23August2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
So it seems that U.S.-based Fedorites don’t get the same thing. Perhaps the devil is in the details. U.K. users should try adding live search into their search engine list in Firefox (top right) and then searching for Firefox. Here’s what I get. (Sorry it’s grey, don’t get hosting with 1and1 - you get what you pay for).
22August2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
Its all about perception. Sometimes you get the idea Microsoft might be playing a little bit nicer.
Then you try doing a search for Firefox using Live Search. The first non-sponsored link is for firefox dot org dot uk (no, I’m not even linking to it) which bizarrely has no download link for Firefox and has the tiny disclaimer that it has nothing to do with Mozilla or Google. Instead it offers the Google Pack for download.
The second link is ie7.com which at least has a large firefox icon which then links directly to the proper firefox download site.
In fact, nowhere on the list of results do you get what would be considered a “good” result. Is this just the usual Live Search naffness or is it just another case for the European Competition Commission?
8August2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
Hello Firefox users,
Notice something about this page:
Slow hand claps all round. I’m probably taking it a bit far but if I was a tabloid journalist I would type:
“NHS treats Internet Explorer users only”
Time to get my clue-stick.
Update: I have to come clean. It turns out the online booking service is “not yet in service”. I don’t agree with web design based towards browsers rather than standards however.
Lastly, I don’t see any black helicopters but the NHS must have got a BIG discount for all those Windows licenses.
8August2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
Now I’m no kernel buff but I get the idea of reducing the patch count and trying to follow upstream a little more closely. So it was with some interest I saw the following post from Mr. J. Boyer on fedora-kernel a couple of days ago
http://jwboyer.fedorapeople.org/pub/
Let the kernel installs begin.
Hopefully I didn’t fsck something up horridly. If I did, then I’ll fix
it for -rc2.
josh.
That’s right folks. Courtesy of Josh and the Fedora kernel team, you can now run the Linux kernel “sans patches”. This has benefits a-plenty but basically means that when kernel developers ask you to “run linus’s tree” or “test with mainline” - you can soon do just that with:
# yum install kernel-vanilla
Well, you’ll soon be able to hopefully. It’s not in the repo’s quite yet.
For the moment you’ll have to grab it from Josh’s fedorapeople space.
It also means you’re following upstream more closely and we all know why that is a good thing.
10July2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
My last posting about my linux-hater love sparked some good comments and mails. Though of course its a bit of hot potato so I’m not _that_ surprised. I was surprised by the amount of negativity that was generated - basically poor user experiences. In the vein of current feather-ruffling, perhaps the whole marketing aspect needs a re-think. Perhaps I should just subscribe to the fedora-marketing list.
Max Spevack declared about a year ago that he wanted to make sure that Fedora was never again accused of being a beta for Red Hat. Unfortunately I’m not sure that it will ever entirely shake off this moniker. I’ve read various blog posts regarding poor Fedora 9 install experience (mine has been nothing but exemplary) however these tend towards the “My $PROPRIETARY_APP/DRIVER failed” which I really couldn’t care less about. Fedora quite rightly sticks to its guns on not kow-towing to these vendors.
I think Fedora still has an identity crisis - one that started when Fedora Legacy closed its doors. It does what I want but what does it want to be?
8July2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
About a month ago I started reading Linux Hater. I have to admit I love it. It takes a few posts for the realisation to sink in that its actually written by someone who deeply cares about Linux, has a great deal of knowledge about the inner workings of a Linux distribution and actually wants it to succeed. He/She/They try to hide it beneath a barrage of bad language and breath-taking insults but its great to see someone voicing the anger which I’m sure some of us involved to any degree in Free Software all feel at times. A friend of mine who had a particularly awful experience with Linux recently (not Fedora thankfully, blame Lexmark) will no doubt enjoy it as much as I do. I think people who dismiss it immediately as insulting are missing the point. Linux Format magazine used to run a section (can’t remember the name) where an anonymous contributor voiced the fears and concerns that someone with a real name and face could not.
Anyway, I digress. I’ve read a lot of upgrade woes, relating to current distributions and their ability to complete and upgrade from a previous version. For anyone not understanding the process of upgrading an operating system I’ll say it once and only once.
It’s not simple, may well break and if you don’t feel confident doing it then don’t.
One reviewer even bemoaned the fact that a system once running FC5 didn’t handle the upgrade from F8 to F9 well. So here’s a clue to those who just want to use a computer and not struggle with post-upgrade installation issues.
Backup /home, /etc, & /var and do a fresh install. The time reconfiguring your O.S. will be greatly less than fixing broken dependencies, repositories, packages and other issues. You will then never need to post about how you don’t understand why a new distribution with new toolchain, kernel, package management system and desktop environment doesnt work out of the box.
19June2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
The Girl tells me I should be “Eating breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince and dinner like a Pauper.”
Lets see how Wednesday measured up.
Breakfast - cold toast, much of which scattered across keyboard whilst RDP’d into a client’s server
Lunch - Frapperlattimochachino thing, sipped whilst typing into a supplier’s “Live Chat”, trying to get remote backups to sync correctly
Dinner - Latte with side order of M&M’s, drunk and eaten at 80mph in the fast lane of the M1, heading north at 11pm.
Yeah, my body is a temple.
15June2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
No Monkey Dance … yet … but this is the closest you’ll get.
Greg Kroah Hartman gives an excellent talk on the development processes, contributors etc. to the Linux kernel. There’s some really stirring stuff in there, particularly the page referring to changes that have gone into 2.6.26 - you can’t really make out the individual items but its kind of awesome all the same.
The kernel has always held a special fascination for me and I harbour a slightly childish ambition to contribute a single patch to the Linux kernel. Given that a Google employee has contributed seven spelling fixes, maybe I might just be able to fulfill it. :)
24May2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
When videoing people for use in marketing videos, zooming in and out, moving the camera about randomly and putting people in front who talk in monotone only serves to make the viewer seasick and sleepy. Please stop it.
Exhibit number one. Bad.
Exhibit number two. A bit better.
Exhibit number three. - (OGG) Awesome.
24May2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
So of course I wanted to watch carpet tube for the 20th time after installing Fedora 9. But couldn’t. Firefox 3 beta 5 ships with Fedora 9 but the built in flash installer doesn’t work for $REASON. After futzing around with swfdec (interesting results but not _quite_ ready, qv. ath5k) I headed back to the proprietary realm. Post rpm install, video worked, just not sound. Fiddled, poked, temporarily blamed pulseaudio. Sorry Mr Poettering. Googled, hit this then installed libflashsupport. Then discovered Flash 10 is on the horizon with support for the aforementioned pulseaudio etc.
I don’t even need to browse Fedora-devel to read the latest round of:
“Why do we ship borkened Fedora, I want puppies plz k thnx”.
For a good reply of why not I direct you to Yaakov Nemoy’s take.
