Linux News Desk

Sun Updates VirtualBox Cross-Platform Virtualization Software

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST

Sun has released VirtualBox 3.1.0, it's cross-platform virtualisation software to include support for 2D video acceleration for Windows guests. Virtual Box is available in two versions.The open source edition is available under the GPL, but is only available from Sun as source code. The full version is also available free of charge, but under a personal use and evaluation license that requires you to " use the Product on the same Host Computer where you installed it yourself and that no more than one client connect to that Host Computer at a time for the purpose of displaying Guest Computers remotely."

Intel Opens Up Atom SDK to Promote Apps for Next Year’s Netbooks

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:45:00 EST

Intel has released the first beta of the software developer kit (SDK) of the Intel Atom Developer Program Software Development Kit (SDK) available for Microsoft Windows and Moblin* operating systems developers. The Atom SDK covers Atom use in Windows (C and C++) and Intel's own open-source Moblin platform. The kit helps software companies and individuals design and submit applications for Intel-based netbooks to ultimately sell at stores opening next year.

GroundWork Open Source Announces New $59 Linux Virtual Appliance

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST

“SUSE Linux Enterprise is one of the most popular platforms on which to run GroundWork Monitor and previous virtual appliances accounted for 40 percent of downloads,” said David Dennis, Sr. Director Marketing & Business Development, GWOS. “By using SUSE Studio from Novell to customize the SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system, the Enterprise Quickstart virtual appliance has a 74 percent smaller download size. The pairing of GroundWork Monitor Enterprise with SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 in a virtual appliance gives customers a fully supported enterprise-class Linux, enterprise-class monitoring, and turnkey ease of use, all at a radical price point.”

Microsoft Unloads a Couple of Fast Assets

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:15:00 EST

Microsoft has sold the Folio and NXT businesses it got when it bought Fast Search and Transfer, the Norwegian enterprise search firm, last year to Rocket Software on undisclosed terms. Folio is a clutch of publishing tools and NXT publishes intranet documents. Fast bought the products a few years ago for $15 million. Fast’s native technology has gone into SharePoint and is still available standalone.

Windows Server Revenues Pass Unix/Linux for First Time

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:15:00 EST

In Q3 Windows server sales by revenue surpassed Unix/Linux boxes for the first time in history according to Seeking Alpha blogger Dennis Byron. Using IDC numbers he says Linux was 14.4% of the total, a personal best and Unix dragged in at 27%. He concludes that Linux and Windows don’t meet much in the marketplace. Of course all server shipments are down about 20%.

Oracle Faces Growing Price for MySQL

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:00:00 EST

The irony is that Oracle has advanced MySQL, lost money in the process, and helped its competitors - all at the same time. When Oracle buys Sun and controls MySQL the gift (other than to Microsoft SQL Server) keeps on giving as the existential threat to RDBs is managed by Redwood Shores. Oracle has uncharacteristically found itself maneuvered (by its own actions).

Migrating from UNIX/RISC to Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST

Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on Intel® processor-based servers helps your customers reduce TCO, while providing a better foundation for growth. This white paper provides a guide to planning and conducting a strategic and successful transition.

IGEL's Linux Universal Desktop Now Supports Touch Screen Monitors

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST

IGEL's Linux firmware now supports popular touchscreen monitors, including the LG L1730SF Monitor and the ELO 1915L LCD Desktop Touchmonitor. The convenient and easy-to-operate touchscreens paired with a reliable and secure IGEL Universal Desktop is the perfect combination for work environments, such as hotels, healthcare facilities, retail locations and manufacturing floors. Finally, the new firmware includes integration ofPhilips SpeechMike drivers, allowing users access to the latest high-end dictation technology and services from Philips.

Jury To Decide in March Who Owns Unix

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:45:00 EST

SCO's case against Novell for slander of title is going to trial on March 8. That means a Utah jury will decide who the heck owns Unix. Novell tried like the dickens but failed to get the date pushed back to next summer during a hearing Tuesday with Judge Ted Stewart, who'll be presiding. If Judge Stewart didn't already know how jury-shy Novell is, he does now.

Corel To Go Private Again

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:45:00 EST

Corel, the Canadian company that acquired the once great WordPerfect and Quattro Pro from Novell intending to take on Microsoft, is going private again. Vector Capital, the private equity house that owns over 68% of the company is offering $4 a share cash, nearly a 28% premium, for the rest of it, having upped the offer from $3.50 to get management’s backing.

Move Over BI, Here Comes PI - Performance Intelligence

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:30:00 EST

"As companies such as MySpace continue to expand the richness of their site, the big thing is trying to seek a higher level of customer experience by replicating "beyond capacity" in a test environment, so that a company can see what it is exactly that they will need when traffic surges to peak levels and beyond, so that they know the "risk points" of their own success," Tom Lounibos, CEO of SOASTA, told SYS-CON's Jeremy Geelan in an interview with Cloud Computing Journal on the day that SOASTA announced a significant test of the newly launched MySpace Music Videos hub using the Cloud.

Sun Releases New Update for Solaris 10 Operating System

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Solaris 10 10/09 provides new features, fixes and hardware support in an easy-to-install manner, preserving full compatibility with over 11,000 third-party products and customer applications, including Oracle database and application software. With over two decades of Sun/Oracle collaboration, there are more Oracle database deployments on the SPARC/Solaris combination than any other OS and Sun is leading the way to bring high-performance solutions for the entire range of Oracle products. Solaris 10 10/09 also leverages the innovation and contributions of the OpenSolaris(TM) community, including investments by third-party companies such as Intel and AMD, to add more capabilities to Solaris 10's award-winning portfolio of enterprise features. This release also builds on Solaris' proven track record as a highly secure deployment platform, including enterprise-grade security features such as Solaris Trusted Extensions, and support for the built-in cryptographic acceleration features of Sun's UltraSPARC(R) CMT processors.

AIR 2, Flash Player 10.1 in Beta

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:45:00 EST

Adobe’s AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1 for Windows, Mac and Linux have been sent out to beta. Flash Player 10.1, advertised as the first “consistent browser runtime release of the Open Screen Project that will enable uncompromised web browsing of expressive applications, content and high-definition videos across the desktop and devices,” supports x86-based notebooks and should turn up on smartphones and other Internet-connected widgetry next year. It should eat less battery power and deliver better video playback. AIR 2 has enhanced support for mass storage devices and native application processes.

Chrome Netbooks a Year Off

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST

Google says it’s working with a bunch of unidentified “top OEMs” to create a Chrome notebook based on a Google hardware reference architecture that will hit market around this time next year in time for the holidays. It expects the widgets to change the basic computing model by transferring everything to the cloud. Google accepts that such a device won’t suit all use-cases but it should suit those, particularly youngsters, who spend most of their time on the web, to a “T.”

Pay-as-You-Grow Pricing for Citrix NetScaler

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:15:00 EST

Citrix Systems today announced the groundbreaking new “Pay-as-You-Grow” pricing for its Citrix NetScaler line of application acceleration, load balancing and web security appliances. Most networking systems require expensive hardware replacements to expand capacity and functionality, which often forces customers to over provision and pay for more than they need at any given time. The new Pay-as-You-Grow pricing from Citrix breaks this dependency, enabling customers to buy only what they need today, knowing they can easily scale up their network as demand grows with a simple software license upgrade.

Adobe Flex Developer Earns $100K in New York City

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST

CIO and CTO salaries will see a spike of 12.5% in 2010, according to research conducted by Bluewolf on salaries in the Tri-state region (New York, Conn. and New Jersey). Bluewolf is a global technology consulting firm and the preeminent source of salary data and statistics for IT professionals. Every year, Bluewolf issues its Bluewolf IT Salary Guide for Tri-state job seekers and employers, revealing its proprietary salary research. In 2010, CIO salaries will range from $175-200,000 in 2010, up from $149,000-175,000 in 2009. CTO salaries are predicted to range from $140,000-$175,000 in 2010 up from $120,000-$150,000 in 2009, according to Bluewolf's salary research. In addition to CIOs and CTOs, 2010 starting salaries for VPs of Information Technology are expected to increase from $110,000 to $125,000.

Amazon Backs Zeus

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST

Zeus Technology, the application traffic management folk, has ported the weeks-old edition of its web traffic management widgetry to Amazon EC2 with Amazon's help - including how to word Tuesday's announcement - despite the fact that Amazon has its own unashamedly rudimentary load balancing. One might conclude that Amazon knows a good thing when it sees it and is backing it to retain the hearts and minds of its followers. Maybe it'll improve its own widgetry over time but now is now.

Arkeia Network Backup: Enterprise Edition for Ubuntu

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:05:00 EST

In one of my older articles, I explained how Ubuntu Server has slowly made significant inroads in many enterprise data centers. Ubuntu has been the favorite distribution of many system administrators, architects and various other IT staff. It was these fans of the Linux distribution that brought Ubuntu into their data centers and slowly deployed [...]

Main Power UPS Types, Specs and Buying Source

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:05:00 EST

UPSonNet, a consulting and Power Protection information source launched recently an Uninterruptible Power Supply Products Directory, which enables buyers to see at a glance main manufacturer's systems, explore specifications, compare and contact relevant professional suppliers.

MontaVista Sells Out Cheap

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

In a move reminiscent of Intel and Wind River, Cavium Networks, maker of specialty ARM and Mips processors, is buying MontaVista Software, the embedded Linux shop, for $50 million and it’s only paying $16 million in cash. The rest is stock. MontaVista, however, took in at least $93 million since it started 10 years ago from folks like Siemens, US Venture Partners, Alloy Ventures, NEC, IBM, Sony, WR Hambrecht, Samsung, Infineon, China Development Industrial Bank, Intel, Panasonic, Toshiba, Yamaha and RRE Ventures. A lot of those guys were MontaVista customers along with major accounts like Cisco, Dell, HP, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent and NTT DoCoMo.

Zend Teams with Varien

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:30:00 EST

Zend has gotten Varien, apparently a hot e-commerce platform, to ship the free Community Edition of Zend Server, the PHP web application server with the free Community Edition of its open source Magento e-commerce software. Varien, in turn, will contribute a number of native e-commerce features such as payment gateways and shipping calculation modules to the open source PHP framework, Zend Framework, which is an integrated part of Zend Server.

Novell Makes Aboutface in SCO Case

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:45:00 EST

Back when the SCO litigation was under Utah district court judge Dale Kimball, whose decision that Novell owns Unix was overturned by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, Novell thought it was simply ducky that SCO’s case against Novell should go ahead of SCO’s case against IBM, which is how we wound up with the summary judgment that got trashed. If memory serves right, it was Novell’s idea that it go first and block and tackle for IBM.

Bright To Peddle SUSE

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:15:00 EST

Bright Computing, a specialist in Linux-based cluster management software and services for high-performance computing (HPC), has started offering its Bright Cluster Manager software bundled with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). Bright and Novell are going to co-market the stuff to their channels and perhaps collaborate on software development for HPC. Eight of the top 10 supercomputers run on SUSE.

Doesn’t Anybody Look Things Up Anymore?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

This may feel like Christmas when all you get is ties but Samsung is launching its own smartphone operating system called bada, which it expects to compete with Android and LiMo. It’s not yet clear exactly what it is. Could be still another Linux variant. More likely it’s Samsung’s proprietary operating system with a new front-end. Samsung says it’ll be open so third-party developers can write to it and it’ll be backed by an app store. Carriers will be able to customize the thing. The first bada-based phones are scheduled to be out in 2H10. An SDK will be available in December 1. The word bada means ocean in Korean. Unfortunately it’s also a Shia Moslem concept of God.

Unix Co-Creator Writes New Open Source Programming Language for Google

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST

Ken Thompson and Rob Pike, a couple of the revered old soldiers who wrote Unix, Plan 9 and Inferno at Bell Labs – and programming languages like B, without which C probably wouldn’t exist, and Limbo – have come up with an experimental new programming language called Go that Google, their current refuge, open sourced Tuesday under a BSD-style license. If it catches on, it would be the first major systems language to emerge in a decade.

SCO Another Inch Closer to Trial

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST

The Utah district court, Judge Ted Stewart, a new face, presiding, has set November 23 for a status conference in the matter of SCO v Novell, the case over who owns Unix that the appeals court sent back to be heard by a jury. Novell is expected to do what it can to delay the case from getting on the docket. It could ask for a stay because it wants to appeal to the Supreme Court, a motion it made to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver and got turned down so fast heads are still spinning. It could also try for a stay pending arbitration in Switzerland over what, if anything, gave to United Linux, the consortium that briefly tried to create a common Linux code base. Since it’s right before Thanksgiving maybe one or the other will have something to be grateful for.

Eucalyptus’ Cloud Platform Hits First Update

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:30:00 EST

The new widgetry features multi-cluster support and enhanced concurrency management to improve scaling so users can seamlessly overlay their Eucalyptus cloud on top of virtually any existing IT infrastructure, regardless of size or configuration. Eucalyptus is meant for implementing an on-premise cloud using an organization’s own IT infrastructure. It supports the same APIs as public clouds, and with the release of version 1.6.1, claims to be the only on-premise cloud platform that’s fully compatible with the Amazon AWS public cloud infrastructure.

EMC to Enhance Performance, Security and Management of VMware View Deployments

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:00:00 EST

EMC today announced a range of new products, solutions and services designed to enhance the value of the VMware View(TM) 4 desktop virtualization solutions. These offerings provide organizations with new technology capabilities, along with consulting services and actionable guidance to apply EMC(®) management and security controls for hosted virtual desktop environments. Businesses across many industries and government entities are deploying hosted virtual desktops using VMware View solutions to centralize management, improve security, increase operational efficiencies, and address compliance. Centralizing the management of employees' desktop and laptop environments through virtualization and applying security controls such as strong authentication, data loss prevention, security information and event management along with management controls such as server configuration management, helps ensure key company and government assets remain available, shareable and secure.

EC Objects to Oracle-Sun; Oracle Vows To Fight

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:30:00 EST

The European Commission Monday served Oracle and Sun with a statement of objections (SO) that takes exception to their $7.4 billion combination. Sun immediately told the SEC that "The Statement of Objections sets out the Commission's preliminary assessment regarding, and is limited to, the combination of Sun's open source MySQL database product with Oracle's enterprise database products and its potential negative effects on competition in the market for database products."

Likewise Wants To Move the Moochers

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:45:00 EST

Likewise, which authenticates Linux, Unix and Mac users with Microsoft Active Directory, has started offering three starter packs that combine its Enterprise software with support and training services. They are designed to move customers from the company’s open source software to Likewise Enterprise. Likewise Enterprise controls access to applications and data, centrally manages settings with group policies and creates reports for regulatory audits. It’s also the only solution to provide 100% native support for Apple’s Workgroup Manager application.

The Case for Market Based Patent Reform

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:15:00 EST

In the wake of the financial crisis and its attendant repercussions across the global economy, the U.S. Congress stands poised to address the issue of patent reform. Much debated and long anticipated, patent reform legislation is back under consideration with the bill possibly coming up for vote, prior to the end of 2009. Under the stewardship of a set of legislators well sensitized to the salient issues and with the thoughtful counsel of David Kappos, President Obama’s business savvy head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the stars are aligning to usher in legislation that promises to offer significant advances in an arena that has been overdue for reform.

Red Hat Virtualization for Servers Goes GA

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

The company says “extensive collaboration with large enterprise beta customers, such as Comviva, Host Europe, NTT Communications, Qualcomm and Swisscom, resulted in enhanced product capabilities designed to meet enterprise requirements for deploying and managing heterogeneous virtualization and cloud environments.” It didn’t say what exactly. The widgetry includes a standalone, lightweight, secure, high-performance KVM hypervisor designed to host Linux and Windows virtual servers and desktops whose memory-sharing technology reportedly permits more efficient guest consolidation and enterprise features such as live migration.

Browser Underdogs Want Ballot Screen Changes

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:45:00 EST

Microsoft’s browser rivals aren’t satisfied with the tentative “ballot screen” settlement that the company came to with the European Commission, which would offer all its European users a chance to download a rival browser. Google, Mozilla and Opera want changes made. According to the New York Times, Mozilla doesn’t like the idea of the top five browsers by market share in Europe would appear in a row alphabetically from left to right. That would put Apple’s Safari first. Mozilla doesn’t think that’s fair on the theory it would give Safari – not your first thought for an Internet Explorer substitute – an advantage; it wants them to appear randomly.

Likewise Simplifies Upgrade Path for Open Source Authentication Software

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

Likewise announced that it is offering three starter packs that combine its Likewise Enterprise software with support and training services. The starter packs are designed to help customers move from its open source software to Likewise Enterprise. Likewise Enterprise makes it easy for IT managers to authenticate users, control access to applications and data, centrally manage settings with group policies and create reports for regulatory audits. Likewise Enterprise is also the only solution to provide 100 percent native support for Apple’s Workgroup Manager application.

Cisco Reports First Quarter Earnings

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

Commenting on the quarter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Chambers noted, "Building off what we saw as a clear tipping point in Q4, our Q1 results continued to reflect strong sequential growth trends that meet or exceed expectations during normal economic times. We view the improving economic outlook, combined with solid execution on our growth strategy, as creating unparalleled opportunity to drive more value into the core of the network. Simply said, we believe that key market transitions across collaboration, virtualization and video will drive productivity and growth in network loads for the next decade, and are evolving even faster than expected."

DDN Plans to Roll Out Massive Digital Signage Network with 7-11

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:15:00 EST

This is a deal that has been around for all of this year, and I know the NYC-based guy charged with pulling the technical pieces together. He has been looking at software platforms for months and separating contenders from pretenders based on the criteria he's established. To my knowledge no decision has been made on technology, but if you are not yet aware of it, it is probably pretty pretty darn late to try to get in on it.

Savvis Selects The Vitality Group to Help Improve Employee Health

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:15:00 EST

The Vitality Group announced that Savvis, Inc. has selected its incentive-based wellness program to motivate and support Savvis associates as they take ownership of their personal health. Savvis, one of the largest IP network and hosting providers in the world employs more than 2,200 employees. The Vitality program will be made available to its U.S. employees.

3Leaf Makes x86 Boxes into SMP Cloudware

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST

3Leaf Systems, the well-funded start-up, dropped its fig leaf Tuesday and took a running jump into the pools of memory, I/O and cache that it can construct and deconstruct at will based on the application, creating scale-up shared-memory SMP systems the likes of mainframes, proprietary mid-range machines and pricey RISC-based Unix boxes out of racks of cheap and dirty two-socket scale-out x64 systems.

Oracle VP Maps Oracle's Cloud Computing During Cloud Expo Keynote

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

"We've been fairly quiet," said Rex Wang, VP of Infrastructure and Management at Oracle, this morning as he gave the Morning Keynote at the third and last day of the 4th Cloud Computing International Conference Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Wang was referring to Oracle's relative silence to date vis-a-vis Cloud Computing. His intention, he said, was to share with the assembled delegates Oracle's thoughts on the space...

Cisco, EMC, VMware & Intel Form Acadia JV

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:15:00 EST

Cisco and EMC Tuesday kicked off a cloud-chasing joint venture called Acadia that includes VMware and Intel as minority investors. Presumably they took the name from the ancient Greeks who used the word to mean a refuge or idyllic place and not the uprooted and deported North American Acadia captured in Longfellow's magnificent tear-jerker "Evangeline," although Cisco's new enemies IBM and HP may try to persuade users that it is.