Mark Kent wrote:
> wispygalaxy <wispygalaxy@xxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> Mark Kent wrote:
>>
>>> Linux is in use, and has been for years, in all manner of areas, here
>>> are some examples:
>>>
>>> 1. Tomtom sat navigation devices
>>> 2. Motorola smartphones
>>> 3. LiMo smartphones
>>> 4. Google Android smartphones
>>> 5. Nokia N770/N800/N810 web tablets
>>> 6. Netbooks generally (Asus eee, AA1, dell, etc. etc.)
>>> 7. Bubba excito home servers
>>> 8. Linksys WRT54GL wireless access points/routers/ADSL modems
>>> 9. Sony PS3/PS2 (options)
>>> 10. Several types of Sony TV
>>> 11. Triple-dragon satellite receiver(s)
>>> 12. D-link ADSL modems
>>> 13. Google search etc. clusters
>>> 14. Alcatel telco servers
>>> 15. Nortel SIP servers
>>> 16. Several film graphical rendering farms
>>> 17. Over 80 of the top 100 supercomputers on the planet
>>> 18. Chumby consumer device
>>> 19. Openmoko smartphone
>>> 20. Archos media players (various)
>>>
>>> ... and so on. There are many examples of miniature machines, such
>>> as plug-top sized servers, and fascinating projects such as the gnu
>>> radio project.
>>
>> I saw the Tomtom GPS device in WalMart this past weekend. Actually, I
>> saw
>> three different models. It looked cool and was a better deal than the
>> other devices displayed.
>
> The latter versions available in the EU can take off-air traffic updates
> from suitably equiped VHF Band II FM broadcast stations. In the UK,
> classic-FM sends these transmissions, in France, the autoroute stations
> send it. I don't know if this is available in the US and Canada, as
> I've only ever used an older model there (which works very well, btw,
> and takes all the stress out of driving on the wrong side of the road
> :-).
Excellent! I had no idea about these features. I will get a cool GPS in my
car soon.
> You can also play MP3s on latter versions, too.
That's so neat. :) It can multi-task.
>> I hope that Linux will continue to have success on gadgets and other
>> electronics. 7 and Terry Porter had some interesting posts on Linux and
>> electronics. Linux is *not* only for servers! :)
>
> 7 is a strange character, but often entertaining. Terry is a top chap,
> with shiploads of experience in practical linux installations of all
> kinds.
7 has some good ideas in his posts, and his delivery is funny. :) I can
tell Terry has experience from his posts, and he does seem to know what
he's talking about. I trust their posts and hope to see Linux continue to
perform well on various gadgets and computers.
>>> Linux has more or less completely dominated the internet, and is making
>>> huge inroads into new areas, such as Asterisk and OpenSER into the
>>> telephony space, various router projects, and many more. Apache's own
>>> success is, in many respects, even more visible, as it is absolutely the
>>> dominant web server, in spite of numerous efforts by MS to fudge the
>>> statistics by buying into "parked" domains, ie., getting "counts" for
>>> sites which didn't, in reality, exist.
>>
>> I'm impressed with Apache's growth over the past 10 years. Google uses
>> Linux widely, and millions and millions of people use its services. It's
>> a great design.
>
> The big advantage for Google has been that, by using Linux on standard
> COTS hardware, they've avoided paying licensing fees to proprietary
> software houses whilst building their business, which means that they have
> a superior business model to those who build their services on Windows.
> This reduced cost benefits everyone, including their customers. Note,
> though, that google's *real* customers are the advertisers - it is
> from them that they get revenue; the users are the key to the revenue,
> but the door is the advertisers.
Licenses are annoying and restrictive. Why waste good money on them when
better software alternatives are available?
Thanks to advertisers, Google can provide many services for us; we don't
have to pay.
>> Was MS really that desperate to use non-existant websites? That's why
>> it's important to check the sources used in a study, etc.: not all of
>> them may be real.
>
> Indeed so, and this is quite true. It was something of a scandal at the
> time, but has never stopped Netcraft reporting parked domains as if they
> were real. The practice continues to this day.
MS has to learn from its mistakes, like Vista!
>>> The best selling processor architecture on the planet is the ARM
>>> architecture, which has sold billions, mostly into mobile devices of one
>>> kind or another. As mobility is becoming critical for most people, ARM
>>> devices look like being the x86 of the noughties and the teens, and
>>> linux appears to be the windows of the noughties and the teens.
>>
>> I want to carry around my devices since I use them all over the place (my
>> room, school, vacation). I'm reluctant to get a desktop computer since
>> it's so large and immobile.
>
> Indeed so, and why would you? There is virtually nothing that cannot be
> done on a portable device these days. You will find a lot of fairly
> conservative types who are terrified of having to give up their
> desktops, but over time, things will change.
I need electronics that are light and easy to carry. I'm so glad that
netbooks are available. The storage space is getting better and better,
and I might be getting one very soon!
>>> This is great news for the next generation, as the previous ones were
>>> unlucky enough to be launched into the world of work just as the
>>> Microsoft machine was coming to the fore, building its global monopoly,
>>> and stagnating technical development. That stagnation has come to and
>>> end, and we're once again seeing amazing designs and ideas appearing,
>>> most of which probably will be unsuccessful, but many will be wildly so.
>>>
>>> It seems unlikely that these new inventions will be based on Windows
>>> Vista or its progeny.
>>
>> I hope that I come across Linux and other OSS when I start my career. So
>> far, things are looking good. I had to use Windows at home while growing
>> up, but I now use Debian with ease. My 16-year-old sister took a peek at
>> my laptop screen recently and made no comment while I was using Iceweasel
>> and KDE. I bet she thought it was Windows with a theme!
>>
>
> I think that you are getting yourself into a good career position. If
> you have the time, you should probably look at several different
> distributions - it's all good experience.
>
> I'm posting this from an Acer AA1 which runs Linpus, a Red Hat derivative,
> although most of the machinery here runs debian variants of some kind,
> the Nokia tablets are maemo (debian-based), and the triple-dragon receiver
> is its own beast, but linux-based.
I'm using Debian now, and I hope it will give me the experience I need. I
think it is a fine distro to use to learn about Linux.
I hope to try out Fedora next. Fedora looks nice.
> If you haven't done so, you might want to look at building a mythtv box.
> It's adictive! And you can put clients onto almost anything (including
> an Acer AA1). It seems like it will not be long before televisions have
> become distributed devices, ie., myth backend with tuner, recording and
> live capabilities, and myth front-end wherever you want it.
MythTV looks great, and I want to customize it. It's useful because I
usually don't have time for watching shows. I want to see them on my own
time.
Anyway, thanks for all of these good tips, Mark! :D
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