Microsoft’s Best Buy Lies About Linux Debunked

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

In an effort to thwart Linux sales on netbooks, Microsoft has started a training program at Best Buy to “educate” their “experts” on Linux. And true to their fashion, MS resorted to FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) and straight out LIES! However, Microsoft still maintains that Linux is not a threat to their market, they are just spending all this money to “help” people make an educated decision. Funny thing, is that they ended up promoting Linux.

Over here on The Linuxologist, we already debunked most of the general myths about Linux, however this one warrants its own response:

• No camera support? What are we exactly talking about here anyways? Webcams? Or regular digital cameras? Doesn’t really matter, both work perfectly fine on Linux, and out of the box in most cases. If we are talking webcams here,  some webcams might require tweaking and hacking. But remember we are talking about netbooks where Linux is pre-installed at the OEM level, so all webcams SHOULD work. Regular digital cameras work also, they would act like any regular USB peripheral.
• Most MP3 players sync perfectly fine with Linux. Microsoft doesn’t seem to know the difference between iTunes and MP3 player. iPod Touch can prove a bit tricky, but still Songbird among others provide good support. In any case, this is not Linux’s problem, but Apple’s and their draconian methods.
• Printers work perfectly fine, whether through CUPS or a manufacturers driver. While anecdotal, I have blogged about my woes of getting an HP printer to work on XP. The same printer worked out of the box on Ubuntu
• Limited software compatibility? Well if you are talking about software designed specifically for Windows environment, then yes of course it is limited! However there is NOTHING that you would want to run on a netbook that doesn’t have a suitable replacement.
• No support for Windows Live services. This one really takes the cake! I wonder why Redmond? Still Messenger works perfectly fine through other clients  that are more superior to the bloated Live messenger provided by MS. I am not sure what they mean by Mail, but I am assuming its their web-based E-mail (hotmail), but it also works. As for Photo Gallery, I don’t have the slightest idea of what it is, but really who uses it? People seem to be on  Flickr or Picassa.
• Who would even buy a netbook for gaming? Still, WoW (their example) works fine through wine and so do other high-end games. But I don’t know why one would do gaming on an 8 inch screen. Stick with solitaire.
• Authorized support? Red Hat, Canonical? Hell even Novell?
• Video chat works perfectly fine on Skype, Yahoo, and Live messenger (aMSN, Kopete…etc.) Gmail doesn’t yet support video or voice, but they are working on it. However, they do have a testing version (request here.) Not sure about other networks, but I am sure they work also.

Covered most of claims with the first slide but:

• iTunes and Zune users might face problems because of Redmond and Cupertino’s monopolistic practices. Still Linux users found ways around these issues (wine, Amarok, Songbird…etc)
• Quicken: Moneydance, GNUCash, and KMyMoney. Also, Mint and Quicken Online both work
• Photoshop: Gimp (lets not get into that endless PS Vs. Gimp debate, remember this is a netbook, no serious work should be done on it)
• Office 2007: OpenOffice

• Regular updates: Yeah because updating is an exclusive domain for Microsoft! Because nothing says secure like an update once every second Tuesday every month
• Meets expectations: Already debunked!
• Free downloads: Linux doesn’t need “free” security add-ons, the system is built from the bottom up to be safe Oh, and the whole OS is free!

• Funny how they were boasting that they update regularly, then use that same argument against Ubuntu
• It doesn’t have to be clear, unlike Windows, Linux doesn’t have to reboot after every freakin minor update. Hell you almost NEVER need to reboot, and even when you do, you don’t have to do it immediately. The system doesn’t nag you about it either

LOL, this one actually deserves its own demotivational poster. Share them with us. Be creative!

]]> http://linuxologist.com/advocacy/microsofts-best-buy-lies-about-linux-debunked/feed/ 48 http://linuxologist.com/advocacy/mark-shuttleworth-we-are-our-own-worst-enemy/ http://linuxologist.com/advocacy/mark-shuttleworth-we-are-our-own-worst-enemy/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:17:10 +0000 Rami Taibah http://linuxologist.com/?p=1327 Mark Shuttleworth: We are our own worst enemy

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

Mark Shuttleworth: We are our own worst enemy

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

Speaking to German website Golem.de, the founder of the Ubuntu desktop, Mark Shuttleworth, spoke freely about how Linux compares to Apple, what he thinks of Windows 7, his thoughts of KDE4, and much more. Watch the two part interview after the jump.

Video: Mark Shuttleworth – We are our own worst enemy – Interview (Part One) (6:22)

Video: Mark Shuttleworth – We are our own worst enemy – Interview (Part Two) (6:11)

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Help Spread Linux… Don’t Preach It!

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

What does using Linux mean to you? Do you simply use it because it works best for you? While at its heart Linux itself, is nothing more than a software kernel, to many people it is much more. It is a mission, a mission to show the big industry players just what the common user can do without their help. On Ubuntu’s Launchpad Bugs page, bug #1 to them has long been that “Microsoft has majority market share”.

And who wouldn’t love to see the likes of Microsoft toppled by seemingly ‘amateur’ competition? Just like a street team for a band, or this very blog, or any other kind of promoter, as Linux fans we’re often keen to do our very best to get Linux out to the masses. But as with most things, there are good ways and bad ways to go about it.

One of the more pronounced problems I’ve noticed among the Linux community is that of over-enthusiasm, and in some cases, zealousness. I’m sure we’ve all had to deal with this kind of thing before – when a person mentions something that’s new to you, it’ll pique your interest, but if they’re shoving it down your throat at every available opportunity, it’s more likely to kill it instead.

Preaching Doesn’t Really Work

Let me ask, how often do you welcome an impromptu call from telemarketers, or a visit from door-to-door salesmen? While I’m sure everyone has their own ways of dealing with them, a prevailing response seems to be to hang up or close the door respectively, with an optional dose of enthusiastic profanity layered generously on top.

One of my more profound experiences of this kind of thing was my casual interest in astrology; for most of my life I’ve been very much skeptical of the whole thing, and the community-at-large’s penchant for promoting it in a very cheesy, pseudo-science, pseudo-magical light, was doing more to repulse me than attract me. For a long time, I’ve considered it nothing more than a silly hobby for lonely single women, and it wasn’t until one day I’d decided to look into it a bit more that I realized there may actually be some merit to it.

Long story short, the lesson seems to be that waving something in someone’s face is more likely to come off as rude and nagging, instead of capturing their interest as you hope to do. While trying to spread the perks of Linuxis a totally legitimate and an encouraged pursuit, one can’t expect to have too much luck with it by decking passers-by in the street with LiveCDs and harassing colleagues with stories of how perfect Linux is and pouncing to point out Vista’s flaws every time they encounter UAC asking for their permission to do something.

How You Can Really Help

The best way to promote, is to go about it in a manner that will raise awareness without getting in the way. Remember, no distro of Linux is without its flaws, no operating system ever will be. Linux is not perfect by any means, but it may be just what some people want but aren’t yet aware of.

If you work in an office, try coming in one day with a LiveCD or LiveUSB of your favorite distribution and see if you can get the day’s work done with it. If someone asks what that is you’re using, tell them, in an objective manner.

Wrong- “What do you mean? Can’t you see, it’s Ubuntu! It’s a Linuxdistro! They should put this on all the computers in this office, why they keep XP in here is beyond me, that hackneyed pile of fail! Look! This doesn’t get viruses and it’s free!”

Right- “It’s called Ubuntu, it’s what I use at home. I can burn you a CD if you want to try it, it’s free to redistribute.”

If they’re interested enough to ask you more about it, go ahead and tell them. But keep in mind that your goal is not to convert them, but to simply inform.

Let Linux Speak For Itself

The best way of promotion, is to not talk Linux up into seemingly more than it is, but simply let it do the talking. If you’re a graphic or web designer, why not add some kind of ‘Made with Linux’ watermark? Macintosh encourages this kind of thing themselves with their ‘Made On A Mac‘ initiative, there’s certainly no reason we couldn’t do that. Linux-oriented badges and stickers can be great to display on your laptop in the place of the ‘Built for Windows’ ones we see on computer store shelves.

There’s also the classic methods of promotion; If you’re serious about it, print yourself a Linuxshirt, promote it in your forum signature or avatar, print out flyers and put them up in your neighborhood. Be active! It’s all about raising awareness, not necessarily trying to convert people. That part, they must do themselves.

When Linux has the chance to show off what it’s capable of, that’s when heads start turning.

PS: Almost a year ago, Rami shared with us his experience on this subject in a tongue-in-cheek article titled Howto Convert A Friend To Linux.

How Linux Helped Chickens, Environmentalists, and a Pirate!

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

Piracy Hurts Open Source Also!

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

In an earlier article we established that piracy of software is basically a given in today’s world where information is so easily shared and duplicated. We also established that no matter what DRM measures are implemented by commercial software developers, no matter how advanced or how draconian they are, someone’s always going to find a way around it. With that in mind, perhaps, if we’re able to figure that out, surely so are they…?

Epic Edits Weblog, through their own original research, discovered that very nearly 60% of their poll participants were using a pirated version of Adobe Photoshop. That’s a good deal more than half of them, which means more than half the copies of the program among that sample are illegitimate ones that didn’t come from Adobe themselves.

Indeed, I’ve installed Windows copies on many peoples’ computers, with the CDs they themselves have provided me. I have yet to see one that came from a boxed, retail copy of Windows. While it’s a point that gets often awkwardly tossed aside in discussions among IT folk, it’s true; widespread software piracy isn’t just some peculiar phenomenon trickling into our society, it’s the norm.

I’m willing to bet a good few of those reading this blog are using pirated software, and, until I switched to Linux last year, I myself was quite content to be one of those few. After all, who’s going to keep tabs on you closely enough to send the police kicking down your front door because you’ve got Deluge downloading Office 2007? But, when you hop on your favorite torrent site and then have yourself a copy of Adobe’s entire creative suite within the hour, you may not be aware of all the implications that using pirated software could have in the software development community.

Pirates Still Support The Developers

It seems a somewhat common attitude I’ve seen among people; they’ve got an axe to grind with the bigwigs like Adobe or Microsoft, and then thus choose to pirate their software as their quiet little way of ’sticking it to the man’. It’s easy to understand that mindset; if you download the program illegally instead of paying the company for the right to use it, they’ve lost your purchase there – these rich corporations are charging hundreds for a program that’s hardly worth a fraction of that price, so if you pirate, they’re just getting what they deserve! (Gleeful cackle)

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, in response to the massive degree of piracy in China of their Windows operating system, has been quoted as saying that “while it was terrible that people in China pirated so much software, if they were going to pirate anybody’s software he’d certainly prefer it be Microsoft’s.”

And it’s interesting to think of the fallout from this. A commercial software company would certainly prefer that you pirate a version of their software, rather than avoiding it altogether. While they’re making less money, they still have your support in using it, and that often leads to more revenue for them down the line.

Adobe’s products are a good example, especially their Photoshop program. If you look in a newspaper for job advertisements in the field of graphic design, illustrations, logos, or anything of the like, you’re likely to have seen that an employee must be familiar with Adobe Photoshop and/or Illustrator. When I was a student of TAFE in Australia, the programs we were using were Adobe programs, and with good reason; Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash… these are all industry standard programs. So even if something better becomes available, people will still be using Adobe, because it’s the industry’s standard. Most of my student friends were using pirated versions of Photoshop at home because they couldn’t afford the real thing, and because it was what they were learning to use in class. I showed a few of them the benefits of using GIMP instead, and the response was total rejection of GIMP. It was unfamiliar, it had no perceived benefits over Photoshop, and most of all, it wasn’t even any cheaper than a pirated version of Photoshop.

It makes sense, that if they’re going to continue with their careers and don’t want to land themselves in hot water for using illegitimate copies for their own commercial endeavors, they’re eventually going to shell out that $800 for it, as a few of these friends of mine have already ended up doing.

The lesson is, that even if you haven’t yet paid for the use of the software, the company may well have already sold it to you anyway. You contribute to upholding the industry standard, and then you’re halfway to doing Adobe’s promotion for them.

Microsoft Windows hold 90% of the desktop market, and for much the same reason. It’s what most people are used to, and that goes a long way to securing many more sales of Windows for more and more prospective computer users. Microsoft don’t desire losing money through piracy, but in the long run, they more than make up for it by having their product supported by pirates and legitimate users alike as a product that’s accepted by the mainstream market.

Who’s Losing?

We’ve all heard plenty of spiel from software companies lamenting the disadvantages of using pirated software, but often while they come up with valid points, they’re often only points that are in their interests. Adobe moans that covering for pirated software hurts the global economy, leading to losses of jobs, legitimate users where money that could’ve gone into R&D instead goes into simply keeping the company afloat, and finally users of pirated software due to often (sic) defective or virus-laden copies circulating on the net.

While the validity of that last point there is certainly up for grabs, there’s other, less documented implications that are especially relevant for proponents of Free and Open Source Software.

Firstly, legitimate users are certainly losing out; prices raised up due to piracy (or using piracy as an excuse, as the case may be) leads to legitimate customers paying more to use the product; effectively meaning that they’re paying for pirates to use the software without paying a dime.

How FOSS Is Feeling It

But there’s also going to be an often unseen impact on FOSS developers; FOSS isn’t about generating revenue, but public interest and user support is the FOSS community’s lifeblood; if you choose to download a copy of MS Office 2007 instead of OpenOffice.org, OOo’s developers have lost a user, lost a supporter and possibly, lost a contributor. Louis Suarez-Potts, community manager for OpenOffice.org, has said as much himself.

Customer support is a goal that both free and corporate developers have in common. A customer that chooses to use Kompozer over Dreamweaver, is a score for the open source community that now has a supporter, and a loss for Adobe, who’ve lost a potential profit.

Even the spread of trial or ’stripped-down’ versions of commercial software will be making an impact on the FOSS movement; if you’re using Photoshop elements, you’re still doing Adobe’s word-of-mouth marketing for them, and then potentially drawing in more customers for them, while free alternatives are never even explored. If too much of the userbase goes to a single company, that gives them an opportunity to put a stranglehold on the industry.

A good example of this is Adobe Flash; as of right now Flash remains a closed format, and the only way you can competently develop Flash at the moment is with Adobe’s software. Basically, Adobe has established a monopoly here, and there are almost no alternatives at all (besides, perhaps, OpenLaszlo, in a very limited kind of way). If you develop with Adobe Flash, whether it’s paid or pirated, you’re going to be supporting Adobe and tightening their hold on this standard in the industry.

The lesson to be learned here is that any proponent of free software shouldn’t have any interest in using pirated software; if the best choice for you is to pay for the real thing, then so be it; but if one’s really interested in ’sticking it to the man’, or at the very least doing your part to promote the virtues of free software, then the best way to do it is to hit them where it hurts; not just the hip pocket, but their mainstream credibility. If that credibility goes instead to open source developers, that puts them in a position to make something that outshines the competition for everyone. And then, no one’s going to have to pay for it.

If one can make it known to all that the support of these industry giants isn’t needed, that’s when some real difference can be made.

How Linux Helped 5 Poverty-Stricken Governments

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

This is a contribution post discussing 2008 Blog Action Day theme, “Poverty“.

Imagine you are the minister of education of an impoverished country, with a limited budget to improve your schooling system. You realize the importance of computers in education, and also realize that failing to provide a proper IT infrastructure to your country’s youth would have a grave effect on your country for generations. You are not aware of such thing called “Open Source” what would happen? You would probably end up spending thousands on software to equip your school’s computers, and with the budget constraint, you will roll out only a fraction of the computers actually needed. This would put you in front of two options; either some schools get computers, or cramp 10 children in front of one computer.

Spain

Luckily the local government of Extremadura, Spain are more technically adept than you are. Extremadura has a big problem: its population density is very low, with 1 million people spread over 40,000 km², most living in provincial villages scattered around the region. In reality, Extremadura has only three “big” towns, Mérida, Badajoz and Cáceres. This demographic structure had severe consequences on development of the telecommunications and IT sectors. Private companies don’t see Extremadura as a lucrative market, it would require a big initial investment since the region is huge (larger than Belgium), providing little or no profitability due to the low population.

Also, Extremadura is one of the poorest regions in the EU, and the cost of proprietary software needed to run the network was just too much to bear. So the government decided to use free software; in the beginning due to its low cost, but soon they realized that free software is a powerful tool to provide “technological independence” and avoid reliance on global conglomerates and monopolies.

For more information about this remarkable success story, check out my interview with Daniel Campos, a lead developer in the project.

Russia

Russia plans to migrate ALL migrate all their schools to Linux! According Alexey Smirnov, Director General of the Company ALTLinux, most schools run pirated software, but with Russia joining the WTO laws have become stricter, and the cost of buying all that software? Well thats off the table! Here watch this news clip from Russia Today aired last March

India

The most literate state in India, Kerala, has migrated 12,500 schools to Linux. The education minister of the state MA Baby was quoted saying “Free software guru Richard Stallman’s visit last week had nudged the schools to discard the proprietary software altogether, Stallman has inspired Kerala’s transition to free software on the lines of an exciting model of a Spanish province, which did the same.” Here check out the kids and Linux and FOSS in action!

Brazil

Brazil loves Linux! We all know that, here are some beaming examples:

• Ministry of Education has bought 3000 Debian Linux computers to be installed in rural schools. This purchase adds up to the previous 90,000 Debian Linux computers to be installed in 9000 schools, an average of 10 in each school. (2007)

• Ministry of Cities fully operates on Linux, with Microsoft no where in sight.

• The government launched a PC program called “PC Conectado“, the PC’s are low cost and has Fenix Linux pre-loaded. Although admittedly, a big percentage of these PC’s are turned into Windows through pirated versions.
• The KDE desktop has been deployed for 52 million students!

Ubuntu Dominating Google! Or is it?

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

Google is a wonderful tool. No I am not talking about how it helps us locating the information we seek, unearthing valuable gems. But rather how it reveals trends. It’s only logical, the more people are searching a keyword the more revealing of current trends.  a pretty simple and straightforward hypothesis.

So it’s only normal for me to get excited about a Google Trends graph I discovered revealing that Ubuntu gaining on Windows (both Vista and XP) in terms of Keyword searches. I even submitted it to Digg titled “2009 the year of open source : Ubuntu FTW” with an even more overzelous description: “pssst…Microsoft, there is a boogie man in your blind spot ” It is currently sitting 3rd in the Linux/Unix upcoming section with 76 diggs and 11 comments.

An interesting discussion ensued soon after. Ynot82 was quick to point out that removing the word “Windows” from “XP” and “Vista”, drew a very different picture, a very bleak one:

kd420 argued that 90% of all Windows OSes come preinstalled, so there is really no motive for people to actually Google it, as it “just works”.  Personally, I would argue that the fact that it comes preinstalled doesn’t mean that people don’t face problems day in day out. I mean installation problems are probably only a small part of the Ubuntu searches.

We still haven’t thrown in Macs into the equation, but once we do, we probably can draw up 101 graphs, each to its own conclusion. One thing is for sure, these 101 graphs will be served on a silver platter to Digg once this story goes popular!

Update: The story DID go popular! Only to be buried (or pulled by Digg admins) a couple of hours later, but it gathered almost 90 comments, some are interesting, be sure to read them

9 Linux Myths Debunked

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

If you enjoyed this article, then I would recommend to also read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Linux Users and Etymology of A Distro. Enjoy!

When it comes to Linux there are 3 4 kinds of people, those who never heard of it, those who love it, those who are afraid of it, and those who hate it and spread falsities about it. I don’t really care about the first, they probably aren’t really technologically literate anyways, as long as they have E-mail they are content. While the third  group is the result of the actions of the fourth. Let’s hit two birds with one stone shall we?

1-Linux is More Secure Because it Has A Smaller User Base

It is widely argued that Linux is more secure than Windows just because Windows is more popular, so hackers and virus coders tend to focus on the more popular platform. Actually, this is just one side of the story There are so many other things running for Linux security-wise that totally dispels this myth.

First of all, let’s face it, YOU are the weakest link in any OS. The user is the one that wreaks havoc to any OS, with ignorance or miscalculated decisions. Linux users are generally more savvy than the Windows or Mac users out there. We don’t just click on files promising us the latest Hollywood diva nude pictures. Besides, it’s normal practice that Linux users don’t run their systems as root, which is not the case with Windows, this drastically brings down the vulnerability of any system. The question now, will this be the case if Linux gains popularity and more adoption? I don’t really know, but if Linux commanded more than 90% of the market, I believe this argument would be totally false.

Linux with it’s Unix roots is built as a Network Operating System (NOS) and now advancing slowly as a Desktop OS (DOS? ironically). This simple fact helped Linux carry on the legacy of network security model of server/client-user with limited permissions. Whilst an OS like Windows was originally built as a single-user Desktop OS advancing into a NOS and adding security layers on the go.

Finally, just the fact that Linux is Open Source means that more eyeballs can see bugs and vulnerabilities making it easier to patch. Any coder in his/her mom’s basement could issue a fix for the community. It doesn’t need a big fat layer of corporate bureaucracy to issue a fix! Granted that the corporation gives the security flaw enough attention.

2-Installing Applications on Linux is Hard

Well this might have been true in the early days of Linux, but currently it can’t be farther from the truth. As a Linux user, what do I have to do to install an app? Let’s assume I want to this in a a GUI only environment (some get turned off by the mere mention of a command line, for some reason beyond me.) All I have to do is launch the graphical frontend of my package manager (think of it a big ass repository of applications stored on a server some where), then search for the app in mind. Hell if you don’t know the exact name of the application just search for the function! For example if you want to install a Gmail alerter, just type “google” or “gmail”, a plethora of apps will appear, then tick on the one you like and click ok. The package manager will automatically download the required files from the Internet and install it, and place it in your menu!

On the other hand, if you want to install an app on Windows what will you do? Generally you will head to Google and search for the required app or function, swim through hundreds if not thousands of results, randomly choose one which might or might not have what you want. If it does you will be probably asked for a valid email or enter a captcha, then download the file. The file might be huge and if you don’t have a download manager you might lose all what you downloaded because your wireless abruptly decided to disconnect. There are 101 scenarios! If all goes well you double click on the app, click next next, tick on “I Agree”, a couple more nexts and you have the app. Which turns out to be a stripped down trial version, that added a couple of more apps that you didn’t ask for on your desktop and changed a few of your system settings!

Which is easier again?

3-Linux is A Nightmare to Install

Back in 2005 when I first started my Linux adventure, I got my hand on 5 SUSE cd’s from a  Linux Format magazine. Back then I was on XP, I initially wanted to back up my files before I take the plunge just in case. When I looked at the huge amount of files, I got lazy and somewhat careless, and decided just to install SUSE without backing up. 2 hours later I had a magical dual boot system (the whole concept of dual boot was alien to me back then) and all my files were intact!

Why am I telling you this story? Because I think one part of the intimidation of installing Linux is the belief that it might destroy files and end up on an OS that might thats not appealing (hey we are humble to realize it’s not for everyone ) All I am saying it’s piss easy! If I was able to do it with no prior knowledge of Linux then you can too! It just needs some common sense. Trust me!

And if you don’t trust me (I understand you don’t really know me do you?) Why don’t you dabble with Linux using virtualization?

Anyways the whole installation process has been tuned over the years. Distros like SUSE, Ubuntu, and Fedora, are so easy to install it would literally take around 30 minutes to get it up and ready. With almost all the apps a default PC should have. Thing like an Office suite, media player, PDF reader, chat clients…etc Can you really say the same about YOUR system?

4-The Linux Interface is Ugly and Unattractive

Well it depends on the definition of “attractive” doesn’t it? A command line only OS might be a turn off for most people but bliss for some. An interface with wobbly windows, rotating cubes, spherical desktop, fireworks, rain, snow…etc is bliss to a lot and a resource hog to some.

Well Linux provides you both and everything in between! And in a million and one styles!

You can install Compiz, which gives you rotating cubes for different desktops, wobbly windows, animated window behavior just to name a few. You can install Enlightenment, which provides you a sleek looking desktop that you have never seen before. KDE4 is a scene to behold! Anyways I think a picture is worth a thousand words,  here judge by yourself:

In fact you can actually make Linux like whatever you want, you can make it even look like Apple or Windows! The sky is the limit

5-There Are No Games on Linux

Actually I am not really a PC gamer, I tend to keep my gaming activities on consoles, but I once installed Football Manager under Linux, worked perfectly.

Seriously, just yesterday I walked into my brother’s room, and  found a collection of PC games on the floor. Me knowing that he uses Linux exclusively, I raised an eyebrow and asked “under Linux?”. He replied positively, “without a hitch!”

Today, there are literally 100’s of games that work under Linux, true they haven’t been ported, but Wine (a program that allows Windows programs to run under Linux) has taken care of that. Just looking at the top 10 list of apps working under Wine, one finds quite a lot of them are games. And a lot of them are VERY popular! Wine could also help in a lot of other games too! You can also purchase Cedega which depends on Wine but makes the experience much more user-friendly. There is a lot of help out there, you just need to open your eyes a bit! And if all fails, virtualization could be a last resort!

One could still argue that there are no Linux games, as all that this means that there are no native Linux games. Right? Not really, there are loads of native Open Source Linux games, I can’t really vouch for them, but from the screen shots they do seem cool. Here have a glimpse.

6-Linux Doesn’t Come Preinstalled Like Windows

Whoa! You have been contaminated with a big dose of FUD! Actually Linux comes preinstalled from a lot of different vendors. Some are international brands like Dell and Lenovo. There are also some specialized Linux vendors like System76 or EmprorLinux.

Asus also have created a new trend. Fitting Linux in a new niche market, the Ultra Mobile PC market with the Eee PC. HP, Aspire, MSI, among others are fitting these UMPC’s with Linux.

7-There is No Support for Linux

If you purchased your Linux system from a vendor, then there will probably some kind of support. A quick check on System76 or EmprorLinux would verify that. Also if you bought a distribution from Red Hat or Novell then you will also get support as part of the package.

However in reality, a lot of Linux users are mavericks, they get their support from the Linux community. The Linux community is very supportive (at least that is my experience). The Internet is riddled with forums, guides, howtos, blogs, IRC rooms… etc that would offer anybody an extraordinary amount of help. I don’t think that any other operating system has this kind of community. I am sure when it comes to community other proprietary operating systems do envy us!

8-Linux Doesn’t Have Good Hardware Support

Sometime ago, I blogged about how I suffered to get an HP printer to work on Windows. Long story short, after around 2 hours of trying to get an HP printer to work on XP, I gave up and plugged into an Ubuntu Linux Eee PC, it got recognized in 30 seconds! There are thousands of stories similar to this, just a quick Google would confirm that. Here is an example.

What people fail to realize that in the case of their Windows preinstalled PC’s, they “just works” because the vendors have already done all the work for them. It would be a totally different ball game if these PC’s had no OS on them. Windows wouldn’t come out all that superior, I would even wager that Linux would probably do a better job.

Actually I think that we are at a point where I can say that Linux would work more than 90% of hardware out there! Could Windows or Apple claim that? I don’t know, I stopped being a Windows power user for quite sometime. But what I remember is that a webcam I purchased in 2004 wasn’t “digitally verified” (or something like that) by XP, despite the fact that XP has been around for years!

9-There is No Office Software, or Software At All for Linux

Huh? Under which rock have you been living under in the past decade? Actually there is more Office software for Linux than Windows and Apple combined. It does 95% of what Microsoft Office can do and you don’t need to loose an arm and a leg to get it, its FREE! And let’s face it, most of us don’t really use Microsoft Office to it’s full potential. So why should I pay 100% for only 10% features I need?

As for the rest of software, rest assured that there is replacement for everything you need. And in a lot of cases these apps get the job done in better ways than their propietary counterparts. And before you say: “Photoshop”, you won’t drag me into this conversation, if you are not content with Gimp, you still can get Photoshop on Linux, so please let’s not get into that.

Bonus: Linux is For Geeks!

Ahh, nevermind not really gonna try to refute this one, though I tried to convince people that Linux is sexy, didn’t really do a good job at it! But hey geek is good

Interview With The SourceForge Community Manager

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

SourceForge is one of the most important entities in the Open Source movement. They manage the geek mecca of slashdot, sell geek paraphernalia that makes all our dreams come true at thinkgeek, manage Freshmeat the mega app hub, and administer over 170,000 Open Source projects at SourceForge.

And if you are a long time Royal HeHe2-ness reader, you should by now realize how I am a big fan of such projects that aim to bring Open Source to the masses; after all it’s the tagline of this blog! This week I bring you an interview with the community manager at SourceForge, Ross Turk. (you can follow him over here on Twitter)

Q-Can you tell us a little more about yourself? You know general stuff?

Sure! I live in West Hollywood, CA, but I spend most of my time traveling around the country (and sometimes the world.) I’ve always been a giant fan of Linux – when I was in high school, I ran the Linux network for a local ISP long before most people thought it was a viable option.

SourceForge used to be called VA Software, and before that it was called VA Linux. When I was hired by VA Linux eight years ago, I got a tattoo of Tux on my arm the week before I started because I knew open source was about to change my life even more than it already had.

In my spare time, I play guitar and bass guitar.

Q- Can you tell us a little more about SourceForge? What other popular websites/projects are managed by you guys?

SourceForge.net provides tools to open source developers so they can build useful stuff. The tools we provide include source code management systems, bug trackers, wikis, web and database hosting, and worldwide distribution, and we provide them freely to anyone who needs them to build open source.

SourceForge, Inc., the parent company, also operates Slashdot, ThinkGeek, Linux.com, and Freshmeat.

Q-What are your responsibilities at Sourceforge? What projects did you work on?

I’m the Community Manager for SourceForge.net, and I’ve been doing this for almost two years. I’ve been with SourceForge for almost eight and a half years now, and I’ve had a lot of various roles, including consulting, architecture, and engineering management. My job now is to make myself available to the SourceForge community of users and developers, make sure they’re happy, and figure out what would make them happier. I spend a lot of time a trade shows, but I also put together programs like the Community Choice Awards so that the entire community can get involved.

I’ve not done much project work, mostly because I don’t have the kind of time I used to have, but I’ve got a project or two on SourceForge that contain some marginally useful bits of technology.

Q-For Linux and Open Source beginners, can you describe the importance of SourceForge to the community? In what ways does SourceForge help out?

I feel pretty strongly that the best way to learn about something is to watch it first, then do it. Repositories like SourceForge allow newbies to do both. By hosting all open source projects for free, we allow new innovators to quickly create their own project space and start to attract collaborators. We also enforce transparency in the development processes of the projects we host, so newcomers can lurk on the edge of the community to absorb information before diving in themselves.

Q-A lot of new Linux users would love to contribute back to the community, however they don’t code, in what other ways could one give back to the community?

There are a lot of ways to contribute to an open source project that don’t involve coding. Have you ever had Firefox crash while you were using it? As awesome as Firefox is, it’s not an uncommon experience if you’re using a preview release. When it happens, you’re shown a dialog box that asks you to provide information about what you were doing at the time. Most people don’t think about it, but by providing that information you are contributing something very useful to an open source project. It’s easy for non-coders to believe that they can’t provide tangible value, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

So that’s one way: bug reports. Lots of projects don’t make it as easy as Firefox (and they should), but all projects have a way for users to report problems. Most of them also have ways to suggest features you want to see, help educate other users, write documentation, or organize a knowledge base. Sometimes, projects would simply benefit from users telling them “hey, I was able to build this on OpenSolaris under KDE and it works.”

I think perhaps the most successful non-coder contributions, though, are probably language translations. If you speak two languages, most projects have work for you to do!

Q-There are a million and one new ideas out there, does SourceForge work to attract these ideas to an open model, instead of going on to closed ones?

We’re a company of pretty fervent believers, but at the same time we all realize that open source is about freedom, knowledge, and pragmatism. It’s our responsibility to educate our users so they understand the consequences of their licensing decisions, and it’s their responsibility to make a decision that will serve them, their users, and society at large.

I do think that we attract a lot of people to open source just by being SourceForge and doing what we do, though.

Q-How can one start an Open Source project on SourceForge? Any tips to help new projects gain attention?

Starting a project is easy. Go to http://sourceforge.net and click on the Create Project link. You’ll need to be logged in to your SourceForge.net account and you’ll be asked some questions about the project you intend to start. An actual human being reviews every project application for quality, so you should be as specific as possible. We work pretty hard to avoid having tons of poorly-defined projects on the site, so we may decline your registration and ask you to resubmit with more data. With over a hundred new projects a day, I think we’ve managed to keep it easy.

SourceForge, over the years, has become almost as much of a collection of ideas as it is a collection of finished, consumable projects. If you’ve got an idea for a project, you should search for it on SourceForge first to make sure nobody else has already begun working on it! If someone else has an idea for a project that solves the same problems you’re trying to solve, you should consider asking them if you can help. They’ll thank you for it.

Q-What does the future hold for SourceForge and the gang?

Nobody can argue that open source has seen a great deal of success at the operating system level with Linux, FreeBSD, and, more recently, OpenSolaris. Similarly, the programming space is seeing a lot of successful open source languages like Perl, PHP, Python, Java, and Ruby. Open source databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL are mainstream now too, as are web servers like Apache and middleware like JBoss.

Clearly, open source is beginning to move up the stack into the application space, and the success of companies like Zimbra, SugarCRM, Zenoss, Hyperic, and Mindtouch are proof that there’s enterprise interest in more than simply keeping the data center running. People want CRM solutions, CMS systems, collaboration platforms, enterprise systems management, and a ton of other types of open source projects that are too numerous to list.

I think this represents a challenge for SourceForge, because this movement will possibly be accompanied by an increase in the complexity of the tools required to build these new projects and an increase in the type of people who might consume what they produce. I also think that as many projects commercialize, they require a completely different set of tools than those we were designed to provide. In short, the open source industry is changing continually and user requirements are changing along with it. We have to listen capably and ceaselessly, maintain a nimble organization, and change what we offer to match what people need (hopefully before they know they need it.)

If you liked this Interview you might want to check my interview with Daniel Campos, a lead developer of the the Extremadura, Spain Linux project. A project that aims to bring Linux to all schools and government offices in the region.

5 Linux Commercials I Like

Post from: The Linuxologist A blog that advocates Linux and Open Source.

Since this is a Linux advocacy blog, it’s only normal for me to share with you guys my favorite list of Linux commercials. I love these because of the deep messages and meanings behind each of them:

1-Float Like A Butterfly

Muhammed Ali and Linux have many things in common, his quick fists and swift feet are akin to Linux’s flexibility and speed. Ali is the greatest boxer in history, and to me, Linux is the greatest OS! Indeed Ali claimed he is the greatest boxer, and he is probably right about Linux also. Watch the great legend promote openness:

2-Novell Knows Spoofing

I know I know, we all grew bored of these “I am a Mac I am a PC” commercials, but you gotta admit they are quite clever. Here are two from Novell

3-Then Linux Wins

A strong message, and true in every sense.

4-IBM: The New Allie

5-The Boy Has Been Adopted