Could Dell be moving to be more like Apple? Ofcourse they will not be using OSX, but rather Linux and more specific Ubuntu. It would be based on Ubuntu, it would not be the same thing but something of their own.
Yes, it will probably at least take a few years before they ever get to this point but can't you imagine it happening?
They are selling Dell hardware with Linux pre-installed, they are already adding little changes here and there and adding software to it. How long will it take before it is no longer Ubuntu as we know it, but truly something from their own?
Dell gets a lot of community effort so they can focus on some specific details of their OS, while we get easy access to 100% supported hardware in return.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Hey Matthew, What do you see? Matthew Szulik is leaving Red Hat and is being replaced by Jim Whitehurst. That was the biggest news for me since a while, it really took me by surprise. Red Hat was the first distro to get me into Linux; it was the one that made me a full time user. I tried others, very weird and now unknown distros like Yggdrasil, but they never stuck.
The previous CEO's at RH all carried the OSS philosophy with them, they were technical capable and although there have been some interesting strategy changes, they always stayed very 'open'. I don't know what his replacement might do or how his views differ from Matthews. Interesting times are ahead.
The previous CEO's at RH all carried the OSS philosophy with them, they were technical capable and although there have been some interesting strategy changes, they always stayed very 'open'. I don't know what his replacement might do or how his views differ from Matthews. Interesting times are ahead.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
The folks at OS2 World are organizing a second petition to IBM to open up parts of the OS/2 system. You can add your name to the petition list if you like this idea. At least, try read the petition page to understand what they want to achieve with this.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Last week I was able to get some hands-on with a PS3. A wonderful machine in its own right ofcourse, but I still got myself a Wii because I really believed in the concept. For me Nintendo was doing all the right things since the release of the DS (Which I also own).
Ofcourse the graphics were crisp, vast and highly detailed, but the controls were lacking on the PS3. It's totally amazing, but after a year of Wii action I couldn't even handle a PlayStation controller anymore in a decent way to keep my character alive in the game.
When I owned a PS2, there were some games that always seemed troublesome to me, like the famous GTA3. And this was confirmed when the PC versions was released and all the reviewers lauded the mouse based controls.
It must be said that some game are still excellent control wise, like GT, no problems there.
Ofcourse the graphics were crisp, vast and highly detailed, but the controls were lacking on the PS3. It's totally amazing, but after a year of Wii action I couldn't even handle a PlayStation controller anymore in a decent way to keep my character alive in the game.
When I owned a PS2, there were some games that always seemed troublesome to me, like the famous GTA3. And this was confirmed when the PC versions was released and all the reviewers lauded the mouse based controls.
It must be said that some game are still excellent control wise, like GT, no problems there.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Previously on Ubuntu I has been using Qemu as a means to virtualize running PC sessions. This worked pretty well, and in Feisty the kernel module was available from the repositories (although, unfortunately not compiled). In Gutsy, you get something better. VirtualBox is now available straight from the Ubuntu servers, just start up Synaptic and search for the 'virtaulbox-ose' package, select it and you will get the kernel driver with it.
For people in the dark, VirtualBox is beautified Qemu. It's more user friendly thanks to the included GUI and some patches that are not in the Qemu versions.
After the download and install complete, you will need to add all people that need access to VM's through VirtualBox to the virtualbox user group (quickly done through the 'users & groups' tool from the 'Systems/Administration' menu). The kernel module is added automatically to the 'modules.conf' file so there is nothing left to worry about.
VirtualBox is great, it allowed me to run OpenSolaris (which was not possible in Qemu). Ofcourse any Windows release works just as well (and fast!), ideal for the rare desktop application that won't work in 'wine'. For me it's a great tool to test several Linux/Unix distributions without too much hassle.
One thing that VirtualBox seems lacking appears to be USB support, this could be one last reason to keep on using Qemu after all.
For people in the dark, VirtualBox is beautified Qemu. It's more user friendly thanks to the included GUI and some patches that are not in the Qemu versions.
After the download and install complete, you will need to add all people that need access to VM's through VirtualBox to the virtualbox user group (quickly done through the 'users & groups' tool from the 'Systems/Administration' menu). The kernel module is added automatically to the 'modules.conf' file so there is nothing left to worry about.
VirtualBox is great, it allowed me to run OpenSolaris (which was not possible in Qemu). Ofcourse any Windows release works just as well (and fast!), ideal for the rare desktop application that won't work in 'wine'. For me it's a great tool to test several Linux/Unix distributions without too much hassle.
One thing that VirtualBox seems lacking appears to be USB support, this could be one last reason to keep on using Qemu after all.
Thursday, November 08, 2007

You know the one classic question in Linux on how to get a list of all the hardware of the machine, and the answer is to compile the output of several '/proc' entries and several 'lsusb|pci|*' commands. There is another nice tool, now available in the latest Ubuntu - lshw. Packages are available for both command and graphical environments (it will put itself in the 'Systems/Preferences' menu in Gnome).
I really recommend you give it a try to get a better and cleaner view on your systems hardware then supplied by 'HAL Device Manager', which is supplied by default.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
By default Ubuntu is missing some packages that enable you to watch dvd or encode mp3 files and other every day necessities (at least, according to some people). Gutsy has a new package available called 'ubuntu-restricted-extras'. This meta-package will install all these things for you, it contains:
gstreamer ugly/bad plugins, MS fonts, Java 6, unrar, flash 9, LAME and dvdread.
gstreamer ugly/bad plugins, MS fonts, Java 6, unrar, flash 9, LAME and dvdread.
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