Posts tagged Ubuntu

Ubuntu Servers A Security Threat!

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4 years ago
by frankps in

This must be the joke of the day:

 ”Maker of the Open Sauce Ubuntu software, Canonical had to shut down five of the eight of its servers after receiving reports that they were attacking other servers.

Knowing that there is nothing worse than a bunch of chavish Linux servers looking for a rumble, or goading Windows computers with calls of, ‘Come and have a go, if you’re hard enough,’ Canonical decided to pull the plug…”

Do you trust a software company that doesn’t take security seriously? Luckily I don’t run Ubuntu servers!

Read the fully story over at the INQUIRER.

Feisty Fawn Herd 4 released

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4 years ago
by frankps in

If you want to run an alternative OS on a x86 computer, then the coming Ubuntu release should be your OS of choice. It is so popular that some of the servers couldn’t handle the load when the latest development version got released. It is one of the few Linux distros released on a single CD. And by far the most popular Linux distro. The choice of software to be included is generally good, just a few changes that I am doing after having it installed, Thunderbird replaces Evolution and Banshee Rhytmbox. This last dev release is reported to have better support for Firefox and Thunderbird, so lucky me!

The big news in the new dev release are:

  1. Migration-Assistant
  2. Easy Codec Installation
  3. VMI enabled kernel for paravirtualization with VMWARE v6.0

And of course lots of other news as well. Enjoy the testing and remember it’s free, no update costs and support service that tells you to send your CD back if you want an update! My take, it doesn’t get more customer friendly. You only pay for the support, if you ever need that and don’t find your answer in the amazing active Ubuntu Forum. Thousands of users are visiting it daily.

I am an Ubuntu user

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5 years ago
by frankps in , ,

The Thinkpad T60 works perfectly with Ubuntu, and I have also installed the ATI’s linux driver for the X1300. I now have 3D hardware accelleration, and it made me migrate completly away from ZETA. But as we will be migrating many of our scientific staff at work to Vista and Office 2007, my main OS is and will be Vista.

I am running Ubuntu Edy Eft, but during the weekend tested Feisty Fawn beta 2. I decided to downgrade again for now, as I didn’t manage to get the ATI binaries working. But I am looking so forward to the day where I can use the upcoming version of Gnome with the new Preferences, Gossip with the Telepathy integration, and Avahi.

I will continue writing for IsComputerOn about Haiku and application development.

UBUNTU is really different

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5 years ago
by frankps in , , ,

Yesterday the Ubuntu development team released their first public beta of an Ubuntu Installer for Windows! You are really capable of thinking differently, and this will be one of the real “killer apps” out there. It has never been simpler for people that want to test or run Linux, to get it downloaded and installed. You impress me!

Be aware of this being a beta. If you want to test it, make sure to backup all your data first!

Yesterday I also read an interview with Mark Shuttleworth at Red Herring, where he claims that Ubuntu has about 8 million users. This surely doesn’t fit well in to the numbers I wrote in “How the OS market changed in 2006“. But then again, it fits better with this:

In a speech in December 2004, Steve Ballmer put the number of Microsoft users at 600 millions. In that same year, the Gartner Group estimates the number of PC users at around 661 millions (according to an CNet article in August 2004), growing to 953 millions by the end of 2008, and a billion in 2009. So that puts us at around 825 million PC users around now, late 2006.

According to the w3schools web site, in November 2006 the OS market share of Windows was 86.1%, 3.3% for Linux, and 3.5% for Mac (and for July 2004 , it was 90.5% Windows, 3.1% Linux and 2.4% Mac). Remember that previously in 2004 we found that there were 600 million Windows users out of 661 millions? So that gives us a market share of 90.7% of Windows computers in 2004.

That 90.7% is close enough to 90.5% for 2004, and both numbers were obtained from two totally different sources, so that I would think that this estimate of w3schools of a 3.3% market share of Linux in November 2006 is a solid figure (solid enough for this rather unscientific blog post).So we now have 3.3% of 825 million PC users. That give us 27.2 million Linux users today. Interestingly the Linux Counter was estimating 29 million Linux users in March 2005. So we are probably within the error bar of both this blog and their analysis.p> To return to Mark Shuttleworth, 8 million Ubuntu users out of 27.2 million Linux users gives Ubuntu a 29% market share of the Linux pie, and a 1% market share of the total number of PC users worldwide. Pretty impressive numbers considering how old the Ubuntu project is.  

It is always fun to play numbers, especially as huge ones as these. No doubt Mark Shuttleworth and his community have done a very good job with Ubuntu and promoting Linux. Will they reach 12 million users with their upcoming Feisty Fawn and the new installer?

Some more information about the Ubuntu Installer for Windows can be found here.

Back on Ubuntu…

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5 years ago
by frankps in ,

I have been on and off when it comes to Linux, but mostly on after Ubuntu appeared. The last half year I didn’t have to much time, I only ran Ubuntu under Parallels, but with the new Thinkpad T60 I have again installed Ubuntu. I didn’t dare installing the first alpha of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Herd, but went for Edgy Eft instead.For the first time I ran in to problems installing Ubuntu. I always go for the alternative CD and not the live CD that you can install. The problem was my screen resolution, 1400×1050, and not having a graphic card that was supported out of the box, ATI X1400. The developers behind Ubuntu should improve the Installer a bit, it should give feedback to user, that the Installer has not found any graphic driver and that you are making use of fallback VESA driver, and that a line or two about what screen resolutions are supported in VESA mode. After having installed Ubuntu twice, I found that I could only run it in 1024×768. Installing ATI’s own drivers from the repositories didn’t help either, and I had to visit ATI’s website and download their latest driver from there, just as I have to when installing Windows. Installing it was a breeze, and done in seconds.Edgy Eft runs brilliantly now on the Thinkpad, except for the wireless card. I thought the NDISwrapper would have been installed by default with the neccessary Intel binaries (also the for Intel Pro 3945 ABG), but that was not the case. When you don’t have Windows installed, there is no way to get hold of neccessary binaries for the wireless card. Just after having understood my problem, I came over this article over at O’Reilly.Having Ubuntu up and running, there are a few things that I always install before starting to use the distro:

  • Adobe Reader and Flash
  • AbiWord – I can’t stand Open Office
  • Beagle – Coming from the BeOS world, I am addicted to fast searching
  • Blam – My favourite RSS reader
  • Gossip Instant Messenger – I am not the biggest fan of Gaim
  • Graveman – Cause you need a decent reader
  • Tapioca VoIP – Didn’t get it working on Edgy Eft. Both the default frontend and Landell failed to install
  • Thunderbird – My preferred e-mail client
  • Media applications: Banshee Music Player, GCstar, Last.fm, Listen Music Player, Muine and VLC Player

The biggest con with Ubuntu in my opinion is it’s selection of media applications. The Rythmbox Music Player is a joke, and my take is that there are not many people using that as their default player. A far better option would be including Banshee as a new default player, and then also get rid of Sound Juicer CD Extractor. Nothing wrong with the last one, but a ripper is also included in Banshee. Banshee clearly reminds me about iTunes, has an inbuilt Audioscrobbler and some nice plugins that you should consider using. For instance the Music Recommendations, a Last.fm plugin showing you similar artists and the most popular songs from the currently playing artist. Latest is that the developer behind Banshee is making a radio plugin.I would like to write a few words about AbiWord and Gossip Instant Messenger. The developers behind these two applications are currently implementing the Telepathy framework. What will it mean for you as an user? Gossip now has VoIP and video conference support, and AbiWord is getting collaboration functionality. Tapioca is also currently being rewritten to make use of Telepathy, all three projects are bringing Gnome up to today’s computing. My scientific staff is to travel less, but at the same time involve themselves more in to international projects. Hopefully we will see more applications making use of Telepathy in the nearby future.XGL (or Beryl) works brilliantly on the Thinkpad, and Ubuntu seems to be drawing up menus and their icons quite much faster. Another big pro is the clear and far more readable fonts. I am impressed. I know that I am gonna go fast tired on most of the animations that Beryl gives me, but luckily these can be turned off. I have never liked Exposé in MacOS X, and the same goes for Scale Effect. The Enhanced Switcher is quite nice and the same goes for Desktop Cube and Windows Animations. Transparency is great, but I often prefer to have a clear white background. I will also try to get Compiz installed, as a repository is made for Edgy Eft.I cannot wait for Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Herd. It will have many improvements that I have been waiting for, zeroconf through Avahi enabled by default, Network Manager will finally be implemented, gnome-power-management (GPM) will get improved, the new ext4 file system and eCryptFS. Two major enhancements for the business market will be the implementation of network authentification services, OpenLDAP and Active Directory!And best of all, it’s all FREE!!!

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