Archive for July, 2009
Five Reasons I Would Switch (Exclusively) to Linux
Yesterday I took a look at some of the applications that I’d miss if I decided to switch away from Mac OS X to using Linux exclusively. I felt that wasn’t quite fair as there are some really compelling reasons to switch to Linux and I really didn’t give it much chance (publicly that is). Here’s five reasons I do want to make the switch.
Aptitude
Good package management is absolutely critical on any OS that one is going to be developing or serving data off of. Sure, you can download and install packages as needed, but if those packages aren’t bundled up nicely (as often happens with open source software ported to OS X or Windows), installing those packages become a pain. Need to install an application with its dependencies? No problem! Just do an apt-get install (or use yum or yast, etc. pick your poison). Sure, there’s projects like Macports, but let’s face it, you can’t beat a good native package manager.
Usable OpenOffice.org
Yes, I know that OpenOffice.org runs on Mac OS X. However, every time I’ve seen it run on OS X it’s much slower than running it in Linux on slower hardware. Even using the NeoOffice product, it seems like it just isn’t as responsive or load nearly as fast as running OOo on Linux.
Gnome / KDE (i.e. choice)
One could argue that the Linux desktop managers offer too many options, but being able to theme (nicely, not like those lame underwater themes everyone ran on Windows 98) and tweak everything is definitely a bonus. One Linux box can look exactly the same or dramatically different than the next. The important thing is, it’s all up to the user. OS X looks beautiful, but freedom is worth something as well.
Hardware Freedom
I don’t violate the EULA by installing Linux on standard PC hardware. That’s a pretty compelling argument for Linux right there. I will agree that the Mac hardware is pretty dang slick and nice, but having the freedom to run my OS on the machine of my choice is a very important deciding factor in choosing which OS I will use. I also only have to mention virtualization and Apple loses out big-time there as it won’t allow OS X to be licensed to run in a virtualized environment (except for the server).
Native X11
I know that you can run X11-based applications on OS X, but what a pain in the butt. They’re slow to start, the keyboard options change and the window management is terrible. Seriously, run GIMP on a Mac and then use it on Linux. You won’t go back.
Tags: apple, linux, os x, ubuntu, virtualization
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Jul 31st, 2009
Five Apps That Are Keeping Me On OS X
I’ve been a Linux and OS X user for some time. Recently I’ve considered switching exclusively to Linux (Ubuntu specifically), but there’s a few applications that I need that are going to prevent me from doing so. If you’re a Mac user, be sure to check these applications out if you haven’t used them before as I find them invaluable.
Spotlight
Yes, I know that there are other multi-purpose search tools for Linux that have much more functionality, but none seem to be as fast or slick. Spotlight also integrates into other applications on my machine making it easy to search for applications, text in a document, text in an email, or even my web history very quickly and from one place.
Evernote
You can access Evernote in the browser, but it’s just not the same. The client in OS X does a great job of integrating with the iSight and
no matter how good the web app has gotten, it still can’t beat the thick client for speed and usability. The thick client also integrates with Spotlight (see above 
) which adds an even better experience with both applications.
1Password
I’d hate to see what would happen if I tried to survive without 1Password. Just having my saved logins accessible to multiple browsers is enough to make it worth buying this little app. If you’re using an iPhone or iPod Touch the deal gets even sweeter with syncing to your device as well, but I don’t have that luxury.
iChat
On the surface it’s just a Jabber client, but iChat goes beyond that to offer a slick screen and file sharing capability that is second to none. Sure, there’s other products out there that work ok, but none seem to be nearly as easy or convenient.
iPhoto
When it comes to photo management for consumers, iPhoto can’t be beaten. The application looks great and has the features you’d expect from any photo management software. It can manage events, albums, etc.. However, the integration with other applications in the iLife suite as well as a few new features in iPhoto make it unbeatable. With iPhoto 09, Apple introduced its face recognition technology to allow you to search through photos for pictures of an individual person. It also allows direct uploads to Facebook and Flickr, making it much easier to publish photos online for free.
Tags: apple, os x
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Jul 30th, 2009
Microsoft and Yahoo (Finally) Strike a Deal
The long, drawn-out game of “Deal or No Deal” between Microsoft and Yahoo! has finally come to an end. It’s been a long time coming, but the number two and three in the search engine market have finally joined forces in their fight against the dominant Google. The deal is not a buyout of Yahoo as past deals have been, but rather a sharing of technology and access to advertisers.
According to a CNN report, Yahoo will be using Microsoft’s search engine Bing underneath the hood to power its search engine while Yahoo will be focused on bringing in advertisers. Microsoft will then be sharing 88% of revenue from Yahoo’s searches and Microsoft will use existing search technology that Yahoo owns to integrate into its own platforms.
Microsoft has long been eyeing Yahoo as a take-over target, but both former CEO Jerry Yang and current CEO Carol Bartz stood against selling the company outright. Bartz reiterated her stance in May that their Yahoo’s search business was for sale for “boatloads” of money.
Yahoo has stated that the deal should increase its operating income by $500 million, allowing it to continue its other ventures without pouring money into search.
Tags: microsoft, yahoo
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Jul 29th, 2009
Deploying Linux Just Got Easy with SUSE Studio
Deploying Linux out to hundreds of desktops or as a downloadable appliance just became a really easy task to accomplish. I knew that Novell had a trick up their sleeve with SUSE Studio, but I had no idea how big it was until I tried it out today. They just brought the service out of beta today so I thought I’d try it out and was I ever surprised.
SUSE Studio is offered by Novell as an online service to build appliances for VMware, Xen, Live CDs, or disk images for deploying desktops, servers, or anything in between using your choice of openSUSE, SUSE Enterprise 10 or Enterprise 11. Seriously, you just pick the one you want:
Choose Machine Type
Just before the build, you can pick the type of deployment you want:
Choose Appliance Type
When building your image you can install whatever software you want from the repositories by searching or drilling down the interface through the categories.
Studio Package Management
You can upload files, run scripts after build or at bootup. You can manage network settings, add built-in users, and configure services.
Startup Scripts
General Settings
Simply choose the type of appliance you want to build and click the build button. In a few short minutes I had a working image. The best part is that you can boot up your image and test it out without even downloading it. They have a previewer that runs in the browser and is a fully-capable machine except that outbound networking is turned off (for obvious reasons).
Test Drive at Desktop
There’s lots of options and no way that I could mention them all. If you’re looking to deploy your application via Linux “appliances”, there’s not a better way than I can think of except offer an EC2 AMI, but that’s fairly limited if you are working with customers who have already deployed other virtualization offerings and aren’t looking to spend more money.
Tags: linux, novell, suse
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Jul 29th, 2009
Lose The Driver Disk, Install Linux!
I find it absolutely amazing how far Linux distros have come in the five or six short years that I’ve been using it. Anyone who uses Windows because they don’t want to fight driver problems in Linux hasn’t used a Linux distro in the last year or so. In fact, I had almost forgotten the horrid world that I had come from just a few years ago. I’ve been a bit disconnected from the desktop support world and had a brief encounter with reality.
A few weeks ago I found out that my parents-in-law wanting to replace their very old PC that they had in their basement. I think the machine got turned on once a month, if even that, so their requirements were very minimal. I happened to have a PC running at home that really was just burning electricity, but wasn’t a bad machine, so I volunteered it. After considering my options, I decided to take on the project with Ubuntu instead of Windows. I was a bit leery and made sure that I still had an old Windows XP license available just in case before I took on the project.
As soon as I got there, my wife’s sister handed me the USB wireless card they had been using. The first thing that popped into my head was “Crap, and I left my XP disks at home..”. Given my past experience with wireless networking in Linux, I was ready to give up before I started. Just to humor myself, I decided to plug it in. Voila! It detected the wireless card and was already asking me what wireless network I wanted to join! I couldn’t believe it. It was great. Every device they threw at me after and asked if I needed drivers disks for, I just proudly said “Nope” and kept on trucking.
Ever since that day, I’ve noticed how many times people cite driver installation and hardware support as reasons for choosing Windows. In my little experience (limited as it may have been), the trend was actually completely the opposite. I didn’t have to find my restore media. I didn’t have to install the drivers for the video card, sound card, or wireless card. I didn’t have to go searching around my filing cabinet for my Office license. Ubuntu “just worked”.
Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Jul 27th, 2009
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