05.26.08
Posted in News Roundup at 12:26 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
GNU/Linux
- Red Hat to open SA office
Linux vendor Red Hat is to open an office in South Africa. Starting Monday Red Hat will have an SA-based country manager who will be responsible for the Southern Africa market on behalf of the company.
- AMD Releases Stream SDK For Linux
NVIDIA’s competition for Stream computing is CUDA, which is the Compute Unified Device Architecture, or CUDA for short. CUDA has been supported on Linux now for some time and NVIDIA is in the process of bringing PhysX to CUDA, for physics acceleration thanks to their acquisition of AGEIA. Intel’s competition is Ct, or C for Throughput Computing.
- A look at OpenSolaris 2008.05 (by John Frey)
- RedPost Launches Wicker: A Customized Ubuntu for Digital Signs and Photo Frames
- Google to give Sydney demo of Android platform
- Musix GNU/Linux 1.0R4 Released – Everything from sound editing to graphical design
- Fedora 9: Drumrolls with Linux Hydrogen
- Making that old PC useful
So then, why do it? Why jump through so many hoops to make a Linux desktop look like some other operating system, instead of just installing XP or Vista, or even a different, easier Linux distribution? Well, I mentioned the answer at the beginning of this article: speed. While looking like Vista (and I do believe it’s close enough to fool the normal pc user), it behaves nothing like it. Vista wouldn’t even install on this machine. XP would be slow.
- Run Native Linux Applications in Windows Vista – Via Ulteo Virtual Desktop
- Korean Government Writes Digital Textbook on Linux
The government-led Korean digital textbook project will adopt Linux. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea announced their decision to choose the open software for digital textbook, the key project for the government’s digital education policy.
- Gentoo Monthly Newsletter: 26 May 2008
- Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 92
F/OSS
Microsoft
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Posted in Interoperability, Microsoft, Novell, Servers, SLES/SLED, Standard, Virtualisation, Vista, Windows, Xen at 12:00 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
…Novell being an exception
Consider this to be a quick addendum to a previous post about Xen, Novell and other members of the 'anti-VMWare' club. Here we have another exhibit that serves as a reminder of Xen’s direction. The headline, “Citrix – ‘Shifting’ Focus,” ought to give a clue.
Delivering services to user desktops leveraging virtualization has always been important to Citrix and one of the main reasons they acquired XenSource. So what is the “shift”?
Server virtualisation is what Xen used to be all about to GNU/Linux. A couple of months ago Citrix said it had acquired XenSource for the brand. Now, consider this:
Citrix and Microsoft Unveil New Branch Office Application Delivery Solution at Citrix Synergy 2008
Citrix Systems and Microsoft have announced the immediate availability of Citrix Branch Repeater. This new line of branch office appliances have been developed and marketed as part of a strategic alliance between the two companies.
Citrix Branch Repeater can now stage applications streamed to branch employees by Citrix XenApp (previously known as Citrix Presentation Server) at the front door of the branch.
Going back to Microsoft’s desktop virtualisation ambition, consider this new article which brings the recent and arguably mysterious acquisition of Kidaro into play:
Microsoft will Update Desktop Virtualization
[...]
The Kidaro software lets users run multiple versions of Windows and applications concurrently without having to open multiple virtual machine sessions. Microsoft has rebranded the Kidaro software as Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization and will release it in the first half of 2009.
In light of it all, in order to shed some more light on motivation, consider the following new article that explains Microsoft’s problem pretty well:
Meanwhile, another technology called “virtualization,” which allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on one PC or server, is diminishing the importance of products like Vista and raises questions about its future. “What is an operating system and what role should it serve?” asks Whitehouse. “The OS was originally intended as an abstraction layer between software applications and the computer’s hardware. But with the new abstraction layer between the hardware and the OS provided by virtualization and products like Adobe’s AIR that sit between the OS and desktop software applications, the role the operating system once played is becoming increasingly diminished.”
[...]
Despite these new developments, Microsoft finds itself at a crossroads, according to legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach.
“The platform for most uses of PCs today is the Internet, not Windows. Windows plays an important role in the ecosystem, but it’s not the center of the world in the way it used to be. … Microsoft needs to decide whether it cares more about the next 5 to 10 years, or the 20 years after that.”
[...]
At a conference on April 7, Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil McDonald argued that Windows is collapsing under its own weight and suggested that it change radically to become lighter and modular so that customers only have to use features they need. For Microsoft, its ecosystem and its customers, “the situation is untenable,” the two analysts stated.
Lastly, remember that the lesser-explored issue is the deep bond that’s formed not just between Xen and Citrix-Microsoft, but also with Novell. A quick reminder from a new article is this: (highlight in red to be considered)
Novell says its “SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 2,” or SP2, is the only Xen-based solution of its kind and includes support for Microsoft for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 users.
Although this was pointed out before, it’s probably worth just repeating. Microsoft chooses who to play with and it tries hard to separate SUSE from GNU/Linux. Sounds familiar? Recall the replacement of the word “standards” with “interoperability” (interop != open standard). It is actually similar to what “open source” did to “Free software”. It throws away the key values, for self-serving reasons. It rids the exploiter from obligations and liabilities. █
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Posted in DRM, Free/Libre Software, Patents at 11:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Only a couple of days ago, Glyn Moody mentioned and warned about the ACTA. Readers’ attention is advised. It should ideally be diverted the following large-scale document that has just been posted to a blog. Accompanying remarks from Hans at LXer:
[This is news because May 22th a discussion paper appeared at WikiLeaks. In March, when it was yet unknown what ACTA would look like, IP Justice published the white paper the 'Full Story" links too. It's a paper about how the rich governments try to almost forbid P2P, stifle innovation through broader 'piracy protection', colonize poor countries and create more opportunities to spy on its citizens. All that in a secret undemocratic way; taking away digital rights. However, their excuses are quite good: Stopping dangerous fake-medicines, car parts etc. - hkwint]
In a separate yet related context, namely encryption of E-mail, especially now that Britain intends to snoop on every bit of communication, the following came up yesterday in conversation with a reader: “FWIW you’ll have to look for the original, to be authoritative, but here is a copy. Note points 29-33.”
All of this is related laterally to what we cover in this Web site. Think along the lines of “Trusted Computing” (computers that won’t trust you), back doors, DRM, borderless network filtering (censorship), software patents and DMCA law. All those Orwellian things which Free software prepared to combat are trying to raise their ugly heads with the help of politicians. Be alert and spread the knowledge. █
“If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.”
–Bill Gates
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Posted in News Roundup at 5:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
GNU/Linux
- Kicking Cuba’s Free Software Switch Into a Higher Gear
The purpose of the move is to “attain sovereignty and technological autonomy,” as recommended by the Ibero-American Charter on Electronic Government, approved by the Ninth Ibero-American Conference of Ministers for Public Administration and State Reform, held in Chile in June 2007.
- Moscow regional government to migrate to Open Source desktop
The Moscow regional administration will test usefulness of an Open Source desktop by migrating several hundreds of desktop PCs to Mandriva GNU/Linux and by installing OpenOffice on a thousand others.
- TinyMe instilled new life to my HP Deskpro, Thanks to PCLinuxOS Team
This is fast stable version of TinyMe, a PCLinuxOS-based mini-distribution designed with approx. 200 MB that packs kernel 2.6.18.8, xorg-server 1.3 and a good selection of applications that you most frequently use in your daily computing. Besides, if you want more Synaptic is just a click away.
- $200 computers
- Edinburgh Bed and Breakfast Garfield Guest House: Transition to the GNU/Linux Ubuntu Operating System
- Lessons learned from Ubuntu
While wandering the Ubuntu site (www.ubuntu.com) to take a look at the new Hardy Heron / 8.04 LTS version, I went all philosophical and tried to think of any lessons that the Puppy Community could learn from that of Ubuntu. Now please note this is not a dig at the Puppy Community, we are one of the best out there, I’m just taking a step back and pondering to myself.
F/OSS
Microsoft
- In search of: Startups that could upend Google and Microsoft
- Vista selling well!?
Whatever drugs Steve Ballmer is on they must be very, very good.
[...]
Here are the cold hard facts. Microsoft reported on March 25th that its Windows sales had dropped 24% in the last quarter. For the same quarter, IDC said PC sales were up 15%. Now, I’m no financial wizard, but I do know a thing or two. Microsoft’s Windows sales, to the best of my knowledge, have just suffered their hardest fall ever at the same time that PC sales were significantly up. This isn’t just bad, this is absolutely horrible.
Back in March, Microsoft CFO Charles Liddell actually had the chutzpah to say that the drop in Windows sales wasn’t due to lackluster Vista sales. Instead, the problem was due to ‘unlicensed’ PC sales and the higher growth of emerging markets. If you can follow that logic and come up with the same conclusion he did, do let me know, because it makes no sense to me.
If PCs are selling without Windows licenses attached to them that tells me that 1) Vista isn’t selling and 2) desktop Linux is selling.
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Posted in Africa, America, ECMA, Europe, Formats, ISO, Microsoft, Open XML at 4:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Index/Navigation
In this last part among six parts, we present some past coverage that contains pointers, translations, and snippets. These can hopefully shed light on the high level of irregularities in Microsoft’s pursuit for ISO’s rubber stamp. See the notes at the bottom about making a complaint.
Previous:
T
Thailand (Phone: +66 2 202 34 00-2):
Read the rest of this entry »
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