I NEVER thought I would one day be running software from Oracle on my personal computer. Until recently, the database giant just made products aimed at large corporate customers, not individual PC users. In fact, Oracle’s chief executive, Larry Ellison, had once made a big to-do about how personal computers would one day be replaced by glorified terminals that would get their applications from huge servers connected over a network. So I was a little amused to see the Oracle logo pop up when I ran the latest updates of two programs that I use quite a bit, OpenOffice.org and VirtualBox, on my Linux-based PC at home.
THE baloney detector on my computer went crazy this week when a reader wrote: “When it comes down to it, I still have to go to Windows to get work done because so many apps are just either not available under Linux or the choices and maturity of the apps are far, far inferior.” The comment left me puzzled. What kind of “work” did this guy do that he just had to run Windows? To put this nonsense to rest, I compiled a list of common applications that you might need at work and specific Linux programs that will do the job. And none of the programs I mention here are by any stretch of the imagination “far, far inferior” to their Windows counterparts. In fact, a number of them are not only open source and free, but are cross-platform to boot.
Is Linux more secure than Windows? The quick and easy answer is yes. Most viruses and malicious software today are written to target Windows systems and will not affect Linux or Mac computers. If you’re going to work – and play – in a Windows world, you better get protection.
FOR Linux users, running a new Windows 7 PC feels a bit like getting all dressed up with nowhere to go. The operating system itself is attractive, but there aren’t that many built-in applications to get you started. A recent upgrade of our office computers gave me the opportunity to compile a checklist of things to do to get a new Windows 7 PC ready for prime time.
IT’S been more than three years since the Linux Revolution blog declared that we need better presentation software. The call to action for open-source developers at the time certainly seemed timely. In 2006, if you had to create a business presentation on a Linux system, you didn’t have much choice but to use Impress, which came with the free and open-source OpenOffice.org productivity suite.
OPEN source industry veteran Matt Asay joined Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, as its chief operating officer last month. In his new post, Asay is responsible for aligning the company’s day-to-day operations with strategic goals and leading the company’s marketing effort. After barely a month on the job, Asay answered some e-mailed questions about what we might expect from Ubuntu and Linux in general.
MAKE desktop Linux more attractive than Mac OS X. That was the challenge that Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth issued to open source developers in July 2008. Now, almost two years later, Shuttleworth seems ready to put his money where his mouth is with the coming release of Lucid Lynx, the first Ubuntu to break out of its dark brown motif and orange “Human” theme since the distribution was introduced in 2004.
FOR years, American companies have been beating developing countries over the head for copyright violations, egging the US government to threaten trade sanctions against those who do not toe the intellectual property line. Now the same US companies are trying to bludgeon countries such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam into abandoning policies that favor open source software for use in their own public agencies.
ONE of the cool things about Google is its informal motto, “Don’t be evil.” When Google was still an upstart, the motto was a jab at its more established competitors, who were seen to be exploiting their users, said Paul Buchheit, a former employee who suggested “Don’t be evil” in a 2000 meeting on company values. Microsoft, which used its dominance in operating systems to stifle competition, surely comes to mind. But now a decade later, Google is a dominant force on the Internet. Is it beginning to look like the new Microsoft?
2010 is going to be a good year for Linux on the desktop. No, tens of millions of Windows users aren’t going to see the light and suddenly switch. Inertia and resistance to change make a massive migration highly unlikely. At the same time, Microsoft has managed to stem the erosion from its Vista-fueled disaster, first by extending the commercial life of Windows XP on netbooks, then by releasing Windows 7. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Linux will continue to make steady gains on the desktop next year, even though most estimates still put its market share at about only 2 percent.
ONE of things that might disconcert Windows users after they’ve switched to Ubuntu Linux is the frequency with which the operating system is updated. There was a five-year wait between Windows XP and Windows Vista, and another two years until Windows 7 was released to fix all that was wrong with Vista. In contrast, Ubuntu, one of the most popular flavors of Linux, has pretty much followed a six-month release cycle since it was first introduced in 2004. This means that every April and October (except in 2006 when Dapper Drake was released in June instead), a new version becomes available. It’s only been a month since I installed the latest version, Karmic Koala, on my home PC and already, an early test version of the next release, Lucid Lynx, is available. The final version of Lucid isn’t due until April 2010 – but that’s not really too far away.
A colleague recently tweeted that he was dumping Mozilla Firefox for Google Chrome. Half in jest, I said, “You’ll be back.” My prediction wasn’t based on any fierce brand loyalty. I too have gone through periods when I stopped using Firefox in favor of Opera, usually because of some annoying bug. After Google finally released a decent Linux version of its much-hyped browser, I dabbled with Chrome, too. Eventually, however, I would always return to Firefox as my browser of choice because a new version would fix the bug and throw in new features that were compelling.
Digital Life is a blog that features a technology column by the same name that appears every Tuesday in Manila Standard Today, a national daily from the Philippines. This blog gives readers easy access to the column, which started in November 2002. Copyright 2009 Chin Wong.
THE baloney detector on my computer went crazy this week when a reader wrote: “When it comes down to it, I still have to go to Windows to get work done because so many apps are just either not available under Linux or the choices and maturity of the apps are far, far inferior.” The comment left me puzzled. What kind of “work” did this guy do that he just had to run Windows? To put this nonsense to rest, I compiled a list of common applications that you might need at work and specific Linux programs that will do the job. And none of the programs I mention here are by any stretch of the imagination “far, far inferior” to their Windows counterparts. In fact, a number of them are not only open source and free, but are cross-platform to boot.
Is Linux more secure than Windows? The quick and easy answer is yes. Most viruses and malicious software today are written to target Windows systems and will not affect Linux or Mac computers. If you’re going to work – and play – in a Windows world, you better get protection.
FOR Linux users, running a new Windows 7 PC feels a bit like getting all dressed up with nowhere to go. The operating system itself is attractive, but there aren’t that many built-in applications to get you started. A recent upgrade of our office computers gave me the opportunity to compile a checklist of things to do to get a new Windows 7 PC ready for prime time.
2010 is going to be a good year for Linux on the desktop. No, tens of millions of Windows users aren’t going to see the light and suddenly switch. Inertia and resistance to change make a massive migration highly unlikely. At the same time, Microsoft has managed to stem the erosion from its Vista-fueled disaster, first by extending the commercial life of Windows XP on netbooks, then by releasing Windows 7. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Linux will continue to make steady gains on the desktop next year, even though most estimates still put its market share at about only 2 percent.
