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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading Is Red Hat still relevant? You bet. (Montana Linux) Scott Dowdle examines the continued relevance of Red Hat. "I recently attended a Linux Installfest and the primary distribution recommended by those heading up the event was Ubuntu. That's all well and good but during their Linux dog-and-pony-show a statement was made regarding Red Hat that struck me. I don't recall the exact wording that was used but it was something along the lines of... Red Hat used to be very popular but not anymore. I wasn't really offended by the statement nor do I completely disagree with it... but a lot remains to be said about the importance of Red Hat within the Linux community. Red Hat is certainly king in the "Enterprise" space with Novell a respectable second."
Signposts of GNU/Linux Growth in 2007, Part 2 (Datamation) Datamation's Roy Schestowitz completes his survey of areas of Linux growth in 2007. "Another important mistake is to assume that all GNU/Linux servers are sold, as opposed to deployed. As stated earlier, Google is estimated to have approximately one millions servers, but the number remains unknown due to corporate secrecy. Google is able to build and even distribute its own servers, so such server usage can easily go below the radar of industry analysts, whose definitions are strictly controlled by those who commission studies for vanity and marketing purposes."
Trade Shows and Conferences CES 2008: GP2X Linux-Based Handheld Game Console (Wired) The folks at Wired found a fun Linux-based gadget at the Consumer Electronics Show which starts today in Las Vegas. It is a games console in a Playstation Portable form factor that looks rather interesting. "Unfortunately, no actual games were installed on it to see how it performed, but just getting to fondle it fills me with determination: I shall acquire one and exhaustively test it. Wikipedia says it runs other emulators up the Wazoo: everything from the Amstrad to original arcade games."
Companies Intel Leaves Group Backing Education PCs (NY Times) The New York Times reports on Intel's decision to part ways with the OLPC project. "On Thursday an Intel spokesman said the company shared with O.L.P.C. the vision of putting computers into the hands of children, but the two were not able to work out what he described as 'philosophical' differences."
Old-school SUSE executives take over Open-Xchange (Linux-Watch) Linux-Watch looks at the new management at Open-Xchange. "Rafael Laguna, who played a major role in merging SUSE with Novell, is now Open-Xchange's president and CEO. And former SUSE CEO Richard Seibt is now OX's chairman of the board. While at SUSE, Laguna and Seibt worked closely together and are widely credited for helping SUSE's transformation into one of the world's major Linux distributors."
Linux Adoption Open source infiltrates government IT worldwide (LinuxWorld) LinuxWorld talks with the directors of a couple of organizations dedicated to promoting open source in governments. "The Munich migration is the largest public sector complete migration in Europe. Approximate size is 16,000 users, 14,000 desktops, 300 pieces of software including 170 business applications. It is a complete migration, both server-side and desktop side. The server-side is built around Open LDAP and Samba. The desktop, around Debian and KDE. The migration has now reached the halfway stage, and is due to complete in 2009. 5000 workstations are running Open Source on top of Microsoft Windows, 660 have taken the next step to Linux, and almost a third of all users are now trained to use Open Source."
The Haven for Linux (VietNamNet Bridge) The VietNamNet Bridge reports that Linux use is growing locally. "Not so much popular as Microsoft, but Linux will surely win the top place on the local market, following instructions from the Government and other central agencies promoting the use of open source software this year. So leading computer manufacturers have begun to install the Linux operating system on PCs supplied to all State agencies and schools."
Legal OLPC Tells Nigerian Court: We Don't Use LANCOR's Keyboard (Groklaw) Groklaw follows the OLPC vs. LANCOR case. "I'll show you the filings in the Nigerian case, but you can sum them up like this: OLPC doesn't use LANCOR's keyboard, its keyboards are based on public domain techniques, and the plaintiffs misled the court in a number of particulars to get an injunction it doesn't deserve. OLPC asks that the case be tossed, describing it as "wholly incompetent, vexatious and a gross abuse of the process of court"."
Interviews Interview with OLPC's Founding CTO Mary Lou Jepsen, by Sean Daly (Groklaw) Groklaw has an interview with Mary Lou Jepsen. "Mary Lou Jepsen will go down in history as the founding Chief Technology Officer of One Laptop Per Child. She has recently announced that she is starting her own for-profit company, Pixel Qi, to commercialize some of the technologies she invented at OLPC while extending them. She calls it "a spin-out from One Laptop per Child." And so naturally we had questions. Does this mean we will all soon be able to get an XO-like laptop for adults, no matter where we live? Sean Daly had the opportunity to conduct an email interview with Jepsen, and so we were able to get some answers to that and many other questions."
Bruce Almighty: Schneier preaches security to Linux faithful (ComputerWorld) The Australian ComputerWorld interviews Bruce Schneier, who will be doing a keynote talk at linux.conf.au. "The most important thing Linux has done to improve security is to be competition for Windows. Monopolies are complacent, and by being an alternative, Linux forces Microsoft to improve its own operating system."
On the record with Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat's new CEO: 'I must have a mission' (CNET) Over at CNET, Matt Asay interviews new Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst. Many will be as surprised as Asay at the free/open source software ideals coming from someone with seemingly no connection to that world. Whitehurst comes from Delta Airlines. "Red Hat appealed to me. Red Hat is different. By doing well as a company at Red Hat, we are doing good. Open source is a way to focus on the customer, letting us grow, succeed, and change the technology landscape...all while doing something that is fundamentally good. Fighting for open standards and open formats. These things will change society. I'm thrilled to be here."
Resources Application development for the OLPC laptop (IBM developerWorks) IBM developerWorks presents a tutorial on programming the OLPC. "In this tutorial, you learn about the XO laptop and how to write a Python activity using the Sugar UI. Along the way, you learn more about the XO laptop, its architecture, internals, and use."
Reviews Wistron Shows Google Android Phone (PC Magazine) PC Magazine plays with a phone that may become the first Android phone. The GW4 from Wistron will be running the Android software by March – which could make it the first – though the version described runs MontaVista Linux. "The GW4 we saw had surprisingly low specs, but that's a testament to the efficiency of Linux, Wistron execs said. The GW4 is based on a TI OMAP 1710 chipset with a 216-MHz processor and only 64 MB of program memory, yet the model we saw ran the Opera Web browser, played video and flipped between a range of Web widget applications like weather and stocks. The user interface was very responsive."
Tiny UMPC runs Linux (LinuxDevices) LinuxDevices.com takes a look at ultra-mini PCs from LimePC. "A Chinese firm will introduce a line of Linux-based ultra-mini PCs (UMPC), one of which is said to be the size of a pack of playing cards. LimePC says its self-named product suite will be based on Freescale Semiconductor's MPC5121e system-on-chip (SoC). Although details are sketchy, the LimePC products will include "UMPCs, pad-style PCs with large touchpad LCD screens, notebook and desktop PCs, and mini-ITX developer kits," says Beijing-based Tsinghua Tongfang (THTF). THTF's Korean subsidiary, LimePC, is designing the products. The products will all be equipped with one or more MPC5121e processors, and will offer USB 2.0, 802.11g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1, as well as 10/100 Ethernet for the desktop models."
Miscellaneous New Hack Could Enable Linux on the Wii (Wired) This Wired blog features a video that describes an effort to open up access to the Nintendo Wii game platform. "Wii fans hang on to your hats, as the video above explains, hackers have found a way around the Wii's encryption keys which opens the widely popular console up to home brewed games, open source ports and potentially even a full version of Linux running on your Wii. The video comes from the 24th Chaos Communication Congress and demonstrates a Wii console running arbitrary code. As Tysoe_J explains in the WiiLi forums, “Nintendo wouldn’t be able to patch this with a firmware update,” since doing so would also break the backwards compatibility with with Game Cube games."
2008: Not the year of the Linux desktop (iTWire) Sam Varghese attempts to define what the year of the Linux desktop really means, in an iTWire article. "What exactly do people mean when they say that a particular year will be the year of the Linux desktop? Do they mean that the number of people using Linux on the desktop will outnumber those using Windows? Even the most ardent Linux advocate and fanboy would say no. Then is the year of the Linux desktop, the year when Linux becomes a mainstream operating system, the year when it is offered for sale by big computer sellers and resellers? If so, 2007 fits the bill very well with even Dell starting to sell both desktops and laptops with Linux installed."
Evaluating prospects for Linux growth in 2008 (ars technica) It may not be the Year of the Linux Desktop, but this article has some predictions for growth in 2008. "Vast legions of open-source software enthusiasts and industry analysts eagerly proclaim every twelve months that the elusive Year of the Linux Desktop is finally upon us. These prognosticators imagine scenarios in which the disgruntled techno-proletariat casts off the grim shackles of Microsoft oppression and embraces the sweet liberation of peerless, penguin-powered performance and productivity. Although these prophecies have obviously yet to be fulfilled and Linux adoption on the desktop remains limited, the open-source OS is rapidly gaining immense traction in the mobile and embedded space."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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