I mention this because it's my "local" event, and I've reported here on previous years' events: the Ontario Linux Fest will not be held in 2010. Reading between the lines of the announcement, it sounds like there was too much work and too few workers.
I'm sorry it was cancelled; I've enjoyed the 'fest each year I've attended -- they always have good speakers and good conversation in the hallways. Here's hoping they return next year.
When I visited the Tech blog last week, for their reviews of lightweight Linux distros, I took the time to cast a vote for them in the 2010 South African Blog Awards. I'm pleased to report that they are now one of the finalists in the "Best Science and Technology Blog" category (g33q.co.za).
And I couldn't help noticing how2centos.com on that list, which is indeed a blog about the CentOS Linux distribution. That means that two of the ten finalists are blogs about free and open-source software. Not bad. Not bad at all.
(And yes, I have cast a vote for g33q.co.za in the finals. No disrespect to CentOS, but I can only vote for one.)
Here's another glaring example of What Is Wrong With Microsoft Software. A few days ago I had occasion to write a simple little C program to fix a problem for a client. All that program had to do was change one byte in an existing binary file, though as a matter of course I wrote it to accept any number of input files. I sent the source code off to the client so he could compile it for his Windows system.
He sent me back the Windows executable. And here is the directory listing of the Linux and Windows executables:
Access to this site is still erratic, thanks to continuing attacks by 'bots. Moving servers and changing software doesn't help; the attacks are directed at the domain goodbyemicrosoft.net, wherever it is located, and whatever software I run. So the obvious solution is to change the domain name.
Now, I first registered goodbyemicrosoft.net as a lark, after giving a presentation called "Goodbye, Microsoft" at a local computer conference. And I registered as ".net" because my domain registrar at that time was offering a terrific price for new .net registrations ($2.99/year). Since this site is purely a hobby, I was minded to pinch pennies.
But now I've invested some time in it, so I don't want to just shut it down. Hence the search for a new domain name. goodbyemicrosoft.com was taken, so I registered goodbyemicrosoft.org. (Not yet active...give me a few weeks.)
Then I began to wonder...was goodbyemicrosoft.com a kindred spirit? Visiting that web address just returns a Bing search page, so I figured the domain had been registered and parked. So I decided to try a whois search, where I found the owner is:
Domain Administrator Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond WA 98052 US
What's funny is that they've parked the domain name on a Bing search, where the second result listed is this site. (The first search result is goodbye-microsoft.com, which will install Linux on your Windows PC.)
I don't have access to the full whois history, but it looks like they registered the .com after I registered the .net. Did they notice this site and decide to grab the .com? Or was this just part of a routine grab of all "critical" domain names?
Hey, Redmond...make me an offer for the old .net domain name. No extra charge for the 'bots.
The U.K. government is asking its employees to suggest ideas to save money. A few people suggested an obvious and easy savings:
The 8th item on the newly published list suggests that the whole of government, including the NHS and the Education services, migrate from Microsoft products, such as Windows and Office, to Linux and other open source software, specifically mentioning the OpenOffice.org office suite.
From just a quick web search, I couldn't find how many computers the U.K. government owns, or how much they're paying per seat for software licenses. But I did find a report last year from the BBC that said "According to some in the open source industry, the shift from proprietary standards could save the government £600m a year."
That's getting close to a billion dollars in savings. For a country (or a province, or a state) desperate to make ends meet, not something to reject lightly.
I gather this has been known for a few weeks, but I just learned that Google is halting the use of Windows for its internal desktop PCs, citing security as the reason. (Google has long used Linux on its servers.) We all reach this point sooner or later:
After Chinese security crackers infamously cracked Google security via Microsoft Windows security vulnerabilities, a number of interesting things have happened...
...Google has apparently implemented a new internal security policy change that seems like it might be related: Microsoft Windows is being phased out within the company. Microsoft chooses to paint the policy change in the colors of what amounts to a publicity stunt, but Google is not the first business to renounce all things Microsoft, and there are definite indicators that the time has come for Google to cease relying on Microsoft for any of its mission critical information technology deployments.
In my case it was the frequent crashes of my Windows desktop, rather than a security breach, that led me to dump Windows. But several times a year -- when I read a news story about a pernicious attack, or have to clean up someone else's Windows PC -- I give thanks that I switched to Linux eight years ago.
I first heard this news story while I was traveling last week. Thanks to our friend Charles, I also found it in my email when I returned home. But last night, during dinner with some friends, I discovered that those friends were using their Windows PC to manage their bank accounts...so I realized the story hasn't been repeated enough:
David Green normally only accessed his company's online bank account from his trusty Mac laptop. Then one day this April while he was home sick, Green found himself needing to authorize a transfer of money out of his firm's account. Trouble was, he'd left his Mac at work. So he decided to log in to the company's bank account using his wife's Windows PC.
Unfortunately for Green, that PC was the same computer his kids used to browse the Web, chat, and play games online. It was also the same computer that organized thieves had already compromised with a password-stealing Trojan horse program.
A few days later, the crooks used those same credentials to steal nearly $100,000 from the company's online accounts, sending the money in sub-$10,000 and sub-$5,000 chunks to 14 individuals across the United States.
As I said to our friends, "I'm paranoid...but I'm not paranoid enough." I never use a Windows PC to read email, or access our web server, or (especially) do anything financial. My desktop PC, my wife's desktop, and our "travel" netbook all run Linux. I don't save critical passwords in my PC's browser -- it might be stolen -- and I don't save any passwords in the netbook. I even use a separate browser for some tasks. And I never click on links in email.
And yet, I'm not paranoid enough. The experts suggest you at least use a dedicated computer to do your online banking; some suggest you go one step further and run a Live CD for banking. The advantage of a Live CD is that it can't get infected, and you always boot up into a clean system. Another advantage, if you're still using Windows, is that you can boot a Linux CD on your Windows PC.
Don't believe, as our friends did, that you're safe if you have the latest security software on your PC. As my mom learned the hard way, even if you run well-known anti-virus and anti-malware software, and are diligent about keeping it updated, your Windows PC can still get infected.
...Associated is an article on computer security software: McAffee, Norton, etc., and rating them. The article actually mentions two free programs and gives them high ratings, the only CR Best Buy ratings in the lot: Avira Personal 9 and Microsoft Security Essentials. However, CR neglected to report that the second requires Genuine Windows, formerly Genuine Windows Advantage, definitely a strike against it.
But I wonder.... For one thing, I missed the magic word in the articles: Linux. Linux is a much more secure operating system than Windows. If you are getting ready to replace a computer, you can often extend its life by putting Linux on it: Linux is usually much less resource intensive than Windows.
...By neglecting to mention the magic word, CR once again flubbed its remit to help consumers protect themselves by offering all the alternatives.
I agree. My folks get Consumer Reports, and the magazine is quite good about finding tech-savvy people to evaluate tech products, and then to distill that knowledge down to advice non-tech people can use to make buying decisions. (As in their reviews of antivirus software.) But not to even mention the Linux option is an implicit endorsement of one of most monopolistic, most consumer-abusive megacorporations on the planet. Would they print their annual automobile issue with only reviews of GM cars?
It seems to me that Consumer Reports would be just the outfit to do a comparative review of the top dozen Linux distros, from the standpoint of an everyday (non-techie) computer user. But probably this is too much of a "niche" market for them. Or could it be that they don't know how to critique products that are given away for free?
Occasionally I find unsuspected fringe benefits to being a Linux user. I just had this telephone conversation:
"Hello?" "Hello sir, I am with garble-garble-garble and we provide maintenance support for computers with the Windows operating system like Windows XP and Vista. You have a computer with Windows operating system, right?" "No, we don't." "Oh." *click*
I need to apologize to Keith Curtis. Three weeks ago he sent me a link to his book, After the Software Wars, which he thought I might find interesting...and I still haven't found time to read it.
"The key to faster technological progress is making software free," he writes. "The difference between free, and non-free or proprietary software, is similar to the divide between science and alchemy. Before science, there was alchemy, where people guarded their ideas because they wanted to corner the market on the mechanisms used to convert lead into gold."
I really am interested to read the opinions of a man who has become a convert to open source, after 11 years with Microsoft. But I'm a trifle busy right now. If you read the book and would be inclined to write a short review, do let me know.
Update, 30 Apr: It appears that the book is no longer available as a free PDF download.
applications: The software that lets you do things with your computer (word processor, Internet browser, email, etc.). The programs you see and use.
distribution: Also called "distro." An operating system (usu. Linux) combined with a selection of application programs, in a ready-to-install form. Different distributions are customized for different purposes, e.g., desktop computing, music editing, Internet server, and so on.
FOSS: "Free / Open Source Software," a catch-all term. Sometimes F/OSS or FLOSS.
free software: Refers to free as in freedom, not free as in free beer. Specifically, the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the software.
howto: A short tutorial telling "how to" perform some task. See, for instance, the Linux HowTos.
Linux: Strictly, GNU/Linux. A free operating system, modeled on Unix, developed since 1991 by volunteers around the world.
open source: Refers to software whose source code can be examined, modified, and redistributed. Similar to but not exactly the same as "free software."
operating system: The software that manages your computer's hardware (disk drives, display, network connection, etc.). The stuff "under the hood" that makes your computer work.
repository: An on-line library of application programs for a particular distribution, in a ready-to-download-and-install format. In many distributions, programs can be installed from the repository with just a few mouse clicks.
Unix: A computer operating system originally released by Bell Labs in 1970. It is still widely used in several commercial variants, and in the open-source BSD Unix.
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