Before you say anything… Yes I know I am late and I am ashamed. Given the fact that I am involved in the Haiku Project (I mainly contribute to the Haiku Web team and answer general inquiries from the contact form on the site) I should have posted this back on September 14.

Regardless, Haiku R1/Alpha 1 is here. It is the first official release from the Haiku Project after years of continuous development. Unlike a lot of alpha releases from other projects I feel that this Alpha is of superior quality and stability (yes… I am biased). If you are interested in open source operating systems this is a great one to give a try.  Hop on over to the Haiku website and download the ISO, virtual machine or raw disk image to test it out!

I know it’s been a while since my last post but I recently purchased my first home and have been pre-occupied with everything surround that process. It’s pretty stressful and very time consuming but worth every minute of it. The wife and I are very pleased. Anyway on to the post…

I’ve been using Windows 7 as my main operating system for 2 months and 5 days (66 days) and I am still very impressed. Not only does it run smoothly but I’ve yet to encounter the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death”. Windows is notoriously bad for requiring reboots all the time for just about everything but this has not been the case for me. I only occasionally have to reboot when there are security and/or feature updates from Windows Update that require it.

I’ve also been testing the beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows XP Mode. Both of which run fantastically well on my system. Unfortunately, at least for testing purposes, all of  applications I use work fine on 7 so I don’t have much use for XP mode. Although, I must say, the application integration in XP Mode works quite well even for apps that do work in Windows 7. Even my work doesn’t have a whole lot of legacy software that would require such a feature but I am sure some organizations do.

I also have 7 running on my work laptop so I can test in an Active Directory Domain environment. I am able to get most of my drive mappings, applications, and printers (with proper drivers) to work. There are, however, two minor issues I have encountered. One of these issues is not Windows 7`s fault but rather that of Cisco. We use a Cisco VPN concentrator for remote connections to the office and the Cisco VPN client does not support 64bit versions (of any Windows ) and requires a bit of trickery to get working on Windows 7 32bit. The second issue is the login screen. Once you have joined a domain, 7 automatically defaults to the login for that domain. Unlike XP, where you could choose the domain or computer from a drop down box on the login screen, you have to type in computer-name\username then your password to log in locally. I`ve yet to figure out how (or even if) this can be changed back to the old style.

All in all, my feeling is still very positive towards Windows 7 and I suspect this will finally be the next version for businesses and corporations looking to upgrade. Home users who were not happy with Vista should also be pretty satisfied with Windows 7 as long as the final version is as stable as the release candidate.

Cheers!
TheNerd

Windows XP Mode is a new virtualization feature to be available to Windows 7 users running the Ultimate, Professional or Enterprise versions of the operating system. This is basically a revamped version of Microsoft Virtual PC and a pre-configure Windows XP virtual machine.

The beauty of this set up is that you can have your XP applications run just as if they were installed in Windows 7. There is a folder created in your start menu that allows you to launch these applications with a single click without having to load the XP virtual machine manually each time. In effect, the XP virtual machine will be running in the background when these applications are being used but it’s transparent to the user.

As of the present time, XP Mode is still in beta and requires you to download and install Windows Virtual PC. Both are freely available as beta versions from the Microsoft website. The requirements to run XP Mode are as follows:

1. Windows 7 (Ultimate, Professional or Enterprise)
2. Hard disk: 2GB for installing Windows XP Mode. Addtional 15GB of hard disk space for the virtual Windows environment.
3. A processor capable of hardware virtualization, with AMD-V™ or Intel® VT (use this handy little application to find out if you have this capability)

If all these conditions are met you can download XP Mode, Windows Virtual PC and install them. I’ve been using this set up for a few days now and it’s very handy to run some older applications that do not work well under Vista or 7. You can also use Windows Virtual PC to create new virtual machines or run existing ones that were created with older versions (it even runs my eComStation 2.0 RC5 vm).

Cheers!
~TheNerd

I’ve been running Windows 7 RC (Build 7100) for a few weeks now and I must say that I am quite impressed. I had more problems with Vista (RTM) in the first two days after installation that I’ve had in the whole three weeks I’ve had 7 installed.

I’m running it on my desktop computer which is made up of the following components:

• ASUS M2N-E Motherboard
• AMD Athlon X2 4200+ CPU (Dual Core 2.2GHz)
• 4GB DDR 2 RAM
• ~1.5TB of disk space (2x 500GB, 1x 250GB, 1x 160GB)
• Sapphire RADEON X1650 PRO Video
• DVD Drive
• 2x 19″ LCD Monitors

The hardware worked right off the bat and I did not need to install any drivers to get going. Once I had set things up and looked for some Windows updates there was an updated driver for the video card which I installed but reall didn’t notice a difference.

As far as software is concerned, everthing appears to be working more or less as expected. The only software that has caused me problem was Call of Duty: World At War, which tried to get me to install Direct X 9 which failed and then wouldn’t load. There might be a way to get this running but I haven’t looked into it at this time.

Lastly, I am very impressed with the stability and robustness of this OS. It’s not once given me a blue screen or crashed in any way. The only time I’ve had to reboot was after some Windows updates.

All in all it looks like Windows 7 will be the OS to go with, at least for home users. I’ve yet to test it in a business capacity but I suspect that it will fair pretty well running enterprise software in a corporate networked environment. It’s much improved compared to Vista and can even run on some hardware that Vista had trouble with. Hopefully Microsoft will continue along this path and continue to create operating systems of this quality (hopefully the RTM version will be as good).

Cheers!
~TheNerd

For the greater part of the past 5 years I’ve worked mostly with Novell’s eDirectory and related services. I thought it was a great combination but I’m starting to realize how much better Active Directory is.

Now, as I get settled into my new position at my new company I’ve started to realize how much I actually missed working with Active Directory.

In the past I thought that eDirectory and NetWare was the way to go. It seemed reliable, fast, and easy to administer. For the most part I guess it was but Active Directory works that much better.

In my old environment we had NetWare servers, eDirectory for authentication and user related stuff, and GroupWise email. My new company uses Windows servers, Active Directory and Outlook/Exchange for email.

One of my main complaints about Novell was that it required client side software to connect to the services (Novell Client) where as Windows already has a built in client for Active Directory logins (I don’t care about Client Services for NetWare). What is the point of using a system that requires extra overhead of another client when there is already one built in. Not to mention the endless problems that arise because of NDPS/iPrint, NMAS, NICI etc that have to also be installed for the use of a lot of NetWare/eDir services.

With NetWare based services you have to use three different tools to administer everything, ConsoleONE, Netware Administrator and iManager just to accomplish simple tasks. And most of the time they never work right to begin with. With Active Directory most of it is done in the Active Directory Users and Computers console.

Working with printers in NetWare can be a nightmare. You have to manage the Broker, Manager, and printer agents. In Windows you just set up the printer and connect it to the print server (usually by creating an IP printer port on a dedicated print server). There’s not as many components to deal with or to fail in a Windows environment.

Those are just a few things, I could probably go on for quite a while about all the short falls of NetWare but I won’t. I’m quite happy re-learning all of the things associated with Windows and Active Directory. The one thing that makes Windows so much easier to work with is Remote Desktop. It’s much easier working in a GUI session on a Windows machine than it is to muddle through the NetWare console and it’s text based interface.

I’m not saying that NetWare and eDirectory is all bad but now that I’ve re-experienced a Windows environment I’m hard pressed to find a lot of good to say. Maybe it’s because I’m enjoying the challenge and the new environment but I suspect these feelings won’t go away anytime soon.

I’ve recently had the chance to ask Joachim Benjamins of Mensys about the state of eComStation, their involvement with the product and where it fits in this mordern world of Linux and Windows operating systems. Here is the interview in full. Enjoy.

1. TheNerd: What is Mensys and how are you involved?

Joachim: Mensys started out as a company that saw the lack of OS/2 specific knowledge and product availability as an opportunity to start a mailorder firm to satisfy that demand. I have been working here since 1995, and have seen the company grow and diversify.

2. TheNerd: What is eComStation and how does it relate to OS/2?

Joachim: eComStation is an OEM distribution of OS/2. As such, it is basically OS/2 with patches applied and all sorts of enhancements to make it run on current hardware. The main reason for this product is to support people (and companies) that need or want to run OS/2 on non-ancient computers.

3. TheNerd: How does Mensys fit in with Serenity Systems and eComStation?

Joachim: Mensys got in touch with Serenity Systems as soon as they (SSI) got the IBM OEM contract for OS/2. We were actively involved with OS/2 so we knew what was going on in the ‘OS/2 world’. eComStation is the name that was given to the OEM version of OS/2, as part of the deal with IBM was that the product was not allowed to be called “OS/2″.

4. TheNerd: When do you anticipate that eCS 2.0 will go GA?

Joachim: We have worked really hard to fix the last bugs and were able to release eComStation 2.0 RC6 at Warpstock Europe 2008. After RC6 there will be a final RC7. which needs to get some wide testing, and we anticipate that the GA version should be ready early next year. Of course, we are aware that this is really late – but I once read that serious delays make you a ‘big developer’ *

* With Android’s delay, Google is officially a big software developer

5. TheNerd: How many developers actively work on eCS and what are they currently working on?

Joachim: We have several developers working on various parts of the operating system, like ACPI and other important low-level drivers, we co-fund the development of UniAud (audio subsystem), a lot of volunteers work on translating and maintaining the NLV (national language versions) of eComStation up to date. The official development team consists of 74 people at this moment, however not all of them are equally active of course. (http://ewiki.ecomstation.nl/eDG)

6. TheNerd: Will there be following versions of eCS shortly after 2.0 is released? i.e. 2.01, 2.02, 2.03 etc…

Joachim: No doubt there will be updates required to the 2.0 GA version and it makes sense to release these as new versions, when enough of them have been collected. Our primary concern is getting the localized versions released when eComStation 2.0 English is ready though.

7. TheNerd: Who do you see as the main customers using eCS these days?

Joachim: We see an increase in the amount of corporate users, as it seems more and more clear that eComStation is the only viable way to obtain an OS/2 license. These customers are rather happy with the ability to install on modern machines and are returning for more licenses. We also offer quite extensive support for some custom requirements to these larger accounts. Despite this, the largest group of customers is still formed by the endusers and computer-enthousiasts.

8. TheNerd: In your opinion, what do you see as the benefits and short falls of eComStation in today’s market that is flooded with Windows and Linux?

Joachim: There’s a couple of main benefits in my view:

• Once used to the WPS and it’s merits, you will find it hard to find a similar way of working on any other desktop system.
• The lack of viri and other malware makes it good for surfing and emailing, with the latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird readily available, although the lack of an up to date Flash player can be a problem at certain websites. Luckily the latter may change soon…
• eComStation provides excellent backward compatibility to OS/2 and as such supports old and even very old OS/2 applications, for corporate users this can be very important.
• performance: eComStation is really performing well on relatively modest hardware.

The short falls in my opinion are:

• lack of new ‘native’ applications, although there is a lot of applications that can be (and are) ported from Linux. Paul Smedley is doing an excellent job of keeping some important applications current, like the Apache webserver, MySQL database and other mainstream applications. Have a look here for a complete list.
• there is currently no multiuser capability for the desktop. Third party applications are available to enable this though.
• no support for Windows applications like MS Office, but OpenOffice.org is available even in the current release to provide at least some document compatibility.
• eComStation really isn’t meant for multimedia applications, although it can play DVD movies and MP3 music.

9. TheNerd: In the future will eCS development remain partially focused on the end user market or will it be focused more and more on the enterprise/corporate markets?

Joachim: This will probably always be a mixture between demand from corporate users and wishes from the enduser market.

10. TheNerd: What do you envision as the future of eComStation?

Joachim: I think eComStation will keep serving a certain niche-market for corporate users and it will remain a viable platform for many users who want a computer to simply work. We keep working on improving the browsing experience and to remain a useful platform for doing every day work.

11. TheNerd: Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Joachim: We are very grateful for the patience of everyone while we’re working on the last issues of eComStation 2.0. Of course, we want to thank all volunteers who keep helping to make this product possible in the first place!

Thanks very much to Joachim for is time spent answering my questions. And for journalistic integrity I do run a small business that is a Mensys reseller and I have been selling eComStation related software for the past 2 and a half years.

In my trek for a MAC OS X style dock for my Ubuntu PC, the other day, I happened upon a neat little app called Rocket Dock. This app is actually for Windows but I decided to try it out anyway (I’ve yet to find one for Ubuntu that I like).

I was pleasantly surprised. It was a fairly small download and was quick to install. So far I have been running it for 3 days and haven’t had any issues whatsoever.

One of my favorite things about this is the availability of custom icons, skins, docklets available to make your experience with it that much better. The icons are particularly useful because some applications don’t fare well with Rocket Dock’s method of rendering the icons. The one that sticks out in my mind is Internet Explorer.

If you are interested in such a tool I suggest giving rocket dock a try. You can get it from their official website at http://www.rocketdock.com/.

Stefan Berka is the owner/operator of operating-system.org. The goal of his site is to document and share as much information about operating systems as possible. I’ve recently had the chance to ask him a few questions and here they are with the answers. Enjoy!

Q. Who are you and what do you do?
A. My name is Stefan Berka, i live in Germany and work for a security software company as employee in the support department.

Q. What prompted you to start operating-system.org and why?
A. I was fascinated from the different operating systems with different concepts and graphical user interfaces. Starting from 1999, there was only a documentation of 15 pages and i had the goal to share the informations with others after some revision over a own website.

Q. How long have you been running the website?
A. The website is online since 15. February 2001. Since then the design and navigation have gone through important changes.

Q. What to you envision as the future of operating-system.org?
A.The intention of my project is to inform about as many operating systems in detail as possible. All informations are free of charge and and without restriction available in long term.

Q. Are there any new features and/or components you plan on adding in the near future?
A. I have the plan to make some screenshots specials with operating systems for comparison with others. Because of the feedback of some visitors, specifications about the minimum hardware requirements are added soon.

Q. What is your favorite OS and why?
A. I like to work with different operating systems to take benefit from each of them for the needed field of application. If i had to choose one only i’ll take Linux to compile and configure it for my needs.

Q. Are there any operating systems that are missing from your site? Are there any that you need help to find information for?
A. Currently i’m after the seek of screenshots of the operating systems Minix, PC/GEOS and NEXTSTEP.

Q. What do you see as the future of the operating system? Is it in the “cloud” or do you think the desktop OS still has a future?
A. My opinion is that there will be possible never the one and only perfect operating system for everyone. The requirements for all sorts of intended purposes in the ease of use, security and multimedia support are too different. The operating system roles for desktop and server usage will be stay for a long time.

Q. What operating system(s) do you use on your personal computers and why have you chosen it (them)?
A. I use Windows XP on my desktop computer for maximum compatibility and performance for games. Windows Vista is installed on my laptop to produce the website project with high security. Mandriva Linux is used for multimedia purposes on another computer, the advantage is to install and configure it once.

Q. Do you have anything else you would like to add?
A. The website is developed with a own content management system in PHP/mySQL. All pages are created with templates for each language offline for the upload.

So I was bored the other night and decided to get my copy of eComStation RC4 up and running and make a short screencast. I also added some music to make the viewing a little more pleasant. The list time I created a video of eComStation it ended up on the official eComStation website. I’ll send another email to the resellers mailing list this time and see if they are interested in posting it to their site again. There are a couple of mistakes that got in there but I was too lazy to fix them so you’ll see the top of an Windows Live Messenger sign-in notification and a preview of a minimized window (Vista thing). Feel free to comment here or on YouTube.

For those of you who know me, you know that I am not one to put up with bullshit or red tape for very long. You would also know that I am the kind of person who is always testing out new things and that I have a constant thirst for knowledge.

For the past four years I have been working as Help Desk Analyst for various government departments. So you ask what I am getting at? Well the above are some of the main factors to why I need to leave my current job. It’s sort of a Catch 22, I guess. It’s a very stable position with a pension and great medical benefits but I just can’t take it anymore.

My parents can’t understand why [update Sept 4,2008 - Mom says that her and Dad have a good grasp on my reasoning for moving on from this position - thanks Mom ] I would want to leave such a job and go for something in the private sector that doesn’t offer the same amount of stability or benefits. I can tell you why, it’s because I’m getting burnt out. A person can only take so much of the same thing (some can handle this more that others). I’m getting tired of the repetitive questions and petty (I really do mean petty) “issues” that people seem to think are important. It would be safe to say that 99% of these petty requests have no bearing on the grand scheme of things and no effect on the end result. It’s tough for me to sit here and respect a place that places so much emphasis on issues that don’t mean anything and don’t advance towards the improvement of the organization.

I feel that I need a job where I can take pride in what I do. I don’t have to be saving baby bunny rabbits or anything crazy like that but it would be nice to have some sort of gratification out of it. In my current position there are no methods in place to reward productivity or encourage hard work. The only thing that can happen is you can be scolded if you do not perform to expectations but there’s nothing that can really be done so no one worries about being fired. What kind of place is that to work? I’ve heard people wonder why no one wants to work any overtime but they can’t figure out why. Sure, we get paid for it but there’s nothing to make us feel that it will be rewarded in any other way than monetary. Management doesn’t even tell us whether or not they appreciate the work we do over and above our daily duties.

There are other factors that come in to play here as well. One is that there is no accountability, FOR ANYTHING. It really doesn’t matter what you do there’s almost nothing that can be done about it. Human Resources has warnings and written warnings that can be used but in all my time here I have never known of anyone using them.

Another one of the reasons for me wanting to get it is the issue of stagnation. I feel that in the past few years (mostly the past two) that there’s really been no change in the technology that we use. This is where my thirst for learning is just about killing me. Since the technology is pretty much at a standstill, I have learned a few ways to help keep my mind at ease but it’s no longer enough. There were a few times when it looked like some new projects were going to come through but they have almost all been squashed at the last minute.

There are more issues why I feel the need to part ways with this position but I don’t think I will mention them as I’ve already been scolded for pointing them out. Once I leave I may consider talking about them in greater detail but for now I’m sure I’ve bored you enough already.

Cheers!
~TheNerd