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Sunday Apr 26, 2009

My new Eee PC

I got an Asus Eee PC 701SD last week. Here's what I think of it:

  • The keyoard is a little small, nothing you can't get used to though
  • It's too small to run OpenSolaris 2008.11. I'm going to get around to running MilaX or Debian eventually, but for now Ubuntu works (emacs + gcc + zsh. Do I need anything else?:P)
  •  Problematic to compile a new Linux kernel. It's just too slow
  • The FSB is set to run at 70MHz instead of 100MHz, which limits its already small 900MHz processor to 650MHz or so
Apart from all this, it's absolutely perfect for me :D I mostly shell into my OpenSolaris box when I'm at home, into a server at uni, or get an RDP session into a workstation at work, so it works great as a thin client. And those times when I do use the machine for something else (like now), the Ubuntu 9.04 install on here runs like a dream. Even the slightly chubby OpenOffice.org suite  runs well. If you have similar needs, I definately recommend this netbook

Posted at 02:34PM Apr 26, 2009 by Stephen Gream in Personal  |  Comments[0]

Thursday Apr 23, 2009

Sun Acquired By Oracle

Well, it's official, Sun has been acquired by Oracle. 

What does this mean for open source software? Well, I'm not really sure. I'll try tapping it what I think below:

MySQL:

Oracle has absolutely nothing to gain from killing MySQL (but again, they already have a very good database system, so they have little to gain from continuing development) as there are already copius forks which provide ample opportunity for alternative commercial development (I love open source like that :) You always have loyal devotees).

OpenSolaris:

Oracle has a number of their systems deployed on Solaris servers, but they also have a lot to gain by freeing up some of the licensing for things like ZFS and DTrace to put them into Linux. Continuing the OpenSolaris project would probably be good in that they'll get free development, but I would believe that beyond that I'd see little benefit if they already have ZFS

OpenSPARC:

As much as I like SPARC, alternative architectures are increasing market share to the point where all else is irrelevant. Fujitsu recently closed down their SPARC manufacturing, so I have a feeling that Oracle may follow suit here

Java:

Oracle has a huge stake in Java middleware, and will likely increase the community involvement in development. This is good news and may see Java evolve faster to keep up with other alternatives. (On this note, I constantly hear references to Java at uni, normally of the type 'C# is Java without all the shit bits' or 'D pisses all over Java's  broken corpse'. I don't agree with the C# comment, but D is a VERY good language. Java has some fighting to do if it wants to survive)

NetBeans:

NetBeans goes hand in hand with Java (and web based :D) development, though with a company like Oracle that hasn't got a particularly good standing with the open source community it's a bit uncertain whether we will see this continue as is, become a fully community driven project or whether it will fall behind while Eclipse (*spit*) continues with support from IBM

 I'm probably off the mark with a lot of this, so I appreciate any comments from people who have a better idea of what's going to happen

Posted at 10:55AM Apr 23, 2009 by Stephen Gream in Personal  |  Comments[4]