Linux based virtualisation – the way to save money and go green, Jul 14, 2008

Virtualisation is a technology that can work wonders: provide a testing environment, enhance your processing power, consolidate your computing resources, decrease running costs, preserve legacy apps and more! Here’s how virtualisation can benefit you and why the Linux route really beats out the competition.

GNOME’s Totem Movie Player now includes a plugin for searching and playing YouTube videos without leaving the player, and without Flash. It’s installed by default in Ubuntu 8.04, and works fabulously!

The makers of Wine claim that version 1.0 is the first such "stable" release and have said that although compatibility is not perfect, thousands of applications are reported to "work very well."

ASUS has announced the release of the new Eee PC 901 and the reduced prices of the previous 701 and 900 models.

Network World published a test today that declared Linux -- especially Red Hat's Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.1 -- was more green than Windows Server 2008. RHEL drew less power on 13 of 16 test scenarios and came in with almost 10 percent savings in power over Windows Server 2008 in some of those cases.

Nothing warms the cockles of a Linux lover's heart more than to hear that X or Y big company/city is migrating its desktops to the free operating system. And nothing can evoke more bitter insults than the reversal of any such decision

My article three weeks ago on Linux file systems set off a firestorm unlike any other I've written in the decade I've been writing on storage and technology issues.

If you and your friend do not want to spend a lot of money, putting the Linux operating system on the old PC is a much less expensive option. Many versions of Linux have a graphical point-and-click interface these days, but they still may have a learning curve for new users.

...if you've found yourself saddled with the poor performance of Vista on your computer, or you have a machine that just doesn’t work properly with Windows anymore, then you owe it to yourself to at least boot your computer up with Ubuntu and try it out.

Any talk of Linux brings with it talk of what it will take to get Linux on the desktop in big numbers. Much of the talk in this vein revolves around distribution X versus desktop Y, or something of that nature. The real issue, though, may not be a particular distribution or package model, but the mind-set of the creators.

Earlier this week an article concerning Vista and market share and one about how Open Source Software has cost the IT Industry $60 Billion dollars over the last five years or so hit the newswire.

Linux offers equivalents to many Windows applications that are often as good as -- or even better than -- the programs you're used to. In some cases the apps are also available in Windows and Mac OS versions, allowing dual-booters to stay with the same set of free programs regardless of the operating system in use.

The “One Laptop Per Child” project (OLPC), the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, was envisioned as a way to bring the cost of computing down to a level where more in the developing world could afford it, either directly,

The Russian Post has started testing the free software to be used in ordinary post offices. Cutting costs for software is one of the main reasons to migrate to Linux. No details are reported. However, according to some sources, the Russian Post might prefer Red Hat.

Your systems are all way overdue for an operating system upgrade, but your IT department is going over budget. You know you can’t afford the latest version of Microsoft Windows or Office. The easiest path to reining in your costs would be to migrate over to the Linux operating system. Unfortunately, corporate headquarters isn’t convinced that Linux is the way to go. How do you convince them otherwise?

IN A SOMEWHAT shocking revelation, One Laptop Per Child has said that they might dump Linux from their XO laptops in favour of the Vole’s Windows XP. The seeming surrender to the evil corporate world comes just a day after the company’s president tendered his resignation.

Open-source developers should stop bickering, unite and jointly develop a Windows user interface to make XO laptops more appealing to users, One Laptop Per Child Chairman Nicholas Negroponte has urged in a public note to that community.

Two of the biggest names in the world of Linux and open-source software picked the same day to back off their designs on a new world order in consumer computing.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has not received a formal appeal of its approval of Office Open XML as a standard, but it looks more unlikely with each day that passes.

Yankee Group market researchers have presented the results of a study on server and operation system reliability for 2007. Compared to the previous year, annual downtime on all systems has dropped sharply – except on Windows server 2000 and 2003.

Is Windows broken? Gartner says yes, and explains why. Many readers have other ideas, though, and not everyone is ready to jump ship to Linux. Give us your take on the situation.

Gartner analysts are running about in Las Vegas, hair on fire, shouting that Windows is collapsing. Or about to collapse. Or something.

Business users and Linux kernel developers hashed out issues like reliability, kernel patches, and bugs at the second Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in Austin, Texas.

Linux usage has grown fast over the past several years as the operating system moved from perimeter Web servers to workloads much closer to the heart of the business, while gaining a broad following of contributors and commercial users. But the days of these easy advances may be past.

The diverse Linux community gathers to debate future paths for the open-source operating system.

Once upon a time, you found Linux as a server in two places in the enterprise: on the edge, as a Web server, and in the branch office, as a file and print server. That was then. This is now.

The free Linux operating system handles big tasks like running supercomputers and ATMs. Now Linux has a chance to finally crack Microsoft Corp.'s hold on computing's most visible domain - mainstream PCs - because of the rise of innovative, inexpensive machines.

Workloads running on Linux servers are shifting to become more business oriented, including databases and line-of-business applications, and the operating system appears headed for measurable growth over the next three years, according to a white paper released Tuesday by IDC.

We already knew that Asus was going to start selling their Eee PC subnotebook computer with Windows XP pre-installed, but we didn't know how much the Microsoft tax was going to be. As it turns, it's zero. Hopping on over to the Best Buy website, you'll find that the 4GB Eee PC with Windows XP is the same price as its Linux counterpart.

Noah Broadwater, vice president of information services at Sesame Street Workshop, likes using open-source virtualization tools for several good reasons -- starting with green ones that have nothing to do with Oscar the Grouch.

To some people, the increasing number of Linux distributions serves as a disadvante when it comes to attracting new users. To Christopher Smart, it's a plus point - the way he puts it, if he had not been able to roll his own, he never would have achieved the level of understanding of Linux he has today.

How'd you like to try out the ASUS Eee without paying a dime, sort of? ASUS just posted the software development kit for its groundbreaking Linux-powered notebook on SourceForge, along with a fully functional system image of the Eee's Xandros OS. It's not quite the same experience as the machine itself, but for those itching to develop for it, this is a way to get a jump-start on that without needing the hardware itself.

Ever since I wrote "It's Time to Get Over Microsoft," people have demanded in blogs and emails how I could ignore the obvious threat that Microsoft represents to free software. Usually, I ask them to read the article more carefully, and note that it suggests that free software has grown strong enough to take care of itself.

In a few years' time, almost all businesses will use open source, according to Gartner; even though IT managers may be unaware of it, and prefer to talk about fashions such as software as a service.

Jim Zemlin is the executive director of the Linux Foundation. Formerly executive director of the Free Standards Group, Zemlin also has served as vice president of marketing for Covalent Technologies, providing products and services for the Apache Web server. Zemlin has also been a keynote speaker at industry and financial conferences including Gartner's Open Source Conference and Linux World. Zemlin met with InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill this week to talk about Linux topics ranging from overtures to Microsoft to the progress of Linux on the desktop.

The other day, Wal-Mart let it slip that it would no longer be selling Linux-powered computers in its stores. The retail giant will, however, continue to sell Linux desktop and laptop systems via its online store.

Question: Asus makes an innovative cheap little Linux computer that takes the world by storm but decides to fix what isn't broken and make it more expensive, why? The power of Microsoft of course! And so yet another attempt by a Linux purveyor to carve a niche in mainstream consumer computing looks set to fall to Windows. Or will it?

Firmware company General Software announced that it is selling customized, quick-booting versions of its Linux-compatible BIOS firmware to the medical device industry. The company says its "Embedded BIOS with StrongFrame Technology" can boot to lilo (Linux loader) in less than a second.

Desktop Linux systems have been available from vendors both small -- such as NorhTec -- and large -- such as Dell -- for some time now. But, until recently, users who feel more comfortable buying from a retailer have had few choices other than some low-end systems from Wal-Mart. Things are changing.

Computers that run the Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows didn't attract enough attention from Wal-Mart customers, and the chain has stopped selling them in stores, a spokeswoman said Monday.

The Linux community is the most impressive example of sustained We Think. A version of Linux released in June 2005 had 229 million lines in its source code that would have taken 60,000 man-years to develop at a cost of perhaps $8bn. Every day most people who use the web rely on open source: Google's servers run on Linux; most websites rely on servers running the open-source Apache program. Open source could in time provide a model for other areas of life, for example turning We Think into We Make.

Thai systems integrator Norhtec is preparing to release a sub-$300 ultra-mini PC (UMPC) laptop based on a Quanta design. Aimed at the developing-country market, the so-called Gecko Laptop is being built by Quanta and runs Linpus Linux Lite, a new distribution designed for small-screen mini-PCs.

Are you a Linux user suffering from iTunes store envy? If so, Amazon has a deal for you

Nero has announced plans to ship the latest update to its burning application for the Linux operating system.

Australian university students have developed a Linux-based data forensics tool to help police churn through a growing backlog of computer-related criminal investigations.

After weathering an acrimonious split from Intel and harsh criticism from critics, One Laptop Per Child is reorganizing—and looking for a new CEO

Nokia promised to support Microsoft's cross-platform multimedia plugin across its major mobile device products. The Finnish mobile-phone giant will add Silverlight support to Symbian S60 smartphones, Series 40 devices, and Linux-based Nokia Internet tablets, it said.

Caroline is a 2006 Volkswagen Passat, converted by a team from the Braunschweig University of Technology to be an autonomous vehicle.

While Canadian telcos are still dragging their feet in following the U.S. example of making cellphone data fees more competitive, the U.S. telcos are about to scratch each other’s eyes out after the arrival of Linux-based handsets.

SAP demonstrated a prototype of the ERP server, developed with Intel, at Germany's Cebit trade show on Tuesday.

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