Open Source at SF State University - Linux

Ubuntu 9.10 - Karmic Koala is here

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:14:05 -0700

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala is out. The demand for ISOs is incredible, so bit torrent is the preferred method. The mirrors are:

Ubuntu 9.10

Even getting to the torrent file via http is incredibly slow. I have a copy of the torrent file (not the ISO) at http://opensource.sfsu.edu/files/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso.torrent It should be a lot faster to get the *.torrent on campus :-) I also have a couple of bit torrent downloads running on campus. I'll leave these running in the hopes that if you decide to download Karmic's awesomeness you'll get the bits from within 130.212.0.0/16

My name is Bond. James Bond: OLPC-SF meets on July 18, 2009

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:42:29 -0700

As a kid, I loved James Bond movies (I still like the old ones), especially the gadgetry. A shoe compartment, a multi-purpose watch, a micro camera. Needless to say, a lot of money has gone into ThinkGeek purchases Imagine my pleasure when I recently had to introduce the OLPC project to someone (potential funding source for a deployment). I pulled out a 8GB microSD card from a secret zipper in my shirt, placed it squarely on the table, and said "We won't be needing the Internet for now. This little piece of technology holds well over 100 albums and hundreds of books that are freely distributable. It also has a web server, a database server, a collaboration server, backup software, and a bunch more. We won't be needing the Internet to get this deployment off the ground".

Open. Connect. Communicate

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:28:01 -0700

Recently, I presented at a workshop on telecommunications, open source and mobility at the First Caribbean Regional International Telecommunications Society Conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Key points in this workshop were:

The network's value proposition can be fully realized only if it remains open and unencumbered.
Setting up independent, yet interconnected PBXs using Asterisk: small ones with AstLinux, large ones with Trixbox.
Asterisk and the OLPC project. Setting up local phone networks in villages, schools, communities.

Slides are up at http://www.slideshare.net/sverma/open-connect-network

How small can a Linux distro be?

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:52:28 -0700

How small can a Linux distro be? Very small. We've had distros that fit on a 1.44 MB floppy and are used for routers. For a desktop/GUI type distro though, the smallest I've seen is DSL - Damn Small Linux. I found another one a little while ago. Tiny Core Linux:

"Tiny Core Linux is a very small (10 MB) minimal Linux Desktop. It is based on Linux 2.6 kernel, Busybox, Tiny X, Fltk, and Jwm. The core runs entirely in ram and boots very quickly."

DisplayLink finally LGPLs its USB-to-VGA code

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:54:49 -0700

Yay! Finally, I can use my Thinkpad X300's USB dock to do all chores including VGA. I can also use it with my OLPC XO-1 hopefully.

From http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/libdlo:

Bryan Berry's interview on FLOSS Weekly

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:01:58 -0700

This is from episode 66 of FLOSS Weekly by hosts: Randal Schwartz and Leo Laporte

Bryan Berry, of Open Learning Exchange Nepal, the NGO implementing the OLPC project in Nepal.

Bryan Berry has served as IT manager for US embassies in Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, and Kathmandu. He has been a linux user for six years, and has lived in Asia for the last seven years. He began work on the Open Learning Exchange Nepal project in 2006, and as of June 2007 gained the support of the Nepali government to begin a pilot program of the OLPC project.

He also talks about Boston Brahmins, but I'll let you listen to the podcast. The interview is at http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/twit.cachefly.net/FLOSS-066.mp3

sabdfl speaks: An interview with Mark Shuttleworth

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:23:53 -0700

Before you wonder what sabdfl is, it stands for Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life, a title assigned to Mark Shuttleworth. Its a meritocracy, not a democracy! Mark was interviewed by Jorge Castro online after the release of Jaunty Jackalope, the code name for Ubuntu 9.04. The full interview is up at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/openweekJaunty/AskMark Here are some excerpts:

Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope countdown

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:04:00 -0700

Building firewalls in Debian/Ubuntu

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:04:21 -0700

I came across a nice step-by-step article on how to build firewalls using Debian or Ubuntu. Firewall Builder is available from the libfwbuilder and fwbuilder packages in both Debian and Ubuntu (in Universe). Read the article in full at http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/632

LDTP: another hidden gem

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:52:54 -0700

Found LDTP: Linux Desktop Testing Project. http://ldtp.freedesktop.org/

From their website:

"GNU/Linux Desktop (GUI Application) Testing Project (GNU LDTP) is aimed at producing high quality test automation framework and cutting-edge tools that can be used to test GNU/Linux / Solaris Desktop and improve it. It uses the Accessibility libraries to poke through the application's user interface. The framework also has tools to record test-cases based on user-selection on the application. GNU LDTP is a GNU/Linux / Unix GUI application testing tool. It runs on GNU/Linux / Solaris / FreeBSD / Embedded environment (Palm source).

Do Linux and hotels mix?

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:42:58 -0700

I was wondering about the same thing when I first saw the URL. http://www.linuxhotel.de/

From their website, translated into English via Google Translate:

"Who wants to move forward, can not everything in the self-study work - in their own operation, there are too many disturbances, and every new beginning is overcome. Go now and then on a training course! The hotel is a Linux following the example of one of the best hotels in Germany built luxury hotel (previously a convent), but it was self-service basis, and therefore very cheap. They learn and stay in an integrated overall system, the extensive experience with colleagues and teachers casually suggests. For all day and night hours, all free of charge (technical, material storage, literature, food, beverage ,...), and in our network can also open the configuration of open source virtual test server (DNS, Mail, LDAP, databases,. ..) view and modify a trial basis. Linux The hotel is a total concept that makes your integration into open source software quickly, successfully and with much joy possible. This does not always, but mostly. "

HP's Linux GUI for netbooks

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:32:57 -0800

From Slashdot: http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/06/177231&from=rss

...a new custom version of Ubuntu aimed at netbooks and based on 8.04 Hardy Heron has been released by HP. Targeted to the HP Mini 1000 Mi, the netbook customization comes complete with OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Pidgin, and a few others. "Overall, HP has created one of the best thought out Linux interfaces for netbooks. The software is designed so that users who have never used Linux should have no trouble performing basic tasks. But experienced Linux users can always fire up a terminal window by hitting Alt+F2 and entering 'gnome-terminal.'"

Addison Community Schools, MI switching over to FOSS

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:26:43 -0800

Just saw this in my inbox from the edubuntu-education list. The archived version is posted at https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-education/2009-January/000187.html

I wanted to release this on the Ubuntu Education list first. I am proud to announce that Addison Community Schools in Addison, MI, USA has chosen Ubuntu Linux for our Mobile Computer Lab. The hardware is Samsung NC10 Netbooks and with the excellent help provided by the following sources I was able to provide a compelling argument for Ubuntu:

http://nc10linux.wordpress.com - The #1 source for helping Ubuntu the obvious choice over Windows on the NC10.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NC10 - The mouse can be a bit wild. The instructions here brought it under control.

I tested WIndows XP Pro and Windows 7 Beta (Windows Vista wasn't even a possibility) and both did well. However neither could provide any reason to spend the money for the licenses. I put the finished product in front of students and they were very happy with it. This brought me to the conclusion that the operating system is irrelevant. The students need a web browser and an office suite to get their work done. With our use of Google Apps even the office suite is becoming irrelevant.

Thanks for the great work that all developers have done on Ubuntu and other Open Source projects. You are enabling small rural school districts like ours to focus what little money we have on getting better hardware and not on license after license. Microsoft can "donate" as many licenses as they want to TechSoup and the like, it doesn't change the fact that the Open Source Community is producing excellent software.

Old people love Ubuntu too!

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:50:15 -0800

As seen on Slashdot at http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F21%2F1319238&from=rss:

I have migrated several clueless windows users to Linux and I can say from real world experience that anyone can use Linux if all they do is browse the web. The problem comes in when people expect to do what they are able to do on windows and they cannot. This Christmas season the unexpected rared it's ugly head. My Neighbor got an Ipod and she tried to load Itunes to get her cds on her Ipod. No go. She had to call me and I had to dig into forums to get it going with Songbird. Songbird kicks ass BTW. Another user calls me up saying their daughter just gave them a digital picture frame. So they can see their grandkids. Guess what? they tried to load the software that came with it. When that didn't work they were lost and stuck. Another user called me up with a Garmin GPS that they could not update and another with a TomTom GPS that will not update on Ubuntu. Then I have one lady that brought home a perfectly good Lexmark laser printer from work. They bought a new printer and gave her that one for free. Well it won't work on her PClinuxOS. I can tell users till I am blue in the face to do their research before they get hardware for the Linux PCs but I can't control the presents and gifts that others buy them. This is a BIG problem. I keep getting asked "Why won't iTunes work on Linux? It works on windows?" On the flip side, a nursing home near me got 8 PCs donated to them. I got there to install them and they had pirated versions of WinXP with a message "This version of windows is not genuine" etc. I told them to buy WinXP pro for 8 computers at $199.00 each plus AV etc. They balked at the price tag so I put Ubuntu on all the the PCs. They called me 2 months later. They had 2 more WinXP PCs donated to them. But they had Legit versions of XP on them and were pretty clean of crapware so I told them I'll just connect the PCs as is and I did. They called me back a month later complaining about the 2 windows PCs. What was the complaint? The residents "Old people" did not want to use the windows PCs because they were already used to the Ubuntu PCs and said "It was too hard" compared to Ubuntu "Icons were too small" "Cannot zoom desktop"(compiz zoom feature) etc etc. The list went on and on. The elderly residents just could not go from Ubuntu to windows after using it for just 2 months. No one would go near the windows PCs. so I had to go back and wipe perfectly legitimate versions of XP of the 2 boxes and put Linux on those too.

OLPC-SF November meeting report

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 11:27:40 -0800

November's meeting pulled in a dozen people or so. We discussed OLPC India (slides are up at http://www.slideshare.net/sverma/olpc-and-india-my-observations-presentation).

OLPC and India: My Observations

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: education reliance)