Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
Bob Sutor goes 100% Linux on the desktop; Mac surges; where’s Windows?
Nice to see Bob Sutor has made the complete switch to Linux for laptop use at work. I remember the day I wiped out my Windows partition on my laptop - it was memorable. I then went an entire year booting Windows in VMWare only about 3-5 times.
It’s great to see the transition starting to happen everywhere. Even if some of the transitions are to Mac, it’s greater choice.
This is all going to be even easier as technologies like Firefox, OpenOffice/ODF and open standards start to permeate the set of options available to users.
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
The Register Open Season Podcast
This was another interesting podcast. I’m obviously a fan of Mr. Vance (has anyone ever called him “Mr.”?) - maybe I’m the first. I also need to meet Matt Asay at some point… have much to discuss.
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
Waterfalls in NYC? Yes, it’s true…
Maybe I’m just not one of the cool kids, but putting up scaffolding waterfalls in a metro-NYC environments is a bit odd to me…
http://www.newsweek.com/id/143636
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Web 2.0 gone all awry; Weather.com skiing for NYC in June
When “Web 2.0″ is implemented poorly you can get some odd results. For instance, weather.com today shows me that it’s a humid 80 degrees (F) today and yet… it let’s me click on a map to view Skiing conditions. It’s late June - slopes in Utah are not even open…
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) Edition is here
Ubuntu has officially released its MID Edition. There is a KVM image you can download to try it out. I haven’t seen any news on what devices or vendors will be bundling MID, but I’m sure Mark has some ideas for that.
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4429818312.html
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
I’d like to be one in 10 million…
Looks like being a millionaire is not all that small of a crowd these days… I wish I could be a 1 in 10 million… maybe some day…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25353615/
The number of people around the world with at least $1 million in assets passed 10 million for the first time last year, according to a new report. And their bank accounts are growing even faster.
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Shameless Analyst Report Plug: “IBM & Linux – 9 Years Later”
A colleague sent me a link to this analyst paper today that takes a look at whether IBM has made good on the Linux promises it made back in 1999. I’m obviously biased, but I’m interested in hearing if anyone has thoughts on this topic.
Here’s the report: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/linux/pdfs/GCG_IBM_and_Linux-9_years_later.pdf
The opening teaser:
In 1999, IBM issued a series of announcements fully committing the company to supporting Linux. IBM vowed to Linux-enable all of their hardware platforms, including their non-x86 based mainframe, mini, and RISC-based systems. They also promised to release Linux versions of their software products and develop
Linux-centric service practices. Moreover, they pledged significant resources to the Linux community with the goal of advancing Linux and open source technology.So, nine years later, did IBM deliver on these promises? Was their commitment to Linux genuine or just lip service? This report examines IBM’s current Linux products, services, and community support in light of the promises they made in 1999…
While I think it’s obvious IBM has been a huge investor in the Linux community, one thing that I noticed reading the report is just how much IBM is actually different from other community members. There are some noticeable differences in the investments and approach to supporting the Linux platform and community. I often forget to just take in all the Linux technologies IBM has been heavily involved in from Xen, KVM and libvirt to filesystems, to systemtap, kprobes and then there’s RAS, scalability and performance enhancements.
Another interesting thought to reflect on is just how important it has been that there are multiple investors in this field. If this report captures just what IBM did, think of the industry combined. IBM couldn’t have done anything this big with Linux if it weren’t for co-creating with a community of enthusiasts, researchers, governments, Intel, AMD, Google, Nokia, Motorola, Oracle and thousands more. What would the report look like if you compiled all the investments and work the entire community leveraged across the industry. Linux is “bigger than huge” when you stop to think about it. This is also why I’ve said for a couple years now when you extend the investment model 3 to 5 years into the future, Sun and its anti-Linux, Solaris push against the tide of the industry loses in the end. I think we’re starting to witness that now. Sure, OpenSolaris is a great idea… it’s just 9 years late and it’s too late to matter now.
I’m interested in outside perspectives too - where do you think IBM stands? Has the community development and investment model worked? Where will this lead in the future and what will be the next evolution of the model? Red Hat seems to think the model will evolve to include increased customer co-creation - I tend to agree. Why? Because the incentive model to invest aligns very well - and when you have alignment, it almost naturally will happen.
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Red Hat adds more virtualization and KVM into the mix
Anthony points out some interesting news regarding Red Hat, virtualization and in particular, KVM. IBM is also involved in building out these capabilities. If you read my site often, you know I’m already a big KVM fan.
“IBM works closely with Red Hat and the open source community to drive innovation within the Linux kernel,” said Daniel Frye, vice president, open systems development at IBM. “IBM has a heterogenous approach toward virtualization, with KVM one of several options. KVM leverages the core features of the Linux kernel, including paravirtualization interfaces contributed by IBM engineers. By combining Linux virtualization infrastructure with open management interfaces such as CIM and libvirt, we gain a solution that eliminates lock-in and open source community innovations, we are able to offer our customers a solution with outstanding performance, scalability and agility.”
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Download Firefox 3 Today
http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0&os=win〈=en-US
Let’s break a record…
UPDATE: The site is back up if you were experiencing download issues earlier.
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Nonsense in software distribution
Why is it that I can have a box with a DVD and 200 pages of printed software manuals delivered in 3 days to my doorstep for $50 cheaper (buying from Sony on Amazon.com) than to just pay for and download the software off a digital software distribution site (Sony’s own site)? Does something about this not make sense to you?
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
Wall Street’s Linux Frenzy continues; so does FUD
Just saw this on Slashdot today:
Market watcher Tabb Group estimates that Linux adoption among the 14 biggest investment firms this year will reach more than 72% of the installed operating server base vs. 60% in 2006
I’ve always known the financial markets companies in NY were big on Linux, but even I was a bit surprised the percentage has gone up from 60% to now being 72% of the installed OS base. 72% - wow!
Now aside from that reference to Linux dominating the install base, this article was very, very poor. It’s littered with nonsense about open source software licensing being an issue and companies being fearful of having to give up the code they change. Rubbish. First, I know that the investment firms that would have been surveyed know far more about open source software licensing than just about any IT user set. They know exactly what they’re doing, and believe me, they’re not afraid (heck, they’re using Linux everywhere!).
I don’t know Ellen, but I really wish authors would spend more time talking to the users they portray knowing insights about and not vendors or analysts pushing an agenda… Perhaps Ellen cross-checked with actual users, but knowing who I’ve spoken to, this is not that big an issue with the Wall Street crowd as the article makes it out to be.
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
El Reg: “OpenSolaris still has some Linux copying to do”
I had to laugh when I saw the headline, but it appears OpenSolaris’ attempt to copy Linux has a few shortcomings. It’s certainly better than Solaris 10, but in my experience, the drivers were an issue as was the lack of packages in the database. Another issue I was fed up with was the lack of gnu tools as the default but perhaps that’s unreasonable to assume the guys at Sun would change. Finally, just because OpenSolaris had similar software (e.g. Gnome) don’t expect it to be as well integrated and polished - try customizing or changing the default settings and you’ll see what I mean.
On the other hand, OpenSolaris will be helpful for Solaris developers who are tired of the server OS for development. If you’re already using Linux, why go back in time…
BTW, has anyone heard the phrase, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”? Now it’s time to imitate a community development process… and then these other issues should iron out over time ;-)
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
June 17: Firefox 3
It’s official - June 17. I’ve been using v3 for a while now in beta and previews - it’s fast, really fast. I was having issues with Google Maps, but hopefully v3 will have the bugs fixed. If not, my fault for not reporting them ;-)
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Heading to Boston
I’ll be in Boston tonight through Fri - if you’re around and want to me up, send me an email or call my cell.
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Microsoft “Gets the Facts” on Windows Server 2003 (forgets the facts on Linux)
Interesting omission from Microsoft’s energy efficiency comparison ;-)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/11/microsoft_windows_server_2008/
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
New Cell processors kick supercomputing into the next generation (and efficiently)
Cell processors are kicking some processor silicon - 10x the closest competitor is a huge leap forward - 10x in a field that includes the best of the best and seemingly unlimited funding.
A “suped-up PlayStation 3″ powers IBM clusters to 1 petaflop performance - 10 times faster than its closest competitor.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/Los-Alamos-Computer-Fastest-Ever/
And guess what operating system powers this giant? Yep, Linux. The same Linux that is also the most power efficient OS for servers.
Roadrunner uses open source Linux software from Red Hat and is more efficient than most supercomputers, delivering 376 million calculations per watt, according to IBM. That should be enough to place Roadrunner among the most energy-efficient systems on the Green 500 list coming out later this month, IBM says.
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
NetworkWorld: “Red Hat Linux pulls as much as 12% less power than Windows 2008 on identical hardware”
URL: http://www.networkworld.com/research/2008/060908-green-windows-linux.html
An amazing story of the value the Linux community development process brings to the table in solving user problems. Now that Microsoft knows there’s a problem, their engineers have to spend months identfying where there’s a problem, months identifying who will have to fix the problem and how, and months fixing the issue. Then the issue(s) may have to wait until the next Windows release, or do they roll out in an update.
Either way, the community developing Linux saw the pain point right away a long time ago and built in “green” features that today show up in the stable RHEL kernel. This is just another example of when community based development can outperform because of the open contact with user communities.
For this test, we examined power consumption as a way to judge whether Windows Server 2008 or Linux is, in fact, the ‘greener’ operating system. As the price of power hits record heights, power reduction mechanisms shipping within an operating system should play a key role in you energy conservation plan.
…
The results showed that while Windows Server 2008 drew slightly less power in a few test cases when it had its maximum power saving settings turned on, it was RHEL that did the best job of keeping the power draw in check across the board.
Monday, June 9th, 2008
Amazon.com and Twitter are down…
What’s going on today? The internet is broken…
http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/1206/
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Acer is betting big on Linux for portables
It looks like Acer is going big for Linux in its portables lineup. This is great news and offers greater options. The big question is when will ISVs start porting their commercial apps over… come on Adobe - it’s time for CS5 to support Linux!
Acer describes its 3 motivations as follows:
“We have shifted towards Linux because of Microsoft,” he said. “Microsoft has a lot of power and it is going to be difficult, but we will be working hard to develop the Linux market.”
Acer sees two killer apps with Linux on computers: operation and cost. Its flavour of Linux will boot in 15 seconds compared to minutes for Windows, and the open source operating system can extend battery life from five to seven hours.
At the same time, the company expects that the price differential of Linux will make the offering attractive for consumers at the low-cost end of the market.
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Linux to outship Windows by 2013 (Windows Mobile that is)
Wow; just how far has Linux come in the mobile space? It will outship Windows for smartphones in the next 5 years. Consider that smartphones may not even include the Motorola lines that run Linux (but are not “smartphones”).
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/05/smartphone_os_linux/
Smartphones running Linux look set to become far more commonplace within the next five years, market watcher ABI Research has forecast.
The firm’s VP, Stuart Carlaw, reckons that Linux will feature on 23 per cent of smartphones by 2013. He added that that share of the market will put the open source operating system in second place in the smartphone popularity stakes, putting it behind Symbian and ahead of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile worldwide.
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