Linux in the news

Recommended Reading

Linux at 17 - What Windows promised to be (the Register)

The Register reflects on the history of Linux. "Linux is what Windows had once promised to be - at least in terms of cross-platform support. In the wake of the PowerPC alliance from IBM, Apple, and Motorola in 1991, Microsoft made a commitment to support Windows NT 3.51 on PowerPC chips. Windows eventually added support for Digital's Alpha NEC's and SGI's MIPS chips. Workstation maker Intergraph ported Windows NT 3.51 to its Clipper chips and said it was creating a port to Sparc chips from Sun. Neither ports saw the light of day."

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Livin' La Vida Linux (ZDNet)

Samba hacker Jeremy Allison reflects on free formats and free software over at ZDNet. He looks at the evolution of storage during his life and looks down the road to see freedom playing a large role. "In short, encoding my CD's in a free format gave me the freedom to do what I wanted with the music I had already bought. In the same way, using Free Software gives device manufacturers the freedom to create the devices they think will be the most popular, without any restrictions on what those devices should do or how they should look. There's no proprietary operating system owner who insists on their consumer 'experience' being done a certain way. No commandments insisting that certain software components must be included in the device, which is to propagate control of proprietary media formats and web browsers, not to give device designers the flexibility they need."

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Trade Shows and Conferences

Linux Summit will preview new advanced file system (SearchEnterpriseLinux.com)

SearchEnterpriseLinux.com previews presentations by Ted Ts'o and Chris Mason at the Linux Foundation End User Collaboration Summit that starts on October 13. "But changing the file system to fix the scalability and functional limitations of ext3, the default file system in many popular Linux distributions, requires a significant education outreach. Because the consequences of data loss are so severe, data center managers are reluctant to trust their data to new file systems, Ts'o said. New-system information needs to be shared well ahead of time, including a roadmap of coming features so IT professionals know what to expect, he said. That's where the Linux Foundation's event hopes to make inroads."

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Companies

Linux opportunity buried in Unix market share data (CNET)

Over at CNET, Matt Asay sees opportunities for Linux in the recent news that IBM claimed 35% of the Unix server market for second quarter of 2008. "For those wondering how big Red Hat and Novell can become on operating-system revenue alone, keep that $61 billion number in mind. Most of that $61 billion is hardware-related, but it meant approximately $650 million in Linux server sales for Red Hat and Novell over the past year. As Linux eats into Unix, Red Hat and Novell can expect to grow linearly with it."

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Linux Adoption

Differing trends for Linux on netbooks

There appear to be some opposing trends involving Linux on Netbooks. PC World's article Netbooks Will Boost Adoption of Linux, Says Novell CTO notes: "A surge in demand for netbooks is helping drive business for Linux, as the devices are designed to be low-cost with smaller storage, according to Novell's chief technology and strategy officer for Linux. " People typically don't care what operating system is on the netbooks, because they don't buy them to run a suite of applications like Microsoft Office, but to be on the Web using a Web browser," Nat Friedman said in an interview with IDG News Service."

Laptop Mag's article Ubuntu Confirms Linux Netbook Returns Higher than Anticipated quotes Canonical's marketing manager Gerry Carr: "“We don’t know what the XP return rates are. But I will say that the return rate is above normal for netbooks that offer open-source operating systems,” Carr echoed. Carr highlighted a few reasons why Ubuntu-running netbooks are returned more often. “Unclear selling is happening, typically online. The customer will get their netbook sent to their home and they imagine to find something like a Microsoft desktop, but they see a brown Ubuntu version. They are unwilling to learn it and they were expecting to have Windows.”"

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Linux in The Economic Meltdown (IT Management)

IT Management's Matt Hartley considers the effects of the recent economic woes on Linux adoption. "Considering the state of the US finances, I would point out that spending money on a computer pre-loaded with an OS that can be, even to this date with Vista, hit with malware with little to stop it seems rather foolish to me. Now consider industries where the bulk needs of a workstation can adequately be upheld with most common Linux distributions. Unfortunately the joy might stop there if that company is already using an in-house IT staff. Why? Because so many of them here in the States are Windows only, thus making a switch to a new platform a move to fire and rehire your IT staff."

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Linux at Work

Video and photos show Linux booting on the Brazilian voting machines (BR-Linux.org)

BR-Linux.org has pictures and video of Brazilian Linux-powered voting machines. "Just 10 days ago, 130 million brazilian voters were turned into users of one of the largest Linux deployment worldwide: the 400,000 electoral sections in all of the 5,563 brazilian municipalities were running electronic voting machines, and the Linux kernel was running in all of them." (Thanks to Augusto Campos)

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Legal

Beta blockers? (Nature)

The sub-title for this article is Proprietary data formats may be legally defensible but open standards can be a better spur for innovation. "Dan Cohen, director of GMU's Center for History and New Media, and Sean Takats, a GMU history professor, are also directors of Zotero: open-source software developed by the history centre that lets researchers organize and share their digital information iTunes style, whether it is in the form of citations, documents or web pages. Zotero is free and popular, and has attracted some 1 million downloads since its launch in October 2006. Thomson makes the proprietary bibliography software EndNote, and claims that Zotero is causing its commercial business "irreparable harm" and is wilfully and intentionally destroying Thomson's customer base. " (Thanks to jerbol)

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Interviews

Interview: Miguel de Icaza (DesktopLinux.com)

DesktopLinux.com features an interview with Miguel de Icaza. "GNOME project co-founder Miguel de Icaza discusses the release of Mono 2.0, in this detailed interview with Henry Kingman, executive editor of DesktopLinux. The conversation spans Mono's history, current state, and future, with stops along the way for updates on Moonlight and Mono Develop."

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Resources

Running the Chromium browser on Ubuntu 8.04 with CrossOver Chromium (HowtoForge)

HowtoForge presents a tutorial on running the Chromium browser under Ubuntu 8.04. "Chromium is an open-source browser project that is the basis for Google's Chrome browser. Right now, Chromium doesn't support Linux natively, but Codeweavers has created a Linux port called CrossOver Chromium that can be installed free of charge. This guide shows how to install CrossOver Chromium on Ubuntu 8.04."

Comments (2 posted)

Reviews

Multi-Head, Multi-User Killer GNU/Linux App Languishes (LinuxMedNews)

LinuxMedNews looks at multi-head, the killer application in health care. "Multi-head, multi-user systems running off a single PC. This is where multiple displays, keyboards and mice can be attached to a single PC with multiple users all working simultaneously from one system unit. This can dramatically lower the cost of an individual workstations as well as the cost to support individual workstations. This setup is becoming more and more viable as hardware power increases."

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Miscellaneous

Ideas Wanted: Creative Heat Recycling from Servers (Linux Journal)

James Gray is looking for creative ways to recycle waste server heat. "The botanical garden that is heated by Notre Dame's servers specializes in desert plants and is located in Indiana, well know for its brutal winters. The concept is simple. The waste server heat is pumped into the interior space of the garden to keep the desert-loving plants toasty warm all year long. This simple, creative step is saving the university $100,000 on cooling costs and the owner of the botanical garden, the City of South Bend, Indiana, another $70,000 on heating costs. Not only that, but the atmosphere is spared many thousands of tons of pollution from carbon emissions. That is quite a triple win-win-win arrangement."

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Top Agenda Setters for 2008 (Silicon.com)

Silicon.com presents a collection of Top Agenda Setters for 2008. "Silicon.com chooses the top 50 most influential individuals in the worldwide technology and IT industries – business leaders, CEOs, CIOs, techies, open source gurus, security experts, visionaries, entrepreneurs and politicos".

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