Storming the Microsoft Edifice

October 17, 2004 1 Comment

An interesting article by Sam Hiser that touches on the fact that apps such as Firefox and OpenOffice.org can really help Open Source, even when run on Windows. By not allowing web protocols and file formats to be dictated, you really are helping yourself and your company. But this isn't why many people are migrating. In fact, some of the people migrating probably don't know what a web protocol is. They do know that Firefox is a more secure browser that just plain works better though. They get what they want, and Open Source takes a small but important step.
–jeremy

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iPod and Linux

October 16, 2004 3 Comments

All I have to say is – that was way too difficult. I got an iPod as a birthday gift (Thanks!) and of course wanted to use it in Linux. Easy, right? Nope! When I plugged the iPod into my home machine it recognized the iPod straight-away, but would not access it. Same thing on my laptop (both those machines are FC2). I didn't even bother trying on my work machine as it's a super old version of debian that doesn't have working USB or firewire (the price you pay for > 600 days of uptime I guess). After a while of searching I found the answer. You'll never guess where. That's right – LQ – in this post. The problem is that the iPod reports that it has a few more sectors than it actually does. Along with that, if it gets a request for an invalid sector, it will stop responding to requests until it's disconnected and reconnected. This usually wouldn't be a problem, but the Fedora kernel has support for a new partition type: EFI. When you connect the iPod, Linux probes it for partition type. While most partition tables exist at the beginning of the disk, EFI happens to exist at the end. BUT, the end is in the aforementioned illegal non-existent space, so every time you plug the iPod in it stops responding. If you are having this problem, simply unset CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION and recompile the kernel. I'll provide a binary if people are interested. Was quite a pain, but I'm happy to report that as I type this I am listening to songs I put on the iPod in Linux, using GTKpod. Sadly, this isn't the first time the Fedora kernel has bit me, and am considering giving Suse 9.2 a shot when it comes out.
–jeremy

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Paris City Hall Balks at Linux Switch

October 13, 2004 Leave a comment

…or do they? Odd that an article with this title would have a first sentence of “Local government offices in the French capital will not abandon Microsoft software overnight but instead gradually phase in more open-source programs”. From my POV, a gradual but steady phase in is still a win. I'd guess they want to see how the Munich rollout pans out (in fact, they even used the same consulting firm to gather info).
–jeremy

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Interview

October 12, 2004 2 Comments

If you don't get enough of me on this blog, an interview done by Tom Adelstein has just been posted to LXer.
–jeremy

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Novell is now Participating at LinuxQuestions.org

October 11, 2004 Leave a comment

After quite a bit of back and forth I'm happy to be able to post that Novell will be participating in a Suse Forum at LQ. I spoke with quite a few people over a fairly long time span, but Marissa and Sam were finally able to help me make it all come together. 5 out of the top 6 distros (using Distrowatch) now participate at LQ.
–jeremy

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LWE UK 04 Pics

October 9, 2004 Leave a comment

I only ended up taking 3 pics of the LWE UK LQ booth, but here they are.
Cheers,
–jeremy

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Returned from LWE UK

October 9, 2004 Leave a comment

I am back from LWE UK and just recovering from jetlag. The expo was great and we had the highest mod turnout yet! Fantastic that so many were able to attend. Even better, is that it's looking like Boston may have even more. Add to that the fact that Chris had a brilliant idea for the Boston booth that I think will make it our best effort to date. Was great to be able finally meet more mods and many old and new LQ members ended up stopping by. About the only downside to London seems to be the fact that the whole area I was in shutdown at 11PM sharp. Since this was the equivalent to 6PM for me, it was a bit rough. We did find things to do in the end though, so all was well. I'll be catching up on everything over the next couple of days, so if you've sent me something and I haven't responded yet – I'm getting there. Cheers.
–jeremy

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Headed to the UK

October 1, 2004 Leave a comment

In less then 24 hours I'll be on a plane to the UK. If you're in or around London, don't forget to stop into LinuxWorld UK and say hello!
–jeremy

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Red Hat to Acquire Netscape Enterprise Solutions

September 30, 2004 Leave a comment

Looks like Red Hat just spent some of that $1B in cash/securities they are sitting on (they did after all say it was partly for acquisitions). With this deal they get the Netscape Directory and Certificate servers. The Netscape DirectoryServer is very similar to the Sun DS as they are both iPlanet forks. I'd guess this is as much of a result of having to compete with Novell and NDS as it is Microsoft/AD and Sun/SunOne. Single signon is something Linux sorely needs (the only real alternative now is cobbling something together with OpenLDAP and PAM – Enterprises don't want to do this). It looks like Novell has turned the Linux marketplace into one that requires what is now referred to as a “stack” to compete.
–jeremy

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Another Unfounded GPL-related Lawsuit?

September 29, 2004 Leave a comment

It looks like the most recent GPL-related copyright infringement and code theft claims, this time Furthermore Inc. vs Mambo, are baseless. This seems to be a trend that, unfortunately, is on the rise. Let's hope this one doesn't make it as far as the SCOX case has made it. Does make me wonder when a legitimate case like this will arise though.
–jeremy

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