Module 9 Blog

I am glad to hear of Brazil's decision to encourage open-source software. It's one thing to consider an end user deciding to choose the "de facto" OS, such as Windows, but it's another thing for buisnesses. I for one feel that any business that lacks a huge amount of start-up capital, especially tech-oriented buisness, are at a huge disadvantage because of esablished "norms" in the computing world, where their only viable option is to use a close-sourced OS that can cost upwards of $150.00! Linux is free, easily modifiable to suit the needs of a specialized buisness, and more stable (not only resource management, but malware and viruses too). Many of the computers in Brazil are old, even positively ancient! Linux is a fantastic OS because it's not hardware dependent. There is always a distro out there that can run on whatever hardware you have laying around.

If I were going to build a network to work the registers and keep track of the inventory in a Walgreens (I work there, so this is from experience), and I knew that the hardware owned by the store was 20 years old, I would research which version of linux could run on 66MHz Pentium 1 with 32MB of available ram and driver support for scanner, printers, and specialized cashier displays. Unfortunately everything must run Windoze! So these doddering old computers are being wasted running a weird version of MS-DOS. These were installed in a time without ubiquitous access to the internet, so it was difficult to get the word out about free, open-source software, let alone transmit it.

There is no excuse for the modern day monopoly on the operating system market.

Module 7 Blog (Week 5)

How to go about producing Opensource software:

To produce anything that could be considered "open source," it must have the proper license. The primary choice to ensure that our product is "free as in freedom," is to have it comply with the GNU GPL, or General Public License.

It is a copyleft license, which means that the initial product, as well as its derivatives are free to distribute and change by anyone for any reason. The GNU license is maintained by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). You can ensure that your product is considered open source but contacting the FSF for a copy of their license, or by using a modified copy of the GPL that does not mention GNU. The license is itself not copyleft, but anything bearing the the license is. 

I hope this clears up any confusion you may have had about open source software. Thank you for your time.

Module 6 Blog (Blog #4)

Linux kernels are named in an X.Y.Z fashion, with the X denoting the major version of the kernel. My terminal reported that the machine for our labs is running version 2.6.24-24-generic, which means it's the major version 2.0 (1996), stable version X.6.Z, and trivial version X.Y.24-24-generic. The numbers are just ways of showing changes in new versions. When you refer to a "version of the linux kernel" it's usually just the X number. Sometimes a 4th number is implemented to denote a fix of a major error. After the 20th anniversary of linux however, they jumped from 2.6.39 to 3.0.

All in all, it's just a system for the easy identification of new releases of the linux kernel, making it easy for developers to write code that will run using the linux OS.

UPDATE:  The Jump from 2.6.39 to 3.0 had little to do with major changes, but rather as the release coincided with the 20th anniversary of linux 1.0 being released. An example of a major error that would facilitate a 4th number would be when version 2.6.8 had a major error with its Network File System code and an immediate fix was needed. Not enough to warrant an entirely new number i.e. 2.6.9, but rather 2.6.8.1.

Multiboot computer

My 6-year-old laptop came with Windows Vista installed, but the hardware was incapable of running it well. It now runs Windows 7, Windows XP, and Ubuntu 11.10. Still wondering which bootloader I should use, grub or the windows bootloader. I'm sure the choice will become clear when I install Fedora alongside Ubuntu     XD

File systems

The definite paths set up for where files are stored in linux is known as the Linux filesystem. Not only did we learn where many of the important directories are, but many commands that let you change and control the contents with the use of a terminal. I'm really enjoying this class!

Yay Linux

Still adjusting to how an online class functions, I kinda missed the week 3 deadline :C which really sucks because I'm really interested in Linux! I have ubuntu 11.10 installed on my hp notebook (still working on the wireless drivers), Ubuntu Livedisc 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on my grandma's desktop (soon to be installed and upgraded), and I'm working on loading the Linux kernel to my iPhone. This week we learned about the basic functions of the Linux CLI in ubuntu. There are many shells and different builtins and utilities to work with, so one's knowledge of many different commands, their syntax, and shell of origin all are important things to know when using a linux based terminal emulator. The use of pipes is an elegant way for users to string multiple commands together to tailor them to how they want them to function. I'm repartioning the 320GB HDD in my grandma's gateway desktop with an extra 20GB for my partition of ubuntu, to do so I used gparted on the ubuntu livedisc. To do this you have to type "sudo gparted &" to give yourself user privileges and run it as a background job to continue using your terminal.

I really hope I succeed in this class, despite my rocky start.