[These are some quick notes, nothing formal, but might be of use to Brits in this blog who wish to buy a PC soon…]

Things have improved drastically, even in the land of Bill & Tony, which is likely to be last to embrace FOSS (along with the US).

I’ve just spent about 3 hours trying to find a new PC. I found one.

I decided that living with antiques can be fun and very viable as long as you stick to GNU/Linux, but productivity is never optimal. With just 256 MB or 512 MB you soon develop some memory management habits that affect the way you perform tasks.

So, off I went looking for what’s available out there. One system that appears to be very popular and sold widely across the nation is the eSys Linux box, which is in some way associated with a company in India (I know this because I called them for support in 2005 and a person from India answered). Anyhoo…

Its cost varies from about GBP 100 to GBP 200, depending on how much the seller wants to pocket as a price difference/margin. Tesco still sells these with Ubuntu LTS (6.06) as far as I can tell and so do some other shops, not only those that specialise in Linux. I saw a few.

Dell sells Linux in the UK. It even has some nice Web page to guide those who know what they are looking for (can search for “Linux” or “Ubuntu” and you can’t really miss it). For various peculiar reasons, I decided to skip Dell. The decision seems poor because Dell’s offer depends on demand, but then again, Dell is a kickback-loving business where scandal and corruption is just part of ’success’. Moreover, they offered no AMD options, which means that Charity Killer (Intel) would get a buck. I could care less about the NVidia-only option because while NVidia doesn’t stock FOSS (for now… someone reliable tells me that a big announcement has yet to come but it’s embargoed) it has been relatively kind to Linux over the years, compared with ATI (before the strategic 360 anyway). So that’s Dell anyway. Rumours suggest that there are hardly any savings if one buys a Linux PC from them (it varies depending on offers and nations). I didn’t check this carefully.

Then there’s Dabs, which 3 years ago I decided not to buy from due to poor (irresponsible) service. They probably still have some Linux PCs around, but their defective site has a dysfunctional search feature. It doesn’t do anything. Maybe it wants JavaScript to be enabled.

I could recall a company called Nov*something from comp.uk (or uk.comp). It was discussed several years ago. It was mentioned regularly in the UK NGs because they don’t force you to buy Windows and AMD is available too. They have a nice-looking site at the moment and there’s a considerable discount for those who steer away from Windows, so I went for that offer.

The new rig will be overpowered for my needs, but at least it’s built to stay ahead of the curve even in the future. It comes with a dual-head-compatible GPU, so it’s more than enough; I’ve hardly played games in the past year. Anyway, the plan is to get this multi-core box also a multi-head box.

I turned for some quick advice to the public Phoronix IRC channel and an online friend was there to help.

<schestowitz> I have a quick query. I’m about to close a deal on a PC any moment. Does the Nvidia Geforce 7300GT 256MB work with dual head OK?
<michaellarabel> schestowitz: Using the binary driver, yes.
<schestowitz> Thanks a million! I was going to pick just the favourites, but no seller in the UK does that. I was relived enough to find Linux+AMD (quad-core)… but only NVidia among the options.
<schestowitz> *relieved
<michaellarabel> No problem. To set it up, just look at TwinView in nvidia-settings.
<schestowitz> I’ve made a note, thanks.
[…]
<schestowitz> michaellarabel, would it be possible (no matter how hard) to combine two of these cards for triple-head?
<michaellarabel> schestowitz: Yes, using Xinerama.
* m-c has quit (”Ex-Chat”)
<schestowitz> Thanks. I ask because my first Xinerama experience (2003) burned half a day. Afterwards it took no more than half an hour. Nothing scares me more than editing x config files (CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE and pray )
* m-c (n=mmm@ubuntu/member/desertc) has joined #phoronix
<michaellarabel> it shouldn’t be that hard to configure it these days.

So it seems like I’ll go out to get another GPU tomorrow. Novatech’s delivery schedule seems impressive, if they stick to it. They deliver within one day (or so they say, depending on ordering volume).

Other shops I came across were interesting too. Some offered to sell Linux CDs, Ubuntu was a popular choice for preinstalls and some shops were too small to be trustworthy. Also, Google Checkout seemed a tad problematic.

I remembered Jim Moore who used to post in COLA (USENET Linux advocacy). The first site I visited with the intent of buying a PC was his. But having followed the link he posted in his .sig I got just a default server page. I wonder what he’s up to.

Datamation has published my analysis of recent decisions made by Red Hat and how they can be justified given the status of the desktop in this fast-moving world. Several factors are being considered, including the fact that software gradually starts to reside on computing clouds and content then delivered to mobile devices and appliances. The myth of GNU/Linux on the desktop is a case of chasing moving targets in a world destined for mobility. Additionally, as I try to put it: “At this stage, neither Ubuntu nor Red Hat can penetrate the sector of mobile devices because the space is already very crowded with lesser-known specialists and integrators, from device manufacturers to large companies or consortia that make use of existing components.” I also explain why a company like Red Hat should concentrate on what it does best — notably servers — and rely on friendly allies to secure diversity in other areas.

Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

Some days ago I found advice and general information for Linux beginners. It seems rather decent, so I’ll quote a slight bit as a teaster.

1. Read, read, read and study what’s available out there before choosing a distribution to install. Unlike Windows there is more than one choice. A good place to start is distrowatch, a sort of “news of what’s new in Linux” site. You’ll find a paragraph of discussion of many older releases as well as new ones.

Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

HE ‘SCO threat’ is merely gone now, which means that Linux should no longer be associated with looming lawsuits. To quote:

“A judge’s decision to dismiss 182 of the company’s 294 claims against IBM reduces the chance that SCO will prevail, one analyst says. ”

This is a significant milestone in the road to worldwide Linux adoption. Within just a couple of month, Novell is expected to deliver a real ‘Windows killer’. The following set of videos demonstrates some of the new features.

RedHat Linux

HERE is finally a large bunch of screenshots from Fedora Core 5, which in this case is GNOME-based. The gallery has been added last night and it provides insight into the process of installation up to the level of a running working environment. Red Hat have good reputation for an installation process which is user-friendly.

Personally, I continue to prefer SuSE. KDE may not be as simple as GNOME and thus less suitable for beginners, but it gives greater power and has many reasons to be favoured.

Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

ED Hat have got some nice promoptional videos that neatly explain the process of world transformation and fast adoption of Linux. The videos are titled:

• Truth Happens;
• Inevitable and
• Choice

Highly recommended for Linux enthusiasts!

PEN formats are based upon a standardised specifications, which ensure global collaboration among applications. Without common formats, hardware are software are simply unable to communicate, unless they come from the same vendor. Formats are also analogous to the notion of a language, or technically speaking, “protocols” and “standards”. They are often agreed upon by an ample panel, which involves industry experts and industry/academy leaders.

What happens, however, when a company goes astray and implements its own formats, which it is unwilling to disclose for competitive reasons? What happens when a format is extended without acceptance by others who already use and depend on it? When common language is violated, disaster is foreseen. An industrial majority (or a monopoly) can use miscommunication as a ‘tool’ which drives competitors away. The temptation to use that tool as a weapon is often there, yet the seminal formats must always be honoured. If not, conversion facilities must be made available, so that a non-lossy route can be followed to ’sanitise’ the unknown data structures and appendages.

I have already complained about proprietary formats that lock one’s personal data. The context in this blog was Palm-powered devices, as well as software packages from Microsoft. It is a terrible scenario when one chooses an appliance or a software package over open formats and is thereafter obliged to use it perpetually. It is an utter lock-in, which has even reached the Web that is openness-motivated. Internet Explorer-only beame more commonplace, yet Firefox has shouted out for a change in recent years.

Let us illustrate the primary contention with the aid of yet another specific example. In question are the advantages of open fromat and exportable data, so let us consider address book (contacts) data on a variety of platforms. I currently hold my address books on Palm’s Address, KDE’s KMail, and Mozilla Thunderbird. Maybe I base my statements on the wrong factors, but experience shows that address confusion and poor organisation skills are prevalent among those that still rely on Microsoft to organise and manage their data. I used to be among those who delegate data organisation to applications (packages) rather than formats. As a consequence, I struggled to move between application, inter-operate or even decipher my own data in the absence of one particular commercial application. Sounds familiar?

In summary, as food for thoughts to ponder: maybe it’s the obscurity of moving data without adherence to standard formats. Maybe it is the lack of import/export utilities and maybe frequent hard-drive re-formatting due to virus attacks and the like. Either way, Linux and Mac users appear to have extensive data which is easily-locatable, inter-changeable, rocoverable and resilient. Openness entails true benefits, which are better understood in the long term.