linux Archives - Page 18 of 28 - Yet Another Linux Blog

PCLinuxOS Reloaded and Rebranded 2007

As some of you know, I own and operate mypclinuxos.com, which is a community projects website for PCLinuxOS. What some of you may not know is that PCLinuxOS held an official contest earlier last summer to select a new logo. The community voted through three rounds of elimination on this new logo, created by the winning artist nicknamed ludi.

Winning Logo

Logo after request for modification from creator of PCLinuxOS

Coming Soon, 2007…is this the final version of the logo?

Just after the project, I pitched an idea in the mypclinuxos.com forums on creating how-to’s for beautifying the desktop which received immediate support and the PCLinuxOS Beautification Project was born. Not only did this team of graphics designers, many of which operate their own web design and graphics companies, make it easy to have fantastic theme sets for the PCLinuxOS Desktop, it also makes them as easy to install as using Synaptic. After install via snyaptic, a quick change in the KDE Control Center, and you’re set!

This team really has outdone what I expected of them…I honestly didn’t think they’d grow to encompass many themes, wallpapers, Beryl Splashes, window decorations, font, icons, etc. for PCLinuxOS and the next coming version .94. But there are so many talented artists in this project that they have made PCLinuxOS fantastic polished distro. Now the solidarity of the PCLinuxOS desktop is conveyed by the overall themes of the desktop making .94 a ‘must see release’

I’m excited to be a part of the development process of PCLinuxOS through the Beautification Project and proud to be a community leader with mypclinuxos.com. So when .94 comes out, make sure you give it a try! You won’t be sorry you did as PCLinuxOS will not only look great, but work out of the box for a majority of users!

Activism and Promotion

Something that is really counterproductive in many Open Source communities are people who are so rabidly fanatical about one line of thinking that they try to pressure everyone into their line of thinking. One long standing example of this is the whole FLOSS vs. FOSS concept. Some outspoken individuals try to lash out at all people who don’t take their view on Free and Libre Open Source Software…that is, software that is Open Source, Free, and Libre (aka without proprietary parts included). It’s really sad because this shouldn’t be an issue in Open Source and Linux communities but it often is.

There are two labels that can be applied to these stances…promotion or activism. A majority of the people who love and support Open Source software are promoters. They’re the ones that always put in a plug for their distro during tech conversations or tell their co-workers excitedly why they don’t have viruses. The others are activists who lobby congress (like lobby4linux.com), sue for GPL violations, and take an active role in the proliferation of Open Source. Both of these stances and labels are needed in Open Source and to proliferate Open Source. But just like the old saying, “too much of a good thing can kill you” so can too much activism or promotion inside Open Source.

It’s my experience that there are more of the promotionists than the activists. Of course, activists are needed with Open Source as well. They’re the informed individuals that debate the GPLv2 and v3 until they’re blue in the face…they’re the ones that force GPL compliance on those not observing that license. They ARE needed. It’s the extreme fringes of both promotionists and activists that we don’t need. When someone goes over the top and over-promotes something…their promotion becomes counterproductive because of over saturation. The same is true for activism…no one wants to hear about how wrong they are for using X or not installing X.

So which group would be worse? It’s really up in the air. Over saturation means that (when people hear about Linux after a promotionist has filled their ears to the brim with how great it is) a person will more than likely ignore something with Linux or not consider it when it would be worthwhile to them. On the contrary, activists may distract new advocates and new users by focusing them not on promotion of using Open Source but rather, debating on Libre vs. Non-Libre or whatever their argument might be (as Libre vs. Non-Libre is not the only area that has activists vs. promotionists). Remember, we’re speaking of the rabidly fanatical end aka fringes of the spectrum…not generalizing here. People can be rabid on the promotion side of things too…it’s important to note that when you’re on the extreme side of either, you’re counterproductive to the proliferation of open source software.

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Mainstream Linux

I talk quite a bit about Linux going “mainstream” in this blog. The mainstream thought on Mainstream Adoption is that a “mainstream” thing is something that is familiar to the masses. According to the wikipedia, mainstream is:

Something that is ordinary or usual
Something that is familiar to the masses
Something that is available to the general public

Linux has #3 down. I’d also argue that it is becoming “the usual” in quite a few areas of business and computing…so we partially have #1…but Linux will never be ‘ordinary’ as it’s only ordinary if you use it that way. #2 is where Linux hasn’t made complete progress. It’s well on its way to doing this.

I give this definition because I want to clarify that when I say I want Linux to “go mainstream,” I’m speaking of it becoming familiar to the masses. I don’t care about businesses or money or markets or anything else when I speak about the mainstream adoption of Linux. The reason I don’t care about Linux in business or the market value or channels of Linux service providers is because even if all of these things didn’t exist…Linux would still be there on my desktop…and if Linux didn’t exist, none of those markets, channels, or businesses that base themselves on Linux would be there. They are completely reliant upon Linux; but the opposite isn’t true. Therefore, I don’t care much about directions they want to see Linux go. Nor do I care about how much money Linux is valued at or how much money it can make people. I just want to see use of Linux spread. The more people that use Linux, the better off Linux will become…if not for more people that Linux will inspire to become active in projects then for making more noise if some piece of hardware (like a printer) doesn’t work in Linux. Perhaps if there are more voices in our chorus, people and businesses alike will have a harder time not listening to the music.

Despite my earlier notions that Linux and mainstreaming are a bad combination, I’ve switched to the school of thought that Linux becoming mainstream is a logical progression of growth. Especially considering that anyone using Linux doesn’t have the right to stifle this growth…linux is what linux does with or without our opinions and stances on matters. After all, open source is OPEN…for everyone…and if we’re speaking FOSS, then it’s free for everyone too. That means we don’t have a right to keep someone from using Linux nor do we have the right to keep Linux from someone…so mainstream, here Linux comes 🙂

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Will Kanotix jump the Bandwagon?

Over the last week, one of the most respected and well thought Debian based distributions “imploded” (See Tuxmachines Article). What makes this even more sad is the fantastic impact Kanotix has on new Linux desktop users. Through use of its scripts for easy setup and installation/configuration on the desktop, Kanotix won the hearts and minds of many Linux users…and the fact that it is Debian based and can install from Debian repositories without worry made Kanotix a popular desktop distro.

I’m not extremely concerned with Kanotix dying…I think the community loves it too much to drop it on its head. That’s the beauty of Open Source…one person moves on and another slides in to take his/her place. What really concerns me is the fact that Kanotix is considering switching to Ubuntu for a base. Why would this concern me? Do I have it out for Ubuntu? Allow me to explain…

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Clarity on the Linux Desktop

There’s been some confusion as of late via emails and comments on other blogs about YALB that I would like to “dumb down” linux to try to reach the masses. I’d like to take a little time to clarify exactly what I think of the Linux Desktop and the directions it is taking.

I’ve worked in quite a few different IT jobs the past 8 years. My current job allows me to work with many diverse individuals and technology. Diverse backgrounds, diverse ethnicities, diverse cultures, and diverse experience. Whenever the main business system can’t do what the users’ want it to do, they call me. Whenever they need information from that antiquated database (runs on AIX…not current) they call me. However, since we have a small staff being a small agency, I also get to answer some helpdesk calls. The odd part is, I like answering helpdesk calls. Why? Because it tells you more about the users and allows you to help them better. It also gives you a pulse for your users…something to measure them against.

Having done this for quite some time now, I can honestly say that if we rolled out Linux desktops tomorrow to these people in my agency our productivity would be seriously inhibited (for a while…until everyone got used to things). This is despite the standard business system running via telnet to an AIX Box. It’s not because of Linux…but rather because of the people. See, Linux is ready for the average power user…someone who went to college, graduated, and now works happily in department X of your business or someone who went to high school in the last 5-10 years (depending on where you grew up of course…we didn’t even have a computer at my school and I graduated in the early nineties)…and people all agree that government should be pushing Linux first and foremost. Since my current job is for a state agency, one would figure we’d be looking into FOSS, but this isn’t the case. The average power user isn’t the majority in this goverment agency and I’m sure it isn’t in many government agencies so we continue to look to MS for all solutions because they are the defacto standard.

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What if Red Hat Bought Novell?

There’s been some discussion on various news websites and blogs about what Red Hat will do thanks to the Novell-Microsoft ‘covenant’. I discussed my take on things with my previous post on the subject. Now that I’ve had a chance to catch up on my reading on the ‘covenant’ I’ve come to another conclusion…Red Hat will do 1 of 2 things.

Nothing
Buy Novell

I read some interesting thoughts on the ‘deal’ and even some speculation that Red Hat might have to approach Microsoft to seek indemnification in a similar fashion as Novell did this past week. I think that this is reaching a bit. Red Hat already has indemnification built into their license. Red Hat is comfortable right now posting huge numbers and enjoying the success it deserves. Why it would want to bring itself to Microsoft’s doorstep is beyond me. I see Red Hat doing absolutely nothing about this…business as usual.

But what if Red Hat bought Novell? THAT would be something unexpected…and it would be a major thorn in Microsoft’s side because they’d have to honor their ‘covenant’ with SuSe Linux. Well, ok, they don’t have to honor it…but if they want to look like a good company they would.

Think about it…Sun was actually considering buying Novell not long ago…or there was speculation they were. Oracle has looked at buying Novell. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Red Hat swoop in and buy Novell?

Think about it…SuSe is the #2 player for Commercial Linux. What would Microsoft do? They wouldn’t play tiddly-winks with #2 now would they? Nope. They’d snap up that company and move forward churning profits. I think Red Hat buying Novell would be a Novel idea (pun intended).

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