Linux Archive

Linus: Linux ‘Bloated and Huge’, Development Process Working

Submitted by google_ninja 2009-09-22 Linux 84 Comments

During the roundtable discussion at LinuxCon this year, Linus Torvalds made some pretty harsh remarks about the current state of the Linux kernel, calling it "huge and bloated", and that there is no plan in sight to solve the problem. At the same time, he also explained that he is very happy with the current development process of the kernel, and that his job has become much easier.

First Moblin v2 Netbook Launching

Guest post by Henry 2009-09-17 Linux 14 Comments

The first netbook preinstalled with Moblin v2 for Netbooks will launch next week, possibly at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, or else the Linux Foundation's LinuxCon in Portland. Then, within the next couple of weeks, the Moblin Project will release the first stable release of the Moblin v2 Linux distribution, which began beta testing in May. Will Linux prove a viable alternative to Windows 7 on the low-powered, low-cost computing devices released for this holiday season? We should know pretty soon.

Reduce Linux Power Consumption

Thom Holwerda 2009-09-16 Linux 6 Comments

Start tuning your Linux system for power efficiency. This article will get you up to speed on the components and concepts you need to fine-tune a Linux-based System x server for power efficiency. Learn how to enable the Linux CPUfreq subsystem, get instruction on C and P states, and determine which of the five Linux in-kernel governors you need to boost power efficiency on your system

Linux 2.6.32: Virtualization, Power Management, Drivers

Submitted by timmyc 2009-09-16 Linux 1 Comment

Less than a week after Linux kernel 2.6.31 was released, the kernel developers are beginning to submit changes and improvements across virtualization, power management, file systems and device driver code for the upcoming 2.6.32 version. KVM and power management will get big improvements, and Android and Hyper-V drivers could be removed in later versions if their developers don't communicate better with the kernel hackers.

ClarkConnect Now ClearOS, Now Open and Free

weildish 2009-09-15 Linux 7 Comments

"ClearOS is a next-generation Linux server operating distribution for the small organizations and distributed environments. The ClearOS Linux distribution has an installed-base of over 120,000 systems that serve approximately 1.2 Million users. It is available in over 20 languages and is utilized in more than 122 countries around the globe. Historically known as ClarkConnect, ClearOS has been made open and free by ClearFoundation, including software such as MultiWAN which allows multiple, balanced Internet connections. Other limitations and commercial restrictions on the ClearOS platform have also been removed for this version and all subsequent versions. The ClearOS Operating System tightly integrates dozens of leading open source applications in a single management interface. The distribution is free to download and use and redistribution is encouraged." The new version of ClearOS can be read about more, tested using an online live demo, and downloaded at the ClearFoundation website.

ARM Joins Linux Foundation

weildish 2009-09-15 Linux 5 Comments

"ARM, maker of microprocessors and microcontrollers used in mobile and embedded electronics, has joined the Linux Foundation. Amanda McPherson, vice president, marketing and developer programs, at The Linux Foundation said in the announcement 'By joining the Linux Foundation, ARM is demonstrating its commitment to open standards and Linux.' To date, ARM has shipped more than 10 billion ARM processors in mobile devices, many of which run Linux. Ian Drew, EVP Marketing at ARM, said that 'joining the Linux Foundation is a natural step towards advancing innovation in the Linux community for a rich, always-connected, computing experience.'"

Submitted by diegocg 2009-09-10 Linux 3 Comments

Linux 2.6.31 has finally been released. The list of new features includes USB 3.0 support, a equivalent of FUSE for character devices that can be used for proxying OSS sound through ALSA, memory management changes that improve interactivity in desktops, ATI Radeon KMS support, Intel's Wireless Multicomm 3200 support, readahead improvements, a tool for using hardware performance counters, a memory checker and a memory leak detector, btrfs improvements, support for IEEE 802.15.4, IPv4 over Firewire and other improvements.

Submitted by lemur2 2009-09-09 Linux 112 Comments

Open source 3D graphics drivers for ATI R600 garphics cards has been submitted to the kernel-next tree for possible inclusion in the Linux kernel 2.6.32. "David Airlie has pushed a horde of new code into his drm-next Git tree, which is what will get pulled into the Linux 2.6.32 kernel once the merge window is open. Most prominently, this new DRM code brings support for kernel mode-setting with R600 class hardware as well as 3D support."

Is the Linux Desktop Too Much Like Windows, Mac OS X?

Thom Holwerda 2009-08-27 Linux 81 Comments

A complaint you hear quite often is that the Linux desktop environments, which mostly refers to KDE and GNOME, are trying too hard to be like Windows and Mac OS X. Now, even James Bottomley, Distinguished Engineer at Novell, Director of the Linux Foundation, and Chair of its Technical Advisory Board (put that on your business card) states in an interview that he believes the Linux desktop is too much like Windows and Mac.

NTFS-3G Maker Signs IP Deal with Microsoft About exFAT

Thom Holwerda 2009-08-26 Linux 31 Comments

The Finnish company behind the open-source file system NTFS-3G, Tuxera, has announced it has signed a confidential intellectual-property agreement with Microsoft about creating a Linux exFAT driver which they will sell to Linux OEMs. They are in talks with Microsoft about an open source exFAT driver.

Linux User-Friendliness

David Adams 2009-08-24 Linux 222 Comments

A reader asks: Why is Linux still not as user friendly as the two other main OSes with all the people developing for Linux? Is it because it is mainly developed by geeks? My initial feeling when reading this question was that it was kind of a throwaway, kind of a slam in disguise as a genuine question. But the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I felt. There truly are a large amount of resources being dedicated to the development of Linux and its operating system halo (DEs, drivers, apps, etc). Some of these resources are from large companies (IBM, Red Hat, Novell). Why isn't Linux more user-friendly? Is this an inherent limitation with open source software?

Stats: Linux Kernel Development Speeds Up

weildish 2009-08-19 Linux 43 Comments

The Linux Foundation has made some analyzation the past two years into just how much code is being added to the project and who is doing that contribution. This year's report is out, and the results are actually quite smile-worthy if you're a Linux advocate: the increase in code contributions is phenomenal, the rate at which these contributions are being submitted is faster, and there are more individual developers than previously.

Review of Jolicloud: The Social Netbook OS

weildish 2009-08-17 Linux No Comments

A fellow at CNET did a review of a beta version of another Linux distribution built specifically for netbooks. "One of those , called Jolicloud, is launching in beta in the next few months. Created by Tariq Krim, who founded and later left widget-based start page Netvibes, the alternate OS has been designed for Web workers, or people who do most of their work (or play) on Web applications and services. I've been giving it a thorough run-though over the past few days and have come away impressed at what it's trying to do. Some bits and pieces are definitely still beta, but the underlying approach of making Web sites and software applications feel the same, as well as introducing users to new ones to use is really innovative."

Submitted by lemur2 2009-08-17 Linux 63 Comments

We already discussed David Finch, Dell's senior product marketing manager for Linux clients, last week. We missed, however, some more interesting statements by Finch; Dell is looking into the ~~ARM-based netbook~~ smartbook market, and close to a third of all of Dell's netbooks ship with Linux.

Eight Years of Linux Kernel Vulnerable

weildish 2009-08-14 Linux 58 Comments

It's the end of the world. Again. According to some Linux developers and security researchers, a bug in the Linux kernel has just been uncovered that makes just about every distribution utilizing kernel 2.4 and 2.6 on just about all architectures since May of 2001 vulnerable to a certain kind of attack.

Arch Linux 2009.08 Released

weildish 2009-08-11 Linux 21 Comments

Hot off the compilation press, Arch Linux comes to its full 2009.08 grandeur with a myriad of new and updated features, including exciting new additions to be utilized in the AIF (Arch Linux Installation Framework) and more, detailed within.

Submitted by diegocg 2009-07-30 Linux 11 Comments

Valerie Aurora has published a great article in LWN about btrfs: "You probably have heard of the cool new kid on the file system block - after all, Linus Torvalds is using it as his root file system on one of his laptops. But you might not know much about it beyond a few high-level keywords - copy-on-write, checksums, writable snapshots - and a few sensational rumors and stories - the Phoronix benchmarks, btrfs is a ZFS ripoff, btrfs is a secret plan for Oracle domination of Linux, etc. When it comes to file systems, it's hard to tell truth from rumor from vile slander. In this article, we'll take a behind-the-scenes look at the design and development of btrfs on many levels."

Make the Most of Large Drives with GPT and Linux

Thom Holwerda 2009-07-29 Linux 4 Comments

The venerable master boot record (MBR) partitioning scheme can't fully handle disks larger than 2TB. With 1TB-hard disks now common and 2TB-disks becoming available, forward-looking individuals are thinking about alternatives to the MBR partitioning scheme. The heir apparent is the GUID Partition Table (GPT). Learn how to make sure your Linux system is fully prepared for the future of disk storage.

Linux Kernel Virtual Machine Improves Build Performance

Thom Holwerda 2009-07-20 Linux No Comments

KVM acts as the host for the guest operating systems that build the target software for the user. By switching from VMware build guests to Linux KVM guests, build times for each guest are reduced by as much as 50 percent. Learn how to set up the build server and create guests, customize build requests, and organize and access build results.

Ksplice Promises Linux Kernel Updates Without Reboots

Thom Holwerda 2009-07-15 Linux 32 Comments

One of the problem with operating system updates is that you often need to reboot the system. While this is nothing but a minor nuisance for us desktop users, it's a bigger problem when it comes to servers. Ksplice is a technology that allows Linux kernel patches to be applied without actually restarting the kernel.