blog n' roll

I want to wish a happy and joyful New Year. Let 2004 be a good year for us all.

Well, well. Fedora Core was a pleasent surprise. It installed with ease, detected my net connection and I was immediately online. I have to say that between these two Linux distributions (SOT Linux and Fedora Core) there is a gap of decades in between. It was like jumping from a poor mans Linux to a rich and top-of-the-art Linux.

I have to take back some of the negative critics I gave about Linux before. This is a full desktop package with plug and play features. Something that bugs me a bit is that it requires quite a lot of CPU power. It is said that Linux can be installed on to older machines and it still runs smoothly. This is not the case with Fedora. I think it should be installed to a new computer to bring the best out of it.

But I will now introduce myself a bit deeper into the secrets of Linux. But if You have thought about installing Linux, I recommend Fedora Core - can be found at http://fedora.redhat.com

I gave up with SOT Linux. I could not connect to internet. The OS did not find my PCMCIA card slot, so I could use my WLAN to connect. There was nowhere (I couldn't find) in the OS where I could install some new hardware, not even in the PDF-instructions. Obviously plug-and-play does not work in Linux. Although it says in their site that the SOT Linux desktop should be easy to use, I find it the opposite. No way it was anyway easy - although the installation went quite ok.

So my first experience on Linux was a disaster, but I will not give up. I've decided to download the Fedora projects Linux distribution - it is based on previous RedHat desktop OS. Hope it is more user friendly. I thought first of Lindows, but decided against it because of the annual fee, I mean Linux should be free, right?

Well there are still two iso files to be downloaded before I am ready to install the Fedora to my laptop - SOT Linux was only one iso file to download. Well, hopefully with Fedora I can install my net connection and also I hope it is more friendlier.

I wish You all a Merry Christmas.

As I have now worked in numerous internet/intranet/extranet projects and the solutions are 95% always been with Microsoft technology (ASP or .Net) which means Microsoft server product and Internet Information server (IIS). But I have also worked in projects (as the project director) where the technology has been J2EE on Linux servers.

There never has been the need for me to use Linux personally. I know Microsoft products by heart and inside out, they are products of which I have been working on since 1985. I have followed up on Linux since 1998, reading news and articles etc. But never had personal experiences myself.

I got an older Compaq Armada E500 laptop (a "leftover" from one of my clients) and thought I will introduce myself to Linux, to see is it an alternative for Windows - on desktop. It should be easy to install, it should contact to the net, it should send and receive mails - the usual "normal users" stuff. But most of all - IT SHOULD BE AS EASY TO USE AS WINDOWS. Otherwise I see the OS will not conquer the desktop in the near future (in many, many years). It will gain market share on servers, that I can see but not the on desktop if this ease of use is not there. Also one argument it has to be free, because that is the most used argument to switch to Linux.

So I had to choose which Linux distribution I have to take. Hmm... it was not easy to find the right Linux, but I chose SOT Linux. I would have chosen RedHat but they do not support the desktop version anymore, it is an on going open source project now. So I downloaded the iso file, burned it and inserted into my Compaq. It booted fine and so far it was easy when came the keyboard configuration. I chose my keyboard settings (Finnish) and then it crashed. I was a bit suprised that it crashed at that point - why I do not know. Ok, booted again and started the installing again and now all configurations went ok.

I have to say it was not that easy as installing Windows and it is ugly (setup UI). A lot of the configurations I had to know before to proceed. It did not detect some of the hardware (soundcard and integrated modem - and how do I know what the integrated modem is on the Compaq - like so many normal users, they do not know. But I thought that there has to be chance to change it later).

Why did I say that the setup UI was ugly, well it was. People just like nice things (Microsoft knows this), you do not buy ugly clothes. And it is no excuse that it is free, it still should look nice.

Well this ends my first part of Linux for first time users. I will write more when I have more experience of it :]

I'm using Microsofts latest addition to their Office software Microsoft OneNote. For me it is very handy tool, cause I  make a lot of notes, take snippets of different articles from the web etc. So take a look at the OneNote article.

You can view more about OneNote at Microsoft website for Microsoft OneNote. You can even download an evaluation version of it.

KEO is a satellite built to return to Earth 50 000 years from today. It shall bring back to our far away descendants every message that each and every one of us is invited to put on board.

Launch of the satellite is planned end of 2006. So write your message now at: http://www.keo.org/uk/pages/default.html

A very interesting article, I recommend to read it

[read the article]

Without Microsoft there would be 80.000 more unemployed in Germany.

“Microsoft is a job-creation motor in Germany,” Jürgen Gallmann, the head of company’s German unit, told the DPA news agency... [read more]

Xmas is close by. Hopefully you all have written a nice letter to Santa Claus, who lives on the North Pole - as you know. The letter from Calvin (from Calvin and Hobbes) to Santa is hilarious, enjoy it.

I was one of the Microsoft Office System 2003 beta testers. As a thank you gift from Microsoft I received a "nice" radio. The gift could have been more Microsoftish (software, something...), but it is the thought that counts.