Archive for the 'Ubuntu' Category
Monday, January 21st, 2008
Ubuntu and IBM bring enterprise collaboration to a user friendly Linux desktop
I read this news release with great excitement and will take a shameless opportunity to plug what I think is a fantastic partnership. The news? IBM’s Lotus group has announced support of its Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS) for Ubuntu Linux. OCCS is a layer of rich client communications apps including IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 (Calendaring, Email), Sametime 7.x (Instant Messaging), and Symphony (OpenOffice in an Eclipse RCP form). I’ve switched to Ubuntu for my primary system at home for well over a year now and while I took a very short break to dabble in Fedora 8, I’m back on Ubuntu again. I’ve been using a RHEL5 base at work for over a year as well but now that we have Ubuntu support coming, I’ll probably switch to Ubuntu once the OCCS solution is released (yes, I work in a strategy group in IBM and I don’t use Windows or MS Office – and most people can’t tell). The thing about working in IBM is that everyone uses Notes, Sametime, and ODF is even becoming more popular so there’s very little that prevents anyone from using Linux (or a Mac). Heck, many users can probably get away with an iPhone.
IBM also expanded the OCCS platform support with Red Hat EL Desktop and announced more partners around OCCS on Novell’s Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED).
What makes all this even better? Enterprise applications delivered in a rich client environment. Take for instance SAP, who today announced a joint product set with IBM that will be delivered through Lotus Notes (which we now know runs well on Linux)
The product, codenamed Atlantic, will allow users to access SAP’s Business Suite applications for workflows, reporting and analytics through IBM’s Lotus Notes desktop software.
So the ecosystem and vision is starting to come together. It’s early, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention again that 2008 will be the year of the enterprise Linux client ;-) How many users will we be saying this for? :-) (Note, I didn’t say ‘desktop’ specifically, and I said ‘enterprise’). As we’ve been saying all along, there are certain segments of users that can easily do their work on a Linux client (many won’t even know it’s not Windows). Those companies who take advantage of user segmentation have a lot to benefit from both on pure cost alone, but also in the next round of negotiations on your non-Linux client systems ;-)
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
Ubuntu Customer Case Studies
Ubuntu is not just for the enthusiast; check out their case studies page:
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/casestudies
Thursday, January 10th, 2008
Ubuntu Live 2008 – Call for Papers
Mark Shuttleworth posted on his blog today a call for papers for Ubuntu Live 2008 in Portland (Oregon). You can see his blog here: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/137
O’Reilly, the organisers of Ubuntu Live, have just issued the call for papers for Ubuntu Live 2008. The theme of the event is “Taking it Further”, which I think is perfect for Ubuntu this year!
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
New Open Season Episode 8
I think Open Season is probably the only podcast session I listen to regularly. What can I say, I’m a sucker for Ashlee Vance’s humor/critique… although I haven’t purchased his book yet…
This episode includes some (dare I say unsupported) speculation on Ubuntu and IBM from Mr. Asay. I guess there’s some evil plot to take over the world in there, but given my job at IBM… I’d probably know :-) I also found it odd that the 1.5 minute speculation bit also became the title (what do you expect from El Reg?). Anyway, listen if for no other reason than Open Season offers Ogg downloads (thanks!).
Anyway, you can listen for yourself here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/28/open_season_8/
Monday, November 26th, 2007
The Register: “Linux desktops grow and grow and grow”
URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/23/linux_desktop_survey/
Initial figures from the 2007 Linux Foundation Desktop survey are coming out. In this article, two items caught my eye:
1) SMB
The majority, 68.4 per cent, of Linux desktops are in small and home office set-ups or small businesses with less than 100 machines. Medium businesses of between 101 and 500 PCs account for 9.7 per cent and companies with between 1,001 and 5,000 account for 6.2 per cent of Linux desktops.
2) Ubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu
In terms of flavours of Linux the “Ubuntu family” accounts for 54.1 per cent followed by Red Hat versions with 50.2 per cent, while Novell SUSE picks up 35.2 per cent. (Eagle-eyed readers may notice this adds up to more than 100 per cent because many groups have not settled on just one Linux version in their office or organisation.)
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Has Desktop Linux reached “The Tipping Point”?
You have to wonder when Malcolm would agree looking back 10 years from now, Linux hit the “Tipping Point”… when I see ordinary Windows users switching (and liking it), I can’t help but think, it might be tipping right now…
Well the Linux desktop is certainly here and I can prove it because as of today I’m officially an Ubuntu user and even though things aren’t perfect, I feel like I’ve finally escaped from jail.
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
Running Windows Server 2008 with KVM on Linux
See my prior post on KVM if you want to get started with KVM setup. Assuming you have KVM working on your system, it takes just 3 easy steps to get started using Windows Server 2008 on Linux in KVM. Before starting, you must have a copy of Windows Server 2008 of course. If you don’t have one handy, you can download and burn an eval DVD ISO from here.
Once you have your DVD ready, just execute the following in a terminal:
- # qemu-img create win2008EE.img -f qcow 10G
- # kvm -m 750 -cdrom /dev/cdrom -boot d win2008EE.img
- # kvm -m 500 win2008EE.img
That’s it. Windows Server 2008 seems to require ACPI so the -no-acpi option gave me an error. I will also note that I could not get the 64-bit Enterprise version working and instead opted for the 32-bit Standard (I suspect the issue is the 64-bits and has nothing to do with the edition).
First impression: Windows Server 2008 will feel just like Server 2003 and in some ways feel different. It does seem to startup/shutdown faster than before but there are so many variables it’s hard to tell. 2008 is actually quite visually appealing… can’t point to one thing, but the polish is nice for a server version (I’d call it a Vista minimalist look). Server 2008 of course has all the Microsoft GUI config screens newbie Linux admins dream to find… you have to give Microsoft credit for making it very simple to access and setup server services out of the box.
Microsoft has made quite a few changes (I haven’t explored them all) and I have not used the Core version yet. One noticeable change is (sit down for this)… IIS 7.0 has gone modular – yes, it’s true. Setting up IIS 7.0 will actually look like you’re installing packages using a Yum or Apt-Get GUI. You will be asked to confirm “features” which are akin to dependencies. Whoever redesigned IIS used Apache and Linux – the influence is notable.
I’m barely scratching (or seeing) the surface here so I’ll end with a promise to post more as I play around with the eval over the next few weeks.
Oh, I guess I did also skip the fourth step:
4. Install Windows Server anti-virus, anti-everything security software :-)
And here are some screenshots for those who are interested or require visual confirmation:
(Initial configuration screen)
(IIS 7.0 Install with dependency confirmation)
IIS 7.0 setup – I dare anyone to create an informative intro for newbies to Apache like this)
(IIS 7.0 add features/modules)
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
Using Linux KVM Virtualization on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10
I _really_ like KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machines) . It’s extremely simple to setup and use and lacks the intrusiveness of hypervisors like VMware and Xen. In this post, I’ll show you how to setup KVM on the latest Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon”. Ubuntu already has a decent howto available here that walks you through the steps, but I’ll go a few steps further in places (and shorter in others) using the new Gutsy Gibbon release.
First off, you need a system with full virtualization enabled processors, or virtualization assist. AMD calls this Secure Virtual Machine (or SVM) and Intel calls its technology VT-x (or vmx). You can read more about this at LWN if you would like here.
I’m using Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit on an AMD64x2 dual core processor that has the AMD hardware virtualization assist extensions . To find out if your processor supports this, use the following command:
# egrep ‘(vmx|svm)’ /proc/cpuinfo
Example output from an AMD system (hence, “svm” is highlighted). If this were Intel based, you would see “vmx”:
First, start by installing KVM and QEMU using apt-get or Synaptic Package Manager
# apt-get install qemu kvm
# modprobe kvm-amd (or kvm-intel for intel procs)
Note that if you do not modprobe the KVM module, you will get an error such as the following when you try to start KVM in the steps that follow:
Installing an Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon server guest OS
# qemu-img create gutsy-server.img -f qcow2 6G
This creates a file for your virtual machine image in your current directory. QEMU and KVM actually support many other useful file formats as described in the qemu documentation. One of the more userful options here is to use “-f vmdk” as the vm image that you create and setup will be compatible with VMware 3 and 4. Obviously the ability to export and use the same image with VMware can be valuable.
One question you may have at this point is “why use KVM; doesn’t QEMU do this too?”. The simple answer is that KVM uses processor extensions for virtualization whereas QEMU uses processor emulation. QEMU emulates the processor and system devices. KVM does not need to emulate the processor but relies on QEMU to do its device emulation. The interesting use case for QEMU is that it can also emulate other processor architectures such as SPARC, PowerPC and MIPS (see this website) on an x86 host. While the difference may seem subtle, there are definite performance advantages to KVM (and once can assume stability advantages). Someday, we may see them merge… but I doubt it. You can find a great overview of the differences between various Linux virtualization technologies at developerWorks here.
Back to KVM, the command above creates an image file that grows as the VM requires. With an inflatable disk image, your VM grows with the space used by the virtual machine up to 6GB (versus pre-allocating a full 6GB disk image). Now, let’s startup an Ubuntu install for our new virtual machine.
# kvm -m 750 -cdrom /home/user/ubuntu-7.10-server-amd64.iso -boot d ubuntu-server.img
For new users, the /home/user/ should just be the path to where you stored your Ubuntu iso download. If you execute this command and only see a black window pop up that looks empty, you can hit enter to start the install and the screen will come back. Or, you can add “-std-vga” to the kvm command above to help with the framebuffer Ubuntu startup.
This will start up KVM and boot the virtual machine off of the Ubuntu iso image. You can also boot from a CD/DVD drive by using this command:
# kvm -m 750 -cdrom /dev/cdrom -boot d ubuntu-server.img
Once you execute the command, QEMU will startup and you will see the normal boot options as if you started your computer with an Ubuntu install disk in the drive. I had to use -no-acpi with Ubuntu 7.10 or else I would get kernel panics once it went to install. The title bar should show QEMU/KVM. If you just see QEMU (as in the image below), then KVM failed (you most likely forgot to load the KVM module in the steps above) and you should exit even though it appears to be working. If you see QEMU/KVM, you should now have a working KVM install. Continue with the server install process and configuration as usual.
Once installation is finished, the Ubuntu guest will try to restart. This will fail, and that’s fine. You can close out the QEMU/KVM window, return to the command line, and start up your KVM guest Ubuntu server for the first time. I also tend to give running guests less memory than during the install…
# kvm -no-acpi -m 500 ubuntu-server.img
(note that I installed the text based version of Ubuntu server with no GUI or X windows)
Fedora Core 8 Beta as a KVM Guest
I’ll create an image for Fedora 8 first, using vmdk as the file format to later use this same image with VMware. You can click here for more information on how to use a QEMU created vmdk file in VMware.
# qemu-create fedora8.img -f vmdk 6G
# kvm -no-acpi -m 750 -cdrom /dev/cdrom -boot d fedora8.img
# kvm -no-acpi -m 500 fedora8.img
Windows Server 2008 in KVM with Ubuntu:
See my post here for setting up Windows Server 2008 in KVM
Next up: managing KVM processes, KVM networking, and sharing files between host and guests.
Other Resources to Check Out:
Virtual disk images: http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/qemu-doc.html#SEC24
KVM Wiki: http://kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki/Front_Page
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Getting more from the 3D Desktop effects in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon
For those of you unwrapping (err… logging in) Gusty Gibbon for the first time, setting up Desktop Effects and wondering – “where’s that cube thing I heard all about?” – well, you have to enable it. Here’s how:
1) Pull up Synaptic Package Manager in System->Administration
2) Search for “gnome compiz” or “compiz manager” and add (check on) the “gnome-compiz-manager” package in the search results.
3) Click the Apply button and wait for it to install
4) Open up System-> Preferences-> GL Desktop
5) Have fun – change settings such as creating a cube (or specifying the # of sides) on the Workspaces tab
Note that it appears the manager seems to have some ‘issues’ (for instance it didn’t start up the first time I clicked on it), but it does work and is very easy to use.
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Who cares about late Leopards, and crazy Vistas – download Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon now!
The guys/gals on #ubuntu were a bit annoyed that I said this, but I was sneaky and found a LiveDVD ISO for the final Gutsy release and have actually been using the final bits for a few hours now. I am confident to report the bugs that I referred to in the alpha/beta releases are not present. This is as clean, simple, and rewarding of a Linux install I’ve ever been through. This release is going to be the best desktop distro – period.
Immediately after starting, Ubuntu notified me there were ‘restricted drivers’ available for my desktop. I click on the balloon box that gave me this notice and click a button to install them. The installer pulled the drivers from the install DVD and then suggested I restart. I did, and logged in to find that Ubuntu had already made all the changes to present me with a 3D desktop effects interface. That was seriously it – no config files, no restarting X, no flickering screens – it was simply amazing in simplicity.
I went to espn.com and Firefox notified me there was a plugin to install (Flash). I clicked on the button to install this plugin and it presented me with options – Gnash (the open source GNU plugin) or Adobe Flash. I chose Adobe’s (my experiences with Gnash have resulted in gnashing teeth). Without even restarting Firefox, I was able to view Flash content – and I’m even running 64-bit (I didn’t know there was a 64-bit Flash plugin… need to investigate).
The Gnome 2.20 interface is very nice. The System Monitor has improved steadily with each release. Network Tools seems to have taken a lesson from Apple. The only issue I still have with Ubuntu is that I prefer the ‘slab’ menu that OpenSuse has gone forward with – it’s much easier to use. I like the “Visual Effects” simplified menu for the desktop effects, but it is crying for an “Advanced” options button or something to also add in Beryl effects… those looking for cubes may find the default effects disappointing. Nonetheless, the transparency, shadows and shadings on the interface are outstanding. I do recommend turning on subpixel smoothing for LCD screens for a slightly tweaked experience. I’m not so fond of the darker default desktop wallpaper background.
I was stunned that Ubuntu actually configured my monitor at the correct widescreen 1400×900 resolution setting – no Linux distro to date has done that correctly. I always have to pull up a terminal, edit xorg.conf and restart X. This deserves an award. Even in the RC release, Gutsy did not do this correctly, so kudos to whoever fixed that!
One of the problems/bugs I encountered in the beta was the inability to mount my USB FAT32 drive. I am happy to report that bug is long gone. As is Firefox crashes (so far).
The Tracker Search – where did this come from? It’s amazing – I can’t tell if it’s based on Beagle or something else. I suspect it’s not Beagle only because 1) it’s not crashing, 2) it’s not consuming all of my processor and 3) it’s indexing the right things… Check out all the customizations you can make too in System->Preferences->Indexing Preferences.
OpenOffice is v2.3 and even comes with an Ubuntu template (nice attention to detail). If you haven’t used 2.3 yet, I HIGHLY recommend it – the Calc charting updates alone will save you hours.
Pidgin has become my favorite IM client – and Gutsy comes with a nice new release (much easier GTalk setup finally).
That’s all I have for now. I fully expect this release will light up the blogs tomorrow as more people get their hands on it. The Ubuntu team has definitely earned a job well done in my book. I forced myself to use Vista for two months – it’s Hasta la Vista time as I’m back on Ubuntu now. Up next, virtualization.
Now let’s get Adobe, Canon, and Intuit all supporting their desktop apps on Ubuntu.
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
To Twitter or not to Twitter? Could it be bitter or better?
I’ve started using Twitter although admittedly I’m skeptical. David Shields ‘talked’ me into it with his blog postings, so I signed up and have started using it. I’m sure at first it’s like blogging and you need to just keep up with it until you have a network you like, but honestly… do I have time for yet another social networking medium? I read the blogs of most people on my Twitter list right now anyway – isn’t that enough?
Who knows, just as I forced myself to use Vista as a primary desktop at home for 2 months, I’m now going to force myself to give Twitter a go. If you’re interested in adding me to your network, you can find my ID here:
http://twitter.com/michaelkdolan
And now I’m off to complete my Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon install (yes, I found the final release already).
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Will Ubuntu have enough servers to meet Ubuntu’s demand? I’m guessing the Internet will feel the impact of the new release tomorrow ;-)
With all the intense interest, hype, and eagerness to get ahold of Ubuntu 7.10, I hope Ubuntu has enough server/bandwidth capacity to meet the demand. I know I’ll have an ISO downloading at some point during the day tomorrow.
There are quite a few updates to make 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” better. Most notably, there’s Gnome 2.20 which has a plethora of new features itself. You will also notice Compiz/3D desktop is now built in (instead of doing the rather easy post-install setup). Media and ‘restricted drivers’ are a bit cleaner in the alpha/betas I used.
My only concern would be there were a few bugs that had not been wrinkled out in the last beta I used. I know a couple others were having issues including Firefox crashing often. We’ll see if they’re cleaned up, but I have no doubt the release and engineering teams have been working a bit of overtime in the last couple weeks to clean things up. I for one, will be moving to 7.10 immediately on my home system.
Sunday, October 7th, 2007
Ashlee Vance from The Register Interviews Mark Shuttleworth
I saw this just before I went on a road trip back to NY this weekend and burned it to a CD. I’d recommend taking the time to listen to Mark with special focus on the parts where he describes what it takes to have successful outside contributions for open-commercial projects. There is also plenty of discussion on the “troubles” with OpenOffice and outside contributions as well as desktop Linux. And of course, there is the usual Reg-humor to keep the discussion lively.
http://www.theregister.com/2007/10/04/open_season_four_shuttleworth/
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
Ohio LinuxFest 2007 was a LinuxSuccess
The crew organizing Ohio LinuxFest in their spare time… must be glad to have their spare time back this week! What a show, and what an effort by the regional Ohio LUGs that put on this event.
It’s been a few years since I last attended and at that time, I don’t believe I even registered – I just popped in, went to a few talks and left. But at that time there were maybe a couple hundred people there. I heard estimates that over 1,000 were in attendance although that figure seemed to underestimate the full number of people there. A couple of the speaker hall sessions were absolutely packed (and they were big halls). Ohio LinuxFest gives LinuxWorld a pretty big challenge. It was great to see all the regional corporate supporters but I was a bit surprised by all the “big IT” vendors with booths. There were sponsors from Google, IBM, HP, Novell, Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Vyatta and even Sun (although they seemed to be using Linux to try getting visitors to listen to their Solaris story).
Some of the sessions were fantastic, others less so but on the whole, it was an outstanding lineup of speakers. “Maddog” was a speaker and did a great talk on computing off the grid. Grega… wow, what energy for usability. Somehow I ended up being an impromptu speaker at an “IBM Virtualization” session. I was followed by Alena from IBM who did a great job covering the details on how NationWide uses Linux on an IBM System z mainframe with z/VM for their mission critical web based systems. Alena had a last minute “laptop issue” (ahem… Windows) but we were able to copy her presentation onto an USB key and present from my Linux laptop (Linux saves the day… again).
The special prize for those who made it was the untold number of great ideas, best practices, and partnering or finding others in similar situations that these networking events create. I actually met someone with a similar background who went to law school and passed the bar, he moved to D.C. as an attorney and he’s now managing IT systems for the federal court systems. He was looking to start consolidating some of the applications they run in every court onto a central system (mainframe most likely).
Anyway, here’s an obligatory picture from the show (apologies for not having my good camera with me). I encourage anyone who will be near Columbus next year to check this event out – it was a great show, a great place to meet others working in the Linux/FLOSS arena, and overall a great time. And somehow this whole event is put on by volunteers – truly amazing.
Note the body density in this picture – this place was packed.
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
NYLUG Sept 27 (tomorrow): Jason Perlow gives a sneak peak at Gutsy Gibbon and OpenSuSE 10.3
Jason Perlow
- on -
Sneak Peeks at Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and OpenSuSE 10.3
Please note important RSVP information about this meeting
Jason Perlow, Sr. Technology Editor, Linux Magazine, and Advisory Architect, IBM Global Technology Services, will be presenting a sneak peek at Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” and OpenSuSE 10.3, updated versions of two popular Linux distributions currently under development.
Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10, upon its release in the Fall of 2007, will be the latest incarnation of the world’s fastest growing Free Software Linux distribution. Built upon the technology in Debian, targeted towards a wide range of end users and sporting the lastest Linux Kernel 2.6.22, it will have the latest implementation of GNOME, FireFox, OpenOffice, and other useful Open Source applications, as well as support for a wide array of devices including wireless networking and 3D accelerated video drivers thru open source and “restricted” proprietary device drivers from 3rd parties. Ubuntu, which was first released in 2003 by South African billionaire Mark Shuttleworth, has quickly usurped Fedora as the most downloaded Linux distribution on the Internet.
OpenSUSE 10.3, also due in the fall, is the next version of Novell’s popular Open Source and community-based Linux Distribution. Derived from SuSE Linux Professional, which used to be a commercial product, OpenSUSE 10.3 is both a bleeding-edge technology demonstrator for Novell’s future enterprise products and an end-user Linux distribution for power users that is packed full of software applications, advanced desktop/workstation Linux technology as well as the very latest in Open Source development tools. Distributed on DVD media and engineered at Novell’s research facilities in Nuremburg, Germany, it is the literal Mercedes Benz of Linux distributions.
Further Information:
About Jason Perlow:
Jason Perlow is Senior Technology Editor for Linux Magazine. In the past, his works have been featured in ZDNet, Sm@rt Partner, Smart Business for the New Economy, Maximum Linux, Handheld PC and PalmPower.com. He has run his own integration firm, Argonaut Systems, and is the founder of eGullet.com, a food news and discussion web site. He lives in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City with his wife Rachel and two poodles, Truffle and Bailey. Jason maintains a blog, Off The Broiler where he talks about food, technology, and what’s on his mind. ( podcasts)
Meeting Location
Please note that this meeting will be held at Google, located at 76 9th Avenue, 4th floor, New York, NY. Between 15th and 16th Streets. Use the entrance near 16th Street, there will be people at a “Google table” there to give you your nametag/badge to go up. It is highly suggested that you RSVP for this meeting prior to 2:30 PM the day before the meeting to avoid delays getting in.
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
Quicken 2008 for Ubuntu Linux?
I was configuring a Dell Ubuntu system just now and during the config process they now have a section for “Top Selling Software”. I was perplexed when I saw “Quicken Home and Business 2008″ as the only top selling software option to order with the Ubuntu Dell system. So I went over to Quicken.com and sure enough they don’t show any Linux supported versions. I also asked the “Live Chat” person and he said I cannot “buy the Quicken for your Linux”. Oh well..
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
Ubuntu Developer Conference (Oct 29 – Nov 2)
Noticed today that the Ubuntu Developer Conference is open and in plan for Oct. 29 – Nov. 2. You can find out more here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/spotlight/uds
Who should Attend
We don’t restrict access and all are welcome but bear in mind this is a working summit. This is for developers and other contributors looking to propose and work on features they want to see in the next versions of Ubuntu. It’s not for end users, it’s not a time for free support, it’s not a time to meet and talk strategy. No suits, no tourists in short.
Monday, August 27th, 2007
Software donations or competition? Blurring lines…
Interesting move by Microsoft in India. I’m not usually one to downplay charitable donations, but I wonder about the impetus behind such a move… why not donate computers, power infrastructure, servers…? Is the timing of this a bit odd…?
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/27/ap4056758.html
Microsoft Corp. will distribute free software to nonprofit groups to boost charity in India, a company official said Monday.
Assuming Microsoft is not distributing GNU/Linux, “free software” should probably be written as “software for free”. I would appreciate it if someone calculated the cost this “free” software will impose on India in the future.
I would also appreciate if someone (say Canonical) could donate $1 TRILLION DOLLARS (with a pinky hold to the cheek) worth of truly free software called Ubuntu.
People of India, here’s 4 quadrillion licenses for Ubuntu available for free. Oh, and it won’t cost you anything in the long run either (unless you want support).
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007
Information Overload at LinuxWorld
So much news at LinuxWorld, so many discussions, and far too much to capture within a few minutes right now. I’ll dump more of my thoughts here later this week. It took a while for me to actually make my way to the show floor and once I did… shock took over. While I suspected LinuxWorld had “matured” meaning less interest in a Linux-specific event, there were a TON of people present. The show was packed. I haven’t seen official attendance numbers, but I’d say today was a healthy turnout. The IBM reception was absolutely packed. There were far too many parties going on to attend them all – I missed Vyatta’s unfortunately. There’s always tomorrow :)
Some things I have to write about soon: SystemTap (see LWN), OpenMoko (cool, but guys, the resolution is way to high), OLPC, IBM announcements, Desktop Linux, ODF, OIN and Google, Ubuntu (multiples here), POWER6 benchmarks, LSB thoughts, and more.
On another interesting note, I met Craig of Craigslist fame today.
Friday, August 3rd, 2007
Ubuntu Scores a Big Win at University of Delhi in India – 5,000 desktops going Linux
Great win for the Ubuntu guys at Canonical.
Chris Kenyon, director of business development at Canonical, casually mentioned that the University of Delhi in India is partnering with Hewlett-Packard to deploy Ubuntu on as many as 5,000 desktops.
I think they’re also quite smart about keeping these quiet :-)
Canonical has several deals like this brewing but is keeping them quiet, according to one source. The reason: Canonical doesn’t want customer wins to attract 11th-hour counter bids from Microsoft, which has been know to offer low-ball pricing when customers are considering open source.
Subscribe to RSS/Atom Feed
