Linux E-Mail Client

List of email clients for Linux.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/list-of-email-clients-available-in-ubuntu-linux.html

OpenFire 3.6.0 Released

OpenFire is a free jabber server with a slick web interface that integrates with the Asterisk phone system.

http://www.igniterealtime.org/community/blogs/ignite/2008/08/27/openfire-360-has-been-released

New Procurve Gigabit Switch

The HP Procurve 2510 offers performance and management at a low cost.

http://www.hp.com/rnd/products/switches/ProCurve_Switch_2510_Series/overview.htm

Free iSCSI Server

OpenFiler is a fast, flexible and free iSCSI server. It runs quickly and efficiently with a Linux core.

http://www.openfiler.com/

Cisco to Target Exchange

Based on a few articles and blogs it looks like Cisco is going to start tredding into Microsoft’s territory a bit. Granted Microsoft Exchange is a well established product and it is unlikely that anyone is going to displace it easily but Cisco has a habit of taking over industries that it sees as available (i.e. VoIP).

As much as Cisco and Microsoft usually play in different sand boxes Cisco seems to think that Microsoft’s sand box needs to be a little bit smaller. It likely wont affect the market for a while but it should be interesting to watch this unfold.

Links
Information Week - Cisco Buys PostPath, Targets MS Exchange
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/08/cisco_buys_post.html

Gigaom - Why Cisco Bought Mail Startup PostPath for $215M
http://gigaom.com/2008/08/27/why-cisco-bought-mail-startup-postpath-for-215-million/

VMWare Kernel Isn’t Linux … Mostly

A pretty common misconception is that VMWare is based on Linux. That isn’t “officially” true. While there have been some rumors otherwise the official word from VMWare is that ESX (their bare-metal product) boots the system on a small “micro-kernel” they call the VMKernel. According to everything that I can find VMWare runs their OS off of their own manufactured product and use Linux to interact with or manage their product.

With ESXi they have stripped out large chunks of that the managing OS that is Linux and are working on beefing up their own OS. The idea is a good one but if you were to strip out all off the management of the product would you still have a product? One of the things that makes ESX great is it’s ability to be easily managed. If you take that away what are you left with?

So I would say that VMWare isn’t based on Linux … mostly.

Links
One person stepping through the architecture
http://it20.info/blogs/main/archive/2007/06/17/25.aspx

VMWare forum discussing the topic
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/93870

Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_ESX_Server

Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support

EVC – The KB article on EVC (1003212) has been updated to be more comprehensive.

The KB article on EVC processor support has been updated with more information on the specific models of processors that are supported. You can find the info here.

Microsoft Supports Other HyperVisors

Microsoft has changed their licensing so that they are more “friendly” to competing hypervisor products. This also extends to their support of their products on other hyper-v platforms which currently are Xen, VMWare and Novell’s virtualization product.

While they are supporting several additional virtualization platforms they are not extending this level of support to all of their products. For a complete list and the press release see the links below.

Links
List of Supported Products
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957006

Microsoft Press Release
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/aug08/08-19EasyPathPR.mspx

Microsoft Support Article
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=897615

One-Stop Virtualization Shop

In the virtualization market there are a number of players. There is Citrix Xen Server, Microsoft Hyper-V and VMWare server on the bar-metal and OS virtualization side of things. But on there is also application virtualization of applications with Microsoft’s Soft-Grid and virtualization of desktops with VMWare’s VDI.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was one place that you could go to discuss all of these technologies. Review the information in a website that wasn’t trying to sell you anything or support a particular bias. There is a new website just launched that endeavors to do just that. The website is very new so the information that it has right now will be sparse but the catalog of information that it will retain will soon be quite formidable.

If you have questions or even if you have answers about virtualization of any kind check it out here.

XP Still Out-Selling Vista

Windows Vista has been out for over a year now. If an operating system is going to make any head-way in the IT industry it needs to happen soon after the release. While there is a slim chance the OS could a late bloomer that is pretty unlikely given it current state. So much so that people will buy Vista only to install XP after the fact (see link below). In a few recent articles Windows XP is still outselling Windows Vista.

Vista is one of those operating systems where people aren’t totally sure where they want to fall or what side they want to be on. On the one hand I truly believe that people are ready for and want a new operating system but on the other hand they see too many people and companies who have been burned by the Windows Vista OS. Most people are still in the wait-and-see state which isn’t good for this OS because it is ends up giving it a bad name. What have you found in your workplace?

Links

Information on doing the downgrade yourself
http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/it-consultant/windows-vista-to-windows-xp-downgrade-driver-woes/

Good start place
http://www.infopackets.com/news/business/microsoft/2008/20080801_windows_xp_still_outselling_windows_vista.htm

Vista to XP Downgrade Report
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209800372