(Click to enlarge.)

Let me know what you think!

(Click to enlarge.)

See if you can spot all the little side jokes. (It’s not really that hard.)

Let me know if you think it’s funny!

As I was playing around with OpenSuse 11 Beta 2 KDE 4, I discovered some ways not to use KDE 4’s desktop.

“TrashCan.Org”

“Look what I found in the trash”

“Look what I am putting back in the trash”

“Tux got mail”

“Firefox merchandise gone wrong”

“Tux got stuck in a terminal” or “Tux hate GUI, love terminal”

“Big Files”

“Throwing away your files”

And finally, a great way to use the new KDE 4 desktop:

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Don’t take them too seriously. They are just for fun.

I recently received a curious e-mail from Canonical. I believe this e-mail was not intended for me, but it provides a fascinating look at the future of Ubuntu, and I would like to share it with you.

Below is the e-mail:

With Intrepid Ibex now past feature-freeze it’s time to start to plan
features that are being lined up for inclusion after Ubuntu 8.10 is released in October. And so I’d like to introduce you to Jabbering Jackass, the release which is planned for April 2009, and which is likely to have the version number 9.04.

With Jabbering Jackass, we will be working on creating a stubborn … I mean stable … user experience. At this stage in the process, design work is preliminary, but some parts of the plan have been worked out.

For example, we already have a desktop background* for Jackass:

(Click on the picture for a closer look at the folders.)

In addition, Jackass will feature a new Ubuntu log-in sound. The leading candidate right now is this*: WAV | FLAC | Web (Not Recomended). However this is still preliminary, as some people thought it was too annoying, especially since it loops forever.

Finally, Jackass will introduce a feature never before seen in any operating system, a cuddly cartoon donkey, something like the Microsoft Office Assistant, that will help you get work done. For example, if you make a mistake, the cuddly donkey will pop onto the screen and bellow, “You jackass!”

I believe this will be a very useful (Shutup, jackass. I really did mean to type useful.) feature that will change forever how we interact with the operating system.

Please keep this e-mail confidential until April 1 when the formal announcement will be made.

–Mark

For more information on this, see here.

Note: I think Ubuntu is one of the best if not the best Linux distro out there. I use it myself and in no way am I trying to say it is bad or imply anything bad about it.

* - Credit for the desktop background image goes to Orin Optiglo. The image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

* - Credit for the donkey sound goes to Acclivity. The sound is licensed under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0.

(Alright, give me a break, finding anything to write about on Sundays in general is hard enough, let alone a holiday Sunday.)

Even wondered how Easter eggs are like open-source/Linux? (Answer: No.) Anyway, if you are really stuck for something to write about, it turns out they are quite similar. Here is why:

• There are many different types just like there are many different Linux distributions.
• They are made by many different people from many different places in the world just like open-source software is often developed by people all around the world.
• People share them and give them away.
• They are often not created for profit.

Since they are already so similar (at least if you have nothing else write about), I decided to turn some Easter eggs into Linux eggs, continuing on the Linux pumpkin idea:

The Everex Mini, which looks exactly like someone spray painted a Mac Mini black, has two intended purposes, both of which have one critical flaw that will probably prevent the Everex Mini from getting anywhere.

According to the Everex website, the first purpose of the Everex Mini is to be “a space-saving PC.” You are problably wondering how you can fail to make a computer “a space-saving PC.” I would have wondered the same thing. After all, the Everex Mini is small and attractive with decent specifications. The answer is that you can leave out the VGA port so that anyone that does not have an expensive, fancy screen can’t use it without an adapter. I have no idea what thinking (if any) led to the omission of a VGA port. To be fair, it is possible they include the necessary adapter in the box, but they make no mention of it anywhere on the website that I can see.

The second purpose of the Everex Mini, again according to the Everex website, is to be able to “connect it to your big screen television.” The flaw here is that there is no media interface. To really sell a computer as a box to hook up to your TV, you have to do more than make it small and attractive. At a minimum, including MythTV or something like that would have been a good idea, as would the inclusion of a remote. Once again, I cannot guarantee there is no media interface provided, but they are definitely not advertising it, which would be very weird if there was a media interface.

It is unfortunate to see these small flaws in a little PC that is otherwise a good idea. The specifications are slightly better than the gPC and the design, even if it is a take off from Apple, is very nice. Hopefully Everex will fix these problems in the next version.

Once every couple of months someone claims that product x is better than product y based on absolutely no legitimate evidence and every time the argument is the same. This time around, Jeff Jones, a security expert who works for Microsoft, is claiming on his blog that Windows Vista is the most secure operating system of all the modern operating systems (which, by the way, does include Linux, specifically a version of both Red Hat and Ubuntu.) The headline is great, but the argument does not stand up to, well, anything.

In this comparison, the metric for security is the number of reported bugs. It does not matter if they have been fixed or not, it does not matter what the level of severity is, and there is no adjustment for the fact that Microsoft or Apple might not report all the bugs that exist, while in open-source software, almost any bug that anyone finds is reported. Do I even need to say any more?

OLPC’s CTO left OLPC to create a new for-profit company with an initial goal of creating a $75 commercial laptop that uses many of the same technologies that the XO laptop uses, according to Slashdot. Here is a question for you:

How Much Does a $75 Laptop from OLPC’s CTO Cost?

If history really does repete itself, the answer is not $75, but $150. Frankly, it seems highly implausable that after the OLPC project failed to make a $100 laptop, the OLPC CTO thinks she can make a $75 dollar laptop.

Although that is perhaps the funniest part of this story, there is a real story here.

Although OLPC tried selling XOs here in the US, they don’t seem interested in selling the XOs to people in developed countries. (This really shows that they are about the children who they are helping, not the money they could be making.) This is where this new company, Pixel Qi, comes in. Pixel Qi intends to bring a $75 (or $150) laptop to the market in developed countries that will incorperate many of the innovations of the XO, such as the sunlight-readable screens. It will be interesting to see what this company produces. (My guess is still a $150 laptop. :-))

Urgent notice to all Windows users: Due to the security problems of Windows, you now need to purchase a Linux computer in order to keep the viruses and spyware off your existing Windows PC.

Yes, its true, a security company called Yoggie just announced a USB device that plugs into a Windows computer to keep it safe from viruses. The device, which looks like a big USB flash drive is really an entire computer that runs Linux. The idea is that you plug this thing in to your computer and its 13 applications will keep your computer safe without using up the resources of your current computer. The problem is, when an operating system gets to the point where you need another computer running a more secure operating system to keep the original computer from getting stuffed with viruses and spyware, it might be a good idea to think about just using that more secure operating system, in this case Linux.

Seriously, there has to come a point when Windows users are going to look at the resources they are throwing away and the viruses they are getting and say this is enough! At that point, Linux must be ready to provide an easy-to-use, secure, bloat-free desktop. Luckily, Linux already has all that.

If you only think of the desktop and the server market when you think of Linux or if you need a present for a Linux geek, check out Linux Devices’ list of the top ten Linux-powered devices to give a Linux geek. Anyone who knows what Linux is knows that Linux is used on the desktop and on the server, but this list shows that Linux is also used a lot on mobile devices, such as cell phones.

There is also a list of gadgets that run Windows which you should avoid giving to any Linux geek. Comparing the two lists, you might notice is that while the Linux list consists of inexpensive laptops, cellphones, and mp3 players, the Windows list consists of… well.. obscure junk. This includes (no joke) an automated bartender, running Windows XP. Windows XP may not be stable enough for my PC, but I guess it works just fine for an automated bartender. Cheers!