Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

IBM fired the opening salvo at this year's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, and to the surprise of no one, it was aimed squarely at Microsoft. Sure, it was the low-hanging fruit -- Microsoft's an easy target. It's kind of like taking pot shots at John McCain at an Obama fund-raiser. But here, the ammunition was more notable than the target.

LXer Feature: 05-Aug-2008

Here are a few thoughts and a quick roundup of what I have seen at LinuxWorld 2008 in San Francisco so far.

Oracle's post BEA Systems acquisition roadmap hits the ground running in the next two weeks with the delivery of version 10.3 of BEA's popular application server. WebLogic Server 10.3 has been released to manufacturing with customers expected to get final CDs in the next 14 days, senior vice president of Oracle server technologies Thomas Kurian told BEA users at an Oracle event on Monday.

Startup Vyatta has bundled its Linux and open source software-based router and firewall software into an x86 appliance for the enterprise market. Vyatta will market its appliance to compete on cost-performance with Cisco, Nortel and Juniper Networks. Vyatta has bundled its dual-licensed Linux and open source software-based router and firewall software into a branded hardware "appliance" version for the enterprise market.

If you wanted a symbol of Linux's impact on the world of embedded systems, you could do worse than consider the edifying case of Wind River's Damascene conversion. Once one of free software's fiercest critics, today Wind River is a cheerleader for the benefits of open source, of sharing, and of giving back to the community. John Bruggeman is Wind River's Chief Marketing Officer. Here he talks to Glyn Moody about why you can't use any old Linux for embedded systems, the respective strengths and weaknesses of the Linux-based mobile platforms from the LiMo Foundation and Google's Android, and what effect Nokia's announcement that it would be open-sourcing the Symbian operating system will have on the sector.

LXer Feature: 03-Aug-2008

This week we have Linus Torvalds on Linux Distributions, A Quick Look at OpenOffice.org Writer 3.0, It's not a clone, but it can run Mac OS X, Insanely Securing Your Unix or Linux Systems and several articles on KDE 4.1.

The 10th annual LinuxWorld Conference & Expo and its partner Next Generation Data Center Conference kick off today at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where the open-source operating system will be the center of attention for enterprise users, vendors and IT enthusiasts.

The "kill" command can be an invaluable tool for stopping runaway services. Here's a plain-English guide to how it works.

Sun Microsystems last week said it will soon open source the core components of Sun Java System Web Proxy and Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 under the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) license....Jim Jagielski, co-founder, member and director of the Apache Software Foundation, said he thinks Sun's release of the Web and Proxy server code is"proof of their involvement and commitment to open source," according to a prepared statement. ...BSD-style licenses are"unrestricted," meaning they allow anyone to do anything with the code, including putting it into a proprietary product, without contributing anything back to the community.

Last week iTWire reported how HP, Intel and Yahoo! are joining forces to spearhead a global and open source test bed for the advancement of cloud computing. Now IBM has thrown a few hundred million into the technology as well. It would appear that IBM has its head in the clouds, along with its wallet. The company has announced it has plans to build a $360 million state-of-the-art cloud computing data centre in the Research Triangle Park facility, North Carolina.

After writing close to a thousand of these weekly essays, I won't bury the lead on this one: It's my last column forThe Sun. There. It was hard to say that out loud, and I spent two nights on a half-dozen elegant openings before I decided to get right to the point. Now I can talk about how much fun it's been, and how much I'll miss all of you.

The free software Linux desktop KDE 4.1 advances the KDE Project's goals of cross-platform support and helps make the user interface more attractive. The KDE Project looked to Apple as an example of the importance of an attractive UI. With the release of Version 4.1 of the KDE Linux desktop July 29, the KDE community made statements on several fronts, including advanced cross-platform support and overall improvements in the look and feel of the GUI.

When it comes to cell phone software, open is the new black. In less than two years, no fewer than three coalitions have formed with the intent of building mobile handset operating systems with input from all comers. Suddenly the business of developing mobile software -- once handled by coders working behind closed doors for a single vendor or group -- has gone open source.

I've been worried for some years that the open source movement might fall prey to the problem that Kim Stanley Robinson so incisively captured in Green Mars: "History is a wave that moves through time slightly faster than we do." Innovators are left behind, as the world they've changed picks up on their ideas, runs with them, and takes them in unexpected directions.

This is going to give a hard time to any Vista or Mac. KDE brings to GNU/Linux the cool and bling factor with a complete arsenal of applications and tools with which you can conquer even Mars. ...For KDE 4 series, it is just the beginning of the journey, currently it is for those users who want to use bleeding edge technology or experience, but we hope soon KDE 4 series will take on the world.

The Senate and House have voted to reauthorize the Higher Education Act and approved controversial new provisions that will require universities to provide students with access to commercial music downloading services and implement traffic filtering technologies in order to deter peer-to-peer filesharing. The bill now goes to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.

AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is a wrapper around a set of technologies that enables developers to build rich Internet applications that deploy on the desktop. Applications are created using a mixture of JavaScript, HTML, and Flash. The resulting application is delivered to end users in a single package and rendered using the WebKit HTML engine.

Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable-television provider, was ordered by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to stop blocking its customers from sharing videos and other files online. The FCC levied no fine in the 3-2 ruling that asserts federal power over how telephone and cable-TV companies manage their customers' access to the Internet. The agency made the decision in response to a complaint filed nine months ago by public-interest groups. They accused Comcast of slowing traffic on its network and stopping users from uploading files.

Plat'Home, Linux pioneers in Japan and creators of the diminutive OpenMicroServer, are running a contest called "Will Linux Work?" They are basically asking people to submit crazy/extreme environments or ideas using their Linux servers and see if they work. Whoever has the best idea will get 5 of their OpenMicroServers shipped to them for free and be able to test their idea -- you can find all the details here.

Sun Microsystems continues to struggle. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based server maker reported that earnings in the quarter ended June 30 fell nearly 74 percent to $88 million, compared with earnings of $329 million during the same period a year ago. Quarterly revenue fell 1.4 percent to $3.78 billion, down from $3.83 billion during the same period in 2007.