Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Red Hat has changed the way it distributes Enterprise Linux kernel code in an effort to prevent Oracle and Novell from stealing its customers, making it more difficult for these competitors to understand which patches have been applied where. Some have speculated that the change is designed to make it harder for Oracle as well as the open source CentOS project to build their own Linux distributions. But Stevens says this is not the case. He says the change is meant to hamper Oracle and Novell's ability to offer support to customers who are already running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

There is a monumental change occurring in the IT market. It is perhaps the biggest change since IBM unintentionally invited Intel and Microsoft to become two of the biggest technology gatekeepers of our time. Of course, every year there is someone proposing a major change in the industry. Trust me, it is really happening this time. The change I am talking about is happening in your pocket, purse, or belt clip. Yes, I am talking about cell phones, which by the way is becoming a really bad description of what these devices do. I probably use my “smart phone” as a talking device about 25% of the time. Then there are those pad things.

By any standard, Debian is the most influential Linux distribution ever. Not everyone uses Debian, but, both alone and second hand through Ubuntu, it is the source of more derivative distributions than any other. How influential is Debian? One indication is that three of the four most frequently downloaded distributions on Distrowatch are based on Debian: Ubuntu, Mint, and Debian itself. Together, these three account for 49% of the top ten downloads. Assuming that these downloads are representative of the interest in Linux, just under half of anybody's experience with the operating system comes through Debian or a distro based on Debian.

Shortly before the release of the final version of Firefox 4, the Mozilla developers have introduced the "Web Apps" project. These apps are expected to play a major role play in future browsers, and in such a future, the browser will not just be for viewing web pages but will be a platform for locally installed applications. Web Application programmers need do little more than create a manifest; this is a specification which lists the structure and content of the application, and is enough to deploy the app. Applications are able to share resources and will make use of the HTML5 specification for offline caching of these resources by means of the application cache.

Since its beginnings as a Microsoft Exchange alternative for small- to medium-sized businessed, the Open-Xchange collaboration suite has stretched a bit beyond just a messaging solution. The flagship product, Open-Xchange Server, is regarded as a full collaborative platform, particularly with the addition of the Infostore document sharing module. Here's how to install Open-Xchange Server to start on the way to replacing Exchange.

Novell has announced the release of SUSE Manager, an advanced systems management solution aimed at enterprise Linux environments. In addition to support for the company's own SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), SUSE Manager works with other Linux distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Debian is a bit unique in the Linux world. It's one of the most respected projects, it's one of the oldest distributions, and it is one of the most versatile systems. Debian comes in more architectures and more installation methods than most any other. It offers one of the widest selections of software available. In fact, it's often referred to as the Universal Operating System. It took two years, but version 6.0 finally emerged to what many say would say was worth the wait.

The iPad 2 isn't a "magical" update of the iPad, but it's an incremental update that's good enough to keep Apple on top of the tablet market for another year. Sad panda for Android.

Novell is using open source technology from the Spacewalk project that rival Linux vendor Red Hat started, in order to help Red Hat users migrate to SUSE Linux. The new SUSE Manager is a Linux systems management solution that will enable administrators to manage and update SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) as well as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) installations. SUSE Manager replaces the Zenworks Linux Management solution that Novell has had in the market since 2004, which evolved from the Ximian Red Carpet Linux management product suite.

Less than twenty-four hours ago Unigine opened up pre-ordering for their first game, OilRush, which is an impressive real-time strategy game that offers very impressive graphics from their advanced, multi-platform engine. While pre-orders have just got started -- and with beta access for those who pay the $20 USD / 15 EUR cost for the game -- here's some very early statistics.

Wind River is expanding its On-Board Program, which provides board vendors with the Linux and VxWorks software tools, documentation, and training they need to develop, test, and validate Embedded Development Kits. The more-diversified program now lets vendors bring Wind River Test Management-based BSP validation in-house, among other benefits, says the Intel subsidiary.

As the move to multi-core accelerates so does the need for parallel programming, but first let's look at what is causing this trend. There is a general rule in computing that says performance and capacity move down the market pyramid as time progresses. We all know that our phones (even the dumb ones) are much more powerful than the first computers. Indeed, many new smart phones will have two compute cores. Technically speaking, the NVidia Tegra 2 has 8 processing units, two of which are general purpose ARM Cortex A9 cores, the others are for audio, video, etc.

Plan B is designed to make up for the failures of Android users who have misplaced their phone and are trying to locate it – but haven't installed any phone tracking software on their device. Now, the free tool from the Lookout Labs developers can reportedly handle such situations retroactively via the Android Market's new remote installation option.

Every few years I run a poll on my personal website to gauge Linux users' favorite desktop. When analyzing the results over the years, some trends do emerge. Is KDE or GNOME king? What has come in third or fourth consistently over the years? How about you, what is your favorite desktop?

Following Nokia's recent announcement about its future smart phone development strategy, KDE has received a lot of questions. Many of these questions have been related to the future of KDE and KDE's commitment to the Qt framework. In this statement we set out what we see as a bright future for Qt and KDE software.

The quickest way to build a commercial Linux business is to clone whatever Red Hat does. That's what Oracle and CentOS do with their Enterprise Linux redistributions and accompanying paid-for support offerings, and it is now what Novell is doing with a "new" product called SUSE Manager.

Hardware keeps getting faster and faster, and most of us are running machines that would have been unthinkably speedy a decade ago, yet somehow it never seems to feel that way. As the hardware gets faster, the software seems to get bigger and slower and we always seem to end up with something that dances around the line of usability. Linux has been no exception to this, with each new advance in hardware bringing a matching increase in the complexity of the software. If your system takes too long to boot, the best way to fix it is to know what’s bringing you down. For that, there’s Bootchart. This little utility will show you exactly what’s launching when and how long it each step takes.

Linux Magazine's Senior Software Editor Brockmeier, talks with Ted Gould of Canonical about the upcoming release of Ubuntu Unity. In this interview Ted touches on Unity's UI design decisions, hardware drivers and bundled software.

Saab Automobile unveiled an Android-based in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) concept supported by an open API and app store. The & Saab IQon& system is equipped with an eight-inch touchscreen, provides streaming multimedia, navigation, and on-board storage, and offers API access to more than 500 sensor signals that can be remotely relayed back to Saab dealerships.

Nearly two months ago AMD released Radeon HD 6000 series open-source support -- complete with kernel mode-setting and Mesa/Gallium3D OpenGL driver acceleration support -- but this support had only covered the "Northern Islands" ASICs and not the newest Radeon HD 6900 "Cayman" graphics processors. Cayman's design is much different from the Northern Islands and previous-generation Evergreen GPUs, but the open-source support for these highest-end AMD graphics processors is beginning to emerge.