So, I’m stumped – maybe someone knows the answer to this one. I noticed that on my new Ubuntu system, if I ran ps every 5 seconds or so, the process number jumped significantly, by 5 or 6. Being a bit of a control freak, I want to know exactly what’s creating those processes, so I wrote a little Tcl script to try and catch any new [0-9]* directories in proc and read its cmdline file entry, but that seems to not be fast enough to catch the culprit in the act. I had a look at inotify, but that doesn’t seem to work with /proc. So at this point, I’m stumped, and am looking around for suggestions. I just want to have a record of newly created processes… seems like it ought to be possible.

After many months of few contributions, and lots of spam, I decided to shut down the Windows for Linux Users wiki, and transfer its contents to an article on my new personal web site:

http://www.welton.it/articles/windows_for_linux_users.html

I will still accept contributions, of course, but it’s more efficient to simply apply them myself rather than sort through a lot of spam on a relatively static wiki.

The content is based on my experiences with windows several years ago – I realized that I knew very little about using it productively, and so I attempted to share what I learned about turninig it into an environment I could be productive in. Since most people go from Windows to Linux, they’re not likely to face those problems, but for those who do, some of the listed tips and tricks are useful.

These days, I can happily report that I’m happily back to a windows-free life.

After an exhausting trip home from OSCON (Portland to Frankfurt 10 hours, then by car to Innsbruck, 6 hours), I caught something nasty and am taking it easy. So I took a little bit of time to work on updating the Linux Incompatibility List to use DedaWiki, to which I also added a search function. Hopefully this will allow me to manage spam just a little bit better, as it is becoming a serious problem for that site, due to its popularity.

I’m pretty used to working on my own, with my connection to the world of geekdom and the rest of the “outside world” (which really takes on meaning with the high mountains surrounding us in Innsbruck) being the internet line to our home, but it’s a lot of fun to be “in the middle of things” from time to time, and I’m enjoying OSCON so far. I’ve seen a few people I haven’t seen in a while, and hope to see more, so look for me before and after my talk about Hecl! I’m either wandering around or in the speaker’s room.

Tomorrow we’re headed back to Europe… sigh.

I’m writing this from the new Dell laptop I recently purchased which comes with Ubuntu preinstalled.

Overall, I’m impressed – it’s nice to get a laptop that “just works”, without spending a dime for Windows. Everything seems to work quite well out of the box. The machine arrived earlier than Dell’s web site promised, which is a good thing, because their promised date was a lot of time to have to wait. It’s certainly no beauty – it’s kind of thick, and a bit clunky, but hopefully it will be a good workhorse in the next few years. I need something reasonably fast, with a good screen, rather than something ultra-thin, flashy and super portable.

The nits to pick:

• The beep. The default beep is VERY LOUD, and doesn’t follow the system volume settings. This is very annoying when trying to work quietly.

• I added the nice screen upgrade, to have a WSXGA+ screen, at 1680×1050 pixels, but the default resolution is 1280×1024, so the out of the box aspect ratio isn’t quite right.

• The touch screen mouse buttons are very sloppy feeling. I don’t expect super-tight engineering with a machine of this class, but they are not up to par.

But I expect I’ll get most of that figured out with a bit of fiddling, and the price was quite good, so overall I would highly recommend it to anyone else in my situation: wanting a Linux laptop that “just works” for a good price.

I’m not sure of the exact date – if my memory serves me correctly, it was sometime during the summer of 1997 – I was given an account on Debian’s server (located, at the time, in Beaverton, Oregon). I didn’t go on to upload my first package until October of that year, as I had landed my first programming job at the same time, at CKS Partners. The “new maintainer process” in those days consisted of Klee Dienes calling me up and checking that I was a real person, had a pgp key, and wasn’t completely clueless.

It was a very different project in many ways than it is today – much smaller, much more informal, and of course much less well known in the world at large. Some elements were in place, though – my recollection is that the “flame friendly” atmosphere, while perhaps not quite as accentuated as it at times appears today, was firmly in place even back then.

In ’98, ’99’, and 2000, the Linux world was an exciting place to be. I still recall reading about the database companies deciding to release their products on Linux, reading The Cathedral and the Bazaar, and going to one of the first big commercial Linux conferences, in San Jose, in early 1999. Debian was well poised to take advantage of Linux’s growth, too. Under Bruce Perens’ leadership, several key elements of Debian had been put in place, like the social contract and free software guidelines. Fortuitously, Jason Gunthorpe was working on apt in that time period as well, which was another key element in Debian’s success.

One of the things I’ve always admired about Debian in the open source world is that it is in some ways a “stepping stone” project, meaning that it’s a good way for people to start getting involved with free software, to get their toes wet “giving something back”, without already being an expert hacker. It’s easier to maintain a package of code, if you’re willing to put in the time and attention to details, than to, say, write a new kernel module, or some other piece of critical C code. I’ve seen a number of people take this route – they get started with Debian, and as they go, learn more about the packages they work with, and perhaps even get involved with them “upstream”, as they acquire skills and knowledge. By no means is everyone in Debian in that situation, though – there are some really first rate hackers, who tend to be the small core of people that really make Debian zing along.

Indeed, being an autodidact in the world of computers, outside of one very forgettable term of C++ at Lane Community College, has given me an immense appreciation for the enormous opportunities open source affords in terms of learning – and especially hands-on learning. How many other fields let you work from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, with anyone else who is interested in the same subject, at whatever time you want, with tools that you can download entirely for free? It’s really an intoxicating sensation realizing that you can do anything you want if you are willing to put the time in to learn how. The learning opportunities are one of the many things I’m grateful to Debian for.

These days, I’m really not involved much with Debian anymore. I mostly run Ubuntu, which I think has perhaps improved on some of the social aspects of Debian (although Mark’s zillions of dollars certainly play a large role, too). In terms of free software, I don’t have as much time, and dedicate more of it to my own projects like Hecl. I still love the idea of open source software, but I’m also older and wiser (or more cynical?), and must face the reality that without scarcity, you have nothing to trade with others for things like food. Due to my lack of activity, perhaps I should resign, but … I really don’t want to, and who knows, maybe I’ll have more time, and an “itch to scratch” at some point in the future.

Who knows what the next ten years hold for Debian?

I think the time is finally right to get a notebook while we’re in Oregon this summer, and was looking at the Dell/Ubuntu systems, which look like a good deal. The only thing is the long wait. It would ship the 16th of July if I ordered right now, according to their ordering system. That’s a long wait, especially since I’d like to have it around to get some work done while we’re over there.

After looking around a little bit more… the price looks really good, so it’s very, very tempting.

I came down with a serious case of Not Invented Here, and created a wiki of my own. Before you look, consider that:

• It doesn’t have a lot of the features that I want.
• It may be broken (I didn’t dedicate a lot of time to writing tests).
• Indeed, unless you’re the kind of person who likes to hack on things, you’ll probably seriously injure yourself if you so much as glance at it!

That said, I’d love to have a collaborator or two:

DedaWiki

It will eventually replace the wiki engine utilized over at http://www.leenooks.com, which is showing its age, and not as fun to work with as Rails at this point in time.

I like coding, but I also like to meet up, share ideas, and exchange information with other programmers from time to time. So I “spammed” a few people I found via google, and met up with Sudara and Samo yesterday for a beer and chit chat about Rails, Austria and life in general. It was fun, so we went ahead and created an Innsbruck Ruby and Rails google group, and are thinking about doing a “real” meeting at some point in the future. Samo had a nice presentation in German introducing Rails that I bet people would find interesting. Should be fun! I enjoyed getting out of the house and talking with some interesting people.

I will be presenting Hecl at OSCON this summer!

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2007/view/e_sess/12403

I’m pretty excited about it, and have been brushing up Hecl a bit, although I need to do a new release. For the moment, getting it from subversion is your best bet. I’m really looking forward to going home to Oregon, and getting to go to a cool conference and present at it, too!

I hope to see you there!