Years active 1994-present | Web alias(es) mholve Name Michael Holve | |
Born November 16, 1967 (age 56) ( 1967-11-16 ) Huntington, New York, U.S.A. Nationality American and German (EU) Occupation Author and photographer, programmer and Internet personality Known for Photography, one of earliest Linux Websites, Lifecasting | ||
Michael Holve (born November 16, 1967 in Huntington, NY) is an American author, photographer, programmer and Linux practitioner.
Contents
- Linux Solaris and Unix Operating Systems
- Linux Advocacy
- Apache Web Server
- Software Contributions to Open Source
- Photography
- OS X Upgrade fiasco
- Suns BigAdmin portal site
- Open Source Advocacy
- Rsync
- Ghostscript
- References
Linux, Solaris and Unix Operating Systems
Holve started one of the earliest Linux websites in 1994 which came to feature one of the first "Quickcam pages" broadcasting a still image every few minutes automatically to a website, it was one of the first instances of what would later be called "lifecasting" - showing the world Holve's daily life. The Connectix Quickcam was new at the time, offering only a low resolution black and white image - and getting it to work with Linux was often a challenge. In an effort to ease adoption of this new technology, Holve wrote a HOW-TO on the subject and distributed shell scripts to handle the task in the public domain. The feature was quite popular, attracting thousands of daily visitors from around the world.
The site went on to become popular, featuring articles in a HOW-TO format. One such article, "A Tutorial on Using Rsync" featured on the Rsync homepage almost since its inception. Another article became the de facto reference on using Epson Stylus printers with Linux. At its peak, "Everything Linux" logged up to 4,685 people and 1,838,184 hits a day.
The site featured a forum, which allowed a community to form.
Early contributions to Linux include several HOW-TOs on subjects ranging from multimedia, printing, window managers and customization of the desktop, scanners and the PalmPilot PDA.
Other notable websites included "Everything Mac" and "Everything Unix" which catered to their specific communities, though neither enjoyed the success of the Linux and Solaris communities.
"Everything Solaris" is one of the only remaining online Solaris community websites after Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems.
Holve is linked to various Open Source projects - including Rsync, ProFTP, Apache, SANE, perltidy and Ghostprint for his work on documenting them.
Linux Advocacy
Holve is a Linux advocate and Solaris insider. He was active during the 1990s and early 2000s and brought adoption of Linux to several companies as well as the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Projects included adoption of Linux as both a server and desktop platform for several companies, an early database cluster for a nascent global search engine and as the backbone of the SUNYSB Department of Family Medicine's Internet presence, including its first website.
Apache Web Server
Author of one of the first GUIs for managing the Apache web server, TkApache v1.0 was released into the public domain and dedicated to the Open Source and Linux communities at ApacheCon on October 15, 1998. The early success of TkApache led to the design of the next generation tool, Mohawk. At the time, many GUI projects were now underway (such as webmin) which expanded to a system-wide configuration interface. It was decided to cancel further development of Mohawk.
Software Contributions to Open Source
Photography
A current project includes the formation of an informational site for users of the Leica "M system", La Vida Leica!. and author of nearly 50 reviews and 30 articles for the site. Several of the articles have been translated into Russian by - and posted on - Leica Camera Russia's blog.
OS X Upgrade fiasco
When Apple introduced the OS X 10.1 update in 2001, there was controversy over modifying the CD to be able to install directly from it, rather than having to install 10.04 first, followed by an upgrade. The hack first appeared on MacFixIt's forum. Holve went on to further document the procedure with a step-by-step HOW-TO, which earned him the ire of the Apple legal team. A lot of press followed, including a cease and desist letter from Apple Inc.