Category: computing

There have been a lot of great shots at the Mirror Project, but this is by far my favorite.

Oh yes, and they’re lovely. I remember visiting this site many moons ago, and harvesting loads of fonts. Since then, they’ve expanded: Free dincFONTS. Some beautiful typefaces for your designery.

Ok, my favorite new feature in OS 10.2 has go to be iChat. They’ve outdone the AIM client in almost every way. It’s gorgeous in that iTunes kinda way, and the Rendezvous thing looks like it will be a lot of fun. The only problem is the fact that I think I’m the only person on my floor using it, and well, that means my Rendezvous window is empty. The thought baloons are cute, and I think might start to annoy me eventually. For now, they’re a nice departure from the same old thing. Thankfully, you can shut them off and go back to formatting them as regular old IM’s.

Amazon.com is great. It allows people who’ve used a product to rate and review it so I can make a more informed decision. This system is especially useful when buying video games (yes, I broke down yesterday and bought a PS2). But, I’ve noticed an annoying trend. Games that no one outside of the company creating the game and a small number of beta testers haven’t played yet have ratings. Adventurous psychic souls have rated games that aren’t coming out for sometimes months in advance. For example, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter sounds like a great game. You can’t rate the concept of a game before playing a game. If you look a the concept for one of the most popular video games of all time: a yellow circle eats small dots, gets chased by ghosts, and for short periods of time gets to chase those ghosts after eating a slightly larger dot. There, that sounds pretty crappy, doesn’t it? The same with classics like Super Mario Brothers, etc. People, people, people, you’re screwing up a great system. Amazon, please don’t allow people to rate items before they come out, or at least wipe the slate clean once the item is released. It artificially skews the rating for premonitions to count the same as real-world experience.

Ok, I’m done… and by the way, Jak and Daxter is amazing. The world is huge, and loads of fun to explore.

It’s articles like these that make me think. You know, I love Linux. I also love OS X and have no real hatred for Windows (I do have real hatred for Microsoft). The point of the editorial is basically to watch out for Linux on the desktop. Ummm, duh. Just the other day at Lowe’s buying paint, I caught a glimpse of the terminal in the wallpaper department… Linux on a small IBM machine running XWindows. That is how Linux will grow on the desktop. I think Linux is perfect for single application terminals / limited use in stores, or other places where those using the computer should have 1) no ability to change the functions of the machine or 2) limited access to functionality outside of the intended use. So, for a call center, you could give each rep access to a web browser, like Mozilla, with e-mail and web browsing, their own home directory with a disk quota for bookmarks and documents, and put your customer tracking database online behind a firewall. Voila, no site-wide Windows License and almost perfect security.

When I was in tech support, we made a hobby of breaking the Windows Policy Editor settings that were supposed to keep us from running our own applications. We ALWAYS found a way around them. In Linux, those functions can be removed from the terminal completely, and each user will only be able to run applications in the directory they’re assigned.

The problem with adopting Linux across an enterprise is converting the business folks who 1) aren’t geeky, and 2) set in their ways when it comes to Microsoft Office. I fear the conversion for them will never happen, unless Microsoft’s licensing scheme becomes completely overbearing and financially unbearable. Even then, I think that business folks might start looking at OS X as an option (ok that’s COMPLETELY wishful thinking).

As enterprises become more creative, and Microsoft charges more and more for licenses, Linux will make gains. First at the bottom levels of organizations where it’s easy to dictate to the user base what they will use to perform their job functions.

Personally, I don’t use Linux day-to-day as my desktop. I like Gnome, and it’s perfectly servicable for navigating through installed programs. I’m still a slave to Windows, although I find myself using my Powerbook and Quiksilver G4 with OS X more and more. I may make the switch eventually. It’s about inertia and having benefits of switching that outweight the time involved in learning new behavior. That’s the key. If I haven’t switched, and I’m a geek, I can’t expect the non-geeks out there to switch.

Unfortunately, it’s up to the Linux community and associated companies to provide that incentive, or Microsoft’s to keep providing cons for using their’s. The linux community has proven it can innovate, drive new technologies and make a difference. The linux desktop still has a ways to go, and a few more apps to provide. I honestly believe it will get there and Linux will start challenging Windows outside of the data center where Linux is already making huge inroads.

The problem with writing about this is that there are so many things to say on the topic. I think this is a topic for the Geekery. I think I’ll start a decision guide, and a “Here’s What I Would Use For X” doc. Not sure where it will go, but I guess we’ll find out.

You know what I love ZDNet’s TalkBack feature? It doesn’t matter what the article, the rhetoric is the same. Every single article seems to break down into the same argument. I just couldn’t resist this one though: News: Xbox goes online… with Linux

I posted yesterday about VirtualPC and how slow it was. It’s still slow, but not a complete loss. I was playing around yesterday, trying to get RedHat installed on a new virtual drive. It was taking FOREVER, so I put the machine to sleep in the middle of the install. I came in this morning, woke it up, and what happened? The install kept right on going. Well done.

I’ve always loved the idea of VirtualPC. But, in practice, it doesn’t quite live up to the hype. I got work to pony up for VirtualPC 5 w/ Windows 98 (which was waiting for me when I got back). It’s all installed on my lovely Powerbook. The problem is it’s dog slow. This was my experience with the 3.0 on my previous Mac. I love the idea of being able to build a new site on my Mac with BBEdit and then pop open Windows 98 to see how it looks in IE without having to switch machines. Now it’s possible, but it’s so slow, it’s almost not worth it. Keep it up, Connectix, you’ll get there eventually.