07.16.08
Links 16/07/2008: Dell’s GNU/Linux UMPCs Coming, OpenOffice 3.0 Beta 2
GNU/Linux
Openfiler 2.3, GNUSTEP 1.9 and BLAG 90000 have been released.
- KDE 4.1 RC1 Release Announcement
- IBM Sells 60 Teraflops Power6-Linux Super in Holland
Server maker IBM has spent more than a decade taking on the supercomputer market, and has become one of the big dogs, if not the big dog, when it comes to building different styles of high performance computer clusters. Last week, the company announced its first big Power6-based Power 575 supercomputer running Linux, nicknamed Huygens after the famous Dutch scientist, which was sold to SARA Computing and Networking, the national supercomputing network built and managed by the national government in The Netherlands.
- Persistent Configuration Options For X.Org Drivers
When it comes to proprietary drivers, AMD has almost completely eliminated their dependence on the xorg.conf and NVIDIA too is eliminating their need of this method for configuring the X server. With the fglrx Linux driver, ATI/AMD has developed the AMDPCSDB, or the AMD Persistent Configuration Store Data-Base.
- Run a Business Network on Linux: Remote Help Desks
- Google’s Android to kickstart mobile Linux
Google’s Android project could kickstart location-aware advertising by enabling the benefits of mobile Linux, experts predict.
- For Linux security, principle of least privilege prevails, says Red Hat security expert
- Linux can save us
In case you haven’t noticed, the economy is collapsing.
[...]
What does this have to do with Linux? Everything.
With both people and companies having to squeeze a nickel’s worth of good out of every penny, how long do you think people will be paying Microsoft for its imperfect operating systems and office suites?
- Event aims to bring Lindependence to one California town
What is going well? Starks reports there will be some national coverage, including a possible National Public Radio feature and partial coverage from Fox News. Also, there are rumblings of other towns that may wish to try the same kind of event. Both Starks and Cafiero have already been asked by others if they could replicate this event.
- [Tongue in Cheek] Windows Now Open Source
- Benchmarking hardware RAID vs. Linux kernel software RAID
My tests showed that the choice of filesystem makes a huge impact on performance, with XFS being substantially quicker for output on parity RAIDs, though in some configurations, such as 256KB-chunk RAID-10 block input, XFS can be slower than ext3.
Linux
- Linux is Big in Japan — Our Symposium
The 8th Linux Foundation Japan Symposium took place last week in Tokyo. The goal of these symposiums is to bring leading Linux luminaries to present and interact with local senior software developers, with the goal of increasing open source participation by talented Japanese developers and also fostering Linux usage in the Japanese IT industry.
- Linux Foundation Japan Symposium Notes
- Kernel space: Multiqueue networking
- New Linux kernel expands virtualisation support
- Linux 2.6.26 brings embedded improvements
- Kernel Release Numbering Redux
- Canonical and the Linux kernel
GregKH: “Canonical only contributed 6 patches in 5 years”
Laptops
- Evidence mounts for August Eee PC carnage with $299 Dell E launch
For that price, assuming everything we’ve heard so far is correct, you’ll get an instant-on Linux distro running atop Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom processor, a 1,024 x 600 display, 3x USB, a wee SSD, integrated webcam, WiFi, and more in a 0.82-1.22-inch thick sled weighing about 2.2-pounds.
- Dell said to be planning launch of low-cost notebook in August
- CyberLink Sees Opportunities in Netbooks, Linux
Multimedia software maker CyberLink sees a lot of opportunities in the fast-growing netbook segment of the computer market, from online access to files stored on home PCs to multimedia software made for Linux OSs.
Some of the most popular netbooks, or mini-laptops, being launched come with options for far less storage space than mainstream laptops, such as Asustek’s Eee PC 1000, Eee PC 901and Acer’s Aspire one.
Many of them also run on a Linux OS, such as Linpus Linux Lite on the Aspire one and Linux OS by Xandros on the Eee PC. These netbooks can also come with Windows XP instead.
F/OSS
- Firefox 3.1 alpha 1 code freeze is next Monday
- about:mozilla – Firefox marketing, Guinness record, Colbert bump, Fx3 features, community calendar, and more…
- Exploring Space with Celestia
- OpenOffice 3.0 Beta 2 is ready for wider testing.
- NetDirector: Open Source Configuration Management Goes GPL
- Moodle Open Source E-Learning Heads for the Cloud
- An open letter to my HoD
- [FSF] Free Software Supporter — Issue 6, July 2008
Microsoft, Google
- Street-savvy Microsoft tries to pop the pimply face of piracy
- Microsoft questions Google’s plan to save the world through ads
- Google’s U.S. search share nears 70 percent
- Taylor Woodrow builds better business with Google Apps