SoftwareWars
From SpaceElevatorWiki.com
Overview
First Sentences
Given the technology that's already available, we should have cars that drive us around, in absolute safety, while we lounge in the back and sip champagne. All we need is a video camera on the roof, plugged into a PC, right? We have all the necessary hardware, and have had it for years, but don't yet have robot-driven cars because we don't have the software. This book explains how we can build better software and all get our own high-tech chauffeur.
Trying Linux
There are several ways to go about this:
- Boot to a Linux "Live CD" which runs Linux off the CD-ROM. However, CD-ROMS are very slow, so it takes a while to boot, etc. but it runs at full speed once programs are loaded. However, booting to a CD-ROM is a hassle, and your changes are not saved, so I only recommend trying it once or twice.
- Inside a virtual machine
- Install VirtualBox binaries [1]
- Download Ubuntu "Alternate" CD ISO file. (It is a text mode installer which is faster and more reliable and more powerful) I386: [2], AMD64: [3]
- Create a Virtual Machine inside VirtualBox (1 gig RAM, 10 Gig partition is plenty. Allocating all space up front is faster because if your virtual partition gets fragmented, it will run very slowly.)
- Mount the ISO file to the virtual machine
- Boot Virtual machine.
- Go through setup process
- Dual boot
- If you have at least 10 gigs free on a hard drive, you can resize your partition, install Ubuntu, and have it setup dual boot. On startup, it asks you if you want to run Windows or Linux.
- Wipe the disk!
- I used to dual boot, but I never run Windows anymore because I have no need -- and Linux is already much better than when I first started using it.
Discussion
Intro
Linux
AI and Google
Patents & Copyright
The OS Battle
Tools
The Java Mess
Challenges for Free Software
Standards & Web
Da Future
Afterword
Translation
Here is a test document to time how long it will take to translate, and give an idea of some wording: File:TranslationTest2.odt
These are the languages that are lined up for translation right now: French, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian