Go green with Linux

Last week in Serbia was marked by the green week initiative (SR), and this one is marked by freedom, it’s Creative Commons’ 6th birthday. This gave me an idea for this post. Use Linux to go green.

And how will Linux help you? By cutting your energy bills and lowering your e-waste production.

Few tests concluded that both Linux desktops and servers consume less power than Windows-powered machines.

Desktops: “When the Lenovo ThinkPad T60 was idling with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS “Hardy Heron” it had quite an advantage over Windows Vista Ultimate. Ubuntu was consuming five less Watts, which equates to more than 10% less power, over Microsoft Windows Vista. In our first server power consumption test, Vista Ultimate had consumed less power but it was just two Watts and both of these systems were consuming in excess of 170 Watts.”

Servers: “In most cases when sitting idle, Windows Server 2008 drew slightly more power than either Linux did on the same server. The exception was when Windows Server 2008 was running in power savings mode on the Dell server, where it drew on average 3% less power.”

Although, these results may be dependant on the actual test hardware, still it’s a good indication. Check out Intel’s LessWatts initiative, which aims to help you to lower your computer’s energy consumption if you use Linux. Also, there are tools that will help you make your Linux-powered computer consume less energy.

Another way it can help is by reducing your e-waste production. UK government conducted a study which showed that the typical hardware refresh period for Linux systems was 6-8 years, while Windows systems’ hardware refresh period was 3-4 years. Why is that? Consider that minimum requirements for Ubuntu, which is a fairly modern Linux distribution, are 64 MB of RAM, 4GB of HDD space and 300 MHz x86 processor. That configuration wouldn’t be able to run all the nice graphic effects, but you would have a ready-to-use system. For nice graphic effects, consider installing it on at least 700 MHz CPU with 256 or 384 MB of RAM. And there are also distributions which can work on even older configurations, like DSL or Puppy Linux. If you have an old computer which you don’t use, install one of those on it. It will serve nicely to surf the Internet, or to work on your documents.

So, go ahead and try it, if you’re not using it already. Go green .

Microsoft implements ODF support(?)

The article in IT PRO states that Microsoft will be implementing ODF (OpenDocument format) support in its Office suite:

Microsoft has no date for implementing OOXML on its own platform, but has agreed to implement the rival ODF format on Microsoft Office. Microsoft has given its blessings to ODF by joining the OASIS committees, and to cap it all, a senior Microsoft spokesman has conceded that “ODF has clearly won”.

Microsoft has even volunteered to opt into the ongoing ODF development process which, not without reason, has aroused the suspicions of ODF proponents.

I’m a bit suspicious of Microsoft’s move and if Microsoft has some hidden intentions. But I think it won’t be able to “close” ODF .

Here’s a blog post on MSDN which says ODF will be supported in MS Office 2007 Service Pack 2.

And why is this important to me? Most of my friends and professors still use MS Office. I use OpenOffice.org. If I need to send them a document (which needs to be editable, so PDF is not an option), I could do “Here’s the document in ODT (OpenDocument text), play with it”, but that wouldn’t be very nice. I don’t want to force anybody to use something they don’t wish to. So, I convert it to DOC, and then send it to them. But I don’t want to use DOC. And it seems like I’m not going to as soon as MS implements this ODF support. Let’s hope it will release plug-ins for previous MS Offices, too… or that people will switch to OpenOffice.org .

In the end, I think this is a good thing for ODF. Whether we like it or not, MS Office has the biggest market share, and by this more people will be able to use ODF for their documents.

Misli o RATEL-u, Uputstvu, Zakonu i Ustavu…

Dakle, jutros je okačeno famozno Uputstvo, za koje je čuo ceo domaći Internet. Nakon razgovora sa Danicom o ovoj temi, delova Ustava i Zakona o telekomunikacijama, koje sam pročitao na Svakodnevnici i SSpin-ovog komentara na istom postu, malo sam razmišljao o svemu ovome. Ustav je najviši državni akt, i svi Zakoni, Odredbe i ostale stvari treba da budu u skladu sa njim. Daleko sam od pravnika, ali da pokušam da izlažim meni logično obrazloženje. Član 41. i 42. Ustava kažu:

Tajnost pisama i drugih sredstava opštenja

Član 41.

Tajnost pisama i drugih sredstava komuniciranja je nepovrediva.
Odstupanja su dozvoljena samo na određeno vreme i na osnovu odluke suda, ako su neophodna radi vođenja krivičnog postupka ili zaštite bezbednosti Republike Srbije, na način predviđen zakonom.

Zaštita podataka o ličnosti
Član 42.

Zajemčena je zaštita podataka o ličnosti.
Prikupljanje, držanje, obrada i korišćenje podataka o ličnosti uređuju se zakonom.
Zabranjena je i kažnjiva upotreba podataka o ličnosti izvan svrhe za koju su prikupljeni, u skladu sa zakonom, osim za potrebe vođenja krivičnog postupka ili zaštite bezbednosti Republike Srbije, na način predviđen zakonom.
Svako ima pravo da bude obavešten o prikupljenim podacima o svojoj ličnosti, u skladu sa zakonom, i pravo na sudsku zaštitu zbog njihove zloupotrebe.

Dakle, Ustav definiše kada sme da se odstupi od navedenih članova.

Član 55. Zakona o telekomunikacijama, na koji se poziva Uputstvo, kaže:

Javni telekomunikacioni operator je dužan da kao deo sistema, o sopstvenom trošku, oformi podsisteme, uređaje, opremu i instalacije za zakonom ovlašćeni elektronski nadzor određenih telekomunikacija.

Njime se poručuje da je potrebno da operater omogući nadzor korisnika.

Uputstvo, koje se poziva na član 55. Zakona o telekomunikacijama, a trebalo bi da je u skladu sa Ustavom, samo definiše kako se sprovodi elektronski nadzor. I kaže ovo:

Javni telekomunikacioni operator obavezuje se da na zahtev nadležnog državnog organa dostavi podatke o svim komunikacionim sredstvima koja su se pojavljivala na određenoj geografskoj, fizičkoj ili logičkoj lokaciji u minimalnom periodu od poslednjih 48 časova, nezavisno od postojanja telekomunikacione aktivnosti.

Pružalac Internet usluga je dužan da nadležnim državnim organima omogući pristup ažurnoj bazi podataka o pretplatnicima i periodično na zahtev dostavlja eksportovanu bazu podataka u formatu dogovorenom sa nadležnim državnim organima.

Spominje se da na zahtev mora da se omogući pristup podacima. Ima delova gde to nije eksplicitno navedeno, što je možda loše. Ali, ako se Uputstvo oslanja na Ustav, onda bi trebalo da je zabranjen pristup informacijama bez zahteva suda, ili kad nije ugrožena bezbednost Republike Srbije.

To jest, Uputstvom se dozvoljava neograničen pristup informacijama, ali se taj pristup Ustavom i Zakonom o telekomunikacijama ograničava na specijalne slučajeve. Na primer, ako se počini krivično delo 1. januara, a zahtev suda se izda 1. februara, onda bi provajder dostavio traženu komunikaciju od 1. januara do određenog datuma. Moguće je da zato moraju da prate sve podatke. Tako nešto mi deluje razumno.

Voleo bih ako bi ovo pročitao neki pravnik, koji bi mogao da da svoje tumačenje. Možda je ovo tačno, a možda je i samo moj pokušaj samoubeđivanja da je sve u redu…

U svakom slučaju, zdrava doza paranoje nije na odmet . Enkriptujte vaše poruke, razgovore preko IM-ova, i tako te stvari… Čisto radi vaše sigurnosti.

RATEL’s new law and our privacy

Serbia’s Republic Agency for Telecommunications (RATEL), published the instructions (text in Serbian) on Internet traffic interception and redirection. Basically, it allows Serbian government to read each and every bit of our communication, including HTTP, VoIP, e-mail and IM protocol. It’s not that I have something to hide, it’s just that it’s serious violation of my privacy. And I don’t really like that.

Update: I think I overreacted a bit in my comment. This legal act is not supposed to talk about violation of privacy. Violation of privacy is forbidden by the Serbian Telecommunication law, and Serbian Constitution. The whole purpose of this legal act, as I see it, is to amend element 55. of Telecommunication law.

Another comment can be found here (in Serbian).

Since we can’t change the law immediately, the least we can do is to protect our privacy. We can use encryption methods to encrypt our communication. Here are few advices:

Use HTTPS instead of HTTP

There are web servers that support HTTPS protocol. If you start with HTTP, your browser won’t transfer to HTTPS if it’s possible. So, I advise you to try HTTPS, maybe destination server has support for it. For example, most people will type in facebook.com, which will take them to www.facebook.com, using HTTP. Instead, try typing in https://www.facebook.com. If you’re using Firefox, you’ll notice that the icon next to the address bar is blue. If you click on it, it will inform you that your connection is secured. It should be harder to eavesdrop your connection with www.facebook.com, since it needs to be decrypted first.

Encrypt your e-mails

System of GPG public and secret keys enables to encrypt and decrypt content you need to securely pass to another person. It is possible to use it with e-mails. You need to install GPG software, set it up and generate you public/secret key pair. Then you need to install Enigmail extension if you’re using Thunderbird, or FireGPG if you’re using Gmail’s web interface. For Outlook, GPGol module should work.

Setting up Thunderbird and Enigmail

How to install GPG, and generate public/secret key pair on Linux can be found here. After that is finished, download and install Enigmail. How to install GPG, generate public/secret keypair and install Enigmail on Windows can be found here.

Setting up FireGPG in Gmail.

Just follow the instructions provided on FireGPG download page.

Setting up Outlook

Follow the instructions provided here. It should work with GPGol module, but I can’t test it. I don’t have Windows, nor Outlook.

Encrypt your IM conversations

Update: A list of IM clients that support OTR messaging can be found in Wikipedia’s article about OTR. If you don’t have or don’t like pidgin, you’re free to use something else.

Pidgin, a cross-platform, multi-protocol instant messenger client, has the capability of encryption of instant messages, using Off-the-Record plugin. If you still don’t use Pidgin, I would advise you to install it.

If you’re using Linux, I’m sure you can install it through your package manager. For Debian-based systems, search for pidgin package. Also, OTR plugin is available in pidgin-otr package in Ubuntu gutsy and later, and in Debian testing and unstable.

If you’re using Windows, download the installer from here. It’s easy to setup OTR after, and the instructions can be found here.

After you installed Pidgin, start it and go to Tools -> Extensions. Locate Off-the-Record plugin and enable it. Click on configure button. For each account in the list click Generate, and select Enable private messaging and Automatically initiate private messaging.

Note to some of my friends that use MSN: What do you care more about: your privacy, or animated smilies ?

At the end…

This short tutorial doesn’t cover all protocols… If you know something more, please post a comment and I’ll put it in this post. Thanks.

If you have any questions, post them in the comments, and I (or someone else) will try to answer them.

A bit on proprieatary and open IM services

I have been thinking what would the world be like if things were closed like proprietary instant messaging protocols (for example, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, AIM and similar). Here we go…

• If borders were like closed IMs, you wouldn’t be able to cross them.
• If e-mail was like closed IMs, you wouldn’t be able to send it outside your network.
• If roads were like closed IMs, you wouldn’t be able to drive your car on every road.

On the other side, Jabber is open and extensible. That means that you don’t need to be on the same network as your friends in order to IM with them. So, why aren’t people using it? I believe most of them haven’t heard of it at all. And some of them have, but not all of their friends are willing to switch. Wouldn’t it be great if you had to manage only one IM account, instead of 3 or 4? Especially if you’re not using an IM program which supports multiple accounts – in that case you have to run as much programs as you have accounts, just to be able to communicate with all of your friends. What a waste of CPU power and memory.

Have something to add? Feel free to…

Firefox 3 download pledge

Firefox is on its way for setting a Guinness world record in the most software downloaded in 24 hours. It’s gonna happen on FF3 release day. If you want to pledge that you will download it on its release day, you can do so on their Spread Firefox page. Also, check out the cool affiliate buttons and place one on your site.

Spread the word, spread Firefox!

Are we a bit hypocritical?

I’m a regular on Serbian’s Ubuntu LoCo forum. Today I stumbled upon one post that got me into thinking “Are we a bit hypocritical?”. Here’s what happened…

There is one guy who messed up his system a bit with Windows and Linux installations and removals. He wanted to have both operating systems on his computer and he asked for a solution. Another guy tried to help him. The problematic part of his message was the comment “If you need help with removing Linux because you want to stay on that other OS, you’re not gonna find it here.” But why?

We, the FOSS community (or Ubuntu community in this particular case), are supposed to fight for freedom. In my opinion, that includes the freedom of choice, to let the user use whatever he or she wants. Including that other OS, which may have a lot of restrictions.

Sure, it wouldn’t be wise to just say “Remove Linux”. I’m not for that in the first place. But if there was no fix, why wouldn’t we help someone to switch back? That is what freedom of choice is all about, right? Someone might say that by not helping others to switch back to that other OS, we will make them adapt to Linux. Someone might say that it’s against its principles to help someone switch back to that other OS. But, if the only fix is the switch back, wouldn’t it be helpful to explain how to switch back.

What is my way of fight for freedom? Education. I think that is the best way to do that. Show people what freedom gives. The rest will follow.