Snow Leopard So Far

The last couple of days have been Snow Leopard only. The Windows 7 hard disk is still gathering lots of dust in the corner.
Even though my Snow Leopard version may not be the final version, it feels solid on most fronts. Finder is even more intuitive. It starts to grow on me :).

I ordered my copy today. You can pre-order Snow Leopard in the Apple Online Store (upgrade costs around 29 euro/USD). With the free shipping it's a bargain (normally you need to spend >100 euro/USD for free shipping). This offer (free shipping) expires on August 27th 2009.

Screengrabbing in FireFox

On Windows PC's I use SnagIt from TechSmith for screencaptures etc. On OSX I use the built-in capabilities of OSX for capturing screens, windows, or areas, but there was something missing...

SnagIt can capture large windows within *cough*Internet Explorer*cough* or Firefox as one image. So no need for a capture, scroll down, capture again etc. This feature isn't available in OSX, or any (commercial) capturing software I could get my hands on. Until I ran into Screengrab.

Screengrab is a FireFox extension which allows you to save an entire webpage as an image (jpg or png). Excellent extension if I may say so.

OSX Finder Replacement [Update]

A while back I wrote something about Path Finder as a probable Finder substitute. Well, it's been a couple of months, and I must say that  I'm still using the crappy Apple Finder.

Why? Well, I guess that it kinda grows on you, eventhough Path Finder has 'some' neat features. It just didn't feel like a real substitute. It felt more like an add-on.

So, back to Finder with its little annoyances like;

• Not being able to move or delete files when the OS is busy creating the thumbnails.
• No Cut&Paste (⌘-x, ⌘-v) in the file system.
• ⌘-o to open files instead of hitting the Enter-key.
• Sort folders before files. Not mixing them.
• Clock/Date format (I want the date also to be visible).
• Manual refresh option for (share) folders.
• etc.
  

I have high hopes up for Snow Leopard. Hope that Finder gets a real good overhaul.

SSH Connection to Juniper Devices

While in the mids of my Juniper exam preparation I ran into a problem with my Apple equipment. Managing the Juniper firewall (SSG5 in this case) with SSH was not possible from OSX. The connection itself would work, but after entering the password the connection was closed by the remote host (the firewall).
Trying this from a Windows laptop (with SecureCRT) everything worked as expected.

Some searching revealed that this is an OpenSSH bug. To manage your Juniper with SSH from OSX you need to add a parameter to the ssh command (or edit the SSH config file).

Parameter to add:

-o ControlMaster=auto
e.g. ssh willem@127.0.0.1 -o ControlMaster=auto

Or add the following line to the global SSH config (/etc/ssh_config) or the user config (~/.ssh/config).

ControlMaster auto

Juniper has a knowledgebase article (KB12409) on the issue.

Full Disk Encryption for the Mac

Checkpoint acquired a company called PointSec a while ago. This company made full hard disk encryption software for Windows. Now, Checkpoint has released a hard disk encryption version for the Mac. I guess they are taking OSX seriously.

Disk encryption is available today for the Mac (TrueCrypt, PGP), but these aren't able to encrypt the boot partition. Only partitions are by the use of containers. This type of software was available to Windows only primarily.

Now that the 'trick' has been done, I guess more will follow.

I do wonder if it's still possible to use SuperDuper for cloning a bootdisk....

Ubuntu 'Hardy Heron' Released

As of yesterday, the latest Ubuntu release 'Hardy Heron' is available for download (both client and server). Every time a major Linux distri(bution) hits 'the shelves', the Linux community roars. With each release (Ubuntu or whatever flavor) the Linux community gets closer, and closer to Windows.

Even though the OS itself is getting better and better. It still lacks the support of decent major software like Adobe Creative Suite, etc. It's missing the software people use in every day (business)life.
Sure, there a million different ways of running Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop on a Linux OS, but these require a commercial piece of software (CrossOver) , or in depth knowledge of the OS to make it work (Wine in some cases). Two things that shouldn't be required. Not if you're used to Windows (or Apple's OSX). And even if you find a 'substitute' it's most likely to have an awful user experience.

The average housewife won't use Linux, because her friends all use Windows. All those nice little Windows programs, which makes life easier (or a living hell with all the mal/spyware out there). So if the Linux community wants to make a difference they need to create some sort of critical mass (by their selves, or by Microsoft screwing up) to get the attention of the 'normal' user. But in a community where there's no real (commercial) business model, it's gonna be damn hard.

Microsoft created this critical mass by playing (probably) the best marketing trick in the world; Release Windows 95, and turn a blind eye to those who use a pirated copy at home. The home users create demand on the workfloor, so businesses start to use it on their workstations. Soon everyone was addicted. And now it's damn hard to beat the addiction.

B.t.w., Apple is doing it a lot better. They created a nice and stable OS (just like the average Linux desktop distribution), BUT the OS has ALL the relevant drivers for the hardware used. ALSO they have a complete (and cheap) software suite (iLife and iWork), which is more than enough for the average family. No need to search the caverns of the Internet for software, and they look and feel the same as the OS.

So, I guess that my conclusion is that the OS is nearing perfection, but it (Linux in general) lacks good and decent third party software (and a good marketing machine :) )

In the mean time; I'm gonna upgrade my Linux (mail, web, and ssh) servers at work to 'Hardy Heron'.