Linux Archive

First Ulteo Release Close

In the first Ulteo NewsLetter, Gael Duval says that the first .iso of an installable Ulteo live CD will be released on December 5th or 6th. "For this first alpha release, be prepared to dive a bit inside the system to understand the potential of Ulteo. On the desktop you will find only a few differences with what you can use or see when compared to a graphical environment on other distro's. Maybe then you will understand what makes Ulteo different, and you will start to think about the next steps of development."

Spad Filesystem for Linux

"SpadFS is a new filesystem that I design and develop as my PhD thesis. It is an attempt to bring features of advanced filesystems (crash recovery, fast directories) and good performance without increasing code complexity too much. Uses crash counts instead of journaling (because journaling is too complex and bug-prone) and uses hash instead of btrees for directory organization."

Steve Ballmer: ‘Linux Uses Our Intellectual Property’

In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property. In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell earlier this month because Linux "uses our intellectual property" and Microsoft wanted to "get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation."

Winners and Losers in the New Linux World

"Would you have believed at the end of last summer that Microsoft and Novell would partner over Linux, or that Oracle would create its own brand of Linux? Yeah, I wouldn't have believed it either, but here we are. So, what does it all mean? Rather than make a snap judgement I decided to sit, wait and watch before trying to make sense of it all. Now, I'm ready to give you my two-cents on who are the winners and losers in this post-deal Linux world."

Give the Gift of Pre-Installed Linux this Year

"A few months back, LXer reader, cyber_rigger, began compiling a list of vendors who offer GNU/Linux pre-installed. The list quickly grew, even drawing attention from other news outlets. Meanwhile, the LXer team went to work to produce a usable database that anyone can browse and search. We still have one or two features to implement, but users can quickly and easily browse the Pre-Installed Linux Vendor Database of 106 vendors. All vendors in the list offer reasonably-priced desktops and/or notebooks for home and office users, and either offer Linux only, or as an installation option on the system configuration page of their sites."

Server or Desktop: Can Linux Companies Make it Work?

"Lately, I've found myself troubled with the changes taking place with Xandros. As many of you probably know by now, Xandros has gone through a reorganization that meant that they had to layoff roughly five employees. What's even more disturbing is that they are looking at letting go of their support for the desktop market and focusing on the server realm instead. Granted they'll still support their open circulation desktop to some extent, but the fact remains that I'm seeing a possible trend brewing within the Linux Desktop market that has me a little shaken up."

‘The World Just Isn’t Ready for Linux’

"Windows Vista brings with it a new era of DRM and restrictive license agreements that aren't going to sit well with even your basic power user and some are looking for an escape route. These changes are making some users question their commitment to Microsoft. The obvious step is to make the leap to Linux. But what's holding people back from escaping Microsoft's shackles and moving to a free, easy platform? My guess is that the platform isn't everything. In fact, it's only a small part of the equation."

Linux on More Dell Client Systems?

Dell's Linux Software Architect blogs on behind-the-scenes moves towards Linux support on Dell client systems and announces a new public mailing list for related discussions. "We put a lot of effort into our Linux offerings on our workstations and servers. On the client side, our efforts are much more behind-the-scenes. We recognize the chicken-and-egg problem though: it has to work before many people will want to buy it; and it won't work unless effort is put into it before people start buying it. So we're cracking the egg, not quite making omlettes."

Picture Your Disk Space with 3D Filesystem Browsers

"You don't need a Ph.D. in scientific visualization to have some fun with three-dimensional data. Whether you're searching for an unused nook in a cramped disk partition, or trying to find the bloated temp/ folder that's crashing your system, sometimes the flat folder view of a traditional GUI file browser is little help. Luckily, Linux offers a variety of 3-D filesystems that can make your disk usage statistics come alive."