The Top Five Linux Stories of 2011

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/the-top-five-linux-stories-of-2011/10067

 | ZDNet

Summary: 2011 was a big year for Linux, but then what year isn't a big one for Linux these days?

Taking a look back at Linux in 2011

Just like with networking, I looked at my five most popular Linux stories of the last year,

How to install Google's Chrome OS

Review: Barnes & Nobles' Nook Color goes Android Tablet

The Five Best Desktop Linux Distributions

Five Reasons why Google's Linux Chromebook is a Windows killer

Sun CEO explicitly endorsed Java's use in Android: What do you say now Oracle?

and while they're all fine stories, I can't say that they're the most significant stories of the year. They did, however, inspire me with the ideas for my list of 2011's most important Linux stories. So, with no further adieu, here from least to most important, is my list.

5) GNOME Forks

Not that long ago, GNOME was the most popular Linux desktop interface. KDE was, and is, good, but most popular Linux distributions, such as Fedora, Mint, and Ubuntu all used GNOME 2.x for their interface. Then along came GNOME 3.0 and it all went wrong. To this day, I, and a lot of other people, aren't sure what GNOME's developers had in mind for their take on the desktop, we just know we didn't like it.

GNOME has seen a major revision, 3.2, and many people still don't like it. I certainly don't. So, Ubuntu has continued to go in its own direction with its Unity interface. One group of Linux developers decided to fork the still popular GNOME 2 into a new desktop they call MATE. And, Mint, after trying to add extensions to make GNOME 3 more palatable, is now forking the GNOME 3.x shell into a GNOME 2.x like interface: Cinnamon. Good-bye GNOME. It was nice to have known you, but I see you only as a desktop infrastructure, not the interface itself, in the future for most users.

4) The Decline of the Linux desktop

I recently wrote a story that got a lot of people worked up noticing that Mint has gotten to be the most popular Linux desktop People are still writing responses to that story over a month later. It's a pity none of them have thought the issue through.

The matter of whether Ubuntu is still the most popular Linux distribution isn't that big a deal.Windows, as I've said before, has won the desktop war and Linux isn't going to somehow magically catch up with it. That doesn't mean that you should drop the Linux dektop. I'm going to keep using traditional Linux desktops for years to come. They're better than the alternatives, but put all the Linux desktops together and they still have only a tiny percentage of the desktop market. Let's just deal with it and move on to much more interesting Linux interface news: Linux is winning everywhere else.

3) Ubuntu changes directions

Ubuntu gets it. You may hate the Unity interface, but they're not making it for you-the long time Linux desktop fan. They're making it for Windows home users; Windows business users; andtablets and smartphones. And, why not? Does it mater that much whether Ubuntu is number one or two on the old Linux desktop market when Windows 7 is used by almost a hundred more users for every Linux desktop user?

Ubuntu also is seeking to integrate the cloud into its desktops They're not the only ones.OpenSUSE has also figured out that an old-style fat desktop can do well with full cloud integration. Google wonders, however, just how much desktop do you really need if you could do everything on the cloud.

2) The rise of Android and ChromeOS/cloud computing

For more on that look at where Linux is kicking rump and taking names in a new and growing end-user market: smartphones and tablets. Yes, Apple is still the number one tablet maker, but the Android-powered tablets are catching up fast and on smartphones, Android is already number one with a bullet. Windows? It's barely an afterthought here. The mobile future belongs to the Linux distribution we call Android.

At the same time, Google thinks those of who will still be using desktops in the future will want to use a cloud-based operating system that uses Linux as its foundation: ChromeOS. Google is betting that you're going to want a Chromebook for your PC needs in the future. I think they may be right. There's a reason why not only Google, Ubuntu, and openSUSE is looking into this. Apple, with iCloud, is also exploring it. I don't see the old desktop going away quickly but I can see cloud-based, end-user alternatives catching up more quickly then you might have thought even a year ago.

One thing I am sure of though, tomorrow's end-user computing experience is going to be powered by Linux one way or the other as the legacy Windows systems start to dwindle away.

1) Patent Wars

Remember when people who weren't in the know thought that SCO, with its bogus Unix copyright claims was danger to Linux? I do, I covered the heck out of that story since, while I knew from the start SCO didn't have a case, other people thought SCO actually was on to something. Today, however Linux, open-source software and indeed all programming development faces a far more dangerous intellectual property (IP) threat: the granting and mis-use of bad software patents.

Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle have all used patents to threaten Android devices' very existence. In the end, these lawsuits will fail. Not because they lack merit-in a world whenApple can get a patent for using apps during a phone call anything goes-but because Google, et. al. will sue them right back with their own patent portfolios. As Microsoft knows all too well after its defeat by i4i, they can be stung by patent lawsuits just as much as any Linux vendor.

Sooner or later I expect big business will get sick of wasting hundreds of millions of dollars suing and countersuing each other to no good purpose. That won't be the end of it though. Patent trolls, who have no real business of their own, will still collect patents and then sue the companies as soon as they actually do something useful with patented ideas. That will mean higher prices for all of us since end-users are ultimately the ones that pay the patent trolls blackmail money. What's even more troubling s that some patent trolls are now targeting small businesses. Google and Samsung can afford to defend themselves, a small business? They can't.

This isn't just a Linux issue, it's bigger than that. If we expect real programming innovation, software patents must be discontinued. That, alas, is something we may not see this decade… if ever.

Taken all-in-all, though, it was a great year for Linux. Whether it was supercomputers, big data or smartphones and tablets, Linux keeps growing. By this time next year, Red Hat will have become the first Linux company to have recorded a billion dollars in earnings, and, if you count all users on all devices, it just might be that Linux will be the number one operating system of all.

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The end of the OS is nigh

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/columns/32768-the-end-of-the-os-is-nigh.html

 « Columns « MyBroadband Tech and IT News

Alastair Otter

August 30, 2011

It's been coming for years but the operating system as we know it could heading for virtual extinction

Windows, Linux, Mac OS X – the three protagonists in a long-running battle for the hearts and minds of computer users.

Over decades of computer development these operating systems (and others) have battled for dominance, adding new features, tricks, capabilities. All in the hope of attracting new fans.

Now, the era of operating system as we know it is fast coming to a close. At least it is for me and, I suspect, many other computer users.

Although I am still a dedicated Linux user with probably more than the average mental buy-in to its success than most other OS users, I can see the signs of the decline of the OS; the small changes that are making Linux less important to me and my browser ever more important. Not because Linux is not good enough or Windows is more appealing – simply because I now value an OS that gets out of my way and lets me get on with what I want to get done.

Until about a year ago every new iteration of Ubuntu was a source of excitement. The new features, the shiny new icons, the ever-improving user experience was a thing of beauty, one to be looked forward to eagerly. In most cases I jumped on the bandwagon as soon as the first beta of any new Ubuntu release hit the web, mostly rewarded with six hours of frustration with not-yet-complete features, but addicted to the promise of something new. I was hooked into OpenOffice.org for documents, wedded to Evolution for e-mail, manacled to Ubuntu for all of my computing needs.

Then at some point in the past year, I started drifting away. Perhaps it was the first Galaxy Tab, or the HTC Desire phone I had started using. Suddenly I was checking my e-mail on my phone, tablet PC and on my desktop. The idea of having my e-mail locked into one application on my desktop was ludicrous and counter-productive. The idea of storing my documents on a hard disk tied to one computer was unthinkable. Indeed, even having to rely on a any particular application for word processing or basic spreadsheets was becoming unthinkable.

Fortunately, today it's possible to use a range of online services to replace many, if not all, of the applications on the standard desktop, and with many hardware makers now moving towards system-on-a-chip processors, the centrality of the operating system is being undermined.

Of course the operating system will never completely disappear but it will be reduced over time to the status of "plumbing"; the bits that make all the others bits work. In many ways the operating system will simply be the first application to load when booting up. All the the other applications will use it to launch, and from there on they will run the show (and many of the applications).

Already the likes of Google's Chrome browser are doing this with HTML5-based applications as well as its new Native Client framework. Native Client allows programs developed in C and C+ to be run directly from the Chrome browser. It's still in early development but the objective is clear: by making it possible to develop rich C+ applications once and run those in any Chrome browser, on any platform it becomes possible to service all platforms in one go. It also potentially sidelines the operating system and makes the browser the hub of our world. So long as users have a browser they can use an application on a desktop, a laptop, a tablet PC or even a smartphone.

Chrome is not the only example of this strategy but is among the most active. As a user I am increasingly uninterested in how it all works and more concerned that my e-mail, my documents, my photos are available to me, wherever I am. It's becoming less about the operating system and more about how I ensure this access across all platforms.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the columnist and do not represent those of MyBroadband.

VirtualBox 4.1 Released With GUI Option To Clone VMs, More

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/07/virtualbox-41-released-with-gui-option.html

 ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog

VirtualBox 4.1 hs been released today, bringing some new GUI features like support for cloning VMs and a new wizard for copying virtual disks. Other changes:

• Experimental support for PCI passthrough for Linux hosts
• Enhanced wizard for creating new virtual disks
• Raised the memory limit for 64-bit hosts to 1TB
• Windows guests: Experimental WDDM graphics driver, supporting Windows Aero and providing Direct3D support using a cleaner approach
• New Networking Mode UDP Tunnel: allows to interconnect VMs running on different hosts easily and transparently
• Experimental support for SATA hard disk hotplugging available with VBoxManage

For a complete changelog, check out this page.

A bit of info on the new features so you'll know where to find them:

• to clone a VM, simply right click it in the main VirtualBox window and select "Clone"
• to copy a virtual disk, select File > Virtual Media Manager, right click a .vdi and select "Copy"

Install VirtualBox 4.1 in Ubuntu / Debian via repository

1. Firstly, remove VirtualBox 4.0 (if it's installed):

 sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-4.0

2. Add the VirtualBox repository and install the latest VirtualBox 4.1:

 echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list 
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.1

3. Optional: for USB 2.0 devices, VirtualBox RDP and PXE boot for Intel cards support, you'll also have to install an Extension pack which you can download from HERE.

To install VirtualBox extension pack, double clicking the extension should be enough but if that doesn't work, open VirtualBox, go to File > Preferences and on the Extensions tab, click the "add" button on the right and browse for the VirtualBox extension pack.

For other Linux distributions, Windows and Mac OSX, see the VirtualBox download page.

Free Linux Network Backup Available from Arkeia Software

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/free-linux-network-backup-available-from-arkeia-software-121558453.html

-- SAN DIEGO, May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Celebrating its 15th Anniversary, Arkeia Software Offers a No-Cost, Perpetual License of Arkeia Network Backup for Small Networks

SAN DIEGO, May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Arkeia Software, a worldwide provider of backup and disaster recovery software and appliances, today announced the availability of a no-cost, perpetual license of Arkeia Network Backup version 9 for small networks.

Founded in 1996, Arkeia Software delivered the first professional network backup solution for Linux in 1997. Today, Arkeia continues to provide the deepest and broadest support for Linux and open source and protects more than 130 Linux platforms, including all Debian, Fedora, Red Hat, Mandriva, Novell, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu distributions. With these new offerings Arkeia acknowledges the work of thousands of Linux users who have donated time and expertise to make Linux a viable operating system alternative worldwide.

Fully-featured Network Backup

Arkeia Network Backup, Free Edition is fully-featured and is not time-limited. One free, perpetual license is granted per individual (for personal use) or per company (for corporate use) and only web registration is required. The no-cost license includes:

• One backup server for any Linux distribution,
• Two backup agents to protect two machines including Windows workstations and any Linux, Mac OS X and BSD machines,
• Support of up to 250GB capacity for backup to disk,
• Support of any single tape drive for backup to tape, and
• Technical Support via on-line forums, knowledgebase, and Arkeia's documentation wiki.

"Linux is an ideal platform for secure, reliable backups," said Fred Renard, Arkeia Software's VP Marketing. "Arkeia maintains an on-going commitment to offer no-cost versions of its backup solution to the Linux community. Arkeia has offered no-cost licenses for backup servers and agents since 2000, and currently offers no-cost licenses for Ubuntu and VMware environments. Beginning today, we have extended support to all Linux platforms."

Broad Support for Open Source Platforms

Arkeia Software delivered the first professional network backup solution for Linux in 1997, the first Oracle on Linux backup support in 2000 and the first commercial support for MySQL backup in 2002. Today, Arkeia provides broad support for open source operating systems, databases, directory services and applications. Arkeia:

• Supports any Linux distribution on architectures including Intel x86-32, Intel x86-64, Itanium-2, Power PC, and zSeries as well as FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
• Provides hot backup solutions for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and OpenLDAP open source applications
• Offers an open source reader for Arkeia's backup format so customers will always have the freedom to restore data, whether from disk or tape, protected with Arkeia Network Backup Software.

Arkeia supports both backup servers and backup agents with more than 130 dedicated packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Novell SLES & OES, OpenSUSE, Debian, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Slackware, CentOS Scientific Linux, and Fedora. With its generic glibc (Gnu C-library) install, Arkeia supports virtually every other Linux distribution, including Gentoo, Linux Mint, or PCLinuxOS.

Availability and Download

This no-cost version is available now with a verified registration at: www.arkeia.com/freelinuxbackup.

Licenses for additional file agents and any hot-backup agents, as well as for features including progressive deduplication™ and replication of backup sets to cloud, are not available for this Free Edition.

About Arkeia Software

Arkeia Software delivers fast, easy-to-use, and affordable solutions for data backup and disaster recovery. The award-winningArkeia Network Backup Suite is designed for mid-sized organizations and safeguards more than 100,000 networks for 7,000 customers in 70 countries. Arkeia's integrated solution is ideal for the consolidation of disparate backup products. We protect all major virtual platforms including VMware, Hyper-V, and XenServer—and over 200 physical platforms including AIX, BSD, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS, Netware, Solaris, and Windows. Arkeia delivers software and both virtual and hardware appliances, backing up data to disk, tape, and the cloud. We provide bare-metal disaster recovery, LAN/WAN replication of backup sets, and numerous hot backup agents for applications and databases. Arkeia's unique source-side progressive deduplicationtechnology reduces storage requirements and accelerates backups, especially of virtual environments. Arkeia shipped the industry's first network backup solution for Linux in 1999 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Arkeia and Arkeia Network Backup are trademarks or registered trademarks of Arkeia Software, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

Arkeia Software Contact
Britton Spagnuolo
Communications Manager
+1.760.431.1319

SOURCE Arkeia Software

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RELATED LINKS
http://www.arkeia.com

AMD (ATI) Catalyst 11.4 Released Just In Time For Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/amd-ati-catalyst-114-released-just-in.html

~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog

A quick update: AMD has released Catalyst 11.4 with support for X Server 1.10 so all of you who want to upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal should now be able to use Unity.

I do not use an ATI graphics card so I can't really tell you how everything works so all I can do is give you a download link:

Download ATI Catalyst 11.04

Shocker from Redmond: Microsoft turns to Linux

http://www.infoworld.com/t/misadventures/shocker-redmond-microsoft-turns-linux-020

April 01, 2011

Based on Ubuntu, the company's homegrown 'Winux' distribution will run native Windows applications through emulation

By Doug Dineley | InfoWorld

Microsoft has ceased development of the Windows operating system and will be releasing its own Linux distribution, the company revealed in an SEC filing yesterday.

The annual 10-K report disclosed plans for the development of the "Winux" operating system and detailed special costs related to terminating the Windows business -- including costs associated with supporting current versions of Windows through 2020.

The move signals that Windows -- once the world's most popular operating systems -- is no longer strategically important to Microsoft. Company officials acknowledged that switching to Linux will result in significant cost savings without compromising performance, scalability, reliability, or security. Further, compatibility with most Windows applications will be maintained, the officials said.

In a call with reporters, Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live division at Microsoft, downplayed the significance to customers.

"It's not a big deal," Sinofsky said. "Most Windows users won't even know the difference."

Sinofsky explained that, although Winux is based on Linux, it would run native Windows applications using an emulation layer that Microsoft is developing. Although emulation introduces additional software overhead, Sinofsky said any performance differences would be "imperceptible" on today's hardware.

"The user experience will be nearly identical [to running Windows] today," Sinofsky emphasized. "The GUI will be the same. Performance will be the same. Security will be better."

Sinofsky declined to provide a timeframe for the Winux release or indicate what the licensing terms would be. He confirmed that Microsoft would continue to maintain Windows at least through 2020.

Departing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer [link to Ted's Ballmer bumped story ] said in an interview with CNBC earlier today that the switch to Linux would deliver huge cost savings and put Microsoft in a better position to compete against Apple and Google in consumer and mobile technologies, as well as Oracle and IBM in business computing.

"The operating system is no longer the key to winning in the technology business," Ballmer said. At the same time, Ballmer noted that the demise of Windows saddened him personally. Ballmer said he planned to devote much of his time during retirement to helping Windows users. He had created a weblog of Windows tips and technical advice, called My Windows Pony, that will soon be re-introduced as My Winux Pony.

Doug Dineley is executive editor of the InfoWorld Test Center.

Johns Hopkins University Selects Likewise to Manage Linux and Mac

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=211676

BELLEVUE, Wash., Jan. 26, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Likewise, an expert in helping businesses and educational institutions manage cross-platform IT environments, announced today that Johns Hopkins University will use Likewise Enterprise for Education to integrate its Linux and Mac computers using Microsoft Active Directory.

Johns Hopkins University is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland that maintains campuses in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Italy, China and Singapore.

"Although educational institutions use the same technology as enterprises, the policies, procurement procedures and security concerns differ greatly," said Arne Gallagher, director of worldwide education sales at Likewise. "Johns Hopkins has an incredibly complex, diverse and distributed IT infrastructure and our Likewise Enterprise for Education delivers true cross-platform harmony."

The competitive pricing of Likewise Enterprise for Education, along with volume discounts, helped Johns Hopkins achieve cost savings.

Johns Hopkins agreed to a two-year site license that allows the decentralized campus flexibility to use the technology wherever it is needed. The central IT department can enable single sign-on and enforce policies on systems in the network, and will also manage computer labs comprised exclusively of Macs using Apple's Workgroup Manager application and Likewise Enterprise, which allows Mac-specific system settings to be managed remotely.

"Likewise Enterprise will allow us to manage our vast campus network centrally using Active Directory," said Kyle Reynolds, IT manager at the Institute for Computational Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. "The savings we will achieve by reducing operating costs and eliminating additional hardware required by other solutions adds to the value we're getting from Likewise. After examining the alternatives available, Likewise Enterprise for Education was the clear choice."

About Likewise

Likewise provides integration and identity management solutions to improve security and operational efficiencies and to help achieve regulatory compliance in mixed networks. Likewise Open lets organizations securely authenticate Linux, Unix and Mac users with Microsoft Active Directory. Likewise Enterprise includes all the core authentication technology that comes with Likewise Open, plus world-class migration, group policy, auditing and reporting modules. More information is available at the company's Web site, www.likewise.com.

Switching to Desktop Linux? 6 Ways to Ease the Migration

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/217836/switching_to_desktop_linux_6_ways_to_ease_the_migration.html

- PCWorld Business Center

By Katherine Noyes, PCWorld

With all the many compelling reasons for a company to switch to Linux on the desktop, it's no wonder that businesses large and small are increasingly relying on the free and open source operating system. After all, it's free, flexible, reliable, and highly secure--to name just a few of the most attractive features.

No matter how good your reasons for switching from Windows to Linux, however, the fact remains that most of us don't like change. That--more than anything else--is why migrations of any kind can be painful.

One of the most commonmistakes new desktop Linux users make is to give up too easily, often citing the frequently heard myth that "It's too hard." The truth, however, is that it's just different. It may be difficult to remember at this point, but Windows took some getting used to, too.

How can you make the desktop Linux migration process as easy as possible in your business? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Get Buy-In at the Top

This probably goes without saying, but executive buy-in is essential to business migrations of just about any kind. Users need to know that the change has been mandated from the top or they won't feel motivated to go along with it.

2. Choose the Right Distribution

Before the migration even begins, it's critical that you choose the right Linux distribution from among the many hundreds that are out there. As I've outlined before, this is primarily a question of the skills of your users, the focus of your business, your hardware and software needs, and the kind of support you hope to get.

Assuming your users haven't been on desktop Linux before, I'd be inclined to steer you toward either Ubuntu or Linux Mint, unless you have compelling reasons to do otherwise. To help convert real Windows aficionados, there's also Zorin OS, which is designed to mimic Microsoft's graphical user interface. You should definitely avoid some of the more expert-oriented distros such as Arch Linux or Slackware.

If you want a little extra online help in making your decision, check out the zegenie Studios Linux Distribution Chooser or polishlinux.org's distro chooser, both of which can be useful.

3. Choose a Familiar Desktop

One of the nicest things about Linux is that it's so flexible and customizable, and that's particularly useful when it comes to introducing new users to the operating system. In addition to choosing your distribution carefully, I'd also encourage you at least to check out a few different desktop environments.

I outlined a few of these not long ago within the context of Ubuntu--which has traditionally come with GNOME by default--and there are many more. Pick one that seems relatively similar to what your users are familiar with.

4. Begin with Key Apps

Because so many of the apps your employees will likely need are cross-platform, one good hurdle to jump ahead of time is getting them used to any new key applications. If they're used to Internet Explorer, for example, you can start them on Firefox or Chrome while they're still on Windows.

If they've been using Microsoft Office, you can get them used toOpenOffice.org or LibreOffice ahead of time, too. That way, when it comes time to make the switch in operating systems, they'll have some familiar territory--it won't all be new.

5. Remove the Pressure

Before you're aiming to make the switch, set up a Linux box in your office using the distribution, desktop and apps you've chosen. Make sure there are some games on there too, and offer it as an option for break time. There's nothing like no-pressure time with a new technology to make people open-minded and quick to learn.

6. Make a Cheat Sheet

Because the lion's share of any difficulty in switching to Linux is simply getting used to something different, it can be a real help for users if you give them a quick, post-training "cheat sheet" to remind them how to get at the tools they need once the switch is made.

It could be worded like, "Instead of... (Internet Explorer, for example) Use... (Firefox, say)." It could also outline the first few clicks to get users where they need to go. They'll probably be fine once they're in the applications they need--more often than not, it will simply be the process of getting there that they need help remembering.

There are, of course, outside consultants and other resources that can be used to help with this kind of migration. There are even several books on Amazon (such as this one) dedicated to helping with the process. With a little preparation, training and thoughtful choice, however, pain really shouldn't be part of the picture.

Follow Katherine Noyes on Twitter: @Noyesk.