Tuesday, 1. September 2009
This seems to be the cry of the hard core Linux and open source community in regards to the next release of Windows. Currently, most of the Linux camps are gearing up for all out war. Being a Linux and Open Source geek, I understand why we all seem to be bracing ourselves for a battle, but I think we might be going over the edge a bit on this one.
Friday, 28. August 2009
I must admit, this is quite a surprise, even for me. While pricing a PC for a client, I was shocked when I calculated the total cost of the software that they are required to use for their business.
The cost of software is one of those things that most business owners understand, but very few employees grasp. While there are open source alternatives available for these software packages, chances are that the client will elect to purchase this software, but as always, I’ll sure give him the option to try something different.
Thursday, 20. August 2009
First off, let me be clear that this was not my idea. I was told about this whole concept by Mike Rubel @ Cal Tech. He’s the rocket scientist behind this whole idea. Now that we have our “Credit Where Credit is Due” portion out of the way, let’s get into the whole rsync backup concept.
Wednesday, 19. August 2009
I have to admit, I’m a bit jaded regarding software and computer support. It drives me crazy when the person I’m dealing with is reading from a script. This is one of the reasons I rarely call or contact support when I have a problem. The web usually does a great job as an information resource. But, sometimes the web doesn’t have the answer, and sometimes you need to look deeper for help.
Most folks in the open source community are used to “leaning” on each other to solve problems. That’s what we do. But all those poor people out there that run commercial software can get close to the same level of help and support from their local user groups and clubs in their community!
Try self support and go to a user’s meeting. Learn how we do it in the Open Source Community, and never sit on hold with a help desk again!
– Stu
Tuesday, 11. August 2009
Recently, I was chatting with some ‘Non Geek’ friends about the software they run on their home PCs. I was not surprised to hear that most of them ran a Microsoft OS and almost all Microsoft software. What was a surprise, was how many of them did not purchase the software for their PCs, or did not pay the license fees for every PC that was running the software on.
Wednesday, 5. August 2009
As my dad used to say, “Sometimes, the Dragon, he wins…”. For quite a while now, I have been on a mission to try to move my wife over to Open Office. She is a devoted Microsoft user, and runs the only jointly owned PC that has Windows as it’s primary operating system. Now, I’m not a totally anti-Microsoft, and I do believe that a person has the right to use whatever software they like, and are willing to properly license. But I really have a problem with paying for any software license when an equivalent Open Source option is available. I can’t seem to get through to my lovely wife, that Open Office will do all the things she uses MS Office for. The really sad thing, is she won’t even try Open Office. She gets mad if it’s on her PC! And when I ask her why she is against using it, she has the following reasons:
Monday, 3. August 2009
Wow, who would have thought that an open source project could do so well against the big “M”. Experts are saying that Firefox now has 32% of the browser market. This is probably the net result of all those crap plugins and the rest of the shoddy code that Micro$oft has been dumping on to the Internet these last 15 years. Looks like people are finally getting wise, at least when it comes to browsing…
Maybe this is a sign that the end user is starting to get it. Maybe Open Office, with it’s safer interface to the network, and it’s open standard file format will make a play for the end user desktop… Or maybe not…
Regardless, with this news, we can all say that open source has made a difference in a lot of peoples lives, and will continue to do so for a long time to come!
Congratulations Mozilla developers, you’ve done good!
– Stu
Friday, 31. July 2009
Looks like yet another change in KDE that messes with 3.5 users… Seems someone decided that the Autostart folder was a bad idea. This after having the Autostart folder in every KDE release I can remember.
Well, it seems that KDE 4 has adopted the same type of startup program control that Gnome has used for years.
Ok, let’s say that you want to start, oh I don’t know… Let’s say you want to start Krellm at login. here are the steps:
Monday, 20. July 2009
First of all, thanks to all who attended the SCLug meeting on Saturday. I had fun talking with everyone there.
I wanted to follow up with some written examples of the KVM command lines I demonstrated at the meeting. I know I seemed to go over this stuff kind of fast, so I wanted to elaborate a bit in text.
Wednesday, 15. July 2009
If you’ve been around electronics for any period of time, you know that as the weather gets hotter, equipment failure rates also climb. With the increased use of digital cameras and digital video, as well as all the other information we store on our digital devices, the failure of any electronic device could result in information loss.
Here are some quick tips that might save you from having to deal with data loss. Let’s just call them words to live by in a digital world.
