Posted on

Three Reasons Open Source Will Save The Economy

Nice article by whurley

[…]
You buy the shovel, but you want the hole.

It’s amazing how easy it is to forget that software is just a tool. Companies purchase software so their employees can execute specific tasks. You don’t need a laser-guided shovel with built-in GPS navigation to dig your hole. A plain ol’ shovel will get the job done just fine.

So buck up, little campers, open source software even comes with a free pack of weenies and a bag of marshmallows. Seriously, folks, go take the money you save by going open source and invest it in keeping the people around who really run your business. They need those jobs now more than ever.
[…]

more @ http://whurley.com/2008/12/03/three-reasons-open-source-will-save-the-economy/

Posted on

Kubuntu & Ubuntu 8.10 released

The ne Ubuntu release Intrepid Ibex has been released on time. I really like the way it works. The clip has been recorded by golem.de and shows the GNOME UI which is used by Ubuntu.
I had time to install the Kubuntu derivate myself.
Itcomes with a fully integrated KDE 4.1, which really rocks! Everything worked out-of-the-box. Unfotunatly my Lenovo T61 has an built in NVIDIA card, so the effects only run at about 95%.
I don’t want to write too much, but I hope you give it a try.
If you want to have some more textual informations…. go to
They have written a nice review (although I wonder why it is categorized in hardware ;) )
Posted on

OpenOffice 3.0 GA available

Today the OOo Community officaly released their latest GA 3.0.

At the moment their servers suffer hard, because too many people want to get this great piece of software.

But what is OOo 3.0 (oooh… so many Os ;) ) all about:

  1. Native Mac OS X Aqua support -> finally a great Office Suit for all those Apple folks out there.
  2. import and edit of pdf documents
  3. native OOXML support on all major plattforms… (personally I don’t like this, but it seems to be necassary … )
  4. Enhanced Extension-API
  5. Under the hood improvements which made those other features possible.

All-in-all it is a incremental improvement release, without new killer features. But with all the improvementes beneath the surface, OOo will grow over the next couple of years. I think this release is compareable with Firefox 2.0 which closed alle the caps between FF 1.0 and his competitors and opened up the way for FF 3.0 which now pushes the web.

Maybe the next release of OOo will do the same in all those offices out there.

One question… have you ‘as a technical, open minded person’ ever tried to discuss about standard software with ‘not-so-open-minded’ people?

What is standard software?

—- UPDATE: —-

Linux.com has a nice article about OOo 3.0

http://www.linux.com/feature/148435

Posted on

The top ten enterprise open-source applications

Once a year InfoWorld releases a top ten list of open source applications in different areas. Because I’m really interested in enterprise applications… here is the list:

Posted on

XBMC ‘Atlantis’ Beta 1 released …

… now serving all common platforms

Team-XBMC is proud to announce the first cross-platform Beta version of XBMC media center for Linux, Mac OS X (Leopard and Tiger), Windows, and Xbox, in preparation for the upcoming stable release of XBMC, code named ‘Atlantis’. There are three important news items associated with this release:

1. The first item that is new in this release is the brand new skin “PM3.HD”, a high-definition tribute to Project Mayhem III, which will be gracing screens as the default skin on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Xbox users can, of course, choose to use this skin if they wish as well, and the original Project Mayhem III skin is still packaged with Beta 1 for those who prefer the old-school look. This is in addition to the already awesome selection of skins available for XBMC.

2. The second item is the initial release of “XBMC Live“, a bootable CD which gives users the opportunity to try XBMC on their computer, without touching their harddrive. In addition, XBMC Live allows installation of XBMC, complete with an operating system, onto a USB flash memory sticks for a permanent, fast booting, dedicated set-top-box style installation of XBMC. XBMC Live is designed to support Microsoft’s MCE Remote and USB receiver out-of-the-box.

3. The third item is that the XBMC for Mac release now has initial support for integrating iTunes and iPhoto media into XBMC. For more information on this, please read this developers blog entry; “iTunes and iPhoto integration in XBMC“. The Mac release of Beta 1 also comes bundled with a bonus skin for XBMC, and that is MediaStream by Team Razorfish, (this skin can, of course, be downloaded and installed on all XBMC platforms, like all other XBMC skins).

IMHO … this is one of the biggest news in 2008. XBMC has always been my favorite, dream, … media center solution. It is feature rich, open and of course very sexy.

All of my friends liked to use it on my old XBOX. Now I want to push the limits any further.

I will try to get XBMC onto my Playstation 3 (goodbye again M$!…) or I will get a Eee Box later this year.

That’s it for now…

Bye

Posted on

Open Source Migration

I’m currently migrating my fathers office. I’m using Zimbra and Samba to get a Exchange + Active Directory like environment. The following clip is a good demo:


Zimbra + Samba Integration

Currently everything works as supposed to:

  • Central Login and Userdatabase (via Zimbra LDAP)
  • Samba as Primary Domain Controller and WINS Server
  • Roaming Profiles, SSO
  • Simple Administration via Zimbra WebGUI
  • Secure E-Mail via IMAPS/SMTPS in Thunderbird or the secure Webinterface
  • Shared Folders and Calendars
  • Enterprise Content Management with Alfresco Labs 3 (with Sharepoint support)
  • Endian Firewall for Security and VPN
  • Internal DNS and DHCP Services (BIND9/DHCPD3)
  • Windows XP Client PC Installs via partimaged

So now it is up to Amadeus and TravelTainment. To free their tools so i’m able to take the next step…. getting rid of Microsoft Clients =)

A big hug to the Debian Project, Zimbra (Yahoo) and all the OS Movement participants out there.

Posted on

We want you … Try KDE 4 …

If you ever wanted to check out what KDE 4 is all about. Then you have to try the following.

Get the VMWare Server and create a new VM with 512 MB of Ram and approx. 10 Gb of HDD space.

You also need to get the Ubuntu JeOS (JeOS = Just enough Operating System and was designed to build VM Ware appliances) image from:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/jeos/

Insert the iso Image into your fresh VM and go through the standard JeOS setup which is fairly simple.

After one reboot you should be able to login in and add the following line into “/etc/apt/sources.list”

  • /deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/project-neon/ubuntu hardy main/

Now run

  • apt-get update
  • apt-get install kde-nightly autoconf automake binutils make cpp gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r) xorg xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse kdm-kde4 kde-nightly-kdegraphics kde-nightly-kdepimlibs kde-nightly-kdenetwork kde-nightly-kdemultimedia amarok-nightly

That’s all…. type “reboot” and wait for the login dialog…. Now you only have to choose neonkde as session and enter your username and password.

HF & GL

Ebbo