Nope, that isn’t a typo in the subject, I’m running andLinux, a new distribution of Linux that I read about today. I use the term distribution loosely, it’s much different than that. In short rather than using emulation like say Parallels does (where one OS is running on top of the other) andLinux loads the Linux kernel beside the Windows one, like any other program. So in essence Linux (Ubuntu based) applications can run natively on top of Windows. And it works. It works VERY well.

So here’s what I’m doing right now. I’m writing this blog post inside Firefox. Firefox running inside the Linux kernel. It’s running on my XP desktop which I can’t see because that’s running inside Parallels on my MacBook Pro. But you can’t really tell. It just works. Linux apps work. Windows apps work. OS X apps work. No rebooting. No switching windows. No switching displays. It just works. Oh and did I mention that I just ran a simple installer to get it all going? Yeah, when I say it works I mean it really works.

So holy shit is this cool but how useful is it? Well so far I don’t think very (or rather not for that many). There are very few people that have a must have application for each major platform. It will be huge for software testers for sure, being able to test on multiple platforms all at once and all on one machine. Oh and did I mention the performance is great. Everything I’ve done has been very usable.

It really is amazing where virtualization technologies are heading, and while this isn’t virtualization in the traditional sense it’s easiest to think of it that way. Each day we inch away from the importance of the operating system. I’m looking forward to that inch changing to a crawl…

It seems to be rarer and rarer that software actually works as it claims so I guess this has been a fairly lucky week for me.  Late last week Jason’s laptop hard drive started to fail.  He got the critically important data off but didn’t have time to get all his other media (like pictures, video, music, etc).  So he asked if I could do what I could to get that media off.

I started fairly simply by putting his old drive in an external enclosure and connecting it up to my XP machine.  XP wouldn’t even mount it, it would just hang until I unplugged it.  At this point I knew this wouldn’t be easy so I booted into Ubuntu to see what I would get.  Well after messing around with Ubuntu for a while I dediced to try out HDD Regenerator since Joel had heard good things about it.  Man am I glad he suggested it.

According to the HDD Regenerator site it has the ability to repair physical bad sectors on the disk using reverse magnetism.  I was skeptical to say the least but as it also promised that it would be non-destructive I didn’t have much to lose.  I started it up and went home for the day (it must have taken at least 8 hours to scan the 100GB drive).  When I got in this morning it told me it was finished and had found and repaired only one bad sector.  I thought that can’t be right, that it’s clearly more than one bad sector that’s keeping it from mounting and hanging Windows.  Well I was wrong and it was right.  The machine booted right up like nothing had ever been wrong.  I quickly plugged in an external drive and started grabbing the data off, all the while grinning ear to ear.

So thank you HDD Regenerator you make me look like a hero.  Now if only Microsoft could do the same from time to time…

Recently a good friend of mine and I were debating desktop Linux vs. Windows. I’ve been playing with Ubuntu Linux a lot lately (and really like it), but have decided that it’s still not ready as a common desktop operating system (meaning for main stream use). While Linux is making a lot of headway here it still has a way to go…

So as we discussed this we discussed the main difference between Linux and Microsoft, that being vendor lock in. As we dug into this I realized something, that the key to getting Linux on the desktop really isn’t mirroring the Windows feature set and ease of use (which, let’s be clear, you do have to do), the key is beating Exchange.

If you look at this from the perspective of the “killer desktop app”, the #1 killer app for business (more on business vs. personal later) is Outlook. Outlook, more than any other application, I’d venture to say, is the most important app on most people’s computers (again I’m speaking generally here). So here’s the chain:

Recently I switch to an all vegetarian diet (I do still eat dairy). I also have been playing with Slackware Linux too. I realized something the other night while I was trying to get wireless networking going on my laptop. Being vegetarian is like using Linux.

The reason I say this is that they both have “adequate substitutes”. Let me explain. I have always loved hamburgers. Well, now that I’m vegetarian I choose not to eat them anymore. So, I’ve been eating a lot of Boca Burgers. I actually really like them, but they are not as good as hamburgers (except that an animal didn’t have to die). They are “adequate substitutes” for hamburgers. I can put ketchup, cheese, lettuce, etc on them, put them on a bun and they taste great (but not as good as a hamburger). I think Linux is a lot like this.

As I setup my laptop one of the first apps I needed was email. So I naturally used Evolution (now owned by Novell). I got it all setup; it even supports connectivity to my Exchange server. It works, and it works well, but, it’s not as good as Outlook. It doesn’t have many of the features that Outlook 2003 has, namely the desktop notification feature (which I love). While it’s not as good as Outlook, it’s an “adequate substitute”.

Now, not all Linux apps are like this, just like everything about being a vegetarian isn’t a compromise. I LOVE veggie burritos. I used to eat them back when I was a blood sucking carnivore. I LOVE the bash shell, and the underlying power of it. I LOVE it before I tried to switch fully from Windows. So not everything is a compromise…

Now to the big difference. Why do I compromise in these two areas of my life? Well with vegetarianism that’s easy, I’m doing it for moral/ethical reasons (not that I think meat eaters are bad people). I still enjoy the foods I eat, and the fact that nothing has to die makes me feel better about it. So, why switch to Linux? Well there is the cost (since it’s free) – that’s not really an issue my company pays for my software. It’s “different” and new, well that’s not really a good reason (although in some ways it’s a lot of fun). It’s more powerful under the hood – well, I know Windows pretty damned well and can do all I need to with it. So what’s the reason to switch? Well for me there is none. Simply put Linux makes what I need to do with a computer harder. For some it doesn’t, but for me (and for the bulk of the population) it does. In short it’s an “adequate substitute”. If you need/want to switch for the reasons above, good luck, and more power to you, otherwise don’t bother, it’s just not there yet (but it’s close…)