● 02.24.09

● Links 24/02/2009: Android Scares Microsoft’s CEO; Google Protests Against Internet Explorer Bundling

Posted in News Roundup at 10:53 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• * Cost

• The number one reason for choosing Linux, people have reported building a Linux media center with $400 total cost. Top that! Of course if you have unlimited budget this is not an argument. On the other hand what can be defined as unlimited? With equal money you will always be capable of building more. That’s why big movie studios use Linux.

• * A whole house media system build with cheap diskless hardware

• Have some old PC’s laying around? You can use them as pxe bootable thin clients for your Linux MCE system, most cheap graphics cards support tv out for a while now. Make a pc pxe bootable over the network and use it as a media director. And you can have one master system serving media throughout the whole house.

• I am increasingly aware of more and more “regular” people using Linux. They bought a netbook, their son or daughter installed “this thing called Ubuntu” on their aging hardware, or maybe they just thought they’d try something new. There is indeed a quiet, but sizable group of Linux users out there who want to buy consumer products that “just work” with Linux. Frankly, I am one of them. I would be ecstatic to use the Eye-Fi card with my Acer Aspire One on the road, but someone thought I was not a viable part of the consumer market.

• Amazon uses a scalable, decentralized, fault tolerant server structure to guarantee 99.9% data availability at a cost far less expensive than building a data center and renting space. The only concern for the user is the reliability and speed of the local Internet connection.

• VP of the Oracle database server unit.

• Vertica is competing with database machines, a database system preloaded on a piece of hardware, by offering a column-oriented database appliance, a copy of its system optimized to run with CentOS Linux in the VMware virtual machine. (CentOS repackages a version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 or earlier.) The analytic database is designed to be used in organizations that frequently want to deploy a data mart, have highly seasonal data leading to periods of intense usage, or have analytic databases that grow rapidly, said Menninger.

• Linux is an alternative operating system to Windows and Mac OS. It’s powerful, and many versions of it are free.

• Using Linux to “put the fun back into computing” will be the topic at the March meeting of the SLO Bytes PC Users Group, with Alan Raul demonstrating how to use Linux for everyday computing tasks. He will show how to run Linux from a CD or flash drive without affecting your present operating system.

Kernel Space

• In early January we had delivered Linux Solid-State Drive Benchmarks of an OCZ Core Series V2 SSD, which was a low-cost low-capacity single-cell drive. The increased performance and decreased power consumption compared to a 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.0 hard drive was nice for a netbook, but how are the higher-end solid-state drives performing? In this article, we have a high-performance Intel X25-E Extreme SSD on a System76 notebook running Ubuntu Linux.

• This is mostly lots of small fixes, with the stats being dominated by some DocBook movement and an ia64 defconfig addition:

• 20.4% Documentation/DocBook/ 3.9% Documentation/ 2.0% arch/arm/ 30.2% arch/ia64/configs/ 5.5% arch/x86/ 2.4% arch/ 3.8% drivers/gpu/drm/i915/ 2.3% drivers/scsi/ 12.6% drivers/ 2.2% fs/btrfs/ 5.5% fs/cifs/ 2.3% fs/

Boot

• Flashy movies aside, though, is there a real advantage to having faster boot times when most of us don’t shut down and reboot to begin with? And if so, is it worth touting as a feature on the same order as, say, support for cellular network connectivity?

• When you’re on the run, opportunities to hop online to check e-mail, flight status, or a favorite Web site tend to be infrequent and of limited duration. That’s why, when you do get a chance to fire up your notebook, the time it takes to boot and load Windows can seem like an eternity.

Desktop Environments

• Enlightenment is perhaps the least known and the oldest Windows manager still being actively developed. KDE and Gnome (Desktop Environments) made their first release few years after Enlightenment had its first release way back in 1996. Enlightenment features an iconbar, which the “Dock” of OS X is based on, and is quite different from the traditional WM and DE that we are used to. The current version, E17, has been in development since 2000 with slow update cycles and perhaps one of the reason why it is not as widely adopted as other WM and DE out there. Earlier version of gOS was based on E16-17 (they moved to gnome). Elive, OpenGEU and Maryan Linux are three distribution that has Enlightenment installed by default.

Distributions

• When you tell someone, “I’m going to buy a car,” you usually hear, “Which one?” Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Saturn? Two-door, four-door, minivan? And so on.

• Likewise, if you say “I want to run Linux,” you’ll get the same question: Which one? There’s no one “Linux” in the same sense that there’s no one “car.” There are things common among all cars as there are among all Linux distributions: All cars have an engine, and all Linux distributions share the Linux kernel and many of the GNU utilities.

• The specialized Linuxes in this roundup showcase the advantages of customizing both OS components and user-level software. I look at a pair of firewall Linuxes, IPCop and m0n0wall; a Linux SAN/NAS appliance, OpenFiler; two Linuxes for musicians, Ubuntu Studio and Musix; and a final duo of distributions, Ubuntu Christian Edition and Ubuntu Muslim Edition, targeted at members of those corresponding religions.

• That issue aside, Carlos also clarified to me that the distro costs $80 for a reason. It includes Codeweaver’s Crossover Office, which is something I overlooked the first time around. Since that product on its own costs $70, it makes a bit more sense as to why the distro itself isn’t cheap. But, with that feature tacked on, this distro is not for most Linux enthusiasts, but rather those who come from Windows and want something a little more familiar.

• Kongoni’s second baseline release will be the first public release of the distribution. At this point in time it is extremely close to being released and you can expect it to be officially announced sometime in the next 48 hours (don’t hold me to this as a promise though – we are community project and we do not set or do deadlines).

• The VectorLinux developers have released a new version of the Slackware derivative, VectorLinux 6. This version of the lean system is the first to offer installation via a graphical installer, although text-based installation is still supported. VectorLinux Standard is based on Xfce version 4.43 and includes LXDE and Openbox as desktop alternatives. The developer team is offering a commercial deluxe version, with KDE 4.2 and other extras, from the project’s online shop. The Gnome desktop environment can be installed using the VectorLinux software repository.

• If you are looking for a fast Linux distribution with a lot of the most common and useful packages installed, VectorLinux could be a good choice.

• VEProxmox VE is a “bare metal” ISO Linux distribution that is a virtual machine platform. It is geared towards enterprise users and designed to be installed on enterprise grade hardware.

• [...]

• PVE is a viable alternative to other products like VMware or Xen. I have been using PVE since the initial 0.9 public release. I currently run about 30 virtual machines on a Proxmox VE cluster including several mission critical servers and have had no issues with the core functionality in the 8 months that I have been using it. It is missing some features that the commercial offerings provide but no other open source application offers the functionality provided by Proxmox VE.

• Taking advantage of that concept is Qimo, a desktop operating system geared toward kids that is based on the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. Developed by a husband-and-wife team Brian and Michelle Hall, Qimo was released in mid-February.

• Steve McIntyre, the leader of the Debian Project, has appointed Kurt Roeckx as the new Debian secretary. The decision was made in close cooperation with Bdale Garbee, the current acting secretary. Neal McGovern was confirmed as an assistant, “due to his recent experience as assistant to the previous secretary.”

Red Hat

• Does this mean that Red Hat will be getting back into the Linux desktop business? That’s the question I posed to Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens, in a phone call after the Red Hat/KVM press conference, and he told me that, “Yes. Red Hat will indeed be pushing the Linux desktop again.”

• Among a horde of other features to be introduced with Fedora 11 (a.k.a. Leonidas), the Nouveau driver will become the default NVIDIA driver on this Red Hat distribution.

Ubuntu

• Ubuntu Linux founder Mark Shuttleworth recently announced that the next version after “Jaunty Jackalope” is codenamed “Karmic Koala”. This ended some humorous speculations that Ubuntu 9.10 will be called Kinky Kangaroo.

• Ubuntu’s upcoming 9.10 release now has a name: Karmic Koala. However, all of the news wasn’t so cute and fuzzy this week in the FOSS blogosphere. One blogger posted a Linux virus how-to, which got quite a bit of attention. Turns out the vulnerability has been known since 2006.

• Well, I’m going to leave Crunch Bang Linux on my laptop. My first real test will be when I travel in a few weeks – as that’s usually the time I use my laptop. I’ll probably be using it to watch videos or play games. At that time I’ll know if Crunch Bang can meet my needs or if I need to go back to Ubuntu. If I go back to Ubuntu I’ll be sure to blog about it. I intend to blog about my feelings of Crunch Bang, Conky, and Gwibber after an extended use, but I can’t guarantee I’ll get around to it – especially if there’s nothing extraordinary to report. In that sense – no news is good news.

• If you want to embrace open operating systems, quit the Microsoft monopoly or the Apple cult, Ubuntu is one of the most powerful operating systems based on the popular open source Linux kernel. It can do everything that the costly operating systems, only oh so much more, and for free!

• First, to be clear: Unison’s unified communications software is not open source. But Unison will offer a free, advertising-driven version of its unified communications software to customers running Ubuntu Server Edition.

• The big question: Will ad-driven unified communications software take off? Nobody will know for sure until Unison for Ubuntu Server Edition ships shortly.

Devices/Embedded

• Though 2009 has only just begun, it looks like this year’s going to be a busy one for Chumby Industries. The makers of the hackable, completely open, Linux-based, internet-enabled, so-much-more-than-an-alarm-clock — well, alarm clock — have announced a number of partnerships since January’s Consumer Electronics Show.

• Broadcom has incorporated the scalable Linux-based widget platform into a system-on-a-chip for TV-based hardware, equipping the latest Internet-connected devices with all of Chumby’s partner content, which includes Pandora, The New York Times, SHOUTcast, CBS, The Weather Channel, and MTV.

• It actually has a mini Linux computer inside, letting you watch internet video or place widgets on that wee screen, front and center and tiltable for your viewing pleasure.

• Marvell announced today a new type of computer. It’s about the size of an AC to DC converting wall outlet plug, but is really a full SoC with a 1200 MHz CPU, built-in 512 MB Flash, 512 MB DRAM, Gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0 support. It runs small versions of Linux, consumes about 5 watts max while allowing remote users (presumably those authorized by the owner) to access data stored on the device from remote locations including local intranets or over the Internet. The $49 device opens up a wide array of extremely low-power, low-volume, always on applications.

• Wind River will buy Tilcon Software, a vendor of Linux-compatible, embedded GUI (graphical user interface) toolkits targeting industrial, defense, medical, automotive, and mobile devices. Alameda, Calif.-based Wind River will pay $3.5 million for Tilcon, of Ottawa, Canada, in a deal set to close Feb. 27.

• Working through the OSADL, German embedded-systems vendor Denx is seeking community participation and funding for a Freescale MPC512x Linux BSP (board support package) suitable for inclusion in mainline Linux. Based on a PowerPC core, the MPC512x targets automotive telematics, building automation, medical diagnostics, surveillance, digital home, and gaming applications.

• ONLINE book seller Amazon has shipped its new version of the Kindle electronic reading device.

Android

• After the fanfare faded, we ended up with Android-a platform that launched with some limitations but nonetheless has significant potential. Although the first Android devices leave a lot to be desired when compared to competing products, the platform itself is evolving quickly, and it offers the advantages of openness and collaborative development. In this article we’ll take a close look at the underlying technology of Android and what the platform means for developers.

• T-Mobile’s Android phone hit only last October 17, 2008, early in Q4. Here’s a telling quote from the report: “Motorola, currently holding onto fourth place in smartphones thanks largely to its Linux-based models, recently announced it would move away from using the Symbian OS and focus more on Android.” Which is also Linux.

• General Mobile demonstrated a dual-SIM, XScale-based Android cameraphone last week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Based on a design by Chinese telecom ODM (original design maker) Yuhua (aka Yuhuatel), the DSTL1 could be among the first Android phones to ship, when it launches this summer.

• And concerns regarding Google’s open-source mobile operating system Android are not far behind.

• “I think the dynamics with Linux is changing somewhat,” Ballmer said. “I assume we’ll see Android-based, Linux-based laptops, in addition to phones, and we’ll see Google more and more as a competitor in the desktop operating system business than we ever have before.”

• Microsoft shares are down slightly, trading just over $17, following Ballmer’s remarks.

• With the grim economic climate weighing on all sectors of its business, Microsoft reiterated warnings about slowing revenues and profits for the second half of the year, but vowed prudent spending as the company looks ahead to new fronts in its war with Google.

• Although it is still early enough in development that it may not become a shipping product, Asus has confirmed that it has been developing a netbook based on Google’s Android platform. Asus’ Eee PC division lead, Samson Hu, told Bloomberg that engineers are working on a possible end-of-year release window. We’ve written before about Cupcake, a version of Android that is friendly to non-phone devices, and there have already been successful efforts putting Cupcake on netbooks.

Sub-notebooks

• Slowing PC sales and rising netbooks shipment has been adding to the woes of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). An estimated 30% of all netbooks sold come with free and open-source Linux operating system. Moreover, Microsoft has been selling its Windows operating system at a discount to get it installed in the machines, which in turn is hurting its software business. Last month, the Redmond, Washington based company reported a meager 1.6% rise in quarterly sales. While announcing 5,000 job cuts, the software giant blamed netbooks for a drop in Window sales. “Client revenue declined 8% as a result of PC market weakness and a continued shift to lower priced netbooks,” the company said in a statement. Windows sales were down 8% in the latest quarter.

• According to current figures from Netbookdigest.com, Microsoft has lost $435,000,000 over the last year in netbook sales.

• While Microsoft has maintained about 90% of the desktop and notebook market, netbooks come in at only 70%. Part of the reason is Linux, but part is Microsoft itself.

• The miserly constraints spurred her to be fiendishly resourceful. Instead of using a spinning hard drive she chose flash memory—the type in your USB thumb drive—because it draws very little juice and doesn’t break when dropped. For software she picked Linux and other free, open source packages instead of paying for Microsoft’s wares. She used an AMD Geode processor, which isn’t very fast but requires less than a watt of power. And as the pièce de résistance, she devised an ingenious LCD panel that detects whether onscreen images are static (like when you’re reading a document) and tells the main processor to shut down, saving precious electricity.

• Bob Morris, head of mobile computing at ARM, tells ZDNet UK why a firm best known for its work on mobile-phone chip architecture could have a major impact on the netbook market

Free Software/Open Source

• The European Commission’s Open Source Observatory and Repository project (Osor.eu) invites anyone working on open source to launch their own community-section on the OSOR website.

• Open source policy-makers, software developers and other users of the OSOR website can, for example, start a community section based on their area of expertise, country or language. For instance, European specialists on public procurement of open source software can in this way easily start working together with colleagues in other EU member states.

• QQ’s growth should not overshadow this month’s other significant event: Apache has gained 7.8 million sites, making it the first vendor to be used by more than 100 million websites.

• Bourne-again shell (Bash) version 4.0 has been released and includes several fixes to serious bugs from the 3.x releases and some significant new features. Bash 4.0, a free software Unix/Linux shell written for the GNU Project, is released under version 3 of the GNU General Public License and is the default shell for most Linux systems.

• The latest news from Harrison Consoles (a company that pioneered the use of Linux in high-end audio applications) announces that Universal Studios has upgraded their massive theatrical mixing console with Harrison’s latest Linux automation system.

Browsers

• The HTML 5 video element will also arrive in Firefox 3.1. This will allow video content to be embedded directly in Web pages, controlled with JavaScript, and manipulated through the DOM. It’s a major step forward for rich media content on the Web. Firefox 3.1 will ship with built-in support for the Ogg Vorbis and Theora formats—open audio and video codecs that are believed to be unencumbered by patents. The actual codec implementations are integrated directly into the browser itself, so content in those formats will be playable without requiring any external components or plugins.

• Today Mitchell Baker was announced as a winner of The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) Women of Vision Awards in the Leadership category. Please see the post on Above the Fold for more details, crossposted below:

• The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) announced that Mitchell Baker is a winner of this year’s Women of Vision Awards in the Leadership category. Mitchell, along with Yuqing Gao, IBM Research, and Jan Cuny, National Science Foundation, will be honored for her accomplishments and contributions as a woman in technology at ABI’s fourth annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose on April 30th, 2009.

• This is because Internet Explorer is tied to Microsoft’s dominant computer operating system, giving it an unfair advantage over other browsers. Compare this to the mobile market, where Microsoft cannot tie Internet Explorer to a dominant operating system, and its browser therefore has a much lower usage. The value of competition for users (even in the limited form we see today) is clear: tabbed browsing, faster downloads, private browsing features, and more. Even greater competition will drive more innovation within browsers themselves – as well as in web design, enabling sites to load faster and offer new kinds of interactive tools and applications.

Funding

• Linux Fund has partnered with Inkscape developer Milosz Derezynski to improve the text dialog of this open source vector graphics editor. This work will improve Inkscape’s usability by enhancing its text tool to provide numeric control over kerning and other essential text attributes.

• Linux Fund welcomes three new members to its Board of Directors: consultant and community activist Michael Dexter, consultant and professor Dan Carrere, and developer and community activist Ilan Rabinovitch.

Standards/Consortia

• Could your company become a victim of vendor lock-in? If you rely entirely on proprietary software, you very well could be. What exactly is this vendor lock-in of which I speak? It is a way of ensuring that you, the consumer, will only be able to use specific products as set forth by select manufacturers.

• A classic, old-school example of vendor lock-in would have to be with ink jet printer cartridges. When you purchase any major brand of ink jet printer, you will be stuck relying on ink they themselves produce, no matter how hard you might wish to use something else.

• [...]

• So by now, you get the general idea — lock-in is a huge negative. Finding software solutions that provide you with an out should you need it is key. For example, let’s say I wish to migrate my email from Thunderbird to Evolution. And to make matters even more complex, let’s say I am moving this email from Windows over to a new Linux PC. One might think this to be a really scary kind of deal.

• Personally, I’d say the main thing it needs is what only Microsoft can provide: true interoperability, guaranteed, with Microsoft’s ‘standard’. I am hearing from one and all that the crutches being offered for ODF to try to do so don’t really work very well. That is wrong. Period. It’s what I expected, but it needs to be fixed. What if there were another natural disaster, like Katrina? Interoperability and the ability to communicate with government agencies can mean your life. It’s that serious, and who is to argue that the lives of Linux users don’t matter?

Leftovers

• In a letter sent to ISPs across the country last week, the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) disclosed the deal and warned others to follow suit or face legal action.

• Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.

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