J_K9 @ Linux

It’s Time To Stop Playing Catch-Up: Intel, Drivers and WiMAX

Too frequently in the past has Linux had to spend months—even years—implementing support for the latest technologies for which the manufacturers have not bothered to make Linux drivers (either due to the extra costs or merely disinterest in the platform). Linux developers had to reverse engineer each technology to find out everything about it that wasn’t disclosed by the manufacturer in the hardware’s official documentation so that they could provide support for it in an Open Source driver.

Thankfully, the substantial increase in the uptake of Open Source software such as Linux, and the more widespread recognition of its huge potential as an adaptable and expandable Operating System, has attracted commercial hardware manufacturers such as Intel to the system and to the entire Open Source movement. There has been an unadvertised revolution.

Continue reading It’s Time To Stop Playing Catch-Up: Intel, Drivers and WiMAX…

HOW TO: Setup a Web-based BitTorrent Client

How many times have you been stuck at work when the latest episode of a podcast such as LugRadio has become available for download, or the latest version of your favourite Linux distribution has been released? Wouldn’t it be really useful if you could access a server at home through your web browser and order it to download that file, so that it’s waiting for you when you get there? Or, if you like to sleep in peace with your desktop off, wouldn’t it be great if you could remotely access a BitTorrent client on the home server in your attic and tell it to run the downloads while you sleep?

The simple answer? Yes, it would: and I’m going to show you exactly how to set it up.

Continue reading HOW TO: Setup a Web-based BitTorrent Client…

Seven.Ten Degrees of Modularisation

Ubuntu Server is a popular Linux server distribution which has been gaining some good ground over the past few years, but is still behind its main commercial rivals: Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. However, one of the new, experimental (but stable) features in Ubuntu 7.10 Server Edition is set to change the course of all server Operating Systems in the near future, and that feature is Tasks.

Continue reading Seven.Ten Degrees of Modularisation…

Ubuntu 7.10—Up To Standards

As always, Ubuntu’s latest release doesn’t fail to disappoint. In fact, I’m severely taken aback by some of the background improvements which perhaps have not earned as much credit as they ought to have.

One such improvement is font rendering. Even with sub-pixel font smoothing on Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn), the font rendering still wasn’t great. Now, it’s on par with Mac OS X—yes, the font rendering really has improved that much!

There are also many other improvements in Bluetooth support, Compiz (which is now enabled by default), desktop graphics, usability and much more, but instead of repeating the same spiel I’ll just point you to some existing articles, including some about the Release Candidate (spoil-sports!).

• Lunapark6: Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Desktop Edition
• polishlinux.org » Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy
• Quick Look at Ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate | tuxmachines.org
• Ubuntu’s New Gutsy Gibbon Brings Linux Out of the Jungle

What Would You Like To Read?

I have a few interesting and exciting articles up my sleeve which I now have an entire week to write (you can hold me to this statement, by the way), but there is so much going on in the Linux world these days that it really is difficult to come up with good, enlightening, entertaining articles.

So, why not help me out—which How To or article have you not already seen on the internet which you would like me to write and which is relevant to Linux or Open Source? Go on; surprise me.

P.S. I can’t wait to try Gutsy!

Why Is Achieving Simplicity So Difficult?

Having spent the past five or so hours trying to connect my Ubuntu 7.04 laptop and Windows XP desktop to my Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles so that I can stream media from one to the other with almost no success, perhaps it is a little too easy for me to say this. I can imagine all the effort that went into coding the media centres for both consoles—that I will not dispute. But how on earth can they have made it so complex, so embedded in proprietary ways, that it just refuses to work no matter which media server I use?

I have tried just about every major UPnP media server available on the internet, from Open Source to Free Software to good old proprietary. I have tried Mediatomb, TVersity, TwonkyVision, Nero 7 MediaHome, Windows Media Player 11 and several others on all the Operating Systems they were compiled for (yes, including Mac OS X—I forgot to mention my ageing but powerful iMac G5). The only one I had some success with was Mediatomb; the others were completely useless and incompatible with the consoles.

Not only did I have problems at the server end, but the consoles were also playing up on me. My PS3 has decided that UPnP is “not available” and that my network is a “NAT Type 3″ ever since its last update, which essentially means that there’s no way in hell it’s going to find my server. Then there’s the Xbox, which struggles (and fails) to find even the media server created by its own owner, incorporated into Microsoft’s Windows Media Player 11.

I can’t help but think to myself: how pathetic is this? Are Sony and Microsoft so set in their ways that they cannot agree upon Open Standards to ensure simplicity and compatibility across a range of technologies included in their products? Is it too difficult to agree on some basic requirements for the implementation of these technologies to ensure that they do not differ too much, so that the end-user can truly have a “Plug and Play” experience?

I consider myself an advanced user and I was unsuccessful in my attempts to get this set-up working in my home network. If I was unable to do it, how can Sony and Microsoft possibly expect less experienced users to accomplish this seemingly insurmountable task?

I could go on for quite a bit ranting about how despicable this is, but then I’d just be wasting more time on these “home consoles” which Microsoft and Sony have so lovingly produced. The games and graphics are great, that I will admit—but if you’re going to add media centre functionality, make sure you do it right. Don’t give me some semi-working system which never will quite work as I’m made to believe it can (thank you, marketing departments—ever trustworthy).

Next time I want to stream videos to my TV, I’ll shove a network card into it with some software to output Ogg Theora files to the screen and I’ll transcode and stream videos to it on-the-fly from my PC. No UPnP, no proprietary formats or technologies, no unnecessary crap. Keep it simple and it will work reliably and with as little extra pain as possible.

Hey, that’s not too bad an idea… I better get working on a business plan!

And yes, I do know it’s not that simple to network-enable a TV

Open Source Project Management: Common Pitfalls

Many people have innovative ideas about projects they would like to implement but simply do not have the programming expertise to realise them. So, in order to produce the application and still guide its development, they turn to the Open Source community for help.

I am such a person. I have a lot of experience with web development, but when it comes to developing software for the desktop I am absolutely hopeless. The Open Source community, however, has many individuals—developers—who are willing to give up their free time to help a worthy cause and to build the codebase for such applications under the guidance of a project manager. This is advantageous for both parties because the project manager gets to realise his creative concept and the developers receive some fame and recognition for their work, particularly in the Open Source community. They may also be offered incentives such as a share of the donation money; a steady source of income out of gratitude for the work they have accomplished.

However, many Open Source projects fall apart before they see the light of day, mostly due to management reasons. You are receiving this directly from someone who has had an Open Source project disintegrate (by the name of HyperGet) and has had to pick up the pieces, so the common pitfalls listed below are frighteningly genuine and happen to the most motivated of project managers. They all, ultimately, result in developer dropout and thus the death or dormancy of the project.
Continue reading Open Source Project Management: Common Pitfalls…

The Big SMB Problem: Dropping Microsoft Office

Small and Medium-sized Businesses are usually quite keen to consider switching to Open Source IT solutions, and not without reason: Linux and other Open Source tools are mature—often with features that rival and exceed proprietary alternatives in terms of usage and implementation—proven to be secure, low-maintenance once set up and most important of all, free.
Continue reading The Big SMB Problem: Dropping Microsoft Office…

HyperGet 0.1 Released!

It is with great pleasure that I announce the 0.1 release of HyperGet. This is a stable release with limited functionality: it allows users to download packages to be installed on an offline Debian-based computer on an internet-enabled computer using just the Synaptic Package Manager and HyperGet.

This release is a milestone for the HyperGet Development Team, despite being the first. Since the project’s conception over one and a half years ago, HyperGet has been through much trouble - developers disappearing (resulting in the project’s hibernation for more than 10 months), questionable programming implementations and more. However, HyperGet 0.1 has finally been released and may it be one of many! Go grab your share of the pie here.

There are plans to implement features such as updating the offline system using HyperGet through collaboration with the Synaptic team in the near future, so that you can both update your system and install new software using this mechanism. For now, enjoy the ability to install new software easily on offline Debian-based Linux distributions (such as Ubuntu and MEPIS)! A video tutorial is on its way (as well as text tutorials for those on 56K), which will hopefully be followed soon after by other non-HyperGet tutorials on this blog!

Edit: The text and video tutorials, as promised: Using HyperGet

Kiba-Dock—The Interactive Dock Toolbar Redefined

Anyone who has used a Mac will be familiar with the “Dock.” The Dock is a toolbar that sits at the bottom of the screen, allowing for quick access to your favourite applications and fast switching between them. Icons in the Dock represent the different applications or links and may even change colour according to their status—the Adium X instant messaging client is an excellent example of this. A black arrow beneath an icon in the Dock signifies that that application is currently open.

But enough of this lecture—why is the Dock useful, and why would we want one on Linux? Well, first of all, you don’t have to navigate through a traditional tree-based menu to reach the application you are looking for; you can simply click on its icon in the Dock and it opens. It is also more visually appealing than other toolbars, particularly Gnome’s. As an extension to this point, not only do Docks look excellent but there is a certain Dock which takes this even further—it provides a physics engine (Akamaru), allowing you to hurl and bounce the icons around your screen, and if that’s not fun then I don’t know what is!

Continue reading Kiba-Dock—The Interactive Dock Toolbar Redefined…