As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I'm in the process of consolidating my machines down further into a a number of smaller, but more powerful units.

Obviously I'll be using technology like VMware to add some much needed virtualization, and I'll probably look into Xen as a way of compartmentalizing my machine into a number of servers, probably using Gentoo.

Before I even get this far though, I need to find and choose the machines that will be my new server pair. That's proving more difficult. It's about more than the choices I have to make, like CPU, disk interface or the maximum amount of supported RAM.

It used to be that there some some simply delineations within the computing space.

You bought Sun, you got SPARC computers running Solaris.
You bought Apple, you got PowerPC computers running Mac OS/Mac OS X.
You bought Compaq, you got a Intel-based PC running Windows.

Today the lines are blurring. Sun still sell SPARC kit, but they now also sell x86 kit based on Opteron processors. And these boxes don't just run Solaris, they also run Linux and Windows.

Compaq, now part of HP, still sell PCs, but they too will support Linux and Windows on them if you ask.

Apple, after years of PowerPC, are now moving to Intel-based PCs which will run Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

It used to be that there some some simply delineations within the computing space.

You bought Sun, you got SPARC computers running Solaris.
You bought Apple, you got PowerPC computers running Mac OS/Mac OS X.
You bought Compaq, you got a Intel-based PC running Windows.

Today the lines are blurring. Sun still sell SPARC kit, but they now also sell x86 kit based on Opteron processors. And these boxes don't just run Solaris, they also run Linux and Windows.

Compaq, now part of HP, still sell PCs, but they too will support Linux and Windows on them if you ask.

Apple, after years of PowerPC, are now moving to Intel-based PCs which will run Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

For some reason - I don't know why - many Windows experts think that command lines are old-hat and should be disposed of forthwith.

Rumours have been rife for years that the command line will disappear from Windows - there were even rumours that Windows XP would come without a command line interpreter.

This onslaught against the command line is odd. The command line forms a very useful way of interacting with a computer, without having to develop a complex GUI, and often providing functionality that would be difficult or clumsy within a GUI. For example, finding all of the files in a command line with filenames containing 'start'. It's not impossible to do it within a GUI, but often the GUI designers don't make it easy.

For some reason - I don't know why - many Windows experts think that command lines are old-hat and should be disposed of forthwith.

Rumours have been rife for years that the command line will disappear from Windows - there were even rumours that Windows XP would come without a command line interpreter.

This onslaught against the command line is odd. The command line forms a very useful way of interacting with a computer, without having to develop a complex GUI, and often providing functionality that would be difficult or clumsy within a GUI. For example, finding all of the files in a command line with filenames containing 'start'. It's not impossible to do it within a GUI, but often the GUI designers don't make it easy.

As expected, the news arrived this morning that MySQL 5.0 is now available for Production Use.

MySQL 5.0 is an important milestone, not just for the people at MySQL, but also for the open source community as a whole. It proves that it's possible to produce a professional quality software package with the support and back up of the community.

I'm still testing MySQL 5.0 - not the software, but the applications I run on it - it's going to take a while to be absolutely sure that everything is OK before I start deploying my applications on the new system. I've already started developing new projects and applications using a MySQL 5.0 server - it's only existing ones I'm worried about.

As expected, the news arrived this morning that MySQL 5.0 is now available for Production Use.

MySQL 5.0 is an important milestone, not just for the people at MySQL, but also for the open source community as a whole. It proves that it's possible to produce a professional quality software package with the support and back up of the community.

I'm still testing MySQL 5.0 - not the software, but the applications I run on it - it's going to take a while to be absolutely sure that everything is OK before I start deploying my applications on the new system. I've already started developing new projects and applications using a MySQL 5.0 server - it's only existing ones I'm worried about.

VMware have been making their virtual machine technology for some time, and I've been a long time fan (and beta tester) of the product since the original version.

Now VMware are making their VMware player available for free. Basically a run-only version of the VMware software, it means that you can run a virtual machine, assuming, of course, that a virtual machine already exists for you to use. From the official blurb:

VMware Player is free software that enables PC users to easily run any virtual machine on a Windows or Linux PC. VMware Player runs virtual machines created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server and also supports Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disk formats.

VMware have been making their virtual machine technology for some time, and I've been a long time fan (and beta tester) of the product since the original version.

Now VMware are making their VMware player available for free. Basically a run-only version of the VMware software, it means that you can run a virtual machine, assuming, of course, that a virtual machine already exists for you to use. From the official blurb:

VMware Player is free software that enables PC users to easily run any virtual machine on a Windows or Linux PC. VMware Player runs virtual machines created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server and also supports Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disk formats.

I'm having trouble at the moment getting everything I need to done, and I'm sure part of that is that I keep getting interrupted or distracted by things.

Luckily, I've come across a new distraction which might help, this audio program on interruption science, the study of distractions during our normal work day.

I haven't listened to it yet, because I've just spotted an email I need to respond to.

I'll be right back. Honest....