Thursday, October 28, 2004
Linux Format :: - a tip for installing VMWare on Mandrake 10.1.
Linux Format :: - a tip for installing VMWare on Mandrake 10.1.
Monday, October 25, 2004
H/W detection in Debian ? - the answer is discover, it seems.......
Saturday, October 23, 2004
PC Pro is a UK PC magazine, and is probably the best of the bunch. What has caught my eye this month is the Office Suites Labs, where various Office Suites are compared and reviewed.
Now, that sounds like pretty boring stuff, and indeed it is. But what is exciting is that the winner (and new PC Pro "A-List" Office Suite) is Open Office 1.1.2.
This is exciting because
(a) PC Pro are self-confessed Microsoft fans / advocates / fanatics, and
(b) Open Office is Open Source.
It's also interesting to note that PC Pro have recently run articles on using SmoothWall as a firewall, and Fedora as a file server at home. Both are open source, Linux products.
What this says to me is that Open Source and Linux really are starting to edge their way in to everyday computing. I have convinced a few techie friends to start using Linux in place of Windows for serving at home, and they all like it. We're not quite at the point where non-techie, everyday punters can replace Windows at home with Linux, but that day is coming.
I also advocate Mac OS X as the operating system of choice (especially at home), as it takes all the strengths of Open Source (FreeBSD, actually) and wraps them in a beautiful, easy to manage user experience. (PC Pro, incidentally, do not like Mac OS X, although I have no idea why. Since it doesn't run on PC's, I guess it's not in their remit anyway). The only problem with Mac OS X is cost; the O/S is cheap enough, but will only run on Apple hardware. Apple hardware is absolutely superb, but not cheap. This again is where Linux comes in; I can have my Mac and still use my old PC as a Linux file/print/application server - the two get along just fine.
My take on the enterprise space is that Linux can now provide what Windows was providing four or five years ago (although tech support and expertise is harder to find). Many people are only just replacing Windows systems that are four or five years old anyway (and only because support for NT 4.0 is going at the end of the year).
This indicates that in three or four years, GNU/Linux will be able to offer most of what the Enterprise Microsoft platform offers now, as the only real strengths that Microsoft has left over GNU/Linux are ease of administration and end-to-end integration. Also, in three or four years, what will Microsoft be offering me that I won't be able to achieve with Open Source products? - I can't see a single feature in their future operating system, Longhorn, that I will "need" as a user. Will people even move off of Windows 2003 to Longhorn? - I don't think so. I see people at work who are only just now getting rid of Windows 95.
PC Pro are right, you see - the only reason I can think that I would ever need to use Microsoft Office over Open Office is integration with other Microsoft products. If I'm not bothered about SharePoint portal server or Exchange, then I can use Open Source alternatives for free, and not be bothered by worms, viruses and trojans all the time. My work will be saved in an open format that I can access using any one of hundreds of systems rather than just systems from one vendor. I own the data I create, and that's good. I'm not paying through the teeth for forced upgrades that give me features I don't even want or need. That's also good.
What this all boils down to, in my humble opinion, is that the days of the Microsoft monopoly really are numbered. I'm a techie, and I no longer use Microsoft at home. Neither do many of my techie friends, and we don't miss it. When the rest of the tech generation start catching on to the benefits of Open Source (and Apple), they will start to think outside the Microsoft box, and as Open Source products get refined and improved they will realise that alternatives are not just possible, but actually better.
Now, that sounds like pretty boring stuff, and indeed it is. But what is exciting is that the winner (and new PC Pro "A-List" Office Suite) is Open Office 1.1.2.
This is exciting because
(a) PC Pro are self-confessed Microsoft fans / advocates / fanatics, and
(b) Open Office is Open Source.
It's also interesting to note that PC Pro have recently run articles on using SmoothWall as a firewall, and Fedora as a file server at home. Both are open source, Linux products.
What this says to me is that Open Source and Linux really are starting to edge their way in to everyday computing. I have convinced a few techie friends to start using Linux in place of Windows for serving at home, and they all like it. We're not quite at the point where non-techie, everyday punters can replace Windows at home with Linux, but that day is coming.
I also advocate Mac OS X as the operating system of choice (especially at home), as it takes all the strengths of Open Source (FreeBSD, actually) and wraps them in a beautiful, easy to manage user experience. (PC Pro, incidentally, do not like Mac OS X, although I have no idea why. Since it doesn't run on PC's, I guess it's not in their remit anyway). The only problem with Mac OS X is cost; the O/S is cheap enough, but will only run on Apple hardware. Apple hardware is absolutely superb, but not cheap. This again is where Linux comes in; I can have my Mac and still use my old PC as a Linux file/print/application server - the two get along just fine.
My take on the enterprise space is that Linux can now provide what Windows was providing four or five years ago (although tech support and expertise is harder to find). Many people are only just replacing Windows systems that are four or five years old anyway (and only because support for NT 4.0 is going at the end of the year).
This indicates that in three or four years, GNU/Linux will be able to offer most of what the Enterprise Microsoft platform offers now, as the only real strengths that Microsoft has left over GNU/Linux are ease of administration and end-to-end integration. Also, in three or four years, what will Microsoft be offering me that I won't be able to achieve with Open Source products? - I can't see a single feature in their future operating system, Longhorn, that I will "need" as a user. Will people even move off of Windows 2003 to Longhorn? - I don't think so. I see people at work who are only just now getting rid of Windows 95.
PC Pro are right, you see - the only reason I can think that I would ever need to use Microsoft Office over Open Office is integration with other Microsoft products. If I'm not bothered about SharePoint portal server or Exchange, then I can use Open Source alternatives for free, and not be bothered by worms, viruses and trojans all the time. My work will be saved in an open format that I can access using any one of hundreds of systems rather than just systems from one vendor. I own the data I create, and that's good. I'm not paying through the teeth for forced upgrades that give me features I don't even want or need. That's also good.
What this all boils down to, in my humble opinion, is that the days of the Microsoft monopoly really are numbered. I'm a techie, and I no longer use Microsoft at home. Neither do many of my techie friends, and we don't miss it. When the rest of the tech generation start catching on to the benefits of Open Source (and Apple), they will start to think outside the Microsoft box, and as Open Source products get refined and improved they will realise that alternatives are not just possible, but actually better.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Monday, October 18, 2004
Net Integration Technologies - these guys do something called Net Integrator, which looks like an SBS kind of a deal.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
The last post didn't work for fixing the ReMOSitory install, but there's more at the Two Shoes Mambo Factory.
I am seeing this error (Could not open the page “http://server/Mambo/administrator/index2.php” because Safari could not load any data for this location) after upping the memory limit in php.ini as per the last post - could be a Safari issue?
I am seeing this error (Could not open the page “http://server/Mambo/administrator/index2.php” because Safari could not load any data for this location) after upping the memory limit in php.ini as per the last post - could be a Safari issue?
Mambo - A PHP & MySQL Content Management System - Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted - seen this today, and the fix is to edit php.ini so that
memory_limit = 16M
(apparently).
memory_limit = 16M
(apparently).
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Mambohut - templates for Mambo.
