Web 2.0. Software as a service. Heard of those terms before? Well, they are one and the same. What Web 2.0/Saas means is turning over all your personal data to Microsoft/Google/XCorp and no longer having a desktop. Yup, you can eliminate the need for the hard drive, apps, and do everything through Firefox OS, or some other browser OS.
And now Linux is being asked to give up all its hard won gains and join in the party, so that we can enjoy one seamless Web 2.0 experience. Never mind that if XCorp decides to change or drop most or all of the features they are offering now, or reneges on its promises to make computing easier for you; at that point it's already too late, because they own all the data you have so willingly entrusted to them.
There is simply no need to trust in this Web 2.0/Software as a service paradigm; with the plummeting costs of storage space, the increase in bandwidth, the ever improving device driver support, better fonts, and overall improvement in ease of use of F/OSS software, there's absolutely nothing that Web 2.0 can offer except more DRM, more lock-in, and less privacy.
It sounds nifty. Hey, I don't need much more than a PDA to do everything now! All of my needs I can get through the Web! All I need is Firefox (or other suitable replacement browser) and everything is there at my fingertips: spreadsheets, email, word-processing, online chatting, storage, video, and so much more! While Google apps are nice in and of themselves, the real problem is trusting everything to the big corporate servers.
Yeah, well watch out for the end user license agreement (EULA) when you sign on to that one; if something comes up and they don't want to offer that service in that form anymore, then you are SOL.
Web 2.0 is just a desperate final attempt by the big corporations to hold on to their 'you'll take what we give you' mode of consumer relations, you shouldn't fall for the FUD.
Dell is shipping computers with Linux. ATI is open-sourcing its video drivers, and Red Hat has announced that it has completed its work on replacing all those nice Microsoft fonts you know and love, only this time they're free and open source.
And the powers that be have noticed, and are shaking in their boots; no longer content to hide behind stalking-horse SCO, the big giant in Redmond has openly stated that Linux and open source software infringes on 235 of its patents.
They have not specified exactly what those patents are, so the open source community could quickly write them out of the code, and they aren't going to; it's a final, sad attempt to fearmonger people from making the switch to an OS that is unencumbered by all the rotten things that make proprietary software so bad.
The piece de resistance has to be this:
"The Free Software movement is dead. Linux doesn't exist in 2007. Even Linus has got a job today." Controversial statements from the head of Microsoft's Linux Labs, Bill Hilf.
Got that? Because people make a living, and are not, you know, jobless, then Linux doesn't exist. Why then, one might ask, does Microsoft have a Linux Lab? For something that doesn't exist? The mind boggles.
Yecch. Ptui! OK, rant over. Now on to something much more pleasant--Ubuntustudio.
Ubuntustudio is Ubuntu's latest release, and it adheres completely to the GNU/Linux credo; no non-free bits in this distro. If you are thinking about downloading the ISO and burning it to DVD, then think again; it would be better to do it over an existing Ubuntu installation, and even then you need to be careful of not installing all that you need for that 'It just works' experience.
First the installation bit. If you are installing from the downloaded ISO and have an Ethernet connection to the internet, then you'll be ok as far as non-free device drivers; you can just install them as soon as you've rebooted. If, however, you are using some of those proprietary (closed-source) drivers to power your wireless connection (Ubuntu calls them 'restricted drivers'), then you should install Ubuntustudio not from the ISO, but by adding their repository to your repositories list.
As I'm not going to post more garbled code (again), I'll just direct you to the link that you'll need to copy into a terminal window to enable the repository; most of the things in Ubuntustudio are in the regular repositories, so there will be no noticeable slowdown in the download and installation. When you are at that link, you can also look at what is on offer and whether that is of interest to you; I just went nuts and installed the whole deal (graphics, video, audio, themes, wallpapers, icons, etc).
When you install whatever it is you decide to install (this is the wireless method), be sure --before you reboot into your new system--to type in the following in a terminal window:
sudo apt-cache search low latency
which should return two items with the name restricted modules, both of which are part of the kernel, without which you'll restart without your proprietary ('restricted drivers') video and/or wireless devices being recognized. Yup, Ubuntustudio installs a low latency kernel (to enable easier JACK audio) that is 100% GNU/Linux approved, i.e., no non-free bits included.
Very initial first impressions (hey! I just installed it yesterday!) are positive; if you are interested in doing more than just surf the web with your computer, i.e., want to do some creative work in the audio, video or graphics field, then Ubuntustudio is packed with all the goodies that Linux has to offer. I've not tried them out, as I've been busy sleeping/writing this diary. Don't be surprised if the link to their homepage returns an error; the servers are absolutely swamped at the moment; ditto with any place offering screenshots. Sorry about that.
The looks are similar to Fluxbox, but a bit artier and easier to navigate than Fluxbox; it feels more responsive and less RAM-hungry, perhaps that's the result of the low-latency kernel. And certainly you'll need that extra RAM to use some of the apps included with Ubuntustudio, so it actually makes sense.