Dumping MS Windows, Welcome Linux and MacOS X

Now lets take a look good look at Linux OS. Now here are few questions that I get asked about Linux.

1.     Why do I like Linux?

2.     What can I do with Linux?

3.     Is Linux hard to use? Isn’t it more for hackers and geeks?

4.     Is there any support – hardware / techno

5.     Is it usable (is it stable, can it run as good as MS Windows)

6.     Can I get software like Office for it?

I had my first experience with Linux back in 1998, and I remember talking to few people about Linux at that time.  Linux wasn’t that easy to use at that time, but when it was installed it ran really nice.  But everyone kept on telling me that I shouldn’t be wasting my time on Linux.  WindowsNT should be the way to go, everyone was switching to all Windows based platforms.  But I had said and I’ll still say, it not good to stay with one platform, and in the future we could be looking a multiple platforms and we would have to know how to get all these to communicate together.  And as the years past, it has become more clearly I was right with this statement.  Look what we have today, and the challenge is getting devices to communicate together.  It is very common now days to have a smart phone, tablet and a computer (weather it’s a desktop or laptop).  And now there are even more devices that have “Smart Tech”, TVs, home theaters, cameras, and home appliances.

Now most people don’t thing Linux is very easy to, and they don’t have any use for Linux.  However they don’t realize that they are using Linux everyday.  For example if you are using a smart phone that is running Android, with is using Google’s Linux.  Or even the router that you use for your home network is running a Linux … or what about your TV? Linux too.

One really nice thing about Linux, it can run small computer like Raspberry Pie or in a Server Farm hosting web sites. So Linux can be very flexible, depending on the needs.

Nice thing about Linux today is anyone can use Linux with out being a computer geek. Now when you buy a new computer, it comes with MS-Windows and Windows is not cheap.  You do pay for it, it’s included in the total price of the computer. Linux is FREE, yes it free to down and use.  This doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with it, or there is some kinda hitch to it.  I find that Linux is very stable.  More stable then MS-Windows, how many times has your computer locked/crash or you got the “Blue Screen of Death” when you are using MS-Windows? Now, Linux isn’t perfect, neither but it doesn’t lock up or “Memory Dump” like windows dose. It just works great.

The last few years I have been testing different software.  I have made a decision to switch from MS-Windows to something else. I have notice that there is some really good software for MacOS and Linux.  The only thing that I really do like from Microsoft is MS-Excel.  Other then Excel, I have found some really good software. 

Now I am planning on get some newer systems, currently I have Windows 7 desktop and MacBook Pro (2,1) running Loin and iPhone 4S.  So I am very happy with my MacBook Pro. The only thing with it is, it is getting a little too old and I can’t upgrade it any more.  I have basically stopped using my desktop; I find that my MacOS dose what I need it to do. Now if you don’t know, MacOS X uses FreeBDS, witch is a UNIX base Operating System. Now before making my decision on my home network I wanted to see MS-Windows 8 and to see if it can fit into my network. 

Windows 8 user interface is so different and cumbersome to use, Windows no longer fits into my network.  So that will save me some big money from all the upgrades and licenses for the server.  Now one may say you get what you pay for; so if I use say Linux server witch is free or paying for anything 200 to 900 for just a server, and that you would have great tech-support with the software.

Now some time ago I got a Windows Home Server.  I can’t say enough and it wasn’t all that good.  It was very slow, and it wouldn’t do everything that I needed it do.  Two things that really bugs me about Windows is it requires rebooting after some time to clean out the memory or after installing updates.  But the worst thing that I had to do with MS-Windows, I upgraded my Windows 7 System and after re-installing my Windows 7 I had to call Microsoft to reactivate my Windows. I know that activation of MS-Windows is to help from people steeling their software but they need to have an easier way then the system that they have now.  I end up spending ½ day on the phone, that including the 3 times that some one in the call centre hanging up on me. Great job on he Tech Support Microsoft!

So here are some points that I’m looking at while deciding on what software that I am going to be running.

1.     All the systems are going to need to communicate with each other with very little work or third part software

2.     Cost, on startup and upgrades

3.     I don’t want to spend too much time on configurations on the systems.

4.     Easy to use and to add to it if I need to at a later date with out costing more for licenses.

5.     Must be very secured

6.     Must be able to use newer technologies.

So I have a not bad desktop, it AMD x4 cores with 8 gigs of ram.  It also has 1 SDD 128 gig 1 SATA 500 gig and 3 SATA 1tb drives and 2 tb external drive.  It is currently have Windows 7 running in it.  So I am going to be converting this into my Linux Server.  I also just order a new TV, it’s Sharp Smart TV and Samsung Home Theater witch is a Smart too. I have MacBook pro, iPhone and I have plans on building a Hackintosh.  With the Hackintosh I will be install VBox witch I can run my Windows 7 in it.

Now For my Linux box, I have did a test run with a “Live DVD”, to test out witch Linux would run on my system from “Out of the Box”. This method work nice, you down and burn copy of a Linux.  Then you reboot your system off of the DVD and WOW you are running a fully functional Linux with out installing it.  So now you can see what hard is working and what one(s) that you need to get additional drivers for.  You can also get the “Looks and Feel” of the desktop.  One thing about Linux is you can choose what type of desktop that you like.  Some will favor KDE or Gnome.  I personal like the KDE.  And so far the flavour Linux that I am going to be picking is Mandriva.  Mandriva is a Partnership between Mandriva and Turbolinux, Mandriva was Mandrake and started back in 1998 and Mandrake was based off of Red Hat Linux.

Just like any other Linux, Mandriva dose come with software library with free software that you can download and install, witch is every easy to do.  And the type of software is all different kinds, everything from office type, system, servers, and even games. So now this is what I need my Linux box to do

1.     File server, for back up documents, pictures

2.     Multi media server

a.     To save movies, tv shows and music files

b.     To share out to my smart tv and any other devices

3.     Web server, I do like to do some development with HTML/PHP

4.     Database server

For the file server I will be installing and configuring Samba Server.  I will go through the configuration files later. Samba will allow me to setup “Share Folders” on my server.  Some will be read only, and some will be read and write. Any operating system will be able to connect to Samba MacOS X, MS-Windows and other Linux as well.

Now for my Multi Media Server I haven’t decided one right now, however I have been testing TVMOBiLi on my MacBook Pro, witch seems to work pretty nice.  I have connected using Sharp and Samsung TV smart TVs, but I haven’t tested it on a Linux yet.

Now the Web Server and Database Server will be Apache Web Server and MySQL for Database. 

Just a side note, most of my Office documents and development I do like using my MacBook Pro.  I like MS-Excel and Dreamweaver witch I have for my MacOS X.

So Now, it time to start my new Linux Box and later a new Blog on the install of Linux box.

Is, Linux dead? What happen to Windows 8? Is there any choice for a Desktop OS?

Some time ago, back in the later 90’s there was the OS wars and clearly right now it seems that Microsoft’s Windows was the winner …. Or is it?

In the 90’s we had a few different Operating Systems

·      Microsoft - Client

o   DOS 6.22 with Windows 3.11

o   Windows 95, 98 and Me

o   Windows Ce

·      Microsoft – Server Base

o   Windows NT 3.5 and NT 4

·      Novell – Server Base

o   NetWare 3.5, 4 and 6

§  Clients for Windows

§  DOS

§  OS/2

·      IBM – Clint

o   PC DOS (With MS)

o   IBM DOS

o   OS/2 1.x (With MS for Windows 3.1)

o   OS/2 2.x and Warp 3

·      IBM – Server Base

o   There are too many to list here, because IBM had Main Frames, Mini Computers and PC server base software

·      Bell Labs – Server Base

o   UNIX

·      Be Inc. – Client

o   BeOS

·      Apple

o   Apple DOS

o   System 6, 7, 8, 9 and “Star Trek”

·      Other

o   Amiga

o   Atari

o   Digital Research

o   Fujitsu

o   Hewlett-Packard

o   Honeywell

o   Intel

o   SCO

o   Unisys

Now the main OS that was being used in Universities was an UNIX system.  New grow of computer programs started to develop a new OS, one that was UNIX base so that they can do their work form home.  What made this so different, programmers where based around the world and they sent there source files and chatted about their work over the Internet.  They also want to make this new OS, free and viable to anyone who wants to use it and make it their own.  And GNU project was born and every one didn’t believe that this new OS’s would be good or stable to use for normal home use PC.

This group end splitting up and two different OS’s came out of it.  FreeBSD and Linux. With Linux camp we saw RedHat, Slackware and Debian Linux. These three are the first ones and all of the Linux are based from one of them.

Debian’s Family Tree 

Redhat’s Family Tree

Slackware’s Family Tree

Some time ago, back in 98 I was going to school, taking some computer classes and one day while we where having a smoke.  One of my classe mates said “I’m not worry about learning about other OS.  I am going to be just focusing on Mircosoft Windows.” I replied “Windows isn’t the only OS.  I would like learn all that I could.” And he said “Windows will end up being the only OS for PC and Servers.  So why bother learning any thing else”.  And I said, “One day Microsoft will not be the only OS for PC or servers. And others OS like OS/2, Linux and Apple will be around we’ll see more of mix networks where all OS will have to be connected and share resources”.

So the other day while I was at work, I was talking to co-worker and we where talking about compuers and OS, like how well Windows 8 is doing … well lack of it ..

And I said that we may see MacOS and Linux systems grow … and he said “Linux, is it still around?”. We have small electonics in our store and said this store is full of Linux devices.

Now I still like to play around with OS’s and I have used Windows 8.  I can say I hate it.  Not because I’m not a MS fan.  But for a PC Windows 8 is hard to use with a keyboard and mouse.  It’s great for the touchscreens, like tablets and touchscreen computers. 

A bit of history of MS Windows, in 1995 Windows 95 came out.  It was nice but it was buggy and it didn’t support some thing like connecting to the Internet.  Bill Gates did believe that the Internet would be here for long.  But the biggest downfall of this Windows is, it was still base on DOS, DOS 7 and it still had some limitations to it.  In 96 I took 2 computers both the same PS/2 style system with 386DX with 8 meg of RAM.  1 system I installed Windows 95 the other IBM OS/2 Warp 3.  The OS/2 out profromed the Windows 95, but what made the differences was programs.  Yes MS Windows had more program support.  It seemed that all the programers switch to making Windows programs.  One of the test that I was running was BBS where people would call and connect to my computer to play games download/upload files and to use message boards.  With the OS/2 I was able to use my computer and share it out to other people to use at the same time.  With Windows 95, I couldn’t do this one I could use or a caller could.  If I want to I could have boughten other software to share out my system, witch I did but it also made my system unstalbe so it crash a lot.  So that wasn’t a good option at all.

Then came Windows 98 and Windows 98se (second edtion).  There wasn’t a lot of change in the OS it self, many in user interface and Internet support, with a lot of bug fixes so Windows became more stable. 

In 2000 Windows Me was released it seem to take two steps backwards from Windows 98.  There where a lot of issues with Windows Me.  The only good thing that came out of this, was Mirocosoft decession to combie the next Windows with WindowsNT.

So now Window 4.x was dead (Win95 – 4, Win98 – 4.1 and WinME – 4.9) and WindowsNT Client would be go through a big change and it would be the next OS for Windows.  And in 2001 MS came with Windows XP, witch was comibing of WindowsMe and Windows 2000 (client).  Windows XP didn’t have a lot of the limitations like the Windows 4.x’s had.  With use of muple CPU’s and more memory.  It had it’s bumps in to road with a lot of bug fixes and backdoors that need to be fix.  It was also that was attack by hackers, there was a lot of virus that came out for Windows.  One of Apple’s saying “You don’t have to worry about virus with MacOS”.

There was one big change that made this a nice OS to use.  It was more network friendly, but only to “Windows Family Networks”.  So setting up a network with all Microsoft products was fairly easy.  Now because I like to play, I had a Linux Box, so I had to installed and configure Samba (Server Message Block [SMB]).  So with my Samba Server running I can connect to my Linux form my Windows XP system.  And my Windows XP was reporting that I was connecting to a Windows Server and not a Linux Server. 

My option of Windows XP, it was a nice OS, onces you get all the service packs and bug fixes for it.  It was a big improvement over the Windows 4.x’s, but it still had some littimations and problems.  Even in December 2012 it is still widely used

Windows 8	1.72%
Windows 7	45.11%
Widnows Vista	5.67%
Windows XP	39.08%

A lot of business still use Windows XP as their Desktop computer, point of sale and there are still some home users still refusing to upgrade their OS. 

One major change in Windows XP, it no longer supported VB (Visual Basic) it was replaced by .Net Frame Work.

In 2007 Windows Vista came out, there isn’t a lot of good things to say about Vista.  It was the first time that people took their computer back to the store and deamanded to have Windows Vista removed off of their computer and install Windows XP on them. One of the biggest complants was all the different editions of this windows 6 in total witch was crasy for one OS.  Cost was another issues It was the most expensive of OS on the market. New added features to Windows Vista was the new, witch was a good thing, how ever it was in your face all the time and you had to mess around with the securty setting to get a lot done.

There where a few new changes within Windows Vista, like Services For UNIX witch gave Vista users client support for Network File System (NFS), this is widely viable in UNIX, Linux and MacOS. 

Windows Vista came in to different types 32bit and 64bit.  Most of all the Windows only came in 32bit from the days of Window 95 to XP.  Why 64bit? And what did it mean for the end user? The main difference that end-use would notice up front was the amount of RAM that could be installed into the computer.  Another is better multi task, and multiple CPU or Cores.  This makes running more applications faster and smoother. 

Operating System	32 Bit (x86)	64 Bit (x64)
Windows 4.x	1.5 GB	Not Supported
Windows XP (Starter Edition)	4 GB	Not Supported
Windows XP (professional)	4 GB	128 GB
Windows Vista (Starter)	1 GB	Not Supported
Windows Vista (Home Basic)	4 GB	8 GB
Windows Vista (Home Premium)	4 GB	16 GB
Windows Vista (Ultimate)	4 GB	128 GB
Windows 7 (Starter)	2 GB	Not Supported
Windows 7 (Home Basic)	4 GB	8 GB
Windows 7 (Home Premium)	4 GB	16 GB
Windows 7 (Ultimate)	4 GB	192 GB
Windows 8	4 GB	128 GB
Windows 8 (Professional)	4 GB	512 GB
Linux	4 GB	1 TB
MacOS X	Not Supported	16 TB

The table above, Windows 4.x only came in 32bit and MacOS X only comes in 64 bits. Linux dose come in 32 and 64 bits because you can use old computer systems, to make it backwards compatible.

One thing about Windows, if you put more RAM in it that it can’t handle it made your system very unstable, for example if you had Windows Vista Home Basic and you installed the 64bit version and put in 10 GB of Ram.  Your computer will be crashing or locking up all the time.  To me it’s kinda odd that Microsoft would limit the maximum amount of RAM in the system, unless it has to do with the coding of core operating system.

In 2009, Windows 7 was release.  This release of Windows was a good one, it what Windows Vista should have been.  This release had some really good improvements like the multi-core processors (with 2x, 4x and 6x cores). Support for “Raw” image format, read ISO, to be able to identify solid-state drives, USB3, better backup system and support for SOAP-based services in the native code.

So over all it’s one of Microsoft’s best windows that I have used. 

This past year 2012 Windows 8 was released.  WOW I couldn’t believe my eyes …  and I though, is Microsoft trying to kill PC market?

I have used Windows 8 on regular PC and on a touch screen.  It was two completely different experiences. On the touch screen it ran really nice, not big fan of the “Start Screen” with the titles.  Now on a non-touch screen it wasn’t good and I find it very cumbersome use.  Like to get to the control panel you would have to first go to the desktop -> move the mouse to the upper right corner -> and wait for the side menu to pop out -> and then click on control panel … I would miss the old way click “Start” and then control panel.  I doubt that I would ever get this type of OS, I don’t use a touch and I don’t have any plans on getting one.  I believe that my OS should be easy to use and to get to my application very quickly with out hooping all over the place.  One think that Microsoft should have done was to drop the 32bit version and just supported the 64bit.  It’s time for today and not yesterday standards. 

So I will be staying with my Windows 7 and the next systems that I will be building will be either a Hackintosh or Linux.  

Now I left to thinking about the future of the PC.  Is it going to die off a slow death or will it continue, but in a different way …

Over the last 13 years we have seen a lot of changes in the tech area.  Lets start of with the “Smart Phones”, RIM came out with the BlackBerry (BB) and it was the widely used up to 2008 and some people where so attach to their BB that people start to call it “CrackBerry”.  Then came the iPhones’ and then Androids’ phones and it almost killed BB.  So there was a big leap here, because for the most part cellular phones where very cumbersome for texting and getting anything from the Internet. Until these new phones came out. 

So what really make smart phone “Smart”? They are really pocket computers; they have CPU’s and an OS.  So today cellular phone can do a lot more then computer back in the 90’s.

Latest Smart Phone OS (January 2013)

RIM -> BlackBerry 10 (to be release in the first ¼ of 2013)

Apple -> IOS, 6.0.2 (September 2012)

Google -> Android, 4.2.1 Jelly Bean (November 2012)

Microsoft -> Windows 8, 6.2 (October 2012)

Smart Phone	Units Sold	2012 Market Share	2011 Market Share
Android	104.8 Million	68.1%	46.9%
iPhone	26.0 Million	16.9%	18.8%
BlackBerry	7.4 Million	4.8%	11.5%
Symbian	6.8 Million	4.4%	16.9%
Windows	5.4 Million	3.5%	2.3%
Linux	3.5 Million	2.3%	3.0%
Other	0.1 Million	0.1%	0.5%

The table above is the market share of Smart Phones, in September 2012.

This is really going to be changing very quickly, because this is not including the lunch of Windows 8 Phones, BlackBerry 10 and release of iPhone 5 in China, witch sold 2 million phones on the  first weekend.

It looks like Google’s Android is winning the market share of the smart phones. But there is something to think about here.  Android can be install on almost any hardware platform, and other like Apples IOS only on Apple hardware and the same with RIM’s BlackBerry. After all Android is Google’s Linux and as we know Linux can be installed on almost any hardware platform. Companies like Apple like to control what hardware it can use.  Controlling what hardware dose has its good and bad points.  One good thing is when you use the hard you know it is going to work with very little problems.  The only thing is, it can inflate the price and restrict what hardware can be used. Apple always controlled the hardware for all of its products, and we have seen what it did for the home computers.  The PC became cheaper with more different companies popping up making more hardware.  The only thing is the lack of quality and support for all of this hardware.  We all have seen something like this with MS-Windows.  Microsoft tried to make Windows to run all kinds of hardware platforms; the main issue is that Microsoft had to rely on manufactures to develop device drivers for their hard, witch in some cases cause the your computer to be unstable or crash. And this should concern Google’s Android team; it’s almost the same path that Microsoft went down.