To open JavaApplicationStub, you need to install Rosetta. Would you like to install it now?

Personally, I try my best to avoid legacy Mac OS apps and haven’t found the need to install Rosetta on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as of yet. Whether you have need of Rosetta for your other applications or not, there’s no reason you should be running your Java-based applications through the Rosetta environment — they’ll run just fine on native Intel Java on OS X… with just a little bit of a prod in the right direction.

Java applications are CPU agnostic (hence the “write once, run everywhere” Java motto). The Java applets you download and use can theoretically be run on any PC machine that supports Java; be it Intel, PPC, ARM, SPARC, or more. The native Java virtual machine will translate the “Java bytecode” into the equivalent machine assembly that your PC uses and understands, and therefore, Java code written for legacy Mac OS should run just fine on Snow Leopard

If there’s no problem with running older Java applications on Snow Leopard, why am I seeing this dialog? you ask. Well, the problem isn’t with the Java application itself, rather it’s an issue with the Java loader, which as a tiny native Mac OS application that simply launches the Java virtual machine and points it to the JAR file that contains the Java applet in question. If you have an old Mac OS application, chances are, it’s shipping with a PPC version of the Java Stub Loader, and that’s what’s triggering Rosetta. The good news is, it’s easy to fix, since the latest Intel-based Java stub loader on Snow Leopard can run any of your old JAR files easy as pie.

1. Open Finder, and browse (command+shift+G) to

   /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Resources/MacOS/

2. Copy the file “JavaApplicationStub” to the clipboard (command+C)
3. Now browse to the folder that contains the Java application in question.
4. Right-click the Java application, and select “Show Package Contents” to view the actual app files in the OS X app bundle.
5. Open the “Contents” subfolder, and then the “MacOS” folder.
6. Paste the “JavaStubLoader” file from the keyboard to here, and accept the overwrite prompt. You may need to enter your password when prompted as necessary.
7. You’re done!

In the article, Ben Goodger, lead Chrome UI developer, states

[Google avoids] cross platform UI toolkits because while they may offer what superficially appears to be a quick path to native looking UI on a variety of target platforms, once you go a bit deeper it turns out to be a bit more problematic.” [... Your applications end up] speaking with a foreign accent.

But there’s something we’re not getting here. Obviously given enough brilliant programmers and a good team lead to keep the different codebases in sync, going with native APIs is the better approach. But the reasons Goodger is offering aren’t very convincing.

The problem is…. Google’s Chrome for Windows doesn’t look native. In fact, it’s about as far from native Win32 as you can get. We had originally explained away the non-win32 looks by assuming it was because Google wanted an interface that was consistent across the different platforms and different at the same time from any of the operating systems native UI toolkits: in line with Google’s vision of turning the browser into an OS, regardless of the platform beneath.

A non-native UI that looks the same on Mac, Windows, and Linux would be the answer to such a browser OS. It would indicate that Chrome is its own product – from the codebase to the user experience – and that to the end user it shouldn’t matter what OS you’re on. And that in the future Google could ship a standalone (OS-free) browser that looks like Chrome and acts like Chrome, regardless of the platform beneath?

Otherwise there is no good explanation for the horrendously-different user interface that comes with Chrome. It requires learning the tips & tricks to a whole new UI, and forgetting a number of “niceties” you may have been accustomed to (such as pressing the ’spacebar’ to OK pop-up dialogs, etc.).

With the preliminary screenshots of Chrome for Mac, the platform Chrome runs on begins to peek through.

Does this mean that Google’s vision of Chrome as its own OS has come to pass – with Google now content to just launch a cross-platform browser without attempting to lull users away from the platforms they’ve come to love?

Whatever the case, it’s sure to be interesting watching and waiting to see what Google has planned for its users. Whether its a cross-platform browser experience that’s different enough to be the same across all platforms while retaining a feel of the platform or if it’s paving the way for the OS to come it’s quite obvious that the gears are now in motion and something big just might happen.

Ever since Steve Jobs first unveiled the next version of OS X, dubbed “Snow Leopard,” the internet has been abuzz with excitement and wondering about the supposed “evolutionary” qualities of OS X 10.6. One of the most-hyped improvements is the promised revamp of the SMP capabilities of OS X, with a “breakthrough” in SMP performance.

The codename for the technology behind the SMP improvements in OS X Snow Leopard has been named “Grand Central,” which Apple describes best:

“Grand Central,” a new set of technologies built into Snow Leopard, brings unrivaled support for multicore systems to Mac OS X. More cores, not faster clock speeds, drive performance increases in today’s processors. Grand Central takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. Grand Central also makes it much easier for developers to create programs that squeeze every last drop of power from multicore systems.

Our guess is that these SMP “breakthroughs” are going to be delivered in two blows:

1. Improvements to the OS X kernel intended to boost multi-threading & multi-tasking performance and better-distribute the loads across multiple CPU cores more intelligently.
2. Provide an SDK (perhaps as improvements to XCode) that allows developers to more-easily write multi-threaded code, handle forking, and provide load-balancing features on a per-core basis.

The first feature is what’s exciting – we believe there’s a good chance Apple will be using some form of FreeBSD’s ULE scheduler or the other in OS X.

There isn’t much info available on what scheduler(s) OS X is currently using as of 10.5 (the only question we could find on the topic remains unanswered). But OS X has its roots firmly planted in the *nix world, and it’s possible to make some educated guesses on the topic. The XNU Kernel that OS X uses is a mesh of the Mach Kernel and large portions of the FreeBSD project, and OS X uses the Mach kernel’s scheduler – or at least it did back when OS X was first launched.

The FreeBSD project has long been working on alternative scheduler intended to replace the default and aging 4BSD scheduler: the ULE scheduler. ULE is now scheduled to become the default scheduler in the upcoming FreeBSD 7.1 release. ULE has shown significant improvements in multi-core environments, and was designed from the ground up to provide increased SMP scalability. Most importantly is ULE’s overhauled support for per-processor queuing of tasks and the ability to set CPU affinity per-processor-per-thread.

If Apple were to implement a form of the ULE scheduler in OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard would be a formidable OS indeed. Using ULE guarantees huge performance benefits for multi-threaded applications, and would help address the second point listed above: the SMT affinity options provided in ULE would make creating an SDK intended to allow developers to use multiple cores efficiently and evenly quite easy. OS X has always been close to the FreeBSD project, and something like this is a natural fit for an OS looking for improvements to SMP/SMT performance.

Of course any time Apple offers a feature, it has a twist of its own. In this case, it’s OpenCL – a technology Apple says will allow developers to use the GPU as a number-crunching processor right from the usual code without much effort. This lies squarely in ULE’s playing field, since the ULE scheduler was designed with full support for load-balancing and threading across processors of varying performance, clock speeds, and fortés – which isn’t something that other schedulers can do, and would make OpenCL simply a matter of interfacing with the ULE scheduler and add the GPU to the list of CPU cores available for the ULE thread scheduler to take advantage of.

The bottom line is, the history of OS X and the XNU Kernel, the features promised in Snow Leopard, and the design and architecture of the ULE scheduler all point to a high likelihood of Apple using a redesigned thread scheduler that is either an implementation of the ULE scheduler or at least based around it in OS X 10.6. And if this is the case, OS X 10.6 will be one heck of a powerhorse.

Further Reading

• The ULE Thread Scheduer
• Introduction to ULE
• Early benchmarks of the ULE scheduler
• Architecture of the XNU kernel
• Advanced Synchronization in OS X

Whether or not MinWin is the very same kernel that went into Vista or not is officially unknown at the moment; but what we do know is that Shipping Seven is either one huge fake, or else that the Windows core programmers at Microsoft are so stupid that they don’t know the first thing about coding, kernels, operating systems and compilers.

The post at Shipping Seven is littered from beginning to end with fallacies, lies, and incorrect deductions that anyone with even the most basic coding skills would know better than to ever post, especially not when attempting to pass it off as the work of some of the more talented coders out there.

Here are some of the more-glaring factual errors in the post that completely strip Shipping Seven of any authenticity or authority it may have on the topic of Windows 7:

How many times has the Ubuntu or Mac OS X kernel been rewritten?

Correction: OS X is powered by a rewrite of the XNU kernel which is a modified version of the Mach kernel which, in turn, is a complete rewrite of the original BSD kernel. And, of course, Ubuntu isn’t an OS in and of itself, rather it’s just a distribution of Linux.

While it can be argued that not every developer at Microsoft is expected to have intimate knowledge of the inner-workings of other operating systems, no one in their right mind would believe that the Windows kernel programmers don’t even know what kernels their strongest competitors are currently using.

We spent a boatload of time during Windows Vista making everything ‘componentizable’ – So that we could (by creating some xml files that our build process uses) create a boatload of different versions of Vista (and Server 2008).

….

You already have MinWin – It is the core system components that Windows Vista needs to function; everything else on the system depends directly or indirectly on it. It is the last thing you could (theoretically) uninstall.

So, if you really really want it, you can get it, I suppose – you probably could (using the command line) uninstall almost every single Windows Vista system component, including the user interface. I don’t know what the hell you’d do with just a kernel and a kernel loader on your machine, though.

Assuming you can get past the way that the post was written (with references like “using the command line” which indicate a general lack of knowledge about computers in general; treating the command line as if it were a “god mode” that can be used to do just about anything), there’s still the matter of factual inaccuracies – and inconsistencies in the article itself.

You can’t change/modify/revert pre-build settings by running commands in the command line. Components that are integrated at compile time simply cannot be removed by running a bunch of commands afterwards – especially not from within the resulting OS itself.

Anyone that’s ever manually compiled a Linux kernel knows this. You can’t strip ext3 support from the kernel after it’s already built any more than you can add Reiser4 support to the kernel without re-building it. As a matter of fact, anyone who’s built anything at all should know this – the same rules apply to any other program as well. For example, you can’t remove PHP support from Apache if you’ve compiled mod_php directly into the binaries.

Shipping Seven is a big, fat fraud. It’s written by someone with only the most basic knowledge of computers, zero knowledge of coding concepts, and absolutely no experience with kernels and operating systems. Shipping Seven is most likely written by the equivalent of script kiddy, eagerly awaiting the first leaked builds of Windows 7 to appease an inner itch – most likely all the while lamenting his lack of involvement in the Longhorn beta. It isn’t worth the time it takes to read, and definitely doesn’t deserve even the questionable authority it now has on the topic.

What are the most common causes of notebook sleep issues?

• A process running on the system does not allow the system to enter sleep mode.
• A hardware interrupt, such as some peripheral devices for example.
• An unstable driver which does not properly support sleep states or is just buggy.

I’ve owned several notebooks over the years, and almost every one of them have had an issue with sleep mode in one way or another, and over time I’ve learned a certain "practice" which ensures that sleep mode generally works when I close the lid of my computer…

1. Make sure that all of the latest updates are installed for your operating system (Windows Update on Microsoft Windows, Software Update on Mac OS X, your favorite package manager on Linux).
2. Close any running programs on the system (and exit any programs which are running in the notification area which is next to the clock on Windows systems).
3. Unplug all external devices (USB, FireWire, etc.) This includes your external keyboard and mouse if you’re using one, your printer, and whatever else you have plugged in. And no, your USB-powered rocket launcher isn’t an exception, even though it is really cool.
4. Use the "Sleep" option in your operating system to put the computer to sleep instead of the lid (Start > Turn Off Computer > Sleep on Windows XP, Apple menu > Sleep on Mac OS X).
5. Once the computer has gone to sleep, close the lid.

You’re probably wondering why it’s not a good idea to always rely on the lid of your computer to put it to sleep, and the answer is fairly simple. Notebooks have a sensor or switch which detects the position of the display (lid) and when the lid is closed to a certain degree it should trigger sleep mode… only that’s not always the case.

Some notebooks take up to one minute to fully go into sleep mode, and general habits have shown that you’re more likely to close the lid and immediately tuck your computer into its carrying case, which means you’re moving the computer around in mid-air before the hard drive head has gotten a chance to park, which could cause damage to the hard drive (and your valuable data). By using the operating systems "sleep" function and waiting for the signal that your computer is snoozing away (whether it be a flashing power light or a pulsating sleep light), you give the computer a chance to park the hard disk head and enter sleep mode correctly.

Mind you, some notebooks with older NVIDIA drivers on Windows Vista may cause your computer to go into a perpetual coma every time it falls asleep. If your notebook manufacturer hasn’t provided you with a newer graphics driver, I’d recommend consulting a sleep therapist LaptopVideo2Go.com, which has all of the latest NVIDIA drivers and modified INF files for installing them on any NVIDIA graphics card.

Reverting the hack is simple. First of all, open a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and in the console type the following commands:

sudo defaults delete /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables'

sudo chmod 644 /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer.plist


This will delete the hack parameter, convert the com.apple.WindowServer.plist file back to a readable XML format, and then reset the permissions on the file.

Once you’ve reverted the hack, restart the computer, and then you can go ahead and upgrade to 10.5.2. If you’re already running 10.5.2, you can change the menu bar opacity option in System Preferences > Desktop and Screen Saver (the nice thing about this is that it is on-the-fly, no need to restart any more).

The release documentation for the OS X 10.5.2 build can be found at the Apple site, and it contains all the gory details about this whopping update. It’s 343 MiB (for comparison, Vista SP1 x86/x64 RTM are 434/726 MiB, but they contain plenty more changes) and contains a number of important fixes.

At the moment, you can download the update via OS X’s “Software Update” feature or directly from Apple’s OS X downloads site here. Updates are also available for OS X Server, the direct download link can be found here (382 MiB).

10.5.2 ships with several important security updates that were not previously disclosed/patched as well – if you don’t intend on updating to 10.5.2 anytime soon, you should definitely grab the standalone security update found here.

I’ve been doing some thinking, and after having numerous conversations with some individuals who will remain un-named, I’ve come to the conclusion that some people are too wrapped-up around the computer system that they use, to the point where they could very well border-line on “fanboy,” and I feel that this is affecting the credibility of the tech community as a whole.

Example:

“John,” a PHP developer, switches his personal home computer from Windows to Linux, and he enjoys using Linux because of the advanced functionality that it provides to him.

Now, “Jim,” a long-time Windows user and Microsoft supporter, who has conversed with John for several years, criticizes John for his decision, stating that he is brainless and dim-witted because Linux is open-source, and that Windows is the only platform that matters.

John doesn’t care about using Windows, he’s comfortable on Linux and he gets more enjoyment out of his system than he did when he was running Windows, but Jim is unable to see that and continues to insult John for his choice.

What do you see wrong here? To me, I see this constant criticism as being petty, and shows that one is unable to look past their own needs. Just because you’re a supporter of one system doesn’t mean you have to hammer down on everyone else running a different system. Remember, we’re all just human beings sitting behind a computer screen. So what does it really matter what the person on the other side of the screen is running?

I’m not against any platform, I’m currently running Windows XP on two of my home computers, Ubuntu 7.10 on one notebook, and Mac OS X 10.5.1 on my MacBook Pro. They all serve their purpose, and at the end of the day isn’t that what really matters?

I believe that we should all try to contribute positively to the tech. community as a whole, enough of the “flame wars” and the un-necessary bashing.

Also, for the record, I never said that Windows sucks in my previous article. I stated reasons that I believe that Mac OS X may be a better choice for some people, and how overall it has a lower TCO when it comes to upgrading systems down the road. If you want to use Windows, Linux, BeOS, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, or hell even DOS, that’s up to you. It’s your choice. I’m not trying to force my choice on anyone, I merely posted my thoughts on the matter.

I was set to build a new computer for myself at the end of February, but I realized soon after I had finished finalizing the specification that I would need to run Windows Vista 64-bit on it in order to take full advantage of my hardware. I’m not much of a fan of Windows Vista 64-bit, due to all of the issues between 32-bit and 64-bit executables and the headaches of 32-bit vs. 64-bit Internet Explorer. After considering many things, like what I plan on doing with my computer, I changed my mind on building that system, in fact I’ve completely crossed it off of my list.

Let me tell you, I never thought I’d see the day where I actually managed to pull this one off…

… as of January 15th, 2008 I am now a Mac user. I purchased a brand new 15” MacBook Pro with a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, 8x Dual Layer SuperDrive, 120 GB of hard disk space and a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor with 128MB of video memory, running Mac OS X 10.5.

I can sum up my experience with Mac OS X in just three words: Oh. My. God. This computer is insanely powerful, and provides a rock-solid computing experience that is out of this world. iPhoto handles all of my photo editing needs, Pages is a great word processor, iTunes is amazing, and Safari renders pages faster than any browser I’ve ever used.

Not to mention all of the great applications that come with the computer which make it extremely fun — iMovie, GarageBand, and Photo Booth are three such applications which I could play with for hours on end.Needless to say, my days as a Windows user have officially come to an end. I’m tired of the maintenance, dealing with the cumbersome registry, and worrying about upcoming Windows Updates wreaking havoc on my system.

With this switch, I would also like to take the time to make another announcement. I will now be blogging here at NeoSmart Technologies (NST). My plan is to cover mostly Mac topics, although I will still have a hand in some Windows guides as well.

Consider this post to be an introduction, the first of a series on the best way to go about switching from one OS to another…. completely.

Fear no more. I’ve written this article with the potential Mac “switcher” in mind. I’ve been a long-time Windows-user myself, and have only recently made the switch to what, in my personal opinion, is a better overall platform.

First and foremost, Apple computers are not the cheapest on the planet, but you definitely get what you pay for. You’re probably wondering, “is it really worth spending so much on a computer?” This is really up to personal preference and budget, however I do feel that it is a great investment, as a Mac will last you several years, not to mention that Macs have a very high resale value. You could turn around in 2 years and sell your Mac for close to what you paid for it then and buy a new one. You just can’t do that with a traditional or OEM PC, because they lose value from the day you purchase it.

When you consider making an investment such as this, make sure that you pick out a Mac that’s right for you. There’s nothing worse than purchasing a computer that you’re not going to be satisfied with. First, you need to decide if you are going to be doing any traveling or moving around with your Mac. If you are, you’d most likely want to look at getting a portable Mac, but if all your computing is done from the comfort of your home office (or bedroom), then a desktop Mac will be fine.

The following chart lists several common tasks and which Mac would be right for you in either situation.

Here is a quick run-down between the different Macs available:

Desktop Macs

• Mac mini: Provides the Mac experience on the cheap. Think of this Mac as the “PC tower” equivalent. You would go about setting up a Mac mini in the same fashion that you would when setting up a PC, meaning that you’d need a display, keyboard, and mouse. Does not have features such as iSight camera. Price: starting at $599 USD.
• iMac: Provides the entire Mac experience in an all-in-one package. The iMac features a stunning LCD display which is built into the computer itself, and you have the option of either a corded or wireless keyboard and mouse along with your Mac, as well as other build-to-order options if you are ordering from the Apple Online Store. Includes FrontRow remote and iSight camera built into the display. Price: starting at $1,199 USD.
• Mac Pro: If you’re looking for the ultimate workhorse, the Mac Pro is the machine you’d be looking for. Equipped with dual quad-core Intel Xeon processors (for a total of 8 processing cores), with support for up to 16GB of RAM with either an ATi or nVidia graphics processor, nothing will ever hold you back. Requires that you have your own display,
  keyboard, and mouse. Price: starting at $2,700 USD1.

Portable Macs

• MacBook: If you’re a student, or just someone looking for a portable Mac for every-day, common tasks like e-mail, word processing, browsing the internet, managing your photos, music, and video libraries, the MacBook may be the option for you. The MacBook comes with a 13” widescreen display with a glossy coating which provides rich colors(this is great for watching movies), with either a 2.0 GHz or 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor meaning you’ve got two processing cores ready to crunch away at whatever you throw at it, 1 GB of RAM, and an Intel X3100 graphics processor. Price: starting at $1,099 USD.
• MacBook Air: Primarily for those who travel frequently, the MacBook Air is the “world’s thinnest notebook,” in an ultra-portable form factor without compromising performance or screen size. Price: starting at $1,799 USD.
• MacBook Pro: The portable powerhouse. Available with 2.2 GHz, 2.4 GHz, or 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 2 GB of RAM, and a nVidia 8600M GT graphics processor with either 128MB or 256MB of video memory, and housed inside of a stylish aluminumen closure, the MacBook Pro is one beast of a notebook. The best part is that it is only1.0-inch thick, and it weighs 5.6 pounds. Price: starting at $1,999 USD.

You’ll also be happy to hear that every new Mac comes with iLife ’08, a collection of programs which will allow you to manage your digital life and be creative, artistic, and just have fun. iLife ’08 includes iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, iWeb, and GarageBand. All New Macs also come with a 30-day trial of iWork ’08, a 60-day test drive of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, and a trial of Aperture, which is Apple’s premium photo editing solution. The latest Macintosh system software and iLife ’08 are already installed on your new Mac when you start it up, but for whatever reason you feel like performing a clean installation, you can use the software installation discs that come with your computer.

There are tens of thousands of software applications available for Windows, which allow you to edit videos and photos, listen to music, write code, chat with other people, send e-mail and browse the web, and much more. Windows has a greater market share, therefore it is obvious that most programmers create applications for Windows. However, one thing that you will find on the Macintosh platform is that you do not need two or three different programs to complete your tasks, and all of the applications available for the Mac have rich user interfaces which are easy to follow and learn, and lack the inconsistency in appearance of Windows applications.

You can find a comparison of Windows and Mac software in our “Mac Switcher’s Guide.”

Uninstalling applications on a Mac is very easy compared to on a Windows PC. For example, on a Windows PC you need to open Start, Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, and then click on the applications name in the list and go through the steps in the uninstaller software. On a Mac, you open the Applications folder, and drag the application that you wish to uninstall to the Trash. It really can’t get much easier than that.

Managing applications is a breeze on a Mac. Simply drag the applications icon from the Applications folder to the dock. To manage the open application windows on your screen, press F9 to activate Expose, which shows you smaller previews of all the open windows, allowing you to Tab through or click on any window to bring it to the foreground.

Another great feature for managing open applications in the latest version of Mac OS X is Spaces, which allows you to have applications assigned to specific “spaces”, essentially acting as if you have more than one display. This helps reduce clutter and allows you to work more efficiently. For example, you could have Safari open in one space, iChat AV and iTunes open in a second space, and Mail in a third space.

The Mac OS X system software also comes with a plethora of additional features which will make your every-day computing life a lot easier, two of these features include:

• Calculate mathematical equations Spotlight: One of the neat features in Mac OS X is
  Spotlight, it allows you to find your files and applications instantaneously with ease.
  But did you know that in Mac OS X 10.5, Spotlight can also calculate mathematical equations? Simply type in the equation, and Spotlight will do the math for you (e.g.:
  4+4 will give you the answer 8, sqrt(25) will give you the answer 5, and typing pi will
  display 3.14).
• Define words using Spotlight: Another nifty feature in Mac OS X 10.5’s Spotlight is the ability to define words directly from the results display. Type a word into Spotlight(for instance, Computer) and it will display a partial definition (in this case, it would display noun an electronic device f…) Simply click on the partial definition, and Dictionary will display the full definition.

When it comes time to upgrade your system software, you don’t have to worry about which version to pick! There is only one “edition” of Mac OS X, and it comes with all of the features. In comparison, there are 8 editions of Windows Vista, not counting Starter and Enterprise: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate, in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. At the time of writing, Mac OS X costs $129.00 USD, and family packs cost $199.99.

Windows Vista Home Premium costs $219.00 and it doesn’t include all of the features that
Windows Vista offers, it’s even more costly to migrate your entire home over to Windows Vista if you have more than one computer. Not to mention Windows Vista only runs decently on computers purchased in the last ~3 years, while Mac OS X 10.5 is working on hardware as old as 7 years.

If you’re a gamer, fear not: Macs can now run Microsoft Windows natively! Using BootCamp, you can dual boot Windows on your Mac just so you can play the latest games or run those applications that have no Mac equivalent. Essentially, Macs give you the best of both worlds with a lower total cost of ownership (“TCO”).

If you’re a seasoned keyboard veteran in Windows, you might be a bit upset at first to find that the Mac uses different modifier keys, but it doesn’t take very long to get used to it. For example, to copy text on a Windows PC you’d first highlight the text and then perform the Ctrl-C key combination. To do the same thing on a Mac, highlight the text and then perform the Cmd-C key combination. It’s actually easier because the Cmd key is closer to the commonly-used keys for cutting, copying, and pasting (X, C, and V respectively)… unless you’re a Dvorak user, of course.

With all of this information, you should be able to make an educated decision on whether or not a Mac is right for you. As a recent switcher, I can fully vouch for the Mac and stand behind my decision. I no longer have to worry about maintaining my computer to keep it running at top speed, everything “just works.”

Most people take a look at these three facts, and instantly come to a conclusion.. the wrong conclusion: you can’t properly manage a Windows server because it’s inherently lacking in the shell scripting department.

But that’s not true… Because here’s another fact for you:

Perl scripts are a drop-in replacement for 99% ((We admit, that’s a made up statistic, give us a break though, will ya?)) of all shell scripting needs.

And another fact:

Perl (unlike PHP) runs great (awesome, in fact) on Windows.

Now with these two facts in mind, you can now make a proper conclusion: Shell scripting on Windows doesn’t have to be difficult, limiting, or in any way inferior than on Linux.

Perl is an awesome language. Between the online Perl community and the millions of Perl-scripting samples across the web, it’s quite the well-documented language and no sysadmin has an excuse not to use it. The Perl modules are an extensive array of easy-to-use pluggable scripts that you just reference and run.

Perl was created for stuff like this. It’s the language of choice for hacking quick scripts that get the job done, easily, quickly, and with little pain or effort. A Perl script made to run on Linux will likely run on Windows too, with little to no hacking necessary for most of the stuff out there.

With Perl, you can easily do things like manage (prune, grep, or sort) log files, backup and FTP or email database server dumps, schedule webserver maintenance, and more.

Shell scripting with Perl is even easier than shell scripting in Bash – simply because of the huge libraries available that make even the most mundane and PITA tasks quite easy. It takes all of 6 statements (we’re purposely refraining from counting lines because this is Perl we’re talking about) to compose an email with your MySQL dumps as a GZIP’d attachment.

You can easily schedule Perl scripts to run at regular intervals with the Task Scheduler – but that’s about all you’ll ever need to interact with Windows for.

A quick Google search will reveal millions of results for “Perl server management scripts.” Take your pick, hack it, and run.

Here’s our 5-step guide to managing your server with Perl scripts:

1. Download and install Perl for Windows (ActivePerl, free).
2. Read the Perl FAQs and get familiar with the syntax. It’s nothing too complicated, and very simple to code in (though reading someone else’s code is another story). You absolutely don’t need anything more than the basic syntax, stuff like classes and functions are completely unnecessary for shell scripting – it’s too easy to even be considered programming!
3. Write your Perl script. Use a real text editor like Notepad++.
4. Test it by running it from the command line and ensuring it does what you need. Repeat step 3 as needed.
5. Open up Scheduled Tasks in the Control Panel and set up a new task to run your Perl script however often you like.

Sure, maybe it’s not as easy it looks and it’ll probably take you a day or so to go from absolute zero to cranking your first Perl-based shell script; but soon enough you’ll be doing it blindfolded and with both your hands behind your back. And it’ll only be one line long, too!

The most important thing to realize is, you don’t need to be a programmer (or become one) in order to shell script in Perl.

Just pretend your Perl script is a batch file (yuck!). The Perl processor will run it from top to bottom, in a very straight-forward manner. Put one task/command per-line, stick loops where needed, and test constantly. You don’t need classes, you don’t need data structures, you don’t need object orientation, and you don’t even really need to use variables if you don’t want to!

We’ll be posting more details, guides, sample shell scripts, and how-to’s on Perl-based shell scripting in the weeks and months to come. Don’t give up just because it involves learning something new, this is in an investment that’ll last a lifetime. If you can shell script in Perl on Windows, you can do the same on Linux and OS X with ease. If you can shell script in Perl, you can do anything!

View all articles in the “Shell Scripting with Perl” category.

Beat. Beat. Beat. Beeeeep. Beeeeep. Beeeeep. <click>. Beeeeep. <wait>. Beeeeep. <read>. Beat. <relax>. Beat. Beat.

OK, so maybe that’s a bit of an over-exaggeration, but not by much. Microsoft demoing Silverlight on Linux? What has the world come to?! But the subtitle on the PC World article cleared things up: Microsoft France invited the Mono team to demo their own version of Silverlight that runs on Linux. Now that makes more sense.

We’ve commented on Microsoft’s atrocious, constant, and never-ending denial that there is an operating system called Linux that exists and has a real userbase which .NET Developers would like to code “cross-platform” software for time and time again, but alas, it seemed no one would listen; so you can imagine our surprise at those headlines.

Mono is the GPL’d EMCA implementation of the .NET Framework for Linux. Moonlight is the new Silverlight-compatible runtime for the *nix world. Miguel de Icaza, head developer of the Mono Project was invited to demo Moonlight over at Microsoft France during a presentation. This is a surprising twist on Microsoft’s normal “ignore the Linux world” attitude when it comes to developers, “cross-platform,” and frameworks alike.

But the whole point is, almost no one gives Mono the credit it deserves. While we’re the first to point out its shortcomings and even complete failure at being a “drop-in” replacement for the .NET Library in its current condition, its developers deserve a lot more recognition for their work. Miguel and his team are addressing a particularly “turmoiled” sector of the computer market – Windows developers coding for Linux. Microsoft pretends these people don’t exist, and the rest of the Linux world frowns down and mutters things like “use Java instead,” “forget about Microsoft and .NET,” and “Why waste your time on a closed-source framework?” (forgetting, of course, that Java has only recently become open-source itself).

The Mono Project has done a hell of a job with the limited resources it has, the constant need for developers, the sheer size of the .NET Framework, the lack of cooperation on both sides of the Windows-Linux fence, and the fact that a large portion of the .NET Framework is just managed wrappers for Windows-only code.

Sure, the Mono Project isn’t anything you would actually consider to be a “Linux version” of the .NET Framework thanks to the rather-conspicuous yet well-hidden fact that it doesn’t have a compatible UI Library (well, not yet anyway) and that, in reality, it’s a port of the CLR and C#, not of the .NET Framework itself; but nevertheless, Mono is pretty amazing.

So why can’t companies like PC World and their ilk write proper well-attributed titles like “Mono Creates, Demoes Silverlight for Linux” rather than “Microsoft Hosts Demon of Silverlight on Linux?” Why is it so hard for these people that do Microsoft’s dirty work ((seeing as Microsoft feels having a OS X and Windows implementation of anything suffices to consider it “cross platform” – whether it be Internet Explorer, .NET, MSN Messenger, or now, Silverlight)) to get the recognition the deserve? Because acknowledgement is what powers the free software world. Microsoft isn’t paying the Mono Project to create these libraries and to put these years of work into making the .NET Framework something that is truly cross-platform, it’s the fact that they’re making a difference, fulfilling a need, and getting the proper credit that does.

But on a more positive note: Moonlight really is a ”drop-in” Silverlight replacement for Linux!

Silverlight (and now, Moonlight as well) uses XAML to create the UI and make all those pretty little ponies dance around that computer screen. Silverlight and Moonlight’s jobs are to take that XAML code and render it on the screen. Unlike the .NET Framework on Windows where you use certain APIs to design the form, in Silverlight/Moonlight, everything is WPF and now, fully portable to Linux.

Well, to be fair, Moonlight isn’t ready yet. It’s really close, but not yet there. But what matters is, it does have a working C++ XAML parser, and the main UI interface/library will be truly cross-platform compatible with Windows.

Congratulations Mono Team, you really deserve it!

Today’s news: Why they did it.

This decision was not about (not) missing deadlines for contracts with Cingular, not allocating enough resources to iPhone in the first place, or otherwise neglecting to do the right stuff at the managerial level – iPhone was delayed, yet Apple chose to trade in an iPhone delay for a 4-month postponement of OS X Leopard. Why would they do that? Is iPhone really a bigger deal than OS X 10.5? Does Apple care more about the iPhone than Leopard?

Apple is notoriously quiet about the future of their products – especially their operating system, OS X. While Leopard is but a bump to the minor version of Mac OS 10, it’s supposed to be a big deal. It’s certainly hyped-up for a lot longer than the actual iPhone – both in and out of Apple. So why this “sudden” shift in priorities? The answer is rather clear, and even self-explanatory.

Put it whatever way you like, the only reason Apple is anywhere near as successful as it is now is because of its dedicated fanbase. Whether it’s the iPod, G5, Mac Mini, iPhone, or the rumored Apple-powered BMW, their fans are all over it. Apple’s marketing ploys, from the “I’m a Mac” ads to the iPod commercials and webvertisements all take advantage of this fact – very commendable and smart marketing going on there. However, Apple has one thing in their favor no other company has – to the best of our knowledge – ever had: a fanbase willing to take things way of proportion, and to spread these rumors faster than wild fire.

We’re not here to judge – but these are the facts, and, like it or not, they play a major role in Apple’s most recent decision: to prioritize the iPhone over Leopard with regards to release dates and resource allocation.

The reason is simple: at the moment, the iPhone is the ‘next-big-thing’ for Apple’s fanbase everywhere. Despite the fact that – strictly speaking – OS X 10.5 is the bigger deal and will power the Mac OS platform for the next couple of years and usher in a set of new technologies for developers and users alike, and will, most probably, bring in more cash than the iPhone; Apple’s fanbase is determined that the iPhone is the be-all end-all of the Apple universe – for today.

Apple needs to catch this wave, because getting the iPhone out now rather than 4 months later means that they can capitalize on their eager users’ anticipation, hype, and free advertisements. Like it or not, Apple’s secrecy with regards to OS X Leopard and the user-base’s general non-programming makeup means that they’re focused on iPhone and nothing else.

Anything Apple does before they release the iPhone won’t be getting the users’ full and undivided attention. Delaying the iPhone for a couple of months will naturally result in a inevitable (albeit slight) decrease in the amount of hype going around – just like Duke Nukem Forever’s fanbase is slowly dwindling down to one…

These two facts together make it very much worth delaying OS X Leopard and getting the iPhone out ASAP. In short, unlike most of the other companies on the software/hardware playing field, Apple’s decisions aren’t made by the stockholders alone – what the users want, the users get. After all, whenever it is that Apple gets OS X 10.5 ready, their users will already be lined up to get it.

After two months of crazy bug-hunting and hundreds of rounds of scenario testing, EasyBCD 1.51 is finally out. If you’re in a really big hurry, go and get it – if not, read on. EasyBCD 1.51 is a very major change from 1.5. As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that it would completely ruin our release schedule, this release would have been dubbed EasyBCD 2.0. It’s that big.

What makes EasyBCD 1.51 so special is the switch in purpose and technique. In the past, EasyBCD was only a bootloader modification tool that let end-users configure the Windows Vista bootloader, and EasyBCD 1.5 added support for “profiles” that could be used to boot into Linux, BSD, & OS X. Not only does EasyBCD 1.51 add support for several other operating systems, but also it goes a step further. A very big step further. Now, if there is anything that Vista’s BCD bootloader can’t boot into, EasyBCD 1.51 comes with its own additional bootloader that can boot into it. It’s called NeoGrub, and you’re going to love it.

Besides the fact that EasyBCD 1.51 is now the most powerful bootloader on earth, ((As a matter of fact, the only bootloader on the planet that can boot straight into Vista, Linux, Mac OS X, SkyOS, BSD, FreeBSD, and every other OS you can imagine!)) it’s still the number 1 most versatile tool for modifying the Vista bootloader, used by everyone and anyone that care to make their lives easier ((Including guys at Google, Microsoft, and more!)) with tens of functions and lots of time-saving features. EasyBCD is now supports booting into Windows Vista/Longhorn Server natively; Legacy versions of Windows via NTLDR; chainloading into GRUB, Darwin, Lilo, FreeBSD Loader; and natively booting into Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, ReactOS, SkyOS, and many more from the all new NeoGrub bootloader!

What is NeoGrub? Good question. It’s an implementation of GRUB built for Windows. EasyBCD installs NeoGrub first, then hooks into it upon request. It’s built upon the excellent work of the GRUB for Windows project, boot it’s now directly integrated into Windows Vista’s BCD bootloader. Basically, it’s a way of booting into almost any operating system with little to no configuration required. The documentation will be up soon is now up, and you can read all about EasyBCD there.

As always, EasyBCD is free. We hope you enjoy it, and our excellent technical support team will be more than happy to help you with any issues you might have with EasyBCD and/or configuring your multi-boot system. (And donations are freely accepted for this non-profit program!!)

Product Link: EasyBCD 1.51 Download Page

Screenshots: EasyBCD 1.5 Screens

Documentation: EasyBCD Documentation Home 

Download: EasyBCD 1.51 Setup

We’ve done it! NeoSmart Technologies has built a better mousetrap, and it’s a beauty. EasyBCD 1.5 is the first and only application to allow users of Microsoft’s new OS complete compatibility with any other OS they might be using! It doesn’t make a difference if it’s Mac OS X or Linux, BSD or Unix; EasyBCD 1.5 means you can boot into it! For too long have Vista’s beta testers been locked-in to Windows simply because nothing else can be easily booted into, but not anymore!

Windows Vista’s new bootmanager is a double-edged sword. It’s one of the most powerful booting scripts in existence, and a far cry from the very limiting boot.ini of legacy Windows operating systems. But at the same time, Microsoft shows its disregard for other simultaneously installed operating systems. It overwrites the MBR without a second thought, and doesn’t provide any means for users of alternate operating systems and boot managers to use their old system. That’s where EasyBCD 1.5 comes in!

You can’t get much simpler than this. With our new release of EasyBCD 1.5, booting into Linux, Mac OS X, or BSD straight from the Vista bootloader without ever having to add a single line of code reconfigure a thing is but a touch away! The new Add/Remove operating system section has been completely redone, making it easier to boot into legacy operating systems and adding the long-awaited support for adding non-Microsoft operating systems:

You don’t have to configure a single thing! Once you specify a name for the entry and choose the platform + booting method (for Linux), you’re all set! If you can boot into Vista, you can boot into Linux or Mac OS X! No more re-configuring GRUB or Lilo, it just works – from the very first time. So long as at some point in time before installing Vista your operating system used to boot OK it will now, nothing to it.

Besides multi-OS support, EasyBCD sports a changelog a mile-and-a-half long. Some of the major changes include fully UAC/UAP compatibility, multi-threaded, longer-timeout update checks, and a very handy “Automated MBR Backup” section (still a work-in-progress). EasyBCD is now capable of backing up the entire MBR – not just the BCD settings; meaning you can preserve whatever working configuration you have now byte-for-byte:

As always, EasyBCD is free. We hope you enjoy it, and our excellent technical support team will be more than happy to help you with any issues you might have with EasyBCD and/or configuring your multi-boot system. (And donations are freely accepted for this non-profit program!!)

Product Link: EasyBCD 1.5 Download Page

Documentation: EasyBCD Documentation

Screenshots: EasyBCD 1.5 Screens

Download: EasyBCD 1.5 Setup