Trying to get VMware Workstation 6.5 and / or VMware Player to work in Fedora 11? I hear this thread on the VMware forums will help you out.
I switched to KVM months ago myself. Consider this a courtesy update to my 'one list' for vmware-any-any patches ;-)
Monday, July 6, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Prism on Fedora
Finally: a new version of Prism.
I have been doubting whether to make rpm's for prism for my Fedora install or waiting for the Prism team to release a version of the extension that works on the Firefox 3.5 beta's.
I'm glad the team released the extension before I got to deciding to build the application myself. Saves me from a lot of work and it *finally* gives me the option of having a gmail menu option in Fedora :)
Edit: you might want to have a link to go with this post
I have been doubting whether to make rpm's for prism for my Fedora install or waiting for the Prism team to release a version of the extension that works on the Firefox 3.5 beta's.
I'm glad the team released the extension before I got to deciding to build the application myself. Saves me from a lot of work and it *finally* gives me the option of having a gmail menu option in Fedora :)
Edit: you might want to have a link to go with this post
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Linux pro trying out an Windows 7RC installation
In a previous life, I worked for a huge Dutch IT consulting corporation. This was back when I started in IT (well not really, but at least I didn't have any certifications), so they required me to go on MCSA training. I completed all the courses and exams successfully, so apart from being pretty well qualified on Linux, I am actually an MCSA on Windows 2003, too. Don't tell anyone, I'd really like this to remain a secret between us.
So anyway, they see to keep your friends close, but enemies closer. Therefore I decided to give the RC for Windows 7 a spin. Not really, of course, but in a KVM virtual machine on my laptop running Fedora 11 to my full satisfaction.
I downloaded the ISO, got me a serial and read the requirements. The first thing I noticed, was the fact that the system requirements aren't all that steep. I'm not sure what that means for the performance inside a VM (and actually performance in general, remembering the Vista class action suit), but then again, I'm only test driving it.
What did stand out in the requirements was the fact that I had to have 16GB (what??) available in free disk space. Now, I do have space. Lots of it. But 16GB? What the heck does an OS without any extras (like Office applications, photo editing software, etc.) need 16GB for?
Then, whence installing, I noticed the installer partitioning my disk with a 100MB partition of the "System"-type and the rest as the "primary" partition. I'm pretty sure from my endeavors with fdisk, that there is not such thing as a partition of the "System"-type. I'm downloading a Knoppix image right now to find out what Windows thinks is a partition of the "System"-type. Maybe it's /boot? ;-)
There is no 'Use whole disk' or 'Do this automatically for me' button, but the 'New' button functions more or less as one of those.
The actual "Installing Windows" screen shows a couple of steps, which take a while to go through but nothing extreme. There is something listed called 'Installing features', though, which made me wonder what the other 'Install' items were doing.
Then there is a reboot, and 'Setup is updating registry settings' and 'Setup is starting services' screens.
After that, we're back in the "Installing Windows" screen, where 'Completing installation' is highlighted. Processor is at 100%, screen flickers a bit, hardware detection going on.
After another reboot, 'Setup is preparing my computer for first use' and I am asked for my username and a password (and a password hint? what?) in a second screen. In the next screen we enter the serial. Apparently, MS still has an Activation scheme going on, because Windows 7 wants to 'activate' itself when I'm online. Mmh. I don't really like that stuff. So let's not, for now.
I like the fact that an update scheme is presented to the user, which makes security a more prominent issue in Windows. Timezone picking is next, followed by a computer location selection screen. I wasn't familiar with this. I am supposed to pick from 'Home network', 'Work network' and 'Public network'. I imagine this affects default firewall settings and stuff, but a bit more detailed description of the three options would have been nice for people that have a clue and would like to know what happens under the hood. What is good, is that 'Public network' (and thus high secutiry, I think) is recommended. I select 'Home network'.
After this, setup goes on 'Preparing my desktop' and there we are. Notice there is no last reboot in between. The desktop instantly made me think 'hey, this looks like KDE4'. It has a broad taskbar and huge icons, just like default KDE4.
IE asks me what search provider I want to use, which is good. It then start babbling about 'accelerators' and 'web slices'. I am clueless about what those are, so I turn them off. CTRL-L still acts retarded on Windows, sadly.
The layout of the control panel looks cluttered, but there is a search option, so I finally got to see what this UAC thing is, everybody was so mad about.
At this point, I started to loose interest. I tried a reboot to check boot speed and I must say, Windows 7 boots pretty quick. It lost my network settings though, again asking me the 'Home network', 'Work network' etc. question.
Final remarks: the KVM soundcard, that works fine in Windows XP, doesn't seem to work. The actual amount of disk space Windows 7 takes is well over 7GB. I don't know what the 16GB requirement was for then. Otoh, 7GB? For an operating system without office applications and such? What? That's insane! There's the system32 directory holding almost 2GB, but the big whopper is the winsxs directory with almost 4GB. I read this directory has something to do with compatibility and resolving problems with dll hell, so it probably has its uses, but 7GB for an OS? Wow.
I rebooted once more into the Knoppix Live environment. The 'System'-type partition is just a normal type '7' HPFS/NTFS filesystem, just like the main partition. The difference is that the 'System'-partition is bootable, which actually *does* make it a bit like a /boot partition. Oh well, copying is a form of flattery.
Ok, enough played. I'm shutting down the VM and going to do some actual work here.
So anyway, they see to keep your friends close, but enemies closer. Therefore I decided to give the RC for Windows 7 a spin. Not really, of course, but in a KVM virtual machine on my laptop running Fedora 11 to my full satisfaction.
I downloaded the ISO, got me a serial and read the requirements. The first thing I noticed, was the fact that the system requirements aren't all that steep. I'm not sure what that means for the performance inside a VM (and actually performance in general, remembering the Vista class action suit), but then again, I'm only test driving it.
What did stand out in the requirements was the fact that I had to have 16GB (what??) available in free disk space. Now, I do have space. Lots of it. But 16GB? What the heck does an OS without any extras (like Office applications, photo editing software, etc.) need 16GB for?
Then, whence installing, I noticed the installer partitioning my disk with a 100MB partition of the "System"-type and the rest as the "primary" partition. I'm pretty sure from my endeavors with fdisk, that there is not such thing as a partition of the "System"-type. I'm downloading a Knoppix image right now to find out what Windows thinks is a partition of the "System"-type. Maybe it's /boot? ;-)
There is no 'Use whole disk' or 'Do this automatically for me' button, but the 'New' button functions more or less as one of those.
The actual "Installing Windows" screen shows a couple of steps, which take a while to go through but nothing extreme. There is something listed called 'Installing features', though, which made me wonder what the other 'Install' items were doing.
Then there is a reboot, and 'Setup is updating registry settings' and 'Setup is starting services' screens.
After that, we're back in the "Installing Windows" screen, where 'Completing installation' is highlighted. Processor is at 100%, screen flickers a bit, hardware detection going on.
After another reboot, 'Setup is preparing my computer for first use' and I am asked for my username and a password (and a password hint? what?) in a second screen. In the next screen we enter the serial. Apparently, MS still has an Activation scheme going on, because Windows 7 wants to 'activate' itself when I'm online. Mmh. I don't really like that stuff. So let's not, for now.
I like the fact that an update scheme is presented to the user, which makes security a more prominent issue in Windows. Timezone picking is next, followed by a computer location selection screen. I wasn't familiar with this. I am supposed to pick from 'Home network', 'Work network' and 'Public network'. I imagine this affects default firewall settings and stuff, but a bit more detailed description of the three options would have been nice for people that have a clue and would like to know what happens under the hood. What is good, is that 'Public network' (and thus high secutiry, I think) is recommended. I select 'Home network'.
After this, setup goes on 'Preparing my desktop' and there we are. Notice there is no last reboot in between. The desktop instantly made me think 'hey, this looks like KDE4'. It has a broad taskbar and huge icons, just like default KDE4.
IE asks me what search provider I want to use, which is good. It then start babbling about 'accelerators' and 'web slices'. I am clueless about what those are, so I turn them off. CTRL-L still acts retarded on Windows, sadly.
The layout of the control panel looks cluttered, but there is a search option, so I finally got to see what this UAC thing is, everybody was so mad about.
At this point, I started to loose interest. I tried a reboot to check boot speed and I must say, Windows 7 boots pretty quick. It lost my network settings though, again asking me the 'Home network', 'Work network' etc. question.
Final remarks: the KVM soundcard, that works fine in Windows XP, doesn't seem to work. The actual amount of disk space Windows 7 takes is well over 7GB. I don't know what the 16GB requirement was for then. Otoh, 7GB? For an operating system without office applications and such? What? That's insane! There's the system32 directory holding almost 2GB, but the big whopper is the winsxs directory with almost 4GB. I read this directory has something to do with compatibility and resolving problems with dll hell, so it probably has its uses, but 7GB for an OS? Wow.
I rebooted once more into the Knoppix Live environment. The 'System'-type partition is just a normal type '7' HPFS/NTFS filesystem, just like the main partition. The difference is that the 'System'-partition is bootable, which actually *does* make it a bit like a /boot partition. Oh well, copying is a form of flattery.
Ok, enough played. I'm shutting down the VM and going to do some actual work here.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Monoless Fedora? UPDATED
Mono, mono, mono. If there has been one project to divide the free software community over the past couple of years, it is Mono. By itself, Mono is just an implementation of C#, the CLR and some more programs making up the .Net toolchain. C# and the CLR are not much different from Java in concept. Both provide a cross-platform programming language and runtime environment, both are licensed under an open source license. No problems so far.
The trouble starts where Mono actually attempts to provide compatibility between Windows and other operating systems. A pure Mono application like Tomboy is unlikely to be harmed by this. The problematic part arises from the fact that Microsoft hasn't submitted all parts of the .Net stack to ECMA. So attempting actual compatibility can become dangerous. Microsoft doesn't exactly have a clean track record on the field of fair competition, so one has to wonder whether it is likely for Microsoft to use its patents to stop the Mono project when it becomes too successful.
Remember, in this context, that Microsoft has promised not to sue Novell and its customers for infringement with regard to Mono. According to Miguel de Icaza, this promise extends to Novell, its customers and its developers. When we read this the other way around, it does *not* extend to Mono users who are not affiliated to Novell. This scares me. You'll have to decide for yourself in howfar this scares you.
Now imagine Mono-based software is pushed into the popular distributions on a larger scale. It would be possible to replace a pretty large amount of readily available programs with Mono-based counterparts. Think Banshee, Beagle, Gnome Do, F-Spot, Tomboy, Muine, just to name a few.
And now image Microsoft legally pulling the plug on (parts of) the Mono project, taking the whole Mono eco-system with it, just when people got used to Mono-based programs. Ouch.
I'm not saying that that problem would be insurmountable. Au contraire: it'll probably create a huge drive in creating non-Mono alternatives. But it will hurt us. And it is unnecessary: we have C, C++, Java, and Python-programs right now.
Personally, I don't really like the whole Mono thing. I think the whole interoperability business is bogus. I think we do not need Mono. In fact, I think the whole Mono project is redundant and that it should be looked upon with great suspicion. I may be overstating it a bit, but having been in this business for quite some time, I know that old dogs never learn new tricks. To quote admiral Ackbar: "It's a trap!"
Let's not put any more Mono-software in Gnome. And yes, let's support initiatives like gnote that provide alternatives to already established Mono-programs.
Anyway, if you want to rid you Fedora box of Mono, this aught to do it:
Just install gnote as a Tomboy replacement, move .tomboy to .gnote and you're done.
UPDATE: It seems the guys at Fedora are on the same track and are pondering the replacement of Tomboy with gnote. And personally, I love them for it.
The trouble starts where Mono actually attempts to provide compatibility between Windows and other operating systems. A pure Mono application like Tomboy is unlikely to be harmed by this. The problematic part arises from the fact that Microsoft hasn't submitted all parts of the .Net stack to ECMA. So attempting actual compatibility can become dangerous. Microsoft doesn't exactly have a clean track record on the field of fair competition, so one has to wonder whether it is likely for Microsoft to use its patents to stop the Mono project when it becomes too successful.
Remember, in this context, that Microsoft has promised not to sue Novell and its customers for infringement with regard to Mono. According to Miguel de Icaza, this promise extends to Novell, its customers and its developers. When we read this the other way around, it does *not* extend to Mono users who are not affiliated to Novell. This scares me. You'll have to decide for yourself in howfar this scares you.
Now imagine Mono-based software is pushed into the popular distributions on a larger scale. It would be possible to replace a pretty large amount of readily available programs with Mono-based counterparts. Think Banshee, Beagle, Gnome Do, F-Spot, Tomboy, Muine, just to name a few.
And now image Microsoft legally pulling the plug on (parts of) the Mono project, taking the whole Mono eco-system with it, just when people got used to Mono-based programs. Ouch.
I'm not saying that that problem would be insurmountable. Au contraire: it'll probably create a huge drive in creating non-Mono alternatives. But it will hurt us. And it is unnecessary: we have C, C++, Java, and Python-programs right now.
Personally, I don't really like the whole Mono thing. I think the whole interoperability business is bogus. I think we do not need Mono. In fact, I think the whole Mono project is redundant and that it should be looked upon with great suspicion. I may be overstating it a bit, but having been in this business for quite some time, I know that old dogs never learn new tricks. To quote admiral Ackbar: "It's a trap!"
Let's not put any more Mono-software in Gnome. And yes, let's support initiatives like gnote that provide alternatives to already established Mono-programs.
Anyway, if you want to rid you Fedora box of Mono, this aught to do it:
# rpm -e mono-web monodoc mono-addins mono-winforms mono-data-sqlite mono-data mono-extras f-spot tomboy mono-core gnome-sharp gnome-desktop-sharp gtk-sharp2 ndesk-dbus ndesk-dbus-glib gtk-sharp2-devel
Just install gnote as a Tomboy replacement, move .tomboy to .gnote and you're done.
UPDATE: It seems the guys at Fedora are on the same track and are pondering the replacement of Tomboy with gnote. And personally, I love them for it.
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