It's been a while since my last post, I'm still here ofcourse. Something changed, I have bought an Apple PC - the delightful Mac Mini (2Ghz version).

A real beautiful piece of hardware, and ultra-quiet. MacOSX Leopard is very nice as well (don't worry, Ubuntu is installed using BootCamp), but I'm still in the learning phase GUI wise. The approach is different for some aspects, like keyboard commands and the handling of application windows.

You'll notice a lot of Gnome in MacOSX, while on the other hand you'll notice how much Gnome differs.

Anyway, most of the the time they try to make it so easy for you it's scary. Even when playing around with the shell it's almost plug-and-play wise. Do you have an NFS server available? automount is configured in such a way that you only have to use the following command to mount a remote drive:

ls|cd|whatever-cmd /net/nfs-server/share path

In the past Ubuntu had the Nvu HTML-editor in its repositories. Now I suddenly had to adjust some HTML pages and since the were previously made with Nvu (call me lazy) I wanted to edit them in that tool again. To my surprise it was no longer in the gnome menu or the repositories.

After looking around, I discovered that KompoZer is in fact an independent continued developed version of Nvu. Although it starts with a 'K' it is no KDE app, it is really the same tool but more stable and less bugs.

It's 2008! And the things that I will remember from 2007 concerning Linux are the following:

• Dell is selling hardware with Linux on it (Ubuntu). This was not the first time, but this time they are not keeping it a secret.
• AMD/ATI is releasing specifications and open source drivers for their 3D cards, amazing.
• Lots of Linux based devices being released, and doing well in sales (EEE, gPC, etc.)
  

The best games of last year are:

• Wii: 'Resident Evil 4' I bought SMG and MP3 but haven't played them yet simply because RE4 was so good.
• DS: 'Final Fantasy 3' Sure it didn't get very high scores in most reviews, but as a FF fanatic and RPG lover it was one of the best things on the faithful handheld last year.

What was worth watching on TV this year, only one thing and it was:

• 'Heroes' I used to read (imported) Marvel comics, what more need I say?

Best distro of 2007 goes to:

• 'Ubuntu', although they have to continue the innovation pace and keep their eyes open of other distros that use Ubuntu as a base to build something better on (like Ubuntu does with Debian).

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.

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 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.

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.