Thanks to Linux, this beer's for you!, Sep 24, 2004

Webmaster's note: Here's a good Friday story

Want to send your best buddy, boss, or promising client a drink "on you" via your wireless phone? You can, if your friend lives in London. Eagle Eye Solutions, based in the United Kingdom, is launching a new service today called Buymeabeer.com using a Linux-based server platform.

It's a simple concept -- so simple, one wonders why no one else has implemented the idea until now. Visit the Buymeabeer.com Web site, select the drink you want to send, then enter your friend's mobile phone number and your credit card number. Buymeabeer.com sends a text message voucher to the recipient, who then brings the phone to any Corney & Barrow bar and "redeems" the text message for the pre-paid drink.

Sun's top brass recently explained to me their strategy for avoiding oblivion - but it's not entirely foolproof

Sun Microsystems seeks to avoid oblivion by pursuing a simple but powerful strategy.

Its plan? Attack Red Hat, use control over the operating system and the platform to disrupt competitors' pricing and business models, out-engineer everybody in the x86 space and use an alliance with Microsoft to fight a common enemy: IBM.

GNOME is a popular, and free, Linux/Unix desktop environment that is the counterpart to the KDE Linux desktop. Version 2.8 of GNOME was released recently. The latest version doesn't include any radical changes, but many subtle improvements. Users will probably like the new file and network interface management and improved removable hardware support, as well as some new tweaks that benefit Linux laptop users.

Dipping a toe in the waters of Linux can be a daunting prospect. Friendly installers on major distributions take the edge off, but there's still plenty lurking beneath the surface to trip up the unsuspecting new user.

For many potential Linux converts a hard disk install is too much of an investment. In response to this problem, there are now several 'live' distributions that can be run directly from CD.

Targeting multi-user public computing environments, Canada's Userful enables a Linux PC to connect up to 10 monitors, giving each user the experience of being connected to a standalone computer. Using the company’s “1-Box” approach, up to ten users can browse the Internet, send email and run applications from one computer. Each user’s workstation operates as an independent PC.

The Danish Ministry of Finance has chosen JBoss running on Linux over Microsoft's BizTalk to run a data-exchange system

The Ministry of Finance in Denmark has implemented an open-source project to simplify data exchange between systems.

The data-exchange system uses open-source application server JBoss running on Red Hat Linux. It transmits 1.5 megabits of data per second between around 400 public institutions and the ministry, according to a Computer Science Corporation (CSC) report on open source.

Despite reports indicating that the move from Windows to Linux has been slow and that companies are cautious about adopting Linux, open source proponents are singing a different song altogether.

IBM, for instance, says that the recent spate of events in the open source and proprietary worlds will see Linux's momentum picking up.

MTU Aero Engines has developed a Linux-based supercomputer for simulating the aerodynamics of engines - and dramatically reduced costs as a result

An aerospace company based in Munich, Germany, has set up a Linux cluster to assist it with the development of aircraft engines.

Over the last three years MTU Aero Engines has built up two parallel Linux clusters which contain a total of 448 processors. MTU's supercomputer is now ranked at 179 in the Top500 supercomputers.

Novell South Africa yesterday announced it has appointed ex-Microsoft employee Garry Hodgson as its OEM Business Development manager. Hodgson during his time at Microsoft was a key architect of the company's Windows 95 OEM strategy which established the company as the dominant player in the software market in South Africa. Hodgson was also the driver of Microsoft's programme to offer all schools in South Africa with free software. Hodgson left Microsoft 18 months to establish the Digital Hope Foundation with the idea of providing communities and schools with low-cost access to computing technology.

The French Ministry of Defense has awarded an $8.6 million, three-year contract to a consortium of companies, including Paris-based Linux vendor Mandrakesoft SA, to develop a highly secure Linux operating system for business, defense and government uses.

The process of hunting typically requires a lot of time just waiting for the animal to show up. Using a Linux box, a cheap webcam, and a modem, one can make the job a lot more comfortable and take up a lot less of your time in the field.

Sun Microsystems has apparently backed away from its efforts to acquire a Linux software distribution -- for now.

The Santa Clara, Calif., network computer maker had been looking to augment its enterprise portfolio, sources told internetnews.com this week.

Allowing multiple users to seamlessly access Windows desktop and applications remotely without the performance hit associated with thin clients is being put into production by Sydney-based startup NetLeverage.

NetLeverage's CEO Steven Hasani said the ThinPoint appliance allows access to applications from anywhere in the world and is comparable to Microsoft's Terminal Server or Citrix.

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