for starters yes Oracle is definitely on the menu here, as it is my related to my major in college. Subsequently I needed to be able to have an oracle database running on a system at home for homework development and testing purposes. To my delight there is a Debian package for this called oracle-xe-universal easily loaded from the deb http://oss.oracle.com/debian/ unstable main non-free

repository. This enables a Linux user to use and manage a single user install for Oracle10g. Provided is a browser app called apex where you can administer your install and do DBA stuff. This is were things go terribly wrong. Surprisingly so for a company that has it’s own Linux Distribution “Unbreakable Linux” for sale. You would expect to have it all working and supported on the Linux platform adhering to open-source standards. He-las, not the case for Oracle products. For the most part the web app works. But when you try to edit or view a script it stays blank even though a script is loaded and in the directory. Scanning the forums the problem is fixed by using IE instead of Firefox or any other browser for that matter. Not so great Oracle

Linux does not heart IE, FIX IT!!! so it does support the real browsers like Chrome or Firefox and the likes. There are some way’s to get around this but they are not optimal solutions.

I’m trying out some C programming with the Code::blocks IDE in Kubuntu Linux the KDE version of Ubuntu. While I could get away with using a regular text editor like Vim, I chose to make use of the luxury of a full blown Integrated Development Environment. Both the opensource C/C++ compiler GCC and Code::Blocks are free and easily obtained through apt-get on Ubuntu Linux or Debian based distributions.

~#sudo apt-get update

~#sudo apt-get install codeblocks gcc

note: on Red Hat or Fedora use ~#su -c ‘ yum install codeblocks gcc’

Running the debugger is real easy, make sure you compile with produce debugger symbols by selecting this in compiler and debugger settings > global compiler settings.

you might run into an gdb console error if the console settings are set to xterm. I ran into this and tried with exchanging xterm for konsole with success after all we are using KDE.

Have fun!

The whole debacle about the failing legacy hardware drivers submarining the Redmond based software giant has perpetual comical effects. The company has taken a hard beating on their Vista OS and instead of working on improving their failing product has decided to release a new one. Maybe not such a bad idea business wise, time will tell. While on the desktop front MS still holds the reins for millions of computer users thanks to ominous vendor lock-in in schools and the workplace . Not so on the server side of the blade. Through a decade of development and hard work of volunteers to the source. Linux has become a force to be reckoned with and takes up a big chunk in servers deployed by big companies. A rolling trend has formed, virtualization. The host system can be of any persuasion running a manager software program to control the images and share processes among resources. This turns out to be a proven energy and resource saver. A system running several instances of a server makes efficient use of said resources by cutting down on idling time. Microsoft has not been blind by this and has several products to manage server instances. Now this is where I’m going with this, the Kalonial Behemoth has decided that in order to keep it’s market share for this application it has to support Linux on said products. They are going to achieve this by < drum roll> committing source code to the Linux kernel to support driver needs. Now Microsoft hates the GPL,and has called the open software license anti-American. Has Microsoft sold out America?

I’m one of millions of computer users who find that free is better than paying for closed software. I don’t condone stealing software but like so many have not proudly done so for financial reasons in the past. These days there is no reason to practice this larceny. You can have a functional working system with all the software you could wish for, free at no cost at all. Open Source solutions are the answer to avoid many user woes like viruses and nasty Trojans that plague other operating systems. It is understandable that any change can be perceived as strange and uncomfortable to a person. If you recognize yourself in this description just think of all the frustrations you went through with your current system. There is the discussion in hilarious commercials between the two big players on the market. The real question you have to ask here is not if you’ re a Windows PC or an Apple Mac, but if you want stability and freedom. Let’s face it, the trouble free system like Apple Mac OS X are stable and robust in their application but usually cost twice as much as a perfectly good PC. Apple has established themselves as a status symbol with an aura of wealth and riches. This is not an option for most people with modest incomes. Microsoft has Vista as their last major distribution of Windows OS, we all know this wasn’t a great commercial success for Microsoft because of legacy hardware driver issues and forced hardware upgrades gave fuel for a disgruntled user-base. More and more tech savory people know you can use the stable and robust UNIX like system on PC hardware with freedom from the money hungry clutches of both companies. Be free from DRM’s and software patents use Linux instead! Saving money is a good thing too in these challenging economic times. I’m talking about quality software free thanks to the work of millions of programmers and volunteers across the globe. The Linux OS is considered a good and cheap solution by major companies and school systems these days, and that is a real good thing for computer users like yourself. These companies pay their developers to work on Open-Source software projects for needed features and through this give back to the community. I highly recommend Ubuntu to any person new to Linux who wants to give freedom a try. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download this will download an image in ISO format which you must open with your cd burning software and burn to a cd. A live cd can be used to try Linux out on your computer without erasing your data.

Hey all, you might have noticed that the site has been down for a long time. We had some problems with our hosting company, they denied our existence on their systems while having us pay for service anyway. Our experience with EMC had been riddled with bad support, therefore we moved our content to another web host. Hopefully we won’t experience any downtime in the near future and I hope you enjoy reading our older articles- some new ones are in the making. I’m very into Linux and open-source so the move to a Linux server was double the pleasure. I use this blog as a dump ground for ideas and things I come across on the net and in life. Feedback and even input is very appreciated and I welcome anyone to do so. have fun!