wilcal

Now add a Google/Ubuntu mix in there and what do the numbers look like? It'll be an interesting battle.

I'd like to comment on that. I agree that the "Ubuntuists" are in fact becoming a bit Elitist. But having said that is that a bad thing as it effects the Linux Community as a whole? I think we can all agree here that Ubuntu in its many forms is the leading Linux Distro. Good or bad, your choice or not, it's #1. I suggest that all the Linux Distros are positioning themselves for that time in the distant future when "Vista" hits the street. When that does all of us will be waiting for it to fall on its sword. And when it does there sits Ubuntu, the leading Linux Distro, just waiting to go bigtime. Let me make a wild prediction here. In the USA when you go through the check out lane in many grocery stores there's a rack of AOL CD's to grab for free, take home and give it a try. I'll go out on a limb here and predict that some form of Ubuntu and Google, sometimes called GoBuntu, will find its way into those checkout aisles. Ubuntu in marketing terms has gained "traction". Every day Vista is not available off the shelf Ubuntu gains a little more traction. Given enough time, traction, delays and a self impaling sword Ubuntu could become quite the thing in 07/08.

Here's some more documents worth a read: http://www.licensing.philips.com/licensees...cuments752.html You can look at these docs in a couple ways. One is obvious. If you are going to build a DVD drive you better be paying a license fee. If you are going to create a software decode codec for Audio-CD and/or DVD playback then it gets a little gray. The ruling you pointed out states that because DVD is pervasive if someone can figure out how to read them then so be it. But, that person cannot pass it on to someone else. But, because it's become so commonly pervasive then it ain't worth pursuing everyone that has a copy or passes it on. I suspect that's where we are right now. The danger here, and what I am driving at, if I created a commercial product that contained libdvdcss and that became wildly successful then I think that Philips would invite me to court and ask for its license fees. There is such an open source product. It is: http://www.geexbox.org/en/index.html this is a slick little thing that converts your PC to a DVD Player in the wink of an eye. I suggest that if this thing became wildly successful and used in a commercial venture then Philips/Sony would become pretty upset. Thanks for your thoughts.

Actually it does in the same way as an Audio CD Player uses the Philips Red Book patent. Anytime you play an Audio CD you have to have paid a copyright fee for the decode. This is a very gray area and I suspect that Philips/Sony are just letting it all ride for the time being. Maybe until they get a juicy enough victim to chop up in court. Thanks for your thoughts.

I'd like to ask input of this Group as to what their feelings or experience is with using the ever popular libdvdcss codec is in respect to copyright fees. http://developers.videolan.org/libdvdcss/ states: "libdvdcss is a simple library designed for accessing DVDs like a block device without having to bother about the decryption". The technology embedded into a DVD is a patented and copyrighted technology under Philips and Sony. Anytime you play a DVD effectively you have to pay a copyright fee to these organizations for the right to do that. I am open to comment or challenge to that position. I have asked a number of individuals in a number of organizations that are distributing libdvdcss to define where they think they are positioned and I have received no answer. That does not mean that it's not illegal, or illegal, to use libdvdcss? It may just mean that Philips/Sony are just not expending the effort to chase the users. When you purchase a DVD Player the cost of that Player includes a tiny fee for the right to view a DVD. A similar situation exists in the Windows world where in order to view a WMV file you are paying a tiny fee for the codec to do so. I'm sure many here have purchased a download for WinBlows XP for the codec to view DVDs. http://www.sonic.com/products/Consumer/Cin.../quicklook.aspx Here's my challenge. If I was to create a Linux based DVD Player based on libdvdcss and sell 10's of thousands of those on the consumer market is the likes of Philips/Sony gonna get upset? Thanks for your thoughts.

Good question for any OS on a hard disk. How to get it back to what the disk looked like when it was delivered from the factory. The best and easiest utility I have found is: http://www.killdisk.com Careful though. Virtually every bit from the first sector first track to the last sector last track is set to "0". There is nothing left.

May I make a simpler alternative that I use every week. I have split the HD on my server(s) into multiple partitions two of which are absolutely identical in size and structure. Example two exactly the same 40.2GB partitions. I use: http://www.ranish.com/part/ to do this. Then using the Ranish Partition Manager when I warm boot the system I direct Ranish to bit copy the active partition to the secondary backup partition. In this way an exact copy of the primary at that moment is copied to the secondary (backup) partition. Everything in the primary is copied. If for whatever reason the primary goes down I need only force warm boot the server and direct that the secondary partition become active. The entire process takes only the time to reboot the system. And, you always have that known working partition ready to go regardless of what happens to the primary.

I have found the Skype RPM install for Mandriva to be extremely hardware sensitive. Before you install the Skype RPM make absolutely sure that your sound system is completely operational. Do things like record and play back short verbal messages using either the KDE or Gnome Sound Recorder applications. I also make sure that that which is recorded by the Sound Recorder is playable, cleanly, with Totem or Beep. Also a trap you can fall into is you do the RPM install restart X and run Skype successfully then fails on the second attempt. If you open things like the Gnome System Monitor you'll find Skype lurking in the background still running but not on the desktop. Use the Skype ID: "echo123" to test your connection. Use the ALSA Sound Mixer. Sometimes you'll need the +20db mic boost to get enough gain. IMO Skype is a work in progress with a LOT of work still to be done especially in the Linux world. I ending up having to run it on one of my older machines P600 - Test System ----------------------------- Mandy 2006 Pentium III (Coppermine), 600Mhz, 256Kb Cache 440BX MoBo DIMM1 128MB, DIMM2 128MB = 256MB ATI Rage 128 GL AGP 1x/2x 32MB All-In-Wonder TV Tune/out SoundBlaster Live (snd-emu10k1 driver) USB Intel 82371AB PIIX4 D-Link DFE 530 TX+ Fast Ethernet DVD-ROM (hda) Hitachi DVD-ROM GD-2500 CD-RW (hdb) Sony CRX140E Floppy 1.44MB KingWin HD Rack/Tray subsystem (Multiple HD's) Boot Sequence - Floppy -> DVD-ROM -> HD where it finally stablized and fully understood the platform it was on. I suspect that because of the for sure real Sound Blaster Live board.

I bought a SanDisk Sansa e130 a couple weeks ago and it's a Plug n Play with Mandy 2006.0

Now this may be a little convoluted and won't work for many a folk here. First, I'm not concerned with a little down time maybe even for a day. And some down time, an hour or so, for testing. So given that. The always on line server has a HD more then large enough to support multiple partitions. Lets say part1=60GB, part2=60GB, part3=20GB. part4=20GB. Always part1 is the on-line and running partition with whichever OS is in vogue at the time. In my case today that would be Mandy 2006.0. Before that it was Mandy LE 2005, before that 9.2 and so on and so forth. part3 and part4 are test partitions into which I'll load the OS to be tested. Lets say for now that's Mandy 2006.1. I can load it and tinker around with it to make sure that this new OS really does run on this server hardware. I have other computers that are used to load and get smart on how the new OS works. During my normal backups I mirror copy part1 -> part2 every Sunday morning. So if something bad happens to part1 I would reboot and make active part2. I've never had to do that. But, once I have completed my testing on part3 & 4, and am comfortable with the way the new OS works, I wipe part2 completely clean to all zeros and load the new OS into it. I then restore all the users and public_html directory's and make it live. So now part2 is the live production partition. Let it run a couple days making sure things are kool. All that while part1, the old OS is sitting there just ready to go back on line in the time it takes to reboot the system. Once I'm happy with the new OS I mirror copy part2 -> part1, make part1 the active partition, reboot and I'm on my way. Tools used are: http://www.killdisk.com http://www.ranish.com/part/ Oh, I never upgrade. I always replace every bit and byte starting from all zeros.

For the record here I purchased one of these things and up to this point it appears to be compatible with Mandriva 2006. Trying to find documented compatibility between MP3 Players and Linux is a bit of a challenge. I sent some messages to several sales@xyz.com and got mostly no replies and in once case a flat out "it won't work" message. I decided on this particular machine because I own a SanDisk 512MB Cruser USB drive and Mandriva recognizes that. So, you would expect that an MP3 Player from the same manufacturer should be the same. At least in this case, it is. When you plug the e130 into the USB port Mandriva recognizes it and places a Sansa e130 icon on the Mandriva desktop. Opening that presents you with the same file presentation structure you would see with the 512MB USB drive. Drag, drop and delete functions work the same. I do give things a minute or two to settle before disconnecting the e130. Do not unmount it as that appears to do awful things. Also before disconnecting empty the trash and do not have the Sansa e130 as "focus" on the desktop. Choose something else or nothing at all, then disconnect it. Otherwise I think there's some incompleteness going on there. Especially if you have deleted something and not emptied the trash. Since the e130 is functionally the same as the e140 at 1GB of internal memory I would expect that they would preform the same. [moved from Hardware by spinynorman]

I have been probably spending as much time with the Puppy Linux http://www.puppylinux.org development process (testing) as I do with the Cooker (next Mandriva testing). Both distros are targeted for a different audience. Puppy is specifically designed for older platforms with fewer hardware resources. My test platform for Puppy is: Dell Insperon 7500 Model PPI Intel, Celeron 466Mhz 440BX Chipset 64MB DRAM 6.5GB HD 20VDC, 3.5A PS Belkin Wireless G PCMCIA F5D7010, BCMWL5-INF XP2K Driver This machine was originally supplied with either Win/98 or ME2000. A friend had been attempting to get WinBlows XP Pro to work on it. XP does in fact install completely but does complain of limited resources during the install. When installed the time it takes WinBlows XP to boot from power up to a working desktop on this machine is just about 10 minutes. Once at a working desktop the time to open Word is another 10 minutes. Using Ranish Partition Manager http://www.ranish.com/part/ I split the HD into two partitions. The first at 1GB is a Linux Swap partition, the second and rest of the HD into a Linux ext3 partition. From power up to a working desktop using the Puppy Live-CD takes just about 90 seconds. From the click on the Abiword Icon to a working wordprocessor takes about 10 seconds. The install of the driver to support the Belkin WiFi adapter is a little tricky but ndiswrapper does what it's expected to do and your off and running in just a couple minutes of install time. One of the more exciting parts of the Puppy development process is to get it all to work in 32MB of real DRAM. Puppy Linux - WOOF! WOOF!

I don't see viri as a major threat to Linux platforms. So long as you don't forward suspicious e-mails your not spreading nor vulnerable to the WinBlows stuff. What I do see, and see it every day, is a blitzkrieg attack on my server ( 66.159.200.93 ) constantly. Once someone, or something, senses it as a webserver they will go after it with a vengeance. Attacks range from the stupid, they think it's a WinBlows box to the insane blitz ID/PW trys. I review the content of the log files access_log error_log every day to make sure someones not been successful. Since Mandy 10.1 it's been pretty clean. When 9.2 came out the install defaulted to an open proxy on Apache. That open proxy took about a week to be found and I tell ya for awhile I think the world was using my Mandy server. Anyway I shut off the proxy service and that was the end of that. Mandy 2006 has been up on my server since the first week of Jan 06 and has not been compromised yet. I update it 1x every week and carefully look at what it's been doing. You'd be amazed at what you see in them log files.

Rats. Thanks. That's kinda what I thought. It does not even work with WinBlows XP dialer. I tried it. You gotta be using their software on a WinBlows platform. I guess.

I have stumbled across a situation that I'd like to post for comments here. A friend purchased a peoplepc.com dial-up account. I was setting up her laptop with Puppy Linux and I was unable to get Puppy to connected into her dial-up PeoplePC connection. I tried a real WinBlows XP system with a 56Kb modem and that too did not work. My question is do the Dial-up connections using "Accelerated" feature mean that you really have to use their software and exclusively only on WinBlows systems? It seems that way. I have sent a message asking the same to info@peoplepc.com and not gotten a response. Thanks

Specifically for older and/or low powered platforms Puppy continues to amaze me. I have successfully installed Puppy to the following Laptop using the Belkin FSD7010 PCMCIA WiFi adapter: Dell Insperon 7500 Model PPI Intel, Celeron 466Mhz 440BX Chipset 64MB DRAM 6.5GB HD 20VDC, 3.5A PS Belkin Wireless G PCMCIA F5D7010, BCMWL5.INF XP2K Driver Using the Ranish Partition manager http://www.ranish.com/part/ I split the HD into two partitions. First partition a 550MB Linux Swap drive, the second an ext partition. Upon booting using the Puppy Live-CD the install sees the swap drive and uses it properly. You do have the option to use the ext Linux partition for pup001 or an install. Puppy boots to a 640x480 screen and you are given the option to increase to 1024x760x16 and that will work nicely. You can then set up the Belkin FSD7010 PCMCIA adapter by installing Perl, activating ndiswrapper, mounting the Belkin WinBlows CD and installing the BCMWL5.INF driver to ndiswrapper, modprobe ndiswrapper and your on your way. I believe that this (very weak) Laptop originally came with WinBlows/98. Not having the original intall disk the user attempted to install WinBlows XP Pro into this box. It did install but complained about insufficient resources. Boot time from power up to a working desktop for this Laptop running XP is about 10 minutes. Once in a working desktop XP's time to bring up "Word" was another 10 minutes or so. Boot time for Puppy ( power up to a working desktop ) for this laptop using the above setup, and not installed to HD, is about 2 minutes. Once you get to a working desktop, under Puppy, the time to bring up Abiword http://www.abisource.com/ was right at about 11 seconds. Yes, eleven seconds.

IMO There is an upcoming event that is motovating many companies like Google. Ubuntu is being driven by it as are Mandriva, Red Hat, Novell, Suse and many more. And that is the official release of "Vista". When that officially occurs it's performance and susceptibility to attack will be watched by everyone with a keyboard connected to a processing device. Should "Vista" stumble, or be tripped up, then that is the end. Alternatives will be sought after. Corporate America is still mostly sitting on ME 2000, not XP. M$ is counting on Vista to migrate those millions of platforms. Will those platforms be lured by some other OS, lets say in this case "Goobuntu"? It won't happen over night but if alternatives are out there to test drive users will look at them. Google is putting one of those alternatives in place so folks can test drive it when, and if, Vista falls on it's own sword or is put to one.

I actually read that report end to end several times and I think there's some important messages here. One message is that M$ is still #1 in the desktop arena regardless of the quality of their platform and applications. The second message is that so many people use these applications in M$ that they are unwilling or are uncomfortable with considering anything else. I'm no Photoshop expert but I work amongst a whole bunch of Linux users many of them Graphic artists. We had to set up many of our Linux Workstations with Wine so that they could use Photoshop instead of GIMP. Not that one is better or equal to the other it's just that M$ Photoshop is so pervasive that's it's hard to change anyones habits. Pick up a class roster from any Community College, Tech School or University. Look at the lineup of what applications are being taught and on what. Do you see any courses on GIMP?. Do you see any Course on using Linux anything? There's the real message.

Just for the record a friend of mine, and user of WinBlows XP Pro, got themselves into one of those won't boot to desktop because "xyz.dll" is missing. So as I understand it the OS won't get to a working desktop even in the "Safe Mode" so that they can reinstall the dll file or something like that. Anyway I met the person that evening and gave them a copy of Ubuntu 5.10 Live-CD. That evening the person, who had never experienced a Linux platform in their lives and with no coaching, was able to boot off the Ubuntu Live-CD and get back on line at least to manage their Yahoo messages. IMO Ubuntu continues to work towards an extremely intuitive platform and is truly as they put it "Linux for Human Beings" [moved from "Other Linux and Unix distributions" - arctic]

I use a Sony DW-D26A on my test computer and have probably loaded, cut & booted 50+ Linux Distros on that thing. I've never had a problem with it. I've never had a problem with CD's cut by this drive being read by other drives. FWIW I have spent over 30+ years in the data storage industry. Mostly disks and tapes. Half of that time as a real engineer designing interfaces, the other half in Marketing and Sales both in the USA and Europe. A fact of life in removable media, whatever it is, there is no 100% guarantee on media read/write compatibility from machine to machine and even with the same machine. If you write a media ( CD, Floppy, tape, whatever ) remove it from the drive and reinsert it in the same machine there is always the possibility that you won't be able to read what you just wrote and that on the same machine. The challenge is not the physical location of the "tracks" written to the media. It has more to do with what I will refer to here as the "tuning in" of the data stream. Reading magnetic or optical media is like tuning a radio. De-tune it and you can't hear the station (data). And there lies the compatibility issues. You'll not find anywhere a manufactures guarantee on read/write compatibility anymore. You assume it and the manufactures let you do so.

"Goobuntu" - Live-CD If that actually happened and Google made them as available as what AOL did some years back I suggest they would make a serious dent in the M$ market. There is going to be a lot of posturing of competitive products to Vista and Goobuntu for free would certainly be one. If Vista stumbles just a little it's gonna be curtains for M$ at least in the desktop workstation market.

Sorry if this may be a little redundant. Is there anyone here who has successfully, and seamlessly, integrated a USB WiFi Wireless USB Network Adapter to Mandy 2006? Examples: LINKSYS WUSB54GP USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter D-Link DWL-G122 USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter NETGEAR WG111 USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter What I'm asking here is you disconnect the RJ-45 LAN eth0 connection, reboot the system, once the user desktop is loaded and active you insert the adapter into the USB port, Mandy recognizes the Adapter and then steps you through the process to make the connection using MCC or something. I'm looking for a similar experiance that you would have with a USB based ( HP ) printer. I'd like to see how mature this process has become specifically in Mandy but with other Distos too. Thanks.

I've had 2006.1.0.3 up on my test machine for 4 days now. Mandriva has been putting some considerable effort into the cold start -> boot -> usable desktop process and I have to agree that this is one of the strong points of this first look. There are some package errors during the install but it all loads in nicely and gets to a working desktop quickly. They've kinda not done anything with Gnome for this release so most of that is not usable at this time. The install, just like previous versions of Mandrake and Mandriva, behave themselves and don't walk all over how you have your hard disk configured. So you can easily dual boot it with other OS's on other partitions on the same HD. I use the Ranish Partition Manager for this process. Next official snapshot is set for 2006.02.15

On one of my older machines ( P350, 192MB, 5GB HD ) I use Ubuntu 5.10. Do try Puppy Linux as it will do most of the functions you are looking for in well under 192MB of DRAM. http://www.puppylinux.com

I use a removable hard disk system that allows me to A <=> B <=> C <=> X hard drives (HD) with different and varied Operating Systems on exactly the same computer platform. I have a legal copy of WinBlows Home on exactly the same model and size ( Maxtor 80GB ) hard drive as one of my Test/Scratch drives. The removable rack system is from Kingwin. WinBlows XP Home is quicker to boot to a working desktop then Mandriva 10.2, about the same as 2005 LE. 2006 is clearly faster to a working desktop and 2006.1.0.3 screams to a working desktop in about half the time that WinBlows does. Be very careful on measuring speed to applications. If you have enough DRAM that is not being used the first time you open that app big parts of it will get put into cache so the next time you open it it'll seem to open immediately. Your being fooled. WinBlows will do that as well as Mandriva. The best way I have found to measure time to a working version of an application on an OS is to execute a warm boot to desktop then execute the app. Measure that time not any subsequent times you open the same app. Another factor here is available DRAM cache and/or a linux swap partition in the HD. Lots of DRAM and available swap will speed things up. I have both in large chunks so it appears everything is running from DRAM. IDE vs. Serial HD's. Unbusy SATA-100/150 drives with 8MB of buffer, some now have 16MB, will scream. So a clunky old OS like WinBlows will seem quicker. If I had a 1971 VW Bug and installed a jet engine in its engine compartment it'd run pretty fast too.