Viewing all posts under Editorials


Apple's patent win. The Jury foreman speaks out. What does this mean for Linux? 08/31/12

Quite a remarkable interview carried out by the BBC with the foreman of the jury that awarded Apple over $1 billion in damages from their rival Samsung for breach of patent. I suggest jumping over to BBC to read the full interview and consider the role that the foreman had in coming up with this judgement. I'd like to hear what the community thinks the consequences of this ruling will be for Ubuntu and Linux in general.  (Please make your voice heard in the comments below). Although I don't worry too much about A...

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Hardware Failures 02/01/10

While perusing through Digg, I found it interesting to note that both the Linux and Windows users have something to say about hardware failure issues. I found it interesting, that regardless of software issues, both groups of "observant" users have come to realize that the hardware quality (read that as "robustness" - is there such a word?) may have declined? The Digg entry pointed to this post: "Computing, Even in Linux, is All About Failure". It's just an opinion, but it seems to me that tod...

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Some of the Best Linux Videos 12/08/09

I had some spare time over lunch today, and revisited some of the best Linux video links that have been sent to me. Some of them are really great (and we've probably seen before), but I just wanted to share them as it's nice to watch cool things from time to time... Flying Penguins: Prodigy: The Web Site is Down: Ubuntu's Da Bomb: Promoting Linux: Super Villain: rm -rf: For ...

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What About Linux? 12/03/09

It's been a while since I "seriously" posted on this blog, as I've been super busy. One of the things I do in my work is custom build desktop computers and servers for clients. There's been a sudden demand for new desktop systems. While talking to clients, they've all danced around the issue of having Windows 7 installed on their systems, suffice it to say, every Windows user (I built systems for)  opted to have WinXP Pro installed (no Vista and no Win7). Personally I found this an interesting trend...

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Some Things Linux Can Do, That Windows Won't. 12/01/09

I had an interesting chat with a friend today, part of which dealt with the differences between Windows and Linux (hence this post). In a nutshell, he was trying to grasp why I really preferred  Linux. He wanted to get into the meat and potatoes of the issue - Why Linux? Funnily, on the spot, I found it easy to surmise all sorts of motivations and reasons as to making Linux (in this case Ubuntu) my primary operating system. In particular much of the discussion revolved around the uses of various op...

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Some Things Linux Can Do, That Windows Won’t. 12/01/09

I had an interesting chat with a friend today, part of which dealt with the differences between Windows and Linux (hence this post). In a nutshell, he was trying to grasp why I really preferred  Linux. He wanted to get into the meat and potatoes of the issue - Why Linux? Funnily, on the spot, I found it easy to surmise all sorts of motivations and reasons as to making Linux (in this case Ubuntu) my primary operating system. In particular much of the discussion revolved around the uses of various op...

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Converting VMware Images to VirtualBox – A Simple Method 06/20/09

When I need to run a Windows based application on my trusty Ubuntu Hardy box, I don't use Wine. Don't get me wrong, it's just that I don't want to have to manage the Wine environment and prefer to have Windows and it's associated applications tucked away in it's own virtual system. This way if I need to run a Windows application... I simply boot up the Windows system and run whatever application I want. More importantly, I run several distributions of Linux in virtual environments. This way I don't have to worry abo...

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Making Your Ubuntu System Read Out Loud 06/18/09

I had an interesting morning playing with my Ubuntu (Hardy - 8.04) system. I just created a nice new desktop, with super effects and graphics and wondered if there's not a way to create a more customized "ear candy" environment (since I've already covered the eye candy aspect). I discovered that Ubuntu (and most likely other Linux distributions) has a speech synthesis package included, it's called espeak. In my system, it was installed by default. If you don't have it available, the command to install is: s...

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Mono – Discussion With a Developer 06/17/09

Earlier I posted Mono in Ubuntu, Yes or No? It was a post where I learned a bit about the issues surrounding Ubuntu's default inclusion of Mono. During that post, I arrived at the position that it should not be included by default (and that I'd prefer to remove it from my system). A developer that uses Mono, provided a lengthy, well thought out comment post. It was a comment that I think all users, both pro and con should consider. I strongly believe the heightened emotions and zealotry (is there such a word?) needs ...

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Mono in Ubuntu, Yes or No? 06/16/09

It seems there's a fair bit of discussion (heated at times), about the current issues with Mono being installed by default in Ubuntu Linux. I've seen and read some of the flame wars currently in blog posts and forums. Seems that an ordinary person like myself can be easily mislead if not properly informed. The following post is simply my opinion, I'm not suggesting that it's fact. I asked one of my blog readers ("ql"): "What’s the scoop with mono (I don’t use it), I’ve seen a fair bit of flame wars over it...

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