The Open Source Advocate

Linux NIC teaming recommendations

2010-02-06T19:16:00.011Z

Introduction

In my job as a network engineer, I am constantly looking for ways to increase the availability of the network. This is especially true in the data center, where services are expected to always be available. One of the ways to increase the network availability of a server is by using multiple network interfaces. This technique has many different names, but I am just going to call it NIC teaming.

Purpose of NIC Teaming

NIC teaming increases network availability by removing single-points-of-failure (SPOF). These SPOFs are components that will cause a service outage if they become unavailable. If we consider a single network connection from your server to your switch, we can identify quite a few SPOFs:

Server NIC failure
Network cable failure (such as being cut or unplugged)
Network switch failure (such as a planned firmware upgrade or unplanned outage)

Methods of NIC Teaming

The reason I am writing this blog is to help people understand the different options for NIC teaming. If you search the Internet (like I did), you will be hard pressed to find a standard NIC teaming setup that works across all operating systems. You may not be able to find a listing of pros/cons and requirements of each NIC teaming strategy.

In order to fully understand the NIC teaming options available in Linux, please read the official Linux Bonding How To. I am only going to cover two of these options, which are the two that I am going to recommend.

Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)

The first recommended NIC teaming strategy is called "Adaptive Load Balancing" (ALB). This is specified in Linux by using bonding mode = 6.

"Adaptive load balancing: includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic, and does not require any special switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation."

When you use ALB, you should plug each NIC into a different switch. This removes all three SPOF mentioned above. Additionally, it provides a basic level of load-balancing. I highly recommend using ALB for NIC teaming, because it offers the most advantages without requiring special configuration on the network switch.

IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation" (LACP)

The second recommended NIC teaming strategy is called "IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation" (LACP). This is specified in Linux by using bonding mode = 4.

When you use LACP, you are required to plug all NICs into the same switch. You should only use LACP if you have an internally redundant switch, usually in the form of modular cards or a proprietary stack of switches. Additionally, you are also required to configure the switchports to use LACP. Once you have met all the requirements, you will have a great network connection. LACP can have the same fault-tolerence as ALB, and it has a better load-balancing than ALB.

Summary

Most people should use ALB (mode=6) for NIC teaming their Linux server because it is the simplest method to achieve fault-tolerance and load balancing. If you require higher bandwidth, and you have an internally redundant switch, and you can configure your switchports to use LACP, then you should use LACP (mode=4) for NIC teaming.

Here are a few links on how to configure NIC teaming in Ubuntu Linux:

HowTo do Ethernet Bonding on Ubuntu – Properly

UbuntuLTSP Trunking

Caveat: I am a network engineer, and not a server engineer. It is my goal for everyone to increase their server's network availability with this knowledge. If you have an opinion on this topic, please share it in the comments. Thanks!

Is ZipTie a good candidate for a fork?

2009-09-13T14:51:00.000Z

I have followed the ZipTie project ever since it's first release . If you have not heard of ZipTie, it is an incredibly powerful open source network management tool that allows you to discover and manage hundreds of network devices, all with an easy to use interface. Does that sound too good to be true?

First, I'll give you some background. The project was created in November of 2006 and was sponsored by a company called Alterpoint. This was great because they funded four developers to work on ZipTie for over two years. Here is a link to my first review of ZipTie:

I started using ZipTie on a university network that contained hundreds of network devices. ZipTie automatically discovered my devices by crawling the network. Then it automatically made a backup of my configs, and kept a history of revisions that I can use to recover from. Additionally, I can send commands to hundreds of devices at once, saving me countless hours of time. The amazing thing about ZipTie was that I could accomplish all this with just a few clicks using the well-designed graphical interface.

Things were going great, and ZipTie continued to improve by adding more features, support for more types of equipment, and better stability. ZipTie also created the ZipForge, which is a place for network engineers to upload scripts to perform specific actions or to support additional device types.

Problems started to appear when the company sponsoring ZipTie, Alterpoint, decided to change the project from the Mozilla Public License (MPL) to a proprietary license that they created. At the same time, they changed the name from ZipTie to Network Authority Inventory (Yes, from two syllables to ten!). You can read my opinion of these changes on a previous post.

The most recent news about ZipTie is that the entire development team was laid-off, and Alterpoint was purchased by Versata this spring. Since that time, there has been no mention of what will happen to ZipTie. Judging by the fact that they fired the development team, it doesn't look good.

Is ZipTie a good candidate for a fork?

When discussing the benefits of open source software, it is often mentioned that the code can continue to live on, even after the sponsoring company fades away. Is this possible with ZipTie? In my opinion the value of the code is very high, so it would be a shame to see it simply wither on the vine. So what will it take for ZipTie to live on as a new project?

Does the MPL license allow ZipTie to be forked? If so, what is required? I'm assuming that we may need to rename the project, since the name is probably trademarked. Here are some possible names that I have come up with:

NIZ = NIZ Isn't Ziptie
NINEZ = NINEZ Is Not Exactly Ziptie
PUNT = Powerful Uncomplicated Network Toolkit
VUNE = Virtual Unpaid Network Engineer

Please provide feedback on what the next steps are in this process. I am not a developer, so I will not be able to contribute progamming skills, but I bet that there are programmers who are interested in working on this project. If you are interested in helping with this project in any role, please post a comment.

Thanks Interweb!

Random Ubuntu Planet Spam?

2008-12-09T04:35:00.004Z

I just wanted to share that I have no idea why a random selection of my older posts decided to jump on the Ubuntu Planet again. I know that this sort of thing happens when I edit an old post, but I had nothing to do with this recent incident.

When is it wrong to fix a typo? On the planet

I apologize for all the noise, and I'll try to figure out what happened. Thanks for your understanding! :)

ZipTie: New features, new name, new license?

2008-11-15T08:50:00.002Z

Introduction

It has been over a year since I last posted about an exciting open source project called ZipTie. We use ZipTie to automatically discover our network devices, backup their configurations, and perform a variety of functions related to these devices. Many things have changed with ZipTie since my last post and I want to share those with you. I'll start with the positive changes first, because I am a positive type of person.

New Features

The most obvious improvement is the slick web interface that replaces the previous Java fat client. This interface is powered by Adobe Flex, so it has a great look and feel to it. Having a web interface also simplifies deploying ZipTie, because you don't have to worry about installing a Java application and all the required dependencies. Check out the screenshots:

ZipTie has also added a great community resource called ZipForge, which is a place where anyone can publish custom tools that perform specific functions on network devices. This forge makes it easy to create these tools, without forcing the contributor to learn a lot about ZipTie internal functions.

The new release also adds the ability to gather information about end nodes on a network. This means that I can find out which port a device is plugged into simply by entering the IP address (or MAC address) into ZipTie.

I am not going to list all the improvements in this post, but I will tell you that these developers have been hard at work making ZipTie into an incredibly useful tool.

New Name: NetworkAuthority Inventory

Alterpoint has funded the development of ZipTie from day one. A handful of full-time programmers have been working on ZipTie for over two years, funded completely by Alterpoint. The ZipTie open source community has been growing steadily as this application matured, but most community contributions were in the form of beta testing and ZipForge tools. In the last year, Alterpoint began using ZipTie as the core engine inside their proprietary applications. In case you can't make the connection, these products are the ones that make the money that is used to pay for the open source developers working on ZipTie.

I have often wondered why Alterpoint decided not to advertise their products alongside the ZipTie project. Indeed, their name and commercial branding was almost non-existent on the ZipTie website. The Alterpoint folks must have been thinking the same thing as me, because they have completely overhauled the ZipTie website and changed the name of the project. ZipTie will now be called NetworkAuthority Inventory. The new website has Alterpoint branding and provides information about their commercial offerings and what features you will get if you buy them.

I strongly feel that it is appropriate for Alterpoint to push their products, given the fact that they are paying for ZipTie to be developed. It is important for people to realize that Alterpoint needs to make money if they are going to continue spending resources on this project.

Regarding the new name, I personally don't like it because has five times more syllables than "ZipTie".

New License: No longer open source?

Here is a message from the lead developer of ZipTie regarding the license change:

ZipTie has, up until 10/28/2008, been licensed under the MPL. Now that ZipTie has moved into our NetworkAuthority brand of products, we wanted to put a GPL license on it. Unfortunately, our use of EPL software prohibited us from using the GPL. To get around this, AlterPoint is licensing NetworkAuthority Inventory under the Open Technology License (OTL). It basically reads like a GPL.

This is the area that I am most concerned about. Alterpoint has changed the licensing of this project from Mozilla Public License to a custom license created by Alterpoint. I am not a lawyer, but my conclusion is that this license severely limits the rights of users. Because of this, I do not think it can be considered an open source license. Alterpoint has taken an open source project and turned it into a closed freeware application.

Now, I think I understand the reasoning behind this decision. Alterpoint needs to find ways to make money if it wants to survive. Using ZipTie as the core of their product stack is a great way to benefit from open source development and introduce users to their commercial products. However, changing ZipTie into a proprietary application is not required to accomplish this!

The business model that accomplishes what Alterpoint is trying to do has recently been named "Open-Core Licensing". This model works by building core functionality as open source software, and then adding proprietary features on top of that core. As I will discuss in a future post, a successful open source business provides many benefits to the community and the project.

What can we do about this?

What can we do to encourage Alterpoint to continue using an open source license? There is always the possibility of forking the previous version of ZipTie that was released as MPL. However, forking a community should always be considered a last resort after all other options have failed. Even if ZipTie was forked, I don't know how successful it would be because 99% of the development is being done solely by Alterpoint employees. In theory, the threat of a fork is supposed to prevent software vendors from mistreating open source communities.

I think the best thing we can is do at this point is educate Alterpoint about the benefits of using an open source license for their core product. If the community really cares about this issue, perhaps Alterpoint will re-evaluate their licence.

I think we also need to address their concern with the GPL being incompatible with the EPL. I believe that the Alterpoint wants to use the GPL license because it offers the most protection from other businesses using ZipTie code inside their products without contributing their changes to the project.

Can anyone answer that question? Both Eclipse and Wikipedia state that the licenses are incompatible. However, Ed Burnette from ZDnet points out that EPL code is found within Red Hat Linux:

Take, for example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux. RHEL contains both free and non-free programs. It contains programs covered by GPL, EPL, Apache, BSD, and every other conceivable license. The last paragraph in section 5 says this is OK even though they’re conveyed as a single aggregate.

Is there another OSI license that would be a good fit for this project, and still be compatible with the EPL?

The evolution of open source software

2008-11-15T08:47:00.000Z

Introduction

If you have followed this blog for a while, you will know about my passion for open source software. I have always predicted that open source software would revolutionize the software industry, but I didn't quite understand how this would happen. My initial views expected that open source would disrupt traditional software companies so much that it would eventually put them out of business. I am now realizing that the future of open source software looks much different than I first expected.

Proprietary software will be quietly built on open source software

One of the primary benefits of open source software is that it reduces the cost to produce software. Gartner agrees with this point; open source software is the most efficient method to create software. Traditional proprietary software vendors are realizing this fact, and are beginning to quietly build their closed software products using lots of open source software.

I say "quietly" because these companies are not going to announce that they are using open source software. In fact, they will prefer if this fact is not known by their customers. There will even be some software companies who choose to use open source in violation of its license, and it is important for us to detect and prosecute this exploitation. However, most companies will abide by the open source licenses.

Gartner has predicted this trend of building closed software with open source elements:

By 2012, 80 percent of all commercial software will include elements of open-source technology. Many open-source technologies are mature, stable and well supported. They provide significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership and increase returns on investment.

Ignoring this will put companies at a serious competitive disadvantage. Embedded open source strategies will become the minimal level of investment that most large software vendors will find necessary to maintain competitive advantages during the next five years.

Re-using code is not a completly new idea to software companies. These companies have developed internal libraries of software that they can use in multiple products without having to re-write the entire application from scratch. Open source simply expands on this concept. Rather than being limited to an internal software library, open source software provides an enormous global library of software that is worth $25 billion dollars!

Another way to look this is with the example of building a car. Open source software can provide the wheels, frame and engine of a car. This allows a proprietary software vendor to simply add the final touches that make the car unique to them. This development method greatly reduces the cost to build the car, because the software vendor does not have to "re-invent the wheel".

I see open source software being used all the time when I look at closed products on the market today. Let's look at the example of a DNS appliance. You can bet that over 90% of the code used to create the appliance is likely to be open source code. The operating system is Linux, the DNS server application is Bind, and a variety of subsystems are probably open source. The DNS appliance vendor adds their 10% of value and then sells it to you as it they created the entire thing! This is not necessarily a bad thing, I just want you to realize what is happening.

Open source software vendors will become more closed

There are many open source companies who have formed to meet the need of supporting open source software. These companies are experimenting with various business models that take advantage of the large user base of open source software. Most of these models started by simply offering support services, and the software project remained 100% open source. As the global economy goes through hard times, I believe that these types of business models are not sustainable.

What we are going to see are open source vendors who continue to contribute to a 100% open source project, but they will also add some special value that is only available to paying customers. This is already being done successfully by companies like Digium, the creators of Asterisk. Their Switchvox appliances are based on the open source Asterisk PBX, but it adds proprietary features that give customers a reason to buy the product.

Both Savio Rodrigues and Matt Asay have predicted this evolutionary trend of offering proprietary elements to an open source project. Savio Rodrigues has even gone as far as saying "that proprietary is going to be the savior of the OSS business model".

Before you get upset about proprietary software tarnishing open source, please look at the bigger picture. Open source vendors have paid for enormous amounts of new development to open source projects that would have taken many years of volunteer work. These resources were paid by venture capitalists who invested funds to develop open source businesses. If these business do not succeed, they will no longer be able to employ full-time programmers to work on open source projects. Hopefully you can see how this would have a negative impact on open source.

In my opinion, open source vendors and open source communities provide mutual benefit to each other. The community gets free development resources, while the open source vendor gets money from the subset of paying users. This relationship needs to thrive to realize the maximum benefit to both parties.

So, is this change good or bad?

My prediction is that proprietary vendors will use more open source, and open source vendors will become more closed. The line between these categories is going to become very blurred as they converge around a common middle-ground.

While this evolution of open source is not what I had predicted, I feel positive about these changes. If you are an open source advocate, you should be excited. In the future, not only will you have the same access to open source software that you do now, but successful companies will hire full-time programmers to daily improve upon that software.

If you are a proprietary software user, you should also be excited. This is because open source software will reduce the overall cost of developing software. In the long-run, competition will force these cost savings to be passed to the consumer.

What do you think?

Do you agree with my predictions? Do you agree that this is a positive change? Either way, please let me know with a comment below.

DimDim 4.0 is here!

2008-08-11T02:35:00.007Z

I blogged about open source web conferencing software a while back, but I wanted to share this significant update of the DimDim project. They have justed released version 4.0 of their software which adds significant functionality and makes DimDim a serious competitor to proprietary web conferencing solutions like Webex and GoToMeeting.

Because there are so many new features, I am only going to list my favorite ones below. For a full-list of features, go visit the DimDim website.

Recording and Archiving
Any Dimdim session can be recorded and made available with the click of the mouse. Simply press the record button. You can email the recording URL or grab an embed code and paste it on your blog or website. You can even upload your recording to YouTube or Blip.tv.

Mac Screensharing
Mac users can share their desktop with other Mac (and even Windows) users - even if they aren’t using Dimdim. With Mac live screencasting you can share your desktop with anyone (it’s like iChat within a browser.)

Multiple Presenters
With a single click you can let any attendee share their desktop, whiteboard, webcam or documents. You can always grab back control of the meeting with another click.

Free Conference Calls
While we’ve improved our free VoIP microphone sharing, many users asked for a conference dial-in so more people can use their traditional phones. Now every user gets their own unlimited free conference call account.

Single click to Start or Join Meeting
Start or join a meeting in seconds with a single click. All you need is the meeting room name or the meeting URL.

Zero Install
You don’t have to install any software even to host a meeting, share your webcam, whiteboards or PPTs. The first time you choose to share your desktop you’ll be prompted to install our live screencasting software. It’s a tiny 1.8MB install and comes with an uninstaller if you ever want to remove it.

Easier to Use
Based on user feedback, we’ve removed confusing tabs, popups, dialog boxes and links. Now Dimdim is not only faster and more powerful - it’s actually even easier to use. A single click is all it takes to share your desktop, your whiteboard, or your PowerPoint presentation. Click to share. Click again to stop. The item being shared is clearly indicated with an eye icon and darker background.

What is the DimDim business model?

DimDim is a great option for anyone who prefers to use open source software. The source code is always available on their website if you want to host your own web conferencing that includes all of the features of DimDim. They even offer a virtual appliance that can be used for a painless install of DimDim. If web-conferencing is a critical part of your business, you might consider purchasing services from DimDim.

For those who don't want to worry about installing and managing a DimDim server, DimDim offers several hosted options.

As you can see from this diagram, DimDim offers free hosted web conferencing for meetings with up to 20 users. If you need more web conferencing capabilities, they offer hosted services at very reasonable rates.

If anyone is using DimDim, please write a comment and share how it is working for you.

Reminder: Physical access = Root access

2008-07-10T04:04:00.006Z

Today I needed to reset a password on an Ubuntu system. While doing this, I was reminded of just how simple it is to get root access on a default install of Ubuntu. I wanted to share these steps on this blog to remind people that if someone has physical access to your Ubuntu system, they can get root access in just a few seconds.

Boot up your computer
When asked, hit "Escape" to enter the GRUB menu
Select the option that displays "recovery mode"
Select the option labeled "root prompt"
You are now logged in as root with the ability to change anything

It is really just that simple. This root console is great for advanced users who need to reset a password, but the average user will have no idea what to do. For instance, here is how I found the main user of this system:

root@laptop:~# cat /etc/passwd | grep 1000:1000
tristan:x:1000:1000:Tristan Rhodes,,,:/home/tristan:/bin/bash

This output shows that there is a user named "tristan" who is the main user of this system. Next I needed to reset the password for that user. So I entered this command:

root@laptop:~# passwd tristan
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
root@laptop:~#

Next I was able to reboot the system and login as "tristan" using the new password I created.

Can this process be improved?

Like I mentioned above, the root command prompt is not the most user friendly interface ever invented. At best, it is confusing to new users and at worst it is very dangerous. So how can this be improved? Well there are already some great ideas floating about, and thanks to the powerful Ubuntu Brainstorm website you can see what people have said about this topic. One of the more popular ideas is a Graphical Recovery Mode. If you want to help make Ubuntu better, please vote on the ideas you want to see implemented or even post your own ideas on the Ubuntu Brainstorm website.

Is there any way to prevent root access?

Many people may choose to give up the simple password recovery in the interest of securing their system. There are many different ways to do this including:

Use a BIOS password that prevents the computer from booting
Use a GRUB menu password that prevents the computer from booting
Use an encrypted file-system that requires a password to use

I'm sure there are other ways to do this, so please provide your input in the comments below.

Stop the press: Watch the news with Linux!

2008-06-22T23:47:00.006Z

For the past three versions of Ubuntu, I have tested seven news websites to find out if I could watch their video feeds using Ubuntu. You can read the results for 6.10 and 7.04, and 7.10. Each time, I was disappointed to learn that a majority of the video feeds did not play correctly on Ubuntu Linux. This time, however, something amazing has happened.

I don't know which stars aligned to cause this, but every single news website that I tested with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS now has a correctly working video feed! I wasn't expecting this great of an improvement when I began this series of tests. I always knew that it would happen eventually, but never this quickly.

So what is the reason for this change? The video news sites have obviously realized the value of having a cross-platform video player. Market share gains by Linux are still small, so it is more likely the growth of Mac OS that led to this change of thinking. Be sure to thank your local Mac OS user for their help in forcing these news websites to stop using Microsoft-only video players and providing a way for Linux users to watch the news!

ABC News

Sound: YES (Improvement!)
Video: YES (Improvement!)

BBC News

Sound: YES (Improvement!)
Video: YES (Improvement!)

CBS News

Sound: YES
Video: YES

CNBC

Sound: YES (Improvement!)
Video: YES (Impovement!)

CNN

Sound: YES
Video: YES

Note: You can skip advertisements by clicking on the video you want to watch as soon as the advertisement begins to play. This currently only works in Linux, and they will probably patch this hole eventually.

FOX News

Sound: YES
Video: YES (Improvement!)

Note: FOX News has a volume problem that causes the advertisement volume to be MUCH louder than the story volume. If this tactic is intentional, they should know that this is a great reason NOT to watch their news videos.

MSNBC

Sound: YES
Video: YES

Vyatta: Growing up quickly

2008-05-18T14:59:00.024Z

For those of you who don't know, Vyatta is an open source network appliance that functions as a router, firewall, and VPN device, all running on a customized version of Debian Linux. I have been following the progress of Vyatta for over a year now, and things are looking very promising. The latest release is called VC4 (Vyatta Community edition) and it includes a bunch of useful new features:

New command shell allows you to modify Linux settings and network settings from one common interface
Redesign of routing protocol offers greatly improved stability and performance
Role-based user access
Equal-cost multi-path routing
Remote access VPN
Support for IP tunneling protocols
PPPoE support, commonly used with DSL connections
WAN load balancing of outbound traffic across two or more WAN-facing interfaces
Quality of Service policies provide congestion management and traffic conditioning

As you can see, a lot of exciting changes have been made in the short six months since the previous release. The routing improvements are related to the change from XORP to Quagga. The added QoS capabilities will make Vyatta a good fit for VoIP deployments. The only negative to this release is that Vyatta had to temporarily remove the GUI web-interface until they can integrate it, which is scheduled for July, 2008. Overall, Vyatta is becoming a a compelling option for replacing some of your over-priced network equipment.

Where does Vyatta fit in my network?

Vyatta can be deployed in several places on a network. The most obvious function for Vyatta is to replace your WAN routers and branch routers. Vyatta has made it easy to compare their products versus similar Cisco routers by funding third-party studies. You can read the results versus a low-end Cisco router and a high-end Cisco router. I am hoping that their next report will be a comparison with a security device like the Cisco ASA, which has similar functionality to Vyatta (router + firewall + VPN).

Another way to deploy Vyatta is within a virtualized infrastructure like VMware or Virtual Iron (which uses the open source Xen hypervisor). These technologies are often found in data centers, and are becoming more and more popular due to the advantages of virtualization. Vyatta can take advantage of the virtualized infrastructure because it runs on the same hardware as the data center servers. This means that you can install dozens of Vyatta network appliances in your server farm using standardized hardware, as opposed to buying proprietary network gear that is severely overpriced.

Keep in mind that Vyatta will not soon replace switches with high-density ports and high-speed backplanes. In these cases, hardware ASICS are required to achieve high performance at an efficient price.

What is the Vyatta business model?

The Vyatta open source project is sponsored by a commercial entity named Vyatta. All of the source code used to create Vyatta is freely available under the BSD or GPL license. Vyatta releases a community edition once every 6-months that is completely free to use. This community edition works great for testing environments, small deployments, and budget-starved projects. However, most serious businesses using Vyatta will require access to security updates and bug fixes that come out in between the community edition releases. These businesses will want to purchase a Vyatta subscription which provides software updates, along with two levels of technical support. Vyatta also sells a few hardware appliances that include Vyatta pre-installed and certified.

The future of Vyatta

Based on the tremendous improvements Vyatta has made over the past year, it is likely that they will continue to add new features, higher scalability, and more stability to their product. Planned improvements are listed in a public road map, and users can even vote for their favorite features. Customers with paid subscriptions get more votes than non-customers.

The road-map shows that Vyatta is going to focus on security and simplicity for the next release. The security improvements include adding intrusion detection and prevention (Snort), anti-virus (ClamAV), and SSL VPN connections (OpenVPN). The simplicity improvements will include an updated web-interface, and perhaps a cross-platform, clientless, remote-access VPN using SSL.

Disclaimer: My company sells Vyatta products and services.

Utah Release Party: Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenBSD

2008-05-04T20:16:00.006Z

Yesterday we held a release party in Salt Lake City, Utah to celebrate the release of several open source operating systems. The original announcement only mentioned Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Fedora 9, but we realized during the party that OpenBSD 4.3 was released on May 1st.

We were all happy to celebrate the goodness of open source, without arguing over which distro was better. The Fedora guys showed us some cool improvements, and the Ubuntu guys also demonstrated some neat improvements. The great thing about open source is that all of these improvements will be shared by both distributions in a future release.

I want to say thank you to our excellent sponsors who made this party a success. First, the amazing location was provided by the web-development company Code Greene. Second, the delicious Chipotle burritos were donated by the Utah Open Source Foundation, ran by Clint Savage. Lastly, thanks to the Fedora project who contributed funds, and Ubuntu/Canonical who contributed swag (including hundreds of 8.04 CDs).

Here is a picture of the three Ubuntu babies! This is the second release party for my girl Chloe (on the right).

We had an estimated 50 people at this party, but there is not one shot that includes them all. We do have physical evidence that 32 burritos were eaten and many people did not get one.

Here is Clint Savage doing his best impression of a good speaker. Just kidding Clint, you did a great job! Thanks for helping foster open source communities in Utah.
Notice the Fedora posters and foosball table in the background. This web-development company also has a kitchen, ping-pong table, an air-hockey table, a gigantic over-sized chess set, and a high-def theater that was playing the original Star Wars. Sounds like a great place to work!

Synching the open source release schedule

2008-04-25T13:00:00.017Z

Introduction

Both Mark Shuttleworth and myself have discussed this idea before. Because Mark brought it up again in a recent interview, I feel compelled to developer this idea further.

The main concept is that Linux distributions, and open source in general, have a lot to gain by synchronizing their release schedules.

Positive impact on the image of open source

Can you imagine the news articles that would be written if Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSuse all released a new version on the same day? Every six months, the world would see that open source has successfully delivered a new version on schedule. Mark Shuttleworth made a great point when he stated:

"We know when the next LTS will be probably with better confidence than we know when Windows 7 will ship. I would take that bet."

Once the distro releases become synchronized, it would create a huge incentive for upstream projects to synchronize on the same schedule.

Currently, we have upstream releases happening all over the calendar. For example, the newest version of Ubuntu includes a beta version of Firefox 3. It also includes OpenOffice 2.4, which is soon to be replaced by OpenOffice 3.0. With the power of a synchronized release, these upstream projects would work hard to get their newest versions into the distributions so that their users can start using the code sooner.

Creates efficiencies in software development

Open source is a very unique software development model, in that the code is freely shared between anyone who wants to work on it. This usually leads to great productivity from the worldwide development team that is formed.

However, there are some friction points in this model. Specifically, this friction happens when Linux distributions are working on different versions of an open source application at the same time. Mark addressed this point in his interview:

"Timing your releases drives a whole bunch of things. It means a greater ability to collaborate on bug fixes. If we are on the same versions of the Linux kernel, it is a lot easier for us to say, 'Hey, here is this patch to make this device work. Do you know any reason why we shouldn't put it in?'

You could just get so much more done at an engineering level between the teams. My engineers regularly collaborate with Novell and Red Hat and, of course, Debian. Barriers to that sort of collaboration are sometimes ideological but, in most cases, are just practical things. We are just on a different version so someone else's patch isn't going to apply. There's a bit of friction there."

How do we accomplish this?

I agree with Mark's short answer to this question. Simply set a hard date and modify your goals to make that release date. That greatly oversimplifies things, but it demonstrates that the long-term benefits of a regular release schedule greatly outweigh any negatives caused by postponing a feature into the next release.

In reality, there are a number of questions that need to be answered before this can happen.

1. On what date will the releases happen? Does it have to follow the current Ubuntu schedule of releasing every April and October?

Mark answered this question in his interview:

"We would be quite willing to revisit the elements of our release schedule in order to make that synchronicity possible, if the fact that we happen to do April and October wouldn't work for the majority of the distros. We would be flexible in that regard."

2. What amount of time should there be between regular releases?

Periodic releases every six months has worked very well for Ubuntu, but not all distributions are currently following that schedule. Six months also works great from a marketing perspective, because the release would always happen in the same months every year. Lastly, the open source motto is to "release early, release often". Six months is an attainable goal that balances the need for incorporating new features with the need for stability and quality assurance.

Call for civility

I understand that a post like this could lead to a distro war in the comment section. Please keep your comments civil and always show respect for other people's ideas. Hopefully, we can come up with some great ideas on how to improve open source software!

Win the desktop, and you will win the server

2008-04-17T11:41:00.004Z

Or, "Why Red Hat is pursuing the wrong business strategy"

Red Hat has recently announced that they have "No plans for a traditional consumer desktop". Let me explain why I think Red Hat needs to change their business strategy.

First, a short history lesson. Before the arrival of Windows NT Server, Novell Netware claimed 90% of the market for PC based servers. However, Netware made a near fatal mistake when they did not provide a GUI interface soon enough. This comes from the same Wikipedia page linked above:

While the design of NetWare 3.x and later involved a DOS partition to load NetWare server files, this feature became a liability as new users preferred the Windows graphical interface to learning DOS commands necessary to build and control a NetWare server.

So server administrators became familiar with Windows 95 on their desktop, and they naturally preferred Windows NT 4.0 which included the same interface.

Challenged by Ubuntu

Red Hat is in a similar position to what Novell faced, in that Red Hat is facing a time when server administrators will choose to run their desktop operating system on their servers. Specifically, I believe that Ubuntu will soon become the de facto Linux desktop. This means that server administrators will become familiar with Ubuntu and develop a trust for the brand. Eventually, they may choose to migrate to an Ubuntu standard on servers and desktops.

Most people agree that the real money is in server operating systems. If Red Hat wants to keep capturing that server money, they must provide a supported, free desktop operating system as part of a loss leader strategy.

Fedora is great, but it doesn't solve this problem

Don't misunderstand me, I know that Fedora is an excellent piece of software, but it has two fundamental problems. First, most average computer users do not know that Fedora is sponsored by Red Hat. This means that the Red Hat brand is not directly benefiting from the popularity and success of Fedora.

Secondly, Red Hat does not provide any support for Fedora. This means that many business cannot seriously consider running it on their desktops. How will these business get support if a problem comes up? How will they know that their applications are certified to run on Fedora? What if they want long-term support for older versions, without having to upgrade all the time? All of these questions are being answered by the Ubuntu ecosystem.

Red Hat, let me give you a hint. (If you want more hints, I am always available for consulting). Here it is: Change the name of Fedora to "Red Hat Enterprise Desktop" and begin to sell support for it. If you are lucky, it may not be too late to capture a large percentage of the desktop operating system market.

Remove the need for CentOS

Red Hat, I will even give you one more hint for free. Why do let CentOS steal your thunder? You have already published 99.999% of CentOS (everything except the branding). You graciously publish the source code to RHEL to abide by the GPL, but then you let another brand take credit for your work. How can you fix this? Easy! Simply provide a free version of Red Hat Server that is compiled and ready to be installed. Now your users will see even more of RedHat. RedHat on their desktop, RedHat on their servers, and they can buy support for all of it if they so desire.

Most embarrasing meme ever...

2008-04-15T15:40:00.008Z

What if this was your response to the command history meme?

$ history|awk '{a[$2]++ } END{for(i in a){print a[i] " " i}}'|sort -rn
2184 dir
1631 copy
560 edit
486 type
430 makedir
343 move
281 ipconfig
273 deltree
201 erase
164 format

And how come we never see a meme like this?

cat /etc/passwd;sudo cat /etc/shadow;netstat -plunt;ifconfig;sudo iptables -L

Note: Please do not post funny memes if they have destructive commands. The meme above will display private information about your system that should never be posted online.

Why do people make software for free?

2008-04-07T17:22:00.012Z

When I first tell people about open source software, one of the most common questions I get is this:

"I just don't understand why people would create software if they don't get paid for it! How does that work?"

This question makes sense, because we all know that people need to make money to provide for their families. And every good capitalist knows that the profit incentive is what drives people to create and innovate. This is true for many industries, but it does not explain why open source software is created. Here is how I answer this question:

The birth of an open source project

Most open source software projects were created by a programmer who needed a piece of software to accomplish a certain task. Rather than purchasing a commercial software product (assuming that one existed), this programmer decided to create the software from scratch. This programmer might have been paid by their employer to create the software, or the work might have been done on personal time. Instead of hording the newly created software, the programmer decided to share it with the world by publishing it under an open source license.

The birth of an open source community

This is where the open source story gets interesting. It is likely that somewhere else in the world, a second programmer has a need for some software that provides the same functionality. Rather than starting from scratch, this second programmer discovers the open source project that was recently created. This second programmer uses the source code to add new features and fix some bugs that they found in the application. This second programmer then submits these improvements to the first programmer, who gladly accepts them and incorporates them into the original project.

This cycle continues as more and more people start using the software. Most people will simply use the software, but a small percentage will contribute to the project. These contributions will be made by programmers, documentation writers, translators, beta testers, artists, web administrators, and many other important roles.

The birth of an open source business

As the community of users grows into the thousands, the size of the community eventually reaches a critical mass. This happens when a need develops for a commercial entity to provide professional services related to the open source project. This need is driven by businesses who require a support contract before they will use open source software. The commercial open source company is driven by a profit motive, but their success is directly beneficial to the open source community.

The future of an open source project?

I hope this post explains how many open source projects were created, matured, and became supported by open source businesses. Not all open source projects followed this particular evolution, but I think it is the most common life-cycle for open source projects.

What does the future hold for open source? It is always hard to predict the future, but if you have been watching closely you will see that traditional software companies have been investing in or purchasing these commercial open source companies. This means that in the near future, your traditional software vendors will actually be developing open source software, and trying to implement a successful business model based on open source.

Dual License model: Future of open source?

2008-01-27T22:10:00.000Z

I have noticed a trend developing in the business models of successful open source companies. These companies are implementing a business model that is based on dual licensing their software.

This press release provides an excellent summary of what dual licensing means.

The guiding principle behind dual licensing is "quid pro quo," or a fair exchange. Under this model, vendors offer their products under both an open source license and a commercial license. This allows open source projects to use the software at no cost, which contributes to widespread use and testing of the software and the fast growth of a large installed user base. Companies redistributing the software as part of commercial products can also get the benefits of the open source software by purchasing a commercial license, which releases them from requirements to publish their source code. Commercially-licensed customers generate revenue for the open source vendors, which contributes to the rapid development of high-quality software.

In an recent blog post titled "Giving and Taking", Asterisk creator Mark Spencer explains why dual licensing can be a good thing for open source.

The dual licensing model that Digium has chosen introduces an explicit monetary cost to choosing the proprietary route, thus providing greater direct incentive to people to choose to open their changes, and further allowing people who do not choose to open their changes to subsidize the work that Digium does with Asterisk by allowing us to add more open source resources (think Green Energy Credits here). In fact, our staff of open source dedicated programmers has more than doubled in 2007 alone!

The only people with a real reason to be upset feel that way because they cannot choose the proprietary route without paying a fee. In other words, it gets in the way of their desire to make money through proprietary add-ons without having to share in the cost of development of the underlying technology.

Alfresco explains why they prefer a dual license model.

Alfresco is an open source software company. We license 100% of the source code of our products – Alfresco Enterprise and Alfresco Community – under the GNU General Public License (“GPL”). This does not mean that Alfresco has released its software into the public domain – like any software creator, we own and retain copyrights, trademarks, and patents. Rather, it means that we author software like any software company, but license our software under an open source license that permits and encourages access to our source code, modification of this source code, and redistribution thereof.

For developers or organizations who wish to embed Alfresco into proprietary software products, we can accommodate this with a commercial license to our software (“Alfresco Enterprise”), which provides the benefits of our software without the requirements of the GPL. While we encourage everyone to use the GPL, we recognize that some prefer not to. For this purpose, we can provide a commercial license to Alfresco Enterprise.

The popular open source database MySQL (soon to be part of Sun Microsystems) also follows a dual license business model. They do a great job of briefly explaining the different license options on this page, and they also have an excellent FAQ on this subject.

MySQL's dual license model supports the company's mission: to make superior database software available and affordable to all. The dual licensing creates a circle that sustains both innovation and growth: MySQL channels the revenue from this viable open source business model back into support for its open source user community that, in turn, supports MySQL AB's commercial business.

The dual licensing business model is a "win-win" for all parties:
MySQL's open source community gets superior software for no cost
MySQL's commercial customers have the option of using reliable, community "battle tested" MySQL software for a relatively low cost
MySQL's business is healthy and viable, which also strengthens the open source movement

Open source legend Eben Moglen speaks highly of dual license business models.

"Dual-license products give customers who redistribute a choice in license terms," said Eben Moglen, professor of law at the Columbia University Law School and recognized as one of the world's leading experts on copyright law as applied to software. "Proprietary commercial licenses can offer customers fewer restrictions on inclusion in closed source products and enable open source software developers to grow strong businesses. This model is a win for the free software movement too, as it ensures that dual-licensed software products will be developed and supported by viable companies, and also remain available for free copying, modification and redistribution for the long-term."

Funambol is another open source company that believes in a dual-license business model. In fact, CEO Fabrizio Capobianco has blogged about why they selected this model.

My epiphany with dual licensing happened in London some years ago. I met Marten Mickos and I decided that was the way to go. I loved the "quid pro quo" concept: you either give back code to the project or you give back cash, so we can put it back in the project itself. That's being honest.

Conclusion

It is my strong opinion that open source software will become the dominate model for software development in the future. The only question left to decide is just how long will it take for open source to replace the traditional software model? The dual license model provides incentives for open source businesses to protect open source and at the same time allows them to make money from selling proprietary licenses. This model creates strong businesses that provide a lot of value to end users. Therefore I believe that the dual license model will accelerate the adoption of open source.

So what do you think about the dual license business model for open source companies? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Status Quo: Can't watch the news in Linux

2008-01-21T19:26:00.000Z

For the two previous versions of Ubuntu, I have tested seven news websites to find out if I could watch their video feeds using Ubuntu. You can read the results for 6.10 and 7.04.

Now that Ubuntu 7.10 is out, it is time for me to test these websites again.

ABC News

Sound: NO
Video: NO

BBC News

Sound: NO (Worse!)
Video: NO (Worse!)

CBS News

Sound: YES (Improvement!)
Video: YES (Improvement!)

CNBC

Sound: NO
Video: NO

CNN

Sound: YES
Video: YES

FOX News

Sound: YES
Video: NO

MSNBC

Sound: YES
Video: YES

As you can see, we had one site that improved (CBS News) and one site that has actually gotten worse (BBC News). Congratulations to CBS news for joining the 21-century. I am not sure what to say about BBC News. Apparently, the BBC is now using a new video player called the "BBC iPlayer", which only supports Microsoft Windows operating systems. Because of this, there was a lot of controversy about the highly restricted player, including this petition.

I still consider it difficult to watch the news on Linux because a majority of the sites I tested (4 of 7) did not provide working video and audio.

Lets hope that BBC News, Fox News, CNBC News, and ABC News will realize the error of their ways and create a multi-platform video player. The "Best of Class" award goes to MSNBC for their new video player which is extremely fast and responsive and provides excellent video quality.

Open source web conferencing

2008-01-16T14:55:00.000Z

Introduction

Have you ever wanted to attend a webinar but quickly discovered that the web-conference service doesn't even support your operating system? This has happened to me several times and it irks me greatly! I always make sure to tell the company that they should switch their web-conferencing service to one that supports multiple platforms including Linux.

It is somewhat hypocritical when an open source company offers a webinar about their open source product, but they don't allow customers with open source operating systems like Linux to attend. I ran into this ridiculous issue when trying to attend a Zimbra webinar. I told them that it was wrong for them to have such great multi-platform support in their product and at the same time only allow Windows users to participate in their webinars. We'll see if they take that advice to heart.

Fortunately for us, there are companies that offer cross-platform support for web-conferencing. Even better, there are a small handful of open source projects that provide the features of a web-conference service. This means that you can host your own web-conferences without having to pay for a service. I am going to briefly describe three such open source projects.

DimDim

DimDim is probably the most advanced of the open source projects I have found. This could be related to the fact that they have commercial sponsorship. They offer a free hosted version if you do not want to download and run DimDim on your own server. I definitely recommend that you give DimDim a try.

WebHuddle

What are the main benefits of using WebHuddle?

Simple - The client runs in your web browser, through firewalls and proxies, and requires no installation. The user interface is intuitive and requires little or no training.
Secure - The industry-standard HTTPS protocol secures all network communication.
Small - The client applet weighs in at only 75 to 175 kilobytes, depending on platform and features used.
Standard - WebHuddle works on Java-enabled Linux, Windows, Unix, and Mac operating systems. WebHuddle uses the same protocol as web browsers, HTTPS, so your IT department doesn’t need to get involved.
Open Source - Leverage the many benefits of open source software, including value, transparency, and flexibility. If you find WebHuddle useful you may download it and freely install it on your own hardware.

OpenMeetings

Features:

Video/Audio
See Desktop of any participant
Multi-Language and Customizable
Whiteboard with drawing, write & edit, dragNDrop, Resizeing, Images (DragNDrop from Library), Symbol(s)
Conference while drawing (4x4 or 1xn modus)
Safe Drawings / whiteboard and load it next time, edit and resave
Import Documents
Send invitation and direct Links into a meeting
Moderating System
User-/Organisation-/Moderating- System
Backup and Language Module (LanguageEditor, BackupPanel)
Private and Public (Organisation only) Conference-Rooms
Technologies used, see TechnologyPortfolio

The benefits of a regular release schedule

2007-12-22T04:02:00.000Z

I have recently read the announcement that Kubuntu 8.04 is NOT going to be an LTS release, thereby deviating from the release schedule of all the other Ubuntu variants. I believe that it would be more beneficial to synchronize the LTS releases between the official Ubuntu variants.

First of all, Ubuntu needs to solidify its public image as much as possible. This is even more important while it has such a small mind-share in the overall technology market. Most computers users have no idea what an LTS release is, and they could be confused by mis-matched numbers. "Why is Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Kubuntu 8.04 not LTS? Why is Ubuntu 8.10 not LTS and Kubuntu 8.10 is LTS?" Some IT departments might choose to only support LTS releases of Ubuntu. Now they must work with their KDE users who would need to upgrade on a different schedule than their Gnome users.

I understand why Kubuntu wants to delay their LTS release. They have a shiny new version 4.0 that provides many new features, but it is not quite ready to be considered for an LTS release. Historically, the last LTS release (Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, Dapper Drake) included primarily minor changes that focused on stability and polish. For Kubuntu 8.04 to be an LTS release, it would need to stay with KDE 3.5. No major changes should be made during an LTS, which I think everyone agrees upon.

The unfortunate timing of a moving KDE 4.0 release date is a problem that can be corrected. Mark Shuttleworth suggested at the last aKademy conference that KDE should change its release process to a hit a regular schedule. You can view the video of Mark's keynote address on the web. The idea is a simple one: Set a hard date and modify your goals (features) to match that timeline.

This sage advice was not well received, but it should be taken to heart by KDE. I believe that it would tremendously benefit KDE to create a regular and predictable release schedule. See the benefits that this has had for Gnome and Ubuntu. When open source projects have dependencies with each other, a regular release schedule allows them to plan their releases better. For instance, Ubuntu trusts Gnome to hit a stable release on time so Ubuntu provides them more time before freezing changes.

Now consider the negative aspects that an unpredictable release schedule brings. The best example of this is how users left Debian for Ubuntu so that could get an OS that provided regular releases. Another example is how the release of Microsoft Vista slipped multiple times, throwing off the plans of IT departments, software development companies, and computer vendors. A predictable release allows external parties to prepare and plan for the release. If KDE does this, they too will reap the rewards that Ubuntu has seen.

Proactively defending the GPL

2007-12-22T03:59:00.000Z

I keep hearing people talk about the need for a legal test case against the GPL. This has not happened yet in the US, and some people think it is necessary to legally legitimize the GPL license. These GPL-supporters hoped that the recent Busybox vs Monsoon Multimedia issue would satisfy this requirement. This turned out not to be the test case because it settled outside of court.

After hearing much debate and concern about how and when this all-important test case will take place, a very simple idea entered my mind. Why don't we just create this test case ourselves? Start with two pro-GPL parties, and have one party infringe against the GPL license. Then have the other party sue the first for its violation of the GPL license. Of course the specifics can be determined in advance to make the decision most favorable to defending the GPL. I expect that the legal costs for this case will be minuscule compared to the value it would bring.

Once the case has been decided in favor of the GPL, it would become the legal test case for GPL. Any future cases against the GPL can refer to the successful defense from this artificially created case. Is this a valid method to get a legal test case in the US? Or is it it a ridiculous idea that needs no further thought?

Ubuntu Utah release party

2007-11-02T16:05:00.000Z

On October 20th, the Ubuntu Utah team held a "Gutsy Gibbon" release party in Salt Lake City. It was a cold and rainy day, and some people decided to stay home where it was warm and dry. Even so, we had around 20 people in attendance, including many new faces. This was a great time to meet people and ask them, "Why Ubuntu?".

Here are two Ubuntu laptops, but the guy at the end was using Windows. I tried to convince him to give Ubuntu a try, but he was too busy working on his resume. Need I point out that in this case, (Using Windows) = (Looking for a job). Nothing like anecdotal evidence, right?

Please ignore the Fedora guy who came to crash the party. Just kidding Clint! I believe he was actually running Ubuntu in a virtual machine.

This is my Ubuntu baby, and her name is Chloe. She hopes to become a member of the Ubuntu Women team even though she is only 6 months old. Isn't she the cutest Ubuntero you ever did see? :)

Ubuntu 7.10 should make Dell happy

2007-10-08T14:25:00.000Z

I have just upgraded my new Dell computer that came with Ubuntu 7.04 to the pre-release version of Ubuntu 7.10 (Beta). Please read my initial review of this system.

After a large download and subsequent reboot, this computer came up in much better shape than it was in 7.04. Most notably, it detected the correct resolution and came up in 1680x1050. I also had many more resolutions to choose from. Instead of the three resolutions I had before, I now have six choices.

Secondly, the Ubuntu Restricted Driver Manager correctly detected my NVIDIA video card and prompted me to enable the driver for it.

Once I told Ubuntu to enable the NVIDA driver, it downloaded the driver and requested that I reboot my computer. After the reboot, I was saddened to see that it came up again in 1024x768. I opened the screen resolution tool and found that my optimal resolution was no longer a choice. In fact, while I still had six resolutions to choose from, 1024x768 was the highest one.

Any ideas why the "nv" driver correctly auto-detected my optimal resolution of 1680x1050 and the "nvidia" driver does not even offer this? Shouldn't it be the monitor detection tool that determines what resolutions should be offered? Is there any way to fix this other than manually editing xorg.conf? I thought Ubuntu had progressed past that unfriendly requirement. :(

UPDATE: I think I have answered my own question. If you look under "System -> Administration -> Screens and Graphics" you will find a tool that allows you to configure your monitors and video card.

Under the screen selection menu, I simply hit "Detect" and then clicked on "Widescreen". This selected a generic "Plug-N-Play" monitor. Why isn't this detection done automatically? By default it had chosen a monitor called "Custom 1" which had incorrect settings. I think I will create a bug for this behavior.

I am also going to create a bug report for the "Screen Resolution" tool that recommends adding a button that links to the "Screen" configuration tool. Read the comments for follow-up on these bugs.

Note: It looks like Firefox has reset the spell-check language to "de_AT" again. How strange! Has anyone else rand into this? I think I will perform a fresh install of Gutsy (7.10) when the final release is out to determine if this is a Dell or Ubuntu bug.

Review: My Ubuntu PC from Dell

2007-10-07T22:34:00.000Z

Introduction

Ever since Dell announced that they would be selling computers with Ubuntu pre-installed, I have wanted to buy one. This is not because I was unable to install Ubuntu myself, but because I wanted to reward Dell for choosing Ubuntu. I also wanted to make a statement that there was consumer demand for Linux to be pre-installed on computers.

Secondly, I have read Walt Mossberg's review of his Ubuntu laptop from Dell and I wanted to see how my experience compared to his. It is important to keep in mind that both Dell and Ubuntu have stated that the current versions of Ubuntu are intended for advanced users only.

This is the reason why Dell does not advertise Ubuntu more on their website. Dell knows that advanced users will be able to find the place to order their Ubuntu computer, while main-stream users are simply offered Windows operating systems. I have a feeling that Dell will promote Ubuntu more once the 8.04 LTS release comes out in April of 2008.

Ordering the computer

I want to share one minor issue that I ran into while ordering my computer. This probably happened only because I was ordering the computer through a special employee-discount program on the Dell website.

While walking through the configurator to select my hardware and software, I was offered many different Windows-only applications. It made me laugh as I imagined a Dell employee trying to install anti-virus, graphics, and productivity software on my Ubuntu machine.

I didn't take of screenshot of this, and it looks like you can't duplicate this by configuring an Ubuntu computer from Dell.

Screen Resolution

I ordered my computer with a 22-inch LCD screen from Dell. While waiting for my computer to arrive, I wondered how Dell would handle the drivers and settings for this monitor. I had heard that Dell includes some additional software that is not part of a default Ubuntu install, so I assumed that they setup my computer to handle this monitor correctly.

However, once I booted up my computer it came up with a resolution of 1024x768. This was not right, since the monitor came with a large label that said to use a resolution of 1680x1050. I pulled up the screen resolution settings (System -> Preferences -> Screen Resolution). This tool showed that I only had three resolutions to choose from.

"That's strange", I thought. It appeared to me that Ubuntu was not using the proper NVIDIA drivers. To confirm this, I fired up the Ubuntu Restricted Drivers Manager. This tool quickly told me that "Your hardware does not need any restricted drivers."

Wow, did I miss the news that NVIDIA had released their drivers as open source? If not, then why doesn't Ubuntu offer to install the NVIDIA drivers? My monitor is plugged into the NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT card that came with my computer. Has anyone else ran into this problem? I am going to search Launchpad for bugs associated with the Restricted Drivers Manager.

Installing Updates

Soon after booting up, Ubuntu had automatically connected to my network using DHCP. I opened Firefox to verify that I had access to the internet. Within a few minutes, Ubuntu notified me that there were updates to be installed.

As it turns out, I had 164 updates to install which required downloading 198.4 MB of files. This may sound like a lot to Windows users, but you must keep in mind that Ubuntu updates are not just for the operating system, but they also include all of the applications and utilities that are installed on your computer.

I want to point out the amazing download speeds of Ubuntu updates. Can you imagine getting a download speed of 500+ kB/s from Microsoft updates?

Firefox using the wrong language

The first thing I did on this new computer was creating this blog post. I started typing the post using the Blogger interface and I noticed that Firefox was marking every word as misspelled. I started second guessing myself, thinking that I had typed the words wrong. I soon realized that Firefox was using the wrong language to spell-check my post! It appears that Firefox was set to the "de_AT" language.

Where should I report this bug? Is it a Dell or Ubuntu problem? Does Dell even provide a place to report bugs?

Conclusion

I have not spent any of this post talking about the plethora of things that worked correctly on my Ubuntu computer from Dell. If I had, this post would be dozens of pages long. Instead, I have listed the few issues that came up. These issues were few, but I can understand the frustration that Walt wrote about.

Can you imagine what a new computer user would think if they bought a nice video card and never realized that Ubuntu wasn't even using it? I hope these problems are being taken care of and will be corrected in the new version of Ubuntu (7.10) that comes out in 12 days.

In fact, I am currently upgrading this system to Ubuntu 7.10 Beta to see if that version will correctly detect my hardware. Take a look at the size of that download! I would hate to try to upgrade this over a dial-up connection! I wonder if the download would complete before the next version of Ubuntu came out, six-months later? :) I guess that is why Ubuntu provides free CDs!

Advantages of open source: Revisited

2007-10-07T20:06:00.000Z

I feel that is important for me to further analyze the benefits of open source software. In a previous post, I highlighted the cost-savings of open source and did not mention any of the other advantages that it provides. This post should provide a more balanced view of open source and the intrinsic benefits that free software provides.

Low Cost

This is the benefit that I focused on in my previous post. Cost is the most obvious benefit when people compare it to proprietary software. How does open source achieve this low cost?

I believe that the open source development model is the most efficient way to create software. With proprietary software development, each software company creates an isolated software silo. Meanwhile, their competitors are spending resources to create software that does almost the exact same function! Compare that to the open source model, where worldwide resources can be shared to develop an application.

Some people claim that while open source software may be free to acquire, it has a higher Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). These studies have been quite controversial because they are usually funded by Microsoft. Talk about a conflict of interest!

Even if Linux currently has higher integration costs, you can expect these costs to only become smaller with time. This is due to the fact that open source software is becoming more widely deployed and easier to manage. This means that there will be less training and maintenance costs to be accounted for in a TCO study.

Security

Open source software is usually considered to be more secure than proprietary software. I believe this can be attributed to two driving factors. The first factor is that the source code of the software is publicly available. This means that if the community is large enough, there will be many programmers analyzing the code. This has been stated as "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow."

The second factor is very closely tied to the first. If programmers know that their code will go through a worldwide peer review, it provides an incentive for them to create high-quality code.

Continuity

With proprietary software, if the software company goes out of business then the software will simply die with the company. It is also possible for the software company to decide to stop maintaining a piece of software. In both cases, you are out of luck if your business depends on that software.

With open source software, you are not dependent on any one entity for the project to stay alive. If the current developers stop working on the software, anyone can use the source code to simply continue from where they stopped.

Flexibility

With traditional proprietary software, you were at the mercy of the software developer to listen to requests from users. It is common for business needs to dictate the future direction of software. In these cases, the software company will listen to large customers or a majority of their customers. If you are a small customer and have a unique need, it is unlikely that the software developer will be responsive to your requests.

With open source, you can add the features that your business needs and you can fix the bugs that affect you. There is no requirement to work with the developers, although the community benefits when you contribute your changes to the project.

What do you do if the open source developers are impossible to work with? In these extreme cases, it may be best to create a fork of the original project. Open source provides you the freedom to work with developers that meet your needs.

Proprietary software does not offer this freedom; in fact the industry does its best to prevent it. This is often called vendor lock-in, which is a method that software companies use to prevent customers from leaving. Open source companies prefer to simply use good service to ensure customer loyalty. Which method do you prefer?

Comments?

Please share any comments you may have about this topic. I really enjoy getting feedback on these topics. "The more brains the better!" said the Zombie. (Hey, it's almost Halloween!)

Digium is doing things right

2007-10-03T17:50:00.000Z

Background

Digium is the company behind Asterisk, the popular open source PBX. Digium was founded in 1999 by Mark Spencer, the creator of Asterisk. Since then, Asterisk has been deployed around the world on millions on computers. Despite that fact, Asterisk still does not have a large market share of the PBX market. Why is this? In the past, there were many reasons for this:

No brand recognition of Asterisk
No proven track record of successful implementations
Commercial support was needed
No Linux expertise on staff
Afraid to use open source software

These concerns were once valid, but today most of them have been addressed by Digium.

They made Asterisk easy to use

Digium has been working hard to overcome the historically steep learning curve associated with implementing Asterisk. They have accomplished this with two major improvements. First, Digium created an open source software appliance called AsteriskNow! that bundled Asterisk inside a pre-configured version of Linux. Most of the work for this appliance was done by the magic pixie dust known as rPath.

Secondly they have developed a simple web-based interface called Asterisk GUI to configure the PBX. This is a great improvement when compared to manually editing multiple text-based configuration files!

More recently, Digium has acquired a company called Switchvox. This was done so that Digium could take advantage of the advanced GUI that Switchvox had created. The best part about this acquisition is that Digium is going to be releasing the Switchvox code under the GPL license! Check out this quote from Mark Spencer:

So as a contrast right, look at what Fonality did. They bought an open source project [trixbox/asterisk@home] and then turned it into a proprietary product. What we are trying to do is go the other way. Take something that started out as a fully proprietary product and to try to leverage that to bring some additional technologies into open source.

They offer professional services for Asterisk

Digium now offers a wide range of professional services to meet the needs of any organization. This includes consulting, training, and technical support. They also offer a product called "Asterisk Business Edition", which benefits from the usability improvements listed above.

Digium appliances

Digium has also recently started selling a hardware appliance called the Asterisk Appliance. This appliance is designed for deployments of up to 50 users. It supports 8 analog ports, and can process 25 concurrent calls. There are no moving parts in device, which means no hard drive to crash. Instead, it uses an upgradeable flash card to store voice-mail, greetings, configuration settings, and recorded calls. Digium offers three levels of support for the device, including a 24x7 option.

This appliance is great, but it only serves the small business environment. I have heard that Digium is working on a larger appliance that will support hundreds of users. This is a great thing, since it will allow Asterisk to be deployed in a majority of businesses around the world. Only the largest deployments would require more than the this new appliance can deliver.

It was also recently announced that 3com would be selling a 3com branded Asterisk Appliance. This means that Asterisk will reach a much larger audience through the 3com brand. 3com is offering support services for their version of the appliance.

What does the future hold?

Digium has made great strides in making Asterisk both powerful and easy to use. However, one area that I see lacking is scalability. Asterisk works great for a few hundred phones, but how about a few thousand phones, like you might see at a University? The most common way to increase scalability of Asterisk systems is to use a SIP-proxy such as SER or OpenSER. For instance, the University of Pennsylvania is rolling out a 15,000 unit Asterisk-based phone system. To achieve the scalability they needed, they decided to implement SER along with Asterisk.

How does Digium expect to support large Asterisk installations if they require a third-party SIP-proxy that doesn't even offer commercial support? My guess is that Digium will acquire a SIP-proxy like SER or OpenSER so that they can offer a complete solution without needing any third-party software.

Another obstacle that Digium faces is Microsoft. Microsoft is about to enter the small-business VOIP market with a product called Response Point. The biggest advantage of this product is that it includes intelligent IVR, or speech recognition technology. This will allow users to dial anyone in the phone directory simply by speaking their name. This commonly used feature could persuade businesses to choose Microsoft over Digium.

Digium has several options to respond to this threat. First, they can try to create a working system based on open source projects such as Sphinx. I have no clue as to how much work this would be, but I expect that it would be difficult and time-consuming to achieve high-quality IVR. If you know anything about the current status of Sphinx, please leave a comment. How well does it currently work? Can it provide a voice directory feature like Microsoft Response Point does?

The second option for Digium would be to partner with a commercial IVR company. They are already partnered with Lumenvox, but I am not sure what this includes. For instance, I do not know if this will provide the voice directory feature mentioned above. I think it would be a good idea for Asterisk to provide advanced IVR functionality that is integrated with their software. The easier it is to implement the better!

What is the main benefit of open source?

2007-09-27T16:03:00.000Z

The short answer is that open source reduces the cost of software. It is widely accepted that software is a necessary cost of doing business in today's environment. Therefore, it is beneficial for companies to find ways to acquire software that minimizes that cost.

I believe that the open source development model is the most efficient way to create software. In the traditional software development model, each software company creates an isolated software silo. Meanwhile, their competitors are spending resources to create software that does almost the exact same function! Compare that to the open source model, where worldwide resources can be shared to develop an application.

Similar to the "invisible hand" of capitalism, there is an "invisible hand" of open source software. The idea is that when each individual works for their own benefit (fix bugs, add new features), it will benefit the entire community. When you have thousands of people doing this it allows open source software to quickly mature into a stable product, and includes features that are most wanted by users of the software.

So you want to be a software developer?

2007-09-26T17:50:00.000Z

Imagine that you are a software engineering student, with one more year left of school. How do you plan on being hired by a software company, despite the fact that you have no real-world experience? The traditional strategy has been to find an internship with a company. If you can get an internship, it will provide you with a part-time job. The best part of the deal is that you get your real-world experience, which will make you employable after graduation.

What do you do if there are no internships available? I propose that you should get involved in developing an open source project. Look for a project that interests you, and perhaps one that uses the programming languages that you would like to work with.

For example, if you want to be a game programmer, look for an open source gaming project. There is no interview or job application, you simply start looking at the code and seeing where you can help. The development team will provide direction and encouragement of your efforts. What a great way to improve your programming skills!

If you are an extremely good programmer, there is a chance that the open source project may hire to continue working full-time on the project. Here are two examples of community members who were hired by the open source project they were working on.

An additional advantage of an open source internship is that you are improving software that can be used by anyone, regardless of their ability to purchase software. You could even consider your work to be philanthropic.

"What is open source?"

2007-09-22T18:31:00.000Z

I was on the Novell campus a few weeks ago attending the Utah Open Source Conference. One of the days I went to the Novell cafeteria for lunch. While I was filling my plate with food, a young man next to me asked, "So do you work here?". I replied with "No, I'm here attending the open source conference." A few seconds later I was hit with a question that I was not prepared to answer.

"What is open source?" he asked. I was speechless. Did he just ask me what open source was? Is he joking? Nope, he looks pretty serious. Ahh, well then where to start? I only have a few seconds to explain it to him. I managed to come up with a horribly composed answer, and followed it up with "You know, like Firefox and Linux." He nodded and walked away.

Now that I have had more time to think about this, I want to come up with a better explanation of what open source software is. That way I will be prepared for the next time this sort of thing happens. This definition needs to be short and easily understood by people of all backgrounds, including your grandmother. Here is what I have come up with so far:

Open source software is software where the code is publicly available and people from all over the world work together to create free software.

Not the best it could be, but much better than the definition I gave the young man in the Novell cafeteria. I am writing another post that will help people understand why people create free software.

Now before people start jumping to conclusions, there is no way to determine if this person was a Novell employee or not. I have been told that the cafeteria is open to the public, so he could have been there simply for the food. In Novell's defense, they really are a good friend to open source. Yes, they make mistakes, but we are all human. The most recent example of Novell's commitment to open source is the leadership that Novell has taken regarding the new open source ATI drivers.

When an ATM machine uses Windows...

2007-09-14T22:11:00.000Z

You just may see this on your screen...

This program was minimized on the bottom left side of the screen.

Anyone other pictures of fun Windows errors in public places?

Cisco reseller insults open source

2007-09-11T22:02:00.000Z

I just received an email from a Cisco vendor who is pitching a new product that Cisco has acquired. Within this email, the vendor discredits open source in a couple different ways. Here is some of the content of that email:

* Scalability – Our operating system supports up to 10k simultaneous connections per appliance regardless of hardware platform. We developed our own OS (AsyncOS) and do not rely on Linux, Sendmail etc.

* Built from the ground up as a Sendmail/open source replacement

* Truly fire and forget – All our spam and virus fighting technology is dynamic and updated every few minutes. We do not rely on any open source technologies, all our technology is developed by IronPort. You will not spend any time updating the appliance or trying to find ways to block new spam, that’s our job.

No thank you, Cisco. I believe that open source is something to be proud of and not the liability that you claim it to be. Cisco claims to have developed their own operating system, but I doubt that they started from scratch. What they probably did is base it on BSD-licensed code, since there is no requirement to redistribute their modifications. This is yet another reason to support the GPL over BSD type licenses.

Commercial open source DOES add value

2007-09-07T11:57:00.000Z

Introduction

I am having a great time attending the first annual Utah Open Source Conference. It is always great to meet the people you interact with in the open source community. Last night we had two keynote speakers, Matt Asay and Bruce Perens. Both presenters had great information along with some good humor.

I want to discuss one of the ideas that Bruce Perens mentioned. He believes that open source vendors are not necessary, and that they do not add any value to the open source movement. I disagree with him on this point, and I will share my reasons below.

Marketing

Marketing is a necessary evil in a large economy. It is evil because marketing does not add anything of value to the product. It is necessary because it allows consumers to learn about the product and understand what it does. Some open source projects have been able to create a beautiful website that provides excellent information about the project, but this is not always the case.

Even though the project may have great volunteer developers, they may not have any volunteers with good website design skills. Commercial open source vendors will likely pay for people who specialize in creating beautiful websites and promotional material about the product. This information is crucial for consumers so they can find out if a product offers value and meets their requirements.

Hardware Certification

Open source developers are not going to be able to test their software on all types of hardware. A large community can help to provide this information, because everyone can test the software on the hardware that they use. Even with a large community, there will be hardware that is not tested, or at least not verified to work on the software. Commercial open source vendors can certify their software will run on a particular hardware platform. That is something that IT managers like to see.

Software Integration

Now that you know the open source software will run on your hardware, how do you know that it will also play nicely with the other software that you use? Commercial open source companies can test and certify this compatibility. Independent software companies have an incentive to work with the commercial open source vendor to ensure their product is compatible.

Security

As we learned from the hacked Ubuntu servers, volunteers do not always have the time or incentive to be proactive about security. Someone who is paid to perform a job so they can feed their family will prioritize that job over any volunteer work they do for open source. Open source needs to be proactive about security. The only reliable way to do this is to hire people to work on security. That is something commercial open source vendors can offer, and it is a valuable service.

Support

The reality is that many businesses will not run software that is not commercially supported. Who can support a software product better than the people who make the software? Open source vendors hire people to develop and support their application. This support is very specialized, since the company only supports the products that they make.

Training

Training is an important and necessary requirement for some business to purchase software. Commercial open source vendors can offer this.

Full-time developers

Many open source projects are created and maintained by volunteer developers. Some developers are paid by their employer to work on these projects, at least for part of their duties. Even so, it is rare for an open source project to have many developers who get paid to work on the project full-time. Great things can be accomplished by all developers, but only the ones who are paid to work full-time on open source can prioritize that work over any other work. Commercial open source vendors can afford to hire full-time developers because of the revenue generated by the services listed above.

Conclusion

I believe that the open source software model has the ability to create high-quality software. But I also believe that commercial open source vendors have the ability to offer valuable services that make open source software easier to consume by businesses. They do this by lowering the risks to the customer, and providing a safety-net in case something goes wrong. I wonder if Bruce Perens would agree with the points I made in this post.

How will Microsoft respond to Linux success?

2007-09-04T03:43:00.000Z

Let the conspiracy theories begin! Seriously, I want to consider how Microsoft will respond if Linux begins to heavily impact their profitability. Consider these possible actions:

More anti-Linux marketing campaigns

Microsoft has billions of dollars of cash that they can use to create a massive storm of advertisements, comparative "studies", and similar marketing schemes. The question is, will this work, or will it backfire? I think Microsoft is smart enough to balance this effort without causing a backlash. If a lie is repeated enough times, it will become accepted as the truth. Fortunately, open source has the benefit of word-of-mouth recommendations and truth on our side.

Threatening customers with potential lawsuits

Microsoft has been using this technique for a few years now. They claim that Linux infringes on their software patents, but they never specify the exact details of this infringement. If they ever did provide these details, the open source community would have the ability to consider these infringements and replace any offending code with new open source code.

Microsoft uses this claim to cause doubt in the minds of customers, to give them one more reason NOT to use open source software. Microsoft then offers patent protection deals, in order to gain income simply from the threat of possible lawsuits.

Appear to be open source friendly

Microsoft is already "trying" to do this, without much success. First, they are working with open source companies (like Novell) to create deals that are supposed to improve interoperability between Windows and Linux. Interoperability by itself is a good thing, but Microsoft uses these deals to sneak in the patent protection deals that I mentioned above. They also have an open source forge, which is currently a pathetic list of mostly useless software.

If Microsoft truly wants to be taken seriously as "open source friendly", they need to release at least one popular application as open source. This action will generate HUGE mind-share and tons of positive marketing for Microsoft. It wouldn't even have to be a product that is currently generating a lot of profit. They could choose some second-tier product that would be quickly adopted and heralded by open source advocates.

Can you imagine the excitement if Microsoft released something like MS Works, MS Digital Imaging Suite, or MS Streets and Maps as open source? Come on Microsoft, is it that hard to figure out that this would help your business? If so, then please hire me to be your open source strategist.

Lower the price of their software

A price-war is a common way to compete with a similar product. But how can Microsoft compete with FREE? The truth of the matter is, some people will choose a familiar brand name just because of the name. This means that Microsoft can encourage people to stick with what they know, since they can now buy it at a lower price. Here is my question: In the face of stiff competition from Linux, how did Microsoft get away with increasing the price for Windows Vista? Unbelievable! I don't understand why they thought that was the right thing to do.

Sabotage open source communities

It would be very easy for proprietary software companies to cause huge negative impacts on open source projects by disrupting communication. They also stand to benefit greatly from this type of action. Let me explain how this could occur.

Open source community members greatly value each others opinions, but if a member is repeatedly disrupting communication processes then it is necessary to stop the interruption. If this is not stopped, it can grind progress to a halt. How do we determine what behaviors will require this action? Well, you need a Code of Conduct (see Ubuntu) and a Community Council (see Ubuntu).

There is also the issue of how to actually block the trouble-maker. Open source communication is an open process, with no pre-approval necessary. So how can we identify the trouble-maker if they can register under multiple different names? A mailing list can easily get overrun by an emotional confrontation caused by a single trouble-maker. Any ideas on how this can be stopped?

So when will this type of community sabotage begin, or is it happening already? (Cue X-Files music.)

Your ideas wanted

Do you have any other ideas on what actions Microsoft will take to protect their monopoly? If we can predict these actions in advance, it will provide us with two benefits. First, we will know that Linux is becoming very successful. Second, it will allow us to plan how to best defend against these actions.

Miniature Beowulf cluster runs Ubuntu Linux

2007-09-01T02:45:00.000Z

While reading this article about a miniature Beowulf cluster built by a student and professor at Calvin College, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they were running it on Ubuntu. What was the reason they choose to use Ubuntu, even though they had more experience with Gentoo?

For various reasons, we have been a Gentoo shop for a while. So it would seem fairly obvious that we would use Gentoo. But over time we had found Gentoo to be something of an administrative hassle. Since we wanted to keep Microwulf relatively simple (as simple as possible but not overly simple). and we had experience with Ubuntu, we decided to give that a try first.

Sounds like a lot of people are discovering the value that Ubuntu provides!

Linux administration will become GUI

2007-08-24T15:26:00.000Z

Introduction

I am confident that the future of Linux server administration will rely less on the command line, and that most server admins will use a GUI interface. To understand why this will happen, lets take a look at the success of Windows servers.

Learn from history

Windows servers have always included a graphical user interface, and there is no indication that this will change. In fact, the popularity of Windows servers is largely due to the fact that server admins could manage their servers with the same interface they used on their desktop. Novell's Netware started out with a huge lead in the server market, but server admins started migrating to Windows because they were more comfortable with the interface.

Why should server admins need to learn two operating systems when they can just use Windows? Now that most server admins are familiar with a graphical interface (Windows desktop and server editions), they will resist changing to a command-line driven operating system.

Secondly, if you look at modern web applications, you will see that they often include a web-based interface for administering the application. This is becoming more common, since easier configuration lowers the barrier to entry and increases adoption. No more editing the "complex.conf" files by hand.

Don't worry, you will always be able to "ls" your files

The command line will always be available as an option to Linux admins. This is because the command line is sometimes the most efficient way to perform certain tasks. For instance, any tasks that require repetitive actions could be simplified by creating a script. There are also times when the command line is the ONLY way to perform a specific task. These instances will become fewer with time, as graphical interfaces are created to manage more server functions.

Keep in mind that there are also tasks that can be performed more efficiently with a GUI interface. If anyone has ever tried managing an ultra-complex firewall ruleset using the command line, they know it can be a nightmare. In some instances, hundreds of lines of text can be much better manipulated by using tabs, buttons, menus, expandable bullets, search functions, and similar GUI features.

Why not go GUI?

What are the negatives of having a graphical interface on a server? I can only think of two reasons (but I am sure I will be informed of others in the comments to this post). The first downside of running a GUI on a server is that it will consume resources on the server. It takes memory, CPU, and storage resources to run a graphical interface. The second reason is that these additional process have the potential to be exploited (like all processes do). Are these good enough reasons not to run a GUI on a server?

Lets take a look at the first argument. If I am running a server on a low-end, hand-me-down piece of hardware, then I probably do not have resources to spare for a GUI. However, servers are always becoming more and more powerful (see Moore's Law) and the resources to run a basic GUI will continue to be a smaller percentage of total resources. For example, a decent server may include 16 GB of RAM, two dual-core processors, and a ton of space on a storage area network.

Now, how much extra resources does a GUI actually use? I could not find any good numbers on this, but you can compare the minimum system requirements for Ubuntu Desktop (256 MB RAM) and Ubuntu Server (64 MB RAM). See how small that extra 192 MB of memory is when you compare it to the total 16 GB of RAM? It is only 1 percent!

As far as the second argument, I do not think it is really an issue, since the attacker would need local access to perform the exploit. However, I am not a security expert and I am sure that others can answer this better than I.

Conclusion

The question is, how long will it be before the Ubuntu Server edition includes a GUI install option? Instead of resisting this change, we should be encouraging it by improving the graphical interfaces that server admins need. This is how Ubuntu can gain faster adoption in the server market.

FYI

While researching Netware for this article, I discovered this great piece of history. It is basically an argument in support of Netware when compared to Windows NT. The arguments are laughable, especially in hindsight. Here is my favorite quote:

NT Works better with the Internet: Sounds like a point for NT, eh? Hardly. Do you really want your server to be accessible through the Internet? Think about the security issues! A Netware server running IPX can be placed directly on the internet without security concerns. The perfect firewall: A server which absolutely ignores all Internet traffic, without the configuration and maintenance issues of a firewall!

Windows hates me

2007-08-21T15:36:00.000Z

Its true. Windows operating systems hate me. I don't understand why, since I feel I have always been fair and balanced in my discussions about Windows. Why the animosity towards me, then? Here are a few examples to help you understand how I am being discriminated against.

We use some Windows 2003 servers at work (not my choice) to perform some basic functions. My problems first occurred when I wanted to browse for some files. Here is what I did: I double-clicked on "My Computer". Ok, nothing too advanced there, right? Well, a window opened up but the only thing inside is a blank grey color. Where are all the files?

Ok, no big deal. How often do I browse for files anyway? Only about once an hour, so nothing to worry about. Sheesh ! Fortunately, this started working after I rebooted the server. Apparently, I only have a few days of a working file browser before I need to reboot.

Next, I created a small script (a.k.a batch file) to backup some data, and I configured it to run once a day using a cron job (a.k.a scheduled task). The script worked great when I ran it manually, but it didn't work when the scheduler ran it. One of the first troubleshooting steps I took was to look in the system logs (a.k.a event viewer).

I opened the Application Log and started to sort it by user, so that I could find any errors that were associated to my username. After a few seconds of processing, Windows displayed an error that said that the log was corrupt. Then all of the entries in the log suddenly disappeared. What?!! Lucky for me, the logs entries reappeared when I refreshed the window. I eventually found the problem with the script and it is working fine.

So why do I have so many problems with this Windows server? I confess that I am not a Windows expert, but did I do anything that would have caused these errors? If so, then Windows is a lot more fragile than I had ever imagined.

Perhaps the Windows server detected the scent of open source on my keystrokes and decided to give me a hard time. Who knows? Either way, I was quite relieved to get back to my Ubuntu desktop. So much so, that I gave my monitor a thankful pat on the head.

Ubuntu Innovations

2007-08-08T18:33:00.001Z

Introduction

In the short amount of time that Ubuntu has been around (3 years, with 6 releases) it has attained an impressive level of popularity and growth. I believe this success is due to some critical improvements that Ubuntu has implemented when compared to other Linux distributions.

These improvements were not always created by Ubuntu, but Ubuntu was the first distro to strategically implement the best features and to remove the unnecessary ones. I will discuss some of the major advantages that Ubuntu has provided from day one.

UPDATE: There were some great points made in the comments to this post, so I am updating this post in the interest of accuracy. I want to emphasize what I said in the previous paragraph; Ubuntu did not create many of these improvements, and they were not always the first distro to use them. It is the unique combination of these improvements that has helped Ubuntu achieve its popularity.

Secondly, I intended this post to be a historical comparison of features from when Ubuntu first came out, in the Fall of 2004. (The Live-CD installer came later in 2006 with Dapper)

Simple install

Ubuntu has always had a very simple install, and it requires very little input from the user. The first versions were text-based, but they were simple enough that almost any novice could install Ubuntu with a few presses of the "Enter" key.

This was considered a major breakthrough since Debian (which Ubuntu is based on) was historically difficult to install. Back then, the Debian install had many steps and required the user to know how to partition a hard drive, select hardware drivers, and make several other technical choices.

Regular release schedule

As far as I know, Ubuntu was the first Linux distribution to follow a regular release schedule. Ever since the first version of Ubuntu, Canonical has promised that a new version would be released every 6 months, and that each release would be supported for 18 months. This has proven to be true, except for a 2-month delay to polish the first long-term-support (LTS) release.

We now know that there will be an LTS version of Ubuntu every two years. These LTS versions provide a much longer life-cycle, which is preferred by server administrators. LTS versions receive security updates for 3 years on the Desktop Edition, and 5 years on the Server Edition.

Live-CD that you can install from

Following the success of the Knoppix live-cd, Ubuntu created a way to install directly from a live-cd. This innovation makes it simple to test Ubuntu on a system, and then to quickly install it on that system, without a reboot. Sort of a "Try before you buy" approach. This also removed the need for a separate "Install CD". Meanwhile, the other Linux distributions required you to download and burn up to 6 CDs.

One application for each purpose

Before Ubuntu, most Linux distributions would install multiple applications that performed the same function. For example, the default install would include two web browsers, two chat applications, three multimedia players, etc. This was very confusing to new users, who wouldn't know which application they should use. By default, Ubuntu only includes one application per function, but you have the ability to install more applications at any time.

Secure by default

The default install does not run any externally visible network services. This surprised our security administrator, who wanted to make sure that I installed a firewall on my Ubuntu desktop. I told him that nothing is externally visible, and after a quick NMAP scan, he confirmed it (you can also use the "netstat" command to test this). At the time, most Linux distributions came with running network applications such as SSH. Be sure to install a firewall (like FireStarter) if you decide to install a remote network service on your computer.

UPDATE: This has changed recently, starting with the 7.04 Fiesty Fawn release. Ubuntu has made an exception to the "no open ports" policy for Avahi. Avahi is a system which facilitates service discovery on a local network. This means that you can plug your laptop or computer into a network and instantly be able to view other people who you can chat with, find shared printers or find files being shared. For more information on this, please read the following links:

Administration actions require "sudo"

Long before Microsoft implemented UAC, Ubuntu required users to use "sudo" to perform administrative actions. Ubuntu did not create "sudo", but I believe they were the first to disable the root user and require the user to use "sudo".

Over 20,000 applications can easily be installed

(Thanks Debian!) What more do I need to say about this? Many other distros (RPM-based) offered thousands of packages, but they forced you to manually download the package, find out if there are any dependencies, download those packages, and if you are lucky you will get the original application installed. Debian's packaging system is super slick and Ubuntu has created some easy-to-use front-ends that make installing software a breeze.

UPDATE: Ubuntu has over 20,000 packages, but a typical application consists of multiple packages. Therefore, the number of actual applications is quite a bit less. Secondly, modern RPM-based distributions have created better tools to deal with dependencies.

Include non-free hardware drivers

This is the most controversial feature that Ubuntu has provided. Their reasoning is simple: If you can't use the hardware, then you will never access the 20,000 open source applications. Which of these two options is better:

A. Person uses Windows because Linux would not run on their computer, or
B. Person uses some non-free hardware drivers, but only uses open source applications

Yes, this is a compromise, but I believe it is a necessary one. Only once Linux achieves a critical mass will we be able to force the hardware industry to provide open source drivers. Wide-spread adoption needs to occur BEFORE we will get a fully open source operating system that runs on all hardware.

Made the color brown sexy

Who used a brown desktop theme before Ubuntu? Some people don't like the brown, but they can quickly change it. I like to use the default interface so that I can show people what it would be like for them.

(NEW) Get an Ubuntu CD for FREE (NEW)

This is truly a feature that is unique to Ubuntu. For no cost at all, you can get Ubuntu CDs shipped to your location anywhere in the world!

(NEW) The Ubuntu Community (NEW)

How could I forget this point! The Ubuntu Community is often imitated, but never duplicated. Guided by an important Code of Conduct, this community is the friendliest that I have ever worked with.

Your turn!

I am sure that there are many other important factors to Ubuntu's success. I would appreciate it if you shared your favorite ones in a comment, or on your blog.

More ideas: Unify the Ubuntu Name

2007-08-06T15:54:00.000Z

First, I want to thank everyone who gave their input regarding my last post about unifying the Ubuntu brand. You can also read more opinions on Freddy's and Og's blog.

Next, I want to share some of the ideas that were expressed in the comments to my post.

"Ubuntu Lightweight Desktop edition? Why didn't they make the default edition lightweight enough? How come when I install it, it uses the same amount of memory right after I boot up as the regular edition?
XFCE is not lighter than Gnome in reality at all. What you end up with is that people will be forced to install some KDE/Gnome applications because XFCE doesn't provide everything required. That will pull in several environments running simultaneously, and in overall it's far heavier than pure Gnome/KDE. It will lead to some new comers to think "ooh it's LIGHT", and getting really disappointed and moving along to something else. "Light" should NOT be used as a selling point for Xubuntu, ever!
You: "You should try Xubuntu"
Them: "What's Xubuntu"
You: “You know Ubuntu? Well, this is Ubuntu with Xfce.”
Why not start with, “You should try 'Ubuntu with Xfce'”
People have a hard enough time just trying to remember and pronounce "Ubuntu." Getting rid of all of this Ku-Xu-Go nonsense would be a big step in the right direction. Besides, for all of Microsoft's stupidity, their naming conventions are significantly more memorable and pronounceable than anything Ubuntu or Linux-in-general offers.
I personally think there just needs to be one desktop version. Then at the time of installation you have the choice to install either Gnome, KDE ,or Xfce. Much like other distros have been doing for years.
Ubuntu is very focused on ease of install, and an old and valid concern is that new users cannot be expected to make an informed choice about their desktop environment.

A simple drop down list is NOT too confusing for novices, especially if GNOME is the default and the installer recommends using the default. Most users cruise through using default settings anyway.
I don't think the names should be unified until the tools are equivalent. I am not talking about the places where GNOME and KDE do things differently - I am talking about the additional tools and wizards that help make Ubuntu as popular and user friendly as it is today. Where is my Proprietary Driver Manager in Kubuntu? That sort of thing. Until that happens, I think that making the other *buntu derivatives part of the same product is asking for trouble.

After reviewing the comments, I am leaning towards a single Ubuntu Desktop version that allows the user to select Gnome (default), KDE, and XFCE during install. Even more importantly, there should be an option under "System > Preferences" that will allow a user to change between those whenever they want.

For an example of how this could be done, look at how OpenSuse handles this question during install. They provide a small screenshot of each option. The problem with this is that people will assume that Gnome is brown and has the "Start" bar at the top, and KDE is blue with the "Start" bar on the bottom. This is untrue, since both version allow you to change the color scheme and position of the taskbar.

I understand that this will add an extra step to the install. I really appreciate what Ubuntu has done to simplify the install process and the reduction in user input. However, I believe that the benefit of having a unified Ubuntu Desktop is greater than the cost of this extra step during install.

As you can tell, I feel that marketing Ubuntu is an important step to achieving mainstream adoption. Because of this, I have recently joined the Ubuntu Marketing Team. If you have any experience in marketing, or if you just have some good ideas, please join this team. Together, we can make a difference!

Idea: Unify the Ubuntu name

2007-08-06T02:04:00.001Z

Everyone agrees that Ubuntu is making huge progress towards mainstream adoption. But what do we mean when we say "Ubuntu"? Don't we really mean *buntu, a collection of all Ubuntu versions? How do we explain this to the mainstream user? Will the names "Kubuntu", "Edubuntu" and "Xubuntu" make sense to a newcomer? Are they self-explanatory?

I think we can all agree that these names are not easily understood by people outside of the Linux arena. Even worse, they will help to dilute the impact of the Ubuntu name in the minds of potential users. Therefore, if we want to encourage mainstream adoption, we need to use a simpler naming convention.

Let's take a look at some existing names that are easy to understand:

Why don't we come up with some new names that are easier to understand? Something like this:

"Ubuntu School Edition" - The OS formerly known as Edubuntu
"Ubuntu Lightweight Desktop Edition" - (Xubuntu)
"Ubuntu Desktop Edition with KDE" - (Kubuntu)

If you have some good ideas on how to rename Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Edubuntu, please list them in a comment to this post. If I get a lot of feedback, I will create a follow-up post. Thanks for your input!

Open source replacement for MS Project

2007-08-03T16:17:00.000Z

I have just learned about a new open source application called OpenProj. This application has similar features to Microsoft Project, and it can even import native Project files. One major advantage it has over MS Project is that it will run on Linux, Unix, Mac and Windows.

Open Proj is scheduled for release on August 7th, but you can download a beta from here. The download is a JNLP file, which is handled by the Java Web Start application. Once you run that file, it will install OpenProj. It is surprisingly easy to install, considering that I had it running in less than 30 seconds on Ubuntu 7.04.

It looks like the OpenProj team will be coordinating with the OpenOffice team, which I think is a great idea. They should combine marketing and distribution efforts so that these great open source applications can reach a wider audience.

Mark Shuttleworth has spoken in support of OpenProj:

"OpenProj is an exciting addition to the range of professional desktop applications that are available on the free software desktop today. It's increasingly possible to run your business on an entirely open Linux platform, with full compatibility across free software applications and your legacy documents. Congratulations to the Projity team for this milestone release!"

A pre-mature press release can be found here. There have also been a few recent articles about OpenProj.

Ubuntu needs a secure remote desktop

2007-07-13T15:02:00.001Z

Introduction

If Ubuntu wants to be taken seriously in the workplace, it needs a secure remote desktop. Many people have a need to connect to their work computer from home using remote desktop technology. Currently, the Ubuntu Remote Desktop is a front-end for VNC, which allows you to remotely manage your desktop. It works well, and a nice feature was recently added that alerts you when someone is remotely controlling your desktop.

The Problem

The problem is that VNC provides very little security. It does encrypt the password that you use to connect with, but all other traffic is not encrypted. This means that if someone is intercepting your traffic, it will be possible for them to watch what you are doing (including typing passwords). Another problem is that VNC has a maximum password length of 8 characters, and it does not require a username. This means that an attacker only has to guess 1 to 8 characters correctly in order to connect to your machine. If you use the Ubuntu Remote Desktop, it would be a very good idea to add a password to your screensaver.

This lack of security will make the Ubuntu Remote Desktop a violation of many corporate security policies. Therefore, it is a barrier to the adoption of Ubuntu in the workplace.

You Can Use Duct Tape

You may know that there are many ways to use the current remote desktop securely. Probably the most common method is to forward the entire remote desktop session through SSH. As you can read, this method takes quite a few steps and multiple commands at the terminal prompt.

Here is what I do to connect to the Ubuntu Remote Desktop on my work computer. First, I connect to our VPN server, which encrypts all my traffic. Then I connect to my machine, which is configured to only let me connect through the VPN. To do this, I use the powerful yet simple FireStarter firewall. See my firewall config below: (I am also running FTP and TFTP services on this box)

Long-term Solution

Ubuntu needs to provide a secure remote desktop by default. It should not require tweaking configuration files or typing commands at the terminal prompt. One solution would be to use FreeNX, which can be installed on Ubuntu today. Another solution would be to use the SSH forwarding technique, but to hide all that complexity behind a GUI. All that users need to see is a checkbox that says "Use Encryption". In addition, the maximum password length needs to be increased, and the login should require a username.

References

To learn more about the security problems with Ubuntu Remote Desktop, check out these two essays:

Vino - The Remote Desktop Project

Vino - The Remote Desktop Project - Take 2

Open Source Software On Windows

2007-07-11T02:48:00.000Z

Introduction

"Open source software on Windows... WHAT?!?!!" may be your first reaction to this post. However, there are many good reasons to promote the use of open source software on Windows. First, it is a great way to introduce people to the wonderful world of open source software. They will be amazed at the amount of great software that they get for FREE!

This will be your cue to inform them that the software is not only free of cost, but free of restrictions. In fact, they can run these same applications on an operating system that is entirely based on those concepts. Next, you hand them an Ubuntu disk and help them try it out. See how that works? Now give it a try with your friends, family, and co-workers.

In this post I will highlight some of the most useful open source applications for Windows (listed in alphabetical order). If I missed your favorite application, please leave a comment so that I can include it in a future post. If you want to find more open source applications, then you can get great information from Linux App Finder and Open Source Alternatives.

Audacity - The Free, cross-platform sound editor - Great for editing podcasts

Azureus - The most popular BitTorrent client - Runs on Windows and Linux

Firefox - Award-winning web browser with thousands of useful Add-ons that enhance Firefox

GIMP - Software for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring

HomeBank - Free, easy personal accounting for all

InfraRecorder - The free CD/DVD burning solution - Allows you to burn ISOs - Replaces Nero and Roxio

MediaCoder - The universal audio/video transcoder - Compress your videos so they can be uploaded to YouTube

OpenOffice - Multilingual and multiplatform office suite, compatible with all other major office suites

Pidgin (formerly GAIM) - Multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once

Thunderbird - Powerful email client with calendar integration and many useful Add-ons

VLC Media Player - The cross-platform media player and streaming server (supports many different multimedia formats)

7-Zip - File archiver with a high compression ratio, supports many different file formats

The 10 roles in an open source community

2007-07-09T13:29:00.000Z

1) Developers

Developers are the backbone of every open source community. Without them, the project would not exist. Many open source projects were started by a single programmer who created a piece of software to meet their own requirements. While most open source developers graciously volunteer their time, a growing number of developers are being paid to work on open source software.

Ubuntu Development

2) Packagers

Open source applications need to be converted into a package format before they can be included in a Linux distribution. Packages make it easy to install a software application, including any required dependencies.

Ubuntu MOTU Packaging Team

3) Artists

Most open source applications will need graphical artists to create icons, buttons, and logos. Some projects will also need musical artists to create audio files.

4) Documentation writers

A software project will not be successful if users cannot learn how to install, configure, and use the software. Good documentation will increase the adoption of an open source application. Wikis make it easy for anyone to help with creating and editing documentation.

Ubuntu Documentation Team

5) Beta Testers

Open source projects need people to test the software. These beta testers are the equivalent of a Quality Assurance team. Developers will often create beta versions and release candidates before they release a version of software to the general public. Beta testers play a crucial role in testing software on multiple hardware and software platforms, and in a wide variety of environments. These testers will create new bug reports, triage existing bug reports, and test patches that the developers create.

Ubuntu Bug Squad

6) Translators

One of the coolest things about open source communities is that they are international. This means that your users will understand many different languages. Therefore, the more languages that you support, the larger your user base will be. Modern tools like Rosetta provide a simple web-interface that allows anyone to be a translator, regardless of technical ability.

Ubuntu Translation Tool

7) Support Technicians

A good open source community will have volunteers to answer technical questions that other users may have. These support technicians will monitor forums, mailing lists, and IRC channels looking for users who have questions.

8) Advocates

Advocates are people who tell other people about the benefits of open source software. They review open source software on their blog, they demonstrate their Linux laptop to friends and family, and they convince co-workers and managers to replace proprietary applications with open source alternatives.

Ubuntu Marketing Team

9) Users

Users will hopefully become contributing community members. Because users benefit the most from open source software, they are often inclined to give back by donating their time and skills.

10) Infrastructure providers

Someone needs to maintain the hosting of the website, forums, wikis, IRC channels, and version control systems that the project uses. Without these contributions, open source community members would not be able to communicate with each other.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many different ways to contribute to an open source community. It may surprise you to know that only two of the ten roles require programming skills. This means that anyone can find a way to participate in an open source community. Go ahead and Get Involved!

When is it wrong to fix a typo? On the planet

2007-07-08T03:00:00.000Z

Looks like I just ran into this problem. I was preparing to modify my feed by adding tags to all of my posts. This minuscule change caused my posts to reappear at the top of the planet again! I'm sorry everyone!

I agree with Alexandre that this behavior needs to be changed. The planet should not bump posts to the top based on the "updated" value. Bloggers should be free to fix a typo without worrying about spamming the planet. I am often forced to decide just how many typos I will tolerate before I edit a post. There have been times when I left a typo in the post, simply to prevent the post from being bumped to the top of the planet.

When a blogger edits an existing post, the planet SHOULD update the content (assuming it has not rolled off the planet) but it SHOULD NOT change its position. If the blogger has an important update that they DO want to bump to the top of the planet, they have two options:

Create a new post and reference the old post via a link
Change the "published" value to the current time

This small change would make the planet much more blogger friendly. Any opinions?

Another reason I love open source software

2007-07-03T14:56:00.000Z

This weekend I was reminded of another reason that I love open source software: A transparent development process. Only in open source software will you be able to talk directly to the developers of a software project and give them your input. This is one of the reasons that open source projects tend to focus specifically on the requirements of the users. Let me tell you my story...

I recently discovered a young open source project called ZipTie. ZipTie is a network management application that allows you discover and manage the devices on your network. I am always interested in open source network management applications, so I decided to test out ZipTie on our network.

I first tried running ZipTie on Ubuntu, but I ran into some errors, which I posted on the forum. A developer quickly replied and asked me to test it again with a different setting. I made the change but the problem still existed. Then the developer suggested a work-around to get me going until they could find the root cause of the errors. His work-around did the trick, and it allowed me to successfully discover all of my network devices. Here is the bug-report I submitted, which will allow the developers to keep track of this issue and inform me when the problem is fixed.

Next, I decided to test out how well ZipTie worked on Windows Vista. I am happy to report that the application ran almost perfectly on the Windows platform. I did notice one inconsistency when I compared it to how it ran on Ubuntu, so I told the developers about it on the ZipTie IRC channel. Within minutes, they had found the problem and fixed it in the next version.

Every time I have contacted the ZipTie developers, they have been super friendly and responsive. They have even asked me about which features I would like to see in future versions of ZipTie, which they publish in their roadmap.

As it turns out, the ZipTie project is in a unique position for a young open source project. I have learned that the parent company, AlterPoint, is allocating 4.5 employees to work on the ZipTie project. Considering that most open source projects start with a single part-time developer, you can see how this project has a huge jump start! The ZipTie project is only 9 months old (November, 2006), but in that short amount of time they have managed to create some good quality code.

I am excited about the future of ZipTie, and I want to encourage the creation of a thriving community around this project. If you are interested in network management, please download ZipTie and test it out on your network. If you like what you see (and you probably will) then you should become a member of the community. You can do this by reporting bugs, writing documentation, testing new versions, answering questions in the forum, submitting feature requests to the developers, and much more. It feels good to participate in an open source community, and sometimes I even call it fun!

More symbols...

2007-06-21T18:37:00.000Z

In response to Aaron's post...

cannon: A large tubular firearm designed to fire a heavy projectile over a long distance.

Canonical: An innovative company designed to "realize the potential of free software". The Canonical logo may look like a cannon, but any such resemblance is merely coincidental... or is it?

GUI to configure dual monitors (Nvidia)

2007-06-19T15:17:00.000Z

I have been searching for GUI interface to configure dual monitors for a long time. (Fedora beats Ubuntu: Dual-monitor configuration). Recently, I have heard about a new tool that is being developed that might be included with Ubuntu 7.10. This is great news, but it means that we have to wait another four months before it will be available.

Fortunately, I have stumbled upon a resource that has been available for quite a while. It all started when I read this post about a neat tool called SysInfo. One of the features of this tool is the ability to launch an application called "nvidia-settings". (This assumes that you have an Nvidia video card, and that you are running the Nvidia non-free drivers.)

You can either click on the "Nvidia Display Settings" button, or simply run the command "nvidia-settings" from a terminal session. This will open up a new GUI to configure your video card and monitors. On the left side of the window, click on the text labeled "X Server Display Configuration". This is what it looked like on my computer:

You can see that this tool has detected two monitors, but one of the monitors is currently disabled. To get the second monitor running, you start by clicking on the disabled monitor and then clicking "Configure". Another window will open up, and you should select the "TwinView" option.

This will enable the second monitor. Next, select the resolution that you want the new monitor to run at. You can then choose if the disabled monitor is to the "Right of" or the "Left of" the active monitor. When you are done, it should look similar to this:

You can click on "Apply" to test the new settings. If your screen gets all messed up, don't panic. The tool has a 15 second timer that will revert to the previous settings if you don't click "OK". If you want to make the changes permanent, click the button labeled "Save to X Configuration File".

This tool has helped me and a few co-workers to get up and running with dual-monitors on Ubuntu 7.04 (Fiesty). The problem is that you are out of luck if you don't have an Nvidia card, or if you choose to run the open source drivers. I'm going to keep an eye on the "Display Config GTK" tool and help out in any way I can. I make a great beta tester!

Dell helping Canonical become profitable

2007-05-24T22:31:00.000Z

When the Dell/Ubuntu deal was first announced, many people speculated on the financial impact to Canonical. The behind-the-scenes details are still not available, but I was able to glean some information from the Dell website as I customized an Ubuntu machine.

As you can see below, Dell is selling support contracts through Canonical. They are offering terms ranging from 30 days to 1 year of support. If you compare the Dell prices to the official Canonical support prices, you will find that one year of support costs $250 direct from Canonical, and $275 if you buy it bundled with your Dell machine.

I wonder how much of that $275 goes to Dell, and how much goes to Canonical. At first glance, you might guess that the $25 increase could be Dell's cut for selling the support contract for Canonical. But Dell is also going to be providing hardware support, so I expect more than $25 is going to Dell. Even so, I expect the amount of revenue coming to Canonical via Dell will dwarf any previous amounts that Canonical has been receiving. Good for you Mark!

*******************************************

Dell provides hardware support only. Software support is available through Canonical and Linux Community.
	UbuntuDesktop Edition version 7.04 [Included in Price] May delay your Dell Dimension E520N ship date
	UbuntuDesktop Edition version 7.04 with 30 days of Starter support [add $65 or $2/month¹] May delay your Dell Dimension E520N ship date
	UbuntuDesktop Edition version 7.04 with 1 year of Basic Support [add $125 or $4/month¹] May delay your Dell Dimension E520N ship date
	UbuntuDesktop Edition version 7.04 with 1 year of Standard support [add $275 or $8/month¹] May delay your Dell Dimension E520N ship date

*******************************************

Internet Identity: Truth or Dare?

2007-05-10T22:28:00.000Z

Should I use my real identity when communicating on the internet, or should I have a separate online identity? That is the question I have been thinking about as I watch my internet footprint grow with every blog entry, blog comment, forum post, mailing list reply, and IRC chat message. (FYI - IRC chat messages are often logged and posted online.)

I do not have a reason to keep my privacy now, but who knows what the future holds? I may have new enemies in the future that I don't want to know personal details about me. Once data is on the internet, it stays on the internet. It is usually impossible to erase your writing from the public domain.

I can only think of two options:

1. I can continue to use my real identity, but I must always keep in mind that what I write may be used against me in the future. This can be in the form of a job opportunity, an evil stalker, a political campaign, a business deal, or a lawsuit.

2. Create a new nickname that serves as my online identity. I must be careful to never refer to the real identity from this one, and vice-versa. This may provide me with some more freedom of speech, but there is a possibility that my two identities will be linked. In fact, it would not be very hard for a motivated person to accomplish.

Both options have large downsides. Is this just something that we must accept with online communication? Are there any other options that I have missed?

We STILL can't watch the news in Linux

2007-05-02T21:26:00.000Z

Last December I wrote an article titled "Why can't we watch the news in Linux?" In that article I exposed the problems that Ubuntu 6.10 had with watching video feeds from popular news websites. These problems were not caused by a lack of multimedia support in Ubuntu, instead they were caused by the news companies who designed their sites for Windows-based media players only.

Now that Ubuntu 7.04 is out, I wanted to evaluate the progress that has been made by testing these video feeds from the same news websites.

ABC News

Sound: NO
Video: NO

BBC News

Sound: YES
Video: YES (Improvement!)

CBS News

Sound: NO
Video: NO

CNBC

Sound: NO
Video: NO

CNN

Sound: YES
Video: YES (Improvement!)

FOX News

Sound: YES
Video: NO

MSNBC

Sound: YES
Video: YES

As you can see, two of the websites have improved their results. This increases the number of working video feeds to 3 out of the 7 websites that I selected for testing.

I am not certain if this change can be attributed to improvements in Ubuntu, or because the news websites have modified their video feeds to support multiple platforms. Any ideas on how to watch the news on websites that aren't currently working? Do we just need to wait for Linux to gain enough critical mass to get the attention (and wallets) of the news companies? Should we submit feature requests to these news companies?

Would you use Windows if it was GPL?

2007-04-27T14:24:00.000Z

In my last post, several people accused me of being anti-Microsoft. This is not true at all! I believe that Microsoft makes good products. Do you think they could attain a 95% market share without making a good product? That is not the way a market economy works.

What I am opposed to are arbitrary restrictions being placed on the software I use. Can you imagine a case where my Linux operating system locks me out for no good reason? Perhaps a message that says "We're sorry, but the Penguin Kingdom has decided that you have not given them enough herring. Access denied."

This chain of events has got me thinking about Windows and Linux. Specifically, would you use Windows if it was licensed by the GPL? Windows would just be another open source operating system to choose from. Would you choose it? It has great hardware and application support, and most of your users already know how to operate it. You could choose to run only open source applications on it, or you could purchase proprietary applications if you wanted. (CNR is supposed to offer this same functionality in Linux, but it seems as if nothing is happening with CNR. Any updates on this?)

What reasons would you have to NOT run Windows if it was GPL? Some might say security, but I believe Windows Vista has a similar level of security as current Linux distros. Would you not use Windows simply because it USED to be a proprietary operating system that placed many restrictions on its use?

I believe that Linux would be greatly suppressed if Windows ever became GPL software. Don't worry about this happening, because it probably never will. I predict that Windows will be forced to continually lower its price to compete with Linux, and perhaps someday giving their software away. I have no idea why they thought they could charge even more money for Vista, that just blows my mind away. When a competitor sells an equivalent product at a lower price, you are forced to lower your prices. This is called a "price-war", and you can see a good example in AMD and Intel.

If Windows was ever released as a "free" product, I still would not use it. However, I think I would use Windows if it was GPL. At least then I would be able to easily setup my dual-monitors, unlike in Ubuntu where I have to manually edit my xorg.conf file. (Please fix this! Look at what Fedora has done!)

VMware Converter and Microsoft Licensing

2007-04-25T08:25:00.000Z

I have been happily using Ubuntu for quite a while now, and I don't really use the Windows partition on my hard drive. The only thing I have ever needed was my Groupwise archive that contained some old emails.

Recently, I heard about a new tool called VMware Converter. This free tool can be used to create a VMware image from a real installation of Windows. I thought it would be a good idea to convert my Windows partition into a virtual machine so that I could simply fire up Windows while I am running Ubuntu.

I booted into Windows, downloaded the VMware Converter, and followed the wizard. After a few hours of processing, I had a VMware image of my Windows installation. Everything appeared to be working, so I booted into Ubuntu and fired up VMware Player and started the new virtual machine I had just created.

Everything looked good as Windows started to boot inside the virtual machine. However, I quickly ran into a brick-wall. Licensing. Yuck! Windows told me that I didn't have a valid license for my operating system. What? This is the same legal copy of Windows that I was using just a few minutes ago! Apparently the change in hardware made Windows think I had illegally copied it to a new system. This is so frustrating. Some people have suggested that I call Microsoft to have them re-activate this OS, but I don't think I will do that. Instead, I will consider this another reason NOT to use proprietary software.

I shake my head in disbelief when I watch fellow colleagues spend hours of their time installing and configuring a "Licensing Server". Can you believe they even have such a thing? Those servers don't even serve a real purpose or function!

Tristan's Thought Exercise #1

2007-04-06T11:29:00.000Z

I came up with this exercise while on a long car trip to Lake Powell with some friends. This is a great way to kill some time, and you can learn a lot about people by the way they respond to this scenario.

Scenario

For some supernatural reason, all other humans have suddenly disappeared from this planet. There was no warning, it was as if they were all teleported away at the same time. You are left alone on the planet and must now decide what to do with your life. Here are some topics to consider:

The world is your oyster

Congratulations, everything in the world is now yours! Of course you won't be able to use it all, and things that are normally considered valuable, such as gold or money, will now be worthless.

Declining infrastructure

Without anyone else running the place, things will start to deteriorate. The speed at which this happens depends on many variables. I expect that many cities will be destroyed by fire in the first week. Electricity will only last for so long, and running water will stop working eventually. You could use portable generators to provide power for your electronic devices, but you will also need a reliable source of gasoline for those generators. Will nuclear power plants shutdown automatically, or will they meltdown? Best to stay far away from those, just in case.

Taking Risks

Just because you can do anything you want, does that mean you should? If you get hurt, there will be no one to take care of you. There are no doctors, but there are unlimited medical supplies at hospitals and stores. Also, it might be a good idea to keep a gun with you in case a wild animal decides to play "eat the human".

Travel

You can go anywhere in the world, assuming that you can get there by yourself. Where would you go?

By Land: There will be an unlimited supply of vehicles on the road. Most of these will have crashed after their occupant disappeared, but some will be stopped at red-lights or parked. You better learn how to hotwire cars, because you may not have the keys. You don't know how to hotwire a car? Well, since there is no one around to teach you this, you better hope that there is a book about it at your local library.

Which vehicle would you drive? You can always drive one until it runs out of gas, and switch it for another. Gas stations will probably not work, but you should be able to find a way to manually pump or siphon the gas.

By Sea: It might be fun to find a large yacht and sail around the world. But you better know what you are doing, or you could become stranded at sea. Remember that the local weatherman is no longer around to supply you with semi-accurate weather predictions. GPS will work for a while, but it would be a good idea to learn to navigate by the stars or compass.

By Air: Always wanted to learn how to fly but never had the time or money? Now is your chance! Read as much as you can about flying and maintaining airplanes, then go to your local airport and try your best! On second thought, perhaps flying would only be feasible if you were already a pilot.

Animal companions

Because there are no other humans on the earth, you could get a little lonely. You may want to find some pets to keep you sane. The sad thing is that most pets will soon die, locked in their kennels, cages, and homes. How many pets would you keep with you? Perhaps you would want to travel with a pack of dogs, or perhaps some monkeys from the zoo. If so, you better get to the zoo quickly before they run out of food and water.

Living conditions

You can live in any home you wanted, or you can live in a different place every night. Canned food would always be available in either stores or homes, but perishable food will soon spoil and will not be replenished. This means that you will soon have no fresh meat, no milk, no fruit, no bread, no eggs, etc. If you really wanted a steak, you could visit a cow ranch but you would need to butcher it yourself.

Entertainment

After the internet goes down, you will need to find another way to spend your time. You can always read books at the library, assuming that has not been destroyed by fire. Or you might want to go through people's homes and try to learn as much as you can about them. Watch their home-videos, read diaries and journals, and look at pictures and scrapbooks. You can do this for your family and friends, complete strangers, or famous celebrities.

Post your responses

Now it is your turn to share what you would do in this scenario. Feel free to post a comment on this blog, or post your answer on your own blog and link to it here.

Unscientific Linux Popularity Contest

2007-03-29T15:20:00.000Z

Introduction

Have you ever wondered which Linux distro is the most popular? Many people will point to the statistics at DistroWatch.com. These statistics are generated by the number of "hits" for each distro page at DistroWatch. Unfortunately, this allows the possibility of "ballot-stuffing" by making multiple visits to distro page that you like.

Therefore this data cannot be considered scientific, and it is has a high probability of being inaccurate. Even so, it still has some value. We can tell which distro has the most (real visitors + "ballet-stuffers"), which will roughly correlate to the actual popularity of the distro.

Here are some interesting long-term trends:

2002: Top 5 Distros

Mandrake
Red Hat
Gentoo
Debian
Sorcerer
Suse

Comments: I have never even heard of Sorcerer Linux! Year 2002 statistics could be very inaccurate since DistroWatch.com was not well-known at the time. Also, I included Suse in position #6 so that we can see how it fares as the years go by.

2003: Top 5 Distros

Mandrake
Red Hat
Knoppix
Gentoo
Debian

7. Suse

Comments: Knoppix makes a huge splash as it enters the scene at #3. Knoppix was the first distro to introduce the concept of a Live-CD, which is still very popular today (used in the Ubuntu install CD). Many people saw Linux for the first time when they booted up Knoppix.

2004: Top 5 Distros

Mandrake
Fedora (was Red Hat)
Knoppix
Suse
Debian

13. Ubuntu

Comments: This is the year that Fedora replaced Red Hat. This also marks the third year in a row that Mandrake has held the coveted #1 rank on this list. Note that a brand new operating system which was introduced in Q4 of 2004 still managed to achieve a rank of #13 for the year.

2005: Top 5 Distros

Ubuntu
Mandriva (was Mandrake)
Suse
Fedora
Mepis

Comments: Ubuntu shines in all its glory as it manages to beat Mandrake (now known as Mandriva) and take the #1 position. This is also the first year that Suse has beaten Fedora or Red Hat.

2006: Top 5 Distros

Ubuntu
OpenSuse (was Suse)
Fedora
Mepis
Mandriva

Comments: Suse was renamed to OpenSuse, and it still manages to keep its lead over Fedora. Mandriva is dropping fast as it is beat by the new-comer Mepis. The success of Mepis was probably helped by the fact that it is based on the number #1 distro, Ubuntu.

Statistics from Google Trends

There is another source of statistics that we can use to determine the popularity of Linux distros. Google Trends allows us to see the relative popularity of search terms, based on a sample of total searches. Here are some fun ones:

Windows vs Windows

Popular Linux/Unix Distros

Linux Distros vs Windows Vista

Statistics from Alexa

You can also play around with statistics from Alexa. The data from this site comes from users who have installed the Alexa toolbar. We can now find the relative popularity of websites by querying this data. Here is a query that I did:

Summary

I hope I have demonstrated something that is useful to you. These tools can be used to determine the popularity of almost any topic. Just keep in mind that they cannot be considered accurate, but they do show relative trends. Have fun!

Ubuntu Tidbits

2007-03-03T15:18:00.000Z

Introduction

I created this post to document all of the small things I do on my Ubuntu systems to make them customized for me. My hope is that people who want to do similar things will learn from my experiences.

Add a password to the screensaver (a common policy at work)

System > Preferences > Screensaver
Select the screensaver you want to use (you can also choose "Random" or "Blank Screen")
Use the slider to choose the amount of idle time before the screensaver starts
Check this box: "Activate Screensaver"
Check this box: "Lock screen when screensaver is active"

Make "List View" the default in the File Browser (Nautilus)

Places > Home Folder
Edit > Preferences
Find "View new folders using:" and select "List View"

4. After you change this setting, you can browse your files like this:

Increase the Terminal scroll-back history

Applications > Accessories > Terminal
Edit > Current Profile
Click on the tab labeled "Scrolling"
Find "Scrollback:" and increase the number to something like 100,000 lines

Add a button on the top panel to start an application (such as Terminal)

Applications > Accessories
Right-click on "Terminal" and select "Add this launcher to panel"

Making applications start automatically after a reboot (such as xchat)

System > Preferences > Sessions
Click on the tab labeled "Startup Programs"
Click on the button labeled "Add"
Type in the command used to launch the application

Display the usage of your system resources

Right-click on the top panel and select "Add to Panel..."
Click on "System Monitor" and then click "Add"
Drag the System Monitor icon to where you want it to go
Right-click on the System Monitor icon and choose "Preferences"
Select the values that you want to measure, such as "Processor", "Memory", "Network", "Harddisk", etc.

Monitor the weather in your area

Right-click on the top panel and select "Add to Panel..."
Click on "Weather Report" and then click "Add"
Drag the Weather icon to where you want it to go
Right-click on the Weather icon and choose "Preferences"
Click on the tab labeled "Location" and input your location
Another way to monitor the weather is to use the Forecastfox plugin for Firefox.

Monitor your Gmail account

System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
Search for "checkgmail"
Install "checkgmail"
Run "checkgmail" from a Terminal session to start it
Right-click on the mail icon and choose "Preferences"
Configure CheckGmail by adding your account and password information
Add "checkgmail" to your startup programs as described above

How to setup a firewall in Ubuntu

2007-03-02T15:38:00.000Z

Introduction

A firewall is a necessary piece of software on most operating systems. This is not true for Ubuntu, because the default install doesn't include any services that accept connections from the network. You can confirm this by running this command:

sudo netstat -plut

Services that accept connections from the network will include an asterisk symbol or an IP address in the field labeled "Local Address". Services that only accept connections from the local system will include the word "localhost".

If you later decide to install a new service such as SSH or Remote Desktop (VNC), you will probably want to control who can access these services by installing a software firewall. Searching in Add/Remove Applications for "firewall" does not return any results. Searching in Synaptic Package Manager for "firewall" will provide you with 116 results. Obviously, these are not the best ways to find the right application.

Firestarter Firewall (basic)

I recommend using a site like Linux App Finder to learn about open source applications. On the Linux App Finder site you can search for "firewall" or you can use the menu system to select "Security -> Firewall". That will take you to this page, which displays some popular firewall applications, sorted by their rating. The top entry is Firestarter, which is the application I recommend to anyone who has basic firewall needs and prefers a simple interface.

You can install Firestarter using "System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager". Once it is installed, you can access the application from "System > Administration > Firestarter". The first time you start the application, Firestarter will walk you through a basic configuration wizard that looks like this:

Once the wizard is completed, your firewall is up and running. By default, it will block all incoming connections. You will need to configure the firewall policy to allow access to your services. You can add simple rules like "Allow connections to VNC from Anywhere", or you can setup more granular rules like "Allow connections to VNC from a specific IP address". These configurations are done in the "Policy" tab.

There is a Status page that will show you if the firewall is active, the amount of activity on each interface, and what connections are currently being made.

One of the nice features of this firewall is the logging function that shows connections that have been blocked by the firewall.

Guarddog Firewall (intermediate)

People who want a few more options to work with (or who are running KDE) may want to choose another great firewall application called Guarddog. This application provides more options and configurations than Firestarter, but it is still simple to use.

Fwbuilder Firewall (advanced)

If you want to run a network firewall on Ubuntu, you probably need to implement complex firewall rules and advanced configurations. The best tool for this is called fwbuilder. I only recommend fwbuilder to people who have a good understanding of firewalls and networking. This tool has many advanced features including revision control, and the ability to deploy the firewall policy to a remote firewall.

WPA wireless "just works" in Ubuntu 7.04

2007-02-21T13:47:00.000Z

Introduction

This past week I installed a pre-release of the next version of Ubuntu. This alpha version is called "Herd 4" and should NOT be installed on a production machine. Please wait until the final release of Ubuntu 7.04 which should be in April, 2007.

With that disclaimer behind us, let me tell you that this next release is going to rock! In addition to many other improvements such as automatically installing multimedia codecs, Ubuntu 7.04 will now allow you to painlessly connect to secure wireless networks.

I have been waiting a long-time for Linux to automatically connect to WPA-secured wireless networks. WPA is the minimum security for a modern wireless network to be considered "secure". (Even WPA can still be hacked if you use a small pre-shared key.) In past versions of Ubuntu, you had to manually install software (xsupplicant) and configure it if you wanted to connect to a WPA network.

Now you can connect in two simple steps. First, click on the wireless icon in the top-right of the screen and select the wireless network you want to connect to.

Then, depending on the type of security for the wireless network, you will be prompted to authenticate to the network. At my workplace, the prompt looks like this. The only fields I had to modify are "Identity" (my username) and "Password". Within a few seconds, I was connected!

How can it be improved?

I have one complaint about the wireless network authentication process. The network manager software is smart enough to remember all of your network credentials, but it requires you to create a master password to secure these passwords. So every time you reboot or come back from hibernation, you have to log into Ubuntu AND log into the network keyring. In my opinion, this is redundant and the network keyring should see that you have already authenticated yourself.

If you want to fix this manually, it is possible to do so by following a few simple instructions given by Johnny Chadda.

How does this compare to other operating systems?

Windows XP is normally thought to have great support for wireless networks. This is true for some networks, but many secure wireless networks require the user to perform multiple complex steps to configure the correct security and authentication settings. To see what I mean, just look at these instructions to connect to various University wireless networks.

On the other hand, the Mac OS X interface looks very similar to Ubuntu 7.04. Just like Ubuntu, it will allow you to painlessly connect to secure wireless networks.

Store passwords securely in Firefox

2007-02-20T13:56:00.000Z

Introduction

Most of us visit a lot of websites, and we have a need to login to many of these sites. We know that it would be a bad idea to use the same password for all online accounts, so we create unique passwords for each site. However, it is impossible for us to remember all of these passwords so we tell Firefox to remember them for us.

This provides great convenience, but it also creates a huge security risk. Anyone who sits down at your computer can view your passwords! If you don't believe me, try this in Firefox: "Edit" > "Preferences" > "Security" > "Show Passwords".

Fortunately, the smart people at Mozilla have created an improved way to store your passwords. This method requires creating a "Master Password" which is used to encrypt your online passwords. You can do this in Firefox by clicking on "Edit" > "Preferences" > "Security" and clicking on the button labeled "Use a master password".

When you are creating a Master Password, it is important that you create a strong password. Even though your passwords are encrypted, they can still be retrieved if someone can guess your Master Password. Someone has even created a password recovery tool called FireMaster that tries to find your password by using both dictionary and brute-force attacks.

Once you have created a Master Password, you will be asked for it the first time you try to login to an online account. Firefox will only ask for this password once per session . If you close and open Firefox you will need to enter it again.

If you are paranoid about this, there is also a Firefox extension that will force you to re-enter the Master Password after a certain length of inactivity. Of course, a simple screen-saver password would accomplish the same thing. ("System" > "Preferences" > "Screensaver" > "Lock screen when screensaver is active")

Feature Requests

A password generator would be useful when creating the master password and when creating new online accounts. Because your passwords are remembered by Firefox, you can get away with using highly complex passwords in all your online accounts. There is a Firefox extension that will help you generate secure passwords.

I also wish there was a way to easily synchronize my saved passwords on my work machine with my home machine, and my laptop. If I wanted to do this manually, I could install the Password Exporter Firefox extension which lets you export and import the passwords using encrypted text files. Google appears to have a great product to fill this need: Google Browser Sync. Just beware of the possible privacy and security risks of letting Google have access to your passwords, history, cookies, and favorites.

What does the Ubuntu/Linspire deal mean?

2007-02-19T18:23:00.000Z

Introduction

I have been hearing a lot of negative opinions about the Ubuntu/Linspire deal that was recently announced. Why is this? Will this deal really have a negative impact on Ubuntu and open source? What advantages and opportunities does this deal represent? Although the results of this deal will not be known for many months, I will do my best to answer these questions now.

What are the details of this deal?

There are two main points to this deal. First, the Linspire distribution is going to move from a Debian base to an Ubuntu base. This is an interesting trend to watch. Historically, there were dozens of different distributions that were derived from Debian. These include a variety of popular distros including Knoppix, Morphix, Linspire, Mepis, Xandros, and of course Ubuntu. Here is a visual collage of logos that are based on Debian.

Now we are starting to see some of these distros start basing their distro on Ubuntu. Mepis moved to Ubuntu last year, and Linspire will transition in April of 2007. Here is a list of Ubuntu derivatives. The diagram below may help you understand the Ubuntu/Linspire relationship. (Disclaimer: I don't agree that Linspire is better or above Ubuntu. All of the "additional" benefits listed for Linspire are also provided by Ubuntu.)

The second main point of this deal is that Ubuntu will be using aspects of the CNR (Click-N-Run) service. The CNR service will provide a front-end to find and install applications, both open source and commercial. This diagram illustrates how CNR will interact with Ubuntu:

You can also see more screenshots of CNR, and read the FAQ about CNR.

What does Linspire's CNR offer to Ubuntu?

I believe that CNR provides two major benefits to Ubuntu and open source.

1. Help new users find the right application

In my opinion, one of the biggest hurdles for new Linux users is learning which open source applications they should use. There are so many projects spread across the internet, it is very hard to track them and provide qualitative information about them. That is why I created the LoopList and have been referring people to sites such as OSALT (Open Source Alternatives).

CNR offers users much more information about applications than the current method in Ubuntu. Currently we are given a paragraph describing the application, and if we are lucky it will include a link to the project website. Here are some of the additional features that will be available through CNR:

Search for applications by title, popularity, user rating, category, function, or author
View screenshots of the application
Read user reviews or submit your own review
Browse charts to easily find the most popular software programs by category
Find user support and help information for each application
Product pages contain wiki-type technology allowing the community to help add and update content for products
A tip-jar that allows users to support an application by donating to the developers

2. Easy distribution of commercial software

If you are a software developer, you probably only create software for Windows operating systems. If you have enough resources, you might also provide a version of your software for Mac OS X. With CNR, you can now easily distribute your software to tens of millions of Linux desktops. CNR will provide a cross-distro client that will install and upgrade your application. Supported distributions include Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, OpenSuse, Freespire and Linspire. CNR will also handle the billing of your customers, providing them a one-stop-shop for all their Linux software needs, whether open source or commercial.

This benefit to developers will have a huge positive impact on Linux and open source adoption. Many people complain that nobody develops popular games for Linux. CNR makes this much more likely by providing developers easy access to tens of millions of potential customers. This will have a snowball affect as more software is developed for Linux, then more people will use Linux. CNR will be a catalyst that accelerates the adoption of Linux.

So, the sky is not falling?

Of course not. First of all, you are not being forced to use CNR. You can still install your applications the same way you normally do such as Synaptic, apt-get, or aptitude. Secondly, I believe that the benefits I listed above will have an overall positive affect on Ubuntu and the entire open source movement.

That said, will there any possible problems? It is possible. For example, I am not certain how much confusion and additional support will be created by having CNR's application repository. I assume that CNR will use standard Ubuntu packages when available, but also offer the commercial software from their repository.

Keep your eyes on the progress of this partnership, but please put on your rose-tinted glasses first.

Upgrading to version 1.3.4 of VirtualBox

2007-02-15T18:13:00.000Z

There is a new version of VirtualBox out (1.3.4) that includes over 800 improvements. I have upgraded to this new version on Ubuntu 6.10, but I had to perform a few steps that I will document in this post.

When I tried to install the new deb package, I got a dependency error for "libc-dev". That package is not even in the Ubuntu universe! Here is the ticket that was created to report this problem.

If you follow these steps, you too can upgrade to VirtualBox 1.3.4 on Ubuntu 6.10:

1. Install packages "libc6-dev" and "linux-libc-dev"

2. Remove the VirtualBox 1.3.2 package by using Synaptic. Choose "remove package".

3. Download and install the VirtualBox version 1.3.4 package for Ubuntu 6.10. You will need to view the details of the install so that you can accept the license by typing "yes". I have filed this ticket so that they will improve this in the next version.

Let me know if you run into any problems, or you can also post them on the VirtualBox bugtracker.

Five ways to use Windows apps in Linux

2007-02-01T13:19:00.000Z

1. Use an open source alternative instead

When someone asks me if they can run "Windows Application X" on Linux, the first thing I tell them is to look for an open source alternative. For most Windows applications, there will be a high-quality open source alternative that can meet their needs. The biggest hurdle for non-Linux people is simply knowing that these alternative exist and how to find them.

The best place I have found to search for these applications is at www.osalt.com. On that site, you can enter the name of the Windows application and it will list the open source alternatives that provide similar functionality. Be sure to check it out.

2. Buy a commercial product that was designed for Linux

If you cannot find an open source alternative, and you have not already purchased a Windows application, then you should consider purchasing a commercial product that was designed for Linux.

Here is a story of a civil engineer who wanted to find an open source replacement for AutoCAD. He tried several applications, but he could not find one that met all his requirements. So this engineer decided to use a commercial CAD application that was designed for Linux. He purchased a copy of "BricsCad", which worked well for him AND it cost a lot less than AutoCAD.

3. Use Wine to run the application in Linux

If you cannot find a suitable open source alternative and you have already purchased a Windows application, then you might be able to run the application in Linux using Wine. Wine is a tool that simulates the Windows environment. Since I had already purchased a copy of Warcraft 3 for Windows, I have configured it to run on Linux using Wine.

However, your success with Wine will vary depending on the application. It is best to search the Wine Application Database to find out if your application will run well under Wine.

4. Run Windows in a Virtual Machine

Before virtualization was widely available, people would dual-boot their machine if they wanted access to both Windows and Linux. Whenever they needed to do something in the other operating system, they would have to close all their applications and reboot into the other operating system.

This time-consuming process can now be replaced by running Windows in a virtual machine on a Linux system. For instance, you can install the open source VirtualBox application which I have written a review about. Once that is installed, you can install Windows and Windows applications inside a virtual machine. Now you can use that virtual machine to have instant access to any of your Windows applications.

5. Run the application on a remote Windows system

The final way that you can run Windows applications is to run the application on a remote Windows system and control it from your local system. This is often called "Terminal Services", which runs on a Windows server.

This method can be as simple as connecting to a Windows XP Pro workstation using rdesktop. However, you may have many Linux workstations that need to run Windows applications using this method. In that case, there are software options available that provide more scalability and features. The biggest name in this market is Citrix, but there are also others such as Propalms.

Here is a screenshot of Citrix providing Macromedia Dreamweaver, a Windows application, to my Ubuntu Linux desktop.

What to do if you NEED Internet Explorer

2007-01-26T17:06:00.000Z

What do you do if you NEED to use Internet Explorer on your Linux system? Of course, nobody would WANT to use Internet Explorer on Linux but there are times when you need it to get your work done. This is a sad state of affairs, so remember to encourage your software vendors to always support open standards so that we can use the web browser of our choosing.

Fortunately, someone has made it very easy to run IE on Linux. The project is called IEs 4 Linux, which will run IE using Wine. If you read the IE license from Microsoft, you will learn that you should own a copy of Windows if you want to install IE. There is no way for IEs4Linux to know if you have a license, so it simply uses the honor system.

To install IEs4Linux on Ubuntu, you can follow these simple instructions. The script runs a simple text-based wizard, which offers you the choice of installing IE version 5.0, 5.5, or 6.0. If you hit "Enter" four times, it will install IE 6.0 with the Flash Player plugin. There are also several more plugins available that you can install with IEs4Linux.

Here is what the installation wizard looks like:

Once the wizard is completed, you should have an icon on your desktop which will start-up Internet Explorer. Here is a screenshot of me using IE to manage a Cisco MARS appliance, which requires IE. (Shame on them!) You can also see that I managed to successfully install the Google Toolbar for IE, although it is formatted a little awkward.

Using the Cisco console in Linux

2007-01-24T18:57:00.000Z

Introduction

People who work with Cisco network equipment need to be able to connect to the console port on their devices. In Windows, you can simply fire up HyperTerminal to get basic access to your devices. If you are using Linux, then you need to know how this can be done with an application called Minicom.

Hardware

First, you are going to need a Cisco console cable, a Cisco device, and a computer. If your computer has a serial port, then you can use the standard console cable that comes with every Cisco device.

If you do not have a serial port (like most new laptops), then you need to purchase a USB to Serial adapter that supports Linux. This device will allow you to use the standard Cisco cable, which has a serial port on one end.

Install Minicom

You can easily install Minicom by using "System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager". Search for "minicom" and choose to install the package. Click "Apply" and Minicom should be installed within a few seconds.

Find the name of your serial port

The first thing you need to find out is which device your serial port is mapped to. The easiest way to do this is to connect the console cable to a running Cisco device. Now open up a Terminal using "Applications > Accessories > Terminal" and type this command:

dmesg | grep tty

The output will look something like this:

Look in this output for words that contain "tty". In this case, it is "ttyS0". That meas the name of the device the corresponds to your serial port is "ttyS0". Now we are ready to configure Minicom to use this information.

Configure Minicom

Open a terminal using "Applications > Accessories > Terminal". Now type this command to enter the configuration menu of Minicom:

sudo minicom -s

Use the keyboard arrow keys to select the menu item labeled "Serial Port Setup" and then hit "Enter". This will open a window that looks similar to the one below:

Change your settings to match the ones in the picture above. Here is what I had to change:

Change the line speed (press E) to "9600"
Change the hardware flow control (press F) to "No"
Change the serial device (press A) to "/dev/ttyS0"

Be sure to use the device name that you learned in the previous step

Once your screen looks like mine, you can hit "Escape" to go back to the main menu. Next, you need to select "Save setup as dfl" and hit "Enter" to save these settings to the default profile. Then select "Exit Minicom" to exit Minicom... ;)

To find out if you have configured Minicom correctly, type this command in the terminal:

sudo minicom

After entering your Ubuntu user password, you should be connected to your Cisco device.

Note: You may want to delete the Minicom init string if you see a bunch of gibberish every time you connect to a device. To do this, enter Minicom configuration with:

sudo minicom -s

Then select "Modem and dialing". Press "A" to edit the Init string, and delete all characters so that it becomes empty. Make sure you save this to the default profile with "Save setup as dfl". You should no longer see gibberish when you connect to devices.

Create a desktop launcher

If you want to have quicker access to Minicom, you can create a desktop launcher.

Right-click on the desktop and choose "Create launcher"
Click on "Icon" and choose the picture you want to use
Use the "Type" pull-down menu and select "Application in terminal"
Create a name like "Cisco Console" in the field labeled "Name"
Enter this command into the field labeled "Command"

sudo minicom

Hit "OK" and your desktop launcher is ready for you to use.

The life of a front-page Digg

2007-01-24T16:46:00.000Z

I was recently surprised and blessed with a post that reached the front-page of Digg. This means that the post must be good, so you should read it.

I had never really paid attention to Digg before this. I knew what it was, but I didn't really understand how the process worked, or how much traffic it could drive to my site. The best information that I have found about how Digg works is this article and of course the Wikipedia entry for Digg. The main concept about Digg is that it uses tens of thousands of internet surfers to decide how good a story is. It is easy to search through these submitted stories and decide if you think a story is worth your "Digg".

Here is a screenshot of my post just as it was about to fall off the front page of Digg.

Here is a graph of traffic to my blog website. As you can see, I went from about 100 visitors a day to over 10,000 visitors on the day of the Digg front-page. Then there is a quickly dwindling amount of visitors following the big day.

After seeing the amount of traffic that Digg could bring to my site, I almost immediately decided to sign-up for Google Adsense. My goal with advertising is to pay for one meal at my favorite mexican restaurant each month. However, it looks like this goal is a little optimistic.

In the past week since I started advertising, I have made $0.23 from Google. If I can just write better posts, perhaps I can get this up to $2.00 a week? That would pay for the meal, but since Google does not send the money until I have made $100, it could be a while before I get my smothered pork burrito at Cafe Rio.

I can honestly say that I am now a Digg addict. Watching my posts go through the Digg life-cycle is almost like watching the stock market in real-time. Will this post be the next big one? Will it make it to the front-page of Digg, or (more likely) will it not gather enough momentum and sink into obscurity?

Open source replacement for VMware

2007-01-18T23:34:00.000Z

No, I'm not talking about Xen

You probably thought that this post was going to be about Xen, which is an excellent piece of virtualization software. Instead, I am going to share with you a newcomer into the field of open source virtualization. On January 15th, InnoTek announced the release of VirtualBox under the GPL license. Lets take a closer look at what this product does.

VirtualBox has a similar feature set to VMware Workstation (~$200). You can use it to create virtual machines and run many different operating systems within the virtual machine. VirtualBox can be installed on Windows or Linux, and it supports many different operating systems as guests inside the virtual machine. VirtualBox also supports creating multiple snapshots of your virtual machines, which is a feature that is missing in the free VMware Player.

By asking around in VirtualBox IRC channel, I learned that VirtualBox was built using some code from the Qemu project. If you have more questions about this, you can read about it in the Developer FAQ.

Installing VirtualBox

Before you install this application, you must first enable the Universe repository (you can do this using "System > Administration > Software Sources"). To install VirtualBox on Ubuntu, simply download the appropriate .deb file from the VirtualBox website. For me, I used the file named "VirtualBox_1.3.2_Ubuntu_Edgy_x86.deb" since I was going to install it on Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy).

Once the file is downloaded, choose to "Open" it with the default application. This will install the application on your system, and you will have a new entry in "Applications > System Tools > Innotek VirtualBox".

Before you run this for the first time, you need to add your user to a new group that was created during the package installation. You can do this from "System > Administration > Users and Groups". Choose "Manage Groups", select the group labeled "vboxusers", and click on "Properties". Now put a check box next to your username. See the diagram below to see how I did this on my system.

If you do not do this before you run VirtualBox, you will get an error message that is described in the User FAQ. You will then need to re-login to Ubuntu after adding yourself to that group.

Using VirtualBox

Here is a beautiful screenshot of running Ubuntu 6.10 on Ubuntu 6.10 using VirtualBox. This was also my feable attempt at artistic recursion: A screenshot of someone taking a screenshot.

Caveat

VirtualBox is very new to the open source world. One of the benefits of offering software as open source is that you get a large population of users to test and evaluate your product. This should help VirtualBox become more stable, as I ran into a few problems when using it.

For instance, I was not able to install the "Herd 2" alpha-release of Fiesty. The LiveCD booted fine, but during the install wizard the graphics became garbled and I couldn't see enough to complete the wizard. Another time, the virtual machine crashed while downloading updates for Ubuntu.

Conclusion

Keep your eyes on VirtualBox. The software is currently very usable, except for a few problems in stability. I am hoping that they will quickly correct these issues and become a real competitor in the virtualization market. If this happens, I am going to stop using free software from VMware, and start using open source software from VirtualBox.

Ubuntu beats OpenSuse: Upgrading Versions

2007-01-15T15:14:00.000Z

Take a look at this warning on the OpenSuse website:

Warning: Updating from one version to another is unsupported and may result in system inconsistencies. Performing distribution upgrades in the running system increases the risk of causing damage.

If you ask me, not being able to upgrade my operating system is major problem. Fedora also appears to have sub-par support for upgrading from one version to the next. Take a look at this warning on the Fedora wiki:

Although upgrades with yum have been tested and work, live upgrades are not recommended by the Fedora Project. If you are not prepared to resolve issues on your own if things break, you should probably use the recommend installation methods instead. With a typical installation, this method usually works well, but it can break third-party packages not available in the Fedora repositories. Please search the mailing list archives first if you run into problems.

Based on the information on that page, it appears that upgrading Fedora can be simple, but it is definitely not recommended. While this is not as bad as the Suse warning above, I would still be nervous to upgrade Fedora.

For comparison, you can read on the Ubuntu wiki about how easy it is to upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu. Anyone got a testimonial about your experience with upgrading an operating system?

How to mount Novell network drives

2007-01-11T22:43:00.000Z

One of the major requirements for running Ubuntu at work is that I need to be able to access our department network drives on Novell Netware servers. I thought this was going to be a difficult procedure, but as you will soon learn it is not hard at all.

Novell Netware servers use the NCP protocol to provide network shares. Therefore, an NCP client is needed to connect to these network drives. The NCP client for Linux is called "ncpfs", which is available in the Universe repository for Ubuntu. Here are the steps it takes to access your Novell network drives.

Enable the "Universe" repository

Click on "System>Administration>Software Sources"
Check this box: "Community maintained Open Source (universe)"
Click on "Close" and let the system update the software catalog

Use Synaptic to install "ncpfs"

Click on "System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager"
Search for "ncpfs"
Choose to install "ncpfs"
Click on "Apply" and allow it to install any required dependencies

Create a directory that will become the network drive

Create a new directory called "novell"

Click on: "Applications>Accessories>Terminal"
Run this command: "sudo mkdir /mnt/novell"

Change permissions so that your user can access it

Run this command: "sudo chown yourusername:yourusername /mnt/novell"

Be sure to use your actual username on the Linux system

Create a link so the folder will be available on your desktop

Run this command: "ln -s /mnt/novell/ /home/yourusername/Desktop/novell"

Be sure to use your actual username on the Linux system

Create a desktop launcher to mount the drive

Right-click on the desktop and choose "Create launcher"
Click on "Icon" and choose the picture of the green apple. (Green is for GO)
Click on the "Command" tab and select "Application in terminal"
Paste this command into the field labeled "Command"

ncpmount -S yourservername -A yourservernamefqdn -U novellusername -V volumename -u linuxusername /mnt/novell/
(Be sure to edit each of the fields with your information)

Create a desktop launcher to unmount the drive

Right-click on the desktop and choose "Create launcher"
Click on "Icon" and choose the picture of the red apple. (Red is for STOP)
Click on the "Command" tab and select "Application in terminal"
Paste this command into the field labeled "Command"

ncpumount /mnt/novell/

When you are done, you should have two icons that look something like this:

To mount the drive, simply double-click on the green apple (GO) and a terminal will open up and ask you for your password. Once you have typed the password and hit "Enter", the network drive will be mounted. To unmount the drive, simply double-click the red apple (STOP).

Note: I have posted these instructions to the Ubuntu Wiki.
Credit: I got some of this information from this post by Todd Slater.

What it takes to make Ubuntu ready for use

2007-01-11T14:22:00.000Z

I recently installed Ubuntu 6.10 on a new PC at work. In this post I will document all the steps I had to perform to get it ready for everyday use. Each step is assigned a level of difficulty, which I define below:

Very Easy

Step can be completed without using the command prompt
Intuitive to complete

Easy

Step can be completed without using the command prompt
May require searching to find the right place to make the change

Medium

Requires a single command to be entered at the command prompt
Requires searching internet resources to find the solution

Hard

Requires multiple commands to be entered at the command prompt
Requires searching internet resources to find the solution

Very Hard

Requires multiple commands to be entered at the command prompt
Requires searching internet resources to find the solution
Requires the user to manually edit a configuration file

These criteria are quite strict, because I believe that using an operating system should be intuitive, and not require any specialized knowledge. With that in mind, let me share with you the steps I performed to get Ubuntu setup ready for me to be productive with it.

1. Install Ubuntu

Difficulty Level: Very Easy
Description:

Ubuntu has one of the easiest install procedures of any operating system. I simply booted to the LiveCD, clicked on the "Install" icon and followed the simple wizard. It only took about 15 minutes to complete the install. You can even surf the net while the operating system is being installed.

How it can be improved?:

I think it would be a good idea to show a few simple tutorials to the user while Ubuntu is being installed to the hard drive. Use this time to answer some of the most commonly asked questions about Ubuntu. This can be as simple as a slide-show with text and background music, or perhaps a flash video with audio.

2. Enable additional software sources

Difficulty Level: Easy
Description:

The universe, restricted, and backports repositories are an essential part of Ubuntu. By enabling these sources, I am allowing Ubuntu to take advantage of one of its greatest assets. There are now are over 20,000 software packages available that can easily be installed with a few clicks.

How it can be improved?:

Currently, you can enable these sources via "System>Administration>Software Sources", or you can let the sources be automatically enabled when you install an application that requires them. There is a specification that proposes that these additional software sources be included by default, and I agree.

3. Install proprietary graphics drivers (Nvidia)

Difficulty Level: Medium
Description:

This step required me to search the internet and follow these instructions that I found on the Ubuntu wiki. The steps included typing a command at the command prompt.

How it can be improved?:

Steps are already being taken to include these drivers in future versions of Ubuntu. To learn more, read the specification named "Accelerated X".

4. Configure Ubuntu to use my dual-monitor setup

Difficulty Level: Very Hard
Description:

I have two monitors that I would like to use with Ubuntu. By default, only one screen comes up and the other is blank. I searched for an easy way to configure dual-monitors in Ubuntu, but it doesn't appear that one exists. I had to manually edit the xorg.conf file just to use a second monitor.

How it can be improved?:

This is an area where we can learn from Fedora. I recently blogged about how "Fedora beats Ubuntu: Dual-monitor configuration", which shows how Fedora provides a slick GUI to setup dual-monitors.

5. Install additional multimedia codecs

Difficulty Level: Medium
Description:

Much of the multimedia content available on the internet is encoded in a format that Ubuntu cannot use without installing extra packages. I had to search the internet to find the RestrictedFormats wiki page which shows how to enable support for many additional types of media.

How it can be improved?:

There is a specification called "Make extra codecs easy to install" which should help with this problem. However, there is still a lot of content that is not available even after installing these packages. For instance, why can't we watch the news in Linux? We need to find a way to either support more formats, or we must convince content providers to use open formats.

6. Install common applications (Add/Remove Applications)

Difficulty Level: Very Easy
Description:

The "Add/Remove Applications" tool is very well designed and easy to use.

How it can be improved?:

This tool is great, it just needs a bigger selection of applications. How does Ubuntu decide which packages will be in "Add/Remove", and which ones are only available in Synaptic?

7. Install less common applications (Synaptic Package Manager)

Difficulty Level: Easy
Description:

If I cannot find my application in "Add/Remove Applications", then I use "Synaptic Package Manager" to install it. Synaptic is a great tool, but it is not as easy to use as the "Add/Remove" tool.

How it can be improved?:

Provide more packages through the "Add/Remove Applications" interface.

8. Configure my email, calender, and messaging client

Difficulty Level: Easy
Description:

At work we are a Novell shop, so I needed to connect to our Groupwise servers to get my email, calender, and messenger service. Fortunately, there is native support for this in Ubuntu. I configured Evolution to display my email and calender, and I configured GAIM to connect to the Groupwise Messenger service.

How it can be improved?:

For the most part, everything mentioned above just works. I have discovered that I cannot join some types of chat rooms in GAIM, which I hope is corrected in a future version.

9. Mount my Novell Netware network drives

Difficulty Level: Medium
Description:

I thought this step would be harder, but it turns out that it only takes a few short steps to access your Novell network drives.

How it can be improved?:

I would like to see support for Novell network drives added to the "Places>Connect to Server" tool. Based on how easy it is to mount Novell drives, I assume that it would be easy to add this functionality. I feel that it would be a great win for Ubuntu to be able to say that it natively supports connecting to Novell network drives.

10. Install a Windows game (Warcraft 3)

Difficulty Level: Hard
Description:

While Linux has some great games available, an Ubuntu user may want to play a Windows game that they have already purchased. Wine allows many applications to run in Linux, but it is unpredictable and requires a few steps to get working. Warcraft 3 is rated "Gold", but I still had to follow this tutorial to get it working. The steps included installing Wine, running "winecfg" to configure my drives and OS type, and creating a desktop launcher to start the game.

How it can be improved?:

Wine is getting better with every release, but you still need to research each application to see if it is supported. If it is supported, it will take a few steps to get Wine setup for it.

Overall, this process was not very hard, especially if you consider how far Linux has come in the past few years. Once I completed the steps described above, my computer was ready for me to use. Based on the specifications for Feisty, the next version of Ubuntu will require even less work to get going. You can be sure that I will create a similar post about that version and share my experiences.

World Domination 201: A review

2007-01-09T18:21:00.000Z

Eric S. Raymond and Rob Landley have written an interesting paper called "World Domination 201". The main idea of this paper is that the entrance of 64-bit processors will force a new operating system to be adopted, which provides a unique opportunity for Linux to become the dominate operating system.

Their conclusion is based on this theory: An operating system will become obsolete when low-end computers are sold with more memory than the operating system can support.

Here is how this transition has happened before:

8-bit processors

Dates: 1975-1984 (9 years)
Supported Memory: 64 kilobytes
Dominate Operating System: BASIC

16-bit processors

Dates: 1981-1990 (9 years)
Supported Memory: 1 megabyte
Dominate Operating System: DOS

32-bit processors

Dates: 1987-2008 (21 years)
Supported Memory: 4 gigabytes
Dominate Operating System: Windows

64-bit processors

Dates: 2008-???
Supported Memory: 1 terabyte
Dominate Operating System: Linux, OS X, or Windows Vista

Historically, the transition to the new operating system occurs around three years after the new hardware was introduced. Since 64-bit processors were first introduced in 2005, this means that the new 64-bit OS will be determined by the end of 2008.

They list these factors as requirements for Linux to succeed:

Drivers for all major existing hardware

"When it comes to crossing the 32- to 64-bit divide, device driver support is where Linux has its biggest practical advantage over both Microsoft and Apple."

32-bit legacy platform emulation

"Linux needs a Wine 1.0 release, installed and preconfigured on desktop distributions."

Surviving the killer app

"As of yet, there is no killer app for Linux, nor for 64-bit hardware."

Enabling preinstalls

"To attract enough non-technical end users to make the hardware vendors care about us, we need Linux to come preinstalled on PCs in a configuration that just works."

Support for all major multimedia formats

"Idealism about open formats will not solve our multimedia problem in time; in fact, getting stuck on either belief in the technical superiority of open source or free-software purism guarantees we will lose."

The authors spend some time exploring the solutions to that last point. They describe six possible approaches to dealing with proprietary codecs:

Do without.
Unload the problem on individual users.
Reverse-engineer all codecs for which deployment is legally possible (e.g. not blocked by patents or the DMCA).
Press for delivery in open formats.
Get closed source binaries that are "free as in beer".
Pay to license codecs, per-copy.

Overall, it is an interesting read. I think the points he make are valid, and the premise of hardware forcing a software upgrade is historically accurate. I believe that Ubuntu is heading the right direction and is poised to be the next major operating system on 64-bit hardware.

Ubuntu beats Fedora: Long-term support

2007-01-01T18:39:00.000Z

The Fedora Legacy Project is shutting down. The goal of the Fedora Legacy Project was to provide security and critical bug fix errata packages for Fedora Core distributions in maintenance mode. Fedora users can no longer get support for releases older than Fedora Core 5, which was released in March, 2006. If you installed Fedora more than 9 months ago, then you need to upgrade if you want to get security updates.

People who use Linux, especially in commercial deployments, need to know that they can get security updates for a reasonable amount time. The Fedora Legacy Project provided an important service, but it was only sponsored by volunteers in the Fedora community. Red Hat decided not to provide this support, mainly because they wanted to encourage people to purchase their "Enterprise Linux" product. To illustrate Red Hat's position on this, you should read the answer to this question on the Fedora FAQ:

Why should I pay for Red Hat Enterprise Linux when Fedora is free? What is the relationship between Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

I can understand Red Hat trying to increase sales of their products, but this is just irresponsible. Red Hat is using the Fedora community as a testing and development environment for their products. Red Hat benefits from Fedora community contributions, and they get an excellent marketing and sales vehicle to potential customers.

The lack of long-term support in Fedora is contrasted by the solid and predictable support that Ubuntu releases provide. I have posted before about Ubuntu's amazing release schedule. Most Ubuntu releases get 1.5 years of support, but periodically there will be a LTS (long-term-support) version that provides 3 years of desktop support and 5 years of server support.

It is likely that the Fedora Legacy Project will be replaced with a similar entity that provides long-term support for Fedora releases. Let's hope that Red Hat steps up to the plate and invests resources to make this happen.

Update: Christer pointed out that there will be a similar situation with Ubuntu support. Ubuntu 5.10 is supported for 1.5 years (18 months) which ends in April 2007. If you installed Ubuntu 5.10 in July 2006 (right before Ubuntu 6.06 came out) then you would only get 10 months of support. For all other releases, the minimum amount of support is 12 months if you install a version the day before a new version comes out.

The main point of this post is still true: The future of legacy support for Fedora is now unknown, and Red Hat should spend resources to make this happen.

The easy way to resize hard drive partitions

2006-12-30T19:39:00.000Z

This past week I installed Ubuntu 6.10 on a second hard drive for my father. It is a 250 GB drive, and he wanted to give 30 GB to Ubuntu. I got to the "Resize Partion" step and dragged the slider so that it said "New partition size: 30 GB". I installed Ubuntu and when the system came up I found out that "New Partition" was not talking about the new Ubuntu partition. Instead, it resized the original partition to 30GB, and Ubuntu was now using 220 GB! This confusing behavior led me to update this bug.

What do I do now that I my hard drive partitions are not setup like I wanted them to be? Of course, any serious hacker would perform the complex operation of resizing the partitions manually. I, however, prefer to solve things the "easy" way so that I can spend my time on more productive activities. So what is the "easy" to fix this? The answer is... the GParted LiveCD.

The GParted LiveCD is an amazing tool that greatly simplifies the editing of hard drive partitions. You simply burn the ISO onto a CD, and then reboot your computer using the CD. The system will come up and present you with an intuitive interface that lets you click-and-drag your partitions into the size you want. If you have used Partition Magic before, you will feel right at home with GParted. If not, then it will still be easy for you to figure out.

As you move partitions around in the GUI, no changes are made to your hard drive until you hit "Apply". Once you hit "Apply", the changes you specified will start to happen. If you have a large hard drive and you are moving a lot of data, this process could take several hours. GParted will estimate the time needed and display this on the screen.

There is one non-intuitive aspect of this CD. As you make changes to partitions, it is recording what you do in a linear fashion. This means that if you increase a partition, and the decrease it to the original size, the application will perform both of those steps once you hit "Apply". We made the mistake of resizing a partition, and then decided to change it to a different size. This was recorded as two steps, and took much longer than if we had canceled all changes and done the resize in a single step.

Here are some screenshots of GParted, and here are some screenshots of the GParted LiveCD. You may also be interested in this list of features for GParted.

WARNING: Any changes made to your hard drive partitions has the potential to destroy your data. Be sure to backup anything that you don't want to lose. Remember to follow this rule: Backup Twice, Delete Once. See my post about off-site backups if you want more information about this.

Comparing remote backup options

2006-12-30T19:23:00.000Z

I have always been interested in backups. (In fact, I created an open source project called SaraB: Schedule And Rotate Automatic Backups.) Anyone who has valuable data should be implementing a proper backup process. For a good primer on the fundamentals of backup, I recommend visiting "The Tao of Backup".

Most recently, I have been trying to decide how to best implement the concept of "Separation". This requires that I store my data in multiple geographic locations to prevent a local disaster from destroying all copies of my data. Like most people, my collection of photos, videos, and documents has been growing quickly as technology become more prevalent and uses higher resolutions. The value of my data becomes greater with every passing holiday, birthday, wedding, and vacation.

Here are some options that I have come up with to backup my data to a remote site.

Manual Solutions:

1. Periodically burn DVDs and carry them to another location

Pros:

Simple
Cheap (for a small amount of data, and infrequent backups)

Cons:

Manual process requires user interaction for every backup
You risk losing all data created since the last backup. There is a monetary transaction cost for each backup, because you must pay for the DVD media. This encourages you to backup infrequently.

2. Purchase two USB hard-drives. Periodically backup to the local one and swap it with the off-site drive.

Pros:

Simple
Cheap (if you have a LOT of data to backup)

Cons:

Manual process requires user interaction for every backup
You risk losing all data created since the last backup. Because there is no monetary transaction cost for creating backups (unlike Option #1), you should be able to backup more often and therefore risk losing less data.

Automated Network Solutions:

3. Simple home-grown network backup

Description:

Setup some form of synchronization (SFTP, SCP) between two computers at separate locations. A family member's computer or a work computer would be sufficient. Use extra space on each PC to store the data of the remote PC.

Pros:

Cheap to implement (if extra space is available on hard drives)
Backups are regularly sent off-site, without user interaction
Data is encrypted during transmission

Cons:

May require purchasing a hard drive if the storage requirements exceed the available space.
Highly inefficient use of bandwidth and storage resources. If you have a lot of data, you will be constantly maxing your upload speed to your ISP. This could cause a serious degradation in normal internet usage.
You risk losing all data created since the last backup. Because your upload speed is a bottleneck, you may not be able to perform frequent backups. If you have a lot of data, this could result in less frequent backups than Option #1.

4. Advanced home-grown network backup

Description:

Implement a backup system that uses Rsync (for efficiency) and SSH (for security). A family member's computer or a work computer would be sufficient. Use extra space on each PC to store the data of the remote PC.

Pros:

Cheap to implement (if extra space is available on hard drives)
Backups are regularly sent off-site, without user interaction
Data is encrypted during transmission
Efficient use of bandwidth and storage resources

Cons:

Complex to setup
May require purchasing a hard drive if the storage requirements exceed the available space.
You risk losing all data created since the last backup. Because you are only uploading changes to your data, you should be able to perform frequent backups.

5. Subscription to backup service

Description:

Mozy and Carbonite are the best value, $5/month for unlimited data. They have clients that use efficient backup algorithms and also provide encryption to protect the privacy of your data.

Pros:

Simple
Cheap to implement (especially for a lot of data)
Backups are regularly sent off-site, without user interaction
Data is encrypted during transmission and storage (Mozy even lets you use your own encryption keys to ensure privacy. Now they just need to open source the client so that we can see if they implemented this securely.)
Efficient use of bandwidth and storage resources

Cons:

Initial backup can take many days (after that, only changes will be sent)
Restoring data may take many hours
You risk losing all data created since the last backup. Because you are only uploading changes to your data, you should be able to perform frequent backups.
No Linux client available

Conclusion:

I am undecided about which option to choose. I like options #2, #4, and #5. Until a Linux client is made available for the subscription services, I cannot use option #5. I do like the simplicity of purchasing two USB drives and swapping them at work everyday. Plus, the USB hard drives could be used for other storage purposes.

What option do you prefer? Do you have any other options that I have missed?

Why can't we watch the news in Linux?

2006-12-28T15:24:00.000Z

I have been working overtime this Christmas season to help my father and brother improve their experience in Ubuntu 6.10. One of the deficiencies we have encountered is the limited ability to watch news videos from a web-browser (such as Firefox 2.0). I have installed Flash Player 9 Beta 2, and the Good-Bad-Ugly plugins for GStreamer. Here is what happens when we try to watch news videos on these large news sites.

ABC News

Sound: NO
Video: NO

BBC News

Sound: YES
Video: NO

CBS News

Sound: NO
Video: NO

CNBC

Sound: NO
Video: NO

CNN

Sound: YES
Video: NO

FOX News

Sound: YES
Video: NO

MSNBC

Sound: YES
Video: YES

Don't you find it ironic that the only major news website that I could get to play videos is owned by Microsoft? Is there anything I can do to get these other websites to play videos properly?

Unbeatable deal on VOIP phone service

2006-12-21T17:27:00.000Z

Update: As this deal is now expired, I am removing my phone number. You can always sing my replacement number: 555-867-5309! I apologize that this post is going to show up on the Planets. If anyone knows how to edit posts without it going to the top of the planet, please share. I have verified that the "Post time and date" are not being updated, so I don't know why this happens.

I wanted to share this awesome deal with everyone who wants to save money on a phone service. This could be used to reduce monthly charges for people who have a Qwest phone line, or to provide a cheap emergency phone line for people who only have cell-phones.

SunRocket has traditionally been one of the cheapest VOIP services around, with an unlimited plan for less than $17/month. Now they have an unbeatable deal, but you need to act fast if you want to take advantage of it. They are offering a free year of service when you buy one year, which brings the monthly fee to $8/month. The deal expires on 12/22/06.

How to get this deal:

Go to SunRocket's website (http://www.sunrocket.com/)
Look at the bottom-left side of the screen for "Other ways to sign up"
Click on "Referred by a friend"
Type in my phone number: 555-867-5309 (I am on the DoNotCall registry)
You should see the deal to "Buy one year for $200, get the second year FREE!"
Sign up!
Refer your friends and family with you as the referral number

Annual Edition - $199 per year

Includes unlimited calling to the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, plus over 12 built-in features, Enhanced Voicemail, bonus international calling, and more!

SunRocket offers many exciting features, including several advanced services that are not available with traditional phone service.

Disclaimer: I will get financial rewards for everyone who signs up. If you decide to sign-up, you can share this deal with your friends and family and get the rewards yourself.

Additional Note: Does your satellite television provider charge a fee because you do not have a phone-line? Mine charges me $5 a month because I only had cell-phones. I hope that after I get my internet phone service, I can plug in my satellite receiver and have them remove that charge. This will lower the cost of SunRocket to $3 a month!

The ethics of Linux hardware appliances

2006-12-13T20:24:00.000Z

Recently my organization has been looking into purchasing DNS/DHCP/IPAM hardware appliances. This category includes products from InfoBlox, BlueCat, MetaInfo, and INS.

It turns out that all of these appliances are running a version of Linux, and they are using open source applications. In fact, some of the vendors proudly admit that they "start with ISC's Bind and DHCP" and then make improvements to them.

When I heard these facts, I immediately asked them if they released the source-code to their appliances. They explained that there is no legal requirement for them to do so. Lucky for them, ISC uses the BSD license. But they also are shipping Linux, so shouldn't they have to redistribute the source for that?

Tivo publishes the source code to the GPL code that they modify. Perhaps the Linux-appliance vendors are not modifying any GPL code. I must assume that they are not legally required to distribute the source, based on the fact that I am not a lawyer and I am sure that they have a herd of them.

This is a really big issue, if you consider that there are dozens of Linux-based hardware appliances.

OK, put aside for a moment the legal issues of using open source software in a hardware appliance. I also want to address the ethical implications of using open source software in your commercial appliance. If you use open source in your product, do you believe that there is a moral obligation to contribute back to the communities that developed the code? I certainly do! If not, then this is a modern-day version of the Little Red Hen.

Does this issue bother anyone else? Is this something that the GPLv3 is going to address?

Nedi: The Movie

2006-12-11T15:54:00.000Z

I have posted before about how cool Nedi is, but now you can see it for yourself.

The Nedi Movie

If you are involved in network management, I am sure you will see the value in this open source project. We use it everyday, and it is hard to imagine life without it.

Tristan's Favorite Linux Games

2006-12-08T23:55:00.000Z

This is a list of my favorite games on Linux. They may not be your favorite games, but that is why it is called "Tristan's Favorite Linux Games". If you are one of those people who think there are no good games for Linux, be prepared to be surprised.

These games are all free of cost, and they will be labeled if they are not open source. Most of these games also run natively on Windows, so try to get your friends to switch to Linux after playing these games on Windows!

This page will become a permanent part of my blog, and I intend to update it when I learn of new favorite games.

Turn-based Strategy

(like "Civilization" or "Heroes of Might and Magic")

Music Rhythm Action Game
(like Guitar Hero)

Frets on Fire

Real Time Strategy
(like "Warcraft" or "Starcraft")

Glest

Real Time Strategy Shooter

Tremulous
SAVAGE: The Battle for Newerth - (Not open source)

Scrolling Space Shooter

AstroMenace - (Not open source)

First-person shooters

(like Doom, Quake, Unreal, Half-Life, Halo)

True-Combat Elite (requires Enemy Territory)
AlienArena 2007
Warsow
Sauerbraten
Nexuiz

Flight Simulator

FlightGear

MMORPG
(like EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars)

Planeshift

Rally Car racing

Trigger - (No Windows client)

Role Playing Game

Hero of Allacrost

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I suggest a game to be added to this list?
A: Of course! Please leave a comment with a link to the game.

Links to similar game sites for Linux

Ubuntu Games

Fedora beats Ubuntu: Dual-monitor configuration

2006-12-08T16:38:00.000Z

I recently had the opportunity to help a co-worker setup Ubuntu 6.10 on his desktop. I was thrilled to see his surprise when he saw how nice the desktop looked. He told me that the Ubuntu desktop looks much better than the last time he had tried Linux.

My joy was short-lived when we started to look for a way to extend his desktop across a second monitor. I had never used dual-monitors before, but I assumed that Ubuntu would provide a tool since it does such a nice job in other areas. Unfortunately, there is no GUI tool to configure dual-monitor support in Ubuntu 6.10!

Here is how to manually configure dual-monitors in Ubuntu. Note: You are going to need this...

Meanwhile, Fedora Core has included a nice graphical tool to configure dual-monitor support. I don't know exactly when this feature was added, but it was in Fedora Core 4 which came out in June of 2005.

Let's learn from our friends at Fedora, and provide a GUI to configure dual-monitor setups. Ubuntu, are you going to include this in your next release? I sure hope so!

An open source strategy for Mozy.com

2006-12-06T05:00:00.000Z

Mozy.com provides a hosted backup service which allows users to save a copy of their data on a remote site. It is ran by a Utah company called Berkeley Data Systems.

To get started using Mozy, you first install their client on your Windows operating system. They do not have a Linux client, but a Macintosh client is said to be in development. Next, the Mozy client helps you select which data you would like to backup and then proceeds to encrypt it and send a copy of your data to the Mozy servers.

Mozy currently offers 2 GB of free storage to all users. If you find that you need more storage, you can purchase a monthly subscription for a reasonable free. This is sometimes called a "freemium" business model, and it is an excellent way for users to evaluate a product.

However, I believe that there is an even better business model for Mozy. I want to make the case for a open source strategy for Mozy, with the intent of increasing demand for Mozy services when compared to the current model.

1. Open source the Mozy backup client and server applications, which will include a basic feature set

People who want to host their own "Mozy" backup system can now do so
Businesses can backup their data to a branch office for business continuity
Families can backup their data to the home of a relative

2. Continue to sell a hosted backup service

Provide 2 GB for free to users
Offer higher storage amounts for a monthly fee
Include more features than the open source version (widget frosting business model)

3. Offer support services for people who choose to host their own "Mozy" system

Many businesses would like to efficiently backup their data to a disaster recovery site
Many businesses would need help implementing this complex system correctly

4. Reasons people will upgrade to the hosted subscription service

They prefer a hassle-free way to manage their backups
They don't have the expertise to correctly implement the system
They want the advanced feature-set that is included with hosted accounts
They want the performance and high-availability of an enterprise data-center

5. Benefits to Mozy for using the open source model

Creates buzz and interest in your company and products
An increase in users will result in more paying customers
Supporting business who implement "Mozy" provides an addition revenue stream
The Mozy community will help to quickly develop a Linux client
It is a great way to give back to the open source community, since there is a high-probability that Mozy uses open source software within their business

6. Companies with similar business models

Similar to SugarCRM's business model - (Widget Frosting and Service Enabler)
A Sweet Mix of Commercial and Open Source
"SugarCRM offers its software for free as an open source server and then converts some users to paying customers by charging for add-ons, installation services, training, technical support, and software patches"

If you know someone who works for Mozy, please forward them this plan.

Why do we believe in open source software?

2006-11-21T22:05:00.000Z

I wanted to share my response to some comments on my last post.

First, thanks for your responses.

Justin: "Free Software is not about technology or even about making the world a better place. It's about Freedom."

Are you sure about that? What is the real reason we support open source? In my opinion it *IS* for the purpose of making the world a better place. If first-world countries spend resources to develop high-quality open source software, then all of humanity will benefit from that investment.

Open source software is not always better quality than proprietary software, but I do believe it is always ethically superior.

Lonnie: "I agree with what Justin Findlay said..."

I also want to ask you what is the "big-picture" reason for supporting open source software? Please share your opinion.

I agree with your description of the average user, and it is something that we need to keep in mind when making decisions about software.

"Then she will complain loudly."

The thing is, we don't want her to complain loudly. If she has a bad experience because of not being able to view a Flash website, she will associate the bad experience with Linux. Since you mentioned psychology, I would point out this chain of events is an example of classical conditioning (review the Little Albert experiment).

Unable to view flash website (US) => Frustration (UR) Natural response.

Unable to view flash website (US) + Big Ubuntu Linux logo (CS) => Frustration (UR) After pairing them.

Big Ubuntu Linux logo (CS) => Frustration (CR) Learning occurs. Notice how the response never changes.

In the case of Little Albert, he started to generalize the conditioned stimulus with other items that were similar to the original stimulus. In the case of your Mom, this can happen so that she feels frustrated whenever she sees any Linux, open source, or free software. Do you think that will help us achieve our goals?

I do not believe in "sacrificing principles for popularity", just for the sake of popularity. As I have stated, popularity is a necessary step to get the industry to take notice of our needs.

Step 1: Gain popularity.
Step 2: ??? (Flex muscles)
Step 3: Profit!!! Err... I mean "Become completely open source"

Why I support the use of non-free software in Linux

2006-11-20T16:47:00.000Z

I appreciate the comments made by Lonnie and Anonymous. Let me address your concerns.

First, I want to point out that 99.99% of the software available in Ubuntu (including the application repositories) will still be open source. However, the 0.01% of non-free software has a very visible impact on the user experience.

If the average user can't listen to music, watch a movie, or play a 3-D game, then they will not get a chance to use the other 99.99% of free software that is included with Ubuntu. That is why Mark Shuttleworth said that shipping proprietary drivers is the best way to allow users to experience the rest of the free software stack.

Lonnie - Yes, the people that will be attracted by this tactic will be the average computer user. They are looking for software that simply works well for them. If they can get that without having to pay for it, then they will use Ubuntu. These users will appreciate the great open source operating system they get for free, and would be willing to listen to Ubuntu when considering the purchase of a graphics card. The pressure on ATI and Nvidia will not come until Linux has the "weight" to threaten the sales of their products. This is the Chicken and the Egg question, and I believe the Chicken needs to come first.

Also, I am glad you have a free alternative to use (gnewsense). Open source is all about providing users with the power of choice. You can choose to use the software, or you can choose to modify it and use that version. (Of course, there are many benefits to pooling our resources around good open source projects. I hope gnewsense will help improve Ubuntu, and Ubuntu will help improve gnewsense)

Anonymous - I am always excited about the development of open source replacements of proprietary software. I encourage people to use those drivers, and to help with the development of them. Perhaps this story will end similar to that of of Java. Java was slowly being replaced by ever improving free java clones, so Sun decided to open source the software.

In conclusion - I know where you are coming from, since we share the same passion for open source software. We are both concerned about losing sight of our goal, which is a completely open source operating system and applications. What we disagree on, is how to best reach this goal.

Every great accomplishment in this world has involved taking some risks. I believe that including some non-free software in the short-term will actually advance free software in the long-term, and it is a risk we should take.

Update: I also want to share these videos of people talking about the planned improvements in Ubuntu.

Debian and Ubuntu: Mutual Symbiosis

2006-11-16T23:45:00.000Z

I believe that Debian and Ubuntu are an example of mutual symbiosis. In other words, their relationship is advantageous to both entities. (Disclaimer: I do not claim to be an expert on this subject. I am just an observer)

How does Ubuntu benefit from Debian?

- Based on one of the best Linux distributions
- Inherits over 15,000 packages (applications) from Debian
- Great community and dedication to free software

How does Debian benefit from Ubuntu?

- Packages that are created/improved for Ubuntu can easily be made for Debian
- Ubuntu provides patches for all of the packages that it modifies from Debian
- Ubuntu has the best community around, providing support and goodwill
- Ubuntu is growing extremely fast, and may become the Linux desktop leader
- Canonical employs dozens of open source developers

Mark Shuttleworth made an awesome presentation at a DebConf where he talked about the relationship between Debian and Ubuntu. Here is a video of that presentation. Towards the end of the video, Mark draws a picture on the board to illustrate how Ubuntu regularly synchronizes with Debian. I have slightly modified his diagram and posted it below:

As you can see, Ubuntu is not a "fork" of Debian. It is in Ubuntu's best interests to funnel any improvements into Debian so that the regular synchronization process will be easier. Mark has also written an excellent article explaining the relationship between Debian and Ubuntu. He starts by explaining the commonalities between the two distros, and then goes on to discuss areas in which they differ.

If you want to read some concerns about the Ubuntu/Debian relationship, read this article written by Ian Murdock (he is the "ian" in Debian). There has also been some tension between people who get paid to work on open source software and those who remain unpaid volunteers.

In closing, I wanted to express my desire for these two communities to come together as allies and friends. There have been some adversarial attitudes expressed, and I want to discourage this from continuing. I will leave you with some relevant quotes by Mark Shuttleworth.

Ubuntu benefits from a strong Debian, and Debian benefits from a strong Ubuntu. - MarkShuttleworth

Every Debian developer is also an Ubuntu developer, because one way to contribute to Ubuntu is to contribute to Debian. - MarkShuttleworth

We incorporate Debian changes regularly, because that introduces the latest work, the latest upstream code, and the newest packaging efforts from a huge and competent open source community. Without Debian, Ubuntu would not be possible. - MarkShuttleworth

Do you agree with my analysis of the Debian/Ubuntu relationship?