linux

A thought struck me this morning: would you really want your database/application server/office productivity suite/etc. developer to also be the author of your operating system? On one level, the answer is an easy 'yes': tighter integration between the OS and the applications that run on it is a good thing.

On the other side of this coin, however, is the reality that today's integration is tomorrow's barrier to entry against all other applications. Take Microsoft, for example.

Microsoft has arguably done a very good job of encouraging third-party applications on its Windows platforms. But Microsoft has done less well once it starts to compete in a given application market against its partners. Even where the company has a financial incentive to boost the partner, it has a competing incentive to boost itself.… Read more

I had lunch with my wonderful grandma today. Ever since my parents moved to Argentina for their three-year stint, she's been a little lonely (though she won't admit it). My wife is camping with her sisters and our kids, so I'm lonely, too. So we went out for lunch.

We talked a little more about how hard computers are to use. Then I came home to this amazingly good interview with Con Kolivas, one of the Linux kernel's rock stars (and a heavy lifter on the Linux desktop work). He calls out precisely the thing that my grandma is troubled by:

If there is any one big problem with kernel development and Linux it is the complete disconnection of the development process from normal users. You know, the ones who constitute 99.9% of the Linux user base.… Read more

I really liked this Steven J. Vaughan Nichols article on five Linux companies he feels deserved to live. Or, at least, didn't deserve to die. I don't agree with each of his choices, but I completely agree with him on Caldera and Ransom Love (who is a prince of a man):… Read more

From credit card debt and school loans to rising gas prices and adjustable mortgages, there are plenty of reasons why consumers in the developed world can't afford a laptop. Not to mention the fact that underfunded schools and underprivileged kids also exist in the developed parts of the world. Enter the Medison Celebrity laptop. It's a $150 laptop from Swedish company Medison that's available through the Columbus, Ohio-based online reseller 2Checkout.com.

With Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC hovering around $175, and Intel's Classmate PC expected to cost more than $200, the Medison Celebrity laptop can lay … Read more

Markus Rex is leaving Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server project for the time being to take over as chief technology officer of the Linux Foundation.

At the foundation, Rex replaces Ian Murdock, the Debian Linux founder whom Sun Microsystems hired to be chief operating system officer in March. Rex will take Murdock's role not only as CTO of the foundation, but also as chairman of the Linux Standard Base (LSB), a years-old but so still incomplete effort to make it easier for software companies to ensure compatibility with various incarnations of the open-source operating system.

"I need … Read more

Linux specialist Xandros has acquired Scalix, a seller of Linux-based server software for e-mail and calendar management, the companies announced Wednesday.

The acquisition expands Xandros' attempt to grow beyond its original roots as a desktop Linux supplier to a seller of a broader range of server products including Linux and management tools. Scalix is proprietary software, like competitor Microsoft Exchange but not Open-Xchange.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Scalix will operate as a separate subsidiary, New York-based Xandros said, but will be able to use Xandros resources and technology. Scalix will continue to support versions of Linux from … Read more

It would seem that Oracle is serious about its Unbreakable Linux. The company announced today that it has pulled in Symantec (Veritas data center software) as a certified partner. This is a good step forward for the program, though Oracle still has to pull in the thousands of other applications that Novell and Red Hat have to be credible as a standalone Linux vendor. But the more I think about it, the less it seems to matter how relevant Oracle's Linux is beyond Oracle. It's a question of numbers.

I talked with Monica Kumar from Oracle's open source team yesterday about this announcement, and asked about the significance of the deal as well as why Oracle continues to push its own strain of Linux. She said something I found funny, though true:… Read more

I go away for the weekend to Lake Powell and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and I come back to some highly intriguing news from Open-Xchange: the release of the company's Express Edition. First there was the standard server product, then the hosting solution, and now Express.

Express is cool on a number of different levels. First, unlike proprietary e-mail systems, Open-Xchange doesn't foist on the IT administrator a range of hidden costs. You get the full-fledged e-mail and collaboration server without paying a nickel extra for the operating system, directory service, etc. You pay for the product, and nothing more. (This seems like it should be the norm, but it's not.)

This is especially good to know given the market at which Express Edition is targeted: the small to medium-size business. SMBs don't have huge pockets filled with cash to buy ancillary software, hire an expensive administrator, etc. They just want it to work, and Open-Xchange's Express Edition seems to fill this need particularly well. (I'm downloading it to try it out, and will let you know if it lives up to its billing.)

Second, and extremely interesting to me, Express Edition runs on Ubuntu. Why does this matter? Well, for one thing it shows Ubuntu's stablity and performance. But on an even more interesting note, take a look at Open-Xchange's management team, and in particular its CTO, Jürgen Geck. You might remember that he was the CTO at Suse....Or check out Open-Xchange's co-founder and EVP of engineering, Martin Kauss. Yep, he was a Suse guy before, too. The list goes on....… Read more

The headline is a bit of a joke, but the news is serious: Novell just announced Europe's largest rollout of Linux desktops with the Italian Parliament. Approximately 3,500 PCs will be migrated to Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop, including those belonging to the 630 members of parliament. Not too shabby.

This makes it the second and largest parliament in Europe to choose open source. The French Parliament, with 577 seats, voted last year to have open source installed on all of its 1145 PCs. France decided on Ubuntu this February, and the migration in the Parliament should be under … Read more