Matt’s Blog of Truth

A Long, LONG time ago, there was this Operating System called, WINDOWS. It was created by a monolithic software company named, Microsoft. Microsoft once commanded all corporations AND home users (business and pleasure) to run Windows. Windows 95, to the harped upon Vista Operating System.

Microsoft Windows was all people used. All around the world. Rich or poor.

Than one day… people started working together. First, the nerds and geeks, than Corporate Businesses. All talking about SOFTWARE CODE, using this new invention called, THE INTERNET.

Over time, the geeks and nerds attracted the attention of business folk. Business folk want money. Money employs people, brings people together to form Corporations, JUST LIKE MICROSOFT!

Microsoft, being the big ol Dinosaur, gets scared!

Oh no!

Someone…

Wait MILLIONS?! All contributing to a common code base and evolving into something LIKE Windows?!

Impossible! This can not be!

Microsoft felt threatened.

After all, Linux was Free, Open Software, built by Millions of Human Minds.

Linux is Free and Open.

Free, allowed not just one Corporation to ‘get rich’, but MULTIPLE corporations!

Open, as in, easy for masses of geeks to contribute to a common Code base, using this new ‘Internet Thing’. It allowed them to custom build Web Sites, create opinionated BLOGS, and Servers to run it all. What scared Microsoft about all this ‘activity’, was that it was completely NOT related to Micro-saurus!

Over time, Microsoft fought, tooth and nail, to convince Corporations running Windows to NOT, please DO NOT INSTALL Linux! But, Linux was FREE OF CHARGE, and the nerds loved it, because the code was Open to read and write.

Microsoft, hired programmers at discounted rates from India, Russia, China and other countries pawing for a US Dollar.

Micro-saurus had one problem. It was based on years and years of OLD code, which Microsoft had BILLIONS upon BILLIONS invested in. The malware and viruses threatened Corporate secret files from hackers obtaining them and selling to competitors, as well as, all the Windows home users getting ‘fed up’ with viruses and Internet Porn pop up Ads.

There was no turning back for Micro-saurus. It had just too much time and money INVESTED in their virus ridden Operating System to rewrite a completely virus free Windows.

OK, that is the end of my, ‘long time ago’ story.

Unlike the quick and nasty extinction of the Dino’s, Microsoft was slowly eroded away. Linux just kept improving, over time. Multi-Corporate and Millions of ‘tinkering geeks’, eventually create something everyday masses of casual users could use. This attracted Game Publishers, as well.

The Mammals inherited the earth. The once, seemingly MEEK Mammals, small compared to the tromping and stomping Dino’s, suddenly inherited the Earth. My analogy is that Linux is somehow (in my own way) related to the Mammals and Microsoft to a Dinosaur.

Chrome, Googles own Browser, has many new concepts in web applications to concider. Many wonder, why would Google even release a browser, when Firefox is so popular, including a multi-million dollar deal with Mozilla, the company behind Firefox. Many wonder if this will ‘cut in’ on Firefox, therefore the Open Source communities war between Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

But, I see Chrome as an ‘inside browser’ released to the public, to ‘do with as they may’ browser ‘product’, rather than Google’s attempt at trying to strangle hold Firefox’s growing popularity, and Mozilla’s Ad revenue deal with the Search giant.

Chrome is not being pushed as the Firefox killers. In fact, Google took Chrome out of beta recently, which is completely unorthedox for Google. Gmail has been in beta, as well a Google docs, for years now, as an example.

What Google presents to the web browsers, is a prototype for ‘how the web could be’. How the web could be, is exactly what Google wants, and is their primary goal. Because, the more prevalent the web is, the more people use it, the more Ad revenue Google ultimately will profit from.

Google could throw literally millions or even Billions into the gBrowser. But, why? Firefox is already doing great. However, Firefox is slowly becoming more bloated, has a slow render engine for javascript and Google has very close business relations with Firefox (mozilla).

Chrome is a prototype browser. It doesn’t have the expansive plug in system, like Firefox has. Therefore, will never become as popular as Firefox. Google could easily instruct their coders to implement such a plug in architecture, but that could mean the end (or at least the break down) of Mozilla’s Ad profits it gets from the Google search bar. So, Google takes Chrome out of beta, without a plug in system, but leaves the exciting and important aspects of what a browser SHOULD have in Chrome, for Firefox and the world to use and improve upon.

Here is what Google wants to see Firefox, Opera and Safari, excel in, or surpass.

1) Javascript execution engine that is fast, VERY fast.
2) Web App Desktop Short cuts, to promote Web Apps like Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Google Docs and the like.
3) A browser that has advanced Tab capabilities. Just drag a tab off Chrome and a completely new process is made. This guards against crashes, by isolating web pages (tab) from another, and gives the user more options.
4) Make the browser load fast, run fast and feel more responsive.
5) Continue to be standards compliant. Chrome is yet another browser that joins the pack along with Firefox, Safari and Opera against the non-standards complaint Browser known as, Internet Explorer.
6) Chrome comes stock with Google Gears. Maybe the other browsers will do the same, which is just ‘offline mode’ for Web Apps.

These are a few of the things, the wizards at Google, want to see in Firefox, Safari, and Opera, particularly, Firefox. Firefox is an awesome browser, but you have to admit, it is slowly becoming bloated, loads slower, and the Javascript execution could be sped up.

Well, Chrome not only sparked a (whose javascript can execute the fastest) ‘race’, but it also will make the developers of Firefox think about how it can make Firefox load as fast as Chrome and maybe even implement Chromes powerful ‘Tabs’ and Web Application Desktop shortcut innovations.

In all, Google’s Web Browser, Chrome, kick the ass’s of all the other browsers, and ultimately made them rethink about how the browser SHOULD work. Again, this only makes Web Applications more popular, and benefits Google Docs, Gmail and all of the Internet’s ‘up and coming’ Software as a Service, Computing Cloud concepts.

Thanks Google. You did NOT decide to kill Firefox, but instead provide a browser ‘to look up to’ and get ideas from, only to become better.

Obama has become an icon. Kenya, has declared Wednesday, the day after Obama defeated McCain in a ‘land slide’ victory, a National Holiday!

Obama is one smart cookie. He has made more people cry then any other president. I for one cried when he came on stage after defeating McCain on election night, 2008. This is a man for humanity and is for the people, at large.

Guess what software he used to power his campaign?

Obama used Open Source, across the board.

McCain used Closed Source.

This is not to say Obama won the election because of F/OSS and Linux running his campaign Web Sites — although it would be awesome to be able to make that claim — but the fact is he did.

Now, Open Source is being mentioned on CNN! The news reporter, one of their Tech News Guys, started to actually reference The Cathedral and the Bazaar. That is huge. Although, most people would not know what all this talk of Cathedral and Bazaar business was, but the fact it is self aware, at least by some of those that work in huge TV News stations, like CNN, that are seeing F/OSS spread like wild fire into even elections.

Check this article out, which includes the YouTube Video of the CNN clip.

Simply amazing, for all us F/OSS geeks.

In the era of social networks, twitter (the micro blogger), Word Press (blogging), blogger.com, Facebook, MySpace, Google Docs, RSS News Feeds, Flash based games, Buying and Selling online (endless e commerce going on), Wikipedia, Google.com and geez so much more.

The Web Browser, is by far, the most used software program of all time. The Killer App.

It is also the new dawning of Web Apps. With the maturing of JavaScript and tool kits like Dojo, JQuery, GWT, YUI and countless others, you can program your Web Browser to act like an application you installed locally on your computer. Yet, all of this is running inside, the once humble (Hyper Links, Images and Text), that the Web Browser once delivered. Web Apps still use traditional technology, but a simple addition to JavaScript, called AJAX, has transformed the Web Page from a static and non-interactive experience, into a lively and Dynamic experience.

This simple idea, of allowing a portion of the Web Page to update, without having to refresh the ENTIRE Web page, has spawned the Web App. It is always, the simplest concepts that make the HUGEST impacts. Ajax is a perfect example of this.

The Internet has exploded, people trust it for online shopping, via credit cards and merchants, like PayPal, Alertpay, 2checkout and more. Regardless, of a huge rise in credit fraud, mostly due to Spam and phishing for personal data, causing online fraud. But, the problems get fixed, the public gets informed to be more careful, and consumers keep on shopping.

TV media is now constantly mentioning Internet sites, and TV media is HUGE folks. I’ve heard the term, ‘just Google it’, on so many TV shows and in Block Buster films, along with, ‘I just updated my MySpace page.’.

In other words, the Internet has become tightly integrated in most aspects of life.

Gamers, that install their games locally on their machines, still refer to Internet gaming forums, to talk about their experiences. MMORPG’s, like Second Life, Ever Quest and EVE Online, all use the Internet to connect players, to interact as a single Gaming Universe.

OK, so what?

This is old news, right?

Well, the new big thing, taking advantage of this now, mobile reality, connected to the Internet, is a device called a Netbook.

A Netbook is a Laptop that is minified. It’s screen is usually, no bigger than 7-9 inches and about 2/3rds the size of a regular Laptop. Netbooks, run the Intel Atom CPU, which only used 2.5 watts of power. 2.5 compare that to a common laptops 25 watts.

• Desktop CPU - 65 watts
• Laptop CPU - 25 watts
• Netbook CPU - 2.5 watts!!!

What this means, is longer battery life, than a Laptop. I have heard reports, of the battery lasting an entire day of on and off use, without a recharge!

Netbooks also require less RAM, 500 megs average, with 1 gig tops. Compare that with typical Laptops, which universally come with 2 Gigs. The more RAM the more energy drain, on the battery.

A 16 gig hard drive, usually and SSD, or Solid State Disk, with NO MOVING PARTS. This means you can drop it on the floor, and the hard drive at least, will keep on ticking. We all known of the bumps and bruises, that our Laptops, on the go, receive on a daily bases. So, this is another huge selling point, for the Netbook. I have heard reports of people, typing away on their Netbook, while walking, because they do not fear the hard drive will crash, due to the installed Solid State Drive.

By the way, SSD drives are still very expensive, compared to traditional spinning platter drives (ATA, SATA, IDE, SCSI), but hopefully the Netbook will help bring down this cost.

Everything is just smaller, a bit more bump resistant, and less power (watts) hungry, on a Netbook.

Now, what does this all mean for Software makers, like Microsoft and Apple?

First Microsoft. Vista is so bloated, in every sense of the word. It simply can not run (very well), on a Netbooks minified hardware. Although, Microsoft will not be losing their tight lock on the whole Desktop Industry, anytime soon, it does allow Linux and Apple a chance to hop over Microsoft’s barbed wire, electrified fence, called a monopoly, and are installing alternative Operating Systems, on the Netbooks!

The release of Vista, could not have come at a WORSE time, than now.

Microsoft was betting on hardware just getting bigger and cheaper. Well, now that there are so many concerns about power consumption, a crashing global economy and a drain on earthly resources, industry is inventing new devices like Netbooks, to cope with the changing global outlook.

Netbooks, use less energy, less raw materials and are way cheaper than a modern laptop.

Netbooks, are now priced at $299 (down from $499) over at Dell and offered at Amazon.com. $299 for a laptop! That is less money than a Desktop! I would never have guessed, that laptops would become cheaper than a Desktop, literally out of the blue, with the arrival of the Netbook.

Netbooks were made popular by the arrival of the ASUS eeePC. Their default choice of Operating System, was Xandros. Xandros is a Linux Distribution. It is based on Corel Linux, a Debian-based distribution.

Seeing how well the eeePC was selling, in the millions, over night, sparked every other business to join in.

Now, Ubuntu’s Canonical has a Netbook, sold through Dell. Apple is announcing their own version. Microsoft has brought back XP, after announcing it’s retirement in July 2008, because Vista is simply too bloated to fit on the Netbook.

People, Business and individuals addicted to the Internet, are on the rise. You can add myself to the list of addicts. My whole life revolves around the Internet. I run a home based business, using Linux and the Internet. I read a lot of blogs and follow a lot of National and Global news. Ironically, I get my local news from my Wife’s dad (grandpa), that still reads the Newspaper! (OMG, he still reads the newspaper, I know!)

Anyways, I still prefer a regular sized Laptop. It is always plugged into the wall and generates ENORMOUS amounts of heat. A Netbook may be OK for using it to JUST browse the Web, which is a huge percentage of time spent, but for Development work, as a programmer, the Netbook might be a little TOO compact. It’s keyboard is very small, and takes time to get used it. It took me a while to get used to my HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop’s keyboard.

But, the reality is, the hardware, is finally giving Microsoft some competition, since it is introducing other Operating Systems, like Linux Xandros and Linux Ubuntu, into the Market, once dominated (and still is, and will be for a long time) by Windows only and the Microsoft World.

As, most of us know, competition is good, as it drives prices down, forces better quality products, fixes software bugs and benefits the End Users. Competition MUST exist, or the Market becomes corrupted.

Bottom Line — Netbooks are allowing alternative Operating System the ability to enter the Desktop Market.

UPDATE [Nov/6/2008]: An interesting article out of Australia. goes indepth on the netbook threat it plays to Microsoft. It is a two page article. On the second page, the last remark made was this…

Equipping Linux on a computer costs about $US5, compared with $US40 to $US50 for XP and about $US100 for Vista, according to estimates by Jenny Lai, a Taipei-based analyst at CLSA.

To cut costs, computer makers such as Acer and Asustek opted for slower processors and less memory. On these systems, Linux can boot up twice as fast as XP, according to Acer’s website.

‘’The engineers designing computers understand that if they want to cut costs, the only way to do so is to get rid of Microsoft,'’ IDC’s Chang said.

Many argue that the reason Linux and F/OSS fails — fails in terms of what? — is that the community is too fragmented.

This could not be further from the truth, at the same time, is absolutely true.

On one front, they argue fragmentation leads to confusion and non cohesiveness. In other words, the big corporate computer companies like Microsoft, Sun, Apple and IBM, to name a few, are successful, because they operate under a single banner. Their own corporate banner. The ‘boss’, or Board of Directors, tells their employees what to do, and they do it. This leads to cohesive products that sell and get consumed — hopefully — by millions of people.

On the other front, this fragmentation is exactly the reason F/OSS is being adopted by millions of Internet Businesses and not just the Open Source enthusiasts. This fragmentation is F/OSS’s greatest strength and greatest weakness. Wrong. Anyone that claims this to be true, is mostly talking about MONEY and not much else. They are talking about Market Share, which translates into more money. Yes, when there are 500+ Linux Distributions to choose from, can become a bit bewildering.

But, that is all changing.

Ubuntu is making Linux Desktop ‘come together’ and Red hat has long offered a certified, Enterprise Level, Linux Server. The industry is only growing, month after month. If you read this recent article about Ubuntu’s continued success on the Desktop and Server fronts, you will see there is cohesion, thanks to Canonical. Canonical being the for profit company behind Ubuntu.

Now, F/OSS is strong on both fronts. Not only is it so fragmented, that it has so many contributors, that no ‘for profit’ corporation could match. The closest example of any corporation even coming close is Microsoft. But, now Linux and Open Source is developing, completely naturally with no pressure to do so, based on businesses backing the software. Examples include; Red hat, Novell/SUSE, Xandros and Canonical/Ubuntu.

This is not to mention smaller Linux backers like the company Everex, that produced the gOS. Linspire, which was acquired by Xandros. Let’s not forget Mandriva, formerly known as Mandrake Linux, a French Linux backer.

There are so many companies and individuals contributing to Free and Open Source, that it is nothing short of something special. Something unique and not seen before in humanity. All of humanity, connected through the Internet, breaks down the geographical and language barriers. American, Chinese, Japanese, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Spain and well, the entire world, contribute to GNU/Linux.

What this means, is that all this fragmentation benefits every Linux backer.

For instance, if someone contributes to the code base of the Linux Kernel, benefits every — all 500+ Linux distributions — that utilize the Kernel. If, someone contributes to any of the thousands of Open Source Projects, results in every Linux Distribution being able to update their software.

Now, you tell me, if fragmentation is a curse? It clearly is a blessing.

This comes as a big win for F/OSS. Russian Government has mandated laws, that all of their schools must use non-proprietary, that is to say Open Source software, by the year 2010, or those schools must pay, on their own, the fees of the proprietary software.

So, in other words, Russia is the first Nation to, make into law, the use of Open Source in schools, or the schools themselves must pay, not the Russian Government.

Not, a bad deal, considering Open Source is Free of charge and, in most cases, better quality software.

Read the original article here.

P.S. This coincides nicely, with the resent article, that basically said that China Demands Source Code. Also, in a recent Microsoft move (a bad move at that), decided to activate Microsoft’s Genuine Copy Protection for, MS dubbed, Anti-Piracy Day. For that entire day, probably a Billion Chinese computers were put into limited functionality mode, with a long threaten pop up license, stating that they are thieves and are doing illegal things with MS software. Namely XP or Vista.

So, MS is just shotting themselves in the foot. This only pissed off the Chinese, and probably raised Apple’s market share a point or two, perhaps even a few Linux shares were raised as well. Let’s hope MS continues to have more, Anti-Piracy days to come!

Now I know ‘what’ Google is. Google is an amazing technology company that turned Search into Billions a year in revenue. Google also is gushing with innovations. So many so I will link you to ALL OF THEM, (wikipedia), just browse it for a second, than come back and let’s talk about why Google is releasing all of this, making little revenue or fan fare with most of them. Example: Chrome was hugely hyped, now with it’s list of bugs, only less than 1% now use it. Many more examples are to follow.

Whether you quickly browsed through the Google ‘List of Products’ or not, I will just say there is well over 50+ products in there.

Everything from the latest Android Cell Phone to the Google Maps, Analytics, Gmail, RSS Reader and on and on. But, this then leaves us, what is Google really doing? Is it just trying to give back without much notice on trying to make revenues?

Often times, the projects from Google are developed in isolation, within the company. A great example of this is Android the Smart Phone and Chrome the Browser. Both would go great together, yet there are no rushed plans to get them better integrated. Their project leadership and dev teams might as well be on different planets.

An interesting article, about a guy who says, Android will be all dried up, soon. Now, us Open Source advocates do not want to hear that. I in most cases will dismiss such a remark as hog wash anyways. But, if you read the article, he makes his point very very clear.

Google is about Search. With 80+% and sucking more percentages in a day, Google is clearly Search Masters. It’s easy money folks, and will never go away. No matter if a Recession hits the economy, it is widely known that Advertising is one of the least effected markets. No matter what, sellers have to sell their products.

But, the potential for Google to make such products as Android and Chrome Browser so emensly successful is there. Just that, there is complete discontinuity in most of Googles products. Most of them first generate massive hype, then fizzle away into the background to join the long list of ‘back drop’ products.

I think Google’s main concern is Search. Also, to become too huge too fast, which it is already, is exactly what happened to Microsoft. Sure, MS is huge and makes billions, but it is also driven by greed, and it suited in court on a weekly basis, for anti-trust issues. I think Google, even could easily through Billions into any long list of amazing innovations and products they have produced, have largely decided to not become an 800 pound gorilla in too many areas, except Search Engines and Ads, they are willing to back off, and just let the open source world do what they want with it.

In a way, this makes sense. And, I praise Google’s top leadership of product overall mangement of recognizing the need to ‘Do no Evil’. But, is this really what Google, overall, is thinking? Maybe there is no Google Board of Directors even given the insight and power to push their products further into main stream markets. Maybe, Google set it up that way for the reason of not becoming evil.

Who knows? I would love to find out.

An interesting blogger and programmer, Jeff Atwood, which publishes one of the most popular Tech related Blogs on the internet, Coding Horror, brought up an interesting point.

By the way, I think Jeff Atwood, and the success of his blog, is a direct result of a guy that knows how to reach his readers, using interesting choice of words, but with an added touch of his personality, that makes you feel like you can trust the guy, even before actually meeting him.

Another famous programmer, blogger, business owner and book author, Joel Spolsky, actually holds the title of, Most Read Programmer Blog. Second, would be, that of Coding Horror.

Finally, the two collaborated and created, Stack Over Flow, which is an interesting, “Questions and Answers” site, making use of Ajax, giving the site a real time feel to it. The site really is unique, and I recommend any programmer, coming from any platform, to check their Web Sites out.

Anyways, the point Jeff brought up, which I often ponder myself, was what are programmers expected to do, when they get old? Just continue to pound away at code, until dieing flat out, face first on to his/her keyboard? There doesn’t seem to be a retirement plan for programmers.

Programmers tend to work on a contractual basis, mostly at start ups as they are born and die out, or the Programmer just losing interest in their job, to then move on to another. You can’t expect to build a ‘nest egg’, if one is moving from job to job.

Take for instance, Ken Thompson, one of the fathers of Unix. (The other father, is of a man, by the name of Dennis Ritchie.) Ken, currently works at Google, as a distinguished employee. And when the name, Ken Thompson, was mentioned in a Stack Over Flow podcast, by someone from Google, that also happens to be a well known tech blogger, no one paused to mention Ken Thompson, at all. I think mostly, because Jeff nor Joel are Linux programmers, they are both, Microsoft .NET programmers.

But, still. It goes to show, that even if you invent the mother of all Operating Systems, you are destined to, just be another employee at a job. Sure, Google offers retirement packages, for those that stick around long enough. But, in the field of Technology, the turn around rate is high. It is hard for companies to keep their talent, and make them stay in one spot, for more than a couple of years.

Maybe I am just over thinking this. Go figure, as all programmers do, but there is something to be said about the human life span and what we can or can not expect our (the programmers) retirement will be like.

Are we destined to “pound away at the key board” until the day we have a heart attack, and do a face plant into our key boards?

YouTube, acquired by Google, is the well known and popular web site for viewing videos, as well as being able to upload them.

It is the single largest collection of online, freely accessible Internet Video, bar none. YouTube, has also become a place to aquire knowledge, just as Web Sites around the world provide, using Google and other search engines, to get you there. YouTube is unique, in that, not only does it host all the material, but has grown so huge, that it’s Search capabilities have now surpassed that of the former #2 Search Engine, called Yahoo!.

Now, Google can lay claim that it owns the two most popular Search Engines, on the Internet.

Does anyone here smell a Monopoly?

Now, some would argue that YouTube is not a true search engine. All the material that is searchable is contained within the same site you are searching, YouTube. Most people that are searching on Yahoo! and Google do plan to move off of the search site and goto the site that has the most accurate search result. Therefore, YouTube is not, technically, a search engine.

But, I argue that YouTube, with it’s vastness, is like a universe, comes very close to being a search engine. That is not to say that all sites that have a search bar, that locates data just on that one site, is included with the same category that YouTube is. YouTube is clearly in a category of it’s own.

Read the slashdot submitted article, for further details.

This is huge, huge, HUGE Linux lovers!

Dell has placed a multi-page Advert in many Sunday newspapers! The Ads are show casing Ubuntu running on their Dell Netbooks! No mention of Windows Vista as an alternative was present in the Ads.

This is a big deal, because Netbooks are currently the fastest growing sector in the Computer Sales Industry. Ubuntu, which is a derivative of Debian GNU/Linux, requires far, far less RAM, CPU and everything else than Microsoft Vista. In fact, you can’t get Vista to perform at all on these mini notebooks, called Netbooks.

If, you want to know the full story, read this article.