Mind.random()

Just realised today that PowerISO (http://www.poweriso.com/download.htm)  is available for Linux and its free too.  I have a weird feeling of liberation nowadays though i have been using Linux for more than two years now.

The manual goes like this

PowerISO   Copyright(C) 2004-2008 PowerISO Computing, Inc
Type poweriso -? for help

Usage:    poweriso <command> [parameters] [-switches]

<Commands>

list <image file> <directory>    List files and directories in image file.
Example:  List all files and directories in root direcory of /home/sam/test.iso .
Command:  poweriso list /home/sam/test.iso / -r

extract <image file> <dir/file name>   Extract files/directories from image file.
Example:  Extract all files and directories in root direcory of /home/sam/test.iso
to /home/sam/test recursively.
Command:  poweriso extract /home/sam/test.iso / -od /home/sam/test

convert <image file>    Convert image file to other format.
Example:  Convert /home/sam/test.daa to standard iso file
Command:  poweriso convert /home/sam/test.daa -o /home/sam/test.iso -ot iso

Do take note of the “/” before -od and -r. It throws a weird “Unrecognized parameter:”

Read this very interesting article “When did i stop being creative?”

It really pains when people tell me that Linux Operating System isn’t user friendly. I would feel happy when people say that it is “habit friendly”. When i used to talk to my colleagues and friends about how superior Linux is, I have heard questions like “Where is the C: drive?”, “Does Linux have a start menu? (Oops)”, “Can we install new programs on Linux”, “Can we play games on Linux” or worst still “Does Linux have a GUI? “. Have we become so “windows” that we are just blind to what is happening around us? Like this guy who says that Linux needs Windows to run?

But the “user-friendly” part generally comes from persons who have tried that old Linux in 2001/2002 and suffered (just like me) when they found that even their monitor didnt get detected. I really wonder how user-friendly was Windows 3.1, 95 and 98 and ME with their blue screen of death.

When it comes to hardware support, how many of us really know that Linux supports more variety and number of hardware than Windows Vista? And that Linux automated installers are much more advanced than windows? No virus scanners to eat up your memory. And that Linux is going to take over Mac as the second dominant operating system with 7.5% to 20% in 2008? (Mac currently holds 2-3% market share). I am just talking about the desktop market and NOT the server market where Microsoft had lost very badly in front of Linux long before.

The percentage is likely to increase with Microsoft doing the blunder of their lifetime in stopping to ship Windows XP (the best selling OS of all time) by the end of this year.

Microsoft came up with what is called as the SP 2 soon after some serious security problems that XP faced . And then? What happened to the long awaited SP 3? The release schedule of SP3 was moved from 2005 to 2006 to 2007 and now to 2008. And people say that SP 3 will have the same fate as the Windows 2000 final pack where they just said that “it is no longer needed” after making some security patches. And soon XP wont get supported???

Keeping aside their “strategy” (or money laundering or whatever they call it as) and our eagerness to have our hands on Vista, we just need to think over a few minutes about “freedom”. Aren’t we force converted to take up the new OS? Frankly, I can never go for an upgrade or buy a new system just because Vista doesnt run happily on my old PC. But MS, kind of wont allow me to stick on to the “old” OS.

The only advantage that Windows has is that it comes bundled with some complementary features. Viruses, spywares and trojans exists only on the Windows (you are the most privileged). Power saving in the form of frequent reboots. Occasional surprise reboots !!! Free defragmentation tool (Why doesn’t linux need defragmentation?) And now, a good reason to upgrade your system. Alternatively, you can also spend your income into something you can buy for free. (Free Linux alternatives for commercial Windows software)

I am not trying to draw any conclusion here. Just wanted to quote Margaret Head.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

We can. Let’s try.

I accidentally came across this wonderful and short article on why Linux filesystem doesnt need defragmentation.  Is ext2/reiserfs/all other filesystems available for linux realy superior to FAT/NTFS?

Why Linux performs better than Windows? 

“I hope you realise that windows is more than just Office ? Its a whole system that runs the computer from start to finish, and that is a very difficult thing to acheive. A lot of people dont realise this.”

“Microsoft just spent $9 billion and many years to create Vista, so it does not sound reasonable that some new alternative could just snap into existence overnight like that. It would take billions of dollars and a massive effort to achieve. IBM tried, and spent a huge amount of money developing OS/2 but could never keep up with Windows.”

“Apple tried to create their own system for years, but finally gave up recently and moved to Intel and Microsoft.”

Confused whose quotes are these?

This is the comment given by this guy on this article.

And he talked this on this page.

“It wont be long until Windows XP is no longer supported, and when that happens, what is Linux going to do ?

Linux will have to find a way to work under Vista from here on, since it wont be able to rely on XP being readily available anymore.

Linux may seem like a good alternative to Office, but all that is happening in linux is that the windows interface is cleverly hidden away. It still needs the drivers and software services in order to run, and in most cases – that happens WITHOUT a valid windows licence.

This is just plain piracy.”

If you wanted to roll the floor laughing, then just read digger’s comments on his “quotes”

I just ran into these while browsing. Thought you might also be interested.

HP is the next major PC vendor to consider pre-installed Linux boxes.

Struts 2.0.6 General Availability Release — Made last month

Freespire 2.0 Alpha1U 1.2.42 Now Available — Based on Ubuntu

I am sorry to say this. Indian Java economy accounts for 10-15% of the world’s Java economy but still many of us dont contribute to open source. We basically just have been leechers.

I recently read a mail which describes us as coders. We are not developers or programmers. We dont develop new things. We dont create new programs. We just write code. Just like data entry operators.

Richard Stallman, the brain behind the GNU GPL, quoted, “When i was a kid in school, my teacher used to say when i bring candies to school, ‘Share it with your friends. Sharing is good’. But when i grew up, i really got surprised when people said no to sharing software. Thats illegal they said. Sharing is illegal”.

We do have social responsibility. We do need to give back what we got. Dont we?

If you really feel what I feel, please watch this video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7707585592627775409&q=revolution

How and why Linux evolved. How and why GPL evolved. How is Microsoft cheating us. I promise that this is the best video you are ever going to watch in your life. I cried.

Now that Java has been open sourced under the GPL, even the most strict of the “free software only” distributions can start bundling it and integrating it into their Linux distributions out of the box. Indeed, many of them already have. In addition, the more ardent GPL supporters who have traditionally shunned Java can now embrace it as a first class citizen of the OSS world. Besides licensing Java under the GPL, The Swing team at Sun has also been hard at work improving the look and feel on the Linux desktop in Java 6. Take a look at the following two screen shots. One is the actual calculator from GNOME, and the other is a mock up in Swing using Netbeans and Matisse. Can you tell which is which?

Read this very interesting blog : Desktop Java and Desktop Linux

Nothing. They just run on Linux

source : Ministry of Tech

You’re moving from Windows to Linux. You’ve decided you want the stability, flexibility, and cost savings of Linux, but you have many questions in your head. Isn’t Linux like UNIX? Isn’t UNIX hard? Where do you begin to make sense of all of this? Is there a map you can follow?

Here is a detailed roadmap given by IBM for Linux aspirants.