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Indy 500 and Linux Not Newsworthy?

There’s a HUGE piece of news out there for Linux as an operating system…and I have only seen it published on Lxer.com, Linuxtoday.com and Digg.com. LINUX IS GOING TO THE INDIANAPOLIS 500!! This is HUGE for ALL Linux distributions…not just one. This is something that can show all those people out there what the Linux community is all about…collaboration, community, camaraderie, and drive….drive that can’t be found in commercial ventures. But where, oh where, is the community reporting this news? The interesting thing is, they aren’t…and It’s very odd as to why they aren’t reporting this and rallying around it.

Perhaps they’ve just missed it…and in that case I hope they pick up on it soon. Perhaps they don’t know much about it? In that case they need to head over to Tux500.com and read all about it. Don’t know what the Indy 500 is about? Once again, Tux500.com explains it for you.

For those of you who don’t know what this is about and who haven’t clicked on those Tuxme500.com links above…allow me to explain a bit. I encourage you to head over to that website after reading through this post.

My friend helios who authors “Blog of helios” and is admin over at lobby4linux.com has unveiled a huge project of getting Linux to sponsor an Indianapolis 500 racecar in this years Indy 500. Of course, Ken isn’t working alone…the website tux500.com has been launched to track donations and become a center of operations for the initiative. The goal is $350,000 for full sponsorship of the Indy Car.

Crazy? Maybe. Innovative? Yep. Attainable? With help, it could be. Without Linux news websites and enthusiasts getting the word out though it will fall flat on its face.

I mention this because this isn’t a local thing…it’s not just being displayed in a few places that post Linux news…this is being displayed on a larger scale. It’s also got an entire marketing team behind it. This is a first for Linux…generic Linux. This isn’t about a distribution. This isn’t about a flavor you like to run on X laptop or Y Desktop. This is about LINUX. odorless (hopefully), colorless, neutral Linux. All communities should see the benefit of this.

As I mentioned, this isn’t local. Speedtv (yes…the US cable channel) has picked up on this marketing drive and has published an article on their website. The Auto Channel has also picked up on it. Motorsport.com has jumped into the fray. UPDATE: Indy500.com has now published an article about Linux and it’s sponsorship as well. As of the publishing of this article though…I’ve only seen this huge news hit 2 major Linux website. This is exposure that Linux hasn’t ever had. To be associated one of the largest Sporting events in the world (from Wikipedia “having the largest attendance and one of the largest radio and television audiences of any single-day sporting event worldwide).

Worldwide. Largest audiences and attendance. Is anyone listening to what this could mean for Linux? Is this microphone on?

I’m flabbergasted as to why more Linux news sites haven’t picked this up. I’m floored as to why no one is lobbying Red Hat, Ubuntu, Novell, IBM, Mandriva, Xandros, Linspire, and other Linux companies to donate what they can. Those companies could secure a logo for 25k on the side of the car. They could donate 50k and put 25k toward this initiative AND get their logo spread on the car. What will they do? Do they believe in Linux as much as the community they are a part of does? This is huge…it can’t get any bigger and it seems we’re sitting on our hands here.

The goal is $350,000…which is a large sum of money. However, from the Tux500.com’s FAQ page, $25,000 can garner a Linux sponsorship…which is also good exposure. So at the very least, we can get Linux into the limelight as a sponsor.

Now I know some of you may be saying “How do I know that my donation is getting spent on this and not to grab someone a Ferrari?” and you’d be right in asking that question. I’d like to put this to rest right now. The paypal account used to house donations has third party access from two well respected Linux journalists/editors…Don Parris of Lxer.com and Brian Proffitt of Linuxtoday.com. They will be operating as auditors for the fundraising of this endeavor and will see all funds in and out of the account. Mr. Proffitt has also “agreed to verify any public statements made about the current fund amount when asked”.

Lobby4Linux.com also announced that donations were being tracked by distribution. This means that when you donate, you input your favorite distro that you’re donating on behalf of. The demographics of these donations will be released after fundraising is over. So, for those of you who want go get some exposure for your distribution…there is a way for you to do so.

Not only that, but graphics designers have a chance to design the logo that is going onto the car…this could be huge for whoever that may be. It could launch a career of a little known designer. So if you’ve got elite graphics skills, get to designing! The deadline is April 30, 2007.

To all of the Linux news websites out there…I challenge you to report Linux news and let the community know about it. To all bloggers out there, this is a chance to help push Linux into areas it’s never been and onto TV sets of 5.5 million Americans and even more people worldwide. Help Bob Moore and Ken aka helios, the two catalysts and organizers of this huge push for Linux, attain that goal and get Linux onto that car! It can be done…but it needs your help to do so.

Reference Websites:

http://blog.lobby4linux.com
http://lobby4linux.com
http://tux500.com
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/85530/index.html

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!

Inside MyPCLinuxOS

I’ve been extremely busy during the last month supporting and starting projects for PCLinuxOS. For those of you who may not know, I am the webmaster for http://mypclinuxos.com. What I desired when creating the site was a place that the community could come to help make PCLinuxOS better. Not that it wasn’t good on its own…it does just fine. Just that I wanted the community to feel more a part of development and to have them take pride in the distro.

I’m really impressed with the way the community has responded, not only to the creation of mypclinuxos, but also to the organization of the site. I’ve tried very hard to provide any open source tool available for web based project development for everyone that I could provide in a shared host environment. Heck, I’d even configure tomcat on my home Linux box and put it out there if they needed it. Why do I do this? Why do I do this for free? How do I do this for free?

Well, let’s get into it shall we? Inside the start of MyPCLinuxOS…

I started Yet Another Linux Blog a few years back to chronicle my search for the perfect desktop distribution and to house many tips and tricks that I had in my arsenal and also that I had run across on the web. I found PCLinuxOS after my wife determined that it was the best Linux desktop available last year while participating in my Linux experiment. It completely replaced the SimplyMEPIS install I had on every computer in my home and it also replaced the disks I hand out to friends.

I laid low in the PCLinuxOS community, checking out the pulse by forum lurking. I hung out in IRC using an alias that no one could trace to TKS (the nick I used at the time) nor my current nick of devnet. I tried to really grasp what community I had got myself into. After I determined that the community was fantastic…I was ready to give back.

See, I started a fan site for SimplyMEPIS and had my efforts dashed by various sources. I had been an active member of the MEPIS community in the early days of the distro and it was amazing how fast those I considered my ‘community family’ turned on me when my opinion differed from theirs. So when I decided to support PCLinuxOS, I was VERY careful about what I was getting myself into. I couldn’t be happier with where I am at and where the distro is at today. I see the popularity for this distro going through the roof and I’m in for the ride. So it’s very nice to be a part of something like PCLinuxOS and to have gotten in on the ground level as a contributor.

One of the areas that I see PCLinuxOS hurting the most is in the internationalization arena. I truly believe that if we made PCLinuxOS available for install in as many languages as Ubuntu or OpenSuSe does, we’d be right up there with them in popularity and userbase. As it is now, PCLinuxOS is released in English only. MyPCLinuxOS has many people forming teams right now to change that. If you’d like to see PCLinuxOS in different languages both for the installer and LiveCD, head over to MyPCLinuxOS and join up with our team to help us do so. That’s it for now. I’ll have more updates about MyPCLinuxOS and what’s going on there in the future.

PCLinuxOS Magazine Releases Initial Issue!

Normally, I don’t like to rehash the news. However, in this case, I’m a member of the contributors and the admin/webmaster of both development sites for the magazine…I feel a bit inclined to let everyone know about it 😀

“It is my privilege to announce on behalf of the team members of the PCLinuxOS Magazine Project sponsored by MyPCLinuxOS.com, the September 2006 introductory issue is available for download! We’ve put a lot of
effort into producing a quality magazine made for the community, by the community.

Contained inside are many articles written for the
PCLinuxOS community and a few for those interested but not yet using
it. Some highlights include:

An interview with Susan Linton of Tuxmachines.org
An RPM Tutorial for beginning users
Hunting rootkits with Rootkithunter on PCLinuxOS
Much, Much more!

Please note that the magazine is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 license unless otherwise stated on the articles themselves. By
downloading this magazine you must acknowledge and accept this license agreement.

We’ve released the magazine in two versions in pdf format. We designed the magazine for viewing in KPDF but other viewers will work as well. The two formats of the magazine are Viewer Default (VD) and Presentation Mode (PM). Viewer default will display the magazine in the default mode your reader is setup with and Presentation
Mode starts in full screen.

PCLinuxOS Editor-In-Chief, Archie, has further explanation of the downloads:

“The following files are best viewed in KPDF. Other readers, such as Adobe Reader, Ghostview, XPDF can also be used. The following instruction is based on using KPDF.

PCLinuxOS_Mag_200609_PM.pdf is initially in presentation. Moving pages forward is as easy as clicking the left mouse button. To go back a page, the user just right-click the mouse button. And exiting the Presentation Mode is not harder than pressing the ESC key.

A user can also hover the mouse cursor on the top of the screen and there will appear some navigation buttons. On the top left-hand side are the blue forward and back buttons; on the right-hand side is the exit button.”

Head over to the downloads section to download the latest issue of the magazine. Thanks for your interest in PCLinuxOS! If you feel you’d like to contribute to future issues, please check out the contribute link in the main menu. You can also drop us a line via the contact link in the main menu. If you have any suggestions, comments, or letters to the editor feel free to submit them this way or send an email to mag@mypclinuxos.com. Thanks and enjoy!

PCLinuxOS Magazine Download

Digg this Announcement!

Bringing Linux to Work – Portal Part 3

Ubuntu just doesn’t want to be chosen for me. I’ve had nothing but problems with it since I started going on it. I decided that it would be easier to use Ubuntu (1 disk install, apt-get abilities) to house the in house Intranet portal page here where I work. However, I didn’t count on Ubuntu having so many problems.

The first of many problems was mod_ntlm. This Apache module WILL NOT compile on my server. I emailed someone who actually got this to compile in Ubuntu and asked for how they got it to work, implemented their changes in the .c file, yet still couldn’t get it to compile. This reason alone is enough for me to not use it. But there are more reasons still that Ubuntu doesn’t do it for me.

The second reason is going cold. What I mean by going cold is that it almost froze up. For example, it would take over an hour to run apt-get update, about the same to run apt-get upgrade (depending on downloads) and even 20 minutes to do a standard ls -al | grep keyword command. After a reboot everything was fine. This led me to believe that some sort of power saving module was kicking in. So I removed all power saving modules, recompiled a kernel from scratch, turned off all BIOS power saving items, crossed my fingers and rebooted. Even with all of these actions, Ubuntu still went cold after a day of uptime. This is on an IBM NetVista P4 with 1 GB RAM. Ubuntu however will not be staying on any PC at my job due to the previous problems experienced.

I’ve got an exact match of this machine to provide backup for it so I’ve simulataneously been using CentOS to experiment around with it. There’s a reason that Red Hat is the leader in the server arena…because they get it done and provide a fantastically stable Linux environment. CentOS is repackaged Red Hat Enterprise Linux and it is fantastic. So from this point on, Ubuntu will not be actively developed on by myself…I’ll be using CentOS from this point on. Which leads me to the decisions I’ve been trying to come to.

I’ve been trying to find a good portal CMS that can house documents and provide news announcements for my department. No chat is needed…no forums…just a repository for docs. With all of this being said, I need to provide a flexible solution to house these documents as well because who knows what the director will come back and say. Perhaps tomorrow he’ll change his mind and want to have all documentation developed and worked on in Sharepoint and all reports to go on our intranet page. So I need flexibility if I’m going to get a CMS running on Linux and I need it to be stable so I can show tangible results to upper managment. Otherwise, they’ll continue to go with what has been working for them…and that is Windows.

Continue reading “Bringing Linux to Work – Portal Part 3”

Distributed Bugs-R-Us

I have a decent idea for an open source application. This could be one of the most important pieces of software to assist open source in a long time. I don’t have ideas often for software apps but when I do, normally they’re good ones.However, I don’t have the expertise to program this either. The only thing I have is an idea for bugtracker software…and it operates on the distributed journalism model of digg.

The idea was inspired by the article “10,000 bugs away from World Domination“, specifically these few words:

“My diagnosis is that the problem with Linux is that it doesn’t have anyone pushing to get the newbie bugs fixed first. At Microsoft, we had Program Managers and one of their responsibilities was to be customer advocates to prioritize the bugs for the devs to fix. In many open source groups, it sometimes appears that bugs get fixed when the dev decides to work on it, not because an important user scenario is broken. The Wi-Fi tool was broken in Gnome for any months, but the bugs just sat there languishing in the database. Microsoft or Apple would not have shipped a Wi-Fi UI that was completely broken in that way.”

The author is 100% correct. And since open source communities don’t have program managers that can focus the time needed to prioritize bug fixes, we can make the community become that program manager. Read on for specifics on how to do this.

Continue reading “Distributed Bugs-R-Us”