourse, Linux has the benefit of many years of multi-user (preemptive) multitasking secure design right from the very start. You could even have your applications multithreaded if you wished. And no malware. No-brainer!


That's where WINE came to the rescue to run Windows applications on an application translation layer for 'Windows' on Linux, and it worked well for my examples. Simply, it translates the "Windows OS 'language'" into Linux 'language' calls, and vice-versa for the replies. The Linux OS does the actual 'doing' underneath it all.

I also soon found that for all the important applications, there were good equivalents in the Linux world, just the names were different.

I've been fully Linux based for some time now and most people don't notice :-)

Running both Windows and another OS can lead to a bit of a 'split brain' situation. I moved off WINE for all Windows apps after a few months. The last Windows apps running on WINE were the setiQ + setiSpy(?) + s@h!


For keeping with your favourite Windows apps, check out if they're listed as compatible with WINE. Even if they're not, there's still a good chance they'll work:

Wine (software)

Microsoft and Wine

This is the Wine Application Database (AppDB). Here you can get information on application compatibility with Wine


This is the commercialised view of Wine if you want a bit of corporate polish:

CodeWeavers delivers Compatibility for Mac and Linux. Your Windows Mac and Linux CrossOver solution

CodeWeavers Compatibility list

(Yes, GPL software can be sold. It's all part of the freedom.)


A good friendly article is given here:

Frank's Corner: Running Windows applications and games on Linux


And some of the gory history is detailed in this article:

Finally, it's time for Wine

An interesting push has been from the involvement by Google to port over some of their applications to run on Wine for use on Windows!

There's even a nice GUI for installing applications on WINE that is called "Doors".


Hope of help and interest.

Happy crunchin,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Whoosh... Long ago when my high hopes for WindowsXP were dashed, I think I took a few months to fully switch over to Linux. But then again, I was doing a lot more than just email and web surfing... For me, the push was that: WinXP was still painfully still a "single user system with multi-user profiles" rather than being truly multi-user; And that Windows still didn't have readily usable preemptive multitasking for programming applications.

Lies. Windows 9x were "single user OSes with multi-user profiles", and Windows 3.1 was the last of the co-operative multitasking. Windows 95 introduced preemptive multitasking for 32bit applications, which most Windows apps have been for quite some time. Windows NT and newer have all been built from the group up to be multi-user.

Educate yourself before you spread more FUD.

Whoosh... Long ago when my high hopes for WindowsXP were dashed, I think I took a few months to fully switch over to Linux. But then again, I was doing a lot more than just email and web surfing... For me, the push was that: WinXP was still painfully still a "single user system with multi-user profiles" rather than being truly multi-user; And that Windows still didn't have readily usable preemptive multitasking for programming applications.

Lies. Windows 9x were "single user OSes with multi-user profiles", and Windows 3.1 was the last of the co-operative multitasking. Windows 95 introduced preemptive multitasking for 32bit applications, which most Windows apps have been for quite some time. Windows NT and newer have all been built from the group up to be multi-user.

Educate yourself before you spread more FUD.

Love to see a XP box with two users both running at the same time. Not just background tasks, but the full user interface. Or didn't you get that is why there is Windows Server.

---

Whoosh... Long ago when my high hopes for WindowsXP were dashed, I think I took a few months to fully switch over to Linux. But then again, I was doing a lot more than just email and web surfing... For me, the push was that: WinXP was still painfully still a "single user system with multi-user profiles" rather than being truly multi-user; And that Windows still didn't have readily usable preemptive multitasking for programming applications.

Lies. Windows 9x were "single user OSes with multi-user profiles", and Windows 3.1 was the last of the co-operative multitasking. Windows 95 introduced preemptive multitasking for 32bit applications, which most Windows apps have been for quite some time. Windows NT and newer have all been built from the group up to be multi-user.

Educate yourself before you spread more FUD.

Love to see a XP box with two users both running at the same time. Not just background tasks, but the full user interface. Or didn't you get that is why there is Windows Server.

So a feature that Microsoft reserves for their servers and artificially limits in their consumer OS means it doesn't have multi-user? Got it.

So a feature that Microsoft reserves for their servers and artificially limits in their consumer OS means it doesn't have multi-user? Got it.

Do you appreciate the detail of a truly multi-user system and of preemptive scheduling and multi-threading?

As a pleb user on WinXP, I could trash the settings of another user for just one obvious example... You shouldn't be able to do that on a truly multi-user system. (The WinXP "Group Policy Editor" had rather a lot of holes in it!)

A user process could lock up the entire machine for a second example...

Even still now, there's an underlying problem as to why Windows is just so vulnerable to exploitive tweaks such that by merely browsing a web site for example, you can lose control of your own PC... You can argue whatever you like about how effective anti-virus and UAC and so on are... Is it really that Microsoft is the only target for malware? But we digress...


For myself, as a developer working on multi-threaded code, Linux offered a much better environment to quickly develop reliable multitasking code. The O(0) linux scheduler is a really nice touch also, even though I rarely need to test its "zero order" feature. Then again, that feature has saved me a few times when I have messed up some code and spawned something stupid big number thousands of threads and I-want-my-machine-back scenario :-o before the kernel OOM killer kills me!...


In my view, the thing where Windows wins is on 'eye candy' and 'familiarity'. Then again, there's always howls of anguish from some whenever Microsoft change the look-and-feel in any way. Hence why there is always a "classic" view?

Linux wins handsomely on other virtues. Recently, it also looks good and easy.


Happy crunchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Whoosh... Long ago when my high hopes for WindowsXP were dashed, I think I took a few months to fully switch over to Linux. But then again, I was doing a lot more than just email and web surfing... For me, the push was that: WinXP was still painfully still a "single user system with multi-user profiles" rather than being truly multi-user; And that Windows still didn't have readily usable preemptive multitasking for programming applications.

Lies. Windows 9x were "single user OSes with multi-user profiles", and Windows 3.1 was the last of the co-operative multitasking. Windows 95 introduced preemptive multitasking for 32bit applications, which most Windows apps have been for quite some time. Windows NT and newer have all been built from the group up to be multi-user.

Educate yourself before you spread more FUD.

Love to see a XP box with two users both running at the same time. Not just background tasks, but the full user interface. Or didn't you get that is why there is Windows Server.

So a feature that Microsoft reserves for their servers and artificially limits in their consumer OS means it doesn't have multi-user? Got it.

They are completely different O/S. Stop with your FUD.

---

A Linux comeback for netbooks?

The best netbook OS: XP, Windows 7 or Ubuntu?

... Each of these four operating systems has its attractions, but the key question is how each one performs on low-powered netbook hardware. ...


And Linux makes a very big bang!

The Large Hadron Collider

What is at the heart of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments? It should not surprise you that open-source software is one of the things that powers the most complex scientific human endeavor ever attempted. I hope to give you a glimpse into how scientific computing embraces open-source software and the open-source philosophy in one of the LHC experiments. ...


Choice is good!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

"or basic web and productivity tasks, Ubuntu’s performance appears no better than Windows, and for online video and games it’s distinctly worse"

and what is what you do with netbooks?

netbooks are just that. basic/tiny laptops so you can surf the net. they really aren't meant for much more

---

In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

netbooks are just that. basic/tiny laptops so you can surf the net. they really aren't meant for much more

Running Linux on one, you'll be surprised at just how wrong that statement is...

A netbook makes lugging a laptop around look very silly for mobile support and even on-site development work.

If you are deskbound, then a desktop system is the obvious choice.

I suppose laptops are fine for the hot-desking types such as sales, students, and those who are Marketing victims...


The netbook also makes for a very capable media centre when away for a weekend (with added speakers ofcourse).

Happy crunchin',
Martin

(From a netbook running Mandriva Linux and KDE, all on SSD and tmpfs, completely silently save for the sound of the click of the keys.)

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

My notebook acts as my version of an iphone. Those tiny screens simply can not hold all I need to display "on the go". And the notebooks just do not hold up (close but no cigar) to my home graphics needs.

But.. going back and forth from linux/windoze.. not an option. And emulators to run windoze apps on linux falls short of my needs. Linux remains close, but no cigar for me. I grew up on Unix SysV, so linux would not be a major tech leap for me, it just is not "there yet".

---

Janice

Just seen a crackin' good giggle on an advert for a Windows netbook:

"Windows Operating System: Unlike many netbooks, this superb XXX runs on the Windows CE operating system no complicated non windows systems to have to worry about!"

"... one of the fastest growing computers in the industry..."

:-)


And to think that over in Linux-land, there are arguments about the Gnome desktop being so simple as to be verging on the point of being almost patronising to the users. Whereas there are other Linux desktops that offer as much or as little control as the user wishes. There's still other Linux versions that can't get any simpler than simply click 'n' play media centres...

Wait a moment... Does that advert also acknowledge that there are indeed other OSes to choose from?...


The wording does sound rather like the Balmer-esq pseudo-English :-o


Choice and true freedom should be good.

:-)

Cheers,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

"... no complicated non windows systems to have to worry about!"

Really?...

Even with such as:


Horror AVG update ballsup bricks Windows 7

An update from AVG on Wednesday night rendered 64 bit Windows 7 systems unstable after it was applied.


Anti-virus skulduggery - upgrade licence clock shock slammed

Anti-virus vendors AVG and Symantec have been criticised for sharp practices in selling consumer antivirus upgrades.

Every year security vendors bring out new versions of their products with improved engines and better technologies...

If consumers upgrade early in response to these emails, they lose the remaining licence period for their existing software. ...


A strange system indeed if that's easier than those other non-Windows systems none of which suffer such silliness...

Meanwhile, there's various news about Microsoft getting rather upset about Google eating into Microsoft's office business in the USA... How far away are we from the tipping point where Microsoft's "lock-in" is no longer significant?...


Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

martin, if you would be living in this day, and not in the past, you would know
that windows runs safely with uac and defender, no avg etc is needed.

but if you want something like avg etc, there is microsoft's security essentials, and it´s free!

martin, if you would be living in this day, and not in the past, you would know
that windows runs safely with uac and defender, no avg etc is needed.

but if you want something like avg etc, there is microsoft's security essentials, and it´s free!

If Microsoft were living in this day, then there simply would be no Windows OS support for viruses and such malware in the first place. The unix systems stopped the virus/worms problem back in the 1980s. See The Great Internet Worm. In contrast, there appear to be fundamental problems with Windows that continue to keep viruses and such malware alive...

Just recently, yet another Windows exploit for which there is no patch at present:

Researchers bypass Internet Explorer Protected Mode

... Protected Mode, which was introduced in version 7 of IE, is intended to prevent exploit code from accessing sensitive parts of the Windows operating system, such as those that create files or change registry settings. But the Verizon Business researchers said they figured out a reliable way to bypass the measure that requires no interaction on the part of the victim. ...

There are endless other examples, and there will yet be many more...

And with the endless requests by Microsoft's "UAC", most users develop a Pavlovian response to just 'click it away'. There is no such "UAC" or required clickiness in Linux.


When does Microsoft live in this day?

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)