Conspiracy Theories and the 'Smoking Gun', Jun 29, 2009

Is Microsoft behind a conspiracy to keep Linux-powered netbooks off the market?

Why do Microsoft and vendors like ASUS continue to push the line that Microsoft Windows is the ultimate operating system for the diminutive ultraportable netbook market? The Windows 7 plan for netbooks is fraught with limitation and burdens. It's time to bring back the penguin.

There has been a lot of talk about the success or failure of the Linux netbooks recently, to the point that it is now a very controversial topic.

For all the discussion of the importance of transparency and openness on the Web today, it's very telling that the world's fastest-growing mobile platform may also be the most proprietary. If openness matters so much, why is Apple doing so well with its uber-proprietary iPhone, just as Microsoft dominates the desktop with proprietary Windows?

With all the atttention being paid to touch screen interfaces (for Smartphones, but also Windows 7's apparent native support) don't think Linux is being left behind.

A team of developers from the Interactive Computing Lab at the ENAC (Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile) aeronautics academy in Toulouse, France have successfully created proof-of-concept multi-touch drivers for Linux.

Big companies are increasing how much they spend on putting Linux software on mainframes, according to a global study.

Ubuntu creator Mark Shuttleworth is itching for a clean fight with Microsoft on netbooks. Shuttleworth once told The Reg he can't wait for Windows 7 on this sub-laptop class of machines because it'll finally give Ubuntu the opportunity to compete fairly against Microsoft's operating system in this emerging market.

With Linux being used as the foundation for numerous smartphone and mobile internet devices, it is tempting to suggest that this movement is going to open the doorway to desktop Linux. Tempting, but not accurate.

It seems that some more details on the capabilities of the newly launched Palm Pre and on its webOS platform have made it into the wild, and among them the fact that the handset can easily run unsigned firmware. It all starts with the installation of a native Linux version of the FCEUltra NES emulator from within a Debian chroot.

A team of developers from the Interactive Computing Lab at the ENAC (Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile) aeronautics academy in Toulouse, France have successfully created proof-of-concept multi-touch drivers for Linux.

What should your business know about USB 3.0? It's almost ready for the mass market, it's extremely fast -- and Linux will be the first OS to support it.

Just a few weeks after NEC presented its first host controller chip for USB 3.0 and Fresco Logic released its USB 3.0 expansion card, and even before the first products offer the new SuperSpeed mode, a Linux driver for the xHCI (Extensible Host Controller Interface) is waiting in the wings.

With the increasing prevalence of virtualization comes the greater need for management of “guest” operating systems that run as virtual machines on the hypervisor, and the tool called libguestfs is set to provide that on Linux.

Why does Linux seem to have multiple choices in operating systems, such as Ubuntu or Slackware, and where do the names come from?

Yesterday, Apple announced significant price drops on many of its consumer products including the iPhone and Mac Air.

The four reasons why normal people don't use linux: Inertia, Ignorance, Indifference and Innovation.

Not long after my post about the newest rev of OpenSolaris, a programmer friend called me to dissent. He'd tried OpSol, too, found it sorely lacking, and from his comments I found a criticism that now applies to Linux as well.

Have you bought a Kindle or Kindle 2 yet? Don't--at least not until you check out the COOL-ER ebook reader. The COOL-ER is Linux-based and is ready to deliver with 128MB RAM, 1GB storage (Expandable to 4GB--SD Card) and its Samsung® S3C2440 ARM 400MHz processor.

Go back to basics with these old-school file managers.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps Verizon Business customers deploy high-performing, secure, open cloud computing infrastructures.

According to a recent survey by The Eclipse Foundation, Ubuntu is the most popular choice for developers.

Q: What is the true market share for Linux? A: Depends who you ask! You can find desktop penetration of 1%, 2% and 4% - and a server share right up to 46%!

For those waiting for a grand cataclysmic battle between Gog (Linux) and Magog (Windows), with one supreme victor, don't hold your breath, suggests a new study by Harvard Business School.

Eclipse has long been one of my favourite open source projects, despite, or maybe even because, it's not as widely appreciated as it should be – though more now than it was three years ago when I described it as Open Source's Best-Kept Secret.

My netbook came with SUSE Linux, but I want to use Ubuntu Linux. What’s the easiest way to change?

ASUS has effectively abandoned Linux and stated a power user would use Windows instead.

At today's ASUS product showcase in Sydney, a bunch of media representatives where given a taste of the company's latest and greatest notebooks, including the new range of Eee PC netbooks.

Invisible Linux would essentially do for Linux what Apple did with NeXTStep / BSD: take the open source core and wrap it in a layer that may not be open source but which is polished to a degree that makes it irresistible to end users.

There is such a wealth of great Free and Open Source software applications it's almost an embarrassment of riches.

I downloaded a pre-release version of Bayanihan 5, the upcoming version of the state-sponsored Linux distribution, hoping to put it through its paces.

An IBM-sponsored survey of 1,275 IT professionals around the world asked for feedback on their experiences making the switch to Linux in their organizations.

It's the law of unintended consequences. Microsoft's launch Vista was the best recruiter for Linux on the desktop according to a senior IBM executive.

When netbooks first hit the market, they were hailed by some as the grand coming-out party for Linux on the client. But then Microsoft slashed the price of Windows XP and put a sleeper hold on the netbook market.

New information about Nokia's Linux strategy has been exposed through a leak. The company is allegedly planning to bring its Linux-based Maemo platform to smartphone devices in 2010.

If managers take the time to prepare -- both themselves and their users -- changing the operating system need not be painful.

I'm not surprised that desktop Linux has hit the one percent milestone. I'm surprised that anyone takes these numbers seriously in the first place.

Microsoft's new entry-level server edition, Windows Server 2008 Foundation, is aimed squarely at Linux, and the software giant says its "simplicity" is expected to give it the edge over Linux as the choice server OS for the small business segment.

Half of the businesses that have deployed Linux on the desktop have rolled it out to less than 20% of their workers due to perceived and real obstacles, according to a survey by released by a U.K. analyst firm.

Window 7's XP Mode will get users used to the idea of desktop virtualisation - and make it easier for them to move to Linux or Mac OS.

The past couple of weeks saw a flurry or articles debating the future of Linux on netbooks. A report in the Taipei Times on May 9th was picked up by LinuxToday but largely ignored by the tech press and the blogosphere. Stephen Lim, the General Manager of Taiwan based Linpus Technologies, made the surprising prediction that Linux will regain 50% market share from Windows on netbooks by next year.

Pretty much every new product gets hyped as a potentially disruptive technology these days, and usually nobody outside of the company's marketing department actually believes it.

Windows and Mac users have been taking advantage of DisplayLink for the last couple of years. The technology allows users to connect multiple monitors--as well as docking stations and projectors--to a single system via USB only; no need for any fancy-pants graphics cards. Today, DisplayLink announced it is planning to bring its technology to Linux.

Someone is planning to buy a netbook. Should s/he go with Linux or Windows?

A follow-up to a previous story.

The East Rand Linux Users Group (Elug) and SA Linux have agreed to work together to jointly promote Linux and open source software in South Africa and increase collaboration between open source companies.

We are comparing the performance of the Linux and Sun OpenSolaris kernels.

You don’t have to settle for an OS that’s a bad fit for your netbook — there are numerous alternatives, some of which can provide a near-laptop experience.

Options for building and deploying Web-based applications to the "cloud" are abundant.

Does FOSS need a common packaging framework?

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