On the other side of the fence, Linux has the reputation as an operating system that is optimized, lean and lightweight which is why the industry was surprised and shocked on the comment of Linuz Torvalds during the LinuxCon last week that Linux is bloated. He says that the operating system is both huge and scary.

I think this is the perspective of a person who was involved in the early days or the origin of Linux. Linus has been there and for decades he has seen every feature that was added to the operating system. I could not imagine what Linus is feeling right now. Whether the operating system is indeed bloated or not, I have no idea.

As I said this is probably the perspective of someone who was there at the beginning. I can imagine as I have felt the same way with all the projects I have worked on. My current project for example has started back in February 2009, and I was the one who built things from scratch making sure every standard and optimization is present. Several months after, thousands of man hours from almost 20 resources moving codes back and forth, and I feel the architecture of the system is bloated. When I go back to the code, I can see the huge features added to it already and while I feel it is now huge and scary, I need to let go knowing that these things are bound to happen.

I understand how Linus feels especially when thousands of developers, and millions of man hours has already been put on the Linux operating system. No man could keep up with it, I just hope Linus does let go as the bloated nature of applications are always bound to happen.

How about you? Do you really think Linux is bloated? Or is this just a natural thing bound to happen? Or is this just a perspective from Linus?

Image from Linux.

Post from: EveryJoe

Wow, I am Surprised that Linux is Bloated

Linux had it’s chance when Asus launched it’s netbook. Industry experts content that Linux is making a big push on the netbooks market as the operating system requires less hardware processing power, perfect for netbooks. Linux did not fail, but Microsoft simply extended Windows XP life on netbooks and the tables quickly turned. Linux was left in the dust, a place they long occupied.

Stephen is a dreamer, and his dreams of Linux penetrating 50% of the market would remain a fantasy. The release of Windows 7 and it’s capacity to run on netbooks would simply continue the surge of netbooks together with the software giant.

You can read the article here — Linux netbooks expected to reach 50% market share.

Image from Lenovo products.

Post from: EveryJoe

50 percent share for Linux Netbooks?

Milo discovered a product especially useful for enterprises of all sizes called Nightwatchman, a good news that Microsoft didn’t lay off anybody in the Vista team. I knew that they didn’t touch the Silverlight team, but frankly I’m surprised about this because Vista hasn’t been very profitable to Microsoft. Or has it? One bad news is the Windows 7 minimum requirements. It may not be a good experience to try it on my netbook which just meets the minimum requirements and my laptop which is old enough to even miss the minimum. But if anyone is interested, you can get the Windows 7 look into Windows XP. He also found a couple of amusing videos, one called “how to say i love you.” and another a confirmation of love, a marriage at Taco Bell. Recession, aye?

Jason found a few websites that can assist you in unique ways: one for helping educate your kids, one a calendar to help others, and another to scan your computer online. He covered a lot of Windows Powertoys, a mobile media browser and found another reason to continue loving Zune. He also has a couple of how-tos for selecting non-linear text in a word document and sharing Outlook calendar availability. One bad news, I mean another one, is that Microsoft is shutting down MSN Groups.

Claire thought out loud about the gap between Linux and mainstream users, learnt something new about less (which all you Cygwin users may find useful), discovered a wonderful browser called Kidzui which attempts to make the Internet a more kid-friendly place.

Juan wonders whether the Mac is not invincible anymore and whether Apple really needs to make a netbook. He is glad to find a symbol cheat widget and an app that can save his day with a bunch of drawings. The latter isn’t my cup of tea. He along with Jayvee found out about Apple’s stand on piracy.

Post from: EveryJoe

A Massive Tech Channel Roundup

Jayvee inspects the culture of FAIL on the Internet and finds that video advertising is going to decline. Actually, the rate of growth of online advertising has reached a saturation point even though online advertising itself is continuing to rise.

In these tough times, when the economy has been slowing down, Clair suggests that choosing Linux and open source software has become more necessary. For those who are already in that path, there is a free Ubuntu training course. Ubuntu is Linux for human beings, isn’t it?

A survey found that only 1% of people are using Google Docs, and many of those use Microsoft Office already. However, Colleen feels that the Microsoft’s stranglehold on office suites may be slipping away with Microsoft promising and postponing their next release and the availability of too many options for the users.

Juan says that 2008 is the year of iPhone, which is not very debatable in the user sense though this is also the year for RIAs, Twitter (@bsravanin) and cloud computing. But then, he is an Apple guy. :-) He also shares the offer that MacUpdate is having as a holiday promo. A good offer, far better than dreaming about the Apple 24″ LED display which is about $900!

Speaking of promos, Jason has a post about the Sears Wish Promotion, similar to the HP Magic Giveaway which has recently ended. There is already several Top 10 lists too, like the top 10 viral videos of 2008. I personally don’t like the fact that these lists do not consider the rest of the year that is still to be lived through. The more important news is, in case you haven’t already heard, that a serious security flaw has been exposed in the Internet Explorer and it is advised to not use it for financial and other sensitive transations of any kind.

While you wait for the security update, be sure to take note of the 8 security bulletins that Microsoft is ending the year with. Various OS users may want to check out the 2008 Service Pack 2 beta releases.

Post from: EveryJoe

Tech Channel Roundup of Year End Retrospections and Forecasts

The truth is Cygwin emulates Linux on Windows. If you replace the Windows background with any of the open-source wallpapers, hide the Windows task bar, and only run the cygwin terminal, you can almost cheat yourself that you’re running a Unix-based OS. This is thanks to a DLL named cygwin1.dll which is the actual Linux API emulation layer.

Cygwin is different from other utility packages providing Unix-like functionality like, say, UnxUtils because of the emulation layer. Cygwin is not using the native Windows libraries directly for Unix-like utilities. That could mean a difference in the speeds of their execution, but we are not benchmarking anything here. This works better to learn Unix-based OSs.

There are also a number of Linux packages that can be installed on Cygwin after rebuilding them from source. These are the Windows-alternatives to the corresponding Linux tools and are not always available on utility packages that are similar to UnxUtils.

You can download the Cygwin setup file from their home page. We’ll run through the installation next time; it should work on most Windows OSs except Windows CE (handheld). I’ve heard about Cygwin-Vista compatibility issues but that could mean errors here and there and not complete incompatibility.

Post from: EveryJoe

Introducing Cygwin

Image via WikipediaI looked through and figured out what apps I rely on. Firefox is probably the most used. I chat with Meebo, read my email through Gmail, write this blog via WordPress and search Google all in this wonderful browser. Second to that came Skype. It’s an important application to keep around because I use it daily to chat with friends near and far and have video chats with family members. Finally, the Microsoft Office suite. I know that I could use Open Office or Google Docs (which I use regularly) for all of my reading and writing needs but there’s something clean about Microsoft’s version. I still use 2003, since 2007 seems to be a memory hog on most of my machines (and I don’t have much to spare on the Eee).

After that, I can pretty much remove all of my other applications. Now I open the floor up to you. What do you use the most on your PC? Or Mac? Or Linux variant? Go ahead and share your dirty secrets. It’ll make you feel better.

Post from: EveryJoe

Most used PC tool

Image via Wikipedia

So why is a sub-400 dollar laptop important? Well, besides saving you over $1700 (off the Voodoo), it can also accomplish most of the important things that people need to do. For me, I can telnet, SSH, write, read and reply all from the comfort of that tiny computer. And now, with Windows on it, I can even stream video, install Microsoft Office and communicate with the tools that I’ve always used on my main computers. This means productivity goes up, time-to-production goes down and my happiness is through the roof.

I leave you with this advice… Take a look at what you do with your PC and decide what’s important to you. Spending $2100 on a sleek, slim, 13″ computer or only $400 on a machine that is only 7″ and does everything you need.

Post from: EveryJoe

Size doesn’t matter, unless you’re a PC

Clair, over at New Linux User, wrote a post about the wrong way to go about showing people what Linux can do. And I agree with her completely. The wrong way of showing someone why they should switch is to force it down their throats — and besides, this leads me to my first point (or is it second) that there is a reason that you need to force it down their throats. I can not imagine how difficult life would be if an IT guy had to explain why the kernel needs to be recompiled or why they only make that software for the PC (which everyone else uses). This would be a headache and a half.

On the other hand, learning about new technology is a great thing. We would still be in the dark, using the dirty holes in the ground to relieve ourselves and be trying to put squares onto axles to get the car going without learning about and embracing new technology. Linux has a great deal to offer both the personal and commercial front but they may not be there yet — or the users may not be there to accept it yet.

Either way, forcing new ideas and programs on people can only cause them to push back. It’s like and argument between a child and his mother about how much he wants the brand new Power Ranger toy (are they still around?). The more the parent pushes back, the more the child fights. Give it a rest, they will come around.

Post from: EveryJoe

I hate Linux, give me Winblows