November 2007 Archives

Preliminary findings in my gOS vs. the world test indicate that Enlightenment uses more CPU -- and seems slower -- than Xfce and Fluxbox.

I'm not even prepared to say that Enlightenment is lighter or quicker than GNOME.

Let me repeat: Enlightenment looks nice, is different but is not easy on CPU, memory or graphics.

From Linux Journal, the state of Unix on the "IBM PC," circa 1986.

From the Phil Hughes article:

While what I am writing here may sound like humor, it actually is real. That is, it is about what has happened in the last 20 years. That article was about the beginning of the revolution. Our "real" computer in the office was a Codata 3300 which featured an 8MHz 68000 processor, 750KB of RAM and a 27MB hard disk. What did it cost? About 16 thousand 1984 dollars.

In those 20+ years, the price of 1000 times as much hardware has dropped to one tenth the cost of the Codata and the cost of a UNIX-like operating system has dropped to almost zero while the capabilities have expanded possibly one thousand fold like the hardware. In any case, on to the article.

First, lets look at the hardware requirements. Here is what I said in the article.

"To get going with a PC-based Unix system, the minimum hardware requirements are an IBM or compatible machine with at least 256K RAM, one floppy disk drive, and a 10-Mbyte hard disk."

And that was 21 years ago. I imagine today's systems will be similarly arcane 21 years hence.

While my answer is yes, others think differently, including this guy from InformationWeek.

Here are the first two paragraphs:

It is inarguably accurate to note that, while Linux is a success on the server side--Apache on Linux runs more Web sites than Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s ISS, though the latter is gaining--the open-source operating system has been a dismal failure on the desktop. There are at least seven solid reasons, which I'll detail below, why Linux hasn't moved the needle beyond a single-digit desktop market share since it hit the scene in 1991, and never will.

Desktop Linux's failure to launch is all the more mystifying when you consider that it's hard to think of any technology which has been backed by such an enthusiastic and committed group of supporters. Unfortunately, that boost has largely backfired.

On the contrary, I think the relative simplicity, sheer usability and security, as well as cost and lack of vendor lock-in will all work to slowly push more and more businesses and home users into the Linux camp.

With free, open-source applications like Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, the GIMP and others being ported to Windows and Mac architectures, users who have never worked on anything but a closed, proprietary operating system will be using FOSS for the first time, and that's a small step over to making the rest of their system FOSS as well.

And while projects like Ubuntu are doing so much to bring Linux to the more "casual" user, I predict that an easier-than-ever Linux (call it "Linux for Dummies," if you'd like), be it Ubuntu or some other yet-to-be released distro, will cause a major stir in the computer world and shift a sizable percentage of desktops away from Windows and to free, open solutions.

And as I've also said before, Linux is right now the most likely candidate, but the next popular OS could very well be something we've never seen -- a new project cooking in somebody's head that attacks the problem of the personal computer operating system in a whole new way.

It very well could, according to Ars Technica via Information Week.

... it all has to do with the way dual-core and the new quad-core processors work. Check it out (it's a PDF).

MS Office 2008 for Macintosh will sync with the iPhone.

So you'll be able to do a PowerPoint presentation anywhere, anytime, on a teeny screen! OK ... you can plug the iPhone directly into the projector with the proper Apple AV cable.

Love or hate the iPhone, it's the future of computing. We'll all be carrying around something similar within the next 10 years.

I don't always have luck with Ubuntu and its many offshoots. Sometimes the alternate-install CD works where the live CD doesn't. I'm trying to fill out a drive that now has gOS 1.0.1 and Wolvix Hunter 1.1.0 on it with a third distro for comparison purposes.

I tried the Xubuntu Gutsy live CD. It booted fine. I still didn't have panels (a problem that seems to affect some machines and not others ... and which cropped up in 7.04 but has not been dealt with as of 7.10). I went all the way to the "copy files" part of the install, where the installer died. I could've done my "install 6.10 and upgrade" method of getting Xubuntu on this box, the Maxspeed Maxterm thin client (VIA C3 Samuel CPU), but I didn't feel like it.

So I returned to my old friend, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. I did the install -- it crashed once (I think I did more partitioning than the installer could handle in one pass) but ran fine the second time. I'm doing 173 updates right now ... and that will take the rest of the day.

I don't know if its just me and a view skewed by when I discovered Ubuntu, but I think of 6.06 and the first LTS as a very significant release for Ubuntu. Sure the system has gotten better and better in the three subsequent releases, but having the system working at this high level and supporting it for three years is very big. 6.06 also marked the first release of Xubuntu. I still think 7.04 is the best Xubuntu, at least for my hardware, but I'm pretty impressed with the current Ubuntu 7.10 on my Gateway Solo 1450 laptop. Besides the working ACPI management of the noisy fan, the option to turn off tap-to-click on the Alps Glidepad (aka touchpad) makes 7.10 the best distro for this laptop thus far. Not that I don't boot into Debian Etch most of the time (I can handle the tap-to-click, even though I wish Debian would allow me to turn it off). That and Puppy 3.00, for which I've now managed the noisy fan quite nicely with a cron job. I could easily port that job over to ... just about anything ... and have a lot more freedom on what I run on the laptop.

And I had another strange thing happen with Zenwalk 4.8. The live CD boots fine on the converted thin client, but the install CD won't boot. Yes, I checked the CD; it boots on other boxes. And with Zenwalk, you can't install from the live CD, so I'm out of luck as far as Zen goes.

I had a short Wolvix piece ready to go, but I held it back to work in it a little more. I really like Wolvix thus far. The install is clear, although the GRUB entry it generated for gOS was less than ideal. It won't be a problem to fix it, though. I'll see how Ubuntu 6.06 handles GRUB.

Wolvix runs very nice. It's got that great Xfce snappiness. One thing kind of bothered me, though. Firefox took a little longer to load than in other distros. And after FF was loaded and closed, it didn't load any quicker after that. That's why I need to do some a-b-c testing on the same box. If I find that the FF load time is normal, my love for Wolvix will grow. Once Firefox is loaded, however, it runs as well as or better than anything else I've slapped on this box. And I love the default install's inclusion of Fluxbox in addition to Xfce. The implementation of Fluxbox is as good as or better than Vector Linux's.

Thus far, Wolvix is one of the easiest-to-install Slackware-based distributions I've seen so far. And I really like the software choices. The Hunter version offers more software than the smaller Cub, and it's a nice mix overall. Light and heavy browsers, image editors, and word processors. I hate to see a "light" system ship with OpenOffice and the GIMP. At least Wolvix helps you out with AbiWord, Gnumeric and MtPaint.

Our server can be slow, but I have a trick for all you Movable Type 4 users.

Instead of publishing your entry immediately, schedule it for a future time instead. Even a minute or two in the future is OK.

Under Publishing at the bottom of your Create Entry screen, make your status "Scheduled."

For Publish Date, you can leave it as is or retype a date in the future (click on the little calendar icon to select a date without clicking). For time, set it as far in the future as you wish. The time is handled in 24-hour mode, so for times after 12 noon, you have to think in military time (13:00:00 for 1 p.m., for example).

So I'm chatting with Tom Gapen, Mac guru, about our work-supplied XP boxes (both Dell Optiplex GX520), his with an add-on graphics card and more RAM, mine with the stock 512 MB. Both have 80 GB hard drives.

We're talking about Windows XP SP3 and how talk is that it will deliver a 10-percent performance boost.

I say, "I've got a lot of crap on my hard drive -- and it's slowing down. I probably have to defrag it. You probably don't have as much crap on yours as I do."

So we go to My Computer, right-click on the C: drive and click on Properties. He's got about 20 GB left.

I figure I've got about the same amount. So I go to my box and do the same thing.

Turns out I've only got 2.85 GB left out of 80 GB. All those Linux and BSD ISOs are really starting to build up. It's probably time to start culling the herd.

First I'll do a Disk Cleanup. It says I will gain 454,722 K of space. Time to dump a bunch of stuff.

Update: Now I've got 3.21 GB of free disk space. Time for housecleaning. I must have 60 Linux and BSD ISOs. At an average 600 MB each, that's a lot of disk space. I kind of don't want to give them up ... but there are probably quite a few I can let go of.

Via Denny's Blog, I found a link to bsdtalk, which features podcasts on ... BSD. I'm especially interested in this interview with Richard Stallman, who created the GNU project. The mp3 link is only a preface to the actual interview, which Stallman requested be distributed in an open-source, non-proprietary format only.

Here's a guy dedicated to using OpenBSD on the desktop ... and building every little bit of it himself. It looks way, way too hard, but if you want a geeky challenge, following in his footsteps might just be a good idea.

Me? I don't have it in me.

Here's Denny in a sample post:

Who says you can't do desktop with OpenBSD? Of course, this took several months to accomplish. Long nights of sweating buckshot on the keyboard, reading books and mailing list archives, googling, asking questions and being told to RTFM. ;) But, things aren't too bad at this point. Got sound with xmms and mp3blaster playing all my oldies. I can make my own iso images and burn cds. I can print across my LAN to either one of my other printers. I got BitTorrent working and regularly download BSD and Linux iso images. Know how to update my source code and my system, along with how to tweak my kernel. All users have automated nightly backups to external storage using rsync in cronjobs. The list goes on. Happy OpenBSD camper at this point! ;)

I, truly, am not worthy. And I'm not so sure it's a bad thing.

Seriously, I admire this kind of dedication. Out of this kind of thing, new distros are born (hint: I'd love to see a DesktopBSD-type project built on OpenBSD).

gOS installed successfully on the Maxspeed Maxterm converted thin client -- yeah, it took all day -- but the install has failed twice so far on the $0 Laptop, the Gateway Solo 1450 that currently dual-boots Ubuntu 7.10 and Debian Etch 4.0.

It freezes during the early part of the install. So Ubuntu Gutsy installs fine, but the Gutsy-based gOS does not. I will try again in a few days.

My recent experience with gOS has taught me a few things:

-- There is no way to configure a network connection, except at the command line.
-- Very few apps come with gOS. The system is built around the Firefox browser and icons that serve as Web links to mostly Google-owned sites. The concept is simple and smart.
-- You can add as many Ubuntu apps as you want through Add/Delete Programs, Synaptic or apt.
-- I like the Enlightenment window manager; I'd like to test it against Xfce and Fluxbox at some point.
-- gOS is at release 1.0.1. It's nowhere near as polished as the Ubuntu system on which it's based. That means there's room for improvement.

gOS is a different Linux distribution, no doubt about it. Some would call it stripped down, others might say streamlined. But is it more appropriate for novice users? I'm not so sure. Is it a better choice than Ubuntu, Xubuntu or Debian? Again, I'm not sure.

It took all day, literally, to get gOS on my test machine. I used the Gparted that came on the live CD, and it's the version of the partitioning utility that takes forever to scan the drives. I repartitioned the entire drive, leaving space for gOS and two distros to be named later. I figured out how to set a static IP while in the live CD environment, and the settings surprisingly stuck after the install. They didn't work, however. I had to comment out all the other interface information in /etc/network/interfaces and then restart the network.

Way too hackish for Ubuntu. And way, way, way too hackish for a OS designed for people who've never used Linux before. I've never had to get this deep into the console with a Ubuntu install. Of course, if you have a dynamic IP, you'll escape all of this.

Now I'm doing the first software update -- 55 items. I'm gonna let it run and get the hell out of here. It's Friday after Thanksgiving, after all.

Go here for a great list of traditional (read: expensive) commercial software and the free, open-source programs you can use instead. The Webi page includes links to the home pages of all the FOSS (free, open-source software) programs it cites.

Two I plan to try are Cinepaint and Paint.NET, both image editors.

Many of my favorite apps are missing -- but the fact that there are enough FOSS apps that you can miss a bunch and still have a credible list is a very good thing.

Still, what's nice about this list is that it includes apps for Mac, Windows and Linux. I've always said that the best way to experience open-source is to do it on the OS you already know. Then the transition to a free, open-source OS like Linux will not be so daunting.

Free, open-source software is important for many reasons, but one of the biggest for me is that it enables me to compute with a clear conscience. Let's be real, most of us are using PCs with pirated software. Even if Microsoft Office, Photoshop and what have you are made by big corporations who charge many hundreds of dollars for their products, that's still no justification for stealing them. I feel a lot better using software that's meant to be free -- and freely modified, as are all FOSS programs.

And remember, you can't have freedom without "free" in the first place.

The power of free, open-source software is everywhere. Even in Amazon's new Kindle e-book reader:

Linux on Amazon's Kindle e-book reader

Kindle powered by Linux

In keeping with the GPL license that governs GNU/Linux, anybody modifying the code must, in turn release its source code, as Amazon has done here.

Other huge things that use Linux: Google's new Android cell-phone operating system, and our beloved TiVo.

And you might not know that Apple's OS X is powered by BSD, a descendant of Unix. The licenses that govern the various BSD distributions are different than those for Linux, and companies that modify BSD are not bound to release their source code. Hence, OS X is not open-source. Perhaps the ability to keep the system closes influenced Apple's decision to go with BSD instead of Linux when it was developing OS X. I say "perhaps" because I have no idea.

The folks who are developing gOS -- the Ubuntu-derived Linux distribution for the $199 Everex PC being sold at Wal-Mart -- have a few things to fix.

It's very clear that gOS and the Everex are meant for home use with an Ethernet connection. I haven't tried it with wireless since I don't have a wireless-capable box that it would work on, but I do have to set wired static IP address regularly at the Daily News.

But in gOS, there's no GUI or text-based utility for network configuration.

Not a good thing.

But since I've set a static IP at the console about a dozen times lately, I'm growing accustomed to it. Will the new-to-Linux user be able to do this? Or want to? Hell no.

At any rate, if you need to configure a static IP in gOS 1.0.1, here's how. Start with this n.great Ubuntu Geek explanation.

I usually do the commands individually, but editing these two configuration files is a better way, I think:

You need to use a terminal window and text editor. And since root is not enabled in Ubuntu, you also need the sudo command to invoke rootly privileges. Vi is always available, but most systems -- Ubuntu and gOS included -- also offer nano. Remember, in nano you save your file by hitting F3 and then Enter. To exit nano, hit CTRL-x.

(I tend to use nano because it's easier than vi, and if I spent six hours a day at the console, I'd probably use vi, but since I don't, nano matches the way I work in a GUI that much more.)

Back to the configuration. First edit /etc/network/interfaces:

To open a terminal in gOS, right-click with the mouse and go to Applications - System Tools - UXterm

That opens a terminal window.

At the $ prompt (it may consist of different words but will end in $) type:

ubuntu@Ubuntu:~$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Find your network interface. If you've ever configured an IP address in Linux before with a GUI interface, you probably know what your interface is called. My Ethernet interface is eth0. Chances are yours is, too, but it may be different.

In gOS, go to this part of the file:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Comment out the second line by putting a # in front of it. That makes your system "ignore" the line. You can always remove the # sign later and comment out the OTHER lines if you need to change back to a dynamic IP (the kind you usually have with a home DSL modem).

auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp

Now add a new line after the commented-out line (the one with the #) and add the information for your static IP connection, which you might know from previous configurations, your ISP (if you have a static IP connection, of course) or from the geek who administers your network. Remember, these numbers are for demonstration purposes; add the numbers provided to you by your network administrator (or which you already know), or it won't work:

auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.9.200.200
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.9.200.255
gateway 192.9.200.254

(Note: the original tutorial from which I adapted this calls for a "network" address in the configuration. That's a parameter I don't need, so I didn't include it here. Also, the "broadcast" address might not be needed, either, but in my case I know it, so I included it here. Your configuration may vary, but this is definitely the place it lives in Debian, Ubuntu and all those distros derived from them).

We still have one thing to do: setting the nameservers.

It's in another configuration file -- /etc/resolv.conf -- that we can access from the terminal with a text editor:

ubuntu@Ubuntu:~$ sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

I don't seem to need a search address, but it you have it, you can put it in the file along with the addresses of your DNS servers. Add these lines to /etc/resolv.conf:

search search.com
nameserver 192.9.200.7
nameserver 192.9.200.4

Save the file (F3 and Enter in nano) and exit (CTRL-x).

Then restart your network:

ubuntu@Ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

If you need more information (and who doesn't?), here's a great tutorial -- probably better than this one -- on how to take a Ubuntu box from dynamic IP to static IP. For more complicated setups, this page may help. Hey, that nixCraft site is pretty good.

Editorial commentary: Ubuntu has a great utility that lets you configure dynamic or static IPs and quickly switch between them -- say if you have a laptop and use it at home and at work (like I do). Why gOS doesn't have this utility (or why I can't seem to find it) is beyond me. The developers should add it -- or something even easier to work with -- at the earliest opportunity. I know "real geeks" always configure their networking from the command line, but nobody should have to, especially in a distribution that's meant for first-time Linux users who aren't necessarily technically savvy. I know that Windows doesn't make configuring a static IP any easier than your average Linux distro, but a GUI app like those in Ubuntu or Debian, or the great netconfig utility in Slackware is a MUST. All you really need to do is add in the network configuration utility from Ubuntu. Just get it done, gOS people.

I didn't know that gOS -- the free Ubuntu Linux-based operating system that runs on the $199 Everex box available at Wal-Mart -- is made by a Los Angeles-based company. I will be calling on them.

And for those who've been trying to download an ISO of gOS, either in its full form or as a bit torrent, now there are a few mirrors taking the pressure off of the overwhelmed gOS server. As a result, I'm downloading it now. I don't know if I'll be here long enough to actually burn the CD (it's the day before Thanksgiving, if you must know why), but I'll soon be doing a test like this one from Extreme Tech: gOS Unboxed: Should Microsoft Worry?

Also on the gOS Web site, I don't know who Faizon Love is, but they're making a big deal out of this YouTube video:

Since I'm also making a big deal out of it, I can't really say much.

Update: Faizon Love is an actor.

I just ambled over to the Dell site and looked for Linux and no-OS PCs. It's no secret that most of what they sell over there must be purchased with Windows and includes MS Works instead of Linux, FreeDOS or my favorite, nothing (and not the better-than-Works OpenOffice), allowing me to throw my own OS on the box.

Now don't get me wrong, I think that Dell's efforts to offer Ubuntu on consumer boxes and Red Hat Enterprise Linux on business desktops is huge.

But there's nothing to compete on the low end with Wal-Mart's $199 Everex Linux box. And you still can't get any Dell box you want with any OS you want. Non-Windows choices are very limited.

I hope this changes. Whether it's Ubuntu, RHEL or something else, you should be able to buy any Dell product with the OS of your choice. Linux is that far along. When Dell, HP, Lenovo or whoever decides to go in that direction, then we'll be getting somewhere.

I don't know if it's the box itself, my experience running it, or "other," but the XP box (Dell Optiplex GX520, Pentium 4 processor at 3 GHz, 512 MB RAM) is starting to slow down.

I can't switch between windows as quickly, there's a lot of disk accessing going on, and it's just not as good of an experience as I remember.

It could be that I've been using it for more than two years now, and I don't have administrator privileges on it. That means I can't use the disk tools to defragment the hard drive, which I suspect would clear up the problem considerably. As would a total reinstall of Windows.

But here we're not even allowed to back up our hard drives. We can only back up what we can fit on CDs, and I have MUCH more than that. Of course most of that is Linux and BSD ISO files, which I don't really "need," as most are already burned to CD or can be downloaded again.

But since I don't have access to my own on-board tools -- and believe me, there's nobody here doing any kind of preventive maintenance whatsoever -- I'll just have to live with it.

If only Windows had a filesystem (like those in Linux, BSD and the BSD-based Apple OS X) that wasn't prone to fragmentation. Vista was supposed to get one, but it didn't happen in time. And can you imagine how much louder the complaining would be if people had a whole new, non-NTFS filesystem to deal with. They had enough problem going from FAT to NTFS.

But Windows -- and computers in general -- desperately need better (read: quicker and more reliable) filesystems. There's just too much data loss and corruption going on out there for it to be any other way. New CPUs, greater amounts of memory, faster graphics systems ... it all pales in the face of filesystems that need to grow in size, function and, again, sheer reliability as we go forward.

Turns out Amazon is tapped out when it comes to $399 Kindle e-book readers. But you are encouraged to order now "to reserve your place in line," as they are shipped on a first-come, first-served basis.

More Kindles are expected to be in stock Dec. 3.

And whether it's a hit or a dud, I'm pretty sure that the Kindle is going to be a huge gift item for the voracious reader in the family, even at $399. At that price, why not throw in 10 books for an extra $100?

Here are some Kindle stats from Amazon:

Product Overview

* Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
* Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
* Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
* Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
* More than 88,000 books available, including 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.
* New York Times® Best Sellers and all New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
* Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
* Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
* Top international newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland; Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
* More than 250 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN's Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post—all updated wirelessly throughout the day.
* Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.
* Holds over 200 titles.
* Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.
* Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.
* No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.
* Includes free wireless access to the planet's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.
* Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.

And watch these Amazon videos (they really, really want you to buy this thing):

Kindle overview
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on the Kindle
Author Toni Morrison on the Kindle
Ex-Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki on the Kindle
Uber-best-seller James Patterson on the Kindle
Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler on the Kindle

(Hey, those Amazon videos are way clearer than YouTube's.)

What's the common denominator? Everybody wants to make a buck with this thing.

For me, the things about it that are game-changing aren't it's ability to store 200 full books and have a "paper-like" screen. I've seen Sony's version of this very same product, and it didn't impress me. The screen ain't all that great. It'll get better ... in five years.

But what is unique is its wireless capability. You can bring down content -- books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, and who knows what else -- wirelessly, just about anywhere you are that has Sprint cell-phone service or Wi-Fi Internet, and you don't need a computer with which to do it. There's also a little keyboard -- not a great keyboard, but a keyboard nonetheless. Other things that make the Kindle attractive include its adjustable text size -- every book can become a large-print edition instantly. Does it have text-to-speech for the sight-impaired? I'd like to see that feature. The Kindle does play audiobooks and music, though.

The backing of the world's largest book retailer is nothing to sneeze at. Without Amazon, this wouldn't be happening with the hugeness that it currently enjoys. In that respect, it's got even more of a chance to succeed than Apple's iPod did when it first came out and nobody wanted to sell digital songs for 99 cents each. And we all know how that turned out.

And you can access Wikipedia with the Kindle. Web browsing is still classified as an "experimental" feature, but the Kindle does have it (and here's how to activate it). And the Web software can only get better.

So am I changing my mind about the Kindle? I'm not the best predictor about what will be huge, but just as Netflix is moving toward what its company name suggests -- flicks over the Net -- so too will Amazon be moving away from a physical-book model to the electronic equivalent. It may not happen this decade, but that sort of thing will be happening, and Amazon is smart to get out in front and innovate.

For the Kindle, it's all about pricing. I never thought the iPod would catch on until they cost $50 each, and even the cheapest Apple-branded music player costs more than that. I was wrong there. Of course the fact that they sound and work great is one thing, the 99-cent songs are another. Steve Jobs may be working the mock-turtleneck too hard, but he is a flippin' genius.

Is the $9.99 book the equivalent of the 99-cent song? I hope Jeff Bezos has done some extensive market research. This crazy, ahead-of-its-time idea just might work. Now that I'm 40-something and live in a normal house, I don't have room for new books -- my space is maxed out. Electronic books that are this convenient may be just the thing for me. There are already publishers selling PDF-format books as well as online-subscription-based books (my technology favorite O'Reilly being one, with its Safari service being a GREAT deal for tech books to be read online). But tech books go great on the computers that they help us use, and "real" books need more flexibility.

Enter Kindle, stage left, I suppose. One thing Bezos has going for him: it's the holiday season, and as many of these damn things he can make, he'll sell.

Here are some recent Click entries that don't have a lot to do with me installing Linux-based system software:

I have two items (here and here) I did last night on the new Kindle electronic reading device being pushed by Amazon. On the cover of Newsweek this week, the $399 Kindle is being touted as "the next iPod," or "the iPod for books, magazines and newspapers" (yes, the New York Times is available by subscription) It could be huge, but it might not be ready -- or priced -- for prime time. I try to cut through the hype.

And I have my choice as the BEST free photo-editing software for Windows (I've been using it for LA.com images, and it's better than even Photoshop for that purpose).

Look at this pointer to a YouTube video in which Google co-founder and gazillionaire Sergey Brin discusses Google's new Android cell-phone operating system (which should knock the iPhone on its ass by the middle of next year):

If you don't know what the latest thing in servers is, see my roundup of recent news on "cloud computing," in which the vast server farms of Amazon and soon IBM are/will be converted into virtual computing environments, with virtual servers being rented out "from the cloud" to businesses that want what looks and acts like a dedicated server -- running all the applications a server can run -- but is not in the company's back room and instead is built and maintained by these huge companies. Yes, they rent them by the hour:

And there's also my coverage of Wal-Mart's new $199 desktop computer that DOESN'T use Windows (here and here).

Since it's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving today, and nobody's shopping for nothing, Fry's is having it's Pre-Thanksgiving Day Sale, with the usual flurry of "1 Day Only" specials.

So if you've been holding out on some stuff, today is the perfect day to get there EARLY (it's already open) for the best deals:

Toshiba laptop with Intel Pentium Dual Core T2310 processor, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB hard drive, double-layer DVD writer, 15.4-inch screen, wireless, $499

Toshiba laptop with AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core TK-55 processor, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB hard drive, double-layer DVD writer, wireless, $599

Compaq Presario desktop with Intel Celeron D 420 processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive, DVD writer, AND 17-inch LCD monitor, $399 after rebate.

And for the person with money to burn: HP Pavilion Elite Media Center TV M9040 Desktop PC with Intel Core 2 QUAD Q6600 processor, 3 GB RAM, two (yes, two) 320 GB hard drives and DVD writer for $999 after rebates. (Note: I'd NEVER buy this, but it's great for gamers and people with money to burn).

If you've only got a few bucks, a 50-pack of CD-R discs is $4 (I'll be picking this up), a 2 GB A-Data brand Compact Flash memory card is $12.99 (I'll be getting this, too), a 2 GB SD flash memory card from A-Data is $4.99 after rebate, 2 GB of DDR2 PC6400 desktop RAM (also A-Data) is $27.99 after rebate, 2 GB of DDR2 PC5400 SO-DIMM laptop RAM is $14.99 after rebate ...

In short, just GET THE AD and see what you need/want and get over there already.

Fry's: where a kid can be a kid (or something to that effect).

Jeff Bezos of Amazon wants to change the world with the Kindle, the e-book reader he's pushing hard with all that money he's got. He also wants to make more money.

Books for $9.99 each sound pretty enticing. You can also subscribe to magazines and newspapers on the Kindle. I don't know how good the graphics look, but I do know the thing's only black and white at this point.

As I said previously, what sets the Kindle apart is its wireless capability. You can download content from just about anywhere (it connects to both cell-phone and Wi-Fi networks).

If the iPod did this (and the iPhone and that other touchscreen iPod whose name escapes me do this with music, I believe), it would be another big deal. But just as having Apple being the dominant (and nearly sole) seller of music isn't all that good of an idea, having Amazon be the dominant (and nearly sole) seller of books, magazines and the like might not be all that good either. OK, so Amazon is already the dominant seller of books. They totally kill on price -- we all know that.

But back to blogs. Amazon will sell -- and yes, I do mean sell you blogs on the Kindle. Even BoingBoing, one of my favorites, is on board. The charge? $1.99 per month. And the content is pushed wirelessly to your Kindle.

Just wait a freakin' minute. $1.99 per blog per month? It'll either be the beginning of a whole new revenue stream for bloggers ... or one of the stupidest ideas ever know to electronically minded wo/man (see that use of "wo/man"? My UC Santa Cruzian roots are showing).

Bezos needs to take a tip from Apple and uber-black-mock-turtled genius Steve Jobs who smartly offers podcasts FOR FREE but charges for others stuff like songs.

You will. It's the "new" electronic e-book reader that Amazon is pushing -- and just in time for the holiday season. I've heard a little squack about it but didn't see it until the Newsweek with the Kindle and Amazon's Jeff Bezos arrived in the mail today.

Here's Amazon's Kindle page.

I was disappointed to find out that the thing looks like a slightly juiced up version of Sony's e-book reader, which I found to be very uninspiring. Yes, the screen technology is new, but in my opinion it's not quite "there" yet. Not bright enough, not enough contrast, not clear enough, not fast enough, not detailed enough. Maybe in a few generations, but it's not ready yet.

Quick interlude time ... This guy has one.

Back to it. I've seen the Sony reader at Fry's and the Sony store, and, as I say, I'm not wowed by it.

But Amazon ups the ante. And the price. The thing costs $399. The same as an iPod used to. Now I would've never predicted that people would go for iPods at those prices six or so short years ago, but they most certainly did, and Steve Jobs and Apple have changed the face of the music industry with the device. Jeff Bezos clearly thinks the Kindle will do the same thing for the printed word. He's got the money to make it happen; he's also got the attention of the major (and minor) publishers, and all new books are selling for $9.95 each. That's a good price in the era of the $25 and $30 best seller. But ... the screen of the Kindle is still black and white only (future models will be color) and, as I said, it doesn't look as nice as a real book.

But what the Kindle does have going for it is wireless. You can buy a book with your Kindle from just about everywhere. It works on the EVDO wireless-phone network AND traditional Wi-Fi. So you can indulge your book jones just about anywhere. It could be the thing that lifts publishing out of its many-years-in-the-making doldrums, or put the final nail in its coffin.

Other Kindle controversies: The whole digital-rights management thing (you can't get your e-books OUT of the Kindle ...), writers and publishers balking (unless their royalties stay the same) and potential hackability.

I just kind of stumbled upon this one: FreeBSD, the Unknown Giant. Writer Gerard van Essen works on PC-BSD, so there's plenty on his blog about that distro as well as DesktopBSD and FreeSBIE.

This is one I've got to remember to put in a blogroll, should I ever get around to creating one.

The $0 Laptop's fan isn't going on any more -- in fact, it barely goes on at all in Knoppix 5.1.1, and I've been monitoring the CPU temperature, which is staying in the 56 to 60 degrees C range.

On a recent session in Ubuntu 7.10, the CPU temp hit 70 regularly. And the fan went on a lot more often. (See update below.)

Next: How does the laptop CPU temp vary in Debian Etch.

And did I mention what a pleasure it is to run Knoppix?

Update:> I ran Ubuntu tonight, all night, and the $0 Laptop maintained a 55-57 degree CPU temp. I guess the whole thing's tempermental.

Sorry, Ubuntu, you don't run hotter.

IrfanView.

Between the application itself and its plugins, it's light as can be but does absolutely everything I need.

It took me awhile to figure out how to crop a photo to exact dimensions and get control over that process, but I did figure out that final missing piece of the puzzle.

OK, there were two missing pieces. I couldn't figure out how to create an image file, but now that I've crossed that bridge, I'm ready to say that Irfanview is the best shareware/freeware image-editor out there. I say "shareware/freeware," because developer Irfan Skiljan says the program is free for home or noncommercial use but requests a $12 or 10-euro donation for business use.

While I prefer remaining in the world of free, open-source software, a $12 shareware, closed-source program is way better than a many-hundreds-of-dollars closed-source program like Photoshop.

And the great thing about IrfanView is that it loads in a couple seconds. Try that with Photoshop.

Now if only Irfanview was available for Linux and Mac. That would be great. As it is, I will try running IrfanView with WINE (the Windows emulator) in Linux, and I will report back.

Along the way, I tried out MANY applications. I still love MtPaint, the best lightweight image editor for Linux, but it doesn't handle the IPTC info that I need to preserve. I'll have to check whether it destroys it, as the GIMP so tragically does whenever a JPG is saved.

Others I tried included the KDE apps Krita (love it ... but it doesn't do IPTC; again, I'll have to check what it does to existing data) and digiKam.

The latter -- digiKam -- is digital-camera interface software for the KDE Linux/BSD desktop. Soon KDE is coming to a Windows machine near you, and I predict that MANY Windows users will adopt KDE as their user environment of choice.

Anyway, digiKam does have an editing function, and it does support IPTC, though to the extent that IrfanView does. The problems: digiKam wants to create its own directories (like iPhoto) that seem to mandate multiple copies of the same images in hard-to-navigate-to places. And the act of resizing a photo can, for some reason, take many minutes and/or crash the app. If only the KDE people would put full IPTC editing capability into Krita, which I think is a great image editor. Fix that and fix the initial-open-quote problem in KWord, and I'd be a die-hard KDE user.

But again, IrfanView is -- in my opinion -- the best photo-editing program for Windows that's out there today.

Update: I didn't realize that my version of IrfanView was old. I'm using Version 3.95, and the latest is 4.10. I'm downloading the new app and plugins now. I will report later on how it works.

Another update: This guy installed IrfanView in Linux with WINE. And so did this guy. And this guy, too.

This, however, I don't understand at all, but it might help. Also, check out this thread.

Even further update: The IrfanView forum.

Even if you've never run Linux before in your life -- or if you've been using it daily for a decade -- you need Knoppix, the best usable live-CD OS out there.

I confess. It was my first. My first Linux, that is. And that same version, 5.1.1, is still current (developer Klaus Knopper is very methodical in his work).

Besides being a great system to use -- and to use as a rescue disk when things are broken -- Knoppix lets you see what a Debian Linux system can do (and in this case, a Debian system running the KDE desktop and packed with apps). For even more software, get or burn the Knoppix DVD. I have a DVD-ROM but not a burner, and I'm thinking of ordering a DVD. And just as you can run Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux in RAM (if you've got 128 MB for the former, 256 MB for the latter -- though those are just my estimates), Knoppix can be booted to run in RAM (with the toram boot command) on systems with ... is it 1 GB, or 512 MB, I can't remember.

Right now Knoppix 5.2 is starting to float around. It was released in a German magazine in July, and was supposed to be out this summer.

There are some great Knoppix tips in Carla Schroder's Linux Cookbook, as well as books that apply specifically to Knoppix.

I recommend "Knoppix Hacks," by Kyle Rankin. A new edition is forthcoming.

There were 65 updates for Ubuntu today. I'm doing them right now. That's a whole lotta updates. I'm doing them now. .. And monitoring my laptop's temperature to see when Ubuntu turns the fan on and off.

My Gateway Solo 1450 fan-management cron job that I adapted for Puppy Linux checks the CPU temperature every 5 minutes. If it's 50 degrees C or above, the fan turns on. Five minutes later, if CPU temperature is 40 C or less, the fan turns off.

Ubuntu, however (and perhaps Debian, too -- I will check) regularly lets the CPU (Celeron M 1.3 GHZ) run at 65 degrees C. The temp does drop on its own somewhat.

I wonder if there's a resource out there with optimal CPU temps for the various chips out there. If I could modify my Puppy cron job to turn the fan on at 60 or 65 C and turn it off at 50 C, that would make for less fan action (although when it goes on, it stays on for the full 5 minutes, minimum, due to the nature of the cron job; I don't think you can run a cron job any more closely spaced together than 5 minutes).

Back to Ubuntu: This many updates is to be expected in the early days of an OS upgrade. In other news, Apple issued a ton of updates, Microsoft only two on what is known in geekdom as "Patch Tuesday."

And here are even more Mac updates.

Thanks to the great Ars Technica for all this info (except for the Ubuntu updates, which I know about because I'm doing them).

Want to know what the new Google Android cell-phone OS is all about? Well, first of all, it's open-source, is slated to be adopted by many phone makers ... and will probably take over the world. Watch the video and marvel over Google co-founder Sergey Brin's full head of wild hair. With that kind of money, he can have any kind of hair he wants, no?

I found out about the link via TechIQ, via LXer.

At least in most Linux distros you get updates for all software through a user-controlled manager. But in Windows, they just rain down on you. I don't like it. But I do like Thunderbird, and I generally trust the Mozilla people who maintain it. Still, I'd like a little more choice in regard to if and when I perform upgrades and updates -- for the love of Slackware!

I won't begin to say that I know what the hell cloud computing really is. It has something to do with huge, centralized data centers with virtualization software that enables virtual servers (notice how I used the word "virtual" pretty much twice -- and now three times? I'm at a loss) to exist in said "cloud," with their virtual (there's that word again) presence available for lease -- and for use -- by faraway customers.

Anyway, I've heard that Amazon -- yep, the books-and-everything-else-including-the-kitchen-sink seller -- is heavily involved. Google's also a player (that's a gimmie, I know).

Well, now IBM is getting into the cloud game. And according to ZDNet, that means it's going corporate, since IBM holds a lot of sway in big-business circles.

As I understand it, you rent CPU time from the cloud, and in many cases, you can specify your OS, say Red Hat, Solaris, or what have you. And you get a virtual server to do your bidding, with a bunch of techs far away to take care of everything from maintenance (and power requirements, cooling, security, etc.).

Time to get educated on cloud computing.

From ZDNet:
Google CEO’s new paradigm: ‘cloud computing and advertising go hand-in-hand’
IBM, Google fund cloud computing teaching techniques
Beware: Google cloud platform exposed
(Have I mentioned recently how great ZDNet is?)

But a better place to start (especially for all things tech) is Wikipedia:

Cloud computing is a popular phrase that is shorthand for applications that were developed to be rich Internet applications that run on the Internet (or "cloud"). In the cloud computing paradigm, software that is traditionally installed on personal computers is shifted or extended to be accessible via the Internet. These "cloud applications" or "cloud apps" utilize massive data centers and powerful servers that host web applications and web services. They can be accessed by anyone with a suitable Internet connection and a standard web browser.

The architecture behind cloud computing is a massive network of "cloud servers" interconnected as if in a grid running in parallel, sometimes using the technique of virtualization to maximize computing power per server.

Red Hat partners with Amazon on cloud computing:

Cloud computing with Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a web-scale virtual computing environment powered by Amazon Web Services. It provides everything needed to develop and host applications: compute capacity, bandwidth, storage, and the leading open source operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Cloud computing changes the economics of IT by enabling you to pay only for the capacity that you actually use. Compute capacity can be scaled up or down on demand to accommodate changing workloads and business requirements. Red Hat Enterprise Linux for cloud computing makes it easy to develop, deploy, and manage your new and existing applications in a virtual computing environment.

So how much does it cost? Here's the Red Hat/Amazon deal:

Available at a starting price of $19/month per customer plus $0.21 per hour for every deployed server, plus additional bandwidth and storage fees.

So how does this differ from renting a remote server, or space on said server? It's the virtualization. You, in effect, get your own server, even though it's not really there ... but in the cloud.

Prediction: This is gonna be HUGE.

More from Red Hat, and info on Amazon's cloud service.

Here's part of Amazon's pitch:

Amazon EC2 passes on to you the financial benefits of Amazon's scale. You pay a very low rate for the compute capacity you actually consume. Compare this with the significant up-front expenditures traditionally required to purchase and maintain hardware, either in-house or hosted. This frees you from many of the complexities of capacity planning, transforms what are commonly large fixed costs into much smaller variable costs, and removes the need to over-buy "safety net" capacity to handle periodic traffic spikes.

For those who want to go deep, here's Amazon's documentation on the EC2 Cloud.

And since I write these entries as a stream of consciousness, here's Wired on cloud computing: The Information Factories (from Wired). Most of the article's focus is on power -- electrical power -- and how much a huge data center like Google's needs, and where to get it.

The New York Times (password required, but you should just bite the bullet and get one):

Google and I.B.M. Join in ‘Cloud Computing’ Research
I.B.M. to Push ‘Cloud Computing,’ Using Data From Afar

And last, not least, but wacky enough, the Times of London's everyman take on it.

The problem I'm having in figuring this all out, is that "cloud computing" can mean stuff like using Gmail and Google Docs, Hotmail and Xdrive. But I'm trying to focus on the clouds-for-rent on which a business can get its own virtual server.

But whether it's virtual servers or SAAS (software as a service) -- the latter with which I'm saddled for half my work already; it needs to be faster, dammit -- data and the apps that manipulate them are moving off the desktop and onto faraway server arrays. Besides saving you the trouble of archiving your own data, it means accessing your personal and business data from anywhere, with any computer or data-collecting gizmo you happen to have in front of you.

What's the state of privacy and reliability of these services? That's a question going forward. But eventually cost will win out. If it's cheaper, it'll happen.

Bloggers are starting to write quickly and furiously about gOS and the $199 PC the new, Google-heavy Linux distro runs on. I happen to think it's the product of the year.

First, Desktop Linux talks about it:

While Google does not have a formal partnership with either Everex or gOS, the search giant did see gOS before it was shipped. Google then approved Everex to bundle its Google toolbar with gOS' browser.

With this in mind, the gOS applications are set to work with Google from the get-go. For example, clicking on the e-mail icon takes you to Gmail, the news icon sends you off to Google News, and the calendar "application" is Google Calendar. Even when there's a choice of programs, such as OpenOffice for word processing and spreadsheets, gOS defaults to using Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Most of the commonly used applications are made available to users via a Mac OS-like dock at the bottom of the screen.

This is a Linux that's designed with several specific purposes in mind. First, it's not just built around Google; it's built on Web 2.0 applications and the Internet. Next, it works with low-end hardware. This may be the first PC where a high-speed Internet connection is more important to its performance than a high-speed processor.

And Desktop Linux linked over to this interview with the founder of gOS, David Liu. Here's the first question:

Using Web 2.0 applications to form the core of an operating system is genius. When did you realize this it was possible?

Well, I guess a couple things happened… I got interested in Google applications, especially docs and spreadsheets, presentations; and originally, I wanted to create my idea of what a Google OS would look like.. if there were such a mythical OS. As I started looking around at all the Google applications out there, I realized that all of our “computing” could eventually be done in the Google cloud. We just needed an OS that looked really good and pointed people to Google in a really friendly, intelligent way. After seeing this, I got excited because I saw it was also commercially viable for the mainstream end user… Google makes Linux familiar.

I finally got around to downloading a couple Debian Live images. The Debian Live project -- in which the Debian GNU/Linux system is ported to a live-CD environment -- is way below the radar. But as with many other live CDs, it's a great way to see what Debian is all about without committing to a full install.

I already wrote a ton about it, but until this blog situation is sorted out, I'll keep working on it and will post when Movable Type starts moving again.

I spend pretty much the entire day pulling images and editing them for the Web. I do this in both Windows and Linux, and since I neither have nor want Photoshop, I've been using both free and free, open-source programs to get the job done.

Free ... free and open-source -- what's the difference?

Let me throw in two more terms: Shareware and crapware.

Let's knock 'em down:

Crapware: "Free" software included on a new PCs hard drive that only functions for a limited period of time, after which the computer owner must purchase it or discontinue its use. Source code not included or available.

Shareware: Software that is initially free to download and install, sometimes in a full version, other times in a truncated form, that can be used for either a certain period of time or forever, but which can be purchased -- or must be purchased to continue using after a period of time. Source code not included or available.

Freeware: Software that can be freely downloaded and used, but not necessarily freely distributed. Source code not included or available.

Free, open-source software: This is the GPL (GNU General Public License) model that governs most Linux system software and the applications that go with it. Software is freely available, source code is also freely available and can be modified and re-released provided source code for the subsequent revision is also included. Software can be repackaged and sold ... but the source code must continue to be made available free of charge.

At least that is my understanding of the various levels of "free" and not-so-free software.

Over the past decade or so, the model has shifted from mostly shareware to mostly FOSS (free, open-source software). That's a good -- and probably a great -- thing. Keeping the code open makes it easier to find and fix problems and to create new applications from a code base.

Anyway ... back to my image-editing problem. I love the GIMP, the free, open-source photo-editing program that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux/BSD. I've barely used Photoshop in all my years of computing, so I don't miss it.

But one of my "new" tasks at work is preparing photos with embedded IPTC info -- caption and credit information that is part of the JPEG file. I can't find a FOSS photo editing program that both lets me do what I need to do in terms of image sizing and cropping as well as preserving and modifying the IPTC infomation.

The GIMP obliterates the IPTC info. I've since tried Krita (from the KDE software family) and my favorite light image-editor, MtPaint, and neither allows access to the IPTC info.

But one of the freeware editors I use on my Windows box, IrfanView, does allow access to IPTC. If you get the main program and all its plugins, you have a lot of power at your fingertips. It's not as easy -- for me, at least -- as the GIMP, but it is extremely quick to load. And it appears to do the job.

IrfanView is freeware, not FOSS, which troubles me a bit. But its developer, Irfan Skiljan of Austria, is a fantastic programmer, and I can't begrudge him licensing the application the way he sees fit.

Oh, and I wish IrfanView was available for Linux and the Mac. One can dream.

Update: I guess you can call Irfanview a kind of shareware. It does cost:

If you intend to use IrfanView at your place of business or for commercial purposes, please register and purchase it. I want to continue working on this program, therefore, your registration will be an incentive for me to add new functions and increase the program's quality.

Any suggestions, feedback and comments are welcome and won't be ignored.

If you are a commercial user and you like this program (or are a home user who wants to support/donate further development), please register/donate by sending US$ 12.00 or EUR 10,- (this is the price for one (single) licence) to the address below.

Please send cash only. (I cannot accept high check cashing fees at the bank)

Address:

Irfan Skiljan

Postfach 48

2700 Wiener Neustadt

Austria, Europe

Commercial users: please contact me by E-Mail for prices and discounts. Note: If you want, you can buy the licenses using PayPal or credit card.

Even though I prefer "free," $12 U.S. is an excellent deal. If I use IrfanView for a week and it does what I want, I'll pay up. Especially given the current dollar-euro exchange rate, it's a deal for U.S. users vis a vis Europeans.

I started around 12-ish, and it's still going. I'm at 89 percent installed. That's a long one.

Update: The install did finally finish. Debian is ultra-cautious. There are small changes in look, if not feel, but it's still Debian. Since it's Testing, I imagine it'll change radically over time. According to the Debian Web site, Testing starts as a copy of Stable and then begins to change from there. And Etch has only been around since April. Not that long.

I detected a bit of slowdown in disk accessing with the encrypted drive, but on a newer PC, I don't think it will be noticeable at all. And at least you get something for it.

Ars Technica is one of the best Web sites out there in the technology space. Period.

Their Apple, Microsoft and gaming "journals," as they call them, are of high quality. I refer to them often. OK, not the gaming one, but the other two, definitely.

I've said for awhile that they need to get a Linux journal. Now that have. It covers open-source software in general and is called Open Ended. It's also hard to find. If you don't bookmark the link (which I strongly encourage you to do), you have to go to the main Ars Technica page, click on the "#" icon under Ars Journals on the middle right side of the screen, then click on one of the entries, and then the #open.ended logo on that entry, to get the full journal.

Ars should just put the thing under the main Journals listing that mentions the Apple, MS, gaming, science and staff journals. Is that too much to ask?

Read all the way to the bottom of this iTWire article about low-cost pre-loaded Linux systems -- the Asus and Everex -- and you'll learn, as I did, that Everex is planning a pre-loaded Linux laptop:

As for the fact that the gPC is only on sale at about 600 Walmart stores in the US, I'm fairly sure Everex would be happy to accommodate orders for kits from distributors in Europe and elsewhere. Right now, however, Walmart provides a good testing ground for whether the market is as ready for a low cost entry level plug-and-play Linux desktop computer as it appears to be for sub-notebook.

What's needed now is a low-cost plug-and-play Linux notebook to fill the gap between the Eee PC and the gPC. Hopefully, that's what Everex is planning with its under $300 notebook, flagged for release in early 2008.

I don't have any figures at present, but I have a pretty good feeling that laptops at least match desktops, if not outsell them outright, in the U.S., and this could be another game-changing hardware play in the Linux space.

Another iTWire article on Everex.

OpenSolaris' new Indiana OS now has a live CD. It boots with GRUB and features the GNOME desktop, yet it's neither Linux nor BSD ... it's OpenSolaris, in case you've forgotten over the past few words.

Under requirements, it says 512 MB of RAM minimum, with this caveat: This minimum has not been tested extensively yet.

Well, I can tell you that with 256 MB of RAM, the system detects that and will not go forward with the booting process.

I will try it on a 512 MB box and report back.

My main Debian Etch drive is starting to whine. That can't be good.

And I have another drive ready. So I decided to move away from Stable to Debian Testing (aka Lenny). I got the business-card image of Testing from Debian. I'm not quite sure why there's both a net-install image and a business-card image. I suppose the "larger" net-install ISO allows you to install a basic system without an Internet connection, and the business-card relies more heavily on the Debian mirrors.

Be that as it may, I'm anxious to see how Testing differs from Stable.

And for the first time, I chose the LVM with encryption option. I should have a fully encrypted drive when this is all over. It may be a bit slower, but encryption provides a degree of security -- especially on laptops that have the habit of being lost and stolen-- that we should all be considering. Ubuntu, in its 7.10 release, is also offering encryption when you use the alternate-install image.

Right now the installer is erasing the data on the hard drive's now-former /home partition. And it's taking a long time. A LONG time.

After taking a look yesterday and seeing two negative reviews of the new Everex box that runs Linux and costs $199 at Wal-Mart, today I went back to Wal-Mart's Web site and found 23 reviews.

Some of the commenters even claim to own the box:

I purchased this PC three weeks ago and am so happy I did. I was a little nervous about making the jump off of Windows, but now I don't know why I didn't do it sooner!

I am using it right now typing this feedback, and after this I have to finish up a presentation for work. This system is very fast to boot up, and haven't run into a single problem with any of the applications.

Heck, I don't even notice it's not windows. Everything I needed when I plugged it in was ready to go. I just started using it!

Basically, if you want to be able to check your email, write documents/spreadsheets/etc, surf the internet, and be 100% confident you can't get a virus; then you will be as happy as I am with this great deal.

I'm not sure it was available three weeks ago, but one thing's for sure, Linux attracts Web users.

I haven't done a security update on my Slackware 12 partition in awhile.

So I fired up the FTP and am downloading everything from Sept. 21 on forward. That's seven items -- not bad. I'm letting the FTP run overnight, and I'll take a look tomorrow.

I wonder if you can use pkgtool to do the upgrades instead of upgradepkg? That would make the whole thing go about 10 times as quickly. I'll try it.

Update: You can't use pkgtool to upgrade packages because the old package is NOT removed. I deleted all the upgrades and will redo them with upgradepkg.

Aside: I've had trouble installing Slackware 12 on the Gateway Solo 1450 laptop. It installs but won't boot. I might just try Slackware 11. The Slack team is STILL patching it, so it'll be around for awhile. If I could solve the power-management issues, it might be worth throwing on the box.

Further aside: Zenwalk 4.8 also installed on the Gateway but wouldn't boot. But when I installed Zenwalk, then installed a basic Slackware 12 system OVER it (without deleting any Zenwalk packages), it did boot, but half of the stuff was broken. It ran wicked fast. If only Zenwalk 4.6 was still being supported. ... That's the beauty of pure Slackware -- you have some choices.

After Antix M7 refused to even boot on my Maxspeed Maxterm thin client (VIA C3 Samuel processor) -- which has successfuly run the first version of Mepis-based AntiX, as well as SimplyMepis 6, I went back to a Linux distro I remember fondly -- and which died well before its time.

I speak of MepisLite. It was Warren Woodford's idea of a lighter-than-SimplyMepis distro -- and a good idea it was. I believe Woodford sold the OS to Tafusion/Pioneer Linux. And while I did run SimplyMepis on this box, it was so, so slow that I couldn't stay with it for more than a couple of days.

And now that I have a free drive -- OpenBSD is never going to work for me -- I figured I'd play around a bit.

So I started a MepisLite install. Going into Synaptic, it looks like MepisLite is based on Debian Sarge. I'm doing what kind of upgrade there is right now. If it doesn't totally break, I'll keep it around a while. Thus far, MepisLite isn't freakishly fast. but it does have one thing going for it that even my favorite KDE distro -- Slackware -- doesn't possess: Kwrite with "typographical" quotes that work. In Slack, Kwrite's initial quote marks face the wrong way. In many other distros they don't work at all.

I should probably just get/stick with Debian Etch (and try it with KDE) and stop my bitching.

The openSUSE 10.3 live CD, the OpenSolaris Indiana live CD.

According to the Indiana page, the new OpenSolaris Indiana OS needs 512 MB of RAM to run. We'll see. Backed by Debian founder Ian Murdock, the Solaris variant could provide tough competition for Linux.

I also grabbed the Debian Testing business-card install image. It's time for me to meet Lenny.

Remember the Everex box I wrote about last week? The $198 PC, to be sold by Wal-Mart, is using a new Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, but with the Enlightenment window manager instead of GNOME.

If you want to give it a spin now, go to the gOS site. They are encouraging Bittorrent downloads, but there is a full ISO on the ftp site, if you can get through -- it's so busy, I couldn't.

One thing I like about gOS it is the tight integration with Google services -- you can see icons on the screen above for such Google mainstays as Blogger, Gmail and YouTube. I also see an icon for Wikipedia.

One thing you can say about gOS, from what little info is out there -- it sure looks different. Ubuntu with Enlightenment (and not GNOME, Xfce or KDE). Tight integration with Google. It's definitely worth checking out ... when the server stops getting hit so hard.

Part of the frenzy is, no doubt, from the Distrowatch coverage of gOS, a Linux variant that seemingly came out of nowhere and which could gain significant traction if Wal-Mart really pushes this Everex box.

Here is gOS' news page. And here is coverage on Distrowatch.

And in even bigger news, it looks like the $198 Linux box is now available from Wal-Mart.com. Looks like it's $199. I won't begrudge them the extra $1. Here's a picture from the Wal-Mart Web site:

There are a couple of negative comments about the Everex box on the Wal-Mart site, and a prominent link to the $100-higher Windows version (shades of Dell's Linux venture, which is marked by ample opportunities to "upgrade" to Windows). I've got nothing to go on, but the negative comments -- on a box that has barely even been for sale -- look like internal Wal-Mart people either hedging their bets or downright opposing their company selling a LInux box. One of the commenters is from Arkansas -- same state as Wal-Mart. So rather than educate potential buyers on why they might want a Linux box as opposed to a Windows model that costs 33 percent more, they want to make sure customers can opt for an app-less Microsoft over free, open-source, all-apps-included Linux

Well, at least they're offering the thing -- and at a killer price, too.

I've got to tell you, this -- to me -- is more exciting and significant than Dell selling Ubuntu boxes. This isn't a nod to fanboys on the Dell IdeaStorm boards. It's a pure capitalist play -- hey, it's friggin' Wal-Mart -- or is it ploy? No matter. Dell ain't selling nothing for $199. And if you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I'm all about what's free and cheap.

If I had a spare two bills lying around, I'd buy one of these bad boys today. As it is, I'll probably settle for downloading the gOS distro if and when I can.

If anything, this is yet more confirmation that open-source software works. There wouldn't be a gOS if the GPL license didn't mandate that Linux, the GNU tools and, conversly, the entire Ubuntu distribution, weren't distributed with full source code and the ability to modify and redistribute it -- again, with full source -- at will.

And once again, say what you will about Wal-Mart, but any number of other companies could be selling a $200 Linux box. Nearly all are not.

So giddy was I that the OpenBSD CD agreed to boot on my converted Maxspeed Maxterm thin client (with a VIA C3 Samuel processor that wouldn't allow the install of FreeBSD, NetBSD, DesktopBSD or PC-BSD) that I immediately launched into an install today.

Whoa.

I can't remember an installation process that was this geeky. You MUST have the instructions in front of you, or you will get nowhere fast.

I did OK. I even got my network configuration right. The option to dual-boot (with Windows, anyway) is covered, but I wiped out my CentOS 3.9 drive just to make things easier. On something so foreign, I didn't want any more complication than necessary.

Once the installation got under way, I realized why DesktopBSD and PC-BSD exist. Even FreeBSD offers more than OpenBSD in its raw install. I selected every package offered on the CD, and I ended up with:

The base system
X

That's it. No window manager -- not even Fluxbox. No apps to speak of. I had xterm and xclock -- the docs said that the text-based Lynx browser was part of the base install, so I opened up an xterm window, typed lynx at the prompt ... and got lynx. I entered a Web address, and the site came up in all its text-only glory.

So next I figured that I would get the ports tree. It's lucky I know what a ports tree is from my experience in DesktopBSD, during which adding ports didn't really work ... but I learned enough, at least.

So I've got a base system and rudimentary X -- and if I want a traditional desktop install, I'm gonna have to build it piece by piece from PORTS?

Oy.

I followed the instructions for awhile. I got the ports tree from the FTP site. I even installed fluxbox. Not that it would run afterward. Let's see ... I had a window manager, albeit one I couldn't load; now it was only a couple hundred pkg_add commands before I had something I could work with. ...

You need a good book with specific instructions on building a desktop system opened right in front of you. If such a thing exists. ("The OpenBSD 4.1 Crash Course," from O'Reilly has a chapter on desktop use ... but I'm not holding my breath.)

If you're a completely formed Unix geek, want to go beyond the traditional Linux distribution, know exactly what you want, package by package (or port by port), have wrung all you can out of Slackware, Gentoo, Debian and Red Hat, are an absolute fanatic about security and want a locked-down server, OpenBSD might be for you.

And if you're that sort of person, you don't need me to tell you ... anything. You know way more than I do -- by orders of magnitude. I'm not worthy, just as OpenBSD is not worthy of functioning on the desktop for all but the most ardent, skilled users who like to start from scratch and build exactly what they want from the command line.

The question that remains: Why would you want to?

Honestly, getting Debian and Slackware up and running is about 100 times easier than this. Even Gentoo, with its step-by-step process for building a system from the ground up, seems more doable. And when it does load, FreeBSD was quite a bit easier to deal with. Of course, PC-BSD and DesktopBSD have way better installers, but my luck didn't hold after the systems were up and running.

Thus far, on my Gateway laptop (which, unlike the VIA box, will boot and install all BSDs), I've had PC-BSD load up pretty well, even though many of the easy-to-install PBI apps were either out of date or didn't work all that well. I've seen my DesktopBSD system die when the ports I installed didn't work, and the promise of FreeBSD was unfulfilled when I didn't allocate enough disk space (surely the installer could've told me this BEFORE I was 4/5ths of the way through the install). None (except PC-BSD 1.3, not 1.4) managed my Gateway's fan.

I really don't want to be in the position of slamming BSD, but to mention it in the same league as Linux -- it's just not ready. All the talk of adults being in charge, a less-chaotic development system and any other supposed stability fades quickly in the face of actual BSD use. The BSDs may be good in the server room (I say may because I'm not a sysadmin), but Linux -- in its hundreds of distributions catering to every kind of user -- has the kind of momentum on the desktop that BSD is nowhere near tapping for itself.

In the tradition of the Thin Puppy Torture Test, I have a new monthlong project in the works: The Damn Small Torture Test.

I'm still working out the details, but I will be conducting a 30-day Damn Small Linux 4.0 test on the Maxspeed Maxterm thin client. And I want it to be a diskless test -- with nothing but flash memory used to store the OS and data.

More details forthcoming.

I love the whole idea behind BSD. Supposedly, unlike Linux, there are real adults working in a more rational, less chaotic manner on the various distros (including FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and the FreeBSD offshoots PC-BSD and DesktopBSD).

But when it comes to actually trying to install and run BSD, I've hit plenty of roadblocks. I've never been able to get a single BSD install disc to even boot on my VIA C7 Samuel-based thin client, and when I finally got the Gateway Solo 1450, I had plenty of problems with the installs, upgrades, package management, hardware detection and configuration, and power management with PC-BSD, FreeBSD and DesktopBSD.

The biggest disappointment was NetBSD, which prides itself on its ability to run on nearly anything. While there may be ports to dozens of unusual architectures, when it comes to i386, the VIA C3 Samuel CPU was left out in the cold.

When I saw the announcement of OpenBSD's latest release, I'd assumed that I had tried the distro before.

Not so. I looked in my huge distro folder, and every other kind of BSD is in there, but no OpenBSD. So I'm grabbing the network install now, and I'm anxious to see how it does. It may crap out on the VIA box, but I'll just have to wait and see.

I would love -- LOVE -- to be surprised.

That said, I really don't believe the BSD hype. Linux may be built by the chaotic, non-adult masses, but when it comes to hardware detection and plain usability, especially in desktop situations, it's far ahead of BSD -- in my experience at least.

Update: OpenBSD boots on the Maxspeed Maxterm VIA-based thin client. I'll try a full install next week.

As one of the ways to keep track of my journey through the world of Linux and BSD distributions, on every CD I try to write the date I burned it. I can't remember how I found out about my first Linux live CD, Knoppix 5.1.1 (some Web story must've gone on about how great it was to run a full Linux without doing a hard-drive install), but the date I wrote on the case is Jan. 29, 2007 -- soon after the 5.1.1 release came out. And it wasn't just my first live CD, it was also the first Linux CD of any kind I made -- and my first experience with a Unix-like operating system since leaving adm3a and VT-100 terminals behind after my college days in the 1980s.

I remember running that Knoppix CD on my Dell box. I didn't know what Debian was. I had no idea that KDE was Knoppix's desktop environment -- or that there were many alternatives. I didn't know why the Web browser that looked like Firefox was called Iceweasel.

Since then I've spent considerable time running Puppy and Damn Small Linux from live CDs (and in hard-drive installs, usually of the three-or-so-file "frugal" variety).

I recently burned both Puppy Linux 3.0 and Damn Small Linux 4.0. On the one hand, I'm thinking about doing reviews of both. On the other, I think it's time to replace the Debian setup on the $15 Laptop, a Compaq Armada 7770dmt. I've been running it for months with a very basic Debian Etch install. I started with the "standard" install, then added X and Fluxbox, along with the apps I wanted. It's been running fairly well, but the problems with various applications have been piling up. I know that if I use Puppy or DSL, the apps I want should work perfectly from the get-go. Of course I could also do a fuller Debian install -- say the Xfce version -- which would include many more applications ...

So before I dive back into live CDs, here's what's been troubling me with my Debian Etch install. The laptop is so old (probably circa '98) that it doesn't have USB ports. I have my trusty Orinoco WaveLAN Silver PCMCIA wireless card installed -- it works with just about every Linux distro out there -- and I have the CD drive plugged in. The floppy drive is dead, but who needs it? I have the original 3 GB hard drive, and it's pretty full, even though I've got nowhere near the full Debian install on it. I really should buy a new hard drive that's way bigger and less prone to failure.

Anyhow, the 233 MHz, 64 MB system probably could run Xfce, but I've been conservative, running both the console and Fluxbox as needed. Maximum memory for the Compaq is 144 MB, but I've been too lazy and cheap to buy the RAM. The CMOS battery is dead, and I've really been too lazy to crack the case (TORX screws aplenty) and see how to switch it out. I have the network time server app installed, and that resets the clock at each boot.

I originally wanted to handle my work e-mail over IMAP with Mutt and MSMTP. Never mind that to get a Mutt setup seems to be the height of geek competence (a height to which I do not reach), but since my original push to get the .muttrc and .msmtprc files just right, something changed and I can no longer send mail. I could never figure out how to handle multiple mail accounts over IMAP (POP is easier, since you can POP all the mail down and filter it ... and by "easier," I mean harder but doable).

So I installed Sylpheed, which I figured would be light enough for the 233 MHz box. I've always liked Sylpheed, although I've migrated over to Evolution and Thunderbird on my other boxes.

On first launch of Sylpheed, I got an error message that some parameter in some file (I confess, I didn't recognize any of it) was missing. So I went ahead and configured Sylpheed. It didn't work.

I have AbiWord installed -- my go-to lightweight word processor -- but the graphics of the laptop just can't keep up. I type, and the letters appear seconds later. Ted might work better, but it's broken in Etch. You can neither create a new file nor open an old one.

On the brighter side, the Dillo browser works great (although the fonts are better in Damn Small Linux and Vector), and I also have had no problem with Iceweasel (aka Firefox), Lynx or my favorite light image editor, MtPaint (which should be an official Debian package available via apt-get but for some reason can only be found at Sourceforge and on other distros like Vector and Zenwalk). I've also been very pleased with Mousepad as a text editor, with Nano and Vi as backups. (I'm more of a Nano users because I just don't spend a lot of time in console editors and have ragged Vi chops).

So I'm able to get my work done in Etch, but I have a feeling that I'd be better off -- especially at 64 MB of RAM -- with Damn Small Linux.

And with the release of version 4.0, what better time to re-evaluate the distro, which has been in or near the Distrowatch top 10 for quite some time.

So I pulled the CDs for Puppy 3.00, DSL 4.0 and Knoppix 5.1.1. I'm not ready to break out the Compaq laptop just yet, so I used my main test box, the converted Maxspeed Maxterm thin client that runs a VIA C3 Samuel 1 GHz processor and 256 MB of RAM.

I plugged in a USB drive, with my hope being that I could then unplug the hard drive, boot from CD and then have no drives whirring for the duration.

That worked with Knoppix, Puppy, even with a Vector SOHO live CD I burned a week ago (and let me say that just as Vector excels with the Xfce desktop, it also does remarkably well in KDE).

But Damn Small Linux? No, it wouldn't boot with the hard drive disconnected. I tried versions 3.3 and 3.2 as well. No go for any of them.

My USB key is a little unsual. It was a freebie, and has a CD advertising image (detected almost always as drive sr0) as well as a 256 MB flash memory. Puppy found the flash just fine (I've always had great luck with hardware detection, especially of drives, with Puppy), and I was able to boot without a hard drive, run entirely in RAM, and save my settings and files to the pup_save on the USB drive. Brilliant, as usual.

Neither Knoppix nor DSL could find the USB flash drive, but I suspect with a "pure" USB drive the results would be different.

Even so, I've done quite a few Puppy reviews, and I wanted to start out with Damn Small Linux. So I plugged in a hard drive, booted DSL (using the dsl toram boot code that loads the whole distro into RAM) and was off.

Quickly, things that are better in DSL 4.0: network configuration is smoother than ever. Once I entered my static IP, DSL guessed the rest of the info pretty darn well. I entered my local name servers, but the gateway and broadcast addresses were correct without me doing anything. I was able to get printing working with apsfilter (I could never replicate my success in Etch, by the way).

The default window manager in DSL is now JWM, and the thing I miss most is the menu that used to come up with a right mouse click. It's easy enough, however, to change window managers to the old DSL's Fluxbox, and then everything is the way I like it. But I'm getting used to JWM (Joe's Window Manager) in DSL, and I like the clickable folders on the desktop -- it's easier and more intuitive than using the file manager.

Anyhow ... I'm not ready yet for a full DSL review, so let me just tell you that to me -- and many others, I suspect -- Puppy, DSL and Knoppix are VERY important distros in the Linux universe. Going from Windows or Mac to the world of Linux might not have happened for many of us if we didn't have live CDs that actually work that way with which to experiment.

And in many cases, working with a live CD or frugal install that allows files and parameters to be saved, either on the hard drive or on removable media, can be an easy, secure and preferable way to use a PC. Especially when it comes to DSL and Puppy, upgrading can be as easy as downloading and burning the latest ISO. And if you don't want to upgrade? No problem -- just use the version you want.

I did spend at least half a day running Knoppix with no hard drive. As I said above, Knoppix didn't find my USB drive (a situation that might be remedied with a more standard flash drive). As the king of live CDs, Knoppix, which is not one of those distros that is continually coming out with new releases, runs very, very well. Even when not running it in RAM, Knoppix is surprisingly quick, even with KDE. And if you do have 1 GB of RAM, I highly recommend running it with the toram boot option. I definitely plan to get the book "Knoppix Hacks," which has a new release slated for this month, as well as the new Damn Small Linux book.

And this thought has crossed my mind: I just might hack together a PC with 2 GB of RAM, and either a Compact Flash card or USB flash drive for storage, with no hard drive at all, to run Knoppix entirely in RAM.

(By the way, Puppy seems to know when it has enough memory to run in RAM -- I don't think you have to pass that information in a boot code).

And while the live CDs of Ubuntu, Mepis and others are helpful in terms of evaluating hardware detection, they're not designed to be used day-to-day in that manner. But DSL, Puppy and Knopix are -- and they all can be installed to the hard drive if you wish.

Before I wrap up this entry, I want to say that everybody should try Puppy, DSL and Knoppix. Download the ISOs, burn the CDs and start experimenting with all the boxes you can find. I've had more fun with live CDs than in anything else I've done with Linux. After a few months in Debian, Slackware and Ubuntu, it's a nice change of pace (and yes, I've tried Slax -- which I like -- and I plan to give Wolvix a spin soon).

So burn yourself some live CDs -- and make a half-dozen or so extras to hand out at will. It's the best way to get people started on exploring the non-Windows world of computing.

I figured I would try to upgrade my Xubuntu 7.04 Feisty setup on the converted Maxspeed Maxterm thin client to Gutsy 7.10.

It's no secret that Xubuntu has, in its short life (6.06 was its first release, I believe) never been as polished -- nor has it received as much polishing attention -- as the flagship Ubuntu. But for older hardware, Xubuntu can mean the difference between a good 'Buntu experience and the other kind. And in this case, the VIA 1 GHz motherboard on the thin client doesn't perform nearly as well as the 1.3 GHz Celeron Gateway laptop on which I'm testing Ubuntu 7.10.

But for maximum flexibility, the converted thin client's Xubuntu install also has the Ubuntu desktop, switchable upon login. All in 4.6 GB. Right now I have 608 MB left in the partition. On this particular 14 GB hard drive I am triple-booting Xubuntu/Ubuntu 7.04 along with Slackware 12 and the frugal install of Puppy 2.17.

Since 7.04, I've been having problems with the upper and lower XFCE panels not appearing, either on the live CD or after an install on this thin client. My solution, thus far, has been to install Xubuntu with the 6.10 live CD, then upgrading to 7.04, and in theory to go then to 7.10. For one thing, the ability to easily upgrade an existing install to a new version without a full reinstall is one of Ubuntu's great strengths (and one of many it inherited from Debian). Just about the only way to commit to long-term use of something like ZenWalk, Vector or the many other Linux distros that seem to be releasing a new, non-upgradeable version of their system every three months or so, is to have /home on a separate partition and to methodically clean out all the config files before every reinstall. (Note: I can't vouch for the upgradability of ZenWalk and Vector; but I once killed a Zenwalk 4.4 install by trying to upgrade it through the package manager after 4.6 came put).

Why clean out the config files? I tried for a time to dual-boot Debian Etch and Ubuntu with a shared /home partition, and I ended up with a broken Feisty when the two distros began depositing conflicting configuration information in /home.

On a single-boot system (or on one with only one Linux distro, at any rate), you can probably keep a separate /home partition and not have the same problems, but again, I wouldn't commit to using something like ZenWalk -- a distro I really like, by the way -- as my long-term OS with the same confidence as Ubuntu/Xubuntu because of the latter's ability to upgrade to a new release without a full reinstall. It doesn't help that all versions of ZenWalk since 4.4 install fine but then won't boot on my Gateway Solo 1450 laptop.

At this point, the $0 Laptop has a mostly empty partition to which I'm going to backup the /home files of its current distros (Debian, Ubuntu) before I change the distros I'm running on it. But no more dual-booting with a single /home partition. I've learned my lesson there, big time.

Anyway, back to the Xubuntu 7.10 upgrade. As I said, I only have 608 MB left on the Xubuntu/Ubuntu 7.04 partition on this particular drive (the thin client can be easily switched between three identical hard disks that attach by extra-long cables going inside the box).

And before I get any further, let me say that this box has responded very well to Xubuntu 7.04. It looks better than any other Xfce desktop I've seen. It's not as fast as Slackware, Vector, ZenWalk or Debian, but it looks great, performs acceptably well and, due to its Debian underpinnings -- is extremely easy to manage in terms of adding software and doing upgrades. Did I mention that it looks great? Whoever did the Xfce implementation in Xubuntu 7.04 really did it well.

I downloaded the 7.10 live CD ISO and burned it. At first boot, I had the familiar problem with the floppy drive not being properly recognized. Hint: I don't have a floppy drive. Eventually Xubuntu 7.10 boots. As in Tribe 5 of this release, the resolution is kind of screwed up. It's 1440 x something I can't remember.

Now this thin client does support 1280 x 1024, but looks a whole lot better with the attached 15-inch CRT monitor at 1024 x 768. I managed to get the proper resolution (and with it bigger icons and windows that just plain look better).

Another thing about Xubuntu 7.10: The desktop colors are a bit duller than in 7.04. It looks like many other implementations of Xfce, and doesn't stand out from the pack.

Also: I was still unable to save and switch between multiple network configurations, like I can in Ubuntu 7.10. Whatever bug prevented me from doing that in 7.04 has persisted in 7.10.

I used the Update Manager to do the upgrade. Once I started the install, the files downloaded, but as the process continued, the installer told me there wasn't enough disk space to continue. I can't argue with 602 MB not being enough, and I'm very happy that the installer proceeded to delete the new files and leave my 7.04 setup untouched. I've had way worse happen (like when I didn't have enough space in a partition to install FreeBSD and the whole thing crashed halfway through).

So to sum up, I didn't install Xubuntu 7.10. On the VIA thin client, I'll stick with my Xubuntu/Ubuntu 7.04 setup (I'm not ready to delete the Slackware 12 and Puppy 2.17 partitions at this point).

Now that I'm happily running Ubuntu 7.10 on my Gateway laptop, I see how the thin client underperforms in comparison. All the multimedia issues I have with the VIA box (the motherboard is an EVEm model by ECS) are thankfully not a problem with the Gateway laptop, and I can watch videos as well in Ubuntu as I can in Puppy (or Windows, for that matter, which for all its faults seems to do Flash video very well).

I don't know how popular Xubuntu is in relation to the standard Ubuntu distro, but I hope Canonical and the developers who work on the Xfce version of the desktop continue to develop it for Ubuntu and start hitting those bugs harder. The best part of the experience was ending up with a fully functional 7.04 system after the upgrade failed. You can't ask for more than that -- and you often get much less.

Say what you will about retail's looming giant, but Wal-Mart's got stones.

It's doing what no other mass-market retailer dares to do: offering low-cost PCs with Linux instead of Windows.

The company, which has sold Linspire-powered Linux PCs in the past, has gotten back in the Linux-box game with an Everex system that includes the PC itself, along with mouse and keyboard (but no monitor) for $198, as I read in a report from DesktopLinux.com:

The Everex Green gPC TC2502 includes popular applications from Google, Mozilla, Skype and OpenOffice.org. It runs gOS Initial G, which in turn is based on Ubuntu Linux 7.10 The gOS operating system features a simple and intuitive Linux Enlightenment E17 desktop interface with a Google-centric theme. The system comes with a lifetime of free updates and revisions.

The company opted to use Enlightenment, rather than the more popular KDE or GNOME, because Enlightenment requires minimal hardware resources for its interface.

At the heart of the gPC TC2502 is an energy-efficient 1.5GHz, VIA C7-D processor. This CPU draws less than 2W on average (with a maximum of 20W). Operating at a mere 28dB, the gPC also ranks as the quietest Everex desktop computer ever produced. It also includes 512MB of system memory, 80GB hard disk drive and DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical drive. The system also comes with six USB 2.0 ports; an RJ45 Ethernet port; an RJ11 port; and a serial and parallel port.

Wal-Mart plans to begin selling the system at stores and online sometime early this month. According to the DesktopLinux.com article, the operating system is based on Ubuntu but has many elements that differ from that distribution that are added by the Everex people. In my view, using the Enlightenment window manager instead of GNOME is a key move. The gain in graphical snappiness should make using the Everex box a much more pleasant experience.

Like I said, kick Wal-Mart all you want, but the only other giant retailer offering a PC with a full complement of software -- stuff that's the equivalent of MS Office and more -- is Dell, and it's sure not pumping it out at $198 a box -- and through America's largest retailer either (although there is an agreement by which Dell will sell through Wal-Mart stores -- just not a non-Windows product).

In this case, the Everex PC -- if it delivers as promised -- brings the kind of value to customers that Wal-Mart always says its committed to.

This just in: Wal-Mart is selling a very similar Everex PC, not currently available online, for $298. This model has 1 GB of memory (instead of 512 MB for the Linux model) and includes Windows Vista Home Basic and ... OpenOffice 2.2. Microsoft can't be happy with that -- they're putting OpenOffice on the box, making a purchase of MS Office unnecessary, AND now the same company isn't even going to put Windows on the same hardware?

And ... at $298, less the cost of 512 MB of DDR2 RAM, currently retailing for about $20 at TigerDirect.com, that makes the Microsoft tax for this box $80.

And on a $298 item, $100 is real money -- especially to a retailer like Wal-Mart.

And thus a consumer Linux box is born ...

Note:
(Images from DesktopLinux.com)