Miguel de Icaza, leader of several interesting Open Source projects, says that Cringely makes nice but incorrect statements in claiming that you can’t win playing Microsoft’s game, and proposes his own strategies.
“In Miguel de Icaza’s latest blog entry the Mono project leader discusses the threat Longhorn’s new technologies and frameworks pose to Linux and open source. He also directs uses to this recent USENET post about the goals of Mozilla, which is a very interesting read.” From OSNews.com
Matt Asay, director of Novell’s Linux business office, suggests that Linux needs to avoid trying to be an “almost clone” of Windows and win on its own strengths on the desktop, in this interview with “WhatPC” magazine. Link via OSNews news story, “Novell’s Linux Gamble is Paying Off.”
OSNews follows up on a response to esr’s recent CUPS rant. Making things easy is really hard. There are still areas that need to be addressed, on all platforms. *What it Really Takes to Get Good Usability on a Product*. John Gruber wrote a public response to Eric Raymond’s articles regarding bad usability/UIs on many open source applications. “Good user interfaces result from long, hard work, by talented developers and designers. The distributed, collaborative nature of open source software works for developer-level software, but works against user-level software. […] Technical documentation is also hard work, and requires talent to be done well. Writers need paychecks, too” says John. Short commentary follows….
Mac OS X hints reviews TrailBlazer – a new idea in presenting browser history. It’s about time someone took this one on. How many times have you recalled a web page you’d seen recently, but been unable to find it? Wouldn’t you like to have a Google on your own machine, for your own browser history? This is a move in that direction. Great idea!
TrailBlazer – The browser history file rethought. The macosxhints Rating:[Score: 10 out of 10]Developer: MacWarriors. Posted on macosxhints
Interesting story here of a fellow switching out his laptop for a Mac Powerbook, and how he was able to continue to function in a nearly pure Windows environment with the Mac’s software compatibility and just a few third-party tools. The benefits of having a Mac helped, too! [OSNews]
I’m been talking with a couple developers who are working on a project in Python and they offered to give me access to the source code. I was interested in trying it out on the Mac. In order to do that, I needed the SubVersion client. I visit http://subversion.tigris.com, and there are instructions for downloading it, using a tool called fink. It turns out that fink is a friendly front end for the apt-get and dpkg tools of Debian, modified for OS X usage. Lots of packages available, but first I have to download and install fink. Fink has an optional GUI, Fink Commander, and I throw that in the mix, too. After install, of course, fink needs to be updated to the latest versions. Doing that fails, as Fink is depending on certain Apple developer tools being available. Surfing the Apple site for a while tells me the developer tools are right here on my hard drive, under “Installers.” I install the Apple developer tools. Fink updates. I try to install the SubVersion package, and it fails with an error about a java14-dev package it can’t find. After trying a few variations on the command, I hit Google and find a link that tells me I need the Java 1.4.2 SDK update of the Apple Developer Tools from the Apple site.
Going to the Apple site reveals that you have to register at the Apple Developer Connection. I register. Plodding through the interface, I attempt to download the Java SDK. It fails. Three times. I log out, and back in to the ADC. I download and install the Java SDK successfully. I try to install the SubVersion package again. Finding all these delightful tools on my machine, it attempts to recompile everything it can find, text scrolling by for an hour before it reports an error. It seems that the X11 server I have has a conflict with the XFree86 server it wants to install, and it tells me there is a way to resolve this, but I can’t understand the instructions. A little more surfing and I find the page on the fink site (http://fink.sourceforge.net/doc/x11/inst-xfree86.php) that explains the difference between Apples X11 and XFree86, again, with instructions I can’t understand. I read it, three times. I could just uninstall the Apple X11 server, but I installed that in order to run OpenOffice.org, and Apple’s X11 was the recommended choice. I walk the dogs. I break for dinner.
I read it again. I decide it wants me to install the X11 SDK that comes with the Apple X11 package. Can’t find it on a search of the Apple site, but digging around on the hard disk in the Installers folder finds it and it installs. Update fink, per the instructions, and then try to rebuild “fink install system-xfree86” with no luck: “no packages to install.” Return to the shell for installing svn and try that process again. It asks me to pick the correct ‘virtual packages’ for python and apache I go with the defaults. It informs me it needs to install 34 dependent packages (down from 52 the first run, iirc) including such things as ruby, guile, Python and Apache, and I tell it to continue. Mindless text scrolls across the terminal as make and compilers and sh and rm fight for notice. Staring at the screen just lets me catch glances at warnings about missing prototypes and implicit declarations; nothing I feel I have a lot of control over.
I fall asleep at the machine at 9:30. The dog scratch at the door at 5:10; time to get up. Compile completed successfully. I download the packages from Subversion without a problem.
No wonder Open Source development takes so long.
With Novell’s annual BrainShare conference in full swing, Novell’s making the headlines. Here’s a sampling:
Torvalds: Outside threats to Linux. During a surprise guest appearance at Novell to Combine Best of KDE and Gnome. Novell’s Linux-oriented divisions, Ximian and SuS… [OSNews]
Linux on the Desktop, Part XIV: The Novell Years. Novell, the up-and-coming superchum of Linux who has recently acquired both SuSE and Ximian, wants to toss its hat into the “desktop panacea” ring and pontificate on the future of Linux on the desktop (with Novell products in the server closet). [Ars Technica]
Q&A: Novell’s Messman and Stone weigh in from BrainShare. Novell’s top two executives, CEO Jack Messman and Vice Chairman to the CEO Chris Stone, talked about Linux, the future of grid computing at Novell and more in separate interviews. [Computerworld News]
Novell: VPN for Macs, iFolder, Linux Certification, Migration. [OSNews]
Siemens, SuSE Linux partner on sales. Siemens Business Services GmbH & Co. OHG (SBS), the IT service subsidiary of German electronics giant Siemens AG, has agreed to a sales partnership with Novell Inc.’s newly acquired open source software vendor, SuSE Linux AG, the companies said Tuesday. [InfoWorld: Top News]
I don’t think even a ThinkPad stands a chance against a Powerbook.
However, I’ve intalled Fedora Core 1 on a second hard drive in my THinkPad (A31p) and have been delighted with the capabilities and compatibility. Hope to document some more of what I’ve done soon…
In the meantime, Doc blogs… ThinkPad vs. PowerBook, Round 1.
Driving to Laptopia is my latest SuitWatch at Linux Journal. Comments welcome (at the bottom of the piece, not here).
[The Doc Searls Weblog]
Microsoft Apologizes For Previous Anticompetitive Acts. [OSNews]
Ed Leafe has posted a note recently on his ProLinux mailing list pointing to this article, and OSNews joins in today: GNU Screen: an Introduction and Beginner’s Tutorial. Screen lets you have multiple virtual terminal sessions and toggle between them all from one terminal. You can also detach from a session and reattach later. Ideal if you have a costly or infrequent dial-up connection and you want to log onto a remote machine, start some tasks and check back on their progress later.