Know what Open Source Is?

First of all, Android is Open Source. The code that Samsung and countless others have downloaded to create their phone is available for free on the Internet. Anybody can grab it. What would a demand from the court get you that a few minutes with a web browser wouldn’t?

Who Is On Trial Here?

I’m sorry, but if the information you need is not part of the source code that is open and available to the Internet, then it’s part of Google’s private business. Why the hell should Google be required to hand over any of their private matters to a competing company that’s doing their best to wipe Google out when Google isn’t the one on trial? If Apple’s beef is with Google, then sack up Apple and sue Google. Going “thermonuclear on Android” by attacking anybody and everybody that uses it is the cowards way.

Makes No Sense

Seriously, how does this make sense? If Google is in violation, sue Google. If Samsung is in violation, then the materials that Google has (other than the already publicly available source code) are none of Apple’s business. Google shouldn’t even waste the paper for a response. The judge should kick their dumb asses out of court for making stupid demands. Of course, this “trial” is taking place in San Jose, which is right in Apple’s back yard, and Samsung is not even an American company, so the odds that the judge will cave to every stupid demand Apple makes is greatly increased. This whole thing is seriously pissing me off, and reducing the already minuscule chances that I’d ever buy an Apple product. If anyone who works at Apple is reading this, I want to make this absolutely clear: I will go back to one of these before I ever buy an iPhone. Get me?

The post More Apple Demands appeared first on Linux Rants.

You’re Having Trouble with What?!?

That being said, nothing tries my patience faster than trying to trouble shoot computer problems for my parents from over a thousand miles away over the phone. I’ve tried several different ways of taking remote control of their computer, none of which seem to prevent them from hosing it up so badly that my remote methods no longer work. Unfortunately, when it comes to computers, they’re a lost cause.

Then events led me to my most recent epiphany. HP made a tablet. The TouchPad. It was brilliant. Only two buttons on it, one on the front, one on the top. WebOS is a snap to use, and it would give my parents the ability to do pretty much everything they do on their computer in a device that even my parents couldn’t screw up (so I thought).

The price was a barrier though. Of course, we all know how that story went. HP (probably more appropriately Léo Apotheker) so screwed up the release and sale of the TouchPad that it didn’t stand a chance in the tablet market. It was too expensive and didn’t have apps. Pretty soon the price dropped, and then again, and then again. Finally it was announced that it was being discontinued and the remaining inventory sold at ridiculously low prices just to get rid of them. I stayed up till 3am and managed to get my hands on three of them. One for me, one for my wife, and one for my parents. My problems are solved (so I thought)!

You’re Still Having Trouble with What?!?

I want to reiterate here that I love my parents, and they’ve put up with my crap for as long as I’ve had crap to put up with. I don’t want to give the wrong impression here.

OK, now that I’ve said that, my parents can even screw up WebOS. Well, not so much screw it up, but they can’t even figure out the most basic task on it. Just a few days ago, I spent over thirty minutes trying to walk my mother through checking her email. CHECKING HER EMAIL!

Seriously, I wanted to send her this picture, but I couldn’t think of a way to do it that was less complicated than email that she could actually do. The only thing that came to mind was printing it out, putting into an envelope and snail mailing it to her.

Here’s where the epiphany comes in. It doesn’t matter what OS they’re using, or what hardware they’ve got, or how hard I try to make it easy for them. They’re just a lost cause, and that means that Linux is perfect for them.

Linux for Lost Causes

All this time I’ve been trying to make everything so easy that even they couldn’t mess it up. It led to more and more complex issues for me, but didn’t solve their problems. With Linux, I can easily remote into their computer, their computer is virtually impervious to all of the weird crap that seems to miraculously get installed even though I’m not sure which if them knows how to install stuff, and I can maintain it for them with barely a flip of my wrist at the command line. If my mother can’t figure out how to open her email, I can literally open it for her. Linux is no harder to use than Windows or OSX, so I can’t think of a single reason they shouldn’t use Linux. Really, any one that has a lost cause of their own should be thinking Linux.

Think I’m wrong? Give me an earful.

The post Linux is Perfect for your Favorite Lost Cause appeared first on Linux Rants.

I wrote this article last year about how I’d kept a Windows partition around strictly for gaming purposes and how with a little help from Wine, I’d moved past it. More than a year later, I’ve more than passed the need for Windows to play games.

Steam

Man, Steam for Linux. Just today I installed Left 4 Dead 2. I haven’t had the time for an in depth look at every single bit of the game, but from what I’ve seen It’s perfect (despite the fact it’s still in Beta). Portal just hit Linux too. In looking at my Steam library, there’s only three games that aren’t available for Linux yet. Portal 2, which is rumored to be on it’s way as well, Half Life 2, and Half Life 2 Lost Coast*. I’m expecting both of those to come to Linux too since most of the Half Life family of games already has. Steam has opened up a whole ton of games for Linux that hadn’t previously existed.

*UPDATE: Since the original writing of this bit, Half Life 2 and Half Life 2 Lost Coast have become available on Steam. At this point, the only game in my Steam library that isn’t available for Linux is Portal 2, and I’m expecting to see it show up as available soon as well.

Humble Indie Bundle

The Humble Indie Bundle is another great resource for Linux games. In the past it’s bundled games for low prices that you can get for an extremely low price that you can download or add to your Steam library. I’ve picked up a number of really cool games this way, and the proceeds to to charity. You can’t really beat the opportunity to get some cool games and help people out at the same time. Every time Linux users have risen to the challenge and donated more to the cause than any other platform (proportionally speaking of course). I always keep a close eye on their site just so that I’m ready for the next opportunity to get games from them.

Play On Linux

When all else fails, there’s always Wine. The best option I’ve found is Play On Linux. It’s got a whole lot of pre-configured options available, so if you’re wanting to play a popular game, chances are there’s a pre-made configuration available for it in Play On Linux. This is what I use to play World of Warcraft and Unreal Tournament. I did use it for Star Trek Online for a while, but that game never really stuck with me. I’ve honestly never tried to run a game in Play On Linux that didn’t work. If you’re a Linux user and you have an old favorite laying around because it’s Windows only, give it a shot.

Games Everywhere

So, I guess the old argument about Linux not having games is fading fast into history. There are literally Linux games coming out every day. But there is one problem with Gaming on Linux that I’ve only recently run into. I’m quickly running out of hard drive space. I’m going to have to do something about that soon.

The post The State of Gaming on Linux appeared first on Linux Rants.

The I’m referring to today is the one about Linux Viruses.

First of all, Linux Viruses exist. Yep, it’s true, they exist. There’s actually a couple of them. Wikipedia lists an even 30 of them. There’s even Virus protection for Linux.

True, compared to MacOS and Windows, that’s a drop in the bucket. Barely worth noticing. And that’s where the same old argument comes up time and again.

“The reason that Linux doesn’t have viruses like MacOS and Windows is because it’s not as popular!” The argument is that if more people used Linux, there actually would be viruses for Linux. The completely ignores the fact that the desktop is the exception, not the rule. Linux dominates elsewhere. Servers, smart phones, super computers, etc. Linux is kicking ass and taking names. A virus that could infect all those systems would be hugely valuable both monetarily and for a reputation. Yet, it doesn’t happen.

Even  the ones that already exist pretty much suck compared to their Microsoft and Apple counterparts.

So is there a reason to even consider running anti-virus on your Linux computer? Shockingly, the answer is still yes, but not for the same reasons some Mac users and all Windows users should.

You should run anti-virus on your Linux machine as a courtesy to your non-Linux using friends. Their systems aren’t as impervious as yours, so even though your computer is unlikely to get any infection, the same can’t be said for theirs. This also helps you in the long run when all those non-Linux computers aren’t infected blasting out TBs of garbage data out onto the Internet, slowing your connection down and filling your Inbox with spam.

In the long run, we all win.

The post Antivirus for Linux appeared first on Linux Rants.

conky lets you add all sorts of information to your desktop. You can add processor monitors, heat monitors, uptime, disk utilization, network activity, the works. I’m not really particularly good at it, and I can still cobble something together that looks pretty nice (imho).

If you’ve got a couple minutes of free time and you really want to add some pop to your desktop, I’d suggest hitting The Google and digging up some information on conky. You’ll be happy that you did.

The post Customize with Conky appeared first on Linux Rants.

Of course, where you find Cali Lewis you will find Drobo. The subject of backing up your stuff came up, and with it the ever present Drobo.

I want to state this up front. The Drobos are cool devices. Very cool. I’d consider buying one if I had gobs of cash. That being said, a device like a Drobo is hardly a requirement for a secure backup. Here’s my basic setup.

• Internal 2TB Drive. Nothing special here. This will run you about $150.
• External 2TB Drive. Again, nothing special here. This will also run about $150.
• CrashPlan Unlimited Plan. This will run you about $60 a year.
• rsync. Free of charge.

So how do I use this? Well, it’s pretty straight forward actually. I store all my files on the internal drive. That’s it. I don’t even think about anything else. I have a simple shell script running in a cron job every 5 minutes. All that script does is run an rsync on two local locations, keeping my Internal drive in sync with my external. Every single change that’s done on my internal storage gets mirrored on my external. CrashPlan is configured to backup the internal storage.

What does this amount to? Basically, all my data is backed up locally and remotely in a secured location. This whole setup will cost me $360 the first year, and $60 every year after that. Considering the Drobo Mini is the cheapest Drobo available at $649 (not even including the drives), you can get 5 years of service before you even come close to the cost of least expensive Drobo.

For the every day guy/gal working on their computer and storing family photos and personal music collection, there’s no reason to go to the extreme and purchase a Drobo. If it helps you sleep better at night and you’ve got disposable income laying around, go for it, but if you’re like the majority of people everywhere, you can spend your money more frugally and get protection that’s just as good.

Disagree with me? Let me know all about it.

The post Backing It Up appeared first on Linux Rants.

The clock on my computer is telling me that it’s 11:20 AM. It’s Monday, and everything has sucked today.

Work

Work drug me out of bed this morning with unresponsive web servers. Intermittent issues are always the worst. Took two hours to track down a web app that was only generating an error on one node of the cluster. Restarted the app and everything worked like a charm.

Phone

I decided last night that I wanted to root my phone. After the ICS update it’s been running so slowly sometimes it takes minutes to just make a call. Apps are barely usable. It’s pathetic really. I found a nice little article over on Lifehacker titled “How to Root the HTC Thunderbolt“. Seems promising since it’s only a couple months old.

First complication: “you’ll just need to download the batch script on this page, run it on your Windows machine, and follow all the instructions.” Ewww, Windows.

OK, this can be dealt with.

I fire up a Windows machine, download the necessary crap, and get my phone in a state that the app requires. OK, let’s fire this baby up!

Not only did the phone spontaneously restart, the Windows machine BSODed. I tried it twice more (because I’m stubborn that way) with the same results. It amazes me that people use Windows. What kind of POS operating system takes a complete dump running a glorified batch file? Finally gave up because I have work to do.

Tablet

My tablet is an old beater HP TouchPad that’s hacked to run CM9. Most days it does alright for itself, but lately everything is crashing all the time. I’m not sure if these later CM9 nightlys are just less stable or if the tablet is going down the crapper. Apps like GMail crash. Maps doesn’t even install due to some weird conflict. Google+ crashes. SwiftKey works but the tablet doesn’t seem to recognize that you’re typing on it so you can’t enter text. I get weird digital garbage in the conversation when I use Skype or Google Talk.

I’m about ready for something (ANYTHING) to work today. So damn frustrating. Mondays suck.

The post Mondays Suck appeared first on Linux Rants.

I liked Gnome. Originally I was drawn to FVWM95 because it was so similar to Windows 95, but I liked Gnome because it wasn’t.

A desktop battle started between Gnome and KDE. I figured that if Gnome and KDE were competing, it was a good idea to try KDE as well, so I threw it on a computer and gave it a try.

The first time I tried KDE, I didn’t like it. That’s probably an understatement. Many people liked it, but to me, it was terrible. I ran back to Gnome pretty quickly. I’ve never really left Gnome since then. I’ve tried KDE probably a dozen times since that first time, but I never stuck with it. Every time I tried it, my initial dislike was only reinforced.

I’ve always loved the customizability of Linux. I love browsing the Desktop Screenshots on deviantART. There are some truly creative individuals there, and some of the things they do with Linux are amazing to look at.

What does that have to do with the story? I’m getting there, I promise.

One day, when I was browsing through the latest screenshots, something happened. I saw some of the really impressive screenshots were running software I didn’t recognize. After digging a little deeper, I discovered that they were running KDE. This surprised me quite a bit, but it inspired me to give KDE another shot.

I’m currently running Ubuntu 12.04 on my primary system, so I just dropped to the command line, fired up apt-get, and minutes later, KDE was installed. I fired up the new DE, and was greeted by a fairly unfamiliar environment. It took a little bit of getting used to, but after a few hours of use, I found that I was really enjoying using it.

Wait, what?

Yep, I was really enjoying using KDE. I liked the DE that I’d been virtually repulsed by for more than a decade.

I’ve noticed a few oddities with KDE installed on Ubuntu, mostly because I’m still using KDM as my login screen. To get a more full experience of KDE, I put Kubuntu 12.10 on a spare USB key, and booted my laptop with it. Of course, everything automatically detected and the laptop started with a full KDE experience.

Not only did I enjoy using it, it’s awesome. Unless something drastically changes in the next couple months, I expect I’ll rebuild my primary system to run on Kubuntu 13.04.

The post Experiencing KDE for the First Time. Again. appeared first on Linux Rants.

“When you take an Android device out of the box, you have to sign up to nine accounts with different vendors to get the experience iOS comes with. They don’t work seamlessly together.”

It’s pretty obvious that Schiller has either no idea about the Android experience, or isn’t interested in telling the truth. Of course, he went on to talk about Android fragmentation (which really has no impact on the end user at all).

This follows up a rare tweet he made regarding Android security.

To me, as an Android user, all Schiller has managed to do is display a complete and utter lack of knowledge or understanding of the Android experience and environment. He suggested that Android phones are cheap giveaways by carriers, ignoring the fact that iPhones are also given away (you can get an iPhone 4 for 99 cents on AT&T if you’re a new customer or upgrading an existing plan). This is typical of Apple, where facts have never mattered. Now as they watch the mobile market slip through their fingers, the desperation becomes more and more obvious.

The post Phil Schiller Displays Apple’s Desperation appeared first on Linux Rants.

All I’ve got to say about that right now is this: It takes a whole lotta gall to start your press release out with the line “When you rely on Verizon Wireless, you know you are getting the cutting-edge devices and technology needed to keep your business running at full speed” when you’re announcing the upgrade of a phone that shipped in March of 2011 to an OS that came out in October of 2011, and it’s currently 2013. I don’t know if HTC is to blame for this debacle, or if it’s Verizon’s fault, or if it’s somewhere in the middle, but claiming that Verizon is giving you “cutting-edge devices and technology” is almost a slap in the face.

The post Ice Cream Sandwich for the HTC Thunderbolt appeared first on Linux Rants.