The Wind(ow) s of Change

So, Microsoft has finally decided to draw a line in the sand and announce final cut - off of technical support for Windows XP, and let's be fair, they've gone far and above the call of duty on their most popular OS to date.  But, it's time to move on.  Which leaves a bit of a dilemma for a number of consumers.  Their older hardware won't run Windows 7 or Windows 8. If they are unwilling, or unable, to purchase a new machine, then they are stuck with an aging OS the won't receive any more security updates. Or are they?

Most machines can gain new life if XP is replaced with Linux.  If you have a lower end machine with 2GB of RAM and a Core Duo or Core 2 processor, then I recommend Lubuntu - the Ubuntu operating system with the LXDE desktop environment.  It's interface is reminiscent of Windows XP, will run quicker and smoother than XP ever could on such hardware, and no more worries about viruses.  If you have 4GB or more of RAM and a powerful graphics card, then I recommend Kubuntu - Ubuntu with the KDE desktop environment. It's interface is much like Windows 7.

Changing from Windows to Linux is very difficult.  You have to get used to the fact that most of your Windows programs won't work.  Try to find alternatives in the software repository.  Frequently, these programs can read and write popular Windows file formats. If there is a Windows program that simply doesn't have a satisfactory alternative, then the use of WINE is recommended.  However, since basic WINE is very difficult to use, I recommend CrossOver which makes installing Windows software on Linux a but easier for the new Linux user.

Munich Kicks Microsoft to the Curb

So, Munich, Germany got tired of the proprietary lock-in of Microsoft's products and switched to free open source software.  A rather daring move as it required consolidating the IT infrastructure and retraining their employees.  Microsoft's Steve Ball mer canceled a ski trip to go try to convince the city council not to switch, all to no avail.  Go Munich!

Linux on the Rise

Things are really developing in the Linux world these days. For one thing, the creation of Microsoft's app store to go along with Windows 8.1 has upset Valve CEO Gabe Newell to the point where he has declared the the future of gaming will be user created content experiences on Linux.  Already, the popular Steam game distribution system has been ported to Linux (primarily Ubuntu,  but other distributions can adopt the software).  New Linux capable games appear in the Steam Greenlight Project every week.

Speaking of Ubuntu, the world's most popular Linux distribution is trying to create an OS the runs not only on desktops and servers, but also high end phones and tablets. They've already created Ubuntu Touch for mobile devices. In addition, there has been a push to replace the X rendering system on Linux with something more up to date. Up to now, this has been a program called Wayland which has been in development for the past five years. Now, Ubuntu has decided to create their own software called Mir which essentially does the same thing. They've got it up and running in three months. So, my question is, what has the Wayland Team been doing for the past five years?

A long while back, I mentioned that I use a Windows machine at home to play MMORPGs.  Well, not any more.  I purchased a program called CrossOver which allows you to install and run Windows software under WINE on Linux without all the configuration fuss of pure WINE. So, I no longer use Windows on any of my machines.  I certainly haven't missed the blue screens of death or the constant malware scanning.  And pretty much everything I did on Windows I can do in Ubuntu with no trouble.

New Direction

I've been taking a more active interest in Linux development.  I think I shall start sharing this with you in the form of articles I've read and my own personal opinions about such things.

Relax, It's Just an Alternative

Ok, so I'm finding out that the more I use my Ubuntu netbook for work applications, the more useful it becomes. Recently, Monument City Computronics has been doing some ad campaigns with a ad company. We're primarily a Windows desktop outfit (we use Linux on all our servers). I'm the only one who uses a Linux desktop system, but then I'm head of IT, so my prerogative. Last week we received a notice from the ad company that the latest commercial they've done for us was ready, and they they'd like to send it to us. I gave them access to our FTP server so they could just drop it onto our network. The file I received, however, was a corrupted ZIP file. We sent back to them the the transfer didn't work, so they overnighted to us a playable DVD and USB flash drive.

Here's where things get interesting. The DVD, as it turned out, was also incomplete. It played part of the video, but cut off before the finish, leaving a black screen for the remainder. Not an auspicious sign of success here. When our communications people tried to pull the video file off of the flash drive, they got a message from Windows stating that the flash drive hadn't been formatted. At this point, they were in a bit of a panic. One of them decided to bring the drive to me. So, I plugged it into my Ubuntu netbook, and lo and behold, there was the file: a 4.5 GB Quicktime video. This explained a couple things. First, the reason why the FTP file was corrupted was because there is a 2 GB limit on file transfers into our network. I figured at the time 2 GB was reasonable. However, the video was in uncompressed HD, which made it huge. The second thing was that since the file was in Quicktime format, it meant that the ad company we hired uses only Mac computers. They created the video on a Mac and saved it in Macs proprietary format, and placed it on a drive that was formatted in Mac's local file system.

Why then, do you ask, did my Ubuntu netbook read the flash drive when Windows coulnd't? Simple. The current Mac operating system (MacOS X) is based upon BSD which is a version of Linux. Thus, my Linux machine spoke the same language, file system-wise anyway. Thus, all I had to do was copy the file onto another USB flash drive with a Windows file system on it, and boom, we're back in business.

This week, one of our board members did some testifying at a hearing in the state legislature and it was recorded and streamed for the public. The bosses wanted a copy of the vid, but the state legislature opted to use Silverlight as their streaming solution. Unlike Flash Encoder, you can't download a Silverlight stream and save it directly. Fortunately, there is a free, open source video player called VLC which has a few hidden talents. One of these talents is streaming into a file container. So, I started the stream and save the initialization file (a WMV file that does a redirect to the streaming server), then I opened that file in VLC and told it to output the stream into a file container instead of viewing it. There. Problem solved.

More and more, I'm finding that my Linux system can handle the work I need to accomplish on the job, often with solutions that are simple and don't cast the budget anything. I still use Windows, of course. At home. Where I play a lot of my favorite MMORPGs. But that is about all I use it for these days.