IT article-comments

Found this very amusing comment on G+ following this article:

Microsoft is a dead man walking.  They represent the last man standing in the first great public software rip off of the 1980s.  The won the brutal "slog" to dominance in that world but the result is a disaster for them.  The corpse they stitched together from parts of dead competitors is obsolete and coming apart at the seams.  Despite decades of effort and purchase of some of the world's finest companies, they can't make their software competitive on servers, cell phones, music players, or anything outside the rapidly shrinking x86 market.  They can't compete with the free world.  Unable to steal the current generation of free software by software patent Ponzi schemes, they must again pretend they love their users and competitors in a last ditch effort to raise another generation of coders to rip off.  Nope, that's not going to happen.

Funny, funny shit :P but does it also have some sense of truth to it? Maybe... maybe it does.

Tales from a Windows-free life

I completely stopped using Windows around 2002, and I've really enjoyed it, very, very much :)

Since then I've been distro-hopping (swapping different Linux-versions, more commonly known as "distributions", or "distros") through everything from Slackware Linux to Ubuntu. It's been a rocky and unstable ride to be quite honest, but it's been an awesome learning-experience.

I can't even begin to count all the problems concerning re-installation of Windows on both my hands. Yes, that's BOTH hands! I really, REALLY hate re-installing Windows. And if you're a super-user like me, who likes to play around with your computer-systems, you've done a re-install a couple of dozen times (or maybe even more).

Doing a windows-update after a fresh installation can take HOURS... Suffice to say it's a tedious and boooooooring task. Yes, I can hear a comment in the distance saying "why not use an up-to-date installation disc with all the Service Packs included?", well, the problem with that option is this: Windows AIN'T FREE. But that is not the only reason why I've renounced Microsoft-products alltogether. License this and license that, non-disclosure agreements and what-not. I'm sick and tired of it. Not to mention the installation-hell it is to install Windows onto a laptop, or (God forbid) a NETBOOK! After doing tenfolds of re-installations in the 90s and the early 2000s, my conclusion for personal operating system and software-usage came to this: No More Windows For Me!

I'm not giving Windows or Microsoft the finger. I've used their software for quite some time earlier in my computing-life. Even as far back as DOS and Windows 3.11. I'm just saying it's not for me anymore. I need more options and alternatives to doing computing tasks, I don't like being locked-in to one, and ONLY one solution.

Doing a fresh Linux installation, can take MINUTES, at most an hour or two. And if you're nice about it and don't include a shitload of third-party addons, you're likely to only do this ONCE! One time, and only doing updates and release-upgrades every now and then afterwards. Ok, so installing operating systems is not for everyone. But you can always ask a nice geek/nerd-friend to do this for you. Doing updates and upgrades nowadays is rather straightforward. The system asks if you want to update/upgrade, you press "Yes", you type in your password; and HEY PRESTO! It's over and done with.

I admit, being experimental with a Linux-system can do irrepearable damage, but hey, that's how we learn. And it pays off to use a system you can sacrifice for such a project. I did, multiple times. That's why it's called "experimental".

After doing all my experimenting on Linux and figuring out how it works, I decided to use a mainstream-distro to save me from headaches when trying to get things working. That's why the choice fell on Ubuntu.

After switching to Ubuntu in early 2009 (from Slackware Linux, which I still like), I've never looked back. Ubuntu serves my every computing need. It includes almost every public proprietary technology, from Flash to Java. Allthough it has to be added manually, doing so is not hard. It is explained in great detail all over the web, you just have to look for it. And, Ubuntu offers alternative programs to just about every web-service available today. Another great point for pro-linux, is that it runs on just about any hardware available as well. Can you say the same for Vista? Or Windows 7? I think not...

Nuff said ;)

Oppsiktsvekkende samarbeid

http://www.digi.no/813870/linux-foundation-i-seng-med-%ABfienden%BB

At Microsoft og Linux Foundation skulle samarbeide om et felles mål var nok ikke i tankene til folk for tiden. Hverken i Linux-miljøet eller hos programvare-giganten Microsoft.

Samarbeidet skyldes et lovforslag som skal legges frem i USA som omhandler programvarekontrakter.

Lovforslaget foreslår bl.a. at det innføres en garanti-ordning hvor programvare leveres uten materielle defekter.

Dette motstrider mange programvare lisenser som brukes av både Microsoft og Linux-miljøet, og de har derfor skrevet et brev sammen til ALI (American Law Institute), som kan lastes ned her.

Poenget Microsoft og Linux Foundation vil få frem er at hvis underforståtte garantier innføres, vil det føre til unødvendig mange rettstvister som kan ødelegge for deling av teknologi.

I-og-med alle rettsakene rundt IT de siste årene virker ikke dette urealistisk, og vil garantert ødelegge mer for IT industrien enn det vil hjelpe.

N.B.: I åpen kildekode miljøet slår dette ut på selve GPL-lisensen, fordi den avkaster alle garantier og gir brukeren av nevnt lisens rettigheter og valgmuligheter til å bestemme selv. Microsoft og andre aktører innen kommersiell datavirksomhet taper også på dette, fordi de ikke kan bruke programvare/kode gitt ut under slike lisenser, hverken for å forbedre på teknologien og gi tilbake, eller tjene penger på det. Lovforslaget reflekterer ikke realistiske virkninger på normale kommersielle lover i bruk idag

Computer illiterates are dangerous!

Seriously? FFS!!!

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/boston-college-prompt-commands-are-suspicious

On Friday, EFF and the law firm of Fish and Richardson filed an emergency motion to quash and for the return of seized property on behalf of a Boston College computer science student whose computers, cell phone, and other property were seized as part of an investigation into who sent an e-mail to a school mailing list identifying another student as gay. The problem? Not only is there no indication that any crime was committed, the investigating officer argued that the computer expertise of the student itself supported a finding of probable cause to seize the student's property.

The whole problem started because the computer science student was using a command-line interface, of which the arresting officer did not understand. Quotes from the arresting officer's report say:

"Mr.Carlixte uses two different operating systems to hide his illegal activities. One is the regular B.C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompts on"

I mean.., c'mon! Seriously!? Are all computer hobbyists to be considered "crackers" until proven otherwise? FFS!!!

Oh man, I can REALLY relate XD

I have numerous stories similar to the following article by Carla Schroder @ linuxplanet.com.

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/6728/1/

My monitor gave up the ghost in the middle of the workday, naturally when I had deadlines and a half-dozens things to do right now. It turned out to be a fried video card, and I took the long way to figure it out, but I was able to keep working until I had time to troubleshoot and fix it, thanks to Linux's easy remote networking.

I came back from a break to find it in a hard lockup. Well OK, this is inconvenient, but at least with Linux a hard crash usually doesn't have bad side effects like mangled system files, unlike a certain other inexplicably popular but frail operating system.

I remember a totally useless IBM ThinkPad laptop I had lying around, which did NOT accept any of the M$ products I tried to force into it. It had a smashed LCD display, so it really didn't serve any purpose as a personal computer.

Then I tried installing Slackware Linux (this was in the v7-8 days of Slackware), and figured I could use it as a headless webserver/fileserver or something in that manner. And, to my own surprise, it was really effective. I had network connectivity (allthough without a GUI, the command-line more than sufficed for my needs. web-surfing included, even if it was text-based ['lynx']), remote network access, local network access, and it ran fine for like 3-400 days non-stop.., right up to the day it kicked the bucket of fatigue.

This remarkable stability and security was unknown to me up to this point. Since I've been fiddling with computers since the mid-80's, I've been around a few operating systems over the years. But none could ever aspire to be what Linux is for me today.

After seeing how Linux performed as a server, I was keen to see it's performance as a desktop. So, I decided I was running ONLY open-source software on every technical doo-dad I owned. But as Linux has one of the steepest learning-curves out there, this did not happen overnight.

Actual time spent learning the building-blocks of Linux came to a total of at least 10-11 years!

My ambition was not realized until very recently actually. My whole home-setup runs Slackware Linux, derivatives, or some kind of embedded Linux. And it's all grand! ;-P

Here is another similar, what I'd like to call: "wish-I-did-not-push-Enter"-story:

http://blog.eracc.com/2009/04/16/kill-linux-unix-system/

One thing I like about Android™

The developer's choice ;)

This is a compilation of videos of the Android developers, telling about their favourite functions in Android.

Nysatsingen på åpen kildekode

Da ser det ut som det blir Bergensområdet som først får benyttet alle de vidunderlige åpne kildekode-prosjektene som finnes rundt om i verden, i et offentlig samarbeid "for åpne standarder i offentlig sektor" (som ble nevnt tidligere i en-eller-annen artikkel/offentlig dokumentasjon).

Nytt kraftsenter på åpen kildekode - digi.no : Bedriftsteknologi

Bergen kommune, it-ekspertene Avenir, Høgskolen i Bergen (HiB), Universitetet i Bergen (UiB) og lokale it-miljøer går sammen for å gjøre Bergen til et kraftsenter for utnyttelse av åpen kildekode i utviklingen av fremtidens it-løsninger.

Initiativet understøtter både Regjeringens satsing på økt bruk av fri programvare og ønsket om styrket samhandling mellom offentlig og privat sektor.

Gartner spår at innen 2012 vil 80 prosent av alle it-løsninger inneholde elementer av åpen kildekode. De fastslår at virksomheter som velger å ignorere denne utviklingen, automatisk vil stille seg to skritt bak konkurrerende virksomheter.

Bergen Kommune, Avenir, HiB, UiB, og store lokale it-miljøer som DnB Nor, NextGenTel og EDB Business Partner ønsker å ligge i forkant i utnyttelsen av åpen kildekode.

Linux gets reseller friendly

SYNNEX, a leading software and hardware distributor (i.e. not a vendor), has partnered up with Red Hat and other open-source ISVs, to form the Open Source Channel Alliance. Is this the first step against getting Linux into more offices?

Computerworld Blogs

For VARs and integrators this means that they'll have a one-stop Web site and distributor to pick up Linux, and open-source content management systems, databases, business intelligence, network authentication, backup and recovery, e-mail, etc., etc., etc. For business users, especially those with small in-house IT staffs, this means they can just go to their local channel partner and get their pick of some of the top commercially-supported open-source programs.

I think this can be the beginning of something quite extraordinary ;)

"GhostNet" linked to the "Waledac" botnet

Conficker.C-infected computers have shown activity recently, according to security analysts and software/network engineers, so it seems the threat is not over...yet.

It's main activities (identified activities, that is), are:

• downloading (malware from other botnets, mainly the spammer-botnet "Waledac", better known as the re-animated Storm DeadNet "Valentines e-mail spammer botnet")
• linking (assumably to other malicious botnets)
  
• communicating (assumably with it's creators).

It is also reported to flash rogue anti-viral software ads directed at users of these infected machines.

Darknet.co.uk had this article to explain (excerpt from article below):

“Fear is used, universally, as a means to control people,” said Sendio CTO Tal Golan. “Governments use it. Large businesses use it. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that ‘cyber-bad guys’ use it.”

At the moment, the rogue anti-virus software comes from sites located in the Ukraine (131-3.elaninet.com.78.26.179.107) although the worm is downloading it from other sites, according to Kaspersky Lab.

Hmm. No, not surprising at all if you ask me.

IBM kjøper teknologien som berget Apple

IBM kjøper teknologien som berget Apple - digi.no : Bedriftsteknologi

Det var Transitive-teknologi – kalt «QuickTransit» – som berget Apple da all Mac-programvare skulle overføres fra PowerPC-prosessoren til Intel-prosessorer.

Hmm, voldsomt så IBM kjøper opp for tiden? Vel, at IBM henvender seg til Apple av alle firmaer er jo noe ekstraordinært i seg selv (eller?).

Uansett, at IBM nå tar til seg kryssplattform-verktøy for å konvertere Linux/x86 kode, til Linux/PowerPC betyr i alle fall at de nå har muligheten til å oppskalere brukte plattformer/arkitekturer (bruke større dataanlegg, flere hard-prosesserende maskiner og/eller forskjellige/større systemer/anlegg, alt etter applikasjonshensiktene/brukerlasten i gjeldende firma) siden de nå kan kjøre samme kode overalt.

The "Big Blue Sun" ?

Well, the news about IBM and Sun Microsystems merging has slipped my attention.

But now that I'm aware, what will this mean to future Java / JavaScript development? Personally, I think(hope) that IBM will continue the open-source development and release of Java code.

JavaScript is basically public-domain, but changes aggressively every month/business-quarter. It is governed by the ECMA initiative (hence, is often referred to as "ECMAscript"
 in web-development communities).

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-04-2009/jw-04-if-ibm-owns-java.html

Another article I found @ computerworld.com insisted IBM would commit to hold Java development under the supervision of the community, maybe under a revised community development group?

Anyway, as IBM has been a great contributor to OSS communities the last years (in contrast to Sun), I expect them to better handle Sun's main development products, or if not, their own Java implementation(s) (Apache Geronimo / Jakarta) will suffice (if not even exceed the optimal performance of Sun's implementation(s).., at least according to some web-developers/journalists and/or Java enthusiasts).

Computerworld.com link:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/good_bye_solaris_the_fate_of_suns_top_5_technologies

OS/2 lives on :)

The oldschool types never really die, they update and evolve ;) The 90's operating system: OS/2, was a development collaboration between Microsoft and IBM, to introduce the 2nd generation operating system to accompany IBM's second generation personal computers of the early 90's. Today you would assume the OS was long since dead and forgotten.., well, you'd be wrong.

OS/2 lives on to this day, and is represented by Serenity Systems as "eComStation 2.0 RC6a" (2 pictures below).





What I liked about OS/2 was it's clean intuitive interface :) It even had pseudo-3D games! (chessboard in picture below)

From wikipedia.org:

Future

There is a community of OS/2 users and developers, along with loyal company customers, hoping that IBM will release OS/2 or a significant part of it as open source. Petitions to that end were made in 2005 and 2007, but IBM declined, citing legal, technical and strategic reasons.^[35] It is unlikely that the entire OS will be open at some point in the future, because it contains third-party code, much of it from Microsoft.

Also IBM made a deal with Commodore to license Amiga technology for OS/2 2.0 and above in exchange for the REXX scripting language.^[36] This means OS/2 may have code not written by IBM, which can prevent the OS from being open-sourced in the future.^[37][38]

Version 2.0 had such a long design cycle that its design started while OS/2 1.1 was still under development, and thus, portions of it were developed in conjunction with Microsoft, even though Microsoft never released a branded version of 2.0 (although they did release a beta in their name). IBM's contribution to versions 1.2 and earlier mostly resides in the GUI components; however, bug fixes and substantial performance changes to the entire system in 1.3 were made by IBM, and much more of the overall system (including the kernel) for 2.0 was developed by IBM.

The aborted PowerPC port did not involve Microsoft at all, and has been proposed as the basis for an open-source 64-bit version of OS/2.

Still, the community has suggested that, even if only the IBM portion of it is made open, the missing parts could be written by the same community to form a next-generation version of the OS. Code could perhaps be integrated from the Wine or ReactOS projects. Many developers believe that these missing parts include many of the legacy 16-bit components not revised since OS/2 1.x, and are exactly the parts that should be rewritten anyway. There is an ongoing petition to open parts of the OS arranged by OS2World.com.^[39]

With the possibility of an open-source future for OS/2, the OS may be given a new lease of life. IBM's current and heavy involvement with several open source projects indicate that opening parts of OS/2 will not be difficult for the company. But until then, OS/2's future remains in limbo.

Open source operating systems such as Linux have already profited from OS/2 indirectly through IBM's release of the improved JFS file system which was ported from the OS/2 code base.

OS/2 programs will eventually use emulators and compatibility layers for running programs dedicated for OS/2.

Flash memory

After getting my new Asus Eee 900 PC, I was curious to research flash memory, to see the current state of events surrounding this technology.

Among a few of my notations, I learned that non-volatile memory, is memory that can retain it's information even when power is cut. [ Thus SSDs (Solid State Drives) are non-volatile, because they are supposed to replace the now obsolete magnetic-disk storage format. ]

Another interesting fact about solid state memory, memory chips and programmable memory chips, is the little known fact about how they originated.., or, why they were developed in the first place.

What I found didn't really shock me at all. Like with everything else technology-related, the U.S. Air Force had it's cold, damp hands in the mix.

PROMs (Programmable Read Only Memory chips) were developed at American Bosch Arma Corporation in Garden City, New York as a request from the United States Air Force to serve as a flexible and more reliable way of storing targeting constants (ballistic targeting vectors / calculations) in ICBMs (or, InterContinental Ballistic Missiles).

PROMs are defined as "non-volatile permanent storage devices", as they are programmed after creation, by shorting fuses in the chip to state binary digit programming [1(on) or 0(off)]. Or, to be blunt: PROMs usually contain machine-level instruction-sets to execute pre-defined tasks.

But as with a lot of technology, permanent storage is not a preferred every day method for the average Joe. So, later years were dedicated to develop dynamic flash memory.

In modern flash memory, the chips should be/are able to re-write/delete data up to several times without any significant drops in performance.

OSS is getting international recognition

At least SOMEONE understands the new world of technology we're approaching. The British Minister for Digital Engagement (-Tom Watson-) released a new 'plan-of-action' yesterday, entitled: "Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action Plan".

(Click here for a PDF version of the paper.)

A little intro-excerpt:

"Open Source has been one of the most significant cultural developments in IT and beyond over the last two decades: it has shown that individuals, working together over the Internet, can create products that rival and sometimes beat those of giant corporations; it has shown how giant corporations themselves, and Governments, can become more innovative, more agile and more cost-effective by building on the fruits of community work; and from its IT base the Open Source movement has given leadership to new thinking about intellectual property rights and the availability of information for re-use by others."

The new action plan adds to the old plan published in 2004, but the new one includes circumstances and agreements that can make it difficult for proprietary software vendors to compete in government IT deployment.

He states among a lot of things that the new era in IT development demands re-usage of code. (Securing government rights to special custom code and re-usage of the code within internal departments.)

So, basically, it looks very promising for OSS in the time to come regarding government software deployment, software costs and national IT system expansion.

OSS participation!

A 30-page ebook on how to participate in the Open Source community; whom to talk to, where to go for info, etc. =) A recent addition to open source development, following the beta release of the brilliant testing program 'AppChecker'.

http://ldn.linuxfoundation.org/

Application checker

AppCheck is a testing-application for programs made for linux to check for cross-system portability. AppCheck tests the ELFs, scripts, libraries and more. As a testing framework, it doesn't seem to differentiate itself much from the forerunner of all checking programs: lint. The first program to flag suspicious and non-portable contructs, first appeared in System V Unix version 7 (outside of Bell Labs) in 1979.

But it's what AppCheck does after these checks that makes it stand out. It checks all the components of the program against the Linux Standard Base, AND different distributions listed in the LSB Database. It then displays all of this information on a webpage to make the report more intuitive and structured, and even gives you the opportunity to submit the program directly from the test-program for LSB certification!

After reading about this wonderful piece of software, I was inspired to do more C/C++ programming in my spare time, since AppCheck will spare me a lot of time when it comes to testing.

AppCheck is in no way a perfect checker, it's still in beta, and it cannot check libraries, binaries, and other components that aren't listed in the LSB. But it is a significant step forward for portability development.

** Note however that AppCheck is in no way a debugger **

http://www.linux.com/feature/144170

OpenSSH

OpenSSH er en derivat av den originale "free ssh 1.2.12" utgivelsen fra Tatu Ylönen. Denne versjonen var den siste som var "fri" nok for gjenbruk i OpenSSH-prosjektet. Deler av OpenSSH bærer fremdeles Tatus lisens som var inkludert i hans egen utgivelse. Denne versjonen, og alle tidligere, brukte matematiske funksjoner fra "libgmp" biblioteket. Biblioteket var også inkludert med disse tidlige ssh versjonene. Libgmp er gjort tilgjengelig under (LGPL) Lesser GNU Public License, selv om versjoner av lisensen på denne tiden lignet mer på standard (GPL) GNU Public License.

En kombinert lisens for alle delene er tilgjengelig på http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/ssh/LICENCE.

Snart etter 1.2.12 utgivelsen fra Tatu, ville nyere utgivelser by på mer restriktive lisenser, selv om libgmp fremdeles var inkludert og nødvendig for å bruke programvaren. Tidligere restriktive lisenser nektet folk å lage en Windows eller DOS versjon. Senere lisenser avgrenset bruken av ssh i kommersielle miljøer, hvor de i stedet krevde at firmaer kjøpte en dyr versjon fra Datafellows.

Tidlig i 1999, gjenoppdaget Björn Grönvall denne bestemte utgivelsen og startet å fikse bugs. Hans versjon av ssh er kalt OSSH og hadde bare støtte for SSH 1.3 protokollen. Rykter sier at OSSH har blitt integrert i noen kommersielle produkter i Sverige. Og til og med den dag i dag, har ikke OSSH støtte for SSH 2 protokollen.

OpenBSD prosjekt medlemmer ble klar over Björns arbeid mindre enn 2 måneder før utgivelsen av OpenBSD 2.6 release. De ville inkludere støtte for ssh protokollen i 2.6 utgivelsen av OpenBSD, men de måtte bli sikre på at den var perfekt. Derfor bestemte de seg for å 'forke' fra OSSH utgivelsen, og strebe etter rask utvikling på samme måte som den originale sikkerhetsrevisjonsprosessen ble utført internt i OpenBSD prosjektet. Som et resultat, var mye av kildekoden i utgivelses-filene allerede på RCS revision 1.34, noen helt oppe i 1.66. Utvikling gikk veldig raskt siden de hadde en deadline å komme i møte.

AMD's Linux support leap

AMD have really shown their dedication towards open source software the last couple of years. As explained in the Phoronix-article below this post, AMD has fostered not only one, but two open source driver projects with technical specifications, programming guides and register information for their graphics cards. They have even started shipping their cards with Tux printed on the retail boxes and Linux drivers included on the driver-cd's! Finally, a gfx-card manufacturer that has truly started leaning towards open development.

Personally, I've been using ATi/AMD's proprietary drivers for well over 2 years now. Cannot say I've always had positive experiences with them, but they usually worked without involving too much system hacking and modification. Actually, my experience with problems related to their drivers, were caused by internal driver functions rather than conflicts with system settings/libraries and/or software.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_evolution&num=1

Linux-Live: Pocket Operating Systems

I've tried a lot of different flavours (Knoppix,Belenix,CentOS,Linux Mint,etc...). And I've always gone back to my favourite every time I've tried a new one, mainly: Slax.

Since it's based on Slackware (of course), it basically gives me all the superuser functionality I demand from my computer systems, while also providing a simple (non-hardware-accelerated) KDE desktop and basic built-in applications.

I've used Slax before, but I wasn't quite satisfied with the storage mounting system not being fully configured in v5, to allow mounting of USB storage devices automatically (yes, I prefer _some_ automation for basic tasks). Version 5 also incorporated a package system (much like Slackware), only, the packages were built as modules, to be easily added/removed on-the-go. This was also one of the features I did not favour very much, as it would lock up the system at times as i was removing package-modules while the system was actively running X, but this also seems to have been fixed in v6.

Features:

• distribution has reached a more stable level compared with earlier releases.
  
• it is based on Slackware Linux 12.1 (running the 2.6.24.5 Linux kernel).
  
• system size is now reduced to a mere 195 MegaBytes, thanks to the merging of 7Zip-compression (LZMA) into the squashfs filesystem.
• it now has the ability to determine if it is running from a writable or unwritable media, and saves system configs accordingly.
  
• it includes an X Window System and a collection of general network-enabled applications (browser,mail,chat,ftp,games,utilities,etc.), all ready to be used out-of-the-box.
  
• it now includes gcc out-of-the-box, giving the ability to compile third party software, which can then be packaged into software-modules afterwards for quick installation/removal.
• software-packages do not occupy a lot of space thanks to 7Zip-compression (modules now has the '.lzm' file extension).
  
• installation of additional software is easy using the new 'Slax Module Manager', grabbing software-modules from online software repositories, or local media.
• it has procured a large user community, useful for third party support.
  
• and it can be burned onto a CD-R or copied to a USB memory dongle like most other linux-live distros, but apart from other distros, it includes very intuitive installers for these tasks as well.
  

A definate must for OS techies, and Linux followers. I'm building a USB-key version to carry around, keeping my favourite OS of choice close on my person at all times to be easily deployed on a system running other OSes I don't usually favour that much... ;P

It is also a very powerful rescue-tool, allthough you CAN use the Slackware install-disc to do the same tasks, Slax lets you boot into an X environment whereas Slackware restricts to the command line.

Slackware 12.1 upgrade successfull

Successfully installed/upgraded my 3 computers with Slackware Linux 12.1! ;P

• (Desktop machine, "slamd-wifi")
• AMD Athlon XP 2200MHz | 1,1GB DDR RAM

• (Notebook machine, "slackbell")
• AMD Mobile Sempron 1800MHz | 1,1GB DDR2 RAM

• (Laptop machine, "paqslack")
• AMD Mobile Athlon XP 800MHz | 256MB DDR RAM

I'd wish I could have been done with this earlier, but I'm quite buzy nowadays.