Tech World is reporting that a migration of 55,000 users to a Linux desktop has been successfully completed. Techworld.com - World's largest Linux migration gets major boost
Blog
🕑Feb 01, 2005 🖋John Locke
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What's broken in Windows?
As a computer consultant helping small businesses, one of the first things I do is install Firefox on the Windows computers. While there are still a handful of sites that only work with Internet Explorer, universally I find new users like the Fox...
🕑Jan 30, 2005 🖋John Locke
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Linux much less vulnerable on Internet
A couple of interesting stories here. First of all, it takes about 4 minutes for an unpatched Windows machine connected to the Internet without a firewall to be compromised.
🕑Jan 25, 2005 🖋John Locke
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A laptop, coffee, and disaster recovery
Last week, my laptop died a sudden, spectacular death by drowning as a full cup of coffee poured into its keyboard. It emitted a pop sound, and the screen and all power shut off.
What would be your reaction? Mine was to immediately unplug the power cord and remove the battery. Then I took it over to the sink and poured out the coffee. Remembering tales of people flushing keyboards with water, I ran some fresh water over the keys and then set to work. I removed the keyboard, the palm rest, a few of the inner cards, and let it sit without power for several hours. Apparently not long enough.
🕑Jan 15, 2005 🖋John Locke
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Linux will command a much greater share of the Desktop Market
A Linux Journal article by Tom Adelstein argues that studies that show 6% of desktops to be run on Linux in the next three years doesn't take into account all the viruses, worms, and vulnerabilities of Windows. He predicts more like 25% market penetration in this space.
🕑Jan 13, 2005 🖋John Locke
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New Free Software Magazine
Tony Mobily writes, "The first issue of Free Software Magazine is out! Free Software Magazine is
a new magazine entirely dedicated to free software. It contains quality
🕑Jan 03, 2005 🖋John Locke
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Getting rid of Quickbooks
LinuxPlanet has a review of open source and Linux accounting software. Unfortunately, they omitted what I consider to be the best for most small businesses, the fantastic SQL Ledger program.
🕑Dec 28, 2004 🖋John Locke
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Open Source sneaking into small businesses
Many small businesses are starting to use Linux and open source solutions without even realizing it. They're helped along by consultants who offer better solutions at lower costs, a nice combination for any business. Nice story at the MIT Enterprise Technology Review:
🕑Dec 22, 2004 🖋John Locke
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Quick Do-It-Yourself Greeting Cards
Tux magazine has a quick how-to about creating greeting cards in Linux using Scribus. Quick Do-It-Yourself Greeting Cards | TUX.
🕑Dec 21, 2004 🖋John Locke
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Ben Franklin was an Open Source guy
While reading a biography of Ben Franklin, I learned that Mr. Franklin routinely gave his inventions away to the public, without collecting a nickel.
🕑Dec 21, 2004 🖋John Locke
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Make sure your VPN is secure...
There is now a tool that can easily crack PPTP authentication, which is what is used in the basic Virtual Private Networking standard included in Windows. Because of its wide deployment, PPTP is perhaps the easiest type of VPN to deploy--but it should no longer be considered secure.
🕑Dec 21, 2004 🖋John Locke
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Hard Passwords made easy
Why use a strong password
In the online world, security plays a role in all online activities. Passwords are the most commonly used method to limit access to specific people. In last month's newsletter, we discussed assessing the relative value of systems protected by passwords, and grouping passwords across locations with similar trustworthiness.
In a nutshell, don't bother creating and remembering strong passwords for low value systems, and certainly don't use the same passwords for low value systems that you use in high value systems.