Absolute Linux-Install Only

I had some allergy to this distribution but any more.

Allergy is due to------->

In the early days of my Live CD distribution testing, I downloaded Absolute Linux and by shear accident I said yes to a command and it took over my hard disk and installed it and wiped everything. 

That was long time ago and I wrote Microsoft Killer on the CD and never tried it again till today.

Almost everybody in the University on token strike (remind me of the old days when we had to strike demanding bread, milk, rice and not coconuts) I decided to try this on one of my old computers in office which  I had messed up including the boot record and its mouse PS/2 mouse was fidgety.

I plugged in a USB mouse and started installing.

Installing was on write mode which I like very much and it was like using Debian where everything was configured step by step.

It took a little extra time fearing it will destroy my FAT partitions used for storing some archived material which i have already forgotten.

True to the statements below which I copied from its home page it does write and reported the faulty on board sound and gave me opportunity to configure USB external sound card I plugged in.

It is very light on the old computer and had everything including K3B, AbiWord and Libre Office.

I have no hesitation of recommending it for dual booting.

It uses LiLo and could not detect Peppermint I had already installed.

Apart from that glitch it is an excellent distribution for a newbie learning Linux.

Another admirable feature is that when you first time boot it tells you what ought to be done including using a user account.

I had some difficulty finding the control center which is the first entry in the menu because it gives neither Gnome or KDE desktop appearance which is in fact is a remarkable feature what i like the most.

It gets one out of the regimented routine and frees you with new found linux independence.

Well done guys an girls at Absolute Linux.

Mind you it took 11 days to download (the longest but Hanthana Sinhala Linux did not finish after 14 days) by torrent.

Please use the point to point download and I am currently downloading its latest version.

It cannot be listed in  my Live CD/DVD list since only thing it lacks is a live sfs script an I hope in future it is included by default with UnetBootIn for USB booting.

• Desktop oriented, as opposed to use as a server 

• All-at-once installer with the packages I wanted. Sifting through everything on the Slackware installer was hell. 

• Lightweight. Had some older equiptment and also wanted to incorporate use of my modified version into my PC repair business -- installing it on older machines for customers. 

• Like to play. Want the latest, best software. Slackware was perfect for this as all the headers are left in the packages/libraries so I can compile what I like. Since I like to script/program, I made myself many little utilities and shortcuts to configure the system more easily. 

• I want complete control. 
•  
• But I want the operating system to stay out of my way.

• Is a modification of Slackware
• Fast, stay-out-of-your-way desktop. No Gnome or KDE. Uses well integrated collection of the best lightweight software to give you most of the things the "big desktops" give you, only at at much, much faster pace.
• The software folks use on a desktop: Firefox, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Pidgin chat, GIMP image editor, WPClipart, Thunderbird mail, K3B CD/DVD burning, Frostwire P2P, Deluge BitTorrent, 2 dictionaries, a bunch of games -- basically any of the latest, most popular Open Source software.
• Many script utilities (with friendly little GUIs) to make configuration and maintenance of system easier and still allows manual (text-file based) configuration, if desired.
• Package compatible with Slackware minor versions. (ex. Absolute 12.2 -> Slackware-12.2), with a few exceptions: kernel packages, KDE-libs, madwifi, ndiswrapper, svga-helper, a/etc.
• Root user can install software or set system configurations. That's it. Perfect for parents and IT guys. If you want to do something root user is allowed to do, log in as root. That's what the account is for.

Cloud computing and what are we getting into?

This is a question everyone of us should ask ourselves and have an answer soon.

In fact we are little bit late already.

Events unfolding in the business world tell the story in little bits.

Long time ago IBM sold its PC Business to Lenvo in China.

Just recently HP has discontinued its tablet and the PC business almost abruptly siting financial reason but in fact it is following the footsteps of IBM.

Whether we like it or not Cloud Computing is going to become a way of life.

Little wonder even the Microsoft has entered the fray and it is supposed to be in the forefront.

I just did a web survey and it is right in front and in fact well in front of IBM.

So what will happen to us the desktop users who got to change every time a new innovation takes us by surprise.

I was very enthusiastic and even would not listen to the Richard Stallman founder of the free software foundation (FOSS) who pressed the alarm button.

It is going to be a knock out punch for even free software and Linux, leave alone Microsoft.

Microsoft, Apple and Linux will take a backseat if the trend of Cloud Computing take root in industry if not in the home front.

Cloud computing is not a new idea but the lack of fast internet connection was the only hinderance to its developmemt.

Amazon Web Service had been providing cloud service long before the present market hype.

The Success of Amazon is due their long term vision to its entry into this field

well in advance of other players.

Well then what is cloud computing.

1. In the beginning it was SaaS.

That is Software as a service just like water and electricity.

For water we need tap and the connection to supply.

For electricity we need a switch and the connection to the grid.

For IT one needs only a dumb terminal with a browser.

It may not look like the dumb terminal of mainframe computing.

The window will be nicely decorated by the company log providing the service.

For example the Google.

Google has only the Chrome browser and a graphic panel to enter the name and the password.

That's all.

No software or packages as we call in Linux in the dumb or the thin client.

Then there is another term.

2. IaaS that is Infrastructure as a Service.

All the computers, printers and other hardware is also provided and maintained by the service provider.

Ones company may be in Ceylon but all his hardware may be in China or Russia or USA.

In true sense a global phenomenon.

For me this is alarming.

Few big companies in the giant world will run everything from a distance without any physical connection to the clients.

They can dominate or they can terminate services with whims and fancies of the creator of the monster cloud.

Then there is the third factor.

3. Virtualization of the operating system, Apple, Microsoft of Linux.

All the type of distributions I have already written will be used only if they are active and used by majority of users.

Linux it is only 1% and I now agree totally with Richrd Stallman.

It will hinder expansion of Linux even though 95% the cloud and the servers are run by Linux .

They hijack Linux at the server end without any input on the user end except few browsers.

Ubuntu is the only Linux distribution which had seen this phenomenon.

CloudUSB is also Ubuntu derivative.

Jolicloud stand in between.

Interestingly enough sourceforge has eyeOS and it is testing its new release soon.

Now the Linux guys and girls have to work hard to prevent few companies like Google take advantage of the scenario and kick start and leapfrog the cloud computing.

I will be firmly behind eyeOS and I want EyeNux to come up strongly in a business like manner and prevent few companies hijack all the Linux innovations lock stock and barrel.

Similarly all new Linux distribution should have a strategy for cloud clients as well as cloud service.

It is bit late already and I am going to give a bonus mark for all new distributions with their own (Midori for example) browsers and cloud utilities. For the time being they have to have some collaboration with Ubuntu One.

BroweserPup should take the lead in cloud computing.

There should be a Linux Consortium overseeing Cloud Clients and Services.

If not all my efforts of promoting Linux 100 will be a colossal waste of time.

Hurry up guys and girls.

Think futuristic and not fatalistically and we can win and take the lead once again.

Dedication to Richard "Rick" Rescorla

Rescorla dearly

Known as

Rick the dad-- perished,

While on call of duty

But more than 2,500

Of Morgan Stanly

Lived to to tell

The story

Of courage, calm and composure

In the face of adversity

His life is as tall

As the the tower

That fell

To pieces in seconds

It is not a miracle

That millions

Remember him

Just as he was alive today

SMS, Short Forms, Pidgins and Linux Acronyms

SMS, Short Forms, Pidgins and Linux Acronyms

There are lot of things that I can hate and some of them are Linux acronyms.

I never use SMS and I was trained to use proper English or Sinhala in my vocabulary.

Yes we use some jargon riddle terms in Medicine to hoodwink innocent patient and make them engrossed in their own misery.

That is no reason for Linux or computer guys to use short forms when one can use a fancy name like Imagination, Unity, Peppermint, Poseidon, PureOS and the like.

I am almost finishing my Linux downloads and testing and was going through the failed download list and found Idr-1.06 i686 and Google could not find a match for this acronym.

After about half an hour I decided to type L instead of I and I got the Link to the iso.

It says Linux Done Right iso which is  an Arch derivative.

I do not think they have done anything right in their naming strategy.

They have got totally bogged down in the acronym jungle.

Arch is a very sleek distribution and its derivative has become an orphan at birth.

In any case I could not get the 1.06 version since Linux Done Right has already gone to 1.10 and in between 1.08 was missing in number in sequence.

These guys/ Girls are absent minded professors even before becoming old like me.

There is another which I remember by heart since it is a Gamer's Linux.

Games is something we lack in Linux. In that scenario we must make it very attractive for newbie.

The name goes as lglive.

It is again Arch Linux derivative.

Its web site is live.linux.gamers.net

Acronym shows the way they think right to left instead of left to right.

Even a learned Arab will get confused in this terminology.

By the way Arch Linux gamers is one of the best Linux game CD/DVD.

This is a malady of Linux Guys and Girls and as a doctor I do not treat them since if I treat them they stop using the creative part of the brain and stop being creative. Many of us do not use this part of the brain even if  we decide to stand on our head to get blood flow to that area.

Why this is I do not know.

But I have one theory from childhood our teachers suppress the creative children for life and children fear authority and especially their maths teachers. Our language is character base (they have no meaning) unlike graphic based Chinese and Japanese.

Children like graphic and not character based letters (in fact they hate letters).

This is why Chinese are good at tearing part an American plane hijacked and fix it in three days without an English manual to working order.

They figure out the structure and not the manual written in letters.

there is something wrong in English character map especially when the are made into acronyms and SMS.

Choice of Cloud Utilities.

This is an email I have sent to my friends.

I have already sent you an invitation for you to join a cloud (open source) utility called EyeOS.

It is cute and it can be organized around your email.

I like it because of its simplicity.

I am into cloud computing and have tried three already with varying degree of complexity.

1. Dropbox is a commercial variant but its contract is bit dicey.

2. Ubuntu One is a good one with 5 GiB storage.

3. CloudSUB is elegant

4. JoliCloud is elaborate and from there only I found EyeOS.

5. EyeOS (this is a cloud desktop and a very thin client).

Is also a Web OS. I have a live CD called EyeNux which can be booted from a the Live CD with access to files in the hard disk for uploading.

Pick your choice.

In time to come all of us have to give up desktop and use cloud desktop and it is the way we have to shape. this will prevent one get hooked to Google's tablets which is getting too commercial even though i supported its from the very beginning.

It keeps its android as proprietary (open Source though) making people to get fixed, somewhat similar to Microsoft.

PCLinux Education Distribution

PCLinux Community has produced another useful distribution even after long delay.

There is now a Education edition which I am currently downloading with only 3 seeders.

I am still waiting for the 64 bit version but this I consider a little consolation since i am very much interested in education packages from kindergarten to postgraduates.

After lot of trouble I got UberStudent downloaded (point to point) and there were no seeders for torrent.

UberStudent an Ubuntu derivative is a good one and I hope PCLinux also follow their footsteps.

EyeNux and EyeOS

My investigation of over 100 Linux distributions has taken me into uncharted quarters. 

Eye Os was on such an uncharted waters.

In the beginning in the haste of completing the hundred (100) distributions in a hurry, I would download anything and everything and test them and write a little brief, sometimes with very little sentiment. 

EyeNux was one of them and it escaped my careful evaluation.

But I love "the small is beautiful" principle and all the small ones which included wordpress, moodle, MySQL, MySQL Admin and PHP were placed in a small 20 CD case for future use.

They were in cold storage till toady.

All of them in someway or other are server oriented and not desktop oriented utilities where Aparche is essential for proper functionality and I never tested them had been a desktop user.

My entry to Cloud computing is late and the fact that I could not get any worthwhile desktop functionality from JoliCloud, I decided to investigate.

Duly registered with JoliCloud at their site and started fiddling with it only yesterday.

Then all the utilities except twitter (small is beautiful and ? getting an airline booked and checked on a snowy day) I am allergic which include Facebook, Yahoo and Google news (are boring for me) and started digging and accidentally bumped into EyeOs and suddenly it awakened me that I had OS with some Eye catching name (forgotten EyeNux but remembered only the eye part) in my attic. 

After 24 hours of searching (out of over 400 Linux CD/DVDs) I found the CD Case in the second page or cover I found the EyeNux.

Before that I downloaded the tar file of eyeOs and extracted it and I tried activating it (not installing by definition since it is a web base utility and a desktop, not really a program as such) for two hours in my PCLinuxFullMonty desktop and I could not but annoyed all the same that I could not do  so in spite of looking at and exploring all the instructions to activate it.

My computer is a desktop not a server with Apache running.

Then for another two hours I tried to find an iso file of EyeOs and I could not find one.

Desperate I went in search of the EyEOs in my archive.

This is another good and profitable thing of downloading and archiving them since most of the sites including Distroamina is now defunct and I downloaded it from Distromania, strangely enough.

We are in this consumer age and moment we get a new gadget we dump the old one unceremoniously.

There were no updates for EyeNux from 2007 and a wonderful idea has gone into hibernation.

It is 310 odd MiB distribution with 30 odd MiB Web OS desktop (i.e eyeOS).

It is Mandrake based or may be Unity based and is a wonderful little distribution.

This distribution should be revamped with 2.5 Web OS (or desktop should be incorporated) instead of 1.2 eyeOS.

I will paste a few of the original vision below for your perusal.

About eyeOS

EyeNux is a new kind of Operating System which allows you to use your personal data and applications from anywhere in the World.

eyeNux is a new kind of Operating System which allows you to use your personal data and applications from anywhere in the World, at any time.

eyeNux applicaiton is based on the Linux Kernel, a very stable and fast Operating System, and uses the eyeOS Desktop, a totally Web Based Desktop Environment.

So, with eyeNux, you can simply connect to your online (or local, if you don't have an Internet connection) eyeOS Desktop, manipulate your files, play games,... without having to install anything.

EyeOS is an Open Source Platform designed to hold a wide variety of Web Applications over it. eyeOS was thought as a new definition of Operating System, where everything inside it can be accessed from everywhere in a Network. All you need to do is to login into your eyeOS server with a normal Internet Browser, and access your personal desktop, with your applications, documents, music, movies... just like you left it last time.

eyeOS is scalable, so everyone can port an existing PHP app to eyeOS and create a meta-package for installing it.

Currently, with the base system you can find a full suite of applications bundled, some for private use, like the file manager, a word processor, a music player, calendar, notepad or contacts manager. There are also some groupware applications, such as a group manager, a file sharing application, a group board and many more.

eyeOS is Open Source, licensed under the GNU Public License version 3 (GPL3), which means that you can have your own private eyeOS server for your Family and Friends, Company or Web Network, completely free. But it also means you can browse through the eyeOS source code and access the eyeOS development tools to customize your system and develop new applications that fit your specific needs.

If you want to start using eyeOS, you can join the International eyeOS free server, or create your own eyeOS server easily and be able to decide who can join it and customize it to your needs.

Creating your own eyeOS server is actually very easy. 

All you need is a web server with PHP support, and even without that, you will find complete solutions that will install all you need to start using eyeOS in a few minutes.

eyeOS is all about centering the work and entertainment to a single place. eyeOS is all about removing compatibility issues between applications and operating systems. eyeOS is all about taking your life everywhere.

As you can see, the idea behind eyeOS is not to have an Operating System inside an Operating System, or a browser inside a browser. 

eyeOS is another step in the digital life era:

JoliCloud and EyeOS

If you want to join the cloud with your existing paraphernalia that goes with your email identity, JoliCloud is for you.

I have already briefed you here how to make a USB stick but you do not need that even if your browser is cloud ready like Google Chrome.

Just type Jolicloud in Google and register with a name and your email.

Once you are with the Jolicloud and integrating your favorite utilities there is something one should not miss.

That is Eye OS.

This is a tiny Web OS that is sponsored by free software sourceforge foundation.

It is the cutest Linux package one can have.

You can integrate all your blog site with Jolicloud and you need not carry even a pendrive if you have a thin client access but Google Chrome is essential and I believe a tablet with android or Kindle will get you connected.

Whole world is going to change with cloud computing whether you like it or not.

One can synchronize with Dropbox but there is no Ubuntu One at the moment.

I hope Ubuntu One will fix this problem soon.

UberStudent Linux

This is another Linux distribution I could not download due to download problem. Again with some difficulty I downloaded the CD and tested  it and currently trying the DVD download.

It is Ubuntu based and excellent for students in the higher grades and in the University.

It has many utilities that student would like to use in literature search albiet web based.

I have no hesitation in recommending it.

I will list the utilities that are seen only in this distribution once iI have downloaded and tested the DVD.

Musix Linux

This is one of the Linux distributions I could post a comment since I could not download (point to point) it but with some perseverance I managed to download it and it was worth the trouble.

It's multi-language capability gets high points from me.

It has Debian and KDE utilities and I believe the desktop is light weight Openbox.

If you are musician or a graphic artist this is for you.

It has both 32 and 64 bits version.

Only think I did not like was the clutter in the desktop but that can be excused for the utilities far outweigh the clutter it creates.

I hope in future version they provide a torrent version.

Please visit it's home site and below is a few lines copied from is home page.

How does it works?

The system will boot from your CD/DVD drive, with no need to install anything on your hard disk.

Later, it can be installed.


It's a 100% free multimedia operating system intended for music production, graphic design, audio and video edition, and all kind of tasks.

It contains an enormous collection of free (as in freedom) programs that can replace Windows. 

Jet-Jock-Linux

Flying was one of my pastimes not as a pilot but as a passenger and once as a flying doctor too.

If I was a given second chance I would have become a pilot and even though I did biology I offered for Applied Mathematics for 'O' Level in case, I changed my mind.

But I was fully engaged and did not have spare time even to try training flights, even though I lived nearby a training facility.

That is something I missed in my life but I still follow blogs related to flying (sometime very boring for the pilots).

Then to find a Linux distribution with training simulation for Boeing 737 was a pleasant surprise.

Quickly downloaded it.

Thank you guys for posting it at Linux tracker.

It is Slackware / SLAX based distribution and is a pretty good one.

I could not install it but I can understand the developers concern that somebody might use it inappropriately, especially a teenager.

Thanks again.

Elegance

Elegance

Well, Well

One can not be elegant

In physical being

But one can be

Mindful and elegant

In Writing

But if one could be

Self critical

And add a bit of

Humour to life

So even others can

Have a bit of laugh 

Life becomes meaningful

And worth living

Many of us try

To be perfectionist

And fail

To achieve it

And making misery

To self and sundry

But if one writes

Or blog something to

Incite and cause pain

To self and others

It is worse than

Being dressed

Clumsily at

A dinner party

Since the  words

Uttered or

Written on paper

Remains there

Even after

Ink or paint 

Had dried up. 

Sense out of Nonsense

This was posted elsewhere some years ago and is relevant now the way they handle things in the Middle East currently and Sri-Lanka in the past.

The reproduction without edition is here but I may edit it  later with the present in mind.

Sense out of Nonsense- SiR Lanka Experience

A worthy friend
Tells me
NaTo stands for
No Action
Talk Only show
Run by
The elite
Brainless (senseless)
Souls of the
West but not East

When I saw
The women
In TV pictures
Of the recent
Peace walk and talk
On reflection
I could only
Think of a devil incarnation
A true devil in
Sheep clothing
Good for
Devil Dancing
Of the Southern Variety
Let me coin
A typical Sri-Lankan
Word TOPPI for
Talk Only
Peace Pomps International
For the Peace mongers
Who wear a hat of
Western cult
Playing nonsense
Out of a word called
PEACE
That originates from
The Compassionate Quality
Of Metta
Of the Lord Buddha
By the way
PP of the Toppi stands for
Pissu Poras
Brainwashed
Brandishing
A new meaning to
Talk Only
Hora Shows
Of the nonsense variety
Propped up
By the money of
Non Gracious Variety
There are few types
Of Horas
In this island paradise
The Kuda Horas (Parasols or the Shelter)
The Toopi Horas (Hat or the Ideas)
The Sivuru Horas (Robe or the Convictions)
The Poth Horas (Books or the Intellectual Property)
Of the kindergarten variety
But the new and
Emerging variety
Is the Mara (Devil) Hora National
Of the international type
This is vital for someone
Without influence
To Admit his or her child
To year one
In National schools
Of SiR Lanka

Desktops becoming Fatty and eating up resources at boot time.

I recently tested Mandriva's latest Live DVD which is trying to become a gorilla fed on a FAT diet (type of a desktop) and very lazy to boot and work with me.

I could not fire up FireFox and LibreOffice and it froze on my old IBM with 1 GiB RAM.

Unfortunately Ubuntu's Unity desktop and (Gnome 3 new desktop I have not downloaded or tested yet) Gnome 3 has the same Atherosclerotic predilection and if you have low RAM please do not try them.

My comments elsewhere reported  on  Ubuntu and  Ping Eee were done (I have installed them) on my laptop with 4 GiB RAM and they run smoothly with adequate RAM.

If you have low RAM please do not try them.

Instead try distribution on a lean diet.

There are plenty.

1. 4MLinux all in one (70 MiB). It has UnetBootIn too.

2. Puppy Linux (120 Mib)

3. Unity (370) both 32 bits and 64 bits version.

4. Peppermint (440MiB)

5. TaylorSwift (690 MiB)

So if you have an old computer UP your RAM and have several of the above mentioned distribution at your disposal.

I see another comment at distrowatch where a user complains that so called i586 distributions do not boot up.

One is they do not test (like me) before release and most of them a "cravvy "on RAM.

 

"Cravvy" is a new term (from Crave) I have coined for (Savvy lineage) distributions that eat up RAM like Microsoft.

So my advice for newbies is for you to have at least three Live distributions in addition to your FAT and atherosclerotic "potato couch' distributions.

If you have trouble with the lazy gorilla put a bonobo live and get your work done on a flash.

One super lightweight.

One lightweight.

One middleweight.

 Below is a reproduction from DistroWatch and read it carefully.

Alternative desktop environments and window manager are currently making a strong comeback, with many users willing to experiment with some that once seemed on the verge of extinction. One of them is Enlightenment, a flashy, but still lightweight window manager whose current version (17) has been in development for nearly a decade. Jeff Hoogland, the founder and lead developer of Bodhi Linux, lists the five things the Enlightenment desktop does best: "There is no doubting that all of our modern desktops have been progressing in features and functionality. One spot where Enlightenment excels though is that it has a focus on remaining trim and fast while adding these new features. Don't believe me? KDE 4.x needs around 512 MB to be happy, GNOME 3 recommends slightly more at 768 MB and Ubuntu's Unity desktop requests a full gigabyte! Someone always pops up and cries out, 'but our computers are so powerful it doesn't matter', whenever you mention system requirements these days. The fact remains though - it does matter. A desktop that runs fast on a slow system will fly on a quick system. Resources should be there for your applications to use, not for your desktop environment to eat up. Trim as Enlightenment already is, the developers are currently in the process of rewriting all of it's code to use XCB to replace XLib - which will make it even faster."

4MLinux-2.3-Small Is beautiful with UnetBootIn and Making Mandriva Flashdrive

As mentioned already Mandriva is good idea badly implemented and slow to boot.

One can remember Mandriva had Globe Trotter and Live Pendrives.

Now the new Mandriva is bulky and difficult to work with just for for fun I decided to make Mandriva Flashdrive (I do not know how long I will keep  it before erasing the image). 

Steps are as follows.

1. Download 4MLinux all in one.

2. Download Mandriva image.

3. Boot 4MLinux

4. Go to maintenance and click UnetBootIn

5. Plug in a Flash drive (I tried 8 GiB Flashdrive) since the image is heavy. One has to format it with FAT beforehand.
I had 6.5 for Mandriva and another 1.5 as a reserve partition.

6. Give the path to your image (need not be Mandriva any you have downloaded).

Root---> Media----> Disk-----> Image

7. Click OK and in about 5 minutes you have Mandriva in a Flash.

8. Now to reveal how bad the new Mandriva boots (if you have 1 GiB RAM like me), go and make a cup of Tea/Coffee.

I finish my tea (boiling the water to brewing and drinking it before Mandriva booted and fired up the FireFox).

It did not go to Mandriva site as it used to do.

This is why I am happy that I left Mandriva long time before their split and use 4MLinux for my work on Live sessions and say "Small is beautiful" and promote Unity Linux and (Core Linux on top of one can built ones own packages) its derivative HUMANity Musician edition (currently downloading, the last 100 or so MiB).

Unity is one of the earliest Core Live CDs before PCLinux stormed the community with Big Daddy (only in archives now).

It broke away from Mandrake and formed Unity and there are at least 8 derivatives and one of which is TinyMe.

One does not need to be FAT to be productive when the cloud is promoting thin clients.

4MLinux even though tiny and only 60 odd MiB, it can be destructive if you use it's partition utility without due care.

It only detect the first hard disk and if you select sda1 instead of sdc or /d or /e by accident your will boot Mandriva Live instead of your prized distribution (gone as you press OK in the dialogue box) in the first hard disk.

Please take care and the UnetBootIn graphic mode fonts are very tiny for  an old folk like me.

But I did not do any mistakes, simply because I check  my actions especially typos now before clicking OK in any command line operation.

Mandriva Update

Mandriva is a good idea very badly implemented.

The good idea is resurrecting once one of my favorite (I could not wait for the next release) distributions from bankruptcy.

Thank for the injection of some 3 millions.

Next is is the 3 million well spent.

I do not think so.

It is going to become regimented Russian enterprise (unfortunately we Sri-Lankans including new entrants to the university are getting regimented) without creative inputs.

The idea of using KDE only is horrible to say the least.

Why?

It is Incorporated with Unity Type additions and take up all the GiB of my RAM and cannot even get LibreOffice (another good idea) on in a live session. I have only 1 GiB on my workhorse machine.

Even PCLinuxFullMonty which is a Gorilla of a distribution consumes that amount of RAM on a Live Session. 

In defense of PCLinuxFullMonty even though it is slow to boot up once booted up and running it runs smoothly and fast with many applications running at the same time. It is my workhorse and I have no reservation of recommending it to anybody.

For the last year I had only few momentary crashes (that also due to fault of our Telecoms).

With that scenario putting installation separate was a very good idea otherwise few of the RAM cards of poor uses will be consumed or fully burned.

It might become another Linux distribution Like ALT almost Russian based and no use for the third world countries like ours.

I could not even fire up FireFox and I gave up and cannot make any further comments.

My Live session with Flashdrive created with 4MLinux was not as bad as Live DVD and I could fire up both FireFox and LibreOffice but took a hell of a long time.If you do not have at least 2 GiB of RAM please do not think of using it.

This is not going to be one my favorites for sometimes and a considerable time in future.

Thanks guys and girts making it little over 1.5 GiB otherwise i would have had a heart attack waiting its full download in this Banana Republic.

I will be promoting UNity Linux (not Ubuntu's Desktop) from now onwards, since it's refined concept of bare bone Linux (OpenBox) from which ore useful and custom distributions can be built on.

I am currently downloading Unity's derivative of musicians edition of HUMANity.
Humanity is good with AbiWord and runs smoothly with many useful applications.

I will be with you soon with comment on that and not anymore of Mandriva for sometime.

JoliCloud installing in Linux.

JoliCloud 1.2 is another cloud based Linux distribution.

I downloaded it and booted up and I am confused what they are going to achieve with it. 

Could not even exit from the live Cd and had to do not honourable Ctrl+Alt+Del procedure which I hate to do with my laptop (thank god I tested it with my old IBM, annoyed as I was switched off the power button).

Then I went to there web site which has elaborate tutorial thinking most users are still at kindergarten level and downloaded the Linux utility and tried it on my PCLinux and I could not mount the script to boot the USB stick.

The I forgot about it and today early in the morning (on leave) after long nap wanted to do something exciting copied an image of JoliCloud to a CD and then mounted Ping Eee and tried UnetBootIn with the image CD on the CD Rom.

No more hassle I got a Live JoliCloud in a USB stick which booted up and telling me what to do and not what I wanted to do.

Annoyed again I am posting this.

I am not sure what JoliCloud (it was not Jolly for ME) is going to achive.

If prefer CloudUSB instead.

But knowing myself even I am critical of any Linux distribution (always constructive) I will carry both sticks with me when i am out an enjoying myself.

Which I am now.

Guys and girls please do not spoon feed your user base especially Linux guys and please check whether your sh-script work on all Linux distributions before giving elaborate instruction to newbies.

Please tell them what i did with UnetBootIn or better incorporate it in your next version.

I am watching your progress from the 'Cloudy Sky" like an eagle.

Penetration Testing of Linux and Statistics

Nobody is sure how many are exactly using Linux worldwide but guesstimate is 1% of the computer users.
This is excluding Linux servers which is in the majority in all the spheres including Science.

This statement is related to desktop users.

I am urging all the people using Linux desktop to register at the distrowatch affiliated organization.

Global census is mandatory to see what the exact penetration is.

The fact of the matter is millions of users are out there but getting them registered in one site is humanly impossible but if a cross section of them register reasonable guess work estimate can be arrived at.

I use several machines and a laptop with Linux on board with number of distributions (some for testing and some for my work) but I registered once with my regular machine.

My wife uses another Linux machine which is not registered and my daughter uses both Microsoft and Linux.

My household is not a typical one but I would rather reflect (not that it matters a lot statistically) an average family where husband or wife uses Linux and the other half uses Microsoft.

Current statistics is very interesting.

In a 20 million population of Sri-Lankans only 133 machines are  registered currently(178 out of 224 countries).

In a 1.2 billion population 2340 Indian are registered from India (208 out of 224 countries).

Monaco with 1113 comes 5th out of 224 one of the richest private cities in the world.

Vatican city comes 6th with 26 Linux machines.

I won't talk about any any Buddhist international Institutions in Sri-Lanka.
I know of one Buddhist monk (who comes from Sweden) who is involved in getting the Pali  (Buddha's Language of use) Unicode into Linux.
That's all.

What about Singapore? 

119th with 150 machines.

No   Country                                           Pers      Current    Mach      P/Mpop     Mpop

103 US United States Of America       15555    133           21367     51.2            303 millions

Tanzania, North Korea, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Nigeria come last 5 (five) and Japan, Bangladesh and Pakistan behind them.

 This is revealing.

That is a big puzzle for me where Indian institutes boast that they produce lot of technocrats including Linux for  India and for the West.

That argument evaporate into thin air statistically.

Somebody from India should do a study on this.

I will talk about Sri-Lanka why we are way behind in this race.

I will start with a real story.

Way back in 1984 when I came back from England with Two computers one Atari and the other Compact 128, I happened to visit the college where I studied celebrating its 100th year in existence.

The principal was futuristic and asked me what we should do and I promptly  said we will establish a computer unit and I told him I will get a few computers from England.

With the help of some of our old college guys in UK I manged to get the first 3 computers myself. Then the ambassador of UK was from our college and coordinating the thing was just a matter of few phone calls.

This was done without any government help.

Some years later I visited the college and the principal was different and I met him and told him I would like to see the computer unit.

I did not tell him that the early conceptual idea of starting the computer unit was mine and I physically brought the first three computers.
I just wanted see how those old computers were used and what new ones they  have added (this was before windows 95).

I was sent from  pillar to post.

First to Vice Principal, then to another teacher and another and nobody was of any help and I could not get the room opened where the computers were locked in.

In my mind I had decided I will not visit it again.

This is the type of teachers we have here and we did not have a computer course till 2 years ago.

That speaks volumes of the Education Ministers too.

Anyway I joined a private hospital in Colombo where I worked with 6 programmers and we got Unix from Singapore and used it there in dumb or black and white terminals and got the network running for the first time in Sri-Lanka.

Then within six months I joined the university and was very much involved with computers (a new hospital was built with Japanese aid) till I stepped down to  devote full time to Linux.

Why we are behind in Linux?

1. We use pirated copies even in Universities.

2. We teach them in Sinhala or Tamil and they cannot read a book on computers in English.

3. We have not trained teachers in English and IT (computer science) for over 30 years.

4. If somebody has a good idea all the other teachers come and destroy  that somebody (person) first and then the idea.

5. Our administrators including principals takes bribes to admit students with the help of some powerful politicians.

6. Politicians use teachers for political work and sometimes even malpractices at polling stations.

7. Only corrupt teachers get promoted and stay in one station till life.

8. Most evident corrupt practice is to not to teach during school hours but  to do private tuition after hours.

9. Even our professors are paid half what is paid in India.

10. Next round is to destroy the higher education and install private universities.

That is why we have only 133 guys using Linux Boxes in the entire country.

I am not at all surprised.

Very simple explanation.

We have got our priorities wrong.

Now few words about E-commerce in Sri-Lanka.

We have Electricity Board, Water Board and telecoms fully digitalized and none of them can give an accurate bill or balance sheet on the last day of the month.
I have personal experience that computer programmers fiddle with the data and produce inaccurate reports.
There is some sort of racket going on with money matters and the higher authorities neither have vigilance, know how and the necessary apparatus to make investigations.
The programmers themselves do what the teachers do kill the person first and the idea of check and balances that needs to be installed next.

When I was in the private sector there were over 100 computer mistakes  I manually detected daily including wrong blood groups and wrong blood transfusions out of over 1000 (over 10% error which is not acceptable when working with computers) reports  and my target was to make zero defect (Quality Control).

This malady has now infiltrated the private sector too. 

That is why when I do shopping check every computer entry which I ask every intelligent customer should do.

My final analysis is that we a mathematically stupid nation run by mathematically stupid Central Bank who runs the affairs in a very ordinary manner without check and balances and let the country taken to ransom by speculators, hedgers and IMF  and is equally very good at  printing various coloured notes with politicians face on them and cost of printing is far in excess of the face value of the currency note.

If we wean off these malpractices we would be able pay economic professors 3 to 4 times the current pay so that they are also not involved in corrupt practices.

LiveCD Script, Its beginning, Unity and PCLinux

Progress of LiveCDs had a bumpy ride.

The story as it is told to me is as follows;
But I do not know how true the facts are.

However, I discovered LiveCD in 2007 with PCLinux 2007 long time after its hatching.

LiveCD project was stagnant at the beginning which was understandable and had a SINGLE developer working on it.
 

That developer joined Unity Linux and all 25+ developers there decided to help him make some progress on it.  

The impact LiveCDs made on me is substantial and never waned.

In the meantime, they took the initiative to make improvements.  

For example, they gave it 64bit compatibility.  

They gave it better detection capacity.  

They took the code and gave it better international language support.  

All those things are made available for FREE to any distribution wanting to download a snapshot from SVN.

Now, if anyone has a claim to LiveCD as ‘theirs’ it would be Jaco Greefe who was the principal on the project LONG before any distributions other than Mandrake aka Mandriva even worked with it.  

The script creator Jaco Greefecame from Mandrake Project.

Texstar used Jaco’s project mklivecd and created the original PCLinuxOS 2003 release. 

This release was based on Mandrake 9.2 at the time and a few other Mandrake developers began to debug the script through the creation of PCLinuxOS.  

Mandrake was a trademarked name, so Texstar named it PCLinuxOS.

As you can see, if any one distribution has claim to mklivecd, it would be Mandrake aka Mandriva which was where the script creator/s came from. 

It’s also where the script was first made usable. 

Texstar made it into a nice package with PCLinuxOS which  is totally true.

Texstar only had 32 bit version and only supported English language.

Unity which branched off from Mandrake/PCLinux continues to improve the Live Script with 64bit and addded even udev.

Unity approach is for the Live script to work for other distributions not just for Mandriva derived distributions.

It is targeting developers and savvy guys and not newbies and users.

There have been many attempts by Unity Linux developers to get other distributions that use mklivecd involved with the development of it.  

That invitation is always open to any and all distributions that use it.

As it is Unity is struggling with manpower shortages and its development has again gone into crisis situation and stagnation. 

This is where even a good product may be lost at the end due to lack of improvements and enthusiasm.

The Goal of Unity as stated below are

Unity Linux targets DEVELOPERS.  

We don’t target end users.  

If end users like Unity, GREAT!  

If not, we don’t worry about it.  

Unity Linux has derivative distributions called “branches” that work to target the end user.  

Unity Linux itself is targeted squarely at distribution developers and advanced users who want to be able to use the mklivecd scripts.

Unity attempt at refining the core utilities and it is just over 300 MiB.

1. Humanity.

2. Synergy

3. BBI are only three of its derivatives.

Hope everybody get together and help Unity Linux (not the Ubuntu desktop) to keep the spirit of Unity in Diversity and have a refined product at the end of the day.

Update is long overdue.

I have used the Unity 2010.2 and made a Live USB.

I tried to fiddle with the script (mind you it is in graphic form and not command line and terminal) and mounted an iso file of a distribution which was not a Unity derivative (which I was able to do with UnetBootIn) and it failed to mount the sfs file of that distribution.

It is not of the class of UnetBootin yet but given time and effort mklivecd scripts should become the gold standard of LiveCDs.