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From the Linux (and Linux Journal) perspective, there's an issue with clouds—those back-end Web services that compose Utility Computing. They're proprietary. Amazon owns AWS (Amazon Web Services: S3, EC2 and a growing number of others). Google, Microsoft and other companies own theirs as well. These are open in the sense that most services are substitutable, which makes them utilities. If you don't like storing your data at Amazon's S3, you can park it elsewhere. The documents you create and keep at Google Docs can be put elsewhere as well. Elastic computing is more tricky, but it should be substitutable as well.

We started to study shell programming in school and we use VI to code some scripts. I noticed that all my colleagues using vi on ubuntu are very irritated and seem to envy their friends who use VI on Fedora 10 because it's very easy to use and colorful, it helps to detect syntax errors. Some of my friends started to regret installing Ubuntu instead of Fedora and even blamed me for recommending it. As an Ubuntu fan I looked for a solution for this tiny problem.

A long time ago I used to actually use a separate computer to install and test Linux distributions. I even built some of the boxes that I used to do the testing with but these days I mostly do my work on Macs. I know, I know...I've become a lame Apple whore. Along the way I finally ended up dispensing with testing Linux distributions on separate computers. These days I use VMWare and Parallels to run Linux on my Macs. Why? Well you can constantly be downloading and installing different distributions with a minimum of fuss and hassle. You don't need to tie up an entire machine just to check the latest cool distributions.

Red Hat's application for a patent for an approach to routing messages over a middleware bus has disturbed some who are wondering why Red Hat didn't simply publish. If, as Red Hat claim, this is simply a defensive patent they could instead have published the proposal to establish prior art.

About two-thirds of "IT executives" responding to a Novell-sponsored survey report either "actively evaluating" or "accelerating adoption" of Linux on the desktop, Novell says. About 72 percent responded likewise for servers, although presumably the desktop category includes more evaluators, while servers have more adoption accelerators.

I have decided - after running Foresight for two months - to no longer use Foresight Linux on my systems. Let me say however that I found the experience interesting and dare I say - challenging. Everyone in the IRC channel was great - very friendly - and most tried to be helpful.

I thought it might be helpful and instructive to provide an explanation as to why I am not going to use Foresight any longer, rather than just disappear. Hopefully, in doing so I may contribute to Foresight becoming a better distro that I might want to run in the future. So, here goes ....

Novell and Red Hat will have a seat at Cisco Systems’ table as CEO John Chambers builds out Cisco’s server and unified computing strategy. Here’s the scoop, from The VAR Guy.

To take advantage of the excellent Linux development environment, you need to have the right tools. Here’s a rundown of some of the best ones out there and the features they have to offer. Linux is a great development environment. But without sound development tools, that environment won’t do you any good. Fortunately, plenty of Linux and/or open source development tools are available. If you’re a new user you might not know which tools are there, but worry not. Here are 10 outstanding tools that will help you take your development to another level.

Hadoop, the same software that lies at the heart of successful companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, and others, has been proven time and again with said companies to be a successful data management server, keeping data secure and fault-free spread across multiple servers. It isn't the easiest piece of software to configure, however, which is why the Cloudera company has just announced a freely downloadable and easier to use custom distribution of Hadoop to bring the power of entities like Google to smaller businesses.

A new report out today from IDC, sponsored by Linux vendor Novell indicates that the current economic downturn is a good thing for Linux adoption. with more than half of the IT executives surveyed planning to accelerate Linux adoption in 2009. This is definitely something we've heard before from multiple open source and Linux vendors, but the IDC report puts some numbers to the premise.

Nick Nguyen, the Mozilla Add-ons Lead, has posted a blog entry prompting developers to participate in a survey about developer platforms. The goal of the survey is to help the add-ons team improve the development experience, while "nurturing new extension developers."

Authentication is a the key component of security-based solutions. In client-server models designed over UNIX® systems, distributed network security is of significant importance. In order to meet the stringent security requirements necessary in client-server models, either multi-layer authentication or multifactor authentication or combinations of both are being used by existing systems.

The recently updated Java Specification Requests (JSRs) show that the licensing battle between the Apache Software Foundation and Sun Microsystems (the force behind Java) still hasn't ended after raging for seven years.

Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends.

So begins a new white paper from research analyst IDC. History supports the logic of the statement, but applying the same logic to predict the future is a dangerous game. Having good starting data can help considerably in that regard, though, and that's what makes this report interesting. It's title is Linux Adoption in a Global Recession, and it marshalls some impressive data to predict that Linux will be a significant gainer, while others are punished by the current global meltdown.

The Symbian Foundation has laid out a version release schedule, and a development timetable that calls for five iterations to be in production at a time. The version of Symbian currently shipping requires a separate graphical layer, S60, but with "Symbian^2" those layers are combined in the first open-source version of the OS, which should be hardened for launch at the end of 2009.

SourceForge should be familiar to most Open Source users: for many years the Internet platform has given thousands of software projects a virtual home, including the use of the Subversion and CVS source code management (SCM) systems.

Could the eighth edition of Microsoft Internet Explorer really be the last of its breed? That's the rumor, anyway. The prospect has some in the FOSS community excited and eager to bid the browser a fond good riddance, though others see it as just another ploy to get trust busters off Redmond's back.

The Linux Foundation has taken over hosting and content for the linux.com domain from SourceForge Inc with the aim of producing a dynamic web 2.0 site that is high on collaboration and utility. Potential ideas touted so far include a Linux AppStore, Digg-like news aggregation and location-based support.

You want to offer wireless Internet to your customers, or share your connection with neighbors? You don't have to spend several hundreds to set up a simple-- or advanced--Wi-Fi hotspot. Eric Geier shows us how to share a wi-fi connection safely, easily, and cheaply.

Up to now the automotive branch has not been famous for its engagement in Linux and Open Source. Now the chairman of the new open source alliance Genivi is talking about motives and plans.