I've been having serious issues with Windows Storage Server 2008 in that it BSOD's on a bare basic pc - yet that very same pc has successfully tested SBS2008, SBS2011 essentials, Win 7, Vista, XP Pro 64, Server 2008R2 as well as many MS & other Beta testings.

On requesting assistance over at MS, keep getting stupid questions back in reply to my posts, so much that I've just miffed them off by telling them this & marked post as answer: -

"A test rig (bare basic pc) that has tested many software packages successfully, including several with the same codebase as WSS2008, implies that there is an underlying error in the codebase itself.

It is a sad reflection on MS that a user has to rely on one of their competitors for a solution after 26 years of sole use of MS software".

This just proves what I've always stated - It's not the company that matters but the software - End users should use whatever software that is available ( & works!)to meet their needs without getting caught up in O/S wars.

As for my Windows Homer Server v1 (it will NOT be WHS v2 as the mainstay of that - DE - has been removed), my next task is to get 20x 2tb HD's & install them on my LINUX NAS (Openfiler).

GAWD, I'm about to pass out......a Linux box on my MS/AMD Network........

---

A few YouTube advertising giggles... Perhaps Linux is already mainstream?


Android vs Apple


i'm a mac AND I AM GOOGLE ANDROID!


Mac, PC & Linux - Novell Commercial #2


Mac, PC & Linux - Novell Commercial #3


Notes:

The Google Android system (OS) runs on top of the Linux kernel;

The Linux system is very highly modular so you can 'plug and play' a wide variety of bits and pieces to reshape the entire system any way you wish. If that is too complicated, scary, or simply too much choice and freedom, you can also simply use pre-arranged selections called a Linux Distribution.


Good giggle!

Keep searchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

A few YouTube advertising giggles... Perhaps Linux is already mainstream?


Android vs Apple


i'm a mac AND I AM GOOGLE ANDROID!


Mac, PC & Linux - Novell Commercial #2


Mac, PC & Linux - Novell Commercial #3


Notes:

The Google Android system (OS) runs on top of the Linux kernel;

The Linux system is very highly modular so you can 'plug and play' a wide variety of bits and pieces to reshape the entire system any way you wish. If that is too complicated, scary, or simply too much choice and freedom, you can also simply use pre-arranged selections called a Linux Distribution.


Good giggle!

Keep searchin',
Martin

considering how badly made and how boring and not funny at all they were, i am pretty sure that they were made by linux machine, and the sounds were badly recorded, but then again, you can´t use pro tools in linux based systems.

considering how badly made and how boring and not funny at all they were, i am pretty sure that they were made by linux machine, and the sounds were badly recorded, but then again, you can´t use pro tools in linux based systems.

Well...

Two of those commercials are professionally made adverts in exactly the same style as shown on TV. The others are a home user's giggle.

As described, those links as just included as a bit of a giggle. There's lots of "OS wars" video humour on there in all directions. :-)


Have fun,

Cheers,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

For this week's round-up of Linux snippets:


Firstly, a 'shot across the bows' for those developing an open-source web:

Microsoft declares WebGL 'harmful' to security

... Microsoft piled on with an opinion that's likely more damaging to fans' hopes for a universal 3D Web graphics standard.

"We believe that WebGL will likely become an ongoing source of hard-to-fix vulnerabilities," Microsoft said today in a security blog post flatly titled "WebGL Considered Harmful."...


Really? How can Microsoft possibly claim that when compared to their very own security problematic "ActiveX" and other aspects?!

All the more so when the point of attack for Microsoft's comments has already been fixed to be a non-problem:

Hole found in Firefox 4 WebGL implementation

... The next version of Firefox, version 5, is due to appear next week, 21 June, and it appears that the bug has been addressed in that version. Users can upgrade to the beta version of the next Firefox now or disable WebGL by going to the about:config screen and changing the webgl.disabled property to true. ...


Quickly moving over to the positive side of computing:

10 best Linux distros for 2011 - Updated: How to choose the best Linux distro for you

... This creates a rather unique situation, where good ideas quickly spread, and bad ones fail. And as a result, there are dozens of distribution updates each month, hundreds each year, in a race to leap-frog each other in the race to the top of the DistroWatch.com charts.

This is why the answer to the question of which distribution is best for you...


Linux's 20th Birthday Party: LinuxCon

Has it really been twenty years? Yes, yes, it has been twenty years since Linus Torvalds announced that he was working on “a (free) operating system (just a hobby...


And a reminder of the harsh reality largely behind the scenes that keeps the very existence of Linux and software freedoms alive:

'Proprietary software keeps users helpless'

Without Richard Matthew Stallman there would be no GNU, and without GNU there would be no Linux distributions as we know them today.

Richard Matthew Stallman started the GNU's Not Unix project in 1983 to create a totally free operating system, and later the General Public License to guarantee its freedom. By 1991 much of GNU was finished, although it was lacking a kernel - that's where Linus Torvalds and his Linux kernel come in.

Despite the success of GNU/Linux, Stallman hasn't opted for an easy life...


Is the clash between corporate domination and profit irreconcilable with the scientific ideal of freedom of all knowledge?

A very practical workaround that has been adopted for the Linux kernel is that the kernel reports itself to be "tainted" when non-free code is included. Somehow, "licensing" conditions are always a time consuming expensively wasteful nightmare... And that can restrict your freedoms.


IT is what we make it!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Despite the best efforts of dirty tricks and proprietary lock-in from certain other companies, Linux is looking to be ever more mainstream:


Fedora 15 offers a lot to tempt enterprises away from Windows

The Fedora Project made the latest version of its OS – Fedora 15 (codenamed Lovelock) – generally available a couple of weeks ago. ...

... I installed Fedora 15, creating a dual-boot system with Windows 7 Ultimate on our Labs test system ...

... any Linux distribution needs installing after Windows since Redmond’s all-conquering OS just can’t abide co-existing with any other operating system.

In fact, Windows goes out of its way to knobble other OSes...

... Fedora has a new look and feel, courtesy of the Gnome 3 interface. Fedora 15 was easy to use, and apps such as the office productivity easy to install; in fact, I wrote this column using LibreOffice’s Writer package.

Journalists have been banging on about Linux for decades, but I suppose it’s only in the past four or five releases that Linux distributions have sorted out hardware drivers and standard office apps to the point that they all work without requiring repeated helpdesk calls.


Microsoft OS coexistence silliness aside, a comment posted with that article makes for a good giggle.


From that example and with the example of the past sham claims that Microsoft made about their 'free' bundled IE web browser, I wonder how long before Microsoft is brought to task for other aspects of, shall we say, 'non-cooperation' with other IT systems?


IT is what we make it!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

From a discussion elsewhere, does this really sum up the retail and consumer world state of affairs for home computing?

If Chromebooks catch the public's imagination you might find a [retail] salesman eagerly selling Linux, advocating Google Docs (a Linux-based office suite) against MS Office

I rather doubt it, [retail] had the chance to advocate a Linux based product when the first and second generation netbooks came out and these already had a word processor on them. They didn't. They simply stuck to selling laptops with Windows on and Windows Netbooks when they started to arrive (which really are just small laptops, Windows didn't seem to run well out of flash and on the lower powered processors which Linux could run on, the much increased prices bare this out I think). If they sell a Windows based device they can also try to sell you Office and anti-virus. If they sell you a Linux device they can't make these sales as well. They also saw a fair number of returns from people who found they couldn't do what they had expected to do with them (due to a lack of good information up front and help once they had the device home).

Whilst the types of devices we use are evolving, PCs will still be around for a while yet, at least in corporate environments. Simple home users tend to seek some familiarity with what they have used before and in which they have some experience. The continued use of Windows and Office in the work environment re-enforces the requirement from users for Windows at home, thus also re-enforcing the requirement for devices capable of running windows. Android and other mobile phone platforms may drive the take up of non-windows devices for web-browsing and alike, but when it comes to writing, printing and posting "snail mail", users will seek something with a keyboard, running Windows, with a copy of Office. If Linux has any future on devices in categories traditionally associated with Windows, it will come though Linux use in Education, driving use in workplaces. I am beginning to see this happen to some extent at the moment with some of the applications my colleagues use now being Linux only. The rub is that companies (especially big ones I guess) tend to mandate Windows on the desktop and have intranets that currently rely on [are locked-in and trapped on] Internet Explorer...

Are we really all doomed?

IT is what we make it!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

From a discussion elsewhere, does this really sum up the retail and consumer world state of affairs for home computing?

If Chromebooks catch the public's imagination you might find a [retail] salesman eagerly selling Linux, advocating Google Docs (a Linux-based office suite) against MS Office

I rather doubt it, [retail] had the chance to advocate a Linux based product when the first and second generation netbooks came out and these already had a word processor on them. They didn't. They simply stuck to selling laptops with Windows on and Windows Netbooks when they started to arrive (which really are just small laptops, Windows didn't seem to run well out of flash and on the lower powered processors which Linux could run on, the much increased prices bare this out I think). If they sell a Windows based device they can also try to sell you Office and anti-virus. If they sell you a Linux device they can't make these sales as well. They also saw a fair number of returns from people who found they couldn't do what they had expected to do with them (due to a lack of good information up front and help once they had the device home).

Whilst the types of devices we use are evolving, PCs will still be around for a while yet, at least in corporate environments. Simple home users tend to seek some familiarity with what they have used before and in which they have some experience. The continued use of Windows and Office in the work environment re-enforces the requirement from users for Windows at home, thus also re-enforcing the requirement for devices capable of running windows. Android and other mobile phone platforms may drive the take up of non-windows devices for web-browsing and alike, but when it comes to writing, printing and posting "snail mail", users will seek something with a keyboard, running Windows, with a copy of Office. If Linux has any future on devices in categories traditionally associated with Windows, it will come though Linux use in Education, driving use in workplaces. I am beginning to see this happen to some extent at the moment with some of the applications my colleagues use now being Linux only. The rub is that companies (especially big ones I guess) tend to mandate Windows on the desktop and have intranets that currently rely on [are locked-in and trapped on] Internet Explorer...

Are we really all doomed?

Meanwhile, in the 'newer' market of smartphones, Microsoft is conspicuous by its near absence:


Android's UK Market Share Grows 634% in a Year

Apple has been named the number one smartphone brand in the United Kingdom but Android use is growing extremely fast.


Will Microsoft be able to buy its way in? Will it be able to market a product that is 'good enough'?


(Note that I consider fair competition to be essential for a healthy marketplace...)

IT is what we make it!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Linux netbooks round 2?


Asus Ultra-Thin Netbook Goes Official, Under $200

Various online retailers are now taking pre-orders for the super-slim Asus Eee PC X101 netbook.

Who said the netbook was dead? Not Asus who on Thursday officially launched the ultra-thin, MeeGo-based Eee PC X101. As promised earlier this year, the device sports a $199 pricetag and will begin shipping in September although several online vendors like PCSuperStore and Directron are already taking pre-orders.

Under the hood (what there is of it), the netbook sports a single-core Intel Atom N435 or N455 processor, 1 GB of DDR3 memory (up to 2 GB max), 8 GB of SSD storage, 2 GB of DropBox cloud storage, 802.11 b/g/n connectivity on the 2.4 GHz band, a 0.3MP webcam and a 10.1-inch LED backlight WSVGA (1024 x 600) screen.

Other features include a 3-cell battery offering up to 4 hours, two USB 2.0 ports, an SD / SDHC / MMC card reader, Bluetooth v3.0, stereo speakers and a headphone jack. ... Linux-based MeeGo open-source OS ...

... Asus will eventually offer the X101H model which will reportedly sport Windows 7. There's also mention that this model is slated to have more RAM, a higher storage capacity, a VGA port and possibly a 6-cell battery...


I like the comments for the Windows 7 version. Meanwhile, the single core CPU and 1GB RAM are more than powerful enough to run the MeeGo system. Why pay for bloat?!


IT is what we make it!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Two startling bits of news:


Microsoft contributes a lot of changes to Linux kernel 3.0

The 343 changes made by Microsoft developer K. Y. Srinivasan put him at the top of a list, created by LWN.net, of developers who made the most changes in the current development cycle for Linux 3.0. Along with a number of other "change sets", Microsoft provided a total of 361 changes, putting it in seventh place on the list of companies and groups that contributed code to the Linux kernel. ...


YouTube: OSCON 2011: Karen Sandler

Startling. Unbelievable for the stance taken by the regulatory authorities, medical profession, and the lawyers. This comment sums up nicely:

This video blows away my mind,

I never imagined someone would be talking about "software in my body" in my lifetime ... all the more important to have enough eyeballs to make bugs shallow (paraphrasing from Torvalds quote)




IT is what we make it!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

snip

YouTube: OSCON 2011: Karen Sandler
Martin

Awsome & also a thought provoking video. I normally skip the whole viewing process on videos like this, but here, I watched the whole 14 minutes.

2 YEARS & Still waitng for the FOI Request?

...& patients are pre-empted from sueing? Does the FDA know something the public don't?

....& if the device's software is Linux, isn't that covered by the license & the source code should be revealed?

---

snip

YouTube: OSCON 2011: Karen Sandler
Martin

Awsome & also a thought provoking video. I normally skip the whole viewing process on videos like this, but here, I watched the whole 14 minutes.

2 YEARS & Still waitng for the FOI Request?

...& patients are pre-empted from sueing? Does the FDA know something the public don't?

....& if the device's software is Linux, isn't that covered by the license & the source code should be revealed?

Some more news that adds to the urgency to have the code openly peer reviewed:

Insulin pump attack prompts call for federal probe

Security of medical devices questioned


For some things, there is no acceptable compromise of your freedoms!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

... current IT courses, which sound suspiciously like a modern version of a secretarial course.

I think that is the nub of the problem for the miss-naming and pretence with calling the teaching of 'basic computer skills' something far more grandiose...

So we need to admit that Computer Science and IT are not being taught in our schools in any meaningful way.

Regards,
Martin

Google chairman agrees:

[Google chairman Eric Schmidt] said he had been flabbergasted to learn that computer science was not taught as standard in UK schools, despite what he called the "fabulous initiative" in the 1980s when the BBC not only broadcast programmes for children about coding, but shipped over a million BBC Micro computers into schools and homes.

"Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it's made. That is just throwing away your great computing heritage," he said.

---

I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that ...

The problem with much of today's society is that they just want things to work - how it works is not their concern.

An example, had one of my regulars ask to provide him with a wireless desktop set so he could use them while resting in bed (has computer attached to a very large LCD TV).

On picking the set up on Friday, asked me to go with him to set it up....DUH...

Showed him on one of my rigs as I didn't fancy a 40min round trip....his reply - "Is that it?"

Currently with Linux, I'd prefer the world to use it...as here it would more than likely increase my income 1000 fold......

---

I have posted before about this very issue as a recently retired College IT Lecturer. I'm not going into it all again.

Suffice it to say that I still believe that Linux, good though it may be, will always be a minority niche OS. It will never have the prominence that Windows or Apple does.

For the very reason that Suave Hair shampoo is a marginal product at less than 1/2 the cost of major brands with fancy names and fruity sounding extracts. The funny thing is that when you read the label its the same product.

In essence, People feel better about the quality of a product when they pay more for it.
My Uncle worked in sales for Mennen products a couple decades ago. Mennen came up with PERT shampoo. they decided to sell it very cheap. So cheap that people thought that it was an inferior product. They eventually tripled the price and well Pert is still on the shelves at a steeply inflated price just so people will feel good about buying it.

long story short. people feel that free or inexpensive products are inferior to expensive ones. Needless to say they are very wrong.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Sorry for digressing off topic from Linux, the point there is that yes, it is a cheaper OS, but you do need a certain level of expertise to use it, and there isn't as much software, or hardware drivers around for it as Windows. But it is undeniably getting more popular.

"Isn't as much software", very likely true, though with WINE not as significant an issue as it might appear.

"Aren't as many hardware drivers", very hard to assess, does Microsoft provide hardware drivers for HP-PA RISC based systems? For Oracle/Fujitsu SPARC based systems? Linux does, and plenty of other types of hardware. Perhaps you meant for Intel x86 based equipment, where it might be true that Linux does not have as complete a set of drivers as Windows. It is generally the case that third party hardware vendors (e.g. motherboard manufactures) have historically provided drivers for Windows in advance of other Operating Systems, though this is changing as the user base for Linux (particularly corporate users) grows.

"You do need a certain level of expertise to use it", indeed, about as much as expertise as it takes to use a smart phone.

---

I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that ...

This is building to be quite a "Gangsta" roll-call on the back of Linux systems:


Microsoft milks Casio for using Linux

Go penguin, you're often paying Redmond


From even just the first comment:

There's just something cold, calculating and downright nasty about that statement. And there are people who are happy to do business with these arseholes?

One day, their day of reckoning will come. When it comes, I'll be standing on the sidelines and cheering as those trolls get reamed with their own weaponry. I hope it's hard, relentless, and doesn't stop until there's nothing left but smouldering ruins. I hope I find myself in a position to put a few boots in myself. Yes, that's a nasty statement to make. At least I'm being honest about my animosity. ...


I think you can almost taste the deep foul loathing from what can be viewed as the brazen extortion being perpetrated. Will Google similarly succumb?

So... Microsoft sells Linux?! Innovation be damned!


It is all a question of ALL our freedoms,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

"Aren't as many hardware drivers", very hard to assess

What is a driver? A hack that lets a printer print a basic page in a default way? Or the manufacturer's driver that lets you access 100 proprietary options? Once you settle on what a driver is, they you can count them.

---

"Aren't as many hardware drivers", very hard to assess

What is a driver? A hack that lets a printer print a basic page in a default way? Or the manufacturer's driver that lets you access 100 proprietary options? Once you settle on what a driver is, they you can count them.

Some hardware vendors provide proprietary drivers for Linux (e.g. ATI and NVidia), others provide open source drivers (e.g. Intel and HP), some provide none. Personally I use the open source ATI graphics card drivers as I have found them to be more stable than the manufacturer's.

As I said, it's hard to assess, and while I appreciate data is not the plural of anecdote, what anecdotal evidence I do have, based on my own experiences with a self assembled system comprising of:

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 motherboard
Intel Core i7-980X
OCZ Vertex EX OCZSSD2-1VTXEX60G 2.5" 60GB SSD
6 x 2 TB Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS HDD
6 x 4 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Series RAM
HIS IceQ X Turbo H687QNT1G2M Radeon HD 6870 Graphics Card
Pioneer Black Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer
HP Photosmart C7280 WiFi Printer/Scanner/Fax

Linux support for hardware is adequate for my requirements. Linux exposes some metrics of hardware components that are not provided natively in Windows, for example cpu and core temperatures. With regards to printing, the hplip project software provides all the functionality I used prior to switching from Windows to Linux. It's certainly more than printing a basic page in a default way.

I do still use Windows, via virtual machines, mainly due to Apple's refusal to provide drivers for the iPhone/iPod/iPad.

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I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that ...

I do still use Windows, via virtual machines, mainly due to Apple's refusal to provide drivers for the iPhone/iPod/iPad.

..so Apple's tied into microsoft now? I thought the Linux world had good developers....slipping up there, aren't they?

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