Open Source Software Comes of Age

I've been using Open Source software for many years but have not felt it was always suitable for business use - until now.

There are now many Open Source software products that can easily replace the equivalent Microsoft or proprietary offering and save substantial amounts of money which is no bad thing in the current climate.

Open Source software can include Linux and associated applications but there are also many Open Source programmes for Windows such as Open Office which is a fully-featured Office suite to replace MS Office.

One of my favourite applications is Joomla which is an Open Source Content Management System (CMS) suitable for use on your website or intranet. Compared to a product such as MS Sharepoint this could save massive amounts of money. I am aware of a company spending many thousands just on Sharepoint user licences before looking at the server licencing and implementation costs. With Joomla the only costs are the implementation consultancy - potentially cutting the costs of a project dramatically.

Netbooks - The future of laptops?

I recently bought an Acer Aspire One known as a netbook. This ulta-portable laptop is much smaller and lighter than a traditional laptop but still sports a 120Gb hard disc, 1Gb RAM and fast processor along with built-in wireless networking.

It is so portable it can be carried virtually anywhere and with the expandability offered by the 3 USB ports and external video output it is an extremely versatile device. For many uses it could replace a traditional laptop as it is brings all the virtues that a laptop was meant to offer but in a more portable design. Standard laptops have now become very bloated and it is easy to see why netbooks are becoming so popular.

My netbook allows me to check my email on the move, backup images to the hard drive from memory cards and even carry out basic web editing and photo loading without needing to use the main desktop or laptop. As it is so light it can be carried in another bag without even noticing the weight.

My verdict - the netbook is an extremely versatile device that I now found invaluable and I think it shows the future of mobile computing.

Another Reason to Not Use Internet Explorer

If you have read my photography blog I've recently upgraded my PC to a new Quad core machine with 8Gb RAM running Windows Vista 64. Unfortunately there are still a number of programmes that are not compatible with 64 bit operating systems like Vista. In particular the version of Internet Explorer 7 supplied with Vista is 64 bit which means many plugins such as Adobe Flash will not work with it.

Firefox 3 works perfectly so that is the route I will be taking for my web browser in conjunction with Google Chrome.

Looks like another reason not to use IE7 as more and more people move to 64bit Operating Systems to get the benefits of larger amounts of RAM.

Hoax Virus Warnings

I'm always surprised by the number of fake and spoof virus warnings that still circulate despite being well out of date and with very common themes that highlight that it isn't genuine.

If you receive an email from anyone claiming to be a virus warning that needs to be passed on to everyone in your address book then the chances are that it is a hoax and purely an attempt to clog email systems and propagate a myth. If the message also claims that the warning was issued by Microsoft, AOL or Norton then the chances of the message being fake are 100%. In particular Norton never issue virus warnings as that is purely a product name not a company which is actually called Symantec.

If you receive a message like this either delete it or copy part of the text into Google and you will find many pages outlining details of the hoax warnings.

Some of the best sites for checking the validity of virus warnings and hoaxes are as follows

http://www.f-secure.com/virus-info/hoax/
http://vil.nai.com/vil/hoaxes.aspx
http://urbanlegends.about.com/

Remember to check any warning before forwarding it to all your friends and propagating the virus hoax.

Graphics Cards - PC Speed

If your PC appears to be running slowly but has a good spec processor and plenty of RAM then it may be worth checking the graphics card.

My PC has dual core, 4Gb RAM with 22" widescreen HDMI monitor but I have been unable to play HD video clips from my new Canon 5D Mark 2 camera as frames kept dropping. Having replaced the graphics card today with a new ATI Radeon 3650 with 512Mb RAM it has made a huge difference. Images now display immediately when opening in Lightroom and video runs smoothly playing through Canon Zoombrowser.

So check your graphics card as first step! In Windows Vista the new card gets a score of 5.9 compared to a score of 2.2 for the previous nVidia 6200 model.

Windows XP, Windows Vista and Dynamic Disks

I run a pretty complicated PC setup in order to run the business, multiple PCs, multiple hard drives to allow for easy backups etc.

I've installed dual boot to test Vista and come to the first hurdle. The dynamic disks that I have on Windows XP Pro are not readable in Windows Vista Home Premium. In order to read Dynamic Disks in Windows Vista you need to be running Vista Business or Ultimate. Rather frustrating as I don't want or need the features in these versions.


The simple solution, although not necessarily quickest!, is to convert the disks to Simple disks and they will then be readable in both Operating Systems but the only way to switch to Simple disks from Dynamic is to reformat the disks.