Microsoft outsources some DNS servers to Linux, Jan 30, 2001

Last week Microsoft's Web server became unavailable to many users first through router misconfiguration and later through a denial of service attack. Networking experts blamed Microsoft's problems on a network domain which they said featured all four of its domain name server on the same network segment - creating a single point of failure.

Following the debacle Microsoft has partially offloaded its DNS servers to Akamai Technologies - which tests suggest is running these servers on Linux.

The keepers of the Linux operating system have made improvements to the core technology that should make it easier to find lost data.

The biggest addition to the release of Linux kernel 2.4.1 is the ReiserFS, which is a journaling file system. Journaling file systems are key to operating systems and applications used over extended corporate networks because they allow administrators to more quickly recover data in the event of system failure.

On IBM's docket are a new 64-processor IBM server that can run existing Linux applications nchanged, courtesy of some new IBM middleware; a Linux-based workstation using Intel's high-end IA-64 processors; and Linux versions of IBM Domino Workflow and Tivoli systems management software.

Many pundits expect Sun to try to clear up any doubts about its Linux game plan this week at LinuxWorld Expo. The company will show off kiosks based on the Java framework and highlight the fact that JDK 1.3's Hotspot compiler now supports Windows, Solaris, and Linux on equal footing

Q: What is the future of Linux?

A: For the next couple of years, it's clearly getting Linux technology to meet more and more of the needs of running the data center and doing back-end computational models in the best interest of those running data centers.

Linux graphical application tool vendor Century Software Embedded Technologies announced Tuesday that an upgrade of its Linux operating environment and toolkit for Net Devices adds support for new platforms, wireless applications, and multimedia.

Red Hat yesterday said it will bundle Eazel's Nautilus 'Linux user interface for the rest of us' software with future releases of the open source OS.

Something of a coup, this, since Red Hat dominates the Linux market. With Sun gearing up to bundle Nautilus with Solaris and Dell choosing the software as its own preferred Linux user interface, Eazel now stands a good chance of seeing its code become the de facto standard open source UI desktop.

Nautilus essentially brings together local, network and Web-hosted files - be they applications or documents - and services, such as online storage, and presents them to the user through a single, consistent front-end. All of it is designed to sit on top of the next major release of the Gnome desktop environment.

 View older news this year: Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan
 View news from other years: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999