email clients

I'm still looking for an email client that works.
An email client that can retrieve email, without needing a babysitter.

I've settled for Thunderbird, simply because, with a babysitter, it can retrieve email. That is more than can be said for the other email clients that run on Linux.

Every RFE/bug I submitted was closed "won't fix", because the functionality I was requesting --- which was the ability to retrieve email --- was considered to be something that is not in accordance with their concept of what an email client does.

The Mozilla Foundation seems determined to ensure that Thunderbird remain something other than an email client.

Go to the Thunderbird extensions page, and do a search for extensions that have "Search" as a keyword. "Weave Browser sync", "eBay Auction Search", and "Second Search" are just some Firefox orientated extensions that come up.

Microsoft Windows 7: Still a broken OS.

I got a laptop for Christmas.

Since it has the notoriously insecure Windows 7 Operating system, I decided that I'd only use Ubuntu for connecting to the Internet.

(There are half a dozen zero day exploits, that will infect a system, during the six hours that are needed for Win7 security updates to fix those exploits. The mean time from going online, to having a nasty try to come through one's internet connection is under one minute.)

I installed Ubuntu on it, for a dual boot system.
Windows 7 trashed the hard drive, when I booted it up, to see if it worked.

I can repair the drive, but my question is whether or not it is worthwhile keeping Win7.

The security problems with Win7 are such, that the dice roll is very much in favour of banning all microsoft software, and programs that require microsoft software, from that laptop.

Get the facts

Microsoft: "There is no guarantee that when security vulnerabilities are discovered, an update will be created. Users are on their own."

Trouble is, current best practices for a business is to have a dedicated system for financial transactions. A system that has no hard drive, booting from a Live Disk whenever one wants/needs to do an online banking transaction, or other sensitivity transactions.

Microsoft: "There is no ability to set Parental Restrictions".

Trouble is, at least one Linux distro Ubuntu Christian Edition) includes "parental restrictions", as a matter of course. Well, technical, it restricts everybody, but since the main function is to restrict kids.....

DrDOS TimeLine

Dr-DOS was originally created by Intergalatic Digital Research, Inc, in Pacific Grove, California.

Digital Research, Inc, was the successor in interest to Intergalatic Digital Research, Inc.

Novell bought (1991) Digital Research, Inc. with the idea of shipping a SOHO OS that included networking, and an office suite.(WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Paradox, DrDos, Novell Lite, and a couple of other things.)

The SOHO OS didn't work out for Novell. NovellOffice was sold to in Corel (1996). (Corel Linux was sold to Xandros in 2001.)

Caldera started off as an internal group to develop a Linux distro for Novell. Caldera Systems was spun off by Novell, in 1996, taking most of the operating systems with it. Caldera Systems, in turn, spun off Caldera Thin Clients, which, in turn, (1998) became Lineo Solutions, INC. Dr-Dos was then opensourced. DrDos was then spun off into DeviceLogics, and became closed source. Metrowerks bought out DeviceLogics, who then spun it out (2002) as part of DrDOS, Inc. The other spinoff was Caldera Internatinal, which developed Caldera Linux. (Caldera Linux in 2001 used a Unix kernel, not a Linux kernel.)

Tarantella Enterprise was a product from Santa Cruz Operations that resulted from their purchase (1994),and integration of half a dozen minor companies.

Santa Cruz Operations sold their Unix business to Caldera Systems Inc, in 2001. Santa Cruz Operations then renamed themselves Tarantella, Inc. In 2005, Sun purchased Tarantella, Inc.

in 1995 Novell sold the right to distribute UnixWare to Santa Cruz Operations. Santa Cruz Operations, in turn, sold those rights to Caldera Systems, Inc, in 2001.

In 2002, Caldera Systems, Inc renamed itself SCOGroup.

To recap:

1987: Digital Research, Inc releases DrDOS 1.0;
1991: Novell purchases Digital Research, Inc. (DrDOS)
1996: DrDOS spunoff to Caldera Systems;(DrDOS)
1997: Caldera Systems spins off Caldera Thin Clients (DrDOS);
1998: Caldera Thin Clients renames itself Lineo Solutions, Inc (DrDOS);
1998: Unixware rights sold to Santa Cruz Operations, Inc by Novell; (UnixWare)
2002 (?): Lineo Solutions, Inc acquired by DeviceLogic, Inc; (DrDOS)
? DeviceLogic purchased by MetroWerks (DrDOS)
2000: Caldera Systems purchases Santa Cruz Operations Unix business. (UnixWare)
2002: MetroWerks sells DrDOS to DrDOS, Inc. (DrDOS)
2002:
2005: Tarantella, Inc purchased by Sun, INC. (ex unix player);

Hard Drive Woes

Back in June I installed a terrabyte hard drive in my computer.

In installing it, I made a couple of mistakes. The biggest one was to make it bootable.

It never played nicely with my original hard drive.

Last week, I started playing with live disks from various distros. After roughly ten minutes, if that TB drive is hooked up, my computer crashes. If it isn't hooked up, my computer runs fine.

Now I'm wondering what to do with a self-crashing hard drive, that won't self destruct.

Windows 7 RC

I have three programs written for Windows, to review.

Since Vista won't run on my hardware, I thought I'd give Win7 RC a test.
(My hardware is to new for Vista to support.)

First issue with getting a legit copy of Win 7 RC was signing up with hotmail.
That solved, I could go to the download page.

After clicking through six or so pages, I get the screen to download it.

Then I get an error message: "Your operating system is not supported".

Which means that I'll continue to use OpenSolaris, and Linux.

Unlocked GPS???

The update to my PDA included unlocking the GPS chip. :)

I tried it out with Google Maps.
Error message: Please log into something or other that Google offers, before configuring Google maps.

I log into that. Then try my hand at configuring Google Maps.
I'm outside --- not a cloud in the sky.

About twenty minutes later I get an error message. "Weak GPS Signal".
If it can't locate satellites outside, then what was unlocked???

I guess I should be glad that Verizon didn't charge me an early termination fee.