Cool at the MacBook is, Bill says he’ll be waiting a while before he buys his: Free Software for Intel-based Macs. “I’ve been considering getting a new MacBook Pro – the specs are very nice, it’s a real desktop replacement, and even though there are some weird things like a slower DVD drive and a lower-res screen it would be a good computer… But there’s one thing that’s ruled it out…”
[Resigned to the Bittersweet Truth]
Archive | Linux
A UNIX-like operating system.
Speaking of great GNHLUG meetings….
… as I mentioned GNHLUG’s next quarterly meeting, DLSLUG organizer Bill McGonigle posts the audio, slides and video from the last quarterly presentation, featuring Doug McIlroy, an instructor at Dartmouth and a retired manager from AT&T Bell Labs where he worked with Kernighan, Ritchie and other lights of the era. Thanks to Bill for the hard work of taking sub-optimal audio and video and preserving this very special presentation!
Slides are in OpenOffice format. Audio is a 64 Mb MP3 file, Video is a 348 Mb MP4 file suitable for playing with VLC or QuickTime. Thanks to the Internet Archive for hosting the video!
‘Numbers of flaws’ is a flawed measure of security
Garrett Fitzgerald’s Blogs Apples and Oranges. “In a recent post, Craig Berntson trumpets about a recent CERT report that “proves” that Windows is more secure than Linux. What he doesn’t mention is that the “Linux/Unix” list lumps together the Linux kernel, Mac OSX, HPUX, SCO Unixware, and others. So, when comparing 1 OS against 6 or more OSs, the 1 OS comes out ahead. What a surprise.”
Over at Groklaw, the poster does a fine job of pointing out the problems with just quoting the gross numbers from this survey. It would be far better to identify how many security flaws led to major exploits and the costs of the cleanup. Trivial items are counted one-for-one with items that cost millions to clean up, exploits are listed multiple times (on both Windows and non-Windows platforms).
Bottom line: security is a process, not a feature. Millions more computers were turned into spam-sending zombies, and not just because they are running a more commonly-available operating system. They were exploited because the OS runs as an administrator with the rights to alter anything on the machine. Only one OS manufacturer shipped software that has that fatal flaw.
Windows XP ‘runs’ as well as new Linux distros on old hardware
Ars Technica post: Microsoft study finds Linux to have no advantage on older hardware. “Microsoft has published a new study that attempts to refute the claims that Linux runs better than Windows on older hardware. Do they have a point, or are they just blowing smoke?” By jeremy@arstechnica.com (Jeremy Reimer).
“Curiously, if you look at these results closely, they seem to confirm the idea that Linux will run on older hardware, at least if you are talking about Slackware and Knoppix specifically. However, overall the two operating systems ended up about the same. While this does tend to discredit the idea that “Linux runs faster on older hardware,” at the very least, it runs no worse.”
“The other point that the study brings up is that some distributions fared significantly better than others. This leads into the third major benefit that Linux fans like to tout, the diversity and customization available with Linux that is not available with Windows.”
It’s good to hear that Microsoft is working to make their software work on existing hardware, rather than expecting customers to buy new. But the comparison still misses the choice factor: you’re more likely to want to run a 5-year-old machine as a file server in the back room, or a utility kiosk with very limited functionality. With Linux, you can run the machine without a GUI only (just text-mode) or with a minimal window manager. With WinXP, you’re pretty much stuck with what Microsoft provides you.
Yet another very cool GNHLUG meeting…
What : Open Source Development and Productization
Who : Tim Burke, Director of Fedora Project and Kernel Development at Red Hat
When : Tue, 24 Jan 2006, at 5:00 PM
Where: Walker Auditorium, Robert Frost Hall, SNHU
GNHLUG, NH IEEE/ACM, and SwANH are privileged to host a joint presentation: Tim Burke, Director of Kernel Development for Red Hat Software, and Director of the Fedora Linux Project. He will be speaking on how Red Hat balances its role as community steward and purveyor of enterprise products. The event will take place at 5:00 PM, on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006. It will be in the Walker Auditorium, in Robert Frost Hall, at Southern New Hampshire University.
GETTING THERE
Campus Map: http://www.snhu.edu/212.asp
Robert Frost Hall is #2 on the map.
Directions: http://www.snhu.edu/209.asp
ABOUT THE PRESENTATION
Open source development is rapidly gaining momentum due to developer interest as well as empowerment to end users. This presentation will describe Red Hat’s approach to balancing the interests of community, customers, and business partners. We will see how open source projects are integrated to form our distribution and how Red Hat fosters and contributes to the community development process. This approach can serve as a model to others who are trying to understand the intersection of free open source software and business.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Tim Burke is the Director of Kernel Development at Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise. The Kernel Development team is responsible for the core kernel portion of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Burke is also the Director of the Fedora Project, an open source project sponsored by Red Hat and supported by the Fedora community. In his role as Fedora Director, Tim leads both internal and external community projects with the ultimate goal of product incorporation. Prior to becoming a manager, Tim earned an honest living developing Linux high available cluster solutions and Unix kernel technology. When not juggling bugs, features and schedules, he enjoys running, rock climbing, bicycling, and paintball.
ABOUT GNHLUG
GNHLUG, the Greater New Hampshire Linux User Group, is a not-for-profit organization committed to furthering the cause of Linux and Free/Open Source Software in and around the Granite State. GNHLUG has chapters and regular meetings in Nashua, Durham/UNH, Concord, Peterborough/Monadnock, Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee, and Manchester, as well as a state-wide online community. http://www.gnhlug.org
ABOUT NH IEEE/ACM
The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) promotes the engineering process of creating, developing, integrating, sharing, and applying knowledge about electro and information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and the profession. The New Hampshire Section of the IEEE hosts periodic technical and professional talks, and provides professional networking for technology professionals. http://acadweb.snhu.edu/Isaak_James/ITseminars/
The ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) is a non-profit educational and scientific society dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences, and applications of information technology. The Greater Boston Chapter of the ACM (GBC/ACM) is a sponsor of monthly meetings, full-day professional development seminars, and publisher of The Real Times. http://www.gbcacm.org/
ABOUT SwANH
The Software Association of New Hampshire (SwANH) promotes and supports the software and information technology industries throughout the State. SwANH sponsors networking events, educational programs through its SIGs and affiliates, and discount programs that provide members with opportunities to gain information, connect with resources, grow their businesses, and succeed. http://www.swanh.org
Competing feature sets in WRT-54g firmware
Recent network problems have had me switching around a couple of Linksys WRT-54g routers. While researching the optimal firmware and feature set, I found this great table comparing WRT-54 firmware on the http://www.linksysinfo.org web site.
Do LUGs matter? Yes!
Slashdot asks Do LUGs Still Matter?, pointing to an article by Joe Barr, writing for NewsForge. The answer for all UGs hasn’t changed: User Groups matter if they matter to you. If there’s something you want out of a LUG and you’re willing to put some effort into a LUG, amazing things can happen. Everyone knows of a LUG that’s faded: there’s a natural rhythm to LUGs like all organizations. A leader with fire in his/her belly drives the group to new heights, burns out or gets distracted, and the group declines. A new leader may emerge or the group may fade away like the Cheshire Cat, leaving nothing but an empty web page or two.
The Greater New Hampshire Linux User Group is on another power climb, not its first, nor hopefully its last. Active volunteers are running chapters in Nashua, Peterborough, Hanover, Concord and Durham. A Python Special Interest Group shares many of its members and the groups resources and gives us a presence in Manchester as well.
In the past year, member of the group were present at Linuxworld Boston, the Software Association of New Hampshire InfoeXchange annual conference, the Hosstraders ham radio swapfest, the McAuliffe annual teacher’s conference, and Software Freedom Day.
LUGs can matter as much as you want them to.
Linux Certification
Over at Linux Watch, Stephen J. Vaughn-Nicholls opines “You don’t have to have a Linux certification to get a job working with Linux, but it can’t hurt.” I’m a big fan of certification, as I think eventually the vendor- and industry-level certification will be viewed as Continuing Education requirements for Licensed Software Practitioners. I’ve lectured about this years ago. I’ve also practiced what I’ve preached, earning a Novell CNA, Microsoft Certified Professional, Certified Solution Developer, Certified System Engineer and MySQL Core Certification through the years. I also worked as one of the lead authors for Microsoft’s Visual FoxPro 6.0 Distributed Applications exam, so I appreciate the difficulty of creating a legitimate certification.
Like a diploma, some certificates may just be an attendance report crossed with a good deal of bulk memorization, but it also shows a willingness to work within the system. A four-year degree generally indicates a bit of patience, too. But on the flip side, remember what they call they guy who graduates at the bottom of his class in med school: “Doctor”
Certification can be what you make of it. An educational opportunity, a means of self-evaluation, and a chance to distinguish yourself in the marketplace.
Dabo goes video!
In “Dabo Part I: The AppWizard,” Andrew Ross MacNeill interviewed Ed Leafe in a videocast demonstrating the Python n-tier framework dabo. Ed was so impressed with the power of video presentations that he’s tried his hand at it himself. Check it out at http://leafe.com/screencasts/codedemo.html. Ed used dabo on a Fedora Core 2 workstation and recorded it using pyvnc2swf and Sound Studio on the Mac. Very cool!
The Difference between Red Hat and Novell
Over at Linux-Watch.com, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols posts The Difference between Red Hat and Novell which in turn points to Matt Asay’s essay by the same name. Interesting to read an inside and outside view of the situation.