PC Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary - Does It Have A Future ?

Way back in 1981, when IBM first introduced IBM PC's 640KB usable RAM limit, a certain luminary supposedly uttered this (now famous) statement - "640K ought to be enough for anybody". Bill Gates can however take solace in the fact that in the late 1950s, the then head of IBM, Thomas J Watson, predicted a potential world market for "maybe five computers".

Both these prophecies have been proved wrong. There are hundreds of millions of computers being used the world over. And technology permeates every aspect of our social, family, and business lives.

Apple - Exploring the innards of a Mac Mini

I have always been allured by Apple products - more for their aesthetic beauty than for their function - be it iPhone, iMac,  iPod, iNano et al. Yes, Apple products usually cost the bomb to buy compared to similar products from contenders and we ordinary users may as well stay away from them if we do not want to splurge on gadgets. However, all things said and done, Apple products do appeal to most people's sense of beauty and they are getting popular as days go by.

25 Shortcomings of Microsoft Vista OS - A good reason to choose GNU/Linux ...

As a continuation of the previous post, here are 25 shortcomings found by Frank J. Ohlhorst when he reviewed the yet to be formally released Microsoft Vista OS. I have added my views which are enclosed in parentesis, alongside the Vista shortcomings.

• Vista introduces a new variant of the SMB protocol - (I wonder what is the future of Samba now...)
• Need significant hardware upgrades
• No anti-virus bundled with Vista
• Many third party applications still not supported
• Your machine better have a truck load of Memory - somewhere around 2 GB. (Linux works flawlessly with just 128 MB... even less).
• Too many Vista editions.
• Need product activation. (Now that is something you will never see in Linux).
• Vista OS will take over 10 GB of hard disk space. (With Linux you have a lot of flexibility with respect to the size of the distribution.).
• Backing up the desktop will take up a lot of space. (Not so in Linux)
• No must have reasons to buy Vista. (The fact that Linux is Free is reason enough to opt for it)
• Is significantly different from Windows XP and so there is a learning curve. (Switching to Linux also involves some learning curve but then it is worth it as it doesn't cost you much and in the long run, you have a lot to gain).
• You'd better come to terms with the cost of Vista - it is really exorbitant running to over $300. (In price, Vista can't beat Linux which is free as in beer and Freedom).
• Hardware vendors are taking their own time to provide support for Vista.(Now a days, more and more hardware vendors are providing support for Linux).
• Vista's backup application is more limited than Windows XP's. (Linux has a rich set of backup options and every one of them is free).
• No VoIP or other communication applications built in. (Skype, Ekiga... the list goes on in Linux).
• Lacks intelligence and forces users to approve the use of many native applications, such as a task scheduler or disk defragmenter. (Linux is flexible to a fault).
• Buried controls - requiring a half a dozen mouse clicks. (Some window managers in Linux also have this problem but then here too, you have a variety of choice to suit your tastes).
• Installation can take hours, upgrades even more. (Barring upgrades, installation of Linux will take atmost 45 minutes. Upgrades will take a little longer).
• Little information support for Hybrid hard drives.
• 50 Million lines of code - equates to countless undiscovered bugs. (True, true... It is high time you switch to Linux).
• New volume-licensing technology limits installations or requires dedicated key-management servers to keep systems activated. (Linux users do not have this headache I believe).
• Promises have remained just that - mere promises. A case to the point being WinFS, Virtual folders and so on. - (Clever marketing my friend, to keep you interested in their product).
• Does not have support for IPX, Gopher, WebDAV, NetDDE and AppleTalk. (Linux has better support for many protocols which Windows do not support).
• Wordpad's ability to open .doc files have been removed. (Now that is what I call extinguishing with style. OpenOffice.org which is bundled with most Linux distributions can open, read and write DOC files).
  

Sun Microsystems - doing all it can to propagate its immense software wealth

A couple of weeks back, Sun Microsystems created a buzz in the tech world when it announced its decision to release their flag ship language Java under a GPL license albeit GPL v2. But even though it could have surprised and gladdened the Free Software fans the world over, it is clear that it was a well calculated, deeply thought out decision which was aimed at the survival and further propagation of the Java language.

It is true that at its core, Sun is a hardware company with the bulk of its revenue being generated from selling high end servers, workstations and storage solutions. But it has also invested heavily in developing robust software. And what is amusing is that it does not charge anything for most of the software it has developed and has been providing it free of cost. OpenOffice.org, Netbeans, Java and Solaris being a case to the point.

At one time, Solaris was the most popular Unix operating system enjoying a huge market share, greater than even IBM AIX and HP-UX combined. Then Linux arrived at the horizon and slowly started chipping away at the market share of all the Unixes including Solaris. With Linux gaining demi god status, it was inevitable that Sun take a deep look at itself. It realized that if it did not re-structure its thinking, it will be reduced to a mere hardware company like Dell selling boxes, from its present status as an IP creator. And it has shown enough foresight to change with changing times. Instead of fighting Linux, it started bundling Linux - more specifically Red Hat Linux with its servers along side its own operating system Solaris. And over an year back, it released the Solaris code under an open license and named it OpenSolaris.

Now Sun is going even further by hinting that it is seriously considering releasing Solaris under a GPL license. A few years back, the PCs that were sold did not meet the minimum requirements for running Solaris which made it a difficult proposition to run it as a desktop. But with rapid advances made in the hardware field, a drastic drop in hardware prices and partly thanks to Microsoft for upping the ante with regard to minimum memory requirements for running Vista, it has suddenly become possible to look at Solaris as a viable desktop OS alternative as it works smoothly with just 512 MB RAM.

Fig: Get a Free DVD consisting of Solaris 10 and Sun Studio software

Taking all these events into consideration, Sun is doing everything in its power to ensure that the fruits of its hard work lives on and gains in popularity. A few days back when I visited Sun's website, I was surprised to see a link offering to send a free DVD media kit consisting of the latest build of Solaris 10 and Sun Studio 11 software to the address of ones choice. I have always believed that one of the reasons for Ubuntu to gain so much popularity was because of its decision to ship free CDs of its OS. Perhaps taking a leaf from Ubuntu, Sun has also started shipping free DVDs of Solaris 10 OS to anybody who want a copy of the same - a sure way of expanding its community.

In the long run, the logical thing for Sun to do will be to release Solaris under GPL. By doing so, Sun would gain the immense good will of the Free Software fans the world over and ensure a permanent place in the history of computing. Unlike GNU/Linux which is a loose amalgamation of scores of individual software pieces around the Linux kernel, Solaris is a whole product whose tools are tightly integrated with its kernel. So even if Solaris is released under GPL, it may not see as many distributions as we see in Linux. And who is better qualified to provide services and support for Solaris other than Sun itself?

Does an OS have to be costlier than the hardware on which it is run ?

Does an OS have to be as costly or even more than the hardware on which it runs? This seems to be the question that I am forced to ponder myself again and again. When I open the day's newspaper, I am besieged by ad after ad offering to sell PCs at bargain prices, some of them as low as $250. To list an example, I came across this newspaper ad offering the Dell Poweredge SC430 Server which features an Intel Pentium D Dual Core Processor 820 with 1GB DDR2 ECC SDRAM, a 250 GB SATA hard drive and an embedded Gigabit NIC for around $ 455 (US Dollars). Oh yeah, they also throw a 1 year onsite warranty and free lifetime telephonic support to boot.

Now when you consider this with the estimated price of the yet to be released Windows Vista (ranging from $199 to $399), one can't help but gawk at its price. Not to talk about Microsoft's future plans of recognizing the OS and Software it sells as a service rather than a product - in which case the end user is left with the further liability of shelling out money on a yearly basis for upgrades - something similar to paying mortgage for your home.

Why should the OS be priced at par or even more than the hardware on which it runs ? Shouldn't it be the other way round? For instance, lots of efforts and tangible materials go into the making of each computer. And this effort put into it proportionately increases as you manufacture/assemble larger quantity of computers. It doesn't decrease or remain the same by any count. Then there is the logistical nightmare of storing and delivering the finished product to the end users. Also when you sell a computer, you end up relinquishing control over the product in exchange for the money.

But when it comes to developing a software or OS for that matter, none of the above rules hold true precisely because an OS is intangible by nature. It is possible to distribute the OS to 10s, 1000s, millions or billions of people and still the creators of the OS will have the original OS with them. The logistical problems are a bare minimum for the simple reason that the OS can be distributed via electronic medium such as the Internet. And if they are providing boxed versions, it takes up much less floor space than computers.

Yes efforts and costs are involved in creating a robust OS. But once the main coding is done and finished, the further costs incurred by the OS company is mostly on marketing, bug fixing and in adding new features. For instance, of the reportedly 57,000 strong employees working at Microsoft world wide, a large percentage of them do jobs related to marketing.

This obvious mismatch in pricing of proprietary OSes is precisely one of the reasons that GPLed OSes are increasingly gaining favor among the computer users. The ideological factors apart, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to acquire GNU/Linux even if you opt for one of the numerous GNU/Linux distributions which are sold for money. And the fast paced advances of the various projects developed to run on this OS (Gnome, KDE, Wordprocessors, Web Browsers, Graphic editors.....) make sure that the end user is not left wanting in his computing needs.

So the next time your hands start itching to buy the latest state of the art proprietary OS , ask yourselves this question. Is the mismatched price of the OS justified ? And what are the other avenues one has which gives more or less the same user experience without lightening your wallet by any measure?

Realising the true value of Freedom

Anybody who keep an eye on the happenings around the world would know by now that the Indian Government, in its drive to curtail and restrict anti-national elements from playing havoc have passed orders to all ISPs in the country to ban 22 sites which post volatile material and spread hatred. This comes in the aftermath of the dreadful bomb attack on a couple of suburban trains in Mumbai - the financial capital of India, which led to 100s of innocent people dying and many more getting injured. My heart goes out to the kith and kin who lost their loved ones.

The ISPs in their national zeal have taken the easy way out (according to a report in today's edition of a leading newspaper) and block whole domains. And blogspot.com, the domain which hosts this site is also included. The end result is, no body inside India can access this or any of the blocked sites directly.

And the fact that I cannot view my own blog brought some discomfort to me initially. But I love my country and if blocking a blog domain will restrict the anti-national elements from using it to communicate with each other and stop the spread of terror, then I am all for it and I am willing to put up with the discomfort. After all, the existence of a blog or a site pales when compared to the threat posed to the lives of innocent people.

But this situation set me thinking. Generally, people are not aware of the value of their freedom and take it for granted. It is only when some adverse situation arises and the powers that be decide to restrict the rights enjoyed by us that we start missing them and then we realise how much that particular freedom meant for us.

For example, people in the US of A enjoy a wide degree of freedom. But how many of them really value their freedom ? I guess not many because they take it for granted. It is only when they are on the verge of losing some of their freedom that they become aware of the significant part it plays in their lives.

Similarly, people in China are born and brought up in a society where the government has placed various restrictions. The Chinese will find it normal to live in their country because they have not enjoyed the freedom in the first place and so, will not be aware of what they are missing.

It is only when you enjoy a right and then that right is suddenly taken away from you that you start to realise how much it contributes to your well being.

On a similar vein, many people who use free software including GNU/Linux take it for granted and do not even think twice about supporting the software they enjoy using. But suppose tomorrow, the rule of law passes a decree that using GPLed free software is against the law and prohibits the sharing of free software including GNU/Linux distributions. This is when people who use GNU/Linux and free software will find out how much they have gained from this movement and then, people will start to realise the true meaning of the word 'Free' in 'Free Software' and associate it with the word 'Freedom'. Until then, a major section of people using free software will be more concerned about the price factor.

Update (July 21st 2006): With the blanket ban on blogging domains making news world wide and casting a shadow on the government, an official directive was sent to all ISPs to lift the blanket ban on the blogging domains. But the ban on the 22 or so sites will remain. So now all in India can access blogspot.com domains. This is surely democracy at work. I doubt this would have been possible in a more restrictive society. On another note, I believe we can learn something from this whole affair. That is one should not take ones freedom for granted. Rather, each one of us have a duty towards the society we live in which earns us the right of freedom.

The Best Linux Distribution of them all

A few weeks back, my friend Tom asked me a question regarding Linux - that is - Which is the best Linux distribution of them all. And following is the lively conversation we had about this topic which I am sharing with you.

Tom: Ravi, There is a lot of talk going on about Linux which I have read in websites, newspapers and articles in magazines. I am aware of quite a few names floating around like debian, ubuntu, fedora and so on. Which Linux distribution according to you would be the best one around ?

Me: Tom, you have asked a really simple question which has no single/simple answer. But I will try and explain it as best as I can. You should know that Linux is just a kernel. When all the necessary tools like the word processors, image editors, compilers and likes are added so that they seamlessly work on top of the Linux kernel, it becomes a distribution. I need not tell you that different people have different likes and dislikes. With respect to computers and OSes too this holds true. The versatility of Linux is that there is a Linux distribution which commits to cater to individual likes.

Tom: I didn't get you. Could you explain it a little bit more clearly ?

Me: Sure. You see, people can be categorised according to their tastes in computing. For example, one person may be newbie who is just getting introduced to computers who expects some hand holding. Another may be a Linux Guru who likes to do all his work using command line utilities. The beauty of Linux (or should I say the GNU movement) is that there is a distribution tailor made for each of these people.

Tom: So you are saying that the correct answer to my question is that it depends on the individual. Right?

Me: You are bang on target when you say that. :)

Lets look at a few scenarios. Suppose you are a student of computer science. Your main motive in installing Linux on your machine would be to study the inner working of the OS. About what happens under the hood of the OS so to speak. A person with such an inclination will find it ideal to build your own Linux distribution compiling from source. In fact, there is a project called Linux From Scratch which precisely lets one build a Linux distribution grounds up. Another distribution which caters to this segment of people could be Gentoo.

Tom: Well not all people are computer science students. How about a newbie like me ?

Me: For new users like you (and there are quite a lot of them too), there are Linux distributions which come bundled with nice GUI front-ends which makes your Linux experience really enjoyable.
But before we go into it, I would like to say something. Linux distributions can be broadly classified according to the package management they support. Package manager is a program similar to a setup installer in windows. There are two main players in this arena. One is deb package, the other being rpm (short for Redhat Package Manager).
Most Linux distributions follow one or the other of the above said package format to install applications. For example, Linux distributions like Debian and Ubuntu follow the 'deb' package format where as Redhat, Mandriva, SuSe and the likes follow the 'rpm' format.

Coming back to your question, a newbie will feel right at home in installing and using any of the distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian and so on. But there is an important factor. Because of licensing restrictions, these distributions exclude support for popular file formats like Mp3, Quicktime, wmv (windows media player), viewing encrypted DVDs and so on.

Tom: What? You mean, I would not be able to play my favourite mp3 music on these distributions ?

Me: Not at all. All I implied was that you have to download the codecs and install it by yourselves if you want the support for these file formats. For example, I use a versatile media player called mplayer to view all my mp3 audio and video. And it works flawlessly.

Tom: Is there a distribution that has these codecs installed by default ?

Me: Of course there are. For example, distributions like Linspire and Xandros comes with support for these formats. But you will have to shell out some money and buy first in order to use them.

Tom: What if I wanted to use Linux as a server ?

Me: If you are exclusively using Linux on the server side, then the GUI will lose its significance. You will be better off trying Debian. This Linux distribution gives stress on security and is considered to enjoy a large share of the Linux server market. Of course, you can also try RedHat or SuSe for the same. But the situation at your work place also play an important role in selecting a distribution for the server.
Did you know, Debian is the only Linux distribution that supports architectures other than x86/IA32, Intel 64 bit, AMD 64 bit and PowerPC ? More over, Debian is not controlled by any corporation or single entity and it is maintained exclusively through donations and volunteer support.

Tom: Ravi, you know Manish, my friend from school days ? He tried installing SuSe on a Pentium II machine with 32 MB RAM. And he said that he ran into problems in running GUI applications.

Me: That is because he doesn't have enough memory to run GUI applications. Anyway, SuSe is targeted at more recent machines having at least 128 MB RAM. But tell him he need not despair. There are Linux distributions which cater to this segment too. Like you have the Damn Small Linux which runs easily even on machines with just 32 MB memory. Did you know that Damn small Linux takes up only 50 MB space on your harddisk in its uncompressed state? Another linux distribution in this category is Puppy Linux.

Tom: Really? I wonder how they accomplish this extraordinary feat.

Me: If you are impressed by that, then there are Linux distributions that fit inside a floppy.

Tom: No Kidding ?

Me: Seriously Tom. I am not pulling your leg. Tombsrtbt is a Linux distribution that fits inside a single floppy. It can be used for troubleshooting purposes.

Tom: And it has my name too ;) . But seriously how is all this possible ? It is a bit overwhelming to have this discussion itself.

Me: All these forks are possible because of the GNU movement. If Linux was released as a closed source project, these forks would not have seen the light of day.

Tom: I am just curious. Which distribution will a geek favour ?

Me: Heh heh, So you are aspiring to be a geek is it ? I have heard that Slackware and Gentoo are favoured by geeks. Slackware needs some mention here. It is one of the oldest distribution around. Earlier I talked about Deb and RPM formats. But Slackware uses an entirely different format called TGZ - which is gzipped tape archive, to install applications. There are many die hard slackware users who swear by this distribution for its ease of configuration and use. But it is not suitable for new users because most of the configuration is done by editing text files.

Tom: But I always hear of Fedora, Ubuntu and the likes but seldom do I hear about Slackware, Xandros, CentOs or any others. Why is that ?

Me: Tom, you have to understand that somebody who makes the loudest noise need not always be right. Firms like RedHat and Novell (SuSe) are multinational corporations which have millions of $ at their disposal. They gain all the publicity by running advertisements, conducting certifications and so on. Then there are some distributions like Debian and Ubuntu which grab the public's fancy because of their social ideals and commitment towards GNU movement and essentially because they are free as in freedom as well as beer. That doesn't mean they are the only good distributions around. Ultimately the choice filters down to the ideals, tastes and necessities of the user.

Tom: Going by our discussion, I have arrived at the conclusion that I want a Linux distribution which is easy to install, easy for newbies and support all proprietary file formats out of the box (I definitely want to hear mp3 music). It has to have good customer support. And I am willing to pay money for it (though within limits). I guess I will go for Xandros, Mepis or Linspire. What do you think ?

Me: Go for it Tom. I have always known that you have a penchant for spreading your money around ;) . But on a serious note, I think you have taken a good decision because when you pay money for the distribution, they include addons like support for propritery file formats and the user is saved from the job of installing them himself. Some of these distributions like Linspire also ship with non-free softwares like Win4Lin which helps you to run popular windows programs like photoshop and games like Age of Empire. So it is money well spent. It may be worthwhile if you visit Distrowatch.com and read some reviews about what people have to say regarding a particular distribution before you make the choice.

Tom: Ravi, thanks for clearing my doubts regarding the Linux distributions. This discussion has helped me a lot. I do not know what I would have done without friends like you.

Me: No problem Tom. And God speed ahead.

A note to Readers

Tom and Manish are fictitious characters and this whole train of thought took place inside my mind. I hope this conversation has helped clear the air about which Linux distribution is ideal for you.