Canonical offers tech support for clouds, Jul 01, 2009

Canonical and its partner in clouds, Eucalyptus, have been working to create a stack of software that runs atop the Ubuntu Linux distribution and allows companies to build their own internal compute clouds that are compatible with Amazon's EC2 cloud.

The University of Toronto's SciNet consortium, which provides supercomputing oomph for colleges, universities, and research hospitals across Canada, will today announce that it has selected IBM's iDataPlex servers using Intel's new "Nehalem EP" Xeon 5500 processors to create the most powerful supercomputer in Canada.

Ubuntu creator Mark Shuttleworth is itching for a clean fight with Microsoft on netbooks. Shuttleworth once told The Reg he can't wait for Windows 7 on this sub-laptop class of machines because it'll finally give Ubuntu the opportunity to compete fairly against Microsoft's operating system in this emerging market.

When Microsoft purchased Hotmail in December of 1997 for an estimated $400m, it ran on FreeBSD. But Redmond ripped out the open source OS and replaced it with Windows 2000. Or at least, it tried to.

Open-source and Linux activists are not allowing the FAT patent dispute between Microsoft and TomTom to fade.

Cloud computing - or at least all the talk about it - is causing IT vendors to change their pitches on the off chance that cloud could actually end up generating some money.

With the release of Ubuntu 9.04 - aka Jaunty Jackalope - Canonical has paired its Linux distro with Eucalyptus, an open-source software platform that mimics Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) inside your own data center.

Commercial Linux distributor Novell today announced that the openSUSE Project, which drives the development variant of its Linux, will support the creation and packaging of various Linuxes for ARM processors using the openSUSE Build Service version 1.6.

Microsoft has made a tactical mistake in deciding to compete with Apple on price in its latest, much debated, Laptop Hunters TV ads. That switch of focus in the fight with Apple will rebound in its battle against Linux, because Linux is cheaper than Windows for users and OEMs serving them.

Developers putting Linux on consumer devices aren't weirdos mining a niche, according to the Intel man who last year volunteered to help maintain embedded Linux.

Microsoft and TomTom might have settled over patents, but that's not stopped one Linux advocate from calling on manufacturers to adopt a "FAT-free diet".

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.

The Jaunty Jackalope edition of Ubuntu has been released to beta. Ubuntu 9.04 brings a clutch of improvements to the desktop while taking the first step on the server closer to Amazon-style cloud computing. Final code is scheduled for release on April 27.

GPS maker TomTom hit back at Microsoft yesterday by issuing a countersuit against the software giant with a patent claim of its own.

The brain behind Bug Labs' Lego-like Linux building blocks says we're on the verge of open-source hardware revolution. Open Source hardware will happen. There's nothing stopping it.

When it comes to Linux netbooks, PC manufacturers should act more like cell-phone makers and telcos by selling customized and subsidized machines with online services.

DreamWorks Animation has inked a deal with the New Mexico Computing Applications Center to use spare capacity to help render its 3D films using Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and SGI's ProPack 5 extensions for HPC workloads.

Last week, several big names in open source tossed a letter at American President Barack Obama, urging him to mandate that no government IT purchase be made without someone scrutinizing the software license. "Dear President Obama," it read, "please consider open source."

A firestorm is brewing over proposals issued by the UK's IT advisory body over which browsers the public sector should support. Taxpayers will be forced to change their browsing habits and computer setup to accommodate the guidelines, say web standards experts.

Intel has bought up OpenedHand, the UK-based Linux development company, folding its product line into the chip behemoth's mobile Linux effort, while promising to maintain its open-source developments.