1. Partitioning
2. Activation
3. Customization
4. Automatic User Logon
5. Troubleshooting
6. No-Nonsense OS Updates
7. Easy Installation of Common Applications
8. Interoperability
9. Command-Line
10. Performance & Stability

I find the list quite compelling as one of the major points that the Linux Community poinits to as a major plus, is the security aspect of Linux over Windows. I also believe that this list should have been titled 10 Things Ubuntu does better than WIndows, since every point made is made using an Ubuntu machine, and using Ubuntu integrations and not general / generic linux (with the exception of things like Command-Line etc.).

It’s a pretty good article, and I recommend it, but I think it could have been a much more comprehensive 5 things list.

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Here are some statistics from Jan 2009 to Nov 2009.

You can see that Opera is nearly flat for the year, while Chrome has had over a 150% increase in usage, and the biggest drops come from IE, and month over month a pretty small decrease from Safari.

I’m really going to be interested in seeing how the 2009 metrics look, since many of those should have been seen from Cyber Monday Deals.

Here’s a screenshot of some of the latest trending

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We started having some guests that were unresponsive, with the following error in /var/log/messages on the underlined ESXi 4 Server:

“NMP: nmp_DeviceAttemptFailover: Retry world failover device “naa.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx””

After talking to some of the other Admins, and looking at previous tasks and events, I saw that someone was trying to remove a datastore, which had been decommissioned.

This caused the hamsters in my head to kick into overdrive, and reminded me that I read something similar to this on VMware’s forums.

Without doing anything else to the underline ESXi server, I went ahead and did a re-scan of the storage adapters, and functionality was restored. I then went ahead and re-scanned the hosts that were associated to the same backend storage.

Here’s an understanding of what happened:

Which is an excerpt from http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/, which I found at the end of the link after doing some more post-mortem research

So just a heads up to you guys..

If you’re removing a datastore, be sure to rescan your storage adapters asap.

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The major new improvements are: (from nokia’s website)

Here’s a little video of the Hand Gestures:

Do you think QT will be the cross platform IDE of choice in the future? I believe it’s development speed, and improvements could catapult it to being the leading platform in Mobile Devices, and could possibly form Windows to be usable.

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So our option is to create a FreeDOS Bootable USB, to boot to and install the required BIOS update.

First download the update for your computer.

Do the following:
mkdir -p /tmp/fs-root

sudo makebootfat -o /dev/ -E 255 -1 fat12.bin -2 fat16.bin -3 fat32lba.bin -m mbr.bin /tmp/fs-root

Now since I needed to update my BIOS, I then copied the bios.exe over to the thumb drive, rebooted my machine and booted to the USB stick (note, your have to verify your BIOS supports booting to USB before this works for you).

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But here’s what I had to do:

Add:
66.163.181.173 scs.msg.yahoo.com

into /etc/hosts

have fun, hope it helps someone

UPDATE

Also see the comment below from James, you can also upgrade to Pidgin 2.5.7 which fixes the issue.

You can upgrade using the following repository:
sudo zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/GNOME:/Community/openSUSE_11.1/ GNOME\ Community

sudo zypper mr -r GNOME\ Community

sudo zypper up -r GNOME\ Community

Thanks for the update James.. do you know what caused it at all?

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I personally use the browser for Mail (IMAP w/ GMAIL), RSS and ATOM feeds, IRC and Web Browsing. Although there are some room for improvement on future releases (a folders for RSS feeds, more distinct icons for contacts vs non contacts and bigger market share) overall it’s an A+ browser and blows the already superior 9.x out of the water.

Opera 10 has quite a few new features with a sleek new gui that will blow any browser your running right out of the water.

Here’s a quick list of some of the major new features:

You can find all the other features at http://www.opera.com/next

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Wonder what OpenOffice.org 3.1 will bring and why it’s a much anticipated release? Here’s some snippit’s from the oooninja.com:

Antialiased drawings

By far, the most requested feature in this release is anti-aliasing, which smooths edges of diagonal lines. On the left is OpenOffice.org 3.0, and the right is OpenOffice.org 3.1. Both images are enlarged to show detail.

Solid dragging

Drawing objects are further improved through the new solid dragging feature. Before only a wireframe was shown; now a 50% transparent copy is painted.

Translucent selections in Writer

OpenOffice.org 3.0 brought eye candy for selections to Calc, and OpenOffice.org 3.1 brings the same eye candy to Writer.

Here’s a list of other topics on oooninja.com:
* Chart axes and labels
* Outline levels
* Replying to notes
* Increase font size button
* Grammar checking
* Overlining
* Hyperlinks management
* Accept tracked changes
* Control slideshow media
* Sorting improvements
* Missing values
* Macros in Base
* SQL syntax highlighting
* Relative database paths
* Internationalization

One other notes they touch on are:

Bugs

Some 1000 bugs were fixed in OpenOffice.org 3.1. One such bug, serious for office networks, was introduced in OpenOffice.org 3.0. The new file locking didn’t work with OpenOffice.org version 2, Microsoft Office, or any application other than OpenOffice.org 3, so OpenOffice.org 3.1 reintroduces the file locking at the operating system level (in addition to its own file locking system based on hidden files).

I highly recommend checking out the posting on changes for OpenOffice.org 3.1 on www.oooninja.com

Ok.. now back to installing OpenOffice 3.1 Beta on openSUSE 11.1:
Setup the repository:

sudo zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/OpenOffice.org:/UNSTABLE/openSUSE_11.1/ OpenOffice\ Factory

Set the new repo to auto update:

sudo zypper mr -r OpenOffice\ Factory

Now Update to the newest:

sudo zypper up -t package -r OpenOffice\ Factory -y

Remember this is from the UNSTABLE branch. I would recommend after upgrading, disabling and adding the stable branch since when OpenOffice 3.1 is released I suspect it’ll make its way to the stable branch shortly after the Novell touches are made.

Edit: Adding another awesome resource for OpenOffice.org 3.1′s Anti Aliasing:
Sun Blogs

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SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 delivers interoperability and mission-critical support for your complete computing environment—desktop to data center, physical and virtual. Get your Sneak Preview today and see how it can help you reduce cost, complexity and risk.

Interoperability

The most interoperable Linux turns boundaries into bridges to help make your IT work as one. Increase Linux interoperability with Windows and UNIX to simplify your environment and better leverage your existing investments. Benefit from Novell’s collaboration with Microsoft to run Windows virtualized on SUSE Linux Enterprise and vice versa. Leverage open standards to manage SUSE Linux Enterprise, Windows and UNIX side by side. Even run ASP.NET applications on Linux to improve performance and reduce costs.

Mission-Critical Computing

The Linux built for mission-critical computing delivers the power and reliability you need to migrate from UNIX and build a resilient infrastructure. Powerful high availability clustering provides enterprise reliability with the affordability of open source. Green IT capabilities keep your enterprise lean and efficient. Low latency computing delivers performance, guaranteed. And if help is needed, a new supportability infrastructure provides enhanced problem resolution.

Ubiquity

SUSE Linux Enterprise powers your complete environment.

Run the desktop to data center platform built on a common code base. Deploy physical and virtual systems with the greatest of ease and outstanding performance. Run key applications from the leading ISVs. Tailor your systems, or run software appliances for simplicity and speed. From x86 to mainframe, and from thin client to netbook to desktop, SUSE Linux Enterprise delivers proven capabilities for your entire infrastructure.

Disclaimer

ATTENTION! By downloading the SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Sneak Preview, you are accessing pre-release versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11. You are using these pre-release versions at your own risk!

These pre-release versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 are made available exclusively via download as a preview. Novell recommends to use them solely for evaluation purposes. Do not use the pre-release versions to run any system in production.

Also, there is no upgrade path available from the Sneak Preview versions to the final General Availability versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11, or to later versions.

Novell does NOT provide any bug-tracking channel, support, services, or warranty for the use of these pre-release versions, no matter if you update from a previous version of SUSE Linux Enterprise or if you perform a completely new installation.

Novell’s SLED 11 Exclusive Sneak Peek

You can download the Sneak Peek here:
Novell’s Sneak Peek download

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But to my surprise when I went to go read up on security on Microsoft’s stuff, I thought “Hey, they must have a security subdomail”, so I went to security.microsoft.com and here is what I got:

Click for image for full size picture

How I read that is Microsoft Security is a Bad Request (or a request that cannot be fulfilled).

Just thought I’d share with you guys, it made me laugh.

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He then tried to boot up, and Windows came up with the normal “File missing or Corrupt”, on the file HAL.DLL. So I turned to what I think is the MOST VITAL TOOL when managing a Windows environment (I was previously a Windows Administrator, converted to Linux). So, I grabbed the Knoppix (5.0) CD and booted to it. Launched qtparted, and it saw no valid partition tables.

So I turned to a tool that I believe is a very useful tool, but doesn’t get the props it deserves. That tool is called testdisk. (note: it can be downloaded from here for you guys not running knoppix.)

With this tool, I analysed the disk, wrote the new partition table it had found, pulled up qtparted and verified that it was now accessible, and rebooted back into the Windows XP installation. It went through some Partition Magic stuff (finishing where it broke), rebooted and was back into the system.

This took meerly 10 minutes (most the time was Knoppix booting, since it is a Live CD Distribution).

This same scenerio has happened to me before and will continue happening to me.

So you Windows Admins (Desktop Support, Server etc) make sure you have Knoppix or any other Live Distribution handy to bail you out of certain Windows problem.

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Since we are in touch economic times the most important question is “How much will this cost me”? The answer is nothing, zero, zilch or nada. Whatever phrase you want to use (unless you’re really a stickler and want to divide your monthly Internet bandwidth cost against the time it took you to download the application and (well, you get the point). Hell, I would go on the edge and say it may actually save you money. How? You’ll be in touch with your computer, you’ll be excited to learn do stuff on it again, you’ll be heading the charge with changing the way a Corporate giant in Microsoft does it’s daily business, you’ll be FREE. (Man.. too much braveheart lately).

What is linux?
In the past years the phrase Linux has been mis-represented as a full blown distribution and not it’s original meaning. Linux, actually derived from the “Linux Kernel”, which was originally written by Linus Torvald in the early 90′s. So it is important to not refer a distribution as Linux, but as a Linux Distribution.

What is a distribution (distro)?
A distribution such as openSUSE (SUSE), Ubuntu, Fedora, PCLinuxOS, and Mandriva are all contain the basic Linux Kernel, and a bundle of applications which would provide your X support (GUI, Graphic User Interface), your Desktop Environment (Gnome / KDE / XFCE etc), and all your other basic and advanced functions. The major differences between distributions is their packages of choice (.deb (Debian, .rpm (RedHat package manager)), what packages come included with the distribution, and their management interfaces. The confusion of the many distributions may be one of the factors that turn people off of Linux, as they view it as “too confusing”.

What distribution is best?
This would be impossible for me to get up and say “Here is the best distribution for everyone”. Ever distribution has their good and their bad points, and each distribution does something better then the other. I personally use openSUSE, which is supported by Novell. I originally converted from Fedora Core (around the 4 days) to SuSE because the robustness of the distribution, and the choices it has always given. With that said, other popular distributions are Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Gentoo, Linux Mint, PCLinuxOS, and for historical reasons Slackware (one of the original distributions).

Can I still run my .exe programs?
The quick answer is no, but the more in-depth answer would be yes. Out of the box, the Linux Operating System does not allow you to run .exe binaries (which are Windows Binaries). However, there is a project called Wine (which Google has been great at helping advance) which allows us to install some Windows Applications and run some of these binaries. However, support for everything is not in place, and would be a per application basis.

What is a Desktop Environment?
I touched earlier in “What is a distribution” about Desktop Environments (typically referred to as DE). A DE is a an environment which consists of what most consider their “Desktop” and is comparable to what we see when we log onto a Windows workstation / server. These DE’s consist of our icons, wallpapers, folders, windows, taskbars etc. This is our functional GUI which runs off of the X system. The chosen DE is another thing that may separate one distribution from another.

What is the best Desktop Environment?
Much like Distributions. This is a hot topic especially between the 2 major DE’s Gnome and KDE. Another major player in the DE environment is XFCE, and a up and comer is called Enlightenment. The only thing I am going to say about these to not spark any type of debate is to try them all yourself to see which fits your need best. I personally find KDE 3.5.10 to be the sweet spot for me. KDE 3.5.10 is being replaced by KDE 4.X, but for my uses (every day production use at work) I find that KDE4 has not yet filled all the features in KDE 3.5 that I use. GNOME however is very popular in the enterprise work force, as it’s very easy to navigate (although I find KDE to be a friendly swap for you Windows users reading this).

Ok, now that you know what the Linux Kernel, Linux Distributions, and Desktop Environments are we’ll get down to the part where we replace Windows with Linux.

Here are some general uses for Windows users in the home space. After this we will go into what
you’re used to in each version of Windows, and try to compare it to Linux.

General uses:
Web Browsing: Some Windows applications for this task are: Internet Explorer, and Firefox comparable Linux applications that can do these tasks are Firefox (look familiar?), Opera (many more). For most home users, we use our computer as a way to browse the World Wide Web. A computer running a Linux OS, would be the perfect replacement, if this is your main need. Why you may wonder? Because a computer running a Linux OS is less susceptible to getting Malware / Viruses / Spam / Popups. This helps save the data on your machine, the personal data you type in at a web site, and in many other ways. I could write a million reasons here, but if you use your computer for only the internet, you should highly consider trying Linux, to save you heartaches with Viruses, etc in the future.

Word processing: Some Windows applications for this task are: Works, Word and openoffice, the major comparable Linux application is openoffice (again notice a trend? What is on Windows, may already be on Linux). If you run openoffice on Windows, a switch to Linux would a simple. You’re not doing anything different and using the same applications? So why the hesitation?

Spreadsheets: Some Windows applications for this task are: Works, Excel and openoffice, the major comparable Linux application is openoffice (again notice a trend? What is on Windows, may already be on Linux). See Word processing.

Email: You are just doing mail via the web (ie Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail etc) then this does not actually refer to you, as that is considered “Web browsing”, and you should re-read the security implications I’ve mentions in Web browsing. If you use a client like outlook, you have 2 major replacements in Kmail (which ships with KDE), and Evolution (which ships with GNOME). If you are pulling from a Exchange Server, I would recommend Evolution (which could actually run on KDE (gotta love the flexability of Linux).

Multimedia: Some applications for these tasks are: iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. The applications that would replace these in Linux are actually way better then both the applications mentioned for Windows. These applications are Amarok, Mplayer and VLC. I won’t get into the gists of why they are better, just know that they are in every way. Note with Mplayer and VLC, you can run nearly any format including formats that are for “Windows (yes, some video formats are actually Windows only). Also for DVD playback you can install libdvdcss (which is kind of a touch subject due to it’s legality in the US, I recommend checking it out, and fighting for the cause).

Ok.. off the high horse now, and on to migrating from Windows to Linux and what you can expect.

The Windows Vista user:
So there you are, with your new Windows Vista box, super excited because you now have something called Aero. You’ve been awiting years (about 5) to come out with something other then Windows XP, and now you got it an annoying thing that pops up every time you want to do something (User Access Control/UAC), and a kick ass way to switch between applications. You’re living in a euphoric stage until you find out that Linux did that before Vista was out, and can do about 90 even cooler functions. This is courtesy of Compiz/Comiz-Fusion. If you’ve seen someone with a modern Linux distribution, then you’ve undoubtedly been awed by their 3-D Desktop, and the different methods of seeing what applications are open. So you wonder, how can I get that? Easily, just install a new version of a major distribution. Yes, most major distributions ship with Compiz enabled by default. That means these awesome features right out of the box. You can enable them, and disable them by running their configuration manager (won’t get into detail here, but there is plenty out there to get you started). Now that I’ve broken your heart, and kicked you while you waited 5 years for the new version of Windows, I’ll let you know what to expect when you switch from the most prevalent Windows Operating System out there, Windows XP. (Vista users should also read the XP section).

The Windows XP user:
When you hear Linux many of you off the bat thing “It’s better, it’s this, it’s that”. I do agree with you on that front, but it is not without a learning curve, or without a possible headache or 2. Do you remember all the major headaches while learning Windows for the first time? All the crashes etc? Think of those headaches minimized by 85%. If you’re then willing to take the adventure, and going in with the mind set that there will be a learning curve, that may introduce some headaches, then please read on.

When you install, you’ll notice that the installation is very straight forward, very manager based and just as easy if not easier then a Windows XP installation. Once installed, and logged in you’ll notice that you won’t have to install tons of different applications (ie Office etc) as most packages ship with the distribution. You may or may not see an increase of speed (if you have a 3 / 5 year old installation of Windows XP then heck yeah, you’ll notice a speed increase). If you are a basic user, here you’ll notice no difference, other then the lack of Administrative privileges. These are not given to users, as it introduces un-needed security risks (we’re all just used to running as “Administrators” in Windows). To run something with elevated privileges we use sudo, but again this will only need to be done with certain administrative tasks, and most needs will prompt you for your or your root (or administrator in windows) password.

That’s it.. If you’re a regular user, that is all you’ll notice (if you even notice that). As a power user, or someone that like to tinker, you’ll notice that there is no registry, you’ll also notice you have the ability to modify a lot more, and have the freedom to do anything to your machine (include break it, which you power users will probably do while you’re in your “learning phase”, with power comes problems for us curious ones).

Sorry this is all over the place, I hope someone finds it useful, feel free to leave me a comment, and i’ll add to it. Thanks a ton.

Great external links:
openSUSE
Ubuntu
Mandriva
KDE
Gnome
openoffice

Here’s a great list of comparisons between Linux and Windows also (man, if I knew this existed before hand, I would have just linked this instead of writing everything out).
Wikipedia Comparison of Windows

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So, are you here because you wanted to find out how to install the said fonts. So here’s what we’ll do.

First lets install cabextract:
sudo zypper in cabextract

Run the following commands:

As you will see, you are just downloading the 10.3 script that did the installation and I have tested and verified that it works on 11.0.

I guess it’s about time to compile a “What to do after you install openSUSE 11.0″ blog or Wiki, if you think that’d be helpful please leave a comment or email me

Note: If the first time it says it fails to extract, just run it a second time.

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How?

Download this patched version of vmnet.tar created by Hauke-m from the VMWare Forums and Funderburg over at linuxquestions.org.

New vmnet.tar

Replace your current vmnet.tar file (mine is located in /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar) and re-run your vmare-config.pl (for me sudo /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl)

Your all set FINALLY..

Hopefully VMWare will fix it on their releases

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Create a text file, and add the following:

regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll
regsvr32 /s wups2.dll
regsvr32 /s wups.dll
regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll

Save the file as RegisterWU.bat and save it on your desktop. Double click it, and let it do its thing.

If you would like a comprehensive script that will fix multiple Windows Update issues, feel free to email me and i’ll post one up.

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First, I created the VM, and copies the ISO to my datastore. Pointed the CD to the ISO and was on my way. Powered on the VM and immediatly the Server installation starts, first thing I notice is it still says Longhorn.. Maybe they don’t trust that Server 2008 will actually come out in 2008? So on we go.. and whammmm what the hell, it says no device driver. Luckily http://www.google.com is nice enough to give us this link http://sti.epfl.ch/intranet/informatique/virtualisation/drivers-vista-rtm-esx.flp.zip which will give you the drivers you need to start the install. So I download, unzip the flp image, and scp it to my datastore, and point the floppy drive to the flp. Browse to A and voila, it starts the rest of the install. I put in my good ol’ serial number provided by Microsoft and again continue on my journy. Oh yeah, did I mention I love the fact that you can “Set it and Forget it” (I hope that isn’t copywritten by the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie).

 

 I check back a while later and it’s done.. I bring it up, log in and set the Admin password. Now it’s time for DCPROMO and all the other fun things you have to install on a real test enviroment. I will be installing the following services:

AD, DHCP, DNS, CA, RADIUS, RAS, IIS, and a few others to muck with..

 Later-on folks

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With that said, I have decided again to give the Windows XP Virtual Desktop PowerToy, that can be downloaded here http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/DeskmanPowertoySetup.exe another shot.

Here is a quick shot of how the desktops look while spanned out:

Sorry for the uglyness of my desktops etc, I am typically a Linux person and do not log onto my Windows machine alot, and when I do log on it sure isn’t trying to make it look better. Now back on track with the PowerToy.

The installation is really straight foreward, you download the EXE above, you double click it, then it extracts an MSI (why don’t they just pulish the MSI?). The MSI install launches and your done. But then where is your desktops? Where are the instructions on what to do next? Well, now what? Well, what you have to do is right click your task bar and choose toolbars and check “Desktop Manager”. That will give you the MSVDM (Microsoft Virtual Desktop Manager), and it’s 5 associated buttons. 1 to span the desktops, and the last 4 dedicated to switching to the desktops. Now you can right click on the MSVDM toolbar to change your settings or shortcuts.

Now to the limitations, if you are used to Beryl / XGL / Compiz.. or whatever you want to call it (Is it now Compiz-Fuzion, or CompCom?) then you will be greatly dissapointed, but if you’re a total windows guy and have never seen any of Beryl / XGL / Compiz or Linux at all, then you might be impressed. Not being able to drag applications across won’t bother you, not being able to send a window to another workspace won’t bother you, you’ll probably forget you have 4 desktops, and will be happily ever after.

It also seems to be very glitchy, and its animations are horrible, but hey, it’s 4 desktops and it helps with cleaning your workspaces and productivity…

I won’t bash it much more, or i’ll be tempted to remove it again.

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Slow it down.

Not only did it take more memory then a rival named firefox (I myself prefer Opera to both IE and Firefox (and obviously now Safari), but you lose valuable features like CTRL+[Enter].. Sure you can just put google and press enter, but then it has to search through the root domains and takes much much longer then just typing google.com, or google CTRL+[Enter]

Edit: Just to add, there have been 8 Vulnerabilities discovered in day 1 of being released:

http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/12/0120230&from=rss

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–> Regedit

–> HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

—->Search GUIDS for that have the display name for SQL Embedded

—-> Copy the Uninstall line

–> Open command prompt (Start — Run — CMD)

—-> Paste the Uninstall line and append ” CALLERID=OCSETUP.EXE” (Without the quotes of course) to the end of it.

—-> This should uninstall it. Reboot and then your clean

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