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I explore FreeNX, the GPL implementation of NX, “an exciting new technology for remote display … that provides near local speed application responsiveness over high latency, low bandwidth links.” Result is a usable Ubuntu desktop, running on a home PC, displayed on a PowerBook screen in the hands of a travelin’ dude.

Sometimes Linux sets an ext2 (or ext3) partition’s large_file flag that makes it unmountable in NetBSD. (On an attempted mount, NetBSD 2.0.2 reports that the partition is read-only, but doesn’t mount it.) Here’s what I learned about how to fix.

FLAC lossless audio is changing the way I buy music.

“Ubuntu” is an ancient African word, meaning “humanity to others”.

Woo-hoo, it’s the day of the Panther.

Apple releases Mac OS X 10.3 Panther today. And FedEx tracking tells me my copy is now waiting for me on the porch at home. Yes!

I hardly know how I could like Panther better than its predecessor Jaguar (10.2) that I’m using now, ‘cause Jaguar on a TiBook is pretty damn dreamy. But I’m game to pace the panther, baby. I can use the excitement.

2003-10-27 update:
Panther is indeed wonderful — faster, even more aesthetically pleasing to me than Jaguar (taming the horizontal pinstripes down to almost nothing pleases my eyes), and lets me keep work state through a log out.

Whither uw-imapd? But one important thing doesn’t work: I can’t get my local fink-installed uw-imapd daemon to authenticate connections. This is critical to me as I keep all my mail in local IMAP mailboxes (which I like because it lets me use any IMAP mail client I feel like using at the moment). My hunch is the authentication solution is simple but I don’t see it yet.

    later … I see sbromlin provides a partial Panther authentication
    explanation and a temporary brute-force kludge for uw-imapd.
    Works! Now I can start living in Panther.

[2003-12-02 update: Norman Gall provides a proven Panther-friendly PAM imapd solution at Installing UW imapd/pop3d on MacOS X 10.3 (Panther). Thanks, Norman.]

I like Brad’s post about switching to Linux leading him to buy — surprise — an Apple PowerBook. Agreed, Unix rules: Mac OS X on Apple hardware for hands-on use, Linux (or *BSD) on PC hardware for servers, all seamlessly and almost identically administered — and I’m happy. (Microsoft expunged is icing on the cake.)

Brad links to Mark’s article about Apple’s almost-obsessive attention to “grace and simplicity and aesthetic warmth” instead of hawking “just another suckass hunk of plastic and wire and metal.” Oh, yes. Aesthetics matter. Not to everyone, apparently and inexplicably, but to me — always.

Once again we’re seeing a security panic and much hustle-bustle over the latest round of Internet worms and viruses. The way you hear TV and corporate IT people talk, the problem is inescapable for Internet users everywhere, part of the human (computing) condition.

In fact, worms and viruses are quite easily escapable, as is supporting the neverending antivirus software racket. Just step outside the Microsoft box. Computing — to say nothing of thinking — outside the box is fine advice indeed.

I’m a big fan of Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and NetBSD. In part it’s because I’m lazy — if I can opt out of unnecessary security headaches, I do. If I can fix things and have them stay fixed, I’m there. No Microsoft software, no major security or reliability problems. Works for me, makes me happy. YMMV.

John Gruber at Daring Fireball has some pointed and well-considered observations himself on corporate IT, email, viruses/worms, computers and reliability — in general, on the shortcomings of an “all Microsoft all the time” computing policy.

Basic theme: CIOs can and should expect their computing infrastructure to be as reliable as their facilities’ plumbing. Implied recommendation: Don’t put up with crap.

• Good Times
• Dynomite! (a hilariously titled follow-up)

In the follow-up, John mentions —

It’s my experience that your typical IT [person] knows next to nothing about Linux.

I wouldn’t have thought this possible if I hadn’t seen an example of it with my own eyes — an IT support guy at work told me with pride that he knows “nothing about Linux and never will. All I know is Windows!”

Especially in these days of tight corporate budgets and shrinking support staffs, shouldn’t a working knowledge of free, reliable, secure open-source software be a requirement for computing professionals? I certainly think so.

Good thing the support guy doesn’t report to me — I’d have fired his butt. :-)

2003-09-18 update: See also today’s related articles —

• NY Times: How susceptible is your operating system to viruses?

• Baltimore Sun: Government issue: Macs could help defend federal agencies from cyber attacks

After a week off, I’m back in the saddle.

A gallstone tried to get the better of Steph on Monday, but rapid medical intervention stopped any of its fellows from repeating the performance. Laparoscopic surgery is amazing: four small holes—then no more gall bladder!

I spent the hospital room time configuring an install of Gentoo Linux/PowerPC on a TiBook/667. Takes a lot of dickering to get it like I want it. Then with an emerge mol command—and more dickering—I’ve got Mac OS X (OSX) running alongside Gentoo in Mac-on-Linux (MOL). Ctrl-Opt-F1, I’m at Gentoo’s first text console; Ctrl-Opt-F7, I’m in Gentoo’s X11; Ctrl-Opt-F8, I’m in full-screen OSX. Woo-hoo! Amazingly, I’m not noticing much performance degradation in OSX; it remains completely usable (once I got X11 and MOL video settings correct, that is).

Why run Mac OS X and Linux? After all, OSX is a full-blown Unix system; install fink and you can build nearly any Unix software you need. Yet I persist in wanting to run Linux, too. Here’s my starting list of reasons:

• Linux is leaner and somewhat faster than OSX on any given hardware
• Familiarity: I already run Linux (Debian) on most of the PC boxes I tend to
• I’ve been reading Richard Stallman’s collected essays (Free Software, Free Society) and am freshly aware how much I value the societal benefits of truly free software. (GNU/Linux, of course, is completely free—free beer and free speech—whereas OSX is half free, half nonfree.)
• I like fiddling with cool tool combos more than I like assessing the practicality of doing so :-)
• Because—thanks to the efforts of some of my free software heroes—I can

This Gentoo Linux/Mac OS X combo is seriously cool. But drat, I’m too [tired|lazy] to write up my current settings. That’s okay because Christophe and Nicolai have already done an excellent job. Thanks, guys.

(Why Gentoo Linux? Because I already know Debian GNU/Linux runs like a champ on PowerBook hardware; I’m a huge Debian i386/ppc fan. I’m interested in Gentoo’s build-everything-from-source nature because it reminds me of NetBSD, which I also inexplicably love. Since NetBSD doesn’t yet have many laptop power-management niceties AFAICT, Gentoo strikes me as kind of a cool Debian/NetBSD hybrid. And more ready for prime time than the real Debian GNU/NetBSD project.)

I’m trying to figure out deep down where I stand philosophically on free software. Specifically, I want to identify which of the various free-software licenses aligns best with my values. (I’m a mad stickler for internal congruence.)

On the one hand, I’m a big proponent of GNU; Richard Stallman’s unwavering commitment to freedom as embodied in the GPL appeals to me. (I’m especially influenced at the moment as I’m reading Stallman’s essays in Free Software, Free Society, which came with my FSF associate membership.) Accordingly, I’m a long-time fan of Debian GNU/Linux and an emerging fan of Gentoo Linux. On the other hand …

I’m also a fan of the simplicity and, apparently, the altruism embodied in the modified BSD license (under General). BSD licensing suits my nature as a behind-the-scenes contributor who’s happiest when I light up people’s faces anonymously. Accordingly, I’m also a big fan of NetBSD and now, Mac OS X, which is a free BSD (Darwin)-plus-commercial software hybrid.

Today I see that Daring Fireball’s John Gruber interviews Brent Simmons, the mostly-Mac programmer and creator of NetNewsWire, a Mac OS X news aggregator. Excellent thoughts! Maybe Brent is hitting my philosophical bullseye with this:

I agree that open source and closed source can coexist within the same projects. NetNewsWire is an example of that. Mac OS X is sort of an example … there’s a lot of mix there, lots of open source, lots of commercial software. I think that’s a good thing, if for no other reason than diverse ecosystems tend to be healthier.

What I’d like to see is less zealotry from all corners. Open source is good, shareware is good, commercial software is good. It all comes down to good apps, using the right tool for the job. I prefer less ideology and more generosity. For me, Mac OS X is the only OS that seems to have in its DNA that spirit.

Less zealotry, less ideology, more generosity. Yes. That sounds like where I’m at, man.

Thanks, Brent and John.

Next up: BBEdit, GNU Emacs, or XEmacs? :-)