Raasukutty's

Tag: opensource

  • Free Software

    I am writing this post using WriteRoom, one super working space on my new laptop Macbook Pro.  I got this one as one major purchase after I landed in US.

    I gave up my only companion the PC, to which I have been faithful since my beginning days in computers for a new Mac. Why did I take the decision? I still use Microsoft’s own Visual Studio in office for my development activities. So half of my time, I am on a PC and the remaining time I am on Mac. They both are a different culture. Everything about Mac, at least my first feel of Mac is it is beautiful.

    Design – It is Apple’s forte. It has that good finish, wonderful, artistic and everything about it. That is what captured me to it. Being a designer myself, I wanted to own it, and it just happened that I did it in the home of software development.

    I have no regrets with Windows or Linux, the two other operating systems I have used fairly so far. The first software that I have licensed, other than the OS is TextMate. It was a worthy buy. So I have bought a license for it. It feels good to own and work on licensed software. I feel as if I own it. I feel that I respect the work that goes into the making of it. I love open source and free softwares. If there is some great work going on, and you can provide your own contributions to it, yes pay them. It is not for the software, but the people behind it.

    In India, we use pirated software all the time. Piracy is nothing. Everyone has a copy of Windows, Office running on their machines. The cost of software in Indian currency is much higher compared to the US counterparts. People don’t like to pay for just a CD. We are used to the belief that if you pay more, you get more. For something as big as Rs. 13,000/- a CD doesn’t suffice, we look for something more bigger. We are used to thinking that way, just like grocery and furniture shopping.

    Since, everyone is used to using Windows, no one wants to move from the comfort zone offered by it and embrace free software. There has to be paradigm shift, if people should start buying software.

    How can that be achieved. It won’t/can’t happen immediately. Schools should start using Linux and open source softwares. Students must be encouraged to read code, tweak existing programs so that they get what they want. They must get that idea, the machine does only what they want it to do, rather than stand amazed at seeing the computer working. After all it is what it is programmed for. Then as they grow up, they will start appreciating software and by the time, they get their own computers, they get to choose what they want. They can buy a Windows or a Mac, or write their own operating systems.

    Lets make this happen!

    After all, it is necessity that is the mother of all inventions.

  • What does it mean to be Free?

    Here is a nice video on what we mean, when we say Free…

  • Geek Code

    Here goes  my geek code as from http://www.geekcode.com

    -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
    Version: 3.1
    GCS/IT/S d+()@>- s:+ a----- C++$ UL P L+ E--- W++ N- !o-- K- w++$ O-- M- !V-- PS PE Y PGP+ t !5-- !X !R tv+ b++ DI D G e++ h-- r-- y--
    ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

    Edit: I found a site where you can generate it easier without a hazzle, the Code of the Geek Generator. Hope you get it!

  • Dual booting Ubuntu and XP

    Starting out on the Open Source fever, I installed Mandriva, Suse and finally have settled with Ubuntu after two days of fighting over which distribution to go with. But Ubuntu doesn’t ask a lot of questions during install, about what to install and where to install grub etc.

    After installing Ubuntu, I saw that it had not even install gcc libraries but had installed the gcc compiler. Also, the default operating system to boot into was ‘Ubuntu’ instead of Windows XP. As I and my friends use the same machine and they have no liking to Linux, I needed Windows to boot first. During the installation, I was not provided the option to choose.

    I wanted to change the default boot option in grub. I had to edit the ‘menu.lst’ file located in /boot/grub manually. It does not allow to edit as the permissions for the only user was denied. The concept of ‘root’ user was not there, as I was not requested for the creation of a root user. I just created a user, and ubuntu assigns super user privilege to this user.

    To switch users, the ‘sudo’ command was to be used instead of ‘su’.

    Finally, all set and working. Still to install ruby, mysql, python, vlc.

  • My first cup of Linux

    My first PC was a P II @266MHz system, with 8 GB HDD and a whooping 32 MB SDRAM. It was by and large a nice configuration then I could easily accommodate Windows 98 in 1 GB and the remaining space was for me to load songs, NFS, games and all goodies.

    I used to read a lot of computer magazines, Digit topping the list. In my 11 th standard, along with Developer IQ magazine they shippped a CD containing Mandrake Linux 8.1 (in association with Deep Root Linux in India). Rather adventurous, I wanted to try this new operating system. I had not seen any other OS than the dominant Win 98 and Win 95 in my school PCs. So trying out a new OS was something thrilling.

    If I remember correct, it was my summer holidays. So I had all the day to myself. I put the Mandrake CD into the CD-ROM and waited for it to start installation. I was not familiar with the installation procedures, and I was too lazy to read through the installation instructions in the book. I chose the automatic partitioning, defaulted to all the setup options and in the screen wherein Linux configures hardware, I was stuck up with the monitor not getting detected. I started my first line of defence, the ubiquitous (Ctrl + Alt + Del) combination. It dropped me to the command line and told me that system was going for a restart.

    Then on restart, it brought the LILO boot screen and halted. I booted into DOS prompt using a boot CD and
    tried to see what had happened to my windows data using FDISK. DOS recognized the partition as NON-DOS partition. I cursed myself for ruining a nicely running machine. So I took the second line of defense, reinstalling Linux (this I tried so that I could recover my windows partitions, since the partition manager in the installer of linux was graphical, it was easier.) I installed Linux again. This time I read through each and every screen, that is when I noticed that we had option to dual boot into Windows, choose the boot loader etc. The install was fine till the monitor setup. I chose the Generic Monitor setup this time and it seemed to work. The system was re-booted, and at last I saw dawn. I had booted into a new OS. Mandrake Linux.

    KDE was the desktop environment provided. I came to know about the different options available only much later. I was new and everything needed me to go into Root mode and install or update (RPM was available then. I tried installing Java into the system, that is when I found out, it was easier to use shell in Linux than use the graphical tool. I missed my Windows very much. So I popped in my Win 98 CD and started installing it. After install only did I realize that the boot loader was re-written by Windows and I had lost the option of booting into Linux. I didn’t feel for the loss of Linux, as I had my safer, usable and friendly Windows on hand.

    PS: Now I can use Linux more effectively. I learnt it the harder way.