Highly anticipated open-source releases coming in '09, Mar 31, 2009

There are plenty of remarkable open-source applications on the way this year. Quite a few projects are quietly (or not so quietly) working on major releases or significant upgrades that they aim to make available sometime during 2009.

Microsoft likes to tout the cost savings that derive from paying Windows-skilled employees less money. That's great, if you're an employer, but if you're an engineer who needs to feed her family, the money is in Linux and Mac OS X skills, as highlighted in a recent post on the site of the Free and Open Source Software Learning Centre.

More than 50% of IT executives in a recent survey said that they were planning to accelerate Linux adoption in 2009.

Like any worthwhile operating system, popular Linux distributions define themselves not just by the default desktop manager in use, but also by the software elected to be included out of the box. This said, not all of the most important applications are always included in the popular distributions like Ubuntu or Fedora.

Here is a short list of books that users - from newbies to gurus - can download and read at their leisure: from introductions to Linux, books on implementing open source in schools and in Africa, to books that defined the evolution of free software.

If anything, Linux works the hardest for the hassle-free experience of any of the operating systems. Each alpha, beta and RC is passed through thousands of hands before it ever gets anywhere near an end user. Each line of code is mulled, every aspect of the operating system considered - by that I mean that unlike the revolutionary three years jumps of Windows or Apple’s OSes, Linux is in a constant state of evolution.

This week's poll is about desktop Linux: the challenge is to build a clear picture of where desktop Linux can fit, and if so how to make best use of it.

Sheer economics are making the use of the Linux operating system increasingly widespread. It is free, reliable and safe. But when adopting any new operating system, users always have a lot to learn. On top of that, many users think Linux is hard to use, which is, of course, not necessarily true.

Linux-based netbooks may encroach on Microsoft's success in the near future. Two looming threats: Google may decide to run its operating system, Android, on netbooks and low-power processors from smartphone chip licenser ARM may take off in netbooks.

It's hard to believe that there are still fools out there who don't think you can make money, serious as heart attack money, with Linux and open source. Let Red Hat spell it out for you.

Development of new technologies on a commodity platform like Linux allows startup companies to enter the market with less capital and compete more effectively with their larger counterparts. In addition, using free open source applications and technologies encourages innovation and creation of new products for technology-hungry buyers. For smaller companies and startups, maintaining a high level of frugality is necessary for survival in any market environment.

I have a solution for your XP woes. Unless you've been lobotomized, you might think you've guessed what it is: Linux. But you would be wrong. I don't generally recommend Linux. I recommend Ubuntu. You see, Ubuntu is a special version of Linux. Ubuntu is Linux for human beings. That's their tag line, in fact, and it needs some explanation.

The Linux operating system is free; you can download it without paying any licensing fees. You can use it in the home, you can run a business on it, even a data centre. You can embed it within tiny custom hardware. Despite this, Linux hasn't become a household name. Paradoxically, it may be the perceived dearth of commercial applications which is a cause.

Steve Ballmer recently caught flack for essentially saying that Apple users pay an Apple tax of $500 for buying Macs compared to PCs. Does that mean that Linux users are forced to pay a Microsoft tax every time they buy a PC with Microsoft software on it?

For more than two decades, personal computing has been anything but inexpensive. To be sure, prices for the average computer have dropped substantially since the 1980s. But with the exception of the occasional bargain or bare-bones configuration, the price of a good computer system still takes quite a bite out of the family budget.

A new netbook processor is in town and it promises to tip the scales to favor the Linux operating system.

Go on, go around these gadget sites and read all that talk about netbooks and what not. Acer Aspire One this, MSI that, Dell Mini 9 this, Asus that. It feels like the second coming of laptops in this netbook revolution. But truth is, even back in 1999 you could find super-lightweight laptops in the market (for the right price).

Microsoft's dismissive attitude of VDI, or virtual desktop infrastructure, is very similar to Red Hat's stance toward the desktop as a viable Linux commercial offering. Red Hat has said it has yet to figure out how to capitalise on the Linux desktop as a product, but now seems to be finding a way with its recent desktop virtualisation agreement with Microsoft.

Even though the netbook market is one of the few bright spots in the PC market and also even the mobile computing sector, its rapid growth will not necessarily ensure the development of Linux in the mobile arena despite most netbooks offering Linux as the entry level choice of operating system.

Factors ranging from netbooks to a new Linux OS kernel will spur more Linux ramp-ups when the recession lifts, a new study says.

There'll never be a year of desktop Linux for the ordinary user, because if an ordinary user notices that they are running a program or even an operating system, it has in some profound sense failed. But for people who like playing with their computers, desktop Linux is no longer a text adventure game, unless you want it to be. It is now an undemanding graphical adventure game.

The U.S. Constitution makes a point of guarding against tyranny through a series of checks and balances. The software market, it turns out, is no different. Or, rather, it could turn out to be that way. Windows has stood alone for more than a decade as the dominant operating system for personal computers, and it had a growing lock on the server too. But then Linux happened. Linux provides an effective check on Microsoft's ambitions to own the operating-system market. The question then becomes: how many Linux distributions is optimal for keeping Microsoft honest?

With thousands of Linux tools available, it is inevitable that some of the best ones get lost in the crowd.

If Walmart is looking for another product to add to its Great Value range, perhaps it should look no further than Linux.

It's the latest wave of insight from the pundits with an eye turned to the Linux-powered netbook world. It isn't a Windows vs. Linux race; it's a Linux vs. Linux race.

Here's more evidence that the Linux threat to Windows is over: A new study concludes that Linux is losing ground in the netbook market. When it comes to Linux on the desktop, the war is over --- unless Android comes to the rescue.

Kodak has released a free scanner application for Linux called ScanTWAIN that promises "production quality scanning."

Plenty of anecdotal evidence suggests that the economic downturn has actually been good for Linux.

Reviewed are six fully-featured apps to help keep track of your newsgroups.

There’s almost no shortage of ways Linux is useful to Windows users because of two simple facts. Firstly, Linux can boot from a CD or memory stick without having to modify the hard disk in any way at all. The second simple fact that makes Linux useful to Windows is that it’s impervious to Windows viruses, malware, Trojans and other nasties.

When Dell started selling mainstream PCs with pre-installed Ubuntu Linux, they were the first to break the Microsoft line. Other companies, like Asus with the first netbook, Lenovo with its ThinkPads, and, finally, HP started shipping mass-market PCs and notebooks with Linux too. Well. Sort of. You see, except for Dell, everyone makes it a pain to get their Linux-enabled PCs.

While Microsoft Office is actively used by roughly 50 percent of U.S. Internet users, according to a 2,400-strong survey administered by ClickStream Technologies, 5 percent of U.S. Web users also actively use the open-source productivity suite OpenOffice.org.

When it comes to building supercomputers, Linux is usually the first choice of operating system. But while Linux powers the biggest hardware, it is also well suited to smaller hardware and there are many versions of the operating system that have minuscule footprints.

At one point or another nearly every human that has ever used email has benefited from the open source Sendmail mail transfer agent(MTA). Sendmail at one point was THE MTA (included with every Linux distro) and like everyone else I used it everyday too. Today Sendmail claims that it is on over 35 percent of all Internet servers, and delivers over 65 percent of all email messages sent globally.

Every so often John Dvorak takes a stab at Linux, to see exactly what he likes and do not like about the OS.

Ah yes, there's that all too familiar sound of tightening budgets and the tossing aside of those things perceived as non-essential. Your dilemma is that you need to learn Linux but you have no money to buy training — what do you do — wait indefinitely for money to return to the coffers, download Linux and fumble through it on your own? Or, do you take the initiative and find some inexpensive or free learning resources?

Cisco in the server hardware business? With VMware? Using Linux? Has the world gone topsy-turvy?

Google’s Android operating system gave Linux-on-mobile sales a healthy boost in the fourth quarter of 2008.

TurnKey Linux, an Israeli startup, has taken the wraps off a dozen open source, server-based appliances tailored to work with Canonical's Ubuntu 8.04. Each of the 12 appliances is packaged as a single "universal" image that can install a pre-integrated turnkey server offering in a matter of minutes.

There are some tough questions about open source "equivalents" when comparing Windows to Linux.

There are a variety of package managers available for different Linux distributions. Mandriva uses urpmi; Debian and Ubuntu use apt. Fedora and Red Hat use yum, while Gentoo uses portage. Some distributions provide support for more than one package manager as well.

Commentary: The age of expensive office software may be near its end.

Originally from Cape Town, Stevan Lockhart now lives in the north west of Scotland in a house that is off the electricity grid. Using a wind generator, some solar panels and free and open source software he and his wife both run their businesses off just 20W of power. Here Stevan explains the software and hardware decisions that made this lifestyle possible.

Linux-based networking vendor Vyatta is out today with its Vyatta Community Edition 5 (VC5) release, including a host of new security and performance improvements.

Because Windows has a near-monopoly on desktop operating systems, Windows users tend to think that the world revolves around them and that all operating systems operate alike. In fact, that's not the case. When it comes to installing and updating software, Linux uses a very different set of paradigms than Windows does, and if you're a longtime Windows user, you'll need to understand them before you can properly update and install software.

How do you know when Linux has gone mainstream? When one of the tech industry's great cranky-pants pundits gives it a resounding thumbs-up.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laid out who he thinks are the biggest threats today to Windows on the client side. Surprisingly, Apple wasn't number one. It wasn't number two or three either. Referring to a pie chart at the meeting that gauges threats to Windows, Ballmer said that Windows itself, both licensed and pirated, were the top two threats to Microsoft in the client OS space, followed by Linux, then Apple.

With a recent study confirming that 90 percent of netbooks purchased in the last three months are running Windows, it appears that the initial spike in Linux use in netbooks has begun to fizzle out.

The release of the very nice Asus Eee PC 1000HE signals a turning point in the sub-notebook market and it's one that Linux desktop advocates will not like. It looks like the 10 inch netbook has hit the sweet spot for consumers and that sweet spot includes Windows but not Linux.

No matter if you're exclusively a Windows shop, every good IT technician needs Linux in their toolkit.

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