Paradigm Consulting Co. » Open Source

Google Dumps Windows (At Least, Unofficially)

Peter Nikolaidis — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:30:26 +0000

This Financial Times article reports that Google, without question one of the Internet’s strongest influences today, has decided to ditch Windows and move employees to Macintosh and Linux PCs. This move is reportedly largely due to the January hacks on Google and many other corporations, allegedly originating from China. Windows has a long-standing perceived history of having a worse security track record than its competition, and a large part of this comes because it’s simply the largest attack surface. Not surprisingly, the same thing that makes it the most widely developed-for platform for applications keeps it the highest profile target for malware and security exploits as well.

I applaud this move toward security and productivity. I don’t think it will be a easy task for Google, but I believe it will be worth the effort in the long run.

Does your company need to consider switching away from Windows?

ABA Recommends Dedicated PC for Online Banking

Peter Nikolaidis — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:36:42 +0000

Earlier this month the American Bankers Association (ABA) has issued practical, simple advice which could dramatically enhance everyone’s online banking security. And, I predict, it won’t make any difference because people are unlikely to do it.

The advice is to have a PC dedicated to online banking. If you weigh the convenience and cost savings of having access to online banking, versus time spent on the phone or traveling to and from a bank to conduct your business, the expense of a PC dedicated to this task, to continue to enable online banking, will likely be recouped within a matter of weeks, if not days.

The three arguments I’ve heard against this are:

We don’t have enough money in the bank for anyone to want to hack it. (Or, “no one is interested in us because we’re too small.“)
Then it sounds like you have everything to lose! Isn’t it more important to protect what assets you have, regardless of size?
We’re protected by our bank’s security.
No, you’re not. Bank websites get hacked frequently. Don’t believe me? Just do a Google search on the subject. Furthermore, the banks are not required to refund your money! You do not have the same protections as you do with credit cards on bank accounts. Finally, it’s not usually the bank that gets hacked – it’s your computer.
We can’t afford the expense.
The cost of a lightweight PC dedicated to this task is most likely lower than most of my clients’ electric bill, heating bill, or liability insurance for one month. You can afford the cost. But can you afford getting hacked and having your assets drained?

This is the same advice we gave on this blog last year. It’s sound. It’s simple. It’s cheap. Get a new netbook for a couple hundred dollars and use that for online banking. Is this not worth the risk of your business losing tens of thousands of dollars from its bank account? Please, if you do online banking at home or at work, at the very least, practice it from a non-Windows computer not running Internet Explorer. Better yet, prove me wrong and get a cheap PC and dedicate it to your online banking needs. Never go to any website other than your bank’s with it. Another alternative would be to boot from a live CD of your favorite Linux distribution, such as my favorite, Ubuntu.

References:

Microsoft: “Please Upgrade from Internet Explorer 6.”

Peter Nikolaidis — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:39:35 +0000

While Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP will be supported until July 2010, the writing on the wall is fairly clear, and Microsoft is encouraging users to upgrade to IE 7 or IE 8. Additionally, we have been recommending alternative browsers for years. Like in the mid-90′s the browser wars are heating up, and you have several options to choose from when considering a browser for general web surfing. My personal favorite is Mozilla Firefox, which I use on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, but I regularly use Google Chrome (mostly for accessing Google’s services) and Apple’s Safari when on my Macintosh. I also use Opera from time to time, but it is different enough from most of the other mainstream browsers

If you have not yet looked at one of these other browsers, I strongly recommend you do. If you are wedded to Internet Explorer, then you should at least be on version 7, if not 8. Also, several of our clients have been told that they must use Internet Explorer for an application that they use which requires it. What’s shocking is that several of my clients have vendors who insist that they continue to use IE 6! This, despite the fact that it’s easily the least secure mainstream browser still available today. If you are unlucky enough to be in this group, I strongly recommend you put pressure on your vendors who are requiring IE 6, and tell them to support current versions, or better yet, make their application less browser-specific so that it works with other platforms like Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari.

Software Review: Thunderbird 3

Peter Nikolaidis — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:43:14 +0000

After a long period of apparent stagnation, Mozilla Messaging, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, has released the long-awaited Thunderbird 3 – its free, open-source email client. Thunderbird has been my favorite email client for several years now, as it does everything that Outlook Express or Windows Mail does (as far as I am concerned) and has a better track record for security, runs faster, and works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Cross-platform compatibility is always the first feature I look for in a program, and on December 8, 2009, Mozilla Messaging released the new version of Thunderbird for all three platforms. While this isn’t a new feature, it is something to be underscored, as you can’t get Windows Mail for Linux or OS X, and Apple’s Mail certainly doesn’t run under Windows. Another great feature of Thunderbird is its extensions. Like the Firefox browser, Thunderbird supports third-party add-ons which change and improve the way it functions. Unfortunately there is normally a period where some extensions do not work after a new version is released, and some of my favorites are missing. However, the developers of these extensions normally come out with updated versions fairly soon after the release, so I hope not to have to wait too long.

All of your email in one inbox

As for new features, the first thing I noticed was the option to display all of your accounts’ inboxes in one location, just as recent versions of Apple’s Mail have. For instance, if you have a work email address and a home email address, and you check them both with the same email client, you can now view all new messages in a single inbox. I’m sure that fans of GTD will applaud this move. As for me, I wasn’t totally sold on this feature, but after experimenting with it for a day or so, I started to like it. If the goal is to be notified of new email from various sources, this definitely meets it. However, if you like keeping things separated (for example, not getting distracted with personal emails while at work, or bothered with work while at home), this isn’t necessarily for you.

Tabbed emails

While setting up Thunderbird, you are presented with the option to synchronize IMAP accounts onto your local hard drive. This is a great feature if you travel and don’t have an Internet connection, but still want to be able to read your email while offline. I did note that it took a very long time to synchronize my Gmail account, which has gigabytes of saved email on it, but that’s to be expected. I was able to use Thunderbird while the sync was going on, so it did not bother me.

The first thing I noticed was that the user interface has been simplified, with some of the button clutter removed. Also, by default messages open in new tabs, as opposed to new windows. While I am very used to this method of presenting information in web browsers (as Firefox has had this feature for years), I haven’t quite gotten used to it in email. However, I’m starting to like it more as I use it.

Thunderbird 3's new search

Thunderbird’s new search engine is immediately noticeable the first time you search your inbox for something. The results are presented in a new fashion, but more importantly, Thunderbird indexes all of your messages for faster search results, and you don’t have to search folder by folder for messages, as it will go through all of them for you. While I use Gmail for most of my email, I still like using Thunderbird as the client. However I frequently have found myself going back to the Gmail web interface when I need to search for a lost message. Hopefully this will no longer be necessary with Thunderbird’s new search capabilities.

Also, taking another page from the Gmail book, Thunderbird now lets you archive your email by pressing ‘A’ while reading any message. While I generally file all of my emails away (in folders in Thunderbird or with a label, then archiving in Gmail) sometimes I don’t have a particular folder or label to apply to an email. I know I don’t want to delete it, but I also don’t want to stick it in a file. I just want it gone… until I want it back again. That’s what archiving is for. This is another feature I’ve found myself logging in to the Gmail interface for. Unfortunately, Thunderbird’s archive feature is different from Gmail’s, so when I archive an email in Thunderbird, I still need to sign in to Gmail’s web interface to archive it there. However, if I never used the Gmail interface, this would not be an issue.

It is worth noting that I did have some stability problems with the beta and release candidates in late November, however they all seem to have been sorted out and the release version is rock-solid on Mac OS X and Linux. I have not yet tested the Windows versions, but I have high hopes. This is a noteworthy improvement to Thunderbird which I am grateful to have. In short, if you do not require connectivity to a Microsoft Exchange server (for calendar, contacts, and other non-email data) I recommend you try Thunderbird 3.

Oh, did I mention that it’s free?

Likewise + Ubuntu offers a Quick, Cheap, Easy, Secure Email, Web Browsing, Word Processing Solution

Peter Nikolaidis — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:38:22 +0000

Readers of my personal blog or listeners to the Fresh Ubuntu Podcast will know that I have long been a proponent of Linux as an alternative to Windows, and now, more than ever, this should be a reality at your organization. What’s changed? Last year, Ubuntu, the leading desktop Linux distribution today, addded a package called Likewise-Open, from Likewise Software, Inc., to their software repositories. This means that, with just a few clicks, it is possible to make a Linux desktop computer log in to your existing Windows Active Directory system, without having to make separate user accounts for it.

Nearly every one of our clients has a place for Linux within their organization. Traditionally, this has been as some form of server (web, file, database, network monitoring, firewall, DNS, etc.). However, with Likewise, the hassle of making a Linux box talk to Windows has been greatly simplified.

While I will not engage in the debate of whether OpenOffice.org is a good replacement for Microsoft Office in a corporate setting, or whether you are better off with or without Microsoft Outlook as your primary email client in this blog post, I will say that just about every organization we work with has staff who only do a couple of very simple tasks with their computer, such as surf the web, send and receive email, occasionally make a word processed document or spreadsheet, and view PDF files. All of these features work perfectly well under Linux, so why not deploy it in your organization?

For one thing, there hasn’t always been an easy way to manage a Linux server’s user accounts from Windows. What this means is if you have a username and a password that you use for Windows, you’d need a separate one for Linux. Multiple usernames and passwords frequently confuse novice users, so this has been a potential hurdle.

Likewise clears this hurdle with ease. Now, you can sit down at a Linux computer, and your Windows username and password, and log in. With a little scripting magic from a Linux expert, it is possible to have your Desktop and Documents folders automatically available to you as well.

The best part is that most Linux distributions still run perfectly well on older hardware. While newer systems struggle to meet the requirements to run Vista or Windows 7, most older systems still in production will run Ubuntu just fine.

Linux has many other benefits. It is virtually immune to the bulk of spyware and viruses currently circulating the Internet today. Is it completely safe? No. However, since 99% of all malware is targeted at Windows, Linux is simply a much smaller target.

Finally, Linux is free. That’s right. Most Linux distributions (Ubuntu included) offer a completely free of charge, fully functional version.You can download a copy and try it, with no changes to your system, in under an hour on a high-speed Internet connection.

There’s no reason not to try Linux in your small business. Give it a shot! It may save you money and time.