Recommended Reading
Kernel comparison: Web serving on 2.4 and 2.6 (developerWorks)
developerWorks
reports
on IBM's kernel benchmarking work. "
We've shown that, using a
typical test scenario -- Apache/WPT on an 8-way SMP IBM xSeries system --
the Apache server has better scalability and performance on the 2.6 kernel
compared to the 2.4 kernel. On the same system under the same workload, the
Apache server with 2.6.0-test5 kernel more effectively used system
resources and served 5 times more Web pages than the 2.4.18 kernel
did."
Comments (1 posted)
Red Hat CTO: Can Eclipse End 'Java Apartheid'? (eWeek)
eWeek
covers an
EclipseCon keynote by Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann. "
Tiemann also
spoke of the divisiveness between the Java community and the open-source
community, claiming that to be one reason Sun Microsystems Inc.'s NetBeans
open-source development platform has not taken off and been accepted by as
many developers as has the Eclipse open-source development
platform."
Comments (22 posted)
On the ALSA Track (Linux Journal)
The Linux Journal has posted
an introduction to the ALSA sound system by Dave Phillips.
"
Like Linux itself, ALSA began with rather modest
goals: Jaroslav [Kysela] simply wanted more out of his Gravis UltraSound soundcard
than the existing API could deliver, and he was willing and able to meet the
demands of the task. Like Linus Torvalds, Jaroslav eventually found
himself at the center of a group of talented developers, all dedicated
to the development of a superior audio API for Linux."
Comments (4 posted)
Trade Shows and Conferences
Sun explains open source at EclipseCon (NewsForge)
Here is Joe Barr's
latest
report from EclipseCon. "
Simon Phipps, formerly an IBM employee
and for the last two years Chief Technology Evangelist for Sun
Microsystems, gave his EclipseCon keynote address Thursday. As you might
expect, he took exception to a couple of remarks from Wednesday morning's
keynoter, Michael Tiemann of Red Hat. Phipps's talk was on "The Business of
Open Source." It was interesting, almost a through-the-looking-glass
experience, to hear a suit from Sun stand on a stage and try to explain
open source to an audience of mostly proprietary developers. It should be
noted that the ballroom where the keynote was given was not far from
Disney's Fantasyland."
Comments (5 posted)
The SCO Problem
Leave poor SCO alone... the poor little lambs (Inquirer)
The Inquirer has
a long
and cynical article on SCO's legal and press campaigns. "
Smart money says that SCO will walk out of the courtroom today clutching their backsides, unable to sit down for weeks because of the chewing out they get. Emergency rooms around the world will be filled with people if SCO produces what it claims to have, and people will be so stunned they fall over and hit their heads. Personally, I expect nothing, or at least nothing said, in volumes of obfuscation.
With that background, imagine the odds of SCO taking today to launch what
appears to be a very lucrative set of claims against IBM. Golly. I would
say it is without precedent, but it isn't."
Comments (16 posted)
Perth company gives SCO Australia deadline (The Age)
The Age
covers
Leon Brooks's ongoing challenge to SCO's claims. A new letter has been
sent by registered mail: "
'Take notice that such claims are
fraudulent, and unless they are retracted as publicly as they were made,
CyberKnights Pty Ltd will vigorously pursue a conviction
of fraud against TSG-ANZ,' it said."
Comments (none posted)
Companies
Novell/SUSE Saga Part II (KDE.News)
KDE.News
covers details
from the recent Novell/SUSE deal.
"
As a followup to our previous Novell/SUSE article, we have further good news. Following the completion of the acquisition of SUSE by Novell, SUSE CEO Richard Seibt, who had previously expressed a strong commitment to KDE, has been promoted to president of Novell-EMEA and is now in a position to not only to maintain SUSE's strong KDE support but also to help deploy it more widely around the world."
Comments (none posted)
Linux Adoption
German finance unit chooses Linux (News.com)
News.com is carrying
a Reuters article on another European governmental shift toward Linux.
"
IBM said that the finance ministry department, which is responsible for paying public sector employees and for managing certain taxes, installed two large IBM mainframe computers that run both IBM's operating system and Linux." Of course, the article also carries the obligatory SCO paragraph.
Comments (1 posted)
Munich Open Source Plows Ahead (Wired)
Wired
takes a look at the difficulties encountered by the Munich administration as it switches over to free software.
"
Reports in Computerwoche also stated that local vendors who currently code applications for the city were experiencing problems in developing applications for the open-source operating system, since they are more familiar with Windows than Linux.
Munich may opt to install an emulation program on city workers' computers that will allow Windows applications to run on Linux."
Comments (8 posted)
Legal
Lindows.com wins one
Here's
another press release from Lindows.com on its ongoing trademark battle with Microsoft. The company states that it has won a ruling in U.S. District Court that "windows" is a generic term and that no amount of marketing can change that. The fight now moves up to the appeals court level.
Comments (13 posted)
Interviews
Another set of FOSDEM interviews
The
FOSDEM organizers have posted three
more interviews with people who will be speaking at the event. They are
Bill
Haneman (on GOK and accessibility),
Matthias
Brossard (Cryptonit), and
Dave
Cross (Perl).
Comments (none posted)
Reviews
Automating Security with GNU cfengine (Linux Journal)
Linux Journal
looks at the
sysadmin tool, cfengine. "
Once cfengine is installed (from
www.cfengine.org) and running, making changes to your group of systems
becomes almost as easy as changing a single system. This gives you more
time to decide what to do and how to do it, something that remains the
primary responsibility of an administrator to this day."
Comments (none posted)
Introduction to the Firebird Database (Linux Journal)
Linux Journal
takes a look
at the Firebird database. "
Firebird originally started its life as
the Borland InterBase database. As the product reached version 6.0,
Borland decided Borland the product was going to be aged out, and so the
code was released under an open-source license. Later on, however, Borland
apparently had a change of mind about aging out the product. To this day,
internally, Borland continues to develop the InterBase database, with the
latest version being 7.1. Firebird 1.0 essentially was the open-source
code behind InterBase 6.0. As of this writing, the first major development
effort of the Firebird branch is Firebird 1.5."
Comments (3 posted)
Review of Mozilla Firefox 0.8 from the Perspective of a Galeon User
(MozillaZine)
MozillaZine
points to
this
article
by Dave Whitinger, reviewing Mozilla Firefox 0.8. "
Has Mozilla
Firefox finally broken the speed and stability barriers in order to bring
about a browser change to this long-time Galeon user? After all this time,
Firefox finally won me over and caused me to change my regular web
browser."
Comments (17 posted)
KDE is so cool because... (NewToLinux)
NewToLinux.org
has
a series of articles looking at different features in KDE. So far
there are three complete articles:
Managing
Websites,
Extending
Konqueror with View Profiles, and
Using
KPrinter in Any App.
Comments (3 posted)
Page editor: Forrest Cook
Next page: Announcements>>