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In my previous entry Easy Software Updates and Patches, I explained how FANTASTIC Linux and apt-get are at maintaining system, configuration and application files. Maintaining with the latest version, automatic updates or completely manually controlled.

I think the scope of this coverage and excellence was lost on a few readers. So, let’s use some exact numbers to make the point. All data will come from my personal, currently running desktop Ubuntu 8.0.4.3 system – Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS, kernel 2.6.24-24-generic

Total Number of Available Packages: 25,221 <— these are all free packages for this OS

Total Number of Installed Packages: 1291 <— these are installed. OpenOffice, Apache, Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, VLC, FreeMind, Notebook+ …. and over 1200 others. All free. Most are GPL licensed.

Total Broken: 0

Total to Install/Upgrade: 0 <—- usually about 1-10 packages are updated weekly. 1 click to get the list, 1 more click to upgrade them all. I could setup completely automatic updates, if I wanted.

Total Used Disk Space: 5.5GB used. <— At installation, I gave it a 10GB disk about a year ago

Don’t miss this part

25,221 applications, all free, most are GPL, GNU Public Licensed.

Isn’t this worth checking into? The price is … er…. free.

Fantastic is the only word I can use. Windows7 x86 memory use is FANTASTIC (meaning low). I’ve done a little optimization using Vista System Optimizer after installing Win7 on my laptop – here are the results:

Win7 = Host OS

Ubuntu = Client VM – 1224MB allocated

The total system memory used with VirtualBox, Ubuntu and Windows Media Player playing a TV show is 1.75GB. 1.2GB of that is allocated to the client VM.

Under Vista-64, this same config would use 2.5GB.

Running another VM, WinXP, with 1GB of use, will bring the total memory used to 2.75GB.

Win7 = Host OS

Ubuntu = Client VM – 1224MB allocated

WinXP = Client VM – 1024MB allocated.

This would use almost 4GB in Vista-64.

Even with the 32-bit limitation of 3.5GB of RAM, on my system, I actually gain more usable RAM with 32-bit Win7 over 64-bit Vista and isn’t giving more RAM to client VMs the goal?

We all keep every computer we have patched and current, right? Every application. Every web browser and every OS library – fully patched, right?

Well, … er … probably not.

Why not? Because it isn’t easy. Keeping just the OS patched is easy. Apple, Microsoft and Linux distributions have made it even easier the last 5 years. But the OS patches are only 10% of the problem. We need to patch the browser, plug-ins, email, office-apps, and every other application on the machine in a timely manner. Are you up to that task? I’m not.

There’s a simple solution. Linux patch management.

Ubuntu Linux distributions include thousands of free applications and make patching all of them trivial. They are updated just as easily as the OS patches. Let me explain.

Desktop Ubuntu Patching

In the upper right-hand corner of the desktop, Ubuntu places an Update Manager notifier. It is unobtrusive, but clear.

• The notifier is a red ! in color; it automatically updates package information daily.
• If any package installed on your system using the Synaptic program has an update, the notifier will be displayed, red. Just click the icon to start the process (get more information). If there are no updates, the notifier isn’t displayed.
• Applying patches usually doesn’t require you to stop doing whatever you are already doing.
• Applying patches usually doesn’t require a reboot, unless there is a kernel update.
• Applying patches usually doesn’t require any manual configuration file changes. Any changes are usually handled by the installation package.
• Any application installed using the GUI package manager ( specifically, any debian-based package depot), will be maintained and updated through the same interface.
• Whether an update to a package is available or not is automated.

Server Ubuntu Patching

I’m certain there’s a way to determine when patches are available, but I never check. I simply update the local package depot list and update all installed packages.
Old way:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

2014 update:

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude dist-upgrade

I prefer aptitude for a few reasons, but that isn’t critical. The dist-upgrade option will load newer kernels – don’t worry that too much new software will be installed. That isn’t what happens. Been using the 2nd set of commands for a few years without any issues.

Yes, it really is that simple. BTW, these commands work on desktop Ubuntu too. In fact, every Saturday morning, I run a script from a laptop that remotely connects to all the other Ubuntu machines and runs both of those commands.

There are other options of patching Linux, but 95% of the time, these commands are all that you need to know.

Wouldn’t it be nice if other computer vendors made software updates that easy?

This article brings up what I’ve said for years about Cloud Computing. Know how you get your data out so you can fire them for another service. If you don’t know how to get your data out, don’t use it.

SaaS

If you use forceSales.com (or any of the other Cloud Computing providers) – how do you transfer your data to a different solution? If you use IaaS, Infrastructure As A Service, like Amazon E2C, you probably don’t really have a problem, since your team will know all the tools being used. SaaS providers really need to be carefully considered, however.

Lease Car analogy.

This question is sorta like asking someone who leases a new car every 2-3 years, how much do you pay for a vehicle over your lifetime? They won’t know, but they will think it isn’t very much. When you point out they are spending 3x or more than people who purchase a vehicle pay in total, then they get it. Similarly, they will be angry that you pointed out the wasted money. I’ve run into the same issue when discussing cloud computing with current users. They don’t want to worry about it, the cost is fine, and they don’t have any idea how to get the data out.

Delete the Data

Finally, are you certain that when you take your data and close your accounts, that the provider doesn’t retain it?

Be careful out here.

Windows7 Media Center has some very nice features. It also adds some complications due to the recorded file formats being non-standard.

Good Stuff Working

So, the TV guide data is connected to ClearQAM channels now. Some shows have been setup to record every instance, and the media files are being dumped to a directory that I can live with, not the default. Finally, the Hauppauge 950Q remote is working and fully controlling MCE. Sometimes the system locks up, for no apparent reason. Connecting guide data with a specific QAM channel has been the most troublesome for lockups.

WTV Format? WTF?

MCE has used DVR-MS files for years now. External programs to deal with this format have been created and 3rd party media extenders that understand MCE work with this format. Not ideal, but workable if you drink all the MS koolaid. So, obviously, Microsoft has to change the format to something new and different.

Personally, I like to remove commercials from TV shows and have a fairly automatic method for accomplishing this. WTV files are completely unusable for this method, but MS provides an easy converter to change WTV into DVR-MS files. Some 3rd parties have created watcher programs to automatically perform the conversion. In the meantime, just right-click on the WTV file in Windows-Explorer and select convert to dvr-ms… as the blog states. The wtvconverter.exe program was included in Win7 32-bit Ultimate.

I’m asking for help again with my Windows7 final installation. See, Microsoft gave the 32-bit version, not the 64-bit version. This puts a wrinkle in my original plan to host Win7 on the laptop because about 0.6GB of RAM cannot be used. On a system with only 4GB, 0.6GB is a bunch, perhaps too much to waste.

The current goal is:

JeOS/Linux-Host
|____Win7-VM (MCE)
|____xubuntu-VM
|____WinXP-VM (Visio / MS-Office / Quicken)

RAM allocation plans

JeOS – 512MB

Win7 – 1GB

WinXP – 1GB

xubuntu – 1.5GB

If Media Center in Win7 doesn’t work well enough in a VM; safe to leave on 24/7 with USB support, this plan will be trashed. The QAM recording is nice. For me, it is about the recording, not the playback or other features.

There are other complications in using Win7 Media Center. The recorded file format, for example. That’s something for another story.

32-bit DVD – ouch.

So I opened the Windows7 Ultimate DVD and uncovered that it only contains the 32-bit version. After swapping the old/Vista drive with the new/Empty drive in the laptop, I elected to install Win7 even though I’d end up unable to use about 0.5GB of RAM. I wanted to give the new OS a fair chance and gain some experience. The setup was fairly easy, but dumbed down too much for my liking. I actually installed the OS to the wrong partition (280GB), wiped it and reinstalled to the other partition (30GB), that was planned for OS and Apps. Then I proceeded to setup WMC – Media Center.

Windows Media Center – ClearQAM Supported!

I’d heard that ClearQAM was supported and looked forward to using it. My cable system switched almost all channels to QAM 2 months ago. I’d hoped there was an automatic translation between QAM channels and normal cable channels so guide data can be used. I haven’t found that, if it exists. I AM recording a movie as I write this. There’s no noticeable performance hit. Nice.

Data Migration

Overnight, I copied the data and virtual machines from the older drive to the new drive, about 150GB. I split the disk into 2 partitions – C: and D: . C is for the OS and programs. D is for data and virtual machines. This config should make data backup much easier.

I dislike the whole Library BullShite that this new OS forces. I also dislike the new Explorer look and feel. Is there a way to default all Explorer views to Detailed?

VirtualBox Migration

So, after getting the new OS installed, the very first program installed was Sun’s VirtualBox. Initial attempts to migrate all the settings and virtual disks didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. However, I did get 1 VM up and running with a small amount of effort. I’ll write up the actual steps and things that didn’t work in another post. There may be another way to migrate the settings, I did retain both XML files for Vbox and for each VM, so seeing the specific differences should be easy.

The next trick is to migrate a vbox image that includes a snapshot image. I’m cautiously hopeful for a good outcome with that.

ISPs, Internet Service Providers, are in a tough position. They oversubscribe their networks like the phone company has been doing for 100 years. As customers use more and more of what was promised, unlimited downloads at X speed, the ISPs are getting into trouble because they don’t have enough bandwidth for everyone all the time. It is only a very few users that cause problems for the company – that’s where the new-ish abuse clauses added to your ISP agreement come in and why download limits happen. 0.5% of users fall into this abuse clause. Now, imagine your city is full of college students all using p2p and VoIP. You don’t use VoIP, but you do use p2p. Do you mind if p2p is given a lower priority so VoIP traffic can work better? Should these VoIP phone calls be given higher priority over your traffic? That’s the question of Net Neutrality.

The real issue is that prioritization often isn’t enough. When the ISP receives more traffic than they can handle, it becomes a denial of service for everyone and almost all traffic is impacted. They have 2 choices, be aggressive about closing low priority traffic (p2p) by sending RST TCP packets or let that part of their network crash. Obviously, some of you will say they need bigger pipes, but that takes months to design, then months to build and they’ve been doing that for years – it isn’t getting any better. So, do they let their network crash or be nasty to p2p traffic?

With Net Neutrality, all traffic has to be treated the same; all packets are treated with equal priority. That means that when P2P traffic ramps up, web surfing, email, VoIP, VPN traffic all need to be RST just like P2P to keep the network working. It isn’t just P2P traffic, video traffic from Hulu, Youtube, Netflix and other sources also add to the traffic. Think of all the customer phone calls to the ISP that will happen. Think of all the VoIP traffic dropped? That will create lots of calls and complaints to the FCC for action since the ISP is obviously in an agreement with the phone company to prevent VoIP providers from working. It doesn’t matter that all traffic is impacted or that the ISP is trying to reduce the impact for most of their customers. The least evil thing the ISP can do is selectively RST p2p traffic since much of that is downloading copyright material anyway. I don’t have the traffic stats, but let’s say that only 50% of p2p traffic is for copyrighted material. That’s still a bunch. BTW, I think it is much higher, perhaps 90%. There are only so many Linux users getting the latest distro legally via p2p out there. The rest is music, TV, and movies being pirated, IMHO.

This Net Neutrality thing will force ISPs to create tiers of service and lower the price for customers who accept lower tiered packages. Similarly, those users with higher traffic needs will be charged greater amounts for the privilege. I wouldn’t be surprised should all VPN access be blocked without the highest priced plan – since VPN is used for business use. I’m surprised that the big ISPs haven’t already created Full Access and Protected Access internet plans.

1. Full Access is obvious – all the internet has to offer, minus the things they already dropped like USENET.
2. Protected Access would block all inbound traffic, setup a proxy to block porn and websites that aren’t child friendly, and control which client machines can access the internet. No P2P would work, neither would VoIP or VPN. You wouldn’t be able to run any servers (which are probably illegal in your ISP contract anyway) and no game servers.
3. A further capability could be to place you behind a corporate NAT router and have corporate-like PC management. Imagine your home network as part of a huge company network with patches pushed when IT decides. It can be done today. I’ve seen companies manage over 100K users in this way. I’ve seen what happens when a virus gets in too. They shut off the network for an entire campus, perhaps 5k users, while they got control of the virus.

Some parents would pay extra for this Protected Access, even without 100% assurances that you are protected.

Full disclosure – I DO NOT work for an ISP. I have designed networks and equipment monitoring systems for an ISP.

So, is Net Neutrality a good thing when you understand these other impacts?

Learned today that you can have both Vista and Win7 copy the entire path to a file in Explorer by holding the Shift key as you right click. Now there’s a Copy as Path option. When you paste, you will get “c:\directory\path\to the entire\file.txt”, including the quotes. Nice.

Sorry, it doesn’t work in other versions (no WinXP), but there are programs that will do it. Google a little.

If you are a smart phone user AND a Linux nerd, you WANT a Nokia N900.
Here’s a very detailed review, perhaps too detailed.

The highights are:

• CDMA (tri mode) and GSM (quad mode) cellular phone with 3G data speeds
• WiFi supported
• Linux – full multitasking; listen to music, surf the web, download files, and 5 other apps at the same time, no need to close apps to do something else* take that Apple lovers
• GPS and GeoCache-ready apps
• QWERTY Keyboard take that Apple lovers
• BlueTooth
• SDHC expansion memory, easily swapped, 32GB internal plus external slot
• 800×480 screen take that Apple lovers
• 3D graphic acceleration
• 5Mpix Camera with near HD-quality video
• User swappable battery take that Apple lovers
• Plays almost any video or audio media take that Apple lovers
• 1,000s of free Linux apps – lots of software is an understatement; xterm, PDF, RDP, VNC, games, Office/Productivity, IM, RSS
• Excellent VoIP and Skype support (Ovi, Google Talk, Jabber, and SIP) take that Apple lovers
• TV-Out
• Connects to your MS-Exchange server including Calendaring
• Mozilla-based browser with Flash 9.4 support and multiple window support (# only limited by memory). The reviewer didn’t fine any web pages that didn’t work regardless of javascript, flash, or AJAX.
• Oh, and all the things you expect from a PDA – contacts, calendars, email,

The review compared the keyboard to that of another Nokia phone, but I’d like a comparison with a Blackberry QWERTY keyboard, which I consider FANTASTIC for thumb typing. I’m curious about built-in security features too, though a lock code is standard.

The only downsides to this device are:

• Data plan needed (monthly cost)
• Unclear that any subsidy will be provided by any cellular provider.
• Unlocked price – $584 on Amazon. Ouch.
• Screen size reduced from 4.1" to 3.5" so it is about the size of an iPhone.
• No voice dialing?
• Java was not shipped with the device, but it is definitely available.