SuSE Linux, my favourite distribution among all, is set to take over in New Zealand.

A deal has been struck to allow agencies throughout government access to open-source software and support from Novell at preferential rates.

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The deal will centre on Novell’s SUSE Linux server and its Linux Desktop, but agencies will also be able to access other open-source products such as MySQL and Jboss with full support, says Novell NZ general manager Matthew Christie.

This comes at a time of some financial trouble and expected lay-offs, which nonetheless should not affect SuSE’s roadmap.

Novell layoff rumors swirled this week, but analysts were quick to dismiss any doomsday scenarios involving the SuSE Linux operating system.

MMS and Winamp, among other popular music players, begin (or have long ago begun) to lag behind more bloated applications such as iTunes and Windows Media Player. Bloated software from the giants is continuing to develop and evolve. The target audience is easily manipulated into using anything that comes along these large marketing ‘pipelines’, either pre-packaged or pre-installed.

AmaroK is a fully-featured player/playlist management suite for KDE (Linux). Believe it or not, it boasts an endless amount of features that got me overly excited. I have been toying with AmaroK for the past couple of days as if I was a 1-year-old that has just discovered baby wipes. Here are the top 10 features the way I personally perceive them:

• Lyrics of most songs can be brought up at the speed of a mouse click. This does not only apply to popular chart hits.
• Album covers are easily fetched and displayed, also at the speed of a mouse click, apparently using an Amazon service
• Smart list accumulation is handled by the application
• ‘Jump’ function (equivalent to ‘j’ in XMMS)- character patterns are searched for among all songs. Indexing makes subsequent matches immediate. For example, type in “dless” and every song in your playlist which contains that string (even part of a word) will be listed immediately for you to select.
• Universal keyboard shortcuts like the ones XMMS offers. The user can change track, for example, while desktop focus is placed upon another program.
• Show all songs from the same artist, often subcategorised by albums while any song gets played
• Media library management – breakdown of songs to form trees of artists, albums, or genres
• iPod synchronisation built-in and included in the core of the application. I rank this feature low as I use a Palm Tungsten for MP3′s, not an iPod. For iPod owners this might be considered a “must-have” feature.
• Popularity analysis – for each song, statistics are recorded, e.g. time last listened to, time first listened to and related songs/artists. That feature makes my log files merely obsolete
• Transparent on-screen display (OSD), just like in XMMS

The following bulletpoint cannot properly be labeled “features”, but they are also worth listing, perhaps as “selling points”:

• Rich graphical user interface, which is highly customisable. This includes some 32-bit transparencies.
• External small GUI, much like that which is offered by XMMS/Winamp. This enables the user to control playlist flow without taking up plenty of screen space.
• Various plug-ins I have not had the luxury time to play with, yet

On File Type Support

Support for MP3 files is not build-in when SuSE 9.3 initially gets installed, which is a PITA (setting aside that primitive, buggy variant of Real Player 10, which has spyware tendencies). The same applies to Fedora Core and has become a major notoriety. Other distributions like Ubuntu are no exception.

For SuSE, one needs to get update and recompile the multimedia components with MP3 support. This is something I discovered when I set SuSE up a few days ago. That possibly explains the declined pace of blog posts, by the way.

As for Ubuntu, XMMS with MP3 support can be trivially installed using the package manager called Synaptic. By default, older versions of Ubuntu (at the least) come with no application that handles the MP3 format. That is just a painful reality as far as I can gather.

AmaroK supports a variety of formats including WAV, OGG and the like. In fact, virtually any filetype is supported, provided that it is understood by the underlying multimedia layers.

I am pleased to have discovered that Google encourage and support Open Source in American schools. Apart from the fruit of Summer of Code, Google have just decided to fund Open Source projects in a state where students are urged to adhere to ‘free as in freedom’.

I believe it is likely that we shall see more of the same. Expansion of the Open Source ‘realm’ directly hurts Google’s main rival, which is Microsoft. It devalues the commercial equivalents and pushes down the cost.

School is a fantastic place to learn, but what if you could introduce students to open source projects, with real problems to solve, and fantastic developers to work with? We thought that would be a pretty terrific way of spending the summer, and with the help of 40 open source, free software and technology-related groups, that is exactly what we did. We call this project the Summer of Code.

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Now that summer is over, we’ve got a new thing going. Today at the Oregon Governor’s office in Salem, we’re announcing our support of an open source initiative which two men, Bart Massey and Scott Kveton, at two schools, Oregon State University and Portland State University, have worked very hard to create. Over the last few years, they have collaborated to encourage open source software and hardware development, develop academic curricula and provide computing infrastructure to open source projects worldwide. We’re pleased to be able to support their efforts with a donation of $350,000.

The item, by the way, was written by Google’s Code Manager, with whom I raised my concerns over Linux negligence in the past. This item proves that Google have truer intentions of giving back to the very same community they stem from. Summer of Code was apparently just the beginning of something bigger. In fact, as Google rely on many Open Source projects like Apache, they are able to use their financial strengths to improve code and return it to the community.

There is more on this story in Oregon’s news.

Related items:

• Google Make Media Player Inter-operable
• Sun-Google Pact
• Google OS – What if?

OME time ago I mentioned the three Linux machines which I have accumulated, but this situation has changed due to a miserable hard-drive crash. I received a new (and slightly better) machine as a replacement yesterday. Rather than having 2 Ubuntu boxes and 1 SuSE box, it is now 2 for SuSE and only one for Ubuntu.

The main motive for this shift was a video card incompatibility, but I also must confess that I do not like GNOME as much as I like KDE. Moreover, SuSE is a more comprehensive and self-contained distribution where fewer installation tasks need to be completed once the operating system has been set up.

Arbitrary screenshot of my SuSE Linux box at work

SuSE, which comes from Novell, has become one of the market leaders as far as Linux in the enterprise is concerned. Novell are among the most prolific vendors of Linux as they incorporate merely any modern desktop environment. When I installed SuSE on the new machine yesterday, I received the re-assurance that Novell, much like Canonical (makers of Ubuntu), simply understand usability, as well as the need for a friendly UI and stability. Therefore, they are bound to flourish at the expense of more ‘stubborn’ distributions, which often pose challenges rather than assist the user and adhere to abstraction. Their support and community are quite strong as well.

Ubuntu, on the other hand, continues to have a few weaknesses, so I will continue to favour and evangelise SuSE whenever I get the chance. I must stress that Ubuntu is an excellent distribution for beginners and it also boasts excellent hardware detection so it involves little or no gamble. Its accompanying Live CD gives further reassurance too.

Some of you have possibly heard about the Nokia 770. For those who haven’t, have a look at this snippet from a recent review in the Washington Post.

The Finnish mobile firm had originally expected the Tablet, which runs on Linux-based software, to enter the market before the end of September.

I personally use a Palm handheld and I consider myself an avid Palm enthusiast. Yet, I was deeply disappointed by the move which had a Treo run Pocket PC. To me, this was beyond a simple “deal with the devil” as I also use Linux and I can imagine the implications of such a dangerous pact. Palm were committed to Linux for quite some time, but were recently taken over by a Japanese giant, so the future is uncertain and past promises or planned strategies should now be taken with a grain of salt.

I started to explore alternative paths and the Nokia 770 is one of these. I have just been reminded that it would not be surprising if Nokia dumped that rusty Symbian altogether and implemented a port of the existing GUI to run on top of the Linux kernel.

From recent articles about the Nokia 770, it sure seems as if the codebase will be made available for other devices as well. I believe the device will be ready by Christmas, so expect a homebred Linux distribution for mobile devices soon. It can then be sold to other vendors which will mark yet another revolution — the entry of Linux into the mobile phones, handheld PDA‘s, tablets, etc. First the servers, then the desktop and soon a penguin in everyone’s pocket, Palm included perhaps.

More on Linux-powered PDA’s:

• The Linux PDA Showcase
• The rather pricy PMA-400
• A cheaper PIM alternative
• Linux Pocket-sized Console

The remainder of this item slides off the theme of Linux and discusses Web 2.0-like transitions.

How come nobody has implemented a portable PDA synchronisation method? Many PDA’s these days can establish an Internet connection and very many computers reside in a connected environment with always-on connection. Would it not be rational to implement a Web-based Palm Desktop, for example? One which centalises data in on-line accounts? I still wait for a handheld that integrates with and synchronises with all platforms more seamlessly. The Internet, being open, can easily bridge that gap and assist users from the fuller spectrum of operating systems. Sooner or later, this all will happen.

Cited by: PalmAddict

Windows XP slows down as time goes on due to patches, protective software, and Registry bloat

INDOWS Vista was already said to be a trainwreck, primarily due to its inability to deliver something innovative. It gives no compelling reason whatsoever for users to upgrade. People who have had the chance to fiddle with the Vista beta build can confirm this. In fact, it seems to be lagging behind other operating systems, notably Mac OS X as was previously confesses by a Microsoft evangelist.

On top of it all, hardware requirements of Windows Vista make it rather unappealing. Novell have said that Vista will drive away Windows users and ultimately lead them to Linux. To many, adopting Windows Vista probably means acquisition of a new computer, which will most probably contain Windows pre-installed for a variety of reasons that involve anti-fair trade practices.

Windows XP was first introduced to the public in late 2001 and, as we approach the end of 2005, Windows XP is worse than ever before. The many critical patches, which came in the form of Service Pack I & II have made it slower and less likely to interact with all underlying modules gracefully. With more Windows viruses in the wild, it requires more attention and maintenance than before, which has definitely led to unrest among its users community. In the mean time, Apple’s Tiger has been gaining strength and has even surpassed, in term of it functionality, the Microsoft equivalents — something that even Microsoft could not truly deny. KDE, in the mean time, has been growing very rapidly and it is now comparable with any other desktop layers and often surpasses the competition in terms of its functionality. See, for instance:

• KDE Plasma
• State-of-the-art Linux Screenshots
• Next Generation of X

It is also worth mentioning Ubuntu Linux, which has done tremendously well at easing a transition to a free operating system. Hewlett Packard have recently started selling Ubuntu desktops and laptops, as a matter of fact. Ubuntu comes in just a single CD, its hardware detection is admirable, and moreover it is stable and user-friendly. Its bundled Live CD makes another big pro as users who are too resistant to delete Windows can have a period of adaptation and gain some re-assurance with regards to their platform migration.

Bill Gates arrested in his younger days (photo in public domain)

OHN H. Terpstra, a bold IT consultant, explains in an excellent article, which comes in 3 parts, how Microsoft and its disguised allies are working as a group toward abolishment of Linux on the desktop. The article presents a made-up case study and explains how some Linux incompatibilities are to be blamed for at a higher level.

Joe felt that Airgo Networks should be commended for its honorable handling of OSS, but he still had no luck there. When he called the company, he found out that no Linux drivers will be available for the Airgo chip set until late 2005 or early 2006.

The author also mentions the issue of cost, which is apparently well-controlled from up above, or contrariwise from down below, i.e. under the table.

Joe figured that since Linux is free, the cost of a laptop computer pre-loaded with Linux would cost less than one that shipped with Microsoft Windows. Wrong! The cost estimates he came up with were between $300 and $500 more for a system with Linux than for one with Windows.

Joe did a Google search to find Linux on laptop suppliers and obtained five price offers. Many Windows laptop specials offered a free bundled LCD monitor or a free bundled printer. No such offer was found for a Linux pre-loaded laptop.

It is worth referring back to an item that illustrates that fact. Dell Computers are selling an open PC (i.e. no operating system = bland hard-drive) for more than a computer with Windows pre-installed. Microsoft is apparently subsidising hardware or relishes on illegal kickbacks.

In John’s article he tends to become more political towards the end.

Joe had to pay for Microsoft Windows when he had no desire to use it, because he would have paid more for a machine without it. Why should consumers suffer cost increases to use a free operating system? Why are governments around the world so silent on this matter? Isn’t it time for the consumer to be better informed of the graft and corruption in the IT retail industry?

I, for once, could not agree more.