All about Linux

All you want to know about Google Chrome OS in a Nutshell

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:34:00 PST

Google recently lifted the curtains on its soon to be flagship product Google Chrome OS - a heavily customized Operating system which runs on top of the Linux kernel. Google did this with great panache by releasing the source code of the operating system under an open source license. The open source part of the operating system is known as Google Chromium OS.

Since a lot has already been written about the Google Chrome OS, I thought of doing something different. I collected the details of the project and created a mind map providing a birds eye view of Google Chrome OS.

All you want to know about Google Chrome OS

So instead of reading through reams of text, now you need only glance at the following mind map to come upto date on the Google Chrome OS project.

Reference : Google Chromium OS Official Site

Now for some videos on Google Chrome OS.

What is Google Chrome OS ?

This video explains to you in plain English about Google Chrome OS.

Google Chrome OS UI Concept Explained

Explore the Google Chrome OS user interface in this video.

Google Chrome OS Security

A video on the security aspects of Google Chrome OS.

Google Chromium OS Explained

Chromium OS is the open-source project behind the Google Chrome OS. The following video talks about Google Chromium OS.

Adobe AIR 2 Beta for Linux Released

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:30:00 PST

Adobe AIR 2 beta (runtime and SDK) has been simultaneously released for Windows, Mac, and Linux. AIR 2 builds on the success of AIR 1 by giving developers new capabilities and even tighter integration with the desktop.

New Features in Adobe AIR 2 beta

• Multi-touch support - Track multiple touch points simultaneously.
• Gestures - Applications can listen for multi-touch events.
• Open files with default application
• Improved security.
• Support for detection of mass storage devices.
• Drag and drop support for remote files.
• IPv6 support
• Improved cross-platform printing
• Consumes less energy than its predecessor (version 1.0).

... just to name a few.

Check out the full Release Notes for the details as well as Adobe AIR 2 Developer FAQ to learn more about this release.

Currently, Adobe AIR 2 beta support is available for Fedora Core 11, Ubuntu 9.04, and OpenSuSE 11.1 . AIR 2 beta doesn't support 64-bit Linux yet. However, 64-bit support is expected to be provided as an update to AIR 2 beta for Linux.

It is for the first time that Adobe has simultaneously released a product for all the three platforms namely Windows, Mac and Linux.

You can download Adobe AIR 2 beta from the following page.

GIMP going to get the boot in Ubuntu Lucid

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:30:00 PST

It is heard that GIMP is going to be left out of the default selection of packages bundled with the next version of Ubuntu aka Ubuntu Lucid. There is an interesting write up about this at omgubuntu.co.uk.

The following are the reasons provided against inclusion of GIMP in the default installation of Ubuntu Lucid.

The general user doesn't use it.
User interface doesn't inspire confidence.
GIMP is usually used by professionals
There are simpler and easier alternatives to GIMP for basic photo manipulation.
Takes up space in the disk (CD,DVD,...).
Photoshop is not bundled by default in Windows, hence GIMP shouldn't be in Ubuntu either.

Now the pro-GIMP users (which includes me) have this to say supporting the retention of GIMP in the next version of Ubuntu.

One of the ways of introducing people to alternative software is to include it in the default installation of Linux and have it readily accessible to the users from the menu. Removing GIMP would mean encouraging people to think that Linux is "not ready for serious users."
If saving space on the disk is the major issue, why not replace OpenOffice.org with equivalent software such as Abiword and Gnumeric ? After all, how many general users of Linux (or Windows for that matter) use a word processor or spread sheet program? And OpenOffice.org occupies far more space than GIMP.
GIMP's user interface may be out of the ordinary. But to those who have gotten used to this interface, Photoshop's interface is out of the ordinary. (Believe me, I use GIMP for touching up and preparing all the images you see on this blog. And I find GIMP a lot more intutive than Photoshop). Bottom line is, it is a matter of getting used to.
Agreed, you can always install GIMP using a simple apt-get install. But what about those users who do not have ready access to Internet (and there are lots of them out there who own a computer but rely on Cybercafes for reading their email and web browsing). There will be no easy recourse for these set of Ubuntu users who wish to install and use GIMP.

For the above mentioned reasons, I vote strongly in favour of GIMP being included in the default set of packages bundled with the next version of Ubuntu aka Ubuntu Lucid. Let me go one step further, every Linux distribution out there, whether it is the best Linux distribution, big or small, should include GIMP in their default installation. Value added software like GIMP is what makes using Linux truly fascinating.

Fedora 12 Released with Huge Improvements in Tablet Support

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:30:00 PST

Fedora 12 has been released. This release touts huge improvement in support for tablets accompanied by tweaks to our favourite software such as a new pen preset tool in Inkscape, Brush dynamics tool in Gimp, Handwriting recognition tool named Cellwriter, a notes taking application (Xournal) to name a few. The following are some of the other new features you will find in Fedora 12.

Fedora 12 Main Features

Empathy, an instant messenger that supports chat, video, and audio. It lets you talk to your friends who are on AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, Jabber, Live (MSN), MySpace, and many other platforms.
Support for Bluetooth audio devices.
A redesigned NetworkManager which features IPv6 support.
PackageKit - a package management front-end which sports a re-designed interface with many new user friendly features built-in.
KDE 4.3, GNOME Shell preview, Gnote which replaces Tomboy are a few other noticable improvements in Fedora 12.

Read the full release notes of Fedora 12 to know the details. Also read an interview with Matthias Clasen of Red Hat who talks about some of the new features for desktop users in Fedora 12.

Download Fedora 12

Latest version of Fedora (version 12 in this case) can be downloaded from this page. There are also a couple of spins of Fedora 12 which are essentially customized versions of Fedora which you can access here.

World's first 80 dollar laptop which can run Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:48:00 PST

After the $100 laptop OLPC project, it is the turn of the $80 laptop. You heard me right, this laptop costs only $80 if the video review that follows is to be believed.

The $80 laptop branded EasyPC is one of the products rolled out by a Chinese laptop manufacturer - MENQ Group.

EasyPC $80 laptop full specifications

EasyPC E790 comes with a modest 64MB RAM and 2 GB disk space. While the disk space is quite stingy, the good news is, it has an integrated standard SD card slot which supports cards of upto 32GB size.

These are the full specs of the $80 laptop from the manufacturer's website.

The specifications say the laptop comes installed with Windows CE by default. However, this laptop is ideal for running any light weight OS such as Google Android (which is built on top of a custom Linux kernel), as the following video review suggests.

Read the detailed review of the laptop @techvideoblog.com.

How to self publish your own book

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:01:00 PST

If you have decided to write a book, then you must be wondering about the different publishing options at your disposal. In most cases, you typically approach a publishing house with your idea of the book. However, there is an interesting alternative, which is to self-publish your book.

Self-publishing is the publishing of books and other media by the authors of those works, rather than by established, third-party publishers. The key distinguishing characteristic of self-publishing is the absence of a traditional publisher. Instead, the creator or creators fulfill this role, taking editorial control of the content, arranging for printing, marketing the material, and often distributing it, either directly to consumers or to retailers.

One of the foremost portal which helps individual authors self-publish their work is Lulu.com. But there are other active players in the self-publish business too.

So how do you go about publishing your book and selling it to make money - is the big question.

Dusty Phillips has a very nice article where he explains the various options available to authors who wish to self-publish their work. He peppers the article with his own experiences in publishing a book in this manner. And also provides formatting tips to potential authors.

Check out his article.

Free Online Book : Google Wave - Learn How to Use it.

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:30:00 PST

The Complete Guide to Google Wave is book authored by Gina Trapani (Lifehacker fame) and Adam Pash. This book is freely available for reading online. The book is divided into 8 comprehensive chapters and 2 appendices. A very good book on Google Wave indeed.

Bookmark the link for future reference and read the free online book to get to know Google Wave inside-out. "The Complete Guide to Google Wave" book will be available in PDF and print sometime next year.

Now if only someone will send me a Google Wave invite.....

Free Open Source Screencasts for Linux System Administrators and Newbies alike

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:06:00 PST

There has always been a dearth in quality training material in Linux System Administration. And if there are resources on the Net, they are hard to find. Now here is a new venture by John Yerhot who endevours to provide very well made videos which explain how to use different commands in Linux, useful to people who administer Linux servers.

FOSSCasts are short, free screencasts covering Linux, Unix, and Open Source software in general. Each episode is under 10 minutes and covers a different piece of Open Source software or a set of tips and tricks novice and seasoned veterans will both find useful.

The videos are available for download in two formats namely - Ogg Theora and Apple Quicktime. I checked out the latest episode - Sysstat Part 1 : vmstat & iostat; and the quality of the screencast is stellar.

The site is still in its inception stage and so you will find only a couple of screencasts at present. But their schedule is to provide one new screencast per week.

Do check out the screencasts - It is a job well done.

Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:40:00 PDT

Ubuntu today released its latest offering namely Ubuntu Karmic Koala version 9.10. Ubuntu Karmic Koala comes with lots of new features.

New Features in Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10

Upstart - an event-based replacement for the /sbin/init daemon which handles starting of tasks and services during boot, stopping them during shutdown and supervising them while the system is running.
Software Center - a graphical utility for package management in Ubuntu. It replaces the Add/Remove programs tool.
GNOME version 2.28
Quickly - An easy way to develop applications for Ubuntu and package them in a deb format.
Ubuntu Karmic Koala is available in 25 languages.
Linux kernel 2.6.31
Ubuntu One - Integrates your Ubuntu machine with the cloud providing you free 2 GB of space to store and synchronize all your data like Tomboy notes, imortant files, contacts et al. More space is available for a nominal price of $10 / month.
Better support for Intel chipsets.
Ext4 file system by default.
Grub 2
Improved and enhanced AppArmor.

Of course, Ubuntu 9.10 is not without its share of glitches. Do check out the release notes for the lengthy list of issues that users might face while running this Ubuntu version.

How to download Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10

You can download Ubuntu 9.10 by visiting this page and choosing a mirror closest to your geographical location. You are encouraged to use bittorrent to download the ISO as it will ease the load on the Ubuntu servers.

Abicollab.net - A free web based collaboration service

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:35:00 PDT

A collaboration service allows multiple people spread across the world to remotely get together and edit a single document simultaneously. AbiCollab is one such service. What is interesting about AbiCollab is that it is based around the popular open source wordprocessor Abiword.

Once you create an account in AbiCollab.net, you can create Abiword documents, open existing Abiword documents for collaboration with others, even view the documents right within the web browser. If you have created any documents in Abiword on your computer, you can also upload your Abiword documents to your online account.

I do like Abiword and find it a superior wordprocessor which holds a lot of promise. Visit AbiCollab.net and give this new service a try.

[News via Slashdot]

Yahoo Geocities brings fond memories... Not!

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:35:00 PDT

My first web page was in Yahoo Geocities. That was a time when the now ubiquitous server side technologies like PHP had yet to make an appearance. Yahoo was one of the few web hosts who were providing amateur website builders like myself a platform to host our files.

While I did find Geocities very useful to host files, I was always irritated by the protruding Yahoo ads on my website which were ruining my web page design. If you are wondering how my web site looked, then here is a screenshot I saved for nostalgic reasons.

You will be surprised to know that my Geocities website featured Linux resources as well - mostly links to useful resources on the net.

It had been a while since I have visited my very first web page though. To be honest, I had forgotten about my website till this day.

26th October 2009 is the last day stipulated by Yahoo after which, it will delete all the Geocities hosted websites.

It is my take that Yahoo has milked Geocities to make a ton of money through the ads it ran on each of the over a million websites hosted on the Geocities portal. And unlike Google, it hasn't shared even a penny with the webmasters who diligently maintained their sites.

I guess it is time to bid adieu to a portal that has well over, served a useful purpose for millions of people.

Windows 7 Gets a Thumbs Up from Linus Torvalds

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:23:00 PDT

Didn't even dream such a day would dawn, did you ? Now here is the father of Linux posing before a Windows 7 stall in Japan with a thumbs up sign.

The story behind the picture

The occasion was a Linux Symposium held in Japan in which Linus Torvalds was an attendee. Microsoft knowing about the Linux Symposium erected a Windows 7 promotion booth right across the venue.

During the break, when Linus Torvalds was dragged to the Windows 7 booth by a few of his buddies, he chose to pose as seen in the picture.

If you are wondering, No! Linus didn't buy a copy of Windows 7.

Source of News : Engadget
Photo Credits : Chris @ Japan Linux Symposium

Google Search will now include Twitter Tweets

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:12:00 PDT

Google has reached an agreement with Twitter to include real time tweets from Twitter in Google search results. All the more reason to take tweeting and tweets seriously.

So how is this news relevant to the lay person like you and me ? Twitter is synonymous with real-time updates of data. There are millions of people the world over who are tweeting information each day, which translates to billions of tweets. Now our Google search will also have real time data from people who have tweeted about the same topic. You can get real time information about disasters that have happened in a region, weather, traffic conditions in your area ... the list goes on and on. The basic premise is that someone, somewhere, is tweeting about these topics at any given time which makes this information valuable to the seeker.

This blog also has a twitter account associated with it. I concede, I am a late entrant to the twitter field. However, my twitter account already has 195 followers. You may follow my tweets at twitter.com/aboutlinux if you haven't done so already. It will contain atmost one or two tweets a day on relevant topics. So you won't be inundated with tweets from me.

[Source of news : Google Blog]

Cheat Sheet For Networking Professionals

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:43:00 PDT

Free download of a collection of cheet sheets for computer networking professionals. All the cheat sheets are in PDF and are beautifully made. The cheat sheets are segregated into different categories such as -

Protocols (BGP,EIGRP, First Hop Redundancy, IEEE 802.11 WLAN, IEEE 802.1X, IPsec, IPv4 Multicast, IPv6, IS-IS, OSPF, Spanning Tree)
Applications (tcpdump,Wireshark display filters)
Reference (IOS IPv4 Access Lists, IPv4 Subnetting, Common Ports)
Syntax (Markdown, MediaWiki)
Technologies (Frame Mode MPLS, QoS, VLANs)
Miscellaneous (Cisco IOS Versions, Physical terminations)

Courtesy of PacketLife.net

I had put together a small Cheat Sheet for MySQL a couple of years back which helped me in remembering the command line parameters used in manipulating MySQL database.

The idea of a cheat sheet is to help a person keep track of all the essentials of a topic. Thus cheat sheets play an invaluable role in brushing up ones knowledge in the least possible time.

Blogger to Wordpress Migration - Step by Step Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:03:00 PDT

I often see the Blogger domain of this blog and have a sinking feeling that I am stuck with this blogspot sub-domain. Believe me, there is nothing wrong in running your blog on a blogspot sub domain. There are instances of blogging successes on a blogspot domain too. It is just that with a custom domain and paid hosting, you have more flexibility and control over the various elements that comprise your blog. And for SEO benefits, it is advised to always run your blog on a custom domain - preferably using a blogging software like Wordpress - though Drupal would also make a good fit.

Today, I stumbled upon a very useful article written by Amit Agarwal which explains how to migrate your blog from blogger to paid Wordpress hosting and your own custom domain. What is relevant about this article is, Amit explains how to do the migration without losing any of the visitors to your old blog hosted on blogspot domain.

Check out Amit's article to learn how to do the search engine friendly switch of your blog from Blogger to Wordpress platform without losing any link juice.

How to make your website mobile friendly

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:30:00 PDT

Do you run a website or blog ? If yes, how accessible is it on a mobile device ? Now a days, with more and more people browsing the net straight from their mobile devices like cell phones, it is very important to make your website as accessible to this group of users. Google teaches you how.

Steps to make your website mobile friendly

The following are the steps you need to take to make your website easily accessible on cell phones and other mobile devices.

Provide an obvious link to the mobile version of your website from the desktop version of your site.
Use a conventional "mobile URL" and advertise it. Eg: Gmail uses the m.gmail.com URL to provide the mobile version of Gmail.
Your mobile version of website should have a mobile friendly web design and should provide large, actionable, clickable UI elements.
Mobile phones can be broadly classified into different categories - depending upon the degree of internet connectivity they support. Design your mobile friendly website for all these categories.
Reduce the number of requests and the amount of data transferred.
- Sprite your images using CSS or transfer your images using a data URI scheme.
- Consolidate all your page's dependencies like CSS code, JavaScript and so on into a single file.
- Compress your HTML code where ever possible.
- Eliminate redirects.
- Transfer data when needed and preload where appropriate.
Take advantage of new features in HTML.
- Use an application cache for local content storage.
- Use CSS3 instead of images where ever possible.
- Plan for the lowest common denominator. For example, Flash is not widely supported by many mobile devices. Dito for JavaScript. So these are best left out from your mobile friendly website design.
Last but not the least, extensively test your mobile friendly website on multiple devices - which includes, actual devices like iPhone, Windows mobile and mobile simulators like Blackberry simulator, Opera Mini simulator, Android Emulator and so on.

[Source : Google]

Sir Tim Berners Lee apologizes for forward slashes in web addresses

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:53:00 PDT

Sir Tim Berners Lee - the creator of the World Wide Web (WWW) has apologized for the mandatory forward slashes in web addresses. He says he could easily have deviced web addresses without the forward slashes.

This apology was made in the mist of a light hearted talk with a Times newspaper reporter.

However, Berners Lee need not be unduly worried. Most modern web browsers assume the http:// part and prepend it to an address when a user type a web address.

Web browsers are getting more and more intelligent. For example, if you type a phrase in the address bar of Firefox, chances are it will display the results for the query in your default search engine (usually Google). More over, if it is a well known phrase associated with a particular website, then you may even be taken directly to that website.

[Source : BBC]

Bash Examples - Mistakes to Avoid

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:56:00 PDT

A bash script is a text file containing a list of commands to be executed by the bash shell. A long time back, I had written a guide on Bash scripting which teaches you the basic syntax of bash scripts in a mere 10 seconds.

However, while writing bash scripts, you should keep a sharp lookout for any mistakes that may arise in your bash syntax. This is where Greg's wiki comes into the picture. Greg's wiki has a page which lists around 29 bash examples that highlight all the common mistakes that people usually make while writing bash scripts.

Google Wave Explained in Plain English

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:25:00 PDT

I was raring to try out Google Wave but havin't received an invite yet. So I did the next best thing which is to scrounge the Net for more info on Google Wave. Thus I chanced upon this wonderfully made video explaining in plain English what Google Wave is all about.

What is Google Wave ?

Simply put, Google Wave, as I have understood, is about removing duplicity in our communication. All the conversation that takes place within Google Wave is one huge wave. There is only one copy of a conversation stored (on a centralized server). And that conversation can be shared amoung countless people, with these people adding bits and pieces here and there to make the conversation grow. You can add not just text but videos, attach files, add voice and pictures, embed maps - all of which merge seamlessly with the wave. There is even a playback feature to help people to keep track of the conversation that is happening.

Some people are calling Google Wave a morph of - Instant Messaging, Email, and Web Conferencing - All rolled into one application.

Excited ?

Then check out the following informative video which explains the Google Wave technology to lay persons like you and me.

Handy Tips To Be More Productive Using GIMP

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:48:00 PDT

GIMP - also known as the GNU Image Manipulation Program - is well known as an excellent graphics editor. Many people even consider it as useful as Adobe Photoshop for creating images for the web. I have been using GIMP for a long time now and have used it for such tasks as screen capturing, optimizing images, retouching photos, scaling images, special effects and so on. GIMP is available for multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Why, GIMP is even available as a portable application which allows you to run it directly from a USB pen drive.

The following are a few handy tips which will help you be more productive in GIMP.

Handy Tips for GIMP users

Add the PSPI plugin - This plugin will allow you to install and use most Photoshop filters in GIMP.
Install the Layer effects plug-in - This plug-in will club filters such as drop shadow, color overlay, bevel and embross, inner shadow, inner glow and so on into one group thus easing your work.
Install the Separate+ plug-in which will bring CMYK color separation in GIMP.
Install the Liquid Rescale plug-in.
Add additional brushes. GIMP already comes with a default set of brushes but you can download more variety from websites such as blendfu.com.
Anchor the windows - There is an always on top option for GIMP dialog windows. Use them to your advantage.
Install the GIMP Animation Package (GAP) - Helps you create animated GIFs, surrealistic landscapes and realistic water motion.
Enable GEGL in GIMP. This feature is available only in GIMP 2.6 and above.

[Source: Smashing Magazine]

Damn Small Linux - DSL

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:07:00 PDT

Damn Small Linux - also known as DSL - is a fully functional Desktop oriented Linux distribution which fits in a business card sized (50 MB) CD.

How to run DSL

You can run DSL from the following.

Bootable USB Pen Drives
Business Card CD (>= 50 MB)
Compact flash card
Zip drive
Installed on your Hard Disk
Entirely in RAM (Memory).
From within another operating system such as Windows through virtualization.

What can DSL be used for ?

DSL, even while small in size (50MB) has applications for all your computer needs. It works flawlessly on old computers with just 64 MB memory so can be installed on old machines. DSL is ideally suitable for use by people on the move to be run from USB pen drives and business card CDs. Damn Small Linux has applications for almost any task you may want to do on your computer.

DSL Screenshot

The following is a screenshot of DSL version 4.4.10.

List of Applications in DSL

DSL, despite its small size is packed with a valuable set of applications suitable for your basic computer use. A few applications worth noting are as follows :

Firefox web browser
Ted word processor
Sylpheed email client
Beaver text editor
Siag spreadsheet
xpdf PDF viewer
Monkey web server.

This is just a subset of the useful applications bundled with DSL.

Damn Small Linux - DSL Review

Read my DSL Review.

More About DSL

DSL Home Page - Click here.
Official DSL Forum - Click here.

50 Time Saving Tips For Ubuntu Users

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:15:00 PDT

If you are an avid Ubuntu Linux user and wish to be more productive in using Ubuntu, these 50 time saving tips are for you. These 50 tips range right from doing mundane tasks to doing something spectacular all the while helping you save on time.

50 Time Saving Ubuntu Tips

The 50 time saving tips are divided into 5 separate sections for easy reference namely -

System performance
Default Gnome desktop
The KDE desktop
System wide tips, and
The command line.

Clipboard Managers in Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:40:00 PDT

A clipboard manager is a computer program that adds additional functionality to basic clipboard usage. The main tasks of a clipboard manager are as follows :

To store data copied to the clipboard so that it can be pasted after closing the host application of the data copied.
To store and retrieve multiple clips from the clip history available – any number of times.

This means you need to copy text or images only once and it will be available for pasting through out the duration of your computer use. Linux has a plethora of clipboard managers. But the one program which comes to my mind the most is the one available by default in all KDE installations namely Klipper.

The following is a list of clipboard managers which you can try out in Linux.

Glipper (for GNOME users)
Klipper (for KDE users)
Clipman (for XFCE users)
Parcellite
DDM

Penguin Inside has written an article explaining the pros and cons of the above mentioned clipboard managers which makes an interesting read. Using clipboard managers is one way of saving on repetitive tasks and thus improving your productivity in using computers.

How many Operating Systems can you name ?

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:32:00 PDT

The other day when I was trying out Haiku, I had a sudden brain wave. How many operating systems - old or otherwise can I really name? And how many of these have I actually used? To tell you honestly, I could name only a few including the ones I have used. Of course, I lumped all Linux distributions as one entity.

In fact, this is the list of operating systems I could name :

DOS (MSDOS, FreeDOS, PC DOS ...)
Linux (Fedora, OpenSuSE, Ubuntu, DSL, PCLinuxOS, ....)
Solaris (OpenSolaris, Belenix, Nexenta, ...)
BSD (FreeBSD, NetBSD,OpenBSD, PCBSD,...)
Apple MAC OS X (Tiger, Leopard, ...)
Microsoft Windows (Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7)
IBM OS/2, z/OS ...
Other Unix (Xenix)
Qnx
Haiku, BeOS

Over a period of time, I have written a couple of reviews of the ones I have used. So here is a question for you. How many operating systems can you really name? And out of those how many have you actually used (or tried out) ? Do you know of any really old operating systems apart from the ones mentioned in this list ?

Is Linux kernel getting bloated ? Linus Torvalds says Yes!

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:30:00 PDT

A lot of bloat is creeping into the Linux kernel. This was the startling revelation made by none other than Linus Torvalds - Founder of the Linux kernel. He said this in his talk at LinuxCon - an event that brings together Linux gurus and open source leaders to provide collaboration and education space for all matters on Linux.

The word bloat is historically associated with Microsoft Windows because each major updates in the form of Windows Service Packs installs 100s of MB data on your machine.

The term "bloat" can be defined as software that provides minimal functionality while requiring a disproportionate amount of diskspace and memory. It is especially used for application and OS upgrades.

This is what Linus Torvalds said when the question on performance drops in each release of the kernel was posed to him (and I quote) :

We’re getting bloated and huge. Yes, it’s a problem.
...
I’d like to say we have a plan.
...
Sometimes it’s a bit sad that we are definitely not the streamlined, small hyper efficient kernel I envisioned 15 years ago. The kernel is huge and bloated and our iCache footprint is scary. There’s no question about that, and whenever we add a new feature, it only gets worse.

So do you think each version of Linux kernel is really providing marginal new features, all the while increasing the size of the kernel ?