linux category archive

A Silly Post Brought to You by the Letters E and F

My daughter has a set of Sea & Learn Bath Shapes that are very entertaining for her and me and the wife alike. (The wife might not want to admit that. But for me I can say that they engage my brain more than a typical work-related meeting.)

I happened to notice that the “e” looks very Microsoft Internet Explorerish. It’s a small letter. It’s blue. So I looked around for the “f” and found that by an amazing coincidence, it is Firefox red!

(Ok, so the Firefox logo is predominantly orange and this is mostly red. Just play along, ok? The stars are orange. Take it or leave it.)

How about that? The forces of good and evil arrayed against each …

A Beautiful Troll: Windows Required for GNU/Linux

Starting from slashdot, I was clued in on some good work being done by “Jerry Lee Cooper” over at ZDNet. (Also is getting much diggage.)

In a discussion about how the Linux will not displace Windows:

that wont work without THEFT of intellectual property

Linux looks very interesting, even if some of the screen colours and menu options appear to be a little out of the ordinary.

But you are missing a vital point, a point which takes some experience and depth of knowledge in the field of computers. You see, when a computer boots up, it needs to load various drivers and then load various services. This happens long before the operating system and other applications are available.

Linux is a marvellous operating system in its own right, and even comes in several different flavours. However, as

…

Spirit of system76

Sometimes, giving away free stickers can get you a $500 sale.

I hadn’t heard of system76 before coming across a post at the Ubuntu Blog back in August. It mentioned free (as in free beer!) stickers, courtesy of the folks at system76. Well, actually for the low low price of a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

But look! My $0.78 investment got me four of these neat “powered by: ubuntu linux” stickers. Coincidentally just the right size to replace a “Designed for Microsoft Windows XP” sticker, or whatever.

I didn’t know what I’d do with them. Pop one on the box if I ever got an Ubuntu system going, of course. Mainly I sent in for them because they looked cool and appealed to …

Review: Linus Torvalds, ‘Just for Fun’

Just for FunLinus Torvalds

Welcome to my inaugural minimalist review. I recently finished reading Just for Fun, by Linus Torvalds and David Diamond. “The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary.” Now it’s time to blurt out a few comments.

(Remember: minimalist may refer to the small amount of substantive content rather than the word count. As often happens, I may have hidden some catchier stuff at the end: Pragmatism, Idealism, and Revolution.)

I have mixed feelings about doing reviews. Who am I to criticize anything? Well, I’m certainly not especially qualified, but everyone’s entitled to an opinion, right?

I enjoyed the book. I like …