Enterprise Linux Log http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux A SearchEnterpriseLinux.com blog Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:36:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en © contactus@itknowledgeexchange.com () contactus@itknowledgeexchange.com() A SearchEnterpriseLinux.com blog contactus@itknowledgeexchange.com No no http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg Enterprise Linux Log http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux 144 144 Canonical serious about business, Asay hired as COO http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/canonical-serious-about-business-asay-hired-as-coo/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/canonical-serious-about-business-asay-hired-as-coo/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:24:06 +0000 Leah Rosin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=847 If people thought Canonical was nothing more than that fun company with the cute and easy-to-use desktop version of Linux that was the pet project of its benevolent dictator, Mark Shuttleworth, then today they heard that needle sliding on a record sound. Stop.

In December, Canonical announced that Shuttleworth was stepping down from his role as CEO and COO Jane Silber was moving up, but no hint was given as to who would be filling her shoes. Today, the company sent out a press release announcing that the role would be filled by long-time open source business strategist, Matt Asay.

Some of us feel quite a familiarity with Asay; we’ve been following his CNET blog, The Open Road (and linked to it prolifically when breaking open source news hits). He also is a regular speaker at open source events — I recently saw him at the inaugural LinuxCon in late September 2009.

Asay leaves his position as VP of Business Development for Alfresco, a Maidenhead, United Kingdom-based open source content management software company. Prior to that, Asay was one of the founding members of Novell’s Linux Business Office in 2002 and was an early influencer and participant in the company’s shift to open source. In 2003, he founded the Open Source Business Conference, and he has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, focusing on open source investment opportunities.

Before Novell, Asay was General Manager at Lineo, an embedded Linux software startup, where he ran Lineo’s Residential Gateway business. He is an emeritus board member of the Open Source Initiative (OSI).

Convinced of his cred?

Asay blogged about the move today, sharing his feelings and providing a skeleton outline of his focus and motivation for the move and what he’ll be tackling at Canonical.

My guess is that the Ubuntu community is cheering on this move — bringing onboard an open source ambassador who also understands the business side is a strong move for the company that has been gaining momentum in Linux distribution market-share. But as a blogger, Asay is not without his critics, and I anticipate seeing a couple of public displays of distaste for the selection. What do you think?

Canonical has a couple of key releases coming up, including the April launch of Lucid Lynx (10.04) that might serve as the first test of Silber and Asay’s leadership. It will be interesting to watch.

And a shout-out to Brian Proffitt, who said in his blog what I didn’t have the guts to say to the folks at Canonical: Please, for the sake of open source bloggers collective egos, keep the man busy!

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Linux on mobile: Does Windows really have a chance? http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/linux-on-mobile-does-windows-really-have-a-chance/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/linux-on-mobile-does-windows-really-have-a-chance/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:47:23 +0000 Leah Rosin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=844 Jim Zemlin, President of the Linux Foundation, came out swinging in a blog post about Microsoft’s Robbie Bach’s prediction that Linux on mobile will lose.

Bach’s premise is that the multiple variants of Linux on mobile devices is bad for customers because of the lack of consistency. But Zemlin argues that the ecosystem of support around Linux on mobile is key to its success.

Linux as the underlying platform of such mobile offerings as Android, Moblin and many more is growing exponentially, and precisely because it affords this choice. Palm, Motorola and others have jumped ship from Windows Mobile to Linux-based offerings in recent years. LG is now using Android on 50% of its handsets. According to Gartner Group, Windows Mobile’s market share fell to 7.9 percent in the third quarter of 2009 down from 11.1 percent the same quarter of last year.

Beyond the technology, Zemlin said that the Windows model is a business problem in the mobile device market, pointing out the per-device licensing fees and overwhelming branding emphasis reduce device manufacturer flexibility and increase cost.

To me, it appears that Linux on mobile is here to stay. The individuality offered by the various Linux flavors, and the creativity of the open source community behind them will continue to make Linux offerings more interesting and useful for consumers and device manufacturers.

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Linux Foundation launches Jobs Board http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/linux-jobs-board/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/linux-jobs-board/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:48:00 +0000 Leah Rosin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=841 The Linux Foundation and the JobThread Network have found that demand for Linux-related jobs has grown 80% since 2005. To help connect employers with skilled workers, the Linux Foundation has launched the Linux Jobs Board on Linux.com.

“Linux’ increasing use across industries is building high demand for Linux jobs despite national unemployment stats,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation. “By providing a Jobs Board feature on the popular community site, we can bring together employers, recruiters and job seekers to lay the intellectual foundation for tomorrow’s IT industry.”

Job seekers can include their LinkedIn details on their Linux.com profile, including their resume. They can also subscribe to the Jobs Board RSS feed, receive alerts by email and follow opportunities about Linux-related jobs on Twitter.

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Linux inside at CES 2010 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/linux-inside-at-ces-2010/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/linux-inside-at-ces-2010/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:31:59 +0000 admin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=834 This blog post was contributed by Paul Ferrill.

Walking the floors at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) with a surface look at the products won’t tell the true story of the impact of Linux. While there might be a few occasional mentions of Linux, for the most part the real story is what’s behind those e-Book readers, MP3 players and pretty much anything with the word “smart” in the name. Embedded Linux has staked its claim as the go-to choice for a wide array of electronic devices.

e-Book readers, Wi-Fi HDTV, and smart phones rely on Linux
This year’s CES saw an explosion of e-Book readers of all shapes and sizes. Only one of the offerings uses Windows Embedded (Plastic Logic Que) while the majority use some embedded Linux variant. Two offerings, the Spring Design Alex and Entourage eDGe, use Google’s Android. Wind River and MontaVista are the two leading vendors of embedded Linux and associated tools. Each counts at least one e-Book manufacturer as a customer.

The latest trends in HDTV and Blu-ray players include features like Wi-Fi connectivity, YouTube playback over wired or wireless Ethernet and remote control over Wi-Fi using an iPhone. Much of this new functionality has embedded Linux behind it. This includes everything from the networking code to connect with YouTube and stream Flash-based video to the on-screen display. The big win here for hardware manufacturers is the ability to leverage existing development tools and code to reduce their time to market.

In the smart cell phone market the lead story is Google’s Nexus Android-based handset. Android runs on top of the Linux kernel and represents a serious challenge to Apple’s iPhone. Google announced this week their own handset developed by HTC that would be sold directly to the public. Other vendors with Android-based devices include Dell, LG and Motorola.

Lenovo brings hot laptop and netbook offerings with Linux inside
On the computing front, Lenovo showed two innovative laptop/netbook offerings with Linux in the spec sheet. The Skylight (image right) is a sleek, curvy, under 2 lb. netbook with a Linux variant as the OS underneath.Lenovo Skylight SmartBook The core Linux comes from Thunder Software Technology headquartered in Beijing China. Lenovo did the user interface work themselves using the Clutter toolkit for the 3D effects and Google Gadgets. Lenovo also plans to offer a software development kit (SDK) for building custom applications on top of the Skylight OS.

The Skylight is targeted at mobile users looking for an easy way to keep up with e-mail, Facebook and Twitter, or to watch a movie in full HD it packs a Snapdragon processor, 10-hour battery life, 3G connectivity and your choice of color. Flash 10 will be supported out of the box for viewing the latest YouTube content. Lenovo envisions the Skylight appealing to the student crowd with their highly mobile and connected lifestyle. The Skylight will be available in Q1 of 2010 through direct sales and, potentially, at a subsidized price through a cell carrier.

Lenovo’s Ideapad U1 was another new product with a unique removable display that transforms from LCD monitor into a Linux tablet when you remove it from the laptop base. The base laptop sports an Intel Atom Core 2 Duo processor while the tablet/screen contains the same Snapdragon chip as the Skylight. Special software in the screen switches from display mode to tablet mode when detached from the base.

Just plug it in: Plug computing
Marvell Semiconductor introduced the concept of plug computing with their SheevaPlug platform in 2009. At this year’s CES there were multiple vendors showing products based on the same chipset including Globalscale, Ionics and TonidoPlug. Each of these devices is about the size of a typical wall-wart power plug but typically contain a CPU, memory, Ethernet and USB interface. Uses include a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, home media server, network backup utility and more.

The bottom line on Linux in the consumer electronics marketplace is cost. Linux helps reduce the overall cost and the time needed to bring new product to market. It also provides familiarity for developers looking to deliver new applications to the mobile device space and to manufacturers needing hardware and software engineers to build the next model of their consumer devices. Overall, Linux is doing quite well, even if you can’t tell it’s there.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Paul Ferrill has a BS and MS in electrical engineering and has been writing about computers for over twenty years. He’s had articles published in PC Magazine, PC Computing, InfoWorld, Computer World, Network World, Network Computing, Federal Computer Week, Information Week, and multiple Web sites.

More on Linux at CES:
Linux dot com: When one Linux project wins, all Linux triumphs

ars technica: Tux takes a bow: Linux makes its presence known at CES

Linux Journal: Hunting Linux at CES

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Google launches Chrome for Linux (beta), and further reaches into your privacy http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/google-launches-chrome-for-linux-beta-and-further-reaches-into-your-privacy/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/google-launches-chrome-for-linux-beta-and-further-reaches-into-your-privacy/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:17:19 +0000 Leah Rosin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=832 Sometimes we like to discuss some of our “pet issues” in these blogs. One of my own is Google’s steady growth and run at world domination.

On December 8, 2009, Google announced that its Chrome browser for Linux has gone beta. Despite criticism about Google’s true “open source” nature, the company claims that more than 50 open source developers have contributed to Chromium. In addition to the Linux and Mac beta versions, Google announced that over 300 extensions had been made available for the Windows and Linux versions of Chrome.

This follows on the heels of last week’s announcement that Google is launching Google Public DNS (domain name service), purportedly to improve efficiency in Web browsing.

“The goal of Google Public DNS is to benefit users worldwide while also helping the tens of thousands of DNS resolvers improve their services, ultimately making the web faster for everyone,” said Prem Ramaswami, Google Public DNS Product Manager.

This grabbed the attention of OpenDNS, and David Ulevitch responded to the announcement on the OpenDNS blog.

“To think that Google’s DNS service is for the benefit of the Internet would be naïve,” said Ulevitch. “They know there is value in controlling more of your Internet experience and I would expect them to explore that fully.”

OpenDNS provides an enterprise service that is advertised as a DNS resolution and security product. Despite its name, OpenDNS is not open source software.

Google’s Public DNS is thus far free, with the company gleaning information about your Web browsing patterns being the trade-off. OpenDNS offers a free basic version with some advertising on unresolved domain names.

With a Google’s reach across the spectrum of IT, we should all be aware that this could mean that everything we do online is being watched. As I read this week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt commented that “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

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Novell and Microsoft pact reaches third year mark http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/novell-and-microsoft-pact-reaches-third-year-mark/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/novell-and-microsoft-pact-reaches-third-year-mark/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:10:33 +0000 Leah Rosin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=824 This post was contributed to by Pam Derringer, News Writer

On the third anniversary of the 2006 Microsoft-Novell pact, Novell is touting 475 customers who have bought SUSE Linux Enterprise certificates from Microsoft under the settlement. Under the controversial agreement, Novell agreed to give Microsoft either a percentage of all its Linux revenue through 2011 or a minimum of $40 million. Microsoft, in turn, bought $240 million in SUSE certificates that it could then resell to customers with mixed environments who wanted to buy new Windows servers and purchase Linux machines. In addition, Microsoft gave Novell another $108 million as a “balancing payment” in connection with the patent part of the deal.

This joint marketing initiative worked so well in the first two years that Microsoft committed to buying up to an additional $100 million in SUSE certificates in the summer of 2008. To date, Microsoft has only actually purchased an additional $25 million. In fact, SUSE certificate sales boomed so much in 2007 that they were cited as a major factor in SUSE’s three-point market share gain that year vs. Red Hat.

A look at the numbers after three years
While interoperability was the stated goal of the partnership, financial factors were the key motivator for both companies.

“While technical interoperability was the announced basis for the Microsoft relationship, Novell did the deal because it needed to jump start its Linux subscription sales,” said Bill Claybrook, founder of New River Marketing Research, a firm specializing in Linux. “In November 2006, Novell was on the tail end of four or five consecutive quarters of flat SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription sales. At the same time, Red Hat was reporting year over year increases in revenue and subscription sales of 30% - 40%, and Red Hat was already way ahead of Novell in subscriptions sold and in revenue from subscriptions.”

Fast forward to early 2009, Novell said last February that Microsoft sold $195 million in SUSE certificates through Oct. 31, 2008 at the two-year mark of the five-year agreement. At the three year mark, Microsoft has sold $226 million. Anyone looking at the numbers would reasonably conclude that the enthusiasm for the product has waned. Perhaps it’s the economy’s generally abysmal state in 2009 that accounts for the slow sales, but maybe it’s something else?

With these numbers in mind, it’s not surprising that there has been no further Novell announcement about additional Microsoft purchases of SUSE certificates from last summer’s “up to $100 million” commitment. Nor has there been any additional IDC study of SUSE inroads on Red Hat’s market share.

In addition, Claybrook says a bigger problem on the financial front has to do with what has happened with the purchased Novell certificates. While most have been sold, “… many of the firms that purchased the certificates have not implemented them, meaning that Novell is not collecting renewal subscription revenue.”

The Linux community’s reaction
Initially, reactions to the deal were overwhelmingly negative from the open source community, with very few people showing any optimism about how the partnership with Microsoft could help Linux.

Claybrook said that Novell’s business decision ignored this attitude in favor of the perceived financial incentives.

“Novell felt that the value of Linux interoperability with Windows was more important than what the open source community had to say or felt,” said Claybrook. “The two companies used comments extracted from customers about how important Linux/Windows interoperability was to their businesses as the primary reason that the deal was done. Several of the well-known, open source Linux developers within Novell took serious exception to the Novell-Microsoft deal and some quit the company.”

Stephen Holmes, former Novell Data Center employee and Linux specialist shared his experience and perspective. Holmes was at Novell in 2006, and remembers what it was like when the open source company announced the agreement with Microsoft.

“Those of us looking at it from a purely business perspective had a sense that it was better to play in the sandpit with the bully, to at least get to play with some of the toys (e.g., customers and revenue), rather than look at them playing alone with all of the toys themselves,” shared Holmes.

But not everyone was as pragmatic.

“Those who came from SUSE were incensed that we could dare to jeopardize the integrity and stability (social stability) of Linux and open source with such a deal,” said Holmes. “This played out with an unprecedented level of ire directed at us around that time — anger that persists to this day.”

And truly, it does. One of the most prominent reminders is the ongoing corporate watchdog site, Boycott Novell, which was founded following the pact.

Greater interoperability for end users, and contributions from Microsoft
But after three years, the results of the agreement are panning out. The numbers above indicate that financially, it may not have been the boon Novell was looking for. But technologically, end-users are benefiting from the agreement.

Steve Brasen, principal analyst at EMA shared a positive perspective on the affect on Microsoft’s involvement in open source that the agreement has contributed to.

“Naturally, Windows and Linux will continue to compete as OS platforms (and they should!), but this partnership has already provided concrete results in standardizing management services to aid in the creation of centralized solutions for supporting heterogeneous environments,” said Brasen. “What’s more, there is the potential for this relationship to provide even greater value for Novell customers in the future. For example, by expanding on Hyper-V’s support for SUSE Linux or by enhancing ZENworks with integrated management tools for Microsoft products.”

Holmes credited the partnership with the spurring further kernel interoperability efforts.

“Contributions to the Linux kernel and key projects such as clustering, storage and management have seen massive increase in contributions,” said Holmes. “Simply stated, customers don’t have single platform systems and they demand that companies such as Novell and Microsoft work together on many levels (OS, virtualization, management, security) and in this regard, although the outputs have been small they have mattered — particularly in virtualization interoperability.”

Beyond improved interoperability, Microsoft has become more friendly to and even contributed to open source projects.

“Microsoft is both using and contributing to the OpenPegasus Project’s Common Information Model Object Manager (CIMOM) and contributing to the open source community interoperable providers that collect management data so it is available for management services,” said Brasen. “I would suggest we should applaud both Novell and Microsoft for establishing this relationship and encourage them to continue with their collaboration efforts.”

More on the Novell and Microsoft pact:
Novell extends interoperability with Microsoft
Microsoft takes on the free world
Novell SUSE 11 to boost virtualization and improve interoperability

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Zend Server now available through Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/zend-server-now-available-through-oracle-unbreakable-linux-network/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/zend-server-now-available-through-oracle-unbreakable-linux-network/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:26:47 +0000 Leah Rosin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=819 While most of Zend Technologies’ products have been available to Linux users for some time, they haven’t been as easily available to Oracle Unbreakable Linux users until now. Today, Zend announced a partnership with Oracle for an integrated and optimized Linux and PHP solution. This includes extending access to Zend Server for Oracle customers via the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN), helping to speed installation for their PHP-based Web applications. Zend Server now also includes out-of-the-box enterprise-grade connectivity to Oracle’s database.

On October 20, 2009, Zend released a beta version of Zend Server 5.0, which includes a new feature, dubbed “Code Tracer.”

For the first time, PHP developers and administrators can quickly pinpoint the root cause of a problem in production by viewing a “digital documentary” of the execution of their application – similar to a black box flight recorder in an airplane – and avoid the time-consuming task of recreating the problem.

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Can Ubuntu Linux become a Windows killer? http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/can-ubuntu-linux-become-a-windows-killer/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/can-ubuntu-linux-become-a-windows-killer/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:08:21 +0000 admin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=814 There have been a number of articles written recently talking about Windows 7 being a Linux killer.

Linux was thought to be a player in the netbook business, but a Spring 2009 NPD Group study shows that Windows has a 90% share of the netbook OS market. It seems silly to be talking about any Windows desktop operating system as a Linux killer. There are so few Linux client operating systems deployed compared to Windows that this discussion is off target, especially because it appears that Windows 7 is an improvement over Windows Vista.

Today, about 25 or 26 paid Windows client operating systems are shipped for each paid Linux client shipped, according to IDC. Paid Windows client operating systems have more than 90% market share while Mac and Linux make up most of the remaining share. The market share lead that Windows has over Linux is not expected to change much for the foreseeable future.

There are about 30 times as many paid Windows client operating systems in use as there are paid Linux client operating systems deployed. And there are about 13 times as many non-paid Windows client operating systems in use as there are non-paid Linux clients.

Non-paid Linux client shipments are growing faster than paid Linux client shipments while paid Windows client shipments are growing faster than non-paid Windows client shipments. These two trends are also true for Linux and Windows installed bases. Any notion that Linux client operating systems are cutting into Windows’ client dominant market share is ill-founded.

Windows 7 Business, scheduled to ship in October 2009, is expected to be the best Windows client operating system ever. According to IDC, Windows 7 Business will overtake shipments of Vista Business by the end of 2010. Windows XP Professional, Vista’s client predecessor, is also expected to give way to Windows 7 Business by the end of next year.

A unified Linux desktop
So if Linux has any chance of cutting into Windows client’s market share, which flavor of Linux will it be?

Today, the leading Linux client operating system vendor is Red Flag followed by Turbolinux, according to IDC. Ubuntu Desktop has more paid Linux client market share than does Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Desktop or Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED). Red Flag also leads in non-paid Linux client shipments with Ubuntu Desktop in second place. RHEL Desktop and SLED have larger shares of the non-paid Linux client shipments than they do of paid Linux client shipments. This is also true for Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Desktop is by far the fastest growing Linux client operating system for both paid Linux and non-paid Linux client shipments with three to four times the growth rate of either SLED or RHEL Desktop. With respect to non-paid Linux, Ubuntu Desktop’s market share growth rate is about four to six times the growth rate for SLED and RHEL Desktop. If Ubuntu Desktop continues to grow anywhere nearly as fast as it has grown in the past year, it will shortly be the leading paid and non-paid Linux client operating system in the world.

Ubuntu Desktop got a boost recently when IBM and Canonical launched Linux and cloud-based desktop software in the U.S. The software package, IBM Client for Smart Work, delivers productivity and collaboration software with a savings of up to 50% per seat on software costs versus a Windows-based desktop. The software includes word processing, spreadsheets, etc. from IBM Lotus Symphony; email from IBM Lotus Notes; and cloud-based tools from LotusLive.com

It is not clear whether Ubuntu Desktop can make a dent in Windows client operating system market share, but it is clear that Novell and Red Hat have not been successful and likely will not be successful. Linux vendors have been using security, TCO, and usability as the primary reasons that you should switch from Windows to Linux clients. Security is no longer a differentiator nor is usability, especially with Windows 7. And TCO is a weak argument without application availability. Many of the applications that we take for granted on Windows client operating systems are not available on Linux.

Novell tries to make a strong case for SLED over Windows Vista in a paper titled Lower Your TCO with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (PDF) citing lower TCO, better security, better productivity, etc. Red Hat pushes RHEL Desktop with its enterprise customers. The real hang-ups for Linux client operating systems are lack of applications and the cost/pain of moving from Windows to Linux.

I believe that the only way Linux clients can make a dent in Windows client operating systems’ market share is if the Linux vendors adopt a single Linux client operating system, such as Ubuntu Desktop (with a name change), and market and sell it against Windows. Commercial Linux vendors use the same code base for their Linux client operating systems as they use for their Linux server operating systems, but create separate DVDs for the bits. Even if we consider that cost saving practice, Linux vendors would save considerable engineering/marketing costs by collectively developing and selling a single Linux client operating system.

The open source community has gotten behind Firefox, and its market share has grown from 3.6% in 2004 to more than 20% in 2009. This could also happen to the Ubuntu client operating system with Linux community support. If Ubuntu client could garner 10% of the client operating system market by 2014, over 25 million copies of Ubuntu client would be sold, giving Linux client the volume that it needs to generate serious revenue and placing it on track to become a real competitor to Windows. At $5 per subscription, Ubuntu client would generate $125 million in 2014. Today, the average selling price of Linux client is under $10.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Bill Claybrook is President of New River Marketing Research, a marketing research firm that focuses on Linux, open source software, and commercial grid computing.

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Servers in space: The future of data centers? http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/servers-in-space-the-future-of-data-centers/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/servers-in-space-the-future-of-data-centers/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:05:40 +0000 Leah Rosin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=806 I have to say, I was immediately intrigued when I read the description of Server Sky. I had heard of floating water-based data centers, far north geothermal powered data centers, and an array of containerized and inventive data center options that all are focused on cheap energy, and greener concept. But until the October 22, 2009, meeting of the Eugene, Oregon IT Pro Forum, I had not thought of data centers in space (which, even while typing it, I think needs a series of exclamation points). But Keith Lofstrom has. Now, before the Star Wars fans start imagining a massive death-star-like space station filled with servers and astronauts/system admins, stop, you’re going to be disappointed.

I descended into the basement of the Eugene City Brewery (where else would IT geeks meet?), ordered my pint of Rogue Chocolate Stout and joined a smattering of local IT pros who had gathered to have a good brew and talk geek with their peers. It was in this darkened room, with large brew kettles visible through the glass windows behind the projector screen that I was introduced to Lofstrom’s vision of a data center in space.

Location is important in this story – the location of the data center, location of the presentation, and the location of the engineer. Lofstrom lives in Portland, Oregon, a city that has the slogan “It’s not easy being green,” within in a state that has put considerable effort behind attracting green industry. His silvery white hair is neatly pulled back into a low stub ponytail, perfect for fitting under his bicycle helmet as he commutes around the city. His attire is casual, with little frameless glasses that, along with the hair combined to evoke historic images of Benjamin Franklin. It’s clear he’s a thinker, a dreamer even, and he’s passionate about this idea.

Loftstrom explained that it all began when he heard a presentation about data center energy use, and the fact that as we all watch more videos, post more photos, and use the internet, the demand for energy from data centers will only increase. Much has been written about this problem and possible solutions so I won’t bore you with details. But to illustrate, Lofstrom shared the August 9, 2009, Dilbert comic:

Dilbert.com

Pretty gloomy, but the facts behind this image can be motivational to an engineer like Lofstrom.
He passed around a small device with a flash drive and a couple Ethernet ports that he uses as a firewall for his computer system. This device, he explained, inspired him to think about small physical computing devices that could be solar powered, and Server Sky was born. We all looked at the eight-and-a-half by eleven sheet of paper that he had prepared. On it was a diagram of the Server-sat.

Then Lofstrom explained that the diagram we saw was to scale.

Immediately, audience members had questions. Lofstrom explained that he would get to most of them through the course of the presentation. Incidentally, the presentation was given via a presentation software application he had developed that he hoped to get some more collaboration on because, he said, “If nothing else comes from this, I’d like to get this presentation software improved and kill PowerPoint.”

Lofstrom spent the next hour plus going over orbital physics, Moore’s Law, Newton, light pressure, satellite technology, space junk, and biology. He’s really been doing a lot of thinking on this, but admits he wants and needs more minds focused on it. With a background in open source software, Lofstrom is hoping to keep the project open to contribution from others for as long as possible, “before the investors come in and lock everything up.”

If you’re interested in finding out more information, you can view a recorded video of his presentation from Linux Fest Northwest 2009.

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LinuxCon: From desktop discussion to community involvement http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/linuxcon-review2009/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/linuxcon-review2009/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:33:21 +0000 Leah Rosin http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/?p=791 LinuxCon 2009 wrapped up on Wednesday evening with an Intel-sponsored party at McCormick and Schmick’s in Portland, Ore. This was the final, and flashiest of three evening events that occurred during the course of the event. Monday night featured “Bowling for Penguins” at Grand Central Bowling, a fundraiser for Defenders of Wildlife that raised $3,000. Tuesday night featured a Linux Fund hosted dance party sponsored by SourceForge and iXsystems, and in possibly the most hero-worship twist (or is it twisted hero-worship?) of the conference, live streaming of Linus Torvalds playing billiards was broadcast via Linux Pro Magazine.

All agreed that these events were good fun. The VooDoo Doughnuts and local wine/beer/vodka/sake tasting was also a smash hit for those attending. For those unable to attend, the livestreaming of keynotes offered by Linux Pro Magazine was appreciated. The recorded kernel panel discussion is now available for on-demand viewing.

Nonprofits using Linux to stay competitive
Beyond the kernel roundtable, the most popular keynote was given by the vice president of information services at Sesame Workshop, Noah Broadwater. If you’re unfamiliar with hearing about Sesame Workshop in tech circles, think Elmo. The group won an Emmy for New Approaches in the Children’s Daytime television category for their associated websites, Web casts and interactivity. Broadwater explained how his organization reuses older Solaris boxes as a testing environment and open source software in the development itself. Using this approach, the nonprofit’s Emmy-winning website came in under budget at less than $3 million. The Sesame Workshop holds onto their new development advances for a two-year period and then contributes them back to the community, in an effort to protect their work from big-budget competitors.

The future of Linux on the desktop
One of the broad themes that was touched on at the conference was Linux on the desktop. Multiple speakers discussed the topic, giving predictions for its success and advice to the larger community about how this might be realized. IBM’s vice president of open source and Linux, Bob Sutor talked about the options - the desktop goes away as people begin to expand their use of mobile devices or the Linux desktop could eventually gain parity with Windows and Mac. Perhaps, as Windows declines in popularity with each more complex release, we could see a rise in Linux desktop popularity. Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier, openSUSE community manager talked about the lack of marketing and suggested that shipping Linux pre-installed on more laptops would be one way to make it accessible to more users. Then there was the entire Moblin track at the conference, presenting the “future” of Linux on the desktop. Finally, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of the most popular Linux desktop flavor, Ubuntu, spoke at the conference. He advocated having a shared cadence and coordination between projects and distributions, as well as improving quality and design.

“We definitely shouldn’t give up the desktop,” Shuttleworth said. “This is one of the most exciting years for the desktop in living memory.”

More on Shuttleworth’s talk can be read in an article by Sean Michael Kerner at internetnews.com: Shuttleworth: Don’t give up on the desktop.

Diversity in the Linux community
Another broad theme was that of diversity in the Linux community. Carla Schroder wrote on Monday afternoon that the Linux “community” didn’t look very diverse. And the topic of the involvement of women in the community was brought up more than once. Starting with Linux Foundation President Jim Zemlin’s keynote in which he pointed out that there is a 100:1 ratio between men and women in the Linux community. But the incident that got the most attention was Shuttleworth’s gaffe during his keynote. ( Full disclosure: I was not present at the time of Shuttleworth’s presentation, and therefore cannot speak to the specific wording or context, but others were.) His statement of women not understanding Linux was enough to get a quickly drafted letter from “Geek Feminism” blog author, Kirrily Robert.

Community sharing
I can’t begin to cover all the things that went on at the inaugural LinuxCon. Most agreed it was a good time and well done. For some other perspectives, here are some other attendees opinions and blogs following the show. I will update it or you can add new links to blogs in the comments below.

Practicality shines at LinuxCon 2009 by Phil Odence, Black Duck Software

LinuxCon Review: It’s all about community by Dawn Foster, Fast Wonder Consulting

LinuxCon Audio Diary 1 and LinuxCon Audio Diary 2 by Dan Lynch of Linux Outlaws

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