When I’m 64…

Vintage electronic memory

Having relatively cheap, 64-bit, multi-core processors readily available for desktops is great. The boost in performance is more than welcome. The only monkey wrench in this scenario is that some software still has to get properly ported to run as 64-bit applications.

I recently had a nearly week-long nightmare trying to get Firefox to play Flash content. I moved to a newer, Intel-based 64-bit system running CEntOS 5.4, from my four-year old, single-core AMD64-based system. Things generally went well, even though I had to manually reconstruct a few mail directories. The real big snag was when Firefox just would not play any Flash content.

I got to working on the problem as soon as I could. I followed the instructions to download the Adobe Flash plugin. Then I made sure to download and install the nspluginwrapper plugin and Viewer (nspluginwrapper and nspluginwrapper-i386), which you can download from here. I ran nspluginwrapper and imported the Adobe plugin, which was copied into the correct directories.

Then I ran Firefox. No cigar. it just wouldn’t work.

I Got My Penguin

Chin Wong gave me a penguin!

Well, at least a personalized drawing of a one on the penguin collection graphic on his website (www.chinwong.com). You can see my penguin (notice the beard) in the blown-up version on the right . The original is a cool, high-resollution affair, and you can get your own penguin on it simply by asking Chin. His site has a form just for that.

Chin was the Editor-in-Chief of Computerworld Philippines, a position he ably held for many, many years. He is also a happy convert to Linux, having made the switch in 2006. In his blog article, “Secret Weapon“, he says this of the tale:

Two years ago this month, I erased Windows XP from my home PC and installed Ubuntu on it and have not looked back since. Today, the Linux-based system I have is more secure, more efficient in its use of resources—and more fun to use— than any Windows-based installation on comparable hardware. It certainly blows Windows Vista out of the water. Remarkably, it’s also 100 percent legal and 100 percent free, which is something you could never say about Windows, whether you used a licensed version or a pirated knock-off.

Now how’s that for a ringing endorsement? it’s these success stories — and helpful users like Chin — that win new converts to Linux.

I first began using Linux in 1999, when I installed Red Hat 5.0 on my 180MHz clone. Just like Chin, I had my ups and downs. Linux was certainly not as easy to install then, and the Red Hat graphical desktop was usable but had some pretty rough edges. I’m now running CentOS, a free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

If you have a Linux success story to tell, let Chin know about it and get yourself a penguin. You’ll be in good company.

Ya Gotta Hear This (Updated)

I thought that I had heard the worst ravings and silliest nonsense from some of SCO’s people concerning their claims about Unix and Linux. SCO, after all, claimed that some of their code was in Linux, but never managed to prove it.

(Image on the right is from the film “Reefer Madness.”)

After over six years, it seemed that the case was winding down: Judge Dale Kimball ruled that Novell, not SCO, still owned the copyright to Unix; and SCO filed for bankruptcy. Despite some news that SCO might be bought out and get enough money to continue the case, to me it pretty much boiled down to when — not if — SCO would just plain lose once and for all. Now, like some bad gas emanating from a crypt, we hear this latest whopper from SCO CEO Darl McBride, as reported by Ars Technica in “Deluded SCO CEO on witness stand: ‘Linux is a copy of UNIX’“:

McBride said that SCO holds the rights to UNIX and that “many Linux contributors were originally UNIX developers.” Specifically, he said, “We have evidence System V is in Linux,”—directly contradicting what Sontag had previously testified. Due to the witness exclusion rule invoked by both parties, McBride was not present during Sontag’s testimony and wasn’t aware of what had been said. McBride’s claims also directly contradict internal SCO memos from 2002, which reveal that the company’s own extensive source code audits had uncovered no UNIX code in Linux. McBride attempted to reinforce his argument with analogy. “When you go to the bookstore and look in the UNIX section, there’s books on ‘How to Program UNIX’ but when you go to the Linux section and look for ‘How to Program Linux’ you’re not gonna find it, because it doesn’t exist.” Then came the real humdinger, and my jaw dropped when I heard the following come out of his mouth: “Linux is a copy of UNIX, there is no difference [between them].”