Baldy’s Paradox

Mac OS and Linux become legitimate enterprise choices, says Joe Habraken

TORONTO — Windows may no longer be the behemoth in the world of the operating system, as Apple and trends like virtualization, Linux-based systems, and Web-based applications emerge as the next step in the evolution of the OS.

Speaking at the IT World Canada-sponsored IT360 event Tuesday, Joe Habraken, an assistant professor with the University of New England and an author of numerous IT books, said that Apple could be the new competitor to beat in the enterprise market. He said, “I think the biggest threat to Microsoft (depends on) how some of the Mac Intel hardware evolves.” The growing emphasis on multimedia applications and visual communication could also tilt the balance in favour of Macs, he said.

Source: It Business

~LC

Toshiba’s Italian channel sales and marketing operation reportedly is considering offering pre-loaded Linux in its Tecra, Satellite, Portege, and Qosmio notebook lines, according to a story published online last week in the Il Sole newspaper.

Luigi Cattaneo, country manager for Toshiba’s Italy Computer Systems Division, reportedly acknowledged that Hewlett-Packard and Acer own more than 50 percent of the Italian Windows laptop computer market, and that one way for his company to move ahead would be to offer pre-installed Linux as an option, the newspaper reported.

Cattaneo said that in order to make headway in the SMB (small- to medium-sized business) market, his company would have to market notebooks in the 500-Euro range, and to do that, a Linux OS would be a requirement, the newspaper reported.

“The corporation is seriously talking about this, and we are evaluating attentively the question,” Cattaneo was quoted as having said. “It is a potential business to which we do not want to close the door.”

Source: Desktop Linux

~LC

“KDE Four Live” CDs/DVDs

May 1st, 2007 by james

Saw this on digg today. You can try out KDE 4 snapshots using a specially built live CD for that purpose. If you don’t feel like compiling it from source, this is a good way to see the latest and greatest KDE has to offer.

Source: TriedIt

~LC

NEW YORK (AP) - The co-founders of the popular video-sharing site YouTube are among the winners of the annual Webby online achievement awards announced Tuesday.

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley were named People of the Year for creating a site credited with transforming the media landscape and reshaping politics, pop culture and more. NBC has used YouTube to promote its shows; political activists have posted clips with spoofs and speeches of candidates.

The site even got the attention of search engine leader Google Inc., which paid US$1.76 billion for it last year.

Lifetime achievement awards went to David Bowie, whose projects blend art and technology, and to the EBay community and its chief executive, Meg Whitman, for changing how people connect and interact worldwide.

New categories were added this year for film and video, with best actor and actress awards going to “Ninja” from the “Ask a Ninja” video series and Jessica Lee Rose, who became an instant online celebrity as fictional video diarist “Lonelygirl15.”

Source: Yahoo News

~LC

Okay I have posted and posted about the results of the magic hex number that has Digg in turmoil and other sites in hot water as well. So here you go the hex code that allows a linux user to view HD-DVD’s without problems,

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

It’s the HD-DVD processing key you can use to decrypt and play most HD-DVD movies in Linux. Movie studios are going ballistic over this leak.

The truth is the numbers are fine it is having the knowledge of how to use them that will stop some users from being able to take full advantage of them, however here they are for those that can make use of them.

Have fun and don’t tell anyone where you found it. LOL

Technorati Tags: Linux, Software, Programming

To say what happened today on Digg was a “user revolt” is an understatement. The Digg team deleted a story that linked to the decryption key for HD DVDs after receiving a take down demand and all hell broke loose. More stories appeared and were deleted, and users posting the stories were suspended.

That just got the Digg community fired up, and soon the entire Digg home page was filled with stories containing the decryption key. The users had taken control of the site, and unless Digg went into wholesale deletion mode and suspended a large portion of their users, there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop it.

Digg CEO Jay Adelson responded on the Digg blog earlier this afternoon but it was clear he did not yet understand the chaos that was coming. The post only added fuel to the fire. Just now, co-founder Kevin Rose posted yet again on the Digg blog, effectively capitulating to the mob’s demands: He says

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.

Until today, it seems, even Digg didn’t fully understand the power of its community to determine what is “news.” I think the community made their point crystal clear.

Vive La Revolution.

Earlier coverage on CrunchGear.

Technorati tags: News

Source: Digg Surrenders to Mob

Blog: Apparently very upset at the news aggregate site for deleting articles that contain a key that could be used to crack the digital rights management on HD DVDs, Digg users inundate the site with thousands of recommendations to pages that contain the code.

(Yes even Digg can get censored, and yes it is shame that infomation is hidden from the public by companies that are worried about fattening their wallets while ripping off the general public, and if that won’t work they sue. Baldy)

 

Technorati tags: News

Source: Unhappy Digg users bury site in protest

In 2004, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. In 2007, Dell, a top computer manufacturer, is introducing pre-installed Ubuntu Linux on its main PC lines. The worlds of baseball and the desktop will never be the same. In both cases, people worked long and hard to reach the top. In Linux’s case, the top is the recognition that it is not just a hobby operating system, and that it is not an operating system that’s only for servers. With its arrival on Dell’s desktops, Linux has proven that it can compete in the same league with Mac OS and Windows.

 

Technorati tags: Linux, News

Source: What Dell’s desktop Linux move means

I talk about Linux a lot and very often hear that people who tried Linux move back to their Windows installation. It is, in my surroundings at least, very rare that somebody switches to Linux completely. It seams that Linux is not yet regarded as a primary OS by the main audience. In past times the reason for this was obvious, the installation of Linux was difficult and required a lot of tweaking to get it work. Also there was no real support other than user forums. I myself love the concept of a friendly and helpful community but it is not every bodies cup of tea. Especially people who don’t speak the language of the digital world have to take a big step before they post a question on a forum. Since a few years the support has improved a lot. You can buy distributions like Suse which are packed with a guide. Also the installation has improved a lot, though it isn’t perfect yet. No, there has to be another reason why people stick to Windows.

Source: Why people stick to Windows®

Dell plans to offer the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system on its computers, the company announced Tuesday. In a partnership with Dell, Ubuntu’s distributor Canonical will provide technical support and service to Dell customers for an additional fee. Both Dell and Canonical hint that this could be just the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship. Although speculation has been rampant for weeks that Dell would soon roll out computers preloaded with Linux, the company has been tight-lipped about any specific plans.

(okay it is not the distro I said it would be, I was wrong on that part of the deal, however it is a step in the right direction. And if enough folks purchase a linux loaded Dell who knows maybe Mepis or Vector loaded computers will be on the horizon, Baldy)

 

Technorati tags: Linux, News

Source: Ubuntu Linux Coming Soon to Dell PCs