Showing headlines posted by Bob_Robertson

Enlightenment is one of the most beautiful of the Linux window managers that is being produced. I've used the E-Live and PCLinuxOS-Enlightenment LiveCD distributions in the past, and found them to be both quick and aesthetically pleasing. And isn't beauty something that the world needs more of? Well, it certainly doesn't hurt.

Canonical (Ubuntu's parent company) finally is putting in something that is NOT included in Debian: the Unity Desktop. I just got done with an article all about how Linux is flexible, that the same applications can be presented in ways to suit anyone's preferences with different window managers and desktop environments, so let's check out Unity.

Debian has a reputation in the world of Linux distributions as, well, "stodgy". Debian Stable is pointed to as being out of date, stale, boring. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Debian developers have put together a titanic number of software packages, and done the work to make them function together like... "...like an enormous clock."

Have you ever wondered why Linux systems seem to get hacked so much less than Windows? Here is an excellent example: Imagine for a moment someone at a Windows conference going on for an hour, with source code and subsystem examples, all the ways he could imagine hacking into Windows via the USB system.

Well, I am finally done with a week's efforts at almost successfully jumping from Lenny and a very familiar KDE3.5 environment to Sid and the Trinity Desktop.

As noted previously (see Stop the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)), this treaty was being negotiated in secret and is an attempt to extend the reach of the west’s horrible and draconian IP (patent and copyright) regimes to other countries.

New way to save? Dial back to dial-up. Cost-cutters return to slow-speed Internet. With his work hours cut and an investment portfolio in the tank, Arnold Zimmerman is considering the unthinkable: ditching his blazing-fast cable Internet service and going back to dial-up.

[With everyone tightening their belts, it seems dial-up is making a comeback. - Scott]

Linux serves as a marvelous example of market processes in action: human beings with harmonious goals helping each other reach them. It has been developed through decentralized collaboration by programmers from around the world.

Since Linux, Windows and Mac are effectively equal, why doesn't the "Free as in Beer" of Linux trump the $200 price tag of Windows like a free offer does in every other marketing situation? Because Windows Is Free. The impact of pirated software on free software, by Dave Gutteridge on August 15, 2007, is an excellent exploration of the marketing effects of pervasive software piracy.

A bill introduced by Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) that aims to restrict social networking Web sites in schools and libraries passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 410-15. The Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) would require organizations that receive funds under the federal E-Rate program to install Internet filters that would block access to sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

[This strikes me as getting dangerously close to the Big Brother syndrome. Isn't there a better way to protect children? - dcparris-

Based on an XML standard developed by Microsoft called Systems Definition Model, SML promises to lower the cost of maintaining data centers by offering a common language for servers, networking equipment, and other computing devices to share information.

[So that leaves the _existing_ ODF standard...where? Bob-]

[From the article, "The goal of SML is to establish a lingua franca for computing resources--servers, networking gear, applications and the like--to exchange operating information, such as security requirements or performance problems."
Not exactly in the same realm as ODF - dcparris

The folks at Mises.org have collected a bunch of articles, both technical and considering the economic impact, about the regulation and re-regulation of the 'Net that is presently going on.