Graphical User Interface Survey Results

by Dietrich Schmitz

On Sunday, I opened a survey to find out what graphical user interface readers are using.  The survey is now officially closed and below you will find the results.  Talk amongst yourselves.

  -- Dietrich

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Linux Standard Base: Misnomer and Misconception

by Dietrich Schmitz

Introduction

Linux has enjoyed a steady progression of growth from its beginnings in the early nineties and its continued expansion in pure number of Distributions totals in the hundreds today.  It is not an exaggeration to say that, weekly, a new Linux Distribution is born.

With the birth of each new Distribution comes slight deviations in design, coding, filesystem structure, all done in the interest of enhancing some aspect of the Linux experience, be it a set of pre-installed applications, a specific graphical user interface or a specific stack of applications implemented and provisioned for a special business or consumer purpose. (Image Credit: IBM Press Redbooks)

This quilt-work of Distributions reflects a strong willingness to invest development efforts in Linux and is a positive indicator of just how popular it has become.

By the same token, there is a corresponding perceived risk that inconsistencies and incompatibilities may arise born of the need to make changes driven by special interests and the need to make functional improvements.  There is also in addition to natural variation an increased possibility for introduction of unintended errors, the result of neglect of implied standards of one kind or another that should be adhered to, but go unnoticed until after production general release.

A Standards Group is Established

The realization that there ought to be some form of standardization was recognized by the Linux Foundation which on June 29, 2001 established version 1.0 of the Linux Standard Base (LSB).

From the Linux Foundation's LSB website 'Workgroups' page opening paragraph:

"The Linux Standard Base was created to lower the overall costs of supporting the Linux platform. By reducing the differences between individual Linux distributions, the LSB greatly reduces the costs involved with porting applications to different distributions, as well as lowers the cost and effort involved in after-market support of those applications."

That short summary encapsulates the intentions of LSB fairly well.

A list of LSB-certified Linux Distributions is found here.

LSB has gone through revisions reaching version 4.11 on February 16, 2011.

The LSB Misnomer and Misconception

The misnomer:

Is LSB achieving it's goals, or, does fragmentation live on despite the clear need for standardization?  That, in essence, is the misnomer.  A standard misapplied or largely ignored is not a standard at all when other 'de facto' standards eclipse it.

The misconception:

The misconception stems from resistance offered by Developer 'camps' who perceive standardization as a form of unwanted change or a form of unwelcome 'control', when, in fact, standardization would potentially streamline and reduce complexities inherent in the diverse Linux ecosystem, lowering operating costs, simultaneously achieving increased ease of use and conferring an automatic rise in popularity.

Continuing with the argument for the need for standardization, add to the mix variations in upstream development interests and you begin to see a large potential for conflicts of interest:

Some developers simply might not take interest in work or maintenance to an upstream package unless it effects 'their' Distro, for example.  Or, if it is a large body of developers, such as the Debian community, software release management policy may dictate that work move pragmatically and in some cases at an arbitrarily slow pace which may become unacceptable in today's Internet time scale where technology changes almost by the minute.

The perceived risk for lack of standardization is quite real and there are indeed resultant variations, structural and feature-based inconsistencies, along with an array of independently-developed package management systems.  Taking Debian for example:

Depending on which Distro is chosen, dictates which package manager can or cannot be used.  As such, there has been no universal package manager that would allow an application to reliably install on any Distro. 

Diverging methodologies and interests formed naturally through time and the popularity of Debian and it's sibling derivative Ubuntu has resulted in the Apt-get package management ecosystem becoming a virtual 'de facto' standard, for example.  Resistance to using that which appears 'foreign' regardless of its intended benefit becomes human nature.  Thus 'loyalties' and political interests develop centered around use of specific technologies independent of whether a broader standard would accrue a realized benefit.

Uniformity and Ease of Software Development

As an example of the effect of uniformity, it is acknowledged that Microsoft Windows has been a singular success by virtue of being largely 'one set of code' with one API code path for all Developers to follow (arguments for minor variations in 32- vs 64-bit code trees aside).

The result during the nineties up to present starting with Windows 3.1 has been adoption of a singular API.  Every Developer could and still can assume that when they write to Windows, it will run on all Windows PCs, irrespective of the OEM hardware vendor.

Should not this be the case for Linux?  I submit the answer should be yes, but regret that it isn't generally true that writing an App for Linux confers automatic ability for it to run on all Distros and, much less, on all hardware.

Reducing common denominators, unifying file structures, joining up to embrace a standard which employs a 'common' package management system all are standards-based compliance issues for Linux to truly broaden its World user base.  If this isn't done, there will continue to be fractious, limited, smaller communities with orbiting spheres of politically-driven interests, localized to the technical merits of one particular Distro seeking competing market share over others.

Unix has done well largely because of A.T. & T. Unix as a commercial product.  Apple and Windows both surface for developers their own unified APIs which can safely be followed ensuring that side-effect bugs will be minimal.  As popular as Linux is, adoption of standards such as POSIX shows that choosing your path wisely can ensure a truly portable operating system and/or application.

LSB Compliancy Test Kit

The argument for standardization is clear.  As demand for increased Linux commercial and consumer-based production grows, so, too, will demand for increased uniformity, simplification and standardization follow.

If your organization has plans to adopt and scale up use of Linux-based system deployment, it would behoove them to certify and use only those Distros which are fully LSB-compliant.

To determine whether your preferred Distro is Linux Standard Base compliant, you may download a test kit here.

-- Dietrich

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The Fourth Open Source Incline?

By Guest Writer +Dana Blankenhorn

I recently wrote a piece for TheStreet.com which likely drew little notice, because it was really aimed at y'all.

I've covered open source software since 2005, and spent a lot of time tracking how companies manipulate the rules of open source to suit themselves. While I was pushed out of ZDNet at the end of 2010 and now find myself doing financial journalist at TheStreet, SeekingAlpha and MotleyFool (with more offers coming in), I am still at heart a reporter, and still devoted to the technology beat, peering around each corner to see what might happen next. (Credit image right: Wikipedia.org)

Anyway, about the open source inclines.

One of my earliest pieces for ZDNet theorized the existence of such an incline--the idea being that the more even-handed the license, the more likely it was people would contribute code and other help to a project. You might call this the Open Source License Incline.

I wrote it because I was friendly at the time with the folks at  Appcelerator, who started in Atlanta but quickly moved to Silicon Valley. They had decided to license their mobile app code under the General Public License, or GPL, in order to draw contributors, and it seemed to be working, since the GPL is more “even-handed” than more “permissive” licenses like Apache, requiring that all contributors get access to all contributions.

A few years later, I returned to the subject and wrote the Open Source Development Incline, the idea being that a project's development model can impact how code contributors react to it.

This was just at the time when OpenStack, the open source cloud infrastructure, was starting up. Rackspace was then its corporate sponsor, but it was feeling pressure, to which it later succumbed, and placed the code into a separate foundation other companies could join. Off that, I believe, I was asked to keynote an Apache Foundation development conference, one of the great honors of my life. Can't say I did great, but I learned a lot.

In 2010 I completed my ZDNet trilogy with the Open Source Copyright incline--the idea being that where copyright is assigned also matters to contributors.

This was around the time Oracle tried to use copyright to seize control of open source projects it bought with Sun Microsystems. How open is any code, even GPL code, if a company can assert proprietary rights to what others wrote for it through copyright? Fortunately, courts have not seen fit to make open source a dead letter over this claim.

Thus, we come to my fourth revelation about open source inclines, the Open Source Access Incline.  Even if a project is open source, even if it's established, it can collapse if corporate contributors simply decide not to support it, or to restrict support of it by outside developers.

The news peg here is Google's decision to not only close out Google Reader, but, as CNET notes, all support for the Real Simple Syndication or RSS standard it uses. The aim, as Felix Salmon writes at Reuters, seems to be to keep users from regularly accessing data outside the Google walled garden.

I made this into a business story, as is the nature of my current work, but this was really a technical point: 

When a corporate sponsor controls a code base, when they're the ones making a market in it, they may as Google did try to kill the code base by withdrawing their support. Investors may see this as strength, but technical folks like y'all may also see it as weakness.

Which brings me to what Microsoft has done with its Kinect interface--as Fast Company writes, making code supporting the interface open source under the Apache License.

Microsoft's move, in a business sense, is weakness. But is it, in an open source sense, strength?

When I first wrote about the Open Source Incline, you may note that I illustrated the story with a right triangle–the whole thing was very Euclidean. With this latest piece, it seems like it's more like quantum mechanics, that there are at least four dimensions under which the rules of open source can be tweaked by companies hoping to seize its value and get some coder love for themselves.

And now that I've given you some of my time, perhaps you might offer some of yours in return and reflect on what drives open source contributions, what corporations can do to increase or decrease adoption, and where you see the state of play in the game of contributor vs. corporation.

-- Dana Blankenhorn

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Guest Writer Dana Blankenhorn on Deck

by Dietrich Schmitz

As part of a regular weekly series, +Katherine Noyes and I will be having Guest Writer appearances on Linux Advocates.

We are pleased to announce +Dana Blankenhorn (photo inset right) has kindly and graciously accepted an invitation to write and will be making a Guest Writer appearance.

From his G+ biography:

"Dana has been a working journalist for over 30 years and has covered technology since 1982. He was among the first to get a paycheck for online work, starting in 1985, and continues to make his living online. 
In his career he has made a habit of staking out new technology frontiers and leaving when it busts or he finds a new interest. So he started in energy, went to local technology, then on to telecommunications, the Internet industry, e-commerce, the Internet of Things, open source, and now it's back to energy, this time from the consumer side of the renewable space." 

On behalf of Katherine Noyes, myself, and staff, I would like to extend a special thank you to Dana for donating his time to Linux Advocates. 

-- Dietrich

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The Linux Filesystem Need Not Be Mysterious

by Dietrich Schmitz

As intimidating as the Linux filesystem may appear at first, there is some sensibility to all of those folders you see.  Fear not. (Image Credit Right: Codepuppet.com)

What's good is that you need not focus on any area other than your $HOME folder.

Essentially, every user (Linux is a true multi-user operating system) has his/her very own 'Home' directory structure.  Here is a terminal list of mine:

dietrich@AOD260 ~ $ ls
Desktop    Downloads        Music     Public     Videos
Documents  linux-advocates  Pictures  Templates
dietrich@AOD260 ~ $ pwd
/home/dietrich
dietrich@AOD260 ~ $ 

Note, the pink 'ls' is to list and 'pwd' is to print the working directory, in this case "/home/dietrich".

It's all very sensible and as you become more comfortable with Linux, you may get more familiar with how the filesystem works in more detail.  But for now, trust, that Linux inherits most of what you see from the venerable Unix operating system.  Unix was designed to be secure, safe, and reliable and has a proven track record in the computer industry of doing major heavy lifting production work.

So, whether you come from Windows or Apple or are just a computer newbie, welcome, and know that you have made a good choice with Linux.  In fact, most often you will seldom need to go out to a terminal as I just did.  I was just being a 'show-off'.

Every Linux Distro will come with its own Filesystem navigation application, like Explorer is to Windows.  In my case, I am using Fuduntu which comes with Gnome Nautilus Elementary.  Here's what opening the home folder looks like:

Gnome Nautilus Elementary on Fuduntu viewing my home folder

It's pretty easy to find your way around in Linux--contrary to popular belief--today it's easier to use than Windows and more flexible.

I'm not going to go into further detail regarding the Linux filesystem today, but will let you watch the above video from NixieDoesLinux.  It's a great way to get introduced to the subject.  Ease into it.  Find your way around, slowly and don't worry.  With time you will be winging your way around the system without giving it a thought.  

You will be fine.  -- Dietrich

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Linux Systems Administrator Tools to Die For

by Dietrich Schmitz

You are the 'go-to' Linux Systems Administrator for your organization.

The fact is, you have a lot to do and there are only so many hours in a day.  So, you are always looking for new ways to leverage the use of your time.

Here is a list of popular tools which should be in every Admin's toolbox that provide time-saving functions and features that will help in all manner of troubleshooting and problem-solving situations.

Nmap/Zenmap

Nmap is one of those tools that simply cannot be overlooked and will save hours of guess work when troubleshooting a network.  Used to discover hosts and services on a network from the command line an accompanying graphical package can be installed, called ZenMap.

Command Line Utilities

These command line tools are some of the most commonly-used system utility programs for every-day system administration.  To get help, read the respective man page for each.

ssh, screen, vim, awk, sed, Perl, Netcat, Nslookup, ping, whois, traceroute, Netstat, dig, dd, tcpdump, rsync

WireShark

Wireshark is an open source packet analyzer.  It is simply indispensable when it comes to troubleshooting network connections and provides visualization in a Gtk graphical display of every minutiae for the protocol being traced.

BitDefender System Rescue CD

System Rescue CD provides a Live bootable CD for performing Anti-Virus scanning of any volume.  It's advantage comes from being able to bootstrap (pen drive or CD) into Linux on a Windows PC and scan the Windows NTFS drive partition for virus detection off-line.  Doing a full scan off-line ensures the persistent signature of a virus will be detected.  Quite often, Viruses evade detection by on-line Windows AV software, so this is a good security tool to have for a network having both Windows and Linux PCs.

Virtual Network Computing (VNC)

VNC, was released as open source and licensed under GPL.  It has several derivative versions, including RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, all of which allow remote desktop access and control over a network.  This free tool is popular for performing IT support in an organization for obvious reasons.

FreeNX

FreeNX is a subset of the commercial NX thin client protocol for remote desktop computing.  FreeNX is open source and licensed under GPL and offers free NX-based thin client terminal access to a Linux Server.  NX has programming optimizations which reduce the amount of X Windows metadata semantics which must travel across a connection by only sending the 'delta' portion of a screen change.  This effectively results in near-local machine performance over long distances and even on low-bandwith 56K dial-up connections. NX by default is secured and running over a tunnel-encrypted secure shell (ssh) connection.

OpenVPN

OpenVPN is an open source GPL licensed Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution.  Linux NetworkManager plugin architecture provides an OpenVPN module for easily setting up Client PCs with access to a corporate-firewalled VPN private subnet.  VPNs by default expose both TCP and UDP port ranges for all ip-ranges defined in the OpenVPN configuration.  This effectively means a remote PC can see and use all corporate resources while tunneled over a VPN secure encrypted connection the same way as a locally connected PC.

Chrome Remote Desktop

Popular Google Chrome web browser has become an indispensable tool for so many reasons.  One need only visit Google's Chrome Web Store to see the array of applications and plug-in extensions available for download.

Among these extensions is found Chrome Remote Desktop.  Chrome Remote has become a popular easy way to provide remote PC assistance.  It is free and the only requirement is that both end-point PCs be running Chrome with the Chrome Remote extension loaded.  Chrome Remote doesn't require special firewall pass-through rules and uses it's own Google server tunnel encrypted protocol (middle-man) to bridge across any firewall for unimpeded access.

Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)

Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is built into the Linux Kernel and free.  KVM is a type 1 hypervisor providing 'bare metal' performance and is competitive with other Virtual Machine host software vendors such as Citrix ZenHost, VMware, ProxMox, and most recent Linux Containers (LXC).

Virtual Machines offer many benefits not the least of which is quick deployment of servers as resource loads on a VM host without the need to procure additional server hardware.  All hardware is emulated in the virtual machine.  Many IT shops are trending with collapsing down racks upon racks of rack servers into a consolidated high-performance host virtual machine 'farm'.  The multi-core VM host handles the processor overhead of the former bare-metal hardware based processors transparently, reduces power consumption, increases 'high availability' (little or no down-time).  These features increasingly make transitioning to virtual machines a 'hot' technology, and a very competitive one.  Knowing a modicum about KVM will give the Linux System Administrator a sharp technical edge and automatic advantage in today's cost-cutting tight-budget IT environments.

SELinux/AppArmor

SELinux, a Linux Security Module (LSM) is at the very core of Linux's security design, originally developed with assistance from the National Security Agency.  SELinux essentially defines Mandatory Access Control for each application running in its sandbox.  Applications must adhere to a profile of expected or allowed normal behaviors and any deviation from those policies is automatically undefined and will be rejected by the SELinux kernel module.  The Mandatory Access Control is quite effective and you will find SELinux present in Red Hat Linux, Fedora Linux, and an LSM called AppArmor running by default in Ubuntu Linux.  Learning either SELinux or AppArmor is an imperative for today's Linux System Administrator to gain a competitive advantage in the IT job market.

Samba

Samba is an open source free software application which re-implements the  SMB/CIFS networking protocol for sharing files across a network.  SAMBA4, recently released, now includes support for acting as a wholesale replacement for a Windows Active Directory Primary Domain Controller (PDC).

If you watch technology trends as closely as I do, you will realize the implications of Samba4 are quite big.  Already there are Samba PDC stack vendors competing to sell Windows AD PDC implementations replacing Windows Hardware and unencumbering buyers of Windows Licensing restrictions and cost.  Learn as much as you can about Samba.  You'll definitely score high the more you know and IT retention usually takes into consideration those who have the most important skills.  Catch my drift? ;)

Nagios System Monitor

Nagios may not be the newest System Monitor on the block, but, still, its reputation precedes it.  That means its deployment will greatly lower some of the inherent risks that every IT department faces.  Nagios when properly configured will monitor your entire network of services and based on its rule set notify you if/when a service goes down.  That can keep your down-time vulnerability to just minutes when you are sitting at home and get an SMS text message that one of your servers is off-line.  Quickly responding from anywhere with remote corrective action might mean that no one will even know there was an issue or you will have a chance to act before reaching work on a Monday as opposed to having a down system during production hours--an IT manager's worst nightmare.  It's just good business practice in today's world to set up and configure a system monitor for your IT shop.  It will pay over and over for itself.  I promise.

Clonezilla

You know, in the proprietary software world, you can spend a lot of IT dollars without blinking an eye.  Every time you turn around Symantec has another License renewal that must be paid for.

Ghosting machines doesn't have to cost money.  In fact, Clonezilla does everything Symantec Ghost does for free.  So if you pre-image your PCs using Ghost, switch to Clonezilla and get those software license IT dollars back into the budget by doing the job for free.  This is another cutting edge skill you will want to get under your belt.

So, that's it.  I think that covers the range of skills areas over which a Linux System Administrator will want to have maximal efficient control.  Stay smart.  Use the 'best of breed' tools you can find and run a tight IT shop with open source Linux tools 'to die for'.

-- Dietrich

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Chromebooks for EVERYONE

by Dietrich Schmitz

It's happening.  Chromebooks officially go on sale today in several countries which opens the floodgates for sales to those who thus far haven't been able have this popular, easy to use Internet Appliance.

That's right.  Internet Appliance.  Has a nice ring to it, does it not?

Seriously, technophiles may want to do things with Chromebook, as in installing client GUI applications from a Linux repository, but 'the masses' simply want to pick up an economically-priced device,  turn on, use.

That pretty much sums up what makes the Google Chromebook a huge hit.  It's hard to beat when you consider how inexpensive it is, how easy it is to just use with it's built in apps and cloud-integration features.  Google also provides options for when you need off-line access to apps too.

It's got most people's needs covered and that price is right.  From the linked-to Google announcement:

Now you can buy a Chromebook in Australia, Canada, France, Germany,Ireland and the Netherlands.

So, there's no excuse.  Go on-line or to your nearest retail distributor and order your Chromebook today.  Time's a wasting.

The world awaits, brought to EVERYONE by Google.

-- Dietrich

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The Low Point – a View from the Valley

By Guest Writer +Jeremy Allison 

The Low Point – a View from the Valley.

”Crossing the Chasm”

A long time ago in a galaxy far away.. I used to compare the LinuxWorld Conference “Golden Penguin Bowl” geeks vs. nerds quiz show. My greatest coup was arranging a “Microsoft vs. Google” grudge match with a team from each company. (Image - Right Credit: Wikipedia)

All credit to the Microsoft team for getting into the spirit of things. Bill Hilf, at the time their head of Windows Server Marketing, came dressed as Star Wars “Darth Vader” with a couple of white-suited Storm Trooper buddies. I was dressed as the “black and white” Star Trek alien character. The Google guys just came in jeans and T-shirts, and proceeded to wipe the floor with the Microsoft Team. “Never mind,” I told Bill, “the third time you compete you'll probably win”, echoing a popular joke about Microsoft's products at the time. But LinuxWorld as a conference ended before they got the chance.

One of the questions I asked still strikes a chord with me though. It was about the current ranking of the worlds fastest super-computers, and which of them ran which operating system. It was a trick question, as none of them ran Windows of course. Over ninety-nine percent of them ran Linux.

Needled by the question, Bill announced, “I'd rather have ninety-nine percent of the desktop than one-hundred percent of the super-computer market” which got him a lot of laughs. At the time he was right of course. Linux at that time was really a server-only operating system, with a very small desktop presence. Windows owned the desktop completely (and still does for that metter). If you've read the Geoffrey Moore book “Crossing the Chasm” you'll recognize Linux was still in the technology enthusiasts stage, yet to make the leap to mainstream acceptance. It was nowhere on the desktop.

Around that time every year was heralded as “the year of the Linux desktop.” Strangely enough, every year still is. At the time I was completely confident that this would eventually occur. “If you haven't used a Linux desktop yet,” I would say, smiling smugly, “just wait. Give it five years, give it ten, you eventually will.”

I'm now not so sure of that claim. But not because Linux hasn't taken off or gotten mainstream acceptance. Because in five to ten years time there just won't be as many people running conventional desktop PC's. The landscape has completely changed. I first noticed this a few years ago, when flying to a conference and looking around the main cabin (I don't get to fly business). There were only two people using a laptop, and both of us were old. Everyone else was using mobile devices, phones or tablets. I think these days I could safely make the prediction “If you haven't used a Linux device yet, within five to ten years you will.”

Are you winning if you own ninety-nine percent of a moribund market ? I don't think so. Linux and Open Source/Free Software has crossed the chasm now. It has become the mainstream. Every Android tablet or phone out there is a Linux and Open Source/Free Software platform, and in the next few years I fully expect this to become the most common form of computing for most people worldwide (disclaimer, I do work for Google so please take such predictions with the pinch of salt they deserve).

For Free Software advocates like myself this is a tremendously positive change. The dirty secret of Samba, my own Free Software project, is that for a while the developers only ever run Windows ourselves in order to test Samba (which is an interoperability solution). Mostly everyone uses a different variety of Free Software desktops and servers (with the odd Mac or Solaris/Illumos user thrown into the mix). The default at least for us has become Free Software.

So have we won ? Should we just pack up the advocacy tent and go home ? Unfortunately not. Most of the applications running on these devices are still proprietary. Most people using mobile devices, although they might be running a Free Software operating system underneath, still don't realize why Free Software is important.

You could argue that Free Software is an exotic subject, that most people just don't care, but I disagree. Everyone understands why having a wide network of car repair shops where you can take any car is important to keep the economics of car maintenance reasonable. But few seem to understand why having the source code of the programs that you run on your computer is important. Most important of all is the freedom to modify and install changed versions as you wish. Even if you can't or don't want to do it yourself, having the source code enables you to go to the Free Software equivalent of the local car mechanic and get the changes you need made.

My hope is that this is a generation gap that will eventually close. A lot of older people know how to work on cars. When I grew up it was common for many car owners to be able to do simple repairs to their own vehicles. A younger generation raised on computers and the Internet should feel the same way about the mobile computing devices they own.

There are some good signs in this direction. The recent “We the People” petition requesting the US government to allow unlocking of cell phones from carrier network restrictions shows that people do understand the restrictions that can be placed on their freedom to use their devices as they wish, and want them removed.

Another positive sign is the backlash against the hideous Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill that would have added restrictions to the Internet, our primary source of communications freedom. The reaction was so strong that even the US Congress ran screaming from the rage of their own constituents.

What I'd love to see is the Internet generation feeling that same sense of outrage when their computer or mobile device tells them some version of “I'm sorry Dave, but I can't let you do that.” Because it doesn't fit the business model of the vendor, or the restriction will somehow make them more money.

The world doesn't have to be that way. Many of us have moved from a proprietary operating system platform onto a free one, now let's push up the application stack and make all the software we depend on Open Source/Free Software. We've crossed the chasm, now let's climb the mountain of proprietary applications that still lies ahead of us.

Just using the software and reporting bugs is very helpful to the developers. We can all help make Free Software programs better for us to share with our friends and neighbors !

Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.
Cupertino, California.
14th March 2013.

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Graphical User Interface Survey

by Dietrich Schmitz

Alright.  It seems to me that most everyone understands the importance of a good graphical user interface (GUI).

You fall into one of several camps in terms of preference, depending on which operating system you use.  However, what you prefer to use verses what you use most often (i.e., at work) may be two different answers.  So, I am trying to find out what you 'prefer', not necessarily what you use most often.  (Image Credit: Wikipedia)

And, it would be most instructive to see how responses are across all operating systems, Apple OSX, Microsoft Windows, BSD and Linux (edit and Chrome OS)[1].

So with that, please give your feedback in the survey below.

View ongoing results using this link

The survey will close on Friday March 22, at midnight.  I will post the final results during the day Friday.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

-- Dietrich

[1] Edit: I've tacked on one more answer option: Aura Window Manager (Chrome OS)

Survey tools

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