Linux: The Complete Reference

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed

Understanding the Linux Kernel, Third Edition

A list: start hacking the Linux kernel

This is amazing to me, I laughed so hard when I read this story.  You can read the email and response here.

Basically, a student was showing off Linux at school and the teacher became enraged and accused the student of illegal activites because there’s no such thing as “free” software… ha.  What a freaking joke…

Basically yesterday and today all of the Google services I know and love and use all the time are either slow as hell or don’t load at all.  It doesn’t matter what service it is, Gmail, Search, Maps, Reader, or News all of these and more are very slow to load and sometimes Gmail won’t even log me into my inbox.

I’ve tried accessing these services on different computers and nothing seems to help.

Google, if you read this, please determine if it’s on your end (and fix it).  If not, I’m sure it’s something with my regional internet access.

I noticed that after installing the latest Fedora release (Fedora 10 Cambridge) Firefox was quite slow at accessing web pages.  I found that if you go into about:config and find this string:

network.dns.disableIPv6

You can set this to true, which will disable IPv6 lookups and make your web browsing much quicker.

Hope this helps.

According to Asa at Mozilla, Firefox keeps gaining whilst IE keeps losing:

firefox market share up in november

You can officially install an open boot loader and a linux shell on the iPhone.  Check it out here.

I’ve been reading a lot recently about people making the “switch” to Google Chrome.  I just moved to a Mac for everyday use and I understand why Safari is great now.  I also understand why Chrome is great, because I’ve had it installed on my Vista machine since it came out, and recently I’ve been using it more and more.  I get it, Chrome is light and fast, Safari is light and fast.  WebKit is snappy, Chrome’s engine(s) are snappy.

But… I am sticking with Mozilla and Firefox as my primary browser on both the Mac and the PC.  Here’s why:

• Firefox has been 10 years in the making and it’s clear the company is dedicated to producing a world-class web browser.
• I believe in the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Manifesto.  I think they are doing the right thing and they are a company whose values I share for the web and the future.
• I like the talent that Mozilla has attracted and many of the developers who work on Firefox are amazing individuals.
• Firefox is open-source and always will be.  It’s developed by the people and for the people.  Anyone can see what they are up to and extend the power of Firefox by contributing and making it better.
• Firefox is an international effort supported and developed by thousands of people worldwide.
• Extensions - Firefox has a massive add-on atmosphere and many of the extensions are top notch.  I can’t live without at least three or four popular Firefox extensions.
• Mozilla has stated that their purpose for Firefox is to make the web a better place to be.  The browser is our access to the growing and expanding Internet, and the goal is to make that access the best it can possibly be.
• Firefox 3.1 will contain performance enhancements that will meet or beat the JavaScript engines of both Chrome and Safari.
• Mozilla’s dedication to security, the openness of the web, and its add-on platform help me trust the company and their goals.

As far as the downside to Chrome and Safari, they don’t have many of the features that Firefox has.  Chrome is a stripped down browser with speed and simplicity as its only hallmarks.  Only time will tell if Chrome can build to the level of browser that Firefox currently is.  Bottom line here, sure Chrome is awesome, but Firefox is better overall and I don’t see any compelling reason to completely switch to Chrome or Safari.  Firefox will get more performance enhancements soon and in the future.  In fact, I’m thankful for Chrome because it has heated up the browser wars which is pushing Mozilla even further.  This is good for competition.  It’s the same reason why I’m thankful for AMD.

Conclusion?  Firefox is a better all around browser compared to Safari and Chrome, and Firefox 3.1 will provide the same performance as Chrome/Safari.  So at that point, why switch??  Firefox gives you everything you need and could want in a web browser.  Also, we don’t truly know the intentions Google has for Chrome.  Also, Chrome is build on Gecko and WebKit so it’s really a mix of existing open-source platforms.  Mozilla pioneered Gecko and they have made it so much better in the last ten years.  They’ve rebuilt it, stripped away the excess and inefficient code.  They’ve made Gecko a force to be reckoned with, and we’ll see that early next year.  Gecko also has the best adherance to web standards as far as I know with Acid 2 and Acid 3.  Firefox 3.1 beats Chrome and Safari in SunSpider tests too.

For all of these reasons and more, I’ll be sticking with Firefox as my primary web browser.  Sure, I’ll be using Chrome and Safari frequently, but I don’t see switching to them anytime soon.  Mozilla is a company I belive in.

(NOTE:  You’ll notice I didn’t mention Internet Explorer or Opera… that’s because in my opinion they are useless browsers.  Opera doesn’t have ANY compelling features and is just a non-issue.  Internet Explorer sucks and everyone knows that.)

I’ve been reading lots of articles on this and I just shopped around a bit to confirm.  It turns out that, indeed, 64-bit computing has become mainstream.  Many computers from popular manufacturers like Dell and Gateway are shipping their products with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista as the default choice, and in some cases as the ONLY choice.

This is a good thing for 64-bit progress and it means that especially when Microsoft stops shipping 32-bit versions of Windows, we’ll be able to move on.

From my personal experience, 64-bit Vista works beautifully.  I recently installed it as my primary OS on my primary desktop PC and I have not had a single problem.  Suddenly, it just works and the extra RAM capability doesn’t hurt anything either.  I suggest that if you’re feeling bold, go ahead and take the plunge.

Mozilla is hard at work on the next version of Firefox.  The new version 3.1 will feature many requested features that didn’t make it into the time frame of 3.0.  The new features include private browsing, tab tearing, enhanced tab switching, enhanced security, and a new javascript engine just to name a few.

The new javascript engine has been dubbed TraceMonkey and is much faster than Safari (WebKit) or even Google Chrome.  It is also significantly faster than Firefox 3.0.  So look forward to increased performance from Firefox 3.1, especially with web apps like Gmail.

You can test Firefox 3.1 via Minefield.

Firefox 3.1 Wiki

Lifehacker TraceMonkey Stats

Adobe has released an update to its AIR Platform today to v1.5.  You can find the link below.  It will install on Mac, Windows and Linux (in beta form).

Adobe AIR 1.5