Windows Anonymous

Do we really want to emulate Windows?

Sunday, 22 November 2009 21:34 |

Written by chris_f |

This week, I had to do an outline for my Leadership and Organizational Behavior class (postgrad classes get kinda esoteric like that). Most people hate them, but outlines are a breeze for me; they've held pretty much the same format for several decades, probably longer. I do have to admit that their usefulness was lost on me when I was in grade school, but college has shown me the light and in any event, my understanding is they don't teach basic stuff like this in grade school any more anyway, in deference to parents who all think their kid is the next Stephen Hawking and therefore have no use for a solid grasp of the English language.

PCLinuxOS ZenMini 2009.1

Monday, 16 November 2009 00:56 |

Written by chris_f |

It's no relation to Zenwalk, or the former MiniSlack, but it might as well be. This is probably the leanest, most efficient GNOME-based distro I've ever seen. Brought to you by the man who doesn't mess around, Bill Reynolds a.k.a. Texstar a.k.a. the brains behind PCLinuxOS. I have got to get an interview with this guy.

VMware Workstation 7.0

Monday, 16 November 2009 00:49 |

Written by chris_f |

An unfortunate reality with Linux is that, for the moment, some things just have to be done in Windows. Certain APIs don't make the grade in WINE, and there are some apps for which there aren't (and may never be) an analog in anything other than Windows. For this, we have virtualization. It's by no means the only reason, but for our purposes it's the primary reason. It also makes for a good way to try a Linux install without the need for a spare machine, or if you don't can't/don'want to try it from a liveCD. There are basically two main players in this arena: VirtualBox and VMware. VirtualBox is a favorite of mine, being available in an open-source version (as well as a free-for-personal-use, but closed-source version). There are, alas, a few things which you may need that VBox can't deliver on, such as DirectX 10 in a Windows guest; this is where VMware, in this case the Workstation version, makes its case. Workstation is neither free nor open-source (at US$189 as this was written), but it allows for a few developer-level things of which VBox isn't capable. Is it worth it? Let's find out.