Matt’s Blog of Truth

There are times in our lives where we can realize defining moments. Moments that change us forever. Not to sound too much of a softy but I recently had one of these moments. Believe it or not, a You Tube channel and website is to blame.

Symphony of Science

John Boswell a young lad living in Northern Washington State has created music videos comprising of leading Scientists as the singers. He uses Auto-Tune to achieve the melody. He writes all of his own music to accompany the voice overs, which is some of the most creative and original music I have heard in a long time.

After finding Symphony of Science, I became curious to whom the Scientists were. I know Carl Sagan from Cosmos series made in the 1980’s. But, lesser known are:

Richard Feynman

Neil Degrass Tyson

Included are many more scientists. Now, these scientists are not your typical high school scientist types. These people are passionate about it and the Cosmos. The way they speak about it really trips me out. I recommend everyone give Richard Feynman’s Fun to Imagine series a once through. He describes the process of how a tree is made and the reverse process of it burning in what we call a fire.

A tree on fire is nothing more than the release of ’stored sunlight’. Think about that for a minute. Anyways, Feynman describes it with such passion, clarity and makes even the layman on edge of their seat.

Below is just one of the many videos found at Symphony of Science. I urge you to spread the word, donate and take a look at the featured scientists. Everyone needs to at least understand basic laws of nature. When they do it will change the way you look and feel about the world and yourself!

Too many things can be attributed to either coincidence or shure luck. Like the Primus song, “Is it luck?”. Who knows really? How many times have you experienced something that is mind blowingly unreal?

When this feeling hits you and it is in relation to a simple event, sure maybe it is just a coincidence. However, take an event of a complex nature, such as, global warming. Human beings are spewing CO2 into the atmosphere. It is proven that the Earth goes through natural cycles of cooling and warming. So, which one is causing Earth’s ice caps to melt? (Personally, I think it is BOTH. We are polluting the air and the Earth is also in a warming cycle. Unfortunately, both are taking place, at once, with game changing consequences. )

Another situation is in politics and banking. We all know politicians get paid to make legislation (laws) in favor of bankers. But, when things get better and better for the rich (banks and Wall Street) but worse for the rest of us, can be called out as a red flag! We can start to feel like we are going crazy. There are powers that be, trying to horde as much money as possible. The only way to make more money is to rule over the masses. This is wrong and unfair. But, it is happening.

The beauty of the Internet is that we all can research this. You-tube is a wonderful place to get Alternative News. I will not list any, but please do know this. CNN, FOX and all mainstream media is owned by the Bankers. This is a fact and there are plenty of documentaries, on the Internet, to prove it. It’s known as an everyday things called Corporations. What this means is that the news you get is filtered and biased. Mostly biased in favor of the corporations, bankers and people that own it all. Sure the mass media will cover other things, but all major news corps have fit for print and not fit for print. If an event is true, should it be fit for print regardless of whom the news is reporting?

So, the point I am trying to make here, is this.

Are conspiracy theorists good? I say YES.

If a conspiracy crops up, you can bet there is a reason why. For every action there will be (or should be) an equal and opposite reaction. This is why conspiracy theorists are good for us. Some events are just too important to NOT REQUIRE an opposing theory. No matter how outlandish. Without black there would not be white… Without good, there can not be something to judge that against, for which we call Evil.

So, before you toss out the wacko theorists from your mind, just consider their claims. Then, after heavy scrutiny and skepticism of their claims, form your own ideas. Everything happens for a reason. Even coincidence.

Microsoft released Windows Seven (7) on Oct 22, 2009.

Here are the things you need to know about it.

First, it does improve Vista. But, if it did not, how retarded would that be? An idiot could tell you what was wrong with Vista. Vista was a RAM and CPU pig. It was sluggish when it came to starting applications and even slower when copying files to and from. Not, to mention Vista had a terribly bad navigation problem, when trying to location options to configure your system.

Windows 7 does reduce the ‘fat’. It requires less memory and made minor improvements to the ’snappyness’ of the Operating System.

However, these comparisons are against Vista, the PIG. Any improvements, can be regarded as an improvement, no matter how small, because Vista was really that bad. (Sure after a year or two and SP2 Vista was stable and usable). But, if you compare Windows 7 to XP, Windows 7 is still a PIG. It still consumes triple the RAM, Disk and CPU power, not to mention Graphics memory.

So, comparing Windows 7 to Vista is not fair. The reason comparisons should be with Vista, Yes, but still compared with XP. XP is still used by 70+% of Windows users and corporations.

If you are planning on ‘upgrading’ XP to Windows 7… well you can’t! You have to do a full reinstall. Which means you have to back up ALL your pictures, music and files than reinstall them on Windows 7. Vista users can upgrade, but if your a Vista user already, you are probably a die hard MS fan willing to put up with anything Microsoft decides to be ‘quality’ releases for you to install and use.

But, for those still sticking to XP for so many reasons, there is STILL little incentive to go out and install Windows 7.

Concidering the economy is in the gutter, and millions do not have jobs. What makes Windows 7 so great? Especially, when you will need to buy a new computer to run it? Your still going to be running the same Firefox, Chrome or IE browser you where before. If you play games, most games will have to run in virtual mode, which comes with Windows 7.

A word about visualization to run XP in Windows 7. When you get Windows 7, you will be able to download a copy of XP, that you can run in a window while running Windows 7. Why do you have to run XP when you have the latest Microsoft WIndows 7 Operating System? Because, XP games and or major software will not run on Windows 7! And the XP mode will be as slow as a snail. Why? Well it is easy to imagine that if your computer has to run both Windows 7 AND XP and the XP software you are trying to run, will slow even dual/quad core CPU’s with 2+ gigs of RAM to a crawl.

Which concludes with what type of graphics card you will need. I hope you plan to pay for a new graphics card in the hundreds, because that is what Microsoft wants you to spend just to run their bare minimum software! Because, I promise you will need the extra horse power.

I find it amusing, as a programmer of computer code, are these arguments I read about how language A sucks when language B is far better. Assume I mean language A to be something like Java and B to mean something like C++ or strait ansi C.

I hear all the time about why C++ sucks, when compared to C. Or how Java sucks so bad because it is slow and doesn’y really teach you about a how to program.

I concider myself to be an athiest programmer. Meaning, I don’t worship one language over another. This is not entirely true. I think PHP is far better than Perl. Maybe, I’m just not left brained enough to want to put up with all of Perl’s, let’s try to be as tricky as we can with ONE line of code, instead of making it even close to human readable.

The comment I made above, is probably the most reasonable argument to make, if you want to start a rant about why languages suck compared to others. In that, PHP and Perl are trying to operate on mostly level ground. Both are interpreted languages and both abstract coding ideas away, to make life easier for the programmer. Such as, not having to worry about data typing and memory allocation.

To compare Perl to PHP, is not nessasarily a technical argument, more so than a timing one. If I started to learn Perl before PHP, because PHP did not exist, than I would have been raised on Perl. Instead, I was blessed, to not have to deal with Perl and use a cleaner language, PHP, which operates more or less on the same level.

But, when the argument comparing C to Java comes up. Or even C to C++, I see their point of views. But, I also see how they unintentionally corner themselves into a ‘Language Religion’, so to speak. Meaning, since I ONLY like to program in ASM or as close to the hardware as possible, hence rooting for C or ASM, and completely dogging more abstracted languages like C++ or Java.

There is no question that C is exactly what you need, if you want to program device drivers or make programs that are as efficient as humanly possible, in terms of memory and CPU cycles, while still being as portable as possible. ASM *Assembly is NOT portable therefore belongs in a category of it’s own.

But, what about when you want to program in C++? Just about every hardcore C programmer will tell you that C++ is a big fat pig. It’s usages of Classes and Templates as well as trying to make pointers ‘easier to use and understand’, completely fails.

The argument than becomes a heated debate, when you compare C to C++. Everything you can do in C++ you can do in C, and visa versa! C++ just abstracts things away, to the point, that when you compile and look at C++ code, and compare it to C code, the resulting Assembly code is much less bloated with duplicate instructions, or instructions that can be optimize, had the programmer use strait C instead. This is absolutely true when one wants to reverse engineer compiled code, or try to debug it. C ASM compiled from C is going to be cleaner than ASM compiled from C++.

However, if you want to program a video game, in some cases C++ is more manageable than C, because using the templates and Classes, built into C++ keeps you from having to reinvent those parts. You can make C do everything C++ can using structs with function points and generic function parameters using VOID *. However, why? When you can use these powerful abstractions in C++ and avoiding potential bugs as a result of having to manage every minute detail?

Granted, your resulting C++ will be a bit more bloated in terms of extra ASM instructions, but with Dual CPU Cores and Gigabytes of RAM to make up for this overhead, why bother?

At the same time, you can say C now has many good libraries now, that you CAN program a game in C using graphics libraries like GTK. However, for your own data structures, for instance, if you need to manage the data items that make up a space ship in a 2d/3d shooter game, you will be left with structs in C, while C++ having the advantage of Class creation with easy to add methods, constructors and destructors.

Maybe you want to invent the Class concept all over again using C or maybe you don’t, therefore have the option to take advantage of all that CPu, GPU and RAM and just accept the extra overhead that comes with C++.

While at the same time, strait C is absolutely perfect for such things are Kernel development and device drivers, because in those cases you do NOT want any extra overhead, to make your program run as fast and portable as possible.

Do not lock yourself into a corner, by discounting one language for another. Especially when it comes to the debate of C verse C++. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

The same can be said of Java in comparison to Python.

Where I personally draw the distinction between languages are languages that try to compete at the same abstraction level. Again, an ease no brainer for me is that PHP rocks compared to Perl. Both are at the same abstraction point, yet one lacks needless complexity, for complexities sake. In other words, how much of a nerd to I really want to be? And, what language was I raised on, at the time. Again for me, PHP was available, so Perl was out the door.

However, even at that point in the argument, it is unfair to discount one for the other, if only for the desire to be free to choice your level of nerdness. Want to be needlessly nerdy AND have the option to choose between PHP and/or Perl (simply because both exist and are highly developed), you have the choice.

Now why do I care to even bring up the argument of why people bring up computer language comparison debates? Because, if you see the language for what it is good at and not good at, will open the doors for being able to pick the right language for the job and amount of time and will and perhaps money that is involved.

Suprised?

You shouldn’t be! Many have seen this coming for years. Why? Google is a massive multi-billion dollar Publicly Traded Company. Googles has Billions of dollars just sitting around in bank accounts.

Google is evolving fast. Faster than Microsoft has or is…

The reason Google can evolve faster, is by leveraging Open Source. Google did not have to invent their platform from scratch. Not by a long shot. Google leverages Linux and Open source. Google as we all know is huge. What is interesting about Google as a software technology company, is that it makes none of it’s profits from direct software sales. In fact, everything Google developes, for the most part gives away for free.

Gmail
Google Docs
Google Search
Google Maps
Google Earth and on and on…

What is interesting, and going to be, what Google has called, “A Game Changer”, is that it has decided to enter into the Operating System Market. Look out Apple and Microsoft!

What Google is trying to do, is to make your Web Browser (as well as others like Firefox, Safari and Opera) a super powerdul Browser. A Browser capable of running 3D Video games, MultiMedia software programs and other highly intensive and complex Applications that was not previously possible in a traditional Web Browser.

Introducing, Native Client… “This is a game Changer.”

More to come… Google OS coming soon.

Oh, and it will be FREE of Charge to use and leverage yourself.

that we seem to build things up… only to tear them down.

Ya, the e-e-ee-economy (if you say that out loud you may be reminded of a song) is tanking.

But, look what GOOD it has actually done!

OK, so now you may have to trade in your clunker, using the Cash of Clunkers federal rebate program to get $4500 off your next HYBRID car purchase. Or, maybe by the end of this year the Democrates, which are the majority in House and Senate with Obama at the charge with HEALTHCARE REFORM. (Let’s all thank Obama’s Mama for having him in the first place…thanks Ma!)

Also, the change from Oil and Coal to Wind Farms and ’sustainable energies’ are finally lowering mankind’s (sorry, but it is a man’s world, and why it’s being destroyed) CARBON FOOTPRINT (better to say, taking your oiling boot and making a global skyward smudge on our atmosphere).

So, it takes a Global Economic Crisis… ok… that’s it just the way it goes, I guess.

Now, for all us Computer Scientists, nerds, Open Source is infiltrating more and more corporate businesses, that many small businesses knew about for a decade or more. Why? because Linux and Open Source saves people money, bottom line. And, without lowering the quality of the software. In fact, lowering it is a discredit as a lot of Open Source is better than Proprietary software, in the form of less security holes and bugs, coupled with high stability.

Let’s see, what else has or will change for the better now that we fskd the economy up?

You know, just about EVERYWHERE things are, things are changing. They HAVE to change… one big one that they (the politicians) are grapling with right now is the MASSIVE deficit to the 2008 Federal Tax Returns filed.

So, the government has a 58% drop in corporate tax and 22% drop in individual tax income for the year of 2008. That is the lowest the Federal Government will get in Income Tax from the people since The Great Depression of 1932. This is a MAJOR problem.

Why? If the U.S. Federal Government has a 50%+ drop in money to fund Government programs, than how will they deal with running the United States. They say the Health Care reform being proposed (which we NEED some kind of reform) will cost 1 TRILLION tax dollars. Throw on top of that the 1 Trillion already spent with the ‘TARP’ thingy and bailing out the U.S. automotive industry.

Things could not look worse … But, here is where when ‘the shit hits the fans’ makes things change for the better… (excuse my french)

Obama said he would NOT raise middle income taxes. Yet, traditionally, this is exactly where the U.S. gets most of it’s taxes.

So, what to do?

Did you know that most major corporations pay only 3-6% on there taxable income? Oh corps like Microsoft, Mc Donalds, WAL-MART, ok EVERYONE of them…

How do they get away with a 3-6% tax break, when most of us have to cough up 25-30%???

Move your Corporate HeadQuarters to Ireland! It’s that simple. Ireland is a poor country, so to get money they inacted a law which allowed forgien Corporate Business to move HQ to their country. And with enough lawyer money and exploitation of the ‘ear marked’ Law Books, they are able to avoid the massive U.S. tax laws, yet still SELL and OPERATE in the good ol’ United States!

How is that for a kick in the nutts. (Again, excuse the french).

But, can you blame the major Corps for doing this seemingly criminal, yet legal tax evation? The answer is NO.

The U.S. taxes are so high, on top of corps needing to provide Health Care and all the other costs to pay employees, simply makes it unfavorable to have your corp HQ (cough, cough, I mean Tax evation offices) in Ireland.

In other words, the U.S. Federal Government is encouraging, or literally forcing all major U.S. Corps to such measure, because of all the costs of running such a business in America. Now, the U.S. Government is wondering why they have no tax Income.

So, this leads me to answer the big question of where does ‘Uncle Sam’ get the tax revenue it needs? First, make it illegal to have tax evation offices in Ireland ( and some other countries ) and second lower Corp income tax, fix Health Care so Corps can afford to pat taxes in the first place, get rid of the 60 Billion dollar bank rolls of major Corps accounts, like Microsoft and all other Major corps, fix the golden parachute problem, change greed to not greed… and on and on…

Ya, it is a MESS… All I can say is… let’s go broke together! Only then will people start to lift a fist and start asking the bigger questions to start clearing the shit that fit the fan.

Some pray and meditate in the Alps. Become a Nun or a Monk.

Be CAPITALISTIC forever… assholes.

Ok, everyone knows the big topics are Global Warming and inventing ‘Green Technology’ to counter, Global Warming.

The situation looks dire. Yes, and it is dire. Humans burn so much coal, to power our cities, burn gasoline, to power transportation including aircraft and we are cutting down our Rain Forests.

The combo of all these things is quite literally, going to be deadly. Scientists say that within 100 years from now, Florida, London, New York and all coastal areas will be under the ocean, due to the North Polar and Greenland ice caps melt.

Now, as I sit here at my power hungry laptop, typing this, and watching TV, also contributing to the problem, kinda makes me feel guilty, that I am just contributing to the problem.

Well, I am not going to live under a rock and stop using electricity. In fact, electricity is not the culprit. It is the way we produce Electricity that is the problem.

You have may heard the term, ‘Clean Burning Coal Plants’, that produce electricity from coal burning. This term has no merrit and is completely false. There is no such thing as Clean Burning Coal Plants. It is simply not possible, or at least way too expensive to make the technology to make it happen, let alone if it would work at all. It is just the Coal companies trying to hold on to their PROFITS.

We can live the good life as humans, but we do so in such a gluttonous way, that it is going to seriously disrupt our, ‘comfortable lives’ as human being.

Here is a list of things that we COULD be doing, to stop all this bad stuff from happening. It is technology that exists today and is extirely possible to happen. It is almost unbelievable we are even debating about it, and why we just need to stop the debate and just build them.

1) Wind Farms (Clean free never ending power, requiring little maintainability to keep going)
2) Stop logging the Rain Forests (Bottom line, this needs to stop NOW)
3) Recycle like our lives depended on it.
4) All cars, buses and Trains to be 100% electric (No emissions, low maintenance, no toxic oil leaks)

If we just did these simple things, we could sustain our electric needs, and power your computers and TV’s guilt free. But, this is not going to happen as long as there are those that will not let go from the PROFITS of Coal Plants, Logging Rain Forests and Gas Powered Cars.

Obama is in. He is looked apon as our ‘great savior’, to most. To others, he is quite literally, ‘The Anti-Christ’, with these views shared with southern ‘rednecks’ and deep Christian Americans. Either way you look at it, the U.S. is in deep, deep s**t.

The situation, as posted in my previous blog post, explaining Why the US ecomony has failed, is now playing out deeping, as I watch C-SPAN.

Yes, I actually watch C-SPAN. How depressing the situation is. I live in Washington state, so my C-SPAN airs Washington State House debate. Debates about what to do with all of this influx of Federal Funding.

I can say, I am scared. Even some House Reps agree, the situation is dire, and frankly, scary. I am no politian. I am a programmer of computer code, and a Net Marketer. But, no matter how much I try to NOT venture in conversations that I ought not care about, I do. The problem this brings to me is nothing short of depression.

I am a connector of the bits and pieces of knowledge. I read and I remember what I read, and watch and hear and feel. I remember to a depth, that it burdens me to see, specifically, how all this money the U.S. is borrowing from China is now being distributed to all the US states.

Go ahead, you only have to watch for an hour or so to get a clear picture of the situation.

One conclusion is clear to me.

BIG GOVERNMENT is will be with Americans for a long time. It has to be there, because private sectors have squandered the Housing Market, which happens to be the largest market of them all.

Can the U.S. legislature, from House Representatives, Govenors, Mayors all the way down to city planners and your CEO and Boss make a difference? It appears to me that the system is so damn complex, it is near mind numbing. We all know how long it is taking the government to pass simple laws about the Internet about spam, as an example.

It took the CAN-SPAM Act, nearly 8 years to get to where it is. And where it is, is that it does not stop spam and in fact encourages it. OptOut ( not Optin ) anyone?

You know what? Forget it. I did not cause this mess. In fact, I have a mortgage and I pay taxes.

We may well all be screwed.

Or will China bear the burden? Maybe, the U.S. is just scaring China into lending the U.S. the 1 trillion+ because China imports and exports heavily to the United States.

The economy has seen bubble after bubble, recession after recession. But, this one is global and deeply felt. It’s ‘the big one’, as in a huge quake.

Have we learned our lesson? Probably not.

Most of you know, first hand, how dreadful things are becoming for, not only the United States, but for the entire World, regarding the economy. This is a cut and dry, grass roots explanation, as to why the economy is shrinking. More importantly, why we need not go crazy with fear.

First, let’s look at how it all started. The Industrial Age has been with us for over 200 years now. But, I will begin at a more rationale point.

It begins with the creation of The Internet.

The Internet was adopted from a military network and put into public domain by Bill Clinton. This was done to stimulate and grow the economy. In 1995 the Internet was all the craze on Wall Street. Dreams of billions to be made from this new ‘virtual online shopping store’, to sell everything and anything, traditionally done with Brink and Mortar buildings. Well, the investors on Wall Street were told this was going to be HUGE, so they invested BILLIONS of dollars into Internet Start Up companies.

The problem was that these Wall Street traders and Investors were putting all their money on a hunch. The assumption was that the Internet would balloon their stocks and make them all Billions. The ballooning began around 1999 and finally crashed (burst) at around 2001. People over estimated the initial value of the Internet. Yes, some did win like; Amazon, Yahoo!, Ebay, PayPal and many more. But, over 95% of all the initial Internet start ups, which these over zealous investors had put all their stocks and bonds into, crashed. Losing them Billions. In fact, the Internet Bubble, was the biggest stock bubble in history.

So, what does this have to do with the current economic ‘crisis’, of 2008 to present day?

It is known, that when one ’stock bubble’ bursts, another bubble is formed, somewhere else in the stock market. This time in the Housing Market. Namely, Home Mortgages (big loans).

Starting in 2001 through 2004, or so, everyone noticed that if you wanted to buy a house, you could get a record low interest rate. Rates as low as 4.5% was common place around 2003-2004. The reason for this, was that all those investors, that had their stakes in the Internet Bubble, which made some millionaires and others bankrupt, moved their attention to the housing market. Some stock traders moved to avoid the Internet crash before it happened and moved all their Overly Ballooned stocks over in the Housing Market. These Internet stocks were moved in a panic, as the Housing Market has always been known to be a strong and solid sector of the Stock Exchange.

So, as a result of all this heavy Investment into the Housing Market, that sector of the market flourished. There was literally Trillions invested into Housing and Real Estate, which lowered Interest Rates, which got people to buy more and more homes. The formation of yet another Stock Bubble was beginning to take shape.

All was good and great. The situation was healthy. People were able to afford their dream home, while Stock Investors were making bank on their investments. This is what is known as a growing and healthy economy.

But, something happened.

Something called GREED.

Things were going so well for the Housing Sector, that major lenders (banks) began looking into ways to make even MORE money. The idea was that, since the market was doing so good, they could then begin to lend money (mortgages) to people that were previously off limits, or considered high risk. In other words, the banks began to give Home Mortgages to lower income families, with the risk that the borrowers may not be able to pay back the loan.

This high risk lending is known as Sub-Prime Mortgages, as I am sure you have now all heard about. Sub-prime, meaning a chance the loan could go sour and force the home buyer to go into foreclosure, which costs all parties involved, grief and wasted money.

The major banks, all at once and at a high rate of speed, sold these sub-prime mortgages in the TRILLIONS on dollars.

So, the drama was to begin.

It was not until 2007 that their were problems found in two major banking institution, known as Lehman Bros and Bear Sterns. They had what is known as TOXIC ASSESTS. Meaning that all their investments were bad, known to be lent to people that were on their way to foreclosure. TRILLIONS of dollars in Toxic Sub-Prime Mortgages were never going to be paid back to the banks that lent them out.

The problem then becomes a viral effect, because not only are the banks that sold these toxic loans are now in trouble, but all the Stock Share Traders on Wall Street ALSO put money into Sub-Prime Mortgages. So, now the banks and stock traders were in deep, deep sh**.

Once news of this was put out to the public, Wall Street went into a panic and pull out all their investments they had in these major banks. And well… here we are today.

If the banking system itself is full of Toxic Assets, then the Core Financial System is corrupted. This created a paranoia effect, where other banks were suddenly afraid to lend any money, to anyone! Banks that were not directly impacted by the Sub-Prime Toxic Money, froze all lending, which crashed the economy.

If money does not move (liquid), nothing happens, so the Stock Market begins to crash/stop. It stops breathing and slowly begins to die. All due to a couple bad banking moves and forcing everyone else to freeze all their money and stop the economy from breathing. I like to think of this as someone going through a panic attack and not able to breathe, for fear itself, has engulfed them.

So, what has been done to stop the situation from becoming worse?

Enter the US Federal Government Reserve Bank.

Before, the markets were free with NO government regulation. That is what everyone wanted, including the US Government! People do not like Big Government telling the free markets what to do. But, there was no choice. Money HAD to be injected into the Banking System or a collapse was to ensue, very very quickly.

So, that is what they did. The US Government passed the TARP Bill which gave the failing banking system Billions and now to date TRILLIONS of Federal Reserve money to the banks and told the CEO’s of all the major US banks to STOP the credit freeze and use this Federal money to start lending again, to get the economy breathing again.

President Obama took the ‘federal reserve money injection’ a step further by, not just bailing out those that cause this mess in the first place, but to use this opportunity to invigorate ‘green technology’ and jobs, restructure health care and fix the US infrustructure like bridges and roads. Obama is taking a major gamble, and hoping that HIS investments will pay off, in the long run.

I believe they will. Obama is a smart man. He even understands computers and the Internet age. Just take a look at his website. He was the first President to put all his policies on the table for all to read. He put it all out there on the Internet.

Now, let us pray what he has done with the additional TRILLIONS borrowed (mostly from China) and see if it does anything for the greater good. I think it will.

Thanks for reading.

Nokia announced recently, that it plans to release it’s newly acquired Linux Free and Open Source graphics library under the LGPL. (Lesser General Public License). Previously, Qt was developed and owed by a small company called, Troll Tech. Troll Tech sold Qt under restrictive corporate licenses, therefore, stifling it’s potential wide acceptance in the Free and Open Source Community that builds Linux and thousands of other Applications under it’s development model.

This is VERY good news, because Qt is the graphics library that KDE (the K Desktop Environment ) uses. KDE is second in popularity only to the GNOME Linux Desktop.

KDE developers, over a year ago, did a complete over haul, mainly to exploit Qt version 4’s amazing, newly added graphics capabilities and cross platform support. As a result, KDE 4.0 has a beautiful polished look and feel, making Desktop Linux shine brilliantly.

However, all was not rosy getting to this point. Initially, KDE 4.0 was intended to be a developer release, which contained known bugs and incompatibilities. Unfortunately, the major Linux Distributions (Ubuntu, openSUSE, Mandriva and more) did not take note of this, and released their KDE4.0 Linux Desktop, as being 100% End User ready. This created an up roar of ‘KDE 4.0 Sucks’ and endless blogosphere comments and slanders about the state and future of KDE 4.0, as a result of this mistake. In other words, KDE 4.0 was not intended (by the KDE release team) to be released as a 100% stable version.

But, now that KDE 4.2 RC was released this week, it is the version that KDE developers are saying ‘End users SHOULD use’ and the KDE version the Major Distros SHOULD have used in their initial Official release, to replace the older KDE 3.5 version.

Also, with the great news, that Nokia has released KDE’s graphics library (Qt 4.5) as completely Free and Open Source, KDE 4.2+ is expected to explode in size. Both in terms of contributions (developers and artists) and End Users.

For years, GNOME Linux Desktop Environment has been the top Linux Desktop, for many reasons. One reason being that GNOME’s graphic library (GTK) was released as true Free and Open Source Software, resulting in a lot of community backing. GNOME however, has been pegged as ‘too plain and simple looking’ and not up to par with modern looking Desktops, to stand side by side with Apple Mac’s and Microsoft’s Vista shiny modern look.

Not any more… KDE 4.2+ is set to replace GNOME as the top Linux Desktop Environment. KDE 4.2+ looks damn good. Not only that, but it is also easier to use than KDE 3.5, with a focus on making the configuration options and menu system, easier to navigate and manage.

GTK (GNOME’s graphic Library) is also pegged as not being sophisticated enough, in that, it is programmed in strait C and not C++. C++ is a modern ‘Object Orientated Programming’ language. Qt is programmed using C++. C++ reveals it’s power, with complex software, by making it easier to program complex programming concepts, which C lacks. Others argue that strait C is more efficient, than C++. But, it can not be argued, that C++, if done right, can make a programmer’s life easier.

Look out Apple and Microsoft… KDE and Qt are on their way to making some major heads turn.