Computer Innovation

As we roll into the 21st century, everyone is scrambling for iPADs and Tablet PC’s with touch screen interfaces. They create a new vertical market of personal and business computing, that compliment netbook and laptop computers. But what about desktop computers? The design and size have not changed greatly in the past fifteen years.  This should change in the coming years as Keyboard PC’s become more evident to consumers.

The prices are very reasonable for a starting at $50 and topping out at $600. I think $600 is a bit much, but thats my opinion and I am a frugal computer user these days. Two models mention the following specifications:

• Intel Atom N270, the EeeKeyboard gets 1GB of RAM and 16GB SSD. It has a 5-inch LED-backlit multitouch LCD display, integrated keyboard, VGA out and HDMI out. Bluetooth and WiFi 802.11b/g are supported.
• Intel’s Atom 1.6GHz processor and NVIDIA Ion graphics, the Cross PC has 2GB of memory and a 250GB hard drive. The U510 comes with a 5-inch touchscreen display and a stylus. It supports WIFI 802.11n connectivity.

Here are some images for review:

Not everyone needs a 1GB video card, or a i7 quad-core CPU with copious amount of memory to browse the web, read email, skim through Facebook, or run iTunes. Now that I think about, one doesn’t even need Windows for that, but I digress.

Computer prices for consumers have readily come down and will continue to fall. In time, your computer (digital appliance) will be as ubiquitous as the microwave or toaster.

Later in the week, I will write about surface computing devices running Ubuntu and integrated surface computing for the desktop, tabletop, wall or countertop of your home.

Migration from Windows and six ways to ensure it sticks

Summary: Moving a business from Windows to desktop Linux can be scary for some users. Here are some tricks for smoothing the transition.

With all the many compelling reasons for a company to switch to Linux on the desktop, it’s no wonder that businesses large and small are increasingly relying on the free and open source operating system. After all, it’s free, flexible, reliable, and highly secure–to name just a few of the most attractive features.

No matter how good your reasons for switching from Windows to Linux, however, the fact remains that most of us don’t like change. That–more than anything else–is why migrations of any kind can be painful.

One of the most common mistakes new desktop Linux users make is to give up too easily, often citing the frequently heard myth that “It’s too hard.” The truth, however, is that it’s just different. It may be difficult to remember at this point, but Windows took some getting used to, too.

How can you make the desktop Linux migration process as easy as possible in your business? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Get Buy-In at the Top

This probably goes without saying, but executive buy-in is essential to business migrations of just about any kind. Users need to know that the change has been mandated from the top or they won’t feel motivated to go along with it

2. Choose the Right Distribution

Before the migration even begins, it’s critical that you choose the right Linux distribution from among the many hundreds that are out there. As I’ve outlined before, this is primarily a question of the skills of your users, the focus of your business, your hardware and software needs, and the kind of support you hope to get.

Assuming your users haven’t been on desktop Linux before, I’d be inclined to steer you toward either Ubuntu or Linux Mint, unless you have compelling reasons to do otherwise. To help convert real Windows aficionados, there’s also Zorin OS, which is designed to mimic Microsoft’s graphical user interface. You should definitely avoid some of the more expert-oriented distros such as Arch Linux or Slackware.

If you want a little extra online help in making your decision, check out the zegenie Studios Linux Distribution Chooser or polishlinux.org’s distro chooser, both of which can be useful.

3. Choose a Familiar Desktop

One of the nicest things about Linux is that it’s so flexible and customizable, and that’s particularly useful when it comes to introducing new users to the operating system. In addition to choosing your distribution carefully, I’d also encourage you at least to check out a few different desktop environments.

I outlined a few of these not long ago within the context of Ubuntu–which has traditionally come with GNOME by default–and there are many more. Pick one that seems relatively similar to what your users are familiar with.

4. Begin with Key Apps

Because so many of the apps your employees will likely need are cross-platform, one good hurdle to jump ahead of time is getting them used to any new key applications. If they’re used to Internet Explorer, for example, you can start them on Firefox or Chrome while they’re still on Windows.

If they’ve been using Microsoft Office, you can get them used to OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice ahead of time, too. That way, when it comes time to make the switch in operating systems, they’ll have some familiar territory–it won’t all be new.

5. Remove the Pressure

Before you’re aiming to make the switch, set up a Linux box in your office using the distribution, desktop and apps you’ve chosen. Make sure there are some games on there too, and offer it as an option for break time. There’s nothing like no-pressure time with a new technology to make people open-minded and quick to learn.

6. Make a Cheat Sheet

Because the lion’s share of any difficulty in switching to Linux is simply getting used to something different, it can be a real help for users if you give them a quick, post-training “cheat sheet” to remind them how to get at the tools they need once the switch is made.

It could be worded like, “Instead of… (Internet Explorer, for example) Use… (Firefox, say).” It could also outline the first few clicks to get users where they need to go. They’ll probably be fine once they’re in the applications they need–more often than not, it will simply be the process of getting there that they need help remembering.

Here is an up to date wiki with information: http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_to_Windows_software

Windows or OSX does not excite me like Ubuntu Linux does

You know that thing that happens on your computer, when you are using Windows? When you ask it to do something, and it thinks about it, and then it keeps thinking, and then you go off and make a cup of tea, and it’s still thinking, and you want to headbutt the wall, again and again, until gets all smeared and red and bloody and bits of your brain are raining down on to your shoes? Yes? Well, there’s a way to stop that happening. Stop using Windows. Use Ubuntu instead.

Ubuntu is an operating system. If you don’t know what one of those is, Google it, and then come back. The latest version comes out in April 2011. If you work on a desk, these are the environs are our worlds. Mine used to be Windows, and now it isn’t. And, as a result my life is better.

Ubuntu is a Debian-based distribution of Linux. If you are feeling a powerful urge, already, to recommend a different version of Linux, then let me stop you right there. Is it easier to use? Is it prettier? No? Well, not interested. Move along. Actually, I recommend Ubuntu on the corporate level and Linux Mint for the home users.

But then came Windows Vista, the OS world’s answer to the Austin Allegro. All across the world, sleek expensive machines were sitting on desks, blinking little green lights and doing little else, for hours. Netbooks and smartphones came along at around the same time, helping people to realise that it didn’t really matter what language your computer spoke, as long as you could use Google and Hotmail. And into the void swooped Ubuntu. Finally, there was a version of Linux that was actually pleasant to use. “Linux for human beings,” they called it. See? Some IT jokes are actually quite funny.

My Ubuntu setup is faster than a PC and prettier than a Mac. But best of all, when you ask it to do something, it does it. Or, at worst, it doesn’t do it. It doesn’t think about it, for hours, and then mysteriously go off the idea. It doesn’t crash. It doesn’t break. I don’t know why everybody doesn’t use it.

“But will I still be able to use Word?” you cry. Well, no. But you will be able to use something almost indistinguishable (OpenOffice), or Google Docs, which is far more useable anyway. You can mess around with it in all sorts of ways, and make it look however you want. I gather that Windows 7 is perfectly serviceable, but I wouldn’t go back. I wouldn’t see the point. It would be like moving into a generic hotel room, when you’re used to having your own house.

On the big Dell tank that sets under my desk, it’s Ubuntu all the way. Now the next newest version is coming out, you should try it, too. Download it, put it on a disk, stick it in the drive and see what happens. You can run it from there, if you want, or you can tell it to install alongside whichever OS you’ve got on there already.

Mainstream media is adopting Linux now and is becoming more prevalent these days in corporate and home use.

• http://jet-computing.com/linux/examples/
• http://jet-computing.com/broadcom-joins-the-linux-foundation/
• http://jet-computing.com/prediction-google-chrome-os-notebooks-will-be-introduced-at-under-100-in-mid-2011/
• http://jet-computing.com/will-microsoft-repair-its-image-as-russia-moves-to-linux/
• http://jet-computing.com/london-stock-exchange-smashes-world-record-trade-speed-with-linux/
• http://jet-computing.com/good-bye-windows-enterprise-linux-is-taking-off/

Often times, when a debate ensues regarding Linux and Windows, people start complaining how not-user-friendly Linux really is. Before saying such far fetched statements, one thing they all need to consider is that Linux is NOT Windows and thank GOD for that.

It is not the friendliness factor, it is the user familiarity factor that is giving a lot of bad name for Linux. Most of the Linux users are those migrating from Microsoft Windows and it requires a certain amount of time to get familiar with the new OS.

I have my own experience to substantiate this statement. I was not much of a computer user at all till I bought my laptop 4 years ago. I installed Ubuntu as dual boot with Windows XP. I instantly started liking Ubuntu, it was fun to use and all the compiz eyecandy was just overwhelming. To that day, I considered linux as an outcast or never really though about it at all.

But even a guy like me with minimal Windows experience took 2-3 months to get fully familiar with Ubuntu. But once I got familiar, their was no looking back. To this day, there was not even a single instance where I had to go back to the Windows era.

That is probably the issue. Most of them are so too familiar with Windows and so are they, in a way, expecting everything in Linux to be just as like in Windows. That has to change.

Another good example of this ‘familiarity factor’ is the IT@School project introduced in Kerala, India in 2002. Kerala government completely shut down windows, and made schools to use only Linux. Students or parents didn’t protest, they just went on with it. And now Kerala is among the states having the highest e-literacy rate.

Here is another guy proudly proclaiming Ubuntu is NOT user friendly and that he is going ‘back’ to Windows. He never ‘came’ to Ubuntu to go ‘back’ to Windows.

All I have to say to those who say Ubuntu is tough to use is, spend some more time on it before quitting. It is worth it. I can’t even think about using Windows now, partially because I am all too familiar with Ubuntu and Linux. So please do bear that in mind always.

“I get paid to support Windows, I use Linux to get work done.”

Support improves for ARM devices, thanks to Ubuntu

As Apple, Google and Microsoft battle for mobile supremacy, Canonical — promoter of Ubuntu Linux — is preparing its own mobile moves. Ubuntu 11.04 will ship in April 2011 with a kernel version customized for OMAP 3 ARM processors, according to Ubuntu developer notes. Does this mean Canonical hopes to target more types of mobile devices in the future? Here’s the scoop, along with some thoughts.

Texas Instruments’ OMAP 3 chips are a family of ARM processors designed primarily for use in mobile devices. They boast ready support for multimedia applications and acceleration, and are already in use on a variety of phones.

During the last meeting of the Ubuntu Kernel Team on Jan. 4, 2011, developers decided to release a kernel for the next version of Ubuntu, 11.04, customized for the OMAP 3 architecture. This is part of an ongoing effort to expand Ubuntu support for ARM chips.

While no OMAP 3 kernel has been released yet, meeting notes indicate that one should be coming in the future, as the development cycle for the next version of Ubuntu continues. “We are still working to determine how to provide OMAP 3 kernels; testing is ongoing of a master-based kernel,” according to the notes.

Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop

Ubuntu On Your Phone?

Ubuntu ports customized for OMAP chips already exist, and plenty of geeks have successfully run Ubuntu on mobile phones in the past. In that sense, the announcement of an OMAP 3 kernel build for Ubuntu 11.04 may not be too exciting.

Official Ubuntu support for OMAP 3 devices, however, represents a major milestone in that it would be the first Ubuntu kernel flavor targeted primarily at mobile hardware — not to mention smartbooks, which may well become an important new family of devices in the coming year.

That change itself may not mean that 2011 will become the Year of the Ubuntu Cellphone, but it could be a significant first step toward a new market for Ubuntu, a Linux distribution traditionally focused on desktops and servers.

Other ARM-related goals for Ubuntu 11.04 include the release of an ARM image and ARM build support on Launchpad, a further indication of Canonical’s aspiration of placing Ubuntu at the forefront of the ARM-based hardware market.

Google’s Chrome OS, of course, which is based on Ubuntu, will also support ARM chips, and it seems likely that many more end users will run Google’s operating system on their devices than Ubuntu 11.04.

All the same, Canonical’s casting of a direct bid for ARM market share could have significant implications for the evolution of Ubuntu going forward, as smaller devices may become an increasingly important focus of Ubuntu developers. It’s also good news for end users who want smartbook hardware but are reluctant to sell their souls to Google by running Chrome OS, which in all likelihood will come tightly entwined with Google services.

Ubuntu’s progression since it’s birth, a window to its past

Ubuntu has touched the lives of many among us in different ways. I can’t speak for everyone here and hence I will share a few of my experiences with Ubuntu. For me, Ubuntu was the gateway to Linux and the whole open source way of thinking. Ubuntu taught me that computers are not all about Windows OS and that there are far better alternatives than the “default” Windows desktop which you have been made to see and learn from a younger age.

I remember jumping ship from Windows XP to Ubuntu and Linux in general, when Windows Vista arrived on the scene, circa 2005-2006. Seeing the total pig that Vista was and all the complaints that people were blogging about, I immediately starting telling people to “Stay with XP”, those that did are still using XP to this day.

Windows 7, which is just Vista with lipstick, offers nothing advantageous over XP at all, it is still exploitable in every sense of the word.

Lets go back in time and see how Ubuntu evolved over the years to become what it is now – a totally awesome, user friendly and fast changing Linux based distro for all.

A Brief History of Ubuntu

A new version of Ubuntu is released every 6 months and as of Oct 2010, a total of 13 stable releases of Ubuntu has happened. Each release also has a specific code name which are made using an adjective and an animal with the same first letter(e.g. Intrepid Ibex, Maverick Meerkat). We will have a brief overview of each one of them below. Read on.

Four Upcoming Ubuntu Unity UI’s

When you look back at the history of Ubuntu through the years, you will see that, Ubuntu Unity is *the* most significant change ever happened to Ubuntu. Ubuntu Unity is a really interesting idea with limitless possibilities. Now, here are some innovative user created Ubuntu Unity UI mockups/ideas you might find interesting.

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal’s first alpha release happened almost a month ago and the final release date of this crucial Ubuntu release is fast approaching. And Ubuntu Unity UI is evolving quite fast enough. But the next Ubuntu release is not just about Unity alone, a number of other changes are also in the pipeline.

Here is quick list of things to look forward for in upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

• Unity Will Replace GNOME Shell in Ubuntu 11.04
• Compiz Will Find Its Way Into Ubuntu Unity
• Slow Shift to Wayland Display Server
• LibreOffice Will Replace Open Office in Ubuntu 11.04
• Firefox 4 and Banshee – New Default Applications for Ubuntu 11.04
• Power Packed Ubuntu Software Center

Ubuntu Server Survey 2011 — How do You Ubuntu?

Summary: The Ubuntu Server team asks the community about its server usage

LONDON, Jan. 17, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Ubuntu Server community and Canonical are again asking Ubuntu users just exactly how they are using Ubuntu Server Edition — and in what kinds of organizations. Ubuntu Server has established itself as a popular operating system in organizations of all sizes performing numerous standard and critical tasks in multiple environments. It has also become one of the most popular operating systems on public cloud environments and has established itself as the core host Infrastructure-as-a-Service solution for private clouds. This is the third year of the survey. The results of last year’s survey can be found at http://blog.canonical.com/?p=365 and give an overview of the type of invaluable information that can be gleaned from users. The survey [http://survey.ubuntu.com/] will gather more detailed knowledge to: * Improve future product releases * Prioritize feature requests * Guide partnerships to add technologies * Drive the focus at the next Ubuntu Developer Summit in May 2011 The anonymous survey takes 10 to 20 minutes to complete and is open to anyone deploying Linux servers today, whether or not they use Ubuntu. The Ubuntu Server Community Team will present the results publicly at the beginning of February. About Canonical Canonical provides engineering, online and professional services to Ubuntu partners and customers worldwide. As the company behind the Ubuntu project, Canonical is committed to the production and support of Ubuntu – an ever-popular and fast-growing open-source operating system. It aims to ensure that Ubuntu is available to every organization and individual on servers, desktops, laptops and netbooks. Canonical partners with computer hardware manufacturers to certify Ubuntu, provides migration, deployment, support and training services to businesses, and offers online services direct to end users. Canonical also builds and maintains collaborative, open-source development tools to ensure that organizations and individuals can participate fully in innovations within the open-source community. For more information, please visit www.canonical.com.

Mac OSX attempting to catch-up with Linux, Windows left behind

Summary: Catch-up at Apple done the wrong way (with antifeatures or lack of features); Windows, the platform no one uses anymore

The company of seemingly-infinite hype is failing to impress and it also fails to innovate, except when it sues rivals, including those which use Linux. Apple is actually the one copying from GNU/Linux, not the other way around. Joe Brockmeier, a former employee of Novell who left after about a year there, published a post which contains what lots of people in Ident.ca said in recent days (but in brevity):

But the buzz over the Apple Mac App Store? Meh. Look at the features that Apple touts:

* Install any app with ease
* Keep your apps up to date
* The app you need. When you need it
* Buy, download, and even redownload

Linux folks, sound familiar? We’ve had all of this, modulo “buy”, for a decade at least. The Advanced Package Tool, a.k.a. “APT” for Debian-based systems (that includes Ubuntu), has made all of this possible for years and years. Granted, this has primarily focused on free and open source software, but paid apps are possible too. The Ubuntu folks have had a paid software store since Ubuntu 10.10. (It is, I admit, sparsely populated when it comes to proprietary/paid software.)

But the installation, updating, and such? All very possible with APT — or Yum or Zipper, if you happen to be using an RPM-based distro. (Or APT for RPM, if that’s still being maintained.)

Life Hacker has published “Why the Mac App Store Sucks”:

Apple launched the Mac App Store today, allowing you to browse, search, read reviews, and buy Mac software of all kinds in one streamlined location. And it’s terrible.

As written about earlier last year:

• http://jet-computing.com/the-lion-has-lost-the-magic/
• http://jet-computing.com/is-mac-os-lion-more-advanced-than-linux/

A system similar to the app store has been around in the Linux world for the past 10 years in the form of software repositories from which thousands of software packages can be downloaded and installed in a one step process straight from the desktop. In my opinion, that has been one of the major advantages for Linux over Windows and Mac OS. I believe that this has led to a larger number of smaller apps that are very specialized, sometimes feeling more like functions in the system rather than applications.

Below is an example the software repository for Ubuntu:

The big difference is of course that the Mac app store charges money for the applications, and it will be very interesting to see what this will do to the price point of Mac software. I’m pretty sure prices will drop drastically, not least because the applications are likely to be broken up into small parts with very specific functionality. You may look up what it is and than see thats its an AppStore, but not called “store” because everything is for free. Just look into the Ubuntu Software center. Search, find, click install, click uninstall. Thats it.

Apple is just copying GNU/Linux repositories and Windows is last to implement it (in vapourware), trying to catch up, as usual.

Compatibility issues that are the fault of the ISVs rather than GNU/Linux are probably the only remaining inertia factor which keeps Windows relevant. People dislike Windows for problems like viruses that characterise the platform, whereas applications that run on Windows lure/force people in. Disgruntled Windows users should be aware that there are alternatives other than Apple’s. There are more than 2 games in town.

The core difference is that a linux repository is controlled (tpyically) by a more open group, and you can effect influence. The Mac Store is controlled by Steve.

- Veritas Lux Mea, Caveat emptor

When only Linux remains, and it out performs Windows 7

Some people are afraid of Windows 7. Some people are said to be in love with it, but they usually go under anonymous handles and some time in the near future someone will produce an investigative report linking such people to astroturfing.  A Linux advocate has managed to expose a Microsoft agent cursing Linux and praising Microsoft products under multiple handles. Once the person was linked to his/her Facebook account it turned out that s/he worked for Microsoft, whereupon the Facebook page got deleted (evidence, be gone!).

I am personally amused to see these days anonymous commenter’s pressuring writers who are critical Windows 7 phone, whilst using pseudonyms. Remember that Microsoft spends about half a billion dollars just promoting this already-failed product and this money goes to peripheral agencies that use all sorts of tactics to shape the perception of Windows 7 phone. Watch what those alleged sympathizers of Windows 7 phone (it hardly has any users) caused a Forbes writer to publish even as a headline: “Commenter’s Say Don’t Knock Windows Phone 7 Prematurely”

Who are those commenter’s? Can they be named? The point of it all is that what we’re seeing here is exactly what we saw when Windows Vista and Windows 7 were released. There was retaliation against writers who criticized it. In the coming days we’ll do some dedicated posts about Vista Phony 7, whereas in this post we wish to address the myth of GNU/Linux being ‘hard’, ‘incompatible’, etc.

“In many ways, these people can handle GNU/Linux better than they can use Windows without a support helpline and an OEM’s preinstallation.”

I’ve used Ubuntu since its 2005 and wrote about it almost a dozen times in this blog. It works for me, friends, family and my customers. It works better than almost anything I’ve tried and I installed it for other people too. They stick with it. They even installed it themselves, having never installed a GNU/Linux distribution before. Last night I found a post titled “Windows 7 fails to power down idle disks, Fedora 14 works”. This it the typical sort of example where Linux “just works” where Windows does not. People need to take it for granted that in certain areas GNU/Linux is far ahead of Windows (package management for instance). To quote a fragment from this new post:

After a while Windows 7 will power down an idle (Fedora 14) disk but then it will randomly power the disk back up. This process would then repeat, an endless cycle of power down, power up, power down, power up….

Why does Windows 7 feel the need to poll my idle disk and wake it up?

Not only is this behavior irritating but it undermines the idea of spinning down idle disks to save power.

Fedora 14 on the other hand spins down my idle (Windows 7) disk perfectly and does not randomly power the drive back up again unless I intentionally access the drive.

“My morning in Microsoft hell” is another new post that I found last night. It also speaks about Windows 7:

I didn’t want to give up, so I took the plunge and called Microsoft. After a glorious 10 minutes on hold, I was told that as I had bought my copy of Windows 7 more than 90 days prior, I could not get support for less than $59. What? I could not believe it. I have to pay for when I can’t get your product to actually work? This is literally the exact opposite of a Genius Bar. Microsoft told me to go to their website and search for answers to my problem. I was blinking, so she repeated: “go to Microsoft.com.”

All I needed to know was, ‘is it possible to revert to factory like settings without reinstalling Windows 7?’ Is that so hard to divulge?

Then it hit me: I can’t reinstall Windows at all, because I don’t have a disk to reinstall from. I downloaded the OS from Microsoft, and thus have no physical media to use to restart. In short, I can’t restore, and I can’t reinstall, despite having paid for the damn OS. In other words, my main computer is for all intents and purposes dead.

It is important to see why people favor Linux here. It’s not price, it’s not the viruses in Windows, and it is not the belonging to a “side”, either. It’s technical merit and the notion of ownership/control. If one expands the scope of factors, cost can be seen as a nice bonus and as Microsoft Emil reluctantly admits, there is yet another unpatched Explorer flaw right now (we wrote about them previously).

Details on the IE vulnerability are probably more widely known than Microsoft would like, especially given that the researcher in question, Michal Zalewski released the fuzzing tool to the public on New Years Day. It’s worth noting that a Google employee has done this before, disclosing an IE flaw that could allow attackers to steal private information from online services. Then and now, Microsoft argued that details should not be disclosed publicly until a patch is available.

How many people still remember that Google banned Windows for all internal use? That was less than a year ago. Google claims to be doing this for security reasons, but there are so many more reasons than that. Google starts pushing Linux-based Chrome OS and Android into a very large market and GNU/Linux in general is very mature at this stage. I never use Windows (neither at home or work) and this avoidance becomes ever more painless over time. Soon enough proprietary codecs and Flash won’t be required, either owing to changes on the Web, or partly owing to Google.

People do not like change, they get comfortable with something and then become lazy and lethargic. A book I just read, describes change in one’s own work and life, and some typical reactions to it.

• Change Happens
  • They Keep Moving The Cheese
• Anticipate Change
  • Get Ready For The Cheese To Move
• Monitor Change
  • Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old
• Adapt To Change Quickly
  • The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese
• Change
  • Move With The Cheese
• Enjoy Change!
  • Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!
• Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again
  • They Keep Moving The Cheese.

Emergency Booting Windows PCs: Another Use for Linux Live CDs

Can there be still more to add to the list of useful functions a live Linux CD (booting without modifying your existing windows) offers? Linux as a boot OS is fairly common today. For instance, DELL often ships its servers with Windows driver disks that actually use a micro-Linux boot.

Live CDs are one of the best innovations of the Linux world. To be able to load a complete desktop on any computer by booting it from a CD or USB stick is a great way of using your favourite distro away from home, demonstrating Linux to yet-to-be-converted friends, checking hardware compatibility or fixing a broken Windows system.

A live CD or live DVD (also called Live Disc) is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive. Live USB flash drives are similar to live CDs, but often have the added functionality of automatically and transparently writing changes back to their bootable medium.

The term “live” derives from the fact that these CDs each contain a complete, functioning and operational operating system on the distribution medium.

While a live CD typically does not alter the operating system or files already installed on a computer’s hard drive, many live CDs include mechanisms and utilities for altering the host computer’s hard drive, including permanent installation. This is important for the system management aspect of live CDs, such as removing viruses, drive imaging, and system recovery.

The default option, however, is to allow the user to return the computer to its previous state when the live CD is ejected and the computer is rebooted. It is able to run without permanent installation by placing the files that typically would be stored on a hard drive into RAM, typically in a RAM disk. However, this does cut down on the RAM available to applications, reducing performance somewhat. As of 2007, certain live CDs run a graphical user interface in as little as 32MB RAM.

While some live CDs are designed to “demo” or “test drive” a particular operating system (usually Linux or another free or open source operating system), there are live CDs made for many different uses.

Although some live CDs can load into memory in order to free the optical drive for other uses, loading the data off a CD-ROM is still slower than a typical hard drive boot, so this is rarely the default with large live CD images, but for smaller live CD images loading the filesystem directly into RAM can be highly practical. Loading the filesystem image into RAM can provide a significant performance boost as RAM is several orders of magnitude faster than a hard drive. Also, since RAM has no moving parts, a system running from a live CD loaded into RAM can run with improved power efficiency. Experienced users of the operating system may also use a live CD to determine whether and to what extent a particular operating system or version is compatible with a particular hardware configuration and certain peripherals, or as a way to know beforehand which computer or peripheral will work before buying. Users may also use a live CD to troubleshoot hardware, especially when a hard drive fails, and more generally as a recovery disc in case of problems. Some live CDs can save user-created files in a Windows partition, a USB drive, a network drive, or other accessible media.

A few additional uses include:

• installing a Linux distribution to a hard drive
• testing new versions of software
• testing hardware
• system repair and restoration
• high security/non-invasive environment for a guest
• cracking/stealing passwords
• network security testing
• being the primary or backup operating system for any computer
• quick and simple clustering of computers
• computer forensics
• playing video games
• providing a secure server platform where crucial files cannot be permanently altered
• providing a secure, reliable platform for the performance of high-vulnerability tasks such as internet banking;
• Internet kiosks, which can be brought back to their original state by a reboot

I always advise my friends and customers to keep a copy of the Linux Live CD. The reason is that in the event that your Windows crashes (Well, they often do), you can boot up the Linux Live CD and rescue all your data.

Most Linux distribution comes with a Live CD. The purpose is to allow the user to test drive the OS before installing on the PC. This bootable Live CD contains the entire Linux Operating System and it doesn’t require any installation. Thus, if your Windows has died, crashes, or refuse to boot up, there is no need to moan over the loss of data and blame yourself for not backing up. You just need to pop in the Live CD and you’ve got a simple, user-friendly Linux OS that you can use to access your data and even surf the Internet.

Getting a Linux Live CD is free. You can download the Ubuntu Live CD ISO file from http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download. Once you have finished downloading, you can burn it into a CD (with a ISO burner) and there you have a bootable Live CD.

In the event that your Windows malfunction:

• Boot up your PC using the Ubuntu Live CD. On the boot up screen (see the screenshot below), select Start or install Ubuntu. Don’t worry; this will not install anything on your PC.
• After booting into the Ubuntu, plug in a USB drive. It will be auto detected, appearing as an icon to your desktop.
• Double click on the icon. An explorer window will open up.
• On the menu bar at the top of the desktop. Click on ‘Places‘ and you can see a list of other drives in the PC. Select the drive that contains the Windows OS. Another explorer window will show up.
• Navigate to the folder that contains the data you want to rescue. Copy and paste the files (or drag and drop) to the USB disk explorer window.
• To shut down the Ubuntu OS, click on the power button on the top right of the desktop. A window will appear and ask you if you want to Suspend, Hibernate, Restart or Shut Down. Click on Shut Down.
• Done.