• linux,  linux mint,  os

    Linux Mint 19.3 Now Available

    Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia Cinnamon desktop in action

    Now that the holidays are over and the family schedule is going back to normal, I discovered this morning that the girls and boys at the Linux Mark Institute have released Linux Mint 19.3 “Tricia”.

    Released with three desktop environments, Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce, “Tricia” is ready for download as an .iso downloadable for new installations or via the software update feature in an existing Linux Mint install. If you have not used Linux before, or need help with the installation process, you can download the install, user, or troubleshooting guides from Linux Mint website.

    If you have an extra PC lying around, or have a virtual machine system, such as VMware Fusion, Parallels, or Virtual Box, you install a Linux distribution like Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia is easy and painless to do.

    A nice feature of booting up the .iso installer as a virtual PC is that you can test drive and play around with Mint before committing to installing it. If you like what you see, double-click the install icon on the desktop to take the plunge!

    Some of the advantages of using Linux as your PC operating system includes getting away from costly Microsoft Windows upgrades and copy protection shenanigans, frequent security updates, and side stepping all of the popular Windows-based malware. (No OS is 100% secure, so you should always use a malware protection product).

  • apple,  fusion,  mac os x,  next,  openstep,  os,  parallels,  steve jobs

    Narrowing In on NeXT OpenStep

    A few days ago I talked about wanting to get NeXT’s OpenStep running on my MacBook Pro in either Parallels or VMware Fusion.

    I’m narrowing in on a vendor that has the software I’m looking for.  Bonus points for the vendor for having the authority to resell the software with Apple’s blessing.  I will post more details about the vendor and purchasing options once the software becomes available for purchase.

    In the mean time, check out the video below for a ‘live’ demo of NeXTStep running on a greyscale NeXT Cube powered by none other than the Motorola 68040 processor.  The same processor that was used in the 1991 Apple Macintosh Quadra 900.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXHFfc3btCI]

  • fusion,  next,  openstep,  os,  parallels,  steve jobs

    OpenStep on my MacBook Pro

    With the one year anniversary of Steve Jobs passing coming up on October 5, I’m once again thinking about getting NeXT’s OpenStep installed on my MacBook Pro.

    NeXT’s operating system software, NextStep 3 and OpenStep 4 wouldn’t be installed directly on my Mac hardware, but rather I’d install it as a guest OS in Parallels or Fusion.  The problem, really, is that legal copies of NeXT’s software is hard to come by and my knowledge of UNIX and Linux is painfully low.

    The Mac On Intel blog looks like a good place to get started.

    If I’m going to get this done by October 5, it’s going to take a lot of long nights and help from the community.  Can I do it?  I don’t know, but I’ll give it a try.

    If you have some NeXT OpenStep experience running inside Parallels or Fusion, hit me up on Twitter with the handle @alanmgrassia.