2 weeks down, and missing the ones I love...

I've just started my 3rd week of what could be a 6 to 12 months stint in Canberra. My housemate just came back from Melbourne after spending the long weekend down there (Melbourne Cup). In the 2 weeks that I've been in Canberra, I've managed to see:

• The War Memorial
• The National Museum
• Bits and pieces all over the place

I'm missing Melbourne greatly, as my wife and our four-legged daughter is down there. It feels weird as tonight is also the Wednesday night meeting for LUV (it's usually on a Tuesday night - except for November due to the Melbourne Cup weekend). Last month I attended the CLUG meeting and was lucky enough to hear Tridge speak, but it wasn't the same as LUV. In a very geeky act, I introduced myself to him and thanked him for his contributions to Open Source.

I really miss Melbourne...

The start of something...

As some of you may know, I'm from Melbourne and was happy there. Recently I've taken a leap of faith and am working in Canberra in an infrastructure role with IBM technologies. It's mainly around their UNIX and application server technology.

So why did I start this? Wanted to get some bits down of what I was thinking as well as document some of the things I have been doing or playing with. So let's hope this becomes something big, and not just another neglected blog.

In case you're wondering more about me, here's my current homepage.

Interesting sponsor for a Linux news site

I was just recently sent a link to a news article on a Linux website. This website claims to be "Australia's Premier Linux News Source". I was quite surprised to find that Microsoft had somehow purchased some advertising space on this website, and were trying to advertise their "Get the facts" campaign. For anyone who doesn't know what "Get the facts" is about - essentially it's Microsoft trying to put forward case studies on companies that have chosen Microsoft Windows over Linux due to cost, ease, performance, and other factors. I haven't really spent too much time investigating "the facts" from Microsoft, so I won't be able to comment on their cases, but it is interesting to take "the fight" to the front-line and advertise the "Get the facts" message on a Linux news site. The article I was pointed to was: Intel quietly ships Pentium D with DRM, but it appears you can access the advertising from many different pages, including the site's home page. In case the web site has changed their advertising policy, I took a screen-shot of the article in my Mozilla browser:


Initially I was a little stunned at what the Linux news website had allowed as advertising. I thought that this would send mixed messages to prospective Linux users. Think about a new user coming to the site for some information, only to find that they can "Get the facts" and stick with Microsoft. But then again, if you think about it, Microsoft in a way, is sponsoring the spread of Linux. They pay for the website to be up and running, and thus allow people to find out about Linux. I just wonder if Novell or Red Hat would adopt a similar marketing tactic and advertise on Windows web sites.

Some comments about last year...

Due to my attention being diverted by GNU/Linux on my Toshiba P20 last year, I didn't make many updates to the 2004 rants and rave page. I just wanted to make some comments on what I did last year.

Last year, I was lucky enough to be in a presentation given by two influential people in the Open Source / Free Software movement. The first one was Richard Stallman (you can scroll down the page of the link to find out what he looks like). Richard gave a very impressive speech on free software and how important it is to stop the mega-corporations just enforcing their rules on us - especially in Australia. It made much sense to hear him speak about how all software should be, and can be free (in the sense of freedom). People shouldn't be disheartened by the lack of quality free software, for if the software is truly free, it can continually be improved. And while there is some catching up to do in some areas of free software, eventually with enough effort and time, it will surpass proprietary (closed-source) software. I had never heard it termed like that before, and to me it made a lot of sense. After the presentation, I returned to my Linux machine and used in in a new type of passion (even though I have proprietary software on it in the form of Java and the nVidia drivers - but in the case of graphic cards, nVidia supports Linux with their proprietary drivers than ATI). At the end of the presentation, Richard offered some products to buy, and I purchased a GNU 20th anniversary pin. Hopefully that microscopic donation can power Richard to keep giving more of those speeches, and awakening people to the concept of free software around the world.

The other person I met that I consider a major influence in the Open Source community was Michael Tiemann. Michael talked on different topics to Richard. Where Richard spoke of the importance of keeping software free, Michael suggested many ways of how open source could make money (btw. Michael is more in-tuned with "Open Source", whereas Richard is more in-line with "Free Software" - there is a difference). I've always found it hard to come to terms with the concept of making money with something you can essentially sell once, but can be copied many times over. His idea (and that of Red Hat Linux) is not to make money from packaging up their property, as this means essentially once you ship a copy "out the door" your competitor can copy it and ship it too. The key is to make money by providing services, and selling value-added solutions to your customers. This allows for a very competitive market where innovating will mean that you're in the lead, and the customer wins as there is truly a free market. For example, if you're a customer of Red Hat, and they do something you don't like, you can change to SUSE Linux, due to the "exit costs" of going from Linux to Linux being very low. Michael also offered a better model of how to calculate Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). It should not just be calculated on purchasing or running costs, but it should also include exit costs too. Microsoft Windows appears to have a low TCO, but exit costs rarely enter into the equation. Sometimes upgrading between versions of Windows (eg. from Windows95 to WindowsNT4 to WindowsXP) and Microsoft products (like Office) are not as low as Microsoft would lead you to believe. The usual case is that things go wrong, and you'll end up uninstalling some other applications to make something work, and you'll find incompatibility between some versions. You've then got to factor in the cost of converting those products / documents into the new (Microsoft latest version friendly) format. A final point I took from Michael's presentation is that Open Source software gives people / companies the freedom to be different or be the same. If you like what other Open Source people / companies are developing, there is no harm in using that product as yours. If you don't, then there's no problems with writing your own. There are many more benefits that initially greet the eye. It also allows start-up companies basing their products on Open Source technologies to get a line-up of products in a relative short time.

Finally, one last point. Since I've started my "GNU/Linux on a Toshiba P20" page, I've met a few very interesting people. Some people have written to me about GNU/Linux (and how to install / use it). Some people have written to me about the Toshiba P20, but the majority that have written are about both. If you've got something you want to discuss with me, just feel free to write some e-mail to me. My address is rdefrance (at) gmail (dot) com. I look forward to corresponding with all.

Happy New Year to all...

Just want to start off the year wishing everyone a safe and prosperous 2005.

Say no to "vendor lock-in"!

I know it's been a while since I've written anything, but as you know, I've been playing around with my PC and Linux. One thing I would like to point out with software is an awful scenario, where an entity becomes dependant on another entity for a piece of software. This is commonly known as "vendor lock-in". It's not a unique case. Many of you out there may already be "victims" of it without knowing.

Why is this bad you ask? What happens if the vendor you are relying on does something different in their product that you use, that all of a sudden stops working on your PC. What choices do you have left? Not much, I think.

One of the best features with Open Source software is the avoidance of "vendor lock-in". As the source is available, if one person doesn't offer the service you need, you could always fix it yourself, or employ someone to fix it for you.

Why have I brought this point up after many months of silence? Well I've just had some dealings with a large IT company which supports some Open Source Linux distributions. The only problem is they don't support Gentoo Linux (yes I know, more zealotry). Nothing would make me happier if this large IT company would release the application server and their source code management application so it was fully functioning with Gentoo, but alas, they only support Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux. Don't fall into the trap of believing their words, just say NO.

So I'm quiet again...

I've been quiet on these pages as I've been working away on my machine at home, and playing around with the world of Open Source software. I can't believe how easy life can be with a well designed package management system. And yes, I am referring to Gentoo Linux. The more I use it, the more I appreciate it. I've also been chatting with work colleagues who were thinking of upgrading their operating systems. They were currently on some version of Red Hat Linux, and were asking me my opinion on what to go to next (this was around the time of the Red Hat - Fedora Project split). I mentioned to them about a system that never needs to be re-installed again. They were intrigued. They tried Gentoo. They have both said they will never look back! Effortless updates... you can't ask for more than that! Superb documentation. Great, friendly community. For zealotry like this, that money cannot afford, give it a go!

Installing software...

I've been busy, not on this "soap box page", but on getting Linux to run on my PC at home. For those of your that want to have a look as to what I'm up to, please visit my Linux on Toshiba page. That page has been quite active, as I have been updating it with what I've been doing with Gentoo Linux. I cannot sing the praises of that distribution enough. When I want to install some application, I find it's name in the application repository, and then type in one simple command to download it. It will then compile and install itself onto my hard-drive. "So what?" I hear you say... Well, it also looks at anything it depends on (libraries, environmental applications), and then downloads them as well. "So what? Microsoft Windows does it easier!" Well... yes and no! It does do it a little easier, as it does provide one standard set of widgets for all applications to use, but it still does not provide library protection. That basically means, sometimes if you install something, you may find some of your other applications just stop working, because they are depending on their old libraries being there... the old libraries you've just re-installed with the new version.

Gentoo eliminates all this by compiling everything from source and having an excellent dependency resolution system. So excellent, that most times I only have to type in the one command to bring down a complete open source system. Red Hat Linux (and other RPM based distributions) has their own system called RPM, but it does not do as good a job of getting software installed. There have been many articles about this on the web, commonly known as RPM Hell. Pick any of the articles to have a read. I have not yet seen one article praising RPM for going about installing software the right way. If there is one, please inform me and I'll update this page. I cannot really comment about Debian's way or Slackware's way of doing things, since I haven't used them properly before, but I will in the next few weeks / months.

How much is that puppy...?

The wife and I recently picked up a Hungarian Vizsla puppy from a local Melbourne breeder. This dog is what I would consider one of the best dogs I have ever had. She's only a few weeks old, and is already familiar with her name, has almost mastered not going to the toilet in the house, and has picked up on a basic game of fetch. If you're considering getting a dog (and I was a pro-Welsh Corgi person for a long time), consider this breed too. If you're after details, please feel free to e-mail me, and I'll pass the details of the breeder to you.

Images of Vizslas can be found here (via the Google.com images search engine).

Happy 2K4!

I hope you all had a safe festive period over the 2003 - 2004 period, regardless of your personal religious beliefs. I hope your 2004 is safe and prosperous in all aspects.