Kernel release: 2.6.0-test9, Oct 25, 2003

2.6.0-test9 has been released today.
See changelog for full details.

Files added: 13
Files changed: 226
Files removed: 2

The ActiveScale hardware architecture is remarkable, but its object-based file system, ActiveScale File System, is the most striking characteristic of the device. It makes possible quasi-unrestricted flows of data between clusters of Linux servers and the ActiveScale storage devices.

In fact, according to company benchmarks, the gain in performance and the additional scalability over traditional NAS devices from NetApp and EMC are staggering. Equally important, ActiveScale devices are built from off-the-shelf components that make for inexpensive configurations — around $25,000 for 1.6TB of capacity.

Trustix, a Norwegian company that sells Linux software intended to be attack-resistant, has been acquired by the Comodo Group, an Internet security company. Terms of the acquisition, announced Friday, were not disclosed.

Here was a speaker at a Linux enterprise conference telling the audience that Linux isn't the best choice for every IT need.

Linux and other open-source software products in many cases may not offer the highest-quality choice available to enterprises, and proprietary software isn't evil, said Jonathan Eunice, president and principal analyst at Illuminata Inc., an IT research and consultancy group in Nashua, N.H.

But enterprises looking to tweak the code of the software they run and avoid "entanglement costs" associated with vendors who may not listen to their needs may want to consider open-source software, he said, speaking at the Enterprise Linux Forum in Washington yesterday.

The judge in the Microsoft Corp. antitrust case urged government lawyers Friday to investigate why only nine companies so far have paid Microsoft to license its technology for their own software products, agreements central to the success of a landmark settlement negotiated with the Bush administration.

"I think all of us had hoped for more agreements," U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly acknowledged during a hearing Friday. "I am interested in finding out why we don't have more licensed products."

The judge said the nine companies that already signed agreements "look like it's pretty much the heavy-hitters." But government lawyers explained it will take months to determine whether the deals will substantially ensure Microsoft can't abuse its control over computers running Windows software.

The judge scheduled another oversight hearing in January.

At the core of Ballmer's remarks is a fundamental misunderstanding not only of Open Source, but of software development as an art rather than as a business. Cutting to the bone of his remarks, he is saying that Microsoft developers, since they are employees, are more skilled and dedicated than Open Source developers. They are better, Ballmer suggests, because Microsoft developers have their rears (presumably their jobs) on the line. All those lines and all those rears are part of a road map, he says, and because of that road map the $30 billion plus Microsoft gets each year isn't too much for us to pay, so the model works pretty well.

This is nonsense. It is nonsense because Steve Ballmer, like Bill Gates before him, confuses market success with technical merit. Microsoft's product roadmap is a manifestation of a business plan, and what matters in Redmond is the plan, not the map, which is in constant flux. How many technical initiatives has Microsoft announced with fanfare and industry partners, yet never delivered? Dozens. That is no roadmap.

Andrew Tridgell, the creator of the popular Samba software, which enables Linux machines to act as Windows file-servers, has been named Australia's smartest person in the ICT sector by Australia's Bulletin magazine. ZDNet Australia spoke to Tridgell, and Professor Bill Caelli of Queensland's University of Technology (QUT) -- a runner-up on the "Smart 100" list -- about the state of open source in Australia and the future of ICT and open source.

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