JDPFu.com 2025

Last year, the owner of CodeWeavers, a commercial Windows Interface Layer for Linux called CrossOver-Office, was forced to backup his President Bush hate speak with a fairly large software giveaway. I don’t recall the exact bet he made, but something like I’ll give my products away if any of these 3 things happen. One of them was related to the price of gasoline. At least one of them did happen and he manned up and gave away his products for a few days or weeks. WINE is the free version of this product, just a few months or years behind on compatibility.

Anyone could get a copy, installed it on their Linux machine and use it with support for a year. I did this things, but only used it a little. Perhaps … er … twice. I never used them again. I don’t recall why I didn’t use them more now. Perhaps it was that if every windows program didn’t work or didn’t work perfectly under CrossOver Office, so I still needed to keep a Windows VM anyway. Regardless, it never crossed my mind to use CO.

This morning, an email arrived with a reminder that support was ending in about a week. I should renew my support, if I want the new versions that are coming out soon. I suppose I should go down load the current versions (it has been a year after all) and install them and see if the improvements help with the Windows programs that I use and would like to use under Linux. Those are:

• Quicken 2009
• Investors Toolkit
• MS-Office 2007
• MS-Visio 2007
• then I have a bunch of Windows-only computer secure tools and network scanning tools.

If you work in a structured environment with very specific tools that don’t change very often, you could and should install these tools to validate how well they work. There’s a real savings in using them across an enterprise. but note that patching may not be possible.

I’ll need a Windows VM for the other tools, so I probably won’t remember to use CO. Further, since there is no way to portable install MS-Office, it is a hassle to install it under multiple instances and it could be in violation of the license agreement. I do own an MS-Office 2003 license and work provides an MS-Office 2007 license, so being legal isn’t a problem, provided I don’t install the same version in both places. Sadly, we’ve standardized on 2007 and 2003 won’t read the new file formats. OpenOffice, which runs ever where, does a fairly good job with all the new formats, provided you aren’t collaborating and constantly going back and forth with others. It really would be easier to standardize on OpenOffice. Seriously.

A few links:

• http://www.openoffice.org/
• http://www.codeweavers.com/
• http://www.winehq.org/

If you got in on the deal a year ago, check your email for the 50% coupon code.

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, there were a few Alfresco Meetups in Atlanta that I attended.

Tuesday was just a few hours to begin the organization of the informal group. Wednesday was an all day event with sponsors, presentations, and vendors. For what each of these were, they were well organized and cut to the core for experienced Alfresco users and developers.

My main takeaways were:

1. There is no upgrade path from v2.9b —> v3.×. v2.9x was a dead development tree.
2. If you aren’t a paid, enterprise customer and elect to use the 1 or 2 suggested community edition releases, you are on your own. Sometimes the company chooses to drop community releases. When I asked for suggestions to ensure we weren’t caught again with no upgrade path, there was no answer, just silence.
3. Alfresco is a Java Application running on Tomcat (by default). It is just a normal Tomcat app, so if you want to customize it, you’ll be best served by Java development. Some fairly trivial view modifications may be possible with view changes using the template engine that Alfresco uses. However, I’d never heard of this markup – must be a java thing.
4. Alfresco is an impressive OSS product that competes with many commercial applications that charge $50K – $1.5M for deployment licenses, They make money by selling enterprise licenses and providing support contracts. Deployments are usually performed (98% of the time) by VARs. This means they need to concentrate on supporting paid customers and may trial different techniques on the Community Edition. Sometimes it isn’t very stable and sometimes core functions are broken in the community edition.
5. Most of the attendees were using the enterprise version or were VARs who, by contract, were only allowed to deploy the enterprise version. If you are an Alfresco Partner, I understand you cannot support the community edition for your customers.
6. If you deploy Alfresco, think of it as a content container back end, not a complete solution unless everything you see out of the box is exactly what you want. Almost every user of the tool creates customizations for their environment.
7. CMIS is an emerging standard for communicating with ECM, DMS, WCM systems. A number of vendors have signed up. Alfresco is saying it is like SQL for content management systems. Both RESTful and WSDL interfaces are provided with this standard and it should allow customized front ends to communicate using a standard language to CMS back ends regardless of vendor. EMC, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Alfresco were listed as backers.
8. The Alfresco folks were really nice, but couldn’t really help me. This community appears to be made up of folks that do ECM for their primary jobs and not just 1/20th of their responsibilities like me.
9. Alfresco is an extremely capable platform, mainly suitable for normal DMS requirements. Less so for WCM based on the Best Practices session. The BPM parts appear to be very powerful, but only when you customize with Java.

I plan to stay 1 revision behind the currently recommended Alfresco release. So, right now, v3.2r is recommended. That means I’ll be re-deploying v3.1 when I get around to dropping the current install and re-importing.

I was in way over my head with all levels of the conversation. The terms used were Alfresco and java specific, neither of those are my skill set. What I need is a newcomers’ introduction to Alfresco, Best Practices for the FOSS version, and how to determine when it is time to pay for the enterprise supported version.

I wrote this summary quickly as a dump when I got home and didn’t proof it. Some of it could be inaccurate to what actually happened. I am prone to selective memory when I’m frustrated.

This guy get’s it. He wrote an article on deploying cloud computing inside your company and why the new Ubuntu Server release needs to be considered.

There are other options, but Ubuntu has the most compelling thing in my mind – APT. APT makes using and deploying applications nearly trivial.

I’ve been in RPM hell with the competition, so it really isn’t much of an option to me.

VMware has compelling solutions, if you have $4K to spend for every 2-3 servers. Uh…. no thanks.

You all know I use Ubuntu heavily. I love the application management and update scheme used – APT.
A new version of Ubuntu is scheduled for release this week – 9.10. While this isn’t an LTS – Long Term Support release, so it isn’t suitable for production servers, it does have enough new and useful things to be worth migration consideration.

I plan to migrate my main desktop to it, but I’ll really be waiting for xubuntu, the lighter weight GUI version.

As I consider the new features included and made significantly easier, I came across an article where someone compared the so-called new features in Windows7 with other OSes.

Big new features in Ubuntu 9.10, from my point of view?

• EXT4 – this will be the default file system. Testing has shown it to be faster than most other alternatives. I’ll be staying with JFS on physical hardware and ext3 on virtual hardware. IMHO, more time is needed before I’ll risk my data. I really want ZFS, but since the license isn’t working with GNU, my best hope is btrfs at some future date. Linus is running btrfs on his daily workstation, so that’s a good sign.
• Cloud Computing infrastructure with Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus was introduced in an earlier release, but I didn’t use it. Ok, so it isn’t new, but it is_ new to me._ This is both compute and storage infrastructure that is compatible with Amazon EC2 and S3. Ubuntu has decided to call this UEC going forward. Very nice.
• KVM – Ubuntu has decided to leave my beloved Xen for KVM. That means it will be easier for me to change from Xen to KVM for virtual servers with the next LTS server release. I’ll need a few months to get ready and test.
• Easy HOME directory encryption – Don’t know that I’ll use this, but I will encrypt a subdirectory. Yes, I know TrueCrypt has been available for a long time and is cross platform. Ubuntu adds an auto-mount / dis-mount as you log in and out of your account. The resulting encryption can be moved, but only with the key provided at create time.
• Bluetooth tethering with cell phones. This means you’ll be able to use a cell data connection from your laptop, fairly easily. Great if you travel much.
• New kernel – In every new kernel, there are lots of new features that don’t matter to most of us and a few new features that matter a bunch. My kernels are so old that there are many, many new to me features. Some are security and others are performance related. KVM is built-into the kernel now. That’s better than getting Xen updates that don’t get tested well enough and occasionally break.

Ubuntu is also excited about free cloud storage they will offer. Of course, there’s a storage amount that will force a payment, but ease of use will make this useful to many people. Even if all you do is share your desktop settings or back them up to the cloud, you’ll be better off.

Anyway – Look for bittorrent downloads on 10/29 and get yours running. Seed after you complete for the entire weekend to help your fellow users out, please.

Every once in a while, I need to create instructions that someone else can follow. A few screen shots would be very helpful. Windows7 includes a program called psr that captures the entire desktop and describes which mouse clicks were entered as they happen. Every mouse click captures another screen shot. Very handy for creating a step-by-step instruction document or to help recreate steps to cause a problem. When you stop recording, it packages the file(s) into a ZIP ready to share.

This can also be used to report bugs, since it captures widget clicks too and adds the description of them into a web page along with the screen captures.

I can also report that it captures virtual machine screen shots and clicks too, but not for internal to the processes. It just knows that you clicked on something inside the VM.

To run this tool,

Start —> Run —> psr

It may work in Vista and there may be a download for older systems like WinXP, but I can’t confirm that.

The other downside to this tool is that it creates MHTML (mht) files, which don’t display without coaxing except with IE. Opera Browser will display the resulting files, but Firefox 3.5.x refused to open it.

http://ninite.com/ helps make installation of commonly used applications easy. Lifehacker covered this tool nicely.

If you install test and virtual machines, this is a real time saver. A few clicks to select your apps, I selected about 10, then about 5 minutes of downloads and installs. Only once did I have to “Accept”, but that was a Windows7 UAC.

Have you seen any issues with this solution? Let us know.

For example, I did have to decrease the security so ninite could create and download the custom installation package, but that was expected. That part was expected AND necessary. After all the installations were completed, I removed it from my trusted sites. Good enough.

Some of the installed apps were not the latest and had updates available. Doing an update rather than searching for the apps, downloading, installing, is much quicker. Of course, addons for Firefox still needed to be added.

Which apps did I install?

1. Firefox
2. Thunderbird
3. OpenOffice
4. Opera
5. Skype
6. IrfanView
7. KMplayer
8. VLC
9. Java 6
10. Foxit
11. WinSCP
12. Putty
13. Notepad++

Which Firefox addons did I install?

• NoScript
• Sage (Sage Too forbids AdBlock)
• AdBlock Plus
• Scroogle
• Tree Style Tab

You don’t want too many firefox addons or it will get slow.

You’ve heard it over and over. Backup, Backup, Backup. You are magically supposed to know how to do it and make it happen. This time, I’ll show exactly how I backup my HOME directory and manage those backups with rdiff-backup.

I’ve gone into why rdiff-backup was selected previously, but the main reasons were:

1. Incremental
2. Versioned
3. Compressed
4. Latest backup is available as a mirror so restore 1 file at a time or all at once

Install rdiff-backup

Run synaptic package manager or whatever package manager you prefer and install the rdiff-backup package.

Today, I’ll try to explain why you probably want the 64-bit version of Windows7 regardless of your current needs.

Which processor?

To get us started, you want a 64-bit processor with “VT support.” There’s no downside to getting a 64-bit processor. You can run them with 32-bit software and they aren’t expensive any more. The upside in capabilities that 64-bit CPUs provide far outweighs the slightly higher cost. This is a no-brainer folks.

Why 64-Bit OS?

There are 2 reasons you want a 64-bit OS. Accessing more RAM and moving data around faster. Access to more RAM may not be an issue for 90% of the users out there today, but in 3 years, it is likely you’ll want to access more RAM than what the 32-bit OS can. The RAM cutoff for 32-bit happens at 3.5GB-4GB of RAM.

If you do virtual machines, you want a 64-bit OS. There are exceptions, but if you are already using VMs, you wouldn’t be reading this anyway.

Why Not 64-bit OS?

Software incompatibilities and drivers. Out of these, access to drivers is the more important since Win7 allows you to run programs in Compatibility Mode. There are 11 choices from Win95, Win98, ME, NT, XP, Vista and all the different service paks for each of these. If you can’t get a program to run in those modes, there’s always a WinXP virtual machine – free download from Microsoft. Basically, software compatibility shouldn’t be a showstopper for anyone this time around. The difficulty to configure a particular program is minor, but I don’t think I could explain it to everyone. 90% of you will figure this out easily.

Drivers are a different issue. For me, all my equipment had Win7 drivers, including a Hauppauge TV tuner. Microsoft has a tool you can run that will tell you whether all your equipment has drivers or not. For me, there were a few drivers that it could only say post-install upgrade needed.

Your CPU isn’t 64-bit, then obviously you don’t want a 64-bit OS. What were you thinking? Chances are, your computer is 4 years old or more. Time for an upgrade?

Why 32-bit OS?

1. You only run 1 program at a time and it isn’t a game, anything from Adobe, or you need some old driver that doesn’t have a new version known to be compatible with Win7. Many Vista drivers are compatible, but don’t expect WinXP drivers to work.
2. You know that you will never need more than 4GB of RAM for the entire OS and all programs.

Why Not 32-bit OS?

1. Gamer? The hottest, new games are designed for 64-bit and lots of RAM (6GB+)
2. You want to be ready for the next 8 years worth of programs.

Win7 is an OS like WinXP was. You’ll use it for many, many years and mostly be happy.

Did I forget something important for why you would want 64-bit or 32-bit?

In the beginning, people didn’t really like WinXP, if you recall. Windows7 has been reviewed very favorably and it is nice enough for a Linux guy like me to write a number of favorable articles about it. There are enough good things in Win7 that I’m a convert from both Vista and WinXP. OTOH, I didn’t pay for it and wouldn’t.

If you are happy with WinXP, I can’t recommend you upgrade at this point unless it is free or there’s a feature that you need/want. Win7 media center is nice.

Broken PC?

I know a few people who are not really computer savvy that have gotten their computer so messed up that it is unusable. It boots, but can’t really do anything. These people think they need to:

1. buy a new PC or
2. pay $200 to a PC tech to get it fixed.

Both of these methods will work, but why? Chances are, their Windows computer has been hacked or is running spyware. In fact, that last internet website they visited for a fun game may have installed the spyware and then something known as a rootkit. Basically, it isn’t safe to use that PC anymore for any reason.

There is a FREE Option, Linux

So, the PC isn’t really broken, but anything on the hard drive shouldn’t be trusted. Many Linux distributions come as a Live CD – this means you just put the CD into the computer and boot up. Here’s a youtube video showing what this looks like . Most computers will load the OS from CD never touching the hard drive. Using one of these, you can use your computer for common tasks that don’t need a hard drive. Using google, google mail, yahoo mail, hotmail, …. anything online.

Using Linux has no risk to your data or even your hard drive. If you don’t like it, don’t boot from the CD anymore and find another way to use your PC again. Take it to a tech for $200 or buy a new one for $500-$1500. You risk nothing, provided you don’t tell it to install to the hard drive. It will not automatically install to your hard drive unless you ask it AND there will be multiple screens and points where you have to answer yes – wipe my disk clearly.

Online Banking

Recently, the Washington Post Security Fix Guy has recommended everyone perform their online banking using an Ubuntu Live CD. The people with the greatest risk are those using the large USA banks, since hackers have created programs that hide in Windows and watch when you login to those banking web sites, then cause transactions from your account to their account(s).

Broken PC, How to get Linux?

Most of the people who will be helped by this method have 1 computer at home and don’t have access to another. There’s good news. The Ubuntu Foundation will snail-mail a CD anywhere -- for free. Now you just need to get to a computer to request it. Go to your public library or ask a neighbor, or call me and I’ll enter the data so you’ll get the CD in a week or two.

Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu is a full featured operating system like Windows7 or Vista. It is big and capable and the load time reflects that. The Live CD should work with 95% of the PCs out there. Put the CD in and boot. That’s it. Ubuntu runs best when it is installed to a hard drive, but you can test drive it forever if you like without touching your old hard drive. Just know that CDRom drives are much slower than normal hard disk drives. Ubuntu will run nicely in 512MB of RAM.

There are smaller Linux distributions when all you need is to get online. Smaller is better for speed, RAM use and simplicity. You can find many more Linux Distrubutions, some highly specialized at Distrowatch.
There’s a search tool that will help you select the best distro for your needs. Do yourself a favor and stay with the major distributions and only those that are debian-based. Debian is an major distribution known for stability and program management ease via APT. APT rocks, see my prior article on why.

Be Prepared

All of us have a broken PC from time to time. Be prepared by creating (or getting) a Live CD Linux distribution and using it once now, when your PC is working is a good idea. It is really easy.

Spam Comments

So, the number of comments here has gone way up, sadly, most are spam comments with links. We use moderation, so those comments will never be seen, but it is still a pain to DELETE them. I’ll probably resort to blocking entire ISP ranges for those outside the USA. The problem isn’t that bad yet.

Gallery

Also, my photo gallery was found by Google this week. Ouch. I’ve blocked google’s image scanner and relocated the program and images, so they aren’t found anymore, but the damage may be done. Without the database that contains the descriptions, the photos aren’t very useful, but that isn’t the point. There are over 24GB of photos and short videos. That’s about 10,700 files.

Beautiful Fall Weather

The leaves are changing and dropping here. We had our first freeze warning this week too. High temps are in the 50s now, so working outside in the afternoon is comfortable again. Time to charge the camera and head into the woods for some fall snapshots before all the leaves are gone. My maple trees have dropped some leaves, but the remaining leaves are still green today.

I know it is fall when there are many changes to the tzconf, that’s timezone file for non-computer people. Basically, many governments tweak their timezone changes in the fall and spring. In the USA, we call it Daylight Savings and shift 1 hour forward and back every spring and fall. A few years ago, they changed the dates when it happened, screwing all electronic equipment that had the dates hard coded. They moved it a few weeks longer in the fall so Halloween trick-or-treaters will have more sunlight on Oct 31. There have been studies performed that DST actually costs more to than it saves. I don’t know, but it does seem strange to arbitrarily change clocks forward and back through political will. Seems that summer hours and winter hours would be easier.