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An anonymous reader writes “The Wikimedia Foundation has released their Puppet configuration in a public git repository. They describe this as the first step in a project called Wikimedia Test/Dev Labs, letting users participate in the operations of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation sites.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot http://slashdot.org/ http://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/09/21/0531246/Wikimedia-Foundation-Releases-Their-Server-Config?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

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Winter turns to spring, night to dawn… and the two 800 lb. gorillas of the Mac virtualization market trade updates once again. A fortnight ago it was Parallels 7 hitting with a new release, and today we note the debut of VMware Fusion 4.

The new version of the virtual PC tool from the enterprise experts in virtualization looks to offer better performance, easier virtual disk resizing, a reboot-free drag and drop install, more graceful migration for PC to Mac switchers, and a no-compromises story on Lion compatibility both for the host and the virtual machine.

Since Apple has changed the licensing rules on virtualizing Mac OS X with Lion, any Mac user is permitted to run up to two virtual Macs on their hardware. For developers and IT folk, the ability to test apps and configurations in a snapshot-enabled, break-it-and-revert-it virtual machine is a genuinely beautiful thing. Fusion 4 makes it terribly easy to create Lion VMs by dragging the “Install OS X Lion” Mac App Store app right into a starter virtual machine; there is no step 3.

Lion’s Mac-side features get a full workout with Fusion 4, as Windows apps can appear in Mission Control just as Mac apps do. You can launch Windows apps from Launchpad, Spotlight or the Applications folder — but only the ones you actually want to see and use on a regular basis, so Notepad and Minesweeper don’t need to show up. (Well, Notepad, anyway.) Keeping the launcher clutter to a minimum will help you keep your sanity. Lion’s full screen app support is respected, too; you can take Windows apps full screen and swipe between individual apps in their own Spaces, just as you do with full screen Mac apps.

The new version includes Virtual Bluetooth technology, allowing your Windows VMs to work with wirelessly tethered mobile phones. A new snapshot manager gives you more control over your virtual machine backups. You can even encrypt your VM storage and require a password to launch a virtual machine.

Fusion works with VMware’s migration technology to allow physical or virtual PCs to be cloned into a VM; that means PC users can have a replica of their old friend sitting just a click away. They won’t be hurting for performance, either, as the new 64-bit Cocoa build of Fusion will offer faster 3D (2.5x) and everyday app performance versus the previous 3.1 version.

New licenses of Fusion 4 are available at a discounted US$49.99 through the end of 2011, with a normal suggested retail price of $79.99. Those who bought Fusion 3 on/after July 20 are due a free upgrade. You won’t need to find a DVD drive to install the app on your MacBook Air, either; it ships on a handy USB drive.

Check out our gallery of virtualization pics, and if you’re looking to give it a try, scoot over to VMware’s site to download a free trial of Fusion 4.

Gallery: VMware Fusion 4

Show full PR text

VMware launches VMware Fusion(R) 4 – The Best Way to Run Windows on a Mac Just Got Better

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 14, 2011 – VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced VMware Fusion(R) 4 – the best way to run Windows on a Mac. Available now at VMware.com for a promotional price of $49.99, VMware Fusion 4 makes it easier than ever for users to run Windows applications with Mac simplicity.

“Enhancements to VMware Fusion(R) 4 make it a breeze to run Windows and Mac Applications side by side on a Mac,” said Pat Lee, director, client product management, VMware. “Offering full integration into Apple OS X Lion, VMware Fusion 4 builds on our proven, award winning platform to provide an easy, fast and reliable way to run Windows applications on a Mac.”

With more than 90 new features and now optimized for today’s multi-core Macs and OS X Lion, key features in VMware Fusion 4 include:

· Built for OS X Lion – VMware Fusion 4 is designed to provide the best Windows experience on OS X Lion. Add Windows programs to Launchpad, experience them in Mission Control, view them in full screen or switch between them using Mac gestures.
· Better Performance and Faster Graphics – VMware Fusion 4 has been engineered to run Windows and Mac applications side-by-side with incredible speed and reliability. As a 64-bit Cocoa application, it is optimized for today’s multi-core Macs and delivers 3D graphics up to 2.5-times faster.
· Even More “Mac-like” Experience – VMware Fusion 4 enhances the way Windows programs run on a Mac. From the brand new settings menu to the redesigned virtual machine library and snapshot menu, users have even more Mac-like experiences when running Windows programs.
· Lion Squared – VMware Fusion 4 now supports OS X Lion in a virtual machine, allowing users to get more from their Mac by running OS X Lion, OS X Lion Server, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server and Mac OS X Leopard Server in virtual machines.

Switching Made Easy
VMware Fusion’s migration assistant for Windows makes it easier than ever for users to transfer their entire PC to a Mac, allowing them to make the most of their existing Windows software investment. With VMware Fusion 4 users can get the best of both worlds and have access to Windows programs and files from their PC directly on their Mac, whenever they need them.

Availability and Pricing
VMware Fusion(R) 4 is available until the end of the year for a promotional price of only $49.99. The suggested retail price for VMware Fusion 4 is $79.99. Customers who have purchased VMware Fusion 3 on or after the July 20, 2011 are eligible for an electronic upgrade to VMware Fusion 4 at no additional cost. Volume pricing for corporate users is available from select resellers and www.vmware.com/fusion.

VMware Fusion 4 is available immediately for download and purchase from vmware.com. VMware Fusion box products will be available at key resellers including Apple, Apple.com, Amazon.com, Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics and many other stores in the coming days. VMware Fusion is available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Japanese.

Additional Resources
Learn more about VMware Fusion on the VMware Fusion Blog

About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) delivers virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes. With the industry leading virtualization platform – VMware vSphere(R) – customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve agility, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2010 revenues of $2.9 billion, more than 250,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization, which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

# # #

VMware Fusion 4 levels up for Lion virtualization originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com http://www.tuaw.com/2011/09/14/vmware-fusion-4-levels-up-for-lion-virtualization/

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Not sure how, but I failed to announce the recent release of JAMF’s newly updated tech paper “Simplifying Adobe CS5 and CS5.5 Administration with the Casper Suite” document. This has been updated for CS 5.5 and AAMEE 2.x.:

http://jamfsoftware.com/solutions/adobe-creative-suite/

Speaking of JAMF, they are holding their National User Conference this November in Minneapolis. Spoiler Alert: I’m totally going to be there. I’ll be the one with the AAMEE shirt on. And if you see me the next day, I’ll be the one with a slightly less clean AAMEE shirt on. (I’m packing light.)

I’ve never been to Minneapolis and I am excited. Home to some cool tech places, like my friends at Code 42 and (of course) JAMF. But also home to some of my all time musical faves: The Replacements, Hüsker Dü and Prince. One of my favorite design shops, Aesthetic Apparatus, is there. Plus Minneapolis has a neighborhood called Dinkytown. How awesome is that? Hope to see some of you there!

http://www.jamfsoftware.com/events/user-conferences/national-user-conference-2011/

Jody Rodgers | Senior Product Manager | Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite | Adobe Systems

from Adobe Installation and Licensing http://blogs.adobe.com/oobe http://blogs.adobe.com/oobe/2011/09/updated-jamf-casper-tech-paper-jamf-conference.html

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Peter Bright wrote a good piece earlier this week at Ars Technica, documenting his attempt to buy a MacBook Air-like Windows laptop (he doesn’t want an Air running Windows using Boot Camp because he doesn’t like Apple’s U.K. keyboard) and finds the experience confusing (too many models to choose from) and expensive (comparatively-spec’d machines from Dell, HP, and Lenovo cost considerably more than an equivalent MacBook Air).

E.g., here’s Bright on shopping from Dell:

It’s even worse if I just browse without searching. The options I
get are just… meaningless. Yes, I want “Everyday Computing,” so
I want an Inspiron. But hang on, I also want “Design &
Performance,” so I want an XPS. Wait a second, I want “Thin &
Powerful,” too. So maybe I want a Z Series? But the only line that
apparently matches my broad search criteria — lightweight,
11-14″ — I wouldn’t even consider because I don’t want a
“gaming” laptop, and so I’m never going to click Alienware!

From HP:

The same odd labels cover everything — I know I don’t want
“Mini/Netbook,” but I want both “Everyday Computing” (that term
again) and “High performance” (because I don’t want it to be slow,
do I?). And who knows what “Envy” means? When I tick my screen
size and weight boxes, I get back a crop of lousy netbooks that
are almost the complete opposite of what I want.

And Lenovo:

It starts off with the same stupid classifications that must make
sense to some guy in marketing — “Powered for productivity” and
“Optimized for entertainment” and “No-nonsense features built for
versatility”.

Here’s what I wrote back in July, linking to Cory Doctorow’s review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab Some-Size-or-Another:

Cory Doctorow calls the new Samsung Galaxy Tab “meh”:

Ever since the iPad shipped, I’ve been waiting impatiently for a
comparable Android device to emerge — something of like shape,
size and capacity, but from a more open ecosystem than the one
Apple offers.

I love these sort of reviews. I want an Apple-quality product
without the Apple, and I’m sure I’ll get one soon.

And don’t forget the Apple-like prices, which is where Bright’s laptop hunt faltered. But so why the dearth of Apple-caliber products from companies other than Apple?

Bright’s analysis regarding why the top PC makers seemingly — if not outright admittedly — can’t compete with the MacBook Air strikes me as pretty good:

The problem is that the PC industry, particularly the large
OEMs, just aren’t set up to produce this kind of machine. The
PC industry is built around an idea of almost infinite
variation: different Wi-Fi adaptors, different Ethernet
chipsets, different GPUs, different USB3 controllers. This
variety is then reflected in the systems available from
manufacturers — and more importantly, it’s reflected in the
way the systems are actually built.

Design is largely about making choices. The PC hardware market has historically focused on three factors: low prices, tech specs, and configurability. Configurability is another way of saying that you, the buyer, get a bigger say in the design of your computer. (Bright points out, for example, that Lenovo gives you the option of choosing which Wi-Fi adaptor goes into your laptop.) Apple offers far fewer configurations. Thus MacBooks are, to most minds, subjectively better-designed — but objectively, they’re more designed. Apple makes more of the choices than do PC makers.

This isn’t new. And traditionally, the benefit from Apple’s lesser degree of configurability has been the “it just works” factor — better integration of software and hardware. That with support for fewer components, like, say video cards, the Mac OS needs fewer drivers, and the drivers it does have are less likely to result in unusual conflicts.

But now that Apple’s products are more popular, we’re beginning to see another benefit to Apple’s lesser degree of configurability: greater scalability. Apple needs larger quantities of fewer different components to manufacture the same number of computers as other companies. It’s not just the economies of scale that all companies get when they sell 3 or 4 million laptops in a quarter — it’s greater, because Apple’s 3 or 4 million laptops sold share a larger number of the exact same components.

This advantage is more pronounced with iOS devices. In four years, Apple has gone from not being in the phone business to reaping a majority of the handset industry’s worldwide profits. Yet they make only two phones — the iPhone 4 and 3GS.

Likewise with the iPad. Your only choices:

• White or black
• GSM, CDMA, Wi-Fi-only
• 16/32/64 GB of storage

The iPad is the best-selling portable computer in the world and those are the only configurable options. One CPU, one display, one amount of RAM.

The new MacBook Airs are iPad-like. I’ve called my 11-inch Air an “iPad Pro”, and the more I use it, the more that feels true.¹ Apple is selling more MacBooks than ever before, but their range of models is shrinking, not expanding. As SSD prices fall, I expect Apple to drop the “Air” and “Pro” distinctions and simply offer four Air-like MacBooks: 11, 13, 15, and 17 inches.

So let’s be lazy for a second here, and attribute all of Apple’s success over the past 15 years to two men: Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. We’ll give Jobs the credit for the adjectives beautiful, elegant, innovative, and fun. We’ll give Cook the credit for the adjectives affordable, reliable, available, and profitable. Jobs designs them, Cook makes them and sells them.

It’s the Jobs side of the equation that Apple’s rivals — phone, tablet, laptop, whatever — are able to copy. Thus the patents and the lawsuits. Design is copyable. But the Cook side of things — Apple’s economy of scale advantage — cannot be copied by any company with a complex product lineup. How could Dell, for example, possibly copy Apple’s operations when they currently classify “Design & Performance” and “Thin & Powerful” as separate laptop categories?

This realization sort of snuck up on me. I’ve always been interested in Apple’s products because of their superior design; the business side of the company was never of as much interest. But at this point, it seems clear to me that however superior Apple’s design is, it’s their business and operations strength — the Cook side of the equation — that is furthest ahead of their competition, and the more sustainable advantage. It cannot be copied without going through the same sort of decade-long process that Apple went through.

---

1. Which is not to say we won’t get a real iPad “pro” next year when the iPad expands into a family of two or even three devices, good/better- or good/better/best-style. ↩

from Daring Fireball http://daringfireball.net/ http://daringfireball.net/2011/09/new_apple_advantage

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Wacom’s Inkling is a pen that draws both on paper and on-screen, tracking the artist’s linework with 1024 levels of sensitivity. At $200, it’s barely even expensive! The Inkling will be in stores by mid-September.

Inkling [Wacom]

from Boing Boing http://boingboing.net http://boingboing.net/2011/08/30/wacom-inkling.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29

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Microsoft has created some customized Windows VHDs with the purpose of allowing web designers to test websites in Internet Explorer 9, 8 and 7, for free. To make it easier to set up, xdissent has created a Mac OSX / Linux script that will download the required files, extract them, install the latest VirtualBox guest additions and so on.

So why use it? Here are a few reasons (besides the obvious reason: testing websites in multiple Internet Explorer versions under Linux / Mac OSX):

• no Windows license required
• it’s legal and free
• you don’t have to install Windows in VirtualBox for yourself
• sometimes a website behaves differently in IE9′s IE7 or IE8 compatibility mode compared to the actual Internet Explorer 7 or 8.
• a snapshot is automatically taken upon install so you can revert to the original machine state at any time

Disadvantages:

• the biggest disadvantage is the disk space required by these VHDs (as well as a large download size: 2,6 GB for IE7 and 4,1 GB for IE8 and IE9). If you want to run all 3 Internet Explorer versions supported (7, 8, 9), you’ll need almost 45 GB of disk space. But you can install just one version: for Internet Explorer 7 you’ll need 13 GB, for IE8: 8,4 GB and for IE9: 13 GB.
• the script cannot resume from failed downloads yet

Note: the machines will prompt you to activate Windows. This is not required and you can cancel this request. You can extend the trial for another 30 days by running the following command at the command prompt: “slmgr –rearm” or you can simply reset the machine to its original state.

Usage

1. Before proceeding, make sure you have the latest VirtualBox installed – you can find Ubuntu installation instructions HERE. You’ll also need “curl” (for both Linux and OSX) and “unrar” (Linux only). In Ubuntu, install them using the command below:

sudo apt-get install curl unrar

2. To download and run the script, use the following command in a terminal:

curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | bash

If you want to check out the script source before running it, you can find it @ GitHub.

The above command will download Windows WHDs for IE7, IE8 and IE9. If you only need one Internet Explorer version, you can run:

curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | IEVMS_VERSIONS="9" bash

Where “9″ is the IE version you want (you can also add two versions here, like “7 9″).

At this point, the download should start and it will take a while so be patient.

After the download finishes and the archives are extracted, a new machine should show up in VirtualBox, called “IE 7″, “IE 8″ and/or “IE 9″, depending on which versions you’ve selected to install. At this point, you can delete the downloaded archives if you want to free up some space – you can find them under ~/.ievms/vhd/ (make sure you only delete the .exe and .rar files and keep the .vhd and .vmc files).

Now you can start testing your website in IE9, IE8 and IE7 under Linux or Mac OSX. Oh, and the password for all the VMs is “Password1″.

via HN

from Web Upd8 – Ubuntu / Linux blog http://www.webupd8.org/ http://www.webupd8.org/2011/09/test-websites-in-internet-explorer-9-8.html