In a move that could have vast implications on the entire tablet market, Google has partnered with Asus to release an über-affordable but yet powerful tablet, the Nexus 7.

Like all Nexus devices, the 7 comes preloaded with a new version of Android called JellyBean. To begin with, I thought I would list the specs of the Google Nexus 7 tablet as this seemed like a great place to start my review:

The tablet features a blazing fast 1.3ghz Quad-core Tegra 3 processor with a 7 inch IPS display that has a resolution of 1280×800 and a pixel density of 214ppi. For comparison, the Kindle Fire has a 169ppi and the new ipad has a pixel density of 264. The tablet also has 1gb of ram for true multitasking and comes with a full array of radios and sensors on board — 802.11 b/g/n Wifi, Bluetooth, NFC, accelerometer, GPS, magnetometer, and a gyroscope.

The N7 also has a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera and a 4,235 Milliamps Hour removeable battery with about 9 hours of projected battery life. Although, I am getting closer to 24 hours with moderate use so it is impressive to say the least.

The dimensions of the tablet are 7.8 by 4.72 by 0.41 inches and weighs in at a light 12 ounces. You also have a choice of either 8GB or 16GB of onboard storage space. The 8gb model has around 6gb free and the 16gb model has about 14gb free OOTB. I ended up getting the 8gb model as I do not store very much on my other tablet anyway. The Nexus 7 does not come with a microsd slot although there is a way to load external usb storage device. I will be discussing how to do that later in this review.

I enjoyed watching all the unboxing videos where people really struggled to get the Nexus 7 out of the box. I have a small blade to use for opening boxes so it really wasn’t as difficult as it was made out to be. Inside the box you will find the Nexus 7, a USB charger, and a USB cable along with warranty and a Getting started guide. At first glance, I noticed that the power and volume buttons are found along the upper right side with nothing on the top and left side of the device. There is a 3.5mm headset jack and the microUSB port that are found on the bottom of the tablet. The back is covered in a non-slip material with a leather feel and indentations all over it. It feels great in your hand and is quite thin at less than half an inch thick. I am very impressed with the hardware design and find it much more comfortable to hold and use than my Hp Touchpad.

When I first booted the device I noticed the familiar nexus logo glowing and was amazed that it booted in less that 20 seconds. The device already had a fully charged battery, so it was simply a matter of pressing the power button to switch the device on. As soon as the boot was completed, I was presented with a welcome screen that already contained my email address. I only had to provide my google password, the password of my Asus router and then the device started syncing my account. The setup was extrememly fast and took no more than 30 seconds to do. In the meantime Google sent a few automated emails to say the device had been activated and my complimentary $25 credit for the Google Play store was ready.

After the setup was completed, I found myself at the familiar android homescreen with virtual capacitive buttons for back, Home, and task switcher on the bottom of the screen. I planned on rooting and unlocking the device right away like I do all of my android devices but I had previously read that there would be an update right away so I held off on rooting the device. I decided to play around while waiting for the update notification to appear.

The Nexus 7 is the first tablet to launch with Android Jelly Bean that includes several new features like Google Now, enhanced notifications, and Project Butter improvements. Google uses a dynamic home page where the most recently opened/used content appears so you can quickly jump back into it. You have five display to use for placing shortcuts. You can tap and drag shortcuts onto each other to easily create folders of apps and then rename them, such as for Games or Reading. In terms of the OS, it doesn’t get much better on Android. You will not find any extra manufacturer or carrier bloatware on the Nexus 7 as this is a pure Google experience. Several Google apps are loaded into the ROM and cannot be removed. These include Gmail, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Talk, Gallery, Play Movies, Play Books, Play Magazines, Play Store, Play Music, Google Currents, Google+, Google Wallet, and YouTube. I was very pleased to see that Chrome was loaded by default as the web browser. Jelly Bean is like Ice cream sandwich but with all the features we wanted Ice Cream Sandwich to come with. It’s fast and smooth, like butter, full of the latest and greatest APIs for developers to do their magic with, and there’s a high level of polish we have all been waiting for.

First I decided to take a look at the system settings. Straight away in the settings you can see all sorts of advanced options like different ways to unlock the device from sleep, how apps get downloaded and installed, various Sounds options, Bluetooth/GPS/wifi, and other various Developer options like controlling Animations, etc. If you have used an Android device running Ice Cream Sandwhich before, most of the Setting will seem quite familiar to you.

Next I decided to check out the default browser, Google Chome. Scrolling and pinch to zoom was very smooth with Zero lag and everything seems to work as it should. While browsing various sites, I received the notification that Android 4.1.1 was available so I clicked update. The device downloaded the update and then rebooted automatically. I was then presented with a picture of the Android robot with a spinning star on his chest. After about 1 minute, the device rebooted and I was fully updated.

Being the power user that I am, my next step was to root the device. Rooting an android device is not the same as jail-breaking an IoS device. Rooting an android devices basically gives you elevated user privileges, allows you the ability to load custom software including ROMs, install custom themes, increase performance and increase battery life among other things. You also have access to alter any system files, use themes, change boot images and delete annoying stock apps. Rooting also allows you to backup and restore your default system image. When you root a device, you are effectively telling Android to treat you like a grown-up. Suddenly, apps you install on your phone can do things like backup and freeze system software, keep your phone from ringing when someone annoying calls, lets you overclock or underclock the processor, etc.

That said, the process could not be any simpler on the Nexus 7. Nexus devices are developer friendly and do not make you jump through hoops to obtain root access. For this process, I used a method called Root Toolkit. Of course Windows was required for the process, so I booted up Win 7 using VirtualBox. Then I extracted the files and folders which included a folder for the drivers. Next I had to double-click the driver available in the “drivers” folder for my specific architecture. After installing the drivers, all I had to do was click root.exe. Then a terminal opened and displayed some nice Ascii graphics. Once the animations stopped, it showed a screen that said “press any key to continue”. Next it displays a warning telling you to make sure you have installed the correct drivers and then “press any key to continue”. Next it tells you to make sure to enable USB debugging. This is easily done by clicking the Settings icon on your Nexus menu. Then scroll to the bottom where you will see a Header called System. Under System, you will see an entry called Developer Options. Open that and check the box next to the option called USB debugging. You will then get a popup asking if you want to “Allow USB debugging”. Just click yes. The next screen tells you to connect the tablet to your computer via the usb cable and “Press any key to continue”. It also warns you to not unplug the tablet until the process has finished.

The next screen asks you if your bootloader is locked or unlocked. Since we have not unlocked the bootloader yet, choose the first option, Locked. Next it will ask you to choose between installing ‘super user’ or ‘SuperSU’. I personally chose SuperSU although this part does not really matter in the long run as you can install either one once you are rooted. After choosing one of the options, windows will make a noise indictating that the device has been identified and it will autmatically reboot the N7 into recovery mode. Do not worry about the output in the termianl window complaining about missing files as this is normal. After about 15 seconds, the device will reboot showing Google with an unlocked icon and then it will proceed to boot. Congratulations, your Nexus 7 has now been rooted.

Google was nice enough to provide the default system images for you to restore your device or fix your tablet if you messed anything up. With these files available, there is not much of a risk to mess up your device as you can easily restore it to the out of box experience. One thing to note though, when you root your device, it resets everything to default so you will lose any data or apps you loaded before rooting the device. This is not a big deal for me as Android restores all of your apps automatically after signing into the device.

Next, I want to discuss some of the software provided by Jelly Bean:

Google Now is one of the big features of Jelly Ben. You can either get to it from the lock screen, or by swiping up from the home button, and once it’s open you have a whole world of information at your fingertips or voice for that matter. Google Now is a powerful tool that uses the data Google collects from you to know what you want to see before you ask to see it. It’s location-aware via the internal GPS, so it can do things like tell you about a traffic jam that’s on your route. Or let you know when your bus is coming if you’re at the bus stop. This is very useful but at the same time, it does track where you are and what you search for. I personally turn this feature off unless I want to use it.

Any search results you can get from the Google search box on Google.com, can be answered by Google Now with added information. It uses the Google search engine, and is great for things like conversions, world weather and events, or just general information. Google Now can also do things like send emails, set alarms, give directionsl, etc. It’s really cool and it has no issues understanding my southern accent and speech recognition is excellent. Here are a few clips of me asking it various things:
http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/16905141/Nexus_7

Ok, now on to the usb storage capabilites….

OTG (on the go storage) for storage media does not fully work out of the box. However it does work out of the box for certain peripherals, such as keyboard, mice, etc.

While external storage does not work out of the box, the support is integrated into the kernel. What’s missing is the software to mount the device. That’s where StickMount (free on
Play store) comes in, as it’s basically a USB device mounter. If you’ve used Linux before, you might have noticed that in order to mount a device at a specific location, you need to be root
to mount the drive. So of course you need your N7 rooted as StickMount needs root access in order to complete this task. Note that some devices (like bigger external hard drives) tend to be more power hungry, and may not be able to obtain full power from the USB port on the Nexus 7. So a flash drive will work just fine but you may not be able to use your external hard drive if it does not have another power source such as an ac plug. You can find the OTG cables on Amazon for around 2 dollars. I only paid $1.09 for my cable so you can find them cheaper.

After rooting your Nexus 7, installing stickmount and getting the correct OTG cable; you can easily mount usb drives for added storage. After setting up stickmount and such, I decided to try out some other usb devices. Well I plugged my usb Xbox controller into the otg cable and what do you know, I can use my xbox controller to play games on the tablet. I know it does not sound that amazing but I was thrilled to see that it actually worked OOTB.

Even though I only got the 8gb model, I do not think I will have an issue with storage space. After installing around 200 apps and storing a couple of wallpapers, I only used about 1.6gb of the available 6gb.

The Nexus 7′s screen looks great and feels responsive; the tablet feels well-built and does a good job of demonstrating its power in games and movie performance. Some feel that the lack of a sdcard slot or a back camera is a bummer, but it’s understandable since the tablet is so cheap: $200 for an 8gb model and $250 for the 16GB model. I personally do not not see either one as a Con since you can easily expand the storage using an OTG cable with a usb drive. As far as the back camera, it does not bother me either since I do not plan on taking pictures with a tablet anyway. I have an 8mp camera on my cellphone for taking pictures.

All in all, I think the Nexus 7 is an excellent device with a really great price point….

Anyway, I recently bought a 32gb HP Touchpad from a friend of mine and thought I would post about my experiences so far. To begin with I ended up selling my Gtablet to one of my cousins so I managed to get the Touchpad for less than $60 dollars, not bad huh?

Here are some of the specs for the device:

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2 GHz OCd to 1.899 GHz
Battery: Rechargeable 6300 mAh battery
Storage: 32 GB internal storage
RAM: 1 GB Mobile DDR2 SDRAM
Display: 9.7in 1024×768 px XGA, 18-bit color, TFT LCD with IPS, LED-backlit
Input: Touchscreen[Capacitive] and resizable virtual keyboard
Camera: 1.3 MP front-facing webcam
Connectivity: Atheros Qualcomm Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Weight: 740 grams

The Touchpad runs WebOS 3.04 which is a Linux based operating system originally developed by Palm. One of the great things about WebOS is that a lot of the software available is licensed under the GPL and the Developer tools are built right into the OS. There is no root per say as the device has this functionality built into it. There are other methods of enabling the Developer mode but I thought that it was funny that the devs used the Konami code (from the Super Nintendo games) as a shortcut to enable developer mode:

On the a webOS device, entering ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A (upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart) brings up the previously hidden Developer Mode Enabler application. Opening the app and enabling it will require you to reset your device, after which you’ll be able to hook up to your computer and install Preware:

“Preware is a homebrew package management application for your HP webOS device. Users can install any package from any of the open standard package feeds on preware.org (or any other location that hosts an open standard package feed).
Preware is the most advanced installer currently available – it is the only on-device installer that can install kernels, applications, themes, and patches, as well as give access to over 1600 Linux programs.”

Here are some of the applications and patches I have downloaded from Preware:

F4 Phantom kernel v3.0.4-87 Overclocked to Min 1.242ghz/Max 1.728ghz
Add Launcher Tabs
Diffstat
Unzip
Faster Card Animation
Increasw Touch Sensitivity and Smoothness
Max Blocker (Adblock)
Private Browsing (prevents history and cookies)
Unthrottle Download Manager
Remove Tap Ripple (needless bloat)
Muffle System Logging (Touchpad logs everything – too much)
Mojo Smooth Scrolling
Unhide Dev Mode Icon
Advanced Reset Options (Airplane mode, Luna restart, Device restart, shutdown, and cancel)
Glass Effect Suite (Theme)
Advanced Browser (browser with tabs)

I have used many Android devices/versions (1.5-3.2) over the years and I think WebOS is more of a complete mobile experience than Android offers as far as functionality and speed. The main problem with WebOS is the lack of applications and the apps that are offered are really expensive compared to their Android counterparts. There are a few other issues but these are mainly limitations of the applications. For instance, the Kindle app cannot sync magazine subscriptions but syncs books fine. The built in browser integrates flash very nice(much better than android as flash is built into the OS), renders pages very fast (pinch and zoom are fluid), but really does not offer very much else. WebOS also integrates Skype, google chat, and allows you to use your touchpad to make phone calls via bluetooth as well. There are a lot of great apps available on HP App catalog and the Preware repositories but like I noted above, they are quite expensive $3-$10 per app.

“There’s a new paneled email application a Growl-like pop-up notification system, support for Skype calling, compatibility with Amazon’s Kindle e-book store, plenty of cal / email integration courtesy of HP Synergy, a slick virtual keyboard, VPN support, wireless printing as well as Google Docs, QuickOffice, Dropbox and Box.net compatibility.”

The other alternative is to install Android (Cyanogenmod) as a dual boot option with WebOS:

The method is very simple to do and allows you to choose to boot into WebOS or Android from a bootloader. The release in Alpha 2 stage but I have found it to be very stable and it only a few bugs here and there. For instance sometimes whenever you reboot, the wifi settings will force close and become nonresponsive. To fix this issue, you must clear your wifi settings. To do this, just open up a terminal as root within Android and issue the following command:

rm -rf /data/misc/wifi && reboot

This will clear out your wifi settings and reboot back into Android. After this, the wifi will be working normally again. The Android port is nice and works fine but I enjoy using WebOS much more as the interface is much more fluid and it just works. Personally I would like to see HP decide to continue developing WebOS as this is an excellent open platform. Alot the issues I witnessed like buggy apps and high prices are due to the fact that there are not many applications available, officially anyway. If WebOS does end their development, I think Android 4.0 will fit this device nicely. Currently the Android port uses Gingerbread and it works but something still does not feel right on the device. It just does not have as much polish as WebOS does but then again the port is only in Alpha so I imagine it will get better especially since the ICS source has been released.

Here are some screenshots in WebOS:

And here are some screenshots of Android on the Touchpad:

More to come……

Luckily everything is slowly getting back to normal. I finally got my main machine and the Internet back a few weeks ago so I am starting to feel “normal” again. I still have not found a job but then again, I have not been looking for one either. One good thing is that there are plenty of jobs available so I imagine before my money runs out I will get me something.

Anyway, I just wanted to post something here to let everyone (my 2 subscribers lol) know that I am back and things are getting to be normal again.

I was originally going to travel south to give my sister away at her wedding but I decided that I wanted to move back home permanently as all of my family lives there. I think this move will be good for me and it will nice to be closer to my family especially since I have not lived back home for the last 12 years or so. I have a huge family, with 24 aunts/uncles and 30+ first cousins so it will be nice to be around family again.

That said, I will be online but not as much as I normally am, at least until after the wedding (May 8th). So I have about 13 days until the big move. I have already been packing some but still have a lot of packing left do. Moving can be a pain with all the packing and such especially when you have to drive 800 miles to get to your destination. Although, I have to say that it will be nice to get back South where we have normal weather. This northern snow is for the birds.

The move will give me a chance to use my Android tablet in a real world test, well that is if I have cell signal to tether with.

–XFX nForce 750i SLI Extreme Motherboard FSB @ 1333mh/z
–Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E7300 @ 2.66GHz overclocked to 3.0ghz
–NVIDIA GeForce 7050i GPU, on board graphics memory shared Up to 768MB
–2 x SLI EVGA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0
–3 x WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA HD 7200/32MB/SATA-3G
–Fantom G-Force 2TB USB 2.0 / eSATA External Hard Drive GF2000EUC
–A-DATA 4 x 2GB SDRAM DDR2 800-PC2 6400 @ 1066 OCd
–Acer H203H 20″ LCD Monitor @ 1600×900–16:9
–AOC 2236vw 22″ LCD Monitor @ 1920×1080–16:9
–Acer X203H 20″ LCD Monitor @ 1600×900–16:9
–Logitech EX 100 Cordless Desktop Keyboard and Mouse
–Cyber Acoustics CA-3602 Platinum Series 30W 2.1 Speaker System
–Ultra LSP1000 1000w Power Supply
–Samsung SH-S223L/BEBS DVDRW Internal Drive – DVD+R 22X, DVD+RW 8X, DVD-RW 6X, DVD-RAM 12X, CD-R 48X, SATA, LightScribe
–ArchLinux 64 Core– XMonad WM /Win 7 Ultimate 64—Games only

I have already received the cpu, cooler, and the ram:
Intel DP55SB Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB DDR3 1333
Intel BX80605I5760 Core i5 760 Processor – 2.8GH
Cooler Master RR-B10-212P-GP Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler

I ended up having to return the motherboard because it was DOA but I ended up ordering a better motherboard anyway so it worked out. It cost $80 more but is features:

-7 sata 3Gb/s and 2 sata 6Gb/s
-USB 3.0
-2 PCI Express 2.0 x16
-Gigabyte ethernet
-Built in OverClock utility with stability testing

and a whole bunch of other features. The first motherboard was an openbox purchase and I guarentee you I will not be doing that for a motherboard again. The new one is $80 more but it is worth it. I am actually glad that this happened even though I had to wait two more weeks for my build.

ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX MB

Also, the processor runs at 2.8ghz but while researching the processor, it seems that Asus provides a bios utility that can easily OC the processor to 3.8ghz. So in about a week a couple of days, I will have a smoking fast machine to play with. I will write a followup after I set up the new machine.

CAINE (Computer Aided INvestigative Environment) is an Italian GNU/Linux live distribution created as a project of Digital Forensics
Currently the project manager is Nanni Bassetti.
CAINE offers a complete forensic environment that is organized to integrate existing software tools as software modules and to provide a friendly graphical interface.
The main design objectives that CAINE aims to guarantee are the following:

–an interoperable environment that supports the digital investigator during the four phases of the digital investigation
–a user friendly graphical interface
–a semi-automated compilation of the final report
–We recommend you to read the page on the CAINE policies carefully.
–CAINE represents fully the spirit of the Open Source philosophy, because the project is completely open, everyone could take the legacy of the previous developer or project manager. The distro is open source, the Windows side (Wintaylor) is open source and, the last but not the least, the distro is installable, so giving the opportunity to rebuild it in a new brand version, so giving a long life to this project .

CAINE includes scripts activated within the Nautilus web browser designed to make examination of allocated files simple. Currently, the scripts can render many databases, internet histories, Windows registries, deleted files, and extract EXIF data to text files for easy examination. The Quick View tool automates this process by determining the file type and rendering with the appropriate tool.

The live preview Nautilus scripts also provide easy access to administrative functions, such as making an attached device writeable, dropping to the shell, or opening a Nautilus window with administrator privileges. The “Save as Evidence” script will write the selected file(s) to an “Evidence” folder on the desktop and create a text report about the file containing file metadata and an investigator comment, if desired.

A unique script, “Identify iPod Owner”, is included in the toolset. This script will detect an attached and mounted iPod Device, display metadata about the device (current username, device serial number, etc.). The investigator has the option to search allocated media files and unallocated space for iTunes user information present in media purchased through the Apple iTunes store, i.e., Real Name and email address.

The live preview scripts are a work in progress. Many more scripts are possible as are improvements to the existing scripts. The CAINE developers welcome feature requests, bug reports, and critiques.

The preview scripts were born of a desire to make evidence extraction simple for any investigator with basic computer skills. They allow the investigator to get basic evidence to support the investigation without the need of advanced computer forensics training or waiting upon a computer forensics lab. Computer forensics labs can used the scripts for device triage and the remainder of the CAINE toolset for a full forensic examination

http://www.caine-live.net/

I had problems running the distro on Virtual box but while searching I found that there is also a VirtualBox image for the distro available http://virtualboximages.com/Caine-0.5

Takeaway: The evolution of Linux has led to many improvements — but a few things have been lost along the way. Jack Wallen revisits the aspects of Linux he wouldn’t mind bringing back.

I’ve been using Linux since the days of Caldera Open Linux 1 and Red Hat Linux 4.2 (prior to the creation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux). Since those days, I have seen a lot of things come and go. I was glad to wave goodbye to most of the things that have gone by the wayside. However, I actually do miss some of the bits and pieces that have slipped out of the mix. Some of these are software, while some of them are more ideas/ideals. Let’s venture into the time machine and go retro with our memories of Linux.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: linuxconf
Of all the admin tools I have used on Linux, the one I thought was the best of the best was linuxconf. From this single interface, you could administer everything — and I mean EVERYTHING — on your Linux box. From the kernel on up, you could take care of anything you needed. With the dumbing down of the Linux operating system (which was actually a necessity for average user acceptance), tools like this have disappeared. It’s too bad. An admin tool like this was ideal for serious administrators and users.

2: The challenge
I know this is counterintuitive, but there are days I really miss the challenge (and the ensuing celebration) of old-school Linux. Back in the day, getting Linux installed gave many users reason to shout their own variation of “Hoorah” to the clouds. Don’t get me wrong, I love how easy Linux is to install (and how that simplicity enables users of any skill level to use Linux). But there was something to be said about overcoming the challenges presented by Linux in the early days. It was a badge of honor only a select few could wear.

3: WordPerfect
I realize there are some good word processing and/or text editing tools available for Linux. But none of those writing tools is as good as WordPerfect was. WP was the ideal word processor. It didn’t get bogged down with feature bloat, but it had enough unique features to make it stand out as a real writer’s tool. I would love for someone to bring that piece of software back. Probably won’t ever happen, but it’s always good to dream.

4: Install Fests
I remember when local LUGs (Linux User Groups) would hosts Linux Install Fests once a month. Users would bring in their computers, and members of the LUGs would install Linux on their machines for free. It wasn’t just about Linux; it was about building community and spreading the ideal that was building steam at the time. Although the installation of Linux is easy enough that any user can achieve success, the camaraderie and community of those parties is definitely missed.

5: Linus’ sound byte
Remember during those early days, when it came time for the installation to run a sound check, how you would get to hear Linus Torvalds say, “Hello! This is Linus Torvalds, and I pronounce Linux, Linux.”? I always laughed when I heard that. Of course, to me, that was much more than a sound check — it was the father of the operating system I was using reminding those using it that Linux was a community effort and everyone was welcome to be involved. I really miss that open-arm community, typified by that recording.

6: Window managers
Remember when the Linux desktop consisted of X Windows and then a window manager on top of that — and nothing more? Sure, you can still have that if you install the likes of FluxBox or E16. But for the most part, the days of the window manager-only desktop have gone the way of everything else on this list — b’bye. Although you didn’t find heavy integration into nearly every aspect of computing, you did have blazing speed, a unique look and feel, and rock-solid stability.

7: Linus Torvalds
It used to be that Linus was the face of Linux. When anyone thought of the operating system, they thought of Linus. He was the final say, the pinnacle of information, the one person with the answers. That is not so now. In fact, for the most part, Linus has gone beige on us and nearly been relegated to obscurity. Oh, he’s still a pivotal figure in the development of the Linux kernel (and that will be so for a long time). But when you mention his name now, it’s not met with the “wow factor” it once was. I met the man a few times and always found him a treat. If I met him today, that treat would seem a bit flavorless.

8: Loki Games
There was a time when everyone thought Loki Games was going to bring gaming to Linux full time. The entire Linux community was riding high with the thought of playing all those wonderful games without having to dual boot. And it looked poised to happen… but then the Linux community did the unthinkable and refused to pay for the games it so desperately wanted. Unfortunately, I think Loki was way ahead of its time. If it could revive itself, now might be a great time for it.

9: Vi/emacs wars
Don’t you miss the trench coat army camps lining up and warring it out over which editor was best? It was then you knew, without a doubt, that Linux users were passionate about what they used. That kind of passion is hard to come by now. It still remains, but it’s not as prevalent as it once was. Do I want to see Linux users coming to fisticuffs? No. But knowing there exists an underlying passion for things Linux helps drive the community forward in ways proprietary software can’t enjoy.

10: Thousands of distributions
Back in the early days, new, obscure distributions were popping up daily. Oh sure, most of them were spinoffs of Red Hat, Mandriva, SuSE, or Debian. But some of them really pushed the envelope in either task, size, or design. Some of them were no more than a preexisting distribution repurposed with a different desktop theme and funny name. It seemed you could go to distrowatch.com and find a new distribution every day. Now it’s just a place to go to see if your distribution of choice is the hottest download of the day.
Other fond recollections?

I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. Linux is in a good place right now, ever-poised to open up the floodgates to throngs of satisfied users. But just because Linux is taking the operating system toward new heights on the evolutionary ladder does not mean every shard and scrap it has left behind was justified. There are pieces of the past I would happily bring back.
What about you? Is there something from Linux’s past you would gladly bring to the present? Share your thoughts with your fellow TechRepublic members.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-things-i-miss-about-old-school-linux/2309

You love tinkering with your computer. You’ve tried Ubuntu and Fedora, and they’re good, but you feel something is not quite right. Maybe you don’t like all those daemons loading on boot, or maybe you want to build your Linux desktop stack just how you want it? Perhaps you’re completely new to Linux and want to learn exactly what makes a Linux workstation tick? It’s time for you to try Arch Linux. Arch Linux is often called the binary Gentoo—an appropriate description. Arch gives you a full but simple command-line base to build on, but unlike Gentoo, Arch uses i686 or x86_64 optimized binary packages instead of source code.

This will not be a step-by-step guide on getting an Arch Linux desktop up and running. You can find that on Arch’s fabulous wiki. Instead I’ll share with you what separates Arch from other Linux distributions and what makes Arch one of the best distributions for a personal workstation………

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/arch-way?page=1

Veteran Unix admin trait No. 1: We don’t use sudo
Much like caps lock is cruise control for cool, sudo is a crutch for the timid. If we need to do something as root, we su to root, none of this sudo nonsense. In fact, for Unix-like operating systems that force sudo upon all users, the first thing we do is sudo su – and change the root password so that we can comfortably su – forever more. Using sudo exclusively is like bowling with only the inflatable bumpers in the gutters — it’s safer, but also causes you to not think through your actions fully.

Veteran Unix admin trait No. 2: We use vi, not emacs, and definitely not pico or nano
While we know that emacs is near and dear to the hearts of many Unix admins, it really is the Unix equivalent of Microsoft Word. Vi — and explicitly vim — is the true tool for veteran Unix geeks who need to get things done and not muck about with the extraneous nonsense that comes with emacs. Emacs has a built-in game of Tetris, for crying out loud. I’ll grudgingly admit that the bells and whistles in vim such as code folding and syntax highlighting might be considered fluff, but at the end of the day, real Unix work blends extremely well with vi’s modal editing concepts. In addition, its svelte size and universal portability make it the One True Editor.

Veteran Unix admin trait No. 3: We wield regular expressions like weapons
To the uninitiated, even the most innocuous regex looks like the result of nauseous keyboard. To us, however, it’s pure poetry. The power represented in the complexity of pcre (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) cannot be matched by any other known tool. If you need to replace every third character in a 100,000-line file, except when it’s followed by the numeral 4, regular expressions aren’t just a tool for the job — they’re the only tool for the job. Those that shrink from learning regex do themselves and their colleagues a disservice on a daily basis. In just about every Unix shop of reasonable size, you’ll find one or two guys regex savants. These poor folks constantly get string snippets in their email accompanied by plaintive requests for a regex to parse them, usually followed by a promise of a round of drinks that never materializes.

Veteran Unix admin trait No. 4: We’re inherently lazy
When given a problem that appears to involve lots of manual, repetitive work, we old-school Unix types will always opt to write code to take care of it. This usually takes less time than the manual option, but not always. Regardless, we’d rather spend those minutes and hours constructing an effort that can be referenced or used later, rather than simply fixing the immediate problem. Usually, this comes back to us in spades when a few years later we encounter a similar problem and can yank a few hundred lines of Perl from a file in our home directory, solve the problem in a matter of minutes, and go back to analyzing other code for possible streamlining. Or playing Angry Birds.

Veteran Unix admin trait No. 5: We prefer elegant solutions
If there are several ways to fix a problem or achieve a goal, we’ll opt to spend more time developing a solution that encompasses the actual problem and preventing future issues than simply whipping out a Band-Aid. This is related to the fact that we loathe revisiting a problem we’ve already marked “solved” in our minds. We figure that if we can eliminate future problems now by thinking a few steps ahead, we’ll have less to do down the road. We’re usually right.

Veteran Unix admin trait No. 6: We generally assume the problem is with whomever is asking the question
To reach a certain level of Unix enlightenment is to be extremely confident in your foundational knowledge. It also means we never think that a problem exists until we can see it for ourselves. Telling a veteran Unix admin that a file “vanished” will get you a snort of derision. Prove to him that it really happened and he’ll dive into the problem tirelessly until a suitable, sensible cause and solution are found. Many think that this is a sign of hubris or arrogance. It definitely is — but we’ve earned it.

Veteran Unix admin trait No. 7: We have more in common with medical examiners than doctors
When dealing with a massive problem, we’ll spend far more time in the postmortem than the actual problem resolution. Unless the workload allows us absolutely no time to investigate, we need to know the absolute cause of the problem. There is no magic in the work of a hard-core Unix admin; every situation must stem from a logical point and be traceable along the proper lines. In short, there’s a reason for everything, and we’ll leave no stone unturned until we find it.

To us, it’s easy to stop the bleeding by HUPping a process or changing permissions on a file or directory to 777, but that’s not the half of it. Why did the process need to be restarted? That shouldn’t have been necessary, and we need to know why.

Veteran Unix admin trait No. 8: We know more about Windows than we’ll ever let on
Though we may not run Windows on our personal machines or appear to care a whit about Windows servers, we’re generally quite capable at diagnosing and fixing Windows problems. This is because we’ve had to deal with these problems when they bleed over into our territory. However, we do not like to acknowledge this fact, because most times Windows doesn’t subscribe to the same deeply logical foundations as Unix, and that bothers us. See traits No. 5 and 6 above.

Veteran Unix admin trait No. 9: Rebooting is almost never an option
Unix boxes don’t need reboots. Unless there’s absolutely no other option, we’ll spend hours fixing a problem with a running system than give it a reboot. Our thinking here is there’s no reason why a reboot should ever be necessary other than kernel or hardware changes, and a reboot is simply another temporary approach to fixing the problem. If the problem occurred once and was “fixed” by a reboot, it’ll happen again. We’d rather fix the problem than simply pull the plug and wait for the next time.

If some of these traits seem antisocial or difficult to understand from a lay perspective, that’s because they are. Where others may see intractable, overly difficult methods, we see enlightenment, born of years of learning, experience, and most of all, logic.

http://www.infoworld.com/t/unix/nine-traits-the-veteran-unix-admin-276