On Microsoft Raids...

About six months ago, Microsoft said it would be "enforcing anti-piracy more actively" in my country. It seems many people here did not understand what that meant. At least until last week.

Microsoft's friendly officials started paying visits to unsuspecting businesses just to make sure these businesses were running licensed copies of Windows and MS Office.

The result? So far, Microsoft has:

--taken legal actions against two businesses and will take more against another

--has finished 10 conciliation processes

--has earned $167,000 for damages (about 87 million in my country's currency)

Not bad to begin the year, huh?

Microsoft raids will become a stronger headache for those businesses whose owners had the wrong idea that paying for Windows and MS-Office was stupid when you can get it "for free." What about considering absurd to pay for extra licenses once you get one because you can simply install the same disc on as many computers as you want?

Fortunately, MS is being harsh on businesses only. Microsoft officials say that they work with domestic users through education. That's so kind of them! (if you believe them).

Still, there's a very simple lesson people and businesses have to learn: If you want Windows and MS-Office, PAY!

If you don't want to pay but still want to use MS software for your business, better treat your employees REALLY well...or wait for the visit of your nice Microsoft friends. There's even a site people can use to denounce pirates!

Care for a Little Fedora?

Well, I did it! I enrolled in a Linux course online! :)

Of course, the motivation from Mechatotoro helped, hehe!

I'm pretty excited because it is my first formal computer training! Although I've taken online courses before, this will be special, I'm sure!

Apparently, the distribution we will learn about is going to be Fedora.

Hehe! Nice! I got a Fedora CD with a Linux magazine I bought some time ago.

I presented my first homework last week! Soon we will be installing Fedora...

MEPIS 11.5...

Although MEPIS 11.5 is nowhere near completion yet (actually, the process has just begun), I am very happy because the rumor about it was true: Warren Woodford is currently updating some packages...

As far as I understand, MEPIS 11.5 will be more like an updated version of MEPIS 11. Even so, it will be quite a big change to me because it will apparently use GRUB 2 and will have a more up to date KDE 4, although we don't know which. Some members of the community have been testing the 4.7.4 version that Stevo built some time ago.

Hopefully, Warren and the dev team will encounter no obstacles so we may have a newer MEPIS soon.

STOP CENSORSHIP!

Some people have just gone too far with this idea of "protecting authors." I agree that the rights of artists and creators must be respected, but are SOPA and PIPA intended to do that?

A Lazy Post

This appears to be quite a year! Mandriva is in trouble, so was Pardus...and UEFI is doing its part, too.

Well, on the bright side (at least to me), it seems that the developmental process of Mepis 11.5 has already begun.

However, Mepis 11.5 will apparently use Grub 2...that means I'll have to learn about that! :P

Oh, as requested, I'm posting here a small trick to mount USB 3 hard drives. This comes without any warranty...I have just tested it on Mepis 8 with KDE 3.5 with myToshiba NTFS device.

1. Open a terminal and become root. ("su" + root password in my case)

2. As root, type: ntfs-3g /dev/sd?? /mnt/sd?? -o force

(sd?? means the mounting point of your USB 3 device. In my case, it is most of the cases "sdb1", so the line reads: ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 -o force)

That's pretty much it. In case of need, you might want to try:
/usr/bin/ntfs-3g --help

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome, SliTaz 3!

I had been looking for a lightweight distro to install on my old computer along with Mepis 8. I already have antiX and Galpon MiniNo on another system, so I know they work well. However, I wanted to try something new. I tried other distros, but my old box gave them different headaches.

Bodhi Linux was a good candidate. I downloaded the E17 version and I liked it very much. After trying it, I installed it and started configuring my new Bodhi system. But then, I hit a forgotten wall: enabling sound on this old box is a nightmare for an inexperienced user like me. I had forgotten to test the sound on Bodhi...and to my dismay, Bodhi was mute.

I recalled SliTaz. I had tried to install it some time ago, but my lack of experience overpowered me and couldn't install this distro. It was time to try again.

This time the installation went without a glitch. Before I knew it, I had SliTaz working on my computer. I had to manually adjust Grub to have entries for both Mepis and SliTaz, but I learned how to do that long time ago.

To be honest, it took me some time to adapt to this Linux distro. I do like its logo: the spider looks great! Another great aspect is that it mounts my Toshiba USB 3 external drive. It also mounts my G-Shot camera without a problem.

Now...this lightweight distro comes with its own small programs, but I wanted to see if I could find my way into its repositories and extra software. Apparently, I could do it:



OK...I found OpenOffice.org there. Could I install it in such a lightweight distro? Would SliTaz work fast with such a big office suite? I downloaded it; it took quite a long time, but apparently it works well. My computer didn't hang up in spite of its scarce RAM, lower than 1 Gb. Then, I downloaded a few games and programs:



In the image above, I was trying to run Scrot, a screencapture tool, while SliTaz downloaded the game SuperTux.

Finally, I downloaded the software I wanted (The Gimp, VLC, Pidgin, Firefox, er--Shiretoko..and so on:



Now, I am a happy SliTaz user. In fact, I am posting this entry from SliTaz! I still have to get used to this Spider Linux, but so far I must say my personal experience with it has been worthwhile. I'll start a new year with a new friend!

Did I mention that it takes less than 30 seconds to load?