Linux Archive

Wind River Hops on Embedded Linux Bandwagon

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-02 Linux 8 Comments

The world's largest embedded software company, today launched its first official support for embedded Linux. For its initial foray into the embedded Linux market, Wind River has decided to target its $4,000 visionProbe II hardware bring-up tool at embedded Linux system-level software development. Company officials say they plan a step-by-step approach toward embedded Linux, suggesting more Linux-related announcements lie ahead for the embedded software giant.

SnapGear Embedded Linux Distro Boasts 2.6 kernel, Merged uClinux

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-01 Linux 5 Comments

Version 3.0 of SnapGear Embedded Linux, based on Linux kernel 2.6, is now available for free download. The latest SnapGear security-oriented embedded Linux distribution is claimed to be the "world's first production Linux system powered by the 2.6 kernel" -- but is also a watershed release in that for the first time, commercial developers can use a stable Linux kernel distribution, without patching, to build deeply embedded systems on devices without a memory management unit (MMU).

Interview with Linux Experts on Scalability

David Adams 2003-09-29 Linux 8 Comments

Linux has developed an undeserved reputation as less scalable than commercial Unix and Windows, say Sam Greenblatt, Kenneth Milberg, Matt O'Keefe and John H. Terpstra in an interview with SearchEnterpriseLinux. This reputation can be attributed to the vendors of competing platforms to a major extent. Organizations like Google and NOAA are using huge Linux clusters that prove otherwise, and in the past few years there has been huge improvement in scalability.

Editorial: The Challenges of Open Source Software

Guest post by Mystilleef 2003-09-29 Linux 73 Comments

Linux will become ubiquitous in the year 3000. Okay, that was a horrible joke. Linux is just a kernel, the engine that runs an operating system. By itself, it is essentially useless. Kernels shouldn't be discussed or noticed by normal users. And as such when providing these users with reviews, previews and "professional" opinions, computer consultants, computer reviewers and computer journalists should not spew headlines like "Linux is not ready for prime time", "Linux on the desktop by XXX", "Linux to takeover Windows", "Linux is not ready for desktop" and so on.

Linux 2.6.0-test6 Development Kernel

Submitted by Jeremy 2003-09-28 Linux 41 Comments

Linus Torvalds released the 2.6-test6 development kernel with a number of exciting changes. Most notably this includes some impressive performance enhancements written by an Australian doctor, Con Kolivas. Additionally, it includes Al Viro's "32-bit dev_t" patch, bumping up the number of device types that can be allocated by the Linux kernel.

Linux in the Enterprise: Novell, UnitedLinux News

Eugenia Loli 2003-09-26 Linux 10 Comments

Novell is looking to Microsoft's biggest enemy - the open-source software movement - for renewal and profits. In its latest strategic shift, Novell is focused on developing software for the Linux operating system. In the meantime, the UnitedLinux consortium - unveiled with much fanfare last year as a unified effort to create a standard Linux distribution - has been awfully quiet of late in an industry segment that has been anything but quiet.

A Frank Analysis of Linux as it Moves Toward Critical Mass

Submitted by Jill 2003-09-25 Linux 34 Comments

DesktopLinux.com recently caught up with Tom Adelstein, longtime Linux advocate and consultant, to find out what he has learned while spearheading initiatives to facilitate Linux adoption. Tom shares the grass roots efforts that have offered him an insider's view of what is propelling Linux toward critical mass and the desktop. He shares his view of Linux "from the trenches."

Linux: Benchmarking 2.4 vs. 2.6-test

Eugenia Loli 2003-09-25 Linux 38 Comments

Cliff White recently posted some re-AIM multiuser benchmark results comparing the stable 2.4.23-pre5 kernel against the 2.6.0-test5 and 2.6.0-test5-mm4 development kernels. In his conclusion he makes reference to earlier scheduler tests posted by Mark Wong saying, "Short summary: we mostly rock."

Towards Linux 2.6

Submitted by Frank 2003-09-23 Linux 27 Comments

The impending release of a new stable kernel promises greater adoption for Linux, as it becomes more reliable and scalable over a larger variety of processors. This is a new article that highlights some of the changes, both big and small, with some code samples.

KernelTrap Interview With Rusty Russell

Submitted by Jeremy Andrews 2003-09-23 Linux 3 Comments

KernelTrap has interviewed Rusty Russell, a humorous and productive contributer to Linux Kernel development. Author of ipchains, netfilter/iptables, futexes, per-cpu counters, hot pluggable CPU support, and the new in-kernel module loading code, Rusty's efforts have had a significant impact on the upcoming 2.6 kernel. For a humorous sample of Rusty's wit, one only needs to look at his email signature which reads, "Anyone who quotes me in their sig is an idiot. -- Rusty Russell."

Securing Sun Linux Systems: Part I, Local Access and File Systems

Eugenia Loli 2003-09-22 Linux 12 Comments

This article is the first part of a two-part series that provides recommendations for securing the Sun Linux 5.0 operating system. This part provides recommendations for securing local access and file systems. The information in this article applies only to the Sun Linux 5.0 distribution, although some of the techniques or recommendations might apply to other Linux distributions. This article is ideal for a reader with a beginner to Intermediate level of expertise.

Maximum Linux Kernel Performance

Submitted by Jeremy Andrews 2003-09-21 Linux 13 Comments

Anyone interested in squeezing maximum performance out of their GNU/Linux operating system and willing to compile a new kernel will be interested in this KernelTrap article about Andrew Morton's -mm patchset. The patchset currently offers better stability and performance than the mainline 2.6.0-test kernel, as well as containing numerous functionality enhancements. Much of the additional functionality is described, as well as providing simple step by step installation instructions. Reading this, one can understand why Linux creator Linus Torvalds has chosen Andrew to soon become the 2.6 maintainer.

Source Mage and Onebase Linux

Submitted by Ladislav 2003-09-21 Linux 43 Comments

The concept of source-based distributions, where all software is compiled from source code locally for maximum control and performance, took off with the introduction of Gentoo Linux and its wonderful package management called Portage.

Lessons in Packaging Linux Applications

Eugenia Loli 2003-09-20 Linux 9 Comments

This article records experiences with packaging an application for many distributions and shows areas in which packagers, Linux distributions, and developers can improve coordination for better and easier distribution. The author looks at communication problems, packaging errors, package dependencies, menu entries, and bug tracking systems.

Measuring Linux Scheduler Improvements

Submitted by Jeremy Andrews 2003-09-19 Linux 25 Comments

Mark Wong recently posted a series of benchmark results that show how the Linux scheduler has improved since early on in the 2.5 development cycle. The results were generated with Rusty Russell's Hackbench, a modified 'chat benchmark'. Read the full story at KernelTrap.

Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-09-18 Linux 20 Comments

DistroWatch reports that Terra Soft Solutions has updated its Yellow Dog Linux product to version 3.0.1: "Yellow Dog Linux v3.0.1 ships with all errata as of 2003/09/04, kernel 2.4.22 (Xserve rev2, PowerBook 17" rev1 sans fan support), and improved installer (no more dual drive bug!). Available now from the Terra Soft Store and YDL.net Enhanced accounts." See the announcement on the distribution's home page and the YDL 3.0 errata page for further details. Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1 is available from the Terra Soft Store from US$25 or to members of the US$5-per-month YDL.net Enhanced subscription service.

Ark Linux 1.0 alpha 9 Released

Submitted by Bernhard Rosenkraenzer 2003-09-16 Linux 10 Comments

Ark Linux 1.0 alpha 9, a Linux distribution designed primarily for new Linux users, has been released and is available for download here. Highlights of this release include, among the usual set of package updates and bugfixes, graphical bootup, semi-automatic recovery of corrupted XFree86 config files, and an improved network card configuration tool.The full release notes can be found here.

Linux Cluster at Los Alamos For Nuke Simulations

David Adams 2003-09-16 Linux 24 Comments

Los Alamos National Laboratory has been a long-time supercomputer user, which they primarily use for models used to simulate nuclear explosions and estimate the health of America's aging arsenal. They're about to install one of the world's most powerful Linux clusters, a new 2,816-processor, 1,408 node system called Lightning, built by cluster company Linux Networx. The cluster will be using Mellanox's InfiniBand server interconnect technology to connect the nodes.

Linux the Most Successfully Compromised Operating System

Submitted by Bascule 2003-09-12 Linux 59 Comments

Linux, not Microsoft Windows, remains the most-attacked operating system, a British security company reports. During August, 67 per cent of all successful and verifiable digital attacks against on-line servers targeted Linux, followed by Microsoft Windows at 23.2 per cent. A total of 12,892 Linux on-line servers running e-business and information sites were successfully breached in that month, followed by 4,626 Windows servers, according to the report.

Gartner: Linux on Desktop Not Necessarily Cheaper

David Adams 2003-09-11 Linux 37 Comments

A recent Gartner study (which unlike the Forrester one from this week was not commissioned by Microsoft) finds that while some businesses can save money by migrating desktop systems to Linux, others would do better to stick with Windows. Companies that have held off upgrading for quite some time and use a limited number of applications on the desktop may save money with Linux, but those that have already spent the time and effort to upgrade to recent Windows versions and those that depend on a wide range of apps should stay with Windows.