noel alanguilan

i’m actually a bit excited about the windows 7. after the publicity, the waiting and attention its getting one can’t help but be a little excited.

and then a few days after windows 7 launches comes ubuntu 9.10—karmic koala. i’m excited about that too.

for me, what will likely happen is that i will upgrade to karmic koala as soon as its out and i’ll wait for the ideal time to get windows 7. when is the ideal time?, you ask. and my answer is, when i get the extra money (which is so not now). or when someone gives me a license (like that’s going to happen).

now, if i want to run windows 7 on my computer i would be compelled to upgrade the memory and the graphics card or maybe even, heaven forbid, purchase a new computer altogether. and then i’d have to buy a license. that’s a double whammy right there. as it is, my current workstation barely clears the minimum system requirements of windows 7 but its already okay at running windows xp. i suspect that with the upgrades it would run xp even better than it would running windows 7. ibm and canonical even suggests that running ubuntu on the old hardware is a better (and economical) option. i would agree. as things stand, most of the computers i take care of need more memory or need to be replaced altogether just to run windows 7. and that’s a more money out of the coffers.

still, windows 7 is ‘new’ and i get interested with new things. its like a grown up toy. i try to learn about it, see how it works and, eventually, get to know how to break or hack into it. ha! i do that with almost everything technologically related. curiosity is a habit of mine. i will eventually get to play with windows 7. and ubuntu 9.10. my curiosity will be quenched for the moment until something new comes about again.

but at the end of the day, it all comes down to economics. its cheaper to deploy linux. there’s no going around it. free is free. still, there are people—and companies—willing to shell out the money for staying in their comfort zones. to each his/her own.

pick your poison

windows 7 is coming and most people running xp or vista will be upgrading sooner or later. i’ve been reading up on what it would take to upgrade windows xp to windows 7 and most of the answers point to more money for both hardware and software and quite a handful of hours for the upgrade itself.

windows 7 essentially has the same system requirements as vista–1ghz processor, 1 gig of memory, 16 gig of drive space and 128 meg of video memory on a vid card that supports at least dx9. this is the “official” system requirements. the “unofficial” requirements are a bit higher–1.6ghz cpu and 2 gig of memory–if you want an acceptable level of performance. if you want zippy then you’d have to spend for a faster cpu and more memory. most people would want zippy so it may be better and more convenient to get a new computer. really. but don’t take it from me.

if you want to know if your current computer can run windows 7, microsoft has conveniently provided an upgrade advisor which you can download and run in your windows computer. don’t forget the grain of salt.

upgrade times range from an hour and a half to 20 hours. some may take longer. the fastest way is to do a clean install from windows xp to windows 7–at least that’s what microsoft recommends. put the dvd in and have it reformat the whole drive. of course, you have to save your data first and then reinstall your applications later but i think a clean install is still better than 20 hours of upgrade time. besides, i think its a good idea to do a clean install on a new operating system.

Note (2009.08.16): someone decided to sue lenovo denmark because they refuse to refund the price for windows vista even though it was clearly stated in the lenovo dk’s website they will refund the amount. i wonder if this can be done here in the philippines…

i was at a mall a couple of days ago looking over prices of branded notebook computers for a friend. on a whim, i decided to ask if i could possibly purchase a laptop that i wanted with linux installed or, at the least, come without an operating system.

i found out that i could get a laptop that i did not want with linux installed; that i could get the laptop that i want with only a variant of windows vista installed and; that i could not get the laptop without an operating system installed.

but there is no point in spending for what you do not want, eh? it would simply be a waste of money. and, as far as the sales persons i talked to are concerned, they will not refund me the cost of windows vista even though microsoft’s vista end user license agreement specifically states:

By using the software, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the software. Instead, return it to the retailer for a refund or credit. If you cannot obtain a refund there, contact Microsoft or the Microsoft affiliate serving your country for information about Microsoft’s refund policies.

i tried contacting microsoft philippines via web/email but before i could reach any sort of contact form they first wanted me to agree to their help and support terms of agreement (yes they have that too) which i didn’t agree with. the forums weren’t much help on my particular issue either. so where does this leave me?

well, i was thinking of the option of just getting the laptop i wanted and then sell the windows vista license later on for an unforgivably low price–at least i’m sure i’ll get some money back.

linux won’t take over the desktop and windows will still be on top of the operating system heap. well, at least, in the near future–a few years, maybe a decade. don’t get me wrong. i like linux. i’ve been using ubuntu for about 20 months now and linux servers for longer and they do get the job done with minimal fuss. i’m just looking at it from the practical, realist view. from my practical and realist views. and the reality that i see is its surprisingly hard to pry off windows from users’ faces. put a linux desktop in front of them and they’ll take a quick look at it and then lend you an eye and ask, “what’s that?!?” they’re hesitant to try something new because they’re thinking it will just make their jobs harder and and take longer to finish. you can almost visualize the distance between them and 5:00 pm at the bundy clock suddenly zoom out.

old dog. new tricks. you get the idea.

so, i’ve learned to leave the users’ comfort zone reasonably untouched and instead i messed with what they do not see–the servers. and i have been incredibly successful at it. so far i have several linux boxes happily performing file serving duties and about three linux firewalls protecting the networks from the big, bad internet.

some of you might say that this is not really a “win” for linux but i argue that it is. linux is being used in both home and business. it is actually enjoying some serious use. years ago we didn’t have much of a choice. yes, i would agree that the numbers are quite small but taking over the world was not the intent when that chap made this free operating a several years ago. windows will always be there because some rich or well to do john will always buy it. but linux is here now and will continue to chip away at the mindset of users.

and i can guarantee that this free operating system will still be there in the next decade but please don’t go looking for world domination. there is no point.

interested in what windows seven would look like? to me it looks a lot like vista but more polished. but as i said before, windows se7en could be called vista service pack 1. you can take look for yourself–infomation week has screenshots.

well, its not as if no one has at least given a passing thought, considered it as an impossibility and discarded the idea half a second later. (my 10-year old did say, “impossible” after reading the title.) but i ask you to give some more serious thought to this. really think about it for a period longer than two seconds — what if windows 7 is free? now, it doesn’t mean that windows 7 has to be open sourced. microsoft can keep their code proprietary and close to their heart  but they can have anyone and everyone including their cat use se7en for free.

what do you think will happen?

this will definitely prolong the battle for os dominance. it will keep windows on top for a longer period with linux and os x still patiently chipping away. i honestly don’t think the “destroy microsoft” mantra Is going to pan out. and it shouldn’t. linux would need the competition just to keep the developers on their toes. so does windows. so there’s no point to the “battle”. no one will let a single operating system to rule them all. not windows. not even linux. one may eventually come on top of the other but the other will always be around in one form or another. waiting to pounce.

but wait, i just read something about windows se7en being a linux killer. huh?!? i know vista has its problems but when did the penguin become the goliath penguin? and is se7en really that good? from the in-depth review of the first beta of se7en done by ars technica it appears that although it is fast and sleek, and all that, it is also based on vista. which means the hardware requirements are roughly the same as vista. which means that the programs and/or thingamajigs that didn’t run on vista will not run on se7en as they have identical compatibility. which means that if you didn’t like vista’s user interface then you wouldn’t like se7en’s because it is built on vista’s ui. which leads me wonder if se7en is really just a service pack for vista.

so, the major redeeming feature that se7en may possess is if it costs zero. then you may have the linux killer. although the word “suppressor” or “competitor” may be more appropriate as i don’t think that linux can really be “killed”.

se7en being free of charge means it may be easier to distribute than vista — let it loose in the torrents or a make it a free download from microsoft. people may find that deciding to install windows rather than linux is much easier since both systems are free but the majority of users are used to using windows so its to their advantage.

se7en being free of charge will just likely help micrsoft’s office suites stay in the market along with the other software that microsoft sells. its hard enough that there are free alternatives to office available for windows and linux from ibm (with lotus symphony) and sun (with open office). making se7en free of charge makes it a lot easier to sell an all-microsoft package — from operating system to application that run on the os. of course, this would be good news to other developers who make program for the windows platform. access to their programs got a step easier.

essentially, by making windows se7en free of charge, microsoft ensures that it remains viable to users at the same time making it a little difficult for the users to switch to linux (or maybe os x). if it does happen, i’m sure the proccess and the outcome is going to be pretty interesting.

the first update of the year came it on january 4. the second came three days later. that’s one thing i like about linux, and ubuntu in particular — they release updates to their software when there are updates available (as i write this i’m dowloading updates to openssl; third update for the year). development doesn’t seem to be slowing down and it appears that linux will continue to succeed through 2009.

and then there’s news about windows 7. i’m actually intrigued about this new one from microsoft. its appears to be better than vista. hasn’t anyone noticed that once they found out that se7en was going to be better and a little faster than vista, the publicity on se7ev ballooned — you see news about it almost everywhere. and very little news about vista except for the handful of updates to the software. but se7en has been hogging the spotlight. i also heard about the rumor that se7en beta was leaked to the torrents by microsoft. its a rumor so take that bit of news with a grain of salt. but if i was microsoft i would do the same. maximize distribution and publicity. i think i just saw the beta of the 64-bit version in the torrents uploaded a few hours ago.

still, windows is windows. and its still the most widely used operating on the planet making it the most likely target for viruses, worms and malware. again. i’ll stick to linux at this time. i’m just wondering how much they will sell se7en. if they sell it at 0.0 then it may spell some trouble for linux (but that’s another story altogether).

even so, linux moves forward. i read that the government of vietnam will be adopting opensource software in all state agencies. that’s a huge step and a wise one. i wonder if the philippine government has the guts to follow suit. in my opinion, it is an intelligent decision. i have heard that they were looking into using opensource but that was in 2002 — six long years ago. pagasa already has some (or all) of their forcasting done on a linux cluster and some high schools have received 13,000 computers running on linux.

a friend of mine asked me once, why would i use linux when the rest of the world is using windows? several reasons come to mind (i’ll list them down in another entry) but a couple that sticks to me is that i believe that linux can honestly help in moving me, my work and, hopefully, the country forward. and its free.