Get Ready For PCLOS 2009

Much to the delight of the many users, the Ripper Gang has announced that the repositories will soon be unfrozen, and the updates for 2009 will be available.  The announcement can be seen here.  The “Big Update” is expected to take place the first weekend in February.  The new iso should be out sometime after that.

This update is a big one.  Expect to wait a couple of hours to download everything.  And, because this update includes a new kernel, it requires a reboot.  (Just about the only time you have to reboot a Linux system is when you update the kernel.)

I’ve been playing with 2009 TR5 on my laptop.  It  has been a joy to use, and I’m looking forward to running it on my main desktop.

vi – The editor of choice

This winter, my employer decided to radically change the way we support new customers.    Instead of building their telephony applications using a proprietary, in-house language, we will build them in (raw) VXML, using PHP as the ‘glue’ to put it all together.  (Of course, existing apps, whatever the language, will continue to be supported.)

This means, among other things, that an IDE, or at least an editor, must be decided on to ensure standardization throughout our development branch.  Enter Applications Engineering, my section.

Linux Isn’t Just Good Ideology — It’s Better Computing

“Windows programs love to make themselves the dominant monkey on your system, and like all dominant monkeys they fling poop: placing icons on your desktop and quick start menu, making themselves the default for whatever you want to do, and opening themselves up automatically. Load iTunes and at every startup you get hit in the face with QuickTime, a load of monkey dung in your system tray taking up resources whether you need it or (usually) not.”

John Deeth is a journalist who occasionally writes about computers. He is currently running a series about Software As A Subversive Activity.  The latest, Part 6, talks about the hows and whys that make Linux a better computing experience than Windows.

He does have one specific a little wrong, though.  When he says there are 40 known Linux viruses, vs. over 60000 Windows viruses, he is correct in fact, but doesn’t go quite deep enough.  While there are about 40 known Linux viruses, only a half-dozen have ever been found in the wild.  The remainder exist only in the lab, where they were written as proof-of-concept cases.  I would go so far as to challenge anyone to find any that are surviving/propagating in the wild, today.

Character Assassination Ain’t Us

The further story from helios.

Sounds like some of the readers went totally ballistic about this, without knowing all the facts.  While I was indignant about “Karen’s” email, I certainly would never dream of calling down such wrath as some of these.  Helios is a class act, too, and admits and apologizes for mistakes he made.

Linux – Stop Holding Our Kids Back!

I hope most of you are familiar with “helios”, and all he’s done for Linux.

This post, dated yesterday, is almost scary: Blog of helios.

To think that a teacher, who is responsible for helping children learn and grow, can be so out-of-touch with reality.  It saddens me.

Like one of the follow-on comments says, “I have rarely seen a worse, more damaging ignoramus….”

The Status of PCLinuxOS 2008/2009

Disclaimer: I am not intimately familiar with Tex or the dev team, but I do follow what goes on.  Sometimes information pops up in disparate locations, and I am just trying to integrate it into a whole.

First, we know that PCLOS-2008 never happened.

Giving it Away for Free

If any of you have ever created something as a labor of love, whether it’s a piece of fine furniture, a musical performance, or anything at all, you will understand.

Machiner, at debiantools.org, does: Giving it Away for Free.

Free? Or Freedom?

Linux (or Gnu/Linux, as RMS would have me say) is Free Software. That is to say, the Gnu tools, the Linux Kernel, and most of the rest of the software, is licensed under the GPL (the Gnu General Public License, sometimes called a copyleft), which is considered a “Free” license. (Technically, a given copy of the Linux kernel may not be entirely Free, as it may contain some proprietary binary “blobs” to aid in wireless network connectivity and certain video card drivers.) Indeed, several totally “Free” distros exist,and several popular distros also provide Free versions.

But what is Free Software?