jonathan carter

Linux Popularity Contest: Facebook Has Spoken

// June 30th, 2008 // 13 Comments » // Free Software

Ubuntu has been quite popular on DistroWatch for a long time now. Currently it is at the number 1 position for hits per day on the site over the last six months, 675 higher than it’s closest competition (OpenSUSE), and that doesn’t even count in the 1563 hits from Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Mythbuntu, Fluxbuntu, Ubuntu Studio and Ubuntu CE.

There’s a nice little Facebook app that’s called “Linux” that proudly displays which distribution you use on your profile page:

It also builds stats of which distributions and desktop environments people use, and which podcasts they listen to:

Once again, Ubuntu outranks them all. What’s even nicer is that Debian is second here. makes my theory feel stronger that all RPM based distros will probably become Debian-based within the next 5 years or so (or die out, unless something superior emerges (no pun intended)). I might be completely wrong… who knows, but, when you look at the trends (got this link from Mark Shuttleworth’s website), and if they continue the way they do, then things certainly don’t look good for the future popularity of RPM based systems:

Personal Updates – 2008-06-22

// June 22nd, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Free Software, Jonathan, Project Mayhem

Early last month, I blogged about changes that I’d like to see in my life. I received some questions via email from some people over the last week about them (and I appreciate that a lot), and thought I’d do an update, since it’s just a bit over half-way time-wise.

Current progress:

At work: Stress levels have been greatly reduced, and it is going better. This might be due to an increase in staff, or a new project where things are going quite well. Either way, I’m not as stressed as I was a month and a half a go, and it’s great.

MOTU membership: I’m continuing to learn at a steady but slow pace, not nearly fast enough to become a MOTU over the next 5 weeks though. I think this might be one goal that I’m going to miss, but the MOTU’s are really cool people. Several members have offered me assistance. I owe it to them to step up a bit, and I’ll have to make some further changes in order to do that (more about this a bit later in the post)

Getting in shape: I lost 3KG’s, and gained 2KG’s again when I visited my home town last week! I think I lost most of that again, but in totality, I think I’m pretty much on target, and I’m satisfied with my progress here.

Work through the Simply Guitar handbook/DVD: I’m just about on target here as well. I’ve actually done it, but I need to practise what I’ve learned so far a bit more and revise. I’m planning to go for guitar lessons in August. One of my previous colleges have also offered to give me lessons, I think I will take him up on that.

Be less miserable: Oddly enough, this has been the easiest on the list. I can’t quite explain how, but since last week or so, I’ve just been feeling much better, and this just after I had a terrible flue. I guess I had some time to think a bit and make sense of the universe. I’d even go as far to say that I am happy at this stage.

There’s more…

Change of Northern Base: For the last year or so, I’ve been staying on-and-off at a guest house in Jo’burg. It’s been good, but our offices have moved and driving out so far has become time consuming and a waste of money (considering our ever-rising fuel prices). Today, I moved closer to work, the guest house was about 33km from work, I’m now 7km from work. I’m actually staying on a cottage on a farm that feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere. There are actual sheep, bulls and cows walking around just behind my room here. If you told me a year ago that I would be living on a farm in Gauteng, I would have probably laughed at you :). This still doesn’t mean I’m staying here permanently. Home will always be in Cape Town. I can literally leave here any day. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Going vegeterian: I’ve gone vegeterian a few times in the past, just for short bursts, typically for a few days to a week at a time, can’t really remember why. About two weeks ago I decided to go vegeterian, or at least try, and see how far I can get. So far it’s been quite easy, I’ve eaten fish one evening, and ate some beef on a sandwich that someone made me, but besides that I managed to stay clear (I did say that I will allow fish now and again, especially in the beginning). I’ve been told that most vegetarians are so either because of moral or health reasons. I guess I tend to lean to the moral side, but I really don’t want to make it a moral issue. I suppose that officially, I don’t really have a reason. Hopefully, living amongst all these animals will help me keep on track :)

Thanks for the motivation from everyone who commented on the last post (and who sent emails). I even got a comment from my dad, I didn’t even know that he read my blog! At least it proves that apostrophe abuse is heriditary ;)

Wine Project Hits First Release

// June 17th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Free Software

A few weeks ago I blogged about the first release candidate for Wine that has been released. Today, after 15 years of development, they have finally released Wine 1.0.

Hopefully we don’t have to wait another 15 years for Wine version 2 :)

Facebook Magazine

// June 5th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Project Mayhem

A few weeks ago I was in book store (yes, it happens), and noticed that there is even a Facebook magazine these days. What’s even worse is, there are actually people who are willing to pay R119 (~US$15) to read 148 pages of Facebook stuff!!!