Archive for the 'Linux' 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.
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
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.”
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 ;-)
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
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.
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.
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
What is real time Linux worth to you?
Justifying investments in a real time Linux platform is perhaps too easy given a new report from Tabb Group (URLs below). Purists may initially point out that the report is more focused on speed of execution which real time is not necessarily intended to provide. I’ll counter that argument right now by pointing out that most real time implementations do increase speed while still providing the benefit of determinism that real time is intended to offer. Besides, how can you ensure speedy execution across thousands of transactions if you don’t have a deterministic platform? Even the fastest drag race cars slow down eventually…
Add in real time Java and you have a fully deterministic stack.
16 percent of all U.S. institutional equity commissions are exposed to latency risk, totaling $2 billion, according to a new report from the TABB Group.
http://www.tabbgroup.com/PublicationDetail.aspx?PublicationID=346
http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/feed/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208400864&cid=RSSfeed_WST_All
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Hate to be the skeptic, but…
What does Microsoft gain from making these moves? If there’s anything about open source communities and technologies I’ve learned is that it’s imperative that you understand the motives, the context and the drivers of any vendors’ moves. I hate to be the skeptic, but I suspect Microsoft’s intentions are not pure. Warning phrases from Yoda come to mind… “Clear your mind must be, if you are to discover the real villains behind this plot.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/19/ramji_microsoft_open_source_strategy/
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
NYSE and Euronext are all powered by Linux
Interesting news - Linux powers the world’s economy! If Linux is running the largest stock exchanges in teh world, can anyone still call it “second class” to UNIX?
The New York Stock Exchange and its European subsidiary exchanges are running their trading systems on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat announced Wednesday, as it unveiled a new marquee customer.Linux has been known to be in use at several New York financial services firms, but few have stepped up to the podium to testify on the value of their implementations. As a result of mergers and acquisitions, the New York Stock Exchange has migrated over the last few years from HP-UX to IBM AIX to Sun Solaris to Linux. NYSE Group CIO Steve Rubinow said the conversion to Linux followed the acquisition of the Euronext exchange in 2007. Unlike some trading companies that suggest Linux is running their secondary systems, Rubinow emphasized that Linux is running the NYSE’s mission-critical trading systems.
Friday, May 9th, 2008
An honest look at Xen and a future with KVM
I think we can finally admit that we, the Linux community, made a very big mistake with Xen. Xen should have never been included in a Linux distribution. There, I’ve said it. We’ve all been thinking it, have whispered it in closed rooms, and have done our bests to avoid it.
He makes a very valid point that the Xen kernel will never be upstream and therefore it will always be an extra layer. The difference between Xen or other packages around the kernel is that Xen is at the core its own kernel. This is what makes KVM so attractive - you don’t need that extra layer (which creates complexity no matter what).
Quite simply, Xen is not, and will never be, a part of Linux. Therefore, including it in a Linux distribution has only led to massive user confusion about the relationship between Linux and Xen.
Now one thing Anthony didn’t mention is that the ability to swap Xen as the virtualization technology with another, future, and better technology was something the kernel developers perceived long ago. Because of that foresight, most people are starting to use libvirt which abstracts the interface layer into managing virtualization hypervisors like Xen and KVM. What does this mean for enterprise and ordinary users alike? The migration from one technology like Xen to another like KVM can be done near seamlessly because the libvirt-based management tools can plug into either hypervisor, checkpoint start/stop, and bring the images up on another hypervisor.
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
Using ext4 and migrating from ext3
A noticed a very interesting developerWorks article today on the ext4 filesystem.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-ext4/index.html?ca=drs-
There’s a great summary table of the new features. Remember though, ext4 is still labeled experimental.
Ext4 is the latest in a long line of Linux® file systems, and it’s likely to be as important and popular as its predecessors. As a Linux system administrator, you should be aware of the advantages, disadvantages, and basic steps for migrating to ext4. This article explains when to adopt ext4, how to adapt traditional file system maintenance tool usage to ext4, and how to get the most out of the file system.
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Shameless Plug: IBM Next Generation Linux Event in NYC
If you’re in the NYC area, IBM is hosting a great “Next Generation Linux” event at the Hilton on Church St. It should be a great day of speakers discussing where Linux is heading, what makes Linux unique and “special”, and what workloads are great for running Linux. It’s a packed session from 9-12 (breakfast at 8 if you’re an early riser).
You can register here:
https://www-950.ibm.com/events/wwe/grp/grp017.nsf/agenda?openform&seminar=692H5MES&locale=en_US/
| Time | Description |
|---|---|
| 8:00 am | Registration & Continental Breakfast |
| 9:00 am | Welcome & Introduction |
Linux and Innovation
|
|
| Break | |
Linux for Business-Critical Workloads
|
|
| Break | |
Breakout Sessions
|
|
| A Customer’s Perspective: Linux for Business Critical Workloads | |
| 12:00 pm | Wrap Up & Q&A |
| RSVP for Lunch! Take this opportunity to chat with the speakers and to network |
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Greetings from Hardy Heron
The good news: Hardy Heron is fantastic.
The complicated news: there appears to be a bug in the Wubi installer that can set the drive path incorrectly. It doesn’t ruin anything, but it could be tricky for novices that run into it. More on this tomorrow.
Download your Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron ISOs today!
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Ted Ts’o Dissects “What Sun was trying to do with OpenSolaris”
Ted put together a great set of insights into what Sun may have been up to with OpenSolaris. Ted has a great way of cutting through the marketing BS and gets right to the heart of what’s going on. Obviously I completely agree with him on a few issues. Do any of these sound familiar? I think I’ve covered some of this before here, and here, and here.
From Ted:
So that explains why it’s take three long years to try to get basic open source development tools (such as putting Open Solaris source code in a distributed SCM located outside of the Sun firewall) for Open Solaris. It was never was Sun’s intention to try to promote a kernel engineering community, or at least, it was certainly not a high priority for them to do so.
So if you run into a Sun salescritter or a Sun CEO claiming that OpenSolaris is just like Linux, it’s not. Fundamentally, Open Solaris has been released under a Open Source license, but it is not an Open Source development community.
I find it unbelievable Sun’s executives still forge ahead as though there are no issues - this was a half baked plan when it launched and unfortunately Sun has to cut costs and can’t invest what’s required to do this right (not to mention Sun also made some big mistakes - anyone using the CDDL?). In the meantime, Sun and its investors have missed out on the huge Linux boom that quite honestly… Sun was best positioned to take advantage of. Oops…
Jonathan, what community are you looking at - where is it? Please show me. (I’m sure your shareholders would be interested too.
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
IBM Launches New Approach to Servers (errr… a twist on the Google approach) - and it’s all based on Linux
IBM launched its iDataPlex server systems today - think of it as a “Google” for your datacenter. It’s targeted at web workloads and is insanely dense and power efficient compared to traditional server buildouts. And it uses Linux on commodity hardware so it’s also ridiculously cheap. If you’re a web hosting shop or you have your own web farm that could use a serious overhaul, iDataPlex is a very cool solution.
Did I mention it only runs Linux?
Ashlee Vance cracks me up - it’s clear from this article he’s been talking to vendors for two long (see the last sentence in this quote):
The system itself is quite remarkable. IBM has reworked its approach to rack servers allowing it to place twice as many systems in a single cabinet. This attack centers on delivering the most horsepower possible in a given area while also reducing power consumption. IBM hopes the iDataPlex unit will attract today’s service providers buying thousands and tens of thousands of servers and also big businesses such as oil and gas firms and media companies that will also possibly pursue a grid-ish data center computing model pioneered to some degree by Google.
But the really awe inspiring bit of iDataPlex comes from the fact that IBM is willing to go after this market at all and that it did so without screwing up the hardware design.
Ars covered the details as well over here:
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