February 2008

Switching from MS Office to Open Office

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 02/29/2008 - 23:08
ShareThisThis is a well written article by Open Office expert Solveig Haugland. I recently listened to a presentation by Solveig and she's more than familiar with the switch from Microsoft Office to Open Office.
You’ve been thinking about it for a while. You’ve seen the PDF converter and sighed longingly; you’ve blushed before the skeptical glances of your open-source and anti-Microsoft friends who say “You’re still using Microsoft Office?” you’re looking at your budget and wondering why you would pay to get Microsoft Office 2007.

NASA uses Fedora - a lot!

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 02/29/2008 - 05:24
ShareThisJack Aboutboul, Red Hat Community Engineer, had the chance to visit NASA and take a look around. While there he discovered that they use Fedora a lot, from live video distribution to Houston to data analysis of the Columbia crash. Read on for more details and lots of pictures! read more | digg story

Learn 10 good UNIX usage habits

Submitted by Don Watkins on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 20:17
ShareThisAdopt 10 good habits that improve your UNIX ® command line efficiency -- and break away from bad usage patterns in the process. This article takes you step-by-step through several good, but too often neglected, techniques for command-line operations. read more | digg story

Why Linux?

Submitted by Don Watkins on Wed, 02/27/2008 - 09:36
ShareThisI got an email from a young friend wanting to know my opinion on the latest virus scare on the internet. He wanted to know if I thought it was a hoax.   Tonight as I thought more about his question I pondered the relatively peaceful existence I lead as a Linux user. Viruses don't really figure in my computing life. They are a non-issue for a Linux user.   Add to that pleasurable experience is the pleasure of using a host of other free software applications. Today an IT intern from a neighboring school district spent the day learning all I could teach her about Ubuntu Linux in one day.

Red Hat not impressed with Microsoft's interoperability plan

Submitted by Don Watkins on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 21:40
ShareThisRed Hat has voiced skepticism of Microsoft's latest interoperability initiative and says that if the company really wants to demonstrate support for interoperability it should adopt ODF and offer patent grants for its protocols under terms that are conducive to open source distribution models. read more | digg story

Dell IdeaStorm: Put GNU/Linux in Retail Stores!

Submitted by Don Watkins on Sat, 02/16/2008 - 01:05
ShareThisImagine how successful Dell's Ubuntu offering could be if just one Dell Ubuntu machine was put in retail stores. If people knew of an alternative to Windows, they would go for it! So what do you say, Dell? Why don't you try to put at least one of your Ubuntu machines offered in retail stores? Please add your support! read more | digg story

The rise of Unix

Submitted by Don Watkins on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 18:52
ShareThisI came across a well written article about the rise of Unix and more specifically Linux and the impact that Ubuntu has had on that. I agree with much of what the author is saying and I hope that in cross posting this that he will achieve a greater audience.
Security. UNIX is not perfect and 100% immune, that's just a myth. but it is actually more than 500% more secure than Windows.

Linux cheat sheets

Submitted by Don Watkins on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 04:59
ShareThisLearning Linux is easier with some help and these cheat sheets are a great resource that was sent to me this week. I found the One Page Linux Manual nearly 7 years ago. The other attachments here are new to me but still useful tools. Follow this link to the sheets.

Linux Desktop for Business

Submitted by Don Watkins on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 10:08
ShareThisI spent nearly an hour speaking with a representative of a major PC manufacturer talking about which version of Linux I thought would make the best Linux desktop.  I recommended Ubuntu. Which version of Linux would you use for a desktop in your work place? Which major PC vendor will bring Linux to corporate desktops first?  Stay tuned! Today in a related incident I received a phone call from a coworker who had received an email with six attached MS Word documents. She had received a policy error that said she was not allowed to open a previous version of MS Office.

Sun buys Virtual Box

Submitted by Don Watkins on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 09:59
ShareThisI got word today that Sun bought Innotek. That means that Sun now owns Virtual Box.  I believe that is good for the future of Virtual Box and I hope that means some improvements to it as well. I've been using Virtual Box OSE for six months or more and I'm happy with it. I'm running a Windows XP Professional VM inside Ubuntu 7.10 at work and at home I've used Virtual Box to help me test some other Linux OSes.