2009: Year of the Linux Handheld?

Palm's new Pre handheld will run a Linux-based OSA common inside joke on Slashdot is the "Year of the Linux Desktop", a revelation about each upcoming year being the mythical time when Linux will obtain wide-scale adoption on desktop PCs. Although the number of PCs running Linux has increased each year, a new emergent trend is that Linux is becoming a popular on more consumer handheld devices.The reason for Linux's rise in popularity on cellphones is that cell manufacturers (Eg. Motorola) are being forced to ditch their simpler, proprietary operating systems that run on the "dumbphones" they sell because a more powerful operating system is needed...
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Has Linux lost the ISV battle?

For as long as anyone can remember, one of the big problems with Linux has been the lack of commercial applications. Independent software vendors (ISVs) are generally sticking to Windows or OS X, resulting in very little commercial software being available for Linux. Free software ideologies aside, there are many commercial applications that Linux would benefit from being able to run.As a cross-platform software developer, there are many challenging issues that are unique to developing on Linux. First and foremost, there is the issue of binary compatibility.In order to build a x86 Linux binary that runs on as many desktop Linux distributions...
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Ubuntu and the ASUS P5Q-E Motherboard

I built a brand new PC a few weeks ago, and getting my ASUS P5Q-E motherboard to work in Linux took a few tweaks. I had taken my harddrive out of my old PC and dropped it right into the new PC, expecting it to work. Ubuntu managed to start booting, but it hanged at the earliest bootup splash screen, where the progress bar bounces back and forth. GRUB had managed to boot the kernel image, but something was wrong - The kernel image couldn't find my hard disks, so it wasn't booting.To solve this problem, I had to change the following BIOS options:Under MAIN / Storage Configuration, I had to change "Configure SATA as ..." to [AHCI]. This allowed...
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Random things

It's been a while since my last update, but I'd like to start practicing writing again, so I'd better start blogging more often. Since 2006, I've been involved with a growing open source project and that's been eating up most of my free time.In the meantime, I'm still a die-hard Linux fan, although I haven't kept up with the latest and greatest stuff as much. I've also recently started experimenting with (drumroll) Windows Vista, and I've been impressed overall with it. My wireless USB stick has the same problems in Vista as it does in Linux, so I guess that's a good thing for Linux (?!). :)Also on my list of random things to write about is Phoronix. Phoronix is a well-written Linux news site that's written and organized in a style that's aimed at Linux hardware enthusiasts. The editor(s)...
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To iPhone or not to iPhone...

$199 USD for a 3G iPhone, with a soul-stealing ridiculously-priced contract.Is it worth it?I've been considering getting an iPhone when it launches in Canada on July 11th, but rumours indicate that it's going to cost about $90 CAD/month for service with Rogers. I currently pay about $10 CAD/month for a cheapo prepaid cellphone. In 2 months I'll be moving across the country, so now is a convenient time to reconsider my options. I've decided that if I were to get an iPhone, it'd replace my landline. Does it make it any more affordable? No, $90/month on a contract for 3 years still seems insane to me.The massive draw with the iPhone for me is the...
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Debian Bug Screws us All

This morning, I spotted this nasty tidbit on Slashdot: Debian Bug Leaves Private SSL/SSH Keys GuessableIt turns out a maintainer of the OpenSSL package on Debian removed the "seeding" of the random number generator that is used to generate, among other things, SSH keys. For those unfamiliar with random number generators, they work by generating a sequence of pseudo-random numbers based on some initial seed. The default value most programmers use when seeding their random number generators is simply the time, because it changes quickly and ensures a great deal of variability in what the generated random sequence of numbers will look like. If you seed your random number generator with the same number every time, you'll end up with the same sequence of numbers being generated over and over again...
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