The CentOS team has released the version 5.2 build of their awesome Linux distro. Download links below:
WilksNet
Musings on Mozilla, Linux, Apple, and open source software
Filed under software …
Mix-n-match Firefox 3 Themes
You can now have any Firefox 3 native theme on any OS (except Linux). Here are your options:
Linux Gnome Theme (experimental)
The Mac & Linux themes are experimental and the other two themes are still in development, but I have tested them out and they rock. It’s especially nice to have the Vista theme on XP.
Enjoy!
Firefox 3.0 Released to the Masses
You can now officially download Mozilla Firefox v3.0. Enjoy!
http://getfirefox.com/
Note to Mozilla…
If you are going to ask everyone interested in your browser to download it on the same day for a world record, you’d better fix your servers and fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Gmail
I AGREE!!!!!!!!
“
Dear GMail,
I would like you to know that it really really sucks how you add everybody to my address book who I only sent one mail to, ever. That clogs the address book and depending on what kind of message it was, after just about 30 seconds I neither care nor remember what I wrote them an email about once in my lifetime.
Imagine me writing an email to some company’s customer service. I get an answer from a representative asking me to provide some more information. I reply and attach the needed infos. You helpfully add this person to my address book so I can remember every customer service representative that I ever had to deal with, just in case I ever need to email them personally again. Thank you so much!
Let alone all these random people on craigslist who use a gmail address who you add to my instant messenger automatically, so they can start chatting with me or at the very least see me being online for the next 25 years.
A one-click option to add somebody to your address book is a great idea. Automatically adding everybody to my address bucket (that mess is not a book anymore) however is a bad idea.
Just sayin’…”
Source: fredericiana
Google Gmail and Talk Still In Beta…
What’s the deal with this? I noticed that my Gmail and Google Talk are STILL in beta?! Or at least by the nature of their icons. Get it together man, for pete’s sake!
Taking Over The Web…
it’s not about the benjamins (yet)
One of my colleagues just pointed me to this blog post where Simeon Bateman calls Mozilla an ungrateful child.
I started to post a reply there but it got a bit longer than what I think fits in “comments” format so I’m posting it here instead (though, this is still more in the “reply” format than the “post” format.)
Simeon’s basic assertion is that Adobe is doing a lot to open up some parts of their next-generation platform and Mozilla is a crybaby for suggesting that Adobe might have less than pure motives.
A secondary point, if I’m reading him correctly, is that Adobe deserves to be making lots of money by extending it’s control of the Web and Mozilla shouldn’t be complaining about corporations undermining the free and open Web for profit because Mozilla gave up any say it had when it decided to operate as a public-benefit organization. Stupid Mozilla. You never should have put the interests of a free and open Internet ahead of the corporate bottom line.
So, here’s my reply:
For Microsoft and Adobe, it’s not about the money (yet.) It’s about owning the platform.
Right now, the Web platform doesn’t belong to any mega-corporation and the protocols and specifications that underlie the Web are developed in a cooperative process between many of the implementers.
The real issue here is the Web platform (HTML/CSS+JavaScript, plus lots of other cool bits,) that Adobe and Microsoft are challenging and determined to supplant and replace.
It’s not that difficult for honest observers to admit that the open Web platform is much harder to monetize over the long run than open Web replacements like Adobe’s flex+flash+actionscript or Microsoft’s xaml+wpf+.net. (and yes, don’t kid youself. Adobe and Microsoft are building replacements for the open Web with Air and Silverlight.)
Both Microsoft and Adobe want to own as much of the post-desktop platform as possible. Adobe has a big short term lead with the ubiquity of Flash, and Microsoft has the medium term advantage of a desktop monopoly with Windows (and whatever they want to label and distribute as a part of Windows.) The Air and Silverlight pushes coming from these companies are all about who will own the biggest piece of the next-generation Web platform pie.
And, don’t be fooled by the big giveaways from Adobe and Microsoft. If owning the eventual Web.next platform, or even a large chunk of it, means giving away a lot in the short term, they’re happy to give, give, give. It’s taken a decade and a half for the Web to advance to where it is today and Microsoft and Adobe aren’t focused on 2008 or even 2009. They’re looking out at the Web of 2010 and beyond and doing everything in their power to be in control of as much of that space as possible.
As for what they’re actually giving away, documenting the protocols and specifications and allowing others to re-implement them is interesting, but it’s not open. Open is developing the protocols and specifications in a co-operative and participatory environment and then competing on implementations. Neither Adobe nor Microsoft are being truly open on this front, because doing so would mean giving up their big shot at control of the next generation Web platform.
If I was in Adobe’s shoes, I’d give everything away, all of it. Hell, I’d pay people to develop on the Adobe platform and I’d encourage dozens of competing implementations of my platform across every type of device imaginable because, in the end, it’d be my platform and I’d decide how and when it evolved and to what ends.
And I’d do the same if I was Microsoft.
But, I’m neither. So, all I can do in this battle for the future of the Web is to advocate for advances in real open Web standards from groups like ECMA, W3C, and WHATWG. It may be a bit slower to market, (hopefully not too much slower,) via the collaborative and open road, but the end result is a powerful Web platform that isn’t, and cannot be, controlled by any one company.
And to those who think I’m some anti-capitalist, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people and companies making money. I don’t even care if they’re making ridiculous amounts of money. But the Web has always been about more than making ridiculous amounts of monkey. The Web has substantial non-commercial aspects including critical educational, social, and civic value that should not be owned or controlled for the purpose of driving corporate profits.
If we cede control of the Web platform to one or two large corporations, we will cede a big piece of what makes the Web so amazing and no short-term sparkle and flash are worth that concession.
Be careful. The first dose is always free.
Photo by Flickr user laughlin and used under a Creative Commons license.
Windows XP Should Die
Alright I’m going to do a little tech editorial for you. I wanted to talk about Windows XP and its imminent demise. Look, the bottom line is that Windows XP has been in operation far too long already and it is an outdated operating system that needs to be shelved by Microsoft and users alike. Real quick, the reason XP was alive so long anyway is because Microsoft had to shift focus to fix XP with service pack 2.
So we had five good years with Windows XP. Well I should say that we had a very rough first year with XP, and until SP2, XP had a whole huge big dump truck full of security issues. Now, during this time everyone, including me, complained about XP and how crappy it was. Then along came Vista, an OS designed around security (not without its flaws) and everyone jumped on the “I hate Vista” bandwagon. Although, I shouldn’t say everyone. It seems to me that you don’t hear about people who think Vista is fine and that it works well for them. They stay silent. The only howls you hear are from those who complain about how Vista is not like XP.
Well, Microsoft had to do a major OS upgrade sometime. And Vista does have quite a few issues it has to deal with. Internal memos have surfaced that high ranking managers at Microsoft even thought Vista was not ready for the public. However, Vista has enjoyed quite a few successes since its release, especially in the security and stability arenas. Vista is inherently more secure than Windows XP and it has addressed many of the security problems XP had. UAC is annoying, but if you don’t like it, turn it off. Vista also is a very highly stable OS that rarely crashes and is compatible with thousands of drivers and software programs.
Another funny thing is that Mac people and Windows people alike were crying out “Man, Microsoft needs to release an OS with cool visual effects that utilize the graphics card!” Well Vista does EXACTLY that, and now everyone is complaining that Vista takes up more system resources…. Well, that’s what you get. Inevitably, new versions of operating systems are going to have new features, and fancy effects (like OSX) and they are going to take full advantage of new computer system hardware. I used to think that the better hardware got, the quicker Windows would boot. A long time ago I thought, man when we have these dual core and quad core CPUs with 4 gigs of RAM, my computer is going to boot in 5 seconds and everything will run great! Well, that’s not how it works. As the OSs progress, they take advantage of these hardware elements to give the user a richer, more robust experience. So, should you put Vista on a 5 or 10 year old computer that you had Windows 98 or XP on? No. So just keep that on there, or just install Linux and stop crying about how Vista doesn’t work fast on your computer. If you want Vista to work, look up the recommended specs, investigate the hardware that is certified, and build or buy a computer that will exceed the requirements for Vista.
Bottom line there? If you have a PC that can only handle XP – use XP on it. If you want a new computer, get Vista. There’s no reason to keep XP forever, it’s just not practical. When Windows 7 comes out, hopefully we’ll get a taste of what Vista should have been. I’m sure that they will be able to work the bugs out and we’ll get something roughly like Vista 2.0. Either way, I’ve put XP behind me. I have Windows Vista business on my main (powerful) desktop, and I just got rid of XP on my Dell that I bought in 2003. I’ve replaced XP with Ubuntu 8.04 because it can do everything XP can do and it runs faster on the machine.
All in all, the point of this is to emphasize that sooner or later, whether people like it or not, Windows XP will die and will cease to be supported. So with RAM prices dirt cheap these days, and dual core processors dirt cheap from AMD, and fast computers available from the major computer manufacturers, doesn’t it seem kind of foolish to hang on to XP for dear life?? Move on people, move on.
Linux + Vista = happiness 
New Free AntiVirus Programs Out
The new versions of the most popular free anti-virus solutions out there have been released. Avast upgraded their free version to version 4.8 and it includes Anti-Spyware and Anti-Rootkit technology. AVG has redesigned their entire interface and engine and the free version of their product is actually a lot better than their paid version. Check them out if you need free AV that works!
Open-Source Email Encryption with Enigmail
I’ve been using email encryption for many years dating back to the old (and free) PGP software. I think they’ve gone corporate now, but who cares. The wave of the future is Enigmail + GnuPG + Thunderbird.
Here’s what to do if you would like to setup email encryption:
- Download, install, and configure Mozilla Thunderbird for access to your email – e.g. Gmail
- Install GnuPG on your system
- Install the Enigmail add-on for Thunderbird
Here is a great tutorial on how to put all of these components together and get them working. Once you and a friend have this setup on both ends, you can sign, encrypt, verify, and decrypt messages between each other using your key pair. It works wonders if you are communicating “secret” information you want no one else to read. The internet is full of hackers, so be prepared!
