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Archives for August 2009

Linux Saves The Day

Here’s an interesting article about a user having problems booting into Windows. The laptop was getting the dreaded blue screen of death. The technician tried booting from ‘safe mode ‘and from ‘last known good’, but still, it will not repair.  The technician tried booting from a Windows installation DVD, Vista and even Windows 7. Still can’t boot. Then, Ubuntu 8.04 came in to the rescue. The system booted just fine in Linux. The technician was able to access the files. All the technician did was restore the backup registry files. Presto. Windows rebooted like nothing happened. Why can’t Vista, Windows 7 boot CDs make this repair is beyond me.

Linpus Lite

One tiny Linux distribution worth checking out, is Linpus Lite. It’s a distribution based on Fedora especially written for netbooks and targeted for the Asian market.  My laptop, a Lenovo S10 actually is sold in Asia with Linpus Lite. Mine came with Windows XP. So, I wasn’t a surprised when my Lenovo S10 manual came with a Linpus Lite manual. Linpus, the company provides 3 products: Linpus Lite, Linpus Desktop and Linpus Media Center. I’m very curious how this distribution will work with my laptop since my hardware is an officially supported by Linpus Lite.

Here’s some of the features of Linpus Lite:

  • Kernel 2.6.20 or higher
  • Supports a wide range of resolutions – 800×480 (7), 1000×600 (10), 1280×800 (12), 640×480, 800×600
  • Desktop mgr: xfce 4.4 or higher
  • Supports easy mode and normal mode, both fully compatible w/i generic linux
  • Web 2.0 & well modularity (html/css, java, flash plugin, …)
  • Supports in’tl open standards w/i lsb/gb18030/ cns11643 certificates
  • Utf-8 environment w/i 18+ languages support
  • En/tc/sc/fr/de/it/es/pl/pt/hu/ru/cz/no/fi/dk/sv/ko/jp
  • Journaling file system w/i efficient algorithms to extend ssd life cycle for intense write-in ops
  • Unifs+ ext3 + squash fs (read-only)
  • Ssd (solid-state drive)(nand flash ide interface), hdd (ide & sata) non swap swap file
  • Fine tuning & efficient power savings
  • Hot-key system recovery in case of crash
  • Easy for maintenance through on-line update
  • (Option) opengl + 3d desktop
  • (Option) touch panel + pen-based environment & apps
  • (Option) connectivity supports through gsm, gprs, 3g, 3.5g

Snow Leopard

For Mac OS fans out there, here’s a list of enhancements and refinements of the new Mac OS Snow Leopard. What happened to the word `features`? Maybe, it’s not as hip as enhancements and refinements anymore. I guess it’s outdated. I always laugh how marketing folks come with old words and make them new again. Enhancements and refinements. Next up. Polish. Check out the new `polish` of the new Mac OS at the Apple store. Snow Leopard looks really good. I’m not much of a Mac user, but when I do, I’m always impressed. If you want to pre-order, you can get one for only $29. Compare that to another operating system I know that’s about 5 times as much.