I want no monuments

On 1st of April 2007, FSFE will raffle the following devices and books among all its Fellows:

• 1 Free Software Greenphone by Trolltech
• 3 Developer Discount codes for Nokia N800 Internet Tablets (NOTICE: special conditions apply. Read more here), by Nokia
• 2 Free Software based routers KWGR614, by NETGEAR
• 1 LinSoft BTP-PC amounting to 500 EUR, by linsoft.de
• 4 USB smart card readers SCR-335, compatible with the Fellowship crypto card on all GNU/Linux distributions, by kernelconcepts.de
• 30 German books (among German speaking Fellows only), by linuxland.de
• 2 Omnikey PCMCIA CardMan 4040, compatible with the Fellowship crypto card on all GNU/Linux distributions, by xtops.de

While not being the reason, it’s surely one more reason to be a fellow. I am. Are you?

On February 23, 2007, Dell reacted to the thousands of votes some of the ideas in Dell IdeaStorm have received.

Here are some of the best pieces (emphasis by me)

It’s exciting to see the IdeaStorm community’s interest in open source solutions like Linux and OpenOffice. Your feedback has been all about flexibility and we have seen a consistent request to provide platforms that allow people to install their operating system of choice. We are listening, and as a result, we are working with Novell to certify our corporate client products for Linux, including our OptiPlex desktops, Latitude notebooks and Dell Precision workstations. This is another step towards ensuring that our customers have a good experience with Linux on our systems.

We don’t want to pick one distribution and alienate users with a preference for another. We want users to have the opportunity to help define the market for Linux on desktop and notebook systems. In addition to working with Novell, we are also working with other distributors and evaluating the possibility of additional certifications across our product line. We are continuing to investigate your other Linux-related ideas, so please continue to check here for updates.

Dell recognizes our customers’ desire to have unlimited control over the software on their PC. In fact, today XPS customers can opt-out of almost all preinstalled software. We will be expanding this effort in the coming months.

Read the whole announcement here.

I think someone in Redmond is having a headache… >:D

Leggetevi la mail di Carlo Piana (avvocato della Free Software Foundation) sulla mailing list del MiLUG.

Risposta: poco meno di due ore contro un giorno e una notte.

Non ci credete? Buona lettura!

This is not a real news (at least, if you haven’t lived under a stone for some months): Dell offers its customers to have Linux pre-installed on its “Precision” desktops.

You could also buy the FreeDos version, that is just like buying an empty, clean desktop or notebook and have the freedom to install everything you want, without wasting money in useless software such as… uhhh… Windows… :)

My brand new word.

I couldn’t recall conference call and I found phoneference a bit faster to say.

That’s a language performance issue :)

I’ve needed it twice during the last weeks and I’ve always had to look for it, so I’ll summarize it briefly.

You need nspluginwrapper. Install it through your distro package catalog system. Then:

• download the flash plugin (or whatever 32bit plugin you can’t have on your brand new 64bit box, a compatibility list is here)
• COPY (as their installer won’t work) the .so file to ~/.mozilla/plugins
• run (as a normal user)
  nspluginwrapper -v -a -i

Close Firefox and go to some “flashed” page to check if the plugin is working correctly. YouTube or Google video for instance.

Thanks to: OSRevolution

You know: there are things that are made to stay! And that’s how you install Windows Vista!

Source: FoundryMusic

I have had a few problems installing the shiny new O.S. from Microsoft, you know, I’m not a computer geek.

Lucky enough I’ve found this video that showed me how to install it, step by step. It’s a must-watch, enjoy it!

And thanks to Guido Serra for blogging about it ;)

Oh gosh…

In four steps: sit, relax, watch, think.

As some of you know, I’m leaving Milano for Torino: well, that’s the plan.

Today, my landlord, Mrs. Alessandra, an architect, showed my flat to some potential buyers.

While they were walking around my bathroom, commenting on everything, Mrs. Alessandra asked me help with her computer. My first thought was: “Damn! Another Windows and printer problem!“. Surprise! She said:

I have a double boot, Windows and Linux: Windows refuses to start and with Linux I can’t open some of the files currently stored on the shared partition. I wonder what the problem is. It’s a Compaq.

I wasn’t really able to help her, actually, but think about her question:

• she is an architect, so her life is not actually around computers, not at home at least. Architects concern about CADs, not about computers.
• she uses technical words to describe her problem: she is aware of what she is doing
• she has had the issue since 6 months ago: so she is solving it using Linux

My conclusion: smart people know their tools. Dumb people just use them. If you have ever been told by some-dumb about the “typical linux user”, think about you: are you an architect?