main December 2005

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35 discussions

Rant from Japan: Linux must give cost-effective performance in business world, surely?
by Tatsuhiko Maegawa 03 Dec '05

03 Dec '05

Rant from Japan My heartfelt thanks first goes to Mark Rey, Paul Russell and Andrew Savory there in Norwich. These guys invited me Linux world, when I was a politics student and did not know much about computing world. Without them, I probably have not arrived to the point where I stand now. Six years is long, and I miss them very much. Now that I live back in Japan for in sixth years period, I felt it is good time to reconsider the use of Linux in business world. Over the time I had business with managers and well wishers who want to have system. Many had no idea of computing world like what I used to. All had same thoughts - fast application development with cheap expenses. All agrees that their imaginary system will be beneficial to everyone. No one knows how to use that system - until it gets there. System being made and time elapsed, you talk to the exact same people, and now they are asking to retrieve informations that have not been asked before. Cost adds up, data structures becoming to look complicated, firely arguments opes, and the end seems imminent. But every single person all agree there must be Microsoft Windows. They all believe Bill Gates provide proper system with fault-torelance guaranteed. All simple, all easy, they say. Not quite, I must admit. Nowadays system is made of OS and open-source programming language. Microsoft .Net (VB/C++/MS Java) is the exception of the talk. MacOSX, Linux, NetBSD will be amongst the choice. Linux and RDBMS is having better relations. MySQL and PostgreSQL are certainly the choice. Even Oracle supports it, providing developer chooses right Linux OS. Apart from choosing Oracle and Linux for RDBMS management, first installation and system management should ended up cheaper. FTP version of Linux still allows essentials that require to run. And if I consider the use of softwares to add up on top of OS fee, it could go up higher. Next, key Criteria of cost. These are backup and restoration, execution, and everyday management. Everyday management consists of log checking, patches, and memory usage. Execution is really the speed of application. Backup and restoration can be the most annoying factor of cost, but let me assume of Disk to Disk to Tape backup solution for now. Like the others I agree GUI gives faster setups and visual confirmation for all. BUT when it comes to automation, the story changes slightly. The answer, in my opinion, is that it won't change much. Speed, execution, and all other issues do not change much. Apart from my home servers, why do I still waive the use of Linux at business? Simply there is not much people who have much skills with Linux, and do not know how to use much of it. Adopting Linux requires some skills to teach and acquire. That said ... really? I saw people taking equal amount of time to understand how Windows works before. So why I still be afraid of using Linux? There seems not much answer against the question. Unfortunately I do not have opportunity to run business with Linux and manage with Linux yet. Needs for Linux was way too low six years ago, but now it seems growing. Look at E*Trade, they run application with Linux. Unless customer wish some fancy features of .NET (such as ClickOnce), I think Linux server system should break the cost barrier and usablity a lot more easier than I first expected of. Tatsuhiko Maegawa tatsuhiko(a)jazzman.jp http://blog.jazzman.jp == This is private mail ==

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Mounting drive
by Bob Dove 02 Dec '05

02 Dec '05

Evening all, As a now fully paid up member of the Linux community, my first query is: In Suse 10.0, in media, both my DVD drives appear. One is a DVD ROM, the other a DVD RW. Once, and once only despite it being the drive the system was installed from, the DVD RW won't mount! Now I have discovered Yast which in hardware/CD shows the two drives - twice. Like DVD RW, DVD ROM, DVD ROM, DVD RW. When Yast/CD is opened, neither have mount points. Asking Yast to mount them is done, the message says changes made so I finish. I close Yast, go back to media and only one drive - the DVD ROM - is mounted. Further, my external USB drive is 'locked' if it show which mostly it doesn't. Any suggestions? There also seems to be a number of apps missing; Krita and KOffice for instance. Cheers, BD.

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Suse 10.0
by Bob Dove 02 Dec '05

02 Dec '05

Hi folks, Visited WH last eve, found a couple (well three actually) mags with new Linux distros on the cover. Suse 10.0 and Ubunto 5.10. I bought Linux mag with Suse 10.0 which as I write is half way through a 2 hour 2.5 gB installation. Cover price for Suse £5.99 on DVD, for Ubunto (on 4 cds) £9.99. Did I hear some-one complaining about 'doze bloat? Well, again as I write (her indoors keeps finding jobs for me to do) the installation froze with just 4 mins to go and nothing but nothing would start the machine up again apart from pulling the plug and restarting. 1: "Do you want to install?" 2; "Do you want to update?" Choosing update, the usual questions come up on screen and after a few minutes blank screen and then a red DOS like error message saying errors encountered and back to boot up screen!! I'll report and undoubtedly ask silly questions in due course! Is that another one bites the dust? Cheers, BD.

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Alternatives to TWiki for single user
by Chris Green 02 Dec '05

02 Dec '05

I have installed TWiki on my Linux box and i works well and has got me writing stuff on the web that I'd otherwise not have done. However I suspect that for quite a lot of what I am doing I am going to be the only user so all the 'co-operative' abilities of TWiki are wasted. What I find really useful are the simple ways to enter information into web pages and the simplicity of creating links within the Wiki. Are there any alternatives out there that would be more suited to a single user developing [mostly text] web pages with lots of cross links? I'd like something that can be used remotely via the web but management etc. can be local (even command line). -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Open office peculiarity
by Stuart Bailey 01 Dec '05

01 Dec '05

I have oo 2 (as shipped with SuSE 10) installed on my AMD 64 box (also SuSE 10). I keep my important files on a server, that is mounted using NFS. However, OO crashes whenever I try to access these files. If I copy the files to my local hard disk, they work fine. OO is the only app that seems to have a problem - I can access files for attachment in KMail, accounting files in GnuCash and text files in Kate, vi etc. Has anyone else come across this problem? Many thanks, Stuart. -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) Linux Specialist (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ----------------------------------------

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