Arun's Blog

I'm driving down to Smokies tomorrow to stay in Majestic Mountain Vacations cabin for 4 night. I'm taking whole of next week off. Hooray!!!!

A new study released by Net Applications indicates that a decreasing percentage of the Internet population is using Windows as their operating system. Mac OS X is the major gainer followed by Linux. Windows might soon fall below 90% mark (still high) and Mac will enter the double digit. Linux might soon reach single digit (;)). It's currently at 0.8%, a gain of 0.12% compared to last month.

Source: tgdaily.

Practical Technology is reporting that Xandros is buying Linspire. According to Practical Technology, In an announcement that was sent out on June 30, to Linspire stockholders, CEO Larry Kettler wrote he had decided to sell all of Linspire's assets. This deal specifically includes Linspire, Freespire and the company's CNR (Click 'N Run) desktop installation platform.

Neither company, at this time, has confirmed either the deal or the amount that exchanged hands to make it happen. The former CEO of Linspire was not happy though. He wrote on his blog that Linspire founder Michael Robertson has once again completely disregarded the 100 some-odd shareholders of Linspire by pulling off this deal without a shareholder meeting. He was quite critical of Michael Robertson on his blog post.

Technorati Tags: Linspire, Xandros, Practical Technology, Freespire, Click N Run

Ubuntu team has released the 1st alpha of Ubuntu 8.10, code named Intrepid Ibex. As of now, the alpha 1 contains re-merging of changes from Debian and the upgrade of the Linux kernel to a pre-release version of 2.6.26. Alpha 1 does not have a live CD. You have to use alternate installer to install alpha 1 or you can upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 by issuing the command update-manager -d. We'll come to know about the new features as the work progresses.

Technorati Tags: Ubuntu 8.10, Intrepid Ibex, Debian, Alpha

I'll be in Las Vegas next week to attend the OHUG conference. They had the conference in September last year, so the weather was very nice. It's in 108 F range all of next week. It's not humid there luckily. I'll be back blogging after a week.

Today Hot Hi 108°F

Tonight Mostly Clear Lo 80°F

Saturday Hot Hi 109°F

Saturday Night Mostly Clear Lo 83°F

Sunday Hot Hi 108°F

Sunday Night Mostly Clear Lo 81°F

Monday Hot Hi 106°F

Monday Night Clear Lo 80°F

Tuesday Hot Hi 106°F

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, OHUG, Oracle, HCM

The Gobuntu (Ubuntu with open source software only) development team has announced that the project will merge most of the Gobuntu changes into mainline Ubuntu starting with Ubuntu 8.10. That includes an option to install «Free Software only». According to Gobuntu, This installer option now obviates the need for a separate derivative project, and in the interest of reducing the workload of Ubuntu core developers, the Gobuntu project will instead focus on merging as many changes as possible into mainline Ubuntu. Sounds like no more Gobuntu.

Technorati Tags: Gobuntu, Ubuntu 8.10, Open Source

Mozilla is planning to release Firefox 3.0 at 10.00 a.m. PDT (Pacific time) and attempting to set Guinness world record (maximum number of downloads in 24 hrs).

Update: 10.02 a.m.: PDT. It looks like Mozilla's site is terribly slow or down due to this. Firefox 3.0 should have been out by now.

Screenlets is a desktop widget engine similar to gDesklets and Google Gadget. It's simple to install and use. I installed it through Synaptic package manager. Open Synaptic by selecting System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager. Search for screenlets. Click and select install.

Once installed, you can find it under System -> Preferences. The default installation has around 30-35 screenlets which you can install. Click a screenlet you want to install and click Launch/Add. If you want the system to start that screenlet whenever you login, check Auto start on login. Once you add a screenlet to your desktop, you can change the properties by right clicking the screenlet and select properties. If you want to download more screenlets, you can click Get more screenlets button. It'll open the browser and take you to the screenlets download page. Download it, Click on Install Screenlets button and select the downloaded file.

I didn't see screenlets sucking lots of system resources nor slowing down the login. In fact I felt it's faster than gDesklets and Google Gadgets, but it doesn't have that many widgets as Google Gadget or gDesklets.

The Wall Street Journal has an article describing the power struggle between Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in the last few years. Here are some excerpts from that article:

It was early 2000, and Bill Gates had relinquished the chief executive's job at Microsoft Corp. to Steve Ballmer - Mr. Gates retained the power, triggering a year long struggle between the two men that until now has remained largely under wraps.

Things became so bitter that, on one occasion, Mr. Gates stormed out of a meeting in a huff after a shouting match in which Mr. Ballmer jumped to the defense of several colleagues.

Embattled, Mr. Gates sought help. Eventually, in January 2000, he gave his chief executive title to Mr. Ballmer. Mr. Gates became Microsoft's «chief software architect,» a new position that, in theory, was below that of Mr. Ballmer.

Soon, the two men clashed as Mr. Ballmer tried to assert himself in his new job. As the firm's iconic leader, Mr. Gates still held sway that wasn't tied to a title: In meetings Mr. Gates would interject with sarcasm, undermining Mr. Ballmer in front of other executives, Mr. Gates and other Microsoft executives say.Other Microsoft executives tried to step in, calling Messrs. Gates and Ballmer into a meeting with a clear message: Your struggles threaten the company, according to people familiar with the situation.

Microsoft's board held its own discussions with the two men, and also dispatched Dave Marquardt, a director and early Microsoft investor, to have periodic dinners with the two to help sort through the troubles.

The stress on Mr. Ballmer was clear one morning in January 2001 while he was in Paris for an annual review of Microsoft's businesses. In his hotel room at 3 a.m. after a long day of meetings, Mr. Ballmer posed a telling question to Mr. Raikes, the veteran Microsoft executive: «What is the CEO's job at Microsoft?»

About Gates retirement, Once Mr. Gates leaves, «I'm not going to need him for anything. That's the principle,» Mr. Ballmer says. «Use him, yes, need him, no.»

Interesting, but it wasn't something unexpected.

Acer is planning to push Linux aggressively on it's laptop and Netbooks. Netbooks are smaller version of the laptop, similar to ULPC. Acer has already started selling Linux on Media PC business and netbooks and they are planning to add laptops to the Linux lineup.

Acer's vice president of marketing Gianpiero Morbello said the shift towards Linux is due to Microsoft. «Microsoft has a lot of power and it is going to be difficult, but we will be working hard to develop the Linux market» he said.

Acer sees two killer apps with Linux on computers: operation and cost. Its flavour of Linux will boot in 15 seconds compared to minutes for Windows, and the open source operating system can extend battery life from five to seven hours. At the same time, the company expects that the price differential of Linux
will make the offering attractive for consumers at the low-cost end of the market.

Good thinking Acer. Don't succumb to Microsoft like others did before.

News source: Vnunet.com