A Look At Today's Operating Systems: Part 0 - Introduction

The way we use computers these days is changing quite a bit as tablet computing increases in popularity, and as such, desktop operating systems are radically changing to keep up with it. Personally, I find myself more productive with a mouse and keyboard, but for those who generally just need to check their emails and stocks and stuff like that, tablet devices would be a good fit for them. In this series, I'm going to show off the latest Windows and Mac desktop operating systems, as well as some others.

Now, in this introductory part, let's just take a quick look at some traditional desktops, whether it's the latest release of the respective operating system, or one that's not too far behind.

Protecting your computer and yourself, with common sense.

In my last post, I explained how to update Windows and Mac OS X, and other programs, to install security updates. I also mentioned some free antivirus and antispyware software that do the job quite well. But even after that, there's still one thing that software can't necessarily protect you from...

The New App Store

It offers easy access to thousands of free applications. It offers the ability to purchase applications. It launched in October 2010. It's...

Does the "You get what you pay for" saying always hold true? Also, some FUD.

Microsoft recently started a campaign as Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org . It's filled with propaganda and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). Since OO.o is free and is increasingly gaining market-share, Microsoft is obviously getting scared that now less people are using their overpriced office suite.

With that out of the way, on to the video.

Google Chrome is now available for Mac and Linux

Google Chrome is now available for Mac and Linux as a beta. It's been available for Mac and Linux for about 6 months, but now it is in a usable state. And it's still really fast!

Mac beta version (4.0) (requires Leopard or Snow Leopard)

Linux beta version (4.0) (offers RPMs and DEBs for 32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows stable version (3.0)
Windows beta version (4.0)

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) Review

Ubuntu. A linux distribution which needs no introduction, but I'll give one anyway.

Ubuntu is an african word meaning "Humanity to others". Ubuntu is currently the most popular linux distribution, thanks to its ease of use, simplicity, and superb hardware detection. Ubuntu also has a very large community forum, which means that it's fairly easy to get help in solving problems that may arise. Ubuntu offers security updates and patches for each standard release for 1.5 years after it is released. There are also LTS (Long Term Support) releases every 2 years. The LTS releases are supported for 3 years on the desktop edition, and for 5 years on the server edition. The next release, Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), will be an LTS release. Each version is numbered as x.yy, where x is the last digit of the year, and y is the month eg. 9.10 . The codename is an alliteration with an adjective and an animal, with the first letter of each corresponding to the number of releases. For example, Karmic Koala is the 11th release of Ubuntu.

Linux FAQ for newbies

I came across a great FAQ for new linux users. It covers many things that a new user would be confused about if they wanted to make the transition to linux or if they already have done so.

It's very lengthy and I haven't finished reading it yet, but for those who are interested in learning a bit about linux, I'd say it's worth taking the 30-45 minutes to read it.

Credit goes to Tux Radar and their magazine Linux Format for writing the FAQ, and to Tux Machines for linking to many linux articles, one of which was Tux Radar's FAQ.

An interesting take on rejecting a EULA

I was reading the official Linux Mint blog where I noticed an interesting post. A Linux Mint user recently bought a Dell Studio laptop computer, but he didn't want to use Windows. As a side note, very few laptops can be bought without Windows, and even when you can buy one without it, the price comes out to almost the same price or more expensive than the same computer with Windows pre-installed.

This specific Linux Mint blog post describes in detail how to get a refund from the computer manufacturer by rejecting the Microsoft/Computer Manufacturer's (in this case it was Dell) End User License Agreement (EULA).

In short, he chose the new computer he wanted, but didn't turn on the computer when he got it. When you turn on a brand name computer for the first time, you must accept both the Microsoft and the manufacturer's EULA which are both shown to you. He then downloaded Linux Mint from his old computer and burned it onto a CD. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, which means that there is lots of community support, and Ubuntu has very good out of the box compatibility. Linux Mint also includes support for Adobe Flash, DVD playback, and MP3 playback by default, which makes it a very good Live CD distribution. He ran the Live CD on his new computer to make sure that it runs well and that there aren't any compatibility problems. It turned out that there were a few problems, but a simple google search helped him solve the issue.

He sent off an email to Dell mentioning that he does not agree with the Dell and Microsoft Agreements. After an exchange of about 12 emails, he managed to get a refund of about $110 USD (£70). After receiving the money from Dell, he donated it to the Linux Mint project.

Debian 5 "Lenny" Mini-Review (Installation)

A bit of background info about Debian. Debian is a distribution of Linux which is well known for being incredibly stable. It is community developed rather than being developed by a company (Like Ubuntu, SUSE, or Red Hat for example). Debian has a stable release approximately once every 2 years. It is available for 12 different CPU architectures(!). There are 3 branches of Debian. Stable is... just that, stable. Testing is the development version of their next upcoming stable release. Unstable has no "release" and is always being updated with packages currently under development. Ubuntu is based on Debian Unstable.

All of the codenames of their releases are named after characters from Toy Story. The current release (5.0) is codenamed "Lenny", the next release is codenamed "Squeeze", and Unstable is codenamed "Sid".

I installed Debian 5.0.3 in Virtualbox 3.0.6 . The double point releases only include security and stability updates and don't contain any new features. I decided to try out the xfce version, rather than the standard install CD which includes the GNOME Desktop Environment.

Ubuntu 10.04 .....

Ubuntu 10.04 is codenamed Lucid Lynx. That is all.

A look at Haiku coming up soon

I was originally planning on looking at/reviewing Debian Linux 5.0 (Lenny) after my Arch Linux review, but I'll be looking at Haiku next. I downloaded the ISO file of Haiku Alpha 1 on Sunday when it was released and have been seeding since then, but I haven't tried it yet. Haiku is an open source operating system compatible with BeOS. It is not Linux or Unix. Apparently it's REALLY fast and lightweight.

After Haiku, I'll be looking at Debian 5(.0.3) .

Arch Linux 2009.08 Review - Part 2 of 2

I decided to keep the screenshots to a minimum in this post. I mainly followed the very detailed Arch Linux Beginners Guide and since nearly everything I did is enter commands, I didn't think screenshots were necessary.

Windows 7 beats yet another OS!!!

Turns out there's more about Windows 7 that I'm not aware of. According to Microsoft, Windows 7 is also better than Mac OS X. I didn't know that. Well, it's a good thing I'm not using a Mac... wait a minute... I AM! I apparently need to give Windows 7 another try and never use Mac OS X or Linux again... or not.

Watch out Best Buy employees, I might soon be coming to your store to test you.

Windows is better than Linux, no questions asked

Microsoft is sending out training materials to Best Buy employees in preparation for Windows 7. One course in particular is titled "Comparing Windows 7 to Linux-based PCs".

The objectives are for employees to understand "how Windows 7 can provide a richer and more engaging experience than Linux", and to understand "the specific benefits of running Windows 7 on a netbook" bullshit.

One slide mentions that Ubuntu Linux takes a lot of time to maintain and has hundreds of updates each month. I don't think I've ever seen more than 100 updates in a month. Many, if not most of Ubuntu's updates are easily less than 500KB and these updates are release ASAP. Windows updates are usually sent out on "Patch Tuesday" (Second Tuesday of the month [... wait, that's today. Time to run Microsoft Update.]) Additionally, updates in Linux are done within the Package Manager and can update all installed applications and libraries. Windows on the other hand, can only update Windows itself and Microsoft applications, which makes its updates smaller than those for most Linux distributions.

On the same slide, it says "It can be unclear to users whether or not software updates need to be applied immediately or are optional". I guess that means the priority categories in Ubuntu's update manager are completely useless.

I could go on, but it's pretty useless since nearly every slide, if not all, is full of BS.

Microsoft internal slideshow for retailers targets Linux

Arch Linux 2009.08 Review - Part 1 of 2

Here is part 1 of my Arch Linux 2009.08 review. First, a bit of background info on Arch Linux. Arch Linux is a rolling release that tries to keep things simple following the KISS approach. Rolling Release means that the packages are brought up to date as long as you run an update from the package manager. This means that you can install Arch once and never need to install a new version. The only difference in each new install media is a newer snapshot of the "core" repository, and some changes within the installer itself. For example, Arch Linux 2009.02 added support to format a partition with the Ext4 filesystem, while 2009.08 replaced the old framework from the installer with a newer version called AIF (Arch Installation Framework). This is in contrast with Ubuntu in that Ubuntu has a new version every 6 months and only provides updates for bug fixes within each version. Arch has what the developers call "The Arch Way" which follows the KISS approach. Now, in this case, Arch isn't "simple" as in easy to use, but in cleanliness. For example, the larger of the 2 installation media types (Core and NetInstall) is about 350MB. It only contains what is necessary to get a usable system running in a CLI (Command Line Environment) and to get a working internet connection. Any changes to the operating system are done by the user. If the user wants to have a minimal CLI environment only running the Apache Web Server, the MySQL database, and an FTP server, they can set it up to do that. If one wants to install the KDE4 desktop and use a mix of web browsers such as Konqueror, Midori, Firefox, and Opera, they can do that as well. The choice is completely up to the user.

Whoa! Something is different around here.

"The Linux Action Show" (Linux AC-shonn showw) is now called "The Computer Action Show" (COM-puter AC-shonn showw).

It's no longer just about Linux, but about general computing topics. During the current episode, Bryan and Chris talked about Jolicloud, which is an Ubuntu-based cloud OS. It's supposed to seamlessly integrate with the desktop as well as include their own social networking service. It's meant for netbooks, which is why cloud computing can make it run really FAST!

Next episode though (in 2 weeks), they're having a topic which I think many more people would be interested in. Turning a PC into a Hackintosh!

Arch Linux 2009.08

The Arch Linux 2009.08 installer is now available to download, so... that's what I'm doing now. Downloading the i686 and x86_64 versions of both the core and netinstall isos. 4 in total. I'm going to be seeding them (the webseeds will cause a bit of trouble with that because their upload bandwidth is a tad higher than 60KB/s which is what I usually seed at when I'm not throttled (which just started when my last file was at 99% downloaded). I downloaded the 2009.08-RC1 installer a few days ago and there were some nice changes to the installer since 2008.06 which was the last one that I used. I skipped out on 2009.02 . I'll provide screenshots along with my experiences of installing Arch in Virtualbox.

It has begun!

I am now lame as I now have a blog. It'll mostly be about Linux, Mac, and Windows, but I'll also probably post about how much I hate the Canadian oligopolies/monopolies/conglomerates.