Linux Archive

Linux has only recently begun to regain credibility in the financial markets since its speculative debut. However, its licensing model, hefty competition, and lack of maturity still worry investors. Companies such as Red Hat, long past its 1999 speculative highs, are slowly gaining ground while other Linux companies, such as Linspire, are planning initial public offerings. Is Linux finally becoming a viable alternative to proprietary operating systems, or is this rise simply a byproduct of a mini-tech bubble?

SpecOps Labs has sent Flexbeta a few screenshots of “David” in action. David is the codename for a middleware application that sits on top of Linux to enable it to run Windows applications. This is the first time that "David" has been shown to the public (which apparently is nothing but WINE, but SpecOps managed to make a lot of fuss in the media about this "new technology" without mentioning WINE).

This interview with MontaVista CEO and embedded pioneer Jim Ready explains why Ready is preparing his small, privately held company for the "battle of the century."

A recent discussion on the lkml looked into a reproducable random file I/O regression in 2.6 compared to the 2.4 kernel. Alexey Kopytov posted the benchmark results, attempting to simulate the workload of a database under intensive load. The tests were tried with all I/O schedulers, including the anticipatory, deadline and CFQ, and in all cases 2.4 outperformed 2.6. Read the report at KernelTrap.

Knoppix, the most popular LiveCD linux distribution (a complete linux distribution that boots off a CD-Rom) version 3.4 is out. New features include Kernel 2.6 (default is still 2.4), KDE 3.2.2, OpenOffice.org 1.1.1 and Gimp 2.0. Complete changelog, torrent.

You can easily surf the Web and run a spreadsheet on a Linux-powered PC, but good luck if you want to balance your checkbook. Linux has more fans all the time, but a lack of familiar applications is slowing adoption, says News.com. Major software makers say they're waiting for more Linux users before bothering to adapt their products to open-source--but Linux advocates say the window of opportunity is closing. Not even Linux guru Bruce Perens can find all the open-source software he needs: "I admit it--I still have a Windows machine that I use solely to run Quicken and TurboTax once a year."

Here's an interview with Stacey Quandt, a Linux and open source industry analyst. She explains why she feels Linux will overtake Windows as the number one server OS within the next three years.

"When you think of a personal computer, you probably think of one running Windows. Microsoft's near-ubiquitous operating system runs on 94 percent of desktop PCs, according to experts. But could the upstart Linux OS soon replace Windows on a computer near you?" Read the article by Scott Spanbauer.

In 2001 during the 2.4 kernel development cycle, a MODULE_LICENSE macro was introduced which allows a module to explicitly declare how it is licensed. Currently there are five supported types of free software modules, "GPL", "GPL v2", "GPL and additional rights", "Dual BSD/GPL", and "Dual MPL/GPL", otherwise the kernel is considered "tainted".

Linux is all about choice. Endless debates carry on each day, but a new company with a new distribution, Cobind, has a classic, but novel, approach: Do one thing, and do it well.

In Miguel de Icaza's latest blog entry the Mono project leader discusses the threat Longhorn's new technologies and frameworks pose to Linux and open source. He also directs uses to this recent USENET post about the goals of Mozilla, which is a very interesting read.

Linux may be entrenched in the data center, but it will need some sprucing up before the upstart operating system grabs a significant spot on the desktop PC, says News.com. Elsewhere, Mandrake sees good demand for desktop Linux.

The creator of the Linux operating system, Linus Torvalds, has weighed in on the issue of backporting features from newer Linux kernels into older ones, calling the practice a good thing for the most part. When asked by e-mail to comment for internetnews.com, Torvalds wrote: "I think it makes sense from a company standpoint to basically 'cherry-pick' stuff from the development version that they feel is important to their customers. And in that sense I think the back-porting is actually a very good thing."

"New Linux distros still fail a task that Windows 95 -- yes, 95! -- easily handles, namely working with mainstream sound cards. That sends the cost of commercial, paid versions of Linux dramatically higher", says Fred Langa for InformationWeek.