Desktop Linux's Hardware Woes, Dec 19, 2005

... the other half of computing, hardware, this movement has not been as successful. Every day Linux users encounter driver and compatibility issues which Windows users have not had to deal with for years.

Wouldn't it be great if you could install any Linux software package just by clicking on the package name? In a perfect world, your package would download from a central server and then just run, regardless of what distribution you were using or what release on which your system was running. Well, that world is here now. Join Marcel Gagne on his Linux walkabout to discover the secrets of klik.

Australian companies are not only lagging behind the United States and Asia when deploying Linux and open source software (OSS), they are also reluctant to contribute developer time back into the OSS community, according to a report by analyst group Forrester.

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has voiced cautious optimism that its latest initiative could finally herald a mass-market for Linux on the desktop.

For server vendors such as Dell, Linux is a good thing because it lowers acquisition costs for customers. It's easier for a customer to commit to deploying a new server when software license fees are removed from the equation.

"In the end, it was a really successful project for us, and we ended up deploying it into production -- a high-availability cluster of Dell servers with Red Hat Linux -- and we saved a bunch of money doing it that way," Drouin said.

Imagine if IBM couldn't control their own strategies when it came to PC operating systems, how could they or any other PC manufacturer bring you Linux? Microsoft's tenacles reach in and around many people within the PC world to the extent they represent a pandemic. To extricate them, requires government intervention.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab has announced that Taiwanese device maker Quanta Computer Inc. has been selected to design and build the $100 computers planned as part of the school's One Laptop per Child initiative.

You don't have to have a Linux certification to get a job working with Linux, but it can't hurt.

The use of Linux and other open source software in Australia and New Zealand is miles behind North America, according to tech research company Forrester.

Seems like everyone got tired of clawing at reach other and instead decided to get down to work last week. Moreover, not only was the acrimony factor way down, but also the helpful factor was way up. What a change! It's been a good week.

The vice president of the dominant Linux supplier in China says government support is creating opportunities for desktop Linux to grow.

Linux is great, but sometimes a guy's gotta play games. Here's how to set up a quicker Dual-Boot to get you back into windows.

As has been widely reported, including in this blog (see, for example, The Fix is in on ODF and A Nasty Little Turf Battle on Beacon Hill), an amendment was recently added to an economic bill in the Massachusetts Senate that would, if enacted, transfer control over most meaningful state IT decisions to a new politically appointed "task force". The bill to which that amendment is attached has not yet been adopted, but may be early in the New Year, if not sooner.

The DCC Alliance formally released its first standards-based Debian core to serve as the foundation to its members Linux distributions this week.

A developer meeting strengthens a Linux desktop alliance that could lead to better leverage with hardware vendors and more cross-distribution efforts such as the newly created Portland Project.

Here are some reasons why the Linux desktop has been so slow in coming: good, bad and interesting.

Software developer, Philip Copeman, is looking for programmers to build a Linux version of the popular windows-based open source accounting software, Turbocash.

XenSource has released version 3.0 of its Xen virtualization software, the first major open-source offering to compete with the likes of VMware, Scalent and SWsoft.

Some day, somewhere, some company will have to have the guts to face down Microsoft and make it possible for anyone to easily buy a Linux desktop.

A recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing has revealed that Apple now considers Linux a potential market challenger.

Corporate adoption of Linux desktops is hindered by the inability to run Windows applications, the difficulty of installing and managing peripheral devices and the challenge of making users feel comfortable with the open-source operating system, a survey shows.

Skype's new video phone service will very likely be available for Mac and Linux, the company has hinted. We spoke to James Bilefield, the company's vice president of business development, and pumped him for news about the future direction of the company and its products.

The message is pretty clear when it comes to the growth of Linux and open source software in Australia. The ideologues are going to have to fade into the background and keep their philosophical debates within the confines of the community while the sharp and commercially savvy deal with the hard reality of winning business contracts

A gathering in Beaverton of 50 top developers will focus on improvements and further collaboration

A recent Slashdot offering entitled A Look At Windows Server Outselling Linux pointed to a story on CoolTechZone with the absurd title of "Linux is Doomed, Thanks to Microsoft." The story, title and all, is one of the most egregiously wrong reports of the century. Here's why.

Linux and the Free Software movement are slowly but constantly getting closer to the general public in Italy. More confirmation came last Thursday, when the home page of La Repubblica, one of the biggest national newspapers, displayed a smiling penguin linking to a full-blown article presenting the "Fifth Edition of the National Day of Linux and Free Software, celebrated with 97 events in 94 cities from Agrigento (Southern Sicily) to Aosta (in the Alps)."

If you want a desktop or laptop and you want to move to Linux then you're cooked. You have very few options and retailers have used low-cost Linux systems to bait and switch users. So, why don't the major Intel vendors offer Linux? Short answer: Microsoft. The old monopolist still commands and makes demands on its OEM vendors.

If you love the cool looks and diminutive size of Apple's Mac Mini but are unwilling to move from Windows or Linux to Mac OS, check out AOpen's stylish and capable MiniPC.

Microsoft Corp. spent a considerable amount of time, money and energy trying to convince corporate IT shops that moving from Windows to Linux servers wouldn't make sense -- but at least for now, it's not clear it had to bother.

Is your business ready to take the open source plunge? We test five leading desktop Linux distributions and come up with one winner.

If Microsoft is the big cat prowling the Serengeti of software with its Windows operating system, companies that promote Linux are playing the part of elk, banding together in protective herds.

FSMLabs is claiming a breakthrough single digit microsecond timing on a 64bit dual core AMD Opteron processors and has released Carrier Grade Linux and tools for a wide range of AMD processors.

Open source communities really do help coders reduce the turnaround time for bug fixes, according to Evans Data

India's largest Free and Open Source Software Event, will be held at the Bangalore Palace from November 29 to December 2, 2005.

Rodney Gedda and Howard Dahdah might consider taking a Continuing Education course in Journalism at a local college after the butchery job they did for ComputerWorld on Monday. The story headline "Banks Choose Windows over Linux" also needed a top edit from the Editor in Chief. So let's set the record straight.

Virtualisation technology is about to take one more step forward, if Sun's announcement that it plans to integrate Solaris containers for Linux applications bears fruit. The feature is, said Sun, designed to allow organisations to run Red Hat binaries unmodified in containers on the Sun OS by year end. Additionally, Sun has demonstrated virtual Solaris in a Xen wrapper.

Banks worldwide are opting for the predictability and familiarity of Microsoft's Windows for application servers over Linux, according to a global financial services software company.

Linux servers are ready for prime time and most web sites run on them. This article examines Linux desktop problems.

Linux's record for reliability may be the polar opposite of what critics consider the crash-a-day life of Windows. Yet, the fact that Linux crashes are rare means that an unexpected outage throws many IT administrators in unmapped territory. Learning the proper steps to prevent such crashes can help Linux admins avoid many headaches over the long term.

The Indian government is pushing an ambitious project to distribute CDs containing Firefox and OpenOffice in all official Indian languages

Without ballyhoo or headlines, open source is eating away at the enterprise computing core and moving steadily outwards.

Linux Networx Inc. and Penguin Computing Inc. are expanding their Linux offerings for the high-performance computing market.

SAP has back-peddled on some controversial statements about open source that one of its executives made during a speaking engagement at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley.

If you're moving to Linux, CodeWeaver's CrossOver Office lets you take many of your favorite Windows programs with you.

As you already know, if I have to sit down in front of a computer, I want it to be running the Gnome desktop on Linux. I've watched it mature from a downright ugly, needlessly complex playground for geeks, to an attractive, simple interface that holds its own against commercial alternatives. And yet, every day I still encounter rough edges that make me think there aren't nearly enough folks out there hacking away at this stuff. I'd like to watch.

Most women, when they plan their careers, think in terms of having jobs. But why limit yourself? The computing world is a haven for the self-employed, and the FOSS world supplies tools and opportunities you won't find anywhere else...The whole idea is to do something that you find personally rewarding, get paid for it, and do it your way.

Hardware and clustering company Linux Networx unveiled its LS Series of Linux machines Monday. The Series contains two families, the midrange LS-1 Supersystem and the high-end LS/X supercomputer.

RealPlayer 10 for Linux, based on the open source Helix multimedia player, has reached gold status and is now available for free download. RealPlayer 10 is currently the second-most popular desktop media player, behind Windows Media Player, according to IDC.

NuBridges LLC, a major player in electronic data interchange and business-to-business exchange trading, is adopting Linux both internally and as a platform for customers licensing software for use across their own supply chains.

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