DRM limits learning

It’s been a little while since the last post. Work has been hectic so I’ve been drained when I finally got home at the end of the day. The work load has been lighted now that a NAC solution has been chosen. No more NAC testing! The Cisco NAC Appliance ended up being the winner. It wasn’t my first choice but I’m happy with it.

Remember the laptop I recently gave away that was loaded with PCLinuxOS? The one that was going to be used by a student for online courses? My friend asked me to look at it today because she had two questions.

First, she wanted to know if her daughter would be able to use a music program, she was using it on the family Windows PC, on the Linux laptop. The software, which I fail to remember the name of now, was designed for Windows only so I tried running it under Wine. The program installed and ran without error.

The second question concerned a CD that contained Geometry lesson videos. The videos are all in WMV format but wouldn’t run properly in Kaffeine, MPlayer or VLC even though the Win32 codecs were installed. Every time they were played, the video and audio were garbled. I tried playing some WMV files I had on another CD and they played fine.

The cause of the issue became clear when I played the CD on my Windows workstation. As soon as Windows Media Player started, a window opened with a message stating that the license for the video was being downloaded. DRM was in place so they couldn’t play on any of the Linux media players!

I told my friend why the videos wouldn’t play. She didn’t care because she could just play them on the Windows computer. I was bothered by the fact that nowhere on the CD or CD cover did it say “Windows only”. What would happen if the videos were sold to a family that didn’t have a Windows machine? I’ll tell you what would happen. They would be SOL because “Software cannot be returned if open” was printed in big bold letters on the CD cover.

DRM is often written as “Digital Rights Management”, but this is misleading, since it refers to systems that are designed to take away and limit your rights. So, we suggest you use the term “Digital Restrictions Management” instead. - Free Software Foundation

10.Oct.07 Linux Comments (2)

Another Linux laptop given away

Today, I gave a friend one of the old Dell Inspiron 4100’s that I picked up from my employer a while back. It’s a pretty good system: 1 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB HDD, 802.11b WiFi, 10/100 built-in NIC, 24x CD-ROM (can be replaced with 2nd battery). The laptop will help her a lot more than the recycler who usually gets our obsolete equipment.

She needed it for her daughter that is homeschooled and takes classes online. Our copy of Windows XP Professional was loaded so I had to wipe the hard drive before I gave it to her. Instead of giving her a blank system, I loaded PCLinuxOS 2007. I chose PCLinuxOS because it’s even easier than Kubuntu for someone that has never used Linux.

The system fit her needs perfectly. Firefox, Flash Player 9, OpenOffice.org and MP3 support is installed by default so I didn’t have to install them post-OS install. She couldn’t believe everything that was installed didn’t cost anything. I made sure to show her that OpenOffice.org will open and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. I also showed her how to use Synaptic to download updates, install software and how to use the Administration Center to configure the system.

I was impressed with how well PCLinuxOS ran. All of the hardware worked without any special configuration. The boot time was noticeablely shorter than Kubuntu on a similar system I had given to someone else. I noticed that it has an easy way to configure Active Directory login in the Administration Center. I’ll have to test that out in a VM at work to see how well it works.

I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed. - George Carlin

19.Sep.07 Hardware, Linux Comments (0)

PCLinuxOS 2007 released

The final version of PCLinuxOS 2007 was released today.

Texstar and the Ripper Gang are pleased to announce the final release of PCLinuxOS 2007. Featuring kernel 2.6.18.8, KDE 3.5.6, Open Office 2.2.0, Firefox 2.0.0.3, Thunderbird 2.0, Frostwire, Ktorrent, Amarok, Flash, Java JRE, Beryl 3D and much much more. Almost 2 gigs of software compressed on a single self bootable livecd that can be installed to your hard drive provided it is compatible with your system and you like the distribution.

I’ve tried earlier versions of PCLinuxOS and found it very easy to use. I haven’t tried this version yet but I plan on installing it this afternoon. I am really interested in seeing how Beryl 3D works in PCLOS.

You can get PCLOS 2007 via a direct download or torrents.

21.May.07 Linux, Operating Systems Comments (0)

No rest for the weary

Day 4: I saw a pink elephant. He was rather snotty, didn’t return my “Hello.”

I don’t know what’s going on but I do know one thing. Insomnia sucks. I start to doze off and then snap back fully awake. The worst part is that it makes the work day drag by.

Back to technology. So far, Ubuntu 7.04 hasn’t made any impressions on me that I didn’t already have from 6.10. The latest version actually has a problem on my laptop in that the processor doesn’t throttle properly. Because of this problem, the lower left side of my laptop gets really warm. I’m going to go back to 6.10 for now.

The server version of Ubuntu 7.04 runs a little better on my desktop server compared to 6.10. Queries against MySQL and pulling pages from Apache are slightly faster. Unfortunately, I blew away my Jinzora install and have to get it set back up. That’s good, in a way, because I can double check my write-up and be sure it’s correct before I post it.

Stay busy, get plenty of exercise, and don’t drink too much. Then again, don’t drink too little. - Herman Smith-Johannsen

05.May.07 General, Linux Comments (0)

Linux gets a consumer desktop boost

CNet is reporting that Dell, the second largest PC maker, is taking another crack at selling consumer desktops and laptops with Linux. The Linux distro of choice is going to be Ubuntu 7.04. I state “consumer systems” because Dell has offered Linux solutions, RHEL and Novell/SUSE, on their business systems for quite a while (Red Hat since 1999, SUSE Enterprise since 2005). The consumer systems will go on sale at the end of the month.

Dell has tried this in the past but it failed after about a year due to lack of sales. The decision to try it again was spurred on by the immense support shown in a discussion on the Dell IdeaStorm website.

A video interview with Canonical’s founder, Mark Shuttleworth, about what Dell’s choice means for the consumer can be found on the Direct2Dell blog.

Deliberation is a function of the many; action is the function of one. - Charles de Gaulle

01.May.07 Linux Comments (6)