Linux Community Magazine

Tablets are certainly selling like hot potatoes today. The huge success of these devices is attributed to their one of a kind feature. With the Apple iPad on the forefront runner to be the best selling brand the emergence of the series of Androids in the tech world are zooming in on the race. Whats best with some of these androids is that they are a Linux tablet pc.

There is no doubt tablets are not created equal, and one of their main difference is the operating system software. Everyone knows iPad with its own Apple software will not run at any rate on Windows, Mac or Linux. Reason enough for the alternative Androids to come up with a tablet pc Linux based OS.

The Linux for tablet pc turned out to be popular among the tech-buffs based on its performance ability, usability, compatibility with all file formats including the Unix, and ease of installation. But the biggest advantage of the Linux OS according to Wikipedia is that - it is a free and open source software. It also added that, Linux is an outstanding OS with a strong security and networking features.

Because of its stability features, network friendliness and customization features, the Android Linux tablet pc has got hold of a big chunk of the market share in the tablet competition. With various Androids out in the market, all using a Linux variant, let us narrow the choices with some of the performance quotient of the tablet pc Linux based operating system.

Here are the three most outstanding Android in the market:

Motorola Xoom Android Tablet

The Motorola Xoom is worth every cent you pay. It has a big 10-inch screen, Android 3.0 OS, and equipped with high-definition cameras. With 1 GB RAM, and expandable memory of up to 32 GB, an HDMI output, with microSD expansion, the twin cameras (5 MP back, and 2 MP front) - Xoom is anything but a second-rate tablet. With 10 hours of battery life of video playback and Wi-FI web browsing, a size dimension of 9.8 x 6.6 x .05 inches (h x w x d) and a weight of 1.6 lbs (25.6 oz). Best of all it is powered by NVIDIA Tegra 2 with a dual-core mobile processor; has support for Adobe Flash for viewing web sites, movies, games, and more.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Samsung Galaxy Tab perfectly fits on the pocket or backpack. This Linux for pc tablet sports a 7- inch display screen. With Android 2.2 OS, has a 32 GB internal storage, 512 MB RAM, and a 3 MP camera (1.3 MP front-facing camera); the Samsung Galaxy Tab has been the perfect tablet pc Linux based OS that is in neck-to-neck competition with the iPad. It is light-weight hence, a very portable gadget to users.

Asus pc tablet

This alternative android pc tablet has set forth Eee tablets in three forms with its Window 7 based OS, however, last October 2010 Asus launched their tablet pc Linux based operating system in their Asus Eee NoteEA800. While the first three generation Eee is designed to take on the iPad, the EA800 is created to compete in the ereader tech-genre going up against brands like Kindle and Nook. The EA800 targets the student clientele in the market, designed to be able read eBooks, take notes, surf the net through its Wi-Fi connection, with a 2GB memory capacity, a microSd expansion, an 8-inch interactive display screen and its unique feature of having a grayscale only interface.

In summary, alluring as it may be, whenever you go scaling the market for a tablet pc, do not just compromise with the looks of a device or it being a known brand. The Linux Tablet Pc is a comparable tablet, not a perfect android alternative that gives high performance capabilities.

If you might be seeking to make your internet site stand out but you achieved your limits at HTML coding, then your finest wager is to employ a gifted flash developer.Flash is the platform of alternative for multimedia on the web and it is really uncommon to discover a preferred web page that does not make some use of the software package. It is really behind pretty much each on the internet video services, from YouTube to the BBC's iPlayer and it is what tends to make most of Facebook's fancier functions achievable. Even uncomplicated show ads make use of flash for their animated attributes.Without having a question, Flash is the most well-liked multimedia platform on the net. It has an overpowering sector dominance for website browser plug ins in 2009, net figures from Knowledge Owl approximated that about 95% of desktop personal computers have flash assist installed. If Adobe is to be thought this statistic is even increased - they claim that 98% of US customers and 99. three% of the world-wide total have the flash participant installed. They even go so far as to claim that 92%-95% of these end users have the very most recent model installed, one thing incomparable in plug-in computer software.The key to the accomplishment of Flash has been its universal compatibility - and its no cost availability. Whilst a flash developer will have paid out for a licensed version of the creation equipment and computer software suite, to look at these files all you need to do is download the flash player plug-in. Considering that this is supported by Windows, Mac, Linux and dozens of other operating devices, media created in Flash has a big get to in the marketplace. It is even accessible in 'lite' sort for embedded programs, producing it a common instrument for touch-display gadgets - and in latest years, for the burgeoning smartphone industry.A gifted dveloppeur flex can do a lot of, quite a few items with the software. Far over and above merely animatin g text or streaming audio and video clip, Flash can be applied to make content solely from scratch as effectively as integrating it into HTML website pages. It can dynamically animate images to develop sleek animations without having hogging bandwidth and sources it can be applied to produce interactive consumer interfaces (sorts, message boards, responses sections, and so forth) it can even be employed to create on the net game titles - and end users can even save their online game making use of monitoring cookies smaller sized than a megabyte.Nonetheless, the actual appeal of Flash is really tricky to clarify with out digressing into extremely technical phrases. Generally, its powering some of the most engaging internet sites on the world-wide-web and its the most well-liked multimedia format out there. While a variety of plug-n-play characteristics are available online, these tend to make your site turn up even far more uniform than it did with no it - and they neverthele ss need to have to be carried out carefully or their code can mess up the structure of your website absolutely.Except if you recognize the variation in between vector graphics and raster graphics and you happen to be a dab hand with XML libraries and absolutely fluent in ActionScript 2., the likelihood are that you won't be in a position to craft your very own bespoke flash items.

Flash is the platform of selection for multimedia on the web and it is really uncommon to locate a common site that does not make some use of the computer software. It is really at the rear of almost every on the web video support, from YouTube to the BBC's iPlayer and it really is what can make most of Facebook's fancier characteristics doable. Even basic show ads make use of flash for their animated functions.With no a doubt, Flash is the most well-liked multimedia platform on the net. It has an overwhelming sector dominance for internet browser plug ins in 2009, website stats from Info Owl believed that close to 95% of desktop pcs have flash help installed. If Adobe is to be considered this statistic is even higher - they claim that 98% of US users and 99.3% of the throughout the world whole have the flash player installed. They even go so far as to claim that 92%-95% of these end users have the really most up-to-date version put in, something incomparable in plug-in co mputer software.The top secret to the good results of Flash has been its universal compatibility - and its cost-free availability. While a flash developer will have paid out for a licensed model of the development resources and computer software suite, to look at these files all you require to do is down load the flash player plug-in. Due to the fact this is supported by Windows, Mac, Linux and dozens of other working devices, media designed in Flash has a large accomplish in the marketplace. It's even available in 'lite' sort for embedded systems, doing it a preferred tool for touch-screen products - and in new decades, for the burgeoning smartphone industry.A proficient dveloppeur flash can do a lot of, quite a few points with the application. Far over and above basically animating text or streaming audio and video, Flash can be applied to develop material entirely from scratch as well as integrating it into HTML net pages. It can dynamically animate photographs to generat e clean animations without having hogging bandwidth and assets it can be utilised to create interactive consumer interfaces (kinds, message boards, remarks sections, and many others) it can even be utilised to produce on the web video games - and customers can even help save their online game making use of tracking cookies smaller than a megabyte.Nevertheless, the real value of Flash is particularly tricky to make clear without having digressing into incredibly technical phrases. Basically, its behind some of the most engaging web sites on the internet and its the most well-known multimedia format out there. While a array of plug-n-play features are available on the internet, these tend to make your site seem even far more uniform than it did without it - and they nonetheless need to be carried out cautiously or their code can mess up the framework of your internet site totally.Except you comprehend the big difference between vector graphics and raster graphics and you are a dab hand with XML libraries and fully fluent in ActionScript 2., the chances are that you won't be in a position to craft your private bespoke flash pieces. The issue is can you actually pay for to have practically nothing but plain text and pictures on your internet site?

The computer has become a part and parcel of everyday life. It is extremely difficult to imagine a world without computers. Today, we use it for performing the simplest of tasks. It has become a tool of entertainment as well as development. Therefore, job openings related to computers, hardware or software has increased tremendously. However, compared to hardware, demand in software is much more. As such, the IT industry is one of the fastest growing industries at present. It employs millions of people every year. Software development has become one of the most sought after jobs.

Linux, like Windows is an operating system. However, the advantage of using Linux is that it is user-programmable. Thus, Linux is an open source operating system. This enables developers to customize it to their needs and perform a myriad of tasks with it. Professionals who can work with Linux are in great demand within the industry. Usually preference is given to applicants with some experience under their belt. Therefore, it would be a good option to have the latest knowledge and some previous experience of developing software on Linux. However, there might be companies that might be willing to hire candidates with no experience but a drive to excel.

Now, there are a number of possibilities while looking for a job. It all boils down to whether you want to work on a freelance basis or as a permanent employee. Freelancing gives you the freedom of working from home and completing the tasks at your leisure as long as you meet deadlines. As a permanent employee, you would be required to report to office everyday and also maintain all workplace ethics.

The best and easiest way of going about looking for Linux jobs would be to browse the Internet. Linux jobs can also be found by browsing through Linux specific portals and posting rsums on the jobs boards. One can also look in the classifieds sections of the newspapers. There are plenty of job requirements for people with Linux experience published in newspapers daily. By doing a thorough research it would be easy to get any kind of Linux opening in your area. Once you have narrowed down the options, you can start contacting potential employers. They might organize an interview with you, and once they are satisfied with your qualification and experience they will be more than willing to hire you. You can negotiate your basic salary and other perks at this stage.

Classic Editions

Essential Edition

In addition to the book-like design, the My Book Essential Edition drives have an Intelligent Power Management feature that stops the drive platters after ten minutes of inactivity, rather than the usual expedient of slowing them down. The unit also turns on and off with the computer it is attached to.

Essential Edition My Book drives are almost entirely black, with the exception of a single blue light, used to indicate power and activity, that is located on the front of the drive.

Premium Edition

Premium Edition drives are similar to the Essential Edition model but also include Firewire 400 ports, an integrated visual capacity gauge and Western Digital backup software.

Premium Edition My Book drives have the same black case as Essential Edition drives, however, the light surrounding the power button is blue. Also, inside the standard blue light is another blue ring light that contains 8 individual segments which indicate the remaining space on the drive.

Premium ES Edition

My Book Premium ES Edition drives are nearly identical to their Premium Edition counterparts, the only difference being that the ES line features a single eSATA connection instead of the dual Firewire 400 ports present on the Premium Edition, allowing computers with available eSATA ports to transfer data at speeds of up to 3 Gbit/s.

Pro Edition

The Pro Edition My Books contain all of the features of the Premium Edition ones, but with added Firewire 800 connectivity for fast data transfer. In addition, the Pro Edition My Books replace the Western Digital backup software found on the Premium Editions with EMC Retrospect Express backup and recovery software.

Pro Edition My Book drives have the same basic case design as Premium Edition drives; however, the case is silver rather than black. In addition, it includes a circular blue capacity gauge LED divided into six segments (representing 17% of usage per segment) and an outer ring that represents drive activity.

The "Pro Edition MyBook" is marketed as a RAID solution that can be used a backup device.

Studio Edition

The 'MyBook Studio Edition' comes with quad interface: USB 2.0 / Firewire 400 / Firewire 800 and eSATA. It is marketed for use with Macintosh.

The 'MyBook Studio Edition II' contains two drives and is designed to be used as a RAID system for increased performance.

The two drives can be replaced by the user, but the documentation states that "Only WD Caviar GP hard drive assemblies can be inserted into the My Book Studio Edition II or Mirror Edition enclosure."

The LED gauge has a design issue on these disks. Several[weaselwords] users reported that some of the LEDs were burning out after 3 to 4 months of normal usage.

World Edition

The World Edition My Books function as Network-attached storage (NAS), by way of an Ethernet interface. They also feature an extra USB host port to allow an additional USB drive to be daisychained. They are accessed as CIFS/SMB shared folders, via NFS or FTP and also feature UPnP, iTunes server functionality and a Twonky media server.

In addition, the World Edition uses WD Anywhere Access to gain remote access to the drive via the internet - although this limits the file types that can be accessed.

It has the same basic case design as the Premium Edition drives, including the capacity gauge, except the color of the World Edition is white. It also has the same Morse code ventilation as the other editions.

Network speed

Although MyBook Ethernet-capable disks come with a Gigabit Ethernet interface, the network speed is significantly slower, especially in older models, where it varies between 36MByte/s, with an average of 4.5MByte/s because of the limited 200MHz clock frequency speed of the ARM processor within. The CPU capacity to handle data is low, as WD Support seems to have answered a customer.. Newer Models compare to USB drive speed at between 10 and 25 MByte/s.

Internals

Controller board for My Book World Edition

This drive runs BusyBox on Linux on an Oxford Semiconductor 0XE800 ARM chip which has the ARM926EJ-S core. In addition it uses a VIA Cicada Simpliphy vt6122 Gigabit Ethernet chipset, and a Hynix 32 Mbit DDR Synchronous DRAM chip. The webserver is the mini_httpd server, although thought to be Lighttpd. The drives of the World Edition are xfs formatted, which means that the drive can be mounted as a standard drive from within Linux if removed from the casing and installed in a normal PC.

The disk filesystems are also known to exist in a format created by linux multiple devices driver (Mdadm) which ultimately wraps an ext3 partition with some metadata that allows the inquiry of the position of the drive in a RAID set. Unfortunately, this makes mounting the drives outside of the enclosure a bit more complicated, it also requires a machine with a flavor of the Linux operating system. For example, the best way to mount the drives on a Linux flavored operating system after they have been removed from the enclosure is to use the following set of commands for mirrored RAID 1 disks.

$ sudo modprobe md

$ sudo mknod /dev/md4 b 9 4

$ sudo apt-get install mdadm

$ sudo mdadm --assemble /dev/md4 /dev/sdb4

$ sudo mkdir /media/xyz

$ sudo mount /dev/md4 /media/xyz

$ sudo chmod -R 777 /media/xyz

Note that the above set of commands assume that your drives appear as /dev/sdb to linux. You can use a utility like gparted to determine which paths are relevant for your setup.

And alternately you can use this command set for mounting a multidisk spanning RAID 0 set in linux:

$ sudo modprobe md

$ sudo mknod /dev/md4 b 9 4

$ sudo apt-get install mdadm

$ mdadm -Cv /dev/md4 -l0 -n2 -c64 /dev/sdb4 /dev/sdc4

$ sudo mkdir /media/xyz

$ sudo mount /dev/md4 /media/xyz

$ sudo chmod -R 777 /media/xyz

Note that the above set of commands assume that your drives appear as /dev/sda and /dev/sdb to linux. Again, you can use a utility like gparted to determine which paths are relevant for your setup.

Further details and support are available at the following My Worldbook wiki.

Extending capabilities

The device can be 'unlocked' and accessed via SSH terminal (newer versions of WDH1NC10000 do not need to be "unlocked": MBWE SSH Access), meaning that the WD MioNet java-based software can be disabled so the device can be run with an unrestricted Linux OS, at the cost of voiding the warranty. The unlocking makes it possible to install other software on MyBook (i.e. run a different webserver or an ftp server (such as vsftpd) on it, use NFS for mounting shared directories natively from Unix, or even install a bitTorrent client such as rTorrent, etc.) Further information on unlocking the device and downloads you are going to need can be found here.

Edition II My Books

In addition to the regular My Book drives, Western Digital has also released special high-capacity "Edition II" versions of the Premium, Pro, and World Edition My Books. In addition to the features present in the respective My Book edition, these drives feature two 500 GB RAID configured hard disks which can be selected by the end user as RAID 0 (Data striping), or RAID 1 (Data mirroring), depending on personal preference. If selected as RAID 0, the end user has 1Tb of available storage. Either way, if one of the internal drives of the Edition II My Books fails, it can be easily removed and replaced by the user without voiding the warranty. Western Digital uses this feature to their advantage, claiming that their drives needn't be returned for costly service in the case of a drive failure.

New Editions

In Late 2007, Western Digital introduced a new line of My Book drives. These included the Essential Edition 2.0, Home Edition, Office Edition, and Studio Editions, and ranged in capacity from 320GB to 2TB. As some dealers offer the new edition My Book encased HD for a lower price than that of the plain HD it contains, customers have been known to purchase My Book drives, dismantle them, and use them in an internal bay in a PC or media device. The Home Edition features an Oxford 934 chipset.

WD MyBook World Edition shipping at the beginning of 2010 ("white light", e.g. Model WD10000H1NC with 1TB) come with single 3.5" hard disk from the Western Digital Green Power Series (claiming 30% more energy efficiency for the box), ox810 chipset (ARM926EJ-S cpu) and 128 MBytes of RAM. SSH root access can be enabled through the regular Web configuration UI. The hard disk contains a 2 GB System partition of which only 100 MBytes are used by the OS, and a separate 256MB swap partition. Data transfer speed (WinXP client with CIFS) is roughly 10 MByte/s writing and 16 MByte/s reading on a Gigabit Ethernet link.

Morse code

Morse code on a My Book Pro Edition drive case

The Morse code message written into the drive case is made up of a selection of the words "personal", "reliable", "innovative", "simple", and "design". The first occurrence of "innovative" on the My Book Pro and My Book World Edition features a misspelling and reads "innovateve".

References

^ wdc.com: My Book Studio Edition II 1 TB Hard Drives

^ wdc.custhelp.com: How to dismantle a My Book Studio Edition II or Mirror Edition to replace a hard drive.

^ Anywhere Access FAQ

^ WD Support answer about Network Speed slowness

^

^ MyBook World Edition Community of Wikidot

^ Hacking Western Digital MyBook World Edition

^ How to install rtorrent on a mybookworld

^ My Book Premium Edition II

^ My Book Pro Edition II

^ My Book World Edition II

^ .Western Digital Service and Support - How to dismantle a My Book Pro Edition II, My Book Premium Edition II, or My Book World Edition II to replace a hard drive.

^ How to open the case and remove the hard drive from a Western Digital My Book external enclosure CarltonBale.com

^ Morse Code explanation on official Western Digital My Book Webpage.

^ vnunet.com Review - Western Digital My Book Essential Edition

External links

Western Digital My Book

Western Digital My Book Editions

Community driven wiki on how to hack the My Book World Edition

Website on how to hack the My Book World Edition

Wiki on how to hack the My Book World Edition for Linux newbies, plus automated installations (FTP server, emule client, torrent client)

Guide How to integrate the external USB-Harddrive into Standard Mediaserver on My Book World Edition (German)

v d e

Linux-based devices

Computers

Components

Nettops

Aleutia Eee Box fit-PC Lemote Linutop ThinCan WE Appliance Zonbu

Netbooks

Aspire One Averatec Buddy Classmate PC CloudBook ECS G10IL Eee PC Elonex ONE/ONEt Gigabyte M912 HP Mini 1000/2133 Inspiron Mini MSI Wind Nanobook Noahpad OLPC One A110 OpenBook Skytone Alpha-400 Tianhua GX-1C

Tablet PCs

Adam JooJoo

Networking

Actiontec MI424WR Asus Routers BT Home Hub Buffalo AirStation Junxion Box Linksys WRT54G series Netgear FVS336G Picotux Killer NIC

Storage

Buffalo LinkStation / TeraStation Linksys NSLU2 Synology WD My Book

Other

Chumby Gumstix Palm Foleo Beagle Board Stanley SheevaPlug



Accessories

Multimedia

DBox2 Dreambox Hauppauge MediaMVP Neuros OSD TiVo Wizpy

Handhelds

Amazon Kindle Archos PMA400 ILiad Nokia 770/ N800/ N810 N900 Pepper Pad Zaurus Sony Reader Zipit

Phones

HTC Dream HTC Magic HTC Hero HTC Tattoo Motorola ROKR Z6/ RAZR2 V8 Neo 1973/ FreeRunner Nokia N900 Palm Pre Samsung I7500

Consoles

GP2X (Wiz) mylo Pandora Dingoo

Defunct/Historical

CherryPal

List of Linux-based devices

Categories: Computer storage devices | Linux based devicesHidden categories: Articles lacking reliable references from August 2008 | All articles lacking reliable references | All articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases | Articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases from August 2009



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