Linux Magazine: CentOS 5.6 Finally Arrives and is suitable for Business Use

I stopped using Ubuntu 10.10 because the network driver for an Atheros Gigabit Ethernet card was flaky. It would come and go. I had an older but very hot 3.0 gigahertz gaming MB left over from one of my children. After working out some BIOS settings, I tried loading both the current versions of Ubuntu Linux and Linux Mint without much success,

Linux Magazine had arrived with a CentOS 6.2 disk. CentOS is the community rebuild of of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and it rocks.  It loaded the first time and had none of the pesky bugs that have to be worked out after Ubuntu is installed.

Ubuntu got upset with the Gnome developers and developed the Unity interface which didn't earn it new followers.

CentOS is amazing. First, the flash and video CODECS work if you install the "third party" option, a problem with Fedora Linux. The network driver works flawlessly and downloads and Linux updates are at warp speed. It is a bug free installation that is far faster than Windows 7. the OS loads in less than 10 seconds and the connections to the Internet are immediate.

Some other good news

Canon has release Linux drivers for the Imageclass MF4570DN printer.  This printer has worked flawlessly and I much prefer it to comparable Brother MF printers that have front panels that come and go to voltage issues. Linux printing on this machine is incredibly fast. This laser multifunction printer costs $200 or less. 

In addition, AVAST has a great anitvirus/malware program for Linux without incident. I prefer AVAST over CLAM AV because Clam installs frequently bomb out even using the Synaptic package manager, You also have to install the CLAMTK front end if you wish to avoid command line virus scans.

Bottom line

CentOS 6.3 is superb. It is faster than Windows 7 and, of course, the software is free.  

CentOS 5.6 Finally Arrives: Is It Suitable for Business Use? | Linux Magazine:

'via Blog this'

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First look of "Windows 8"

Rightardia bought a new laptop that had Windows 7 installed. Windows 7 is elegant and we would expect this OS to be around for a long time.

The Contol Panel is a kluge and you have to type "disk defragmenter" in in the command line window to bring it up. Although Windows 7 is elegant , Linux has a more direct and functional interface.

But let's give the devil his due. Windows 7 is nice, but you will have to buy an anti-virus programs when the Norton Internet Security runs out in 60-days. But at least it came with an AV package unlike XP Pro.

Rightardia also purchased Advanced System Optimizer to take care of a host of problems that plague window systems.

Another freeware program we would recommend with windows is CCleaner. It has many privacy and security features and modifies your recovery bin so you can permanently delete files.

If you thought that file is gone for good when it goes into the recovery bin, you are mistaken.

The big advantage of Windows is drivers. Just about every manufacturer makes drivers that are windows compatible. In the case of Linux, check this site before you purchase hardware: http://www.linux-drivers.org/

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Linux is for seniors and rightards!

One of our staffers has a ne'er-do-well rightard for a relative. He is a very nice person, but is under-educated and not the least bit intuitive.

He thinks that acquiring objects like cars and gold coins is the key to success, although his friends has pointed out that cars deprecate rather than appreciate.

His father told him that the middle aged son that he is not Jay Leno and he cannot afford to purchase a car and let it sit for 10 years in a heated or a/c garage, Some of us watch the Mercum Auto Auctions and know that many of these "investment cars" of 1960 vintage don't sell that well.
Many go for under $20,000.

That's a long time to keep a car in storage for such a puny profit.

The rightard's latest scheme is GoldLine. Gosh, we wonder where he got that idea!

Again, most of us know that coin collection is for numismatists and that if you want to buy precious metals as a recession hedge, buy bullion not coins. Silver is more affordable than gold.

Rightardia could talk about this man's crazy schemes for hours, but it would be pointless.

The rightard got a used Pentium 5 PC with XP Pro for Christmas after he found a job and moved out of his dad's house.   He floundered for about six months trying to get an Internet connection because he wanted his roommate who owned the dwelling to provide the Internet. Eventually he purchased a T-Mobile broadband service.

The rightard kept picking up viruses, malware and having other problems. Wirehead told him he could install Ubuntu Linix 10.10, but he could not guarantee he could get the Hua Wei WebRocket broadband modem to work.

Wirehead was able to get the Hua Wei WebRocket broadband modem to work in Linux: See http://rightardia.blogspot.com/2011/05/ubuntu-linux-and-wirelesss-broadband.html

Rightardia suggests that Linux is very useful for novice PC users such as rightards and many seniors who just want to browse the internet, send and read email and perhaps write a letter using Open Office or the latest upgrade, Libre Office.

All Wirehead had to do after the Ubuntu install, was download the ClamAV anivirus and malware program and the GUFW firewall as a front end for IP tables. He also put the latest upgrades on the PC.

He showed the rightard how to a conduct a virus scan and created some shortcuts on the top panel (taskbar) for the browser and email, the Libre office word processor and an the calculator. Wirehead also added aplets on the bottom panel for the weather, "force quit." PC shutdown and stock quotations.

Because Linux is more bulletproof for viruses and malware, we suspect the rightard will have fewer problems. The rightard was also amazed how quick Linux is compared to XP Pro; the PC starts and shutdowns far more quickly and his applications load faster.

Again we can't think of a good reason for a senior of a novice to purchase Windows 7 unless there is a specific window's application or hardware the User needs that only Window 7 supports. Rightardia has not run into many problems with printers or cameras on Linux.

Most devices with USB interfaces work in Linux, but scanners are an exception. We did some research on scanners that worked with Linux before we bought an Epson scanner.

If you are a causal PC user, Linux is for you!

If you don't know how to download Linux for the Internet and burn a DVD, buy a Linux magazine  like Linux Format, Linux User or Ubuntu User. Most will have the current version of either Ubuntu Linux or Fedora Linux on an enclosed DVD. Both of these distributions are popular.

Don't forget to install CLAMAV for ainti-virus protection. It's free, too.

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Linux Format: Head to head with Fedora and Ubuntu

Linux Format magazine compared the current release of Fedora 14 and Ubuntu 10. The competition was extremely close with Fedora prevailing on booting, system and virtualisation. Ubuntu had a significant advantage in its Desktop.

The overall winner was Fedora by one point. Rightardia uses Ubuntu on its desktop systems and Fedora on its laptop. We like both versions of Linux.

Linux format also indicated that Red Hat will spin off Suse Linux. Rightardia found that Suse Linux to be a more challenging version of Linux than Fedora and Ubuntu with its YAST super user control panel.

We used OpenSuse for a couple of months until we installed Fedora 14, which is very stable and bug free. Everything works, even the ClamAV virus scanner.

Ubuntu has a great utility called Tweak that Wirehead really likes. it speeds up the OS after he puts Tweak through its paces. Fedora has a program called Ailurus that has most of the features that Tweak has

The FireFox optimization program really sped up browsing. It is a real gem.

Ailurus has a lot of other options as well. We encourage readers who use Fedora Linux to install this program. 

By the way, we found that many of the installation problems on the HP NC8000 laptop were BIOS related. First the BIOS was unable to handle a hard drive with more than 1024 cylinders. 

We suspect this may be also related to problems older BIOS had with hard drives larger than 30 GB. Fedora was able to work around the problem during the installation, but Ubuntu would fail every time during installs.

The P6 CPU also had the capability of running at different frequencies. However, this would corrupt the hard drive eventually. One we turned off the frequency option in the BIOS, both OpenSuse Linux and Fedora 14 became stable.

You learn something every day, don't you?

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Latest on the laptop upgrade

Rightardia has written some articles about upgrading older laptop with open source Linux. We have discovered that current verssion of Ubuntu Linux (9.04, 10.04 and 10.04.01) and Fedora Linux (versions 12 and 13) are unstable on an older HP NC8000 laptop.Some reviews have noted instability in both the current versions of Ubuntu and Fedora.

Wirehead brought in the latest version of OpenSuse 11.3 in. It too was unstable after upgrading,

We tried the previous version 11.2, and it worked great even after upgrading. OpenSuse, which is owned by Red hat, is similar to Ubuntu Linux in many ways.  It uses RPMs for upgrades like Fedora. It is loaded with applications and utilities.

It also has the Yast superuser control panel that really lets a tech get into some technical weeds. The Yast firewall has features of a commerical corporate firewall.

Apprently OpenSuse is doing well in the Linux community. It is the leader in downloads according to Linux Format magazine. The OpenSuse 11.3 disk is included with latest version of Linux Format magazine..

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Fedora 14 is stable with a digital drive

by Wirehead

Rightardia upgraded an HP NC 8000 laptop and with a digital drive that had no moving parts.

We looked a Tiger Direct and found a PATA drive that would work but it was only 16GB. For the same price we ordered the big brother 32 GB Kingspec SSD Professional drive from China.  See http://rightardia.blogspot.com/2010/09/installing-digital-laptop-drive-using.html on this drive.

We tried Ubuntu Linx first and Linux Mint, a Ubuntu/Debian product, but Ubuntu and Linux Mint both had problems formatting the digital drive. We even tried the latest versions of Unbuntu--10.04 and 10.04.01--with no success. We could format the digital drive with Fedora 13, but the OS was unstable. Firefox would lock up and when we would reboot, the partition was gone. We tried Grub recovery disk, the Super Grub recovery disk and Rescatux with no luck.

Then Wirehead downloaded Fedora 14 I686 .iso beta file and burned  a new DVD. We were able to install it and fully upgrade it. Everything looked good until we noticed the network aplet for the wirelesss connection had disappeared. This is a known bug with some Intel hardware. We reloaded Fedora 14 again, but did selective upgrades.

Wirehead suggests just updating Newest Packages, Selected packages, Admin tools, Gnome Desktop and Office. System upgrades are risky and may blow the network connection away, For reasons unknown, Fedora does not install most of the Open Office applications. Wirehead had to manually install the word processor. The spreadsheet and presentation programs aren't installed by default either.

Firefox version 3.6.7 is stable and the firewall front end that comes with Fedora is excellent. The ClamAv anit-virus and malware suite with the Clam
TK front end installed without a hitch. This install was buggy in Fedora 13.

The refurb laptop works great now. Take a look at the customized desktop that uses the Red Hat Blue Curve theme:

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Installing a digital drive drive using Fedora Linux

by Wirehead

Rightardia upgraded an HP NC 8000 laptop and with a refurb Toshiba 60 GB drive that lasted about two weeks before it failed. Wirehead thought it would make make more sense to purchase a digital drive that had no moving parts.

We looked a Tiger Direct and found a PATA drive that would work but it was only 16GB. For the same price we ordered the big brother 32 GB Kingspec SSD Professional drive from China. 

It took about 2.5 weeks for the drive to arrive, but we are happy that we have the extra space. However, it was a bear to install on Linux.

We experimented with Ubuntu Linux 9.04, 9.10, 10.04 and the brand new 10.04 and Ubuntu Netbook.  We also tried Linux Mint and Dream Linux, a Brazilian Linux version, and even XP Pro. 

The digital drives specs indicate it was tested with XP Pro, but XP Pro could not detect the drive. We found that the latest 32-bit version of Ubuntu Linux 9.10 Live could format the drive. However, there are a few items you need to pay attention to.

Before you try to install Ubuntu Live 9.10, make sure you can see the drive in Desktop Places after you boot off of the CD. You will have to go into the BIOS and setup your laptop to boot off of the CD.

Make sure the new partition is bootable if you have this option by checking the bootable radio button.


If you cannot see the drive , you will have to reformat until you can see it in Desktop Places. You can use the Gnome Disk Utility to reformat the drive.

Wirehead prefers the Disk Utility because it it allows you to delete the partition, reformat the drive and make the drive bootable. The GParted utility can also  be able to detect a missing drive.

We recommend that you reformat the drive as EXT 2 if Linux installer can't see the drive and then reboot off of the CD. Now the Linux installer will be able to see the drive and in step 4 of the Linux install, it will reformat the drive with an EXT3 or EXT4  format. 

If the disk doesn't boot, reboot using the CD and use the Disk Utility to check the a partitions to make sure they are bootable. also make sure the disk is mounted. Make sure you unmount the drive before you try to install Linux.

If it still won't boot, reboot off of the CD and reinstall the Linux Live Ubuntu 9.10 OS.

After installation, you will be prompted to remove the CD or DVD. We also recommend you change the BIOS boot options to boot off of the HD.

Wirehead found he could get Ubutu 9.10 to work on the digital drive, but the updates to the OS created a mess.

Wirehead had run into a similar problem when he formatted his wife's PC for Linux more than a year ago. He used a Fedora ll (Red Hat Linux) to format the PATA hard drive so he could install Ubuntu Linux 9.04.

His wife has been happily using Ubuntu for more than a year without much trouble and not a single reinstall. 

When Wirehead bought the recent copy of Linux Pro magazine, he noticed that a copy of Fedora 13 was enclosed. He tried installing Fedora 13.

Back to the drawing boards. The first Fedora install failed because the Grub boot loader did get installed at the very end of the Fedora install. The second install worked, but installing Adobe Flash and better screensavers locked up Fedora 13. The third attempt was a success.

Fedora 13 is a cut above Ubuntu Linux in many respects. It is as pretty as Linux Mint and has an excellent firewall front end.  The wireless connection came up a lot faster than in Ubuntu which may take a 30-minute wait after the wireless adapter is manually configured with a static IP address. The updates worked and did not corrupt the OS.

Here is what a Fedora formatted digital drive looks like.

This is what the Fedora LVM volume or partition looks like:

A digital drive is quiet and resistant to vibration. The drive is expected to last 10,000 hours. Oh yes, the drive is very fast. One blogger, Ben Moore, reported:

With the Hitachi HD the (Thinkpad) X40 took 2:14 to hibernate and 1:05 to resume. With the KingSpec SSD it takes :29 to hibernate and :20 to resume. These aren't terribly scientific nor comprehensive but they are what I care about.

A digital HD is a great update for an older laptop. You need some patience to get this drive to work in Linux.

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How to close a hung aplication in Linux

Rightardia has written several articles about Linux and its advantages over Microsoft Windows. It's bad enough that the operating system costs more than $100.

If you install Windows 7, you will also have to upgrade Microsoft Office, your anti-virus software, Adobe Acrobat, your CD/DVD burning software and other applications and utilities.

One of the major technical technical sites recently estimated the updates to Windows XP Pro applications would cost another $900 for upgrades after Windows 7 was installed.

One of the shortfalls in Linux is that there is no simple way to close a hung application without rebooting. However, we recently found a utility called CompWizConfig Settings manager that installs in Preferences.

It has a configuration option called Crash Handler that allows a user to close a hung application. The easiest way to install Crash Handler. You can use the Add to Panel Option to install a Force Quit button to the menu bars at the top or bottom of the desktop screen.

All the user has to do is click on the Force Quit and then click on the hung application to close it. The Help screen below provide more information on this feature.

Finally Linux users have a simple way to close a hung application that is analogous tho the <ctrl>-<alt>-<del>  keys in Microsoft Windows.

If readers know of other ways to close an application in Linux, please leave us a comment.

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userFriendly.org: Linux is about Hope and Change

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ClamAV is a finalist for the Sourceforge Community Choice Awards

June 23rd, 2009 Posted by - webmaster

Clam AntiVirus is an open source (GPL) anti-virus toolkit for UNIX and Linux, designed especially for e-mail scanning on mail gateways.

It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner and advanced tool for automatic database updates. The core of the package is an anti-virus engine available in a form of shared library.

It works on both Desktop PCs and servers. There is a similar product for Windows called Clamwin that also can be installed on both desktops and servers.

Vote for us!

Yesterday Sourceforge announced the finalists for Community Choice Awards 2009. We are glad to let you know that ClamAV was among the 10 projects that collected more nominations in the Best tool for sysadmin category!


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Face off with Fedora and Ubuntu Linux

by Wirehead

While I was working, the screen froze up and I noticed the hard drive thrashing away. After powering the PC down, I noticed it could not find a a working Linux image to boot off of. I had trouble restoring Ubuntu Linux 9.04 so I loaded a copy of Fedora which is the open source version of Red Hat Linux.

After working with Fedora 11, code named Leonidas, I started to notice some idiosyncrasies. First there was no third party driver for my Nvidia PCI video card. The Ubuntu driver didn't work perfectly because I had to reset the video resolution to 1600 x 1200 dpi every time I rebooted. In the case of Fedora, there was no third party driver at all. I even looked for one on the Nvidea Linux page but there was only a .bin driver that Fedora couldn't use. So I was stuck in 1024 x 786 dpi resolution.

I also noticed that Fedora had a CD-burner but it was buried in Places | Computer rather than as an Accessory. The Take Screenshot (print screen utility) was crippled in Fedora. I could grab the entire desktop or current screen in the foreground, but I could not grab a selected area by framing it. When you publish a blog, this is an essential function because tables and graphics can be easily copied. That was a real bummer.

When I tired to download a third party application from the command line using the Terminal function, the command would not run because it did not consider my user name to be an administrator. I ran into this problem months ago and there is a work around, but you have to edit a file and change permissions to fix it. This was bummer number 2.

I also post my best articles in a couple of Usenet conferences. Again , when I tired to use Yum Package Manager to download the Pan newsreader, the application was not available. I searched on the web for Pan but there was no download in the .RPM format that Fedora uses. This was bummer number three. I was never able to get any news reader to work on Fedora although I found some alternative newsreader aps. None showed up in the Fedora menus, however.

Having some background in network security, I tried to download the CLAMAV antivirus/malware utility and its front end, CLAMTK. I was able to download both, but I could never upgrade the CLAMAV antivirus signature, even after a reboot. This was bummer number 4.

However, the Fedora firewall front end for IPTables was a nice surprise because Ubuntu dos not come with a a firewall front end. I have to download GUFW using the Synaptic Package Manager for the AV front end in Ubuntu. So chalk up one kudo for Fedora.

I also ran into problem playing You Tube videos with Fedora. A Totem movie player plug in was missing that could not be downloaded. In Ubuntu, you are prompted to download Flash to see the You Tube videos. I embed videos in my blog and the Flash download worked fine for viewing videos.

Printing was also problematic with Red Hat. It was missing Canon PIXMA drivers that Ubuntu provides that was bummer number 5. I also notice that themes, backgrounds (wallpaper) and OpenGL screensavers were missing in Fedora. I was able to download OpenGL screensavers using YUM. I would venture to say that Red Hat probably dumbs down Fedora because it is the free version of it it commercial product, Red Hat Linux. I have used Red Hat in the past and it is more robust. It also comes with technical support for one year when you purchase it.

After continuing to play with Fedora for a couple of days, I backed up my data and reinstalled Ubuntu. Clearly Ubuntu has an edge over Fedora. Ubuntu supports third party video drivers, the screenshot utility is not crippled, The administrator account works when you login for the first time, the package manger provides an excellent newsreader that can be downloaded, the antiivirus utility didn't not work in Fedora and I could not view Flash online videos. The Canon Pixma printers are very popular because of the print quality and the low cost of ink jet cartridges. The missing print drivers were really irritating.

It is possible that over time I could have fixed many of the problems with Fedora. But why waste the time since Ubuntu had all of these problems resolved.

If you are going to try Linux, Rightardia recommends Ubuntu. You will get up to speed faster with Ubuntu.  

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Linux saves the day again

In the latest home catastrophe my son's PC started acting badly. At first it wouldn't boot and then the video card started wigging out. My son became agitated and suggested he needed a new motherboard and CPU. I tried to reload Windows XP Pro, but it wouldn't load

My son swapped out both the monitor and the ATI video card. I also looked in the BIOS and made sure it was set up for an AGP card, I also lowered the AGP aperture from 64MB to 32 MB.

I suggested that we blow the Operating System (OS) away and install Ubuntu Linux 9.04. I told my son that I had no interest in spending one dime on buying XP Pro or Vista because Ubuntu Linux was free.

After making the BIOS change to the AGP aperture, Ubuntu Linux loaded and started installing the OS. It rebooted after about 20 minutes or less. I used Upgrade Manager to download and install more than 200 updates.

Rock and roll! The dead system was revived. My son hooked up the original monitor and it worked perfectly after I adjusted the video resolution and the screen size.

I showed my son some of the basics of navigating Linux and he had little problem moving around the new Graphical User Interface.

He wondered if it would be possible to make Ubuntu Linux look like XP Pro. In fact he found a script called XPGnome that can do it. It takes about five minutes to download and run the script and there is a handy video on a Ubuntu web site that shows you how to install it. I helped my son install the script and he is as happy as can be.

He also noticed that his PC boots up much faster and his You Tube videos load and run without the choppiness of XP Pro,

I told him he will no longer have to defrag his hard drive or run other XP Pro utilities when the OS slows to a crawl. I promised to install a free anitvirus (ClamAV) and firewall front end program (ClamTK) for him. I also showed him that Linux includes a movie and music player and has Bit Torrent for downloads. So far his only disappointment is AOL AIM Instant messenger. I am still working on getting AIM to work. He didn't like the Pidgin IM that comes with Linux.

I'm certain you could fool grandma or your wife with XPGnome. It might be the way to introduce them to Linux. My wife has been using Linux for months now, but I didn't have to install XPGnome to get her to use it.



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Windows 7 is the same as Ubuntu?

Editor's Note: I liked this article because it asks a fundamental question: Is Windows 7 good enough to pay for. In my opinion, it has few new features that Ubuntu or Red Hat (Fedora) do not have already. Once you have invested $100 plus dollars in Windows 7, you will also have to update Microsoft Office and and your Windows utilities such as Nero Burning ROM which allows you to burn DVDs and CDs. Linux comes with free DVD/CD burner software.

Eventually, you will also need an an anti-virus and malware scanner, but Microsoft is now providing a free one. Over time the Microsoft OS nickels and dimes you. You have to upgrade to specialized applications and utilities. Oh, I hope you never have to swap the hard drive out. You will have to call Microsoft to reactivate the OS.

In Linux, you can upgrade your OS and the applications during the the same free upgrade. Open Office is free. I don't need to purchase the latest version of Microsoft Office any more. In the life cycle of the OS, I am saving hundreds of dollars with Linux.

Obviously, this isn’t true. Their underlying architectures [of Linux and Windows] are quite a bit different, Gnome looks different than the [Windows] 7 User Interface, but to an average 17-year-old, there just wasn’t any meaningful difference between the two operating systems.

The other day, I posted a blog titled “Windows 7: Good enough to pay for?” I described how I’d installed the Windows 7 Release Candidate on my son’s computer for his take on the OS after living with Ubuntu 9.04 (and 8.10 before that) for a few months. It’s summer break, so he basically spends every waking moment when he’s not actually interacting face-to-face with friends on the computer. No better time to have a kid do some serious testing, right?

I asked him last night about his initial impressions of Windows 7 and, in typical teenage fashion, as he was bouncing between Meebo windows and browser tabs, he said it was “nice.” I managed to extract from him that his favorite feature was that he was able to use his Zune with it, something that had never worked terribly well with Ubuntu. Otherwise, he said,

“Windows 7 is the same as Ubuntu; there just really isn’t anything different about them.”


Of course there isn’t. He lives in a web browser. The underlying OS is irrelevant. He has no need for Office 2007 and I expect his next portable music player will be platform independent.

For some, Windows 7 may, indeed, be good enough to pay for, especially if they are power-users of Windows-only software. For my oldest son, if he gravitates to any machine, it’s to my Mac because it’s so easy for him to create and share video content. For the average student, though, the old Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux debate may finally be dead. For someone who “hated Linux” a year ago to now happily switch between Windows 7 and Ubuntu in a completely transparent way certainly signals an end to that age-old flame war.

Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.

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Most new Windows 7 features are already available on Linux

Windows 7 features like .ISO image burning, Windows Search, and the great new Windows 7 Calculator are a big part of the new OS. However, most of these features are already available in most releases of Linux.

You can get many of the top features, performance enhancements, and interface improvements of Windows 7 without leaving your Windows Vista or Windows XP operating system behind. Even better, most of these 'new' Windows features are already available in Linux.

Fortunately, you can add many of these features to your Vista or XP machine by using downloads from CNET's download.com and Web services. On Linux, you can search for an application using Synaptic Package Manager or download the application from sourceforge.net.

streaming media

Windows Vista can already stream music, videos, and other content between networked PCs in your house, but Windows 7 goes a step farther: It can stream over the Internet. By taking advantage of that option, you can watch a recorded TV show at a friend's house or stream your mammoth music library to your storage-strapped netbook. The recording and motion picture industries are not happy with this feature.

Linux has a program called VLC media player that can also do this. VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, etc.) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

VLC can also be used as a media converter or a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks. It is cross platform and works on the Windows, MAC and Linux OS. Most versions of Linux have the GNU MP3/Media Streamer that can also do this.

ISO image creation/ burning

An .ISO image is a single file that contains the archived contents of a CD or DVD. Windows 7 enables you to burn ISO images to optical media, so you can crank out your own bootable discs. Microsoft had distributed the Windows 7 Release Candidate as an .ISO file, which users had to burn to a DVD or CD for installation on their PCs. Anyone working on a Windows XP or Vista system needed to use third-party software like Nero Burning ROM to do this.

Several free utilities can burn .ISO images from Windows XP or Vista PCs. Look for ISO Burners on CNET's download.com. In Linux all you have to is download the .ISO file. Once the download is complete, you right click on it to burn the .ISO image to a DVD or CD. LINUX also has a built-in DC/DVD creator.

graphics

Windows' ancient, bare-bones graphics program, Paint,finally got a rework in Windows 7 with a cool new Ribbon interface (very similar to the one that people either love or hate in Office 2007), additional brush and shape choices, and various small but meaningful tweaks.

Though you can't obtain Windows 7 Paint in Vista or XP, several similar Vista- and XP-compatible programs are even better. Regular PC users have talked frequently of the open-source GIMP and the freeware Paint.Net, two Photoshop-caliber image editors. Either of these apps can run circles around Win 7's Paint, and neither will cost you a dime. Again, GIMP Image Editor has been a part of Linux for many years. OpenOffice also includes a free drawing program.

calculator

The Window 7 OS new Calculator was built from the ground up. This cool new number-cruncher includes programmer, statistic, and scientific modes, and comes with handy templates for figuring out mortgage payments and gasoline mileage. Linux has a sophisticated Calculator built into it that has a basic, advanced, financial, scientific and programming modes.

integrated search

What it is: Vista owners already enjoy the benefits of Windows' integrated search capabilities, which help users easily find specific apps, documents, e-mail messages; etc. Windows 7 promises to make search results more coherent and to integrate them with Libraries for better organization.

Windows Search is one of the main reasons I don't miss Windows XP--it's that good. How can an XP user take a similar step up? Simple: Install Copernic Desktop Search, which indexes all of the e-mail, documents, and media on your hard drive to permit lightning-fast searches. In fact, even Vista and Win 7 users should check it out, since it supports many more file types (the total exceeds 150) than Windows Search.

This appears to be an advantage that Windows 7 has over Linux. The Linux search utility only searches for files. Chalk one advantage up for Windows 7 and Copernic Windows utility.

Windows XP Mode

When Vista debuted in 2007, a lengthy procession of unanticipated software incompatibilities drove users crazy. To show Windows 7's dexterity with older applications at its launch, Microsoft announced Windows XP Mode (XPM)--an add-on that runs legacy XP Pro programs in a "virtual" XP environment, thereby providing legacy compatibility.

This means that client or server applications will not have to be upgraded in Enterprise networks for the older XP Pro applications to work. Otherwise, Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, and financial and accounting applications would have to be upgraded on every windows client to work after a Windows 7 upgrade. Servers would have to be upgraded as well. This would be expensive for businesses.

XP Mode was created with business users in mind, since incompatible applications can be an expensive issue. As a result, it's available only for Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise. This means that XPM doesn't work with the Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) versions of windows 7 that cannot connect to a domain.

Internet Explorer

If you use Vista and you're still struggling with software compatibility issues, try Microsoft's Windows Virtual PC. This free download offers more or less the same capabilities as Windows XPM. Microsoft advises that this program may not work when loaded on netbooks or on other late model PCs and laptops that use certain Intel and AMD CPUs.

Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 8 is the latest Microsoft browser. It's faster and more secure than previous versions of IE, and it offers new features such as Web Slices which are RSS feeds, and designed to help you keep you current on changes at regularly updated sites and InPrivate Browsing that improves privacy while you are browsing the Internet.

Most professionals prefer FireFox which is updated more frequently and is more secure. Firefox has numerous extension, add-ons and themes which allow it be customized. It offers the same private browsing and these features were released last November. It takes your Web history, user names, passwords, searches, and cookies and bins them. When you close out the browser, your session information is deleted.

That is the good news. The bad news is your corporation can still see and log every web site that you visit when you are in 'porn mode.' You might be able to hide your browsing activities from your wife, but don't try this at work.

Conclusions

Most of the new features in Windows 7 can be added to XP Pro by installing utilities that can be downloaded. In the case of Linux, it already has most these features. The one innovation that I have not seen in Linux is the new Windows 7 integrated search capability. The Linux search utility only checks files.

sources:

www.pcworld.com/article/166935
/windows_7_features_on_a_vista_or_xp_system.html

news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10082405-2.html

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www.linuxpromagazine.com/userfriendly

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Windows 7 issues may make Linux a better way to go

American home users and enterprise networks are at a a crossroads. Should it upgrade to Windows 7 after the failure of Window Vista? What are the pros and the cons. Are there any alternatives?

Fist of all, there is no upgrade path from XP Pro to Windows 7. If you have not already installed Windows Vista, you would have to backup your data reformat the hard Drive to install Windows 7.

Windows 7 also has compatibility problems. Microsoft developed XP Mode (XPM) emulation so that Windows 7 can be backward compatible with XP Pro applications like Microsoft Office 2003. This feature is only available in the enterprise versions of the software so home users are out of luck. In addition XPM is not compatible with many Intel and AMD CPUs. Even some modern laptops do not support XPM.

It is also interesting that Microsoft will continue to support XP Pro until 2014, but will abandon updates for Vista in 2012. This seems to be an admission on the part of Microsoft that Vista was a failure.

For the home user, Windows 7 is problematic. The XPM mode is of no value. Even if the home users upgrade to an enterprise version of Windows 7, they may run into compatibility problems with certain Intel and AMD CPUs. This means all of the older XP Pro applications will have to be upgraded on home PCs. This will be expensive for Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) users.

For the enterprise, there is a migration path for machines that have Vista installed and also have CPUs compatible with XPM. Otherwise, the IT staff would have to replace all of the client side PCs and servers that are not XPM compatible to run the older XP Pro applications.

In most cases, enterprises would buy or lease new PCs and servers with Microsoft Office 2007 bundled. Microsoft does not plan to immediately upgrade Office 2007. It will publish a service pack that should run on Windows 7 without XPM emulation. By the time a corporations, pay for new PCs. Servers, OS and applications, the cost could be a minimum of $500 to $600 per unit for anew XPM compatible PC that is bundled Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2007.

I view of the limitations of Windows 7, what are the alternatives? Taking a close look at Linux for a desktop operating system replacement would save home and business users hundreds or thousands of dollars. In some cases it may be necessary for certain users to stay with a Microsoft operating system (OS) if they are running a specialized business or data base applications.

Microsoft servers are another consideration. Many IT people prefer the Microsoft server to the free Linux server versions. Most colleges and technical schools train their IT students on Microsoft servers. Jumping into the Linux server world will a bigger problem than moving from the Microsoft desktop to the Linux desktop. The Microsoft servers work fine with Linux clients.

Both the current Fedora Linux and Ubuntu Linux distributions are excellent. Fedora is the open source version of Red Hat Linux. Ubuntu is strictly open source. There are no commercial Ubuntu servers or desktop versions. This is one of the decision an IT staff would want to make. Would they want the low cost commercial version of Linux so they can call a help desk for support or do they want to go it alone with Ubuntu Linux?

Ubuntu is little more robust than Fedora. It comes with most applications that a user would need such as the Firefox browser. Evolution email which has most of the feature of Microsoft Outlook and Open Office which include a word processor, a databases application, a spreadsheet, a drawing program and presentation software. In addition, there are numerous free downloads that can be used to add features that users need.

Ubuntu comes with CD/DVD burner software, a remote desktop viewer and a terminal server client. Users can download free anti-virus and malware software called ClamAV and a AV front end called ClamTK that simplifies AV scanning. There are a variety of firewalls that can also be downloaded. One that is equivalent to the Microsoft firewall is Gufw which uses the command line IPTables firewall that is built into most versions of Linux.

In addition, there is a Wine download allows users to run many Windows applications. You can browse the applications that are supported at appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&sTitle=Browse%20Applications&sOrderBy=appName&bAscending=true

Of interest, Wine also supports many games that run on Windows XP Pro.

There are also many commercial server based Linux business applications that do exactly what the Microsoft application do but usually at a lower cost.

In the past printing was problem with Linux, but that has been resolved with the current releases of Linux. Today Linux has a much broader base of print drivers.

In summary, Windows 7 will offer little functionality that is not already built into Linux desktop versions. The enterprise version of Windows 7 will run the older XP Pro applications, but the home versions do not support XPM. In addition, many late model Intel and AMD CPUs do not support XPM.There is no upgrade path from XP Pro to Window 7. If you haven't installed Vista, you will have to backup your data and reformat your hard drive to install Windows 7.

www.ubuntu.com

fedoraproject.org/

www.ditii.com/2009/05/04/does-your-intel-cpu-pass-windows-xp-mode-test-in-windows-7/

news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10235329-64.html