12.16.08

Links 16/12/2008: 2,500 Schools Move to GNU/Linux, USB 3.0 on Linux

Posted in News Roundup at 5:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

The LTSP adds thin-client support to a Linux server

Originally begun to investigate the possibility of extending the useful life of legacy IT equipment, the Linux Terminal Server Project is now a comprehensive collection of tools for running driveless thin clients with a Linux server. Certainly in its current version 5, if not before, it has blossomed into an useful – and free – terminal/server solution.
IT@School – Kerala’s successfull mission!

We met Anvar Sadith Sir ,he cleary explained us about the project IT@School .More than 2500 schools were using only GNU/Linux.
Red Hat gives away JBoss to APAC

Red Hat on Monday is giving away 5,000 JBoss Developer Studio subscriptions to Java developers in six territories in the Asia-Pacific region.

The program will run in China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Hong Kong, targeted at independent Java developers and those from small and midsize businesses (SMBs), said the open source vendor, in an e-mailed response to ZDNet Asia.
Linux & Zeno’s Paradox
USB 3.0 and Linux
Teaching Teachers About Linux.

The price of the system with all this software ballooned to about $2500.00. The young woman was a bit shocked by this, but said she needed to have all this on her system. After she was given this final price, she thanked the salesman and told him she would think it over.
A Quantum of FOSS

Therefore, I believe it is important for every parent and taxpayer to contact their school district’s superintendent and/or IT department and voice their frustration over the money spent on a fairly useless education tool like MS Office when entirely sufficient free replacements exist. Parents and taxpayers need to make it known that wasting public funds in this way is not appropriate and may very well impact their votes on future funding efforts like bonds and mill levies. The problem is that most people do not know there are free alternatives nor do they understand the relative uselessness of office productivity software in education. Those of us who do need to take the lead in our communities and get this conversation started. I recently did this and I encourage others to do this as well. The more a superintendent hears this, the more likely they will be to put pressure on IT departments to justify their spending and hopefully bring about a move to more Free Software and important savings as well.
Software as a Subversive Activity, Part 5: Indoctrinating the Next Generation of Linux Geeks

The boys are still in Windows most of the time. But they think Tux the penguin is cute, and that’s a start. They still ask: “can I play Linux?” and want their own Linux machine. (The plan, for now, is to get them set with bootable CDs or flash drives.) Convert them now and you’ve taken over the next generation! Mwah hah hah hah!
A Response to “What Are The Issues With Open Source Linux?”
Can Open Source Help the Economy?

Red Hat began to see the fruits of their labor in late 2002; the company grew revenue 14 percent for the year and that growth improved to 38 percent and 58 percent in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Given the timing of subscription revenues and long sales cycles, it is not hard to conclude that during the 2001-2002 economic downturn, large corporations made the decision to switch to open-source technologies. It also explains why Novell paid $200 million for Suse Linux in late 2003, which at the time, was roughly 20 times its revenues.
Update: The Freedom Key
New Users
KDE
Distributions
- The Range of Linux Distributions
- Fedora Core 10 might make me a believer again
  
  To all the developers at Fedora and Red Hat, I tip my, well, hat to you. You have made me a believer again.
- Ubuntu
  - The 2008 State of My Linux Address
    
    One year ago, I was looking at turning away many years of experience and comfortable knowledge. I moved cautiously, but enthusiatically from one Ubuntu machine, to dual-booting my laptop, to finally relegating Windows to a virtual machine for those unpleasant necessities.
    
    I’m having a blast using Ubuntu, enjoy learning Linux and don’t miss the world of non-Free anti-user software one whit.
  - “Ubuntu has the strongest chance to take Linux mainstream”
  - Ubuntu vs XP
    
    Ubuntu is small and fast and it’s getting easier all the time. With all the resources on the Internet, if you have a question about how to do something, google it and the answer is probably there. Linux used to only be used by the Super Geek. Unix as a whole is still pretty geeky, but with the graphics interface they are trying to change that. Ubuntu is being used on a lot of the small Netbooks that are mainly used for going online to check email and surf the internet and it’s becoming more popular around the world.
  - Bringing WINE Into Ubuntu Main
  - Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 121
  - How To: Getting a lean system with a custom Ubuntu install
  - Eeebuntu 8.10 released
Sub-notebooks
- Netbooks Primed To Push Linux Into Mainstream
  
  Microsoft was late to realize the impact of Linux on netbooks. In Microsoft’s first quarter earnings call in October, executives chalked up a four-point shortfall in Windows client revenue to netbooks, many of which ship with XP Home. Earlier this year, Microsoft extended the OEM deadline for selling XP Home on netbooks to June 30, 2010.
  
  In response to the netbook threat, Microsoft has drastically slashed the price of XP, according to solution providers.
  
  “Microsoft was terrified, because for the first time, Linux on the desktop was actually starting to get some traction in their sweet spot,” said one solution provider, who requested anonymity.
- Tiny PCs, tiny prices, big headaches
Phones
- FSFS.in 2008 :: Day 3.5 :: Openmoko Hack Session
- Android takes on medical diagnostics
  
  A remote medical diagnostics application that integrates a Linux server and an application running on an Android cellphone is heading for a trial in the Philippines. The “Moca” software was developed by an open source project that grew out of an MIT Media Lab class.
- The Top 10 Stories of 2008: Not Business as Usual
  
  Meanwhile, Symbian, the platform which has the largest market share, was opened up midyear and the LiMo mobile Linux group has a loyal membership. Mobile communications will never be the same.
Devices
- No operating system is an island
  
  The Traffic Management Operating System (TMOS) is the operating system we built for BIG-IP. It’s an embedded device platform that is highly optimized for delivering applications over the Internet and other IP networks, and gives the device a performance edge. BIG-IP’s popularity has drawn attention to TMOS, and while nearly all the notice has been positive, our operating system has sometimes been mischaracterized as a Linux variant. In fact, BIG-IP does include a copy of Linux, which runs alongside TMOS and provides certain management tasks, such as the command line and Web graphical user interface.
  
  However, the packets flowing through BIG-IP are not “touched” by Linux in any way. Every important system aspect is contained within TMOS and optimized for high-speed, high-volume traffic-management applications. TMOS has its own microkernel, the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM).
- TI adds ARM9, Linux to sound chip
- Watch Out WiFi, Here Comes MiFi