The Green Party: Vista means more dead PCs

The Green Party has claimed that Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista, could lead to a mass upgrade of PCs that will result in old machines being dumped in landfill sites.

The Green Party warns that migrating to the operating system would result in many consumers and businesses having to buy new hardware, Vista requires more expensive and energy-hungry hardware, passing the cost on to consumers and the environment, this will also further exclude the poor from the latest technology, and impose burdensome costs on small and medium businesses who will be forced to enter another expensive upgrade cycle.

Some early adopters of Vista have already reported that the new operating system has forced them to upgrade their hardware. Microsoft has published the minimum specifications required to run Vista. Windows Vista-Capable PCs will be able to run at least the core experiences of Windows Vista...

Rather than opting for another proprietary OS, the Green Party argues that businesses should look into free software alternatives — such as Linux — as they don't require high-specification hardware. Free software can run on existing hardware, reduces licensing costs for small businesses and affords important freedoms to consumers.

The Green Party's warning about the environmental impact of Vista follows a similar statement from the British Computer Society (BCS) in December last year. Nigel Shadbolt, BCS president, said the release of Vista could eventually see large numbers of PCs being upgraded and many old PCs discarded. "PCs contain many toxic components, so if they end up in a landfill we are creating a real problem for the future. It can be really easy to pass on the old machine to be reused, and if it's beyond use, to recycle it,".

Intel's Ultra-Mobile PC & Internet Device Future.

Intel will be dropping Microsoft's Windows in favor of Linux (embedded Linux) for its next generation (iPod - iPhone like) future device. This new technology is based on the up and coming WiMAX, SaaS and PC push technology format. I cant wait...

Linux gaming improves with Cedega 6.0

TRANSGAMING has released a new version of its Windows emulator the Cedega 6.0 which allows gamers to play proper games on their Linux machines.

Cedega is based on Wine and is available on a subscription basis, and it is designed to solve the huge problem that Linux has in getting into the home market, namely that it can't play popular games. Cedega is the main way that Linux geeks get to play World of WarCraft or Doom online. I cant wait for Cedega to build support for "LeftBehind" I'm not a big fan of Window.

This version of Cedega uses new technology and improvements to the existing engine. According to a company press release, Shader Model 2.0 support enables recent games to be played at the highest detail settings. There is also a better FBO implementation provides better overall graphics performance and compatibility with DirectX 9.

There are also improvements to the ALSA support to provide better audio and allow users to listen to their own music while in-game. There is also better memory allocator, coupled with other enhancements, to improve the performance of games.

here's the link: www.transgaming.com

Happy Gaming :-)

Sourcefire releases Daemonlogger open source tool

Sourcefire, the security firm that oversees the open source intrusion-detection system software, Snort, is making available another open source tool for network traffic logging.

The tool, called Daemonlogger (http://www.snort.org), is a packet sniffer that can passively capture network traffic logs and write them to disk in PCAP format. Sourcefire said Daemonlogger is being licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2, under which anyone may access, modify and redistribute the Daemonlogger source code so that users can share enhancements and new features with other network professionals.

Martin Roesch, CTO of Sourcefire and the originator of Snort IDS, said open source Daemonlogger is intended to be a “handy and easy-to-use tool.” Sourcefire indicated Daemonlogger is offered as an alternative to proprietary products for logging and storing network traffic that are needed to meet with a growing number of regulatory requirements.

By Ellen Messmer

Software that lets you create a CyberTwin

If spending too much time online turns you into your evil twin, then it might be time for a "CyberTwin."

An Australian upstart on Monday introduced MyCyberTwin, an early version of software that lets people create and customize a virtual personality that can chat with others while they're offline. Liesl Capper, co-founder of RelevanceNow, which built MyCyberTwin, said the so-called chat bot technology can be used on blogs, dating sites or in social networks like MySpace by cutting and pasting code from the site onto the third-party page.

Capper describes the software as an extension of your personality online. "It can talk to friends when you're sleeping or tell people where the party is Saturday night," she said.

Virtual personalities are not new, but MyCyberTwin could take the trend of instant-messaging avatars like Yahoo's and Second Life personas in a new direction.

The MyCyberTwin service lets people pick one of five basic personalities, such as "warm-hearted, intellectual" or "cheeky, down to earth," and then have that choice act as a chat proxy to friends or strangers. But a subscriber can also tailor their persona further by answering a set of psychological questions, like "Is success a motivator for you?" giving the chat bot more complexity.

RelevanceNow has built tools to evaluate a person's psychographics, which classify attitudes and values, likes and dislikes. The more information the software has, the more "personality" the chat bot will have.

People also can write out answers to commonly asked questions so that their chat bot will respond in that manner, or they can prompt a cybertwin to ask specific questions of others, such as "What is the most important thing in your life?" People can review their friend's answers by looking in the log that MyCyberTwin keeps of all conversations. Capper said the service can also handle FAQs for bloggers, company brands or other well-known people who maintain a Web site.

"Sites and bloggers will want them so that people can learn about them when they're away. And companies can learn about customers without having direct conversations," Capper said.

Linux Kernel to Add VMI

The next stable update to the Linux kernel, Version 2.6.21, is slated to include a new feature submitted by VMware called VMI.

Virtualized operating system instances can enjoy performance and management benefits if their kernels are modified to communicate with the hypervisor under which they run. This arrangement is called paravirtualization.

The initial promise of Virtual Machine Interface was that it would provide a common protocol across which multiple hypervisors could communicate with the Linux kernel instances they paravirtualize, as opposed to having different sets of hooks built into Linux for different hypervisors.

The idea is similar to the Linux Security Module framework, on which both the SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) and AppArmor rights-hardening technologies are built.

However, VMware's approach has faced some pushback among kernel developers, and VMware ended up modifying VMI to plug into a separate kernel paravirtualization interface, called paravirt_ops, which made its way into the stable Linux kernel with the last update (2.6.20).

Dialed-back ambitions or no, VMI is set to enter active service soon, as VMware's forthcoming Workstation 6.0 will make use of VMI-enabled kernels, including those that drive Linux distributions such as the soon-to-ship Ubuntu 7.04.

Mac vs. PC vs. Linux

Is a Linux desktop avalanche coming?

Slowly, ever so slowly, the Linux desktop has been picking up momentum. It keeps getting better and better, but Microsoft's monopoly has kept many PC users from realizing that there really is a viable alternative to Windows. However, that's about to change.

Just like a few more snowflakes can turn a quiet snowy mountainside into an avalanche, Linux is teetering on the edge of becoming a real force in the desktop computing world.

First, the Portland Project started getting Linux desktop developers to work together. No, neither KDE nor GNOME are going to go away. Rather, Portland has got the developers working on a common foundation. With that solid footing, ISVs (independent software vendors) will be able to write one application that will run on both of those popular desktop environments.

Another major step forward is Ubuntu and Linspire partnering on the use of CNR for software installation. I think a lot of people have missed just what an important step this is for desktop Linux.

Ubuntu is, without question, the most popular of the community Linuxes these days. While not nearly as popular, Linspire, with its newly opened CNR, is creating the easiest way, by far, to install software on a Linux desktop. When you put them together, you get a desktop Linux -- with broad support -- that anyone can install new programs on.

Software installation, even on some of the best Linux distributions, has long been a Linux problem child. RPMs, Debs, YaST, Synaptic, APT, yum, alien, klik... the alphabet soup of installation formats and programs goes on forever. Heck, I can't keep track of them all, and I follow Linux for a living. The Portland crew recently started working on standardizing installation routines, but I don't expect to see any big results from that until 2008.

In the meantime, Linspire will be offering -- first for its own distributions, Freespire and Linspire, and then Ubuntu -- an end-user experience that hides all the existing complexity. Soon after that is done, the company will begin extending the service to many other Linux distributions.

Today, when you want to install software, you not only need to know the ins and outs of your particular installation program, you also need to have a good idea of exactly what program you're looking for in the first place. For example, if I do a search by name and summary in SUSE's YaST software installer for "word processor," I'm not going to find anything. Everyone knows that OpenOffice is an office suite and that Firefox is a Web browser, but even old Linux hands might stop, for a moment, when thinking about alternatives. CNR will make a great more of the vast Linux software library available for all users.

It's not simply that CNR will make installing any software -- free or proprietary, application or driver -- a one-click operation. It's that the newly wikied CNR will make it possible for users who don't know Jokosher from Traverso to pick out the right software. Both programs are multi-track audio recording and editing programs, but unless you already knew what they were, would you ever find them? Would you know how to install them? Would you have any clue as to which might be better than the other?

You could pull together all that information and get your program installed, but let's face it; it's not going to be straightforward or easy. To me, it looks like CNR is not only going to make installing software on Linux simple; it's going to make software installation better than it is on either Windows or Mac OS X.

And, that, I'm quite sure, is going to make desktop Linux a whole lot more interesting to all users. Get ready for the avalanche!

By: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Original Post w/Links

Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed

One of the most common questions I hear new Linux users ask is "What program should I use for virus protection?" Many of them lose faith in me as a source of security information when I reply, "None." But you really don't need to fear malware on your new platform, thanks to the way Linux is built.

Savvy Windows users have to watch their virus checkers as closely as the head nurse in the ICU keeps an eye on patient monitors. Often, the buzz in the Windows security world is about which protection-for-profit firm was the first to discover and offer protection for the malware du jour -- or should I say malware de l'heure? The only thing better than having backed the winning Super Bowl team come Monday morning at the office coffeepot is having the virus checker you use be the one winning the malware sweepstakes that weekend.

If a rogue program finds a crack in your Windows armor, paying $200 per infection to have your machine scrubbed and sanitized by the local goon^H^H^H^H geek squad not only helps to reinforce the notion that you have to have malware protection, but that it has to be the right protection, too. The malware firms are aware of this, and all of their advertising plays upon the insecurity fears of Windows users and the paranoia that results. Chronic exposure and vulnerability to malware has conditioned Windows users to accept this security tax.

It's no wonder, then, that when Windows users are finally able to break their chains and experience freedom on a Linux desktop, they stare at me in disbelief when I tell them to lay that burden down. They are reluctant to stop totin' that load. They have come to expect to pay a toll for a modicum of security.

I try to explain that permissions on Linux make such tribute unnecessary. Without quibbling over the definitions of viruses and trojans, I tell them that neither can execute on your machine unless you explicitly give them permission to do so.

Permissions on Linux are universal. They cover three things you can do with files: read, write, and execute. Not only that, they come in three levels: for the root user, for the individual user who is signed in, and for the rest of the world. Typically, software that can impact the system as a whole requires root privileges to run.

Microsoft designed Windows to enable outsiders to execute software on your system. The company justifies that design by saying it enriches the user experience if a Web site can do "cool" things on your desktop. It should be clear by now that the only people being enriched by that design decision are those who make a buck providing additional security or repairing the damage to systems caused by it.

Malware in Windows Land is usually spread by email clients, browser bits, or IM clients, which graciously accept the poisoned fruit from others, then neatly deposit it on their masters' systems, where malware authors know it will likely be executed and do their bidding -- without ever asking permission.

Some malware programs require that you open an attachment. Others don't even require that user error. By hook or by crook, malware on Windows often gets executed, infecting the local system first, then spreading itself to others. What a terrible neighborhood. I'm glad I don't live there.

On Linux, there is built-in protection against such craft. Newly deposited files from your email client or Web browser are not given execute privileges. Cleverly renaming executable files as something else doesn't matter, because Linux and its applications don't depend on file extensions to identify the properties of a file, so they won't mistakenly execute malware as they interact with it.

Whether newcomers grok permissions or not, I try to explain the bottom line to them: that because they have chosen Linux, they are now free of having to pay either a security tax up front to protect themselves from malware, or one after the fact to have their systems sterilized after having been infected.

So Linux is bulletproof? No. Bulletproof is one of the last stages of drunkenness, not a state of security. Linux users, like users on every operating system, must always be aware of security issues. They must act intelligently to keep their systems safe and secure. They should not run programs with root privileges when they are not required, and they should apply security patches regularly.

Misleading claims and false advertising by virus protection rackets to the contrary, you simply don't need antivirus products to keep your Linux box free of malware.

By: Joe Barr
http://joebarr.org

Convert DRM Protected Audio Into a Plain MP3

If you've ever bought music on iTunes, Walmart.com, or another legal music-downloading system, it'll be protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM). Protected from you, the consumer. For example, you can probably only play your songs in the program you used to buy them. What if you want to transfer it to an unsupported MP3 player or transfer it to another of your computers? These are legal activities (provided you do not distribute the results to others, which is a violation of copyright), but the music companies want you to listen to music on their terms. Here's how to break the locks off your tunes.

Beginner's Method

1. Burn an audio CD with the protected audio tracks.
2. Rip that new audio CD to MP3's.

Direct Way with Virtual CD-RW Software

There is a software named "NoteBurner" from http://www.noteburner.com which can process the above two steps directly and straight forward.

The most important thing you need to do is selecting the default cd burner to "NoteBurn CD-RW", and the software will do the rest works for you automatically. Compared the medthod described below, it does all the work automatically within one software. Refer to http://www.noteburner.com/howto.html on how to use it..

Image Burning Method

This method doesn't need a CD-R to burn on and might be a little faster. Another advantage is that you can probably burn more than 80 minutes of music at once (I never tested it, but I think it'll work). Many CD recording programs allow you to burn on a "virtual recorder", creating a CD Image file on your hard disk.

1. In Nero, do this by clicking "Recorder" > "Choose Recorder..." > "Image Recorder" and then creating a new CD as usual.

2. After clicking on "burn", you're asked where you want the file to be saved. Select a drive that has enough free space to save all the contents of the CD.

3. When Nero has finished, you need a virtual drive like CloneCD's "VirtualCloneDrive" or the virtual drive in "Alcohol 120%". You can get a 21-day trial version of VirtualCloneDrive at http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html . A free alternative is Daemon Tools 3.47 or 4.00, both of which can be downloaded at http://www.daemon-tools.cc . However, be carefull, as the latest version of Daemon tools will install spyware unless you are careful to uncheck this "option" . Microsoft also provides a free Virtual CD-ROM driver for Windows 2000 & XP at Microsoft.com

4. A (simpler) alternative to a virtual drive is to use a good unzipping program such as Izarc (free download from http://www.izarc.org) which will "unzip" the "ISO" or image file into regular audio files.

5. Right-click on your virtual drive and select "open image file..." or something similar - depending on which software you use. Then open the image file you created.

6. After loading your image file, rip the CD in the virtual drive as you would do with a normal CD.

Advanced Method Using Audacity for All Protected Audio

1. Open your recording program. It should be one that can save as an MP3. If you don't have a recording program you can download Audacity, which is cool and free, but if you already have another good recording program you can use that instead. (If you download Audacity, don't forget to grab the LAME encoder.)

2. Switch your sound-recording mode. Go to your system tray (in the lower-right corner of your screen, next to the clock) and double-click on Volume Control. Pull down the Options menu and click Properties. In the "Adjust volume for" box, press Recording, check all the boxes, and click OK. Your computer is probably set to record from the microphone; check the box under "Stereo Mix". You should only need to do this once.

3. Set up your recorder. Switch back to your music-recording program and create a new file. Make sure it's in the format you want; Audacity defaults to Mono mode, so if you're using that you'll need to go to Edit -> Preferences and change the Channels drop-down box to "2 (Stereo)".

4. Do it. Once your recorder is ready, press Record. Then switch to your audio source (whether it be iTunes, Windows Media Player, or another program) and press Play. Listen to the rapturous sound of your music being freed from DRM . When the song ends, press Stop, then switch back to your recording program and press Stop there.

5. Clean up. If you're going to be using a microphone with your computer, go back to Recording Control and switch the recording mode back to Microphone. Delete any unwanted sound or silence on either end of the waveform. Amplify if necessary. Save the project (in Audacity you'll want File -> Export as MP3) and close. You're done!

Very Advanced Digital-Only Lossless Method

1. Purchase and install Virtual Audio Cable (the demo adds "trial" clips to your sounds, so you'll need to purchase).

2. Set the playback device in your player software to the Virtual Audio Cable driver's input, and the recording device in your recording software to the Virtual Audio Cable driver's output.

3. Record using the Advanced Method above. The audio you play back and record through the Virtual Audio Cable will be a perfect digital signal, since it will never be converted to and from analog on your sound card.

4. If you have a Mac you can use Audiohijack (it's fully functional demo but before purchase, noise is overlaid on all hijackings longer than 10 minutes) to record any audio going through your computer. You would follow the using the Advanced Method above.

Method Using Hymn for Songs Bought on iTunes

1. Use Hymn an open source application for converting protected iTunes songs to unprotected MP3 files under fair use. Download and run it according to the directions provided on the site.

Tips

* If you don't need MP3 specifically (say you have a player that won't take anything else), consider ripping to OGG instead, as it gives better sound at the same filesize and is completely free of any patents. Most rippers as well as the Audacity tip above can handle this, and many players work with it too nowadays.

* This technique works for ripping music from any source. Music and dialogue from DVDs, streaming radio, game sound effects--absolutely anything your computer can play, you can record. If you've got a favorite song from one of your DVDs, try turning its audio into an MP3 and dropping it in your playlist!

* This technique can only be used to transcode songs in real-time. The alternative is to simply burn all your protected songs to a CD and then rip them back onto the computer in the format of your choice. That only works if you have extra CD-R's, though. Of course if you use a CD-RW you can keep it specifically to convert protected audio and rip to MP3.

* You'll need to make sure that your computer is silent during the transcoding process except for the music playing. If an IM or email notification pops up, for example, and makes a noise, that will go into the recording. If you're good, you can go back in afterwards and clean that sort of thing out, but it's simpler just to turn off all your noisemakers before you start transcoding.

* Obviously you need to be able to play the file for this to work. If someone sends you a DRM-protected file that you can't open, this process won't help you. You can send the link for this page to your friend, though, and have him or her de-DRM it for you!

* If you are using iTunes version 6 or later, Hymn will not be able to remove the DRM on purchased songs. The development team is currently trying to find a way around the DRM, but Hymn will only run on iTunes verions 5 or earlier. In addition, you cannot switch to an earlier version of iTunes, because once you authorize your account with iTunes 6, you can't use anything but iTunes 6.

Warnings

* Circumventing DRM may be illegal in and of itself within the United States -- regardless of ownership of the IP or intent after disabling the DRM method. Read up on the DMCA and then contact your congressman.

* Please don't use this technique for piracy. Transcoding a song for your own collection is fine. Making your entire collection available for the whole Internet to download is illegal.

Linux and Vista users share driver pain

(Linux kernel developers offer free support to struggling hardware manufacturers)

Customers are getting annoyed. They spent good money on the latest and greatest PC peripherals, only to find out that the hardware is only partially supported on their operating system of choice. Without the kernel drivers necessary to power them, some of the best features of the new toys are going unused.

Oh, and just to be clear: The OS we're talking about is Microsoft Windows.

Hardware vendors seem to be having a tough time getting up to speed with Windows Vista, the latest iteration of Microsoft's client OS. Drivers have yet to emerge for many products that have worked for years under XP, and those drivers that do exist are buggy or missing features.

Nvidia is just one example. For months, it has been selling high-end graphics cards with a label on the box that reads, "Windows Vista Ready." And yet, although a rudimentary graphics driver ships with the Vista install disc, many of the advanced features supplied by Nvidia's ForceWare software have yet to be implemented for the new OS. The downloadable drivers Nvidia makes available on its Web site add some functionality but are still beta software.

The situation is frustrating enough for some customers that they're ready to take action. A Web site suggesting a class action lawsuit against Nvidia has over 1,300 registered users as I write this, and its forums are filling up with tales of woe from customers who aren't getting the capabilities they were promised when they bought their video cards. A sister site is collecting user accounts of bugs in Nvidia's drivers.

Given how many other companies are similarly under-delivering on hardware drivers for Vista, it's enough to make you wonder why more vendors don't do more to support Linux. If writing drivers for Vista is really this much of a chore, getting open source drivers for Linux will seem trivial by comparison.

In January, the Linux kernel developers offered hardware manufacturers a straightforward proposition: Free driver development. All a vendor has to do is supply specifications to its products, and the community will do the work.

Of course, this is what has been going on in the Linux world all along, with or without the support of the vendors. Under this new program, however, the kernel maintainers are explicitly reaching out to manufacturers to encourage them to use the community as a resource.

The benefits for manufacturers are compelling. Not only do they not need to spend a dime on actual driver development, but any drivers produced will eventually be distributed with the stock Linux kernel and supported by the community. That includes the so-called enterprise Linux vendors, such as Novell and Red Hat.

What's more, a little hardware support under Linux goes a long way. For example, anyone who's impressed with Vista's "Aero Glass" user interface should check out the amazing eye candy that's possible with Beryl, a new UI layer under development for Linux. And Beryl's hardware requirements don't even approach what Vista demands. Why wouldn't vendors want to support an OS that gives users the most bang for their hardware buck?

Unfortunately, still far too few vendors choose to make their hardware specs available to open source developers. Instead of relying on the help and support of the Linux community, they offer up closed, binary-only drivers, developed in-house. Often, these drivers are only of beta quality or don't offer the full functionality that's available under Windows XP.

In other words, Vista users: The Linux community feels your pain. Maybe you'd care to check out the progress we've been making on this side of the fence?

By Neil McAllister

Simon says: let me hack your Vista PC

Microsoft is playing down the possibility that the speech recognition system in Windows Vista could be hijacked to delete files or perform other unauthorised actions.

Vista contains improved speech recognition technology, a factor which prompted security researchers to see if it was possible to create MP3 files on hacker websites or audio tracks distributed on P2P networks to issue spoken commands which takes control of PCs running Vista.

Microsoft said the exploit is technically possible but unlikely to be much of a threat in practice. The attack scenario relies on activation of the speech recognition feature (with a user's microphone and speakers switched on to receive commands) and for a user to be away from his desk, so that the mischief takes place without anyone intervening. Many PCs are left on all the time, so hitting unattended PCs on, for example, the trading floor of a bank simply by targeting them at night might be possible.

A number of security researchers and Vista geeks have already tested the approach and were able to delete files and visit, albeit with considerable difficulty, arbitrary websites. But Microsoft says a number of additional factors make attacks based on the approach implausible, if not impossible.

"It is not possible through the use of voice commands to get the system to perform privileged functions such as creating a user without being prompted by UAC for Administrator credentials. The UAC prompt cannot be manipulated by voice commands by default. There are also additional barriers that would make an attack difficult including speaker and microphone placement, microphone feedback, and the clarity of the dictation," Adrian, a Microsoft security researcher wrote on Redmond's security response blog.

"While we are taking the reports seriously and investigating them accordingly I am confident in saying that there is little if any need to worry about the effects of this issue on your new Windows Vista installation," he added.

The SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre (ISC), disputes Microsoft's assessment of the potential danger posed by the feature. "Downloading and executing a local privilege escalation is still eminently possible, you just need a suitable 0-day local privilege escalation for Vista. Indeed, any way to download and run arbitrary code as a valid user is never good news, this one just happens to be from the 'neat trick' pile," ISC duty staffer Arrigo Triulzi writes.

By John Leyden

Linspire's CNR to go multi-Linux, remain free

Linspire announced that it plans to expand its CNR ("Click 'N Run") digital download and software management service to support multiple desktop Linux distributions beyond Linspire and Freespire, initially adding Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu, using both .deb and .rpm packages. And, the standard CNR service will remain free.

CNR was developed by Linspire in 2002 to allow desktop Linux users to find, install, uninstall, manage, and update thousands of software programs on their Linspire-based Linux computers.

Previously available only for Linspire and Freespire desktop Linux users, the CNR Service will begin providing users of other desktop Linux distributions a free and easy way to access more than 20,000 desktop Linux products, packages and libraries, a Linspire spokesperson said.

Support for different Linux distributions will begin in the second quarter of 2007 via a new website, CNR.com. Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu will be the first supported, with others planned to follow.

Even as the Linux desktop has made strong advances in usability and capabilities, the difficulties of finding, installing, and updating software -- with each distribution requiring its own installation process -- has remained one of the most commonly cited complaints among desktop Linux users. With more than five years of development behind it, Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony hopes that CNR will now normalize these tasks for the most popular Debian- and RPM package-based distributions.

You can read more of the article and view screenshots of Linspire's CNR here

European Commission vouches for open source

The European Commission has issued an endorsement of open-source software, offering a boost of confidence for businesses considering the use of Linux and related software.

In a report on business deployments of open source software, published in full late last week, the Commission said that in "almost all cases" savings would be made by switching from proprietary to open-source software.

The findings come in stark contrast to assertions from Microsoft that Linux savings are a myth.

The Commission's work is based on detailed analysis of open-source projects in six European Union countries.

"Our findings show that, in almost all cases, a transition toward open source (produces) savings in the long-term cost of ownership," said the report, which was written by academics at the United Nations University in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Microsoft has attempted to persuade IT professionals and businesses that Windows can be cheaper than Linux, though its Get the Facts campaign. Get The Facts cited examples where Microsoft's software had offered a cost advantage over open source software.

The EC report also issued encouragement for organizations considering the Open Office applications suite. "Open Office has all the functionalities that public offices need to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations," the report said. "Open Office is free and extremely stable." It added that people were as productive with Open Office as they were with proprietary software.

The report did list two notes of caution. First, it said, short term costs will be higher for organizations migrating, even partially, to open source, largely because of the initial cost of training. Second, some workers may feel undervalued if they are required to work with free software.

The EC, the executive arm of the European Union, has taken several strides towards encouraging the development of open-source software.

In October, it granted $3.88 million (3 million euros) toward a project, called SQO-OSS, to test the quality of open-source software. And just before that, the Commission extended its open-source Web portal, the Open Source Observatory and Repository, to develop interoperability between applications.

By Richard Thurston

Windows screwup forces Ubuntu shift

You never quite wrap your head around how anti-consumer Microsoft's policies are until they bite you in the bum. Add in the customer antagonistic policies of its patsies, HP in this case, and vendors like Promise, and you have quite a recipe for pain. Guess what I did today?

It started out quite simply, a client needed to set up a small branch office, something I do almost every week. Four workstation and a repository for files, occasional backups, and a shared printer is all they would need, nothing special. Five HP 5100s, a printer, a Promise TX2300 with mirrored drives and a DVD-R was all I needed. That was the easy part.

Out came the anaemic 40GB drive from one HP, and in when the Promise controller and two WD 200GB SATA drives. The TX2300 was a snap to set up, the hardest part was rebooting 10 times until I caught that CTRL-F is the key to get into the card BIOS. A minute later, the RAID was built and it was time to restore the OS from the CDs. Two thumbs up to Promise here, it really could not be easier.

This is where the pain began. Microsoft has a policy where the vendors can't ship you a Windows CD so instead they have to send you a series of restore CDs. These option-free exercises in rookie programming mistakes are a shining example of what is wrong with the industry. HP, like the weak willed jellyfishes that they are, went along with this plan rather than stand up for the people paying them.

The problem? The #*&$ers at HP made it so the brain dead restore scripts would not see any hardware other than the parts they shipped, and it would not recognise the Promise controller. Fair enough, it isn't HP's duty to recognise everything, that would be well beyond anything I expected. You just press F6 and install the drivers manually, it gives you the standard Windows prompt there.

Looking past the problem of the machine not having a floppy, you can easily add one for the initial install, things got ugly quick. The problem? Those weasels at Captain Junior Spy Central disabled the F6 driver install on their restore CD! There is no Windows CD so you can do it manually, you either use theirs or have your own copy.

If you have a copy of XP to use, guess what? The key that comes with the HP box is restricted to the version of Windows on the restore CD. Vanilla XP will not work, nor will any of the copies I have lying around. Your choice, use only HP hardware or buy a copy of XP. A big FU to MS and HP for this little ray of sunshine.

Money grubbing and brain dead tactics aside, I figured I could boot from the Promise CD and possibly manually format the drives and dump the install CDs to the HD. That trick will often work to get you by initial unrecognised drives. That is when I learned half of the problems with Promise, the CD it provides is not bootable and contains nothing resembling a tool. Sparse would be a step up from what it offers.

Biting back my fervent desire to throw this mess out of a window, get a gun, and go to Redmond, I put in the original HD and booted into it to see if there were any interesting tools to help my plight. I tried to install the drivers and noticed the second problem, the #$&#ing Promise CD doesn't have drivers on it! No, I am not kidding, they ship the card with a CD, but that CD has no drivers on it! Honestly.

If you click the install drivers option, it prompts you to put a disk in the (nonexistent) A: drive to make a driver disk. There is no option to unpack, no option to put it in any other location, you are just screwed. Manually browsing the CD comes up with the same programs the moronic installer offers you. A: drive or the highway. In this day and age, there is no excuse for not shipping a driver with hardware, Promise really screwed this up.

So, unable to transfer the install easily, unable to legally use a different CD of Windows with my legally purchased key, and unable to install the drivers with the one I had, I was left with only one option. The machine was put in place Saturday running Ubuntu. The owner of the chain was informed of it, why it was done, and what the ramifications, mainly stability and security, were.

Luckily, he is a smart man, and from this point on, Linux will be the OS of choice on all his servers, it is cheaper to buy, cheaper to install, and much more secure. Desktops are under evaluation, but Microsoft lost this chain for sure on the server side. If it doesn't think their brain dead policies are costing them money, I am proof positive that they are, and I am willing to bet I am far from alone.

By Charlie Demerjian

Letting Go of Windows NT and 2000
Linux Migration Made Simple

Running a Microsoft Windows NT server these days is a brave (or, perhaps, stupid) thing to do: Support for the product has finished, and as far as Microsoft is concerned, the product should be put in a rest home for retired software. Windows Server 2000 is also getting long in the tooth, and in a few years it too will reach the end of its support lifecycle and be looking for its rocking chair and slippers.

So if you work for one of the many organizations around the world still running NT and 2000, like it or not, you are soon going to have to migrate to another operating system.

There are many reasons to consider migrating some or all of your data center servers to Linux, and we won't go into them here. But if you do decide to go open source, some ways of going about it are better than others.

It may sound boring and trite, but the one thing which may dictate the success or failure of a whole migration project is the initial planning stage. Before you can embark on a migration (any migration), you must decide the scope of the project. Are you planning to migrate only the Windows NT file and print servers and domain controllers to Linux, for example, or do you plan in the longer term to move your entire IT infrastructure (including Web and application servers and user desktops) to Linux?

For the initial phase, it's vital to build up a clear picture of what servers you will be replacing, what tasks they currently perform, and how they will accomplish those tasks using Linux.

The answers to these questions, together with the skill sets of the current IT staff, will help determine which Linux distribution to adopt. If staff members already have an extensive knowledge of a particular server-focused Linux distribution, it will likely influence your choice. If not, you'll want to choose a distribution with appropriate vendor support.

The next step is to estimate an approximate cost and time scale for the planned migration. The best way to do this is to break down the migration into as many manageable tasks as you can, and estimate a time and cost for each of these. The more detail you go into when describing these tasks, the more accurate your estimates are likely to be.

Later, in the pilot phase, the estimates can be checked and updated with the generated data.

Migrating an NT file/print server to Samba on Linux, should be fairly straightforward, and the potential to save money on Client Access Licenses (CALs) is high. "A properly configured Samba server is typically faster than a Windows NT or 2000 server, and clients will not be able to tell the difference," says Nick Lassonde, chief software architect at California-based Linux migration consultant Versora.

There are, however, a few pitfalls of which to be wary.

"The most common one comes from mapping security, as by default most Linux distributions only support POSIX security and not complete ACLs (access control lists). However, most modern file systems support ACLs, so this problem can be solved," he warns.

You'll probably also want to configure your file sever to authenticate against a domain controller, and there are plugins to achieve this. "Familiarize yourself with Samba's Vampire command," advises Lassonde. "This allows for automated migration of users from an NT domain controller to Samba."

In other words, it sucks the brains out of an NT server--hence the name. "Samba works flawlessly as an NT4 Domain Controller, but while Samba 4 has come a long way as an Active Directory Domain Controller, it is still not quite stable enough for production."

For Active Directory domains, it is possible to build Linux-based alternatives: IBM Software Group suggests a stack containing XAD (from PADL), LDAP, and Kerberos 5.0 running on Linux can serve as a viable alternative for Active Directory based Windows 200x domains, for example.

If your project involves migrating more of the data center to Linux, the next stage will probably be moving e-mail and messaging services from Microsoft Exchange to something like OpenXchange, which traditional Microsoft desktop clients can access, or IBM's Lotus Domino, which Outlook clients can also access.

Web and application server migration is much less straightforward. A number of questions must be asked:

* What server-side languages (e.g., ASP, ASP.NET, and PHP) are used on the server, and can these be used under Linux? If not, you will need to find a third-party solution or port the applications to Linux.

* What other machines do the servers connect to, and which be migrated first? For example, do you migrate a database to Linux first, or leave it on Windows?

* What sort of security options are required? Will you need to set up SSL connections on the new server? Will user authentication be local, or do you authenticate intranet users against a domain?

The obvious choice is to move from Microsoft's IIS Web server to an Apache Web server (which claims 65 percent of the Web server market according to Netcraft) and Linux-based databases including DB2, Ingres, MySQL, Oracle, and PostreSGL.

The hardest part of a Linux migration is migrating applications. If application migration is part of your project, it may be possible to use third-party solutions. Two examples of this are running ASP pages via Sun Java System Active Server Pages, or ASP.Net pages using Visual Mainwin, which provides a Windows library to which applications bind and run on Linux.

Tools that port applications from one environment to another are rarely worth adopting, says Lassonde. "Frequently the price of porting an application from one language to another will almost be the same as simply rewriting the application." He recommends leaving those applications on an ISS server, and then rewriting or porting them later in a more neutral language (such as Java) so future changes can be carried out more easily.

Whatever the scope of the migration project, before you start (especially if this is the first one you're attempting) bear in mind that however simple the project may seem, and however well prepared you think are, it's almost guaranteed problems will crop up.

Chances are, someone else will has had the same problems before. So at the very least, be sure to take full advantage of public support forums, and consider hiring an experienced migration consultant who--assuming he or she is any good--will have come across most of your problems before and will be able to suggest solutions to technical difficulties in minutes or hours that would otherwise take days or weeks to overcome.

By Paul Rubens

The Windows Experience

Must Have Applications for Linux Beginners

Switching to Linux is a huge step for those who still have some reservations about taking such a huge leap of faith. To make the transition as painless as possible, often times it simply helps to make sure that the person switching to Linux has a clear comparison of which applications they will be using on their new distribution.

Choosing the Right Software. When selecting an application list, we figured that it might be helpful to seriously look at which applications the average home user might be using the most. With this in mind, here’s our breakdown in no particular order:

Firefox: A web browser that will make sure the user is not feeling totally overwhelmed and out of their element. We would avoid loading it down with tons of extensions, however, just keep it lean and clean.

Thunderbird: Considering the likelihood that said user has been using their ISP assigned e-mail with a program, such as Outlook Express, this should not feel like a tremendous leap. Thunderbird is a rock solid, trustworthy program that can help wean those reluctant relatives over to the Linux side of the fence in no time.

MSN/AIM/Yahoo Messenger(s): Let's face it, the kids love to "IM" each other with every free moment. Our prescription would not be to go with GAIM in most cases though. For those who don't always favor such a drastic change, keeping things simple might be the best bet here. Since all three instant messaging programs have options that can be installed in a Linux flavor, this allows you to offer the user a choice - GAIM for all or aMSN, Yahoo Linux and AIM Linux?

Scanner Software Made Easier: For the most part, we tend to jump onto the SANE bandwagon in hopes that our lack of driver resources will not prove to be too huge of a problem. However, if you have run into the trouble that we have with SANE back-ends, then maybe an alternative is in order: something like VueScan perhaps? This scanning program is both commercial and effective if you are having some struggles with SANE.

Beagle: Until your new convert becomes a little more accustomed to the file system that Linux provides, enabling them to locate their downloads and other goodies without too much frustration may be in order. Beagle allows for this and does it with amazing style. Much like "Google Desktop," Beagle can locate just about any file you might be looking for with the tap of a few keys.

amaroK: By this time, it may be worth it to your new Linux convert to enjoy their favorite tunes. amaroK is a fantastic music manager that is sure to amaze, thanks to its close work with MusicBrainz. It should be said that getting it to just "work" with your iPod, as so many before me have claimed, is not all that easy. Gtkpod is always a wise bet though if fighting with the urge to make an iPod sync a simple reality.

OpenOffice.org: In reality, most people ought to be using this as their primary office suite regardless of the OS they choose to run. However, even if the new user you happen to be working with is still a Microsoft Office user, OpenOffice.org is easy enough to make just about anyone comfortable rather quickly.

Did I Miss Something? Are you finding yourself coming unglued at the prospect of us missing an important application? Not to worry, this is just a starter list and not to be taken as the "only way" to go. See, what is so great about introducing folks to Linux is the ability to set them up with the applications that will best meet with "their" needs; not just the needs that we feel they might have.

What are you waiting for? Grab a LiveCD of your favorite distribution and start pounding the pavement. We mean, nothing says "party" like a Linux installation party, right? Just remember, Linux installation parties are only as geeky as the people that host them. So get out there, install your perfect setup on a friend's PCs and have fun!

Microsoft Office lock-in and the deal with Novell

I can't urge you strongly enough to read the article entitled How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In.

It details how Microsoft has built into Vista the "trusted computing" ability to lock down Office files via DRM such that no unauthorized document reader will be able to decrypt and read them. This is perhaps one of the biggest hidden weapons Microsoft has in its arsenal that could sabotage Linux and OpenOffice.org if Microsoft succeeds in its attempt to plug SUSE and all Novell's "interoperability" bonuses.

Think of this, if you will, as the Tivoization of Office files, only with malicious intent. Microsoft could, indeed, open up the document format completely and swear before God that it will never sue anyone for patent infringement. However, this does not prevent Microsoft from locking Office files in such a way that only Vista users can read them. No one else will be able to do so without the proper authorization, thus rendering the open format and Microsoft compatibility entirely meaningless -- unless, of course, someone agrees to pay Microsoft for the keys to unlock those files.

The lesson here should be obvious. The FOSS community must avoid - at all costs - the practice of adopting or integrating anything into FOSS that is owned or generated by Microsoft. Ximian, and now Novell, has made it a mission to recreate Microsoft technologies on Linux. I urge the community only to allow Novell to continue to do this at its own peril. It was a massive strategic blunder to attempt to recreate dotNet on Linux as Mono. Microsoft has implicitly, by attempting to make patent deals, acknowledged Linux as a genuine threat. That makes it so much greater a danger to adopt Microsoft practices, whether it involves integration of Office document formats, Excel VBA compatibility, or anything else.

This is an ironic twist, to say the least, after all the fuss Microsoft made over the viral nature of the GPL. Microsoft, through Novell, is attempting to infect open source with hooks it can use to profit from the success of Linux at the expense of Linux users' freedoms.

By Nicholas Petreley

An Early Christmas...

For an early Christmas this year, my ex-wife (the somewhat dear) purchased a week of personal training at the local health club for me (yes, we still get along). Although I am still in great shape since playing football 20 some-odd years ago and climbing the Sandia Mountians since 1989, except for the last five years or so, I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and give it a try.

Called the club and made my reservation with a personal trainer named Cindy, who identified herself as a 26 yr old aerobics instructor and model for athletic clothing and swim wear. My Ex seemed pleased with my enthusiasm to get started, since I wouldn't be bothering her! The club encouraged me to keep a diary to chart my progress.

Last Monday: Started my day at 6:00am. Tough to get out of bed, since having a few cold ones while watching the game, but it was well worth it when I arrived at the health club to find Cindy waiting for me (OMG). She was something of a Greek goddess -- with blonde hair, dancing eyes and a dazzling smile.

Woo Hoo!!!!! I feel like I'm 28 again....

Cindy gave me a tour and showed me the machines. She took my pulse after 5 minutes on the treadmill. She was alarmed that my pulse was so fast, but I attributed it to standing next to her in her Lycra aerobics outfit (once again, OMG). I enjoyed watching the skillful way in which she conducted her aerobics class, it almost gave me a heart attack.

Very inspiring, Cindy was encouraging as I did my sit-ups, although my gut was already aching from holding it in the whole time she was around. This is going to be a FANTASTIC week!!

Last Tuesday: I drank a whole pot of coffee (and a few no-doze), but I finally made it out the door. Cindy made me lie on my back and push a heavy iron bar into the air, and then she put weights on it! My legs were a little wobbly on the treadmill, but I made the full mile. Cindy's rewarding smile made it all worthwhile. I feel GREAT!! It's a whole new life for me, I think I found my next future ex-wife.

Last Wednesday: The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the toothbrush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I believe I have a hernia in both pectorals. Driving was OK as long as I didn't try to steer or stop. I parked on top of a GEO in the club parking lot.

Cindy was impatient with me, insisting that my screams bothered other club members. Her voice is a little too perky for early in the morning and when she scolds, she gets this nasally whine that is VERY annoying, and you wish you had duck-tape.

My chest hurt when I got on the treadmill, so Cindy put me on the stair monster. Why the hell would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by elevators? Cindy told me it would help me get in shape and enjoy life. She said some other shit too.

Last Thursday: Cindy was waiting for me with her vampire-like teeth exposed as her thin, cruel lips were pulled back in a full snarl. I couldn't help being a half an hour late; it took me that long to tie my shoes.

Cindy took me to work out with dumbbells. When she was not looking, I ran and hid in the men's room.. She sent Andy in to find me, then, as punishment, put me on the rowing machine -- which I sank.

Last Friday: I hate that bitch Cindy more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the his tory of the world. Stupid, skinny, anemic little cheerleader. If there were a part of my body I could move without unbearable pain, I would beat her with it.

Cindy wanted me to work on my triceps. I don't have any triceps. And if you don't want dents in the floor, don't hand me the *&%#(#&**!!@*@ barbells or anything that weighs more than a sandwich.

The treadmill flung me off and I landed on a health and nutrition teacher. Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like the drama coach or the choir director?

Last Saturday: Cindy left a message on my answering machine in her grating, shrilly voice wondering why I did not show up today. Just hearing her made me want to smash the machine with my Laptop. However, I lacked the strength to even use the TV remote and ended up catching eleven straight hours of the Weather Channel.

Last Sunday: I'm had the Church van pick me up for services so I could thank GOD that the week from Hell was over. I will also pray that next year, my ex-wife (the bitch), will choose a gift for me that is fun like root canal or a vasectomy.