Nowadays, many web hosting server company acclaim and support for Linux OS which has paved the way for many third party software developers to build their architect around it more so than other popular OS’s such as FreeBSD and Windows Server. Right now there is more support than ever and Linux hosting has now dominated the market.
Web hosting as we know it really helped Linux take off into mainstream and control panels which are basically expected of a hosting company have built around Linux and support it.
Almost of them said that they provide One-Click Application Installation to easy install your favorite Applications like phpBB, Joomla, Mambo, Typo3, Wordpress, b2Evolution, PHProject, PHPCalendar, Gallery and many more.
So, it is very difficult for us to choose a linux web host that you are comfortable with, has the right price and is stable. New web hosts are entering the industry all the time, however, just as many are making their exit from mergers, buyouts and even gone like the wind cause bankruptcy. This is where Web Hosting Pal comes in. Their team do a lot of the research for you and actually do the homework to make it easier for you to narrow down the field and make a choice based on the data that they provide that matched with your needs and budget.
Web Hosting Pal provides us the nice guide to finding the right web host to choice with post the Top 10 Web Hosting chart that be updated regularly, so we can choose the right web host more easier and faster.
Hardy Heron Development Team has announced the availability of a new development build of Ubuntu 8.04, the Alpha 4. "Hardy Heron" is code name that used for this project, which will in time become Ubuntu 8.04.
Some new issues on this release are: X.Org 7.3, with an emphasis on better autoconfiguration with a minimal configuration file; Linux kernel 2.6.24 brings in significant enhancements and fixes that have been merged in the last few months into the mainline kernel; PulseAudio enabled by default; PolicyKit integration is visible in the administrative user interfaces; Firefox 3 beta 2 bringing much better system integration including icon and colour theming; the GTK+ version of the popular Transmission BitTorrent client; the new Vinagre VNC client; the Brasero CD/DVD burning application, etc.
For more detail info, see the complete release notes on Ubuntu site. Or you can download this development release at here or here if you prefer to use torrent.
Ubuntu-Women is a team functioning under Ubuntu to provide a platform and encouragement for women to contribute to Ubuntu-Linux, a Debian based free and open-source GNU/Linux software. Our main role will be along the lines of supplementing and being the stepping stone toward the larger Ubuntu-Linux world. Membership is open to all.
An EC funded study (2006) summarized in the Flosspols report, indicates that about 1.5% of FLOSS community members were female, compared with 28% in proprietary software. The Ubuntu Census Survey (June 2006) also reflects a similar female ratio with 2.4% women actively volunteering in the Ubuntu community.
Ubuntu-Women is the first step in trying to usher in change by increasing the visibility and contribution of women by providing mentoring and role models, and creating opportunities for collaboration with new and existing Ubuntu volunteers.
It aim to provide an opportunity for women who want to be involved in the Ubuntu community thereby increasing the diversity in Ubuntu-Linux by :
- Encouraging women to participate, for example, to learn to create new FLOSS software (or revamp existing software), not only to use GNU/Linux software, but to integrate backwards and learn more about it.
- Mentoring women in specific areas (such as technical, documentation, translation and communication) so they have the information and support necessary to take these new steps, to get through barriers or difficulties, and to keep learning and growing in the Ubuntu-Linux world.
- Providing opportunities by sponsoring women who wish to give technical presentations, or talk about their Ubuntu experience at International conferences and seminars.
- Organizing hack-fests, bar camps for women at Linux conferences.
- Increasing the number of women using Ubuntu-Linux in a country-specific manner by providing a platform for talks at local universities, LUGs and schools, which will encourage others to join.
- Openly discussing issues facing women and their involvement in Ubuntu (and Linux) and how to address them.
To achieve the above objectives we currently :
- have a Mentoring program along the lines of Each-One-Teach-One, which is a neat way of sharing knowledge and learning something from others in the community.
- run the mailing list for discussion of related issues.
- run an IRC channel #ubuntu-women at freenode.net
Source: Ubuntu Community
The Ubuntu develoment team announced the second alpha release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on late night of Dec 21 GMT.
The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. Hardy Heron Alpha 2 is the second alpha release of Ubuntu 8.04, and with this new alpha release comes a whole host of excellent new features.
Pre-releases of Hardy are not encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.
Alpha 2 is the second in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Hardy development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Hardy.
The latest Xorg is available in Hardy, Xorg 7.3, with an emphasis on better autoconfiguration without config files.
Alpha 2 includes the 2.6.24-2.4 (2.6.24-rc5-based) kernel. This brings in significant enhancements and fixes that have been merged in the last few months into the mainline kernel. Among these is the introduction of dynticks support for amd64, bringing the same power savings already available on 32-bit systems to 64-bit laptops and desktops.
Alpha 2 includes PulseAudio enabled by default. Some non-GNOME applications still need to be changed to output to pulse/esd by default and the volume control tools are still not integrated.
You can download it here.
Btw, this is still an alpha release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released in April 2008.
Firefox 3 is based on the new Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 28 months and includes nearly 2 million lines of code changes, fixing more than 11,000 issues.
Gecko 1.9 includes some major re-architecting for performance, stability, correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers.
Firefox 3 Beta 2 includes approximately 900 improvements over the previous beta, including fixes for stability, performance, memory usage, platform enhancements and user interface improvements. Many of these improvements were based on community feedback from the previous beta.
Improved Performance
- Reliability: A user's bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes.
- Speed: Major architectural changes (such as the move to Cairo and a rewrite to how reflowing a page layout works) put foundations in place for major performance tuning which have resulted in speed increases in Beta 2, and will show further gains in future Beta releases.
- Memory usage: Over 300 individual memory leaks have been plugged, and a new XPCOM cycle collector completely eliminates many more. Developers are continuing to work on optimizing memory use (by releasing cached objects more quickly) and reducing fragmentation. Beta 2 includes over 30 more memory leak fixes, and 11 improvements to our memory footprint.
Easier to Use
- Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login.
- Simplified add-on installation: the add-ons whitelist has been removed making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks.
- New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and displays where a file came from.
- Resumable downloading: users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
- Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images.
- Tab scrolling and quickmenu: tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu.
- Save what you were doing: Firefox will prompt users to save tabs on exit.
- Optimized Open in Tabs behavior: opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs rather than overwriting.
- Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item.
- Text selection improvements: multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; double-click drag selects in "word-by-word" mode; triple-clicking selects a paragraph.
- Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
- Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
- Integration with Vista: Firefox's menus now display using Vista's native theme.
- Integration with the Mac: Firefox now uses the OS X spellchecker and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates.
- Integration with Linux: Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.
- Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them.
- Tags: associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic.
- Location bar & auto-complete: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you're looking for.
- Smart Bookmarks Folder: quickly access your recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as your more frequently visited pages with the new smart bookmarks folder on your bookmark toolbar.
- Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches.
- Web-based protocol handlers: web applications, such as your favorite webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (Web applications will have to first enable this by registering as handlers with Firefox).
- Easy to use Download Actions: a new Applications preferences pane provides a better UI for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.
You can download this second beta release of Firefox at here.
Fedora 8 Release Candidate 3 has been released on the torrent site. Both DVD and Live images have been provided. Getting them now is actually an excellent way of beating the release rush on Thursday; as pointed out by Max Spevack, these RC3 images are as good as final - at least in terms of configuration of package repositories. That's because until Thursday, users running the RC3 builds will still receive updates from the "rawhide" directory, but as soon as Fedora 8 is out, they will be automatically and seamlessly redirected to the stable tree. Just a little user-friendly touch by the Fedora development team.
Unless something goes terribly wrong, these will be the same bits (modulo gpg signed SHA1SUM files) that will go to the mirrors for the final Fedora 8 release.
As the Fedora 8 Release Candidates have come out in the past few days, Jesse made the change to fedora-release to have it point to the /releases/8/ directory instead of /development/ because that is how it has to look for the final release of Fedora 8.
That /releases/8/ directory isn't active yet, because Fedora 8 hasn't been released yet. But our mirrors currently have a redirect that points over to Rawhide. On Thursday, it is a trivial operation for Jesse to take that redirect away. Then the Fedora 8 directory is active -- people can install, we can push updates, etc. Separately, Rawhide can then be opened back up for Fedora 9 development, and a new fedora-release package that configures yum to look back at Rawhide will be placed in it. People who want Rawhide can install that package or tweak their yum repository files and be off and running.
What's the point of all of this?
It makes the upgrade path as hands-off as possible. Chances are that if you installed a Test release of Fedora or a Release Candidate, you want the final version of the release when it is available -- you don't want to stick on Rawhide.
By altering the default settings in fedora-release at the right time, and also by using redirects, the Release Engineering team can achieve this affect without requiring the user to change anything.
So if you have installed one of the Test versions of Fedora, you are already all set up the way you need to be. Your machine will "become" Fedora 8 at the right time.
Compared to the project's previous release, Fedora 8 feels like a relatively minor upgrade, but it does ship with a few interesting features up its sleeve. One of them is PulseAudio, a new sound server:"PulseAudio is a next generation sound server for Linux, making all sorts of 'ear-candy' possible: from dynamically changing the volume of individual applications to hot-plugging support for many different devices. Fedora 8 is going to be the first distribution to ship and enable PulseAudio by default and with this in mind we talked to Lennart Poettering who is the upstream and Fedora developer of PulseAudio and Avahi about the work he has put into this."
Ubuntu Gutsy was released eleven days ago, and the developers are thinking what things to implement in the future version, Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. This distribution will be a LTS (Long Term Support) release, and it is scheduled for April 2008.
The implementation roadmap, as recommended on Launchpad, has some nice elements which will make many Ubuntu users happy. Here are some of these things that might get on Hardy Heron:
A redesigned restricted-manager code:
The original code architecture of this application was very narrow, and focused on non-free kernel drivers in a Gnome application. The new features bolted on the original structure, like the grouping of handlers, the KDE frontend, non-free support packages of drivers which are free by themselves etc. made the code interdependent and very difficult to maintain/repair bugs. The list of new features is reviewed and a new code will be built from scratch.
Labeling and formatting of partitions:
A way to format partitions with various file systems, with LUKS encryption support, was proposed. At this moment, no GUI exists for changing the label of a Linux filesystem, and for VFAT partitions.
Dial-up Support:
An easy way to configure dial-up and ADSL out of the box was asked for, and Network Manager should be used to at least bring the connections up and down.
The Add/Remove Software application could be changed:
As seen on the Roadmap, this could have user-provided descriptions, feature lists, screenshots and ratings for software. The initial page of this application should have top-rated software, newest versions etc.
Improved Ubuntu Server documentation:
The server team needs to improve interactions with the documentation team, and the possibility to add micro-manuals for configuring complex applications could be added.
The number of duplicate applications and libraries will be reduced:
Extra efforts to get rid of duplications to make maintenance as easy as possible and avoid CD space waste will be made. These things will happen mainly because Hardy Heron will be a Long Term Support release.
Kubuntu Hardy Catchup:
The people from Launchpad want the developers to make sure Kubuntu has the same features as Ubuntu.
The CD boot loader for Hardy reviewed:
Although the boot loader does its job, it needs a review and polish. There are problems with the progress bar, font handling etc.
Bug Statistics:
The bug statistics that will be useful to the Ubuntu team during the cycle to drive quality improvements and assist during release periods will be identified. The process will be automated, by gathering and disseminating the stats.
Source: Daniel Voicu, Softpedia.com
Friends, you can download and have Linux stickers for free at Sticker Book Project.
Its Includes a set of stickers related to free software projects. Now you may remove the Microsoft sticker from your computer (computers are not designed only for Microsoft Windows) and choose a sticker from this book with which to replace it.
All you have to do is just download its, print its on your printer and replace your Windows sticker with it!
If you want to participate in Sticker Book Project, you can send your sticker/s to here.
You can download the stickers and view more info about it at here.
You know Linux will handle all your web browsing needs, your e-mail, your office apps. But when it comes to gaming, what do you do?
If you’re a hard-core gamer are you stuck in a Windows world, or the netherworld of dual-booting?
Fear not: Linux can play hard and here’s how to get going.
Firstly, by “gaming” we’re talking about shoot-em-up, space-sim, fun bleeding-edge action and adventure. Forget Solitaire, Freecell and Purble Place: there’s no end of card games and even cutesy Kill Bill (Gates) amusements. Linux users are well catered for herein that regard. Spare a thought for the person who has committed to switching platform. They fire up Ubuntu and then think “What now?”
Not to worry! Linux is happy to oblige, with several options. The best route is out-and-out straight Linux versions of games. Other options are virtualisation and emulation.
Linux ports
Some vendors are more Linux-friendly than others: id Software has long been known for its Linux leanings. You can easily download a wealth of Linux engines for timeless classics like Doom straight from id’s FTP server.
This isn’t restricted to titles that date back to DOS days; Doom III, Quake 4, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are all available, and id provides FAQs to help you get them working with a minimum of fuss.
Similarly, Epic Games have released Linux variants of many of its popular Unreal titles. You can find downloads for the original Unreal, as well as Unreal Tournaments 2003 and 2004. Search for files here. In addition, Epic Games have announced that imminent title Unreal Tournament 3 will also be coming to Linux.
Not to be outdone, our allied pals, the U.S. military, have brought their defence force-sponsored army sim, America’s Army, to Linux. The full download is available and completely up-to-date with its Windows sibling.
That’s three major providers of quality, modern and popular franchises. Likewise, other vendors have ported their games to Linux. However, it’s important to note there are generally several caveats.
Firstly, support is almost always limited. Activision explicitly states they will not provide any support for the Linux versions of their games. For the most part this is no big deal; fortunately, Linux has long enjoyed a robust community where assistance is never far away.
Secondly, you mostly always need to have purchased the Windows version. America’s Army is an obvious exception, being free on Windows as well as in Linux, but what id Software provides, for example, is a run-time engine – which they give away for free – but the actual game content is still copyright, and is still commercial, and without this the engine will do very little.
Thirdly, the Linux release of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars did lag behind the Windows release. Perhaps in time, Linux and Windows games will have simultaneous releases but for now it has to be accepted that gaming companies will be focusing more heavily on the lucrative Windows market.
Source: David M Williams, More info about this article read his post here.
It was started a few years ago with Linus Torvald' announcement:"Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like GNU) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things). I've currently ported bash (1.08) and gcc (1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-) Linus (PS. Yes - it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc.), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have :-(.”
And today it’s timeline is shown at this image:
If the Asian networking out of the box specialists NorhTec are to be believed the answer is very low indeed: how does $85 (£41) sound? Remarkably that is how much the new NorhTec MicroClient JrSX is set to cost, making it what must be the lowest priced Linux powered thin client PC around.
According to LinuxDevices the MicroClient JrSX is a 300MHz Vortex86SX system-on-chip device, ultra low power it only consumes 0.9W at 300MHz. It includes CompactFlash and 2.5" hard drive storage as well as 10/100Mbps Ethernet, 128Mb DDR RAM, triple USB 2 sockets and all in a box measuring 115x115x35mm which weighs 505gm. The size and weight making it ideal for attaching directly to the back of a flat panel display, which is made even easier by the inclusion of VESA mounting holes on the chassis.
Because of the ultra low power requirement the MicroClient is fan-less, being passively cooled but not adverse to operating in areas of high temperature or humidity for that matter. McDonalds Canada is said to be a customer for just this reason. As far as Linux is concerned, NorhTec reckon it can run any distribution that is compiled to support floating point emulation. Obviously you don't get bells and whistles at this price point, but throw something like Puppy Linux at it and you do get one of the cheapest fully functional PCs on the planet.
Source: DanyWeb
Red Hat has opened a dedicated online resource for its partners around the globe, giving them access to the product, program, pricing and training information on both Red Hat and JBoss solutions and services from one single location which is localized in the Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish languages."We worked closely with our business partners from around the world during the development of the Red Hat Partner Center. Our partners made it clear that they wanted a central partner repository, an easy and seamless way to work with Red Hat, language localization, a single global agreement and access to information to help develop new business and manage existing business" said Mark Enzweiler, Vice President of North American Channel Sales at Red Hat.
This looks like being just the start of a process of change at Red Hat which should be good for the Linux industry as a whole. It flags a positive effort to become not only a channel-friendly company but a channel-driven one, and the partner portal is the strongest display of evidence yet. Of course, there was a previous partner website for Red Hat resellers but it hardly inspired confidence in the company or helped people in the business of selling Linux to actually sell it. The statistics show that during the last quarter alone in North America, channels sales accounted for more than half of all Red Hat sales."In the past seven years, we have seen Red Hat commit to and invest in the success of the channel, especially in government" said Christine Schaefer, Director of Marketing at DLT Solutions, Inc., Red Hat's largest government reseller "the new Red Hat Partner Center is just another example of that commitment and rivals some of the best partner portals we have seen in the industry."
It is a demonstration that Linux is maturing in the marketplace, as it must, in an attempt to become a professional alternative to the OS mainstream.
With the massive amount of interest in Ubuntu, this means some of the mirrors have been a little slow. CLICK picked up on this story, remarking that it was similar to the 7.04 release period.
Most of the reviews have been quite favourable, with Desktop Linux saying All in all, the new Ubuntu appears at first glance to be a solid improvement on the last version and one that both young and old Ubuntu users will find a worthwhile upgrade in their review: DesktopLinux.com: It’s Here! Ubuntu 7.10 Arrives.
Similarly, polishlinux.org says The new Ubuntu is more polished, more professional and in general, better than the previous one, which was already a great OS while pointing out that Minor glitches? Present, as always. You can read more at Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon: Critical review.
Lunapark joined in praising 7.10, saying I’ll cut to the chase and say from the start that Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Desktop Edition is simply the best desktop operating system that I have ever used. From installation, to setup, to regular everyday use Gutsy is just a thing of beauty. Check it out at Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Desktop Edition - Review.
Lastly, PCWorld wonders Ubuntu Gets Gutsy, But Is Linux Ready?, saying The Litmus test for Ubuntu, and Linux on the desktop, will come when people try Gutsy as an alternative to Windows and Mac OS X. With more device driver integration and automatic configuration built in, Linux may eventually shred its command-line hacker moniker.
Intel to Develop New CPU Architecture for OLPC Use
Intel isn’t content to cede any portion of the CPU market to rival AMD and to compete on all fronts -- including the OLPC market -- Intel plans to develop a new CPU architecture.
No current Intel processors fit the specifications for the one laptop per child notebook program (OLPC), so Intel is designing a new processor specifically for the ultra-low cost laptop category where the AMD 433MHz Geode LX-700 reigns king.
Few specifications on the new Intel architecture are known at this time, other than it will be cheap and aimed at the specifications of the AMD processor currently being used in the OLPC system. Yahoo! News is reporting that Intel considered using existing mobile processors including modified versions of the Celeron M and the upcoming Silverthorne processors, which were specifically designed for mobile systems.
Those processors were ruled out because Intel says the small size, low cost and low power consumption required by the OLPC laptop are unique enough to warrant a new architecture. While Intel processors aren’t powering the official OLPC, Intel parts are used in similar systems including the Classmate PC and the ASUS Eee.
The ASUS Eee PC will be shipping soon and is going to be sold through Newegg.com and Best Buy. That system features a 7-inch screen and should be quite power efficient. However, the retail price for the system is more than the target cost of the OLPC, which originally was aiming at a $100 price tag.
Prices for the official OLPC system have since increased significantly over the original $100 target.
While in Britain last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took a swipe at just about everything - from one of the world's largest Linux vendors to a social networking company he may end up buying. He insisted that Red Hat violates MS patents. He compared Facebook to GeoCities. He even accused Google of reading your email.
At the UK launch of something called the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Programme, the Redmond supremo badmouthed his archest of arch rivals as he discussed the ins and outs of online advertising models.
After telling his audience that Windows Live Hotmail generates relatively little ad revenue, he claimed that Google's Gmail suffers from much the same problem - despite nefarious activity from the Mountain View, CA outfit."Google's had the same experience - even though they read your mail and we don't," the Microsoft supremo said.
You can watch the video here (registration required).
His audience was shocked - and amused - but Ballmer insisted he was simply telling it like it is. "That's just a factual statement, not even meant to be pejorative."
When we contacted Google, the company did not admit to reading user email. It pointed us to the Gmail privacy policy, which acknowledges that the company "processes" email communications: "Google's computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, delivering advertisements and related links, preventing unsolicited bulk email (spam), backing up your messages, and other purposes relating to offering you Gmail."
At the same London event, Ballmer reiterated Microsoft claims that Linux users are infringing the company's patents. "We spend a lot of money - the rest of the commercial industry spends a lot of money - on R&D. We spend a lot of money also licenses patents, when people come and say 'Hey this commercial piece of software violates our patent, our intellectual property,' we'll either get a court judgment or pay a big check. I think it is important that the open source products also have an obligation to participate in the same way."
Then he went after Red Hat in particular. "People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation eventually to compensate us," he said.
Microsoft made headlines in May when general counsel Brad Smith and licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez told Fortune that Linux violates 235 MS patents. Last year, Novell signed a patent-cross-licensing deal with Microsoft over its SuSE Linux Enterprise Server, but Red Hat says it has no intention of inking a similar pact.
Ballmer also said that "I would love to see all open source innovation happen on top of Windows". You can see that gem in the same video.
Meanwhile, Steve told The Times of London that Facebook could be a fad. Yes, that's the same Facebook that Microsoft is on the verge of buying - according to unnamed sources.
“I think these things [social networks] are going to have some legs, and yet there’s a faddishness, a faddish nature about anything that basically appeals to younger people,” Ballmer said. At one point, he insisted that Geocities - the past-it web page builder purchased by Yahoo! in 1999 - "had most of what Facebook has."
But he wouldn't comment on a possible purchase.
Source: Cade Metz
Linux is ready to take on a more serious role in enterprises, a senior Hewlett-Packard executive has said.
Randy Hergett, HP's director of engineering for open-source and Linux organization, said at the Gelato Itanium Conference & Expo in Singapore on Monday that Linux is ready to be used in some mission-critical applications, despite a perception that there are gaps in areas such as manageability.
Linux is "ready for most applications," he said, noting that there are telecommunications companies running mission-critical databases on Linux, and overall adoption levels are ramping up.
Citing an HP-commissioned global study conducted by market-research company GCR earlier this year, Hergett said that three out of five decision makers were ready to deploy Linux for mission-critical applications within the next two years, while one in five saw that happening in five years' time.
According to the study, which surveyed more than 600 decision makers who were using some flavor of Unix, security and reliability were the top two concerns in a mission-critical environment.
On whether Linux can satisfy these two requirements of security and reliability, Hergett said: "It does...From a security standpoint, we think Linux is actually very secure."
"With reliability, I think it's not as robust yet (as HP's own iteration) or some of the other proprietary Unix systems, but it's making great progress," Hergett added.
On whether the availability of different flavors of Linux will affect its adoption for mission-critical applications, Hergett said he did not think so.
"In some ways it actually gives those decision makers more flexibility and more choices to choose from," Hergett explained, adding that Unix has several iterations too, and decision makers are "used to having that choice."
Source: Lynn Tan
Claims made by Microsoft that Linux violates its software patent have not affected sales of Linux-based hardware, according to Michael Dell.
Speaking to CNET News.com sister site ZDNet UK at a conference Thursday, Dell's chief executive said his company has seen Linux uptake for servers increase faster than Windows server products, despite Microsoft's claims."On the server side Linux continues to grow nicely, a bit faster than Windows," said Dell in an interview during the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando. "We're seeing a move to Linux in critical applications, and Linux migration has not slowed down."
However, for those customers who might be concerned about whether Microsoft's claims of patent violation could result in legal action, Dell added that there were "certainly mechanisms if customers are concerned about patents."
In May, Microsoft claimed that free and open-source software violated more than 230 of its patents, but hasn't provided more detailed information following the statement.
Dell's chief marketing officer, Mark Jarvis, claimed that though the two vendors have had a close relationship in the past, Microsoft had not given Dell any more information about the issue of patent infringement, despite Dell supporting Linux on its server range and more recently on its desktops and notebooks."When we announced the Linux notebook, we didn't get a call from Microsoft--whatever rumblings have been heard, they haven't been heard in Austin, Texas (near where Dell is based)," Jarvis said.
On May 24, Dell launched its first PCs based on Linux in the U.S.: a basic model, Inspiron E1505n, a more powerful Dimension E520n and a top-of-the-range XPS 410n.
Jarvis added that Dell did not expect its Linux PCs to sell in large numbers, reiterating that Linux growth was with servers."Are they (Linux PCs) going to sell a lot? Absolutely not. But on the server side we've seen continued growth," said Jarvis.
Source: Tom Espiner
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer got Microsoft its first billion customers. It's Will Poole's job to get the next billion.
Poole, who co-leads Microsoft's emerging-markets push, is chartered with enabling the company's goal of allowing 1 billion more people to access computing technology by 2015.
The company has a number of efforts under way in the area, from the Starter Editions of Windows XP and Vista, to shared computers for classrooms, to research into turning a cell phone into a low-cost computer by connecting it with a large display. Poole said the last effort, which has garnered a fair bit of interest, is moving from the drawing board to reality.
"We've got it in development in China right now," he said during a recent meeting with CNET News.com reporters and editors. "We've got a manufacturing partner signed on with us and our group in Beijing is working quite hard on it. It'll be in trials I think within a year, and we'll see how people respond to it."
In the meeting, Poole talked about Microsoft's approach, as well as some of the challenges, which stretch well beyond the fact that many people can't afford the latest technology. In actuality, relevance and accessibility are bigger hurdles for the world's poor, Poole said.
Q: How can Microsoft reach people who historically have not been users of its technology?
Poole: Let me begin by clarifying the difference between emerging markets and emerging segments. An emerging market is what people typically think about--such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. The other includes very large developing economies. Of course there are many people in those countries who do not have very good access to technology. At the same time, we look more broadly at a concept called emerging segments...people who do not have access to technology in whatever market they're in.
So what do you do to reach those people? There are obviously people who can't afford technology here in the United States, as well as in our neighboring countries and in emerging markets.
Poole: There are three primary areas where we can help people realize social and economic opportunity through technology. Transforming education is one. The second one is looking at fostering local innovation, and the third one is enabling jobs and opportunities.
When I travel around the world I see the power of the PC to bring people new opportunities--either to have skills that they can apply to get better jobs to earn more money, or to take a disadvantaged person who simply could not get a job at all because of a handicap.
What are some of the technologies that you guys are working on that can really help beyond the economic issues that are in play?
Poole: You bring up a very good point. When I started looking at this about five years ago, I thought that affordability was the biggest challenge. It turns out that affordability is actually the third on the list of issues. The first one turns out to be relevance. That means bringing a product to market that really meets the needs of somebody in an emerging segment--be it in rural India or in urban China or down the street, here in San Francisco. Are we building a technology that is relevant to the specific needs and problems that they have?
The second thing is to look at whether the technology is accessible to them. Can they find a place to buy it? Can they get support? Can they get broadband connectivity to bring them into the world of the Web? And then the third thing is affordability.
So, for example, in Asia we focus a lot on education because that's a very high priority there. In Latin America, we focus a little bit more on the jobs and opportunities and helping people get better jobs through the use of software technology. So there's a variety of different technologies we'll bring to the market, depending on the specific needs of local people.
I've seen a lot of interesting demos from across the company of some different approaches. One of those is called MultiPoint, where it's basically an entire classroom using one computer. Can you talk a little about how that works?
Poole: MultiPoint came from Microsoft Research India. They had sent people out to see what kids were doing with PCs in schools. What they found was that kids tended to be gathered around a PC and (watching) one person do their thing and then they took turns every five minutes or so. It was really not very engaging. So they developed this technology called Microsoft MultiPoint, which enables an application to be built that lets multiple mice be used with a different cursor for each kid. So one kid can be solving a math problem in one part of the screen while another one is solving a math problem on another part of the screen.
They basically can be time-sharing the screen and working collaboratively. What we found is that not only do they get to be more engaged with what they do on the PC...but they help each other. That's turned out to be something that's very beneficial from an education perspective. The kids are engaged and collaborating to solve a problem.
A lot of people think that for much of the world the first computing device that people use won't be a PC. It'll be some sort of mobile device. Obviously, that's an area that Microsoft has spent some time on, but it's a little bit further from its comfort area. What are you doing in the mobile space as far as non-PC devices?
Poole: Well, we certainly agree that the first computing device which will be used by many people around the world will be a phone. You see this happening in emerging segments all around the planet today. Mobile phones are really just taking off as the prices come down and the access is going up. We think that there are some interesting things to do to help make the mobile phone become a better device.
How close is that to being a product? You take the phone that people are already getting, hook it up to the TV they already have and you've got a computer. The phones that we use today in the U.S. certainly are capable of that from a technology perspective. How close is that?
Poole: Well, it's still got a ways to go. We've got it in development in China right now. We've got a manufacturing partner signed on with us, and our group in Beijing is working quite hard on it. It'll be in trials I think within a year and we'll see how people respond to it. It's a new concept in the sense of trying to bring together PC and phone technology in a lower-cost device. It's not something that you're going to see a businessperson in a developed market using while walking down the street. We're trying to really target the needs of a broader population and so we're very excited about the opportunity there, but time will tell.
Obviously, Microsoft is not the only company looking at how to get computing devices into the hands of more people across the globe. The project that's gotten the most attention is the One Laptop Per Child project. What do you make of a program the group is launching in which people in the U.S. can buy one of the laptops for their own use, and then a second computer would go overseas?
Poole: It's an interesting way to get people involved in this challenge that we all see, which is how do you effectively apply technology to education. I'll be very interested to see how it comes out as well.
How important is it that that first device people use be running a Microsoft operating system versus Linux or another operating system?
Poole: Interestingly enough, we don't see that as much of a battle. The battle is around nonconsumption or around buying a new two-wheeled motor vehicle as opposed to buying a PC for the home...Clearly, we have an interest in having our software used and we think that the value that we offer is very deeply desired--particularly as people get into more of the business world...But our primary goal is around just getting technology to be adopted.
How much might Microsoft benefit in the coming years from these efforts to get more people using computers?
Poole: There's no doubt that the growth potential in emerging markets is tremendous...When Bill Gates announced the Unlimited Potential effort back in April in Beijing, he said that we'd like to see the first billion people get benefits from technology by the year 2015. It's going to take a while for us and all of our partners working together to make this happen. But it's something that we think will happen.
I've heard he's really tasking you guys to do it a few years sooner than that.
Poole: Well, you know, Bill is never one to let you off easy. He wants to set a high bar and usually he finds out that people will go for it. We're going to go as fast as we can, but it's not something that Microsoft alone can do. It really is a matter of us working with many, many other companies around the world, including the NGOs or governments or foundations. I think as people get excited and see the results, it will snowball and really pick up momentum.
Source: C|Net News
