Latest News from Linux

The Web-Based World: In Praise of Google, iPhone, Twitter and Facebook

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:00 EDT

I would not have written this blog in the year 2000 and by now I am highly opinionated towards Google, of course in a good way. During my graduation years (1996-2000), I used Rediff and Yahoo! search for my college projects, and ACM seminars. In the year 1996/1998, Google was known but to very few people. But nowadays Google is not just an Internet search company but a worldwide phenomenon that changed the way everyone thinks.

Sugar on a Stick

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EDT

Sugar, the novel Linux-based interface developed by One Laptop Per Child (OLTP), has been freed from the cute little “$100” green-and-white XO Ur-netbook invented to run it. It can now be downloaded to a $5 1GB USB drive and run on any PC, netbook, or Mac, even some “antiques.” It runs on x86 Macs with a helper CD and in Windows using virtualization.

MokaFive Claims to Crack the Code on Desktop Virtualization

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:30:00 EDT

MokaFive, the four-year-old Stanford University spin-out backed by Khosla Ventures and Highland Capital Partners to wrestle with making the desktop into a service, claims to have reached a turning point and overcome the major barrier to widespread enterprise adoption of virtual desktops.

Consumers Don’t Know a Netbook from a Notebook

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:00:00 EDT

Sixty percent of the people who bought a netbook thought it was just a cute little notebook, which is why 42% of them were disappointed with the widget’s performance according research done by the NPD Group. The researcher found only 58% of the people who bought a netbook instead of a notebook were very satisfied with their purchase, compared to 70% of the folks who planned on buying a netbook from the start.

Cray Adds Additional Storage Options for Cray CX1 Deskside Supercomputer

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:10:00 EDT

Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. has announced that customers who purchase a Cray CX1(TM) deskside supercomputer can now personalize their systems with new storage features. Available immediately, Cray CX1 customers now have two more options in configuring their deskside supercomputers -- solid-state drives (SSDs) and large capacity, fixed-drive storage blades.

Sun Updates Studio 12

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EDT

Sun Tuesday released its Studio 12 Update 1 advanced compilers and tools for Solaris, OpenSolaris and Linux. An optimized environment for the latest multi-core x86 and Sparc-based systems, it’s supposed to simplify parallel development and heighten application performance. Geared to C, C++ and FORTRAN developers, it consists of parallelizing compilers, powerful debuggers, advanced thread and performance analysis tools and highly tuned libraries.

Linux Kernel Image Not Found

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:24:00 EDT

Linux boot process proceeds in steps. At first, BIOS selects the boot device and loads the boot sector. The boot manager then loads the kernel image in RAM to execute and run the setup code.

Free the Data: eGov and Open Standards

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EDT

When President Obama appointed his new federal CIO, Vivek Kundra, last week, Kundra announced ambitious plans to “democratize” federal government data by making it accessible in open formats and in data feeds. His plan calls for the creation of a single point of access to all public federal information. The idea is to enable the data to be accessed by developers whose applications will open up federal data to the sunlight of millions of citizens by encouraging them to scrutinize how the Recovery Act’s dollars will be spent.

From Tehran to You Live on Ulitzer: The Wind of Change is Blowing

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:45:00 EDT

I have been waiting for a worthy topic to make my first Ulitzer post and the events taking place in Iran are sweeping the Internet and world by storm. Below is an email providing a first hand account of the events that took place in Tehran on June 15th, 2009. My sincere hopes and wishes are with the people of Iran in this tumultuous time.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Beta Draws Industry Interest

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:45:00 EDT

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) announced that the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization portfolio of products has transitioned to Beta and is on track for final delivery later this year. These products are part of the company's outlined strategy to offer solutions that expand the scope and market reach of its virtualization and cloud technologies. By sharing Red Hat's broad hardware and ISV ecosystem, the products will offer customers flexibility, operational choice and efficiency, while expanding the market adoption of virtualization.

Excuse Me, Did Microsoft Just Give the EC the Finger?

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:15:00 EDT

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on our part, but it sounds like Microsoft – in the very nicest way, of course, to avoid any further fines – just told the European Commission to go f**k itself.

Yahoo! Distribution of Hadoop Released on GitHub

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EDT

The Yahoo! Distribution of Hadoop is tested and deployed on Yahoo!’s clusters, which are the largest Hadoop clusters in the world. The Yahoo! Distribution of Hadoop is a source distribution that is based entirely on code found in the Apache Hadoop project. Hadoop is a free Java software framework that supports data intensive distributed applications.

Setting up Hyper-V Linux Integration Components on SLES 10

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:15:00 EDT

After finally setting up a SLES 10 server on Hyper-V I thought I write a little how to on getting the Linux Integration components working. Microsoft includes an install doc that doesn’t really tell the whole story.

Penguin Builds Scyld Management Framework

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:45:00 EDT

Penguin Computing has built a Scyld Integrated Management Framework (IMF) that’s supposed to make it easier to monitor and manage what are usually quite elaborate HPC Beowolf clusters. It aggregates functionality in a single web interface and is extensible so users can add custom functionality whenever they like. Penguin thinks it’s the first to provide this kind of management extensibility to an HPC cluster.

Outsourcing Confidence Index Climbs to Reignite Industry

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:00:00 EDT

The 2009 Black Book "State of the Outsourcing Industry" Report released today announces the trends, buying outlook and insights of over 24,000 users globally for the coming four quarters. Black Book also announces the Top Fifty Best Managed Global Outsourcers in this closely-watched annual client experience survey, the largest of its kind in the technology and services sectors. Results point to restoring budgets, strategic outsourcing spending and a 2010 recovery for suppliers that stayed customer-centric through the recession.

Learn SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

Sun, 31 May 2009 14:56:00 EDT

Report Builder 2.0 provides an extremely flexible GUI with user friendly wizards for creating the Tablix data regions, a versatile construct that includes tables, matrix, and charts and gauges. In this excerpt from my book, the User Interface of Report Builder 2.0 is described in detail. Feature rich reports can be created or modified using this GUI which can later be managed by the Report Manager front end.

Novell Profits Up & It’s Got a New Friend

Fri, 29 May 2009 15:30:00 EDT

By dint of 12% lower operating expenses, Novell managed to more than double its fiscal second-quarter earnings from $5.9 million or two cents a share this time last year to $15.6 million or five cents a share. Revenues however dropped 9% to $215.6 million. Revenue from its Linux Platform Products, however, increased 25% year-over-year to $37 million.

SOI-Compliant Portal for HPC Job Submission, Monitoring and Control

Wed, 27 May 2009 18:15:00 EDT

This white paper sheds light on the various architectural components of UniPortal. It is an application portal that provides an SOI-compliant command-line interface (CLI) or web services interface (WS-I), facilitating application-oriented job submission, monitoring and control to multiple clusters as well as multiple schedulers.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono Extension Demo

Tue, 26 May 2009 18:30:00 EDT

Nearly half of all IT decision makers, developers, and architects report that they use Microsoft .NET as their application technology platform on which to run their applications. Until now the .NET Framework has only been available on Windows. The ability to run ASP.NET and other .NET applications on Linux is now possible with SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono Extension – a .NET application framework based on the open source Mono technology and powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Top Challenges for Application Performance Management

Tue, 26 May 2009 12:15:00 EDT

The 2008 Aberdeen Report on Application Performance Management listed the top challenges for Application Performance Management. The Inability to measure SLAs around application performance is in the top 5 list. Related posts:

User based service level enforcement for Web Applications Monitoring response times for web applications is one way to...
Challenges of Monitoring, Tracing and Profiling your Applications running in “The Cloud” Cloud Computing presents unique opportunities to companies to reduce costs,...
Automated Performance Analysis: What’s going on in my ASP.NET or ASP.NET MVC Application? I’ve spent some time in the last weeks playing with different...

IBM Survey Claims Linux Desktops Easier to Deploy Than Expected

Fri, 22 May 2009 16:30:00 EDT

IBM is waving around a study that it commissioned from Freeform Dynamics showing that Linux desktops go down better if the right group of users is targeted for deployment such as those who have moderate and predictable use of e-mail and office tools like transaction workers and general professional workers, folks who “aren’t emotional” about their desktop.

Canonical Manages Ubuntu on EC2

Fri, 22 May 2009 15:00:00 EDT

Landscape 1.3, the upgraded semi-proprietary Ubuntu systems management and monitoring service just released by Canonical, Ubuntu’s commercializer, lets users start, stop and manage Ubuntu Server instances on Amazon EC2. The widgetry, previously reserved for managing multiple physical PCs or servers running Ubuntu, can now be used to choose Ubuntu images pre-configured by Canonical with a Landscape client on EC2.

Netbooks: Take Two

Fri, 22 May 2009 12:45:00 EDT

Intel has been talking up its next Atom processor, code named Pineview, and due out in Q4. Intel says it’s shrunk the number of chips it takes to make an Atom netbook or nettop from three to two. Throw in the Tiger Point I/O hub and – poof! – the Pine Trail platform. By putting the memory controller and graphics on the same piece of silicon it should produce smaller, cheaper, faster devices with better battery life.

FSF Finally Wrestles Cisco into Compliance

Fri, 22 May 2009 12:15:00 EDT

Cisco has finally bowed to the demands of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and resolved that suit for copyright infringement that FSF filed in December over Cisco playing fast and loose with its GPL- and LGPL-protected code. Cisco will pay FSF an unspecified amount for its sins and FSF will drop its suit, the first one it ever filed. For the last 15 years its enforcers have been able to persuade erring companies to come into line without going to court.

IBM: Linux Desktops Bucking the Recession

Thu, 21 May 2009 04:19:00 EDT

IBM put out a study datelined one minute past midnight this Thursday morning commenting on the fact that outside of netbooks, the recession has largely put the kibosh on PC growth...

Gruppo Amadori to Roll out Linux-based Desktops with IBM Software to Cut Costs

Thu, 21 May 2009 03:00:00 EDT

IBM has announced Gruppo Amadori, a wholesale distributor of quality food products in Italy, is rolling out Linux-based desktops running IBM email, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software to select employees.

Canonical Lassos S3 for Live Mesh Knock-Off

Wed, 20 May 2009 11:15:00 EDT

Canonical, the Ubuntu creator looking to make a deflationary buck and apparently thinking of Microsoft’s Live Mesh, is going into the cloud storage business using Amazon’s S3. It’s got some internally developed, Dropbox-reminiscent proprietary code called Ubuntu One that it just released to its community as an invitation-only beta.

Mount Sinai Selects WinMagic’s SecureDoc Full-Disk Encryption to Protect Hospital Data

Wed, 20 May 2009 06:15:00 EDT

WinMagic has announced that Mount Sinai Hospital, an internationally recognized health care centre affiliated with the University of Toronto, has selected WinMagic’s SecureDoc full-disk encryption software to protect hospital data. SecureDoc is being installed on more than 200 laptops being utilized by physicians, administrative staff, support staff, clinical staff, IT support staff and researchers.

Likewise Software Ships with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 from Novell

Tue, 19 May 2009 12:16:00 EDT

Now, it will be easier than ever to integrate SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 from Novell into Microsoft networks using Active Directory. Under the terms of an agreement between Likewise Software and Novell, all Novell customers who buy SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 will get Likewise Enterprise software, and it will be part of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop software repositories.

TeamDrive Collaboration Solution Expanded to Linux Desktops

Tue, 19 May 2009 08:45:00 EDT

TeamDrive enables users to work across the Internet, securely and easily. Whether you’re working as a team, mobile or between your home work station and your company: while guaranteeing your privacy, every single file and document, always up-to-date and even offline, is readily available to users by dint of TeamDrive. And on top of that, you can use any WebDAV server or pre-configured cloud hosting services of your choice. Both hosting solutions – the user’s own WebDAV server or the Amazon cloud services – provide a comparable unparalleled level of privacy and security through TeamDrive’s built-in encryption technology. The new TeamDrive clients support KDE and Gnome desktops on the latest distributions of Feodora, Ubuntu and Suse Linux.

Microsoft & Linux Foundation Send Joint Letter of Protest

Tue, 19 May 2009 04:00:00 EDT

Microsoft and the Linux Foundation, the epicenter of the movement that wants to destroy Microsoft, have sent a joint letter to the American Law Institute (ALI) protesting its draft Principles of the Law of Software Contracts meant to guide judges in interpreting licensing agreements.

AT&T & EMC Pair on Cloud Storage

Mon, 18 May 2009 20:45:00 EDT

AT&T has gone into the cloud storage business in competition with services such as Amazon's S3. It said Monday that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with EMC to jointly develop and market an EMC-based enterprise-grade AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service that's supposed to give users control over the storage, distribution and retrieval of their data from any location, anytime, using any web-enabled device.

Are Admins Developers Too?

Thu, 14 May 2009 09:00:00 EDT

My brother (yes, it does run in the family) has a degree in computer science which, by most definitions, makes him a developer. That’s the focus of most computer science focused degree programs, much to the chagrin of the myriad other IT-focused specialties like networking, security, and operations. Interestingly enough, he worked his way through college as a sysadmin and his first job out of college was as a sysadmin. And now he’s doing a little of both. That’s not unlike my own experience in which I often did “dual duty” as both sysadmin and developer, depending on where I was and what the organization needed.

Linux Foundation Unveils New Linux.com

Wed, 13 May 2009 07:01:00 EDT

The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced the formal launch of Linux.com. The Foundation took over stewardship of the site in March, at which time it began soliciting input from the community to help define the new Linux.com via its Ideaforge web tool. Today, it unveils the results of that input and a new online home for all things Linux.

MontaVista Supports Texas Instruments OMAP35x Processors

Tue, 12 May 2009 08:34:00 EDT

MontaVista Software has announced that its new MontaVista Linux 6 is optimized for OMAP35x processors from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI). MontaVista Linux 6 is a revolutionary new approach to embedded Linux development that is comprised of Market Specific Distributions (MSD), the MontaVista Integration Platform and MontaVista Zone Content Server. With the MSD, MontaVista eases software development for commercial device designers using OMAP35x processors by giving them the flexibility to tap into a development environment that addresses the specific hardware and end application requirements.

Novell To Build Product for Moblin Netbooks

Thu, 07 May 2009 14:45:00 EDT

Intel and Novell said Thursday that they're going to work together on getting OEMs and ODMs to adopt Moblin, the Intel-created open source Linux operating system built specifically for Atom-based netbooks and MIDs.

Enea Launches Innovative Solution to Jump Start Embedded Linux Projects

Thu, 07 May 2009 04:36:00 EDT

Enea has announced an innovative offering to jump start development of embedded Linux projects where performance and unique requirements are of central importance. The Enea Embedded Linux Project Framework (ELPF) is an entirely new approach that offers the core components, tools and services that are common to virtually all Embedded Linux projects in a single, one-stop package. Additional packages and components that are not widely used are available as required.

Skytap Introduces Budgetary Disciplines

Tue, 05 May 2009 06:00:00 EDT

Skytap Monday put a drag on runaway cloud spending when it initiated cost controls and policy enforcement. Users of its hybrid cloud-based virtual lab platform - or rather the guys who pay for all those resources that developers are notorious for using if they're in easy reach - will be able to temper profligate use - like going on vacation without turning an image off - and have charge-back powers.

Likewise Closes $10 Million Funding Round

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:45:00 EDT

Coming off its record year, Likewise Software is announcing a $10 million funding round. Earlier this year, the company reported 20,000 organizations using its open source software and revenues increasing by 500 percent year-over-year. As corporate networks became more diverse with increasing numbers of Mac and Linux users, Likewise Software ensures that Windows, Unix, Linux, and Mac computers can be integrated securely into a company’s IT infrastructure.

SYS-CON White Paper: The Starter PKI Program

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:00:00 EDT

This guide from thawte will introduce you to our Starter PKI Program – it explains how it works as well as the benefits it offers. This guide will also point you to a dummy company on our website where you can “test drive” the Program.

LynuxWorks Virtualization For Medical Devices

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:15:00 EDT

LynuxWorks announced that the company will present an educational workshop on both software and hardware virtualization techniques at the 12th Software Design for Medical Devices conference on April 27 at the Hub Cira Center Diesel room in Philadelphia.

SYS-CON Webcast: Porting UNIX Applications to SUSE Linux Enterprise 11

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:30:00 EDT

This educational webinar from Novell will provide ISVs with an overview of the UNIX application porting process to SUSE Linux Enterprise 11. This tutorial will cover the required steps to successfully port your applications to SUSE Linux Enterprise including Application Scoping, Porting Analysis, Porting by Engineer, and Testing and Certification.

The Realities of Cloud Computing

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:45:00 EDT

I’m just finishing up a book on cloud computing and SOA, and found the process of writing the book to be a great catalyst for thinking through the issues surrounding cloud computing, as well as assisting my clients with their cloud computing strategies. As I found, there are a few issues to consider with cloud computing. But cloud computing is not “the end of IT,” nor is it a waste of time.

Talking to Simon Wardley About Ubuntu and Cloud Computing

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:00:00 EDT

Most readers of this blog are probably well aware that a new version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution is coming this week, and that it will be putting code from the Open Source EUCALYPTUS Project to work in simplifying the creation of private Clouds that look remarkably like Amazon’s EC2. You’ve probably also read RightScale’s announcements with respect to Ubuntu, and heard that Sun Microsystems were also making supportive noises about EUCALYPTUS and the EC2 API before their recent change in circumstances. Most readers of this blog are probably well aware that a new version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution is coming this week, and that it will be putting code from the Open Source EUCALYPTUS Project to work in simplifying the creation of private Clouds that look remarkably like Amazon’s EC2. You’ve probably also [...]

SYS-CON Webcast: Linux Application Portability with Linux Standard Base

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:15:00 EDT

This webinar from Novell will provide Linux ISVs an overview of the Linux Standard Base (a working group of the Linux Foundation) and a tutorial on how to easily port applications to SUSE Linux Enterprise using such tools as the Linux Standard Base Database Navigator and Linux Standard Base Application Checker.

Czech Summit Data Leak Should Not Have Happened

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:18:00 EDT

The data leak at the EU/US summit which has just taken place in the Czech Republic - and which has reportedly resulted in Finland's Prime Minister changing his passport - should not have happened, says Credant Technologies, the military grade encryption specialist.

State Street One of the Top Green Information Technology Organizations

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:12:00 EDT

For the second consecutive year, Computerworld set out to identify organizations that are implementing smart, efficient strategies to achieve “green IT.” Organizations were invited to complete a comprehensive questionnaire online in January and February. Ninety-four organizations participated. To view the full survey, visit http://www.computerworld.com/html/research and click on Top Green-IT Organizations.

Linux Foundation Announces LinuxCon Keynotes

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:01:00 EDT

The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced confirmed keynotes for the year's highly anticipated LinuxCon. LinuxCon combines the developer and end user communities to produce more than 75 sessions that address "all matters Linux." The event takes place September 21 - 23, 2009 in Portland, Oregon at the Marriott Downtown Waterfront.

MySQL Journal Launched on Ulitzer

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:30:00 EDT

MySQL, written in C and C++, was first released internally on 23 May 1995. Version 5.1 was released 27 November 2008 and the next version will MySQL 6. In April 2009, Oracle Corporation entered into an agreement to purchase Sun Microsystems, current owners of the MySQL intellectual property. Although the deal was approved by Sun's board of directors, it has not yet been finalized.

Aneesh Chopra Nominated For Federal CTO

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:15:00 EDT

Although Aneesh Chopra is a new name for most, he is well know in Virginia as Governor Tim Kaine's Secretary of Technology. For the Commonwealth, he was charged with leading the state's strategy to effectively leverage technology in government reform. If his strategy for the state can be used as an indicator for his plans in President Obama's administration, you should take a look at Virginia's Strategic Plan for Information Technology.