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Content Tagged with opinion + unix-linux
Is Linux really necessary for the desktop?
On Internetnews.com, Christopher Saunders asks if Linux is really necessary for the desktop. He relates a discussion he had with a creative/marketing executive recently, and the doubts that this executive has about the ability of open source alternatives to meet his company's needs.
Coming home to Vim
Over three years ago, I was faced with a dilemma. I had recently switched to the Mac (from Linux) and was still using my text editor of choice (vim), but at the time, vim’s “integration” with OS X was pretty minimal (and that’s putting it optimistically). I experimented with emacs, but it never clicked for me, and honestly, emacs on OS X wasn’t all that better than vim at the time. Sadly, reluctantly, I said good-bye to vim and switched to TextMate.
Is .NET on Linux Finally Ready?
Microsoft's .NET framework on Linux is getting a big boost with the official release Monday of Novell's Mono 2.0.
The Mono 2.0 release is Novell's open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET platform. With the latest version, the gap between the two is getting smaller.
Even though Mono 2.0 is compatible with Microsoft's .NET 2.0, it's not in full compliance with the latest .NET releases from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). The Mono effort is important as it is intended to enable .NET (define) applications to run on Linux.
Sun: OpenSolaris 'pretty freaking amazing'
While the top brass at Sun Microsystems might seem to be clueless about the company sometimes, there are plenty of people who know where the bread gets buttered - or doesn't. They know that Solaris and the servers that run it are what really matter at Sun. And that means Sun's OpenSolaris project and its related Solaris commercial distribution are still the key to success or failure for Sun Microsystems.
Bye bye, Mac OS X?
If you follow my blog, you know that I've a bad attitude towards Apple's gear, even though (or just because?) I've been an Apple user for three years now. I've been frustrated by a) lack of support for Java updates, b) Mac OS X not performing as I need (Linux on the same hardware box is faster) and c) the scarce quality of my MacBook Pro (first generation).
Why Switch to Linux?
In an interesting post on Lifehacker, the editors ask the readers "Why did you switch to Linux?" The question drew quite a lot of interesting responses, including some very offbeat reasons for why people made the switch. If you're under the impression that people switch solely for rebellious or "fight the man" reasons, here are some of the more interesting responses and trends that they point to.Why Can't LINUX Win Against Windows?
an articale disscuss reasons makes linux can not win against windows in the computer worldTorvalds: Fed up with 'security circus'
Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, says he's fed up with what he sees as a "security circus" surrounding software vulnerabilities and how they're hyped by security people.Miguel de Icaza: Gtk+ 3.0
The Gtk+ 3.0 proposal being discussed currently sounds like a disaster for GNOME. The reasoning was first articulated in the histrionic Imendio Gtk+ 3.0 Vision presentation done at the Gtk+ Hackfest in Berlin. This is a meeting where application developers were underrepresented, and somehow we have accepted those proposals as the community consensus.Don't compare GNU/Linux with Windows or MacOS - they are not in the same game
Recently a blog post entitled “Why Desktop Linux is its own worst enemy has come across my feed-radar a few times. It’s yet another in the long line of “Linux ain’t ready yet” jeremiads and it doesn’t really say anything new yet it got on my nerves. Why?Why Is So Hard for Windows Users to Understand That Linux Is Not Windows
This is just a rant (hopefully it will be regarded as pertinent and non-'laming') on why Windows users try Linux and return frustrated to Windows after several hours or days. I won't praise Linux and the way it works, I won't even compare and say 'here Linux is easier because ...', instead I have a few questions for all of you who blame Linux for not being and behaving like Windows.Should IT consultants pay for their stupid mistakes?
We’ve all done it, but nobody likes to admit it: You delete all files, and there’s no backup. Your momentary, calm puzzlement at rm’s cryptic response, and the subsequent silence of ls is followed by a tsunami of horror and disbelief as you look back through your command history to find that you accidentally added a space between “*” and the file extension.Version labeling is out of control
Anybody who spends time trying new free software applications and distributions will soon notice that version numbering and labeling is next to meaningless. These days, versioning rarely gives an accurate idea of the state of development, except relative to other builds of the same project. It is simply a label that distinguishes one build from another. That's too bad, because a properly labeled release can give users a sense of how advanced the build actually is.rm -r /* -- a lesson in policymaking
I am not a system administrator. However, I am a software engineer, and responsible for administrating systems. As technical director, it is also my responsibility to create policies. Knowing that systems can be compromised, I know a policy needs to be in place for protection. Not allowing all engineers to run constantly as the root or super user on a Linux box is a good place to start. What happens though when I do not heed the warning of my own policy?Solaris and OpenSolaris - do they still have a viable future?
OpenSolaris 2008.5 promises better packaging and distribution. The push to to make OpenSolaris more easily accessible convinces this blogger to give Sun technology a 2nd look again.Business Logic vs. Free Software Idealism
These days, business and free software co-exist with little friction. Although you still find some members of the free software community who automatically view business with suspicion, for the most part the community considers the multibillion dollar open source industry as a validation of its beliefs. Business and free software are so closely intertwined that kernel developers Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton are employed by the Linux Foundation, a non-profit consortium of corporations. But in recent months, this cooperation is showing signs of becoming strained.Linux On The Desktop: Who Cares!
Every so often, you read on Slashdot, Digg, or some other techie news site that Linux is finally ready for the desktop. It's finally to the point that any end user could sit down at a computer and happily compute away. The applications are sufficiently sanitized and Windows-like that even Grandma can use them. I think it's fair to say that most of our previous conceptions of "ready for the desktop" are moot points.LessThanDot?
Mark Smith talks about a new IT community site (named LessThanDot) aimed at providing forums, wikis and blogs for the community to discuss ideas, share knowledge and learn from the expertsIt's time to retire "Linux ready for the desktop"
Quite a few reviews of new Linux releases these days try to determine if a distribution is "ready for the desktop." I myself have probably been guilty of using that phrase, but I think it's time we officially retire this criterion.Rebuilding the build server on every build
I argue that with virtualization, there's a lot of compelling reasons and few downsides with not only rebuilding your applications from scratch regularly, but also rebuilding your _build server_ from scratch on every full build.Android Developer Challenge Entries
To mark the closing day of the Android Developer Challenge we thought we'd cover some of the contest entries that have been emailed into us.RailsBeans
As I'm writing every web interface using Ruby On Rails under Linux, I needed to find a good editor to help me work on the Rails apps (normally I used TextMate under MacOS X, but know I have a Linux box at work). I come from the VIM school and I really never be interested in IDE (Integreted Development Environment) as I prefered something simpler and faster to edit my programs and files.What I learned from contributing to an Open Source project
Seven things Mike Desjardins learned by participating in an Open Source project.Tomorrow's Successful Software and Technology Businesses
A look at what aspects of the products and research from top technology companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google and Nintendo demonstrate successful innovation.Documentation: Give it up; it won't happen
Is providing Linux documentation an insurmountable task? I'm starting to think so. The major technical book publishers have dropped their efforts to recruit authors and publish sysadmin books. Instead, they have started focusing most of their attention on programming.Microsoft and Innovation
Here, in no particular order, are just a few thing that the "evil empire" came up with first.Inside Google Android paranoia
While the mobile Linux community has reacted positively to Google's Android, the new platform has also given it some cause for concern. The arrival of a giant player area with very clear ideas of role it wants mobile Linux to fill was bound to ruffle a few feathers and, despite public proclamations of "welcome" and "support", the Linux establishment is showing a few cracks.Poll: Linux vs Windows for Web Hosting.
What of these operating systems is best suited for web hosting?/usr is flawed
Recently I had a strong discussion with a couple of linux enthusiasts regarding the filesystem hierarchy and /usr in particular which motivated me to write a blog about it. For those who might not know, /usr is the place where linux systems place hold almost all of their application files.Developing For Linux
Swaroop has an interesting post why developing closed source applications can be difficult on Linux. A Linux distribution is like an assembly of various components, and each of them has alternatives, except the kernel. This variety and loose coupling is what gives flexibility and choice to the user.
Of course this also means that the developer now has to work much harder to ensure compatibility across all these alternatives. The permutations and combinations are too many to test against all of them, it can be a nightmare for the testing department.Windows Programs Sometimes Run Faster On Linux Than XP
The post presents few examples where programs written for windows run faster on linux compared to windows XP. As odd as it sounds, its real and questions need to be asked why an emulation platform can provide such a performance advantage... The author of the post doesn't specify much, but is a good read and some nice benchmark links!!Solaris and OS X
I loved Tom Yeager's article The next best thing to OS X. As several people have noticed at my talks over the past few months, I no longer carry a Mac laptop. As much as I love the Mac's eye candy, it really hasn't been keeping up as a developer's machine - their attention has clearly been elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Solaris folks have made huge strides in Solaris's usability on a laptop with recent Nevada builds: the latest Gnome is quite lovely. Firefox, Thunderbird and Silverlight kick ass. The new installer is totally slick. The nwam (network automagic) service makes network hassles almost totally disappear. And Java, NetBeans and Glassfish go like the wind! It's amazing how fast things run.Can Linux developers adopt Eclipse as application developemt platform ?
Eager to shed its reputation as a tool just for Java developers, Eclipse has quickly embraced newer languages such as PHP, Python and Ruby, as well as older ones like Ada, COBOL and C. The same is not happening on the Linux side. Only 9.6% of downloads of eclipse are for Linux platform compared to 86.7% of downloads that are for Windows.Red Hat in Flux? Is JBoss to Blame?
According to an article at CNET , Jason Maynard at Credit Suisse is downgrading Red Hat's stock from "outperform" to "neutral." But it's not because of their financial performance.
According to Maynard, the downgrade was because of JBoss loss of confidence in Red Hat's JBoss integration, or that JBoss is going to meet expected sales targets.Solaris for Java development?
Considering all the tool support, I'm really interested in Solaris again. I noticed that a new version was released yesterday, Solaris Express Developer Edition 9/07. It has a new installer that includes drivers for more wireless cards. That seemed to be one of the big hindrances in the past. I know the latest JDK will be there, and NetBeans IDE too. So that's already two big pros to consider.Book Review: OCaml for Scientists
Thorough and impartial review of this functional programming book that places OCaml for Scientists among the all-time great programming books.
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