Spirit of system76
Sometimes, giving away free stickers can get you a $500 sale.
I hadn’t heard of system76 before coming across a post at the Ubuntu Blog back in August. It mentioned free (as in free beer!) stickers, courtesy of the folks at system76. Well, actually for the low low price of a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
But look! My $0.78 investment got me four of these neat “powered by: ubuntu linux” stickers. Coincidentally just the right size to replace a “Designed for Microsoft Windows XP” sticker, or whatever.
I didn’t know what I’d do with them. Pop one on the box if I ever got an Ubuntu system going, of course. Mainly I sent in for them because they looked cool and appealed to the little boy inside me who still likes to play with stickers. But then when they arrived about a month later, there was a note about a contest. Fun! Find cool places to put your “powered by Ubuntu” stickers, submit a picture, and have a chance at fame and fortune!
I submitted “Chainbuntu,” an Ubuntu-powered chainsaw that made it in to the top 10. For my efforts, I would have won a beer stein, but in my experience those things tend to sit in cupboards and never get used. Instead, they were cool about sending a t-shirt when I asked for one. (If you look at their /etc store prices, I lost $9 on the swap.) Free techie t-shirts are always a welcome bonus. (And it looks like you can still get free stickers, even internationally.)
So, with all that, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to think about system76 and their offerings. The web site is really well done. I’ve been thinking I could use another computer real soon now after the death of Eeyore and in light of the aging of Wintermute.
The idea of ordering a machine pre-installed with GNU/Linux is appealing to me. Knowing that all the drivers and software will be ready to go and not having to research hardware compatibility in advance would be a nice feature.
I’d feel good about supporting a company that promotes GNU/Linux use. Dell is practically giving machines away, but A) I’m not happy with the last computer I bought from them and the lack of support for what I see as a subtle problem with it, and B) I might save money but then if the components aren’t supported very well on GNU/Linux, it would be such a hassle. Even if supported, I could spend a lot of time getting things to work.
System76 has some decent budget systems. I’m looking at the Ratel Series. Starts at $399; essentially just the box. No monitor or peripherals. But I already have plenty of those, so that’s fine. I’d bump up the memory and a couple of other options so it would be more in the $500 neighborhood. It might cost a little bit more than a low-end Dell, but I have a good feeling overall about starting with a system that is made to run GNU/Linux.
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by Scott Carpenter on 19 November 2006 at 9:56 am
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Comments (0) | filed under gnu, hardware, linux
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‘Then They Fight You’
Busy week here with a funeral in Thief River Falls and a sick baby upon returning home, so please forgive one of those less-value-added posts where I just point to someone else who has more interesting things to offer.
Tim Lee over at The Technology Liberation Front often has great things to say for software freedom and against software patents. Writing yesterday about the Microsoft/Novell deal and subsequent Steve Ballmer chest-thumping:
I think this is a case where language has become a serious impediment to clear thinking about these issues. When Ballmer says that Linux “uses our patented intellectual property,” he almost certainly does not mean that Linux is in any way derived from Microsoft products, or that the people making Linux have somehow been free-riding off of Microsoft’s R & D efforts. Linux developers have repeatedly stated that Microsoft needs only to point out the infringing lines of code, and the Linux team will rip them out and replace them with code they write from scratch.
Rather, when Ballmer talks about protecting his “patented innovation,” he simply means that Microsoft holds patents that describe features that Linux happens to have. This isn’t surprising because as I’ve tried to document over the last few months, software patents have become so broad that it’s virtually impossible to write software without violating them. Every non-trivial piece of software violates dozens of patents.
In practice, then, Microsoft’s position is that no one may sell an operating system without Microsoft’s permission (or unless you’ve amassed enough patents that Microsoft can’t risk a patent war with you). Ballmer seems to be implying that, in effect, Red Hat and other Linux distros need to pay Microsoft for the privilege of participating in the operating system market. It’s hard to see how giving Microsoft the ability to extort money from their competitors promotes the progress of science and the useful arts.
–Tim Lee, The Technology Liberation Front
www.techliberation.com/archives/041229.php
“Nice Operating System You’ve Got There, It Would Be a Shame if Anything Happened to It”
Which I think is a nice summary of the situation and the problem.
And while it irritates me to think about the dubious value of software innovation by way of vague and obvious patents, I can also take comfort that Microsoft is moving in to phase three.
Here to explain phase three is another installment in my series of well-used quotes much-employed in free software discussions:
First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win.–Mahatma Gandhi
I think Gandhi said that, but my only source is the Internet. In any case, Microsoft has clearly moved in to the fighting phase. This is cause for concern in that they have a lot of muscle and they fight dirty with an assortment of clever shivs, but it was inevitable.
And free software will win in the end.
(Thanks to Stacy Cashman for the great pictures, freely shared under the CC-BY-SA-v2.5 license.)
by Scott Carpenter on 18 November 2006 at 4:30 am
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Friday Photopost: Beach on the Island Kauai
Ah… the beautiful beaches of Hawai’i…
…and palm trees…
Standard Notice: Taken with my two-megapixel Olympus camera. Pictures link to 1600×1200 “wallpaper” versions. Please feel free to make use of this pictures under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license.
by Scott Carpenter on 17 November 2006 at 4:30 am
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Ubuntu/Xubuntu Live CDs
I mentioned that I tried running Xubuntu GNU/Linux from a CD (a Live CD, I guess you call this kind of thing). I had been seeing these CDs of the various Ubuntu systems and the exhortation to try them without having to install anything. I was skeptical about how well that would work.
Well, it worked great. I wasn’t even sure if my old machine would boot from a CD, but it started up with no problems. (And with plenty of screen resolutions to choose from, which was nice after my earlier travails.) I didn’t do much other than verify Firefox could get to the Internet and that OO.o Calc would start. I was deeply impressed by how well it worked. If you’re going to try to sell people on something new like this, it’s great to be able to demonstrate it without having to install the operating system. A very nice “sales” feature.
I had hoped Xubuntu would run better on my old machine, as it is meant to be lighter weight for less-powerful computers, but it was still pretty sluggish on old Wintermute. My delight with how well the Live CD startup went was undiminished, though. It was just very cool.
My appetite whetted, I tried starting up Ubuntu on my main system, “Zodiac.” A P4 couple-a-gigahertz-or-so Dell with a gigabyte of RAM. And again with a pleasant experience. I’m starting to become familiar with the Gnome desktop and it gradually becomes more inviting and feels more comfortable to use.
I have two flat panel monitors rotated to be vertical, and not surprisingly it started up with just one of them in standard horizontal orientation. I briefly tried to get dual monitors working with some instructions I found for Xinerama, but it mentioned rebooting and I didn’t think my /etc/X11/xorg.conf changes would stick. I tried restarting just X with the CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE sequence, but that didn’t produce anything like a successful result.
I really wasn’t expecting to make much progress on it, so didn’t do any more than take the one stab at it. I mainly just wanted to see if and how Ubuntu would run on Zodiac. It’s making me hungry for more, as I start finally taking some steps forward. Knowing that I have a lot of hard work ahead of me, to migrate a dozen years worth of Windows artifacts. A quick excursion is fun and safe, especially when the startup works so nicely, but I anticipate more frustration as I work at replacing everything I use in Windows today.
One more technical note: I got the idea from reading another thread that you don’t use root like you do in other GNU/Linux distributions, so I figured out to do sudo vi xorg.conf to make the changes for the dual monitor. I’m thinking/hoping vertical orientation won’t be a problem when I eventually need to get it working.
So, what next? I don’t want to start dual-booting on my main machine for a while, so I’ll need something with more horsepower to experiment on and so that my wife won’t have to suffer at the hands of the aging Wintermute. She says she doesn’t mind, but it’s not really suitable for my best customer. I’m envious. She’s already where I want to be: using GNU/Linux as a primary machine. It helps if you only need a web browser and a spreadsheet, of course. Less baggage.
by Scott Carpenter on 15 November 2006 at 4:30 am
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Free Tanks for Everyone! Good Gas Mileage.
Originally published in Free Software Magazine, 6 November 2006.
I’m guessing many FSM readers will recognize the title reference, if like me you’re a fan of Neal Stephenson’s work. If you’re not a fan, then… er… how could you not be?! I’m kidding. I realize tastes differ, but to me, Stephenson is essential geek reading.
His essay, In the Beginning was the Command Line, has been around for several years now. It’s showing some age in areas, but it reads as well today as it did back in 1999. It’s filled with interesting ideas and thoughts about technology and culture, including free software. For example, you don’t have to read very far in to the essay to find a great analogy between operating systems and car dealerships.
Stephenson describes a crossroads with four dealerships. Microsoft is the biggest and sells station wagons. Apple sells more attractive Euro-styled sedans. BeOS sells fully operational Batmobiles. (Did I mention the essay shows some signs of age?) The Batmobiles are cheaper than anything else on the market…
With one exception, that is: Linux, which is right next door, and which is not a business at all. It’s a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, and geodesic domes set up in a field and organized by consensus. The people who live there are making tanks. These are not old-fashioned, cast-iron Soviet tanks; these are more like the M1 tanks of the U.S. Army, made of space-age materials and jammed with sophisticated technology from one end to the other. But they are better than Army tanks. They’ve been modified in such a way that they never, ever break down, are light and maneuverable enough to use on ordinary streets, and use no more fuel than a subcompact car. These tanks are being cranked out, on the spot, at a terrific pace, and a vast number of them are lined up along the edge of the road with keys in the ignition. Anyone who wants can simply climb into one and drive it away for free.
And this seems just as true today, seven years later. It continually amazes me, what we’re doing here. We’re making free tanks! Well, so far I’m just promoting and slowly figuring out how to use the tanks, but still: we’re making free tanks! And why shouldn’t they be free? They’re made of ones and zeros. Really, just a big number. How can a number be owned?
Along with operating systems, we have some killer free applications. I’m starting to use the GIMP, with some trepidation. Looking at all of its menus and options and palettes and etcetera, it seems I’m sitting at the nexus of the graphics universe, with vast reserves of power at my fingertips. And it’s free! Even if I feel like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer when confronted with its mysteries, there are spell books out there to help me with the proper incantations.
For example, a while back I found a tutorial for downgrading transparent 24-bit PNGs to make PNGs that display correctly in IE6. Rote repetition of the steps gradually led to a better understanding of how the program works. Just this weekend I found another tutorial that showed me how to fix red eye in pictures. It really is like magic.
Stephenson writes:
The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with bullhorns, trying to draw customers’ attention to this incredible situation.
And that’s what I want to do: get on a bullhorn and spread the word. “You don’t need to spend $500 on Photoshop! Get the GIMP for free!”
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by Scott Carpenter on 14 November 2006 at 4:30 am
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A round of GNU/Linux, heading in to the back nine. (Part 2)
Continued from Part 1: How was your round of GNU/Linux?
Irksome Screen Resolution Problems
Everything was pretty well set: I had network connectivity and could get to a network server for sharing spreadsheets and use Firefox for browsing. But the display resolution was too “big.” I found where you can set it, but there were only two options: 800×600 and 640×480. And getting it to go higher was a bother.
It felt a bit like going back in time. Suddenly I had to try remembering things about the hardware, and it reminded me of when I had to hop through a lot of hoops to make things work in Windows. For quite a while now in Windows, things have gotten so well supported with drivers and “plug and play” installation–which works very well these days–that I’d gotten out of the habit of thinking about the hardware.
I wasn’t looking at this as a knock against free software. For one thing, hardware manufacturers spend the most amount of time making things work for Windows.
What goes on in computers?
It made me think about computer literacy. It’s good to know what makes computers go and it’s fun to play with them, but should it be necessary? If we go with the old car analogy, people used to tinker with the hardware in their cars a lot more. For myself, I know very little about the mechanical workings of mine, and I don’t really want to. It gets me from here to there. That’s all I care about.
But a computer isn’t exactly like a car, so the analogy only goes so far. The computer is a very flexible device that can do a lot more than move us from point A to point B. I’d argue that it’s much more important to be knowledgeable about using the software on the computer. The hardware can be interesting and fun, but it’s the software that I really care about. So is it possible or desirable to be hardware ignorant and software educated? The two are often so tightly coupled, but surely over time this won’t be true, will it?
For the handling of hardware, should we expect GNU/Linux systems to be as idiot-enabling as Windows?
So much varies depending on perspective. I know Windows, so it feels easy to me. I can avoid a lot of problems, and the problems I run in to, I can usually fix without too much effort. And then I read GNU/Linux experts who look at it the opposite way.
Even though the installers have gotten very good, and there is support for a lot of hardware, I got the feeling from this brief foray that GNU/Linux distributions still have a ways to go to be as easy to use as Windows. Or maybe it’s just as much that hardware manufacturers need to put as much effort in to making their hardware work with free software. What will it take to make that happen? People have to ask for it. Will the population of free software users grow large enough to have a loud enough voice to demand this support?
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by Scott Carpenter on 12 November 2006 at 4:00 am
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