These Things Matter to Me
Monday, September 08, 2008
How to install the Python prerequisites for the Memetracker Drupal module
1. Make sure you have all "normal" LAMP and Linux utilities installed for your typical Drupal install.
How to install the Python prerequisites for the Memetracker Drupal module.
Usually the installation of Drupal modules is pretty straightforward:
- Download module to modules/
- Uncompress
- Enable
- Configure
- Profit
But the Memetracker module is a bit different, requiring a bunch of Python stuff, and ideally, "root" on your server. It's not that hard to set up, but if you're not used to installing stuff outside of the Druapl-verse, these notes might help you.
(These instructions are for Ubuntu Hardy Heron. The steps are likely very similar on other Debian-based distributions, including earlier versions of Ubuntu.
I've also successfully installed Memetracker on Centos 5.x/Redhat Enterprise Linux 5.x. I have a document for that coming soon, though the packages and steps are very similar, and you could extrapolate these notes and apply to other Linux versions.)
Most of you should skip to step 2, as you probably already have Drupal running..
1a. Install the LAMP stuff, mail server stuff that Drupal requires.
# apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mysql mysql-server php5-gd postfix
(Note: Though Drupal core can run on PHP4, the Memetracker module *requires* PHP5, so that's what we're using here. You don't have to go out of your way to get this on Hardy Heron, but there is a small possibility some of you went out of your way to get PHP4, so I'm steering you towards PHP5 here.)
1b. Though not required to run Drupal, these additional packages make life much easier, and it's just a matter of time before you miss them:
# apt-get install openssh-server wget build-essential groff-base man-db unzip
2. Unlike most Drupal setups, you also need to have some Python resources handy to run Memetracker.
2a. The first bunch of Python tools already have nice Ubuntu packages already made up for you.
# apt-get install python-numpy python-numeric python-dev python
2b. Pyclust doesn't have an Ubuntu package made for it. We need to compile it from source (There will be a python-cluster package in the next Ubuntu version, Intrepid Ibex.)
Get the source:
# wget http://bonsai.ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~mdehoon/software/cluster/cluster-1.41.tar.gz
(Note, this is the newest version as of 20080908. Please check http://bonsai.ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~mdehoon/software/cluster/software.htm for newest version.)
Uncompress the source:
# tar -xvzf cluster-1.41.tar.gz
Now install it:
# cd cluster-1.41
# python setup.py install
You now have all your Python stuff installed.
Let's verify it works:
# python
>> from Pycluster import *
(You will get your Python prompt back if you have your Python stuff installed correctly.)
That's it. You now have your environment ready for Memetracker. There's lots of other stuff you can do to optimize your system for Memetracker, and I have some additional Memetracker documentation coming up. However I noticed an immediate need for this Python stuff to be written down in a step-by-step manner, as many Drupal folks don't usually have to do so much Python/Linux stuff.
Labels: drupal, linux, memetracker, python, sysadmin, ubuntu
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Sun buying Virtualbox-maker Innotek
(Screenshot of a Windows guest in a Mac OS X host, using VirtualBox)
Most Ubuntu users have long known about Virtualbox, the confusingly-versioned (they have an "open source" version, and a "full" (their word, not fine) version ) VMware Workstation-like tool. It's been in Ubuntu repositories for a while, and I like it quite a bit, though it's never displaced VMware Workstation in my life.
I've been especially excited about the fact that they have a beta version of VirtualBox for the Mac, making it so users on all major platforms can have a similar experience and trade virtual machines around.(Yeah, I know that VMware Fusion virtual machines are pretty much interchangeable with VMware Workstation/ VMware Player machines, but there is no free VMware product for Mac users, so I hate having to check ahead/download trials for users, etc).
In any case, Sun is buying Innotek, and I think it's great. Let's hope they don't pour Java into it! (just kidding. kind of.) One thing that I think has hurt Sun is that it doens't make consumer products. Something Microsoft benefits from, and now VMware, is that consumer behaviors drive corporate decisions. People achieve consumer comfort with a product, and extend the relationship at work. Sun's Scott McNealy would just rail against Microsoft quality. It's not always about quality! It's about not wanting to venture into the unknown. Sun having an easy to use desktop product like VirtualBox is actually pretty unique for them, and a really great change. (Apologies if they make all sorts of other consumer apps I don't know about.)
(Screenshot of a Windows guest in a Mac OS X host, using VirtualBox)Most Ubuntu users have long known about Virtualbox, the confusingly-versioned (they have an "open source" version, and a "full" (their word, not fine) version ) VMware Workstation-like tool. It's been in Ubuntu repositories for a while, and I like it quite a bit, though it's never displaced VMware Workstation in my life.
I've been especially excited about the fact that they have a beta version of VirtualBox for the Mac, making it so users on all major platforms can have a similar experience and trade virtual machines around.(Yeah, I know that VMware Fusion virtual machines are pretty much interchangeable with VMware Workstation/ VMware Player machines, but there is no free VMware product for Mac users, so I hate having to check ahead/download trials for users, etc).
In any case, Sun is buying Innotek, and I think it's great. Let's hope they don't pour Java into it! (just kidding. kind of.) One thing that I think has hurt Sun is that it doens't make consumer products. Something Microsoft benefits from, and now VMware, is that consumer behaviors drive corporate decisions. People achieve consumer comfort with a product, and extend the relationship at work. Sun's Scott McNealy would just rail against Microsoft quality. It's not always about quality! It's about not wanting to venture into the unknown. Sun having an easy to use desktop product like VirtualBox is actually pretty unique for them, and a really great change. (Apologies if they make all sorts of other consumer apps I don't know about.)
Labels: business, consumer, fusion, innotek, player, sun, ubuntu, virtualbox, virtualization, workstation
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
These links matter to you. Thursday October 4th, 2007
- UC Berkeley posts entire course lectures on YouTube. Your move, MIT OpenCourseWare
- If your Drupal site is on the Internet, you can publish from Google Docs
- Notes from a DrupalCon Barcelona attendee
- Ubuntero.org is a social network for Ubunteros and their admirers
Monday, October 01, 2007
The Gutsy Gibbon and I: Almost together.
Gutsy's so close I can feel it.
This weekend I installed the beta of Ubuntu Linux 7.10, Gutsy Gibbon.
A few notes to myself, and just one bug:
Gutsy's so close I can feel it.
This weekend I installed the beta of Ubuntu Linux 7.10, Gutsy Gibbon.
A few notes to myself, and just one bug:
- Bug: no matter how many Firefox windows I have open, they never begin to "stack up," instead spreading infinitely across the bottom GNOME panel. I never realized this before, but the act of stacking Windows up after a certain point keeps the the title of each window legible. I'm sorry I never appreciated you before, mister/miss Firefox-stacking-window situation.
You don't know what you got, 'till it's gone. - after install via upgrade, sound comes back muted. Not a big deal, but after you install Linux, you're paranoid about hardware not working, so for a minute I thought sound support got worse with Gutsy. You really had me going there, Gutsy Gibbon! But you merely muted me. Not funny, Gutsy. This isn't Punk'd.
- gnome-setup has crashed a couple of times. I don't know. I can't reproduce it at will, but it happens.
- (not a bug) but I still have to install a special driver to get graphics to work right on a Dell 700m.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
UbuntuLive presentation slides: Ubuntu Virtual Appliances. Best Practices (ever).
UbuntuLive is live!
My talk isn't until this afternoon, but I want attendees to be able to have access to my slides to take notes on, without having to wait until after the talk.
UbuntuLive is live!
My talk isn't until this afternoon, but I want attendees to be able to have access to my slides to take notes on, without having to wait until after the talk.
- .odp slides (Open Office format, edit inside of.)
- .pdf slides (pdf format. Less editing options, but simpler for some.)
Labels: conference, event, linux, live, open.source, oreilly, oss, slides, ubuntu, ubuntulive, ubuntulive07, ubuntulive2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Ubunteros: 35% discount at UbuntuLive, O'Reilly's Ubuntu Conference
Hey there Ubunteros.
A quick post:
If you're interested in attending Ubuntu Live, but just haven't registered because it's 35% too expensive, have I got a discount code for you!
ubu07ucm
That's right, ubu07ucm. Use it when you register here.
With O'Reilly's permission and encouragement, I'm blogging this to encourage your attendance. Of course, if you can't attend for financial or geographical reasons, O'Reilly always does a great job aggregating blog coverage, session files, pictures, and links so that it can be just as good as attending! If you wait a couple months, even more multipedia coverage eventually trickles in.
More on Ubuntu Live, OSCON, and Portland nerd summer soon!
A quick post:
If you're interested in attending Ubuntu Live, but just haven't registered because it's 35% too expensive, have I got a discount code for you!
ubu07ucm
That's right, ubu07ucm. Use it when you register here.
With O'Reilly's permission and encouragement, I'm blogging this to encourage your attendance. Of course, if you can't attend for financial or geographical reasons, O'Reilly always does a great job aggregating blog coverage, session files, pictures, and links so that it can be just as good as attending! If you wait a couple months, even more multipedia coverage eventually trickles in.
More on Ubuntu Live, OSCON, and Portland nerd summer soon!
Labels: code, conference, discount, discountcode, event, oreilly, ubuntu, ubuntulive, ubuntulive07, ubuntulive2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
These Links Matter to You. Wednesday July 11, 2007
That's How I Roll!
That's How I Roll!- New word alert! Clogging: code blogging.
- Hot goss alert! HP might be shipping Ubuntu pc's soon. You didn't hear it from me.
- Matt Asay on Ubuntu's underreported popularity in the enterprise
- A good piece on the Xen train that maybe never came.
- a good roundup of open mobile phone, OpenMoko, links (What, is there some other phone people have been talking about?)
Labels: clogging, enterprise, hp, matt asay, openmoko, ubuntu, virtualization, xen
Monday, May 07, 2007
These Links Matter to You. Monday May 7, 2007
(ideally this cat pidgin will be charming, hilarious, and familiar to readers of i can has cheezburger and Anil Dash)
(ideally this cat pidgin will be charming, hilarious, and familiar to readers of i can has cheezburger and Anil Dash)- This commenter on Matt Asay's InfoWorld blog has a theory that IBM will buy Novell (to get SUSE), that IBM helped Novell buy SUSE, and that ex-IBM execs are already slowly filling Novell VP spots
- Comcast is going to use open source + commercial application Zimbra to manage 12 million + mail accounts
- Ubuntu working with Intel on a mobile/ embedded edition of Ubuntu.
- Sun is helping port OpenOffice on the Mac with two dedicated engineers.
- New York Observer magazine recently relaunched their website using Drupal. With notes on the how. And why yes I will continue to document major commercial implementations of open source software like Drupal until y'all bow down and concede that open source is just fine for "mission critical" applications. Sheesh.
Labels: comcast, drupal, embedded, intel, mac, mobile, open source, openoffice, oss, social software, sysadmin, ubuntu, zimbra
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
These Links Matter to You. Wednesday May 2 2007
- even old-school business analyst Forrester says organizations are using open source for "mission critical applications." A less breathless, more helpful informative summary here, courtesy the very articulate Matt Asay.
- ya habla Español Dell. puro en directo. Dell's new Spanish blog, Dell en Directo. You already know about the English juan.
- Arizona State uses Drupal, and documents their set-up
- Dell's improved Linux forums (I haven't figured out how they're improved yet. Taking their word for it. It's possible they're manipulating me in a state of post-Ubuntu-announcement bliss.
- some belated notes on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Labels: community, dell, dellendirecto, forrester, forums, linux, matt asay, research, ubuntu
Enterprise Linux's exaggerated value #1: its "tested" packages are too old to use
One of the supposed benefits of enterprise (what that word really means reserved for another post, but a good place to start is here) Linux is that the included packages are "tested" and "hardened" (what does that even mean??!?) for the enterprise. The problem is, in the time it takes to test, these packages have grown quite old, increasing the chances that a sysadmin will need to replace them with software from elsewhere. For security reasons, and technical compatibility reasons, you're often forced to upgrade packages.
And you can't just grab updates from the vendor, because even the updates are really old, only marginally newer than the package that you're trying to replace. So you uninstall the vendor package, and either grab a package from elsewhere, or compile the source. And try to remind yourself what exactly you're paying for again...
An example? The just-release Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 comes with an RPM for Firefox 1.5.x. What?
A common dismissal of Ubuntu (not typically described as "enterprise linux") is that "it's fine for the casual user, but not for the enterprise."
Frankly, its packages are more appropriate for the enterprise than any enterprise linux i've seen. For this reason alone I'm very excited about its increasing acceptance in the business community. Even if it starts at the periphery...
And you can't just grab updates from the vendor, because even the updates are really old, only marginally newer than the package that you're trying to replace. So you uninstall the vendor package, and either grab a package from elsewhere, or compile the source. And try to remind yourself what exactly you're paying for again...
An example? The just-release Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 comes with an RPM for Firefox 1.5.x. What?
A common dismissal of Ubuntu (not typically described as "enterprise linux") is that "it's fine for the casual user, but not for the enterprise."
Frankly, its packages are more appropriate for the enterprise than any enterprise linux i've seen. For this reason alone I'm very excited about its increasing acceptance in the business community. Even if it starts at the periphery...
Labels: business, enterprise, linux, novell, red hat, redhat, ubuntu
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Dell's new Ubuntu deal, and vendor support. Do we still need vendor support?
Some interesting thoughts over on Slashdot's coverage of the Dell/ Ubuntu announcement.
For one user, the announcement is actually a deciding factor in a purchasing decision:
I'm very excited that Dell and Ubuntu have a relationship with each other now, and there's no way it can hurt the quality of Linux on Dell hardware. But let's not wait for announcements like this before we feel comfortable pursuing technologies that otherwise trump their commercially supported peers.
related:
Dell interview with Mark Shuttleworth about the announcement, how Linux gets adopted differently in different parts of the world.
more analysis:
For one user, the announcement is actually a deciding factor in a purchasing decision:
Personally, I have resisted the siren call of Dell for a long time. This changes my mind. I need a new machine and this could be just the ticket -- it was either that or refurb an old HP with a new HD and a copy of Feisty Fawn. I like the idea of it pre-loaded.And yeah, that's the kind of response Dell and Ubuntu want to hear. But I think it's time we really question the value and definition of support in the way it's been thought of in the past. Support is extremely overvalued, and lack of support is too often used as a reason to squash a great tool or piece of software. Let's examine our commercial support relationships and think of what we really get out of them. Are our bugs fixed faster? Features added more quickly? Do we find out about upcoming products from our vendros before the blogosphere does? When we have a configuration question, whose documentation is more helpful? Community sites and mailing lists, or the official documentation?
I'm very excited that Dell and Ubuntu have a relationship with each other now, and there's no way it can hurt the quality of Linux on Dell hardware. But let's not wait for announcements like this before we feel comfortable pursuing technologies that otherwise trump their commercially supported peers.
related:
Dell interview with Mark Shuttleworth about the announcement, how Linux gets adopted differently in different parts of the world.
more analysis:
- transcript of the video interview with Mark Shuttleworth above (zdnet)
- BBC news coverage of Dell + Ubuntu announcement
- open source advocate Dawn Foster's FastWonder post
Labels: business, business model, canonical, community, dell, disruptive, information technology, linux, support, ubuntu
Monday, April 30, 2007
Dell + Ubuntu: Let's contain ourselves, people!
I'm as giddy as the rest of y'all. Yes, Dell will pre-install Ubuntu on Dell hardware.
Some of us have been waiting for this news for a while, either in the affirmative or the negative. After all, it was over a month ago when Dell closed its Linux survey. A bunch of different commercial and community-based distros rallied to get their Linux represented. And then silence. Dell didn't let us know how, when, or what they'd do with the data. They thanked us, but dat about it.
So it was very exciting to hear this evening first a rumor via Dell, and a confirmation via Canonical that yes, Dell will support Ubuntu.
But let's be gracious here :D. DesktopLinux.com wrote "Dell to choose Ubuntu," in a tone suggesting only one Linux could be chosen. Mos def some of this language is left over from the Dell's own Linux survey, where one could vote for only one flavor of Linux for Dell to install. But remember bug #1 people. It isn't that Fedora has majority market share :D. Let's hope Dell's experience of offering Ubuntu is so delightful, they get involved with other flavors of Linux, and get on the right side of bug #1 ;D
I'm as giddy as the rest of y'all. Yes, Dell will pre-install Ubuntu on Dell hardware.
Some of us have been waiting for this news for a while, either in the affirmative or the negative. After all, it was over a month ago when Dell closed its Linux survey. A bunch of different commercial and community-based distros rallied to get their Linux represented. And then silence. Dell didn't let us know how, when, or what they'd do with the data. They thanked us, but dat about it.
So it was very exciting to hear this evening first a rumor via Dell, and a confirmation via Canonical that yes, Dell will support Ubuntu.
But let's be gracious here :D. DesktopLinux.com wrote "Dell to choose Ubuntu," in a tone suggesting only one Linux could be chosen. Mos def some of this language is left over from the Dell's own Linux survey, where one could vote for only one flavor of Linux for Dell to install. But remember bug #1 people. It isn't that Fedora has majority market share :D. Let's hope Dell's experience of offering Ubuntu is so delightful, they get involved with other flavors of Linux, and get on the right side of bug #1 ;D
Labels: business model, dell, disruptive, hardware, linux, open source, support, ubuntu
Dell to preload Ubuntu Linux on some hardware
[update 11.22PM. Confirmed via Dell KB article!]
[update #2, confirmed on Dell Direct2Dell blogpost]
Dell will preload Ubuntu Linux on some desktops and laptops.
So far, two sources for this story:
1. A Canonical employee (the company most centrally involved in Ubuntu's development and support) who has a great multilingual blog about Linux stuff, wrote:
2. Desktoplinux.com, who says they've heard the news from multiple Dell sources.
I just have to take this moment in.
[update 11.22PM. Confirmed via Dell KB article!][update #2, confirmed on Dell Direct2Dell blogpost]
Dell will preload Ubuntu Linux on some desktops and laptops.
So far, two sources for this story:
1. A Canonical employee (the company most centrally involved in Ubuntu's development and support) who has a great multilingual blog about Linux stuff, wrote:
Ubuntu will be officially supported on Dell computers. Any other details will come on www.ubuntu.com, check it for the official press releaseand
2. Desktoplinux.com, who says they've heard the news from multiple Dell sources.
...the Austin, Texas, computer giant will be preinstalling the newly released Ubuntu 7.04. These systems will be released in late May 2007.Technorati Tags: ubuntu, linux, dell, hardware, support, community, open source
According to our sources, Ubuntu will be released on a Dell e-series "Essential" Dimension desktop, an XPS desktop, and an e-series Inspiron laptop.
Labels: business, business model, canonical, community, dell, disruptive, information technology, linux, support, ubuntu
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Full Circle, the new Ubuntu magazine!
Though it took me a little while to identify what exactly was going on on the Full Circle website, I gotta once again give the Ubuntu community credit for knowing how to make it easy to learn about, enjoy, evangelize, and contribute to the Ubuntu Linux distribution and its related projects and goals.
Full Circle is a new free magazine from the Ubuntu community. Full Circle is made up of both a PDF, with a traditional magazine layout that you can download (and print), and web-based content that includes forums and articles in development.
PDF available for download in multiple languages here.
Though it took me a little while to identify what exactly was going on on the Full Circle website, I gotta once again give the Ubuntu community credit for knowing how to make it easy to learn about, enjoy, evangelize, and contribute to the Ubuntu Linux distribution and its related projects and goals.Full Circle is a new free magazine from the Ubuntu community. Full Circle is made up of both a PDF, with a traditional magazine layout that you can download (and print), and web-based content that includes forums and articles in development.
PDF available for download in multiple languages here.
Labels: community, free, full circle, global, journalism, linux, magazine, open source, ubuntu
Thursday, March 08, 2007
(nerd snort!) These Links Matter To You. Friday, March 8, 2007
- music video: kill -9 ("you stepped out of line, and now it's kill -9" nercdore? sysadmincore)
- gaybuntu ("Ubuntu is to operating systems; what Louis Vuitton is to man-bags.")
- You Had Me At EHLO (Microsoft Exchange team blog)
Labels: gaybuntu, microsoft exchange, sysadmin, sysadmincore, ubuntu
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Flashtastic! Adobe finally has Flash 9 for Linux. Also: Flash is good at some stuff.
We now have a decent Flash version on Linux.
quick notes:
Less than two years ago, being a couple of versions back with your Flash player wouldn't have been the end of the world. This is as much about Flash's totally reinvented usage, as it is about Linux. Previously, not having Flash didn't make you feel totally left out. Maybe you'd miss some animated banner ads (but they'd probably still work). With the increasing importance of search engine optimization (Flash isn't so easy to index for Google), and social bookmarking (Flash isn't so great with the unique URL's), and people's patience (Flash can get people kinda mad when they have to renavigate 6 steps after hitting the "back" button), web sites managed by Flash were getting less popular.
But then the YouTube/Vimeo/Google Video/Blip.tv/Revver embeddable video storm happened.
(original photos via Chris Pirillo's video experiment)
And Flash was actually really great for video inside of an otherwise non-Flash page. And then people started using it even as an embeddable mp3 player.
(a screengrab of a del.icio.us page set to browse mp3's and podcasts)
You didn't have to download podcasts and other mp3's. You could cleanly play audio and video in a browser page. (Yes, other specialized players/ plugins could previously do it, but way more clumsily than Flash).
With the newly realized ease of embedding video and audio (aided not just by Flash, but by the excellent players being made by the likes of YouTube and del.icio.us), audio and video was being used a lot more not just for entertainment stuff, but for delivering technical, business, and basic communications stuff. (For example, here I have an embedded demo of VMware Fusion Beta. In Flash!)
In any case, the huge wave of new Flash content really stung when you were on Linux, because all over the web, almost any embedded video was a reminder that you were a second-class citizen.
Ideally in the future the web won't be dominated by closed players, and users won't be held hostage by any single company. But given how much better Flash performs these basic multimedia functions at the moment, it's a good day for Linux.
related:
quick notes:
- You can get Flash 9 for Linux here
- Red Hat will include this in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, released February 28
- Novell will put Flash 9 in Service Pack 1 for SLED 10 (date undetermined)
- step by step Flash 9 installation how-to for Ubuntu Linux (thanks osnews.com!)
- still no 64bit version
Less than two years ago, being a couple of versions back with your Flash player wouldn't have been the end of the world. This is as much about Flash's totally reinvented usage, as it is about Linux. Previously, not having Flash didn't make you feel totally left out. Maybe you'd miss some animated banner ads (but they'd probably still work). With the increasing importance of search engine optimization (Flash isn't so easy to index for Google), and social bookmarking (Flash isn't so great with the unique URL's), and people's patience (Flash can get people kinda mad when they have to renavigate 6 steps after hitting the "back" button), web sites managed by Flash were getting less popular.
But then the YouTube/Vimeo/Google Video/Blip.tv/Revver embeddable video storm happened.
(original photos via Chris Pirillo's video experiment)
And Flash was actually really great for video inside of an otherwise non-Flash page. And then people started using it even as an embeddable mp3 player.
(a screengrab of a del.icio.us page set to browse mp3's and podcasts)
You didn't have to download podcasts and other mp3's. You could cleanly play audio and video in a browser page. (Yes, other specialized players/ plugins could previously do it, but way more clumsily than Flash).
With the newly realized ease of embedding video and audio (aided not just by Flash, but by the excellent players being made by the likes of YouTube and del.icio.us), audio and video was being used a lot more not just for entertainment stuff, but for delivering technical, business, and basic communications stuff. (For example, here I have an embedded demo of VMware Fusion Beta. In Flash!)
In any case, the huge wave of new Flash content really stung when you were on Linux, because all over the web, almost any embedded video was a reminder that you were a second-class citizen.
Ideally in the future the web won't be dominated by closed players, and users won't be held hostage by any single company. But given how much better Flash performs these basic multimedia functions at the moment, it's a good day for Linux.
related:
- the Gnash project, an source Flash player currently playing stuff up to Flash 7
Labels: audio, browser, flash, gnash, linux, macromedia, multimedia, oss, player, plugins, standards, ubuntu, video
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Graphics bling and proprietary drivers in Ubuntu
There's currently some discussion in the Ubuntu community about how much proprietary stuff to include in Ubuntu by default (different from letting you grab stuff from the vendor on your own after the install). This is almost always about graphics drivers.
Community member Ante Karamatić had some interesting thoughts on the issue, and then made some points about the state of open source Linux gui bling, too:
There's currently some discussion in the Ubuntu community about how much proprietary stuff to include in Ubuntu by default (different from letting you grab stuff from the vendor on your own after the install). This is almost always about graphics drivers.
Community member Ante Karamatić had some interesting thoughts on the issue, and then made some points about the state of open source Linux gui bling, too:
Proprietary drivers in Ubuntu by default? Don't. Just don't do that. I don't want them. If someone wants them (or must use them); great, make it as an installer option. 'Yes, I want fancy graphics, even if nobody could help me solve tons of bugs and even if that would break suspend and hibernate and even if that would maybe mean braking GPL' would be an OK option in installer :)
OTOH, both compiz and beryl have serious issues and they should stop working on creating newer, even more useless plug-ins and start fixing some usability bugs; 'java + beryl sometimes doesn't work', 'beryl crashes all the time', 'don't destroy my workspaces', 'F9 is fetch all in evolution; now it doesn't work', 'what's with the flickering in xmoto while running beryl and apt-get update', etc, etc...
Labels: beryl, community, compiz, drivers, linux, open source, ubuntu
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
These Links Matter To You. Tuesday, December 5, 2006
- How to screencast on Linux
- Guess what ubuntuvideo.com has
- Miguel de Icaza on Groklaw's over-the-top analysis of Novell's support of OpenXML in OpenOffice (it's true, Groklaw has demonstrated a bit of ignorance here. Almost every distro's interpretation of a project can be a little unique)
- Last week was Ubuntu Open Week, where newbies, the curious, and the besotted could meet up in different irc channels and talk about specific topics. Here are the logs.
- An image of the One Laptop Per Child laptop is available as a VMware image, FYI
