J_K9 @ Linux

The Chance For Linux To Enter The Desktop Arena Has Arrived

There are several Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) which distribute laptop and desktops with Linux pre-installed, but these companies are usually small and localised. I’m talking about companies like System 76, Xtops and the vast majority of the others which can be found on TuxMobil’s list of resellers. The problem with this is that public awareness of Linux is low, and these small companies struggle to compete for large advertisements to let people know that there is something just as good as Windows out there which costs nothing at all, and that there are companies which sell laptops and desktops with this pre-installed instead of Windows (and thus at a cheaper price).

This isn’t good enough. We need a multi-national OEM, such as Dell to offer Linux not only on the worse laptops or specialist computers but as an option for pre-installation on ALL of their computing devices. If you had never heard of Linux and saw something like the following while customising your Dell laptop, don’t you think you would try to find out more about this free alternative?

Now, of course that would be great and could vastly improve Linux’s marketshare on the desktop, but am I not dreaming? Wouldn’t Microsoft browbeat Dell into not offering Linux as an option if they were even planning to, or ostracise them if they did? Perhaps. But, if Dell listens to its customers (which it should), you will soon be seeing an option to install Linux instead of (or alongside) Windows in a way not dissimilar to the image above. The reason I say that is because Dell has recently been reaching out to its customers to attempt to increase its desktop marketshare, in an effort dubbed “IdeaStorm.” Which idea is currently in the lead? ‘Pre-Installed Linux | Ubuntu | Fedora | OpenSUSE | Multi-Boot.’

More and more people are looking for computers with Linux pre-installed because they do not want to be tied in by Microsoft’s ruthless policies and freedom-compromising solutions, and IdeaStorm only proves this. If Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE were offered as possible installation options instead of (or alongside) Windows Vista, not only would Dell profit from the ever-increasing number of mouths for Linux’s desktop pie but its customers would also benefit from a completely free, in all senses of the word, Operating System.

How can you help? It’s simple: go to Dell’s IdeaStorm website and vote for the Linux installation alternatives idea - if the people who will review these ideas have half a brain, they will add support for at least one Linux distribution on all of the computers that Dell sell and add an option for Linux pre-installation. Who knows: in a few years, you may be able to pop down to the local WalMart or PCWorld and buy a Linux-only Dell laptop.

Edit: It looks like I was late to the scene: Dell has already acknowledged the interest in Open Source software such as Linux and OpenOffice.org, and is working with Novell and a few other unspecified distributions to certify their corporate client products for those distributions. Those products include the Dell OptiPlex desktops, Latitude laptops and Precision workstations. Let’s hope more good comes of this!

Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn Will Not Include Binary Drivers

In a surprising turn of events, the Ubuntu team have decided not to distribute the proprietary ATi and nVidia binary graphics drivers with their upcoming release, Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn. I quote Michael Labarel’s post:

Moments ago hitting the ubuntu-announce-list is word that the upcoming 7.04 “Feisty Fawn” release will not include the closed-source ATI and NVIDIA display drivers by default. [..] Like existing releases, the proprietary video drivers will be easily available through their repositories, but they will NOT be activated by default.

These technical board decisions were announced on the ubuntu-announce mailing list almost 7 hours ago by Matt Zimmerman.

Apparently 3D desktop support is not as important as staying on the good side of the Linux Foundation and the community by not (potentially) breaking the GPL, and I respect their decision.

Proposing An Open Source Groove Alternative

Groove is a software initially developed by Groove Networks and now owned and developed by Microsoft as a component of the Office 2007 Enterprise suite. It is a project management application which uses the client-server model and integrates chat, filesharing, calendar, discussion, picture sharing, and is also extensible in that third party tools can be integrated to improve the experience. In Groove, a Workspace may be created and Groove members may be invited to join that Workspace and, if and when they join, they will be set a role in that project by the Workspace’s Manager. It encrypts files in that Workspace on-the-fly so as to maintain the confidentiality of the data and, following the client-server model, each member of the Workspace downloads a synced version of the Workspace’s files and other data for their perusal and modification offline. For more information on how Groove works, see this TechNet article. The only feature that the Groove project management software lacks is a good version control system - and, unfortunately, it is closed-source (proprietary) software.

And good version control systems are exactly what Open Source has: Concurrent Versions System (CVS), Subversion (SVN), Git, etc. However, we don’t have a tool which integrates (or acts as a layer on top of) these excellent systems with collaboration modules to produce an outstanding and free project management system.

Plone (content management)…..would handle most of the online
collaboration…. and dotProject (for project management)

The above quote is taken from a post to a mailing list about Open Source alternatives to Groove, and the situation now is as dire as it was one and a half years ago. Plone and dotProject are excellent projects, but they are not, together, a suitable replacement for an all-in-one project management solution such as Groove. The fact that Plone and dotProject are web-based makes them even less a suitable replacement, especially in our current day, for the interface is slower and is more detached from the desktop. One much also be online to use those solutions, whereas you can alter your Workspace’s files offline and then synchronise them with the server the next time you’re online with Groove.

What we need to do is build an Open Source replacement for Groove. Groove is good, but it is not without its faults. I believe that the Open Source community can build an application which either provides a layer of collaboration over an existing version control system or which integrates one (or multiple) of those systems which will not only rival Groove, but which will be better, faster (Groove’s interface, although minimalistic, is a little slow) and more secure. Here are some of the features or characteristics I envisage:

• User-Friendly and Intuitive Interface

  Take a close look at Groove’s interface. In fact, download a trial copy of Groove on a Windows machine (if you have access to one - if not, please look around or ask me for screenshots) and check it out for yourself. Also scroll down Marc Olson’s Groove 2007 Blog, which will give you a deeper insight into Groove’s functionality.

  Despite Groove’s user-intuitiveness, there are some features which are confusing or unsatisfactory. Resolving name conflicts is a nuisance, because you can’t directly remove one of the names. The version control system employed by Groove is poor at best, although I like the way it notifies you of updates within tools in a Workspace (as explained here). We need to make it even simpler.

  If there is sufficient interest in this application, I shall create a few mockups of its interface, although Groove’s interface is an excellent starting point.

• Support For The Mainstream Version Control Systems

  Ideally, this application would be able to run on top of CVS, SVN and Git by making each different version control system a separate ‘tool’ (to use Groove’s terminology). Thus, to create an SVN-managed repository, for example, all the Workspace’s Manager would need to do is add a ‘Subversion Tool’ to the Workspace.

  Using the method explained above, supporting multiple version control systems would not be as complex as it might first have seemed.

• Extensible And Flexible Design

  An extensible design would allow third party developers to create their own tools which could then be added on to this application to extend its functionality in new and exciting ways. Want a whiteboard to draw things with your fellow developers in real-time? Download and install the tool. Want to implement support for a VoIP application so that you can have conference calls with your developers? Download and install the tool.

I have many, many more ideas in mind for this software. Please take a moment to look at Groove if you have the time and, if you like what you see and read, let me know about it and express an interest in watching an improved, Open Source version of this highly useful and productivity-increasing utility become a reality.

If there is sufficient demand for this application, I will recruit a group of developers, set up a SourceForge.net site for the software and set up a donations account to speed up the development process and support the developers. However, you will only ever see this software spring out of my mind and onto your desktops and servers if you provide your support, so please do leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Update: This project has been dubbed “Mira Groupware” and is now pending review for hosting on SourceForge.net!

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*Finally* Connected To A WPA-Encrypted Network On Linux

You cannot possibly imagine how many hours I’ve spent trying to connect both my Linux desktop and laptop to my WPA-encrypted home wireless network. I’ve tried every configuration option in the latest snapshot of wpa_supplicant, tweaked /etc/network/interfaces to no end, and installed the newest releases of the wireless drivers for my cards all to no avail. I had even tried Gnome’s network-manager (KDE has an equivalent called Knetwork-manager), which was meant to have WPA and even WPA2 support for a wide range of drivers, but not even that worked - it wouldn’t recognise my card. At least, not until today.

Today, while I was going through my bookmarks, I came across a thread which I had bookmarked a while back about setting up wpa_supplicant on Ubuntu and configuring it to work with the IPW2200 driver/card (which is what my laptop has). I flicked threw it, knowing that I had tried those instructions before and had not received anything but a bit more junk at the end of it, and I came across a post about network-manager. The poster recommended network-manager over the wpa_supplicant approach, for it was simpler and was far more reliable, but for it to work the configurations for the wireless card in /etc/network/interfaces had to be erased or commented out. Oh.

To cut a long story short, I commented out those lines, restarted the computer and, sure enough, network-manager picked up my card. The reason it hadn’t picked it up in the first place was because the card had already been configured by /etc/network/interfaces! Ah, sweet irony. Network-manager found my wireless network, and all I had to do was select it and enter my password and, lo and behold, here I am posting wirelessly from my Ubuntu laptop with a WPA-encrypted connection between my laptop and router. How about that?

Speaking of irony, my desktop has a wireless card based on a Ralink RT2500 chipset specifically chosen because there is an Open Source driver available for it. The only problem is that the driver still doesn’t have WPA support so, network-manager or not, I can’t connect my desktop to the network wirelessly - the 20m ethernet cable it is

// Edit

By the way, to download and install network-manager on Ubuntu or Debian all you need to do is run the following command from a Terminal window:

sudo apt-get install network-manager

Or, alternatively, if you are using Ubuntu, go to Applications->Add/Remove… and install ‘Network Manager’ in the Internet section.

Taking Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn Herd 3 For A Spin

I’ve decided to try out the latest alpha release of the upcoming version of Ubuntu, 7.04 Feisty Fawn, which scheduled for a final release in April (hence the .04, for April is the fourth month of the year). I don’t usually test pre-releases, not because I don’t want to help the developers - I do - but because I’d rather wait to be welcomely surprised by the final release than watch as the latest version eases its way to that release, polishing up and removing bugs along the way.

Why the change? Well, I’ve got a few reasons, which are (in no particular order):

• Jono Bacon, a prominent member of the Open Source community, recently called for testers for the latest version of the easiest-to-use audio production tool in the Linux world — Jokosher 2.0. I love the look of Jokosher and I expect it to become an excellent application, particularly for audio producers who are looking for an Open Source alternative to proprietary tools such as Apple’s Garage Band. I don’t know if Jokosher’s developers plan on making Jokosher as advanced and as feature-rich as tools such as Sony Acid Pro or Apple Logic Pro, but I know that, if they do, they will make those features as easily accessible and as simple to use as the current ones. I have been inspired to test Jokosher, and what better system to test it on than the latest version of Ubuntu? If you also wish to test out Jokosher and help make this latest milestone release as bug-free as possible, please read the Testing Development page on Jokosher’s wiki for more information.
• Not only that, but I shall also get to test Herd 3, the third alpha release of Ubuntu 7.04, for bugs. I’m almost killing two birds with one stone. Wait, no - I am

With two bullet points, there wasn’t really much point in making that a list.. But they are valid points, and I hope that you will assist me and the rest of the community in testing these (and other) excellent software projects to aid their development and final stability.

Expect updates on the testing process!

Whoever Said That Beryl Is Useless?

It’s not.

Don’t believe me? Check out this series of articles from Liquid Weather’s Linux HowTos which explains and displays several usability and productivity enhancements allowed by Beryl:

• Beryl: Usability (i)
• Beryl: Usability (ii)
• Beryl: Usability (iii)

Or perhaps they’re just excuses to enjoy the eye-candy

Silica - CANVAS On Debian On The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet

IMMUNITY Silica is a stunning new product whose tagline is “Redefining Penetration Testing.” Sporting an easy-to-use interface (as shown on its product page), this device allows you to scan wireless networks, perform vulnerability scans of computers on those networks, exploit some of those vulnerabilities at the touch of a button, find and store “interesting” and possibly confidential files, and much, much more, using a simplified and smaller version of IMMUNITY Inc.’s CANVAS product.

Silica was first shown running on Debian Linux on the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, which is just larger than a mouse (and can do far more than it ;)).

While this device may be purchased by nefarious users to carry out illegal activities, IMMUNITY Inc. is doing its best to sell Silica to penetration testers and security professionals who will use this device responsibly.

Handheld 802.11 penetration testing by hitting a few buttons and letting the device perform an automated process while resting inside your pocket? It sounds very cool indeed. Ryan Naraine has published a more in-depth review of it on his ZDNet blog.

Open Hardware: Revolutionising Linux

The first project I would like to talk about is OpenOEM, which aims to build and sell a line of computers consisting entirely of “Open Hardware” - that is, hardware whose documentation is under an Open Source licence, allowing the public to attempt to build upon its specifications and build their own version of the hardware, if they wish. In their own words:

Mission Statement

To build the best Open Computer that combines power, simplicity and elegance by creating new Open Source Hardware and Software or by leveraging existing Open Source Technologies.

What’s so great about this? After all, a computer is a computer - who cares whether the underlying components that make it work are open or not? Well, we’ve all seen what Open Source software has and can accomplish - just about anything. The advantages and possibilities are even greater with Open Hardware. If you have been following the OpenMoko Open Source mobile phone project, you will know what extra steps Open Hardware allows you to go and which boundaries it allows you to surpass. For more information about Open OEM’s aims, reasons and plans, please see their articles and discussion forums.

With Open Hardware, Linux could have drivers and firmware updates available for devices and the latest technology within days of its release. Those drivers could be Open Source too, rather than proprietary, which would allow their users to ensure their security and stability as well as being secure in the knowledge that the driver is absolutely free, as in both speech and beer. We could optimise the Open Source graphics drivers to create faster and more powerful rendering engines, allowing projects like Beryl to flourish even more than they currently do. Intel is currently the only main graphics card manufacturer to release Open Source drivers for their graphics chipsets. However, one of the main problems is that their chipsets are only found as on-board graphics cards on motherboards, which means that they are not sold as separate AGP or PCI-Express cards. What if Intel released its graphics chipsets’ documentation under an Open Hardware licence? Bruce Perens has one of many answers:

As far as I can tell, these [Intel] devices only come on motherboards. Well gee, why doesn’t someone buy these Intel chips and put them on a card? Because that would be a fully open source 3-D card. So I think that we can make great hay in the peripheral device space right now.

This is why Open Hardware would be advantageous - it would allow for an endless number of advancements in technology and in Linux’s functionality. Linux would just work on computers with Open Hardware. It already does so on “closed” hardware, but there are several cards and peripherals for which there are only proprietary drivers available, and for a small amount no drivers are available at all. The complexities in writing drivers for hardware whose documentation has not been released becomes evident when a Linux distribution does not automatically recognise, say, your wireless card, or your screen resolution. This would no longer be a problem with Open Hardware.

And what will allow this dream to come true? Licences such as the TAPR Open Hardware Licence are attempts at making releasing hardware to the general public under an open licence easier for hardware manufacturers. This licence in particular is being written to tackle the problems which have stopped manufacturers from releasing their hardware specifications in the past, as you can read about in more detail on TAPR’s website or in an article on Linux.com about Eric S. Raymond’s and Russ Nelson’s comments on the licence draft. The current draft, version 0.9, is available for download in PDF format from TAPR’s website. Raymond said the following of the TAPR OHL:

I think it’s safe to say that the [OSI] board is generally in favor of the idea of open source hardware, but I see lots and lots of problems with this license, and I’m pretty sure the board would down-check it.

He was also fairly critical of the licence’s definition of the term “distribution”:

I boggle at this. This essentially strips the word ‘distribution’ of its normal meaning, assuring lots of contention over edge cases.

To be honest, I think he is nit-picking and being slightly pedantic, but this is exactly what the licence requires at the moment - its errors and grey areas need to be corrected if we want this licence to become a convincing and valid option for hardware manufacturers.

Open Hardware is the way forwards. Granted, some hardware manufacturers may excuse themselves by saying that releasing their specifications under an open licence would allow their competition to discover the details of their technological advances and thus make the market more aggressive - and not in their favour. I must admit, I have yet to read TAPR’s OHL (I have only read reviews of it), but if it’s anything like the GPL it will require any modifications made to the original specification to be released under the same licence which would effectively counter this argument, for the original manufacturer could implement any third party improvements they wished. And with existing projects such as OpenCores at their prime, when better to release an Open Hardware licence to allow hardware manufacturers to follow in their lead?

Ubuntu 6.10 Videos Delayed

I’m sorry about this. I did try to make them, but my laptop (Pentium M 740 1.73Ghz with 512MB RAM) simply was not powerful enough to record the videos at a decent fps. I was trying to make it do at least 10fps with XVidCap, but my laptop could only handle about 1.8fps, which is hardly satisfactory.

So why didn’t I record them on my computer, which is definitely powerful enough to handle high frames per second at a clear resolution? It has Ubuntu installed on it, but there’s one thing it lacks: WPA support. The lack of WPA support means that I cannot connect it to my wireless network, so I cannot download network-manager which would allow me to connect to it.. Ironic, eh? The router is also on the other side of the room from the computer, and the only ethernet cable I have (a 3m cable) does not reach. Moving the computer is also out of the question, as there are just far too many cables running behind the desk to even consider moving it. I’m not willing to compromise the security of my network, even for a few minutes, to connect the desktop. However, I am willing to buy a 20m ethernet cable, and as I have the whole of next week off (it’s a short break) I’ll have more than enough time to record the videos. So, don’t lose hope yet - they’re on their way

How To Videos - On Their Way

My mother has recently bought herself a MacBook, so it’s up to me, of course, to teach her how to use it As I’m not around too often (because I go to boarding school and am only allowed out on Sundays - and the boarding school is hundreds of miles away from my home country), and as I have got an unusual window of opportunity this weekend due to having been allowed to stay out Saturday night, I’m going to make the most of this free time and make some videos to teach my mother how to use OS X. I will focus on the main uses, functions and differences from her old environment: Finder, Dashboard, System Preferences, Expose, Dock, Spotlight, and all the other OS X goodies.

I will, of course, upload these videos to this site and release them for download in the main three formats: the free Ogg Theora (.ogg), Microsoft’s Audio Video Interleave (.avi) and Quicktime Movie (.mov). I highly recommend downloading the Ogg Theora files when they are available, by the way, as the other two formats are proprietary

“What’s this?” is what some of you may be thinking - an Open Source advocate making and publishing videos of a proprietary OS (Mac OS X) instead of Linux when his blog’s called J_K9@Linux? What is this madness?

Don’t worry - I plan to make more and even better videos for Linux. I shall use Ubuntu as the distribution on which I shall record the videos (although I may record a few on Slackware), but the topics and features I shall be covering will hopefully apply to most other distributions as well. I also hope to cover some of the Most Wanted list on UbuntuClips.org, and I will probably be hosting this set of videos on their website to save myself some bandwidth!

Now let’s just hope I will have enough time to accomplish all of this - I doubt it, but I’ll remain optimistic and keep recording until the moment I’m dragged away from the computer

Update: Well, I’ve made about half the videos for OS X and they’re already taking up over 550MB of hard drive space, which I should have expected.. In that case, I doubt I’m going to be able to upload them to my website or to any other file sharing service, for that matter, because my upload speed is too poor and it would literally take weeks to upload these videos. However, if anyone else has a good upload speed, I’d be willing to send you a DVD so that you could kindly upload them to a file sharing service or at least help out with the torrent sharing for these videos. Cheers