Day: April 6, 2011

Yay! And I was there, on the Internet (no, no World Wide Web at that time) in tyeh Usenet newsgroups when Linus Torvalds posted his description of a Unix-like OS that he was creating! And, I have been involved with Linux ever since! Very cool!

Linux Kicks Off 20th Anniversary Celebrations

“The Linux Foundation on Wednesday kicked off its 20th anniversary celebrations with a video tribute to the story behind the open-source operating system (below) and the promise of more commemorative goings-on for the rest of 2011. ‘Today Linux is literally everywhere: in your phone, at your ATM, in your TV, on your desktop, at the movies, in your car,’ wrote Amanda McPherson on a Linux.com blog post announcing the celebrations.

The foundation marks the summer of 1991 as the time when ‘Linus Torvalds made a bold decision to share his operating system with the world.’ Torvalds soon licensed that first Linux OS under the General Public License and, according to McPherson, ‘Nothing in computing has been the same since.’

The Linux Foundation will commemorate the 20th anniversary of Linux at the Aug.17-19 LinuxCon in Vancouver, where the winner of the annual Linux Foundation Video Contest will be announced, and at LinuxCon Japan and other events.”

But is it a good deal?

Dish’s Blockbuster buy: A box office bomb?

“Dish Network has won the auction to acquire nearly all of the assets of bankrupt national video store chain Blockbuster Inc., the satellite television company announced on Wednesday.

Dish Network expects to pay a mere $228 million in cash to acquire Blockbuster’s 1,700 retail store locations, its brand and trademarks, and its alternative video delivery methods, such as its DVD-by-mail business, retail kiosk, and streaming video on demand services. The deal will close in the second quarter of this year.

Blockbuster has been in steep decline for the last five years as the physical video rental trade lost profitability. By 2009, the company had filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which warned ‘we may not have the adequate liquidity to fund our operations as a result of not meeting our projected financial results.’

A little more than a year after serious financial restructuring, shares were consistently valued at less than a dollar, and the company’s stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.”

Make your plans to move before then! I already have, and I like Windows 7… but businesses are being slow to migrate, and they need to get their PCs, and their applications, working on Windows 7 as soon as possible! XP and Office 2003 are going the way of the dinosaur! So, let’s get with it folks!

Of course, you could always install Ubuntu and LibreOffice… just sayin’! (GRIN!)