Canonical Ltd. has published screen shots from the upcoming release, 10.04 – The Lucid Lynx. And it looks awesome.
I am really looking forward to installing this LTS version as a clean install and not as an upgrade.
With LL Canonical proves that Linux as an desktop OS can look pretty and for some that is just as important as having the best programs available.
And I think that should be the next step for Canonical Ltd.
After the release of LL the guys and girls at Canonical shall visit the biggest software houses and pinpoint why they are not publishing their most popular products on the Linux platform. When they have gotten their answers, they should start adjusting releases of new versions according to the feedback they’ve gotten.
I believe it is when you have Photoshop, InDesign, Quark, Illustrator, MS Office (not likely to happen), industry standard software for accounting and more available on the Linux platform we can really start feeling the success of this Operating system that Linus Thorvalds of Finland once released.
I hope we get there.
Posted in Linux, OS.
By Trond Husø
– March 5, 2010
On March 2, 2010 Apple decided to filed a lawsuit against the mobile maker HTC. According to their website HTC is infringing on no less than 20 Apple patents.
It’s not the first time Apple files a lawsuit against another mobile manufacturer. In 2009 Apple was taken to court by the Finnish mobile company Nokia and returned that with a lawsuit against Nokia again for infringing Apple patents.
Nothing wrong with that, except that Apple in the first place used standard mobile technology that is patented by Nokia without paying the Finnish mobile maker.
So what have HTC done wrong? Probably by making Nexus One to similar to the iPhone. And when the words iPhone killer + HTC + Google started popping up on mr. Steve Jobs laptop (most likely an Apple), he just could not let this go by.
But there isn’t really anything new in this. In software and hardware development everyone has copied each other. Apple didn’t make the graphical desktop, but they copied it.
Looking forward to see the outcome of this.
Personally I really dislike all these patents and lawsuits. And the Nexus one is far from the same mobile as the iPhone. It’s most likely better as it can multitask and other stuff that the iPhone can’t. Also: You can update it without using the ….. (fill in your favorite swear word here) iTunes that mr Jobs only has made windows and (naturally) apple versions of. And Apple is continuing to make it hard for us Linux users to sync our apple iPods/iPhones with our OS.
Posted in Uncategorized.
Tagged with Apple, HTC, lawsuit.
By Trond Husø
– March 5, 2010
| Internet Explorer is the world’s most widely used browser, designed by Microsoft with you in mind. |
I think that Microsoft wins this “contest”. When you look at it you’ll most likely ask your self:
Would I use the most widely used browser?
And most likely you’ll answer:
Yes I would like to use what everybody else does. |
|
| The powerful and easy-to-use Web browser. Try the only browser with Opera Turbo technology, and speed up your Internet connection. |
So what does this really mean? Opera is providing a powerful and easy-to-use Web browser and with Opera Turbo technology.
I have to ask:
What is hard-to-use in the other browsers? All browsers do more or less the same.
And: What is Opera Turbo technology?
The sales pitch from the Norwegian Browser company does not win me over. |
|
| Google Chrome. A fast new browser. Made for everyone. |
Google uses “Made for everyone” as their sales pitch. And that’s quite close to the Microsoft slogan: “Most widely used” … “…with you in mind”.
That is is a new browser is not that important for me. |
|
| Your online security is Firefox’s top priority. Firefox is free, and made to help you get the most out of the web. |
Mozilla is using safe and secure as the major reason for choosing Firefox as your default browser.
I really don’t think this is a great sales pitch. It does not win me over for sure.
Why not focus on why it is better for you as a web user. Does it render the pages faster than the others? Does it have features that are better for YOU?
Mozilla should, like Google and Microsoft, focus on the user. |
|
| Safari for Windows from Apple, the world’s most innovative browser. |
So this is the most innovative browser. Cool.
But since I am on a Linux machine, I can’t use it. Pitty.
Still, it is the world most innovative browser. Opera, Chrome or Firefox does not use that slogan.
Maybe they should? |
|
| You can see the browser choices here |
Posted in Uncategorized.
By Trond Husø
– March 2, 2010
This post will include the latest offerings I have received from “persons”.
From Kwasi Tumi (staff of CAL bank,Accra Ghana): Ten Million United States Dollars (US $10 Million) deposited in a security firm whose depositor died in mid 2007. (Share 50/50.)
FBI in conjunction with Central Bank of Nigeria: US $ 2 Million.
From Rita Spencer I have been informed that they have found US $36 million in a dormant domiciliary account.
From the Government of Ghana: US $ 5.2 Million.
Total: $43 million.
Posted in Personal.
Tagged with money, offerings, spam.
By Trond Husø
– February 16, 2010
I’ve been a Linux Ubuntu Desktop user for quite some time now. Ever since I experienced how Linux could save an old laptop.
And I must admit. It is nice to not think about viruses and such, not that this is something that worries me when I am using a computer with Windows installed. It is also nice to have a stable computer that does not show me the blue screen from time to time; and lastly: It is very nice to not reboot every time you have installed a new program or updated your system.
How ever: There are reasons for not using Linux for me anymore:
- I am developing in more than just PHP. I am also doing some C# development for the Windows operating system.
Yes. I can use Mono for this type of work, but as the .Net framework is more known and better distributed (aka: Installed) on most systems, it is better to use native .Net and use Visual Studio.
Also. When it comes to PHP-development I am moving from writing directly on the test-web server (aka on the laptop) and in stead write in the defined workspace of the IDE, and then move the code to the test web server. This because I don’t want to clutter my test web server with SVN-directories, nor do I want to accidentally upload SVN-directories to the production web server.
- Better PHP development tools
If I move back to Windows I can choose from a wide range of programs. Like for instance PHPed or the PHP Delphi plugin which is a Rapid application Development tool. PHPed shall work on Linux under Wine, but I haven’t installed Wine, and I am not sure if I want to install and run wine.
- I need access to a clients network which is using a closed VPN-system.
My client is using CheckPoint VPN which there was a Redhat (RPM) package for back in the days. Now there isn’t any such thing. And if you search for it, you’ll see that I am not alone here. To fix this I have borrowed a computer from this client which is a tad bit older than this one and quite a lot slower.
- Limitations in Open Source software
As I am working on a database project that is soon to be launched, I need more than one type of export/import into this one. Currently the importing is CSV-files, but as Excel can export in XML, this is a serious alternative. This is also something that I can instruct partners on how to do. This way I can normalize external data.
The alternative in Open Office is creating an XSLT document and transforming the sheet. The benefit with this solution is that you have more control on the outcome.
And it would have been an option if most partners out there used Open Office. They aren’t. They are using MS Office.
I’ve also read that the XSLT-support in Open Office isn’t really that easy to work with. There are very few messages that shows if something is wrong, and the only way to find out that there is something wrong with the XSLT-document, is that the program freezes. Now that’s user friendly… Not that XSLT document transformation is user friendly to begin with…
- I need accounting software and invoice software that supports Norwegian standards. I have found a Norwegian invoice program, but has failed to find accounting software.
- Quality: I really don’t think that the quality on Open Source software is that great. Yes, it cures and itch – mostly for the developer(s), but that’s pretty much it. (I believe I have written posts regarding the “business”-model behind Open Source Software before, please check).
- Linux based Desktop OS isn’t really that stable.
I have had a few hard freezes and I have had soft freezes. Hard freezes is where the LEDs on the computer is blinking and everything is either black or frozen. Soft Freezes is where there are parts of the OS that works, while other things have stopped working. Like when I am writing this: The mouse pointer is frozen to the side of the screen – and it is impossible to move it around. So X or Mouse support has frozen… sigh.
As I am looking at my list now, there are less reasons for me to stay on Ubuntu and more reasons for me to move back to Windows. But I’ll give this a few more weeks and months and then we’ll see what happens.
Posted in Development, Linux, OS, Windows.
Tagged with Linux, Move, ubuntu, Uninstall, Windows.
By Trond Husø
– February 1, 2010
I am currently coding a translator service in Windows in C# (VS 2005) and so I am on track on the goal of becoming a better C#-developer.
I really like the C# language and the .Net framework, and most importantly the Visual Studio development tool. Microsoft has done so many things correct when they developed VS.
Now Visual Programming isn’t something new from the guys in Redmond, USA. I have been on and off developing in Visual Basic since version 1.0 which was released in 1991. So Microsoft has quite a history to look back on and use when they develop these tools.
I also believe that learning C# makes me a better PHP-developer too (which is also on the list of goals for 2010).
One thing though, and I know I am not alone here. Switching back and forth between C# and VB.Net makes you add some ; (semicolons) at the end of each line. And C# is now looking more intuitive than VB.Net.
I shall also spend some time in Mono Develop. This because it uses C# as well. And the more you code…
Posted in C#, Development, MonoDevelop.
Tagged with c#, Microsoft, Mono, MonoDevelop, Visual Studio.
By Trond Husø
– January 20, 2010
Well, this isn’t really a VS-blog-post, I just had a discovery while reading up on ASP.Net (Professional ASP.Net 2.0) and I see here that PHP has a way to go when it comes to make web development more productive.
Yes we have more control on our code and so on, but the .Net Framework and Visual Studio just makes things quite attractive for web developers.
I never really believed that I would ever write this in a blog post!
I mean, there are components for everything.
Want to create a login form? Drag it onto the canvas.
What about a tree of data? Drag it onto the canvas – change the settings and boom.
Want to create a portal? Use the .Net Portal Framework – which makes it possible for you to create something like Sharepoint! (well, that what it looked like in the book)
That is, is, is … awesome (Again, I never really believed that I would ever write this in a blog post)
There are of course cons related to .Net web application development.
Configuring the IIS-server isn’t quite understandable, and you cannot go to the IIS.conf file to see what has been done to it in order to make it work like it is. So I would give Apache the victory here!
I have been working/maintaining/fixing on some websites that has been depended on .dll-files. One we recently had to upgrade from 1.1 to 3.5, and making it work under 3.5 wasn’t all that understandable – well at least not for me – but then again, I am still a Noob when it comes to .Net Web Application Development.
Again, I’ll give PHP the advantage here as it is much easier to understand what has been done. the PHP.ini-file and such is easy to either go through or diff against the default PHP.ini to spot differences.
But for rapidness, especially when you start a project from scratch – ASP.Net gets one point.
This is where PHP must be heading. Yes it is easier to start with PHP. Or at least that is what used to be the best argument to start programming your dynamic web solution with PHP. But dragging, do some coding, and so on, will mean that .Net development will narrow the gap between PHP and ASP.Net.
According to websites PHP is still the most popular language to use when it comes to web development.
A search on PHP and asp on GoogleFight returns:
301.000.000 (301 million) results for PHP and 98.800.000 (98.8 million) results for asp
ASP.net returns 30.400.000 (30.4 million) hits.
TIOBE Programming Community Index for January 2010 tells us that PHP is on the rise. It’s on third place behind Java and C, but in front of C++. VB is in fifth while C# is on 6th place. I believe I would put those two together to get some ASP.Net figgures.
The two/three languages below:
3 5 PHP 10.071% +1.19% A
5 4 (Visual) Basic 7.354% -1.81% A
6 6 C# 5.767% +0.16% A
PHP is still my language of choice, but I will follow ASP.Net closely. .Net 2.0 is dated and so I need a book for 3.5… (and probably 4.0) to see what’s new.
Posted in ASP.Net, C#, Development, Linux, PHP, Webdevelopment.
Tagged with ASP.Net, c#, PHP, Web development.
By Trond Husø
– January 20, 2010
Yes it is cool, and yes there are (at the writing moment) 3 billion applications. But still:
When you need to replace a battery you have to send it away.
When you need to upgrade software, you are locked to iTunes.
But that’s not the only reason: I am kinda sick of a company that is so focused on locking their users.
The other day I found a videoarticle from Dagens Næringsliv. They had made a story on the release of the second generation iPhone. Since Steve Jobs couldn’t come to Norway, Apple had sent the local market people to present the product.
But could the journalist and the video photographer show the Apple employees face? No!
That’s taking security and such far!
I mean: It is a good idea to have full control on your hardware by creating the software for it. But journalistic restrictions… come on guys. Be transparent!
I’ll stick to my Android phone from now on. And I am more or less putting my 30gb iPod 4gen or was it 5th gen, can’t remember to rest. It is a great piece of hardware and software, but I have lost so many phonecalls thanks to it 
Posted in Uncategorized.
Tagged with Apple, transparency.
By Trond Husø
– January 19, 2010
When I write Linux Servers I am mostly thinking of Ubuntu Server. This was my choice when I got my hand on an old Dell GX260 Desktop. It’s not the most powerful machine, and it is highly in need of an upgrade. But it does what I need it for: Being a server so that I can learn stuff related to server administration.
Now having written that. Being an administrator of a server that is behind a firewall with two users (wife and me), isn’t really that big of a deal.
That’s why I decided to setup up a Virtual Machine on it. My choice of VM is – at the moment – the VirtualBox 3.1.
But let’s step back a bit. Let’s start talking about the Ubuntu Server (9.10). The Ubuntu Server is a GUI-less server, which mean that you have to administer it through the commando line (cli). There are pros and cons regarding this.
The pros are:
- You have more control.
You know which commands you have to type or which files you need to change in order to achieve what you want. Like for instance setting up a samba server.
- It’s more stable
Not having a GUI to run as well, means that the server is super stable.
- It does not require much from the hardware
This is also quite important when you have old metal you’re using.
The cons are:
- Things tend to go by trial and error
When you use the commando line and at the same are a noob like me on that area, you tend to spend more time trying and failing. But then again, this is how you learn to play the tools. And when you learn them, you become faster.
- Using a GUI is more intuitive
Since I am currently at a client running only Windows servers, there are more GUI-tools to do what you need to do. There are less room for errors and so all you learn is how to start/stop/insert/update the current role (as they are called in the World of Windows). But I like that too. This means that you can’t really break anything (well, you can…).
- Sometimes using the commando line is annoying
Setting up/installing Virtualbox is quite easy. Installing different guest OS is more of a hassle. And this is where I wish that GUI-development on Linux (Ubuntu/Gnome) was up to par on the Windows side when it comes to administering Virtualbox. I would very much like to see a GUI! and not just a web administration tool that is not yet up to par.
Things that I miss:
I would very much like to see a GUI on the Ubuntu Linux Server, but I don’t want to see Gnome or KDE. What I would like to see is some light GUI – like the one in Xubuntu (just can’t seem to remember the name), and maybe theme it so that it is either “like” Gnome or KDE.
Søren Hansen wrote a blog last year where he lifted some thoughts on how the Ubuntu Server should be like. I second his thoughts.
As I wrote in his comments, I to would like to see the installation being simpler. As I suggested in my comment: Why not create different setup schemes.
Let’s say you want to set up a VM server. Well, then you choose from a menu and this does all the tricks. It should even check if your hardware is suited for such tasks. Or if you want to run it as a file server (samba), or a web server (LAMP-stack/LAMR-stack or any other stack).
Ok. So back to installing the Ubuntu Server. I followed some other peoples suggestions when I installed the server. I believe I did install it twice since i made a mistake here and there.
When it came to choice of Virtual Machine software I did browse and watch a few tutorial videos.
Xen seems very exiting, but I didn’t go for that – this time. Reason was that the installation locked the VM closely to the host OS. Which is OK I guess. This means that the vendor has secured it self from some incompatibility problems related to other Linux Versions.
Then I looked at VMWare Server. As I didn’t want to spend money – this time around – the Workstation option was out of the question (maybe in the future). I have tried VMWare Server earlier and liked it. But since I am on the ‘I want to learn something new’-trail, I decided to go for Suns VirtualBox. And it seems OK.
It does what you expect from such a software.
What I don’t like is that there is a lack of GUI software for it. I don’t know if I can install a VirtualBox GUI administration tool on my laptop and control the host/guest on the server. If I can, great. If I can’t, well, then I have officially suggested a feature for the VirtualBox Team at Sun (soon Oracle?).
The VB community does provide a web administration tool written in Python, but this one is far from ready. You can create new VMs and start/stop, but that’s also it. No snapshop options or such things. Hopefully this tool will have a steep development curve in 2010.
In my VM I am running a Windows 2003 server (standard). Again just to learn. But I must say that is quite different to work on a GUI server than on a CLI-server. The W2K3-server doesn’t do much yet, but I hope that I can put it to some sort of use. I’m also going to install a W2K8-server on the machine, but the lack of disk space and RAM is halting this process. Hopefully in the near future the machine will be running a 500gb disk (ide!) and 2gb ram.
Well. I think I stop there. Please do suggest things that I can do to learn more on having a server. I might set up a domain at home – but I’m not sure as this house only has two computers in full use and some others just as guests. Having a domain for two computers seems a bit over the top… but then again, why not!
Posted in Linux, Virtualbox, Virtualization.
By Trond Husø
– January 18, 2010
For some odd reason the network stopped working on my home “server”. The server is an old Dell GX-240 is running as a server on it’s old days.
First I thought it was because of some iwconfig settings, but during my work, that was not the case. In stead it was the routing tables that was messed up for some reason.
I don’t know if what i hit was/is a bug, and/or if my solution is a suitable workaround, but it works for me at least.
This is what I did to get the server back online:
In /etc/network/interfaces:
# The primary network interface
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.0.175
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.89
# wireless-* options are implemented by the wireless-tools package
wireless-channel auto
wireless-mode Managed
wireless-key XXXXXXXXXXXXX
wireless-essid YYYYYYYYYYYYYY
# dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if installed
# Static routing
pre-down route del -net 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.0.89
post-up ip route add 192.168.0.0 via 192.168.0.89 dev wlan0
post-up ip route add default via 192.168.0.89 dev wlan0
What I have done is: Moved the part related to networking to the top of the section for the current network card (in my case wlan0 (a wireless USB card)).
Then – for some reason – I had to add two default gateways to the route.
But that’s not all
in rc.local I added the following code:
ip route del default via 192.168.0.89 dev wlan0
/etc/init.d/networking restart
# Starting VirtualBox
/etc/init.d/vboxdrv.dpkg-bak setup
# Starting VirtualBox
echo "Starting VirtualBox VM Windows Server"
/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless -startvm "WinServer" --vrdp on &
What this part does is:
First it deletes the default gateway, then it restarts the Network.
Then I am starting the VirtualBox part. For some reason I get a message saying that the header modules are not loaded, so that’s why I have to run the vboxdrv setup -command. (on my box it is renamed to vboxdrv.dpkg.bak, but I have also – after doing this – copied this so that I have a vboxdrv file in that directory)
When that part is done, I start the current server with –vrdp set to on. The & sign is there so that the VM is running in a separate “job”.
I hope this helps someone. If someone out there can explain why this might have happened, and how I can clean up the mess, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.
System info:
Linux ubuntu-server 2.6.31-16-generic-pae #53-Ubuntu SMP Tue Dec 8 05:20:21 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
Posted in Linux.
By Trond Husø
– January 18, 2010
