Linux

Why Slackware is still being developed and why you should try it

Slackware 13.0 was released last week. Apparently there are solid reasons that it’s the oldest Linux distro still in development.

There’s a great interview with Eric Hameleers in Linux Magazine explaining why you should try Slackware. Here’s a quote:

“This continuous influx of ‘converts’ is one of the reasons that Slackware has not disappeared into oblivion. Slackware assumes you are smart! This appeals to people.”

Aha! Now I understand the pipe. (Remember “pipe-smoking intellectuals,” anyone?) That assumption might be refreshing. I know for a fact that Vista thinks I’m an idiot — and quite likely a dangerous one, at that.

~ Ivy Wigmore

What is the strategy behind Microsoft’s release of Hyper-V?

Will the virtualization wars of the ’00s parallel the browser wars of the ’90s?

Bill Gates may not be actively involved in pulling the levers at Microsoft on a day-to-day basis after his retirement earlier this month but the Redmond-based software giant is no less focused on “maximizing shareholder value.”

That has generally meant moving powerfully into new markets for software, often once other companies had proved the viability of such ventures.

In the 1990s, the threat of a network computer from Oracle and Sun and then a browser-based computer from Netscape resulted in an epic battle for the desktop.

Now, of course, Google is the Internet juggernaut that Microsoft is now confronting on multiple fronts, especially with respect to search and office productivity applications. You’ve no doubt come across the term “cloud computing” by now.

When it comes to virtualization, however, VMware is the story. VMware, easily the global leader in the server virtualization market, with more than 80% market share at the beginning of 2008, pulled in more than $1.3 billion dollars in revenue last year.

Redmond noticed. (So did TechTarget: SearchVMware.com launched in 2007.)

In June 2008, Microsoft officially released Microsoft Hyper-V Server. A chorus of industry analysts immediately noted that Hyper-V directly competes with VMware’s products.

In its initial release, however, the only non-Microsoft operating system to receive official support for virtual machine creation with Hyper-V was SuSE Linux. Xen-enabled Linux distributions can, however, be run using paravirtualization. Microsoft engineers are working towards support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux  in the next iteration. Other operating systems, like Ubuntu or Fedora, have been successfully installed by members of the development community using a variety of patches and workarounds. Unlike VMware, Hyper-V does not initially support “live migration,” a feature in which virtual machines can be moved from one server to another.

The massive install base of Microsoft users, substantially lower pricing plans when compared to VMware’s price points, integration with Microsoft products and (crucially) inclusion of Hyper-V with Microsoft Server 2008 are all likely to help Hyper-V gain traction.

Questions may linger about bundling Hyper-V with Microsoft Server 2008 if adoption soars to the detriment of VMware.

That the dismissal of co-founder and CEO Diane Greene by the VMware board earlier this month coincided so closely with the introduction of Hyper-V also no doubt reflects growing concern over increasing competition in the market, including Citrix’s XenServer.

What is the origin of Linux?

In the embed below, Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, “tells the story of how he went from writing code as a graduate student in Helsinki in the early 1990s to becoming an icon for open source software by the end of the decade. ” (YouTube shownotes)

The video was produced by the Computer History Museum.

[Hat tip to Linux Journal, via Greg Laden]

Screencast: Learn how to watch video on Ubuntu

This screencast from Ubuntu.com shows how to play media, like online movies and DVDs, in Hardy Heron and other versions of the Linux operating system.

Learn how to add codecs automatically, play video embedded in a browser and how to install a Flash Player plugin or the Miro video platform.

Screencast: Installing Ubuntu to Dual Boot with Windows

Learn how to install Ubuntu on a PC that already has Windows installed. After installation, when the PC boots-up, a boot menu allows a user to choose which operating system to run. This is made possible by GNU GRUB (or just GRUB), a boot loader package that supports multiple operating systems on a computer.

This screencast is from Ubuntu.com and was created by Alan Pope.

Workrave: The (micro)pause that refreshes

The other day I had one of those lightbulb moments. I’d been working for several hours and had just come across an exciting idea. The kind of idea that makes me leap from my office chair and run downstairs to tell my husband… Except that, well, although my brain sent the leap instruction, my body interpreted “leap” as “slowly and creakily transfer weight to feet and gradually straighten knees, hips, etc. until relatively vertical position is reached. Clutch lower back. Groan.”

The inescapable conclusion? As an editor “of a certain age,” I can no longer expect to be able to hunker down at the computer in one position for hours and also expect to be able to change that position quickly. And if I don’t want to be RSI poster girl, I’d better do something.

Workrave to the rescue! It might just save me from myself. It’s a nifty little program that pops up alerts at user-defined intervals, reminding you to stretch, take a break or *gasp* step away from the computer. There’s a handy illustrated exercise demo for eyes, hands, shoulders and all those other bodily features that tend to suffer at the computer. In between significant breaks, Workrave mandates micropauses, during which you’re ordered to stare into space. Ahhhh! Seconds of pure zen bliss…

Damn Small Linux: How low can a distro go?

We’ve long since defined Linux.

We’ve gone on to note the various distributions, including lightweight versions in the skinny Linux family like Feather Linux, Austrumi and even Puppy Linux. These operating systems are often run directly from live distros burned onto CDs or from hot-swappable flash memory-based jump drives.

We’ve also podcasted about portable applications, where we learned how open source applications like Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser and Thunderbird email client, along with Audacity, OpenOffice and many other apps have been made mobile. Similarly, these applications are run directly from portable storage media or devices. And, like many others, we’re watching how the OLPC’s XO is received and works “in the wild” as it moves from prototype to worldwide distribution.

Now, we’re taking note of the next version of the “portable desktop,” at least as described by Wired’s Monkey Bites blog. Meet “Damn Small Linux,” a distribution of Linux that takes up a mere 50 megabytes of memory. That makes it small enough to fit on most flash drives. Aside from adding even more acronym confusion to the world of computing (given that Damn Small Linux is shortened to “DSL”), DSL is the latest example of how simple experiments using the open source model of development can become robust distributions. In this case, the original concept was to see how many (usable) desktop applications could fit inside of a 50 MB CD, including a functional operating system.

If you’re wondering how many that is, by the way, the current breakdown, according the DSL Web site, includes:

XMMS (MP3, CD Music, and MPEG), FTP client, Dillo Web browser, Netrik Web browser, Firefox, spreadsheet, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US English), a word processor (Ted), three editors (Beaver, Vim, and Nano [pico clone]), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf (PDF Viewer), emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a Web server, calculator, generic and Ghostscript printer support, NFS, Fluxbox and JWM window managers, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, PCMCIA support, some wireless support.

Of course, that list could grow over time, but we’re still impressed by the power of community. In fact, it sounds like another example of crowdsourcing to our ears.