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I personally am more paranoid of the Google OS. I haven't really navigated the blogosphere on this, so my view may have already been stated extensively.
I see a big threat in what Google is aiming here, which is complete dependence on the cloud. Google plans to release most of the so called Chrome OS as free software. Yes, but we should also look at what this OS is reduced to. Or more importantly, in which way Google is hoping to 'educate' its users. Replacing or modifying an operating system by Google shouldn't be an impossible task (though with a varying difficulty from simply reinstalling a laptop's OS to bypassing restriction mechanisms on an Android phone), but a user's set habits are much harder to replace.
I don't know if you would see this as unsubstantiated speculation, but Google's main goal seems to be to create a computing environment where the operating system and everything on the user's machine just serve as the boot loader of the real computer, i.e. the cloud, of which Google is trying get the majority userbase as quickly and as early as possible.
"this isn’t trading one monopolist for another"
My fear is even deeper than that. Microsoft is clearly a monopoly with many of its decisions taken not in the interest of its users, but rather against them. However, Google, if you accept my previous premise, is posing a much bigger threat. Whereas the fight between Free Software and Microsoft is a relatively conventional struggle between the right thing to do with your personal computing versus the wrong thing, Google's end goal has the risk of making this whole fight irrelevant, and not in a good way...
Despite the significance of the threat, how or if Google's cloud computing ideal is inevitable is far from being definite. Google doesn't quite have the same direct force on computer users' machines the same way IBM once had or Microsoft is still enjoying. Therefore, Google is trying to lure users with features and conveniences. Although cloud computing has several advantages over traditional computing especially for users of highly restrictive platforms such as Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X, I personally believe it can never match the power of personal computing, especially when done with Free Software.
On the flip side, Google is also doing numerous beneficial things for digital freedom such as developing some pieces of software under free licenses or fighting for internet standards. Whatever motivation they may have for doing these, they certainly have also immediate good effects for the free software communities. So, I am not suggesting that one should reject all of Google's projects. On the contrary, we should try to benefit from them as much as we can without sacrificing already established freedoms. It is only necessary to keep their end game in mind while doing so.
I have been increasingly getting interested in console-only environments, no little thanks to K.Mandla's inspiring articles.
However, my biggest concern was the screen resolution I could get at framebuffer. According to the prompt I was getting with the vga argument at kernel boot line, I could only get 1024x768 from my Thinkpad X200s which has a native resolution of 1440x900. Having only such a small portion of the real screen real estate obviously meant less productivity I could get.
Today, I did some research on the interwebs looking for a way to increase the framebuffer resolution. Along the several tips that looked like black magic to me, this is the simplest solution for my taste.
I installed hwinfo which you can find pre-packaged on Debian, Ubuntu and gNewSense. And the hwinfo --framebuffer command listed all possible resolutions which contained some that were not given by the aforementioned prompt. Here's the snippet that interested me the most:
Mode 0x0369: 1440x900 (+1472), 8 bits Mode 0x036a: 1440x900 (+2880), 16 bits Mode 0x036b: 1440x900 (+5760), 24 bits
Theoretically, adding one of these modes as the vga argument should enable the corresponding resolution. On my machine, however, the 24 bits mode broke the console output for a reason I don't know. But the 8 bits and 16 bits modes work charmfully.
Trying to come up with a screenshot, I also discovered the nifty fbgrab tool that takes framebuffer and X screenshots.
p.s. This machine has the on-board Intel GMA X4500MHD graphics chip.
EDIT: For those who want the clear cut solution, I basically added vga=0x036a at the end of the GRUB's kernel line.
Recently, there has been some activity at the Linux-libre mailing list to create a Linux-libre mascot. Coincidentally, I have been considering adding a custom boot logo to the Freedom Shoppe kernel packages just before the discussion started. So, I decided to wait until there is a nice logo posted instead of using a crude design of mine.
Having gathered some beautiful samples, I decided on my favorite and put together a kernel patch today. It basically adds the option of building a new Linux-libre logo into the kernel. Here's the result!
Download the video in Theora/Vorbis format
I'm not sure if this (or anything like it) will ever become a part of the official Linux-libre releases, but I am intending to include them in the Freedom Shoppe kernel packages for Debian, Ubuntu and gNewSense. As the first version with this logo, I have just released 2.6.29.1-libre-fshoppe2 series.
Edit: I replaced the embedded Flash video with an HTML 5 complaint <video> tag. I would like to thank the FLOSS Manuals ofr their most helpful TheoraCookbook. [31.08.2009]
I have just uploaded installation packages of Linux-libre 2.6.29.1 that you can find here. They should install and run fine on Debian Lenny, Ubuntu Hardy/Intrepid and gNewSense deltah.
The Linux-libre Project purges Linux releases from non-free binary blobs. It also just started guaranteeing users' freedom by not loading external binary-only firmware that was possible in previous releases.
You can find out how to build a custom kernel here.
I own a Lenovo Thinkpad X200s with Intel GMA X4500 series graphics chip that I wanted to use with an additional monitor for some time. Because this chipset is quite new, it didn't perform well in gNewSense 2.1 which is based on Ubuntu Hardy. So I settled with the then just released Debian Lenny because it was stable and easy to free. (I just needed to replace the kernel with a Linux-libre build, Iceweasel with GNU IceCat and stick to the main repo.)
With the recent news of beta releases from Fedora and Ubuntu, I decided to see how far the graphics support has come. So, I downloaded live ISO images of Fedora 11 Beta and Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" Beta and created bootable USB images with FUSBi.
Fedora supported kernel mode-setting and booted in the new flickerless boot sequence. I could enable 3D graphics without trouble. However, it didn't support a dual monitor setup out-of-the-box.
Ubuntu Jaunty, on the other hand, supported my dual monitor setup. However, there was significant tearing in video playback and no 3D support.
Since all of my hardware (including on-board graphics and Atheros-based wireless networking adapter) relies on free software, the results should be same if I were to replace both distributions' kernels with completely free ones.
The support for my graphics chip certainly seems to have improved significantly over the last months, but it's far from being complete. I wish Intel would have cared more about providing free software support for its graphics chipset series that have been widely distributed for about a year now.
On a side note, spending some time on these standard GNOME environments made me realize how much I have been relying on my tiling window manager of choice for speedy window management.
I have just received this cool philosomatika t-shirt in the mail. And they were kind enough to leave a friendly note on the bill!
Philosomatika is an online radio station streaming uninterrupted goa & psychedelic trance. Although I'm no aficionado of trance music, I mostly use this station as a background music while I do other things, especially hacking. It was a good purchase since the t-shirt seems very well printed and I have contributed to this independent radio station in the process.
I've been interested in using a tiling window manager for some time. Although I have had dwm, awesome and xmonad installed on my laptop, I've never spent more than a couple of hours on them.
So, about two days ago I decided to take ultimate step and replace Metacity with Xmonad on GNOME, which is my primary desktop environment.
As I am discovering this new WM, I will be documenting useful notes on a wiki page.
My favorite pastime activity for the last couple of weeks have been entering
into a full screen terminal emulator and watching virtually everything in my file system ls'ed. It's hypnotizing if you stare at the screen long enough.ls -aR /
Of course, how long it is going to take to complete depends on how many files and directories you have and how fast your hard drive is. Another important factor is - as it is with any "dumb" process dumping stuff on screen - whether you are displaying the terminal or not. On my laptop, it takes around 1 minute to complete. You can test it with the time ls -aR / command where the time utility measures how much time a certain command takes to complete.
Ali: Hello all
AA: Hello Ali
Ali: I have an addiction. I'm addicted to webcomics.
I regularly read a number of webcomics along with countless others that I stumble upon in my nightly cravings for more comics. Here are my favorites:
Okay, this is the most obvious one, since xkcd is arguably the most famous webcomic of the geek genre these days. Despite the corrosiveness of popularity, xkcd is continuing to be original and clever with minimal mediocrity.
I have been reading PHD comics since high school (yes, i see the irony) and it has always been a great companion for my moments of academic anxiety. However, the comics have transformed as the author, Jorge Cham, has finished grad school and became a professor. Nowadays, his comics mostly revolve around either more generalized topics of academia or the evolution of single characters. Still, it's a pleasure to read. If you are going to start reading, I highly recommend starting with the earlier strips.
Delightfully disgusting, Cy&H tickles the most repulsive and perverted regions of the human brain. Although it can become repetitive at times, it's a great entertainment.
I have very recently found this gem of a comic. The drawings are absolutely amazing, and so is the sarcasm.
Another comic strip I discovered recently, Wulffmorgenthaler's sense of humor generally comes from the hidden human misery of everybody. It's a time-proven technique that works great for its authors. It's a great daily read.
This last comic of the list is not known for neither its artistic craftsmanship nor its brilliantly original ideas, but it is a fine representation of the GNU-centric computer culture. Geek Hero Comic tells the story of a group of hackers and their holy war against management and Microsoft-centric drones in the company they work for.
I have used this blog for project announcements until now. But considering a) I would like to blog more often and b) I am in a general stagnation with most of the projects I'm involved with, I think it's time to push the format a little to the micro blogging style. Also, I like the idea of casually sharing raw ideas and experiences that I deem relevant.
So, I'll try to post more often from now on. Let's see how it goes.
© Ali Gündüz 2008 - 2010 CC-BY-SA
