While everyone is sitting back waiting for the ISO ballet result changes after the BRM for the ECMA 376 OOXML, as to whether it will be adopted as a standard. I thought I would tell you what I think. At this stage the votes seem to be pointing to a victory for Microsoft. I’m not a Lawyer, so dont think I’m commenting as one.
I see this as not a major issue for ODF (Open Document Format). From what I’ve read with OOXML out there currently, business and Government don’t seem to even be looking at any other format other than ODF. If this trend continues.,then OOXML with just be another on the shelf standard with Windows users having it shoved down their throats like Microsoft binary formats of the past. OOXML can join HD-DVD as the engine that couldn’t.
Personally I don’t support and will endeavour not to be brought under this permissive curse called OOXML. I will continue the migration all of my file format away from existing old binary formats to ODF. Dragging stuff out from when I was in High School. I want to be able to share with my kids when they say ‘what sort of stuff did you do when you were at school’. I can also recall old ideas I had and thesis’s I did. All of which are in binary formats and almost now inaccessible. The process is going to be long and tedious.
So what ever happens I hope that people will see that OOXML is not truly and Open Standard in the practical sense. Microsoft will still have pretty much full control of its direction. Its up to us to stop its implementation and promote true open Standards.
The beta program for ABC playback is now on-line. I registered early because, although it was stated that ABC playback would not work with Linux under flash, I did not believe the account. This also gave me the chance to see what us Linux users are missing out on.
Today I received confirmation back that I was successfully registered in the beta program and decided so see if what was stated was true.
Below are picture of my results using Firefox 2.0.0.13 with the flash plug-in on Mandriva 2008.1 RC2 . I also have proprietary codecs installed.
The interface seems to be very Elisa Media Center like and also very Youtube like in the selection of the content. The streaming video quality is ok, but could be slightly better.
It will be interesting to see what actual content is displayed in the final release. At the moment it is pretty much ‘The Bill’ and a few documentaries.
Overall the implementation is quite nice and I will probably use it frequently as I tend to miss some shows I like.
I dont know if anyone has had quite the same problem I have had, but I will explain. On the weekend simultaneously my web host had a problem with one of their licenses that happened to be on the server my site was on. This site also happened to contain my emails. This gave me no access to anything on the site including ftp or ssh access until the license registration was renewed. The joys of using a proprietary website management software. I reported a ticket and waited. I was happy with the response time. By Monday of the long weekend I was still unable to access to my site or email. So I got a few people to check my site. They were able to access and the web host verified that my site was up and running. Ok I thought maybe my ISP was a little behind so I waited a couple more hours.
Later in the evening I tried to retrieve my emails; still no luck. This time I contacted my ISP who put the problem back on the web host. So I contact them again and they said ‘we can access all of your services and account via ftp and other means’. So today I called my ISP back and this time I got someone with some decent access to the server. They said they flushed out the datastream (jargon) for my account an now I can access (I think this was code for we reset your account). I got my wife to check and everything was now working and emails retrieved.
Out of all this I can understand why the website and hosting went down but as to why the connection to any domain on the server I am hosted on has left me puzzled and guessing. I spoke to friends who are with the same ISP and state they have had what appears to be a block accessing their hotmail accounts.
Well I guess I will never know the true story and am glad to have access back to my emails.
Thanks to all those who helped troubleshoot this with me. You know who you are. Now back to living life again and solving other peoples problems instead of mine.
This is just my opinion so no flaming.
I like how Linux is being adopted by small business over Microsoft Server. The freedom and flexibility must be a great incentive for start-ups.
Its also good to see that the world in general and the main line media is beginning to take notice on a regular basis of the change. See Microsofts new play for linux lovers by the Wall Street Journal.
Linux is becoming the operating system of choice and I hope we will see a greater increase in the next few years. I believe these days its not about price, but freedom, flexibility and stability that using Open Source software provides.
My migration away from Windows came when I decided to give Linux ago again. I tried Mandrake 7.2 in 2000 after I got married and thought this stuff has great promise and potential. At that time I was on dial-up and it wasnt my time to switch. Now in 2008 I have celebrated 1 year using Mandriva (I choose this as I was familiar with Mandrake from 2000 and had not heard of Ubuntu). The main reason I switched 12 months ago, or the inspiration for my switch was the constant dealing with the Windows environment. I was no casual user of Microsoft products but had been using them since the DOS days in the early 90’s. What bugged me was daily maintenance, the odd trojan or virus sneaking in through the firewall and the main catalyst; the instability in the the Windows Desktop as a whole. I was a lucky person. I never ever got the BSOD; but I knew a lot of people who did. My usual routine was having to reinstall windows every 6 months just to try and get some stability and peace of mind that my system was secure. An every install for me including every application I use was around 4 to 5 hours. This gets tedious after a while and if anything went wrong during installation there was no way to repair the problem and continue.
So after these constant struggles I downloaded the ISO for Mandriva 2007, repartitioned my Hard Disk and began the installation process. I was so amazed how far Mandrake/Mandriva Linux had come. The installation took about 1 hr from the DVD with no updates. The DVD installed everything I need for a funtional desktop, with no need to install applications. I did the updates once it booted into KDE and added the repositories. Adding root and users accounts was simple and before I knew it I had a working desktop. I was amazed at the speed and flexibilty of Linux and the thought that Mandriva put into making it an easy experience for new people. The Mandriva Control Center or Draktools as they are known in the Mandriva community, made configuration of printers and network sharing simple. I did not need to use the command line once during this process. I thought I was in heaven. The speed of the OS also impressed me. It ran rings around my Windows XP installation even after I freshly installed it three months before. I decided from then to make Linux my default booting OS and would slowly find equivalent applications to replace those I used in Windows.
WOW if startups are seeing this when they begin their business and are implimenting Linux over Windows, then I can understand why Microsoft is finding it hard. The ease and stability to configure makes linux a free viable option. Not to mention less down time then With Windows Server.
If I was starting a small business and needed servers for daily business and to provide solution to my customer I would now choose Linux over Windows. I would also have Linux as for staff as my desktop of Choice. Would probably stick with Mandriva as distribution of Choice.
These are just my thoughts, do what you will with them.
