Linux in the news

Doubts cast on Yankee Linux-Windows TCO survey (SMH)

This Sydney Morning Herald story is one of many taking issue with just how the Yankee Group performed its survey "proving" that Linux is more expensive than Windows. "At the time the Yankee Group made its findings publicly known, it made no mention of the fact that the survey had been done in association with Sunbelt Software, a Windows NT/2K/XP Tools Provider.... The survey was done through an online form, which is not a medium known to generate reliable data unless some controls are implemented."

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How useful are 'proprietary vs. open source' TCO studies? (NewsForge)

NewsForge talks with David A. Wheeler about the usefulness of TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) studies. "NewsForge: Who can we trust to do independent studies? Is anyone truly independent and unbiased? Wheeler: In the end, the only way to be really sure that you have unbiased results is to do the comparison yourself -- which you have to do anyway, because some measures like total cost of ownership (TCO) and performance are incredibly sensitive to specific environments."

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CEO's of LynuxWorks and FSMLabs Reply to Green Hills' FUD (Groklaw)

Last Thursday Green Hills Software sent out a FUD missile (covered here). Now Groklaw has statements from Dr. Inder Singh, CEO of Lynuxworks, and Victor Yodaiken, CEO of FSMLabs in response. "You may remember that in November of 2003, someone tried to do what O'Dowd posits, attempt to bypass the normal submission procedures for Linux code in an attempt to get a back door incorporated into the kernel. Alert Linux coders quickly spotted the alterations in a routine file integrity check and picked up on their hidden intent, despite the clever way they were coded to obfuscate their purpose, before the code got anywhere near the kernel, and the attempt failed."

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At the Sounding Edge: Sounding Better All The Time (Linux Journal)

Dave Phillips gives a preview of the upcoming Linux Audio Developers conference in Karlsruhe, Germany, and also covers the progress of several important Linux audio software projects. "Without a doubt, the two most important development tracks are the ALSA and JACK projects. Both supply the foundation for much of the most interesting application development happening today, and support for ALSA/JACK rapidly is becoming de rigeur in new sound software for Linux."

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The Red Hat Order (Groklaw)

Groklaw has published the latest order for Red Hat in the ongoing SCO litigation. "As you will see, Darl's mouth is why she dismissed SCO's Motion to Dismiss. I get a lot of satisfaction from that. However, she doesn't seem to understand that there are issues outside of the IBM lawsuit that are particular to Red Hat. Rather, she concludes that the IBM contract issues are the core of the dispute and that the copyright claims are dependent on how that plays out. I disagree."

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Requirements for a Declaratory Judgment (Groklaw)

Here is a detailed article on Groklaw about Red Hat's case and what, exactly, is required to obtain a declaratory judgment. "The judge was just saying that isn't the case here, that there is a real controversy, that SCO's words and behavior qualify as sufficiently menacing that Red Hat has a reasonable anticipation of being sued, something SCO in its attempt to have the matter dismissed fervently denied was the case. The judge found that Red Hat was right and SCO was ... well, you know."

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Why SCOX price has been so up and down (IT Manager's Journal)

Melanie Hollands explores the ups and downs of SCO's stock price. "Well, stocks don't always trade rationally and in a straight line with what the underlying fundamentals would suggest. Over the long term, I believe stocks move rationally, but there are short-term moves that do not seem rational. In the case of SCOX (and Enron, WorldCom, and many others), I believe the primary long-term direction continues to be down. But on the way down, there are short-term "secondary" moves that are often counter-intuitive to the primary trend." Thanks to Leon Brooks.

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Desperate embrace (Economist)

The Economist has an article about the Sun/Microsoft deal, complete with a scary picture of Scott McNealy and Steve Ballmer. "When Mr Ballmer gives Mr McNealy a hug and says that 'we do both believe in intellectual property', this is a not-so-veiled jab at the open-source Linux, which both men consider, in essence, communistic. Microsoft and Sun happen to be the only major backers (in the form of licence payments) of Linux's gadfly, a firm called SCO, which is trying to obtain money from Linux users with threats of litigation."

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MS Open-Source Move Is Straight from Playbook (eWeek)

Microsoft is using it's time-proven embrace and extend strategy on open-source licenses, according to this article on eWeek. "So, what's going on here? Is Microsoft converting to the open-source religion? Hardly. I think they're continuing to implement plans for battling open source that Microsoft staffers first outlined back in 1998's Halloween memo. In that strategy memo, Microsoft staffers suggested that by embracing and extending open protocols, Microsoft could freeze open source out of the marketplace." Thanks to Jay R. Ashworth.

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MySQL takes cue from the master (News.com)

News.com is running a lengthy look at MySQL - both the software and the company. "Travel reservations provider Sabre Holdings has replaced the mainframe computer and high-end Unix servers that underpinned its customer-facing Web site with about 45 Intel servers running a variety of open-source software, including Linux and MySQL. Going to a 'farm' of multiple relatively cheap servers has saved the company millions of dollars in database licenses alone, according to company executives."

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How open source is getting nonprofits out of a squeeze (NewsForge)

NewsForge takes a look at efforts across the US to recycle old computers and supply families, schools, and nonprofits with IT connectivity. "[Collaborative Technologies coordinator Ron] Braithwaite said the open source model is proving its worth as his group looks to tailor the solution to the different community resource organizations. "Open source isn't just about software, it's about a way of working together collaboratively," Braithwaite said. "All of a sudden, we can leverage the work we've done. Because we've templated the hell out of it, we can tune it and enable and disable [portions] to specifically serve community mental health programs quickly and easily.""

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Commentary: An open-source plan (News.com)

Should you know any CIO types looking for guidance on how to use free software, News.com has run a column from Forrester Research to help them out. "Arm your open-source advisory group with the funnel and decision tools. Fund a multidisciplinary team comprised of developers, managers, lawyers and procurement specialists to evaluate the risks of an open-source component and community. Quantitative assessment tools can help companies make informed decisions about the health of the community and the quality of the commercial support."

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Friedman: Expectations rising over Linux desktop (SearchEnterpriseLinux)

SearchEnterpriseLinux interviews Ximian's Nat Friedman. "What misconceptions exist concerning Linux desktops that may be holding back enterprise adoption?
Friedman: The No. 1 misconception is that usability is a major barrier to adoption and that's not true. It used to be. There was a study done recently with a group of 20 users who had never used a computer before. Ten were put at a Windows PC, 10 at a Linux PC and they were given a list of simple tasks like sending an e-mail, surfing to a Web page and the usability results were pretty much the same. The real problem is getting your work done if the applications don't exist." (Found on Footnotes)

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KDE Interviews

This week in the People Behind KDE series, Tink talks with Adriaan de Groot.

KDE enthusiast Philippe Fremy interviews Eirik Eng, CEO of Trolltech, and Matthias Ettrich, founder of the KDE project and CTO of Trolltech, on KDE.News..

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Cray CTO: Linux clusters don't play in HPC (Search Enterprise Linux)

Search Enterprise Linux talks with a Cray CTO at ClusterWorld. "Despite assertions made by Linux vendors, a Linux cluster is not a high performance computer, said Dr. Paul Terry, CTO of Cray Canada. "At best, clusters are a loose collection of unmanaged, individual, microprocessor-based computers." Businesses shouldn't expect supercomputer performance from Linux clusters, Terry warned."

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Interview with Element Computer Regarding ION Linux (OS News)

OS News talks with Mike Hjorleifsson, one of the founders of Element Computer. Element is bundling its hardware with its own ION Linux distribution. "Is your distro going to be sold seperately, or only part of your hardware? Is your hardware going to be sold on other retail outlets except your own store as well?
Element Computer: ION is sold only with the hardware, our strategy is to provide a truly turnkey point-click-work experience. We welcome retail outlet partners to join our efforts, though initially we are launching via our own facilities and the Internet."

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Linux breathes new life into old hardware (Linux.com)

Brice Burgess tests and compares several Linux distributions on an older IBM laptop. "Linux may be cutting-edge software, but it runs just fine on hardware that would make Microsoft's current operating systems beg for relief. I took four different distros and installed them on a five-year-old rebuilt IBM ThinkPad 600E supplied by LinuxCertifed. They proved that Linux on older hardware can be a cost-effective combination."

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Introducing "Cooperative Linux" - Linux for Windows, No Less (LinuxWorld)

LinuxWorld introduces CoLinux. "21 year-old Dan Aloni, a graduate of an IDF [Israel Defence Force] computer unit, has developed a Linux application - called Cooperative Linux ("CoLinux" for short) - that is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine. For instance, it allows one to freely run Linux on Windows without using a commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware, in a way which is much more optimal than using any general purpose PC virtualization software."

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Looking at the New Gnome 2.6 (OSNews)

OSNews reviews GNOME 2.6 on Fedora. "Epiphany became the default web browser for GNOME in the last release. Before that, people generally gravitated towards Galeon, as it was the only worthwhile GNOME browser for a while. However, recently, when the time came for people to actually choose a browser that should be part of the GNOME Desktop and Developer Platform, Epiphany was chosen because of its commitment to the HIG. Here is a lesson to be learnt, it you want your app to be part of GNOME, learn to love the HIG. It is one of the points of pride for the project."

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OSDL's Carrier-Grade Linux (O'ReillyNet)

O'Reilly's Linux DevCenter examines OSDL's Carrier Grade Linux specifications. "The CGL working group includes network equipment providers, system integrators, platform providers, and Linux distributors. All members contribute to the requirement definition and current requirement projects or work on new open source projects to meet the requirements. Many of these members have contributed technology previously missing from the Linux Kernel to make it a more viable option for telecom platforms. Two distributors already provide distributions based on CGL requirement definitions. Several telecom-related companies are deploying CGL or at least evaluating or experimenting with it."

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Book Review: Perl Medic (use Perl)

Use Perl has a review of the book Perl Medic by Peter Scott. "Peter Scott's Perl Medic is presented as a book for "Transforming Legacy Code", but it could also be called "Perl Best Practices" or "The Things Every Perl Programmer Should Know.""

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Gopher: Underground Technology (Wired)

Wired digs up the dirt on Gopher. "According to a list on Floodgap.com, over 250 active gopher servers are currently online, serving documents ranging from lawyer jokes to the text of the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill. Almost half these servers are affiliated with American colleges and universities, but servers are also located on every continent but Africa and Antarctica."

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